Jan 082021
 
 January 8, 2021  Posted by at 9:57 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,


Joan Miro The tilled field 1924

 

Only In Your Imagination Was That An Attempted “Coup” (Tracey)
Violence in the Capitol, Dangers in the Aftermath (Greenwald)
Enough With The Outrage (PL)
Facebook, Twitter Finally Do Slightly More Than Nothing About Trump (IC)
US Capitol Police Say Reports Of Officer Death Not Accurate (R.)
Donald Trump’s Ruinous Legacy (Tracey)
The US and UK May Not Will Assange’s Death, But … (Cook)
Biden’s One-Two Stimulus Punch (Axios)
There Are So Many Covid Patients, Younger This Time (Anon)
Very Risky To Delay 2nd Dose Of COVID19 Vaccine – Former FDA Director (Hill)
British Scientists Develop World’s First Covid-19 Vaccine Smart Patch (Unilad)
Americans Need Federal Commission To Look Into The 2020 Election (Turley)

 

 

 

 

All I saw was a bunch of clowns.

Only In Your Imagination Was That An Attempted “Coup” (Tracey)

We are being told that a “coup attempt” no longer needs to be understood as constituting an “attempt” to seize control of the government — as had generally been the common understanding of the term before the events of yesterday, which have caused the entire political and media establishment to go completely haywire Is it unusual for a mob to breach the Capitol Building — ransacking offices, taking goofy selfies, and disrupting the proceedings of Congress for a few hours? Yes, that’s unusual. But the idea that this was a real attempt at a “coup” — meaning an attempt to seize by force the reins of the most powerful state in world history — is so preposterous that you really have to be a special kind of deluded in order to believe it.

Or if not deluded, you have to believe that using such terminology serves some other political purpose. Such as, perhaps, imposing even more stringent censorship on social media, where the “coup” is reported to have been organized. Or inflicting punishment on the man who is accused of “inciting” the coup, which you’ve spent four years desperately craving to do anyway. He’s already been effectively banned from Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter — a rubicon-crossing event in the suppression of political speech which, of course, is being cheered by all the usual suspects who otherwise claim to be stalwart defenders of enlightened liberal values. At no point yesterday was the American government at risk of being “overthrown,” as members of Congress have laughably suggested.

Per usual, our guardians of consensus can’t bring themselves to describe what unfolded with any degree of dispassion or calm. Instead we’re told by the incoming Senate Majority Leader, for example, that January 6, 2021 will now “live in infamy” right alongside December 7, 1941. Elected officials issued emotional notices that they were “okay,” like they had just narrowly avoided being crushed in an earthquake, or escaped the World Trade Center on 9/11. This is made all the more odd because the only person upon whom lethal force was committed appears to have been a Trump-supporting woman who was shot point-blank in the throat by a Capitol Hill police officer. She’s now dead. Congress was temporarily inconvenienced.

Journalists and pundits, glorying in their natural state — which is to peddle as much free-flowing hysteria as possible — eagerly invoke all the same rhetoric that they’d abhor in other circumstances on civil libertarian grounds. “Domestic terrorism,” “insurrection,” and other such terms now being promoted by the corporate media will nicely advance the upcoming project of “making sure something like this never happens again.” Use your imagination as to what kind of remedial measures that will entail. Trump’s promotion of election fraud fantasies has been a disaster not just for him, but for his “movement” — such as it exists — and it’s obvious that a large segment of the population actively wants to be deceived about such matters.

But the notion that Trump has “incited” a violent insurrection is laughable. His speech Monday afternoon that preceded the march to the Capitol was another standard-fare Trump grievance fest, except without the humor that used to make them kind of entertaining. Trump didn’t command that his followers physically breach the Capitol Building. In fact, after previously saying he would join the march, he seems to just have gone home to tweet and watch TV. So, basically his normal routine on a typical day, minus a trip to the golf course.

Read more …

“..striking at cherished national symbols — the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, the Capitol — ensures rage and terror far beyond body counts or other concrete harms.”

It’s about cliockbait, Glenn. Not reason.

Violence in the Capitol, Dangers in the Aftermath (Greenwald)

The U.S. Capitol remains a potent and cherished symbol even for Americans who are deeply cynical about the ruling class and political system. Its nobility is something continually engrained deep into our collective psyche since childhood, and that meaning endures even when our rational faculties reject it. It is therefore not hard to understand why watching a marauding band of hooligans invade and deface both the House and the Senate, without any identifiable objective other than venting grievances, reflexively engenders a patriotic disgust across the political spectrum. It is unhinged to the point of being obscene to compare yesterday’s incursion to the 9/11 attack or (as Sen. Chuck Schumer did last night) to Pearl Harbor. By every metric, the magnitude and destructiveness of those two events are in an entirely different universe.

But that does not mean there are no applicable lessons to be drawn from those prior attacks. One is that striking at cherished national symbols — the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, the Capitol — ensures rage and terror far beyond body counts or other concrete harms. That is one major reason that yesterday’s event received far more attention and commentary, and will likely produce far greater consequences, than much deadlier incidents, such as the still-motive-unknown 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting that killed 59 or the 2016 Orlando shooting that left 49 dead at the Pulse nightclub. Unlike even horrific indiscriminate shooting sprees, an attack on a symbol of national power will be perceived as an attack on the state or even the society itself.

There are other, more important historical lessons to draw not only from the 9/11 attack but subsequent terrorism on U.S. soil. One is the importance of resisting the coercive framework that demands everyone choose one of two extremes: that the incident is either (a) insignificant or even justifiable, or (b) is an earth-shattering, radically transformative event that demands radical, transformative state responses. This reductive, binary framework is anti-intellectual and dangerous. One can condemn a particular act while resisting the attempt to inflate the dangers it poses. One can acknowledge the very real existence of a threat while also warning of the harms, often far greater, from proposed solutions.

Read more …

“They’re not gonna stop. And everyone beware because they’re not gonna stop. They’re not gonna stop before Election Day and they’re not going to stop after Election Day. And everyone should take note of that. They’re not gonna let up and they should not.”

Enough With The Outrage (PL)

Like pretty much all conservatives, I have consistently criticized riots and other forms of political violence for many years. That includes yesterday’s Washington, D.C. riot. You can’t say the same about liberals, however. Until yesterday, one might have thought that liberals consider rioting and other forms of political violence to be as American as apple pie. You could write a book in support of that proposition, but for now let’s cite just a few examples. Do you remember when President Trump was inaugurated on January 20, 2017? Leftist Democrats rioted in Washington that day. That riot was arguably worse, more violent and more destructive, than what happened in D.C. yesterday. The liberal rioters destroyed stores, set vehicles on fire and battled with the police. Six police officers were wounded.

I don’t recall a single Democratic office-holder denouncing the Democrats’ Inauguration Day riot, and the Associated Press came perilously close to praising the rioters. Over the ensuing four years, Antifa and Black Lives Matter rioted countless times, bringing devastation to cities like Portland, Seattle, Kenosha and Minneapolis. Did any Democrats denounce these riots? Not that I remember. Many Democrats endorsed them, or seemed to do so. Kamala Harris, for example, said about the riots in June: “They’re not going to stop. They’re not going to stop. This is a movement, I’m telling you. They’re not gonna stop. And everyone beware because they’re not gonna stop. They’re not gonna stop before Election Day and they’re not going to stop after Election Day. And everyone should take note of that. They’re not gonna let up and they should not.”

This was after 12 people had been killed in Democrat-sanctioned rioting, and billions of dollars in destruction committed. Have any Democrats denounced Black Lives Matter for its role in the riots? Not one. Has any Democrat denounced Antifa? Not that I know of, and some, like Keith Ellison, have specifically endorsed Antifa’s political violence. Democratic Party journalists have joined the party’s politicians in excusing riots. The New York Times, for example, published an admiring profile of Antifa. The Washington Post, likewise, has carried water for Antifa. The litany could go on for a long time. Yesterday’s assault on the Capitol was outrageous, but let’s not forget that last time out-of-control demonstrators interrupted business at the Capitol, shouted down senators and pounded on the doors of the Supreme Court, it was Democrats objecting to the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

And speaking of assaults on capitols, did any Democrats object when leftists occupied the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison for four months, destroying property, impeding public business and violently assaulting conservatives? Not a peep.

Read more …

Are we going to celebrate corporate power in politics now? Are we inviting censorship in through the front door?

Facebook, Twitter Finally Do Slightly More Than Nothing About Trump (IC)

The advertising industry is generally acknowledged as one of the most risk-averse and craven industries on the planet, with decision-making guided largely by attempting to be as inoffensive as possible to as many people as possible, taking a position on an issue only in the weakest, safest, most carefully hedged terms available. Though companies like Facebook and Twitter hold the unfathomable power to control the distribution of information to billions of people around the world and like to think of themselves as helping bring humankind to some next level of consciousness, they are still very much in the advertising business.

As advertising companies, cowardice runs deep in the souls of Twitter, Facebook, and Google, companies that have spent the past four years looking the other way, equivocating, and contorting themselves into pretzels in an attempt to justify Trump’s unfettered access to the most powerful information distribution system in world history. Despite perennial speculation in the press as to what might psychologically or ideologically explain Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey’s total unwillingness to meaningfully act, there is just one factor: money. Twitter and Facebook are only worth anything as businesses if they can boast to advertisers of their access to an enormous swath of the American market, across political and ideological lines, and fear of a right-wing backlash has been enough to keep Peter Thiel on Facebook’s board and Trump’s voter suppression dispatches on Twitter’s servers.

According to a Facebook moderator who spoke to The Intercept on the condition of anonymity for fear of employer retaliation, watching the company drag its feet, yesterday in particular, has been excruciating. According to internal communications reviewed by The Intercept, the Capitol break-in is now considered, for purposes of Facebook’s willy-nilly application of the rules, “a violating event,” and any “praise,” “support,” or even friendly “representation” is banned on the basis of the company’s “Dangerous Organizations” policies, which this moderator explained is typically applied to posts celebrating terrorist attacks, drug cartel murders, and Aryan street gangs.

Read more …

Not sure what is going on with this.

US Capitol Police Say Reports Of Officer Death Not Accurate (R.)

U.S. Capitol Police said in a statement on Thursday that media reports that an officer had died after the storming of the Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump were inaccurate. The agency said that several officers were injured and some hospitalized after the unrest Wednesday, but that no officers had died as a result. Four people had died after Trump’s supporters swarmed the building on Wednesday in a failed attempt to disrupt efforts to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.

Read more …

“..he can rest easy knowing that he successfully used Trump as a vehicle to achieve the generations-long dream of the conservative donor class — a 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court..”

Donald Trump’s Ruinous Legacy (Tracey)

The stultification of Republican electoral strategy stems fundamentally from the fact that there has been no substantial intra-party public debate about the reasons for Trump’s loss. Even now, more than two months later, to merely state that Trump lost provokes profound rage among a large segment of the party’s voters. You can be mercilessly attacked online and threatened with career-ending repudiation for doing so; Purdue and Loeffler couldn’t deviate from this line, for fear of alienating fraud-believing Trump supporters in Georgia. But Republican turnout dipped anyway, most probably because conservative media had been completely inundated with accusations that the Republican-led state government of Georgia was complicit in a conspiracy to oust Trump. It turns out “fraud-pilling” one’s own voters might not be the most reliable path to victory.

The manic Trump-induced obsession with purported fraud thereby delayed any thoroughgoing public discussion of how Congressional Republicans over-performed in November, across many metrics, even as Trump went down to defeat. So instead of capitalising on those gains, Republicans jettisoned them. As for McConnell, it was one of the more astounding moves in recent political history to sacrifice his own Senate majority, which most of his professional life has been structured around preserving at all costs, because he was dead-set against sending out the $2,000 cheques. A figure which in the grand scheme of things, as Trump would say, is “peanuts”.

But even with the majority vanquished, McConnell will maintain a fair amount of power as minority leader. As of 20 January the Senate will stand as split 50-50 with future Vice President Kamala Harris as the tie-breaking vote. The possibility of a few Democratic defections here and there means McConnell will have plenty of opportunities to exert legislative influence. And he can rest easy knowing that he successfully used Trump as a vehicle to achieve the generations-long dream of the conservative donor class — a 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court, as well as some corporate tax cuts.

Read more …

Where is the next appeal? And when?

The US and UK May Not Will Assange’s Death, But … (Cook)

[..] while denying the extradition claim, she supported all the arguments advanced by the US accruing to itself the right to prosecute Assange – and any other journalist – for the crime of doing journalism. She ignored the facts, the expert testimony presented in court and the legal arguments – all of which favoured Assange – and backed instead what amounted to a purely political case made by the US. She disregarded warnings from Assange’s legal team that acceptance of the political rationale for extradition amounted to an all-out attack on fundamental journalistic freedoms. She established a terrifying legal precedent for the US to seize foreign journalists and prosecute them for “espionage” if they expose Washington’s crimes. Her ruling will inevitably have a profoundly chilling effect on any publication trying to dig out the truth about the US national-security state, with terrifying consequences for us all.

But while she enthusiastically backed the political case for Assange’s extradition and trial, Baraitser at the same time got the Wikileaks founder off the hook by accepting the humanitarian concerns raised by medical and prison experts. They had counselled that extradition to the US could be expected to lead to Assange spending the rest of his life in a barbaric US super-max prison, exacerbating mental health problems and the risk of suicide. Her ruling, while deeply disturbing in its political and legal implications, did at least suggest that Baraitser was ready to take a compassionate approach in regard to Assange’s health, even if not his journalistic exposure of western war crimes. He should have walked free there and then, had the US not immediately said it would appeal her decision.

Given Assange’s discharge by Baraitser, his team hoped that bail – his release from a high-security prison while the lengthy appeals process unfolds – would prove a formality. They hurried to make such an application after the extradition ruling on Monday, assuming that the legal logic of her decision dictated his release. Baraitser demurred, suggesting that they prepare their case and make it to her more fully on Wednesday. It now seems clear the judge manipulated Assange’s defence team. Apparently like Assange’s lawyers, former British ambassador Craig Murray, who has attended and reported on the hearings in detail, was lulled by Baraitser into assuming that she wanted a cast-iron case from the defence to justify a decision to release Assange on bail.

There were good reasons for their confidence. Any move to prevent his release would look perverse given that she had decided Assange should not be extradited or stand trial in the US. They were deceived. Baraitser denied bail, effectively signalling that she thinks her ruling might be wrong and overturned in a higher court. That is extraordinary. It suggests that she has no confidence in her own judgment of the facts of the case. As Murray has noted: “There was little or no precedent for the High Court overturning any ruling against extradition on Section 91 health grounds.”

Read more …

$4 trillion. Green.

Biden’s One-Two Stimulus Punch (Axios)

Joe Biden is considering asking Congress to help suffering Americans in two steps: give them the balance of their coveted $2,000 coronavirus payments, followed by a $3 trillion tax and infrastructure package. Biden is confident he can get multiple packages through Congress after Democrats won both Georgia Senate elections. The president-elect’s team also wants to get cash in Americans’ hands as quickly as possible, according to people familiar with the matter. In July Biden rolled out his Build Back Better plan, which includes billions of dollars for caregivers, incentives for manufacturers and some $4 trillion for green jobs and infrastructure spending.

He proposed paying for this plan with a series of tax increases on the wealthy, including taxing capital gains as regular income and increasing the marginal tax rate for top earners to almost 40%. Democrats are concerned that if they miss early opportunities to combat COVID and reverse its broader effect on the economy, the twin problems could cripple the rest of Biden’s presidency. The first bite would come in the form of $1,400 payments that would be added to the $600 in cash Congress approved last month. Also included in this quick-hit package would be money for state and local aid, as well as funding for vaccine distribution. Biden’s push for a tax and infrastructure plan, which is part of his “Build Back Better” program, will slide to later in the spring and be considered under budget reconciliation rules.

They allow the Senate to pass measures with a simple majority, instead of a more challenging filibuster-proof 60 votes. Biden is essentially dusting off his pre-election plans, back when many of his economic and political advisers assumed that if he won the presidency, he would carry the Senate along with him. Those ambitions were thrown into doubt when Republicans ran strong in the Senate on Election Day and Democrats’ only hope for regaining the majority was if they won the two uphill runoff elections held Tuesday. Biden’s blitz for a quick spending measure could allow him to build goodwill with Senate Republicans for a bigger package in the spring, especially if it includes liability protection the GOP wants for businesses fearing coronavirus lawsuits.

Read more …

Britain is brutal. How much of the healthcare system has been budgeted away in the past 20 years?

There Are So Many Covid Patients, Younger This Time (Anon)

Truly, I never imagined it would be this bad. Once again Covid has spread out along the hospital, the disease greedily taking over ward after ward. Surgical, paediatric, obstetric, orthopaedic; this virus does not discriminate between specialities. Outbreaks bloom even in our “clean” areas and the disease is even more ferociously infectious. Although our local tests do not differentiate strains, I presume this is the new variant. The patients are younger this time around too, and there are so many of them. They are sick. We are full. There can be no debate: this is much, much worse than the first surge. We start the morning with 10 new patients to be concerned about. These are just the worst of them; we cannot worry about those who, though less unwell, would have had us scared in days gone by.

They are scattered on general wards around the hospital, being given as much oxygen as possible through a standard mask. Most are lying prone on their fronts, breathing rapid, shallow breaths, too breathless to talk, blood oxygen saturations alarmingly low. The eldest is in his 70s but most are much younger. All urgently need respiratory support. This is ideally given non-invasively using a Cpap mask or very high oxygen flows through the nose. Like most hospitals we have set up a new respiratory-led breathing support unit for this purpose, but it filled up with patients weeks ago. Our intensive care unit, able to deliver these therapies as well as invasive ventilation for the very sickest, is also full despite being stretched and pushed way beyond its previous capacity.

Our neighbouring hospitals are under the same pressures, or worse; even if patients were well enough to transfer out safely there is no space to receive them. We divide and conquer. Some of us rush through the morning ward rounds on the breathing support and intensive care units, desperately hoping to find patients that have improved enough to step down on to a normal ward or could be swapped between the two units according to their needs. Some of us go to assess the new referrals. We make sure that everything possible has been done to avoid the need for more support but our colleagues have already been thorough. They need to come to us, and soon. We initiate difficult conversations with some patients who were frailer before catching Covid and would therefore have less chance of benefit from additional breathing therapy.

We no longer have the luxury of “giving it a go”; we have to ensure that we select only those with the best chance of survival. Getting it wrong may occupy a precious high dependency bed for many days, often ending in a difficult and symptomatic death while preventing other patients from receiving the correct therapy. Conversely, identifying those who will not survive will allow us to ensure better symptom control and a kinder end to life. These conversations, often barely intelligible through our PPE, are draining, fraught, brutal. We must justify to patients and their families, and often our colleagues too, why we cannot offer these therapies to everyone.

Read more …

All on red. Casino.

Very Risky To Delay 2nd Dose Of COVID19 Vaccine – Former FDA Director (Hill)

Questions surrounding the deployment and quantity of available COVID-19 vaccine doses linger as inoculations continue, with vaccine reticence and concerns about dose availability dominating the conversation. For the current approved vaccines, two separate shots are required, and some European countries have opted to delay the administration of the second dose in a bid to cultivate broader immunity. Both Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines require two shots administered intramuscularly roughly three weeks apart, which the U.S. is currently undertaking. As for whether or not the U.S. should follow the lead of countries like the U.K. and Denmark, Norman Baylor, former director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), called the plan “very risky” on CNBC.

“I understand some of the rationale to do this, but again, it’s not really data driven,” Baylor said. “It’s a very risky venture because if it fails, you’re in worse shape.” Baylor, who previously headed the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, further elaborated that there isn’t enough data to fully illustrate the immunity benefits just one dose with a prolonged second dose will bring. While more people would receive a vaccination by increasing the time between when the administration of both doses, immunity may be different from what promising clinical trials suggest. “The concern though is that space, that time, and how vulnerable you are, because…we don’t have all the data in that will indicate what the duration of protection is,” Baylor said. “If it fails, you’re in worse shape.”

The need to vaccinate more people comes as a more contagious COVID-19 strain makes its rounds through countries including the U.K. and the U.S. The U.K. in particular has seen record new daily confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 403,914 new cases recorded over the past week, per national data. This represents a 42.6 percent increase.

Read more …

In 3 years time.

British Scientists Develop World’s First Covid-19 Vaccine Smart Patch (Unilad)

Scientists from Swansea University in Wales are striving to develop the first coronavirus vaccine ‘smart patch’. The patch will use microneedles to both administer the coronavirus vaccine and monitor its efficacy for the patient by tracking the body’s immune response. The research team plans to develop a prototype by the end of March, in the hope it can be put forward for clinical trials and ultimately released to the public, as part of the effort to tackle the coronavirus outbreak. Scientists at Swansea’s IMPACT research centre hope to carry out human clinical studies in partnership with Imperial College London with the aim of making the device commercially available within three years.


Using polycarbonate or silicon millimetre-long microneedles, the smart patch can penetrate the skin to administer a vaccine. It can be held in place with a strap or tape for up to 24 hours, during which time it simultaneously measures a patient’s inflammatory response to the vaccination by monitoring biomarkers in the skin. Once the vaccine has been administered, the device is scanned to produce a data reading that can provide an understanding about the efficacy of the vaccine and the body’s response to it.

Read more …

What are the odds?

Americans Need Federal Commission To Look Into The 2020 Election (Turley)

First, and most important, this was an unprecedented election in the reliance of mail-in voting and the use of new voting systems and procedures. We need to review how that worked down to the smallest precincts and hamlets. Second, possibly tens of millions of voters believe that this election was rigged and stolen. I am not one of them. However, the integrity of our elections depends on the faith of the electorate. Roughly 40% of that electorate have lingering doubts about whether their votes actually matter. Most of the cases challenging the election were not decided on the merits. Indeed, it seems they haven’t even been allowed for discovery. Instead, they were largely dismissed on jurisdictional or standing groups or under the “laches” doctrine that they were brought too late.

Those allegations need to be conclusively proven or disproven in the interests of the country. Third, there were problems. There was not proof of systemic fraud or irregularities, but there were problems of uncounted votes, loss of key custodial information and key differences in the rules governing voting and tabulations. We have spent billions to achieve greater security and reliability after prior election controversies. Indeed, we had a prior election commission that failed to achieve those fundamental goals. A real commission will take a couple years to fully address these allegations. It will be meaningless if it’s stacked by the same reliable political cutouts used historically in federal commissions. It should be formed on a commitment of absolute transparency with public hearings and public archiving of underlying material before the issuance of any final report. That way, the public at large can analyze and contribute to the review of this evidence.

[..] The main challenge, however, remains the same: Whether Congress can appoint a real federal commission without rigging the result by appointing partisan members. In 1877, to quote from a speech of Ohio Sen. Allen Granberry Thurman, “It was perfectly clear that any bill that gave the least advantage, ay, the weight of the dust in the balance, to either party, could not become the law of the land.” Nothing has changed. The stakes are too high to allow even a dust particle to tip the difference on the ultimate findings. The dust-free option requires a dependent, not independent, commission. Otherwise, the public will be the loser.

Read more …

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle January 8 2021

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 57 total)
  • Author
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  • #67920

    Joan Miro The tilled field 1924   • Only In Your Imagination Was That An Attempted “Coup” (Tracey) • Violence in the Capitol, Dangers in the Afte
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle January 8 2021]

    #67921
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Joan Miro The tilled field 1924

    I like Miro; but this one seems a stretch…for me…
    So be it…….
    It seems safer to comment on the art; it being nebulus and all…
    The Debt Rattle today?
    I’ll pass thank you………..
    But I did like the 1st day back to school pic…

    #67922
    teri
    Participant

    Well, that didn’t take long.

    Trump tells his dumber-than-rocks supporters that he “loves” them and urges them to take their anger to the Capitol building and face Congress directly.  He tells them “You’ll never take our country back with weakness, you have to show strength”.  He tells them to “fight like hell”.  He says he will go with them (but he doesn’t). His attorney, Guiliani urges “trial by combat” at the same rally.  Don jr. has already warmed up the crowd by telling them to take on the Republican members of Congress who didn’t back Trump: go in and let them know ‘we’re coming for you,’ he tells the crowd.  

    Then last night, Trump releases a video denouncing the entire action. Trump is now telling his cult that they were exhibiting “violence, lawlessness and mayhem” and had “defiled the seat of American democracy”.  He claims (lying) that he had immediately deployed the National Guard and other law enforcement to expel “the intruders”; i.e., the supporters whom he himself had directed to the Capitol.

    Throwing them right under the bus, he is.

    Even that sullen Slovenian slattern he married had sense enough to call her attorney and have her prenuptial agreement rewritten the last time Trump told her that he “loved” her.

    Not sure his supporters will be that smart. Maybe the fact that the Dept. of Justice attorney in DC – this would be the Trump administration DoJ, by the way – is seeking to charge the 90 people who were arrested with federal rioting, insurrection and sedition will wake them up to the con.

    If not, they can continue to donate to the Trump re-election fund and to Sidney Powell’s fictitious Kraken fund after they make bail. Money well spent (LOL).

    #67924
    MrMoto
    Participant

    Biden Declares War on the Deplorables????

    In Biden’s speech yesterday Mr. ‘bring everyone together’ raised the race card.

    Basically saying that BLM was treated harsher than the ‘mob of thugs that stormed the Capital’ and then said ‘the American people saw it in plain view and I hope it sensitized them to what we have to do’
    and then went on about the true purpose of the Justice Dept.

    Meanwhile the MSM is going crazy about an attempted coup, an insurrection, impeaching Trump, domestic terrorism etc. and are all in on the race thing. More fuel for the ‘insane wokester jihad’ I fear.

    Could be the start of a good ol’ American witch hunt.

    Not giving me a warm feeling.

    If you are interested

    check from about 8:40 to 10:45

    #67925
    Mr. House
    Participant

    A friend i worked with in the past sent a text yesterday gloating essentially about the women who was shot and killed at the washington….whatever it was. “lets ask ashli how well her tweet has aged. Oh wait we can’t…..” to which i replied you’re messed up dude. He didn’t respond for a few moments and then said “yes the one sitting quietly in his home not the terrorists breaking into our govt buildings, to which i replied “So what is different then what went on the rest of this year? Cheering for people dying, not what normal people do” and here is where his thinking is “Um protesting unjustified killings is a lot diff then rioting bc your president lost. I don’t condone vandalizing business establishments but breaking into govt buildings is a whole other level. Also sad that you don’t see the difference but also not surprised”

    I left him with “yeah i guess so, everyone has god on their side.” Sigh, this is going to end poorly. If you do not concede to all the left believes to be true and right they automatically lump you in with the enemy. Even if you never voted for trump. Dangerous times dead ahead.

    #67926
    Mr. House
    Participant
    #67928
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    @ teri

    fwiw, I’d call your post above extremely well done both as writing and analysis. But I dislike the “dumber-than-rocks” remark. Intelligence is not wisdom, and at the core, what those protestors/rioters did was wise in intent and method. Their folly was in using Trump as a guiding motivator, but then, a people raised to be led, by people they choose to lead them, tend to need a public figure to rally their hopes and frustrations around.

    They’re no dumber than people like me who worked diligently to get folks like Obama and Sanders elected, losing by winning in the case of Oabama, and losing by losing with Sanders (which may have been a good thing for all I know). And they demonstrated some kind of courage and ability to work as a team, even if likely prodded by professional agitators, as is par for that course.

    ^&*

    @ Mr. House

    I feel for you. I’ver had similar discussions in the past. I don’t any more. If it helps soothe the cog diss one feels after absorbing such a dialog, I’ll note that BLM protests also targeted govet bldgs including, iirc, a few federal bldgs.

    We are entering an age where such discussions will be conducted with baseball bats and blunderbusses.

    Peanut Butter Jelly Time

    For nostalgia’s sake.

    #67929
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Where is the next appeal [for Assange]? And when?

    Craig Murray said that US appeal of the extradition denial is ” likely to be held in April in the High Court.”
    No mention of when Assange’s appeal of the bail denial would be decided.

    The US government indicated they will probably appeal the verdict, and a bail hearing has been deferred until Wednesday to decide whether he will be released from Belmarsh pending the appeal – which court sources tell me is likely to be held in April in the High Court.

    https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2021/01/julian-assange-imminent-freedom/

    #67930
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Coming to a city near you?

    China city offers cash for tip on test evaders

    BEIJING (AP) — A city in northern China is offering rewards of 500 yuan ($77) for anyone who reports on a resident who has not taken a recent coronavirus test.

    https://apnews.com/article/international-news-australia-brisbane-coronavirus-pandemic-queensland-2b20582d6393233e5f4e2706d7a444bf

    #67931
    zerosum
    Participant

    TAE highlights the actions of yesterday.
    Today, the news media, is showing images that is meant to incite the population against the demonstrators.
    the Deplorables …. have no Jobs, no security, no health….
    ….. have the time to go to a demonstration, and will destroy in anger
    …. are not the ground troops of a uprising, not a riot, not a revolution
    ….. are the tools of hyper (everything), by the enablers

    the enablers are demonstration more hate than the deplorables. (listen to N. Pelossietc. “Domestic terrorism,” “insurrection,”)
    What the enablers will set into motion will have more repercussions that the actions of the deplorables.
    ——–
    • Only In Your Imagination Was That An Attempted “Coup” (Tracey)
    I did not see tanks in the street.
    I did not hear that the deplorables had taken over the communication channels.
    I did not see that the deplorables were storming the anything with guns.
    I did not see, “Domestic terrorism,” “insurrection,” “federal rioting”, “insurrection” and “sedition”
    I did not even see “the yellow vests of France”, or “the umbrellas of Hong Kong”

    I saw a band of hooligans invade and deface both the House and the Senate, without any identifiable objective other than venting grievances. I probable saw professional agitators in the crowd.

    I saw frustrated whites people demonstrating.

    • Facebook, Twitter Finally Do Slightly More Than Nothing About Trump (IC)

    I saw and hear Hypocrites everywhere
    —–
    Top of the MSM new, this morning
    Not sure what is going on with this.

    • US Capitol Police Say Reports Of Officer Death Not Accurate (R.)

    U.S. Capitol Police said in a statement on Thursday that media reports that an officer had died after the storming of the Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump were inaccurate. The agency said that several officers were injured and some hospitalized after the unrest Wednesday, but that no officers had died as a result. Four people had died after Trump’s supporters swarmed the building on Wednesday in a failed attempt to disrupt efforts to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.

    #67932
    Mr. House
    Participant

    #67933
    Mr. House
    Participant

    You want a perfect prefab world
    Where the boy always gets the girl
    But the world’s not really like that
    Where knights in armor slay the beast
    And every peasant gets a feast
    But I don’t want a world that’s like that
    Cause if the beast has a heart and the peasant has none
    Your equalizer’s come undone
    Now what’s left to do when every wish always comes true?
    And what’s great to me won’t seem so great to you
    There’d be no saints if every heart was overflowing
    There’d be nothing to learn if everyone was all-knowing
    Well it’s a worthy crusade but I won’t cheer the parade of the equalizer
    100 smiles make a frown mean more
    There’s no equalizer
    Off the lines in factory
    Cookie cutter mentality
    Well the world’s already like that
    And I’m sorry if you disagree but that’s the point
    It takes a bit of piss to put the spice in victory

    #67934
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    What matters, as someone said yesterday in very different words, mentioning communes, monasteries, etc., is what happens on your street. We’ve been hypnotized so long by media we almost don’t realize we can ignore it.

    I Saw It On TV

    They sent us home to watch the show comming on the little screen
    A man named Ike was in the white house big black limosine
    There were many shows that followed from hooter to dootyville
    Though I saw them all I can’t recall which cartoon were real
    The coons skin caps Yankee bats the hound dog mans big start
    The A bomb fears Annette had ears I lusted in my heart
    A young man from Boston said “sail the new frontier”
    And we watched the dream dead end in Dallas
    They buried innocents that year
    I know it’s true oh so true cause I saw it on T.V.
    We gathered round to hear the sound comming on the little screen
    The grief had passed the old men laughed and all the girls screamed
    Cause four guys from England tooks all by the hands
    It was time to laugh time to sing time to join the band
    But all too soo we hit the moon and covered up the sky
    They built the bombs and aimed their guns and still i don’t know why
    The dominoes tumbled and big buisness roared
    Every night at six they showed the pictures and counted up the score
    I know it’s true oh so true cause I saw it on T.V.
    The Old man rocks among his dreams a prisoner of the porch
    The light he said at the end of the tunnel
    Was nothing but a burglars torch
    And them that was caught in the cover are all rich and free
    But they chained my mind to an endless tune
    When they took my only son from me
    I know it’s true oh so true cause I saw it on T.V.
    I know it’s true oh so true cause I saw it on T.V.

    #67935
    sumac.carol
    Participant

    I also loved the photo of first day back at school!
    Also liked the tilled field – reminds me of the cacaphony of country life. Are the colours and composition too jarring for your preference V.Arnold? It is “edgy” if that’s an appropriate descriptor.

    #67936
    Mr. House
    Participant
    #67937
    Mr. House
    Participant

    Tagio or Jsnyder or Dr. D or anyone really:

    I’d like to know your thoughts on this:

    The REALLY, REALLY GREAT REBALANCING… ..sort of…I guess…..

    #67938
    Geppetto
    Participant
    #67939
    Mr. House
    Participant

    Boogaloo said

    “The Fall of Rome cannot be properly understood except in connection with the Rise of Constantinople — which continued on, and continued to prosper — for centuries. But the history of Byzantium is not taught in the West, so most people think that there was some sort of collapse and period of Dark Ages — when in fact the center of learning had simply moved across the Mediterranean — deliberately and intentionally. It is wrong to think of Rome as the center from and after 325AD. Rome fell because of Constantine’s strategic decision – one of the key decisions that completely changed the course of Western history.”

    So americas corporate elites selling out its power and people to China could be considered the same thing? Milk the populace for all its worth then move the capital of the world east when you can’t get anymore? I think it still fits todays state of affairs.

    #67941
    kultsommer
    Participant

    Society is ripe for some mature debate if we want to avoid civil mayhem. Then again that kind of resolving the issues was never allowed. If 4-on-fire from picture above were invited to defend their position in some decent TV debate it would have been interrupted with “commercial brakes” so many times that viewers would loose track what the debate is all about.
    At the end, host thanking and congratulating the guests would promise more of “constructive debate like that” in near future.
    Miro – bursting energy still expressed with old fashioned “nice” brushwork. An idea that painting can be done with house painting brush, wild strokes, spray etc. had to wait for a while.
    Nice classroom photo. On the good note, my sister became licensed landscape architect on her sixtieth birthday.

    #67942
    [email protected]
    Participant

    madamski,
    This is a repost, the first one didn’t “take” for some reason.
    I’m responding to your inquiry re: solutions from the comments section of yesterday’s Debt Rattle. I don’t have any solutions, other than a general direction to go very local with one’s efforts, esp. because centralized governments will not do anything that is remotely helpful – quite the contrary.

    I think Nicole Foss’s lengthy article from 2015 on the The Boundaries and Future of Solution Space here at TAE is a very good guide, esp. as what NOT to waste time and effort on.

    I agree that we all need to blow off steam and point out the insanity from time to time, so that we can all confirm to one another that we see it and remain sane ourselves. I just bemoan the constant focus of documenting the day-to-day progress of America becoming a failed state. I think Morris Berman nailed it pretty comprehensively in his 2014 book, Why America Failed. He is adamant that the structural components of America’s “culture” render a happy ending impossible. He has also no solutions, other than what he calls “dual process” – to carve out a real life worth living while doing the minimum required to survive in the collapsing society. There are lots of youtube vids of him talking about it if you want a preview before getting the book.

    #67943
    Noirette
    Participant

    So, the USA color revolution is completed successfully, though lacking a dramatic ending, for now.

    Voices clamor for Trump to be impeached, cancelled, removed, hounded out of town, fleeing for his life (or legal equivalent), as such is supposed to occur, to punish the Illegitimate Leaders, Dictators, Despots, who are booted to oblivion to make room for corrupt cronies, US stooges, Mafia-cum-CIA types, who will sell their ppl down the river. (E.g. Yanukovitch replaced with Poroshenko and “our man Yats.” Poor result: Crimea returned to Russia, a huge blow. Note, no longer mentioned, and the Minsk agreements are dead.)

    Under Trump, no new color revolution, aka régime-change operation, was conducted, or concluded satisfactorily from a neo-con, neo-lib, US point of view. The previous Obama sorties, Syria, Lybia, Ukraine, limped along (DAESH in Syria was more or less defeated – the Donbass is not officially a Russian protectorate but getting close, Ukr. army is in tatters – Lybia is a hellish pit..) and were, are, failures except in the sense of destroying killing others, imagined competiton. Or! ensuring certain ‘top’ failed sons, relatives, might extract piles of money, as in a Globalist Corrupt Op.

    The epitome was the ridiculous Venezuela botched coup affair, with Random Guy-do performing clownishly all over the place …

    So, for lack of successful or even just disruptive color revols / régime changes or creative novel devastating genocidal wars, Trump is subject to color revol. himself…

    >> Only one aspect, yes, for sure.

    #67944

    Or, as Glenn Greenwald put it today:


    There’s absolutely a new War on Terror being initiated — it’d been lurking for awhile, but it’s accelerating now for obvious reasons. This new one is aimed inward, domestically. It entails many of the same frameworks.

    #67945
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Some more ways the history of the Roman Empire might rhyme?

    Before the emperor Constantine moved the capital from Rome to Constantinople (now Istanbul), the Roman empire had devolved to a tetrarchy, with four leaders controlling different parts and fighting among themselves, ending with civil war. Constantine battled his way to Rome and prevailed in the civil war to become the sole emperor.

    The Civil wars of the Tetrarchy were a series of conflicts between the co-emperors of the Roman Empire…

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_wars_of_the_Tetrarchy

    #67946
    zerosum
    Participant

    Some more ways the history of the Roman Empire might rhyme?
    Survivors. (A man who can blend in to any scene or situation without standing out , hiding his skills and qualities.)

    #67947
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    “I agree that we all need to blow off steam and point out the insanity from time to time, so that we can all confirm to one another that we see it and remain sane ourselves. I just bemoan the constant focus of documenting the day-to-day progress of America becoming a failed state.”

    Sheeple have the memory span of a gnat, and as such shall remain wild-eyed in their cognitive dissonance regarding the destruction of their favorite pastures of ignorant bliss, presented daily by cue card entertainers for collective titillation…

    “One apparatchiks terrorist is another’s freedom fighter”.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954_United_States_Capitol_shooting

    “The assailants were arrested, tried and convicted in federal court, and given long sentences, effectively life imprisonment. In 1978 and 1979, their sentences were commuted by President Jimmy Carter; all four returned to Puerto Rico.”

    So, we have come full circle and have been infiltrated, just like the Romans, by those that hate Us, Our Way of Life, and Our History.

    Winning!

    All we await now is a Castro-esque savior, who shall complete the gaslighting of the sane, and deliver us into true evil.

    FWFS

    #67948
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    For those that are memory impaired:

    #67949
    WES
    Participant

    Boogaloo:

    Your view of the decline of Rome and my rather short description of Rome’s decline, are not at odds. What you wrote is just the next chapter!

    What I find interesting is that the Roman elites of the day decided it was too expensive and required too much effort to try and maintain “their” power and wealth in Rome, so they elected to move, leaving the little people behind!

    Imagine having to forever plan and pay for more bread and circuses to stay in power! Rome’s dependent (welfare) class sure shrunk rapidly after the new elites packed up and left and the welfare checks started bouncing!

    (Just like US companies relocate from expensive cities/states/countries to less expensive cities/states/countries, when things get bad enough.)

    What I was trying to show is how the previous elites had totally messed up their own Roman nest! The previous elite’s single biggest mistake was to start debasing the money! Everything that happened from that point onwards, came back to bite the old elites (and little people) of Rome!

    The new elites realized this and “initially” were careful not to repeat this mistake of debasing the money in their new location! (They also didn’t provide any welfare either!)

    After the new elites left Rome, life for the little people was “reset” and their lives settled into a “new” normal. Their “great reset” involved losing the benefits of the empire as well as the burdens of maintaining an empire too. But they still had bosses! New boss same as old boss! (Dems/Reps – Romans/barbarians)

    Today it is not hard to see the parallels to life in Rome. They rhyme!

    #67950
    WES
    Participant

    No, we can not dilute or delay vaccines!

    This would negatively impact vacinne maker’s huge quick profits!

    Any more delays might provide enough time to prove the vacinnnes might not work so well and might not be worth the high price nor risks being taken!

    We can’t risk that, can we?

    #67951
    WES
    Participant

    Poet:

    It would be very interesting to do a DNA study of today’s Romans to see how much barbarian DNA was added, after the barbarians sacked Rome.

    It would at least tell us if the barbarians left or if they liked Rome and decided to stay!

    #67952
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    @ [email protected]

    “I just bemoan the constant focus of documenting the day-to-day progress of America becoming a failed state. ”

    At least you rarely see slogans like Fight the Power! or Wolverines!

    We all have to bleat some times. Perhaps the most important purpose of a place like TAE is to give various stripes of cognitive dissonance a chance to be heard, hear that of others, and generally console, commiserate, and preferably, make us laugh.

    Raul tops his columns with superb art samples. He ends them with, most often, a Calvin&Hobbes cartoon. This, I think, is wise. It’s difficult accepting the apparent loss of the promising stability which virtually all cultural rhetoric says is rightfully ours because Progress, the Ascent of Man, modern humanity, the wonders of science, and ‘we’re beyond all that now’.

    I personally took comfort just seeing the word “monastery” in your post. It’s so much more user-friendly than ‘compound’.

    Positive proactive measures? Be kind. Don’t cling so tightly to survival that it diminishes what mental health one has retained while watching global lunacy set us up for global havoc.

    Some humor is best served dark. First, the darkness:

    Don’t Worry

    (youtube comment)

    “At the beginning, she replicates, with her voice- the EXACT sound my 1971 Dodge Dart’s starter made in the dead of a Brooklyn winter in 1982. I dreaded that sound of diminishing power in sub- zero wind chill temps stupidly trying to coax to life a 2 barrel carbuerated 318 cubic inch v-8 that was begging for death. At 1:30, she replicates once again, another familiar sound of industrial machinery…this time the EXACT sound my Rockwell table saw makes when I slide a piece of 3/4″ plywood through it. Chapman hit the wrong carbon unit. Just incredible.”

    Citing pioneers of rap is fashionable these days. Here we hear the pioneer of glossolalia rap.

    ^&*

    Practically: rocket stove, cistern, propane stove if wood isn’t feasible, coffee, a nice 2-3 digit-figure gallon-count of bottled water, rice, beans, salt, vitamins, mega blankets and pillows, rope, baseball bat and enough ‘scrip pills to die peacefully before they get you if it comes to that. (I know a person whose grandfather/mother survioved the Armenian genocide. They set aside enough bullets to euthanise the household if they couldn’t hold ’em off any more.)

    We’re all going to die someday, and even natural death is nasty. But even corpses know how to smile.

    #67953
    madamski cafone
    Participant

    @ WES
    “The previous elite’s single biggest mistake was to start debasing the money!”

    Perhaps the single bigger biggest mistake was WHY they debased the currency: to fund constant endless wars of empire.

    As for China as the new Byzantium, it still has its own concluding revolution to endure. Ask me, it’s RussiaRussiaRussia that owns the catbird seat:

    “In recent years, Russia has frequently been described in the media as an energy superpower.[213][214] The country has the world’s largest natural gas reserves,[215] the second-largest coal reserves,[216] the eighth-largest oil reserves,[217] and the largest oil shale reserves in Europe.[218] Russia is the world’s leading natural gas exporter,[219] the second-largest natural gas producer,[220] the second-largest oil exporter,[221] and the third-largest oil producer.[222] Fossil fuels cause most of the greenhouse gas emissions by Russia.[223]”

    Meanwhile: “With 95 operable nuclear reactors, it is no surprise that the United States is the leading nation in the consumption of nuclear energy. France and China followed with 57 and 47 operable reactors respectively. As of May 2020, there were 11 nuclear reactors under construction in China.”

    “Russia is the fourth-largest electricity producer in the world,[224] and the ninth-largest renewable energy producer in 2019.[225]

    “Russia was the first country to develop civilian nuclear power and to construct the world’s first nuclear power plant. In 2019, the country was the fourth-largest nuclear energy producer in the world; nuclear generated 20% of the country’s electricity.[226]

    “In 2014 Russia signed a deal to supply China with 38 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year. The project, which President Putin has called the “world’s biggest construction project,” was launched in 2019 and is expected continue for 30 years at an ultimate cost to China of $400 billion.[227]”

    Our nuclear reactors are old. UK’s are ancient. Russia’s are much newer and reliable. But Putin is getting old. We’ll see if he isn’t replaced by a greedy fool.

    #67954
    Mr. House
    Participant

    Very interesting point Madamski. If things were to get worse, do you think it would be possible that China invaded Russia?

    #67955
    WES
    Participant

    Zerosum:

    Yes, some Romans survived their “great reset” after the barbarians sacked the place!

    Those Romans with skills likely survived the difficult times and rapid changes.

    However, the welfare class either learned new skills quickly, moved, or starved to death!

    The population of Rome did shrink very quickly with no empire to support it’s welfare!

    After all the barbarians were only interested in their welfare, not Rome’s!

    #67956
    WES
    Participant

    Madamski:

    It is a kind of chicken or egg first argument!

    I see debasing the money as the elites not wanting to pay for their wars themselves.

    Better to let the little people pay for the war, both in wealth and blood!!

    #67957
    Topcat
    Participant

    I think the Covid moment was the official transfer of power to China 2020.

    Rome being eclipsed by Constantinople is an apt comparision.

    The Left-Carthyism witch hunt unfolding now is the beginning of a Chinese adapted ‘Social Credit Score” system in the US.

    You support (or supported in the past) or even dreamt of supporting Trump (Pre-Crime) at any point in the time /space continuum, No Social Media for You!

    Next will be you can’t use any kind of public transportation, as a present, former or future Trump supporter.

    Next no socially responsible employer will hire you as a Trump supporter.

    Next you’ll have to shop for food at restricted hours and only on certain days as a Trump supporter.

    And of course, they’ll be an arm band Trump supporters will have to wear in public.

    A five pointed red, white and blue Star of Donald.

    Star of the Donald

    #67959
    cranky.cyclist
    Participant

    This Politico piece implies leadership matters:

    Behind the Strategic Failure of the Capitol Police

    Perhaps a metaphor for the whole country.

    #67960
    WES
    Participant

    Mr. House:

    Being Canadian and having also worked in Russia, the short answer to whether China would invade Russia, is yes and no!

    The problem both Canada and Russia share; are climate, and a vast geography that supports few people. In many ways our land is poor compared to say land in China or India.

    As countries go, both are expensive places to run and live in, requiring exploitation of certain high value resources to sell to other countries.

    What “really” stops potential invaders is our relatively “cold” climate! Winter, in other words!

    So if China invades Russia, Russians would start moving south to China to live!

    Remember upwards of a million wealthy Canadians invade the US every winter!

    #67962
    WES
    Participant

    Cranky:

    You just need to change your perspective!

    On the positive side they didn’t fail, they succeeded!

    One elite is now replacing another elite!

    Only time will tell if this works out for the better or worst.

    I wonder what future 4021 bloggers, if they are allowed too, will say?

    #67963
    teri
    Participant

    @ Madamski,

    I don’t lack sympathy for these poor misguided people. However, they have had 4 years of their idol being in office and I have to wonder what possesses them to still support him now? He is no longer an unknown, a new-comer with promises that lead to hopefulness. Now they can see what he has done for them while he was in office. So what has he done for them? The answer is that he has done nothing for them. I can see what he has accomplished for the wealthy and for big businesses. I can see what he has done for the group of very conservative “law and order” people who want extreme judges putting women in jail for using birth control, long sentences for pot smokers, and who prefer business profits over workers’ rights. But what has he done for his voters who are not ultra wealthy? The tax bill certainly did nothing for them. The trade war just raised prices and caused the farmers to have to be bailed out to the tune of somewhere around $70 bb all told so far. He did nothing about Covid and has not spoken about it in months. (Over 4000 people in the US dead yesterday and again today.) He didn’t start new wars, but he didn’t end any either, and his sanctions on multiple countries is causing destitution and death abroad and doesn’t help anyone here, so “not starting a new war” is becomes a moot phrase. Sanctions are a form of warfare; I would posit that his sanctions regime against Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba are wars, in fact, and should count as such when this issue is raised. His sweeping deregulation of environmental laws is bringing on a whole new “Silent Spring” situation. I’m not sure we will ever be able to correct the damage, and the swill that is now being allowed in our water and air is going to be causing health problems for the next generation. (Not to mention how it utterly wrecks the wild places and kills off the flora and fauna.)

    Trump did not bring jobs back (I am not talking about since Covid started circulating, as job losses this year should not be blamed on Trump). Job gains actually slowed down under Trump before the pandemic began. He did not invest in infrastructure, or introduce a new and better health care plan, or bring peace with North Korea, or even build the freaking wall. Although on that last one, his administration has grossly ramped up eminent domain seizures in Texas to steal land from the ranchers to build the mother. Because of course Mexico isn’t paying for it, nor can we build it on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande.

    Anyway, you get my drift. He just hasn’t done anything that should foster such loyalty and blind adoration. I think his followers cannot think these things through. He says he did such and such, and the poor buggers just believe it without a second thought. They may as well be Justin Beiber fans at a Justin concert for all the thought that goes into their reasons for supporting him. And, boy, do they get pissed if you ask them what he has actually done that made their lives better.

    And now he is going to leave them twisting in the wind after they thought they were going to “correct the election” for him. Some of these people thought this was the “Storm” – some QAnon theory about the Great Trump Exposure of the Pedophile Elites, or some such shit. Do they think he is going to do an en masse pre-emptive pardon for them before he leaves office? I rather doubt it. They ought to be really pissed at his remarks from last night and it should wake them up to how they’ve been used.
    *******

    On another note, turns out Sidney Powell did release the Kraken, just not in the way she thought. Dominion Software is suing her ass for almost $2 bb. This filing is no nonsense and looks like it will be real legal trouble for Powell. I read the entire filing and it would appear they do a very thorough job of establishing defamation and malicious intent on her part.

    They also show that she knowingly brought false accusations to benefit herself financially. They have not ruled out including other people in their suit.

    https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.225699/

    #67964
    WES
    Participant

    I love reading about history.

    But I always have to keep in mind that only the victor’s ever get to write history, as the losers often died in the process!

    What little history we do know, could only be written by those who could read and write. The only people who could devote time to learning such skills, were the wealthy! Everyone else was too busy wondering where their next meal would come from.

    My Father was an intelligent man, and a sure fired way to run afoul, was to talk about “how good the old days were”! He would quickly point out that they weren’t so good!

    I got a lesson, “about the good old days” from my Dad, at a very young age. One that I have never forgotten!

    Early one morning, shortly after I had learned to read, while having porrage with my Dad, I was reading a story about the Egyptian Pharaohs. There was a nice sketch of a pharaoh sitting on his throne being kept cool by two men waving palm branches to keep him “cool”.

    I innocently said to my Dad. “It must have been wonderful to have lived as a pharaoh in those days”!

    My Dad quickly shot back, “Son, you would have been born a slave”!

    Somehow that story just never quite appealed to me again!

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