Saturday Open Thread - 5/10/25: Odds and Ends
Good morning, good people! We are still here, haven't been blown up, and no cyber attack to take away our communication! That's something good. Uh, can't think of much else good.
I appeared in court via zoom yesterday morning. I set up my lap top so that my background was my acreage visible through a large picture window. The occasional blue jay came to perch on a tree limb. Although the judge didn't mention it, she took her time before ending the session. H/t to Dear One for designing the room and overseeing its' construction. It is stunning. From the crest of the hill, down a slope, bordering a creek, then sharply rising to a ridge on the other side of the creek, it looks like our own little valley. It's the little things.
Twice this week, we were treated to The Magnificent Seven, (where did I get that name?) the herd of seven deer that come to snack on the vegetation, romp around the field. No pictures are possible, as they come at dusk and dawn, and we do not have the sophisticated cameras to make it happen. There are other Magnificent Seven, as we all know.
I can't resist:
There are so many global shifts, meetings, agreements, trade deals, treaties, conflicts, where to begin?
Well, I will leave it to you all to keep us abreast. Input, friend. Your input is welcome and necessary.
This is an Open Thread, open to any topic any one of you wish to post for comment or discussion. I will say, here and now, the comment threads on any given day on any open thread are intelligent, insightful, informative, and welcome, so I hope today is the same, friends. We help each other cope and prepare constantly. KUDOS!
Comments
Happy Saturday, good people!
My newest client is a woman who took in some children while the parents did their prison time. Since they got out, they are back to drugs. The goal is to make her custody permanent. She happened to have been a Child Protective Services investigator for many years. The stories we shared, the societal changes over the decades, the throwaway aspect of child rearing as long as you get the tax credit and SNAPs benefits would just appall all of you, but she and I know about it and understand it as an American way of life.
Teach your children well.
Your turn! Let 'er rip!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Wow
That video really hit me hard. My eyes are only watering, right? I think it's because it's a great song, and the art in the video really hits the spot for me. Time to start wearing more pink. The looks I get when I wear my socialist t-shirts will be 'enhanced' when I add some code pink stuff
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
Hey, chica!
That art on the video is really, really moving. I, too, felt a lump in my throat watching it. It was not at all what I expected from the Official video.
I hope you are feeling better and enjoying your weekend. Maybe you can cheer your Mother up a bit tomorrow? Be sure to tell her your friends here wish her all the best, compliment her for teaching her children very well, indeed.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Thanks for the words to my Mom...
I will pass them on.
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
If you can believe it, these tote bags and T-shirts are illegal
in Germany to carry or wear in public.
https://store.mondoweiss.net/products/from-the-river-to-the-sea-tote-bag
I would have added vignettes of Gaza-Israel anti-genocide protests to the very end of that C S N & Y vid, to make it even more perfect.
I’ve always admired Code Pink, even after Democrats and everyone suddenly turned on them after Obama was elected. Not to forget the valiant antiwar mom Cindy Sheehan, either. The self-styled Dem liberals and progressives turned on her, too.
Ah, Democrats — Phil Ochs sure had their number.
Good morning...
Raining today so the flea market was washed away. Went grocerying anyway.
The parade in Moscow was quite the event. George, Pepe, Oliver Stone and Ray McGovern were all there.
6 min reaction
And here's a bit from Pepe with the Judge...
6-7 min
Too bad Trump didn't go and participate.
Glad your new room has proven to be so useful. Nothing like bringing the beauty of nature into your home. Thanks for the OT!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
I would have liked to see Trump, Xi, and Putin all join hands
and do a little dance of world peace, joy, and harmony…
How about the ring-around-the-rosy rag?
could have been a new Yalta...
...paving the way to a new era....but Nooo! At least Xi and Putin worked on cooperative ventures.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Trump missed the opportunity
of our lifetime, Lo.
The MIC can't tolerate that.
Now, let's not all get distracted from Israel's dire needs, ok, everybody?
We cannot give peace a chance.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Good afternoon, lO!
We had an unexpected brief but heavy rain last night that screwed up plans to mow some today. But, like you, we need the rain.
The drift of Western Europe toward Nazism is more and more evident. They can't be so stupid, so blind, not to know damn well that they would not exist right now if it had not been for the USSR defeating Germany. They refuse to celebrate the victory because the wrong people achieved it? Can we stop right now considering Western Europe to be advanced, sophisticated, and the rightful leaders of the Free World?
Thanks so much for the videos. My Dad would have saluted Russia if he were alive.
While we did grocery shopping yesterday for the upcoming week, we are trying a new recipe that calls for some spices we do not have, so Dear One is shopping locally for those.
Enjoy your weekend, friend!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Good morning otc. Congrats on the private herd and great
hide to view from. Very warm last couple of days, starting out that way today too Might get to take advantage of it today after farmers' market, Thursday we had seriously long distance errands and yesterday was infusion day, but today I just might get out into the garden. Our critters are all much less majestic, and nocturnal to boot, but we have a yard cam that picks them up for us; opossums, skunks, raccoons, and assorted feral cats.
well, off to market --
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 --
Good afternoon, el!
Glad you got the errands and infusion done so that you can enjoy your weekend.
We have some nocturnal critter under the house. Last night, they made their crawl space tunnel under the wall 3 times the size it was. Could be coons, rabbits, or armadillos.
What is happening as I type is a squirrel on a corner fence post. When a loud car in the distance roared, screeched tires, it got on the top of the fence post and put its' back against a tree. 5 minutes later, it still has its' back up against the wall!
Have a fun weekend, dear friend!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
I left out our deer, probably only one, also nocturnal
hangs out in our front yard now and then, we can tell because it leaves its scat, but we don't have a camera out front.
Sounds like a safety minded squirrel, that may be a new species.
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 --
Morning OTC
At the farm right right now. Going back home to suburbia later this morning. Have babysitting duties with a grand-kitty for a week that we always enjoy.
Your place sounds like our farm complete with resident deer and a creek.
We can't actually see the creek as the is heavy foliage and trees blocking the view. State wildlife buffer zone and all. It's ok though, gives the place a primordial look.
We have been clearing out dead trees and brush, which is permitted.
There is a 150' buffer on both sides of creek.
And we can remove any invasive species and plant any native plants we choose.
You should post a shot of you picture window scene. Maybe that bluejay will "bomb" it.
Thanks for hosting the OT.
Will check in later today and say meoooow!
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Good afternoon, e1!
What's more fun than kitty sitting? Can't think of much, right off the top of my head.got a picture from the center window, showing some fairly close, very large trees. Then, there is a clearing, the favorite of the Magnificent Seven for grazing. Then, there is a cluster of trees and bushes which surround a deep gully. Although I can cut, remove, grow whatever I want, wherever I want,I leave a thicket on the banks of the creek because the land would wash into it and destroy the creek otherwise. We can't see the water without a short hike through the woods, but we can hear it flowing. If I dammed up the gully, it would create a 2 acre pond. However, if the dam broke, it would cause millions of dollars in damage down stream, and to Lake Livingston. I would need a Go Fund Me to pay for an insurance policy!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Could a family of “Castor canadensis” (beaver) do the job?
Then if the gully were to get dammed, well, by gosh, it’d just be wild nature taking its course — you had nothing to do with it.
They could, but I'd have to get them to take instructions on
where to put it, and they do not speak English, dammit! Many decades ago, I had an engineer from the Trinity River Authority come and map it out. Aside from being a liability, I was using the acreage for live stock grazing anyway.
Enjoy your weekend, friend!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
This could be considered good news.
Yes, it certainly could!
So, the US finally got a negotiation successfully done, even if 30 days of kill stop ain't much to brag about? I wish we could follow the money and know for sure who is funding the terrorist mobs in Kashmir.
At any rate, I wish we could focus on the genocide in Gaza, see if Palestine will be recognized by the uS, as rumors about that are flying.
Enjoy your weekend, friend, and don't hesitate to drop in Xs for us as you go along your way!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Well deserved I must admit.
Great protest!
Israel and the Palestinians on Oct. 7, 2023, check to see how much the AIPAC lobby donates to them. Or, perhaps the hypnosis they underwent really worked?
Thanks for the X!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
That’s what I detest about DEI — it overlooks the obvious fact
that one can be BIPoC, LGBTQIA+, use all the right words and check all the right boxes, and still be the biggest sh— in the world, enthusiastically taking the side of the blood-and-soil, “muh nation, race, and religion” supremacists when it comes to a litmus-test issue like Gaza and Palestine.
I was just thinking (regarding EggFlation)...
...Does anyone around here happen to keep good tabs on prices at fast-food chains?
Small businesses have had to raise their prices of anything with eggs, of course, but have the prices of egg-products from BIG companies changed much? It'd tell us something either way.
I think we know it's more greedflation than any actual shortage, and if anybody can grab Big Egg by the neck and say, "now listen here, ya little shit...", it's McDonald's.
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!
We seldom eat at fast food places,
but they are getting very expensive.
A few weeks ago, we had 2 shopping stops with a Sonic in between their locations. Dear One had a regular cheeseburger, I had some Parmesean bread twist and a little cup of some creamy cheese sauce.
I recall it was between $11 and $12 bucks, plus we gave the car hop $2. No drinks, no fries.
It didn't use to be this way.
I will try to monitor it, friend!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
I have mentioned that I skim articles
in some RWNJ sites to just get news that I do not see reported elsewhere. I completely ignore all opinion expressed, but nevertheless appreciate learning of current events kept out of the MSM.
My Google news feed would never report that Texas. Vs. Google ended with a historic $1.375 bn settlement against Google for tracking Texans online. Lefties and righties should all agree we are constitutionally guaranteed a right to privacy.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/05/google-hit-historic-1-375-billi...
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
We lost the right to privacy in the late fifties and early
sixties, though not officially. Officially not long after, here, for example, is the Judge on a part of that. https://consortiumnews.com/2025/05/08/holes-in-the-us-constitution/
Remember when the phone co was caught spying on everybody, under Shrub, and Pelosi more or less granted them immunity?
The courts long ago ruled that wire tap laws don't apply to cell phones because they don't have wires. That's part of what got the EFF rolling.
privacy only exists when face to face in an anechoic chamber that is fully isolated with respect to the entire electromagnetic spectrum.
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 --
When I must have a chat with a client, usually in a criminal
matter, we remove all phones from our pockets, take a walk to some trees, well away from all security cameras, and speak in low voices. Smart stoves, refrigerators, w & d, any computer monitor, etc...can all "hear" us, el.
Thanks for the article. I may have read it, but I am always happy to re-read the Judge.
Given how commonly accepted it is for government to share info with Tech giants, I am gobsmacked Paxton pulled this off.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Trumps posts on Truth don't stand up to scrutiny.
Trump
is such an ass wipe. Lies just like he was a real estate developer or some such!
Hmmm...
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
One reason I don’t get as fired up about Trump as other people
is that I was born and reared in Hawai‘i.
It’s not that I’m pro-Trump — it’s just that, not being as beautiful and patient a soul as Israel Kamakawiwo‘ole or Lynette Hi‘ilani Cruz, I’m just so tired after a lifetime of trying to explain Hawaiian history to people.
I’m like, “Oh, now y’all up there in North America (‘the Mainland’) have figured out that people who make fortunes in real estate development are not necessarily folks with the most sterling character and are perhaps not the best people to be running things, whether out front or from behind the scenes?
“Now you’ve figured out that annexing a place against the will of the people who have lived there since prehistoric times is a bad thing to do? Greenland? That’s what it takes for y’all to see it? How about listening to your own president Grover Cleveland about annexing Hawai‘i?”
/grumpy
TL;DR: Trump is just showing everyone now what it was always like to be a “local” coming from a place that bigwigs with money and the military had other plans for.
Cost of Food
Got my free box from Feeding the Gulf Coast this week. Shock of all shock, it came with 2 dozen jumbo eggs. I guess that means the price has gone down. I don't eat a lot of breakfast foods, but I do like an egg once in a while. Most of the cereal, both hot and cold, I take down to the free food box.
They also gave me both link and ground pork sausage. I can't understand why sausage is so much. It's made out of the leftovers. The same with stew meat. It's cheaper to buy a roast and cut some off for stew.
About the only fast food I buy is from Burger King. One of my children set me up an app to order food. They have something called crowns that you earn and can get free food. Right now, they are having a promotion where you only pay $1.25 for a hamburger. They also have Whopper Wednesday. You used to get a Whopper for $3.00. It has since gone up to $3.99. Still not bad.
Good afternoon, enchantress!
Take advantage of the Burger King deal while it is available.
When I start to bitch about meat prices and hatin' on meat processing plants that use low wage immigrants on their assembly lines, I stop and think it through. Water is expensive. Hauling cattle is expensive.
No cow gets into a trailer and on a public highway, and into a feed lot without tags showing proper vet care. Vets charge more than ever now. All grass seed and fertilizer is way expensive. Hay is ridiculously expensive. Feed lot corn is expensive.
The same process applies for fowl and pigs.
Enjoy the deal on your food while you can, chica.
Have a great weekend!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
I remember those days
and this song, as I settle in to watch a movie on a computer screen, cuddling, not even on the balcony back row!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
The Magnificent Seven
stopped by.They snacked, are headed for the creek.
It's the little things in life, friends.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Wolff
mansplaining empire going, going, soon gone.
I am 5 minutes into it. What do you fols think?
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
10 minutes in...
I think he's correct, in many ways. I always get frustrated at how few people actually know the history of the 'Roman Empire' in any detail. It lasted, in the West, for, well, Rome was founded in 800 BC or so. It 'fell': the city itself, in the mid 400's AD. It was an Empire ruled by Emperors from about 0 AD to the fall of the city. It controlled areas as a democratic empire with a Senate, not an Emperor, before 0 AD. Those areas included Greece, Macedonia, the Middle East, northern Africa, Spain, France, Germany... from around 200 BC on up. In the East, the Byzantine Empire continued after the fall of the western Roman Empire. Technically that didn't 'fall' until the late middle ages. And, if one goes by labeling, the 'Holy Roman Empire' didn't fall until the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand that started WWI.
Ok, enough of that blather. Back to listening to the video. Once again, I think Wolff is right about how we are changing.
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
I know this empire fell, then this one fell,
but I am not schooled on the precise time line or the beadth of the conquered territories. I am better on the moment of the obvious ends.
Anyway, I ran across this video this evening while digesting my glorious Chinese pepper steak dinner, thought I would share for those who might be interested.
It is interesting, and Wolff has a gift in explaining economics in ways dufusses in economics can understand. I am proof positive.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Yea, I agree...
The timing isn't that important. What's important to me is that I don't think our 'empire' is falling. I think it's changing into a real empire, with an emperor, and it's struggling. And others will fight that, and it's gonna be ugly and probably kill a whole lot of people and animals (with nukes or whatever). Sooner or later, the military is going to take over. *shiver*
Anyway, I thought Wolff's ideas are basically spot on, and I really appreciate the way he can explain things for those of us who aren't economically gifted. The whole tariff thing was really weird to me, when it got started. I mean, how can raising prices on imports, basically applying a tax, do anything but raise prices for the normal people in this country? Tariffs make some sense IF the government is protecting usa-made products. But it's not, these things aren't made in the USA. So what's the point of the tariff? How can people be so stupid as to think tariffs are a good idea?
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
Wolfe's video is quite good
It's a fair evaluation of what is happening. His skill at explaining it, makes it sound simple, like A, B, C, etc.
I would like to juxtapose this video which still emphasizes the old geopolitical strategy as if nothing has changed. It's quite a bit shorter, but it's important to keep in mind that this "expert" on Asia, China, Russia, geopolitics etc., is the product of the gatekeeper function of the most conservative institutions. I note she has also been patronized by Japan, which is a denialist country and also extremely conservative. Japan can't deal with its brutal legacy of killing tens of millions in China. The Hoover Institution is the keeper of the American myth. Newport and the US Navy, it's self explanatory. We have to be the good guys. This woman is one of the intellectual gate keepers on correct thought about Russia and China.
Sarah C.M. Paine: What Is China's Grand Strategy?
Hello, western powers only obey rules when it's in their interest to do so. Rules? Looking at the world today, do you see any rules? She's living in this fantasy where Chinese are the barbarians, and the west is civilized. She's living in the imperialist delusions of yesteryear. Domestically, the US is one of the most corrupt countries on earth. The ruling elites are exempt from following the law. Corruption permeates the legal system, and the regulatory structure. She's living in a dream world. The totality of the US legal system will lead to a just outcome? That's laughable. She calls the gross western exploitation of China "a gross embarrassment" minimizing it. The western opium trade and brutalizing China and other Asian countries, was that the rules based order? Get real. The US sense of normalcy is the US dominating the globe rather than China. She has it all wrong. It's the US that treats the seas as its territory. She lives inside the stove-piped echo chamber of the military industrial complex where such views are accepted as normal. US gunboats need to sit off China's harbors to "strangle China." US media have openly admitted this is the US strategy. The woman lacks insight because to recognize the reality of the decline of US world hegemony is untenable in the institutional world she lives in. She's an apologist for US world domination and an orientalist. Thank dog, the US doesn't "boss people around." This level of tunnel vision defies belief.
I much prefer Jane Hayward's thoughtful discussions of contemporary China. She is by no means uncritical of China, but her views must be given fair consideration because they are usually far more objective in nature and are reasonable efforts to analyze existing conditions rather than fantasy.
No 'New Cold War': Response to viewers' comments
Thanks for the OT and the Wolfe video OntheCusp!
(edited for typos and style)
語必忠信 行必正直
Thanks for the video, soryang.
I need to know much more about Japan killing Chinese. Gotta say that part of history never came across my radar.
I want to know more about Asian on Asian animosity. The only time I saw it was when in Shanghai, I witnessed a Chinese businessman trying to check in two drunk women into the hotel where I was staying.
The doorman said they were drunk Filipino prostitutes, as usual. It caused a ruckus.
Asian on Asian discrimination. I had no idea up until that first night on my tour of China.
Glad you enjoyed Wolfe.
I will watch the video you posted now.
Heal quickly, no complications, ok? Ok?
Enjoy your weekend and your life, my friend!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981