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OT WE 23 JUL 25 ~ bye July


~

Are we there yet? Seems August is just over the horizon.
Happy 54th Alison.

.

Obviously an open thread without a meme. So make it work if you care to.

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QMS's picture

.
ain't got much today
so will leave you with a song

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6 users have voted.

Zionism is a social disease

Socialprogressive's picture

Good morning Q
68° and partly cloudy skies this morning. Should be low 80s with a light breeze by mid afternoon.

catname.jpg

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Thanks for the OT

up
9 users have voted.

MAGA
Morons
Are
Governing
America

enhydra lutris's picture

flickr to show me some memes. Don't go there tons of christianist stuff and other stuff that really doesn't cut it. Next I tried WAT and foung this:

DSC_0992

not WAT I had in mind, but good enough, maybe. Had no luck with giant rubber duck, for example, dunno WAT's going on at all. The news isn't and ergo helps not at all. So, when in doubt, try basho:

A Cukoo calls
and suddenly ...
the bamboo grove
lighted by moonbeams

I'm just getting started today, in case yu can't tell. Only checked one news soource so far, the biggie seems to be RFKennedy hiking in Jeans, OMG, jeans. Even the press is bored with all the wrfare, or avoiding it because genocide and other issues. I'm suposed to cleaning the fountain and sharpening the knives, but both tasks require shoes and I'm not ready to go there yet.

How, anyway do we define "meme(s)" do pet rocks qualify?

shoes it is, I guess --

be well and have a good one

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7 users have voted.

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 --

enhydra lutris's picture

@enhydra lutris @enhydra lutris load below little vaatar thumbnail, which it isn't crazy about doint, in order to get intended 500px width, so lets try this.

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_
|
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DSC_0992

hah, so there, I think ... nope, lessee if 640 is same-same ..

DSC_0992

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5 users have voted.

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 --

enhydra lutris's picture

@enhydra lutris @enhydra lutris much fill the frame, which it doesn't, 640 doesn't either, need to find out what sp uses in the Friday photoshoot, I guess. looks like mebbe 1024

DSC_0992

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6 users have voted.

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 --

Socialprogressive's picture

@enhydra lutris
I size my images at 1920 on the long side when I upload them to Flickr. When I embed them in my post using Flickr I select medium size 800x533.
Hope this helps.

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4 users have voted.

MAGA
Morons
Are
Governing
America

substack.com/home/post/p-168999788

He arrested the Anti-Corruption guys who were investigating his alleged 10 billion per year theft of Ukie's money.Then, he passed laws to remove their power.
Putin says that agency worked with the CIA to bring about The Maidan Coup.
Interesting...

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8 users have voted.

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

Cassiodorus's picture

@on the cusp in one of those many homes he's purchased with all the money he's stolen. Italy sounds nice: he owns one there. At any rate, here's a comparison:

519597673_1153399146623133_8375176598207390209_n.jpg

Why we can't have what puny Cuba has... oh, right, business is based on ripoff, politics is a commodity, "defense" means a global police state, and nobody here bothers to ask why we can't have China's high-speed rail or Canada's universal health care system, Germany's solar power, or even Europe's mass transit. I defer to the wisdom of Bill Hicks, once again:

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9 users have voted.

"the old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born; now is the time of monsters" -- Antonio Gramsci

@Cassiodorus going on. He needs to leave while he can.

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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

Cassiodorus's picture

@on the cusp of Nguyen Van Thieu's resignation, three days before the government of southern Vietnam surrendered, in 1975.

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7 users have voted.

"the old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born; now is the time of monsters" -- Antonio Gramsci

@Cassiodorus And Assad made it to Russia. And many believe Hitler made it to S. America.

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4 users have voted.

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

Cassiodorus's picture

@on the cusp but I thought that, after exile, Thieu managed a convenience store in Garden Grove, California.

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4 users have voted.

"the old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born; now is the time of monsters" -- Antonio Gramsci

@Cassiodorus
Foxborough, MA. Seems to have avoided California.

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Cassiodorus's picture

@Marie1 I was thinking of Nguyen Cao Ky.

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1 user has voted.

"the old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born; now is the time of monsters" -- Antonio Gramsci

Getting lots of documents produced, wishing my clients were more cooperative.
It's not too terribly hot today, but still not inviting.
I can hardly wait for September to come!
Thanks for the OT, dear friend!

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6 users have voted.

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

about The Russiagate hoax, since they were in on it!
Jonathan Turley gives his analysis. He doesn't think treason was committed, but does state who he thinks should be prosecuted for committing other crimes. Obama has certainly trashed his legacy.
https://jonathanturley.org/2025/07/22/silence-of-the-lambs-the-media-ign...

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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

Having worked elections, I knew from the beginning that Russiagate was a hoax. The only fraud and cheating has been and will be done by those inside the election infrastructure. Americans cheating Americans.

There were people like Snoop who also doubted Russiagate -- RIP. Wish she could have seen Tulsi's press conference.

Russiagate became mass hysteria. Putin was seen everywhere. Even in Canada organizing trucker sites. Even in Spain organizing Catilinarian protests. In UK using Twitter to ensure Brexit. The local community leftist radio station fully believed it, and ranted about it. I avoided conversations with people knowing if I expressed doubt I would excommunicated from proper society never to be spoken with even about the price of tomatoes. It was the foundation for the censorship we now see in the Western world.

If memory serves, Snoop understood that the Russian hysteria was evolving toward a racial hatred of the Russians. It was very ugly. Greenwald was correct in that it poisoned political discourse for years. It will still do that as the dailydos ilk will believe it forever.

Gotta go, the borsch is cooking need to attend to it....

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8 users have voted.

@MrWebster that our presidential elections are a choice between Tweedledee and Tweedledum, so what would their motive have been? If Bill Clinton could have cigar sex in the White House and survive it, and it didn't even cause a divorce, how would a pee tape have any blackmail value? And the only tweets from Russians I ever saw were warnings that Jesus doesn't want us to masturbate.
I remember Maddow saying "Russia" so many times it gave her wrinkles. I actualkly got rid of cable tv because I had my fill media lies.
I didn't post much about it on dkos because I didn't want to argue about it.
My hardcore Dem friends kinda got upset with me, but we just changed the subject.
Snoopy never held back on anything, iirc!

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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

@MrWebster
Was honestly flummoxed that so many self identified "liberals" couldn't see that but also accused those that did see it of being Russian agents. All of those "liberals" are as dumb and deluded as the Trumpsters. A pox on both their houses.

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usefewersyllables's picture

and I've only gotten 4 tomatoes from my plants. The plants are gorgeous, and huge, and have probably 60 tomatoes set- but they just aren't getting big enough to ripen. Hopefully, I'll be able to get some to finish up before the snow flies...

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5 users have voted.

Twice bitten, permanently shy.

Cassiodorus's picture

Yeah, I don't know. Economics, per se, is a branch not of science, but rather of propaganda, developed because its ancestor, "political economy," was dealt a serious blow with the publication of (the first volume of) Capital in 1867. So what they did was to pretend that there was a "science" (read: mathematics, based on some potted notion about physics) of economics after what has been called the Marginalist Revolution, in which the agreed-upon object of study is the "marginal propensity to consume." The primary philosophical underpinning for economics is rational choice theory, which assumes, wrongly, that people are rational actors who "maximize utility" according to their models.

Or, as Kees van der Pijl says about this model in his basic textbook on social science, at the beginning of chapter 2:

True, ‘the predictive power of the model was weak’ (that is, things usually don’t happen this way). But since the prescriptive power of neoclassical economics is momentous -- market freedom must not be interfered with and its scope must be widened wherever possible -- no one can afford to ignore it. Of course, some of the shine of this tradition has evaporated in the financial crisis that exploded in 2008, but its hold on economic common sense endures.

In other words, people believe in economics because they have been persuaded that they have to believe in it, not because it represents any inexorable law of human nature.

Which leads me to a discussion of "Marxist economics." Since Marx was a critic of political economy, not of economics, and since economics was designed from the outset to evade Marx's critique, can there really be a Marxist economics? This question came up for me when watching an interview with Richard Wolff, who I think calls himself a Marxist economist. Here's the critical passage:

Indeed we might agree with Wolff that Trump's tariff policies can do real damage to the American economy. But can we not also say that much of this damage can be reversed simply by class struggle, or even at least by social policies which would benefit everyone? A lot of the supposed fragility of the American economy is there because in American business practice it's generally accepted as okay to pretend that we're all made of money (and thus we can be safely ripped off) when in fact we're not, and because our welfare state benefits are so pitifully meager.

I seem to remember a passage in one of the introductions to Capital where Marx argues that the laws of motion he describes in Capital do not apply in situations characterized primarily by class struggle. I'll try to find it.

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"the old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born; now is the time of monsters" -- Antonio Gramsci

soryang's picture

Japanese occupation of Gyeongbokgung

The Japanese occupation of Gyeongbokgung Palace (Korean: 일본군의 경복궁 점령) or the Gabo Incident occurred on 23 July 1894, during the ceasefire of the Donghak Peasant Revolution and the beginning of the First Sino-Japanese War. Imperial Japanese forces led by Japanese Minister Plenipotentiary to Korea Ōtori Keisuke and Ōshima Yoshimasa occupied Gyeongbokgung palace to restore King Gojong's father Heungseon Daewongun and establish a pro-Japanese government under Kim Hong-jip and the Enlightenment Party's administration.

Marked the first step of Japan's ultimate takeover of Korea and making it a colony.

Japan ultimately built its imperial Government General building on the site of the old Gyeongbokgung (palace). The building was scheduled for demolition by President Kim Yong-sam (the first really democratically elected president of South Korea). After the Japanese were forced out of Korea in August 1945, the building was used as a National Museum. I visited it once in the late 80s. I encountered Kim Yong-sam at a reception once held by the US before he took office. (I functioned as a doorstop on a receiving line). I'm glad he got rid of the ugly imperial architecture dominating the Gwanghwamun Plaza. I don't think they've moved the US embassy bldg yet which was basically right across the street.

Government-General of Chōsen Building

The Government-General of Chōsen Building,[a] also known as the Japanese General Government Building and the Seoul Capitol, was a building located in Jongno District of Seoul, South Korea, from 1926 to 1996.

The Government-General Building was constructed by the Empire of Japan on the site of the Gyeongbokgung complex, the royal palace of the Joseon, and was the largest government building in East Asia. The Government-General Building served as the chief administrative building of Chōsen and the seat of its governor-general in Keijō from 1926 until 1945. The Government-General Building was the scene of numerous important events after South Korean independence in 1948, becoming the seat of the National Assembly of South Korea and housing offices of the Government of South Korea until 1950 when it was damaged during the Korean War and intentionally left derelict. President Park Chung Hee restored the Government-General Building from 1962 for government functions until the early 1980s; it housed the National Museum of South Korea from 1986.

Until its demolition, the building was long felt to be a symbol of Japanese imperialism and an impediment to the reconstruction of Gyeongbokgung. The Government-General Building was controversially planned for demolition in 1993, and was eventually demolished between 1995 and 1996.[1]

edited typos

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語必忠信 行必正直

QMS's picture

.
were lay overs in Narita
on the way to Singapore
can't say it was culturally
enriching, more like a very long
pit stop on the way to elsewhere

they wouldn't let me out of the airport without
some visa thing. oh well

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3 users have voted.

Zionism is a social disease

soryang's picture

@QMS

Ms. So has been to Japan several times with her old high school friends who still stay in touch. I have flown through Narita a few times but never stopped to see anything, it was just a stopover.

I guess the big news is Trump's big tariff deal with Japan and the other things he's gotten them to concede with it. I saw Marcos visiting with Trump, getting taken to the cleaners. He mentioned the alliance with the US and his "territorial disputes" with China.

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語必忠信 行必正直

but crossing the International Date Line was a problem for me. At the end of each Asia trip, I was due back in the office and to court and I remained foggy brained, sleepy, un-adjusted to to the time change for 2 to 3 weeks. I put if off until I retire, whenever that happens. My 2 travel pals who live in Hawaii go there fairly often, and they have nothing but the highest praise for the beauty, culture, cuisine, and safety, as they are both women who travel there alone.

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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

soryang's picture

@on the cusp @on the cusp

Ms. So when she goes stays at least a month, usually 5-6 weeks. A 5 day visit to Japan is usually a part of that. It's very difficult to go to Asia for just a week.

I was fond of Japanese design/aesthetic when I was young. In a sense, it was all I knew because until that time, Americans who had spent time in East Asia early on after WWII, were part of the occupation forces there. In the Japanese aesthetic if a piece of celadon doesn't come out perfectly you throw it away. In Korea a thrown pot with a minor flaw still has some use. I'd buy Korean celadon all day long at 15 to 35 dollars a pop, rather than see someone throw away an attractive piece because it wasn't perfect. A collector in Japan looks for a piece that is flawless perfectly thrown and glazed with no dings that costs 2 grand or more. I met people like this in Korea too.

One of our in-laws a young soldier just got off a tour there recently. Really enjoyed meeting him. It gave sister in law a chance to spend time in Japan, she loved it. Ms. So and her friends love it too. They are better off going with the travel agency group, to avoid meeting the people there who don't like Koreans or other foreigners for that matter. This is an issue with the right wing there. A splinter party Sanseito just picked up 14 seats in the upper chamber with the "hate foreigners" platform.

edited to add comments

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語必忠信 行必正直

@soryang Central America where I booked with local guides, I did group tours with Gate 1 Travel, and one trip, my first international Euro trip, with Trafalgar. Avoid Trafalgar. Some travel friends like Globus. I swear by Gate 1 Travel. Avoid Amawaterways for river cruises. They suck.

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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

soryang's picture

@on the cusp

Gate 1 is good, reliable.

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語必忠信 行必正直

@on the cusp @on the cusp Japan was the highlight of my legal career. I represented a group of Japanese investors who were screwed by American developers and their lawyers. I flew to Japan to conduct "illegal" perpetuation depositions in a hotel conference room for my clients who could not travel, won an appeal that changed Washington State securities law, then settled the case for millions. I was paid a modest monthly stipend for my work (which is how I was able to start my own practice), so the clients paid for my wife and me to have a week-long vacation in Japan. I love the Japanese.

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@Bring Back Civics Lawyers can make big and positives differences when all the pieces come together! Kudos for the game changer case, and for going solo in your practice, friend!
One pal goes to stay with her son once or twice a year. He is in the military, takes her everywhere in the country. The other pal just goes there to get a break from the intense endless parenting if her 35ish yr old autistic son. She goes alone, takes trains, visits places completely on her own. Not even a local guide. She just wings it. It is the only country where she would do that unguided and unprotected travel.
One day...I dream...

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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