caucus99percent free-range politics, organic community

shrubya only suggested that his locution was operative for tennessee and texas.

i think that lincoln was closer to the mark, when he said words to the effect that you can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time. i might amend lincoln to say that the group of the people that you can't fool at any given time may be a small and not terribly influential group.

. Assisted Suicide Army general Mark Milley told the National Press Club in Washington that the counteroffensive was “advancing steadily, deliberately working its way through very difficult minefields … 500 meters a day, 1,000 meters a day, 2,000 meters a day, that kind of thing”. Mr Milley said he was unsurprised progress was slower than some people predicted He said: “War on paper and real war are different. In real war, real people die. Real people are on those front lines and real people are in those vehicles. Real bodies are being shredded by high explosives.” Mr Milley added: “What I had said was this is going to take six, eight, 10 weeks, it’s going to be very difficult. It’s going to be very long, and it’s going to be very, very bloody. And no one should have any illusions about any of that.” My problem with this is they all know very well that some 400,000 young Ukrainians have already died in the conflict, with many more severely injured, and many many more will be killed and maimed if these tanks are delivered to Kiev and the “counteroffensive” continues. Not Rutte’s Dutch young people, or Biden and Milley’s Americans or Macron’s French, no, just young Ukrainians. And some Russians, at about a 1 to 10 count. But if they don’t care about young Ukrainians, they sure care less about young Russians. Where does this attitude come from? What makes it acceptable to help kill more young people, anywhere in the world? Young men who have mothers, fathers, girlfriends, wives, who should have children or already have them? Who are “leaders” like Rutte to knowingly send them to their deaths? For what reason? So they can beat Russia and save Ukraine’s “democracy”? Ukraine has no elections, no political parties, no free press, and Zelensky is selling its land to BlackRock et al as we speak. And that’s what these promising young lives have to be cut short for? For Zelensky’s and BlackRock’s profits? Some 65% of Americans support continued military aid to Ukraine, up from 46% in May, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll published on Wednesday. Other surveys, however, show a fall in support for President Joe Biden’s promise of unlimited weapons for Kiev. Conducted earlier this week, the poll found bipartisan support for arming Ukraine, with 81% of Democrats and 56% of Republicans in favor. First, send young Dutch, American, French, boys -and girls -to die on the Ukraine battlefields. Then see how the homefront reacts. And tell them that Ukraine and NATO have no chance in hell of beating Russia. But yes, I know, the propaganda never stops. And then you get surveys like this. Putin is the antichrist and Zelensky is Churchill. If you dumb people down enough, anything goes. Shitlibs think Biden should send American paratroopers into the nuclear power plant to keep Russia from blowing it up and others want him to send American jets to keep Russia from bombing Ukraine. It’s only going to take a few days to clear the skies of Russian jets and then everyone will live happily ever after. Oh yeah and they also want Biden to send cluster bombs to Ukraine even though Obama made it almost impossible for us to send them anywhere. I’m guessing that they don’t know that Zelensky has sold most of the country to vampiric parasites and has not only banned all opposition parties, but he has also canceled the election. I seriously don’t get it. They know that the government has lied us into one war after another and yet they now believe all the propaganda they read and hear. George Bush was wrong about, "fool me once and I won’t get fooled again."

Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Mon, 07/03/2023 - 8:53pm

In a perfect American utopia, c.2001

...the US Empire would issue all of us credit cards, and tell us to go shopping. Then we-the-people could share in the Empire's money-printing profits.

—

Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it.
That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange

Submitted by Cassiodorus on Tue, 07/04/2023 - 1:39am

Well --

https://www.euronews.com/live

Shitlibs think Biden should send American paratroopers into the nuclear power plant to keep Russia from blowing it up

And maybe they can be there when the false flag operation, blowing up the power plant and then blaming it on Russia, is put into action.

. Assisted Suicide Army general Mark Milley told the National Press Club in Washington that the counteroffensive was “advancing steadily, deliberately working its way through very difficult minefields … 500 meters a day, 1,000 meters a day, 2,000 meters a day, that kind of thing”. Mr Milley said he was unsurprised progress was slower than some people predicted He said: “War on paper and real war are different. In real war, real people die. Real people are on those front lines and real people are in those vehicles. Real bodies are being shredded by high explosives.” Mr Milley added: “What I had said was this is going to take six, eight, 10 weeks, it’s going to be very difficult. It’s going to be very long, and it’s going to be very, very bloody. And no one should have any illusions about any of that.” My problem with this is they all know very well that some 400,000 young Ukrainians have already died in the conflict, with many more severely injured, and many many more will be killed and maimed if these tanks are delivered to Kiev and the “counteroffensive” continues. Not Rutte’s Dutch young people, or Biden and Milley’s Americans or Macron’s French, no, just young Ukrainians. And some Russians, at about a 1 to 10 count. But if they don’t care about young Ukrainians, they sure care less about young Russians. Where does this attitude come from? What makes it acceptable to help kill more young people, anywhere in the world? Young men who have mothers, fathers, girlfriends, wives, who should have children or already have them? Who are “leaders” like Rutte to knowingly send them to their deaths? For what reason? So they can beat Russia and save Ukraine’s “democracy”? Ukraine has no elections, no political parties, no free press, and Zelensky is selling its land to BlackRock et al as we speak. And that’s what these promising young lives have to be cut short for? For Zelensky’s and BlackRock’s profits? Some 65% of Americans support continued military aid to Ukraine, up from 46% in May, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll published on Wednesday. Other surveys, however, show a fall in support for President Joe Biden’s promise of unlimited weapons for Kiev. Conducted earlier this week, the poll found bipartisan support for arming Ukraine, with 81% of Democrats and 56% of Republicans in favor. First, send young Dutch, American, French, boys -and girls -to die on the Ukraine battlefields. Then see how the homefront reacts. And tell them that Ukraine and NATO have no chance in hell of beating Russia. But yes, I know, the propaganda never stops. And then you get surveys like this. Putin is the antichrist and Zelensky is Churchill. If you dumb people down enough, anything goes. Shitlibs think Biden should send American paratroopers into the nuclear power plant to keep Russia from blowing it up and others want him to send American jets to keep Russia from bombing Ukraine. It’s only going to take a few days to clear the skies of Russian jets and then everyone will live happily ever after. Oh yeah and they also want Biden to send cluster bombs to Ukraine even though Obama made it almost impossible for us to send them anywhere. I’m guessing that they don’t know that Zelensky has sold most of the country to vampiric parasites and has not only banned all opposition parties, but he has also canceled the election. I seriously don’t get it. They know that the government has lied us into one war after another and yet they now believe all the propaganda they read and hear. George Bush was wrong about, "fool me once and I won’t get fooled again."

—

"Forget the lesser evil -- fight for the greater good." - Jill Stein

Submitted by mimi on Tue, 07/04/2023 - 6:54am

This Army General Mark Milley ,

@snoopydawg @snoopydawg @snoopydawg
when he talked to the National Press Club in Washington DC, used 'Meter' as long distance units?

Strange to my ears. Is he a German Army General ?

. Assisted Suicide Army general Mark Milley told the National Press Club in Washington that the counteroffensive was “advancing steadily, deliberately working its way through very difficult minefields … 500 meters a day, 1,000 meters a day, 2,000 meters a day, that kind of thing”. Mr Milley said he was unsurprised progress was slower than some people predicted He said: “War on paper and real war are different. In real war, real people die. Real people are on those front lines and real people are in those vehicles. Real bodies are being shredded by high explosives.” Mr Milley added: “What I had said was this is going to take six, eight, 10 weeks, it’s going to be very difficult. It’s going to be very long, and it’s going to be very, very bloody. And no one should have any illusions about any of that.” My problem with this is they all know very well that some 400,000 young Ukrainians have already died in the conflict, with many more severely injured, and many many more will be killed and maimed if these tanks are delivered to Kiev and the “counteroffensive” continues. Not Rutte’s Dutch young people, or Biden and Milley’s Americans or Macron’s French, no, just young Ukrainians. And some Russians, at about a 1 to 10 count. But if they don’t care about young Ukrainians, they sure care less about young Russians. Where does this attitude come from? What makes it acceptable to help kill more young people, anywhere in the world? Young men who have mothers, fathers, girlfriends, wives, who should have children or already have them? Who are “leaders” like Rutte to knowingly send them to their deaths? For what reason? So they can beat Russia and save Ukraine’s “democracy”? Ukraine has no elections, no political parties, no free press, and Zelensky is selling its land to BlackRock et al as we speak. And that’s what these promising young lives have to be cut short for? For Zelensky’s and BlackRock’s profits? Some 65% of Americans support continued military aid to Ukraine, up from 46% in May, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll published on Wednesday. Other surveys, however, show a fall in support for President Joe Biden’s promise of unlimited weapons for Kiev. Conducted earlier this week, the poll found bipartisan support for arming Ukraine, with 81% of Democrats and 56% of Republicans in favor. First, send young Dutch, American, French, boys -and girls -to die on the Ukraine battlefields. Then see how the homefront reacts. And tell them that Ukraine and NATO have no chance in hell of beating Russia. But yes, I know, the propaganda never stops. And then you get surveys like this. Putin is the antichrist and Zelensky is Churchill. If you dumb people down enough, anything goes. Shitlibs think Biden should send American paratroopers into the nuclear power plant to keep Russia from blowing it up and others want him to send American jets to keep Russia from bombing Ukraine. It’s only going to take a few days to clear the skies of Russian jets and then everyone will live happily ever after. Oh yeah and they also want Biden to send cluster bombs to Ukraine even though Obama made it almost impossible for us to send them anywhere. I’m guessing that they don’t know that Zelensky has sold most of the country to vampiric parasites and has not only banned all opposition parties, but he has also canceled the election. I seriously don’t get it. They know that the government has lied us into one war after another and yet they now believe all the propaganda they read and hear. George Bush was wrong about, "fool me once and I won’t get fooled again."

—

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Tue, 07/04/2023 - 10:32am

Blame NATO. We finally decided that we'd have to

@mimi

use units they'd comprehend instead of expecting them to convert everything.

be well and have a good one

—

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Submitted by mimi on Tue, 07/04/2023 - 10:55am

well, that is nice, but yards and meters are just

@mimi a little bit apart, I would not get into the trouble to exactly converting them. I am too lazy for that.

—

https://www.euronews.com/live

Submitted by snoopydawg on Mon, 07/03/2023 - 6:54pm

Update on the great salt lake

How much did Utah's record snowpack help the Great Salt Lake?

One year later, the lake is starting to decline again — but it's undoubtedly in a much-better place than it was those 12 months ago. The lake entered this week at 4,193.8 feet elevation at the Great Salt Lake State Park marina, more than 3½ feet above lake levels this time last year and 5 feet above the officially recognized new record-low of 4,188.6 feet set in November, according to U.S. Geological Survey data.

The agency's data indicates that the Great Salt Lake topped out at about 4,194.1 feet elevation in mid-June this year, as Utah's record 30-inch snowpack — some of which was shepherded into the lake to avoid flooding risks — melted into its tributaries. It gained about 5½ feet above the all-time record low before its gains began to level off.

While this year's water surge was extremely beneficial for the lake, Parrott points out that the current lake levels are about 4 feet below the low-end estimate of what the lake needs to be considered healthy. It's also 6 feet below its historic average of about 4,200 feet, which Parrott refers to as the "sweet spot" when it comes to a healthy lake ecosystem.

Southern Utah has gobs and gobs of golf courses and one hotel system is going to build a water park soon and yet I’m being told to barely water my lawn so that I don’t use too much water. Well when the golf courses stop watering in a high desert and foreign countries stop growing water thirsty crops I’ll start thinking about it. At the campground just over the mountain in Ogden valley I spoke with the camp host and he pointed at the huge new houses that rich people have built just over the hill and told me how they sucked dry the well used for the campground.

Funny how we little folks are told to make sacrifices and to drive less while nascar still races every weekend…I could go on….

Lots of thunder and lightning outside just now.

—

“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt

Submitted by joe shikspack on Mon, 07/03/2023 - 8:00pm

heh...

thanks for the update! sounds like utah needs a bunch of snow and rain for a few years to get back to normal and then it needs to reel in its business use of water. i wonder which is more statistically likely.

Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Mon, 07/03/2023 - 8:24pm

In hard times —

The precious natural resources (and tax cuts) are diverted to the lush enclaves of the Communist elite — where the means of production are owned and shared by the wealthy.

For serfs who have no influence to peddle, it's Capitalist boot-strapping-for-survival on the ever-inflating, hard scrabble, pipelines plains.

—

Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it.
That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange

Submitted by snoopydawg on Mon, 07/03/2023 - 8:43pm

Yup

@Pluto's Republic

You summed it perfectly. Reading the comments on the lake article I’m not alone in my thinking. Drive by any of the thousands of wards here I see them watering their lawns and seeing it going down the gutters. Wards are local churches for the millions of Mormons and there are more than one in many neighborhoods. Nice green lawns for people to visit once a week. And huge. Hell if I’m letting my lawn die.

—

“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt

Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Mon, 07/03/2023 - 10:59pm

In the rest of the southwest

...homes are situated on dirt clods, perhaps with one or two desperately thirsty trees sticking out of the ground. In towns without "wards," people have lawns of dirt or gravel mainly because watering lawns suddenly became prohibitively expensive. Washing your own car or rinsing off your driveway is against the law. (It's also illegal to grow food crops in your yard.)

When one flies over the parched southwest cities, the only green areas you are likely to see are golf courses, municipal parks, and luxury enclaves. Looking down on the neighborhoods of dirt landscapes and clusters of homes, any bright green patches you see are probably astroturf. However, you will also see thousands upon thousands of sparking blue swimming pools in the back yards of every neighborhood. The pools were installed when water was cheap, and they continue to sparkle, whether the pools are still used or not. That's because it is too expensive to pull them out of the ground, and letting it go dry or filling a pool with dirt can create numerous hazards. So, helicopters (and drones) fly above the city's neighborhoods every day looking for pools that have a slight greenish tinge. This is a sign that a swimming is pool is not being properly maintained. In the heat, a neglected pool will rapidly become a mosquito factories, so within days of being spotted, city trucks will show up to fill the infected swimming pool with buckets of special fish to stave off impending malaria or encephalitis or god-knows-what. Swimming pool neglect is a quick way to forfeit one's property for good.

—

Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it.
That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange

Submitted by janis b on Tue, 07/04/2023 - 5:37am

Hi snoopy

@snoopydawg @snoopydawg

I have never understood the unfair value placed on golf courses because of the water resources they use, and the space they take, not to mention the chemical they use.. Although there are probably per capita more courses here, many don't use much reservoir water. For some of the year they are emerald green, while at other times mostly brown. But what I have never understood is why some courses here aren't reduced to become land for the increasing housing need in Auckland. Instead, the housing development is filing in single dwellings with boxes of appartments, leaving no space for anything green or any type of outside living.

Submitted by humphrey on Mon, 07/03/2023 - 9:23pm

Scott Ritter is back on Twitter and he provides a link to an

interesting read for his article in Consortium News.

SCOTT RITTER: Biden’s 3am Moment in Ukraine https://t.co/qtDjqQWW6Y

— Scott Ritter (@RealScottRitter) July 3, 2023

Submitted by joe shikspack on Mon, 07/03/2023 - 9:47pm

evening humphrey...

excellent article. ritter appears to be spot on but, i think that he may be wrong about us being out of the woods - there is still the matter of what russia discovers regarding the u.s. involvement in prigozhin's planning, u.s. protestations of utter innocence notwithstanding.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Mon, 07/03/2023 - 10:03pm

Another view on the Prigozhin mutiny

https://www.thepostil.com/the-wagner-mutiny/

Jacques Baud

At the end of October 2022, General Surovikin signed a six-month contract for Wagner to destroy the enemy in Bakhmut. The aim was not to seize the city, but to destroy the enemy there, in line with Surovikin’s strategy and the initial objective of “demilitarization” set out by Vladimir Putin on February 24, 2022. This was Operation MEAT GRINDER.
…..
Members of these PMCs were to be integrated into the armed forces by July 1, 2023.

It was to protest against this decision to dismantle the Wagner force that Prigozhin wanted to meet Sergei Shoigu, Minister of Defense, and Valeri Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff, “head-to-head” in Rostov-na-Donu. Since he couldn’t meet them in Rostov, Prigozhin decided, in a spectacular move, to go to Moscow to meet them. In fact, all things considered, this action was nothing more than that of employees angry at the general management’s decision to close down their company. It could be summed up as a protest against HR! As Prigozhin himself put it in a voice message:

The aim of the march was not to let PMC Wagner be dissolved and to hold the military leadership accountable for the mistakes made during the war.

Clearly, then, there was no clandestine CIA action, nor any determination to overthrow Russian government. It was thanks to the mediation of Alexander Lukashenko, President of Belarus, that Prigozhin realized that his action had international resonance, with consequences he had certainly not been able to foresee and decided to halt his movement.

In the end it’s funny how the Wagner group is now in Belarus and closer to Kiev just when Poland was thinking of making some moves towards Belarus. Whether or not that was the plan the whole time it has worked out for Lukashenko just as his country is getting Russian nukes.

—

“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt

Submitted by joe shikspack on Mon, 07/03/2023 - 10:11pm

evening snoopy...

yeah, but, prigozhin would have to be the world's biggest fool to think that the way to protest to hr was to mobilize thousands of heavily-armed troops and embark on a march to the capitol.

just sayin'...

Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Mon, 07/03/2023 - 11:17pm

As I have opined elsewhere:

This was an emotional reaction to losing nearly half of his ill-equipped army fighting to hold a front line position, in order to protect Russian troops to the rear.

Human nature and a mind pushed to the brink. Resolved with a telephone conversation. That may be a fact that is now in evidence.

The shrieking Neocons can crawl back into their dirty war-mongering holes and wait for the next crisis they can exploit with their Nazi-style propaganda.

I, for one, would like to hear more about the bio-labs. The sources I follow say they amount to a lot more than nothingburgers

—

Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it.
That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange

Submitted by Cassiodorus on Tue, 07/04/2023 - 1:40am

A lot of the Wagner group --

@snoopydawg has been folded into the regular Russian army, where their casualty rates should go down.

—

"Forget the lesser evil -- fight for the greater good." - Jill Stein

Submitted by humphrey on Mon, 07/03/2023 - 10:00pm

Somewhat related: Prigozhin can't keep his mouth shut.

https://thehill.com/policy/international/4079919-yevgeny-prigozhin-relea...

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner Group, has released a new audio message more than a week after his mercenary group’s fallout with the Russian government.

In a Telegram post Monday, Prigozhin expressed gratitude to those who supported him and his group in the attempted rebellion against the Kremlin.

“I want you to understand that our ‘March of Justice’ was aimed at fighting traitors and mobilizing our society,” Prigozhin said in his audio message. “In the near future, I am sure that you will see our next victories at the front. Thanks guys!”

Prigozhin urged an armed rebellion late last month to oust Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and also challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin’s justification for the country’s ongoing war with neighboring Ukraine.

Prigozhin eventually ordered his private army to stop its advance after reaching an agreement in which Russia would drop its charges against him for leading an armed rebellion and he would relocate to Belarus.

In a Telegram post last week, Prigozhin said that he ordered his group to stop its advance in order to prevent a civil war happening on Russian soil and denied suggestions that he was trying to conduct a coup.

Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Mon, 07/03/2023 - 11:38pm

In my view, that Telegram statement

...is filled to the brim with lying (after-the-fact) propaganda.

It's the usual doubling-down response from the neocon assets at the Pentagon or the State Department — in the form of news. If I highlighted every phrase that is not in evidence, most of it would turn yellow.

—

Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it.
That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange

Submitted by snoopydawg on Mon, 07/03/2023 - 10:18pm

From the aptly named Hellabitch

Boy did we and the world dodge a bullet! Just saw a tweet today about how well Libyans had it before she decided to destroy the country. Can any of us imagine waking up one day and seeing our city destroyed like countless people have?

In 1878, Isabella Bover, a renowned French model, was carefully selected to embody the spirit of the Statue of Liberty. This iconic statue, a gift from the generous people of France to their American counterparts, was intended to symbolize the enduring friendship and commemorate the momentous occasion of America’s centenary in 1876. Isabella Bover’s captivating presence became the face that would forever grace this monumental masterpiece, representing the shared values of liberty and freedom cherished by both nations.

I wonder what she would think of our freedoms today after government has taken a wrecking ball to them?

I can’t figure out how to embed videos outside of the box at the bottom. Little help?

—

“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt

Submitted by joe shikspack on Mon, 07/03/2023 - 11:05pm

embedding youtube videos...

ok, so you go to the video's page, under the video on the right side of it is a button for
"share," click that. a dialog will pop up, click "embed." on the far right of the dialog that pops up, click, "copy."

close the dialog and come back to c99.

wherever you want it in your comment, right click and select "paste." if you have a mac, you have to do some other keystrokes to paste which i've forgotten because it's been more than a decade since i played with a mac, but the first steps at the youtube site are the same. tah dah:

Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Mon, 07/03/2023 - 11:29pm

Mac is the same

Just paste the embed code you copied at Youtube, which is now on your clipboard,

anywhere above or below your comment. Just like any other copy and paste.

—

Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it.
That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange

Submitted by snoopydawg on Tue, 07/04/2023 - 12:10am

Thanks

On my iPad the embed button is on the left, but I found out how to do it. Before I just posted the link in the video button that isn’t here anymore.

—

“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt

Submitted by janis b on Tue, 07/04/2023 - 5:55am

Interesting choice of video to embed

I enjoyed the funky 'oriental' riff.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Tue, 07/04/2023 - 12:15am

Hmm….

But what a way to immortalize yourself.

—

“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt

Submitted by janis b on Tue, 07/04/2023 - 5:48am

That Hillary ad is unfortunately unforgettable

It's practically as scary as the real thing.

Thank you for the beautiful portrait of Isabella Bover. I had no idea where the strength and beauty of the statue came from.

Submitted by humphrey on Mon, 07/03/2023 - 10:48pm

LOL

pic.twitter.com/T86Z5gn8kx

— Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) July 3, 2023

Submitted by joe shikspack on Mon, 07/03/2023 - 11:07pm

heh! n/t