Trump runs for Führer
…a column written by Jacob Crosse and Andre Damon, 28 August 2020, wsws.org
My apologies for featuring such electoral low-hanging fruit, but the authors do make their cases, including the surreal nature of it given the current police state background, as well as the ‘Opposition’s similar candidates… (with permission from their site to repost their content at will, I’ll paste in the key passages.)
“In a scene that looked like a theatrical rendition of Sinclair Lewis’s It Can’t Happen Here, US President Donald Trump delivered a fascistic tirade from the White House lawn Thursday night, painting his reelection as the last bastion against “agitators” and “socialists.”
In an unprecedented and illegal move, Trump used the White House as a backdrop for his speech concluding the Republican National Convention (RNC), treating the office of the presidency as his own personal property in pursuit of reelection. At one point, Trump turned to face the White House and gloated, “The fact is, I’m here… and they’re not.”
Trump delivered his tirade as demonstrations against police violence continued throughout the country following the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Trump spoke just two days after a fascistic vigilante, incited by the inflammatory speeches at the RNC, carried out a mass shooting at a protest in Kenosha that left two innocent people dead.
Rallies were held outside the White House and in major cities across the country, including Seattle, Portland, Austin, Chicago, Los Angeles and Kenosha. Athletes from all the major sports leagues, including the National Basketball Association, the Women’s National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League, the National Football League and Major League Baseball, refused to play or practice on Thursday, leading to the cancellation of games and practices.
Trump’s response to the renewed protests has been to launch a massive crackdown. In Wisconsin, military police from three states–Arizona, Michigan and Alabama–are on their way or have already arrived to “assist” troops and thousands of militarized police from across the state in cracking down on protesters.
In his speech, Trump made clear his central appeal to the police, military and federal paramilitary forces, declaring, “We have to give law enforcement, our police, back their power.” He added, “My administration will always stand with the men and women of law enforcement,” before pointing to members of the Border Patrol union who attended the speech and calling them “brave, brave people.”
Trump continued, “This election will decide whether we save the American dream or whether we allow a socialist agenda to demolish our cherished destiny.” He declared that “Biden is a Trojan horse for socialism” and for “wild-eyed Marxists like Bernie Sanders.”
This right-wing fever dream stands reality on its head. In fact, it is Sanders who has completely subordinated himself to Biden, getting nothing in return for his endorsement.
The “Marxists” and “socialists” Trump is really afraid of are the masses of working people throughout the country who are disgusted with his administration’s murderous failure to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, soaring inequality and endless police murders across the country.
In his speech, Trump bizarrely praised his government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, simply ignoring the fact that a thousand people are dying every day, equivalent to two 9/11 attacks each week. He absurdly claimed that “the nations of Europe have experienced a 30 percent greater increase in excess mortality than the United States,” even though the US per capita death rate is twice as high as that of Europe.
Trump did not once mention the tens of millions of people left jobless by the economic crisis or the millions more facing hunger and eviction after the White House and Congress worked together to slash federal unemployment benefits, even as the wealth of the oligarchs soars to astronomical heights.
Metropolitan Police confront protestors on the ground Thursday night , Aug. 27, 2020, in Washington, after President Donald Trump had finished delivering his acceptance speech from the White House South Lawn.
“In Trump’s telling, America is a terrestrial paradise, and if people are dissatisfied, it is because they are “agitators.”
Anyone watching this surreal scene will ask, how did this buffoon get anywhere near the White House? And how, after having killed 180,000 people, does he even have the prospect of reelection?
And yet, this outcome is quite possible. That is because Trump’s greatest advantage, as always, is the spinelessness of his Democratic “opponents.”
If there was a unifying theme to last week’s Democratic convention, it was the rejection of any appeal to the broad majority of the population and, in particular, the working class. The event, whose guests of honor were disaffected Republicans and generals, was almost entirely pitched to the Democratic Party’s target constituency in the wealthy suburbs.” […]
“In the final analysis, Trump is pursuing his conflict with the Democrats as a war, while they continue to see it as an “intramural scrimmage,” in the words of former President Barack Obama.
That is because, speaking as one of the two parties of Wall Street and big business, the Democrats are just as terrified of, and hostile to, the growth of mass popular opposition to capitalism as Trump is.”
I sucked it up and listened to part of DT’s hour and ten minute acceptance speech so you wouldn’t have to. (Please pay the cashier $1.99 on your way out the door.) The first nine minutes are: ‘A nation ordained by Gawd, Manifest Destiny & Westward Ho, We ended slavery, We won WWII, We’re winning over Covid, and will have a vaccine ready by the end of the year, our administration is on the ground helping the victims of Hurricane Laura’, etc. FEMA on Twitter has the same ad up:
‘Just landed in Texas to assess the damage from #Laura here & in Louisiana. Even though we’re still fighting against #COVID19, we’re always ready to deploy to areas that need our immediate support.’, with a nifty little video along with it.
But I did want you to be able to hear 5 or 10 minutes of it in his own voice, in case you might choose to accept such an odious mission.
Maybe his Acceptance Speech (‘Profoundly Accepted’) was more by way of Custer’s Last Stand? (vintage 1877 photo)
But no matter who wins the White House, it’ll be the Triumph of the Ruling Class, won’t it?
(cross-posted from Café Babylon)
Comments
my apologies; i can't seem to embed the video at about
nine minutes. i'll try this, and hope it works.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1i5IIYfFhI&feature=youtu.be&t=561]
Try putting
"&t=540" at the end of your link.
NVM, your link works fine (comes up at 9:21).
"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone
ordinarily, just cueing
up the start arrow, clicking Share, start at __ time, works. but not this time. i used that same code in a comment at the Café, it didn't work.
another hint: eaach time you edit a comment, it adds an @so-and-so. if you deleted all but the first one, then hit enter, it's a far less crowded comment field.
On listening to part of speech, no thanks.
I dislike him and everything about him intensely. There must be a human inside that orange skin. If so, it is well hidden.
Yes,
never want to let reality intrude on a comfortable delusion.
it wasn't as bad as i'd feared,
but then i mainly listened, not watched, and not for more than 20 mins. in two sessions, i'd guess (videos give me vertigo). i simply wanted to demonstrate that Crosse and Damon were representing those portions accurately.
yes, there's likely a human in there, but no doubt a megalomaniac, likely another sociopath a so many prezes have been.
Le Bron James should be talking to Cornell West not Obama.
A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.
Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.
Wendy
Quit trying to get us to vote for lyin' Biden using DNC talking points.
If Trump is re-elected there will be some push back by the House. if Biden is elected there will be NO push back from the House.
ergo, Biden is the greater evil.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
There's no pushback now
Every once in awhile Nancy posts a prayer. That's it.
Is there one word in there about Trump that is not true?
I also didn't see any mention of voting for Joe Biden.
I completely agree with the assessment of Trump and his speech.
I am not voting for Trump. I am not voting for Biden. I could not care any less about the DNC.
It's entirely possible to understand and acknowledge what Trump is, without falling in line for the democrats. Biden may well be worse. That still doesn't mean we have pretend Trump is cool.
while i'm still quite
psycho-spiritually out of kilter following some RL communication horrors last evening, i'll try to respond to your charges coherently and fairly.
first, it may be that you hadn't red either what crosse and damon wrote, nor my own commentary that you came to such a strange conclusion. i'd almost added at the top that i'd also posted their (and others') commentary in my august 22 post: ‘Final Nite 4 of the Dem Nat’l Tent Revival’. now you'd made several comments that i'd tried my best to sort out as to 'peace and war' candidates, but in this one you'd offered:
but see; that was only a week ago. perhaps your memory leaks a bit like mine does? but do reread the above OP if you would. you might be surprised at what you'd missed. ; )
me, i'll vote Green for Hawkins and Walker. i #DemExited four quadrennial circuses ago.
Sorry, it read just like a DNC promo
Voting Green is fine. So is not voting.
But in practice there is a binary choice. Biden or Trump will be elected. I'll gladly read your post on why we should vote for Hawkins. However, this post is pure "Trump bad", a fact abundantly clear to all at C99. So what else could it's purpose be but to herd the sheep into the fold?
Nice ageist slap in your response, too. No, my memory isn't that bad. I'll ignore it, knowing that you are snarky to all. And yes, Biden is the greater evil. Biden will do more damage to the 99% than Trump can in a second term. It's Scylla and Charybdis.
So, I probably should vote for trump, not because I want him, but because of the LOTE.
I live in Illinois, so Biden will get the electors, no matter who the people vote for, so there is no sense in my voting at all, except to stick my thumb in the DNC's eye by voting Green. Hardly worth the effort. Won't bother voting by mail. As a former election judge, I know that mail ballots are normally sent to the voter's precinct, and opened and counted there (machine count) on election night. Apparently this time they will be centrally processed by the Cook County Board of elections, a Tammany Hall style of DNC stooges. So I won't waste my time with a vote that will be never recorded.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
ageist?
hello, mr. wd swears i'll turn 70 in december. snarky to all? okay then.
Thank you Wendy!
A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.
Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.
I see
at the Guardian that Michael Moore is once again saying Trump can win. I'm not making any predictions. I strongly suspect that Biden will get more votes, but we saw how much good that does. We saw the DNC convention grovel for Republican votes. The last figures I saw were that 5% of Republicans were planning to vote for Biden, versus 7% who voted for Clinton and 12% that voted for Obama (not sure which election).
There's nothing either of these senile old men can do to get my vote. And clearly neither one of them cares.
"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone
i'd seen headlines
referring to 'polling shows'...trump bump after convention, tra la la. but it's far too early to even begin to guess, isn't it? which is one reason DT's speech claimed 'we'll have a covid-19 vaccine by the end of they year! we can do both the hurrycane laura, too!'
but that may be his weakest point electorally according to some. and he'd asked for, as had bill gates, for immunity from any civil suits over (ruh-roh) 'vaccine complications'.
but big bill owns stock in all the co's in the west who're vying to be First, and on twitter i'd seen that AstraZeneca is field-testing it, and it all looked terrifying.
but both blue and red teams will be trying to pull rabbits out of hats as October Surprises, won't they? but i can imagine even this sort of rabbit...
I'd rather take the Russian vaccine.
And I don't trust Russia or Putin.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
@WoodsDweller https://twitter.com
https://twitter.com/MMFlint/status/1299309425379901440?ref_src=twsrc%5Et...
NYCVG
Reddit censured this article
Source
Orwell warmed us.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
Gotta post at r/WayOfTheBern
https://www.reddit.com/r/WayOfTheBern/
Maybe there are other echo chambers controlled by non-Biden non-Trump forces, but I don't know of them yet.
"A reminder: the US has the #1 most expensive healthcare system in the world, yet we rank roughly #42 in life expectancy." -- Luigi Mangione
Reddit censured Bill Binney
When he did a AMA on Russia Gate on way of the bern. This was in this week’s evening blues.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
I think Reddit censorship is at the subreddit level.
So it depends upon the subreddit you're posting on.
"A reminder: the US has the #1 most expensive healthcare system in the world, yet we rank roughly #42 in life expectancy." -- Luigi Mangione
Why are you so concerned with me going over to WOTB?
this is the 4th time you have posted the link to the site for some reason. Do you know that I am over on the site posting comments daily? DO you send others the link to it or is there a reason you keep telling me what to do? I find this odd.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
Don't freak out.
I'm over there too.
"A reminder: the US has the #1 most expensive healthcare system in the world, yet we rank roughly #42 in life expectancy." -- Luigi Mangione
@snoopydawg
So did Alex Jones.
(assuming that was intended to read "warned")
Yep
I just posted the censor article on Twitter and wrote about how people cheered when Jones was banned. This is more work of the Atlantic Council that’s funded by the government.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
yeppers;
and at least kevin reed had tried to explain what reddit is, how it works, who it works for, etc.
thanks for bringing it.
Sorry, but this bit is utter crap
as is much else of what the authors assert, although their points about the cravenness of the Democratic Party establishment are on target.
Let me rephrase that in a way that reflects how what (I'll go out on a limb and call) normal people who bother to check the videos, timeline and background of those involved in the incident would tend to view it:
"Trump spoke just two days after an idealistic young man, possibly motivated in part by speeches by President Trump and other speakers at the RNC condemning looting and violence carried out in the name of protest, who had come from a neighboring town to, with a local friend, assist in cleanup efforts after looting and vandalism and to join with other armed volunteers to deter further destruction of private property, was forced - having been chased, viciously attacked and in fear for his life - to shoot three of his attackers, all of whom were associated with the protests and all of whom had criminal records, two with felony records and the third a misdemeanor weapons charge."
Innocent victims these guys were not.
It's not clear whether Rittenhouse was running toward people who were vandalizing cars or whether he was running away from something/someone, but he was clearly being chased by Rosenbaum (1st guy shot) who is on video from earlier in the evening being extremely confrontational with militia volunteers. At least one witness says that Rosenbaum attempted to wrestle Rittenhouse's gun away. At that point Rittenhouse shot him, fatally.
As an ex-felon who served ten years for the rape of a twelve-year-old girl, Rosenbaum was not allowed to possess a firearm, the attempt to take Rittenhouse's gun probably itself constituted a felony, even aside from the theft aspect.
Rittenhouse appears to call 911 to report the shooting and is walking away from the area when he is again chased, falls, is kicked in the head, then struck by a swung skateboard. That attacker, Anthony Huber appears to reach for Rittenhouse's gun with his other hand. Rittenhouse, still on the ground fires one round and kills him.
Meanwhile, Gaige Grosskreutz has run up, but stops short when Huber is shot and raises his hands, Rittenhouse holds his fire but then Grosskreutz drops his hands, draws a pistol and starts to point it at Rittenhouse - who fires a single round that strikes Grosskreutz' upper forearm - photos of the immediate aftermath of the shooting clearly show Grosskreutz still holding the gun.
I challenged people in another thread to show how this was anything but self defense on Rittenhouse's part and no one stepped up (no, vague aspersions about his character and motives do not count).
So, I'll repeat that here. Well?
*Anyone*?
Frame by frame analysis here at (the apparently un-embeddable) Banned.Video
local coverage
Here to help - Rittenhouse joins with other volunteers cleaning graffitti
Disarm the world
you sound better than normal, you sound hypernormal. Unless you were there, or are directly related to a person involved, why are you so emotionally invested? Screen time? I don't know. I have my own reasons for not watching the kabuki. Garbage in, garbage out.
Teenagers roaming the streets with AR-15s doesn't make me feel safe at all, that's not normal. What the hell. Property crimes are not murder but what the hell. Extra judicial execution by teenage conservatives friendly to the pigs, why not? This appears to be the same as it ever was, only younger and more violent. Good luck.
Where did Hitler keep his armies? In his sleevies. Right now I'm for disarming all the gun holders worldwide. Cut their arms off and stuff them down their throats and up their asses. What exactly is it they're trying to protect? They're all actors in some badly rerun LARP version of that Standford After School Special experiment called The Wave, in my view. Bad bad actors.
Seig Heil
cui bono
Violent Racist vs. Violent Rapist
Nobody 2020
Why, indeed...?
Well,so much for "an injury to one is an injury to all" I guess.
Call it an emotional attachment to quaint notions like believing that the right to peaceably assemble, to defend one's life and legitimately acquired property, to freedom of expression and such are, well, RIGHTS. Fundamental human ones.
So, as a human not interested in being any further enslaved than I am and not wishing enslavement on others, yeah - I'm very much invested.
"If you have a right to respect, that means other people don't have a right to their own opinions."
~ Thomas Sowell
I remember asking the question when Trump looked like
he would win: if he does something we think is right, will we say so? The inverse of what happened during the Obama administration, where we wouldn't or couldn't criticize the first person of color when he appointed the bankers who were responsible for the 2008 recession/fall off the cliff and any other policies that took us down the wrong path.
I for one would like to know if the scenario Blue Republic has painted above, is likely or on review is factual. Was Rittenhouse pursued by others???? Who were they?
Edit to add: "militias"? Appointed or deputized by whom? This is not legal, Second Amendment or not. The idea that armed groups can come into a city or town and take over for Law Enforcement and they let them is scary beyond words.
No guns, no displays of arms. Causes escalations and it seems it is a very young crowd. They are not measured in their assessment of risk or right.
While it seems there is a good reason to review why Rittenhouse did what he did, he certainly shouldn't have been there with a gun, nor should the others, for legal and practical reasons.
A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.
Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.
It's refreshing
to have someone expressing an interest in the actual facts of the incident.
I've provided links that go through multiple videos showing what happened and others
giving background information on those who were shot - and am inviting
people to check things out for themselves.
FWIW - here are a couple more.
Cheers, BR
From the Daily Caller: "We Witnessed The Kenosha Shootings. Here’s What Really Happened"
Big League Politics: "Lawyer of Accused Kenosha Shooter Breaks Down Kyle Rittenhouse’s Case for Self Defense"
Thanks for the links, I'll add my own.
NYT Video Investigation of Rittenhouse shooting
Apologies if it is behind a paywall. The NYT Top Picks Comments are reasonable reactions in my opinion.
This is a similar investigation with commentary.
A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.
Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.
boy, howdy, am i glad
that i don't have the time nor the knowledge, to engage with your comment.
to all: i have a boatload of garden produce to process, as well as other RL chores to perform. back as i'm able on breaks.
to all the leaders ...
To all the leaders I loathed before (to the tune of to all the girls I loved before)
"Get out of my view. You stand between me and the sun".
Wanna be Diogenes today
long version (too long)
WTF - short version
'Leading Drumpal-1 Virus' - is coming near you. If you need a brain killer, this one is for. Diogenes has the cure.
Mama Mia, when will all those leaders just stop popping up out of nowhere?
https://www.euronews.com/live
I heard the first minute of Trumps' speech
my judgement ... Goebbels was way better. /EOM
https://www.euronews.com/live
Drumpelstitzchen's voice sounds like this silly voice
of a girlsih woman in the 'Lidl' commercial during Germany's evening TV news-breaks. Boyish men sound alikes.
Boring commercials - even dummies can't help realizing they are a waste, dumb and superfluous.
Pfft.
Isn't it funny that lies never make a better story than the truthfull life event telleing ones? Ha, ha, ha ... not.
https://www.euronews.com/live
i was surprised by
how hoarse his voice sounded. maybe too much bellicosity? ad when i had looked, his lips hadn't stuck out like a trumpet as usual.
Well here it is just a few hours later, and the BBC announces
That at 9pm PDT someone shot a teenage male wearing pro Trump gear in Portland. Killed him with a shot to the chest.
It is 1pm CEDT (Central European Daylight Time). We are looking for anything we can find and there isn't much.
Most recent Axios article about the shooting.
Oregon Public Broadcasting report from earlier.
Edit to add: NYT Report on Portland the comment section is good. Right now like a live blog. Apologies if this is behind a paywall.
First of all I am a member of Society of Native Oregon Born. Born in the old hospital in NW Portland many decades ago. I knew Portland as my home town and work base until I was 47. Then moved one hour Eastwards and still considered Portland my home town until we left for France in 2014. Oregon has a nasty, historic underbelly of racial and ethnic hatred for anyone not white and Protestant.
So much is wrong with what's going on, it's hard to know where to start, what to know (not believe) what is true, what to do....but I will put some thoughts down which may or may not represent what is going on.
- There was a pro Trump parade Saturday that was not "official" but Portland cops/police (I really hate to use deprecating names for people or offices.) blocked side streets for the pro Trump marchers.
- Someone correct me but this has been greeted harshly if it has been viewed as pro BLM parades or demonstrations???
- Guns were present just like Kenosha.
- No guns should be allowed, even by most of the police.
- Irony strikes: this was a 17 year old male in the pro Trump march.
I took a time-out to read Harper's April article "Good Guys with Guns". It's a long read, but a patient attention to the whole piece is worthwhile. There was a time when rational gun control would have been possible but the NRA bought and paid for no legislation and got it over and over. Bolding is mine.
- So Far we don't know what was used to kill this young man. Was it close quarters? Distant? Kind of gun?
- I don't trust much of anything that will be reported. False flags being what they have been and the police seeming welcome of white supremacist "volunteers" carrying guns around the nation.
- I didn't know Ted Wheeler was a Democrat until Trump sent federal troops into Portland this summer.
- There have been some reports that the reason mayors of Portland (sorry don't have a reference, but welcome edits to my understanding) don't stop the gun carrying and escalation of violence/confrontation is because the police union has sway over the mayor's office.
- The nightly protests were dying out until Trump sent in federal enforcers (mixed bag of groups and agencies these 'troops' were drawn from).
- The federals seemed to escalate rather than calm the situation. They were outside their perimeter to 'guard' the federal courthouse. BLM protesters were dragged into unmarked cars after nightly protests and detained (where?) without arrest or declaration of crimes.
- The mayor and the governor along with Congressional senators and representatives did not want the federal enforcers in Portland.
- Trump is already tweeting he will send federal forces back in to bring Portland under control.
- Bush senior called Portland "Little Beirut". My DH went to a protest against Bush junior when he came to Portland, and stood with journalists under a tree in an cordoned area labeled a "free speech zone".
- Curfews (who wants to be in tense situations like these after dark?) have not been enforced.
It appears to me the strategy has been to let the protest extinguish naturally rather than push the demonstrators out. However the police also seem to be welcoming the undeputized, armed civilian groups who have come from areas outside Portland to 'help'.
This feels like a couple of things to me:
- A push for more violence and a civil war in Portland. It will get harder for moderates (I mean in the sense of how to hear the protests and do something meaningful, rather than encourage confrontation.) to prevail as the lines of enforcement get more blurred. And the original BLM gets co-opted by violence reputedly from their own ranks. Just as with WHO protests years ago, there were undefined perpetrators of violence from within the protests, but were either plants or opportunists.
- A good excuse for martial law.
We still have relatives and friends in Portland and other parts of Oregon. We have not been successful in hearing any meaningful description of what is going on. Most we have talked with seem determined to stay out of downtown and to carry on. The truck parade organized just a couple of miles from my nephew's home and my sister's home.
Anyone here who has a grasp of what has been going on, what the mayor and governor are doing and whether they can substantially alter the dynamics, please write what you understand.
It is confusing watching this from overseas and getting almost no good information from those closest to what is going on.
News reports don't seem to help. Although we have seen a few reports by professional journalist embeds who describe the protestors as peaceful and the police and enforcers generally as aggressive. (Again these comments are from memory, and I would appreciate corrections or understanding that would clarify or correct me.) I am biased to believe that the BLM protesters are peaceful and that the confrontations and property destruction was from opportunists and false flag actors. Set me straight.
Portland was a nice city to walk around and visit in. Terrific restaurants, great cultural opportunities.
The black population is incredibly small as to be almost invisible. Their niche in near-in NE Portland gentrified in the last fifteen or so years. Pushing low income residents out and breaking up a thriving black and art community.
Homelessness has been exploding for years. Our last visits were unbelievable in the changes and the increase in people sleeping rough.
Most heartbreaking are the families in these camps and groups. Clearly visible.
The income distribution from high income rich people to low and no income people is a huge disparity.
Once we had lived in rural Oregon, looking to our retirement, we couldn't buy our way back into Portland. As we looked around the country for a place we could build in our aging in place we encountered the same in cities around the country. Our option was to live rural without access to amenities, transportation and services.
We finally chose to leave the country. We look like geniuses for moving to France. It was to us simply a practical solution. We also felt like philosophical and political refugees.
Thank you for addressing this admittedly complex and confusing set of situations. I was at one time a Pollyannish person who in the last twenty years has become completely disheartened and cynical. We worry about our adopted country too. The last three presidents have been pro US, pro corporate and pro military, backing pretty much any action the US has been involved in.
One lady we rented from said if something happens or trends in the US, it eventually comes here. We certainly hope not.
Thank you for reading my disjointed thoughts today.
Thank you Wendy as always for getting things out to us.
A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.
Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.
the police union has sway over the mayor's office.
I read that police unions donate more to dems than repubs and that is one reason dems won't reign in the police. Don't forget that BIden wrote the crime bill that Clinton signed. When Bill cut welfare he took $17 million from it and gave $19 million to the cops and prisons. Might have been Billions not Millions. It has been awhile since I read it. More I think about it I think it was billions. And remember Obama cut $5 billion from food stamps.
At the start of this video Biden is talking about the crime bill and wanted Clinton to make sentences 3 times longer than what they were and to get more cops, prosecutors and prisons.
It makes sense that police unions consider democrats their friends. Trump rolled back some of the crime bill, but Obama didn't bother to discuss it.
Democrats are also friends of the MIC and the intelligence agencies.
Obama: No one including the president is above the law. Well except ex presidents. Also no one should be in offer to get rich. The 1st speech Obama gave was to Wall Street and got paid $400,000 for it. Kyle totally destructs his speech:
This is a great watch/.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
Thanks snoop. It's billions: this is the inside game.
Never going to reform from the inside, it's already been done.
As I said elsewhere, Le Bron should talk with Cornell West not Obama. He's a young guy looking for an elder with knowledge and wisdom. Go back to playing isn't it.
We have a COVID spike in France. Not sure what they will have to do. The Tour de France started yesterday. Riders are really nervy. All are athletes but a strange kind of fragile, the Tour riders are. Part of the race will come quite close to us NW of Lyon. We may watch and we may not. Usually July is Tour month for us. This year everything feels out of joint. Checking stats daily.
You all take care.
A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.
Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.
Getting advice from Obama be like
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
re: cornell west, and
h/t joe shispak, brother west ties himself into pretzels while advising 'vote for biden'.
EXCLUSIVE: Cornel West On Whether The Left Should Stick With Dem Party Or Make A Clean BREAK
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=26&v=dbJHkpVY-BI&feature=emb...
oh, tiddly pom.
my sorta-lengthy response disappeared; likely my mouse's fault, not site gremlins. shorter, RL obligations and chores took far longer than id imagined, and i need some rest, even a bit 'o sleep, perchance to dream.
you're welcome,
but the thanks go to you and so many others for adding your remembered histories (including personal ones) links, and perceptions. i made it thru your first two, yes, the CIA times is behind a paywall, and i'll just enjoy your excerpt from harper's 'good guys with guns'.
i only wish i'd been able to keep up. as i'd said, i'm even more off my game than usual due to unresolvable family horrors. as to massive US gun ownership and the NRA at the core, i'm agnostic, as guns are easily obtainable thru programs like the ATF'scullors) 'Operation fast and furious' back in the day. and many argue the constitution notes something about 'a well-armed militia', rather speciously. but let's stick a pin in that.
as a comical side note: now that microsoft no longer supports its own MSN home page where our email resides, i must get 50 junk mails a day, among them 'concealed carry permits available online', lol.
somehow, reporting on many sites identified every police state protestor as 'BLM', which is a misnomer in any event. yes, the original three who'd copyrighted the hashtag #BLM seem to be financed quite well, some say soros, other say the ford foundation: garza, tomei, and
cullors, but even globally, including france, most signs used BLM as a rubric, with mention of their own unarmed Killed by Police state, even if not always...black, but certainly of the lower classes, i think.
it's noticeable that recently RT.com (which used to be a decent news site for subversive thought and op-eds) has become fascist against the protests, many click-bail headlines blaming 'democrats' for fomenting insurrections' using kamala harris and maxine waters as their only examples?
i recently saw on twitter that NPR was quoting police that 'seriously! the other 5 po-po has tased jacob blake, so office
sheskeykrupke pumped 7 into him! and there was a knife in his car, he admitted it! (no mention of it's size, and 'he had a history of family violence! so the defense has already made its case, as with so many police murders.one thing that tallies re the Patriot Prayers folks (and i forget who the Boogaloos are) is that every saturday in cortez where mr. wd goes to shop for us, a small group of folks hold a black lives matter walk. and on their heels, honking, waving US and confederate flags is a long, long convoy of 'counter-protestors'. some ride choppers, must most are in pickups with guns in racks in the rear windows, of course. recently he was in durango 30-odd miles east of here, and a small group of BLMers was in a park gazebbo, when apparently the same group came, got out of their veHICles, armed to the teeth.
anyhoo, i should quit blathering; i've likely strayed from the topic in my usual stream-of-consciousness way.
but thanks so myuch, Dawns Meta, and how prescient of you to leave this #ShitHoleNation an be homesteading anew in two tents with electricity? hope you write that saga up for us one day... we did so thirty years or more ago; lordie, the energy it took!
Thanks Wendy. Homesteading in France.
Actually there is a lot to recommend here. We did buy a mold-filled home, therefore the tents. We have two bathrooms in the house, washing machine and dishwasher in the soon to be finished kitchen. And lordy back...I'm 70. It's been harder than expected. We are cleaning, and with Fall arriving want as much air and sunlight as we can get on cleaned 60% replaced stone house. We would have taken a modern house and weren't looking for old stone. But this was the right place with the right ingredients and we had looked at fifty before this one. Nothing big obviously wrong. Five months in we found out how much trouble we had bought.
France is not hard to buy into and affordable for middle class US. Many countries require a buy in, but France is relatively easy. Paperwork which everyone complains about is a matter of making lists and checking off each item. We already have our ten year visas.
Rural France especially where there is train and bus plus active villages makes getting around easy and we could get on the health system after three months if we said we will stay.
There are many ghost dead in winter areas of rural France and Europe in general. Land is recovering from humans. Lots of wildlife and insects. Finding the areas where people are busy and commerce is thriving is key. COVID has really messed with the little businesses which are everywhere. And we miss our terribly good community choir, which helped us learn better conversational French.
As people fled to cities and towns many rural properties abound.Prices extremely reasonable But care must be taken. It can be a ruin, or a wreck, or hidden vice (vice caché). We landed one alright.
Wish us luck. I want a garden next Summer.
A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.
Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.
i know we all wish you
both the best of luck. but i must say that i'm quite concerned about the mold in your house. can i assume you've had the mold type analyzed, and have already discovered that it can be banished forevermore by bleach or other solutions? many sorts aren't.
it does sound like a wonderful place to live, though. we'd homesteaded twenty acres, and likely the most comical project was discing, then hand seeding the 9 acres of dryland above the irrigation ditch. 2 idiot hippies walking up and down the field w/ those little chest-packs of hand-cranked seed throwers. then back to refill them w/ grass seed, and tra la la...all day long.
but we've created an amazing oxygen-rich oasis in the SW by planting over 200 trees and shrubs over the years. one irony is this: we'd both reckoned we'd stay fit and lithe by working so hard...when what we'd neglected to consider was that such heavy and hard work would take it's toll physically. my eventual downfall was Rocks, and being an Amazon Woman. ; )
i hadn't known, but should have have expected, that Portland's such a WASP city. iirc, portland paid some homeless last year...to count the numbers of homeless. but a couple years ago, jail inmates were paid a buck a day to roust homeless camps, toss their tents and all belongings into dumpsters...
best to you, and to all of us.
Just to answer your questions:
Bought in August 2017; moved in September 2017; funny smells like old ciggy smoke in upper hallway; but when the rains came in October, Katy bar the door, we had a problem. The former owner, a heating and cooling specialist as well as a plumber, insisted it was odors from an abandoned washer pipe to the septic. Made a big show about the pipe and pouring water in to make a gas seal. He left we found the pipe was broken and went no where. Called another plumber friend, retired. He walked in, sniffed the air and said "mold". We went to the room with the pipe and took small sections of wallboard out, covered with mold. Anywhere wall board was used on interior walls, trapped moisture between the old rock walls and the back of the wallboard. Mold loves those conditions. I felt like glass shattering in a million pieces. I knew it would be a slog and hard. And so it has been.
The Department Sâone et Loire sent certified testers out via a prescription from our allergist. The sampled air, swabbed surfaces then sent all to a lab in Besançon. 25 times the acceptable levels. Our allergist wrote "inhabitable". We tried sealing it off while we looked for legal help and or good information on what could be done. The department recommended replacing the contaminated areas, putting a new drainage behind the house (a hill with possible granite boulders) and cleaning. We dug the drainage (no boulders - whew); the exposed first floor extension was a dry-laid wall so the entire extension was removed (enlevé) and replaced. Removed all wallboard; sandblasted the stonewalls (so much dust, so little time); then began rebuilding. We found a great father/son team who we find absolutely good eggs: honest, thrifty, artisans. Like a general contractor, which are hard to find.
The department retested in March. We went from 25,000 ppm to 1,034. Over the limit but in striking distance. We have since vacuumed and used HEPA filters; used H2O2 on everything; cleaned and recleaned. So we are closing in on things. We just sprung a leak under the Whitehaus farmhouse sink (stored for years in my brother's garage, then shipped by container) we installed in the kitchen (gutted and rebuilt with Hardwood Beech - Hetre) built in place). Turned out the well (puit) and spring (source) were mixing with our village water, and too much pressure blew out a pipe. Water everywhere. Our builder, sorted it for us and gave us a walk through of the system/network (reseau) and valving. We are golden. If we want to use spring water from our spring and cistern (citerne) we can. If we want village water we have it. Wow. Used for the garden, two toilets and outside cleaning by default. Cuts down water from the village. Septic tank helps with no sewer charges too.
We had many other adventures and some misfortune with our rental apartment. Too many problems really set us on our heals. But we think we are digging out.
We may have legal actions but think they will come to nothing. And we really don't want to deal with more negative sh*t. But money and health have been deep issues in all of this.
We should be moved into the first floor by October first week. Croisé lès doigts.
A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.
Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.
sure, we'll all keep
our fingers crossed for you. and here's hoping the cleaning protocols worked, and will work in perpetuity. i'd never heard of hydrogen peroxide used for mold eradication, just clorox sorts of bleach, far stinkier stuff.
i have other Qs as to rebuilding, etc., but i'd hate to harsh your mellow even by the asking to say the truth. thank you so much for the long explanation, amiga, and may the gods (and good joss) bless your venture. ; )
Apparently we simply cannot do
nuance anymore. The accusations you are getting out here about being a Biden supporter simply because you write about Trump's quite obvious fascistic tendencies kinda blow me away, although they should not in a country that only responds to theater and does not bother to consider fact or history or God forbid, CONTEXT. While Trump himself may not be a fascist he is most assuredly appealing to those in this country who ARE fascist whether they're smart enough to see themselves for the fascists they are or not (hint, they're not). But to me, the truly horrifying part is that pointing out the fascism in this country, which has been here LONG BEFORE TRUMP, somehow means you believe Democrats are the answer, which is about as full of "truth" as Bernie being a rabid Marxist. I wonder, did they bother to read what you've written previously, or is this one diary simply your political stance in its entirety (hint, it's not)?
While some want to argue, literally argue, over whether or not the militia wanna be in Kenosha was wrong or right, the FACT is we now live in a country where not only police are fully militarized and see citizens who do not agree with them as the enemy, apparently its OK for some armed kid to go out and "protect property" and to shoot anyone who doesn't agree with HIS stance if they DARE to attempt to physically stop him because they too are the "enemy." Can't have property damage, ya know, but people damage, why that's OK if they are "bad people" who do not agree with you. As for bringing in the criminal records of those who did attempt to stop him, or again God forbid let their own anger and disgust with another armed loon at a protest get away from them and knock that bastard to the ground, does that not smack of pointing out George Floyd's "criminal record" like those who think it's OK he was literally tortured to death for an alleged 20 dollar bill do when the reality of that tortuous death is pointed out? Does that not sound like one more asshole right winger, or limousine liberal for that matter, who bleats on about "if he'd just done what they said he would not be dead?" I guess sometimes it is OK to point out the blatant fascism of such cops who kill, but it isn't OK to point of the fascism of the people who enable that behavior, OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN? And it certainly isn't OK to malign the motives of a 17 year old with an AR-15 who doesn't even live in the area. He's just another patriot after all, maybe a bit misguided but still, a patriot who doesn't want to see a city burned down. Never mind he does not live there, never mind his own apparent fantasies of joining those fascistic cops, just a good misguided kid who should be forgiven his excess. Jesus. And when one shows up in YOUR neighborhood and sees YOU as the enemy, are you going to be OK with him waiving an AR-15 in YOUR face?
And then others want to argue over which current idiot running for POTUS is the lesser evil while the true owners of this country shake out the last bits of wealth they do not YET fully control. Just Vote I tell ya, it'll REALLY matter this time, won't it? Jesus, talk about binary thinking - it's as bad as the Never Trumpers who vote repeatedly for just what Trump and his minions bring - tax cuts, de regulation, massive military spending, cuts to social programs, militarized cops, open bigotry and YES, openly fascistic tendencies, but then decry the ugliness and "chaos" that brings when people who are damned close to having NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE protest and perhaps get violent? Oh, and don't forget the looting! Never mind Wall Street just looted this country for trillions, how DARE those people loot a pair of Nikes?! Add in some nice virtue signaling about "Never Trump" and never mind that you voted FOR what he's brought, repeatedly. Just like a good liberal really, virtue signaling about how nice they are and how much they really CARE about minorities and workers while making sure said minorities and workers get the shaft once again, but with a bit nicer finish to it? A nice veneer of Hope and Change? What on earth do we think is going to happen when this whole fucker comes crashing down? What do we think should happen? Do we honestly think voting for EITHER ONE OF THEM will change one Godamned thing? In what world?
Now just in case all that rant didn't make my point, I am in NO WAY SHAPE OR FORM a Biden supporter. Nor am I a Trump supporter. I don't think it matters anymore. All Americans want to do is argue over semantics while this world burns, literally burns. So be it in the greatest country in the world, a dumbed down bastion of stupid that will fight over crumbs while the owners slowly starve us out. And make no mistake, we'll continue to fight each other over the very last crumbs, because that's how we roll. How we have ALWAYS rolled. USA, USA, USA!!!!
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
@lizzyh7 Very bleak but entirely
Very bleak but entirely accurate.
Many of us cling to Vote Vote because we are hoping that somehow we can slow down the apocalypse.
NYCVG
Homerun, Lizzy
Well said and a much better rebuttal than I was coming up with. Kyle lived in another state, but some think it was great that he armed himself to go to a protest he didn't agree with because he thought cops could need some help or that they weren't doing their jobs? Remember that Kyle and others in his group were palling around with the cops and getting hydrated by them.
Well said. Kudos.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
Wearily, yes to everything you said. Nuance is so lost.
How can we have a conversation let alone solve some really big problems if this is how it goes.
https://youtu.be/FHO6a2H-pqY
[video:https://youtu.be/FHO6a2H-pqY]
A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.
Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.
This sums it up
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
"Hunting" was the word the photos of that kid
said to my eyes. Overcompensating for poor social skills? Desperately seeking approval from a group outside his social milieu? Have to wonder how close he is/was to the disorganized thinking of school shooters.
That’s a scary thought
But probably right on the money.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
an ex.quis.ite rant,
amiga, and thank the gods you got me laughing! but you've inadvertently reminded us that the US constitution is based on property rights, and that the original police were slave patrols, then Pinkertons for hire, same dif, eh? but you've also reminded me of the New Capitalist Pyramid graphic:
but, nah; i'm agwine to vote for Law and Order Trump, mainly out of fear of the armed assholes running around our county! hold the phone: maybe i'll vote for the kinte cloth democrats: they love all the darkies and red induns, don't they? how to decide? (emma goldman: if voting rally mattered, it's be illegal.)
srsly, wish i had more energy to respond, but i do need to see if i can find enuff leftovers in the fridge to fashion some sort of dinner for mr. wd. he just called up from the cellar and said we can have millet and bananas, as i've been a kitchen slave garden food processor for days now, but nah. i think there's some leftover italian wedding soup i can stretch a bit.
peace to you, and to all of us. there's a wild ride comin' for all of us eXpendables.
perhaps these yard signs
will become available soon? ; ) or companion bumper stickers?
Hello D/Meta
I live across the Columbia river in Vancouver (the other one) and still in lockdown 2.0.
We get local news on 5 channels out of Portland and I'm hearing that the overwhelming majority of protesters are peaceful.
But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the BLM movement is a direct confontation against the police and their militancy.
As such, the police are looking for any reason to declare riot and order a dispersal.
Any provocateur could break a window or start a dumpster fire and immediately render 5000 or even 100,000 peaceful protesters in riot.
The power of just one individule, be it an alt right whackjob or even an undercover LEO, to bring on an onslaught of police violence will ultimately render the right to peaceful assembly impossible.
Just as our right to free speech is already under the control of media censors, our right to privacy and our right to habeas corpus (throwing people in unmarked vans) also under attack or possibly gone.
The First Amendment is history in America.
Without the First Amendment, the Second is an easy takedown.
And from there, a captive population.
I want to open up a hot dog stand on the New Silk Road.
Chili cheese dogs with onions.
M,mmmm.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Speaking of provocateurs
What’s the chance this guy was an undercover police officer?
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
Hiya Wendy,
Actually I've been trying to write up something about this, so talking with you helps. My mellow has been harshed anyways. This may be a bit of therapy, finally sharing what's been going on.
But the cool thing is our SmugMug photo stuff.
I took the links down, as they have RL information. We are cleaning it up, and I'll repost.
Our encampment:
https://www.smugmug.com/gallery/n-ddW5KQ
House as bought:
https://www.smugmug.com/gallery/n-XMfBVT
The rotten roof:
https://www.smugmug.com/gallery/n-wxTJnn
Creating a Drainage:
https://www.smugmug.com/gallery/n-jhzmVd
Creating a Living Room upstairs and DH designed new stairs:
https://www.smugmug.com/gallery/n-52TX6K
The Kitchen and Bath Rebuild:
https://www.smugmug.com/gallery/n-mq7QRX
A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.
Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.
kewl;
i'll look forward to it.
dayum; none of the
photos show up for me. might it be my necessary-to-crosspost ancient firefoxes?