Catching Up isn't Hard to Do

After a week away from the news, I thought it might be a challenge to catch up to the current cycle. I'm reminded of a line from John Prine's "Hello in There"...all the news just seems to repeat itself like some forgotten dream that we've both seen. Russia continues to advance in Ukraine, the Palestinians are still being starved and killed (despite Bibi's denial), Tariffs are being used like sanctions to try to control other countries and impact BRICS+, the US continues to harass Iran and China...the only thing new was the Thai-Cambodia conflict which seems to have calmed down. The US (and global) economy seems to be a ticking time bomb designed to usher in "Stablecoins".

The Big, Beautiful Boondoggle and the Warfare State

Ain't it funny that there's always money for war, but we gotta cut medicaid and food stamps? It is worse in the UK, they're even cutting pensions to have more war. This week Larry Johnson said in a conversation with Nima, we revolted against a colonial power only to become one ourselves. The US could sure stand a little introspection. We so need to address our own hypocrisy. We better not hold our breath. I question the entire MAGA concept. When were we ever Great? We've been conned our whole lives with the nonsense of US superiority, liberty, and democracy...
Robin Williams portrays the American flag in "I Love Liberty,"

This diary is about virtue-signaling.

Virtue-signaling is empty because it doesn't do anything about the situation supposedly connected to the virtue-signaling. It therefore has no consequences. No Black lives were saved because Nancy Pelosi dressed up in kente cloth.

Hopefully my reading audience here remembers reading Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Brave New World was a novel, published in 1932, depicting an imaginary future in which everyone was a designer idiot.

Coup, Coup, Cachoo

The world is engulfed with U.S. led coups. There's Venezuela, Iran, Ukraine, Nicaragua, Cuba, and too many other African and Asian nations to list. In a comment this week Joe suggested there may not be more ongoing coups today than in the past, but they've never been so blatant and obvious. There's also an on going coup against truth tellers. To paraphrase Julian, "Since lies bring us wars, perhaps truth can bring peace." Concurrently, we have a corporate coup against the ecosystem. May 5, Cinco de Mayo, is a celebration of a coup when the Mexican Army defeated the French Empire at the Battle of Puebla, on May 5, 1862 (at least temporarily). However, Mexico celebrates independence day on September 16, commemorating the Cry of Dolores, which initiated the war of Mexican independence from Spain. Stretching the theme this week, let's also look at coops and chicken coops.

‘Israel Pays a Bounty of $5,000 and Arms for Each African Asylum Seeker Expelled’; Israel was the main driver behind the 1951 UN Convention on the Rights of Refugees, but after signing it, it has never respected the rights of refugees. In fact, it has created one of the biggest refugee crisis the world has seen, says Journalist and Filmmaker Lia Tarachansky.  (the transcript of the 21 minutes is here, but the visuals and voices are of prime importance, imo.)