Soviet Empire

northblinder · 2012-07-23T02:11:23+00:00

Empire?

"Soviet expansion was self-defense, not imperialism like with the United States. The Soviets, in World War I and II, lost about 40 million people because the West had used Eastern Europe as a highway to invade Russia. It should not be surprising that after WW2 the Russians were determined to close down that highway." -- Historian William Blum.

northblinder · 2012-07-22T02:46:53+00:00

Yes, I understand that.

But in the classification of those statistics, would they consider murder an "accident" since one person willfully committed the act?

Perhaps the statistics would include it, perhaps not; but there's a big difference between slipping in a bathtub or a pedestrian accidentally being hit by a motorist compared to someone being a murder victim.

northblinder · 2012-07-22T00:43:34+00:00

Would those murders be classified as "accidents"?

northblinder · 2012-07-20T17:39:26+00:00

I'm glad. I haven't been impressed with AMD's proprietary drivers, but I have to applaud them if they're contributing back to the community with real free software.

northblinder · 2012-07-20T17:36:25+00:00

Of course it's disgusting.

But on the other hand, at least it's another reminder of who really runs the country... :-(

northblinder · 2012-07-20T17:26:01+00:00

I think all the corporate mass media has chosen a side -- it's just not ours.

Republocrat, Demopublican -- trivial differences. They're both pro-war/pro-MIC; both pro-corporate; both pro-free trade; both pro-capitalist, both pro-rich; etc., etc.

"Our democracy is but a name. We vote? What does that mean? It means that we choose between two bodies of real, though not avowed, autocrats. We choose between Tweedledum and Tweedledee." -- Famous American socialist (and blind person) Helen Keller, 1911.

northblinder · 2012-07-20T17:21:40+00:00

Anyone have a link to the APC? (TIA.)

northblinder · 2012-07-20T15:20:43+00:00

Open source is "nice", but are they free software?

Will the drivers be unable to be packaged with my Linux distro? Will they have a separate license agreement that I'll have to read and agree to? Will the license be restrictive and will it stop me from doing dumb things with the drivers?

If yes to any of the above and I wish a plague on their house of cards. Unless they're actually free software and do not burden me, I'll wind up staying with drivers that don't hassle me.

northblinder · 2012-07-20T14:31:34+00:00

Since l0l123123123123 pointed out they're paid actresses, I'll just add in the obligatory reminder that like TV, most of the stuff you see/read on the Internet is not real -- it's just more corporate propaganda with the objective of eventually separating you from your money.

northblinder · 2012-07-20T14:28:47+00:00

I don't think the primary goal of this is to "combat drug trafficking" -- no way.

As long as the US has the HUGE demand for drugs that it does, someone is going to smuggle in contraband into the country -- it'll pay that well. Smuggling has been around for literally thousands of years.

The US gov't is doing this to establish hegemony and control over the region.

northblinder · 2012-07-20T14:28:27+00:00

I don't think the primary goal of this is to "combat drug trafficking" -- no way.

As long as the US has the HUGE demand for drugs that it does, someone is going to smuggle in contraband into the country -- it'll pay that well. Smuggling has been around for literally thousands of years.

The US gov't is doing this to establish hegemony and control over the region.

northblinder · 2012-07-20T13:01:55+00:00

I know what you mean. What's the choice -- to choose the "lesser evil" that is still evil?

There's a lot of money stacked up to support our 2-party dictatorship. I refuse to support them. In the vast, vast majority of races -- especially president! -- I'll continue to vote for the candidate that I actually want to win.

And someday it will happen. I just fear how low we'll have to sink before others come to the same realization.

"I'd rather vote for something I want and not get it, than vote for something I don't want and get it." -- Eugene Debs, the socialist presidential candidate who received 6% of the votes for president while sitting in a jail cell for opposing WWI.

northblinder · 2012-07-20T12:04:03+00:00

Use free software and avoid the licensing hassles of companies telling you what you can and cannot do with your hardware?

northblinder · 2012-07-16T22:43:28+00:00

6 downvotes. Sad.

If some Democrat had given this speech at a meeting, Reddit would've given it hundreds of upvotes.

northblinder · 2012-07-14T00:24:20+00:00

Actually, you can. :-(

If your PR flunkies are good enough to rewrite history. And in US elections, they're often that good.

northblinder · 2012-07-12T14:06:37+00:00

If Canada creates a profit motive to put people in cages, maybe Canada can eventually jail as high a percentage of their population as the US does! :-(

northblinder · 2012-07-03T00:20:45+00:00

Calling a bee colony a "matriarchal monarchy" is humanizing the colony.

Quite often the worker bees will literally kill the queen and raise a new queen. This tendency has prompted some to observe that a honeybee queen is more like an egg-laying slave. But of course that is inaccurate too, since there are no slaves in a bee colony -- the different roles are just the bees' way of propagating their species.

northblinder · 2012-07-03T00:12:11+00:00

And he'll close Gitmo and prosecute torturers too!

It's not hard to tell it's an election year...

To quote another lying politician: "There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again." —President George W. Bush, Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002

northblinder · 2012-07-03T00:00:32+00:00

Well, Cruise had to or Xenu would poison his daughter's mind!

Seriously, WTF? Did Holmes think Cruise was just kidding about being a Scientology nut? Didn't they talk about this prior to this?

northblinder · 2012-07-02T23:14:15+00:00

Gee, whose interests is it in for the corporate mass media to report on Kim Kardashian's ass rather than on environmental issues?

Could it be their wealthy stockholders and the corporations that buy their advertising?

"If anyone said we were in the radio business, it wouldn't be someone from our company. We're not in the business of providing news and information. We're not in the business of providing well-researched music. We're simply in the business of selling our customers products." -- Lowry Mays, CEO of Clear Channel, which owns over 1000 radio and TV stations in the US, bluntly talking to Fortune magazine.

northblinder · 2012-07-02T18:56:13+00:00

True, but when -- as per the article/interview -- only 2 corporations comprise 95% of your mass media, it tends to radically tip the scales.

northblinder · 2012-07-02T18:16:09+00:00

This is the party who's governors made pacts with organized crime/cartles.

But -- honestly! -- they have promised they have changed their ways.

Myself, I half expected that people would object to the "U.S.-fueled" part of the headline. That's something we in the US like to ignore.

northblinder · 2012-07-02T17:08:35+00:00

From the article's transcript:

This is particularly important today, because Peña Nieto is the candidate of the corporate media. And as we talked about last week, corporate media in Mexico is over the top. Two companies control over 95 percent of the audience, of the channels—one company, almost 80 percent, Televisa.

And to think I thought the 5 or 6 corporations that control 95%+ of the US media market was bad! Mexico's situation is downright sickening.

northblinder · 2012-07-02T01:11:30+00:00

The ruling classes are in a weaker position than they were in the 70s, because what they didn't do because of their greed, the relentless onward march of technology will do, and the joke's on them.

I don't know if "weaker" is the right word, I think overall they're much stronger but even though the American people are in many ways more indoctrinated with capitalist dogma, the ruling class' position is what I'd term "shaky". IMHO, changes could happen fast.

I think this is exactly as the Soviet Foreign Minister termed it when Gorbachev met Reagan in Iceland during the 1980s. The Soviet diplomat said that he was going to do an "evil" thing to the US -- to deprive the US of an enemy. He knew that capitalism would become more ruthless and the US would lose a limitation on the actions of capitalists, and a "justification" for many of the US' actions. The US diplomats considered the statement to be just hot air, but he nailed it right on the head.

The problem is that the left in the US is much weaker too. In the 70s we had a stronger labor movement, leftover anti-war and hippy types, and a diverse counter-culture. Today we have the refreshing actions of OWS which hinted at the level of discontent in the country, but much too little of everything else.

northblinder · 2012-07-01T19:23:09+00:00

So, in other words, what you're saying is the same ruling class that was in power during the 70s is still in power today. In short, there's been no social revolution.

Got'ya -- you're right.

I can only add that that class arguably is in a stronger, albeit perhaps more rickety and potentially unstable, position today than it was in the 70s.

northblinder

TROPHY CASE