Welcome to Saturday's Potluck - July 1, 2023

Submitted by studentofearth on Sat, 07/01/2023 - 8:54am

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

Only 4 hours late. not a great start to the day.

The pattern of taking over societies, nations, tribes and loosely structured groups over the centuries has not changed dramatically. The technological tools have changed. One of the essential elements has been ignorance of the pattern by the targeted group.With the current level of information technology around the world it is harder to find naive populations to exploit with the simple concept of trust us we are only here to help you.

Soldiers of fortune were an essential part of Europe's success of taking to the seas to build worldwide empires.

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A history of the CIA needs to include the Office of Strategic Services and their activities in Asia. The push and pull between powerful groups disrupted the 1944 attempt of a historical accounting.

Video is restricted to watching on youtube only.
BookTV: Maochun Yu, "OSS in China: Prelude to Cold War" (10:05 min)

OSS IN CHINA PRELUDE TO COLD WAR by Maochun Yu

A significant account of the wartime exploits in China of the OSS (Office of Strategic Services), the intelligence agency that was later to become the CIA. Yu's (History/US Naval Academy) is the first history based on original US archives and on recently published articles and memoirs in China. The fighting among the 20 US bureaucratic agencies and dozen independent intelligence organizations in Chungking seems to have exceeded in intensity anything they were able to mobilize against the Japanese, at least until the last months of the war.
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These included—though for a long time the US participants seemed oblivious to it—both the British, who didn't want China to be too strong after the war, and the Communists, who wanted to undermine the Nationalist government, get weapons and money from the US, and build up a reputation as the main enemy of the Japanese at the very time that they were engaged in making deals with them. The main winners were the OSS, which seems to have emerged largely unscathed almost in spite of itself; and the Communists, whose shrewd infiltration of the British, the French, and above all the Nationalists was truly remarkable. On the critical question of the extent to which the Communists infiltrated the Americans, Yu is circumspect. He describes, for example, the extraordinary assistance given them by a second-ranking State Department employee like John Paton Davies without analyzing his motives. It is one of the few deficiencies in an important if profoundly depressing story of bureaucratic infighting, jealousies, incomprehension, and ultimate failure.

'

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Phil Giraldi presentations are a reminder most agents are worker bees within a large organizational structure. New individuals are hired to do the same work after older workers become eligible for pensions and retire to various places around the world. The policies and corporate culture will continue as long as there is a funding source.

Ukraine Offensive Continues to be Slow? w/Phil Giraldi fmr CIA (27:04 min)

The other livestream videos this week by Judge Napolitano channel ongoing discussions regarding current Ukraine/Russia conflict. the interviews are generally posted on Monday through Thursday if would like to view them in a more timely manner.

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One Ray McGovern video (hat tip snoopydawg)
SI: Russia’s ‘Coup’ Is Actually Biden’s Disaster (w/ Ray McGovern) (1:31 min)(starts as 7 minutes

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What is on your mind today?

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Submitted by studentofearth on Sat, 07/01/2023 - 9:01am
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What happens in Russia after The Longest Day? The Cradle by Pepe Escobar June 27, 2023

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is cutting to the chase: he has reminded everyone that the Hegemon’s modus operandi is to back coup attempts whenever it can benefit. This dovetails with the fact that the FSB is actively investigating whether and how Western intel was involved in The Longest Day.
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While no one was paying attention, a mini-Congress of national security officials took place in Copenhagen exactly on the fateful 24 and 25 of June.

They were arguably discussing “peace in Ukraine.” The chairman was none other than US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.
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“Peace in Ukraine” means, in this context, the so-called 10-point “Zelensky peace plan,” which implies a total Russian strategic defeat – complete with the restoration of Ukraine within the borders of 1991 and payment of colossal “reparations” by Moscow.

No wonder China was not part of it. Yet three BRICS – call them the weakest nodes – were there. BRICS and BRICS+ prospective members compose the six “swing states” which will be relentlessly courted and/or submitted to hardcore Hybrid Wars by the Hegemon to “behave” when it comes to Ukraine: Brazil, India, South Africa, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia.

Then there’s the 11th EU sanctions package, which is taking the economic war against Russia to a whole new level, as attested by Acting Permanent Representative to the EU, Kirill Logvinov.
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Camps to accommodate at least 8,000 Wagner fighters are already being built in Belarus, in the Mogilev region – according to “Vyorstka” (“Layout”).

The real story behind it is that Belarus, for quite a while, has been expecting a possible attack from rabid Poland. In parallel, as much as sending NATO into extra freakout mode, Moscow could be contemplating the opening of a new front between Lviv and Kiev.

Wagner in Belarus makes total sense. The Belarussian Army is not exactly strong. Wagner secures Russia’s western front. That will raise major hell on NATO – even figuratively, and force them to spend even more astronomical sums. And Wagner can merrily use airports in Belarus to pursue its – rebranded – activities in West Asia and Africa.

Everything that happened since The Longest Day is part of a new dramatic plot twist in a running series – way more gripping than whatever Netflix could offer.

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

Submitted by Lookout on Sat, 07/01/2023 - 9:31am
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Let's just hope we are able to live out our lives rather than have them cut short in a nuclear WWIII.

I've already had a busy morning, and we've got lots of activities/parties to attend over the next few days. Well, it is nice to see old friends and family.

Hope everyone enjoys the holiday weekend!

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

Submitted by QMS on Sat, 07/01/2023 - 10:59am

hunkering down for the madness of the fourth
brings out a slew of crazies
best to just putter round in the gardens until
the night time bomb blasts begin

sold my old tractor yesterday
finished moving a fence today for pay
good to go, rolling in the dough
hope y'alls are good too!

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 07/01/2023 - 11:19am
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More from Bowes from his speech at the UN

arming Ukraine is a dangerous and cynical ploy

Western nations are pushing Ukrainian soldiers into suicide missions against Russian forces after providing them with outdated and often inoperative weapons, RT correspondent Chay Bowes has told the UN Security Council. The Irish journalist was among the speakers invited to address to the Council on Thursday, sharing his views on Western lethal aid to Ukraine and the related proliferation risks. The gathering was attended by ambassadors including Russian Permanent Representative Vasily Nebenzya and his UK counterpart Barbara Woodward. Bowes told the delegations that NATO nations have been helping Kiev to build up its military since 2014, training thousands of troops each year. He described the current hostilities as “a proxy conflict, where Ukraine supplies manpower… to support a de-facto NATO operation to prevent a Russian military victory”.

A defeated Ukraine would undermine the US-led military bloc itself, he predicted, which explains the escalation of arms supplies from the West. Many of the weapons provided to Kiev, especially by smaller nations, are often in a poor state of repair, Bowes said, citing multiple reports from the Western media and officials. Some are “outright lethal”to the Ukrainians using them. The sub-par weapons are being “dumped” as part of schemes by the larger powers, primarily the US, to replace and upgrade their own stocks. Meanwhile on the frontline, Kiev’s troops have paid a heavy price for “strategically insignificant” territorial gains during this month’s counteroffensive, he said. Ukrainian action essentially amounts to a “suicidal full-frontal attacks on in-depth prepared defenses”, and allowing them to occur is “deeply cynical” and “sinister”, the reporter argued. “No modern NATO military strategist or senior officer would suggest these maneuvers are anything but an inhumane ticket to tragedy, when commanding their own troops,” Bowes claimed.

“Yet when it comes to Ukrainian young men mounting these assaults being decimated – they are silent.” Continued hostilities are also taking a toll on civilians in Russia, some of which Bowes said he had met personally in places including Belgorod Region. “I’ve seen [Russian] villages burning, I’ve heard artillery strikes, and I have to tell you that weapons being supplied by NATO and their allies to Ukraine are being wilfully targeted against civilian populations on a daily basis… all miraculously invisible to the Western media,” he told the UNSC. Historical precedents, such as the Troubles in Northern Ireland or the terrorist attack on the 2015 Bataclan Theater in Paris, show that even a small number of weapons can cause much suffering by civilians, Bowes warned. The arming of Ukraine may lead to decades of instability in the region and cause spillover effects in far-away nations, he added.

Milley doesn’t care how many Ukrainians die in this current offensive to defeat Russia. Of course he doesn’t because it’s not his troops who are doing the dying.

Top US general ‘not surprised’ about Ukraine’s slow offensive

There should be no illusions about the price Kiev has to pay for making progress, Mark Milley has said

Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russia will be extremely costly for its troops and will continue for a couple of months, US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley said on Friday.

Speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, the top US military commander offered his take on the Ukraine conflict, saying, “it doesn’t surprise me at all” that Kiev’s much-hyped counteroffensive is going slower than expected.

“What I had said was this is going to take six, eight, ten weeks. It’s going to be very difficult. It’s going to be very long and it’s going to be very, very bloody,” he said, noting that Kiev’s advance has been hampered by Russian minefields.

“No one should have any illusions about any of that,” he stressed, adding that Ukraine is fighting for survival against a strong adversary.

Let’s not forget why people voted for Zelensky in the first place. Because he promised that he would end the fighting in the Donbas and make peace with the people there.

It’s obvious that Zelensky is just a puppet president just like Joe Biden is.

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Submitted by humphrey on Sat, 07/01/2023 - 11:39am

somewhat funny.

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 07/01/2023 - 12:13pm
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@humphrey

IIRC you don’t have a twitter account and yesterday lots of people who don’t said that they can no longer view tweets unless they make an account. I’m not sure but I think some websites that usually have a lot of tweets on them can no longer be seen by those who don’t have one. I think this is a silly move by twitter and it’s going to hurt them in the end.

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Submitted by humphrey on Sat, 07/01/2023 - 12:41pm

@snoopydawg @snoopydawg

A while ago I broke down and finally joined due to the fact I was not able to access accounts that I found informative. Also by following these accounts it simplifies tracking them.

I have not yet joined Telegram as I have found a way to view and share stuff that I find interesting.

BTW I have exactly 0 followers and have not yet tweeted.

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Submitted by MrWebster on Sat, 07/01/2023 - 4:17pm

@snoopydawg Had a Chrome extension called "Breakthrough Twitter Login Wall" which by-passed the login prompt and went directly to posting. But now the extension no longer works. I click on a twitter link and go to Twitter login dialog. Hopefully someone will come along with another extension to avoid that login prompt.

BTW that was an extension listed on Google website.

I tried similar extension for Mozilla, and no luck.

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 07/01/2023 - 6:05pm
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@MrWebster

Elon says that it will be cleared up soon. That’s good news because so many sites post tweets on them. It had something to do with lots of data being used.

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 07/01/2023 - 7:38pm
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@snoopydawg

Earlier in the day, Musk said that "almost every company doing AI" was scraping "vast amounts of data." He added that drastic and immediate actions are needed to combat this issue.
"To address extreme levels of data scraping and system manipulation, we’ve applied the following temporary limits: verified accounts are limited to reading 6000 posts/day; unverified accounts to 600 posts/day; new unverified accounts to 300/day," Musk said on Twitter.
Later in the day, Musk noted that the limit would soon be increased to 8,000 posts per day for verified users, 800 for unverified users and 400 for new unverified users.
Earlier media reported that Twitter also canceled the ability to view posts without registering in the system.

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Submitted by MrWebster on Sun, 07/02/2023 - 2:52pm

@snoopydawg Snowden said that he reads twitter without joining by just referencing internet addresses. As I do. Now it seems that has been totally cut off. Facebook is like this. You have to sign up for Facebook to read postings. Not a member either of Facebook.

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Sun, 07/02/2023 - 3:02pm
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@MrWebster

but according to the tweet blue posted it might not be because of the reason why Musk did this. AI was scooping up lots of data and used it to censor people. DARPA may have just screwed themselves. But not to fear they have lots of other ways to spy on us and censor us.

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Submitted by Blue Republic on Sun, 07/02/2023 - 11:40am

@snoopydawg

Things appear to be functional there again - I didn't get what was going on, but here is a good explication about how the massive 'data scraping' is integral to building a more powerful and perfect AI censor-entity...

And that, whatever Musk/Twitter's motivation for the changed policy, the limits being placed may in important respects be a good thing:

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Sun, 07/02/2023 - 11:20am
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@Blue Republic

Looks like the spy agencies just stepped on their twangs and might have screwed up their data mining and censorship efforts.

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Submitted by humphrey on Sat, 07/01/2023 - 12:36pm

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Submitted by enhydra lutris on Sat, 07/01/2023 - 1:40pm
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here today, so we worked outside all morning in preparation for retreating inside and closing up the house as midday nears. Good video by Gravitas, a new source for me. Next up, Book TV and the OSS.

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 humphrey on Sat, 07/01/2023 - 1:46pm

thaw seems to be failing.

Washington's REAL Policy on China - "Repairing Ties" is Theater Ahead of Sanctions, War

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Submitted by QMS on Sat, 07/01/2023 - 2:11pm

@humphrey

lately about making overtures to China is a crock of bull.
chip war anyone? Asean war games too. Sent little blinken
home in his own basket then mister dementia mentioned
Xi is a dictator. thawing on the outside, frozen in the middle.
US foreign policy is destruction on steroids.

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Submitted by MrWebster on Sat, 07/01/2023 - 5:27pm

Quote from German War Minister Boris Pistorius: "I also wish we could spend this money on schools and kindergartens, on improving the healthcare system. But military support for Ukraine now has no alternative". He was announcing German military financial aid for the Ukraine.

I have to give him some kudos at least he admitted he could care less about the well being of German children in favor of militarism. American politicians would never admit to this.

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Submitted by randtntx on Sat, 07/01/2023 - 7:56pm

between Robert Scheer and Ray McGovern was interesting. Once again there was a mention of the risk of nuclear war because of this Ukrainian conflict. NATO and the U.S. are causing this risk in Ukraine. It's as simple as that. In his recent presentation in front of the U.N. (posted by ggersh the other day in the EB) Max Bumenthal asked why the U.S. would do such a thing as risk thermonuclear war. The answer to that question is that there is no reason. It is pure insanity.

Daniel Ellsberg said as much in his book The Doomsday Machine:

...it seems to me beyond question that any social system that has created and maintained a doomsday machine and has a trigger to it in the hand of one human being... is in core aspects mad. Our is such a system. We are in the grip of institutionalized madness.

The people in charge of foreign policy seem not to understand the outcome of thermonuclear war.
When you have people like Liz Truss (as McGovern humorously notes) with their fingers on the button (however briefly) it is only comical because of its absurdity. Ellsberg points out in his book that each thermonuclear bomb we have in the SAC (Strategic Air Command) arsenal is a thousand times bigger than the atom bombs of WWII. Ellsberg suggests that the American people have been mislead regarding the notion that we as a country can wage a nuclear war and survive its consequences:

...our current strategy has been a hoax...even with a first strike...it is not feasible to avoid the effective destruction of U.S. society.

Subsequent to the blast, heat, radiation, firestorm, and fallout alone, there will follow a nuclear winter where the sun will be obliterated by smoke. People around the globe will starve since crops will not grow. Ellsberg goes on to say:

...there can no longer be any fig leaf of pretense that a damage-limiting first strike by either side would be anything less than suicidal.

I can't understand why citizens the world over aren't horrified by the prospect of ominicide by thermonuclear war. The inmates are running the asylum.

Thanks for the OT and compilation of links.

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 07/01/2023 - 8:04pm
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@randtntx

Anyone who thinks that we can survive it needs to watch the video. Good grief you’d think that the movie On the Beach would have given people the knowledge to see that it’s not. I tell Sam almost daily that humans are stupid.

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Submitted by randtntx on Sat, 07/01/2023 - 8:07pm

@snoopydawg . I'll go look for it. Thanks.

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Submitted by randtntx on Sat, 07/01/2023 - 8:04pm

if anyone has posted this here, but it's a good one. Glenn Greenwald talks about Daniel Ellsberg's efforts to live up to American ideals of free speech, freedom of the press, ensuring transparency in our government, duty of citizens in a 'democracy' etc..

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Submitted by humphrey on Sat, 07/01/2023 - 10:46pm

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Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Sun, 07/02/2023 - 4:37pm
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@humphrey

Perhaps they all start out that way. I remember Obama as very popular, internationally, but at home not so much. Plus, his presidency did not improve people's lives. Was Bill Clinton a crowd pleaser. Not for long, I'd guess. In the US, citizens are programmed to be divided and deeply polarized, politically. Neutral views are rare. Thus, it's nearly impossible for a modern American President to be popular with a large majority of the population.

The contrast with Russia or China is striking. It's been reported that Putin’s popularity continues to rise among the Russian people, even after the events of last week with Prigozhin. Meanwhile, Western commentators and 5th columnist shills claim that Putin “lost power” and was gravely weakened. However, one new report claimed that Putin’s popularity had risen to 90%, which is quite easy to believe when watching video last week of Putin’s mingling with crowds on a visit to Derbent, Dagestan for Eid. Russian lives have greatly benefitted since Putin was elected President. This is also true in China, where President Xi Jingping has made tremendous strides in establishing personal economic security and future opportunities for the Chinese people.

Loading video

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Video Clip from — SITREP 6/30/23: Winds Gather Before the NATO Summit by Simplicius the Thinker — [Scroll down to the final video]

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[edit = clarity]

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The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Submitted by snoopydawg on Sun, 07/02/2023 - 11:32am
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@Pluto's Republic

I can’t name one that I think is still popular. Clinton got lots of kudos until people actually looked at how devastating his policies were. Obama was a rock star until he brazenly refused to do anything he ran on and especially after bailing out the banks while millions of people had their homes stolen from them. Right now shitlibs are saying that Biden is the best president of their lifetime even though he flipped on his campaign promises faster than Obama did. Plus he’s gotten us to a hairs breath of nuclear war. Read today that Americans are in favor of sending weapons to Ukraine and up more than last month. DK thinks that America should put its own troops in the ZPPP nuclear reactor to make sure Russia doesn’t be naughty. Just surprising how people think that Russia would just allow lots of planes flying over their territory and letting troops jump out of them.

On Putin’s popularity here’s an interesting look at the Wagner mutiny by Baud. I should follow his writing more. Very good piece.

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Submitted by humphrey on Sat, 07/01/2023 - 11:45pm

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