The Evening Blues - 1-3-23



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Lem Johnson

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues singer, saxophone and clarinet player Lem Johnson. Enjoy!

Lem Johnson - Going Down Slow

"A person isn't considered insane if there are a number of people who believe the same way. Insanity isn't supposed to be a communicable disease. If one other person starts to believe him, or maybe two or three, then it's a religion."

-- Robert M. Pirsig


News and Opinion

Americans consumed by irrational imperial delusions which sound a lot like projection:

‘We’re in a space race’: Nasa sounds alarm at Chinese designs on moon

The US is locked in a space race with China and the country needs to “watch out” that its rival does not gain a foothold and try to dominate lunar resources, Nasa’s top official has warned.

The assessment came from the Nasa administrator, Bill Nelson, a former astronaut and Florida senator, who went on to warn that China could eventually claim to “own” the moon’s resource-rich areas.

The contest between the US and China, he added, was intensifying and the next two years could determine which country achieves an advantage.

“It is a fact: we’re in a space race,” Nelson told Politico. “And it is true that we better watch out that they don’t get to a place on the moon under the guise of scientific research. And it is not beyond the realm of possibility that they say, ‘Keep out, we’re here, this is our territory.’”

Nelson cited Chinese aggression over islands in the South China Sea, where Beijing has established military bases, as evidence of its territorial ambition. “If you doubt that, look at what they did with the Spratly Islands,” he said.

Western Governments Keep Assigning Themselves The Authority To Regulate Online Speech

Depending on what political echo chamber you’ve been viewing it from, the ongoing release of information about the inner workings of pre-Musk Twitter known as “the Twitter Files” might look like the bombshell news story of the century, or it might look like a complete nothingburger whose importance is being wildly exaggerated by the far right.

From where I’m sitting, the Twitter Files look like entirely newsworthy revelations which add new detail to information that had already been spilling out about the way government agencies have been inserting themselves into Silicon Valley’s processes of regulating online speech. Right wing punditry has of course been exaggerating the significance of the releases and spinning them in all kinds of disingenuous ways, and Musk himself plainly has a partisan agenda in releasing the information in the way that he has been, but it’s not actually difficult to separate that from the value of the information being released.

Many liberals and leftists have struggled to grasp this (in my view simple and obvious) distinction, but we’re now seeing articles coming out in publications like The Guardian and Jacobin explaining to their respective audiences that it should actually concern anyone who opposes government tyranny to see secretive agencies taking it upon themselves to control the way people talk to each other on the internet.

“Make no mistake: while some criticisms of the project coming from left of center certainly have merit, that doesn’t mean the disclosures aren’t important, or that the accuracy of the information contained in the files is somehow undermined by the political slant of some of those reporting on it,” writes Jacobin’s Branko Marcetic. “The Twitter Files give us an unprecedented peek behind the curtain at the workings of Twitter’s opaque censorship regime, and expose in greater detail the secret and ongoing merger of social media companies and the US national security state.”

The Twitter Files show an outrageous and unacceptable amount of overlap between Twitter management and many US government agencies — including the CIA — in not just the censorship and shadowbanning of unauthorized speech but also whitelisting and amplifying actual psyops of the US military. The justifications for this have ranged from fighting “Covid misinformation” to combating “foreign influence” (the latter of which is odd because those efforts seem to have focused primarily on domestic speech), but what apparently went completely unquestioned the entire time was whether these government institutions have any business inserting themselves into the regulation of public speech at all.

This bizarre assumption that governments need to involve themselves in policing online speech has been rapidly normalizing itself around the western world. Here in Australia we’ve got government officials suddenly babbling about the need to restrict the spread of “conspiracy theories” after a shooting that left two police officers dead. The EU has its controversial Digital Services Act, which Elon Musk is interestingly an enthusiastic supporter of despite being publicly warned that Twitter could be banned throughout the European Union if Twitter doesn’t sufficiently restrict speech on the platform.

(Musk has, while we’re on the subject, continued the practices of branding media figures as “state-affiliated media” if they’re associated with empire-targeted governments, banning people for questioning official narratives about the war in Ukraine, and restricting the visibility of state media for empire-targeted governments while letting western propagandists run rampant. So while some are falling all over themselves in fawning hero worship of the billionaire Pentagon contractor, I personally am not expecting to crown him a free speech warrior anytime soon.)

And what’s important to remember about the Twitter Files is that Twitter has historically been the least compliant with government demands for speech regulation of all the major platforms. Everything we’re learning about what’s been happening in Twitter has surely been happening to a much greater extent with Google/YouTube and Meta/Facebook/Instagram.

Do you remember voting for government agencies to insert themselves into the regulation of online speech? I don’t remember any such vote. I don’t remember any politician campaigning to do this or any part of the public being asked for their permission at all. It sure seems like they appointed that authority to themselves without the permission of the electorate, solely for their own benefit. It’s almost like democracy is an illusion and our rulers do whatever they want to us, up to and including restricting the ways we’re allowed to communicate with each other, in whatever way benefits them and their agendas.

Online speech has nothing to do with the government. Nothing whatsoever. Governments have no more business regulating online speech than they have regulating what consenting adults do in the bedroom, and until very recently this was universally understood as one of the fundamental tenets of liberal democracy. But with a little narrative-diddling over the last few years they’ve managed to intertwine themselves with the online platforms we use to communicate with each other worldwide.

And as all this information comes out we’re seeing imperial narrative managers working to manipulate the debate into an argument about what kinds of government interventions in public speech are acceptable and how far they should go, rather than whether the government should be involving itself in the business of online speech regulation at all. One of main jobs of an empire propagandist is to get people arguing over how ugly imperial agendas should be rolled out, rather than if they should.

This is insane. Let the powerful involve themselves in the regulation of public speech and they will regulate it to their advantage every time. This should be obvious to everyone.

The response to all this should not be mitigated. The response should not be to get bogged down in partisan bickering and culture war distractions. The response should not quibble about whether this or that activity was technically legal or a breach of the First Amendment or not. The response should be an unequivocal, “No. This is not your area. Out. Now.”

Accusations Of CIA-Backed Sabotage Attacks INSIDE Russia!

NATO Chief Says Sending More Weapons to Ukraine Is Quickest Path to Peace

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg claimed in an interview published Friday that the quickest path to peace in Ukraine is through NATO countries sending more weapons to Kyiv.

“It may sound like a paradox, but military support for Ukraine is the fastest way to peace,” Stoltenberg told the German news agency DPA. “We know that most wars end at the negotiating table – probably this war too – but we know that what Ukraine can achieve in these negotiations depends inextricably on the military situation.”

Stoltenberg’s comments come as there is no indication that Ukraine and Russia will come to the negotiating table.

Makeyevka. Neocons will push to escalate, will Russia stay the course?

Ukrainian HIMARS Strike Kills 63 Russian Soldiers in Donbas

The Russian Defense Ministry said Monday that 63 Russian soldiers were killed in a Ukrainian rocket strike in the eastern Donestk Oblast in one of the deadliest Ukrainian strikes against Russian troops of the war.

According to Moscow, Ukraine used US-provided HIMARS rocket systems in the attack, which targeted the city of Makeyevka. According to RT, the strike hit a temporary housing facility used by Russian forces in the Donbas.

Israeli far-right minister visits Al-Aqsa mosque compound, Palestinians slam ‘provocation’

Israel's Ben-Gvir Postpones Visit to Al-Aqsa Amid Warnings That 'People Will Die'

Israel's far-right national security minister on Monday postponed a planned visit Islam's third-holiest site amid warnings from the country's opposition leader and Palestinian officials that such a trip would have deadly consequences.

The Times of Israel reports Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir temporarily put off a promised visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem—which sits on what Jews call the Temple Mount, Judaism's most sacred site since biblical times—after speaking with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the right-wing Likud party.

The previous day, Ben-Gvir vowed to visit the contested site—which has been illegally occupied by Israel for over half a century—sometime this week, possibly as soon as Tuesday or Wednesday.

Yair Lapid, who stepped down as Israel's prime minister last week and now leads the opposition, said Monday that "Itamar Ben-Gvir must not go up to Temple Mount. It is a deliberate provocation that will put lives in danger and cost lives."

Lapid, of the liberal Yesh Atid party, added that Netanyahu must tell Ben-Gvir: "'You are not going to the Temple Mount. People will die.'"

However, Ben-Gvir, who is also the leader of the Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party, declared that "no one will threaten us or tell us anything."

"The Temple Mount is the holiest place for the people of Israel. We will not give up on any place in the land of Israel," he continued.

"I'm against the racist policy at the Temple Mount, as well as the racism against Jews," added Ben-Gvir—who was convicted in 2007 of incitement to racism and supporting a terrorist organization after he advocated the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.

The Palestinian resistance group Hamas, which governs Gaza, warned Monday that it "won't sit idly by" if Ben-Gvir visits Al-Aqsa.

Middle East Eye reports Hamas spokesperson Abd al-Latif al-Qanua called the planned visit "another example of the arrogance of the settler government and their future plans to damage and divide Al-Aqsa mosque."

"The Palestinian resistance will not allow the neo-fascist occupation government to cross the red lines and encroach on our people and our sanctities," he added.

Otzma Yehudit lawmaker Zvika Fogel—a former Israel Defense Forces brigadier general who in 2018 advocated killing Palestinian children—said that Ben-Gvir "will visit the Temple Mount whenever he sees fit."

"We shouldn't treat his visit as something that will lead to an escalation," he added. "Why not see it as part of realizing our sovereignty?"

Under an Israeli-enforced policy, only Muslims are permitted to pray at Al-Aqsa. Jews and others are allowed to visit during assigned times and under strict restrictions.

Last year, attacks on the compound by Israeli occupation forces and settler-colonists wounded hundreds of Palestinians.

Ben-Gvir—who believes Isreal's founders "didn't finish the job" of ethnically cleansing all Arabs from Palestine—has visited Al-Aqsa several times while serving in the Knesset, Israel's parliament. He also led an October 2022 Jewish supremacist march through the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem, where he brandished a pistol and threatened to "mow down" Palestinians protesting the ethnic cleansing of their neighborhood.

Chagos Islanders demand say as UK-Mauritius sovereignty talks begin

Descendants of the people of the Chagos Islands have claimed their views are being ignored as the prime minister of Mauritius announced the start of talks with Britain over the territory’s sovereignty. ... Mauritius, a British colony until its independence in 1968, claims the remote islands as its own territory although it is administered by Britain, which has a joint military base with the US on one of the islands, Diego Garcia.

The talks are expected to lead to the return of former inhabitants of the Chagos archipelago who were forcibly displaced by the British government in the 1960s and 1970s. The UK is expected, however, to seek continued rights over Diego Garcia which is a vital strategic asset for the US military. ...

Rosy Leveque, 28, from the Chagos Islanders lobby group, said: “I feel that history is repeating itself – the same two states who treated my family like cargo are once again negotiating our community’s future without the involvement of the actual community itself. “The Lancaster agreement of 1965 where Mauritius and the UK signed a document to exile an entire population into a life of poverty and discrimination both in Mauritius and Seychelles – the same thing is happening again.”

Three years before Mauritius gained independence from the UK, London severed the Chagos Islands from the rest of the country so it could lease the island of Diego Garcia to the US for military use. The British government then forcibly deported 2,000 Chagossians, who subsequently waged an arduous legal battle to return, culminating in a 2019 ruling by the international court of justice that the continuing British occupation of the islands was illegal.

"Return to Democracy": Brazil Swears In Lula as President, as Far-Right Bolsonaro Flees to Florida

Third of world economy to hit recession in 2023, IMF head warns

For much of the global economy, 2023 is going to be a tough year as the main engines of global growth – the US, Europe and China – all experience weakening activity, the head of the International Monetary Fund has warned.

The new year is going to be “tougher than the year we leave behind,” IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva said on the CBS Sunday morning news program Face the Nation on Sunday. ... “We expect one-third of the world economy to be in recession. Even countries that are not in recession, it would feel like recession for hundreds of millions of people,” she added.

In October, the IMF cut its outlook for global economic growth in 2023, reflecting the continuing drag from the war in Ukraine as well as inflation pressures and the high interest rates engineered by central banks like the US Federal Reserve aimed at bringing those price pressures to heel.

Georgieva said that China, the world’s second-largest economy, is likely to grow at or below global growth for the first time in 40 years as Covid-19 cases surge following the dismantling of its ultra-strict zero-Covid policy.


McCarthy Speaker Hopes NEAR COLLAPSE

Kevin McCarthy’s speaker bid in balance as effort to placate hardliners flops

The final hurdle to Republican Kevin McCarthy’s years-long quest to secure the speaker’s gavel grew even more formidable on Monday as a sizable group of House colleagues from his own party said they were not yet ready to support him. The nine Republican rebels made the announcement after the California congressman made a series of concessions on Sunday to try to shore up the support of conservative hardliners ahead of Republicans assuming control of the US lower chamber on Tuesday.

McCarthy can afford to lose only four votes from his party’s slender majority if he is to win the election for speaker that will be among the first orders of business for the new Congress.

The rightwingers had demanded a change in House rules to make it easier to topple the speaker, and increased representation for fringe members on committees. While the group’s statement acknowledged there had been some steps forward, it said McCarthy’s messaging during a Sunday evening conference call, and in a summary sheet obtained by Punchbowl News, left them uncertain of exactly what he was offering. ...

The main sticking point appears to be the so-called motion to vacate, a House rule that allows members to challenge the speaker, which was loosened during the tenure of the Democrat Nancy Pelosi. The hardliners want a restoration of the rule that existed under previous Republican speakers John Boehner and Paul Ryan that any single congressman or woman could initiate a vote to remove the speaker.

McCarthy said in his call on Sunday that “weeks of negotiations” had resulted in a “concession” of him agreeing to a threshold of five House members. But according to CNN, it was not enough to appease Republicans known as “Never Kevins”, a fluid group of hardliners including the Florida congressman Matt Gaetz, who have said they will not support him under any circumstance.



the evening greens


Largest Wolf Cull in Modern History Underway in Sweden

Wildlife defenders in Sweden and beyond decried the start on Monday of what's being called the largest wolf cull in modern times, arguing that killing nearly a fifth of the country's critically endangered lupine population could have grave consequences for biodiversity.

Swedish public broadcaster SVT reports hunters in the five Swedish counties with the most wolves—Gävleborg, Dalarna, Västmanland, Örebro, and Värmland—will be allowed to kill a total of 75 wolves out of a national population of 460 animals.

Last winter, Sweden authorized the killing of 27 wolves, while hunters in neighboring Norway had permission to kill 51 wolves—about 60% of the lupine population—and Finland approved the culling of 27 wolves.

While Gunnar Glöersen, the predator manager at the Swedish Hunters' Association, says "hunting is absolutely necessary to slow the proliferation of wolves," Daniel Ekblom of Sweden's Nature Conservation Society called the cull "tragic."

"It could have consequences for a long time to come," Ekblom told SVT.

Other opponents of the cull noted Sweden's relatively low wolf population. Italy, for example, is only about half as large as Sweden but has around 3,000 wolves, which are strictly protected by law.

"Wolves as top predators in the food chain are a prerequisite for biodiversity," Marie Stegard, president of the anti-hunting group Jaktkritikerna, told The Guardian, warning that killing so much of "the population through hunting has negative consequences for animals and nature."

"It's disastrous for the entire ecosystem," she said. "The existence of wolves contributes to a richer animal and plant life. Human survival depends on healthy ecosystems."

Stegard added:

It is obvious that there is strong political pressure for licensed hunting for wolves, and also lynx and bear.

There is a large majority of Swedes who like wolves, even where they live. In our opinion, the reason for these hunts is simply that there is a demand for shooting wolves among hunters. The hunters' organizations have enormous power in Sweden. It is a fact that the Swedish parliament has a hunters' club open to members of all parties, with a shooting gallery underneath the parliament. This sounds like a joke but it's absolutely true.

The Swedish Parliament is also lobbying the European Union to remove wolves and bears from its list of species in need of protection.

Hanna Dittrich-Söderman, who leads the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency's wolf program, says the lupine predators hold a special place in national folklore, evoking primal fears and irrational hatred.

"There is no other animal that is so easy to both demonize and glorify as the wolf—an imagined fear or hatred has been attached to it," Dittrich-Söderman toldThe Local. "We have almost made it a symbol of our fearful nature as a whole, it has almost mythical qualities."

Biden declares Arizona floods a federal disaster for Havasupai tribe

The White House has made a federal disaster declaration for the Havasupai Native American tribe that mainly lives deep inside the Grand Canyon in Arizona, as the community prepares to reopen tourist access to its famous turquoise waterfalls next month.

Last October, the village experienced drastic flooding which damaged extensive parts of the reservation. The floods “destroyed several bridges and trails that are needed not only for our tourists, but for the everyday movement of goods and services into the Supai Village”, the tribe said.

The Havasupai is now readying itself to receive tourists again from 1 February on its reservation, which sits nine miles down narrow trails between spectacular red rock cliffs deep within the Grand Canyon in northern Arizona. Tourists must apply for permits to enter the reservation.

It is the first time that tourists have been allowed to return to the reservation not only since the flooding, but in almost three years, since tourism was closed off early in 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic spread across the US. The canyon community has very limited health care resources on site.

The tribe is one of North America’s smallest and is the only one based inside the canyon, where the community has lived for more than 800 years, despite being driven off much of its original, much wider, territory by armed settlers in the 19th century.


Also of Interest

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

Obvious Predictions For 2023

Are There Any U.S. Red Lines?

Ukraine’s DEVASTATING Attack Inside Russian Borders

Scoop: Netanyahu asked for Ukraine's support at UN — and Zelensky asked for military aid

On Palestine’s Looming Armed Revolt

Homeless deaths surged across the US in 2022 due to extreme weather, economic hardship

New York University emergency department prioritizes the wealthy for treatment

The Partisan Ghost In The Media Machine

Havasupai Tribe Opposes Uranium Mining Activity Near Grand Canyon

The hidden underwater forests that could help tackle the climate crisis

Pete Buttigieg HUMILIATED By Southwest Meltdown

JP Morgan SUED For Covering Up Epstein's Sex Crimes, Prosecutor Fired DAYS After Filing Lawsuit


A Little Night Music

Lem Johnson - Eatin' and Sleepin' with the Blues

Lem Johnson and His Washboard Band - Queen Street Blues

Lem Johnson - It Takes Money Honey

Lem Johnson - Railroad Blues

Hot Lips Page w/Lem Johnson - The Blues Jumped The Rabbit

Hot Lips Page w/Lem Johnson - Rockin' At Ryans

Hot Lips Page w/Lem Johnson - You'd Be Frantic Too

Deacon Lem Johnson - Walkin' The Boogie


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Comments

that fail to manage crew changes and deliver 'on time' flight service
we had to endure a 3 hour delay from American Airlines because
the flight crew was delayed coming out of California

The plane was sitting there, but the crew was not.
Just in time deliverance of service does not work.

At least I got a free drink Wink

thanks for the newzbuez Joe

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13 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@QMS

heh, the last time that i flew, it was on southwest. i feel fortunate that the flight was only an hour late.

have a great evening!

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6 users have voted.

Lula halts privatization of Brazilian state companies

IMF, WEF and World Bank ain't gonna like this

https://www.rt.com/business/569323-brazil-lula-privatization-state-compa...

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13 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@QMS

On Monday, the Sao Paulo stock index shed 3.24%, while Petrobras shares dropped around 6% as Lula's inauguration speech sparked investor fears of interventionist government policies. The national currency – the real – saw its value slide by 1.5%.

aw, looky, the investor class is worried that it's not going to have its scheduled bath in money.

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7 users have voted.

They want to kill wolves while wild boar run wild.

Hog Wild: Sweden Suffering Boar Invasion

Several decades after their re-introduction, Sweden's wild boar population has exploded from hundreds to hundreds of thousands, becoming the single largest reason for dog injuries, as well as a bane for the nation's farms.
...
Furthermore, hundreds of hunting dogs get wounded each year, many of them fatally. In fact, not counting traffic accidents, wild boars were by far the major culprits behind dog injuries over the past four years, causing more deaths, losses or injuries than all other categories combined.
...
Boars have caused more than 5,100 traffic accidents in 2022 alone. Last and perhaps most important, they destroyed a massive 84,500 tons of crops in 2020, causing losses of 1.1 billion kronor ($100 million) and creating serious insurance problems for farmers. Stories of farmers having their crops destroyed by boars have become a common sight in Swedish media.
...
Yet another reason for keeping the wild boar population down is to keep African swine fever at bay; the disease is fatal for wild boar and domestic pigs alike. The disease has already established itself in Sweden’s vicinity — in Poland, Germany and the Baltic countries. Its spread to Sweden, painted as a worst-case scenario, would pose a threat to the nation’s pork industry as well.

Probably not enough wolves to keep down the boar population. But then on the other hand, boars are dangerous to both predators and human hunters.

I read about a hunter who shot a wild boar charging him straight on with three rounds of .357. Luckily another hunter saved him. Found the three bullets lodged in the boars chest plate.

Amazing the amount of wolves in Italy.

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9 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@MrWebster

heh, perhaps swedish politicians feel a brotherhood with pigs that they don't for wolves. Smile

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6 users have voted.
ggersh's picture

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/weather/topstories/extreme-winter-warmth-shatt...

I feel a bad moon a rising, but nary a word in the MSM

https://thecradle.co/Article/News/19938

US base in Syria struck by missile barrage in largest attack ‘of its kind’
Local sources confirmed that there were likely casualties among US forces, as the missiles reportedly struck the facility’s housing section

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11 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

joe shikspack's picture

@ggersh

interesting that nobody has claimed credit for the attack on u.s. forces in syria. you've got to wonder if it wasn't somebody's proxy that hit the u.s. green zone.

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9 users have voted.

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/3796286-live-coverage-house-set-to-vo...

Opposition to Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) grew in the third vote for Speaker.

McCarthy failed to secure the Speaker’s gavel on the third vote, with the final tally showing him garnering 202 votes.

Twenty Republicans voted against him, an increase from the 19 GOP opponents on the first two ballots.

All 20 voted for Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who himself voted for McCarthy.

My thoughts on the circumstances.

Although I don't agree with the warped policies of the renegade republicans I have to give them credit for sticking to their positions.

It is too bad that the so-called progressives don't have the balls to do the same thing rather than caving to leadership.

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12 users have voted.

@humphrey For a number of years after 2016 progressives were agitated that they could take over the democratic party. Hostile take over. Well, now it looks like it was all about sheep dogging progressives into the democratic party. All of this in part was motivated by the success of the outsider republicans. Those dems who pimped themselves as outsiders got co-opted awfully fast.

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snoopydawg's picture

@humphrey

Trump to be speaker and then after they impeach Biden/Harris he will be president. That’d sure be some sweet revenge for the 2 bogus impeachment’s Pelosi ran on Trump. I found it weird that she didn’t throw in the kitchen sink on the 1st one and then waited over a month on the 2nd but didn’t actually provide much evidence when she did. It was almost like her heart wasn’t in it. Awe well at least she didn’t say that impeachment was off the table like she did Bush and she got to be speaker… biggest disappointment until' Bama screwed us.

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8 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

@humphrey

well, at least the republicans are interesting when they fight for power. i wouldn't count on the progressives taking notes, though. progressives are an exceptionally wimpy class of politicians.

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8 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

Only the people who constantly vote for war and those who profit from them have to go to the moon and fight over the resources. John Bolton and Antiny Blinken can be the captains and every congress member that used deferrals to get out of fighting in the wars during their youths also have to go unless they voted against sending others to war. I applaud conscious objectors, but once you vote to send others to war all bets are off.

Good lord dude buy a fcking mirror!

Nelson cited Chinese aggression over islands in the South China Sea, where Beijing has established military bases, as evidence of its territorial ambition. “If you doubt that, look at what they did with the Spratly Islands,” he said.

Guam, Gitmo and other places that were already occupied when we moved in doesn’t ring any bells for Nelson?

You wouldn’t think this needs explaining:

explaining to their respective audiences that it should actually concern anyone who opposes government tyranny to see secretive agencies taking it upon themselves to control the way people talk to each other on the internet.

Reason shitlibs aren’t upset finding out that government has been censoring speech on social media is because they were told that Musk was bad like Orange Man bad and anything he does is only because he is bad man part 2. We can all imagine how they’d react if it had been Trump censoring speech on democrat talking points and banning people for it.

Ayup controlled opposition.

Yes, the guy who became a billionaire and wildly successful in this current system now wants to disrupt said system...makes perfect sense if you don't think about it.

Oh hell yeah women are good at parking. This should end all debate.

We went to Park City today and I let Sam out in a parking lot to go potty. She jumped in a pile of snow and disappeared…and then said WTF? THE look on her face was priceless!

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6 users have voted.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

a space race sounds like a spectacular way to burn through cash and avoid doing the things that a government ought to do for its domestic population.

i would imagine that musk is not invested in european politics (except to the extent that it affects him making money) in the way that he is invested in u.s. politics, hence i suspect that he will be happy to support the eu bureaucracy in subjugating its population.

i'm glad to hear that sam enjoyed her first white out. Smile

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7 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack

I really enjoyed reading the essay I posted below. Hopefully someone can answer my questions.

The next Twitter dump is up and again it’d be nice if everyone regardless of political identity would give a damn about how much the government interfered with social media. One person told Twitter that they hadn’t published anything from Russia interference in some time. So will republicans do anything about this or will they just say that since Trump did it too we all should just change the subject…look squirrel over there!

"Hey you guys ain’t being Russiaphobic ENOUGH!"

PC got mounds of snow like the old days I’ve been reminiscing about. Huge piles of it up to 12-15 feet high. I stopped at a rest stop so Sam could play in the drifts. I felt guilty for keeping the window up because she broke the switch and it’s hard to get it up again. Bummer for when it snows.
"Please stop that whining!!"

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6 users have voted.

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

snoopydawg's picture

Here if you want a preview of this essay on how America rules the world and what’s behind goading Russia into war. Most know some of what it says, but some might surprise you.

https://www.thepostil.com/conflict-in-ukraine-genesis/

U.S. Treasury bills are bonds that are bought and redeemed in U.S. dollars and are essentially bad debt. Why?

Today, the U.S. sovereign debt has exceeded $31 trillion and continues to grow by several billion dollars daily. This figure far exceeds the annual GDP of the United States and turns the bulk of the securities issued by the U.S. Treasury into more than questionable values, since the latter are to be repaid in national currency. A currency whose issuance is not, for the most part, backed by any real assets.

The solvency of U.S. Treasury bonds is guaranteed solely by the printing of money and the trust in the U.S. dollar, which is based not on its real value, but on the military world domination of the United States.

What does this have to do with Russia?

Can someone explain how countries get rid of the bonds? Do they just turn them in like I recently did with some 30 year old ones? Remember math hurts my brain so make it simple. Smile

It sure seems like the writing is on the wall for the fall of the US dollar and shouldn’t we expect that those in charge of the current shit show know what is happening, but they won’t stop being bullies. Am I wrong that they see it?

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6 users have voted.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

bonds are paid off with cash. people/corporations buy bonds at a (low) price and are paid back a higher price over time (the bond's agreed maturity time).

another way that bonds are paid off is by some sort of structured default, wherein the people/corporations that purchase bonds agree to receive less than the amount that was agreed when they purchased the bond.

then there's the possibility of a total default where the lenders get nothing (principal or interest).

i think that's the simplest way to put it.

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6 users have voted.

There is absolutely nothing sensitive about the tweet only that the truth hurts.

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7 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

@humphrey

Ireland - this is a mystery, doesn't fit the pattern at all.

Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, - northern crusades, the Rus stopping the Teutoic kniggits and later thumping the Swedish empire, plus subsequent follow-on hostilities and hatreds

Sweden and Finland, Pete the Great defeating Charles XII thereby wrecking the Swedish empire plus subsequent follow-on hostilities and hatreds.

In short, folks who long ago got their ass handed to them when they invaded Russia and who really, really hold grudges.

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

That sensitive crap once again!

Some images of the salt mines.

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joe shikspack's picture

@humphrey

funny how inconvenient truths are kept from eyeballs on twitter in the same way that pornography is.

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enhydra lutris's picture

Great quote by Pirsig:

"A person isn't considered insane if there are a number of people who believe the same way. Insanity isn't supposed to be a communicable disease. If one other person starts to believe him, or maybe two or three, then it's a religion."

Sort of explains why one cannot distinguish religion from insanity (or illogic/irrationality) and innumerable at least moderately self-fulfilling truth systems, such as academic econ, from either.

cool versions of going down slow and blues jumped a rabbit

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 --

joe shikspack's picture

@enhydra lutris

it's pretty interesting the scope of alternative beliefs that are erupting these days. perhaps if diogenes had had something like twitter it would be a different and more interesting world. Smile

have a great evening!

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5 users have voted.

against the powerful.
https://thepostmillennial.com/virgin-islands-ag-fired-after-launching-su...

Denise George was fired on Saturday from her role as Attorney General of the US Virgin Islands only a few days after she filed a lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase alleging the banking giant turned a "blind eye" to Jeffrey Epstein's rampant child sexual abuse and sex trafficking.

The Virgin Islands Consortium reported that Albert Bryan Jr., the governor of the US Virgin Islands, said in a statement he "relieved Denise George of her duties as attorney general this weekend."

Epstein owned the island of Little St. James in the Virgin Islands, which was referred to in court documents as "pedophile island."

The lawsuit that George had filed and launched on Wednesday, accused JPMorgan Chase, who banked with Epstein starting in 1998, of "knowingly providing and pulling the levers through which recruiters and victims were paid." Epstein was convicted for procuring child prostitution in 2008 in Florida but the banking giant continued to do business with Epstein through 2013.

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joe shikspack's picture

@humphrey

nothing sketchy about that. /s

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link

A two-year ban on some foreigners buying homes in Canada has come into effect.

The ban aims to help ease one of the most unaffordable housing markets in the world.

As of this summer, the average home price in Canada is C$777,200 ($568,000; £473,700) - more than 11 times the median household income after taxes.

Some have been critical of the ban, saying it is unclear what impact it will have on Canada's housing market.

Non-Canadian residents make up less than 6% of homeowners in Ontario and British Columbia, where national statistics indicate home prices are the highest.

As of 1 January, the ban prohibits people who are not Canadian citizens or permanent residents from buying residential properties, and imposes a C$10,000 fine on those who breach it.

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5 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@gjohnsit

we would do even better if we could ban hedge funds from buying up houses. perhaps a cap on the number of homes a person or entity can own would be a step in the right direction.

of course, what should really be done is for the government to intercede and begin providing homes to everyone as an entitlement.

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@humphrey is the most likely Certainty.

IIRC, it is now BRICS+7. Twelve countries committed to a multipolar world economy NOT based on nor conducted in dollars.

The 7 include Iran and Saudi Arabia and recently Algeria. Also Argentina

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12 users have voted.

NYCVG