Welcome to Saturday's Potluck 3-18-2023

Submitted by studentofearth on Sat, 03/18/2023 - 5:35am

“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”
Pablo Picasso

I have re-wrote the opening of today's diaries many times mentally and on the keyboard. Normal frustration of trying to sort and organize an uncomfortable subject. It is similar to the one many families face with an older generation - are they still competent to drive on public roads or take care of their own finances. Is it time for an intervention or at least a discussion?

Only the family is our collective population of the United States and the elder is the President of the United States.

One danger of not acknowledging a problem is the deliberate avoidance of not noticing who is taking advantage of the situation to promote their own agendas, vendettas and pet projects.

First step is recognizing there is a problem. Then potential solutions can start to be created.

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SY HERSH Meets the Press - Live from the National Press Club, Washington DC (125.10) presentation to his peers covering a range of subjects and stories.

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Seattle ban takes on stubborn caste discrimination Asia Times March 15, 2023

Seattle became the first city in the United States to outlaw caste-based discrimination against immigrants from stigmatized groups in South Asia’s traditional social hierarchy.

The ordinance, adding caste to Seattle’s existing anti-discrimination policies, was proposed by Kshama Sawant, the only Indian American councilwoman in the city, which is home to an estimated 75,000 Indian Americans. Sawant, herself from a privileged caste background, has been a vocal critic of the discriminatory caste system. Sawant said the ordinance – which was approved on Feb. 21, 2023 – would help put an end to an “invisible and unaddressed” form of discrimination in Seattle.

A year ago, in January 2022, the California State University, America’s largest public higher education system, also added caste to its anti-discrimination policy, allowing students, staff and faculty across its 23 campuses to report caste bias and discrimination.
...
While the caste system is often conflated in Western media with the Hindu religion and India alone, that is far from the truth. As social scientists specializing in South Asian studies, we assert that the caste system neither is exclusive to the Hindu religion nor is it restricted to India and Indians.

Caste in South Asia

While the caste system originated in Hindu scriptures, it crystallized in its current form during British colonial rule and has stratified society in every South Asian religious community. In addition to India, it is present in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Bhutan.

Social, economic and political status in this pernicious system is tied to traditional occupations fixed by birth.
...
Caste organizes social life not only among Hindus but also in Muslim, Christian, Sikh and Buddhist communities in the region. It is an intergenerational system based on birth into a caste group. Caste identities stay even generations after someone converts out of Hinduism and into any of these faiths.
...
Caste in the diaspora

Scholars have documented similar discriminatory practices in the diaspora in the UK, Australia and Canada and on the African continent.

Caste has started getting recognition as a discriminatory category, especially in the US, in recent years. A 2016 survey, “Caste in the USA,” the first formal documentation of caste discrimination within the US diaspora, found that caste discrimination is pervasive across workplaces, educational institutions, places of worship and even in romantic partnerships.
...
Seattle’s new ordinance may trigger similar moves across other US cities where South Asian Americans from nonelite caste backgrounds are settling down. It may address caste-based discrimination among other South Asian faith communities, as well. For now, this ordinance will help put the spotlight on this centuries-old system that denies equality to a substantive section of the population on the basis of an oppressive ideology.

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War for Taiwan? It Would Be Our Craziest Conflict Ever Sputnik March 16, 2023

According to the US, the UN and most of the world—including Taiwan itself—Taiwan is part of China. Can the US invade Ohio?

Like many other nations places, Taiwan is in a tough spot caused by decisions previously made by US policymakers many years ago.

Until 1945, Taiwan was a Japanese colony. The birth certificate of my former father-in-law, an ethnic Taiwanese, read “Taipei, Japan.” The end of World War II brought a breather. Occupation forces withdrew. The Taiwanese expected independence as part of post-war decolonization, but America had other plans.

Across the Taiwan Strait, the Chinese civil war was drawing to a close. Mao Tse-Tung’s Communists were beating the far-right Nationalists (KMT) led by Chiang Kai-shek. The Nationalists, looting everything they could carry including China’s gold reserves, jumped aboard US ships helpfully provided by former US President Harry Truman and fled to Taiwan.
...
Every now and then some Taiwanese political theorist gins up a farfetched workaround that promises to deliver independence without the risk of Chinese tanks rolling through Taipei. The 51 Club, founded in 1994 with 51 members, is a Taiwanese organization dedicated to the goal of turning the island into the 51st state of the United States. Presto! War with Taiwan is war against the United States—something the Chinese would never want.
...
Annette Lu, former vice president of Taiwan under the KMT, promotes One Zhonghua, a scheme under which Taiwan and China would form an economic commonwealth like the European Union, with economic integration and political independence. Neither the Chinese nor the Taiwanese are on board.

There’s also a theory that the US is, under international law, has been—and still is—the administrator of Taiwan since World War II. In 1945, the US appointed Chiang’s Republic of China (KMT) to administer Taiwan—think of it like a sublet. The San Francisco Peace Treaty didn’t go into effect until seven years later, in 1952.

“The treaty never mentioned who would receive Taiwan. Japan surrendered its former colony, but it never said to whom,” writes The Taipei Times. So who gets it? “Regarding Taiwan, the official US position was, is and continues to be that it is ‘undecided.’”
...
Biden may be hanging his hat on this bit of unfinished business.
From a domestic US political perspective, however, whatever enthusiasm Americans have for defending Taiwan would vanish as soon as they learn that we would be risking World War III over a “country” that isn’t even a country—and doesn’t claim to be. The United States has gotten itself into a lot of stupid wars, but this would be the craziest one ever.

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Judge Napolitano channel ongoing discussions regarding current Ukraine/Russia conflict from different perspectives. I have only included part of the various guests. Col Doug Macgregor and Scott Ritter videos have been featured in diaries and comments earlier this week.

Ukraine latest w/ Ray McGovern fmr CIA analyst (17:44 min) March 13, 2023

Following discussions were after the US Drone was destroyed by Russian Airplane. The reactions were very dependent upon the type of career in the government.

US Insane to Fight Wars in Ukraine and Taiwan - Larry Johnson (25:09 min) March 14, 2023

Ukraine & the CIA, What Games are Being Played w/ Tony Shaffer (21:08 min) March 14, 2023

Weakening Russia still a Good Idea? Col Doug Macgregor (21:10 min) March 15, 2023
An interesting prediction at the end of the interview - he expects changes in the Presidency in the next 3 months. The last few weeks he has been openly acknowledging Biden is not mentally present and responsible for decisions coming from the White House.

Drone Incident: Biden's Dangerous Escalation - Scott Ritter (25:14 min) March 16, 2023

A Sargent Major with extensive explosive experience in the Army. (15:03 min)

________

What is on your mind today?

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Submitted by Enchantress on Sat, 03/18/2023 - 7:24am

This is a subject I know something about. When I use to do case management for the elderly, we had to go out twice a year to do an assessment. This was required by the state, partly to see if the client was getting worse.

One of the questions was “Is the senior fragile?” Fragility is the best indicator of how healthy the client is. Biden is definitely fragile. There are enough old clips of Biden to see that he is not healthy enough to be President. Look at the way he shuffles slowly as he walks, his speech has also slowed considerably, he constantly loses his train of thought, and he has that deer in the headlights look all the time. Anyone who says that he is not suffering from some kind of dementia is fooling themselves.

The question is “How long can he last?” He’s not going to get any better, only worse. I don’t think anyone needs to worry about his running again. I don’t think he’s going to die, but a bad fall would really incapacitate him.

If I was doing his initial evaluation, I would recommend an assisted living facility, as he definitely needs a caregiver to help him.

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Submitted by enhydra lutris on Sat, 03/18/2023 - 10:21am
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@Enchantress

than Nancy was. Wink

Thanks for the professional input.

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 --

Submitted by studentofearth on Sat, 03/18/2023 - 3:21pm
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@enhydra lutris I was beginning another exciting year in college on 26 September 1983. Ignorance is bliss. The realization my adult life would have ended that day did not come until decades later. Another government secret.

Stanislav Petrov: The man who may have saved the world BBC Sept 26, 2013

Thirty years ago, on 26 September 1983, the world was saved from potential nuclear disaster.

In the early hours of the morning, the Soviet Union's early-warning systems detected an incoming missile strike from the United States. Computer readouts suggested several missiles had been launched. The protocol for the Soviet military would have been to retaliate with a nuclear attack of its own.

But duty officer Stanislav Petrov - whose job it was to register apparent enemy missile launches - decided not to report them to his superiors, and instead dismissed them as a false alarm.

This was a breach of his instructions, a dereliction of duty. The safe thing to do would have been to pass the responsibility on, to refer up.

But his decision may have saved the world.

(1.`6 min)

.
.

The signs of Reagan's comprehension problem were simply an inside joke.

1982 Johnny Carson making fun of Reagan mental abilities. (3.53 min)

Concerns About Reagan’s Mental Health Were Handled Very Differently Than Concerns About Trump’s New York Intelligencer Jan 14, 2023

In 1994, Reagan revealed in a letter that he was suffering from early-stage Alzheimer’s Disease. He died in 2004.

Whether Reagan was suffering clear symptoms from Alzheimer’s while in office has been a subject of fevered debate for many years. In 2011, his son Ron Reagan wrote in his book Reagan at 100 that he felt “something was amiss” with his father’s mind during his second term, though the younger Reagan later clarified that this did not mean that the president was suffering from dementia during that time. The book drew a fierce backlash from conservative Reagan defenders, including the former president’s other son, Michael, who insisted that his father was perfectly capable throughout his White House tenure — a conclusion that had previously been reached by Reagan’s four personal doctors and other memoirists who were close to him. (A sketchily sourced Bill O’Reilly book released in 2015 was renounced by the president’s inner circle.)

But multiple journalists have testified to a complicated reality: a slowly diminishing executive who leaned increasingly heavily on advisers, disengaged from day-to-day affairs, and sometimes had difficulty distinguishing fantasy from reality.
...
eak media speculation about Reagan’s fitness came after his disastrous 1984 debate performance. The New York Times reported that the “age issue” dominated headlines in print publications and on national TV news in the aftermath. A Wall Street Journal headline that week went farther than most: “Reagan Debate Performance Invites Open Speculation on His Ability to Serve.”

But they cropped up again amid the Iran-contra scandal, when Reagan claimed to have forgotten key details about his administration’s selling of arms to Iran to fund Nicaraguan rebels.
...
In her 2000 book Reporting Live, CBS’s Lesley Stahl recounted a startling interaction with Reagan in 1986 — she described him as “vacant” and “a doddering space cadet” — that left her questioning the president’s mental fitness. She came close to reporting the full incident, she told Mother Jones’s David Corn, but decided against it when the president quickly “recovered.” In later years, advisers and others would observe that while Reagan grew markedly less interested in the quotidian tasks of the presidency as the years went on, to the point of almost entirely disengaging, he still had the ability to turn on the telegenic charm he was famous for and appear perfectly lucid when needed.

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Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.

Submitted by exindy on Sat, 03/18/2023 - 11:22am

@Enchantress I might offer some thoughts if I may.

I watched my father commit suicide by surgery because he felt he had no way to cope with his life's partner gradually losing her faculties. On the outside my mother appeared healthy, had some serious medical issues but as someone who watched the decline, I saw the little things, loss of judgement, obsession over minor things, etc.

When my father suggested a "halfway" house he met opposition from her (obviously) as well as my younger sisters. It was pretty obvious to me that because of distance, they only remembered the experiences from a few decades before. I tried to visit (from 350 miles away) at least once a month for a long weekend (please ignore the guilt feeling) and talked with him as much as I could.

When he suggested to her doctor that she be evaluated, nothing came of it. As it turns out, trying to find a reasonable halfway house is next to impossible anyway. There really aren't any. It's either all incapacitated or you're on your own. Family support might have helped but we have to remember that the days when 3 generations lived within a couple blocks and got together every week are the exception. I have no doubts that if he had a few million in the bank he could have arranged a live-in caregiver (assuming one can be trusted these days).

On a personal note, I cashed in my property chips a couple of years ago. I've looked into the next step in apartments but I either have too much or not enough.

We have a very serious sickness in our society. This situation is just one more example.

Be well, please.

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 03/18/2023 - 12:05pm
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@Enchantress

That’s what I’m told when I call attention to Biden’s speech and of course he walks frailly because he’s older than gawd.

Besides if you say anything about Biden you are being ageist, about Kamala-racist,
Pelosi-misogynistic, Obama - …..ist.

Smile

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There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Submitted by studentofearth on Sat, 03/18/2023 - 2:44pm
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@Enchantress There is currently 3 Senators staying in medical facilities.

OP leader Mitch McConnell at rehab facility after hospital stay, also suffered rib fracture CNN Politics March 13, 2023

McConnell is not the only senator who’s been away from the chamber for health reasons in recent days. Democratic Sens. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Dianne Feinstein of California have also been hospitalized in recent weeks, with Fetterman seeking treatment for depression and Feinstein for shingles.

There had been a report from Reuters March 7 Senator Feinstein was now recovering at home. Her mental decline has been noticed for awhile. So maybe only 2 Senators are not able to age in their own home.

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Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 03/18/2023 - 3:13pm
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@studentofearth

For post stroke and depression. Might have spelled the name wrong.

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There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Submitted by Lookout on Sat, 03/18/2023 - 9:12am
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It is lovely as spring arrives. We're still having brief morning freezes, but the flowering trees don't seem to care. The Cherry Trees are in full bloom, as are the redbuds, buckeye and blueberries. They're calling for 20's in the AM so we'll see what we see. The young mulberry trees were bit. I'm hoping they will still leaf out.

The insanity of a war with China over their own territory illustrate the level of incompetence in US leadership. Enchantress has it right Biden is demented and surrounded himself with a clown world cast of self righteous warmongering idiots.

Hope all is well on your homestead, and you're thawing out, SoE. Thanks for the OT.

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

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Sat, 03/18/2023 - 10:41am
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70 today and there are flowers and buds all over the place, as there should be.

The US got off to a slow start in the imperialism challenge match because it first had to conquer it's own intended homeland. As a result it is still perennially looking around for territory it can pick up or at lest dominate the way that the European powers did in the good old days. The figurehead in place during any period of this process doesn't seem to matter much.

Think about it. Dien Bien Phu was a signal to the French that it was time to get out for good, but it was a signal to the US to go try to take their place. The USSR was invited into Afghanistan and we conspired to make it their Viet Nam, but once they left, we quickly made it our second one. The Brits abandoned Diego Garcia and gee, look at that. France left Syria long ago, but, hey, there we are openly stealing their oil. Lately we've begun to "sanction" anybody and everybody for anything and everything, which also includes massive amounts of theft and piracy. We're playing catch-up and we want it all, 'cause we're exceptional and we're numbah one.

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 --

Submitted by ggersh on Sat, 03/18/2023 - 10:44am
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Manufactured inflation and govt's of the collective west
doing their best(worst) to cripple their economies is
being met w/resistance. Protest from Sydney to London to
Paris are happening. A day of protest here might work also!!

EDIT: Adding France

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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

Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 03/18/2023 - 8:59pm
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@ggersh

If the government doesn’t like the protests then just ban them. See easy peasy…no more protests to bother those in power.

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There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 03/18/2023 - 11:58am
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.

The Twitter Files and the new censorship regime

The Files show wide-spread censorship masquerading as “anti-disinformation” and intense collusion between government agencies, NGOs, academia, BigTech, media, philanthropy, the intelligence community, and more.

Rather than listening out for safety signals to protect the public, leaders in the “anti-disinformation” field ran cover to protect BigPharma, smearing and censoring critics. The moral depravity is astounding and quite possibly criminal.

The Vitality Project however is just part of a broader cultural shift that reverses long standing liberal/left commitments to free expression and allows censorship in the name of protection and safety. However in suppressing “stories of true vaccine side effects” the Virality Project put people in danger. Rather than keeping people safe they exposed us to the depredations of BigPharma.

If you want to read the latest dump by Taibbi:

There must be accountability for the government censorship that has been put on steroids during the Covid era and I’m sad that I’m relying on republicans to bring it. I doubt though that they will dare to risk their political careers and cross big pharma just like they haven’t dared to cross the military industrial complex that has seen over a million people killed in the last 20 years. The truth has already been exposed about where the Covid virus came from and who created it, but it has been ignored. I posted a video yesterday that has the smoking gun article on the truth.

People are blaming Trump for the banking debacle and the Ohio train derailment, but presidents don’t make laws, Congress does and 17 democrats joined republicans to weaken banking regulations and democrats have held all branches of government the last 2 years and could have addressed any issues that they bitched about Trump/republicans doing when they did. But of course we have to remember that we only have 1 party and they only represent their donors.

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There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 03/18/2023 - 12:12pm
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.

I’d say the callousness stage, but we have long passed that stage when congress refused to allow single payer, let insurance companies decide whether your doctor should be able to save you life and let big pharma raise prices for drugs so that people can’t afford to buy them and especially for insulin and epi pens….plus the list could go on for days if not months or years.

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There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Submitted by mimi on Sat, 03/18/2023 - 4:04pm
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@snoopydawg

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https://www.euronews.com/live

Submitted by MrWebster on Sat, 03/18/2023 - 12:15pm

1. Biden's team was not even trying to hide/disguise the nature of the explosion. Seems to be a big penis sorta expression of power.

2. Experts can tell where the C4 came from. Would be easy to figure out also. Do an inventory of all C4 in the military stores of all the countries.

Seems that within short order, competent investigators could tell where the explosives came from. No wonder all the Nordic countries are keeping silent and not allowing the results go the Russians.

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Submitted by studentofearth on Sat, 03/18/2023 - 3:42pm
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@MrWebster they would never be discovered. Now it appears evidence discovery is fairly straight forward if an independent investigation is allowed to proceed.

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Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.

Submitted by wokkamile on Sat, 03/18/2023 - 12:50pm

DJT is going to be indicted in Manhattan on Tues. Trump has been told and his attys say he will voluntarily surrender on that day to avoid the handcuffs and perp walk. NYC officials are supposedly preparing security measures for Tues.

Trump's social media response to this development:

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 03/18/2023 - 1:45pm
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@wokkamile

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There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Submitted by wokkamile on Sat, 03/18/2023 - 2:22pm

@snoopydawg on whose part? The Clinton payment was a settlement of the (likely bogus) case she brought against him, which case was ultimately dismissed by a fed court. Settling prior to a final resolution of a case is something that is done routinely in civil suits and was entirely above-board. By contrast, Trump sought to hide his hush money payment to Stormy Daniels by laundering his payout through his atty Michael Cohen who was then reimbursed by Trump under the guise of "legal fees", all of which is the subject of the criminal fraud case in NYC.

Trump also faces election tampering charges in Georgia, which AG investigation is believed to be near the indictment stage. Kirschner believes Georgia will act quickly to indict if in fact the NYC DA does in fact act on Tuesday.

The 3d criminal case is in DC involving the top secret docs Trump took to MAL. That one involves an interesting situation where DJT's attorney might be compelled to testify against Trump.

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 03/18/2023 - 5:16pm
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@wokkamile

Oh of course it was….

Ok

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There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Submitted by wokkamile on Sat, 03/18/2023 - 5:58pm

@snoopydawg low-life RWers and other organized knuckledragging Goopers, occasionally offering cash, who were trying to destroy his presidency from the get go. Starting with the bogus Whitewater allegations, a murky swamp of an investment loss that amounted to nothing wrt any wrongdoing, followed by a series of concocted pseudo scandals, Starrchamber Ken, nothing but Monica in the news for an entire (1998) year and so on.

That's commentary just on the bogus scandals. The first woman, 1992 Jennifer Flowers, turned out to be the only true story. But about all that, it was all gone over to death many yrs ago, so I will make no more remarks on that depressing and wasteful time in our history.

The substance of his presidency was a good deal less than what some of us hoped for the Man from Hope. I think he realized it towards the end, when he grumbled one day about how he seemed to be governing as a Republican. Some of us called him the finest R president since Ike. He had triangulated a little too well.

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 03/18/2023 - 6:26pm
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@wokkamile

Democrats tried to destroy Trump from the minute he came down the escalator and created the bogus ‘he’s a Russian puppet' and then tarred him with the fake Russia collusion story and everything else they have done to him throughout his presidency. They either take his words out of context or they just make up lies about what he actually said. But of course the Clintons were totally innocent of everything that they were investigated for. I’d say that your judgment is very clouded.

low-life RWers and other organized knuckledragging Goopers,

Of course Hillary is pure as the white snow and she doesn’t have a corrupt bone in her body and the Democrats never get down in the dirt and play dirty because of course only republicans are the bad party. Good grief.

Obama helped Hillary target Trump to derail his campaign and used people in his administration and even the intelligence agencies and in my opinion what they did was just as bad as Nixon and watergate which we now know was another intelligence agency operation.

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There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Submitted by wokkamile on Sat, 03/18/2023 - 6:38pm

@snoopydawg parallel -- at least you seem to concede that Clinton was the victim of what HRC called a VRWC. That one she got right, even if she was mocked and pilloried for saying it. Trump was a victim too of a bogus scandal, but handled it all very ineffectively, often doing the DC warmongers bidding to prove he was no Putin puppet.

I did note the J Flowers story largely being true, plus the fling w Monica, so no "totally innocent" claims for Bill from me, though those were just extramarital activities, which should not concern anyone but the adults involved. Definitely plenty of self-righteous GOP hypocrites tried to make them into a huge federal case worthy of impeachment and public stoning.

Middling to poor marks for Bill's substantive presidential record. Hillary would have made for a dangerous person in the Oval on policy wrt Russia. So, again, nice try but no Clinton worshipping from me.

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 03/18/2023 - 9:01pm
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@wokkamile

Not at all. My comment was in response to you saying that the investigation of the Clintons was not warranted. There sure was a lot more smoke surrounding them than what Hillary just pulled out of her … and made up and then used it for an excuse to explain why people rejected her.

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Submitted by on the cusp on Sat, 03/18/2023 - 8:16pm

@snoopydawg .of the opposition is very Banana Republic. And both parties do it right here in this Exceptional USA.
How Bush 43 escaped it is the head scratcher.

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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

Submitted by studentofearth on Sat, 03/18/2023 - 9:12pm
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@on the cusp grandson of a Northeastern elite, US Senator Prescott Bush. His grandfather also escaped prosecution.

How Bush's grandfather helped Hitler's rise to power The Guardian Sept 25, 2004

The Guardian has obtained confirmation from newly discovered files in the US National Archives that a firm of which Prescott Bush was a director was involved with the financial architects of Nazism.

His business dealings, which continued until his company's assets were seized in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act, has led more than 60 years later to a civil action for damages being brought in Germany against the Bush family by two former slave labourers at Auschwitz and to a hum of pre-election controversy.

The evidence has also prompted one former US Nazi war crimes prosecutor to argue that the late senator's action should have been grounds for prosecution for giving aid and comfort to the enemy.

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Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.

Submitted by on the cusp on Sat, 03/18/2023 - 9:51pm

@studentofearth My law prof friend and his students did a massive background search on him. It "seems" he was issued a driver's license a second time. Different numbers. Not legal or possible in this state. But...very few folks have the family that Shrub did. First one was "supposedly" taken for multiple driving while intoxicated convictions.

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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

Submitted by wokkamile on Sun, 03/19/2023 - 9:52am

@on the cusp way back when Banana Republic used to carry the coolest safari wear. My kinda BR. But on your comment, BRs are noted for the ruling party going after opposition leaders purely for political reasons. In Trump's case, there is plenty of there there wrt criminal shenanigans, so TPTB don't need to fabricate evidence as in the BRs. However, there is an interesting question as to whether the charges about the Stormy Daniels hush money is a strong enough legal case to have it stick. I should think the election tampering charge in Georgia, where Donald was caught on tape asking the election official to add a specific number of votes to his total, is the strongest.

In a proper, true democracy, even the highest elected officials are held to account. Unfortunately, this has rarely happened in our country, the Nixon pardon, and its celebration by the political establishment, being the most notorious example of the high and mighty getting away with it.

Re Bush 43 getting away with it, by 2005 and 2007 he still had enough residual establishment support to blunt a growing sentiment on the left side that he should be impeached, and establishmentarian Nancy Pelosi fell in line with her refusal to bring charges in the House. Typical Ds -- they can always be relied on to be soft and invisible when it comes to standing on principle.

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Submitted by on the cusp on Sun, 03/19/2023 - 11:32am

@wokkamile back in the day, come to think of it.
I do not like the selection process of which official gets prosecuted, and which ones do not.
Bill, Hillary, Obama, Biden, Bush 43, all were pretty much caught red handed committing one crime or another.
If Trump is prosecuted, all of the above should be. If not, the taint of using the criminal justice system to pick and choose for political purposes erodes confidence in that system.
Fair is fair in a democracy. Party affiliation should not play any role.

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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

Submitted by kelly on Sun, 03/19/2023 - 12:16am

@wokkamile not to butt in, but
personal experience rudely using the bathroom of the daughter of an HRC bestie.
Embarrassed to think I pulled up a newspaper off the toilet to read it, maybe I just saw it sitting there. HARD CORE RIGHTIST circular.
I use that term with care, because anyone subscribing to the usage of labels like left and right, when talking about figures on the American landscape has questionable acuity. Likely believes in Santa and the Easter Bunny. More power.
HARD CORE RIGHTIST.
I promise you, that is where their friends from Arkansas where coming from, as well. If you cant see that in the 20/20 of hindsight, please drive carefully.
no honor there to defend.
Please name any or some Clinton administration members who did not fly on Epsteins jet.

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Submitted by wokkamile on Sun, 03/19/2023 - 10:09am

@kelly everyone should feel free to chime in as they wish. The more the better. It gets boring just exchanging w the same person.

I'll use your colorful remarks, not all of which were entirely clear to me, as an occasion to note that most here on these political blogs have strong feelings one way or the other about US political figures and the two parties. I am no different in that respect. I would not likely survive voir-dire in a Trump trial jury selection. Many of you would also be similarly excused in a Clinton trial. It's possible however, that I could survive questioning about either of the Clintons, as I've tried to note my ambiguous feelings about both -- roughly, both were the subject of bogus scandalmongering by their dishonorable political opponents while both their records in public office were less than favorable.

So, a mix of defense and criticism. The clear math doesn't exactly add up to hero worship.

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Submitted by studentofearth on Sat, 03/18/2023 - 3:32pm
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@wokkamile law enforcement and courts to shape the next national elections. None of the major factions Republican, Democrats or Uni party (center who vote for their paymasters)have an identifiable leader with a power over their party.

The Jan 6 narrative has lost strength to mobilize opposition. Time to provoke further examples of violent dissent from the "Others".

If justice was the goal multiple past presidents and their extended families would be facing criminal investigations resulting in charges.

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Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.

Submitted by wokkamile on Sat, 03/18/2023 - 6:20pm

@studentofearth as the power institutions finally having to deal w someone at the top who had crossed the legal limits too far and too often. Too many crimes to ignore, some of them on tape. Doing nothing would make them look bad.

Nixon, another crook who comes to mind, got lucky in that the likable Jerry Ford, newly sworn in, was able to sell his garden path story about "healing the country" with the pardon to a gullible press, a compliant DNC, and enough of the public had had enough of Nixon to be satisfied with the fact he was finally out of office and gone. Many believed the nonsense sold them by the media that going after Nixon in criminal court would "tear the country apart". And so Donald may have learned some lessons about a president being above the law.

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 03/18/2023 - 1:03pm
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https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/11tzziy/reopening...

It’s believed to be the Oraville dam.

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There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Sat, 03/18/2023 - 2:31pm
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@snoopydawg @snoopydawg

have a sediment gate.

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 --

Submitted by on the cusp on Sat, 03/18/2023 - 2:31pm

I am going to spend a lazy afternoon watching the videos you presented us.
It is pretty chilly here, with a forecast low tomorrow night of 33 deg. Winter seems reluctant to pass on.
My family law practice, which is approximately 50% of my case load, is getting filled with violence. One client, a young Mom, just lost custody of her son and only gets to visit him under strict supervision for 2 hours a month. She is now facing a civil family violence petition, and 2 criminal assault/family violence cases. I am involved in the custody case, declined the other 3. My concern for my safety is growing. All 4 cases are before the same judge. What will she do when the judge comes down even harder on her visitation?
Some allegation of violence is becoming almost a given in all cases.
These are tough, tense times. People are cracking under the pressures. I spoke with my friend/client at the local funeral home, and he says death by drug overdose is getting more common the past 2 years.
I dread Tuesday. The protest Trump is calling for is practically guaranteed to be a violent cluster f*ck. I figure the cops will be armed and ready. They will need little excuse to shoot. We will be hearing a lot about how cell phones look just like pistols.
I bet Trump wishes he had not allowed Bill Clinton to persuade him to run for President.
Well, Dear One is preparing dinner! That is just the coolest damn thing!

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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

Submitted by soryang on Sat, 03/18/2023 - 3:29pm
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...perspective on the UK labor demonstration from ggersh's post. It's difficult for me to estimate the size of similar demonstrations in Seoul, because, drone flights are prohibited. It seems that reporters and others are for some reason or other (security probably) precluded from getting into high rise buildings in central Seoul to take photos from a higher elevation that would better reveal the size of demonstrations in the city.

Today's candlelight assembly and march was preceded by an assembly sponsored by the South Korean Democratic Party in front of city hall attended by party leaders and a few dozen of the more progressive representatives from the National Assembly with party supporters. This group later proceeded to the Japanese embassy to protest. Yonhap estimated the size of this demonstration at 3,000. The purpose of the demonstration was to express opposition to Yoon's summit with Prime Minister Kishida of Japan. The summit was described as one sided diplomacy of concessions to Japan, a humiliating submission to Japan, which lowered South Korea's international status, and autonomy. It was also pointed out that the implicit denial of the nature of its war crimes by Japan, was a repudiation of international standards of justice which would ultimately prove damaging to international standards and diplomatic relationships with Japan rather than enhancing international stability and security. Such an agreement based upon Japanese revisionism would provide no sound basis for Japanese-Korean relations.

After this demonstration, there was a larger "candlelight assembly and march" that also proceeded from in front of city hall to Gwangwhamun Plaza. I checked out the locations on the Seoul map, and the demo march appeared to be about a kilometer long. So I'm guestimating 15 to 20 thousand. The march stopped in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building to call for the impeachment of the South Korea's foreign minister for incompetence and pro-Japanese allegiance.

The theme of the candlelight demonstration was that Yoon was a traitor, had sold out Korean independence to Japan, and that this was a national humiliation. There were other major statements against the so called "trilateral alliance" of the US, Japan and South Korea, calling for peace. The large banner at the head of the march, said, "this way will lead to war, block the South Korean, US, Japanese war alliance." Performance by stage groups listed Yoon's uncalled for and shameful concessions to Japan and described a litany of all his wife's crimes, the prosecutorial tyranny of Yoon, etc.

Yoon was parodied as a traditional Japanese at the head of the march. An Jun-geun's distinctive handprint was featured as a theme on some signs. I also saw a No Japan sign which is an allusion to the slave labor crimes of Japan and the subsequent popular embargo of Japanese goods and tourism by South Koreans. The usual signs at these demos were there, calling for Yoon to resign, or be pushed out of office, and calling for a special prosecutor to investigate Kim Gon-hee, the first lady.

Brief video of the official democratic party event kicking off Saturday's demonstrations in central Seoul (in front of City Hall). Title is "Incompetent, humiliating diplomacy." At the end is a vignette of a much smaller event by far right Taeguki radicals who called for the arrest of Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung, and featuring US flags along with Korean flags and other paramilitary type flags.

These are the screen captures I took from Balgan Agae's four and half hour live coverage video of the Candlelight assembly and march.

(Source- Balgan Agae 빨간아재 youtube 3.18) From city hall (left) to Gwanghwamun Plaza (right) the march extended.

(Source- Balgan Agae 빨간아재 youtube 3.18) Yoon and Kim Gon-hee effigies at the head of the march in Gwanghwamun.

(Source- Balgan Agae 빨간아재 youtube 3.18) Line of police buses in front of US embassy on left. Parade speakers opposing the trilateral alliance, the Japanese summit, and calling for peace.

(Source- Balgan Agae 빨간아재 youtube 3.18) Signs calling for Yoon to step down from office, and carrying the An Jun-geun independence handprint. US embassy in background (pretty much across the street from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building which is out of the picture.

These are my impressions of events in Seoul today from the videos and other news and commentary.

Thanks for the open thread SOE! Watched or read virtually everything here. Kept me busy today.

(edited to add title to video and fix typos)

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Submitted by studentofearth on Sat, 03/18/2023 - 9:43pm
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@soryang you have not already read the book.

The Imperial Cruise: A True Story of Empire and War by James Bradely. The true story of a 1905 cruise arranged by President Teddy Roosevelt. He sent Secretary of War William Taft, Alice Roosevelt his daughter and several congressmen. The trip included stops at Japan, the Philippines, China, and Korea. It was the beginning of a series of agreements that divided up Asia in secret.

Part 1 (9:53)

James Bradley - The Imperial Cruise - Part 2 (9:29 min)

James Bradley - The Imperial Cruise - Part 3 (7:40)

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Submitted by soryang on Sat, 03/18/2023 - 11:13pm
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@studentofearth I'm a big fan of James Bradley. Read The China Mirage, and the Imperial Cruise. Of course, he appears in John Pilger's The Coming War on China. I hadn't seen these youtube videos about Bradley's book.

I was actually introduced to this subject, originally by Bruce Cummings, concerning Taft Katsura agreement, Roosevelt's role, etc. I had written a couple of essays based either on South Korea's history channel discussions, or the presentations on JTBC by the great journalist Sohn Suk-hee, on this subject. It's hard to believe Sohn still works for Joongang media at JTBC. They are soooo conservative. As a matter of fact, they're terrible. Sohn is not. But I noticed since he left as JTBC's news anchor and became management, there was no news program like his afterwards. They became real conservative and I stopped watching. Joonang has a "partnership" with the NY Times. So one can guess what they're all about.

Anyway I wrote concerning one of his Sohn's reports on Alice in an analysis in 2019 comparing Ambassador Harris' cluelessness to hers.-

(JTBC News- 11.19) Alice Roosevelt riding a stone horse statue at the Memorial for Empress Myeongsong, acting as if she were "riding a carousel at an amusement park." The picture is from the Cornell University Library collection.

Alice cavorted around Seoul being treated like an American princess after Teddy Roosevelt had already sold out Korean sovereignty to the Japanese at the Treaty of Portsmouth September 5, 1905. The great powers bargained away Korea's sovereignty to Japan to serve their own imperial interests. Russia actually was the only power to resist the Japanese, but that was because they had wanted to make Korea a Russian domain. The Russians lost the Russo-Japanese War and had to sign the Portsmouth Treaty arranged by President Roosevelt, in which Japan's dominance in Korea was acknowledged. Later in September 1905, King Gojong still thought the US might be of help to avoid the Japanese takeover of Korea when President Roosevelt's daughter, Alice Roosevelt, visited Korea. Other high ranking US diplomats who had been traveling with Alice through other Asian capitals didn't bother to come. Korea's fate was already cast.

Alice attended a formal dinner presented in her honor by the "Emperor," and rode in his palanquin through the streets of Seoul. Her memorable faux pas was to jump on the back of a stone horse statue at the memorial mound of Empress Myeongseong who in 1895 had been assassinated by the Japanese. At least Alice had an excuse. She was immature, so the editorial goes. Alice wrote that Emperor Gojong of Korea, small in stature, cut a piteous insensitive figure. Here we are more than a hundred years later....

https://civilizationdiscontents.blogspot.com/2019/11/train-of-us-diploma...

Anyway, I'm a great admirer of James Bradley's work. Thanks, I'll watch those.

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Submitted by soryang on Sat, 03/18/2023 - 11:17pm
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@soryang @soryang One source, the South Korean Federation of Trade Unions placed the crowd size at the Democratic Party event in front of City Hall at 10,000. This group also went to the Japanese embassy. I thought 3,000 was on the low side.

Someone on OhMy TV was asserting near the end of the Candlelight demonstration that the total crowd size at the demonstration march Saturday was 100,000. I think this might be on the high side. Without the overhead view, going from city hall, to Gwanghwamun, around the corner to the Japanese embassy, and then returning to city hall, it's difficult to get a good picture of the size of demonstration. But the OhMyTV report provided additional information that the designated march route became too congested, and that arrivals into the central city had to debark from the metro at Sungnyemun, about 1.5 km further south. So with this additional information and better pictures of the assembled demonstrators from their broadcast, a number closer to one hundred thousand demonstrators is more likely than my original estimate which was too low and based on a crowd extending for only about 1 km with two lanes of traffic still open. This had to be reduced to one lane by police as crowd size was too big for some roadways (returning from the Japanese embassy, perhaps).

I think one of the police objectives by squeezing the crowds of demonstrators into a relatively narrow defile, allegedly for traffic purposes, is in fact to stretch it out, make it appear smaller than it is rather than allowing them to occupy entire plazas and major intersections as it did during the end of the Park Geun-hye administration. During the anti-Park demonstrations when the crowd occupied Ganghwamun Plaza and adjacent roadways, it displayed its enormous mass in one field of view and sent a more powerful message to the government, including police and armed forces.

The Ohmynews commentators were expressing some dismay, that there isn't more coordination among the various political, civic, labor, and trades groups opposed to Yoon administration policies. There had been a prior demonstration by the Justice Party. They had a good turnout for a small party. Politically in the National Assembly they have been acting as a spoiler of democratic initiatives. Farmers groups, and over a hundred and fifty other organizations are planning to show up at a future demonstration in March 25. This may make a difference.

The crowds have been extraordinarily well behaved.

(edited to correct date of wider civic organization participation in demonstrations)

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