This made me think of something Ruby Sales said in her interview in "On Being."
"I think that one of the things that theologies must have is hindsight, insight, and foresight. That is complete sight. And I think that fragmentation really shatters that sight, and it says that it’s not an 'I' sight, it’s a 'we' sight. And so that I think one of the things — I don’t like aging a whole lot. The ankles, the knees hurt, etc. But one of the things I do like is that from where I sit on my front porch, I have hindsight, insight, and foresight. And that’s a beautiful gift of aging."
It is too bad our egoist, narcissistic leaders never sit on their porch and ponder their desperate need for hindsight, insight, and foresight.
We are living in a post-factual, world, where truth is whatever you want it to be. A twisted world that combines the essence of Kakfa, Orwell and Huxley, all rolled into one.
The western "media" is the primary propaganda organ of the wealthy, and it is definitely not meant to "inform" the audience. The news has always been owned by and tainted by the wealthy, and has never been a source of unbiased information, but it is so much worse now than it was back in the 1960s, when it was biased, but not pure fantasy. Now it is almost diametrically opposite of reality. What I can't figure out is how anyone can watch or read their nonsense and not feel insulted.
Really most of the mainstream news media just repeats what Biden and the ruling (Democrat) elites say. If Biden said the sun rises in the west and sets in the east the news media would just repeat that until about a third of the country believed it. Maybe more.
It was also Trump who failed to reign in Kiev's slaughter of 14,000+ Eastern Ukrainians; thus providing Putin with the perfect excuse ~ and rationale ~ for his Special Military Operation.
But don't forget, it was Victoria Nuland under the tutelage of Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama that ignited the fire leading to the deaths of those 14,000 eastern Ukrainians.
You can blame Trump for not extinguishing that fire, but once started, those kinds of fires are hard to extinguish.
On the other hand, instead of attempting to extinguish that fire, Biden has only thrown more gasoline on it.
The coup in Kyiv happened on Obama's watch. All Trump did was continue and amplify the process leading inevitably to America's War with Russia in Ukraine. Just like he was instructed to do; and just like it was planned to happen back in 2014. No matter who "won" the White House in 2016, or again in 2020.
And had he not followed those instructions, he would not have spent 4 years of the throne.
And if he gets elected in November [assuming there is an election], he will continue to follow instructions, or he won't get a full term on the throne this time.
And one can only imagine what would happen if Russia followed his advice and attacked those NATO nations who are behind on their dues.
You can bet that the MICC would love for Russia to do exactly that. And then, when Trump rushes American arms, equipment, and ultimately troops to rescue the attacked NATO nations, he will sell himself as a "defender of life, liberty, and the American Way."
Once a scumbag, always a scumbag; as they put it in the parlance.
Like all BV's regulars, I am disgusted by the attacks on Tucker Carlson by the likes of Hillary Clinton especially, Jimmy Kimmel and the entirety of MSNBC and CNN.
With plenty of time on my hands, I decided to look up the ratings of these various clowns in the USA and compare them to the viewers Tucker got with his Putin interview.
The ratings are all readily available on the internet. I counted up the viewer ratings for the late-night shows and added up the numbers for the major TV network news shows. My estimate is the total for all of these shows combined is about 30-million.
(They say that back in 1968 Walter Cronkite drew an average of 27-million viewers just for his one broadcast alone).
Compare that to Tucker’s numbers ~ 186-million views on just this one interview. As far as I can tell.
In other words, Tucker is attracting 6 times more viewers than ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC combined. And he is not spending a dime on advertising trying to attract viewers. Right?
CNN’s numbers are truly pathetic. Their “top” show only attracts about 750,000 viewers.
(The Chiefs/Eagles 2023 Super Bowl had 115-million viewers. Tucker/Putin beat that by 70-million.)
When you consider the hundreds of millions of dollars the media companies spend with so few viewers one must surely wonder, “How long can this go on?”
Is legacy TV media in its death throes in the USA?
Fireman, not being a TV watcher I had never heard of Anthony Bourdain.
I "Googled" him.
Wiki: He worked for CNN from 2013 to 2018. Bourdain described the concept as, "I travel around the world, eat a lot of shit, and basically do whatever the fuck I want."
Bourdain was quoted as saying that a Chicken McNugget was the most disgusting thing he ever ate,[88] but he was fond of Popeyes chicken.[89] He also declared that the unwashed warthog rectum he ate in Namibia[90] was "the worst meal of [his] life",[91]....
Following the news of Bourdain's suicide in France in 2016, ......public figures expressed....condolence. Among them were....... then-U.S. president Donald Trump.[82]........ U.S. president Barack Obama.......wrote on Twitter: "He taught us about food—but more importantly, about its ability to bring us together. To make us a little less afraid of the unknown."[82][138]
In an assessment of Bourdain's life for The Nation, David Klion wrote that, "Bourdain understood that the point of journalism is to tell the truth, to challenge the powerful, to expose wrongdoing. But his unique gift was to make doing all that look fun rather than grim or tedious."
Before his death, in an acceptance speech for an award given by the Muslim Public Affairs Council, Bourdain stated, "The world has visited many terrible things on the Palestinian people, none more shameful than robbing them of their basic humanity." He opened the episode of Parts Unknown on Jerusalem with the prediction that "By the end of this hour, I'll be seen by many as a terrorist sympathizer, a Zionist tool, a self-hating Jew, an apologist for American imperialism, an Orientalist, socialist, a fascist, CIA agent, and worse."[156]
I have his Books and watched him religiously even from his earliest days.! Dennis, Yea. you could call me a Fan as in Fan- atic.! Sad he couldn't hold onto his own Life... I believe he was despondent over a woman no less Asia Argento the actress was cheating on him, too bad he had a young Dau. Suicide on my Fire Calls I always tried to reason with the suicidal saying its a permanent solution for a temporary problem, and to just hold on min. by min. even if you had to. There is so much help out there...!
Tough stuff Dennis, Tony Bourdain on us "Firefighters in my experience, are a lot like the Marines I've met over the years. No matter how badly led, ridiculously underequipped, underappreciated,no matter how doomed their mission. They take a bizarre and quite beautiful pride in at least being more screwed more than everybody else and doing it with style. They seem to do what they do for themselves. Its not a Job. Its a Calling...!" I loved the Guy!!!
Thank You, Bill, for cross-posting Lisa Savage's latest Substack piece "The Grieving, And The Resistance."
The Question is: When are the American Peoples going to demand that this be stopped? And how are they going to demand it so that it actually IS stopped?
Does anybody here at BV have any thoughts on that?
If elected and If he wants to survive his whole term, he will continue to do exactly as he was told to do. Which is the only reason he got four years on the throne the first time around.
Isee what you see. The world See's what we see yet the duopoly give us no other choices. Maybe both conventions will give us candidates worth of our choosing othet than Trump/Biden.Does anyone see that coming or am I groping in the dark.
Sad to say I don't see the duopoly providing us with better choices. They'll do their best to get us to "see" Biden/Trump as a meaningful choice, if only in the "lesser of two evils" sense.
If You actually believe that it's the Public and not the Politicians that suck, Dennis, You ought to give serious consideration to relocating to Russia or China where that perspective reigns supreme.
There, The Leader[s] can do no wrong. And anybody who says they can and/or do do wrong gets eliminated or sent to the Gulag.
And who is this "we" You speak of that can do no wrong?
But what is truly needed is a better system of government and governance: One that protects the Human Rights of its Citizens and facilitates the meeting of the Human Responsibility of helping others to meet their Human Needs and satisfying their Human Wants, without violating the Human Rights of Anybody.
For once, lesser-evilism isn't going to fly. A Duopoly vote places the voter in the support-for-genocide column, unless the legacy party dupe is as brain dead as Biden.
BOMBSHELL: NATO CONFIRMED THAT UKRAINE “WAR STARTED IN 2014”. WHO STARTED THE WAR?
by Michel Chossudovsky 11 Feb 24
The crucial question is When did the Ukraine War Commence? Who Started the War?
According to Joe Biden: "The Russian military has begun a brutal assault on the people of Ukraine without provocation, without justification, without necessity. " (Joe Biden’s, Press conference, February 24, 2022).
What is important to underscore is that NATO’s Secretary General in a formal statement to the European Parliament contradicts the official narrative. He unequivocally confirms that the War started in 2014.
On September 7, 2023, NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in a presentation to the European Parliament, formally acknowledged that “the war didn’t start in February last year [2022]. It started in 2014.”
That was ten years ago.
This far-reaching declaration confirms his earlier statement in May 2023 in an interview with the Washington Post:
“NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg: The war in Ukraine has fundamentally changed NATO, but then you have to remember the war didn't start in 2022. The war started in 2014. And since then, NATO has implemented the biggest reinforcement of our collective defense since the end of the Cold War.” (Washington Post, May 9, 2023)
Speaking on behalf of NATO, what this statement (European Parliament, WP) unequivocally confirms is that US-NATO was already at war in 2014. It also tacitly acknowledges that Russia did not “initiate the war” on Ukraine in February 2022.
In a twisted irony, in his presentation to the European Parliament, Stoltenberg portrays “the purpose” of the Ukraine war, which has resulted in more than 300,000 casualties as a means “to prevent war”.
Caitlin Johnstone’s 10 Feb piece "In The War Of Propaganda, It Is Very Difficult To Defeat The United States" should be required reading for every American before they are allowed to vote in any election this year.
This made me think of something Ruby Sales said in her interview in "On Being."
"I think that one of the things that theologies must have is hindsight, insight, and foresight. That is complete sight. And I think that fragmentation really shatters that sight, and it says that it’s not an 'I' sight, it’s a 'we' sight. And so that I think one of the things — I don’t like aging a whole lot. The ankles, the knees hurt, etc. But one of the things I do like is that from where I sit on my front porch, I have hindsight, insight, and foresight. And that’s a beautiful gift of aging."
It is too bad our egoist, narcissistic leaders never sit on their porch and ponder their desperate need for hindsight, insight, and foresight.
We are living in a post-factual, world, where truth is whatever you want it to be. A twisted world that combines the essence of Kakfa, Orwell and Huxley, all rolled into one.
War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.
So, I'm a cockroach trapped in a totalitarian nightmare in which Henry Ford is god? :-)
Heh. Now THAT is a DFQ, or Damn Fine Question, Bill, as they put it in the parlance. Damn Fine.
And most would rather be unlike Socrates: "Happily living in their unexamined lives."
The western "media" is the primary propaganda organ of the wealthy, and it is definitely not meant to "inform" the audience. The news has always been owned by and tainted by the wealthy, and has never been a source of unbiased information, but it is so much worse now than it was back in the 1960s, when it was biased, but not pure fantasy. Now it is almost diametrically opposite of reality. What I can't figure out is how anyone can watch or read their nonsense and not feel insulted.
The simple facts of the matter, Bill, are that the people running this government have been lying to the American Peoples for a long, long time.
Starting with 9/11, and then Saddam's "WMDs," the 2008 "Too-Big-To-Fail" financial "¢risi$," The COVID Event, Ukraine, and now Gaza.
And before that it was about first an incident in the Tonkin Gulf and then how well everything was going 50-to-60 years ago in a place called Vietnam.
The problem is that the American Peoples keep swallowing all this Bullshit, and then wonder why everything is so screwed up.
I am reminded of a song my mother used to sing to me when I was less truthful in my answers to her questions. The lyrics go:
"It may be so, but I don't know
It sounds so goddam queer,
I hate like hell to doubt your word,
But your bullshit won't go here."
My apologies to my late mom for having edited the lyrics.
Really most of the mainstream news media just repeats what Biden and the ruling (Democrat) elites say. If Biden said the sun rises in the west and sets in the east the news media would just repeat that until about a third of the country believed it. Maybe more.
Biden is the best president the neocon can own.
USA has no moral authority.
Do You think Trump was any better than Biden re: who controlled him? Or would control him now?
It was also Trump who failed to reign in Kiev's slaughter of 14,000+ Eastern Ukrainians; thus providing Putin with the perfect excuse ~ and rationale ~ for his Special Military Operation.
Almost like it was planned to work that way, eh?
But don't forget, it was Victoria Nuland under the tutelage of Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama that ignited the fire leading to the deaths of those 14,000 eastern Ukrainians.
You can blame Trump for not extinguishing that fire, but once started, those kinds of fires are hard to extinguish.
On the other hand, instead of attempting to extinguish that fire, Biden has only thrown more gasoline on it.
The coup in Kyiv happened on Obama's watch. All Trump did was continue and amplify the process leading inevitably to America's War with Russia in Ukraine. Just like he was instructed to do; and just like it was planned to happen back in 2014. No matter who "won" the White House in 2016, or again in 2020.
And had he not followed those instructions, he would not have spent 4 years of the throne.
And if he gets elected in November [assuming there is an election], he will continue to follow instructions, or he won't get a full term on the throne this time.
And one can only imagine what would happen if Russia followed his advice and attacked those NATO nations who are behind on their dues.
You can bet that the MICC would love for Russia to do exactly that. And then, when Trump rushes American arms, equipment, and ultimately troops to rescue the attacked NATO nations, he will sell himself as a "defender of life, liberty, and the American Way."
Once a scumbag, always a scumbag; as they put it in the parlance.
Like all BV's regulars, I am disgusted by the attacks on Tucker Carlson by the likes of Hillary Clinton especially, Jimmy Kimmel and the entirety of MSNBC and CNN.
With plenty of time on my hands, I decided to look up the ratings of these various clowns in the USA and compare them to the viewers Tucker got with his Putin interview.
The ratings are all readily available on the internet. I counted up the viewer ratings for the late-night shows and added up the numbers for the major TV network news shows. My estimate is the total for all of these shows combined is about 30-million.
(They say that back in 1968 Walter Cronkite drew an average of 27-million viewers just for his one broadcast alone).
Compare that to Tucker’s numbers ~ 186-million views on just this one interview. As far as I can tell.
In other words, Tucker is attracting 6 times more viewers than ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC combined. And he is not spending a dime on advertising trying to attract viewers. Right?
CNN’s numbers are truly pathetic. Their “top” show only attracts about 750,000 viewers.
(The Chiefs/Eagles 2023 Super Bowl had 115-million viewers. Tucker/Putin beat that by 70-million.)
When you consider the hundreds of millions of dollars the media companies spend with so few viewers one must surely wonder, “How long can this go on?”
Is legacy TV media in its death throes in the USA?
CNN formerly largest Viewership Show was Anthony Bourdains before his Suicide Dennis-- just saying.
Fireman, not being a TV watcher I had never heard of Anthony Bourdain.
I "Googled" him.
Wiki: He worked for CNN from 2013 to 2018. Bourdain described the concept as, "I travel around the world, eat a lot of shit, and basically do whatever the fuck I want."
Bourdain was quoted as saying that a Chicken McNugget was the most disgusting thing he ever ate,[88] but he was fond of Popeyes chicken.[89] He also declared that the unwashed warthog rectum he ate in Namibia[90] was "the worst meal of [his] life",[91]....
Following the news of Bourdain's suicide in France in 2016, ......public figures expressed....condolence. Among them were....... then-U.S. president Donald Trump.[82]........ U.S. president Barack Obama.......wrote on Twitter: "He taught us about food—but more importantly, about its ability to bring us together. To make us a little less afraid of the unknown."[82][138]
In an assessment of Bourdain's life for The Nation, David Klion wrote that, "Bourdain understood that the point of journalism is to tell the truth, to challenge the powerful, to expose wrongdoing. But his unique gift was to make doing all that look fun rather than grim or tedious."
Before his death, in an acceptance speech for an award given by the Muslim Public Affairs Council, Bourdain stated, "The world has visited many terrible things on the Palestinian people, none more shameful than robbing them of their basic humanity." He opened the episode of Parts Unknown on Jerusalem with the prediction that "By the end of this hour, I'll be seen by many as a terrorist sympathizer, a Zionist tool, a self-hating Jew, an apologist for American imperialism, an Orientalist, socialist, a fascist, CIA agent, and worse."[156]
Interesting guy eh Fireman!
I have his Books and watched him religiously even from his earliest days.! Dennis, Yea. you could call me a Fan as in Fan- atic.! Sad he couldn't hold onto his own Life... I believe he was despondent over a woman no less Asia Argento the actress was cheating on him, too bad he had a young Dau. Suicide on my Fire Calls I always tried to reason with the suicidal saying its a permanent solution for a temporary problem, and to just hold on min. by min. even if you had to. There is so much help out there...!
I had an awful experience with suicide, Fireman.
I fired a worker for poor performance.
He went home, sat on a chair in his kitchen, and blew his brains out.
His wife came home and found him.
It took me a long time to get over that.
I very much appreciate your efforts as a first responder my man. I could not do that!
I also had a worker extremely injured on one of my Projects. Almost died right there.
I counted the minutes the ambulance/medics/fire/police got there!
I think I was in shock. I had no idea what to do!
Tough stuff Dennis, Tony Bourdain on us "Firefighters in my experience, are a lot like the Marines I've met over the years. No matter how badly led, ridiculously underequipped, underappreciated,no matter how doomed their mission. They take a bizarre and quite beautiful pride in at least being more screwed more than everybody else and doing it with style. They seem to do what they do for themselves. Its not a Job. Its a Calling...!" I loved the Guy!!!
Thank You, Bill, for cross-posting Lisa Savage's latest Substack piece "The Grieving, And The Resistance."
The Question is: When are the American Peoples going to demand that this be stopped? And how are they going to demand it so that it actually IS stopped?
Does anybody here at BV have any thoughts on that?
Trump was attacked by the democrat wing of the blob. He frightened them, but was not served by his appointees who were a part of the problem.
Maybe he will be more savvy in 2025.
If elected and If he wants to survive his whole term, he will continue to do exactly as he was told to do. Which is the only reason he got four years on the throne the first time around.
Isee what you see. The world See's what we see yet the duopoly give us no other choices. Maybe both conventions will give us candidates worth of our choosing othet than Trump/Biden.Does anyone see that coming or am I groping in the dark.
Sad to say I don't see the duopoly providing us with better choices. They'll do their best to get us to "see" Biden/Trump as a meaningful choice, if only in the "lesser of two evils" sense.
Or, the evil of two lessers, as the case may be,
George Carlin - The Public Sucks
Maybe someone else sucks in America! Not the politicians. The Public!
This is the best we can do in America folks!
The Public sucks - fuck hope!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5Mo6CJd1XM
"If you want better politics, you don't want better politicians, you want a better electorate." - Christopher Hitchens.
If You actually believe that it's the Public and not the Politicians that suck, Dennis, You ought to give serious consideration to relocating to Russia or China where that perspective reigns supreme.
There, The Leader[s] can do no wrong. And anybody who says they can and/or do do wrong gets eliminated or sent to the Gulag.
And who is this "we" You speak of that can do no wrong?
Oh dear!
The sorry old argument from extremes.
You can do better than this Jeff!
BTW, i agree with Hitchens.
But what is truly needed is a better system of government and governance: One that protects the Human Rights of its Citizens and facilitates the meeting of the Human Responsibility of helping others to meet their Human Needs and satisfying their Human Wants, without violating the Human Rights of Anybody.
And You can just answer the question: Who is this "we" You speak of that "can do no wrong?"
For once, lesser-evilism isn't going to fly. A Duopoly vote places the voter in the support-for-genocide column, unless the legacy party dupe is as brain dead as Biden.
More Fake News You Can Trust:
Theologians Confirm Trumpet Blast At Christ's Coming Will Be Playing 'The Final Countdown'
Biden Recounts Time He Parted The Red Sea To Escape Slavery In Mexico
4D Chess: Trump Forces Judge To Grant Full Immunity After He Speaks Gibberish And Shakes Hands With The Air
Details at https://babylonbee.com/news/ .
BOMBSHELL: NATO CONFIRMED THAT UKRAINE “WAR STARTED IN 2014”. WHO STARTED THE WAR?
by Michel Chossudovsky 11 Feb 24
The crucial question is When did the Ukraine War Commence? Who Started the War?
According to Joe Biden: "The Russian military has begun a brutal assault on the people of Ukraine without provocation, without justification, without necessity. " (Joe Biden’s, Press conference, February 24, 2022).
What is important to underscore is that NATO’s Secretary General in a formal statement to the European Parliament contradicts the official narrative. He unequivocally confirms that the War started in 2014.
On September 7, 2023, NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in a presentation to the European Parliament, formally acknowledged that “the war didn’t start in February last year [2022]. It started in 2014.”
That was ten years ago.
This far-reaching declaration confirms his earlier statement in May 2023 in an interview with the Washington Post:
“NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg: The war in Ukraine has fundamentally changed NATO, but then you have to remember the war didn't start in 2022. The war started in 2014. And since then, NATO has implemented the biggest reinforcement of our collective defense since the end of the Cold War.” (Washington Post, May 9, 2023)
Speaking on behalf of NATO, what this statement (European Parliament, WP) unequivocally confirms is that US-NATO was already at war in 2014. It also tacitly acknowledges that Russia did not “initiate the war” on Ukraine in February 2022.
In a twisted irony, in his presentation to the European Parliament, Stoltenberg portrays “the purpose” of the Ukraine war, which has resulted in more than 300,000 casualties as a means “to prevent war”.
Continued at https://michelchossudovsky.substack.com/p/bombshell-nato-confirmed-that-ukraine .
Good one, Bill. Linking it today @https://nothingnewunderthesun2016.com/
"If you want better politics, you don't want better politicians, you want a better electorate." - Christopher Hitchens.
Caitlin Johnstone’s 10 Feb piece "In The War Of Propaganda, It Is Very Difficult To Defeat The United States" should be required reading for every American before they are allowed to vote in any election this year.
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/in-the-war-of-propaganda-it-is-very