Culp Creek Curmudgeon

Anti-imperialist, pro-liberation
Anti-capitalist, pro-socialist
Unitarian-Universalist
Rock and Roll lover

[Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald]

Can Americans even fathom what it's like to live in a country where the people of that country struggle with basic economic security while their "corrupt regime continues to squander enormous sums abroad"?

[Branko Marcetic @BMarchetich]

Democratic leadership plans to hand Middle East policy to a Congressman who described himself last year as "to the right" of JD Vance on the Iran war and more in line with Lindsey Graham on the matter:

[Mark Ames @MarkAmesExiled]

What every failing regime does after suffering humiliating defeat in war: wage a new war on invented domestic enemies who can’t defend themselves

[محمدباقر قالیباف | MB Ghalibaf @mb_ghalibaf]

MAKE AMERICA HUNGRY AGAIN!

You can’t cover up defeats with false claims.

[Ken Klippenstein @kenklippenstein]

RIP to America's Matron Saint

[Seyed Mohammad Marandi @s_m_marandi]

You can mislead your audience, but you cannot change reality. Iran will push the Trump regime into an economic crisis, and you will only be remembered for your catastrophic policies.

[Sony Thăng @nxt888]

If you murder one man and shout "God is great," they call you a terrorist.

If you murder a million and say "God bless America," they call you a superpower.

[Ted Rall, America's BS Detector @TedRall]

After World War II, most of the world and many Holocaust survivors looked at the genocide in Europe and declared that nothing like that should ever happen again. But the country with the most Holocaust survivors today is led by people who, at least in part, viewed genocide as something to emulate and perhaps even perfect.

[Ramy Abdu| رامي عبده @RamAbdu]

Here, people come searching for relief from thirst. Here, precious drops of drinking water flow to fill distribution trucks. The site is unmistakably a water facility—yet Israel targeted it, further deepening Gaza’s already devastating water crisis.

[Mark @Mark4XX]

🚨 EX-INSIDER BOMBSHELL: WE CREATED THIS EUROPE ON PURPOSE - CIA BOUGHT STOLTENBERG, RUTTE AND ENTIRE GOVERNMENTS

I have never heard the truth stated so directly. Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, retired U.S. Army officer and former Chief of Staff to the Secretary of State, just dropped a confession that should shock any European citizen who is still capable of thinking for themselves. He says America did not merely influence the continent. It deliberately built the Europe we see today. And the receipts are brutal.

THE CONFESSION
➡️ “We created the Europe that exists right now on purpose.”
➡️ Wilkerson states it plainly: the CIA, with help from SIS, MI6 and later Mossad, painstakingly crafted the political landscape of Europe in the exact image Washington wanted.
➡️ This was not organic alliance-building. It was a long-term operation.

THE BUYING SPREE
➡️ They bought newspaper editors.
➡️ They bought labor-union heads.
➡️ They bought parliamentarians.
➡️ They bought two NATO Secretaries General: Jens Stoltenberg and Mark Rutte.
➡️ They bought whole countries in terms of their political apparatus.

HOW THE MACHINE WORKED
➡️ Starting in 2002, billions of dollars flowed through the CIA and USAID.
➡️ Liberal democracy itself was weaponized.
➡️ An Asia scholar once said America taught the dogs to bark. Wilkerson agrees the trainers were American intelligence services.
➡️ Europe barked against Russia, against diplomacy, against its own interests because that is what it had been trained and paid to do.

THE STOLTENBERG OPERATION
➡️ Wilkerson was “up close to cheek and jowl” in elevating Jens Stoltenberg.
➡️ Washington watched how malleable he was inside his own government and used him as the center pole from which influence spread to other capitals.
➡️ Stoltenberg calculated correctly: loyalty to the American line would make him the next NATO chief.

THE RUTTE PATH
➡️ Dutch media later exposed that Mark Rutte, while prime minister, excused almost anything Israel did, stayed extra-hawkish on Russia, and backed the bombing of Yemen.
➡️ The purpose was clear: look good on the job application for NATO Secretary General.
➡️ Washington had already signaled exactly what qualities it would reward.

THE HOLOCAUST LEVERAGE
➡️ With Mossad’s help, the lingering weight of the Holocaust over European politics was deliberately exploited.
➡️ Germany’s strict anti-semitism laws and regulations were shaped with American assistance so the instrument would remain available.

THE BOTTOM LINE
America spent decades and billions of dollars buying the political class of Europe, installing compliant NATO leaders, and training entire governments to bark on command. Now the same Europe is weaker, more submissive, and still following orders that no longer serve its survival. The creators are finally admitting what they did.

This was never an alliance of equals. It was a product.

HT: YouTube Glenn Diesen @Glenn_Diesen
#CIABoughtEurope #Stoltenberg #Rutte #NATOExposed #Wilkerson #EuropeOnPurpose #DeepState

[Mark Ruffalo @MarkRuffalo]

The accusation that I am antisemitic is appalling and fundamentally dishonest. Criticizing the actions of the Israeli prime minister, a military technology contract, or the executives who supply it is not the same as criticizing Jewish people. This critical and necessary dialogue is then dishonestly framed as being anti-Israel. To be clear, my views come from my own political convictions and should never be interpreted as hostility toward Jewish people, for whom I have deep love and respect.  Everything I know about acting, activism, and humanism has been profoundly shaped by the Jewish friends, colleagues, and loved ones who have been integral and family throughout every point of my life.

This merger has real consequences for real people, and for the entire country. Scrutinizing the Ellisons, including Oracle’s business built on data, surveillance technology and government contracts, and the serious threat to editorial freedom and the loss of a livelihood for thousands of families, is fair and necessary. The $111 billion deal would hand one family control over CNN, HBO and Warner Bros., backed in part by foreign money whose influence on editorial decisions has never been fully explained to the public. 

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have called for serious national security review, and regulators still haven’t given the public a real answer. Until they do, the merger shouldn’t move forward. Now is the time to dive boldly into all these issues, not step back or concede.

[Power to the People ☭🕊 @ProudSocialist]

New York Times: Hakeem Jeffries and Jared Kushner meet privately to discuss how Democrats and the Trump administration can work together.

How much more evidence do the American people need before they understand that both parties exist to serve capital and sell the people out?

There’s not one thing the US government does well for the people because its entire purpose is to serve the rich.

[DD Geopolitics @DD_Geopolitics]

"They're used to filling their bellies for centuries with human flesh, and their pockets with money, they need to realize that the Vampire's ball is ending."

— President Putin on Western elites

[Warren Gunnels @GunnelsWarren]

The 6 richest men in America-Elon Musk, Larry Page, Jeff Bezos, Sergey Brin, Michael Dell & Larry Ellison-got $977 billion richer since Trump’s election.

These 6 men are now worth $2.1 trillion, while Trump took food away from 4 million hungry Americans.

That’s oligarchy.

[Sarrah Bellus @sarrah_bellus]

😭🇮🇷 The Iranian LEGO guys just made a Natalie Harp video.

I genuinely wasn’t prepared for this level of internet chaos. 😂

The internet has officially lost the plot.

Did you see this?

[SEIU @SEIU]

Target received a $1 BILLION tariff refund from President Trump’s rescinded tariffs. Amazon got $600 million, by the way. So basically companies got to raise the prices on working people and then got to cash in on the refunds that were promised to working people. https://t.co/4rtPsebk4K

[Will 🦥 Menaker @willmenaker]

Suicidal malpractice by liberals to let Tucker each their lunch on this and become the most prominent voice in the media on this. Just letting the right reap the rewards on what should be a lay up but they're too afraid of offending the sensibilities of the killers.

[Lambert Strether @lambertstrether]

Dad Joke of the Day: As I get older, I remember all the people I lost along the way.*

Words of the Day:

• Journey
• Chaos
• Bittersweet

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* Maybe a career as a tour guide wasn't the best idea.

[Lambert Strether @lambertstrether]

Seymour Hersh on the on-off switch for the Constitution in the midterms:

❝ The president alone defines the [state of] emergency. No institution has been given the legal tools to determine, in real time, whether the emergency is genuine

Today's Water Cooler, 2026-08-19

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