Open Thread WE 6 APR 22 ~


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“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” – Pablo Picasso

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Welcome to today's open thread. Some meat and gristle but mostly art and ponders.

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The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and retain the ability to function. F. Scott Fitzgerald

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Is there an underlying storyline in the western media which is not being articulated for western audiences? There is so very little nuance when it comes to covering deeper issues such as culture, language, religion, regional economics and ethnicity. The gullible public is frequently not entrusted with potentially eye-opening stories. We have been treated like mental children since Reagan.

One must delve into alternate sources to sort out what is actually occurring in the world. The oligarchs are losing control of the narrative, much to my delight. Unfortunately, we are all going
to suffer with their demise. This is a consequence for having lived in a bubble so long.

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As always, the open thread is a place to air-out all of your ideas and perceptions.

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Credits --

Cupid’s Koi Garden, the world’s first inflatable fountain by Eness, Grande Halle in Paris.

https://www.eness.com/temporary

ENESS is more than a studio. It is a mindset. It is a belief in the power of providing art in everyday life that fires the imagination; that provides joy, happiness and beauty in unexpected places – transformational experiences that change lives. We produce permanent sculpture; temporary art installations; interactive design outcomes; and artful play equipment.

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On this day in history ..

April 6, 1917: Two days after the U.S. Senate voted 82 to 6 to declare war against Germany, the U.S. House of Representatives endorses the declaration by a vote of 373 to 50, and America formally enters World War I -- big mistake?

1868 Brigham Young marries his 27th & final wife

2001 : Pacific Gas and Electric ( PG&E ) file Chapter 11 Bankruptcy when they are unable to sell electricity to consumers for more than they buy it on the open market. The State of California under leadership of California Governor Gray Davis bailed out the utility.

It's a wild, weird world ..

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7 users have voted.

@QMS

A mistake?

Well, in terms of disastrous outcomes for ordinary people, then yes, huge mistake.

Had the US not intervened and thus mad possible a decisive victory by the allies, there likely would have been some much less one-sided, negotiated end to the conflict and a longer-term peace arrived at instead of what just turned out to be a twenty-year ceasefire.

But for well-placed elites (who didn't have to do much of the dying, starving & etc) it was immensely profitable and power-enhancing. (Domestically, it offered a convenient excuse to come down hard on the labor movement - IWW being one of the main targets)

Can't recommend highly enough the Corbett Report's three-part documentary 'The WWI Conspiracy':

https://www.corbettreport.com/wwi/

And for anyone who's never watched it - the George Lucas-produced Young Indiana Jones series from the early 90's is outstanding - ten episodes or maybe more are set in various theaters of WWI - with Indiana Jones as an American volunteer serving in the Belgian army:

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8 users have voted.

@Blue Republic

it was a big step in the wrong direction.
The decision to send troops to fight another country's war
set up the scenario for the oligarchs to enrich themselves
at the mere cost of human lives

There were many opposing viewpoints at the time
which were suppressed by the ongoing elites' idea of
what makes america powerful and wealthy.

This pseudo power grab is finally reaching its ugly end.
If history was properly rendered to the upcoming generations,
war would not look so good and there may have been less
support for killing in the name of the dollar.

See the consequences of sanctions across the globe.
It is hurting the common people.

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8 users have voted.
Lookout's picture

Love the set at the top...looks like Dali world. Did you ever see Hitchcock's Spellbound with the cool Dali sets? https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-dali-hitchcock-brought-sur...
It is a classic.

The world is very much in flux as the world order tips and spills out dollars. Time to buy those durable goods on your list before the dollar totally tanks.

A wet day here with another line of storms headed our way. Been trying to get all the stuff from my old computer over to this new one. My old one lasted 18 years so the upgrade was due. And wow was it worth it ...quiet and quick....plus only a bit over $200 for this reconditioned dell.

Y'all have a good one! Thanks for the OT.

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12 users have voted.

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

@Lookout

Having a wet one here too. Gentle rain, mid forties.

Glad your puter is behaving again.

Janis B has volunteered to cover the Tuesday, May third OT as a one off. This is a big help.

Speaking of bleeding dollars, do not know if this was covered here before, but Pepe Escobar did a
good expose on 'resource based economies' .. makes some good sense

While the Atlanticist ruling classes have gone totally berserk but still remain focused on fighting to the last European to extract any remaining, palpable EU wealth, Russia is playing it cool. Moscow has been quite lenient in fact, brandishing the specter of no gas in Spring rather than Winter.

https://www.unz.com/pescobar/meet-the-new-resource-based-global-reserve-...

good luck

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9 users have voted.
Lookout's picture

@QMS

Nice interview here...(12 min)
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lDfvSH7Rz8]

Have a nice one buddy.

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5 users have voted.

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

lotlizard's picture

@Lookout  
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPpV8X91neQ]

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4 users have voted.

Infowars has really matured in their coverage of important news - and, notably, have been proven correct time and time again with their dire predictions about where society has been headed.

Of course, the PTB are doubling down on their efforts to silence Alex Jones and anyone else that might try and stray off the official narrative reservation (Naomi Wolf and Chris Hedges being another couple of recent examples) - should they succeed in doing so it is not going to go well for the rest of us.

Statement from AJ on his Sandy Hook case deposition and statement from his lawyer, Norm Pattis:

AJ response - Sandy Hook Deposition.jpg
View on Banned.video

On the ground coverage from Mariupol:

Report from Mariupol - Lancaster.jpg

View on Banned.video (JtC - is there some way we can embed video from this site, Rumble and BitChute?)

FWIW - I've found (Indian network) WION's coverage of the Ukraine situation to be pretty comprehensive and even-handed. Anyone else have recommendations for other sources?

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9 users have voted.
Lookout's picture

@Blue Republic

on banned vids copy the embed option and paste here...

I've been following Patrick into the war zone. He's braver than me for sure. Gonzalo is there but not walking the war zone. French reporter Anne-Laure Bonnel is and visits a shelled apartment in Donetsk. The duran, especially Alex, are very good too. Here's his morning report:

Use their rumble channel, YT they're self editing

with rumble, bitchute, and odysee it is similar, click the share option (sometimes a sideways V) and copy the different embed option on each one...you want the one the starts and ends with the greater and less than symbols. (sometime with the word script included)

Hope that helps.

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8 users have voted.

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

@Lookout
embed advice! Will try that and check out some of the sites and coverage
you referenced...

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5 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

@Lookout @Lookout

up on AJ and his atty after 8:36 in when they still hadn't said anything whatsoever except that poor AJ is the soul of truth, honesty, and sincerity and is being picked on, preceded, of course, by a pitch for $$$. IIRC, this lawsuit is about him spewing vicious lies and doubling down on same in what can only have been an attempt to raise funds by sensationalizing a mass murder. First I've ever watched/listened to him so, did he/they ever say anything or substance, and is that 8 minutes his normal style and schtick?

be well and have a good one

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5 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

That was BR's advice.

I do watch Patrick Lancaster on the ground in Ukraine. The Duran folks have also been good.

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4 users have voted.

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

enhydra lutris's picture

@Lookout

error filled morning so far today, ah well.

be well and have a good one

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2 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 --

@enhydra lutris

Well, if you think the first 8:36 of that video was of no consequence it may not be much use to fill you in on the rest of it. From about 8:43 though, you could have heard AJ's attorney, Norm Pattis' take on the deposition and significance of the case. Which seems to be at some considerable variance with yours.

Your take:

IIRC, this lawsuit is about him spewing vicious lies and doubling down on same in what can only have been an attempt to raise funds by sensationalizing a mass murder.

Which contrasts more than a bit with Pattis' assessment:

...
Alex was asked a series of questions, not as many of them about Sandy Hook as I would have expected.

There were questions about events unrelated to Sandy Hook and it struck me as a broad, wholesale attack on Mr. Jones and Infowars' questioning of narratives.

It seems to me the questioning was not on behalf of the parents of Sandy Hook but on behalf of far different people...

I had the impression from watching the attack on Mr. Jones that this trial would be about something far greater than what happened at Sandy Hook.

The trial's going to be about, umm, ordinary people's ability to say 'I'm not buying it', 'I want to raise questions', 'I want to draw my own conclusions'...

Trial is set to take place this summer and it's looking to me... like this might be the trial of the century as to the right of ordinary people to raise questions and draw unpopular conclusions."

Maybe, EH, you could account for the apparent differences in your take on the situation and that of Mr. Pattis? (FWIW - Pattis is from Connecticut and personally acquainted with someone whose step-daughter was killed at Sandy Hook)

As to Jones' comments, you say you gave

up on AJ and his atty after 8:36 in when they still hadn't said anything whatsoever except that poor AJ is the soul of truth, honesty, and sincerity and is being picked on, preceded, of course, by a pitch for $$$.

Hmm. The following, to pick out one bit of what AJ said, *appeared* to me to be somehow substantive, factually correct and rather important if true. But if you are correct in your assessment then I guess it must not be. So, in the interest of uplifting those of us who flailing about in darkness and failing to GET IT, perhaps you could point out for us the unimportant, irrelevant and incorrect bits therein.

After all, if it isn't anything whatsoever then we don't have a thing to worry about, right?

...

They want to bully all of us, they want to control all of us. As we warned you, first it's Alex Jones, then it's everybody else.

But they're going to move on from just the censorship to the outright de-banking and de-platforming of everyone.

These people want to put us in prison for our speech."

...

Well?

Norm Pattis interview from 2020 - he is asked about Alex Jones and Sandy Hook at about 13:40

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2 users have voted.

Am thankful for sites such as C99 to help bring some of the opposing viewpoints to the MSM to those that are interested.

Blustery day here with temperatures only reaching the high 70’s after a high of 97 yesterday. Been out watering my pecan trees and enjoying the wilds of my lawn?. Like the idea of a no mow May. With the lack of rainfall here, it may extend a few extra months for me!

Also working inside to clear space for me to get a new refrigerator since my two apartment ones seem on their last legs.

Have a good day all.

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8 users have voted.

Life is what you make it, so make it something worthwhile.

This ain't no dress rehearsal!

@jakkalbessie is coming at a good time. I have a concern that appliances will be hard to find one day. I am going to buy a washer and dryer this week. And a water purifier.
It is gorgeous spring weather in east Texas. Highs for the next several days in the low 70s. The veggie garden is off to a rip roaring start! Mowing has already begun.
Take care, chica!

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6 users have voted.

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

lotlizard's picture

@jakkalbessie  
… or voices such as Glenn Greenwald, Chris Hedges, Aaron Maté, Matt Taibbi; Jimmy Dore; Caitlin Johnstone…

We’re in pretty good company, if you ask me.

c99 is one of a very small number of places to avoid both globalist-psyop-compliant groupthink and the other pole, which might be called “going off the deep end, just for the lulz”…

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8 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

Great opening piece of art there. As to 2001, Grey Davis took the fall and was guilty, in part, but massive frauds by folks like Enron and Dynegy are the immediate guilty parties for massive frauds and the ultimate guilt lies with deregulation, allowing and facilitating such frauds and fraudsters. In the end, the whole thing was the apex of the long running rip-off of the citizens by utilities which should have been state owned and run for ages. Public necessities should never be privately owned is the lesson that still wasn't learned ven after that fiasco.

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 --

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/us-using-declassified...

In a break with the past, U.S. is using intel to fight an info war with Russia, even when the intel isn't rock solid
“It doesn’t have to be solid intelligence,” one U.S. official said. “It’s more important to get out ahead of them [the Russians], Putin specifically, before they do something."

It was an attention-grabbing assertion that made headlines around the world: U.S. officials said they had indications suggesting Russia might be preparing to use chemical agents in Ukraine.

President Joe Biden later said it publicly. But three U.S. officials told NBC News this week there is no evidence Russia has brought any chemical weapons near Ukraine. They said the U.S. released the information to deter Russia from using the banned munitions.

It’s one of a string of examples of the Biden administration’s breaking with recent precedent by deploying declassified intelligence as part of an information war against Russia.The administration has done so even when the intelligence wasn’t rock solid, officials said, to keep Russian President Vladimir Putin off balance.Coordinated by the White House National Security Council, the unprecedented intelligence releases have been so frequent and voluminous, officials said, that intelligence agencies had to devote more staff members to work on the declassification process, scrubbing the information so it wouldn’t betray sources and methods.

Observers of all stripes have called it a bold and so far successful strategy — although not one without risks.

The Bucha massacre is following this strategy.

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8 users have voted.

twitter does not want conflicting information to be available. Who will be next to meet this fate?

Edited to add this:

I have not yet used "telegram" but I soon may start.

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9 users have voted.

@humphrey

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8 users have voted.

to stifle free thinking, objective voices.
Guess we are being protected from false narratives?
Why can not we, as a society of thinking individuals,
no longer have the right to make decisions on our own?
Who gives twitter, face plant, giggles and the rest the
power to say what is not free speech? I wonder.

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8 users have voted.

Interesting days then, and now.
Hoping we aren't stupid enough to start a war, and would love to figure out a plan to force government to start regulating these price gouging corporations.

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2 users have voted.

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