@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.

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

@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.

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...

@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

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.

@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.

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

@The Liberal Moonbat
is a term popularized during the Vietnam War. Imagine neutralizing an enclave of VC (Viet Cong) during sundown, just to have them reappear out of Cu Chi tunnels in the middle of the night. That is BOHICA.

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?

Nah, that statement was basically rhetorical.

I'm SURE Stephen Colbert will be even MORE upset about this than he was about "JAN 6"...!

Heh, he makes hay being a male Karen, so there's that.

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"...!

@QMS
I think congenital dementia has affected most of D.C.

It only took 248 years (2024-1776=248) for it to set in.

.
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...

@enhydra lutris

Tyranny by its very nature arises from democracy, and the worst form of tyranny and servitude proceeds from the highest and most extreme liberty.

--Plato

I think he was on to something there.

Good you are getting some rain, bad that the store was madness.

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

@soryang
I wonder if the commanders actually think for themselves or if they receive daily briefings telling them what to think. Probably the latter.

Thanks soryang.

...in his interview with the judge yesterday.

I think it's about 12 minutes in, they start talking about a statement made by the press officer for USSTRATCOM. MacGregor says the Strategic Command commander has no right to make statements about nuclear policy in a confrontational standoff with Russia. Further, 4 stars who make or authorize such policy statements, should be fired immediately. I guess this is General Anthony Cotton from a quick google search. His press spokesperson is RADM Buchanan (2 stars) I guess should be fired too.

US military prepared for nuclear strikes – spokesman

Washington is nonetheless seeking to avoid any use of such weapons, Thomas Buchanan has said

The thing that surprises me about this in one respect is that in news in the far east, I had followed PACCOM and subsequently INDOPACCOM statements closely since Adm Harris had been in the PACCOM position, and noted that they were making policy statements on war with North Korea or China whenever they felt like it. No one ever reeled them or criticized them for making policy statements. It wasn't just them either, I distinctly remember some Air Force General in command of some Logistics Command about being prepared to conduct war with China by 2027 when they planned to invade Taiwan. The INDO/PACCOM commanders said stuff like we think we can fight and win a war with China, etc., etc. I remember one incident where a China expert asked a critical question after such a presentation, and the INDOPACCOM admiral got and left saying he didn't have time to answer any questions. Harris went on to be an outrageous meddler in domestic South Korean politics as ambassador.

I should have listened to Dr. Gao on Li Bai's poetry today instead of this stuff.