The Talking Dog

April 20, 2015, Alles Gute zum Geburtstag

That would be German for "Happy Birthday," specifically for Germany's most infamous leader born in 1889 (I won't invoke "Godwin's Law" by naming him). It was used as the occasion for the Columbine Massacre several years ago. No, as an American Jew, I haven't lost my mind in invoking this date to make my point.

It's my country's government that has lost its mind. In planning to commence the training of the "Ukrainian National Guard" on this date, the United States is more than being provocative toward a nearby power. Among the groups within the "Ukrainian national guard" are, ahem, the Azov Batallion and others who sport swastika-like insignia and venerate Nazi collaborators during World War II. The notional Obama Administration might appear peculiarly tone-deaf in this particular case of poking a stick at the Russian bear... sure, the United States fought Nazi Germany too, but we did not do so on our own soil at a cost of well over 20,000,000 lives of our own citizens, now did we?

All of this comes at a time when "the Doomsday Clock" has been set down to only three minutes,
supposedly because of a step-up in nuclear weapons and an apparent failure of world leaders (leader being a funny term to describe Barack Obama, who seems to have no control over his own cabinet, be it when his Treasury Secretary refuses to close down a miscreant bank or his Defense Secretary refuses to take action to close Guantanamo... when it's not just political opponents disrespecting him, but his own appointees on key matters of policy, maybe "leader" is a misnomer here, and he's just not really in charge of anything... just saying...)

Anyway, coupled with rather hostile rhetoric toward Russia in general (such as false accusations of everything from troop and equipment movements viz Ukraine to shooting down Malaysian Airlines flight 17) to conducting military exercises right on the Russian border,
it seems the mad-persons in the American power establishment are trying to provoke something... and today's little symbolic exercise seems to reflect more than mere tone-deafness...

After having helped arrange the coup to put neo-Nazis in charge of Ukraine in the first place, the United States now steps it up... on this particular day, no less. It's time we all wake up and smell the global conflagration, boys and girls: to cover up its vast and unmitigated economic failures, the American government and its allies colonial vassals seem hellbent on starting wars... bit-player Syria was bad enough... but nuclear armed Russia?

There really should be some kind of outcry... while we're still notionally a "free country"... again... just saying...

April 1, 2015, Gaypril Fools

Thanks to our buddies at The Onion, noting that [Arkansas-based] Walmart Vows to Defend Whichever Gays Buy Their Cheap Sh*t. A perfectly reasonable observation, given that Indiana Governor Mike Pence, who signed a bill into law that was expressly designed to allow open discrimination against Black gay people in Indiana was itself an early April Fool's joke... he just wants to "clarify" that.

And, of course, the U.S. unemployment rate is at a seven year low at 5.5%, stocks are at or near record highs, and (as usual), the major force for diplomacy is the United States the European Union Russia, in this case, Russia's foreign minister is suggesting that a deal with Iran over nuclear issues may be in the offing.

California may have In-N-Out Burger... but evidently, it doesn't have... water... as Gov. Moonbeam Brown imposes mandatory water restrictions on everyone in the State... for the first time ever, requiring a 25% reduction in water usage.

And, in light of his efforts to reach a nuclear deal with Iran, Michelle Bachmann compares President Obama with the evidently deranged German pilot Andreas Lubitz, to wit, Obama is a deranged pilot flying the 300 million souls of America toward the rocks, just as Lubitz flew the 150 souls on the Germanwings flight... Come on, people... it was obviously a Gaypril Fools joke. Give it a rest.