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Life in the Empire

(how is this for a new thread?)

It is not the freshest news. But it is still breaking, people are still absorbing it ,and it all till needs context.

The filthy greedheads and the doomed can't have exclusive rights to this news territory. The insane and the loyal opposition must have their say as well.

My take - the Russian armada is going to bomb the living fuck out of Aleppo.  Not so much to help Assad as to show they can still break shit, and still matter in one of their few areas of influence outside of Russia. 

Sebostabol/Crimea alreadytaken and those pieces are swatted off the chess board.
Then they will pass through the Suez canal to a favorite area of contemporary interest - the south china sea, to dock at the "chinese" island. 
They will refit at Vizag (a top indian navy base), go hover around the "chinese" island in the spratleys, maybe some commando/fast boat/SEAL type training with the chinese there. then they go right by the senkaku islands on the way to vladivostick for winter.
just to show the world the BRICS aint nobody to fuck with. 
Turkish PM Erdogan just "cleaned house," by firing about 40,000 people in government and shooting a
few hundred security, military and intelligence staff accused of being Gulen supporters.  some probably were, some probably were not, and Gulen's infleunce is not as profound as the govt makes it out to be. but he just bought himself 5 more years of unchallengable rule. and the ability to flip turkey out of NATO into the BRICS. I think it is very possible and could happen suddenly if it does.
Then much of eastern europe NATO (esp former ussr/Warsaw Pact) all quit too - because it is a stupid antiquated instiution that has not had a rational strategic reason of existence since the fall of the Berlin wall.  nato is not world's army the blue hats in the UN are.
Timing - Putin put them at sea when he knew he would have a four month window of no real response from usa because of the  elections.
They will have proved they are back as a true blue sea navy, anf kicked some ass, and shored up crucial geostrategic along the way.
I feel no portence of WWIII but instead feel this is a macho country saying "we be back motherfucka!"
and the advanced cyber and ground/space/ship-to-shore warfare eqpt of china, russia (less so india) is getting really good, and hits all the achilles heels of nato/USSA, efficiently, cheaply, and on the button.

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"So many people know what is wrong.   Finding what is right is a lot harder. "  Oh blah.  Example: 
Bill Maher says "house nigger."  Everybody knows about house niggers and field niggers.  Like show ponies and work horses.  But here comes some nasty debris left over from the Civil War.  Rightfully so.  Goodbye Johnny.  We papered-over "racism" for 100 years and tried to glue it back together with "patriotism."  Now white supremacist trolls are popping out everywhere in their robes and hoods with a Jubal Early grey ghostly grins.  
Patriotism got us from Cemetery Hill to The Marne in 50 short years.  And the house niggers were still officers and the field niggers were "enlisted."  
There wasn't much racism at Gettysburg in 1863.  But there was plenty of patriotism which by now we should put in the same class as typhus and cholera.  After the battle, bottle flies lined the fences so thick you couldn't see the rails.   The stink was so bad it killed people.  Burning pits of dead horses burned day and night for weeks.  Auschwitz.   We couldn't see it coming any more than we could see militarism and patriotism. Fuck all that obvious shit.    
 
We ordered our schools and factories just like the military.  Show ponies carry the officers.  Work horses drag the guns.  The writing of Marx and Engels was neatly suppressed in the USA... because capitalism is holy since the big RED SCARE in 1917.  Do you see any class warfare?  I don't see any class warfare.  Must be something them rich niggers made up.  PC poisoned us just like Mexico did in the 1850s.  Black soldiers kicked in like men.  Glory.  Nigger word should carry all the sting and shame of slavery.  With racism thrown in like barbed hooks.  But "n-word" is so mamby pamby.  Like "f-bomb."  Since the war we got out of the habit of talking like everybody else was our granny.  And we have heard grannies who could cuss as well as any fucking Marine.  We ordered our language the same as schools, factories and armies.  All the way back to the Romans and shit.  Talk about obscene and vulgar.  In the 19th century, damn and hell were as hot as it got, and iron tubes stuffed with black powder worked just fine.  In 50 years what covered a hill was a fiery line across Europe with machine guns, poison gas and aircraft.  And what did we learn?  That war is a racket?  That slavery sucks?  That patriotism is popadoodle?  T bag hat nationalism is nuts?  Naaahh.   We got out the magnetic yellow ribbon bumper stickers and flags.  We all debt niggers now.  Gin up a war to make ourselves great again.  
 
Maybe in the future the "n-word" will be narcissism. Or neo-feudalism.  Or nothing.  
  

Maher calling himself a house nigger is revealing. He is "hip" and "edgy" in his efforts to further progressive causes....or at least that is his persona. But he knows that all his attacks on the plantation owners is just a sham because he belongs to the house.

When his master said, "We have good food," the house Negro would say, "Yes, we have plenty of good food." "We" have plenty of good food. When the master said that "we have a fine home here," the house Negro said, "Yes, we have a fine home here." When the master would be sick, the house Negro identified himself so much with his master he'd say, "What's the matter boss, we sick?" His master's pain was his pain. And it hurt him more for his master to be sick than for him to be sick himself. When the house started burning down, that type of Negro would fight harder to put the master's house out than the master himself would.

Any self-respecting Marixian would have spun out from under that "n-word" crap.  House and field are just "class" distinctions and double-ironic since they were all slaves.  

still watching the wind rustling the leaves in England upon a north facing slope, inheritor of silences.
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I think Neil Young blew it with this one:  

"Stand up for what you believe
Resist the 'powers that be'
Preserve the land and save the seas
For the children of destiny
The children of you and me"   

Bleah.  Jean Rohe hits it out of the park with this:   

"Arise! Arise! 
I see the future in your eyes.
To a more perfect union we aspire
And lift our voices from the fire."      

The difference is between destiny and aspiration.  Drawing our next breath is not something "...that will necessarily happen."   I had a strong sense of a battle not yet decided touched off by a dance that was done almost two centuries ago.  

The second one has a bit of James Weldon Johnson to it:

Lift every voice and sing   
Till earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the listening skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us.   
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,

Let us march on till victory is won.

I am going to the theatre tomorrow. bats creep and squeak in the ivy.
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beautiful

there were tears, there were muffled cries, we did not go to the theatre.
I bought a new ready worn soap dish, geranium petals fell in and now there is nowhere to put the soap.

they are going to build a new bat house for the bats before they pull the theatre down to the wails of the townspeople.
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A culture that devalues life... gins up phony wars for political/ financial gain. Drops cluster bombs/ white phosphorus on civilians. Spends almost as much on weaponry as the rest of the planet combined. Denies climate reality and its causes of famine, disease and war.

Deprives its most vulnerable citizens food, medicine and shelter. Has knowingly poured toxins in the environment for decades (for political/ financial gain). Imprisons more of its citizens than any other culture on earth. Still practices capital punishment. Still launches wars of aggression. Still practices torture at black sites all over the world. Still builds more nuclear weapons... 

Most of all, a culture that devalues life uses an individual woman's intensely personal, private and difficult decision as a political football and distraction... while squandering its valuable resources to support the business of death... for political/ financial gain.

Those of us still faithful to the American self-government dream are still the majority. We will not be distracted by your superstition and monarchy. We Dance to Tom Paine's Bones!

The surge of homeless and desperate citizens into cities all over the country is largely a result of over 40 years of failed policy... most notably economic policy- the result of over 100 years of red-baiting propaganda. Americans have been taught to regard "free-market capitalism" (looting) as sacrosanct.

Adam Smith's original concept of capitalism has been forgotten. Any critiques or alternatives have been suppressed and demonized. Add a big dose of militarism and nationalism, and you have a corporate oligarchy... not a democratic republic. To distract from this fact: war on drugs... crime... terror... etc. etc.

Wealth inequality and its origins are mystified and taboo. Instead we blame the poor and powerless for the oligarchs' crimes, sell our civil rights and stuff our brains with empty-calorie celebrity gossip... thinking that it's "political discourse." We get a tale by an idiot... full of sound and fury.

Half are guards. Half are prisoners. Welcome to Trumpistan.

Just got involved in a rather nasty thread on FB that came from an article claiming that the author was facing all sorts of abuse from "Bernie Zombies" because she had come out as genuinely liking Hillary. I pointed out that I perceive a war for the the soul of the Democratic Party that was typified by ad hominem attacks, followed by noting that the Dems are the minority party in the majority of states as well as at the federal level. This led to some nasty trolling of me claiming that I was a whiney child and that the Clinton followers are the "adults" (hmmm....have heard that line about being the "adults in the room" not so long ago).

Then a guy claimed that anyone who didn't support the apparent anointing of Kamala as the Dem nominee for 2020 couldn't be actually from the Left because they wouldn't support anyone who wasn't an old, white guy. I replied that not supporting Condi Rice must have been racist and misogynistic then....  I wish I had pointed out that not supporting Sanders must stem from antisemitism then but Jo made me promise to avoid the thread as it is peopled by NYC dance scene folks and it would be best professionally not to stir up bad blood over their FB stupidity.

when you're retired you can say whatever you want!

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