“Folks, can we be honest? There is nothing more “authoritarian” than a capitalist dictatorship dressed up like democracy with a two party monopoly representing two wings of the capitalist class supported by a massive cultural apparatus also controlled by the same class.” (-Ajamu Baraka)
““The Iraq War was the result of lies..it’s lies by the big media machine..the various institutions that get too comfortable and too close to the table of power, the very table that they are meant to be reporting on and policing & getting into the historic record” (-Julian Assange)
“AOC is holding a military recruitment event. Fucking vile.” (-Comrade Misty)
“Everything we have been told about our role in this conflict is an absolute lie. The US has been actively interfering in a country on Russia’s border for YEARS, and they continue to see Ukraine as a pawn in their geopolitical games. ” (-System Update)
“Zelensky’s echoing of Bush’s moronic justification for destroying Iraq is a massive insult to the intelligence of the Americans paying Ukrainian pensions with their tax dollars” (-Max Blumenthal)
“I told you they was some lyin’ass no soul motherfuckers.” (-General Labor)
“You take on the intelligence community? They have six ways from Sunday of getting back at you” (- Chuck Schumer)
“If you want Trump arrested but not Hillary Clinton, George W. Bush, or Barack Obama, then you might be an apologist for war criminals.” (-Danny Haiphong)
Our Gov’t is lying to us about a war, the corporate owned media on both sides isn’t asking any questions and the American people and citizens in the West are falling for “We’re the heroes against Hitler fighting for democracy”, again. All this suffering, death and destruction and the main cause is the current rulers of the world seeing that they are losing their grip on control. China says they want to negotiate and end to this war, and the US says they won’t allow that to happen. As Americans after all the lies our Gov’t has told us, especially about war, you’d think we’d at least be smart enough to demand some evidence of what they say.Peace is the enemy of weapons manufacturers and weapons manufacturers are one of the biggest donors to our Politicians and biggest paying advertisers on our “News” stations. Instead of outrage over this unprovoked attack, our media did everything but masturbate on air over how powerful our weapons were. The fear of China brokering a Peace deal between Russia and Ukraine has made the US Gov’t out themselves again by proving they have no interest in Peace and that Ukraine is not a sovereign nation.” (-Black In The Empire)
“It’s Kiev, not Kyiv. If you don’t firmly oppose the erasure of the Russian language in Ukraine or anywhere else, then you’re probably standing with fascists and warmongers.” (-Danny Haiphong)
THE LOVE CHILD LIVES ON IN THE HEARTS OF ALL LOVERS
I’ve been back on an Andy Wood jag ever since I heard from my old Catholic school friend Tom S. who was with me when I met them way back when. We had a brief moment of friction cause Andy kinda had a thing for my oldest kid’s mama, inviting her upstairs to his dressing room, but we ended up gettin’ along like a house on fire and were gonna keep in touch. I kinda had a thing for his old lady, too. About a month later somebody came to my bandhouse to tell em they’d seen the Cult and Ian Astbury was dedicating “American Horse” to Andy, who was gone. I still got a postcard out there in the glam cave somewhere those guys sent me in the mail to Dorchester. My exes might still have some t shirts or autographed posters. But yeah, brothers and and sisters and friends of the revolution, Andy Wood was the best. You could see summa his influences he wore right there on his sleeve but he was putting his own unique stamp on everything he did which is what real artists do-they don’t listen to disgruntled sidemen ordering them to try to imitate someone else who came before. That would be redundant as fuck and just a complete waste of everybody’s time cause they could just go to the source and be listening to the originator. The idea is to be an originator, yourself. Andy accomplished that with flying colors and there aint been nobody since who even holds a candle, if you ask me. His shit really was like psychedelic gospel music, really spiritual and poetic. Ralph Nader said the function of leadership was to create more leaders. Everybody with this much status in this ridiculous slave culture of obedience to an absurd hierarchy just wants to have followers, boss people around like kops. Not me, baby. I wanna see you all freaking freely in the tall grass.
When you think glam you probably think Sweet, Ziggy, Gary Glitter, Slade, or if you’re a dumb Murkkan you think Poison, Crue, McDonna or that fackin awful Lady Gaga, but for me man, only Slade really hits that same happy chord in my blackest heart as Suzi Q!
Before there was Shaun Cassidy or Motley Crue or Donnas or any of that, there was the Runaways, right, and well, before the Runaways, there was Suzi Quatro! To me, she is the original queen of glam!
When I say rocknroll, this is what I mean! Her music’s so addictive, once you hear her old glam stomp on the detox-jukebox you don’t wanna hear nothin’ else…maybe some Slade, or T Rex, ya know? The first women I remember being attracted to were Julie Newmar, Tina Louise, Nichelle Nichols, Yvonne Craig, Ann Margaret, Suzi Quatro, Olivia Newton John and Chrissie Hynde! later on, Chrissy Amphlett and Vanity and Apollonia and Susan Sarandon and Xana…I realize I have not changed very much since I was a kid. I think the world was a better place when we had this kindof music in heavy rotation.
“The continued persecution of Julian Assange tells you everything you need to know about the US and UK’s position on war crimes.
When we’re guilty, threaten the Hague and imprison the journalists. When they’re guilty, invoke international law with wall-to-wall media coverage.” (-John McEvoy)
“The people who did it are gonna tell us that anybody who says that they did it is a conspiracy theorist…In the lead up to the Iraq War MSNBC fired everybody that was against it…All United States Presidents are war criminals.
America is a terrorist state. Bush killed a million people and ran a torture program, and they are going after Trump because he paid off a porn star. If you want Trump arrested for Stormy Daniels but not all our other Presidents for war crimes, then this has nothing to do with you caring about the law….Most Americans have no idea they’re being fed non-stop war propaganda again and many of them will hate your guts for telling them. If Ukraine is a sovereign country, how is the US Gov’t saying that it will not honor a Peace Deal if it is brokered by China? Ukraine lost it’s sovereignty in 2014, it is not a democracy, they broke the Minsk Agreement to stall until NATO could arm and train them, the US is using Ukraine for this proxy war that it provoked and the US will keep this war going until there are no more weapons or Ukrainians. One day the Black community will figure out that the Republicans are there to distract us, so the Democrats can stick the knife in our backs while we’re not even looking…Too many countries are defying US demands and wanting to move away from this “Rules Based Order” forced onto the world by the US and Western Oligarchs
We will see a rise in wars, terrorism, coups and assassinations directed by the West, but the new multipolar world is coming…Let me get this straight As the US talks about sovereignty they are still illegally maintaining troops in Syria and recently after an election told Venezuela that who they voted for isn’t their real President, it’s some guy they didn’t vote for because our Gov’t said so…Most of the countries in the Global South on our side have leaders that we put there or are just corrupt enough to betray their own citizens for our benefit…Dear Fellow Americans, We need you to snap out of the psyop that has been run on us our whole lives, stop falling for our Gov’ts propaganda and realize that we are the “Bad Guys” and the world is trying to protect themselves from us There is no “Good” Party, they’re all owned….If you live in Germany, how embarrassed are you now that your Gov’t let the United States expose to the world that they are a bunch of subservient cowards willing to destroy your lives on command?…Our people living in this fantasy land we’ve had drilled into our brains since childhood that we have some right to tell other countries how they have to live and that our leaders give a shit about democracy, won’t change the multipolar world that’s coming….My country had decades of control to do the right thing and try to create a better world for everyone. They chose instead to take advantage of their power to use invasions, coups, lies, theft and assassinations to maintain their dominance The non-Western world is done with us…No matter how many weapons, the amount of money the pay the Politicians they own and how much propaganda the United States pours into Taiwan, I don’t believe the majority of the people there will allow their country to be destroyed for the geopolitical goals of America. Putin thought there was a Peace Deal, but the West spent 8 years stalling to train and arm Ukraine to wage war. The US now has the proxy war they wanted, our taxpayers have spent $100 billion, they along with the UK killed the Peace agreement last year and NATO is still losing…Trump cut the corporate tax rate to 21%, Dems screamed corruption, the current corporate tax rate after the Dems having control of the Gov’t for 2 years is currently 21%….It took a massive propaganda campaign to convince us spending $100 billion on a proxy war, over 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers being killed and 20% of Ukraine being lost to Russia is considered winning Especially when Ukraine could have honored their agreement and we’d have no war,,,It’s scary to watch and realize that the Dems the Party I used to vote for become even worse than the GOP…This country is run by a bunch of corrupt, lying, greedy, power hungry murderers It doesn’t matter which Party you pick to screw us over, we are gonna wind up working harder for less, with fewer rights and they are gonna kill people all over the world for more power and control…After all our Presidents have gotten away with, if they arrest Trump for this Stormy Daniels nonsense, there can be no more doubt that the United States is truly a joke of a country…When you watch the News and they’re talking to the CIA, FBI, NSA or any 3 letter Agency you are listening to trained liars. If it’s Politicians, they are polished liars. If it’s Intelligence, they’re evil liars. Military “Experts”, liars without a conscious. All are paid liars. They have to try to stop Trump from being able to run again because both the Dem and GOP Establishment know that this time even still working together that they won’t be able to beat him. The United States and their allies have come out and confirmed themselves all the things we have been saying about this being a proxy war they wanted and that they don’t want Peace.” (-Black In The Empire)
As kids, me and my lot were so completely enamored with Dogs D’Amour, everybody was swingin’ the bottle back then and doin’ it well as hell, we all had the big hats and the red boots and the songs about boozin’ it up in some lonestar rhinestoned honky tonk bar in our glittery imaginations that never really came to pass once we left town in a wood paneled station wagon the guitar player had bought with his Captain D.’s earnings. We just went to the wrong city entirely thinking we could find a glammy replacement drummer in a town full of New England snob rich college kids who liked Juliana Hatfield and the Bosstones and the Blake Babies and the Lemonheads. We were on the entirely wrong coast to be makin’ our gutterfied glam racket that year. There were some geezers still around who jammed with Johnny Thunders years and years before our overconfident arrival, but they had minimal interest in being involved with some loutish nineteen year olds in pink sparkly tights, the Irish skinhead tough guys were always yellin’, “This Is Boston, Not L.A.” at us on our way to work on the redline. It was still a magical time for me, cause I got to see artists live like Paul Westerberg and stuff, met Peter Wolf, and Willie Loco and Monoman, and at least I’d gotten distance from the abuser hillbillies in that tank plant town. The Midwest sucked so bad, man, it was hell, still is, same as it ever was. After the chicks abruptly split and we lost a borrowed bass in the eviction, there were some bad feelings on my end when one of our crew joined a whiteguy blues band and the other one had his own grunge band that played at Axis with him singin’. It was tough stuff to process at the time, cause I guess I already had some abandonment issues and it felt like this was the second incident when the whole crew had suddenly mutinied, I did not even know what was goin on. I’m tellin’ ya, I was Jack Sparrow way back when. I met some girls, got a record store job, kept co writing my own crazy glam ballads in the dark basement with the dangerous all night rocker AC/DC sideman, we laughed like pirates, he has a gregarious, uproarious loud laugh, loves to laugh, kept laughin’ long after I’d forgotten how, I still marvel at his ability to gut it out through the hardest times and still come up laughin’ and so we continued having swashbuckling adventures in the various bars and nightclubs that still pulsed with every kind of music. The Dogs were real gents to us when we brushed with them at a concert one time but we didn’t really get to know ’em or anything, they were busy workin’. Tyla kept churning out so much stuff I could not keep up, and as much as I wanted to be a big collector I did not make enough money for that. Lost all my records in a procession of breakups with various girlfriends back then. I never even heard the half hearted reunion album they made with Bam’s wife, “Happy Ever After”. In the back of my mind though, the Dogs were always playin’. This morning I was thinkin’ about his song, “I Think It’s Love Again”. I love Darrel Bath and he told me one time he’d collaborate with me if I moved to England, but I had kids and did not think I should leave. That was really the last era of me following the Dogs that devotedly. For me, I got less interest in the later lineups, I’m a “Dynamite Jet” lineup diehard. I bet you are, too. There will always be a place in my heart four the old Dogs stuff though-Jo Dog is one of the most underrated guitarists out there-all four of ’em were absolute aces. Everybody I knew used to cover “Heroine”. My friends in Detroit loved to do “Billy Two Rivers”. My little crew we used to do “Wait Until I’m Dead” along with all our dodgy early original songwriting efforts at all the nowhere barstool open mic nights and such. By the time I made it out to Hollywood, you could easily identify who the Dogs Fans were just by lookin’ at ’em. Almost nobody could write any songs though, it was all just getting wasted on the Sunset Strip. If the semi-original “Flameboy & The Bounders” lineup get back together, let me know, I’ll always be interested in hearing more from the 4 of ’em. If you know of any labels lookin’ for talent who are willing to pay for some studio time, me and the AC/DC guy we got some real good songs.
IF BILLIONAIRES SAID THEY WERE GONNA CULL THE POPULATION & CONTROL THE WORLD VIA TECHSURVEILLANCE AND USHER IN A MICROCHIP CASHLESS SOCIETY, WOULD YOU BELIEVE THEM?
““Am I really relishing my time here on this earth? Appreciating the thunderous beauty which surrounds me? Treasuring my encounters with my loved ones? Cherishing the sensory kiss of each moment? Adoring this world while it lasts?” (-Caitlin Johnstone)
“Americans are conditioned to drop any leftist pretenses when the targeted country is one that the US government doesn’t like. Take Iran. US has been trying to overthrow that government since 1979 and now everyone is an expert. US imperialism is one big psyop.” (-Danny Haiphong)
“These people either live in another universe or they think everyone in the world is ignorant. Biden condemned everything that the U.S. has done to establish and maintain its empire. Crazy.” (-Ajamu Baraka)
“Imagine living in a country that was as anxious to fix the Flint water crisis as it is to spend billions on Ukraine.” (-Black In The Empire)
“Hey Gavin Newsom,
Homelessness in California is even worse now than when you made this speech 14 years ago promising to end it. What’s sad is how many liberals continue to blindly support corrupt Democrats like you who pretend to care about the poor while you serve the rich.” (-Ryan Knight)
“The climate is not dying. It’s being killed, by fossil fuel tycoons, greedy developers, war profiteers etc – & the politicians they fund. Science clarifies the emergency & what we must demand of our elected officials. Join us!” (-Dr. Jill Stein)
“The US is occupying 1/3 of Syria, so invoking the UN charter is awkward. But White House speechwriters are crafty; they got around it by getting Biden to say that countries cannot take “territory *of their neighbors* by force.” (-Aaron Mate’)
“Remember, it’s crazy and conspiratorial to say the CIA likely is involved or will soon become involved in domestic uprisings in a US-targeted nation. The sane position is to believe that the CIA never does anything, and its officers are all sitting in Langley watching Netflix.” (-Caitlin Johnstone)
STOP SUPPORTING IMPERIALISM, COLNIAILISM, GENOCIDE AND WAR PROFITEERING!
“In nearly 200 years of genocidal colonialism, the British empire stole $45 trillion in wealth from India (17 times more than UK GDP), killing millions The UK monarchy, Queen Elizabeth, the royal family are simply symbols of murder, exploitation, and theft.” (-Ben Norton)
“People really need to stop whitewashing the British royal family. They oversaw genocidal colonialism around the world, killing millions. They loved fascism. As a child, Queen Elizabeth was taught to Nazi salute. The monarchy should be abolished asapPeople really need to stop whitewashing the British royal family. They oversaw genocidal colonialism around the world, killing millions. They loved fascism. As a child, Queen Elizabeth was taught to Nazi salute. The monarchy should be abolished asap” (-Ben Norton)
A HEROINE WHO DON’T LOVE THE HERO IN THE END OF THE FILM
So yeah here I am looking out the window at the garbage truck and having some foo foo fancy coffee I pilloried from the wife, my nearest and dearest lifelong hombres and fellow travelers keep dropping dead in waves, or disappearing into the daytime control freak world of manipulative hustling and bullshit artistry and backstab competition, always racing to the next fuckin’ red light. They’ll kill ya for a drink ticket at the old people bar. While sorting through some boxes looking for long lost photographs of a bloved high school friend who died recently, I came across a cashe of old pix of another friend who died a couple years back, from when we were in the midst of our most devoted Dogs D’Amour years, he wore the dogstags, not I. We all wore the scarves and suitjackets and bone jewelry and cowboy shit, though. Hell, some of his still do, I’m all black flags and silver spurs until the bitter end, but an awful lot of white has started appearing in the beard which is weird as fuck for me, I’m starting to look like Uncle Motherfuckin Sam here. Tyla and Bam, Jo Dog and Steve meant everything to us at eighteen and nineteen and twenty and twenty one. Those songs never really faded too far from memory, either. Now who knows, what really goes on with bands, behind the scenes, behind clothes doors, it’s always something to do with control, or money-publishing, merchandise, usually someone’s wife is in control, just like in Spinal Tap: “my life was a cosmic shambles before I met…” whichever Nancy Spungon convinces whichever longhaired three chords knower that he no longer needs the original bandmates, that he is an island and an emperor and a merchandising empire unto himself, bands are like really complicated marriages, it was hard enough to get five people to agree to not grow mustaches or wear shorts or sweat pants onstage-next thing ya know, it’s ten people with opinions, now twenty. How did the big oaf flannel wearer with the pickup truck get a vote? I dunno what happened between the pirate king Tyla and all the other Dogs D’Amours, sometimes from afar it can be easy to conclude he just wants to hog the gold for himself like that shit hoarder dragon in those elf movies. We see a lot of shit hoarding nowadays-all the grasping gotmines certain they can take it ALL with them: “mine, mine, it’s mine, it’s all mine ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.” All I know is it’s not the same without the blokey blokes from way back when, man I miss the Dogs like hell somedays-that was our splendid time in the garden -our hour for magic-it was like recess all the time until the grunge was shoveled on us- but some of us still have those old albums and they were magical, wonderful, could take you away from the glum and dumb, the pain of the mundane. Jo Dog is a real extra exceptionally talented guitar player/artiste, Bam and Steve are all like the best of the best. It seems like no one told poor old Tyla, halfheartedly swashbuckling on sober stools with fill-in guys who do what he tells them. Just not the me, but I guess nothing will ever be the same, none of us can ever go back to our sunny youth when one lad shows up with his Marlboros and Mountain Dew, another comes by with his Cambridge Light 100’s and his Carling’s Black label 12 pack, then the lad with the Swisher sweets or New Coke or Jolt or whatevr the Latest Thang of the day is, here’s the day drunk sloshey guy already swingin’ the bottle and it’s not even three yet, here’s the kid with the two liter and the big box of cereal-and commence to get down like a crew of all for one yo ho ho, fill up your boots me hearties pirate lords. Can’t help it, I’m a diehard sucker for the happy ever after story, but it is seldom seen, ya know Izzy Stradlin said, “Bullshit. They don’t want to split the loot equally, moving on.” People who get assimilated by the sports bar popular kids rattrace forget how to share and play nice, a band is made of many different moving parts, without a committed dependable drummer, you aint goin’ nowhere no matter how good you think your songs or solos or dopey second hand Roy Rogers cowboy wardrobe might be, ya gott have all five guys willing to share the pie, rather than fucking hoard it all for themself, that is not easy to learn in a winner takes all brainwash culture. I myself have never had the leadership or people skills to effectively mitigate all those clashing agendas and ego trips and astologer girlfriends and desire to play ska. Greedhead culture kills rocknroll as frequently as any shadowy groomer horror story, anti rock secret society, Pussycat Doll explotation conspiracy. One of the best things about leaving the midwest back in the early nineties was escaping to a big town where they had like twenty five different Dogs D’Amour records and 12 inch singles always in stock, right there on the shelf! Posters! Fuckshit! Amazing! What bounty, what treasure-and then, some girl at Newbury Comics told us about the also marvelous Jacobites and Waterboys and Bounty Hunters! One of our lot got caught up going to the dark bar to get high and dance like Pan shirtlessly in borrowed without permission, too small for him really leather pants surrounded by a pickup harem of enthusiastic nymphettes who all mistook him for an indian cause he dyed his hair black, he kept having to fight off jelaous gorillas. One guy met some disciplined nerd academics and rich girls who Wanted More Stuff and got seduced by the dark side of the force abandoning the rock brigade to pursue better homes and gardens in the nine to five capitalist society. Me, I got distracted by some boozy women and unreliable drummers and shoved off my soapbox in the grunge years by some Long Goateed Malibu Grunge Kens. Jo Dog went on to join the crash and burn superstars, Shooting Gallery, who were fucked over by a record producer and going on tour opening for KISS, before breaking up in shambolic acrimony. Let’s focus even for a few minutes on the past though, shall we? It was glorious back then and wonderful to be young with the Dogs putrid green vinyl spinning in the background. “As you are now, so once was I…As I am now, so you shall be….”
SEPTEMBER GURLS
I’ve been in love with Chrissie Hynde for a real long time, since the third grade, probably. I used to try for her bangs, I got her eyeliner down pretty good. Pretenders are still my fave band along with Hanoi, Clash, Gen X, the Spiders From Mars, and the Stones. First song I ever sang with a full band was “Message Of Love”! She dedicated a song to me once in Boston. She totally gave me the icy freezout cold shoulder on another occasion, but of course I get it, now. She is adept at drawing boundaries cause she’s been super famous since what? 78? She was not some posh snob or anything-in fact, the first time I met her, she was walkin’ around by herself in Kenmore Square. So yeah she is my favorite female singer of all time followed by Sinead, Ronnie Spector, Patti Smith and Shangrillas-right? As a songwriter, she’s near the top of my list, with Stones, Easdale, Kristofferson, and Paul K . Farndon is my favorite bassplayer, along with Tregunna, James, Patricia Morrison and Yaffa. Martin’s my fave drummer besides Razzle, Nolan, Burke, and Ashton. Top 3 guitarists are Ronson, Honeyman Scott and Bob Derwood Andrews. Love Derwood like mad but he sez he does not like to jam or have any interest in discussing his old music, they cut him outta the publishing, so I can empathize. I’m also dead broke in the desert while other people are living at the top of ya know, neon lit eyeball pyramids and shit. Famous on the backs of complete unknown forgotten poors. So yeah it’s crazy that Chrissie turned 71 on September 6th, two of my three baby mamas have that same star sign, plus two of my favorite writers-John Easdale and Iris Berry. December Boy’s got it bad. Whenever I write songs I’m really just trying to capture some Polaroid from my own long gone past as vivid and alive as almost anything by John Easdale or Chrissie Hynde. They make it look alot easier than it is. I bled and bled for it and still dunno if I’ve really ever come close-certainly not in any kinda decent studio setting. “They just don’t make ’em like they used to-you shoulda just stuck with me!”
OZZY
Best lyric of all time: “Finished with my woman cause she couldn’t help me with my mind”. The ugly blue dragon tattoo. Pissing on the Alamo. Ya know? Poor boy from factories of Birmingham. When I was in detention hall, my beautiful new wave girlfriend sent me the handwritten lyrics to “Goodby To Romance”. When I was at the Oneida Baptist Institute in deepest Southeastern Appalachia, the US FEST was happening and all the heavy metal kids from all over the world who’d been sent to that Hitlerian reform school for behavior modification abuses was coveting that forbidden music which the superstitious authoritarians were making money offa making it taboo. Turned out Ozzy was a lovable nut, maybe less dangerous than a drunken Ringo Starr. He’s moving back to England and I can’t say I blame him. Wish I had a bottle. This song is going out to you.
“The “white lives matter more movement” co-directed by Zelensky & Joe Biden will be in high gear over next few days “whitewashing” history.” (-Ajamu Baraka)
OUR SEMI FERAL BOY CAT’S GONE MISSING
In the four or five years we’ve been here, multiple cat litters were birthed on our end of the street, in the back yard and “Cat Alley”, in between our street and our backyard neighbor’s since we lived here and we successfully homed about 14. The mama cat was captured by a grumpy old man and taken far away and we mourned her being gone for about five months and one day, she just reappeared-she had found her way home. My kid called her Mama Friday, and she was an expert mouser who kept our garage, trailer and porch area mostly free of mice and we fed her and got her one of those heated cat teepees for the porch in the winter, her last two kids were the runts nobody wanted so we named and kept them, got ’em all spayed and neutered and their ears are clipped, so local animal control can tell they are homed, too. My kid named the boy Skitzie and the girl Pepper. Pepper loves the porch and we keep a giant wooden painting up there so she can not bring dead birds and bunnies and leave them on the porch but at night she jumps the painting and sleeps on a wooden chair. Skitzie was the only outdoor cat you could really pet. Pepper and Friday stayed pretty feral, continued to eat lizards and birds and small snakes. Skizie got in fights with the neighborhood toms who’d showup to mooch off our cat’s food. Sometimes, they climb the tree and get on the roof at night. They are friends with a skunk who also eats summa their kibble and kinda hangs around. I don’t think thy get along with the raccoons but the racoons like the roofs according to a cowboy eccentric who lives in a hoarder trailer next door. Two days ago, my partner noted that Skitzie had gone missing and was absent from three meals straight. This morning marks his fourth meal when he is always here like clockwork, usually before the girls. He likes to hunt in the field across the street and the big machines have broken dirt to start building some development folly, sometimes he hangs out with the four indoor/outdoor cats that belong to the couple at the end of the street, three doors down, but I asked the lady and she has not seen him, either. So chances are coyotes got him, he got snakebit, or some asshole took him. It’s a bummer, all three of us feel a pang in our hearts. I also have an adult child I never hear from, so life is like a procession of insufferable losses, death, AWOL loved ones, cheap shot ripoffs, old pals who’d rather hang out with dumb, pretentious rich people, and we carry grief. I’ve been known to drink over that kindof stuff, but right now, I’m doing some part time ranch hand, jack of all odd jobs, outdoor laboring and I gotta stay wide awake and on call, between the work and parenting, there’s no time to cry. I can’t even tell you how bummed out I am, but I am endeavoring to keep my braveest grownup face on.
BILLY FUCKIN’ IDOL
In times of darkness, bullshit, deception, mass hypnotism and so much uncertainty, I still turn to rocknroll saints like Van Halen and Billy Idol for sustenance. I LAUGH at big city hipster mimosa dorks who think that having money or buying some nice shoes makes you somehow have even a glint of rocknroll authority or real genuine entertainer soulpower-these fucking gentrified cover band jokesters just get on my nerves, make me laugh almost, but these same fuckin dorks who can never shaddup about Johnny Thunders or some distant begrudging tie they have to somebody from D-Generation or Dictators or whoever, they can never recognize real rocknroll when it’s lookin’ ’em dead in the eye. BILLY FUCKIN’ IDOL is a punchline to those fakes and rubes and dorks and pay to play karaoke dorks because they find him threatening-not only is he pretty as a Presley, but he still has the hardest rockin’ band in the business and he STILL writes great songs, which none of those rich people in the booj cities can do. That’s why all their bands predominantly covers. All they really ever do is glaot about their zipcodes, their money, their pay to play privilege-nobody cares about their dork bands. BILLY FUCKIN’ IDOL still has all the real stuff of the heart-the charisma, the poetry. Now I am running through streets that are frightening… that shit’s as real as “Untouchables” or “Stars Look Down”. He’s as good as it gets in the business of playing real rocknroll. The greasy come lately kid bands with the expensive hats and stripper tattoos don’t even come close. rocknroll is about playing SONGS, from the heart, from the heart, I couldn’t tell no lies. Thankful as fuck I can still turn to the important and life affirming punknsoul of Billy Fuckin Idol. I hope to see him live before I die. I think we’re all sick to death of all those instafame pig-media juggernaut overnight fake meta celeb-bots they force feed us nowadays and when you see or hear real authentic passionate rocknroll, you remember there’s no comparison, either you got it or you don’t, and just cause some mama’s boy dickhead can pay for a fancy costume don’t mean shit. You can’t buy real rocknroll and when you experience the real stuff, it’s impossible to play along with that middle school dork shit. BILLY FUCKIN’ IDOL‘S been saving my lifea gain and again since I was about thirteen or fourteen or some shit. Dunno if it was true but an old associate once claimed he played a song of mine for Thommy Price and the dude was said to have really liked it. I love Steve Stevens, as well! Derwood’s probably my third fave guitarist after Ronson and Honeyman Scott. I wish I could find a guy like that to make new rocknroll with. As Giovanni Vitanza from The Coma-Tones sang, aint gotta fake it cause I know how. In the punk days he was derided for being plastic punk poster pinup prettyboy danceable, but now when Strummer’s gone, Ari Up’s gone, all the crazy wild eyed beautiful outlaws are dying off one by one, he is a testament to staying wild and free. I love him like a forefather, my brethren, God Bless Him.
Billy Idol Juni 1984 in München | Verwendung weltweit
❖You’re not jaded; everything really is just as phony and vapid as it looks.I say this because if you are reading this it’s likely the result of a personal quest for truth which has led to a gradual peeling away of the lies our society is made of. Your eyes probably found this text because you’re the sort of person who’s been trying to make sense of the world in a sea of propaganda and deception, which often results in a growing disgust not just with the power structures which oppress and tyrannize humanity, but with our entire civilization.This experience is very common for people like yourself, and it’s very common because it arises from a clear perception of reality. From the very beginning human civilization has been built around serving the interests of the powerful, from religion to philosophy to the arts to law. As the world has gotten smaller and it’s become possible to artificially manufacture culture with mass-distributed media, this has only become more the case.That’s why the more you learn about the world, the more fake and stupid our civilization looks. It’s because it is fake and stupid. Our news, our entertainment, our jobs, our legal systems, our political systems, our education systems, our financial, monetary, economic and commercial systems; the way our entire civilization is structured and organized has nothing to do with what’s true and good and everything to do with keeping human organisms compliantly turning the gears of capitalism and empire.#TheSimpsons#Simpsons#Ukrainepic.twitter.com/aWvgTUGJKP— The Simpsons (@TheSimpsons) February 26, 2022Mainstream culture is one giant psyop geared toward keeping people fueling the oppression machine. Not because of some grand conspiracy (though there’s plenty of that too), but because the manufacturers of culture have a vested interest in preserving our unwholesome status quo. The media are owned by plutocrats who have an interest in making sure everything they’re putting out sustains the imperial status quo upon which their kingdoms are built. The Pentagon has more influence over Hollywood than people like you or I ever will.Things get elevated to mainstream levels of attention and influence by the people with the wealth and power to elevate them, and they’re always going to elevate things which serve their interests by manufacturing consent for the status quo their wealth and power are premised upon, not things which harm their interests like material that expands class consciousness or highlights the depravity of the US-centralized empire.So mainstream culture presents a fraudulent image of reality. It’s written into the code of everything that’s mass produced — not just in Prager University lectures on the evils of socialism or propagandistic news stories about weapons of mass destruction, but in sitcoms, in advertisements, in clothing brands, in pop music, in textbooks, in trends. When it’s not constant messaging that capitalism is totally working and the world is ordered in a more or less sane and truth-based way, it’s manipulations designed to shape our values and measures of self-worth to make us into better gear-turners.If you’re noticing this ubiquitous fraudulence, it’s not because you’re becoming distant from the rest of society, it’s because you’re becoming more intimate with it. You’re getting in real close, so close you can see the nuts and bolts of it, see how the sausage is made.The Phoniest, Most PR-Intensive War Of All Time”Now, I know what you’re thinking: how is Zelensky making time for a Vogue photoshoot amidst his busy schedule of PR appearances for other major western institutions?”https://t.co/stflCQnrtw— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) July 27, 2022So if this is happening to you, don’t worry. You’re not turning into some kind of jaded hipster who’s too cool for what everyone else is into, you’re just seeing the bullshit for what it is. Sure a rejection of mainstream culture can just be pure ego-driven “look at me I’m so special” crap, but it’s also what happens when you sincerely move in for a closer look at the mass-scale psychological fabric of human civilization.This is what Terence McKenna was talking about when he said “The cost of sanity in this society is a certain level of alienation.” And it’s what Jiddu Krishnamurti was pointing at when he said “It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” A lucid perception of reality today will necessarily be accompanied by the ever-present smell of bullshit.And that’s not your fault. It’s not your fault that you were born into this world where so much of everything is fake and stupid. So be gentle with yourself in your sense of alienation. And take comfort in knowing that others see what you’re seeing too.But mainly learn to take comfort in the fact that, just underneath the logos and screens and suburbs and Hollywood actors pretending to be people, reality is roaring. There’s a whole world of wonder and authenticity shining ferociously from just beneath the surface. It’s just got nothing to do with the artificial culture that’s been mass-produced by the powerful and funneled into our minds.Zelensky rings New York Stock Exchange bell, launching campaign to entice foreign investors while crushing labor rights of Ukrainians.His appearance coincided with the Euro’s collapse and economic crisis fueled by the Ukraine proxy warBy @RealAlexRubihttps://t.co/KAiwt94ECD— The Grayzone (@TheGrayzoneNews) September 7, 2022Underneath all the social engineering and power-serving control mechanisms, there’s a whole life of raw terrestriality that is much, much older and much, much stronger than the lies of the machine. You can see it crackling everywhere, even in the densest parts of the matrix.You can see it in the sky. You can see it in the bushes and the pigeons. But you can also see it in the bus billboards and skyscrapers, in the flashing signs and blaring screens. And you can see it in the giant-brained bipedal primates you’re surrounded by each day, hiding just behind the dance of imperial fraudulence in their heads. You can see it even in those who are most asleep at the wheel, the most enslaved to the mind viruses of the machine, if you look. Once you learn to see it, you can observe nature winking at you even from inside the most rage-faced pundits and most self-absorbed social natterers. It’s there.In reality this sense of alienation is just an awkward transition phase between buying into the imperial dreamworld and a deep, deep intimacy with humanity as it really is beneath all the obnoxious programming. Beyond the revulsion at the phony facepuppets, something ancient, authentic, and exuberant is dancing. And it is more real and more true than our disgust with this civilization.Look closer and you see the fraudulence. Look even closer and you see what’s real. Your sense of alienation is entirely valid and based in truth, but we’re not meant to stay there. Truth beckons us forward. Truth is beckoning us all forward. And these mind cages they have built for us aren’t real enough to hold us in for much longer. (-Caitlin Johnstone)
Angela: Angela Davis, that is. At the start of filming in 1969 she was an unknown philosophy professor at UCLA, but by the time the committed communist was imprisoned shortly thereafter, she was already an icon. The film shows Davis both in public and private: at seminars, at demonstrations for political prisoners and the Black Panthers and at …www.youtube.comThe Right to Be Left Alone – Activist PostABC Tried to Bury This James Baldwin Interview. Four Decades Later, It’s Blisteringly Relevant. – YouTube ABC Tried to Bury This James Baldwin Interview. Four Decades Later, It’s Blisteringly Relevant.Buried by ABC at the time, the segment has resurfaced over four decades later, revealing a unique glimpse into Baldwin’s private life—as well as his resounding criticism about white fragility, as blisteringly relevant today as it was in 1979. Video Credit: Sylvia Chase: Writer, interviewer, Narrator Joseph Lovett: Producer, Director Richard …www.youtube.com“Hey, bet you forgot about the Afghans who worked for the U.S. & West still in limbo while the West went all out for Ukrainian refugees. Can anyone help me understand the difference in treatment?” (-Ajamu Baraka)
Hiroshi Nakagome, the Japanese Johnny Thunders of the GOLDEN ARMS and World Famous Mister Ratboy from Pillbox, Motorcycle Boy and Sour Jazz have a cool new record out on Vicious Kitten, the Australian Label that used to be a fanzine in the early nineties. This is their new video!!!
“Ukraine was ordered to launch an offensive even though the military thought it was unwise. The military leaders don’t understand this is a PR war. With the offensive, ruling class servants are able to steal more of the peoples resources for MIC.” (-Ajamu Baraka)
“As Zelensky outlaws labor organizing, he appeared on Wall Street to launch #AdvantageUkraine, a shameless appeal for the corporate plunder of Ukraine which promises rapid deregulation and features the country’s arms industry at the top of its “investment menu” (-Max Blumenthal)
MIKE’S SIXTIETH BIRTHDAY CONCERT IN FINLAND TO FEATURE HIS SOLO BAND, DEMOLITION 23, & A REUNION OF ORIGINAL ROCKS LINEUP! WOW!
One of the greatest bands of all time are reuniting the original lineup for One Night Only! Of course we all love and miss Razzle, but you know Gyp Casino played on the first three Hanoi Rocks classics and now they are getting back together! As my old pal Chaz Halo says, I also hope a lot of footage washes up on youtube since neither of us are in the money enough to fly to Finland, but this is real big news for all of us weirdo glitter/glam kids who grew up loving that band and their uniquely inimitable brand of original, amphetamine punk-rockabilly-ska-disco-psychedelic-honky tonkin-sleaze anthem, stardusted surf and scuzz, downtown gutter punknroll! Holy Smokes!! Ya know? I’ve been liking the Lordsy new MM group song, “Derelict Palace”, it’ a little post-punk or new wave. I’m pretty lit about the big show. History in the making. How awesome would it be if they came to the States? I know a Lords Of The New Church influenced guttersnipe goth gang that might be willing to reunite to open for ’em at the Whiskey or wherever. Lucky Sugarbuzz from the legendary Hollywood glam rag Sugarbuzz Magazine said: “WOW!!!!!!!” My new new wave starlet friend and idol Laurent Chopard from Other-ed, says, “I saw that earlier! Crazy and even crazier with Demolition 23 opening! I hope they’ll play at least one show in London on a weekend but I’m afraid it’s just going to be a one shot. This one is too short notice for me to go…” Evad Fromme from Moonchasers and 13 Knots said, “I saw this. I hope they play more shows. Would love to see them. I’d like it if they just played the Bangkok Shocks record front to back!” John Dissed, the free speech advocate and songwriting stalwart said, “That’s so cool. Mystery City is my fav too! Had that in high school and played the shit out of it. Great songs.” Brian Morgan NYC guitarist from The Carvels, Saviors, and Disruptors sez, “HA! I was gonna send this to you when I got home from work. Who’d have ever thought, yeah? So what HAS Gyp Casino been up to for, um, almost 40 years? I must say, Andy looks pretty bad. I keep seeing the rubber tip on his cane in this pic and thinking of puffy gray velcro tennis shoes and big visor sunglasses, a retirement community in Florida, yeesh. I guess a good reminder to at least try to keep up SOME sort of maintenance as we rock’n’roll into our dotage. Shame it’s in Finland, I’d go for sure. Then again, I’m planning to be up front center in Glasgow in November for the original Damned line-up’s gig. Bless ’em all! “
Up early listening to the big machines outside-this used to be a quiet deadend street, mostly empty old trailers only inhabited by elderly people for about two or three months in the winters-second homes. One guy down the block died and they never cleaned up his debris or resold his place-another guy died and it looks like they might be preparing it for resell, but most people don’t wanna live in this part of town because of the holy shit high heat and two or three obvious drug dealer houses-you know the vibe-all night traffic, shady lady, high fences, shifty customers with broken windshields, barking twin pitbulls. Also, the stinky sewage treatment plant and the stinky river both smell like shit, however some gentrifying home builder has built three pop up McMansions down the road and there are plans to build 100 new apartments in the field across the swamp ditch. So yeah, we are kinda feeling the need to imminently relocate looming over us like a shadow. We had to scrap our plans to move to Joshua Tree during the grueling two year long Covid clampdowns and now they’ve jacked the rents up even higher in that whole region, two small mom n pop greasy spoon restaurants closed last week in my ‘ville, ya know I’m a dishwasher, so it’s not like we are as mobile as we once were-even the notoriously bullshit mainstream media is having to admit that millions of Murkkkans are being evicted or falling to houselessness while the government gives always mor billionaire handouts to their proxy forces in the Ukraine and Israel and the big propaganda unreality tv silences real journalists and doctors and intelligence experts and historians and focuses mostly on glamourizing cults, cannibals, models who only ever vote for endless wars, and handouts to their billionaire police-stat donor class bosses, and glorifying the oligarchy. I have anxiety, where we’re gonna live, how we’re gonna keep paying these outrageous Reset gouger electric-grocery-gas-and rent bills. Honestly, man, I could use a fucking drink. Alas, I have to work today, doing some landscaping for a land baroness who may or may not give us the privilege of becoming on call servants, laboring at her whim, in exchange for renting one of her prohibitively expensive, rundown properties she bought years and years ago at auction in this dead end desert, end of the road ghost town, where people come to die. I finally heard from one of my talented, beautiful, long absent children, who seems to be thriving in the Big City Of Hipsters. It was thrilling to hear his voice. I live for those kids. Sadly, it’s just not viable for us to live in those overpriced, urbanized, legal reefer, rich people zipcodes anymore. All these tech platform purges of left activists and dissident journalists should have everybody fretting, but so many of my former roll call just stay in that Netflix N Pharma, cozy, NPR hypnospell, I can’t reach ’em anymore. they all just wannabe faux woke and Tik Tok famous. My outdoor semi-feral boy cat buddy, “Skitzey”, has missed three meals and while I know the cats tend to go into hiding, like under the trailer and stuff, during heat waves or when all the noisy machines are growling, it’s not like that fella to skip any meals, and while it’s premature to mourn, there’s been talk of coyotes eating yard pets in this town, and we had a kind cowboy artist friend wrangle a rattlesnake who was having a reckoning with the missing cat’s sister about a week ago, so I’m kinda upset by the little boy’s disappearance, he’s lived in our carport/garage/porch area for about three years now and rids the area of rodents. I keep goin’ outside, searchin’ the alley and the trail for him. My disabled teenager outside in the rocks calling his name would break your heart.
“Cuba exports doctors while the US exports war. It’s beyond time to pressure Biden to drop this outrageous terrorist designation as well as end the criminal blockade once & for all. Stop punishing this small country for charting its own path. Let Cuba live!” (-Abby Martin)
“When the U.S. & Europe finally decide to stop sacrificing Ukrainians & end the war Ukraine will have to be demilitarized & neutral. Yet, the psychos making decisions pretend that they will be able to avoid that inevitability.”
(-Ajamu Baraka)
“The majority of people in the US and millions more are at risk of eviction in the next month.” (-Danny Haiphong)
“I don’t criticize Democrats cuz I side with Republicans, I criticize Democrats Cuz THEY side with Republicans. Our fight is not Left/Right anymore, it is Us vs.Them. We have 2 corporate party’s that serve Wall St/War Machine/Corporations & crush everyone else.” (-Jimmy Dore)
“Even mainstream media outlets in Brazil and the US have acknowledged that fascist leader Bolsonaro and his multimillionaire capitalist oligarch backers have been discussing launching a military coup if he loses the election.” (-Ben Norton)
“100,000 Czechs protest their government’s support of the NATO proxy war in Ukraine and the controlled demolition of Europe’s economy. The rally brought together Communist party activists with members of right-wing Freedom & Direct Democracy Party.” (-Max Blumenthal)
“The very fact that these neoliberal corporate hacks can say this and get away with it is a graphic example of the corruption of organized labor & lack of class consciousness among working class.” (-Ajamu Baraka scoffing at pants suit hack Kopmala bullshitting about Biden support for working people on Labor Day)
“President Joseph Biden: “This is a nation that rejects violence as a political tool. We do not encourage violence.” Senator Joseph Biden: “I was suggesting we bomb Belgrade. I was suggesting we send American pilots in and blow up all the bridges…” (-Max Blumenthal)
It’s Not Okay For Grown Adults To Say The Ukraine Invasion Was “Unprovoked” On a recent interview with the Useful Idiots podcast, Noam Chomsky repeated his argument that the only reason we hear the word “unprovoked” every time anyone mentions Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in the mainstream news media is because it absolutely was provoked, and they know it.”Right now if you’re a respectable writer and you want to write in the main journals, you talk about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, you have to call it ‘the unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine,” Chomsky said. “It’s a very interesting phrase; it was never used before. You look back, you look at Iraq, which was totally unprovoked, nobody ever called it ‘the unprovoked invasion of Iraq.’ In fact I don’t know if the term was ever used — if it was it was very marginal. Now you look it up on Google, and hundreds of thousands of hits. Every article that comes out has to talk about the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.””Why? Because they know perfectly well it was provoked,” Chomsky said. “That doesn’t justify it, but it was massively provoked. Top US diplomats have been talking about this for 30 years, even the head of the CIA.”Chomsky is of course correct here. The imperial media and their brainwashed automatons have spent half a year mindlessly bleating the word “unprovoked” in relation to this war, but one question none of them ever have a straight answer for is this: if the invasion of Ukraine was unprovoked, how come so many western experts spent years warning that the actions of western governments would provoke an invasion of Ukraine?Because, as Chomsky notes, that is indeed the case. A few days after the invasion began this past February a guy named Arnaud Bertrand put together an extremely viral Twitter thread that just goes on and on and on about the various diplomats, analysts and academics in the west who have over the years been warning that a dangerous confrontation with Russia was coming because of NATO advancements toward its borders, interventionism in Ukraine, and various other aggressions. It contains examples like John Mearsheimer explicitly warning in 2015 that “the west is leading Ukraine down the primrose path, and the end result is that Ukraine is going to get wrecked,” and Pat Buchanan warning all the way back in 1999 that “By moving NATO onto Russia’s front porch, we have scheduled a twenty-first-century confrontation.”Empire apologists love claiming that the invasion of Ukraine had nothing to do with NATO expansionism (their claims generally based on brazen misrepresentations of what Vladimir Putin has said about Russia’s reasons for the war), but that’s silly. The US war machine was continuing to taunt the possibility of NATO membership for Ukraine right up until the invasion, a threat it refused to take off the table since placing it there in 2008 despite knowing full well that this threat was an incendiary provocation to Moscow.Most fascinating thing about the Ukraine war is the sheer number of top strategic thinkers who warned for years that it was coming if we continued down the same path.No-one listened to them and here we are.Small compilation of these warnings, from Kissinger to Mearsheimer.— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) March 1, 2022This is to say nothing of the US empire actively fomenting a violent uprising in 2014 which ousted Kyiv’s sitting government and fractured the nation between its more Moscow-loyal populations to the east and the more US/EU-friendly parts of the country. This led to the annexation of Crimea (overwhelmingly supported by the people who live there) and eight years of brutal warfare against Russia-backed separatists in the Donbas. Ukrainian attacks on those separatists are known to have increased exponentially in the days leading up to the invasion, and it has been argued that this is what provoked Putin’s final decision to commit to invading (which was a last-minute decision according to US intelligence).The US power alliance could very easily have prevented this war with a few low-cost concessions like enshrining Ukrainian neutrality, rolling back its war machinery from Russia’s borders and sincerely pursuing detente with Moscow instead of shredding treaties and ramping up cold war escalations. Hell, it could likely have prevented this war just by protecting President Zelensky from the anti-Moscow far right nationalists who were openly threatening to lynch him if he began honoring the Minsk agreements and pursuing peace with Russia, as he was originally elected to do.Instead it knowingly chose the opposite course: continuing to float the possibility of formal NATO membership for Ukraine while pouring weapons into the nation and making it more and more of a de facto NATO member with closer and closer intimacy with the US war machine, and then either ordering, encouraging or tolerating Ukraine’s aggressive assault on Donbas separatists.Why did the empire opt for provocation over peace? Congressman Adam Schiff gave a pretty good answer to that question in January of 2020 as the road to war was being paved: “so that we can fight Russia over there, and we don’t have to fight Russia here.” If you relinquish the infantile idea that the US empire is helping its good friend Ukraine because it loves the Ukrainian people and wants them to have freedom and democracy, it’s not hard to see that the US sparked a convenient proxy war because it was in its geostrategic interests to do so, and because it wouldn’t be their lives and property getting laid to waste.Brian Berletic put out a good video a few days ago about a Pentagon-funded 2019 Rand Corporation paper titled “Extending Russia – Competing from Advantageous Ground,” which is exactly what it sounds like. The US Army-commissioned paper details how the empire can use proxy warfare, economic warfare and other cold war tactics to push its longtime geopolitical foe to the brink without costing American lives or sparking a nuclear conflict. It mentions Ukraine hundreds of times, and it explicitly discusses the same economic warfare tactics we’re seeing today like sanctions and attacking Russia’s energy interests in Europe (the latter of which Berletic points out is also being used to bolster US dominance over its vassals in the EU).The paper even explicitly advocates continuing to threaten NATO membership with Ukraine to draw out an aggressive response from Moscow, saying, “While NATO’s requirement for unanimity makes it unlikely that Ukraine could gain membership in the foreseeable future, Washington’s pushing this possibility could boost Ukrainian resolve while leading Russia to redouble its efforts to forestall such a development.”President Biden has made calls for regime change in Moscow that can’t even really be called thinly disguised, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has openly said that the plan is to use this war to “weaken” Russia, which other US officials have told the press is indeed the policy. Comments from the Biden administration continually make it clear that the US alliance is buckling down to keep this war going for years to come, which would fit in nicely with Washington’s known track record of deliberately drawing Russia into military quagmires against US proxies in both Afghanistan and Syria.So make no mistake, behind all the phony hand-wringing and flag-waving, the US-centralized empire is getting exactly what it wants from this conflict. It gets to overextend Russia militarily and financially, promote its narratives around the world, rehabilitate the image of US interventionism, expand internet censorship, expand militarily, bolster control over its European client states, and all it costs is a little pretend empire money that gets funneled into the military-industrial complex anyway.Which is why when it looked like peace was at risk of breaking out in the early days of the conflict, the empire sent in Boris Johnson to tell Zelensky that even if he is ready for the war to end, his partners to the west were not.Russia and Ukraine agreed to a negotiated settlement to end the war in April, but British Prime Minister Boris Johnson intervened to stop the peace deal.The US and EU instead escalated the proxy war, as the Biden admin admitted, to try to “weaken” Moscowhttps://t.co/xsCvovq8Km— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) September 4, 2022So as you can see, the notion that this war is “unprovoked” is a fart-brained fairy tale for idiots and children; there’s no excuse for a grown adult with internet access and functioning brain matter to ever say such a thing. If China had backed a coup in Mexico and now had a loyal vassal in Mexico City who was letting Beijing distribute weapons along the US border while continually shelling English-speaking separatists in Baja California who are seeking US annexation, there’s no question that Washington would consider this a provocation and would respond accordingly. You can tell me that’s not true, but we’d both know you’re lying.But as Chomsky said, the press are still spouting this “unprovoked” nonsense anyway.”Russia is widely believed to have been taken aback by the West’s assertive and unified response to its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine,” reads a CNBC article published just minutes prior to this writing.”The diplomatic visit underlines the importance of the Russian relationship for China, even in the face of international blow back against Moscow after its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine earlier this year,” reads a new report from CNN hot off the presses.”It was an unprovoked attack on a sovereign country,” a source is quoted as saying in another CNN article published a few hours ago.It is, as Chomsky observed, really freaky how hard they’ve been hitting us with this line every time the invasion of Ukraine is mentioned. It seems like every time it comes up they’re obligated to say it, like how Michael Jackson had a quota for how often MTV hosts were obligated to refer to him as “The King of Pop Michael Jackson” when his name was mentioned.In the mass media you’re not allowed to talk about the known US/NATO/Ukraine actions which experts have been warning for many years would lead us to where we’re at. You’re only allowed to say Putin attacked Ukraine completely unprovoked, in a vacuum, solely because he is evil and hates freedom. And you have to do it while saying the word “unprovoked” at every opportunity.NATO chief admits that NATO allies have been training and arming Ukraine since 2014.Something to remember whenever Western media refers to an “unprovoked” invasion. pic.twitter.com/SGHF46yayz— Sarah Abdallah (@sahouraxo) August 29, 2022Empire apologists get upset when you talk about the fact that this war was provoked because a large amount of empire apologia in 2022 is built around pretending that provocation just isn’t a thing. By some trick of Orwellian doublethink, this concept we’ve all lived our entire lives knowing about and understanding is now suddenly a freakish and ridiculous invention of the Kremlin.We’re all guilty of doing the things we knowingly choose to do. If I choose to provoke someone into doing something bad, then they’re guilty of choosing to do the bad thing, but I am also guilty of provoking them. I’m not saying anything new here; this is the plot behind any movie or show with a sneaky or manipulative villain, and it’s been a part of our storytelling since ancient times. Nobody has ever walked out of Shakespeare’s Othello thinking that maybe Iago was just an innocent bystander who was trying to help out his friends.Most of us learn that provocation is real as children with siblings, kicking the other under the table or whatever to provoke a loud outburst, and we’ve understood it ever since. But in 2022 everyone’s pretending that this extremely basic, kindergarten-level concept is some kind of bizarre, alien gibberish. It’s intensely stupid, and it needs to stop.Empire apologists will also argue that saying Russia was provoked into invading by the US empire is like saying a rape victim provoked her rapist by wearing a tight skirt, or a battered wife provoked her abuser by disobeying him. And as a survivor of multiple rapes and an abusive relationship I must say I find it extremely offensive when people compare blaming the most powerful empire that has ever existed for its well-documented aggressions to blaming victims of rape and domestic violence. The poor widdle globe-spanning empire is not comparable to a rape victim, and if you find yourself thinking that it is it’s time to re-think your entire worldview.It’s not okay to be a grown adult in September of 2022 and still say the invasion of Ukraine was unprovoked. You’ve got a brain between your ears and an entire internet of information at your fingertips. Use them.”The US military budget was already more than three times more than the next-largest spender (China), more than the next 12 countries combined. Just randomly toss another $45 billion onto the pile. The excuses: inflation and Ukraine. What about the living standard of Americans?” (-Glenn Greenwald)Immobility Plan 2035 – Activist Post
“Liberalism is not leftism. Liberalism is reformism. And capitalism and imperialism cannot be reformed.” (-Danny Haiphong on the red carpet diversity muppets who pretend to care about healthcare, eviction moratorium, universal housing, student debt forgiveness, demilitarization of police during election, then vote for more war and giveaways for billionaires when Pelosi orders them to)
“This monstrosity destroyed Libya”. (-Danny Haiphong on Hillary Clinton)
“Haiti and Honduras too.” (-Ahimsa Mediation)
“The U.S is not only waging a war on other nations via sanctions & interventions, it’s also waging an economic war on its own people. The sooner U.S Americans realize their enemy isn’t people in other nations but the fascists in power, the sooner they can begin to stop the empire.” (-Fiorella Isabel)
Maximillian Alvarez on Twitter“Keeping the #LaborDay solidarity going, ICYMI on @WorkingPod I spoke with Amazon worker & union organizer @AmazonUnionofKY. Matt was fired in suspected retaliation for his organizing. Help spread the word & donate to his survival fund if you can ❤️ ✊🏾”twitter.com
“YouTube has censored
@Action4Assange’s latest panel raising awareness about the plight of political prisoner Julian Assange. Viewed must sign in then pass through two baseless warnings about “inappropriate” content. https://youtu.be/acR0t6mjwAk” (-Max Blumenthal)
“Don’t let them fool you. The so-called richest nation in the world could fund healthcare and housing for all, but it doesn’t want to because then it couldn’t exploit poor and working class people.” (-Ryan Knight)
“If Julian Assange is silenced, others will also be gagged either directly or by the fear of persecution and prosecution.”—
“Biden is literally to the right of Henry Kissinger and people are trying to say he is ‘the most progressive president in history’ lmao.” (-Benjamin Carollo)
“Assange had a stroke in the courtroom and no court official even noticed. That tells you all you need to know: A victim of torture – suffering the health consequences of torture – should not be extradited or even tried. He should be freed.” (-Dr. Jill Stein)
Nelson Mandela:”No one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails” Alleged #Vault7 source Joshua Schulte (whose retrial began on Tuesday), held in ‘barbaric conditions in US prison’, in an inhumane existence, “worse than death”
“Every person in the United States should be able to claim Raytheon as a dependent on their taxes.” (-Drop The MIC)
“The big winners of the Biden Presidency have been Pfizer, Moderna, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. If you think Biden is doing a good job you shouldn’t be mocking Trumpers”
(-Black In The Empire)
“At a Council on Foreign Relations forum about “fake news,” former Editor at Time Magazine Richard Stengel directly states that he supports the use of propaganda on American citizens – then shuts the session down when challenged about how propaganda is used against the third world…Ben Decker also labels the alleged leak of documents last year showing offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands associated with Emmanuel Macron as fake news, despite the fact that the leak’s authenticity has never been definitively confirmed or debunked.” (-William Craddick)
“Biden is spending money, but he is not spending money on the people. He is spending on the military and proxy wars in order to expand U.S. imperialism and enrich U.S. oligarchs at our expense.” (-Ryan Knight)
“That Biden is credibly called a socialist by electorally viable congressional candidates who clearly have no idea what socialism actually is, to me indicates that our Overton window is now centered somewhere between Genghis Khan and Mussolini.” (-mousdrvr on Twitter)
You might even find that expanding consciousness in one way helps your ability to expand it in other ways. You might find for example that expanding your awareness of how your own mind operates gives you more awareness of how other people’s minds operate, and how they can be manipulated by powerful people using propaganda. You may also find for example that expanding your awareness of the plight of people less socioeconomically and geopolitically advantaged than yourself expands your own personal awareness of the various socioeconomic and geopolitical dynamics which have given rise to the way your life is right now. You may also find for example that expanding your consciousness of your own inner processes gives you a serenity which makes it easier to look squarely at the horrors you encounter when expanding your awareness of what’s going on in the world, and gives you the humility to see that you are not fully separate from those horrors.
The game of humanity will keep improving as long as our consciousness keeps expanding. I’d go so far as saying that’s the only thing that can cause things to get better, and that failing to do it guarantees things will get worse.
Like a video game, I believe we humans are free to either win this game or lose it. We will either keep expanding our awareness of what’s really going on in this weird universe our mothers birthed us into, or we will wipe ourselves out via nuclear war or ecocide.
Either way, if you choose to accept what’s being said here, we do each have the power to make things better by exactly one unit of human effort. We can help spread awareness of what’s going on in the world by fighting the lies we’ve been told by the powerful and drawing attention to things the powerful would rather keep hidden. We can help spread awareness of the human condition with art and with empathy. We can expand our own consciousness by getting very curious about how we operate and what makes us tick, and being very real with ourselves about what we find in that exploration.
Whatever you choose to believe about all this, it’s your adventure. I wish you the best in your travels.
“Think about what scummy liars these Democrats are. They write books boasting about how they bullied Cuba not to let Snowden pass through, thus trapping him in Russia. Then they use his presence in Russia to imply he’s a spy: when they *know* he’s there because they forced that.” (-Glenn Greenwald)
“A virulent manipulator’s entire social existence revolves around influencing the narratives people have about what’s going on in their circle in a way that benefits the manipulator.” (-Caitlin Johnstone)
has not only deleted my podcast “Moment of Clarity,” they have now deleted my artist profile and my 2 comedy albums from years ago. I was given no warning or reason for this. I also learned recently that a writer for a mainstream outlet personally tried to include positive mentions of me & my work in multiple articles & had them yanked out by her editor. Even just a positive sentence about me is forbidden in mainstream outlets.
Simply for being anti-war and anti-imperialist, I am the most-censored comedian in America. You can keep supporting my work by becoming a member at LeeCamp dot net.” (-Lee Camp)
“Joe Biden, don’t come to Los Angeles like you’ve been some vanguard for human rights!”
@CornelWest goes off on the crimes of the U.S. empire, and calls for democracy from the bottom-up rather than neoliberal identity politics.
“Biden did not send $54 billion in military aid to help Ukraine. He sent it to fight a proxy war with Russia “down to the last Ukrainian.” (-Danny Haiphong)
“The two established wings of the oligarchy, the old Republican Party represented by politicians such as Liz Cheney, one of two Republicans on the committee, and the Bush family, are now united with the Democratic Party elite into one ruling political entity. The ruling parties were already in lock step for decades on the major issues, including: war, trade deals, austerity, the militarization of police, prisons, government surveillance and assaults on civil liberties. They worked in tandem to pervert and destroy democratic institutions on behalf of the rich and corporations. They desperately work together now to stave off the revolt by enraged and betrayed white working men and women… (-Chris Hedges)
“The US-centralized empire is a giant macrocosm of this entire dynamic. It pours vast amounts of energy into narrative control in the form of propaganda, censorship, Silicon Valley algorithm manipulation, and the war on journalism. It weaves nonstop narratives about how great it is and how horrible its enemies are. And it fears being seen more than anything in the world.
The vast globe-spanning power structure that is loosely centralized around the United States is a powerful military force and a powerful economic force, but its most potent weapon by far is its ability to control the narrative about what’s happening in the world. The use of oligarchic media, Silicon Valley and Hollywood to manipulate public thought and thereby control the way people think, act and vote at mass scale all around the world is unlike anything ever seen in any empire in history.
Propaganda only works if you don’t know it’s happening. Censorship only works if it doesn’t draw attention to the information being censored. The US empire’s nonstop campaign to control the world’s dominant narratives only works if it isn’t in the spotlight of public scrutiny. This is why those who draw attention to these things are smeared, demonized, censored, marginalized, imprisoned and worse by the managers of empire.
Manipulators hate to be seen, but if you ever find yourself in a relationship with one, your ability to escape depends upon your seeing them. This extreme clash of interests often brings up white hot rage in the manipulator which can be frightening and dangerous.
And I think humanity is entering that stage of the relationship with the US empire. A manipulator who’s just beginning to be seen by a few more pairs of eyes than it would like, causing flickerings of panic to begin to surface. Because once those eyes see what’s hidden underneath the veil of narrative manipulation, they don’t often look away. If anything, they tend to point and draw more attention to it.
It’s a scary time to be alive. But it’s also fascinating. Unlike anything that has ever happened on this planet before.
I look forward to finding out if we escape.” (-Cait Johnstone)
The inevitable end to global white world supremacy is driving some in the West mad. It is not enough that the people of Ukraine are being sacrificed, the U.S. is making dangerous moves with China & Taiwan. (-Ajamu Baraka)
Over centuries of dynasties, upheavals and revolutions, powerful people have learned that the best way to dominate a population is to manipulate them into serving your interests while giving them the illusion of freedom and control. The invention of mass media has facilitated this new form of tyranny, as has the emergence of psychology as a field of study. These two factors have combined together to give rise to the steadily advancing science of modern propaganda.
This is why the world is as it is: because the people have been psychologically manipulated at mass scale away from using the power of their numbers to create systems that benefit them instead of a few powerful sociopaths.
This is the source of all our major problems. Understanding it, and finding ways to overcome it, is the solution. The only reason they’ve been able to control us in this way is because they understand all the many ways our minds can be manipulated better than we do.(-Cait Johnstone)
Call ’em what you want-the deep state or powers that be or one percent or oligarchy or permanent ruling class, but you gotta start admitting the shadow government and it’s media are going to crazy lengths to control our communications whether that’s through outlawing assembly, censoring dissident journalists, spying on our electronic conversations and phonecalls, deplatforming and demonestizing us for straying off their preferred narrative, or trotting Disposition Matrix Millionaire Obama out to talk pretty about need to “detoxify” the internet discourse, which is coded newspeak for clampdowns on anybody opposed to endless war and panopticon corporate wiretaps. People who go to college never heard of Cointelpro nd if they have, they can not seem to remotely contemplate that it still exists, they think the SQUAD is gonna save ’em with pro noun preferences, happy slogans, and empty justice tweets. Russiagate serves as all purpose ruling class cover story now. Same way they blamed everything on boogeymen Hussian/Gaddafi/Bin Ladin/Assad/ISIS under Bush/Cheney/Obama. Just tell ’em a boogeyman is coming for their freedom fries.
If you start researching the Davos billionaires, Bilderberg, World Economic Forum and the Klaus Scwab-Kissinger-Bill Gates transhumanist agenda being openly promoted by John Kerry, Joe Biden, Justin Trudeau and many others, of course it is horrifying that the wealthiest one percent of the one percent plan on enslaving humanity with microchips and cashless society control grid, surveillance-tech capitalism authoritarian one world government shit, and that it’s not just some whackjob Alex Jones hysteria being used to sell rightwing militia survivalist swag and vitamins anymore, but I’ll tell ya, between you and me, just us kids here, all my ex associates ALREADY seem like unfeeling, programmed droid, dystopian, transhuman cyborgs. They just obey the fucking tv, they never think for themselves, or read, and slavishly imitate whatever they watch on TV. Whatever “The Latest Thang” is. Netflix, which Obama and Chelle are involved with, is all some creepy, sick secret society programming-you can confirm that just clicking through their “programs”. I don’t watch tv or believe very much of what is firehosed at us via the mockingbird monopoly media. I think the emperors are having fun at your expense-telling you to go buy duct tape and shit. For freedom. Everytime I turn on the computer or flip through the tv hypnoscreen, I see the propagandists are still eager beaver milking the whole hog fuck out of that bullshit Thank a KKKOP capital hill psy-op story designed to manufacture populist consent for outlawing protests. Man oh man, how can people pat themselves on the back all day for their critical thinking skills supposedly cultivated at the prestigious, prohibitively expensive. posh sports university in the Pacific Northwest, and then, immediately fall for this dummy Qshaman HYSTERIA? All you hear on Pig Media nowadays, is “Putin!!!” is somehow, other side of the world responsible, not only for people disliking Hillary Clinton, but also, now for Murkkkans corporations price gouging inflation ripoffs and greedhead jackedup rents, or that Trump’s maga protest was an “insurrection” so Murkkkans should just give up their rights to protest and stand in line at Best Buy for the next round of programming updates and gadgets and obey the Davos techlords for science. All your AOC worshipping shitlib friends even love openly evil Lyn Cheney now cause she said “Orange Man Bad” and “insurrection” one million times. I thought the George Floyd protests where the undercover proud boys burned down police stations looked more like proper insurrections than when some love a man in uniform hillbillies broke a window and climbed a wall, painted their chest and messed up Pelosi’s desk, but I believe in free speech. These illuminati puppets they got infiltrating all the governments worldwide were trained at the Kissinger/Schwab Fascist School but people with Ukraine flags on their falsebook profiles never even heard of any of that. Would not believe you even if you tried to tell ’em. They got some headline today about how useless pants suit, Kopmala is gonna be “TACKLING ONLINE ABUSE”. Of course as Bill Gates and his World Economic Forum secret society friends keep changing definitions of words in the dictionary to promote their Reset plan, the meaning of abuse will be efficiently altered. “ABUSE” is when no soul bureaucrats like Kopmala keep forced-labor slaving, non violent drug offenders in for profit prisons as long as possible, to increase shareholder value. “ABUSE” is when you incarcerate black parents for truant teenagers skipping schools that are fuckedup target ranges nowadays anyways. “ABUSE” is when you send mercenaries to kidnap a publisher from a foreign embassy and lock him up in a torture gulag for years, causing him to have a stroke, for embarrassing the criminal enterprise of murderous imperialism. These shitlibs gonna change the meaning of the word “ABUSE” so it becomes anybody speaking truth about power. This is the kind of bullshit you have to resist. NOT some college asshole disapproving of a comedian. That vote blue no matter who bullshit mighta worked out for some people who were already rich and just worried about poor people disobeying some authority figure, but the majority of us are falling deeper and deper into dangerous poverty while the middle class people keep watching tv. As Ryan knight said, “Biden’s approval rating keeps falling because the people aren’t buying his lies anymore about how “great the economy” is when they can’t afford housing, healthcare, and groceries.” Matzo Ball Dan adds, “The embarrassing attempt at spinning this economic catastrophe by calling it ‘Putin’s price hike’ isn’t convincing anyone.” THESE are the kinda discussions Obama and Kopmala’s billionaire bosses have ordered them to help eradicate.
On a recent interview with the Useful Idiots podcast, Noam Chomsky repeated his argument that the only reason we hear the word “unprovoked” every time anyone mentions Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in the mainstream news media is because it absolutely was provoked, and they know it.”Right now if you’re a respectable writer and you want to write in the main journals, you talk about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, you have to call it ‘the unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine,” Chomsky said. “It’s a very interesting phrase; it was never used before. You look back, you look at Iraq, which was totally unprovoked, nobody ever called it ‘the unprovoked invasion of Iraq.’ In fact I don’t know if the term was ever used — if it was it was very marginal. Now you look it up on Google, and hundreds of thousands of hits. Every article that comes out has to talk about the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.””Why? Because they know perfectly well it was provoked,” Chomsky said. “That doesn’t justify it, but it was massively provoked. Top US diplomats have been talking about this for 30 years, even the head of the CIA.”Chomsky is of course correct here. The imperial media and their brainwashed automatons have spent half a year mindlessly bleating the word “unprovoked” in relation to this war, but one question none of them ever have a straight answer for is this: if the invasion of Ukraine was unprovoked, how come so many western experts spent years warning that the actions of western governments would provoke an invasion of Ukraine?Because, as Chomsky notes, that is indeed the case. A few days after the invasion began this past February a guy named Arnaud Bertrand put together an extremely viral Twitter thread that just goes on and on and on about the various diplomats, analysts and academics in the west who have over the years been warning that a dangerous confrontation with Russia was coming because of NATO advancements toward its borders, interventionism in Ukraine, and various other aggressions. It contains examples like John Mearsheimer explicitly warning in 2015 that “the west is leading Ukraine down the primrose path, and the end result is that Ukraine is going to get wrecked,” and Pat Buchanan warning all the way back in 1999 that “By moving NATO onto Russia’s front porch, we have scheduled a twenty-first-century confrontation.”Empire apologists love claiming that the invasion of Ukraine had nothing to do with NATO expansionism (their claims generally based on brazen misrepresentations of what Vladimir Putin has said about Russia’s reasons for the war), but that’s silly. The US war machine was continuing to taunt the possibility of NATO membership for Ukraine right up until the invasion, a threat it refused to take off the table since placing it there in 2008 despite knowing full well that this threat was an incendiary provocation to Moscow.Most fascinating thing about the Ukraine war is the sheer number of top strategic thinkers who warned for years that it was coming if we continued down the same path.No-one listened to them and here we are.Small compilation of these warnings, from Kissinger to Mearsheimer.— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) March 1, 2022This is to say nothing of the US empire actively fomenting a violent uprising in 2014 which ousted Kyiv’s sitting government and fractured the nation between its more Moscow-loyal populations to the east and the more US/EU-friendly parts of the country. This led to the annexation of Crimea (overwhelmingly supported by the people who live there) and eight years of brutal warfare against Russia-backed separatists in the Donbas. Ukrainian attacks on those separatists are known to have increased exponentially in the days leading up to the invasion, and it has been argued that this is what provoked Putin’s final decision to commit to invading (which was a last-minute decision according to US intelligence).The US power alliance could very easily have prevented this war with a few low-cost concessions like enshrining Ukrainian neutrality, rolling back its war machinery from Russia’s borders and sincerely pursuing detente with Moscow instead of shredding treaties and ramping up cold war escalations. Hell, it could likely have prevented this war just by protecting President Zelensky from the anti-Moscow far right nationalists who were openly threatening to lynch him if he began honoring the Minsk agreements and pursuing peace with Russia, as he was originally elected to do.Instead it knowingly chose the opposite course: continuing to float the possibility of formal NATO membership for Ukraine while pouring weapons into the nation and making it more and more of a de facto NATO member with closer and closer intimacy with the US war machine, and then either ordering, encouraging or tolerating Ukraine’s aggressive assault on Donbas separatists.Why did the empire opt for provocation over peace? Congressman Adam Schiff gave a pretty good answer to that question in January of 2020 as the road to war was being paved: “so that we can fight Russia over there, and we don’t have to fight Russia here.” If you relinquish the infantile idea that the US empire is helping its good friend Ukraine because it loves the Ukrainian people and wants them to have freedom and democracy, it’s not hard to see that the US sparked a convenient proxy war because it was in its geostrategic interests to do so, and because it wouldn’t be their lives and property getting laid to waste.Brian Berletic put out a good video a few days ago about a Pentagon-funded 2019 Rand Corporation paper titled “Extending Russia – Competing from Advantageous Ground,” which is exactly what it sounds like. The US Army-commissioned paper details how the empire can use proxy warfare, economic warfare and other cold war tactics to push its longtime geopolitical foe to the brink without costing American lives or sparking a nuclear conflict. It mentions Ukraine hundreds of times, and it explicitly discusses the same economic warfare tactics we’re seeing today like sanctions and attacking Russia’s energy interests in Europe (the latter of which Berletic points out is also being used to bolster US dominance over its vassals in the EU).The paper even explicitly advocates continuing to threaten NATO membership with Ukraine to draw out an aggressive response from Moscow, saying, “While NATO’s requirement for unanimity makes it unlikely that Ukraine could gain membership in the foreseeable future, Washington’s pushing this possibility could boost Ukrainian resolve while leading Russia to redouble its efforts to forestall such a development.”President Biden has made calls for regime change in Moscow that can’t even really be called thinly disguised, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has openly said that the plan is to use this war to “weaken” Russia, which other US officials have told the press is indeed the policy. Comments from the Biden administration continually make it clear that the US alliance is buckling down to keep this war going for years to come, which would fit in nicely with Washington’s known track record of deliberately drawing Russia into military quagmires against US proxies in both Afghanistan and Syria.So make no mistake, behind all the phony hand-wringing and flag-waving, the US-centralized empire is getting exactly what it wants from this conflict. It gets to overextend Russia militarily and financially, promote its narratives around the world, rehabilitate the image of US interventionism, expand internet censorship, expand militarily, bolster control over its European client states, and all it costs is a little pretend empire money that gets funneled into the military-industrial complex anyway.Which is why when it looked like peace was at risk of breaking out in the early days of the conflict, the empire sent in Boris Johnson to tell Zelensky that even if he is ready for the war to end, his partners to the west were not.Russia and Ukraine agreed to a negotiated settlement to end the war in April, but British Prime Minister Boris Johnson intervened to stop the peace deal.The US and EU instead escalated the proxy war, as the Biden admin admitted, to try to “weaken” Moscowhttps://t.co/xsCvovq8Km— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) September 4, 2022So as you can see, the notion that this war is “unprovoked” is a fart-brained fairy tale for idiots and children; there’s no excuse for a grown adult with internet access and functioning brain matter to ever say such a thing. If China had backed a coup in Mexico and now had a loyal vassal in Mexico City who was letting Beijing distribute weapons along the US border while continually shelling English-speaking separatists in Baja California who are seeking US annexation, there’s no question that Washington would consider this a provocation and would respond accordingly. You can tell me that’s not true, but we’d both know you’re lying.But as Chomsky said, the press are still spouting this “unprovoked” nonsense anyway.”Russia is widely believed to have been taken aback by the West’s assertive and unified response to its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine,” reads a CNBC article published just minutes prior to this writing.”The diplomatic visit underlines the importance of the Russian relationship for China, even in the face of international blow back against Moscow after its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine earlier this year,” reads a new report from CNN hot off the presses.”It was an unprovoked attack on a sovereign country,” a source is quoted as saying in another CNN article published a few hours ago.It is, as Chomsky observed, really freaky how hard they’ve been hitting us with this line every time the invasion of Ukraine is mentioned. It seems like every time it comes up they’re obligated to say it, like how Michael Jackson had a quota for how often MTV hosts were obligated to refer to him as “The King of Pop Michael Jackson” when his name was mentioned.In the mass media you’re not allowed to talk about the known US/NATO/Ukraine actions which experts have been warning for many years would lead us to where we’re at. You’re only allowed to say Putin attacked Ukraine completely unprovoked, in a vacuum, solely because he is evil and hates freedom. And you have to do it while saying the word “unprovoked” at every opportunity.NATO chief admits that NATO allies have been training and arming Ukraine since 2014.Something to remember whenever Western media refers to an “unprovoked” invasion. pic.twitter.com/SGHF46yayz— Sarah Abdallah (@sahouraxo) August 29, 2022Empire apologists get upset when you talk about the fact that this war was provoked because a large amount of empire apologia in 2022 is built around pretending that provocation just isn’t a thing. By some trick of Orwellian doublethink, this concept we’ve all lived our entire lives knowing about and understanding is now suddenly a freakish and ridiculous invention of the Kremlin.We’re all guilty of doing the things we knowingly choose to do. If I choose to provoke someone into doing something bad, then they’re guilty of choosing to do the bad thing, but I am also guilty of provoking them. I’m not saying anything new here; this is the plot behind any movie or show with a sneaky or manipulative villain, and it’s been a part of our storytelling since ancient times. Nobody has ever walked out of Shakespeare’s Othello thinking that maybe Iago was just an innocent bystander who was trying to help out his friends.Most of us learn that provocation is real as children with siblings, kicking the other under the table or whatever to provoke a loud outburst, and we’ve understood it ever since. But in 2022 everyone’s pretending that this extremely basic, kindergarten-level concept is some kind of bizarre, alien gibberish. It’s intensely stupid, and it needs to stop.Empire apologists will also argue that saying Russia was provoked into invading by the US empire is like saying a rape victim provoked her rapist by wearing a tight skirt, or a battered wife provoked her abuser by disobeying him. And as a survivor of multiple rapes and an abusive relationship I must say I find it extremely offensive when people compare blaming the most powerful empire that has ever existed for its well-documented aggressions to blaming victims of rape and domestic violence. The poor widdle globe-spanning empire is not comparable to a rape victim, and if you find yourself thinking that it is it’s time to re-think your entire worldview.It’s not okay to be a grown adult in September of 2022 and still say the invasion of Ukraine was unprovoked. You’ve got a brain between your ears and an entire internet of information at your fingertips. Use them.”The US military budget was already more than three times more than the next-largest spender (China), more than the next 12 countries combined. Just randomly toss another $45 billion onto the pile. The excuses: inflation and Ukraine. What about the living standard of Americans?” (-Glenn Greenwald)Immobility Plan 2035 – Activist Post Immobility Plan 2035 – Activist PostOp-Ed by Gary M. Galles. In 2015, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced his Vision Zero plan to eliminate the more than 200 annual non-driver traffic fatalities by 2025. In concert, the City Council adopted Mobility Plan 2035, a 20-year initiative to remove automobile lanes and make more room for bus and bike lanes to upgrade pedestrian and cyclist safety.www.activistpost.comhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpASSqz1hGc Ukrainegate impeachment saga worsens US-Russia Cold WarPushback with Aaron Maté As the House opens impeachment hearings for President Trump, Professor Stephen F. Cohen warns that the US military assistance at the heart of Ukrainegate escalates the US-Russia Cold War. Guest: Stephen F. Cohen, professor emeritus of Russian studies at New York University and Princeton University, contributing editor …www.youtube.com“Liberalism is not leftism. Liberalism is reformism. And capitalism and imperialism cannot be reformed.” (-Danny Haiphong on the red carpet diversity muppets who pretend to care about healthcare, eviction moratorium, universal housing, student debt forgiveness, demilitarization of police during election, then vote for more war and giveaways for billionaires when Pelosi orders them to) Autocracy, American-Style – Consortium News Autocracy, American-Style – Consortium NewsAs a deterrent threat and control it fails for two reasons. For one thing, the frivolous approach taken by many in Congress in recent years has tarnished its dignity and seriousness.consortiumnews.com“This monstrosity destroyed Libya”. (-Danny Haiphong on Hillary Clinton) “Haiti and Honduras too.” (-Ahimsa Mediation)”The U.S is not only waging a war on other nations via sanctions & interventions, it’s also waging an economic war on its own people. The sooner U.S Americans realize their enemy isn’t people in other nations but the fascists in power, the sooner they can begin to stop the empire.” (-Fiorella Isabel) Maximillian Alvarez on Twitter: “Keeping the #LaborDay solidarity going, ICYMI on @WorkingPod I spoke with Amazon worker & union organizer @AmazonUnionofKY. Matt was fired in suspected retaliation for his organizing. Help spread the word & donate to his survival fund if you can ❤️ ✊🏾” / Twitter Maximillian Alvarez on Twitter“Keeping the #LaborDay solidarity going, ICYMI on @WorkingPod I spoke with Amazon worker & union organizer @AmazonUnionofKY. Matt was fired in suspected retaliation for his organizing. Help spread the word & donate to his survival fund if you can ❤️ ✊🏾”twitter.com “YouTube has censored@Action4Assange’s latest panel raising awareness about the plight of political prisoner Julian Assange. Viewed must sign in then pass through two baseless warnings about “inappropriate” content. https://youtu.be/acR0t6mjwAk” (-Max Blumenthal) “Don’t let them fool you. The so-called richest nation in the world could fund healthcare and housing for all, but it doesn’t want to because then it couldn’t exploit poor and working class people.” (-Ryan Knight) “If Julian Assange is silenced, others will also be gagged either directly or by the fear of persecution and prosecution.”—@StefSimanowitz@amnesty#FreeAssangeNOW#DropTheCharges “Biden is literally to the right of Henry Kissinger and people are trying to say he is ‘the most progressive president in history’ lmao.” (-Benjamin Carollo) Roger Waters begs Olena Zelenska to “stop the slaughter” (faroutmagazine.co.uk) Roger Waters begs Olena Zelenska to “stop the slaughter” in new open letterfaroutmagazine.co.uk“Assange had a stroke in the courtroom and no court official even noticed. That tells you all you need to know: A victim of torture – suffering the health consequences of torture – should not be extradited or even tried. He should be freed.” (-Dr. Jill Stein) https://nclalegal.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Joint-Statement-on-Discovery-Disputes-Combined.pdf https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m97-oPi5_rI SND Live w/Whitney WebbPowered by Restream https://restream.io/ Buckle up for another high test, wide ranging interview with the one and only Whitney Webb! We open the show by discussing two of Whitney’s latest articles at Unlimited Hangout- while being interrupted by a potential intelligence contractor with a leafblower. Whitney Webb: https://unlimitedhangout.com/www.youtube.comFREE THE PRESS!!!WikiLeaks@wikileaksNelson Mandela:”No one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails” Alleged #Vault7 source Joshua Schulte (whose retrial began on Tuesday), held in ‘barbaric conditions in US prison’, in an inhumane existence, “worse than death”https://pix11.com/news/national-news/ex-cia-engineer-in-wikileaks-case-says-hes-incarcerated-like-an-animal/Ex-CIA engineer in WikiLeaks case says he’s incarcerated like an animal – PIX11NEW YORK — A former CIA software engineer charged with leaking government secrets to WikiLeaks says it’s cruel and unusual punishment that he’s awaiting trial in solitary confinement, housed …pix11.comIn Vault 7 Leak Trial Schulte Crosses FBI Agent On How Secret CIA Site Has Visitors Center, Pompeo (substack.com) In Vault 7 Leak Trial Schulte Crosses FBI Agent On How Secret CIA Site Has Visitors Center, PompeoBy Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Thread Song BBC – Decrypt – LightRead – Honduras – Pod Schulte Trial Tale on Patreon SDNY COURTHOUSE, June 15 – When jury selection was completed for the retrial of accused CIA Vault 7 leaker Joshua Schulte, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Jesse M. Furman told the jurors, Do not read or say anything about the case.matthewrussellleeicp.substack.comPriti Patel, hear this loud and clear: Julian Assange must not be handed over to the US | Duncan Campbell | The Guardian Priti Patel, hear this loud and clear: Julian Assange must not be handed over to the US | Duncan Campbell – The GuardianA Julian Assange supporter outside Westminster magistrates’ court where an extradition order was made on 20 April. Photograph: Tayfun Salcı/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstockwww.theguardian.comJOHN KIRIAKOU: A Whistleblower’s Agony – scheerpost.com JOHN KIRIAKOU: A Whistleblower’s Agony – scheerpost.com(Vectorportal, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons) By John Kiriakou / Consortium News. A C.I.A. whistleblower languishes awaiting trial in a federal prison under inhumane conditions and almost nobody is paying attention.. Joshua Schulte is a former C.I.A. hacker, one of those computer geniuses whose job it is to work his way into the computer systems of our country’s enemies in support of some of …scheerpost.com“Every person in the United States should be able to claim Raytheon as a dependent on their taxes.” (-Drop The MIC)”The big winners of the Biden Presidency have been Pfizer, Moderna, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. If you think Biden is doing a good job you shouldn’t be mocking Trumpers” (-Black In The Empire)”At a Council on Foreign Relations forum about “fake news,” former Editor at Time Magazine Richard Stengel directly states that he supports the use of propaganda on American citizens – then shuts the session down when challenged about how propaganda is used against the third world…Ben Decker also labels the alleged leak of documents last year showing offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands associated with Emmanuel Macron as fake news, despite the fact that the leak’s authenticity has never been definitively confirmed or debunked.” (-William Craddick) “Biden is spending money, but he is not spending money on the people. He is spending on the military and proxy wars in order to expand U.S. imperialism and enrich U.S. oligarchs at our expense.” (-Ryan Knight)”That Biden is credibly called a socialist by electorally viable congressional candidates who clearly have no idea what socialism actually is, to me indicates that our Overton window is now centered somewhere between Genghis Khan and Mussolini.” (-mousdrvr on Twitter) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eB3kQCETjU ‘Quiet Quitting’ Is Rocking Corporate AmericaThe corporate media have taken up a new narrative in their constant battle to protect the business world from the demands of workers. Quiet quitting is the act of doing exactly what you’ve been hired to do at work and no more. The rich hate it and that’s why the talking heads in the media are working overtime to let the public know that it …www.youtube.comYou might even find that expanding consciousness in one way helps your ability to expand it in other ways. You might find for example that expanding your awareness of how your own mind operates gives you more awareness of how other people’s minds operate, and how they can be manipulated by powerful people using propaganda. You may also find for example that expanding your awareness of the plight of people less socioeconomically and geopolitically advantaged than yourself expands your own personal awareness of the various socioeconomic and geopolitical dynamics which have given rise to the way your life is right now. You may also find for example that expanding your consciousness of your own inner processes gives you a serenity which makes it easier to look squarely at the horrors you encounter when expanding your awareness of what’s going on in the world, and gives you the humility to see that you are not fully separate from those horrors.The game of humanity will keep improving as long as our consciousness keeps expanding. I’d go so far as saying that’s the only thing that can cause things to get better, and that failing to do it guarantees things will get worse.Like a video game, I believe we humans are free to either win this game or lose it. We will either keep expanding our awareness of what’s really going on in this weird universe our mothers birthed us into, or we will wipe ourselves out via nuclear war or ecocide.Either way, if you choose to accept what’s being said here, we do each have the power to make things better by exactly one unit of human effort. We can help spread awareness of what’s going on in the world by fighting the lies we’ve been told by the powerful and drawing attention to things the powerful would rather keep hidden. We can help spread awareness of the human condition with art and with empathy. We can expand our own consciousness by getting very curious about how we operate and what makes us tick, and being very real with ourselves about what we find in that exploration.Whatever you choose to believe about all this, it’s your adventure. I wish you the best in your travels.(-Cait Johnstone) I think we are constantly faced with the same decision. The decision to be blindly obedient to authority versus the decision to try and change things by fighting the powers that be is always, throughout history, the only decision.Abbie Hoffman Chris Hedges: Let’s Stop Pretending America Is a Functioning Democracy (mintpressnews.com) Chris Hedges: Let’s Stop Pretending America Is a Functioning DemocracyP RINCETON, NEW JERSEY () — There is a fatal disconnect between a political system that promises democratic equality and freedom while carrying out socioeconomic injustices that result in …www.mintpressnews.com ” Here’s how the US government built a fake Ukrainian “resistance” funded thru the Nat’l Endowment for Democracy, Solidarity Ctr & other CIA-linked orgs, & here’s why DSA members are promoting this “resistance” to justify imperialist war vs Russia.” (-Eric London) The Democratic Socialists of America and the invention of the pro-imperialist “Ukrainian resistance” – World Socialist Web Site (wsws.org)The Democratic Socialists of America and the invention of the pro-imperialist “Ukrainian resistance” – World Socialist Web SiteAshley Smith (Twitter) The claim that Ukraine is a “colony” of Russian “imperialism” is an intentional historical slight-of-hand. It bypasses the Russian Revolution of 1917, which …www.wsws.org“Think about what scummy liars these Democrats are. They write books boasting about how they bullied Cuba not to let Snowden pass through, thus trapping him in Russia. Then they use his presence in Russia to imply he’s a spy: when they *know* he’s there because they forced that.” (-Glenn Greenwald) “A virulent manipulator’s entire social existence revolves around influencing the narratives people have about what’s going on in their circle in a way that benefits the manipulator.” (-Caitlin Johnstone) “The censorship against me continues. It appears@Spotify has not only deleted my podcast “Moment of Clarity,” they have now deleted my artist profile and my 2 comedy albums from years ago. I was given no warning or reason for this. I also learned recently that a writer for a mainstream outlet personally tried to include positive mentions of me & my work in multiple articles & had them yanked out by her editor. Even just a positive sentence about me is forbidden in mainstream outlets. Simply for being anti-war and anti-imperialist, I am the most-censored comedian in America. You can keep supporting my work by becoming a member at LeeCamp dot net.” (-Lee Camp)
“Joe Biden, don’t come to Los Angeles like you’ve been some vanguard for human rights!”@CornelWest goes off on the crimes of the U.S. empire, and calls for democracy from the bottom-up rather than neoliberal identity politics. “Biden did not send $54 billion in military aid to help Ukraine. He sent it to fight a proxy war with Russia “down to the last Ukrainian.” (-Danny Haiphong)”The two established wings of the oligarchy, the old Republican Party represented by politicians such as Liz Cheney, one of two Republicans on the committee, and the Bush family, are now united with the Democratic Party elite into one ruling political entity. The ruling parties were already in lock step for decades on the major issues, including: war, trade deals, austerity, the militarization of police, prisons, government surveillance and assaults on civil liberties. They worked in tandem to pervert and destroy democratic institutions on behalf of the rich and corporations. They desperately work together now to stave off the revolt by enraged and betrayed white working men and women… (-Chris Hedges)
Usually when you ask somebody in college why they are there, they’ll tell you it’s to get an education. The truth of it is, they are there to get the degree so that they can get ahead in the rat race. Too many college radicals are two-timing punks. The only reason you should be in college is to destroy it.Abbie Hoffman “The US-centralized empire is a giant macrocosm of this entire dynamic. It pours vast amounts of energy into narrative control in the form of propaganda, censorship, Silicon Valley algorithm manipulation, and the war on journalism. It weaves nonstop narratives about how great it is and how horrible its enemies are. And it fears being seen more than anything in the world.The vast globe-spanning power structure that is loosely centralized around the United States is a powerful military force and a powerful economic force, but its most potent weapon by far is its ability to control the narrative about what’s happening in the world. The use of oligarchic media, Silicon Valley and Hollywood to manipulate public thought and thereby control the way people think, act and vote at mass scale all around the world is unlike anything ever seen in any empire in history.Propaganda only works if you don’t know it’s happening. Censorship only works if it doesn’t draw attention to the information being censored. The US empire’s nonstop campaign to control the world’s dominant narratives only works if it isn’t in the spotlight of public scrutiny. This is why those who draw attention to these things are smeared, demonized, censored, marginalized, imprisoned and worse by the managers of empire.Manipulators hate to be seen, but if you ever find yourself in a relationship with one, your ability to escape depends upon your seeing them. This extreme clash of interests often brings up white hot rage in the manipulator which can be frightening and dangerous.And I think humanity is entering that stage of the relationship with the US empire. A manipulator who’s just beginning to be seen by a few more pairs of eyes than it would like, causing flickerings of panic to begin to surface. Because once those eyes see what’s hidden underneath the veil of narrative manipulation, they don’t often look away. If anything, they tend to point and draw more attention to it.It’s a scary time to be alive. But it’s also fascinating. Unlike anything that has ever happened on this planet before.I look forward to finding out if we escape.” (-Cait Johnstone)You are talking to a leftist. I believe in the redistribution of wealth and power in the world. I believe in universal hospital care for everyone. I believe that we should not have a single homeless person in the richest country in the world. And I believe that we should not have a C.I.A. that goes around overwhelming governments and assassinating political leaders, working for tight oligarchies around the world to protect the tight oligarchy here at home.Abbie Hoffman The inevitable end to global white world supremacy is driving some in the West mad. It is not enough that the people of Ukraine are being sacrificed, the U.S. is making dangerous moves with China & Taiwan. (-Ajamu Baraka)Over centuries of dynasties, upheavals and revolutions, powerful people have learned that the best way to dominate a population is to manipulate them into serving your interests while giving them the illusion of freedom and control. The invention of mass media has facilitated this new form of tyranny, as has the emergence of psychology as a field of study. These two factors have combined together to give rise to the steadily advancing science of modern propaganda.This is why the world is as it is: because the people have been psychologically manipulated at mass scale away from using the power of their numbers to create systems that benefit them instead of a few powerful sociopaths.This is the source of all our major problems. Understanding it, and finding ways to overcome it, is the solution. The only reason they’ve been able to control us in this way is because they understand all the many ways our minds can be manipulated better than we do.(-Cait Johnstone)Call ’em what you want-the deep state or powers that be or one percent or oligarchy or permanent ruling class, but you gotta start admitting the shadow government and it’s media are going to crazy lengths to control our communications whether that’s through outlawing assembly, censoring dissident journalists, spying on our electronic conversations and phonecalls, deplatforming and demonestizing us for straying off their preferred narrative, or trotting Disposition Matrix Millionaire Obama out to talk pretty about need to “detoxify” the internet discourse, which is coded newspeak for clampdowns on anybody opposed to endless war and panopticon corporate wiretaps. People who go to college never heard of Cointelpro nd if they have, they can not seem to remotely contemplate that it still exists, they think the SQUAD is gonna save ’em with pro noun preferences, happy slogans, and empty justice tweets. Russiagate serves as all purpose ruling class cover story now. Same way they blamed everything on boogeymen Hussian/Gaddafi/Bin Ladin/Assad/ISIS under Bush/Cheney/Obama. Just tell ’em a boogeyman is coming for their freedom fries.The FBI knew RussiaGate was a lie — but hid that truth (nypost.com) The FBI knew RussiaGate was a lie — but hid that truthThe FBI knew the Trump-Russia collusion narrative was utter bunk even as it suggested otherwise to Congress, the courts and the public early in 2017. Evidence revealed by special counsel John …nypost.comBats Should Not Be Blamed for COVID, Say Israeli Researchers + More • Children’s Health Defense (childrenshealthdefense.org)Bats Should Not Be Blamed for COVID, Say Israeli Researchers + MoreThe Defender’s COVID NewsWatch provides a roundup of the latest headlines related to the SARS CoV-2 virus, including its origins and COVID vaccines.childrenshealthdefense.orgIf you start researching the Davos billionaires, Bilderberg, World Economic Forum and the Klaus Scwab-Kissinger-Bill Gates transhumanist agenda being openly promoted by John Kerry, Joe Biden, Justin Trudeau and many others, of course it is horrifying that the wealthiest one percent of the one percent plan on enslaving humanity with microchips and cashless society control grid, surveillance-tech capitalism authoritarian one world government shit, and that it’s not just some whackjob Alex Jones hysteria being used to sell rightwing militia survivalist swag and vitamins anymore, but I’ll tell ya, between you and me, just us kids here, all my ex associates ALREADY seem like unfeeling, programmed droid, dystopian, transhuman cyborgs. They just obey the fucking tv, they never think for themselves, or read, and slavishly imitate whatever they watch on TV. Whatever “The Latest Thang” is. Netflix, which Obama and Chelle are involved with, is all some creepy, sick secret society programming-you can confirm that just clicking through their “programs”. I don’t watch tv or believe very much of what is firehosed at us via the mockingbird monopoly media. I think the emperors are having fun at your expense-telling you to go buy duct tape and shit. For freedom. Everytime I turn on the computer or flip through the tv hypnoscreen, I see the propagandists are still eager beaver milking the whole hog fuck out of that bullshit Thank a KKKOP capital hill psy-op story designed to manufacture populist consent for outlawing protests. Man oh man, how can people pat themselves on the back all day for their critical thinking skills supposedly cultivated at the prestigious, prohibitively expensive. posh sports university in the Pacific Northwest, and then, immediately fall for this dummy Qshaman HYSTERIA? All you hear on Pig Media nowadays, is “Putin!!!” is somehow, other side of the world responsible, not only for people disliking Hillary Clinton, but also, now for Murkkkans corporations price gouging inflation ripoffs and greedhead jackedup rents, or that Trump’s maga protest was an “insurrection” so Murkkkans should just give up their rights to protest and stand in line at Best Buy for the next round of programming updates and gadgets and obey the Davos techlords for science. All your AOC worshipping shitlib friends even love openly evil Lyn Cheney now cause she said “Orange Man Bad” and “insurrection” one million times. I thought the George Floyd protests where the undercover proud boys burned down police stations looked more like proper insurrections than when some love a man in uniform hillbillies broke a window and climbed a wall, painted their chest and messed up Pelosi’s desk, but I believe in free speech. These illuminati puppets they got infiltrating all the governments worldwide were trained at the Kissinger/Schwab Fascist School but people with Ukraine flags on their falsebook profiles never even heard of any of that. Would not believe you even if you tried to tell ’em. They got some headline today about how useless pants suit, Kopmala is gonna be “TACKLING ONLINE ABUSE”. Of course as Bill Gates and his World Economic Forum secret society friends keep changing definitions of words in the dictionary to promote their Reset plan, the meaning of abuse will be efficiently altered. “ABUSE” is when no soul bureaucrats like Kopmala keep forced-labor slaving, non violent drug offenders in for profit prisons as long as possible, to increase shareholder value. “ABUSE” is when you incarcerate black parents for truant teenagers skipping schools that are fuckedup target ranges nowadays anyways. “ABUSE” is when you send mercenaries to kidnap a publisher from a foreign embassy and lock him up in a torture gulag for years, causing him to have a stroke, for embarrassing the criminal enterprise of murderous imperialism. These shitlibs gonna change the meaning of the word “ABUSE” so it becomes anybody speaking truth about power. This is the kind of bullshit you have to resist. NOT some college asshole disapproving of a comedian. That vote blue no matter who bullshit mighta worked out for some people who were already rich and just worried about poor people disobeying some authority figure, but the majority of us are falling deeper and deper into dangerous poverty while the middle class people keep watching tv. As Ryan knight said, “Biden’s approval rating keeps falling because the people aren’t buying his lies anymore about how “great the economy” is when they can’t afford housing, healthcare, and groceries.” Matzo Ball Dan adds, “The embarrassing attempt at spinning this economic catastrophe by calling it ‘Putin’s price hike’ isn’t convincing anyone.” THESE are the kinda discussions Obama and Kopmala’s billionaire bosses have ordered them to help eradicate.Activism Derailed, Drugs As Weapons Against Us, With John Potash (rumble.com) Punishing patients in pain won’t reduce opioid deaths – Chicago Sun-Times (suntimes.com) Punishing patients in pain won’t reduce opioid deathsThe Trump administration wants to cut opioid prescriptions by another third in the next three years. What could go wrong? We already know.chicago.suntimes.comCanada’s now going fully BIO-FASCIST right before our eyes (substack.com) Canada’s now going fully BIO-FASCIST right before our eyesThey’re vaccinating for monkeypox, phasing out free speech online, starving wayward doctors, and planning to impound the people’s guns (while making opiates, cocaine and MDMA readily available)markcrispinmiller.substack.comCanadians DON’T have an “absolute right to own private property,” says Fidelito’s Justice Minister (substack.com) Canadians DON’T have an “absolute right to own private property,” says Fidelito’s Justice MinisterJustin “Trudeau” may worship Queen Elizabeth, but his heart belongs to Daddymarkcrispinmiller.substack.comajamu baraka – Twitter Search / Twitter
Ya know I reached out to some people who’d known my teenage best pal, HIS ALSO PURPLE BADNESS, COWBOY BOBBY CLOYD in more recent years cause he was just one of the real right-on, supportive, lovely ole homies I never, never expected to leave the planet before I did, no one seems to have any demos by his old bands SHINE or THE HEALERS which is a real drag, but I met one of his local midwestern colleagues online and liked his band and thought I’d share it with you. Dandy – YouTube
The illegal and immoral US blockade of Cuba prevents food, medicine and essential goods from reaching the Cuban people. Canada should join Mexico and other states in calling for an end to this aggressive, unjustified violation of international law.
Police have been cosplaying for years as the “thin line between safety and complete anarchy” when we have countless studies that show the safest communities are the ones with the most resources and not police.
“Yeah I’m just starting to play again the had to move my ulnar nerve(funny bone) to the side of my arm and carpel tunnel procedure to unlock my right hand it has helped I can hold a pick again and my Rhythm generator is returning. I’ve been playing a 5string guitar tuned to Keith G and am just to the point where I don’t sound like a stones song so when I get another amp I’ll send you nasty riffage 2.0 lol the last 2 years have been brutal I had to sell my yellow guitar and amp truck and everything else of value you know back to zero…again.” (-Nasty Bastard of The Bastards)
“It’s shocking that a U.S. president would involve the FBI and Homeland Security in efforts to quash dissent. Has no one in the White House read Thomas Paine or Orwell or Huxley or Heinlein or Arthur Koestler or Hannah Arendt or Solzhenitsyn? What do they think the lessons were that we were supposed to have learned from Watergate? From McCarthyism? From Vietnam?”
I used to communicate with Susan Sarandon on Fascist Book-she quit and I got froze out. She remains an inspiration. Brothers and Sisters and Friends Of The Revolution, Stay Wild! Stay Free!
My friend The Rev. has a new EP coming out, I’ve loved all three songs I’ve heard off it, he has steadily become one of my favorite contemporary singer/songwriters. He is smart and gutsy and when he sings about the grit and the pain and the wind and the rain, let me tell ya, you can hear how he’s lived all those blusey lyrics first hand, he might look like a blonde haired Captain Jack Sparrow, but he is no Dizney pirate, he is a true pirate, an outlaw brother of the darkness, related not just to biker rock Bastards like me, Nasty Bastard, and Circus Of Power, but also to very sophisticated songwriting poet motherfuckers like Kris Kristofferson and Tom Waits. If you loved Guns N Roses but thought they just lost the plot, at Farm Aid, and think they’ve been absurd ever since, this hard skool throwback might be your guy. If you liked Junkyard, or Rock City Angels, that sweet spot where blooze metal meets outlaw country and sleaze punk in the moonlit empty bottles blackout A:M, you will likely also become a fan of Rev. Paul’s. He’s one of us independent D.I.Y. motherfuckers. Tell your friends about him. He is so good. He has excess heart and lyrics on fire with the truth.
I LOVE THIS COMEDIAN! A STANDUP COMIC’S JOB IS TO PUNCH UP AND TO ALWAYS CHALLENGE THE NARRATIVE OF KNOWN LIARS. THESE SHITLIBS ON SOCIAL MEDIA WHO ARE OFFENDED BY THE TRUTH SHOULD GO FUCK THEMSELVES. FOR SCIENCE AND DIVERSITY AND EATING BUGS CAUSE GLOBAL WARMING. FOR SAFESPACE CORRECTNESS.
“Cenk just called the Grayzone and everyone pushing back on NATO proxy war in Ukraine “Putin puppets” This dude is such an imperialist shitlib it’s unreal.” (-Revolutionary Blackout Media)
BOLAN & BOWIE’S GLAM MASTERPIECE MADMAN
If you been feeling somewhat crazy, confused, frayed or even outright unhinged about half the time, ya know that is perfectly natural in fictitious times such as these, when the regulatory agencies have all been captured and controlled by one or two people, and every once trusted media source, bought off platform, or ancient authority figure is gaslighting the fuck out of us with their bad cop/good cop fixed and unchanging duopoly bullshit, doing their best to escalate from tiredass guns and abortion culture wars wedge issues into fullout “order from chaos” manufactured civil wars or martial law. Everytime I read their bullshit mockingbird consolidated press, I know I feel crazy. Like Black In The Empire said on Twitter recently, that Cenk guy who used to be progressive took 20 million from a Clinton megadonor and now all he does is attack real anti war leftists and help the DNC whitewash McCain and Bush/Cheney crimes, while single-mindedly vilifying Trump like he’s some rare and unprecedented anomaly rather than a run of the mill, typical oaf, fat country club member of the Murkkkan ruling class. “Cenk pretends to fight the people who gave him the twenty million dollars”. Yep, their bogus narrative is always such a ridiculous sham, like when CNN insists there’s no inflation, no recession and everybody just LOVES Biden and Kamala. It’s never any legit reflection of what’s goin’ on out here in the fields. They talkin’ bout building bigger mega yachts and mega mansions and rockets to Mars, while we struggling to pay for groceries or the fuckedup electric bills or jackedup rents while Tv swears there’s no recession, our only problem is that mean ole bad wolf TRUMP. He’s not woke, and is a manspreader sexist Russian spy!!! They keep pushing the Bill Gates clone meat, and as a person who has not ate animal meat in about twenty or maybe twenty one years, since my longlost daughter befriended a pig at a petting zoo in the Midwest, whatever the Davos fuckers suggest we poors do, from giving up our property, to getting many more mandatory “safe and effective” monkeypox warped-speed shots for the public good, to giving up all privacy, or ownership, or cash, or “Our Bodies, Ourselves” medical autonomy, I sense that they, THEMselves, the fascist fucks who own the politicians, and plan your future in secret, are doing quite the opposite. Kim Kardashian would not even take a real bite from her synthetic Bill Gates burger, her sister and his pop/punk illuminati sacrifice boyfriend that goony drummer are all batshit crazy if you ask me, but we’ve established I think most everybody’s crazy, suffering from collective delusions, fanatical nationalist ginned up “pride”, and Stockholm Syndrome, psychotic greed: it’s the only thing that’s trickled down from those sick fucks at the top. I don’t trust any billionaires. Billionaires are not good people. I have to wonder about millionaires, too, quite honestly.
JEFF DRAKE BOOK COMING SOON!
My teenage band used to do “She’s So Filthy” and one of my old roommates recorded that version on the 45 of “Pillbox”. Love The Joneses, and also, The Humpers and The Vice Principals. Co Starring Long Beach Salon Pop SUPER HERO, my man, Billy Burke. Can’t wait to read Drake’s autobiography. He’s the guy half o’ Hollywood modeled themselves after-all those Izzy Stradlin types. The West Coast Thunders. Marvelous!
Aw, man, you ever hear these guys? Maverick lone wolf/lone star rocknroll renegade, Neen Youkhana is an underrated punknroll superstar! Unless you live in Canada, chances are you may not have heard of them, because he really has always ran an authentic indie operation. In my eyes, he’s a Real Rocknroll underground cult hero! Righteous cat, too. Check ’em out and remember what real hard drivin’ rocknroll sounds like. Nothin’ but FUCK YEAH! In addition to being a first class crooner and guitar player, whenever I hear his music, it always reminds me of being on the highway. It is late night travel music, it has a great sense of movement in all of it, mobility, the road and the night sky. He’s kinda like Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy rolled into one. ‘Little Vintage Aerosmith in there also, Theater Of Hate, and Four Horsemen, and for me, even a little Jim Morrison in some of his growls.
WHAT? YOU CALL THAT AN INSURRECTION????! WHILE BIG 5 PAIDOFF WHORE PIGMEDIA MOAN ON AND ON AND ON ABOUT OAF TRUMP AND MAGA PROTEST QSHAMAN…REAL JOURNALISTS ARE KIDNAPPED AND TORTURED BY THE EMPIRE!
People like me, who’ve seen too much real life violence, and carry the lifelong lasting effects of fuckedup trauma don’t really care to watch any of that splatter film casual violence occult shit that’s all over Netflix and Hulu now, on days when it’s way too hot to be outdoors for long, I have succumbed to indulging in one of those really, really dumb models dating on the bikini beach shows. I’m not proud of it. I’m kicked offa social media by deep state censorbots for anti war posts and think it’s been detrimental to most people’s mental health anyways. I never believe any of the media headlines owned by Bezos or Gates, Vanguard or Blackrock. It’s all pro war, pro “Gates Reset” all the time now, just flat-out horseshit. He’s buying up all the farmlands and sniveling suckers think it’s cause he loves the cuddly animals and wants us poors to be “healthy”. I don’t personally wanna hear anymore bullshit from the Cheney/Bush bunch, or the sold-out shitlib, pro war DNC about Capital Hill protests of Trump supporters. I want them to fix the water supply and house all the people. I want them to negotiate an end to wars based on lies, proxy armies, coups and Nato expansionism. I want them to demilitarize the police and defund the alphabet gangs. Trump is a threat for sure in that he wants to continue these insane Biden wars, escalate conflict with China which started under Obama cause his Goldman Sachs bosses owe the Chinese money they don’t wanna pay. Trump wants to put homeless people in tent cities and dissolve the department of education and replace it all with Betsy Des Vos white power charter “Christian” schools-they hate poor people so much, the opposite of what Christianity is supposed to be. Sadly, the Dems are almost exactly the same but with some gratuitous tokenism and two oopsy daisy rotating villains-and a ridiculous emphasis on theatrical support for traditionally oppressed cultures but they still keep all the same systems in place-the drug war, the forever wars, children in cages at border gulags, Gitmo, the surveillance panopticon. The low wages. The poisoned water in Flint, the jackedup rents. The Slippery Slope. Both parties are in cahoots, just do the bidding of billionaires. I want them to fulfill the Bernie Sanders mandate that was used to sheepdog stadiums full of people back into the might as well be Republikkkans DNC. Universal housing, real healthcare not just crazy fuckedup snatch n grab big pharma racketeering, free higher education for all, like they have in sanctioned socialist democracies like Venezuela and Cuba and had in Libya before Hillary killed Gaddafi with her neo-con mercenaries. After they do that, maybe we can talk about AOC’s feelings some more. Anybody else noticing all the coordinated messaging, high level celebs like Angelina Jolie and Nichole Kidman and the Kardashians pushing the Klaus Schwab and Bill Gates “Let them Eat Bugs” bullshit in like, “Vanity Fair”? Thing about the nutty so called great reset and Bill Gates frankenfood bugs and fake lab meat and secreted geoengineering and spraying of barium to blockout the sun shit is these exact same rich elites who openly say they want to depopulate, the psychotic evil sociopaths, who profit from disastrous wars that cause the overwhelming majority of harm to the ecosystems though Greta Thunberg never mentions that, and who fly around damaging the atmosphere in their private planes are gonna say we have to give up all our rights for nature and puppydogs and keep planting stories and assigning celebrities in the controlled press, to advance their globalist bullshit NWO tyranny agendas. Their insanely evil cult leader says you will eat the bugs and own nothing and be happy.
But you really worried about Qshaman protesting some more? Furry hats and facepaint, oh my! They mighta took down the Georgia Guidestones, but that techslavery advocate Harari dude who is Kooky Klaus and depopulation agenda Bill’s closest Isareali advisor gets giddy talking about depopulating. Meanwhile they silence the truth tellers in cruel Dick Cheney torture gulags. Shitlibs fret about AOC’s feelings some more. Rightwing pigmedia propagandists keep calling Schwab and Davos “progressives” and “socialists”. They are fascists and tyrants, actually. I see why the Qanaons are so confused, all the rightwing media calls Biden and Obama socialists and progressives which is some kinda horrible joke, until Capital Hill protest, those gullible patsies on the right-they’d never really received the Cointelpro treatment like this, but the billionaire Reset whackjobs don’t care how you self identify. They gonna try ‘n’ control everybody. From The Thank Obamas and the Thank a Kkkops. The NWO is not your friend.
@TwitterSupport has placed a deceptive warning label on the link to our republication of a factual report on the tied or Rolling Stone’s editor in chief to the military-intelligence apparatus (-Max Blumenthal)
even the Thank A KKKOP Love A Uniform Patriotic Flag Waving Right is getting the cointelpro infiltration and incitement agent provocateur business nowadays. Unprecedented.
But Shitlibs love Bush/Cheney!!!!??? And John McCain. And his moderate rebels with the Toyota motorcades, all the masked men in Syria. Proxy wars still suck. They lied about white helmets, they lied about WMD’s, they lied about everything. But here’s a gay talkshow celebrity to tell you that Mike Pompeo, Dick Cheney, W Bush, Obama and Zelensky are “NICE”.
IF YOU’VE BEEN SUCCESSFULLY REINDOCTRIANTED TO HATE AND FEAR FREE SPEECH WHISTLEBLOWER JOURNALISTS AND WORSHIP AND TRUST WEF PUPPETS AND DAVOS BILLIONAIRES YOU MIGHT ALREADY BE A FASCIST PIG.
“Democrats are mad at Bernie because he is telling the truth about their bill that will not reduce inflation, but will expand fossil fuels and we are mad at Bernie for continuing to caucus with and enable a corrupt corporate party that hates him and every social policy he ran on.” (-Ryan Knight)
“Pretending the US government has been taken by Marxists lets the “populist right” feel like shrieking about communism is fighting the power when really they’re just facilitating longstanding neocon agendas against China and longstanding CIA/FBI agendas against western socialists.” (-Caitlin Johnstone)
“We don’t care about employment, we don’t care about the law…” (-Paul K. And The Weathermen)
ANDY McCOY FOREVER
Mondays suck in the dead end desert ghost towns cause everything is still closed, it’s like a Double Sunday. I end up roaming restlessly on the deer trails by the river and foothills of the big mountain, trying to avoid rattle snakes and meth heads and bullshit propaganda on all the hypnoscreens. All my thoughts always seem to stray back to rocknroll. Andy McCoy‘s the original architect/songwriter/genius of Hanoi Rocks, and he’s got a new record out. “JUKEBOX JUNKIE”. Ya know Mike’s current touring gang is a slick, professional, well oiled machine, but Andy is still an elegantly wasted fulltime gypsy songwriting, big hat, larger than life, swashbucklingly debaucherous, one-off pirate outlaw, artist bohemian, visionary. A dear, sweet, most honorable, and faithful friend of mine memorably called him a burning wreckage and I smiled at the apt description cause I get what he means. Poor ole Andy slurs his words and stumbles around in a perpetually intoxicated honky tonk haze, his halo is always a bit crooked. Reminds me of somebody somehow, almost….familiar. By that I mean myself. Ha ha. I know he is frequently slagged by people online, in the ever annoying youtube comments, for his defiantly stubborn rocknroll lifestyle, cause people like the Crue ponce around gloating about how they got away with so much gross and mean spirited, unkind, unremorsefully insensitive, ballsout predator bullshit, because they make a lot of money, and tediously lecturing people about the 12 steps to sobriety which is not that impressive coming guys who flagrantly call their boxset “Music To Crash Your Car To” parts one and two and continue to get busted drunk driving, and getting more plastic surgeries, and doing big capitalist stadium tours, and tacky automythologizing made for tv movies ,and cashing unremorsefully in on their destructive car crashings, and hooker punchings, and ticket sales, and surgically enhanced Baywatch beauties from long ago, but they honestly peaked with “Too Fast For Love”. The online Crueheads are just ignorant metal goons and fame hags and wealth worshippers. Andy is a staggering, swaggering, prolific composer, painter, and libertine outsider remnant of another time, a one man Red Light District, an abandoned amusement park on legs, a throwback to Exile On Main Street in winklepickers, who still writes great songs sometimes, and no one really holds a candle to him as a performer or all around romantic rocknroll genius, in my book, at least. He might not make as much money as the Crue or Keith or Joe Perry or whoever, but I don’t care about money or power, and his electrifying contributions to our punkroll glammy subculture are timelessly immortalized and irrefutable. As I told my friend, “Tooting Bec Wreck to Eternity”! Those rich guys might have made more moolah, but Andy McCoy has made better art. I mean, sometimes, “Into The Valley Of The Dolls” is my favorite album, or “Love” by The Cult, but most frequently, in my lifetime, it’s been predominantly “Back To Mystery City” that has inspired me and my ouvre of under recorded songs, and entire way of life the most. “Everywhere you goin’ baybeh, you know I will follow…” That “WASTED YEARS” video is still the best concert I’ve probably ever seen.
(RIP) TIMO
“This time the collapse will be global. It will not be possible, as in ancient societies, to migrate to new ecosystems rich in natural resources. The steady rise in heat will devastate crop yields and make much of the planet uninhabitable. Climate scientists warn that once temperatures rise by 4℃, the earth, at best, will be able to sustain a billion people.
The more insurmountable the crisis becomes, the more we, like our prehistoric ancestors, will retreat into self-defeating responses, violence, magical thinking and denial.
The historian Arnold Toynbee, who singled out unchecked militarism as the fatal blow to past empires, argued that civilizations are not murdered, but commit suicide. They fail to adapt to a crisis, ensuring their own obliteration. Our civilization’s collapse will be unique in size, magnified by the destructive force of our fossil fuel-driven industrial society. But it will replicate the familiar patterns of collapse that toppled civilizations of the past. The difference will be in scale, and this time there will be no exit.” (-Chris Hedges)
‘They want your land, they want your gold and they want your kids. These are the real assets they are after.’ (- Catherine Austin Fitts)
As Democrats continue to gaslight the public about their ‘big win’ here is what Brett Hartl, the director of the Center for Biological Diversity, is saying: “This is a climate suicide pact. It’s self-defeating to handcuff renewable energy to massive new oil and gas extraction.” (-Ryan Knight)
“This new bill is genocide, there is no other way to put it. This is a life or death situation & the longer we act as though the world isn’t on fire around us, the worse our burns will be.” – Siqiniq Maupin, Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic. (Guardian 8/9/22)
“Never forget that right after Hurricane Katrina, Cuba offered to send the US aid in the form of 1,586 doctors and 37 tons of medical supplies. “Others have sent money. We are offering to save lives,” Castro said. The offer was rejected by the Bush administration.” (-Radio Free Amanda)
“When you are an internal colony denied self-determination, the colonial master can determine your fate. I was organizing in the gulf when this happened & it was a brutal reminder of our status as captives.” (-Ajamu Baraka)
WHAT’S LEFT
What passes for the Left in this country is a bunch of rank and file suckers and cowardly followers pledging unconditional allegiance to rightwing corporate, pro war, Wall Street motherfuckers like Obama’s Eric Holder and Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi and AOC. Dumbfuck celebrity shmucks still drunk on Trump Derangement Syndrome, who have mad, media fed, partisan blind love for Hunter, Zelensky and Gropey Joe cause they have no real principles aside from feelgoodist Thank Obama partisan bullshit and idenity politricks partisan hate. They all work for bankers and inside trade and strictly obey big pharma and military weapons manufacturers and proxy army contractors. AOC and her bosom buddy Lyn Cheney, can both empty justice-tweet all day long that “Trump” is bad, but that only serves to distract from all the unforgivably stupid and appallingly evil shit the Gropey Joe admin is up to. I never liked one thing about Golden Toilet Donald Trump, but pigmedia still focusing exclusively on him all day everyday, as all purpose boogeyman scapegoat blamehound has gotten mighty old. Nobody gets up that early. Shitlibs refuse to stand for any leftist principle beyond performative red carpet bullshit-tax the rich dresses at the creepy Meta Gala with the Eyes Wide Shut crowd, or watching RuPaul. Ho hum, big deal-when you gonna do something to stop the wars or house the people? Never, ’cause the government, like the media, is owned and operated for and by the private plane Bloomberg/Pelosi super rich, and the ruling class megabillionaire donors love war and fascism, they got so much wealth and power they can force all kinds of undemocratic, inhumane, nefarious bullshit on us peasants just for their own sadistic glee, and we, the people will obediently snipe back n forth about some nickel and dime culture wars bullshit, rather than ever correctly identify and seek to overthrow our common oppressors-the Davos billionaires with the evil sci-fi agendas and social currency ratings, cashless society bullshit, and dick rockets. Klaus Schwab brags about how his tech-fascist minions have infiltrated every government on earth. I heard his talk with the Pfizer CEO and they got diabolical shit in store for you, but pigmedia keeps everybody hypnotically focused on Orange Man Bad and forgetting all about and whitewashing the warcrimes of the Bush/Cheneys and Obama and Pelosis. Hillary overthrew Libya, had their leader brutally killed by proxies and went on tv and laughed about it. The Cheneys brought you Gitmo and waterboarding and indefinite detention of righteous whistle blower journalists like Julian Assange and Daniel Hale. Podesta said they need to “make an example of” leakers. Somebody killed Seth Rich. They killed Michael Hastings in a fiery ball of fire. They paid off TYT to become warpig script reciters though they used to do news from a left perspective-but no longer.
Dems never stop complaining about Trump bragging to Billy Bush, “if you’re famous they’ll even let you grab their expletive deleted”, but somehow manage to ignore all the Clinton/Biden accusers. Hillary and Warren keep hammering on about Sanders being sexist while Gropey Joe never stops awkwardly touching women and children and sniffing their hair and shaking hands with people who aren’t there, all on camera, and gives his son a super decadent lux lifestyle, with his white nationalist cronies in the Ukraine, full of backroom bargaining, hookers, crack, and oil company vice presidencies, and all the shitlibs see the Azov insignias and just shrug and look the other way. It’s really beyond scandalous, that this congress will give another 8 billion in weapons, every three or four days to slow bleed Russia over there in their sacrifice zone with the coup government Obama installed, but we got millions of people homeless in the streets and the justice-tweeters would rather fund wars and police state militarization than house the people. Let alone provide a clean water supply to Flint, or universal healthcare or education. Legacy TV is still All Trump All The Time. Hard to find anything on Netflix or Hulu except creepy occult programming horror bullshit, and the ongoing glorification of idle heiress, model jet set, mk ultra beta kitten, influencer brandings. They brand them like cows.
You can’t really describe someone as a sellout, if they never had any principles to begin with. I had an ex girlfriend tell me she didn’t live by her principles. Huh? What? That I had more integrity than anyone she ever met and we were not compatible. What? Huh? Yeah looking back, summa the people I was most devastatingly disappointed by, never promised to be beside me throwing Molotov’s at the barricades, anyways, ya know-they were always sucking up to rich people, consolidating their own private landowner passive income streams, groveling stand for nothing mediocrities who only ever cared about their own comforts, luxury lifestyles and fitting in with the upper class. AOC, like Obama, is just a marketing campaign, an empty rebrand, a hoax in a pants suit. Same as all those people I can still get sucked in to feeling bad about, who were just never who I imagined they should be, to begin with. They’d rather sit at the bar with the posers and liars than do anything that might seem controversial or risk losing some kinda brownie points, extra credit, apple polisher asskiss GPA scores with their booj inlaws by ever straying faintly off script. All that, while wearing a leather jacket with the Clash logo painted on the back. Everybody seems so zombified. They’re all on the Government Pills, social media crack, and propaganda tv, waiting for UPS to deliver their Amazon boxes for Science and Pinkhats White Women Educated Diversity and War On Russia and China because it was “Her Turn”. Orange Man Bad, you know?! So boring and trite and insultingly transparent, all these so called official narrative reciters are like teleprompter readers. AI obedient praising lady fascists and the FBI.
“There is a disturbing trend where the politicians (both Democrat and Republican) who sold out our communities at every turn are criminalizing homelessness instead of providing public housing & healthcare. They’re criminalizing the problems that their corporatist policies created.” (-Ryan Knight)
WARPIG KISSINGER SAYS EMPIRE HAS GOTTEN TOO FAR OUTTA POCKET WHILE PIG MEDIA REBRANDS DUMB FRATBOY BUSH W AS SOME KINDA FOLSKY LEADERSHIP HERO. LIZ CHENEY’S HUSBAND IS HUNTER BIDEN’S LAWYER? SECRET POLICE SICCED ON TRUMP BY GROPEY JOE ADMIN.
In a new interview with The Wall Street Journal, immortal Hague fugitive Henry Kissinger says the US is acting in a crazy and irrational way that has brought it to the edge of war with Russia and China:
Mr. Kissinger sees today’s world as verging on a dangerous disequilibrium. “We are at the edge of war with Russia and China on issues which we partly created, without any concept of how this is going to end or what it’s supposed to lead to,” he says. Could the U.S. manage the two adversaries by triangulating between them, as during the Nixon years? He offers no simple prescription. “You can’t just now say we’re going to split them off and turn them against each other. All you can do is not to accelerate the tensions and to create options, and for that you have to have some purpose.”
On the question of Taiwan, Mr. Kissinger worries that the U.S. and China are maneuvering toward a crisis, and he counsels steadiness on Washington’s part. “The policy that was carried out by both parties has produced and allowed the progress of Taiwan into an autonomous democratic entity and has preserved peace between China and the U.S. for 50 years,” he says. “One should be very careful, therefore, in measures that seem to change the basic structure.”
Mr. Kissinger courted controversy earlier this year by suggesting that incautious policies on the part of the U.S. and NATO may have touched off the crisis in Ukraine. He sees no choice but to take Vladimir Putin’s stated security concerns seriously and believes that it was a mistake for NATO to signal to Ukraine that it might eventually join the alliance: “I thought that Poland—all the traditional Western countries that have been part of Western history—were logical members of NATO,” he says. But Ukraine, in his view, is a collection of territories once appended to Russia, which Russians see as their own, even though “some Ukrainians” do not. Stability would be better served by its acting as a buffer between Russia and the West: “I was in favor of the full independence of Ukraine, but I thought its best role was something like Finland.”
Kissinger: “We are at the edge of war with Russia and China on issues which we partly created, without any concept of how this is going to end or what it’s supposed to lead to.” https://t.co/mytxSajU6Q
I don’t know about you, but to me this warning is much, much more ominous coming from a bloodsoaked swamp monster than it would be from some anti-imperialist peace activist who was speaking from outside the belly of the imperial machine. This man is a literal war criminal who, as a leading empire manager, helped to unleash unfathomable horrors all around the world the consequences of which are still being felt today.
And as far as you can tell from his own comments, he remains completely unreformed.
“Looking back over his long and often controversial career, however, he is not given to self-criticism,” The Wall Street Journal’s Laura Secor writes.
“I do not torture myself with things we might have done differently,” Kissinger tells her.
So Kissinger remains an unapologetic warmongering psychopath. But if he hasn’t changed as a person, what has? Why is he now cautioning against US aggression and warning that the empire has taken things too far?
Well, if Kissinger hasn’t changed, we can only surmise that it is the US empire itself that has changed. Its behavior is now so insane and illogical that it is making a 99 year-old Henry Kissinger nervous.
Which, if you really think about it, is one of the scariest things you could possibly imagine.
The empire’s departure from the Henry Kissinger iteration of murderous madness to its new form of insanity appears to have begun around the turn of the century, when the influx of neoconservatives into the White House combined with the jingoism which followed 9/11 to usher in an era of interventionism and military expansionism of such brazenness and recklessness that many from the old guard balked.
Kissinger was supportive of the 2003 Iraq invasion, but well before it began he was already saying that he had serious misgivings about the lack of clear thinking and forward planning he was seeing on that front. The neoconservative goal of US planetary hegemony at any cost which led to that invasion (and the planning of many more) has since become the mainstream Beltway consensus perspective on US foreign policy, and it is responsible for the escalations that Kissinger is now warning about.
“The PNAC plan envisions a strategic confrontation with China, and a still greater permanent military presence in every corner of the world,” wrote Michael Parenti in his 2004 book Superpatriotism. “The objective is not just power for its own sake but power to control the world’s natural resources and markets, power to privatize and deregulate the economies of every nation in the world, and power to hoist upon the backs of peoples everywhere — including North America — the blessings of an untrammeled global ‘free market.’ The end goal is to ensure not merely the supremacy of global capitalism as such, but the supremacy of American global capitalism by preventing the emergence of any other potentially competing superpower.”
By “PNAC plan” Parenti means the plans of the neoconservatives behind the notorious Project for the New American Century think tank, whose unipolarist militaristic agendas they explicitly advocated.
Henry Kissinger is warning about the dangers of US warmongering not because he has gotten saner, but because the US war machine has gotten crazier. That we are now hurtling toward confrontations that don’t appear rational to someone who has spent the majority of his life watching the mechanics of empire from inside its inner chambers should concern us all. When you are talking about brinkmanship between major world powers, especially nuclear brinkmanship, the last thing you need is for one of the parties involved to be acting erratically and nonsensically.
We need de-escalation and detente, and we need it yesterday. If you’re too hawkish for Henry Kissinger, you’re too motherfucking hawkish.(-Caitlin Johnstone)
FROM THE BELLEY OF THE BEASTS
Sleazegrinder gave me my first Beast disc. Their songs spoke to my very heart, they had obviously had very similar experiences and lifestyles as I did back in my teens and twenties because all their songs reminded me of myself and many of my booze soaked fringe dancing former intimates. Spencer’s solo albums, as well. Tex reminded me of my ferocious partying old friends, Tap (RIP) and Mike L. (RIP) and Mark B. (RIP), he was a raunchy blues beltin’ hard livin’ soulman, probably the best of who’s still left. The Beasts, The Horseheads, and The Comatones were the primary influences of the sleazy bluespunk pregentrified dirty old Boston underground band, The Original Suffering Bastards, even though the magazine critics all compared us to American Heartbreak, D-Generation and The Hangmen. We were deadend kids, we never had no money and all our wouldbe benefactors were just hustling us to get near our desirable old girlfriends or famous friends-they were careerist social climbers wasting my time and lying to my face. It’s so impossibly sad and fuckedup and hard to believe summa the Beasts are already gone and summa my old bandmates, too. It really does all go by in a blurry blaze after you reach a certain age, it seems to accelerate.
“Remember when the FBI raided the Clinton residence to confiscate Hillary ‘s server with top secret documents illegally stored and how the media Alleged that she violated espionage laws?” (-Garland Nixon)
“There is also the professional left element which reacts with open glee as the security state runs wild on MAGA, the same way many of them celebrated deaths of unvaccinated right-wing septuagenarians with Covid. The culture wars define their shared identity & trump any principle.” (-Max Blumenthal)
“A shocking new poll finds that 90% of Americans have little to no trust in the mainstream media. I’m not sure why that is but perhaps it’s because they lied us into: Iraq Afghanistan Syria Libya Vietnam Korea Somalia Haiti Guatemala Honduras Chile Ukraine..” (-Lee Camp)
“Today, is the anniversary of President Truman’s obliteration of Hiroshima, a civilian city. The dropping of the atomic bomb was experimental and meant to show the world who was boss. What has changed?” (-John Pilger)
GRAVEYARD OF EMPTY BOTTLES: REMEMBERING THE CLASSIC DOGS D’AMOUR LINEUP
Man I’ll never forget the day my old pal, Cowboy Bobby Cloyd (RIP) showed up at my purple apartment with that Mother Love Bone “Shine” cassette-he later had a Columbus band he called Shine, and also, one called the Healers, but so far, no record of their live or studio performances has washed up on youtube. Bobby gifted me with a really nice black cowboy hat that I wore for years and totally wish I still had! He also brought over a bottle of Jack almost every night when I was still too young to buy my own, and The Dogs D’Amour “Dynomite Jet Saloon” on “putrid green vinyl” and wowee we were all so enamored with their songwriting, artwork, clothing, and lyrics, they had the whole thing down, just a raggedy lot of old school rocknroll troubadours a bit like The Faces. The Stones, Hanoi Rocks. My little garagebands covered their songs for years. All our early efforts to write originals were like far less clever imitations of The Dogs! By the time I got out to Hollywood, every blackhaired no hoper from all the smalltowns had already migrated there and formed their own Dogs D’Amour ripoff bands. My ex girlfriend was cohabitating with about ten of ’em. They all mighta dressed and drank like Tyla, but none of ’em had his songwriting ability, nor the musicianship of the Dogs. They were all like boxes of Loreal blue black hair dye and Aqua Net in Lip Service clothing teasing their hair up like Nikki Sixx but their songs were like gangster rap stupid, cause everybody’s hooker/stripper/phone sex operator girlfriends were into NWA and summa those popular on the Sunset Strip one sick posse, metal head, last call hair dudes offered me crack my first night in town. Jo Dog is such a special guitar player, everything he does is brilliant, his artwork is amazing, so is Bam’s. I remember feeling all disgruntled by Tyla’s heavy merchandising back in my teens and twenties because I could never afford his prices or keep up with the onslaught of Dogs goodies. I gave up on collecting his discography when I was about 26-there was just too much and I’m a pauper and once the other Dogs left, I lost all interest, honestly. I don’t know why they all fell out, but it would appear that Tyla kinda likes to keep a tight reign on all his operations, to most of us old Dogs D’Amour diehard fans, the Jet Saloon lineup will always be the one. You know I gotta say, sometimes in my own journeys, I’ve been capable of having too much to drink and sortof injuring myself but I can’t help but have some of that euphoric recall when I think back on the old days that have long since passed. The Dogs D’Amour were always a big part of that. Much more fun. Much more fun. My town cemetery has big signs everywhere, “Alcoholic Beverages Prohibited”.
I’ve been out walking in the hot burning sun, my hair’s wet, clothes are, too, had to take the shirt off and put it in the laundry room. It’s hot. Part of the reason so many people get weird and freakout in these desert no man’s lands is because there are so few distractions, you end up back in your own tapes, your old buried trauma, your dog vomit anxieties and bad memories. I am trying to learn how to just let all that pass, burn off in the heat. I was outside last night to photograph the sunset and a poor old geezer from the old folks veterans home on the hill was having a very clearly audible nervous breakdown/standoff with the nurses or jailers or white coats or whatever you wanna call the staff up these. Negligent protocols resulted in a whole shit ton of his former peers dying off in the death plague of two years ago and me, I keep listening to what those dudes at Pfizer and the WEF have to say in their youtube discussions, and am not entirely convinced it ain’t all intentional. I can’t believe the corporate media is really pushing this all day everyday image makeover of the Bush/Cheneys and people are falling for it. Even rightwing Breitbart “news” has made note of how they’ve gone from admitting Dick Cheney was an unfathomable evil ala Darth Vader during the Obama Feelgood Rebrand, but now, they’re trotting all these old generals, spooks, bureaucrats and war criminals back out and giving them airtime to blame it all on fuckin’ Trump. I don’t know why all these deep state goons and spooks would be mad at him-he is all for private plane ownership, inside trading, taking megadonor bribes from Israeli billionaires and the KSA, wars on Russia, China, Iran, and an ever expanding dystopian police state, men in uniform indiscriminately gunning down minorities, feeling up the poor, criminalizing homelessness, stopping and frisking, spying on our emails and dictating our personal choices. Same as Pelosi and company.
Campaign Against Antisemitism on Twitter: “Russell Brand @rustyrockets and Aaron Mate believe that allegations of antisemitism in @UKLabour were merely “insults used to undermine criticism of Israel or destroy Jeremy Corbyn.” https://t.co/Cjwp2yJyCI” / Twitter
“Mike “we lie, we cheat, we steal” Pompeo is being sued for having the CIA spy on Julian Assange and his visitors in the Ecuadorian Embassy. The CIA is a criminal organization of the highest order.” (-Danny Haiphong)
“Expect a swift public rehabilitation of the Espionage Act, previously known as one of the most pernicious laws on the books: used to prosecute Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning, Daniel Ellsberg and others. Now it’ll become a benevolent tool of Preserving Democracy™” (-Michael Tracey)
“Liberals spent the entire Trump administration shrieking about the looming threat of fascism only to wind up cheerleading for the fucking Espionage Act.” (-Caitlin Johnstone)
“GREAT NEWS! Matt Hoh is back on the NC ballot, giving working people a chance to vote for what our lives depend on – M4A, housing as a human right, an end to endless war & an economy for working families. It’s outrageous Dems tried to deny voters a people-powered choice!” (-Dr. Jill Stein)
“Socialists: “We need healthcare and housing for all in this country.” Liberals: “No, we need the FBI to dig up Trump’s ex-wife because he hid documents in her casket.” If you think Democrats & liberals want to do both you’re not paying attention. It’s Trump, Trump, Trump all the time. And in 10 years when they’ve exhausted that they’ll find a new villain to obfuscate the public with. They will do everything except fight for the change we need.” (-Ryan Knight)
“I’m glad Trump lost because otherwise immigrants would still be mistreated and the Iran deal and Roe v Wade would be dead and he’d probably be driving us toward WW3 by now. That damn fascist would’ve probably even started prosecuting his political enemies under the Espionage Act.” (-Caitlin Johnstone)
“No they’re not “ leftists”, they’re Democrats. Big difference. Democrats are a right wing , conservative, pro war, pro wall st, anti-worker party that serves the same corporations & billionaires as the Republicans.” (-Jimmy Dore)
By the time I relocated with half my band and a couple girls and my oldest kid to the hardscrabble, blue collar working class big city Dorchester ghetto, times were changing, last real rockstar Andy Wood had died and all that grunge bullshit and gangster rap was coming in. We met a real cool chick who shared our love for the NY Dolls and Dogs Damour and Nick Cave and stuff at a record store where we were consigning a dozen copies of my old fanzine, which was our version of pre internet social networking, how we looked for replacement musicians, met other groups, bitched about the metalheads we thought were fake or stupid, and waxed enthusiastic about the ones we loved. A whole lot like what we do here. I ended up becoming roommates for about four and a half years with the record store chick and she turned me on to so much stuff like those raggle taggle gypsy Waterboys and Snatches Of Pink and New Model Army, Rowland S. Howard and Dylan and beat poets and Kusworth and Sudden. She is always in my heart. Long after I’d fallen out with her boyfriend baby daddy who’d moved in to our apartment, I kept showing up on her front step with a bottle, three sheets to the wind, lookin’ for a home in every face I saw. Once or twice a year on a social occasion to break the ice. I could never completely let go of any of the good ones, she was like my soul sister. I heard she works at a bakery. God bless her. God love her. I sure do. I will always feel like forever in her debt for teaching me about all the bands I just mentioned, The Waterboys “Fisherman’s Blues” and “This Is The Sea” became two of the most important records of my life, and she protected me from her P.C. college chick roommates, and I leaned on her quite a bit when one of my old exes started giving me grief. We stayed up all night talking and drinking these special coffee drinks and listening to “The Big Store.” Those were the days, man!
Another band of quite debonaire scarf wearers that deserved way more fame and fortune than they received were The Hollywood Brats, some of whom later became the Boys. Me and my old crew of rowdy all night wildboy carousers were all quite keen on the champagne and whiskey and always related strongly to them and their dashing dandified peacocking and hilarious good time all the time lyrics. I’m sure you’ve read the book. They were kings of protopunk kings. People always tell me this kinda rocknroll is outta style and that I should start experimenting with A.I. hut two computer muzak, but really this is the only stuff for me. Johnny Thunders used to say, ‘it’s hard to get a guy off Wall Street”, yeah, I can dig that. You should see how hard it is trying to get a guy off Central Park West. Everybody’s hooked to the rah rah war machine propaganda, I can’t live in the Tv world. I really like to get it on, put on a big rock show for the kids. This is really how it’s done, if you ask me. Our way of life.
ROGUE JOURNALIST CAIT JOHNSTONE
There’s a scene in The Usual Suspects where Kevin Spacey tells the fable of the mysterious Keyser Soze and how he became a crime lord.
“One story the guys told me, the story I believe, was from his days in Turkey,” he says. “There was a gang of Hungarians that wanted their own mob. They realized that to be in power, you didn’t need guns or money or even numbers. You just needed the will to do what the other guy wouldn’t.”
Spacey’s character describes the way the Hungarians came after Soze and his family to take over his drug dealing business, but the viciousness with which they did so was no match for the viciousness they are met with.
“Then he showed these men of will what will really was,” Spacey says, describing the way Soze kills his own family and then wipes out the families and friends of the entire Hungarian gang.
And what’s funny is if you carefully watch the way power moves in the world, you will see that this is pretty much how it works. The most vicious among us are elevated to the top, because all our systems are built in a way which elevates viciousness.
The US empire is able to dominate the world exactly because it has “the will to do what the other guy wouldn’t.” Whenever I lay out my evidence that the US is the most tyrannical regime on earth, I’ll get someone conceding that this is true but arguing that the US only behaves that way because it is the most powerful. Any other government with the power of the United States would behave with the same amount of viciousness or worse, they argue.
And I always tell them that they’ve got it exactly backwards. The US isn’t uniquely vicious because it is the world’s most powerful government, the US is the world’s most powerful government because it is uniquely vicious.
The United States put an exclamation point at the end of the second world war by dropping two nuclear bombs on Japan, not because it needed to (it didn’t), but because it wanted to intimidate the Soviet Union. It then immediately launched into a succession of new wars and strategic operations of astonishingviciousness with the goal of eventually becoming the global dominator. It achieved this at the fall of the USSR, after which it immediately instituted a policy of working to ensure that no rival superpowers ever develop and began working toward “full spectrum dominance” of the land, sea, air, and space. All of the major international conflicts of our day are the direct result of these policies.
None of the people driving the imperial power structure which rules over us are in their positions because of their wisdom or kindness. Oligarchs get to the top of their corporate and financial ladders by being willing to step on whoever they need to step on to get ahead. Military strategists get to their positions by demonstrating an aptitude for military domination. Intelligence officials get to their positions because they understand how to facilitate the interests of the oligarchic empire. Politicians get to the top by displaying a willingness to serve imperial power.
And this principle tracks from the top down through the rest of our entire society. The only valuing system we have for human behavior is money, but what human behavior does money value? Competitiveness makes money. War and militarism make money. Ecocide makes money. Sickness makes money. Finite commodities make money. The entanglement of corporate and state power makes money. Propagandizing people into believing they need more than they have makes money.
What doesn’t make money? Kindness. Collaboration. Peace. A thriving biosphere. Health. Psychological well being. Political transparency and integrity. Decisions made to benefit the whole. Sources of energy that can’t be controlled by the powerful. Abundance. People being content with what they have.
Goldman Sachs asks in biotech research report: ‘Is curing patients a sustainable business model?’ https://t.co/My7QSINDHc
Money has no wisdom. The “invisible hand” of the free market will never value the better angels of humanity.
Pharmaceutical companies have a vested interest in the valuing of treatments over preventions and cures. The arms industry has a vested interest in inflaming hostilities between nations. Ecocidal industries have a vested interest in ensuring that they remain able to rape and pillage our planet without legal intervention while offloading the cost of the consequences to the public. Monopolistic corporations have a vested interest in intertwining themselves with government power to protect themselves from antitrust cases.
Everything we ache for our world to be — the way we know it ought to be deep down in our heart of hearts — is subverted by the systems we have in place, which are all geared toward taking it in the exact opposite direction.
The world will never know peace as long as war is profitable. The world will never know health as long as sickness is profitable. The ecosystem will never thrive as long as ecocide is profitable. We will remain ruled by tyrants for as long as our systems elevate tyranny.
To have a healthy world, we’re going to need systems in place which elevate health instead of viciousness. Until then the gravitational pull of those systems will continually steer us toward dysfunction. Hoping we can move toward peace and harmony without changing those systems is like stepping off a cliff and hoping you don’t fall.
We need to move from competition-based models to collaboration-based models. Systems which value working in collaboration toward the greater good, both in collaboration with each other and with our ecosystem. Until we do, we’ll fall every time.(-Caitlin Johnstone)
Finally gaining a release 10 years after it was first recorded this infamous, lost first album is everything you could want from a Dogs D’Amour album. The fact the 3rd generation tapes this was taken from sound like they’ve their fair share of whisky spilt on them in their years in a Wolverhampton basement only enhances the record. While always something of a designer mess you really can believe this is the Dogs in a true state, rough, raw and authentic the cigarettes and sincerity fair drip from Tyla voice. ‘State We’re In’ is all clattering punk guitars, taking after the Pistols on ‘Dole Hero’ or tourmate Johnny Thunders on ‘Wired and Awake’, and classic Glam sparkle on the T-Rex-tasy of ‘Don’t Ask Me To Say I Love You’ or ‘Can’t Get You Out Of My Head’, which is Hanoi Rocks in full blues-explosion mode. The original ‘Heroine’ is a hundred times for heart-breaking than is scrubbed-up younger sisters there after, while the scrapbook like sleeve and 2 CD-ROM videos remind of some heartbreaking haircuts and er, naked Tyla! Almost certainly worth the wait.
/Alison
They played in famous bands during the 80s/90s and have not decided to give up rock’n’roll or to remain passive such as fallen rockstars who have nothing fresh to offer. It’s time to BUBBLE !
It would be nice if you could introduce the band.
BUBBLE is Bam of Dogs D’Amour/Wildhearts fame on drums and backing vox; Share of Vixen/Contraband (bass) on guitar and lead vocals; Brent Muscat of Faster Pussycat on guitar and backing vocals; Eric Stacy, also, of Faster Pussycat on bass and backing vocals.
You’re recording a new album on your own label. Do you think that it’s a way to be more independent and get more freedom ?
We’ve worked with lots of different producers in the past and thought this time, it would be cool if we didn’t have to answer to anybody apart from ourselves. Funny thing is, we’re quite hard on ourselves…which is good. It will give us an album where every song stands by itself with no filler tracks. We definitely have more creative freedom and that’s great.
By the way, can you tell us more about Basement Boy Records ? Do you already produce bands/artists ?
Yes, we already produce other people. But none have had a proper release on our label. The first will be BUBBLE. Then, an LA heart throb named Ashleigh! (boys…look out). After that there are a few more acts we want to sign.
You chose “taxi driver” for the HANOI ROCKS tribute album. I guess that it must not be easy to choose only one song among all HANOI ROCKS songs. How did you decide to choose this one ?
Taxi Driver is our hands down favorite Hanoi song!
I saw on your website that The DOGS D’AMOUR are back with Share on bass. Do you think that it will affect BUBBLE ?
Not unless the Dogs and Bubble have to play a show on the same night on two different sides of the world!!!!
What kind of music do you like to listen when you’re at home ?
Ash, Radiohead, Neil Young, Led Zeppelin, Stones, Kinks, Bowie, Beethoven, Miles Davis, Beatles….everything really. We’re very open to new music.
What would you answer to people who say that rock is dead ?
WAKE UP!!! YOU’RE DEAF!
There are several BUBBLE webpages, do you appreciate that ?
Yeah, that’s really cool. The more the better.
Do you plan to come to Europe ?
Nothing would make us happier. But right now there are no definite plans.
of these warnings, from Kissinger to Mearsheimer.— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) 
Veglam 