The Weekly Watch

Shut Down the Government, and Escalate the Wars

...sounds like a plan

It was a busy week like they all seem to be. Obviously they want to keep everyone preoccupied, distracted...you know shut down the government and accelerate disorder in the Middle East and around the world. Hold protest and marches against T-rump, but vote to give him increased surveillance powers. So we try to escape in our addictions to fossil fuels, opioids, meth, ...and entertainment.

It isn't just cartoonists that feel this way Mr. Fish
Head-On-Collision-1000-850x754.jpg

Shut it Down
Social Security and most other safety-net programs are unaffected by the lapse in federal spending authority. Critical government functions will continue, with uniformed service members, health inspectors and law enforcement officers set to work without pay. But if no deal is brokered before Monday, hundreds of thousands of federal employees will be furloughed.
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/government-shutdown-begins-finger-poin...

...and march (6 min from Baltimore)-
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:20952:Women-March-in-Defiance-of-Trump


All the while spreading discord and conflict around the world...

The US presence in Syria is illegal, so is Turkey's, so is Israel's. We say were staying on the “border” to prevent the rebirth of ISIS, but I think the “border” they're talking about is Iran's and we are there for aggression and regime change – not stability. At any rate old Rex T. made a mess of it and pissed off Turkey.

Turkey’s defense minister said Friday there is no turning back from his country’s decision to launch a ground assault on a Syrian Kurdish-controlled enclave in northwest Syria, saying the offensive had “de facto” started with the sporadic Turkish military shelling of the area.
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/turkey-says-no-turning-back-offensive-...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsLVRmPBLFg (6 min from RT)
The Turkish attack comes after an announcement early this week by the Trump administration that it would arm and train a 30,000-man strong Kurdish force to police Syria’s borders and make sure ISIL did not reemerge. https://www.truthdig.com/articles/turkey-begins-military-operations-u-s-...
Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton lay out our situation in an excellent interview.
(29 min with text) http://therealnews.com/t2/story:20938:Trump-Keeps-US-in-Syria-and-Sets-O...

Then there is near silence of what we are doing in Yemen. UNICEF says the war in Yemen is killing or wounding five children every single day. But Shireen Al-Adeimi says the figure drastically under-counts the real toll of the Saudi-led, U.S.-backed bombing and blockade (12 min with text) http://therealnews.com/t2/story:20931:Yemen%27s-Crisis-is-Far-Worse-Than...

Why are we causing all this chaos in the Middle East? We are Israel's lap dogs. All the media hollers about Russia's influence, but even with pins in your eyes (h/t hecate) you should be able to see how we are jerked around.
Medea has been banned in Israel. She tells the story...
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/american-jewish-banned-israel-activism/
Abby Martin interviewed teenager Ahed Tamimi before she was imprisoned. (20 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yV1HwG1_phs

Then there's our effort to poke Russia in the eye and supply more weapons to Ukraine. Now who are these people we are arming? Azov is a militia that has been incorporated into the Ukrainian National Guard, and is considered one of the most effective units in the field against pro-Russian separatists. But it also widely known as a bastion of neo-Nazism within the ranks of the Ukrainian military that has been criticized by international human rights groups, tied to an international fascist network and even a major terror plot. (article by Max Blumenthal)
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:20942:The-US-is-Arming-and-Assisting-Neo...

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Things are going better on the Korean peninsula...no thanks to the US. North and South Korea will march together at the upcoming Winter Olympics, raising hopes of de-escalation. This, amid talk of a new U.S. strategy dubbed "Bloody Nose" and a U.S.-led summit promoting other aggressive steps. Christine Ahn, who organized a counter-summit of women peace activists, explains (12 min or text)
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:20940:Korean-Olympic-Unity-Gives-US-War-...
Fearing that peace might break out with the two Koreas talking to each other, Washington instructed South Korean President Moon Jae-in to keep the message about anything but peace.
http://therealnews.com/t2/component/content/article/170-more-blog-posts-...

The Americas

We are still supporting the corrupt election results in Honduras. Over 200 demonstrators were injured in last week's demonstrations against the incumbent president, whose reelection lacks legitimacy according to the opposition and international observers. The opposition is now gearing up for a national strike in the lead-up to the inauguration. (10 min or text)
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:20923:Repression-Against-Honduran-Opposi...

We've just will not abide a socialist country in our hemisphere. We continue to stir the pot creating trouble between Brazil and Venezuela.
https://theintercept.com/2018/01/15/fake-news-brazil-venezuela/

There are positive efforts. Here's one trying to shut down our foreign military bases. “U.S. foreign military bases are the principal instruments of imperial global domination and environmental damage through wars of aggression and occupation, and that the closure of U.S. foreign military bases is one of the first necessary steps toward a just, peaceful and sustainable world.”
http://therealnews.com/t2/component/content/article/231-kevin-zeese-and-...

I guess they are all shithole countries anyway...Chris Hedges knows how to identify shithole countries
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/dont-need-telescope-find-shithole-coun...

So on to our own shithole country and it's politics...

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I guess we have shithole territories too. When Congress passed a $36.5 billion disaster relief bill to bolster rebuilding efforts in several wildfire and hurricane-damaged areas in October, it shortchanged Puerto Rico, giving it a $4.9 billion loan instead of the grant that other areas received. Now, it appears the debt- and hurricane-ravaged island won’t even get that money.
https://theintercept.com/2018/01/18/puerto-rico-trump-administration-tel...
Additionally promised supplies are not arriving
https://theintercept.com/2018/01/16/puerto-rico-utility-workers-charge-t...
Here's a 15 min broadcast of “Forward Puerto Rico”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDJ7r3oek3M

What Irony!
Democraps give T-rump more spying power.
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/senate-passes-fisa-reauthorization-act...
https://theintercept.com/2018/01/17/fisa-section-702-nsa-internet-survei...

And more spying powers allowed in the budget bill...
https://theintercept.com/2018/01/17/section-504-house-spending-bill-chan...
 Social media last night and today have been flooded with inflammatory and quite dramatic claims now being made by congressional Republicans about a four-page memo alleging abuses of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act spying processes during the 2016 election.
https://theintercept.com/2018/01/19/republicans-have-four-easy-ways-to-r...

An interesting interview with whistleblowers Tom Drake of the NSA and Colleen Rowley of the FBI -- say the new bi-partisan FISA spying law opens the way to widespread privacy violations and government abuses. In this interview Tom Drake explains -
... that anybody that's using TorVPN is automatically suspect by the way. It doesn't matter whether you're an American. You're automatically suspect in engaging in "wrong behavior" because you're using encrypted communications, or anonymized communication.
So if you use an encrypted version of the web browser TOR, you are being watched!
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:20920:Whistleblowers%3A-Congress-Has-Ent... (17 min with text)

Although the democraps are awful...are they the only hope in 2018?
http://therealnews.com/t2/component/content/article/379-andrew-levine/34...

what in it for me.jpg

Another interesting intercepted podcast featuring Tulsi Gabbard, then former CIA officer and Cipher Brief columnist John Sipher and journalist Marcy Wheeler to analyze the Russia investigation, the Steele dossier, and the Trump team’s collusion … with Israel, and finally Marxist scholar David Harvey talks about alienation and debt peonage in the age of Trump... the crimes of capitalism. At almost 2 hours it is better in a couple of sittings but also offers text
https://theintercept.com/2018/01/17/intercepted-podcast-white-mirror/
Here's a couple of lines that stuck with me... From russiagate proponent Marcy Wheeler -

...we know from the studies that have been done after the election that what really resonated with people was still old media, cable news or Breitbart, more so than anything that came off of Facebook. And there was plenty of disinformation that came out of Fox News and still is coming out of Fox News — and that is what I think has poisoned our politics.
And yeah, Russia came in and took advantage of that. But until we fix that poison, until we fixed the Fox/4chan poison, it doesn’t matter what we do against the Russians because that poison is really what’s creating the toxins in this country.


So why aren't they attacking Fox instead of promoting the Russia narrative?

And from David Harvey -

I think the future of the U.S. in so far that it has a radical future, lies more with some sort of what I would call almost non-ideological anarchism. I don’t think that it’s ready for the kind of collective endeavor that would really be required to confront the power of the Federal Reserve and find an alternative. I don’t think it’s ready for thinking about a mass movement of some kind that will actually start to redefine how the economy works.
I think if there’s going to be any real kind of left, it’s going to be a kind of a socialist-anarchist kind of left politics that will reemerge, which has, many redeeming features.
….
I mean the thing that struck me about Ferguson was the sight of those militarized police — I mean, there’s no way, it seems to me, that a political movement could imagine taking to the streets and storming the barricades and getting anywhere. They would simply be mowed down. And so therefore politics has to start to think about a kind of progressive transformation which does not involve confrontation and violence of that sort. Because, quite simply, I think any movement of that sort would lose. And therefore, we have to think of something that is an alternative kind of movement.

I came to the same conclusion after Standing Rock and Ferguson

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Hey Dennis is running for governor in Ohio, but is already getting slammed, Jimmy Dore (9 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AsLv1eyCoc

Looks like the folks in Maryland will have a senate candidate worth supporting. Chelsea Manning is running against Russiagate cheerleader Carden
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/sen-ben-cardin-fitting-opponent-chelse...
Glen Greenwald draws a stark contrast between the two candidates
https://theintercept.com/2018/01/15/centrist-dems-launch-smear-campaign-...

Russiagate...the zombie that will not die

Rather than relegating the Steele dossier to the trash heap of history, where it belongs, Dianne Feinstein has imbued it with a relevance that brings America no closer to a resolution of the issue of possible collusion between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin’s Russia. https://www.truthdig.com/articles/dianne-feinsteins-folly-trump-russia-p...

Well I guess we need a dose of T-rump bashing and David Cay Johnson is just the fellow to do it. video and text in 5 parts. Here's part 1 the others are in a menu on the right of the clip. https://www.democracynow.org/2018/1/18/david_cay_johnston_trump_is_deter...

Media
Cartoon ad for all the new features of Spacebook from Mark Fiore (1 min)
https://www.truthdig.com/cartoons/algorithm-news-video/

Don't laugh too hard Spacebook is about to start vetting the news based on user likes.
https://theintercept.com/2018/01/19/facebook-fake-news-trustworthy-zucke...

It isn't just social media...the huff and puff is going to opinions and personals rather than a contributing writer approach. Jimmy Dore explains. (20 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXCoE_rSM3Y

This article suggest the NSA has far more ability to listen to you than corporations and their voice toys.
https://theintercept.com/2018/01/19/voice-recognition-technology-nsa/

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The Economy

No story better explains the benefits of privatized government than this one. We spend $3 for every $1 private agencies collect in back taxes. Bill Black explains... We need a bigger truck! (6 min and text)
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:20925:IRS-Private-Debt-Collection-Progra...

Economist Richard Wolff reviews 2017 (4 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0h57KwKqIg

Education

DeVos spoke to the Federalist Society and revealed her elitism and anti-public school philosophy
https://theintercept.com/2018/01/19/betsy-devos-obama-campus-sexual-assa...

DeVos idea fits well with this administration...try to persoanlly profit from office.
http://educationopportunitynetwork.org/trump-fills-the-swamp-to-further-...

I don't think it takes a PhD to figure out when you reduce funding you lower student performance
https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/us/2018/01/12/less-money-for-schools-aft...

Another bit of obvious education policy is if you take money from public schools to provide funds for profit based schools, the results will not be good.
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article194381019.html

Sadly the T-rump administration thinks schools should be training black and brown students for their future in prison. Reminds me of my buddy who was in POW training in the Army. He kept going AWOL trying to get to Canada (which he finally did), but in the meantime he spent lots of time in jail.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/policing/spotlight/2018/01/06/kee...

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The Environment

Sure is cozy when the fracking lobbyist hold their convention at your hotel.
https://theintercept.com/2018/01/17/fracking-lobbyists-ipaa-trump-hotel/

An Iranian tanker collided with a Chinese ship sparking a huge spill and fire....it is bigly. Marine biologist David Santillo talks about the possible effects on marine ecosystems (12 min with text)
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:20944:Massive-Oil-Spill-in-East-China-Se...

Even without El Nino, 2017 was the third hottest on record. Weather Underground's Bob Henson explains. (14 min with text)
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:20929:2017-Hottest-Year-On-Record-Withou...

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So last weekend I played for several days of dancing. It was a gathering of mainly educated folks....young and old. Most are simply unplugged – there is nothing I can do, so why try (or even pay attention). Those trying to be aware told me things like – Well I feel I can trust NPR, or worse, I think I'm informed because I read the NYT or WaPo. We are being led by our nose by the corporate/capitalist class and I don't see how we re-educate people to the horrors of their own evil empire. We're number one! No, actually we're number two...and a big pile of it. Wake up, wise up America. Let's all keep speaking truth to power. I look forward to your insights in the comments below.

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The Aspie Corner's picture

And the comments in this video prove it.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPIHZIW9q4I]

The same people whining about 'illegals' probably have parents or grandparents who were immigrants themselves. And as far as I can tell, people are leaving this shithole in droves....those who have the means to escape, anyway.

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

Lookout's picture

@The Aspie Corner

I caught the clip earlier, but not the comments. Although I must admit I didn't find them as bad as I anticipated.

I suspect the shut down is an attempt to sequester latino/as votes and has very little to do with values nor morals. Otherwise why did they vote for more spying powers, more military funding, stood by as the tax bill passed, and so on. Kabuki theater. It will be interesting how it plays out.

Glad you dropped by!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

The Aspie Corner's picture

@Lookout More Grover Norquist Starve The Beast bullshit for the rest of us while he and all the other Porkies continue to get away with murder on a grand scale. I can't help laughing at all the jackasses holding to Drumpf's MAGA bullshit because they'll be ground up in the capitalist machine along with the rest of us when they've outlived their usefulness to the Uniparty who put him in office in the first place.

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

@The Aspie Corner

Thanks for posting the Jimmy Dore, although it seems obvious that the problem is not with the Dems lacking a spine, but the complicit criminality involved.

And even more than that, that the stolen power, wealth and ownership of essential goods and services by TPTB is such that the mere threat of TPTB exerting these and shutting the latter down to throw the country into turmoil would bring fears of such a disruption that even the decent and sincere among American politicians might have no notion of how to proceed without a massive increase in suffering and death among the public, something which matters to only these few among the entire corrupted mess.

I finally started watching that JFK to 911 video last night, in sections as it loaded, (sigh) and am less than a 3rd of the way through, with much of the information having been heard elsewhere, piecemeal - but the totality, callousness and cruelty had me stupidly and unstoppably weeping through much of it.

Apart from the overwhelming evil, one thing that struck me even more forcibly with more background was of how long action against this deadly, horrific hazard had been delayed on the grounds that it would throw financial and other essential markets into disarray, that even FDR had left the evil to batten on the country, citizens and world, because they were already so powerful and controlled so much that even an attempt at a fascist takeover of America was not addressed. Look at them now, given more time to drain, warp and use the country and system against itself in this hostile take-over from within - although even after watching the rest of that documentary, I likely still won't know a 10th of it.

And they have been working to destroy the world of life ever since, in the process of weakening and reducing it, to make it more controllable, (disaster capitalism writ not only large, but over everything which sustains life) with no realization that they also depend upon it for life, believing that they can achieve fictional SF fantasy-existences with enough money, bullying and brutality.

They cling to what they term a 'philosophy' and an 'action plan' justified on the premise of a fictional novel, written by a psychopathic hypocrite, of a fictional pathologically egotistical character who believed that civilization could not survive his loss, a disaster which promptly came to pass in the fictional setting of the novel-world - and believe that reality does not apply to them, this being the very definition of utter madness.

Now, due to this delay of what might indeed have been a disaster without immediate, emergency nationalization of all the conspirators essential services (including propaganda outlets) by FDR, we have a larger and even more deeply embedded and wide-spread Mafia of lunatic, blindly ignorant, greedy, power-hungry and exceptionally stupid fascists holding virtually all of the global wealth and power at a point when their plan has brought us to where estimates based on such as actual accelerating die-off of the global life support system gives us 8-10 years before life cannot any longer be supported on the planet, if nukes are not involved, as they likely will.

This is not just about the politicians or even the representatives among the billionaires and corporations infiltrating government. If this, including all of those responsible for/supportive of this, is not fully dealt with now, to be eradicated from all positions of power over others, at whatever immediate cost, nothing will remain to salvage.

There is no time remaining; the Earth is being murdered and we feel the death-throes beginning.

These idiots, should they survive the rest of us, will huddle in their bunkers waiting for Super-Tech to swoop in and save them at the last minute, with their worthless financial data-dots fading in dying computer-land, only to realize that copying records of their consciousness into however many devices still means that they die in their bodies as the oxygen/power runs out. Those who actually have a soul are more likely to realize that souls are not transferable - and that the owner is the only one responsible for its state.

They have also duped themselves.

What are we going to do about it, while we still have an Earth to do it on? There must be something; we fiddle on the internet while planetary life burns, which is about all that most of us can do... I hate being so helpless.

Also, why are both corporate parties set on having another government shut-down - even when the Dems are obligingly giving away the American people's interests, as usual, through the usual mechanism of Repub 'bad cop' demand, to suit their mutual paymasters - just now,

both increasing the debt and degree of enslavement to financial interests looking to Greece us all in this final looting phase and with the Trilateral Commission-controlled Federal Reserve holding more US (predominately military global conquest, missing-trillions-and other PTB-scheme-generated) debt even than China

and just as there's a high alert for a potential major North American False Flag,

with one said to be in process for China,

with Obama having given any US President the 'right' to shut down the internet due to any emergency?

Leaving only the propaganda stations open for 'information' and cutting off citizen communications.

The poors, of course, can't lay in supplies; the wealthiest will have plenty laid in store, should anything major occur.

I dunno, but I suspect that we'd better be braced.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Lookout's picture

Nice podcast at Ralph Nader's radio hour the first half hour...
“We know what the solutions are. We need to create the political constituency that can turn things around. And as you’re always emphasizing, Ralph, when people take their family to the beach, it’s not like they get in the water and go ‘I don’t mind if it’s polluted, because that at least means there’s less regulation.’” David Helvarg, executive director of Blue Frontier and organizer of The March For The Ocean
https://ralphnaderradiohour.com/march-for-the-ocean-basic-income/

I don't buy into basic income which is the focus of the second half. I think a national jobs program with a job for everyone is a better approach - could be a 25 or 30 hour work week. There's too much to do...from cleaning up the environment to staffing parks, to teacher's aides, and so many more needs... that I prefer jobs to giving away money to prop up the profits of the 1%.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

The Aspie Corner's picture

@Lookout

I think a national jobs program with a job for everyone is a better approach - could be a 25 or 30 hour work week. There's too much to do...from cleaning up the environment to staffing parks, to teacher's aides, and so many more needs... that I prefer jobs to giving away money to prop up the profits of the 1%.

They want this country's infrastructure dead. They don't give a shit about anyone. Anything. And, for that matter, neither do a good chunk of the working plebs.

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

Lookout's picture

@The Aspie Corner

Basic income, no more war, jobs program, etc. are merely dreams. The capitalist system manufactures profit no matter what(primarily by war). Add in a national amnesia and it is a recipe for disaster. And the ecology of the planet will have the last word on our species...sooner rather than later I'm afraid.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Meteor Man's picture

On corporate polluters suing environmental activists. From Naked Capitalism:

On November 17, 2016, a Colorado environmental activist named Pete Kolbenschlag used Facebook to leave a comment on a local newspaper article, the kind of thing more than a billion people do every day.

However, most people don’t get sued for libel over their Facebook comments. (Although some do.)

A lot of details from an article that originally was posted at De Smog Blog and this summary of other lawsuits:

Kolbenschlag isn’t the only person facing legal action from the oil and gas industry in the past year. As DeSmog has reported, Energy Transfer Partners, owner of the Dakota Access pipeline, is suing the groups Greenpeace and Banktrack, and the grassroots movement known as EarthFirst! for alleged racketeering and conspiracy for their activism against the pipeline.

In addition, natural gas company Eversource Energy is threatening suit against the advocacy organization Environmental Defense Fund. Its concerns relate to the group’s analysis which concludes Eversource and another utility legally manipulated gas pipeline markets to force hikes in New England gas prices.

Finally, Marcellus shale drilling company Cabot Oil and Gas has filed a high-profile suit against Dimock, Pennsylvania, landowner Ray Kemble, whose groundwater was contaminated by Cabot drilling activity. The company settled with Kemble in 2012 but alleges he is violating that agreement by publicly discussing any supposed harm by the company, and thereby “disparaging” it.

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2018/01/oil-gas-company-sues-environment...

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"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

Lookout's picture

@Meteor Man

Thanks for the links!

Here's one of many stories...this one from Alabama near my neighborhood (film produced by Neil Young)

https://modernfarmer.com/2015/09/seeding-fear-the-story-of-a-farmer-who-...
11 min
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZGueeao0tE]

We are a corporate oligarchy and the evidence is plainly in front of us. We just seem to be in denial.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Meteor Man is to not get dragged down into the morass, imo. Lookout, you keep your head above the water better than most people I know. Thanks for sharing that.

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Lookout's picture

Jessica Bruder, Author of “Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century”. They discuss America’s elderly itinerant workforce. (27 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJrGhfaiz9I

I'm about to play it while I clean around the dusty house.

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Raggedy Ann's picture

Nice gathering of news. I feel so much more informed than any of my contemporaries. I work at a university and many faculty and staff alike rely on the NYT, WaPo, NPR, etc. for their "trusted" information. I am admonished for challenging their "news" as propaganda. I now say, "the way I understand it is..." If asked, I'll give them sites such as The Intercept, Jimmy Dore, The Real News, etc., and leave it at that. Sigh. Actually, some colleagues now ask my thoughts on issues, so I feel there is dialogue occurring.

A cold front this morning with horizontal snowfall, already past, leaving only cold, blustery winds behind.

Have a beautiful day, everyone! Pleasantry

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Lookout's picture

@Raggedy Ann @Raggedy Ann

opened my eyes to the horrors of corporate media. Now I see it in all coverage....especially our dirty little wars.

No snow here today, but I wouldn't be surprised to get another dose before spring arrives. Stay warm and have a good day.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout

The way Bernie was covered...

opened my eyes to the horrors of corporate media. Now I see it in all coverage....especially our dirty little wars. ...

Bernie also gets internet-trolled in propaganda purportedly from the 'left' a lot. He scares TPTB, even though they still need him to maintain some pretense at there being a party that still believes in democracy, and they encourage us to reject everything he tries in this impossible situation; although it could be expected that he'd have to mouth certain talking-points to keep any position where he could engage the corporate-news-restricted public and encourage the notion of actual democracy in the public mind, and even if he had been actually sucked into the propaganda bubble in some areas, he's not a psychopath and responds to reality. Unfortunately, that cannot be said of many in American (or multiple-other country's) politics.

Bernie's in there with a fascist government masked in democratic 'optics', doing his best to do anything he can for his people and country at great personal sacrifice and the toll this is taking can be seen, even though his energy seems undiminished.

We have to understand that we aren't really dealing with politics, we're dealing with a massive perceptual and financial/power-stealing scam run by ruthless psychopaths. And Bernie's virtually alone in there, still trying, and never giving up, same as he's done throughout his entire life. If we waste his efforts, I believe that we also lose our last chance.

Lol, I hate mornings! Just called up another page to see if this comment had actually gone through or not, (it hadn't) when it appeared to have not done so, went into the thread there and saw a completely unfamiliar OP.

When I turned the computer on and went into this thread, I must have somehow hit 'comments' and had forgotten that the computer had opened on the Jimmmy Dore video before my going down to make coffee, let the dog out and in (and the cat beginning an out and in process to be quickly repeated multiple times, because it's still not summer yet and it's cold, lol,) so by the time I'd got back up, Dore had loaded, I made a huge post and absent-mindedly continued down the comments without realizing that I'd never seen the OP - and wow, does that ever look interesting in a depressing sort of way!

Can't even say how grateful I am for here... especially when I look back on TOP limitations and managed conversations, even prior to the primaries.

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0 users have voted.

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Meteor Man's picture

I've been out of the loop on protests recently for personal resaons, so I didn't make it to this DTLA protest. It's on the tube in Seattle, N.Y., and other cities.

Here's about 20 links courtesy of the L.A. Times:

http://beta.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-ln-womens-march-updates-2...

[edit] And good coverage from Truthdig:

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/live-blog-womens-march-2018-multimedia/

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"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

Lookout's picture

@Meteor Man
is doing a good job as editor of truthdig. I like his podcasts too.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

mimi's picture

and remain silent.

Can't make any comment to your Weekly Watch, because I can't read that fast, I am still in dkmich's diary.

[video:https://youtu.be/zmLKeKcecZg]

Isn't it sad, because Sane Progressive is basically right?

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Lookout's picture

@mimi

dk's piece was interesting. Debbie makes an effort at sanity anyway doesn't she. I hope all's well with you.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@mimi as a good sad, at least the truth still gets out. Sad truth. We all want to see things get better.

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Lookout's picture

@QMS

we have to see both sides. All is not politics and government...thankfully. I had a childhood that required learning to focus on other things to maintain sanity. Oddly enough that sad upbringing now provides tools for coping with the tragedy of the commons/planet.

I'm aware over a third of the coral is dead in just the last couple of years, but I'm not going to put my focus there for long. Where and what we spend our time on is key to any hope of peace (of mind).

Glad to see you around.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout we've seen worse. thanks for the support.

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