The Evening Blues - 1-9-23
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features Mississippi blues singer Crying Sam Collins. Enjoy!
Crying Sam Collins - Lonesome Road Blues
"Most governments in the United States in a hundred years have not respected the peoples of Latin America. They have sponsored coup d'etats, assassinations."
-- Hugo Chavez
News and Opinion
Jair Bolsonaro supporters storm Brazil’s presidential palace and supreme court
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has ordered the federal government to take control of policing in Brazil’s capital, Brasília, after hundreds of hardcore supporters of the former president Jair Bolsonaro stormed the country’s congress, presidential palace and supreme court. ... Shocking video footage showed the pro-Bolsonaro militants sprinting up the ramp into the Palácio do Planalto, the presidential offices, roaming the building’s corridors and vandalising the nearby supreme court, whose windows had been smashed.
Videos posted on social media showed fires burning inside the congress building. Furniture was broken and tossed around, objects were reportedly stolen in the presidential palace and the supreme court, and in some places sprinklers appeared to be dousing chambers.
Lula, a veteran leftist, was sworn in as Brazil’s new president last Sunday in celebrations attended by hundreds of thousands of Brazilians. But thousands of pro-Bolsonaro extremists have refused to accept Lula’s narrow victory in October’s election, spending recent weeks camping outside army bases across the country and calling for a military coup.
Lula was not in Brasília on Sunday but he gave an angry speech blaming Bolsonaro for the chaos and promising that “anyone involved will be punished”. Calling those who took part in the attacks “vandals, neo-fascists and fanatics”, Lula ordered a federal intervention in the capital, bringing policing under the control of the central government. ...
Military police in Brasília were conspicuous by their absence on Sunday and the mobs faced little opposition as they marched towards the three branches of government. Lula said capital law enforcement bodies showed “incompetence, bad faith or malice” and promised swift action. He vowed to return to the capital on Sunday and visit the three buildings under attack.
Bolsonaro Backers Storm Brazil’s Key Gov’t Buildings in Jan. 6-Style Attempt to Oust Lula from Power
Elon Musk’s Twitter Is Still US State-Affiliated Media
A couple of months into Elon Musk’s control of Twitter, it’s fair to say that from an anti-censorship, pro-transparency perspective there have been a few positive results of the platform coming under new management. The revelations from the Twitter Files about US government involvement in influencing a massive social media company’s policies and actions have been indisputably newsworthy information that’s absolutely in the public interest to have, and some anti-establishment voices have been saying their accounts have been noticeably more visible since the changeover.
It’s also fair to say at this point that Musk has allowed far more negative practices to continue than he has ended. In an excellent new article titled “Under Musk, Twitter Continues to Promote US Propaganda Networks,” Fair.org’s Bryce Greene breaks down the many different ways that Twitter is still manipulating the information its users see in ways that serve the interests of the US government.
Greene contrasts the wildly unbalanced way media coming from empire-targeted governments is suppressed and labeled “state-affiliated media”, while US-aligned accounts which would deserve such a designation are not given it, and are often amplified and aided.
“In short, Twitter is serving as an active participant in an ongoing information war,” Greene writes.
I highly recommend reading the article in full, because it paints a very lucid picture of the Silicon Valley platform’s facilitation of US information interests and Musk’s role in it, but here are a few highlights:
- “FAIR could find no examples of accounts labeled ‘United States state-affiliated media,’ even though there are many outlets that would obviously seem to fit that description,” while “PressTV from Iran, RT and Sputnik from Russia, and China Daily, Global Times, CGTN and China Xinhua News from China are all labeled ‘state-affiliated media.'”
- “…none of the accounts for the US Army, National Security Agency or Central Intelligence Agency are currently labeled as a state or government entity” by Twitter.
- Twitter is still displaying warning pop-ups when people attempt to like or share media from an unauthorized government.
- Twitter’s “Topics” feature has been artificially amplifying media funded by the US and other NATO powers to manage narratives about the war in Ukraine.
- US state media outlets Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, Voice of America, Office of Cuba Broadcasting, and Middle East Broadcasting Network receive twice as much funding from the US government as RT receives from Moscow, yet are not labeled “state-affiliated media”.
- US-funded information ops like National Endowment for Democracy also receive no such label.
- Prior to the Musk takeover Twitter announced that it supports NATO and seeks to prevent Russia from “undermining faith in the NATO alliance and its stability.” Neither that declaration nor the policies put in place alongside it have been repealed under the new ownership.
- Twitter’s top editorial position for the Middle East and Africa is still held by Gordon MacMillan of the British military’s psychological warfare unit.
[Thread]
Since Elon Musk is center of attention right now, it's important to know that he is not (as he portrays himself) some radical outsider, but a crucial part of the US surveillance and national security states.
My investigation here: https://t.co/LXuZsgmweJ
— Alan MacLeod (@AlanRMacLeod) November 19, 2022
For good measure Greene spends the latter part of his article discussing Musk’s extensive role in the US military-industrial complex through his military and intelligence contractor company SpaceX, which would of course present a massive conflict of interest when it comes to resisting the US government’s attempts to tilt the flow of information in its favor online. It is a bit funny how the public narrative about SpaceX is mostly about Mars and futurism and the exploration of space, when in reality its existence predominantly revolves around aiding the US war machine’s campaigns of terrestrial conquest.
So it’s not surprising that we find ourselves with a New Twitter that’s essentially the same as the old Twitter, just with more tolerance for right wingers and their culture war quagmires.
When Musk’s Twitter purchase was first announced, journalist Michael Tracey tweeted an interesting observation that I’ve been referring back to ever since the change in ownership.
“The biggest test for Elon Musk will not be whether he rolls back the most obvious ‘woke’ content policies — that should be a given — but whether he continues to let Twitter be used as a vehicle for the US national security state to ‘counter’ official enemies like Russia and China,” Tracey said.
After two months of the same old same old in the facilitation of US information interests, I think it’s fair to say that when it comes to this question, the jury has returned with a verdict.
Russia Claims Ukraine Collapse, Retreat from Soledar; Russian Arms Production, Protests in Brazil
Macron’s sending of tanks to Ukraine marks escalation of France’s role in war on Russia
On Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron announced plans for France to deliver AMX-10 RC light tanks to the Ukrainian military. This is the first time that Western-designed tanks will be sent to the Ukrainian armed forces. It marks a significant escalation of French involvement in the war.
In a tweet announcing the deal, Macron stated, “Until victory, until peace returns to Europe, our support for Ukraine will not weaken. I confirmed it to President Zelensky: France will provide light combat tanks.” The exact number of AMX-10 RCs to be delivered is unknown, but they will be transferred from the French military, which currently has 248. The vehicles sent to Ukraine will be replaced by EBRC Jaguar vehicles at a cost of €5 million apiece.
In discussions with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Macron also pledged to deepen France’s air defence support to Ukraine. France has already supplied Crotale air defense batteries and pledged more Caesar artillery pieces, on top of the 18 delivered in 2022. According to Le Monde, Macron is also currently in talks with Italy to send SAMP/T Mamba missile batteries to Ukraine, a more modern surface-to-air missile system with similar capabilities to the American-built Patriot missiles already used by the Ukrainian military.
The delivery of light tanks confirms that French imperialism has joined the NATO war on Russia, even though it risks a nuclear conflagration.
Clip of a 1997 Biden speech on NATO expansion. In it he says the Russians told him they were threatened by it and it might force them to ally w/ China. Biden laughs and says, 'Good luck - and try Iran too!'
This debacle is 30-years in the making.https://t.co/HLs8WVvnsJ— Peter Schmidt (The 92ers) (@The92ers) January 6, 2023
Ukraine Parliament Cheers Nazi Collaborator
Ukraine’s support for neo-Nazi groups and its attempts to officially recognize pro-Nazi legions and Nazi collaborators from World War II have been steadfastly criticized by communists and other anti-fascist groups in the region. Kiev’s supporters in Europe and North America have, until now, maintained a complicit silence about these maneuvers. However, the latest gesture by the Ukrainian parliament — cheering on the birthday of the Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera — has drawn sharp criticism even from neighboring Poland, its staunch ally in the ongoing war with Russia.
On Jan. 1, a post celebrating the 114th birthday of Stepan Bandera — notorious Ukrainian far-right leader and World War II Nazi collaborator — was tweeted from the official handle of the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament.
Ukrainian parliament tweets references Stepan Bandera, a Ukrainian ultra-nationalist and antisemite whose followers engaged in a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Jews and Poles during World War IIhttps://t.co/uUfxt3SzB3
— Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) January 2, 2023
According to reports, the tweet contained “a quote from Stepan Bandera and a photo of the Ukrainian Armed Forces chief, General Valery Zaluzhny, with a large portrait of the Nazi collaborator in the background.” After receiving a significant amount of criticism, it was later deleted from the twitter handle of Verkhovna Rada.
The tweet triggered spontaneous outrage from Poland, otherwise a staunch supporter of Kiev and President Volodymyr Zelensky. On Jan. 2, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki denounced the glorification of Stepan Bandera by the Ukrainian parliament. While addressing the media on Jan. 2, Morawiecki stated, as per RT, that “no nuances were possible that would make the continued glorification of Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera palatable,” adding that Bandera’s nationalists had committed “terrible crimes.” He is reported to have said that Poland would not tolerate the minimization of those crimes.
Elensky gets a new religion and celebrates Christmas now. How better to celebrate Jesus than with $3 billion worth of toys to kill people with?
Zelensky Thanks US for Over $3 Billion Arms Package, Calls It an ‘Awesome Christmas Present’
The US on Friday pledged a new $3.075 billion weapons package for Ukraine that includes Bradley Fighting Vehicles for the first time, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called an “awesome Christmas present” as it was announced on the eve of Orthodox Christmas.
The aid marks the single largest arms package the US has pledged to Ukraine at one time since Russia’s invasion. On Twitter, Zelensky thanked President Biden for the “all-time defense package” and said it was an “awesome Christmas present” for Ukraine that would bring a “common victory” for the US and Ukraine.
The $3.075 billion includes $2.85 billion in presidential drawdown authority, which allows Biden to send Ukraine weapons directly from US military stockpiles. Ukraine will also receive $225 million under the State Department’s Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program, which provides foreign governments with funds to purchase US-made military equipment.
Rebel GOPers DEMANDS HUGE CUT In War Spending!
Pentagon Doc Reveals US Lied About Afghan Civilians Killed in 2021 Drone Strike
US military officials knew that an August 2021 drone strike in Kabul likely killed Afghan civilians including children but lied about it, a report published Friday revealed.
New York Times investigative reporter Azmat Khan analyzed a 66-page redacted US Central Command report on the August 29, 2021 drone strike that killed 10 members of the Ahmadi family, including seven children, outside their home in the Afghan capital. ....
Zamarai Ahmadi, a 43-year-old aid worker for California-based nonprofit Nutrition and Education International, was carrying water containers that were mistaken for explosives when his Toyota Corolla was bombed by a Lockheed-Martin Hellfire missile fired from a General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper drone.
Palestinian foreign minister says Israel has revoked his travel permit
The Palestinian foreign minister says Israel has revoked his travel permit, after the hardline Israeli government announced a series of punitive steps against the Palestinians days ago. ...
Israel’s government on Friday approved the steps to penalise the Palestinians in retaliation for them pushing the UN’s highest judicial body to give its opinion on the Israeli occupation. The decision highlights the tough line the government is already taking toward the Palestinians just days into its tenure. It comes at a time of rising violence in the occupied West Bank, with peace talks a distant memory.
Harvard Faces Outcry for Rescinding Post to Ex-Head of Human Rights Watch over Criticism of Israel
Harvard Kennedy School condemned for denying fellowship to Israel critic
Leading civil rights organisations have condemned Harvard Kennedy School’s denial of a position to the former head of Human Rights Watch over the organisation’s criticism of Israel.
The American Civil Liberties Union called the refusal of a fellowship to Kenneth Roth “profoundly troubling”. PEN America, which advocates for freedom of expression, said the move raises serious questions about one of the US’s leading schools of government. Roth also received backing from other human rights activists.
But the Kennedy School found support from organisations that have been highly critical of Roth and HRW, particularly over the group’s report two years ago that accused Israel of practising a form of race-based apartheid in the Palestinian occupied territories.
The Harvard Kennedy School’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy offered Roth a position as a senior fellow shortly after he retired as director of HRW in April after 29 years. But the school’s dean, Douglas Elmendorf, allegedly vetoed the move. A professor of human rights policy at the Kennedy School, Kathryn Sikkink, told the Nation that Elmendorf said to her that Roth would not be permitted to take up the position because HRW has an “anti-Israel bias” and its former director had written tweets critical of Israel.
Roth told the Guardian that Harvard’s move was a reflection of “how utterly afraid the Kennedy School has become of any criticism of Israel” under pressure from donors and influential supporters within the school of Israel’s rightwing government.
Hedge funds holding up vital debt relief for crisis-hit Sri Lanka, warn economists
Some of the world’s most powerful hedge funds and other investors are holding up vital help for crisis-hit Sri Lanka by their hardline stance in debt-relief negotiations after the Asian country’s $51bn (£42bn) default last year, according to 182 economists and development experts from around the world.
In a statement released to the Guardian on Sunday, the group said extensive debt cancellation was needed to give the economy a chance of recovery and that Sri Lanka would be a test case of the willingness of the international community to tackle a looming global debt crisis. The group – including the Indian economist Jayati Ghosh, Thomas Piketty, the author of the bestselling book Capital, and Greece’s former finance minister Yannis Varoufakis – said private sector creditors such as investment companies and hedge funds were preventing a deal.
“Debt negotiations in Sri Lanka are now at a crucial stage,” the statement says. “All lenders – bilateral, multilateral, and private – must share the burden of restructuring, with assurance of additional financing in the near term.”
Private creditors own almost 40% of Sri Lanka’s external debt stock, mostly in the form of international sovereign bonds, although the higher interest rates levied on the bonds mean they receive more than 50% of external debt payments. “Such lenders charged a premium to lend to Sri Lanka to cover their risks, which accrued them massive profits and contributed to Sri Lanka’s first ever default in April 2022. Lenders who benefited from higher returns because of the ‘risk premium’ must be willing to take the consequences of that risk.”
Revealed: #ForceTheVote Critics Were ORDERED To Oppose It! w/Brianna Joy Gray
‘It’s going to be dirty’: Republicans gear up for attack on Hunter Biden
Republicans have been waiting a long time for this moment. After regaining control of the House of Representatives in last November’s midterm elections, they used their first press conference to promise to investigate the Biden administration and, in particular, the president’s allegedly errant son.
Hunter has long faced questions about whether he traded on his father’s political career for profit, including efforts to strike deals in China and reported references in his emails to the “big guy”.
Hunter joined the board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma in 2014, around the time that Joe Biden, then vice-president, was helping conduct Barack Obama’s foreign policy with Ukraine. Hunter earned more than $50,000 a month over a five-year period.
Senate Republicans claim that his appointment may have posed a conflict of interest. Last year more than 30 of them called for a prosecutor to be given special counsel authority to carry out an investigation into alleged “tax fraud, money laundering, and foreign-lobbying violations”. But they have have not produced evidence that it influenced US policy or that Joe Biden engaged in wrongdoing.
House Republicans and their staff have been studying messages and financial transactions found on a now notorious laptop that belonged to Hunter. Having gained the majority, they now have the power to issue congressional subpoenas to foreign entities that did business with him.
New DEEP STATE Investigation MUST SUCCEED
After chaotic week, McCarthy faces new battle as House votes on rules package
After five days of chaos and 15 rounds of floor votes, newly elected Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy is set to face an instant challenge on Monday as the House votes on a new rules package. A handful of establishment Republicans indicated on Sunday they may withhold their support for the rules unless more details of concessions made to ultraconservative lawmakers during a week of torrid negotiations are unveiled.
McCarthy ascended to the speakership late on Friday after winning over support from holdout members of the hard-right freedom caucus who had leveraged their power due to the slim margin of control Republicans hold in the House. But full details of those negotiations have not been made public, leading to speculation that McCarthy has guaranteed the group positions on key committees and thrust them further into power.
Speaking to CBS News on Sunday congresswoman Nancy Mace, a more moderate Republican from South Carolina, said while she supported the package itself, she had not decided on whether to vote for it on Monday.
“My question really is today: what backroom deals did they try to cut, and did they get those?” Mace said, with reference to the holdout lawmakers. She added: “We don’t know what they got, we haven’t seen it. We don’t have any idea what… gentleman’s handshakes were made. And it does give me a little bit of heartburn because that’s not what we ran on.”
Millionaire Clinton Advisor Says It’s Time To Punish Workers!
AOC BRAGS About Falling In Line Behind Corporate Democrat
Fears US supreme court could radically reshape clean water rules
A 15-year legal tussle over a tiny plot of land near a lake in northern Idaho could culminate in the US supreme court drastically reshaping clean water laws across the country, with a decision by the conservative-dominated court now looming. ... The supreme court takes up barely 1% of the cases presented to it but in October decided to ponder the crusade by a married couple, Michael and Chantell Sackett, to challenge what they view as an egregious government attack on their property rights.
In 2004, the Sacketts purchased a roughly half-acre patch of land beside Priest Lake, a crystalline body of water popular with boaters nestled in the scenic wilderness of the Idaho panhandle. The couple set about constructing a three-bedroom home on the plot, but as they filled the site with gravel they were told by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) they were erasing a federally-protected wetland and required a permit.
Since 2007, three presidential administrations ago, the plot has remained unoccupied as the Sacketts, or rather the libertarian Pacific Legal Foundation that has taken up the battle on their behalf, fought the EPA’s finding through the courts. ... The Pacific Legal Foundation, which has been backed by corporate interests including entities linked to the Koch brothers, has said the case highlights “abuse by overzealous federal regulators”. But the bigger prize is the potential rollback of the EPA’s use of the Clean Water Act, the 1972 legislation that has endured a tumultuous history in terms of its interpretation.
The law states the federal government is to regulate “navigable” waters, which is broadly understood to include large bays, rivers and lakes such as Lake Priest. It also stipulates federal protection for wetlands “adjacent” to major bodies of water, which the EPA insists includes the wetlands situated just a few hundred feet from Lake Priest.
If the current court sides with the more narrow interpretations of protections, as was advocated by the late justice Antonin Scalia (in a previous case), the Sacketts may finally be able to build their house. This would have sweeping impacts but would unlikely be the final chapter in the saga of America’s clean water rules. “The Sacketts may well get a win, but it all depends on the level of that victory, whether it’s a landmark sweeping decision or a more narrow question of jurisdiction,” said Pat Parenteau, environmental law expert at the Vermont Law School.
Researchers Warn Great Salt Lake's Retreat Threatens Crucial Ecosystem, Public Health
Scientists are warning Utah officials that the Great Salt Lake is shrinking far faster than experts previously believed, and calling for a major reduction in water consumption across the American West in order to prevent the lake from disappearing in the next five years.
Researchers at Brigham Young University (BYU) led more than 30 scientists from 11 universities and advocacy groups in a report released this week showing that the lake is currently at 37% of its former volume, with its rapid retreat driven by the historic drought that's continuing across the West.
Amid the climate crisis-fueled megadrought, the continued normal consumption of water in Utah and its neighboring states has led the Great Salt Lake to lose 40 billion gallons of water per year since 2020, reducing its surface level to 10 feet below what is considered the minimum safe level.
Goodbye, Great Salt Lake Megadrought and mismanagement have cost the lake 73% of its water. Now experts are warning it could dry up in the next 5 years. And “Its disappearance could cause immense damage to Utah’s public health, environment, and economy”https://t.co/oecZ0qQ8C0
— EDF (@EnvDefenseFund) January 6, 2023
Scientists previously have warned that increased average temperatures in Utah—where it is now about 4°F warmer than it was in the early 1900s—are to blame for a 9% reduction in the amount of water flowing into the lake from streams.
The authors of the BYU study are calling on Utah officials to authorize water releases from the state's reservoirs and cut water consumption by at least a third and as much as half to allow 2.5 million acre feet of water to reach the lake and prevent the collapse of its ecosystem as well as human exposure to dangerous sediments.
"This is a crisis," BYU ecologist Ben Abbott, a lead author of the report, told The Washington Post. "The ecosystem is on life support, [and] we need to have this emergency intervention to make sure it doesn't disappear."
The shrinking of the Great Salt Lake has already begun creating a new ecosystem that is toxic for the shrimp and flies that make it their habitat, due to the lack of freshwater flowing in. That has endangered millions of birds that stop at the lake as they migrate each year.
The loss of the lake may also already be exposing about 2.5 million people to sediments containing mercury, arsenic, and other toxins.
"Nanoparticles of dust have potential to cause just as much harm if they come from dry lake bed as from a tailpipe or a smokestack," Brian Moench, president of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, told the Post. Last month, Moench's group applauded as Republican Gov. Spencer Cox's administration, under pressure from residents, walked back its position supporting a plan to allow a magnesium company to pump water from the Great Salt Lake.Abbott called the rapid shrinking of the lake "honestly jaw-dropping."
"The lake's ecosystem is not only on the edge of collapse. It is collapsing," Abbott toldCNN. "The lake is mostly lakebed right now."
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Chris Hedges: America’s Theater of the Absurd
Under Musk, Twitter Continues to Promote US Propaganda Networks
The Jan. 2017 ‘Assessment’ on Russiagate
Putin’s Christmas Ceasefire Doesn’t Hold
Zelensky’s diaspora delegation led by economic hit-woman who led plunder of Ukraine
Thousands in Israel March Against 'Fascism and Apartheid' at Anti-Netanyahu Protests
Ben Gvir's Provocation at Al Aqsa Strains Middle Eastern Relations
Is Ben-Gvir Preparing a Holy War Against the Palestinians?
Netanyahu’s Most Anti-Palestinian Government Yet
Sweden Says It Can’t Meet Some of Turkey’s Demands to Join NATO
How Wall Street Takeover of Rental Market Is Fueling the Homelessness Crisis
How Big Pharma Actually Spends Its Massive Profits
BlackRock Says We’re All Doomed. It’s Being Optimistic
‘A search for ourselves’: shipwreck becomes focus of slavery debate
Balloon animals beyond the poodle – in pictures
Dems SILENT As Biden EXPANDS Trump Border Policies!
Democrat Talks In Circles Explaining Why Dems Don’t Use Leverage Like Republicans
Brazil riots. Lula, Federal Intervention. Russia retaliation doubts. Time is on Ukraine's side?
A Little Night Music
Sam Collins - Jail House Blues
Crying Sam Collins -Hesitation Blues
Crying Sam Collins - Dark Cloudy Blues
Crying Sam Collins - Slow Mama Slow
Crying Sam Collins - Loving Lady Blues
Crying Sam Collins - Slow Mama Slow
Crying Sam Collins - My Road Is Rough And Rocky
Crying Sam Collins - Yellow Dog Blues
Crying Sam Collins - Midnight Special Blues
Comments
full details of those negotiations have not been made public
secret deals on house rules package
hmm, sounds fishy
Access of Evil by Mr. Fish
thanks for the Hesitation Blues Joe!
question everything
evening qms...
i'm sure that there are secret deals involved in just about everything that congressworms do, which is why the congressworm on teevee was so sure that such deals had been done.
have a great evening!
As we incrementally go down the shitter
and proof that "elections" don't matter
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
Not a surprise that
Bashar Al Assad and Recip Erdogan are moving the prospect of Tripartite talks with Putin ever closer. Here's a bit from The Cradle, quoted in ZH:
"During a speech in Ankara last Thursday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hinted that a meeting with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad may soon take place, "as part of efforts for peace." He added that a tripartite meeting between the foreign ministers of Turkiye, Russia and Syria is scheduled to be held in the near future for the first time since 2011."
"Erdogan said, "As Russia-Turkey-Syria, we have launched a process through the meeting of our intelligence chiefs and defense ministers in Moscow. Then, God willing, we will bring our foreign ministers together trilaterally. Then, depending on the developments, we will come together as leaders."
The ZH title is "US Alarmed as Erdogan Hints at Moscow Meeting Amidst Reconciliation Talks"
dum-de-dum-dum
NYCVG
Wait until Egypt/Iran/Argentina enters the BRICS
to become BRICS+. The ROW is growing while the elites are
committing hari kari in the collective west
Plus the world is changing, though the mainstream state media
won't let us hear about it.
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
One might also ask
Why the MSM has declined to cover millions of people continuously demonstrating (and almost entirely peacefully) over a period of months in protest of a lack of transparency in their elections and a tyrannical judiciary...
But now suddenly find Brazil newsworthy...
Glenn Greenwald fills in a lot of the blanks (while failing to mention a few key points):
https://rumble.com/v24mywg-what-really-happened-in-brazil-yesterday-syst...
Much of the rest of the context in Steve Bannon's interview of independent journalist Matthew Tyrmond:
https://rumble.com/v24m7qi-tyrmand-brazilian-judges-refused-to-follow-th...
More coverage from National File - whose own reporter was forced to flee the country - with links to video of the 'fascist terrorists'
https://nationalfile.com/over-1500-arrested-after-brazilian-military-han...
Re: the source code demand - see the Bannon interview. The Brazilian military is charged under the constitution to review the conduct of the election. Their technical experts stated that they could not confirm the validity of the results without access to more information, including the source code of the computerized voting system. Which they requested and which the Brazilian courts denied - hence the controversy...
Brazil update:
Some 1200 demonstrators who were camped out on military land, and whom the military initially declined to turn over to Federal Police who came to arrest them were ultimately, the following day surrendered to the FP and taken away in buses.
Some 2000 people have since been confined (men, women, children and elderly together) in a warehouse-like space without food or water, access to lawyers and adequate sanitation several deaths have already occurred (including, if I understand correctly the 77 year-old lady pictured)
Seems that Lula and company are tipping their hand a bit early here:
evening ggersh...
heh, so the coalition of the useless has been sworn into office. wee-hah!
Having failed in Brazil the right wing efforts are continue in
Peru.
evening humphrey...
pretty disgusting. i wonder how long it will take for the information about the cia's behind-the-scenes operation of the coup to come out this time.
Hi bluesters
Hi all, Hey Joe!
Coming soon: watch for Venezuela's new opposition leader Elliotmente Abrahamsmundo.
The only good news about Salt Lake is that the brine shrimp eggs can probably take 1000 years dry no problem. They will come back. The birds that depend on them, maybe not so much.
Thanks for the great soundscape!
be well all!
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
evening dystopian...
heh, i'd imagine that eliotmente probably has bigger fish to fry now that he and his neocon buddies are so close to getting their biggest wish ever (war with russia) to come true.
well maybe in a thousand years after the humans are gone there will be some new kind of birds that will come along to feed on the brine shrimp.
have a great evening!
From Hedges
It’s mind boggling after the last 30 years that anyone still believes that we can vote our way out this oligarchy that every congress member has signed on to and knowing that anything they say to voters about their lives getting better if they only had a chance…again and again. They see the people who put their trust in them suffer more every year, but as long as they get their palms greased and can go to the big tax payer paid shindigs they can turn a blind eye to the suffering. And as Chris says it’s at every level of government.
Instead of people seeing it they swear that their party is the only one that cares for them. It’s kabuki theater that the sides fight each other. There’s no reaching across the isle because there is no isle. Biden just congratulated McConnell for his working with democrats to pass his agenda.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
evening snoopy...
it's not like george carlin didn't explain it all to people quite plainly a long time ago.
after all these years you have to wonder if they will ever wake up.
As if one front isn't enough. Not to mention Iran.
You're on a roll hump
please do continue.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
heh...
sooner or later they'll get around to crapping the whole place up.
There are three fronts
...in the western Pacific theater: Korea, Taiwan, and the South China Sea. There is one MEF. The tactics required in each theater are different.
The dispersion of assets, concentration of firepower strategy is a tacit admission of vulnerability on the US side. I question the mobility and survivability of small unit tactics in a conventional conflict inside North Korea or or with China in a conflict over Taiwan or otherwise. The carriers, prop driven aircraft, and helicopters that support these tactics are generally vulnerable to the Chinese in their littoral seas. The same goes for Taiwan. Incursions into North Korea will simply provoke a catastrophic response. About a year ago, I heard former INDOPACCOM Commander Admiral Davidson in a commentary on the Taiwan subject (with Lyle Goldstein and Oriana Skylar Mastro) take an approach similar to Bierman, and he wouldn't stay to hear to hear their response. Retired Admiral Bill Browder says there is no military solution to the Taiwan issue. This is basically Goldstein's opinion, as well. Is China really planning to invade Taiwan, or is the US full court press trying to provoke them?
There is a new CGTN video of a President Marcos interview in which he brownnoses the Chinese after granting the US free reign to redeploy military assets in the PI. He's basically telling the Chinese "don't worry about it, it doesn't mean anything." Yoon's doing the same thing in South Korea, reassuring the Chinese, after inviting US "strategic assets" to come back to Busan Port, so to speak, and having virtually non-stop joint military exercises and fire power demonstrations (some near the DMZ). He too is trying to have it both ways. Same in Japan.
In the case of Yoon and Marcos, they'll take our money, and Chinese money, too, thank you very much. I don't trust any of them. South Korea has always devoted a significant amount of its GDP to defense for the obvious reason, North Korea. The US tries to leverage its military "support" for South Korea to get Indo-Pacific commitments from Yoon. Japan is embarking on a new course, I think, the LDP wanted to adopt for a long time, re-arming. Abe arguably was the author of the Indo-Pacific strategy. The right wing LDP factions are big believers in gunboat diplomacy.
It can be said that it is the US in a leadership position, escalating the military tension. The allies go along, sometimes dragging their feet, for their own domestic reasons, whether their public supports them or not. They tell the US one thing, they tell the Chinese something else.
語必忠信 行必正直
There is no shortage of ex-military talking heads earning a
paycheck from the MSM and the MIC.
A little info on Hodges.He is not a run of the mill buffoon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Hodges
heh...
alex christoforou mentioned this tweet in his "clown world" segment this morning, he was wondering if the account was a spoof account.
That’s who the kos duo quote in their propaganda essays
Hodges says this and Hodges says that and before you know it Russia will be skeedadling across their border with their tales between their legs. Oh yeah and leaving lots of empty vodka bottles and broken equipment behind. No ammunition tho cuz they never had any don’t you know? I think some people are going to be very surprised one day when Russia wins this encounter.
Biden and his friends have crossed every line that they said they wouldn’t cross. Sending tanks and planes to Ukraine would mean that they are directly fighting Russia and they have no intention of doing that….umm?
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Good evening Joe, thanks for the evening blues.
So another day goes by and yet again no massive Ukr charge to the east in teir unstoppable Bradleys. I wonder why the people who parrot that stuff, assuming that they don't know what complete bullshit it is, don't ever stop and look back and wonder why Russia hasn't surrendered yet and then have that lightbulb go on.
Wasn't AMX a Rambler pony car? That's a 2,880 km drive at 80 km/h and 800 km on a full tank, so I spose they'll use rail. I wonder if the manuals are included, and if they come with a translator.
The fun part is the gun; it's shells are NOT NATO compatible. I take that to mean that they all have to come from La Belle France, so UKR might need to conserve them, which they are incapable of doing, heh.
be well and have a good one
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 --
evening el...
maybe the ukro-nazis said "tanks, but no tanks?"
as i remember it, the amx was an amc car, that was a lighter and maybe shorter version of the javelin. heh, maybe if we gave the ukro-nazis some of them they could outrun the russians.
have a great evening!
I remember those cars
I’m ashamed to admit that I wanted one when I Twas a wee las. I thought they looked so cool.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
heh...
no need for shame. i liked them too. small car, big v-8, nice lines - that was the ticket in the early 70's.
AMX
Ha! I owned one. 'Twas a 1969 model. Absolute Vette killer at the drag strip or on the street. Body designed by Italians and it showed.
For the three years that AMC produced the two-seater AMX (later four-seaters were AMX in name only), Chevrolet had to stop promoting the Corvette as "America's Only Sports Car."