Shared posts

03 Apr 21:37

A Trip Around the NBA with Ian Levy

by Jacobin
Tom Roche

by no means a comprehensive review of NBA 2023, but gives what's "on the tin": "A Trip Around the NBA" inc Lebron, Nuggets (esp Jokic), 76ers, Kings, Mavericks

When LeBron James passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar this winter as the NBA's all-time leading scorer, will James also become the league's final all-time leading scorer? Are the Denver Nuggets & Philadelphia 76ers good enough outside their MVP-level centers to win a title? What theological truths can one tease out from the resurrection of the Sacramento Kings? How long can Luka Dončić abide Dallas making mistake after mistake around him? All this & more with Ian Levy, FanSided creative editorial direction and NBA aficionado. 

28 Jan 01:17

We're All in This Together

by The Späti Boys
Tom Roche

excellent: starts just bant (Julia, Nick, Uma), then transitions from scumbag Euro TV presenters onto the world's biggest scum ... Davos 2023. Great line from Nick: 'when Henry Kissinger is saying less psychotic things than the prime minister of Finland, we live in a horrible, horrible society.' Life under the boot of the global capitalist empire war machine: giggles and grins ...

27 Jan 21:14

News Quiz Best of 2022 – 30th December

Tom Roche

excellent

A look back on some of the best bits of News Quizzing from 2022.

In this compilation episode Andy Zaltzman casts his satirical eye over the highs and lows of the year, in which the UK has had two monarchs, three Prime Ministers and countless debates over whether a party can technically be called a party.

Hosted and written by Andy Zaltzman.

Producer: Georgia Keating Executive Producer: James Robinson Production Co-ordinator: Ryan Walker-Edwards Sound Editor: Jerry Peal

A BBC Studios Production

27 Jan 17:52

Will 2023 Be the Year of Backfiring Sanctions for the Overstretched US Empire?

Tom Roche

VERY EXCELLENT

The year 2022 was defined by the war in Ukraine, the expansion of NATO, and continued encirclement of China as the U.S. prepares for “great power conflict.” But the US empire is so overstretched, that sanctions have become the favorite form of warfare— to disrupt and isolate many countries at once. Could they backfire in 2023? To discuss this and more Rania Khalek was  joined by Bikrum Gill, who teaches at the department of political science at Virginia Tech.

Mentioned in the episode:
https://developingeconomics.org/2022/09/01/sanctions-and-the-changing-world-order-some-views-from-the-global-south/ 


27 Jan 17:17

701 - Ordinary Victims feat. Kath Krueger (1/26/23)

Tom Roche

dive into a shallow, fetid puddle of American popculture

We finally devote a whole episode to the special insanity of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. Will, Felix and Kath have each selected a favorite episode from the series’ 22-season run to look into how America’s longest-running hour-long drama appeals to & shapes our disgusting lizard brains.


To get more Kath, subscribe to discourse blog here: https://www.discourseblog.com/subscribe



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26 Jan 20:13

How CIA overthrew Guatemala's elected president for United Fruit Company (with historian Aaron Good)

Tom Roche

Yet another VERY EXCELLENT--very detailed yet very entertaining--part 15 (but this episode very much stands alone) of the US Empire and Deepstate series. Note that it covers in addition to Guatemala (and rest of Central America for most of 1900-2022) 1951-1954, this episode also covers the 1945-1956 US-France imperial adventure in Vietnam (et al, aka 1st Indochina War)

Historian Aaron Good explains how the CIA organized a coup against Guatemala's democratically elected left-wing President Jacobo Árbenz to stop land reform and help the United Fruit Company (Chiquita today). He also discusses the Dwight Eisenhower administration's policies in Southeast Asia and the Vietnamese national-liberation struggle against French colonialism. VIDEO: https://youtube.com/watch?v=JTfMOH-j4Oc This is PART 15 of the Empire and the Deep State series we are co-hosting with historian Aaron Good and producer Seamus McGuinness of the American Exception podcast. PLAYLIST with past episodes in the series here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDAi0NdlN8hNArLl765PXe8tsTKmOciGL
26 Jan 01:47

Democracy Now! 2023-01-24 Tuesday

Tom Roche

skip to 43:43 for VERY EXCELLENT Scahill segment on deepstate secrecy abuse. note this is part 1; part 2 is web-exclusive @ http://www.democracynow.org/2023/01/24/jeremy_scahill_on_mistreatment_of_whistleblowers

Democracy Now! 2023-01-24 Tuesday

  • Headlines for January 24, 2023
  • As Asian Americans Reel After Mass Shootings in California, Will Congress Take Any Action on Guns?
  • Jeremy Scahill: Biden & Trump Scandals Point to Deeper Problems with Overclassification of Gov't Docs

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26 Jan 01:21

1/24/23: RussiaGate FBI Agent Arrested, Biden's New Chief of Staff, Microsoft Invests In ChatGPT, Universities Shocked By AI, Ruben Gallego Runs Against Krysten Sinema, Jeff Bezos Sale of Washington Post, Federal Debt, Tech Sector Layoffs, Derek Thompson

Tom Roche

Krystal's radar 57:56-68:00 on the {Charlie Javice, JPMorgan Chase} (et lots al) startup scam is VERY EXCELLENT. Rest is listenable, esp 1st 2 segments (McGonigal arrest as nadir of Russiagate hoax, Zients as nadir of Joe 'nothing will fundamentally change' Biden presidency)

Krystal and Saagar discuss how a retired FBI Agent formerly involved in the Trump Russia probe was arrested for ties to a Russian oligarch, Biden taps corporate fraud Jeff Zients as his new Chief of Staff, Microsoft invests 10 billion dollars into ChatGPT, MBA's are shocked to see ChatGPT pass the exam, Democrat Ruben Gallego challenges Krysten Sinema in her state of Arizona, Bezos to possibly sell Washington Post for the Commanders, Saagar takes a look at how we accumulate our Federal Debt historically, Krystal takes a look at how JP Morgan Chase was scammed by a fraud business for 175 million dollars, and Derek Thompson (@DKThomp) joins the show to talk about his new piece in The Atlantic on what's really going on behind the scenes of these massive media and tech layoffs.

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26 Jan 01:07

Democracy Now! 2023-01-25 Wednesday

Tom Roche

excellent 1st (post-headlines) segment with Die Linke MP Sevim Dagdelen. after that, very skippable :-(

Democracy Now! 2023-01-25 Wednesday

  • Headlines for January 25, 2023
  • As Germany & U.S. Agree on Tanks for Ukraine, German MP Accuses U.S. of Pushing Berlin into Proxy War
  • Doomsday Clock Moves Closer to Midnight: Peace Activist Frida Berrigan Demands Nuclear Disarmament
  • "Lacks Educational Value"? Critics Slam Florida's Rejection of AP African American Studies Course

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25 Jan 16:29

700 - Shine On You Crazy… (1/23/23)

Tom Roche

mostly bant (excepting extensive crushing of police pseudoscience), quite entertaining

We get a taste of the old Trump magic through his beautiful eulogy for one of his most loyal supporters, the wonderful Diamond. Then, we check in with America’s police forces through a(nother) unhinged new Sheriffs movement, and a cop who claims to to be able to discern 911 callers’ guilt through the tone of their voices. Finally, it’s time for a little Game of Thrones theory. Get bonus content on Patreon

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25 Jan 16:14

Hell on Earth - Episode 2: DEATH

Tom Roche

series continues excellently

The Black Death, the rise of the Habsburgs, and the dream of the Universal Monarch. 


Interactive atlas, bibliography and credits for the series can be found at: hellonearth.chapotraphouse.com



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24 Jan 02:55

Evil Genius with Russell Kane: Batman

Tom Roche

funny, and educational in a pop-culture way

Stevie Martin, Rachel Fairburn and Johnny Cochrane ask how super the superhero really is. Is the caped crusader the sexiest superhero of all? Or a weirdo in a cave who makes it all worse, actually? Producer: Beth O’Dea Evil Genius with Russell Kane is a BBC Audio Bristol production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.
24 Jan 02:49

Where could the war in Ukraine be headed in 2023?

Tom Roche

Another set of quite bad takes (though not as bad as most of Anglophone CFM) from Anatol Lieven @ QIRS (and Late Night Live host Philip Adams), recorded for posterity (not quality). Following ~chronological in audio:

- Russia's invasion of (i.e., NATO proxy war in) Ukraine (aka /RUW/) is currently in stalemate, with surprising AFU successes
----- some of this alleged success is allegedly due to weapons technology favoring defense, such as
--------- UK Javelins that supposedly have destroyed masses of AFRF tanks
--------- US Stingers that supposedly have destroyed masses of AFRF aircraft
- current NATO tank/MBT imbroglio (since before F 20 Jan 2023 meeting at Ramstein) is mostly due to
----- non-US suppliers willing to give up their entire tank forces to Ukraine
----- US claims Abrams unsuited for AFU (but Lieven suggests, US also fears escalation)
----- Germany also fears AFRF escalation after the AFU breakouts (e.g., blowing through Kherson and Zaporizhia to attack Crimea) that Lieven seems to believe would ensue if the AFU got Leopard 2 MBTs
----- to his credit, Lieven states not only that
--------- Russia qua Putin, but also Russians=public opinion and Crimeans themselves consider Crimea to be part of Russia (which Lieven notes was only transferred by the USSR to Ukraine in 1954)
--------- (extra credit to Lieven, best part of this interview) just as US nuclear doctrine prescribes a nuclear response for an attack on Hawaii, Russian nuclear doctrine prescribes a nuclear response for an attack on Crimea
- Lieven and Adams hope for a ceasefire; Lieven points out that ceasefires can be stable and not
- Lieven (IIRC prompted by Adams) points out that US-NATO goals are quite unclear
----- Lieven fails to note US advocacy for 'decolonizing Russia'
- despite yet again flaunting his 'Putin Derangement Syndrome', Adams points out that, if Putin is overthrown, it will probably be by an even more extreme Russian nationalist
----- Lieven agrees that Putin is popular, though he ascribes this to massive propaganda (unlike what UKCFM and the BBC are doing in Lieven's home=UK)
----- Lieven agrees (and does /not/ (IIRC) ascribe to massive propaganda) that nationalism is a powerful and popular force in Russian public opinion
----- Lieven concurs that Putin is unlikely to be overthrown, but if so would only be by an even more extreme nationalist, but ...
----- Lieven claims that
--------- RUW must end with negotiated settlement such that both sides can claim victory
--------- /should/ Putin be overthrown, having 'his head nailed to the wall' (IIRC exact quote) would allow US-NATO to claim victory
--------- ... which seems senseless, given that Lieven admits that Putin's replacement would be even more nationalist, but that's not the only thing Lieven says in this interview that makes little sense
- Lieven claims that the PRC is a 'disapproving' ally of Russia
----- Lieven admits that PRC (and India) continue to violate sanctions to purchase Russian products, but downplays (massively increasing) trade
----- Lieven claims PRC has not given military support to AFRF (which appears false, at least with regard to optoelectronics)
----- Lieven suggests PRC is contemptuous of alleged AFRF battlefield losses
----- Lieven admits that 'China experts' state that, should US-NATO appear to be threatening to resubjugate (à la Yeltsin) or breakup (à la 'decolonization') Russia, PRC PLA would massively intervene to assist AFRF
- in an unintentionally hilarious coda, Lieven and Adams call for ... US rationality :-)

As the first anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine looms, we take stock of the current state of the war, what might happen on the battlefield, shifting sentiments in Russia and how a protracted war might be avoided. Guest: Anatol Lieven - Director of the Eurasia Program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. 
23 Jan 05:04

Is it time for a new marijuana-themed Canadian heritage moment?

Tom Roche

skip the 1st/Galoni set, go straight to 16:17 for the 2nd/Martinello set (which starts weak but gets funnier)

From the Okanagan Comedy Festival, Mayce Galoni demands more credibility from the UGO seeing community, and Danny Martinello teaches us how to recognize the people who've worked on themselves, It involves soda cans!
23 Jan 00:18

697 - The Lion’s Den feat. Mohammad Alsaafin (1/12/23)

Tom Roche

VERY EXCELLENT (and unexpectedly funny!) interview (mostly Will and Felix, few Matt interjections) on Palestine, Israel, US (and a bit on Persian Gulf states) inc (mostly chronologically in the audio):

- Israel's crimes pre-Netanyahu, and the fakeness of 2023 liberal-Zionist outrage over new Israeli government as somehow a Trump-style break with a proud tradition
- Israel (as state) and Israeli racism, esp
----- settlement policies
----- Netanyahu government members, esp Ben-Gvir (esp his crimes and criminal sympathies)
----- Israeli racism most pronounced among Mizrahim (they say 'Sephardic', but from context I suspect they mean 'Mizrahi')
- increasing global solidarity with Palestine (esp at 2022 World Cup)
- Abu Akleh murder, esp its referral to ICC
- US domestic politics
----- increasing opposition to Israel policies esp US youth esp Jews
----- increasing realization of that growing opposition (and ineffectiveness of overcoming that opposition) among US liberal Zionists esp Corporate Democrats
----- ... yet Corporate Party continues to cling to Israel (and 'Abraham Accord' "allies")
- Palestine Authority as increasingly ineffective Judenrat and compradors
- effective Palestinian resistance, esp violent
----- Gaza, esp rocket development
----- West Bank esp Nablus and "Lion's Den"

We’re joined by AJ+ journalist Mohammad Alsaafin to discuss the newly formed Israeli government, the state of Palestinian resistance, and of course, Mideast politics vis-à-vis the recent World Cup.


Follow Mohammad on Twitter at @malsaafin


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22 Jan 23:08

Jeremy Friesen: Hacking Org-Mode Export for Footnotes as Sidenotes

by Jeremy Friesen
Tom Roche

pullquote (lightly rearranged):
> I use a a [modified Tufte CSS theme](https://codeberg.org/takeonrules/takeonrules-hugo-theme.git), derived from [Tufte CSS](https://edwardtufte.github.io/tufte-css/). A few years ago, I moved away from Tufte’s preferred fonts, instead letting folks’s browsers determine the font. [Also, my] theme has a concept of the side-note and the margin-note.

Yet Another Refinement to My Blogging Engine

, I made a slight modification to how I write my blog posts.

I use Org-Mode (Org-mode 📖) to write my blog posts. I use a a modified Tufte CSS theme, derived from Tufte CSS.

My theme has a concept of the side-note and the margin-note. A few years ago, I moved away from Tufte’s preferred fonts, instead letting folks’s browsers determine the font. The margin-note is for general “scribbling” in the margins. And the side-note is analogues to an inline footnote.

Up until I leveraged Ox-Hugo’s shortcode customizations to handle both. , I wrote the below function to replace Ox-Hugo 📖’s export function for footnotes.

(defun jf/org-hugo-sidenote (footnote-reference _contents info)
  "Transcode a FOOTNOTE-REFERENCE element from Org to Hugo sidenote shortcode.
CONTENTS is nil.  INFO is a plist holding contextual information."
  (let* ((element (car (org-export-get-footnote-definition footnote-reference info)))
         (beg (org-element-property :contents-begin element))
         (end (org-element-property :contents-end element)))
    (format "{{< sidenote >}}%s{{< /sidenote >}}"
            (s-trim (buffer-substring-no-properties beg end)))))

;; Over-write the custom blackfriday export for footnote links.
(advice-add #'org-blackfriday-footnote-reference
            :override #'jf/org-hugo-sidenote
            '((name . "wrapper")))

;; Don't render the section for export
(advice-add #'org-blackfriday-footnote-section
            :override (lambda (&rest rest) ())
            '((name . "wrapper")))

With the above function and advice all Org-mode exports, except to my blog, the footnotes retain their original export behavior. I definitely prefer to utilize as much of the native functionality as possible.

22 Jan 02:37

Episode 244 - "Are You, Like, Over The First Amendment?" (w/ Branko Marcetic & Andrew Fishman)

Tom Roche

good on Brazil politics, OK on speech/expression politics

Subscribe to Bad Faith on Patreon to instantly unlock our full premium episode library: http://patreon.com/badfaithpodcast

President of Intercept Brazil Andrew Fishman & Jacobin columnist Branko Marcetic join Briahna for a deep dive into Brazil's version of 1/6. Was it, in fact, a legitimate coup attempt? And what role did social media play in the storming of Brazil's capital? Then we pivot to a philosophical conversation about the role Brazil's speech laws, which allow for many more constraints on speech than our own first amendment does, are a better match for a country that has recently experienced an actual military coup. Is the commitment to free speech absolutism so common in America a product of political naivety in a country that's never really experienced the full potential consequences of home grown fascism? Does the first amendment provide protections that sincerely protect minority views, or does it just create the perception that speech is free at the same time that tech platforms, news papers owned by billionaires, and corporate campaign spending neuter dissident voices? Are Glenn Greenwald's criticisms of limitations on speech occurring in Brazil overly reliant on a US lens/speech framework? Or is there a there there?

Subscribe to Bad Faith on YouTube for video of this episode. Find Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod).

Produced by Armand Aviram.

Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands).

21 Jan 17:53

#149 The Rise and Fall of the Teaching Profession

Tom Roche

(unfortunately) excellent

The teaching profession is in the worst shape of the past 50 years. That’s according to researchers Melissa Arnold Lyon and Matthew Kraft, who crunched a half century’s worth of data on indicators like whether students want to go into teaching, the prestige of teachers, and the job satisfaction of teachers themselves. What emerged were some striking historical patterns and a clear warning about the state of the teaching profession. The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Subscribe on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HaveYouHeardPodcast or donate on PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/haveyouheardpodcast
21 Jan 17:52

Listen to Barack Obama’s Chilling Description of U.S. Involvement in the Gigantic 1965 Indonesia Massacre

by Jon Schwarz
Tom Roche

VERY EXCELLENT--very important for understanding Obama foreign/military policy, as well as the US deepstate's casual, sociopathic murderousness. pullquote:
> New York Times columnist James Reston soon wrote [unfortunately paywalled] [about these events](https://www.nytimes.com/1966/06/19/archives/washington-a-gleam-of-light-in-asia.html) under the headline “A Gleam of Light in Asia.” Americans needed to understand these “hopeful political developments,” including the fact that the “Indonesian massacre” could not have occurred “without the clandestine aid [Indonesia] has received indirectly from [the US].” Recently declassified records illustrate [just how right Reston was](https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/indonesia/2017-10-17/indonesia-mass-murder-1965-us-embassy-files).

Joko Widodo, the president of Indonesia, expressed regret on Wednesday about 12 instances of “gross human rights violations” over the past decades of the nation’s history — including an extraordinary U.S.-backed bloodbath carried out by the Indonesian military following a coup in 1965.

The carnage targeted the Indonesian Communist Party — known as Partai Komunis Indonesia, or PKI — as well as their family members, purported sympathizers, or people who stood next to a member of the PKI at a bus stop once. (It was not an exact science.) At least 500,000 Indonesians were killed, often up close with machetes or knives. Soon afterward the Central Intelligence Agency, which played a key role in supporting the massacre, called it “one of the worst mass murders of the 20th century.”

Remarkably, Barack Obama used similar language in a passage in his 1995 autobiography “Dreams From My Father,” referring to the killings as “one of the more brutal and swift campaigns of suppression in modern times.” Yet this section of the book has received almost no notice. A Google search finds references to that sentence from Boston public radio station WBUR; the student newspaper at Northwestern; the New York Review of Books; my dormant blog; and little else.

As Obama describes it, he moved with his mother from the U.S. to Indonesia in 1967 after she divorced his father and married Lolo, an Indonesian engineer. Obama recorded the audiobook version of “Dreams From My Father” himself, so we can hear the president-to-be describing the terrifying facts his mother learned about both their adopted country and the country they’d come from:

Or if you prefer to read rather than listen, here are Obama’s words:

She found herself a job right away teaching English to Indonesian businessmen at the American embassy. … The Americans were mostly older men, careerists in the State Department, the occasional economists or journalists who would mysteriously disappear for months at a time, their affiliation or function in the embassy never quite clear. …

These men knew the country, though, or parts of it anyway, the closets where the skeletons were buried. Over lunch or casual conversation they would share with her things she couldn’t learn in the published news reports. They explained how Sukarno had frayed badly the nerves of a U.S. government already obsessed with the march of communism through Indochina, what with his nationalist rhetoric and his politics of nonalignment — he was as bad as Lumumba or Nasser! — only worse, given Indonesia’s strategic importance. Word was that the CIA had played a part in the coup, although nobody knew for sure. More certain was the fact that after the coup the military had swept the countryside for supposed Communist sympathizers. The death toll was anybody’s guess: a few hundred thousand, maybe; half a million. Even the smart guys at the Agency had lost count.

Innuendo, half-whispered asides; that’s how she found out that we had arrived in Djakarta less than a year after one of the more brutal and swift campaigns of suppression in modern times. The idea frightened her, the notion that history could be swallowed up so completely, the same way the rich and loamy earth could soak up the rivers of blood that had once coursed through the streets; the way people could continue about their business beneath giant posters of the new president as if nothing had happened. …

Power. The word fixed in my mother’s mind like a curse. In America, it had generally remained hidden from view until you dug beneath the surface of things; until you visited an Indian reservation or spoke to a black person whose trust you had earned. But here power was undisguised, indiscriminate, naked, always fresh in the memory. Power had taken Lolo and yanked him back into line just when he thought he’d escaped, making him feel its weight, letting him know that his life wasn’t his own. That’s how things were; you couldn’t change it, you could just live by the rules, so simple once you learned them. And so Lolo had made his peace with power, learning the wisdom of forgetting.

The 1965 coup and its hideous aftermath is covered in detail in the recent book “The Jakarta Method” by former Washington Post reporter Vincent Bevins.

Indonesia was governed from World War II until 1965 by President Sukarno (some Indonesians have a single name) who had previously led the resistance to Dutch colonization. This made the U.S. increasingly unhappy. Indonesia was enormous, with the world’s sixth-largest population, and the PKI was the third-biggest Communist Party on Earth, after China’s and the Soviet Union’s. It mattered little to the American government that Sukarno was not himself a Communist, or that the PKI had no plans or capacity for violence. It was bad enough that Sukarno did not leap to put the Indonesian economy at the service of U.S. multinationals, and that he helped create the Non-Aligned Movement of countries that wished to stay out of both the Soviet and American blocs.

The U.S. goal, then, was to extract Sukarno from power in favor of someone reliable (from the American perspective), while creating a pretext for the Indonesian military to destroy the PKI. But how to make this happen?

Howard P. Jones, the American ambassador to Indonesia until April 1965, told a meeting of State Department officials just before leaving his post, “From our viewpoint, of course, an unsuccessful coup attempt by the PKI might be the most effective development to start a reversal of political trends in Indonesia.” This, he believed, would give the army a “clear-cut kind of challenge that would galvanize effective reaction.” A British Foreign Office official made the case that “there might therefore be much to be said for encouraging a premature PKI coup during Sukarno’s lifetime.”

Coincidentally enough, this is exactly what appeared to happen. On September 30, 1965, a group of young military officers kidnapped six Indonesian generals, claiming that they planned to overthrow Sukarno. All six generals somehow soon ended up dead.

Suharto, an Army general who was, fortuitously, not targeted, announced with his allies that the dead generals had been castrated and tortured by female members of the PKI in a “depraved, demonic ritual,” according to Bevins. Years later it was discovered that none of this was true; all but one of the six generals had simply been shot.

To this day, it’s impossible to say what truly happened. Bevins lists three theories. First, the leader of the PKI may have helped plan the events of September 30 with contacts in the military. It may have been the young members of the military acting alone with no PKI involvement. Or Suharto may have collaborated with the September 30 officers, pretending that he would support them and then betraying them as part of a plan to seize power for himself.

In any case, Suharto certainly seemed to have a plan ready to execute. Soon afterward, Sukarno was out and Suharto was in charge. Then the killing began, in what the Indonesian army internally called Operasi Penumpasan, or Operation Annihilation.

The U.S. was not only aware of what was happening, but was also an eager participant, providing lists of PKI members to the Indonesian military.

The butchery lasted for months, into early 1966, with the New York Times referring to it as a “staggering mass slaughter of Communists and pro-Communists.” The U.S. was not only aware of what was happening, but was also an eager participant, providing lists of PKI members to the Indonesian military. One American official later said, “They probably killed a lot of people, and I probably have a lot of blood on my hands, but that’s not all bad. There’s a time when you have to strike hard at a decisive moment.” According to Time magazine, there were so many corpses that it created “a serious sanitation problem in East Java and Northern Sumatra where the humid air bears the reek of decaying flesh. Travelers from those areas tell of small rivers and streams that have been literally clogged with bodies.”

New York Times columnist James Reston soon wrote about these events under the headline “A Gleam of Light in Asia.” Americans needed to understand these “hopeful political developments,” including the fact that the “Indonesian massacre” could not have occurred “without the clandestine aid [Indonesia] has received indirectly from here.” Recently declassified records illustrate just how right Reston was.

Suharto ruled Indonesia brutally for the next three decades, remaining a key U.S. ally until he fell from power in 1998. Only now, over 57 years since the coup, is the Indonesian government barely beginning to face its own past.

“Acknowledging some of the crimes of the Suharto regime is a start,” says Bradley Simpson, a historian and expert on this period. “But President Widodo must do more to initiate a long overdue process of accountability and restitution for victims and survivors of the 1965–1966 killings. So do governments like the United States and Great Britain, which were willing accomplices in the Indonesian army’s campaign of mass murder.”

There is no sign of that happening in U.S., however. Obama, with his direct personal knowledge of Indonesia and this history, might seem to be a natural leader for this process. But you shouldn’t get your hopes up. He also explains in “Dreams From My Father” that he learned in Indonesia that “the world was violent … unpredictable and often cruel.” His stepfather, he records, taught him that “Men take advantage of weakness in other men. They’re just like countries in that way. … Better to be strong. If you can’t be strong, be clever and make peace with someone who’s strong. But always better to be strong yourself. Always.”

The post Listen to Barack Obama’s Chilling Description of U.S. Involvement in the Gigantic 1965 Indonesia Massacre appeared first on The Intercept.

21 Jan 00:22

1/20/23 Weekly Roundup: Santos Steals Money from Disabled Veteran, CNN Defends MLK Statue, Men Cutting Back Work Hours, CSPAN Full Time Control of House Cameras, Single Woke Democratic Female Voting Bloc, James Li On World Economic Forum

Tom Roche

VERY EXCELLENT! and surprisingly--usually the 'Weekly Roundup's are a collection of highlights of previously-presented segments, but this one is all-new material (unless I'm very confused/memoryholed)

In this Weekly Roundup we discuss George Santos allegedly stealing 3,000 dollars from a disabled Veteran's GoFundMe surgery for his dog, CNN defends the new "Phallic" MLK monument, the story behind an Arizona Suburb who's water was shut off, a study showing that high earning Men are cutting back in work hours not quitting, a discussion on giving CSPAN full time control over the cameras in Congress, the rise of the Single, Woke, Democratic Female voter bloc, and our partner James Li covering The World Economic Forum's predictions of an incoming Recession and if there's more going on than meets the eye.

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20 Jan 21:05

Dead Ringers – 23rd December

Tom Roche

consistently funny, esp new Trump fundraiser

Could Theresa May make a comeback? Who could be Twitter’s new CEO? And what will King Charles say in his first Christmas message? All these questions are answered in the final Dead Ringers of the year.

Performed by Jon Culshaw, Jan Ravens, Duncan Wisbey, Naomi McDonald and Anil Desai.

Written by Tom Jamieson and Nev Fountain, Laurence Howarth, Sarah Campbell, Tom Coles and Ed Amsden, Edward Tew, Cody Dahler, Robert Darke, Sophie Dickson, Katie Sayer.

Produced and created by Bill Dare. Production Co-ordinator: Caroline Barlow

19 Jan 02:49

Radio War Nerd EP 362 — The US Civil War, Part 13: Civil War Movies, with Eileen Jones

by mail@yashalevine.com (Gary Brecher)
Tom Roche

VERY EXCELLENT: not just about 20c US movies (and culture, and politics, and books), but about 19c US culture (and in/sanity)

Co-hosts Gary Brecher & Mark Ames
18 Jan 20:46

1/18/23 Counter Points: Davos Summit/GOP Dreams Social Security Cuts/Republican Candidate Arrested for Hiring Assassins/Joe Rogan on Biden Docs/MTG vs Lauren Boebert/Alexander Hamilton on Debt Ceiling/American Pessimism/Clinton Email Hacker Interview

Tom Roche

mostly EXCELLENT (and continuing to outperform Breaking Points). This W 18 Jan 2023 Counter Points is marred only by a half-bad Ukraine (5th in this show?) segment: like Krystal and Saagar, Ryan and Emily are

+ good about how US-NATO threatens (at best) regional peace and stability and (at worst) global nuclear war
- bad in blaming Russia entirely for this US-NATO proxy war (which was actually, from 2014 Maidan coup to 2022 Russian invasion, provoked by US-NATO manipulation of their Ukraine puppet)

Esp good are the segments on

+ (1st and 2nd segments) how global elites (esp "Davos set," Corporate Republicans, and Sinema+Manchin) are targeting the US 99%'s income support as the elites' next profit opportunity
+ Joe Rogan (inc others--CP just focuses on Rogan) suspects that the continuing Biden documents revelations are the CorpDems telling Amtrak Joe to find the next train out of the US presidency
+ (final segment) Sam Biddle on his [recent interview (for The Intercept)](https://theintercept.com/2023/01/15/guccifer-interview-hacked-clinton-emails/) ([archived here](https://archive.ph/XMzoU)) and past contacts (at Gawker et al) with Marcel Lazar aka Guccifer, and Lazar's life with, work on, and fascination with, the US empire's elites.

Ryan and Emily discuss the Davos Summit and what the speakers and guests have to say about their version of the future, GOP attacking retirement age and Social Security, a failed Republican candidate Solomon Pena arrested for potentially hiring shooters to attack Democratic opposition candidates, Joe Rogan speaks on Joe Biden's classified documents disaster, Poland's Prime Minister warns of WW3 if Ukraine loses, a bathroom fight between Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert shows divisions, Ryan reviews the words of Alexander Hamilton in regards to the Debt Ceiling, Emily discusses her thoughts on American Pessimism, and an interview with Sam Biddle from The Intercept on Guccifer a hacker incarcerated for years for an email hacking spree against America’s elite.


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18 Jan 17:42

West opposes rest of world in UN votes for fairer economic system, equality, sustainable development

Tom Roche

VERY EXCELLENT--GER/Multipolarista (relatively succinctly) showing how US 'rules-based international order' ("the US makes the rules and everybody else follows orders") opposes a democracy- and law-based international order

The West opposed the rest of a planet in United Nations General Assembly votes that called for a new international economic order based on sovereign equality, sustainable development, and biological diversity. VIDEO: https://youtube.com/watch?v=hfcvmxieug4 Sources and more information here: https://multipolarista.com/2022/12/22/west-un-vote-economic-system-equality
18 Jan 01:29

End of Juan Guaidó: US-appointed Venezuelan coup leader ousted by ex allies

Tom Roche

EXCELLENT interview with Jesús Rodríguez Espinoza @ Orinoco Tribune on Venezuela 2023, esp:
- US opposition continues, but retreating
- EU joins rest of world in dropping US-UK puppet Guaidó
- sham opposition still holds ~40 G$ in Venezuelan assets
- US lawfare and corrupt legal firms attempting to steal Citgo assets
- economic improvement, but not enough: gotta make investments in petroleum sector while helping strapped Venezuelan poor (inc public-sector sorkers)
- Venezuelan social programs: Chavez legacy continues
- Venezuelan regional relations, esp Colombia, Brazil, Peru
- how Chavez rose. common misconception that Chavez had military support from beginning=1999, when actually military support was grown over time (largely by repelling US coups)

The US claimed unelected coup leader Juan Guaidó was "interim president" of Venezuela from January 2019 to December 2022, when his former allies in the right-wing opposition removed him from the position. Washington however still refuses to recognize elected President Nicolás Maduro. Geopolitical Economy Report editor-in-chief Ben Norton discusses the end of the meme-worthy character with Venezuelan journalist Jesús Rodríguez Espinoza, who runs the independent news website Orinoco Tribune. VIDEO: https://youtube.com/watch?v=sTjKvZmY7w4 Support Orinoco Tribune at https://orinocotribune.com
17 Jan 23:09

Matt Taibbi on the Twitter files

Tom Roche

VERY EXCELLENT--file is huge, but audio is only ~90 min

Matt Taibbi joins The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal and Aaron Maté to discuss his reporting on internal Twitter files exposing US government pressure on the social media giant to validate Russiagate propaganda — and censor dissenting voices. Guest: Matt Taibbi, https://taibbi.substack.com/. Support Pushback: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate
17 Jan 17:50

(Do Not) Open Up This Pit!

by The Späti Boys
Tom Roche

Just bant (but funny throughout, ranging as usual over most of Europe and adjacent) before EXCELLENT turn (~49 min to end) to focus on German politics, esp

- Lützerath and antilignite protests
- German energy-policy and -discourse hypocrisy
- ... and how German politics (esp The Greens) and discourse suck more generally

The whole gang is back together again to talk about Lützerath and a whole other load of bullshit.

In Berlin or elsewhere in Germany, check out "Wir Zahlen Nicht": https://twitter.com/WZN_de/status/1612872443957284873

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16 Jan 20:00

Irreal: Org-roam Workflow

by jcs
Tom Roche

Zotero integration. pullquote:
> His system is tightly integrated with Zotero to manage the papers he reads and takes notes on. He lets Zotero handle the bibliography and capturing of papers and websites.

Dominik Honnef has a nifty post that describes his Org-roam based workflow for taking notes and writing articles. It’s a very thorough and complex system that captures notes, articles that he reads on the web, articles for his blog, and miscellaneous notes as they occur to him. The system automatically maintains a bibliography and can massage a note intended for his blog to make it compatible with Hugo, which he uses to publish his blog.

His use of Org-roam is a little idiosyncratic. He doesn’t follow Luhmann’s Zettelkasten method as described, for example, by Ahrens’ How to take smart notes: one simple technique to boost writing, learning and thinking. Rather, he uses it as a sort of Wiki to save and index all his notes and the data they pertain to. Org-roam is perfect for that because it maintains forward and backward links between notes and makes it easy to maintain the relationship between notes and index them for easy retrieval.

His system is tightly integrated with Zotero to manage the papers he reads and takes notes on. He lets Zotero handle the bibliography and capturing of papers and websites. Although he provides much of his configuration in his long and detailed post, he doesn’t provide a link to his whole configuration so it may be hard to adapt his approach.

It’s a good post and well worth spending the time to read.

16 Jan 17:02

What's the Story, Ashley Storrie?

Tom Roche

amusing, quite short (<15 min)

Growing up surrounded by gangsters and a dysfunctional family, this is the story of Ashley - a tall comedian who loves William Shatner and hates textured fabrics. Glasgow's nightlife in the early 1980's was still flying the flag for disco, bell bottoms and oversized lapels, and it was outside the local club in Shettleston where Ashley's parents met for the first time, starting the story that led to an unexpected marriage and a family feud that was never resolved. A Dabster production for BBC Radio 4 Written by Ashley Storrie Produced by Julia Sutherland
16 Jan 06:32

Irreal: Sudo-edit

by jcs
Tom Roche

`make opening a file as root a bit easier`

Here’s a nifty bit of Elisp to make opening a file as root a bit easier:

When I first saw it, the idea seemed familiar and it is, in fact, very similar to some code offered by Bozhidar Batsov. I (very) slightly prefer Batsov’s version because it handles my most frequent use case by default. Most of the time when I want to edit a root file, I forget to open it with the sudo tag and have to abort the edit and reopen it. Batsov’s version handles this automatically.