Agents of Change,
Coming Apart: The Imperial City at the Brink, Alastair Crook
The theme here is that empires do not come undone because of events, but through events, when the elites are already rigid in their prerogatives, uncooperative with each other, and seek to further coerce and bleed a population that has already gone past the tipping point. Mr Crooke agrees with other authors he mentions, such as David Stockman, that Donald Trump is just the "disruptor" for this historical role. Nut he's already breaking his promises! Well Duh! Disruptor. This empire is senile and raving, and shouting, "off with their heads". This old hag, screaming at the top of the grand staircase, needs a good sharp shove. The Imperial Capitol, Washington DC, is intent on retaking the full power, authority and decorum, to which it is accustomed. Assassination of Caesar, civil war, whatever... Butt-cheek fart out of school bus window after track-meet class clown, President Trump is calling bullshit, and the back half of the bus knows it's true. Where are we going now, Whataburger? What then? Thanks Eleni.
Maybe you and I are not ready for "it" to hit the fan, but our (elected and unelected) representatives are.
Thanks to the Continuity of Government initiative, seriously embarked upon during the Ford administration, by Messrs Cheney and Rumsfeld, who were really given the reins under Reagan and Bush, before it became lost in the missing trillions of the Pentagon budget, we need not fear for the retaliatory powers of the American Empire. Our government and military strike capabilities will still have massive overkill, for anything left after the counterstrike from our massive first strike. Wars are inevitable when resets are overdue. It's how we have done things for thousands of years. It's what we know works, and boy is it set to work well this time!
Antonio Veciana was an anti-Castro-Cuban who worked for the CIA. He has written a book in his late years, "Trained to Kill". Maurice Bishop was his CIA handler. (Ack, I don't remember who sent me this one!)
The most shocking revelation in this memoir is the author’s claim that he met Lee Harvey Oswald, in a Dallas, Texas, hotel lobby, with Bishop, only days before JFK’s assassination, on November, 22, 1963. If true, it would give credence to Oswald final words, “I’m a patsy” and put the CIA, and Bishop/Phillips, in the center of that crime of the century.
Cuba points out that the US is in no moral position to lecture the Cuban government about human rights abuses, which are so evident at the occupied territory of Guantanamo Bay, and the rest of the planet...
A US fighter plane has shot down a Syrian government ground support aircraft, which had been pursuing ISIS troops on the run, and had bombed them, so that Syrian pilot is dead. The US claims that it shot down the Syrian government plane in Syria, in "self defense" of US "moderate rebel" forces, who were also chasing those ISIS bad guys. Defending your terrorists in Syria by shooting down a Syrian pilot is still invasion. It's increasingly blatant.
Shortly after Russia's deputy foreign minister slammed the US downing of a Syrian Su-22 jet as an "act of aggression" and "support for terrorists", Russia announced that starting June 19 it was halting all interactions with the US under the framework on the "memorandum of incident prevention in Syrian skies", the Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday, thereby assuring the probability of even more deadly escalations between Russia and the US-led coalition. "In areas where Russian aviation is conducting combat missions in the Syrian skies, any flying ojects, including jets and unmanned aerial vehicles of the international coalition discovered west of the Euphrates River will be followed by Russian air and ground defenses as air targets," the Russian Defense Ministry announced, quoted by Sputnik
NATO troops practice war against Russia again. Russia might Invade Europe with a lot of tanks, you know?
Citing a senior administration official, Politico reports that though US President Donald Trump's administration supports sanctioning Russia, they are worried that the new bill will tie their hands as they are trying to rebuild relations with Moscow. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told a House Foreign Affairs hearing as the bill went to vote that "I would urge Congress to ensure any legislation allows the president to have the flexibility to adjust sanctions."
The Grenfell Tower blaze death toll is still rising. It was just poor people, in an old 1970s concrete apartment project that had to be beautified, without wasting money on the 5% more expensive fireproof covering. Sprinklers would have added another 3% or so to the remodel. This story is about how London housing prices have become one of the major money laundering tickets for drug lords and despots the world over. They don't live in these places, of course, which makes Jeremy Corbyn's proposition that the government should appropriate unlived-in apartments and houses for the fire victims, a stiletto-jab in the right direction.
"This isn’t a story about the Grenfell Tower disaster. The causes of that are complex, and we don’t yet know them all. But it is the story of what’s happening to the homes and lives of ordinary people in London. It’s a story about how communities became commodities. And it’s hard not to see the horrific events unfolding in West London as yet another horrific example of what happens when the needs of people are subsumed to the needs of the market."
Former German Chancellor, Helmut Kohl has died. He was the Chancellor of German reunification, but what a snake's nest that actually was and still is. "Germany" is not reconstituted, really. The German Empire still exists as an entity in suspended animation, with no way to speak. The two occupied pieces of that empire, which were not territorially-transposed into Poland and Russia, are "unified", but had to accept the loss of the Deutsechmark, and acceptance of the EU-framework, before that would be permitted. "Germany" is still a POW. Weird situation. Thanks, Eleni
How Hillary Clinton could actually go to prison. (The Clinton Foundation is a massively illegal tax-dodging fraud in all the states and countries where it operates, and has never been anything but that. Comey was a major defender of the foundation. There were always going to be major defenders... There was never a real attempt to qualify for non-profit status, ever... There was a whole lot of money that went through that tunnel.)
Illinois, by court order, has to pay out more every month than it takes in. There is zero "discretionary" budget. Discretionary budget covers a lot, like school buses, domestic-violence shelters and some ambulances. Bankrupt? Whaddaya call it? It's Illinois, a state, not Puerto Rico, a colony...
Jim Hightower has the "lowdown" on corporate no-right-to-repair clauses. Apple? Sure, but John Deere combines?
You have no right to fix this, by that clause in your purchase agreement. You have no recourse. You signed that away. Sorry you missed the harvest, now pay up the $12,000 for rebooting your onboard computer, or we'll start adding storage fees... Thanks Ray. (Hey, does Belarus still make Soviet-style tractors and harvesters?)
Amazon's purchase of Whole Foods Market makes more sense when considered with their new patent for complete smartphone access while you shop. They will triangulate your position, block your access to websites of other stores (no comparison shopping), and they will get to know you intimately.
“You passed the milk, you always get milk,” your smartphone may tell you while shopping.
Magma is moving under Yellowstone again, making earthquakes again. Someday, this super volcano will blow again, like 200 Mt St Helens eruptions at once. It's about due. It might not happen for thousands of years. It does have smaller eruptions more often, too, just to release magma. How much smaller? (Our government-continuity is bound to be set to survive this threat, too.)
Unseen Force
