Open Thread - 10/10/23 - Surprise Odds and Ends

As of the time of the composition of this open thread, the US has not declared war, nor committed troops to a mobilization, but by the time it gets published in the morning, who the hell knows what we might do?

Bibi says the surprise Hamas attack is his "pearl Harbor" or his "9/11". Well, Bibi, do remember Pearl Harbor was known about in advance all the way up to President Roosevelt. And Bush had intel 9/11 was going to happen. So, drop "surprise" from your proclamations, or find some historic example of an attack that was actually a surprise, and use that as your comparison.

Well, gas prices should be rising sharply and soon. Shop monthly, not weekly, and start walking a lot. Or something. If you are old, if you are in hot weather, then

Would anyone disagree that 57 bullets fired into an unarmed protester of Cop City was overkill? Would anyone disagree that the troopers should be charged with murder? Does it sound like we are infiltrated by an army, given that cops have no duty to protect us? That is not in their job description. Cops just suck, and it is a miracle when one is actually prosecuted.

The Texas Hill Country is one of our favorite destinations. Last time we were there, we met a man who had purchased 120 acres near Johnson City. (Lyndon Johnson's home.) The Agricultural extension agent assessed his acreage would support 2 head of cattle. (My guess is that he wanted an agricultural exemption for his annual property taxes. Oopsies.) We drive over several rivers going there, and they are all dry, or near dry.

Last time we were there, we went to Albert Dance Hall in Albert, Texas to see this guy:

We will go see him again, same place, next month.

We have some rain and cool temperatures coming in a day or so. How is your weather? Is anybody where they should be on rain fall and temperature? Odd and creepy year, weather-wise.

I spent 12 hours this weekend attending class after class on guns, gun laws, both federal and state. Just saying, pot smokers are not eligible to buy a gun. Although, there's the Hunter Biden Defense. I have used it. It works.

In today's world, my parent's would have gone to prison for allowing my brother and I to use a firearm. My brother shot his first rabbit on the run when he was 5. I regularly packed a gun from age 7 when I went riding my horse out in the woods. Back then, it was food and self-defense parents thought about. They must think about staying out of prison now. Did kids just get goofy and irresponsible over the decades? Are there no kids you can teach to hunt for food? To kill a snake?

This is how I hope everyone on the site feels:

The crew doing home repairs are making typical carpenter racket, so I will turn it over to all of you, so let 'er rip! Make your own kind of noise!

Share
up
12 users have voted.

Comments

So far, no war has been declared, so the morning is getting off to a fine start.
Let's all keep earthling1 in our thoughts. Anyone of us could experience an unimaginable tragedy, and if all we can do is offer to just reach out to give a cyber hug, we should do it.
Group cyber hug, earthling1. There ya go.
So, what sayeth thou?

up
11 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

QMS's picture

It is difficult to feel sorry for an apartheid regime, IMO. It's like, how do you expect
a nation to respond when forced into the largest open air prison on earth? With their
lands being illegally stolen by "settlers", the Palestinians have every right to rebel.
Ain't buying what the MSM is selling. Talk to me.

Thanks for the OT!

up
12 users have voted.

question everything

@QMS I am sure it has nothing to do with the conflict in Gaza.
Be safe out there, Q.

up
3 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

@QMS I love the Gypsy Kings?

up
2 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

This morning I was visited by a doe with two fawns in my yard. I have also seen a lot more deer this year when driving. I believe it's because of more housing out here and most of the younger generations would rather shoot in video games than go hunting. I can't think of anyone I know who goes hunting anymore, mostly because everyone I know is old, disabled, or dead.

All that Israel/Hamas War business has been on the news nonstop. When stuff like this happens, I just turn off the TV. Those people have been killing each other for thousands of years and I expect they will just keep on until the last one is dead. You can only push people so far before they begin to fight back.

up
6 users have voted.
QMS's picture

@Enchantress

We have a few does and fawns that wander out of the woods to nibble on the grasses, ivy and
other gourmet plants occasionally. Fun to watch them! Had to chuckle the other day reading
an article in our local weekly about the serious threat deer have created in our area.
Residents are up in arms (not literally) and demanding towns remove this scourge!!
Come on man. Get a grip. Share your damn daisies with the wildlife. The last thing I want
to see are a bunch of cops thinning the herds with their service revolvers. Wink

up
7 users have voted.

question everything

@QMS were all avid deer hunters. Everyone of them stopped killing deer abruptly. Something went through their minds that this was not for food, but some thrill kill, for which every one of them felt shame. All of them started feeding deer, doing rescues when necessary.
Now, I did want to give some deer a spanking when they ate my corn, destroyed my garden before I could get an electric fence up.

up
8 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

QMS's picture

@on the cusp

not sure they would stand for it?
no matter how sweet your corn

up
3 users have voted.

question everything

@QMS dream, can't I?

up
2 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

@Enchantress unless I am in a hotel. News is not news. It is carefully edited propaganda. I think the value of it is to make fun of it, have some laughs, but believe nothing.
Have a great day!

up
8 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Lookout's picture

Sorry to hear earthling has problems. Hope they are quickly resolved.

We're hoping for a rain tomorrow and again on Friday...both are iffy, but we need them both. The garden is doing well, but we're keeping it watered almost daily. Still picking peppers. We've put up more than a years worth so I give most of them away....beautiful reds, yellows, and greens...most are sweet but we have a few hot ones too. Still a few tomatoes coming in as well.

Trade day was busy this AM. Bought some more clamps. Realized I needed some more during a gluing project last week. Also bought some long bungees, lemons and avocados. Then went for the weekly grocery run, and dropped in the feed and seed. They had just gotten a shipment of broccoli seedlings, so I bought a couple of packs to set out this evening. That should fill out the fall garden. We still have sweet potatoes to dig, and then we'll get a load or two of horse manure to put on most of the garden and set it up to sleep for the winter.

Always something.

As to all the wars, at least at this time the US is saying there is no evidence Iran was involved. That's a good thing. Perhaps that escalation won't occur.

Hope you get through all your professional development BS without too much hassle. Thanks for the OT!

up
8 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout I hope the passage of time has helped him through the sadness.
Great news on your garden, and we wish we were your close neighbors, just sayin'...

up
6 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

snoopydawg's picture

.

I have been asking if it’s true that Israel helped create Hamas and I found this today.

Meanwhile the world watches as Israel destroys Gaza and kills thousands of innocent civilians who had nothing to do with the Hamas attacks on Israel. And the fcking world knows that!

up
12 users have voted.

Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?

QMS's picture

@snoopydawg @snoopydawg

into the IOF (Israel Offensive Forces).

also~

Go to Sinai or remain under siege: Israeli ultimatum to Gaza

Meanwhile IOF has bombed the Palestine/Egypt border crossing 4 times.
How the hell do Gaza's people flee to Egypt when the crossing is being targeted?

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/go-to-sinai-or-remain-under...

up
9 users have voted.

question everything

snoopydawg's picture

@QMS

The world: “A million Palestinians are dead including 500,000 children!"

Bibi: "Hey I told them to leave before I started killing them."

The World: "Well okay then. We see that you gave them an option to live. Our bad."

Rubio: "It was a hard choice to make, but sometimes you have to crack a few eggs to make an omelet."

up
8 users have voted.

Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?

snoopydawg's picture

@snoopydawg

Seems clear that Israel does not want peace nor does America. And yet every time violence breaks out in the area it’s always the Palestinians that pays the price. Did you see how Israel was involved in the Armenian conflict? Where else are they meddling?

up
9 users have voted.

Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?

@snoopydawg That Bibi. Forever controlling Hamas and the Palestinians.

up
5 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

snoopydawg's picture

Israeli settlers have been going into the 3rd most holy mosques while the police just watch. Rumor is that this is one of the reasons why Hamas acted. Someone said that it’s the equivalent of Muslims going into and taking over St. Peter’s square which is the holy place of Christians. Would the world tolerate that? I think not.

But if Bibi is working with Hamas is that the reason why the intelligence failed?

up
9 users have voted.

Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?

@snoopydawg let that x from Athens Bureau get thru the censors.

up
3 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

snoopydawg's picture

@on the cusp

He totally blew up all the Israeli talking points.

up
3 users have voted.

Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?

@snoopydawg @snoopydawg astonishing, isn't it? Getting by CNN censors AND X censors!

up
4 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

snoopydawg's picture

.

Gilbert Doctorow

The other is the statement from an official in the Russia-controlled Donbas that NATO arms delivered earlier in the year to Ukraine were resold and likely are being used against Israel in the war there now under way. That brings up the remarks of Benjamin Netanyahu this past July that the Palestinians were known to have procured anti-tank weapons, presumably Javelins, from the Ukrainians. That is not an irrelevancy, because the Israelis will have to move armor into the Gaza Strip to take control and this type of NATO weaponry could inflict great damage on IDF personnel and equipment.

Tit for tat.

However, I believe the timing was driven by something entirely different, something purely in the domain of geopolitics: the attack was staged to disrupt the ongoing rapprochement of Saudi Arabia and Israel under the direction of Washington. If the parties succeeded in concluding the agreement on normalization of relations, then that would put in jeopardy all hopes of the Palestinians to enjoy the support of their Arab brethren in the region for realization of their political ambitions for statehood. Meanwhile, if there should be a Saudi-Israeli agreement, then the power balance in the region between Iran and Saudi Arabia would shift significantly in Saudis’ favor, since the conditions they were negotiating with Washington to make peace with Israel included declaration of a formal security treaty with the United States and access to U.S. nuclear technology up to and including enrichment of uranium. In other words, the Saudis would close in on the current Iranian advantage of being a hair’s breadth away from possessing bombs.

In Mate's tweet he posted tweets on how both Israeli and the Bush administration refused to make a deal with Hamas which is worth a read if you can. I’ll post it IF anyone is interested.

Under present conditions of all-out war by Israel on Hamas and the prospect of a bloody incursion into Gaza by the Israeli Defense Force, it is unthinkable for Saudi Arabia to proceed with normalization of relations. This means, in effect, that a serious blow has been dealt to the foreign policy of the Biden administration. This failure comes on top of the Afghanistan withdrawal fiasco. The net effect will not only be felt once the electoral campaign for the presidency gets underway later this autumn, but will be felt immediately insofar as it weakens the president’s hand in his ongoing arm-wrestling with Congress over the 2024 budget and in particular over funding for Ukraine. If the allegations that NATO weapons have come into the hands of Hamas via Ukraine, then the consequences of uncontrolled delivery of weapons to Kiev will be on display for everyone to see.

Failure breeds failures, and you cannot dress up this new pig in the Middle East policy of Biden and Blinken and Sullivan with lipstick.

Biden left $80 billion worth of weapons, equipment and cash when he sloppily withdrew from Afghanistan and I recently saw pictures of the large amount of trucks that the Taliban have. No one has asked Biden why he was in such a hurry to withdraw from Afghanistan and why he moved up the timetable to do it and leave not only all the weapons and equipment, but many people who had been working with America. Was it so he could get his Ukraine war on?

Naked Capitalism has a lot of good stuff today.

up
9 users have voted.

Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?

snoopydawg's picture

.

Palestinian human rights advocates and historians called an interview broadcast on CNN late Sunday a "must-watch" for anyone seeking the broader context for the violence that erupted over the weekend, as Palestinian politician and advocate Dr. Mustafa Barghouti told anchor Fareed Zakaria that the surprise attack by Hamas followed decades of occupation and apartheid as well as the killings of thousands of Palestinian civilians by Israeli forces in recent years.

Zakaria introduced Barghouti by saying that the political leader of Hamas "has blamed the violence squarely on Israel's occupation of Palestinian land," adding Barghouti would provide "another Palestinian viewpoint" for viewers of "Fareed Zakaria GPS."

While condemning violence against civilians, Barghouti said the fighting has evolved as "the direct result of the continuation of the longest occupation in modern history" and used the same term accepted by the United Nations, thousands of academics, and international human rights experts—apartheid—to describe the system Palestinians have been forced to live under.

"There is one way to stop any violence and that is to end the Israeli occupation," said Barghouti. "And that is for the United States to be fair. They cannot say that Israel has the right to defend itself, but we the Palestinians don't have the right to defend ourselves... The only way to stop it is to tell Israel, 'You have to respect international law, you have to end this illegal occupation and accept Palestinians as equal human beings.'"

Meanwhile, he said, 20 communities have been evicted "in an act of ethnic cleansing," Israeli extremists have attacked Muslim and Christian holy sites, and far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has called for the entire Palestinian town of Huwara to be "wiped out" by his country's military as well as saying that "Palestinians have one of three options: only either to immigrate or accept a life of subjugation to Israelis, or die."

"Unfortunately, Fareed, what you have described is exactly what we already have, by 560 Israeli military checkpoints," said Barghouti. "The whole West Bank has been divided into 224 small ghettos separated from each other, and the settlers are everywhere attacking Palestinians. "Can we stop what's going on now? Yes, of course, all these Israelis who are now in Gaza can be released tomorrow... if Israel also accepts to release our 5,300 Palestinian prisoners who are in Israeli jails, including 1,260 Palestinians who are in jail without knowing why under the under the so-called "administrative detention." *

* means that habeas corpus in Israel is just as dead as it is in America.

Barghouti concluded the interview by noting that Israel and its allies have identified no way for Palestinians to resist the decades-long occupation.

"If we struggle in a military form, we are terrorists, if we struggle in a nonviolent way we are described as violent, if we even resist with words we are described as provocative," he said. "If you support Palestinians and you are a foreigner, they describe you as an antisemite, and if you are a Jewish person—and there are many of those who support the Palestinian cause—they call them 'self-hating Jews.'"

"We should all have equal life, we should have all peace, we should all have justice, and we should live in dignity," he added. "The main way to achieve that is to end occupation, end the system of apartheid that I am sure no Jewish person can be proud of. Time has come for that and time has come for justice and freedom."

I guess I can imagine how the world would react if the Native American ethnic cleansing was happening today including the slaughter of millions of buffalo that they relied on to eat. It’s not just America that has 2 justice systems.

up
9 users have voted.

Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?

@snoopydawg is an understatement!

up
5 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Cassiodorus's picture

'Course, in the US, once the neocons drift into either 1) proposing a complete militarization of society in imitation of World War II (after having sold America on the notion that "supporting Ukraine is a good investment") or 2) a dramatic ramping-up of US war effort under the current encode-money-and-hand-it-to-the-rich dispensation in which "Western ammo stocks" are ostensibly "at bottom of the barrel" -- well, it won't be long after one of those events before there's an exposure of the criminality of the whole enterprise... say, wasn't Netanyahu going to be indicted for what I'm sure was one of his many crimes?

up
6 users have voted.

“When there's no fight over programme, the election becomes a casting exercise. Trump's win is the unstoppable consequence of this situation.” - Jean-Luc Melanchon

QMS's picture

@Cassiodorus

generals accountants have suddenly figured out that:
Oh, by the way, we have enough bombs and ammo to supply both
Ukie and Benji to fight our wars for us! Such a feeling of security.

And no boots on the ground! Except maybe a few sneakers in the sand.
Meanwhile aircraft carrier groups and C-135 transports are heading on
over to give our partners humanitarian aid. Such a nice organization.

It is so cost effective, according to the brass, the MIC is now in a position
to buy the rest of the world's political problems. That will show those darn
bricks animals who is in control. Heh.

up
7 users have voted.

question everything

enhydra lutris's picture

My most sincere condolences to earthling1.

The current trouble is Palestine, like so much trouble that has preceded it goes directly back to London, England; the 1917 Balfour Declaration. A colonial power arbitrarily and capriciously deciding to rearrange a piece of the world in a most irrational manner simply because they could.

be well and have a good one

up
8 users have voted.

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 --

@enhydra lutris could have been corrected in the 106 years afterwards.

up
6 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

enhydra lutris's picture

@on the cusp

up
3 users have voted.

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 --

TheOtherMaven's picture

@enhydra lutris

Try the 1st-2nd century AD. "A colonial power arbitrarily and capriciously deciding to rearrange a piece of the world in a most irrational manner simply because they could" - is exactly what the Romans did. (There were also several other colonial powers performing arbitrary and capricious rearrangements between 136 and 1917.)

In rough and ready Wild West terms, that claim's been jumped so many times by so many people that there's no longer any way of proving who has the rights to what.

up
3 users have voted.

There is no justice. There can be no peace.

@TheOtherMaven to everyone except the colonial powers.
As it was, so as it shall ever be.

up
2 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

enhydra lutris's picture

@TheOtherMaven

That leaves all the migrations and assorted kingdoms and sea people and such, the Byzantines, all the crusades and all that, assorted Arab and Turkic to and fro and then the Ottomans.

The Hebrews popped up out of nowhere in Canaan. There is no evidence and no record other than their own that they were ever in Egypt. They conquered Canaan from outside, probably the east or north, or were there already and seized control through some sort of revolt or were the Canaanites themselves and went through a cultural sea change and name change. Whatever, they were swept up or aside by Rome like and along with everybody else.

By WW I, that whole area was multicultural, multi-ethnic and polyglot. Then the Brits decided to give it all to one small faction. Before the Balfour fiasco, the population of that area seems to have pretty much been able to get along with each other, excepting the Ottomans.

be well and have a good one

up
7 users have voted.

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 --

Turned on the TV to watch General Hospital. It was a rerun again. Couldn't figure out why until they interrupted it with Biden going on about Israel. What did he say? I have no idea. His cottonmouth is getting so bad I could barely understand him and then I fell asleep within 5 minutes.

How can this man run for president? He can barely walk and barely talk. He's got to be taking a shitload of drugs to even function as good as he is.

up
6 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@Enchantress

He's got to be taking a shitload of drugs to even function as good as he is.

I’m betting that they save the good stuff that works better for when he sits for a long interview and he doesn’t get it every day because he becomes tolerant to them quickly. Just an uneducated guess, but pain meds work like that too.

up
5 users have voted.

Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?

@Enchantress @Enchantress a couple of minutes after you did.
We can't come up with a competent president, and we still think we are exceptional. Well, exceptionally stupid.

up
5 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

QMS's picture

@Enchantress

this way, he is not to blame for those pulling the strings, cause he is not aware.
pretty obvious. an international joke are our leaders. without a teleprompter and
maybe the ability to read, he is burnt toast. exceptionally so

up
4 users have voted.

question everything

ggersh's picture

UNFUCKINGBELIEVABLE

When will humanity become humane

up
10 users have voted.

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

QMS's picture

@ggersh

why take it out on the Arabs? They had nothing to do with your holocausts.

up
5 users have voted.

question everything

ggersh's picture

@QMS Bullies being bullies

How can anyone explain how that happens?

It's the psychopath's filled with rage hate and ego
leading the people of the collective west to destruction

Syria has now bombed the Golan Heights, next....UFB

up
8 users have voted.

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

QMS's picture

@ggersh @ggersh

when the Israeli minister spoke of the Palestines as being animals,
somehow justifying genocide. You got the psychopath right.
Somehow, Arabic people are considered less than human by the
conquerers. Therefore, they must make be removed to make room
for our 'real' people. unfknblvbl

up
9 users have voted.

question everything

@ggersh later. My turn to cook tonight.
Thanks for adding it to the thread. There are those among us who advocate killing everyone who doesn't look like them, or who were born in the "wrong" place. At least we know who they are.

up
8 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

snoopydawg's picture

@QMS

“These are the basic lines of the national government headed by me [Netanyahu]: The Jewish people have an exclusive and unquestionable right to all areas of the Land of Israel. The government will promote and develop settlement in all parts of the Land of Israel — in the Galilee, the Negev, the Golan, Judea and Samaria.”

up
8 users have voted.

Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?

QMS's picture

@snoopydawg

As Biden on a semi-good day. The colonization period is over.
This is a distraction away from the empire failure in Ukie.
Nothing more.

up
3 users have voted.

question everything

@snoopydawg according to whom?
My, my...the things you learn.

up
3 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981