OT WED 26 JUN ~ POW


~

“Bayonets aren’t much good against tanks.”
-- Kurt Vonnegut from Slaughterhouse-Five

~

Warring nations hold their populations as captive prisoners of their empire ambitions.
Treasuries are siphoned off to feed the insatiable military machines. Very little is left over
for basic social needs, infrastructure development or any domestic improvements. We are,
in effect, prisoners of war.

~

Production of armaments are described as job programs, with no irony. The ant-war
movement expressed during the south east Asian fiasco has all but died. The concept
of dominating the world with cluster bombs has taken over. Much to the demise of
empire ambitions.

~

It is a struggle to maintain a positive outlook for our future. Being a peacenik is not an
easy road to hoe. How do we justify this escalating destruction? Can the human spirit
overcome? One can hope.

~
~

Open thread, so scatter your ideas below the bird and barbed wire.

~
wilson-13-1188x1536.jpg

Recycled silverware by Matt Wilson
https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/06/matt-wilson-utensils/

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QMS's picture

.
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escaped incarceration. Now, about those Palestinians .. ?
starvation is their escape from the jailers.

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enhydra lutris's picture

resist hitting the site and really loved the Great Blue on the skateboard.
https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/wilson-15-scal...

Maybe picking apricots today, then working on one of the garden raised beds and possibly 2, those 3 items are the current main agenda items. The apricots aren't quite ripe, but they won't last until they are, wo we have to get the off of the tree and into the garage pronto. Methinks it's time to ignore as much political new as possible until all that plus routine chores get done. Otherwise I tend to get too distracted.

be well and have a good one

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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 --

QMS's picture

@enhydra lutris
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got a bunch of chores to do as well today, tomorrow, next days ad infinitum
good luck with yours and thanks for reading
don't think I will see spoons in the same light anymore ..

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snoopydawg's picture

The smile when he sees Stella broke me up. And then he saw his father.

It’s finally done, Wendy. He is free.

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9 users have voted.

There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.

@snoopydawg

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snoopydawg's picture

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Julian is free

I don’t give a rat’s ass about the plea deal because it’s meaningless in the broad scheme of things. The world knows that it’s only because of America’s pettiness that he had to plea. It certainly says more about America’s values than it does about Julian’s. His whole ordeal does.

One more block taken out of the American Jungo tower of standing for freedom and democracy. The world sees that the tower is close to collapsing.

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10 users have voted.

There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.

dystopian's picture

Hi all, Ahoy Capt.!

I LOVE that wren sculpture of spoons. That is pure awesome art! Structure dictates it is a Bewick's Wren, or was the model. Even has the supercilium (eyeline) right. Most excellent.

Though there are ten species of wrens in America each type (except Winter-Pacific Wren), like most hawks, shorebirds, etc., is structured subtlety differently. For making a living its way in its environment. They all have slightly different structures, e.g. shapes. Clearly this is a Bewick's Wren with that long tail. BTW Bewick's is pronounced just like the automobile. Yesterday EL said he had a just-fledged family group of them at his place!

====
RFK on Julian's plea deal
https://x.com/RobertKennedyJr/status/1805389415663255819
Robert F. Kennedy Jr @RobertKennedyJr
Julian Assange struck a plea deal and will go free! I am overjoyed. He's a generational hero.

The bad news is that he had to plea guilty to conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense info. Which means the US security state succeeded in criminalizing journalism and extending their jurisdiction globally to non-citizens.

Julian had to take this. He has heart problems and he would have died in prison. But the security state has imposed a horrifying precedent and dealt a big blow to freedom of the press. 6:55 PM · Jun 24, 2024

happy trails all!

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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

in Cass' essay about the lack of dismissals for the other charges.
Not the usual process. But he is out of prison and home with his family, and can receive proper medical treatment.

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7 users have voted.

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

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/25/haitians-wary-as-k....

Hundreds of Kenyan police officers have arrived in Haiti as part of a US-backed security intervention aiming to rescue the Caribbean country from a criminal insurrection that toppled the prime minister and brought death and chaos to the streets.

About 400 members of the Kenya-led multinational police operation stepped off a Kenyan Airways plane at Port-au-Prince’s international airport on Tuesday. The US president, Joe Biden, hailed their arrival as the start of “an effort that will bring much-needed relief to Haitians”.

https://apnews.com/article/kenya-protests-finance-bill-33a20092285f1d663...

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Thousands of protesters stormed Kenya’s parliament Tuesday to protest tax proposals, burning part of the building, sending lawmakers fleeing and drawing fire from police in unrest that the president vowed to quash. Several people were killed.

It was the most direct assault on the government in decades. Journalists saw at least three bodies outside the complex where police had opened fire, and medical workers reported five people killed. Clashes spread to other cities. There was no immediate word on arrests.

“Today’s events mark a critical turning point on how we respond to threats to our national security,” President William Ruto said, calling the events “treasonous” and vowing to quash the unrest “at whatever cost.”

Kenya’s defense minister said the military had been deployed to support police during the “security emergency” and “breaching of critical infrastructure.”

Protesters had demanded that legislators vote against a finance bill imposing new taxes on East Africa’s economic hub, where frustrations over the high cost of living have simmered. Youth who had voted Ruto into power with cheers for his promises of economic relief have taken to the streets to object to the pain of reforms.

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earthling1's picture

@humphrey
Criminal insurrectionists is another man's freedom fighter.
I will withhold judgment.

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6 users have voted.

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

you always post lovely art in your OTs, but this spoon dude just hit a grand slam. STUNNING!
So, I booked a mini-vacation for my assistant to spend some fun time with her kids on the beach at Galveston. My schedule looked fairly clear, but this morning, the phone is ringing off the wall with questions about court settings and that is just the sort of questions my assistant, the court scheduler, can answer. Good grief. No good deed goes unpunished. News from the beach is good, though.
I might shut down the office a bit early this afternoon so that I can do some grocery shopping. I have a plan to prepare a large pot roast with veggies, enough for 2 dinners. We are headed out of town to attend a concert. We won't feel like cooking at the cabin, and we aren't that keen on dining out. This will lessen the stress and driving, not to mention packing clothes for dining out.
Thanks for the OT, and the death knell to journalism is tolling through no fault of ours.

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

snoopydawg's picture

.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/6/25/iraq-to-nsa-spying-the-biggest-...

From collateral murder in Iraq to releasing the DNC emails showing how Hillary and democrats were cheating to beat Bernie because she couldn’t do it on her own because people despised HER.

But instead of being shamed they blamed it on Russia. She lost and instead of seeking that Obama screwed the pooch they again blamed Russia.

Biden’s game plan isn’t to talk about his great achievements (?) he’s just supposed to attack Trump and call him a convicted criminal….hey Joe, how’s your son doing?

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8 users have voted.

There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.

snoopydawg's picture

@snoopydawg

The policies presented in this election cycle will be that Donald Trump is bad, and that if you vote for the Democratic Party then you'll get Not That. Not anything else in particular, mind you, just Not That.

Biden’s mouthpieces are telling us that the economy is down great, but people countrywide are struggling with every aspect of life. So what’s his game plan? Say mean things about Trump and post mean tweets. Oh and IF you give us the RIGHT congress we we’ll pass aboriginal rights.

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6 users have voted.

There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.

earthling1's picture

that we are POWs in our own country rings true.
We should all start wearing POW t-shirts to widen awareness.
Thanks for the OT.

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7 users have voted.

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

QMS's picture

@earthling1
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the idea popped into my head a few days aglow
why the f*ck are people submitting to a nation-wide
prison condition? The barbed wire is being strung by
our 'betters', to prevent free thought from taking root.
Do not question authority is getting stale at this point.
Mama went to hell and all I got is this dirty T-shirt.

thanks for responding!

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