I did not know that the Saudi’s owned the largest refinery in the United States. Why hasn’t this been written about in our major news institutions? Crazy! We always discuss election interference as being propaganda through social media, but not actual manipulation of American economic infrastructure. Thank you for your insights Thom as always!
I did not know that the Saudi’s owned the largest refinery in the United States. Why hasn’t this been written about in our major news institutions? Crazy! We always discuss election interference as being propaganda through social media, but not actual manipulation of American economic infrastructure. Thank you for your insights Thom as always!
Billy: Daniel Solomon has mentioned many times, that Saudi Arabia owns some of our refineries, I guess yo don't read all comments.
And Guess who has a lions share in the ownership of Exxon Mibil? Saudi Arabia.
Oil is a resource vital to our national defense, selling it to any country or person that is not American is treason, what's next selling our Defense Department to the Saudis, maybe Putin if Trump is elected.
They also own alfalfa fields in Arizona that are sucking up a huge amount of the water needed for other agriculture. I believe that contract is up this year, and the Democratic governor is not going to renew it. Let them grow their alfalfa somewhere else like in Russia. This is why getting off fossil fuels asap is in our national security interest. Of course Treacherous-treasonous-traitor-Trump is colluding with our enemies. We also should be cutting off all military support and sales to Saudi Arabia. I realize it is easier said than done, but let us get it started.
Thanks I didn't know that Linda. It looks like Saudi Arabia has bought up America, and our politicians with our own dollars (petro dollars) and it is the fault of our own greedy institutions and politicians, the oligarchic billionaires and financial institutions whose only concern is profits for investors.
John Oliver had a scary program last night on Last Week Tonight about Boeing the founder would rather close the door than let an unsafe airplane fly, however the corporate structure now is that the only thing that matters is return on investment, profits and stock buy backs to increase share holder profitability. To get there they have outsourced production of planes, and the contractors have sub contractor, and the parts don't fit when assembled and the materials are not up to standards
An under cover investigator interviewed factory workers and contractors and asked if they would fly on a Boeing plane, and almost to a person they said no.
And that is only Boeing, the whole American capital system of manufacturing and finance are the same, they are all driven pell mell, head over heels, to produce the greatest possible return, if they do they are rewarded with raises and bonuses, if they don't they are fired.,that is the executives.
It is the system that is at fault, and the system is that created by jurists and legislatures from state to federal and of course the every corrupt and corruptible Supreme Court.
I also listened to this NPR discussion on the Booker Prize winning book, Prophet Song by Paul Lynch. It is the new dystopian novel of our times. https://one.npr.org/i/1236050224:1236050237
We see things happening to others in the world, but it is happening here and we need to have books that help us recognize it.
Linda it is a testament to the willing blindness of Americans that they don't see what is happening in front of our eyes. Myopia or tunnel vision seems to be common quality among Americans, maybe it is a human defect. What ever fears and needs we have, we focus on the nearest, loudest bright shiny object,like less sentient and perceptive creatures.
Humans demand predictability and conformity and they don't know how to deal with exceptions perhaps one reason that persons of transgender identity are so threatening and confusing. We have this need for certainty, or they friend or foe, male or female, sexually attractive or not, members of my ethnically or outsiders. Long o short, fat or skinny, attractive or ugly, Christian or infidel, Muslim or infidel, if you ain't with me then you are against me.
People have this need to categorize and put in boxes.
All of the ink print all of the 1's and O's of the computational world, are not going to change human behavior or their minds, Only experience can do that, and I am an expert in that.
I do not see the world through the same eyes as I did when I was 50, not because of books, I am very, very well read. I have given away and moved away from more books than most people will read in a lifetime. As a teen I exhausted a public library of all books that interested me, including over 160 books deemed the classics.
The first full book I read was at the age of 8, it was Homer's Odyssey, the next full book I can remember reading is the Bible at age 12, and I devoured everything I could, even labels on cereal packages and canned goods.
But it was real world experiences that caused me to see the world in a different light.
These ignorant, outraged, self absorbed, self righteous types won't see the light and change their ways and minds, until reality comes crashing down upon them, and then it is too late, for them, for you and for me.
The only thing we can do is try and warn people, which has proven thus far to be a fruitless endeavor, and take actions and measures that will secure our own safety and survival, we have saved a lot of money, paid off our debts and mortgages, made out wills and related documents and most importantly have current passports (renewed in the last year)
You and I, we gnash our teeth (well mine are false, so no), we kvetch, we write, we comment, we bitch and moan, and our audience is very small, of no effect, and is only half listening.
Push come to shove, after all our efforts, the only thing we can do is vote, cross our fingers, and make preparations for our own survival.
After the invention of cannons, and Europeans discovered gunpowder, castle walls no longer attacked as a bulwark against the enemy besieging,
As the cannonade smashed a hole in the wall, the first troops through the hole we known as the forlorn hope.,it was rare that any survived.
Considering the pig pigheadedness of those would or should ostensibly be allies, my hope is forlorn indeed, like the idiot 100,000 in Michigan that are showing their rear ends to the Democrats and thus electing Trump who will in turn round them up and deport or concentrate them until he deports.
Fools like Ayman Mohyeldin try to blame Biden, for the making of their own dilemma,but blame doesn't matter, not when you are being rounded up and deported or placed in concentration camps, and it can happen here, because it already happened in 1942
I taught at the School of John Dewey who wrote Experience and Education. I am a firm believer in experience as a teacher. It helps one to imagine more scenarios. I feel the limits of this with the NYT staff covering elections, and I feel it in the decision making of people who do not even know what most of the questions posed to them mean, who are voting for Trump, with totally blind stupidity. I am also someone who has lived in more than one country, and I would love if that were a high school requirement. To live abroad and adapt to another culture.
You and I have lived in more than country, I was once fluent enough in Vietnamese to read the Saigon Post and hold a conversation, my fluency saved my hide. I also lived in Panama, and married a Panamanian, and had a Panamanian step son who is now an American and a grandfather.
As regards questions, I am assuming you mean polls.
I take umbrage with the pollsters and media, because all they are looking out for is their own
interests (profits). Instead of asking their opinion of Biden or Trump. The only question is Who will you vote for?
But that question doesn't facilitate the horse race which is the lifeblood of pollsters and media.
As you know the peninsula of Arabia is a bone dry desert, but it sits atop a 10,000 year old aquifer. In the quest for food independence, the kingdom tried to imitate
the center pivot irrigators that are used so succesfully in America (you can see them from the air as green circles that cover a quarter section.
What they did though is cause the land to sink, and their attempt at self sustaining food production was a failure and they have no choice but to import. Their water needs have apparently exhausted the aquifer, and they spent millions building the worlds largest reverse osmosis plant on the shores of the red sea, and billions to maintain it and replace the salt clogged filters.
All it takes to bring the Kingdom to it's knees is for a hacker to destroy the desalinization plant.
For awhile it was a righty thing to be paranoid about "rag-heads" and "slant-eyes" buying up America. Now I think you are right to wonder, huh, how come even Fox is mum about Saudi ownership of not only US, but world distribution infrastructure?
I did not know that the Saudi’s owned the largest refinery in the United States. Why hasn’t this been written about in our major news institutions? Crazy! We always discuss election interference as being propaganda through social media, but not actual manipulation of American economic infrastructure. Thank you for your insights Thom as always!
Billy: Daniel Solomon has mentioned many times, that Saudi Arabia owns some of our refineries, I guess yo don't read all comments.
And Guess who has a lions share in the ownership of Exxon Mibil? Saudi Arabia.
Oil is a resource vital to our national defense, selling it to any country or person that is not American is treason, what's next selling our Defense Department to the Saudis, maybe Putin if Trump is elected.
They also own alfalfa fields in Arizona that are sucking up a huge amount of the water needed for other agriculture. I believe that contract is up this year, and the Democratic governor is not going to renew it. Let them grow their alfalfa somewhere else like in Russia. This is why getting off fossil fuels asap is in our national security interest. Of course Treacherous-treasonous-traitor-Trump is colluding with our enemies. We also should be cutting off all military support and sales to Saudi Arabia. I realize it is easier said than done, but let us get it started.
Thanks I didn't know that Linda. It looks like Saudi Arabia has bought up America, and our politicians with our own dollars (petro dollars) and it is the fault of our own greedy institutions and politicians, the oligarchic billionaires and financial institutions whose only concern is profits for investors.
John Oliver had a scary program last night on Last Week Tonight about Boeing the founder would rather close the door than let an unsafe airplane fly, however the corporate structure now is that the only thing that matters is return on investment, profits and stock buy backs to increase share holder profitability. To get there they have outsourced production of planes, and the contractors have sub contractor, and the parts don't fit when assembled and the materials are not up to standards
An under cover investigator interviewed factory workers and contractors and asked if they would fly on a Boeing plane, and almost to a person they said no.
And that is only Boeing, the whole American capital system of manufacturing and finance are the same, they are all driven pell mell, head over heels, to produce the greatest possible return, if they do they are rewarded with raises and bonuses, if they don't they are fired.,that is the executives.
It is the system that is at fault, and the system is that created by jurists and legislatures from state to federal and of course the every corrupt and corruptible Supreme Court.
William, Matt Stoller in his anti-monopoly Substack Big, has been discussing what is wrong at Boeing. It is really scary. https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/its-time-to-nationalize-and-then?utm_source=substack&publication_id=11524&post_id=140583367&isFreemail=false&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=email-reaction&r=f0qfn&triedRedirect=true
I also listened to this NPR discussion on the Booker Prize winning book, Prophet Song by Paul Lynch. It is the new dystopian novel of our times. https://one.npr.org/i/1236050224:1236050237
We see things happening to others in the world, but it is happening here and we need to have books that help us recognize it.
Linda it is a testament to the willing blindness of Americans that they don't see what is happening in front of our eyes. Myopia or tunnel vision seems to be common quality among Americans, maybe it is a human defect. What ever fears and needs we have, we focus on the nearest, loudest bright shiny object,like less sentient and perceptive creatures.
Humans demand predictability and conformity and they don't know how to deal with exceptions perhaps one reason that persons of transgender identity are so threatening and confusing. We have this need for certainty, or they friend or foe, male or female, sexually attractive or not, members of my ethnically or outsiders. Long o short, fat or skinny, attractive or ugly, Christian or infidel, Muslim or infidel, if you ain't with me then you are against me.
People have this need to categorize and put in boxes.
All of the ink print all of the 1's and O's of the computational world, are not going to change human behavior or their minds, Only experience can do that, and I am an expert in that.
I do not see the world through the same eyes as I did when I was 50, not because of books, I am very, very well read. I have given away and moved away from more books than most people will read in a lifetime. As a teen I exhausted a public library of all books that interested me, including over 160 books deemed the classics.
The first full book I read was at the age of 8, it was Homer's Odyssey, the next full book I can remember reading is the Bible at age 12, and I devoured everything I could, even labels on cereal packages and canned goods.
But it was real world experiences that caused me to see the world in a different light.
These ignorant, outraged, self absorbed, self righteous types won't see the light and change their ways and minds, until reality comes crashing down upon them, and then it is too late, for them, for you and for me.
The only thing we can do is try and warn people, which has proven thus far to be a fruitless endeavor, and take actions and measures that will secure our own safety and survival, we have saved a lot of money, paid off our debts and mortgages, made out wills and related documents and most importantly have current passports (renewed in the last year)
You and I, we gnash our teeth (well mine are false, so no), we kvetch, we write, we comment, we bitch and moan, and our audience is very small, of no effect, and is only half listening.
Push come to shove, after all our efforts, the only thing we can do is vote, cross our fingers, and make preparations for our own survival.
After the invention of cannons, and Europeans discovered gunpowder, castle walls no longer attacked as a bulwark against the enemy besieging,
As the cannonade smashed a hole in the wall, the first troops through the hole we known as the forlorn hope.,it was rare that any survived.
Considering the pig pigheadedness of those would or should ostensibly be allies, my hope is forlorn indeed, like the idiot 100,000 in Michigan that are showing their rear ends to the Democrats and thus electing Trump who will in turn round them up and deport or concentrate them until he deports.
Fools like Ayman Mohyeldin try to blame Biden, for the making of their own dilemma,but blame doesn't matter, not when you are being rounded up and deported or placed in concentration camps, and it can happen here, because it already happened in 1942
First they came for.... and you know the rest.
I taught at the School of John Dewey who wrote Experience and Education. I am a firm believer in experience as a teacher. It helps one to imagine more scenarios. I feel the limits of this with the NYT staff covering elections, and I feel it in the decision making of people who do not even know what most of the questions posed to them mean, who are voting for Trump, with totally blind stupidity. I am also someone who has lived in more than one country, and I would love if that were a high school requirement. To live abroad and adapt to another culture.
You and I have lived in more than country, I was once fluent enough in Vietnamese to read the Saigon Post and hold a conversation, my fluency saved my hide. I also lived in Panama, and married a Panamanian, and had a Panamanian step son who is now an American and a grandfather.
As regards questions, I am assuming you mean polls.
I take umbrage with the pollsters and media, because all they are looking out for is their own
interests (profits). Instead of asking their opinion of Biden or Trump. The only question is Who will you vote for?
But that question doesn't facilitate the horse race which is the lifeblood of pollsters and media.
As you know the peninsula of Arabia is a bone dry desert, but it sits atop a 10,000 year old aquifer. In the quest for food independence, the kingdom tried to imitate
the center pivot irrigators that are used so succesfully in America (you can see them from the air as green circles that cover a quarter section.
What they did though is cause the land to sink, and their attempt at self sustaining food production was a failure and they have no choice but to import. Their water needs have apparently exhausted the aquifer, and they spent millions building the worlds largest reverse osmosis plant on the shores of the red sea, and billions to maintain it and replace the salt clogged filters.
All it takes to bring the Kingdom to it's knees is for a hacker to destroy the desalinization plant.
Doggonit, Daniel Solomon is not "major news institutions," Billy is righteous!
????
For awhile it was a righty thing to be paranoid about "rag-heads" and "slant-eyes" buying up America. Now I think you are right to wonder, huh, how come even Fox is mum about Saudi ownership of not only US, but world distribution infrastructure?