Welcome to Winter

December marks the start of meteorological winter, and so far that's been accurate. We had several days this week that didn't get out of the 30's. Here in NE Alabama we don't have severe winters typically. Last year we did have a week of teens and single digits. At least that helps control the insect population, but given the rate of insect extinction that may not be such a good thing. Today marks the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. My mother was there as a child. Only in the last decade or so have I come to understand that the Japanese attack was provoked. Plus a few news stories and more below the fold.

Here's one more shot...

The '93 blizzard was the biggest snow of our almost 40 years here. We had drifts of four feet which you had to plow through to walk. That storm is legendary in our area. In the 90's we got a snow or two almost every winter. Since the turn of the century we've only had a few snows and most were just a dusting...anecdotal evidence of a warming climate.

For years I've hypothesized one of the differences between northerners and southerners has to do with the severity of our winters. In the north your had to think ahead and prepare. In the south animals can graze through most of the winter, and you can grow greens about year round. Life was easier.

I came across an excellent story teller, Jerry Apps, telling tales of life on a Wisconsin dairy during winter. I found it delightful and hope you will too.

(56 min) Historian Jerry Apps remembers country winters spent on his family’s farm during the Great Depression and World War II. Apps recalls a time before electricity on the farm, when farmers milked cows by hand and "making wood" was a major part of winter's work.

I've never experienced a winter like those he describes, and don't think I want to do so. However, he sure has rich memories of the experience.

People In The South When It’s Freezing

(3 min) It doesn't happen very often, but once in a blue moon the temps drop below freezing in the Deep South and we have no idea how to act.
Lots of truth in this routine...

Regenerative farmer George Heller grazes year round in Minnesota. In winter he rolls out hay to bale graze. Amazing to me. (Gabe Brown does the same in N. Dakota- 1 min)

(9 min) Feeding hay on Thanksgiving in central Minnesota

My Mom as a girl while at Pearl Harbor

She tells the story of going up to a lava tube cave, and all the kids had Christmas presents. They all opened their toys and played for several days after the attack. She had fun despite all the destruction.

Only recently have I realized Japan was provoked into their attack...

The US government is treating Russia just as it treated Japan before World War II fully took hold.
President Roosevelt was inflicting embargos on the Japanese, freezing their money, and cutting them off from all energy. When they turned to buying fuel from other nations, Roosevelt threatened to blockade their ships. Is it any wonder why the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor to eliminate the US fleet after the threat of an embargo?

It may come as a surprise, but the US public was sympathetic toward China during this period. America saw Japan’s actions during the Second Sino-Japanese War as predatory. Similarly, many now view Russia as the aggressor and believe it must be quelled. The hatred of the Japanese later came to a head during the war as the US government imprisoned all Japanese people, women and children, and those born in the US.
The Neocons, during the FDR Administration, followed a clever agenda to circumvent Congress as they are doing right now. They were racists and simply hated the Japanese, as is the case with Russians right now. They started in 1938 with a series of escalating highly restrictive trade restrictions imposed on Japan. The Neocons terminated the 1911 commercial treaty with Japan in 1939. They then tightened the Export Control Act of 1940, which was intended to prevent the scarcity of critical commodities in a likely prewar environment. In addition, this act directly targeted Japan to restrict the exportation of material to Imperial Japan.
This was followed by the United States embargoing scrap metal shipments to Japan and closing the Panama Canal to Japanese shipping. The Neocons were seeking to isolate Japan without engaging in a war that only Congress could declare. Japan, at the time, imported about 74% of its scrap iron from the US and over 90% of its copper.
Then, on July 26, 1941, the US seized all Japanese assets in the United States in retaliation for the Japanese occupation of French Indo-China as they have done today with Russia’s reserves. This was followed on August 1 with an oil embargo and gasoline exports to Japan which also came from the United States. The oil embargo was the last straw when 80% of its energy supply came from the USA. The US also was proposing intervening to prevent Japan from getting oil from other sources.
The complete US oil embargo was the last straw. The Japanese had to then seize Southeast Asia for resources which expanded the war instead of the old hatred between China and Japan. They needed to do that before they ran out of resources. To secure themselves in the Pacific, they attacked Pearl Harbor with no intention of actually invading the United States.
...
There was even a Senate investigation after the war into the fact that Roosevelt knew Pearl Harbor was to be attacked and pulled out the important ships, all to force Congress to enter the war.

This article comes from Martin Armstrong's website. Posted Dec 26, 2024 by Martin Armstrong

Toward the end of this interview he covers the FDR provocation, but the entire interview is worthwhile.
Martin Armstrong: Where Is America Headed Under Trump? Is this WW3?

(36 min) The first comment under the clip...
This is probably one of the most important interviews you have done or will do in current times.

The Winter of the US Empire...
Alastair's contrast of the US vs China's approach is one of the best I've ever heard

(30 min) Alastair Crooke : How Beijing Sees the World's Hotspots

The hope of the world is in the east. The sun has set in the west.
The "Unthinkable" Deal The US Just Offered China & Venezuela

(12 min) The United States is currently waging an economic war against the two countries it needs the most. For the first time in history, Washington is being forced to beg its "enemies" for the very resources that keep the American Empire alive: Oil and Money.
In this video, we expose the two "unthinkable" deals happening behind closed doors that prove the US economy is in a death spiral. From the sudden reversal on Venezuelan sanctions to the desperate plea for China to buy US Treasury bonds, we break down why the era of American "Exorbitant Privilege" is officially over.
*In this video, we uncover:*
The Oil Surrender:* Why the US is quietly lifting sanctions on Maduro to save its refineries.
The Debt Trap:* Why the new Treasury Secretary is forced to beg China for a $3 Trillion lifeline.
The End of the Petrodollar:* How sanctions accidentally taught the world to live without the dollar.
The "Twin Collapse":* Why the US can no longer afford to be both an Empire and a Debtor.

The headlines call it "diplomacy." The reality is "liquidation." Watch to understand what comes next for your money.

The Friday conversation between Larry Johnson and Larry Wilkerson on Nima's show has become one of my favorite to watch/listen. (58 min)

Larry C. Johnson & Col. Larry Wilkerson: Putin Hits Back HARD—Calls Out Trump & EU |Ukraine’s Future

This week I wanted to take a break from our warmongering, but I couldn't help but touch on some of the weeks news. At least this week we have not invaded Venezuela (yet?).

Speaking of warmongering have you ever seen Rod Serling's Carol for Another Christmas.
It is a play off Dickens story, but instead of focusing on greed it is about war.
In 1964, ABC premiered “A Carol for Another Christmas,” a made-for-TV movie written by Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling as a modernization of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” The film, which aired only once on December 28, 1964, is both a retelling of the classic tale and a call for cooperation between nations. Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, it was presented as a commercial-free “United Nations Special” and features theme music by Henry Mancini.
No wonder I had never heard of it.

(86 min) Daniel Grudge, a wealthy industrialist and fierce isolationist long embittered by the loss of his son in World War II, is visited by three ghosts on Christmas Eve who lead him to reconsider his attitude toward his fellow man.
In Rod Serling's update of Charles Dickens, industrial tycoon Daniel Grudge has never recovered from the loss of his 22-year-old son Marley, killed in action during Christmas Eve of 1944. The embittered Grudge has only scorn for any American involvement in international affairs. But then the Ghost of Christmas Past takes him back through time to a World War I troopship. Grudge also is visited by the Ghost of Christmas Present, and the Ghost of Christmas Future gives him a tour across a desolate landscape where he sees the ruins of a once-great civilization.
Written by Rod Serling.

So much for war, how about something fun? Let's wrap with some Kinetic sculptures...

(10 min) A self-taught artist with a background in physics, David C. Roy has been creating mesmerizing wooden kinetic sculptures for nearly 40 years. Powered solely through mechanical wind-up mechanisms, pieces can run up to 48 hours on a single wind.

I won't be around today. My 93 YO mom is in a rehab facility and I'm going to see her. She's having a hard time leaving this life and is not doing well. We all die. Some more easily than others. I'm hoping I can give her a little ease.

And here's wishing you all a nice Sunday and a mild winter! The thread is open to any and all comments.