Welcome to Saturday's Potluck - 3-25-2023

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

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When leaders get scared Asia Times Stephen Bryan March 22, 2022

While it may look like the United States is being tough and forceful in Ukraine, the reverse is true. The US is showing incredible weakness, and it is wearing it on its sleeve.

Let’s start with Ukraine. The US has gone all out to try and help Ukraine win a victory over the Russians.

The Biden administration wants this to happen for two reasons: to show that Biden is not a wimp and won’t cut and run like he did in Afghanistan (and on this the 20th anniversary of the War in Iraq, like his predecessor Obama did by pulling US forces out of Iraq) and that he wants to “strengthen” NATO by eventually putting a NATO army in Ukraine.
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Right now, neither the US nor its NATO partners (rather, it should be said, very junior partners) have the wherewithal to defend the territories of NATO before the latest expansion to Finland and Sweden; and when Ukraine is added the situation becomes even riskier.

Indeed, perhaps the key accomplishment of Biden and his friends in Europe, has been to put huge sanctions on Russia. This has removed Russia as a trading, commercial, and resource partner for Europe, meaning the Russians have little to protect in Europe by way of investments and supplier and trade agreements.

Even more critically, Russia has reoriented its economy to China and India, which together are well over 2.2 billion people (not counting Russia which adds another 150 million).
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A second major consequence of US and EU sanctions on Russia is that Russia’s strategic partnership with China has now expanded, and will continue to grow.
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One of the first big byproducts is the China-brokered Saudi-Iran deal restoring diplomatic ties between the two states.
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The Saudis also agreed to shut down the anti-Iran propaganda they support, and the Iranians agreed to slow down, if not stop, shipping weapons to the Houthis in Yemen, probably also pushing them to take part in peace negotiations in the country.
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The icing on the cake was a meeting at the Ben Gurion airport in Israel between US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. While Austin affirmed that the US would “never allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon” he made no concrete commitment and, according to unauthorized accounts from the meeting, told Netanyahu the US would not support any attack on Iran’s nuclear installations, a major setback for Israel’s security.
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There are some indications that Taiwan may be looking for a way to accommodate China, lest the US not support them in crunch time as China moves more forces around the island. Former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou, from Taiwan’s Kuomintang (Nationalist) party, once headed by Chang Kai-shek, is off to China, the first visit to the Chinese mainland by a former Taiwan President since 1949.
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Obviously, his visit is more than a private, sentimental journey to see old relatives and visit family temples; he almost certainly will be carrying messages both ways.
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In the meantime, despite US rhetoric, critical defense equipment isn’t being delivered to Taiwan, either because we don’t have it to deliver, or the Biden administration has decided to hold up deliveries.
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In short, this is what happens when allies and friends see the handwriting on the wall. How long will it be before NATO countries start to run for cover?

A little background on the author, Stephen Bryen, who is a regular contributor to Asia Times. C99 member Battle of Blair Mountain wrote a series of articles The Usual Suspects and has one covering Bryen's background.

I wrote more on Wolfowitz
The Usual Suspects Pt 5: Paul Wolfowitz, High Priest of Neocon

https://penspages.wordpress.com/2016/06/11/the-usual-suspects-pt-5-paul-...

What he calls Straussians, I called The Usual Suspects in my series.

The Usual Suspects Pt 3: Dr. Stephen Bryen

Unlike the previous two Suspects, Richard Perle and Michael Ledeen, the average American has probably never heard of Stephen Bryen. If they had, the average American would be scared shitless.
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After Perle became Assistant Secretary of Defense, he named Bryen as deputy assistant secretary of defense in charge of regulating the transfer of US military technology to foreign countries.

Bryen, like Ledeen and Perle, was thought to be a spy for Israel.
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In 1992, the first Bush Administration was concerned about the transfer to China by Israel of U.S. Patriot missiles and/or technology. In response they launched a broad inter-departmental investigation into the export of classified technology to China. The Pentagon discovered that the export to Israel of advanced AIM-9M air-to-air missiles was being promoted from out of Paul Wolfowitz’s office. Since Israel had already been caught selling AIM 9-L missiles to China, in violation of their agreement with the U.S., the Joint Chiefs of Staff intervened to cancel the deal.

The AIM 9-L, the Harpy anti-radar attack UAV, the TOW-2 anti-tank missile, the F-16, all found their way from the U.S. to Israel to China.
In April 2001, at the urging of Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, Bryen was appointed a member of the China Commission by Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. In August 2004, his appointment was extended through December of 2005.

One former senior FBI counter-intelligence officials reaction to his appointment was:

My God, that must mean he has a ‘Q‘ clearance!

A Q clearance is required to gain access to nuclear technology.

More of Stephen Bryen's thoughts on China, Taiwan and world affairs can be found on his Substack page Weapons and Strategy.

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How will the Ukraine crisis change world order? (CGTN 29:26 min) from 2 weeks ago so about March 11, 2023.
First 16:16 min Pepe Escobar Includes discussion of G-7 of the east, second half of video is an interview with Fraser Cameron, senior advisor from the European policy centre in Brussels. His outlook is totally different, matching Western talking points.

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In Moscow, Xi and Putin bury Pax Americana The Cradle by Pepe Escobar March 22, 2023

What has just taken place in Moscow is nothing less than a new Yalta, which, incidentally, is in Crimea. But unlike the momentous meeting of US President Franklin Roosevelt, Soviet Leader Joseph Stalin, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in USSR-run Crimea in 1945, this is the first time in arguably five centuries that no political leader from the west is setting the global agenda.
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Chinese diplomacy works like the matryoshka (Russian stacking dolls) in terms of delivering subtle messages. It’s far from coincidental that Xi’s trip to Moscow exactly coincides with the 20th anniversary of American ‘Shock and Awe’ and the illegal invasion, occupation, and destruction of Iraq.

In parallel, over 40 delegations from Africa arrived in Moscow a day before Xi to take part in a “Russia-Africa in the Multipolar World” parliamentary conference – a run-up to the second Russia-Africa summit next July.

The area surrounding the Duma looked just like the old Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) days when most of Africa kept very close anti-imperialist relations with the USSR.

Putin chose this exact moment to write off more than $20 billion in African debt.

In West Asia, Russia-China are acting totally in synch. West Asia. The Saudi-Iran rapprochement was actually jump-started by Russia in Baghdad and Oman: it was these negotiations that led to the signing of the deal in Beijing. Moscow is also coordinating the Syria-Turkiye rapprochement discussions. Russian diplomacy with Iran – now under strategic partnership status – is kept on a separate track.

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California farmers might be part of the solution of recharging aquifers during times of high rainfall.

California farmers flood their fields in order to save them Reuters March 24, 2023

When Don Cameron first intentionally flooded his central California farm in 2011, pumping excess stormwater onto his fields, fellow growers told him he was crazy.

Today, California water experts see Cameron as a pioneer. His experiment to control flooding and replenish the ground water has become a model that policy makers say others should emulate.
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This mimicking of nature - letting water flow across the landscape - is the most cost-effective way to manage peak flood flows, experts say, while banking the surplus for drier days.
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There is no statewide monitoring of on-farm recharge, but Sustainable Conservation is keeping track of four water districts in the San Joaquin Valley that recorded 260 farmers replenishing their aquifers this year, returning at least 50,000 acre-feet (61.7 million cubic meters) back into the ground as of mid-February.

California, which has a strategic goal of adding 4 million acre-feet of storage, recently provided $260 million in grants to Groundwater Sustainability Agencies established under SGMA. The state received applications seeking $800 million, indicating demand for projects, said Paul Gosselin, deputy director of the state's Sustainable Groundwater Management Office.

Besides cost, growers face other obstacles to on-farm recharge. A farm must have access to the water, cannot hurt endangered species and cannot flood land subjected to certain fertilizers or pesticides or dairy farm waste.

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Judge Napolitano channel ongoing discussions regarding current Ukraine/Russia conflict from different perspectives.

Russia China and the future of Ukraine - fmr CIA Ray McGovern (19:16 min) March 21, 2023
Also discuss events leading up to the Iraq War and war crimes.

Is it China & Russia against the US in Ukraine? - Scott Ritter (22:23 min) March 23, 2023

How Does China Change the War in Ukraine? - Larry Johnson (27:28 min) March 23, 2023
Larry did little follow-up on part of the disscussion on his own blog.

I was again honored to be invited for a virtual sit down and chin wag with Judge Napolitano. One of the things we discussed was a recent comment by retired CIA officer Jack Devine, who described the Russian military as incompetent and unprofessional. I will explain my remarks about Jack below.

The misinformed arrogance displayed by Mr. Devine is not unique. That same attitude and misunderstanding of Russia is rampant today in the U.S. intelligence community. Jack Devine, in my opinion, is a prime example of the mindset and attitude that still plagues the CIA. And that is dangerous for America’s national security.
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The misinformed arrogance displayed by Mr. Devine is not unique. That same attitude and misunderstanding of Russia is rampant today in the U.S. intelligence community. Jack Devine, in my opinion, is a prime example of the mindset and attitude that still plagues the CIA. And that is dangerous for America’s national security.

I have never included Jack Devine's interviews due to the high level of propaganda to drive an agenda. The interview the clip originated was from March 16, 2023 (22.50 min)

Re-Shuffling of Powers - China, Russia, U.S. around Ukraine - Tony Shaffer (23:46 min) March 23, 2023

Weakening Russia still a Good Idea? Col Doug Macgregor (21:10 min) March 15, 2023

Col Macgregor dismissal of the dangers of depleted uranium ammunition is a common technique of limiting focus of discussion. He totally ignores the longterm effects of birth defects, nonviable fetuses and increase in leukemia in populations where depleted uranium weapons have been used.

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What is on your mind today?

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Comments

Many good links to follow here. Thanks for putting this all together.

Found this graphic interesting. It shows the relative slopes of two
economies: east vs. west or BRICS vs. G7

G7BRICS.jpg

It is a bit hard to see, but it shows BRICS has surpassed G7
in GDP (gross domestic product) as a share of global total,
based on purchasing power parity.
Dated October 2022. The trends are quite significant.
Helps to explain current western bank failures.
That plus the burden of servicing public debt ($31.5 trillion).
Debt expressed in relation to GDP is about 765% in US.

Watch which way the wind blows ..

edited to add Black Bird for your listening enjoyment

cheers!

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enhydra lutris's picture

We're skipping farmers' market today since we'll be on the road starting mañana. Last minute chores, HH and yard maintenance and final packing, etc.

Throughout history, to the best of my off-the-cuff recall, the US has never been "friend" to anybody. Some small portion of our socio-political glob has hankered to be admired, at times, for this, that, or the other, but that's never really been our thing either. Over and above everything we have always really only wanted to be feared such that none may dare cross or resist us or withhold from us that which we wish to take from them. That business model served the elites well for quite a while, but its utility is waning. Worse yet, our victims are beginning to envision a world where we no longer dominate things.

Our self serving myths and lies also stand largely exposed or at least suspected and we cannot even conceive of the concept of learning a new way or interacting with anybody whatsoever, let along everybody. We have instead become more and more explicit about our perceived role and place in the world and our determination to force the rest of mankind to obey our every whim. This is not helping.

The collapse (of what?) is at hand and the questions are all about its extent and nature. Will completely we trash the entire world or just our country, will it be bombs, economic collapse, both, or what? Who will hit the streets when the country hits the skids, the police or the people? Will it be class based or tribal?

I really can't guess the answers, but the real question, I feel, is whether or not there is any way to even steer it a little bit one way or another? The US has long relied on the Nuke, the ultimate cudgel that conveys domination, but, it's really useless and growing more so daily. Society may or may not have its own Nuke, akin to the French Revolution, but is it maybe just a Nuke of a different color, as ineffective as the other? If, in fact, that's just a fantasy, what is the answer? Being kind to each other is well and good, but what if it's not good enough?

Not coming up with any concrete proposals or pipe dreams here. The elites are working out all their various end games, and all I personally see are a variety of endings.

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 --

Thank you for all the highly interesting clips. Now that my vision is about gone, I've been watching videos by most of the authors of your clips so that i can keep up. Somewhat. Not very well.

here is a video from RT featuring Sy Hersh with Rick Sanchez. It is a very lively discussion of the state of journalism and the Nord Stream Pipeline that Biden blew up. And the Cover up which Hersh renames the Cover Story.
https://www.rt.com/news/573570-hersh-media-nord-stream/
https://www.rt.com/news/573570-hersh-media-nord-stream/

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NYCVG

A counter-demonstration is going on today and tomorrow in DC
to coincide with Biden's lecture
Summit Against Hypocrisy: An Anti-Imperialist Gathering
some good speakers listed
https://cpiusa.org/

edit to correct - March 25-26

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@humphrey has footage from Paris that shows the Polices----minus their helmets----marching with the people protesting. Jimmy asks if it is verified.

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NYCVG

@NYCVG @NYCVG

It seems legitimate to me. I will try to find it.

Edited to add that I found it:

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@humphrey Could be the start of something big?!?

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NYCVG

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Colonelcassad

1. Consumption of Ukraine per day - 5 thousand shells. US production per month is 15 thousand. Russia produces 3 times more.

2. NATO will deliver another 400 tanks to Ukraine in 2023. Russia will produce 1600 tanks.

3. In the case of the use of depleted uranium projectiles in Ukraine, Russia has hundreds of thousands of such projectiles at its disposal (a thick hint at their use).

4. Nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus will be deployed by July 1, when work on ensuring storage and basing is completed. The Iskander OTRK and VKS aircraft will act as carriers.

5. Russia agrees with the conclusions of the Hersh investigation, which indicates that Nord Stream was blown up by US intelligence agencies.

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@humphrey @humphrey is very bad for the soil. Ukraine was called Europe's bread Basket. Harming its soil is insane.

DU is not as bad as nuclear but damaging the food production of Europe even for a few years is a really bad idea.

The Irish Famine starting in 1845, killed "only" the potato crop but it lasted for 7 years and over 1 million of the poorest Irish people died.

Brave scholars are now calling the actions of the wealthy irish along with the British government Genocide.

The deaths allowed vast tracts of land to be forfeited by death and evictions. This land was taken over by wealthy landlords who brought modern farming to Ireland.

Not very different from WEF is it/

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NYCVG

snoopydawg's picture

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Terribly sad for the people who experienced the tornados. Let’s hope that Biden notices this tragedy and he has sent them help.

Many more videos of the incident here.

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

studentofearth's picture

@snoopydawg AP article on front page and my state wide paper's site only posted the news an hour ago.

The headline in our statewide paper - 9 jaw-dropping photos that show devastating power of last night’s tornado in Mississippi. No hint of the tragedy unfolding if I was only a headline reader.

Another devastating tragedy that will probably receive a poor initial response and quickly forgotten by the news.

AP News an hour ago.

A powerful tornado cut a devastating path of at least 170 miles (274 kilometers) through Mississippi Friday night, killing nearly two dozen people and obliterating dozens of buildings, as it stayed on the ground for more than an hour.

The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency warned in a tweet Saturday that the casualty toll could go higher than the 23 dead and four missing it had identified, saying: “Unfortunately, these numbers are expected to change.” Meanwhile other parts of the Deep South were digging out from damage from other suspected twisters.
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In the town, the roof had torn off Noel Crook’s home, where he lives there with his wife.

“Yesterday was yesterday and that’s gone – there’s nothing I can do about it,” Crook said. “Tomorrow is not here yet. You don’t have any control over it, so here I am today.”

The tornado looked so powerful on radar as it neared the town of Amory, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southeast of Tupelo, that one Mississippi meteorologist paused to say a prayer after new radar information came in.

“Oh man,” WTVA’s Matt Laubhan said on the live broadcast. “Dear Jesus, please help them. Amen.”

Now that town is boiling its water, a curfew in effect.

Thanks for posting.

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

snoopydawg's picture

@studentofearth

B9F12A75-30AB-497D-8F27-A779E13E072B.jpeg
AD39CB4A-149B-4F87-88C3-BB897D4414FF.jpeg

With insurance rates going up and up how many people were able to buy it and if they had it how hard will they have to fight to get their homes rebuilt? And good grief where do you even start? How many disasters have we had just in one year? We are having more as time passes and still congress fiddles.

Biden had one word to say about the disaster. FJB!

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So far so good.

Highly recommended! Scott shows his complete understanding of US imperialism.

I suggest viewing it before it gets deleted for too much truth telling!

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@humphrey "Everything America touches dies," says Scott Ritter in this video

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NYCVG

@humphrey Thanks for bringing it to us!

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

@humphrey , that Ritter vid is a good interview. Thanks for posting and the recommendation. I hope it gets a lot of eyes. It's very much worth the time it takes to watch.

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@randtntx assessment of our crumbling empire. I, too, think it is a beautiful thing.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

@on the cusp ,

it is a beautiful thing.

Thank goodness for people like Ritter.

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@humphrey

this was a Scott Ritter epic.

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snoopydawg's picture

Lots of tweets showing the utter devastation from the tornadoes

Dude needs a few more flags…

Good thing the weatherman said a prayer for the people in the path of the tornadoes. I’d hate to see how much worse it could have been if he hadn’t.

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and all the links soe. I have just started listening to the Pepe Escobar interview.

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snoopydawg's picture

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I read a great essay on how our intelligence agencies made sure that Macron would win the election and how they smeared other candidates and got others to drop out. Not sure if I can find it, but Obama was also involved in making sure that he won.

And remember when we found out that Obama was spying on Merkle? He found out something about her sexuality and it’s why she went along with the Minsk deceivement on Russia.

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the have nots.

@snoopydawg

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soryang's picture

...then there will be demonstrations. I thought the 2 min or so video showed some of the representative daytime action in central Seoul along Sejong-no, the main drag from Namdaemun (Sungnyemun) to Si cheong (city hall) to Gwanghwamun plaza where the Seoul Opera, US embassy, and South Korean ministry of foreign affairs buildings are located just south of Gyeongbuk Palace.

There was even greater coordination of the demonstrations today as the progressives in the democratic party led by party leader Lee Jae-myung and at least a couple dozen of other National Assembly members, started off with a demonstration criticizing President Yoon Seok-yeol's foreign and domestic policies. That demonstration looked to have been at least several thousand people in front of City Hall plaza, at least at the outset.

It was coordinated with associations of trade union groups who had their own separate demonstration against Yoon's labor policies, the proposed 69 hr day, anti-union laws, and prosecutions of organizers, abuse of search warrants, etc. This assembly marched up Sejong-no and stopped in front of the Chosun Ilbo building. Chosun Ilbo represents the core of the Cho-Joong-Dong conservative dominance of Korean establishment media. It is believed to speak for the largest corporate organizations in South Korea.

After the labor unions marched they returned to City Hall plaza where the democratic party demonstration had been. After that, the candlelight (independence) movement marchers assembled. During the afternoon as it marched up Sejongno toward Gwangwhamun, past the US embassy etc,

At the end of the video below, there was a small assembly of South Korean pro-Japanese outliers on the far right, obviously supporting Yoon's summit with Kishida. There weren't more than a few dozen people there calling for the arrest of former democratic presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung and former president Moon Jae-in. These were the daytime assemblies in Seoul. There apparently small demos in other South Korean cities. I saw a short video on a demonstration against Yoon in Daegu, his conservative stronghold which was quite surprising. Since his humiliating trip to Japan, polls show he's lost a lot of support there. Various civic groups have been conducting assemblies and protests in Seoul during the week but these are much smaller in scale from a dozen people to few hundred. They are sometimes countered by right wing groups supporting Yoon, who heckle them, and try to disrupt the assemblies against Yoon.

Large scale demonstrations everywhere in Seoul:

Liked this night time view in a short video of the candlelight demonstration:

There were two other small yet significant developments. On Friday, the South Korean Constitutional Court dismissed the Minister of Justice, Han Dong-hun's lawsuit to reverse legislation taking investigative powers away from the Public Prosecutors Offices. Han complained that the law violated separation of power principles. The Constitutional Court said, no, emphatically no. The powers of the prosecutors are set by legislation, not by the Constitution. In a further rebuke they said, they had ruled on this twice before, and admonished him to either learn the law or resign. This sends a signal of what the majority of the court think concerning Yoon's administration.

Another sign of hope was that Chosun Ilbo the conservative corporate rag, that has been colluding with Yoon's prosecutors for years, published an editorial criticizing Yoon for making a public statement basically condemning political resistance to his Japan summit. The editorial commented that Yoon treated the citizenry, those that hadn't already been prosecuted, as suspects. Further that Yoon's isolation and verbiage was similar to that of the dictator Chun Doo-wan.

Other issues beside the Yoon-Kishida summit (humiliation diplomacy) and labor issues, were demands that Yoon step down from office, that grain subsidies not be messed with, food prices too high, utility prices too high, relieve the hardships of ordinary Koreans, stop the dictatorship of prosecutors, demand the US-ROK alliance stop preparing for war, oppose Japanese rearmament, and oppose the trilateral alliance. The demonstrations were large enough to disrupt traffic patterns in central Seoul. Thousands of police were dispatched to control crowds and traffic.

Thanks for all the news and links Studentofearth

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語必忠信 行必正直

snoopydawg's picture

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But I wonder what happens when people’s bladders are full? Are there places they can use for when they are? That’s always my first concern. I have a tiny bladder and for our road trip my friends got me a t shirt that said potty animal.

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Pluto's Republic's picture

.... for the people of the US to reign in the sick psychopathic leaders that they unleashed upon the planet. Because USians are stilll worshipping the same hopelessly obsolete and easily perverted Constitution that has allowed the US to destroy so much of the world and inflict so much suffering upon humanity.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato