I read often and comment occasionally on MoA. Much more now that the Ukraine scam was started. I will make a point of reading more of your stuff there and on here. Once I gain comfort on what I think you are all about, I will consider a subscription.
I lean toward Classic Liberalism, Conservative thoughts. I am damn concerned of the takeover of the USA, slowly, subtly, then quickly, rudely.
Thanks for joining. I have several years worth of writings at my VK, which you can try to access here, https://vk.com/id580896205
I've been commenting at MoA since 2010. At times I describe myself as a Collectivist Libertarian. My primary academic pursuit is the history of the Outlaw US Empire and all that contributed to it, which is a massive amount.
Watching, in my youth, my 2 First Nations playmates die, completely unnecessarily, opened my eyes. But, to be honest, it took a long time to pry them wide open.
You're not alone. One of the historians of the US Empire William Appleman Williams wrote "Empire as a Way of Life: An Essay on the Causes and Character of America's Present Predicament, Along With a Few Thoughts About an Alternative " that's very revealing and can be perused at The Archive after freely registering here, https://archive.org/details/empireaswayoflif00will
Thank you for all your excellent writing, research, posts, and commentary. I look for your posts on Moon of Alabama, and I always enjoy and learn from them. I am puzzled by the fact that any of your posts would be scrubbed from MoA; I assume that in some way this is done automatically because of some blanket ban on various sites that b does not approve of, and apparently the blacklist continues to expand, no? I think it is foolish to choose such a policy on an "alternative news" site, as this seems to be essentially a mirror image of what the Deep State does on Social and Mainstream Media.
My experience is that the problem's within the software the site manager employs as RT and now Sputnik are usually no-gos, while ZeroHedge has been like that for years. So, we just reference the source without the link and most older barflies know why. I know b gets frustrated by it too, and it complicates things for him when we continually try to get the comment to post as that makes more work for him. What will happen, is at somepoint tomorrow, b will "unlock" such frozen comments and they'll appear when they were made in the comment queue, which has often gone well past that point and won't appear on the main-page's comment roster, making what was a timely comment worthless and thus frustrating. I decided to use my substack platform to post what IMO is an important item of information.
My comments were removed. So I'll pop in once a week instead of daily, to look at it as I do any media, knowing something's fishy but that there's also usefulness.
Hi Karl - long time follower of yours on MOA, rarely comment. I liked the message of the song until the 2nd verse:
Lord, we got folks in the street, ain't got nothin' to eat
And the obese milkin' welfare
Well, God, if you're five-foot-three and you're three-hundred pounds
Taxes ought not to pay for your bags of Fudge Rounds
This is where the song descended into right wing nonsense. Programs like WIC and SNAP encourage people to purchase healthy food and there is some evidence that they are successful. Low tax subsidized capitalist businesses like McDonalds make people fat with low cost bad food. I would be interested in knowing more about what collectivist libertarian means than listen to this mediocre song.
One school of thought would interpret collectivist libertarian to be a freedom loving Commie. Stay tuned, I'll elaborate more as we near the 2024 election.
You're taking as aspect to slant a man. He's not right-wing. Are we not allowed to have general thoughts? If we explained them in full, they couldn't be a verse in a song.
The singer: “The one thing that has bothered me is seeing people wrap politics up in this. I’m disappointed to see it. Like, it’s aggravating seeing people on conservative news try to identify with me, like I’m one of them.”
Just saw a follow up online discussion by Oliver Anthony. While the lyrics I sited still don't resound with me, I have to admit you are right. I do think a larger number of people on the right identified with him, but that does not seem to be who Mr. Anthony is. Godspeed to him - and to you Mike Hampton.
thanks karl.. i listened to this off a link at moa scorpion provided of two guys in india talking about the similarities between the struggle in india and the one in the west.. it might explain the huge number of hits on the link if it went viral in india! it seems heart felt.. he's got a strong voice!
Oliver Anthony's songs seem to be the real thing. And he appears to shoot his videos himself! Therein, the presence of his dogs is particularly engaging.
Oliver Anthony: “It was funny seeing my song at that presidential debate. Because I wrote that song about those people, you know, so for them to have to sit there and listen to that, that cracks me up. It was funny kind of seeing the response to it,”
Aug 27, 2023·edited Aug 27, 2023Liked by Karl Sanchez
"I hate seeing that song weaponized. I see the Right trying to characterize me as one of their own. And I see the Left trying to discredit, I guess in retaliation. That shit’s gotta stop. If you watch the response videos on Youtube, it’s not conservative people responding to the song… it’s not necessarily Americans. I don’t think I’ve seen anything get such positive response from such a diverse group of people. I think that terrifies the people I sing about in that song. And they've done everything they can the last two weeks to make me look like a fool, to spin my words, to try to stick me in a political bucket, and they can keep trying but I'm gonna keep on writing. I'm gonna write and produce and distribute music that represents authentic people and not politics.”
I watched the vid. Listened to the song. Posted this comment:
Typical American bullshit demonstrating all that's wrong with America. This big corn fed boy singing about pain and deprivation he's obviously never come anywhere near experiencing. And what's the song? It's a cry. That's what it is. A cry. He's crying. A little boy crying that momma and poppa haven't fixed his world up for him good enough. He wants to go to a party and there's no party for him to go to. But those kids over there are going to a party - oh, oh, boohoo.
That's one half of the problem. Crying, crying, crying all the time because it hasn't been given to them, done for them..
And the other half: 'the rich man'. America's obsession with wealth. With money. With 'making it' in purely monetary terms.
It is a childish nation, a spoilt nation and as vicious as any spoilt child with an ability to hurt.
Does he sing an answer?
No.
Does he sing suggestions?
No.
What he sings is an encouragement to others to do as he does: blame the rich man and cry, cry, cry.
So where is the answer?
It is with the people. They have the answer right there in their hands never more reachable and doable than today.
Democracy. The democratic system of governance.
Which means the people govern.
Not sit around minding their own business, not taking any notice of things, unconscious even of the name of their congressman much less of his doings, but involved and interactive and constantly in touch with their congressman and any other elected reps and even those not elected but still nominally servants of the people. Monitoring them. Instructing them. Demanding and getting reports from them.
You know what happens now don't you?
People get out every few years and reluctantly cast a vote for one of two people each representative of a major party.
Not for themselves. Not for government by the people.
No.
For one of those two parties. Which is throwing away their own governance right there.
And then after that act they throw away any remaining self governance for they turn their backs and 'leave them to it'.
Like you leave the plumber to it when he comes to your house to do a job.
That works well with the plumber because he's been trained and he knows what he is doing and he has relevance experience and he has a good reason for doing a good job.
NONE of those things apply to your typical politician. NONE. Yet by the millions we turn away and 'leave them to it'.
Democracy by rights is a full on drag because it suggests constant interaction regarding every issue that ever comes up and who the hell wants that? BUT it is the only way. The ONLY way. And luckily today by virtue of the internet and the ubiquitous smartphone we can actually get pretty close to that tedious difficult ideal without much of the tedium and difficulty.
Because perpetual referenda can be running all the time and all we need to do is press buttons to register our vote on that matter.
And within the web groups of actually concerned persons can form and thrash things out with all the information and abilities of the web behind them and then inform us all of what they've learned and we can all then decide and chose on the basis of what they tell us: without us having to do all that.
We should be governing ourselves.
And today we could be governing ourselves.
Not singing crying childish songs about how tough it all is.
I might google if I work up some feeling that there's some necessity, something to be gained. I made an observation about the 'overt surface level' of the thing, so to speak and that observation stands regardless of any extraneous material pertinent to the thing.
What I would like to remark on is your claim: "It's easy to hate.." which is a libel. I never anywhere suggested any hate and I don't have any. To say that I do is either an intellectual inadequacy or a deliberate slight.
And then: 'don't try to understand'. This is a non sequitur. And again really a libel were the matter to be of some seriousness, some significance. You have no knowledge whatever of whether or not someone else has made any efforts at all to understand anything at all.
None of us do.
To talk like that is calumnious and in the absence of any 'no holds barred' competition completely gratuitous.
Gratuitous calumny is what we call 'ad hominem' and is indicative of troll behaviour, poor intellect, insincerity, narcissism and downright stupidity.
I read often and comment occasionally on MoA. Much more now that the Ukraine scam was started. I will make a point of reading more of your stuff there and on here. Once I gain comfort on what I think you are all about, I will consider a subscription.
I lean toward Classic Liberalism, Conservative thoughts. I am damn concerned of the takeover of the USA, slowly, subtly, then quickly, rudely.
Keep at it, I will pay attention.
K
Thanks for joining. I have several years worth of writings at my VK, which you can try to access here, https://vk.com/id580896205
I've been commenting at MoA since 2010. At times I describe myself as a Collectivist Libertarian. My primary academic pursuit is the history of the Outlaw US Empire and all that contributed to it, which is a massive amount.
Watching, in my youth, my 2 First Nations playmates die, completely unnecessarily, opened my eyes. But, to be honest, it took a long time to pry them wide open.
You're not alone. One of the historians of the US Empire William Appleman Williams wrote "Empire as a Way of Life: An Essay on the Causes and Character of America's Present Predicament, Along With a Few Thoughts About an Alternative " that's very revealing and can be perused at The Archive after freely registering here, https://archive.org/details/empireaswayoflif00will
Another work is "People of Paradox: An Inquiry Concerning the Origins of American Civilization" and is also available at The Archive, https://archive.org/details/peopleofparadoxi0000kamm
Once your eyes are opened begins the task of opening other eyes, which can be a difficult task, but to foment change must be attempted.
Thank you for all your excellent writing, research, posts, and commentary. I look for your posts on Moon of Alabama, and I always enjoy and learn from them. I am puzzled by the fact that any of your posts would be scrubbed from MoA; I assume that in some way this is done automatically because of some blanket ban on various sites that b does not approve of, and apparently the blacklist continues to expand, no? I think it is foolish to choose such a policy on an "alternative news" site, as this seems to be essentially a mirror image of what the Deep State does on Social and Mainstream Media.
My experience is that the problem's within the software the site manager employs as RT and now Sputnik are usually no-gos, while ZeroHedge has been like that for years. So, we just reference the source without the link and most older barflies know why. I know b gets frustrated by it too, and it complicates things for him when we continually try to get the comment to post as that makes more work for him. What will happen, is at somepoint tomorrow, b will "unlock" such frozen comments and they'll appear when they were made in the comment queue, which has often gone well past that point and won't appear on the main-page's comment roster, making what was a timely comment worthless and thus frustrating. I decided to use my substack platform to post what IMO is an important item of information.
My comments were removed. So I'll pop in once a week instead of daily, to look at it as I do any media, knowing something's fishy but that there's also usefulness.
Hi Karl - long time follower of yours on MOA, rarely comment. I liked the message of the song until the 2nd verse:
Lord, we got folks in the street, ain't got nothin' to eat
And the obese milkin' welfare
Well, God, if you're five-foot-three and you're three-hundred pounds
Taxes ought not to pay for your bags of Fudge Rounds
This is where the song descended into right wing nonsense. Programs like WIC and SNAP encourage people to purchase healthy food and there is some evidence that they are successful. Low tax subsidized capitalist businesses like McDonalds make people fat with low cost bad food. I would be interested in knowing more about what collectivist libertarian means than listen to this mediocre song.
One school of thought would interpret collectivist libertarian to be a freedom loving Commie. Stay tuned, I'll elaborate more as we near the 2024 election.
You're taking as aspect to slant a man. He's not right-wing. Are we not allowed to have general thoughts? If we explained them in full, they couldn't be a verse in a song.
The singer: “The one thing that has bothered me is seeing people wrap politics up in this. I’m disappointed to see it. Like, it’s aggravating seeing people on conservative news try to identify with me, like I’m one of them.”
Just saw a follow up online discussion by Oliver Anthony. While the lyrics I sited still don't resound with me, I have to admit you are right. I do think a larger number of people on the right identified with him, but that does not seem to be who Mr. Anthony is. Godspeed to him - and to you Mike Hampton.
May light find us all.
The young Man quotes the Bible.
A certain poke at the empire.
I'd say it's a very big poke, while many more are required.
thanks karl.. i listened to this off a link at moa scorpion provided of two guys in india talking about the similarities between the struggle in india and the one in the west.. it might explain the huge number of hits on the link if it went viral in india! it seems heart felt.. he's got a strong voice!
Oliver Anthony's songs seem to be the real thing. And he appears to shoot his videos himself! Therein, the presence of his dogs is particularly engaging.
Oliver Anthony: “It was funny seeing my song at that presidential debate. Because I wrote that song about those people, you know, so for them to have to sit there and listen to that, that cracks me up. It was funny kind of seeing the response to it,”
"I hate seeing that song weaponized. I see the Right trying to characterize me as one of their own. And I see the Left trying to discredit, I guess in retaliation. That shit’s gotta stop. If you watch the response videos on Youtube, it’s not conservative people responding to the song… it’s not necessarily Americans. I don’t think I’ve seen anything get such positive response from such a diverse group of people. I think that terrifies the people I sing about in that song. And they've done everything they can the last two weeks to make me look like a fool, to spin my words, to try to stick me in a political bucket, and they can keep trying but I'm gonna keep on writing. I'm gonna write and produce and distribute music that represents authentic people and not politics.”
Thanks for citing him.
I watched the vid. Listened to the song. Posted this comment:
Typical American bullshit demonstrating all that's wrong with America. This big corn fed boy singing about pain and deprivation he's obviously never come anywhere near experiencing. And what's the song? It's a cry. That's what it is. A cry. He's crying. A little boy crying that momma and poppa haven't fixed his world up for him good enough. He wants to go to a party and there's no party for him to go to. But those kids over there are going to a party - oh, oh, boohoo.
That's one half of the problem. Crying, crying, crying all the time because it hasn't been given to them, done for them..
And the other half: 'the rich man'. America's obsession with wealth. With money. With 'making it' in purely monetary terms.
It is a childish nation, a spoilt nation and as vicious as any spoilt child with an ability to hurt.
Does he sing an answer?
No.
Does he sing suggestions?
No.
What he sings is an encouragement to others to do as he does: blame the rich man and cry, cry, cry.
So where is the answer?
It is with the people. They have the answer right there in their hands never more reachable and doable than today.
Democracy. The democratic system of governance.
Which means the people govern.
Not sit around minding their own business, not taking any notice of things, unconscious even of the name of their congressman much less of his doings, but involved and interactive and constantly in touch with their congressman and any other elected reps and even those not elected but still nominally servants of the people. Monitoring them. Instructing them. Demanding and getting reports from them.
You know what happens now don't you?
People get out every few years and reluctantly cast a vote for one of two people each representative of a major party.
Not for themselves. Not for government by the people.
No.
For one of those two parties. Which is throwing away their own governance right there.
And then after that act they throw away any remaining self governance for they turn their backs and 'leave them to it'.
Like you leave the plumber to it when he comes to your house to do a job.
That works well with the plumber because he's been trained and he knows what he is doing and he has relevance experience and he has a good reason for doing a good job.
NONE of those things apply to your typical politician. NONE. Yet by the millions we turn away and 'leave them to it'.
Democracy by rights is a full on drag because it suggests constant interaction regarding every issue that ever comes up and who the hell wants that? BUT it is the only way. The ONLY way. And luckily today by virtue of the internet and the ubiquitous smartphone we can actually get pretty close to that tedious difficult ideal without much of the tedium and difficulty.
Because perpetual referenda can be running all the time and all we need to do is press buttons to register our vote on that matter.
And within the web groups of actually concerned persons can form and thrash things out with all the information and abilities of the web behind them and then inform us all of what they've learned and we can all then decide and chose on the basis of what they tell us: without us having to do all that.
We should be governing ourselves.
And today we could be governing ourselves.
Not singing crying childish songs about how tough it all is.
It's easy to hate when you don't try to understand. Google for his letter about the song.
I might google if I work up some feeling that there's some necessity, something to be gained. I made an observation about the 'overt surface level' of the thing, so to speak and that observation stands regardless of any extraneous material pertinent to the thing.
What I would like to remark on is your claim: "It's easy to hate.." which is a libel. I never anywhere suggested any hate and I don't have any. To say that I do is either an intellectual inadequacy or a deliberate slight.
And then: 'don't try to understand'. This is a non sequitur. And again really a libel were the matter to be of some seriousness, some significance. You have no knowledge whatever of whether or not someone else has made any efforts at all to understand anything at all.
None of us do.
To talk like that is calumnious and in the absence of any 'no holds barred' competition completely gratuitous.
Gratuitous calumny is what we call 'ad hominem' and is indicative of troll behaviour, poor intellect, insincerity, narcissism and downright stupidity.
You started with laziness and then committed yourself to a long salad without discussing the issue. Very trollish :)
I completely ignore "folk music" of any kind - unless it's Irish and done by The Corrs.
And I hardly need some Southern dude to inform me about "rich people".
Finally, "populism" of this sort - similar to Trump - usually ends up being both dangerous and dangerously naive.
https://youtu.be/cv9uMXiY29s?t=173