I don't take your posts personally so far on this thread, frank. Merely acknowledging that the regular Democrats on a2k always use the "perfect world" rebuttal when not using "pie in the sky." It makes me figure most of them are happy with substandard in politics.
marx x ☭ 📓📚@casanumarx·15h
Gas would be more affordable if US lifted sanctions off of Iran and Venezuela, you know?
@edgarblythe,
The US has been on a bit of a charm offensive lately re Venezuela.
I have always said the policy on Iran is wrong.
@izzythepush,
There was never sufficient cause to treat these two countries that way.
Saw a news clip of Biden urging at home work to return to the office. A Twitter reply: "Sure. What good are high gas prices if you don't drive to work?"
The "People's Convoy" originated in California last week and has merged with several other organized convoys of varying size to converge on Washington, D.C. to protest in a similar fashion to the truck driver protests that halted Canadian government operations in the capital of Ottawa over the last month.
Protesters who are part of the People's Convoy stress their demonstration will remain peaceful.
RELATED: Heightened security in DC remains for possible truck convoys despite previous uneventful protests
Truck convoy loops around Washington DC to protest Covid restrictions
The ‘people’s convoy’ of around 1,000 vehicles threaten a week of traffic disruptions around US capital
@edgarblythe,
I wonder what restrictions they think they are protesting.
@roger,
I was wondering the same thing! Wasn’t their whole deal masking?
@roger,
That's a good question Roger. I don't know the answer. I just know they are there. Ricky Schroeder is getting some of the headlines for being there.
I think the downthumber gets stoked on one of the other threads then self righteously decides to show their disdain for posts on my thread. As if such cowardice makes a difference.
@roger,
Their timing really couldn't have been much worse. Undoubtedly they've been aware of the continued falling away of mask mandates, literally as they've been making the trek. Nevertheless, they've got a list of grievances which are essentially just a rehashing of standard reactionary bumper stickers, mixed with trump idolatry, all of which we've all already seen. But they'll have a hard time getting much sympathy as all eyes are on Ukraine and priorities have shifted (however temporarily)
Interesting conversation on Facebook:
Eric Jackson
284u4o065 mfrh30e5ar1s7 ·
Ashleigh Stewart, Globalnews.ca:
This is Anastasiia Yalanskay.
She was killed on March 4, just outside Kyiv, delivering supplies to a dog shelter that was without food for 3 days.
The car she was in was targeted at close range.
Yalanskaya stayed behind in Kyiv to volunteer as everyone fled around her.
Lily Koster
C'mon Eric, how come we don't post a photo of a dead Somali girl, or a suffering Iraki woman? I'm getting tired of the western media disneyfying Ukrainian people
Reply2h
Eric Jackson
Lily Koster Nearly every time that I have posted photos of the 1989 US invasion of Panama casualties, or those killed or wounded by the Martinelli regime, Facebook put a cover on it if they were nice or pulled it down for violating their standards. Racist censorship by algorithm.
And like how they pulled down my 2019 editorial about fascism and called it "hate speech." Or how they pulled down a post from the Argentine newspaper Clarín about Mon LaFerte's topless Latin Grammy protest, threw me in Facebook Jail for several days, and then admitted that I had not violated their published standards -- but they keep warning me about doing it again.
But you are right that because you generally can't tell a Ukrainian from a white American by looking at the person, a double standard that works against the Russians kicks in.
I am mostly a homebody, but among the circles in which I run are the cat and dog feeders. In that narrow sense, the mofos killed "one of us," so all the more newsworthy. EVEN IF it might have been "friendly fire" by one of the hardly trained Ukrainian volunteers (and I have no way to know that, nor a reason to discard the possibility).
"Disnification?" Wouldn't want THAT. That corporation fired Harlan Ellison, just for lewd Donald Duck talk in the dining room.
The government sometimes does good. When I know about it I am happy to acknowledge, even if it's 75 years late.
@edgarblythe,
My heart sinks whenever I hear Ricky Schroeder is involved.
@glitterbag,
I liked Ricky, but this covid stuff has him going off the rail.
Shaun King
1 hr ·
My people.
I want to try to talk to you about a few things I see that concern me. I just ask that you keep an open mind, OK? And if you can’t read all of this, don’t read any of it.
What’s happening in Ukraine right now is horrible. No ifs, ands, or buts. It’s the largest, fastest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II and one of the fastest growing refugee crises in the history of the world.
And most of these people have lost everything. Many have lost their homes and their most prized possessions. Many more have lost family members to the war.
And it’s my opinion that all of us should be grieved by this. I said it earlier - but my faith compels me to care for refugees, widows, and orphans. No matter their identity.
OK? But…
1. A lot of us are hurting. We’ve seen Black and Brown refugees from all over the world be treated like second and third class citizens. We’ve seen laws banning them. We’ve seen laws and wars criminalizing them. We’ve seen protests for Black people be criminalized.
And it truly hurts to see the genuine pain of white people 10,000 miles away be received so warmly with billion dollar budgets and bombs and open borders.
Suddenly legislation moves quickly.
Solutions happen overnight.
And we see something that frankly I’ve never seen in my life… the mainstream media AND governments around the world are encouraging Molotov cocktails - the same ones that would get any of us sent to prison for life.
Or get a Palestinian defending their literal home shot in the face.
And so, what’s happening is this…
2. The blatant double standard and painful hypocrisy of it all is making it hard for many good people to have the compassion that this crisis truly deserves.
And I get it. I truly do.
But, here’s my final point…
3. Don’t be ugly. Don’t allow this mean old world to make your heart so hard that you see the genuine pain of other people and find yourself not even caring.
Because I’m seeing a bit too much of that. And it makes perfect sense to me. But it’s actually a symptom of oppression. We must find a way to be upset with the double standard AND be concerned about the refugee crisis.
Forgot to get a link
An incredible screw up by the Biden administration -Even if the world survives the current threat of nuclear war, the end of the American Empire will remain assured and ongoing. The Biden Sanctions are in the process of destroying the dollar as the world's reserve currency and the United States' control over the world's monetary system. No longer will the world finance our debt by holding dollars. Coming soon, a different economy, a much less well off America, or a future world War III caused by some future strongman xenophobic leader preying on the American people's shock at their new economic reality.
"...At this very moment China, India and countless more are exploring ways to de-dollarize and create alternative institutions to the likes of SWIFT: A new Russia-China payment system bypassing SWIFT, for example, combining the Russian SPFS (System for Transfer of Financial Messages) with the Chinese CIPS (Cross-Border Interbank Payment System) is a distinct possibility....Moreover, the Global South might seek to join, moving their own reserves into the new system..
As former Societe Generale strategist Dylan Grice described it, the “weaponization” of dollar-based money. "You only get to play the card once,” ...“China will make it a priority to need no USD before going for Taiwan. It’s a turning point in monetary history.”
China and the rest are not waiting to be bushwhacked in the ditch of the next crisis. Instead, what is actually happening underneath is a great preemption maneuver, whereby money and goods alike are being rerouted away from Washington’s weaponization of the world’s dollar-based economic system to new channels and institutions beyond its reach.
