The threats to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, as George Orwell so well illustrates in The Road To Wigan Pier, haven’t changed.

Even now, if coal could not be produced without pregnant women dragging it to and fro, I fancy we should let them do it rather than deprive ourselves of coal. But most of the time, of course, we should prefer to forget that they were doing it. It is so with all type of manual work; it keeps us alive, and we are oblivious of its existence. More than anyone else, perhaps, the miner can stand as the type of manual worker, not only because his work is so exaggeratedly awful, but also because it is so vitally necessary and yet so remote from our experience, so invisible, as it were, that we are capable of forgetting it as we forget the blood in our veins. In a way it is even humiliating to watch coal-miners working. It raises in you a momentary doubt about your own status as an “intellectual” and a superior person generally. for it is brought home to you, at least while you are watching, that it is only because miners sweat their guts out that superior persons can remain superior. You and I and the editor of the Times Lit. Supp., and the Nancy poets and the Archbishop of Canterbury and Comrade X, author of Marxism for Infants – all of us really owe the comparative decency of our lives to poor drudges underground, blackened to the eyes, with their throats full of coal dust, driving their shovels forward with arms and bell muscles of steel.

From my dad, of course…

MYANMAR/BURMA — China’s energy lifeline to the Indian Ocean basin runs through Myanmar and the country is willing to loan the newly sanitized State Peace and Development Council $2.4 billion to get a pipeline built from Myanmar’s coast to that country’s border with China.

From Thailand’s The Nation:

China has signed a 2.4-billion-dollar loan agreement with Burma to finance the construction of a natural gas pipeline between the countries, media reports said Sunday.

The loan was inked between the China Development Bank Cooperation and Burma Foreign Investment Bank on November 30 in Napyitaw, the new capital, the Myanmar Times reported.

The pipeline is to run from Rakhine State on the Burmese coast, site of the Kyauk Phyu national gas project, to Yunnan province in southern China.

“The loan will be mainly for the natural gas project in Kyauk Phyu, which involves Myanmar, China, Korea and India, where Burma has 7.3 per cent of the shares,” said Jin Honggen, economic and commercial counselor of the Chinese embassy in Rangoon.

I have to wonder who actually holds those shares and why China doesn’t just build the pipeline itself. Why does Myanmar need to borrow any money at all?

Do what you can to make this a good morning, Myanmar.

From my dad, of course…

MYANMAR/BURMA — If there is one lesson the world’s nuclear club has taught non-members is that the surest way to protect yourself from invasion by conventional forces is to do all you can to join the club, or at least create the appearance that you’re about to apply for membership.

Nothing scares the crap out of club members like a junior woodchuck pounding on the door demanding their merit badge.

From The Washington Post:

A batch of leaked U.S. diplomatic cables released this week lend details to long-suspected nuclear cooperation between North Korea and Burma, suggesting that hundreds of North Koreans were at one point working at a covert military site deep in the Burmese jungle.

The cables from the U.S. Embassy in Rangoon, released Thursday by anti-secrecy Web site WikiLeaks, are hardly definitive, citing accounts from dockworkers, foreign businessmen and other observers. But they feed growing fears of a partnership between two of the world’s most opaque countries, with strapped North Korea selling its nuclear technology – which now includes a capacity for uranium enrichment – despite United Nations sanctions designed to clamp down on exactly that.

Suspicions have swirled for several years about Burma’s nuclear ambitions. As nonproliferation analysts see it, those ambitions would probably draw on help from Pyongyang. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has warned of possible nuclear cooperation between North Korea and Burma, also known as Myanmar.

One August 2004 memo cited information from a Burmese officer who claimed that 300 North Koreans were assembling surface-to-air missiles at a secret construction site, in a town called Mimbu. The workers, too, were “constructing a concrete-reinforced underground facility that is ‘500 feet from the top of the cave to the top of the hill above.’ ”

The source’s information, the cable acknowledged, should not be taken as proof of military or nuclear cooperation. The cable also noted that the informant probably overestimated the number of North Korean workers at the site. “This account,” the cable stated, “is perhaps best considered alongside other information of various origins indicating the Burmese and North Koreans are up to something.”

A nuclear weapon, no matter how small or how crude, is the ultimate terror weapon. We proved that at a quarter after eight in the morning on 6 August 1945.

Do what you can to make this a good morning, Myanmar.

From Jobs With Justice (all links for action in the original):

The Rite Aid drug stores employ thousands of workers who are fighting for more respect and a voice on the job. Since Rite Aid’s CEO John Stanley doubled his salary to over $4 million, he’s been trying to cut pay and benefits for workers at the company’s retail stores and distribution centers:

In Ohio, Rite Aid officials are going after the health care benefits for retail store employees.

In Pennsylvania, Rite Aid workers are trying to get a decent contract without big benefit cuts.

In Rome, NY, Rite Aid just announced they are closing a union warehouse and going non-union.

In Lancaster, CA, 500 warehouse workers have been fighting for over 5 years to get a union contract.

Let’s help these workers who are standing up and fighting back!

1. Be a part of the Rite Aid Day of Action on Wednesday, December 15th. Jobs with Justice coalitions in Cleveland, Boston, Richmond, and several cities across Oregon and Washington will participate. You can contact them for details. More actions are planned in New York, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Florida, California, and Arizona. Contact ILWU for details. Or, you can plan your own action.

2. Send Rite Aid CEO John Standley a message.

3. Like Rite Aid on Facebook and leave a comment on one of their posts – something like: It’s time for Rite Aid to stop bullying and cheating its workers. Negotiate fair contracts now!

4. Tweet: Petition @riteaid to negotiate fair contracts now! http://act.ly/2t7 RT to sign

5. Rite Aid is one of the candidates in our Scrooge of the Year contest. Don’t forget to vote for your favorite greedy Scrooge!

Here’s what I left at the Rite Aid Facebook page:

Shalom Mr. Standley,

At a time when the American economy is struggling to recover from eight years of Republican abuse, how can you accept a $4 million salary and seek to drain the finances of those who can least bear the burden?

B’shalom,

Jeff Hess
Have Coffee Will Write

A NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION…

http://havecoffeewillwrite.com/?p=26127

Please leave your own message.

From my dad, of course…

From 1730 today until 1830 tomorrow, I will be off-line. There will be no new posts during this time, nor will I be checking email. Go for a walk. Have coffee with a friend. Read a book.

MYANMAR/BURMA — I can’t say that I disagree with the assessment of UN Secretary General’s Special Representative Ibrahim Gambari revealed in one of the thousands of cables released by WikiLeaks. We live in a different world now and I think Julian Assange should get the Nobel Peace Prize for it.

The Guardian has the cable and high-lighted these portions:

Considering the key role of the good offices mission and Gambari’s inability to secure significant progress from the Burmese regime, USUN is asked to demarche SYG Ban or Ambassador Kim to seek Gambari’s dismissal as SRSG for Burma. This demarche should occur as soon as practical.

5. (C) Taking into account Gambari’s usefulness in his concurrent role as UN advisor on the International Compact with Iraq, as well as SYG Ban’s likely sensitivities in regard to a possible dismissal…

While the main responsibility for this lack of progress should be attributed to regime intransigence, Mr. Gambari has not been willing to acknowledge it. This lack of progress, Mr. Gambari’s inappropriate claims of success regarding peripheral issues, and his unwillingness to press the regime more forcefully for progress have caused us to conclude that his continued involvement undermines the good offices mission and should therefore be ended.

— We have no wish to embarrass Mr. Gambari and have no intent to link any removal with a lack of progress in Burma, but we would ask that you find a way to terminate gracefully his participation in this particular mission. In particular, we cannot support further travel to Burma for discussions with regime leadership by Mr. Gambari as part of the good offices mission.

What would a more realistic, and presumably more aggressive representative look like?

Do what you can to make this a good morning, Myanmar.

I have long argued that people who think that the Internet is somehow inherently free are delusional. The Internet exists on a mish mosh of government/corporate-owned hardware and the switch can be thrown in an instant.

Yes, the consequences of such an act would be catastrophic, and up until now the alternative has been many times more attractive to those who profit from the controlled service. WikiLeaks has changed that.

From The Independent:

You’ll have been following the WikiLeaks saga, of course, because it is novel and interesting. Maybe you like it because it looks like a live action retelling of Enemy Of The State, or because history seems to be in the making. It feels big, doesn’t it? It is, but it’s bigger than that, too: what we’re witnessing right now is the opening of hostilities in the first big infowar. The war for the Internet is very big indeed.

If you’re not a digital native, or if you’re some kind of hearty outdoors type, this may not seem important, but you’re dead wrong. We could be spectators for the start of the cyber Great War – and they’ve just knocked over Franz Ferdinand.

We’ve seen cyber skirmishes before: Russian hackers targeted and sank Georgia’s internet infrastructure during their brief conflict in 2008, while there’ve been hints of Chinese muscle flexing for some time – especially last month, when traffic through US government sites was rerouted through Chinese servers for 18 minutes in November.

The difference now is that this battle is extra-national; it isn’t one country against another, so much as an establishment of nations fighting a global insurgency – with the soul of the Internet as the spoils.

At the moment, the greatest invention in human history is broadly free. It allows for unprecedented communication, truly free assembly, and with these, an unparalleled forum for the exchange of ideas. It’s a seat for radicalism, and it has the potential to usher in dramatic reorganisation of established power structures.

Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose. What’s your dog in this hunt?

0836: See Plain Dealer’s Headline Protecting Kasich for Yourself

According to a 2009 (why the feck did it takes this long to come up?) poll by the Pew Research Center, on 6 percent of scientists self-identify as Republicans. I’m not surprised, but I’m struggling with why I’m not surprised. Is science inconvenient for Republicans? Does science blow holes in the business strategies of the corporate masters of Republicans?

Mother Jones blogger Kevin Drum asks a few questions about the study itself.

POSTSCRIPT: One thing I’d be curious about is the breakdown of scientists in Pew’s sample. Is it mostly members of the hard sciences, or also members of the social sciences? Also, I’ll bet you’d get quite different results if you polled engineers, who are probably much more heavily Republican than scientists are.

POSTSCRIPT 2: And one more thing! I wonder how this plays out in other advanced countries, where the conservative parties are, perhaps, still fiscal tightwads but don’t pander to anti-science yahooism so much. Quick, somebody do a study!

The one piece that I’m focusing on is that, generally speaking, scientists never get arm-candy rich doing what they do. Is it possible that scientists are jealous (a suggestion that I would expect to come from Republicans and their corporate masters) or that scientists see a bigger picture?Pew Research Center for the People and the Press,Republicans,Scientists,Mother Jones,Kevin Drum

To ensure that their corporate masters get all the tax cuts they want (for now), Republicans are willing to throw anyone under the bus.

From The New York Times:

Republican senators blocked Democratic legislation on Thursday that sought to provide medical care to rescue workers and others who became ill as a result of breathing in toxic fumes, dust and smoke at the site of the World Trade Center attack in 2001.

The 9/11 health bill, a version of which was approved by the House of Representatives in September, was among several initiatives that Senate Democrats had hoped to approve before the close of the 111th Congress. Supporters believe this was their last real opportunity to have the bill passed.

The action by the Senate created huge uncertainty over the bill’s future. Its proponents were working on Thursday to salvage the legislation, with one possibility being to have it inserted into a large tax-cut bill that Republicans and Democrats are trying to pass before Congress ends its current session.

Such a move seemed unlikely, since it might complicate passage of the tax package, which includes a provision that President Obama sought in return for backing the continuation of tax cuts for all income levels that Republicans wanted: an extension of unemployment benefits.

Can we get a Spouses and Children of 9/11 Rescue Workers March on Republican headquarters?

Rabble and proud of it!

Via Mano Singham…

From Lynn Johnston:

I had some wonderful, insightful and compassionate teachers. The dialogue you see here is almost word for word from a conversation I had with Mr. Stibbs in grade four. He told me that yes, he did pick on me and yes, he did single me out in the class – and that he did so because he knew I could do better. He explained that it took a lot of his time and energy to put me in my place and he did so because I was worth it. I think he was the first to put a harness on the unruly kid that I was and he did so by letting me know – in a strict but very fair way, that he had respect for my intelligence and therefore so should I.

This is a message that I struggle with with my students. The task is difficult because I often see the most troubled students for only a few hours. I continue to do my best to refine the conversation in the hope that some piece will stick. Sometime I’m successful, but not often enough.

From my dad, of course…

MYANMAR/BURMA — Whether she wants it or not, Aung San Suu Kyi is on course for a confrontation with the State Peace and Development Council. The generals, whether they are wearing dress uniforms or business suits, cannot afford to have her serve as a focus for freedom and Democracy.

Calling for a meeting of ethnic peoples, under any guise, is a direct threat to the generals’ power base.

From The Irrawaddy:

Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi calmed fears that she was on course for a possible confrontation with Burma’s military government regarding what she described as “an ethnic conference in conformity with the 21st Century.”

“This conference is aimed at national reconciliation. We are not attempting to form a parallel government or a parallel parliament,” Suu Kyi was quoted as saying by members of the Democracy and Peace Party (DPP) party who met her on Wednesday at her National League for Democracy party office in Rangoon.

She was referring to the proposed ethnic conference which observers have called a “second Panglong”—a meeting of ethnic leaders and other relevant stakeholders along the lines of the 1947 Panglong Conference, which not only provided a basis for a federal union but also guaranteed the ethnic minorities a right to secede from the union 10 years after Burma won independence from Britain.

“Daw Suu said she would be merely trying to revive the Panglong spirit which has been weakened over the past decades,” said Myo Nyunt, the DPP spokesman.

“She also said that a conference can be held without a formal gathering of people at a specific location with the aid of a modern communication tool like the Internet,” Myo Nyunt said, adding that his party shared concerns about possible negative consequences resulting from a “second Panglong.”

He said that even though the Nobel Peace Laureate would handle the issue cautiously, she might unintentionally find herself in a standoff with the regime since the issue was sensitive and delicate.

“We don’t think it is possible for such a conference to take place successfully without the participation of the ruling government,” he said.

And the chances of that are somewhere south of not bloody likely.

Do what you can to make this a good morning, Myanmar.