Welcome to Saturday's Potluck - 10-8-2022

Submitted by studentofearth on Sat, 10/08/2022 - 5:27am

“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”
Pablo Picasso

War can be fought on multiple fronts other than physical battlefields. Play by play action on a battlefield is easier to follow and keep the population's attention focused on specific players. It blurs the timeframe of conflicts between parties when Politics, Finance, Energy, and Diplomacy are considered as additional fronts to wars.

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Physical Battlefields

Will the Crimea Bridge damage in Russia (reported late last night by Humphrey) drown out global coverage of worldwide protests to release Julian Assange?

The bridge at one time was the only route for vehicles and trains to travel between the Crimean peninsula and other parts of Russia. The special military operation and recent annexation of territory opened Russian land routes to the Crimean peninsula. Current reporting indicates ferry services may be restarted.

Hands off Assange livestream begins at 9 am eastern standard time for 7 hours in Washington DC

Free Assange human chain - Surround Parliament livestream London

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Politics

Politics By Other Means Big Serge Thoughts Oct 5, 2022

Once we cut through Clausewitz’s dense and verbose style, the claim here is relatively simple: war-making always exists in reference to some greater political goal, and it exists on the political spectrum. Politics lies at every point along the axis: war is begun in response to some political need, it is maintained and continued as an act of political will, and it ultimately hopes to achieve political aims. War cannot be separated from politics - indeed, it is the political aspect that makes it war. We may even go further and state that war in the absence of the political superstructure ceases to be war, and instead becomes raw, animalistic violence. It is the political dimension that makes war recognizably distinct from other forms of violence.

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Finance

Michael Hudson: A roadmap to escape the west’s stranglehold The Cradle interview by Pepe Escobar Oct 6, 2022

“Any idea of a common currency has to start with a currency-swap arrangement among existing member countries. Most trade will be in their own currencies. But to settle the inevitable imbalances (balance-of-payments surpluses and deficits), an artificial currency will be created by a new Central Bank.
...
Today’s proposed arrangements would indeed support lending among the member banks, but not for the purpose of supporting capital flight (the main use of IMF loans, when “left-wing” governments seem likely to be elected), and the IMF and its associated alternative to the World Bank would not impose austerity plans and anti-labor policies on debtors. The economic doctrine would promote self-sufficiency in food and basic essentials, and would promote tangible agricultural and industrial capital formation, not financialization.
...
The confiscation of Venezuela’s gold reserves in London and its US investments, the confiscation of $300 billion of Russia’s foreign-exchange reserves held in the United States and Europe, and its threat to do the same to China and other countries resisting US foreign policy has made de-dollarization urgent. I have explained the logic in many points, from my Valdai Club article (with Radhika Desai) to my recent book on The Destiny of Civilization, the lecture series that I prepared for Hong Kong and the Global University for Sustainability.

Holding securities denominated in dollars, and even holding gold or investments in the United States and Europe, is no longer a safe option. It is clear that the world is breaking into two quite different types of economies, and that US diplomats and their European satellites are willing to tear up the existing economic order in hopes that creating a disruptive crisis will enable themselves to come out on top.

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Energy

OPEC+ agrees deep oil production cuts, Biden calls it shortsighted Reuters Oct 5, 2022

The kingdom rebuffed criticism it was colluding with Russia, which is included in the OPEC+ group, to drive prices higher and said the West was often driven by "wealth arrogance" when criticising the group.
...
"The President is disappointed by the shortsighted decision by OPEC+ to cut production quotas while the global economy is dealing with the continued negative impact of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s invasion of Ukraine," the White House said.

Biden faces low approval ratings ahead of mid-term elections due to soaring inflation and has called on Saudi Arabia, a long-term U.S. ally, to help lower prices.

U.S. officials have said part of the reason Washington wants lower oil prices is to deprive Moscow of oil revenue. Biden travelled to Riyadh this year but failed to secure any firm cooperation commitments on energy. Relations have been further strained as Saudi Arabia has not condemned Moscow's actions in Ukraine.

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Diplomacy

Why the US won’t step back from the warpath with China Russia Times Oct 7, 2022

"Washington’s policies are guided by threat inflation and a vision of global control"

The drums of war being beaten in Washington DC are picking up tempo. Nancy Pelosi’s ill-advised visit to Taiwan was followed by that of more members of Congress. Only weeks later, President Biden declared that the US stood ready to defend Taiwan in case of Chinese invasion and, within two days of that, US and Canadian warships were conducting another of the provocative ‘Freedom of Navigation’ operations in the Taiwan Strait that have become increasingly frequent since President Obama’s Pivot to Asia, and now it has accelerated the passage of the Taiwan Policy Act, which aims to “support the security of Taiwan and its right of self-determination.”

If it passes, it will become Biden’s signature foreign-policy legacy, the proxy war against Russia through Ukraine notwithstanding. It will overturn the US’ long-standing observation of the One China policy, turning its decades-old ‘strategic ambiguity’ into the strategic certainty of US commitment to Taiwanese independence.

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Edit - added after posting.
After posting the Open Thread went to read Asia Times. Generally does not have breaking news and sometimes only a few new articles added during during the day. This seems just a little too exuberant.

In what looks like a spectacular espionage operation, the Kerch Strait Bridge, which links Russia proper to the annexed Crimean peninsula, was heavily damaged and at least partly cut in a dawn explosion.
...
Kiev, which has made no secret of long wanting to take out the bridge, has not claimed responsibility. However, Mikhail Podoliakaide, an aide to President Volodymr Zelensky, has said via Telegram – albeit, without taking any credit for the attack – that the bridge is “just the beginning” and that everything Russian in Ukraine “must be destroyed.”

A high-profile Russian TV commentator had warned yesterday, on October 7, that Ukraine was planning something to spoil President Vladimir Putin’s 70th birthday, which fell on that day.

Both timing and logic – ie the truck exploded on the road span just as a fuel train was passing on the rail span – suggest either a brilliantly executed strike an an ammunition truck, or a very well-executed sabotage operation with a truck bomb, rather than a random, coincidental accident.

Russian authorities have called it a truck bomb, and a carefully planned espionage operation by Ukrainian special forces and/or partisans who planted a device inside the truck, and/or even a suicide bomber who drove it, may leave none of the visual or radar fingerprints of an air, naval, missile or UAV strike.

Like the mysterious damage to the NordStream gas pipeline which has – as yet – left no clues as to the attacker, it could prove to be a deniable operation. The keen Tweeters of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry have not, at time of writing, commented.
...
Such severe damage to such a strategic national asset – which should, surely have been secured with utmost vigilance? – is the latest in a long line of humiliations for an embattled Kremlin.

But it is also a logistical blow to Russian forces. Crack troops in a fortified bridgehead north of Crimea, around the city of Kherson on the left bank of the Dniepr, are fighting for their lives.

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Another warm sunny day so I will be outside working.

For the next few weeks until the end of irrigation and harvest season my time and energy is limited. The table is set with the main dish - salads and deserts are up to C99 members - have fun.

What is on your mind today?

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Open Thread

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Comments

Submitted by studentofearth on Sat, 10/08/2022 - 5:38am

Another instance where US wanted to bomb a country back

to the Stone Age. And we wonder why other countries want nuclear programs.

Thanks for finding this Snoopydawg.

From 1945-49 the US and UK planned to bomb Russia into the Stone Age Canadian Dimension Oct 9, 2016
"Was the US Cold War military doctrine really ‘defensive’ and who actually started the nuclear arms race?"

Just weeks after the Second World War was over and with Nazi Germany defeated, Soviet Russia’s allies, the United States and Great Britain, hastened to develop military plans aimed at dismantling the USSR and wiping out its cities with a massive nuclear strike.

The plan, dubbed Operation Unthinkable, stated that its primary goal was “to impose upon Russia the will of the United States and the British Empire. Even though ‘the will’ of these two countries may be defined as no more than a square deal for Poland, that does not necessarily limit the military commitment.”

These “first-strike” plans developed by the Pentagon were aimed at destroying the USSR without any damage to the United States.

The 1949 Dropshot plan envisaged that the US would attack Soviet Russia and drop at least 300 nuclear bombs and 20,000 tons of conventional bombs on 200 targets in 100 urban areas, including Moscow and Leningrad (St. Petersburg). In addition, the planners offered to kick off a major land campaign against the USSR to win a “complete victory” over the Soviet Union together with the European allies. According to the plan Washington would start the war on January 1, 1957.

For a long period of time the only obstacle in the way of the US’ massive nuclear offensive was that the Pentagon did not possess enough atomic bombs (by 1948 Washington boasted an arsenal of 50 atomic bombs) as well as planes to carry them in. For instance, in 1948 the US Air Force had only thirty-two B-29 bombers modified to deliver nuclear bombs.

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Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 10/08/2022 - 11:08am

Thanks for reposting this

@studentofearth

I was dumb struck to see that after the world just finished a world war with tons of lives lost that people in our government were willing to take a million more lives just so it could be the biggest bully in the world. History is full of heinous deeds and we like to pretend that we have outgrown being so callous about life, but then we see that we haven’t.

Captain Kirk got to go to space recently and I thought his thoughts about was both sad and spot on. Actually something…but I can’t find the words yet. Mornings!

I continued my self-guided tour and turned my head to face the other direction, to stare into space. I love the mystery of the universe. I love all the questions that have come to us over thousands of years of exploration and hypotheses. Stars exploding years ago, their light traveling to us years later; black holes absorbing energy; satellites showing us entire galaxies in areas thought to be devoid of matter entirely… all of that has thrilled me for years… but when I looked in the opposite direction, into space, there was no mystery, no majestic awe to behold . . . all I saw was death.

I saw a cold, dark, black emptiness. It was unlike any blackness you can see or feel on Earth. It was deep, enveloping, all-encompassing. I turned back toward the light of home. I could see the curvature of Earth, the beige of the desert, the white of the clouds and the blue of the sky. It was life. Nurturing, sustaining, life. Mother Earth. Gaia. And I was leaving her.

Everything I had thought was wrong. Everything I had expected to see was wrong.

I had thought that going into space would be the ultimate catharsis of that connection I had been looking for between all living things—that being up there would be the next beautiful step to understanding the harmony of the universe. In the film “Contact,” when Jodie Foster’s character goes to space and looks out into the heavens, she lets out an astonished whisper, “They should’ve sent a poet.” I had a different experience, because I discovered that the beauty isn’t out there, it’s down here, with all of us. Leaving that behind made my connection to our tiny planet even more profound.

It was among the strongest feelings of grief I have ever encountered. The contrast between the vicious coldness of space and the warm nurturing of Earth below filled me with overwhelming sadness. Every day, we are confronted with the knowledge of further destruction of Earth at our hands: the extinction of animal species, of flora and fauna . . . things that took five billion years to evolve, and suddenly we will never see them again because of the interference of mankind. It filled me with dread. My trip to space was supposed to be a celebration; instead, it felt like a funeral. (My emphasis)

Our planet should be protected above all else and yet from the beginning of us walking upright we have been fighting with each other to take what others own. As we got smarter we created more destructive ways to kill and destroy. But it’s the species that we are killing that makes me most sad. My area used to be filled with all kinds of birds, bugs, butterflies, ect and filled with their songs. Now it’s eerily silent where their voices used to be. And it’s too late to turn back now. We lose hundreds of species a day including the ones that live under water. Filled with dread indeed.

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There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.

Submitted by QMS on Sat, 10/08/2022 - 8:11am

Thanks for covering these important issues

Did read the Escobar piece earlier with M. Hudson. BRICS and SCO vs. WEF and World Bank.
A striking contrast of strategy.

War
Politics
Finance
Energy
Diplomacy

Good luck with your chores! Taking the bikes out to explore some old rail trails in the forest.

Cheers!

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Sat, 10/08/2022 - 9:34am

Good morning soe, good luck with your chores. I've got

a few of my own, including some gardening related, but I'm sure that you're well ahead of me on that.

Von Clausewitz talks in vom Kriege of war as the use of force to compel an opponent to do our will. In order to fully achieve this goal, he argues, one must destroy the opponent's will to resist.. One could expound on that at length, but it arguably must be more than simply destroying the enemy's army, because new armies can be raised and the populace could engage in resistance, guerilla war(s), rebellions, and the like. He wrote, FWIW, in an age of monarchies, which is something to keep in mind, thoough today's oligarchies are not too different with respect to warfare.

The US has always engaged in terrorism and war on the civilian population and infrastructure as the means to destroy their enemies' will to resist. Carpet bombing and shelling, not simply of factories and lines of communication, but of civilian centers and croplands from massacres of Indians to the fire bombing of Dresden and Tokyo, the A-bombs in Japan, napalm and agent orange all over the map plus the bombing of Hanoi, economic war aimed at starving the civilian populaces, blockades and sieges, the destruction of pharmaceutical plants, paraquat, etc. etc. All along the US tactics and strategy foreshadowed today's overt "regime change" operations where the US intends to effectively destroy the government's will to resist by destroying that of the populace, reducing them to a state such that it is hoped that they will overthrow their government and surrender to our will in an act of desperation. That is why the US and war crimes and/or crimes against humanity are inseparable. We have always tried to topple the governments by, in one form or another, "bombing the populace back into the stone age", which, of course, requires that we wage war on that populace and all of its supporting infrastructure in parallel with our attacks on the enemy armed forces. This is why we are, at the bottom of things, a terrorist state.

be well and have a good one

edit: fixed a ton of typos

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Submitted by CB on Sat, 10/08/2022 - 9:42am

Crimean Bridge explosion

Ukraine Mocks Russia as Crimean Bridge Hit by Explosion

Crimea, the bridge, the beginning. Everything illegal must be destroyed, everything stolen must be returned to Ukraine, everything occupied by Russia must be expelled. pic.twitter.com/yUiSwOLlDP

— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) October 8, 2022

Submitted by NYCVG on Sat, 10/08/2022 - 9:53am

The Kerch Bridge

@CB is partly re-opened and a ferry service has been established.

Moscow will respond in its own time. And its own way.

IMHO, this sabotage by the UKR and NATO forces was a big mistake.

Time will tell.

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NYCVG

Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 10/08/2022 - 11:17am

Lots of tweets included in this

@CB

Naked Capitalism essay Scroll down to the middle. What an awful act of destruction which will only beget more awful acts of destruction. Where and when does it stop? Dawg must be weeping in his cereal this morning.

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There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.

Submitted by humphrey on Sat, 10/08/2022 - 1:07pm

At least they have had plenty of practice explaining

gaffs by Brandon and most recently Zelensky.

@CB

Submitted by CB on Sat, 10/08/2022 - 9:54am

Alex Christoforou reporting

Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 10/08/2022 - 11:47am

This essay explains why Germany is absolutely screwed

There is no way that LNG can save Germany from a brutal winter. It’s long and detailed.

The NS1 and NS2 sabotage impact potential

For one, as many wrongly imagine, fracked sea-borne Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) is not by any means a substitute of nat-gas. It is terribly more expensive, most explosive & dangerous to handle, and definetly way too scarce to meet European needs. Environmentally, LNG is “fracking” dirty, also very cumbersome to liquefy, load and re-gassify with yet non-existant infrastructure at both ends… and is far more difficult than nat-gas to store and transport (Suez could be a limitation) from ackward overseas sources yet unknown (in tankers that do not yet exist) and to distribute only in risky seaborne batches onto many dozens of terminals not yet built nor adequately planned for. Germany today has 0 (zero) LNG terminals and it will take many years only to have a few with which to cover at best 20% of current needs, or less. More on that later. Ref #4 https://thesaker.is/why-russias-oil-ban-is-impossible/ . Second, all the stored nat-gas reserves supposedly reaching 90% levels are now almost effectively UN-usable for 2 main reasons which were already explained to boring death and intricate depth at Ref #5 https://thesaker.is/the-euthanized-european-nat-gas-reserves/

Bottom line is that fresh gas from the pipeline is needed to pressurize the gas being stored in the tanks. And instead of taking Putin’s offer to receive gas from the undamaged NS2 Scholtz has agreed to more sanctions on Russia.

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There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.

Submitted by Lookout on Sat, 10/08/2022 - 12:28pm

Good afternoon...

Lots to digest. The bridge issue and more were discussed by Gonzalo, Alex and Brian. Best taken in bites as the clip is 3 hours...
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpC5P3SJ3SA&t=60s]
This is an impromptu stream, to discuss the bombing of the Kerch Bridge, and the current state of the global conflict.
Lots of insights IMO.

Thanks for your insights and articles SOE! Y'all have a good weekend.

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

Submitted by CB on Sat, 10/08/2022 - 12:50pm

The trains are now running

@Lookout
as well as single lane of vehicular travel.

Submitted by wokkamile on Sat, 10/08/2022 - 2:15pm

I heard just enough

@Lookout to hear GL say that it was a US-designed attack meant to provoke Ru into overreacting, and therefore best for Ru to relax and not take the bait.

Scott Ritter elsewhere says also no major damage, but also that Ru very shortly -- days or few weeks -- is likely to finally have the pieces in place to significantly increase its military attack posture, and will thereby make clear which side is winning and which side is about to achieve complete victory. Hope so. I have a lot of money riding on Russia to prevail.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 10/08/2022 - 12:55pm

Interesting analysis

On Russia’s options after the Kerch bridge terrorist attack. Will Russia now attack more infrastructure in Ukraine and create a land bridge to Crimea and leave the parts of Ukraine that global companies have bought a complete ruin? Twill be interesting to see what comes next. This attack came just after Zelensky asked for more strikes against Russia. They see this as an ISIS style terrorist attack. Guess who their major financed is? Dammit… looks like detente has become a restricted word.

Also Russia has a new general in charge of the military actions in Ukraine.

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There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.

Submitted by NYCVG on Sat, 10/08/2022 - 3:16pm

New Commanders

@snoopydawg nickname----apparently----is Cannibal.

Talk about a bad reputation.

Or a good one if you also want to see Russia demonstrate the difference between boasts and reality.

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NYCVG

Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 10/08/2022 - 4:15pm

I think that the Kerch bridge bombing will finally clear up

@NYCVG

whether Putin is sincere about the plans in Ukraine and the birth of a multi ….whatever he called it or he’s playing along with the great reset like some think he is. In the linked article one person suggests that he will wait until after the G20 meeting to respond so that he can talk to others who are supporting him. That’s a month away and will Russians support waiting?

I read that Ukraine has 40,000 troops outside one of the cities in the Donbas and that Russia foiled a terrorist attack in Kherson. Couldn’t open the last so no details. But anyone think that Ukraine acted alone on the bridge? I don’t. If we helped it’s a terrorist act by us against Russia. So much for international laws huh?

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There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Sat, 10/08/2022 - 7:04pm

Or like the CIA has rumored that he is ;-)

@snoopydawg

or he’s playing along with the great reset like some think he is.or he’s playing along with the great reset like some think he is.

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Submitted by wokkamile on Sat, 10/08/2022 - 7:32pm

Very unlikely

@snoopydawg Putin is setting any military schedule based on a G20 meeting. And reset guy? He and numerous important Ru oligarchs were conspicuously not invited to this year's Davos confab. The WEF may have a globalist mindset generally, and in previous yrs welcomed Vlad and the Rooskie billionaires, but the WEF are now firmly siding w the west and UKR and against Ru.

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Sat, 10/08/2022 - 1:46pm

Not enough Richards and too many Dicks

be well and have a good one

—

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Submitted by humphrey on Sat, 10/08/2022 - 1:55pm

It appears as if they can't stops themselves for asking for a

massive retaliation.

They are also asking for longer range weapons as they can be trusted.

Submitted by NYCVG on Sat, 10/08/2022 - 3:18pm

There will be an answer

@humphrey Russia will not let this be.....

In Putin's time.

Not US/NATO's time.

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NYCVG

Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 10/08/2022 - 3:28pm

Well now that is very interesting

Not a dose type of article since it’s not talking about treatments and other stuff that made the dose contentious

Why did the defense department give Ukraine a contract to study Covid 3 months before the pandemic was declared? One thing mentioned is that there was a weird pneumonia going on in early 2019 and then it disappeared only to surface in China at the end of the year.

https://expose-news.com/2022/10/06/2019-contract-covid-resarch-ukraine-u...

A few countries have accused us of starting the pandemic. Is there any truth to it?

Sage Hana has been questioning Malone’s bonifieds for awhile and her take on the essay is interesting.

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There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 10/08/2022 - 11:36pm

No one thinks it’s weird that Ukraine was working on Covid

@snoopydawg

3 months before the country declared it an epidemic? Or before anyone even heard about it?

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There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.

Submitted by mimi on Sat, 10/08/2022 - 3:43pm

I had a moment of reflection on my commenting style tonight

I worked in Washington DC for a long time in several German media outlets low level positions, mainly as assistant and archivist, so I got to know personally a couple of German journalists. I retired, I think it was 2014. Since I have had the unfortunate fate to have to return to Germany in 2016, I see the old colleagues as a German TV viewer from the other side of the TV and see often "old co-worker-bosses over here in Germany.(which makes me feel less lonely here)

Klaus Scherer represented thonight his latest documentary about hate in the internet. I don't know if it a book as well.

I decided to change my language I sometimes use, when I am tired, depressed or simply furious.
When you haven't much to say, it doesn't get qny better by trying get funny language through. Thank you, Kluas Scherer, for reminding me. I try to do better in the future.

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https://www.euronews.com/live

Submitted by humphrey on Sat, 10/08/2022 - 4:43pm

The strategy of some EU nations seem to have serious flaws.

This is but one example.

Due to the recent strikes at oil refineries and the lack of imports from Russia, the recent fuel situation in France is becoming critical

At the moment,717 (15%) gas stations are completely devoid of gasoline,and 523-partially

Sending Caesars to assist Ukraine will solve it... pic.twitter.com/8LfbwFhOWT

— AZ (@AZgeopolitics) October 8, 2022

Submitted by soryang on Sat, 10/08/2022 - 10:07pm

127 years ago

From SNA twitter:

Today in History: 127 years ago, the Japanese military led by Goro Miura invaded the royal palace and brutally murdered Korea's Queen Min (Empress Myeongseong), aged 43. Miura was worried about her growing success in becoming an obstacle to Japanese political control of Korea.

https://twitter.com/ShingetsuNews/status/1578526586470805505

(JTBC News- 11.19) Alice Roosevelt riding a stone horse statue at the Memorial for Empress Myeongsong, acting as if she were "riding a carousel at an amusement park." The picture is from the Cornell University Library collection.

Alice cavorted around Seoul being treated like an American princess after Teddy Roosevelt had already sold out Korean sovereignty to the Japanese at the Treaty of Portsmouth September 5, 1905. The great powers bargained away Korea's sovereignty to Japan to serve their own imperial interests. Russia actually was the only power to resist the Japanese, but that was because they had wanted to make Korea a Russian domain. The Russians lost the Russo-Japanese War and had to sign the Portsmouth Treaty arranged by President Roosevelt, in which Japan's dominance in Korea was acknowledged. Later in September 1905, King Gojong still thought the US might be of help to avoid the Japanese takeover of Korea when President Roosevelt's daughter, Alice Roosevelt, visited Korea. Other high ranking US diplomats who had been traveling with Alice through other Asian capitals didn't bother to come. Korea's fate was already cast.

Alice attended a formal dinner presented in her honor by the "Emperor," and rode in his palanquin through the streets of Seoul. Her memorable faux pas was to jump on the back of a stone horse statue at the memorial mound of Empress Myeongseong who in 1895 had been assassinated by the Japanese. At least Alice had an excuse. She was immature, so the editorial goes. Alice wrote that Emperor Gojong of Korea, small in stature, cut a piteous insensitive figure. Here we are more than a hundred years later.

Former PM Hatoyama apologizes for Japan's wartime brutalities
All News 16:00 September 24, 2022 Yonhap News Agency

JINDO, South Korea, Sept. 24 (Yonhap) -- Former Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Saturday apologized for his country's wartime brutalities against Koreans as he attended a memorial event for those killed in a 16th century historic naval battle between the two countries.

The center-left Japanese leader from 2009-2010 delivered a speech at a memorial ceremony on the island of Jindo, 349 kilometers south of Seoul, for Japanese sailors who died in the 1597 Battle of Myeongnyang.

"In the past, Japan caused deep suffering to the (Korean) people," Hatoyama said in the event held on Mount Waedeok in Jindo, South Jeolla Province.

"I am not sure if your anguished heart can be healed from this apology. … We (as Japanese) are obliged to keep apologizing -- until the people with wounded hearts feel they no longer need the apology from us," Hatoyama said.

https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20220924002400320?input=tw

The Song So-hee performance of Sumi Jo's If I leave from the Empress Myeongsoeng OST (The Lost Empire)

(edit) Thanks so much to the Korean college students at a local college and the ladies from the church community and other Korean American community friends who have been so supportive to us during the hurricane Ian disaster. I don't think we could have made it this far without them.

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語必忠信行必正直

Submitted by humphrey on Sat, 10/08/2022 - 10:59pm

Good to that you are once again participating soryang.

Hopefully your situation is stabilizing.

Submitted by soryang on Sat, 10/08/2022 - 11:17pm

Thanks Humphrey

Did anyone know that NFIP flood insurance claim must be completely documented in terms of proof of damage and dollar amounts within 60 days of the disasters occurrence? Good luck to all those affected. Tens of thousands of claimants all seeking the same resources and services at the same time to achieve a viable plan of restoration of their homes. It's so unrealistic. This presents initially as demand for water damage mitigation services, then rebuilding service contracts, plans and costs. The demand for independent adjusters is also off the charts. You call these businesses specializing in disaster, if you get a call back, it's take a number, we'll get to you sometime. Meanwhile, the dampness from the flood is sucked further into the drywall materials, insulation etc., in your home, increasing the damages and destruction to ones home on a daily basis. As we dwelled on this situation, we realized that if we had a viable plan to rebuild, it would be lucky if it took only six months under these circumstances. A year seemed more likely.

The challenges of finding a suitable residence or a replacement vehicle in this market are overwhelming. Prices for ordinary things like ice or a restaurant meal are going out of sight. The people who's homes are destroyed have no kitchen, the migrant workers who come to feed on these disasters for a living, also don't have a kitchen.

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語必忠信行必正直