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OT WE 27 AUG 25 ~ Current Events

Submitted by QMS on Wed, 08/27/2025 - 5:44am

Here Today, gone tomorrow.

In today's episode, will focus on Venezuela and the distractions of the US sending
warships to the region.

Insert map* (image handler non-functioning at present)

Is The South American country too socialist for uncle Sam? They obviously have more
oil than what's good for them. Apparently, the Monroe Doctrine is still an enforceable
diktat, albeit decidedly one-sided.

Russia and China also have interests in VZ. The fear mongers would have us believe
Putin is gifting Oreshnik Missiles (one for each warship I assume).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRHlLCh6dQc

The yankee military planners are gleeful they have found another war to lose at
great cost. It's just what they do. How do you see this little misadventure playing
out?

Lede image: From Christopher Herwig's new book "Tuks and Trucks"

Open thread, so weigh in on whatever you have.

Tags:

Open Thread

Vote

Comments

Submitted by QMS on Wed, 08/27/2025 - 6:21am

Good morning campers

.
Some fun facts about VZ -

-Venezuela’s capital is Caracas, a city nicknamed The Avila’s Sultana.
- The largest River is the Orinoco
- - https://lacgeo.com/orinoco-river-basin-delta-south-america

—

Zionism is a social disease

Submitted by QMS on Wed, 08/27/2025 - 7:28am

The other side of the story

.
.

Venezuela deploys warships, drones to coast as US naval squadron nears

Maduro doesn't buy the "narco raid" ploy the US is selling. Regime change is more likely.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/8/27/venezuela-deploys-warships-dron...

—

Zionism is a social disease

Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Wed, 08/27/2025 - 7:37am

The Reading lag and Posing lag on c99

...have rendered it almost unusable for most visitors.

The site has always needed new name.

Submitted by QMS on Wed, 08/27/2025 - 7:49am

Yeah, it is pretty bad today

@Pluto's Republic
.
Hoping it clears later.

—

Zionism is a social disease

Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Wed, 08/27/2025 - 8:36am

It's been pretty bad

@QMS

....for a long, long time.

This site is essentially "down."

Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Wed, 08/27/2025 - 8:34am

Let's get current... with Edward Snowden

Submitted by earthling1 on Wed, 08/27/2025 - 1:10pm

Never come home Ed

@Pluto's Republic
It's a trap.
America is your Hotel California.

—

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Submitted by on the cusp on Wed, 08/27/2025 - 8:42am

Good morning, Cap'n!

My resolution for today is not to criticize anything for being below my standards without first making an effort to solve the problem.
Thanks for the OT, friend.

—

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

Submitted by QMS on Wed, 08/27/2025 - 10:20am

That is a good philosophy to have

@on the cusp

Hope your resolution is a success.

—

Zionism is a social disease

Submitted by JtC on Wed, 08/27/2025 - 10:33am

Thank you...

@on the cusp
I'm doing the best that I can within my abilities. You would know that more than anyone else.

Reading the complaints does nothing but to discourage me further.

Submitted by usefewersyllables on Wed, 08/27/2025 - 11:20am

We know that

@JtC

you are laboring tirelessly on our behalf, and I for one would like to thank you for doing that largely thankless job. I appreciate your efforts, and have an inkling of what it takes to simply keep the site up and running, let alone to update and improve it. You'll hear no grousing from this corner of the blahiverse!

Much appreciated, sir. You certainly have my eternal gratitude.

—

Twice bitten, permanently shy.

Submitted by earthling1 on Wed, 08/27/2025 - 11:24am

I applaud your efforts immensely

@JtC
and have much patience. I can't imagine what you are going through.
It's beginning to look like a sophisticated digital attack.
TPTB have found Caucus99%. They may be among us.

—

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Submitted by QMS on Wed, 08/27/2025 - 11:35am

Re: the pic of the colorful truck

.
in SE Asia. Yesterday I purchased a new (older) Ford Ranger to replace the
Chevy Astro as the frame had rusted out about 3 months ago. Riding my bike
around is good exercise, but my projects are much further away. Spend a little
money to get wheels, as to get back to billable time frames.

Thanks to JtC for keeping the site alive.

—

Zionism is a social disease

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Wed, 08/27/2025 - 11:39am

Good morning Cap'n, busy morning here, and now

off to the dentist for two back to back app. slots. Gotto roll pronto, maybe pot something later today.

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 --

Submitted by usefewersyllables on Wed, 08/27/2025 - 4:23pm

My friend

the history professor at one of our CO colleges, and I, have been continuing our conversations on the glossing of US history. Both of us are strong believers in the observation that the US has actually *never* been the "good guy" in our military adventurings- from the destruction of the indigenous populations here in the US, to the many and continuous wars-of-choice upon which we continue to squander irreplaceable lives and resources.

I'll say it again: the United States has *never* been the good guy, regardless of what we've been told, over and over. We are the most effectively propagandized population the world has ever known, precisely because we have been trained from birth that we aren't. From Sand Creek to My Lai, from Dresden to Nagasaki, Havana to the Gulf of Tonkin, from the Halls of Montezuma to the Shores of Tripoli, any actual humanly-desirable benfits have been mere happy coincidences and side effects to the real purpose of our adventurings- which has been to funnel ever more money and power to the real Owners of the country. We even had to goad the Japanese into attacking us at Pearl Harbor, for Gawd's sake, and specifically ignored the early warnings when it finally happened. And now we have our full-throated support and sponsorship of the Gaza genocide.

I've now started redoing some research I did 40 years ago, to produce a total number of the equivalents of barrels of oil we've (largely pointlessly) burned in our unceasing efforts towards "world domination", and especially during the Cold War. When I did this before, the numbers were eye-watering- and with recent FOIA revelations, I expect that the numbers will be larger, and possibly more accurate. It'll take a little while, but I really want that information at hand, and to know that it was not merely a hallucination produced by a poorly-prompted AI somewhere.

It is like the found-sound lyric in Pete Townshend's "Give Blood", from the White City album:

"There will come a day of reckoning, I'm tellin' ya. It's all building up to something- something that can only be redeemed with fire."

People need to know and understand that we've never been the good guys, regardless of what we have been carefully taught. What will occur when that learning finally occurs among the general population will not be pleasant- but it is necessary.

—

Twice bitten, permanently shy.

Submitted by QMS on Wed, 08/27/2025 - 12:27pm

Agree that an awakening to the harsh reality

@usefewersyllables
.
of US policy against the rest of the world is very ripe,
at least for the domestic audience. Most of the ROW
already know what we are slowly grokking as a society.

Good luck adding-up all the oil wasted on the failed imperial adventures.

the history professor at one of our CO colleges, and I, have been continuing our conversations on the glossing of US history. Both of us are strong believers in the observation that the US has actually *never* been the "good guy" in our military adventurings- from the destruction of the indigenous populations here in the US, to the many and continuous wars-of-choice upon which we continue to squander irreplaceable lives and resources.

I'll say it again: the United States has *never* been the good guy, regardless of what we've been told, over and over. We are the most effectively propagandized population the world has ever known, precisely because we have been trained from birth that we aren't. From Sand Creek to My Lai, from Dresden to Nagasaki, Havana to the Gulf of Tonkin, from the Halls of Montezuma to the Shores of Tripoli, any actual humanly-desirable benfits have been mere happy coincidences and side effects to the real purpose of our adventurings- which has been to funnel ever more money and power to the real Owners of the country. We even had to goad the Japanese into attacking us at Pearl Harbor, for Gawd's sake, and specifically ignored the early warnings when it finally happened. And now we have our full-throated support and sponsorship of the Gaza genocide.

I've now started redoing some research I did 40 years ago, to produce a total number of the equivalents of barrels of oil we've (largely pointlessly) burned in our unceasing efforts towards "world domination", and especially during the Cold War. When I did this before, the numbers were eye-watering- and with recent FOIA revelations, I expect that the numbers will be larger, and possibly more accurate. It'll take a little while, but I really want that information at hand, and to know that it was not merely a hallucination produced by a poorly-prompted AI somewhere.

It is like the found-sound lyric in Pete Townshend's "Give Blood", from the White City album:

"There will come a day of reckoning, I'm tellin' ya. It's all building up to something- something that can only be redeemed with fire."

People need to know and understand that we've never been the good guys, regardless of what we have been carefully taught. What will occur when that learning finally occurs among the general population will not be pleasant- but it is necessary.

—

Zionism is a social disease

Submitted by usefewersyllables on Wed, 08/27/2025 - 4:37pm

Thanks for

@QMS

linking that tune in- it allowed me to correct my memory error on that found-sound quote.

Great tune. Simon Phillips on drums, one of my all-time favorite British studio cats. That whole album is a classic.

Now, back to the present unpleasantness...

—

Twice bitten, permanently shy.

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Wed, 08/27/2025 - 2:16pm

I don't see how you can say that; consider this -

@usefewersyllables

a lot of our first settlers were Brits who were habitual criminals and who were, accordingly, transported for life to the colonies. Surely taking these neer do wells off of England's hands was a good deed, wasn't it?

be well and have a good one

the history professor at one of our CO colleges, and I, have been continuing our conversations on the glossing of US history. Both of us are strong believers in the observation that the US has actually *never* been the "good guy" in our military adventurings- from the destruction of the indigenous populations here in the US, to the many and continuous wars-of-choice upon which we continue to squander irreplaceable lives and resources.

I'll say it again: the United States has *never* been the good guy, regardless of what we've been told, over and over. We are the most effectively propagandized population the world has ever known, precisely because we have been trained from birth that we aren't. From Sand Creek to My Lai, from Dresden to Nagasaki, Havana to the Gulf of Tonkin, from the Halls of Montezuma to the Shores of Tripoli, any actual humanly-desirable benfits have been mere happy coincidences and side effects to the real purpose of our adventurings- which has been to funnel ever more money and power to the real Owners of the country. We even had to goad the Japanese into attacking us at Pearl Harbor, for Gawd's sake, and specifically ignored the early warnings when it finally happened. And now we have our full-throated support and sponsorship of the Gaza genocide.

I've now started redoing some research I did 40 years ago, to produce a total number of the equivalents of barrels of oil we've (largely pointlessly) burned in our unceasing efforts towards "world domination", and especially during the Cold War. When I did this before, the numbers were eye-watering- and with recent FOIA revelations, I expect that the numbers will be larger, and possibly more accurate. It'll take a little while, but I really want that information at hand, and to know that it was not merely a hallucination produced by a poorly-prompted AI somewhere.

It is like the found-sound lyric in Pete Townshend's "Give Blood", from the White City album:

"There will come a day of reckoning, I'm tellin' ya. It's all building up to something- something that can only be redeemed with fire."

People need to know and understand that we've never been the good guys, regardless of what we have been carefully taught. What will occur when that learning finally occurs among the general population will not be pleasant- but it is necessary.

—

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 --

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Wed, 08/27/2025 - 2:42pm

So, Der Furor(TM) avers to have been awaiting an invite

before invading Chicago, etc. Let us all hope that he behaves in like fashion with respect to Venezuela

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 --

Submitted by QMS on Wed, 08/27/2025 - 2:57pm

One can only hope the present regime

@enhydra lutris
.
does not trip over their expanded egos and piss-off a
bunch of S. American countries in the process. But big
bullsh*t knows no bounds.

—

Zionism is a social disease