The Evening Blues - 12-8-22



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Willie Cobbs

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues harmonica player Willie Cobbs. Enjoy!

Willie Cobb - Inflation Blues

"The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion […] but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do."

-- Samuel P. Huntington


News and Opinion

Global Arms Sales Grow for 7th Consecutive Year

The world’s 100 largest providers of arms and military services recorded a combined total of $592 billion in sales in 2021, as per figures published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) as part of its Arms Industry Database.

The figure marks an increase of 1.9 percent in real terms compared to 2020, and the seventh consecutive year that arms sales have grown around the world. Between 2015 and 2021, arms sales increased by 19 percent in real terms, according to SIPRI.

While the rate of growth for 2020-21 was higher than the preceding year, the institute reported a decline in arms sales as compared to the average of the four years prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. “We might have expected even greater growth in arms sales in 2021 without persistent supply chain issues,” said Lucie Béraud-Sudreau, director of the SIPRI Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme.

Arms companies have faced supply chain issues that have been exacerbated by the Russia-Ukraine war, SIPRI noted. Russia is a major supplier of the raw materials needed for arms production.

At a time of heightened militarization around the world, and as the U.S. and Europe continue to pledge billions of dollars in arms and ammunition to Ukraine, SIPRI senior researcher Dr. Diego Lopes da Silva said that “if supply chain disruptions continue, it may take several years for some of the main arms producers to meet the new demand created by the Ukraine war.”


Congress Unveils $858 Billion NDAA

Congress on Tuesday night unveiled the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), worth $858 billion, $45 billion more than what President Biden requested for the military spending bill.

The House is expected to vote on the legislation this week, and it could be brought to the floor as soon as Thursday. Once the House approves the bill, it will be sent to the Senate, then to President Biden’s desk for his signature.

The massive $858 billion bill represents an 8% increase from the 2022 NDAA, which was also larger than what Biden requested. The $858 billion includes $817 billion for the Pentagon, and the remaining funds go toward military spending for other departments.

Zelensky Named Time Magazine’s “Person Of The Year”

Mainstream Republicans back Marjorie Taylor Greene audit of Ukraine aid

Mainstream Republicans on Tuesday rallied behind a resolution sponsored by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to audit U.S. military and economic aid for Ukraine, sending their strongest signal yet that the Biden administration will face stricter scrutiny of its support for the war effort when control of the House shifts next year.

The measure, before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, was defeated in a 26-to-22 vote because of the unity of Democrats, who still control the panel and said the measure risked sending a message to Ukraine that America’s support for the war was in question. ...

Offering a glimpse of the upcoming fights in Congress, Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, the committee’s top Republican, said the administration should brace for “responsibility and accountability.”

“The era of writing blank checks is over,” he said, echoing a phrase used in October by Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif), who is seeking to become the next House speaker. McCarthy later clarified that he supported aid to Ukraine but wanted to exercise more oversight of the assistance.

Kiev Pulling Back in Marinka, Condition Bakhmut Defenders Desperate, Energy System Close to Collapse

Oil prices about to spike?

Russia’s Oil Exports Nosedive Following Price Cap

Russian crude-oil exports have taken a serious hit since new sanctions and a price cap came into force earlier in the week, with the Wall Street Journal reporting that figures from two data providers on Russian crude both show a big fall, though their magnitudes differ.

According to one commodity-analytics firm Kpler, Russia’s seaborne exports fell by nearly 500,000 barrels per day on Tuesday, a 16% decline from the November average of 3.08 million bpd.

Meanwhile, TankerTrackers.com, which tracks sea vessels using signals and satellite images, has reported that Russia's crude exports fell by nearly 50%. With shipments from the Black Sea and Baltic ports accounting for most of the fall.

According to Samir Madani, cofounder of TankerTrackers.com, this is a notable drop rather than a blip, “Russian exports have been moving steadily up until now. The two biggest visible snags are in the Black and Baltic seas. Pacific and Arctic regions remain unaffected, at least for now”.

Analysts at StanChart have predicted that Russia’s crude production is set to fall sharply in the coming year, noting that the key unknown is whether Russia can transport oil to its major consumers (including providing adequate insurance) without using EU or other G7 services.

Putin, this might be a lengthy process. Merkel, Minsk agreement an attempt to give Ukraine time.

US to Increase Military Presence in Australia in Buildup Aimed at China

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Tuesday that the US will increase its military presence in Australia in a buildup aimed at China. ...

Australia’s ABC News reported in October that the US will be deploying six nuclear-capable B-52 bombers to Australia to a base just south of Darwin. The US is building facilities to house the bombers, which are expected to be completed by 2026.

The US and Australia have been stepping up military cooperation since signing the AUKUS pact with the UK in 2021, a part of the US effort to build alliances against China. The deal focuses on technology sharing and will give Canberra the capability to acquire nuclear-powered submarines.

Peruvian President Pedro Castillo Is Ousted & Arrested in Latest Episode of Peru's "Enduring Crisis"

Peru president removed from office and charged with ‘rebellion’ after alleged coup attempt

Peru’s president, Pedro Castillo, has been removed from office and detained on charges of “rebellion” after he announced he would shutter congress and install a “government of exception” – just hours before he was due to face an impeachment vote.

The public prosecutor’s office confirmed late on Wednesday that Castillo had been arrested and charged with allegedly “breaching constitutional order”, after he was accused of an attempted coup and seen fleeing the presidential palace.

Earlier in the day, the country’s national police tweeted that “former president” Pedro Castillo had been detained, shortly after congress voted to remove him. The vote came after Castillo ordered a night-time curfew and the reorganisation of the judiciary and prosecutor’s office, which is investigating him for alleged corruption and influence trafficking – charges which he denies.

Castillo’s vice-president, Dina Boluarte, described the move as a coup attempt, and hours later was sworn in as the new president, becoming the first female head of state in Peru’s history. ...

In a televised speech, Castillo said he would temporarily shut down congress, launch a “government of exception” to rule by decree and called for new legislative elections. The move immediately prompted mass resignations from the cabinet, and accusations that Castillo had attempted to seize power illegally.

New York Times poised for first mass staff walkout in 40 years

The New York Times is bracing for a 24-hour walkout on Thursday by hundreds of journalists and other employees, in what would be the first strike of its kind at the newspaper in more than 40 years.

Newsroom employees and other members of the NewsGuild of New York say they are fed up with bargaining that has dragged on since their last contract expired in March 2021. The union announced last week that more than 1,100 employees would stage a 24-hour work stoppage starting at 12.01am on Thursday unless the two sides reached a contract deal.

Negotiations lasted for more than 12 hours into late Tuesday and continued on Wednesday, but the sides remained far apart on issues including wage increases and remote-work policies.

On Wednesday evening the union said via Twitter that a deal had not been reached and the walkout was happening. “We were ready to work for as long as it took to reach a fair deal,” it said, “but management walked away from the table with five hours to go.”

FBI Agent Planted Inside Twitter FIRED By Musk For Censorship!

Canada police say they can’t recover bodies of murdered Indigenous women

Police in Canada have said they don’t have the resources to search a landfill to recover the bodies of two Indigenous women murdered by an alleged serial killer – a decision that has left the daughters of one victim “heartbroken” and angry.

But the prospect that the remains of the victims won’t be recovered has prompted disbelief and frustration from families. “They say they can’t search because it’s unfeasible. Is human life not feasible?” Cambria Harris said at a press conference in Ottawa on Tuesday. Earlier this week her family was devastated to learn through a PowerPoint presentation that despite believing the remains of her mother Morgan were located at a nearby landfill, police would not conduct a search.

“Time and time again, our Indigenous women and brothers and sisters have to come here and we have to shout and we have to raise our voices begging for change and begging for justice for our people, and that is wrong.”

On Tuesday, chief Danny Smyth told reporters they investigators believe the remains of Marcedes Myran and Morgan Beatrice Harris are in Prairie Green Landfill, nearly seven miles north of Winnipeg – not the Brady Landfill, where the remains of Rebecca Contois were found earlier in the year. Smyth said the city’s forensic unit concluded in June that without a clear starting point to search, there was “no hope” of recovering the women’s remains. Safety hazards and the size of landfill also played a role in police making the “difficult decision” not to search. ...

“This tragedy is ongoing. Winnipeg is the epicentre of it. Realizing that this is a systemic issue … is important for Canadians,” Crown–Indigenous relations minister Marc Miller told reporters after meeting with Harris’s family, adding he believed that public outcry over the spate of disappearances “perhaps would be much greater” if the victims weren’t Indigenous.



the horse race



Supreme Court Weighs Voting Rights Case Based on Fringe Theory That Could Upend Democracy

US supreme court hears case that could radically reshape elections

The US supreme court heard arguments on Wednesday in Moore v Harper, one of this term’s highest profile and most contentious cases which has the potential to fundamentally reshape elections for Congress and the presidency. The justices appeared to be starkly divided along predictable ideological lines as they mulled over the power of state courts to strike down congressional districts drawn by state legislatures because they violate state constitutions.

Republicans from North Carolina who brought the case argue that a provision of the US constitution known as the elections clause gives state lawmakers virtually total control over the “times, places and manner” of congressional elections, including redistricting, and cuts state courts out of the process. The Republicans are advancing a concept called the “independent state legislature theory”, never before adopted by the supreme court but cited approvingly by four conservative justices.

The direction of questioning at Wednesday’s hearing suggested that three of those conservative justices – Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas – were open to the idea of adopting the theory, despite decades of precedent from their own court dismissing it. They seemed to have the slightly more tentative backing of Brett Kavanaugh, who was part of the legal team in 2000 that assisted George W Bush through Bush v Gore, the case that in modern times put the independent state legislature theory on the map.

On the other side of the argument, the three liberal-leaning justices were profoundly critical of the notion that state legislatures should be given free rein to control federal elections virtually unrestrained by state constitutions and judicial review from state courts. Questions from John Roberts suggested he might be seeking a more narrowly-drawn compromise position.

Which left all eyes on Amy Coney Barrett, the third of Donald Trump’s three appointees. Potentially, she might find herself casting the decisive vote. Though it gives little clue as to which side of the fence Barrett will be standing on when the ruling comes down, she did ask several probing questions of the lawyer representing North Carolina’s Republicans. She said that those pushing for state legislatures to be freed up from oversight had a “problem” defining their terms, and she questioned whether the theory had any bearing in legal text.

Briahna Joy Gray: Identity politics? Biden Deflects Criticism of rigging 2024

Railroad Union Calls For A THIRD PARTY After Dems Break Their Strike



the evening greens


Democrats ditch Manchin’s ‘dirty deal’ after opposition from climate activists

A last-ditch effort to force through legislation that would weaken environmental protections and fast-track energy projects has failed.

Joe Manchin, the fossil fuel-friendly senator from West Virginia, had attempted to latch the controversial deregulation and permitting reforms to a must-pass defense bill – after failing to get his so-called “dirty deal” passed earlier this year.

The proposal to attach his bill to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), an annual appropriations bill that will be voted on later this week, was reportedly supported by Joe Biden and House leader Nancy Pelosi.

But progressive lawmakers and hundreds of climate, public health and youth groups opposed the move to pass such consequential reforms without proper scrutiny. Manchin’s legislation would weaken environmental safeguards and expedite permits to construct pipelines and other fossil fuel infrastructure while restricting public input and legal challenges.

The deal was ditched – for now at least – amid mounting criticism aimed at the Democratic leadership. Environmental groups welcomed the news, but warned the fossil fuel industry would not give up.

'Half of the forests and coral reefs are gone, 80% of wetlands, 1m species on brink of extinction'

‘Fate of the living world’ will be decided at Cop15, say scientists

The “fate of the entire living world” will be determined at the Cop15 UN biodiversity summit, according to leading scientists. They said the gathering of the world’s nations, which began on Wednesday in Montreal, is “vastly more important than Cop27”, the recent high-profile UN climate meeting. “We say this because of the many dimensions of anthropogenic global change … the most critical, complex and challenging is that of biodiversity loss,” the researchers said.

The current rapid loss of wildlife and natural places is seen as the start of a sixth mass extinction by many scientists and is destroying the life-support systems on which humanity depends for clean air, water and food. Protection of the natural world, such as rainforests, is also vital in ending the climate emergency.

Cop15 aims to ensure the protection of 30% of the planet by 2030, as well as the redirection of $500bn in agricultural subsidies that support the destruction of nature.

The warning from scientists came in an editorial in the journal Science Advances, written by Prof Shahid Naeem at Columbia University, US; Prof Yonglong Lu at Xiamen University, China; and Prof Jeremy Jackson at the American Museum of Natural History. They said an earlier 10-year plan, known as the Aichi iodiversity targets, failed to meet any of its goals by its 2020 deadline, despite being backed by 196 nations. “Failure is not an option this time as Earth’s terrestrial, marine, and freshwater systems begin to collapse under the pressure to meet the needs of a global population that will soon approach 10 billion,” the researchers said.


Also of Interest

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

Putin and Zelensky finally agree. Here’s why that’s a bad thing.

Russia’s General Patience and the Pause That Refreshes

The ADL issues statement declaring Ukraine’s Azov Battalion no longer ‘far-right’

Why Workers Are Up in Arms Over the Biden Rail Strike Intervention

New York mayor contests $300 fine from own administration over rat infestation

The food emissions ‘solutions’ alarming experts after Cop27

DNA from 2m years ago reveals lost Arctic world

I Don’t Want A Sci-Fi Future

Northern lights photographer of the year 2022 – in pictures

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Under Investigation By House Ethics Committee

GOP Teases LEGAL ACTION Against Ex-Twitter Lawyer Accused Of Suppressing Hunter Biden Story

Biden Accuser Tara Reade Requests House Probe Of Sexual Assault Amid 'Twitter Files' Revelation


A Little Night Music

Willie Cobbs - You Don't Love Me (1961)

Willie Cobbs - Eatin' Dry Onions

Willie C Cobbs - My Little Girl

Willie Cobbs - Don't Worry About Me

Willie Cobbs - You’re so hard to please

Willie C. Cobbs - Mistreated Blues

Willie Cobbs - I'll Love Only You

Willie Cobbs - Don't Say Good-Bye

Willie Cobbs ~ Butler Boy Blues

Willie Cobbs - My Baby Walked Away

Dawn Penn- No No No (1967)

Bo Diddley - She's Fine, She's Mine (1955)


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Comments

ggersh's picture

Here in amerikkka we have a "defense" dept that's needs alot
of dosh to pay that behavior. We spend more on killing people
than helping people and thats's a feature not a bug!!

Hey bluesters stay safe and buckles up for the ride!!

EDIT: I had to add all the war criminals bar a few for further perspective Mr H

https://www.theautomaticearth.com/2022/12/debt-rattle-december-8-2022/

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15 users have voted.

I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

snoopydawg's picture

@ggersh

We spend more on killing people
than helping people …..

Congress has to boost the money for defense every year because a lot of it gets filtered back to them through campaign donations and the costs of elections go up each year. Plus the CEOs have to buy more stocks in the buy back scam so they can give their shareholders more money every year too. See they ARE helping people.
Russia has more state owned companies and its why they don’t have to spend so much money on their weapons and they can use it on their citizens for programs that brings people out of poverty. It’s also why their weapons work better than ours too. Plus people there are better educated and know how to do their jobs whilst we make college so damn unaffordable and saddle our students with massive student debt. And didn’t Boeing fire a lot of their experienced and well paid workers a few years ago and hire people who would work for lower wages? And then 2 planes blew up?

Naked capitalism has an essay on how 9 million people signed up for student loan relief and have now been turned into collection.

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10 users have voted.

“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt

joe shikspack's picture

@ggersh

heh, even when government helps "people" the money is funneled into the hands of rentiers and functions to support their preferred pricing structures.

that's an interesting editorial comment on the part of time inc. perhaps they did get something right. Smile

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9 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

Thanks for posting the northern lights link. That’s one of the few things on my bucket list before I kick it. I’ve seen a few other photos of them this year and there has been a lot of red in them.

This is my favorite although it was hard to choose. The trees look like characters out of kid’s story.

9F641FB3-23D7-4FC9-AE39-6BD6658CA872.jpeg

The tree on the left looks like a snow monster. Haven’t seen many with the purple in them. Just awesome. Check the site for a better resolution and more details.

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9 users have voted.

“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

yep, the northern lights are on my bucket list, too. when i was a kid, i saw them a couple of times up in maine, but they were nothing like the pictures that i see from alaska and other far north places. i'd like to spend a couple of weeks to a month up in alaska to catch them (hopefully) a few times and take some photos.

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8 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack

is how much they move. I’ve seen videos of them and just think how awesome it must be to see them close up. Modesto had Tule fog that moved quite fast and that’s how the lights move. Reading the captions it sounds like it’s a lot of hit and miss on whether you see them. I’d like to go to Alaska too and see how lucky I can be.

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9 users have voted.

“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt

snoopydawg's picture

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/elon-musk-releases-twitter-files-par...

I haven’t read it yet, but wondering if you saw the kewpie doll's statement on the first ones where she said it wasn’t a big deal because it’s old news? Lol… I don’t think I’d be able to think of excuses that fast and it’s why I’d never get to be a press secretary. But has there been one in this century that people admired? I’ve had nothing but contempt for them.

Wasn’t Weiss once a top stenographer for the Times or some big newsite? How did she fall from grace? Anyone know?

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8 users have voted.

“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

there's some interesting stuff in this drop, but i would like to see what taibbi comes up with as a narrative. while there are some obvious themes here, i am sure that i am missing a lot of the ramifications of things since i am not really aware of how twitter's moderation mechanisms work, nor have i any sort of grasp of the internal politics and intentions of the various people who are steering the ship.

bari weiss is a fairly controversial person. for years she worked as a msm attack dog for israel using her platform at the times. that was not her only focus, there was plenty more, and it all blew up when she resigned from the times. there's more, but that's the tip of the iceberg and gives you a sense of what might lie underneath the waterline.

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7 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack

I remember her and Greenwald feuding on Twitter and I thought she was full of herself, but I mostly ignored her. This is interesting from her letter.

Twitter is not on the masthead of The New York Times. But Twitter has become its ultimate editor. As the ethics and mores of that platform have become those of the paper, the paper itself has increasingly become a kind of performance space. Stories are chosen and told in a way to satisfy the narrowest of audiences, rather than to allow a curious public to read about the world and then draw their own conclusions. I was always taught that journalists were charged with writing the first rough draft of history. Now, history itself is one more ephemeral thing molded to fit the needs of a predetermined narrative.

Twitter has stifled how people write because of its increasing censorship of people who don’t toe the government line and because people started censoring themselves so that they didn’t get banned. It’s not just the famous people who did that but I know that I stopped liking or retweeting certain topics cuz I didn’t want to get banned. I’ve seen others saying that they stopped too.

But boy the content moderators were very sure of themselves weren’t they? Give someone power and then watch how they use it. Looks like it goes to many people’s head. Life shouldn’t be taken so seriously IMO.

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7 users have voted.

“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

content moderators power is amplified by government's failures to enforce anti-trust laws. when media consolidation happened, it made the power of a few editors and platform owners much greater. the same thing happened in the social media space.

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

Brian Berletic at Land Destroyer blog interviews Chinese Historian Carl Zha, and together they reveal a most relevant period of Chinese History that very few in the West know about. China calls it their "Century of Humiliation," when Britain and the US terrorized China with military aggression, forcing China to accept Opium in exchange for tea and weakening China's society with wide-spread drug addictions. The Opium Wars was Imperialism at its ugliest.

There's a good reason for USians to be aware this history: The first Western Imperialist trade war against China resulted in Hong Kong being seized by the British, who also looted and burned to the ground the Summer Palace in Beijing, where China's most precious historic treasures were kept. This British-American atrocity against China's people, their Leaders, and their culture is very directly connected to the strategic assaults and economic damage that today's white Imperial powers (US and Europe) have planned for China. US trade war escalations designed to degrade China's economic growth, and the seizing of Taiwan to use as a geopolitical pawn are the clear objectives.

By knowing the history of Western attacks on China, we can better see the signs and signals of World War III, as it bears down on us all. Historian Carl Zha tells the story and describes the cruelty of this period with perfect equanimity. Many of the family fortunes of the Greatest Generation came from investments made in the Opium War against China — the family wealth of FDR, for example. Here's a link to the Interview, which dropped just two days ago:

China's "Century of Humiliation" & US-Chinese Tensions Today w/Carl Zha

Dec 6, 2022

This is a long, but extremely informative explanation of China's "Century of Humiliation" and will leave no doubt in your mind as to why China wants a unified society and a powerful military.

Historian Carl Zha of the Silk & Steel podcast joins me to talk about China's "Century of Humiliation" at the hands of Western powers and how it connects directly to US-Chinese tensions today.

• How the US has repeatedly made treaties and agreements with China only to betray them when US interests demand.
• The West's historical use of Hong Kong and Taiwan as hubs to destabilize and dominate over the rest of China.
• The clear motivations China has for a military and political system used to protect itself from further interference and exploitation.

.
A worthwhile eye-opener.

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6 users have voted.
Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it.
That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange
joe shikspack's picture

@Pluto's Republic

yep, that is an interesting interview. it's good to be reminded of the u.s. (and european colonial powers, too) continuing pattern of duplicity and greedy subjugation of other countries.

now that china is well-armed and capable of defending itself, you've got to wonder why the west seems to think that china will shrink at the sight of western navies committing provocative actions off of their coasts.

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

@joe shikspack

I imagine China's won't react to a US/NATO show of force patrolling their coastline. They will pretend that the US is a civilized nation and they have come in a show of friendship. China will always allow the US to correct itself and save face.

What concerns me more, is that China is standing on its Red Line with nowhere to retreat. The Red Line is simply that China will never allow an untrustworthy foreign enemy to move its military into (independent) Taiwan and set up attack missiles that point at China's key targets. This would turn Taiwan into a NATO asset in Asia. This situation canNOT become a redo of Hong Kong and the Opium Wars, where China loses its sovereignty.

And, of course, Russia is in the same situation. The is nowhere for Russia to go, either. Russia will NOT allow its enemies to install bioweapons and weapons of mass destruction on its border. Nor will it allow NAZIs in Ukraine to exterminate the ethic Russian population living on recent Russian territories of the Soviet Union. The Russian people will not allow their sovereignty to be ripped apart by NAZI mercenaries.

I have a pretty good idea how this offensive missile crisis might play out. The US would likely back off if both Russia and China would severely restrict their own economic development and resource ambitions, and if China ended the BRI development project across the Eastern Hemisphere. The already completed infrastructure would be signed over to the countries involved. This, then, would take multipolarity off the table, which is a key ambition of the US..

As always, thanks so much for the news. Over these last several years, we here have been very privileged to be immersed in a fact-based reality, and not in a political one. Of course, hard truth and intellectual honesty can come with their own social discomforts and occasional discord.

I discovered something unique to add to this conundrum, but I think I'll save it for later.

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5 users have voted.
Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it.
That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange
enhydra lutris's picture

I gotta agree with the snarkmonger in the AOC investigation story - What? We have an ethics committee? Lotsa fun in the also of interest section tonite.

Very timely article on Global Arms Sales, with the MSM bemoaning the exchange of the female roundball star for gasp, an arms dealer, oh noes! Heh.

Wild Dawn Penn video, infectious drums, way cool, and then uncle Bo with somebody sounding like they're playing the bones on top, gotta love it.

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 --

joe shikspack's picture

@enhydra lutris

yeah, you'd think that "ethics" and "congress" would be mutually exclusive terms.

heh. have a great evening!

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5 users have voted.
lotlizard's picture

on her way to school.

Illerkirchberg is just a small Swabian village of 5,000 souls. If schoolkids aren’t safe there, they’re not safe anywhere.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63866797

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8 users have voted.

with globalist plans to rule the world.

Already we see the US cannibalization of its’western ‘allies’ and even NATO members, in what appears to be an effort to prop up our failing and bankrupt economy of fictional digital dollars long enough to come out ‘on top’ as the preeminent seat of military and economic power.

Of course, our ‘democracy’ is not a sacrosanct institution in the eyes of the globalists who are already pulling the strings and levers of our Federal government. Our ’representative democracy’ is likely an expendable artifact in the eyes of those who hanker for a makeover of the totality of planetary governance, but The United States of America is also too large and diverse to be easily subdued or convinced to give up its’ precious freedumbs. Better to break it up in more easily digestible, State sized, bites.

[Just saying, those who lust for power see no limits in their hubristic dreams. It is not possible to have too much cynicism these days, lest we underestimate the true risk.]

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7 users have voted.

“ …and when we destroy nature, we diminish our capacity to sense the divine,and understand who God is, and what our own potential is and duties are as human beings.- RFK jr. 8/26/2024