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Doug Terry

 

FORMER COLLEAGUE SLAMS BILL O’REILLY

WalMart Minimum Wage Raised

LESLEY GORE DIES

BOB SIMON OF CBS NEWS

BRIAN WILLIAMS’ PROBLEMS

TRAVELING TO CUBA NOW

RECENT POSTS: late ‘14, early ‘15

LATE 2014 posts

The Next President: who has a chance?

Obama Not in France

Police Strike

Wash. Monument

Greg Mort, Painter

Car Hype?

Obama’s Statement

Ben’s Chili Bowl

Cuba Vacation

Cuban Exiles: No

TSA Changes

Street Protests

Rolling Stone Mess

Prosperity Now

Campus Rapes

1 World Trade Center

Who Caused Riots?

Ferguson Updates

Ferguson Live Vid

MARION BARRY DIES

Marion Barry Gone

GOP Plays Nice?

(Some) 2014 posts

SCHOOL SHOOTINGS

DEMOCRATS LOSE

ROCKET EXPLOSION

EBOLA PAGES

GONZALO CAM

Ebola Breaking Pt.

Ebola Panic!

Blood Moon

Kirk Counsins Rises

Personal Data: No!

White House Security

REDKINS NAME

Petty Fines in Ferguson, Mo

Police Stealing

Rick Perry Prays

Book Festival

SPEED CAMERAS

NATIVE AMERICANS?

PHILLY RIOTS

Hamas/Israel

Arrest Ferguson

Police Armies

Police Threat

Mistaken Police

Ferguson, Mo.

Ferguson2

LOWER WAGES

REAL ISSUE IN Missouri

Perry’s Mouth

Robin Williams

Tony Stewart

Israel/Gaza

People in Deep Debt

Ft. Hood Security

Paintball Gun

Ukraine Crash

Robert Teich/wealth

Supermoon 2013

Student Loans

Perry’s Joke

Personal Freedom

Challenge to Democracy

Murrieta Demonstrations

NASA/Arthur

WHY POOR?

CITIZEN’S WEALTH FUND

REAL AMERICA?

NTSB REPORT

Interstate Driving

OBAMA/Iraq

NO AIR TRAVEL

Iraq Plans

Obama’s Fault?

SICKNESS and poverty

LICENSE PLATE READERS

                                     News, commentary, opinion on politics, government, books, social trends, American life, travel, cycling, books, other stuff

                                           News, commentary, opinion on politics, government, books, social trends, American life, travel, cycling, books, other stuff

On this page are topics that The TerryReport has addressed in recent months, looking back from June 1, 2014. Not everything is out of date, as one can tell from the very first posting. These topics are listed to give an idea of what The TerryReport has been up to and to make available the full record of posts. The TerryReport looks for openings in news coverage, attempting to bring out points and issues often overlooked and, when possible, to bring some explanation to events in this country and around the world. A modest goal to be sure (?), but one we have been pursuing for more than 15 years. The traditional news media has the attention span of a well informed gnat, jumping from topic to topic, caring deeply about some big issue, which then disappears and is never heard from again. Who wouldn’t want to be the “un-media”?

Alessandra Stanley, interviewed by the “Times Insider” web offering on her job as television critic for the Times:

“...the proliferation of great shows that everybody wants to talk about has made my job more respectable. Some people used to say they felt sorry for me for having to watch “television”, pronouncing it in a hushed tone, as if it were leprosy. Now, even the snobbier members of the New York intelligentsia tell me how lucky I am. (Now it’s the movie critics who inspire pity.)

Steven Colbert is taking over Letterman’s gig on CBS late night in what is being hailed as a generational change in American television. Be careful what you celebrate: sooner or later, the toll will ring for you and your generation.

From The New Yorker magazine:

JOY BEHAR IS RIGHT: CHRIS CHRISTIE IS “TOAST”

POSTED BY 

chris-christie-state-of-the-state-580.jpeg

Whatever else you do this week, carve out half an hour to read my colleague Ryan Lizza’s piece about Chris Christie and New Jersey politics. It’s Robert Penn Warren meets Carl Hiaasen on the west bank of the Hudson. By the time you get to the end of it, I bet you’ll find yourself asking the same question I did: How could we ever have taken this bully seriously as a Presidential candidate?

TerryReport note: the article mentioned above is a bit detailed and rather long for anyone not deeply interested in New Jersey politics and Gov. Christie, but John Cassidy’s blog posting is much shorter and to the point. From The New Yorker magazine:

FOCUS ON “SECURITY MEASURES” AFTER ANOTHER FT. HOOD MASS SHOOTING MISSES THE POINT

YOUR CELL PHONE BILL IS KILLING YOU. UNLESS YOU MAKE OVER 100k PER YEAR, HAVING A CONTRACT PHONE MAKES LITTLE OR NO SENSE.

Photo of the day by Doug Terry Copyright, 2014

Here is the headline from the NY Times on the Supreme Court ruling on campaign contribution limitations:

Court Rejects Donation Cap in U.S. Races

5-4 Ruling Expected to Increase the Role of Money in Politics

Is this “game over” for ordinary citizens without millions to spend? It would be easy to draw that conclusion. If the rich can give unlimited amounts in House and Senate contests, some people will surely do it. Would you like to buy a U.S. Senator? Well, the Supreme Court just declared an open sale. “Increase the role of money in politics”? How is it possible to get any worse than where we are now? A new way has been found.

In practical terms, what this ruling means is that people who make less than 200,000 dollars a year, which is most, are going to have to step up their game in a major way. Citizens are going to have to organize like never before and contribute real money to campaigns, otherwise the wealthy and the mega-rich are going to dominate our political process the way WalMart dominates the sale of cheap goods when they move into a modest size town. The choice is going to be to a

In the NY Times:Dissenting from the bench, Justice Stephen G. Breyer called the decision a blow to the First Amendment and American democracy. “If the court in Citizens United opened a door, today’s decision may well open a floodgate.”

llow the wealthy to own every last member of Congress or to step up and do something to counter the influence of big money on big politics. One might wish to believe that the Court’s decision in this matter was based purely on legal and Constitutional issues, but, once again, the “conservative” members have come out in favor of freedom, freedom for the wealthy to do whatever they  want.

On a narrow legal basis, the decision might be a correct one (I don’t know). On a larger basis of the health of democracy, the Court just struck a mighty blow to continue undermining it and turning the keys over to the mega-rich.

Doug Terry, 4.2.14

Albert Einstein“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”

 Albert Einstein

Read more quotes from Albert Einstein 

Go to an essay “My college”

It turns out that having the right to a gun, as decided by the Supreme Court a few years ago, is not nearly enough for those in love with guns. No, they want the right to have guns everywhere, colleges, school, restaurants/bars, even churches, and if they can’t, well that’s just another sign that you are against the Constitution, fairness, decency, mom, apple pie and the American way. So, because the gun lobby, represented by the NRA, always needs a new fight to keep people upset, they’ve been going around the country getting state legislatures to pass bills that expand where you can carry a gun and what you can do with it (stand your ground). Is there a right not to be worried that your child might be shot by a gun going off unintentionally in a restaurant? No! Not to those who see guns as a solution to everything that is wrong in America. Some disagree.

People in Tennessee are running a campaign for “gun free dining”. Who ever imagined that would be an issue in a peaceful society? http://www.gunfreediningtennessee.org/

The NY Times has an article about how bar and restaurant owners are being harassed by telling people not to bring guns into their establishments.

HAS CNN GONE NUTS WITH FLIGHT 370, MORNING, NOON AND NIGHT?

Watched a bit of CNN in some idle moments today. Two of their panel of “experts” did something wonderful: both said, “I don’t know” to sum up their answers to the anchor’s questions. What a revelation! Guess what, none of us knows all that much about MH370, but CNN is devoting its entire schedule to it. This is bringing new definition to the idea of monomaniacal madness. No matter if there is nothing new, no matter if there is nothing to discuss, CNN has to discuss it around the clock. This seems like some guy you meet at a party or in a bar who wants to tell you his favorite theory about how the world works and he won’t shut-up, stop, slowdown or listen to anyone else. Plus, his theory is wrong anyway. Who is in charge of this disaster?

Headline from the NY Times:

The White House, and Obama, are winning many battles over “Obamacare”, but losing the war

 

Chefs Find Political Waters Anything but Tepid

ABC News Hires Ray Kelly, Former New York City Police Commissioner

This is a huge, unfortunate decision. Oh, what, Kelly is going to decide that “stop and frisk” wasn’t such a good idea? Are all ex-government officials who can do “good television” and happen to be available going to get a chance to defend their decisions and provide prejudicial information about future events by being “news consultants”? The networks seem to be impressed with themselves that they can hire “authoritative” sources to help explain the news, but all these kinds of people can do is continue to defend the actions of police and government “authorities”. Putting them on the air is giving them a PAID position they can use to propagandize for what they have believed all their working lives: the police are always right. Tune to ABC News and get the official story.

These kinds of hires downgrade what reporters are supposed to do: collect information and then assemble it for readers and viewers into the best available version of the truth. Hiring big names distorts that process, it puts one source, the hired one, ahead of everything else. Reporters might as well quit. A reporter runs around all day gathering information, then the source comes on the air and says everything he or she has reported isn’t quite right. The big name source winds up with more air time and gets to give opinions as if they were fact while the reporter can’t do likewise.

News is supposed to stand apart from government, and the positions its officials take, to provide honest information to citizens. One person, Raymond Kelly, is going to have a national platform to distort events that relate to himself, his old job and police enforcement actions in general. This guy, whatever his accomplishments and credentials, was in charge of one of most questionable tactics used in current day police work, stop and frisk, which many consider unconstitutional harassment. One can be certain that ABC News is not going to hire a civil liberties advocate or lawyer to counter what Kelly has to say on the air.

A 50 year old Volkswagen Beetle lurches along the streets of Merida, Mexico. Naturally, it is mother-in-law in the front, wife in the back. All of the seats are uncomfortable, so why does it even matter? Probably hard for the mom-in-law to climb in the back.

America’s southern states, the least progressive of all of the states save, perhaps, the hard rock conservativism of the upper far western states (before the coastal states), have an outsize power over the course of the nation. Is this right? Should 37 percent of the population be able to stop what the rest of the country needs or wants? The TerryReport is republishing a commentary first published elsewhere on this subject.

YET ANOTHER LAW ENFORCEMENT OVERSTEP IN WASHINGTON STATE RESCUE EFFORTS

Time and time again, the “official” first responders, police and fire departments, try to prevent capable volunteers from helping in search, rescue and recovery. They seem to want any credit for themselves. This happened in New Orleans in 2005 as hundreds of men with boats were turned away from rescuing people trapped by flooding while the news media went in without restriction. The loggers in Washington state made the police step aside by the force of their presence and their ability to get the job done. Details here

Book store, Merida, Mexico. CLICK for more

Is there value to be obtained by not going to college? Does anyone think Bob Dylan’s song poetry would be better if only he had stuck around at the University of Minnesota instead of heading out to New York at the age of 19? Just think about great Bill Gates could have been had he stayed at Harvard?

Almost no one debates the value of college these days. It has become a requirement and a graduate degree is increasingly looked on as the minimum in some fields. Yet, what can colleges teach in non-technical fields? They can only teach what was, not what will be. Further, when something becomes a requirement, as opposed to a deep desire, people tend to invest less and less in it. How many people leave college vowing never to read another serious work again, unless they must for their work? How many people abandon serious literature forever in favor of junk fiction sold at supermarkets and airports?

The late ABC News anchor Peter Jennings, who said he dropped out of high school to chase girls (he succeeded, enormously), also said that he pursued a lifetime of learning trying to make up for his lack of formal education. Colleagues in the news business said he always carried a stack of books with him wherever he traveled around the world.

Here is a clip from an article written by in the Telegraph newspaper of London upon the death of Gore Vidal in 2012:

“...almost uniquely among public intellectuals, Gore Vidal was an autodidact who didn’t go to university. One consequence of this seems to have been that his hunger for knowledge never diminished. If anything, it grew, along with his library there at Ravello (in Italy). So many people give up on education once they have graduated, feeling they have been there, done that. Not so Vidal.”

To be truly well used, college should be the start of a lifetime of learning, not the end.

Some thoughts on my own college experience here.

Albert Einstein“Imagination is more important than  knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”

 Albert Einstein

Read more quotes from Albert Einstein 

Go to an essay “My college”

Dan Snyder, the much criticized owner of the Washington Redskins football team, has been busy in the off season. He and his staff have visited 26 American Indian reservations discussing the name of the football team, which he does not want to change. Now, he has decided to create a foundation for the benefit of the original American population. His four page statement can be found in pdf form here.

“The more I heard, the more I’ve learned, and the more I saw, the more resolved I became about helping to address the challenges that plague the Native American community. In speaking face-to-face with Native American leaders and community members, it’s plain to see they need action, not words.”

NOTE: Everyone born in the U.S. is a “native American”. It is our tribes that are not native.

WILL ABC CHOOSE ANOTHER BRIT TO HEAD UP A MAJOR AMERICAN NEWS OPERATION?

New air service for the DC area, story in the WashPost

Trek to Dulles no more: Southwest adds new routes at Reagan National         Lori Aratani

Southwest Airlines will more than double its flights, with seven new nonstops beginning this summer.

CLICK on the headline above to go the Post for the full story, no sub required

IS A NATIONAL OLIGARCHY WHAT THE VERY RICH, LIKE THE KOCH BROTHERS, SEEK IN AMERICA?

“...the risk of a drift toward oligarchy is real and gives little reason for optimism.”

French economist Thomas Piketty as quoted by Paul Krugman in his NY Times column

ECHOES OF THE TERRYREPORT IN A COLUMN BY PAUL KRUGMAN IN THE NY TIMES? YOU BE THE JUDGE.

Many conservatives live inside an intellectual bubble of think tanks and captive media that is ultimately financed by a handful of megadonors. Not surprisingly, those inside the bubble tend to assume, instinctively, that what is good for oligarchs is good for America. (3.24.14)

The TerryReport:

“They identify their personal needs as being in the best interest of the people, therefore oligarchy is GOOD. Indeed, they cast themselves as heroes defending both their interests and those of the people.” (3.6.14)

Note: The TerryReport has written repeatedly about the “bubble effect” of America’s right wing taking its news from news outlets dominated by right wing views and the persistent slant of the news itself toward a rightward angle. Indeed, the tendency “never to hear a discouraging word” is a critical weakness that haunts the right because it does not allow for early, corrective action.This kind of closed system was a critical factor in the collapse of the Soviet Union. They only had “state media” and state media recycled the lies party officials told them. Eventually, the Soviet empire drowned in its own lies. Is it fair to ask if the center and left of American political life is subject to the same forces?

A huge, 750 million dollar resort and casino is being launched for the Catskills of New York. What the NY Times and some other NY media are not offering, however, is a map of the planned site on the same ground where the famed Concord Hotel once stood. You can see the full artist rendering of the plan for the development at this link.

Empire Resorts Unveils Plan for $750 Million Casino in Catskills

LINK TO THE NY TIMES ARTICLE (no sub required)

WHERE DOES AMERICA’S CULTURAL WAR OVER GUNS END?

More information about retirement in Mexico

RIPPLES OF LIGHT ON SMOOTH SURFACE, by Doug Terry (copyright, 2014)

The “first draft of history” is written by busy, distracted reporters who have no idea, no perspective, as to whether what they are writing is truly important and who lack major details of events, having mainly gotten the “official” version. The second and third drafts of history are written by fools. The fourth draft is written by people trying to understand a period they cannot fully grasp. The fifth draft? No one reads it.

Want to learn where you can rent a four BR beach house like this one for about $76 per night? CLICK HERE (this is not an ad nor a promotion)

Who is Doug Terry, editor of The TerryReport?

HOW “THE DALLAS BUYERS CLUB” GOT FINANCED AND MADE

When the massive fertilizer explosion hit the town of West, Texas, last year, Obama and “Washington” were denounced for not taking on the full costs of the recovery. This came from politicians who spend a major portion of their time saying they want to downsize the federal government and who, such as Perry, rejected the expansion of Medicaid  under the ACA. Meanwhile, South Carolina gladly accepts federal money when a disaster strikes. Can you have it both ways? Apparently, yes. Here is a republication on this issue of an article published in Charleston Currents recently. A TerryReport commentary is also on the page.

This photo, which was not taken during this “winterus horribilis” of 2014, nonetheless encapsulates the suffering, dismal aspect of this long, snowy winter in the east coast of the U.S. It was taken of my house, facing possible water damage from clogged rain spouts. We made it through that one and we are trying the same now.

In the Times:

Piers Morgan and CNN Plan End to His Prime-Time Show

TSA “PRE-CHECK” PROGRAM TURNING INTO A PRE-MESS. IS THIS ON PURPOSE?

HOW THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION FAILED ON THE LAUNCH OF “OBAMACARE”

In Time magazine (link ahead)

Obama's Trauma Team

How an unlikely group of high-tech wizards revived Obama's troubled HealthCare.gov website

By Steven Brill Monday, Mar. 10, 2014

 

The Time story deals with how the website was turned around, but the reasons for the failure in the first place are far more interesting.

It’s official, sports fans: we are being poisoned by the food industry of America, which is serving up a chemical used in rubber in bread and other things we eat all the time. Read the report here.

Wanna get a digital camera at an incredible price? 14 million or less? Olympus has an amazing, unintended sale going on.

MOB Mono Mano

IN THE WASHINGTON POST:

Life or limb?: PBS reporter has arm amputated after accident

Life or limb?: PBS reporter has <br arm amputated after accident" TITLE="Life or limb?: PBS reporter has
arm amputated after accident">
Paul Farhi

PBS’s Miles O’Brien didn’t think it was a big deal, but he developed acute compartment syndrome.

This event is a reminder to everyone that what might seem like a routine, minor accident can be a cause for serious concern.

READ THE ENTIRE BLOG POST BY O’BRIEN

Piers Morgan nearly sinks CNN, his show is headed for the exits, reports the NY Times.

“Look, I am a British guy debating American cultural issues, including guns, which has been very polarizing, and there is no doubt that there are many in the audience who are tired of me banging on about it,” he said. “That’s run its course and Jeff and I have been talking for some time about different ways of using me.”

LINK TO TERRYREPORT COMMENTS ON MORGAN

Two new ways to address wealth inequality in America by making all of us owners.

HOUSE OF CARDS RETURNS TO ONLINE VIEWING

THE RIGHT WING SCREAMS ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE. DO THEY HAVE A POINT?

MONEY, POWER AND INFLUENCE COLLIDE IN THE COMCAST DEAL TO BUY TIME-WARNER CABLE

HOUSE REPUBLICANS SURRENDER ON THE DEBT CEILING, ADMIT THEY HAD A STUPID, NON-STRATEGY

SO LONG, JAY LENO?

The Coke commercial with America the Beautiful that was presented on the Super Bowl broadcast

Some amazing new video has become available of Felix Baumgartner’s fall from near space (24 miles up) Take a look at this link. “What a piece of work is man...”

THE PROBLEM WITH FOOD

How to get students from lower economic levels into the best colleges

What’s wrong with our government in Washington, DC? One can argue that the idealistic motivations that bring people to government get corrupted by the process of trying to get enough power to have influence and, through that, often get lost entirely. Here’s a quote from Jay Carson, former press aide to Bill Clinton:

“Everybody, almost to a person, in every party, comes to Washington initially for the right reasons. But some people, and it’s not a small amount, lose sight of why they came there. It becomes, for a significant portion, a quest for more power.”

Quoted in the NY Times in an article about the Netflix show,House of Cards. Link here

FREE desktop/screen saver of the New York skyline available from The TerryReport

Another free photo. Just send an email to get a full size image of South Carolina Beach at Dawn, 2013

The “stop and frisk” policies of the New York police department are being greatly altered by the new mayor. This is important to everyone across the country because the tactics of major police departments, whether constitutional or not, are often copied by police departments everywhere.

The NY Times, which has editorialized against the massive program, ran an editorial praising the new mayor and including this telling paragraph:

Times analysis in 2010 found that the police had logged nearly 52,000 stops within eight or so blocks over a four-year period. This meant that young people in the area were growing up in the equivalent of a police state where they could be detained on the sidewalk at any time for no reason at all.

One of the great mysteries of American politics is why those on the right have a default position of approving anything the police do (and the military, too, for that matter) when they say they defend “freedom” and “liberty”. Of course, what they seem to mean is “my freedom” (not yours) and “my liberty” to make and keep as much money as possible. Liberty equals money? The new radicalism in America equates any taxation as theft by the government, thus a threat to liberty and the corollary of that radicalism holds any tax increase as also a threat. Isn’t it wonderful when personal interests are so neatly aligned with big principles?

LINK to the Times editorial on stop and frisk

Photo of the day, by Doug Terry (copyright)

What is work? A question for the 21st century that must, someday, find an answer.

Here is a line that President Obama could have spoken, but didn’t, in his State of the Union speech:

“This Congress, my colleagues of the legislative branch of government, has assigned itself the task of blocking almost everything proposed. Instead of working with me to craft better legislation from constructive ideas and to move forward to answer the needs of American citizens, many have chosen just to say, No! No! and No! again. In the process, those Members have made this body increasingly irrelevant to meeting our pressing problems and moving toward a better future for all. I regret this stance, I hope you will reconsider it, but I am here to tell you, we can’t stand still!”

(At least, he used the line, “I won’t stand still!” Bravo.)

Glen Beck confesses to helping to divide America. The quote below is from the NY Times and came during an interview on the cable channel that gave birth to Beck, Fox News.

“I remember it as an awful lot of fun, and that I made an awful lot of mistakes, and I wish I could go back and be more uniting in my language. Because I think I played a role unfortunately in helping tear the country apart. And it’s not who we are. I didn’t realize how really fragile the people were. I thought we were kind of a little more in it together. And now I look back and I realize if we could have talked about the uniting principles a little more, instead of just the problems, I think I would look back on it a little more fondly. But that’s only my role.”

In keeping with our strict editorial policy (“You never know what you’ll find on The TerryReport”) CLICK HEREfor video from the 2014 edition of the Washington, DC, Auto Show. This is one a a series of shows across the nation that kick off with the Detroit Auto Show in early January of each year. At the DC show, in addition to showing cars, the auto makers meet with representatives in Congress and regulators in the Executive branch, trying to smooth things over and keep the dogs at bay.

AT BUSINESSWEEK.COM

The World’s 85 Richest Are Now Worth as Much as 3.5 Billion Poorest

On the eve of World Economic Forum, when the global elite gather in Davos, Switzerland, to forecast international trends, Oxfam International has released a new report, Working for the Few, (PDF) documenting yawning global wealth disparities.

“I’d always looked enviously at the people who earned more than I did; now, for the first time, I was embarrassed for them, and for me. I made in a single year more than my mom made her whole life. I knew that wasn’t fair; that wasn’t right.”

The NY Times is running this amazing “true confession” of a Wall Street trader (1.18.14). It might have aptly been accompanied by a subtitle: read it and weep. With the movies and books that have been put out about the corrupt culture in the trading houses and banks in New York, this might seem like old news, except this story comes from the horse’s mouth, a guy who was getting huge bonuses by his mid-20s and unhappy with himself and the world.

For the Love of Money
By SAM POLK

A bonus of only $3.6 million? That wasn’t enough.

RIDICULOUSNESS IS DEFEATED, CONGRESS PASSES A BUDGET AND MOVES ON

This story is running in the WashPost. The headline is too good to pass up.

The Weather Channel goes dark on DirecTV

Congratulations on your budget, Congress. America still hates you.

Congratulations on your budget, Congress. America still hates you.Aaron Blake and Sean Sullivan

THE FIX | The public’s hatred remains the same, a poll shows.

Understatement of the year, by retiring Virginia Democratic congressman Jim Moran, quoted in the WashPost:

“We all recognize that there’s going to be little to do in terms of new initiatives, especially anything bold, over the next few years,” Moran said.

The amazing story of the anti-war activists who got away with breaking into an FBI office and stealing files

One huge problem with Expedia and other airline travel sites.

photo credit: Doug Terry, copyright, 2014

Local music legend Warner  Williams played and sang at the Olney Farmers and Artists winter market, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2014, held at the Sandy Spring Museum, Sandy Spring, Maryland.

Phil Everly of the Everly Brothers has died at the age of 74. A lot of commentary appearing online and in major publications is saying that the Everly Brothers “influenced” the Beatles, the Beach Boys and many other rock performers. This is understating the case. They were a lot more than an influence, they defined early pop/country/rock. They, along with Chuck Berry, Bill Haley and the Comets, Buddy Holly and a very few others were rock n’roll in the mid to late 1950s.They made it happen. This is far beyond being an influence. They were pioneers of the first order. They set the standards for others to follow.

everlybros                                                                                                                                                                                                       Even though I started listening to rock at around the age of seven, the Everly Brothers were “before my time”, as the saying goes. (What the hell does that mean, anyway?) Their music lived on well into the 1960s, but eventually, since they weren’t making new music that anyone knew about, their old stuff faded as  newer, harder more raucous rock music took over. The Everly Brothers can be seen as a kind of bridge between the old and the new, as defined in the late 1950s and very early ‘60s. Because they borrowed from older styles and fused it with a kind of country rock sound, their music seemed to get dated rather quickly.

Here’s the deal: these guys were not merely an “influence”. If John Lennon were alive today, he could tell it straight: there wouldn’t have been a Beatles without the Everly Brothers. There wouldn’t have been a lot of things that shook the ear drums and helped people to keep going over the last 60 years. That important, yes. They were giants. Doug Terry, 1.4.14     (more here)

Watch a very nice, fun time lapse of Times Square on New Year’s eve from the Wall Street Journal on this link.

Photo by Doug Terry, copyright 2014

Snow coated the trees, making for a strange, beautiful sight at a small shopping center along Maryland route 97. about four miles south of I-70 Thursday night, 1.2.14. The storm hit northern Maryland and southern Pennsylvania hard before moving on into New York and New England. Click on the photo for a larger size image.

AT&T is trying to steal customers away from T-Mobile by offering a bounty of 450 dollars. Sound like a good deal? It actually can be seen as a confession by AT&T about how much they stand to make from each customer. In other words, how much you are wasting by signing up with them. Get The TerryReport commentary here. A link to the CNN/Money story is included on the commentary page.

The Washington Redskins, who are likely to get a new team name once, at some point in the distant future, Dan Snyder decides to sell the team and move on, have just finished one of the worst seasons in the last 40 years. They managed to win three games. It was dismal, even though under their substitute quarterback they came within a couple of points of winning two more games. Doesn’t help. A loss is still a loss. So, they got rid of Mike Shanahan after four reasons, presumably leaving him with a parting gift of close to seven million dollars for firing him one year before the end of his five year deal. The New Yorker published an essay about the firing of football coaches and along with it was a chart showing how quickly they come and go.

The general who was in charge of opening Gitmo during the Bush years says it should be closed down forthwith.

“We squandered the goodwill of the world after we were attacked by our actions in Guantanamo, both in terms of detention and torture. Our decision to keep Guantanamo open has helped our enemies because it validates every negative perception of the United States.”

The annual defense bill before Congress would give President Obama more flexibility in closing Gitmo, but the General said it still contains an “unwise and unnecessary” ban on transferring any of the prisoners to U.S. soil (some of their home nations have refused to take them back.)

“Still, this is a step forward toward closing our nation’s most notorious prison, a prison that should never have been opened”.

LINK TO THE OP ED in the Detroit Free Press:

Michael Lehnert: Here's why It's long past time that we close Guantanamo

LEHNERT WROTE: “The U.S. has held 779 men at the detention facility over the past 12 years. There are currently 162 men there, most of them cleared for transfer, but stuck by politics.”

The Coen brothers are out with another of their often unfortunate and frequently ugly movies.

The new New York skyline, with the One World Trade Center nearing completion. The building on the left side of the image is actually in Jersey City, New Jersey and is closer to the camera, so it appears almost as tall as One World Trade.

Millions of words are being written and spoken about Nelson Mandela, but I don’t care. I am in mourning today for a man who I feel like I knew personally, even though I never met him. Thousands of people die around the world every day, but when was the last time we cared about the leader of a foreign nation dying? Almost never. We are highly America-centric in our news and in our concerns. We seem only to care about what happens “over there” (meaning anywhere but here) when our government is about to invade another place or drop bombs. The rest of the time, we are focused right here.

What was so special about Mandela? His decency and humanity that lasted through all of his years in prison and into his old age are two points that come immediately to mind. That he was able to act peacefully, reasonably and without taking retribution after being unjustly put in prison for more than 27 years was more than remarkable, it was astounding. His broad smile, his kind wave all spoke of a man who one would love to have as a grandfather or a kind uncle, but, as the man who helped bring down the evil system in South Africa, he was, of course, much more than just a father figure. He demonstrated to all of the world that good can triumph over some of the most destructive forces of the human race. He came to personify the long struggle in South Africa and to prove with every moment of his life his words as a young man that he was willing to die for freedom. As it was, he lived for freedom and shines as an example for the entire world and, one can hope, for the ages.   Doug Terry 12.6.13

“60 Minutes” sends CBS News spinning toward disaster, again

POPE SLAMS THE “TYRANNY OF UNFETTERED CAPITALISM”

Take a look at how our east coast weather looks by satellite.

From Reuters news agency, in the NY Times concerning an 84 page “exhortation” the new pope sent to his priests and others in the Catholic church around the world.

In it, Francis went further than previous comments criticizing the global economic system, attacking the "idolatry of money", and urged politicians to "attack the structural causes of inequality" and strive to provide work, healthcare and education to all citizens.

He also called on rich people to share their wealth. "Just as the commandment 'Thou shalt not kill' sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say 'thou shalt not' to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills," Francis wrote in the document issued on Tuesday.

"How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses 2 points?"

From the same Reuters news report:

...economic inequality features as one of the issues Francis is most concerned about, and the 76-year-old pontiff calls for an overhaul of the financial system and warns that unequal distribution of wealth inevitably leads to violence.

Denying it was simple populism, he called for action "beyond a simple welfare mentality" and added: "I beg the Lord to grant us more politicians who are genuinely disturbed by the state of society, the people, the lives of the poor."

BETTER, MORE COMPETITIVE AIR SERVICE COMING TO WASHINGTON REAGAN NATIONAL AIRPORT IN THE DC AREA. GOOD NEWS? WE’LL SEE.

Out of work? Do you want a good, middle class job? Have you considered moving to Mexico?

Mexico, you ask. Yes. Workers who have well developed skills, especially in the auto industry, are needed south of the border. Car companies are training people on their own in Mexico, trying to keep the necessary workforce to ensure the continued manufacture of cars.

Workers there make less than here, even in car factories, but guess what? You can live a comfortable, middle class life in Mexico on 27 thou a year. A house, two cars, restaurant nights out, etc. You don’t need 60 to 90 to live decently because things are a lot less expensive.

The trend in building a strong middle class was noted in the NY Times recently. (The link The TerryReport included to the Times was corrupted by some cheap money grubbing outfit.)

MORE THOUGHTS ON LIVING IN MEXICO FROM THE TERRYREPORT

High fructose corn slop (syrup) is losing favor with the American public, causing suppliers to announce lower prices for 2014. This clip is from BusinessWeek:

 “By the trade group’s count, Americans last year consumed 25 percent less high-fructose corn syrup than the peak level reached in 1999, when the average American ingested about 45.5 pounds of the stuff.”

45 POUNDS! Holy Big McMac! No wonder we are an obese  nation.

IS “OBAMACARE” HELPING ANYONE? TWO TESTIMONIALS FROM THE NY TIMES COMMENTS SECTION.

MORE THAN HALF OF WORKERS AT WALMART MAKE LESS THAN $25,000 A YEAR.                                 The story is at Bloomberg Businessweek magazine.

IN THE NEW YORK TIMES:

How Safe Is Cycling? ItâÂ?ââ??¢s Hard to Say

How Safe Is Cycling? It’s Hard to Say

SOME TERRYREPORT THOUGHTS ON THE SAFETY AND DANGERS OF BIKING

LINK to NY Times article for non subscribers

NBC SPORTSCASTER BOB COSTAS, WHO HAS OFTEN TAKEN ON CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES, SPOKE OUT ABOUT “REDSKINS” ON SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL. TRANSCRIPT HERE. TerryReport reply, on this link.

Sunrise over the Atlantic, seen from a beach in South Carolina.

The new skyline of lower Manhattan with the World Trade Tower nearing completion, rising from the site of the 9-11 attacks.

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