dagblog - Comments for "Feed Me Sweet Dumdrops"

Except for Israel, I've never

artappraiser — Sat, 21 Apr 2018 21:26:51 +0000

Except for Israel, I've never seen Lulu complain about foreign abuses. His stuff always comes across as a very clear message that the U.S. and Israel cause all the trouble in the world, one way or another. As if we just became like Sweden, most of all the other bad stuff in the world would go away, because we are so powerful economically and size-wise, like in the end, we cause it all.

You claim you don't criticize

ocean-kat — Sat, 21 Apr 2018 18:14:46 +0000

In reply to Some of the older far left

You claim you don't criticize America to support Russia yet every time there's some incident you ignore the findings all journalists from all major news organizations and several country's investigations as well as investigations by international bodies to link us to some obscure site that invariably claims they're all part of a vast conspiracy to hide the truth and blame poor innocent beleaguered Putin and Russia. Sites that have been repeatedly caught in egregious errors of fact and never issue corrections when caught. Yet you continue to trust them. /shrug, what ever. I stand by my analysis.

I want the government to

iPhonermrd — Sat, 21 Apr 2018 17:30:04 +0000

In reply to You are not obligated in any

I want the government to Black Russian interference. Trump is enamored with Putin, so that won’t happe My option is to decrease Trump’s power by voting out Republicans. Democrats will make an effort to block the Russians from targeting blacks. I don’t expect much from Trump or Putin because they are both white supremacists.

Other then complaining on websites, what are you doing to stop foreign abuses?

You are not obligated in any

A Guy Called LULU — Sat, 21 Apr 2018 16:33:45 +0000

In reply to Russia hacked our election.

You are not obligated in any meaningful way to do anything. What makes obsessing with Russia's fault different than doing so about America's faults is this: You can blame everything on the Russians and agree that we need to respond against them with some kind of overt force until your face turns blue and you will be spending all your breath in the wrong direction. Putin will be unmoved. I guess it is hypothetical until it works but our own government is supposedly obligated to consider our wishes. We have the right, and some would say the obligation, to consider soberly what we wish for and then to demand that consideration from our government. Something I feel a bit of a moral obligation to speak out about is the indiscriminate killing of brown and black people all over the world, not just in America. I love my country just as I am sure you do too. I don't "love" my government as it operates and I am free to know and say that because I am not confused into thinking that my country and my government are the same thing.

Lulu, your "circular meme" is

NCD — Sat, 21 Apr 2018 15:14:30 +0000

In reply to Some of the older far left

Lulu, your "circular meme" is: stressing the circular America-bad meme while exonerating or ignoring everything Russia does because America is so bad.

Your meme is so rigid, it throws in EU governments with the US when they implicate Russia in major crimes.

Russia hacked our election.

rmrd0000 — Sat, 21 Apr 2018 15:00:18 +0000

In reply to Some of the older far left

Russia hacked our election. Fake Russian BlackLivesMatter websites were used to instill fear in white voters. Russia s also used fake websites to encourage black to stay home rather than vote. Russia is run by Putin, a man who presides over a country that makes sport of assaulting African students. In fact, many wingnuts view Russia as the prime example of a pure white, anti-Gay country. Criticizing Putin’s actions seem to be the rational thing to do. Why am I obligated to criticize the United States before I am allowed to point out Putin’s actions?

Some of the older far left

A Guy Called LULU — Sat, 21 Apr 2018 12:34:11 +0000

In reply to Zero Hedge does seem to be a

Some of the older far left liberals know the history of Latin America and remember American support for right wing dictators, their atrocities and the left wing revolutionaries that fought them. Yes, some do and to the extent that others do not know that history it is a crying shame because that history itself is a crying shame and it is the actual history of our country. There's some merit to that view in that our government and CIA covert ops did support these murderous allies of America. Some merit? It is an absolutely unequivocal truth that our government and CIA covert ops did support many corrupt murderous leaders and actually installed some of them. We can rightly condemn American behavior as it fought the cold war with Russia but when you look at it the atrocities committed by the communist regimes was worse. That doesn't excuse American behavior. I'm just pushing back on the America bad Russia good left wing meme Lulu espouses. You put the bad behavior that you acknowledge in the past tense during the Cold War as if it does not go on to this day. That is a mistake that should be obvious. You say Russian atrocities have been worse. Maybe, but who did worse in the sense of being responsible for more atrocities in more countries in modern history after Russia’s revolution was consolidated is debatable. Neither side comes out looking good, much less innocent. All that said, I do not push an America bad Russia good meme as you say. I say Russia bad, America bad too. I am an American. If I have any responsibility along with any right to try to change either country then that right and responsibility should be directed at America first.

I add and emphasize that stressing the circular Russia-bad meme while exonerating or ignoring everything America does because Russia is so bad to the point that Russia is evil, evil being an ultimate term, even when the examples showing Russia to be evil are things we have done throughout our history and are continuing to do now, is crazy not to acknowledge. I do not criticize America to support Russia over America in any way. I do it to voice my non-support for America's continuing the same murderous stupidity going forward. It is not done with any high hope of success.

AA, you describe your posting

A Guy Called LULU — Sat, 21 Apr 2018 11:03:23 +0000

In reply to and then there's the Bob

AA, you describe your posting of a link critical of Dylan as “piling on”. I wonder what your point is. I would like you to explain. I don’t think you will. I doubt you can.

I think that The Electronic Intifada has mountains of evidence supporting their positions re the Israeli/Palestinian situation but the conclusions about "Neighborhood Bully" reached by the critic you linked to can be debated if there is any point in doing so. Michael F. Brown really stretches to make his case.

With its opening lyrics parroting Israel’s own narrative of being the blameless, perpetual victim of Arab violence, “Neighborhood Bully” came just a year after Israel’s bloody invasion of Lebanon that would claim tens of thousands of lives:

Well, the neighborhood bully, he’s just one man

His enemies say he’s on their land

They got him outnumbered about a million to one

He got no place to escape to, no place to run

He’s the neighborhood bully

Dylan calls Israel a “bully”. Is that a compliment? Is calling Israel a bully a way to “hold Israel blameless”? Is being a bully ever a good thing? Does Israel call itself a bully or like being called one? Does calling Israel a bully indicate an embrace of their bullying? I don’ tsee it. “His enemies say he’s on their land.” Yes, they do say that. So does most of the the rest of the world. They say it as an indictment. Does repeating that indictment indicate that Dylan approves?

Brown goes on to say:

Yet Dylan sang these words exonerating Israel even after the world had witnessed the horrifying massacres of Palestinian refugees in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps by an Israeli-allied militia during the occupation of Beirut.

I do not see exoneration or apology or embrace of Israeli actions in Dylan's song as much as I see description of the Israel/Palestinian situation in which Israel is clearly a "bully". There is of course more that can be interpreted and then argued about in the rest of the lyrics but so what? Whatever argument might carry the day I would still wonder; In what way is the weak critique of a single Dylan song you linked to, ‘piling on’, to criticisms of a link which proves without a doubt that someone is lying their ass off. That link does so even if you are convinced that I am mistaken about which side, something I did not assert or claim to know, is doing the lying? Pile on more clearly and tell me what connection to Dylan do you see that undermines everything or anything about my blog, even, apparently, the parts regarding Israel's fake news programs as described by '+972 Magazine' which you and everyone else responding so far have studiously avoided touching upon in any way.

edited to add the underlined word "not" where it needed to be.

Zero Hedge does seem to be a

ocean-kat — Fri, 20 Apr 2018 20:55:52 +0000

In reply to re: Zero Hedge's content has

Zero Hedge does seem to be a right wing conspiracy site. Sites like this have a long history among the right, the Illuminati, Trilateral commission, Agenda 21 etc. You're right that Trump did play into that. But I think you're mixing up some right wing conspiracy memes and left wing conspiracy memes. Lulu usually links to the left wing conspiracy sites. Zero Hedge is unusual for him.

Some of the older far left liberals know the history of Latin America and remember American support for right wing dictators, their atrocities and the left wing revolutionaries that fought them. There's some merit to that view in that our government and CIA covert ops did support these murderous allies of America. Baptista was as bad as he's portrayed and he was our puppet. As was Pinochet and others. It's a sordid chapter in our history. Those fighting him were justified,were often Marxists and supported by Russia. So Che Guevarra becomes a hero in the good fight against these dictators.

These modern conspiracy sites for the left play on that old dynamic, America as the evil hegemon, Russia as the supporter of the downtrodden and oppressed. It's not really a right wing meme. What they miss, these American "revolutionaries" wearing their Che Guevarra T-shirts, is Che was a murderous thug on the same level as Baptista and Russia had it's own left wing dictators committing atrocities against their own people that equaled or exceeded America's Pinochet. We can rightly condemn American behavior as it fought the cold war with Russia but when you look at it the atrocities committed by the communist regimes was worse. That doesn't excuse American behavior. I'm just pushing back on the America bad Russia good left wing meme Lulu espouses.

Syria After Trump’s

artappraiser — Thu, 19 Apr 2018 07:40:48 +0000

In reply to Feed Me Sweet Dumdrops

Syria After Trump’s Withdrawal: Top Reasons an “Arab Force” will Fail

By Juan Cole @ JuanCole.com

[.....] The plan raises questions, however, on several fronts. Without US presence and backing, will the Kurds be willing and able to stay in Arab southern Raqqa and parts of Deir al-Zor?

Without the US troop presence, will ISIL remnants be able to regroup and take back territory in eastern Syria, reconstituting a mini-caliphate from which they can plot further attacks on Paris and perhaps on Iraq?

The US policy elite had hoped to use its presence in eastern Syria to block overland truck shipments of weapons to Lebanon’s Hizbullah from Iran. Would Iran be strengthened by Trump’s departure from that region?

At the suggestion of the notoriously unstable and corrupt Newt Gingrich, Trump appointed as his national security adviser the perpetually angry, aide-abusing, dishonest warmonger John Bolton (who has shadowy ties with the People’s Jihadi Organization or MEK of Iran, which was long on the terrorist watchlist). Bolton wants to create a Sunni Arab patrol in the region which could prevent any resurgence of ISIL and could block the Iranian truck trade coming from Iraq.

Here are the problems with Bolton’s wild-eyed and impracticable plan:

[....]

Russia and its client, the Syrian Baath government of Bashar al-Assad, also object strenuously to the US presence in eastern Syria and the apparent attempt to create an autonomous Kurdish-ruled entity there. That is one reason Trump seems eager to get out.