a fifteen minute video with interviews with and about one of my favorite musicians, leon redbone, who died the other day, aged 127 according to his families testimony;


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngas6KfP3s0

the tv tells you all is fine, though you suspect different and here is a bit of evidence to back up your suspicions;


Trump’s trade advisor, Peter Navarro, was on CNBC today asserting that the economy was expanding at an unprecedented rate.  Either Navarro is tragically ignorant or an egregious liar. Either way he looks like an idiot to those us who study the real numbers and understand the truth.

The Global Manufacturing PMI (Purchasing Managers Index) dropped to 50.4 – the lowest since July 2016. It’s been falling almost nonstop since mid-2017. The current period of decline is the longest in the 20-year history of the index. The index includes the purchase of inputs for the manufacturing of consumer goods, investment goods (capex material) and intermediate goods (semi-finished goods used as inputs for final goods).

The pace of decline for auto sales in China, Europe and the U.S. is the fastest in at least three decades excluding the great financial crisis time period. Visible evidence of the contracting global/domestic economy is Ford’s announcement that it’s cutting 10% of salaried (white collar) workforce, about 7,000 jobs, by the end of August.

The trade war is not the cause of U.S. economic weakness. If anything, it’s nothing more than an effort by the Trump Government to manufacture a scapegoat for the inevitably severe economic recession engulfing  the system. China’s exports to the U.S. were 5% of its GDP in 1995. By 2005 exports to the U.S. had risen to 9% of China’s GDP. Currently exports to the U.S. represent just 3% of China’s GDP.  These numbers show that the trade war between the U.S. and China is not the cause of global economic weakness.

Rather, the cause is the massive misapplication of capital from 10 years of over $21 trillion in money printing and debt issuance. This artificially over-stimulated economic activity. Now that the stimulus has worn off, the major economies – especially the U.S. and China – face the problem of servicing their debt load and the consequences of a decade of misallocated capital..........http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/06.19/deteriorate.html

an almost absurd example of political hypocrisy is detailed in this post with the rest at the link as usual;


British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has just given a speech extolling the virtues of a free media, praising the journalists who’ve been brave enough to expose the truth about wicked governments in the face of tyrannical oppression. While he was preparing to give this speech, without any indication of any self-reflection at all, he defended the torture of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
After news broke that UN Special Rapporteur on torture Nils Melzer had found that Julian Assange has been the victim of psychological torture for years, Hunt, who is gunning to become the UK’s next Prime Minister, accused him of interfering in British affairs and making “inflammatory statements”.
“This is wrong,” Hunt tweeted. “Assange chose to hide in the embassy and was always free to leave and face justice. The UN Special Rapporteur should allow British courts to make their judgements without his interference or inflammatory accusations.”
“With all due respect, Sir: Mr Assange was about as ‘free to leave’ as a someone sitting on a rubber boat in a shark pool,” Melzer replied. “As detailed in my formal letter to you, so far, UK courts have not shown the impartiality and objectivity required by the rule of law.”.......https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2019/06/02/uk-foreign-secretary-defends-torturing-journalists-then-says-we-must-protect-journalists/

the most 'moral democracy' in the mid east always violates international law just for starters and here is more evidence of their crimes;


Israel’s defence ministry plans to hold an auction next week to sell two prefabricated classrooms that were donated to Palestinian schoolchildren by the EU.
The Civil Administration, the body tasked with running the occupation, tore down and confiscated the classrooms last October. They had been intended for 49 students, in grades one to six, in Ibziq, in the northern occupied West Bank.
An advertisement published in the Israeli newspaper Maariv said the sale would take place at Civil Administration offices in the West Bank.
After the classrooms were dismantled, the EU mission to Jerusalem and Ramallah condemned Israeli authorities and called on them to rebuild the structures in the same place “without delay”.
“Every child has the right to access education and states have an obligation to protect, respect and fulfil this right, by ensuring that schools are inviolable safe spaces for children,” it said at the time.
“[T]he EU calls upon the Israeli authorities to halt demolitions and confiscations of Palestinian houses and property, in accordance with its obligations as an occupying power under international humanitarian law.”
A list of auction items, seen by the Guardian, showed dates, item numbers, locations and descriptions that matched the confiscated classroom structures. The sale also appeared to include material confiscated from Palestinians and Israeli settlers who built without authorisation.
Asked to comment on Thursday afternoon, the Civil Administration said it needed more time to respond.
Palestinians have limited autonomy in parts of the West Bank, mostly urban areas, but Israel maintains full control of most of the territory and demolishes homes and buildings it says were built without permission.
More than 400,000 Israelis have moved into the West Bank, building settlements on land seized from Palestinians. The prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has pledged to annex those settlements.....http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=189239

two servings of the thin blue line, back to back, and in this one you will find several legal violations committed by 'our protectors';


Elizabethtown, KY — In the land of the free, taking ten minutes in a store to buy muffins is akin to robbing a bank or selling heroin. At least that’s the way it played out when Holly Curry ran inside the Cobbler’s Cafe to buy her six children some muffins for breakfast and came out ten minutes later to find two cops waiting for her. This visit from police would end with all six of those kids being stripped naked by police and a family’s rights being severely violated.
It was 67 degrees that day on March 30, 2017, so Curry — who was on her way to bring her 5-year-old to karate practice — thought it would be easier to leave the kids in the car than bring all of them into the Cafe. Statistically speaking, leaving the kids in the car is far safer than herding them through a busy parking lot. However, the police didn’t care about statistics.
When Curry came out, the officers told her she was being detained. Curry began to cry as the cops began questioning her and she asked if she could call her husband, Josiah. However, the officers refused to allow her. Also, the cops couldn’t have cared less about the kids being in the car, as they never mentioned them, and the kids stayed in the car the entire time.
The officer informed Curry that they were not charging her with a crime, but noted that they were going to file a “JC3 form” which is a hotline-type alert to the Kentucky child protection system.........https://thefreethoughtproject.com/mom-kids-strip-searched-muffins/

here's your daily serving of the thin blue line in action with video included;


Decatur, GA — Katie McCrary is a homeless woman doing whatever she can to survive. But while she may have a criminal history, she, like other law-breakers, still deserves to be treated humanely and with some sense of decency. But that didn’t happen when Dekalb County police officer Phillip Larscheid, 29, struck her with his baton nearly too many times to count.
Now, because someone decided to film the police, Larscheid has been indicted on charges of aggravated assault and violation of his oath of office.
One of the most troubling aspects of this case is the fact that the police department originally cleared Larshcheid of any wrongdoing and only after the video went viral were they forced to “reopen the investigation.”
The incident happened on June 4, 2017 when police were called to the scene of a local convenience store at the corner of Glenwood and Line St. in Decatur. McCrary had been propositioning patrons for money. Others say she’s frequently there and may have mental issues.
But when Larshceid arrived, McCrary allegedly pushed him and would not follow his commands. That’s when bystanders say he began beating her with his baton.......https://thefreethoughtproject.com/cop-indicted-beating-homeless-woman-baton/

here you will find evidence of the empire's warlike ways part of which comes in a speech by 'our' vice president;


In an address to West Point military graduates, US Vice President Mike Pence told them they will one day fight for America. “It’s a virtual certainty,” said Pence who was swelling with pride as he spoke, rather than lamenting.
Well, at least, he is being candid. The United States is a warmongering nation, there is no doubt about it. As several historical studies attest, out of the 243 years since its formation as a modern state, the US has been at war during every decade, sometimes in multiple simultaneous wars.
Or put another way, over nearly 95 per cent of its historical existence the US has been involved in waging wars, sometimes covertly or by proxy. Since the Second World War alone, the US has been involved in up to 60 wars or covert conflicts, inflicting a civilian death toll estimated at 20 million. Arguably, there is not another nation, past or present, with such a record of belligerence.
So, yes, Pence is correct when he told graduates from the US’ elite military academy: “It is a virtual certainty that you will be on a battlefield for America.”
Ironically, the vice president, like President Trump and the hawkish national security adviser John Bolton, has never served in the military. Yet Pence held forth like a four-star (armchair) general about the need for young American troops to do battle in a “dangerous world”.
“I know when that day comes you will move to the sound of guns,” exhorted Pence, whose only experience of gunfire no doubt comes from watching replays of old Hollywood war movies........http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=189252