The Evening Blues - 6-15-22



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Young Jessie

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features r&b singer and songwriter Young Jessie. Enjoy!

Young Jessie - Hit Git & Split

"One mainstream faction says you should consent to the oligarchic empire because oligarchy and empire are awesome, the other says you should consent to the oligarchic empire because of intersectionality and inclusivity. Their agendas are the same; only the justifications differ."

-- Caitlin Johnstone


News and Opinion

Headline should read, "Declassified files reveal how imperialist governments think."

Declassified files reveal British interest in Falkland Islands oil

British ministers were keen to exploit oil around the Falkland Islands before and after the 1982 conflict, declassified British government documents show. In a previously unpublished letter, the former chancellor Norman Lamont said the revenues from Falklands oil should go to the British government, not the Falkland islanders.

“I have no doubt that in the event of a major oil find, tax revenues should accrue to the UK exchequer. That seems to me only equitable given the very substantial financial as well as other sacrifices that the UK has made … to secure the freedom of the Falkland Islands,” Lamont wrote to the then foreign secretary, Douglas Hurd, on 21 October 1991. Lamont added: “We would not want to give credence to the accusation that our Falkland Islands operation was motivated by a belief that there was oil to be found in Falklands waters, which would be quite untrue.”

Nevertheless, he and other cabinet ministers, including the prime minister, John Major, and Hurd, agreed that Britain should get the bulk of any oil revenues, approving a 1991 overseas and defence policy cabinet committee paper that stated: “If oil were to be found in commercially recoverable quantities, HMG [Her Majesty’s Government] … should take such measures as are necessary to ensure that HMG can secure access to a substantial share of the concomitant revenues.”

The paper asked: “Should the Falkland islanders be the exclusive beneficiaries of what might be comparatively enormous wealth?” It concluded: “We should only seek access to oil-related revenues when it is clear that the financial benefits will outweigh the political difficulties.”

Ministers agreed to authorise the islanders to carry out seismic surveys to establish the size of the oil deposits and then decide how to share the revenues. On 22 November 1991, Britain proclaimed its right to up to 200 nautical miles of the seabed and subsoil around the islands. The Falkland Islands government began to auction oil exploration licences in 1996, but all the revenues since then have accrued to the Falklands government, not Britain.

Official papers for the years after 1991 have not yet been declassified, but the outcome suggests that the British government concluded that the value of the oil revenues did not outweigh the political embarrassment of claiming them.

[More damning details at the link. -js]

Lots of interesting information in this longer piece:

The economic and geostrategic significance of the Black Sea region and the imperialist proxy war against Russia in Ukraine

The imperialist proxy war in Ukraine against Russia is the outcome of a decades-long drive by the imperialist powers to bring the territories of the former Soviet Union under their direct control and represents a qualitatively new stage in the emergence of a new world struggle between the imperialist powers for the redivision of the resources of the globe. In its recent analysis of the role of critical minerals in the geostrategic and economic objectives of the imperialist drive to subjugate Russia through war, the World Socialist Web Site noted:

The breaking apart of Russia and its domination by American capital would be a strategic stepping stone in the efforts of the American ruling class to impose a “new American century” through the subordination of China and Eurasia more broadly to its aims. Resources play a role in this. Amid the enduring need for oil and natural gas, as well as the rapidly growing need for critical minerals, Russia is seen as a vital landmass with a vast array of riches.

If the war against Russia is a “stepping stone” to the war against China, control over the Black Sea is seen as a stepping stone for the breakup of Russia. Gaining direct access to the resources of the former Soviet Union, which had been closed off to imperialism for seven decades following the 1917 October Revolution, has been a major goal of the imperialist powers for decades. ...

In his book The Grand Chessboard, Zbigniew Brzezinski, one of the most influential foreign policy advisers of Washington in the past half century, elaborated on the principal significance of what geostrategists call “Eurasia”—the landmass of Europe and Asia—for the desperate efforts by the US to preserve its global hegemony. Within Eurasia, Brzezinski identified what he called the “Eurasian Balkans” as the region where the major conflicts over the control of all of Eurasia would take place. This region, Brzezinski wrote, stretched “from Crimea in the Black Sea directly eastward along the new southern frontiers of Russia, all the way to the Chinese province of Xinjiang, then down to the Indian Ocean and thence westward to the Red Sea, then northward to the eastern Mediterranean Sea and back to Crimea.”

Almost all of the 25 states in this region, he continued, are “ethnically as well as religiously heterogeneous and practically none of them [are] politically stable. … This huge region, torn by volatile hatreds and surrounded by competing powerful neighbors, is likely to be a major battlefield, both for wars among nation-states and, more likely, for protracted ethnic and religious violence.” Brzezinski’s book was not so much a “prediction” but rather an outline of the fundamental strategic objectives and considerations of US imperialism. Indeed, the region he termed the “Eurasian Balkans” has been turned upside down in the past decades through a combination of US bombing raids and invasions, and the systematic fueling of civil wars and ethnic strife.

Ukraine Shells Donetsk, Russia Demands Surrender in Severodonetsk, Economic Crises Ukraine, West

Biden Starts Throwing Zelensky Under The Bus

Mark this one on your calendar:

Pentagon Says Ukraine Will Survive and the US Will Arm It for Years to Come

On Monday, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks said Pentagon leaders believe the state of Ukraine will survive Russia’s invasion and that the US is preparing to arm the country for years to come.

Russian Sanctions DIDN'T WORK To Stop Putin. It Only WORSENED Inflation, Biden Admin Admits: Report

Turkey threatens year’s delay to Swedish and Finnish entry to Nato

Turkey has said it is willing to delay Swedish and Finnish membership of Nato for more than a year unless it receives satisfactory assurances that the two Nordic countries are willing to address support for Kurdish groups it regards as terrorist organisations. Finland’s prime minister said on Tuesday that the two nations’ Nato applications could stall if the issue is not resolved before a vital Nato summit due to start in Madrid on 29 June.

Turkey accuses Sweden and Finland of harbouring alleged members of the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) and also objects to their decisions in 2019 to ban arms exports to Ankara due to Turkey’s military operations in Syria.

Turkey has gone on a public diplomacy offensive to highlight Swedish support for Kurdish groups in northern Syria that it links to the PKK – designated as a terrorist organisation in the EU, US and Turkey – and is planning to stage a fringe meeting on the issue at the Nato summit.

“This is a matter of vital national interest, and we are prepared to prevent their membership for as long as a year if necessary,” said Akif Cagatay Kilic, an MP for the ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) and chair of the Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs committee. “Turkey is the second largest army in Nato and has been providing the drones that help Ukraine defend itself. We deserve greater respect.”

He said Turkey respected its own duties and responsibilities to the alliance. “What are [Sweden and Finland] going to do? They have been harbouring terrorist organisations that kill my people, disrespect my borders, pose an existential threat to my country. The only thing we demand is that there are no distinctions. A terrorist organisation is a terrorist organisation.”

US, EU NEW Russia strategy. Guided missiles to Ukraine. Serbia oil warning. Angry Biden.

US defence contractor in talks to take over NSO Group’s hacking technology

The US defence contractor L3Harris is in talks to take over NSO Group’s surveillance technology, in a possible deal that would give an American company control over one of the world’s most sophisticated and controversial hacking tools.

Multiple sources confirmed that discussions were centred on a sale of the Israeli company’s core technology – or code – as well as a possible transfer of NSO personnel to L3Harris. But any agreement still faces significant hurdles, including requiring the blessing of the US and Israeli governments, which have not yet given the green light to a deal.

In a statement, a senior White House official said: “Such a transaction, if it were to take place, raises serious counterintelligence and security concerns for the US government.” ...

If agreed, the deal would mark an astounding turnaround for NSO, less than a year after the Biden administration placed the company on a US blacklist and accused it of acting “contrary to the foreign policy and national security interests of the US”.

NSO’s government clients are known to have used the surveillance technology to target journalists, human rights activists, senior government officials in US-allied countries, and lawyers around the world.

Powell Lets Wall Street Pay Skyrocket While Targeting Workers’ Wages

While former private equity executive and Federal Reserve Bank Chair Jerome Powell takes aim at workers with a pledge to “get wages down” to combat inflation, he has declined to implement a law to reduce the skyrocketing paychecks of his former colleagues on Wall Street. He has also approved and financed a merger wave that critics say has inflated the cost of consumer financial services.

The 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law mandated the creation of a rule to rein in Wall Street bonuses. The rule is supposed to be developed and implemented by six regulatory agencies, including the Federal Reserve that Powell runs.

But as he has sounded the alarm about inflation and wages, Powell has so far has done nothing to help create that rule, even as Wall Street bonuses just hit an all-time record at $45 billion in a single year.

Medicare for All Could Have Prevented More Than 338,000 US Covid Deaths: Study

Covid-19 has killed more than one million people in the United States over the past two years, but more than 338,000 of those lives could have been saved if the country had a universal single-payer healthcare system such as Medicare for All.

That's according to new peer-reviewed research published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Although U.S. residents pay more for healthcare than their peers around the world, the nation's fragmented for-profit model leaves tens of millions of people uninsured and delivers worse outcomes.

Unnecessary costs and preventable deaths were already rampant in the U.S. before the coronavirus took hold, but the ongoing pandemic has further exposed and exacerbated the many preexisting inequalities that have contributed to exceptionally high mortality compared with other high-income countries.

Universal single-payer healthcare, which the study calls "fundamental to pandemic preparedness," could have prevented 338,594 Covid-19 deaths in the U.S. from the beginning of the public health emergency to mid-March 2022. Researchers estimate that if everyone in the country was provided with comprehensive care for free at the point of service, 131,438 people who died from Covid-19 could have been spared in 2020 alone, and roughly 80,000 people with other diseases could have been saved that year. More than 207,000 additional Covid-19 deaths could have been averted in 2021 and the first three months of this year.

With Medicare for All, the U.S. also could have avoided $105.6 billion in healthcare expenses associated with Covid-19 hospitalizations over the course of the pandemic, the study says.

Biden KOWTOWS For Saudi Oil After Criticizing Trump For The Same: Briahna Joy Gray

Gasoline Prices In U.S. See Eighth Rise In As Many Weeks

Gasoline prices rose for the eighth straight week, according to a Monday GasBuddy newsletter, cautioning that the United States is just one supply jolt away from even higher prices at the pump.

Gas prices rose 15.7 cents from one week ago, to $5.01 per gallon today. The national average compared to a month ago is 57.1 cents higher, and $1.94 higher from a year ago. Diesel prices have also increased, to $5.77 per gallon—a 13.8 cent rise over last week.

“For the first time ever, last week saw the national average reaching the $5 per gallon mark as nearly every one of the nation’s 50 states saw prices jump. ...

While gasoline prices rose, crude oil prices dipped on Monday as inflation rates worried the market. At 10:30 a.m., ET, WTI was trading down 1.26% on the day at $119.20.

Why is Starbucks’ union drive speeding ahead while Amazon’s stumbles?

In a historic win in December, baristas in Buffalo voted to make their Starbucks the first of more than 9,000 corporate-operated Starbucks in the US to unionize. Since then, 143 other Starbucks have unionized and workers at 120 other locations have petitioned for union elections.

In another historic victory, a vote count on 1 April showed that workers at an 8,300-employee Amazon warehouse in Staten Island, New York, had voted to make theirs the first unionized Amazon facility in the country. Since then, however, no other Amazon warehouse has even petitioned for a union election (although workers at a 1,500-employee Amazon facility in Staten Island later voted to reject unionization).

So why has the Starbucks union drive taken off like a rocket while the Amazon campaign is only inching along? Isaiah Thomas, a pro-union worker at the Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, sees many reasons for the different pace – and said the biggest was the different size of the workplace. “There might be only 28 workers at a Starbucks, but 6,000 at our Amazon warehouse. In terms of what the organizing committee has to do at Starbucks, it’s not a lot of people. They can keep a close-knit friendship. They can coordinate things closely.” ...

“Another thing that makes it harder at Amazon is that the turnover rate is ridiculous, 150%,” Thomas said. That rapid coming-and-going of employees makes it harder to get the 30% of workers to sign cards needed to request a union election, and once an election is scheduled, harder to explain to all the workers why they should vote in favor. ...

Colin Cochran, a Starbucks barista in Buffalo said there was a little-recognized reason the Starbucks drive had been able to expand so rapidly. In the beginning, when the effort was limited to Buffalo, Starbucks flew many managers and lawyers in to work alongside baristas and help stifle the campaign. But the initial Buffalo victory quickly inspired unionization petitions in dozens of other cities, and Starbucks management and its anti-union law firm, Littler Mendelson, simply couldn’t maintain nearly as intense an anti-union effort as in Buffalo. “We basically shattered their anti-union campaign,” Cochran said. “All of a sudden we had union drives in 100 stores.”

Police officer gets $1.5m settlement to resign after antisemitic behavior

A senior police officer from Kent, Washington, will receive $1.5m in order to resign in a settlement with the city after an investigation into antisemitic behavior, including pinning Nazi insignia on his office door. Assistant police chief Derek Kammerzell was initially suspended after multiple complaints surfaced in September 2020 from other officers for behavior indicative of sympathetic behavior towards Nazis, such as displaying Nazi imagery above his name placard on his office door and making jokes about the Holocaust. ...

Further complaints from members of the Jewish community made to the city prompted officials to take action a second time beyond suspension, this time demanding the resignation of Kammerzell. However, the two parties entered into negotiations instead, eventually resulting in the city paying Kammerzell to resign.



the evening greens


Methane leak at Russian mine could be largest ever discovered

Possibly the world’s biggest leak of methane has been discovered coming from a coalmine in Russia, which has been pouring out the carbon dioxide equivalent of five coal-fired power stations.

About 90 tonnes an hour of methane were being released from the mine in January, when the gas was first traced to its source, according to data from GHGSat, a commercial satellite monitoring company based in Canada. Sustained over the course of a year, this would produce enough natural gas to power 2.4m homes.

More recently, the mine appears to be leaking at a lower rate, of about a third of the highest rate recorded in January, but the leak is thought to have been active for at least six months before January’s survey.

The leak, which comes from the Raspadskaya mine in Kemerovo Oblast, the largest coalmine in Russia, is about 50% bigger than any other leak seen by GHGSat since it started its global satellite monitoring in 2016. The company believes it is bigger than any leak yet traced to a single source.

Rare Yellowstone closure from historic floods spells hardship for 'gateway' towns

Seems awful early for this...

Over 100m Americans urged to stay indoors over extreme heat and humidity

More than 100 million Americans are being warned to stay indoors if possible as high temperatures and humidity settle in over states stretching through parts of the Gulf coast to the Great Lakes and east to the Carolinas.

The National Weather Service Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland, said on Monday 107.5 million people will be affected by combination of heat advisories, excessive heat warnings and excessive heat watches through Wednesday.

The heatwave, which set several high temperature records in the west, the south-west and into Denver during the weekend, moved east into parts of the Gulf coast and the midwest on Monday and will expand to the Great Lakes and east to the Carolinas, the National Weather Service said.

St Louis, Memphis, Minneapolis and Tulsa are among several cities under excessive heat warnings, with temperatures forecast to reach about 100F (38C), accompanied by high humidity that could make conditions feel close to 110F (43C).


Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

The 1977 White House climate memo that should have changed the world

Leaked emails expose Paul Mason’s collusion with senior British intelligence agent

"Intel by proxy": the real Bellingcat story

John Kiriakou: The Triumph of “Bloody Gina,” the CIA’s Torture Queen

Our Real Enemies Are Not In Beijing Or Moscow: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

Ukraine - Killing Surrendering Soldiers, Shelling Civilians

Biden’s New Press Secretary Almost Calls Saudis A ‘Regime’

NATO-Russia war inflames conflict between Turkey and Greece

Some European Factories, Long Dependent on Cheap Russian Energy, Are Shutting Down

PATRICK LAWRENCE: Biden’s Summit of No-Shows

Iran Believes Israel Killed Two Iranian Scientists With Poison

Study Finds Fossil Fuel Gold Rush After War in Ukraine

Yellowstone national park closed after record rain and major flooding

Fastest-growing black hole of past 9bn years may have been found, Australian-led astronomers say

In perfect minute detail: jumping spiders, falling water drops and more – in pictures

New York Pushes Censorship To Solve Gun Violence?!?

Venezuelan Pretend President Juan Guaidó Attacked In Public

LEAKED LAPTOP AUDIO: Hunter Biden BRAGS Dad Joe Will 'Talk About Anything That I Want Him To'


A Little Night Music

Young Jessie - Mary Lou

Young Jessie - Shuffle In The Gravel

Young Jessie - I Smell A Rat

Young Jessie - Hot Dog

Young Jessie - Be Bop Country Boy

Young Jesse - Do You Love Me

Young Jessie - Too Fine For Cryin´

Young Jessie - Pretty Soon

Young Jessie - Don't Think I Will

Young Jessie - Mary Lou (Alternate Take)


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14 users have voted.

Comments

What is it that has enraged the West over Russia that they are committing both economic and military suicide? The Soviet Union is no more so no ideological struggle. Russia is not much different than other countries practicing market capitalism. Christians are in the majority. Various types of religious and ethnic groups get along in a diverse country. Something the West is proud of itself for supposedly doing.

Same with China. What have both China and Russia done to make the West hysterical? There is something that goes beyond geopolitics and economics which I ain't grasping? And which may lead to global catastrophe.

Sorry not much to contribute other than confusion.

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11 users have voted.

@MrWebster @MrWebster

is mostly about losing control of global economics, from what I see.
It is not that those two countries are a military threat to the huge US
war machine, so much as the hedgemon is unwilling to power share.
Unfortunately, as the playground bullies start to confront stronger
adversaries, it has become clear the once almighty Petro dollar has lost
its' power in shaping geopolitical agendas.

A smart political response would be to compromise, concede reality and
back away from potentially devastating confrontations. Unfortunately, our
fickle leaders are bought by the war machine and are not allowed to make
reasonable concessions. Just ask Israel.

Our so called political leaders are nothing more than a front to conquer in the
guise of Wall Street economic dominance. IMO. We will witness this inept ploy
as our country becomes a failing empire for the sake of a few greedy individuals.

Sad to see this coming down, but most of the populous are not aware of how this
will play out. We are already suffering for the stupidity.

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11 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@MrWebster

well, you see, a long time ago this guy named zbiggy told the masters-of-the-universe-wannabes that they had to dominate eurasia if they were going to rule the world.

russia and china have been unwilling to submit to their demands. so war.

at least that's the way it looks to me. have a great evening!

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8 users have voted.

@MrWebster

I see the desperate attempt to control both the narrative and the power of resources as motivated by fear, fear of being brought to justice for the crimes they have committed. If they lose control of the narrative, they will lose control of the reporting of events. If they lose control of the unlimited funds of the defense and covert budgets, they will lose control of justice.

You ask,

What is it that has enraged the West over Russia that they are committing both economic and military suicide?

Russia has been for the last century a frontier of resources waiting to be exploited. It also has a workforce capable of doing the hard work of exploiting those resources under extreme weather and geographic conditions. The problem of the last century is that the Russian people have a nasty habit of insisting they be paid for their work. To my mind this is the whole struggle.

Our neo-con warlords loved Yeltsin. They loved grabbing public resources and turning them into private plunder. They loved sticking it to the Russian people that they would have no more health care, no more education system, no more law enforcement, no more wages. They love stuff like that. PUTIN has somehow forced these plunderers to pay wages and taxes. He has raised the standard of living of the Russian people, of the Russian workforce, and of the Russian MILITARY, which is EXACTLY what the original Bolsheviks intended to do over time. The time is now. He's doing it. And our warlords hate that, because if labor is no longer oppressed, they will have lost control.

I believe the current leadership of China is doing it also. They have reached the tipping point where the Chinese people are traveling and investing in their own future. They are now consumers of the goods and services they produce. What the fuck do they need with Wall Street? Come to think of it, what the fuck do we need with Wall Street?

Sadly, our neo-lord war-cons have nuclear weapons and will blow life off of our planet if they don't get their way. Fortunately, PUTIN has faced terrorists before, but unfortunately, he knows first hand they are not bluffing. In the Azot and Azovstal sieges we are seeing what Putin has had to deal with in Russia in the horrific school terrorist attack, as hundreds of hostages, including children, have been involved. Somehow, the Russian military has been able to resolve the Azovstal crisis. Hopefully, Putin will find a way to solve the crisis of our deranged, suicidal punk leadership. If he can't, we the American people will have to do it.

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8 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@Linda Wood

Our neocons have hated Putin since he put a stop to their stealing Russia’s assets and trying to impose austerity measures on the Russian people like they have done in many countries. After the USSR fell Clinton and his cronies went on a crime spree inside Russia and with the help of many of the oligarchs they started stealing their resources. Plus this from the 2nd article posted here:

The imperialist proxy war in Ukraine against Russia is the outcome of a decades-long drive by the imperialist powers to bring the territories of the former Soviet Union under their direct control and represents a qualitatively new stage in the emergence of a new world struggle between the imperialist powers for the redivision of the resources of the globe. In its recent analysis of the role of critical minerals in the geostrategic and economic objectives of the imperialist drive to subjugate Russia through war, the World Socialist Web Site noted:

The breaking apart of Russia and its domination by American capital would be a strategic stepping stone in the efforts of the American ruling class to impose a “new American century” through the subordination of China and Eurasia more broadly to its aims. Resources play a role in this. Amid the enduring need for oil and natural gas, as well as the rapidly growing need for critical minerals, Russia is seen as a vital landmass with a vast array of riches.

Ziggy Breski gave them the playbook for how to extend their hegemony to the whole Eur-Asian countries. Russia and China have some of the last untapped countries that they want to get their greedy hands on and privatize their companies like they have done in so many countries that they use the IMF in by making loans to them if they will just privatize their industries like they have in so many countries. After Nuland overthrew Ukraine’s president and installed the puppet one wages and pensions dropped there. It’s what we’ve done to so many countries in S America, but it’s looking like many countries there have had enough of our evil ways as mentioned in the Patrick Lawrence essay in the add ons.

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6 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@snoopydawg

thank you for this article. You are a beacon of hope for me every day. Thank you for all the work you do, for all the light you shine on the truth.

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4 users have voted.
Lookout's picture

...been another hot one today, but got chores done early before it became painful. It is amazing how you can get used to the heat, but getting out of it in the worse of the heat is preferred. Early morning is our strategy.

As to the world ...well the globalists are still consolidating power (among the 15%?) and the bipolar world is trying to create a "Fair new world order". I can't help but root for those opting for people not power.

Hope you are all doing well!

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9 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

joe shikspack's picture

@Lookout

pretty sticky here today, too. on the other hand, looking at how it is elsewhere, i am not going to complain, it was habitable here today. Smile

heh, looks like out there in the world the globalists are fighting with the overwrought impulses of the playground bullies that are bifurcating the global economy that they have arranged to oppress everyone else and amuse themselves.

have a great evening!

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5 users have voted.
ggersh's picture

99 yesterday, 97 today, 92 tomorrow. I'm not complaining though as we've been
waiting quite some time for summer to arrive!

Here's a nice video from Darkhorse

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WXdJnncWG8]

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6 users have voted.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@ggersh

interesting video. i wonder if the problem that they are really tilting at is the scale of society, in that large societies institutionalize in order to create the filters (or statuses/badges of acheivement) that allow people to claim authority in various areas. in a large scale society it is hard to pick out the people who are naturally talented in an area and worth listening to despite a lack of an institutional license of some sort.

heh, reminds me of this:

Every civilization carries the seeds of its own destruction, and the same cycle shows in them all. The Republic is born, flourishes, decays into plutocracy, and is captured by the shoemaker whom the mercenaries and millionaires make into a king. The people invent their oppressors, and the oppressors serve the function for which they are invented.

-- Mark Twain

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7 users have voted.
ggersh's picture

@joe shikspack @joe shikspack @joe shikspack and if Twain is correct, could it be societies keep
starting at the place and that's why it keeps repeating??? The wrong
place in my mind being religion.

Truthfully I can only enjoy that conversation because seeing that in
todays world science has been shamed/bought into working for the elites
to be used against humanity. Dark ya, but shit just open our eyes and see
what's going down is slightly frightening.

Wasn't it "unabashed liberal" who kept saying we were entering a period
of enlightenment, well hopefully this is the darkness before that light

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8 users have voted.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@ggersh

could it be societies keep
starting at the place and that's why it keeps repeating??? The wrong
place in my mind being religion.

could be. in the past religion has often been the authority that chose the oppressor pig at the top of the heap and implied that hir majesty occupied the throne by divine providence.

nowadays, it seems to me that religion has been largely displaced by a dog-eat-dog grab for money and the moneyed classes choose the oppressor on the throne.

ironically, it seems that religion is a powerful motivator of one segment of the dark age hordes that want to install their own "shoemaker" on the throne.

heh, if we are entering an age of enlightenment, we certainly seem to be approaching it through the back door. Smile

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8 users have voted.
ggersh's picture

up
9 users have voted.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@ggersh

bliar has war crimes to answer for and assange has war crimes and war criminals yet to expose.

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6 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

have to catch up on Wed and Tues, hopefully. Spent the day playing catch up as to all sorts of stuff and did so just well enough to not fall more than a couple of days behind. Ah well, such is life, as the man said (Ned Kelly).

Seems like another rhyming session going on in Donbass; ought to know pretty soon. Maybe Wall St. too.

Sorry for all those suffering hot and sticky weather, merely sort of hot and not sticky at all here.

be well and have a good one

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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 --

joe shikspack's picture

@enhydra lutris

i hope you get all caught up soon.

heh, i think that we are probably seeing an inflection point in ukraine. the u.s. and its allies now have to decide whether they can escalate the conflict without putting parts into the grinder. i don't know which way that might go. zelinsky certainly seems quite amenable to further escalation, so i guess we'll see.

have a great evening!

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7 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

There’s ALWAYS video!

Reposting this

Isn’t it weird how every person who died from the Rona was Trump’s fault, but Biden is getting a pass now? He says that he can’t get congress to give him money to deal with it, but that never stopped Trump. He just took whatever money he wanted and we watched Nancy fold and say okay you can have it. It’s also weird how McConnell can pass whatever he wants, but Schumer never seems to be able to. Also Paul Ryan and McConnell could get whatever they wanted, but Chuckie and Harry Reid had their hands tied.

We just got back from exploring the Unitas for a spot to camp in. I found a new spot, but can’t post a picture just now. It’s away from the river which is okay because it’s running very fast and since Sam ain’t a swimmer I don’t want her near it. There are a few lakes I can take her wading at…snicker.

I’m way behind on my reading.

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7 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

heh, the democrats have a great information operation, but the republicans are the only ones who know how to work the levers of power. go figure.

glad you found a good camping spot, i hope you and sam have a great time.

don't worry about being behind in your reading. a lot of ink has been spilled but very little has changed.

have a great evening!

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4 users have voted.
ggersh's picture

@snoopydawg Sitting by a lake, Sam wading and running, reading a book
and only having nature as a neighbor....You just can't beat that!!!!

Enjoy it sister! Sam wouldn't listen anyway, but she'll figure it out -g-

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6 users have voted.

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

snoopydawg's picture

Is Joe Biden turning out to be the Rodney Dangerfield of American foreign policy? It’s tempting to think so: The man is one flub after another and he don’t seem to get no respect.

Brandon Rodney Biden. Let’s go with that!

I hear Trump whispering! "Do you miss me yet?" Especially in the European leader’s ears. I can’t understand why they are throwing their countries under the bus for Biden. They used to import 167 somethings a day, but it’s down to just 67 somethings because of Canada’s sanctions against Russia. The Saker is asking them if they are getting their pitchforks ready yet.

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7 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.