Sooo… Was the Archduke Ferdinand Assassination an inside job?  There are just way too many holes and inconsistencies in the “Official” story, and too many interests who have things to gain from unleashing World War One.

Also, we see governments having done “Operation Northwoods” styles drills, acting out the scenarios of archduke assassinations.

… Interestingly enough, it probably would’ve been a “second half hour of the news hour”, and not shown as “Breaking News”… even if the “BBC in real time” idea is a good one.  (Though… it wouldn’t be on some nations’ channels.)

On a different note, I see that there’s a commemorative thingy magazine put out by Life on the checkout aisles.  The last 100 Years in pictures.  This can only mean starting with the start of World War One.  I don’t know what to make of the proliferation of these things — the other one out was one for Michael Jackson on the fifth anniversary of his death, similar to one released a couple months back.  And… why?  Is it worth noting that this “100 Years in Review after World War One” includes Sandy Hook but not Columbine?  (Or is that the fact that there needed to be something for this last decade and with the Florida Recount clogging things up about there, we might as well skip that one over?)

Hm.

“It is a time when evil has to be called evil,” said Krzysztof Szczerski, speaking for the party. “Mister prime minister, look at yourself in the mirror. You are like this alien which is sucking onto Poland and feeds on it.”

Check.  Call the prime minister Evil.  Call him a blood sucking Alien.  (What movie features blood sucking evil aliens?)

Leaving the chamber, though, did not sit well with the next speaker, Janusz Palikot, representing Your Movement.
“It’s really a serious thing when the biggest opposition party leaves when the floor is taken by the head of the third political power in the country, without which it is impossible to dismiss the prime minister,” he said. “It’s a cabaret!”

Evoke Liza Minnelli?

Mr. Tusk’s supporters did not try to hide their pleasure over the impact of the surprise maneuver.
“I am moved by the cries of the opposition,” said Slawomir Neumann, deputy minister of health. “For a few days, they have been talking about the vote of confidence for the government, but when this occurs, they say it’s too quickly. Big boys don’t cry.”

The Cure?

Oh maybe their reference points are different.  And people say our Poltiical discourse gets testy!

I’m watching the World Cup match-up between Germany and the US.  Very surreal experience … unless the other match-up in the grouping comes out to a blow-out with this game coming out to a blow-out as well, both teams are advancing, so everything’s just anti-climactic as it moves to a 1-0 Germany win.  EVERYONE WINS!  Everyone in the stands over there in Brazil, Germans, Americans … are cheering.

This was a revenge game, of course… Germany still smarting over what the US did to them during World War 2.

And then we get the celebration shots from across the country.  Big flags, Stars and stripes… and…  superhero costumes… Captain America and Wonder Woman… maybe that In These Times article complaining about superhero movies as akin to Ancient Greeks worshiping their gods was right…

And then…

The “Don’t Tread on Me” snake flag…

Wait.  What?  When you dump it into a soccer game… Does that even mean anything anymore?

Looks like a real crapshoot of an election.

The 62-year-old Johnson has been a leading progressive voice in the Republican-controlled Senate, pushing for abortion rights and becoming a hero to the pro-marijuana movement for her efforts to ease restrictions on the drug.

But the 79-year-old Rogers has become a familiar name to Democrats in Oklahoma, since he has run for office every cycle during the last decade, including president and U.S. Senate.

I kind of like Jim Rogers’s chances.

The Oklahoma Democrat, who has run for statewide office every two-year cycle since 2002, has taken more votes than a lot of candidates who actually try. In fact, he passed the 650,000-vote mark Tuesday night.

Yeah.  It’s amazing we came to the point, considering how far everyone had to reach from the primaries.

The poll shows 9.4 percent favor Midwest City resident Jim Rogers, 9.2 percent prefer state Sen. Connie Johnson and five percent support Anadarko resident Patrick Michael Hayes.

And from that front-runner status came a big fall…

Connie Johnson  43.84 percent
Jim Rogers           35.34 percent
Patrick Michael Hayes  20.82 percent

I think what really did Hayes in is that he had three names.

Everything will be decided on the fourth Tuesday in August, along with a small smattering of other contests for the Democrats to … probably mostly ignore.

Hm.  Random piece of sci fi dystopian fiction.  People can be really creative in leaving random junk about public places.  (Better than most of the damned graffiti I report here.)

……………………

I’m from the future.  (2056).  I came back to tell you that the computers take over the world in 2017!!

FIGHT

…………………………..

More questions than answers… I’d like to think this person has written an entire back story to this thing, like… maybe they’ll start scattering more items about filling in the details on how to “Fight” the coming techno-dictatorship.  But my guess this is the end all and be all of the thing.

Also… if he came back from the year 2056… does that mean the computers have aided humanity by figuring out time travel, and if so… is this future really so bad?  Vive la our Techno Overlords!!!

Not as interesting as this sci fi?

In musing about the big elections taking place right now.  We see that in Oklahoma…

Eleven candidates are vying for their parties’ nominations to fill the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Muskogee. The leading candidates are Republican 5th District Congressman James Lankford and the former speaker of the Oklahoma state House, T.W. Shannon. On the Democratic side, there are three candidates.

Or, you know… a big quasi establishment versus quasi “tea party” race (though the dynamics are more complicated that that, and they’re both positioning themselves to prove themselves to the right) that will decide the Republican nominee for the Senate — two names that need to be named because one will win and the other will lose — alongside six other Republican candidates not worth naming.  And on the Democratic side… there are three candidates… none of whom worth mentioning.

Curiously enough, the other Senate race… where James Inhofe faces four of those “not worth mentioning” primary opponents… has a Democratic candidate who is unopposed.  Matt Silverstein.  What prompted him and only him to decide to take on James Inhofe and three candidates to vie for the open seat… I don’t know.

At the moment, it looks like Connie Johnson and Jim Rogers are heading to a run off.  Naturally, the Democrats want to avoid running Jim Rogers again.

In the Thad Cochran versus Chris McDaniel race in Mississippi… things are really really surreal.

The hard feelings generated by the race were also in evidence, with both conservative groups and the N.A.A.C.P. sending out poll watchers to look for what they considered to be fraud or intimidation. The United States Justice Department also said that it was “aware of concerns about voter intimidation and is monitoring the situation.”

In downtown Hattiesburg, Miss., a trickle of Democratic voters filtered out of the Court Street United Methodist Church on Tuesday afternoon, saying they had voted for a Republican for the first time in their lives — and all of them had voted for Mr. Cochran.

[…]

The McDaniel campaign’s confidence was reflected in its Twitter feed, where Donald Trump, the pundit Mark Levin and the economist and conservative television host Larry Kudlow sent in messages of support.

Donald Trump?  (Yeah.  He figured in an Oregon race too.)

Amusing.  Thad Cochran is running around trying to win black voters in Mississippi.  McDaniels is chumping at the bit declaring that Cochran is trying to win “liberal” Democrats, which in Mississippi parlance adds up to about the same thing.

And everyone’s yelling at each other besides which.

I don’t know that Cochran has much more for that vote besides “I ain’t the other guy”, but we’ll see if it adds up to a percentage or two, without a percentage or two lost by means of “backlash”.