The Evening Blues - 11-4-22
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features Chicago blues guitarist and harmonica player Studebaker John. Enjoy!
Studebaker John & The Hawks - Howlin' in the Moonlight
“The very word "secrecy" is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings...Our way of life is under attack. Those who make themselves our enemy are advancing around the globe...no war ever posed a greater threat to our security. If you are awaiting a finding of "clear and present danger," then I can only say that the danger has never been more clear and its presence has never been more imminent...For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence–on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations. Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried, not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed.”
-- John F. Kennedy
News and Opinion
Russian ambassador claims UK involved in drone attack on Black Sea fleet
The Russian ambassador to the UK has claimed UK special forces were involved in a Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow’s Black Sea fleet.
Andrei Kelin told Sky News: “We perfectly know about [the] participation of British specialists in [the] training, preparation and execution of violence against the Russian infrastructure and the Russian fleet in the Black Sea. We know that it has been done.”
He claimed evidence had been handed to the British ambassador and that it would “become public pretty soon”. Kelin added: “This is a warning actually that Britain is too deep in this conflict. It means the situation is becoming more and more dangerous.”
He also denied Moscow would use nuclear weapons in the conflict. Asked if Moscow would use a so-called tactical nuclear weapon, he said: “No. The world has every assurance that Russia is not going to use [a] tactical nuclear weapon in [the] Ukrainian conflict.”
Russia to Summon British Ambassador Over Black Sea Fleet Drone Strike
Russia will summon Britain's ambassador to Moscow over what it said was the involvement of British specialists in a Ukrainian drone strike on its Black Sea Fleet in Crimea, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday.
Russia grinding down Ukraine economy
Russia Fails at U.N. in Bid for Ukraine, U.S. Bioweapons Inquiry
Russia failed on Wednesday to get the United Nations Security Council to establish a formal inquiry into its accusation that the United States and Ukraine have biological weapons programs in Ukraine, a claim that Washington and Kyiv deny.
Only China voted with Russia in favor of a draft Security Council resolution on the measure. The United States, Britain and France voted against it, while the remaining 10 council members abstained. ...
Russia has raised the issue of chemical and biological weapons in Ukraine several times at the U.N. Security Council since its forces invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. The United States and Ukraine have rejected Russia's accusations.
Worth a full read:
What Worries the US Most About Lula
President Joe Biden kept a promise to Lula da Silva by congratulating him for “free, fair and credible” elections minutes after Sunday’s results declared Lula the winner over incumbent Jair Bolsonaro. Pundits have interpreted the Biden administration’s words on the Brazilian election as a demonstration that it was rooting for Lula over his opponent, known as “Tropical Trump.” This reasoning is at best misleading, if not completely faulty.
What has Washington actually most worried about Lula is the reemergence of a powerful non-aligned movement and the prospect that a progressive like Lula would be at the helm. During his previous two presidencies, Lula cast himself as a spokesman for the Global South. Times have changed since then. There is a growing number of ideologically diverse governments, which were formerly subservient to the U.S. and are now boldly defying Washington’s dictates, creating fertile ground for the expansion of a bloc of non-aligned nations that has been reinvigorated by opposition to NATO’s stance on Ukraine.
The vast majority of the world’s population, from China and India to South America and Africa, have not joined the sanctions regime against Russia and are gradually coalescing around an a new and emerging economic, financial and commercial system alternative to the West. Furthermore, the total inability of the world’s major powers, specifically the U.S. and Western Europe, to broker an agreement to end the Ukraine conflict, opens space for a leader like Lula, who throughout his career has excelled at negotiating with politicians of diverse political orientations. ...
Shortly after first coming to power in 2003, the Washington establishment viewed Lula as a reliable moderate and a counter to firebrands such as Hugo Chávez, Evo Morales and Néstor Kirchner. Mexico’s former foreign minister, ... But the favorable characterization of Lula changed in 2010, not as a result of Lula’s domestic policies, but rather his foreign policy, specifically his recognition of a Palestinian state on the basis of 1967 borders. A half dozen other Latin American governments then followed suit. The same year Lula, in the words of Reuters, “angered Washington” over his talks with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his defense of Iran’s nuclear program. ...
The Wall Street Journal titled an article on the first round of the presidential elections held on Oct. 2, which put Lula ahead, “Populism Wins Brazil’s Election.” WSJ editor Mary Anastasia O’Grady wrote: “Now candidate Lula is again promising moderation. His greatest political advantage is his image as a benevolent populist.” Rhetoric is an important element of populism, but in Lula’s case, what the U.S. is worried about are concrete actions he may take as president that would challenge U.S. hegemony. The threat stems largely from the bloc of five powerful nations that form BRICS: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
Nuclear attack on US or allies would end Kim regime, says defense secretary
The US defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, said on Thursday any nuclear attack on the US or its allies by North Korea would “result in the end of the Kim regime”.
Kim Jong-un’s government in Pyongyang has in recent days mounted a number of missile tests. The South Korean military said a test of an intercontinental ballistic missile on Thursday may have ended in failure. Japan called the launch “outrageous and absolutely intolerable”.
According to a joint communique released by the US Department of Defense, during his meeting with the South Korean defense minister, Lee Jong-sup, Austin said: “Any nuclear attack against the United States or its allies and partners, including the use of non-strategic nuclear weapons, is unacceptable and will result in the end of the Kim regime.”
Similar language was included in the US National Defense Strategy, which was released last week.
From Terrorist Backer to Kingmaker: Itamar Ben-Gvir & Israeli Far Right Help Netanyahu Regain Power
Canada orders China to divest from country’s mining companies
Canada has ordered China to immediately sell its holdings in three Canadian mining companies, as the need for investments in the extraction of critical minerals clashes with growing concerns over national security.
On Wednesday Canada’s industry minister, François-Philippe Champagne, said three Chinese companies would be required to divest from junior mining companies.
“While Canada continues to welcome foreign direct investment, we will act decisively when investments threaten our national security and our critical minerals supply chains, both at home and abroad,” Champagne said in a written statement.
The order comes after a “multi-step” review by Canada’s national security and intelligence agencies, which determined that the three companies must leave the Canadian mining industry on national security grounds.
Critical minerals and metals include lithium, cadmium, nickel and cobalt. They are essential for clean energy technologies, including turbines and electric cars and solar panels. They are also a necessary part of laptop computers and rechargeable batteries. ... Canada has extensive, largely undeveloped deposits of nickel and cobalt and Chinese companies have made up a growing share of foreign investment in the industry.
Democracy Now is a little late to the party:
Dept. of Homeland Security Ramps Up Efforts to Police Online Speech on Ukraine, COVID & Afghanistan
Top Economist at Major Global Bank Says Corporate Profits Are Fueling Inflation
The chief economist at the global investment bank UBS, the world's largest wealth manager, argued in an op-ed for the Financial Times on Wednesday that inflation in the United States "is more a product of profits than wages" and criticized Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for refusing to acknowledge that fact as he plows ahead with massive interest rate hikes.
"Powell's public remarks offer little insight into how he expects higher rates to tame inflation," Paul Donovan of UBS Global Wealth Management wrote just ahead of the Fed's latest interest rate increase of 75 basis points. "This is the current inflation story. Companies have passed higher costs on to customers. But they have also taken advantage of circumstances to expand profit margins. The broadening of inflation beyond commodity prices is more profit margin expansion than wage cost pressures."
"Despite negative real wages, consumers have carried on consuming," Donovan added. "Consumers seem to be buying stories that seem to justify price increases, but which really serve as cover for profit margin expansion... This unconventional inflation means higher unemployment and lower wages are not the only possible cure for it. Policy has more routes to lower inflation if the cause is about profits."
Thus far, though, the Powell-led Federal Reserve has primarily used interest rate increases in its as-yet unsuccessful effort to bring down inflation, even as critics warn that such an approach harms workers and risks a devastating recession without tackling the primary drivers of price increases.
At his Wednesday press conference, Powell once again conceded that rate hikes "don't directly affect for the most part food and energy prices," two major sources of inflation dictated by profit-seeking corporations such as Exxon, Chevron, and Pepsi.
"We increased prices at the beginning of the fourth quarter based on what we knew at that point," Pepsi's chief financial officer said on the company's earnings call last month. "And going forward, with the investments that we've made in brands, I still think we're capable of taking whatever pricing we need."
During his public appearance Wednesday, Powell wasn't asked a single question about the role corporate profiteering has played in causing high inflation even as executives boast about their enormous pricing power.
Progressive advocates and economists who have been spotlighting corporate America's inflationary profiteering for months seized on Donovan's Financial Times op-ed as further evidence that their data-driven argument is gradually piercing the mainstream, even as Powell ignores it.
Fed's SHOCKING New Move Could TIP Economy
Graph Shows Where Surging Corporate Profits Increasingly Go: Tax Havens
A first-of-its-kind analysis released Thursday shows how the amount of corporate profits being diverted to tax havens has skyrocketed in recent years with nearly $1 trillion in global profits being stored in places where corporate giants don't have to pay taxes.
The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) studied corporate profits and profit-shifting between 1975 and 2019, finding that the diversion of massive profits is a "relatively new phenomenon."
In the 1970s, about 2% of profits made by corporations were shifted to tax havens such as Bahamas, Anguilla, and Panama. By 2019, the amount had grown to 40%, with the use of corporate tax havens rising sharply in the past decade.
"Profit-shifting has increased relentlessly," tweeted Ludvig Wier, a co-author of the study and the head of secretariat at the Danish Ministry of Finance.
How has global profit shifting to tax havens evolved from 1975-2019?
Me & @gabriel_zucman investigate this in a new WP. https://t.co/god22Q4udb
Key finding: profit shifting has increased relentlessly. In 2019, nearly $1Tn. was shifted to havens. (1/9) pic.twitter.com/upAmElQnfI
— Ludvig Wier (@LudvigWier) November 3, 2022
The shift of profits to corporate tax havens has contributed to the loss of 10% of corporate tax revenues, estimated the authors, including Wier and French economist Gabriel Zucman.
"Of course, if there had been no profit-shifting, then countries may have chosen other policy paths, e.g. some might have been less likely to cut their corporate tax rate and engage in the 'race to the bottom,'" the study reads. "It illustrates, however, that the revenue losses caused by profit-shifting are a quantitatively important aspect of the decline in effective corporate income tax rates globally since the 1970s."
The researchers based the study on their analysis of which countries have lost the most in corporate tax revenue annually. Sixteen percent of tax revenue is lost to tax havens in the U.S. each year, according to that analysis, while 32% is lost in the U.K., 22% in France, and 29% in Germany.
"U.S. multinationals shift comparatively more profits (about 60% of their foreign profits) than multinationals from other countries (40% for the world on average)," wrote the authors. "The shareholders of U.S. multinationals thus appear to be the main winners from global profit-shifting."
The authors noted that the significant shifting of corporate profits to tax havens came after "major policy initiatives from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)" and the 2017 tax reform package pushed through the U.S. Congress by the Republican Party, which included measures to ostensibly reduce corporate tax-dodging.
"The finding suggests that there remains a dire need for additional policy initiatives to significantly reduce global profit-shifting—such as implementing the global minimum corporate tax that more than 130 countries signed onto in 2021, but now remains in limbo as it is being blocked in the E.U. and the U.S.," said Wier.
The global corporate minimum tax would ensure all companies worldwide pay a minimum tax of 15% and would require higher taxes of large companies in countries where they have customers.
"The United Nations sustainable development goals clearly state that in order to deliver poverty reduction and to decrease global inequalities, illicit financial flows such as profit-shifting must decline," Wier said.
"Make Peace Non-Partisan" - GOP House Candidate Joe Kent
'Drowning Our Democracy': US Billionaires Have Pumped Nearly $900,000,000 Into Midterms
With under a week until the U.S. midterm elections, Americans for Tax Fairness revealed Thursday that billionaires have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into campaigns this cycle, largely to benefit Republican candidates.
"A torrent of billionaire cash is drowning our democracy," declared Frank Clemente, executive director of Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF). "Money talks when it comes to influencing candidates and winning elections, and the loudest voices by far are billionaires pushing for lower taxes so they can accumulate even greater wealth and have even more power and influence."
"If we are going to have an economy that works for everyone, billionaires need to start paying their fair share," Clemente added. "And if we are going to have a democracy that works for everyone, we need to greatly curb the influence of billionaire money in our politics."
Based on an analysis of Federal Election Commission (FEC) data from Open Secrets, ATF found that through the end of September, "465 American billionaires have pumped over $881 million into federal midterm races," with the top 20 donor households giving 73% of the contributions, or collectively more than $643 million.
Putting that into a national context, ATF tweeted that "billionaires represent 0.000002% of the American population, but they're responsible for 7.4% of all political donations so far this cycle."
The group's report highlights how unprecedented the findings are, explaining that "$881 million was already a 44% increase in billionaire contributions over the entire 2018 midterm cycle, which totaled $611 million based on an earlier ATF analysis."
Reflecting the GOP's enthusiasm for tax cuts that benefit wealthy individuals and corporations, ATF found that "by a 3 to 2 margin, more billionaire cash is supporting Republicans (59%) than Democrats (39%)," with most of the remaining 2% going to super political action committees (PACs)—which can collect unlimited contributions from donors—for backers of cryptocurrency and Israel.
Pittsburgh Jews decry pro-Israel group’s support for Republican extremists
More than 240 Jewish American voters in Pittsburgh have signed a letter denouncing the US’s largest pro-Israel group for backing extremist Republican election candidates while spending millions of dollars to oppose a Democrat who would be Pennsylvania’s first Black female member of Congress.
The letter condemned the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) for its attempts to defeat Summer Lee, a candidate for the district that includes Pittsburgh, after failing to block her during the Democratic primaries earlier this year because of her criticisms of Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians.
The signatories said they were “outraged that at this critical moment in American history, Aipac has chosen to cast Democrats like Lee as extremists” while endorsing more than 100 Republican candidates who voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
The letter suggested that Aipac does not represent the views of the majority of American Jews and is working against their interests by also endorsing Republicans who promote white supremacy, a particularly sensitive issue in a city where 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogues were murdered in an antisemitic attack four years ago.
“We also condemn Aipac endorsement of lawmakers who have promoted the antisemitic ‘Great Replacement’ conspiracy theory that helped inspire the murder of eleven members of the three synagogues housed at Tree of Life,” the letter said. “Clearly, their definition of ‘extreme’ is completely opposite to that held by the majority of American Jews – who worry about the stark rise in antisemitism and white nationalism in our state and in our country.”
Big agriculture warns farming must change or risk ‘destroying the planet’
Food companies and governments must come together immediately to change the world’s agricultural practices or risk “destroying the planet”, according to the sponsors of a report by some of the largest food and farming businesses released on Thursday. The report, from a taskforce within the Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI), a network of global CEOs focused on climate issues established by King Charles III, is being released days before the start of the United Nation’s Cop27 climate summit in Egypt.
Many of the world’s largest food and agricultural businesses have championed sustainable agricultural practices in recent years. Regenerative farming practices, which prioritize cutting greenhouse gas emissions, soil health and water conservation, now cover 15% of croplands. But the pace of change has been “far too slow”, the report finds, and must triple by 2030 for the world to have any chance of keeping temperature rises under 1.5C, a level that if breached, scientists argue, will unleash even more devastating climate change on the planet.
The report is signed by Bayer, Mars, McCain Foods, McDonald’s, Mondēlez, Olam, PepsiCo, Waitrose and others. They represent a potent political and corporate force, affecting the food supply chain around the world. They are also, according to critics, some of those most responsible for climate mismanagement with one calling the report “smoke and mirrors” and unlikely to address the real crisis. ...
Agriculture is the world’s largest industry. Pasture and cropland occupy around 50% of the planet’s habitable land and uses about 70% of fresh water supplies. The climate crisis is challenging the industry across the world but the group’s call for change comes as the industry – which employs 1 billion people – is facing supply chain issues in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and soaring inflation. It also comes amid mounting skepticism about promises to change from companies that have contributed to climate change.
Nile River under threat: A closer look at Egypt's water crisis
Large dams may threaten survival of platypus populations, research finds
Major dams have disrupted gene flow between platypus populations, making them more vulnerable to threats, according to new research.
Scientists from the University of New South Wales examined the genetic makeup of platypuses in free-flowing and dammed rivers in that state.
Their results, published in Communications Biology, found there was greater genetic differentiation between platypus populations located above and below dams compared to populations in free-flowing rivers.
They said this indicated large dams were major barriers to the movement of platypuses, resulting in limited or no gene flow between separate populations.
Prof Richard Kingsford, the director of the UNSW Centre for Ecosystem Science and one of the paper’s authors, said the findings had significant implications for platypus conservation.
The ground near Hawaii’s Mauna Loa volcano is shaking.
The ground is shaking and swelling at Mauna Loa, the legendary volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii and the largest active volcano in the world. Scientists say the shaking indicates it could erupt, though they don’t expect that to happen right away. Regardless, officials on the island are telling residents to be prepared.
Mauna Loa is one of five volcanoes that together make up the Big Island of Hawaii, which is the southernmost island in the Hawaiian archipelago.
Mauna Loa sits immediately north of the Kilauea volcano, which is currently erupting from its summit crater. Kilauea is well-known for a 2018 eruption that destroyed 700 homes and sent rivers of lava spreading across farms and into the ocean.
Mauna Loa’s eruptions differ from Kilauea’s in part because it is taller. Its greater height gives it steeper slopes, which allow lava to rush down its hillsides faster than Kilauea’s. Its enormous size may allow it to store more magma, leading to larger lava flows when an eruption occurs.
Frank Trusdell, research geologist at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, which is part of the US Geological Survey, said data indicated that Mauna Loa has a much larger magma reservoir than Kilauea, which may allow it to hold more lava and rest longer between eruptions than Kilauea.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Scott Ritter: A ‘Dangerous, Bloody & Dirty Game’
Leaked documents: British spies constructing secret terror army in Ukraine
Has Russia Already Pwnd Ukraine?
Another Day, Another False Scare Story
‘This Is America. That’s the Kind of Trial Mumia Abu-Jamal Had.’
Homelessness has risen 70% in California’s capital
Two November hurricanes pose rare threat at end of 2022 Atlantic season
Meet the New Yorkers Welcoming Asylum Seekers Bused to City After Hostile Reception at U.S. Border
Poland builds fence amid concerns Russia could orchestrate influx of migrants
A Little Night Music
Studebaker John & The Hawks - Rolling & Tumbling Around
Studebaker John - Bad Gasoline
Studebaker John - Two Time Boogie
Studebaker John - Flippin' Out
Studebaker John & the Hawks - Up and Down the Line
Studebaker John - Mississippi to Chicago
Studebaker John & The Hawks With Pinetop Perkins
Studebaker John & The Hawks - She's A Rocker
Studebaker John & The Hawks - Highway King
Studebaker John & The Hawks - Flame Of Desire
Studebaker John & The Hawks - This City
Studebaker John & The Hawks - Shake
Comments
Oh deers
the hell is going on?
Not sure there is an answer to that.
Thanks for the head lines.
evening qms...
too much. i'm glad it's the weekend.
have a good one!
Russell doesn't trust Sunak/WEF etc.etc
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCq9WBs6gzU]
Long Live Europe says a slave owners descendant
The oligarch psychopaths are in control.
thanks for the EB's Joe. Stay safe and have a great weekend everyone!
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
evening ggersh...
heh, i don't see why anybody would trust sunak or the wef. they have not demonstrated trustworthiness, in fact, quite the opposite.
so van der leyen gets around to admitting that the hostilities that europe is engaged in and intends to engage in for the future are about dominating markets and subduing and subjugating countries with resources.
good of her to mention it.
Ursula von der Leyen = our Führer*in <== gender-neutral spelling
https://blogs.transparent.com/german/gender-neutral-german-das-genderste...
Sure, Brandon
We don’t even have that here and we know that you strip every country that you invade because of your rules based orders. Rules? We make the rules and what we say about those rules we expect every country to follow whilst we ignore the international laws that we agreed to follow.
More people in America are suffering from poverty while Russia and China have done tremendous work to raise their people out of it. And as JFK and others have pointed out we do not have a true democracy, but an oligarchy and secret societies that rule over us. Almost every company is owned by Vanguard and Blackrock
Ritter can’t seriously believe this can he?
Doesn’t he know how we helped instigate the 2 world wars? Anyone think that Hitler could have done what he did without the help from many Americans and American companies?
Thanks for the news and blues such as the news is. We had a lovely snowstorm yesterday with big, fat flakes and a huge skiff of measurable snow. But the mountains got hammered. Have a good weekend!
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
evening snoopy...
biden realizes that nobody is going to believe his rhetoric and that most other countries in the world don't want to be dominated by a corrupt banana republic like the u.s. - that's why he is making sure that we are armed to the teeth.
i don't know if he really does or not, but it's the sort of statement that people put before criticisms of the full spectrum dominance, presumably to guard against charges of anti-americanism.
Good evening Joe, thanks for the evening blues.
All that politics and political news almost distracts from the story about the platypusses and the Mauna Loa news.
She's a rocker sure was a pleasant surprise leaping up out of nowhere, took me back to '57 and got me moving my feet. Had to go back and listen to it again.
Have a fantastic weekend and
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...
well, the political news is always a distraction from anything that really matters.
keep those feet moving and have a great weekend!
Rotflmao….
Nazis just congratulated Bibi for winning Israel’s election.
Hmmm what common values do they share? Oh I know…ask me. I wonder if Bibi will respond?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
heh...
ethnic cleansing.
Bingo
Do you think he will respond and if yes, how?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
welll...
if he does respond, i would guess that it would be in diplomatese. bibi is certainly familiar with zelensky, after all i'm pretty sure that bibi was pm when israeli arms were given to azov.
i see no reason why bibi would feel shame. he might, however, wish to avoid offending the russians because he wants to keep bombing syria. zelensky has been angling for the iron dome system for a while and israel knows it's a red line for russia. if bibi avoids zelensky, it's not because anything zelensky and the nazis do offends him in any way, it's just a matter of priorities.
Good answer
Yes I remember that Israel had given Ukraine some rifles and it was a few years ago during Bibi's tenure. I agree with you too that he wouldn’t be ashamed of supporting Ukraine except he doesn’t want Russia to stop Israel from bombing Syria. But what I don’t understand is why Russia is allowing it. Remember that Israel was responsible for shooting down a Russian plane while it was bombing Syria. Russia went in to Syria just to stop us, but not Israel? That doesn’t make sense if Putin is Assad's ally. And why isn’t Russia and its supporters not calling out Israel for its activities or ours for stealing Syria’s oil? This world is FUBAR beyond belief.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
heh...
well, i think that russia's main priority is its naval base in tartus, syria. i doubt that they care for the things that are happening (and i vaguely remember them somewhat upgrading syria's air defenses) but, mostly, i think that they want to protect their base and not escalate any conflicts.
The west has been trying to destroy Russia for centuries
They have failed every time!
This is America
"A lot of times, even my own stations at Pacifica would say, “No, we’re not going to touch that. No, we’re not going to talk to homeless people.”
those fucks.