Open Thread - 11-22-24 - The Battle of Evermore

It's been a little over two weeks since the election. Things are moving at a breakneck pace. We're in the midst of one of the most dangerous periods in this nation's history, both on the geopolitical and national political fronts.

I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that a sitting president would sabotage an incoming president-elect. A president that was too feeble to run for a second term because of his cognitive impairment, yet is competent enough to start world war III by allowing Ukraine to launch long range missiles into Russia. He's gambling with everyone's lives, for what? This has got to be one of the most despicable presidencies in a long line of despicable presidents.

We hear nary a word from congress about stopping him, or whomever is in charge. Then again if congress were to take action and impeach him that would mean that Kamala Harris would become the president. What's that old maxim, something about vice presidents being picked as an insurance policy to dissuade congress from impeaching sitting presidents?

Hmmmm.

Anyway, nice precedent you've established mr. president (I purposely use lower case). Is the new normal laying booby traps for the incoming president now? That ought to be quite fun in the future, if we have one.

I'm seeing a pattern. Trump's most controversial cabinet picks aren't going to be approved. If they aren't picked off by public opinion then they'll be picked off by the senate who won't approve them. I hate to tell the Trump fans but they've been played. All the chest thumping, back slapping, shading the opposition and rose colored futuristics has all been for naught. I'll be surprised if Tulsi Gabbard and RFK, Jr. get approved as well.

It will be the same old same old. Oh, Ukraine may disengage from Russia and come to an end, but then reengage through Iran. I doubt much of Trump's agenda will be realized, just like his first term. There's a good chance it may be even worse. There's so many things that can go sideways in the next four years. We're going to need some luck.

In retrospect I'm glad I didn't vote for either one of them.

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The Battle of Evermore

The Divided States of America pauses before the storm, as two vast armies gather on the Great Plains of Disunity for the final battle in which, ultimately, neither side wins.

The generals, sitting horseback on the escarpment above the Plains watch intently as the battle unfolds, being content in their knowledge that the king, that rules BOTH armies has won the battle, a priori, for the minds of the hapless ideological warriors on the battle field below.

There are no winners in this war, but for the royalty.

Led Zeppelin: The Battle of Evermore (5:52)
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I just had to get that off my chest.

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QMS's picture

The image of the mounted generals overlooking
the battlefield is very appropriate. What good is
having a congress which only makes things worse?
Or an executive branch for that matter. Time to clean house.
Chase out the vermin. Reset the mess.

thanks for maintaining a space to unburden what has been

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@QMS
down through history. Occasionally a benevolent ruler comes along, for a while, but they are rare. Eventually their rule is over and so is the benevolence.

I think most of the American electorate are delusional if they think that the richest, most powerful nation in history would be any different.

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Lookout's picture

Creating Russiagate which many still believe. No telling what the corporations/oligarchs have in mind to sabotage any possible progress which challenges their profits...fueling war, pushing unhealthy food, drugs which don't work, and so on.

It isn't just a war against Trump, it is a war against "we the people". Sadly, TPTB are likely to win, and we'll lose all as the empire falls.

Hope everyone is doing well. Thanks for the OT!

Perhaps we are helpless...

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

@Lookout
that Trump will use immigration to usher in digital IDs, touting that the only way to stop it is for everyone to be easily identifiable, with paperwork, chips under the skin or whatever. The right will theoretically go along willingly, mostly. After digital IDs are implemented then it's just a hop, skip and a jump to CBDCs.

I don't know if I buy that but we shall see.

Things are well here, hope for the same in the holler.

Great tunage, thanks brother.

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They show video of explosions in the Ukie night, pictures of the new intermediate range ballistic missiles that Putin has chosen to escalate the war against democracy that he started almost three years ago. A military expert told the Fox audience about the military ramifications of Putin's escalation. While I was watching, nary a word was said about the US authorizing missile attacks inside Russia.

With all the talk about "reckless" military action maybe starting WW III, the really Big One -- I don't worry about it. In the first place, there is absolutely nothing any mere citizen of the Republic can do to keep it from happening if either side "decides to push the button down," in the felicitous phrasing of Donald Fagan -- so it accomplishes nothing to fret over it. But I also have come to this conclusion about the insane decade that we are now about halfway through: There is something going on behind the bullshit that involves a scheme to reorganize civilization. Instead of seeing lunatics pursuing utterly absurd and impossible military triumphs that destroy the economies of nation states, I see dark forces creating some still secret new world order.

It costs nothing to believe or disbelieve either interpretation. So maybe we live or maybe we all burn to a crisp in nuclear hell. I'm too old to care all that much about which way it goes.

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I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.

@fire with fire
with all of your statement.

It does a person no good to dwell on things that are out of their control. So the wife and I go about enjoying the hell out of ourselves in spite of it all.

There you go, man
Keep as cool as you can
Face piles of trials with smiles
It riles them to believe
That you perceive the web they weave
And keep on thinking free

--The Moody Blues: In the Beginning

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@fire with fire

The gypsy of a strange and distant time
Travelling in panic, all directions blind
Aching for the warmth of a burning sun
Freezing in the emptiness of where he'd come from
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah
Left without a hope of coming home
Speeding through a shadow of a million years
Darkness is the only sound to reach his ears
Frightening him with visions of eternity
Screaming for a future that can never be
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah
Left without a hope of coming home
The gypsy of a strange and distant time
Travelling in panic, all directions blind
Aching for the warmth of a burning sun
Freezing in the emptiness of where he'd come from
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah
Left without a hope of coming home
Left without a hope of coming home
Left without a hope of coming home

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I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.

snoopydawg's picture

.

Rob Urie
November 21, 2024 at 4:48 pm

Re: #Resistance, The Biden administration willingly and eagerly allied with self-described Nazis in Ukraine in order to launch a mini-genocide against Russian speaking Ukrainians to draw Russia into Ukraine.

Following which the Biden administration joined Israel in launching an ethno-nationalist genocide against poor, brown, Muslims in Palestine. Democrats knowingly voted for Biden’s co-genocidalist, Kamala Harris, knowing that she not only supported the genocide up to the time of the election, but thereafter as well.

If Democrats are worried about ‘authoritarianism,’ could someone please buy them a mirror?

In retrospect I have no regrets about not voting anymore after Obama’s epic screwing us with his cabinet appointments right after he got epically elected and all the screwing he did after that.
And the allying with Nazis happened during his administration knowing full well how Russia would react to that.

I read that the new AG nominee, Pam Bondi was the foreclosure queen of Florida. I’m not impressed with T"s appointments, but I’m willing to give Tulsi a chance.

Heh…Rob stole my line.

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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
what it must be like living in Ukraine and Gaza right now? Intermittent electricity if even at all, storm troopers roaming the streets looking for draft age civilians to throw them in the meat grinder, people dissappeared never to be heard of again, wondering where their next meal and water will come from, cowering in ruins wondering if the bombs will be dropped on top of them, having their future stolen from them, and, and, well, you get the picture.

As both parties here in the States point fingers and call each other nazis. What a world that we are promoting.

I realized very early on what Obama was all about with his cabinet picks. I'm seeing a repeat of that playing out as Trump promised the right the world, much like the left promised with Obama.

Same as it ever was.

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snoopydawg's picture

@JtC

I wake up to get a drink of water a few times a night and I ALWAYS think about the poor souls there that don’t have that option.

It’s been cold here and when I turn on the heat I think about the poor souls in Ukraine who don’t have that option. Plus I imagine the buildings in Ogden being blown apart like in both countries and wonder what I would do with my anger. And seeing the rest of the world just causally watching everything happening and wondering why the fck they aren’t doing anything about it.

So the UN had another vote on a ceasefire in Gaza and the American A-Hole proudly raised his hand and voted against it and the world moved on.

Since this is turning into a rant I’ll stop here because I have so much more to say, but I think I and others have already said it. But still looking for a way to vent my anger at what has been happening for over a year with no end in sight.

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

Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.

Cassiodorus's picture

of, you know, a new political party...

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

@Cassiodorus
but unfortunately, I don't see a possibility of that happening until both of the two current parties implode first. As more and more people wake up, that is a distinct possibility.

As it stands now, there's too much power and wealth for the controllers to relinquish. Once this country is stripped bare, then we may be able to govern ourselves, over the ruins.

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The Liberal Moonbat's picture

I learned a new term today.

I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that a sitting president would sabotage an incoming president-elect...Is the new normal laying booby traps for the incoming president now?

I'm sure not. Maybe that's a generational thing?
I'm SURE Stephen Colbert will be even MORE upset about this than he was about "JAN 6"...!

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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!

QMS's picture

.
Sir, would you like some hazelnut salad?

the Hegemon’s ruling elites are congenitally incapable of stop escalating.

we still have nearly two months of a completely deranged US administration in power. NATO’s congenital dementia suggests escalation will continue.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20241122/pepe-escobar-oreshnik---the-3-km-per-s...

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enhydra lutris's picture

myself, as I often remind others, that the world is not binary. I would also note that, at macro scales, it is not scalar either. That, in a nutshell means that the US perverted corruption of the vague idea of "Democracy" is doomed to failure, at least as to the putative goal of serving or meeting the needs and or wishes of the people. Our electoral system is overwhelmingly binary. Though there is ony the uniprty, the two wings have some small differences, but, more importantly, the populace thinks that there are large substantive differences. Thus, rejection of the Dems isn't truly ween as merely rejection of the Dems, but also affirmation of the bloviating of the GOP, even though it is pretty largely nothing of the kind.

So, that said, the rain they've been talking about all week is finally here. Set in about an hour ago, just after we went into ye local supermarket and was already causing serious puddles and flows by the time we emerged. The store was madness, but we're almost completely set for next week when it will quite likely be crazier.

be weell 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 --