The Evening Blues - 10-24-22



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Lazy Lester

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Louisiana swamp blues harmonica player Lazy Lester. Enjoy!

Lazy Lester - Blues Stop Knocking

"The bedfellows politics made are never strange. It only seems that way to those who have not watched the courtship."

-- Marcel Achard


News and Opinion

The US Government Sees Silicon Valley As Part Of Its Propaganda Machine

The Biden administration is reportedly considering opening a national security review of Elon Musk’s business ventures which could see the plutocrat’s purchase of Twitter blocked by the White House, in part because Musk is perceived as having an “increasingly Russia-friendly stance.”

Bloomberg reports:

Biden administration officials are discussing whether the US should subject some of Elon Musk’s ventures to national security reviews, including the deal for Twitter Inc. and SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network, according to people familiar with the matter.

US officials have grown uncomfortable over Musk’s recent threat to stop supplying the Starlink satellite service to Ukraine — he said it had cost him $80 million so far — and what they see as his increasingly Russia-friendly stance following a series of tweets that outlined peace proposals favorable to President Vladimir Putin. They are also concerned by his plans to buy Twitter with a group of foreign investors.

The “group of foreign investors” the Biden administration is reportedly worried about oddly includes Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia, who has already been a massive Twitter shareholder for years. The White House certainly never had a problem with foreign investors there before.

“Officials in the US government and intelligence community are weighing what tools, if any, are available that would allow the federal government to review Musk’s ventures,” Bloomberg writes. “One possibility is through the law governing the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States [CFIUS] to review Musk’s deals and operations for national security risks, they said.”

“Musk, the world’s richest person, has taken to Twitter in recent weeks to announce proposals to end Russia’s war and threaten to cut financial support for Starlink internet in Ukraine,” says Bloomberg. “His tweets and public comments have frustrated officials in the US and Europe and drawn praise from America’s rivals.”

“If the Twitter acquisition was to be reviewed by CFIUS for national security reasons, the agency could recommend to President Biden that he nix the deal — something Musk himself has tried and failed to do in recent months,” writes Business Insider’s Kate Duffy on the Bloomberg scoop.

Indeed Musk has already indicated that he’d find it funny if the Biden administration blocked his purchase of Twitter, a $44 billion buy that the Tesla executive has made every legal effort to back out of. But how revealing is it that someone could be forbidden by the White House from purchasing a giant social media company on the grounds that they’re not sufficiently hostile toward Moscow?

Neither Bloomberg nor any other mainstream members of the imperial commentariat appear to take any interest in the jarring notion that the US government could end up banning the purchase of an online platform because it views the purchaser as having an unacceptably “Russia-friendly stance.” Not only is it uncritically accepted that the US government mustn’t allow the purchase of a social media company if the would-be buyer isn’t deemed adequately hostile to US enemies, many mainstream liberals are actively cheering for this outcome:


This just says so much about how the US government views the function of Silicon Valley megacorporations, and why it has been exerting more and more pressure on them to collaborate with the empire to greater and greater degrees of intimacy. As far as the US empire is concerned, Silicon Valley is just an arm of the imperial propaganda machine. And empire apologists believe that’s as it should be.

None of this will come as a surprise to anyone who’s been paying attention to things like the drastic escalations in online censorship since the war in Ukraine began, including on Twitter, or the ongoing expansion of internet censorship protocols that were already well underway before this war started. It will also come as no surprise to people whose ears pricked up when the White House summoned top social media influencers to a briefing in which they were instructed how to talk about the Ukraine war. It will also come as no surprise to those who paid attention to the public outcry when it was discovered that the Biden administration was assembling a “disinformation governance board” to function as an official Ministry of Truth for online content, or when the White House admitted to flagging “problematic posts” for Facebook to take down, or when Mark Zuckerberg admitted that the censorship of the Hunter Biden laptop October surprise in the last presidential race was done in conjunction with the FBI.

It is abundantly clear to anyone paying attention that Silicon Valley tech companies are a major part of the imperial narrative control system. The US empire has invested in soft power to an exponentially greater degree than any other empire in history, and has refined the science of mass-scale psychological manipulation to produce the mightiest propaganda machine since the dawn of civilization. Silicon Valley is being used to manipulate the way people think about world events via algorithm manipulation, censorship, and sophisticated information ops like Wikipedia in an entirely unprecedented way that is becoming more and more important to imperial control as the old media give way to the new.

Narrative control centers like Silicon Valley, the news media and Hollywood are just as crucial for US imperial domination as the military. That the US government is weighing intervention to stop the purchase of an online platform, because it lacks confidence that the would-be owner would reliably advance US information interests, is just the latest glimpse behind the veil at the imperial agenda to control human understanding and perception.

US Troops TRAINING For WAR In Ukraine Miles From Border

101st Airborne Deployed to Ukraine’s Border ‘Ready To Fight Tonight’

The White House has deployed thousands of American soldiers just miles from Ukraine to prepare for war, according to CBS News. Officers speaking with the outlet revealed they were there for combat against Russia.

Brigadier General John Lubas confirmed nearly 5,000 troops from the 101st Airborne recently joined the 100,000 American soldiers already deployed to Europe. Lubas described his troops as being on “full deployment,” and they are preparing to fight Russian soldiers in Ukraine. “This is not a training deployment, this is a combat deployment for us. We understand we need to be ready to fight tonight,” he said.

Flurry of phone calls, warning of dirty bomb from Russia's Shoigu

"Promoting Stability or Fueling Conflict?": Biden’s U.S. Arms Sales Boom, Ukraine to Saudi Arabia

NATO’s Proxy War in Ukraine Is Depleting Arms Stockpiles

After eight months of Washington and other NATO members pouring billions of dollars of arms and other military equipment into Ukraine, the proxy war has depleted the allies’ weapons stockpiles, according to the Associated Press. "The allies expect the war will continue for months, maybe years, with both sides rapidly using up weapons supplies. Victory may come down to who can last longer," the report said.

Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin has said the Western policy is to "weaken" Russia. This proxy war of attrition strategy has largely emptied the arms stockpiles of both large and small NATO members. This has led to calls for ramped up production in these nations’ military-industrial complexes. Some countries have sent all of their Soviet-era weapons to Kiev and now await replacements courtesy of the American arms industry on which these European NATO members have long relied. ...

So far, U.S. military aid provided to Ukraine, since the war began, totals over $17.5 billion. A now-redacted CBS report, which included on the ground sources, exposed that potentially 60-70% of the weapons being shipped never reach the front lines. Washington’s massive funding of the proxy war has reportedly left US artillery stockpiles “uncomfortably low.” However, the Pentagon will not produce data on its stockpiles.

U.S. General Admits Ukraine Is About Retaining U.S. Power

As Inflation Stalks Europe, Leaders Shudder

The retired women wheeled their canvas shopping carts to the fresh pasta counter of an outdoor market in Rome this week and commiserated about how the price of tagliatelle, oranges, napkins, utility bills — you name it — had gone through the roof.

“Prices have gone up on everything,” said Simonetta Belardi, 69, a self-described leftist who argued that while inflation whittled away her savings, it also wore down her support for Ukraine in the war that many across Europe blame for the astronomical costs. She was no fan of Russia, she said, but the time had long passed for an end to military support for Ukraine and a shift to diplomatic negotiations for peace. She said more and more people she knew, in need of economic relief, were losing their patience, too.

“All they want is arms, arms, arms,” she said of Ukraine. “I’m sick and tired of them.”

It is a sentiment — impatience, even inchoate anger, at the inflation fueled by the war — that transcends the shoppers in Rome’s piazzas and can be found among the weekly protests in Germany or in the swelling ranks of French strikers. And it has leaders nervous. ...

As winter approaches, Europe’s united turn away from Russian energy is beginning to bite in households everywhere, eroding living standards and in some countries threatening to chip away at the united front for sanctions against Russia.

China’s leader Xi Jinping secures third term

Xi Jinping has been confirmed as leader of China for a precedent-breaking third term, after a week-long political meeting eliminated key rivals and strengthened his political power.

The 20th Party Congress, the most important meeting of the ruling Chinese Communist party five-year political cycle, saw about 2,400 delegates gather in Beijing to rubber-stamp major reshuffles and constitutional changes before its official close on Saturday.

At a press event on Sunday, seven key Xi loyalists were revealed as members of China’s most powerful political body, the politburo standing committee (PSC), as they walked on stage in order of rank. “I was reelected as the general secretary of the CPC central committee,” Xi said in opening remarks, before presenting the six other members: Li Qiang, Zhao Leji, Wang Huning, Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang, and Li Xi. ...

As the second-ranked member after Xi, Li Qiang, the party secretary of Shanghai, is likely to be appointed the next premier when Li Keqiang steps down from premiership in March after two terms.

Shanghai has historically been a breeding ground for top national leaders. While Li’s prospects might have been dented by the chaos of Shanghai’s protracted Covid lockdown, analysts say Xi values loyalty and trustworthiness above all, and Li’s strong rapport with Xi over the years has put him in good stead. Li was Xi’s chief of staff from 2004 to 2007 when Xi was Zhejiang province’s top party boss.

Rishi Sunak To Become Next UK PM

Rishi Sunak takes lead in race to be Tory leader as rivals struggle to gain support

Boris Johnson has withdrawn from the race to be Conservative leader, leaving Rishi Sunak as the clear frontrunner to be prime minister. As more senior party figures cautioned that a Johnson comeback would lead to chaos and an early election, the former prime minister struggled to get the backing of enough Conservative MPs.

In a statement, Johnson claimed to have won the support of 102 colleagues – two clear of the threshold needed – but only about 60 had publicly stated their support for him

In contrast, Sunak won the support of 150 MPs, after piling on nominations from all wings of the party. The third challenger, Penny Mordaunt, had about 27.

Johnson, who never officially launched his campaign, said on Sunday night he was not running because he could not command enough support from the parliamentary party.

“I believe I am well placed to deliver a Conservative victory in 2024 - and tonight I can confirm that I have cleared the very high hurdle of 102 nominations, including a proposer and a seconder, and I could put my nomination in tomorrow,” he said.

Utility CEOs See Soaring Pay as Families Struggle to Afford Energy Bills

The top executives of utility giants in the United States are enjoying rising annual compensation as their customers in households across the country struggle to afford their high energy bills, with costs continuing to rise ahead of the winter months.

An analysis of Securities and Exchange Commission filings by Utility Dive found that the CEO of California-based Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E)—the largest utility firm in the U.S.—received $51.2 million in total compensation in 2021, an increase of 640% compared to her previous year's pay.

"This goes beyond run-of-the-mill executive greed, and it's a stark example of rewarding failure," Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, said of Patricia Poppe's compensation in a statement Friday.

"It shows a complete disdain for the employees and the company's 16 million ratepayers, including the ones who are having to forgo necessities to keep the heat and lights on," Cook added.

EWG noted that Poppe's pay surge comes as her firm is "jacking up rates on its captive customers, in part to pay for the damage caused by last summer's disastrous Dixie Fire."

"PG&E customers have already seen their monthly bills soar by nearly 20% this year," the group said. "The utility is asking the California Public Utilities Commission to approve an 18% rate increase in 2023. If approved, the plan would impose an extra $31 on the average customer's energy bill next year, and $58 per month by 2026."

The Utility Dive analysis also found that CenterPoint Energy CEO "received a retention incentive agreement valued at $25.24 million" last year, "giving him the largest total compensation package among the medium-sized utilities."

"Even setting aside the CEOs at companies that experienced significant milestones or recent CEO changes, CEOs at many smaller utilities saw their total compensation increase in 2021 after dips in 2020," the analysis notes.

A growing number of U.S. households, meanwhile, are having difficulty affording their rising energy bills, particularly as the costs of other necessities such as food and housing simultaneously increase.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates the country's residential price of electricity is set to be 8% higher this year compared to 2021. The U.S. Department of Energy expects heating bills to rise 28% this winter for the millions of households that rely on natural gas.

A report published last month by Bank of America found that nearly 20% of U.S. households have either missed or been late on a recent utility payment due to "financial difficulty."

Despite Record Profits, Rail Companies Reject Union's Demand for Paid Sick Leave

A statement from the United States' major freight rail companies left railroad workers feeling increasingly "disenfranchised and undervalued," according to one labor organizer, as the National Carriers' Conference Committee rejected a proposal from the third largest rail workers union which called for just seven days of paid sick leave per year.

While claiming "the health, safety, and wellbeing of rail employees is a top priority for all railroads," the NCCC said it would not accept the proposal from the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division (BMWED), which was introduced last week.

The BMWED had demanded the addition of paid sick days—modeled on a system used for federal workers in which employees accrue one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked—last week as its members voted against a proposed contract that was developed with the help of White House officials. That contract included unpaid days off for medical care, but no paid sick days.

Clark Ballew, a spokesperson for the BMWED, noted that having reported more than $10 billion in stock buybacks and dividends in the first six months of 2022, rail companies "can very easily afford" to provide workers with paid leave when they are sick, as they did during the coronavirus pandemic hit before vaccines were available to employees.

"It is not unreasonable... and they'd still be making record profits if they agreed to provide railroad workers paid sick leave," Ballew told the Associated Press, adding that paid sick leave for employees "has become a norm in this society."

Ballew posited that if the two sides can't agree on a contract and Congress has to step in to avoid a strike, lawmakers may impose the proposed deal that excludes paid leave—a possibility that may be keeping the carriers from agreeing to BMWED's terms.

The rail carriers said Wednesday that while workers lack standard paid sick leave, "comprehensive paid sickness benefits" kick in for long-term illnesses after four days of absence, but unions have suggested the companies are capable of providing employees with both long-term disability benefits and comprehensive paid sick leave, as other workers throughout the economy have.

"It's totally asinine," Peter Kennedy, director of strategic coordination and research for BMWED, told CNN of the NCCC's rejection of the union's proposal. "Members are very upset."

Rail worker unions agreed not to call a strike until workers from across the industry, represented by 12 unions, have voted on the tentative deal reached last month.

A work stoppage could begin as early as November 19. The last nationwide railroad shutdown took place in 1992 after just one union rejected a contract and called a strike.

Food Insufficiency Up 25% Since Manchin, GOP Killed Child Tax Credit Boost

A Boston-based research team on Friday reiterated the negative effects of ending the expanded child tax credit by releasing a study that shows a huge jump in U.S. households not having enough food.

The expanded child tax credit (CTC) in the American Rescue Plan gave over 35 million U.S. families up to $300 a month per child until it expired last December, and congressional Republicans and right-wing Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) opposed continuing it.

Published in the journal JAMA Network Open, the new study focuses on food insufficiency, "a marker for economic strain… defined by household lack of enough food to eat in the last seven days."

Researchers at Boston Medical Center (BMC) and Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) found that ending the monthly payments "was associated with a 25% increase in household food insufficiency by early July 2022 compared with the period just before CTC expiration."

Lead author Allison Bovell-Ammon said in a statement that "this significant increase in food insufficiency among families with children is particularly concerning for child health equity, as child health, development, and educational outcomes are strongly linked to their family's ability to afford enough food."

"Even brief periods of deprivation during childhood can have lasting impacts on a child," added Bovell-Ammon, director of policy and communications for Children's HealthWatch at BMC.

The study states that "low-income, single-adult, non-Hispanic Black, and Hispanic households experienced greater increases than the overall sample, suggesting implications of deepening inequities linked to the policy expiration. Without further congressional action to extend the expanded CTC and reinstate monthly payments, reductions in food insufficiency, poverty, and inequity following the advance CTC payment introduction in 2021 may continue to erode."

Bovell-Ammon noted that "Black, Latino, Indigenous, and immigrant families in the U.S. consistently experience food insecurity—a broader measure that assesses quantity, quality, and variety of food—at higher rates than white families as a result of current and historical marginalization and systemic racism."

Study co-author Stephanie Ettinger de Cuba, a research associate professor at BUSPH and executive director of Children's HealthWatch, highlighted that some immigrant families struggled to access the CTC program.

"These barriers were due in part to specific eligibility exclusions, but they also occurred even when immigrant families were eligible," she said. "Following the expiration of the payments at the end of 2021, the gains in racial equity were eroded, potentially further exacerbating racial and health inequities and increasing distrust."

As various studies and data sets have made clear that the CTC payments lifted millions of children out of poverty and cutting them off harmed families, some progressives in Congress and policy experts have called for not only reinstating the program but making it permanent.

"Free Speech Issue”: Meet the Arkansas Publisher & Lawyer Asking SCOTUS to Overturn Anti-BDS Law

US Police Track Innocent People’s Movements With Troubling New App

Government agencies and private security companies in the U.S. have found a cost-effective way to engage in warrantless surveillance of individuals, groups and places: a pay-for-access web tool called Fog Reveal. The tool enables law enforcement officers to see “patterns of life” – where and when people work and live, with whom they associate and what places they visit. The tool’s maker, Fog Data Science, claims to have billions of data points from over 250 million U.S. mobile devices.

Fog Reveal came to light when the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a nonprofit that advocates for online civil liberties, was investigating location data brokers and uncovered the program through a Freedom of Information Act request. EFF’s investigation found that Fog Reveal enables law enforcement and private companies to identify and track people and monitor specific places and events, like rallies, protests, places of worship and health care clinics. The Associated Press found that nearly two dozen government agencies across the country have contracted with Fog Data Science to use the tool.

Domestic law enforcement agencies also use technology for surveillance, but generally with greater restrictions. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable search and seizure, and federal electronic surveillance law require domestic law enforcement agencies to obtain a warrant before tracking someone’s location using a GPS device or cell site location information.

The trove of personal data Fog Data Science is selling, and government agencies are buying, exists because ever-advancing technologies in smart devices collect increasingly vast amounts of intimate data. Without meaningful choice or control on the user’s part, smart device and app makers collect, use and sell that data.

Criminal charges dropped against man left with paralysis in US police custody

A man who was left partially paralyzed while in police custody has had all criminal charges against him dropped.

On 19 June, 36-year-old Randy Cox of New Haven, Connecticut, was arrested on charges of illegal handgun possession. Cox was put into a police transport van without any seatbelts and was en route to a detention center when the officer behind the wheel, Oscar Diaz, suddenly braked. Video footage released by Cox’s family and published by CNN shows a handcuffed Cox sliding across the bench and hitting the van’s wall with his head.

Diaz continued to drive for three and a half minutes before stopping to check on Cox, who at this point was slumped at the back of the van and was crying out for help. “I can’t move,” Cox said, “I broke my neck.” Cox was eventually taken to the detention center where police officers told him to get up from the floor. “Sit up,” an officer said to which Cox responded, “I can’t move.”

Police officers eventually dragged Cox out of the van and put him into a wheelchair that he repeatedly slipped from. Officers then dragged Cox out of the wheelchair and pulled him across the floor to a cell where they put him up against a bed. Video shows Cox falling back onto the floor again. “He is perfectly fine,” an officer said as Cox lay on the floor.

The five officers who were involved in the incident are currently on paid administrative leave as they are investigated by the state’s attorney office. They are also facing a $100m federal civil lawsuit filed on behalf of Cox. The suit alleges negligence, carelessness and executive force against the officers involved.



the horse race



US midterm elections: early voting on track to match 2018 record

Early voting in the midterm elections is on track to match records set in 2018, according to researchers, as voters take advantage of both in-person and mail-in voting in states across the country.

More than 5.8 million people had already cast their vote by Friday evening, CNN reported, a similar total to this stage in the 2018 elections, which had the highest turnout of any midterm vote in a generation.

States with closely watched elections, including Georgia, Florida and Ohio, are among those seeing high volumes, with Democrats so far casting early votes in greater numbers.

Republicans, including Donald Trump, have encouraged their supporters to vote in person, citing a mishmash of debunked conspiracy theories about election security.

The New York Times reported that in-person turnout is up 70% in Georgia, where the incumbent Republican governor is facing a tough challenge from Democrat Stacey Abrams and Raphael Warnock, the Democratic US senator, is competing with Herschel Walker. As of Friday about 520,000 people had already cast their ballots during in-person early voting, according to Fox5 Atlanta.

HISTORIC Midterm Turnout As People Are PISSED

Dark Money Groups Have Pumped $1 Billion Into GOP Effort to Retake Senate

Shadowy organizations that are legally allowed to hide their donors have pumped nearly $1 billion into the Republican Party's effort to retake the U.S. Senate, according to an NPR analysis released Saturday.

In total, NPR found that "more than $1.6 billion has been spent or booked on TV ads in a dozen Senate races, with $3 out of every $4 being spent in six states—Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Wisconsin, Nevada, and Ohio."

"Most of that money is coming from dark money outside groups with little-to-no donor transparency—and Republicans are getting a huge boost from them," the outlet reported.

Nearly 90% of the money spent on pro-Republican television ads this midterm cycle has been from dark money groups, according to NPR's analysis of ad data. By comparison, 55% of spending on ads boosting Democrats has come from dark money organizations, which have exploded in number and influence since the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision.

Trump Organization to face criminal tax fraud charges in New York court on Monday

The Trump Organization is set to face criminal tax fraud charges on Monday in New York in a trial that could start to tease out the many allegations against the company and by extension its patriarch, Donald J Trump.

It comes as the former US president faces a maze of legal troubles and mounting costs – by some estimates running at close to $4m a month to his leadership Pac – over his attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss, the removal of government documents from the White House when he left office and a defamation case relating to a rape allegation.

Monday’s case is centered on charges that his Manhattan-headquartered real estate company defrauded New York tax authorities by awarding “off the books” compensation over 15 years to company executives, including lease payments for cars, apartment rent and tuition fees for relatives in lieu of some salary, enabling the company to evade paying payroll taxes.

If found guilty, the company, which is run by Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, could face $1.6m in fines and find its ability to operate hotels, golf courses and other assets impeded.



the evening greens


Climate activists throw mashed potatoes at Monet work in Germany

Claude Monet has become the latest artist to be the focus of food-related climate protests, after members of a German environmental group threw mashed potatoes over one of his paintings in a Potsdam museum on Sunday.

Nine days after Just Stop Oil emptied tomato soup over Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers at the National Gallery in London, two activists from Letzte Generation (Last Generation) entered the Museum Barberini and doused Monet’s Les Meules (Haystacks) with potato before glueing their hands to the wall.

The protesters said the stunt was designed as a wake-up call in the face of a climate catastrophe. “People are starving, people are freezing, people are dying,” one of the activists said in a video of the incident tweeted by Letzte Generation.

“We are in a climate catastrophe and all you are afraid of is tomato soup or mashed potatoes on a painting. You know what I’m afraid of? I’m afraid because science tells us that we won’t be able to feed our families in 2050,” the protester said. “Does it take mashed potatoes on a painting to make you listen? This painting is not going to be worth anything if we have to fight over food. When will you finally start to listen? When will you finally start to listen and stop business as usual?”

The group said it had decided to make “this Monet the stage and the public the audience” to try to get its message across. “If it takes pelting a painting with mashed potato or tomato soup to remind society that the fossil course is killing us all, then we give you mashed potato on a painting,” it added.

Intentional Disinvestment: EPA Launches Civil Rights Probe of Water Crisis in Jackson, Mississippi

Hurricane Roslyn hits Mexico with life-threatening storm surge

Roslyn, a powerful category 3 hurricane, was moving across west-central Mexico on Sunday, dumping a life-threatening storm surge with damaging winds in its path, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

Roslyn, which was downgraded from category 4 since Saturday, hit land at 5.20am local time (11.20GMT) near Santa Cruz in northern Nayarit, the NHC said, a Pacific coastal state home to popular tourist beaches like Sayulita and Punta Mita. By late morning, maximum sustained winds decreased to near 90mph (150km) with stronger gusts. Rapid weakening was expected as the hurricane moved farther inland, the NHC said. Video footage showed flooded streets and palm trees swaying in strong winds as Roslyn touched down in Nayarit.


Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

Video: Ukraine Soldiers Sing Praises Of WW II Era N@zi

Always Opposing The Last War But Not The Current One: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

Pretending To Seek Peace In An Unwinnable Proxy War: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

Russian DM Calls Counterparts To Warn of Coming False Flag

Orban Lashes Out at EU as He Marks 1956 Anti-Soviet Revolt

Patrick Lawrence: Europe’s Self Destruction

Türkiye Resisting US Pressure Against Increasing Economic Ties to Russia

‘A clash of two Brazils’: presidential election divides voters – even gangsters

Nomi Prins: How the Federal Reserve and Allied Central Bankers Wrote the Obituary for Competitive Capitalism

GOP Courts DISASTER With Repeat of UK Econ COLLAPSE

Salman Rushdie lives, but loses use of eye and hand

FYI: U.S. Doesn’t Give A Sh*t About Iranian Women Protesters

War Critic DISAPPEARS After FBI Raid!

NewsNation's Brian Entin Previews PA Senate Debate, WHAT TO EXPECT Of Fetterman's Health


A Little Night Music

Lazy Lester - I Hear You Knockin'

Lazy Lester - I'm A Lover Not A Fighter

Lazy Lester - They Call Me Lazy

Lazy Lester - Sugar Coated Love

Lazy Lester - I'm So Tired

Lazy Lester - The Same Thing Could Happen To You

Lazy Lester - Pondarosa Stomp

Lazy Lester - Tell Me Pretty Baby

Lazy Lester - Go Ahead

Lazy Lester - Rockin' with Lester


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Comments

Lookout's picture

Jeffry has been throwing truth bombs again. Be sure to catch the "Jeffery, Jeffery STOP I am the moderator"
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VP_SpW-DyQg&t=17s]
6.5 min.

I found it entertaining, like Jeffery's last weeks "Nord Stream destroyed by US" in the MSM.
gg shared this about the Nord Stream...Orf strikes again.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSZyKYitC3M]

Thanks for the news and blues!

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18 users have voted.

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

mimi's picture

@Lookout thanks for the music.I will listen to it tomorrow. Good Night from here.

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10 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@Lookout

wow, somebody has definitely put something in jeffrey sach's wheaties lately. it's hard to believe that he is the same person that i remember from 30 years ago when he seemed to be a run-of-the-mill neoliberal economist. good on him for speaking up with the truth.

heh, i enjoyed that orf piece. really well done satire.

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11 users have voted.

@joe shikspack participated in Occupy Wall Street.

He spoke to us in Zucotti Park and donated many boxes of books to the library.

Seems like so long ago.

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13 users have voted.

NYCVG

enhydra lutris's picture

@joe shikspack

some other environmental org as well.

be well and have a good one

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4 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 --

dystopian's picture

Hi all, Hey Joe! Hope all is well out there!

Hard finding specifics on what Roslyn did to Nayarit. Just south of where it made landfall, so may well have been eye-walled or nearly so, there is an awesome community down there, a sleepy beach village called San Blas. One of the oldest towns on west coast of Mexico (1500's). It is a birder's heaven. Except the noseeums (jejenes). A fair number of ex-pat grigoes live there. It is beautiful and spectacular, some of the furthest north real jungle on the west coast. It was pretty popular in the 60-70's as Lee Marvin (think Cat Balou with him drunk on a horse with him *and the horse* leaning up against a building) took up sport fishing there. I heard a Jaguar there, and at midnight on the beach, buzzed, they sure sound a lot bigger in person in the dark when you can't see into the wall of vegetation it just roared from. Hope they are OK down there.

P.S. That was some great seminal John Kay on that Sparrows album on Saturday. Very good stuff! Thanks!

Be well all!

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14 users have voted.

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

joe shikspack's picture

@dystopian

yeah, i haven't seen much coverage of roslyn, perhaps as things start getting sorted out we'll get an update on the environmental effects.

glad you liked the john kay album. i think that i have some more early steppenwolf or sparrow stuff in a box somewhere. i'll have to try to dig it out.

have a good one!

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5 users have voted.

and I sure hope he’s also wrong on this matter:

[video:https://youtu.be/Bw84nOmGLcw]

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13 users have voted.

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

@ovals49 view from Gonzalo Lira.

I sure hope he's got it wrong.

Until watching this I thought that the dirty bomb might be a propaganda bomb.

Now I'm not so certain.

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10 users have voted.

NYCVG

@NYCVG
was meant to predispose the MSM audience to foregone conclusions that ‘Russia done it!” whenever something particularly bad happens. US domestic narrative control is quite effective.

The rest of Gonzalo’s scenario is speculative, but, troublingly, quite rationally posited. Dark seems a bit of understatement. Dire comes to mind. Like the final scene of “Don't Look Up” …... I can only hope that cooler heads prevail, and we don’t simply repeat previous bad behaviors.

Grandson #1 is about to arrive. What sort of world, and future, will he find?

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16 users have voted.

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

@ovals49

You must be very excited!
Good luck.

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8 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@ovals49

thanks for the clip. i sure hope that lira is wrong, but even if he is wrong about the particulars, there is a general, unmistakable pattern of escalation happening and it looks like our demented leaders are ready to go in guns blazing.

while there has been a lot of talk about ukraine falling in with nato being an existential threat to russia, it looks like the likely loss of hegemony to russia and china is an existential event in the eyes of our demented elites.

time to call in the flying spaghetti monster.

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11 users have voted.

or some such. If you find yourself left of right, or visa versus, maybe it is time to redefine
the polarity? Horizontal incongruences tend to keep us at odds. Let's go vertical.

Thanks for the Lazy Lester tunes!

BTW, what is the difference between a woman and a lady? Asking for a friend.

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joe shikspack's picture

@QMS

heh. politics is horizontal, like a giant bathroom with far too few facilities for a much larger population. economics is vertical, like a multi-story outhouse.

BTW, what is the difference between a woman and a lady? Asking for a friend.

the applied snobbery of class distinctions?

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5 users have voted.

@QMS well mannered, unless you are a rude, crude, mindless woke individual who must squat to pee.
Hope that helps.

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7 users have voted.

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

The dirty bomb rumors and facts have me pretty worried.

The available info we can count on is pretty thin.

Did Shoigu initiate the calls to US?

Or as some reports claim----did The Pentagon initiate the contact?

Alarming news, either way.

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13 users have voted.

NYCVG

@NYCVG @NYCVG
Yes, in a series of calls with several other NATO counterparts. That in itself is unprecedented.

[Edit: More information on content in these calls with telegram link to Russian MoD account]
“There is a series of posts here if interested.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en/4687” h/t old hippie at MOA

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10 users have voted.

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

@ovals49 If frightening us is the objective, then it has succeeded. Yikes...

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7 users have voted.

NYCVG

@NYCVG

describes the sequence near the end of his talk today in this way:

Russian Gen. Surovikin mentions Ukraine may be planning to use "prohibited methods" in the war.

British Def.Sec. Ben Wallace flies to Washington to meet Def.Sec. Austin in person.

Austin calls Russian Def.Min. Shoigu shortly after meeting with Wallace.

Shoigu calls Turkish Def.Min., French Def.Min., and British Def.Min. (Wallace).

Today media reports appear reminding of Zelensky's threats to use nuclear materials or methods. Russian intel reports Zelensky government ordered its scientists to produce dirty bomb, or something to that effect.

So Mercouris suggests that Austin called Shoigu before Shoigu called the others. The other controversy might have been the Black Sea incident of a Russian jet shooting a missile near a British plane, but that may have been resolved before these meetings and calls.

Mercouris at about 30:56:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yrwchtwHcms

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12 users have voted.

@Linda Wood Good clip.

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6 users have voted.

NYCVG

joe shikspack's picture

@NYCVG

regarding the initiation of contacts, i have heard it both ways. i'm not sure who is correct.

any way you slice it, though, it sounds like a serious clusterfuck is brewing.

it appears to me that the u.s. is looking for some excuse to give it a pretext for putting troops in ukraine.

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7 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

Romania was from June of this year. It was a routine changing of the military there. So it is just another squirrel for us to look at while something else is probably happening.

Don’t miss this essay

The Mississippi River Just Dried Up, and That’s Very Bad

The Mississippi River is pretty much gone. I don’t mean that figuratively. I don’t mean it’s happening slowly.

In Memphis, it’s gone.

There’s nothing left but dry river bed. It looks like a desert. I’ve driven across the Mississippi River countless times over the last couple of decades. I’ve never, ever, ever seen it like this.

This is bad.

Where it’s not completely dead, it’s so low that ships can’t pass. They’re running aground. If it doesn’t rain a lot soon, it’s going to devastate our ecosystems and economy. The Mississippi River is a pillar of the American supply chain and the agriculture industry. Meteorologists say the river will probably stay like this for months, assuming it’s not a new normal. Farmers use the Mississippi to ship grain. Without the river, they can’t move food. It would take 70 tractor-trailers to move the equivalent of one barge. Don’t even think about the climate impact of having to move everything we do on boats by freight or rail. Talk about a carbon bomb.

It’s going to be the least of our problems. More than 80 percent of the U.S. is heading into drought territory.

That’s our future.

Look at Texas in the 1950s.

If you want to know how bad it’s about to get everywhere, don’t look at the American Dust Bowl in the 1930s.

Don’t watch dystopian movies.

Look at Texas in the 1950s.

Check the photos of the California lakes during its drought

And idiot Biden just blew up the nordstream pipelines releasing how much dangerous gases into the air? This wiped out any advantage we got from his inadequate climate policy and who knows if the Manchin climate betrayal stuff is still going to happen? Biden is so boneheaded to agree with that just like he was when he promised McConnell that he would appoint a rabid anti abortion judge right after Roe was demolished.

ICYM this nightmarish essay on what will happen if nukes land here.

On Going Seriously Boom

The climate activists also pie'd the wax figure of Bonnie King Charles with chocolate pies. I’m guessing that wax figures are made from oil?

This might cheer y’all up. Animals are the best!

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14 users have voted.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

that was a good piece about the mississippi. it's amazing how quickly everything seems to be going downhill now. a planetary die-off sounds more likely with each passing week.

thanks for the squirrel and pig!

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7 users have voted.

Lazy Lester was a real enjoyment. Interesting to hear him sing songs, I had attributed to someone else.
The news seems to be getting harder to read and comprehend how much news here is dominated by propaganda and people seem so clueless to the actual horrors of a nuclear weapon and the untold damage it can cause.

Trying to spend my time enjoying the outdoors and doing things to help prepare myself for what must be ahead in our lives.

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10 users have voted.

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

This ain't no dress rehearsal!

joe shikspack's picture

@jakkalbessie

yep, it's shocking to see how many people seem to think that it would be okay to use nuclear weapons (probably "over there") as if there would be no effects here. boneheads!

yep, that old song "enjoy yourself, it's later than you think" plays in my head quite often these days.

have a good one!

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7 users have voted.

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11 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@gjohnsit

good to see that the "intellectual firepower" behind the elite politicians getting called out and drubbed in public.

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9 users have voted.
CB's picture

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9 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@CB

thanks for the video. have a great evening!

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3 users have voted.
janis b's picture

@CB

Because of my long-time experience and study of photography, I am aware of both its qualities to document 'reality', and its capacity to ‘deceive’. Both are attributes, in a way, of recording and creating impressions. Being somewhat sceptical, I reserve my opinion regarding the ins and outs of Hu Jintao.

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6 users have voted.
CB's picture

@janis b
of the preceding events so you can have a better view. I believe the consternation shown on the member's faces is due to the desire to show strength (health) and unanimity in the party, especially at these important occasions.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBG2bD-TE9g]

BTW, Hu Jintao was reported to be ill and unsteady during the opening ceremony the previous Sunday. The western media would gone nuts if they believed there was any truth to the "public purging" of Hu Jintao. This video was not circulated in China. "Purgings" are never done publicly since Xi's tenure. Congress members do not show up at their designated seats. The seating is simply rearranged. It is well known that seating tells us a lot about the current power structure.

Why Hu Jintao Probably Wasn’t Purged at the 20th Party Congress

Dramatic footage showing former Chinese leader Hu Jintao being escorted by security staff out of the Communist Party’s 20th National Congress on Saturday, Oct. 22 has led to widespread speculation among China watchers that he was purged on live television by current Party head Xi Jinping.
...
While there have been murmurings of discontent towards Xi Jinping and his lackluster, sometimes disastrous policies, none of these have come from Hu Jintao. Rather, the “opposition” to Xi’s leadership seems to be driven by the regime faction centered around Jiang Zemin, the CCP leader who preceded Hu and, despite his advanced age, “remains a force behind the scenes” according to the Wall Street Journal.

Many of the officials purged under Xi’s watch belong to the Jiang faction, which undermined Hu’s authority throughout his tenure.

According to Larry Ong, a senior analyst with political risk consultancy SinoInsider, factional struggle is unlikely a reason for why Hu was escorted out. Ong explained that would be “political suicide” for Xi to “openly sacrifice” Hu, who is an ally, not a rival, of Xi in the face of the Jiang faction.
...
Were there really to be a falling-out between the current and former leaders, such struggles would have been decided behind closed doors, not in ways that would damage the picture of “consensus” that the Communist Party presents to the outside world to maintain its propaganda image as a streamlined monolithic entity.

“Xi has no incentive in hurting his and the Party’s image at this crucial time,” Ong said, noting that Hu’s reappearance in an evening broadcast of the state-run China Central Television (CCTV) on Saturday “wouldn’t have happened if he were purged.”

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5 users have voted.
Pluto's Republic's picture

...about the US blocking the sale of Twitter to Elon Musk, because Musk is an anti-censorship guy, and he will likely be unwilling to censor and sanction the users of Twitter's Global Communications Platform when they do not conform to the political bias of the United States — or when they challenge the US narrative about what is taking place.

(In this case, the US demands the silencing of Twitter users who are sympathetic to Russia's refusal to surrender their national sovereignty to NATO; or who express support for Russia's resistance to NATO's hostile military presence on their border with Ukraine; or users who express outrage over the systematic extermination of the ethnic Russian population who occupy Russia's former territory — which the Soviet Union annexed to east Ukraine, to provide water and electrical power. Because when the NAZi army retreated from Russia at the end of WWII, they blew up Russia's bridge to their centuries old Naval base in Crimea, and destroyed Russia's utilities and infrastructure that served the nearby Russian territories.

Ironic that the Nazis blew up the Crimea bridge once again, seventy years later.

So, looking at the global population map, below, I'm guessing that when the US becomes the Supreme Ruler of the World — it probably won't be using any of the Democratic principles it is currently pushing onto the rest of the World.

population-distribution.jpg
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11 users have voted.

____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
joe shikspack's picture

@Pluto's Republic

rules, laws and norms are for the little people - not for the shining city on the hill.

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7 users have voted.
janis b's picture

Regarding Rishi Sunak I read this article today ...

Much has already been made of Sunak being the first British PM to come from an ethnic minority. Any sense of upwards mobility that this may convey has to be tempered by the fact that Sunak is also one of the richest Prime Ministers in the entire history of Britain. A former Goldman Sachs executive and hedge fund manager, Sunak married the heir to the Infosys software fortune. The Sunak household has been estimated to be worth around £730 million, or $NZ1.45 billion at the current exchange rate.

http://werewolf.co.nz/2022/10/gordon-campbell-on-britains-latest-prime-m...

Lester doesn't sound lazy at all to me ; ).

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11 users have voted.

https://mid.ru/ru/foreign_policy/news/1834864/

Foreign policy News
24.10.2022 18:25
Commentary by MFA Spokesperson Maria Zakharova in connection with incoming information regarding Kyiv's plans to stage a provocation using a "dirty bomb"
2192-24-10-2022

The most serious concern is the alarming information coming from reliable sources that the Kyiv regime is preparing a provocation using an explosive device filled with radioactive substances, the so-called. "dirty bomb".

The purpose of such a monstrous provocation is obvious - to accuse Russia of using weapons of mass destruction. The Ukrainian authorities and their curators in the West hope that this will result in a powerful anti-Russian campaign, undermine the confidence of its partners in Moscow, and lead to the isolation of our country in the international arena.

According to our information, the Ukrainian side has already begun to implement the plan. In particular, the Eastern Mining and Processing Plant in the city of Zhovti Vody and the Institute for Nuclear Research in Kyiv were tasked with making such a bomb. We do not rule out assistance in solving this problem on the part of some Western countries, which, according to incoming information, are negotiating with Ukraine on the supply of components for a "dirty bomb". According to information available to Russia, the Kyiv regime plans to detonate such a munition by disguising it as an abnormal operation of a low-yield Russian nuclear munition, in which highly enriched uranium is used as a charge.

In this context, we would like to recall the irresponsible statements of V. Zelensky in February this year. at the Munich Security Conference about Kyiv's claims to possess nuclear weapons, which would create real risks for Russia and international security. In general, it was about the possibility of revising the non-nuclear status of Ukraine, which would mean an attempt to acquire nuclear weapons to the detriment of the NPT regime . Given Kiev's recent statements about the need for "preemptive nuclear strikes" by NATO countries against Russia, this is categorically unacceptable and completely unacceptable. Moreover, calls to detonate a “dirty bomb” in Moscow have already been circulated in the Ukrainian segment of the Internet earlier. They even showed instructions for assembling it.

By all indications, the Ukrainian side is trying to play out a scenario similar to the provocation in Bucha, when they tried to groundlessly accuse us of civilian casualties. Despite our repeated appeals, including to the UN Secretary General , with a request to provide data on the victims and information about the circumstances of their death, we still have not received any answer.

We demand that the Kyiv authorities and the Western sponsors who control them stop taking actions that bring the world to a nuclear catastrophe and threaten the lives of innocent civilians. It is reckless to ignore Russian warnings in this regard. It is dangerous to bring things to an escalation. The West should not measure the width of the "red line".

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10 users have voted.

@humphrey
to the serious nature of this “dirty bomb” threat, courtesy of Old Microbiologist at MoA:

One thing that goes unmentioned is the sudden flight to Washington by the UK Defense Minister Wallace right after his call from Shoigu because what he had to say was to sensitive for communications. I believe Shoigu revealed they have voice intercepts of the UK plotting to create a dirty bomb with Ukraine (probably on the Ukraine end). Revealing that they [Russians] have been intercepting high level communications is not something done lightly which is further evidence this is a real thing and a very imminent threat.

I also believe the rational actors are the various defense ministers, secretaries, etc. of nuclear armed militaries hence the phone calls to all of them. The political side is not so rational so I can easily imagine in the UK that MI-6 might be doing something that the military had no knowledge of and the same true for the CIA and the Pentagon. In the latter case we have the addition of highly irrational ideologues over at the State Department, many of who are either former Ukrainians or descended from Banderists that emigrated to the West.

[snip]

We still haven’t seen any of the real EW weapons used yet in Ukraine. Plus an incursion into Ukraine would result in hypersonics taking out all the runways of US/NATO bases in Europe, shooting down of all AWACS, and also all US/UK military satellites. Russia has these capabilities. There are 18 LNG tankers sitting off the coast of Spain waiting to discharge their gas so are completely full and nice big juicy targets for Russian submarines. Lot’s of things can happen should any NATO forces actually go into Ukraine. Russia will not respond with nuclear as they simply don’t need to. The one hyper-sonic missile against Lyviv showed what even one can do alone and it shocked everyone.

Posted by: Old Microbiologist | Oct 25 2022 5:56 utc | 318

Link to complete post

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11 users have voted.

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

enhydra lutris's picture

So yes, the US very much considers silicon valley to be part of its propaganda machine, and, btw, Rishi Sunak is more silicon valley than he is UK. With that conflict in interests, it will be interesting to see just how long he lasts. Longer than Truss, for sure, but I don't have any faith that he will pacify or satisfy the conservatives, the populace at large, or the US for very long, let alone all three.

The Mississippi looks grim and looks to be grim for the US economy. I wonder if Brandon will even acknowledge the problem.

be well and have a good one

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4 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 --