This is the strangest life, I've ever known. -Jim Morrison

Daedalus told his son Icarus: Don't fly too close to the sun or it will melt your wings and into the sea you will plummet. Don't fly too low or your wings will collect water and into the sea you will plunge.

Yet, Icarus in his exuberance flew too high and paid the toll of greed, ambition and hope with his life.

There is but one thing on this earth that comes close to matching the power of the sun. We as a species, as a country, as a polity are forgoing Daedalus's warning of balance between the extremes. Madmen are in the throes of greed and ambition in lieu of hope, as we potentially soar ever closer to our metaphorical watery cortege.

You may have read that Rishi Sunak has called for a snap UK election for July 4th. If you look carefully at the CNN explanation, you'll note that its author is not really telling you anything. This is the "least bad time" to call an election or something. That's nonsense, because how would anyone know that?

https://www.scottritterextra.com/p/90-seconds-to-midnight

90 Seconds to Midnight?

A clear signal to the US leadership that there will be no survivors in any nuclear exchange between the US and Russia

Scott Ritter
Jan 24

How are we divided? Let me count the ways.

Race, gender, economic class, religion, ethnicity, age, education, language, profession, geographic location, medical status, on and on and on. We have become so pigeon-holed and compartmentalized that a certain group wants to divide us further into human and trans-human entities. One is no longer able to just be "me", you must be labeled and categorized, many times over. Have we ever been so divided as we are now?

I purposely left out a big one on my list, politics, that which I think of as building "interpersonal walls", divisions which to me are a mental construct designed as a control mechanism. It has served psychopaths and sociopaths for millennia.

Here in the US politics boils down to a republican/democrat, red/blue dichotomy. Oh. sure, there are other subsets, but for intents and purposes, it is boiled down to the two party system. The system is rigged as such.

We here at c99 are at least trying to open discourse between the two factions with our nonpartisan discussion policy. In my humble opinion, we don't stand a chance unless we stand together and find common ground. I'll iterate again, the struggle is not horizontal, it is vertical. It's a class struggle.

The current political zeitgeist could make a person feel a bit schizo, no?

Henry Kissinger will soon turn 100, proving that like Dick Cheney, evil men seem to live forever.
While Kissinger is mostly remembered for winning the Nobel Peace Prize for Vietnam while committing genocide in Cambodia, I prefer to remember his comments to the Iraqi Kurds just one year later, who he has inspired to revolt against Saddam Hussein and were being slaughtered.
“Promise them anything, give them what they get, and fuck them if they can’t take a joke.”

I lived through what seemed like the idyllic mid to late 50s. Marched my way through the tumultuous 60s. Cruised through the raucous 70s and its political changes. Worked hard to make it through the the 80s. Watched the overton window lurch to the right in the 90s. Saw the result of that lurch to the right in the 2000s. Witnessed the financial robbery of the 2010s. I'm still here, alive and kicking, in the 2020s, so far.

Never, through all of those years, did I have an inkling of what it would be like in the here and now. Even if I had a possible clue I would have considered it a fevered dream. This is some crazy shit we're living through folks.

Folks, don't do this.

The neighbor's pet chimpanzee escaped again last night. He sneaks across the yard, through the window, and loves to bang on the keyboard of my computer. I've lost count of how many times he's done this.

Soooo, after sharing some 25% Indica and a few nips of Crown Royal with Gunther last night, yeah his name is Gunther (he's Austrian, OK?), I woke up on the sofa with him sleeping at my feet. Now if that's not weird enough, I sat down at my computer this morning and I found an open thread essay all typed out and ready to go.

Well, here it is Friday morning and I've prepared nothing for today's OT, and since I'm not sure who exactly wrote this essay, Gunther or myself, I will throw caution to the wind and publish it anyway.

I'll let you discern which simian brain concocted this flatulation of imagination.

More below the fold.

A decade ago a large group of neconservatives lied us into war. They told us that the war was necessary and that the costs would be minimal. The news media endorsed their every claim and were quick to call all of the skeptics on the left anti-American.
They were wrong in every way. They should have been drummed out of polite society.

Caitlin Johnstone expresses what has been most important about Stephen Cohen's hard work against the merchants of death.

https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2020/09/19/stephen-cohen-has-died-remember-...

Caitlin Johnstone
September 19, 2020

Today I’m going to take a stab at a topic I’ve been avoiding. It’s a topic that provides (I hope) the context within which my political choices make sense.

Let’s talk about climate change.