Thursday, August 31, 2017
Pence upstages T, carefully--
Kyi Kaung @KyiKaung 15s16 seconds ago
ha ha hee hee
Pence has outclassd T.
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/31/mike-pence-texas-hurricane-harvey-242220 …
Not a fan of any repubs, but this
jst wonder why did they support T initly
0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
Kyi Kaung @KyiKaung 9m9 minutes ago
jail wld be a good place for DT
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Kyi Kaung @KyiKaung 9m9 minutes ago
Pence & cabinet has to do damage control all t time for DT & stiltto heels
@ this pt DT shld just retire, shut up close down twitter acct
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Kyi Kaung @KyiKaung 34m34 minutes ago
Pence to Texas: We are with you (full remarks) @CNNPolitics http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2017/09/01/pence-corpus-christi-texas-presser.cnn …
did he see storm victims???
better link, DJT and Secret Service, wh he is bankrupting
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/dems-hope-block-trump-businesses-receiving-federal-funds
already exhausted annual budget and agents owed lots of overtime.
8-31-2017
Ever seen a Presdt who makes Secret Service pay him! Well, here you do--
BTW, even Salman Rushdie, a writer, paid UK police for his own protection during Fatwa.
This swollen drumpf fella has to be stopped.
Kyi Kaung @KyiKaung 1m1 minute ago
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/dems-hope-block-trump-businesses-receiving-federal-funds … via @msnbc
golf carts were rented fr T. golf courses, to protect T. also rental space in T. Tower until last month
cartoons from Internet
Miss yucky too many teeth, paid lier drawing 178,000$ a year in taxpayer money
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzeIKudiKBw
Huck and she are 2 peas in same pod, the thicker their pancake makeup gets, the more they lie.
Fake eyelashes and fake everything else.
Trmpees.
8-31-2017
Apology to my blog readers, I suffer from 3 eye diseases, incld macular degeneration, and so make more typos than I used to. It is not that I am turning into DJT. Besides, I am only a blogger, not the presdt of the USA.
Crosby TX, Hurricane Harvey floods, chemicals ignite.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/08/31/harveys-wrath-moves-across-the-louisiana-texas-border-as-water-recedes-in-houston/?utm_term=.68fc3e7fe24a
Reporter on Rachel Maddow show said that he heard of no compound that can reverse the chemical process, wh is due to the chemicals losing refrigeration.
At the time the reporter spoke to Maddow, there was no doubt there would be combustion and an explosion,
and now we hear "popping" and see flames and smoke.
Look for updates at KHOU live stream on post below.
8-31-2017
VP Mike Pence inRockford, TX, Arkema chemical plant starting to burn in Crosby, TX, Hurricane Irma building up.
This is best source for live updates and where to donate, for TX floods etc.
https://www.cbsnews.com/live/?ftag=CNM-00-10aac7b
8-31-2017
Wednesday, August 30, 2017
make way Imelda, we now have new queen of shoes
M.Trump changes shoes after backlash as arrives in TX : http://aol.it/2vGY3wa via @AOL
GREAT she thinks of shoes, he thinks of crowds
Monday, August 28, 2017
In Finland, T. mixes up 2 female reporters with same hair color--
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/08/28/we-have-a-lot-of-blond-women-in-finland-trump-thought-two-female-reporters-were-the-same-person/?utm_term=.9bef83ede3a9
Typical racist sexist groper in chief, then says "A lot of blonde women in Finland."
How wld he like it if we said, "there are lots of old duds with fake tans in WH"
8-28-2017
Arpaio pardoning, Trum thought he'd get higher ratings, timed during Hurricane Harvey
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/28/us/politics/trump-finland-harvey-arpaio-russia.html
This man has a superficial "understanding" of the world.
TV ratings??? !!!
His problem is a lack of personal values, propriety and ethics, he stands for the wrong things.
He is a self-serving evil person, not suited for that post, who surrounds himself with lackeys.
The sooner he is is gone the better, but he's hanging on by his fake forelock.
8-28-2017
Ethics board wants to know if Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and wife went to Fort Knox on gov plane just to see eclipse
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/mnuchin-viewed-eclipse-from-roof-of-fort-knox/2017/08/24/1b6ba9b4-8903-11e7-a50f-e0d4e6ec070a_story.html?utm_term=.d522cc8d8749
The wife's boasting Instagram post let to queries.
8-28-2017
Sunday, August 27, 2017
Quote of the day--from The Robe--Gutenberg Project
'He was not indolent,' said Justus, firmly. 'He could have had things, if he'd wanted them. He was a carpenter by occupation—and a skilful one too. It was a pleasure to see him handle keen-edged tools. When he mortised timbers they looked as if they had grown that way. There was always a fair-sized crowd about the shop, watching him work; children all over the place. He had a way with children—and animals—and birds.' Justus laughed softly, and exhaled a nostalgic sigh. 'Yes—he had a way with him. When he would leave the shop to go home, there was always a lot of children with him—and dogs. Everything belonged to him; but he never owned anything. He often said that he pitied people who toiled and schemed and worried and cheated to possess a lot of things; and then had to stand guard over them to see that they weren't stolen or destroyed by moths and rust.'
'Must have been an eccentric person,' mused Marcellus, 'not to want anything for his own.'
'But he never thought he was poor!' Justus raised up on one elbow, suddenly animated. 'He had the spirit of truth. Not many people can afford that, you know.'
'What an odd thing to say!' Marcellus had stared into Justus's eyes, until the older man grinned a little.
'Not so odd, when you stop to think about it. A talent for truth is worth having. If a man loves truth better than things, people are glad to have him for a friend. Almost everybody wishes he could be honest, but you can't have the spirit of truth when your heart is set on dickering for THINGS. That's why people hung about this carpenter and listened to everything he said; he had the spirit of truth. Nobody had to be on guard with him; didn't have to pretend; didn't have to lie. It made them happy and free as little children.'
'Did everybody respond to him—that way?' asked Marcellus, seriously.
'Almost everybody,' nodded Justus. 'Oh—sometimes people who didn't know him tried to deceive him about themselves, but'—he grinned broadly as if remembering an occasion—'but, you see, sir, he was so perfected in the truth that you couldn't lie to him, or pretend to be what you weren't. It simply couldn't be done, sir; either by word, tone, or manner! And as soon as people found that out, they dropped their weapons and defences, and began to speak the truth, themselves! It was a new experience for some of them, and it gave them a sensation of freedom. That's why they liked him, sir. They couldn't lie to him, and so they told the truth—and—and the truth set them free!'
'That's a new thought!' declared Marcellus. 'Your friend must have been a philosopher, Justus. Was he a student of the classics?'
Justus was briefly puzzled, and presently shook his head.
'I do not think so,' he replied. 'He just—KNEW!'
'I don't su
Saturday, August 26, 2017
Article by Dr Maung Zarni, from his blog, on Rohingya of Burma
Annotation key
gold-- important
aqua --even more important
shocking pink--my comments.
I am sending this out bc even well educated ppl living overseas swallow the junta's propaganda hook line and sinker.
You may still not believe us, but at your own peril.
You will equate the Rohingya w ISIS, wh is not the same at all.
By traveling to Burma, you may empower the junta by giving them foreign exchange in the form of visa, hotel fees etc.
kmk
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: M Zarni
Date: Sat, Aug 26, 2017 at 9:41 AM
Subject: Are the Rohingya militants responsible for derailing Kofi
Annan Commission's recommendations?
To:
Are the Rohingya militants responsible for derailing Kofi Annan
Commission's recommendations?
To start with, Annan's report itself stressed that all the military
MPs in the national parliament joined hands with the military-backed
former ruling party Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and
Rakhine nationalists' Arakan National Party attempted to officially
stopped the establishment of Annan Commission in the parliament. They
did not succeed.
Within the past 1 year since Annan Commission was created by Aung San
Suu Kyi in Sept 2017, the military and its proxies in society - such
as Ma Ba Tha, anti-Muslim and anti-Rohingya (racist, state-sponsored) monk group have pushed
non-cooperation with it, something the final report itself noted.
Weeks before Annan Commission released its final report, the Burmese
military high command was very busy, mobilizing and air-lifting
hundreds of troops from Light Infantry Division 33, notorious for
merciless and indiscriminate killings of civilians in any urban
unrest, to Rakhine, arming and training anti-Rohingya Rakhine
villagers in fire arms and fighting, blockading the predominantly
Rohingya region of N. Rakhine from accessing food and jobs, and
spreading fears of attacks on INGOs and UN agencies providing
humanitarian assistance.
You can't analyze Rohingya militancy and recent attacks, without
taking in to account this build-up of both the government troops and
militarizing and arming of hostile local Rakhine (Burman) villages.
As a matter of the Burmese Commander in Chief Min Aung Hlaing's
Burmese language Facebook timeline - updated after his meeting with
Kofi Annan on the morning of the day of the Final Report's release -
made it clear that the military leadership did not agree with reports'
findings. His Facebook posting said the report contained factual
errors, meaning not credible.
Min Aung Hlaing also apparently attempted to deceive Kofi Annan and
his commission that the Burmese troops are simply engaged in the
"clearance operations" targeting only the "Bengali terrorists" in the
mountain hideouts where there are hardly any innocent civilians.
Then hours later the Burmese Air Force gunship helicopters were
reportedly firing rockets and bombing targeted Rohingya villages.
So, "who is terrorising whom"" is the question that needs to be
confronted head on.
There is something else that needs to be called out: the mass media's
misframing of Rohingya militants as "jihadists".
Both the realities on the ground and the media narrative covering the
realities are quite skewered in favour of the perpetrating Burmese
regime's framing. It frames the militant rohingyas as "Jihadists" - a
term with a religious connotation as if Rohingyas were religiously
motivated along the lines of ISIS. The leader and some rank and
files may have been trained in fighting in countries like Pakistan,
but their emergence is not triggered by their extremist interpretations of Islam. By their statements you can definitively
tell that they (the junta, the skewed media) want the crippling ghetto-like conditions all Rohingya
communities have been forced to live in for almost 40 years (to continue).
Their goals are not creating an Islamic state in the predominantly
Buddhist country, nor independence from Myanmar. They have made it
clear publicly, they want simply what the rest of the public have -
equality before the law, freedom to live in peace, freedom to move
about so that they can work, earn a living and feed their children,
recognition that they are citizens and they belong in Burma, not in
Bangladesh, whatever the colonial history from 150 years ago.
The least the activists can do on the ground - or internationally - is
to correct this narrative.
They are armed with machetes and farm tools, equipped with some mobile
phones and use the most primitive type of explosives, which make all
this reportage about Rohingyas receiving catches of AK-47s and Saudi
money, citing "un-named intelligence sources" utterly non-credible.
my own experience with years of dealing with intelligence officials
is I take their words with a giant grain of salt: they are simply
un-trust worthy, by profession spreaders of misinformation about
target groups.
The western media and government officials (and think tanks) -
infested with general Islamophobia - are too quick to frame any
Muslim who resists against injustices or fight back any power that
subjects their communities to Hell-like conditions as "prospective
Jihadist", "jihadist" or "extremist" or "Terrorist".
Suu Kyi's military partners have been attempting to play this
"we-are-fighting-the-war-on-terror" game since 2012. Just
yesterday, Suu Kyi has just joined this band-wagon when she uses the
label "terrorists" to refer to the Rohingya militants and condemns
them while she has only defended her father's army against the
enormity of allegations of crimes against humanity.
Getting this record straight is one concrete thing activists and
Rohingya victims themselves can do.
This is the war that Myanmar - both the army and Suu Kyi's gov - are
waging against Rohingyas to further demonize and criminalize them
while maintaining the ghettoized conditions on the grounds for more
than 1 million Rohingyas.
You lift these conditions, and I guarantee that the Rohingya militancy
will immediately stop.
For these young Rohingya men, primitively armed, are not fighting to
go to Heaven as Martyrs, they are fighting back because they and their
communities are sitting ducks awaiting the next round of mass
slaughter.
When these young and 'angry' men - as UN Special Rapporteur on human
rights in Myanmar Professor Yangee Lee put it - fight back the mighty
oppressor, Myanmar Tatmadaw, they are making a bad choice, of course,
among all bad choices. Do they subject themselves to semi-slavery in
the hands of human traffickers, or risk drowning in the high seas? Do
they allow themselves and their families to remain in semi-famine
conditions? Do they simply lie down and let themselves be slaughtered by
the organized gangs of racist Rakhine neighbours who want to cleanse
the entire N. Rakhine of any and all Rohingya Muslims, with the full
backing of the military State? Do they want wait for UN intervention
which will never materialise?
Most everything the world is hearing about all the recent
killing spree of civilians in N. Rakhine by "ski-masked gangs" and
other stories framed as "terrorist activities" come from a single
source: AUng San SUu Kyi's Information Committee. Well, she has
become part of the genocidal hell for Rohingyas, covering up and
denying the systematic and pervasive rights violations and violence
committed by her father's army. Suu Kyi’s façade govt, itself is getting “data” from the junta, and apparently believing it.
Finally, Annan, Western Governments (USA, France, UK, etc.) and UN
office in Myanmar are too quick to condemn Rohingya militant attacks
as "undermining" Kofi Annan's peace and mediation efforts while the
very same entities have held their nose on what they know to be at
best crimes against humanity and at worst a full-scaled genocide in
slow motion which Rohingyas have been subjected to over the last
almost 40 years.
Like all previous genocidal cases, wittingly or not these external
players are complicit in the verifiably systematic and pervasive
attempts by Myanmar to destroy the entire ethnic community of Rohingyas, Karen, Kachin and Others.
If there is anyone or group who deserves unequivocal condemnations
for the escalation of
violence and militancy in N. Rakhine its both the perpetrators and the
external enablers which I mentioned above.
Even in Auschwitz and crippling ghettos, Nazi victims and inmates rose
up taking as many SS Exterminators as they possibly could with them,
knowing full well their eventual fate.
Should we the bystanders condemn the Nazi inmates who attempted to
rise up and put the desperate violence of the oppressed on the same moral
parity with the systematic genocidal violence by the perpetrators?
I for one am NOT prepared to condemn violence across the board,
whatever that makes me. I may or I may not chose to resort to
violence or militancy were I in a Rohingya situation. But I have
absolutely no moral authority to condemn them as a privileged man
whose family and himself live in comfort and safety overseas.
Above all I respect the dignity and the need for self-respect of even
the most wretched among us to decide their own fates, whatever their
choice. They actually have no choice, as already in internal concentration camps since at least 2011. Comments in pink by KMK.
8-26-2017
Kyi May Kaung
Words Sounds and Images
Friday, August 25, 2017
My review of Bertil Lintner's Outrage, about the watershed events of 1988 in Burma--
https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R3VJ3JC3AMG6XO/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0951581414
Cheers, to show I can write good reviews of good books too.
km
Kyi May Kaung
Words Sounds and Images
My review of Mary Callahan's book on Burmese junta
https://www.amazon.com/Making-Enemies-State-Building-Burma/dp/0801472679
8-25-2017
I don’t like Mary Callahan’s views, and was not impressed by her the few times I met her at Burma Studies Conferences between 1994 and 2006. Combining with 2 other well known people, she attacked a paper submitted by 2 colleagues of mine, not on academic or procedural grounds, or on what the paper said, but because they had once been members of ABSDF, All Burma Students’ Democratic Front, an armed group based on the Burma-Thai Border, set up by college students who fled Burma after the clampdown of 1988.
Her Burmese colleague then went into a silly rant, about how he loved the country more, quoting Shakespeare.
I was so annoyed, I said, “What’s love got to do with it,” quoting a popular song.
To which she asked me as I walked past her at lunch time, “Kyi May, Kyi May, do you think I said that because I am white?”
!!! ???
What planet do these people live on? Junta la la land no doubt.
But when I first met her in perhaps 1994 in DeKalb, IL, where the Burma Studies Center is based, she did tell me something useful and probably true. She said she had been sitting outside one of the big 10th century temples of Bagan (formerly spelled “Pagan”) when soldiers came in trucks, closed off the periphery and then came out about half an hour later with big images wrapped in gunny sacks and drove away.
*
I consider Callahan a friend and lackey of the Burmese military junta, and an apologist for the military regime. Of these there are several, and my intention is to name them all.
The key word and giveaway, is her constant use of the words “tatmadaw” “mother of all forces,” and “Myanmar” the preferred terms the junta uses in referring to itself and the country it has controlled goke see hta te, since 1962.
Contrary to what the blurb says, it is not necessary to know “how the junta came to power.”
I know very well how the junta came to power.
The evening of March 1, 1962, my mother was a judge with Kitty, Mrs. Ne Win at a beauty pageant downtown, where 2 of my classmates competed.
Ne Win was then head of the Burmese Army and had already staged a trial coup, like a trainer bike or a trainer bra, I always say.
He staged the coup easily because he was already head of the army, so he just sent tanks to the BBS or Burma Broadcasting Station, and sent soldiers to arrest all the cabinet members, and then just announced over the radio that they had taken over power. My sister’s classmate the son of the Nyaungshwe Sawbwa, Myee Myee Thaike, then aged 13, was killed during the coup because he took a ceremonial sword off the wall and aimed it at the soldiers when they raided the house on Goodliffe Road. Myee Myee’s eldest brother, the late Dr. Chao Tzang Yawngwe or Eugene Thaike, wrote a memoir in which he describes rolling off his bed when the soldiers started shooting and crawling through the house, how they hid behind volumes of the Tripitaka which had just been delivered by the publisher, how he came on the body of his brother on the lawn.
And Myee was only the first of thousands more to be killed, expelled, tortured and or arrested by the junta.
*
Post 1962, Ne Win proceeded to justify himself and his cronies. He re-imported a confirmed communist to write him a Burmese Way to Socialism, and an academic from Yale to draft him a “constitution.”
There is nothing admirable in any of that.
Then he proceeded to arrest people, destroy the economy, expel those with foreigners’ registration, take over the private sector and institute “socialist” and extreme nationalist, i.e. racist policies and play political games, internally purging in time all his rivals or cohorts within the Revolutionary Council itself.
There is nothing to admire nor wonder at in the so-called tatmadaw’s “extreme durability.”
It hung onto power by shooting people, that’s all.
It has staged several brutal clampdowns and genocides, and one, the genocide against the Rohingya Muslims, is still continuing.
Don’t buy this disgusting book by a spineless so-called academic.
Buy Chao Tzang Yawngwe’s book.
Kyi May Kaung (Ph.D.)
8-25-2017
Wednesday, August 23, 2017
donald trump wrap up to date from Washington Post comments column
Theodore S. Widlanski
8:29 AM EST
I consider myself a political moderate, perhaps slightly right of center. I believe that moderation is a good guiding principle.
But sometimes there is only one correct path. Sometimes, one side is manifestly wrong. There can be no moderation in the condemnation and opposition to donald trump.
donald trump is destroying our civil society.
donald trump is tearing down social and ethical norms.
donald trump is endangering our country.
By denying climate change, donald trump is mortgaging our future.
By denying racism, donald trump is selling out our moral obligations.
There can be no moderation in opposing donald trump
LikeReplyShare
16
8-23-2017 commenting of trump's hate rally in Phoenix, AZ
Tuesday, August 22, 2017
Monday, August 21, 2017
Bonnie Tyler, Total eclipse of the heart
https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-mozilla-001&hsimp=yhs-001&hspart=mozilla&p=Bonnie+Tyler+total+eclipse+of+the+heart+youtube#id=1&vid=9e3b70b3d5b8dd0e39d81d90dfe59549&action=click
I remember the 1980s hairdo flipped backwards at the sides, but I had no idea her name was Bonnie Tyler,nor what she looked like, it was just a song I heard on the little radio my friend left for me, because at Graduate Towers I had no TV until another friend gave me a B and W used one, which I watched for the next 10 years.
I had no time for TV anyway.
The doctoral program at Penn was pretty intensive.
Wow.
"Total eclipse of the heart," that's all I remember.
kmk
8-21-2017
Solar eclipse has started written at 2.21 PM, 8-21-2017
I am not stepping out, but I can tell from the light,
it is not the same as the sun going behind clouds when it rains.
I just took some shots out the window to show the strange light, which oddly I remember from my time in Rangoon, Burma in 1950s when we watched it on a bowl of water in the school garden.
Amazing that I remember the odd light.
km
Kyi May Kaung
Words Sounds and Images
Game of Thrones, Jon Snow is not dead, moreover--
Game Of Thrones Just Dropped The Most Significant Jon Snow Revelation Yet http://on.mtv.com/2uCDq8K via @MTVNews
Saturday, August 19, 2017
Quote of the day #2--Demetriius, a slave comes on hill of Golgotha by accident, from The Robe, by Lloyd C. Douglas
Forcing his unwilling feet, he advanced slowly to within less than a stadium of the gruesome scene. There he came to a stop. The two unidentified men were writhing on their crosses. The lonely man on the central cross was still as a statue. His head hung forward. Perhaps he was dead, or at least unconscious. Demetrius hoped so.
For a long time he stood there, contemplating this tragic sight. The hot anger that had almost suffocated him was measurably cooled now. The lonely man had thrown his life away. There was nothing to show for his audacious courage. The Temple would continue to cheat the country people who came in to offer a lamb. Herod would continue to bully and whip the poor if they inconvenienced the rich. Caiaphas would continue to condemn the blasphemies of men who didn't want the gods fetched to market. Pilate would deal out injustice—and wash his dirty hands in a silver bowl. This lonely man had paid a high price for his brief and fruitless war on wickedness. But—he had spoken: he had acted. By to-morrow, nobody would remember that he had risked everything—and lost his life—in the cause of honesty. But perhaps a man was better off dead than in a world where such an event as this could happen. Demetrius felt very lonely too.
There was not so large a crowd as he had expected to see. There was no disorder, probably because the legionaries were scattered about among the people. It was apparent, from the negligence of the soldiers' posture, as they stood leaning on their lances, that no rioting had occurred or was anticipated.
Demetrius moved closer in and joined the outer rim of spectators. Not many of the well-to-do, who had been conspicuous at the Insula, were present. Most of the civilians were poorly dressed. Many of them were weeping. There were several women, heavily veiled and huddled in little groups,
Quote of the day from Absalom Absalom by William Faulkner-- marriage + divorce
Mr Coldfield into allowing Ellen to wear powder on her face for the occasion. The powder was to hide the marks of tears. But before the wedding was over the powder was streaked again, caked and channelled. Ellen seems to have entered the church that night out of weeping as though out of rain, gone through the ceremony and then walked back out of the church and into the weeping again, the tears again, the same tears even, the same rain. She got into the carriage and departed in it (the rain) for Sutpen’s Hundred.
“It was the wedding which caused the tears: not marrying Sutpen. Whatever tears there were for that, granted there were tears, came later. It was not intended to be a big wedding. That is, Mr Coldfield seems not to have intended it to be. Of the two men (I dont speak of Ellen, of course: in fact, you will notice that most divorces occur with women who were married by tobacco-chewing j.p.’s in country courthouses or by ministers waked after midnight, with their suspenders showing beneath their coattails and no collar on and a wife or spinster sister in curl papers for witness. So is it too much to believe that these women come to long for divorce from a sense not of incompleteness but of actual frustration and betrayal? that regardless of the breathing evidence of children and all else, they still have in their minds even yet the image of themselves walking to music and turning heads, in all the symbolical trappings and circumstances of ceremonial surrender of that which they no longer possess? and why not, since to them the actual and authentic surrender can only be (and have been) a ceremony like the breaking of a banknote to buy a ticket for the train)—of the two men, it was Sutpen who desired (or hoped: I have this from something your grandfather let drop one day and which he doubtless had from Sutpen himself in the same accidental fashion, since Sutpen never even told Ellen that he wanted it, which—the fact that at the last minute he refused to support her in her desire and insistence upon it—accounts partly for the tears) the big wedding, the full church and all the ritual.
Friday, August 18, 2017
Thursday, August 17, 2017
Charlottesville car terrorist victim, Heather Heyer's mother--" I know this is a flash in the pan"
Heather Heyer's mother speaks at length to @MSNBC
highly recommended I thought TV presenter very gentle sympathetic
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/watch/charlottesville-victim-heather-heyer-s-mother-susan-bro-full-interview-1027074627967
says WH called her -- but she knows "this is a flash in the pan"
"right now everyone and their brother wants to talk to me."
Relates racist incidents recently in her community.
8-17-2017
Wednesday, August 16, 2017
Madame Butterfly in Melbourne
https://opera.org.au/whatson/events/madama-butterfly-sydney?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Reef%20New%20-%20Priority%201%20Campaign%20Top%2010%20Countries&utm_term=%2Bmadama%20%2Bbutterfly&utm_content=Madama%20Butterfly%202017#media-id=162220215
Go if you can, at least try and catch it somewhere.
I did some research a few months ago, and Puccini based it on a story, based on 2 interracial couples.
One was a woman married to the rep of the famous trading co, Jardine Matthiessen.
That marriage was a happy one. But Puccini and his lyricist added the sad ending.
The son was ostracized due to his mixed race background and died in the Nagasaki bombing.
I have been thinking abt that for awhile, but have not started work on it yet.
As for the opera, it is perfect in every way, and it is sung over and over and over for a good reason.
If you read the libretto, which is available online, you will see that the story, dialogue, and characterizations are perfect also, especially the maid and the marriage broker, and the general who proposes to Butterfly, and is rejected.
Especially when she says she has "an American marriage" and she can't be divorced so easily.
I thought the sets, the music, the singing, everything was just perfect in the Kennedy Center production that I saw.
I also enjoyed the fiber glass heads by the set designer.
kmkaung
8-16-2017
Hall of Nations Kennedy Center DC.JPG
Kyi May Kaung
Words Sounds and Images
Burmese Rohingya activist Wai Wai Nu
http://www.thedailybeast.com/burmas-rohingya-princess-has-met-obama-why-not-aung-san-suu-kyi
I met her when I was on Facebook, and tried to meet up with her when she was in DC,
but she called me and said she could not make it.
It turned out she had had a panic attack, and it has happened to me also.
She said she "could not breathe."
I asked her to seek medical attention through her hosts or call 911.
kmk
8-16-2017
My favorite street clothes, cosmopolitan blog.
http://www.thesartorialist.com/page/2/
Everyone is very spiffily dressed or undressed.
8-16-2017
Yesterday my blog posts hit all time high of 1661
I don't think any of them were bots, as none from Russia, which happened once about 2 years ago.
These are juts my usual geographic distribution of readers.
8-16-2017
I must hope that lawsuits like one below will bankrupt the alt R, a k a KKK hatemongers white supremacists.
For what I am referring too, watch Rachel Maddow on MSNC talking about Ukiah robbery in N California on Route 101 earlier this week.
According to Rachel's research, and BTWm she has a Ph.D. from Oxford,
the robbery of the Blink truck netted abt 3 m for the robbers, who used the cash to finance hate activities.
They beat up a Native American woman and her child who were just passing by and were ordered to pay millions, which bankrupted them and for a while they had to go underground.
If I remember right, this happened in 1945.
So if something bad happens to you, talk to PRESS, take legal action.
Criminality should not be rewarded.
kmk
8-16-2017
Quote of the day from Daily 202, copied and pasted for info reasons.
Tadrint and Micah Washington have filed a lawsuit against organizers of the “Unite the Right” rally. (Arelis R. Hernandez/The Washington Post)
THE FALLOUT IN CHARLOTTESVILLE:
-- Two women injured during the chaos surrounding the rally in Charlottesville have filed a $3 million lawsuit against individuals they say were the organizers and name more than two-dozen right-wing and neo-Nazi groups, accusing them of inciting violence. From Arelis R. Hernández: “Sisters Tadrint and Micah Washington were headed home in their car Aug. 12 when they turned down an open Charlottesville side street where counterprotesters were marching. Within minutes, a Dodge Challenger slammed into the crowd and rammed into the rear of their car, causing a chain-reaction crash that killed one and injured 19 others. ... The Washington sisters were not participating in the protests and had been visiting a friend when they got caught in a maze of detours. Lawyers for the Washingtons — Tadrint, 27, who recently finished EMT training, and Micah, 20, who works in the hospitality industry — say at the point their car was hit, they had nowhere to move as bodies flipped over them and onto their vehicle’s windshield. Their car was splattered with blood, and emergency personnel tried to revive Heyer, a 32-year-old counterprotester from Charlottesville, a few inches away.”
-- The helicopter involved in the crash that killed two Virginia State Police officers this weekend as they surveilled the white supremacist rally had crashed once before in 2010, after it lost power during a training flight. It is unclear whether the incidents are related, but officials said the earlier crash will be considered as part of their broader investigation. (Lori Aratani)
-- The University of Virginia’s president defended the response to last weekend’s white nationalist marchers. Susan Svrluga reports: “U-Va. President Teresa Sullivan wrote to the campus community that law enforcement learned Friday afternoon that a protest was planned at the Rotunda, and officers were staged along the route that the white nationalist group said it would walk. But the group took another route and turned onto the Lawn, Sullivan wrote. She wrote that law enforcement stepped in within minutes of the violence and ordered people to disperse.”
-- A student newspaper editor who had originally argued that the city of Charlottesville should allow the alt-right to march admits in a new column, “I was wrong.” “It was naïve of me to not take their threats seriously,” incoming sophomore Brendan Novak added in an interview with The Post. “You could see it coming…it wasn’t hard to predict.” (Samantha Schmidt)
-- Vanity Fair’s Sarah Ellison writes on how Charlottesville became “ground zero for white supremacy”: “Charlottesville may always look pretty on the outside, but as someone who attended U.Va., and recently reported on the school, it’s actually a sadly predictable location for the biggest and bloodiest white supremacist rally the nation has seen in decades. Charlottesville is perhaps one of the most liberal towns in the South. It is also one of the whitest.”
-- Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) called on the Trump administration to form a task force on the threat posed by white supremacist groups and urged Jeff Sessions to go to Charlottesville and “personally handle domestic terrorism investigations.” (Charleston Post and Courier)
Tuesday, August 15, 2017
The Buddha did not preach hate, he respected all religions and he lived in a multicultural and diverse society
with many people following different religions in ancient India.
Let us pray and send Metta or Loving Kindness to all the victims of the car attack by a white supremacist in Charlettsville, VA on Saturday.
Trump said in his latest press conference that "the mother's statement" was very good, but he did not mention the victim Heather Heyer's name, nor has he visited with any of the families, and now he adds insult to injury by saying "both sides are to blame."
ALL the late night TV comedians spoke better than he did.
Obama's tweet earned 1m retweets.
And this baffoon comes along.
He has no shame.
8-15-2017
T. goes rogue at press confce in T. Tower lobby, Kelly is ashamed, looks down.
DT is lying, minister on the scene says there were no counter protestors with baseball bats. Police stood down.
http://www.msnbc.com/mtp-daily/watch/trump-again-blames-both-sides-for-charlottesville-violence-1025310787999
Monday, August 14, 2017
Sunday, August 13, 2017
Quote of the day--from Howard Fast's Spartacus, from Gutenberg Project site--
He whispers the empty philosophy of his kind and his profession, "Dum
vivimus, vivamus."
But it is empty and without solace, and his bones and muscles ache as he
stands up to begin his day and force his body and mind to the task of killing
Spartacus — whom he loves and values above all other white men in the place.
Yet isn't it said, "Gladiator — make no friends of gladiators."
IV
They went to the baths first, the four of them walking together in silence. It was
no use to talk, because there was nothing for them to talk about now, and
since they would be together from now until they entered the arena, talking
would only worsen the situation.
Already, the baths were steaming hot, and they plunged into the murky
water quickly, as if everything had to be gotten through without thought or
consideration. The bath house was quite dark, forty feet long and twenty feet
deep, and lit, once the doors were closed, only by a small mica skylight. Under
this pale light, the water of the bath was dull gray, overlaid by the hot mist
rising from it, steaming from the red-hot stones which had been dropped into
it, filling the whole bath house with the heavy texture of vapor-saturated air. It
penetrated every pore of Spartacus 's body, relaxed his tense muscles, and gave
him a strange, divorced feeling of ease and comfort. The hot water was a never-
ending wonder to him, and never did the dry death of Nubia wash entirely from
him; and never could he enter the bath house without reflecting on the care
given to the bodies of those who were bred for death and trained to produce
only death. When he had produced the things of life, wheat and barley and
gold, his body was a dirty, useless thing, a thing of shame and filth, to be
beaten and kicked and whipped and starved — but now that he had become a
creature of death, his body was as precious as the yellow metal he had mined
in Africa.
And strangely enough, it was only now that hatred had come to flower in
him. There was no room for hatred before; hatred is a luxury that needs food
and strength and even time for a certain kind of reflection. He had those things
now, and he had Lentulus Batiatus as the living object of his hatred. Batiatus
was Rome and Rome was Batiatus. He hated Rome and he hated Batiatus; and
he hated all things Roman. He had been born and bred to accept the tilling of
the fields, the herding of cattle and the mining of metal; but only in Rome had
he come to see the breeding and training of men so that they could cut each
other to pieces and bleed on the sand to the laughter and excitement of well
bred men and women.
Saturday, August 12, 2017
What happened to polite terms of discourse--Omarosa trainwreck--and she's WH communications director????
http://www.businessinsider.com/omarosa-nabj-convention-panel-2017-8
Another typical Trump employee.
Like boss, like follower, and on our tax $$ too.
8-12-2017
Friday, August 11, 2017
Quote of the day, from Amerika--wikipedia article
Amerika is an American television miniseries that was broadcast in 1987 on ABC. The miniseries inspired a novelization entitled Amerika: The Triumph of the American Spirit. Amerika starred Kris Kristofferson, Mariel Hemingway, Sam Neill, Robert Urich, and a 17-year-old Lara Flynn Boyle in her first major role. Amerika was about life in the United States after a bloodless takeover engineered by the Soviet Union. Not wanting to depict the actual takeover, ABC Entertainment president Brandon Stoddard set the miniseries ten years after the event, focusing on the demoralized U.S. people a decade after the Soviet conquest. The intent, he later explained, was to explore the U.S. spirit under such conditions, not to portray the conflict of the Soviet coup.
Thursday, August 10, 2017
In my book, John Lennon always has the last word--Imagine--
https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-mozilla-001&hsimp=yhs-001&hspart=mozilla&p=Imagin--John+Lennon+youtube#id=1&vid=20ead6977c56144a6e1c88752172e60f&action=click
Especially cogent today, the anniversary of the Nagasaki bombing, when one fat ignorant man shouts at another.
Be political, RESIST, or we will all be starving to build up a military like N Korea.
kmk
8-9-2017
Special post, funeral service of Luciano Pavarotti, in Modena, Italy, 2007
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AgIukqmtiI
I understand why an opera singer I interviewed in a cafe once said, he much preferred to live in Italy.
"If you are plump like me, you'd better sing like an angel." Pavarotti.
I noticed this in a performance I went to in Central Park in about 1987, when P. was so far away he looked like a dot, but the speakers were good.
And opera audiences are the most appreciative in the world, the way they go AHH.
In the service, Raina Kaibavanska, Andrea Bocelli, and Pavarotti singing Nessun Dorma, None shall sleep, from Turandot.
Be well
km
Kyi May Kaung
Words Sounds and Images
Wednesday, August 09, 2017
AS Trump media, Sinclair takes over local news stations, fake story abt McCain "starting fire"
http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2017/aug/07/blog-posting/posts-blame-john-mccain-deadly-1967-fire-aboard-us/
8-9-2017
All made up, flagged by FB users
Note Trumpian language.
8-9-2017
Tuesday, August 08, 2017
Wichita Opera, Puccini's Tosca--complete opera.
https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-mozilla-001&hsimp=yhs-001&hspart=mozilla&p=Tosca+youtube#id=15&vid=77cda022b4a7ecdfaac4b08e5add6b4d&action=view
Somehow I like this Wichita Opera production better than the one in Rome.
The acting is better and more natural, and the singing is also of a very high quality.
K.M.Kaung
8-8-2017
Monday, August 07, 2017
Sunday, August 06, 2017
CNN grammar mistakes, Putin on vacation
Kyi Kaung @KyiKaung 34m34 minutes ago
CNN grammar mistakes--see below
"on" not "in" his vacation
"drives" a boat not "guides"
If he's guiding, who's following?
0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
Kyi Kaung @KyiKaung 36m36 minutes ago
Putin boats, sunbathes picks mushrooms in his vacatn @CNNPolitics http://cnn.it/2wuGOiv
hmm, why doesn't DJT do a bare chested with M.
While Trump is on vacation at Bedford Golf estate, White House will be renovated--
heating and cooling system (and steps)
"because predecessor Obama was hot and cool at the same time" says Colbert.
Thank God for the sharp comedians and thank god this is nor N Korea nor Burma, yet.
!!!!!
8-6-2017
Saturday, August 05, 2017
McMaster on N. Korea and Russia
Kyi Kaung @KyiKaung 6m6 minutes ago
0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
Kyi Kaung @KyiKaung 6m6 minutes ago
McMaster is a lot more coherent that Trump. Why doesn't he just stage a coup. On other hand, is Korea angle another distractn. Who knows
0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc-news/watch/mcmaster-hot-spots-north-korea-1018103875672
Friday, August 04, 2017
Robert Reich's video on impeaching Trump
https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-mozilla-001&hsimp=yhs-001&hspart=mozilla&p=Robert+Reich%2C+impeachmenr+video#id=1&vid=7fca4963850ac73c326fb0ec83886695&action=click
Well, today I am eating 2 white peaches which are ripe and have wrinkled skins.
In the past, they were considered freaks and thrown away, but now there is a market for them.
8-4-2017
Federal Appeals Court throws out Blackwater murder conviction.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/murder-conviction-in-blackwater-case-thrown-out-other-sentences-overturned/2017/08/04/a14f275c-792e-11e7-9eac-d56bd5568db8_story.html?utm_term=.13adc3b99718
No guilt by association, but Trump cabinet member Betsy DeVos (education) is sister of Blackwater founder.
Besides, she's done enough bad on her own with ref. to Education.
8-4-2017
Thursday, August 03, 2017
Too good not to post in more detail than I usually do. Washington Post has obtained transcripts of DJT phone calls with Mexican Presdt and Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull. Here is last part of MT interchange. Turnbull was pushing for T, to accept people whom Obama admin had already agreed to. You can see, T not dumb, but overly conscious of his own image, not to do what is right as an elected govt leader.
Turnbull
Please, if we can agree to stick to the deal, you have complete discretion in terms of a security assessment. The numbers are not 2,000 but 1,250 to start. Basically, we are taking people from the previous administration that they were very keen on getting out of the United States. We will take more. We will take anyone that you want us to take. The only people that we do not take are people who come by boat. So we would rather take a not very attractive guy that help you out then to take a Noble [sic] Peace Prize winner that comes by boat. That is the point. (typos are from original transcript, Wapo says)
Trump
What is the thing with boats? Why do you discriminate against boats? No, I know, they come from certain regions. I get it.
Turnbull
No, let me explain why. The problem with the boats it that you are basically outsourcing your immigration program to people smugglers and also you get thousands of people drowning at sea. So what we say is, we will decide which people get to come to Australia who are refugees, economic migrants, businessmen, whatever. We decide. That is our decision. We are a generous multicultural immigration nation like the United States but the government decides, the people’s representatives decides. So that is the point. I am a highly transactional businessman like you and I know the deal has to work for both sides. Now Obama thought this deal worked for him and he drove a hard bargain with us – that it was agreed with Obama more than a year ago in the Oval Office, long before the election. The principles of the deal were agreed to.
Trump has to agree to what was decided before he came into office. That’s a number 1 principle of international and domestic relations. If we can’t trust an elected govt, whom can we trust. my comment, kmk
Trump
I do not know what he got out of it. We never get anything out of it – START Treaty, the Iran deal. I do not know where they find these people to make these stupid deals. I am going to get killed on this thing. Always worries about himself, nothing else. Very Nxonian, even sounds the same.
kmk
Turnbull
You will not.
Trump
Yes, I will be seen as a weak and ineffective leader in my first week by these people. This is a killer. Trump’s a whiner, and he is weak, and ignorant to boot.
kmk
Turnbull
You can certainly say that it was not a deal that you would have done, but you are going to stick with it.
Trump
I have no choice to say that about it. Malcom [sic], I am going to say that I have no choice but to honor my predecessor’s deal. I think it is a horrible deal, a disgusting deal that I would have never made. It is an embarrassment to the United States of America and you can say it just the way I said it. I will say it just that way. As far as I am concerned that is enough Malcom [sic]. I have had it. I have been making these calls all day and this is the most unpleasant call all day. Putin was a pleasant call. This is ridiculous.
Turnbull
Do you want to talk about Syria and DPRK? :)kmk
Trump
[inaudible] this is crazy.
Turnbull
Thank you for your commitment. It is very important to us.
Trump
It is important to you and it is embarrassing to me. It is an embarrassment to me, but at least I got you off the hook. So you put me back on the hook.
Turnbull
You can count on me. I will be there again and again.
Trump
I hope so. Okay, thank you Malcolm.
Turnbull
Okay, thank you.
End of call
Photos from Internet.
Wichita Grand Opera, special post, La Boheme, 2008 (complete opera)
ttps://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-mozilla-001&hsimp=yhs-001&hspart=mozilla&p=La+Boheme+complete+opera+yhoutube#id=2&vid=b0b78427dcdbd70bf4fb133bd1c44950&action=click
Think about it.
La Boheme, produced in Wichita, Kansas.
Produced so many times, each time different, and each time perfect.
Probably due to the perfection of the story and the writing.
This says something for the current fashion in some quarters for endless "process".
It's always very annoying for me, and speaks to me of insecurity and not trusting one's own artistic judgement.
Some of my groupies in writing groups have accused me of "wanting to be like Mozart" (getting it right in one shot.)
As if there's something wrong with Mozart.
There's never anything "wrong" with any of the greats, but it just shows that sometimes people are "not ready for Mozart" or "not ready for van Gogh,"
and it is the way of the world to make fun of what they do not understand.
"Too many notes."
For my part, I am so glad I understand.
I would rather I understand great works of art than be understood myself.
One cannot please everyone, so as an artist, everyone must please himself or herself first.
And I also hate:
"What audience are you thinking of?"
"Where do you plan to publish this?"
"The Ugly American won't go across well." (This from a woman whose father was in the OSS, by her own admission. The OSS or Office of Strategic Services was the precursor of the CIA.)
And so on and so forth.
But I have had a good day, and it has ended on a beautiful note. I am in my 70s now, and I have never done anything to hurt anyone. All my wars and battles have been defensive ones.
K M Kaung (Ph.D.)
8-3-2017
My painting based on an aria in Mozart's Cosi fan Tuti.
Wednesday, August 02, 2017
Special post--acrylic pours and results
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eI7m6w5vI5k
use swipe tool
clean tool with each swipe.
Use pour medium Uza
or fill each cup ¾ paint and rest with water.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dcrHFiLaXg
using Floetral silicon medium
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ay50Qk0VbVg
mixing in a cup, them emptying it all out and tipping
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkSXvivhYX0
without silicon
Using Flood Floetrol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kkhlGdAspA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9rs8fouUz8
with pearl iridescent without silicon or blow torching
using dish soap
(Cascade)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiH2w4DR8Ew
experiment with smallest size canvas possible.
Olive oil
Not so successful
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WX0881b6nE
Well, that’s all for today.
Have an assigned painting area, use gloves, do not use same items for cooking or eating.
8-2-2017
silk painting--process--why artists don't like to give artwork away free
look at her equipment and the size of her studio, which is the size of a rather big modern kitchen
kmk
Kyi May Kaung
Words Sounds and Images
Tuesday, August 01, 2017
Scaramucci escorted out of WH
CNN veteran journalst April Ryan says her source says Scaramucci escortd out of WH no one escrtd out if things calm
https://news.google.com/news/video/WPrI0ATmZug/dYZzCDhJeUHjhNMYcs8A4NJyNsW2M?hl=en&ned=us
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