The Evening Blues - 6-15-23
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features soul singers Joe Hinton & Little Joe Hinton. Enjoy!
Little Joe Hinton - Tired Of Walking
"America is the only nation in history which miraculously has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual interval of civilization."
-- Georges Clemenceau
News and Opinion
Warnings as US and Russia Threaten to Deploy Depleted Uranium Weapons to Ukraine
The Biden administration is expected to equip Ukrainian homeland defenders with armor-piercing depleted uranium munitions for their U.S.-supplied Abrams main battle tanks, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, prompting Russian President Vladimir Putin to threaten to retaliate with DU rounds—which are linked to birth defects, miscarriages, and cancer.
Citing an unnamed senior Biden administration official, the Journal reported that "there appear to be no major obstacles to approving" the shipment of the highly controversial ammunition to Ukrainian forces as they launch a counteroffensive against Russian troops entrenched along a vast front in the eastern and southern regions of the country.
The new reporting comes four months after The Redacted's Dan Cohen reported the U.S. would send DU rounds to Ukraine.
In February, a top British defense official announced that the United Kingdom would supply Ukrainian forces with DU rounds, dismissing warnings from Moscow that the Russian government would regard the deployment of such weapons as an act of nuclear war.
The US is planning to send depleted-uranium tank rounds to Ukraine
These are the extremely toxic weapons that led to a massive increase in cancer rates and birth defects in Iraq
Ukraine's economy relies heavily on agriculture. This could poison its landhttps://t.co/TJf4cqV3pf
— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) June 13, 2023
Reacting to news that the U.S. will likely supply Ukraine with DU munitions, Putin said Tuesday that "we have many such weapons, and if they use them, we will also reserve the right to use similar munitions," according to the state news agency TASS.
"There's nothing good about it, but, if need be, we can do it," he added. "We don't need to do it."
The Journal report prompted warnings from anti-war voices about the dangers of DU munitions.
"If you love Ukraine, if you care about Ukraine, depleted uranium is the last thing you would tell them to use," British journalist Richard Medhurst said on his video podcast Tuesday. "If you look at what the United States has done, everywhere they've used depleted uranium, it's like dropping a nuclear bomb."
Medhurst added that in Fallujah, Iraq—where U.S. forces used DU rounds during two attempts to capture the city in 2004—"you have higher rates of birth defects and congenital heart disease... than you did in Hiroshima and Nagasaki."
DU rounds are highly effective at penetrating the armor of most modern tanks and armored fighting vehicles. The U.S. Abrams, British Challenger 2, and German Leopard 2 main battle tanks, along with U.S. Bradley Fighting Vehicles that are being sent to Ukraine, can all fire DU munitions. The ammunition can also be fired from warplanes or field artillery.
However, exploding DU shells produce radioactive dust that contaminates soil, water, and air for many years after their use. U.S. Army training manuals caution that DU contamination "will make food and water unsafe for consumption" and require soldiers to wear protective clothing when in or near contaminated areas.
Their depleted uranium vs. our depleted uranium pic.twitter.com/Kr92CrQQXs
— 38Parrots (@Parrots38) June 14, 2023
U.S. and allied forces used DU munitions during the 1991 and 2003-11 invasions of Iraq, and in Syria during the war against Islamic State militants. Miscarriages, birth defects, and cancers soared in Iraq after both wars.
According to one study, more than half of the babies born in Fallujah between 2007 and 2010 had birth defects. Among pregnant women in the study, over 45% experienced miscarriages in the two-year period following the battles for Fallujah. Geiger counter measurements of DU-contaminated sites in Iraqi cities have consistently shown radiation levels 1,000 to 1,900 times greater than normal.
A little downbeat news from The Guardian's propaganda catapult:
‘Extremely fierce’ fighting as Russian forces resist Ukrainian counteroffensive
Kyiv has said its troops are battling under Russian “air and artillery superiority” as cruise missiles targeting the supply lines of the Ukrainian counteroffensive killed three people working a nightshift in a warehouse in the southern city of Odesa.
The country’s deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar, said she could report just partial success over the last 24 hours, during which the progress of Ukraine’s forces had been measured only in the hundreds of metres as they sought to advance in the east and south.
Western officials added to the sombre tone as they briefed that Ukraine was taking significant casualties and making slow progress towards Russia’s main line of defence, in one of the west’s first assessments of the Ukrainian counteroffensive launched on 4 June.
“The Russian manoeuvre and defence approach is proving challenging for Ukraine and costly to attacking forces, hence the advance at the moment is slow,” an official said. They added that “grinding, costly warfare” was likely for many months to come.
“This is incredibly difficult,” the official said. “They are going against a well-prepared line that the Russians have had months to prepare.”
Scholz, Russia top threat. Kakhovka war crime, Energodar assault. NATO fake security guarantees
France, Germany and Poland hold Paris summit to escalate NATO war on Russia
On June 12, Polish President Andrzej Duda, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron met in Paris for a summit on the NATO war against Russia. They met as NATO launched the largest airborne war game in the alliance’s 74-year history, with hundreds of warplanes simulating a war with Russia spreading from Ukraine across Europe.
The meeting of Duda, Scholz and Macron was fully aligned on NATO plans for a staggering escalation of the NATO war with Russia in Ukraine. At a joint press conference at the Elysée presidential palace, they laid out a program leading to total war with Russia, a major nuclear-armed state. They called for Ukraine to join NATO and for Russia to be permanently demilitarized and rendered incapable of waging military operations against any neighboring state.
Macron introduced the press conference, explaining that it would prepare the June 29-30 European Council summit and the July 11-12 NATO summit in Vilnius. Predicting that “Ukraine will not be conquered” by the Russian invasion, Macron added: “We will ensure not only that Russia will not emerge victorious from this unfortunate undertaking, but that it never be able to repeat it.” Scholz argued that the war with Russia had to be seized as a historic opportunity to rearm Europe. “The Russian invasion of Ukraine remains the central foreign policy issue of our time, and it will also be a central theme of our meeting today,” he said. “The turning point represented by the Russian war will have consequences for us in Europe and the European Union. We will create an even more unified geopolitical Europe that is even stronger and more sovereign.”
After Macron pledged to provide Ukrainian forces with armored vehicles, arms, ammunition and logistical support, Scholz pledged to provide these as well as artillery and air defense units. It was Poland’s far-right president who spelled out most clearly the implications of this policy, defining the European Union (EU) as an alliance dedicated to crushing Russia. Duda said, “What is fundamental for the Union is that Russian imperialism be crushed, so that Russia never has the potential or the possibility of attacking another state, or extend its sphere of influence to the detriment of the wealth of other states, or of their sovereignty and independence.” ...
The suicidal recklessness of the warmongering of Duda, Scholz and Macron was matched only by the dangerous air of unreality hanging over the entire event. None of the journalists present asked the heads of state the obvious questions raised by their staggering statements: What are their plans for war with Russia, and how many millions of people do they think would die in such a war?
Germany Says It Can’t Replace All Leopard Tanks Provided to Ukraine
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said Monday that Berlin won’t be able to replace every German-made Leopard tank that Ukrainian forces lose in their fight against Russia.
His comments come amid reports that Leopards have been destroyed in Ukraine’s counteroffensive. On Tuesday, the Russian Defense Ministry said that it captured several Leopards and US-made Bradley Fighting Vehicles. ...
Appearing to confirm that Ukraine is losing a lot of armored vehicles, Andrii Melnyk, Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister, appealed for more Western armor, including the Leopard 2 tank. ... Germany has provided Ukraine with 18 Leopard 2 tanks from its military stockpiles and is also sending refurbished Leopard 1 tanks. But Melnyk thinks Berlin could do more, saying the supply of Leopard 2 tanks from Germany could be “tripled without jeopardizing Germany’s ability to defend itself.”
NATO Chief Says Russia Must Lose in Ukraine to Send Message to China
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg met with President Biden in Washington on Tuesday and said Russia must lose in Ukraine to send a message to China as the Western alliance increasingly has its eyes on the Asia Pacific.
“President Putin must not win this war, because that will not only be a tragedy for Ukrainians, but also make the world more dangerous,” Stoltenberg said at the White House before a meeting with Biden.
“It will send a message to authoritarian leaders all over the world, also in China, that when they use military force, they get what they want, and we will then become more vulnerable. So it’s our security interest to support Ukraine,” he added.
US intelligence confirms it buys Americans’ personal data
A newly declassified government report confirms for the first time that U.S. intelligence and spy agencies purchase vast amounts of commercially available information on Americans, including data from connected vehicles, web browsing data, and smartphones.
By the U.S. government’s own admission, the data it purchases “clearly provides intelligence value,” but also “raises significant issues related to privacy and civil liberties.”
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) declassified and released the January 2022-dated report on Friday, following a request by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) to disclose how the intelligence community uses commercially available data. This kind of data is generated from internet-connected devices and made available by data brokers for purchase, such as phone apps and vehicles that collect granular location data and web browsing data that tracks users as they browse the internet.
The declassified report is the U.S. government’s first public disclosure revealing the risks associated with commercially available data of Americans that can be readily purchased by anyone, including adversaries and hostile nations. The United States does not have a privacy or data protection law governing the sharing or selling of Americans’ private information.
“In a way that far fewer Americans seem to understand, and even fewer of them can avoid, [commercially available information] includes information on nearly everyone that is of a type and level of sensitivity that historically could have been obtained” by other intelligence gathering capabilities, such as search warrants, wiretaps and surveillance, the report says.
Outrage in Guatemala as crusading journalist given six-year prison term
A veteran journalist and founder of one of Guatemala’s oldest newspapers has been sentenced to six years in prison for money laundering, in a case widely condemned as politically motivated.
José Rubén Zamora, 66, was convicted on Wednesday by a three-judge panel in Guatemala City, who ruled that there was “no doubt” the outspoken critic of government corruption masterminded the laundering of almost $40,000 in 2022. The court absolved Zamora of blackmail and peddling influence charges. “I’m innocent, and will appeal,” said Zamora, before being handcuffed and escorted back to Mariscal prison, where he spends 23 hours a day in solitary confinement.
Mariscal is the same prison where former president Otto Pérez Molina is held, alongside numerous other high-profile politicians and army officers convicted of corruption, drug trafficking and war crimes. ...
Zamora’s daily El Periodico was internationally acclaimed for its investigative reporting exposing corruption, including alleged cases linked to the current president Alejandro Giammattei, whose justice system has targeted independent journalists, lawyers and human rights activists.
El Periodico was forced to shut in May, and eight of its journalists – two columnists and six reporters – are under investigation for alleged obstruction of justice linked to their reporting of the case against Zamora.
RECESSION WATCH: Fed STUNS With Rate Pause
Federal Reserve officials announce pause in US interest-rate hikes
US Federal Reserve officials have announced a pause in interest-rate hikes, leaving rates at 5% to 5.25% after more than a year of consecutive rate increases.
The decision, made by the Fed’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), marks a shift in how Fed officials view the state of inflation, which reached a 40-year high of 9.1% in June last year as food and energy costs soared. Inflation in May was down to 4%, the lowest since April 2021.
The FOMC said in a statement: “Holding the target range steady at this meeting allows the committee to assess additional information and its implications for monetary policy … In assessing the appropriate stance of monetary policy, the committee will continue to monitor the implications of incoming information for the economic outlook.”
Even with the pause, Fed officials suggest further increases may come depending on how close the economy gets to their target of 2% inflation. Interest rates make borrowing money, particularly for mortgages or other loans, like car payments and student loans, more expensive.
At a press conference on Wednesday following the Fed’s announcement, chair Jerome Powell said that further rate increases were likely.
Taxes For Thee, Not For Me? Obama SKIRTS INCOME TAX Using Similar LOOPHOLE He Decried As POTUS
Matt Taibbi: On The Explosive Coronavirus Story
Michael Shellenberger’s Public today released a blockbuster story, “First Person Sickened By COVID-19 Was Chinese Scientist Who Oversaw “Gain Of Function” Research That Created Virus,” which generously credits Racket. The story cites three government officials in naming scientist Ben Hu, who was in charge of “gain-of-function” research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, as the “patient zero” of the Covid-19 pandemic.
This is a major story, contradicting early official explanations pointing to zoonotic cross-species “spillover” at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, colloquially known as the Wuhan wet market. The mystery bat or pangolin suspected of transmitting the disease to humans at that market was never found. The Public story for the first time asserts the source of contamination: a Wuhan Institute scientist fell ill after exposure to a virus engineered at his place of work.
The implications of this are enormous and represent a major problem for the federal health bureaucracy, several intelligence agencies, and the news media, to say nothing of politicians in both parties (but particularly those on the Democratic side) who’ve deflected public interest from the Wuhan Institute and gain-of-function research. The secrets of both the pandemic’s origin and the reason for America’s at-best-sluggish investigation of same have become the mother of all political footballs, and today’s news is likely to be just the first in a series of loud surprises.
[Much more at the link. - js]
Former marine indicted over chokehold death of Jordan Neely
A New York grand jury voted on Wednesday to indict Daniel Penny, a former US Marine sergeant, in last month’s killing of Jordan Neely, a homeless man, with a chokehold on a Manhattan subway car, the mayor’s office confirmed.
Penny, 24, was captured in videos recorded by bystanders putting Neely in a chokehold on 1 May while they rode on an F train in Manhattan. ...
The charge or charges in the grand jury indictment will not be unsealed until Penny appears in court at a later date, a person familiar with the case said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record. ...
Penny was arraigned on 12 May at the Manhattan criminal court on a charge of second-degree manslaughter, a felony crime that carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. Judge Kevin McGrath released Penny on a $100,000 bond and ordered him to surrender his passport and to return to court on 17 July. ...
Penny has said he acted to defend himself and other passengers on the train, and did not intend to kill Neely. Witnesses have said Neely did not physically threaten or attack anyone before Penny grabbed him.
INTERVIEW: RFK Jr. on Russiagate, Israel/Roger Waters, JFK Assassination, Ukraine, & More | SYSTEM UPDATE #97
Cornel West Moves to Green Party in 2024 Presidential Run
Cornel West has switched party affiliation and is now running to be the Green Party’s 2024 presidential nominee. The author, civil rights activist and professor of philosophy announced earlier this month he would run as a candidate with the People’s Party. West confirmed the news on “The Katie Halper Show.”
Cornel West FLIPS To Green Party
Glenn Greenwald Debunks Trump’s “Classified Documents” Charges
US government toughens rules on chemicals used to break up oil slicks
The Environmental Protection Agency has announced more stringent rules governing offshore oil spill response, amid continuing concerns about the effects on public health and wildlife from chemical disasters, including BP’s Deepwater Horizon explosion in 2010. The federal agency, which announced the update on Monday, had not updated its rule regulating the chemicals used to break up offshore oil slicks since 1994.
Five environmental organizations, an Alaskan tribal leader and a south Louisiana fisher sued the EPA in 2020 to force the agency to update its regulations based on lessons learned from the BP oil spill and the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989. In 2021, US district court judge William Orrick ordered the EPA to update its oil spill response plans.
Thousands of people who rushed into Gulf of Mexico waters to clean up BP’s oil spill have fallen ill, and some have died. A recent Guardian investigation spotlighted the difficult legal fight that clean up workers who got sick have been experiencing trying to bring medical cases against the oil giant.
More than three decades earlier, those who cleaned up the Exxon Valdez oil tanker spill off the coast of Alaska suffered the same fate. A growing body of research has linked exposure to the dispersants used by BP to break up oil slicks with chronic illnesses, including increased risk of cancer, heart conditions and an increased rate of births of premature and underweight infants.
The updated EPA rule, which takes effect in December, requires dispersants to undergo more stringent toxicity and efficacy testing before they can be approved for use. Dispersants currently approved by the agency must undergo re-testing under the new criteria. Products not re-tested within two years after the rule takes effect or that do not meet the new criteria will be removed from the approved list, according to the updated regulations.
Shell drops target to cut oil production as CEO aims for higher profits
Shell has abandoned plans to cut oil production each year for the rest of the decade, in a shift in approach to firmly target fossil fuels and increase payouts to shareholders under its new chief executive.
The FTSE 100 oil company on Wednesday announced that production would remain stable until 2030, after previously saying it would cut output by about 1-2% each year.
Sawan was appointed as Shell’s chief executive in September, replacing Ben van Beurden who had surprised some activists and investors by putting in place a target of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050, albeit with only gradual reductions in fossil fuel output planned.
Since taking over, Sawan has emphasised financial returns for investors. He told investors at the New York stock exchange that he wanted to “reward our shareholders today and far into the future”. While saying he wanted to lower emissions, he also repeatedly emphasised his belief that oil and gas would be required for the long term.
France's growing water crisis
EU’s biodiversity law under threat from centre-right MEPs
EU plans to restore biodiversity on land and sea are hanging in the balance after the European parliament’s biggest political group called for the proposals to be torn up and rewritten. On the eve of a vote on the nature restoration law (NRL) package, the chairman of the centre-right European People’s party (EPP) said the vote was “50-50” with potential for others to join their opposition ranks on Thursday.
On Wednesday evening the chair of the environment committee, Pascal Canfin, urged members to vote for the act accusing the EPP of “fake news” over food production. “Our food security depends on protecting nature from collapsing. Yet, the right and the far right are joining forces against the nature restoration law that we’re voting on Thursday. My answers to their fake news,” he said.
The proposals are aimed at protecting all endangered ecosystems ranging from rivers and seas to peat bogs and indigenous forests by 2050 through legally binding targets. The UN environment chief Inger Andersen urged MEPs to show leadership for future generations ahead of the vote and deliver on the promises the union made at Cop15 just 6 months ago. She condemned those that had turned restoring biodiversity into a culture war issue.
EPP chairman Manfred Weber said his group of MPs supported goals on climate change but said the NRL was “a bad proposal”, which would reduce food production on the continent. “The overwhelming majority of farmers don’t need any lesson about sustainability, they got their farms from previous generations so they know what sustainability means,” he said. ...
German MEP Peter Liese, the environment spokesperson for the EPP, said on Wednesday the votes were now split 42:42 of the 84 strong committee with EPP representing 22 of those. “We have four undecided votes, it will be very tight,” he said.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Trump Indictments Subvert the Legal and Political System
Is the US military more intent on ending Ukraine war than US diplomats?
Astroturfing For More War In Ukraine
Bean counters: how Russia’s wealthy profited from exit of western brands
Your Efforts Make A Difference, And We Can Win This Thing
Synthetic human embryos created in groundbreaking advance
Youth Plaintiffs in Court Against Montana
“The New Cold War: The United States, Russia and China”: Gilbert Achcar on Ukraine War & Mor
HUGE PUSH For Ukraine Into NATO
RFK JR Beats Biden, Trump In Favorability Poll; Joe Rogan: Biden DISCREDITING Kennedy Due To FEAR
CORNEL WEST: RFK Jr's "CRACK PIPE" Palestine Position, Running Green In DOUBT? & More
A Little Night Music
Joe Hinton - There's No In Between
Little Joe Hinton - The Whip Twist
Joe Hinton - You Know It Ain't Right
Joe Hinton - You Gotta Have Love
Joe Hinton - Better To Give Than Receive
Joe Hinton - Lovesick Blues
Joe Hinton - I Want A Little Girl
Little Joe Hinton - Let's Start A Romance
Little Joe Hinton - I Wont Be Your Fool
Joe Hinton - How Long Can I Last
Joe Hinton - If it aint the One Thing, it´s the Other
Comments
Maybe Mimi or someone else could tell me if the
translation is accurate?
Warms my heart
To know that Germany has crazies like us Americans. Love her hairdo.
evening humphrey...
i'm sure that the germans have a bunch of mic-connected globalist morons who would like nothing better than to send somebody else's children off to die in a war.
Datamining.
What a way to spend taxpayer dollars.
Regrettably, this is nothing even remotely new. The TIA program (Total Information Awareness, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Information_Awareness) was supposedly started in early 2003, and supposedly defunded late that year. We know that it wasn't really defunded- it was simply taken black. After all, the Utah data center (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_Data_Center) wasn't built until 2014: doesn't sound to me like they slowed down at all in the intervening 11 years. And they'd been slurping down anything they could get for decades before. Only the volume of transactions has increased.
Anyway, we know that the backbone sites have been being stripmined for years. Why pay for the data, when Da Phone Companies will give it to them for free? AT&T's big switching centers have all had that special Carnivore room where the sausage was really made for decades (https://www.britannica.com/technology/Carnivore-software), and I'm sure that the other backbone centers have been prevailed upon to do the same. I don't think that they call it Carnivore any more, but I'm not privy to any new name for it.
It is funny: here in Denver, the Mountain States Telephone building down at 14th between Curtis and Champa, the old Denver Electric Light building, and the old AT&T Long Lines building that immediately abuts it on the Champa side, are now supposedly the primary point of presence for almost all of the big data providers (fiber/satellite/carrier pigeon) for most of the middle of the country. I can only imagine how much of their rackspace is occupied by black (or at least dark gray) nameless, warrantless data mining hardware for Da Gummint. One-stop shopping...
But we needn't feel left out: the entrepreneurs co-located at that site will rent rackspace to anybody with the coin. https://www.databank.com/data-centers/denver/1500-champa-street/ A good investigative journalist ought to go arrange for a tour.
That camel's nose is deep inside the tent, and has been for a very long time.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Multiple US government agencies hit by cyberattack
Also,
The FBI, the lead federal agency for investigating cybercrime in the US,
has itself been hacked.
There is more than one way to get into these 'data centers'
Bodes well
for complete confidence in CBDCS.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
evening usefewersyllables...
heh, it illustrates an argument that i used to have with conservatives that yes, big government is bad, but unless you also shrink corporations and religious institutions, you will still be dominated by a tyrannical force.
Ukraine: This is why we need more equipment immediately!
.
War porn if you’re interested in how easy it is for Russia to destroy the western equipment that is the 3rd round of equipping Ukraine. Listen to the ending.
Do Ukrainians not know that Zelensky has banned all opposition parties which is a strange way to run a democracy.. and just who were the fascists in Ukraine last time they fought Russia? Billions of dollars going up in smoke, but boy the defense companies are giddy because they get paid to replace it.
I watched some videos of Ukraine troops hiding their tanks under camouflage and thinking they were safe from Russia finding them. With today’s optics it looks very easy to spot them. A few times it looks like the drone operators waited until the troops moved away from the tanks.
Boy ain’t that the truth?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
evening snoopy...
yep, it appears that without air cover, western weaponry is pretty useless. well, except to the sales department.
I'm confused, are those Iranian, Turkish or Chinese
Drones?
be well and have a good one
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 --
evening el...
apparently, they are homegrown russian drones.
I thought they were incapable of that and had to buy them
from allies. My. my. my. the Kalashnikov of Drones. Heh.
be well and have a good one
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 --
Good evening everyone
Thank you, joe, for the Greenwald/RFK Jr. interview.
Oh yes, and for all the news and blues.
All quiet here.
Have a wonderful evening, all.
evening olinda...
i've been trying to keep up with the rfk jr. material and it seems like the more i listen to him, with all of his hedging and caveats, the more he sounds like the same-old same-old.
I was surprisngly unimpressed.
His take on Israel, pretty much bragging on his trip there, talking to people in authority, and concluding Palestinians are better off in the democracy that is Israel than they would be if they were in an Arab country where you can't be gay is really not something I expected or wanted to hear from him. He would continue to use tax $ to fund Israel and not take care of the poor in the US.
Thanks so much for posting that Greenwald interview with him.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
evening otc...
i find myself comparing him to obama more and more these days. i remember obama's opposition to "stupid wars" and an assortment of other statements that turned out to be nothing more than lies, misdirection and old-fashioned horse shit.
Yeah...
Here I am, wanting some real hope, get all perked up... Then, I read he can walk back a bold statement faster than the speed of light. Examples are many, not few.
I am just sick of the let downs.
At least there is music.
My Friday morning OT will feature a cool song. Read it in the morning while you enjoy your coffee.
It is pretty hilarious.
Thanks for all you do, friend, and musicologist extraordinaire.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
This is so rich coming from Blinken
.
Hey Tony what about the US squatting on a 3rd of Syria and taking the oil? Aren’t you being a tad hypocritical about what Russia is doing? Russia at least is trying to keep people alive, whilst America is taking what isn’t theirs and putting horrific sanctions on the Syrian people. Of course the pro Ukraine supporters don’t call out this hypocrisy…. They are too busy being anti war.
That was then…..
This is now. I’m glad to see Milley leaving, but not happy to see Brown taking his place. Good grief…Charlie Brown. Did his parents hate him?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
heh...
i love the way that blinked pretends that the only way the "victim" can get punished is at the negotiating table, as if their is no price in keeping up the hopeless counteroffensive.
Maximum pressure and North Korean missiles
https://apnews.com/article/north-korea-ballistic-missile-launch-82fc44d2...
Yoon is a moron. How does conducting large live fire exercises near the DMZ encourage NK to abandon their weapons development programs? North Korea says they are deterring the US and ROK. They say they are deterring North Korea.
Toughen the sanctions? I guess AP didn't get the message, the North Korean economy has collapsed from their self imposed covid isolation in addition to the severe sanctions. The food supply is inadequate. There is virtually no medical care. People are found dead in their homes frequently from starvation or disease, etc. At least this is what NK News, the intelligence connected web site says. There is an element of truth to these accounts. Cut off from the outside, still after the covid epidemic, the rudimentary unofficial market economy supported by smuggling and bribery to supplement inadequate incomes has virtually disappeared.
This is from the Aljazeera article on the same subject:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/6/15/north-korea-fires-two-missiles-...
This is more evidence characteristic of Yoon's inappropriate pseudo-legal thinking and diplomatic ineptitude. He wouldn't allow South Korean plaintiffs to execute a levy on the unpaid judgements against Japanese corporations for slave labor war crimes, but files a meaningless claim for property damages against North Korea for blowing up the liaison building in Kaesong.
The whole Yoon approach is the US maximum pressure with a vengeance. it also marks a historical divide in perspective, for Yoon and his legacy pro-Japanese collaborator class and dictatorship supporters, history began on June 25, 1950, the start of the Korean War. For the opposition, Korea's modern history began before that with particular emphasis on the Japanese military occupation and subsequent colonization in the early 20th Century.
https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/1095307....
This book review on the translation of Bruce Cummings' Magnum Opus on the the Korean War into Korean provides a great summary of his view of modern Korean history. You never find this perspective in English language news media.
I heard commentary last night that the Yoon administration had chosen a slate of top level intelligence department heads at the National Intelligence Service and then, without explanation, withdrew it, and plans to pick another slate. The analysis of the unprecedented move suggested an attack on the independence of the agency and/or the chain of command, perhaps with a view toward conducting domestic surveillance and investigations of government personnel (or candidates for office?). This is probably true, he needs a cadre over there directly responsive to his orders (no matter how unlawful). I would also offer in this vein, that there is probably a desire to reinvent the troll armies on social media to influence upcoming election campaigns. Securing control of broadcast/cable/internet media operating more or less independently from the dominant conservative media empires (Cho Joong Dong) backing Yoon's authoritarian moves isn't going to be enough.
Thanks JS for the great news roundup.
語必忠信 行必正直
evening soryang...
thanks for the update!
if yoon is a moron, then he appears to be the sort of moron that the u.s. government loves. the u.s. thrives on maintaining conflict and strained relations around the world and particularly in korea it would seem as it provides excuses to insert and base its military on the doorstep of global rivals. north korea having nukes would seem to be an excellent excuse for escalatory behavior, so yoon's cooperation with u.s. provocations of nk is surely appreciated.
Well said Joe
I couldn't agree more. The US MIC loves this guy. I'm sure they've been recording his private communications for some time. There was that US wiretap they found in the national security advisor's office in the presidential office building. I'm assuming they could remove him at any time just be revealing some other wiretaps. But why would they do that? He does exactly what his handlers tell him.
I've probably said this before- it took him nine tries to pass the bar exam. Smarter colleagues or maybe just more experienced in some cases, have carried Yoon throughout his career. These same figures later play a role in various machinations changing the political landscape. Some have been abandoned by Yoon over time, such as Na Kyung-won, former party leader on the floor in the National Assembly, and Hwang Kyo-ahn, former minister of justice and prime minister.
Na's husband a judge, stonewalled complaints against Yoon, for obstruction of justice, and interference in litigation in which he had a conflict of interest. Hwang, as former justice minister derailed a similar criminal complaint against Yoon by diverting it into an administrative disciplinary disposition for unprofessional behavior. There are other more byzantine plots like the immobilization of the No Moo-hyun presidential office by removing key advisors, and the more recent take down of former Justice Minister Cho Guk and his family. These both affected by mentors (seon bae) closely related to Yoon. Finally, there is the Daejangdong real estate scandal that initially benefitted Yoon cronies with graft, that was ultimately turned in an effort to take down the opposition leader Lee Jae-myung, Lee was Yoon's opponent in the presidential campaign. That scheme probably engineered by Han Dong-hun, Yoon's right hand man, has not yet quite succeeded.
語必忠信 行必正直
Good evening Joe, thanks for the news and blues.
Still under the weather with nothing to add.
be ewll and have a good one
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 --
evening el...
i hope that you feel better soon, take care and have a great evening!
Always informative Scott Ritter with the Judge.
Speaking of Petraeus….
.
I’m betting that the plan looked much better on paper when they planned on how the offensive would work.
"You guys go here and do that and then these guys behind you will go through and then the war is over."
Click to see all the writing.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
Evening joe and bluesters
I’ve listened to most of Greenwald’s interview with RFK jr. There was definitely some equivocation around a couple significant issues, which elicits questions about his sincerity regarding those issues. He also admitted that some of the arguments Greenwald made that were opposed to his had merit. Let’s see how he addresses the IP issue in the future. I felt a bit unsure regarding his explanation about his how his understanding evolved regarding trump and russia, which makes sense on some level, but is still somewhat unconvincing. I don’t know, but I do wonder what else might have initiated his change in perception.
Still, he does voice perspectives on other outstanding issues that many can relate to. I’m glad that at least he has a voice which hopefully open more minds to other perspectives. Maybe it’s the most we can ask for?
Maybe There's No In Between ; )
evening janis...
in his most recent interview on breaking points (krystal & saagar) he hedged a great deal and called himself a "free market capitalist" when they asked him a question about ubi, hedging that the "new ai economy" may change things.
that, right there killed the deal for me. he's just another prevaricating democrat. i can move on now.
I see what you mean about the statement he made
about being a free market capitalist. It does make him sound like a typical politician, along with other of his taking points ; (.
I’ve been trying to understand the concept of UBI and how it can benefit people. For example, I have been informing myself about the TOP Party in NZ, and its leader. The party has a chance of winning some seats in parliament, and pushing for changes. Here’s a brief Ted talk on you tube by the head of the party regarding UBI.
My question, if installed in the operation of society on a governmental level will it last, or will it be dependent upon who is in charge? Can it be withdrawn at the whim of the PM, or will it be able to develop in an ongoing way for the benefit of this society?
Ted talk ...
evening janis...
i think that depending upon who is controlling it, ubi could be a blessing or a curse.
the usual suspects are interested in ubi, not because they are charitable sorts, but because they figure that over time they can lower the cost of maintaining the subjugation of the lower classes and preventing them from revolting.
i think rather than ubi, it might be better to demand the government provide everyone with actual goods - houses, food, clothing, healthcare, education, etc. rather than a stipend to purchase them which will just cause the rentiers to adjust their greed premium to price these things out of reach of the lower classes.
Thanks -- now I can
continue to remain mostly ignorant about RFK, Jr. with a clear conscience. Certain political/economic positions are dealbreakers for me because they lead to more of what ails us and the world. Scientific illiteracy already placed RFK, Jr on my do not consider list as it betrays poor logic and reasoning skills.
evening marie...
always glad to be of assistance.
Jeez Louise
France, Germany and Poland hold Paris summit to escalate NATO war on Russia
Saw that in the newsfeed. At some distant point, you have to imagine, France, Germany, and Poland are going to welcome the Russian occupiers because, whatever their massive faults, they'll be better than the current ones. I mean, what are they going to fight with? I'm still waiting for Joe to issue the draft call -- nearly all youth 18-35 from all NATO countries will be headed to Ukraine after a bare minimum of training. You will get an exemption if you can show that you will be appearing on a TV spectacle in the next few months.
For some reason this image comes to mind:
'French theory is a product of US cultural imperialism." -- Gabriel Rockhill
evening cass...
who knew that biden wanted to ride all 4 horses of the apocalypse?
Maybe this is a reason why the Abrams are being held back.
The wonder weapon Leopards aren't so wonderful after all.
heh...
maybe they should pull the panzers out of mothballs.
Lol…
From tonight’s sitrep.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
Thanks I will check it out. NT
At least the Ukrainian (or is that US) bots are creative enough
to use different images in their tweets.