The Evening Blues - 4-11-24



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: The Chambers Brothers

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features soul, gospel and blues singers The Chambers Brothers. Enjoy!

The Chambers Brothers - Time Has Come Today

"Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest."

-- Mark Twain


News and Opinion

JULIAN ASSANGE To Go FREE? Biden SAYS He's CONSIDERING PARDONING WikiLeaks Founder

Biden says he is ‘considering’ Australian call to drop Julian Assange charges

Joe Biden said on Wednesday that he was considering a request from Australia to drop the decade-long US push to prosecute the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for publishing a trove of American classified documents.

For years, Australia has called on the US to drop its prosecution against Assange, an Australian citizen who has fought American extradition efforts from prison in the UK. Asked about the request on Wednesday, as he hosted the Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, for an official visit, Biden said: “We’re considering it.”

Biden’s comment is the latest indication that his administration may have cooled on the idea of putting Assange on trial, which could prove politically toxic in an election year. Last month, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Biden administration was exploring the possibility of allowing the WikiLeaks founder to cut a plea deal that would see him admit to a misdemeanor offense of mishandling classified documents in return for an early release.

The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said on Thursday that Biden’s comments were “certainly encouraging”.

“I’m increasingly optimistic about an outcome, but one certainly has not been delivered yet,” Albanese told Sky News Australia. “We’ll continue to argue the case at every opportunity that we have.”


Max Blumenthal : America Firsters Favor Genocide!

CNN Finally Tells The Truth About The Flour Massacre After Previously Shilling For Israel

CNN has a new report out showing that (surprise!) Israel lied about the Flour Massacre in which IDF troops fired machine guns into a crowd of starving Gazans waiting for food this past February, killing over a hundred people. CNN found that Israel’s timeline and version of events doesn’t line up with video footage, witness testimony, and forensic evidence.

Which of course was obvious from the beginning to anyone who isn’t deeply invested in pretending Israel ever tells the truth about these things. Within hours of the massacre Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor had a preliminary report up saying that video, audio and material evidence shows that the IDF had been firing into the crowd in contradiction of Israel’s claims that the injuries and deaths sustained on the scene were mostly due to Gazans trampling on each other in a mad rush upon the convoy of aid trucks. Now here’s CNN, a month and a half later, telling us essentially the same thing.

This is the same CNN who at the time reported on the Flour Massacre in ways that advanced Israel’s information interests with headlines completely exonerating Israel of any wrongdoing like “At least 100 killed and 700 injured in chaotic incident” and “Carnage at Gaza food aid site amid Israeli gunfire”. CNN also repeatedly refers to the killings as “food aid deaths”, as though it’s the food aid that killed them and not the military of a very specific state power.


I don’t know if there’s a word for when a government does something evil and then churns out a bunch of easily disprovable lies with the understanding that by the time those lies are debunked public attention will have moved on from the controversy, but there should be. Over and over again we’ve seen the Israeli regime do just enough lying to dampen the initial burst of attention and outrage and get people doubting themselves, only to discover far too late that it was all a bunch of crap after the initial crime has been forgotten.

This is exactly what happened with Israel’s initial assault on al-Shifa Hospital back in November, when Israel was cranking out propaganda claiming the hospital was being used as a command center for Hamas. Not until the end of December did The Washington Post show up to acknowledge the abundantly obvious fact that there was no evidence for Israel’s claims, which independent outlets like Consortium News had been reporting since mid-November. Now al-Shifa Hospital — the largest hospital in Gaza — has been completely destroyed.

Back in October Israel and its apologists were shrieking with outrage that anyone would dare suggest that Israel would ever attack a hospital at all, saturating the media with bogus evidence that it falsely claimed proved its innocence. Since that time Israel has launched hundreds of attacks on Gaza’s healthcare services and has destroyed most of its healthcare system.


It’s a weaponization of the adage “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth even puts its boots on.” They know all they have to do is lie really hard for a week or two, and then when the truth inevitably surfaces it won’t matter, because the truth will never be able to have the impact their lies had when it mattered.

It’s so obnoxious how even after all this time Israel is still given the benefit of the doubt on such claims by the western political-media class until they’re debunked weeks or months later, long after the outcry over the incident has been muted and neutered by Israeli lies. If a state power is preventing journalists and human rights groups from investigating the facts on the ground in a given area, then it is not legitimate to give their claims about what happens in that area weighted consideration when their track record and all the facts in evidence say they’re probably lying.

The fact that the western press keep giving Israel the benefit of the doubt whenever reports like this emerge after they’ve been caught in so very many lies means the western press are just as culpable for the circulation of Israeli lies as Israel itself. In journalism you’re taught that if someone says it’s raining and someone else says it’s dry, your job isn’t to quote them both and treat both claims as equal, your job is to go look out the window and see which is true. The fact that the imperial media take so long to drag their asses to the window serves nobody but Israel and the globe-spanning empire of which it is a part.

Iran ATTACK on Israel IMMINENT?; IDF Kills Hamas Chief's Sons, Grandkids

Impunity for Israel no matter what stupid, evil shit it does:

Biden vows ‘ironclad’ US commitment to Israel amid fears of Iran attack

Joe Biden has vowed that US commitment to defend Israel against Iran was “ironclad” as concerns rose in Washington that a “significant” Iranian strike could happen within days, in retaliation for the bombing of an Iranian consular building in Damascus.

US and allied officials fear that a strike is imminent and could come in the form of a direct missile launch from Iran, rather than an attack through a proxy like Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israel has vowed to respond in kind to such a direct strike, raising the prospect of a regional war, which US officials now believe is more likely than at any point since the beginning of the Gaza conflict on 7 October.

Biden’s pledge of support to Israel at the White House, intended as a deterrent, came a few hours after Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, repeated a threat to strike back against Israel over the Damascus bombing that killed 12 people, including Gen Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior figure in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and six other guard members.

“When they attacked our consulate area, it was like they attacked our territory,” Khamenei said, in remarks broadcast by Iranian state TV. “The evil regime must be punished, and it will be punished.” Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, responded in a post on the X social media platform, vowing that: “If Iran attacks from its territory, Israel will respond and attack in Iran.”

Israel has not formally taken responsibility for the 1 April bombing, but Israeli and US officials have made clear it carried out the strike.

'Anarchy': Gideon Levy UNLOADS On Bibi After Hamas Chief Sons ASSASSINATED

Biden Walks Back Call for Israel to Declare a Ceasefire in Gaza

President Biden on Wednesday walked back a call for Israel to declare a six-to-eight-week ceasefire in Gaza, saying the truce must be tied to a hostage deal and that it was “up to Hamas.”

The comments came a day after an interview aired in which Biden appeared to say Israel should unilaterally declare a temporary ceasefire, which would have marked a major shift in policy. According to The Times of Israel, the White House already walked back his call, saying he was referring to a hostage deal that’s being negotiated. ...

There’s no indication a hostage deal is close as Hamas is sticking to its demand for a permanent ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. Israel has rejected the demands as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed any truce will be temporary.

Armenian Christians under siege by Israel

Hamas leader repeats Gaza ceasefire call after sons and grandchildren killed

Three sons and at least two grandchildren of the Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, have been killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip, the exiled political chief of the militant group has said from his base in the Qatari capital of Doha.

Haniyeh told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that his children Hazem, Amir and Mohammed and several of their children were visiting relatives for Eid at the Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza when their car was targeted in an Israeli airstrike. Sixty of his relatives had been killed in the six-month-old war, he said, including 14 who died after an Israeli airstrike hit the family home in Gaza City in October.

The Hamas leader said the attack would not change the group’s demands for a permanent ceasefire and return of displaced Palestinians from their homes in ongoing negotiations mediated by Doha and Washington.

“All our people and all the families of Gaza have paid a heavy price in blood, and I am one of them,” Haniyeh said.

The Israeli military statement confirmed it had targeted Haniyeh’s sons, who it described as “three Hamas operatives” who were “on their way to carry out terrorist activities”.

American Surgeons Return from Gaza, Call for End of U.S. Culpability in Genocide

UN Expert Demands EU Suspend Trade Deal With Israel Over Gaza Genocide

Pointing out a significant "disconnect" between the European Union's political class and the public regarding Israel's assault on Gaza, the top United Nations expert on the occupied Palestinian territories on Wednesday said E.U. officials must suspend trade relations with the Israeli government.

Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, told Euronews that the E.U. has an "obligation" to suspend its association agreement with Israel because the document bars participants from committing human rights violations like those detailed in Albanese's recent report on the bombardment of Gaza.

Albanese said in her report, titled Anatomy of a Genocide, that she had found "reasonable grounds to believe" Israel's killing of more than 33,000 Palestinians since October—including dozens who have starved to death as a result of a near-total blockade on aid—meets the threshold for a genocide.

With Israel's European allies continuing to trade with the country, Albanese said, the right-wing Israeli government "has no incentive whatsoever to change conduct."

"Israel has the political, financial, economic means to continue operating business as usual," she said. "Europe is the main trading partner—which accounts I think for 30% of Israel's trade—so it has a huge power and it should use that power. In the end, this is not an option, it's an obligation because Article 2 of that association agreement foresees the suspension in case of violations of human rights."

Albanese's demand came nearly two months after Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Irish politician Leo Varadkar, who resigned as prime minister this week, called on European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to conduct an "urgent review" of whether Israel is complying with its obligations under the association agreement.

Last week, Irish Social Democratic lawmaker Gary Gannon condemned the E.U. for not acting on Sánchez and Varadkar's demand.

"There hasn't actually been an official response from Ursula von der Leyen's office," said Gannon. "You mentioned that it was 'discussed' at the last Council meeting. 'Discussed'? I want more, I want documented minutes of that discussion, I want to know who was in favor and who was against. What could possibly be the justification for not enacting the humanitarian clauses within those agreements?"


Public outcry in E.U. countries over Israel's bombardment of Gaza has intensified as the war has gone on for more than six months, with 44% of French people expressing condemnation of Israel in a poll this month—up from 35% in October.

A group of German civil servants wrote to Chancellor Olaf Scholz this week demanding that Germany—which along with the U.S. provides an estimated 99% of Israel's foreign military aid—"cease arm deliveries to the Israeli government with immediate effect." The civil servants cited the International Court of Justice's interim ruling in January that Israel's assault on Gaza amounts to "plausible acts of genocide."

At The Guardian on Wednesday, E.U. affairs columnist Shada Islam wrote that the bloc's "collective failure to denounce Israel's unrestrained ferocity in Gaza" is "even more egregious" considering the E.U.'s outrage over human rights violations in China, Myanmar, and other countries.

Islam noted that the E.U. adopted a plan in 2020 on human rights and democracy, promising "that respect for human dignity and human rights will underpin all aspects of its policies."

Despite this, she said, "there has been no response to demands from human rights groups for a suspension of the E.U.-Israel trade agreement."

"The E.U.'s inertia makes a mockery of its action plan adopted four years ago," Islam added. "Damage to the E.U.'s reputation risks being irreparable. Even if the slaughter in Gaza is now viewed by many European citizens as an unfolding genocide, that view is not being represented by their governments."

Comedian Bassem Youssef on the Israel-Gaza war, the Arab Spring, and why we can’t change the world

Prof. John Mearsheimer : Israel’s Dangerous Game

Two Russian oligarchs win court ruling over EU sanctions

Two Russian oligarchs have won a surprise victory against EU sanctions over Moscow’s war against Ukraine but remain under punitive measures for the time being. The European court of justice ruled that the European Council had not presented enough evidence to establish that Petr Aven and Mikhail Fridman were involved in efforts that “undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine”. EU’s top court annulled sanctions imposed on the pair from 2022-23.

Aven and Fridman were placed on the EU sanctions list shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine. In announcing the sanctions in February 2022, the European Council called Aven “one of Vladimir Putin’s closest oligarchs” and stated that Fridman “has managed to cultivate strong ties to the administration of Vladimir Putin, and has been referred to as a top Russian financier and enabler of Putin’s inner circle”.

Along with dozens of other Russian oligarchs, Aven and Fridman challenged the sanctions in EU courts, describing them as “spurious and unfounded”.

The court of justice ruled on Wednesday that the billionaires should not have been included on the list between February 2022 and March 2023. The ruling will be seen as a major setback to the EU’s sanctions regime against Moscow. The European Council can appeal.

Huge Strike Devastates Ukr Energy, Rus Advances; Israel Iran War Looms, Macron/UK Gamble Troops Ukr

US and Japan announce new military agreements aimed at countering China

Joe Biden and Fumio Kishida, the Japanese prime minister, have announced a new era of military cooperation during the pomp and pageantry of a White House state visit aimed at countering China. The US president said the two nations’ forces will cooperate on a joint command structure and, along with Australia, develop a new air missile defence network.

“We’re increasing the interoperability and planning of our militaries so they can work together in a seamless and effective way,” Biden said at a joint press conference with Kishida in the bright sunshine of the White House Rose Garden on Wednesday. “This is the most significant upgrade in our alliance since it was first established.

“I’m also pleased to announce that for the first time, Japan and the United States and Australia will create a networked system of air, missile and defence architecture. We’re also looking forward to standing up a trilateral military exercise with Japan and the United Kingdom.” ...

Kishida told reporters that the two leaders had discussed tense relations between Taiwan and China and pledged to uphold international order based on the rule of law. “We confirmed that unilateral attempts to change status quo by force or coercion is absolutely unacceptable,” Kishida said. The US and Japan will continue to respond to such actions, including challenges from China, he added. “Regarding Russia’s aggression of Ukraine, based on a recognition that Ukraine today may be east Asia tomorrow.” ...

Japan is taking on a more prominent global role after a series of security law changes in the past decade that have transformed its pacifist constitution. ... Overall the US and Japan have struck about 70 agreements on defence cooperation, including moves to upgrade the US military command structure in Japan, the biggest such change since the 1960s.

Stubborn US inflation dents hopes for imminent Fed interest rate cut

Global financial markets have scaled back expectations for an imminent cut in interest rates on both sides of the Atlantic after figures showed US inflation rose by more than expected in March.

Figures from the US Department of Labor show a jump in fuel and housing rental costs drove up the consumer price index (CPI) to 3.5% in March compared with a year earlier, higher than expected by Wall Street economists.

In a development triggering a sell-off in financial markets, monthly inflation and core CPI – which removes volatile items including energy and food – also rose by more than predicted.

US government bond yields rose sharply, while shares fell in New York amid speculation that stubborn inflationary pressures could force the US Federal Reserve to delay cutting interest rates.

“Expectations for a June Federal Reserve interest rate cut have collapsed,” said James Knightley, chief international economist at the Dutch bank ING. “July is also doubtful, meaning September is the more probable start point of any easing, which would limit the Fed to a maximum of just three rate cuts this year.”

Six ex-Mississippi ‘Goon Squad’ officers get 15 to 45 years for torture of Black men

Six former Mississippi law enforcement officers – prosecutors said the group called themselves the “Goon Squad” – who tortured and abused two Black men in a racist attack were sentenced to between 15 and 45 years in prison on Wednesday.

Brett Morris McAlpin, formerly the fourth highest ranking deputy in the Rankin county sheriff’s department, was sentenced to 20 years. Christian Dedmon was sentenced to 25 years. Jeffrey Middleton and Daniel Opdyke were both sentenced to 20 years, while Hunter Elward was sentenced to 45 years and Joshua Hartfield was sentenced to 15 years.

The Rankin county circuit judge Steve Ratcliff gave the men state sentences shorter than the amount of time in federal prison that they already received last month. Their sentences will run concurrently with their federal prison sentences. The men were all ordered to pay $6,431 within two years of release, and to permanently surrender their law enforcement certificates.

In March, the former Rankin county sheriff’s deputies each received federal sentences of at least one decade: McAlpin, 53, was sentenced to serve about 27 years; Dedmon, 29, was sentenced to serve 40 years; Middleton, 46, and Opdyke, 28, both were sentenced to 17.5 years; Elward, 31, was sentenced to about 27 years; while the former Richland, Mississippi police officer Hartfield, 32, was sentenced to serve 10 years in federal penitentiaries.

SPY Bill Barreling Towards Expiration; Mike Johnson BREAKS W/ TRUMP'S Call 'KILL The Bill'

'Five-Alarm Fire' as GOP House Speaker Tries to Ram Through Spying Bill

Nineteen Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday blocked the GOP speaker's effort to move forward with reauthorizing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a controversial spying authority historically abused by government agencies.

"The failure of today's vote makes clear that even with the speaker's finger on the scale, Congress won't reauthorize FISA without meaningful privacy reforms," responded Jake Laperruque, deputy director of the Center for Democracy & Technology's Security and Surveillance Project.

"The path forward is clear: We need strong reforms to Section 702, including closing the backdoor search loophole and data broker loophole," he added. "Another short-term extension ignores the genuine privacy concerns that have been raised by members of both parties. It's time to bring a bill with genuine reforms to the House floor."

As Arizona Reinstates 1864 Abortion Ban, Doctors & Organizers Fight Back to Preserve Access

Arizona Republicans block abortion-ban repeal after denouncing court ruling

Republicans in Arizona halted an effort by Democrats on Wednesday to repeal an 1864 law banning almost all abortions, which the state supreme court this week ruled could go into effect.

The move came after Republican lawmakers in the state had denounced the court’s decision, including some who previously expressed support for the law. Donald Trump and other high-profile Republicans, such as the Senate candidate Kari Lake, had also declared their opposition to the ruling with Lake urging lawmakers to “come up with an immediate commonsense solution that Arizonans can support”.

he Arizona supreme court ruled on Tuesday that the 1864 law can go into effect – though it may not happen for weeks. Under the law, which predates Arizona’s statehood, there are no exceptions for rape or incest and abortions are permitted only if the mother’s life is at risk.

Democrats and one Republican lawmaker sought to repeal the law, but Republicans moved for a recess, preventing a vote on the matter.

The decision is expected to have major repercussions in the state and could significantly impact abortion access across the US south-west. Political strategists have said that the near total ban would draw moderate voters to Democrats and mobilize young voters and voters of color.



the horse race



Inflation SURGES AGAIN, Devastating Biden Reelection Chances



the evening greens


Canada risks more ‘catastrophic’ wildfires with hot weather forecast

Canada risks another “catastrophic” wildfire season, the federal government has warned, forecasting higher-than-normal spring and summer temperatures across much of the country, boosted by El Niño weather conditions.

Last year, Canada endured its worst-ever fire season, with more than 6,600 blazes burning 15m hectares (37m acres), an area roughly seven times the annual average. Eight firefighters died and 230,000 people were evacuated from their homes.

This winter the country experienced warmer-than-normal temperatures and widespread drought, setting the stage for another punishing summer.

“The temperature trends are very concerning. With the heat and dryness across the country, we can expect that the wildfire season will start sooner and end later and potentially be more explosive,” Harjit Sajjan, the minister for emergency preparedness, said at a press conference.

Federal ministers warned climate change was contributing to more extreme weather events, including wildfires, drought and heatwaves. “Wildfires have always occurred across Canada. What’s new is their frequency and their intensity,” said Jonathan Wilkinson, the minister for energy and natural resources. “The science is clear. The root cause of this is climate change.“

Farmers warn ‘crisis is building’ as record rainfall drastically reduces UK food production

Record-breaking rain in recent months has drastically reduced the amount of food produced in the UK, farming groups have said. Livestock and crops have been affected as fields have been submerged since last autumn.

It has been an exceptionally wet 18 months. According to the Met Office, 1,695.9mm of rain fell from October 2022 to March 2024, the highest amount for any 18-month period in England in recorded history. The Met Office started collecting data in 1836.

The UK will be reliant on imports for wheat in the coming year and potentially beyond because of the drastic reduction in yields. Prices of goods such as bread and other food made using grains are already rising and are likely to rise further, according to the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB).

Wheat production is down 15% since November, the biggest reduction in cropped areas since 2020. Oilseed rape is down 28%, the biggest reduction since the 1980s, and winter barley is down 22% at 355,000 hectares, the biggest reduction since 2020.

The areas that have been planted are likely to produce poor-quality crops as the soil is waterlogged, and some crops are likely to fail. The AHDB said: “The unfavourable weather is putting the yield at risk of being significantly reduced.”

World Bank must take ‘quantum leap’ to tackle climate crisis, UN expert says

The World Bank must take a “quantum leap” to provide new finance to tackle the climate crisis or face “climate-driven economic catastrophe” that would bring all the world’s economies to a halt, the UN climate chief has said.

Simon Stiell warned that there were just two years left to draw up an international plan for the climate that would cut greenhouse gas emissions in line with the goal of limiting temperature rises to 1.5C above preindustrial levels. “There’s no room now for half measures,” he warned, referring to the global heat that has surpassed records for the past 10 months. “Averting a climate-driven economic catastrophe is core business.”

But Stiell held out a promise of global economic renewal, for the developed and developing world, if countries shift to a low-carbon economy. “Bold new national climate plans will be a jobs jackpot and economic springboard, to boost countries up that global ladder of living standards,” he said. “[They will] increase food security and lessen hunger. Cutting fossil fuel pollution will mean better health and huge savings, for governments and households alike.”

Governments will meet next week for the annual spring meetings of the World Bank, with its fellow taxpayer-funded development banks from around the world and the International Monetary Fund. These institutions will play a key role in determining whether developing countries gain access to the finance they need to cut emissions and adapt to the effect of the climate crisis. “For many countries, they will only be able to implement strong new climate plans if we see a quantum leap in climate finance this year,” Stiell said.


Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

Thirty years ago the world failed to stop the Rwandan genocide. Now we fail Gaza

Biden declares “ironclad” commitment to Israel as death toll mounts in Gaza

Children 44% of Palestinians Killed by Israel Since Oct 7

How World Central Kitchen Serves Israel’s Genocidal Agenda

The Political Rise of Arab Americans Shows the Value of Sticking Around and Fighting

Israel Has Formed a Task Force to Carry Out Covert Campaigns at US Universities

Biden Administration Has Undercounted Ukraine Spending By $14 Billion

Quebec separation re-enters political debate thanks to TikTok-friendly leader

‘With a Strat you can rule the world!’ Nile Rodgers, Bonnie Raitt and John Squire on the electric guitar that changed everything

Rightwing MELTDOWN After Tucker DEFENDS Palestinian Christians

Wall Street Fed INSIDER Info By Gov Agency


A Little Night Music

The Chambers Brothers - I Can't Turn You Loose

The Chambers Brothers - The Weight

The Chambers Brothers - Traveling Shoes

The Chambers Brothers - Uptown

The Chambers Brothers - So Tired

Chambers Brothers - Call Me

The Chambers Brothers - Stealin' Watermelons (Somethin' You Got)

The Chambers Brothers - People Get Ready

The Chambers Brothers - In The Midnight Hour

The Chambers Brothers - Bang Bang


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12 users have voted.

Comments

now in. Zelensky and his western neocon supporters keep begging for money and weapons but it appears to be too little and too late to make a difference.

https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/sitrep-41124-zelensky-in-shock-as

A brief introduction to get you started.

SITREP 4/11/24: Zelensky in Shock as Kiev's Largest Power Plant Wrecked in Massive Strikes

SIMPLICIUS APR 11, 2024
The day starts with a massive Russian missile strike that has wiped out another chunk of the remaining Ukrainian energy capacity. It’s now confirmed that Russia is hitting precisely the turbine rooms causing long-lasting, if not permanent, damage.

Here’s Ukraine’s own Centernergo energy concern declaring it to be the worst day in their history, as the Trypil Thermal Power Plant in the Kiev region was wiped out:

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9 users have voted.
usefewersyllables's picture

@humphrey

government (such as it is) also passed a law mandating registration for conscription of all males, from the ages of 18 through 60, in an effort to get the 500,000 additional cannon-fodder-units needed to sustain their "war effort".

Sixty. Well, there you go. They will definitely depopulate whatever is left of the county, as we have them literally fight to the last man.

The abject stupidity (and inhumanity) demonstrated by all of the parties here completely disgusts me. There should be riots in the streets there, and the recently-detached heads of a lot of government minions should be displayed on pikes- with Zelenskyyiyyiy's foremost among them...

Madness. The world has truly gone insane.

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9 users have voted.

Twice bitten, permanently shy.

@usefewersyllables
-
they have also decided to conscript women
like in 'Israel' to die for the nazi cause. UFB.
They really do not want another generation.

But it is lights out in Ukraine. Seems the
Penatoonians are flabbergasted at how
vulnerable their proxy puppet has become.

More than $300B spent on another failed war.
Now they are trying to shame congress into the lost
investment argument. Remember that from Vietnam?

Didn't turn out so well then, will not now either.

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10 users have voted.
usefewersyllables's picture

@QMS

existed a single, solitary US politician who was willing to look critically at what we've done with our foreign policy of the last 100 years and use the correct term to describe it: to wit, "waste". Complete and utter waste.

The things we as a nation could have done, if not for the insatiable greed of the MIC and its enablers. Screw the sunk cost fallacy. All of this needs to end, and end *now*.

Oh, well. It didn't have to be this way. Time for an Adult Beverage or 3, and another night waiting to see if we all wake up dead- so that Raytheon, Boeing, and the rest of the MIC can further enrich the people who have made stochastic warfare so inextricably entrenched in our lives..

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11 users have voted.

Twice bitten, permanently shy.

@usefewersyllables
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being a pacifist, I never understood war as a good option
now that the money trail is followed, it kinda makes sense
but working for the devil is not a good career choice IMO
let alone a societal or global solution to human frailties

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7 users have voted.

@usefewersyllables but there isn't one. Not a single one.
POS' one and all.
Hell is gonna be bulging and full in 10 years.

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7 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Pluto's Republic's picture

@QMS

...to remind the next Generations to put these psychopaths in a starship aimed at the Sun.

More than $300B spent on another failed war.
Now they are trying to shame congress into the lost
investment argument. Remember that from Vietnam?

Stands to reason: The same anti-communist secret-Nazi bloodlines have been running US war policy since 1921 straight throi9ugh to the present. Except for the contingent who are currently running the Greater Israel Project.

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9 users have voted.

____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
snoopydawg's picture

@usefewersyllables

I guess 400,000 men being dead isn’t enough for the people sucking the life blood out of Ukraine. Plus Zelensky is talking about making prisoners join the fight. I wonder what Ukrainian think they are fighting for or if they know that Zelensky is selling their land out from under them? But as I mention below, Russia just privatized or nationalized 650,000 acres of farmland that belong to an American company. Boo-ya.

Both Graham and McConnell want the fighting age lowered to 18 like America. "It’s the best money we’ve ever spent because no Americans are dying." Ghouls!

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10 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

joe shikspack's picture

@humphrey

wow, i skimmed that article, it's looking like pretty soon the ukronazis will not be able to keep up the charade no matter how many teenagers and pensioners they draft and how much money the west pumps in. not having electricity is a pretty big obstacle to keeping a war effort together (and also a society).

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7 users have voted.

-
The Chambers Brothers! Almost forgot about them.
Until I dialed in Time has come today and it
all came tumbling back down.

Thanks bro!

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5 users have voted.

@QMS The Weight, People Get Ready, I can't Turn you Loose...and so on, and so on, et cetera, et cetera...
We were so lucky to have heard those fabulous sounds and lyric influnces when we were kids figuring out our world views for adulthood.
Kids now have Taylor Swift and hip hop, or Beyonce' going country.

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5 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

joe shikspack's picture

@QMS

yep, they were a pretty amazing bunch, with great voices. have a great evening!

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5 users have voted.

that he has the full backing of the US and its various puppets (including UK and France amongst others).

I guess that it is OK for Israel to attack Lebanon, Syria and Iraq with impunity but retaliation is against the rules.

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8 users have voted.
usefewersyllables's picture

@humphrey

“Aircraft carrier”. I say, “Target”.

We shall see. I suspect that we’ll see very shortly if the next description will be “Expensive artificial reef”. Or, perhaps, “War grave of a lot of US sailors”. If it is all going to go to shit anyway, “deterrence” becomes semantically null.

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6 users have voted.

Twice bitten, permanently shy.

joe shikspack's picture

@humphrey

i think that's rule #1 of the international rules based odor - "i get to hit you anytime i want, no hit backs - nanny nanny boo boo!"

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enhydra lutris's picture

@joe shikspack

preemptively orestalling your projected attacks, and hit backs are yet more offence from you except where they are humanitarian and hit backs are simply malicious evil.

be well and have a good one

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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 --

snoopydawg's picture

.

and yet both countries are doing just that with American blessing. Also Germany has a treaty with Russia on this. But Germany is helping Ukraine fight Russia and they are moving troops into a country close to Russia. We found out that some treaties are just words like the 2 Minsk agreements and some international laws are just suggestions such as the Genocide and Vienna Conventions.

And here’s an idea. Maybe if Zelensky hadn’t bombed all those oil refineries then Russia wouldn’t be destroying Ukraine’s energy.

Pssst…Ursula. Do you still think this is true?

IMG_6259_0.jpeg

Yeah Lloyd is lying his ass off to congress. He knows damn well that Russia was provoked into invading Ukraine. Guess Lloyd has reading comprehension problems since Putin gave America a last chance to stop the SMO from happening. Even I understood what he said. Funny how republican liars get punished, but dem ones do not. Pssst, Pelosi. Please answer the White phone.

Guess what else happened? Russia just nationalized 650,000 acres of farmland an American company bought. Gee who didn’t see that coming? I wonder if the check has cleared yet? Smile

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

snoopydawg's picture

@snoopydawg
I couldn’t remember the name….

This week Germany has begun deploying troops to the Baltic state of Lithuania, which marks the first such external deployment of its kind for Germany's military since World War II — and which is the result of Berlin adopting a firmer 'counter-Russia' posture after more than two years of war in Ukraine.

While merely two dozen soldiers have reportedly arrived Lithuania thus far, the German contingent will be stationed there permanently. Currently Germany leads a NATO deployment in Lithuania of some 1,000 troops, but which is temporary.

How did fighting Russia go for you last time, Germany? Sheesh…history is supposed to teach lessons.

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joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

yeah, the u.s. is so desperate to rebuild its industrial base (which it allowed its oligarchs to sell off to china because they wanted to break american labor's back) and its military that they are currying help from other industrial states and breaking the rules that the u.s. wrote to contain them.

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snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack

when they lecture China not to let its economy bypass America.

which it allowed its oligarchs to sell off to china because they wanted to break american labor's back

We are having a hard time producing enough weapons to just Ukraine and now add in Israel and good luck with the upcoming war with China. It’s really not rocket science when you first offshored your factories and then have to rely on that country you offshored them to. I’m not an economic genius, but even I can understand that was a boneheaded move.

We still have sanctions, but Russia and China are helping countries get around them. And it looks like Russia gave Iran instructions on how to build hypersonic weapons and maybe even North Korea and China. Russia is building an anti NATO alliance. And beating Ukraine and all its allies whose economies are headed towards the toilet. Smart move, Biden.

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the difference between what is real and what is computer generated.

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joe shikspack's picture

@humphrey

perhaps in the future, nobody will believe anything that they see or hear and just go about their business. Smile

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@joe shikspack
-
taking care of a made-up world?
Empathy aside, mending illusions
is unrealistic.

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snoopydawg's picture

.

You still don’t think it’s a genocide? How about mass murder and ethnic cleansing then? An Israeli real estate company has already tried to sell beachfront lots in Gaza.

Limor Son Har-Melech, a member of the Israeli Knesset and the hardline Jewish Power party, has said there are secret Israeli plans to establish settlements in the Gaza Strip, The New Arab reported on Wednesday.

Har-Melech told the Israeli Knesset’s TV channel that there was “a vision for the day after (the war on Gaza), and the only optimistic vision is the renewal of the settlement of Gaza. Of course this will happen in stages, I think this will happen whether we like it or not.”

“There is no escape from returning and fully controlling the Gaza Strip, full control that will include extensive and flourishing settlement in the entire strip,”

Secret. Yeah that’s the word. Secret. What do you say now? Boy this man has gotten under my skin something fierce. Him and Thomas and Wood. I hope they join Colin Powell in hell. It’s gonna get very crowded there soon what with all the war hawks in congress being as old as they are.

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joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

if lloyd "thought" it was genocide, his pay packet would go missing.

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enhydra lutris's picture

Chambers Bros are appropriate for the times, as it were, I think.

be well and have a good one

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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 --

joe shikspack's picture

@enhydra lutris

yep, they have a soulful, soothing sound that doesn't ooze like more commercial endeavors.

have a great evening!

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erections as their wish for war with Iran might be coming true.

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