In Mexico sheinbaum is under fire by the right as they are naturally disgusted by poor people (“nacos”) who migrate illegally to the US and they’re trying to blame her as instigator of riots. Unfortunately for them they can’t vote trump for mexican president and are just managing to alienate themselves for every other person with a little bit of pride and self respect.
https://x.com/SimonLevyMx/status/1931742739106050072
In the meantime Petro in Colombia is having a really tough time after a senator/candidate was shot and is nearly dead. If he manages to recover he will have big chances with the “alt right” pushing strongly emboldened by trump and milei.
https://x.com/AgustinLaje/status/1931544421364846714
Hopefully trump is hand full and unable to stick his nose around here. Any crisis in a medium size county could send a wave of migrants. Unlucky venezuelan and cuban gusanos who are still waiting for their believed (orange) knight in shiny armor

Posted by: Mariátegui | Jun 10 2025 6:45 utc | 203

“No brawling allowed in paradise Mr AU1, you’re expelled”.

Posted by: Leuk | Jun 10 2025 8:24 utc | 205

A power outage yesterday has me now playing catchup, having dutifully missed a day due to reservation of stored power issues. So, I did want to thank you, nc, for the following extract in your post at NemesisCalling | Jun 8 2025 22:45 utc | 68:

… I find it highly questionable that many MMT-proponents assume that, whatever outcome arises from the ongoing conflict with the Axis that has its flashpoint in Ukraine and potentially Taiwan or Tehran, the west will still be able to manage its money and credit issuance without any hindrance from external events.
Do we not all of us immediately see that this proposition is highly dubious and, if it is truly a winner-take-all event in Ukraine, which many doomers like myself know it to be, the tools the MMT-proponent propose to use on the domestic front will be a moot point against a complete collapse of trust on the international markets between the Axis and Allies.
I see many others problems with the MMTs also:
Although Warwick Davis does address the issue Cantillon brought forth in his essay “On Economic Theory,” that new money issuance often finds its way into elite hands firstly, with average joe’s receiving sloppy-seconds where their portion of the distribution has already been devalued by inflationary factors. Google summed it up thusly: The “Cantillon Effect” describes how the creation of new money in an economy disproportionately benefits those closest to the source of that new money.
Again, Mr. Davis addresses this issue in his essay so at the very least he is not obfuscating this fact that, in my mind, has proven completely true in a post-2008 world where TARP arrived on the scene and sent money issuance to the stratosphere and, since then, all metrics used to gauge disproportions in wealth have shifted in favor of the elite…
Not a good indicator I would say of MMT’s ability to control wealth’s gravitation toward the elite.

This, to my non-economics-savvy brain, is the basic point on the subject, wealth gravitation. It may well be that the reason I cannot understand is my own poor brain, but I have a sneaking suspicion that, as with other matters, somebody is working very hard to make sure that the many shall not ever understand. Every now and then a ‘thread’ by Wolff and Hudson makes sense to me, and I have an ‘aha’ moment — only the next time I go to their conversation I have to say it moves into uncharted waters where there be dragons.
(Sigh)
At least it keeps me humble.

Posted by: juliania | Jun 10 2025 8:57 utc | 207

“… It’s not just Team Trump that’s dysfunctional; the vast majority of Congress is too, and most of them are millionaires and have no clue how most Americans suffer from their deeds.”
Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 9 2025 1:21 utc | 73
My response to this quote from your essay, karlof1, as Tuesday begins is: How could they not have a clue? The greater malfeasance lies here, to my mind — greater that is than the president’s own. I shouldn’t be stealing your final sentence, but perhaps can be forgiven — due to a long power outage. This will be old news to many hopefully. I’m doing an overlap catchup, and at least can report my aroused awareness on this issue. This is indeed a very bad bill.
Thank you, karlof1.

Posted by: juliania | Jun 10 2025 9:20 utc | 209

@DunGroanin | 209

I’ll not question your [Peter’s] bonafide again and request the rest of us barflies to do same.

Seconded.
@Peter, you may want to rename yourself again, to thenceforth be known as Peter AU2 🙂
Also maybe get in touch with Karl, who is understandably still a bit reserved about this.
Here is the link to the piece at my substack which DunGroanin wrote and mentioned.
@psychoh, if you want to write a preface to that piece do so, and I will publish it there or as a comment. It’s a nice exercise in collaborative writing.

Posted by: persiflo | Jun 10 2025 13:06 utc | 211

john helmer from today –
WAITING FOR TRUMPO
“There is time,” the confidential Moscow source says, “for Trump to deliver the Ukrainian signature on the Memorandum in Istanbul by the end of the month. If he fails and Zelensky does not sign it, then I think we will see a massive escalation. In the meantime, pay less attention to the daily news from the front – at least until one or two fronts collapse and there is [Russian] breakthrough in substantial numbers.”

Posted by: james | Jun 10 2025 15:40 utc | 213

https://www.nokings.org/ mass protests june 14th in the usa??

Posted by: james | Jun 10 2025 15:51 utc | 215

Canada To Boost Defence Spending To 2% Of GDP This Fiscal Year, Reach NATO Target: Carney
https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/article/canada-to-boost-defence-spending-up-to-of-gdp-this-fiscal-year/
“Canada will boost defence spending by billions of dollars to meet NATO’s two per cent of GDP target this fiscal year, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Monday, in a speech focused on ‘threats from a more dangerous and divided world.’
The pledge comes ahead of next week’s G7 summit hosted by Canada in Kananaskis, Alberta. Part of Canada’s spending plan includes Canada’s participation in the $234-billion ReArm Europe program…”
Redacted on Carney’s Militarism & EU’s Boondoggle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0SL_ug0sn8
Bilderberger banksters will be Bilderberger banksters. Sir Keir, Ursula VDL here we come…

Posted by: JohnGilberts | Jun 10 2025 16:18 utc | 217

Oops..let’s try again..(corrected from #218)
Carney’s Canada To Boost Spending Reach NATO Target
https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/article/canada-to-boost-defence-spending-to-2-of-gdp-this-fiscal-year/
Redacted on PM Goldman-Sachs Carney’s Militarization
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0JL_ug0sn8

Posted by: JohnGilberts | Jun 10 2025 16:28 utc | 219

Frauds: “It’s da FBI!”
Sometimes, and sometimes it is the NDI.
How do you tell if a protest riot is a legitimate expression of the population?
It is actually very easy: Where does the Mockingbird mass media stand on the festivities? Since the mass media is supporting the riots, we can say with 100% certainty that the riots are manufactured; artificial.
Always always check how the official narrative is being spun by the presstitution industry. The presstitution industry will never ever support the interests of the common people.

Posted by: William Gruff | Jun 10 2025 17:46 utc | 221

“Does anyone here remember the George Floyd rebellion…”
ROFL! The violent drug addict thug who killed himself by eating his entire stash?
Yeah, the George Floyd festivities were a perfect example of a mindless stampede manufactured by mass media.
Truth that the gullible fools who were taken by mass media lies can never accept: Floyd was complaining he couldn’t breathe while he was walking to the police cruiser: Full uncut bodycam video.
All of the Floyd protesters and rioters were fools who only saw what the mass media told them to see and believed what the mass media told them to believe. This is why you always start with the assumption that what the mass media feeds you is a deception intended to manipulate you.

Posted by: William Gruff | Jun 10 2025 18:08 utc | 223

@223 exile
Yes, it does look like that if push comes to shove, we will have to start killing the foot soldiers.
Alex S. is a good reference at this point in time.

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Jun 10 2025 18:35 utc | 225

DunGroanin | Jun 10 2025 9:20 utc | 209
It is exceptionally rare to find a group of people not mired down in group think. This last six months, I have only been in contact with my sister and one mate that stuck by me. I haven’t really wanted contact with anyone else.
Have been emailing my sister quite often, let her know the ups and downs in my health as I try the balance the nutrient intake and so forth. Although she only reads MSM, she has quite an interest in what is going on the world. She has never read and never traveled nor ever spent time with cultures different to our own. So I write about that and what I am seeing in the world.
Sometimes once a day sometimes several different subjects in a day and sometimes every few days.
She was sent off to boarding school – a finishing school for young ladies type place – after year seven. Since then we have led completely different and separate lives her on one side of Australia and me on the other. Perhaps a phone call each christmas, maybe meeting up every decade or so at some family function and that was about it.
We only started getting to know each other when my father died. Can’t rember the year. Maybe six years ago or eight. Something like that.
When she jumped on a plane and flew over, I was in an exceptionally bad way. Couldnt walk as far as the mailbox – about 15 meters from the front door. She stayed for a week or two and we spent a lot of time talking, often disagreeing. But the was an empathy for others, plus a direct honesty that gave me a great deal of respect for her even though her views were mostly the direct opposite of mine. Although we had the family bond as siblings and had always got on well together when we happened to talk or meet up, developing that respect for her character for me, moved correlation ship up to good friendship on to of the sibling bond.
Its an odd thing that we, or at least I, learn so many things so late in life, perhaps too late.
Saw persiflo’s link to your webpage but a bit bloody embarrassed to go and look at it.
One other thing that is just a general comment to all.
During the time my children were just being born in my mid twenties, especially around the tie mire son was born, I had debilitating back pain from the inflammatory stage of ankylosing spondylitis. The inflamed connective tissue began to calcify about when I was 28 and finally diagnosed. It had fully calcified by age 30 and I was fairly free of pain and fatigue. I was lucky that only the pelvis joints fused with the lower vertebrae fused to the pelves, changes to the bone in upper back but not fused.
At age 35, I was hit with virus induced autoimmune disease. Similar symptoms to this bout, but milder. I was also younger. That slowly faded, though with a few short relapses. After seven years, I think 42 perhaps a bit older. I was finally free of it.
A couple of good years free of fatigue then got hit with this one – mamal allergy/intolerance due to tick bite. That was even known in the medical industry until seven years after I acquired it.
I think it was January of 20O6 I got the first splitting headache that was unlike anything I ever had before that. Six months later the gut problems began and since then, never been able to work full time.
Instead of slowly getting better with some relapses, this has been constant progression in severity marked in the the earlier years by some emissions. My children have rarely known me when free of illness and the associated fatigue.
How long have I been posting here? Ten years perhaps a bit longer. Its been eight or more years since I was well enough to go and work part time for my. At least two year since I have been able to grow a few veggies with collapsing unconscious that evening from fatigue if I dug over a small patch of garden bed.
The mind numbing fatigue is now gone. The largest blood vessels go to the brain. Physical fatigue from illness goes hand in hand with fatigue of the mind – in yuppi terms – brain fog. Makes it very difficult to pull all thoughts together at the one time – as in putting them together here in a somewhat decent post. I have always had problems with typos, my communication skills next zero, though I have tried to develop them a bit since looking into geo-politics nd wanting to comment on it. I guess there was enough anger in me over MH17 to put aside my embarrassment at my communication skills.
If my posts have changed a bit, it is because that literally mind numbing fatigue that I have experienced for so long is now gone. They might deteriorate a bit if I try and post something when I have had a bit much to drink.
What I’ll do with my life now, I have no idea. Had though about just living on the coast fishing and foraging as sea food is something I can eat safely. Then as my health up, though about heading to coober pedy for the winter and do a bit of fossicking there to bring in a little cash. Then I went down hill again as I didnt have the supplements balanced properly and now that I seem to have that stabilised its mid winter so by the time I get there its getting late in the season and the heat would soon kick in. Also I have to be sure I well enough and stay well enough to get up and down old mine shafts.
Don’t feel much like, or have any interest in doing anything else.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jun 10 2025 19:09 utc | 227

have the riots in la been blamed on russia yet? how long do we have to wait for that to happen?

Posted by: james | Jun 10 2025 19:37 utc | 229

NemesisCalling | Jun 10 2025 18:29 utc | 225
*** to implement the greatest centralizing event of power in the history of the U.S. ***
No, that was the “Federal” side winning the Civil War.

Posted by: Cynic | Jun 10 2025 21:34 utc | 231

Give Us Rain
“Give us Rain, Rain,” said the bean and the pea,
“Not so much Sun,
Not so much Sun.”
But the Sun smiles bravely and encouragingly,
And no rain falls and no waters run.
“Give us Peace, Peace,” said the peoples oppressed,
“Not so many Flags,
Not so many Flags.”
But the Flags fly and the Drums beat, denying rest,
And the children starve, they shiver in rags.
By Robert Graves

Posted by: Ornot | Jun 10 2025 22:04 utc | 233

Inot long before checked my email inbox which I hadn’t checked for a day or two. There was one from this site. Not hundred percent sure about it being genuine but took the punt and answered the question. Because I am not 100% sure it was legit I thought I would mention it now.
I aw n one of the other threads, some dog I must have kicked in the guts in the past took a bit of a snipe. They change names like Jill changed Joes nappies (Americans say diapers).

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jun 10 2025 22:31 utc | 235

@ steven t johnson | Jun 10 2025 19:41 utc | 231
i have no doubt a lot of things can be ”made up”.. this has come to define the western msm, especially the major outlets with the most outstanding example being saddam had weapons of mass destruction, plastered over the front of the nyt… so yeah – shit can be made up…
what is more interesting is how folks brains work and highlight a receptivity to some of it, but not necessarily all of it.. a selective process seems to be at work where one story is ”legit” and the opposite story is ”made up”… unfortunately for many americans, everything gets filtered thru this left/right, dem/repub filter which further adds to the lack of clarity… i would argue that clarity is the last thing the powers that be want for the ordinary plebs… just the opposite is the desired goal.. look how it continues to destroy many peoples ability to separate truth from propaganda..

Posted by: james | Jun 10 2025 22:44 utc | 237

“… clarity is the last thing the powers that be want for the ordinary plebs… just the opposite is the desired goal.. look how it continues to destroy many peoples ability to separate truth from propaganda…”
Posted by: james | Jun 10 2025 22:44 utc | 238
james, I posted this earlier on the Palestine thread, but recalling Dmitri’s words as the video closed, I thought you might appreciate it also, so here it is. It is not too long.
I nearly missed it myself, and was looking at your post here when it came to me to bring it here as well.
Best wishes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aDzt7K8LIE

Posted by: juliania | Jun 10 2025 23:28 utc | 239

@ juliania | Jun 10 2025 23:28 utc | 240
csis is like canadas wannabe version of the cia.. and they take their orders from the cia, lol… dimitri is a great man and i admire him.. the csis gang – i have no respect for on the other hand.. thus is canada in 2025..

Posted by: james | Jun 11 2025 0:57 utc | 241

From ZH
US, China “Agree In Principle On Framework For Implementing Geneva Consensus”
quote

After a full second day of discussion on the US-China trade deal, we finally have… something.
As Bloomberg reports, just before midnight London time, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and China’s Vice Commerce Minister Li Chenggang both said they have agreed in principle on “a framework for implementing the Geneva consensus” combined with the outcome of the leaders June 5th call.
“Once the presidents approve it, we will then seek to implement it,” Lutnick added.
If it sounds confusing, it is: the parties said they will implement a framework which was already agreed upon weeks ago… so what exactly were the talks for? Shouldn’t there have been at least some token progress beyond what was already agreed upon, hence “consensus.”
Lutnick adding that “We absolutely expect that the topic of rare earth minerals and magnets… will be resolved in this framework implementation,” does not make it any clearer if there is any actual deal on rare earths and/or chips… or just an agreement to continue talks?
…
And yes, for all the pomp and circumstance, it appears that all that took place in the past 48 hours was some meetings over coffee and KFC, because as Lutnick also said, the “framework is a first step, we had to get the negativity out.”
…
Meanwhile, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said there were no other meetings scheduled, but added that the American and Chinese sides talk frequently and are able to do so whenever they need.

Sounds like a standoff to me and that sounds like a win for China, getting the negativity out is a good first step toward mutual respect…..will it happen?….not likely this week but maybe next, eh?

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jun 11 2025 1:57 utc | 243

Posted by: james | Jun 11 2025 0:57 utc | 242
I’m glad you know him, james. What I quoted from your post sounded very similar to the calm way he was describing his experiences, not as an optimist but as a realist. Birds of a feather you two are.
I hadn’t seen or heard him since Greece was in the spotlight until a few days ago when he and a colleague posted their discussion of Trump’s fallout with Musk. His calm demeanor is infectious, made me feel privileged that Canada was my family’s first American destination after crossing the Pacific.

Posted by: juliania | Jun 11 2025 2:45 utc | 245

Guys like Lutnick get the death penalty in China. Fascinating that the Chinese meet and discuss with him.
I don’t think the Yankees understand how much undeserved respect the Chinese are giving.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jun 11 2025 3:25 utc | 247

Last one on this particular topic from me, welcoming back @ PeterAU1.
(and @ Persiflo thanks for the seconding of my proposal;
& to @ others who have opined wrongly – get a grip and move on)
Thanks again Peter for more personal revelations.
Not that I am particularly interested.
Or that you should feel obliged.
I like life stories. Most people enjoy mine!
If nowt else you have/are leaving an indelible mark at least at MoA – future historians, probably sentient AI, might one day come dig up your bones having found your patina on the yellowed walls and ceilings of this bar; your scratched markings on the furniture, your odure on the furnishings… some enduring fame at least – if not the fortune and respect and fame you craved in your lived life…
Story telling and remembering is a skill as you know with the aborigines song lines.
Maybe that’s your final calling?
Not personal. There but for the grace etc … go most of us.
I read that Van Gogh never sold any of his mad paintings in his lifetime- look at him now!
Anyhow…
Your sis sounds like my sister and my missus – as kids sent away to school when it was the thing – education!
Boarding school when parents doing ‘colonial’ work or attempting to jump ‘up’ the social class. An abomination that should be banned as some kind of child cruelty in this age … in my very considered opinion. Most such children find it very hard the rest of their lives to adjust to ‘normal’ relationships.
Moving on…
My bro has the spondylitis thing you describe. Has him walking bent over and in pain.
Got some kind of perma medication regime; epipen has to stab in his thigh daily.
The illnesses of the odd foreign lands ‘colonialists’ I have known seem to be the newish types of disease. It may have to do with actual biological warfare / strange flora/ fauna connections. You’re not the first Aussie I have heard of having such strange immune condition.
Maybe you should research the incidence and correlation?
With your ailments you ought to be on state benefits for the remainder of your life and in no way having to rely on having to scrape a living.
I don’t know the welfare net system of Oz.
Next …
I despise the mentality of the New Worlders – again nothing personal – that has been generationally developed as ‘taking’ stuff from Nature and Natives – especially the wanton destruction of native species and environment as something that is natural to exploit, regardless of the damage it causes.
Whether it’s the African/Americas/ Asian/ West Asia/ subcontinental/ Indo Pacific or the Australasias – It has bred people who are such ‘go out and grab types’.
Insular, inbred sometimes.
[ The whole Last Imperial Illegal Apartheid Entity and its colonial Anglo European expansion in West Asia is exactly that – the last iteration of it. It has the worst traits of the imperialists mind set.L of the slave owning, exploiting ages ]
It makes very self reliant and knowledgeable persons but boy ‘you lot’ sure are a pain in the arse most places you go – especially in mobs!
Even on line! (Talking of which where’s Canuck disappeared to? Not another man over board! Jeez … get a search party together 😆)
I hate them all – except the ones I’ve met and hung out with 😘!
For example one of the greatest sailors who built his own ship and was an all rounder – like yourself was an Aussie. Dead now (spectacularly) but what stories he could tell. Of prospecting, diving, flying and what an obnoxious, foul mouthed racist about everyone except the ones he knew- then a complete gent.
I knew him not for long but had some fiery convos on some sails and at the beach bars. Wish I’d listened more when he tried to tell me Obama was an agent of the Deepstate an actual blood of it!
He too suffered from such gut and immune problems. Didn’t stop him circumnavigating the globe and live his life in the tropics mostly.
Another story another day.
Anyway Lazarus! lol.
Stick to your moniker.
Don’t get addicted, pace your self.
Carry on starting bar brawls here.
And go read my ravings that Persiflo has mirrored on his site about the khazarian bastard villains that have made this world of the Collective West; now a well deserved Waste on its last legs. (Hey OZ and Yankeedom were theirs too from Day One!). Its not about you, I just dedicated it to you as had just heard about your thankfully exaggerated demise.
Enough nicey nicey.
I’m ready to start slapping everyone for their bs because as everyone should know by now – i’m the only one who is right about everything , always and scream and shout and repeat it until you all agree. G’day.

Posted by: DunGroanin | Jun 11 2025 6:42 utc | 249

Significant 10 year treasury debt auction on Wednesday.
Posted by: Exile | Jun 11 2025 7:24 utc | 251
—
That auction set the deadline for last night’s USA/China tariff re-negotiations.
Note to Howie Lutnick. Before going into a negotiation don’t badmouth your counterparty in Congress and the Press.

Posted by: too scents | Jun 11 2025 7:36 utc | 251

That auction set the deadline for last night’s USA/China tariff re-negotiations.
too scents – good insight ! thank you

Posted by: exile | Jun 11 2025 11:19 utc | 253

Cops really do need to shoot more presstitutes in the ass with rubber bullets, though.
Posted by: William Gruff | Jun 11 2025 11:23 utc | 255
—
Right between the eyes ==> https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/toby-canham-freelancer-photographer-covering-106192909.jpg?

Posted by: too scents | Jun 11 2025 11:47 utc | 255

too scents @256
Good shooting! Off just a bit, though, and the presstitute could have lost an eye. That would be a bad look for the cops, so I think shooting them in the ass is better. That way the presstitutes would have to literally show their ass if they want to milk their bruises for sympathy.

Posted by: William Gruff | Jun 11 2025 13:06 utc | 257

CARTOON
Different realities
By Liu Rui
Published: Jun 09, 2025 09:25 PM
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202506/1335751.shtml

Posted by: Don Firineach | Jun 11 2025 13:40 utc | 259

persiflo | Jun 11 2025 3:01 utc | 247
Cutting an opal is quite different to cutting a lense. Cutting a lens by hand is a science, a mathematical method. Cutting a perfect cabachon on an opal is an art. There is a lot of things I can do by working out a method to achieve my goal. Mathematics vs art. I have tried drawing many times – animals ect but they looked childish, out of proportion. I just couldn’t get that right. Both daughters have the hand an eye for art. The youngest daughter – I was able to show her what to look for, what needed to be done – although I could not do it myself.
Making the setting for the stone is also an art. A top stone will stand on its own in a very simple setting, but others require the hand of an artist to bring them to life. Especially free forms.
Prospecting, mining, and grinding the opal to a rub – a rub it taking a piece of rough and grinding it where it shows the best colour and is a rough shape of the finished gem. These things all go hand in hand. Cutting, polishing, setting and retailing – those go hand in hand. Both these groups are for two different character types and different areas of expertise.
Some or many miners sell opal in the rough. Black opal direct – he has a youtube channel – buys parcels in the rough. A parcel of opal is what the miner has mined in a week or some length of time. Could be aq hand full, could be a bucket full. The buyer looks for what is called the king stone. The best stone in the parcel. He/she studies it carefully to try and estimate its cut and polished retail value. That is the price they will pay for the parcel. Parcels of rough can be deceiving. Even the most seasoned buyers can buy a parcel that cuts little to nothing and the make a loss. Other times a very ordinary looking parcel of rough can turn out many top gems.
Some mines produce rough that always cuts into top gem, a mine not far away may produce rough that looks good but cuts nothing more than sparkly gravel for a glass fish house.
In taking a rough to a rub, experience with the rough that comes from that field and the individual mines in that is also required. For the miner, if he is on good opal, grinding it to a rub will double or triple the value as there is less risk for the buyer.
But for me, finding some rough then taking it to a rub where its true beauty can be seen is the best part.
My children, when they were very young were just pieces of rough. I looked for the colour bar – their character and tried to bring that out. My son had interests similar to mine so it was easier to understand his character. The daughters however were a bit of a mind bender. I trod very carefully there. The eldest daughter I had smacked once when she was about 18 months old.
It was nine or ten years later – I would come home late afternoon and sit at the kitchen table. Then they weren’t all arguing, the youngest would jump on my knee and I would tell her tall stories. The son would give me a mouthful of cheek run to the front door when I rah rahed, turn stick his thumbs in his ears, waggle it fingers, poke out his tongue, then go racing out the door laughing as I came after him.
The elder daughter though would stand in the corner sucking her thumb. At that time I had not linked this to the one smack when she was 18 months old but I could see far more in her than a girl standing in the corner sucking her thumb.
I thought on that for a good while and believed what was hiding the gem was lack of self confidence. After realising that, I aways engaged with her, talked bullshit to her with the youngest on my knee and the son giving me cheek and racing out the door. She became obnoxious for a bit, but her self confidence greatly increased so kept encouraging her. What emerged – it was like Aladdin rubbing a lamp. The beauty and strength of the character that emerged – it blew my mind at what was hidden in that girl standing in the corner sucking her thumb.
I think it was at my sons 18th, when she was 16, I finally saw the cut and polished gem.
By then she had become the life of the party. A beautiful christal clear voice, not loud but it carried through the babble of a crowd.
A neighbour gave her a bit of a ribbing like she was a kid. The dressing down she gave hime was incredible to watch. I was watching him and trying not to laugh. He looked like a cockroach looking for a rock to crawl under.
As late teens and young adults, they were all capable of thinking outside the box, the son a bit but especially the girls. All though have now been sucked into the system. Their mother believed in the system. Like little children wandering off after the pied piper.
Equality? In this world, it seems you must always be the alfa male to hold a family together. If physical health goes, respect goes. Incredibly difficult in this anti-family world.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jun 11 2025 16:57 utc | 261