Welcome to Saturday's Potluck - 1-29-2022

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

Living in a country experiencing continual phases of war requiring troops for occupation to active combat phase does not leave much space for a visible peace movement. Contemporary public protests often seem to have significant representation of agent provocateurs. So how does a movement progress by individual actions rippling forward.

My protection from military recruiters was an elementary music teacher who taught me to play the guitar. By high school having fashionable long fingernails was more important than continuing with a string instrument. However, those first two songs I learned kept playing in my head whenever the career counselor arranged mandatory meetings to listen to the marketing pitch explaining the easiest path to higher education for the daughter of a mill worker and waitress.

[video:https://youtu.be/p3ly8cyWvkw?t=36]

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxWTDcP9Y5E]

Passive resistance works. For several years I provided career opportunities for young men and women as an alternative to military service. There are ways to participate in promoting peace without marching. Ideas? or Examples or previous actions?

Recruitment of new individuals keeps dropping.

Military services enlisted fewer but better qualified recruits at outset of coronavirus pandemic in 2020, study finds Stars & Stripes Jan 18, 2022

Rand said it found the military services brought in about 16,000 fewer recruits in 2020 than the roughly 171,000 new troops who joined in 2019, but better-than-expected retention numbers among those with the option to leave the military allowed the services to meet their Congress-mandated force sizes at the end of 2020.
...
Pentagon data shows the military services each met their recruiting goals in 2021, while they accepted almost 7,000 fewer troops into the services than in 2020.

Army had to increase signing bonuses to meet its goals per Army Times, Jan 14, 2022.

The Army, for the first time, is offering a maximum enlistment bonus of $50,000 to highly skilled recruits who join for six years, The Associated Press has learned, as the service struggles to lure soldiers into certain critical jobs amid the continuing pandemic.

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China keeps steadily expanding their influence.

To the moon and back: China sets new targets in race to be No 1 space power South China Morning Post Jan 29, 2022

More lunar landings, an asteroid defence system and space debris cleanups are among major aims for China as the country steps up its ambitions to become a leading space power.

China has released the fifth white paper on its space programme, outlining key projects and technological development targets for the next five years amid a quickening race with the US.

According to the document released on Friday, China will carry out tests to validate new technologies such as smart self-management of spacecraft, space mission extension vehicle, space debris cleaning, propulsion, and in-orbit service and maintenance of spacecraft.

Many of these capabilities are also now pursued by the US and Europe.

The paper lists space debris cleaning as a business focus, a category that also includes space tourism, test services, and space biopharmaceuticals, underscoring China’s plans to speed up the participation of the private sector in outer space.

The White Paper: China's Space Program: A 2021 Perspective

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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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Lookout's picture

A light dusting of snow this morning. I went to town and they had an inch or so and some icy streets. The grocery store was empty for a Sat. am.

We are a product of our time, and how lucky we were to come of age during a major peace movement. As I speculated in JtC's piece yesterday, doing away with the draft caused the middle class and up to disregard our endless wars...they didn't effect their kids or neighbors. Boy were we duped. And now the arrogance with which we treat other countries has come home to roost.

Time for Nero to tune his fiddle.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7VlkubvGrE]

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

of around a foot in NYC. Not going to stop anytime soon.Good day to participate as well as I can in the Truck Convoy Protest.

Good morning SOE and C99.

The Rolling Big Wheel Strike officially convenes in Ottawa at Noon.

Recent update is that the Ottawa Police have blocked off the bridges and entrances to the City. A little late, as so may trucks are already inside the gates.

The truckers CB Radios insure that they have good communication which the government and techs cannot interfere with.

Paralyzing numbers of trucks around Ottawa as well as those inside, meet what I think the goal may be.

In my words, not the Truckers, "Nothing moves until change happens."

Bold. Brave.

I'll be watching livestreams and whatever news I can get.

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NYCVG

studentofearth's picture

@NYCVG and bystanders supporting the message of no mandate is hard to spin as just a minority voice. Zerohdge now reporting CBC testing the message might be Russian initiated. twitter

If progress against government overreach is made, we need to secure the gains and keep building. Independent truckers are an occupation targeted of mega corporations to reduce their impact as a potential economic disrupter.

Corporations are working on eliminating Truckers, but they still have some work to do before it is ready.
Driverless trucks set to take over Texas roads and highways Jan 25, 2022

A giant 18-wheel transport truck with no one behind the wheel will soon be speeding down a multi-lane highway in Texas. The dreamlike and futuristic concept is now being tested in this big southern state in the United States, which has become a hotbed for self-driving vehicles.

However, multiple tests must still be organized to ensure driverless trucks are safe before they can be approved on the roads and highways.

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

@NYCVG

Apparently protests in support happened all over Canada this weekend. PTB have to be working overtime to try and minimize:

Victoria, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto...

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N23pYH18xGs]

Chilliwack, BC...

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@Blue Republic That Rolling Thunder Video throughout Canada gave me chills.

I hope this movement proves impossible for the Owners and Donors to stop.

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NYCVG

earthling1's picture

America doesn't do anything anymore, except throw little helpless countries against the wall with regular abandon just to show the world that we mean ?????????.
We live in a country ruled by a miniscule greedy elite and 330 million plankton.
Home of the brave, plffft!
Thanks for the post, SOE.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

studentofearth's picture

@earthling1 cross. Now we are stuck with a Ukraine mess and China wont help us out of the quagmire by telling Russia to compromise.

US itself should put out the fire it set in Ukraine: Global Times editorial

To solve the Ukraine crisis, if we are to play a mediating role, we would like to advise Washington that "whoever hung the bell on the tiger's neck must untie it." It should give up the zero-sum game and the Cold War mentality as soon as possible, and use the correct method to put out the fire it set.

One suggestion - we need to redefine bravery. The efforts to live a little against the grain of modern society. Taking your hits and keep on the course of a self-determined life. As I age the idea it is harder to live a life of principle than to die for a cause keeps gaining significance.

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

pension by doing a one year active combat tour. I went nuts, begged him not to risk PTSD, ruining his life, and the lives of his children, who would have to deal with it forever.
Every single one of my older clients who did a tour in Nam have illness associated with Agent Orange. The young volunteers ALL have debilitating PTSD.
I have only represented 2 women volunteers. One was brutally raped at Guantanamo, and suffers mental health issues, permanent 100% disability. her case was so sad, her Vet hospital psychiatrist drove 80 miles to give testimony on her behalf, no subpoena necessary. He kept her from losing her parental rights to her 2 small children. The other woman beat the shit out of her would-be fellow soldier rapist, and she was able to do her 6 year hitch without seeing combat. I hear from her regularly. She is doing great, and knows just how lucky she was.
SOE, glad you dodged the bullet.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

mimi's picture

@on the cusp
just can't make up my mind if I ever tell the true and whole story of why my son ended up to enlist in the Airforce, which served him a full plate of war experience and subsequent life-long PTSD nightmare to live with.

Should I write out our life story? What do you think?

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@mimi to reveal harsh truths to the uninformed, and so that they can bear witness, so that they can shield others from suffering needlessly. The only way to create a better way forward is to learn from past mistakes, spare future generations from the life-diminishing condition of PTSD.
Tell your story.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

mimi's picture

@on the cusp

It didn't have to be this way

Indeed. Nothing more to say.

I hope you all survive the weather.

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studentofearth's picture

@on the cusp forced call up for certain specialties.

I was lucky proactive individuals intersected at various times in my life and was able to avoid many potential tragedies or missteps.

Hopefully service men and women who are victims of sex assaults will no longer be ignored or punished for reporting crimes. Effective Jan 1, 2022 a New law named for Vanessa Guillén will revamp military investigations into sexual assault, harassment

Commanders will no longer be involved in military sexual harassment or sexual assault investigations under a new federal law named for a murdered Fort Hood soldier that goes into effect on Jan. 1.
...
Under the new law, the decision to prosecute sexual assault and sexual harassment will be made outside service members’ chain of command and they will be offered protections against retaliation.

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

@studentofearth that ends with a good meal, "That's one good thing!"
The horror of my client, a young woman with 2 kids, a husband that decided she should not be the mother of her kids because she is goofy, because she was gang-raped by her fellow soldiers, and because the Army could not furnish any documents that named or blamed the men, we would have had nothing in that trial. The shrink saved her. The other woman who kicked her would-be rapists' asses was Honor Guard. She didn't report anything. She knew it would ruin her trend upward. She just ran a couple of miles daily, went to the gym, and to target practice. She took care of herself.
It was she who told me women soldiers get sexually assaulted ALL THE TIME. Hush, hush.
I hope that comes to an end with this new law. Rapers are not exactly good defenders of Americans.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

enhydra lutris's picture

(also including sit-ins, I guess) one thing that was possibly effective in educating and spreading the word was teach-ins. Sooner or later, a lot of universities had at least one. Of course, they were all about Vietnam back then, but with a broader undercurrent or overlay of straight up anti-war and pacifism. Don't know how effective they would be today, and how widely they would be allowed.

The Draft, among other things, provided easy targets for demonstrations and other mass actions in the form of local draft boards such as the one in Oakland which was the target of the Oakland Stop the Draft Week.

Thanks for the OT.

be well and have a good one

edited to fix typos

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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 --

You can be the judge.

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@humphrey says it ALL.

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NYCVG

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mimi's picture

@humphrey

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@humphrey no end.

Tulsi speaks for me here. As do You, usually.

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NYCVG

lotlizard's picture

@humphrey  
A true child of Hawai‘i, like Obama never was, never wanted to be, and never will be. Stay on your spread in Martha’s Vineyard, Barry, don’t come to Hawai‘i anymore, good riddance.

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Cassiodorus's picture

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"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama