We are celebrating the 100 years since the beginning of World War One….and October was a busy month during this horrendous conflict…..
October during World War I, which ended 100 years ago, was, to use a technical term in the history profession, crazy. Here are 10 reasons why:
10. October Revolution (1917). Let’s start with the one nearly every intelligent layman has heard of: the October Revolution in Russia. The October Revolution was, despite its name, merely a continuation in a long struggle for power between Bolshevik socialists and their many enemies in post-Czarist Russia. The details of October are far too dense for this list, but one interesting fact about the October Revolution is that the revolution happened in November according to the Gregorian calendar (which is what most of the world uses today). At the time of the revolution, though, the Russians still used the old Julian calendar, and the events of their power grab happened in October. The Soviet Union adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1918, but for some reason the Soviet intelligentsia kept the name “October Revolution.”
This war had everything for a historian…family against family….new weapons of mass destruction…..new weapons of mass killings…..millions upon millions of military dead….millions upon millions of civilian dead….all the greatest hits of any war (sarcasm).
I try to keep Americans interested in learning about a war that should never be forgotten….if only the war dead could talk….maybe war would not be attractive to some leaders….if only…..
As we slowly remove ourselves from the international treaties of our past….and the newest one is the INF Treaty…..a nuke and missile treaty from the 1980s….
Personally I think it is stupid to pull out yet another nuke treaty……but do not take my word for it…..
President Donald Trump’s announcement that he intends to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty was cast in contractual logic: the U.S.-Russian agreement prohibits land-based short-and-intermediate-range ballistic and cruise missiles, both nuclear and conventional, which are difficult to track and make unintentional nuclear war more likely. Washington, with support from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, alleges that Moscow has breached that ban, and, as Trump put it , “we’re not going to let them violate a nuclear agreement and go out and do weapons and we’re not allowed to.”
If Russia has violated the deal, why should America maintain it? While there is a good reason to think National Security Advisor John Bolton would want out of the INF Treaty regardless of Russian compliance—he has argued as much in the past—the basic logic of leaving an already broken treaty seems straightforward. Nevertheless, there are three strategic reasons to proceed with extreme caution.
His, Trump’s, withdrawal should not be the end of arms control as we know it…..
Even before President Trump reversed his position and announced (at a campaign rally for Republican congressional candidates in Nevada, no less) that he was pulling the United States from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Agreement (INF), the era of significant nuclear arms control agreements between the United States and Russia was in danger of ending. Such a development must be forestalled at all costs, because arms control efforts have over the last 50 years shown themselves to be remarkably effective.
From the 1963 Limited Test Ban Treaty, which banned nuclear testing in the atmosphere, to the 2011 New START Agreement, which limited the two countries to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear weapons on no more than 700 deployed delivery vehicles, the two major nuclear powers have concluded dozens of bilateral agreements and supported several multilateral arms pacts.
Now that the world knows for certain that the Saudis are responsible for the assassination of a WaPo journalist they have hit the airwaves to show how little they care about the world’s opinion……
Saudi Arabia’s top diplomat said Saturday that the global outcry and media focus on the killing of a Saudi journalist earlier this month has become “hysterical” as he urged the public to wait for the results of an investigation before ascribing blame to the kingdom’s top leadership, the AP reports. Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist critical of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was killed by Saudi agents at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. “This issue has become fairly hysterical,” Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said. “I think people have assigned blame to Saudi Arabia with such certainty before the investigation is complete.” Some of those implicated in Khashoggi’s killing are close to Prince Mohammed, who is the kingdom’s heir apparent.
His condemnation of the killing as “heinous” and “painful” has so far failed to ease suspicions that such a high-level operation could have been carried out without his knowledge. Al-Jubeir addressed the mounting skepticism around the crown prince’s alleged involvement. He was speaking in response to questions from Western journalists at an annual conference of international officials, including US Defense Secretary James Mattis, in Bahrain. “We have made clear that we are going to have a full and transparent investigation, the results of which will be released,” he said, adding that the kingdom has also put in place mechanisms to ensure this does not happen again. “We know that people exceeded their authority and we know that we’re investigating them,” he said
They tried to get a chuckle and to make light of the assassination.
To counter their barbarity they use Iran as an example……
Saudi Arabia and key ally Bahrain said on Saturday that Gulf states are playing a critical role in maintaining stability in the Middle East by combating Iran’s “vision of darkness”, as Riyadh faces its worst political crisis in decades, reports Reuters.
Saudi Arabia is the lynchpin of a US-backed regional bloc against growing Iranian influence in the Middle East but the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at its consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. has prompted a global outcry and strained Riyadh’s ties with the West.
“We are now dealing with two visions in the Middle East. One is a (Saudi) vision of light … One is an (Iranian) vision of darkness which seeks to spread sectarianism throughout the region,” Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told a security summit in Bahrain.
It seems that there is always a movie or show or book or documentary or……about the Holocaust. Before I get some well meaning d/bag….the Holocaust happened and the world should not forget it and should make sure that something like that NEVER happens again.
Really? Never again?
The problem is that it is happening again and the country committing the crimes is the every country that does not want the world to forget what happened to them.
Israel has policies against the Palestinian people similar to those that they ran away from in Europe.
But beyond their policies “back home”….they are supporting a country that is doing all they can to eliminate a ethnic group from their country….the country is Myanmar (Burma) and its deadly policies directed to the Muslim minority, the Rohingyas…..
Israel does not owe its existence to the genocide of the Jews during the Second World War but, without a doubt, the Holocaust played a significant role in speeding up the creation of the Zionist State. If nothing else, that happened in order to salve the world’s conscience for, whether we like to admit it or not, the rest of the world had a rough idea of what Adolf Hitler had planned for the Jews of Europe when he rose to power in 1933. Admittedly, few imagined that he would actually exterminate six million people, although the fact that European Jews were fleeing from their homes throughout that decade was an indicator of their very real and justified fears.
The Central British Fund for German Jewry was established in the 1930s to try and help those Jews living in Germany and Austria. It was through the Fund’s network that around 10,000 Jewish children arrived safely in Britain via the Kindertransport programme and were saved from the Nazis, unlike the parents they left behind, most of whom did not survive the Holocaust.
I have said on numerous occasions that Israel is acting no better than the pigs that persecuted them in the 1930’s and 40’s.
Plus the West, US and its allies, are acting as enablers of the deadly policies of Israel……timed for that to end. Israel needs to stand on its own….if it cannot then it is NO problem of the US or its Allies.
After word…..one of the victims in the Pittsburgh shooting was a 90+ year old woman who was a Holocaust survivor……that is just not right.
Plus stop saying “thoughts and prayers”…that is disingenuous and insulting!
I continue my series of highlighting the historical series written by Danny Sjursen…..
Below is the fourth installment of the “American History for Truthdiggers” series, a pull-no-punches appraisal of our shared, if flawed, past. The author of the series, Danny Sjursen, an active-duty major in the U.S. Army, served military tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and taught the nation’s checkered, often inspiring past when he was an assistant professor of history at West Point. His wartime experiences, his scholarship, his skill as a writer and his patriotism illuminate these Truthdig posts.
Part 4 of “American History for Truthdiggers.”
“Who shall write the history of the American Revolution?” John Adams once asked. “Who can write it? Who will ever be able to write it?”
“Nobody,” Thomas Jefferson replied. “The life and soul of history must forever remain unknown.”
* * *
Compare the tarring-and-feathering scene at the top of this article with the 1770 painting “The Death of General Wolfe” (immediately below this paragraph), which was featured in installment three of this Truthdig series. Painted by colonist Benjamin West, it shows North American colonists among those devotedly and tenderly attending the mortally wounded British general, who lies in a Christ-like pose. How did (at least some) North American colonists evolve from a proud celebration of empire into the riotous, rebellious mob portrayed in the illustration above? It’s an important question, actually, and it deals with an issue hardly mentioned in standard textbooks. Even rebellious “patriots” saw themselves as Englishmen right up until July 4, 1776. Others remained loyal British subjects through the entire Revolutionary War.
121 years ago today economist Henry George died of a stroke in NYC….just thought I would help people understand his theories which make more sense than the stupidity of the tax cuts of the political parties these days…..
Taxes is always a hot item during elections…..Repubs promising to lower taxes and improve the quality of life and the Dems are accused at raising taxes and bankrupting the nation…..just how that works is a source of much laughter.
Anyway there is a way to taxation that is good for the econ0my, the nation and the government.
Years ago I studied with the Henry George Foundation……it covers the idea of a Land Value Tax…..LVT is gaining popularity as the theory becomes more accessible…..I have written about the theory before……https://lobotero.com/2009/01/02/ever-hear-of-land-value-taxation/
Or if reading is not your thing…….
As I have said this theory is gaining in popularity…..especially in Europe……the video is a very good one and if my reader would just give it a listen then they might also find the theory to their liking……
As I have mentioned….this theory is gaining more and more support especially in Europe…..
The signature campaign is in place to launch the first [Georgist] political party from The New Physiocratic League, which will create a model for more political parties to come.
The New Physiocratic League (https://newphysiocrats.org), a political-economic project with a mission to create a world where we regain and amplify our earned income and democratize our physical space, launches a campaign for the first Georgist political party in decades and pave the way for more Georgist political parties to be established.
The policies of the New Physiocrats are expected to achieve more money in your pocket, soaring purchasing power, and a return to spaces of great architecture & beauty. To do so, The New Physiocrats are starting to collect signatures in Croatia (Zagreb and Vukovar) for one of the first Georgist political parties in decades, which will be the first of many worldwide (https://www.facebook.com/groups/NoviHrvatskiFiziokrati/). They are currently open to receiving pitches from locals to tailor the platform to their needs, and to receiving volunteers around the world to register local branches of the party.
If my reader is truly interested after watching the short vid and would like more on the subject then this is the full audiobook……
Yes it is lengthy….and if you would like a peek at what the book entails then this synopsis will help……
During the 19th century the U.S. witnessed a huge increase in wealth-producing power. People naturally expected labor-saving inventions to lessen toil and improve working conditions for all; that the enormous increase in wealth producing power would wipe out poverty forever.
Instead, however, squalor, misery, vice and crime increased and are still increasing everywhere as our villages, towns and cities grow and as new technologies bring advantages to improve methods of production and exchange.
The association of poverty with progress is the great enigma of our times. It is the source of our industrial, social and political difficulties. Our statesmen, philanthropists, and educators grapple with it in vain. This riddle, if not answered, will eventually topple our entire civilization. To solve the riddle, we must research the immutable laws governing the science of economics.
For years I have been calling for the US to stop aiding the Saudis in their war on Yemen…..most of my stuff went unread for the most part but now another anti-war person has stepped up and written an op-ed on the Yemen conflict….
Anti-war voices are praising a new “must-read” New York Timesop-ed in which Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called on Congress “to redefine our relationship with Saudi Arabia, and to show that the Saudis do not have a blank check to continue violating human rights” by revoking U.S. support for the Saudi and UAE-led war in Yemen.
While some get caught in the cross-fire, most are victims of Saudi airstrikes, and that has Oxfam urging the world, and the US and UK in particular, to suspend arms sales to the Saudis. They say this is necessary “because of their disregard for civilian lives.”
Add your voice….help stop this obscene conflict…..help stop the involvement of the US in the killing of civilians for no other reason that to put a smile on their Saudis controllers…..
For the younger readers that need visuals…
Now you know more than you knew at the start of this post…..you are welcome.
With the accusation of an assassination the Saudis have been in the headlines for about a month…..their story is winding down because more important news has been made….the attack on Jews and the multi bomb threat here in the US….
There are so many question that need to be asked about the Saudi involvement in world conflicts…..so the question is just what is the Saudis getting from the Trump administration?
It’s time to ask an uncomfortable question: What exactly is the U.S. getting out of its partnership with Saudi Arabia? The answer is: nothing but headaches, human rights abuses and national embarrassment. In the cynical past, the U.S. could at least argue that it needed Saudi oil, but that’s no longer the case, due to the shale-oil boom (though that fact is not necessarily good for an ever-warming planet).
Recently, the crimes of the Saudi government managed to pierce the Trump-all-the-time-Kanye-West-sometimes media-entertainment complex due to Riyadh’s likely murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi. That the U.S.-Saudi relationship is, however briefly, coming under the proverbial microscope is a good thing. Still, it is astonishing that this incident—rather than dozens of other crimes—finally garnered attention. Even so, President Trump appears reluctant to cancel his negotiated $110 billion record arms deal with the kingdom
Washington is in bed with the Saudis and the Saudis are the ones with the smiles on their face….so who is doing who in this relationship?
Speaking of assassination…..I agree with the idea that the US basically was a co-conspirator in Khashoggi’s murder…..
And since the US consistently undertakes to endow its own savage behaviour with a veneer of democracy-freedom-and-human-rights talk, it’s only natural that egregious euphemisms be deployed on behalf of its pals as well. Which is how we end up with the state of Israel – executioner and dismemberer extraordinaire of Palestinians – whitewashed into the position of angel-hero, while Saudi Arabia and other notorious regional human rights abusers are catapulted into the role of “modernising reformers”.
I have been thinking about stuff….not important stuff….just stuff in general……Mo has been NO help she keeps thinking my planters are play toys…..
I watch MSNBC and on weekends they have a show about your business and how to make it succeed. They are big supporters of the “shop locally” movement….this is where people go out on weekends and shop in only Mom and Pop stores….showing them support.
But these days is there truly any way to save those Mom and Pop stores?
Probably not!
If you want to understand “retail death” — and I’m using quotes here because the concept of buying and selling things is very much alive — all you have to do is look at one very specific street.
In the ’90s, the stretch of Bleecker Street that snakes north through New York City’s Greenwich Village was home to dozens of independently owned bookshops, sex shops, antique stores, and framing galleries. But the death knell rang when the luxury fashion house Marc Jacobs decided to settle there in 2001, the year after the nearby Magnolia Bakery was featured in an episode of Sex and the City.
Within the next 10 years, 44 of those original neighborhood businesses would close to make space for the chains and luxury boutiques that followed. By now, the big brands have moved on, leaving nearly a quarter of storefronts sitting vacant for months on end and asking sky-high rents that small businesses can’t afford. The only ones that can are major developers.
Sad for I remember my area and the stores and restaurants that have disappeared and replaced with corporate crap…..bars, neighborhood bars, are all but gone from the area…..great eateries gone because they could not compete with Pizza Crap all you can eat for 5 bucks…..people did this!
Time to let Mo do her thing and me to try and figure out where to put the radishes….
The cooler weather makes all the breaks I have endured hurt…or is ache the word us old farts use? Better half made one of my favorites, Banana Nut Bread……enough about my routine let’s get busy.
Just a thought here….you know those ads for mattresses that claim they have memory foam? On a bed there are some things it should not remember……
With that said I read an interesting piece…..
A UK woman is suing after, she says, a faulty bed caused an accident that paralyzed her while she was having sex. Claire Busby, 46, says the bed had been delivered a week prior, the BBC reports. She says she was “positioned kneeling over” her partner in the middle of the bed when she “swung her legs” from underneath her to shift her position, then attempted to lie back down, but the bed somehow collapsed and she was thrown from it, falling off the end and landing on her head. “I spun around, I put my hand down and then I felt like I was catapulted off the back of the bed,” she said in court, per the Guardian. “I fell to the side and heard what felt like a spring in my body snap.”
Her then-partner testified that he saw her roll backward off the bed and initially laughed when she told him she couldn’t feel her limbs, thinking she was joking, the BBC reports. She received a severe spinal injury from the fall. She says the two portions of the bed base weren’t fastened together correctly and that two feet were missing from the end, creating a height difference between the two portions of the base. She’s suing Berkshire Bed Company for seven figures over the 2013 incident, but lawyers for the company say the bed was properly assembled. “It is overwhelmingly likely that, whatever her actions, they were too close to the edge of the bed and she simply lost balance and toppled backwards,” says a lawyer for the firm.
In sex the law is “positioning, positioning, positioning”….
Did you know that there is a survey for sex injuries?
