A study finds that the sanction regime often prolongs conflicts, collectively punishes whole populations and hinders third-party humanitarian efforts. Sanctions imposed by the US are nothing but war by other means. Ironically US sanctions are backfiring as nations dump the dollar and trade in their own currency...$114,500,000,000 in US Treasuries Dumped By China and New BRICS Member Saudi Arabia. All as US debt soars to the point that just interest payments are a trillion dollars a year and going higher.

Ask yourself why both parties voted against appointing an auditor to track Ukraine weapons and monies. Greed is the operative descriptor. The US government doesn't care about its citizens. Consider the hundreds of billions going to Ukraine and the total lack of support for the people of Maui. No, we have a government by and for the multinational corporations, oligarchs, and globalists. Is there a way out of this conundrum? I don't see it. I hope you can offer some possible solutions in the comments below.

Losing Control

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...

Another Hot Week of News

This has been our hottest week of the year. Cooler weather is expected as a front moves south and a tropical system moves into the gulf. It was also another very busy news cycle. The BRICS+ meeting had (and will have) a large ripple effect. Trump was indicted yet again, preceded by a widely seen interview with Tucker. The other republican candidates debated. The Ukraine proxy war grinds on as Russian artillery and air power dominates. Wagner's front man, Prigozhin, is presumed dead in plane crash. He's died in one before. DNA evidence has yet to be revealed, however it has been collected. [edit to add: His DNA was identified] The second plane is still a mystery. So, let's dive into these and other stories...

Growing Frustration

...and food for thought

It seems there is a growing sense of frustration in the US and western world in general. People know the system is broken, and like me have no idea how to correct our course. Many are hurting, homeless, and hungry. This week there's been a viral song that has captured this spirit of frustration. Lots of people have discussed it but I'll let the song speak for itself...

Oliver Anthony - Rich Men North Of Richmond (3 min)

Complete Corporate Capture

Politicians, state and federal agencies, government regulators and inspectors, have all been captured by a multitude of corporate interests...Wall Street, big pharma, the MIC, oil companies, big food, commercial media and so on. The game is rigged and these various corporations hold all the cards. The government needs to re-boot with a new operating system, but the vested interest won't allow that to happen. We the people are mere pawns in the rigged game used for labor and as consumers...grease in the gears of corporate greed.

Constantly Escalating?

More war, more indictments, more sanctions, more currency creation, more accusations, more coups...we're caught in an expanding aggressive cycle and all we seem able to do is double down on stupid. What goes up, must come down, and the bigger they are, the harder they fall...and an eventual fall is inevitable. My hope is we don't take the biosphere down with the empire's collapse. Notice how mention of nuclear weapons is becoming more common? Naturally we project the use of nuclear weapons on the Russians and Chinese, but not ourselves? My memory is that the US is the only nation to have used atomic bombs in war.

Dog Days

According to the National Weather Service: The “dog days of summer” is a phrase used to describe the hot and humid days of summer. It can be traced back thousands of years to the days of the Roman Empire. It refers to the dates from July 3 through August 11, which is 20 days prior and 20 days after the star Sirius rises and falls in conjunction with the sun. Sirius was known as the “Dog Star,” because it is the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major (Large Dog).

The name Sirius comes from an ancient Greek word for “scorching” or “glowing.” Plus, Sirius is the brightest star visible from Earth, and it’s visible from both hemispheres. Also, it’s the brightest star in the evening sky during the Northern Hemisphere winter... Sirius is behind the sun as seen from Earth during the Northern Hemisphere summer. Then, in late summer, it appears in the east before sunrise, near the sun in our sky. ... And then, it traveled across the sky with the sun all day. Thus, early stargazers might have imagined a double-whammy from Sirius and the sun caused the hot weather.

The Best Laid Plans Oft Go Awry

The plans have long been laid, even wiki shines a weak light...
Wolfowitz Doctrine is an unofficial name given to the initial version of the Defense Planning Guidance for the 1994–1999 fiscal years (dated February 18, 1992) published by U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Paul Wolfowitz and his deputy Scooter Libby. Not intended for public release, it was leaked to the New York Times on March 7, 1992, and sparked a public controversy about U.S. foreign and defense policy. The document was widely criticized as imperialist, as the document outlined a policy of unilateralism and pre-emptive military action to suppress potential threats from other nations and prevent dictatorships from rising to superpower status.

What the Folk?

I'm off at a Georgia State Park with some music buddies. Our focus in this gathering is singing. If you know lots of songs, you have to play and sing them regularly in order to keep them resident in your mind. However, it is easy to lose some over the years, so our goal is to reclaim those songs and reinforce the songs we do know. People like to classify music based on genre. I've been called an old time, bluegrass, country, and folk musician. I prefer the folk label which is so broad as to include a variety of music.