The Evening Blues - 2-20-25
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features blues guitarist Guitar Shorty. Enjoy!
Guitar Shorty - We The People
"Is it better to out-monster the monster or to be quietly devoured?"
-- Friedrich Nietzsche
News and Opinion
Anyone Who Wants The Ukraine War To Continue Is A Monster
Everyone from Rachel Maddow to Bernie Sanders is freaking out about the Trump administration’s moves toward ending the war in Ukraine. David Hogg, now the vice chair of the DNC, said on Twitter that “If we abandon Ukraine — Poland is next. You know what’s going to be a lot more expensive than finishing this war and forcing Putin out of Ukraine? A third world war and a second Marshall plan.”
These histrionics are as depraved as they are ridiculous. Obviously the war in Ukraine needs to end. Polls say Ukrainians themselves want the war to end. If you want Ukrainians to keep dying in this war against the will of the Ukrainians themselves while you sit safe at home eating snacks and posting on the internet, you’re a monster.
But saying this really doesn’t go far enough. We should all be raging at everyone who pushed things to this point, especially at the leaders of the western empire we live under. These psychopaths knowingly provoked an unwinnable war of unfathomable horror by first backing a regime change operation in 2014 and then amassing a proxy military threat on Russia’s border in ways the US would never permit on its own border, then refusing off-ramp after off-ramp both before and after Russia invaded. Everyone who paved the way to this nightmare belongs in a cage.
And that includes Trump. The sitting president is on social media right now trying to pin this whole thing on Zelensky, when Trump himself helped pave the way to this horror by becoming the first president to start openly pouring weapons into Ukraine while ramping up cold war tensions and shredding treaties with Russia. Trump, Obama, Biden, Boris Johnson, and all of NATO helped throw Ukraine into the meat grinder while countless western experts and analysts warned urgently that their actions would result in Ukraine’s destruction. They should all suffer immense consequences.
But of course we all know they won’t. None of the government officials, empire managers, career politicians, pundits and think tank swamp monsters who helped steer Ukraine into the inferno will suffer any consequences of any kind for their atrocities. Nobody will even lose their career.
And what’s worse is knowing that most of them will re-emerge like zombies from the grave to help manufacture support for the next imperial bloodbath. Many of the same people who drummed up support for the war in Ukraine were responsible for helping to destroy Iraq, when they should have been languishing in a prison cell at The Hague this entire time.
We are ruled by the worst among us. Our world will never know peace as long as these freaks are at the steering wheel.
Prof. John Mearsheimer : No Peace in the Middle East
Hamas offers handover of all hostages to Israel if next phase of ceasefire agreed
Hamas has said it is ready to release all its remaining hostages in a single exchange if the ceasefire agreement with Israel moves forward to a second phase next month. The offer came as the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, signalled his readiness to talk about a second phase of the Gaza ceasefire after an extended delay, by appointing one of his closest advisers, Ron Dermer, a US-born cabinet minister and former ambassador to Washington, to lead the Israeli delegation to the talks.
Dermer replaces the heads of the Mossad and the Shin Bet security service, who have led the negotiations until now and have frequently been at odds with Netanyahu over his reluctance to move forward with the ceasefire.
In the final steps of the first phase, Hamas will hand over the bodies of four Israeli hostages on Thursday, including those of two young boys from the same family. The group will release six hostages on Sunday and then transfer four more bodies next Thursday. That will complete the first six-week phase of the ceasefire, due to end on 1 March, leaving a further 58 hostages in the hands of Hamas and allied militant groups in Gaza. Israel believes that 34 of the remaining hostages are dead. ...
Netanyahu has long resisted any talk about the second phase of the agreement, which would involve a complete military withdrawal from Gaza, as well as the handover of the remaining hostages, in return for hundreds more Palestinians held in Israeli jails. Completion of the second phase would in effect represent the end of the war, but the far-right wing of Netanyahu’s coalition adamantly opposes such a step if it leaves Hamas as a significant force inside Gaza.
The Israeli prime minister, however, has come under pressure to do so from Donald Trump’s special envoy, the US president’s friend and fellow real-estate developer, Steve Witkoff, who said over the weekend: “Phase two is absolutely going to begin.” Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, said on Tuesday that talks on the second phase would begin this week, but a day later the timing remained unclear.
MAX Blumenthal : Zelenskyy on the Ropes
Lame.
BBC asked to remove Gaza documentary over narrator’s father’s ties to Hamas
The BBC has been asked to remove a documentary about children living in Gaza from BBC iPlayer after it emerged the film’s 13-year-old narrator is the son of Ayman Alyazouri, a deputy agriculture minister in the territory’s Hamas-run government.
The corporation said that it had discovered the family connections of the film’s English-speaking narrator, a child called Abdullah, after the documentary was aired on BBC Two on Monday evening.
A new text attached to the film, Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone, reads: “The narrator of this film is 13-year-old Abdullah. His father has worked as a deputy agriculture minister for the Hamas-run government in Gaza. The production team had full editorial control of filming with Abdullah.”
The decision came after the connection was exposed in a blogpost by an antisemitism researcher, David Collier, on Tuesday and reported on in the Jewish Chronicle.
A group of 45 prominent Jewish journalists and members of the media, including present and former BBC staff, signed a letter to the BBC director general, Tim Davie, demanding the documentary be “removed” from iPlayer and questioning whether the film violated Ofcom rules.
Rachel Maddow Brings Back Russiagate INSANITY
The Guardian demonstrates its bias in this piece. Seems to me that if the blue anon folks are right, Trump should be considered expert in identifying dictators:
Trump calls Zelenskyy a dictator amid fears of irreconcilable rift
The US and Ukraine appeared to be heading towards an irreconcilable rift after Donald Trump escalated his attacks on Volodymyr Zelenskyy, calling the Ukrainian president “a dictator” and warning that he “better move fast” or he “won’t have a country left”. ...
In a fiery rant on the Truth Social app marking his most direct threat to end the war on terms aligning with Moscow’s goals, Trump wrote: “A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left.” ...
The US president wrote that Zelenskyy, whom he dismissed as “a modestly successful comedian”, had “talked the United States of America into spending $350 Billion Dollars, to go into a war that couldn’t be won, that never had to start. “The only thing he was good at was playing Biden ‘like a fiddle’,” Trump wrote.
The unprecedented escalation of tensions between Kyiv and Washington came after senior US and Russian officials met in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to discuss the war in Ukraine, as well as economic and political cooperation, indicating a fundamental shift in the US approach to Moscow.
Glenn RIPS APART Dan Crenshaw's Ukraine Lies on Piers Morgan
“I Will Not Accept Their Peace Deal!” – Zelensky
Ousted South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol will become the first leader to stand trial in a criminal case as hearings open on Thursday over his bid to impose martial law.
The 64-year-old former prosecutor has been in prison since he was arrested in January on charges of insurrection, for which he could be sentenced to life in prison or face the death penalty if found guilty. Criminal proceedings begin on Thursday at Seoul’s central district court.
Prosecutors have accused the suspended president of being the “ringleader of an insurrection”. His lawyers say the investigation lacked legitimacy from the start and have challenged the legality of his indictment, claiming it was within his power as head of state to declare martial law.
Separately, South Korea’s constitutional court is deliberating whether to formally remove Yoon from office following his impeachment by parliament in December. His 10th hearing in that case is scheduled for 3pm, just hours after he takes the stand in his criminal trial.
Called to testify at the constitutional court are Han Duck-soo, who was also impeached as acting president following Yoon’s removal from office in December, and former senior intelligence official Hong Jang-won.
Report: Hegseth Orders Pentagon To Make Sweeping Budget Cuts
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has ordered Pentagon leaders to develop plans to make sweeping cuts to the Defense Department’s budget, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.
According to a memo obtained by the Post, Hegseth’s order calls for an 8% cut to the Pentagon budget each year for five years. The Pentagon budget for 2025 is about $850 billion, and an 8% cut for five years would bring it down to roughly $560 billion, a reduction of $290 billion.
Hegseth wants the proposed cuts to be drawn up by February 24, and the memo included a list of 17 categories that would be exempt from the spending cuts. The Post report said the exemptions include operations at the southern border, modernization of nuclear weapons and missile defense, and acquisition of submarines, one-way attack drones, and other munitions.
US adds Mexican cartels to list of foreign terrorist organisations
The US has added six Mexican cartels to its list of foreign terrorist organisations (FTOs), as it calls for the “total elimination” of the criminal groups trafficking drugs to the US. Mexico’s two biggest organised crime groups, the Jalisco New Generation and Sinaloa cartels, were among those added, as were Tren de Aragua and Mara Salvatrucha, groups with ties to Venezuela and El Salvador.
It remains unclear how the designation will change US agencies’ ability to go after these criminal groups, besides widening the range of people that can be charged for supporting them. But some fear it could be the first step towards US military strikes in Mexican territory.“It’s part of a political discourse and leverage,” said María Calderón, from the Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute. “If cartels are terrorist organisations, that paves the way for other arguments in the political realm for taking US military action.”
The designation is part of Trump’s plan to “wage war” on Mexico’s organised crime groups, which he claims will address the fentanyl crisis in the US.
Despite what Trump described as “wonderful” and “very friendly” calls with Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, he has repeatedly claimed that Mexico is “essentially run by the cartels”. Sheinbaum previously rejected the plan to designate cartels as terrorist organisations as “interference” in Mexico, while saying the US government should look to crime in its own country first.
Elon Musk Claims Cartels Designated as Terrorists Are Now ‘Eligible for Drone Strikes’
On Wednesday, Elon Musk claimed a group of gangs and cartels the State Department has designated as “foreign terrorist organizations” could now be targeted by US drone strikes. ...
The State Department designation applies to MS-13, the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, and six Mexican cartels, all organizations that operate inside the US.
The FTO designations expand sanctions on the criminal organizations but do not authorize the president to use military force against them. But the move is seen as a first step toward taking military action against cartels, an idea supported by many Republicans despite the risks of blowback and bringing a hot war to American soil.
Twitter INSTANTLY DEBUNKS DOGE $55 Bill Savings Claim
Trump orders justice department to fire all US attorneys appointed by Biden
Donald Trump has said that he has instructed the justice department to fire any remaining US attorneys installed by the previous administration, in an apparent move to stamp out political appointees of Joe Biden who might resist having Trump’s agenda guide prosecutorial decisions.
“I have instructed the termination of ALL remaining ‘Biden Era’ US Attorneys,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Tuesday. “We must ‘clean house’ IMMEDIATELY, and restore confidence. America’s Golden Age must have a fair Justice System – THAT BEGINS TODAY!”
The dismissal of US attorneys after a change in administration is typical, although the Trump administration has been unusually aggressive in pushing for mass firings across the board as opposed to asking for their resignations shortly after the new president takes office.
It also comes as Trump’s attorney general, Pam Bondi, and acting deputy attorney general, Emil Bove, have moved to implement the administration’s political agenda at the justice department and their vision of the unitary executive theory, where the president directs all cabinet-level agencies.
"Crack-Up Capitalism": Historian Quinn Slobodian on Trump, Musk & Movement to "Shatter" the State
'Blatant Conflict': Fired FDA Workers Were Reviewing Musk's Neuralink
A U.S. watchdog group and other critics are responding with alarm to reporting that federal employees reviewing applications related to a brain implant developed by Elon Musk's company Neuralink are among those fired as part of the billionaire and President Donald Trump's sweeping mission to gut the government workforce.
Despite business conflicts and a recent White House court declaration that generated some confusion, Musk is the head of Trump's so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has infiltrated and is working to purge employees from several agencies—including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), according to Reuters.
Citing two unnamed sources, the news agency reported Monday that "the cuts included about 20 people in the FDA's Office of Neurological and Physical Medicine Devices, several of whom worked on Neuralink... That division includes reviewers overseeing clinical trial applications by Neuralink and other companies making so-called brain-computer interface devices."
While the sources "said they did not believe the employees were specifically targeted because of their work on Neuralink's applications," they and other experts warned the firings "will hamper the agency's ability to quickly and safely process medical device applications of all sorts," Reuters noted.
Dr. Robert Steinbrook, director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group, said in Wednesday statement that "regardless of the reasons the FDA medical device center employees were fired, Elon Musk and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency have a blatant conflict of interest because the agency's Center for Devices and Radiological Health is regulating the implantable brain-computer interface made by one of Musk's companies."
"Moreover, by eviscerating the FDA's device staff, DOGE operatives are impeding the vital work of protecting the participants in the Neuralink trial and protecting the public from medical devices that are harmful or don't work," he continued. "Paradoxically, with fewer staff, the FDA's review of the Neuralink device may be impeded, which makes no sense."
"DOGE operatives should stop interfering with the FDA's public health mission of assuring the safety and effectiveness of drugs and medical devices," Steinbrook added. "This is yet the latest example of how Musk's involvement with DOGE undermines federal regulators, from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to the FDA."
Various reports from the past month have highlighted how Trump's return to power has benefited Musk and his businesses, including SpaceX and the publicly traded electric vehicle maker Tesla.
Stephen A Smith STUNS Pod Save America, Says Dems Elites REFUSE To Listen To Their Voter
The turtle-man throws in the towel. ...
Mitch McConnell To RETIRE, Not Seeking Re-Election In 2026
Climate advocacy groups file two lawsuits against Trump administration
Green advocacy groups filed two lawsuits against the Trump administration on Wednesday, marking the first environmental legal challenges against the president’s second administration. Both focus on the Trump administration’s moves to open up more of US waters to oil and gas drilling, which the plaintiffs say are illegal.
“Offshore oil drilling is destructive from start to finish,” said Kristen Monsell, the oceans legal director at the conservation organization Center for Biological Diversity. “Opening up more public waters to the oil industry for short-term gain and political points is a reprehensible and irresponsible way to manage our precious ocean ecosystems.”
In the first lawsuit, local and national organizations including the Center for Biological Diversity, Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, the Louisiana-based Healthy Gulf, and the Northern Alaska Environmental Center took aim at the president’s revocation of Joe Biden-era protections for 265m acres of federal waters from future fossil fuel leasing. Trump signed an order withdrawing the protections just hours into his second term.
Another related challenge, filed by many of the same groups, calls for a court to reinstate a 2021 decision affirming protections from nearly 130m acres in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans. ...
The lawsuits will probably be the first of hundreds of environmental lawsuits filed by green groups against the Trump administration. During his first weeks in office, Trump has already rolled back a swath of Biden-era environmental protections while freezing green spending programs – part of his pledge to boost the fossil fuel industry.
Melting glaciers caused almost 2cm of sea level rise this century, study reveals
Melting glaciers have caused almost 2cm of sea level rise this century alone, a decades-long study has revealed. The research shows the world’s glaciers collectively lost 6.542tn tonnes of ice between 2000 and 2023, causing an 18mm (0.7in) rise in global sea levels.
The world’s glaciers lost an average of 273bn tonnes of ice every year – the equivalent of 30 years of water consumption by the entire global population.
The assessment, led by scientists from the University of Edinburgh and the University of Zurich, found that so far this century, glaciers have lost approximately 5% of their total volume. Regional losses were highly variable; the Antarctic and subantarctic islands lost 2% of their volume but central Europe’s glaciers lost 39%.
“These numbers are staggering. They serve as a reminder that things are changing fast in some regions,” said Prof Noel Gourmelen, the co-lead author of the study and personal chair of Earth observation at the University of Edinburgh’s school of geosciences.
A stark contrast in the amount of ice lost each decade was also discovered, with 36% more ice having melted between 2012 and 2023 compared with the previous decade. “This is really important as it confirms the pace of glacier melting is accelerating over time,” said Prof Andrew Shepherd, head of the department of geography and environmental science at Northumbria University. “Even small amounts of sea level rise matter because it leads to more frequent coastal flooding. Every centimetre of sea level rise exposes another 2 million people to annual flooding somewhere on our planet.”
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
USAID’s Giant Network of ‘Independent’ Media
Burying The CIA's Assange Secrets
Trump’s Gaza takeover won’t happen. But it has already changed the face of Israeli politics
End in Sight for Ukraine War After Riyadh Meeting
Zionist Shoots Zionists - Both Blame Arabs
Understanding the Russian-American Ukraine Peace Negotiations
Why It’s Crucial To Expose US Provocations in Ukraine
Musk Is Lying About Waste and Fraud in Social Security to Have an Excuse to Kill It
“What Is the Mainstream Media Missing About Elon Musk? He Is Instituting Technocracy”
Trump cuts threaten a ‘generation of scientists’ as many weigh leaving US
Archaeologists discover first pharaoh’s tomb in Egypt in more than a century
Billionaires Are Robbing You and Calling It ‘Efficiency’ w/ Prof. Richard Wolff
"Congolese Are Paying the Price" for Western Demand for Minerals & Support for Rwanda's Paul Kagame
Trump CHEERS House Plan for Medicaid Cuts, Defense Hike
U.S. Companies Are FED UP With Global Censorship
A Little Night Music
Guitar Shorty - Ways Of A Man
Guitar Shorty - You Don't Treat Me Right
Guitar Shorty - Hard Life
Guitar Shorty - Irma Lee
Guitar Shorty And The Otis Grand Blues Band – My Way Or The Highway
Guitar Shorty ~ She's Built, She's Built To Kill
Guitar Shorty - It All Went Down The Drain
Guitar Shorty ~ Blues In My Blood
Guitar Shorty ~ Right Tool For The Job
Guitar Shorty ~ Blues Done Got Me
Guitar Shorty - Hey Joe
Comments
is it just me or has this site slowed down
.
to a snails pace? Other sites load-up normal, but this one is
dragging its feet for some odd reason. Tried to refresh browsers but
nothing seems to change. Feedback would be appreciated. Tanks.
question everything
Yes. It's very slow. Impacted.
Maybe the webmaster at work.
It's...
server-side, out of my hands.
OK, glad it is not just me
digital dinosaur
have learned to be patient
at least it still works
thx
question everything
evening qms...
it seems to be back to near normal now for me at least. i hope it's that way for everybody.
No problems here...
...None out of the ordinary, at any rate; this site has been doing better than some others recently.
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!
This 12 minute video was an eye-opener for me.
.
It looks like a small army of smart people are making short videos, explaining a big change that is transforming the world right now.
A new internet platform called "Friends of Socialist China" has thinking people from all over the world posting short videos expressing support for China. Something new. Check it out.
--> https://socialistchina.org
evening pluto...
the other big thing i see driving the change is u.s. domestic policy undermining its opportunities to rapidly develop its information economy. by disinvesting in education and child development (essentially disinvesting in its own people) the u.s. is undermining its competitive edge.
Why am I thinking false flag?
Israel says that the attacks on buses are from militants in the West Bank and that they would be ramping up their actions there. Maybe that’s why….
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
evening snoopy...
gosh, i can't imagine why false flag would cross your mind. it's not like this action creates a convenient excuse to do exactly what israel wants to do...
that old dude Bibi
-
has yet to see the depth of his
depravity in the rear view mirror
of course, everything news worthy
will be blamed on those Palestine
upstarts and has nothing to do with
the Zion killing machine. Oh gosh, a
couple buses blew up. Time to kill more
people in the the West Bank to make it
safer for the 'settlers'. Don't buy it.
question everything
The hypocrisy is off the charts
Gaza has been reduced to rubble and the West Bank is starting to look like Gaza because of the IDF terrorists deliberately targeting civilians, but Israelis think that people should just take it lying down and not fight back.
Just read how Israelis are outraged about the dead woman and her two kids being returned today and vowing all kinds of vengeance on Hamas. The father who was released earlier told Satanyahu that he killed his family. It’s been known for over a year.
Just recently we learned that the bombs Israel dropped close to the tunnels created a gas that killed everyone in them. They knew it would and they did it anyway.
The Arab states should tell Trump to take a hike. American bombs destroyed Gaza and they should swallow the costs of rebuilding it.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
False flag..
exactly.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Control the food, control the people
.
Kissinger created the WEF and its creature and helped set up its agenda.
How USAID got Ukraine to surrender its farmland to the vulture class.
https://brownstone.org/articles/how-usaid-assisted-the-corporate-takeove...
American farmland was taken over by big ag decades ago. They keep animals penned up with no room to exercise and stuff them full of antibiotics and it’s a wonder that they can’t fight off diseases.
And hundreds of millions of birds have been slaughtered because of the flawed PCR test.
Isn’t it weird how bird flu that infects birds, cattle and kitties isn’t happening across the pond? And big pharma is going to inject animals with mRNA vaccines that still haven’t passed phase three trials. Unless you count injecting billions to see what happens a trial.
Many states are passing legislation to take mRNA vaccines off the market. Little late, but better than nothing.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
Sad but not really surprising that Bernie has evolved into
a clone of Rachel Maddow.
He has her talking points memorized.
evening humphrey...
bernie really ought to give up and go home before he completely destroys the memory of anything he might have once been.
Blehh….
Stopped when he said that Putin invaded Ukraine…twice. Why lie, Bernie? Why not tell us that Obama overthrew Ukraine’s president and started arming the Ukraine military along with the neo Nazis who then started killing Ukrainians in the Donbas just because they didn’t accept the coup government and didn’t want to support Nazis.
Crimea voted to join Russia as did many states in the Donbas. Russia then went into Ukraine to defend their citizens against a huge force that was on the brink of a massive invasion.
If Americans knew this simple history would they still be saying Slava Ukraine?
And when is trying to end a war and the slaughter a bad thing?
Bernie has long been dead to me…now he’s buried 6 feet under.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
Very sad,
and makes me glad I don't really support him now. Dang.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Guardian's coverage of Yoon's impeachment isn't
...coverage of the impeachment proceedings, it's coverage emphasizes Yoon's disgraceful and pitiful defense. Most Korean constitutional law experts I've heard regard his lawyers' efforts as only pathetic sophistry, projecting Yoon's dictatorial methods onto to the legislature which represents a majority of the people in South Korea.
Don't believe your lying eyes when you see video of special forces troops inside the national assembly building on Dec. 3, 2024, ordered by Yoon to prevent the members from forming a quorum and voting down his martial law coup attempt. He also ordered them to arrest a list of political leaders to be taken to prison cells, along with members of the press, and other civic leaders (to be tortured). The former leader of the counter intelligence command, one of the principals in the plot, had a list, in his notebook, of entire categories of politicians, judges, labor, press, and civic leaders to be arrested, and tortured into confessing their "anti-state" tendences. There was evidence, that Noh, requested a hammer be brought to one detention facility so he could personally beat confessions out of opposition leaders.
The only reason the coup didn't succeed is because the Special Forces Commander had misgivings about what might take place, and therefore didn't timely pre-stage his airborne troops as ordered by Yoon's defense minister and co-conspirator at the time. This foot dragging caused the airlift of the special ops forces to take additional time to arrive at the National Assembly and dissolve it, allowing the opposition members the opportunity to arrive at the assembly late at night, organize a defense of the interior of the Assembly building by staff, and vote to lift the martial law announcement by Yoon as provided by the Constitution.
Other testimony showed that no proper state council meeting as required by the Constitution, convened before Yoon's martial law announcement on television. There was no agenda, no record, no closing summary notes, after hastily arriving members, voiced misgivings about the proposed announcement by Yoon. At least one note prepared purportedly by the defense minister, at Yoon's instruction was passed to the finance minister, to set aside immediate funding for the martial law government, cut off funding to the national assembly, and establish an ad hoc, martial law legislative body, to pass budgetary measures for the martial law government. Far from intending a temporary state of martial law as a "demonstration" the evidence clearly shows a specific intent to make Yoon a military dictator.
Beyond this, there was the attack by a mob of far right thugs on the Western District Courthouse building, which basically was intended to destroy records, and intimidate the judgiciary, after Yoon's detention warrant was upheld. Threatening crowds have assembled outside the private residences of the Constitutional Court justices, by right wing politicians including Hwang Kyo-ahn and Jeon Gwang-hun. They assemble at the times when the justices are expected to commute to the court and return from the court, to harass and threaten the justices. A campaign of vilification and libel against the "liberal" justices is taking place online. All the justices now require extensive police protection.
I could go on and on about this. Which for some reason the Guardian refuses to do. I wonder if they would notice if SAS forces entered their parliament with live ammo, assault weapons, smashing through windows and doors, and firing off flash grenades to stop deliberations and arrest members of parliament? Oh, no worries, it was over in six hours and "no one was hurt." The only reason it didn't go further than this in Seoul, December 3rd, is because General Quak, the special forces commander, did not convey orders as he was told, to shoot anyone who got in their way. In any case, the "no one was hurt" defense is complete bs. Numerous assaults and batteries occurred, some on assembly members and civilians being blocked, pushed and shoved by police and special forces troops. What is the impact of an assault weapon being pointed right in your face? Where I come from that's called assault with a deadly weapon. What about breaking into a government building with intent to commit a felony?
I also notice that Guardian didn't cover Yoon's characterization of the political opposition and media as "state enemies," nor the orders to cut off electricity to mainstream media facilities in South Korea. Then there is the bogus rationale of Chinese interference in the last general election, the invasion of the National Election Commission building, offices, and data processing facilities. There was even a press disinformation plot which asserted that a joint ROK Army US Army task force had arrested 99 Chinese spies associated with the NEC operation on Dec 3, and that the US had detained them and shipped them off to Okinawa for interrogation. US Forces Korea and other US government sources denied that any such US involvement in martial law activities had taken place. Nonetheless, the brazen Yoon defense lawyers argued to the Constitutional Court, that the Chinese spy operation at the NEC provided a sound constitutional basis for martial law, and implicitly delegitimized the National Assembly as the product of Chinese manipulation. I doubt if any of this will be repeated at final arguments it is so absurd.
Lastly, mainstream right wing PPP politicians are encouraging the delegitimatizing tactics aimed at the Constitutional Court. This and the threatening crowds assembled in the streets, bussed in from all of South Korea, are a continuation of the insurrection, which will not end until Yoon is impeached. The legal team representing the National Assembly has already pointed out, that if Yoon is not removed from office by the CC, it is likely, giving the prevailing authoritarian inclinations of the president, that another coup will be forthcoming to install a dictatorship.
I think it was telling that earlier this week, Han Dong-hun, the former party leader made his first public appearance in 2 months since he voted for impeachment of his former sponsor and mentor in the political prosecution and corruption business. Han led a very small group of PPP members who objected to the martial law/coup attempt by Yoon, simply because it reflected incompetence and poor judgement by Yoon, who otherwise would have discredited the entire ruling party (PPP). This was a very shrewd judgement by Han. Han said he was writing a book concerning his experiences, and I think is anticipating an early presidential campaign after Yoon's impeachment trial.
60 percent of South Koreans want Yoon removed from office. 53 percent want the government to change, in other words they want the ruling party PPP out of power.
Han Duck-soo the former prime minister, and first acting president after the National Assembly vote to impeach Yoon, was himself impeached because of his wrongful refusal to fill the court vacancies on the Constitutional Court in an unlawful and un-constitutional attempt to obstruct the CC's pending impeachment decision on Yoon. It's a ministerial act, not a discretionary function of the president's office.
Sorry this is so long. It's just infuriating to see such misleading reporting in the west. Yoon committed treason by inciting an insurrection. It ain't over till its over.
Thanks for the EBs Joe!
語必忠信 行必正直
insurrection blamed on the Chinese?
.
it is a very western meme
see the 'red scare' attempts
trying to consolidate power
against socialist sympathizers
as an example in the US
obviously Yoon is reading from old
historical texts and ignoring more recent
developments in social justice reforms
but that will not stop the attempted coup
I hope the peoples assembly can weather this storm
the abrogation of the Japanese infiltrations
will not work with US designed imperial objectives
perhaps the majority of citizens know better?
without the efforts of the political class, the 2 Koreas can
re-unite?
question everything
Yes the South Koreans do know better
They left dictatorship behind after Chun Doo-hwan ceded power. Unfortunately, his alter ego, Roh Tae-woo, was the first "freely" elected president in South Korea in Feb. 1988. This was mostly a result of inability to compromise among parties on the left. Roh did a good job preparing the 1988 Summer Olympics, so westerners assumed all was well, and many South Koreans also gave him a pass. Roh was implicated in the 1980 Kwangju massacre so he went to prison along with Chun after he left office. After, he left office, when Kim Yong-sam was elected, it felt like South Korea was finally free from the 4 decades of rule by US supported dictators. I lived in South Korea during this transition. I recognized Yoon's threat to constitutional rule and his corrupt authoritarian MO two years before he ran for office. So much for the surprise martial law announcement and coup attempt.
Most South Koreans don't want to return to the era of the disappeared, the torture chambers and so on. The fundamentalist Christians, and quasi/paramilitary taegeuki patriot groups, which I think receive support from the west and Japan, are the core of the threatening crowds in the streets currently. Various news media are exaggerating their numbers and the significance of their support, as a sign that Yoon's impeachment is somehow "unjust" or "unfair" and orchestrated by commies.
語必忠信 行必正直
evening soryang...
thanks for filling in the coverage gaps of western media. i really appreciate your exhaustive knowledge of the situation in the koreas.
Thanks Joe
I appreciate the C99 community's open forum, where I have an opportunity to speak freely about these issues. I've been driven off other forums, because inevitably, Americans who live or have lived in Japan buy into Japanese historical revisionism. The Yoon administration and supporters in the PPP are pro Japanese, and have attempted to buy into the US anti-China Trilateral alliance with Japan. In historical and political terms, it won't work. The LDP in Japan was founded and supported by former war criminals and the CIA for cold war reasons. This is the key to understanding contemporary South Korean politics. The US can ignore what the Japanese did, South Koreans can't.
I noticed the B-1b joint exercise in South Korea yesterday, with the ROK Airforce didn't include any Japanese fighters like it did last November. Maybe someone in the US is wising up.
The People's Power Party (Yoon's party) in South Korea oddly enough has a name which appears to be drawn from a Nippon Kaigi slogan. Nippon Kaigi is a far right Japanese political group, to which many LDP members belong.
I wrote this four years ago:
(Source- 뉴스반장 , 09.08)
語必忠信 行必正直
Good evening Joe, et. al. Thanks for the EBs, Joe.
Here's a little PSA, or something, I guess --
https://www.sciencealert.com/cannabis-compound-discovered-inside-totally...
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...
sounds like brazil is well on its way to a valuable new export market product.
have a great evening!
it's weed?
Hi EL,
Thanks for this...
So how convenient it is already considred weed.
Probably not a coincidence?
Something for all those states you can't grow one weed, maybe the other will do?
Convergent evolution? I wonder what the benefit is?
so many questions... like how does it smaoke... and so on...
happy trails!
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
Wondering
can we grow this without having to have 'officials' involved? Heh.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Hi bluesters
Hi all, Hey Joe,
Hope all are well and unfrozen.
Guitar Shorty was one heckuva great player. Awesome live Hey Joe there.
Thanks for the great sounds Joe!
happy trails 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...
well, it's pretty f'ing cold here tonight. it's currently 20 degrees on the back porch and the wind is whipping things around. i'm glad to be inside and warm, i hope you are, too.
shorty married into the hendrix family (i think he married jimi's half sister) and he and jimi were well-acquainted guitar buddies. having started his professional career considerably before jimi, he is considered a big influence on him.
have a great evening!
Hey joe!
I love Guitar Shorty.
One guess which song I enjoyed the most. Hint: Rhymes with Jay Ho!
Thanks for an excellent round up of the news and even posting the propaganda will forewarning it is bs, just so we know the official mantras we are supposed to be duped into believing.
Have a wonderful evening, friend!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
evening otc...
yep, everybody digs hey joe, it's certainly a classic. when and if that period of our lives gets memorialized as history, hendrix's version of hey joe will be one of the tunes they use to define the sound of an era.
hope your weather is accommodating you guys, have a good one!
Great Music...
I've heard some of Guitar Shorty's work, but didn't remember much about it. This is a good introduction. And thanks for the news roundup!
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
evening sima...
glad you enjoyed it! have a great evening!