The inevitable end result of our last 56 years

[Douglas Caddy]

 

 

 

Raphael Warnock’s in real trouble - Greg Palast

[Douglas Caddy]

[John Cotter]

16 hours ago, Matthew Koch said:

U2 has some good music.. but, they rival Jimmy Buffet for biggest sellouts ever. Bono has gotten in trouble for having a charity that spends more on parties for rich people than it actually donates. 

That's excellent, Matthew. I play a little guitar too (I mainly play Irish trad fiddle - Leonard Cohen's great line, "my cheap violin and my cross", resonates very eloquently with my struggles in that regard) and I find The Edge's guitar playing to be somewhat on the "thin" side, to put it mildly. I think Bill Bailey is spot on here.

Edited December 4, 2022 by John Cotter

[Mark Knight]

6 hours ago, Steve Thomas said:

Let me see if I've got this straight:

A Private Political Party asks a

Private Company not to

Publish Personal Pictures of a

Person's Private Parts and

People are Pissed?

Sounds Pretty Picayune.

Steve Thomas

Steve,

I believe you've summed it up quite well.

Yesterday Ted Cruz posted those photos of Hunter Biden's genitalia online. I still don't understand why Hunter's "junk" is such a Republican obsession.

But it apparently is, for some reason.

[John Cotter]

19 hours ago, W. Niederhut said:

John,

     I was referring to your argument that, "U2 is part of the problem we need to fix," presumably because they have been commercially successful, and commercial wealth causes of poverty.

     But doesn't that imply that commercial wealth is a zero sum game?  Adam Smith disagreed.

     Also, isn't Bono's advocacy of debt relief for Third World nations part of the solution for world poverty?

     Wasn't his advocacy of peace part of the solution for Ireland?

     From what I know about America, U2's criticism of our military-industrial complex, latent racism, and nascent fascism is part of the solution.  It's what Americans need to hear in stadiums in the age of Trump and the military jet flyovers at football games.

William,

You haven’t identified any flaw in my reasoning. Rather have you exposed flaws in yours.

You, Bono and his U2 colleagues profess to be Christians. Yet you reject the teaching of St Thomas Aquinas and other Church Fathers on the question of wealth, and instead subscribe to the thinking of Adam Smith, which is based on greed, one of the seven deadly sins of Christianity.  

Who doesn’t advocate peace? As I said, motherhood and apple pie. The sad reality is that the peace process in Northern Ireland, by definition, only happened as a result of the IRA’s anti-imperialist guerrilla warfare – which campaign, by the way, contrary to what you suggested, was not sectarian.

Obviously sectarian atrocities were committed by both sides during “The Troubles”, but those atrocities were not approved by the IRA leadership and had nothing to do with the IRA’s anti-imperialist campaign.

Just like freedom for southern Ireland came only after the blood sacrifice by a brave minority in 1916. The majority of the Irish – like the majority in any society – were (and are) authoritarian lickspittles who kowtow to their overlords whoever they are. It was only after the British executed the 1916 leaders that the Irish War of Independence began, and it was only after that that Ireland won some degree of independence (now being frittered away, thanks to the likes of Bono).

Unfortunately, imperialists understand only one language, the language of physical force. How did the USA win its independence from Britain? That’s why John Lennon was right and Bono was wrong.

Bono’s ostentatious “standing with” Ukraine in its purported armed resistance to Russian imperialism contrasts starkly with his condemnation of the IRA in its armed resistance to British imperialism.

What he’s really standing with (at a safe distance of course – like a succession of Hollywood celebrity clowns such as Sean Penn) is the current unipolar world order – the establishment that has made him rich, the establishment that’s maintained by violence, the violence of Anglo-American/Nato militarism. So much for peace.

As for economic inequality, as I’ve said repeatedly, there is only one logical and fair solution – economic equality or as close to it as possible. Philanthropy and charity only mask and reinforce the fundamental problem of inequality. As the African saying goes, the hand that gives is always above the hand that receives.

Or as Oscar Wilde said:

“We are often told that the poor are grateful for charity. Some of them are, no doubt, but the best amongst the poor are never grateful. They are ungrateful, discontented, disobedient, and rebellious. They are quite right to be so. Charity they feel to be a ridiculously inadequate mode of partial restitution, or a sentimental dole, usually accompanied by some impertinent attempt on the part of the sentimentalist to tyrannise over their private lives. Why should they be grateful for the crumbs that fall from the rich man’s table? They should be seated at the board, and are beginning to know it. As for being discontented, a man who would not be discontented with such surroundings and such a low mode of life would be a perfect brute. Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion. Sometimes the poor are praised for being thrifty. But to recommend thrift to the poor is both grotesque and insulting. It is like advising a man who is starving to eat less.” 

https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/wilde-oscar/soul-man/

[Matthew Koch]

22 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/msm-journos-have-meltdown-over-taibbi-twitter-biden-bombshell

Worth reading. Glenn Greenwald's summation. 

Thanks Ben that was great!

Showed it to my father and he loved it.. 

[Guest]

57 minutes ago, John Cotter said:

Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.

Boy isn’t this the truth. It’s the one thing social conditioning from schooling to old age, is designed to take out of us. 
 

 

[Matthew Koch]

7 hours ago, Steve Thomas said:

Let me see if I've got this straight:

A Private Political Party asks a

Private Company not to

Publish Personal Pictures of a

Person's Private Parts and

People are Pissed?

Sounds Pretty Picayune.

Steve Thomas

LOL!! Uh.. So, your a Libertarian now?!? Funny how liberals change their views when they get cornered! Unfortunately it's inaccurate because the government has been working with Big Tech as we see with Katie Hobbs now censoring her opponent in addition to election meddling. 

Fascism is coming to America under the guise of fighting fascism by the left in America.. 

 

 

Edited December 4, 2022 by Matthew Koch

[Benjamin Cole]

8 hours ago, Cliff Varnell said:

That’s bs, Ben.  Twitter was never a “powerful Donk ally.”

Twitter admits bias in algorithm for rightwing politicians and news outlets

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/oct/22/twitter-admits-bias-in-algorithm-for-rightwing-politicians-and-news-outlets

 

The San Francisco-based Twitter was a 'Phant catamite (pre-Musk)? 

Really? 

If you say so. Sounds like rice-a-roni time to me. The San Francisco treat! 

The interesting snag going forward is Musk's huge and compromising exposure to Beijing-CCP-China. 

Musk, in that regard, links arms with Apple, BlackRock, GM, Disney, NBC-Universal, Silicon Valley and Wall Street. 

BTW, look up Jimmy Lai, Hong Kong publisher, on Wikipedia. 

Sad, just sad. 

The CCP already runs TikTok. Twitter too? 

 

[Cliff Varnell]

51 minutes ago, Matthew Koch said:

Thanks Ben that was great!

Showed it to my father and he loved it.. 

What’s not to love about a guy who doesn’t know who was President in 2020?

Greenwald:

Go look and you'll see the whole mindless liberal pack making this point: "LOL, Elon claimed there was government involvement when Taibbi admitted in tweet 22 there's none." Now, look at Taibbi's tweet: he's saying there's no evidence of *foreign government* involvement, not US...

[Benjamin Cole]

3 minutes ago, Cliff Varnell said:

What’s not to love about a guy who doesn’t know who was President in 2020?

Greenwald:

Go look and you'll see the whole mindless liberal pack making this point: "LOL, Elon claimed there was government involvement when Taibbi admitted in tweet 22 there's none." Now, look at Taibbi's tweet: he's saying there's no evidence of *foreign government* involvement, not US...

I think you are confused on this particular issue, Cliff. 

Matt Taibbi and Glenn Greenwald, two of the best and independent political reporters of our era, likely know what they are talking about. 

The Twitter story is what it is: Twitter was a Donk ally in the social media world. Run by the billionaire Jack Dorsey. 

Now, Twitter may be unaligned or gravitate to the 'Phants, run by billionaire Elon Musk. 

With lots of influence from the CCP? 

[Cliff Varnell]

9 minutes ago, Benjamin Cole said:

The San Francisco-based Twitter was a 'Phant catamite (pre-Musk)? 

Really? 

If you say so.

...Excuse me?  Twitter said so.

https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2021/10/22/twitter-admits-its-algorithms-amplify-right-wing-politicians-and-news-content

9 minutes ago, Benjamin Cole said:

Sounds like rice-a-roni time to me. The San Francisco treat! 

Confirmation bias is a bitch, ain’t it?

[Cliff Varnell]

2 minutes ago, Benjamin Cole said:

I think you are confused on this particular issue, Cliff. 

Matt Taibbi and Glenn Greenwald, two of the best and independent political reporters of our era, likely know what they are talking about. 

Has-beens.  If the US Gov’t interfered with Twitter in the fall of ‘20 how could that be Biden?

If you’re going to appeal to authority you can do better than Glenn “Citizens United” Greenwald and Matt “Uranium One” Taibbi.

2 minutes ago, Benjamin Cole said:

The Twitter story is what it is: Twitter was a Donk ally in the social media world. Run by the billionaire Jack Dorsey. 

Factually incorrect.  When Trump wanted items taken off Twitter they complied.

What part of “algorithm amplification” don’t you get?

2 minutes ago, Benjamin Cole said:

Now, Twitter may be unaligned or gravitate to the 'Phants, run by billionaire Elon Musk. 

With lots of influence from the CCP? 

It was always a right wing dominated platform.

[John Cotter]

18 hours ago, Chris Barnard said:

I think the “myth of the undeserving poor” is largely born out of the thinking of these eugenics societies that American elites had a century or so ago. The poor would be referred to as the “feeble minded”. It was an easy concept to float with the middle class, as it made them feel better about themselves. 
 

I agree, I am sure there are plenty of American’s now that have or are seeing it for the scam that it is. One controversial thing that I might say to put the cat amongst the pigeons is; whilst it is the democrats who are associated with an attachment to compassion, and the Republicans who seem to want to believe in and hang on to the idea of “American exceptionalism”,  I perhaps see more Republican’s who are waking up to some of the scams at play. Its conservatives who are longing for tradition, they are more disagreeable. In contrast; the Democrats have slipped into a collectivist trap, where any wolf of sheep's clothing dressed as compassion or the “greater good”, will be followed unquestioningly. 
 

Some, I suspect will take that as a mischaracterisation or, tell me I don’t live in the US, so I don’t understand. I would say if we take out the green and blue haired crazies from the Dem supporters who dress resentment as caring, and remove the zombie-like following that collects firearms and longs white supremacy amongst the Reps (both groups are a questionable number). By subtracting those groups, you get a much more grounded sample of American’s who don’t figure in the MSM mantra of promoting extremes. Of those two groups left, I think its conservatives are questioning the scams, and its Dems who don’t want to think they are being betrayed at the present time. Its a dangerous concept to vote tribally or to be satisfied as long as your perceived enemy isn’t voted in. The bar should be much higher and attached to what is achieved in office and the bigger picture. 
 

Of course, both sides are mostly responding to their primeval urges from the old, animal part of the brain, they just don’t realise they can be easily controlled by those who can stir emotions that are deeply wired in us. 
 

I haven’t read Bono’s memoirs but, I suspect looking at the American political discourse that he’d feel a bit like the title of this song:

They’ve been a great band. I think I prefer John Lennon’s position, its closer to my own, that there are maniacs running the show amongst the super powers. 
 

 

Yes, the irony is that the sort of “liberalism” espoused by those who vociferously endorsed the official covid narrative and vilified and shut down anyone who questioned it is not liberalism in any meaningful sense. It’s out and out authoritarianism, if not indeed fascism. (In a 1944 article, “What is Fascism”, George Orwell said fascism was essentially bullying – see link below.)

The same goes for those self-styled liberals who similarly support the US “full spectrum dominance” – effectively totalitarian – geopolitical order. These include Bono and Hollywood celebrities who cheer on the US proxy war in Ukraine. It’s not what JFK, MLK or RFK stood for.

JFK wanted to end the Cold War, not win it. He also supported the independence of Third World countries rather than forcing them to submit to US dominance.

“Explaining to Indian leader Jawaharlal Nehru his own opposition to colonialism, Kennedy observed that his Irish ancestors had suffered under the domination of the same foreign power that exercised authority in India, albeit less brutally than in Ireland. Perhaps he was seeking to identify with his Indian counterpart. But in the summer of 1963, Kennedy visited Ireland, despite the objections of some of his advisors, who saw no strategic value in it, and in the face of criticism that the trip was a personal indulgence.” (John F Kennedy: The Spirit of Cold War Liberalism by Jason K Duncan)

In other words, JFK favoured a multipolar geopolitical order, not the unipolar geopolitical order which the aforementioned celebrity “liberals” espouse.

https://www.orwell.ru/library/articles/As_I_Please/english/efasc

Edited December 5, 2022 by John Cotter

[Benjamin Cole]

8 minutes ago, Cliff Varnell said:

Has-beens.  If the US Gov’t interfered with Twitter in the fall of ‘20 how could that be Biden?

If you’re going to appeal to authority you can do better than Glenn “Citizens United” Greenwald and Matt “Uranium One” Taibbi.

Factually incorrect.  When Trump wanted items taken off Twitter they complied.

What part of “algorithm amplification” don’t you get?

It was always a right wing dominated platform.

We have to agree to disagree on this one. 

Although I suppose you could be right in a manner of speaking.

The billionaire class dominates both parties, and is, of course, "right-wing" on tax, regulatory and trade issues. That is, for the rich. 

So Twitter has gone from being a tool of billionaires with the Donk label to being a tool of an unaligned billionaire or 'Phant billionaire, but they are all "right-wing." 

As for the 'Phant party, are you saying that they held sway in the the San Fran HQ of Twitter? That seems like a stretch. 

But maybe so. You live there...was Twitter known as a hub for regional 'Phants?

Their sole watering hole in The City? Twitter employees openly wore "Trump" pins and eschewed rainbow flags? 

Tell us the truth, Cliff Varnell! Has the outside world be fooled?