The Evening Blues - 9-5-23
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features New Orleans pianist and organist James Booker. Enjoy!
James Booker - Slowly But Surely (Live)
"The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth."
-- H. L. Mencken
News and Opinion
US Officials Keep Boasting About How Much The Ukraine War Serves US Interests
One of the most glaring plot holes in the official mainstream narrative on Ukraine is the way US officials keep openly boasting that this supposedly unprovoked war which the US is only backing out of the goodness of its heart just so happens to serve US interests tremendously.
In a recent article for the Connecticut Post, Senator Richard Blumenthal assured Americans that “we’re getting our money’s worth on our Ukraine investment.”
“For less than 3 percent of our nation’s military budget, we’ve enabled Ukraine to degrade Russia’s military strength by half,” writes Blumenthal. “We’ve united NATO and caused the Chinese to rethink their invasion plans for Taiwan. We’ve helped restore faith and confidence in American leadership — moral and military. All without a single American service woman or man injured or lost, and without any diversion or misappropriation of American aid.”
As Antiwar’s Dave DeCamp recently observed, this type of “investment” talk about Ukraine has been getting more common. Last weekend Senator Mitt Romney called the war “the best national defense spending I think we’ve ever done.”
“We’re losing no lives in Ukraine, and the Ukrainians are fighting heroically against Russia,” Romney said. “We’re diminishing and devastating the Russian military for a very small amount of money … a weakened Russia is a good thing.”
Last month Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell argued that Americans should support the US government’s proxy warfare in Ukraine because “we haven’t lost a single American in this war,” adding that the spending is helping to employ Americans in the military-industrial complex.
“Most of the money that we spend related to Ukraine is actually spent in the US, replenishing weapons, more modern weapons,” McConnell said. “So it’s actually employing people here and improving our own military for what may lie ahead.”
McConnell has been talking about how much this war benefits the US since last year. During a speech back in December the ailing swamp monster argued that “the most basic reasons for continuing to help Ukraine degrade and defeat the Russian invaders are cold, hard, practical American interests.”
“Helping equip our friends in Eastern Europe to win this war is also a direct investment in reducing Vladimir Putin’s future capabilities to menace America, threaten our allies and contest our core interests,” McConnell said.
As we’ve discussed previously, US empire managers have been talking about how much this war serves US interests ever since it began.
In May of last year Congressman Dan Crenshaw said on Twitter that “investing in the destruction of our adversary’s military, without losing a single American troop, strikes me as a good idea.”
“It is in America’s national security interests for Putin’s Russia to be defeated in Ukraine,” tweeted the perpetually war-horny senator Lindsey Graham.
Last November the imperial war machine-funded think tank Center for European Policy Analysis published an article titled “It’s Costing Peanuts for the US to Defeat Russia,” subtitled “The cost-benefit analysis of US support for Ukraine is incontrovertible. It’s producing wins at almost every level.”
“US spending of 5.6% of its defense budget to destroy nearly half of Russia’s conventional military capability seems like an absolutely incredible investment,” gushed the article’s author Timothy Ash. “If we divide out the US defense budget to the threats it faces, Russia would perhaps be of the order of $100bn-150bn in spend-to-threat. So spending just $40bn a year, erodes a threat value of $100–150bn, a two-to-three time return. Actually the return is likely to be multiples of this given that defense spending, and threat are annual recurring events.”
And of course the mass media have been all aboard the same messaging. A few weeks ago The Washington Post’s David Ignatius wrote an article explaining why westerners shouldn’t “feel gloomy” about how things are going in Ukraine, writing the following about how much this war is doing to benefit US interests overseas:
“Meanwhile, for the United States and its NATO allies, these 18 months of war have been a strategic windfall, at relatively low cost (other than for the Ukrainians). The West’s most reckless antagonist has been rocked. NATO has grown much stronger with the additions of Sweden and Finland. Germany has weaned itself from dependence on Russian energy and, in many ways, rediscovered its sense of values. NATO squabbles make headlines, but overall, this has been a triumphal summer for the alliance.”
I suspect I’ll be periodically reminding my readers of that paragraph — and Ignatius’ parenthetical “other than for the Ukrainians” aside — for the remainder of my writing career.
So on one hand the western political/media class have been hammering us in the face with the message that the invasion of Ukraine was “unprovoked” and that the US and its allies played no antagonistic role in paving the road to this conflict whatsoever, and on the other hand you’ve got all these empire managers enthusing about how much this war benefits US interests.
Those two narratives seem a wee bit contradictory, do they not?
A critical thinker can reconcile this contradiction in one of two ways. First, they can believe that the world’s most powerful and destructive government is just a passive, innocent witness to the violence in Ukraine, and is only benefitting immensely from the war as a complete coincidence. Second, they can believe the US intentionally provoked this war with the understanding that it would benefit from it.
From where I’m sitting, it’s not difficult to determine which of these is more likely.
U.S. Senator ADMITS He Doesn’t Care About Ukrainian Deaths
US to Begin Sending Controversial Depleted Uranium Shells to Ukraine
The Biden administration will, for the first time, send controversial armor-piercing munitions containing depleted uranium to Ukraine, according to Reuters.
The munition can be fired from US Abrams tanks, which are expected to arrive in Ukraine in the coming weeks.
The shells, which will come from US excess inventory, would be funded by the Presidential Drawdown Authority, which lets the president make transfers from US stocks without Congress' approval in the case of an emergency.
This follows an earlier decision by the Biden administration to provide cluster munitions to Ukraine despite concerns over the dangers such weapons pose to civilians.
If the US deploys depleted uranium shells to Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to retaliate with DU rounds—which are linked to birth defects, miscarriages, and cancer.
Depleted uranium is a byproduct of the production of fuel used in nuclear power stations. Its extreme density gives rounds the ability to penetrate armor-plating easily.
The use of depleted uranium munitions has been fiercely debated, with opponents like the International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons saying there are dangerous health risks from ingesting or inhaling depleted uranium dust, including cancers and birth defects.
Ukr Loses 66K; Challenger 2 Destroyed; US: Kim Jong un Meeting Putin, China New Chip, Rus Boom
Media FINALLY ADMITS Massive Corruption In Ukraine Aide
Ukraine’s defence minister resigns after Zelenskiy removes him from post
Ukraine’s defence minister has submitted his resignation letter after Volodymyr Zelenskiy removed him from his post on Sunday night, in the biggest reshuffle by the president of his government team since Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion began.
Oleksii Reznikov, whose ministry has been hit by corruption scandals, said he had written to the chair of Ukraine’s parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk, confirming that he was stepping down.
“It was an honour to serve the Ukrainian people and work for the #UAarmy for the last 22 months, the toughest period of Ukraine’s modern history,” Reznikov posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. ...
In his nightly video address, Zelenskiy said he was replacing Reznikov with Rustem Umerov, an ex-businessman and former parliamentary deputy. ... Diplomatic sources say Reznikov may soon be appointed as Ukraine’s ambassador to London.
Putin and Erdogan, no grain deal. Turkey closer to BRICS
The Guardian catapults the propaganda. For amusement purposes only:
No sign of Black Sea grain breakthrough after Erdoğan-Putin talks
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has concluded face-to-face talks with Vladimir Putin by claiming a deal to export Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea could be revived. But there was no evidence of a breakthrough as the Russian leader again accused the west of reneging on promises.
Putin claimed there had been no crisis in global grain markets since Moscow pulled out of the deal two months ago over what it said was the west’s failure to keep its side of the bargain covering Russian food and fertiliser exports. He said prices were falling and there was no evidence of food shortages.
His stance suggests he believes Russia has benefited from withdrawing from the grain deal and then bombing Ukrainian ports that previously exported Ukrainian grain. He said he would be willing to “reanimate the deal” when all Russian demands were met.
It was the first in-person meeting between Erdogan, the chief negotiator behind the initial deal, and Putin since the deal collapsed.
The immediate backdrop to the meeting in Sochi, Russia, on Monday was another Russian drone strike on a Ukrainian grain-exporting port, which damaged warehouses and set buildings on fire. Romania, a Nato member, denied Ukrainian claims that Russian drones fell and detonated on its territory in the attack.
Bucharest Denies Ukrainian Claim That Russian Drone Hit Romania
NATO member Romania has strongly denied a Ukrainian claim that a Russian drone detonated in Romanian territory during an overnight bombardment on one of Ukraine’s ports on the Danube River.
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko made the claim on Facebook. He said that according to Ukraine’s state border service, a Russian drone “fell and detonated on the territory of Romania” during an attack on the Ukrainian port of Izmail.
Romania’s Defense Ministry quickly refuted the claim. “The Ministry of National Defense categorically denies information from the public space regarding a so-called situation that occurred during the night of September 3 to 4 in which Russian drones allegedly fell on the national territory of Romania,” it said. ...
Ukrainian officials have previously made unfounded claims about Russian munitions hitting NATO territory. Last year, when a Ukrainian air defense missile hit Poland and killed two people, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksy and his top aides claimed it was a Russian missile in an effort to get NATO to intervene directly.
Gabon coup leader takes presidential oath and promises ‘free’ elections
Brice Oligui Nguema, the general who led a coup last week that toppled Gabon’s 55-year-old ruling dynasty, has taken the oath of office as interim president and promised “free, transparent and credible elections” to restore civilian rule, though without giving a timeframe. He also pledged to grant amnesty to political prisoners and insisted the coup had saved Gabon from bloodshed after elections that were “obviously loaded”.
Oligui, the head of the republican guard, last Wednesday led officers in detaining the president, Ali Bongo Ondimba, a scion of a family that had ruled the oil-rich central African country since 1967. The ousting came moments after Bongo, 64, was proclaimed the winner in the presidential elections – a result that the opposition said was a fraud.
In a speech after taking the oath of office on Monday, Oligui said the promised elections would be the stepping stone to “handing power back to the civilians”. He said he was seeking the participation of all of Gabon’s “core groups” to draft a new constitution, which would be “adopted by referendum”.
Oligui, 48, wearing the red ceremonial costume of the republican guard, also said he would instruct “the future government … to consider ways of amnestying prisoners of conscience” and “facilitating the return of all exiles” from abroad. After detaining Bongo, the coup leaders said on Wednesday they had dissolved the country’s institutions, cancelled the election results and temporarily closed the borders.
“Doing Harm”: Roy Eidelson on American Psychological Association’s Embrace of U.S. Torture Program
Twitter accused of helping Saudi Arabia commit human rights abuses
The social media company formerly known as Twitter has been accused in a revised civil US lawsuit of helping Saudi Arabia commit grave human rights abuses against its users, including by disclosing confidential user data at the request of Saudi authorities at a much higher rate than it has for the US, UK or Canada.
The lawsuit was brought last May against X, as Twitter is now known, by Areej al-Sadhan, the sister of a Saudi aid worker who was forcibly disappeared and then later sentenced to 20 years in jail.
It centers on the events surrounding the infiltration of the California company by three Saudi agents, two of whom were posing as Twitter employees in 2014 and 2015, which ultimately led to the arrest of al-Sadhan’s brother, Abdulrahman, and the exposure of the identity of thousands of anonymous Twitter users, some of whom were later reportedly detained and tortured as part of the government’s crackdown on dissent.
Lawyers for Al-Sadhan updated their claim last week to include new allegations about how Twitter, under the leadership of then chief executive Jack Dorsey, willfully ignored or had knowledge of the Saudi government’s campaign to ferret out critics but – because of financial considerations and efforts to keep close ties to the Saudi government, a top investor in the company – provided assistance to the kingdom.
The new lawsuit details how X had originally been seen seen as a critical vehicle for democratic movements during the Arab spring, and therefore became a source of concern for the Saudi government as early as 2013.
Native tribe to get back land 160 years after largest mass hanging in US history
Golden prairies and winding rivers of a Minnesota state park also hold the secret burial sites of Dakota people who died as the United States failed to fulfill treaties with Native Americans more than a century ago. Now their descendants are getting the land back. The state is taking the rare step of transferring the park with a fraught history back to a Dakota tribe, trying to make amends for events that led to a war and the largest mass hanging in US history.
“It’s a place of holocaust. Our people starved to death there,” said Kevin Jensvold, chairman of the Upper Sioux Community, a small tribe with about 550 members just outside the park.
The Upper Sioux Agency state park in south-western Minnesota spans a little more than 2 sq miles (about 5 sq km) and includes the ruins of a federal complex where officers withheld supplies from Dakota people, leading to starvation and deaths. Decades of tension exploded into the US-Dakota war of 1862 between settler-colonists and a faction of Dakota people, according to the Minnesota Historical Society. After the US won the war, the government hanged more people than in any other execution in the nation. A memorial honors the 38 Dakota men killed in Mankato, 110 miles (177km) from the park.
Jensvold said he has spent 18 years asking the state to return the park to his tribe. He began when a tribal elder told him it was unjust Dakota people at the time needed to pay a state fee for each visit to the graves of their ancestors there.
Lawmakers finally authorized the transfer this year when Democrats took control of the house, senate and governor’s office for the first time in nearly a decade, said state senator Mary Kunesh, a Democrat and descendant of the Standing Rock Nation. Tribes speaking out about injustices have helped more people understand how lands were taken and treaties were often not upheld, Kunesh said, adding that people seem more interested now in “doing the right thing and getting lands back to tribes”.
Latest Grifting by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas Is Just Tip of the Iceberg
After the public interest news outlet, ProPublica, revealed more grifting by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in April, the Supreme Court finally released the much delayed financial disclosure form for calendar year 2022 for Thomas yesterday. Thomas grudgingly provided details of some of that grifting involving billionaire Harlan Crow.
But this latest grifting saga is just the tip of the iceberg for Thomas and his wife, Virginia “Ginni” Thomas.
In 2011 the watchdog group, Protect our Elections, filed a bar complaint with the Missouri Supreme Court. At the time, Thomas was admitted to practice law in the State. The complaint asked for the disbarment of Thomas on the following grounds:
“Clarence Thomas breached his legal duty and violated the Rules of Professional Conduct by knowingly and willfully failing for 20 years to state truthfully on required AO 10 Financial Disclosure Forms that his wife Virginia earned non-investment income. Clarence Thomas further labored under a financial conflict of interest by failing to disclose $100,000 in support for his nomination by the Citizens United Foundation when he sat in judgment of a case involving Citizens United. Finally, he made rulings that his wife benefited from financially and professionally, and by extension, that benefited him. In short, this unethical and criminal conduct violates the Rules of Professional Conduct, and undermines the rule of law, respect for the law and confidence in the law.”
The Citizens United decision from the U.S. Supreme Court is the decision that corrupted political campaign financing in the U.S. by opening the spigots to unlimited corporate money flooding into political campaigns. That, in turn, effectively handed the will of the people over to billionaire kleptocrats – those that Clarence Thomas can’t seem to get enough of.
[Much more detail a click away ... - js]
Florida judge strikes down DeSantis-backed voting map as unconstitutional
A judge in Florida has ruled in favor of voting rights groups that filed a lawsuit against a congressional redistricting map approved by Ron DeSantis in 2022. Voting rights groups had criticized the map for diluting political power in Black communities.
In the ruling, Leon county circuit judge J Lee Marsh sent the map back to the Florida legislature to be redrawn in a way that complies with the state’s constitution.
“Under the stipulated facts (in the lawsuit), plaintiffs have shown that the enacted plan results in the diminishment of Black voters’ ability to elect their candidate of choice in violation of the Florida constitution,” Marsh wrote in the ruling.
The ruling is expected to be appealed by the state, likely putting the case before the Florida supreme court.
Biden 2024 Veering Towards IMPLOSION, Most Americans Think Joe Is TOO OLD
Has the US learned to cope with extreme heat? Next summer could be even hotter
It’s been a record-breaking summer of heatwaves across large parts of the US and the world, and trying to stay cool and safe has been an unprecedented challenge. There has been a rise in heat-related fatalities; companies and organizations have been under greater pressures to protect workers; and officials from small towns to the White House have been scrambling to respond.
All of this could be the start of the “new normal”. Climate scientists say the heat and other extreme weather is in line with three decades of scientific prediction amid humanity’s relentless carbon emissions. It might, in fact, be the tip of the iceberg compared with what is to come. ...
Although there is about a 50% chance of this year being the hottest ever recorded, scientists have said, there is a far greater chance of that record being set in 2024. Over the next five years, there is a 98% chance one of those years will be the hottest on record, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
“We anticipate that 2024 is going to be an even warmer year because we’re going to be starting off with that El Niño event,” said Gavin Schmidt, a Nasa climate scientist. “That will peak towards the end of this year, and how big that is is going to have a big impact on the following year’s statistics.”
Next year will probably not only see record or near-record heat, it will also likely see a surge in flooding events. The influence of El Niño will cause the US to experience three times the number of “nuisance” flooding events next year than it did in 2000, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Banks pouring trillions to fossil fuel expansion in global south, report finds
Banks are pouring trillions of dollars into the expansion of the world’s most emitting industries in the global south, according to a new report. Developing countries are often on the frontlines of the climate crisis yet lack the resources to enact climate action plans. As such, they require trillions of dollars in aid to decarbonize their economies and adapt to a warming world.
But financial firms are helping to push such countries in the opposite direction, the Monday analysis from international non-governmental organization ActionAid argues. “They say that money makes the world go round, but money is making the world go backwards,” Teresa Anderson, global lead on climate justice for ActionAid International, told reporters.
For the report, ActionAid worked with the international trade consulting company Profundo to compile data on major international banks’ loans and underwriting to fossil fuel and agribusiness corporations. They found that between 2016 and 2022, those banks have provided some $3.2tn to the fossil fuel industry to expand operations in the global south.
The leading fossil fuel financiers include Chinese banks funding coal, oil and gas buildout within the nation. Top US banks like Citigroup, Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase have also offered trillions to Saudi Aramco, Exxon and other fossil fuel companies for fossil fuel activity in developing countries in regions such as South America and Africa.
In that same time span, the analysis says, major international banks have also loaned and underwritten at least $370bn for the expansion of global south-based industrial agriculture. Europe’s HSBC and the United States’ Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and Citigroup lead the pack, offering billions of dollars to big agricultural giants like Bayer (which acquired Monsanto in 2016), ADM, Cargill and ChemChina.
Invasive species cost humans $423bn each year and threaten world’s diversity
Invasive species are costing the world at least $423bn every year and have become a leading threat to the diversity of life on Earth, according to a UN assessment.
From invasive mice that eat seabird chicks in their nests to non-native grasses that helped fuel and intensify last month’s deadly fires in Hawaii, at least 3,500 harmful invasive species have been recorded globally in every region, spread by human travel and trade. Their impact is destructive for humans and wildlife, sometimes causing extinctions and permanently damaging the healthy functioning of an ecosystem.
Leading scientists say the threat posed by invasive species is under appreciated, underestimated and sometimes unacknowledged, with more than 37,000 alien species now known to be introduced around the world and about 200 establishing themselves each year. ...
The findings follow a 2019 report that warned 1m species were at risk of going extinct, threatened by pollution, climate change, invasive species, the direct exploitation of organisms, and land-use change. While invasive species have contributed to 40% of all known animal extinctions, governments requested more research to better understand the problem.
The top three invasive species include water hyacinth, an aquatic plant native to tropical South America that blocks waterways and damages fisheries, the flowering shrub lantana, and the black rat. Other examples include invasive mosquito species, such as Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti, that spread West Nile virus and the Zika virus. Most invasive species reports were noted in the Americas with 34% of all reports, followed by Europe and Central Asia (31%), the Asia Pacific (25%) and Africa (7%).
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Access Journalism At Its Most Pernicious
Zelensky fires defense minister as US prepares for Ukraine war to last for years
Give Russia security guarantees for lasting peace in Ukraine, Hungary says
The Arrest of Igor Kolomoysky Consolidates US Influence Over Zelensky Ahead of Likely Elections
BRICS: Global Center of Gravity Shifts
What Happened to the UN’s Ability to Mediate?
Who’s Afraid of an Alternative for Germany?
How Sanctions Failed To Hinder China's Development
Kim Jong Un, Putin SUMMIT In Biden Rebuke
How Elites DESTROYED Black Lives Matter
A Little Night Music
James Booker - Wake Up Mr. Moon Man
James Booker - Life
James Booker - Put out the Light
James Booker - Tico Tico
James Booker - St. James Infirmary
James Booker - Papa Was A Rascal
James Booker - Please Send Me Someone To Love
James Booker - Junco Partner
James Booker - Goodnight Irene
James Booker with Jerry Garcia - Slowly But Surely
Comments
We know nothing
our govt is at war with us yet we take it sitting down
https://www.theautomaticearth.com/2023/09/debt-rattle-september-5-2023/
tell me that's wrong
Thanks for the EB's Joe, autumn is going to show itself off later this week,
damn the summer was short
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...
i'm not sure that marxism-leninism is the evil at the root of our demoralized society but i suppose that "they" may be wilier than we thought.
heh, the most powerful governments on earth refuse to solve homelessness, which is at its root a very simple problem to solve - make homes for the homeless and give them to them. on the other hand climate change is a thornier problem that won't be solved by any government as long as they are controlled by the class that profits from creating climate change. but of course, they will promise to fix it.
it's been hot as hell here for the last couple of days, i for one will be grateful for some fall weather.
have a great evening!
Pentagon budget vs. Ukr aid
It struck me that one would want to compare apples to apples when looking at the Pentagon budget and what the US is giving to Urk. This from the Peter Peterson foundation (ultra conservative I believe):
https://www.pgpf.org/budget-basics/budget-explainer-national-defense
We are not dropping civilians on Russian positions. The US is providing weapons and ammo. That part of the Pentagon budget is $136 billion. The total military aid to the Urk is roughly $46.6. So the US is spending 34% of its total weapons budget to the Ukraine. Not sure if the Abrams tank is part of the total. And the year is not over.
If the spigot remains open the US may end up spending 50% of its weapons budgets.
how was it the Cheney devil put it?
we fight them over there, so we don't have to fight them here
(or some such nonsense)
fear works to sell weapons
truth of the matter is we produce weapons because it benefits
the war profiteers. Won't see it parsed that way in the MSM.
Invent an enemy, doesn't matter who, so they can keep the
spigot open. Now that Ukie is going the way of 'ganistan,
Xi is the next target. What a shit show the US has become.
evening mr w...
pete peterson was deeply conservative and to his last dying breath worked assiduously to steal your social security. his foundation was the prime mover behind getting the catfood commission going under obama. his foundation continues his life's work of robbing the poor.
The principal
benefit I get from this
site is the understanding I’m
Not Alone
I damn sure don’t agree with
everything from everyone
but there’s enough overlap
from everybody to dispel the
notion that I’M the only one
‘precciate that
Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .
Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .
If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march
evening tb&u...
glad you've found a place to hang your hat. have a great evening!
Has the Guardian been hacked? They seem to be publishing
worthwhile news.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/sep/05/nhs-england-tells-hospit...
There is an obvious solution. Just send more weapons and $$$ to Ukraine.
evening humphrey...
that's the thing about the guardian, it prints the propaganda that the uk government demands of it, but it also prints some useful news and often has good environmental news coverage. since printing some of assange's and snowden's revelations the government spooks are right on top of the guardian actively censoring and floating propaganda garbage.
Kim Jong-un - Putin summit
Here's Saagar on my favorite topic. One of the very few people who gets it on the US approach to North Korea. He makes the obligatory Kim is crazy remark, which really isn't true. Kim was educated at Swiss prep school and knows exactly what he's doing. He's very calculating. The only other problem with Saagar's Trump praise on this issue is that Trump blew it at Hanoi, caving in to the avalanche of criticism from the PTB who really don't know anything about Korea, north or south. Putting Bolton at the negotiation table means you aren't negotiating but just the opposite. He's sabotaged nuclear talks before.
Here's the same ole get tough nonsense from the white house.
Why that sounds oddly familiar. Wonder where he got that idea?
Walked a half mile today. Hope the new tropical depression doesn't come here.
Thanks for the EBs Joe!
語必忠信 行必正直
evening soryang...
heh, the pallid, sallow little twerp jake sullivan sounds positively gangsterish there promising to make north korea "pay a price" for things that as a sovereign nation it has a perfect right to do. perhaps sullivan can choose which he'd rather lose - los angeles, seattle or hawaii. probably hawaii, sounds like tptb have little use for hawaii these days except for mollifying rich real estate speculators.
good luck with lee! the weather guy i follow suggests that it is likely to turn north and be a fish storm, but, that said a hit anywhere on the east coast can't be ruled out.
Hi, Soryang. Don't know wht you're recovering from,
but keep it up and good luck,
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 --
Thanks
and @joe sixpack, for the good wishes. I had a surgery almost 3 weeks ago, one of those robotic jobs. I hurt myself moving sandbags preparing for the hurricane season in July. I should be fully recovered they say in another 3 weeks. Who knows? I read some horror stories on legal web sites about surgical mesh inside the abdomen. I have very little discomfort at this point, I'm just limited in what I can do physically for a while.
I'm hoping the forecast you mentioned is the way it goes Joe.
語必忠信 行必正直
OK, been there, arguably sub-optimal outcome still ok.
Keep up with mild-moderate exercise and you should be fine. I have some sort of mesh issues, and how much of a horror it is is a matter of judgement or opinion. I dunno if it is a sag or slip or what and don't intend to try to find out. Operationally, I am fine.
So I have a noticeable (unsightly?) bulge on the right side just above the waist line of my pants. I'm 77, happily married and out of the hunt so I don't really give a shit. (I've also got a slight bend or twist from mucho back grief over the decades, which might have something to do with my attitude, but I've never placed a ton of stock in appearances of any kind, so there's that.) The main thing is that I'm functionally fine in all respects to which that issue might be relevant, so I wouldn't worry about it too much. If it happens, it happens, and if I am an example of what it is, then no big deal. I'd think anything critical would've shown up by now, btw.
be/get well, keep on keepin' on 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 --
Surgical mesh.
I had to have emergency surgery to remove a stomach tumor a few years go, so they split me from xiphoid to bellybutton to get in there to do the blasting. Before that had healed properly, I bent and twisted wrong, and somehow blew open the incision in the abdominal wall muscles for about 6 inches. That stung a bit. Incisional hernia.
And rather than just open me back up and do the hernia reduction the right way (use sutures, not glue!), they decided to do the mesh thing laparoscopically. Like I care how it is gonna look? Just make another scar, already! Argh. So I now have a permanent friggin' softball sticking out just above my bellybutton, and my core strength is *shit*.
Not a fan. Guess I'm not going to learn paddleboarding after all. Oh, well, I'm still on this side of the grass, so I can't complain all that much...
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Yes
Core strength is major concern for me as well. I'm going to have to make some changes if I can't lift things. Appreciate your description of what you've been through.
語必忠信 行必正直
Thanks EL
...for describing your experience and insight. This is new to me.
語必忠信 行必正直
About that mesh…..
I got a piece of that, installed some 25+ years ago. No problems …… so far. At the time this was called “The Canadian Method” and there were no robots in the OR.
Best wishes for a speedy recovery!
“What the herd hates most is the one who thinks differently; it is not so much the opinion itself, but the audacity of wanting to think for themselves, something that they do not know how to do.”
-Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
Good to hear
...of the positive outcome of your surgery Ovals49. There was one manufacturer that has thousands of cases pending in a class action plus a couple of youtube videos- one by two surgeons-that alarmed me. In some of the cases, the polyprophene or whatever it is, wasn't spec for human use. In the course of reading the about a few of the cases i got somewhat apprehensive about the decision I had made. Every day that goes by I feel more positive about it. The supportive comments here help believe me! Thanks.
語必忠信 行必正直
Good evening Joe, et. al. Thanks for the news and blues, Joe.
That was a seriously awesome Tico-Tico. And Jerry with Booker, who knew? (besides you
) so I peek and there's a 2 hour live concert and I've no idea when I'm gonna listen to it. Damn.
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...
the last time i looked there were about 4 tunes from jerry and booker in rehearsals at youtube - very good quality audio. worth a peek if you get a chance.
have a great evening!
I am not quite sure how to title this???
heh...
presidents get to skip the benediction?
He had to go
set fire to a few more pallets of $1000 bills...
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Or, he just had to *go*, y'know
(Right to the nearest bathroom.)
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
Aw, man...
Can lefties and righties agree some old people are fully with the program, and other old people should be in a special home designed for their care and protection?
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
evening otc...
heh, well that would be pragmatic. but then they'd have to argue about the criteria for assessing which place a given old person should be.
good luck with that.
have a great evening!
Ray is way off base today
He appeared on Judging Freedom today to talk about North Korea, Russia, China, etc. He says the Russian's "gave" North Korea their HS-18 missile. It's simply not true. There is a discussion of why it's not true on the 38 North web site. I've been following their reports on North Korea for years, especially on their nuclear and missile programs. It's unfortunate that because Russia has been renewing its relationship with North Korea recently, that everyone now fancies themselves an expert on North Korea and its relationships with China and Russia.
Col. Macgregor's interview today on Russia, North Korea, China had some shortcomings as well, but not this bad. There are certain misconceptions and bias factors that people who do not study military and political affairs concerning Korean issues that people don't even realize they are prey to.
In fact, this story reminds me of the unwillingness of US fighter pilots during the Korean conflict to even acknowledge, that they had been shot down by Chinese pilots in better aircraft. They had to be Russian pilots, an Asian couldn't compete with a US pilot. To this day that mythology has persisted. This is the link to the 38North analysis of the North Koran ICBM.
Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover: North Korea’s HS-18 Is Not a Russian ICBM
https://www.38north.org/2023/08/dont-judge-a-book-by-its-cover-north-kor...
語必忠信 行必正直
I am not sure if you have seen the propaganda piece from
the Associated Press with regards to North Korea and Russia. No doubt you will be able to poke holes in it and perhaps even get a chuckle.
https://apnews.com/article/north-korea-russia-kim-putin-summit-c44735b99...
Ironically
This AP article isn't as speculative and misleading as I think Ray's report is. He's apparently relying on a CSIS report that I haven't read yet. CSIS has the typical interested governments, war contractors, oil companies, and big data sponsors. Their material bias as professional think tankers is undeniable in a general sense. I'm surprised to find the author is Theodore Postol. I notice he postulates his topic as a question. I'll read it tomorrow to learn more. Couldn't post the link here for some reason.
38North didn't even identify the source of the article they were disputing.
Thanks Humphrey.
語必忠信 行必正直
The CSIS article
Read the article this morning. The opinion article is actually posed in the conditional, with the question mark in the title, the use of the words if, potential, it appears, and if this is true. As the article and Ray note this, (if true) is completely inconsistent with prior Russian practice. Postol once he lays out the assumptions of his thesis, recommends policies. Namely, he advocates the implementation of a new airborne, anti ballistic system in the Korean theater. What a surprise coming from CSIS. Not.
Secondly, he recommends the UN authorizing the US and it allies to shoot down any further tests of its "Russian ICBM." How this is supposed to happen in view of who the permanent members of the US Security Council are is beyond explanation. I think the normal sequence, after the expected veto or vetoes is for the US and perhaps its allies to proceed unilaterally. There could be a veto and an abstention. I had been concerned about this possibility after North Korean ballistic missile activity had resumed, and increased in frequency in violation of UN resolutions. Postol laid out the political posturing that would take place before what is essentially a US preemptive attack on the North Korean testing program. Postol compares not developing and deploying a new airborne ABM weapons system to reliance on an obsolete Maginot line.
I haven't changed my opinion after a close reading of Postol's article. Notice that the 38 North rebuttal includes the likelihood of technology transfer during the turbulent period after the collapse of the Soviet Union. There is also the ever present possibility of North Korean hacking obtaining relevant technological secrets.
I don't believe that the North Koreans have the full panoply of advanced Russian countermeasures and MIRV technology. There is simply no evidence for this. I note that the picture ostensibly showing release of the "countermeasures cannister" is actually labeled "second stage separation" in Korean.
語必忠信 行必正直