Welcome to Saturday's Potluck - 10-23-2021

“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”
Pablo Picasso

Doing a number of repeats of the week. Valuable information in multiple diaries and comments.

Scott Horton Show interview of James Bradley on the Lies Americans Are Fed About China - 10/14/21
[video:https://youtu.be/dxfvrnSEt24]
(thanks CB for the orginal link)

At the 24.47 mark is an important part of our history to understand.
"McCarthyism came out of China not the USSR. McCarthy stood up and said John Service of the State Department I got this sheet of paper in my hands, but he only mentioned one guy."

This was after Chiang Kai-shek had retreated to Taiwan (island of Formosa)as his base of operation. Taking with him the national treasures and gold not looted by the Japanese. Philippines in likely where treasures looted by Japan were hidden. (Blue Republic)

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POW Nation When Will America Free Itself From War? By William Astore

True, in a draft-less country, few enough Americans actually don a military uniform these days. As 2021 begins, most of us have never carried a military identification card that mentions the Geneva Convention on the proper and legal treatment of POWs, as I did when I wore a uniform long ago. So, when I say that all Americans are essentially POWs, I’m obviously using that acronym not in a legal or formal way, but in the colloquial sense of being captured by some phenomenon, held by it, subjected to it in a fashion that tends to restrict, if not eliminate, freedom of thought and action and so compromises this country’s belief in sacred individual liberties. In this colloquial sense, it seems to me that all Americans have in some fashion become prisoners of war, even those few “prisoners” among us who have worked so bravely and tirelessly to resist the phenomenon.

Ask yourself this question: During a deadly pandemic, as the American death toll approaches 400,000 while still accelerating, what unites “our” representatives in Congress? What is the only act that draws wide and fervent bipartisan support, not to speak of a unique override of a Trump presidential veto in these last four years? It certainly isn’t providing health care for all or giving struggling families checks for $2,000 to ensure that food will be on American tables or that millions of us won’t be evicted from our homes in the middle of a pandemic. No, what unites “our” representatives is funding the military-industrial complex to the tune of $740.5 billion in fiscal year 2021 (though the real amount spent on what passes for “national security” each year regularly exceeds a trillion dollars). Still, that figure of $740.5 billion in itself is already higher than the combined military spending of the next 10 countries, including Russia and China as well as U.S. allies like France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
...
In the twenty-first century, Americans are suffering a form of cognitive capture in which war has become the new normal. As an astute reader at my blog, Bracing Views, put it: “Our desire to live without war is held in a stockade, and every day that we wake up and walk out into the yard that understanding is being broken down by the powerful monied elites.”
...
In his novel 1984, George Orwell put it simply enough when he coined the slogan “war is peace” for his fictional dystopian society. Randolph Bourne put it no less simply when, during World War I, he explained that “war is the health of the state.” Rosa Brooks, who worked at the Pentagon, put it bluntly when she titled her 2016 book How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything. What we have in America today is warfare as welfare, a form of man-made disaster capitalism, profitable for a few at the expense of the many.

Say it again: We are all POWs now.
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Remember my friend’s button, the one that insisted POWs never have a nice day? As a POW nation writ large, it should apply to all of us. America won’t have a nice day again until it extricates itself from war in all its manifestations. There will be no nice day until Congress stops funding munitions makers and starts seeking peace and helping the sick and poor. There will be no nice day until Americans hate war with all the passion now saved for “patriotic” flag waving. There will be no nice day until presidents bless peacemakers instead of beseeching God to protect the troops.

Link to audio interview with author William Astore by James Bradley (The China Mirage) - Americans Are All Prisoners of War (54 min)

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What is on your mind today? (Responses to Covid questions and dialog to be conducted at The Dose diary)

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Comments

I would have to agree that we are all captives of the endless war economy in the US.
When I see the technology advancements of other nations in comparison to the
flagging infrastructure here, it appears we are being left out of both tech and social
development. Sad state of affairs. A change in the control mechanisms of capital
institutions is way past due.

Thanks for the OT!

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Lookout's picture

A chilly 48F this morning, but no rain. We got 0.8" Thursday night (and needed it).

The US constantly puts China in a bad light, because we can't honestly compete... so we invent horrors we attribute to them in hopes it justifies a bigger better more profitable cold war.

We need to cooperate in order to survive, but as we know profit MUST come first...the hell with survival.

Take care and thanks for the OT!

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

All I can do today is echo the gloomy outlook of members already here and posting.

Cool and cloudy but my need for exercise is driving me outside where no doubt, my mood will improve

Petunias still blooming on the balcony. So, that's something lovely.

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NYCVG

snoopydawg's picture

Wowzer huh?

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6 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

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studentofearth's picture

@humphrey economic interest first. Need to slow down and think about consequences of wording.

But Julie Ann Smith, executive director of the Maine Farm Bureau, the largest farmers advocacy organization in the state, argued the language of the amendment is so broad that it could make the food supply less safe.

That’s a problem in a state where potatoes, blueberries, maple syrup and dairy products are all key pieces of the economy, she said. The amendment could empower residents to buy and consume food that isn’t subject to inspections, proper refrigeration and other safety checks, Smith worried.

“We think it’s very dangerous to have the words ‘to consume the food of your own choosing.’ That is so broad and dangerous,” Smith said. “It has the potential to cause serious problems in food safety, animal welfare.”

(3.21 min)
[video:https://youtu.be/jbWMp80_6nw]

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Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.

Lookout's picture

@studentofearth

...and like rank choice voting in Maine, this plays against TPTB ability to maintain power.
I think the long term objective is to insure synthetic so called "healthy" beef and prevent actual grassfed production of cattle with claims of pollution with no recognition of regenerative systems.

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

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5 users have voted.
studentofearth's picture

@humphrey Isn't that the goal of elections?

For more than 20 years, Manchin stayed a step ahead of federal investigations as they closed in around his inner circle. A review of statehouse investigation reports, public court records, and sealed documents obtained by The Intercept reveals a decadeslong history of investigations into employees, contractors, and business associates of Manchin. These incidents involve investigations into tax evasion, grand larceny, campaign finance violations, and an investigation by federal agencies including the FBI and IRS into a wide range of alleged criminal activity centered around Manchin’s governor’s office.

“We had to change a lot of things about the way we do business in West Virginia, by making the bidding process more open, transparent, getting financial advisers,” Manchin told Politico in 2010. “So there’s a lot of people’s whose feathers were rubbed wrong, and I think there might be some of that coming back to roost.”

In both the 2010s and the 1990s, federal investigations involving confidential informants petered out, with only low-level players facing prosecution, sentencing, and jail time. The review of Manchin’s career reveals a tangled political and professional journey that has led the senior senator to the summit of global power, making him the man who holds in his hands the fate of the fossil fuel industry, and in turn, the fate of the planet.

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Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.

agenda in order to keep their viewers misinformed.

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studentofearth's picture

@gjohnsit Message first showed up in locally politically active corporations and businesses. Now printed signs all over similar to the political season "help wanted - immediate opening" instead of "vote for". None of the businesses spoke up about forced firings due to vaccine status (vs immunity status) worsening the employee pool.

Joey Holz said he was inspired to apply for two jobs a day the entire month of September by increasing coverage of the so-called labor shortage. After hearing several local business owners complain that they can't find employees for hourly work, Holz set about his experiment, documenting the results in a spreadsheet.

Holz, who has experience in food service and retail, began his experiment by applying for a job at two restaurants that he had seen be pretty vocal about the staff shortages and a supposed laziness among the workforce.
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He continued to find jobs tied to owners who publicly complained about a lack of applicants. He said he only received one interview, at which point the business owner attempted to walk back the pay of $10/hour offered in the listing.

"Are they desperate for HELP? Yes, according to their loud lamentations on Facebook, but so far 1 interview (where the advertised hours and pay were misrepresented) after 58 applications says y'all aren't desperate for workers, you just miss your slaves," he concluded in a Facebook post that has since gone viral.

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7 users have voted.

Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.

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6 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@humphrey

The roaring 20's are back again along with the robber baron's work mentality. Ain’t y’all having fun?

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5 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.