The Evening Blues - 3-22-17



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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Big Walter Horton

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Chicago blues harmonica player Big Walter Horton. Enjoy!

Big Walter Horton - Live 1979

"The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command."

-- George Orwell


News and Opinion

The Clinton-Directed ‘Daily Beast’ Doesn’t Think You Should Believe In The Deep State

The Daily Beast, whose corporate owner is co-directed by Chelsea Clinton, has made another contribution to the steadily mounting gaslighting campaign to convince the American public that the deep state is not a thing. In an article consisting of approximately 80 percent empty vitriol and 20 percent straw man argument, the consistently awful Michael Weiss attempts to advance the notion that because the head of the FBI testified before congress and said that the Bureau is investigating Russiagate, the deep state cannot possibly exist.

It is unclear from the article what mental gymnastics Weiss needed to do in order to make this feel true for himself, but his argument is a complete misrepresentation of what the deep state is; the term refers to the self-evident fact that there are power structures which remain in America amid the comings and goings of elected representatives. The man who first popularized the term in America includes among the components of those power structures the donor class, the military industrial complex, the intelligence community, national security institutions, and, of course, the mainstream media, whom Weiss is employed by.

Due to its immensely powerful ability to influence the way Americans think and vote, the mainstream media is plainly one of the strongest arms in the deep state power structure. ... The Daily Beast article is just the most recent and most cartoonish of the “there is no deep state” spin pieces the corporate media has been desperately churning out with greater and greater frequency as the official narrative keeps getting undermined. Here’s one Salon published yesterday. Here’s one from Sunday by the LA Times. Here’s another recent one by the New York Times boldly titled “What Happens When You Fight a ‘Deep State’ That Doesn’t Exist”. Here’s comedian/establishment propagandist Samantha Bee jumping on the train a few days ago if you want to spend some time not laughing and feeling so manipulated you’ll want to take a shower afterwards. All to convince the American people to not pay attention to the very glaringly obvious fact that there are powerful groups in the United States who are not democratically elected.

... The great Noam Chomsky once wrote that the smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum, and that is exactly what has happened. The proles are given the illusion that they have every freedom within reason, while their opinions are being deliberately manipulated every single day and their spectrum of acceptable ideas is being artificially limited.

Russiagate and the Democratic Party are for Chumps

Left-leaning progressives have long been held in disdainful contempt by Democratic Party elites (I’ve been writing about this for years) who understand very well that their first job above all others is to prevent the emergence of any serious left opposition to ruling class power in the United States. The foremost duty of the “Inauthentic Opposition Party” [IOP] (as the late left political scientist Sheldon Wolin called the Democrats) is to keep real popular resistance at bay.

The contempt continues to this very day, undaunted by the electoral collapse of the neoliberal Democrats. The mildly social-democratic progressivism of war “socialist” Bernie Sanders must be marginalized at all costs as far as top Democrats are concerned. So what if Sanders’ brand of progressivism might be a road to revival and victory for a party that became even less popular than the widely loathed Republicans and Trump? ...

The Democrats’ refusal to take the Sanders path is crazy and stupid only if you think the Democratic Party’s main jobs are to win elections and/or advance social justice and democracy.  But that’s a silly thing to believe. The IOP’s most urgent imperative is to serve corporate and financial power, and that means keeping even milquetoast social democrats like the F35 Fighter Jet champion Sanders at bay. Make no mistake: the leadership of the Democratic Party preferred the “lying neoliberal warmonger” Hillary Clinton defeating Sanders (in some very nasty ways) and then losing to Trump over a scenario in which Sanders would have defeated Hillary and then bested (as all the relevant match-up polls suggested he would have) Trump. ...

So, [“Russiagate”] is a crazy Democratic strategy, right? Not so fast. Remember that the issues “Russiagate” pushes to the margins, including racism, classism, ecocide, and the undermining of the public sphere, are all problem areas for the corporate and imperial Democrats too. The dreary, dollar-drenched Dems have been deeply complicit with the Republicans in creating the rightward neoliberal drift of U.S. policy over the last four-plus decades. ...

Russiagate and the Democrats are for liberal and progressive chumps. So, perhaps, are elections now.

Heh, at least on one issue Rand Paul is pissing off the right people.

Rand Paul's latest lonely fight incenses fellow senators

It’s not enough for the Kentucky Republican to try to tank House Speaker Paul Ryan’s Obamacare repeal bill. He’s also driving his Senate colleagues crazy by holding up the one thing the Senate could do to quickly rebuke Russian President Vladimir Putin: pass a popular treaty ratifying Montenegro’s membership in NATO.

The dispute exploded on the Senate floor this month as Paul blocked Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) from bringing up the treaty. McCain said Paul is “working for” Putin; Paul responded that McCain is “past his prime.” But the anger toward Paul goes much deeper than just McCain — nearly the entire Senate wants to pass the treaty immediately. ...

“Montenegro doesn’t add a great deal to the national security of the United States,” Paul said in an interview. “For people who want Montenegro [in NATO], many of them want Ukraine and Georgia in there. And I think if you do that you have to be prepared to go to war with Russia.”

Due to Senate rules, Paul can single-handedly force the chamber to spend days on the measure, an impossible feat in the short term since Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is prioritizing a Supreme Court nominee and Obamacare repeal this spring. ...

Notably, McCain’s charge that Paul is a Putin lapdog could have been a violation of Senate rules — but only if raised by another senator. No one came to his defense last week.

Interesting article, here's a taste:

What Russia Wants — and Expects

Amid the anti-Russian hysteria, Trump’s Cabinet members and United Nations ambassador have gone out of their way to reiterate the tough policy positions of the Obama administration with respect to Russia, underlining that nothing has changed. For its part, Congress has plunged into McCarthyistic hearings aimed at Trump supporters who may have met with Russians before the 2016 elections.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin has duly noted these developments in Washington. In Moscow, the breakthrough in relations that some had hoped for is now dismissed as improbable. On the other hand, while the United States is tearing itself apart in partisan fighting, Russia is getting a much-needed breather from the constant ratcheting up of pressure from the West that it experienced over the past three years.

We hear from Russian elites more and more how they plan to proceed on the international stage in the new circumstances. The byword is self-reliance and pursuit of the regional and global policies that have been forming over the past couple of years as the confrontation with the United States escalated. ... [T]he Russians are concentrating on their domestic defense capabilities and their budding political alliances with China and a host of Asian countries that together can oppose the power of the West. It is important to understand that the Russian vision is a future multi-polar world, not a return to the bipolar Cold War system of two superpowers, which Russian elites see as unattainable given the diffusion of power across the globe and Russia’s own more limited resources.

... [T]he Russians are now inseparably wed to China for reasons of mutual economic and security interest on the global stage. The same is becoming true of their relationship with Iran at the regional level of the Greater Middle East. The Russian elites also take pride in the emerging military, economic and geopolitical relationships with countries as far removed as Libya, Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan and Thailand. News about breakthroughs with each of these countries is heralded on daily television programming.

Russia’s loss of Eastern Europe is also not forgotten, though American hegemony there is acknowledged as a reality of the present. But nothing lasts forever, and the Russians expect to be back as a major force in the region, not by military conquest, but by virtue of economic and strategic logic, which favors them in the long term. Though many East European elites have been bought off by the United States and the European Union, many common citizens have been major losers from the American led post-Cold War order, suffering from de-industrialization and large-scale emigration to more developed E.U. countries, reaching as much as 25 percent of the general population in some places. These Eastern European countries have little to offer Western Europe except for tourist destinations, whereas their shared potential for trade with Russia is immense.

Former Trump campaign chief 'offered to help Putin advance interests'

Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort once offered to help Vladimir Putin advance Moscow’s interests as part of a multimillion-dollar contract agreed with a Russian billionaire with close ties to the Kremlin, it has been reported. According to a report by the Associated Press released on Wednesday, Manafort proposed a confidential strategy in 2005 whereby he would influence US politics, business dealings and news coverage inside the US, Europe and the former Soviet republics, in a way that would benefit the Putin government.

It is not clear based on the AP report whether Manafort, a longtime Washington lobbyist, followed through on his pitch to help Putin. But the AP said the detailed offer was made to the Russian aluminium magnate Oleg Deripaska, a close ally of Putin for whom Manafort worked. Citing interviews with several people familiar with the payment, AP said that Manafort signed a $10m annual contract with Deripaska that began in 2006. The business relationship lasted until 2009, it reported, based on one person familiar with the work.

[Hmmm... this would seem to precede the Trump campaign by a considerable period of time. - js]

According to a 2005 memo by Manafort to Deripaska obtained by AP, Manafort said: “We are now of the belief that this model can greatly benefit the Putin government if employed at the correct levels with the appropriate commitment to success.” He added that he could offer “a great service that can re-focus, both internally and externally, the policies of the Putin government”.

US Has Interfered in More Elections Than Any Other Nation

The FBI is getting into dangerous territory when they start investigating news organizations for fake news and foreign influence. After all, Breitbart and Infowars are far from the only news outlets that have been catapulting the propaganda - I'm looking at you Washington Post and New York Times. Additionally, I wonder when the FBI will look into the work of David Brock and Correct the Record's troll army.

FBI’s Russian-influence probe includes a look at Breitbart, InfoWars news sites

Federal investigators are examining whether far-right news sites played any role last year in a Russian cyber operation that dramatically widened the reach of news stories — some fictional — that favored Donald Trump’s presidential bid, two people familiar with the inquiry say.

Operatives for Russia appear to have strategically timed the computer commands, known as “bots,” to blitz social media with links to the pro-Trump stories at times when the billionaire businessman was on the defensive in his race against Democrat Hillary Clinton, these sources said.

The bots’ end products were largely millions of Twitter and Facebook posts carrying links to stories on conservative internet sites such as Breitbart News and InfoWars, as well as on the Kremlin-backed RT News and Sputnik News, the sources said. Some of the stories were false or mixed fact and fiction, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the bot attacks are part of an FBI-led investigation into a multifaceted Russian operation to influence last year’s elections.

Investigators examining the bot attacks are exploring whether the far-right news operations took any actions to assist Russia’s operatives. Their participation, however, wasn’t necessary for the bots to amplify their news through Twitter and Facebook.

Sen. Schumer Calls on Democrats to Boycott Neil Gorsuch Vote While Trump is Under FBI Investigation

Wow, the Guardian is really reaching on this headline. Some would call the linkage despicable in that Trump had nothing to do with the alleged criminal activity, yet the Guardian still seeks to tar his name by association. Hasn't Trump done enough bad stuff on his own, that the Guardian doesn't have to make stuff up?

Bank that lent $300m to Trump linked to Russian money laundering scam

The German bank that loaned $300m (£260m) to Donald Trump played a prominent role in a money laundering scandal run by Russian criminals with ties to the Kremlin, the Guardian can reveal. Deutsche Bank is one of dozens of western financial institutions that processed at least $20bn – and possibly more – in money of “criminal origin” from Russia. ...

Law enforcement agencies are investigating how a group of politically well-connected Russians were able to use UK-registered companies to launder billions of dollars in cash. The companies made fictitious loans to each other, underwritten by Russian businesses. The companies would default on these “debts”. Judges in Moldova then made court rulings enforcing judgments against the firms. This allowed Russian bank accounts to transfer huge sums to Moldova legally. From there, the money went to accounts in Latvia with Trasta Komercbanka.

Deutsche, Germany’s biggest lender, acted as a “correspondent bank” for Trasta until 2015. This meant Deutsche provided dollar-denominated services to Trasta’s non-resident Russian clients. This service was used to move money from Latvia to banks across the world. During this period many Wall Street banks got out of Latvia, citing concerns that the small Baltic country had become a centre for international money laundering, especially from neighbouring Russia.

From 2014, only two western lenders were willing to accept international dollar transfers from Latvian banks. They were Deutsche and Germany’s Commerzbank. Deutsche eventually withdrew correspondent services to Trasta Bank in September 2015.

9/11 victims’ families file lawsuit against Saudi Arabia

Dozens of civilians killed in US-led airstrike on Isis stronghold in Syria

At least 33 people have been killed in a US-led coalition strike on a school used as a centre for displaced people near a jihadi-held town in Syria, a monitor said. ...

The US-led coalition has been bombing Isis since 2014 and is backing a major offensive to defeat the group in Raqqa city, the Syrian heart of the group’s “Islamic caliphate”.

The school turned shelter hit on Tuesday morning lies about 20 miles (30km) west of Raqqa.

North Korean missile launch fails within seconds, as country continues to defy sanctions

North Korea’s latest missile test ended in failure after it exploded “within seconds” of launch, easing fears that the country could be on the verge of launching a long-range nuclear attack. The failed explosion Wednesday undermines comments from a North Korean government official Tuesday that the country was ready to counter any attack by the U.S. or South Korea with “every possible means.”

The failed launch was the latest in a series of increasingly frequent missile and nuclear tests carried out by North Korea in flagrant violation of sanctions put in place by the United Nations. A North Korean envoy, speaking to Reuters, made it clear that the country is unfazed by such global warnings and plans to “accelerate” nuclear and missile tests.

There’s no indication what type of rocket the hermit kingdom was testing Wednesday, but it comes just days after the country successfully carried out another missile engine test, one that Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un claimed was a breakthrough in its rocket technology.

Donald Trump Is Filling Top Pentagon and Homeland Security Positions With Defense Contractors

President Donald Trump has weaponized the revolving door by appointing defense contractors and their lobbyists to key government positions as he seeks to rapidly expand the military budget and homeland security programs. Two Department of Homeland Security appointments Trump announced Tuesday morning are perfect examples.

Benjamin Cassidy, installed by Trump as assistant secretary for legislative affairs, previously worked as a senior executive at Boeing’s international business sector, marketing Boeing military products abroad. Jonathan Rath Hoffman, named assistant secretary for public affairs, previously worked as a consultant to the Chertoff Group, the sprawling homeland security consulting firm founded by former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff. ...

Personnel from major defense companies now occupy the highest ranks of the administration including cabinet members and political appointees charged with implementing the Trump agenda. At least 15 officials with financial ties to defense contractors have been either nominated or appointed so far, with potentially more industry names on the way as Trump has yet to nominate a variety of roles in the government, including Army and Navy secretaries. ...

The Trump administration is the “military-industrial complex personified,” said William Hartung, director of the Arms & Security Project at the Center for International Policy. Hartung noted that while the administration is bringing arms industry officials into government, it is also demanding a massive increase in military spending and appears to be escalating conflicts in Syria and Yemen.

“In short, the Trump proposals are an armsmaker’s dream come true,” he said.

Donald Trump’s Muslim Laptop Ban Could Be a Protectionist Scheme

The Department of Homeland Security announced an unprecedented new restriction on travelers from 10 airports in eight Muslim-majority countries on Tuesday. ...

The 10 airports are in Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Morocco, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.

American-based airlines do not fly directly to the United States from these airports, so these restrictions will not apply to them. The impact of this move will instead fall on nine airlines, including Gulf-based carriers that U.S. airlines have been asking President Trump to punish since the day after his election.

The U.S. carriers have long complained that Gulf carriers such as Emirates, Etihad Airways, and Qatar Airways are unfairly subsidized by their national governments.

Canadian authorities are considering following the lead of the U.S. and the U.K.

Canada is contemplating drafting its own electronics ban for a list of Muslim-majority countries after the United Kingdom and the United States forbade laptops and tablets from being carried on to most flights coming from many countries in the Middle East and North Africa. ...

Washington has said intelligence regarding a planned attack informed their plans, and Canada is listening.

“I was in conversation with [Homeland Security] Secretary Kelly yesterday, and again just moments ago,” said Canadian Transportation Minister Marc Garneau on Tuesday. “He made us aware of the situation that we are analyzing very carefully.”

Garneau says Canada is still going over the intelligence but told reporters: “We will make a decision.” He wouldn’t provide a timeline. Canadian security regulations, especially when it comes to air travel, are usually lined up with the U.S., U.K., and European Union.

Meet 2 U.S. Citizens Detained at Airports: A Police Chief and a Lawyer Who Sued Trump Administration

Israeli delegation arrives in DC for White House talks about settlement construction

An Israeli delegation arrived in Washington on Sunday to hold talks with the White House about settlement activity. Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer will join the delegation, which is headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s chief of staff Yoav Horowitz and foreign policy adviser Jonathan Schachter.

Netanyahu’s office and the Trump administration “want to come to an understanding” on this issue, an Israeli official said. ...

US President Donald Trump has asked Netanyahu to constrain settlement construction, just as the prime minister is under pressure from rightwing politicians to increase such building.

This is an excellent article, worth a full read:

Top Israelis Have Warned of Apartheid, so Why the Outrage at a UN Report?

In his memoir, the Israeli journalist Hirsh Goodman described how he returned home from the Six Day War in June 1967 to hear the country’s founding father and first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, speak on the radio. “Israel, he said, better rid itself of the territories and their Arab population as soon as possible,” recalled Goodman. “If it did not Israel would soon become an apartheid state.” ...

Yet fifty years later, despite an entrenched and ongoing occupation, Israel’s defenders angrily reject any invocation of the A-word. ... To mention the grotesque crime of apartheid in the same sentence as the democratic state of Israel, they claim, is “slander”, a “smear”, a “despicable” and “blatant lie”, a shameful act of “Israel-bashing” and a “new form of anti-Semitism.” ...

Under international law, apartheid is a specific crime with specific definitions, independent of the South African experience. The 1973 International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid widened the definition of apartheid to “similar policies and practices of racial segregation and discrimination as practiced in southern Africa” and applied it to “inhuman acts committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group,” including the denial of free movement and the expropriation of land. ... [T]he International Criminal Court (ICC), defined apartheid as “inhumane acts…committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime.”

From a strictly legal perspective, therefore, whether or not Israel is identical to, or even resembles, apartheid-era South Africa is, frankly, irrelevant. The only issue that matters is whether Israel is in violation of international law. In 2009, a team of academics and lawyers commissioned by South Africa’s statutory research agency concluded that Israel maintains “a system of domination by Jews over Palestinians” and “this system constitutes a breach of the prohibition of apartheid.” In 2013, another study co-authored by international law professor and former UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Occupied Territories, John Dugard, found “Israeli practices in the occupied territory are… in breach of the legal prohibition of apartheid.”

Turkey tried to censor Twitter thousands of times last year

Twitter’s latest government transparency report reveals details about a very open secret in Turkey: The Turkish government is cracking down hard on social media.

According to the report, which is updated twice a year, the Turkish government made 493 requests for account information and 2,232 requests to remove accounts or content in the second half of 2016. It marked a 76 percent and 25 percent increase, respectively, from the first half of 2016.

Twitter says it didn’t comply with any of the information requests, and that 19 percent of the removal cases resulted in “some content [being] withheld.”

In the second half of last year, according to the transparency report, Turkey led the world in Twitter takedown requests. The second country listed in the report (France or Brazil, depending on the specific metric used) wasn’t even close.

Poor Rexxon:

Rex Tillerson: 'I didn't want this job … my wife told me I'm supposed to do this'

Rex Tillerson has said he did not want to be US secretary of state and only took the job because his wife convinced him to do it. The former ExxonMobil oil executive revealed his initial reluctance in an interview published after a controversial trip to Asia and hours before the biggest event of his two months at the state department, an international meeting on Wednesday about how to fight Islamic State (Isis).

“I didn’t want this job. I didn’t seek this job,” Tillerson told the Independent Journal Review (IJR), in an interview conducted on his official plane during the three-nation Asia trip. “My wife told me I’m supposed to do this.” He said he had not met Donald Trump before being summoned to Trump Tower after the surprise election victory, ostensibly to talk to the president-elect “about the world” and his experiences as an oil company CEO.

“When he asked me at the end of that conversation to be secretary of state, I was stunned,” he said, adding that at 65 years old, at the end of a four-decade career at ExxonMobil, he had expected to retire: “I was going to go to the ranch to be with my grandkids.” However, he said that when he returned to his Texas home after meeting Trump in New York, his wife, Renda St Clair, shook her finger in his face and said: “I told you God’s not through with you.”

He said he now feels his wife had been right: “I’m supposed to do this.”

McConnell rejects Trump's foreign aid cuts

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday shot down prospects for major parts of President Donald Trump's budget, rejecting proposed cuts to foreign aid and medical research.

"Every president sends up a budget, and with all due respect to the current president, I can't recall any time in which we have been sort of dictated to by either a Republican or a Democratic president," McConnell said in an interview with The Associated Press. "We'll put our own imprint on it, particularly with regard to overseas."

Trump's budget, which would boost military spending while slashing funds for the environment, the National Institutes of Health, public broadcasting and development projects like the Appalachian Regional Commission, was widely panned by fellow Republicans last week. ...

"America being a force is a lot more than building up the Defense Department," McConnell said. "Diplomacy is important, extremely important, and I don't think these reductions at the State Department are appropriate because many times diplomacy is a lot more effective — and certainly cheaper — than military engagement."

On another spending issue, McConnell said the politics of the moment mean Republicans controlling Washington won't touch benefit programs like Medicare and Social Security, known as entitlements.

Even Insurance CEOs Think TrumpCare Is 'Terrible'

Yet another unexpected voice emerged this week to oppose the American Healthcare Act (AHCA), the Republican plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, as insurance executive Mario Molina told the Huffington Post in an interview that the bill was "terrible" and would expose millions of people to stifling medical bills.

If AHCA passes and millions of Americans end up losing coverage—as projected by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) this month—the effects would eventually spread, Molina explained, leading to hospital closures in rural areas and the erosion of care quality for everyone.

"You can't say this is not my problem―I have insurance, this is not my problem," Molina said. "This is your problem. You just don't know it yet."

Trump tells House Republicans they risk losing in 2018 if Trumpcare isn't passed

President Trump headed to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to meet privately with members of the House in an attempt to change their minds on the Republicans’ Obamacare replacement, the American Health Care Act.

In the meeting, the president was blunt: Pass this bill or risk being voted out of office next year. “I honestly think many of you will lose your seats in 2018 if you don’t get this done,” he said.

Trump also personally called out one of the biggest critics of the bill, Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina, the powerful leader of the Freedom Caucus who previously helped oust John Boehner and could make or break the vote, scheduled for Thursday.

“Mark Meadows, I’m coming after you,” Trump said half-jokingly.

“I’m still a ‘no,’ ” Meadows said after the meeting. “I’ve had no indication that any of my Freedom Caucus colleagues have switched their votes.”

Cities and states threaten boycotts for companies bidding to build Trump's border wall

Companies looking to help build Donald Trump’s border wall may face stiff penalties if lawmakers in several key markets have their way, especially in California.

Already in San Francisco’s Bay Area, lawmakers have proposed or passed legislation that would penalize companies that bid on the 2,000-mile Mexican border wall, as part of a resistance strategy to hobble its construction.

Two San Francisco city supervisors are introducing legislation Tuesday that would prevent the city from employing companies that are trying to secure contracts to help build the wall, regardless of whether their application is successful. And Democratic state assemblyman Phil Ting proposed legislation that would give the state’s public employee and retirement systems to liquidate any assets in businesses that contract with the Trump administration to build the wall. ...

Lawmakers elsewhere are mulling similarly punitive measures against would-be wall contractors. A statewide boycott of those companies was proposed by New York Assemblywoman Nily Rozic in January. Chicago state representative Will Guzzardi also proposed a bill that would divest pension funds and investments from companies working on the border wall. Neither of those measures have come up for votes yet.



the evening greens


Brazil is handing over the Amazon rainforest to mining companies and big agriculture

Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, the massive swath of vegetation that accounts for 10 percent of the world’s known species, is again under siege. Last year alone, over 3,000 square miles were deforested, and if Brazilian President Michel Temer gets his way, a host of new infrastructure projects — dams, man-made waterways, mines — will only accelerate the degradation.

Deforestation in Brazil is nothing new; since 1970, nearly 300,000 square miles have been destroyed. But the rate of deforestation had actually slowed for much of the past decade, reflecting the “Save the Rainforest” initiative supported by countries around the world, including several countries that share the Amazon with Brazil, to reach zero net deforestation by the year 2020.

Now, however, the easing of environmental regulations in Brazil and the desire to combat the country’s brutal recession appear to once again be accelerating the demise of Brazil’s portion of the Amazon, known as Amazonia — deforestation rates were up 29 percent from the previous year. Low humidity caused by the loss of rainforest has already triggered record droughts in Brazil’s northeast. And scientists and environmentalists worry that the construction will not only have its own detrimental effects but also make way for more destructive projects in the world’s largest remaining rainforest, covering an area more than half the size of the contiguous United States. ...

Temer and his administration have begun to approve dams, waterways, and mines in the Tapajós and Xingu river basins, endangering about one-fifth of Amazonia, which is regarded by scientists as a crucial climate regulator for the planet. The government of Pará state, where the projects are planned, says that the investments will help ease the economic woes of the people who live there and the country as a whole — but the region’s ribeirinhos [traditional riverside communities], along with indigenous tribes who have long relied on the rivers and their ecosystems to survive, may instead be devastated by the results and be forced to leave their homes.

Farm Policy in Age of Climate Change Creating Another Dust Bowl, Critics Say

Over the past decade, farmers in the Great Southern Plains have suffered the worst drought conditions since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. They've battled heat, dust storms and in recent weeks, fires that devoured more than 900,000 acres and killed thousands of cattle.

These extreme conditions are being fueled by climate change. But a new report from an environmental advocacy group says they're also being driven by federal crop insurance policy that encourages farmers to continue planting crops on compromised land, year after year.

"Dust bowl conditions are coming back. Drought is back. Dust storms are back. All the climate models show the weather getting worse," said Craig Cox of the Environmental Working Group (EWG), which released the report Wednesday. "You'd think the imperative would be on adaptation, so we don't make the same mistakes we did back in the 1930s."

But, Cox explained, a provision in the 2014 Farm Bill—the sprawling legislation that funds farming and nutrition programs—encourages continued degrading of the land, making conditions worse, especially in parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, New Mexico and Kansas.


Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

Intercepted Podcast: Could Trump Start World War III?

Warnings of a ‘Powder Keg’ in Libya as ISIS Regroups

Reality and the 'Made in the U.S.A.' Famine in Yemen

Rachel Maddow Just Kicked The Gaslighting Campaign Against Berners Into Fifth Gear

Adam Schiff: Grifter, Racketeer, Warmonger

Poll: American Muslims Are Worried About Their Safety — And Getting More Active in Their Communities

David Rockefeller & October Surprise Case


A Little Night Music

Big Walter Horton - Everybody's Fishing

Big Walter Horton - Careless Love

Big Walter Horton - Stop Clownin'

Big Walter Horton - Have A Good Time

Big Walter Horton - I Need My Baby

Big Walter Horton - Tell Me Baby

Big Walter Horton - All Because Of You

Big Walter Horton - West Winds Are Blowing

Big Walter Horton - Big Walter's Boogie



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Arrow's picture

Caitlen Johnstone is on fire today...

http://www.newslogue.com/debate/407/CaitlinJohnstone

Just saying...

Here is a series of tweets about a future that is coming all too fast that's going to require radical progressive thinking.

Just throwing it out there for you to ponder....

Starting with this tweet...

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I want a Pony!

Steven D's picture

@Arrow @Arrow in power don't give a damn about a really free society.

They care about money, more and more money coming in faster and faster, no matter who gets in their way, by any means necessary, including the possible extinction or near extinction of much of the human race from anthropogenic (Human caused) climate disruption or nuclear war.

And some of them them do get their jollies from seeing people suffer. And by some I mean most of them.

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"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

Arrow's picture

@Steven D I hear you...
Pessimism seems to be the rule for everyone...including me. :/

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I want a Pony!

@Arrow thanks I had to look up the difference again, and I think definition of pessimism has changed:

...
Viewing life negatively will make an individual feel that everything will only get worse instead of getting better in time.

Because everything (for millions of people) is getting worse instead of getting better in time, it's not just a "feeling" it is reality that never quite makes the front page. Too many decades of no, nope, sorry, uh-uh, never ever, etc.. It's not just a clampdown, it's a beat down, a push down, an end of life with asset losses, no gains, no security. Nada. Zip. Doo-dah! lol you get the idea. Bad psychology.

Cynicism is different, I'm totally down with that. Spot on. Biggrin

Peace & Love

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joe shikspack's picture

@Arrow

caitlyn has been on fire for months now and shows no sign of burning down. i very much enjoy her writing and insights.

i agree entirely with the tweeter @umairh about the potential for human liberation from the drudgery of work and the nasty effects of hierarchical society. however, there is a class of people that thinks that it is just peachy for 6 people to own half of everything on earth - and that class of people is working assiduously (and very effectively to date) to prevent the sort of levelling of society that would be part and parcel of the sort of thing that the vast majority of us want.

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Big Al's picture

@Arrow as one of his biggest regrets, we the people could have about anything we want, but most people don't seem to want very much (paraphrased).

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Azazello's picture

who bid on Trump's wall. This is really ironic. Assuming that what the President wants is the kind of wall the Israelis have built in Palestine, that's gonna' take a lot of concrete.

It just so happens that whoever actually builds the wall, if it ever does get built, will most likely end up buying the concrete from a Mexican company called Cemex which enjoys a near monopoly on concrete in this part of the world. Funny, no ?

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

divineorder's picture

@Azazello

Surprised by this:

OT speaking of boycotts

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

joe shikspack's picture

@divineorder

wouldn't it be lovely if it turned out that civil society could stop trump's wall - and that it turned out that there are indeed some things that money can't purchase?

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janis b's picture

@divineorder

Even if Cemex doesn’t supply materials for the wall, it could still benefit from a boost in general demand for cement, which would help all suppliers indirectly. Cemex sees cement demand growing 4 percent and 6 percent on public works like the 2015 Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act, Trump’s $1 trillion infrastructure plan and the potential wall, according to a Thursday presentation by U.S. division President Ignacio Madridejos to investors in New York.

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Earlier this month, the company said if a client asked for prices on materials, it would have the responsibility to provide them, but said that wouldn’t imply Cemex would participate in the project. Cemex would face political pressure within Mexico if it became a supplier to the project. “It seems dishonorable for Mexican companies to participate,” Manuel Bartlett, a senator from Mexico’s Labor Party, said in an interview earlier this year.

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joe shikspack's picture

@Azazello

heh. pretty amusing! but if cemex gets the contract, they better do it cash on the barrelhead so that they don't get stuck "paying for the wall."

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Azazello's picture

@joe shikspack
Frat boys chant, "build that wall", in Mexico !
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj8IOjxK0cg width:500 height:300]

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

detroitmechworks's picture

There is no such thing as the Mafia. It's an offensive Stereotype! Why do you hate Politician-Americans?

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0mo8Rmu6AI]

Sorry, couldn't resist, but this is just getting ludicrous with the amount of crap that we are expected to swallow.

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

joe shikspack's picture

@detroitmechworks

of course there's no deep state. why we can define it out of existence!

have a great evening!

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OLinda's picture

NYPD sent video teams to record Occupy and BLM protests over 400 times, documents reveal

[Warning: Shocker ahead:]

The department could not locate legal authorizations for its surveillance operations

Good evening, bluesters. Thanks for the roundup and tunes, joe. Back to read later!

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Steven D's picture

@OLinda keys, credit cards, voter registrations. Stuff happens.

Fuhgetaboutit.

Which I imagine is exactly what will happen.

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"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

Mark from Queens's picture

@OLinda
The Kriminal Keystone Kops of the NYPD, late of billionaire oligarch Bloomberg's "private army," are probably the worst force in the country. So many here loathe them. I could write about this for days, the serious public relations problem they have, and for good reason. The Eric Garner cold-blooded murder brought a lot of folks out against them because they could no longer ignore what black folks have dealt with and known for centuries. But these scumbags were routinely getting away with this kind of stuff for decades, before everyone had cameras and a way to broadcast their murderous thuggery to the world. But has anything changed? I believe the murderer Panteleo is still on the payroll, and get this, just recently received a raise.

The TARU douchebags the article talks about were all of a sudden ubiquitous fixtures at all the protest marches and actions. We used to laugh at them, as we were filming them back (imagine the ridiculous scene, of two videotapers with their cameras pointed at each other). I'm sure I and many people I know and love are all over those films. But who cares. What are they going to do with all these reams of footage? With more and more citizen watchdog aspirants, we've now got them on surveillance, with a conscientious populace more apt to hit record on their phones whenever they see cops harassing citizens.

Officer Goomba says:

“No one is videotaping old geezers on wheelchairs protesting about trees or Roe v. Wade activists standing outside a clinic,” notes Giacalone. “The same folks in Occupy Wall Street turned into Black Lives Matter and now into anti-Trump — they’re radicals, so we can make a pretty strong argument that something criminal may happen.”

"Ayy. Wun-doo-tree, dare." They're all the same, to this guy, russians, commies, hippies, college professors, queers, etc. Up to no-good, he can tell.

Wouldn't it be something if they instead had some in the force who had a predilection for investigating and solving white collar crime, rather than mostly a bunch of locker room jocks with an urge to get their steroid-pumped rocks off roughing up, intimidating and beating down anyone with a brain, who has the courage to stand publicly against the corporate coup d'etat and Wall St heist, or just anyone who is black or brown? Nah, that would involve having to test for IQ, which would severely deplete them to a corps of say a few dozen, down from 35,000 I think it was last at.

Sadly, the vast majority will never be able to realize how they've been played like pawns by the rich, who basically tell the street cops' superiors what they're going to do to keep the public distracting and in a perpetual state of fear, creating an atmosphere of fealty to "law and order" to "protect" us, while the 1% go on pillaging, which creates the economic conditions for crime, and use that money to pay off the cops and then reward them when they get out with private security and body guard jobs that are multiple times their cop salary.

I've seen enough that these Wild West wannabe thugs disgust me. Just by nature of their assigned roles, which in many cases means writing tickets and making arrests under pressure to fill monthly quotas, these mostly low-info, under-educated, malleable, easily brainwashed, conservative-leaning malcontents are just ticking time bombs too quick to pull the trigger or fuck somebody up - just because they can. And they know they can. And will lie profusely, with the aid and protection of all the power that rancid institution exerts behind them (and some help from RW media), because they belong to an elite club, along with the wealthy, who are immunized from the rule of law. I'm all for having a series national discussion about abolishing the police, forget about reforming them.

It's never been clearer, having participated in both the OWS & BML movements and knowing my history, that the police in this country serve no other purpose than to protect rich white people's property, to crush LW dissent and to harass and arrest minorities as a pivotal driver of the prison industrial complex. Just like the FBI. Abolish them both, I say.

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"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

joe shikspack's picture

@OLinda

thanks for the link! yes that is shocking - as is this:

Jethro Eisenstein, an attorney who litigated for the rules governing NYPD political surveillance, known as the Handschu guidelines over four decades ago, says that while the department’s apparent lack of authorizations may violate departmental protocol and make activists feel like unwarranted videotaping is taking place, opponents of such activity have little legal recourse. “When you violate an internal NYPD rule, everyone becomes sad, but there’s no remedy,” says Eisenstein, whose legal challenges pushed the NYPD to create the internal rule Interim Order 22 in 2007, after allegations surfaced that the NYPD had been filming peaceful Iraq War protesters for political purposes.

it's like the first amendment doesn't exist. brrrr... that's chilly!

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Steven D's picture

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"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

joe shikspack's picture

@Steven D @Steven D

heh, some parts of this song kind of fits my mood when i hear maddow these days (i'm sure that you can guess which ones):

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thanatokephaloides's picture

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

@thanatokephaloides "Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble"

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"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

joe shikspack's picture

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divineorder's picture

Finally got comments to work by not including tweet . Hmmm. before that message from Firefox saying site is not secure.

Tried to comment several times and got error message each time

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

divineorder's picture

@divineorder

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

@divineorder
I checked the logs and just as I suspected the errors were due to an unicode character string that was in the tweet. Unicode characters are the little images that can be embedded by including a short set of characters. The one in the tweet that was causing the problem was an image of a group of roses. If you look at the tweet code you can isolate the unicode and delete it and then the tweet will display.

Our database doesn't recognize unicode characters and will kick out errors that will stop you from publishing them.

Did the FF warning happen when you were logging in? If so it was FF telling you that our login page isn't secured by an SSL Certificate. Does that sound familiar?

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OLinda's picture

@JtC

2nd time recently. That's what happened to me too. Thank you for checking it out the other night for me. I accidentally put my thank you comment as a reply to the wrong person, so not sure you saw it!

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@OLinda
No probs, here's a list of some unicode charcters. If you run into the errors again look for the corresponding code string and then simply delete the string and then it will post. You'll just be deleting the image.

Unicode characters are pretty common in tweets.

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divineorder's picture

@JtC I should have noticed those. Last time I saw them had learned to cut them out but forgot this time. Sorry!

Firefox did not mention SSL Certificate but have seen that somewhere else before. Maybe on my phone. Might have been SSL Cert but they used working for non techs ?

Have noticed that the little padlock icon has a line through it sometimes when I am reading C99 but just thought it curious. Should I be concerned ?

Hope all is well in your rock n roll world !!

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

@divineorder
the error, so I can't really say for sure. But my guess is, without seeing it, is it's a warning that FF routinely issues for sites that don't use a SSL Certificate. We don't have one yet because we barely have the funds to keep this site online, let alone purchase a certificate.

A SSL Certificate encrypts information, you'll see https in the address bar rather than http. They are mainly used for commercial sites that send sensitive information such as credit card numbers, banking info, etc. We don't send any sensitive information like that so a SSL Cert. wont do us much good, except when it comes to logging in. Everything that is published here is open for the world to see so encrypting our everyday operation is a little overkill, especially when you consider the bandwidth hit that we'd experience by encrypting the whole site.

Where a SSL Certificate would help us is on our login page. It would encrypt the username and password of the member that is logging in. This encryption would be extremely important if you were logging in at a public wifi spot where that pimply little kid over in the corner may be using a packet sniffing program to pull down unencrypted info out of the air, that he/she could then use to login to your account. An encrypted SSL Cert. would make it almost impossible to grab that info. If you don't use public wifi and login from your personal wifi point at home or connect to the internet directly then you really don't have much worry about packet sniffing programs, unless your home network is unencrypted and that pimply kid is sitting outside your house in his/her car and is wardriving (riding your wifi without your permission) Biggrin

With all that said, if someone can grab a screenshot of the warning it would help me to diagnose it.

I also suspect that a recent FireFox update may be the reason these warnings are suddenly popping up.

PS: I scan this site daily for malware and it is clean.

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joe shikspack's picture

@JtC

sometime last week, firefox had an update and now when i get the login page a warning displays on the login lines. i can get you the exact text, but i don't think that it matters, because it is going to turn out to be a matter of our not having the ssl certificate, i'm almost positive.

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@joe shikspack
I haven't updated FF yet and surmized that that may be why folks are seeing that warning and I'm not. It's probably a new FF policy to warn about SSL on login.

If you click the little "i" icon to the far left of the address bar it will say that "connection is not secure". If you then click the arrow to the right it gives more info, that pertains to having A SSL Cert. Is the warning similar to that?

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joe shikspack's picture

@JtC

connection not secure. information entered could be compromised.

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divineorder's picture

@joe shikspack @joe shikspack noticing.

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

divineorder's picture

@JtC password logins on my hotspots. But I had a warning messsage this am in non standard english about my password mgt software not allowing an app I was attempting to download to my android to be downloaded. Then Gmail sent me a message that a linux machine that I don't have and did not recognize had logged in to my account. Have two factor authentication but I changed my password anyway.

Thanks for the explanation about ssl, learned something!

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

@divineorder
The thing about warnings like that is it unduly scares some folks. I got an email from a member earlier today and she was afraid to log in to the site because of it.

I sometimes think that browser maintainers may be paid to issue warnings like that to help the bottom line of the companies that sell SSL Certificates. I have no proof of that but isn't that how the world spins.

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divineorder's picture

@JtC

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

@divineorder
one way or another for sure do, but I have seen rumors that Mozilla Firefox tracks its users. I haven't researched that but would it really be a surprise if they did, open source and all, there's big money in tracking.

But that's just conjecture on my part.

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thanatokephaloides's picture

@JtC

I also suspect that a recent FireFox update may be the reason these warnings are suddenly popping up.

I can confirm that.

Warnings started appearing for me at the update for version 52.0.1 (Linux x86-64).

Hope this helps.

Smile

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

@thanatokephaloides

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thanatokephaloides's picture

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

smiley7's picture

Many thanks for today's good work.

When asked by NBC "if there was more than circumstantial evidence" in Trumpgate,

Rep. Schiff said "There is more than circumstantial evidence now...and is very much worthy of investigation."

This plot is thickening fast...

and I've memories of watching Watergate coming to mind:

The accusations that have been leveled and the evidence of wrongdoing that has surfaced has cast a black cloud of distrust over our entire society. Our citizens do not know whom to believe, and many of them have concluded that all the processes of government have become so compromised that honest governance has been rendered impossible. We believe that the health, if not the survival, of our social structure and of our form of government requires the most candid and public investigation of all the evidence.... As the elected representatives of the people, we would be derelict in our duty to them if we failed to pursue our mission expeditiously, fully, and with the utmost fairness. The nation and history itself are watching us. We cannot fail our mission.

~ Sen. Sam Ervin, Jr. 1973

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smiley7's picture

@smiley7 http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/325325-schiff-evidence-of-tr...

"I can tell you that the case is more than that," Schiff said. "And I can't go into the particulars, but there is more than circumstantial evidence now."

"I don't want to go into specifics, but I will say that there is evidence that is not circumstantial and is very much worthy of investigation. So that is what we ought to do."

Schiff was responding to assertions by Todd that all evidence pointing to coordination between Trump aides and Moscow up to this point was purely circumstantial and that no direct evidence of wrongdoing has yet been revealed.

Schiff called for the creation of a special commission to investigate Russian election meddling and Trump and his associates' potential ties to Moscow. And he blasted Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), who revealed earlier on Wednesday that the U.S. intelligence community had incidentally collected information on members of Trump's campaign team, and briefed the president on the matter without consulting with the committee first.

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joe shikspack's picture

@smiley7

heh, well, i will wait to see the "not circumstantial" evidence that schiff is bloviating about when it is released to the public. somehow, i kind of doubt that it will amount to anything close to trump coordinating the details of stealing an election with russia.

but, we'll see. i suppose if hillary was corrupt enough to steal a primary election, it's a possibility that another of her elite class is similarly corrupt enough to attempt to steal a general election.

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smiley7's picture

@joe shikspack

I smell prosecutorial and tradecraft methods percolating on the stove, puppets being used, putting the pressure on, one step at a time.

Treason is a big deal and one only has to be associated to be found guilty, as I understand.

But, I’ve read too many spy novels. Smile

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joe shikspack's picture

@smiley7

i hope all is well for you and yours, smiley. take care!

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janis b's picture

@smiley7

I guess our representatives are derelict then.

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smiley7's picture

@janis b @janis b as senator Sam said:

Our citizens do not know whom to believe, and many of them have concluded that all the processes of government have become so compromised that honest governance has been rendered impossible.

good to see you jb!

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janis b's picture

@smiley7

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divineorder's picture

106 (1024x683).jpg Toucans keep a skeptical eye on us down below as they prepare to mate. Puerto Jimenez, Costa Rica, February, 2017

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

joe shikspack's picture

@divineorder

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divineorder's picture

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

Unabashed Liberal's picture

Street piece--he's one of my favorite writers. (Also, agree with him that Timm didn't quite connect the dots.)

Something broke earlier today on Russiagate, but I only caught dribs and drabs of what the excitement was about. Whatever happened, it appears that McCain and Graham are already joining the Opposition Party (the MSM) and the Dems in demanding a 'Select Committee.' Boy, that didn't take long!

I've heard that McCain probably won't seek office, again; but, what puzzles me is how Graham manages to keep getting elected, when he has for years (practically) caucused with the corporatist Dems. Isn't he from South Carolina? Hey, I take that back--just Googled the results of the Presidential election, and SC came in much heavier for FSC than I ever would have figured (40.7). Actually, I recall some folks talking about SC being 'Bush Country, so it must lean heavily 'corporatist' Repub--which is almost the same as the Grifters' politics. Seriously, the next several weeks, if not months, might prove to be quite interesting. Of course, it's a shame if a silly distraction like Russiagate serves to give cover to the Administration, and possibly the Dems, if they decide to work together to further fleece us of our Social Safety Net.

Gotta walk 'the B,' but want to make a pitch for pushing for a health care system like our political elite have (when I get back).

Later.

Mollie


"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went."--Will Rogers

“When the narrative at the heart of a system of rule falls apart, when the flow of history runs counter to the story told by those in power, then we know the entire edifice is crumbling under the weight of its own contradictions.

The political crisis arrives when the people sense that the prevailing order is built on a foundation of oppressions and lies.

The rulers panic, scrambling to reweave the matrix of fables and myths that justify their waning supremacy. At such points in history, the truth is up for grabs – and a change of regime is in the offing.”
--Glen Ford, Black Agenda Report

[my boldface and re-paragraphing]

Taro
Taro, SOSD

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

joe shikspack's picture

@Unabashed Liberal

the latest thing that i could find on the russia hysteria broke about 5 hours ago - adam schiff had an enormous hissy fit:

Trump-Russia inquiry in 'grave doubt' after GOP chair briefs White House

The top Democrat on one of the congressional committees investigating ties between Donald Trump and Russia has raised “grave doubt” over the viability of the inquiry after its Republican chairman shared information with the White House and not their committee colleagues. ...

“These actions raise enormous doubt about whether the committee can do its work,” Schiff said late Wednesday afternoon after speaking with Nunes, his fellow Californian, before telling MSNBC that evidence tying Trump to Russia now appeared “more than circumstantial”.

Two days after testimony from the directors of the FBI and NSA that dismissed any factual basis to Trump’s 4 March claim that Barack Obama had him placed under surveillance, Nunes publicly stated he was “alarmed” to learn that the intelligence agencies may have “incidentally” collected communications from Trump and his associates.

Nunes, who served on Trump’s national security transition team, said the surveillance “appears to be all legally collected” and masked the identities of Americans, but did so in such a way that Nunes could hazard a guess as to whom the intercepted communications discussed. Nunes added that the alleged intercepts did not actually concern Russia.

“Details about persons associated with the incoming administration, details with little apparent foreign intelligence value were widely disseminated in intelligence community reporting,” said Nunes, who has shifted the focus of the inquiry onto leaks that Trump blames on the intelligence agencies.

schiff called for an independent inquiry. but, as to his assertion that there is some new evidence that is not just circumstantial, i cannot find any trace of it in any of the few postings i scanned (other than schiff's screaming assertion that it exists).

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The evidence is irrefutable, per this bit of news from the NHL, of which Bettman is the odious and loathworthy commissioner:

Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin will wear Russian-American themed Bauer Vapor 1X skates for pregame warmups as part of Russian Heritage Night when the Capitals host the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; CSN-DC, FS-O, NHL.TV).

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

joe shikspack's picture

@UntimelyRippd

my god! it's clear evidence of communist subversion to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids! Smile

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

divineorder's picture

Look forward to that promised comment ! Smile

FWIW, here is what AARP is saying now.

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

Unabashed Liberal's picture

@divineorder

brought it up in a thread earlier this week, when he mentioned the VA/military medical system as being the closest thing that we have (here) to the NHS. Now, I realize that most folks in these neck of the woods despise the MIC, but I've wondered more than once, how they would feel about nationalizing not only the VA, but the entire active duty military medical system, and opening it up to everyone. (Obviously, the system would have to be greatly expanded in terms of real estate and personnel.) But, I'd think that it would be worth considering, when one considers the holes that are in our (Traditional) Medicare and Medicare Advantage systems, not to mention in our private insurance industry.

Long story short--I'd say that my Family received the best medical care that we've ever experienced (to date) at the hands of Air Force and Army physicians, PAs (Physician Assistants), and RNs. Including care received at one of the largest military medical centers in the Lower 48, and care rendered on a couple of 1500-mile Medevac flights from Interior Alaska to Washington State.

Tomorrow I will outline the 'costs' to us, which were nominal. Bottom line, our political elites make use of their services (meaning the President and his family, and WH staff, the Congress, and the SCOTUS)--why don't we?

Pleasantry

Have a good one!

Mollie


"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went."--Will Rogers

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

divineorder's picture

@Unabashed Liberal After reading an indictment of Brand New Congress here yesterday you may be right.

Like the VA, had a nurse practitioner friend who retired from it. My dad, a wounded and decorated WWII vet used .

However, our military is a tool of the oligarchs, vets support it...

I will look forward with interest to your post.

OT, but I still wonder if it will ever be possible to wrench control/end the current reality of endless war somehow. If we expanded the VA to all? What would be the consequence?

The model used by the VA has promise. Again look forward to your comment/essay.

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

snoopydawg's picture

The first article about Russia gate and the Democratic Party are for Chumps is great

But Trump and his team should be defenestrated for what offenses and with what higher purpose? To put another dismal dollar Democrat like Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, or Barack Obama in power? God no. The neoliberal “free market” ideology that Democrats have been advancing every bit as much as (and more effectively than) Republicans over the last generation and more is how we got to this horrific Trumpian moment. Corporate power long ago turned the Democratic Party into a democratically useless lap-dog of the leading financial institutions, top multinational corporations, and the vast U.S. military empire. This depresses and demobilizes much of the nation’s poor and working class citizenry (or ex-citizenry), turning millions into non-voters and millions more into supporters of the ever more rightward, white-nationalist Republican Party.

At the same time, the reigning neoliberal doctrine shared by top Democrats and Republicans – “two wings of the same bird of prey” (Upton Sinclair, 1904) – has stripped American government of its capacity and willpower to carry out positive social and democratic functions.

But I keep reading that anyone who says that there isn't any difference between the two parties is insane and not paying attention to what the republicans want to do to us.
It's true that they do want to create havoc and misery for us, but the democrats won't fight back against them so that is why there isn't any difference between the two parties.

The Caitlyn article on Rachel was great too. I think she is writing about the episode that I had the misfortune to see last night.
Rachel went on and on about the Russian bots that she labeled international warfare against our country.

I don't know why she wrote IF in response to this statement. The democratic establishment has already pulled it off.
Just look at the many diaries on DK about how Russia interfered with the election and that is the reason why Hillary lost the election to Trump. It just can't be because she was a shitty candidate that no one believed that she wouldn't push the TPP on us or any of the other things she was campaigning on.
Her history of 30 years told me that she was blowing smoke up our collective a$$es.

How great will it be for the Democratic establishment if they can pull this one off, though? If they can convince rank-and-file Democrats that they didn’t just run an unbelievably incompetent campaign using a historically despised candidate they illicitly installed as their nominee, but rather acted perfectly only to be thwarted by the hypnotic allure of Russian propaganda? How much of a boon would it be to the Democratic party if they can convince their disenfranchised progressive base that their experience of being lied to, cheated, exploited and used by the party and its loyalists really was just the “brainless anti-Clinton mush” that Rachel Maddow says it was? They’d never have to change. Never have to risk losing any of their cozy power positions to progressive newcomers or displeasing their corporatist donors with a shift to the left on economic justice. Everything could go right back to how it was before that annoying Sanders character came along and rocked the boat.

Again, how people could believe that she would have been the most qualified president ever is so damned mind boggling!

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

But I keep reading that anyone who says that there isn't any difference between the two parties is insane and not paying attention to what the republicans want to do to us.

there is a terminology, "a distinction without a difference" that i think describes the two wings of the corporate biparty.

neither of the corporate parties means to do us any good.

Again, how people could believe that she would have been the most qualified president ever is so damned mind boggling!

qualified to do what? her record at state doesn't exactly speak to her competence or success.

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snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack
What exactly did she do before she ran for president that made her the most qualified person to do so?
She finally admitted that her vote for the Iraq war was a Mistake
That using her private email server was a Mistake
And of course pushing for fracking all over the world was probably another Mistake
As was giving 45 speeches and calling the TPP the gold standard another Mistake
Finally saying that she decided that SSM was a good idea.
Most people usually learn from their Mistakes but since she wanted more troops in Afghanistan, pushed Obama to destroy Libya and Syria, it doesn't look like she has learned from her

Mistakes.
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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Unabashed Liberal's picture

Mollie


"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went."--Will Rogers

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

janis b's picture

The more it seems, that information is dispersed through alternative media, the more robust in trying to dominate the discussion the MSM becomes. I think we should organise a squad to remove every tv in every house across the country. I’d find it difficult at times though to sacrifice my radio ; ).

[video:https://youtu.be/QUvZOuhrRkI]

Have a fine evening all.

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joe shikspack's picture

@janis b

if we killed the teevees, fsm only knows what vast numbers of people would do with their time. probably spend their days staring at their blank screens waiting for something to happen. am i too cynical or what? Smile

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janis b's picture

@joe shikspack

I'd say, "you're too funny".

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mimi's picture

@joe shikspack
to catch up with what has happened on the EB twelve hours before. Luckily I got something that exites me. I want to have a Rex Tillerson-type for a husband. That would be my dream come through. I tell him what he has to do, and he just does it. Heavenly.

And I read every word of every article you link to on the EB. That's helly. Smile

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joe shikspack's picture

@mimi

And I read every word of every article you link to on the EB. That's helly.

heh, now i feel sorta guilty about posting so much material. Smile

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snoopydawg's picture

@janis b
doing exactly what you wrote?
Caitlyn nailed the Rachel's essence last night when she went on her usual 20 minute ramp up to get to the point of the topic she is ranting about.

Employing her trademarked Gish Gallop fallacious argument tactic, Maddow then snowed her viewers with another completely separate report about the Russian government using bots (which she horrifyingly labeled “international warfare against our country") to circulate articles from Infowars, Breitbart, RT and Sputnik, without ever explaining how that in any way relates to the troll-circulated Macedonian clickbait referenced in the other article. Maddow uses this tactic constantly, by the way, overwhelming her viewers with rapid-fire arguments that are weak in themselves, but strung together with an authoritative tone and generous lashings of her famous Resting Smug Face to confuse the viewer into thinking they just listened to a persuasive case. That’s why you encounter so many people online who are extremely confident about the evidence for Russiagate, for example, but when questioned, they even seem to surprise themselves with their inability to articulate a solid line of thought to clearly back up that initial surge of confidence with facts.

Gish Gallop fallacious, indeed. I like these new words.
http://www.newslogue.com/debate/407/CaitlinJohnstone

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

janis b's picture

@snoopydawg

I hadn’t read it, because I have little or no interest in what she has to say. I have a close friend and sister who honour her opinion, and that disturbs me. So I avoid engaging with it, her.

I see now after reading, what you mean. Sad.

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Azazello's picture

Whatever you're doing right now, go to this website, KXCI, and click LISTEN LIVE. This is the best 4 hours on radio. First it's Sabor del Barrio, 6 to 8 my time , then Chicano Connection with Bob Diaz.
Trust me , music lovers, this is the goods.

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

Mark from Queens's picture

@Azazello
side of the page.

Pretty cool and eclectic. Wonder if the Drive By Truckers song is a cover of the AC/DC one...

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"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

janis b's picture

@Azazello

The Spanish Harlem Orchestra ...

[video:https://youtu.be/tOwhYiUM1MY]

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joe shikspack's picture

@Azazello

good stuff!

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shaharazade's picture

is just fucked up. I never did like academic lefties (Noam Chomsky et al ) that are so hooked up to the system as we know it that they can tell you every theoretical problem in the universe but have absolutely no solution that is rooted in real life. I did not like Mc Govern. I do not like Bernie. They to me represent how weak and hooked up and lame what passes for resistance lefties are. They are part of what holds back any meaningful change or real movement outside the gates of Eden.

Maybe this has always been the way. Easier then actually taking on the powers that be. Sit in your academic ivory towers and tell us all what's going on. Somehow at this time I could careless who among the endless the pontificating lefties are talking the fucked up world we are inhabiting. I refuse to look at the world as we find it from any of these creeps viewpoints. They feed the insanity by making the story about us vs. them. As an added attraction we get to hear about how messed up the Dems. are. Like we did not know Like this is not something the populist has not figured out.

So anyway Joe thanks for the news and yet it really is not news it's just Chinatown writ large. So mad, so sad and yet even here a CC99% we drool and feed on the latest greatest revelation of absolute garbage. Why? Is there not a reality that is beyond this political garbage. I think so but it has nothing to do with Trumps latest outrage or Chelsea's whatever. I'm tired of wallowing in this mire which has nothing to do with left/right or D vs R.

It maybe news but it has nothing to do with reality. Maybe people here in the USA! would not be so crazy if they we're not jerked around and portrayed by the right and barely left as caricatures of us vs.them. How many times must I read that Trump did it or Putin did it when I have lived though the history that I witnessed and figured out by my ownlying eyes.

None of the news you published is news it's just more of the same from the ever increasing heat that emanates from both the false right and left in this global fuckatude. Thank you Joe for publishing the news and letting us here sort it out for ourselves.

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joe shikspack's picture

@shaharazade

most of the time, i think the vast majority of americans would be ready to dump the current political system for something else. it's a matter of enough people getting on the same page and acting in concert.

one day, that just might happen and realities will realign.

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mimi's picture

@joe shikspack
I certainly wished Joe's wish came through. In order to be a somewhat better informed member from the outer US-Space to this site I ordered the following book:
Revolution for Dummies
Sharazade, may be it's a funny book and gets you in a better mood.
I am going truthdigging in my backyard to eradicate poison ivy. Very satisfying work. I recommend it.

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shaharazade's picture

@mimi Your right I should and will go outside and start the long process of turning my yard into a garden again. Sorry everyone for being such a negative, grumpy, ranter, lately. Maybe I need a break from politics and fake news. This winter has also been a depressor here in OR. The weather this endless winter has broken all kinds of records. We've had about 3 days with any sun at all since last fall. Ice pellets, snow and record breaking rain and cold cold. There, it's more fun to bitch about the weather then the horrendous global state of human society. I will try to refrain being such a drag. Last night after dinner I re-watched a funny movie from my youth, Monty Python's, The Holy Grail. It was even funnier then I remembered. A good laugh is good for your sanity. So is music. Perceptive and all that. Sorry to go on Joe and mimi and everyone it's just too crazy and surreal to deal with.

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shaharazade's picture

@shaharazade for the book recommendation. I just ordered it up (put a hold on it) from my county library website. It got good reviews from those who read it. There are 26 people ahead of me who have requested it and only 3 copies available but it sounds like it's worth the wait. It's now on my hold list.

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janis b's picture

who first coined the term 'Deep State'.

He's also a poet.

To have learnt from terror
to see oneself
as part of the enemy
can be a reassurance

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Granma's picture

Udo Ulfkotte is to be available in English in May. The title is: Journalists for Hire:How the CIA Buys the News If you haven't heard of this book, apparently the author says that all major journalists are bought and paid for. They say what they are told to say, and don't say what they aren't supposed to. This is according to reports. I can't read German, so have not read the book, though I am looking forward to reading it in English.

Ulfkotte died from a heart attack on 13 January 2017 at the age of 56.

And hello Joe. Thank you for the news.

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mimi's picture

@Granma
Putin has messed up his mind that triggered his heart attack. ... CIA just scratched their heads. May be Trump hired Ulfkotte's ghostwriter? Real life is so much better than fiction, right?

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joe shikspack's picture

@Granma

i had read an article about him sometime back that laid out the claims that you posted, but i'll be interested to see his book. thanks for reminding me about him and to keep my eyes open for his book!

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