The Evening Blues - 2-10-23



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Debbie Davies

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues guitarist Debbie Davies. Enjoy!

Debbie Davies - I Just Came To Play

"We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men."

-- George Orwell


News and Opinion

My Sources Corroborate Sy Hersh’s Nord Stream Report

My sources corroborate Seymour Hersh’s report that the US was behind the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage. (My sources are logic, common sense, and public statements by US government officials.)

If Putin and senior Russian officials had said what Biden and senior US officials have been saying about how much they hate the Nord Stream pipelines and how great it is that they were bombed, every member of the western political/media class would blame Russia for the bombing, and we would never hear the end of it.





Russia would stand nothing to gain by bombing its own pipeline whose gas flow it could control on its own end, while US officials are openly acknowledging that the US benefits from it directly. It’s just so silly how imperial spinmeisters are falling all over themselves to dismiss a claim they all privately know is true because it’s so glaringly obvious.


The Nord Stream sabotage is like what 9/11 would look like if before 9/11 you had top US officials saying “Yeah we’re definitely going to bring an end to the World Trade Center” and then after 9/11 they were saying “It’s good that the World Trade Center was destroyed because it advances our interests.” The compilations of evidence we’ve been seeing that the US was behind this attack look a lot like the evidence compiled by 9/11 conspiracy analysts, except the evidence is way stronger and US officials are pretty much saying they did it in plain English.

It’s just a basic fact that conspiracies happen. Powerful people do conspire with each other, and they are often able to keep their conspiring secret for a very long time. It really is a cruel joke how our rulers hide their actions behind thick veils of government secrecy, punish anyone who tries to look behind those veils with harsh prison sentences, and then have the gall to smear those who try to form theories about what they’re doing behind those veils as “conspiracy theorists”.

Just something to keep in mind as the mad narrative management scramble to brand Sy Hersh a “conspiracy theorist” continues.

US has questions to answer over Nord Stream blasts, Russia says

The United States has questions to answer over its alleged role in explosions that destroyed the undersea Nord Stream gas pipelines last year, Russia’s foreign ministry says.

It was commenting on a blog post published earlier on Wednesday by respected American journalist Seymour Hersh that accused the US military of involvement in the blasts and alleged President Joe Biden green-lighted the operation.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called on the White House to address the “facts” presented by Hersh. ...

Moscow said the countries “have something to hide” and are purposefully blocking Russia from the investigation. Its defence ministry previously accused British navy personnel of blowing up the Nord Steam pipelines. ...

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that Hersh’s blog post deserved more attention and he was surprised it had not been covered more fully by Western media.

“The world must find out the truth about who carried out this act of sabotage,” Peskov told reporters. “This is a very dangerous precedent: if someone did it once, they can do it again anywhere in the world.”

He called for “an open international investigation of this unprecedented attack on international critical infrastructure”, adding: “It is impossible to leave this without uncovering those responsible and punishing them.”

Big Missile Strike, Bakhmut Siege Tightens, Russia Advances Kupiansk; Scholz-Baerbock Not Speaking

Rep. Matt Gaetz Leads Resolution Calling to End Support for Ukraine, Pushes for Peace

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) introduced a resolution on Thursday that calls for an immediate end to US military and financial support for Ukraine and urges the warring sides to negotiate a ceasefire.

The Ukraine Fatigue Resolution was led by Gaetz and received 10 other co-sponsors. If passed, it would express that it is the sense of the House that “the United States must end its military and financial aid to Ukraine” and urges “all combatants to reach a peace agreement.” ...

“America is in a state of managed decline, and it will exacerbate if we continue to hemorrhage taxpayer dollars toward a foreign war. We must suspend all foreign aid for the War in Ukraine and demand that all combatants in this conflict reach a peace agreement immediately,” he added.

Mercenary Mozart Group crumbles under founder's weight

Russia Warns London Against Sending Ukraine Fighter Jets

Russia's embassy to Britain on Wednesday warned London against sending fighter jets to Ukraine, saying such a move would have serious military and political ramifications for the entire world, the TASS news agency reported.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was in London on Wednesday, where he called on Britain to give Ukraine fighter jets as the next stage in the West's supplies of weapons to help Kyiv fight off the Russian invasion. ...

In a statement cited by Russian state news agencies, the Russian embassy said the "bloodshed, next round of escalation and resulting military and political consequences for the European continent and the entire world", that would come about from the sending of advanced fighter jets to Ukraine would be on London's conscience.

"Russia will find a way to respond to any unfriendly steps taken by the British side," TASS quoted the embassy as saying.

Rachel Maddow’s Unhinged Over-The-Top WARMONGERING!

Chinese balloon was ‘clearly’ for spying, says US

The Chinese balloon that flew over North America for more than a week before being shot down over the Atlantic was carrying equipment capable of intercepting and geolocating communications, the US government has claimed.

A senior state department official said on Thursday that equipment was identified by a U-2 spy plane sent up to scrutinise the balloon. “The high-altitude balloon’s equipment was clearly for intelligence surveillance and inconsistent with the equipment onboard weather balloons,” the official said. “It had multiple antennas to include an array likely capable of collecting and geolocating communications.

“It was equipped with solar panels large enough to produce the requisite power to operate multiple active intelligence collection sensors.”

China has used such balloons to collect intelligence over 40 countries on five continents, the US claims.

The Pentagon has so far insisted that despite carrying this equipment, the balloon did not give China an intelligence collection capability above what it already has via satellite and other means.

UN experts slam Latvia for clamping down on Russian-language minorities

Efforts by authorities in Latvia to make Latvian the only language used in schools are discriminatory to other ethnic groups in the country, which is home to a large number of Russian speakers, U.N. experts said Wednesday.

Last September, Riga adopted a law that aims to make Latvian the only language used in the country’s schools by September 2025, starting with preschools and certain primary-level classes.

Latvia, formerly part of the Soviet Union, is home to hundreds of thousands of Russian speakers, who make up about a quarter of the country’s 1.8 million inhabitants. ...

According to the Latvian authorities, the new education bill is part of a wider de-Russification effort, to “to ensure, maintain, and develop the Latvian language as the official state language and the common language in the society.”

Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau Cuts City's Ties With Israel Over 'Crime of Apartheid'

Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau on Wednesday announced her city is cutting ties with Israel and ending its symbolic 25-year-old "twin cities" relationship with Tel Aviv over the Israeli government's violent anti-Palestinian policies.

Colau said at a press conference that the city council came to its decision in response to campaigning by more than 100 rights groups and 4,000 residents, who urged her to cut ties with Israel.

In a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the leftist mayor said her constituents called on her to "condemn the crime of apartheid against the Palestinian people, support Palestinian and Israeli organizations working for peace, and break off the twinning agreement between Barcelona and Tel Aviv."

She added that she is "temporarily" suspending Barcelona-Israel relations "until the Israeli authorities put an end to the system of violations of the Palestinian people and fully comply with the obligations imposed on them by international law."

"We cannot be silent," wrote Colau.

Ralph Nader on Saving Social Security, Fighting Corporate Crime, Worker Deaths & Launching Newspaper

For some reason this Guardian article doesn't mention Biden's 50 year record of trying to cut Social Security and Medicare.

Joe Biden attacks Republican ‘dream’ to slash Medicare and Social Security

Joe Biden amplified his attacks on Republicans over Medicare and Social Security during a visit to Florida on Thursday, arguing that it was the party’s “dream” to slash the federal programs and vowing to be the “nightmare” that stops them.

Speaking in Tampa, Biden outlined his administration’s plan to safeguard the popular entitlement programs as part of an ongoing war of words with his Republican opponents that began during his second State of the Union address on Tuesday.

Ahead of an anticipated 2024 re-election campaign, the president has seen an opportunity to put Republicans on the defensive on an issue that resonates deeply with voters, and particularly seniors who rely on the programs and are a key part of their base.

“I know that a lot of Republicans – their dream is to cut Social Security and Medicare,” Biden said, during his remarks at University of Tampa. “If that’s your dream, I’m your nightmare.”

Republicans have flatly rejected the assertion, despite a long record of proposing to do just that. During the midterms, several prominent Republicans opened the door to Medicare and Social Security cuts as part of their effort to reign in the federal budget.

Trump judge’s ruling could ban abortion pill across the US

A Texas judge could soon upend what remains of abortion access across the US if he agrees to a request by far-right groups to reverse federal approval of a key drug used in medication abortion, which accounts for more than half of pregnancy terminations nationwide.

Reproductive rights advocates say the ruling could have a “devastating” impact on the already fragile abortion care landscape, severely eroded last June by the US supreme court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade.

In November, anti-abortion activists, represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian conservative legal advocacy organization, filed suit in the Northern District of Texas asking Trump-appointed Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk to require the US Food and Drug Administration to reverse its longstanding approval of mifepristone, the first in a two-step abortion pill regimen. If the group – which played a key role in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health, the supreme court case that ushered in Roe’s demise – is granted a nationwide injunction, as requested, the decision could apply to states where abortion remains legal.

On Thursday evening, Kacsmaryk filed an order allowing Danco Laboratories, the drug manufacturer, to file briefs defending its FDA approval. Plaintiffs have until 24 February to respond; a decision in the case could come at any time after that.

Most US Republicans sympathetic to Christian nationalism, survey finds

Two-thirds of white evangelicals and most Republicans are sympathetic to Christian nationalism, a new survey has found.

According to a national survey released on Wednesday by the Public Religion Research Institute and Brookings Institution, 29% of white evangelical Protestants qualify as Christian nationalism adherents while 35% qualify as sympathizers.

Meanwhile, more than half of Republicans are classified as adherents or sympathizers, at 21% and 33% respectively.

The survey also found that Christian nationalism adherents are nearly seven times more likely than non-adherents – 40% vs 16% – to agree that “true patriots might have to resort to violence to save our country”. Among those that support such political violence, 12% indicated that they have personally threatened to use or actually used a gun, knife or other weapon on someone in the past few years.

Additionally, half of Christian nationalism adherents and 38% of sympathizers endorse the idea of an authoritarian leader “who is willing to break some rules if that’s what it takes to set things right”.

CATASTROPHIC Ohio Train Derailment Caused By Wall Street GREED

Reporter arrested as public officials issue bromides to victims of rail disaster in East Palestine, Ohio

In a shocking incident Wednesday, police arrested a national news reporter in the middle of a news conference by the Ohio governor on the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. Following the February 3 crash, government and railroad officials had authorized a “controlled release” of thousands of pounds of toxins into the air and groundwater.

The reporter, Evan Lambert of NewsNation, was at the back of the elementary school gymnasium in East Palestine completing a live broadcast as the governor was about to speak. He was approached by local police officers and Major General John Harris Jr., commander of the Ohio National Guard, who told him he was talking too loudly. Harris reportedly told Lambert to stop the broadcast. Lambert ended the broadcast, and then there was a verbal exchange. According to reports, at one point Harris pushed Lambert.

A video posted by NBC station WKYC shows police surrounding Lambert at the back of the gymnasium. Lambert is engaged in an animated conversation with Harris and officers but does not appear to be doing anything resembling “disorderly conduct.” He is soon escorted out by police and then forced to the ground for no apparent reason and handcuffed. This horrified onlookers, one of whom exclaimed, “He is a national correspondent. You can’t do this.”

Lambert was held in jail for five hours and released on $750 bail. He was charged with disorderly conduct and criminal trespassing.

Following the incident, Republican Governor Mike Dewine said he had not authorized the arrest but did not call for the dropping of charges. The precise role of Ohio National Guard Commander Harris is not clear, though it appears he escalated the situation. A body camera video showed Harris shoving Lambert. The video exposes as a lie Harris’ claim in the police report that Lambert “was prepared to do harm to me.”



the evening greens


‘Monster profits’ for energy giants reveal a self-destructive fossil fuel resurgence

While 2022 inflicted hardship upon many people around the world due to soaring inflation, climate-driven disasters and war, the year was lucrative on an unprecedented scale for the fossil fuel industry, with the five largest western oil and gas companies alone making a combined $200bn in profits.

In a parade of annual results released over the past week the “big five” – Exxon, Chevron, Shell, BP and TotalEnergies – all revealed that last year was the most profitable in their respective histories, as the rising cost of oil and gas, driven in part by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, helped turbocharge revenues.

Exxon, the Texas-based oil giant, led the way with a record $55.7bn in annual profit, taking home about $6.3m every hour last year. California’s Chevron had a record $36.5bn profit, while Shell announced the best results of its 115-year history, a $39.9bn surplus, and BP, another London-based firm, notched a $27.7bn profit. The French company TotalEnergies also had a record, at $36.2bn.

When the 2022 results for all publicly traded oil and gas companies are tallied the total profits are expected to exceed $400bn, “a number we’ve never seen before, and one that was built off the backs of working families who were victimized by oil and gas executives’ greed”, according to Claire Moser, deputy executive director of the US activist group Climate Power. ...

Even though the rollout of renewable energy such as solar and wind is gathering momentum around the world, countries are still forging ahead with numerous “carbon bomb” projects that would push the world beyond agreed “safe” temperature limits. Last year, more than $1tn were invested in fossil fuel infrastructure and extraction worldwide.

The sale of oil and gas remains so enticing that BP this week announced it is scaling back its climate ambitions, retaining its fossil fuel assets for longer than it previously expected. “We need continuing near-term investment into today’s energy system – which depends on oil and gas – to meet today’s demands and to make sure the transition is an orderly one,” said Bernard Looney, BP’s chief executive. “At the end of the day, we’re responding to what society wants.”

Sylvia Earle: ‘We are on the brink – a million species may be lost’

The renowned oceanographer Sylvia Earle has urged a global gathering of marine experts to rein in industrial overfishing that threatens hundreds of species with extinction and to rethink our relationship with the oceans, calling on humanity to “do unto fish as you would have them do unto you”.

In an interview with the Guardian at the Fifth International Marine Protected Areas Congress (Impac5) in Vancouver, the American marine biologist and first female head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says intensive factory fishing is treating marine species the same as farmed livestock, despite being very different. “So many people seem to think that fish are equivalent to cows and chickens and pigs. We even talk about ‘harvesting’ the sea,” she says. “It’s not a harvest – we’re just out there as hunters.”

The key difference, she argues, is that industrial fishing drives species to extinction. “We’re seeing species after species winked out. The trajectory is more than a million species will be lost. We don’t know enough about the ocean to say how many have already been lost … But we do know that we’re good at eliminating whole ecosystems,” she says. “We’re on the brink.”

Earle, 87, compared the hubris of the huge new krill fisheries in Antarctica to the decimation of cod in the 20th century, which led to moratoriums on cod fishing. “With krill in Antarctica, we have the illusion that there are billions of them. ‘We can never eliminate all the krill, we can never eliminate all the tuna’ … except the cod! Oh my goodness, think of the cod here in Canada, in the US and Europe: it just seemed the cod would never ever, ever [run out].”

Australia and New Zealand best placed to survive nuclear apocalypse, study finds

The lucky country can count on one more piece of good fortune, with researchers finding Australia – followed by neighbour New Zealand – best placed to survive a nuclear winter and help reboot a collapsed human civilisation.

The study published in the journal Risk Analysis describes Australia, New Zealand, Iceland, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu as the island countries most capable of producing enough food for their populations after an “abrupt sunlight‐reducing catastrophe” such as a nuclear war, super volcano or asteroid strike.

There would “likely be pockets of survivors around the planet in even the most severe” scenario, the researchers write – with those in the most resilient nations standing the best chance of avoiding a pre-industrial collapse.

The authors compared 38 island countries on 13 factors they said could predict success as a post-apocalyptic survival state, including food production, energy self-sufficiency, manufacturing and the disaster’s effect on climate. Australia and New Zealand – both robust agricultural producers and tucked away from the likely sites of northern hemisphere nuclear fallout – topped the tables, with Australia performing best overall. “Australia’s food supply buffer is gigantic,” the study concludes, “with potential to feed many tens of millions of extra people.” ...

Australia did have one major factor working against it, however: its relatively close military ties with the UK and US made it more likely to become a target in a nuclear war.


Also of Interest

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

Some Small Corrections To Seymour Hersh's New Nord Stream Revelations

Dog Bites Man: The US (With Foreign Allies) Did Blow Up The Nord Stream Pipelines

Craig Murray: Profiteering from Death

Elite Splits Over Ukraine Shed a Tiny Bit of Light on Factions

Growing Body of Research Suggests Offshore Oil’s Methane Pollution Is Underestimated

England’s tallest wind turbine prepares to rise against the odds

‘Crazy interesting’ findings by Australian researchers may reveal key to Covid immunity

FBI “Designed To Spy On Americans” Says Ron Paul

Mainstream media finally calls BS on Russiagate


A Little Night Music

Debbie Davies - Better Off With The Blues

Debbie Davies - Done Sold Everything

Debbie Davies - Blue And Lonesome

Johnny Winter with Debbie Davies - Blackjack

Debbie Davies - All I Found

Debbie Davies - Lovin' Cup

Debbie Davies - I Wonder Why

Debbie Davies - Down At The Honky Shack

Albert Collins, Johnny Gayden and Debbie Davies - Black Cat Bone

Debbie Davies - Percolatin'


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Comments

cancelled his appearance at the "Rage Against the War Machine" rally.

https://www.scottritterextra.com/p/the-best-speech-i-never-gave?utm_sour...

That doesn't mean that he will become silent and once again he pulls no punches!

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgg1Cl6rmxQ]

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joe shikspack's picture

@humphrey

it's too bad that ritter pulled out, he would have been a great addition to the speakers.

thanks for the video!

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knew a gal by that name back in my AZ days. Probably not the same one.
We called her Ohio Daisy Wink She was a hydrological engineer. A water girl.
Working in the desert. I do enjoy this one's mojo. Thanks joe!

News? Nader is good.

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joe shikspack's picture

@QMS

probably not the same gal. i saw davies a long time ago when she was in albert collins' band, i was impressed with her chops, which have only gotten better over time.

have a great weekend!

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Bernhardt over at MoA wrote a follow up piece on Hersh’s recent Nordstream piece correcting a few points. It finishes with a humorous account of Sweden’s Keystone Cops pursuit of elusive under water sound signatures thought to be Russian subs lurking in their territorial waters.

In 1982, several of Sweden's subs, boats, and helicopters pursued one of these unidentified sources for a whole month, only to come up empty-handed.
This continued for over a decade. Every time they picked up an acoustic signal they would search and find nothing but for a few bubbles on the sea's surface. Sweden was, of course, worried about the intrusions, and couldn't think why, with the Cold War now over, Russia would continue to provoke them in this manner.

It turns out it was nothing of the sort.

But it was farts.

"It turns out herring have a swim bladder... and this swim bladder is connected to the anal duct of the fish," Wahlberg said. "It's a very unique connection, only found in herring. So a herring can squeeze its swim bladder, and that way it can blurt out a small number of bubbles through the anal opening."

In layman's terms, they let one rip. Herrings swim in gigantic schools that can reach several square kilometers and up to 20 meters (65 feet) deep. When something near them frightens them – say, a hungry school of mackerel or a submarine on the lookout for Russian spies – they can generate a lot of gas.

The whole article is worth a read, and the humorous finish was much appreciated by this reader.

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Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

@ovals49

msm lives to scare the news consumers
just their reason for being
used to be if it bleeds it leads
now it is confuse with half facts
bit more of an agenda

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joe shikspack's picture

@ovals49

imagine that, gas-powered herring. must be russian. Smile

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enhydra lutris's picture

@ovals49

an empire or even a great power thanks to Poltava. I don't think they'll ever get over it.

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 --

snoopydawg's picture

John Helmer has an interesting view on Hersh's essay that differs from both Hersh and b from MoA.

WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE HERSH REPORT ON THE NORD STREAM ATTACKS

From the full text of the Hersh report, it appears that neither the source nor Hersh has “direct knowledge” of the history of US-led operations to sabotage and destroy the pipelines which became public more than a year before; they directly involved the Polish government and the Danish government. In fact, by error of omission Hersh and his man are ignorant of those operations and of that history.

Also, the two of them are ignorant of the British government’s role in this history, and in the final destruction, which was revealed publicly by then-Prime Minister Elizabeth Truss to Secretary of State Antony Blinken sixty seconds after the detonation; and by the Russian government when it announced its knowledge of the British involvement.

I recommend reading the more than a year before essay first to get a background on all the shenanigans that happened when the nordstream pipelines were being laid so you understand all the players.

Also interesting.

This tweet has been very popular today.

Sam is a happy dawg tonight because she got to play with 2 of her friends today and they had a great romp in the snow. It’s just been us most of the winter and she has been lonely and missing her friends. Oh look she just brought me the empty TP roll that she dug out of the trash. She’s prouncing around very proud of herself…stinker!

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

@snoopydawg that didn't drop all over the floor.
I had read a lot about Truss' "It is done" call. Thanks for the reminder.
Meanwhile, a fried of many years, a travel pal and fellow lawyer, dropped dead while visiting her parents. She was 57. She called me Friday to talk about her recent and planned travels to her favorite place, South Africa.
That has sort of thrown me off tonight. Glad Dear One is preparing dinner, and getting us ready to watch 2 episodes of Gunsmoke from Season 4.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

looks like everybody has an opinion on the nordstream pipeline sabotage and sy hersh has given them all another chance to enter into the whodunit sweepstakes.

hudson is, as usual, on target and right to show the pattern of u.s. action since the neocons took over.

glad to hear that sam is having satisfactory social experiences, give her a scritch for me and have a great weekend!

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snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack

I think he brought up some great points about the other players who might have been involved. Also if his take is more likely then it begs the question of what Hersh goal was in writing his story. I’ve seen some others saying that Hersh left a lot unsaid or players out. A limited hangout or something? Dunno, but I’m now thoroughly wondering what the real truth is. Maybe somewhere in between?

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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

heh, since i really don't know the full details of what actually happened, it's hard to say who is the most credible source about the sabotage.

helmer:

From the full text of the Hersh report, it appears that neither the source nor Hersh has “direct knowledge” of the history of US-led operations to sabotage and destroy the pipelines which became public more than a year before; they directly involved the Polish government and the Danish government. In fact, by error of omission Hersh and his man are ignorant of those operations and of that history.

Also, the two of them are ignorant of the British government’s role in this history, and in the final destruction, which was revealed publicly by then-Prime Minister Elizabeth Truss to Secretary of State Antony Blinken sixty seconds after the detonation; and by the Russian government when it announced its knowledge of the British involvement.

it seems to me that it is quite possible that britain, poland and the danes could have been involved in this in ways that hersh's source was unaware of. it would be quite unsurprising if all of them knew what was going on and passively watched u.s. and norwegian forces pull it off - followed by truss' celebratory call to antny blinkyman afterwards.

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snoopydawg's picture

Thread

Another thread

And another. Since I like saying interesting, this one is interesting. Don’t obey America when it places sanctions….ask yourself if the cost is worth it.

But what the hell happened to Riekoff? Didn’t he run veterans against war, but now he’s letting Rachel spout her BS on his show? Rachel was anti war during Bush, flipped to support it under Obama and I can only imagine her reaction when Trump bombed Syria for the white helmet's false flag chemical attack and now she’s supporting Nazis and their agenda in Ukraine. She’s come a long way since she wrote Drift that was pretty much anti war. But then what would I do to get paid $30 million a year? Dunno but would love to have a chance of finding out.

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snoopydawg's picture

Looks like the FBI wrote the speech Roth gave to congress. ‘Twasn't only Russia that interfered with the election which Biden said was the most secure in history, but China and Iran too posted lots of tweets of Jesus telling men not to do the hanky panky with their right hand.

Hey remember when Mueller charged some Russians for doing that and when their lawyers surprisingly showed up he wouldn’t give them access to his evidence? But again Roth thinks his job is to decide who is fibbing and making trouble on the Twit. I’m surprised that he didn’t say that Russia was posting Covid misinformation and it’s why he banned anyone who did. I’d rather have Russia posting stuff on the Twit then them doing what we have done countless times and brutally overthrowing elected presidents and installing one who will do our bidding and screw their citizens. But maybe that’s just me.

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joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

roth says that somebody will have to make moderation decisions at twitter whether it is him or elon musk. what he fails to mention is that the government's involvement in moderation decisions is pernicious and is what must be avoided.

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snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack

So when will we see those government officials sitting in front of congress and explaining why they thought they had the right to take away people’s 1st amendment right? Without that happening then it will be a Biden move where nothing fundamentally changes. Psakiopath and others from his administration got excused from giving depositions and explaining why they pushed for certain people to be censored. Didn’t Pelosi’s mouth say that no one is above the law?

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snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack

I got this link from MoA discussion of the Twitter files.

DHS has been in ever increasing control of Twitter since the public-private partnership was formed in 2011/2012. Jack Dorsey lost control and became owner emeritus; arguably, Elon Musk had no idea (you’ll see proof toward the end).

In/around 2011 and 2012 the U.S. Government, Obama administration and the U.S. State Dept., came into Jack’s Coffee Shop and asked him for help.

The govt officials needed to deliver massive amounts of coffee to their allies in Egypt, Libya and the middle east to support the Arab Spring party. Jack told the officials he was willing to help but didn’t have the capacity to deliver on that scale. The officials told Jack not to worry, they would handle that aspect – he just needed to agree to the partnership and let them utilize his business. Jack agreed.

[Note, the timing here is not accidental. The operational agreement happened at the same time DHS was fine tuning the domestic surveillance systems to monitor social media platforms and target political opposition. See The Fourth Branch.]

Over the next several weeks, months and eventually years, Jack watched as hundreds of new employees flooded into the business to facilitate the rapid expansion. Along with a myriad of new faces, new equipment was delivered, and soon Jack found himself looking at heavy industrial equipment erecting large buildings in the back lots of the property. Coffee urns were replaced with massive industrial coffee delivery systems that far exceeded anything Jack ever imagined.

Business was booming, but slowly Jack realized he had lost control. Jack was riding a dragon.

As the years progressed, thousands of new employees moved into the offices of the new buildings and massive pipelines were producing incredible scales of coffee. Jack noted offices of the United Nations Human Rights Commission were now creating unique blends of coffee for international distribution, and the European Commission had an entire suite of specially trained coffee production engineers creating alternate combinations and flavors.

By 2018, Jack had essentially become an “owner emeritus”; his name was on the shingle, but the day-to-day operation of Jack’s Magic Coffee Shop had turned into an industrial park complex.

Jack saw his personal wealth attached to the success of the business, but operationally, his only responsibility was traveling to symposiums and venues where he would stand on stage and wax philosophically about the future of a coffee delivery organization he no longer controlled. Day-to-day operations were now controlled by experts in the scale of massive industrial coffee. Those experts came from the Dept of Homeland Security.

You have to read the essay to understand the coffee shop meme.

The Twitter building in SF is huge and now we know why it is. I wonder if Musk quit paying the rent on it because it’s full of government employees and he thinks that they should have to pay the rent for it. Dunno if that’s true but it makes sense to me. Fb is another government op and has been from the beginning. Zuck is just the front man who everyone thinks is in charge of it. He was what 12 when he built it?

Yeah I don’t think congress is going to haul any government official in to get to the bottom of the censorship issue. Gotta wonder now about the 230 clause. Who’s it covering for?

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dystopian's picture

Hi all, Hey Joe!

Oz or NZ huh? Should we ask Janis how much space she has? Wink

I was a Sylvia Earle fan as a teen when I read her first book in high school, before she got the fancy first name, when she was just starting to make waves at Woods Hole Inst. in Mass. We should listen to her. The ones that need to won't though. Our history of 'you could never catch all the cod, catch all the whales, cut down all the trees', etc. is rife with examples of doing just that.

Thanks for the great sounds, and sorry about the news! Have a great weekend!

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

joe shikspack's picture

@dystopian

nz has some nice places, but i think that the billionaire class is buying them up at a precipitous rate.

oh, don't worry about depopulating the oceans, we'll just repopulate them with genetically engineered clones. it'll all be fine, you'll see. /s

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enhydra lutris's picture

I was just wondering, do you think it is still ok to use the phrase "what time does the balloon go up?"?

It would be interesting to see somebody demand proof or retraction for everything Roth said, item by item. But then, he'll probably still be pushing Russiagate and other lies on his deathbed.

Have a great weekend.
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 --

joe shikspack's picture

@enhydra lutris

i think that asking when the balloon will go up has become redundant. they are constantly launching balloons.

i certainly hope that the patsy roth gets a good drubbing, but he's just the front for the people who really need to take it in the shorts.

have a great weekend!

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snoopydawg's picture

@enhydra lutris

Biden shot down something today, but he doesn’t know what it was that he shot down or if it was a threat to the country, but by damn he didn’t let any grass grow under his feet this time by gawd. So now the media is talking about this big threat that no one knows what it was, but that will get the media to stop asking if Biden actually blew up nordstream. Boy Biden paid attention to what Bush/Cheney did during the early days of the war of terror. Keep people distracted from what you don’t want them looking at.

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snoopydawg's picture

@snoopydawg

Appearing at the White House podium, National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communication John Kirby announced, “The Department of Defense was tracking a high-altitude object over Alaska airspace in the last 24 hours.” “We’re calling this an object because that’s the best description we have right now. We don’t know who owns it – whether it’s state-owned or corporate owned or privately owned, we just don’t know,” Kirby said.

The object first came to the attention of the US government “last evening.” Kirby told reporters that the US assessed the “object” to be unmanned before it was eventually shot down. Biden was first briefed Thursday night “as soon as the Pentagon had enough information.” The high-altitude object, Kirby said during a White House press briefing, was flying at an altitude of 40,000 feet and posed a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight.

There were two efforts to get closer to the object and evaluate it as it flew. The first engagement by fighter aircraft took place late Thursday night and the second Friday morning. Both engagements yielded “limited” information, Kirby told reporters. “We were able to get some fighter aircrafts up and around it before the order to shoot it down, and the pilots assessment was this was not manned,” Kirby added. WATCH:

Maybe it’s those aliens they have been warning us about and let’s hope that they weren’t in this unknown thingy and if they were there isn’t a mothership elsewhere that just saw us murder their friends. But wouldn’t you think that one of the pilots had a camera and took pictures that people are looking at right now? I even bet they could have used a telescope to see what the damned thing was.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@snoopydawg

US assessed the “object” to be unmanned

As we learned long ago,

assessed

means nothing more than asserted, sometimes based on a WAG, sometimes not even that.

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 --

enhydra lutris's picture

@snoopydawg

attention anyway. I surmise we can expect more, and plenty of discussion about what it likely was - I'm voting for flying grain silo.

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 --

soryang's picture

and interrogation by prosecutors in the last few months, South Korea's Democratic Party Leader, Lee Jae-myung coined a clever characterization for the operation of the corrupt administration of justice carried out by the clique of prosecutors, also known as "Yoon's division," and "the dictatorship of prosecutors" in today's South Korea posing as a republic. Four character idioms in Chinese are known as saja seong eo.

유권 무죄 무권 유죄
If one has power they are not guilty;
If one does not have power, they are guilty.

In hanja, Korean usage of traditional Chinese characters:

有權 無罪 無權 有罪

Here's an article from Hankyoreh on the Democratic Party demonstration in support of Lee Jae-myung, last Saturday. Interesting that the police are estimating numbers again to downplay the size of the rally near city hall and Namdaemun. It preceded an even larger demonstration immediately afterward by civic groups aligned in the so called candlelight revolution movement. I counted as many as fifty (democratic) National Assembly members on the street in the front rows of the Lee Jae-myung rally. I listened to Lee's speech on youtube and another impromptu speech given after his grilling by prosecutors, and being forced to pose for a mug shot. He is a very eloquent speaker.

The recent sentence of former Justice Minister Cho-guk for two years after findings of guilty with respect to unethical actions, forgery etc., in getting his daughter into college, about ten years ago, (Cho Min is already an M.D.), the sensitivity by a dissatisfied public to the protection afforded to President Yoon's dishonest family members and cronies, is taking a toll on his public support. I clipped out the portion with sentences taken from Lee's speech last Saturday.

S. Korea’s Democrats take battle against Yoon, prosecutors to the streets
Posted on : Feb.6,2023
Hankyoreh

In a speech that lasted around 20 minutes, party leader Lee Jae-myung said, “In the space left behind the Yushin dictatorship [of Park Chung-hee], a dictatorship of the prosecutors has now coiled to strike.”

“We must take action to save democracy from being suffocated,” he urged.
Taking aim at the prosecutors’ investigation of him, Lee sent a “warning message to the Yoon Suk-yeol dictatorship of the prosecution.”

“Do not trample on Lee Jae-myung, and do not trample on livelihoods. Even if you destroy Lee Jae-myung, do not harm democracy,” he said, emphasizing the administration’s approach of ignoring the people’s cost-of-living crisis and devoting all its energies to destroying political rivals.
He also said, “The difficulties I am going through are nothing compared with the suffering and hardship of the public.”

“I am committed to this historical mission. I will stand up firmly to any persecution, and I will not lose sight of the responsibility that the public has charged me with,” he asserted.

https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/1078509.html

Neither Cho Guk nor Lee have as yet been jailed pre-trial. Cho gets two more hearings after his first trial. I don't think prosecutors have an indictment yet on Lee. While one could argue it isn't warranted, in either case, Cho Guk's wife was jailed pre-trial, released, then jailed again before her final review on fabricated charges. (She has received sentence terms totaling 5 years). It is obviously a political calculation because of the public reaction it might draw in terms of street demonstrations.

I was very disappointed to see conservative National Assembly member Thae Yong-ho, who is a former North Korean diplomat and defector, trying to weave some wild charges against Lee as being a communist tool who had fallen into the clutches of Kim Yong Chol in 2016 by promoting some cultural exchanges with North Korea in 2016. As a very high ranking defector Thae obviously has intelligence ties. He's being a dupe here. In the past, I always kept an open mind concerning his descriptions of the situation in North Korea but this was too much. The administration seems to be really reaching to find something to pin on Lee Jae-myung. If Lee fell into a North Korean "trap" what did all the chaebol leaders and cultural performers have to say for themselves after going to Pyongyang to look for business or perform there as the case may be? There is a theory that the smears will continue in the media until the next general election to stigmatize Lee as both corrupt and a commie.

General Kim Yong Chol (Kim Yo’ng-ch’o’l) is director of the Reconnaissance General Bureau (under MPAF and NDC), member of the Party Central Military Commission (CMC) and a member of the Party Central Committee (CC KWP). Kim is one of the DPRK’s most senior intelligence community’s managers, and he has been a member of the DPRK intelligence community for over two decades.

https://nkleadershipwatch.wordpress.com/leadership-biographies/lt-gen-ki...

This description of General Kim may be outdated. He fell out of favor somewhat after the debacle at Hanoi. But I think it describes his position at the time. He once met Donald Trump on the White House lawn prior to one of the summits. So he was Vice Chairman, and Kim Jong-un's sister Kim Yo-jong actually worked in his department, ostensibly subordinate to him. I could tell this wasn't working anymore when Kim's official train arrived in Vietnam.

In any case, Thae Yong-ho, was ranting and raving on TV, against Lee in North Korean style, on Channel A News Top Ten a few days ago. This is Dong-A media broadcast in South Korea the equivalent of Fox News. I used to watch it regularly for the military and intelligence content. JTBC used to be better, but that deteriorated too, now I watch the independent news source videos on youtube. Lately, I've grown more interested in the politics of South Korea.

Politico had sensationalized bs coverage of North Korea a couple of days ago. I used to waste my time dissecting this propaganda, but there is such an avalanche of omissions, mischaracterizations, and bias, I can't waste my time on these anymore. ( I'm on a clock to rebuild our lives after the storm).

North Korea displays enough ICBMs to overwhelm U.S. defense system against them
Administration after administration has failed to stop North Korea from developing such large numbers of an ICBM that could possibly reach the United States.

By ALEXANDER WARD

02/08/2023 11:14 PM EST

Updated: 02/09/2023 12:16 AM EST

North Korea has just revealed a large enough number of missiles to conceivably overwhelm the United States’ defense against them, blowing a hole in decades of denuclearization and homeland security policies.

Images from state-run media show North Korea’s military rolling 10 to 12 Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missiles down the streets of Pyongyang during a Wednesday night parade. The U.S. only has 44 ground-based interceptors to launch from Alaska and California to destroy an oncoming ICBM in flight. Assuming North Korea’s weapons can fit four warheads atop them, it’s possible Pyongyang can fire more warheads at the U.S. than America has interceptors.

Here's the punch line-

President Joe Biden has taken a hands-off approach to North Korea — but that’s not wholly by design. North Korea has yet to respond to the administration’s offer to sit down anywhere, any time without preconditions. The goal is to get Pyongyang talking about any issues in the relationship, but so far every advance has been rebuffed.

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/08/north-korea-missile-capability-...

The "hands off approach" equals giant air exercises involving hundreds of combat aircraft; military exercises involving strategic bombers and advanced stealth aircraft, a nuclear carrier strike group, (ground units) firing artillery and rockets near the DMZ, threats of bringing US nuclear weapons back to South Korea, threats of South Korea to build nuclear missiles; tit for tat escalating responses to North Korean ballistic missile and cruise missile launches.

Tension hasn't been this high since "fire and fury." The US has deliberately abandoned any pretense of abiding by the understandings at the Singapore summit. It's approach to negotiations before and since the Hanoi summit, has been both unrealistic and cynical. There has been a constant escalation of threats against North Korea, by the US, South Korea, and Japan with discussion of preemptive strikes, "counter strikes," decapitation strikes and associated ground missions, and this is what the exercises often play out. Why does North Korea think maybe it should hang onto its nuclear weapons?

Lee Jae-myung would return to more realistic trust building approach, step by step, offering positive incentives to implement policies that lessen military tension and open possibilities for mutual beneficial exchanges. The US approach is an ultimatum. Do what we say, or we will starve you out. It's a regime change policy, and nothing else.

(edited to correct Cho’s wife, Chung Kyung-shim's sentence, who had already been serving a four-year prison sentence before the Seoul court recently added another year to her term. )

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語必忠信 行必正直

@soryang

US troops now patrolling South Sea Islands in conjunction with Japanese troops.
Putting pressure on China and North Korea to escalate military readiness.
US empire threats are not going by without response.

Thanks for posting.

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