The Breakfast Club (Sound of an Atom)

As long as we’re talking about musical forms, we might well discuss the Fugue, a Baroque development that was later supplanted by the Sonata which was the basis for the Symphony and we all remember the Symphony don’t we?

C’mon, it was just last week.  Didn’t I tell you to practice at home?

Well, maybe not.  And some actually prefer the noise these kids today make with their “electric” instruments eshewing the lute, recorder, and drum.

Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.

I was in my mid 30’s in 1929, do the math.

In any event a Fugue–

is a rare psychiatric disorder characterized by reversible amnesia for personal identity, including the memories, personality, and other identifying characteristics of individuality. The state is usually short-lived (ranging from hours to days), but can last months or longer. Dissociative fugue usually involves unplanned travel or wandering, and is sometimes accompanied by the establishment of a new identity.

After recovery from fugue, previous memories usually return intact, but there is typically amnesia for the fugue episode. Additionally, an episode of fugue is not characterized as attributable to a psychiatric disorder if it can be related to the ingestion of psychotropic substances, to physical trauma, to a general medical condition, or to psychiatric conditions such as delirium, dementia, bipolar disorder or depression. Fugues are usually precipitated by a stressful episode, and upon recovery there may be amnesia for the original stressor (dissociative amnesia).

Wait, where was I?  A Fugue–

is a contrapuntal compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject (theme) that is introduced at the beginning in imitation (repetition at different pitches) and recurs frequently in the course of the composition.

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A fugue usually has three sections: an exposition, a development, and a recapitulation containing the return of the subject in the fugue’s tonic key, though not all fugues have a recapitulation. In the Middle Ages, the term was widely used to denote any works in canonic style; by the Renaissance, it had come to denote specifically imitative works. Since the 17th century, the term fugue has described what is commonly regarded as the most fully developed procedure of imitative counterpoint.

Most fugues open with a short main theme, the subject, which then sounds successively in each voice (after the first voice is finished stating the subject, a second voice repeats the subject at a different pitch, and other voices repeat in the same way); when each voice has entered, the exposition is complete. This is often followed by a connecting passage, or episode, developed from previously heard material; further “entries” of the subject then are heard in related keys. Episodes (if applicable) and entries are usually alternated until the “final entry” of the subject, by which point the music has returned to the opening key, or tonic, which is often followed by closing material, the coda. In this sense, a fugue is a style of composition, rather than a fixed structure.

Since we’ve discovered that the natural sound of an atom (a simulation only and not a very specific atom like gold or silver or iron or helium, hydrogen or lithium) here is Pachelbel’s Fugue in D Major.

Oblgatories and more psychotic episodes (in D Major) below.

Psychotic Episodes (in D Major)

Bach

Buxtehude

Beethoven

Shostakovich

Obligatories

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:30am (ET) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

I would never make fun of LaEscapee or blame PhilJD.  And I am highly organized.

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.

–Julius Caesar (I, ii, 140-141)

This Day in History

News

Syrian rebel fighters say Obama’s air strikes won’t deter Islamic State

Constanze Letsch, The Guardian

Friday 12 September 2014 12.31 EDT

Jaber Abdulkarim, 36, an opposition fighter from the province of Idlib who briefly came to Turkey to visit his family, voiced his doubts about the strategy Obama unveiled on Wednesday and said air strikes would not be able to defeat the Islamic State movement known as Isis: “They know where to hide in the case of attacks from the air,” he said. He added that government forces had been bombing rebel positions for months. “We know shelters and caves, and so do the Isis fighters. If they want to deliver a serious blow to them, they need to put boots on the ground. Nothing else will bring success.”

He added that fighters of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), which is opposed to the Damascus regime and the Isis fighters, had “more experience” after more than three years of conflict, but were in dire need of outside support. “We are tired and running out of provisions. Some fighters have changed sides and now fight with Isis simply because they are able to provide food, houses for their families and good weapons.”

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Mohammed Al Bakhour, 31, a senior commander of an Aleppo-based FSA battalion who came to Turkey for his wedding this week, said that a loose coalition of armed opposition groups has been fighting against Isis in his area for over a year: “We have become quite good at that, but we need help. Instead of bombing Isis from the air, we need support inside Syria to fight. It’s the only way.” He added that the main objective should be the removal of the Damascus government: “Once Assad is gone, we’ll deal with Isis ourselves.”

Al Bakhour was worried that concerted air strikes targeting Isis would alienate opposition fighters. “Many of my men told me that they would change sides and join Isis should the US start bombing them instead of ousting Assad”, he said. “They feel betrayed and disillusioned.”

One opposition activist from Deir ez-Zor said that he did not want “foreign powers” to attack his country: “We have seen what the Americans did in Iraq, what happened in Afghanistan, in Somalia, in Yemen. Air strikes like these will kill a lot of civilians, innocent people.” His family members all live in Deir ez-Zor, an oil-rich town close to the Iraqi border and currently under the control of Isis. “I find it inconceivable that they should do this without being invited to do so by the Syrian people.”

Basil, 38, a shop owner from Raqqa, the self-declared capital of the Islamic State, also voiced vehement disapproval of the planned US-led operation: “Isis is in Raqqa, a big city full of people. How can they bomb them there?” He came to Turkey to look for a flat for his family in Gaziantep and said he was not involved in any political activities: “We have seen so much violence over the past years. We are tired. How will even more violence and even more death bring a solution?”

ISIS Strikes Deal With Moderate Syrian Rebels: Reports

Akbar Shahid Ahmed and Ryan Grim, Huffington Post

09/12/2014 9:59 pm EDT

The deal between ISIS and the moderate Syrian groups casts doubt over President Barack Obama’s freshly announced strategy to arm and train the groups against ISIS.

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The prospect of a group once supported by the U.S. now sitting down with ISIS raises fundamental questions about U.S. strategy in Syria. Why support Syrians who have a very different, clearly stated goal and who will act as they see fit to achieve it? What assurance does the administration have that fighters it trains and arms in Syria won’t ally with ISIS if it seems like the most effective anti-Assad force?

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Many of those groups, the administration acknowledges, have not passed a vetting process, which explains the delay in expanding assistance. But the news that the Syrian Revolutionary Front, a major player in the moderate coalition, has now chosen to stop fighting ISIS may inspire other groups, either already vetted or still waiting for aid, to determine that a deal with the extremist group is worthwhile. Given reports that Assad avoided fighting ISIS in order to crush the moderate rebels — his calculus being that the West would eventually combat the extremists, as it is now doing — potential U.S. partners may decide that instead of being prey to both extremists and the government, they should settle one battle.

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That turns a conflict that the White House hopes is three-sided — with radical Sunnis, moderate Sunnis and Assad all battling each other — into a sectarian, two-sided war of Sunnis against Assad. Reports already suggest that Syrians who entered the civil war opposing Assad are now turning to ISIS as their best bet for a different kind of government.

New sparks fly between CIA, Senate Intelligence Committee

By Ali Watkins, McClatchy

September 12, 2014

Tensions between the CIA and its congressional overseers erupted anew this week when CIA Director John Brennan refused to tell lawmakers who authorized intrusions into computers used by the Senate Intelligence Committee to compile a damning report on the spy agency’s interrogation program.

The confrontation, which took place during a closed-door meeting on Tuesday, came as the sides continue to spar over the report’s public release, providing further proof of the unprecedented deterioration in relations between the CIA and Capitol Hill.

After the meeting, several senators were so incensed at Brennan that they confirmed the row and all but accused the nation’s top spy of defying Congress.

“I’m concerned there’s disrespect towards the Congress,” Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., who also serves as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told McClatchy. “I think it’s arrogant, I think it’s unacceptable.”

“I continue to be incredibly frustrated with this director,” said Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M. “He does not respect the role of the committee in providing oversight, and he continues to stonewall us on basic information, and it’s very frustrating. And it certainly doesn’t serve the agency well.”

Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., said he was “renewing my call” for Brennan’s resignation.

CIA spokesman Dean Boyd said that Brennan declined to answer the committee’s questions because doing so could have compromised an investigation into the computer intrusions by an accountability board headed by former Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind. Moreover, the agency’s leadership has asked the CIA Inspector General’s Office to respond to the questions, Boyd said.

California School Cops Received Military Rifles, Grenade Launchers, Armored Vehicles

Matt Ferner, Huffington Post

09/12/2014 8:59 pm EDT

School police in several California public school districts are ready for anything — including, apparently, a small invasion.

The open news website MuckRock found through a recent Freedom of Information Act request that not only are California state and local police departments receiving military-grade equipment from the Department of Defense, but several school police departments are as well.

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The Pentagon has been giving surplus military equipment to state and local law enforcement agencies for more than a decade. The militarized police response in Ferguson, Missouri, to protests over the police killing of teenager Michael Brown has prompted some lawmakers to question the use of the military equipment by police. A recent poll found that 51 percent of Americans think it’s unnecessary for police to use military weapons for law enforcement.

U.S. Uses State Secrets Law To Kill Iran-Related Lawsuit

By Emily Flitter, Reuters

09/13/2014

Lawyers for the government argued that proceedings in the private dispute between a Greek businessman and U.S.-based UANI could “cause harm to national security” if they are allowed to continue. The document in federal court in New York said the secrets were “properly classified national security information” which would be described in another filing that would not be made public.

Greek businessman and ship owner Victor Restis last year sued UANI for defamation after UANI, whose advisors include former intelligence officials from the United States, Europe and Israel, accused him of violating sanctions on Iran by exporting oil from the country.

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The state secrets privilege is more powerful than the one the government would have used to protect law enforcement activities. It refers specifically to matters of national security.

It is used far more sparingly than the law enforcement privilege. In Friday’s court filing U.S. Department of Justice lawyers pointed to another example in which the government invoked it to try to dismiss a defamation lawsuit in 1985 by a man claiming Penthouse Magazine had wrongly accused him of being a spy.

Star-mangled banner: legendary flag turns 200, but pieces still lost to history

Tom McCarthy, The Guardian

Friday 12 September 2014 15.21 EDT

The broadly ignominious episode also gave America one of her most hallowed artefacts: the original star-spangled banner itself, the flag that inspired the poem by Francis Scott Key.

While the legend of America’s victory over the British at the Battle of Baltimore is undiminished, the flag itself is in sore shape having lost several feet of cloth to souvenir-seekers and other ravages of time. The flag on display in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, measures 30ft tall by 34ft long; as originally sewn, the flag was 30ft by 42ft.

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The flag was sewn with 15 stars and 15 stripes, for the original 13 colonies plus the recent additions of Kentucky and Vermont. (The current American flag has 50 stars, one for each state, and 13 stripes, one for each colony.) One of the 15 stars was snipped from the star-spangled banner and apparently is lost to history.

Fate of Texas abortion clinics hang in balance ahead of court ruling

Lauren Gambino, The Guardian

Friday 12 September 2014 15.06 EDT

The fate of more than half of Texas’s remaining abortion clinics hinged on a hearing on Friday that played out between the state and abortion providers in one of the nation’s most conservative courts.

Texas asked a three-judge panel in the 5th US circuit court of appeals to overturn a ruling by a US district judge last month that temporarily blocked an onerous provision of the state’s abortion law from going into effect.

During oral arguments in a New Orleans courtroom, the Texas solicitor general, Jonathan Mitchell, attempted to persuade the court that it is imperative to reverse judge Lee Yeakel’s ruling and allow Texas to enforce a provision requiring abortion clinics to meet the same building standards as ambulatory surgical centres.

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The state also asked the judges to overturn a part of Yeakel’s judgment that exempts two Texas clinics in regions where women’s access to abortion services is the most restricted from a stricture requiring hospital-admitting privileges for doctors who perform the procedure.

HSBC to pay $550m in US to settle mortgage mis-selling suit

Reuters

Friday 12 September 2014 18.53 EDT

The settlement announced on Friday between the bank’s US unit and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), the regulator of the two government-controlled finance companies, came less than three weeks before a trial due to begin on 29 September in New York, where HSBC has said it could have faced up to $1.6bn in damages.

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“We are pleased to have resolved this matter,” Stuart Alderoty, the general counsel for HSBC North America, said in a statement.

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The deal with HSBC came after it last month lost a bid to dismiss the case as untimely, in light of a recent US supreme court ruling.

Rob Ford drops re-election bid after tumour diagnosis

Nicky Woolf, The Guardian

Friday 12 September 2014 16.18 EDT

“My heart is heavy when I tell you that I’m unable to continue my campaign for re-election as your mayor,” Rob Ford said in a statement. “I have asked Doug to run to become the next mayor of Toronto, because we need him.”

“I love our city and I love being your mayor. It has been an honour and a privilege to serve you.”

Doug Ford told reporters on Friday that his brother was “in the fight for his life”, but that he would follow his wishes. “I would jump off a bridge for the guy.”

Report: F/A-18 fighter jets collided near Navy aircraft carrier

By Dan Lamothe, Washington Post

September 12 at 5:35 PM

Two Navy F/A-18C Hornet jets that crashed into the Pacific Ocean early Friday did so after colliding within view of a Navy aircraft carrier while returning to it, according to an incident report cited by Navy Times.

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The crew on the ship’s flight deck reported seeing the collision and pieces of the planes soaring through the air, Navy Times reported. The planes routinely lane one-by-one after flying in formation.

The F/A-18C is a single-seat version of the Hornet, and used as both a fighter jet and attack aircraft to drop ordnance on ground targets. Larger versions of the plane carry two personnel.

Federal Appeals Court Permits Wisconsin Voter ID Law

By MONICA DAVEY, The New York Times

SEPT. 12, 2014

A federal appeals court on Friday permitted Wisconsin to restore a requirement that voters provide photo identification before casting their ballots, allowing the long-debated state law to take effect in time for a hard-fought election on Nov. 4.

The order, which came surprisingly swiftly, on the same day that lawyers made their arguments before a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, was seen as a significant victory for advocates of such voting requirements. Opponents of the laws had viewed the Wisconsin case as opening a novel legal basis for their efforts in federal courtrooms.

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“This reduces the likelihood of irreparable injury, and it also changes the balance of equities and thus the propriety of federal injunctive relief,” the appeals panel, which stayed the earlier court’s injunction, said. The order was unsigned, but the panel included Frank H. Easterbrook, who was nominated to the court by President Ronald Reagan, and Diane S. Sykes and John Daniel Tinder, both of whom were nominated by President George W. Bush.

U.S. judge orders Arizona to recognize gay marriage from California

By James Queally, Los Angeles Times

9/12/14

“Couples in America should not have to play ‘now you’re married, now you’re not’ depending on which state they are in when a tragedy strikes, and states should not pick and choose which marriages they will respect and which they won’t as if we did not have one Constitution protecting all of us,” Evan Wolfson, president of the same-sex marriage advocacy group Freedom to Marry, said in a statement.

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Lambda Legal, the LGBT rights group that represented McQuire, praised Sedwick’s ruling as a way to honor Martinez, who was a military veteran. McQuire is also seeking veteran death benefits.

“The way the state has fought this simple issue of awarding a disabled vet the respect he deserves is shameful,” Jennifer C. Pizer, senior counsel for Lambda Legal, said in a statement. “George would have  been thrilled with this outcome-all he ever wanted to do was take care of Fred and Judge Sedwick’s order will make sure his last wish is fulfilled.”

Sweeping new US and EU sanctions target Russia’s banks and oil companies

Dan Roberts, The Guardian

Friday 12 September 2014 12.41 EDT

In coordinated moves that may unnerve already jittery financial markets, the US Treasury and European Union announced on Friday that Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank, would be barred from accessing their capital markets for any long-term funding, including all borrowing over 30 days.

Existing 90-day lending bans affecting six other large Russian banks will also be tightened to 30-days, something US officials claim will sharply increasing their borrowing costs and deny access to important dollar-denominated funding sources.

Even more draconian measures were imposed on the Russian energy industry, where the US and Europe are attempting to shut down important new exploration projects in Siberia and the Arctic by barring foreign oil companies from providing any equipment, technology or assistance to deepwater, offshore, or shale projects.

The bans will prevent previously active companies such as Exxon and Shell from dealing with five of the largest Russian oil producers and pipeline operators: Gazprom, Gazprom Neft, LukOil, Surgutneftegas, and Rosneft.

NFL star Adrian Peterson charged with injuring his son

Jessica Glenza, The Guardian

Friday 12 September 2014 17.16 EDT

Peterson is alleged to have sent a text message to the boy’s mother in which he said, “Never do I go overboard! But all my kids will know, hey daddy has the biggie heart but don’t play no games when it comes to acting right,” SportsRadio 610 reports.

In a statement, Peterson’s attorney, Rusty Hardin, said, “Adrian is a loving father who used his judgment as a parent to discipline his son. He used the same kind of discipline with his child that he experienced as a child growing up in east Texas. Adrian has never hidden from what happened. He has cooperated fully with authorities and voluntarily testified before the grand jury for several hours … It is important to remember that Adrian never intended to harm his son and deeply regrets the unintentional injury.”

The Vikings said in a statement that they are “in the process of gathering information regarding the legal situation involving Adrian Peterson.” They have reportedly deactivated the running back for their game against the New England Patriots on Sunday.

Palin family in Alaska brawl: ‘Alcohol was believed to be a factor’

Tom McCarthy, The Guardian

Friday 12 September 2014 16.53 EDT

The most dramatic recent chapter in the Palin story appears, however, to be documented only by witness accounts – and an evolving police report. Alaska authorities are considering filing criminal charges related to a large fistfight said to involve multiple members of the family in the Overview neighbourhood of Anchorage last Saturday night.

Palin family members were present at a party where 20 people ended up in an alcohol-fuelled melee in the front yard, police spokeswoman Jennifer Castro told the Alaska Dispatch News.

Sarah Palin herself got in on the action, ABC News reported in an interview with a party attendee, who quoted the former governor as screaming at unknown combatants: “Do you know who I am?!”

James Foley’s Parents Warned Of Prosecution For Ransom Fundraising

Associated Press

09/12/2014 9:59 pm EDT

“It was always, ‘Your son’s situation is the highest priority. We’re doing everything we possibly can, and we can’t tell you,'” John Foley said.

They said they were told they could be prosecuted if they paid a ransom but ignored the warning and raised pledges in the event that it might be worth it.

“We couldn’t just do nothing. If they weren’t going to rescue them, we couldn’t get them home, what do you do? Leave your kid in jail to get beaten? No way, you know?” said John Foley.

At the State Department press briefing Friday, deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf responded to questions on the Foley family’s criticism, saying the agency had a close relationship with the family.

“We did everything we could to assist them during this awful time,” she said.

Blogs

• American Held in Incommunicado Detention in Yemen Calls Family, Says He’s Being Beaten & Gassed by Kevin Gosztola, Firedog Lake
• CBO: Smarter Sentencing Act Would Save Billions Over the Next Decade by Jon Walker, Firedog Lake
• Lawyer for Edward Snowden: Positive Developments in Switzerland But Issues Still Remain by Kenvin Gosztola
• Hate to Tell SSCI I Told Them So, John Brennan Lying and Spying Edition by emptywheel
• After Spectacular Failures in Iraq and Afghanistan, US to Throw More Money at Training for Syrian Rebels by Jim White, emptywheel
• Is it time to revisit our prohibition on paying ransom? by digby, Hullabaloo
• Bombing People Isn’t Like Casual Sex Ryan Devereaux, The Intercept
• News Organizations Finally Realize Obama’s War Plan Is a Hot Mess by Dan Froomkin, The Intercept
• Time to End Ethnic Profiling in Prosecuting Mortgage Fraud by Bill Black, Naked Capitalism
• Go Scotland! by riverdaughter, The Confluence
• Corruption of ‘Emily’s List’ Is Hidden by Liberals by Eric Zuesse, Washington’s Blog
• James Foley Is Not a War Ad by David Swanson, Washington’s Blog
• Washington’s Iraq-Syria Policy: Throwing the Ball to a Midget Surrounded by an Entire Team of 7-Foot Basketball Players by George Washington, Washington’s Blog