“I’m going down to that Texas town/do you wanna go? (I hear they got some pretty women down there.)”
Thank you ZZ. And thank you too Abbot, such a gift to the body política.
Strange place, history and culture. Post civil war Appalachian and Ozark hillbillies made their way there leaving murder and mayhem in their wake and carrying on to this day killing brown skinned people. Got your oil money of course, spread across some generations Not to get too far into a history riff. Just to state that the state is a blight.
Secede I say and take whatever you think will last. Mexico is calling out to you . . .
According to the Economist, the economy and general prosperity of Texas outstrips most of the rest of America. Every place has its problems, but those of Texas seem not to hold her back.
Must be really cool being a JZMer (Jewish Zionist Mafia*) and being able to get access of all that info on politicians, judges, and your business rivals through the myriad of Mossad-connected private security and surveillance firms in Israel …
*As always, I’ll point out that the JZM is comprised of a small group of Jewish Zionist supremacists and, of course, is not reflective of the entire Jewish community. In fact, many of the ones who are fighting hardest against the genocidal aims of the JZM are Jewish.
Texas has the worst environment of any US state w/r/t natural disasters, practically every one imaginable: earthquakes (in recent years, like in Oklahoma aggravated by fracking), tornadoes, flash floods during heavy rains, hard freezes & sweltering high temperature records over 100 degrees Farenheit, wildfires, etc., etc. The federal government spends more on disaster events in Texas nearly every year than elsewhere. Yet their attitude is, “Yeehaw, we’s Cowboys independent of the Nanny State gubbament, we shouldn’ have to pay no taxes!” (Excellent article on this in Harper’s magazine some years back– a far better magazine than the pro-slavery Economist which Harper’s opposed in the 1850s & ’60s on black chattel slavery.)
A regressive tax system, many legal immigrant Mexican Americans are as virulently racist toward recent immigrants as their white Anglo counterparts. Like Flori-duh, they are virulently pro-gun, pro-Bible-thumping fetus fans, pro-Repuke. It’s been a long time since Ann Richards’ days politically.
Let ’em secede, like other shithole racist states like Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, etc. I say. Then put import tariffs on them like Trump did to Ghina. They’ll be forced to join Mexico & let’s enjoy watching how that works out. (Don’t drop Louisiana however, unless we get to keep New Orleans.) I know that Texas does have some outstanding scientific facilities, & Austin yuppie-hipster music culture, but little else worth saving. Coincidentally Chapo Trap House did a nice episode in the last few days with the 2 podcasters of Pendejo Time. It’s quite funny if you like millenial Dirtbag Left humor, also has some Rod Dreher commentary on the issue: link at https://soundcloud.com/chapo-trap-house, 2/1 episode, “Operation Beaver Nugget” for non-subscribers.
i really liked Oak Chairs comment about westerm society being a 747 that is about to crash and the passengers are arguing about whether or not to throw off the Mexicans that are in the back.
I would like to expand on that a bit. The 747 represents not just western society but all of humanity. Many of the passengers seem fixated on the idea that a Chinese Pilot and Russian Co Pilot are about to push the US Pilot and UK Copilot out of their seats. That might have been an interesting development earlier in the flight but at this point in the flight all of the hydrolic fluid as drained out of the aircraft.
Then there is mie shouting but unheard over all of the noise, from near the back of the aircraft that those passegners near the first class section need to get up and storm the first class section and set fire to any high ranking western military officers they can find to distract the passengers from thier impending doom.
Continuing on with what should have been. The money of society needed to be muöch more highly regulated. A high marginal income tax rate with the top rate being 100% would have been required for any society that wanted to avoid a bad outcome. In addition a high marginal property tax also needed to go along with that and a sales tax or value added tax to discourage consumption. Also high marginal inheritance taxes.
A key chanage to corprate law would have been that the top dozen or so people connected with any coperation would have been subject to unlimited liabliity. This of course if there had been corporations.
I say that because I remain undecided as to what the best method is for humanity to organize itself. It might have been a highly regulated social market economy. It might have been a Cuban style command economy. It might have been Participitory Economics, Parecon for short. (Look it up if you do not know what that is.)
But in addiition to controling wealth more would have needed to be done to prevent some people from explointing others. First of all the entire division of labor would have needed to be rethought. Those who promote Parecon have put some thought in to that subject. Then how information is managedin society also needed to be completely rethought and no one has done that as far as I know. Jnformation is very valuable and it it is in the wrong hands it can used to cause a lot of damage.
Related to this is the subject of secrecy. Secrecy and privacy are actually two terms for the same thing. One is a euphamism for the other. It is a poison for a society.
Along these lines I have to wonder if at least some unversity fraternities play a much more devious role in the english speaking world than is ever publically aknowledged.
Thomas Paine warned the US against secrecy was back in his time. But how to requlate things in societies with tens of millions of people let alone hundreds of millions is a subject that requires some deep thought.
A final thought is that in the end humans are not a sustainable species. Humans do not want to live like all the other animals, The desire to live better than the animals is most likely to destroy the enviroment of almost any planet.
Even if primative humans could look in to the future and understand what would have to be sacrificed to create a sustainable future I think it is more than likely they would reject such a desicion.
The Uncrowned Queen of Ukraine Kagan-Nuland’s Coup Protection Team had Zaluzhnyi removed. What they feared more than anything else is an alliance between Zaluzhnyi and Klitschko because they both are popular in Ukraine and could have potentially negotiated a peace treaty with Russia and sold it to the Ukrainian people. It wasn’t long after Klitschko began criticizing War Pimp Zelensky and his regime that rumors of Zaluzhnyi getting the boot began to emerge.
When The Uncrowned Queen of Ukraine dictated who was going to be the Prime Minister of Ukraine after the Maidan rebellion she engineered in 2014, she was also wary of Klitschko, a national hero, and instead chose Yatsenyuk.
Z,
Is chosing to trust Zalushny enough to make a peace deal any different than than choosing to trust Trump with one’s vote to avoid another Biden Term in office?
That leads to what happens after either the Russians liberate the Ukraine, or they have died trying. Will the Russians try to reach a deal then? Or will they keep on going in either the Balkans or the Baltics.
The Neocons are trying to convince the populations that Putin is the Boogeyman and in his drunken quest for power will attack a NATO country triggering WW3.
The pro Russian You tube figures like Brian Berletic and Scott Ritter and Alexander Mercouris say that the Russians do not even want to liberate all of Ukraine let alone any part of the rest of Europe.
In this case I pray to God, figuratively speaking that the neo cons are partially correct.
The collective west leadership is a dangerous virus infectnig the planet which is already suffering form stage 5 cancer.
There is no longer any kind of institutional balances of power in the west that can defeat the virus that we are infected by. Victory over the western collective leadership can only be achieved by the sacrifices of ordinary good hearted compassionate peace loving but also justice loving Russians, hopefully with the eternal support of the Chinese of like minded ordinary, but also in a sense extraordinary Chinese people.
Of course I greatly fear that my prayers will not be answered. Because I worry that the Russian and Chinese leadership will say after they have liberated all or most of the Ukraine, that we will now wait here and watch while the west destroys itself. Besides we deserve a holiday before we are all crushed by a collapsing environment.
But my counter to that way of thinking is at this point it is clear that we are all going to die in the forseeable future. So as long as you and all of your loved ones are going to die anyways why not dedicate your life for a glorious cause that you can really beleive in?
But I have a lot of doubt that the Russians or Chinese will see it that way. Becuase neither the Russians nor Chinese are Muslims. I can not say to them, even if they were Muslims, that the path of Martyerdom leads to Paradise. And choosing the path of greatest risk will certianly earn them the emnity of not only their citizens but even of their own family members. The only thing that I can offer is the hope that the path of greatest risk is also a scenic path, filled with unexpected twists and turns.
The decsion that tace the leadership of the Russians and Chinese is faced by all of us as well. It reminds of a theogical contravrey that I becaome aware of almost 25 years ago.
The contraversy is this. Saudi Wahabbi Sunni theoogians say that when faced with injustice a Muslim should never hold back. One should at least speak the truth if not dirctly attack the injustice even if such behavior leads to persecution and death because a good Muslim would believe that by your death or suffering you will advance God’s plan. (Of course saying its God’s plan is neccessary to address the problem of ultimate authority becaue if anyone takes action against what they percieve as injustice such a person could be accused of being a simple vigilante trying to upset teh natural order of things.)
Iranian Shia theologians on the other hand say that one is allowed to lie and to take no action in the face of injustice when one can expect to be persecuted for doing so. In the secular west the same view is expressed by the slogan live to fight another day when you can actually win the fight.
I think that in normal tmes these two views balance each other off. But we no longer live in normal times. Therefore I am now leaning to the Saudi view of things.
But there is s till a complication that can occur when addressing this issue. That is what if the choice is not between good and evil but with two variations of evil.
What I have in mind is in those societies where murdeous drug gangs have huge influence in society but the political rulers are not a force for good either. And I think that one can bet on the fact that in countries in which this is the case both the government and the narco gangs are both puppets of the US deep state.
I know that to many people that would sound super paranoid. But until one reaches that point one has not gotten to the lowest level of the rabbit hole.
Z,
Is chosing to trust Zalushny enough to make a peace deal any different than than choosing to trust Trump with one’s vote to avoid another Biden Term in office?
That leads to what happens after either the Russians liberate the Ukraine, or they have died trying. Will the Russians try to reach a deal then? Or will they keep on going in either the Balkans or the Baltics.
I am gettng a duplicate gomment message but I am not seing that my comment was recieved so I will add a little bit more to make sure that it goes through.
The Neocons are trying to convince the populations that Putin is the Boogeyman and in his drunken quest for power will attack a NATO country triggering WW3.
The pro Russian You tube figures like Brian Berletic and Scott Ritter and Alexander Mercouris say that the Russians do not even want to liberate all of Ukraine let alone any part of the rest of Europe.
In this case I pray to God, figuratively speaking that the neo cons are partially correct.
The collective west leadership is a dangerous virus infectnig the planet which is already suffering form stage 5 cancer.
There is no longer any kind of institutional balances of power in the west that can defeat the virus that we are infected by. Victory over the western collective leadership can only be achieved by the sacrifices of ordinary good hearted compassionate peace loving but also justice loving Russians, hopefully with the eternal support of the Chinese of like minded ordinary, but also in a sense extraordinary Chinese people.
Of course I greatly fear that my prayers will not be answered. Because I worry that the Russian and Chinese leadership will say after they have liberated all or most of the Ukraine, that we will now wait here and watch while the west destroys itself. Besides we deserve a holiday before we are all crushed by a collapsing environment.
But my counter to that way of thinking is at this point it is clear that we are all going to die in the forseeable future. So as long as you and all of your loved ones are going to die anyways why not dedicate your life for a glorious cause that you can really beleive in?
But I have a lot of doubt that the Russians or Chinese will see it that way. Becuase neither the Russians nor Chinese are Muslims. I can not say to them, even if they were Muslims, that the path of Martyerdom leads to Paradise. And choosing the path of greatest risk will certianly earn them the emnity of not only their citizens but even of their own family members. The only thing that I can offer is the hope that the path of greatest risk is also a scenic path, filled with unexpected twists and turns.
The decsion that tace the leadership of the Russians and Chinese is faced by all of us as well. It reminds of a theogical contravrey that I becaome aware of almost 25 years ago.
The contraversy is this. Saudi Wahabbi Sunni theoogians say that when faced with injustice a Muslim should never hold back. One should at least speak the truth if not dirctly attack the injustice even if such behavior leads to persecution and death because a good Muslim would believe that by your death or suffering you will advance God’s plan. (Of course saying its God’s plan is neccessary to address the problem of ultimate authority becaue if anyone takes action against what they percieve as injustice such a person could be accused of being a simple vigilante trying to upset teh natural order of things.)
Iranian Shia theologians on the other hand say that one is allowed to lie and to take no action in the face of injustice when one can expect to be persecuted for doing so. In the secular west the same view is expressed by the slogan live to fight another day when you can actually win the fight.
I think that in normal tmes these two views balance each other off. But we no longer live in normal times. Therefore I am now leaning to the Saudi view of things.
But there is s till a complication that can occur when addressing this issue. That is what if the choice is not between good and evil but with two variations of evil.
What I have in mind is in those societies where murdeous drug gangs have huge influence in society but the political rulers are not a force for good either. And I think that one can bet on the fact that in countries in which this is the case both the government and the narco gangs are both puppets of the US deep state.
I know that to many people that would sound super paranoid. But until one reaches that point one has not gotten to the lowest level of the rabbit hole.
Curt, unfortunately life ain’t a coca-cola commercial and the world’s turmoils and massive, organized violence, which are largely birthed by our rulers’ maniacal greed, aren’t going to dissipate through a spontaneous dance communal busting out. Cause, as I’ve often said: greed is an insatiable emotion and the only cure for it is fear, something our rulers personally possess zero of, as of right now. And why should they, from their point of view, when they are shrouded from accountability by their political puppets who follow their directives to systemically push all the costs on us while they scarf the profits?
So, dancing ain’t going to do it. It’s going to be death and destruction and instability that I hope will eventually lead to a better world, though, as we know, there aren’t any guarantees that it will. But, if the good in the world is not going to coalesce around the cause to create an effective opposition to the wanton bombing of tens of thousands of innocent children, then what good is it and what hell are we marching towards? Cause a bright, blood red line’s very clearly been crossed for all who dare to see it and the proof is all easily accessible; with a few fingertip taps on a keyboard and a couple of mouse clicks, we can now witness our ruling class assh*les steadily pushing humanity towards the cliff of extinction in real-time as the infinite (their greed) and finite (the world and all the life on it) collide.
Drone swarms, precision bombs, robotic infantry and artillery; Palestine and Ukraine are only the canary in the poisoned coal mine of what’s to come and if our rulers are not dragged out of power and held to account in some way for their inhumanity all we’ll get, at best, is a short, temporary reprieve before they’ll be right back at it with their next contrived provocation that their statestream media will uncritically promote as a reason to kill more innocents.
The fact is, as I see it, is that the western world’s governments, led by Israel’s rabid attack Rottweiler, the U.S., are so unrepresentative and vehemently dismissive of their subjects’ wishes and concerns, that the only viable solution they leave us with is to topple these governments in some way. That’s what they’ve foisted on us, that’s the protective barrier they’ve consciously created for themselves with their blackmailed and bribed politicians and the tightening tentacles of their intelligence agencies. That barrier, most certainly, is a formidable one and removing them from power obviously ain’t going to be easy, though there are some promising signs with the farmers’ and truckers’ rebellions and the growing opposition to massive, unrelenting immigration.
And, again, it’s too bad that it’s got to be this way. It’s too bad our rulers have made it this way with their paper money games and their wars which we ultimately pay for through the diminishing quality of our lives and loss of blood. Because I’d rather dance in the sun myself (and in the rain, the wind, and in the winter storms), though I’ll say that I’ve seen enough tiktok videos to know that I wouldn’t want it to be filmed because even though it can feel so good while you’re doing it that you sincerely believe it looks so moving and appealing to others that the positive vibes will transmit and coalesce into a tangible solidity, in reality, that ain’t often, if ever, the case.
Instead, humanity somberly marches towards it’s destiny and, if the good wins out, perhaps then we will have something worth dancing about, if only for a song or two in earthly time.
Z,
you are right about everything. But I had to google whether it was a coca cola or pepsi cola commercial which tried to teach the world to sing because I kind of remembered tha pepsi cola had the better commercials in the 70s. But you were right about that too. It was Coca Cola.
I myself drank mostly 7Up or Squirt in those days. Damn I long for the days that a US politician could at least sound like he had a high school education. I do not know if Pelicans are extinct yet or not, but a Pelican would look better standing next to a microhone than either Biden, or Trump, or Bush do. Oh yes Obama sounds well educated and so do the Clintons. But I myself do not detect a trace of sincerity in their public pronouncments. In the past when men like James Baker, or Scoop Jackson, or Edmund Muskie, or even Richard Nixon or George Wallace spoke I did not doubt that they believed what they said. But I was quite a bit younger back then so maybe I just did not detect their deliberate dishonesty.
mago
“I’m going down to that Texas town/do you wanna go? (I hear they got some pretty women down there.)”
Thank you ZZ. And thank you too Abbot, such a gift to the body política.
Strange place, history and culture. Post civil war Appalachian and Ozark hillbillies made their way there leaving murder and mayhem in their wake and carrying on to this day killing brown skinned people. Got your oil money of course, spread across some generations Not to get too far into a history riff. Just to state that the state is a blight.
Secede I say and take whatever you think will last. Mexico is calling out to you . . .
Tallifer
According to the Economist, the economy and general prosperity of Texas outstrips most of the rest of America. Every place has its problems, but those of Texas seem not to hold her back.
Z
https://twitter.com/ShadowofEzra/status/1753900186005364995
Must be really cool being a JZMer (Jewish Zionist Mafia*) and being able to get access of all that info on politicians, judges, and your business rivals through the myriad of Mossad-connected private security and surveillance firms in Israel …
*As always, I’ll point out that the JZM is comprised of a small group of Jewish Zionist supremacists and, of course, is not reflective of the entire Jewish community. In fact, many of the ones who are fighting hardest against the genocidal aims of the JZM are Jewish.
Z
Mark Level
Texas has the worst environment of any US state w/r/t natural disasters, practically every one imaginable: earthquakes (in recent years, like in Oklahoma aggravated by fracking), tornadoes, flash floods during heavy rains, hard freezes & sweltering high temperature records over 100 degrees Farenheit, wildfires, etc., etc. The federal government spends more on disaster events in Texas nearly every year than elsewhere. Yet their attitude is, “Yeehaw, we’s Cowboys independent of the Nanny State gubbament, we shouldn’ have to pay no taxes!” (Excellent article on this in Harper’s magazine some years back– a far better magazine than the pro-slavery Economist which Harper’s opposed in the 1850s & ’60s on black chattel slavery.)
A regressive tax system, many legal immigrant Mexican Americans are as virulently racist toward recent immigrants as their white Anglo counterparts. Like Flori-duh, they are virulently pro-gun, pro-Bible-thumping fetus fans, pro-Repuke. It’s been a long time since Ann Richards’ days politically.
Let ’em secede, like other shithole racist states like Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, etc. I say. Then put import tariffs on them like Trump did to Ghina. They’ll be forced to join Mexico & let’s enjoy watching how that works out. (Don’t drop Louisiana however, unless we get to keep New Orleans.) I know that Texas does have some outstanding scientific facilities, & Austin yuppie-hipster music culture, but little else worth saving. Coincidentally Chapo Trap House did a nice episode in the last few days with the 2 podcasters of Pendejo Time. It’s quite funny if you like millenial Dirtbag Left humor, also has some Rod Dreher commentary on the issue: link at https://soundcloud.com/chapo-trap-house, 2/1 episode, “Operation Beaver Nugget” for non-subscribers.
Curt Kastens
i really liked Oak Chairs comment about westerm society being a 747 that is about to crash and the passengers are arguing about whether or not to throw off the Mexicans that are in the back.
I would like to expand on that a bit. The 747 represents not just western society but all of humanity. Many of the passengers seem fixated on the idea that a Chinese Pilot and Russian Co Pilot are about to push the US Pilot and UK Copilot out of their seats. That might have been an interesting development earlier in the flight but at this point in the flight all of the hydrolic fluid as drained out of the aircraft.
Then there is mie shouting but unheard over all of the noise, from near the back of the aircraft that those passegners near the first class section need to get up and storm the first class section and set fire to any high ranking western military officers they can find to distract the passengers from thier impending doom.
Curt Kastens
Continuing on with what should have been. The money of society needed to be muöch more highly regulated. A high marginal income tax rate with the top rate being 100% would have been required for any society that wanted to avoid a bad outcome. In addition a high marginal property tax also needed to go along with that and a sales tax or value added tax to discourage consumption. Also high marginal inheritance taxes.
A key chanage to corprate law would have been that the top dozen or so people connected with any coperation would have been subject to unlimited liabliity. This of course if there had been corporations.
I say that because I remain undecided as to what the best method is for humanity to organize itself. It might have been a highly regulated social market economy. It might have been a Cuban style command economy. It might have been Participitory Economics, Parecon for short. (Look it up if you do not know what that is.)
But in addiition to controling wealth more would have needed to be done to prevent some people from explointing others. First of all the entire division of labor would have needed to be rethought. Those who promote Parecon have put some thought in to that subject. Then how information is managedin society also needed to be completely rethought and no one has done that as far as I know. Jnformation is very valuable and it it is in the wrong hands it can used to cause a lot of damage.
Related to this is the subject of secrecy. Secrecy and privacy are actually two terms for the same thing. One is a euphamism for the other. It is a poison for a society.
Along these lines I have to wonder if at least some unversity fraternities play a much more devious role in the english speaking world than is ever publically aknowledged.
Thomas Paine warned the US against secrecy was back in his time. But how to requlate things in societies with tens of millions of people let alone hundreds of millions is a subject that requires some deep thought.
A final thought is that in the end humans are not a sustainable species. Humans do not want to live like all the other animals, The desire to live better than the animals is most likely to destroy the enviroment of almost any planet.
Even if primative humans could look in to the future and understand what would have to be sacrificed to create a sustainable future I think it is more than likely they would reject such a desicion.
Z
https://twitter.com/ivan_8848/status/1754461024906818046
Glad to see China get more directly involved. Bad for our assh*le rulers, but potentially good for the rest of the world.
Z
Curt Kastens
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z4oAgRCySc
Z
The Uncrowned Queen of Ukraine Kagan-Nuland’s Coup Protection Team had Zaluzhnyi removed. What they feared more than anything else is an alliance between Zaluzhnyi and Klitschko because they both are popular in Ukraine and could have potentially negotiated a peace treaty with Russia and sold it to the Ukrainian people. It wasn’t long after Klitschko began criticizing War Pimp Zelensky and his regime that rumors of Zaluzhnyi getting the boot began to emerge.
When The Uncrowned Queen of Ukraine dictated who was going to be the Prime Minister of Ukraine after the Maidan rebellion she engineered in 2014, she was also wary of Klitschko, a national hero, and instead chose Yatsenyuk.
Z
Curt Kastens
Z,
Is chosing to trust Zalushny enough to make a peace deal any different than than choosing to trust Trump with one’s vote to avoid another Biden Term in office?
That leads to what happens after either the Russians liberate the Ukraine, or they have died trying. Will the Russians try to reach a deal then? Or will they keep on going in either the Balkans or the Baltics.
The Neocons are trying to convince the populations that Putin is the Boogeyman and in his drunken quest for power will attack a NATO country triggering WW3.
The pro Russian You tube figures like Brian Berletic and Scott Ritter and Alexander Mercouris say that the Russians do not even want to liberate all of Ukraine let alone any part of the rest of Europe.
In this case I pray to God, figuratively speaking that the neo cons are partially correct.
The collective west leadership is a dangerous virus infectnig the planet which is already suffering form stage 5 cancer.
There is no longer any kind of institutional balances of power in the west that can defeat the virus that we are infected by. Victory over the western collective leadership can only be achieved by the sacrifices of ordinary good hearted compassionate peace loving but also justice loving Russians, hopefully with the eternal support of the Chinese of like minded ordinary, but also in a sense extraordinary Chinese people.
Of course I greatly fear that my prayers will not be answered. Because I worry that the Russian and Chinese leadership will say after they have liberated all or most of the Ukraine, that we will now wait here and watch while the west destroys itself. Besides we deserve a holiday before we are all crushed by a collapsing environment.
But my counter to that way of thinking is at this point it is clear that we are all going to die in the forseeable future. So as long as you and all of your loved ones are going to die anyways why not dedicate your life for a glorious cause that you can really beleive in?
But I have a lot of doubt that the Russians or Chinese will see it that way. Becuase neither the Russians nor Chinese are Muslims. I can not say to them, even if they were Muslims, that the path of Martyerdom leads to Paradise. And choosing the path of greatest risk will certianly earn them the emnity of not only their citizens but even of their own family members. The only thing that I can offer is the hope that the path of greatest risk is also a scenic path, filled with unexpected twists and turns.
The decsion that tace the leadership of the Russians and Chinese is faced by all of us as well. It reminds of a theogical contravrey that I becaome aware of almost 25 years ago.
The contraversy is this. Saudi Wahabbi Sunni theoogians say that when faced with injustice a Muslim should never hold back. One should at least speak the truth if not dirctly attack the injustice even if such behavior leads to persecution and death because a good Muslim would believe that by your death or suffering you will advance God’s plan. (Of course saying its God’s plan is neccessary to address the problem of ultimate authority becaue if anyone takes action against what they percieve as injustice such a person could be accused of being a simple vigilante trying to upset teh natural order of things.)
Iranian Shia theologians on the other hand say that one is allowed to lie and to take no action in the face of injustice when one can expect to be persecuted for doing so. In the secular west the same view is expressed by the slogan live to fight another day when you can actually win the fight.
I think that in normal tmes these two views balance each other off. But we no longer live in normal times. Therefore I am now leaning to the Saudi view of things.
But there is s till a complication that can occur when addressing this issue. That is what if the choice is not between good and evil but with two variations of evil.
What I have in mind is in those societies where murdeous drug gangs have huge influence in society but the political rulers are not a force for good either. And I think that one can bet on the fact that in countries in which this is the case both the government and the narco gangs are both puppets of the US deep state.
I know that to many people that would sound super paranoid. But until one reaches that point one has not gotten to the lowest level of the rabbit hole.
Curt Kastens
Z,
Is chosing to trust Zalushny enough to make a peace deal any different than than choosing to trust Trump with one’s vote to avoid another Biden Term in office?
That leads to what happens after either the Russians liberate the Ukraine, or they have died trying. Will the Russians try to reach a deal then? Or will they keep on going in either the Balkans or the Baltics.
I am gettng a duplicate gomment message but I am not seing that my comment was recieved so I will add a little bit more to make sure that it goes through.
The Neocons are trying to convince the populations that Putin is the Boogeyman and in his drunken quest for power will attack a NATO country triggering WW3.
The pro Russian You tube figures like Brian Berletic and Scott Ritter and Alexander Mercouris say that the Russians do not even want to liberate all of Ukraine let alone any part of the rest of Europe.
In this case I pray to God, figuratively speaking that the neo cons are partially correct.
The collective west leadership is a dangerous virus infectnig the planet which is already suffering form stage 5 cancer.
There is no longer any kind of institutional balances of power in the west that can defeat the virus that we are infected by. Victory over the western collective leadership can only be achieved by the sacrifices of ordinary good hearted compassionate peace loving but also justice loving Russians, hopefully with the eternal support of the Chinese of like minded ordinary, but also in a sense extraordinary Chinese people.
Of course I greatly fear that my prayers will not be answered. Because I worry that the Russian and Chinese leadership will say after they have liberated all or most of the Ukraine, that we will now wait here and watch while the west destroys itself. Besides we deserve a holiday before we are all crushed by a collapsing environment.
But my counter to that way of thinking is at this point it is clear that we are all going to die in the forseeable future. So as long as you and all of your loved ones are going to die anyways why not dedicate your life for a glorious cause that you can really beleive in?
But I have a lot of doubt that the Russians or Chinese will see it that way. Becuase neither the Russians nor Chinese are Muslims. I can not say to them, even if they were Muslims, that the path of Martyerdom leads to Paradise. And choosing the path of greatest risk will certianly earn them the emnity of not only their citizens but even of their own family members. The only thing that I can offer is the hope that the path of greatest risk is also a scenic path, filled with unexpected twists and turns.
The decsion that tace the leadership of the Russians and Chinese is faced by all of us as well. It reminds of a theogical contravrey that I becaome aware of almost 25 years ago.
The contraversy is this. Saudi Wahabbi Sunni theoogians say that when faced with injustice a Muslim should never hold back. One should at least speak the truth if not dirctly attack the injustice even if such behavior leads to persecution and death because a good Muslim would believe that by your death or suffering you will advance God’s plan. (Of course saying its God’s plan is neccessary to address the problem of ultimate authority becaue if anyone takes action against what they percieve as injustice such a person could be accused of being a simple vigilante trying to upset teh natural order of things.)
Iranian Shia theologians on the other hand say that one is allowed to lie and to take no action in the face of injustice when one can expect to be persecuted for doing so. In the secular west the same view is expressed by the slogan live to fight another day when you can actually win the fight.
I think that in normal tmes these two views balance each other off. But we no longer live in normal times. Therefore I am now leaning to the Saudi view of things.
But there is s till a complication that can occur when addressing this issue. That is what if the choice is not between good and evil but with two variations of evil.
What I have in mind is in those societies where murdeous drug gangs have huge influence in society but the political rulers are not a force for good either. And I think that one can bet on the fact that in countries in which this is the case both the government and the narco gangs are both puppets of the US deep state.
I know that to many people that would sound super paranoid. But until one reaches that point one has not gotten to the lowest level of the rabbit hole.
Z
Curt, unfortunately life ain’t a coca-cola commercial and the world’s turmoils and massive, organized violence, which are largely birthed by our rulers’ maniacal greed, aren’t going to dissipate through a spontaneous dance communal busting out. Cause, as I’ve often said: greed is an insatiable emotion and the only cure for it is fear, something our rulers personally possess zero of, as of right now. And why should they, from their point of view, when they are shrouded from accountability by their political puppets who follow their directives to systemically push all the costs on us while they scarf the profits?
So, dancing ain’t going to do it. It’s going to be death and destruction and instability that I hope will eventually lead to a better world, though, as we know, there aren’t any guarantees that it will. But, if the good in the world is not going to coalesce around the cause to create an effective opposition to the wanton bombing of tens of thousands of innocent children, then what good is it and what hell are we marching towards? Cause a bright, blood red line’s very clearly been crossed for all who dare to see it and the proof is all easily accessible; with a few fingertip taps on a keyboard and a couple of mouse clicks, we can now witness our ruling class assh*les steadily pushing humanity towards the cliff of extinction in real-time as the infinite (their greed) and finite (the world and all the life on it) collide.
Drone swarms, precision bombs, robotic infantry and artillery; Palestine and Ukraine are only the canary in the poisoned coal mine of what’s to come and if our rulers are not dragged out of power and held to account in some way for their inhumanity all we’ll get, at best, is a short, temporary reprieve before they’ll be right back at it with their next contrived provocation that their statestream media will uncritically promote as a reason to kill more innocents.
The fact is, as I see it, is that the western world’s governments, led by Israel’s rabid attack Rottweiler, the U.S., are so unrepresentative and vehemently dismissive of their subjects’ wishes and concerns, that the only viable solution they leave us with is to topple these governments in some way. That’s what they’ve foisted on us, that’s the protective barrier they’ve consciously created for themselves with their blackmailed and bribed politicians and the tightening tentacles of their intelligence agencies. That barrier, most certainly, is a formidable one and removing them from power obviously ain’t going to be easy, though there are some promising signs with the farmers’ and truckers’ rebellions and the growing opposition to massive, unrelenting immigration.
And, again, it’s too bad that it’s got to be this way. It’s too bad our rulers have made it this way with their paper money games and their wars which we ultimately pay for through the diminishing quality of our lives and loss of blood. Because I’d rather dance in the sun myself (and in the rain, the wind, and in the winter storms), though I’ll say that I’ve seen enough tiktok videos to know that I wouldn’t want it to be filmed because even though it can feel so good while you’re doing it that you sincerely believe it looks so moving and appealing to others that the positive vibes will transmit and coalesce into a tangible solidity, in reality, that ain’t often, if ever, the case.
Instead, humanity somberly marches towards it’s destiny and, if the good wins out, perhaps then we will have something worth dancing about, if only for a song or two in earthly time.
Z
Z
Milei doing the Wailing Wall thang* …
*It’s uncertain from the footage whether he swallowed the plaster or spit it out
https://twitter.com/The_Real_Fly/status/1754940802340470949
Z
Curt Kastens
Z,
you are right about everything. But I had to google whether it was a coca cola or pepsi cola commercial which tried to teach the world to sing because I kind of remembered tha pepsi cola had the better commercials in the 70s. But you were right about that too. It was Coca Cola.
I myself drank mostly 7Up or Squirt in those days. Damn I long for the days that a US politician could at least sound like he had a high school education. I do not know if Pelicans are extinct yet or not, but a Pelican would look better standing next to a microhone than either Biden, or Trump, or Bush do. Oh yes Obama sounds well educated and so do the Clintons. But I myself do not detect a trace of sincerity in their public pronouncments. In the past when men like James Baker, or Scoop Jackson, or Edmund Muskie, or even Richard Nixon or George Wallace spoke I did not doubt that they believed what they said. But I was quite a bit younger back then so maybe I just did not detect their deliberate dishonesty.