The Weekly Watch
Failed Strategies
I personally think the impeachment is foolish. Somewhere between 30 and 40% of Americans are Trumpeteers. How will they react to the Drumpster being de-platformed and impeached? My guess is not well. Just as the US doesn't support the election of people who we don't approve (because they won't allow US corporate rule)...from Evo Morales to Maduro...we don't believe in our own citizenry to reject Trump at the polling booth. So cheer on the corporate censorship...except you might be next. Just as these same folks cheered the banning of Alex Jones...but that led to the censorship of many voices on the left...and certainly their de-moneyfication and loss of revenue. Krystal and Saagar think son of a Mitch is playing the dim(wit)s yet again. They may be right.
I wish the dims would put a full court press on the $2000 checks (not $1400) and Bernie's M4A during the pandemic plan. But even Bernie's not going to push for it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQvBmhYdZ50 (6 min) The impeachment is a distraction and may cost more than we know especially if Krystal and Saagar are correct in the clip above.
It isn't that Trump doesn't deserve to be impeached, but I don't think it serves the broader good. I've heard it suggested that Biden pardon Trump as a means of healing our national divide.
The anti-Trump campaign, from Russiagate to Ukrainegate to this 'insurrection' nonsense, has likely done more damage to the U.S. than Trump managed to do during his four years in office. The hostility the Democrats have shown will create a huge backlash. Do they really believe that can suppress 74 million Trump voters?
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2021/01/the-suppression-of-trump-voters-wi...
I would argue Russiagate = Stop the Steal, with both myths having the same aim...to impeded the incoming president, and both instigated by outgoing administrations.
The political hysteria unleashed by last week’s clash at the Capitol between police and Trump protestors poses a growing danger to Americans’ constitutional rights. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer ludicrously compared the ruckus to Pearl Harbor – a “day of infamy.” Schumer complained that the “temple to democracy was desecrated… our offices vandalized” and that rioters were able to “stalk these hallowed halls.” Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) compared an incursion that broke some windows and furniture with the 1814 British invasion that torched the Capitol.
The pro-Trump mob should not have charged into the Capitol. President Donald Trump should not have fired them up with absurd claims that he won the election “by a landslide.” Even conservative firebrand Ann Coulter declared that “it was assholic [for Trump] to tell a crowd of thousands to march to the capitol.” Trump lawyer Rudolph Giuliani should never have called for a “trial by combat” when addressing Trump supporters. Once the protestors charged into the Capitol, Trump should have speedily called for an end to the confrontation.
...
Contrast the violence that lawmakers suffered with the violence that their laws have inflicted. Most of the Trump protestors were less destructive than SWAT teams carrying out a no-knock raid – as happens thousands of times a year in American neighborhoods across the land. These attacks have been aided by a profusion of military-style equipment provided by Congress and federal agencies, as well as by the Justice Department constantly championing the legal prerogatives of law enforcement to use deadly force in almost any situation. An ACLU report characterized SWAT raids as “violent events: numerous (often 20 or more) officers armed with assault rifles and grenades approach a home, break down doors and windows (often causing property damage), and scream for the people inside to get on the floor (often pointing their guns at them).” Failure to instantly submit to SWAT raiders can be a capital offense. A New York Times investigation found that “at least 81 civilians and 13 law enforcement officers died in raids from 2010 through 2016. Scores of others were maimed or wounded.” The vast majority of members of Congress have ignored the perennial police carnage they helped bankroll around the nation.
https://www.aier.org/article/congressional-hypocrisy-and-the-crackdown/
The organizers of the Trump rally on Jan. 6 had no permit for a march to the Capitol and tried to warn the White House that it would be illegal...DC Metro Police were promised there would be no march, and that such an unplanned march was dangerous. As a result, the Metro police were stunned, undermanned and unprepared for Trump’s surprise launch of thousands of his enraged Trump supporters, some armed, on the Capitol.
https://consortiumnews.com/2021/01/14/march-to-capitol-had-no-permit-ral...
For sure the pols will cover their ass...
As proof of high-level conspiracy mounts Justice Department proposes internal investigation to cover up state involvement in January 6 coup attempt
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/01/16/plot-j16.html
Biden Admin - Redux Deep State, Empire & Censorship
Chris Hedges talks with Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald about the incoming Biden administration and what it will mean for a country in crisis, ravaged by a pandemic it cannot control, hostage to corporate power and bifurcated into warring factions.
Did you catch the conversation with Jimmy and Chris I posted Friday? If not it is worth the 45 min watch. Great conversation, IMO.
A deplatformed Trump sounds good but will likely bite us all in the ass.
In the last three months, tech giants have censored political speech and journalism to manipulate U.S. politics, while liberals, with virtual unanimity, have cheered.
https://greenwald.substack.com/p/how-silicon-valley-in-a-show-of-monopol...
I often think of Julian as the paramount example censorship. You better not tell the truth about US war crimes!
A UK judge has rejected a US attempt to extradite Julian Assange, citing the Wikileaks founder’s risk of suicide and the poor conditions of US prisons. But Judge Vanessa Baraitser accepted the basis for the US government’s espionage case against Assange and ruled against releasing him on bail.
Nils Melzer, the UN Special Rapporteur on torture, discusses the longstanding persecution of Assange and the lies that have been used to justify it to the public. Melzer, who has visited Assange in prison, has played a critical role in exposing the deception surrounding Assange’s initial Sweden extradition case.
Video and transcript
https://thegrayzone.com/2021/01/10/un-torture-expert-on-julian-assanges-...
The Biden/Harris inauguration event is going to be a star-studded celebration spanning an unprecedented five days, a giddy orgy of excitement at a murderous oligarchic empire having a new face behind the front desk after promising wealthy donors that nothing will fundamentally change.
This comes at a time when Americans are now reporting that they trust corporations more than they trust their own government or media, when pundits are gleefully proclaiming in The New York Times that “CEOs have become the fourth branch of government” as they pressure the entire political system to smoothly install Biden, when the leading contender for the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division is an Obama holdover who went from the administration to working for both Amazon and Google, and when Americans are being paced into accepting an increasing amount of authoritarian changes for their own good.
And this manic celebration and increasing brazenness of corporate power are of course overlaid atop an unceasing river of human blood as the globe-spanning empire continues to smash any nation which disobeys it into compliance so as to ensure lasting uncontested planetary hegemony.
But hey, at least they voted out fascism.
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2021/01/16/the-two-faces-of-the-us-empire/
(worth the whole read)
COVID ineptitude...
Why can't the US manage a rapid roll out of vaccines? Because our priorities are in the wrong place....profit before people. So we have over 4000 citizens a day dying of COVID.
...governors say there is no reserve and their limited supply of vaccines will not increase. Instead of being able to dramatically expand access to millions more people, states will have to continue to manage at their current levels.
...
Operation Warp Speed stopped stockpiling second doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at the end of last year. The last shots held in reserve of Moderna’s vaccine supply were shipped to states last weekend.
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/534486-governors-say-no-additional...
Past COVID-19 infection provides some immunity but people may still carry and transmit virus. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/past-covid-19-infection-provides-some...
It isn't just vaccine rollout, but our overall pandemic strategy which is flawed.
In the absence of a federal plan, containment strategies vary by state and locality and have often reflected political polarization. The mounting crush of cases this fall and winter, however, has prompted officials of both parties to tighten mask mandates and reimpose restrictions on gatherings to try to squelch the spread.
Public health officials say masks are one of the easiest ways to blunt the pandemic. Still, some people in even the hardest-hit areas refuse to wear them, despite evidence that they protect wearers as well as those around them.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/national/coronavirus-us-cas...
(much more information at the link)
COVID has brought to light the failure of our "for profit sick care system".
Deaths are 25 percent higher than any other week since the pandemic began. Arizona has the worst per-capita new case numbers in the world. A month after the country’s first vaccinations for COVID-19, we still don’t have federal data showing who is receiving the vaccine.
https://covidtracking.com/analysis-updates/soaring-death-numbers-and-hig...
It's the Economy, Stupid!
Of course that would be the motto of a capitalist society...
The economy is in free fall during the pandemic. Rick Wolff has some ideas on how we could promote worker coops to come out of this mess. Good discussion with Ron Placone and Rick. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-dGWotdGF0 (50 min)
(worth the listen if you have the time)
Rick made some of the same points on Jimmy's show this week, but didn't delve into the coop opportunity story with him. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYd2HA-JHGo (37 min)
You’ve probably heard that “capitalism has reduced global poverty by 90 percent.” It’s a line frequently parroted by capitalism’s most enthusiastic promoters. But there’s a problem with those claims: they’re either misleading or outright false. Wolff breaks it down.
As Covid-19 grew ever worse while 2020 ended, the stock market reached heights that hadn’t been seen before. Ever.
Meanwhile, again in the thoroughly cheery news column, banks in 2021 will be able to resume their march toward billions of dollars in share buybacks, courtesy of the Federal Reserve opting to support such a bank-and-stock-market stimulus. The Fed’s green light for this activity on December 18th will allow mega-banks to return to those share buybacks (which constitute 70% of the capital payout that they provide shareholders). In June 2020, the Fed had banned the practice ostensibly to help them better navigate risks caused by the pandemic.
Those very financial institutions can now pour money into purchasing their own stocks again rather than, say, into loans to struggling small businesses endangered by pandemic-instigated economic disaster. As soon as Wall Street got the good news from the Fed as 2020 ended, JPMorgan Chase, the nation’s biggest bank, wasted no time in announcing its intent to buy a staggering $30 billion of its own shares in the new year. And as if by magic, those shares leapt 5% that very day. Other mega-banks followed suit, as did their share prices.
...
American billionaires scored monumentally during the pandemic, due particularly to their lofty position in the stock market. The planet’s 2,200 or so billionaires got wealthier by $1.9 trillion in 2020 alone and were worth about $11.4 trillion in mid-December 2020 (up from $9.5 trillion a year earlier). Twenty-first-century tycoons like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos raked it in specifically because of all the money pouring into shares of their stock. Even bipartisan congressional stimulus measures meant for necessary relief turned into a chance to elevate fortunes at the highest echelons of society.
https://scheerpost.com/2021/01/11/were-suffering-the-economic-equivalent...
Max and Stacy look at the bets Wall Street is making on the continuation of violence and domestic unrest. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chj1HH3O7mI (15 min)
They also look at run away inflation as the Fed creates trillion for the 0.01%
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GshKPrnNckM (15 min)
How can we possibly get out of this economic quagmire?
From my perspective we need a central easy to understand commitment to ending the wars, drawing down foreign troop deployment (it is supposed to be a department of defense NOT offense), and bring those people and dollars home to help US citizens... not to kill, maim, and destroy those who won't allow global corporate control of their country.
...in America’s collective stockade of the mind, activism for peace is an aberration, while acceptance of the war state is second nature...So, when I say that all Americans are essentially POWs, I’m obviously using that acronym not in a legal or formal way, but in the colloquial sense of being captured by some phenomenon, held by it, subjected to it in a fashion that tends to restrict, if not eliminate, freedom of thought and action and so compromises this country’s belief in sacred individual liberties. In this colloquial sense, it seems to me that all Americans have in some fashion become prisoners of war, even those few “prisoners” among us who have worked so bravely and tirelessly to resist the phenomenon...
Speaking of Biden, that he selected retired General Lloyd Austin III to be his secretary of defense sends the strongest possible signal of his own allegiance to the primacy of militarism and war in American culture. After all, upon retiring, General Austin promptly cashed in by joining the board of directors of United Technologies from which he received $1.4 million in “stock and other compensation” before it merged with giant weapons-maker Raytheon and he ended up on the board of that company. (He holds roughly $500,000 in Raytheon stock, a nice supplement to his six-figure yearly military pension.)
https://consortiumnews.com/2021/01/14/americans-are-all-prisoners-of-war/
How to maintain the "Forever Wars"...
The US State Department designated Yemen’s Houthi movement — the most effective force in fighting al-Qaeda — as a “terrorist” organization. Meanwhile Washington and Saudi Arabia have supported al-Qaeda.
...
Like the US-led wars on Syria, Libya, former Yugoslavia, and 1980s Afghanistan, Yemen represents an example of an armed conflict where Washington has supported al-Qaeda and similar Salafi-jihadist extremists in order to foment regime change and extend its hegemony.
https://thegrayzone.com/2021/01/12/us-al-qaeda-yemen-houthis-terrorists/
Dear Congress - Stop Wasting Time With Impeaching Trump - End His Famine In Yemen
The pompous U.S. Secretary of State informed Congress that he will designate the Ansarallah movement in Yemen as Foreign Terrorist Organization. As Ansarallah, also known as the Houthi, is ruling over some 80% of Yemen's population such a designation will make aid deliveries to those people impossible:
The designation is to take effect on President Donald Trump’s last full day in office, a day before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20. Several aid groups pleaded on Monday for Biden to immediately reverse the designation. The Biden transition team has not yet expressed his intentions.
A top UN official called for the reversal of the US decision to designate Yemen’s Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization, warning the move will lead to a massive famine.
https://news.antiwar.com/2021/01/14/un-predicts-us-houthi-terror-designa...
That $2.6 trillion stimulus was one heck of a holiday bonus to defense contractors
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2021/01/14/that-2-6-trillion-stimulus-...
During the final two months of the Trump administration, a series of provocative U.S. military moves in the Middle East stirred fears that a war against Iran was being hatched. The atmosphere of crisis was not the result of any threat posed by Tehran, but rather the product of a campaign manufactured by the head of US Central Command (CENTCOM), Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., to advance his interests.
https://thegrayzone.com/2021/01/15/centcom-chief-mckenzie-iran-crisis-po...
Sanctions sanctions every where...Cuba, Iran, as well as Yemen and Venezuela.
Of course all is moot with the imminent ecosystem collapse.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/01/13/dire-assessment-scientists-...
The new warning from scientists, Blumstein noted, cites over 150 other papers "documenting the diverse and shocking decline in biodiversity and planetary 'health' and their consequences." Among the cited sources is a World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) report that in September revealed an "average 68% decrease in population sizes of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and fish between 1970 and 2016."
...
"In fact, the scale of the threats to the biosphere and all its lifeforms is so great that it is difficult to grasp for even well-informed experts," said lead author Corey Bradshaw of Australia's Flinders University in a statement. "The problem is compounded by ignorance and short-term self-interest, with the pursuit of wealth and political interests stymieing the action that is crucial for survival."
So instead we push for a coup in Venezuela because they put their country over our oil, and Iran did too! We've already devastated Iraq, Libya, and Syria in order to protect their oil for Chevron, Shell, Exxon, et al. Not to mention devastating our own ecosystem with fracking, tar sands, leaking pipelines, methane releases and so on.
Our food production system is driving much of the environmental destruction (as well as our ill health)...from burning rainforests for cattle production to GMO monoculture.
And now Bill Gates Biggest Owner Of Farmland In US
https://www.forbes.com/sites/arielshapiro/2021/01/14/americas-biggest-ow...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaFDPK_N9tM (8 min)
Bill Gates has invested and is pushing lab created processed meat, but US prairies were once grasslands with huge herds of ruminants....more animals than we produce today. I can imagine ending the destructive CAFO model of animal production and creating a multi-species regenerative model.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TDY-asItL8 (27 min)
how small ruminant production can be done so that it’s both profitable and sustainable. Key points include: how to have sustainable vegetation management with sheep and goats; the importance of budgeting for profitability; one producer’s experience with raising small ruminants as part of a diversified, multi-species herd.
Combine regenerative producers with market gardeners (with regenerative egg production) in EVERY community, and we could have healthy and sustainable food for all our citizens.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEkgkhSf6x0 (19 min)
Human ill health begins with our dependence on grains. Hunter gather peoples were taller, lacked tooth decay, and heart attacks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY2v6AnEyuU&t=23m (about 12 min)
The myth of healthy grains is just that...a myth.
Now, I think everyone should select a diet that best suits them. However, it would be nice if we were armed with more evidence than the processed food industry has allowed with the current flawed pyramid.
Dr. Gundry suggest a new food pyramid. His includes a second level which says "don't eat".
The foundation of so many dietary recommendations is bread, pasta, cereal, and more bread. That means the foundation of these outdated dietary plans is one of the food groups likely containing more additives than any other food group. The Gundry food plan requires you to toss out everything you have ever been taught about diets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmiszI246Io (8 min)
https://gundrymd.com/food-pyramid/
He doesn't think grassfed beef and pork should be regularly eaten, so I disagree with him on that point.
Dr. Berg has a recent top five diet tips.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNoanoQ5syY (10 min)
1. Keep insulin normal
Keeping your insulin levels normal is one of the best things you can do for weight loss and your overall health. To promote healthy insulin levels, lower your carbohydrates, increase your healthy fats, and avoid all vegetable oils.2. Fasting
Intermittent fasting and prolonged fasting are incredible tools for promoting a healthy body. They induce autophagy and help normalize your insulin levels. Two things you can do to start off your intermittent fasting plan is to skip breakfast and cut out all snacks.3. Get healthy to lose weight
One of the worst tips is to lose weight to get healthy—instead, you should get healthy to lose weight. You want to always focus on your health first, and the weight loss will come with it. Keep in mind that you can lose weight without being healthy—this is not our goal!4. Do healthy keto
A low-carb, high-fat diet will put your body into ketosis. Ketones are the body’s preferred fuel source. A healthy keto diet consists of plenty of vegetables and healthy fats that promote overall health and longevity. You always want to focus on organic, grass-fed, pasture-raised, wild-caught, and full-fat products.5. Exercise, sleep, and reduce stress
Stress triggers insulin, which blocks weight loss. You want to get plenty of sleep and exercise to reduce stress and promote a healthy body.
My mentor Jason Fung talks most effective diets for weight loss.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYejiLUF0G0 (16 min)
Dr. Fung reviews the best diets for weight loss as ranked by Google search. The third most popular diet in 2020 was the Paleo diet. While there is good scientific evidence to support it, it has been steadily losing popularity and Dr. Jason Fung explains why. The second most popular diet of 2020 was intermittent fasting, an intervention gaining steady popularity and supported by Dr. Fung. The most popular diet by far in 2020 was the Keto Diet.
Dr. Berg is back to discuss some intermittent fasting tips.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7s8K_CLOrs (9 min)
1. Water, tea, and coffee are fine to have while fasting. I think drinking water while fasting is beneficial. Certain types of tea may actually help you fast for longer and decrease hunger. Coffee is fine, but don’t overdo it.
2. I believe taking certain supplements while fasting is important. This includes taking vitamins, electrolytes, trace minerals, nutritional yeast, and omega-3 fatty acids. A green drink without fiber (like wheatgrass juice powder) is fine. You may want to avoid protein powders and branched-chain amino acids. You can try bone broth or MCT oil, but they don’t work well for everyone.
3. Don’t eat unless you’re hungry. If you meet your fasting goal, but you’re not hungry, and you feel like you can go longer, then go a little longer. But don’t go too far to the point where you’re weak, tired, irritable, or dizzy.
4. The longer the fast, the more important it is to refeed slowly. If you do a fast for 48 hours or longer, make sure that when you do eat, it’s just a small amount of food. Then wait and gradually have more.
5. A good indication of how bad your insulin resistance may be is how long you can fast. If you can fast easily, your insulin resistance may be much better. If you can’t fast for very long, you may still have insulin resistance, and you just have to give it more time and keep working at it.
6. I believe you should always do healthy keto with intermittent fasting. The healthy keto diet may help keep your insulin low when you do eat and may provide a wide range of health benefits. A high-carb diet could minimize the effects of intermittent fasting.
7. It may be beneficial to do periodic prolonged fasting. Longer fasts may provide additional benefits. There are three potential benefits that people can get from doing regular intermittent fasting: weight loss, cognitive benefits, and mood benefits. But, periodic prolonged fasting could potentially support the brain and immune system, as well as provide anti-aging benefits.
I may sound like a broken record but the US in particular suffers from chronic diseases from diabetes to heart conditions to obesity to dementia...and all of these are largely caused by our diets. Over 80% of people in the US are hyperinsulinemic (insulin resistant) due to carbohydrate over consumption. Carbs drive insulin which has lots of negative effects including the inability to burn fats...in fact it drives the storage of fats.
Why aren't we educated about this, so we can make intelligent dietary choices? Well, big processed food AND big pharma have a interest in keeping people ill and ill informed. So I keep on trying to educate people about what Dr Ken Berry calls "the proper human diet". So if we combine a healthier way to produce quality food with a healthy diet we just might solve most of our chronic disease problems as well as promote a better environment and carbon capture in the soil.
Changing to a healthier diet is a choice we can make. No government control, just an advertising blitz by big processed food stands in the way.
I think we're on our own to tread through the quagmire. Some things are easily within our power to control, diet, lifestyle, gardening/food production (and food choices), and so on. However when it comes to governmental responce and priorities all I see are flawed policies...from both parties... who are each controlled by oligarchs focused on increasing their already bloated wealth. They've militarized the police to insure their grip on power, threaten people with an industrial prison complex, and continue to choke out alternate media and views to keep the population ignorant. I hope some of you see a way to escape the empire's harsh control (please share your ideas below if so). I know I'm painting a grim picture this morning, but I'm really pretty happy isolated back here in the holler surrounded by nature and able to grow much of what we eat. Of course I miss music gatherings, parties, and friends, but I really think the end of the pandemic is in sight. Let's hang on and keep sharing the news... good and bad... as this epidemic winds down. Take care, be well, and keep a good, giving heart!
Hardship may dishearten at first,
but every hardship passes away.
All despair is followed by hope;
all darkness is followed by sunshine.
– Rumi
Comments
Dump a water pitcher on a speaker & be called a “demonstrator”?
Depending on the politics of attacker and target, trying to do that nowadays could make you a viral pop-culture heroine — or a “domestic terrorist.”
https://www.chronicle.com/article/a-legendary-scientist-sounds-off-on-th...
Doesn't seem like terrorism to me...
Seems similar to the Iraqi reporter who threw his shoe at Bush. Maybe a misdemeanor assault at most.
It becomes a matter of where the line is drawn.
Thanks for the input and story!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
I think that the Rump and others must be punished for sedition.
It does not matter that the Rumpers will throw another temper tantrum over any attempt(s) to hold him and his cronies accountable. That is exactly what they want us to fear! They are in fact a minority and need to be made to understand about majority rule. It is way past time to confront this problem. Worries over how they will react be damned.
That's my opinion about it.
Want to stir some Shit in your neighborhood?
Find a die hard trumper still flying Rump flags and post these signs link to downloadable posters you can print on every surface you can find near their home.
Yes! Let China build the high-speed rail net, the moon base etc.
Americans have more important things to do, like stir sh*t and exacerbate our internal divisions.
And:
Let’s posthumously cancel Israel Kamakawiwo‘ole (of Over the Rainbow / What a Wonderful World fame), along with every other person who ever advocated for Hawaiian independence, pointing out that the U.S. didn’t legitimately come by the power it exercises over Hawai‘i. Aren’t we all guilty of sedition too.
I wonder where you live my friend...
I'm in NE AL where trump flags and signs still fly. You want a civil war, keep trying to punish instead of heal.
We have more in common with these working class folks than you might imagine.
Of course if you're consumed by vengeance keep on keeping on with impeachment. But, really neither of us have any control over what happens.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Political vengeance
Using the Law for political gain. Some of the issues (strong economic ones also) that caused the American revolution. star chambers. Political prosecution. Lese Majestie. Proscription. Guilt by association. All the things the Bill of rights was designed to avoid.
Sure. let's have Royalty too! Maybe Queen Hillary I. The billionaires can have titles. J.B. Pritzker, Duke of Illinois. Maybe make them hereditary. Save all that expense and argument about elections.
Might makes right. We have the power. L'etat c'est moi.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
I live in upstate NY where lots of Rumper's fly flags
Tough shit! These fucking asshats are provoking each and every day with their stop the steal bullshit. This doesn't have a fucking thing to do with HI statehood. It's about recognizing and fighting against fascist bastards who want to push their ideology on the rest of us through violence.
Each to our own my friend
We see different strategies and that's ok. It takes many perspectives.
I don't have the animus against my own neighbors. I don't agree with them, but I want to get along. Your mileage obviously varies.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Stir up some shit, right... great idea
"Fascists out!", huh? Because people who don't agree with you don't really have a right to exist anyway, I suppose.
BTW - out *where* exactly? Off to the camps for a little re-education? A la Uighurs or Falun Gong?
That'll learn 'em some tolerance.
Or anyhow be a source of fresh organs on demand for the Party higher-ups and donor class.
I'd say count yourself lucky that nearly all populists are a lot more tolerant than you appear to be.
"People who talk incessantly about "change" are often dogmatically set in their ways. They want to change other people."
- Thomas Sowell
In my world...
Lots of folks are armed...and pissed off. It is better not to stick your finger in their eye just to make yourself feel better.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
I found this piece from Counterpunch
to be sobering.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/01/15/qanons-afterlife-a-holy-civil-war/
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
Thanks for the link...
I've been of the opinion for a while that Q-Anon is a CIA pysop.
Some suggest it is FBI
https://swprs.org/q-anon-may-have-been-an-fbi-psyop/
but I'm sticking with CIA. Here's Ex CIA (and whistleblower)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXbpYOWfsHo (22 min)
The counterpunch piece does a good job describing the effect. Thanks again for the link.
Hope you're enjoying this sunny cool day!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
I have noticed that AL drivers are much more polite
than IL, NY, and CA drivers. I have speculated that possibly it's because in AL, you never know if the other driver is packing heat.
OTOH, in Chicago, they probably are.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
I think it has a lot to do with density...
Plus folks are mostly "nice" down here...at least to your face. As I've often said, have a flat tire or find a tree across the road, and some (likely Trumpeteer) will stop and help you.
It isn't the people, it is the distorted system and media messaging. I get along cause I've lived here my whole life and can communicate with the locals. Being a musician does hurt either...gives standing in this culture. Just avoid religion and politics and you'll be fine...in fact you'll like them.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
have you forgotten about the freeway shootings in CA?
I lived in S. Cali in the 1990's when people were shooting each other for perceived driving infractions.
It did not change the way people drive.
Be afraid! Be Very Afraid!
Very divisive.
Destructive to the soul. Change your thinking and live with a peaceful heart.
"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
forget that shit
These fucking bastards can fly Rump flags. I can post signs against their fascist bullshit.
Besides it gives them something to do ripping them down. Now they have to use ladders to rip them down. Guess why?
Just wondering what your long term goal is
Do you think your actions will change them? Cause I don't.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
they will eventually hide their shameful true identities again
Trump didn't create these idiots.
Trump gave them "cover" to come out of the shadows.
They are a small fanatic group and people who do not share their views need to publicly stand up to them.
They will go back to hiding their true racist, fascist and theocratic identities.
Sure you can. Go to it.
Otherwise you'd have to consider that the powerful are fucking us all right in the ear, and we're pretty well screwed.
I'd say the same thing to the Trumpsters, if they had any interest in talking to me.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Diet for a small planet
Thanks for the gathering of links Lo.
brings back echoes of a *radical* tome from way back.
Perhaps an updated version would be more like "Diet for the starving masses"
Brought to you by the extraction giants and the endless war machine.
cheers
question everything
Great book for it's time...
Read it in college, and loved it...still have it. However I now find it dated in its view of animal production. The use of animals in regenerative agriculture is a game changer and suggests more meat consumption than was recommended in Diet for a Small Planet. Calories were used as the comparison, but all calories are not equal.
Thanks for the interview, I'll watch it later. Edit to add: oops i now see it is a robert johnson piece, thanks for that instead of an interview.
I caught this discussion stressing the elimination of sugar and seed oils which some of you might enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNz2gWqL0Ng hour plus review of research
Thanks for the visit. It is sunny but cool here.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Meat is worth its weight in Gold here
Not eating much besides ground turkey and sick of it. I've seen as high as $49 for a steak, uncooked, in a grocery store, not a restaurant. On "sale" for $19.99 a pound last week. Thinking that may be the solution to my squirrel problem
Snow here but much warmer than normal for January. Around 30. Negative (F ! not C) is unnoteworthy here. Ah well. In Minneapolis double digit negative is not noteworthy.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
We've been paying fairly high dollar for local grassfed...
beef and pork, but it's lots cheaper than your prices. Steak is about $17/lb (which I'll buy once or twice a year), but I buy $8/lb short ribs, $7/lb for sausage, $6/lb ground beef and stew beef. Pasture raised eggs are $5/dozen, but we also have friends which give us their excess eggs. We also buy wild caught fish at the grocery...salmon, cod, & flounder are usually about $10/lb.
I've been on an OMAD diet this month (one meal a day), and that makes it pretty affordable.
We supplement meats with all our veggies. Ate on a large cabbage from the garden most of this week...sometime raw other times cooked.
Stay warm in the frigid north!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
$2.99 a pound for Italian Sausage made in-store
(EDIT: sp)
That would be pork sausage. we rarely eat pork but I love Italian sausage. My father used to make it at home with a mix or pork and beef. In Bari, I think they use lamb.
For the last five years I wanted to try making homemade Italian sausage but using chicken or turkey.
Never seem to have time.
I'm not asking what's in that $2.99 sausage or if it was in code. Tastes wonderful, though, especially when they embed some cheese and green peppers.
Thinking about one of my Mother's stories about the depression. One day my grandmother and the neighbor lady, also an Austrian immigrant went to the Chicago Stockyards and bought a pig. They brought it home in someone's pickup truck. My grandfather shot it in the head with his shotgun and my Grandma and Mrs. O butchered it in the basement, splitting the meat. My grandfather mourned the loss of his favorite part, the brains! (shudder! Germans will eat anything). Mrs. O was a real Brunhilde. I'm surprised she didn't just wring it's neck, which I think both of them did with live chickens. Both grandpa and grandpm made Peach Schnapps. My mother said Grandma made the good stuff.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
WTAF?
I don't eat mammals, but I just reality-checked the weekly ad for the local family-owned WI grocery (generally more expensive than the chains, or even than the cut-rate stores in NE Illinois, but -- 10 years ago, anyway -- somewhat cheaper than Dominick's or Jewel).
Ground Chuck: 2.98/pound
Pork Tenderloin: 2.48
Sirloin Tip Roast: 3.48
Sirloin Tip Steak: 3.88
Beef Stew Meat: 3.98
On the other hand, a higher-end store is advertising a 4-day truckload meat sale. You can buy a whole (15ish lb) boneless beef strip loin for $7/lb, but they note that this is half price compared to what you'd see in the butcher case -- so, yeah, normally $14/lb for an expensive cut at an expensive store. From their regular ad:
Boneless Beef Top Round: 2.97
Fresh Ground Chuck: 2.99
Bone-in Pork Shoulder: 1.49
Boneless Angus Beef Sirloin Steak: 5.97
Beef Stew Meat: 4.98
Angus Beef Chuck Pot Roast: 4.98
Boneless New York Strip: $12-$15/lb
Filet Mignon: $30/lb
I don't think I've ever bought a New York Strip or a Filet Mignon in a grocery store, but the cheaper beef (Top Round, Ground Chuck, Sirloin Steak) doesn't seem particularly expensive compared to years and years ago.
Maybe you should buy yourself an old Dodge with a 440 and take up meat-running on the backroads from Wisconsin down into Illinois.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
That reminds me of Kramer and Newman's recycling...
Driving from New York to Michigan to get the extra 5 cents bottle deposit refund. Many have tried but couldn't crunch the numbers due to the cost of tolls, gas, and truck rental. But the math changes if you can hitch a free ride on a mail truck. This Kramer and Newman Recycling Co Shirt represents one of the smartest business ventures attempted on Seinfeld.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
LOL!
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Hey, I still have that book somewhere!
Somehow it made it through half a century of ch-ch-changes and moves across oceans and continents, unlike so many other things that, although I treasured them once, got lost along the way.
I remember keeping it on the shelf next to my stock of beans, grains, etc, much of which was branded “Erewhon” (from Erewhon Trading Co. in Boston, not the L.A. one).
Lappé’s ideas and research were even adapted into a comic-book version called Food First!
https://www.comics.org/issue/1430676/
It is amazing what objects stay with you
Have moved myself and belongings
countless times -- so much lost along the way.
Every now and then I find something from long ago
and wonder 'how did I keep that?'
幸運 (ko-un)
question everything
Hi LO. Thanks for the thought provoking and extensive work
for this week's watch.
Krystal, Kyle and Friends had a long interview with Thomas Frank.
[video:https://youtu.be/eLHZAGBnUhU]
I was struck by several things: one statement which may have been repeated elsewhere, is about the Republican elitists, moneyed and powerful fleeing to the Democrats. This is a big deal. So what do we end up with??
The Democrats with money, power, international corporations, CEOs, 'influencers' like lawyers, doctors and others of high education and cultural position. Democrats who have for several administrations abandoned labor and working classes, completely coalescing around the oligarchs with no sense of or care for the suffering and dieing(sp?) masses. Add your own top of the pyramid group, ideology, power structure. War industry; ag-pharma industry; finance political industry; add your own here.
The Republicans with people who may be poor, low information, white supremacists and pro gun. Religious fundamentalists, xenophobes and other clans. Add your own bottom feeders here.
Neither being attractive: the Republicans being a rump party a shadow of its former power and control. The Democrats essentially being a big tent for the top but narrow on the vertical axis.
We talk about the next Trump being slicker, smarter and more appealing. Based on the above scenario, who's to say they won't be a NeoLib or Democrat?
They were also talking about the number of Black and Brown people who voted for Trump. Labor has nowhere to land, but it looks like Republicans are the likely lily pad.
The appeal here would be a third party which is oriented to the vertical (haves versus have nots) but how to build power? How to unify a broad spectrum of the labor, ag, worker, cultural minorities, people with lack of access to lots of things.
Hangover topics:
There are questions out there not yet answered...
How many people came to DC for the January 6 mob?
How many people broke into the Capitol buildings?
How did all those people magically disappear?
The mechanics escape me. No press conferences or general gathering of the reassuring leaders.
People are inserting their own narratives in the vacuum.
We have a bit of snow and ice here, but nothing big. Plenty of moisture. Livestock are all in barns for now, as it gets too cold at night. The new/old regenerative ag would have more sturdy types of cows, pigs, chickens, sheep in pastures.
Thanks for putting healthy alternatives for farming, food production and eating every week. Keep going. It's all good. I watch every YT I can find at night before sleep on regenerative ag. It's winner. I sleep better knowing what is possible.
Thanks for everything.
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.
Clinton's Turd Way...
...corporatized the dims IMO and created the now elite face of the suburban educated class dims who hate the working class cause they went for Trump.
Thinking back on Billy's legacy...NAFTA, ending welfare, cutting a half million federal jobs, the telecommunication bill creating FOX, the crime bill and privatization of prisons, turning banks into gambling casinos by elimination Glass-Stengel, and that's just off the top of my head. Thinking the dims are our allies is a mistake IMO.
I like Thomas Frank and did fast forward to his discussion with Kyle and Krystal. His view of populism should be spread broadly. Thanks for the link.
As to gardening and farming, I feel like I know many of the people on the videos I watch. May be after the pandemic I'll visit some of the closer ones.
Well, take care and be well!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Sanctions sanctions every where...
Yes -
I'd like to see a presidential candidate promising to suspend all sanctions and states of emergency for 90 days on assuming office - and pledge not to renew any that weren't truly justifiable.
I think Ron Paul actually did promise something like that - probably why the establishment sank his candidacy faster than you could say Kucinich...
Sanctions are today's seige tactic
Terribly cruel.
Guess you heard Ron Paul lost control of his facebook page.
https://www.newsweek.com/ron-paul-blocked-accessing-facebook-page-over-v...
Doesn't bode well for the antiwar crowd.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
I'd be for impeachment/removal/punishment IF...
and only IF, this was step one in changing the entire system that created and protected Trump, allowed him to flourish and rise to power. As it stands, it's starting to look like TPTB have played Trump for the ultimate fool.
Yeah, he insulted them and they had to take some lumps, but look at all the 1% and above gained during his four years. What's more, he did it while being defended by working class and poor. And hell, the Repubs seated three supremes! There is nothing more they can get out of him. They don't need him anymore.
So, like say Jeffery Epstein, he's outlived his usefulness and can be disposed of. Now I'm not suggesting he's going to be suicided. But, they're going to throw him under the bus and punish him for doing their bidding. They're going to make sure he's in no position to obtain power again. This will be a twofold solution as it protects them and it also gives the illusion to those who still thing Trump was an outlier that justice has been served. It even gives an opportunity for some Republicans to do a face turn while actually settling their own scores with Trump.
There is, of course, one wild card in the deck: the MAGA true believers. What I think TPTB are missing is these folks don't need Trump or a Trump-like figure. They still have Q, which seems to have gained it's own sentience. A lot of people still don't get it that anything can be explained away as part of "the plan." It doesn't matter if Trump is out of the white house or in jail or muzzled. In fact, making Trump a martyr is probably the worst thing they could do. Taking Trump out of the picture will only make him more of a rallying point for the faux-aggrieved.
Another impeachment and whatever else they plan on doing is more about the ellites and their sense of norms, which they feel were violated. It doesn't change anything and once the smug self-righetous wears off, we are further down the road to the next Trump.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
I think it is a failed strategy...
especially if you're playing politics. Allowing Trump to remain as a rethuglican player ensures a split in the GOP and would serve Dim aspirations. Sadly they are too self absorbed assuming everyone has the same level of trump derangement syndrome as they do. No strategy, no policy (other than enriching the oligarchs), no intention to help the citizenry.
I'll say again,(from my view) anyone who thinks the dims are on the working peoples side are unfortunately deluded.
Glad you came by and thanks for the insights!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
The two rules of law one for them one for us.
thanks for the WW lookout, certainly it looks like neoliberlism is all about to blow up
but tptb are going to try their hardest giving us plebes build, back, better along with
The Great Reset
EDIT: Adding this link about Klaus Schwab
https://off-guardian.org/2020/10/12/klaus-schwab-his-great-fascist-reset/
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
HK protestors trained by US supported Ukrainian fascist
https://thegrayzone.com/2019/12/04/ukrainian-nazis-hong-kong-protests/
They sure are not consistent...
https://thegrayzone.com/2020/06/09/hong-kongs-far-right-us-politicians-c...
The grayzone's reporting on HK has been excellent...
https://thegrayzone.com/category/hong-kong/
Thanks for your coverage of the hypocrisy!
PS: thanks for the offguardian link too...good article!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Diet for a Small Planet
I,too, am another that has carried my copy from house to house along with Recipes for a Small Planet. It does have some ideas that have changed over the years but there is a recipe for waffles that I still use to this day.
Having a home in a community where there is a majority Trump supporters, I find it does pay to keep the conversation on things that are important in all our lives such as getting food on the table and a decent wage and housing. On these topics there is a great deal of agreement and none of the hostility some of the other arguments would raise.
As usual, thanks Lookout for articles/videos about diet and health. There is so much I learn each day as a new health challenge pops up in my life. Looking at possible root causes is a valuable lesson for me here
Have a good week everyone. We are experiencing sunshine today but cool and so will spend some time outside. Unfortunately I am also having to deal with a bout of vertigo and sure of what was the cause this time.
Life is what you make it, so make it something worthwhile.
This ain't no dress rehearsal!
Always a pleasure to "see" you...
Maybe after this damn pandemic we might have a C99 gathering. sure is nice to think about getting back to some sort of normal.
I just caught this link today. I posted it in the comments above. It does and excellent job of laying out current dietary understandings. Here it is again:
(it's an hour lecture you might want to digest in bits and pieces)
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNz2gWqL0Ng]
Bottom line - get rid of sugar and seed oils (like canola and soy)
Living with the Trumpeteer requires lots of listening and not talking if they get on politics, but we are mostly on the same page when it comes to actual policy. Sadly masks are still political here and the bulk of trumpeteers refuse to wear them. It's crazy, but what can you do. Wear your own mask I guess.
Thanks for the visit and take care!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Good morning Lookout. Thanks for the WW (& OT)
So did anybody watch the Talkliberation.com rollout of "Project X" yesterday? I didn't, thought I'd check for transcripts and/or summaries today. Hah. Sooooooo typical. Has that name perhaps been used for something before? Try searching for Project X. If this is the great communication solution, we're in deep shit, because our communicators couldn't even come up with a name that was remotely unique, as not been used for at least 5 movies, one army manual, one wild rave/party, a couple of video games, a book or two and more. WTF?
So, hey, try Project X Talkliberation.com and you get "talkliberation.com" website which has a big grey screen saying (circle-bang) null
If the owner of this video has granted you access, please sign in.
What a clusterfuck. You can find it, and watch the video, or go to facebook and ??? or reddit, ditto, along with bunkerchan (what the hell even is that), etc., but, at this point, having my suspicions that it is the ancient and long deferrred dream of a truly independent peoples carrier of some type, I think I'll wait until some information is more readily accible from our communicationicants. I mean, really if you're going to build people'snet, you don't start by posting the details on faceboot, do ya, really?
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
I tried streaming it yesterday...
but it kept stalling and swirling the dotted circle to the point I gave up.
Here's all I can find posted... Taylor from acTVism and Niko 12 min
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHluEprJuPA&t=1m
Looks like they were throttled.
It will be swimming up stream to create new platforms and parties. Plan on distortion and obstruction. Doesn't mean don't try, just we can't get optimistic. Like the saying goes....freedom is a constant struggle.
Hope all is well on your side of the country! See you in the morning if not before.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Well, that certainly stands to reason --
If it is the creaton of new platforms, parties, and, most importantly, carriers, then of course they were throttled. In fact, there wre probably folks standing in line to make sure that they were throttled. Thanks for the link - I'll check it out.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Greetings all ...
And thanks Lookout for another Weekly Watch.
I thought this was interesting:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2d67DK2BAcg&t=1524s width:500 height:300]
Author J.P.S. Brown has died: Arizona Daily Star
Lovely weather in Baja AZ today, high 70s, plenty of sun.
Hope you're having a pleasant Sunday wherever you are.
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
Same here.
Marana AZ, sunny and high of 79 degrees today. 7% humidity. My favorite kind of day.
My attitude is changing.
Used to be I loved a nice warm day in the winter.
Now, after last summer,
I'm thing "Jeez, if it's this hot in January, what will June be like?"
I try not to think about it too much.
We grilled on the back porch yesterday and I've been out in the yard all morning.
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
You can garden
after getting grilled?
Good on ya'
question everything
Oh, it's gonna be a hot one.
I expect we'll start 100 degree days in mid-April and have them into October. Being a glass half-full kind of guy, that just makes me look forward to the 3 or 4 cooler months we get even more. My wife and I are both from Michigan. We're planning to buy a summer place up there in 2 or 3 years so we can snowbird.
Thanks for the clip!
The Duran covers lots of things ignored by others. I'll look forward to watching it.
Sounds lovely in your corner. Almost 50 and sunny here, so I'm headed out in a bit to putter around.
Have a good one!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
good morning lo
and y'all
All good on the western front. Rain coming Friday.
Here is a book that was recommended by my daughter the nurse practitioner (APRN) who works with cardiac patients and also coaches them in a weight loss clinic.
Why We sleep by Mathew Walker
Here is a review
https://theartofliving.com/why-we-sleep-summary/
Here is just a snippet from the review...
Really interesting stuff. Meletonin decreases with age. Maybe this has something to do with covid. Do not know. Just thinking out loud.
Thanks so much for the Sunday WW. Take good care.
Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation
Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook
sleep is indeed so important...
...in a myriad of ways. I've been very lucky about many things, my ability to sleep among them. I'm a nine hour/night person. If I'm short of sleep from late music session or some such, I can sleep even in a busy bus station.
I'm on magnesium before bedtime. I make my own super absorbable magnesium bicarbonate. To a liter of seltzer or perrier add 15 mL of MgOH (milk of magnesia). It will react with the CO2 in becoming MgHCO3. Then drink 6 oz before bed. Makes me sleep heavy anyway. SO uses meletonin as well as Mg.
Enjoy the day!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
I agree completely
on not continuing the impeachment process. The best move would be to let him go. Out of our sight.
Time to get on with the urgent business of the pandemic and economic collapse.
OTOH, if I got this straight, conviction means that Trump would lose his Secret Service details, his $1 million per year travel allowance and his Federal pension. All that adds up to big bucks and would be a just punishment for a looter grifter pillager thief.
NYCVG
Having considered it for a few days --
not too deeply or spent much time on it -- I differ with your conclusion. The Former Presidents Act confers several benefits on those who left the WH in an orderly fashion, including cooperating with transition processes. Trump hasn't done that and is likely in the next few days to do whatever further obstruction he can concoct.
As he's the lamest of lame ducks, no need to worry that he'll attempt anything catastrophic as institutions are very good at being passive-aggressive when need be. At this point he's reduced to pardon power, but the impeachment adds a further crimp in his ability to pardon himself.
Currently an ex-president's access to security briefings, if he/she requests them, is in the sole discretion of the sitting president. Doubt a future president would authorize that for a convicted former president. The concern on this issue imo shouldn't be that Trump would hand US intell to a foreign powers but that like all assets in Trump's hands, he would attempt to monetize it.
sorry
I don't understand what you said.
Maybe my view was unclear?
I agree with lookout that there's no need to continue with a trial.
NYCVG
Let me try again --
I disagree that the impeachment process should be aborted. If not for Ford's complete pardon of Nixon, it would have served us better to let that impeachment process proceed beyond his resignation as we never got to the full scope of CREEP's activities.
Precedents are important in democracies, regardless of how weak a democracy may be. Give Trump a pass for the half-baked coup attempt by a gang of yokels that he inspired by feeding them a continuous stream of CT nonsense, what happens when the yokels are inspired by a smarter and organized president that loses his/her re-election?
Hmm.
"broke some windows and furniture"
Tried to capture and hang the Vice President of the US. Tried to capture and hang Democratic members of the US Congress. Sought to prevent the confirmation of the president-elect who beat his opponent by 7 million popular votes and 74 electoral votes. Caused the death of a Capitol police officer by striking him in the head with a fire extinguisher. Carried Confederate flags inside the US Capitol building.
Sometimes I wonder about the thinking or lack thereof here on c99.
In part because I live in Trumplandia...
and live with these people.
...and if you listen to and read Trumps tweets, I think he covered his ass pretty well so the charge of incitement is difficult to make. Additionally, do you really you think 17 rethugs will vote for impeachment? They will use it to delay any productive legislation. Doesn't that kinda make it moot? And as I've said several times I want to heal the nation not accelerate the division.
There's also this from above...
The pro-Trump mob should not have charged into the Capitol. President Donald Trump should not have fired them up with absurd claims that he won the election “by a landslide.” Even conservative firebrand Ann Coulter declared that “it was assholic [for Trump] to tell a crowd of thousands to march to the capitol.” Trump lawyer Rudolph Giuliani should never have called for a “trial by combat” when addressing Trump supporters. Once the protestors charged into the Capitol, Trump should have speedily called for an end to the confrontation.
...
Contrast the violence that lawmakers suffered with the violence that their laws have inflicted. Most of the Trump protestors were less destructive than SWAT teams carrying out a no-knock raid – as happens thousands of times a year in American neighborhoods across the land. These attacks have been aided by a profusion of military-style equipment provided by Congress and federal agencies, as well as by the Justice Department constantly championing the legal prerogatives of law enforcement to use deadly force in almost any situation. An ACLU report characterized SWAT raids as “violent events: numerous (often 20 or more) officers armed with assault rifles and grenades approach a home, break down doors and windows (often causing property damage), and scream for the people inside to get on the floor (often pointing their guns at them).” Failure to instantly submit to SWAT raiders can be a capital offense. A New York Times investigation found that “at least 81 civilians and 13 law enforcement officers died in raids from 2010 through 2016. Scores of others were maimed or wounded.” The vast majority of members of Congress have ignored the perennial police carnage they helped bankroll around the nation.
That is the rationale for my thinking. What benefits can you argue for impeachment?
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
I'm not arguing for impeachment.
It's actually moot. He's been impeached by the House. The Senate trial awaits. Will 17 Republican Senators vote to convict? That seems doubtful. Maybe 5 or 10. I didn't support the House impeaching Trump. It's too late to make a difference and the stupid 2019 impeachment further tarnished the tarnishing of the impeachment process that began with Clinton's.
I'm also not arguing for predatory SWAT teams or general police abuse. My oldest brother was shot to death by a Detroit cop when he was 20 years old. Mike got into some sort of verbal argument with the cop, who pulled his nightstick and swung it at my brother's head. Mike caught the nightstick before it connected, yanked it out of the cop's hand and threw it to the side. Naturally, the cop pulled his gun and unloaded it into my brother, then reloaded and fired some more. Also naturally, the cop faced absolutely no consequences.
I live in rural Arizona. There are Trump flags flying on my street even today. Some of my neighbors and friends think the election was stolen. I'm not sure how we bring that to an end without a violent crackdown by government.
Anyhow, my comment wasn't intended to indicate support for impeachment. Just pointing out that the Capitol riot involved more than a couple of broken windows and a few pieces of overturned furniture.
It seems to me a...
will only lead to more violence. Sure didn't work with BLM...just poured fuel on the fire.
If we had any sense, we would use the opportunity to address fair transparent voting so there will never be another question of outcomes again. But the truth of the matter is the dims are very disinterested in that idea. We could agree on many things from M4A to ending war. But we remain divided by design.
Tiabbi's hate inc in action.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Voting
Neither party is interested in fair transparent voting. Republicans believe they will never win another election if they don't disenfranchise as many voters as possible. Also, they love to gerrymander. Democrats used to gerrymander but somehow dropped the ball and it's now a mostly Republican thing. Democrats want to let anyone vote, even if their legal qualification to vote is in doubt. There are assuredly some non-citizens that vote. It's hard to tell how many, and it's even harder to know if it affects elections. A million illegals voting in California doesn't change the outcome one bit because of the electoral college.
just saying...
that's one olive branch we could offer to the trumpeteers, but I agree and said above neither party is interested in doing so.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Pandemic will cripple the West and change history forever
The ineptitude of the vaccine distribution and application leaves me with no confidence that America using the mRNA based viruses can immunize enough people to control the virus and their mutations. We in the West will be living in a permanent state of medical emergency.
Here is my take:
1. The mRNA vaccines are just too brittle to use in vaccinating millions upon millions outside of large cities of the industrialized West who have the freezer storage capacity.
2, There appears to be no second sourcing allowed from Pfizer and the German company. Already the federal government has run out of vaccines lying to the states. Will there be enough doses available for the booster shot?
3. There is a concerted media campaign in particular against the use of any other vaccine than the Pfizer one. The Russian vaccine which uses the same mechanism as other known vaccines, is cheaper, and has minimal storage requirements. The Astra-Oxford vaccine is pretty much the same as the Russian vaccine. In fact the two are cooperating on producing a more effective hybrid (they both use an adenovirus) and a one dose vaccine. In time expect full US sanctions on both companies.
In effect, poorer and non-Western countries have started using their own vaccines such as India, China, and Russia. Other countries are picking up these cheaper and "traditional vaccines" for the entire population. Argentina will use Sputnik V for mass vaccination.
So where does this leave the West? Sick and unable to control the pandemic while what I call the Global South will end up with much healthier and productive societies. The situation will be out of a dystopian sci-fi novel.
Which brings up something not allowed in social media: discussing the long term effects of the mRNA vaccines. Good discussion not so much knocking the vaccines, but simply saying there is no conversation being allowed on the long term effects.
We don’t know the long-term consequences of COVID vaccines (from Livestream #58)
This piece in Naked Capitalism is from a doctor who read the Pfizer report and has alot of skepticism about Pfizer telling the truth about its vaccine. One thing he is has is total distrust of the scientific community and its relationship with Pharma. And one of the offenders of bad practice in the past has been Pfizer.
An Internal Medicine Doctor and His Peers Read the Pfizer Vaccine Study and See Red Flags [Updated] Posted on December 14, 2020 by Yves Smith
The FDA isn't going to review oxford/AZ vaccine till April
...after all it is a nonprofit $2-3 dollars per dose and as you say requires simple refrigeration. Additionally they have been several peer reviewed controlled trials for the AZ jab.
There are already three manufacturers producing the AZ vaccine in the US. But maybe in April.
Sounds like the NIH is finally going to allow patients and doctors to decide if ivermectin is administered.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9R7IBAnFLV4&t=50s]
There's still no loud message about Vitamin D either. There is little to no preventative effort other than the mask message.
Thanks for the informative comment!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Saw this from Fauci today. AZ in a few weeks maybe.
Just saw this. Fauci said approval of AstraZeneca in a few weeks maybe. I would rather take the AZ vaccine instead of the Pfizer one.
Fauci: Approval of AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines likely 'weeks away'
If it's true
the Pfizer replenishment won't happen until may or june
a couple weeks is more hopeful
question everything
That's good news...
I want Biden to be successful rolling out vaccines, but we will just have to wait and see. A 100 million jabs in a 100 days? I don't think we are capable. Hope I'm wrong.
Realistically I think by May or June I'll be able to get a vaccine. I'm over 65 but not 75 which is the current cut off age in my area.
I'm fine. What's a few more month after doing a years confinement?
Thanks for the update.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
What's a few more months after doing a years confinement?
Time to get away?
Try a snickers bar.
question everything
Hey we're all prisoners
...at least of our own minds.
Just have to set ourselves free. Cheers!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
the key is in your pocket
ya gotta let it out capn'
question everything
spinning
That's what the good doctor is likely doing.
We're running out so we need a new light on the horizon to point to.
We may or may not see more vaccine soon. we just don't know.
Vitamin D, for me 2000 iu per day, and a mask will have to do for now.
NYCVG
Same with me
Just saw Joe posted on mask improvement. Some very good stuff. I simply do not expect the vaccine to administered to a minority of people, and that does not include me.
Mr W, thank you so much for the link to the Naked Capitalism
Yves Smith article on the Dr. IM review of the NEJM (New England Journal of Medicine) publication on the Pfizer vaccine. I read the entire thread. The red flags stand imho even after other MDs write in toward the end with arguments in favor of the vaccine. This is a thorough and very open discussion. I encourage everyone to read it and pass it on.
Our daughter is a young nurse working with COVID patients. She's just had her second injection. We hope she would tell us if anything comes up. Initially she had arm soreness, which is fairly typical of flu shots. However, thirty days out???
We want her and her husband, also a nurse in COVID wards, to be safe. They have their lives ahead of them.
I will worry until it looks like she's really in the clear.
And we will wait until we see how things are going. I have had too many allergic reactions to things that no-one should, that I don't take chances. Prevention is our best defense. Always looking for what people find are good methods for self protection.
Take care everyone.
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.
Hey Dawn
prevention is worth more than cure.
Taking zinc 50 mg, vita C 500 mg, liquid D-3 125 mg daily
Iodine tincture drops in water to gargle when needed
Airborne (like alka-seltzer) when sniffles arise.
Bonne chance
question everything
Je vous remercie.
Does anyone feel it is better to wash everything from the grocery store? Or any purchased item? Mail order?
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 do not but
SO does to some extent. Library books, some packaged goods, etc.
The problem with using too much disinfectant it hampers our natural
defenses. Some scary chemicals get absorbed thru the skin. The ultra
safety conscious wear gloves. Seems over the top to me.
À ta santé !
question everything
I no longer worry about that...
Fomites appear to be a very rare form of transmission
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-the-risk-of-catching-covi...
I still wear gloves when I go out, mainly because I typically use the ATM for cash, go to the recycling center and dump, visit the outdoor trade day and pick up and look at items, and so on. I only go out once or twice a week so I wash my hands with and then without gloves upon my return home, and then typically re-use the gloves next time...just to reduce waste.
So though I began this pandemic washing down all incoming items, I no longer do so.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
I think in France...
you will be offered the oxford/AZ vaccine, which is a tried and true type of vaccine.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Thank you each and every one.
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 just wasted lots of time on these videos
They show the capital party from when Trump speaks to their march to the capital and the start of the violence.
https://projects.propublica.org/parler-capitol-videos/?utm_source=twitte...
Lots of people were there. More than I thought.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
I've heard people were already at the capitol...
Before Trump called for the march. Did you observe anything like that with your time investment? Seems like I saw that in some footage somewhere.
There are lots of Trumpeteers, which is part of my reasoning in this piece.
Good to "see" you. Be well!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
I would be interested to witness
the reaction if the liberals had breached Congress. Would there still be outrage?
"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
They would have been shot down first
OWS or BLM either one would have been slaughtered before breaking in during a session. The whole thing smells wrong...like a false flag to maybe crack down on social media and increase spying on ordinary folks. But that is mainly speculation.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Unfortunately,
I agree. sigh...
"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