The Evening Blues - 8-22-23
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features organist Jimmy Smith. Enjoy!
“Chinese people live in a freakish backwards mind-controlled dystopia where dissenting thought is crushed and everyone’s brainwashed by propaganda.”
“Oh yeah? How do you know?”
“Come on man, it’s all over the news all day every day!”
-- Caitlin Johnstone
News and Opinion
An interesting article, worth a full read. Here's a snippet to get you started:
Patrick Lawrence: Biden’s Pointless Asian Summit
My goodness. President Joe Biden and the press serving his regime pumped so much hot air into that three-sided Asian summit at Camp David last week it is a wonder the entire occasion didn’t float away like an overfilled balloon. Here’s the thing: It will. Biden brought together the South Korean president and the Japanese premier to forge some kind of new security pact that is intended to endure, as Biden bloviated, “not just this year, not just next year, forever.” You have to love it: Rarely do we get clownish hyperbole of such high quality. But we must remind ourselves from whom this silliness issues. Then we can make some minimal sense of nonsense, if you will suffer a paradox.
Let us consider the grist of the talks Biden hosted at the presidential retreat in Maryland. This will not take long. President Yoon Suk Yeol and Premier Fumio Kishida are two rightist conservatives with very low approval ratings back in South Korea and Japan respectively. They each flew to Washington for White House summits earlier this year, reflecting the Biden regime’s plan to fortify an arc of security alliances running from Seoul through Tokyo, Manila and Singapore all the way to Canberra.
The prima facie objective of this strategy, as obvious as the sun’s rise in the morning, is to surround China so as to contain its influence in the Pacific and, you have to figure, at some point to confront it militarily. I find it weird beyond weird that Biden continues to insist that his regime is not “anti–China” and still expects anyone to take him seriously. The Camp David summit last Friday was supposed to be a big moment in this extravagant project. The three leaders agreed to expand military exercises they already conduct, to establish a three-way communications hotline, to gather yearly for a trilateral summit and to extend cooperation on ballistic missile deployments, which is Orwell-speak for putting more U.S. missiles on South Korean and Japanese soil.
The White House calls these agreements “the Camp David Principles.” At this point I need help, and maybe you do, too. Military drills; red telephones in Seoul, Tokyo and Washington; talking together once a year, more American hardware at the western end of the Pacific: I cannot find a single principle in any of what the three presented to the world when they were finished last Friday afternoon. And there is a good reason for this. Washington has been pushing its more pliant Asian allies for years to sign on to its new Cold War in the Pacific. But push has not yet come to shove. Were Washington to shove Seoul and Tokyo — to tell them the hour has come to engage the People’s Republic in war — it would be instantly clear that East Asians share few of America’s “principles” and want no part of an open conflict with their largest neighbor, largest trading partner and civilizational brothers and sisters.
Vijay Prashad on BRICS & Why Global South Cooperation Is Key to Dismantling Unjust World Order
Poll: Two in five Americans believe direct conflict with China likely
More than 40 percent of Americans believe it is likely that the United States will have a direct military confrontation with China within the next five years, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll on perceptions of U.S. relations with other countries, released on Thursday.
The two-day poll, which was conducted online earlier this week, also shows that a strong majority of Americans think Washington needs to do more to prepare for military threats from China.
However, Americans are more divided on questions of aiding Taiwan, with half of respondents wanting to provide Taiwan with the military resources to help deter an attack from China. A slight plurality opposes the deployment of U.S. troops to defend Taiwan from such an attack.
Overall, 75 percent of respondents had an unfavorable view of China, including 32 percent who said that they had a “very unfavorable” view. The negative perceptions of China presented in this survey track with other recent polling trends which indicate that Americans’ views toward Beijing are at record lows.
The negative numbers may suggest that the constant framing of China as a rival, increased fear mongering among members of Congress, the media, and the Pentagon, and predictions on the likelihood of a great power war in the near-term — have affected public opinion regarding the threat that China poses.
Rus Begins to Capture Kupiansk, Ukr Rabotino Defeated; Rus Dismisses NATO Threats to Freeze Conflict
Another article worth a fuller read:
Neocon dark money front launches desperate ad blitz as support for Ukraine forever war craters
Defending Democracy Together, a neoconservative outfit led by career chickenhawk scribe Bill Kristol, has launched a new initiative called “Republicans for Ukraine” to transform the 2024 presidential election into a referendum on US funding for the NATO proxy war.
Urging Republicans in Congress to support more funding for Ukraine in the upcoming appropriations bill is also a key item on the agenda. ...
By fashioning his Defending Democracy Together as a bastion of Never Trumpism, Kristol was able to ingratiate himself with elite Democrats eager for Republican allies in their messianic battle against the Bad Orange Man. His anti-Trump efforts ultimately earned him a cringeworthy MSNBC tribute celebrating the unrepentant neocon as “Woke Bill Kristol.”
Now, as the Ukrainian counteroffensive fails and a majority of Americans declare opposition for the first time to sending more military aid to Ukraine, Kristol is launching a multimillion dollar ad blitz to keep the tanks slogging through the Donbas mud and the dark money flowing into his bank accounts.
Kristol’s supposedly Republican operation has been funded by a top Democratic Party donor with close ties to US intelligence. ... Since the outfit is powered by dark money, it is impossible to know who greases its wheels. However, disclosures by one NGO offer insight into the liberal leanings of its main known backer: tech mogul and US intelligence partner Pierre Omidyar, whose Democracy Fund distributed $4.15 million into Defending Democracy Together and its offshoot, Republicans for the Rule of Law, between 2018 and 2021. As I reported with Grayzone editor-in-chief Max Blumenthal, Omidyar has leveraged the fortune he amassed as the founder of Ebay to support establishment Democratic candidates while his various foundations act as cutouts for regime change operations waged by US intelligence, including in Ukraine.
Ukraine's Zelenskiy Asks Sweden for Gripen Jets in First Visit Since Russian Invasion
Ukraine has begun discussing with Sweden the possibility of receiving Gripen jets to boost its air defences, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday after meeting Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.
Zelenskiy's visit is his first to Sweden since Russia's invasion in February 2022 and the talks about obtaining Gripen jets, which he cast as preliminary, follow approval from the United States for Denmark and the Netherlands to send F-16 fighters to Ukraine.
"Today we discussed in detail the future steps regarding the possibility of opening the subject of receiving Swedish Gripens," Zelenskiy said at a joint news briefing with Kristersson, adding that the topic would be central to his meetings with other Swedish officials.
In June, the Swedish government said it would give Ukrainian pilots the opportunity to test its Saab-made Gripen fighter jet, but it has also said that it needs all its planes to defend Swedish territory.
Biden White House to Saudi Arabia, ditch BRICS and get nuclear weapons program
Is Erdogan’s High-Wire Act Running Out of Rope?
The big announcement that emerged from the NATO Summit in Vilnius last month was that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had agreed to drop his opposition to Sweden joining the military alliance. The Turkish parliament would still have to approve such a move, but it was believed that was more of a formality after US President Joe Biden reportedly promised to sell F-16 fighter bombers to Turkiye and/or an $11-13 billion line of credit from the IMF.
The supposed deal allowed the summit to avoid being labeled as much a failure as the collective West’s proxy war effort in Ukraine. And yet, ever since the agreement was announced there has been virtually no movement towards Swedish accession. In fact, in some ways it looks like the sides are even further apart.
It’s never a good sign in the West when the Russia blame cannons are deployed to explain away complicated situations, but that’s now happening. Stockholm is claiming that Moscow is poisoning minds by “spreading false claims” about the recent Quran burning incidents in Sweden in order to harm its NATO bid. From The Guardian:
The Swedish authorities have accused Russia of trying to influence how Qur’an burnings are viewed around the world through disinformation campaigns written in Arabic. It is believed to be part of an attempt to disrupt Sweden’s Nato membership process, which is still waiting for approval by Turkiye and Hungary.
Sweden’s psychological defence agency, part of the Ministry of Defence, said that the Russian state-controlled media outlets RT and Sputnik had published a series of articles in Arabic, falsely claiming that the Swedish government supported Qur’an burning. Since the end of June, the authorities have logged about a million similar posts in Arabic and other languages. The warning from the agency – a cold war-era body brought back last year to fight foreign disinformation as tensions with Russia escalated – follows another burning in a spate of such desecrations in Sweden.
It’s hard to draw anything from this except that talks remain at a standstill, and a frustrated Sweden is lashing out. For one, Turkiye is not an Arab country, and just around one percent of Turkish citizens speak Arabic. Second, there are no Arab countries holding up Sweden’s accession. ...
Nonetheless, two leaders of Turkish parties in Erdogan’s ruling coalition have already come out and declared they are now wholly opposed to supporting Sweden’s NATO bid, which would make Erdogan’s job of getting approval through the Turkish parliament harder. And on Wednesday, Turkish Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc reaffirmed that Ankara is still waiting for Sweden to extradite individuals Turkiye accuses of terrorism. He added ominously that Stockholm’s decisions will weigh heavily on the Turkish Parliament’s discussions in the autumn.While the Quran burnings certainly aren’t lowering Turkiye’s asking price for its accession approval, they are playing into the main issue holding up progress.
Serbia Will Increase Supplies of Russian Natural Gas to Hungary if Ukraine Pulls Out of Transit Deal
Serbia will provide Hungary with increased shipments of Russian natural gas if Ukraine follows through on ending a gas transit agreement with Russia, Hungary's foreign minister said Sunday.
Speaking in a taped message, Peter Szijjarto said Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vučić, had met with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in Budapest, and assured him that Serbia would be able to supply more Russian gas to Hungary if Kyiv declines to extend an agreement allowing its transit across Ukrainian territory.
“We've heard in recent days that Ukraine would like to terminate the previously concluded natural gas transit agreement with Russia,” Szijjarto said. “Today, the Serbian president made it clear that if Hungary would like to increase natural gas shipments through Serbia to Hungary, then Serbia can ensure the necessary shipment capacities.”
The deal came after Ukraine's energy minister, German Galushchenko, indicated Kyiv was unlikely to extend the transit agreement which brings Russian natural gas to European countries via Ukraine. That agreement is set to expire next year.
Wagner making ‘Africa even more free’, says Prigozhin in first post-rebellion video
Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has posted his first video address since leading a short-lived rebellion in Russia, appearing in a clip – possibly shot in Africa – on Telegram channels affiliated with the Wagner group on Monday. ...
In Monday’s video, a person who appears to be the 62-year-old mercenary leader is seen standing in a desert area in camouflage and with a rifle in his hands. In the distance, there are more armed men and a pickup truck.
He says the Wagner group is conducting reconnaissance and search activities, and “making Russia even greater on all continents, and Africa even more free”. He then says Wagner is recruiting people and the group “will fulfil the tasks that were set”. ...
Russian social media channels linked to the mercenary leader said Prigozhin was recruiting fighters to work in Africa and also inviting investors from Russia to put money into Central African Republic through Russian House, a cultural centre in the African nation’s capital.
The Central African Republic is one of the countries where Wagner’s soldiers for hire have been active and accused of committing human rights abuses. The Kremlin has used the Wagner group since 2014 as a tool to expand Russia’s presence in the Middle East and Africa.
Hawaiians HECKLE Biden Visit: 'He's Too late'
Biden Falls ASLEEP In Front Of Maui Fire Survivors?! Plus ANOTHER Tone-Deaf Gaffe
850 people still missing from Hawaii fires as Bidens travel to Maui
A total of 850 people are still missing from the devastating wildfires earlier this month, the Maui county mayor has announced. ... The release of new death toll figures come as Joe Biden and the first lady, Jill Biden, are traveling to Maui on Monday to comfort survivors of the wildfires that ripped through the western part of the Hawaiian island.
The Bidens are taking a detour from their weeklong vacation in the Lake Tahoe area for the day trip to Lahaina, a historic town of 13,000 people that was virtually destroyed by the flames. While there, the first couple will meet with first responders and be briefed by state and local officials about the response.
They will also view the damaged town, both from helicopters and on the ground, and the Democratic president will deliver remarks paying tribute to the victims of the wildfires, which have killed more than 100 people since they began on 8 August.
The president will also tap Bob Fenton, a regional leader at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as chief federal response coordinator for the Maui wildfires, ensuring that someone from his administration will be responsible for long-term recovery efforts. It will take years to rebuild Lahaina, where just about every building was obliterated. ...
Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii said that as of Sunday about 85% of the affected area had been searched and nearly 2,000 people remained without power and 10,000 were without telecom connectivity. Water in parts of west Maui is not safe to drink.
While immediate aid such as water, food and blankets has been readily distributed to residents, Schatz said that cellphones, identification and other documents that people would need to help them enroll in longer-term aid programs were burned in the fires, adding more challenges to the application process.
Billy Bragg releases pro-unionisation response song to viral country hit Rich Men North of Richmond
Billy Bragg has released a response song to US country singer Oliver Anthony’s viral hit Rich Men North of Richmond.
The Virginian’s song, which purports to be about workers’ rights, has clocked up nearly 30m views in 12 days after supposedly being discovered and promoted by a local radio station. It has found favour amid conservative politicians and commentators, who have wielded it as a cudgel in the culture wars.
Bond for Donald Trump set at $200,000 in Georgia election subversion case
Donald Trump’s bond on racketeering and conspiracy charges relating to attempted election subversion in Georgia was set at $200,000.
In a court document posted online on Monday, bond amounts for the 13 charges against the former president ranged from $10,000, for counts including criminal conspiracy and filing false documents, to $80,000, for a violation of the Georgia Rico Act, often used against organised crime.
Terms included a prohibition of “act[ing] to intimidate any person known to … be a codefendant or witness in this case”, including in “posts on social media”.
Authorities in Georgia are investigating threats made to grand jurors.
The bond document also said Trump “shall not communicate in any way, directly or indirectly, about the facts of this case with any person known to him to be a codefendant in this case except through his or her counsel”.
Biden's DOJ 'TERRIFIED' To Charge Boss's Son Hunter After Plea Deal DISASTER
Rich countries ‘trap’ poor nations into relying on fossil fuels
Richer countries and private lenders are trapping heavily indebted countries into reliance on fossil fuels, according to a new report.
The pressure to repay debts is forcing poor nations to continue investing in fossil fuel projects to make their repayments on what are usually loans from richer nations and financial institutions, according to new analysis from the anti-debt campaigners Debt Justice and partners in affected countries.
The group is calling for creditors to cancel all debts for countries facing crisis – and especially those linked to fossil fuel projects.
“High debt levels are a major barrier to phasing out fossil fuels for many global south countries,” said Tess Woolfenden, a senior policy officer at Debt Justice. “Many countries are trapped exploiting fossil fuels to generate revenue to repay debt while, at the same time, fossil fuel projects often do not generate the revenues expected and can leave countries further indebted than when they started. This toxic trap must end.”
According to the report, the debt owed by global south countries has increased by 150% since 2011 and 54 countries are in a debt crisis, having to spend five times more on repayments than on addressing the climate crisis.
Zero-degree line at record height above Switzerland as heat and fire hit Europe
A Swiss weather balloon had to climb to an unprecedented 5,300 metres (17,400ft) before the temperature fell to 0C (32F), meteorologists have said, as a late summer heatwave and wildfires continue to pummel swaths of continental Europe. ...
MétéoSuisse said the zero-degree line – the altitude at which the temperature falls below freezing, considered a key meteorological marker particularly in mountainous regions – was measured at 5,298 metres overnight.
The figure, which was registered by a weather balloon flown from Payerne in western Switzerland, constituted “a record since monitoring began in 1954”, the service said, and surpassed the previous high of 5,184 metres that was “only set in July last year”.
The 0C line “affects vegetation, the snow line and the water cycle, so has a considerable impact on the habitats of humans, animals and plants alike”, MétéoSuisse said. It averaged 2,570 metres above sea level from 1991 and 2020, fluctuating between 1,000 and 2,000 metres in winter, and 3,000 and 4,000 metres in summer.
In recent decades “anthropogenic climate change has caused the altitude of the zero-degree line to rise significantly in every season”, the service said, noting that successive records for the indicator had all been set in the past 10 years.
In Major Win for Indigenous Rights, Ecuador Votes to Ban Oil Drilling in Protected Amazon Lands
Ecuadorians vote to halt oil drilling in biodiverse Amazonian national park
Ecuadorians have voted in a historic referendum to halt the development of all new oilwells in the Yasuní national park in the Amazon, one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet.
Voters opted to safeguard the unique biosphere by a margin of nearly 20% with more than 90% of the ballot counted – with more than 58% in favour and 41% against, according to Ecuador’s National Electoral Comission. Voting took place in the first round of presidential elections on Sunday.
The move will keep about 726m barrels of oil underground in the Yasuní national park, which is also home to the Tagaeri and Taromenane people, two of the world’s last “uncontacted” Indigenous communities living in voluntary isolation.
At a time when the climate crisis is intensifying around the world and the Amazon rainforest is fast approaching an irreversible tipping point, Ecuador has become one of the first countries in the world to set limits on resource extraction through a democratic vote.
In a second referendum, citizens in Quito also voted to block gold mining in the Chocó Andino, a sensitive highland biosphere near the capital city, by an even larger margin of about 68% to 31%.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Americans Are More Propagandized Than Chinese People: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix
Biden’s Trilateral Camp David Summit Advanced Preparation for War with China
Declining Population Thru Lower Birth Rates Is GOOD, Mmmmkay?
Even Plutocrats Can’t Escape the Coming Heat
A Little Night Music
Jimmy Smith Got My Mojo Working
Jimmy Smith - Honky Tonk
Jimmy Smith - Back At The Chicken Shack
Jimmy Smith - Some Of My Best Friends Are Blues
Jimmy Smith - Bashin'
Jimmy Smith - The Organ Grinder's Swing
Jimmy Smith - Mercy, Mercy, Mercy
Jimmy Smith - 8 Counts For Rita
Jimmy Smith - Root Down (And Get It)
Comments
The election is still more than a year away but I have a feeling
that the runup to it will not be boring.
That said the two leading candidates give me the shivers.
He's yanking the chains of voters on both
sides of the aisle with this. Anti-Russia, anti-Putin sentiment is bipartisan. It does leave an opening for one of his GOP opponents.
Trump's ego is so huge that he will never concede to his opponents. However, this comment makes him sound sick and tired of all the old, stupid games, and it wouldn't surprise me if he said adios to all the losers while he remains at the top of the GOP leader board.
Timed just right, it will leave the DP stuck with the nearly comatose Biden who will lose. To whom?
Tune into the GOP debate tomorrow night for a clue. Doubt that I can take it, but if I could, I'd first watch it without sound to get a baseline read of physical charisma. Then watch with sound for all sorts of qualities that voters respond positively to (some of which they deny). The first 2016 GOP debate told me that the preposterous Trump was a real threat to win the nomination.
i certainly will not be watching the debate and I am sure
that the MSM will have their spin as to what happened. If I was so inclined
(which I'm not) I would view Trump and Tucker for entertainment purposes only.
Somebody other than the MSM
that is not a kneejerk Republican or Democrat, has historical knowledge and personal memory of several election cycles, and an above average IQ needs to watch it and tell us what really took place. Otherwise, we're limited to what the campaign and party spin doctors and lame stream press say which infects our brains whether or not we can admit that.
evening humphrey...
you have to admit that trump is an entertainment master.
Thanks for the EB's Joe!!
https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/
"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe that they are free."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
evening ggersh...
thanks for the cartoon, it's excellent!
Biden's belated trip to Maui paid political dividends. /S
What took the nation so long
to recognize who Biden is? With a thirty year learning curve for voters, we're doomed.
The Obama/Clinton camp expected Biden to serve one term and then they could elevate Harris. Did any of them evaluate Harris' skills? She's like Quayle in drag. The DP bench is now really old and thin as they've spent so many decades beating back anyone that doesn't toe the corporate and MIC line, that few are attractive in any way. Who could jump in in the next 90 days?
evening marie...
i am guessing that mayo pete is grinding his teeth because he's so anxious to get in the game.
Likely --
but his performance at Transportation has demonstrated his incompetence.
He doesn't stand out.
He fits in.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
True -- but
that's not a winner in IA and NH.
So,
that means we are better off.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Gavin Newsom.
He's Plan A. Plan B probably Gov Whitmer (MI). The best hopes for the party are among the governors.
Kim Iversen is predicting that the Ds will wait until the rigged primaries are over then, just before the convention, arrange to have Grandpa Joe step aside in his reelect bid. He would be allowed to finish out his term along w Kamala, but the convention delegates would pick already warmed up Gov Newsom. And as a double bonus, since Kamala is also from CA, she would be constitutionally ineligible to be on his ticket, so the Kamala problem is taken care of.
evening wokkamile...
yep, newsom has been on a bunch of people's lists of likely democrats.
the democrats do have a lot of hacks and hangers-on floating around that various wings of the party want to see in office just waiting for their turn. i guess we'll see what they come up with. it may be that there's so much competition among the wings for biden replacements that biden will remain because the players are riven.
How soon before Biden
begins saying "where am I" and "who am I?"
heh...
well, he already says pretty stupid things most of the time and then he wanders around the stage trying to figure out where he's supposed to go. it can't be long now.
Actually sounds plausible.
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 --
Iverson's scenario would only fly
with those salivating for a brokered convention. It's now too obvious to too many people that Joe is senile. It's what primary voters in Iowa, NH, and NV saw in 2020 and why he lost in all three. (SC and AL Democratic voters aren't as astute.)
Every day the DP fails to act on this clear and present danger, they lose credibility.
Going with a governor in 2024, a person outside the beltway bubble, is their best option. Newsom is more seasoned than Whitmer, but either would be better than the current offering. A trap that the party created for itself is "woke" (ID politics in lieu of policy politics) that the GOP has successfully demonized. So, the ticket would need some balance with a person not so readily labeled as woke. Without that drag a Whitmer-Newsom ticket would have been more viable. Or perhaps I'm overthinking this and those two could effectively shut down that criticism.
Neither would be worth a damn if they were anointed by and therefore beholden to the "swamp." They would have to run and compete against DP favorites.
Her scenario
could happen if Biden's 2 other, non-senile, problems continue. One is his Hunter problem which keeps entangling Joe. And the other is Joe's continuing poor polling numbers. Convention delegates, strong party regulars all, will choose winning over loyalty to someone, even an incumbent president, who looks like a loser. (see 1968, LBJ quietly having polling done at the Chicago convention, results coming back strongly negative for him so he decided not to get back in the race. Delegates sensed, rightly, that he would be a loser in the fall. Per Marvin Watson, a top Johnson aide.)
At such a convention, there would be plenty of backroom discussion in favor of Newsom and Whitmer and I couldn't say who else. Newsom would have an advantage with his stronger national ID profile and the size of the CA delegation. A Newsom-Whitmer ticket would seem about right, both complementing each other and doubling down, in Clinton-Gore ways, on strengths like youthfulness (only in their 50s, such are the times), smarts and personal appeal.
Let the delegates decide who is at the top of the ticket. After a rigged primary season for Joe and Joe having to step aside for health reasons, regular voters will find the process an improvement. Either one would be far better than Joe, except on covid and personal autonomy matters.
As for woke, I wish Newsom were a little bit less. It's become a cringeworthy game of selecting solely on the basis of race/gender, not on merit, and even worse, is announced publicly in advance. Bad as this has become, I don't think woke as an issue would be enough to prevent GN/GW from winning.
Merkley...
Jr. Senator from Oregon would love to - *he* clearly thinks he's presidential material. Makes a big deal about his blue collar small town roots but supports every climate boondoggle, gun grab, woke BS and war that comes along. Claims a MAGA win would destroy the country (Like it's not being destroyed *now*!?).
With the Dem bench as thin as it is, can't rule out the D establishment resorting to him. White and male but you can't have everything, right?
Ron Wyden I mostly just disagree with 90% of the time and dislike in a general way. Merkley I've come to actively detest. He does respond to e-mails, though - unlike my RINO 'representative' Lori Chavez DeRemer (OR CD-5).
Leaning toward re-registering D to vote for RFK, Jr. in Oregon's closed primary...
LBJ and Hurricane Betsy
Democrats used to know what to do when a natural disaster occurred. The day after Hurricane Betsy hit New Orleans in 1965, President Johnson put on a pair of wading boots and met with the victims. He announced: “This is your President! I’m here to help you!”
Very nice historical reminder --
must also remember that LBJ was the last really good domestic policy POTUS. Terrible on FP but that's no so different from his successors.
evening karl...
imagine that, a president that thinks that his job is to help people who are not billionaires.
WRT Johnson...
It's easier to imagine a president supporting the civil rights and social programs of his deceased and deeply disliked predecessor saying something like:
"These Negroes, they're getting pretty uppity these days and that's a problem for us since they've got something now they never had before, the political pull to back up their uppityness. Now we've got to do something about this, we've got to give them a little something, just enough to quiet them down, not enough to make a difference. For if we don't move at all, then their allies will line up against us and there'll be no way of stopping them, we'll lose the filibuster and there'll be no way of putting a brake on all sorts of wild legislation. It'll be Reconstruction all over again."
and
"I'll have those niggers voting Democratic for 200 years"
and
"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."
(Snopes rates fhe first and third quote above as correctly attributed to Johnson and the second 'unproven' - but acknowledges it would not have been out of character)
Well, LBJ *was* an utter pragmatist about politics
He wasn't at all fussy about how things got done, just so long as they got done.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
Good evening Joe, thanks for the EBs.
Good organ, great honky tonk and chicken shack.
Sounds like the Ukie 82nd is getting mauled, but elensky is still our begging, now for Gripens. What will they be doing once his ground troops are history, and why?
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 --
evening el...
well, the 82nd getting mauled is hardly a surprised. i wonder if elensky (or biden's neocon flunkies) have any idea of what they are going to do when they run out of trained troops. i suppose that elensky would be happy scraping children out of schools for the next round. i guess we'll see, it can't be much longer now.
have a great evening!
They ran out of trained troops
some time ago. The Obama-Biden grand Ukrainian experiment of winning a war without US troops and only US funding will be a bust. Hopefully the general public will begin to get a clue that all these armed conflict foreign adventures have been a really bad idea.
More drones hit civilian targets in Moscow
Translation:
Not exactly sure what this is all about but I can't imagine that
the West is pleased.
Meanwhile in Niger.
Elsewhere in Africa
Camp David Summit article
...in Common Dreams was pretty good. I picked this one paragraph to look at, any of the essay, would bear close examination. People who blow off this summit as some kind of non-event don't really recognize the dynamics. I mostly talk about Yoon and South Korea so I will defer here and cite this paragraph about Japan.
I think people tend to turn a blind eye to the far right nature of LDP rule in Japan. I think this is because Japan has a very sophisticated public relations effort internationally, they have spent massive sums of money on. Some of this is supporting US think tanks and NGOs, and then there are influence operations to sponsor promising figures from other countries in Japanese institutions of higher learning. Yoon Suk-yeol's father was in this category. I noticed that Yoon's nominee for Chief of the Supreme Court speaks fluent Japanese. He's definitely too young to have picked it up during the colonial period. I'm sure the objective here is to quash lawsuits against Japanese wartime companies that used slave labor forever. This jurist went to the same University in Japan as Yoon's dad did, for some post grad, I believe. He's studied the Japanese legal system. This is part of the grooming, similar to the US Marshal Fund, which does the same thing for international scholars.
The author notes elsewhere that the Japanese military hasn't rejected the use of nuclear weapons in principle for 60 years. I'm not familiar with this, haven't seen any English language material on this subject. Wish he had put a footnote or a link.
I listened to some senior South Korean speakers today, who were at a conference of "elder statesmen" basically on behalf of peace today. They all said that Yoon was increasing the chance of war by his preparations with the US for war with North Korea. They questioned regarding North Korea as a greater potential enemy than Japan based upon historical experience. And just what sort of experience did the Yoon government think it would have in another Korean war? It was also noted in particular, that the original dictator imposed on South Korea by the US, was Syngman Rhee. Rhee wanted to unify Korea by force. Most people don't know this, but spoiling attacks on North Korea at the 38th parallel took place for weeks before North Korea invaded on 6.25.1950. One of the South Korean commanders who did this was a former officer in the Japanese Imperial armed forces. This is not to debate about who started it, it was a civil war. What's certain is that the US divided Korea and occupied South Korea, and then never left. So what's the plan? Someone pointed out that Yoon plans to do the same thing as Rhee, unite the peninsula by force. I don't think there is too much direct evidence of this, but there is circumstantial evidence.
Yoon designates North Korea as the enemy. Of course, the North Koreans designate the government in the South as the enemy. I read a lengthy piece by Bruce Cummings from 2006 or so, as to why the North Korean perspective, which often appears pathological to the west, is in the context of their history and their experience of the Korean conflict understandable. This whole framing of relations between North and South, came from Japan and the US in the first place. This is a convenient graphic for this purpose, but it actually understates the case-
The Sino-Japanese War which started in 1894, is the point the Japanese forces invaded Korea and basically never left until 1945. In South Korea they were replaced by the US military administration, which left much of the Korean elements of the Japanese colonial administration in South Korea, police, military and society intact, and then supported a series of dictators for decades afterwards.
Getting back to risk of war to reunite the peninsula. Yoon wanted to eliminate the separate Unification Ministry which typically has taken a diplomatic approach to North Korean relations. The person Yoon nominated to head the Unification Ministry is Kim Young-ho, is a far right ideologue who teaches political science when he isn't on youtube. His youtube videos mysteriously disappeared just before his nomination. He used to be a leftist but got turned around when he was jailed by the government in 1987. He's a big admirer of Carl Schmitt, the Nazi era thinker who admired Hobbes. It's obvious the way that Yoon spoke at the Liberation Day Celebration last week, that he has a Carl Schmitt view of domestic opposition politics. What he said doesn't really jive with the freedom and democracy theme oft touted as the "shared values," of the trilateral partnership. On August 15, Liberation Day, Yoon described North Korea as the enemy and Japan as the friend, in so many words. But the public commemoration of the Liberation of Korea August 15, 1945 was from Japan. But Japan is now the friend, the partner, etc. with shared values. On the other hand, in the same speech, Yoon described domestic advocates of democracy, human rights, and progressives, as potential enemies of the state posing in disguise. I think this is how Carl Schmidt would have viewed them as well.
It's clear that in Yoon's view, the administration of Moon Jae-in, was an appeaser of the enemy in the North, with his focus on diplomatic overtures, cultural and economic initiatives, and national identity. Further, Yoon regarded resistance to Japan's meddling in South Korea's internal affairs, and persisting in historical wartime claims against Japan as a seditious threat to the South Korean state. This is also reminiscent of the extra state actors weakening the Wiemar Republic. One of the elders described Yoon as captured by neocons.
For what reason would Yoon, and his advisors on national security be willing to adopt US and Japanese geopolitical objectives concerning Taiwan and the South China Sea? These are clearly not Korean objectives nor are disputes with China in South Korea's interest. Well maybe if you were planning to go to war anyway, it wouldn't matter that much. Keep in mind that a lot of this sort of thinking (as with Schmitt) is tied into some mystic orientation. Yoon gets prognostications from Cheon Kong, a dosa, who makes predictions of the future, such as reunification by 2025, and consults at least one other mystic besides his wife, who claims similar mystic abilities that play some role in the presidential office decision making. For example, if you knew by your geopolitical ideology, that the peninsula would be getting unified only by force, then you would have to insist on US nuclear weapon deployments to South Korea, because your enemy North Korea is going to respond to any attack on itself with nuclear weapons, it's already made that very clear.
Conservative leadership in the LDP in Japan has expressed admiration for the Third Reich publicly on rare occasions. This is usually Taro Aso. There is no question Japan admired the Germans during the WWII period. At any rate, the LDP chafes under the peace constitution and wants to put all that anti war stuff to rest and become a "normal country" again. Sounds like they are more comfortable with the Schmitt perspective on international relations and wish to return to it.
Here is one part of Joseph Gerson's article that is sound, but I wish to clarify-
The US Indo Pacific Command has said that it has full confidence in its anti-ballistic missile capacity. For technical reasons, I don't think it will work as well as they think. There is no "shield" although the US Indo-Pacific Command thinks there is. In any case, I think that it's a major mistake to think that there is a military solution to division of the Korean peninsula, or a military solution to a conflict concerning China and Taiwan. This is a kind of antiquated philosophy of government, international relations and warfare, that is no longer applicable in war with nuclear armed states. So Hobbesian ideas about war as a natural human thing, and designating enemies to go to war against and all that as unavoidable activities are really well past their expiration date.
Thanks for news, blues, and OT Joe.
語必忠信 行必正直
Your in depth insights with regards to the area always
informative and greatly appreciated. Hopefully a confrontation can be avoided but unfortunately it is not looking that way.
need to correct this
Have to note this mistake I made last night.
Yoon's dad, and the Yoon nominee for Supreme Court Justice, both attended elite post graduate programs in Japan, but not the same the same universities. Yoon's dad, who was an economist, (he just died recently) attended Hitotsubashi University. Lee Kyun-yong attended Keio University for legal studies. Anyway Lee is Yoon's junior by one year, Seoul National University School of Law. Their relationship is "close." Some worry about the constitutional separation of powers on this basis. Yoon visited Keio University and gave a lecture to an audience of Japanese and Korean students on March 17.
Lee is regarded as very conservative, opinionated and hard to work with by some former colleagues. Obviously, they are both pro-Japanese.
語必忠信 行必正直
Thanks Humphrey
I've just been ordered to bed. Appreciate the compliment.
I'm still in the recovery mode. Out for now.
語必忠信 行必正直
Germany - with 'democracies' like this...
Judicial independence not a thing, apparently, in modern Germany.
A judge who in 2021 attempted to block a mask mandate in a couple local schools has been sentenced to two years probation for his actions. While that is less than the three-year prison sentence prosecutors wanted, it would cost the 60 year-old judge/defendant his job and pension.
Germans are being told they're supporting a fight for freedom in Ukraine (at the cost of crashing their economy) but it looks like they should consider fighting for some at home...
Background to the case (Going off-narrative a crime, being right not a defense):
https://michaelsavage.com/search-seizure-at-home-of-judge-who-rendered-t...
The Billy Bragg Song...
rocked. Thanks for introducing me to it.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so