Open Thread - 10-13-23 - TGIF the 13th

Submitted by on the cusp on Fri, 10/13/2023 - 7:58am

So, we are going to a concert at Gruene Hall, Texas' oldest dance hall, staying in New Braunfels tonight and tomorrow night. The performer we will see is Junior Brown.

Junior Brown: 3 songs, about 3 minutes each, most interesting little riffs and teasers at or near the 6 minute mark

We haven't declared WWIII as of this writing, but I never count out it happening. Crazy, deadly, genocidal stuff going on. And I am gonna go play in a dance hall, a/k/a, beer joint. I am just one of the billions of little, helpless people who run and hide in music or poetry or some such. A bit of guilt in my heart, but I am at a complete loss to help save a single life, because I am not involved as a stockholder or board member of Raytheon.
I just washed my hair. I use Aragon of Morocco shampoo, available at Walmart. I went to a little seminar/sales presentation on Aragon oil when I went to Morocco. Bought some products there. Got home, noticed it on the shelf, felt just a bit taken in by the tour. Still, I saw this, so it is all good:

And this:

Meanwhile, don't you all feel an urge to go to your banks and get some cash just in case? And maybe fill up all your vehicles, gas cans, propane or butane tanks, just in case?

Hug your friends and loved ones, just in case.

Now, this is an open thread, meant to be open to all kinds of ideas, both crazy and sane.

Let 'er rip!

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Submitted by on the cusp on Fri, 10/13/2023 - 8:04am

It is too early and I haven't had my full quota of coffee, but so far, I feel very lucky. WWIII hasn't been declared yet.
What's up with you guys? What does your weekend plan look like?
Open threads are for open minds, and we got 'em right here!

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Submitted by QMS on Fri, 10/13/2023 - 8:58am
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feels like brain is going to fall out
hope you enjoy your dance party tonight
thanks for the open thread!

oh, and a bit of news:

US relations are strained with Columbia
as they refuse to condemn Hamas

Really?

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Submitted by on the cusp on Fri, 10/13/2023 - 9:50am

@QMS giddy about the improved relations with the US. I warned them, don't get too cozy, or you will find yourself in a color revolutions.
I am very glad they will not be pressured to go along to get along in re Israel's apartheid regime.
We will spend some time tomorrow walking around the historical district of Gruene. There are supposed to be some cool shops and restaurants.
Even though the area is touristy, it is not expensive to stay there, unlike our usual venues near Fredericksburg. Scenery and wineries have sent costs sky high there.
Notice Ukraine war has disappeared from the media headlines? Odd that this Middle East conflict conveniently gave us an off ramp. I am sure it is entirely coincidental.

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Submitted by dystopian on Fri, 10/13/2023 - 9:21am
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Hi all, Hey OtC!

Hope all is well out there. No bombs here yet.

Big Junior Brown fan here, he is an awesome guitarist. Too cool you get to go see him! Good on ya!

My plans are to look around on the ground under trees for the eclipse. Some of you might think that does not make sense, for the eclipse is up in the sky. One of the most amazing things I ever saw was thousands of eclipses on the ground. Little tiny eclipses, everywhere, tons of them, it looked like a scene from Fantasia. And I was walking through it.

Surely most of you know about the shoebox type eclipse viewer with the pinhole to project an image of the eclipse. So, take all your dough, and tomorrow at the right time be ready. What you need is a leafy tree canopy. The sort where lots of bolt of light come through the holes and gaps between the leaves to hit the ground. Not too late for this in the south much of the country. Deciduous trees work best, Maples for instance are excellent. Anything with a good thick canopy cover, but which is not solid.

When the eclipse hits, each one of those bolts of sun will be a projection of the eclipse on the ground. There can be hundreds under a single tree. Walk under a well treed area and there are thousands wherever you look, eclipses, all over the ground. It really looks cool. I saw it 5 or so years ago here when I was guiding some folks birding.

That was in breeding season. All the birds went quiet from the cacophony of territorial singing during the peak. And then went through another round of vigorous dawn-chorus type singing when it ended.

Hope Junior does "Hung It Up" for y'all!

Everyone have a great weekend, and eclipse.

Eclipse

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Submitted by QMS on Fri, 10/13/2023 - 9:53am
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@dystopian

this is the path of the solar eclipse in US tomorrow
looking at the ground is a cool idea!

th.jpg-2_4.png

you folks in Oregon may see the show, if the sky is clearish

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Submitted by dystopian on Fri, 10/13/2023 - 8:36pm
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@QMS Hey Capt.!

Yeah I was delighted first time I saw that map many months ago to see we were gonna get T-boned by it, here at about 100W x 30N. We are under the main full monty show. Have to walk all the way out to the driveway maybe. Just hoping the clouds are nowhere to be found...

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

Submitted by on the cusp on Fri, 10/13/2023 - 9:58am

Great idea about viewing the eclipse on the ground!
This will be the first time we have spent time in the New Braunfels area, and usually pass through it on the way to elsewhere. Bet we can find some trees.
We just scoped around for some music venue for October, and this gig popped up. It will be such fun! The dude can play that guit guitar. We will try for some videos, but seating is first come general seating. We will do our best to get a good spot.
Have fun this weekend!

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Submitted by on the cusp on Fri, 10/13/2023 - 11:06am

from Globus, a reputable and popular tour agency.
The lure was a trip to Morocco, likely 7 or 8 days, $1,399 w/air. I will spend that much in 2 days in Gruene! And will not see any cobras or male belly dancers!
Dammit!

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Fri, 10/13/2023 - 12:00pm
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.

The ending is brilliant.

Bibi is giving the Palestinians 24 to evacuate Gaza before he flattens even more of it. Just a bit more ethnic cleansing because once they leave he won’t allow them to come back. How many war crimes has he committed in just 7 days?

Sadly today Putin said that Israel has a right to self defense. Of course they do. But genocide has nothing to do with self defense and no apartheid country should be allowed to claim that right. 1,500 Palestinians have been killed, not died since Israel has started their bombing campaign. I’m thinking that over 100,000 civilians will be killed before this is over. Biden, Blinken and Austin have given their permission for Israel to do whatever the hell it wants.

And remember when Trump got his Abrams Accord done it closed off any avenue to a 2 state solution. Tell me how the Hamas attacks were unprovoked.

BTW the reason why Hamas was able to attack where they did was because Israel had moved most of its defenses out of the area so they could protect the people who were involved in the Al-Alsa mosque activities. I can’t remember where I read that. I’ll try to find it again.

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The Washington Generals should probably sue the Democrats for copyright infringement.

Submitted by on the cusp on Fri, 10/13/2023 - 12:25pm

@snoopydawg snoopydawg.
Nobody can criticize the Israeli government without being called anti-Semitic or a self-hating Jew. That is so hurtful and just dishonest, where to begin?

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Submitted by enhydra lutris on Fri, 10/13/2023 - 5:57pm
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@on the cusp

Israel and its supporters have used "anti-semitic" wrongly to such a vast extent that it has lost all meaning, it is just noise, like "fool" or "asshole", it has no meaning, and never will again.

be well and have a good one

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Submitted by on the cusp on Fri, 10/13/2023 - 8:20pm

@enhydra lutris @enhydra lutris to be a specific, pointed pejorative that can ruin lives.
Hope you are doing great. Something smashed my laptop screen, so sorry for misspellings I can't even see.

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Fri, 10/13/2023 - 12:43pm
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@snoopydawg

From Hersh.

Benjamin Netanyahu “is finished,” as his decision to allow a group of Orthodox settlers to celebrate Sukkot in the West Bank last week was ill-timed, given the growing tensions between Jews and Palestinians in the region, an Israeli source told Seymour Hersh. On October 6 a group of Jewish settlers were reported to have clashed with local Palestinians in Huwara, a village in the northern part of the West Bank, which resulted in the death of a 19-year-old Arab man. Israeli settlers in the West Bank required “extraordinary protection” over the upsurge in violence. So, Netanyahu gave a nod to local Israeli military authorities to order two of the three Army battalions that controlled the border with Gaza to shift their focus to the Sukkot festival. Given that each battalion comprised about 800 soldiers, 1,600 were sent to shield the Orthodox Jews.

“That left only eight hundred soldiers to be responsible for guarding the 51-kilometer border between the Gaza Strip and southern Israel,” Hersh’s interlocutor said. “That meant the Israeli citizens in the south were left without an Israeli military presence for ten to twelve hours. They were left to fend for themselves.” Thus, unsurprisingly, the diminished IDF contingent was overrun by Hamas militants on October 7, while Israeli civilians were left unprotected. Hersh’s sources called the Saturday attack “the great military failure in Israeli history.” He noted that a previous surprise attack on Israel by Egypt and Syria in 1973 claimed the lives of soldiers, while this time peaceful civilians suffered. “Last Saturday twenty-two settlements in the south were under control of Hamas for hours, and they went house to house slaughtering women and children,” the insider said.

Ill timed or on purpose after Egypt told Israel that Hamas was planning something big? Kinda like when our Air Force left the most restricted air space in the country unprotected when the 19 men with box cutters flew planes into 2 buildings and destroying 3 of them. And the Dick Cheney refused to let them deal with the abducted planes because they were doing a conveniently timed drill.

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Fri, 10/13/2023 - 12:10pm
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.

has happened!

Damn this is GOOD. Apparently that was the last time the judge appeared on Fox News according to the replies. Remember that all corporate media is owned by only 6 people.

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Submitted by on the cusp on Fri, 10/13/2023 - 1:27pm

@snoopydawg but it is reaching the point where that is the only Am. right we still have.
You know how great that 5 minute opening was because he was immediately fired.
Thanks so much for that, Snoopydawg.

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Fri, 10/13/2023 - 12:28pm
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.

You don’t have to support Hamas policies to stand up for Palestinians. You think the worst thing you can say about Hamas and multiple it a thousand times and it still will not meet the Israeli repression and killing and dispossession of Palestinians.

Gabor said that he cried for 2 weeks after visiting Gaza and that things have gotten much worse since then.

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Submitted by on the cusp on Fri, 10/13/2023 - 12:29pm

How the hell can a bank loan, especially an unsecured or under-secured loan to an illegal, and expect to be repaid?
There is no concern to banks when they deny a loan for most any reason to a citizen.
This sucks enormously.

https://yournews.com/2023/10/13/2665352/biden-administration-threatens-b...

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Submitted by humphrey on Fri, 10/13/2023 - 12:50pm

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Submitted by humphrey on Fri, 10/13/2023 - 1:31pm

committed by Israel should read it. But they won't!

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Fri, 10/13/2023 - 1:57pm
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@humphrey

yesterday too. Plus I posted an article that further explains it what happened at the Al-Alsa mosque. Israel deliberately provoked the attack, but of course the lying corporate media won’t tell Americans about it.

I haven’t read the MoA article yet, but the video explains who the players are inside the Israeli government.

Weird how the news from Ukraine is almost unexistent huh?

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Submitted by on the cusp on Fri, 10/13/2023 - 2:13pm

I will check back in 4 or 5 hours from now.

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Submitted by lotlizard on Fri, 10/13/2023 - 3:49pm
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https://off-guardian.org/2023/10/11/israel-hamas-war-another-excuse-to-s...

And:
Bernie Sanders, on tour promoting his latest book, is fêted as a charismatic celebrity in Berlin:

https://taz.de/Bernie-Sanders-in-Berlin/%215966354/

† one possibility to get a translation:   https://www.translator.eu

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Fri, 10/13/2023 - 4:26pm
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@lotlizard

but it’s not only those in power who are doing it, but the people who have bitched about censorship for the last 3 years are now joining in and anyone who supports Palestinian rights are being dawg piled and by the now ex free speech people and told to shut up. And to lose their jobs and positions and everything else they were once against. It’s amazing how quick the script flips depending on the topic.

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Submitted by lotlizard on Sat, 10/14/2023 - 3:55am
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In this case, journalist Jackson Hinkle for his reporting on Russia and Ukraine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENCwA1iVN7U

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