The Weekly Watch

Losing Control

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Western powers are losing their grip on global dominance. The rise of the BRICS+ provides other countries (especially in the global south) with an alternative to the IMF slavery through indebtedness program. Will these countries be paying off western debt with yuan? I understand the IMF is now accepting yuan as payment (as are the Saudi's and many others). However, this slip of power accompanies a rising sense of desperation, and desperate times lead to desperate measures. Suddenly there's a new strain of omicron COVID (which manifests like a cold), but be afraid, very afraid. Leaders blatantly lie...Ukraine is winning our proxy war! Indict your leading competitor and suppress your crimes using the DOJ. Rational voices are suppressed, and the censorship industrial complex goes into high gear. So today let's look at these stories and more below the fold...

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Another week, another African coup against France and the West. Gabon has had the same family in leadership serving France and the US for 50+ years. No wonder there was a coup.

Military officers in Gabon on Wednesday overthrew and arrested the country’s president, whose family ruled since 1967. It is the fourth coup in a former French African colony in the past three years as pressure mounts on Paris.

https://scheerpost.com/2023/08/31/another-regime-in-french-west-africa-i...

‘Obama’s man in Africa’ under house arrest as popular coup rocks Gabon

Before his removal in a military coup, Gabon’s hopelessly corrupt President Ali Bongo was courted by Obama and feted from Washington to Davos. The US war on Libya which destabilized the region may not have succeeded without him.
...
With Obama’s help, Bongo attempted to fashion himself as a reformist modernizer. He traveled repeatedly to Davos, Switzerland to attend the World Economic Forum, where was appointed an “Agenda Contributor.” There, he pledged to accelerate the Fourth Industrial Revolution in Africa by implementing lucrative digital identification and payment systems among his country’s heavily impoverished population.
...
Just a month after winning re-election in a dubious 2016 vote, Bongo was summoned back to the US, this time by the notoriously shady, NATO-sponsored Atlantic Council to receive a “Global Citizen Award” at the think tank’s black tie gala in New York City. But as questions persisted back home about the rigging of Gabon’s election, including a 95% vote reported in his favor on a near-100% turnout in one area, he was forced to cancel the trip.

As George put it, Bongo was drummed out.

However it is not just Gabon. They join Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, who have formed a military pact.

West Africa will be a powder keg if France invades.
Neocon adventure in Niger risks big conflict in West Africa - The Duran (17 min)
The Duran recommends patience, and to use trade to re-establish relationships.

It isn't just Africa where we're losing our grip, but also in the middle east where the Saudis and Iranians are now cooperating.
Vanessa Beasley explains the current situation in Syria where the US is funding both sides of the conflict...
SHOCKING U.S. teaming up with ISIS and Al Qaeda in Syria to target civilians

Journalist Vanessa Beeley joins Redacted to expose how a new regime change campaign in Syria is unfolding designed by western intelligence services. The U.S. is actively recruiting terrorist fighters to carry out attacks on civilians in an effort to destabilize the Assad government. Meanwhile Russia is carrying out airstrikes against the very same ISIS fighters the U.S. has employed

The Proxy War in Ukraine
Things are not going well for Ukraine. They are sending drones into Russia and inflicting some damage, but in Ukraine itself Ukrainian forces are throwing themselves into a meat grinder. How do they get their soldiers to run into mine fields? Drugs. Mike explains.

Russia today says that it has intercepted a Ukrainian commando team, seeking to conduct sabotage operations in Russia’s Bryansk Region. Redacted correspondent Mike Jones is in Russia and he’s been speaking to members of the Ukrainian army that were captured and are now in Russia.

Ukraine continues shelling civilians in the Donbas
Ukraine launches DEVASTATING attack on Donetsk, civilians killed (11 min)
Ukraine continues to shell residential areas of the Donbas… this week has been particularly horrifying as shells rained down on the city of Donetsk… injuring multiple children.

Many are suggesting this ends in nuclear war. I sure hope we're not that stupid, but western leadership seems wrapped in madness.
INTERVIEW: The odds are on a nuclear war (25 min)
Retired US colonel Tony Schaffer says there’s an 80% chance of war between America and Russia in the next year. No one in power understands the Russian perspective.

“The U.S. & Russia Will Go To War Within A Year!” – Tucker Carlson (15 min)
During a recent visit to Hungary, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson explained to an audience of Hungarians that the American people are being fed a steady narrative by the mainstream media that Ukraine is winning the war with Russia and all it will take to put the Ukrainians over the top is a few more F-16s. The truth, he noted, is quite the opposite.

Here's a nice summary of the situation from Alex. We've been throwing our money into a black hole for years. Why don't TPTB want to audit these donations? Cause they don't want us to see the grift.

Projection is the name of our game. Russia hasn't been weakened, we have. Utter failure. (10 min or so)

The Domestic Front
The US political system is in collapse. It has been for a while, but it is accelerating. All our foreign aggression has come home to roost.

Did our own government burn Maui? I doubted it but sure are suspicious actions during and since the fire. Why won't they let people in to see? Looks like they are hiding something.
This explanation made me rethink the idea that TPTB were behind the blaze.
Arborist Of 48 yrs Questions Maui Wildfire - Directed Energy Weapons
The whole clip is an hour but it only take a few minutes to look at his evidence.

Screenshot 2023-09-03 at 05-57-36 Arborist Of 48 yrs Questions Maui Wildfire - Directed Energy Weapons - YouTube.png

He asks, why haven't the trees burnt? Cars melted, but trees are not even charred. Think about putting metal in the microwave.
This is the first I've heard of directed energy weapons, and I have no knowledge. However I can believe my lying eyes. Something doesn't smell right.
"They're blocking you from seeing the truth in Maui" | Redacted with Natali and Clayton Morris (22 min)

I want to feature a couple of clips looking at the general state of the US and West in general.

Whatever our puppet government say is to distract us from the threat to our freedom | Neil Oliver

Neil Oliver says 'the ship of state is in a hell of a state'. (12 min)

Rob Schneider: The Best Interview You’ll Hear This Year with George Galloway (29 min)
Hollywood star Rob Schneider on the Election Cycle Variant, how Big Pharma buys TV and politicians and RFK Jr, the man who cleaned up the Hudson River, will do the same with the pill pushers.

So here comes another round of COVID? Do you think people will fall for it this time around?
Biden Actually Pushing ANOTHER Round Of Jabs! (13 min)
During his recent vacation to Lake Tahoe, President Biden was asked about the expected COVID surge scheduled for a few weeks later and told reporters that a new vaccine was on its way, one he expected would be highly effective against whatever new variants emerge. How he could know all of this was not addressed.

John Campbell is trying to calm people about the new variant.
CDC, increased infection risk in vaccinated (13 min)
Links and resources below his clip.
More from John... Pirola panic (15 min)

Seems to me this will be a hard sell among most people. Have you seen Trump's new ad? (1.5 min)

I think this message resonates. What ever you think about Trump, you gotta admit he knows how to play the situation to his benefit.

Trump's prosecution is only hurting brain dead Biden as black voters flee the democratic party and identify with Trump along with Hispanics. It is looking more and more likely that there will be an impeachment investigation. (32 min)

Wonderful rant from Alex at about the 17 min mark

Censorship Industrial Complex...

TPTB trying to control the narrative.

Censorship, no longer just a threat from the government but now from private tech corporations as well, has snowballed into dystopian size. And the scariest part about censorship? It hides itself. So it’s hard to know just how huge it really is. “The constitution is just a sideshow at this point.”

This week, we’re interviewing two journalists recently trampled by the wheels of big tech. First is Max Blumenthal, editor and founder of the Grayzone, which had a recent fundraiser frozen and withheld by GoFundMe “due to some external concerns.” GoFundMe, along with corporations like PayPal, has buried other independent news sites for speaking out against US war. But none as big as the Grayzone. Which means they can speak up and fight back. Tune in and join the fight.

The second guest is Matt Orfalea, video editor and Racket News contributor, whose videos on Youtube have been deleted and demonetized for being “potentially harmful,” or for spreading election lies. The main video in question was simply a mashup of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump claiming that the 2016 and 2020 elections were stolen from them. No opinion, just documentation. Check out the video, it’s back up on Youtube but demonetized. You wouldn’t want such a dangerous video to make any money for its creator.

Europe just dealt a DEVASTATING blow to FREE SPEECH (15 min)
Academic Researcher and Freedom of Speech Advocate David Thunder joins redacted to discuss Europe's new draconian Digital Services Act. Will it give bureaucrats unbelievable power to censor citizens that speak out against the official narratives? Will it act as a Trojan Horse to give even more power to European governments?

Without free speech there is no democracy. The idea the US is a democratic government disappeared long ago. Now it seems the objective is to have us fight one another as the news divides people. I want to close with a great story from Glenn Greenwald about how to look beyond the stereotypes we're trained to see.

PEOPLE OVER POLITICS: Reflections on How Human Connection Overcomes Ideology (19 min)

Forget peoples' politics and putting them in boxes. Learn to see each others humanity and try to help each other or we will descend into the abyss of eternal war here at home. We're easier to control when we're divided. What if we refuse. Remember the 60's saying, "what if they gave a war and nobody came?" We must resist this push to hate others whether it is Russians, or Chinese, or Republicans vs Democraps, black vs white, rich vs poor and so on. The idea is to have us going after one another rather than our real opposition, TPTB. My hope is TPTB loose control before destroying us all in a nuclear conflict.

Let's close with something fun on Labor Day Weekend. As the saying goes, I don't mind work, I can watch it all day. How about working on a freighter in the Great Lakes?

SAILING ON A GREAT LAKES FREIGHTER (14.5 min)

Have a great holiday weekend!

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QMS's picture

Today we are once again blessed with a beautiful late summer day. Hope the weather gods
are not too fickle in your neighborhood. Very much enjoyed the Great Lakes Sailor video.
Brought me back to the commercial days of my sailing career down in the Gulf of Mexico.
The background music went well with the old ship and rusty terminals.

Many thanks for the biting commentaries in your watch. Wish those were delivered to a more
mainstream audience. But hey, we get it here. That matters.

Enjoy your Sunday!

Q

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question everything

Lookout's picture

@QMS
...but that's what makes it a comfortable community.

The weather here is great..60's this AM headed to 80. However, we're supposedly headed for a dry hot week. So I'm going to get the last of my decks sealed and catch up on the mowing.

Have a good one!

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

It is cooling off a bit here. High of 97 today.
We are heading out to attend an afternoon performance by a popular Cajun band. We will spend the night near Beaumont, get home noonish tomorrow. I should be able to dig into to some of your articles and videos tonight.
Meanwhile, here is another interesting theory on the spate of wildfires around the globe:https://www.bitchute.com/video/O1aTo4CthTO3/
This is Catherine Austin Fitts and Sasha Laparova discussing fires in the context of billionaires snapping up real estate before their dollars are worthless. Catherine has analyzed fires and the aftermath for years. While these women do not address the method of starting fires, they agree they are intentionally set. She has experience in government, once the deputy secretary for housing and development. There are some comments that she witnessed government officials saying they were following orders, not obeying laws. Stunning stuff.
Well, have some fun today, LO.
Thanks for the great OT.

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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

Lookout's picture

@on the cusp

..as I said the Maui fire just seems very suspicious. My first thought was a land grab, so I'm curious to catch your clip.

Have a great time at the concert! We're enjoying a bit of fall today, but headed back to summer next week.

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

@on the cusp

Based on what I see, that land is already worthless. For example, Turner owning a million acres of NM. It has value only on paper. To have value that land must be sold, developed, or borrowed against. Pure BS. It's like using a title to a 77 junked muscle car out behind your barn to augment your personal worth. Oh yeah, in fully restored condition it might be worth $50k but in actual fact it ain't worth nothing except as a chunk of metal. It has about as much value as my wife's Noritaki china.

There was an old Star Trek episode where these "brains" were bartering and gambling back forth using phantom money. That had value only to them, no one else. Pull the plug and poof!

Thanks very much, you add a considerable value to this forum. That is the only thing that has true value. Be well.

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@exindy It can also be used as a barrier or hideaway. When a dollar is junk, and acre of arable land is a valuable commodity.
Fitts had studied the disater/land grab pattern for many years. While we might dismiss land as having no value, billionaires think otherwise.
Have a great weekend!

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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

Lookout's picture

@exindy

I've got a fair amount of timber, lots of good water, fairly good soil, and as we jokingly say...lots of potential. Land is a resource, and sadly the more resources it holds, the more likely it is to be raped. My land is my wealth not necessarily from an economic perspective but from a lifestyle/mental health point of view. I feel privileged to live surrounded by nature...I would rather have that than a large bank account which is what we're pushed to think of as wealth.

As for cars? All mine are old enough to vote, but are (usually) reliable transportation. It ain't the dollar value to me, it is the functional value of things that matter.

My good fortune was to never go in debt (except for 6 years buying our place). That has made all the difference to this couple on just teacher's salaries.

I hope you have real wealth too! Friends, health, family, and contentment.

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

@Lookout

But at a certain point the diseconomy of scale enters the equation. There comes a point where that land can no longer provide a tangible value to you as an individual. Sure, you can barter it away, maybe sell the timber, etc.

If you are an altruistic person, you might expand the holdings to the benefit of your fellow man, maybe use your wealth to become true wealth and that is a wonderful thing. For example, the Biltmore estate is very impressive and so many people are awed by what Vanderbilt did but I was much more impressed that he hired and supported Frederick Law Olmsted. That is where the true value lies.

I can't imagine Bill Gates ever turning his land into anything more than an example of pleonexia. A lot like his technology and others of his ilk that have done so much to damage our human evolution.

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Lookout's picture

A Significant Turning Point in History | Paul Craig Roberts
The first 10 min or so is a major point summary. The entire hour is quite good to my mind

I find most of his interpretation similar to my mine, but I think he misunderstands the SMO and the future BRICS+ seeks. He suggest they project power (the way you fight a war is blow up Keiv?), but that has been a mistake as we exemplify. Anyway great interview, highly recommended!

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

know if anyone else will see the humour
in this
but

Burning Man is closed for the foreseeable future due to Rain!
no traffic in Or out
no Driving period
no portapotty service
nothing but emergency travel Only
shelter in place and
conserve water and food

Go ahead go to the desert and run
what you brung
Mother Nature slaps a bunch of privileged
over entitled saps into the mud

FAFO writ Large!

maybe they Should have paid attention
to the enviro protesters trying to
block the road in

literally Millions of $$ in materials and manpower
Wasted every year in an orgy of consumption
for Ego

we had a project assembled locally
for it this year and the amount of Wasted
lumber was unGodly

Good Luck A$$wholes!

thanks for the watch, Bruddah!

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Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .

Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .

If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march

Lookout's picture

@Tall Bald and Ugly

of "soggy" man this year. I had a friend that went a few years ago, but it never struck my fancy.

This year certainly provides irony.

Hope all is well in your corner!

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

dystopian's picture

HI all, Hi LO! Hope it' all good out there!

Great WW as always, such a great roundup of highlights of the slomo trainwreck we are on.

Yeah the control freaks are freakin' out. Which really is grounds for concern, cornered animals. America is the most propagandized place, and source of propa, in the world. But it doesn't work on all the people all the time. They seem to have failed to consider that it does not work on some people ANY time! But so anyway, since that didn't work, now we need to control your information. And they are. There are deplatformings daily, so to speak. The new EU DSA is crazy. Where there is no free speech, there is no democracy. Trump was way more articulate than Kamala and Biden put together. He came off great I thought considering how much I can't stand him. He is very good at what he does.

I liked this below. I think it is an ancient style and instrument type they are 'keeping alive'. The best comment was: Richie Blackmore in 1970's "I invented shredding", Followed by: some Japanese guys from the 1600's "hold my sake".

YOSHIDA BROTHERS -- Kodo

Hope all have good ones!

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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

Lookout's picture

@dystopian

George Galloway had a great line today...the right and the left are cross dressing.

It really is white is black, up is down, and war is peace. Whatta world...

Hope you got some rain lately!

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

ggersh's picture

it's Labor Day weekend and you didn't take it off, so again thanks

It's a scvhitz here in Chitown, in the mid 90's thru Wednesday, but
heck who's complaining, it could snow in a couple of month's, so
just enjoy....

https://www.theautomaticearth.com/2023/09/debt-rattle-september-3-2023/

was on fire as well with the following


and hopefully the ex military came to the rescue

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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

@ggersh

in Maui, but wasn’t. I think people are seeing how wacky the fires were and they are understanding why there were so many screwups. Anyone else notice how quickly the story was dropped from corporate media? When was the last update on the missing and dead? Also if you have time watch the video OTC posted. It’s not just about Maui, but lots of other things that have been happening for some time. The government is at war with its own people and has been since Reagan if not before. Clinton’s NAFTA and welfare reform were the opening salvos. Obama’s rescinding habeas corpus was just another in a long line of changing the rules and laws. Patriot act too. What else……?

Hey I was going to post the lightbulb. Brilliant and so apt.

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The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt

Lookout's picture

@snoopydawg

The government is at war with its own people

I saw a piece saying the electric co. knew they needed to upgrade the system, but insisted on a rate hike...which naturally was still under consideration two years later.

I'm not sure what is being hidden but it is something.

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snoopydawg's picture

@Lookout

It’s much more than just the power. Much more. And the video adds even more detail to what the PTB have been doing with the government’s permission. They can do the same things but not using fire.

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The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt

Lookout's picture

@snoopydawg

As I keep saying there is lots of suspicious activity around the Maui fire...and lots of other MSM narratives.

Thanks for the link!

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

@ggersh

Not the one currently in charge, the one that believes in their promise, the oath to support the constitution and follow the chain of command. They keep the former promise in spite of the crappy officer corpse (deliberate). At some point we have to pray that they will be released from their secondary promise, if not by decree but because they believe the orders violate their primary oath.

Last week I started rereading Once an Eagle. The gist of that book is exactly what I see here. That our military has been taken over by the Courtney Massengales. Nay, not just the military, our entire government.

Once an Eagle
Published in 1968 by Anton Myrer

Once an Eagle is the story of a soldier named Sam Damon, and his adversary over a lifetime, fellow officer Courtney Massengale. Damon is a professional who puts duty, honor, and the men he commands above self-interest. Massengale, on the other hand, advances by making connections behind the lines and in Washington's corridors of power. Beginning in the French countryside during the Great War, the conflict between these adversaries solidifies during peacetime, intensifies in the deadly Pacific jungles of World War II, and reaches its treacherous conclusion in the last major battleground of the Cold War – Vietnam.

This book is required reading for West Point and Marine Corps cadets. Though not an Air Force story, the saga of these two officers clearly resonated with our Airmen as representative of the many ways our Core Values permeate our lives as service members.

https://static.dma.mil/usaf/csafreadinglist_2015/once_an_eagle.html

Air Force Chief of Staff Reading List 2015

During my career as a civilian in the DA and then in DoD I witnessed this transition. I was eaten by it. In the early years I was responsible for the development and implementation of a number of computer systems, a couple of which that had failed. We had a very tight team and worked closely with those in the organization who had a more direct role in the support of the troops and their families. We learned their languages and worked alongside, fielding remote problems. After the first year I became the lead, close to the lowest clerk and regularly reporting to the brass. It was a good time and fulfilling.

Then in the 80s the installation was merged with a DC mgmt structure. Their first activity was inserting themselves between us and the "customers" (funny, we hadn't considered the people we supported as customers, more as coworkers). We also weren't permitted to discuss any issues with the brass.

Our own Courtney Massengale made sure of that. Except when the shit hit the fan...

I know that there are remnants of the true patriots in our military. If we are to survive as a nation, it will be because of them.

Thank you.

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Lookout's picture

@ggersh

We're looking at 90's again next week. This time of year is always a roller coaster ride. Already leaves falling on the porch.

Fires and flooding. Well on we go.

Thanks for the autoearth!

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enhydra lutris's picture

throw out some ideas and info on the "directed energy weapons" thing.

Regarding his first picture, he takes note of some things and says something to the effect of "That wasn't a forest fire, forest fires don't act that way". Too true, too true. It wasn't a forest fire because there was no forest there; that was a fookin' sub-division. There hasn't been a forest there for an enormously long time. When you look at suburban fires and urban fires in a woodsy setting, the appropriate analysis parallels suburbs and cities, not forests. Forests have a ton more trees, they are pretty tightly grouped, they almost always have an understory of highly flammable plant matter between and around the trees.

Let's look at subdivisions. Dense housing, not trees. Semi-isolated trees with no meaningful understory, the maintenance crews clean it out at least monthly. Much harder to set off a stand alone mature tree, especially one that is well watered.

Houses might have copper water pipes, or iron, or pex or pvc (both plastic). More and more since about the fifties, they have plywood sheeting or mdf or other manufactured panels that burn very hot (I suspect the fact that they're full of glue is a factor). On the inside they have sheetrock, doesn't really burn for shit, even if microwaved, but brittle if the framing burns up. Mostly, gas heating, water heaters, stoves, artificial fireplaces. GAS, brought in through underground pipes. If fire, from any source, gets to any of those lines or appliances, all hell breaks loose, and the fire spreads because the gas does. (As kids Californians learn where the gas shut-off valve is and that the first thing you do in a major quake or fire is run out and turn the damn thing off.) In a lot of semi-rural suburbs, many/most houses have large capacity external tanks full of gas that are filled when needed. Cars: if a car fire gets to the gas tank, and sometimes a fuel line is enough, you get a gas fire and spreading flames from the spreading gas. Both natural gas and automotive gas hang around and spread and keep on burning and burn hot, hot, hot. So, if such a place gets well ignited, houses and cars go up, trees very likely don't unless they're vulnerable and too close to the houses and cars.

Directed Energy Weapons exist. They're not too portable and use humongous amounts of power. They have a tightly focused beam. Some are mounted on warships. Were any funny looking warships seen hanging around Hawaii for hours before and during the fire? How about Herky-birds, any flocks of them hanging around any of these fire sites? None that I've ever heard of. Not a surreptitious method of arson. They're talking about putting lasers on Strykers, how powerful they'll be, and how much they can fire without a recharge I don't know. They're lasers so there is no possible magic microwave effect, and I know of no reports of large numbers of strykers rolling up and firing on any of these places either,

Just some things to consider

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 --

Lookout's picture

@enhydra lutris

...but I'll say again something looks funny about the Maui fires. Tire rims melt but trees don't burn. Makes me wonder.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@Lookout @Lookout

could easily melt your rims, but have no effect on anything that isn't subject to that same fire, like a house or tree across the street.

be well and have a good one

ON EDIT: check out some of the photos of the San Bruno Fire (gas pipeline fire), lots of trees left standing.unaffected

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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 --

I heard from a guy who knows a guy that one of the things submariners are afraid of is hitting freighters. The reason: freighters rev up their engines using enormous amounts of horsepower. And once they get their massive tonnage moving, they turn off their engines and rely on the momentum for travel. Of course, a submarine cannot hear them and could come up and collide with the freighter. Does this sound right to you?

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soryang's picture

@MrWebster ...or periscope depth can be very hazardous for submarines. I think there was a Japanese sub not too long ago that surfaced underneath a surface vessel.

The Defense Ministry said communications equipment on the sub was also damaged, although it was still able to operate.

“Soryu scraped the hull of the vessel as it was surfacing. It is extremely regrettable the MSDF submarine has collided with a commercial ship,” Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said.

The commercial vessel – the Hong Kong-registered bulk carrier Ocean Artemis – reported no damage, Coast Guard officials added.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/08/asia/japan-submarine-collision-intl-hnk-s...

Sensors don't operate that effectively in the immediate vicinity of the sub. I'm not an engineer, that's just "scuttlebutt."

In my limited experience on a large vessel, the ships drive it seemed was almost never disengaged. There is too much drag on the ship underway, both from the water, wave action, and wind. The rudders won't work. The only time it was entirely disengaged was when encountering tugs for berthing at harbor or dropping anchor.

These were my impressions anyway, I was never on the bridge.

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語必忠信 行必正直

@soryang Makes sense.

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I believe an inspiration is in order. Spoiler: it doesn't have a happy ending. When I was growing up I was an avid reader. I read everything I could get my hands on, acceptable or not. My mother had taught me to read when I was a toddler. We really had nothing else.

Some years later I was introduced to the library. Oh what a wonderful opportunity. Andrew Carnegie went from being a bobbin boy in a textile mill to being the richest man in the world.

In 1889 Carnegie wrote an article called "The Gospel of Wealth," in which he spelled out his views on philanthropy: "In bestowing charity the main consideration should be to help those who help themselves."

The rich should give, so the poor could improve their own lives — and thus the lives of the society. Giving was a code of honor. "The man who dies rich dies in disgrace," Carnegie said.
...
"It is his responsibility to give it back," Nasaw says, "to return it to the community because the community — all of those men and women who contribute to the making of Carnegie steel, the mothers who feed their children, the day laborers, the whole large community — is responsible for making this wealth and they're the ones who have to get it back."

https://www.npr.org/2013/08/01/207272849/how-andrew-carnegie-turned-his-...

In response to a worker demand during a labor strike he said:

"If I had raised your wages, you would have spent that money by buying a better cut of meat or more drink for your dinner. But what you needed, though you didn't know it, was my libraries and concert halls. And that's what I'm giving to you."

And so he did: 1,689 public libraries. Temples of learning, ambition, aspiration for towns and cities throughout the United States.

The Gospel of Wealth is available at https://www.carnegie.org/publications/the-gospel-of-wealth/

He gave it all away. There ya go, Bill... match that.

When I was graduating from high school I wanted to go to what was Carnegie Tech in those days. We didn't have much money in those days so I couldn't go to the schools I really wanted so Carnegie Tech was struck from the list, as was Case Tech. I managed to do ok anyway and I am thankful for it. I couldn't have done it without the support of a man who dropped out of school after the 8th grade cause he couldn't overcome the stigma and quarantine of polio.

Carnegie Tech is now Carnegie Mellon. The libraries are being coopted by KKR and being priced out of reach of someone like me. Time for the John Donne poem.

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Lookout's picture

@MrWebster @exindy

I'm just hillbilly on lookout mt. The great game is simply beyond my comprehension. However, it is obvious there is a great game...at least to my mind.

Round and round we go...where we end up, nobody knows.

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

soryang's picture

I wish they were losing control in Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines. However, it looks more like a retrograde movement, where pro-US, anti-China elements are digging in and arming up. Perhaps this presents the illusion of control as the situation grows more unstable.

You know if it's Saturday in Seoul, there are a lot of demonstrators out. I hoped to gather the best screen shots I could, but something changed, and I'm having inordinate difficulty with pics today. So Tim made this first demonstration picture easy.

200 to 300,000 teachers demonstrating in Yeoido outside the national assembly building. Very impressive and well organized teachers making their voices heard about recent suicides of young teachers caused by family harassment of teachers trying to control their misbehaving children in school. Their demos have been are the largest I've seen in some time. Unfortunately, they are basically one issue workplace issues.

These were a couple of other demonstrations. There was an opposition led demonstration against the Fukushima reactor waste water release. Started at 3pm Seoul time and lasted a few hours. Democratic Party National Assembly members were present including the party leader Lee Jae-myung. Also present were a few representatives of the Justice Party and Basic Income Party. Lee started a hunger strike 3 days ago. He didn't limit his dissent to the Fukushima issue but went down the extensive list of shortcomings and failures of the current authoritarian Yoon administration. The media coverage was not extensive.

Saturday afternoon demo protesting Fukishima reactor waste water dumping into the Pacific Ocean. I think this assembly is near City Hall in Seoul. There were several thousand people, whom the police apparently separated into two groups when they began marching past Seoul Station.

The later demonstration was the 55th Candlelight movement parade, opposed to just about everything concerning South Korea's current direction. They basically want Yoon impeached or to step down. The parade was led by demonstrators carrying pictures of Korean independence movement heros who opposed Imperial Japan's colonization of South Korea. Recently, the Defense Ministry proposed removal of the busts of some of these leaders from the front of the Military Academy building where officers are trained. This represents an ideological move to change the historical perspective to one beginning with the US post WWII occupation and Korean conflict rather than a national foundation based upon Korean resistance to Japanese domination. This is consistent with President' Yoon's submission to US and Japanese foreign policy goals. It is also consistent with his hard line anti North Korean and anti-communist approach to domestic politics. All domestic opposition is implicitly labelled as communist in nature, or communist sympathizers. The removal of independence fighter busts from the military academy grounds is viewed as an extreme move even by conservatives who are not a part of the Yoon/Lee Myung-bak clique ruling South Korea currently.

Another example of this ideological trend is the gutting of the Unification Ministry by the brand new Yoon appointee, Kim Yung-ho. Who needs exchange or dialogue with North Korea?

Candlelight movement demonstrators, Saturday, Sep. 2, carrying placards with images of famous independence fighters who resisted Japanese Imperial rule of Korea. (edit) Korean independence hero General Hong Bum-do (placard fourth from the right) was the focus of the controversy. Kim Ku, the founder of the Provisional Republic of Korea in exile (in China) during the Japanese colonial period is far right. Ahn Jung-geun, (second from the right) was the assassin of Ito Hirobumi, the former Resident General of Korea, and former Japanese Prime Minister.

Great WW Lookout. Thanks for the OT.

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語必忠信 行必正直

Lookout's picture

@soryang TPTB are losing control, and that's the fear. How badly will they react? I don't know nor can I predict, but my bet is they react badly because TPTB seem to lack the ability to think critically...too much arrogance and hubris, IMO.

Glad you avoided Idalia!. Hope the summer continues in your favor. Some of my buddies lost power but are back in business now. All the best!

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

snoopydawg's picture

.

left there and that humanity had woken up to the horrors that were committed on people. But as we see what’s happening today that just isn’t true. The eugenics programs just went underground. Because of the Supreme Court’s decision on the smallpox vaccine, eugenicists decided that meant that they could do a force sterilization program on people that they didn’t think were fit to further their lineage.

But the reckoning cannot be confined to Scandinavia: Britain has some soul-searching of its own to do. What’s more, as in Sweden, the culprits are not long-forgotten fire-breathers of the far right. On the contrary: eugenics is the dirty little secret of the British left. The names of the first champions read like a roll call of British socialism’s best and brightest: Sidney and Beatrice Webb, George Bernard Shaw, Harold Laski, John Maynard Keynes, Marie Stopes, the New Statesman even, lamentably, the Manchester Guardian. Nearly every one of the left’s most cherished, iconic figures espoused views which today’s progressives would find repulsive.

Thus George Bernard Shaw could write: “The only fundamental and possible socialism is the socialisation of the selective breeding of man”. Later he mused that “the overthrow of the aristocrat has created the necessity for the Superman”. The revered pacifist, disarmer and philosophical titan, Bertrand Russell, dreamed up a wheeze that would have made even Nazi Germany’s eugenicists blush. He suggested the state issue colour-coded “procreation tickets”. Those who dared breed with holders of a different-coloured ticket would face a heavy fine. That way the high-calibre gene pool of the elite would not be muddied by any proletarian or worse, foreign, muck. The New Statesman agreed, explaining in July 1931: “The legitimate claims of eugenics are not inherently incompatible with the outlook of the collectivist movement. On the contrary, they would be expected to find their most intransigent opponents amongst those who cling to the individualistic views of parenthood and family economics.” The bottom line is bleak but clear. Eugenics, the art and science of breeding better men, is not just the historical problem of Germany and now Scandinavia, nor even of the jackbooted right. It took root right here in Britain – pushed and argued by the left. Indeed, contempt for ordinary people and outright racism were two of the defining creeds of British socialism.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/from-the-archive-blog/2019/may/01/e...

When criminals aren’t held to account then the crimes they committed will continue to be committed. Look at how many times big pharma has been found guilty of committing criminal acts and after they paid a fine that came nowhere near what they made from the crime they were allowed to go forward and commit more crimes. Pfizer paid $2.3 billion for whatever it got caught doing and they just went back to business as usual until they got caught again, paid another fine and rinse and repeat.

A comment on the SC smallpox decision.

This isn't surprising at all - sadly. When Courts upheld vax mandates based on Mass. v. Jacobson and no media or attorney outlet analyzed the decision, I thought it was very strange. So I looked it up. A minute later I stumbled on Buck v. Bell which upheld state forced sterilization based on the Jacobson decision. Justice Holmes literally wrote the same police powers that can force a vax (a fine actually) can force sterilization of the unwashed.

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The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt

Lookout's picture

@snoopydawg

Look at how many times big pharma has been found guilty of committing criminal acts and after they paid a fine that came nowhere near what they made from the crime they were allowed to go forward and commit more crimes.

Think Vioxx
Results showed an increased risk of cardiovascular events, including heart attacks and strokes, in patients taking Vioxx compared to those taking a placebo (sugar pill). This risk was especially apparent for those taking Vioxx for more than 18 months,
oxycotin
Members of the Sackler family who are at the center of the nation's deadly opioid crisis have won sweeping immunity from opioid lawsuits linked to their privately owned company Purdue Pharma,
etc. etc...

We're pawns in the game.

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

Lookout's picture

Pete has been one of my heroes. Music is a powerful tool.
Happy labor day!

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

snoopydawg's picture

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The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt

Don't know *that* much about them, but they have been researched and most likely
developed starting back in the Cold War period. The HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program) in Alaska and kindred facilities elsewhere are some of the main suspects (on the US and allied side, anyway).

Idea, if I'm remembering correctly, is to use energy transmitted by the radar arrays to redirect the energy of the magnetosphere as it is conducted through the ionosphere and (in conjunction with one or more similar arrays) cause energy to be concentrated at a given point and then to control the energy's release.

Thing being that unlike nukes, which leave an unambiguous signature when used, HAARP-type weapons may resemble natural phenomena or some sort of mundane human action - which means the bar to them actually being used (especially offensively) is much lower than for nuclear or conventional weapons.

Nexus Magazine (Australia) has covered this over the years, I've got hard copies of their magazine from the late 90's with coverage of it *somewhere*...

https://nexusmagazine.com/?s=HAARP&v=24d22e03afb2

BBC HAARP documentary (1995)

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Lookout's picture

@Blue Republic

...but I'm an ecologist and understand there are pyroclimax systems (fire driven ecospheres)...but Maui look questionable. So we should question. Today we should question most everything!

Thanks for the clip...I'll check it out.

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