America has been lied into too many wars. It’s cost us too much in money, credibility, and blood. We must remember the lies, and tell our children about them so that memory isn’t lost...
There is no love lost between Bush and TRump, but they are Republican birds of a feather. Money and oil for TRump and oil and money for Bush. Nothing else matters to them, especially the wasted lives of the service members killed or maimed.
They LOVE Saudi Arabia's rich leaders.
As a Cold Warrior, I knew 25 years ago that Bin Laden was coming---WE knew "it" was coming. Richard Clarke tried to tell the assholes in the Bush Administration what was about to happen. They should have been prosecuted, but Pelosi said move-on. Not. This. Time.
Break the Republican war, tax breaks, and debt pattern, we must. The youth have figured this out thanks to the "Thoms" that are podcasting. See you in the streets.
Speaking of your first line; “bone headed zombies”, on AMC , American MAGA Classics”, the Walking Dead ! Starring DJT Barnum still presenting the Greatest SHITSHOW on Earth, and co-starring the Midterm MAGA mosh pit shit conventioneers in Dallas, TX. And the ones who did not attend ran away as fast as Mike Johnson ran away from a Discharge Petition as fast as Josh Hawley ran away from a Jan. 6 insurrection. Good post Sir Okie !
We are already in the middle of WWIII. The USA declared economic war on the entire globe with Trump's stupid tariffs. We then insulted our strongest allies, so that NATO no longer trusts us. Canada hates us - Mexico too. Trump and his clowncar blab secrets on TV, so no allies will share intel with CIA anymore - would you?
One of my favorite blabs was when, on June 16th last year, Hegseth announced on TV that we had sent refueling jets within range of the Middle East. I thought at the time, looks like we will soon bomb Iran's supposed nukes. That gave Iran 6 days notice to move their enriched uranium to safety before we dropped bombs on empty mountians that achieved nothing on June 22nd.
The problem, Mr. Bender, is a collective mind copulation. You see, unless one is in their 90's they have no clue of "world war." They can only interpret the moniker based on old, grainy black and white footage of tanks, soldiers with bayonets and gravity bombs. Most people, at that time, had neither indoor plumbing, televisions nor telephones. Fast forward 81 years where a device that fits in your pocket is a telephone, a radio, a camera, a "television" and a computer.
Oh make no mistake, it's on and cracking.. Just a few weeks ago several water treatment plants were cyberattacked all over the US; it is alleged that it was Iran. Point is, most didn't hear a peep about it.
Since 9/11, the United States has spent about $8 trillion on its post‑9/11 wars and those wars have caused at least 4.5–4.7 million total deaths (direct + indirect), according to the most authoritative sources.
💵 Financial cost since 9/11
$5.8 trillion already spent
Department of Defense war operations: $2.1T
Homeland Security: $1.1T
Base DOD budget increases: $884B
Veterans’ medical care to date: $465B
Interest on war borrowing: $1T
$8 trillion total (including future obligations)
Brown University’s Costs of War project calculates that when future veteran care is included, the total cost of post‑9/11 wars reaches $8 trillion.
⚰️ Human cost since 9/11
Direct deaths:
~940,000 people killed directly in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, and other conflict zones.
Indirect deaths:
3.6–3.8 million deaths from war‑related disease, malnutrition, infrastructure collapse, and health‑system breakdown.
Total deaths:
4.5–4.7 million people killed (direct + indirect).
U.S. military deaths:
7,000+ U.S. service members killed across all post‑9/11 operations.
🧭 Interpretation
The post‑9/11 wars represent the most expensive sustained military effort in U.S. history. The human toll is overwhelmingly borne by civilians in conflict zones, with indirect deaths far exceeding battlefield casualties.
Do we really choose our poliical leaders? Or do we choose between those selected for us.
The rise of the DSA has struck fear into the breasts of the establishment, but having been an astute observer when the establishment finds that it can't destroy the DSA and it's movement, it will co opt it and bring it back around.
I think it was a Netflix series, but it touched on a truth. There is an oligarchy over oligarchies.
Russia has it's oligarchy, America has it, yet both oligarchies answer to an oligarchy.
And their tools of control are petroleum and financial instruments.
The form of government of a country is of no interest and consequence, only their ability to control the resources of the nation.
Venezuela is a prime example. There was no concern at all about the form of government or the rights of the people, what they wanted was a compliant leadership or ruler.
Trump got rid of Maduro, and brushed aside Machado, the fool who tried to ingratiate herself by giving him her Noble Peace Prize, in favor of Maduro's VP Delcy Venezuelans nothing has changed.
As regards Venezuelan oil, I recently learned some facts. The oil i thick, chunky, sulfur heavy crude and needs to be refined five times. before it can be refined into petroleum products, it has the consistency of peanut butter, Much like Canadian tar sands
Here is a visual link to compare the oil, problem is the beaker with USA oil, resemble Brent Sweet,which has the highest price on the market, as it is easier and cheaper to refine.
Russian oil is heavy, high sulfur content, more difficult to refine.
Iranian crude oil is generally classified as medium-to-heavy sour crude, meaning it features a medium-to-high sulfur content, typically ranging between 1.4% and 3.0% depending on the specific grade
West Texas Intermediate is darker,has a higher sulfur content than Brent, but still low enough to keep costs of refining below that of heavier or sour oils.
Arabian Heavy: Lower API gravity and higher sulfur content.Arabian Medium: Mid-range density and sulfur levels
.Arabian Light: The flagship grade and most widely exported, balanced in density and sulfur.
Arabian Extra Light: Higher API gravity with lower sulfur content.
Arabian Super Light: Highest API gravity (lightest) and lowest sulfur
All oil is not the same. . Canadian tar sands oil, has to be upgraded in Canada before shipment.otherwise it is sandly sludge which requires a lot of energy to pump and would scour out pipelines,
None the less the US depends on 4 million barrels per day, making Canada oil our largest import source, and enables the oil companies to in turn expert about 4 million barrels of petroleum products per day, accelerating their profits
Incidentally, the largest threat to commerce and inflation is Marine Diesel
On average, large cargo and container ships consume roughly 40 to 110 gallons of fuel per mile (about 1 to 2.5 barrels), though consumption is traditionally measured in metric tons per day rather than gallons per mile.
The public needs an education on petroleum, it's products and consumption.
Thank you for the class on petroleum and consumption. Even with the increase in renewables, we can't get by without petroleum.
We'll soon see not only higher prices but also shortages. We'll notice it first in groceries because diesel costs are rising. Nearly all our groceries have to be transported by diesel-powered vehicles.
You are absolutely right Gloria. We really haven't yet begun to feel the pain, because we are living off accumulated fat, and the engine is running on inertia. Little by little, the people will know what it is like to wear a hair shirt, but like the Germans of 1934, by the time they learn it will be too late.
It might not be relevant, some defectors from Anthropic and other AI companies have come forward, after quitting, because the Companies can't stop, won't stop, and as a consequence AI is developing to the point where we humans will be superfluous and will kill us all.Not hard to do, just stop the flow of water, electricity, transportation and we all die.
I read years ago, that civilization was 48 hours deep. I was 5 miles from the Oct 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake that brought the Bay Area of California to a full stop.
And saw for myself, how civilization can disintegrate so easily, we were lucky someone we were rescued at 48 hours in, with the restoration of electricity.
And this is a tell on who we really are. Though the supermarkets and other stores closed up. The liquor stores hauled old manual cash registers into the parking lot, continued sales and actually increased sales, soon sold out of liquor. Beer sales,first to go, by hour 48, people were scrounging for Everclear, and filtering shaving lotion.
It was a good test for me, I was in eary sobriety, and did not relapse
I would add that the U.S, strategic reserves are close to the level of “who gets what.” And the most fossil fuel using entity in the world is the United States Military.
The US SPR's are most certainly,below tank bottom. Here is what I mean, 270 million barrels are what is needed for fuel the armed forces, our ships, planes, vehicles. Over two months ago we were at 309 million barrels,and consume 20 million barrels per day.
We export 4 million barrels per day, that Exxon, Conoco, Phillips, Marathan investors can take advantage of the rising spot price on the international market, and import 4 million barrels of Canadian, and produce about 13 million barrels per day.
Trump has kept the price of fuel "low" because he has been dipping into the SPR.
He is more than willing to disable the United States, that he can keep the price of gas and diesel artificially low, by dipping into the SPR.
Thank you for that detailed understanding. Oil has to be processed. You are another http://Mr.Global that Malcolm Nance follows and talks about on his Black Man Spy Substack podcast. Keep educating us !!
Cuba has a couple of refineries that aren't being used. Don’t know ithey'rere functional. They were refining Venezuela’s crude until Trump cut them off.
Rational and well said, though I suspect the public mood was so angry that Bush could not have stopped an intervention in Afghanistan if he had tried. Having traveled across that country, and gone all through Iran and into Iraq in the early '70s I saw how this would end. At the time I said that if we got in and out fast and followed up with engineers, physicians, etc. maybe we could stabilize Afghanistan. But otherwise, a long ground war was impossible, the country is mountains and desert, and the people have been fighting invaders for millennia. But of course nobody would listen, any more than LBJ and McNamara did, not understanding the landscape, history and culture of Vietnam.
I thought we had learned from Vietnam, but obviously a new generation made the same mistakes, then doubled and tripled down with Iraq and Iran. Nothing new, as you say; in 1805 the U.S. was backing a claimant to the Tripoli throne. Then we betrayed him. Jefferson cut a deal and our forces went home. The only monument to that dirty episode is in the opening line of the Marines' Hymn.
Why did we invade Afghanistan when it played no role in 9/11? Because we wanted to show the Russians that we could succeed where they failed. Of course, we too left Afghanistan with our tails between our legs, just like Russia did. As Thom pointed out, we "Christian democracy" Americans felt duty-bound to consider Islam a violation of civil rights - especially women's rights. Of course, our own nation had a history of denying rights to American women who could not vote until 1920, nor have a bank account or credit card without a male co-signature until 1974.
In keeping with 9/11, while Bush and his CIA and DOD did nothing until the towers were struck, subsequent invasions in the Middle East ensured his re-election. As for WMD, at the time, I had just finished a big study for JCS on WMD, so I had interviewed a lot of experts on the topic. I asked several who had been in Iraq if they had any remaining biological weapons. The answer was no. So why not call the WH? The answer was that Cheney had created fact-moat around the WH. That sort of makes you wonder if Netanyahu's lack of action when warned of Hamas's pending invasion was similarly motivated by his wish to use war to stay in office.
yoOnThe Beach, of course Netanyahu did. He was facing a court that would have put him in jail for his neglect in responding to what all of his analysts told him was an imminent threat. He continues on this path because he sees this as his only way to stay in office. He also may have made back handed deals with Qatar and Hamas.
I will say it again, one more time. If education had been happening in the last century, the people would have had the knowledge, capacity, awareness, and conscience required to recognize the lies and to expose them and put a stop to them. The mythology of free but forced schooling has blinded virtually everyone to the failures and mis-education which makes people "servile and dumb" in John Holt's famous words. Rehashing it over and over without eradicating the authoritarian and reactionary influence is an exercise in futility.
While I agree, we need to keep in mind that few high schools are helping students to actually develop critical reasoning skills - aka bullshit detectors. There is no course for that. My classy prep school taught us the basics for debating, but it was not until I was working on my MA that I finally mastered the critical reasoning essential to doing scientific research.
If you actually review the reams of research and scholarly literature on our traditional schools and if you apply "critical thinking", there is only one conclusion, to wit, critical thinking is hazardous for students, true free speech and expression is verboten, and to the extent that students are educated, it must be credited to heroic but rule-breaking and self-sacrificing teachers, extraordinary parenting, and most notably the native intelligence of the students and their outside learning, intuition, observation, and independent thought and study. Those are few and far between. Critical thinking also leaves only one conclusion which is that coercion and legal requirements forcing attendance are antithetical to education and necessitate an authoritarian bureaucracy which is teaches anti-democratic lessons and demands unthinking, blind obedience to authority. You are correct that critical thinking is not a skill that can be part of a curriculum or "taught" as a subject with much success. Like democracy itself, it must be experienced, practiced, and lived. Those things are a threat to school authorities, and in a compulsory paradigm, they have the power and they do not relinquish it for anything or anyone. Wm does not understand that we can have free schooling but that to have free minds and free citizens, we must have autonomy for teachers and students in the classroom.
If not Free, then we have a nation of illiterates, because only those with fathers who have means can educate their children. Such was the case in America before Thomas Mann. My ancestors from 4th GGF to great grandfather were illiterate and thus unable to engage in contracts beyond signing with an X and at the mercy of who ever told them was in the contract. Daddy couldn't afford to tutor his sons, especially since he himself was unlettered.
Forced education: Evidently you are unaware of or don't care about the abuse of children in mines, on farms and factories. Maybe your ideal is a Dickensian world.
Where you lose credibility is that all you have is a bitch list, but offer no viable alternative,not an alternative at all.
I wonder who you really are, being that you are an advocate for ignorance, illiteracy and child labor.
21st century or not. Somebody is going to pay for education, Either the family or society. Which is it. Most families can't afford to educate their own children, most don't have the wherewithal either.
If education is not mandatory, and paid for by public funds, then the only ones educated are the wealthy, and we are back 200 years.
Were it not for mandatory public education, Robert Elliott would not be able to pontificate, Unless his father was wealthy and cared enough to have him privately tutored.
You are in your own sealed and impenetrable bubble. I have never said that public tax funds should not be paid for schools and I have in fact stated the obvious too many times here to count. Your obsession is pathological. There is zero reason for requiring any student citizen with civil and constitutional rights to attend schools which are publicly funded. Try reading what I write, instead of replaying the broken tape in your head. You are conflating compulsory attendance with public funding, habitually. The two are separate issues. You either believe in democracy and civil rights, or you believe in the state dictating to people what they will do with their lives based on some erroneous theory that the state's interest in education justifies incarcerating children for 12 years. Go to Russia if that's your preference.
Actually, this is the first time that you have clarified your position.
However you share ideology with Milton Friedman and Betsy DeVos, etc.
They are all for publicly funded education, but having parents decide how public funds are dispersed, and that means subsidy of religious schooling, be it Catholic, Evangelical or a madrassa. I believe they call them vouchers.
Since you enfranchise public funding of education, but private choice of schooling, then you stand four square with Milton Friedman, Rahm Emanuel, Betsy DeVos and the religious community.
Wrong again. I have clarified my position dozens of times as regular readers will confirm whether or not they are in agreement with me. I am adamantly opposed to privatizing schooling, or using public monies for vouchers, charters, etc. Again, you conflate because you are confused and you shoot off comments without reading what I have posted. Without compulsory attendance laws, PUBLIC schools would become hospitable, service-oriented, democratic, student-centered, institutions for authentic educational endeavors and opportunities, but most importantly safe spaces for free thought and autonomous development.
What Happens When A Malignant Narcissist President Is Hated By His Country?
Malignant narcissism is a life long mental disorder that is characterized by an over inflated grandiose sense of self importance, a lack of conscience, rule breaking, and total disregard for the rights or safety of others. They have extreme mistrust that views other people and the world as hostile threats. But most importantly they find active pleasure, empowerment, or triumph in humiliating, dominating, or inflicting pain on others.
So when one has a malignant narcissist as president and as a influential figure in the world, the above descriptor spells major trouble. As much as the American people laugh and mock Cheeto, his hatred for the American people even worsens and he delights is inflicting economic pain on us but on the world, particularly allies such as Canada.
So this doubling down that Cheeto is demonstrating in his reckless tariff policies hurts all small American businesses as well as the entire agricultural industry. But he doesn’t care. That’s a real problem for WE the People.
And quite possibly continue kicking the World game board over because if he can’t have it, nobody can. And hearing the cult garbage from the Dallas MAGA-niacal crowd, it’s absolutely scary what they might do.
Join Indivisible and a unified voice for WE the People. Oct 17 protest to support the electoral vote and set up counter protesting if Cheeto and fascist Republicans try to do something after the election.
I wrote these three poems in 2001 as a triptych for 9/11/2001. Our hearts still carry the memory of 9/11/2026, twenty-five years beyond those days in Autumn, 2001, a poem in three parts for memories as myriad as particles of dust, shards of glass, pieces of paper. ~ Annie Cross, 2001
BREAKING NEWS
Report from WTC 9.11.01:
We stood near the coffee room,
Grousing, kvetching, chatting,
When it all changed,
All life, every cell, all thoughts,
Suddenly, instantly, fade to black.
It was always changing;
It was always fleeting;
It was always temporary,
But I confess, mea culpa, tempus fugit, carpe diem,
I was blind;
I did not see.
Embers and debris fell around us,
Fire and smoke found us,
Every pore strained for air, for light.
We could not find our way out,
We could not see.
A stairway marked Exit,
Mocked our strength:
Locked.
No way out,
Everything falling in.
Running, running, running,
A stairway marked Exit,
Led to truth:
Opened.
And we ran,
Down, down, down,
Hoping this was not the hell
It seemed.
Feet hit the street,
Precarious bedrock
Of this floating island
Where dollar bills and love letters,
Collection notes and curriculum vitae
Come floating down from the sky
We won’t see for days,
But as we live and breathe,
We see clearly now.
BREAKING NEWS 2
Report from Kabul 10.17.01:
Bombs and fire attack my children,
Two have died in my line of sight,
Too far from my arms,
Already full of my babies,
Doomed to die from your fire.
Russian fire,
Taliban fire,
Northern fire,
American fire,
What does it matter, the origin of fire.
It burns my skin, my eyes, my beloved.
We burn and burn and burn,
Allah’s endless crucible.
Fire rains down upon us
Explodes under our feet
Rips out our eyes
Blows away our legs.
What more is required to be free,
To be pure.
My babies, my mother, my husband,
We know this fire,
Ceaseless danger, forbidden sleep,
Bombs and bullets,
Smoke and bodies,
Stench and sand,
All defy the heart to beat, the chest to rise,
The eyes to open.
We burrow underground,
Into mountainsides,
Seeking safety near God’s stone heart,
From the cave that gives us refuge,
We see blue sky over the mountains;
From the slit in the garments that shield my body,
My eyes seek the sliver of light permitted,
And I see clearly
The airplanes coming over the ridge.
BREAKING NEWS 3
Report from the Prairie 10.22.01:
It is raining yellow.
Leaves and ladybugs everywhere,
Blowing and winging down,
Landing in my hair,
On my shoulders,
Ribbons and epaulets from the earth’s
Transformation before the cold.
Autumn in the Mid-West,
Where sun, maple leaf, and warbler
Confuse the enthralled eye,
To believe that gold is landing all around,
At last.
Apple days, blue October sky, quiet starry nights,
No rain in the forecast,
My children dodge falling manna,
Hickory, persimmon, Osage orange.
They gather black walnuts,
That stain the hands,
And fill the air with spicy, earth-scent.
They learn to hammer the husk hard,
Dig out the meat from the hidden burrows,
Without smashing a finger or getting shell in the eyes.
There is no love lost between Bush and TRump, but they are Republican birds of a feather. Money and oil for TRump and oil and money for Bush. Nothing else matters to them, especially the wasted lives of the service members killed or maimed.
They LOVE Saudi Arabia's rich leaders.
As a Cold Warrior, I knew 25 years ago that Bin Laden was coming---WE knew "it" was coming. Richard Clarke tried to tell the assholes in the Bush Administration what was about to happen. They should have been prosecuted, but Pelosi said move-on. Not. This. Time.
Break the Republican war, tax breaks, and debt pattern, we must. The youth have figured this out thanks to the "Thoms" that are podcasting. See you in the streets.
Next, he will;
- MAKE HIS BONE-HEADED ZOMBIES PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO HIM
- TELL THEM TO CHEAT AT VOTE-TIME
- LUST AFTER TWO NYFD FIREMEN
- LIE ABOUT HIMSELF ON 9/11
- CLAIM HE NEVER BEAT UP A LITTLE GIRL WHEN SHE BIT HIS MUSHROOM
- INSIST HE'S NEVER FINGER-RAPED E. JEAN CARROLL
- PROTEST THAT HE NEVER RAPED HIS FIRST WIFE
- SAY HIS RECORD IN NY STATE IS CLEAN
- PROPOUND THAT NO WOMAN WHO ALLEGES MOLESTATION/RAPE IS PRETTY ENOUGH
- SAY HE'S NOT A RUSSIAN SPY
- SAY HE's NOT A RACIST OR MISOGYNIST
- BRAG THAT HIS MUSHROOM WENT TO SUPER MODEL VIETNAM
- TRY TO BUY VOTES LIKE ELON DID [5,000 VS ELON'S 1,000,000]
- SAY COVID WAS CONCOCTED BY THE CHINESE, NO COVID-19 DEATHS ON HIS HANDS
ON AND ON . . .
#VOTE for American values
#AWAY with them
#SAVE Ivanka's honor from her so-called dad
#W, Bill speak up, you cowards
-
Speaking of your first line; “bone headed zombies”, on AMC , American MAGA Classics”, the Walking Dead ! Starring DJT Barnum still presenting the Greatest SHITSHOW on Earth, and co-starring the Midterm MAGA mosh pit shit conventioneers in Dallas, TX. And the ones who did not attend ran away as fast as Mike Johnson ran away from a Discharge Petition as fast as Josh Hawley ran away from a Jan. 6 insurrection. Good post Sir Okie !
"we could find ourselves in the middle of World War III..."
Whether beginning or middle, we are already in it Sensei.
We are already in the middle of WWIII. The USA declared economic war on the entire globe with Trump's stupid tariffs. We then insulted our strongest allies, so that NATO no longer trusts us. Canada hates us - Mexico too. Trump and his clowncar blab secrets on TV, so no allies will share intel with CIA anymore - would you?
One of my favorite blabs was when, on June 16th last year, Hegseth announced on TV that we had sent refueling jets within range of the Middle East. I thought at the time, looks like we will soon bomb Iran's supposed nukes. That gave Iran 6 days notice to move their enriched uranium to safety before we dropped bombs on empty mountians that achieved nothing on June 22nd.
True.
If we don't all get killed that way, there's always AI !
https://saltypolitics.substack.com/p/on-911s-25th-anniversary-america?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=3087318&post_id=215114544&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=2g7cs&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
I agree. I'm just waiting for it to become a complete worldwide conflagration. The pieces are moving into place.
The problem, Mr. Bender, is a collective mind copulation. You see, unless one is in their 90's they have no clue of "world war." They can only interpret the moniker based on old, grainy black and white footage of tanks, soldiers with bayonets and gravity bombs. Most people, at that time, had neither indoor plumbing, televisions nor telephones. Fast forward 81 years where a device that fits in your pocket is a telephone, a radio, a camera, a "television" and a computer.
Oh make no mistake, it's on and cracking.. Just a few weeks ago several water treatment plants were cyberattacked all over the US; it is alleged that it was Iran. Point is, most didn't hear a peep about it.
https://rohnkenyatta.substack.com/p/has-world-war-iii-already-begun-a?utm_source=publication-search.
FYI from AI.
Since 9/11, the United States has spent about $8 trillion on its post‑9/11 wars and those wars have caused at least 4.5–4.7 million total deaths (direct + indirect), according to the most authoritative sources.
💵 Financial cost since 9/11
$5.8 trillion already spent
Department of Defense war operations: $2.1T
Homeland Security: $1.1T
Base DOD budget increases: $884B
Veterans’ medical care to date: $465B
Interest on war borrowing: $1T
$8 trillion total (including future obligations)
Brown University’s Costs of War project calculates that when future veteran care is included, the total cost of post‑9/11 wars reaches $8 trillion.
⚰️ Human cost since 9/11
Direct deaths:
~940,000 people killed directly in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, and other conflict zones.
Indirect deaths:
3.6–3.8 million deaths from war‑related disease, malnutrition, infrastructure collapse, and health‑system breakdown.
Total deaths:
4.5–4.7 million people killed (direct + indirect).
U.S. military deaths:
7,000+ U.S. service members killed across all post‑9/11 operations.
🧭 Interpretation
The post‑9/11 wars represent the most expensive sustained military effort in U.S. history. The human toll is overwhelmingly borne by civilians in conflict zones, with indirect deaths far exceeding battlefield casualties.
Do we really choose our poliical leaders? Or do we choose between those selected for us.
The rise of the DSA has struck fear into the breasts of the establishment, but having been an astute observer when the establishment finds that it can't destroy the DSA and it's movement, it will co opt it and bring it back around.
I think it was a Netflix series, but it touched on a truth. There is an oligarchy over oligarchies.
Russia has it's oligarchy, America has it, yet both oligarchies answer to an oligarchy.
And their tools of control are petroleum and financial instruments.
The form of government of a country is of no interest and consequence, only their ability to control the resources of the nation.
Venezuela is a prime example. There was no concern at all about the form of government or the rights of the people, what they wanted was a compliant leadership or ruler.
Trump got rid of Maduro, and brushed aside Machado, the fool who tried to ingratiate herself by giving him her Noble Peace Prize, in favor of Maduro's VP Delcy Venezuelans nothing has changed.
As regards Venezuelan oil, I recently learned some facts. The oil i thick, chunky, sulfur heavy crude and needs to be refined five times. before it can be refined into petroleum products, it has the consistency of peanut butter, Much like Canadian tar sands
Here is a visual link to compare the oil, problem is the beaker with USA oil, resemble Brent Sweet,which has the highest price on the market, as it is easier and cheaper to refine.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DVs0XLdkznn/
Russian oil is heavy, high sulfur content, more difficult to refine.
Iranian crude oil is generally classified as medium-to-heavy sour crude, meaning it features a medium-to-high sulfur content, typically ranging between 1.4% and 3.0% depending on the specific grade
West Texas Intermediate is darker,has a higher sulfur content than Brent, but still low enough to keep costs of refining below that of heavier or sour oils.
State-owned Saudi Aramco produces these five official grades: [1] (https://www.aramco.com/en/what-we-do/energy-products/oil-production)
Arabian Heavy: Lower API gravity and higher sulfur content.Arabian Medium: Mid-range density and sulfur levels
.Arabian Light: The flagship grade and most widely exported, balanced in density and sulfur.
Arabian Extra Light: Higher API gravity with lower sulfur content.
Arabian Super Light: Highest API gravity (lightest) and lowest sulfur
All oil is not the same. . Canadian tar sands oil, has to be upgraded in Canada before shipment.otherwise it is sandly sludge which requires a lot of energy to pump and would scour out pipelines,
None the less the US depends on 4 million barrels per day, making Canada oil our largest import source, and enables the oil companies to in turn expert about 4 million barrels of petroleum products per day, accelerating their profits
Incidentally, the largest threat to commerce and inflation is Marine Diesel
On average, large cargo and container ships consume roughly 40 to 110 gallons of fuel per mile (about 1 to 2.5 barrels), though consumption is traditionally measured in metric tons per day rather than gallons per mile.
The public needs an education on petroleum, it's products and consumption.
Thank you for the class on petroleum and consumption. Even with the increase in renewables, we can't get by without petroleum.
We'll soon see not only higher prices but also shortages. We'll notice it first in groceries because diesel costs are rising. Nearly all our groceries have to be transported by diesel-powered vehicles.
You are absolutely right Gloria. We really haven't yet begun to feel the pain, because we are living off accumulated fat, and the engine is running on inertia. Little by little, the people will know what it is like to wear a hair shirt, but like the Germans of 1934, by the time they learn it will be too late.
It might not be relevant, some defectors from Anthropic and other AI companies have come forward, after quitting, because the Companies can't stop, won't stop, and as a consequence AI is developing to the point where we humans will be superfluous and will kill us all.Not hard to do, just stop the flow of water, electricity, transportation and we all die.
I read years ago, that civilization was 48 hours deep. I was 5 miles from the Oct 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake that brought the Bay Area of California to a full stop.
And saw for myself, how civilization can disintegrate so easily, we were lucky someone we were rescued at 48 hours in, with the restoration of electricity.
And this is a tell on who we really are. Though the supermarkets and other stores closed up. The liquor stores hauled old manual cash registers into the parking lot, continued sales and actually increased sales, soon sold out of liquor. Beer sales,first to go, by hour 48, people were scrounging for Everclear, and filtering shaving lotion.
It was a good test for me, I was in eary sobriety, and did not relapse
I would add that the U.S, strategic reserves are close to the level of “who gets what.” And the most fossil fuel using entity in the world is the United States Military.
The US SPR's are most certainly,below tank bottom. Here is what I mean, 270 million barrels are what is needed for fuel the armed forces, our ships, planes, vehicles. Over two months ago we were at 309 million barrels,and consume 20 million barrels per day.
We export 4 million barrels per day, that Exxon, Conoco, Phillips, Marathan investors can take advantage of the rising spot price on the international market, and import 4 million barrels of Canadian, and produce about 13 million barrels per day.
Trump has kept the price of fuel "low" because he has been dipping into the SPR.
He is more than willing to disable the United States, that he can keep the price of gas and diesel artificially low, by dipping into the SPR.
The real problem though is in refining capacity.
Thank you for that detailed understanding. Oil has to be processed. You are another http://Mr.Global that Malcolm Nance follows and talks about on his Black Man Spy Substack podcast. Keep educating us !!
Cuba has a couple of refineries that aren't being used. Don’t know ithey'rere functional. They were refining Venezuela’s crude until Trump cut them off.
Refineries aren't like vehicles, you just can't replace the batteries or jump start them.
Thank you for the Mr. Global link Gloria
Thanks, you've given neophytes like me a primer on the subject.
William, that's for sure. Your much better a explaining this than Malcolm Nance who goes off on self promoting and laughing too much.
Thank you for recapping all of the lies and injustices done following 9/11. Indeed, we must not forget or allow them to be swept under the rug!
Dian,they to a large extent have already been swept under the rug. What about the Saudis who were responsible for 9/11? No pushback against them.
Did you see "Fahrenheit 9/11"? Saudi officials here were quietly allowed to FLY home that day, and you're right, it was never investigated.
Rational and well said, though I suspect the public mood was so angry that Bush could not have stopped an intervention in Afghanistan if he had tried. Having traveled across that country, and gone all through Iran and into Iraq in the early '70s I saw how this would end. At the time I said that if we got in and out fast and followed up with engineers, physicians, etc. maybe we could stabilize Afghanistan. But otherwise, a long ground war was impossible, the country is mountains and desert, and the people have been fighting invaders for millennia. But of course nobody would listen, any more than LBJ and McNamara did, not understanding the landscape, history and culture of Vietnam.
I thought we had learned from Vietnam, but obviously a new generation made the same mistakes, then doubled and tripled down with Iraq and Iran. Nothing new, as you say; in 1805 the U.S. was backing a claimant to the Tripoli throne. Then we betrayed him. Jefferson cut a deal and our forces went home. The only monument to that dirty episode is in the opening line of the Marines' Hymn.
Indeed, as the late Hunter Thompson pointed out, the GOP wins elections relying mostly on "fear and loathing."
I can only wonder what old Hunter would make of Trump. 🤔
This is the part we are terrible at: commemorating the dead while forgetting the sales pitch that came afterward.
We build memorials to the consequences and somehow misplace the receipts.
If “never forget” means anything, it should include remembering how fear was used, what we were told, and how much blood followed.
Why did we invade Afghanistan when it played no role in 9/11? Because we wanted to show the Russians that we could succeed where they failed. Of course, we too left Afghanistan with our tails between our legs, just like Russia did. As Thom pointed out, we "Christian democracy" Americans felt duty-bound to consider Islam a violation of civil rights - especially women's rights. Of course, our own nation had a history of denying rights to American women who could not vote until 1920, nor have a bank account or credit card without a male co-signature until 1974.
In keeping with 9/11, while Bush and his CIA and DOD did nothing until the towers were struck, subsequent invasions in the Middle East ensured his re-election. As for WMD, at the time, I had just finished a big study for JCS on WMD, so I had interviewed a lot of experts on the topic. I asked several who had been in Iraq if they had any remaining biological weapons. The answer was no. So why not call the WH? The answer was that Cheney had created fact-moat around the WH. That sort of makes you wonder if Netanyahu's lack of action when warned of Hamas's pending invasion was similarly motivated by his wish to use war to stay in office.
yoOnThe Beach, of course Netanyahu did. He was facing a court that would have put him in jail for his neglect in responding to what all of his analysts told him was an imminent threat. He continues on this path because he sees this as his only way to stay in office. He also may have made back handed deals with Qatar and Hamas.
I will say it again, one more time. If education had been happening in the last century, the people would have had the knowledge, capacity, awareness, and conscience required to recognize the lies and to expose them and put a stop to them. The mythology of free but forced schooling has blinded virtually everyone to the failures and mis-education which makes people "servile and dumb" in John Holt's famous words. Rehashing it over and over without eradicating the authoritarian and reactionary influence is an exercise in futility.
While I agree, we need to keep in mind that few high schools are helping students to actually develop critical reasoning skills - aka bullshit detectors. There is no course for that. My classy prep school taught us the basics for debating, but it was not until I was working on my MA that I finally mastered the critical reasoning essential to doing scientific research.
If you actually review the reams of research and scholarly literature on our traditional schools and if you apply "critical thinking", there is only one conclusion, to wit, critical thinking is hazardous for students, true free speech and expression is verboten, and to the extent that students are educated, it must be credited to heroic but rule-breaking and self-sacrificing teachers, extraordinary parenting, and most notably the native intelligence of the students and their outside learning, intuition, observation, and independent thought and study. Those are few and far between. Critical thinking also leaves only one conclusion which is that coercion and legal requirements forcing attendance are antithetical to education and necessitate an authoritarian bureaucracy which is teaches anti-democratic lessons and demands unthinking, blind obedience to authority. You are correct that critical thinking is not a skill that can be part of a curriculum or "taught" as a subject with much success. Like democracy itself, it must be experienced, practiced, and lived. Those things are a threat to school authorities, and in a compulsory paradigm, they have the power and they do not relinquish it for anything or anyone. Wm does not understand that we can have free schooling but that to have free minds and free citizens, we must have autonomy for teachers and students in the classroom.
Free but forced education huh Robert?
If not Free, then we have a nation of illiterates, because only those with fathers who have means can educate their children. Such was the case in America before Thomas Mann. My ancestors from 4th GGF to great grandfather were illiterate and thus unable to engage in contracts beyond signing with an X and at the mercy of who ever told them was in the contract. Daddy couldn't afford to tutor his sons, especially since he himself was unlettered.
Forced education: Evidently you are unaware of or don't care about the abuse of children in mines, on farms and factories. Maybe your ideal is a Dickensian world.
Where you lose credibility is that all you have is a bitch list, but offer no viable alternative,not an alternative at all.
I wonder who you really are, being that you are an advocate for ignorance, illiteracy and child labor.
See my reply to Tom above. PS: This is the 21st century and you only think you know what was happening 200 years ago.
21st century or not. Somebody is going to pay for education, Either the family or society. Which is it. Most families can't afford to educate their own children, most don't have the wherewithal either.
If education is not mandatory, and paid for by public funds, then the only ones educated are the wealthy, and we are back 200 years.
Were it not for mandatory public education, Robert Elliott would not be able to pontificate, Unless his father was wealthy and cared enough to have him privately tutored.
You are in your own sealed and impenetrable bubble. I have never said that public tax funds should not be paid for schools and I have in fact stated the obvious too many times here to count. Your obsession is pathological. There is zero reason for requiring any student citizen with civil and constitutional rights to attend schools which are publicly funded. Try reading what I write, instead of replaying the broken tape in your head. You are conflating compulsory attendance with public funding, habitually. The two are separate issues. You either believe in democracy and civil rights, or you believe in the state dictating to people what they will do with their lives based on some erroneous theory that the state's interest in education justifies incarcerating children for 12 years. Go to Russia if that's your preference.
Actually, this is the first time that you have clarified your position.
However you share ideology with Milton Friedman and Betsy DeVos, etc.
They are all for publicly funded education, but having parents decide how public funds are dispersed, and that means subsidy of religious schooling, be it Catholic, Evangelical or a madrassa. I believe they call them vouchers.
Since you enfranchise public funding of education, but private choice of schooling, then you stand four square with Milton Friedman, Rahm Emanuel, Betsy DeVos and the religious community.
Wrong again. I have clarified my position dozens of times as regular readers will confirm whether or not they are in agreement with me. I am adamantly opposed to privatizing schooling, or using public monies for vouchers, charters, etc. Again, you conflate because you are confused and you shoot off comments without reading what I have posted. Without compulsory attendance laws, PUBLIC schools would become hospitable, service-oriented, democratic, student-centered, institutions for authentic educational endeavors and opportunities, but most importantly safe spaces for free thought and autonomous development.
I have stated the opposite too many times....
Your go to Russia choice is a false choice and a distraction.
Unpleasant as it may seem, we would benefit from finding ways to prosecute and punish powerful wrongdoers. Oh, wait…
What Happens When A Malignant Narcissist President Is Hated By His Country?
Malignant narcissism is a life long mental disorder that is characterized by an over inflated grandiose sense of self importance, a lack of conscience, rule breaking, and total disregard for the rights or safety of others. They have extreme mistrust that views other people and the world as hostile threats. But most importantly they find active pleasure, empowerment, or triumph in humiliating, dominating, or inflicting pain on others.
So when one has a malignant narcissist as president and as a influential figure in the world, the above descriptor spells major trouble. As much as the American people laugh and mock Cheeto, his hatred for the American people even worsens and he delights is inflicting economic pain on us but on the world, particularly allies such as Canada.
So this doubling down that Cheeto is demonstrating in his reckless tariff policies hurts all small American businesses as well as the entire agricultural industry. But he doesn’t care. That’s a real problem for WE the People.
And quite possibly continue kicking the World game board over because if he can’t have it, nobody can. And hearing the cult garbage from the Dallas MAGA-niacal crowd, it’s absolutely scary what they might do.
Join Indivisible and a unified voice for WE the People. Oct 17 protest to support the electoral vote and set up counter protesting if Cheeto and fascist Republicans try to do something after the election.
AMNESIA !!
Bush I. Went to war and won. Elected once. Bush II. Went to war, elected twice and lost. Trump 2, went to war hoping to be elected twice?
Trump is managing to reconcile Sunni and Shiite sects of Islam to create Moslem super-state.
BREAKING NEWS
Remembering September 11, 2001
SEP 11, 2026
I wrote these three poems in 2001 as a triptych for 9/11/2001. Our hearts still carry the memory of 9/11/2026, twenty-five years beyond those days in Autumn, 2001, a poem in three parts for memories as myriad as particles of dust, shards of glass, pieces of paper. ~ Annie Cross, 2001
BREAKING NEWS
Report from WTC 9.11.01:
We stood near the coffee room,
Grousing, kvetching, chatting,
When it all changed,
All life, every cell, all thoughts,
Suddenly, instantly, fade to black.
It was always changing;
It was always fleeting;
It was always temporary,
But I confess, mea culpa, tempus fugit, carpe diem,
I was blind;
I did not see.
Embers and debris fell around us,
Fire and smoke found us,
Every pore strained for air, for light.
We could not find our way out,
We could not see.
A stairway marked Exit,
Mocked our strength:
Locked.
No way out,
Everything falling in.
Running, running, running,
A stairway marked Exit,
Led to truth:
Opened.
And we ran,
Down, down, down,
Hoping this was not the hell
It seemed.
Feet hit the street,
Precarious bedrock
Of this floating island
Where dollar bills and love letters,
Collection notes and curriculum vitae
Come floating down from the sky
We won’t see for days,
But as we live and breathe,
We see clearly now.
BREAKING NEWS 2
Report from Kabul 10.17.01:
Bombs and fire attack my children,
Two have died in my line of sight,
Too far from my arms,
Already full of my babies,
Doomed to die from your fire.
Russian fire,
Taliban fire,
Northern fire,
American fire,
What does it matter, the origin of fire.
It burns my skin, my eyes, my beloved.
We burn and burn and burn,
Allah’s endless crucible.
Fire rains down upon us
Explodes under our feet
Rips out our eyes
Blows away our legs.
What more is required to be free,
To be pure.
My babies, my mother, my husband,
We know this fire,
Ceaseless danger, forbidden sleep,
Bombs and bullets,
Smoke and bodies,
Stench and sand,
All defy the heart to beat, the chest to rise,
The eyes to open.
We burrow underground,
Into mountainsides,
Seeking safety near God’s stone heart,
From the cave that gives us refuge,
We see blue sky over the mountains;
From the slit in the garments that shield my body,
My eyes seek the sliver of light permitted,
And I see clearly
The airplanes coming over the ridge.
BREAKING NEWS 3
Report from the Prairie 10.22.01:
It is raining yellow.
Leaves and ladybugs everywhere,
Blowing and winging down,
Landing in my hair,
On my shoulders,
Ribbons and epaulets from the earth’s
Transformation before the cold.
Autumn in the Mid-West,
Where sun, maple leaf, and warbler
Confuse the enthralled eye,
To believe that gold is landing all around,
At last.
Apple days, blue October sky, quiet starry nights,
No rain in the forecast,
My children dodge falling manna,
Hickory, persimmon, Osage orange.
They gather black walnuts,
That stain the hands,
And fill the air with spicy, earth-scent.
They learn to hammer the husk hard,
Dig out the meat from the hidden burrows,
Without smashing a finger or getting shell in the eyes.
We note the beauty and the bounty,
Return to the small labor of smashing shells,
Anticipating the fragrance of lovely bread baking
Later, before stories and sleep,
In the quiet, warm shelter of home.
Annie Cross ~ 2001