Something old, but still relevant today.

[nofi]

[Dave W]

Definitely relevant.  Neither branch of the War Party will pay attention unless enough people make themselves heard.

[4stringer77]

I know we're supposed to avoid talking politics but it's hard to ignore how crazy this world is today. Without getting in to specifics, these are a couple more songs that ring true for me today as well.

[uwe]

Hah, I only rebought the Steppenwolf - Monster album (commercially a disaster for them) as a CD recently, it impressed me when I first heard it around 1974. Joachim Fritz Krauledat had a way with words and the right agitprop voice to project the messages.

So what is worrying you: Ukraine or the Middle East or all of it? The West's "policy" (if there ever was one other than support of Israel) in the Middle East has reached its nadir, something tells me that it can only get better now, pretty much all possible mistakes that can be made have been made several times over, pure statistics demand that something right must happen for once. I wouldn't be surprised if alliances in the Middle East in, say, five years from now will be altogether different from what we have historically come to expect. I was sceptic of the Arab Spring right from the start and look how it has turned into an ice age now.

As for Ukraine ... I never believed that Russia had resigned from being a world power, you look at the map, the amount of people and resources, their history, it was a question of time for them to bounce back after the Jelzin years. And anybody believing that economic sanctions will bring Russia to its knees, should remember Leningrad and how that city wouldn't surrender even while it was starved out. Not even Cuba could be sanctioned into submission. You don't have to like Russia and it's ok to be wary of Russian imperialism (like any imperialism), but you should make an effort to understand where it is coming from. The West made the mistake of not bothering to do that for the longest time, writing Russia prematurely off (as Napoleon and Hitler have done before and paid dearly for it), the only arrogant proposition to Russia being that "you can be like us one day if you do your homework and we'll let you", and is now faced with an inability to communicate effectively.

[nofi]

frankly, its the american murder police that have me and many other folks concerned. this has bugged me since the sixties, but the cop criminal mayhem seems to be escalating to a scary level. gee, a teeny tiny not so secret gestapo of our very own.

[nofi]

MUCH BETTER AUDIO on this one. give a listen.

[4stringer77]

I'm worried about something bad happening tomorrow. The open border doesn't help. E-bola is also scary. I wish Obama and NATO would stop poking the bear and let Crimea go back to the Russians. It's starting to feel like a third world war is getting close at hand.

[Nocturnal]

Police forces certainly seem to be stepping up to a military type of presence anymore. You sometimes get the feeling that they forget that they are paid by us to protect us, not view us as the enemy.

[uwe]

The vids are unfortunately not viewable in Germany.

The Ferguson shooting ... I remember that the IRA, not the most lawful organisation on earth, had cultivated the art in the seventies to punish perceived transgressors via ONE shot in the knee (kneecapping). Yet in Ferguson allegedly threatened police have to "strafe" a perceived suspect with at least six gun shots, two of them in the head. It does make you wonder either how they are trained or what kind of people join the police force there even if - for the sake of argument - you follow the depiction that Michael Brown posed a threat to them.

[Pilgrim]

The vids are unfortunately not viewable in Germany.

The Ferguson shooting ... I remember that the IRA, not the most lawful organisation on earth, had cultivated the art in the seventies to punish perceived transgressors via ONE shot in the knee (kneecapping). Yet in Ferguson allegedly threatened police have to "strafe" a perceived suspect with at least six gun shots, two of them in the head. It does make you wonder either how they are trained or what kind of people join the police force there even if - for the sake of argument - you follow the depiction that Michael Brown posed a threat to them.

It was a revelation to me to see a line drawing of the bullet impacts on Brown.  Three of them were on one arm in places where they would have been part of a decent pattern if his arms were raised.  (See link: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/18/us/michael-brown-autopsy-shows-he-was-shot-at-least-6-times.html?_r=0) To my eye, the most probable way those impacts could have occurred would be if he had his arms raised high enough that his hands would be over his head.  (Just visualize the impacts with the right arm raised..that's a pretty clear sight pattern.)  I've been in law enforcement as a reserve, and I'm generally willing to give an officer the benefit of the doubt, but that info tells me the exact opposite.

Frankly, the officer's story stinks and I don't believe it.

[OldManC]

It was a revelation to me to see a line drawing of the bullet impacts on Brown.  Three of them were on one arm in places where they would have been part of a decent pattern if his arms were raised. ... To my eye, the most probable way those impacts could have occurred would be if he had his arms raised high enough that his hands would be over his head.  (Just visualize the impacts with the right arm raised..that's a pretty clear sight pattern.)  I've been in law enforcement as a reserve, and I'm generally willing to give an officer the benefit of the doubt, but that info tells me the exact opposite.

Frankly, the officer's story stinks and I don't believe it.

Mr. Brown, 18, was also shot four times in the right arm, he said, adding that all the bullets were fired into his front.

This directly contradicts the original witness testimony that he was "executed" from behind. Nobody here can say with any specificity what happened, other than Brown was shot and died. There are eyewitness statements that back up the officer's statements, and there are eyewitness statements that don't. There is also evidence that the officer was severely wounded in a physical altercation with Brown, who had 100 pounds and quite a few inches in height on the him. I'm no fan of overzealous and militarized policing but this case has nothing to do with the overall complaints people have about those subjects. This whole narrative has shown why trials should be conducted by law and not by mobs.

[Pilgrim]

Well said. I very seldom offer opinions on incidents like this, as I am aware that I just don't have enough information to have an educated opinion or viewpoint.  The thing that stands out to me is that those bullet impacts clearly indicate that they were fired from the front, and logic tells me that they were almost certainly fired when Brown's arms were raised.

I have no other opinions as to the assertions about the incident; but what I see in that report eliminates any doubt about whether the shots were fired from in front or behind the deceased.

[nofi]

front or behind, point is his arms were raised.