The Evening Blues - 12-29-23
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features slide guitarist Sonny Landreth. Enjoy!
Sonny Landreth & Derek Trucks - Congo Square
"The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully."
-- Richard Dawkins
News and Opinion
Israel says time running out to reach diplomatic solution in Lebanon
Israeli officials have hinted that the “diplomatic hourglass” is running out to reach a negotiated solution to the escalating fighting on the boundary with Lebanon, even as the war in Gaza continues at a ferocious pace.
Security sources said the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah fired the most rockets and weaponised drones on Wednesday that it had in any single day since the clashes across the border began.
Israel and the powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah have traded near-daily volleys of missiles, airstrikes and shelling across the UN-controlled blue line separating the countries since 7 October, when the Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing 1,140 people and taking up to 250 hostage. About 150 people in Lebanon have been killed, including 17 civilians, and 11 in Israel, including four civilians, with tens of thousands in both countries displaced from their homes.
A report from Israel’s Kan radio on Thursday, after a particularly intense rocket salvo hit the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona, quoted a government source as saying that the parties were “approaching the point when the chance of reaching an agreement that might guarantee that Hezbollah was distanced from the border would be exhausted … The sand in the diplomatic hourglass in Lebanon is running out.”
Those remarks followed comments by the foreign minister, Eli Cohen, after a trip to the north on Wednesday. He said: “There are only two options – a political solution or military operation. What existed prior to 7 October won’t any more … We will grant a certain amount of time for a political solution. And if none is [reached], all options are on the table.” Another minister, Benny Gantz, said that the “situation on Israel’s northern border demands change.
'Gaslighting of the Worst Order': Blinken Calls 2023 Dangerous Year for Press
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken came under fire for the second time in just over a week when he wrote on social media Thursday that this year has been dangerous for members of the press—without mentioning the dozens of journalists who have been killed in Israel's U.S.-backed assault of the Gaza Strip.
"This has been an extraordinarily dangerous year for press around the world," Blinken said. "Many killed, many more wounded, hundreds detained, attacked, threatened, injured—simply for doing their jobs. I am profoundly grateful to the press for getting accurate, timely information to people."
Killed by Israel in war crimes paid for by your government. Shame on you pic.twitter.com/VRk0ckb18Z
— Nabeel Rajab (@NABEELRAJAB) December 28, 2023
Many journalists were quick to respond, often pointing to the death toll in Gaza. Mehdi Hasan—whose MSNBC show was recently canceled—asked, "How many journalists have been killed in Gaza with American-made, American-supplied weapons over the past three months?"
U.S. Complicit in “On-Air Genocide”: Palestinian Amb. Husam Zomlot Slams 12-Week Gaza Assault
As Gaza death toll nears 30,000, Israeli leaders call for ethnic cleansing
On Wednesday, Gaza’s Government Media Office reported that the number of Gazans killed has hit 28,110, including 21,110 bodies identified at hospitals and approximately 7,000 additional people missing, most buried under the rubble. In a separate report, the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reported, “The majority of those killed in the Israeli air and artillery attacks on the Gaza Strip were civilians, including 11,422 children, and 5,822 women.” ...
In its own report, the Gaza Government Media Office asserted that 310 medical personnel and 97 journalists have been killed. It reported that 65,000 residential units have been completely destroyed, with another 290,000 damaged. The government media office reported that Israel has “targeted more than 23 hospitals, 53 health centres, 140 health facilities, and 102 ambulances.” In a separate report, Gaza’s education ministry said that over 4,037 students and 209 educational staff have been killed since the start of Israel’s attack on Gaza. It added that more than 7,259 students and 619 teachers were injured since October 7.
On Wednesday, more than 30 people were killed after Israel bombed a building near the al-Amal Hospital. In its daily report on the genocide, the United Nations asserted, “On 27 December, heavy Israeli bombardment from air, land, and sea, continued across most of the Gaza Strip. In the north, Gaza City and Jabalya were most affected; in the Middle Area, hostilities continued in the four refugee camps—Al Bureij, An Nuseirat, Deir Al Balah and Al Maghazi. Simultaneously, Israeli forces struck multiple targets in the southern cities of Khan Yunis and Rafah.”
As the death toll soars, Israeli politicians are openly advocating the ethnic cleansing of Gaza through the forcible displacement of the entire Palestinian population. On Wednesday, Avigdor Liberman, a member of Israel’s parliament who previously served as defense minister, became the latest Israeli politician to openly advocate the ethnic cleansing of Gaza through the displacement of the population into the Sinai Desert. Liberman called on the Israeli military to “tear down the fences” between Gaza and Egypt. He continued, “As soon as there is no obstacle there, I estimate one-and-a-half million Gazans will leave for Sinai and we will not disturb anyone.”
This echoed a statement in parliament Monday by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu , who declared, “Regarding voluntary immigration … we are working on it. This is the direction we are going in.”
Israel Denies U.N. Workers Visas & Pushes "Voluntary Migration” of Gazans
Israel’s Security Agency Ignored Warning from Gaza Source About October 7 Attack
Months before the October 7 attack on southern Israel, the Israeli security agency Shin Bet received a warning from one of its sources in Gaza that Hamas was planning to carry out a “big move” shortly after Yom Kippur, which took place on September 25 this year, Israel’s Channel 12 reported.
The report said Shin Bet dismissed the warning as insignificant, and the intelligence did not make it to senior officials in the agency or its chief, Ronen Bar. Shin Bet sources said the lack of corroborating intelligence and the fact that the source only recently started talking to the Israeli agency contributed to the tip not being taken seriously, although they later admitted the source was considered highly reliable.
The tip was just one of many pieces of intelligence that was ignored or not taken seriously by the Israeli security establishment, which led to Israel failing to prevent the October 7 Hamas attack.
Business of War Is Booming as Orders Surge at Top Global Arms Firms
Orders at many of the world's biggest arms companies are "near record highs" due to rising geopolitical tensions in recent years, an analysis published Wednesday by Financial Times revealed.
The London-based newspaper analyzed the order books of the world's 15 top arms makers and found their combined backlogs were $777.6 billion at the end of 2022—a 10% increase from 2020.
According to FT:
The trend's momentum continued into 2023. In the first six months of this year—the latest comprehensive quarterly data available—combined backlogs at these companies stood at $764 billion, swelling their future pipeline of work as governments kept placing orders.
The sustained spending has spurred investors' interest in the sector. [Member of Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment's] global benchmark for the industry's stocks is up 25% over the past 12 months. Europe's Stoxx aerospace and defense stocks index has risen by more than 50% over the same period.
Private equity firms including BlackRock, Vanguard, Capital Group, and State Street are dominant or major shareholders in most of the weapons companies analyzed by FT. These Wall Street speculators are "the ones driving the perpetual wars to maintain their bankrupt financial system," according to the International Schiller Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.
"In the U.S., the defense budget was $858 billion in 2023, and it is rapidly heading towards $1 trillion per year," the institute said last week. "Meanwhile our highways and railroads, our bridges and tunnels, our hospitals and schools are crumbling. And the rest of the world also desperately needs American technology and capital goods to help their development, working with China and Russia, rather than driving the planet towards World War III against them."
Who owns the Military Industrial Complex?
Factsheet from the @SchillerInst on financial firms that own the military industries in the U.S., and how much civilian economic projects can be otherwise built for the same resources spent on war!https://t.co/Jnj3B3pG1K pic.twitter.com/XjQF4Hajij
— Hussein Askary (@HusseinAskary) December 27, 2023
The West's scramble to arm Ukraine's homeland defense against ongoing Russian invasion and occupation played a significant role in surging arms orders.
For example, Hanwha Aerospace, South Korea's largest weapons manufacturer, recorded the biggest increase in new orders—FT says its backlog soared from $2.4 billion in 2020 to $15.2 billion at the end of last year—largely due to sales of K-9 self-propelled howitzers to countries supplying arms to Ukraine.
Rheinmetall, a German firm that makes Panther main battle tanks, nearly doubled its backlog from $14.8 billion to $27.9 billion, also in large part because of Ukraine-related sales.
However, many of the company's swollen backlogs predate the Ukraine war, which began in February 2022.
"The reality is lead times for policymaking, budgets, and placing orders are so long that the invasion of almost two years ago is only just appearing in orders and barely in revenues, except for a few shorter-cycle specialists such as Rheinmetall," Nick Cunningham, an analyst at the insurance firm Agency Partners, told FT.
Israel's assault on Gaza—which began in October and is already one of the most devastating in modern history, with an average of 1,000 bombs dropped daily on the densely populated strip—is not included in FT's analysis, but is a boon to arms-makers and a large part of the reason why last year's record backlogs are expected to reach new heights in 2023 and beyond.
As Common Dreams reported earlier this year, global military spending rose to an all-time high of over $2.2 trillion last year, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
House Democrat Says No More US Aid for Netanyahu's Assault on Gaza
U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro said Wednesday that he opposes sending Israel any additional American weaponry and called for a permanent cease-fire in the Gaza Strip as the territory's humanitarian catastrophe worsens by the hour, with 40% of the population at risk of famine and nearly 2 million displaced people struggling to survive incessant airstrikes.
"I cannot support sending Israel more weapons as long as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains in power and I urge the Biden administration, Israeli government, Hamas, and other countries to establish a permanent cease-fire and return of Israeli hostages still in Hamas' captivity," Castro (D-Texas) wrote in a series of social media posts as the Netanyahu government expanded its war on Gaza.
"As a United States congressman," he added, "I cannot support this carnage."
US denies Israel's request for Apache attack helicopters
The IDF has requested Apache attack helicopters from the United States but has been denied so far, Ynet has learned. The request was made to the Pentagon in recent weeks and was also raised by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant during his meetings with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin during his visit to Israel last week. Security sources suggest that a final decision on the potential acquisition has not been made, and Jerusalem is continuing to apply pressure.
The military has stated that the helicopters are required to enhance its aerial operations. The IDF has deployed its existing Apache attack helicopters in Gaza, for operations against Hezbollah targets in South Lebanon and strikes on terrorist targets in the West Bank. ...
Meanwhile, the U.S. has maintained pressure on Israel to avoid an all-out war with Hezbollah forces in Lebanon. This pressure persisted even as efforts were made to remove terrorists from the border area with Israel. The region also saw a significant American naval presence, including aircraft carrier strike groups.
Israel has, for now, yielded to this pressure from both Washington and France, refraining from expanding the conflict to the north. This decision comes despite Defense Minister Gallant's calls for a preemptive strike on Hezbollah, seen as the primary threat to Israel's security.
Col. Karen Kwiatkowski: Why Government is Indifferent to Evil
Iraqi PM Says Baghdad Is ‘Heading Towards’ Ending the US Military Presence in the Country
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said his government is “heading towards” ending the presence of international forces in Iraq, which includes about 2,500 US troops, the largest foreign contingent.
Al-Sudani’s comments came after his government strongly condemned several rounds of US airstrikes in Iraq as a violation of sovereignty and a hostile act. In the latest strikes, the US said it targeted the Shia militia Kataib Hezbollah in retaliation for an attack on a US base, but al-Sudani’s government said civilians were also wounded in the US bombing. ...
The US has been resisting Iraqi efforts to expel its forces from the country since 2020 when a US drone strike in Baghdad killed Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. In the wake of the killings, Iraq’s parliament voted to expel foreign forces, but the US refused to leave. The US formally changed its presence in Iraq from a combat role to an advisory one in December 2021, but it did not withdraw any troops at the time.
Russia winter missile strike. Medvedev hints regime change. Tymoshenko makes move
Woman who set Wyoming abortion clinic on fire ordered to pay $298,000
A judge has ordered a woman who set fire to Wyoming‘s only full-service abortion clinic to pay nearly $300,000 in restitution, the full amount sought by prosecutors.
Lorna Green is serving five years in prison for burning Wellspring Health Access weeks before the clinic was set to open in Casper in 2022. The fire gutted the building while it was being renovated for the new clinic and delayed its opening by almost a year.
After opening this past April, Wellspring is now the only abortion clinic in Wyoming. A clinic in Jackson that provided pill abortions closed on 15 December due to rising costs.
On Tuesday, US district judge Alan Johnson ordered Green, 22, to pay about $298,000 in restitution including $240,000 to Nationwide General Insurance Company, the clinic’s insurer.
Green must also pay $33,500 to the building’s owner, Christine Lichtenfels, and $24,500 to Julie Burkhart, founder and president of Wellspring Health Access. Burkhart expressed satisfaction with the restitution.
Maine Bars Trump from Ballot for Violating Insurrection Clause
Maine disqualifies Trump from presidential primary ballot, citing insurrection clause
Maine has blocked Donald Trump from its presidential primary ballot, becoming the second state to bar the former president from running, under a constitutional provision that prevents insurrectionists from holding office.
On 19 December, a decision made by Colorado’s supreme court removed Trump from that state’s primary ballot, citing the same constitutional clause and setting up a legal showdown at the US supreme court.
Maine’s secretary of state Shenna Bellows examined the case after a group of citizens challenged Trump’s eligibility and concluded that Trump should be disqualified for inciting an insurrection on January 6, 2021.
“I do not reach this conclusion lightly,” said Bellows, a Democrat, in the decision. “I am mindful that no Secretary of State has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access based on Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment. I am also mindful, however, that no presidential candidate has ever before engaged in insurrection.” ...
Unlike other states, Bellows, who oversees elections in Maine, was required to make an initial determination about disqualification before it was considered by the courts. Bellows has suspended the effect of her decision until the state’s highest court rules on any appeal. The decision, if it takes effect, would apply only to the state’s March primary, but its conclusion would probably also affect Trump’s status for the November 2024 general election.
Progressives Have TRAMPLED on the Constitution for DECADES: U. Chicago Professor
Nikki Haley declines to say slavery was a cause of US civil war
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley declined to specify that slavery was a cause of the civil war on Wednesday, wading into an area of history that continues to reverberate and in some ways define US politics nearly 160 years after it concluded.
Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, where the first shots of the north-south conflict were fired by Confederate soldiers in April 1861, was asked by a New Hampshire voter about the reason for the war but didn’t mention slavery in her response. Instead, Haley talked about the role of government, replying that it involved “basically how the government was going to run” and “the freedoms of what people could and couldn’t do”. ...
“In the year 2023, it’s astonishing to me that you answer that question without mentioning the word ‘slavery’,” the questioner responded, prompting a retort from Haley.
“What do you want me to say about slavery?” she asked. ...
Jaime Harrison, current chair of the Democratic National Committee and South Carolina’s party chair during part of Haley’s tenure as governor, said her response was “not stunning if you were a Black resident in SC when she was Governor”.
“Same person who said the confederate flag was about tradition & heritage and as a minority woman she was the right person to defend keeping it on state house grounds,” Harrison posted Wednesday night on X.
Controversial Brazil law curbing Indigenous rights comes into force
A controversial law curtailing Indigenous rights in Brazil has come into force, marking a victory for the powerful agribusiness caucus in congress. The new legislation upholds the so-called “time marker” theory (marco temporal), which establishes that Indigenous peoples can only lay claim to land they physically occupied as of October 1988, when the current constitution was promulgated.
Critics say this fails to acknowledge that many Indigenous groups had been displaced from their ancestral lands before that date, notably during Brazil’s 1964-1985 military dictatorship, and will invalidate scores of legitimate claims for Indigenous land demarcation.
Brazil’s supreme court vindicated such claims when it ruled that the time marker thesis was unconstitutional in a 9-2 vote in September. But less than a week later the senate voted to enshrine the theory into law. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva went on to veto several parts of the bill, but the conservative-dominated congress overrode his veto by a wide margin earlier in December. ...
“The promulgation is an attack on Indigenous communities and the environment. The law will have a negative impact on the conservation of forests, the fight against climate change, and the future of generations to come,” the Indigenous congresswoman Célia Xakriabá wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Dubbed “the Indigenous genocide law” by the Climate Observatory environmental watchdog, the new legislation opens the door to activities such as road-building, mining, dam construction and agricultural projects on Indigenous lands – protected territories which serve as an important safeguard against deforestation.
Zero onshore wind plans submitted in England since de facto ban was ‘lifted’
No new plans for onshore wind have been accepted in England since the government claimed it had “lifted” the de facto ban, new analysis reveals.
Renewable energy organisations warned at the time that this was likely. Despite the levelling up secretary, Michael Gove, having changed planning rules introduced in 2015 by the then prime minister, David Cameron, to stop onshore wind projects being blocked by a single objection, they still face higher barriers than every other form of infrastructure, including waste incinerators.
Analysis of the government’s renewable energy planning database shows that no applications for new onshore wind projects have been submitted since the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, claimed that the government would overturn the onshore wind ban in September 2023.
At the time, the National Infrastructure Commission advised the government to go further and restore onshore wind to the government’s Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects process, which would encourage more applications.
The government rejected this recommendation and said the measures announced in September were enough. Analysis by Carbon Brief estimates that if onshore wind had continued to be built at the same rate it was in 2017 – before the ban started to come into effect – 7GW of onshore wind would have been built. This would have knocked £5.1bn off energy bills, or £182 for each UK household, in the year from July 2022 to June 2023.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
There's No Way to 'Explain' the Degree of Death and Destruction in Gaza
Biden Needs To Come To Israel's - And His Own - Rescue
Patrick Lawrence: To Retrieve History
The Jewish establishment’s blindness to Palestinian slaughter also hurts U.S. Jews
U.S. Is Pushing Kiev Into Admitting Defeat
The Presumption of Widespread Pedophilia In Elites
Student Protestors ARRESTED EN-MASSE by Brown University After Anti-Weapons SIT-IN
A Little Night Music
Sonny Landreth - Blues Attack
Sonny Landreth - Key To The Highway
Sonny Landreth - Walkin’ Blues
Sonny Landreth & Eric Clapton - Promise Land
Sonny Landreth - South of I-10
John Hiatt & Sonny Landreth - Riding With the King
Sonny Landreth - Blue Tarp Blues
Sonny Landreth & Eric Johnson - Milky Way Home
Sonny Landreth & Cindy Cashdollar - March 1, 2023
Sonny Landreth - Full Session - 7/27/2017 - Paste Studios - New York, NY
Comments
She has such a wonderful way with words
.
All the Israeli war crimes in this tweet happened before October 7th.
Too many people think that this current war just started out of the blue when Hamas attacked. And if they only released the hostages then Israel will stand down and they will stop killing Palestinians.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
evening snoopy...
caitlin does have a way with words and she expresses disgust particularly well.
netanyahu expresses the bewilderment of israelis who can't understand why palestinians won't just shut up and let them steal their land well.
Hedges just keeps getting better
.
Never Again and Again and Again - by Mr. Fish
Israel’s Genocide Betrays the Holocaust
Both the lebensraum link and this one are must reads imo.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/10/16/the-u-s-did-not-defeat-fascism-i...
The first one is about the how the Warsaw ghetto came into being and it gets worse the further you read.
We know about operation paperclip, but the US started working with Nazis much sooner than that. As the headline says fascism wasn’t defeated, but internalized into American organizations, but even worse it was exported to many other countries that did the bidding of America. Biden talks about saving democracy? We have never had it. The article proves that. The article will remove any blinders one has about what America is and what it stands for.
Russia only defeated Nazi Germany. America never had a problem with what Germany stood for.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
oh my...
mr. fish is no doubt on a list, now.
Apparently Genocide Joe is suffering from a acute case
of tunnel vision.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/4381707-biden-on-russias-aer...
As a result of this affliction he is unable to see
or chooses not towhat is happening in Gaza.https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2023/12/30/israel-hamas-war-live...
evening humphrey...
heh, double standards are good enough for genocide joe. he's not lucid enough for a single standard.
I wonder if USAID supplied the tents and will Nuland soon be
handing out cookies?
heh...
i'm sure that vicky is in the state department's utility research kitchen as we type, whipping up batch after batch of fascist biscuits for the masses.
I wonder if Arestovich will be placed on the Ukie hit list?
Or maybe the MIC or State Department will get him.
perhaps...
arestovich is already working with a faction in the state department or mic as a potential replacement for elensky if he refuses to do what his masters tell him.
Good evening Joe, thanks for the Es and Bs. Love
that version of Congo Square, seriously powerful music.
I noted above that you accused sleepy Joe of having double standards. That's going easy of the focker - he has no standrds whatsoever, which is why he so readily speaks out of both sides of his mouth and lives inside infinitely nested spherical shells of "do as I say and not as I do". He can justify and/or ignore anything because he stands for nothing.
Have a great weekend and a happy new year
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, standards or no standards, history will undoubtedly record genocide joe as one of the most morally flexible presidents of any century. he appears to me as someone utterly lacking in conscience.
have a good one and a happy new year, i hope that 2024 will usher in a better year for all of us and all of mankind - though i suppose i'm not holding my breath on the latter part.
Hi bluesters
Hi all, Hey Joe,
Hope it goes well on the eastern front!
Sonny Landreth is awesome. I love his style. So original and unique. Guess no one showed him which fingers you were 'supposed' to put the slide on.
Invented a whole new style and way of playing. Why Clapton called him one of his heroes. Opened up a litany of new things he could do. So very creative.
Sorry about the news, maybe next years' will be better?
Have good ones all!
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
evening dystopian...
yep, landreth has his own idiosyncratic way of playing the guitar and damn it sounds good! i always look forward to his turn on the calendar to come up to see what new material has been posted of his.
have a great weekend/holiday! i sure hope next years news is better than this ones.
Evening joe and bluesters
Thank you joe, for the Mondoweiss article, and for all that you present for our consideration. I agree with its sentiments and the model it supports.
I do have some reservation with regard to Dawkins, which muddles my mind. When you have some time or interest in the new year, please let me know what you take from the following interview ...
I hope to hear from mimi and eyo in the new year.
All the best to you and yours, always.
evening janis...
heh, i have some reservations about dawkins as well, though i generally agree with his quote above which i put in the category of literary criticism. i have always thought him to be a bit of a too cocksure jerk.
have a great weekend/holiday and a great new year!
eta:
it must be wonderful to live in a place where conversations like you posted can happen on mass media television. i enjoyed the conversation greatly.
regarding the division of "myth" and "science," i think that dawkins comes up short. indigenous knowledge and science should not be exclusive. both are ways of understanding the world and should be treated with seriousness. when a culture has evolved on a patch of land over thousands of years, they are bound to have learnt and integrated some interesting things about that patch of land that science might indeed find valuable if it approaches with an open mind.
i thought that dawkins ignored the elephant in the room regarding vaccines, which is the role of capital and politics in science (which certainly was significant in discussing the covid vaccine process).
Thank you joe, for listening and affirming my thoughts
I agree with every word you wrote.
I had the same thoughts as Dawkins when I read the Old Testamen
I thought what a vengeful gawd and I wanted no part of his vengefulness. Why would I want to follow a being that was like him? Of course the New Testament was supposed to wipe out the vengeful gawd, but how can one forget the original? Now I fluctuate between ambivalence and believing which I think means that I’m agnostic? I know that I am not an atheist, but I’m not sure why I’m not. Damn it’s all confusing isn’t it?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
I think you can be both snoopy
When your heart is clear there's little need for definition.
I wish you and Sam all the best, and look forward to following your adventures.
Thanks and back at'cha
I wish y’all could see the start of our morning with the socks. Sam brings me one that I leave for her to find in the middle of the night and then I hide it under the sheets so she can find it in the morning and be so proud of herself… then she keeps it away from me until I throw the other sock on the bed… and she keeps that one away from me…this happens morning after morning and it never gets old for either of us. It’s been going on for years, but it makes the morning start off with giggles and laughter.
I hope your new year is as bright as I know ours will be. Every day is an adventure with Sam. I never know how she will brighten my day.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
heh...
believers say that they know that there is a god.
atheists say that they know that there is not a god.
agnostics say they don't know if there is a god.
militant agnostics say that they don't know and they don't want you to tell them.
Yep that sums it up quite nicely doesn’t it
It’s confusing but as long as people are allowed to make up their minds I don’t care what others believe. I definitely have a problem with those who try to inflict their views on others.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
That sset of definitions is classic, but simplistic,
and has fallene on hard times since Bertrand Russel's dictum about the silliness of believing in something when there is absolutely no reason to assume it to be true.
Empiricism can't prove a univeral negative, so we cannot know that there are no yellow on purple polka dotter pygmy rhinos hiding in the orlds jungles, but we don't therefore, run around saying that we don't know if they exist or not, there is no real reason to even ask the question. Similarly with highly radioactive invisible giraffes and a myriad of other things. Hence, barring further evidentiary events, there is no place for a "god" in the current model of the universe any more than there are for these other entities. If one does show up some day, we will revisit the issue.
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 --
late comment
Hey EL,
I just checked my life list and do not see a tick in the box
for yellow OR purple polka dotted pygmy rhinos. Would really
like to see this one, any tips on where I might look?
Although there was some windowpane once where I saw something like that.
be well bro!
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
dawkins
Hi Janis,
IMHO I do not like his championing of vaxxes as a success. They are not even vaccines! They had to change the official definition of the word vaccine to call it one fer cryin' out loud. Where is the science in that? It is most disappointing of Dawson to me.
I agree with Dawkins' idea that religions should be taught as mythology and not the science and history as it often is sold as. It is not all provable, historical, or absolute fact based, but myth-filled.
I am sure many could benefit from all manner of local people's knowledge. It seems he is holding that to a different science than what is a vaccine or a successful vaccine. It is hypocritical.
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
I doubt that Zelensky will win any popularity contests in 2024.
Finally..l
.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/south-africa-i...
Caitlin’s response….
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israel-says-its-anti-semitic-to-invoke
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
this video got posted after i posted the eb...
it's pretty worthwhile:
Thanks, joe
The music was awesome tonight!
Have a great New Year's celebration! No reason not to, since you are alive and have hope.
We East Texas dwellers think you are the best!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
evening otc...
thanks! heh, my nye may be a celebratory bout of scrabble, but that's fine with me.
have a great weekend/holiday!
Scrabble?
Hey Joe!
I LOVE Scrabble! ms d says it is almost no fun playing it with me. Probe was another word game I liked. Win Probe with 'mbuna' (hum the 'm'). No one unless a fish keeper will get it. They are a large group of African cichlids from the rift lakes in E. Africa.
be well!
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
Also too
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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.