The Weekly Watch
The Others
I think we are purposefully set up to fight against our own interests...red/blue, gay/straight, libertarian/socialist, BLM/Boogaloos and an array of other divides. As a result we fail to see the real impediment to a functioning society benefiting most people and protecting the planet is the oligarchs. This week the rigging of the market by the elites to limit the people's investment was made obvious with the Gamestop fiasco. I suspect that soon, designed distractions will insure we're pitted against other working people while the oligarchs laugh all the way to the banks they own. This became plain to me this week when Jimmy was attacked (45 min) for daring to speak to a boogaloo boy (40 min). There are many views we hold in common with this person. The idea we should not even talk with people who have different ideas is absurd. For my perspective we must learn to focus on policy issues NOT identity politics designed to keep us apart. TPTB assassinated MLK when he dared to try to unite blacks and whites in a working class coalition. Since that time, we've failed again and again to rebuild that working class movement...in part because we are divided or thwarted whenever that becomes a possibility (OWS and the 2016 Bernie campaign come to mind).
Living in Alabama I have to talk with people who are very different from me...christian fascists, gun nuts, anti-union right to work proponents, racists, and many other views I consider ignorant. All the surrounding counties in both GA and AL voted over 80% Trump. However, most of the time I not only can communicate with them but even find commonalities. Most want M4A, to end the wars and use that money at home, a clean livable environment, and so on. Now we might not always agree on the best path toward those goals, but holding the same goals does provide opportunity to educate one another and move toward a better understanding of how to get there.
Consider this Trumpeteer from SC.
No, big tech is not out of control; they are in control along with other special interest groups! The money of big tech, big Pharma and other special interest groups has purchased House seats, Senate seats and many other elections across America. I’m very disappointed with both parties as they base election results on money collected to run shameless ads with half-truths and lies while uninformed and illiterate voters make decisions on the trash they see on TV or read on the internet. Honor, integrity and truthfulness no longer matter. Politicians change sides on the issues like most people change underwear.
Now I can't buy the idea that Trump is an antidote, but I can agree with his analysis of the problem.
Jimmy spoke with a rock and roll piano player (after the blow back to his boogaloo encounter) who has successfully reached across the divide.
Black Musician Befriends Klan Members -- Changes Hearts & Minds. (17 min)
Fred Hampton/Black Panthers Joined White Bigots In Class Unity w/ Daryl Davis (18 min)
Civil Rights Leaders Join With Far Right To Shut Down Vegas Strip w/ Daryl Davis (7 min)
Can we have a chorus of Kumbaya? Not to be trite, just saying if we would listen more and be less dogmatic, we might really build coalitions across the roadblocks TPTB set in our path toward unity. Here again, focus on policy not identity.
We are cascading toward existential environmental catastrophe. We don't have time to squabble over petty differences. Just consider the path the dim(wit)s have chosen with their insistence on (a bound to fail) impeachment. So instead of putting the promised $2000 checks first and foremost, they drop the amount to $1400 and now say, may be in March we'll deal with it. Meanwhile they promise more conflict with Venezuela both with sanctions and recognizing our non-elected presidential puppet, troop build ups in Syria, and a long drawn out process (not) re-establishing the Iran nuclear deal (which our Israeli overlords want stopped). At the same time we (the US) are promoting more conflict with both China and Russia...you can't make it up.
Perhaps it is appropriate the militarization is happening at home instead of just overseas...It should be plain to see the empire has come home.
It’s certainly one of the stranger phenomena of our era: after 20 years of endless war in which trillions of dollars were spent and hundreds of thousands died on all sides without the U.S. military achieving anything approaching victory, the Pentagon continues to be funded at staggering levels, while funding to deal with the greatest threats to our safety and “national security” — from the pandemic to climate change to white supremacy — proves woefully inadequate. In good times and bad, the U.S. military and the “industrial complex” that surrounds it, which President Dwight D. Eisenhower first warned us about in 1961, continue to maintain a central role in Washington, even though they’re remarkably irrelevant to the biggest challenges facing our democracy.
How the National Security State Has Come to Dominate a "Civilian" Government.
...But it's all Trump's fault! (The dimwits are going to miss their whipping boy)
Obviously, it isn't just Trump, he's a convenient foil. We must help the population to see the problem is the capitalist system and its owners, the corporate elite (whose greed knows no bounds) who are the real culprits...
How Reddit/Gamestop/Robinhood pulled the cover off the rigged system...
Instead of greed, this latest bout of speculation, and especially the extraordinary excitement at GameStop, has a different emotional driver: anger. The people investing today are driven by righteous anger, about generational injustice, about what they see as the corruption and unfairness of the way banks were bailed out in 2008 without having to pay legal penalties later, and about lacerating poverty and inequality. This makes it unlike any of the speculative rallies and crashes that have preceded it.
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2021/01/the-system-is-rigged-episode-4537-...
Caity as usual is spot on...
Lessons from this whole Wall Street/Reddit ordeal:
- The stock market is a scam.
- There is no “free market” and there never will be.
- Wall Street predators are the most despised people on earth.
- The public can do more to fight back than it had previously assumed.
- There’s surely a lot more we can do to fight back that we haven’t thought of yet.
You can’t expose how rigged the system really is without pushing against its power structures according to its own rules. When the entire system pushes back and boots you out in front of everyone, more people are made more aware that it is rigged. This can only be a good thing.
Every single hedge fund plutocrat has at some point in their lives thought the words “I can’t believe I’m getting away with this!”
This is another one of those awkward “we need to shut down the rabble without looking like a totalitarian oligarchy” standoffs.
Myth: The rich compete with each other and ordinary people benefit from it.
Reality: The rich collaborate with each other against ordinary people.
Jimmy spoke with Dylan Ratigan about the gamestop/robinhood play to screw the little investors while protecting the hedge fund oligarchs.
How Criminal Hedge Funds RIGGED GameStop Market w/Dylan Ratigan (23 min)
CNBC Melts Down Over GameStop! with Dylan Ratigan (38 mn)
Krystal and Saagar were all over the story this week too.
Wall Street Elites DESTROYED, Beaten By Redditors At Their Own RIGGED Game (15 min)
CEO EMBARRASSES Himself With Pathetic Excuse For Shutting Down Trading (13 min)
Janet Yellen Paid 800 GRAND From Hedge Fund Linked To Robinhood Scandal (10 min)
Billionaire CRIES About Wealthy Paying Fair Share AGAIN (4 min)
Matt and Katie host David Dayen to break down the GameStop/Wall Street Story. They also discuss the early days of Biden's presidency, and the moves that are available to him with his new authority. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzacCjtibg0 (1.3 hours)
Everyone’s talking about a video game store’s stock because it features the rarest of occurrences in American life: rich people losing
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/gamestop-reddit-ro...
Seems like everyone was on the story, uniting both the right and left in outrage.
Tucker hosted Glenn this week to discuss the gamestop gig.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvhY_-v9Ar0 (4 min)
FAUX also featured Dave Portnoy in an appropriate rant...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaPgBtf5m6w (11 min)
Everyday people got 'cheated' in order to protect hedge funds
And it isn't just the market that is rigged for elite...it is the entire system.
At $4.1 trillion, the total wealth of America’s 660 billionaires is two-thirds higher than the $2.4 trillion in total wealth held by the bottom half of the population, 165 million Americans.
...
The $1.1 trillion wealth gain by 660 U.S. billionaires since March 2020 could pay for:
- All of the relief for working families contained in President Biden’s proposed $1.9 trillion pandemic rescue package, which includes $1,400 in direct payments to individuals, $400-a-week supplements to unemployment benefits, and an expanded child tax credit. (See table below)
- A stimulus check of more than $3,400 for every one of the roughly 331 million people in the United States. A family of four would receive over $13,000. Republicans in Congress resisted sending families stimulus checks most of last year, claiming we couldn’t afford them.
Ordinary Americans have not fared as well as billionaires during the pandemic:
- Over 25 million have fallen ill with the virus and more than 420,000 have died from it. [Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center]
- Collective work income of rank-and-file private-sector employees—all hours worked times the hourly wages of the entire bottom 82% of the workforce—declined by 1% in real terms from mid-March to mid-December, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
- Over 73 million lost work between Mar. 21 and Dec. 26, 2020. [S. Department of Labor]
- 16 million were collecting unemployment on Jan. 2, 2021. [S. Department of Labor]
- Nearly 100,000 businesses have permanently closed. [Yelp/CNBC]
- 12 million workers have likely lost employer-sponsored health insurance during the pandemic as of August 26, 2020. [Economic Policy Institute]
- Some 29 million adults reported between Dec. 9-21 that their household had not had enough food in the past week. From Nov. 25-Dec. 7, between 8 and 12 million children lived in a household where kids did not eat enough because the household could not afford to fully feed them. [Center on Budget & Policy Priorities (CBPP)]
- 14 million adults—1 in 5 renters—reported in December being behind in their rent. [CBPP]
https://inequality.org/great-divide/updates-billionaire-pandemic/
Oxfam’s report shows how the rigged economic system is enabling a super-rich elite to amass wealth in the middle of the worst recession since the Great Depression while billions of people are struggling to make ends meet. It reveals how the pandemic is deepening long-standing economic, racial and gender divides.
https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/mega-rich-recoup-covid-losses-re...
So the economic, societal, environmental, educational, etc problems are not only systemic but also synergistic...baked in and controlled by those who pull the corporate levers of power. Consider big pharma's business model as one of many examples...
Like all corporations, big pharma's goal is profit, not people's health. Same with our sick care system. There's a reason US COVID outcomes are the worst in the world.
COVID News...
Total US COVID Deaths: 450,381 https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/
U.S. New COVID Cases Down 21% in Past Week, Deaths Fall From Peak
I suspect there will be an uptick as the new more transmissible variants become more dominant.
Rollout of the available COVID-19 vaccines in the United States continues to be slow, due in part to "20 years of disinvestment in the country's public health infrastructure," experts said Thursday.
...
As a result, entire segments of the population have been excluded from vaccination, particularly communities of color, as states scramble to develop their own vaccine rollout plans, public health expert Dr. Chris Beyrer said.
...
"There is more demand than there is vaccine, and it looks like we are going to be in that phase for many months ... even as we are still seeing high rates of community transmission," he said Thursday
https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2021/01/28/Experts-Slow-vaccine-rollout-...
The Johnson and Johnson vaccine is a one shot dose and should be available soon.
Vaccine Candidate 72% Effective in the US and 66% Effective Overall at Preventing Moderate to Severe COVID-19, 28 Days after Vaccination, and 85% Effective Overall in Preventing Severe Disease and Demonstrated Complete Protection Against COVID-19 related Hospitalization and Death as of Day 28. Efficacy against severe disease increased over time, with no cases in vaccinated participants reported after day 49.
John Campbell explains.
Ivermectin
The evidence continues to mount on the efficacy of ivermectin for treating COVID. If it wasn't a generic, available, inexpensive drug I think it would be used as standard of care, and as a result save thousands of lives every week in the US. Instead they are still administering remdesiver at $3000/per treatment despite it's proven lack of benefit.
Following the diligent efforts of physicians associated with a group called Front Line Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has upgraded their recommendation for the “miraculous” drug ivermectin, making it an option for use in treating COVID-19 within the United States.
The result comes one week after Dr. Paul Marik and Dr. Pierre Kory—founding members of the FLCCC, along with Dr. Andrew Hill, researcher and consultant to the World Health Organization (WHO), presented their data before the NIH Treatment Guidelines Panel.
A press release from FLCCC explains the “new designation upgraded the status of ivermectin from ‘against’ [the drug’s use] to ‘neither for nor against,’ which is the same recommendation given to monoclonal antibodies and convalescent plasma, both widely used across the nation.”
“By no longer recommending against ivermectin use,” the statement said, “doctors should feel more open in prescribing ivermectin as another therapeutic option for the treatment of COVID-19. This may clear its path towards FDA [Food and Drug Administration] emergency use approval.”
...
Though FLCCC is encouraged by NIH’s movement to neutrality on this treatment, it asserts that their current stance remains “out of alignment with the known clinical, epidemiological, and observational data” which should compel them “to provide more specific guidance in support of the use of ivermectin in COVID-19,” and they provide a detailed analysis of the agency’s conclusions to that effect.
https://www.theburningplatform.com/2021/01/23/miraculous-ivermectin-appr...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbC5LLzxtRo&t=45s (15 min)
A quick run through of notable updates on Ivermectin and COVID-19! A new European country approves the use of Ivermectin both for inpatient and outpatient COVID-19, South Africa changes their stance and approves Ivermectin for compassionate use, and we revisit the National Institutes of Health (NIH) recommendations on Ivermectin and COVID-19. Lastly, we go through several of our most notable previous videos on all things Ivermectin and COVID-19
US Doctors are beginning to adopt the use of ivermectin
As hospitalizations surge in Bexar County, one San Antonio doctor is using a head lice drug that he believes is keeping his COVID-19 patients from ending up in the hospital...
The drug is widely available and runs about $20. Within the last month, Dr. Pho started using the drug on his patients. "About 50-60 patients, there is no hospitalization," he said. "Nobody has gotten sicker and has required oxygen to be hospitalized."
He said half those patients were over the age of 65. If a patient is sick with COVID, Pho prescribes ivermectin with a couple of other drugs and supplements. He does believe the key is ivermectin. "Using all of these medicines, particularly the ivermectin, so far has helped the patients get better quicker and preventing them from getting pneumonia," he said.
Pho said he understands that some people will say there hasn't been a lot of research to back this treatment. "There is going to be doubters out there listening to this story," he said. "Many of my colleagues are going to question this. But I ask them to read the articles. Now, I feel confident that we have some improving and emerging medications to help the patients."
Even the courts are in on the controversy...
New York Supreme Court Judge Saves 80-Year-Old Patient from Death by Ordering Hospital to Give Life-Saving Ivermectin
On Jan. 2, Smentkiewicz was given her first dose of Ivermectin, and according to court papers filed by her family, she made “a complete turnaround.”
“In less than 48 hours, my mother was taken off the ventilator, transferred out of the Intensive Care Unit, sitting up on her own and communicating,” Kulbacki said in a court affidavit.
However, she was soon transferred to a different section of the hospital away from the ICU, and the doctors there refused to allow her to continue taking Ivermectin.
...
But this is how the Medical Industrial Complex works. They don’t think anyone should dare to question their alleged “authority.”Fortunately, the Judge wasn’t persuaded, and basically saved this woman’s life.
On Jan. 8, Nowak ordered the hospital to “immediately administer the drug Ivermectin” to Smentkiewicz, court papers show.
Is it even possible for working people to unite and fight back?
To be honest, I don't know. The media megaphones that place people in different silos are strong and doing well. One of my mentors thought the answer was working through the courts. Sadly, many courts have been stacked with judges who are corporate partisans, but many lawyers continue the good fight...
Chris Hedges talks to Michael Smith, civil rights attorney about Michael Ratner's recently published memoir, Moving the Bar - My Life as A Radical Lawyer. Smith was a close friend and collaborator of Ratner's for over three decades.
Michael Ratner was one of the most important civil rights attorneys in our era. He spent his life fighting on behalf of those the state and the empire sought to crush, from the leaders of the prison uprising at Attica to Muslim prisoners held in Guantanamo, to Julian Assange.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE4FGsC58Aw (28 min)
Ira Glasser is another lawyer who has worked for the people and their rights.
Former ACLU Head Ira Glasser on Why You Can't Ban Hate Speech (17 min)
The Issue with Trump Getting Banned from Twitter (14 min)
If we continue wanting retribution against those who hold different ideas, to stifle their right to speech, and condemn them in the public square...each taking our place on opposite sides of the ring...the oligarchs will continue taking advantage of the entire working class. Perhaps it is too late to mount any resistance to the ruling class and the rigged capitalist system they control, but continuing to focus on the ills of other working people plays into their hands. Working to find common goals and objectives among the people is, to my mind, the only way to escape the choke hold of the wealthy. Some of the elites are actually on our side (5 min). However TPTB have many levers at their disposal. They will come after anyone who challenges their supremacy. Recalling Kshama Sawant is an Attack on All of Us (17 min). There are ways to deal with our many problems. There's about to be a massive eviction in the US. Here's an way to deal with our housing crisis (9 min). Last week I featured Rick Wolff describing ways to create worker owned coops (8 min). There are ways we could improve our current system. Will we? I'm not holding my breath.
I look forward to your comments below. I got a little long winded this week, but it was a busy news cycle. Have a great Sunday!
Comments
Max explains the gamestop gig to Anya
Max was nice and clear in this interview.
29 min
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EtlN2ZrvKI]
Edit to add: This may be the best piece I heard all week, on not just Gamestock, but the entire rigged economy.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
This interview lays it all out...
like a Carlin truth bomb as viewed from the inside of the “big f**cking club” that we ain’t in. I was already convinced that Wall Street was at best a casino, but the layers and tendrils of the beast are beyond what I had ever imagined. The Mob...on steroids.
I still do not understand the Bitcoin thing. Neither do I see the basis for its claimed invulnerability considering the fact that the internet, upon which Bitcoin seems to depend, will very soon be completely in the hands of TPTB.
Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes
Throttling bitcoin seems a possibility to me
using the very mechanism you suggest...or simply declaring it illegal to use. The blockchain may be such that they can't fuck with it, but where money is concerned TPTB will do their best.
I agree Max laid out the rigging of the system well.
Good to see you. Noticed your new avatar this week. Used to have the best dog which it resembles. Thanks for the visit!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
“Luca” was part of the family, and our only son
for 15 1/2 years. Passed 1-13-21. Sister in law drew him from a recent photo. Best dog ever!
Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes
Condolences
. Don't know how those pups make their way into our hearts so bad/or good, but they sure do, and then we just plain miss them when they're gone.
Stand united
Many thanks for the gathering of pertinent information.
Cheers!
good morning Q
Thanks for the song.
Here's one back at you...
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBJYxPN8qIA]
Funny how the songs of my youth return to mind.
Have a good one. Its a wet and cool one here. Take care!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Good morning Lookout. Thanks for the WW. It has
ever been thus. Somewhere in The People's History of The United States (By Howard Zinn) There is information on a post Civil War movement/organization, very possibly the Grange or an offshoot in a region of the country that began making inroads into the system, gaining clout and improving the lives of its participants. It was strictly class bassed. The owner class used various techniques to foment racial discord within the organization which split it into 2 separate new organizations, one for whites and one for blacks which both then failed to achieve much of anything. Religion has also been knowingly (and otherwise) been used to divide the working class at key times when progress was being made against the owners and rentiers, some of which is also recounted in that book.
Sadly, talking to each other has become a PITA as more and more folks wan't an ideological buy in as opposed to or prefatory to knowingly seeking to determine areas of agreement that we can work to solve. A lot of this has sprung from very effective propaganda that any and every cooperative venture or government largesse is "socialism" which is horrible and evil and unjustly rewards the idle. Part of that, of course, is a prejudice that came over on the Mayflower. and if one tries to hint to some of those folks that being unwilling to share plenty and largess is somewhat unchristian, then one is on the permanent anathema list.
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 --
It has ever been thus
...and your examples are good ones.
Over and over and over again my friend!
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tjk0kcArclw]
I modified/updated the lyrics a couple years ago...
Eve of Destruction
The Middle East it is explodin', drones a swarmin', bombers loadin'
All these war without any votin'
So we can sell all the guns they're a totin'
It's death and destruction we are promotin'
These wars are about more oil, it's the drug that's killin' us all
Climate collapses and empires fall
Species disappearin', can't you hear the call
Our own extinction is written on the wall.
Don't you understand what I'm tryin' to say
Can't you feel the fear I'm feeling today
If the button is pushed there's no runnin' away
An atomic disaster will be hell to pay
Say “Goodbye” then kneel and pray
I'm so mad my bloods coagulatin', sittin' here just contemplatin'
You can't twist the truth it knows no regulation, and a handful of senators can't pass legislation
Marches alone won't provide an education when human respect is disintegratin'
This whole crazy world is just too frustratin'
Chorus:
But you tell me over and over and over again my friend
You don't believe we're on the eve of destruction
They talk about the hate in Russia and China, but take a look at Selma, Alabama
You can leave here for days and go to space, but when you return it's the same old place
The poundin' drums, the pride and disgrace, bury the dead so they don't leave a trace
Hate your next door neighbor then go home and say grace.
Have a nice Sunday!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Great interpolation LO
more in sync with these times.
Thanks!
I'll be glad when ...
the music cranks back up. I really miss it.
Glad you liked the update.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Wonderful rendition, thanks.
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 --
Good morning everybody ...
And thanks, Lookout, for another good round-up.
I've got nothing to add except this from my morning paper:
Investigative commentary: 450 miles of border wall are a monument to a motto
Have a nice day.
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
The wall...
It has never been about what people want...
I hate all the environmental impacts and the screwing (yet again) of first nations peoples.
Well, thanks for the link and the visit! Take care.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
"Something there is that doesn't like a wall ... "
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 --
Excellent Essay
I just want to call attention to an unaddressed part of this divide and conquer regime -- how do the powers that be go about the business of dividing and conquering? On this very board, you can see the challenge regularly -- unless you can prove beyond a reasonable doubt how the powers that be accomplish their management of politics, you are just a liar who should shut up.
This reversal of the burden of persuasion is Tool Number One for internet "debunking" of conspiracy theories -- like the idea that the apparent war between Trump and the Dems is a bunch of distracting silliness with no real effect on our problems.
Among many other specific techniques, our overlords somehow manage to "persuade" prolific internet opinionators to spread their message and to attack, belittle, sneer and otherwise undermine all attempts to unify the far left and the far right. That is what is going on with Jimmy Dore and anybody else who points out this most obvious of all facts of American life.
The solution is to realize the internet's virtues are also its weaknesses -- anonymity and universal access. The closest parallel in the modern era to our own situation is the last decade of the Soviet Union. People communicated with each other via Mimeograph Technology -- letting the message speak for itself.
.
I will close with this silly little rant that I was not going to bother with posting. It is aimed at the pimps for Big Money who are full of righteous indignation about the "insurrection" and all the "out of control" Trump supporters. Control -- the great liberal value.
I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.
There's equal blame on all sides of the divides
I think it is the degradation of reporting and media into propaganda machines has led to the chasm. It is re-enforced daily as each media silo digs in deeper and deeper.
If the bulk of the public really understood how we are being played, there might be hope for change. However, the masses are hunkered down in their respective bunkers ready to make a last stand. They may get their wish.
Thanks for the visit and comment!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
@Lookout .
.
My own shred of optimism is another invisible fact, hiding in plain sight: The total number of people who pay any attention at all to the political "debate" is quite small -- well below half of the adult population.
On an almost daily basis here in Los Angeles, the polar opposite of Alabama, I hear somebody say that they cannot understand what Trump supporters are "thinking." The complacent and also invisible assumption is that everybody has the same set of facts to work with. The Other Side is just a pack of "obvious" lies.
The people who don't read anything off the internet are the balance of power. The extent to which such folks are more alienated is impossible to gauge now as public life is on hold due to the pandemic. Upward of 100,000,000 people are in this category. My guess is that this ordinarily dormant part of our society will wake up when they don't have a place to sleep.
I guess the reason why this contempt for Trump Supporters strikes me as both stupid and counterproductive is that I spent most of my life in Texas and most of my relatives are Trump supporters. I know their biographies pretty well, and they all were Romney, McCain, Bush, Dole, Bush and Reagan supporters. Those who are old enough were Ford and Nixon supporters. They did not change their views, and they were -- from my perspective -- always ignorant.
It is suddenly now that those ignorant majority views have become a slight minority, the are concomitantly EVIL and must not be tolerated!!!!
This coincides with the shift of Corporate America from the GOP to the Dems as of 2008. After playing to the White Dumbass Majority from the Nixon Era through Shrub, demographic change obliged the Donor Class to switch its affiliation to the Dems.
Thus abandoned, the White Dumbass Majority dimly grasped their abandonment and turned to Donald Trump in 2016. The most significant aspect of the 2016 GOP Primary was that the Rank And File rejected all the brand names of their party -- starting with Bush and working your way down the clown car list.
The ridiculous MSM story suggests that Trump created this fascist, racist, nativist mass of white evil -- and for that reason he must be denied any chance to run for office again.
Nope. Trump played to the erstwhile majority of the country. They are still there. And they will be Angrier and Whiter and Male-er than ever.
Mission accomplished.
I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.
This "Coup" Was Planned Well In Advance
.
by the Dems.
A thread at Democratic Underground as of December 10 with hundreds of recommendations and short Yeah, Buddy responses:
.
"Enemies of democracy." George Orwell knew a thing or two about a thing or two.
I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.
I found this clip most descriptive of the crowd in DC
about 7 min...
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoP9ufM3bjw&t=7m22s]
I don't see it as a dim false flag. I know plenty of Q Anoners. Marjorie Green is from my adjoining county and is representative of many people around here. What I found so curious was the lack of a plan once they got into the capitol.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
TPTB threw Trump under the bus
even though he delivered tax cuts to the rich, a bloated defense (offense) budget, and environmental and economic deregulation to suit the big corps.
But he painted an ugly face to the elite and was unpredictable. Plus he keep chattering about drawing down troops. Biden is more a corporatist and I think more easily controlled. So into the basket goes a different administration. How different will it really be? We'll see.
The south turned red with Reagan and has never looked back. GA is a bit more urban and so went blue last cycle. My view is both parties represent the same oligarchs for the most part. The system has been bought and paid for to insure the corporate masters are served. I don't really think much will change.
Thanks again for the thoughtful comment.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
@Lookout .
Agreed whole heartedly.
The open question is how much agency, if any, do the politicians have? My view is almost none. The best example of my point of view is Tulsi Gabbard. She came out against the war machine, but Bernie was ahead of her with the far left edge of the Democratic Party electorate and she never had a chance to even get a toe hold at the national level. So she got away with saying a lot of good things in her few debate opportunities.
Then she sued Her. Then she quietly withdrew the lawsuit.
I rest my case.
Not "proof" or even a prima facie case. But I submit that it tells you all you need to know about the edge of acceptability in our political culture.
I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.
Tulsi has been making the rounds
Mainly on right wing outlets.
Here's her interviews from this week, I had no idea how many. I had seen one with Tucker and another with Huckabee, but there's dozens.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Tulsi+gabbard&sp=EgIIAw%253...
surprised me.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
She's planning something.
Talk show ? YouTube channel ? a run for national office ?
I don't know but I'm pretty sure I'll be down with it.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om2RdZXRn6Y&t=5s width:500 height:300]
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
I hope so...
The podcast looks to be on many platforms.
A peace candidate that attracts across party lines could be a really good thing.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Finally got a number this week: 800.
.People observing (can't give names for sure, but maybe Max Blumenthal) said that the Trumpists who got in seemed truly amazed they got that far. Not in their plans or imagination. They were going to hassle a police line, they thought outside the building. So they didn't have a plan for what to do inside.
We have been wondering how many were at the Trump rally and how many made it into the Capitol. It turns out inside were 800. The number outside, still haven't heard.
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've heard thousands, but..?
There's a lot about that day that doesn't smell right to me. Don't have a CT hypothesis or anything, just it was peculiar in the way you describe and the fact a crowd had assembled at the Capitol before the rally was over.
I don't put anything past TPTB.
Glad to have a holler to hide in these days.
Hope all is well in your world!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
A bunch of overweight and old people took the capital
without a shot being fired and no one who works at the capital got hurt. Silliest coup attempt in the history of coup attempts.
Bernie is really pissing people off.
Et tu, Bernie? How can you just abandoned the things you once stood for? Democrats promised $2k. You KNOW THEY DID.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
There was a cop
killed with a fire extinguisher
https://nypost.com/2021/01/07/us-capitol-police-officer-dies-after-dc-ri...
and a Qanon woman shot and killed.
https://nypost.com/2021/01/06/female-shot-during-chaotic-washington-dc-p...
But part of what I find so fishy is the lack of any real objective except "we're mad as hell and not taking it any more." Rumors that they planned to kidnap some pols, but poorly executed if so.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
I mean in government
Congress sends money for whatever coup tickles their fancy where the violence is off the charts and not like what happened in Washington. A cop and a woman were killed during the event. Others died of medical problems and one shot himself. I’d like to know the back story there.
I heard warnings from the guys defending congress saying that they had guns and would shoot. I’m sure she didn’t hear it though because of the noise. But it’s too bad she died. She voted for Obama before Trump. I wonder why she didn’t vote for Biden....just kidding.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Whoa talk about timing
Looks like there’s a military coup in Malaysia right now. Or Mnymar however you spell that. No word yet if we’re involved with it. Government members have been arrested and utilities are spotty.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Yup I got it wrong
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/military-coup-underway-myanmar-ci...
I had the country right up to when I went to post it and whoosh right out of my brain.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
from the NY Slimes
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/01/world/asia/myanmar-coup.html
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Oh well played
Indeed. Who saw this coming?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
After he caved to ...
First the $hill and then Byedone, I lost my hope for Bernie. I do appreciate his push toward equality, but his follow through made it empty words.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Hey, Biden and Dems are forging ahead with Treasury department‘s
plan to put Harriet Tubman on the $14 bill.
Another good synopsis of the US economy
...from Richard Wolff (7.5 min)
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf1_FKYQocY]
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
You've seen dawgs doing this, but have you ever seen a crow
doing it? Not me
h/t chloris creator
Plenty of sunshine today after a raw, wet and windy week. Hard to get motivated to go out and I bailed one day while it was snowin and a blowin somethin fierce all day. Good day to stay home and clean. Luckily Sam talked me out of it and we played inside instead.
If the PTB wanted to stop COVID in its tracks they would have stopped all flights between countries immediately and especially from China to try to stop the spread. No one did that. Next step was to protect the elderly in nursing homes. Instead many states put COVID positive people in with nursing homes and even after we saw how bad it spread they continued doing it. Now Cuomo is asking what is the big deal that maybe twice as many people died IN nursing homes then was known. Contract tracing was a joke the minute it started spreading out of control so why bother trying to keep track of the infections? It's not like other countries were doing it.......
Plus if they wanted it contained then why the hell did they send positive and sick people home to infect their families instead of there being an all out bid to quarantine people in clinics or new facilities like what China and others have built? Nope, they wanted it to spread. Same with meat processing factories where they were forced back to work without proper PPE and most complaints to OSHA have been overlooked or just denied and the slaughter of animals and humans continued.
Now Biden is pushing to put kids back in schools that have too many kids, are run down and needed lots of work to make that environment safe. Nope... let's let the virus spread.
How many other issues are there were it would have made sense to one thing, but gov did the opposite. And for gawd's sake why did congress refuse to support out of work people with everything they could to keep the economy afloat? Well how would their friends be able to make obscene amounts of money if they did that? Besides, Blackstone is ready to buy up foreclosed properties again on the government's order to inflate housing prices. And probably with more subsidies so it's pennies on the dollar rip off time again.
Face it, they want it to spread. Still do. Don't wear masks they don't work to stop the virus. You must wear a good one to do it. Just wear a clothe mask if you want like Pelosi. They don't stop the virus, but you do look cool with your color coded masks. Well until you don't want to wear it anymore and be photo'd not doing it even though you are 9 years older that gawd and at risk. Why the hypocrisy? Who knows. Just things don't add up unless you think that yes they do want useless eaters dead.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
I read somewhere...
that COVID deaths had already saved SS money, but I can't find the source. Duckduck go has gone to hell. Anybody out there know a better one?
Loved seeing the pics of your dog in the photo essay. Sure is growing fast as youngsters do. Loved the sledding crow too. They are smart. Saw this a while back...
https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/a-murder-of-crows-full-episode/5977/
Although cultures around the world may regard the crow as a scavenger, bad omen, or simply a nuisance, this bad reputation might overshadow what could be regarded as the crow’s most striking characteristic – its intelligence. New research indicates that crows are among the brightest animals in the world. NATURE’s A Murder of Crows brings you these so-called feathered apes, as you have never seen them before.
Have a good one and enjoy the sun!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Some government agency head over Soc. Sec.
made a statement that people losing there jobs, deciding to draw Soc. Sec. early had put a strain on the Trust Fund, but the deaths of so many drawing Soc. Sec. died from the pandemic, the Trust Fund is doing fine. Someone posted it in a comment last week. Likely a tweet. The man didn't seem to realize what a heartless, no good son of a bitch he revealed himself to be, and a truly horrible person to be in charge of that Trust Fund.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
I knew I read it somewhere
...and evidently it was here at C99.
We got a little hail this PM, but I doubt it hurt the remaining garden plants.
Take care!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
It was sunny, a high of 59,
tonight a low of 38. Time to listen to some Jimmy Buffet.
We are trimming bushes and clearing fence lines, so every weekend we get closer to "done".
Take care, and I love the weekend round up of news and opinion.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Closer to done?
Maybe when cooking. There's always something even with lock down, there's no catching up.
As you know fence lines are a constant. They've got fence line cutters for the tractor, but wouldn't work with woven wire. Here's one of many types
https://www.fencemower.com/
They're pretty expensive though.
Always nice to "see" you. Thanks for coming by!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
I have pipe fence,
barb wire fence, and heavy wire fence.
We are removing assorted vines, bushes, and very small trees around the pipe fence, which can be done with a saws all. That wraps the front of the property, the easiest to remedy, and the most visible.
The fencing on the yard, fancy hard wired, has bushes were specifically planted. It is small trees that the birds brought me that need to be gone. The barb wire fence on the back 8 acres can wait until I get a crew with tractor up here. My tractor is too small. I toy with buying one, but we shall see.
It is such immediate satisfaction, foot by foot, and I love it!
In Texas, homestead is a designation for property tax purposes, and you may qualify for tax breaks for farming, ranching, or planting pines for harvesting. Also, homesteads may not be taken into forfeiture if you are sued. They are your primary home plus 200 tangential acres. Your summer home can be sold, or your cabin on the lake, can be sold at auction to pay debt.
It seems the definition of homestead is different where you are, and where studentofearth is. I have been meaning to ask.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
It is nice to see what you've accomplished
That's was the ting about teaching...you couldn't see what (if anything) you accomplished.
The battery powered saws-all is a great tool!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
hola lo
Thanks for the ww. Beautiful sunny morning has. morphed into a gray chilly day. Glad I walked early. Some problems with the bioswale but I think I can fix them. Much of it worked well.
This may or may not be of any consequence. One can hope. Time will tell.
Mission Possible: Climate-Action Partnership Launched To Help Transform Heavy Industry & Transport
https://cleantechnica.com/2021/01/27/mission-possible-climate-action-par...
And there is this.
Satellite reveals surprising ebb and flow of subglacial lakes under Thwaites Glacier
https://thwaitesglacier.org/news/satellite-insight-subglacial-lakes
And this is for the farmers among us
How Carbon Farming Can Help Stop Climate Change in Its Tracks
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/agriculture-carbon-farming-ran...
Take good care everyone; Be well.
Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation
Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook
Water is a powerful force...
...an erosion is often a consequence. Hope you had minimal wash. Maintenance is just part of the land management game.
Thanks for the encouraging stories.
Regenerative ag keeps getting some coverage...
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZopUOb_7wA]
14 min
Have a great conclusion to the weekend, and let's hope for a good week.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Look Out, thanks so much for this WW. The Jimmy Dore
interview with the Boogaloo Boi is sooo good. All who are saying it's up/down not right/left (not even sure what that would mean right now)have it right. It's class; it's those who have against those who don't. Name any service, benefit, skill, basic need and you have the divide.
Making common cause with those who are sharing lack of health care access is basic. Listening to those without jobs, housing, food. And helping those who do try to get basic needs to those who need help is a very good thing.
The Jimmy Dore interview with Glenn Greenwald and the Useful Idiots interview with Matt, Katie and David Dayan, say about everything I would want my French and British friends to know about what is going on in the US. They have narrow and skewed views about what Americans and America is going through.
Jimmy Dore often gets so upset he turns red then darker red: I worry about him having a stroke. Now I see that Glenn does the same thing, I get that they see their concerns are deeply serious.
In the states we owned guns too. Grew up without them and afraid. Met and married a guy who was brought up hunting and fishing, using guns. He felt all women should have training then own a gun for self protection. I learned to as well. When I was on my own after that I was broken into and my stuff stolen, so bought guns for my house and car. Met sketch people cross country skiing and mushroom hunting in the woods and in NM and AZ working, always glad to have back up in my pocket and car console.
Now we live in a no gun country, and don't even lock our doors. It's freeing to live this way. People are also very attentive to their elected officials and what they are up to. Macron is catching a lot of negative chatter for the COVID handling and the lack of vaccines.
Even government ministers are saying that the French have a brain drain to American corporations of the French best and brightest so that the prestigious Pasteur Institute had to give up on creating a vaccine. Sanofi a French private company is also throwing in the towel.
Privatizing and losing smart French-trained researchers may be a bad thing.
Another view of Macron about the British.
King for five years...
Maybe the private ownership of Paris area airports; selling off parts of the high speed train system; corporatising energy companies are starting to raise the right questions. What are we improving by doing these things? Better service??? Cheaper rates?? More jobs??? All are a no.
Thank you for this great thread.
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.
so glad you enjoyed it
Hey. Macron is a banker after all. He's just demonstrating his background.
This is a fairly interesting comparison of Putin and Macron's Davos comments
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VwBTOawfCg
Putin delivers anti-globalist Davos speech. Macron delivers pro-globalist Davos speech
DAVOS 2021: French president Emmanuel Macron says modern capitalism 'can no longer work'
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/france-president-emmanuel-macron-davos...
Hard enough to keep up with US insanity. The EU is over my pay grade.
My little town is safe too. Leave the keys in your car kind of place. Where most of us know each other.
Have a wonderful week!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Nowadays I’m like Nigel Farage—pro Europe; anti *this neolib* EU
The vision was always “the United States of Europe” or “NATO as a federal republic,” but the model is full of holes as the current state of the U.S. shows.
The problem is, once the idea of a people or nation, possessing agency and naturally held together by bloodline, language, history, and culture, is made taboo as the West’s post-WW2 “progressive” (actually, neoliberal) ideology requires — with an apparent exemption for Israel — all you are left with is a collection of consumers within arbitrary, mostly ignored boundaries, easily dominated by unaccountable elites and preyed upon by lobbies, crony networks, AI-armed internet-enabled marketing, and other corrupt ploys of all kinds from all sides.
I never saw how the EU could last long term
Especially with the euro. Never did understand why Greece didn't leave and print their own money like the US, and UK for that matter.
As a trading coop and worker exchange it makes sense, but the money thing put Germany in the catbird's seat.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
That was the problem with the Articles of Confederation
Each state had it's own money and weights and measures. Plus tariffs between states.
EU needs a directly elected government and a central bank under that governments control.
And IMHO opinion, MORE local autonomy. The EU should not have crished Germany's 500 year old beer purity law as an example. As long as germany did not restrict or tax sales of say danish beer that conformed, they had every moral right to add purity rights. And the should have had the legal right as well. I'm told there are many more examples of RU micromanagement of local law. The concern should have been a united European Armed Forces and a common foreign policy. Free trade between member states on the American model, not the current model.
Is the Greek government's financial woes any different from Illinois' decades long insolvency?
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
European armed forces and common FP? — Aye, there’s the rub.
During the Balkan bloodletting in the 1990s, Greece sided with the Serbs due to their shared Eastern Orthodox religious tradition. Though not pro-Serb like the Greeks, the other EU members were also divided. That kind of paralysis in crises and conflicts, even in the EU’s own back yard, is typical. NATO only ended up bombing Belgrade (and hitting the Chinese embassy), etc., after the U.S. Clinton administration flexed its muscle.
There is simply not enough agreement among EU members regarding what FP should be. Support shady anti-Assad Saudi-Mossad-CIA puppet groups or not? Kiss Erdogan’s a– or not? Welcome every would-be immigrant that sets out to cross the Mediterranean / the Balkan frontier, or not? Interests and loyalties still diverge widely on too many touchy issues.
Who sees France turning over control over its nuclear weapons, or sovereignty over the French slice of South America and over French Polynesia (where it tests those weapons) to some EU high command? On the day when the French give the Germans genuine equal shared control over its nukes, that’s when I’ll buy the idea of a functioning rather than fake federal EU, and not before.
In my experience they have no views at all, blinded for good.
An experience for 2010
I was in the stands.
I trained 2 horses up to Prix St. George dressage.
Andalusians cannot internationally compete with the enormous strides (shoulder reach) of warmbloods, but they are always a crowd pleaser.
As was Fuego. I got to pet his nose.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
When I had access to horses...
I rode western. Dressage is way above my experience, but is fun to watch.
So interesting how over 100 years ago we were all horse people. Just shows how quickly things change.
Many old timers from the turn of the last century never did upgrade to cars and tractors preferring their lifetime relationship with horses.
Have a good one!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
I was a cowgirl.
My Dad was in the horse cavalry, had trained in some dressage and jumping back in the 1930s. My 38th birthday gift to myself was to take a dressage lesson. I trained with a World Cup and Olympic competitor who conveniently lives 35 miles from me.
It is an elegant, humane way to ride a horse.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Jared Kushner nominated to get the Nobel Peace Prize?
And Alex Navalny?
I seem to be the only one who thinks both haven't done anything to keep the peace. I wished there would be no Nobel prizes.
After Obomber got his...
with his speech about how war leads to peace, I've not been a fan either.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
War is Peace
Freedom is slavery
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
No Nobel Peace prize
The science prizes are good.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.