The Evening Blues - 8-7-23
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features delta bluesman Robert Nighthawk. Enjoy!
Robert Nighthawk - C N A
"Turnabout is fair play"
-- Dudley Bradstreet
News and Opinion
US dispatches warships after China and Russia send naval patrol near Alaska
The US dispatched four navy warships as well as a reconnaissance airplane after multiple Chinese and Russian military vessels carried out a joint naval patrol near Alaska last week. The combined naval patrol, which the Wall Street Journal first reported, appeared to be the largest such flotilla to approach US territory, according to experts that spoke to the outlet.
“It’s a historical first,” Brent Sadler, a retired Navy captain and senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told the Journal. He also said the flotilla’s proximity to Alaska was a “highly provocative” maneuver given Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine and political tensions between the US and China over Taiwan. The flotilla has since left.
The US Northern Command confirmed the combined Chinese and Russian naval patrol, telling the Journal: “Air and maritime assets under our commands conducted operations to assure the defense of the United States and Canada. The patrol remained in international waters and was not considered a threat.”
The command did not specify the number of vessels which made up the patrol or their exact location. But US senators from Alaska said the flotilla in question was made up of 11 Chinese and Russian warships working in concert near the Aleutian Islands.
Ukraine drone strikes as big counteroffensive fades away
Ukraine Strikes Russian Commercial Port with Drones for First Time
Ukrainian drones struck a Russian commercial port for the first time since the start of the war. Novorossiysk was shut down for a few hours after it was hit by Ukrainian air and sea drones. Two percent of the world’s oil supply and grain are shipped from Novorossiysk.
The Russian Defense Ministry claims that it was able to down several drones targeting its ports on Friday morning. Moscow says its defenses were able to disable Kiev’s drones targeting the Crimean Peninsula and Novorossiysk, a port located on the Russian mainland. The Russian military dubbed the Ukrainian strikes a “terrorist attack.”
Kiev claims it carried out the attack. Ukrainian officials often deny responsibility for attacks conducted inside of Russia, in part because Kiev has made several assurances to Washington that it would not use American assurance to target Russian territory.
Zelensky Prepares General Mobilisation; 8 Ukr Pilots Train F16s; Global South Reject Ukr Peace Plan
Pffffttt!!!
John Bolton suggests US will leave Nato if ‘erratic’ Trump wins in 2024
Ex-national security adviser John Bolton issued harsh remarks against his former boss and the leading 2024 Republican presidential candidate, saying that the US will likely withdraw from Nato if Donald Trump wins the election.
In an interview with the Hill on Thursday, Bolton criticized the former president’s foreign policy after an op-ed he wrote earlier this week called Trump’s behavior “erratic, irrational and unconstrained”.
Bolton, who was Trump’s national security adviser from April 2018 to September 2019, also lambasted Trump for his foreign policy legacy with regard to the alliance, saying in the interview: “He threatened the existence of Nato, and I think in a second Trump term, we’d almost certainly withdraw from Nato.”
MAJORITY Of Americans OPPOSE More Ukraine Aid
Biden Sanctions FAIL As Putin's Economy Grows
Full-scale war threatens Niger and West Africa
Niger faces the threat of a catastrophic war with its neighbours. An ultimatum by the 15-member Economic Community of West African States’ (ECOWAS) that Niger’s coup leaders must reinstate deposed President Mohamed Bazoum or face possible military intervention expired Sunday. They would be acting as a proxy force of the major imperialist powers, led by France and the US, with the aim of securing control of the impoverished but resource-rich country. ...
General Abdourahamane Tchiani, head of the presidential guard apparently acted on their own initiative in deposing Bazoum. Tchiani feared he was next in line for the sack after Bazoum dismissed the army chief of staff and forced other military chiefs into retirement. But they subsequently won the support of the military and have rallied popular support with appeals to popular anti-colonial opposition to France and its military presence. The coup leaders have lined up with the military juntas in Mali and Burkina Faso, blaming Paris for the Sahel’s regional conflicts and escalating bloodshed. They have reportedly asked for help from Wagner, sending General Salifou Mody to Mali. Mody, speaking on television in Niger, warned against military intervention, promising Niger would do what it takes not to become “a new Libya.”
The struggle for power and control of vital resources between regional elites acting as proxies for the major powers threatens to destabilise not just Niger but the entire Sahel region: the wide belt from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea that crosses the Sahara and includes Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan and Eritrea. Beset by myriad conflicts and social unrest amid poverty, drought and climate change, it has become the arena of a battle for influence and control involving France, the US, Germany and the European Union, the Gulf powers, Turkey, Russia and China—all seeking to profit from vast mineral resources critical for modern industry. This “Scramble for the Sahel” leaves the region’s economic development—ranking among the lowest on the United Nations Human Development Index—subject to the rapacious demands of the transnational corporations, financial institutions and their local hirelings that whip up ethnic, tribal and religious conflicts to divide and rule.
Waging wars and interventions prosecuted under their professed objective of “fighting Islamist insurgents”, at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, the imperialist powers omit the fact that Islamist militants wreaking havoc across the Sahel are the product of Washington and its allies’ earlier use of them as a proxy army in the 2011 US/NATO war against Libya. Following the shattering of Libyan society and the assassination of the country’s leader Muammar Gaddafi, Islamist fighters scattered across northern Africa and throughout the Sahel.
Niger’s New Government Wants U.S. Troops Out!
Niger: thousands gather for rally to cheer generals who led coup
Thousands of coup supporters in Niger gathered on Sunday for a rally to cheer on the generals claiming power, as a deadline set by the west African bloc for the military to relinquish control or face possible armed intervention was due to elapse. The Ecowas bloc, chaired by regional military powerhouse and Niger’s neighbour Nigeria, had given the troops that toppled President Mohamed Bazoum on 26 July a week to return him to power.
But on Sunday afternoon in the capital Niamey thousands of backers of the now ruling National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) gathered at a stadium draped in Russian flags and carrying portraits of CNSP leaders. At the 30,000-seat Seyni Kountche stadium, named after Niger’s first coup d’etat leader in 1974, CNSP leaders including General Mohamed Toumba greeted a jubilant crowd, and showed no sign of willingness to cede power. ...
Former colonial power France, with which Niger’s new rulers broke military ties after taking power, said it would “firmly” back whatever course of action Ecowas took after the deadline expired.
Niger has played a key part in western strategies to combat jihadist insurgencies that have plagued the Sahel since 2012, with France and the United States stationing about 1,500 and 1,000 troops in the country respectively.
Fears grow Pakistani government will delay general election due this year
Concerns are mounting in Pakistan that a general election due later this year could be delayed after the government announced that the vote could take place only after a new census was completed and new constituency boundaries drawn. The announcement from the nation’s law minister that it could take four months to complete the process came on the same day that the former prime minister Imran Khan was arrested after a court sentenced him to three years in prison for “corrupt practices”, involving the sale of state gifts, and disqualified him from politics.
The opposition party led by Khan claims the ruling coalition of the prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, is seeking to avoid facing an election as Khan’s popularity grows. Sharif’s tenure expires on 12 August. A caretaker government will take over from him to hold the elections in a maximum of three months. The government denies it is dragging its feet, saying it is a constitutional requirement to hold elections under the latest census.
The law minister, Azam Nazeer Tarar, told Geo News TV that it could take about four months to complete the census and draw new constituency boundaries. That means the elections due by November at the latest could be delayed by several months, a former top official of the Election Commission of Pakistan, Kanwar Dilshad, told Reuters. “It is going to make things very complicated,” he said. ...
Speaking in the senate, a former chair of the chamber, Raza Rabbani, warned against the delay. “Our constitution stresses that the elections must be held within 60 to 90 days after the government completes its terms. The election commission of Pakistan must break its silence on the matter. The federation will be destroyed if polls are delayed,” Rabbani said.
Blinken’s denunciation of Assange exposes Australian government’s phony posturing
Last weekend, Antony Blinken launched a full-throated denunciation of Julian Assange, whom the Biden administration is seeking to extradite and prosecute for exposing US-led war crimes. The US secretary of state chose to make his first substantive comments on the WikiLeaks publisher, standing alongside Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong in Brisbane. Blinken’s comments and Wong’s acquiescence exposed the fraud that the Labor government is in any way seeking to free Assange, a persecuted Australian citizen and journalist. Instead, Wong and other government representatives unveiled far-reaching agreements for further US basing arrangements in the country and other measures aimed at preparing for war against China.
In the week since Blinken’s outburst, Labor and its supporters have sought to limit the political damage. They are fearful of the significant popular support for Assange and of their own complicity in his persecution being revealed.
In comments to the media on Tuesday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese sought to dampen-down anger and concern over Blinken’s comments. “What Secretary Blinken did was just state, consistent with what the American position has been,” Albanese said. “We remain very firm in our view and in our representations to the American government and we will continue to do so.”
Both statements were completely false. ...
Albanese’s blithe dismissal of the significance of Blinken’s remarks underscores the Labor government’s complicity in the persecution of the WikiLeaks founder. If it were in any way defending Assange, Albanese would be compelled to refute Blinken’s obvious lies and publicly insist on the urgent necessity for Assange to be freed.
Instead, the Labor government has vaguely stated that “enough is enough” and the Assange case has “gone on too long.” At no point has it branded the prosecution a frame-up or placed demands on the US. There is no written record of any government department making representations to the US on Assange’s behalf. At the same time, the Labor government has accelerated Australia’s transformation into a frontline state for the US-led preparations for war with China.
Freedom vs. Compelled Birth: Dorothy Roberts on Abortion Fights in Texas, Ohio & Across the U.S.
Texas judge rules abortion ban too strict for risky pregnancies
A judge in Texas has ruled that the state’s abortion ban is too restrictive for women with serious pregnancy complications and must allow exceptions without doctors fearing the threat of criminal charges.
The ruling in Austin was the first to undercut the law since it took effect in 2022 and delivers a major victory to abortion rights supporters, who see the case as a potential blueprint to weaken restrictions elsewhere that Republican-led states have rushed to implement.
However, the injunction was immediately blocked by an appeal to the Texas supreme court, the state attorney general’s office said. “The trial court’s injunction is ineffective, and the status quo remains in effect,” the spokesperson Paige Willey said.
The ruling by the state district judge Jessica Mangrum granted a temporary injunction to prevent Texas from enforcing the ban against physicians who in their “good faith judgment” ended a pregnancy that, because of complications, created a risk of infection or was otherwise unsafe for the woman to continue.
UPDATE
The six former cops who tortured Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker have been charged with federal civil rights offenses by the DOJ.#SaveMississippiThe two Black men were brutalized and sexually assaulted by the officers in their home for over an hour before an officer… https://t.co/hTsIUbTBVF pic.twitter.com/PcSqH0Nmh5
— Christopher Webb (@cwebbonline) August 3, 2023
Trump: 'IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I'M COMING AFTER YOU'
Max Blumenthal Expertly Debunks RFK Jr.’s Israel-Palestine Propaganda
Racism at heart of US failure to tackle deadly heatwaves, expert warns
Racism is at the heart of the American government’s failure to tackle the growing threat of deadly heatwaves, according to the author of an authoritative new book on the heating planet. Jeff Goodell, an award winning climate journalist, told the Guardian that people of color - including millions of migrant workers who are bearing the brunt of record-breaking temperatures as farmhands, builders and delivery workers - are not guaranteed lifesaving measures like water and shade breaks because they are considered expendable.
In The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet, Goodell documents the tragic – and preventable – death of Sebastian Perez, a Guatemalan garden centre worker who collapsed and died in Portland, Oregon, on the first day of the brutal Pacific north-west heatwave in June 2021. In the US, there are no federal rules related to heat exposure for workers – indoors or out.
“To be blunt about it, the people most impacted by heat are not the kind of voting demographic that gets any politician nervous. They’re unsheltered people, poor people, agricultural and construction workers. People like Sebastian Perez are just seen as expendable. They’re not seen as humans who need to be protected. Racism is absolutely central to the government’s failure to protect vulnerable people.”
A couple of states have implemented heat exposure rules, yet last month in the middle of a heatwave, Texas governor Greg Abbott signed legislation prohibiting any city or county in the state from passing laws requiring shade and water breaks for outdoor workers. The vast majority of farmhands and construction workers in Texas are migrants from Mexico and Central America. “I mean, that is insane, and emblematic of the ‘cruelty is the point’ ideology in so much of our politics right now.”
According to Goodell, the risks faced by mostly Black and brown workers also reveal enduring elements of scientific racism previously used to justify forcing enslaved African people to do backbreaking farm work in the scorching south. “There were all kinds of crazy racist ideas like African people having thicker bones in their skulls that insulated them from heat. While nobody talks about that explicitly now, it is absolutely an undercurrent that having Mexicans pave roads in Austin in 107F [42C] is fine because they’re from Mexico, and used to it. “It’s not just about these vulnerable people who can’t vote or the incompetence of the government, it is out and out racism.”
'Terrifying': Scientists Raise Alarm Over Unprecedented Global Ocean Heat
Climate scientists on Friday said the rapidly rising temperature of the planet's oceans is cause for major concern, particularly as policymakers in the top fossil fuel emissions-producing countries show no sign of ending planet-heating oil and gas extraction.
The European Union's climate agency, Copernicus Climate Change Service, reported this week that the average daily global ocean surface temperature across the planet reached 20.96°C (69.7°F), breaking the record of 20.95°C that was previously set in 2016.
The record set in 2016 was reported during an El Niño event, a naturally occurring phenomenon which causes warm water to rise to the surface off the western coast of South America. The weather pattern was at its strongest when the high ocean temperature was recorded that year.
El Niño is forming this year as well, but has not yet reached its strongest point—suggesting new records for ocean heat will be set in the coming months and potentially wreak havoc in the world's marine ecosystems.
Samantha Burgess, deputy director of Copernicus, told the BBC that March is typically when the oceans are at their hottest.
"The fact that we've seen the record now makes me nervous about how much warmer the ocean may get between now and next March," she told the outlet.
The warming oceans are part of a feedback loop that's developed as fossil fuel emissions have increasingly trapped heat in the atmosphere.
Rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are warming the oceans, leaving them less able to absorb the emissions and contributing to intensifying weather patterns.
"Warmer sea surface temperatures lead to a warmer atmosphere and more evaporation, and both of these lead to more moisture in the atmosphere which can also lead to more intense rainfall events," Burgess told "Today" on BBC Radio 4. "And warmer sea surface temperatures may also lead to more energy being available for hurricanes."
The warming ocean could have cascading effects on the world's ecosystems and economies, reducing fish stocks as marine species migrate to find cooler waters.
"We are seeing changes already in terms of species distributions, prevalence of harmful algae blooms popping up maybe where we would not necessarily expect them, and the species shifting from warmer southern locations up into the colder regions as well which is quite worrying," Helen Findlay, a biological oceanographer at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory in the United Kingdom, toldThe Evening Standard.
"We are also seeing more species coming up from the south, things like European anchovy or recently examples of Mediterranean octopus coming up into our waters and that is having a knock-on impact for the fish that we catch, and consequences of economics," she added.
Certain parts of the world's oceans provoked particular alarm among scientists in recent days, with water off the coast of Florida hitting 38.44°C—over 101°F—last week.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration told the BBC that ocean temperatures in that area typically hover between 23°C and 31°C at this time of year.
Since scientists first began measuring ocean temperatures using satellites and research buoys about four decades ago, the global average sea surface temperature has gone up by roughly 0.6°C.
Harvard environmental law professor resigns from ConocoPhillips after months of scrutiny
Jody Freeman, a renowned environmental lawyer at Harvard University, has stepped down from a highly-paid role at the oil and gas giant ConocoPhillips, following months of public scrutiny and pressure from climate activists. “I’ve stepped off the ConocoPhillips board to focus on my research at Harvard and make space for some new opportunities,” she wrote on her website on Thursday.
Freeman, founding director of Harvard’s environmental and energy law program and former adviser to President Barack Obama’s administration, served as a board member at the fossil fuel company for more than a decade. She received more than $350,000 annually in combined salary and stocks for the position at ConocoPhillips, a firm that has been in the spotlight this year over the Biden administration’s controversial approval of its massive $8bn drilling project in Alaska, known as the Willow project.
In April, reporting from the Guardian and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism revealed that Freeman lobbied the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on behalf of the company, intensifying criticism from climate activists including Harvard students. Emails obtained via the Freedom of Information Act indicate she helped set up a meeting between company top brass and an SEC director as the agency worked to write new regulations on companies’ emissions disclosure.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Three Polls On Support For The War In Ukraine
Chris Hedges: Nurses Fight Godzilla
Wall Street moves to profit from mass layoffs as Yellow prepares to file for bankruptcy
Bidenomics downgrade, from AAA to AA+
Ukraine DISAPPEARS U.S. Journalist For Criticizing Zelensky!
MSNBC's Joe & Mika Suggest Cornel West 'STEALING' Votes From Biden, Helping TRUMP WIN
Joe Rogan SLAMS ‘Corrupt’ Joe Biden Over Hunter Deals, Calls POTUS A ‘GOOF’
A Little Night Music
Robert Nighthawk-Black Angel Blues
Robert Nighthawk - Someday
Robert Nighthawk - Crying Won't Help You
Robert Nighthawk - Mama Talk to Your Daughter
Robert Nighthawk - Take It Easy Baby
Robert Nighthawk - Prowling Nighthawk
Robert Nighthawk & Ethel Mae - Down the Line
Robert Nighthawk - Seventy-Four
Robert Nighthawk & Mike Bloomfield - Dust My Broom, Honky Tonk, Peter Gunn Jam
Comments
i'll be around later...
we're having heavy thunderstorms and occasional power outages this afternoon and evening.
This anywhere near your neck of the woods?
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
yep...
indeed it is, it's about 25 miles from me as the crow flies. hopefully the old part of town was spared, it's really quite nice.
eek!
well dust my broom honky tonky
gonna put some of that jam on my blue sammich
funny how a few commie ships got the navy panties
in a bunch because of "Ukraine and Taiwan" and
Biden's dog I guess.
thanks for the EB's joe!
question everything
evening qms...
i'm sure that russia and china were just protecting freedom of navigation in international waters just like the u.s. does.
heh.
Here's a fresh view of current world affairs
....in an interview with Dmitry Orlov in St. Petersburg. He talks about why the world is turning to China and Russia for guidance and collaboration. His refreshingly truthful narratives and dry humor are infused with historical fact. In the Q & A interview-style of 'Dialogue Works', Orlov describes the African Summit just held in St. Petersburg, and the lingering anti-colonial issues in Niger. According to Orlov, the only geopolitical issue that the US faces is removing its interference with the rest of the world. Orlov discusses de-dollarization, the purpose of gold backed currencies, how the global oil is price is fixed, the Russian restoration of Eastern Ukraine, the West pulling away from the madness of Zelensky, the upcoming Saudi Peace Summit, the never-discussed population of Ukraine's large Western region, Ukraine as a failed state, and the Ukrainian exodus to Europe and beyond.
Orlov's sanguine geopolitical views from Russia largely incorporate Russian suppositions about its current position in the region, Russia's expanding interests in the global south, and Russia's complete lack of interest in the affairs of Europe and the United States.
.
.
evening pluto...
thanks for the orlov interview, i enjoyed it. i think that he's correct that russia is waiting out the u.s. as is china. i was figuring that they were waiting for more enlightened leadership, but the chances of that anytime soon are not as good as a collapse, i guess.
have a great evening!
This reminds me
of a map I saw of the vote totals from the last(?) Ukrainian election. The "Russian-Oriented" part of the Ukraine voted 9-1 for Zelenskyy while the "Nationalist" area went 60+ for Poroshenko. i think that clarifies the "all Ukranians are Nazis" claim.
On to Biden since 1973
Thanks for posting this.
I think that could be the source of the map. I've collected many of the Ukraine election maps. Mostly they all have a similar pattern because the Russians in the East vote differently. The people in western Ukraine are a completely different nationality — it was actually part of Poland from 1921-1939, and before that part of either Poland or Austria for 500 years. They vote very right wing. The middle, where Kyiv is located is filled with strange international bedfellows, foreign politicians, spies, corporate hustlers, financiers, foreign fighters, and a mixed population that includes gypsies, Nazis, and Jews. Putin's only stated interest in Ukraine is in the Russian occupied territories of the east, which have been under siege since 2014.. Other nationalities living on those lands can stay and become citizens of Russia, with a pension, if that is their wish.
I have to stop watching cop abuse videos on YouTube
I watched a few videos showing what are called "First Amendment Auditors" who film various government and other institutions in public spaces, and when the cops show up, they test whether cops understand their 1st amendment rights to film. Man, talk about lessons in the Bill of Rights as cops try to shut down many of the auditors.
Well, the YT algorithms think I really like these types of videos and has shown on my "jump page" (I when I just go to youtube.com) My family has seen early on real horrific police abuse like my immigrant father getting beat up by cops stealing his paycheck (early days, banks not trusted). He fought back and was put in jail losing his job.
But it amazes me for some unknown reason and my own naivety is that police misconduct and violence is so common to be a pandemic in the country. And the majority of videos I see are against white people. But really sexual assault on what appears to be black teenagers from one of postings.
evening mr w...
it's funny what the yt algorithm thinks that you like, my feed seems to be pretty schizophrenic, though it does get right that i like music videos.
police violence is indeed a pandemic. with a thousand people a year being murdered by cops goodness only knows how many surviving casualties there are. regarding the "goon squad," you would think that maybe there might be some way of screening cop candidates that rejects most of the people like that. lately it seems like the system selects for that sort.
have a great evening!
Excellent point
.
This is very long and I’m still reading it, but this seems spot on:
The stolen election hypocrisy
Was he supposed to say this?
As to the Jimmy-Max interview remember during Israel’s Mowing the Lawn campaign they ran out of bombs after killing over 2,000 Palestinians and Obama and congress rushed to sell them more bombs? Even Bernie voted for it IIRC. But sure America still believes in a 2 state solution…. I wish this Israel crap from Kennedy would end his campaign, but for too many people foreign policy issues isn’t important to them.
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
I know where this conclusion comes from
But is a longer winding road of unraveling events that will get us there. And hegemony will only end if the US runs out of money.
Hegemony is a choice that the US makes every day — because it has the strong economy necessary for such a global power play. It was a risky gamble. But, then, it is the neocon psychopaths embedded in the corporate-run government who make these decisions. And they are never held accountable.
There are many better things that a nation can do with a strong economy. The US could have invested its wealth in its people and its infrastructure. The way China did. It could have created happiness instead of hardship and bitterness.
I think one thing it means is that the NATO alliance will be
broken up and countries will see that our expensive weapons are not worth the $$$ they cost. The UK told Ukraine not to use their super tanks on the front line because of how easily Russia destroyed them. Isn’t that why Germany doesn’t want to send their super duper tanks?
I agree that the economic part will take some time, but with NATO gone countries might have more breathing room.
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
evening snoopy...
i think that obama's foreign policy failures are likely to be overshadowed by the much more catastrophic failures of his successors, though historians will certainly point out that the rise of "humanitarian interventionism" and "right to protect" were engineered on his watch, following on the preventative war invention of the shrub - all innovations which have allowed successor presidents to screw up on a massive scale.
hegemony is already over as we knew it. much of the world is tired of it and realizes now that they can make common cause with other nations about. the only real question is how long reconfiguration takes and which institutions will disappear with it.
A first I thought that this was snark.
However it did actually happen.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/niger-coup-leaders-refuse-to-let-senior-u-s...
It seems that if Nuland isn't personally supporting a coup (like in Ukraine) it its against the rules.
evening humphrey...
uh oh! now they've gone and made the kaganate of nulands mad. war can't be far in the offing. looks like we're already in an abbreviated threat of sanctions mode.
Niger junta to Nuland:
“The loyal Left cannot act decisively. Their devotion to the system is a built-in kill switch limiting dissent.” - Richard Moser
evening cass...
heh, those drones you have parked over there, uh, they're nice and shiny ... it would be a shame if anything happened to them.
The awesome power of nature
.
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
What timing
.
SBU’s announcement comes just a week after Politico published a feature about Kiev’s contingency plans in case Zelensky was assassinated, which the outlet claimed he narrowly avoided on several occasions.
Lots of people are wondering if Zelensky is on borrowed time and if he will go the way of the other friends of America like Saddam, Osama, Gaddaffi and a few others who it turned on.
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
heh...
sounds like a load of crap to me. if russia wanted to assassinate elensky, he would have been 6 feet under ages ago. russia told naftali bennett quite some time ago that they were not seeking to assassinate elensky and i can't see why anything would have changed about that. after all, he's been great at depleting the west of resources and making poor strategic choices - he seems more like an asset to russia than a liability. the west, on the other hand may have had quite enough of elensky and if they can pop him off and blame it on russia, they would have something there.
BINGO
Your comment wins the internet!
I had a visit with my town's Mayor, who has hired me to get his son a divorce, supposedly uncontested.
He is staunch Right Winger. Says buy real stuff, commodities, forget the dollars in a bank backed and insured by FDIC. Why he loves me so, I can't say.
This has been my lefty thinking about self-preservation, not power grab to kill off the poor, for some time.
I am going shopping for real estate in Alabama next week.
I will listen and read more after I eat dinner, which is 2 hours later than usual. Because.
Great eb, my friend!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
evening otc...
alabama? why not diversify your options and pick out someplace cooler, close to a large supply of fresh water?
Cooler doesn't seem to be cheaper.
We are looking, not committing.
Escape from the heat sounds like the only goal, but in truth, we are not young, and we are getting surrounded by cartel. Shootouts happen 11 miles away. Mass murders.
We are ok for now, but could be not ok at all at any time.
Montana and Wyoming are on my radar.
NO to Michigan.
We shall see.
How does it feel to own the internet?
Asking for a friend...
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
heh...
you could check out maine. there's a lot of not terribly expensive land there, good water resources, low cost of living and access to decent medical care. definitely cooler than texas, but of course there's no place with a music scene like austin. oh, well.
Glad you mentioned this.
I visited Maine in the 80s. I did sort of the fall foliage stuff. We will do some planning, take a look.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Yep…
Hence my interesting timing. They buried the politico part halfway through the article. There has been lots of talks about Zelensky being on his last days and boom someone is trying to help it along. I’m thinking we will be seeing lots more stories like this or false flags about him miraculously surviving an attempt. I’d be getting out of dodge if I were him.
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
Of course it isn't Russia who will kill Zelensky
It's more likely as Alex Christoforou says: neo-Nazis will kill Zelensky if he sues for peace.
“The loyal Left cannot act decisively. Their devotion to the system is a built-in kill switch limiting dissent.” - Richard Moser
This is true!
I actually won a debate on the unprovoked claims
One person said that Russia’s invasion was unprovoked and I let him know all the things that led to Russia crossing the border and he agreed with me that they were indeed provoked. It’s funny how facts can change some people’s minds. Many people aren’t aware of the coup in 2014 or what led up to it or Nuland's role in choosing the new president. Or that Ukraine had been targeting the Donbas since then. I also used the Mexico argument that we’d never accept. Just look at how we reacted to Russia and China floating their boats close to our border in Alaska after we’ve said that it’s quite legal for us to float ours in the Taiwan strait and in the Black Sea. Rules based orders are bogus when put to the test. T-heee.
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
"Rules based order" really means
"We're the only ones allowed to do it, so there, nyah nyah nyah!"
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
Evening joe and bluesters
Thank you joe for keeping us informed and responding in ways that add more clarification.
I’m not surprised by the public’s realisation that the support of Ukraine by America is taking its toll. You just have to wonder what took it so long. Could it be that media and propaganda was responsible for numbing people’s minds from the beginning.
Between the Jeff Goodell article you posted and gjonsit’s Child Labour articles, it is clear that life is regressing.
On another note, I am wondering if there is a relationship between two news items I heard on the radio while driving today. This one ...
… and this one, about the new involvement of the giant Blackrock Company eying NZ
Be well all
Hiya Janis
Dunno if you saw it but I posted an article about a volcano that blew trillions of gallons of water into the air and it is going to raise temperatures worldwide for a couple of years. There is also volcanic activity on the ocean floor that is heating the water in many places. I posted it Saturday I think.
And the fires happening in so many countries that are being blamed on climate change were in fact started by humans. The state media is not informing us about many issues.
That’s not to say that the parasite class isn’t doing a lot of nefarious things.
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
Hi snoopy
I missed the article about the volcano, but will look for it with interest.
Between crazy humans and climate warming we are burning.
What does Sam have to say about all of it!
A couple days ago
My mind cracks me up sometimes…
The article is this essay from a week and a half ago.
Sam agrees with me that humans do very crazy things. Well since I tell her that almost daily after reading something crazy they did..
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
Hi snoopy
That’s a very interesting analysis of the recorded and potential effects of the eruption. Because I had not heard of it before, I read a couple other reports and analysis of the eruption. This article offers another perspective ...
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/08/07/hunga-tonga-mysteries/
It all makes me think, “why are we being asked to look at climate change from one side or the other?" We can all tangibly feel the change. Sadly, it is even becoming more acute. I suppose the track toward greater polarity, separation from the whole, has become more and more narrow. It also seems to be traveling at increasing speeds.
I have no doubt that our changing climate is the result of both natural and man-made activity, and are interdependent.