The Evening Blues - 9-1-23
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features rockabilly singer Robert Gordon. Enjoy!
Robert Gordon – Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die
“They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it’s not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance.”
-- Terry Pratchett
News and Opinion
Ukraine Tells Counteroffensive Critics to ‘Shut Up’
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Thursday told critics of Ukraine’s slow counteroffensive to “shut up” amid a flood of leaks from Western officials pinning the blame for the lack of success on Ukrainian commanders.
“Criticizing the slow pace of (the) counteroffensive equals … spitting into the face of (the) Ukrainian soldier who sacrifices his life every day, moving forward and liberating one kilometer of Ukrainian soil after another,” Kuleba told reporters, according to Reuters.
“I would recommend all critics to shut up, come to Ukraine and try to liberate one square centimeter by themselves,” he added.
Zelenskyy Says Ukraine Has Developed a Long-Range Weapon, a Day After a Strike Deep Inside Russia
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday his country has developed a weapon that hit a target 700 kilometers (400 miles) away, in an apparent reference to the previous day’s strike on an airport in western Russia.
Zelenskyy said on his Telegram channel the weapon was produced by Ukraine’s Ministry of Strategic Industries but gave no other details.
On Wednesday, a four-hour wave of drones that Moscow blamed on Ukraine hit an airport near Russia’s border with Estonia and Latvia, damaging four Il-76 military transport planes, according to local reports.
The airport is in Russia’s Pskov region, about 700 kilometers (400 miles) north of the Ukrainian border.
Tucker, US-Russia war. Borrell, 40K troops ready. Pskov, Kremlin silent
The US Bankrupting Itself on Wars -w/ Ron Paul, Alexander Mercouris & Glenn Diesen
Lukashenko Says Demands by Poland and Baltics for Wagner to Quit Belarus Are 'Stupid'
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said demands by Poland and the Baltic states for the withdrawal of Russia's Wagner mercenary group from Belarus were "groundless and stupid", Belarusian state news agency BELTA reported on Thursday.
BELTA quoted Lukashenko as saying that opposition to Wagner's presence in Belarus was unjustified as long as foreign troops are stationed in Poland and the Baltics, which are all members of NATO. ...
Poland and its neighbours see Wagner's presence in Belarus as a security threat, and Warsaw in response has moved some of its own troops eastwards towards the Belarus border.
BELTA quoted Lukashenko as saying that Poland and the Baltics had no right to complain about Wagner in Belarus as long as they had "even one foreign serviceman" on their soil.
Hungarian PM STUNS With Ukraine Truth In Tucker Interview
Niger’s military regime orders police to expel French ambassador and revokes his diplomatic immunity
Niger’s military junta has revoked the diplomatic immunity of France’s ambassador and ordered police to expel him from the West African country, according to a statement from the military regime.
The mutinous soldiers who ousted Niger’s president more than a month ago gave French Ambassador Sylvain Itte 48 hours to leave the country last week. The deadline expired on August 28 without France recalling Itte.
The French government says it doesn’t recognize the coup-plotters as the country’s legitimate leaders, and French Foreign Ministry spokesperson Anne-Claire Legendre said Thursday that the ambassador remains in place despite the expulsion threats.
Here’s Why U.S. Wants To Invade Mexico - Yes MEXICO!
Gabon coup council to swear in its leader as president
The general who overthrew Gabon’s 55-year Bongo dynasty will be sworn in on Monday as transitional president, the army has said, while the African Union’s peace and security council has decided to “immediately suspend” Gabon after the military coup this week.
Gabon’s opposition, meanwhile, has called for its candidate to be recognised as the winner of weekend elections.
The swearing in of General Brice Oligui Nguema would take place at the constitutional court, said a spokesman for the junta, providing an indication of how the “committee for the transition and restoration of institutions” will operate.
The military wanted to reassure donors it would “respect all commitments” at home and abroad and “phase in” transitional institutions, Colonel Ulrich Manfoumbi Manfoumbi, spokesman for the new regime, said on state television.
The African Union tweeted that it “strongly condemns the military takeover of power in the Republic of Gabon, which ousted President Ali Bongo on 30 August 2023”.
White House ADMITS No More Money For Maui, TONE-DEAF Biden Brings Up House Fire AGAIN
DANGEROUS Levels Of CARCINOGENIC TOXINS Detected In East Palestine, Ohio Soil
Pressure grows on Clarence Thomas after more gifts from rightwing donor
The conservative supreme court justice Clarence Thomas faced further controversy on Thursday after the release of his financial disclosure form for 2022 provided evidence of more flights and stays with Harlan Crow, a Republican mega-donor.
Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democratic senator from Rhode Island and judiciary committee member, called the form a “late-come effort at ‘clean-up on aisle three’” which would not “deter us from fully investigating the massive, secret, rightwing billionaire influence in which this court is enmired”.
A series of bombshell reports have detailed long relationships between Thomas, rich donors and influential rightwing figures. In the case of Crow, a real-estate baron and collector of Nazi memorabilia, ProPublica has reported gifts of luxury travel and resort stays, a property purchase involving Thomas’s mother and school fees paid for his great-nephew.
Thomas is the senior conservative on a court dominated 6-3 by the right, a majority that has handed down epochal rulings including Dobbs v Jackson, which removed the right to abortion. From the left, calls for Thomas to resign or be impeached have proliferated. In the Senate, Democrats have advanced supreme court ethics reform. Given that Republicans have sufficient votes to prevent all such actions – and that the chief justice, John Roberts, has rebuffed calls to testify – chances of change seem slim.
Man who shot Black teenager Ralph Yarl must stand trial, Missouri judge rules
A Missouri judge ruled Thursday that the 84-year-old white homeowner who shot a Black teenager after he mistakenly went to the man’s house must stand trial. Louis Angles, the Clay county judge, issued the ruling after hearing from several witnesses at a preliminary hearing, including Ralph Yarl, the teenager who was shot by Andrew Lester on 13 April when Yarl went to the wrong house to pick up his younger brothers.
Lester, a retired aircraft mechanic, is charged with first-degree assault and armed criminal action. He previously pleaded not guilty in the shooting that shocked the country and renewed national debates about gun policies and race in America.
Larry Dunaway, a Kansas City officer, described Lester as “an elderly guy who was scared” after the shooting. Another officer, James Gale, said Lester was clearly worried. “He said he hoped he didn’t kill anybody,” Gale testified.
A handful of people wearing shirts that said “Justice for Ralph” were seen entering the courthouse. Others wore shirts that read: “Ringing a doorbell is not a crime.”
Yarl continues to heal from the traumatic brain injury he suffered but was able to complete an engineering internship this summer and just started his senior year in high school. The 17-year-old is planning to major in engineering when he graduates, with several college visits planned for the fall.
Donald Trump pleads not guilty in Georgia election racketeering case
Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty to charges that he conspired and engaged in racketeering activity to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia, according to a court filing submitted by his lawyer in superior court in Atlanta. The former president also attested in the filing that he would waive his arraignment – the formal reading of the indictment handed up by a jury this month – meaning he will not need to appear for that proceeding next week. ...
Trump’s Sharpie-written signature marks the fourth time in as many months that he has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges, after previously being indicted in a hush-money case in New York, in a classified documents case in Florida, and in a federal 2020 election subversion case in Washington. ...
The conclusion of the plea and arraignment process starts the pre-trial phase of the case. No trial date has yet been set for Trump, though the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, asked to try all 19 defendants together starting on 23 October after two ex-Trump lawyers sought a speedy trial.
On Thursday, lawyers for Donald Trump moved to sever his case from two defendants who have asked for their own trials to be speeded up.
Former Proud Boys leaders sentenced to 17 and 15 years for US Capitol attack
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced two former far-right Proud Boy leaders to prison terms of 17 and 15 years after a jury convicted them of seditious conspiracy for storming the US Capitol in a failed attempt to overturn Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss. Joseph Biggs, who helped lead dozens of Proud Boys members and associates in marching to the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, was sentenced to 17 years. Prosecutors had sought a 33-year sentence. ...
Later Thursday the judge who sentenced Biggs also sentenced co-defendant former Proud Boys chapter leader Zachary Rehl to 15 years in prison. Two other Proud Boys will also be sentenced after they were convicted by a jury in May after a four-month trial in Washington, that laid bare far-right extremists’ embrace of lies by Trump that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
Enrique Tarrio, a Miami resident who was the Proud Boys’ national chairman and top leader, is scheduled to be sentenced on Tuesday. ... He picked Biggs and Proud Boys chapter president Ethan Nordean to be the group’s leaders on the ground in his absence, prosecutors said. ... Biggs, Tarrio, Nordean and Rehl were convicted of charges including seditious conspiracy, a rarely brought civil war-era offense.
Alarm Grows Over Wisconsin GOP's Supreme Court Impeachment Threats
Wisconsin Democrats are urging the U.S. public to pay close attention to the Republican Party's maneuvering in the key battleground state, where GOP lawmakers are floating impeachment proceedings against a recently elected liberal Supreme Court justice if she doesn't recuse herself from cases related to the state's gerrymandered legislative maps.
"We've been sounding the alarm bells on the dangerous threats from Republicans to impeach justices who don't follow their orders. And yesterday, they doubled down," Wisconsin Senate Democrats wrote in a social media post on Wednesday after state Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-63) left open the possibility of an impeachment push against Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Vos suggested that Protasiewicz has "pre-judged" a potential case challenging the legality of Wisconsin's legislative maps. If Protasiewicz doesn't recuse, Vos said that would be "a pretty clear violation" and indicated impeachment proceedings would be on the table.
Wisconsin Republicans have the simple Assembly majority needed to impeach and the two-thirds Senate majority needed to convict. State Republicans are also currently attempting to remove Wisconsin's nonpartisan head of elections.
Bernie Goes FULL BLOWN Trump Derangement Syndrome!
Mitch McConnell cleared for work by congressional doctor after freezing
Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the US Senate, was given a clean bill of health by the congressional physician, a day after freezing in front of reporters for the second time in a month.
In a short statement, the physician, Brian P Monahan, said he had consulted with McConnell and told him “he is medically clear to continue with his schedule as planned”.
At the same time, however, it was reported that a “handful” of Republican senators were weighing an attempt to force the party to confront the issue of their 81-year-old leader’s uncertain health and ability to fulfill the role.
In Covington, Kentucky, on Wednesday, McConnell appeared to freeze during questions from reporters. He was eventually escorted away. It followed a similar incident in Washington in July, at the US Capitol. McConnell then returned to resume the session, saying he had been “sandbagged” – a reference to a fall suffered by Joe Biden at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado in May.
Four months previously, in March, McConnell fell himself, sustaining a concussion and a rib injury that kept him away from Congress. After his first freeze, other falls were reported. On Wednesday, a spokesperson for McConnell said the senator had felt lightheaded and would consult a doctor. On Thursday, Monahan said: “Occasional lightheadedness is not uncommon in concussion recovery and can also be expected as a result of dehydration.”
The people of Ecuador just made climate justice history - Steven Donziger
Days ago, voters in Ecuador approved a total ban on oil drilling in protected land in the Amazon, a 2.5m-acre tract in the Yasuní national park that might be the world’s most important biodiversity hotspot. The area is a Unesco-designated biosphere reserve and home to two non-contacted Indigenous groups. This could be a major step forward for the entire global climate justice movement in ways that are not yet apparent.
This vote is important not only for Ecuador and for the Indigenous peoples in the Yasuní, who now have hope of living in peace in perpetuity. It is also a potential model for how we can use the democratic process around the world to help slow or even stop the expansion of fossil fuels to the benefit of billions of people.
The Yasuní referendum proves that real democracy that respects the popular will can be a powerful tool for transitioning to a sustainable future. Ecuador’s state oil company, Petroecuador, had been producing nearly 60,000 barrels a day in the Yasuní. It now must figure out how to dismantle its entire operation and go home. When in history has a popular vote ever forced an oil company to cease active drilling? Never. ...
The flipside is that powerful oil and gas companies understand the threat a real citizen-based democracy poses to their power. ... In the United States, it is not broadly known that the fossil fuel industry quietly funds a national lobbying campaign that has introduced draconian anti-protest bills in at least 18 states. These laws threaten anyone protesting at an oil or gas facility with huge fines and serious prison sentences; some states even impose criminal liabilities on non-profit advocacy groups that support the protesters. These are really laws of intimidation designed to stop protest before it happens. And they are also manifesting in other countries including Australia, the United Kingdom and Germany.
As a result, many Americans who have committed peaceful acts of non-violent civil disobedience – central to the birth of our country and a cornerstone of our political tradition – now face decades in prison. In Atlanta, Georgia, 42 people have been charged by prosecutors with “domestic terrorism” for trying to save the city’s last green canopy in the Weelaunee forest. Local police are trying to raze part of the forest to build a military-style police training academy, colloquially called “Cop City”, that already resulted in the first police killing of a climate activist in US history. ... That this is happening in a city considered to be one of the cradles of the American civil rights movement shows just how entwined corporate and police power have become in their efforts to erode democratic rights.
Biden Infrastructure Report Pushes 'Disastrous Water Privatization Schemes,' Watchdog Says
An under-the-radar report by U.S. President Joe Biden's National Infrastructure Advisory Council should not go unnoticed, said the national watchdog Food & Water Watch on Thursday, as buried in the document is a call for the privatization of U.S. water systems, which progressive lawmakers and civil society groups have long opposed.
On page 15 of the 38-page report, the advisory council said the federal government should "remove barriers to privatization, concessions, and other nontraditional models of funding community water systems in conjunction with each state's development of best practice."
Food & Water Watch (FWW) suggested that the recommendation goes hand in hand with the panel chairmanship of Adebayo Ogunlesi, who is the chairman and CEO of Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP).
GIP is "an infrastructure investment bank with an estimated $100 billion in assets under management that targets energy, transportation, digital, and water infrastructure," said FWW, making the takeover of public water and wastewater utilities by a private corporation—often under the guise of improving aging systems and lowering costs—financially beneficial for the bank.
Mary Grant, Public Water for All campaign director at FWW, called the recommendation "a terrible idea."
"President Biden should have never appointed an investment banker to chair an advisory council for the nation's infrastructure," said Grant. "Wall Street wants to take control of the nation's public water systems to wring profits from communities that are already struggling with unaffordable water bills and toxic water."
FWW has analyzed water privatization schemes for years, finding that they it often leave communities "with higher water bills, worse service, job losses, and little control to fix these problems."
US government is funding kills of endangered animals, activists say
The US federal government has been accused of simultaneously paying to protect endangered species while funding state-organized hunts of large, endangered predators, like gray wolves and grizzly bears, that increase the likelihood of their extinction.
A coalition of more than 35 animal welfare and Indigenous groups in late 2021 formally petitioned the US Department of the Interior to develop rules to withhold money from state agencies that fund the “slaughters”. But the department has not responded to the petition, the groups allege.
The coalition renewed their call in the wake of a June Alaska department of fish and game operation in which hunters gunned down 94 brown bears, five black bears and five wolves from helicopters. In a 23 August 2023 letter to Deb Haaland, the department of interior secretary, the coalition wrote that the “extinction crisis is not an abstraction; it is a clear and present danger and an impending catastrophe”.
It added: “The [department of the interior] is tasked with preventing extinctions, using sound science when making decisions to prevent those extinctions, and with being accountable to the entire public – not funding controversial predator-control actions for the purported benefit of a few.” The letter also detailed the controversial “Judas wolf” tactic in which Alaska state agents put radio collars on wolves who return to their packs, which hunters then kill.
Similar hunts have been carried out in Wisconsin, Montana and Idaho, and state game agencies claim the kills are conservation efforts designed to boost thinned herds of caribou, moose, elk and other prey hunted by large predators.
Meet the Pipeline Protester Facing 5 Years for Peaceful Action
Burning tires and bridges: US residents ‘shocked’ by firm’s bitcoin-mining plan
A crypto-mining company in Pennsylvania is seeking to burn tires to produce bitcoin, prompting an outcry from residents and environmental groups.
Stronghold Digital Mining says it is repurposing waste materials, while opponents worry about the risks of emissions to human health.
The production of cryptocurrency is an enormously energy-intensive process. Its electricity consumption accounts for an estimated 113 terawatt-hours a year, which is roughly the amount of electricity that countries such as Kazakhstan, the Philippines and Ukraine each used in 2022.
Stronghold has been burning coal waste to create cheap power for cryptocurrency since 2021, when it bought the Panther Creek power plant in Nesquehoning, Pennsylvania. It is a controversial approach because although the removal of coal waste can help remediate contaminated land, the process emits greenhouse gases and other harmful chemicals. It can take twice as much waste coal to produce the same amount of electricity that regular coal would produce.
The company also says it sometimes needs to burn tire-derived fuel – made of shredded vehicle tires – to make the combustion of waste-coal more efficient. Additives such as the tire fuel “are especially needed when the quality of the coal refuse is low in energy content”, Stronghold spokesperson Naomi Harrington told the Guardian. The crypto miner, which receives state subsidies to burn waste coal, already holds a temporary permit to test the use of tire-derived fuel. It is seeking permanent permission for tires to comprise up to 15%, or 78,000 tons, of its fuel.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
The Supreme Stupidity of the “End of History” And Its Consequences
Huawei Chips Demonstrate The Perils Of Technology Protectionism
The Other Option for Containing Trump
‘Obama’s man in Africa’ under house arrest as popular coup rocks Gabon
The Bongo Family’s 56-Year Rule Over Gabon
Matt Taibbi: Tracking Orwellian Change: New Meanings of ‘Deep State’ and ‘Working Class’
Population collapse almost wiped out human ancestors, say scientists
Wildlife photographer of the year 2023 – preview
'WOEFULLY INADEQUATE': Biden To DOWNGRADE Cannabis From Schedule I, But It's NOT ENOUGH
A Little Night Music
Robert Gordon – Red Hot
Robert Gordon With Link Wray - Summertime Blues
Robert Gordon With Link Wray - Flyin' Saucers Rock & Roll
Robert Gordon with Danny Gatton - There Stands The Glass
Robert Gordon – Black Slacks
Danny Gatton y Robert Gordon - Cruisin´
Robert Gordon with Danny Gatton - Love My Baby
Robert Gordon with Danny Gatton - Ubangi Stomp
Robert Gordon With Link Wray - Lonesome Train (On a Lonesome Track)
Robert Gordon with Danny Gatton - Capitol Attack Live
Comments
Have a great weekend bluesters
thanks for the EB's Joe!!
https://www.theautomaticearth.com/2023/09/debt-rattle-september-1-2023/
Joemntia thanks for absolutely nothing
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...
great meme! really crystallizes what is happening. thanks and have a great holiday!
Good news is hard to find these days
Protecting their land over making the extractors rich makes all kinds of sense.
Thanks for the eve N&B joe!
Hope the long weekend is mostly labor free
question everything
evening qms...
i was delighted to see that the people of ecuador got a say in what happens to their land and doubly delighted to see that they chose to conserve their land.
have a good one!
Thanks for all the news and blues this evening!
Really enjoyed Robert Gordon. Had not heard of him but some of the songs were familiar but had been played by others.
Jimmy Dore had some interesting videos tonight especially the one concerning Mexico and the nationalization of lithium by AMLO. Hope things turn out well for Mexico. Read with interest about the events taking place in Ecuador to stop drilling and protecting the environment. Sad to see the response by the oil companies here in the US trying to get legislation passed making protest economic terrorism.
Great way to end your news with the Wildlife Photography of the Year. Some incredible photos and the amount of patience it took for each photo.
Have a good weekend!
Life is what you make it, so make it something worthwhile.
This ain't no dress rehearsal!
evening jb...
robert gordon played a bunch in the area around me for a while, he had a talent for getting really great guitarists as sidemen.
yep, i have a bad feeling that amlo has been pissing off uncle sam enough that he might get swatted by one of our three-letter agencies.
have a great holiday weekend!
I have no use for Rick Scott but this is ridiculous.
evening humphrey...
yeah, i have little use for rick scott either, but it is good of him to demonstrate that the democrats have little interest in doing anything for americans.
i hope there's a warm spot by the fire in hell for all of them.
Ehh?
.
If someone calls the cops and says that their neighbor is having a large party then the cops will send a drone over the house to see what’s up? Is there a law that says that people can’t have lots of people attend a Labor Day bbq? Btw how many people is considered too many people eating and having fun?
https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/nyc-police-send-drones-over-backyar...
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...
sounds like people are going to have to camouflage their backyards and homes so that drones can't see in.
i guess if their collective noise is loud enough to "disturb the peace" then the cops can at their discretion become involved. i would assume that cops do not carry around sound pressure level meters, so their discretion is often what matters.
Hope you have fun plans for the weekend
My trailer has been in the shop and it’s just been fixed but too late to take off for the holiday. Not too many spots available so I’ll wait till next week and hopefully get the one I want.
Dawgs. I tell you that there’s no way to understand them. I take my socks off and put them on the back of the couch. Sam thinks it’s very funny for her to grab them and bring them to me on the porcelain throne. Seriously she gets such a kick out of doing it. But I usually have milkbones right there too and she has never once taken one. You’d think that if it was a choice between socks and treats that the treats would win out. All of them. And it’s not like she can’t see them because I’ve watched her jump on the couch to get the socks that are on the other side of the treats. It’s always something with her that tickles my funny bone.
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...
well, i don't have big plans, but i plan to relax and take it easy.
heh, it sounds like sam is more interested in your approval than a quickly sneaked treat. that's the sign of a good dawg.
have a good one, and i hope you get the spot of your dreams.
In some cases it can be a sound ordinance. In our
neighborhood there's one bozo who cannot hold any party whatsoever without dragging out a CarrieOkie machine that'll rattle the dishes in peoples cupboards about 2 blocks away. Our town has a noise ordinance that is simply based on how far away the noise can be heard, so the cops don't need meters or gauges, just a decent sense of distances.
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 --
But the article doesn’t mention sound
It says large gatherings. That’s all it takes for cops to send drones flying. Pretty flimsy grounds if you ask me. Since when has it been that large gatherings on holidays or any day frowned upon?
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
Good evening Joe, et. al. Thanks for the news and blues, Joe
It's good to see Ecuador getting pushy again, but I seem to recall the last time they did something of this type things did not go well at all for the then sitting government.
have a great weekend, 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 --
War and the upcoming election cycle
In this Judge Napolitano, he Larry and Ray discuss at one point how election campaign motives might prompt the Biden administration to escalate by intervening in the war directly. The temptation might be to use "small" tactical nuclear weapons.
I was particularly interested in this because the options were presented as either cut and run, declare Ukraine a victory and go home, or escalate. It seems to me there is a range of possibilities none of them good in between. It appears there was some inclination by Ukraine or those advising them, to further provoke Russia into abandoning its relatively conservative military strategy toward Ukraine. Sporadic long range Ukrainian attacks on Russia seem to be in that category. Such attacks inviting Russia to take further territory in Ukraine or worse, occupy the whole thing. Others are better qualified than I to describe the dynamics of the Ukraine proxy war.
Another Rhambo pic:
What is the StratCom commander doing there? Nuclear Consultative Group preparations?
Some analysts also speculate that tough military posturing is to play a role in upcoming elections in Japan and South Korea. I'm not sure when Kishida will be calling for elections. I read one report that said Japan's annual military budget will increase 12 percent. Yoon's hawkish military posturing is really all he has to offer domestically. The upcoming general elections for the South Korean National Assembly will take place April 10, 2024.
Sep 1, is the anniversary of the Kanto Earthquake in Japan which eventuated in a massacre of Koreans in 1923.
Now a century after the atrocity, the precise number of victims and reasons for the massacres remain to be established
https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/1106426....
This Insider article goes on and on about a naval "arsenal ship" that allegedly is a South Korean military project. The ship seems ill conceived to me. What attracted my attention was a portion of the article that described the so called South Korean "kill chain strategy." I was never much impressed with that either, but this is clear statement of what it is-
https://www.businessinsider.com/south-korea-arsenal-ship-counter-north-k...
I will never understand this exclusive preoccupation with unworkable military solutions to the North Korean problem.
Thanks for the great news roundup Joe, I read just about all of it.
(edited typos and format)
語必忠信 行必正直
evening soryang...
thanks for posting the napolitano video, it showed up in my feed today but i just haven't had a chance to listen to it yet.
it seems like in all of the conflicts that the u.s. is involved in, it has neither the will, nor a diplomat capable of negotiating a climb-down even when all logic suggests that backing off would be the smart thing to do. i can't imagine that this is going to end well.
have a great weekend!
You too Joe!
Have a great weekend! 주말에 잘 지내세요
I'm a little apprehensive about it too. Ms. So has her big trip planned to go to South Korea in the not too distant future. I had an acquaintance on another chat board whose wife was Ukrainian, and got stuck over there when the war broke out for a time. He wasn't a happy camper. Fortunately, she and her family made it out of there after a while. Don't need any more Winds of War stories.
語必忠信 行必正直
I wouldn't say that this money is well spent.
But the congress critters don't have a problem with this.
Of course not
Congress knows that a percentage of the money sent to defense companies will find a way back to them in the form of
bribescampaign donations. I mean come on it takes a lot of effing money to get elected and then stay elected. The last election cost $2 billion which is just another way to launder money between the parasite class. Defense companies have made $400 billion in the last 18 months. But I’m pretty sure that number is on the low side.Gee just imagine what that $7 trillion could have done for countless people here in the homeland. Maybe we wouldn’t see a train derailment every day if money had been spent on upgrading the infrastructure.
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
Money well spent
.
as long as you don’t give a rat’s ass about Ukrainian lives. But I just don’t get why so many congress creatures fawn over Zelensky. Rich gave him a big smile while patting him on his shoulder and Liz too couldn’t stop smiling at him. Democrats were up to their ears in corruption in Ukraine and involved in weapons and money laundering so maybe they are just trying to stay on Z's good side.
Romney, Graham and now Blumenthol have all said that for just 3% of America’s defense budget we are getting our money’s worth in funding Ukraine to destabilize Russia. Except Russia hasn’t been destabilized and tens of thousands of Ukrainians are dead.
I’m trying to find the article that showed a lot of graveyards in Ukraine that have countless Ukrainian flags going off into the distance with a guy who has an artificial leg. I’ll post it next week if I find it. The photos should be plastered all over corporate media so people can understand the price Ukrainians are paying because they are only cannon fodder for America. But just like coffins weren’t allowed to be seen coming back from our wars of choice, the media will never show the Ukraine cemeteries.
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
Here we go again. Now the Brits will have company in
supplying depleted uranium shells.
I really enjoyed the Mexico story on Jimmy Dore
I was not able to guess all the reasons the US wanted to invade Mexico.
I completely forgot about Mexico not wanting to buy Monsanto corn from the US. Hahaha. And, I thought it was cool that Mexico nationalized its lithium resources, making lithium the property of the Mexican people. This is very beneficial for income equality, but it infuriates the US on behalf of its billionaires and price-gouging corporations. Soooo communistic. (It would be nice if the domino effect actually worked this time.)
I mistakenly thought that Mexico finally got busted for allowing a black market to flourish that sells the weapons that NATO members donated to Ukraine. (Ukraine regularly ships "grain" to Mexico, as well as other 'select' destinations. This partially explains why Russia blew up Ukraine's phony 'grain' shipping business.) But... no! Apparently the US doesn't yet know about Ukraine's International side hustle. Although one congressional committee seems to have a clue about this because they are demanding an audit from Ukraine that explains how they go through so many weapons and so much cash so fast. Perhaps the Biden Administration has been blinded by the fog of war, doncha know. They ought to read Russian newspapers, once in a while, to find out what's going on in the world.
Instead, the Federal war mongers are threatening to break up Brazil into nine separate states because Brazil refuses to donate weapons to Ukraine. And because of comrade Lula, of course.
The United States of Audacity is also threatening to break up Afghanistan into 5 or 9 separate states, because "the Taliban should not be allowed to control the whole thing." But the real reason is probably because of Afghanistan's 'Minerals' — something I've been keeping an eye on for a long time. In fact, China was one of the first to recognize the Taliban leadership after the US pulled out of there.
evening pluto...
i thought jimmy did a great job with that mexican invasion video, it's one of the better things he's done lately.
i guess the stink tanks are going to be busy coming up with ways to reverse the pink tide that has been sweeping through south of the border in monroedoctrineland. i guess uncle has been too busy with its other wars of choice and assorted imperial adventures to really focus its
best and brightestmost devious and evil spooks south of the border. i'm sure that they'll get to it, though, just as soon as they finish looking contrite about the stuff they did to chile and elsewhere long enough ago that the cia feels comfortable releasing thecondorsdocuments.what, you mean brandon pulled the troops out of afghanistan without collecting the trillion dollars worth of minerals? what the hell was he thinking?
After twenty years of accomplishing nothing.
Maybe they were already up to their elbows working the poppy trade.
'The United States of Audacity' indeed
I’m reading MoA coverage of Biden sending stupid people to China to blow smoke up their buttocks about trying to defuse tensions while it’s building up its military assets and gathering more poodles when it decides to start a war with China. Gee who had the bright idea to send its factories and jobs to China so that banks could make higher profits and not think that one day it would come back and bite them in their ass?
So we are ramping up war with Iran while funding Ukraine and depleting our military resources while planning for war against China and getting our buttocks kicked in Syria and gawd only knows what we’re doing in Niger and Somalia and who the fck knows how many more countries? If I didn’t know better I would think that there is a blithering idiot in charge of the country…oh wait. There is. But who has their hand inside the puppet Joe Biden that is running this shitshow? Some people think it’s Obama who is pulling Biden’s strings, but it seems more like something Hillary would be doing since she is the queen of chaos.
But after depleting so much of our military assets, just how can we start a war with China? And it’s not like we have told the defense companies to start ramping up production. We can’t give Ukraine what it needs and it’s one reason why we are sending them cluster bombs and depleted uranium. We have only crumbs left in the cupboards. Plus nuclear weapons.
Our defense companies only make sophisticated weapons that aren’t up to snuff compared to what Russia is turning out. Why? Because we offshored our manufacturing to China and then dumbed down our education system.
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