Open Thread WE 29 MAR 23 ~ In Access

Submitted by QMS on Wed, 03/29/2023 - 7:20am

Exercise Your Mind

Strength of mind is exercise, not rest.
- Alexander Pope

Thinking it is time to ignore the impulse to relax and find comfort in distractions.
Thinking it is time now. Where leads the anger? Compassion does not kill.
Got little so far today. Chime in with what have you.

Perhaps in a telling example of cognitive dissonance, today is Vietnam Veterans Day,
Smoke & Mirrors Day and Texas Love the Children Day (caged).

And on this date in 1955 East Germany granted full sovereignty by occupying power,
USSR.

Credits ~

Land of Infinite Wonders acrylic on panel by Alexander Harrison

https://www.instagram.com/alexanderrharrison/?hl=en

Please share the mental gymnastics you have in helping to understanding
past/present/future issues. Or whatever.

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Open Thread

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Comments

Submitted by QMS on Wed, 03/29/2023 - 8:03am

Good Morning

As the Summit for Democracy convenes in DC (as well as the Summit Against Hypocrisy)
the Biden administration lectures world 'leaders' on the wonders of American
neocolonialism.

Behind the efforts to organize the summit is the desire to update and legitimize the American instruments of external control and interfere in the domestic affairs of other countries, forcing everyone to see the world through the prism of the ‘rule-based order’ promoted to serve Washington's global interests.

- Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova

I now know that the word democracy is code for colonization in our foreign affairs.
Many nation states are also getting the picture.

The US and its allies have to return to complying with the norms of international law and get involved in creating conditions for peaceful coexistence and mutually beneficial cooperation.

https://tass.com/politics/1595325?utm_source=theautomaticearth.com&utm_m...

—

question everything

Submitted by QMS on Wed, 03/29/2023 - 8:19am

Fun stuff

Illusions are US.

cheers!

—

question everything

Submitted by on the cusp on Wed, 03/29/2023 - 9:51am

I got good news

about my attorney pal's son. The son had a stroke, then a brain bleed, and was life-flighted to a hospital in Houston.
Monday, he had a 6 hour surgery. By all accounts, the surgery went well.
This is a miracle. The 50 yr old man will survive.
Talk about brain access, QMS!
A mockingbird lit on my deck here at the office. The bird was as big around as it was tall. Is obesity a "thing" with birds?
The property next to my office is a community center with a hyper-active master gardener garden. While I enjoy their efforts, I could do without the fresh smell of horse shit.

—

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

Submitted by QMS on Wed, 03/29/2023 - 10:36am

That's great news

@on the cusp

Brain Salad Surgery
hold the anchovies

—

question everything

Submitted by dystopian on Wed, 03/29/2023 - 3:50pm

Hi all

@on the cusp @on the cusp Hi OtC!

A mockingbird lit on my deck here at the office. The bird was as big around as it was tall. Is obesity a "thing" with birds?

The feathers on the body of a bird, called contour feathers, are usually held fairly flat against the skin. But, they can turn them about 90 degrees so they stand out perpendicular to the skin. In doing so a bird can appear to double size. Or more. Usually when it is cold or wet out, they fluff out the contour feathers to keep the bad conditions further from the skin. Thereby retaining heat better. In excessive heat birds can turn them out to lose heat. They also pant to lose heat. Birds generally run a few degrees F warmer than we do. Raising of feathers is also common in breeding or mate selection displays, and especially, threat displays.

Glad for your good news!

—

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

Submitted by on the cusp on Wed, 03/29/2023 - 4:31pm

I just knew you would

@dystopian be able to explain bird obesity expertly! Lol!
I did get great news on my friend's son. What a nightmare they have just lived through!
But, they all lived!
The birds have been frisky around here. Disappointingly, only 1 hummingbird sighting thus far.
Take good care, friend!

—

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

Submitted by fire with fire on Thu, 03/30/2023 - 12:43pm

Make America Rational Again (MARA)

Just endured my 70th birthday; mainly, but not completely recovered from a stroke that occurred last July -- and my frustration with the course of history is becoming ever more intense. Something really odd is going on -- odd and plainly evil, so obviously evil that we can finally see a counterculture developing that is trying to rescue objective reality from its Forbidden status. Much of the rhetoric within this countercultural movement is even more frustrating than the storebought propaganda, as it tends to attribute the success of the propaganda to a widespread lack of "critical thinking skills."

In short, the idea is that most people are just too stupid and gullible to recognize bullshit.

Self congratulation is utterly unpersuasive. "I'm right because I am smarter than you."

Within this necessary stage of resistance to lunacy, I see almost no empathy for the individuals who do not realize that the Authorites are now as always full of shit -- perpetually putting out propaganda in support of their own interests. While correctly seeing through the current waves of bullshit, this new perspective actually helps the bullshit along by insulting the very people we should be trying to win over.

Old grudges against wingnuts seem to animate any consideration of why so many people believe what their government and the corporations tell them.

My thumbnail version of this paradigm looks at the Trump Slogan: Make America great again. It is so self satisfying to write off those idiots who don't realize that we were never "great."

But we should all be ready to agree with our own assessment that things have gone downhill since the 1980s. And the current controversies over Covid and Ukraine are obviously not success stories, but instead show the weirdness of our social order that punishes our people to fight the "enemies" of contagion and Putin. Instead of trying to disprove the specific lies told about both of these crusades -- I think we should focus on how badly both campaigns have gone, based on their own stated goals. As of late March 2023' with incessant TV commercials urging us to get our booster jabs and to donate money to help the afflicted Ukrainians, nobody can claim that the campaigns have succeeded.

In fact, when viewed from the widest possible angle, both efforts show themselves as bat-shit crazy.

MAKE AMERICA RATIONAL AGAIN

—

I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.

Submitted by QMS on Wed, 03/29/2023 - 1:03pm

Congrats making 70

@fire with fire
Just a couple behind you. The stroke is a bummer, but it sounds like your mind is still
sharp. Your ideas about rational thinking sure ring true.

Good luck!

Just endured my 70th birthday; mainly, but not completely recovered from a stroke that occurred last July -- and my frustration with the course of history is becoming ever more intense. Something really odd is going on -- odd and plainly evil, so obviously evil that we can finally see a counterculture developing that is trying to rescue objective reality from its Forbidden status. Much of the rhetoric within this countercultural movement is even more frustrating than the storebought propaganda, as it tends to attribute the success of the propaganda to a widespread lack of "critical thinking skills."

In short, the idea is that most people are just too stupid and gullible to recognize bullshit.

Self congratulation is utterly unpersuasive. "I'm right because I am smarter than you."

Within this necessary stage of resistance to lunacy, I see almost no empathy for the individuals who do not realize that the Authorites are now as always full of shit -- perpetually putting out propaganda in support of their own interests. While correctly seeing through the current waves of bullshit, this new perspective actually helps the bullshit along by insulting the very people we should be trying to win over.

Old grudges against wingnuts seem to animate any consideration of why so many people believe what their government and the corporations tell them.

My thumbnail version of this paradigm looks at the Trump Slogan: Make America great again. It is so self satisfying to write off those idiots who don't realize that we were never "great."

But we should all be ready to agree with our own assessment that things have gone downhill since the 1980s. And the current controversies over Covid and Ukraine are obviously not success stories, but instead show the weirdness of our social order that punishes our people to fight the "enemies" of contagion and Putin. Instead of trying to disprove the specific lies told about both of these crusades -- I think we should focus on how badly both campaigns have gone, based on their own stated goals. As of late March 2023' with incessant TV commercials urging us to get our booster jabs and to donate money to help the afflicted Ukrainians, nobody can claim that the campaigns have succeeded.

In fact, when viewed from the widest possible angle, both efforts show themselves as bat-shit crazy.

MAKE AMERICA RATIONAL AGAIN

—

question everything

Submitted by on the cusp on Wed, 03/29/2023 - 6:51pm

Congrats on the 70 yr hallmark.

@fire with fire I am so sorry to hear about your stroke, but so hope you are getting the therapy and care you need to cope and function to the utmost.
You know, when we are 70, which I am for a few more months, we have a lot of wisdom to pass on to young folks willing to listen with an open mind. We have witnessed a lot, pal. We have lived and learned.
Kudos!

Just endured my 70th birthday; mainly, but not completely recovered from a stroke that occurred last July -- and my frustration with the course of history is becoming ever more intense. Something really odd is going on -- odd and plainly evil, so obviously evil that we can finally see a counterculture developing that is trying to rescue objective reality from its Forbidden status. Much of the rhetoric within this countercultural movement is even more frustrating than the storebought propaganda, as it tends to attribute the success of the propaganda to a widespread lack of "critical thinking skills."

In short, the idea is that most people are just too stupid and gullible to recognize bullshit.

Self congratulation is utterly unpersuasive. "I'm right because I am smarter than you."

Within this necessary stage of resistance to lunacy, I see almost no empathy for the individuals who do not realize that the Authorites are now as always full of shit -- perpetually putting out propaganda in support of their own interests. While correctly seeing through the current waves of bullshit, this new perspective actually helps the bullshit along by insulting the very people we should be trying to win over.

Old grudges against wingnuts seem to animate any consideration of why so many people believe what their government and the corporations tell them.

My thumbnail version of this paradigm looks at the Trump Slogan: Make America great again. It is so self satisfying to write off those idiots who don't realize that we were never "great."

But we should all be ready to agree with our own assessment that things have gone downhill since the 1980s. And the current controversies over Covid and Ukraine are obviously not success stories, but instead show the weirdness of our social order that punishes our people to fight the "enemies" of contagion and Putin. Instead of trying to disprove the specific lies told about both of these crusades -- I think we should focus on how badly both campaigns have gone, based on their own stated goals. As of late March 2023' with incessant TV commercials urging us to get our booster jabs and to donate money to help the afflicted Ukrainians, nobody can claim that the campaigns have succeeded.

In fact, when viewed from the widest possible angle, both efforts show themselves as bat-shit crazy.

MAKE AMERICA RATIONAL AGAIN

—

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

Submitted by fire with fire on Thu, 03/30/2023 - 1:29pm

Thank you for the friendly thoughts

@on the cusp @on the cusp I realize that I am unlikely to get back to the same life I was experiencing before the stroke -- which is not really a bad thing as that style of living is what put me in the hospital. My strategy of walking farther and faster every day has worked beautifully. I now get in two miles of walking almost every day, and at least one mile every single day. I have had precisely one day off of this regimen in 2023 so far. I can drive a car without drama or incident and I do all the grocery shopping. I still cannot do Gregg typing with both hands -- this post comes via the hunt and peck method. My worst lingering problem from the stroke remains my feeling of teetering imbalance, which makes me walk kind of like Frankenstein's Monster. One of the neurology nurses told me that feeling will be the last to go as I establish a new normal. I have not fallen since October, and when I occasionally stumble while walking, I always keep my feet under me -- confirming the nurse's rap about the feeling of imbalance being an illusion. Other pedestrians tend to go faster than me, even as I now keep up a steady pace of 3 mph. I will every now and then jog for a hundred yards or so without falling down.

Regarding therapy -- there is none, but the education I got when in a rehab hospital has been very useful. I was originally assigned a visiting nurse to provide home care. But I had tested positive for Covid while in the rehab hospital, and when I told him about that on the phone while setting up what would have been his first visit, he said he would have to check with his bosses before scheduling our appointment. I never heard from that guy or anybody else again.

I told the story of my zreo symptom positive test on this post.

—

I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.

Submitted by on the cusp on Thu, 03/30/2023 - 10:11pm

omigod, fwf!

@fire with fire @fire with fire I missed that. I try to read comments daily, but life and that lawyer thing can intrude!
I am beginning to believe hospitals, because of COViD, are the places to avoid, unless you want to die alone without having any treatment for anything.
Keep pecking away, and walking, and remember, falls kill. Just imagine smashing a hip, what you would go through at a hospital.
I am so glad you have the heart and resolve to overcome what the medical community foisted upon you.
Fuck those drs.

—

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

Submitted by humphrey on Wed, 03/29/2023 - 11:49am

The ongoing drills between US & South Korea are purely

Of a defensive nature. Ha!

South Korea and the United States held a major amphibious landing exercise involving 30 ships, 70 aircraft and 50 amphibious vehicles

Submitted by on the cusp on Wed, 03/29/2023 - 6:53pm

Pre-emptive invasion

@humphrey is purely defensive. (In a bull shit world.)
What a cluster f*ck!

—

"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 Wed, 03/29/2023 - 12:24pm

Academic freedom

Censorship in academia regarding Ukraine proliferates:https://t.co/enb5yZ5KQQ

— CovertAction Magazine (@CovertActionMag) March 26, 2023

There is a great essay describing the war on academic freedom in Japan in a recent issue of Asia Pacific Journal Japan Focus:

Curbing Academic Freedom in Japan
Jeff Kingston, Feb 15, 2023

>Abstract: Signaling by politicians, bureaucrats, and educational administrators plays a key role in curbing academic freedom in Japan by highlighting taboo subjects and funding priorities. Structural constraints on autonomy, however, represent the most insidious threat to academic freedom. Neoliberal reforms enacted in Japan over the past two decades have compromised academic freedom and undermined university autonomy. Overall, under the pretext of reform, higher education has become more rigidly hierarchical while there is a chronic lack of diversity that fosters narrow groupthink. On Prime Minister Abe Shinzo’s watch, online harassment of academics surged while prominent revisionists targeted scholars over interpretations of wartime history.

https://apjjf.org/2023/2/Kingston.html

On the South Korean "injustice system"

TK from The Blue Roof has a great commentary on a book written by Lee In-kyu, the former prosecutor of President No Moo-hyun, whose prosecution ultimately resulted in the No's suicide. I'll just post an except here, the original can be viewed (registration required, it's free) near the bottom of The Blue Roof March Week 4 Update here:

https://www.blueroofpolitics.com/post/tbr-weekly-update-week-4-march-2023/

The conventional understanding of Roh’s alleged bribery case is that Jeong Sang-mun, Blue House Secretary of General Affairs 정상문 청와대 총무비서관, amassed a slush fund by accepting money from friendly businessmen without Roh’s knowledge. But Lee recounts his version of the investigation in his book, and insists that Roh was in fact guilty of bribery. Based on his conclusion, Lee slams South Korea’s liberals and Moon Jae-in 문재인, Roh’s former chief of staff who, according to Lee, “became the president by building an altar of lies on top of Roh’s corpse.”

Lee’s telling of the investigative record is tendentious: when testimonies conflict without documentary evidence, Lee simply declares that Roh and his associates must have been lying. But perhaps more problematic is Lee’s proud description of the intimidation and pressure tactics he used in the investigation of Roh. Revealing information gathered in the course of a prosecutorial investigation is itself a criminal violation. But Lee, undeterred, details the threats he made to gain the statements he wished to create.

This is incredibly similar to the means taken to cobble together a bogus indictment and arrest warrant against the democratic opposition leader Lee Jae-myung.

TK's brief deliniation of admissions by former prosecutor Lee in his book, present the template for subsequent political prosecutions to this day by the Yoon directed "dictatorship of prosecutors."

Nevertheless, Yoon a brazen liar and hypocrite also appeared at the Summit for Democracy, blathering about democracy, human rights, and the rule of the law. He criticized the use of "fake news" by the enemies of democracy. The unlawful dissemination of "fake news" by prosecutors in conjunction with the dominant conservative media is the foundation for Yoon's authoritarian state. This is how Yoon's "division" of prosecutors mobilize public opinion to be receptive to the outcomes of politically motivated criminal prosecutions that typically rely on forged evidence and perjury.

Yoon says S. Korea will work to firmly defend democracy
Yonhap March 29
https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20230329009400315?input=tw

In February, I had written an interpretation of a video report which linked current President Yoon Suk-yeol, and his long term legal associate and friend, Yoon Tae-jin, who held a position in No Moo-hyun's presidential office, to earlier prosecutions aimed at disabling No Moo-hyun's progressive administration.

When Did it Begin?
https://civilizationdiscontents.blogspot.com/2023/02/when-did-it-begin.html

—

語必忠信行必正直

Submitted by snoopydawg on Wed, 03/29/2023 - 12:43pm

Neighbor said that there was a shooting at th local high school

Her grandkids go there and she was a mess. Luckily it turned out to be a hoax that hit many high schools in Utah today and has been happening to others across the country. Not sure what it involves but sheesh something has to be done about the shootings that kids are just supposed to tolerate for some reason.

Ogden high school has been the victim of a hoax related to school violence. Repeat: this is a hoax. No students have been harmed. Ogden police are at the school and are clearing the building per protocol as a precaution.Multiple schools have been the victim of this hoax today.

— OgdenSchoolDistrict (@ogdensd) March 29, 2023

I don’t know what can be done, but maybe if there wasn’t so much inequality and people stressed to the breaking point that would help.

Biden says that there is nothing he can do about this unless congress acts and I agree with him. Congress should stop its war on we the people and instead go after the donors who are driving this economic shit show! The government shouldn’t be at war with their people and people shouldn’t be afraid of their government. Remember it’s supposed to be a government OF THE PEOPLE which includes all of us!

—

The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt

Submitted by snoopydawg on Wed, 03/29/2023 - 1:17pm

Dunno how I forgot about this

@snoopydawg

The Decades of Evidence That Antidepressants Cause Mass Shootings

Note: This original version of this article was published a year ago, but sadly is just as pertinent now as it was then. Each time one of these shootings happen, I watch people get up in arms over what needs to be done to stop murdering our children, but at the same time this, the elephant in the room, the clear and irrefutable evidence linking psychiatric medications to homicidal violence is never discussed (which I believe is due their sales making approximately 40 billion dollars a year).

Many of the stories in here are quite heart wrenching, and I humbly request that you make the effort to bear witness to these tragic events.

—

Submitted by humphrey on Wed, 03/29/2023 - 1:22pm

Just a warning. Big Brother is watching. This could happen here!

https://www.rfi.fr/en/international-news/20230329-french-woman-faces-tri...

Lille (France) (AFP) – A woman in northern France is to be put on trial on charges of insulting President Emmanuel Macron after describing him as 'filth' in a Facebook post, a prosecutor said on Wednesday.

The woman, risks a fine of 12,000 euros but not prison if convicted at the trial due to be held in June.

She was arrested on Friday and held in custody for questioning after the state's local administrative office filed a complaint over her Facebook post, the prosecutor in the northern town of Saint Omer, Mehdi Benbouzid, told AFP.

The complaint focused on a post on her Facebook page made on March 21, the day before Macron gave a lunchtime interview to TF1 television to defend his controversial pension reforms that have sparked nationwide protests.

"This piece of filth is going to address you at 1:00 pm... it's always on television that we see this filth," she wrote.

The woman, in her 50s, had been a supporter of the 2018-2019 "Yellow Vest" protests that shook Macron during his first mandate.

I saw others versions that could include up to a year in jail if she is found guilty. Perhaps this was edited to minimize the penalty.

Edited to add this as it is related:

What the Government wants to pass is the opposite of Land of the Free. https://t.co/BM3MhmH7Qb

— (@ritafields_) March 29, 2023

Submitted by snoopydawg on Wed, 03/29/2023 - 1:23pm

The U.K. and Germany have charged 2 journalists for reporting

@humphrey

the truth about the Ukraine war from Ukraine. Russia has sentenced a man to prison for 2 years for writing anti war statements. Russia did pass legislation making it illegal for anyone to criticize the SMO. And Biden sent the IRS to Taibbi's house on the day he was testifying to Congress.

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Submitted by usefewersyllables on Wed, 03/29/2023 - 1:35pm

There have been

a couple more school shootings here in the Denver area recently. Can't keep track of them all, and have basically stopped trying. All the good-guys-with-guns are saying that they wished that they'd been there and they'd have put a stop to it, toot sweet. Right. Lots of folks around here are packing heat, and just waiting for a chance to annihilate someone.

There's also some numbnuts out shooting a pellet gun at cars on some of the roads south of Parker. The cops say that there's nothing they can do about it, really; too bad, just a pellet gun, nothing to see here. The locals are now gunning for them as well. My ex-military ex-buddy lives down there, and I have no doubt that his truck firearm is laying on the seat beside him ready for duty whenever he drives those roads.

The upcoming crossfire will have been brought to you by the ammosexuals at the NRA... The Owners would really prefer it if we'd just off ourselves, so that they don't have to get their hands dirty, and it sure seems to me as if we are more than happy to oblige them.

'Murka! Freedumb! Fuck yeah!

Faugh.

—

Twice bitten, permanently shy.

Submitted by ban nock on Thu, 03/30/2023 - 8:18am

@usefewersyllables the shooting at Denver

@usefewersyllables the shooting at Denver East High School was by a student who was transferred there because of issues he'd had elsewhere. He was so violent that he had to be searched every day by the assistant principal and security officer before he entered the school. It was during this search he shot the two.

Why they keep violent kids in school I don't know. DEI I guess.

Submitted by humphrey on Wed, 03/29/2023 - 2:14pm

SMH..... John Kirby is an idiot!

It's not Russia that is afraid, the damage to Russian troops will be minimal!
It is the region that will be poisoned and the Ukrainians who cheer it on, are just indoctrinated zombies without a brain. It's their f#cking land that is being poisoned to be able to destroy 2 or 3… https://t.co/IxW1FEt09g

— Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) March 29, 2023

The rest of the tweet:

2 or 3 tanks more.

Maybe that's even deliberate, they know exactly how the effect was in Iraq and Serbia ... so why not let Russia take that land ... but let's poison it before they capture it.

Submitted by on the cusp on Wed, 03/29/2023 - 2:56pm

Ukraine must not have any hope

@humphrey of re-taking the territory. They will show those Ruskies!
What kind of human being willfully poisons the soil and injures and kills anyone who lives on that soil for decades?
Here I am, sensitive about putting out ant poison! I say "No!" to spraying Roundup to kill weeds in the pasture fence lines.
I don't seem to be fitting in well with the general world population nowadays. I am so Old School.