The Evening Blues - 12-20-23
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features West Coast blues harmonica player Paul deLay. Enjoy!
“Western civilization is a loaded gun pointed at the head of this planet.”
-- Terence McKenna
News and Opinion
The Atrocities In Gaza Are The Perfect Embodiment Of ‘Western Values’
When Israeli president Isaac Herzog described the assault on Gaza as a war “to save Western civilization, to save the values of Western civilization,” he wasn’t really lying. He was telling the truth — just maybe not quite in the way that he meant it.
The demolition of Gaza is indeed being perpetrated in defense of western values, and is itself a perfect embodiment of western values. Not the western values they teach you about in school, but the hidden ones they don’t want you to look at. Not the attractive packaging with the advertising slogans on the label, but the product that’s actually inside the box.
For centuries western civilization has depended heavily on war, genocide, theft, colonialism and imperialism, which it has justified using narratives premised on religion, racism and ethnic supremacy — all of which we are seeing play out in the incineration of Gaza today.
What we are seeing in Gaza is a much better representation of what western civilization is really about than all the gibberish about freedom and democracy we learned about in school. A much better representation of western civilization than all the art and literature we’ve been proudly congratulating ourselves on over the centuries. A much better representation of western civilization than the love and compassion we like to pretend our Judeo-Christian values revolve around.
It’s been so surreal watching western rightists babbling about how savage and barbaric Muslim culture is amid the 2023 zombie resurrection of Bush-era Islamophobia, even while western civilization amasses a mountain of ten thousand child corpses.
That mountain of child corpses is a much better representation of western culture than anything Mozart, da Vinci or Shakespeare ever produced.
This is western civilization. This is what it looks like.
Western civilization, where Julian Assange awaits his final appeal in February against US extradition for journalism which exposed US war crimes.
Where we are fed a nonstop deluge of mass media propaganda to manufacture our consent for wars and aggression which have killed millions and displaced tens of millions in the 21st century alone.
Where we are kept distracted by vapid entertainment and artificial culture wars so we don’t think too hard about what this civilization is and who it is killing and maiming and starving and exploiting.
Where news cycles are dominated more by celebrity gossip and Donald Trump’s latest mouth farts than by the mass atrocities that are being actively facilitated by western governments.
Where liberals congratulate themselves for having progressive views on race and gender while the officials they elect help rip apart children’s bodies with military explosives.
Where Zionist Jews center themselves and their emotions because opposition to an active genocide makes them feel like they are being persecuted, and where Israel supporters who are not Jewish still kind of feel like they are being persecuted also.
Where a giant globe-spanning empire powered by militarism, imperialism, capitalism and authoritarianism devours human flesh with an insatiable appetite while we congratulate ourselves on how much better we are than nations like Iran or China.
These are western values. This is western civilization.
Ask somebody to tell you what their values are and they’ll give you a bunch of pleasant-sounding words about family and love and caring or whatever. Watch their actions to see what their actual values are and you’ll often get a very different story.
That’s us. That’s western civilization. We say we value freedom, justice, truth, peace and free expression, but our actions paint a very different picture. The real western values, the actual product inside the box underneath the attractive label, are the ones you see acted out in Gaza today.
US a direct party to war crimes in Gaza
Palestinian death toll in Gaza nears 20,000 with nearly 2m people displaced
Israeli forces killed 25 people in bombings in southern Gaza, hit a refugee camp in the north and raided one of the area’s last operating hospitals, as the number of Palestinians killed in the territory climbed towards 20,000.
The death toll from airstrikes and grim conditions for nearly 2 million people displaced from their homes with little access to food, clean water or sanitation is fuelling growing international anger, even among Israel’s close allies.
In Rafah in southern Gaza, a series of Israeli airstrikes hit three adjacent homes killing 25 people, according to Palestinian media reports, and a further 10 were killed in a strike on the Jabalia refugee camp in the north.
Recent attacks inside a church compound and a school in Gaza, and a raid that shut down one of the last operating hospitals in Gaza City, have also heightened concerns about protection of civilians as a report of prisoner deaths in Israeli custody in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz has raised fresh questions about how Israel is prosecuting its war.
The US appears increasingly isolated in its steadfast support for a military campaign now entering its 11th week as the UN security council was weighing up a new resolution calling for the suspension of hostilities to allow for greater flows of humanitarian aid under UN monitoring.
Rights Monitor Demands Probe of Israel's 'Guantánamo-Like' Prison
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor on Monday demanded an independent investigation into Israel's alleged "torture and murder of Palestinian civilians" who have been captured and detained by the Israel Defense Forces—particularly those who have been held in the Sde Teman army camp, located between the Israeli city of Beersheba and Gaza.
Sde Teman has been turned into "a new Guantánamo-like prison," the monitor said, comparing it to the U.S. prison where inmates accused by the U.S. of being terrorists have been held indefinitely, many without being charged, and subjected to torture for more than two decades.
The monitor said it has gathered testimonies from former detainees who have been recently released from Sde Teman and who have reported severe mistreatment of prisoners—who are all male and range from young children to elderly people—as well as the executions of some detainees and the deaths of others under what one outlet called "unclear circumstances."
Israeli authorities have kept detainees in "open-air chicken coops" and withheld food and drink for long periods of time.
Detainees have also been blindfolded and had their hands tied while being subjected to harsh interrogations, during which "lights are turned on and intensely shone upon them at night, with the intention of exhausting and torturing them."
They have been barred from using phones to contact their families, meeting with lawyers, and receiving medical care from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Euro-Med Monitor said.
Released prisoners also told the Geneva-based group that they witnessed elderly prisoners enduring "cruel beatings and humiliating treatment."
"The detainees were blindfolded and bound, with both their hands and feet handcuffed, and if they tried to ask for anything, were met with abuse and threats," said the monitor.
The group's report and demand for an impartial and urgent investigation followed reporting in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Monday which revealed that several of the hundreds of Palestinians who have been detained at Sde Teman since Israel began its bombardment of Gaza in October have died while in Israeli custody.
Haaretz reported that Israel had detained the Palestinians under its so-called Unlawful Combatants Law of 2002, which released Israel's government "from the need to provide evidence justifying the internment and its continuation, thus switching the burden of proof onto the shoulders of the internee, who can never refute the allegations."
Israel-based human rights group B'tselem has frequently called on the government to stop detaining people under the law.
Haaretz reported on the deaths of two Palestinians at Sde Teman, which the IDF had not publicly acknowledged. Generally the Israeli military announces the deaths of prisoners in its custody. The monitor said that one of the men had requested medical attention before he died, "but the army ignored his request and kept him in appalling conditions, which ultimately caused his death."
A former detainee who spoke to the Euro-Med Monitor also said he had witnessed "Israeli soldiers directly shooting and killing five detainees in separate incidents."
The group had previously reported on Israel's arrest and detention of more than 1,200 Palestinian civilians across Gaza since beginning its assault on the blockaded enclave in retaliation for Hamas' attack on southern Israel on October 7.
In November, Amnesty International separately documented the detentions of more than 2,200 Palestinian men and women from the West Bank since October 7, and reported on testimony from released detainees and human rights lawyers, video evidence, and images showing "forms of torture and other ill treatment" prisoners have been subjected to by Israeli forces since the current escalation began.
Amnesty described "Israeli soldiers beating and humiliating Palestinians while detaining them blindfolded, stripped, with their hands tied, in a particularly chilling public display of torture and humiliation of Palestinian detainees."
Israel's use of "administrative detention," in which detainees are held without charges or a trial, often indefinitely, has also spiked significantly since October 7, said Amnesty, with the number of Palestinians arbitrarily imprisoned rising from 1,319 to 2,070 between October 1 and November 1.
The Euro-Med Monitor called on the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the ICRC to pressure Israeli officials to publicly disclose "the fate of all detainees from the Gaza Strip," release all civilians, and investigate the reported treatment of detainees at prisons including Sde Teman.
The group's call echoed that of Amnesty last month.
"Israeli authorities must immediately reverse the inhumane emergency measures imposed on Palestinian prisoners and grant them immediate access to their lawyers and families," said Heba Morayef, the group's regional director for the Middle East and North Africa. "Israeli judicial authorities must also impartially and independently investigate complaints of torture and other ill treatment and prosecute in fair trials those responsible for ordering and carrying out torture."
Israel Offers Hamas One Week PAUSE For Hostages
Biden administration policy differences reportedly behind delay in Gaza ceasefire vote at UN
A vote on a Gaza ceasefire resolution was postponed for a second time at the UN security council on Tuesday, amid reported policy differences inside the Biden administration.
While diplomatic efforts struggled in New York in the pursuit of a formalised truce, there was a renewed push for a new hostage deal that would involve a short humanitarian pause in the fight to allow an exchange with Palestinian prisoners.
The UN draft resolution, drafted by the United Arab Emirates, had been changed on Tuesday in an effort to avoid a third US veto since the conflict began more than two months ago. Instead of calling for an “urgent and sustainable cessation of hostilities,” the amended text referred to “the urgent suspension of hostilities to allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access, and for urgent steps towards a sustainable cessation of hostilities”.
According to diplomatic sources, the US mission in New York believed it had negotiated a text that it could at least abstain on, but when Washington was consulted, new objections were raised, with the White House reportedly taking a more pro-Israel line than the state department.
The White House objections included opposition to any mention of the word “cessation”, unease over a clause that puts the UN in charge of monitoring the flow of humanitarian aid without explicitly mentioning Israel’s role in checking cargo entering Israel, and the absence in the draft resolution of a condemnation of Hamas for its 7 October cross-border attack on Israeli communities, which killed about 1,200 people. As consultations between New York and Washington continued, a vote on the UAE resolution was put off until Wednesday morning at the earliest.
"This Is a Colonial War": Historian Rashid Khalidi on Israel, Gaza & the Future of Palestine
‘Bloodbath’: Israel continues to target Gaza hospitals and civilians
Despite growing international pressure for a respite, Israel is continuing to bombard Gaza’s health facilities and residential areas. Israeli air raids on Sunday and Monday maintained the focus on hospitals and civilian neighbourhoods in the enclave, a tactic that has only encouraged further calls from around the world for a ceasefire in the besieged Palestinian territory as civilian causalities mount.
Mass casualties have been reported following strikes on the Jabalia and Nuseirat refugee camps. Israeli artillery shelling targeted multiple residences in the Shujayea, Tuffah and Daraj neighbourhoods in Gaza City.
Continuous shooting has been reported at the entrance to al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. At least 26 Palestinians were killed in an attack on the hospital earlier, Al Jazeera journalists reported. The Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis in southern Gaza has been repeatedly targeted over the past 48 hours. An Israeli tank shell hit the maternity building on Sunday, killing a 13-year-old girl, named Dina Abu Mehsen, and injuring several others, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health. ...
In a statement to Al Jazeera, Gaza Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra denounced Israel for trying to “eliminate” the besieged enclave’s health sector. “What the occupation is doing is part of the scenario that began in northern Gaza from the Shifa complex,” he said. “Targeting Nasser Medical Complex is part of the occupation’s policy to eliminate the health sector and would bring down the health system in the southern Gaza Strip,” he added.
Phil Giraldi: Antisemitism and the Israeli Government
US announces naval operation targeting Yemen and Iran
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced Monday the start of Operation Prosperity Guardian, a naval operation in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden targeting the Houthi rebels in Yemen and threatening Iran. Austin made the announcement in Israel, thus underscoring the role that Israeli forces, now engaged in mass murder in Gaza, will play in any future war with Iran.
“The recent escalation in reckless Houthi attacks originating from Yemen threatens the free flow of commerce, endangers innocent mariners and violates international law,” Austin said Monday in a statement. “This is an international challenge that demands collective action.”
Austin made clear the main target of the operation was Iran, saying at a press briefing in Israel, “Iran is raising tensions by continuing to support terrorist groups and malicious attacks by these Iranian proxies who threaten the region and risk a broader conflict.” In a backhanded threat, Austin said, “Of course, the United States does not seek war. And we urgently call on Iran to take steps to de-escalate.”
The US has sent an armada of nearly 20 warships to the Middle East, led by two aircraft carrier battle groups. The new naval operation will include most of the major imperialist powers, including the UK, France, Italy and Spain.
Pope Condemns Israeli Killings of Palestinian Christians; Relative of 84-Year-Old Mourns Her Death
Ryan HAMMERS State Dep Spox On Pope 'TERRORISM'
'Cashing in on Genocide': Israeli Firm Pitches Beachfront Real Estate in Leveled Gaza
Palestine defenders this week condemned a proposal by an Israeli real estate developer specializing in the construction of illegal settlements to build beachfront homes for Jewish colonists over the bombed-out ruins of Gaza.
"A house on the beach is not a dream," reads an advertisement published by Harey Zahav—an Israeli company notorious for building settlements in the illegally occupied West Bank—that drew international attention following last week's Practical Preparation for Gaza Settlement Conference in Tel Aviv.
The ad depicts an artist's rendering of luxury homes superimposed over an actual photograph of a Gaza neighborhood destroyed by Israeli attacks—which have killed nearly 20,000 people while displacing over 85% of the embattled strip's 2.3 million people since early October.
An Israeli real estate company is already drawing up plans for settlements in the Gaza Strip.
"A house on the beach is not a dream!" the ad reads. Below, it says their employees are "expelling invaders."
Israel's attacks are not about "defense."
This is ethnic cleansing. pic.twitter.com/PPNKslaGET
— CODEPINK (@codepink) December 18, 2023
While the Israeli government funds settler organizations, Harey Zahav's proposal is not believed to be state-supported. However, critics noted that Israeli Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel has drafted a plan to forcibly expel Gazans into Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, and that a separate proposal by the right-wing think tank Misgav Institute for National Security & Zionist Strategy declared that "there is currently a unique and rare opportunity to evacuate the entire Gaza Strip."
Such plans have been compared with the Nakba ethnic cleansing of more than 750,000 Arabs—by deadly violence and forced displacement—from Palestine during the establishment of the modern state of Israel in 1948.
"An Israeli real estate firm is already cashing in on genocide, churning out blueprints to build Israeli homes in Gaza on land leveled by bombs," activist Sarah Wilkinson said Tuesday on social media.
Harey Zahav's proposal comes amid statements by Israeli political and military leaders that critics say incite or advocate genocide of Palestinians. Evem prior to the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, numerous Israeli officials called for the recolonization of a Gaza Strip from which some or all of the Palestinian residents—around two-thirds of them the descendants of Nakba refugees—have been removed.
While Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005, the besieged enclave is still considered occupied under international law.
CIA SPIED on Julian Assange’s Guests, Attorneys: Lawsuit. Trial Can Proceed, Court Rules
Assange Appeal Hearing Set for February
Imprisoned publisher Julian Assange will face two High Court judges over two days on Feb. 20-21, 2024 in London in what will likely be his last appeal against being extradited to the United States to face charges of violating the Espionage Act.
Assange’s wife Stella Assange confirmed that the hearing will take place at the Royal Courts of Justice. Assange had had an earlier request to appeal rejected by High Court Judge Jonathan Swift on June 6.
France passes controversial immigration bill amid deep division in Macron’s party
The French government is facing a political crisis after the health minister Aurélien Rousseau offered his resignation in protest over a hardline immigration bill.
Emmanuel Macron’s ruling centrist party was divided and soul-searching on Wednesday after a strict new immigration law was approved by parliament but contained so many hardline measures that the far-right Marine Le Pen claimed it as an “ideological victory” for her own anti-immigration platform.
Rousseau immediately offered his resignation in protest at the law, but the prime minister Élisabeth Borne did not say whether she would accept it. It was unclear whether other ministers would offer to resign.
The bill was originally intended to show that Macron could take tough measures on migration while keeping France open to foreign workers who could help the economy in sectors struggling to fill jobs.
His interior minister Gérald Darmanin had argued that the bill “protected the French”, saying the government had to take tough measures on immigration in order to stem the rise of Le Pen’s anti-immigration far-right National Rally, which is now the single biggest opposition party in parliament and polling in first position ahead of next year’s European elections.
Here’s Why The Gov’t Won’t Fix Homelessness Or Stop Crime
Texas city is latest to debate ban on road travel for those seeking abortion
A string of Texas localities have passed controversial ordinances banning so-called “abortion trafficking” – and another city may soon join their number.
Over the last several weeks, the city of Amarillo, Texas, has become embroiled in a debate over whether to pass an ordinance to block people from using the city’s roads to transport pregnant people seeking abortions in other states. The city council met on Tuesday to debate the issue. As expected, it did not vote.
This type of ordinance has sprung up as part of a new anti-abortion tactic to undermine people’s ability to flee states with abortion bans. Since the fall of Roe v Wade, abortion foes have scrambled to find a way to cut off what they see as “abortion trafficking”, even though many experts argue that the US constitution protects the right to interstate travel. ...
Texas law currently bans almost all abortions. Amarillo lies at the north-western corner of Texas, so Texans fleeing the state for an abortion in nearby New Mexico, Colorado or Kansas may travel along its roads.
Trump DISQUALIFIED From 2024 Ballot By Colorado DEM-APPOINTED Supreme Court Under 14A: Rising Reacts
Colorado supreme court disqualifies Trump from state’s 2024 ballot
The Colorado supreme court on Tuesday declared Donald Trump ineligible to hold office again under the US constitution’s insurrection clause.
In a historic decision, the justices ordered that he be removed from the state’s presidential primary ballot, after determining that he engaged in insurrection on 6 January 2021. The ruling sets up a likely showdown in the nation’s highest court to settle whether the January 6 attack on the Capitol amounted to an insurrection, and whether Trump’s involvement disqualifies him from running for office.
The 4-3 decision by the Colorado supreme court marks the first time a presidential candidate has been deemed unqualified for office under a rarely used provision that bars insurrectionists from holding office.
“A majority of the court holds that Trump is disqualified from holding the office of president under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment,” the court, whose justices were all appointed by Democratic governors, wrote in its ruling.
Trump has vowed to appeal to the US supreme court, his campaign said. “We have full confidence that the US supreme court will quickly rule in our favor and finally put an end to these un-American lawsuits,” said Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesperson.
Flowers ‘giving up’ on scarce insects and evolving to self-pollinate, say scientists
Flowers are “giving up on” pollinators and evolving to be less attractive to them as insect numbers decline, researchers have said. A study has found the flowers of field pansies growing near Paris are 10% smaller and produce 20% less nectar than flowers growing in the same fields 20 to 30 years ago. They are also less frequently visited by insects.
“Our study shows that pansies are evolving to give up on their pollinators,” said Pierre-Olivier Cheptou, one of the study’s authors and a researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research. “They are evolving towards self-pollination, where each plant reproduces with itself, which works in the short term but may well limit their capacity to adapt to future environmental changes.”
Plants produce nectar for insects, and in return insects transport pollen between plants. This mutually beneficial relationship has formed over millions of years of coevolution. But pansies and pollinators may now be stuck in a vicious cycle: plants are producing less nectar and this means there will be less food available to insects, which will in turn accelerate declines.
“Our results show that the ancient interactions linking pansies to their pollinators are disappearing fast,” said lead author Samson Acoca-Pidolle, a doctoral researcher at the University of Montpellier. “We were surprised to find that these plants are evolving so quickly.”
Insect declines have been reported by studies across Europe. One study on German nature reserves found that from 1989 to 2016 the overall weight of insects caught in traps fell by 75%. Acoca-Pidolle added: “Our results show that the effects of pollinator declines are not easily reversible, because plants have already started to change. Conservation measures are therefore urgently needed to halt and reverse pollinator declines.”
Human-driven extinction of bird species twice as high as thought, study says
About 12% of the world’s bird species have been driven to extinction by human activity, new research has found – double previous estimates. The study, published in Nature Communications on Tuesday, estimates that about 1,430 bird species have died out since the Late Pleistocene period, which started about 120,000 years ago.
Known bird extinctions, identified using fossil or other records, account for about 640 species. The new estimate includes the birds that went extinct without the event being recorded – what scientists call a dark extinction. “We know we have lost iconic birds like the dodo, but we wanted to get a better estimate of the bird extinctions we didn’t know about,” said Dr Rob Cooke, an ecological modeller at the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and the paper’s lead author.
Deforestation, overhunting, fires and invasive species are key causes of bird species loss, Cooke said. The team’s new bird species extinction total of 1,430 may be on the low side, Cooke said. “The losses could be even higher, maybe up to 2,000, but we wanted to be conservative.”
Major extinction events occurred in the 14th century, the paper found, when “the largest human-driven vertebrate extinction wave reported to date” prompted species loss in the eastern Pacific at nearly 100 times the natural extinction rate. The extinctions were driven by human settlement, which brought deforestation and the introduction of invasive species.
Also missing are the important roles these birds would have played in the wider environment. Birds play a vital role in Earth’s ecosystems spreading seeds, pollinating plants, cleaning up carcasses and helping to fertilise coral reefs and the land with their droppings.
Gas pipeline expansion could fuel Pacific north-west climate emergencies
Construction could start before the new year on a gas pipeline expansion through the Pacific north-west that state officials say will undermine the region’s renewable transition and further fuel climate emergencies.
The region is suffering from annual wildfires, deadly heat domes and drought. Lawmakers in Washington, Oregon and California have passed some of the country’s most stringent laws to move away from fossil fuels, but they say the federal commission that greenlit the project threatens to undermine that progress.
“Our state, and the whole west coast, has numerous laws that will restrict the appetite for gas in the years to come,” said Jay Inslee, the governor of Washington state, who signed a law in 2021 that set caps for the state’s largest emitters. “And they essentially ignored that.”
In October, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Ferc) approved the expansion of GTN Xpress, a pipeline that carries gas from fracking fields in Western Canada through Idaho, Washington, Oregon and California. Proponents say the expansion is needed to meet growing consumer demand.
Ferc’s own draft environmental assessment found the expansion would result in the greenhouse gas equivalent of adding more than 700,000 gasoline-powered vehicles to the road each year.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
"America is something that can be moved easily."
National Futures In The Age of China & Collapse
SHOCKING VIDEO Shows Moment Gaza Hospital OBLITERATED by Israeli Missiles Live on Al Jazeera's Air
Epstein's Little Black Book EXPOSED?! Federal Judge Orders 150+ Associates' Names REVEALED Jan 1
Ron Johnson DESTROYS Biden's Depraved Ukraine Policy, GREEDY Weapons Manufacturers
German Chancellor Scholz struggles to keep coalition together
Matthew Hoh: What Have We Learned From Ukraine and Israel?
A Little Night Music
The Paul deLay Band - Worn Out Shoe
Paul deLay - Keep On Drinkin
Paul deLay - Signed, Sealed and Delivered
Come Home Baby (I Wish You Would)
Paul deLay - Can't Stand Your Evil Ways
Paul deLay - I Know You Got Another Man
The Paul deLay Band - Something's Got A Hold On Me
Paul deLay - What's The Big Idea?
Paul deLay - Mean Old Frisco
Comments
Humph, walk the walk, liars
Like that is a given. Anybody in their right minds believe this?
Building the largest war machine in the world would seem to indicate otherwise.
Just sayin'.
Good blues harp joe!
evening qms...
of course they don't. they just dedicate over half of the nation's annual budget for war while ignoring the needs of the people.
Is anyone else
having difficulty with the Epstein Little Black Book link? When I click on it, it just goes to the top of the essay.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
It's seemingly recursive. I opened it in a new tab
and wound up with a second copy of Joe's column. I was just getting ready to post something about it and found that you already had.
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 --
You are not alone as I had the same result.
Not sure as to where Joe was referencing but some of the info can be found by following this link.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/federal-judge-orders-documents-naming-jeffrey-...
I did find that article.
Should be easy for joe to fix for us.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Joe forgot...
to place the URL to the article into the HTML. I'm pretty sure the title points to a piece from The Hill, but I'll let him correct it to make sure it's the right one.
evening otc...
sorry, i just fixed the link. if you have a mind to, give it a try now.
Thanks!
Is it beginning to look a lot like Christmas in your parts?
We are staying home, gonna do some cooking, listen to lots of music, watch some movies. We already pitched in for our mutual Christmas gift: an Instantpot!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
evening otc...
well, no snow yet, but folks around here have gone pretty crazy with xmas light displays which is kind of nice and a little xmas-y. ms shikspack has started baking the xmas cookies which is a sure sign that it's xmas i guess.
have a good one!
I wonder if Brandon and Blinken will remove her visa?
Here is what I am referring to:
https://www.state.gov/announcement-of-visa-restriction-policy-to-promote...
evening humphrey...
yep, there are already israeli developers salivating over the idea of seizing some seafront property to profit from. sick bastards.
Now who would have thought that they would agree with Cenk?
.
Nails it!
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Reminds me of the stopped clock
being right twice a day comparison.
It is surprising for Cenk to say that. And interesting.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Yep…
and the numerous times that democrats have sued to keep the Green Party off ballots. Hurry because Biden has to save democracy before Trump gets in again. Seems everything democrats worried about Trump doing, Biden is actually doing it.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
The funny thing about Cenk is that he is supposedly running
for President even though he ineligible due to the fact he was born in Turkey. The only thing that comes to mind is that he is acting un behalf of his wealthy donors who want Biden to drop out.
evening snoopy...
aw, don't be too hard on them. see, they had to destroy democracy to save it.
Gee I wonder why…
.
Blood Money: The Top Ten Politicians Taking the Most Israel Lobby Cash
I don’t know if there is enough money for me to turn a blind eye to genocide, but doing so would make me feel like a whore. BTW didn’t Biden once say that he wouldn’t be a whore for anyone?
I can’t imagine how Palestinians feel knowing that there is no help coming for them and that they know that the whole world is watching and yet still not stopped it.
How much money will Biden spend on stopping the Houthis from stopping stuff going to Israel? It’d be much easier for him to tell Bibi to stop the madness and get desperately needed supplies into Gaza. How long will the globalists lose millions before that happens? Unless this is just fine with them since it might crash the global economy. Isn’t that what Klaus wants? Boy there’s me being cynical again.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Lol…see?
But for some reason they have no problem with Israel’s buying our whole government. Not just at the federal level either, but at state level. But mom!! Russia!
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
We're #1! We're #!
Somehow I'm imagining Fred Rogers discussing Gaza with young children... after all, he managed it when RFK was assassinated:
"the Democratic Party is not 'left'." -- Sabrina Salvati
heh...
how much money can he and the bought-off congress print?
So why the Team Biden obsession with ballot access?
Because he's unpopular, of course.
The Media Is All Wrong About Biden’s Poor Polling
The key sentence is the one at the end:
But seriously. You have to wonder if America operates that way any more. Certainly the nice liberals have been ensnared by a reasoning which avoids this conclusion at all costs, basically to cover for Joe Biden.
I know! We'll kick Trump off of more ballots -- he's already off of the ballot in Colorado, or so the state Supreme Court thinks. Or here's a fun one: let's celebrate Ukrainian "democracy" while at the same time expressing concern about "antisemitism" on college campuses. Or Steve Bannon or Christopher Rufo or some safe topic like that. And this stuff comes from people who once voiced actual concern about the fate of the working class.
"the Democratic Party is not 'left'." -- Sabrina Salvati
evening cass...
apparently biden thinks that there is some magic that his pr flacks can perform that will make him deliriously popular with the masses despite the fact that he has been screwing them for four years already.
i am reminded of a turn of phrase that i picked up from a college friend: "you can't shine shit."
Ahem…
Biden has been screwing us since he arrived in congress. I can’t think of one thing he has done to help we the people since he was elected. Everything has gone to help his donors. He’s latest trick besides not upholding his campaign promises was to screw us out of $600. Trump did much more to help the poor than Biden could dream of…well that would probably be a nightmare for him.
Trump expanded Medicaid which I’m very grateful for because I would have been on the hook for medical bills from my 6 trips to the ER and 2 nights stay in hospital. I don’t remember all he did, but remember Biden ending them and people started getting poorer again.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
heh...
friendly amendment accepted. i would note that the earlier part of his career was his audition for the donor class to prove that he could be trusted to screw the "right people" if vested with the greater powers of the executive.
Well Joe --
-- might have done a little bit of good, but it was outweighed by the great harm done to the body politic by, say, the Crime Bill, or Gramm-Leach-Billey, or NCLB, or the Iraq war, or the Bankruptcy Bill, all of which Joe Biden championed.
Of course, the damage done by Team Biden in the world of international affairs will last an awfully long time. This damage more than anything is what makes Democrats look so pointless at this time.
"the Democratic Party is not 'left'." -- Sabrina Salvati
Israel has a right to self defence HAH!
It looks more like ethnic cleansing and genocide to me.
heh...
gee, do you suppose the israelis will send every american taxpayer a shoebox full of rubble to thank us for the nice bombs?
The minute Israel started destroying buildings and especially
homes should have woken the world to the fact that they meant to ethnically exterminate the Palestinians from Gaza…and if not that then when they turned off electricity, gas and water.
I’ve read a few more articles saying that America has always agreed with Israel that they will push the Palestinians out and take all the land for themselves. Roosevelt was on board with this plan from the beginning.
The EU lady tried to bribe Egypt and Jordan with billions if they would take the Palestinians and it was even Biden’s plan to bribe or threaten them. 2 million people have been ‘misplaced'. Such a weak word for what is happening.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
1200 tonnes of fish have now washed up onto Japan
....for "unknown" reason.
.
Who could have foreseen???
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
evening pluto...
wow, that's really something, thanks for the link. i guess the japanese government better send out some scientists to come up with a plausible
distractionexplanation that has nothing to do with fukushima and its nuke release plan.Those fish just all got
seasonal flu.
Nothing to see here.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
What I don't understand
....is why someone isn't there with a dosimeter or geiger counter or whatever the appropriate devices are to measure any radioactivity that may be present. Has anyone done this so that they could categorically say, and verify that the Fukishima reactor wastewater release isn't the cause?
Whether or not the waste releases meet safety standards is problematic for two reasons. the first is that not enough longitudinal biological studies have been done to determine what is or isn't a safe level. Second, the chemical filtering processes for removal of a range of radionuclides is ongoing process that is subject to equipment deterioration over time. This literally needs to be checked every day. Filters can fail at unpredictable points, and therefore need constant monitoring. This is what I learned from South Korean news reports and media interviews with nuclear biologists, and nuclear scientists and engineers. The IAEA doesn't endorse the method they're using for disposal. Their approach is an as far as we know approach, and we'll continuing monitoring the discharge.
(edited a typo)
語必忠信 行必正直
For all we know,
the tons of dead fish meet the newly created, just for this event, definition of "negligible harm."
I have friends who have sworn off sea food since the original report of the leak. And they live near the Gulf of Mexico.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
I've been trying to more careful
,,,about the seafood I eat. I broke down and ate some kimbab several weeks ago. It's really one of my favorite foods, rice, with some veggies in the middle rolled into dried seaweed. I couldn't determine where the seaweed came from. The problem with seaweed is the iodine uptake. I do eat the local American fresh fish. I'm leery of dried squid, or frozen seafood that may be from China, Korea or Japan. Dried squid is a traditional snack item for Koreans so if they get a hold of some they're always passing it around as gifts or for special occasions. I often find myself saying stupid stuff to Ms So like, "do you know where that octupus came from?"
語必忠信 行必正直
After Chernobyl, various German citizen groups started testing
produce and other food items in supermarkets for radiation levels and publishing their results in the alternative counterculture press.
German government response was to pass a law forbidding publication of such radiation-level testing info by anyone except official sources.
Technically, there is no KNOWN safe level for radiation,
the phrase is oxymoronic. There are levels certified to be dangerous, but amounts below those levels are not certifiably safe.
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 --
Good evening Joe, thanks for the EBs. The recursive link was
a blessing in a way because I would up with two copies of the EBs. I could listen to Paul deLay while reading, but more importantly, I could comment without shutting down the audio, like I'm doing now. I think I'll be relying on this technique a lot going forward. Dunno why I didn't think of it before.
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...
heh, i'm glad my error could lead to a useful innovation.
have a good one!
Apparently Zionist war monger Blinken lives in his own
alternate reality.
The rest of the tweet:
This….
I want to know if Blinken actually believes the shit that he is spewing? Is he so far gone in believing in the US is the shining city on the hill and that it stands up for human rights and spreading democracy? If so on human rights I have only 2 words to say:
Julian Assange.
Who has been languishing in a British prison even though he has not been found guilty of any crimes. I’m holding out hope that the British government will find its own humanity and adhere to the rule of law and block his extradition to America where he will be stuck in some deep hole and forgotten. If Julian gets punished for posting America’s war crimes then every editor and journalist that also posted them should also be charged as Julian has been and just maybe American journalists will pull their heads out of their arses and protest against his punishment.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
heh...
will 2024 be the year when the world says, "that's nice tony, now put down the crack pipe."
This is why --
-- as I pointed out above -- the damage done by Team Biden in the world of international affairs will take so long to undo. It won't simply be enough for Biden's successor to "climb down" from Blinken's statements. The situation isn't amenable to petty reform of any sort.
"the Democratic Party is not 'left'." -- Sabrina Salvati
Okay, I gotta BOO Caitlin for once
Haven't we learned by now that the kind of "anti-jingoism" she's spouting above is the only thing worse than regular jingoism?
This is the kind of Emperor-New-Coatesian "Woke" shit that scorches the Earth and then salts it, making problem-solving impossible, annihilating the concept of hope and liberalism, and freeing up the crowd they claim to be opposing to just do their worst because 'Why not? It's in our nature'. This isn't the kind of "loose cannon" thinking that does more harm to "its side" than "the other side", this is a flat-out 5th-Column mentality that does NOTHING BUT GOOD for the other side.
Reality in politics is determined by fiat; Caitlin should know that.
In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.
Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!
evening moonbat...
her statement seems to be on one level that our government's hype is better than it is. this is true and there's no harm in pointing it out. at the other level, political reality may be defined by fiat, but there's a lot of people out there that have been taught in government schools, reinforced by government-controlled media that reality is something other than it is. letting those people know that their interest and attention is required if they wish for the reality that they believe in to come into to being is also no sin in my book.
i realize the language she uses is harsh and perhaps puts people off. perhaps pissed off people cling to false realities, but of course the problem is, if they don't reckon that there's a problem, they won't respond.
Her language here isn't "harsh"; it's fatalist and absolutist
It won't encourage anybody who isn't already encouraged - au contraire, it's despair-crack*! - and it does the presently-encouraged no favors; this kind of language basically says there is no alternative to this.
Contrast this with the rhetoric that has led into periods of heroism, the achievements we believe in. They didn't accept reality; they made it.
This accomplishes nothing but preemptively making reality impossible. This is magic, not science, and treating it as the latter is one of the worst things you can possibly do. The post-Marx fixation of trying to "science" every problem in politics is one of the greatest scourges of the past 200 years, kind of a variant upon the old "evil triumphs because good does nothing" chestnut.
― Hannah Arendt
* = I'm not a narcotics expert; what would the perfect opposite of "hopium" be?
In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.
Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!
The argument looks good
But it doesn't really apply. This part appears especially silly:
Uh, the "crowd they claim to be opposing" was "freed up" to "just do their worst" in 1492, with the Spanish conquest of Hispaniola and subsequent extermination of the natives. The rest is capitalism. More recently, we are not going to persuade Joe Biden that he actually has to be a nice guy instead of merely pretending to be one. Genocide is what butters the bread for the top-level political elites of today in the "collective West," therefore Genocide Joe.
As for Caitlin Johnstone, her secondary audience -- she thinks -- is composed of those who would otherwise be fooled. Her primary audience is those of us who are no longer fooled -- we quote her in hopes that people who read her stuff will stop being fooled. Thus "daily writing about the end of illusions."
"the Democratic Party is not 'left'." -- Sabrina Salvati
I'm talking about the hypothetical future, not the past
I'm also talking from the perspective of the value and effect of how she's talking in this article (she usually doesn't, and I'd be pretty upset to see her slip into it).
The language we use matters; what I've been seeing is almost THE ENTIRE constellation of conversations - not just The Official One - has become dominated by language I'm convinced has evolved down the wrong pantleg. I can hardly get a word in edgewise.
In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.
Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!
It seems as if the censors at "X" have been quite busy lately!
For some reason I am unable to access content from the following even that I was able to visit them earlier today!
https://twitter.com/DD_Geopolitics
https://twitter.com/MintPressNews
Not sure if there are more sites having this issue as it seems quite recent.
.
.
.
Edited to add:
I somewhere that "X" is broken and that supposedly it will be fixed?????
.
.
.
Phew!
I guess it was only a "Temporary Glitch" as things seem to have returned to normal.
I seems that it wasn't only me and that I am still sane.
Must have been a glitch
I couldn’t access my homepage either and all my tweets and likes were gone. Twit is my last site I visit and I was bummed and just went to bed. Everything is back now.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Here’s what the problem was
https://www.reuters.com/technology/twitter-down-thousands-users-downdete...
Musk is being hit from all sides lately so I’m wondering if this was just another attempt to go after him.
The funniest thing that Biden’s justice department is doing is going after him for not hiring more immigrants even though it’s illegal for him to do so because of immigration laws. How do you defend against a crime you aren’t committing?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.