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"With great power comes zero responsibility" TheTweetOfGod |
Quake's worldThe Quake touches on a variety of topics including progressive politics, promoting democracy, football, general interest, happiness and fulfillment, news and opinion media - these all seem to come up a lot. There are a lot of links to quality sites well worth visiting and many worth subscribing to. Thanks for visiting.
The Quake supports democracy of the kind that benefits citizens as a whole, not just a small percentage of the top elite individuals and gargantuan corporations. No to authoritarianism. It's not the answer, it's the symptom of an economic system that is unwell.
Progressive politics channels: YouTube etc.
david pakman majority report
glenn kirschner More perfect union
TYT [young turks]
pondering politics
dollemore farron balanced farron cousins [ring of fire]
rational national canada
some more news
humanist report
channel 5 not fake news
meidas touch podcast on u tube
secular talk
robert reich
AJ+
patriot act hasan minhaj
brian tyler cohen @bryantylercohen
market exit
chris norlund
second thought
then & now
now this impact, prev. now this news prx shows incl. "rising" sound school, and prx remix
last week tonight
right wing watch damage report Other likeable links
brendan miller
sisyphus 55
cole hastings
Upper echelon
zeteo zeteo - a strong bias for the truth, founded by mehdi hasan, formerly msnbc and a guest everywhere
turning to corporations doesn't help [levi hildebrand, formerly future proof] new york times' the daily podcast
semafor the world today PBS newshour episodes, live on 3-4pm M-F pacific USA time abc australia -- livestream
abc australia -- "in depth" channel
john cooper
daily DC
just security
national memo
american oversight Tom nicholas UK and abroad
mac option key symbols
free dictionary.com
annualcreditreport.com the one that's actually free, link fixed
Bitcoin value scan: how's it doin'?
DW crypto currencies documentary
the legal af podcast
cryptosRUs with george
open secrets
thought slime
abroad in japan "it's not that everything is inherently weird"
the invisible hand
nathaniel drew
johnny harris new link 2022
retire cheap in asia: JC based in thailand Online tv & tv streams
Radio
bbc world service
c-span radio
Radio programs and podcasts BBC health check
here & now
open street maps, organic maps, ord surv maps
the world [PRX, prev: PRI]
On point radio podcasts, other link
on the media
You tube live streams
lise leblanc therapist, bpd etc.
Quaking laffs
jokes about american health care
trump rally in NYC -- so strong, people
classic dave allen on xtian religion
i so pale i so pale
Apple computers know about dongles
Best of takeshi's castle vol.1
Tech
Marcus b. videos
Apple support
Previous posts and links golden era of aviation thai airbus 380 departing kansai, japan drinkaprch Cbd
Electric cars EV's
allcarselectric.com [aka] green car reports plugincars.com electric vehicles summary route planner for electric cars
the guardian
reveal news investigative reporting & more
legal eagle lawyer
msnbc you-tube site
cnn.com news site
associated press
Itv news uk ItvX
national world's u-tube site
the recount news aimed at gen zee
washington post, podcasts, u-tube
on kqed livestream
rob reiner twitter
dem underground
TPM talking points memo
crooked media
back to the vax podcast
the intercept and podcasts
the atlantic + podcasts
the white house
bernie sanders "we can do better, we must do better"
sludge exposing corruption
crooks & liars
washington week youtube site
common dreams
daily kos
california health advocates
politico & politico podcasts
democracy now
robert reich website
rick wilson
no copyright sounds
axios & axios today podcast
the daily beast + the new abnormal pod
media matters
international business times
yahoo finance
fivethirtyeight homepage
euronews online
npr news & npr podcasts
foreign policy
channel 4 (UK) news
channel 5 uk
explore with us
police release
jonathan freedland
how appealing
public citizen
pro publica
vox
move on
democracy forward
justice democrats
we're in hell
democracy docket
vina erickson never has so little meant so much
xe.com currency currency exchange converter
CNA singapore
france 24 english, french nu link [freqent URL changes]
franceinfo
KQED livestream supported by.... u
washington week youtube site
DW german intntl news in english with live stream
sky news new link mar 2025
tvr britanny, france
elonce tv argentina
rtl muenchen deutschland
telemolise southern italia
global news canada
city news canada
the project australia
bbc live news stream
sfgovtv san francisco, calif., usa
times radio
kqed san francisco radio
kalw san francisco radio
kazu nat. public radio
BBC assignment
Vintage moshe kasher works the room
Apple computers & icloud MacMost
Commuting from jb to singapore
inside ev's inside electric vehicles
August 2025 Some time back, I was meditating at the ocean with my eyes open. Occasionally, a skilled surfer would glide through my visual field. They were balanced, in dynamic harmony with the wave.
Not unlike that surfer, we can practice riding and being in harmony with flux and flow of changing sense experience. We can surf our senses.
This involves noticing changes at the level of our senses. When seeing, for example, rather than fixating on a particular object or our ideas about it, we can notice the interplay of light and shadow, motion and stillness, focus and softness.
There is an art to noticing the very slow and very fast. We have all done this. Sunsets and sunrises are very slow. The flickering of an oil lamp or candle can be mesmerizing and languid, or extremely fast.
From the sound of wind chimes to the flocking of birds, there is beauty in the unfolding inconstancy whirling around and within us. The rapid turning of the bicycle wheel or flow of swiftly moving water. Scintillating waves on the ocean or lake. The child's game of watching clouds form, de-form, and re-form into different Rorschach-like shapes.
Even the quality of our minds and hearts is always changing. Last year, I was touched by stories that illustrated how much famed scientist Richard Feynman loved to discover he was wrong. His example demonstrates that changing your mind can be delightful, if you are open to it.
Attuning to this begins to open our minds to the perception of anicca, inconstancy. Delight can emerge when noticing details of a moment of change. Joy is a gift of inhabiting the present.
The purchase price for this ease is to pay attention completely with intent dedication. Without hanging on.
Traditional early Buddhist teachings emphasize the suffering of this kind of inconstancy. To be more precise, they emphasize how clinging to things that are constantly changing produces suffering. Ajahn Chah, an important teacher for the Insight Meditation tradition, summarized this by likening suffering to rope burn. There is certainly wisdom in this perspective. Noticing the way that clinging, insisting on lack of change, increases suffering and encourages us to let go. Our hearts and minds begin to learn how to respond to reality on its own terms, rather than bracing against it.
The practice of surfing the senses teaches us to let go in a different way. Rather than focusing on the suffering of clinging, we find ease and spaciousness not clinging: in riding the flow of moment-to-moment experience. Suffering is only present if we try to make something happen, resist, or hang on. Surfing the senses means learning to appreciate change in real time. This approach conditions our hearts and minds not to cling through positive reinforcement. We can learn directly the joy of seeing, feeling, letting go.
With Metta, Dawn Neal (IMC, Calif.) July 2025 Big Bankruptcy Bill So, Now this gargantuan financial give-away to the wealthiest has become law, as the US plunges further into an unparalleled debt-laden inflationary spiral that will wreak catastrophic results. Big Bankruptcy Bill, Battsh*t Brazen Balls-up, call it what you will, it is, in a word, diabolical.
On an even more macro level, while this video explains how the world's economic viability is irreversibly dependent - "hooked" - on debt, it doesn't explain when the tipping point is likely reached, but it will be within a couple of decades. The video, in fact, turns out to be a slick infomercial for gold.
We suspect that the system of pretending that the debt cycle will magically sort itself out is ultimately self destructive, but because nobody is going be the first to blink, how does it pan out? It seems the issue may be forced upon us when inflation starts to speed up even further and people simply cannot find enough money to pay their mortgage or rent, or buy even food and clothes. Meanwhile investors have by that time abandoned the dollar and US bonds, os simply don't have more to spend on buying them. That's when a nation, and ultimately the global economy, collapses into chaos. The ponzi scheme bubble has, at that point, burst. But when? Soon. [CBC link]
June 2025
May 2025
What's with the current US White House admin's obsession with Ukraine's alleged rare minerals and what's the catch they don't mention? [ABC News In-depth, Australia].
Interesting to see how this documentary (linked below) has (or hasn't) aged over the last year or so. Certainly been a lively year for the topic and the story continues. DW crypto currencies documentary.
LINK ADD: Doomscroll with joshua citarella, including i/view with Ch.5.
Meaty issues
However, environmentalists and health experts have pointed to issues with accepting imported beef from the States. But the initial outcry and red flagging surrounding tariff negotiations was mostly with regard to the chicken production methods. That said, caution advised for those seeking their protein from slaughtered sources.
Falling in line
Democracy is not dead Is the US doomed to permanent authoritarianism? Are things going to pot? Will anyone stand up to the strong-arm erosion of just and unperverted democracies? When all seems lost, look to some surprisingly telling recent events. The people of three nations have successfully recently fought back against their bully pulpits: Australia, Canada, and South Korea.
Even just this month, the rightwing coalition led by Peter Dutton, until only recently ahead of Labor rival Anthony Albanese, surprisingly lost, as Aussies got spooked by Dutton's hero worshipping of Donald Trump across the pond.
Similarly, and shortly before that, Canadians were stunned when the American president threatened to annex their nation and suddenly what seemed like a certainty, that the Conservatives would be enjoying an easy victory over the Liberals, was turned upside down, ending up in a joyous celebration of nationhood as Mark Carney got the nod to repulse an alien big brother takeover.
On December 3rd 2024 South Korea's leader declared martial law but, instead of bowing down to their new self-appointed dictator, that nation's citizens resisted their "president turned rogue" Yoon Suk Yeol, and democracy was restored.
Even before those, we can look at countries like Poland, Slovenia, and Romania, seemingly lost forever to tyranny, clamber back from the pit of hell. And even further back: Argentina, Italy, Spain, and then into the dark abyss of the WW2 era where only mass destruction was able to thwart evil.
Of course, nothing is guaranteed. There seems no way back for Hungary or North Korea or indeed a significant slice of currently suffering humanity.
But greed crazed megalomaniacal despots, like all humans, don't last forever. They can be upended, they often upend themselves by going too far, thinking themselves indestructible and without boundaries, until left isolated, rejected by their support systems, and ultimately self-annihilating -- victims of their own fatal flaws.
April 2025 The Independent UK: "Britain must allow US chlorine-washed chicken into UK markets if it wants relief from sweeping tariffs, Donald Trump has indicated. It comes after the UK failed to avoid tariffs imposed on the global economy, with the US president slapping a 10 per cent levies on all British exports to the United States." Insert you own reaction here!
When, and when not to, use Wi-fi on your mobile. "Ziss iss ze ansa...." explains Useful Things.
March 2025 The past tried to predict 2025.
This speech accidentally exposed the truth about the US. Ben Norton of Geopolitical Economy Report illuminates.
Meet the Yarbros.
How Soviet Russian style tactics are being used to deceive Americans.
The death of capitalism by Benn Jordan.
Richard wolffe on USA's global fallout.
Paul warburg on how America has forgotten what made it great. Stock$: wobble or wipeout Can Jimmy future proof inequality? February 2025
The two most frequently days to celebrate it by Buddhist sangha communities are February 8th or, even more common, February 15th, but also on other days of this month. Often, for practical purposes, it's celebrated on the nearest date of whichever day of the week is used by that community to typically gather anyway. Good plan.
Why do we gossip? January 2025
Jaron Lanier resonates now more than ever (as interviewed on channel 4).
Happy New Year to one and all
Surfing the Senses
Sir, you're busted!
Persistent police prosecute the law
In what is thought to be the longest time in the UK between crime and conviction, the intrepid Avon & Somerset Police, whose beat includes the city of Bristol, finally got their man and justice was ultimately served. See the reaction of Ryan Headley as a police officer's bodycam captures the long arm of the law politely... comin' and a knockin'. [BBC link]
Pod save America: "Holy sh*t this is bad". They're talking about the Republicans' disastrous Battsh*t Ballsup Bill.
Singaporean in Oz
A Singaporean's honest view on Australia after 15 years.
Snowballing psychosis
"Mentally ill users might be accidentally jailbreaking ChatGPT into reinforcing their delusions. Enkrypt uncovers new LLM exploit embedded into images" observes this Australian journalist via Coin Telegraph.
Has the UK accepted chlorinated chicken from the USA?
AI [stating as per Guardian]: "No, the UK has not accepted chlorinated chicken from the USA. Both the UK and the EU have banned chlorine-washed chicken due to concerns about animal welfare and potential masking of poor hygiene standards. The UK government has explicitly stated that chlorine-washed chicken will not be part of any future trade deal with the US."
Why Russians support Putin. The same motivations apply to other nations' citizens.
The month of May always seems to generate optimism even in years whose first quarters can seem inexpressibly forlorn. And so it is again in this year of the Wood Snake.
Susan saves States
Susan Crawford. She fights for workers and women's rights. She won the Wisconsin Supreme court election referred to as the "People vs Elon Musk" having withstood a tsunami of cash from far right interests to stymie the frustration of the people as Wisconsinites stood up to authoritarianism, corruption, and cruelty in America's desperate bid to retain its fragile democratic republic. A ray of hope in a darkening world.
American solutions
USA - 'Another World is Possible': what a polarized U.S. might learn from other countries. [On Point, March 20, 2025].
Wall Street alarm bells are ringing following Trump's bizarre antics, and Tesla insiders are selling their own overvalued stocks. Uncertainty, tarrifs, hiring cutbacks, firings, impending tax cuts for the ultra wealthy are just some of the reasons for market decline.
Did Jimmy the giant escape the alt-right just to be brainwashed?
Nirvana day
Nirvana Day, also known in Mahayana Buddhism as Parinirvana Day, is a Buddhist holiday celebrated in February.
Why do we gossip.
Have U visited the other must-see quake pages?
