@Cassiodorus
The right, left, conservative, liberal labels mean anything anymore.
People that adhere to the label concept often are wed to their personal idea and identity as one of them. When the MSM calls Pelosi a liberal, communist, or radical...the meaning is meaningless. That's one of Orwell's 1984 tenants.

Many are suggesting using globalist idealist and nationalist realists. I've long felt labels are problematic.

To me it is issue by issue. Are you against the Gaza genocide, or war in Ukraine, or the Federal reserve, or... No one checks all the boxes so we ally issue by issue to my mind.

Jimmy often asks about movement purity tests. As an example Scott was denied a speaking spot at "Rage against the War" rally because some of his views were unacceptable to the organizers.

I've been listening to Larry on Dima's show this morning. Thanks for dropping the clip and the ice cream analogy.

On a related topic, has everyone here noticed the complete disintegration of the so-called "political spectrum"? The so-called "Left" in America supports those mythical Ukrainian "freedom fighters," while the so-called "Far Right" supports peace with Russia.

Once upon a time there was a lot of teeth-gnashing, centered upon the writing of George Lakoff, about why the so-called "Right" was winning the debates even though the so-called "Left" was smarter. Well, today the so-called "Right" really has the so-called "Left's" number, and so for instance you have Larry Johnson:

In that regard, let me suggest, here, a different depiction of what used to be called the political spectrum.

THE UNIVERSAL POLITICAL POSITION

"My billionaires are the Good Guys; your billionaires are the Bad Guys."

Toward this end, we're going to need labels for everyone. There are, after all, still different political positions. My recommendation would be to call everyone with a political opinion a "pseudo-conservative." This makes it clear that different political positions, though they definitely exist, do not matter, because America is really only a pseudo-democracy.

I was thinking that Baskin-Robbins should branch out into politics. The new franchises will be called "31 flavors of politics." For those who don't remember, Baskin-Robbins franchises used to be called 31 flavors, meaning 31 flavors of ice cream. At any rate, in the ice-creamery of politics, one chooses a flavor of rhetoric, and then marries that flavor to the sold-out politician of one's choice in the same way in which one goes to an ice cream parlor and gets a bunch of dairy and sugar, not really the best things for one's diet.

@wokkamile

His blindness on the Gaza Genocide is a fatal flaw for many. He still has Robert Barnes vote last I heard.

Doesn't matter in Alabama...Trump will get my state's EC votes like it or not. How many so called swing state are up for grabs anyway? I'm thinking 5-7?

Thanks for commenting on his support of regenerative ag.

only one candidate, RFK Jr, has been talking about it -- https://rumble.com/v34c6o5-revitalizing-our-food-farms-and-soil-the-farm... -- and only one candidate has a track record of trying to curb the power and pollutive influence of Big Ag industrial farms/mass slaughterhouses.

Even the Green Party's candidate, the otherwise mostly good Jill Stein, doesn't seem to have a lot to say about regen ag, at least from what I gather from a brief google. And it would be very surprising if certain other urban-oriented, limited-scope candidates are remotely familiar with the topic.

@soryang
As they say here, Bolton is as useful as tits on boar hog. Has he ever been right about anything? I don't remember it.

In the early 2000's we were in the UK and Trump was all over their news objecting to Scotland's windmills interfering with the views from his golf courses there. My question to them was what the hell do you care about what Trump thinks.
I guess I was proven wrong.
That story reminds me of another from Ireland in 2016 when a barkeep asked couldn't a border collie beat Trump in a presidential election. Evidently not.

As to the Korea's, it is looking to me like North Korea is moving forward militarily and economically building relations with both Russia and China. The US seems to lack an understanding of balance of power.

I hope things are pleasant in your world. A light rain here. Thanks for all the info and links!

Thanks for the WW Lookout, I especially enjoyed Pepe's discussion on China with Danny Haiphong. The impact of NATO's contribution to "containing China" will be similar to their contribution to the Ukraine War effort. Their economies will suffer, and there will be little upside for them. Europe will become even less competitive on world markets, and more dependent on the US. What is the quid pro quo? I don't see it.

On to Mr. Bolton.

Bolton warns a reelected Trump could strike ‘reckless’ deal with Pyongyang

The former White House national security adviser is considered to have played a key role in the breakdown of the 2019 summit in Hanoi

...In a newly penned foreword to his 2020 memoir, “The Room Where It Happened,” the paperback of which hit bookshelves on Tuesday, Bolton writes, “Imagine Trump’s euphoria at resuming contact with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, about whom he famously boasted, ‘We fell in love.’”

“Trump previously almost gave away the store to Pyongyang, and he could try again early in a second term,” Bolton predicted. “A reckless deal on the North’s nuclear weapons program would further alienate Japan and South Korea, and extend China’s influence.”

Bolton also argued that while North Korea and Russia have made strategic moves, they will not prevent Trump from reaching out to Kim again, claiming, “Pyongyang’s emerging role in the Beijing-Moscow axis, including providing ammunition and weapons for Russia to use against Ukraine, will not deter Trump from getting back together with Kim.”

I'm not particularly concerned about peace breaking out in the Koreas no matter who is elected. If it's Trump, I hope he can do so without threatening nuclear "fire and fury," like he did last time, scaring the s..t of everyone in East Asia.

Bruce Cummings had an interview from last August recently published in the Asia Pacific Journal, Japan Focus. What I like about this interview is that it identifies Bolton as a key player destroying the relative progress in nuclear negotiations that placed the North Korean nuclear threat on hold for several years until 2003. Cummings also, in this excerpt identifies Kurt Campbell as proof of US bi-partisan lunacy concerning North Korea.

It's Called a Forgotten War, So People Don't Pay Attention: An Interview with Bruce Cumings

If you look at the New York Times on March 6th, 2001, Michael Gordon has a very detailed two-page analysis of the rupture of the missile deal by George W. Bush. I was at Stanford for a year at an institute and so I happened to have lunch that day with William Perry, who was a big part of the engagement with North Korea, especially in 1998 and 1999. I have great respect for Mr. Perry who has really done all he can to try and engage with North Korea and keep North Korea from having nuclear weapons—and from a nuclear war on the peninsula. He told me that everything in Michael Gordon’s article was true and that the Bush administration just destroyed that agreement, with John Bolton in the lead. That happened in 2003. Ever since, North Korea has been building up a very formidable nuclear and ICBM arsenal, and every US president, including liberals like Obama, has sent B-1 bombers to scare North Korea about dropping nuclear weapons on them. As I understand it, the American war plan has about 80 or 90 targets in North Korea to hit with nuclear weapons. If there's a war that's called genocide, it's a holocaust. Anybody sitting in Pyongyang knowing this will want the only deterrent that there is for nuclear weapons, which is your own nuclear weapons.

Kurt Campbell, who is the leading Asia advisor to Biden, and Matthew Pottinger, who was in the Trump administration, are both hardliners, even though Kurt Campbell works for Democrats. It’s because the Democrats gave him his first job. If the Republicans had given him his first job, he'd be in a Republican administration. He came to the University of Chicago when he was out of office a number of years ago at the invitation of John Mearsheimer. There was a huge turnout, and I was sitting in the back as I got there late. In the course of his lecture, he said if there's a new war in Korea, there will be “a magnificent symphony of death in the valleys of North Korea.”

I also wanted to get these Frank Aum comments out of a recent Yonhap article-

Rising N.K. threats raise questions over U.S. policy efficacy

"Of course, the Biden administration argues that it is engaging seriously, beyond just rhetoric, by reaching out numerous times to North Korea to engage but to no avail."

Aum described the Biden administration's stance on the North as one similar to the Obama administration's second-term "pressure-based" approach that "used diplomatic isolation, economic sanctions and military deterrence measures."

"Biden is maintaining the pressure-based approach, but he is open to talks 'without preconditions,'" Aum said. "But of course, there are preconditions in Biden's approach -- i.e., denuclearization has to be on the agenda, and talks have to start at the working level to demonstrate that North Korea is serious -- and North Korea is not interested in meeting those preconditions."

"Instead of just preparing militarily, the U.S. and ROK should shift their approach so that they emphasize diplomacy," Aum said. "Right now, the alliance has a very narrow focus on deterrence and is ignoring all the diplomatic tools in their toolkit."

Kim Jong-un suffered a massive loss of face at Hanoi after being treated like crap by Trump and Bolton at Hanoi in February 2019. What is incredible is that Kim even showed up later at Panmunjom to meet Trump again. That was just another photo op for Trump. As the US and South Korea have returned to their practice (temporarily paused while President Moon was in office) of having massive military exercises with the aim of readiness to fight North Korea tonight, there is virtually no prospect of making headway on security issues on the Korean peninsula. One has to believe this is exactly what the bipartisan MICIMATT complex in the US wants.

Both the US and North Korea have pre-emptive nuclear strike doctrines. I heard one analyst point to the 2022 Nuclear Posture Review of the US to substantiate the US policy. I read the document yesterday to confirm this is true. There has been a lot of propaganda about Kim's preemptive nuclear strike doctrine in the event his regime is threatened as if the US didn't also have a pre-emptive nuclear strike policy in addition to a deterrence policy. The first I learned of this US pre-emptive nuclear weapons policy was in the early stages of the second Iraq War.

2022 National Defense Strategy of the United States Including the 2022 Nuclear Posture
https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/trecms/pdf/AD1183514.pdf

Opportunistic aggression could create deterrence challenges. Should we find
ourselves in a large-scale military confrontation with a major power or regional adversary, the Joint Force will need to be postured with military capabilities – including nuclear weapons –
that can deter and defeat other actors who may seek to take advantage of this scenario to engage
in opportunistic aggression. In such circumstances, we will also need to be prepared to fully
leverage other instruments of national power and the capabilities our Allies and partners can
bring to bear. p42

Consistent with prior reviews, our nuclear strategy accounts for existing and emerging non-nuclear
threats with potential strategic effect for which nuclear weapons are necessary to deter. We
concluded that nuclear weapons are required to deter not only nuclear attack, but also a narrow
range of other high consequence, strategic-level attacks. This is a prudent approach given the current security environment and how it could further evolve. p43

Having some trouble with the spacing on the two paragraphs quoted above but that's it.

@Tall Bald and Ugly

and missed any missing posts. Are you caught in the vortex of the atmospheric river? Hope not. Take care!

is it me, or did
we lose a couple of posts?

not casting aspersions on
any bodies asparagus but
it does seem a bit
odd considering. . .

let’s hope things are
good w/Friends

thanks for the ww

@humphrey

ending wars.

@humphrey

...if the ICJ rules against Israel, we'll all pull our money out of the relief funds. HaHaHa...(evil laugh)

I hate what our country has become. I wish we could wipe the slate clean and start over.

Thanks for the X post!

interfere with their actions.

Allies of Israel Cut Funding to UNRWA Despite Lack of Evidence, Israel Backtracks....

"Israel has presented a 'dossier' that contains its case against the twelve UNRWA workers. The actual evidence has not been made public, and even the United States, as noted above, has admitted… pic.twitter.com/H6TUdvQxzq

— DD Geopolitics (@DD_Geopolitics) February 4, 2024

@wokkamile

Hey maybe that's the label! Your comment points to the whole problem with labels. I got no problem with people needing a tribe. My situation is identifying with people of a variety of tribes...issue by issue. That's just me.

which of those I would be ...

Many are suggesting using globalist idealist and nationalist realists.

Maybe some combination of Globalist Realist -- int'l in outlook but realistic and cautious about overseas involvement and major power geopolitical spheres of influence -- and Nationalist Idealist -- feelings of loyalty and patriotism when we act in ways consistent with the ideals we espouse as a country.

In any case, the globalist idealists don't seem to be running the show or wielding much influence. It's been more the globalist hegemonists who've been in charge.

And it's a lot of "ists" and "isms" to keep straight. L and R is much simpler, still works 75% of the time for lazy people like me, and old habits die hard, etc.

@Cassiodorus

as the border protests are happening. There are 15 governors speaking there evidently.

Too bad the pro Palestine protests don't receive the same level of political participation.

Stay on the side to truth and justice.

Texas!

@on the cusp

Always having homestead projects is usually fun...except when it isn't. Fortunately it is fun currently. Winter has its own joys in maintenance. I love the way the woods are clean and clear... you can see the lay of the land.

Really every season has it's joys and issues. I guess that's the way of life in general.

Hope y'all have a great week!

Well, grocery shopping got done this afternoon, so it is time to check out your info you shared.
I appreciate Pepe Escobar's brilliant geopolitical commentary. I never fail to learn from him.
I am going to start with that 20 yr old BBC video with Alex Jones and others.
I thought Jones was a rwnj, but watched him on a Jimmy Dore video, and realized I had mischaracterized him.
Unless the weather forecasts are really goofed, winter is gone, very short lived, and unusually cold. We have the arborist working with tree removal and fence line clearing, will have a guy move some dirt, clearing 6 or 7 acres, get us better mowing come spring and summer.
With acreage, it's always something, ain't it?
A current news headline says Biden is considering bombing inside Iran's borders, and Iran issued the US a warning about a spy submarine in their vicinity. Peace is not profitable.
Take good care, friend, and check out a good wood stove. We are possibly going that direction soon.
Thanks for your hard work in educating us!

@humphrey

Does a Genocidal state like Israel have a right to exist? I am anti-zionist, not anti-jew, but does this murderous self centered state have the right to exterminate the Palestinians in their country? The answer is obvious, but TPTB are owned by the Zionists. I think it spells not only the doom of Israel but also the entire western power structure. We'll see.

As always, thanks for the X posts!

is threating to sanctions settlers is having its desired impact. /S

IDF keeps blowing up whole living blocks in Gaza.

Gazans cannot return … pic.twitter.com/qJsdTGNd8f

— Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) February 4, 2024

Israeli settlers trying to prevent aid trucks from getting through to Gaza. This is not a normal society, these are not normal people. pic.twitter.com/9ZJdzLDyLW

— DD Geopolitics (@DD_Geopolitics) February 4, 2024

Israeli forces on Saturday shelled a mosque in Deir al-Balah in the center of the Gaza Strip as trucks carrying humanitarian aid arrived in its vicinity. pic.twitter.com/3WnGHPoOMp

— S p r i n t e r (@Sprinter99800) February 4, 2024