In writing a recent post, ‘If Music Is The Answer…’ I imagined a wandering minstrel writing protest songs who ends up killed, presumably for voicing his objections to injustices facing the common people. Today, reading Imperial Mud, The Fight for The Fens by James Boyce, I found this on p137…
corporate killers recruiting mercenaries business as usual
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n.b. The Wagner Group is the ultimate in government outsourcing operations. How can the war end when so many make money from conflict?
The EU has just reiterated sanctions on Wagner Group associates. Meanwhile shares in weapons manufacturers soar. See BAe shares for the past three years , for example. See how the value of shares has rocketed since the war in Ukraine began.
UN takes twelve months to condemn and demand end universalapplause
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n.b. It only took the UN a year to put together such a clear statement. Meanwhile, in the grand scheme of things…people have died, homes destroyed, the business of war enriched.
long-term investment everyone wants a pie slice who's brokering peace?
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n.b. I notice that the UK economy is the only large richer nationforecast to be in economic decline in 2023, despite Johnson acting as arms salesman par excellence. The arms industry is doing very well, so the rest of the UK economy must be in a hell of a slump.
caterpillar tracks loaded onto railway trucks shareholders cash in
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n.b. As we move closer to open conflict between Russia and “The West” I attended a party recently at which there was open talk about moving savings intoarms manufacturing shares and disappointment expressedat missing out on buying stock in an American armament corporation. Ironically, it was at a wake.
There was also talk of fear of direct war with Russia...as opposed to what? A proxy war that sacrifices the very last Ukrainian?
concrete, glass and steel put up lights, tie off with bow still steel, glass, concrete
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n.b. People raising glasses to Christmas on 2nd December, leaving just eleven months of the year festive free. This is in a country where a minority (46%) now identify themselves as Christian.
I don’t see or hear this much propaganda about any other belief system, other than Free Market ideology, obviously.
putting a face on can't hide what happens beneath St. Louis' broken heart
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n.b. In a city with many elegantly carved superstructures that are all boarded up, this building in the city centre has been cleverly painted to look as if it has a facade carved from stone. It is merely make up that is beginning to flake off. It is initially impressive, but like The Arch, it’s just a hollow sham.
late-night traffic halts blues on red, no one around still, they sit and wait
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n.b. Chicago police are recruiting. The bus company is recruiting. Most bars, restaurants, shops seem to be recruiting. Trucking companies are recruiting. Everyone is recruiting.
In the UK, it seems the over-50s, who have cleared off mortgages, been well-paid enough to save money and found a way to step out of the work–place, the meaningless drudgeof commuting, the long hours present at a work station, (missing daylight, weather, loved ones), areto blame for the lack of workers (NOT the million, or so, young Europeans who went back to Europe after Brexit?). As a consequence, the government is going to try to make it harder for the low-paid, low-wage, home-rentersto leave the workplace.
If that’s the UK problem, what’s happening in the USA?