Priming the Pump for More War

50 thoughts on “Priming the Pump for More War”

1. Don’t forget Ralph Nadar Lt.COL.

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   1. Ralph Nader — a good and principled man. “What Bush did Obama is doing with better rhetoric.”

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      1. Speaking of Ralph Nader, permit me to share with You something i wrote back in early July, 2004, when the jockeying for Election2004 began:

         CONTRA MICHAEL MOORE: Resurrecting The Biggest Lie of Election 2000

         It’s no secret that Michael Moore is a Kerry Regime Insider Wannabe. So, it was no surprise when he turned the MoveOn.org June 28, 2004 live webcast about his new movie FAHRENHEIT 9/11 into a Kerry Love-Fest. But when he attacked Ralph Nader, he went a bridge too far.

         In so doing, he resurrected once again The Biggest Lie About Election 2000: that Ralph Nader, the Green Party, and the people who voted for Nader cost Al Gore and the Democrats the election, and are thus directly responsible for all the evil unleashed by the Cheney White House on the planet and on this nation, in general, and on liberals, progressives, and the victims they champion, in particular.

         As uncomfortable as I know it is for Michael and the rest of these people, let us consider one simple, incontestable FACT first. Who was it that said “facts are such unpleasant things”?

         IF YOU TOOK EVERY VOTE THAT NADER GOT IN EITHER TENNESSEE (GORE’S HOME STATE) OR ARKANSAS (CLINTON’S HOME STATE), AND GAVE THEM TO GORE, GORE WOULD HAVE STILL LOST THEM BOTH. THIS WOULD MAKE HIM THE ONLY CANDIDATE IN HISTORY TO LOSE THE STATE OF HIS OWN PARTY’S INCUMBENT PRESIDENT, AND ONLY THE SECOND CANDIDATE IN HISTORY (AFTER MCGOVERN IN 1972) TO LOSE HIS OWN STATE. IF GORE HAD WON EITHER OF THOSE TWO STATES — HIS OWN HOME STATE OR THE STATE OF HIS BOSS AND TITULAR HEAD OF HIS OWN PARTY — GORE WOULD HAVE WON THE ELECTION, REGARDLESS OF WHAT HAPPENED IN FLORIDA. {EMPHASIS added.]

         To ignore this FACT and to instead focus blame for Gore’s loss on Nader and the people who voted for him in Florida is to deny an uncomfortable but deniable reality. However, if Michael and his gang want to focus on Florida, then consider another, final, simple, incontestable FACT.

         The Gore challenge to the election results in Florida deserved — and in fact looks like it was intended — to fail. Instead of demanding a STATEWIDE recount, the Gore braintrust chose only to demand recounts in those areas they thought they would win. But even more important than that, the Gore folks apparently had neither the balls or brains to challenge the legality of the removal of more than 50,000 voters from the registered voters lists.

         Then let’s consider another simple, incontestable fact.

         Because liberals, progressives, and radicals did not have the balls to vote their conscience, but instead voted for what they thought was a sure-fire way to win, GORE COST NADER THE ELECTION.

         Because these people voted for one of the biggest thugs, liars, hypocrites, and thieves in Washington DC, they turned their backs on the ONLY true liberal, progressive, and radical in the campaign…the ONLY candidate with a life history consistent with true alleged Democratic, liberal, and progressive values, principles, and ideals.

         And, they got what they voted for. And what they deserved.

         How is that?

         My guess is that it was understood by all concerned that the Clinton/Gore wing of The Party had had its time in power (eight years to be exact), and that they had accomplished what they had been sent there to do: keep the Sanctions Going in Iraq; facilitate globalization (on whose watch did NAFTA, GATT, and the WTO come into being?); facilitate the corporatization of medical care in the U.S.; de-regulate the media and communications industry; start letting people learn more and more about the evils of fundamentalist, radical Muslim terrorism; continue the tradition of un-declared, un-challenged, un-controlled War (Yugoslavia, Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc etc etc); run a couple of 9.11 dress rehearsals (WTC bombing, Oklahoma City bombing); normalize post-Tiananmen Square relations with crypto-capitalistic Communist China; and piss off enough people with a President dumb enough to get caught getting a blowjob in the Oval Office from a woman young enough to be his daughter and then get caught lying about it. But how else could something like MoveOn.org be spawned?

         And that it was thus now time for the other guys in The Party to have their time at the helm, and to continue The Long March. You know….. The 8-On-8-Off Deal: “you guys take the Executive Branch for eight years and get your fair share of the loot, and then we’ll take it for our eight and our fair share.”

         Thus, while The Cheney Regime has accomplished just about everything that they were sent there to do (except perhaps to more totally and effectively rape, pillage, and plunder the U.S. Treasury), it’s unlikely that Kerry is anything more than a dutifully sacrificial Burning Bunny in the tradition of Bob Dole and Walter Mondale.

         In any event, Michael Moore should stick to movie making, and leave the King-Making to people who have a lot more experience and expertise than he does in that realm.

         02 JUL 04

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         1. Gore cost Nader the election: F*cking Brilliant.

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            1. “Because these people voted for one of the biggest thugs, liars, hypocrites, and thieves in Washington DC, they turned their backs on the ONLY true liberal, progressive, and radical in the campaign…the ONLY candidate with a life history consistent with true alleged Democratic, liberal, and progressive values, principles, and ideals”
               Exactly…Ralph was screwed – just like Bernie was screwed by them years later. The Democratic Party is so damn corrupt. Always was.
               I hope Bracing Views readers listen to Ralph on his radio hour – you will never see him on MSNBC or PBS!

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   2. Thanks. Ralph Nader is a hero for the ages. I tried to petition-organize his inclusion on the POTUS ballot for the state of Hawaii in 2004. I failed him…came up 179 signatures short of the required petition numbers.

      (Outstanding, superlative commentary by WJA!!! “Reject militarism. Reclaim democracy. Reinvest in America. Restore peace.” Amen.)

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2. Unfortunately, I think any movement toward peace will require the news media to engage in their purported roles, i.e., to question, to investigate, and to be skeptical – as opposed to their actual roles of propagandists and note takers for the elites.

   As an example, yesterday the surrender of Ukrainian troops from the Azovstal facility in Mariupol was reported on multiple media as Russian “claims” of surrender and Ukrainian “statements” of completion of operations. Going under guard to an enclosure of any kind means surrender.

   I can’t resist – with today’s MSM, it would have been reported that General Custer completed his operations at the Little Big Horn.

   Seriously, a populace conditioned for war by the news media, the entertainment industry, and the government is little likely to question or resist the path to war.

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3. What’s going on here?

   Many in this room might not agree with me. But this is the whole point about free speech and a free press. You don’t have to agree. But no one should try to shut someone down because of it.

   What we’ve done is to report on the causes of this war. Historians agree that the onerous terms put on Germany at Versailles were a cause of the rise of Nazism and WWII. They aren’t making excuses for Nazi Germany, just trying to explain why the war started. I have written in CN that the Russian invasion was illegal in that it violated the U.N. Charter. There was no Security Council authorization for it. Unfortunately the meaning of international law has been degraded by serial violations of it by the U.S., through numerous coups and invasions since WWII. An argument for the Russian invasion could be based on the pre-U.N. just war theory of Augustine and Aquinas, which is perhaps why the Pope saw that NATO provoked it. Are we going to try to take down the Pope now for “disinformation?”…………………………………………………

   https://consortiumnews.com/2022/05/18/watch-wests-free-speech-threatened-by-ukraine-war/

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   1. I sent these excerpts from an email to 3 Vatican email addresses on April 18. No one replied, but the Pope spoke about the NATO provocations for the 1st Time on May 3. Maybe it got through?

      Dear Francis, my Brother in Christ,

      God strengthen you to resist the pressure from the US dominated NATO Nations to Judge President Putin. Only God is the Judge of you, me, the Cardinals, and all living Flesh from the Greatest to the Least.

      The old adage still applies, ‘TRUTH is the 1st casualty of WAR’ and that is especially TRUE in this War.

      US/NATO WAR Propaganda does not inform the Public the Ukrainian government increased the shelling of the Civilians in the Donbas that provoked Russia to make the incursion into Ukraine to stop it. US/NATO War Propaganda does not inform the Public why President Putin said Minsk is Dead in recognizing the Independent Status of Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics. He did not annex the territories into Russia.

      The Path to Peace was embodied in the 2015 Minsk Agreement signed by Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany, requiring Ukraine to start negotiations with those territories giving them some Autonomy within a Federal Ukrainian system. Within those 7 years Ukraine REFUSED to negotiate as required. The US, Germany and France did not use their leverage to get Ukraine to the negotiating table. They just armed them for the Time the US/NATO WAR PLAN with Russia was ready to implement.

      I was very disappointed you did not go to the Islamic Mosque in Nineveh ISIS blew up in 2014, containing the Tomb of Jonah in the whale fame from the Jewish/Christian tradition during your visit to Iraq last year. No Religious or Political Leader recognized that event as the SIGN from Almighty God this Material is at that same point on the Path to Destruction, making that 3000 year old Bible record CURRENT. As if to buttress that SIGN, it was in the same Year of the Lord 2014, the US orchestrated the Coup/regime change of the Elected Russian friendly government, installing the Neo-Nazi anti-Russian government headed by the man US Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland was caught on tape saying she wanted to head the changed government even BEFORE it was changed. That was by design, not co-incidence, and Russia knew it if Americans don’t………………………………

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      1. I turn 78 Saturday and unfortunately posting the excerpt above, I just noticed reading it here, an omission that should have been seen and corrected before sending it.

         No Religious or Political Leader recognized that event as the SIGN from Almighty God this Material “WORLD” is at that same point on the Path to Destruction, making that 3000 year old Bible record CURRENT.

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      2. I’m 78.5 yo…in late 2002-early 2003, I somehow obtained a Vatican e-dress (from an Australian contact?), and I wrote at least 10 spaced e-mails to the Pope BEGGING him to travel to Baghdad and not leave until Dubya stood down from his Zionist-driven diktat. The Pope didn’t deign to reply or act…voila — Shock & Awe; Shattering of Iraq forever….just the way Israel likes it.

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4. Meanwhile….

   WILL A WEAPONIZED BIRD FLU BECOME THE NEXT PANDEMIC?

   As news of the COVID pandemic winds down around the world, we’re suddenly seeing warnings of another pandemic brewing — bird flu, aka avian influenza (H5N1)

   Natural bird flu is notoriously harmless to humans, but Bill Gates and Dr. Anthony Fauci have, for many years, funded research to develop a bird flu pathogen capable of infecting humans

   Some of that research has been undertaken in Pentagon-funded biolabs in Ukraine

   Gates funded research by Dr. Yoshihiro Kawaoka, in which the bird flu virus was mixed with the 2009 H1N1 (swine flu) virus, creating an airborne hybrid capable of completely evading the human immune system, effectively rendering humans defenseless against it

   The U.S. and other countries have already started stockpiling H5N1 vaccine, and the H5N1 vaccine Audenz is being marketed “for 2022.” As if on cue, the first-ever H5N1-positive case was identified in the U.S. at the end of April 2022

   Continued at https://www.globalresearch.ca/will-weaponized-bird-flu-become-next-pandemic/5780617

   NOTE: Raptor Center Finds Avian Flu Hits Sitka, Alaska [where i live]

   After several months of spreading among wild and domestic birds in the Lower 48, Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza has arrived in Sitka, where tests confirm that it killed a bald eagle last week.

   The virus is suspected of causing the death of three other eagles around Sitka, and Alaska Raptor Center avian director Jen Cedarleaf said the center is taking steps to prevent the disease from spreading among the birds living there.

   The virus is almost universally fatal among raptors, Cedarleaf said. Waterfowl, though not as hard hit, can act as carriers. Although ravens and crows can be harmed by the virus, Cedarleaf said the Raptor Center has yet to receive a report of any ravens or crows that appear to be infected.

   In an interview on Tuesday Cedarleaf said the first eagle known to have died from the virus was collected on Saturday.

   Continued at https://www.sitkasentinel.com/7/2012-05-10-22-08-10/local-news/20418-avian-flu

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5. As Yossarian once so eloquently explained Catch-22: “They can do anything we can’t stop them from doing.”

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   1. are “we” the “they” or are “they” the “we”? we may be vulnerable, but we are not as etiolated and helpless as we have allowed ourselves to believe. even the putative ‘peace community’ must, ironically, battle on.

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      1. Good point and good question. As Patti Smith once put it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKcBUGKPemA

         And at this point, “putative” is about the only thing that describes the so-called “peace community”: “generally considered or reputed to be.”

         It certainly has not been effective in preventing or stopping any wars anywhere. Especially those involving the United States.

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         1. indeed, jg moebus; we soi-disant peace activists cannot and must not hide inside the feckless cloak of pacifism. we too must hit the streets of protest and antinomianistic insurrections against govt-mandated war-mongering.

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            1. Heh. “Soi-disant” is another excellent descriptor of the “peace community,” Jeanie. Very, very appropriate.

               When is the last time the demand for PEACE and Not War was made by anybody? i recall one weekend in 2003 before we went into Iraq looking for Saddam’s WMDs; and that is it. Nothing after 9/11 and going into Afghanistan, thus launching our “Forever War.” Nothing anywhere about any War since Kent State, as a matter of fact. Nothing about Libya or Somalia; or today about Ukraine.

               And exactly what sort of “protest and antinomianistic insurrections” are You talking about? Something along the lines of BLM and January 6? Were they non-feckless and non-pacifist enough? Or did You have something else in mind?

               There will be no successful “Peace Movement” or “Anti-War Movement” until there is a WAR AGAINST WAR. And that is not going to happen ~ at least here in America ~ until Americans having to start worrying about themselves or their Kids getting sent off to fight, kill, maim, be killed, or be maimed in War.

               That’s the primary reason the Draft was terminated and has stayed dead.

               Nor will a WAR AGAINST WAR happen until Americans have to start paying for all their government’s Wars in taxes, mandatory War Bonds, etc; and can no longer put them on Uncle Sam’s credit card, driving the national, sovereign Debt higher and higher.

               And that’s what we have a Federal Reserve for: to make sure DC never runs out of money to pay for all its Wars.

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               1. your proffered solutions are more prudent and judicious than mine, jg moebus [are you obliquely related to the saxony germans of mobius-strip topology fame?].

                  i recommend for anti-war activists, who aren’t retired octogenarians like me living overseas in the philippines, to become proactively involved in their local school boards by raiding their meetings w/ suggested agendas for how to teach every single class at every age level in their districts about the war-mongering crimes of their govt, the obscene military expenditures, pilfered from their parents’ tax dollars, at the expense of their families’ health care, educations, and infrastructural improvements. if their advocacy is proscribed by the sitting school board members, activists should run for office themselves to facilitate the implementation of said-curricular agenda in their local schools. it is a cratonic newell post for change; videlicet, inspire and de-maculate the cortical machinery of our vulnerable but pluripotent children so they can behave more responsibly as voting adults.

                  as well, every school should promote and make available overseas programs for all student-keeners to spend a semester or year abroad [preferably in 3rd-/4th-world countries] such as the AFS [american field service] exchange program i was involved w/ in the late 1950’s. as it is, most american kids are abysmally nescient about countries and cultures outside the geopolitical confines of the US and canada.

                  last, instaurate a tax revolt involving such overwhelming numbers that it would be impossible to incarcerate said-multitudes, not even inside the brobdingnagian prison system presently regnant across the US’s OCD-imprisoning apparatus. we need young people w/ courage and focus who are not perpetually ‘focussed’ on their electronic devices playing games and taking me-me-me selfies. we must mold them when their brains are fungible enough to be efficacious for future anti-war decision-making as adults.

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                  1. Hi Jeanie.

                     First of all, how did You end up in the Philippines as a retired octogenarian? There is a substantial and solid Filipino community here in Sitka, where i live, and all throughout Alaska, as well. As Wiki puts it:

                     “People of Filipino descent represent the largest Asian American subgroup in the State of Alaska.[1] Filipino seamen are recorded as having contact with Alaska Natives as early as 1788, and Filipino immigrants continued to arrive as workers in Alaska’s developing natural resource industries: as sailors on American whaling ships; as ore sorters for gold mines in Juneau and Douglas Island; and as salmon cannery workers (called Alaskeros).[2]: x  Alaska’s Filipino community has a long history of interaction and intermarriage with Alaska Native communities, and many Filipinos in Alaska also claim Alaska Native heritage.

                     “In 2014, Filipinos made up 52% of Alaska’s Asian and Pacific Islander population.[1] In 2010, they represented 2.7% of Alaska’s total population.[3] Filipino Americans are the largest racial minority in the city of Anchorage, and also have large numbers in the Aleutians and Kodiak Island.[4].” [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filipinos_in_Alaska]

                     Also: How are folks where You live anticipating Marcos Redux? Especially after Duterte?

                     Second of all, the Family Rumor is that when my Father’s Grandfather arrived at Ellis Island in the 1880s, the Immigration Clerk thought “MOBIUS” needed some Anglicization, and so changed the family’s Official Immigrant Name to “Moebus.” Like i said: Just a Family Rumor.

                     As far as Your recommendations for preparing our “vulnerable but pluripotent children so they can behave more responsibly as voting adults”: Before that can happen, You need to find some Adults who are “voting responsibly” to use as examples, wouldn’t You say? Can You point to anybody in Washington DC today who would fill that billing?

                     And if storming school board meetings doesn’t work, where are the votes going to come from to get those kinds of people elected to those boards?

                     Also, if, as You say, “most american kids are abysmally nescient about countries and cultures outside the geopolitical confines of the US and canada,” then i would also say that most of those kids are also abysmally ignorant about the people, cultures, and civil societies living and functioning in their same physical community right here in River City; but who live on the “other side of the tracks,” as they used to put it.

                     But You are absolutely correct when You state: “we need young people w/ courage and focus who are not perpetually ‘focussed’ on their electronic devices playing games and taking me-me-me selfies.”

                     Again: Before those Young People can be found, there needs to be some Adults who are seriously looking for Them, and who are prepared to work with and for those Young People when they do find Them.

                     And one last question I just gotta ask: Do You talk like You write? i must say that i have learned more new words reading Your posts to Bracing Views than i have anyplace else in a long, long time. Anyway; stay Safe and have a great day. ~ jeff

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                     1. allow me to respond to your manifold oppugnings sequentially, jeff, but first it seems prudent to ask our BRACING VIEWS host, wja, if he would rather not propine us the opportunity to communicate on a personal level, particularly if our colloquies are off-topic or irrelevant to the discussion he has endeavoured to catalyze. WHAT DO YOU ADJUDICATE ON THIS MATTER, WJA? if you deem jeff’s and my exchanges are not condign to the topic and risk engendering a precedent, we could share email addresses as a feasible alternative, eh?

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                  2. I had no idea I had such power!

                     You “kids” have fun. This site isn’t just about me. It’s about bringing people together to share “bracing views” as we try to navigate this crazed and crazy world. Chat away, I say!

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                     1. you dreamboy you! thank you, wja: for your peerless patience, goodwill, open-minded attitude in giving us such wide latitude, and for your transformative BRACING VIEWS site …on behalf of all us ‘octo-youngsters’. you are beloved by your eager readers for multifarious reasons, of which the aforementioned attributes represent a bare scintilla. ms. motor-mouth’s loquacity will begin [at which point, you risk losing half your readership!].

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                     2. first, thank you for this permitting this tautological personal palaver w/ jg moebus on your eximious site, wja.

                        here goes, jg moebus. grab a hefty dose of caffeine or spirits to enable perseverance thru this mucky swamp of loquacity [my replies are in quotations]:

                        Hi Jeanie.
                        First of all, how did You end up in the Philippines as a retired octogenarian?

                        “you will rue the unpropitious timing of your queries, jeff, as i am not well acquainted w/ the brakes that should control my motoring mouth:

                        one of our sons, firth mceachern [bairn #6; now 35], arrived fresh out of a harvard esearch fellowship in the philippines in 2010 as a CIDA [canadian internatl dev. agency] intern for its international sustainable cities program. he was sufficiently intrigued w/ the cultural and linguistic diversity of the PI that he elected to remain post-internship. he became a lecturer at st. louis university in la union province, while acting as a consultant for the provincial govt and presenting lectures and trainings for PDEPED’s [philippines dept of education] teachers, superintendents and professors throughout the philippine islands. he was subsequently hired as a full-time staff consultant for SEAMEO~innotech [southeast asian ministers of education organization ~ innovation technology] which consists of 13 southeast asian countries’ education ministries. around 2013, my husband [82+] and i [81] decided to retire from our respective professions as, respectively, an international resource economist and a marine & aquatic invertebrate zoologist [moi]. all 7 of our bantlings [2 femmes; 5 garçons] were raised overseas, primarily in west africa, the caribbean islands, northeast africa, south asia, southeast asia, australia [for 6 months only], the far east, the middle east, and the arctic. soon after, john and i decided that retiring to our eldest son preston’s sailing ketch, moored off the south coast of grenada [wet of trinidad & tobago] was too confining for us, as we were only 73 and 72 then. so we contacted our son firth in the philippines in 2014 to inquire about retiring to luzon island, in close enough proximity to firth that we would have frequent access to him. he was delighted, micturating champagne [hah!] over the prospect of having his peripatetic ‘rentals’ [our kids’ sobriquet for us] nearby. we remained in san juan on the south china sea for 2 years. however, it was a popular surfing area, w/ intolerable decidel-level cacophonies, so obstreperous that we could not sleep at night. needless to convey, it did not fulfill our expectations of retirement-mode tranquillitude. so we deracinated further south in 2016 to balatero baranguy, a rusticated ecesis on mindoro island’s north coast, along the shores of the verde island passage, a channel flowing out of the west philippine sea into the sibuyan sea. john and i plan to die here, our peregrinations having finally screeched to a halt. we’ve implored our progeny to defenestrate our corpses into the sibuyan sea.”

                        There is a substantial and solid Filipino community here in Sitka, where i live, and all throughout Alaska, as well. As Wiki puts it:
                        “People of Filipino descent represent the largest Asian American subgroup in the State of Alaska.[1] Filipino seamen are recorded as having contact with Alaska Natives as early as 1788, and Filipino immigrants continued to arrive as workers in Alaska’s developing natural resource industries: as sailors on American whaling ships; as ore sorters for gold mines in Juneau and Douglas Island; and as salmon cannery workers (called Alaskeros).[2]: x  Alaska’s Filipino community has a long history of interaction and intermarriage with Alaska Native communities, and many Filipinos in Alaska also claim Alaska Native heritage.
                        “In 2014, Filipinos made up 52% of Alaska’s Asian and Pacific Islander population.[1] In 2010, they represented 2.7% of Alaska’s total population.[3] Filipino Americans are the largest racial minority in the city of Anchorage, and also have large numbers in the Aleutians and Kodiak Island.[4].” [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filipinos_in_Alaska]

                        Also: How are folks where You live anticipating Marcos Redux? Especially after Duterte?

                        “our newly elected president bongbong marcos’ father, ferdinand marcos, was no different from all the esurient peculators in positions of power throughout most global governments, including yours in the US and ours in canada. the neoteric generation of filipinos and filipinas have scant memory of ferdinand marcos’ corruptions, his 17-billion$ purloinments, nor of his egregiously malfeasing cohorts. his son won the election b/c the marcos family’s obscene wealth redounded to paying outrageous sums of denaro, in cash, to buy citizens’ votes throughout these 7,000+ islands, islets, and rocky promontories. i’m not fatiloquent, so we shall have to see how bongbong’s presidency unfolds.”

                        Second of all, the Family Rumor is that when my Father’s Grandfather arrived at Ellis Island in the 1880s, the Immigration Clerk thought “MOBIUS” needed some Anglicization, and so changed the family’s Official Immigrant Name to “Moebus.” AS i said: Just a Family Rumor.
                        As far as Your recommendations for preparing our “vulnerable but pluripotent children so they can behave more responsibly as voting adults”: Before that can happen, You need to find some Adults who are “voting responsibly” to use as examples, wouldn’t You say?

                        “YES! w/ certitude.”

                        Can You point to anybody in Washington DC today who would fill that billing?

                        “NO, i cannot, as i’m hopelessly untutored about who or what politico critters are presently regnant in DC. i dare say, i would, in any case, be misled, bamboozled, and de-frauded of my voting-support by some other subreptitious mountebank prancing about centre stage the political theatre… just as i was by obama and his cabal. all sanguinity was dashed to fragments during obama’s 8-year administration.”

                        And if storming school board meetings doesn’t work, where are the votes going to come from to get those kinds of people elected to those boards?

                        “from tireless, unmitigated, unalloyed commitment to fearless, in-your-face public rabble-rousing and advocacy, so long as no one is injured.”

                        Also, if, as You say, “most american kids are abysmally nescient about countries and cultures outside the geopolitical confines of the US and canada,” then i would also say that most of those kids are also abysmally ignorant about the people, cultures, and civil societies living and functioning in their same physical community right here in River City; but who live on the “other side of the tracks,” as they used to put it.

                        ” “thus speaketh zarathustra” from the modern-day orifice of jg moebus! and it’s a dolorous truth you speak, jeff. nevertheless, i sense there is a sufficient cadre of noble, compassionate, caring, and curious compatriots who would be willing to inosculate w/ tramontanes outside their circumscribed confines in oder to ameliorate the categoric depression wafting from this old bird’s tattered wings.”

                        But You are absolutely correct when You state: “we need young people w/ courage and focus who are not perpetually ‘focussed’ on their electronic devices playing games and taking me-me-me selfies.” Again: Before those Young People can be found, there needs to be some Adults who are seriously looking for Them, and who are prepared to work with and for those Young People when they do find Them.

                        “incontrovertibly, jg moebus! here in the PI, volunteerism is the craton around which we construct cooperative and workable communities, and it can be equally efficacious anywhere, even in the dis-united states, as long as a groundswell of fiery leaders can be ignited to participate. “aye, but that is the rub!” even for pollyannas and feckless ‘twisters at windmills’.”

                        And one last question I just gotta ask: Do You talk as You write?

                        “yours is a perpetual inquiry, jeff, and the simple answer is yes, i do. i always have… to everyone’s consternation. i commandeered language instead of fisticuffs as a weapon against bullies from my earliest memories. by age 5, i was lugging around a dictionary that weighed more than i did. it became preternaturally clear to me that the more recondite, abstruse, and complex my lexicon was, the more assiduously the mean-spirited bullies would ignore me. or they would twirl their index fingers around their ears and chuckle to their mates that i was lamentably ‘kookie’. i preferred to be regarded as bonkers than to disport a bloodied nose or a black eye! my uncle nick propined me a behemoth dictionary on my 5th birthday. after dartmouth, he rose to the editorship of the NEW YORK TIMES sunday edition. uncle nick was my father’s older brother. he was also the author of a nationwide syndicated crossword puzzle enterprise, as well as the author of a textbook on how to construct crossword puzzles. my obsession w/ words must be endemic to my phenotypically-expressed genotype.”

                        i must say that i have learned more new words reading Your posts to Bracing Views than i have anyplace else in a long, long time. Anyway; stay Safe and have a great day. ~ jeff

                        “PS: you did not inquire, but i might as well carry on burying you in my OCD chunterings: our 7 bantlings are: preston, a chemical limnologist and adjunct professor at U of A, who lives in calgary, alberta; menzies, a geologist and alternative energy resources research and development specialist, resides in yellowknife in the NWT’s western arctic; coryn~alcyon, co- founder and former director of EARTH PATH, an outdoor environmental education school in ottawa, lac la pèche and wakefield, québec; maine, an attorney and legal consultant for the BC ministry of education, lives in vancouver, british columbia; bryarly, also co-founder [w/ her sister] and former director of EARTH PATH, now resides in indonesia on the island of lembongan; firth, also in vancouver, british columbia, is a PhD candidate at UBC; and kavan{augh}, in baltimore, maryland, is a software research computer engineer for ZeroFox, whom john and i birthed at ages 50 and 48+ respectively [we were late-bloomers]. 5 mces completed their undergrad yrs in canada [univ of toronto and queen’s univ] and 2 did so in your country [harvard and vassar].

                        you must be parlous dismayed that you were so inquisitive, as i have surely rendered you oscitant w/ parabiotic velleity. so, off to bed w/ you, wee laddie! w/ empressement, jeanie mce.”

                        LikeLiked by 1 person

                     3. Hi Jeanie. Wanted to let You know that I haven’t forgotten about You and our chat.

                        i’ve been dealing with a succession of personal and family health issues and, over the last couple of days, when i have been thinking and writing about anything, its been on the events in Uvalde, Texas.

                        You can see my thoughts on Bracing Views, where i have been posting them.

                        Please send me Your e~address so we can continue the conversation that way, instead of thru BV. i am very interested in learning more about You and Your family. Sounds like quite a Life for You all, indeed.

                        i’m particularly interested in learning about the time You and Your Husband were on Your Son’s Ketch off Grenada. i live here in Sitka on the Ketch i brought up from San Francisco Bay ten years ago this summer; and back in the day, did some serious coastal, offshore, and high seas sailing.

                        Hopes all’s well there in the Philippines. Between the earthquakes, typhoons, and the looming reign of Bongbong, it’s going to be an interesting summer, i am sure.

                        My e~ is: jgmoebus@gmail.com

                        Stay Safe and have a Great day. ~ jeff

                        LikeLike

                     4. Hi Jeanie: Wanted to let You know that I haven’t forgotten about You and our conversation

                        i’ve been dealing with a succession of personal and family medical issues and, over the last couple of days, when i have been thinking and writing about anything, its been on the events in Uvalde, Texas.

                        You can see my thoughts on Bracing Views, where i have been posting them.

                        Please send me Your e~address so we can continue the conversation that way, instead of thru BV. i am very interested in learning more about You and Your family. Sounds like quite a Life for Y’All, indeed.

                        i’m particularly interested in learning about the time You and Your Husband were on Your Son’s Ketch off Grenada. i live here in Sitka on the Ketch i brought up from San Francisco Bay ten years ago this summer; and back in the day, did some serious coastal, offshore, and high seas sailing.

                        Hopes all’s well there in the Philippines. Between the earthquakes, typhoons, and the looming reign of Bongbong, it’s going to be an interesting summer, i am sure.

                        My e~ is: jgmoebus@gmail.com

                        Stay Safe and have a Great day. ~ jeff

                        LikeLike

            2. One of the principle issues from the Sermon on the Mount is this, ‘Blessed are the Peace Makers, for they shall be called the Children of God’
               Matthew 5:9

               They are shut out of the discussion on TV and the MSM Manipulating the Minds of the Masses, constantly inciting more Children of War as the 5th Horseman of the Apocalypse.

               LikeLiked by 1 person

6. Watching the speed with which Congress puts through billions for Ukraine takes my breath away…unity and eagerness so in contrast to the decades of resisting national healthcare. We see the unity and eagerness yearly with the ever increasing military budget even in the face of failure to audit. Money is being thrown at the military contractors, they are being hosed down with dollars like kids around an open fire hydrant on a hot day.

   LikeLiked by 4 people

   1. Well put. The money hydrant is gushing billions.

      LikeLiked by 3 people

      1. American Oligarchs are getting richer off this War than Russian Oligarchs. Will Americans start seizing their wealth, Yachts and Mansions?

         LikeLiked by 2 people

7. As You noted on “Wednesday Worries,” Colonel: “America desperately needs a third party that is truly anti-war.”

   There IS a third party that is truly, completely, and totally anti-war:

   “The Libertarian Platform, 3.3 International Affairs: American foreign policy should seek an America at peace with the world. Our foreign policy should emphasize defense against attack from abroad and enhance the likelihood of peace by avoiding foreign entanglements. We would end the current U.S. government policy of foreign intervention, including military and economic aid. We recognize the right of all people to resist tyranny and defend themselves and their rights. We condemn the use of force, and especially the use of terrorism, against the innocent, regardless of whether such acts are committed by governments or by political or revolutionary groups.”

   In a statement ~ NO WAR WITH RUSSIA ~ released on January 26, 2022, a month before Putin’s “special military operation” the Libertarian Party declared:

   “The United States’ involvement in NATO puts us in a compromising position; one which is compounded further by the fact that Congress no longer authorizes war and that our military is controlled by a small facet of unelected bureaucrats and what President Eisenhower named the Military-Industrial Complex. It is time for cooler heads to prevail and for Libertarians, and all wishing to avoid worldwide conflict, to call on the U.S. to cut ties with NATO and to end all other entangling alliances. Such entanglements are more cause for war than for peace, and the tit for tat relationships promote escalation and retaliation. Americans ought to abide by the wisdom of those who came before us, who learned the hard-fought lessons of war, rather than trust those who will never do the fighting to make the right decisions.

   “If humankind continues into the future without heeding the lessons of the past, we are doomed to repeat the grave errors of our predecessors, now with much higher stakes.

   “Our position is clear: non-interventionism is the answer to the Ukrainian crisis, and all future crises, because when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” https://www.lp.org/no-war-with-russia/

   Or, more graphically: https://www.lp.org/antiwar/ .

   LikeLiked by 1 person

8. General Custer and his troops are evacuated from Little Big Horn after ending their combat mission

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   1. As I wrote in the comments section of Larry Johnson’s blog: “By God, we’ve broken more toes and an ankle kicking the Vietnam Syndrome yet again!“

      LikeLiked by 1 person

      1. From an online dictionary:

         Definition of evacuate

         transitive verb
         1: … 2 : to discharge from the body as waste : void … 3: …

         intransitive verb
         1 : … 2 : to pass urine or feces from the body

         So, if used with the proper semantic reference, one can truly say that the bowels of the Azovstal factory in Mariupol evacuated — meaning discharged — a goodly amount of Nazi fecal matter after a month or so of cruel and unnecessary constipation. The steel factory and surrounding city no doubt feel much better now.

         LikeLiked by 1 person

   2. Why not? 9/11 has been rebranded as “Patriot Day” in America.

      So Ukraine still has much to learn from us.

      LikeLiked by 2 people

9. Another US Senator replies to the Message sent to 100 of them the 1st week of February replying via normal email, not the restrictive embedded Senate Office email system.

   Dear Mr. Cormier:

   Thank you for reaching out to me regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the United States’ response to the conflict. I appreciate the opportunity to respond on such an important issue.

   As you know, on February 24, 2022, Russia waged an unprovoked war by invading Ukraine. This invasion is the largest military attack on European soil in over 75 years and has created Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II with over 6 million Ukrainians leaving their country and over 6.5 million internally displaced and fleeing their homes. Russia’s attack was a major escalation of the ongoing conflict between the two countries that began in 2014 when Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine.

   I have consistently advocated for the U.S. to stand up to Russian aggression and support Ukrainian sovereignty. In January, I voted in support of sanctions against Russia and its Nord Stream 2 pipeline, and I supported similar sanctions in the 2020 and 2021 National Defense Authorization Acts. In order to ensure that Americans are not forced to help finance Vladimir Putin’s growing atrocities in Ukraine and his threats against the U.S. and our NATO partners, as well as to strengthen our energy independence, I have cosponsored the Ban Russian Energy Imports Act. This bill would prohibit the importation of crude oil, petroleum, petroleum products, liquefied natural gas, and coal from Russia. I have also signed onto the Digital Asset Sanctions Compliance Enhancement Act to ensure that Putin and Russian oligarchs cannot use digital assets to undermine the international community’s economic sanctions against Russia. Furthermore, I have joined a bipartisan letter to President Biden urging the Administration to grant Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Ukrainians currently residing in the U.S. so that they are not forced to return to Ukraine amidst this devastating war. I have also supported the passage of the bipartisan Fiscal Year 2022 omnibus funding package which contains robust aid for our partners in Ukraine.

   I stand with President Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian people and advocate for a strong, unified response from the United States and our allies. I believe Russia must be met with crushing sanctions and that no economic measures should be off the table. I will continue to work with my colleagues to provide the humanitarian support and lethal aid Ukraine needs to defend its sovereignty, support democracy, and stand up to Putin.

   Once again, thank you so much for taking the time to write to me. As always, please reach out with any additional concerns. I look forward to hearing from you in the future.

   Sincerely,

   Catherine Cortez Masto

   LikeLiked by 1 person

   1. I already wrote back, this being some of my reply,
      Senator Cortez Masto,

      This is to acknowledge receipt of your response yesterday to the Message I sent all 100 Senators between February 3-6. I was surprised to get it after so long a Time. I was just as surprised with the reply from Senator Angus King last week to the same February Message. It would appear The Senate is behind the Times. With your reply, 20 US Senators replied to that February Message, all having the same anti-Russian/Putin talking points.

      You wrote, “As you know, on February 24, 2022, Russia waged an unprovoked war by invading Ukraine. This invasion is the largest military attack on European soil in over 75 years. Russia’s attack was a major escalation of the ongoing conflict between
      the two countries that began in 2014 when Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine.”

      What I do know, because I went to the OSCE website DAILY before the Russian incursion on February 24 to see the Truce violations OSCE recorded between the Ukraine government and the Russian speaking Ukrainians in the East and Crimea who rejected the 2014 US Coup/regime change of the elected Russian friendly government they VOTED for, changing it for a US proxy Neo-Nazi anti-Russian government. There was a 30 fold INCREASE in Ukrainian government shelling of the Civilians in the Donetsk that PROVOKED the Russian incursion to stop it.

      For your information, “the largest military attack on European soil in over 75 years” was the US/NATO 3 MONTH bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 in VIOLATION of the same International Law US dominated NATO demonizes Russia for violating. The US followed up with the 2003 invasion and bombing of Iraq, also violating International Law like Russia.
      You ignore the Historical fact the 2014 US/CIA Coup precipitated the Russian annexation of Crimea only AFTER the majority Russian speaking Ukrainians voted in a Referendum to rejoin Russia, Crimea being part of Russia since 1783 until 1954, when it was turned over to Ukraine to administer as an Autonomous region when Ukraine was still part of the Soviet Union.

      It’s because US Political Leadership, yourself included, is guilty of too many SINS of Historical OMISSION, I posted this article on May 13,
      US POLITICIANS ARE SLEEPWALKING TOWARD THE NUCLEAR ABYSS…………………………………………….

      LikeLiked by 1 person

      1. an exceptionally puissant, well-informed, accurate, and profound exegesis, rjc… unlike ccm’s boiler-plate balderdash. i vaticinate her myrmidons will avoid responding to your expostulations. given ccm is a senator w/ a cast of multifarious minions, she likely never read your letter herself. if some gudgeon in her sycophantic crwth does deign to reply, it will amount to naught but tiresome, insincere, banausic, boiler-plate logorrhoea.

         LikeLiked by 1 person

         1. Jeannie, Independent Senator King replied to the same February 3-6 Message last week. It can’t be computer generated after such a long Time?

            I didn’t know “vaticinate” also meant “prophecy.” Is that the difference between Secular and Religious? lol!

            LikeLiked by 1 person

            1. It could easily be computer generated, Ray. I know that when I write any representative, I have to stipulate a category for my message; i.e., healthcare, civil rights, environment, etc. That way, the worker bee who opens the message knows which position paper to send in reply. I’ve written dozens of messages and signed probably hundreds of petitions/group letters to senators, congresspeople, and the White House, and never once have I gotten a reply that wasn’t boilerplate, usually in accordance with the given recipient’s party line. Occasionally, I’ll get a response tailored to the recipient’s individual beliefs, but it’s still a form letter. Very seldom does a response match my concern, except possibly tangentially.

               LikeLiked by 2 people

               1. Worse yet Denise, twice I got a boilerplate form letter reply From Patty Murray that was on the wrong subject! LOL
                  As George Carlin famously said…”It’s all a big club and we are not in it! LOL

                  LikeLiked by 1 person

                  1. speaking of clubs, den-mer [i’ve anointed denise den-don], progress slumps and stumbles on: the skaneateles golf and country club [in upstate NY’s finger lakes region] wherein my parents were long-term members, proscribed all negroes/ negritas [later termed ‘blacks’], as well as all jews and muslims, from their exclusive club. however, the club, by law, can no longer discriminate against them for fear of being hauled into the syracuse court system. now the club finds invidious alternate avenues to exclude blacks, jews, and muslims. as a recusant kid growing up in that purlieu during the 1940’s and 50’s, the skaneateles country club proscriptions induced the gag-reflex, if not emesis.

                     LikeLiked by 1 person

               2. Denise, I did send the Message between 3-6 of February before the Ukraine War started, but on the subject of Ukraine and a Peace Process.
                  But yes, it could be computer generated, but that would be sent from a ‘donotreply’ email address, not a regular normal email address I could could just click on ‘reply’ without having to go through their Office email systems.

                  Doesn’t make any difference. From the response, she didn’t read the Message anyway. It would appear none of the 100 Senators who got it did!
                  That $40 BILLION in Military and other aid to keep the Ukraine War going on Russia’s border was on a fast track for approval.

                  LikeLiked by 1 person

            2. given king is, at least by classification, an independent, perhaps the letter represents an authentic têtê à têtê between the king and the ‘cormier’ [might your progenitors have been cultivators of fruit trees, such as the ‘service’ trees of yore].

               secular or religious, you ask, rjc? perhaps… but i suspect the non-religious employ the words interchangeably, as synonyms, eh?

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               1. The 1st Cormier in CanaDa (CanaDa didn’t exist then) arrived at the Settlement of Port Royal, Nova Scotia in 1644

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                  1. yikes, that is a feckly prelapsarian antecedent history for the cormiers!

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10. “Here in the USA, we keep hearing that China is our most serious potential enemy. That kind of rhetoric is not helpful, to put it mildly.”

    I agree wholeheartedly, Bill. And that’s why I’d turn your own words back on you. As George Lakoff says, “framing is everything.” Suppose every newspaper in the country blared a headline like, “We Don’t Want War!” Which idea, in that headline, is emphasized? The negative in that headline, “don’t,” disappears, for all intents and purposes, when the human brain processes it.

    It was the same with the 2016 election: every time a news outlet criticized TFG, he got free publicity, because his name was repeated endlessly. The media was, “putting it out there,” as synchronicity devotees phrase it. Lakoff’s theories are, of course, science based, but he reaches the same conclusion, that the brain focuses on the subject, not the surrounding words. His best-known distillation of that idea is, “Don’t think of an elephant.”

    All this to say that when you write, “Priming the Pump for More War,” you’re adding more thoughts of war to the collective consciousness. Your suggestions later on are orders of magnitude better:

    “Reclaim democracy. Reinvest in America. Restore peace.”

    There, you’ve placed the [positive] emphasis on what we should aspire to, what we should put out there. : )

    LikeLiked by 2 people

    1. Diplomatically, it doesn’t make a better World and Future for US dominated NATO to demonize Russia for violating the same International Law the US has violated so many Times in it’s History.

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       1. No. Hypocrisy never makes anything better.

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    2. Thanks, Denise. Great point.

       LikeLiked by 1 person

       1. Thank you. Comes from having a martinet of a composition teacher, back before the dinosaurs were oil.

          LikeLiked by 1 person

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