The Weekly Watch

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It Ain't Gonna Get No Better, Cuz

The twins' cousin would always respond to political or economic complaints with the response, "It ain't gonna get no better, Cuz". And sure enough, I don't think it will. Biden will fulfill another local saying IMO, "it's better than it was when it was so bad". Unfortunately it won't be good, just less bad (maybe). This piece lays the situation out well.

There is an intense effort in the Democratic Party-aligned media to present the inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris as a fundamental turning point in American politics.

No doubt there is immense relief among millions in the US and around the world to see the fascist Trump leave Washington, two weeks after he spurred on an insurrection aimed at stopping the congressional certification of Biden’s victory.

But with the transfer of the White House from the Republicans to the Democrats, it is necessary to counter illusions about what this government will or even can do. Its actions will be determined by the interests of the ruling class under conditions of an unprecedented social, economic and global crisis. However, efforts are underway to chloroform the public about the realities of the procapitalist, imperialist politics of the Biden administration and the catastrophic economic and social conditions under which it begins.

...and the empire keeps rolling along

However the wheels are coming off the war chariot of the empire, and the signs are everywhere...
Chris and Noam discuss the state of American Empire.

(27 min)

How can you tell when your empire is crumbling? Some signs are actually visible from my own front window here in San Francisco.

https://tomdispatch.com/the-rubble-of-empire/
I liked her conclusion...

Human beings have long built new habitations quite literally from the rubble — the fallen stones and timbers — of earlier ones. Perhaps it’s time to think about what kind of a country this place — so rich in natural resources and human resourcefulness — might become if we were to take the stones and timbers of empire and construct a nation dedicated to the genuine security of all its people. Suppose we really chose, in the words of the preamble to the Constitution, “to promote the general welfare, and to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.”

Suppose we found a way to convert the desperate hunger for ever more, which is both the fuel of empires and the engine of their eventual destruction, into a new contentment with “enough”? What would a United States whose people have enough look like? It would not be one in which tiny numbers of the staggeringly wealthy made hundreds of billions more dollars and the country’s military-industrial complex thrived in a pandemic, while so many others went down in disaster.

This empire will fall sooner or later. They all do. So, this crisis, just at the start of the Biden and Harris years, is a fine time to begin thinking about what might be built in its place. What would any of us like to see from our front windows next year?

I suggested in a comment this week that we need to help younger folks see what's coming and PREPARE for the collapse of empire, ecosystem and economy. I suggested a couple of considerations. First is to relocate away from low lying coastal areas (or live on a boat). The second bit of advice was to consider building in the earth to buffer against the increasing variations in climate.

The design of this walipini (underground greenhouse) is very clever and is a great example of what I'm suggesting...

walipini design.png

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qvk7Sszh6fg (28 min)

Entire homes are built along these principles too. My favorite are Earthships. More here. (I've featured this clip before, but if you missed it in the blizzard of WW links here it is again.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVp5koAOu9M (24 min)

My other futuristic suggestion involves community market gardens in every neighborhood and regenerative animal production in every community.
Here's the UK's Charles Dowding and what he is harvesting in January.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fa2gML6YFu4 (20 min)
We don't quite have his variety of winter crops (but we're just homesteaders using our produce ourselves.) We currently are harvesting Collards, Kale, Cabbage, Arugula/Rocket, and parsley. As Charles suggests parsley is an under rated garden crop. It is extremely nutrient dense with way more vitamin C than oranges. We love parsley pesto.
Put Parsley in the minichop (blender or food processor) to mince. Add minced garlic, parmesan cheese, chopped pecans, salt (to taste), lemon juice, and olive oil. We use this as a condiment on avocado halves, as a side with eggs (or any main serving), or just as a quick snack. Quick, easy, and healthy!

I often feature premier regenerative farmer Joel Salatin. Here's an interview from this week. there are time stamps at the link if you have a particular interest.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxMLey_fhPk (52 min)
I appreciate Joel's way of integrating multiple species in a synergistic way. If we have a future, I think his style of production coupled with market gardens is a sane path forward.


Sadly our path toward the future isn't looking too sane, in fact I find it suicidal.

Recent images of the Capitol riots are still fresh in the US psyche. Max Blumenthal lives in DC and went to the riot. I found his observations and insights interesting.

Rather than prioritize accountability for US intelligence officials' failure to prevent the pro-Trump mob attack on the Capitol, the incident is instead being used to expand the national security state's powers. Max Blumenthal, who witnessed the Capitol mob and reported on a key participant, discusses his coverage of the attack and the dangers of a militarized, myopic response.

(time stamps at the link)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=583bbAzyv5U (57 min)

On the periphery of DC’s heavily militarized Red Zone, Blumenthal spoke to local residents about the militarization of the nation’s capital and examined some of the public relations stunts deployed to generate public support for the unprecedented military show of force.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfkBhvlcen0 (5 min)

And Max' recent article about John Sullivan...
Chaos agent: Right-wing blames US Capitol riot on notorious instigator banished by Black Lives Matter

forevr war.jpg

War, War, and More Forever War...

Perhaps what I dislike most about the incoming Biden administration is his foreign policy.
Senate hearings for Biden’s security cabinet expose bipartisan unity on war.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/01/21/conf-j21.html

Biden picks ‘diverse’ cabinet of warmongers and Wall Street’s friends
https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/50980/Biden+picks+diverse+cabinet+of+w...

Biden Administration's 'New' Foreign Policy Is The 'More Of The Same' Old One.
Today a new U.S. administration will come in. On foreign policy issues it will be just as disappointing as the leaving one. U.S. foreign policy is dictated by ingrained interests. The mechanisms of policy making in Washington DC guarantee that it is always a continuity and that any changes to it are slow and will only be minor.
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2021/01/biden-administrations-new-foreign-...

Biden ‘no antidote’ to Trump, military-industrial complex and Wall Street win either way – Jimmy Dore to RT https://www.rt.com/usa/505298-biden-antidote-trump-jimmy-dore/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0LEcLLBJ2s (14 min)
“The idea that Joe Biden is the antidote to Donald Trump – when he has a worse record – is mental gymnastics, games that people have to play in their head, because they can’t stand [Trump] being such a jacka** on television,” said Dore.

Even the right wing called out Biden as a warmonger months ago.
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/joe-biden-warmonger/

Already, US convoy tanks have been seen rolling into Syria as warmonger Biden looks to escalate tensions in the middle-east.
https://clarion.causeaction.com/2021/01/22/just-like-the-good-old-days-j...

Caity warns against jumping to conclusions.
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2021/01/24/what-bidens-warmongering-will-ac...

It is certainly possible that Biden could launch a new full-scale war; the empire is in desperate straits right now, and it could turn out that a very desperate maneuver is needed to maintain global domination. But that isn’t the method that it has favored lately. The US empire much prefers nowadays to pour its resources into less visible acts of violence like economic siege warfare and arming proxy militias; the Iraq invasion left Americans so bitter toward conventional war that any more of it would increase the risk of an actual antiwar movement in the United States, which would be disastrous for the empire. So rather than tempt fate with the bad publicity of flag-draped coffins flying home by the thousands again imperialism is now served up with a bit more subtlety, with the military playing more of a backup role to guard the infrastructure of this new approach.

It appears clear that this would be the Biden administration’s preferred method of warmongering if given the choice based on who’s going to be in it. The incoming Secretary of State Tony Blinken now advocates replacing the old Bush model of full-scale war with “discreet, small-scale sustainable operations, maybe led by special forces, to support local actors”. Biden’s nominee for CIA Director William Burns urged caution in the lead-up to the Iraq invasion and later expressed regret that he didn’t push back against it. Rather than picking bloodthirsty psychopath Michele Flournoy for Defense Secretary as many expected, Biden went with the less cartoonishly evil Raytheon board member Lloyd J. Austin III. All this while depraved coupmonger Victoria Nuland is being added to the administration and the murderous Venezuela coup is folded into its policy.

I'll say again it ain't gonna get no better...

The Continued US COVID Failure

deaths_13.png

Now why is the US experiencing a quarter of all COVID deaths? Well there is still no constant recommendation of vitamin D, many citizens demand the freedumb to be mask free, people continue to gather in large crowds. Check out this crowd in Tuscaloosa this month. This behavior drives spread, hospitalizations and deaths.

student mob.png

Despite the vaccine roll out, expect more spread. Biden rushes to open schools to get parents back to work to create more corporate profit. Great series of articles from wsws.org explaining the irresponsible approach in the US to reopening schools.

The science of the pandemic supports teachers’ concerns over the dangers of school reopening, Part one and Part two

Baltimore City Schools announces wide reopening of schools in mid-February
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/01/22/balt-j22.html

Alabama teachers speak out as four more teachers die of COVID-19 this week
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/01/23/alab-j23.html

Chicago schools chief threatens to lock out teachers who don’t return to school buildings Monday https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/01/23/chic-j23.html

Government statistics reveal vast scale of UK school teacher and staff COVID-19 infections
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/01/23/scuk-j23.html

Work place spread is also problematic.
Greater numbers dying as COVID-19 infections spread in UK workplaces
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/01/23/couk-j23.html

Chris at peak prosperity claims to be "Scared but Hopeful". He's scared of censorship, but hopeful truth and logic will prevail. I hope he's right.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8SFCI7F4jY (13 min)

With 4000 US citizen a day dying of COVID the NIH has finally relented just a bit on the use of ivermectin. They are not recommending it as the FLCCC urged, but are now allowing doctors and patients to choose to use it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m9yCpZAL0g (10 min)
Medical News Take On Ivermectin And COVID-19: NIH New Recommendation And More!

Richard Wolff suggest COVID is a crisis of capitalism...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idf87KEhDzM (17 min)
I've been calling it a pandemic for profit, as evidenced (in part) by the lack of approval of the non-profit inexpensive effective oxford/AZ vaccine.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-9102431/Doctor-slams-FDA-not-...

The Gravel Institute has teamed up with Rick Wolff to produce clear 5 min clips about capitalism...

At the very heart of capitalism is a system of exploitation. That is not a pejorative label: it’s an objective definition of what work actually means. In order for capitalists to make a profit, their workers have to earn less than the value they produce, and that extra value has to go to their bosses. You’re being robbed – and it’s the system called capitalism that’s doing it.

getting better.jpg

And so there it is in a nutshell, confirming today's theme, "It ain't gonna get no better". I'm sure you can think of many other examples. I didn't go into ecosystem collapse, the media white washing of Biden (and his agenda), nor the looming eviction crisis. I'll leave those comments to you to provide below. My concept is if we see what is coming we can better prepare. Just as with COVID, getting your Vitamin D and zinc levels up WILL improve outcomes. Gardening can provide a fair amount of food and a connection with the earth and nature. Building community will expand friendships and support. We can be better prepared and help young folks along the path to sustainability at the same time. Have a lovely Sunday and I look forward to your insights in the comments.

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Comments

lookout.

If you are Muslim with a Green Card and have been unable to enter the US, now you can.

If you are a Dreamer worried about your status, your worry has lessened.

If you are pleased when our country participates in Climate Accords and the WHO, that's something to be happy about.

If you were dismayed that a totally unprepared, CIA, Mckinley graduate is the new Secretary of Transportation, (Pete B) now you may be delighted to learn that Polly Trottenberg has been appointed his Deputy. Polly did wonderful things in NYC and the local news is united in saying it would have been better if Polly was the Cabinet member and Pete her deputy. I predict that knowledgeable Polly will be able to address our roads and railroads and airport issues.

On The Other Hand.........

Our military stances and practices certainly will not change. If the talk is accurate we will be continuing our sieges and starvation of countries were are invading occupying or destroying.

On Covid management----Biden's team and Fauci have not yet approached telling us the truth about the facts of this virus and the truth about our power to contain it. (Limited.)

IMHO, the vaccine is a tool on par with masks at this time. If I was in charge my public statement would be that there is no single magic answer to what we face in our struggle against the Coronavirus. We need to vaccinate as many people as are interested in getting the vaccine, while explaining that 90% effective means 10% of those getting vaccinate will not be immune.

We need to encourage mask wearing because it helps stop the spread. Not all the spread, but some of it.

The entire country needs to take Vitamin D. Their doctors should prescribe the appropriate dosage. And the CDC should make dosage guidelines available to everyone. Some sort of drug discount by the Federal government to cover the cost of Vitamin D and PSA would be excellent.

It's very cold and clear in NYC and I'm heading out.

Have a decent day, lookout and all of us who gather here this morning.

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NYCVG

Lookout's picture

@NYCVG

Another item on Biden's plus side is shutting down the keystone XL (but for some reason not DAPL), and some other items...

The list for review includes a policy President Donald Trump's Environmental Protection Agency called "the largest deregulatory initiative of this administration": the replacement of Obama-era fuel efficiency rules for cars. It also targets the administration's decision that would allow roads and logging in a pristine part of the country's largest national forest, and Trump's changes that would gum up the process of protecting vulnerable flora and fauna with the Endangered Species Act.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/climate-policy-biden-puts-trump-...

So as I suggest, better than when it was so bad (but still not good). The idea Biden can be pushed left is I fear a fools errand. We'll see.

Why oh why isn't there a big push for D and Zn? No downside. Thanks again.

Enjoy your day. Be careful out there!

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9 users have voted.

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

@Lookout the pipeline shutdown.

TY, lookout.

My guess for why there's no D and zinc push is because there's insufficient profit in it.

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6 users have voted.

NYCVG

@NYCVG

If you are Muslim with a Green Card and have been unable to enter the US, now you can.

More competition for limited jobs. More corporate slaves.

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3 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

A terrific compilation, as always.
Strong believer in the gut biome as
a path to health, as you've pointed out many times.

This link to Naked Capitalism is interesting...

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2021/01/a-healthy-microbiome-builds-a-st...

Screen-Shot-2021-01-23-at-5.40.04-AM-624x410.png

Bacteria in our guts can elicit an effective immune response against viruses that not only infect the gut, such as norovirusand rotavirus, but also those infecting the lungs, such as the flu virus. The beneficial gut microbes do this by ordering specialized immune cells to produce potent antiviral proteins that ultimately eliminate viral infections. And the body of a person lacking these beneficial gut bacteria won’t have as strong an immune response to invading viruses. As a result, infections might go unchecked, taking a toll on health.

Turns out overuse of antibiotics hampers the good gut cocktail.

Thanks again.

qmess

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13 users have voted.
Lookout's picture

@QMS

especially the ones growing inside us. It is becoming better accepted.

Gut bacteria make most of our happiness hormone, serotonin.
https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/microbes-help-produce-serotonin-gut-4...

The health implications are just starting to be understood. Healthy gut means healthy people.

Thanks. Hope you're warm and comfy in the great white north!

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8 users have voted.

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

Azazello's picture

Here's some good stuff I flagged for the Weekly Watch.
Thomas Frank with Katie Halper and Matt Taibbi: Useful Idiots, 1 hr. 7min.
Aaron Maté & Max Blumenthal: Push Back, 57 min.
And Jimmy Dore:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLdz9-fdp8o width:500 height:300]

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11 users have voted.

We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

Lookout's picture

@Azazello

You always bring good material. I caught most of the idiots T Franks piece. I enjoyed it as well as Aaron and Max conversation about the DC riot.

The $hill (and pay-low-see) is still trying to push russiagate. Is that really any different than Trump's false claim of "stop the steal"? Seems similar to me.

Ain't going to get better, is an appropriate theme to my mind.

Well, thanks again. Have a nice Sunday!

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9 users have voted.

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

Azazello's picture

@Lookout
that the news isn't fake, because it is. The corporate news "reported" on BlueAnon all day, every day for years. We all saw it and it was, indeed, fake news.

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11 users have voted.

We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

Lookout's picture

@Azazello

Sadly it is viewed from the silo of the MSDNCIA or the Faux news... or even worse, OAN and newsmax. Matt's "Hate Inc." view of media is accurate from my perspective. Divided by design for the pleasure/profit of the oligarchs.

Orwell saw it coming with doublethink and newspeak. I need to re-read 1984.

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10 users have voted.

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

Azazello's picture

@Lookout
Orwell was not a prophet. Everything in 1984, with the exception of television which had not yet been invented, was inspired by actual conditions in the Soviet Union.
I've read Orwell, of course, but real Bolshevik history in more interesting to me.

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7 users have voted.

We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

Lookout's picture

@Azazello

Lenin and the Bolshevik revolution. I always enjoyed hearing Stephen Cohen's views of Russia and it's history. Sorry he passed on this year.
https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/178459

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7 users have voted.

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

Azazello's picture

@Lookout
I had never read Buklharin and the Bolshevik Revolution, sad to say.
It's on my reading list now.

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4 users have voted.

We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

Lookout's picture

@lotlizard

C-section babies are more prone to autism than natural birth children. They are not inoculated with the right bacteria in the birth canal and many suffer a variety lifetime symptoms.

https://www.webmd.com/baby/news/20130211/c-section-formula-may-disrupt-g...

Not too surprising for this soil scientist cause soils work in similar ways...ecosystem dependent.

Thanks for the link! Hope all is well in your world!

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6 users have voted.

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

Dawn's Meta's picture

I've been wanting to get more information before bringing up the subject of Presidential Emergency Actions Documents (PEADs). Harper's Magazine has in the last six months become one of my favorite print media organizations. Their in-depth examination of many subjects, some arcane or obscure, but many timely and interesting articles are printed monthly. I am often surprised at the topics I'm willing to read about, but it is the quality of the writing which draws me in.

Back to PEADs. One or two people are making it their life's work to uncover and organize information pertaining to states of emergency: how many there are; how they are used; what we currently have open; the role of Congress; Congressional investigations especially after Nixon.

The one name which turns up on this is Elizabeth Goitein, Director
Liberty & National Security, The Brennen Center for Justice

PEADs are classified “secret,” and no PEAD has ever been declassified or leaked. Indeed, it appears that they are not even subject to congressional oversight. Although the law requires the executive branch to report even the most sensitive covert military and intelligence operations to at least some members of Congress, there is no such disclosure requirement for PEADs, and no evidence that the documents have ever been shared with relevant congressional committees.

The Harpers November 2020 issue had an extensive article by Harper's DC Editor, Andrew Cockburn.

The Enemies Briefcase: Secret powers and the presidency

“We know about the nuclear briefcase that carries the launch codes,” Joel McCleary, a White House official in the Carter Administration, told me. “But over at the Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department there’s a list of all the so-called enemies of the state who would be rounded up in an emergency. I’ve heard it called the ‘enemies briefcase.’ ”

Franklin Roosevelt, for example, invoked emergency powers when he incarcerated 120,000 Americans of Japanese ethnicity.

But it soon became clear that the rot went far deeper. “It wasn’t only a Nixon problem,” he said. “It was not only a CIA problem. The abuses of power go back to at least Franklin Roosevelt.” Roosevelt, they found, had commissioned FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover to uncover evidence of “subversion” (without defining what that meant) in the lead-up to World War II, requesting that such investigations be limited “insofar as possible” to “aliens.” Along with Hoover and U.S. attorney general Homer Cummings, FDR agreed that the investigations should be kept secret from Congress.

Apparently Trump wasn't blowing smoke about the breadth and depth of his executive powers are unilateral. The US is under many unextinguished Emergency Declarations and there seems to be no will either in the Executive or the Congress to establish regular review and sunset of these declarations. He was unusual in how close he came to blowing their cover: a first in the course of PEADs.

We have a new/old administration now in office. Biden must know of these powers and it seems is or will use them. The Posse Comitatus Act should have prevented the use of soldiers as police enforcement but don't seem to have been challenged.

In the wake of Nixon and Watergate the Church committee was set up and along with Charles Mathias (R). They managed to find out a great deal about how deep and broad the PEADs go. They tried to draft legislation. Old names familiar to many of us: Henry Kissinger, Dick Cheney and from the way back to the present, William Barr among many other players sought to defang the commission and its output. This will send chills down your spine or should...

Henry Kissinger urged unyielding resistance. As he exclaimed during a meeting with President Gerald Ford and others in May 1975: “It is an act of insanity and national humiliation to have a law prohibiting the president from ordering an assassination.”

Ultimately, a very watered down bill was passed asking Congress to review active PEADs each session and to sunset any that no longer apply. Congress forgot to do anything. One piece of legislation which attempted to reign in un checked power to spy on US citizens is FISA, eventually came out of this long attempt to grapple with unlimited executive power.
Edited to remove duplicate blockquote. I looked for information on "fair use" and didn't find anything. If anything is too much please let me know or remove content to prevent problems for the site. Thank you.

Oh, and need I say, 'it will not get better'.

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11 users have voted.

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.

Lookout's picture

@Dawn's Meta

Keep everyone in the dark. If anyone questions, they are a conspiracy theorist. Floorboard the for profit throttle.

What we really need to do is de-throttle and eliminate assumed powers. The CIA comes to mind as well...totally unsupervised.

Thanks for the heads up. I wasn't familiar with PEADs, but it really doesn't surprise me.

Take care and be well!

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10 users have voted.

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

@Dawn's Meta
Receding read this re-release from E.C.Tubb, a prolific British writer.
The title novella is astonishing in that it was written in 1956.

it is not at all like the blurb suggests.
https://www.amazon.com/Enemy-State-Fantastic-Mystery-Stories/dp/14344357...

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2 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

ggersh's picture

@Dawn's Meta My guess is control, now with Dementia Joe and his picks(if indeed he is making them) it looks the same way. Dementia Joe can't possibly be in charge can he?

Since he became prez all media is saying everything is now AOK...like WTF.

Thanks for all the 411 Lookout

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7 users have voted.

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

Lookout's picture

@ggersh

Got to maintain balance in the empire. What media spin...all the way through the no platform no policy election. Keep the propaganda going.

Caught a pretty interesting interview by Jimmy with a boogaloo boy. After reading/scanning that piece listen to the fellow. As I've been saying, we have more in common than people think. We are being purposefully divided.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZMB9052rEs]

Take care!

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9 users have voted.

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

ggersh's picture

@Lookout @Lookout not the rwnj that the MSM makes em out to be, surprise surprise. Banned from all social media so they can't post their views and refute what they are claimed to be. UFB what this country has become.

EDIT: That JD/Boogaloo Boy interview is must watch! Thanks!

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7 users have voted.

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

Lookout's picture

@ggersh

We need clear policies to unite people instead of labels. Most of us want similar things.

Glad you liked the clip!

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5 users have voted.

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

Lookout's picture

Noam mentioned the unpublished preface to Animal Farm in his conversation with Chris.
https://cognitive-liberty.online/orwells-unpublished-preface-to-animal-f...

Unpopular ideas can be silenced, and inconvenient facts kept dark, without the need for any official ban. Anyone who has lived long in a foreign country will know of instances of sensational items of news — things which on their own merits would get the big headlines-being kept right out of the British press, not because the Government intervened but because of a general tacit agreement that ‘it wouldn’t do’ to mention that particular fact. So far as the daily newspapers go, this is easy to understand. The British press is extremely centralised, and most of it is owned by wealthy men who have every motive to be dishonest on certain important topics. But the same kind of veiled censorship also operates in books and periodicals, as well as in plays, films and radio. At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas which it is assumed that all right-thinking people will accept without question. It is not exactly forbidden to say this, that or the other, but it is ‘not done’ to say it, just as in mid-Victorian times it was ‘not done’ to mention trousers in the presence of a lady. Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness. A genuinely unfashionable opinion is almost never given a fair hearing, either in the popular press or in the highbrow periodicals.

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12 users have voted.

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

@Lookout
I'm passing it on.

To exchange one orthodoxy for another is not necessarily an advance. The enemy is the gramophone mind, whether or not one agrees with the record that is being played at the moment.

All of us should do this introspection on our beliefs.

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7 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Just different platitudes to sooth a different base.

IMO, Biden will fulfill his dream of means testing SS, turning it into another welfare trap that can't be escaped. "You should have an IRA and not depend on the government for your pension! You seniors are draining the government of its ability to boost the economy (i.e. subsidize my donors masters)"

Only a Democrat can flush away the legacy of FDR. Cat food anyone?

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5 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

lotlizard's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

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4 users have voted.

It appears clear that this would be the Biden administration’s preferred method of warmongering if given the choice based on who’s going to be in it. The incoming Secretary of State Tony Blinken now advocates replacing the old Bush model of full-scale war with “discreet, small-scale sustainable operations, maybe led by special forces, to support local actors”. Biden’s nominee for CIA Director William Burns urged caution in the lead-up to the Iraq invasion and later expressed regret that he didn’t push back against it. Rather than picking bloodthirsty psychopath Michele Flournoy for Defense Secretary as many expected, Biden went with the less cartoonishly evil Raytheon board member Lloyd J. Austin III. All this while depraved coupmonger Victoria Nuland is being added to the administration and the murderous Venezuela coup is folded into its policy.

Precisely what the USA did a hundred years ago in the interval between WW I and WW II. The period of subjugation of Central America to United Fruit. What was America doing in the 1820's and 1830s? Using proxys as "Indian fighters". Yes, the Westward Movement wasn;t it? with the US Army moving in to protect "settlers" from "the savages"?

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5 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Lookout's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

in his War is a Racket He should be a well known hero.
https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Navigation/Community/Arcadia-and-THP-B...

Your Biden expectations sound about right. And don't forget the constant cheering of the media regardless of what he does, because it will be the owners desires he will fulfill.

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7 users have voted.

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

@Lookout
very apropos

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3 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

lotlizard's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness  

The period of subjugation of Central America to United Fruit.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ShitLiberalsSay/comments/ks7at7/satire_banana_r...

https://ifunny.co/picture/chiquita-mikedewint-from-our-founding-in-1899-...

[Chiquita brand logo] Chiquita

From our founding in 1899 as the United Fruit Company to our honored place in your kitchen today, Chiquita Brands International has always supported democratic values and the peaceful transfer of power. We call on President Trump to honor those traditions.

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5 users have voted.

Frank, Taibbi, discussion was one of their better ones. It was very funny as well. I watched it last night and laughed through the whole thing.

This Keiser report is worth a watch: The year that changed everything. https://youtu.be/chj1HH3O7mI (25 min)

I'm really disappointed in the outcome of this disagreement regarding wages in the Hunts Point strike. $37,000 is not a sufficient wage to live in NYC, and especially not enough pay for people who work as hard as these people work. We really need, as a society, to actually honor work instead of the fake and hypocritical way we talk about respecting work and workers. https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/01/23/hunt-j23-1.html

Thanks Lookout for a great roundup.

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12 users have voted.
Lookout's picture

@randtntx

Max is sure feeling good about his bitcoin. He has been warning about the fragility of fiat currency for a while.

And workers can't get a dollar an hour raise...$40/week in NYC? The union big cheese didn't help.

Thanks for the visit and links!

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4 users have voted.

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

@Lookout @Lookout
unless you can pay your taxes with it. I could make my own blockchain currency, called "tonys". Would you sell me your house for them?

A fad with no inherent value. "Well", you say,"the US dollar has no backing." Yes. it does. It has inherent value in "...all debts private and public." No one can sue and demand to be paid in bitcoin. the County Tax Collector will not take bitcoin. If you insist on not paying in dollars, the County will foreclose on your property. Fiat money has value because you can pay taxes with it and you can pay court judgements with it. Gold bugs complain that you can't melt them down and trade ingots. So?

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1 user has voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Lookout's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

Now I ain't one of them, but young folks have lived in a digital world their whole lives and so have no problem with digital currency. My concern is when it becomes a threat to banks somehow it will be made illegal, or simply slowed down to the point where it is de-platformed. My guess anyway.

Gold and silver are at least tangible.

All the best!

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1 user has voted.

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

enhydra lutris's picture

Underground gardens and houses are definitely wonderful ideas, though for personal residences they require starting from an empty parcel or tearing down what is there. Large swaths of CA, of course, should probably be off limits due to unstable ground, which is more critical in an underground facility than for one on top.

I fear that building a serious anti-war movement will require the kind of massive propaganda campaign that the pro-war and pro-military folks have been running for many, many decades now. We can start small, but it needs to be continuous and will be heavily censored if it starts to have a serious impact. Nonetheless, we might as well get started, to the extent we aren't already working on it.

That Tuscaloosa gathering is simply crazy, and but pne of many similar ones, I'm sure. There are likely to be more and more of them. One real problem we've had and will continue to have is the US cultural mindset. Cooperation is weakness, the rugged individual, independent and unassisted, whom nobody can give orders to because Freedumb, Liberty and 'you ain't the boss of me', is the ideal. Don't gotta lissen to no wimp-ass science guy, just be strong and get a bigger hammer. Definitely no mask with our personal appearance fetish, and can't make me 'cause John Wayne and the other founding fathers said I don't have to. Watch that trickle over into getting vaccinated too, especailly with all the anti-vaxxer propaganda that has slithered into mainstream consciousness.

At any rate, I have no expectations, but need to act as if I did because we make no progress if we don't try.

Gotta get to work outside before the rains slide in this afternoon, including the fruit trees and feeble attempt at a garden.

be well and have a good one

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7 users have voted.

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 --

Lookout's picture

@enhydra lutris

Doing what we can. Yes, they're small inconsequential actions, but moving the right direction.

An antiwar media propaganda movement sounds wise to me. Not holding my breath, but great idea.

What can I say about the UA kids? They won a damn football game and lost it I guess. Many people still don't wear masks here.

Hope all is well. Sunny and in the 50's today, so pretty pleasant weather. Rain tomorrow.

So take care and have a good one! Cheers.

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4 users have voted.

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

The closures have done their job of discrediting Trump and the (R) party. Democratic Governors ordered the shutdowns blaming it on the inadequate central government. Now that they control the White House, House, and Senate, no reason to bind the mouths of the corporate oxen. It didn't save any lives. Probably took more lives to starvation and exposure and senseless violence. Now that it's political job is done, it will be swept away to further corporate profit and show what a great job Joe Biden did to the economy. Additional deaths and vaccine screw-ups can be blamed on Trump. Wasn't the original symbol for the (D) Party a jackass kicking a dead horse?

"Bending the curve" EVERYONE will eventually get COVID if they don't die from something else first. If the past year had focused on treatment research instead of a feeding frenzy for the vaccine industry, we might be able to actually save lives. Bill Gates' vaccine track record is dark and bloody. I don't trust anything that robber baron promotes.

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9 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

@The Voice In the Wilderness The Voice is precisely how I saw this Virus from day 1. To me, this is the Walking Dead, season one finale when the CDC head tells Rick Grimes that every living creature has the virus.

"Bending the curve" has always been about regulating the flow of the dead and dying in order that the catastrophe appears to be manageable.

Still no HIV-Aids vaccine. 30 years later.

But we do have life-saving treatments.

That's the best we can hope for and I await the day when this administration, or the next one, can get out of their own way and level with Us.

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7 users have voted.

NYCVG

Lookout's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness @NYCVG

The goal is profit. I hate to say it.

Otherwise ivermectin would have undergone clinical trials back in April when its efficacy was first suggested, I wonder how many lives would be saved.

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9 users have voted.

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

magiamma's picture

Well, we are in for big rain now.

https://alerts.weather.gov/cap/wwacapget.php?x=CA12618944F3AC.Hydrologic...

:

...SLOW MOVING ATMOSPHERIC RIVER EXPECTED TO PRODUCE PERIODS OF
HEAVY RAIN ACROSS THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA AND CENTRAL COAST
FROM LATE TUESDAY THROUGH LATE THURSDAY...

Fluffing bioswale and hoping - this is a real test.

Funny how every week or so the numbers just keeping getting worse and the end-game date for no fossil fuel just moves up and up.

Southern Ocean waters are warming faster than thought, threatening Antarctic ice
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/01/21/southern-ocean-warming...

In addition, this vast ocean, part of which separates Australia and Antarctica and also circles the frozen continent, is where global ocean currents get started, as heat is exchanged between the ocean and atmosphere, salinity differences arise in various layers of the deep, storm-churned waters, and currents reaching the North Atlantic Ocean and beyond are powered.

In recent years, understanding how the Southern Ocean is changing as a result of increased greenhouse gas emissions has taken on greater urgency as scientists have learned more about the fragility of large parts of the Antarctic ice sheet, since glaciers extending into the ocean are being eroded by relatively mild waters below. Like removing a doorstop, the collapse of these ice shelves can free up inland ice to move into the ocean, raising global sea levels and harming coastal communities.

Politics per usual re: The climate crisis

https://climatecrocks.com/2021/01/23/greta-thunberg-michael-mann-on-the-...
The first part of this is full of math...

But then keeping CO2 at 560ppm and waiting for the fast feedbacks and radiative equilibrium to finally playout from their intertia, we have to add another ~+1C, for a final ECS of 4C. But wait – most of the past temperature rise has happened while the Arctic Ocean was still solid ice, and the rainforest and soils and rainfalls had not been affected much. Those are very nonlinear processes which are now manifesting in spades, in just the past decade or two. so a linear extrapolation to +3.0C TCS is too conservative, and too, the pipeline will by then include much stronger melting permafrost and methane emissions, and the now beginning albedo feedback from loss of AO ice and darkening ice caps from rising wildfires. And where does that suggest ECS actually will be? About 5C. Which is just the values seen in past interglacials (Friedrich et a. 2016) and now in the new CMIP6 climate models, with low cloud loss as the main culprit. And ECS=5C changes EVERYTHING (Macdougall et al 2012 and 2016). Mann is too focused on not scaring people, when the truth is that they NEED to be scared, as Greta realizes, and then “the way out, is through” as the psychologists know. Go numb, grief, anger, and come to acceptance and new resolve. Instead, we’re being kept from ultimate healing, placated and pandered to by the policy people who’s ad people know too well how easily we’re hooked into “Have Cake / Eat too” can-kicking. And Michael Mann has some guilt in this, unfortunately.

Thanks for the ww. Take good care.

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4 users have voted.

Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook

Lookout's picture

@magiamma

hope it behaves as expected. When we get 6+ inches in a day, I'll have at least some wash on our roads. Road washes downhill. Tractor pulls it uphill. And Sisyphus rolls on.

I'm thrilled with the germ of our seedlings. They're off the heating pad and under full light. Don't have the lights on a timer cause I like to check water status AM and PM. Something fun to do.

Wheat seed in the wheat mulch are sprouting. Been weeding today. Pretty easy in the thick mulch...just a bit tedious (like much of life).
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xft3FdBvRyY&t=50s]

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3 users have voted.

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