caucus99percent

free-range politics, organic community

I apologize for the drive by essay here. I just caught this piece by David Swanson of World without War which clearly lays out the bipartisan buy in for war (and violence).
http://worldbeyondwar.org/why-55-u-s-senators-voted-for-genocide-in-yemen/

You probably knew that you were a Putin Puppet, but did you know that you were a Nazi too?
I didn't know that I was a Nazi until recently. It was a surprise to me because a large branch of my family was executed in the Holocaust by actual Nazis.
How did I become an anti-Semite? I used the term "globalist".

Well, my usual "blame the Democrats for the Republicans" schtick isn't gaining much of an audience these days, so I thought I would press a topic that did have an audience; gun control.

Friends and Enemies

A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.
~ Oscar Wilde

It took me a few years of teaching to fully understand that what you do...your habits and behaviors...carry more meaning and impact than what you say. It is the adage “Actions speak louder than words”. I think looking at what nation states do, not what they say, is an excellent strategy too. A couple of weeks ago we discussed the making of a more perfect oligarchy. I expressed amazement that the oligarchs no longer feel the need to hide behind purchased politicians, but are out front, self serving politicians for all to see. This week I want to make a similar point about our friends and enemies. Why is Saudi Arabia, the most oppressive monarchy in the world, our good buddy..., and nations like Iran, Syria, and Venezuela are so horrible that we feel compelled to ignore their international rights and assume that we must conquer and corporatize them?

Recently, JtC had posted "Federal Judge Says Embedding a Tweet Can Be Copyright Infringement." That was a very interesting post, and I had commented on that, but, to me, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) was blowing the situation out-of-proportion. And just the other day, a commenter on reddit said something like, "Sometimes the EFF makes mountains out of molehills, but they are right in "How Congress Censored the Internet". Here I agree with the reddit commentator, and with the EFF article. This is bad, very bad.

So, I got this email last night:

(Subject: Update on Russian-linked activity on Tumblr)

Dear (my Tumblr name),

As part of our commitment to transparency, we want you to know that we uncovered and terminated 84 accounts linked to Internet Research Agency or IRA (a group closely tied to the the Russian government) posing as members of the Tumblr community.

"For behind all imperialism is ultimately the imperialist individual, just as behind all Peace is ultimately the peaceful individual."
Irving Babbitt

(Fuck you John Bolton)

It didn't get much attention at the time, but a week ago, right after warmonger Nikki Haley threatened to bomb Syria, Russia warned of retaliation against U.S. forces if that happened.

Omigod we can't be communists -- that would be, like, working together for a better future instead of working for the bosses (or something like that). So we must all instead succumb to the allure of instant expertise, and proclaim ourselves knowledgeable about history, the world, and human nature, all on a foundation of very little.

Or not?

Spring is springing here and it's been fun watching the new life coming out on the trees that went dormant during the winter.

I gotta admit that I'm stumped.
I had already assumed that Facebook was selling our data to people with unethical intentions. In fact, I think it's only a matter of time before "unethical" turns into "illegal".
So why is everyone surprised? Were they simply not paying attention?

If those poor, delusional Trump supporters in the Rust Belt thought they were going to get a break with Trump's renegotiation of NAFTA, they are in for a nasty surprise.

Every once in a while I check taskandpurpose.com because it has colorful articles such as Drones Aren’t F*&king Magic, People.
However, today's article was even better - The Pentagon Is Really Ramping Up The High Quality Bullsh*t About Afghanistan.

I'm just going to post the title and say something like, um, wait, let me drink a beer.

I'm back.

I was going to say that um, Bolton is, um, what this means is um, wait, let me drink another beer.

I'm back.

So anyhoo, you gotta be shittin' me. Really? John Bolton, right after appointing Pompeo to SOS and that Torture Lady to head the Gestapo?

Progressives: There's a lesson to learned if you'll simply look south of the border.

From dw.com:

“We have approved Bayer’s plans to take over Monsanto because the parties’ remedies, worth well over €6 billion euros ($7.4 billion), meet our competition concerns in full,” said Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s anti-trust chief.

The U.S. is building yet another military base in Syria, and it just happens to be in middle of Syria's biggest oil field.

Yesterday was primary election day in Illinois. It was a day of "Oh! So close!"

As the snow now steadily falls in NYC for perhaps the last winter storm of the season (always fine by me, the storms that is), I find myself ruminating a little on the flickers of hope within the darkness of despair of this bizarre time of media and government propaganda.

According to RT this morning:

“US President Donald Trump brought several pictures of American weapons to a meeting with visiting Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman of Saudi Arabia. He boasted of multibillion-dollar sales of arms to the kingdom.

Showing a sign to journalists at the meeting that read “12.5 billion in finalized sales to Saudi Arabia,” Trump boasted about all the money that US defense contractors would be getting for their products.

I'm beginning to think it is since the never ending gift of 9/11. Since then we have lost most of the First Amendment, the Third, definitely the Fourth and what is left of the 4th is taking another hit if congress passes the legislation that they are contemplating.

There is a serious problem in the American economy today: Too many jobs and not enough people.

Here it comes:

As of now, the Pentagon and US leadership are in denial and not ready to face reality. The people of the United States, in solidarity with people of the world, must act now to end the war culture and convince US leadership that a new path is necessary.

Join the days of action!

April 14-15 – National Days Of Action to End the Wars at Home and Abroad.

Hahahaha. Fuckerberg has been selling and ‘allowing’ data mining of Facebook for years. Cambridge Analytica is dirty dirty dirty. And now we find out Obama & Co. did the same. (That’s just a couple of ‘organizations’ to which Fuckerberg sold or gave it’s bread-and-butter subscribers personal information.)

I don’t know if The Clinton Creature got our personal info directly from Farcebook, but she certainly had access to it through the Obama organization.