Just learned how to batch image search!

Went on Google and found this as a result for batch image searches:

I am using Google Sheets to generate image URLs on a list of things by using ImportXML function.

Example:

Cell A1 = Flower

Cell B1 ="https://www.google.com/search?q="&A1&"&source=lnms&tbm=isch"

Cell C1 =transpose(importxml(B1,"//img/@src"))

Really cool! This is what happens:

Easily the most impressive summary of the Syrian conflict

Politics in Twitter vs Blogging

"What was I doing before Subway? Was I tilling wheat?" -- Pete Holmes

I'm going back to blogging.


I've been running my Twitter page lately as a propagandist and not a researcher. I'm talking at people and not talking from the heart anymore. I think Twitter is suited well for this purpose, to clarify a fact or two, or to get the ball rolling with a hashtag although I'm not very experienced with that. Twitter  also involves some wonderful libertarian ideals -- there's very little hierarchy, it serves as a kind of public record -- but I fear for me personally it is becoming what Noam Chomsky and Adam Smith have warned about. I am becoming as stupid as possible as it is to become. My feed is becoming a dizzying source of obsessive stimulation.

What was it like for me before Twitter? I wanted to puzzle out history like my heroes. I wanted to do research. I meditated on things, and looked forward to my next piece of writing. Nowadays I feel my goal is just getting a response. But while that's great, socializing is great, I think I would rather have people respond to a fuller expression of my thoughts.

I'm not trying to lead people away from Twitter. It's still the best no-nonsense tool to communicate with people instantly. But I do think it often brings out the worst in people I would like to have on my side.

The final straw for me was a tussle I had with Glenn Greenwald who is a passionate defender of civil liberties. The format of Twitter just did not allow me to discuss what I wanted to say about the issue. Rather we traded insinuations about the other and then went back to what we were doing. After the discussion my mentions started blowing up with people "favoriting" his most powerful tweets against me and my arguments. I'm grateful he didn't put his replies with a ".@" to hang me out to dry on his timeline, but this is not the first time this happened to me.

The format of Twitter resulted in a situation where I felt like I was seeing people cheer on a bully while I took a beating, and it could go on for as long as they want it to. On Twitter there's nothing better than a favorite or a retweet provided it goes your way. I am constantly asking myself what I'm doing wrong when my timeline gets no responses. I find myself feverishly tweeting more and more to this end. So you can imagine the frustration when I do get a thread going and I face the robotic jeers of the favorite button.

Needless to say this is not good for contentious human rights issues where multiple interests and grievances converge, let alone my nerves. There are some things that an animated GIF or a 10 word insult cannot and should not summarize.

And I think this is happening to others. Ken Roth of Human Rights Watch recently went on record asking why poor women should be denied the job of sexual prostitution. Putting aside just why that's stupid, it's pretty clear he's claiming ground on a contentious issue. He is anticipating flak. The flak has already changed people, that's the power of Twitter. It's not very different in this regard from Rush Limbaugh's crude jokes.

Another more enraging example is from the nationalists in the liberal world: How quickly did the followers of Jeffrey Goldberg dismiss the notion of feminist rights in occupied Gaza being Israel's responsibility? People gave him 418 retweets and 118 favorites. All he did was say "You'll never guess" and people filled in the motive of anti-Semitism. Suppose he's right, and most good propaganda is at least partially right. Did it educate anyone on the complex webs of responsibility involved in collective human rights? Something our mainstream newspapers are already failing to do? No. It simplified them to a standard rhetoric about enemies of the state -- in this instance a swipe at the UN -- being untrustworthy. It gave Goldberg and his followers a quick burst of endorphins.

I don't want to live for reweets anymore.And it should go without saying I don't want to be a Dittohead.

The passionate and the laconic have fewer problems. It seems they thrive on Twitter. But I don't want Twitter to become my social life, or worse, to replace a real one. At the very least I'd rather write full paragraphs again.

The American dream as seen by billionaires: Don't blow up our spot

I read the transcript from the debate and wouldn't you believe it that Donald Trump espoused what I'm supposing is a common belief among the wealthy.

Republican Billionaire Donald Trump this week:

Your brother -- and your brother's administration gave us Barack Obama, because it was such a disaster, those last three months, that Abraham Lincoln couldn't have been elected.

Democrat billionaire Jeff Greene two years ago:

“There are all these people in this country who are just not participating in the American Dream at all,” he says. This makes him uncomfortable, not least because they might try to take a piece of his. “Right now, for some bizarre reason, a lot of these people are supporting Republicans who want to cut taxes on the wealthy,” he says. “At some point, if we keep doing this, their numbers are going to keep swelling, it won’t be an Obama or a Romney. It will be a ­Hollande. A Chávez.”

Hat tip to Jon Schwarz for that one.

Each one in isolation looks like standard partisan bickering. But that's not really what's going on. Underneath, there's a very clear distrust that both share towards the population. They're not so much afraid of the opposing party's policies, but that such policies will go so far that people will have a reason to resist.

Pacify the population! Don't tread on me!

"Free Porn" is increasing the customer base

The educated feminist counterculture never fails to disappoint. I recommend you read Tyler's essay, especially towards the end where she debunks the idea of that the porn industry is doing anything else other than encourage more and more obsessive control over women through new branding.

Unfortunately it's a bit wordy, so I think I'll highlight the most readable part. Tyler cites this 2011 story on pornography:

According to some in the industry, free porn is actually driving up profits since it has expanded the consumer base for paid porn. Feras Antoon, CEO of Brazzers (owned by Manwin), told New York Magazine that free porn sites have "vastly enlarged the total universe of porn consumers that the number of those who pay has ballooned along with it." As an example, in one year Manwin's pre-tax earnings increased more than 40%.

I really don't have much to add to this, but it's definitely good to know.

the US might need to return again and again

War isn't just great for Islamic radicals, it's also in the interest of hedge funds and military contractors.

I suspect this is why the person leading the attack on the Iran deal, Lindsey Graham, is bankrolled by them.

Here's what's in it for energy companies

 One particularly salient opportunity is for Iran to develop its huge natural gas resources to become a major supplier to energy-starved European Union (EU) countries as well as its immediate neighbors in the Middle East. Beyond allowing Iran to advance its goal of being a central figure in the Middle East economy, these developments would help insulate it from further U.S. economic or military attack.

 Much like ISIS, a forever war doesn't sound too bad to US mercenaries either. War with Iran would be the goose that laid the golden egg.
 
Via Zack Beuchamp's article on Vox:

If the first round of strikes didn't destroy every target, the US might need to return again and again. It would require the US to "continue a sustained campaign over a period of time and re-strike after an initial battle damage assessment [if] it is found that further strike sorties are required," defense analysts Anthony Cordesman and Abdullah Toukan write in a comprehensive 2012 Center for Strategic and International Studies report.

It should be noted that the main reason Israel opposes this deal harmonizes with the above contractors, but is deeper than that. Israel does not believe it can win through diplomacy, so it must unilaterally oppose it, without revealing that is the principle. Via Document 93B (PDF):

[Henry] Kissinger: "[...] Diplomatically you have not won the war. You have won it tactically.
[Israeli Prime Minister Golda] Meir: Diplomatically we will never win.
Kissinger: Exactly. That is the tragedy. 

 

Mayor Rahm Emanuel evidently has no empathy

Chicago Mayor Election: candidate policies side-by-side comparison

The election is on Tuesday April 7, 2015

Find your voting place here: http://www.chicagoelections.com/en/your-voter-information.html

 

Chuy Garcia	Rahm Emanuel
Past employers and sources for campaign money
2011 – present Cook County Board of Commissioners 1993 – 1999 Illinois Senate 1986 – 1993 Chicago City Council	2009–2010 White House 2005–2007 Democratic Campaign Cmte 2002–2008 US House of Representatives 2000–2001 Freddie Mac 1999–2002 Dresdner Kleinwort 1993–1998 Executive Office of the President 1989–1989 Richard M Daley Campaign (Center for Responsive Politics: Revolving Door Summary) Hired by one of Chicago's largest corporate investment firm (New York Times 12/3/2008)
SEIU Illinois (Chicagoist 12/3/2014) American Federation of Teachers (Chicago Business 12/12/2014)	Top Contributors for 2008: UBS AG, AT&T Inc, Simmons Cooper LLC, Blackstone Group, Goldman Sachs (Center for Responsive Politics: Contributors summary) 2011: Chicago Mercantile Exchange (NBC Chicago 10/21/2011) Top contributors 2015 Grosvenor Capital Management, Madison Dearborn Partners, Plumbers and Pipefitters unions, Citadel, Muneer Satter (Steve Can Plan 2/1/2015)
City services
Wait-and-see approach to firing (In These Times Nov 12, 2014) 1,000 new police officers on the street and expand neighborhood policing(Chicago For Chuy: Safe Neighborhoods) Replace foreclosed properties with community peace hubs on high-violence blocks Fund and coordinate mental health services for residents. Reduce the risk of exposure to toxic materials and unsafe physical conditions in our homes Remove tipped subminimum wage, and replace it with an hourly wage to reduce poverty and increase economic growth (Chicago For Chuy: Women's Rights) Expand social and economic programs for women and with concern for women of color Use public funds to integrate poor into communities by supporting rent or mortgage Open the books of the neighborhood investment TIF program and move more of it back into schools away from hotel development (Chicago For Chuy: Tax increment finance reform) Earned sick leave (Chicago For Chuy: Equity in health) Advocate for state and federal funds for healthcare Raise awareness of domestic violence Promote a nursing mom’s bill of rights Review the clinic closings Train police in to respond appropriately to mental illness Heavily lobby Springfield to create an elected school board out of the mayor's control (Chicago for Chuy: Elected school board) Lobby state and federal governments to expand roads, buses and trains in Chicago as opposed to downstate (Chicago for Chuy: Safe and reliable transportation) Consider private funds for transit Lobby for a state gas tax to expand buses and trains, and encourage public transit by taxing car drivers complete the railroad and intersection projects identified by the CREATE public-private partnership to speed rail shipment through Chicago Expand dual language programs in schools Halt school closings Reduce standardized testing Require that charters report the same data as traditional public schools (Chicago For Chuy: Better Neighborhood Schools) Create councils and registers to allow immigrants to learn about city services (Chicago For Chuy: Inclusive City) Advocates neighborhood festivals (In These Times Nov 12, 2014)	Sent development money to River Point office complex (Chicago Reader 12/12/2012) The largest Chicago TIFs in 2013 by revenue are: Near South ($65.2 million); Canal/Congress ($19.9 million); Chicago/Kingsbury ($19.0 million); Kinzie Conservation ($18.6 million). (Cook County Clerk: 2013 Report) Ended effective $1 million grant for therapy for gang members in 2013, replaced it with database analysis (Chicago Sun-Times 05/14/2014, PBS 6/4/ 2012) Fired 200 CTA employees and cut 12 bus lines (NBC 10/13/2011, The Daily Northwestern 11/12/2012 ) Rebuilt the Red Line for 2 years, spending $425 million on it (Chicago Tribune 7/3/2013) Plans to renovate Chicago Blue Line with $492 million (Red Eye Chicago 2/5/2015) Closed 6 health clinics, and fired 125 medical employees to save $1.7 million dollars (Chicago Reader 3/26/2013) Supported the demolition of Prentice Hospital (Chicago Tribune 10/30/2012) Replaced janitors and schoolteachers with new hires to Aramark and charter schools that are not covered by contracts applied to other employees (In These Times 1/21/2015, Democracy Now! 2/23/2015) Hired financial firms Madison Dearborn and John Buck to invest worker pensions (International Business Times 11/13/2014) Fired 150 music and visual arts teachers, and tilted millions of dollars of culture funds towards wealthy neighborhoods. (Chicago Sun-Times 07/09/2014) Created a 3:59 second video of Chicagoans saying they don't know what TIF means (Chicago Reader 6/6/2012)

My letter to Chuy Garcia

I am a resident and a voter of Chicago. I am concerned with the corruption of Chicago, and am close to despair. I am writing to show you the power of the organizations in Chicago and what they have accomplished. I hope to state my position and let the chips fall where they may.

From the bottom up, there was the program Cure Violence, also called Cease Fire. As far back as Harold Washington, there was a demand to stop gang shootings. Yet alderman candidates are still not well-versed in treatment of crime and violence as a disease. This is truly a tragedy. We now know that the horrible Guantanamo prison has brought in psychologists to work on the inmates. So we already use psychology to treat criminals -- once they're in cages. But when it comes to stopping crimes, it's a different story. It comes down to the notion of justice. Look at the candidate going up against Mr. Daley Thompson. He speaks of infiltrating gangs. Others talk about school programs. Gangs looked at in this fashion are treated as a disease of the society, not on the individuals. Chicago can be a compassionate city, and it can act to change this. From a scientific point of view, Cure Violence has dropped crime in every city it's instituted through helping people learn cognitive therapy -- the ability to challenge one's own thoughts, emotions and behaviors through "self-talk." The Chicago Police raised a hell of a stink over this. To them the criminals are the enemy, and giving them therapy rather than jail is a betrayal.

Science today can also tell us about the economy. We can list what we want and follow those blueprints, even though nobody can understand the whole picture. The internet was invented mostly by experts funded by the federal taxpayer, not pensions. Breakthroughs in the economy need lots of hard work until the foundation is laid for a new step. There is a grassroots movement to "opt-out" of standardized tests Australia right now. But in the States there is much more severe problem. The privatization of schools is not getting educated people into the workforce, rather it is putting them into debt. The debt strike has been announced on Democracy NOW!, a popular alternative media service. Support for this movement would be historic and show a strong interest in investment priorities and the rights of students against private tyrannies. I predict the Sun-Times to dislike it, but the Reader and the International Business Times probably will lend support.

On the environment, global warming is already rearing its horns. The environmental movement needs an educated and involved population, and independence from oil, not only "foreign oil." Illinois pollutes through two main forces: energy and transportation. Global warming is giving us hotter and hotter summers, and Illinois is in danger of losing topsoil, even while Governor Rauner expands coal programs. To see what a country looks like without topsoil, think of Haiti -- malaria-ridden and dependent on international institutions. On the other hand, Germany and Japan have created solar power programs, which have strong protections on capital, rather than debt to international finance. Chicago could try to negotiate with Google which is instituting a solar program. That was the original purpose of corporations, to serve the public good. People in Japan today are wizards at creating electric cars. Chicago needs someone who can stand up to big coal, oil and nuclear to make this happen here.

My letter to Al-Jazeera

To whom it may concern,

Al-Jazeera has retracted its account of the floods in Gaza. I believe I can show this retraction is unnecessary and an incomplete response to a propaganda campaign. The response makes two claims. (A) there are no dams that can be breached in southern Israel, and (B) it was an error to attribute this flood to Israeli intentions.

The journalist Richard Edmondson and the American analyst Yousef Munayyer have firmly debunked (A). Munayyer writes it is not only false, but "demonstrably false. There are MANY dams in the negev area." He includes a video showing how fast water can run in the area. Both Munayye and Edmondson note that the JNF has written about dams  as well. The Nahal Oz dam was analyzed in the April 2014 issue of Geomorphology, which found that in 2001 it had breached and flooded "roads, neighborhoods and agricultural fields." The Palestinian Twitter user "48Refugee" has noted "Israel uses rainwater reservoirs in Gaza for agriculture. During rainy season, Israel allows reservoirs to flood."

I have been able to challenge (B) with the help of the internet. The newspaper Walla! News had a Hebrew story off the AP wire, exclusively, in which they cite an Israeli army official explaining their reason for flooding Gaza. It is no longer on the main site of Walla! News but can still be read on Newshub Israel mirrored. In the final paragraph it reads "Military sources said that following the stormy weather south much water accumulated within the system and therefore it was necessary to drain them." One of the lead agitators  of this media campaign has asked the IDF spokesman to comment on this, and has seen no reply. The story has since been deleted, but Associated Press has not issued a retraction.

The people CAMERA has marshaled to dispute what they believe is anti-Semitic libel have done their best to belittle this when I've brought it to their attention, calling me "biased" and a
"bigot" who is "complicit" in helping you attack Israel. I hope you recognize these are the real
motives of these agitators, not facts. Unfortunately, what they don't know is I would be critical of this story even if it were written about Honduras.

Thank you for your time,
Lewis from Chicago

UPDATE:
For those trying to say "Why would Israel _____?" please see this excerpt from the Noam Chomsky book Fateful Triangle:

UPDATE 2 (3/8/2015):
Here is a picture of the Israeli government widening the Beersheva river in 2004, increasing its output into Wadi Gaza:

A look at Deir al-Balah

For example, Hamas members serving the municipalities of Beit Hanun and Deir al-Balah are well educated, non-ideological, uncorrupted and responsive to the needs of their constituencies. In one instance, according to Jolle, newly elected Hamas members immediately impounded and then sold municipality vehicles previously given out on the basis of personal connections to those in power rather than professional need. Hamas members elected to professional associations in Gaza have proven to be competent and committed to democratic practices in governing these organizations. Nevertheless, Jolle said he and his government are still wary of Hamas's intentions and remain uncomfortable attributing anything positive to what they still consider to be a terrorist organization.

(Wikileaks.org)

Democracy isn't a beauty contest

There is a clear pattern emerging about what prison is being used for: confessions. Thankfully, The Atlantic monthly has picked up the story from Guardian US adding more details to the reasons Chicago police are keeping a no-lawyer "black site." It should bring to mind the Chicago police won their fight in 2013, with an unfair demand that a citizen peace group called Cure Violence file reports on their clients. They refused, and the mayor canceled the contract, favoring the police.

The police set an unfair standard. It's not bad enough we put people in jail and traumatize them, but then we have to come up with pleasant illusions about how the people exposing this crime are over-reacting.


In a democracy, the press would be critical. Yet after giving him their endorsement, today's "independent" Chicago Sun-Times is celebrating the sites as largely non-violent and effective:

The Guardian story didn’t allege that Church suffered from physical abuse at Homan Square other than his complaint that his left wrist was handcuffed to a bar behind a bench and his ankles were cuffed together.
In April 2014, Church and his two co-defendants were convicted of felony counts of possessing an incendiary device and misdemeanor mob action, but they were acquitted of more serious terrorism charges tied to the NATO summit in May 2012.

But this response itself is a calculation. The Chicago Sun Times lead editorial writer has been  Steve Huntley, who writes with his his jaw clenched in hate at people criticizing torture. His reason is it undermines his project of war.