@QMS So did the teachers go back to work?

The WV teachers union sold out the rank and file again. The deal media is hyping as a victory takes money from health care spending to pay for the 5% wage increase, which will be eaten up by increased health insurance costs. A victory only for the rulers, once again.

The strike demonstrated that the growth of class conflict will bring workers into ever more direct conflict with the right-wing trade union apparatuses which function as an industrial police force for the governments and companies. It was the teachers’ defiance of the unions’ back-to-work order that galvanized the support of ever-broader sections of the working class and youth.

from WSWS article http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/03/07/west-m07.html

@randtntx Read him first, travel later. That's what I'd do. Though I suppose someone more adventurous would travel and take Blue Highways along with them, like Least Heat Moon took along Black Elk Speaks.

It looked like a half-moon in the early morning sky, with a planet hovering underneath and to the side a bit. We have a clear sky here and no rain for a change.

You have made me want to read William Least Heat-Moon. I have lived in small towns occasionally. They frighten me somewhat. I'll be interested to read his take on them, although I suspect things have changed for the worse due to our increasing lack of job opportunities in between the time of his travels and now.

The dog is persistently and naggingly asking to be taken out again so I will have to finish my comment later.

@The Aspie Corner Well, this isn't going to stop. It's one reason out of many I shredded my voter registration card last month.

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

@lotlizard True, though I think there's more going on with U.S. support of Saudi Arabia than that. Otherwise they wouldn't be able to turn the tables on us from time to time as they do. They and Israel are the only satellites, client states, semi-colonies, or whatever you want to call them, that get to do that to us.

On a side note, Stratfor should know all about this crap, since, as a company, they're up to their eyeballs in it. A small sampler of their activities, information on most of which derives from the Stratfor hack done by Jeremy Hammond. For those playing along at home, Barrett Brown was jailed for providing a hyperlink to the Stratfor hack material and suggesting that people online should read it.

This is all stuff I got just from Wikipedia:

Al Akhbar, citing internal emails from the Stratfor hack, reported former Blackwater director James F. Smith had a relationship with Stratfor and was for a time considered one of their major sources. Emails appeared to show that Smith participated in the murder of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, and had more recently been assigned to aid the rebellion against the government of Bashar al-Assad in Syria. In relation to his assignment to Syria, Smith requested an intelligence overview of the Syrian opposition from his Stratfor briefers.[17]


Over 40,000 documents related with information gathering from Venezuela including the status of the army (equipment, numbers, plans) and other sensitive information were also released. Various attempts at overthrowing the government of Hugo Chavez are described from sources inside Venezuela, with references to names Such as Antonio Ledezma (Caracas mayor), Henrique Capriles (opposition leader), Leopoldo Lopez, Rafael Poleo (media tycoon). Many papers involve CANVAS, as one of the main strategic counsel. One of the documents is titled "how to guide to revolution".[18][19][20]

Business Insider reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was an intelligence source for Stratfor between 2007 and 2010. In emails, Fred Burton discussed his personal communications with Netanyahu. Burton stated by email that Netanyahu informed him of his success in consolidating power within the Likud party ahead of regaining the position of prime minister, shared thoughts regarding his distrust of US President Barack Obama, threatened assassination of Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah, and declared intentions to unilaterally start a war against Iran.[16]

Some emails reveal that Stratfor had been partnering with Shea Morenz, a former Goldman Sachs director, along with other informants, in order to profit from what could be considered insider trading. Stratfor planned to use the intelligence it gathered in order to profit from trading in several worldwide markets. They created an offshore "share structure" known as "StratCap" during 2011, in order to avoid insider trading allegations. The offshore entity, set to launch operations in 2012, is outwardly independent of Stratfor, but CEO George Friedman told his employees that StratCap is secretly integrated with Stratfor.[7][8]

An email involving a Stratfor analyst stated that it had been determined that up to 12 officials in Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency knew of Osama bin-Laden's safe house.[11] Another email indicated that Stratfor Vice President Fred Burton had knowledge of the killing of bin Laden, and that the body was not dumped at sea, but rather sent to Dover Air Force Base in the United States.[12] This further fueled doubts about the US Government's account of the killings.[13]

They also do great things inside the U.S:

Thomas Kavaler, who was once a lawyer for a Stratfor client, had his email address and the password to his Stratfor account released in the leak. He is married to Judge Preska, who denied Jeremy Hammond's bail; the hearing was held eight months into Hammond's imprisonment.[9]

The ultimate “dog in the manger”?

Divide and conquer — why does the U.S. hate peace?

For my money a 2007 analysis by the geopolitical thinktank Stratfor comes closest to explaining what’s really going on inside the Beltway: “The basic global situation can be described simply. The United States has overwhelming power. It is using that power to try to prevent the emergence of any competing powers. It is therefore constantly engaged in interventions on a political, economic and military level. The rest of the world is seeking to limit and control the United States. No nation can do it alone, and therefore there is a constant attempt to create coalitions to contain the United States. So far, these coalitions have tended to fail, because potential members can be leveraged out of the coalition by American threats or incentives.”

The U.S. is the Great Global Disruptor. “As powers emerge, the United States follows a three-stage program. First, provide aid to weaker powers to contain and undermine emerging hegemons. Second, create more formal arrangements with these powers. Finally, if necessary, send relatively small numbers of U.S. troops to Eurasia to block major powers and destabilize regions.” For example, Iran is the emerging hegemon in the Middle East. The U.S. undermines Iran with trade sanctions, props up rivals like Saudi Arabia with aid, and deploys U.S. troops next door in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Similarly the U.S. keeps China off-balance by propping up Taiwan and setting up new U.S. bases in the region. We play India against Pakistan, Europe against Russia.

A united Korea would create a new power center, potentially a new economic rival, to the U.S. in the Pacific Rim. So the U.S. uses threats (“totally destroy”) against the North and incentivizes the South (free border security).

@randtntx I've never seen Cabaret, except for the clip in The Celluloid Closet.

May I heartily recommend this 1995 documentary, which did the good work before it was in fashion:

Music and dancing on the street corner. That is the best.

We watched the movie Cabaret this weekend with our houseguest. She had seen a production of Cabaret in New York with a totally different cast. We had fun comparing the two interpretations of the play which is based on the Christopher Isherwood novel, The Berlin Stories. What struck me was the confusion of the naive characters during the rise of the nazis in the pre-WWll era. I can draw parallels for our own era.

The poet you mention lived in post-WWll Vienna. Not directly after all the destruction and horror but still fresh in people's memories and lives. There are connections which I can't make right now. I hear sinister implications in this upbeat music:

@eyo I have more James Wright if you'd like. Originally, I had three poems in this OT.

Thanks that made me LOL, the camera could not resist. That is how I like to hear music too, free on the street and buy a cd to listen at home why not? Cash, thank you very much. I like the people dancing too. I still dance every day, can't help it. Nice segue to the next vid, or so it looks by the snapshot. Cheers.

That free style poem blew what's left of my mind. heh

peace