The Evening Blues - 3-21-17
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features musical innovator Chuck Berry. Enjoy!
Chuck Berry passes at 90
"In the space of one hundred and seventy-six years the Lower Mississippi has shortened itself two hundred and forty-two miles. That is an average of a trifle over one mile and a third per year. Therefore, any calm person, who is not blind or idiotic, can see that in the Old Oolitic Silurian Period, just a million years ago next November, the Lower Mississippi River was upwards of one million three hundred thousand miles long, and stuck out over the Gulf of Mexico like a fishing-rod. And by the same token any person can see that seven hundred and forty-two years from now the Lower Mississippi will be only a mile and three-quarters long, and Cairo and New Orleans will have joined their streets together, and be plodding comfortably along under a single mayor and a mutual board of aldermen. There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact."
-- Mark Twain
News and Opinion
Newly Obtained Documents Prove: Key Claim of Snowden’s Accusers is a Fraud
The campaign to depict Snowden as a Russian or Chinese spy has centrally depended upon the accusation that he is lying about how he spent his first 11 days in Hong Kong. Snowden’s version of events has never changed from the very first interview we published with him at the Guardian: on May 20, 2013, he boarded a flight from Honolulu to Hong Kong, checked into the Mira Hotel on May 21 under his own name, and then stayed continuously in Room 1014 at the Mira as he waited for the arrival of the journalists with whom he was working, paying for the room with his own credit cards.
As the journalists working on the Snowden documents, Laura Poitras and I arrived in Hong Kong on June 2, and spent the next eight days working with Snowden in Room 1014 at the Mira. Snowden thus stayed continuously at the Mira from May 21, the day after he arrived Hong Kong, until June 10, when he left due to the media craze triggered by our Guardian article revealing his identity.
But this group of accusatory journalists has repeatedly accused Snowden of lying about this time-line. They insist that Snowden checked into the Mira Hotel for the first time only on June 1: eleven days after he claims he did. They have thus spent years discussing the significance of what they ominously refer to as “The Missing Eleven Days.” This sinister Missing Eleven Days has become key to the tale they have woven to prove Snowden is a spy.
But that claim is an outright lie, and always has been. Documents now provided by the Mira Hotel to Snowden’s lawyers (all of which are available here and here) in Hong Kong prove the truth of exactly what Snowden has always said: that he checked into the Mira Hotel on May 21 and stayed there, under his own name, continuously through June 10.
Fox drops analyst who said UK might have helped spy on Trump
Fox News has dropped a legal analyst who claimed British intelligence might have helped spy on Donald Trump during his bid to become US president. Andrew Napolitano had been pulled from the channel, a source at Fox said. The network made no immediate comment on Monday.
Napolitano said last week on Fox & Friends he had three intelligence sources who said Obama went “outside the chain of command” to watch Trump. Britain dismissed the report as “nonsense” after the White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, quoted it in a briefing, part of the administration’s continued defence of Trump’s unproven contention that Obama wiretapped him at Trump Tower during the 2016 presidential campaign.
FBI Head: Trump Campaign Under Investigation for Ties to Russia; No Evidence Obama Wiretapped Trump
Every Argument Being Made For Russiagate Could Also Be Made For Pizzagate
Well as predicted the Russia hearings thus far have been a big fat nothingburger with a diet nothing soda and a side of deep fried nothing, garnished of course with an abundance of McCarthyist rhetoric. When you’ve got Adam Schiff pressing an FBI director over and over and over again to speculate as to Russia’s geopolitical preferences, you know they’ve got nothing. Schiff gave a statement in the form of a vapid ten-minute Rachel Maddow impression hilariously called “Adam Schiff masterfully connects the dots between Trump and Russia — and it’s damning” in an article by Rawstory, in which he brought up the error-riddled Pissgate dossier and “masterfully connected the dots” between events that can all be easily explained by the fact that sometimes businessmen do business in Russia and that Trump may not want to increase tensions with a nuclear superpower. ...
I do not intend in this article to make the case that Pizzagate is real. I just want to point out here the absurdity and hypocrisy of dismissing Pizzagate allegations without a thought while clamoring for a Russiagate investigation based on the same amount of evidence (if not less), and all because the talking heads on TV are telling America’s liberals that one is a laughable conspiracy theory and the other is a perfectly legitimate concern that needs to be looked into. That is indeed the only thing that’s causing mainstream liberals to take Russiagate seriously while dismissing Pizzagate; if these same people had been told by the same corporate media outlets to laugh at Russiagate and pay serious attention to Pizzagate, they’d have blindly obeyed without batting an eye and we all know it.
Think about it; does it really make sense to call Rex Tillerson’s business ties in Russia “circumstantial evidence” but deny the same label to the fact that Comet Pizza’s incredibly creepy James Alefantis has ties to the pedophile-friendly Podesta brothers and to accused child trafficker Laura Silsby, who was spared from conviction by a lawyer who was later arrested for sex trafficking in an unrelated event? Or that his Instagram account is full of pictures of children intermixed with hardcore pornographic images and has comments using pedophile slang, and that there are known pedophilia symbols both associated with his shop and the with performers that appear there? ...
Why can pundits like Thomas Friedman appear on Meet the Press, openly acknowledge that there is no real evidence for Trump-Russia collusion, and then cite that as a reason to have an investigation? How is it fine for him to say “I agree there is no evidence, which is why we need a special prosecutor or an independent commission to get to the bottom of it,” but anyone who says Pizzagate needs so much as a simple police investigation gets spurned and dismissed? Is not the possibility of a child sex trafficking ring existing among DC's political elites at least as serious as investigating whether Trump was involved in Russia’s alleged exposure of DNC corruption? Is not child sex slavery at least as concerning as the possibility that Trump “colluded” with the Russians doing something they wouldn't have even required his collusion for in order to do?
Rex Tillerson will miss Nato talks for China meeting and visit to Russia
US secretary of state Rex Tillerson plans to skip an April meeting of Nato foreign ministers for a visit by the Chinese president and will travel to Russia later in the month, US officials said on Monday, a step allies may see as putting Moscow’s concerns ahead of theirs.
Reuters news agency reported that Tillerson intends to miss what would be his first meeting in Brussels, on 5-6 April, with the 28 Nato members to attend President Donald Trump’s expected 6-7 April talks with Chinese president Xi Jinping at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, citing four current and former US officials.
The decisions to skip the Nato meeting and to visit Moscow risked feeding a perception that Trump may be putting US dealings with big powers before those of smaller nations that depend on Washington for their security, two former US officials told Reuters.
New U.S.-led force to deter Russia in Poland
A U.S.-led battalion of more than 1,100 soldiers will be deployed in Poland from the start of April, a U.S. commander said on Monday, as the alliance sets up a new force in response to Moscow's 2014 annexation of Crimea.
More than 900 U.S. soldiers, around 150 British personnel and some 120 Romanian troops will make up the battlegroup in northeastern Poland, one of four multinational formations across the Baltic region that Russia has condemned as an aggressive strategy on its frontiers.
"This is a mission, not a cycle of training events," U.S. Army Lt. Colonel Steven Gventer, who heads the battlegroup, told a news conference. "The purpose is to deter aggression in the Baltics and in Poland ... We are fully ready to be lethal."
Britain, Canada and Germany are leading the other three battlegroups in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which are due to be operational by June. They will have support from a series of NATO nations including France.
In total, some 4,000 NATO troops - equipped with tanks, armored vehicles, air support and hi-tech mission information rooms - will monitor for and defend against any potential Russian incursions.
This Ship (United States) is Sinking Says Former Bush Official
U.S. and coalition airstrikes against ISIS spike as Mosul, Raqqa offensives heat up
Aircraft from the Air Force, other branches of the U.S. military and coalition nations released more than 7,000 weapons against the Islamic State in January and February — the most of any two-month stretch since Operation Inherent Resolve began more than two and a half years ago. ...
A Military Times investigation in February found that potentially thousands of airstrikes, such as strikes conducted over the years by attack helicopters and armed drones operated by the Army, were not included in AFCENT's statistics. This means that the number of weapons released so far this year is likely higher than the statistics show.
Turkey won't accept 'region of terror' in northern Syria, deputy PM says
Turkey will not accept a "region of terror" in northern Syria and the ethnic structure of the area should be kept intact, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said on Monday, comments that appeared aimed at a Syrian-Kurdish militia.
His comments at news conference in Ankara came after the Syrian-Kurdish YPG militia said Russia was setting up a military base in northwestern Syria and would help train YPG fighters.
The U.S. will forbid electronics bigger than phones on airlines based in 13 countries
Attention all passengers on the 12-and-a-half hour non-stop flight from New York to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: Bring a lot of magazines.
A forthcoming Department of Homeland Security rule will reportedly forbid passengers from boarding certain flights with electronic devices larger than a cell phone, the Guardian reports; instead, passengers will have to check devices like iPads and laptops. The edict affects carriers from 13 countries, including Royal Jordanian airlines and Saudi Arabia’s Saudia Airlines.
“We have no comment on potential security precautions but will provide an update when appropriate,” a DHS spokesperson told VICE News. The Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Justice referred requests for comment to DHS.
Experts criticize US electronic devices ban on some flights from Middle East
The US government’s unexpected ban on laptops, iPads and other electronics “larger than a cellphone” on flights from 10 airports in the Middle East has sparked criticism from technology experts, who say the new rules appear to be at odds with basic computer science.
Hours after the distribution of a “confidential” edict from the US Transportation Safety Administration (TSA), senior Trump administration officials told a hastily convened press briefing on Monday night the ban had been brought in after “evaluated intelligence” emerged that terrorists favored “smuggling explosive devices in various consumer items”.
Passengers will be allowed to stow their devices in checked-in baggage on flights from the affected airports, which are in Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. None of them are covered by the Trump administration’s ban on travel from six other mostly Muslim nations; all, in fact, are in countries which are close US allies.
Officials at the US department of homeland security (DHS) have claimed that the ban will help prevent terrorist attacks on commercial airlines, but tech experts questioned the safety implications. If there are concerns about laptops on board being used as explosives, they said, those same risks could exist in checked baggage. Furthermore, many smartphones, which are not banned, have the same capabilities as larger devices. “It’s weird, because it doesn’t match a conventional threat model,” said Nicholas Weaver, researcher at the International Computer Science Institute at the University of California, Berkeley. “If you assume the attacker is interested in turning a laptop into a bomb, it would work just as well in the cargo hold. If you’re worried about hacking, a cellphone is a computer.”
Inside How the Federalist Society & Koch Brothers Are Pushing for Trump to Reshape Federal Judiciary
No African citizens granted visas for African trade summit in California
An annual African trade summit in California had no African attendees this year after at least 60 people were denied visas, according to event leaders.
The African Global Economic and Development Summit, a three-day conference at the University of Southern California (USC), typically brings delegations from across Africa to meet with business leaders in the US in an effort to foster partnerships. But this year, every single African citizen who requested a visa was rejected, according to organizer Mary Flowers.
Some are now questioning whether the denials to the Los Angeles event could be tied to the anti-immigration policies of Donald Trump, who is pushing forward with a travel ban against six Muslim-majority countries despite ongoing legal challenges.
Flowers said roughly 60 to 100 people from at least a dozen nations were denied entry to the summit, which went on as planned with a much smaller group last Thursday through Saturday.
“I don’t know if it’s Trump or if it’s the fact that the embassies that have been discriminating for a long time see this as an opportunity, because of talk of the travel ban, to blatantly reject everyone,” Flowers said in an interview on Monday. “These trade links create jobs for both America and Africa. It’s unbelievable what’s going on.”
Keiser Report: Health Care Hard Choices
Republicans unveil make-or-break bid to repeal and replace Obamacare
Republican leaders have introduced sweeping changes to their contentious plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in an attempt to sway wary conservatives and moderates. But a coalition of House hardliners said they were not persuaded. The revision to the bill, known as the American Health Care Act, are intended placate conservatives with changes to Medicaid as well as the moderates who are concerned the original proposal would hurt older patients. ...
Key changes to the bill include allowing states to impose work requirements on Medicaid recipients; granting a lump sum of federal Medicaid funding to states to do with as they wish; and immediately prohibiting any additional states from expanding the Medicaid program. The initial proposal allowed states to expand Medicaid until January 2020.
The revision also hastens the repeal of ACA tax provisions - such as increases on higher earners and the medical industry, among others - from 2018 to 2017, a win for conservatives who want to see them removed as quickly possible. And another change would provide additional tax credits to help older Americans, who would see dramatic increases in their premiums under the current proposal, but are letting the Senate draft the language for the provision.
Backing Ryan's New "Crueler" Health Plan, Trump Threatens Reluctant Lawmakers
President Donald Trump appeared on Capitol Hill early Tuesday to strong-arm lawmakers into voting for the updated version of the GOP's American Healthcare Act (AHCA), which overnight was made "even crueler to the poor and working class" in a bid to win over the most conservative faction of House Republicans. ...
As for whether the changes succeeded in winning over conservative holdouts, The Hill reported on Tuesday:
The Hill's Whip List shows that 17 House Republicans currently plan to vote no on the healthcare legislation, suggesting the final vote tally will be a nail-biter. Ryan and his team can only afford 21 GOP defections if all Democrats vote no, as they are expected to do.
GOP leadership aides declined to share their internal whip count but said they are picking up votes daily and "feel very good about where we are and how our conversations are going."
For his part, Trump reportedly threatened House Republicans on Tuesday, saying essentially, "If you don't pass the bill there could be political costs," Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) told the Associated Press.
House Freedom Caucus chairman Mark Meadows announced that his group will no longer formally oppose the AHCA, but many note that the updates only increase the likelihood that the AHCA will be "dead on arrival," as Klein put it, when it reaches the Senate.
Donald Trump Plans to Eliminate Legal Aid Funding That Supports Survivors of Domestic Violence
If President Donald Trump’s “skinny budget” blueprint is adopted and passed by Congress, the federal funding that supports ... the 43-year-old Legal Services Corporation, the federal entity that provides millions for state-based legal aid operations [will be eliminated]. Cutting its funding would deny millions of poor people access to the civil justice system, a circumstance that would disproportionately impact women, who make up 70 percent of clients served by LSC funds. Indeed, fully one-third of cases handled by LSC-affiliated groups involve women ... who are victims of domestic violence.
In his budget note, Trump wrote that his “aim is to meet the simple, but crucial demand of our citizens — a government that puts the needs of its own people first. When we do that we will set free the dreams of every American, and we will begin a new chapter of American greatness.” Cutting a program that provides for the safety of domestic violence survivors — among many others — seems an odd way to achieve greatness.
The LSC was created in 1974 and has enjoyed bipartisan support for more than four decades. Its mission is to help provide meaningful access to the justice system for poor people who cannot afford an attorney in civil matters — including family law cases (concerning divorce and child custody matters as well as domestic violence), cases involving eviction or home foreclosure, cases where veterans are seeking access to benefits, and cases where the elderly have been preyed upon by financial scammers.
The WERD: Screw Unto Others
We’re All Minorities Now
The one percent now effectively owns Washington: the making of our laws, the writing of Executive Orders, the running of Federal agencies with the power to put crooks among the one percent in prison – or not, and they are now the overseers of gutting Federal programs that benefit the 99 percent.
One thought comes to mind about this state of affairs. The abolitionist and writer, Frederick Douglass, once said:
“Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.”
The majority of Americans, whether they are yet aware or not, now walks in the shoes of Frederick Douglass. We’re all minorities now. The billionaires and their lackeys rule.
Trump Budget Director Takes Aim at “Wasteful” Social Security Program That Helps Disabled Americans
The elite Washington media is almost uniquely obsessed with the notion that cutting spending on the old and poor to reduce the federal deficit is the litmus test of a responsible budget plan. At last week’s press conference announcing the proposed budget — which includes massive cuts to regulatory agencies and massive increases in defense spending — Mulvaney was repeatedly badgered by reporters about why the administration is not taking aim at Social Security and Medicare.
During a interview with CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday, the administration finally started to give in. Mulvaney was pressed by host John Dickerson about whether the administration would be open to cutting “entitlements.” Mulvaney initially hesitated to endorse any cuts, repeating Trump’s promises on the campaign trail to leave Social Security and Medicare alone.
“Well, I think the promise was he wasn’t going to affect anybody and we haven’t with this budget,” Mulvaney replied. “Keep in mind what this budget is. This is just the discretionary spending part of the budget, which was a necessary first step.”
“But he might look at — at future retirement — future Medicare recipients?” Dickerson followed up.
Mulvaney replied by pivoting to the specific issue of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), a program administered by the Social Security Administration that aids disabled Americans. He complained about the program’s cost and indicated that the administration wants to alter it.
'Paris in Georgia': political salons spring up across US in push against Trump
In the suburbs of Minneapolis–St Paul, friends gather around a backyard campfire to discuss how to turn their Donald Trump anger into action.
In San Francisco, California, an all-female crew eats Middle Eastern food and reads the constitution. In Decatur, Georgia, a silver bell gets rung if anyone in the group of mainly suburban moms starts speaking off-topic during their monthly get-togethers. Political “salons” are popping up in living rooms, bars and backyards in response to the 2016 election of Donald Trump. Some have wine; some have a set agenda; all are scheming how to fight against this presidency. ...
“I used the term salon to evoke old gatherings of artists and intellectuals in a hostess’s home,” said Mary Huber, founder of the Progressive Salon of Decatur. “Yep, Paris in the 1920s, recreated here in Decatur, Georgia,” she quipped. The 2017 salon is more often marked by groups of friends and neighbors organizing specific political actions, from raising money to educating each other about the refugee ban, while hanging out and making new friendships. ... Their official group mascot is the mosquito. “We need to be like mosquitoes, and literally bug the hell out of them,” said Huber.
This is an interesting article reporting on local efforts to take back communities from traditional corporate political organizations. Here's part of the introduction:
Popular Insurgencies: Reshaping the Political Landscape
Donald Trump’s presidency is spawning innumerable movements, groups and individual engagements that are beginning to challenge not only the new administration, but established power throughout the country. Two movement laid the groundwork for the initiatives that have taken place since Trump’s inauguration — Occupy and Black Lives Matter.
In the face of ever-more socially destructive actions taken by the Trump administration, Americans will continue to mobilize and protest. Among a growing number of radicals there is sense that protest needs to shift to politics, especially local politics, where one calls home. Efforts are being waged to build a new movement seeking to challenge existing power relations, but from the bottom up – as opposed from conventional, top-down politics.
More important, many within this movement see power, including as practiced by the Democrats, as a corrupting force. Groups around the country are exploring new ways to undertake politics without surrendering the individual’s or group’s power to that of a corrupt system. For many, the time is right to challenge the powers-that-be and power as wielded by representative politicians in contrast to people in their own communities.
Increasing popular resistance to the Trump presidency poses an historically challenging question – is America a “democratic” or a “republican” nation? Should it continue to be governed as a political system adhering to a form of indirect, representative government, one that culminated in not simply Trump’s election, but an enfeebled Democratic Party? Or can Americans reinvent democracy, one appropriate for the 21st century, and embrace direct, participatory government?
Record-breaking climate change pushes world into ‘uncharted territory’
The record-breaking heat that made 2016 the hottest year ever recorded has continued into 2017, pushing the world into “truly uncharted territory”, according to the World Meteorological Organisation.
The WMO’s assessment of the climate in 2016, published on Tuesday, reports unprecedented heat across the globe, exceptionally low ice at both poles and surging sea-level rise.
Global warming is largely being driven by emissions from human activities, but a strong El Niño – a natural climate cycle – added to the heat in 2016. The El Niño is now waning, but the extremes continue to be seen, with temperature records tumbling in the US in February and polar heatwaves pushing ice cover to new lows.
“Even without a strong El Niño in 2017, we are seeing other remarkable changes across the planet that are challenging the limits of our understanding of the climate system. We are now in truly uncharted territory,” said David Carlson, director of the WMO’s world climate research programme.
“Earth is a planet in upheaval due to human-caused changes in the atmosphere,” said Jeffrey Kargel, a glaciologist at the University of Arizona in the US. “In general, drastically changing conditions do not help civilisation, which thrives on stability.”
While Tribes Lose Courtroom Battles, #NoDAPL Divestment Campaign Takes Off
A U.S. appeals court on Saturday shut down a last-ditch effort to put a stop to the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), allowing oil to flow as early as Monday.
The appeals court affirmed a lower court's ruling last week that decided against an emergency injunction, sought by the Standing Rock Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux tribes, which would have temporarily halted the pipeline's operation while the tribes' lawsuit against the pipeline wends its way through the courts. (The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe is crowdfunding the ongoing, rising legal costs of the battle.)
As the tribes suffer the latest in a string of legal defeats, however, the fight against DAPL has been winning a series of major victories in different territory: the pipeline's financial backing.
Campaigns to divest from the pipeline and thus starve it of funding have been growing across the U.S. and around the world. Large cities such as San Francisco and Seattle have divested billions of dollars, and similar campaigns have emerged in New York, Albuquerque, N.M., and Raleigh, N.C., among other U.S. cities.
Ganges and Yamuna rivers granted same legal rights as human beings
The Ganges river, considered sacred by more than 1 billion Indians, has become the first non-human entity in India to be granted the same legal rights as people.
A court in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand ordered on Monday that the Ganges and its main tributary, the Yamuna, be accorded the status of living human entities. The decision, which was welcomed by environmentalists, means that polluting or damaging the rivers will be legally equivalent to harming a person.
The judges cited the example of the Whanganui river, revered by the indigenous Māori people, which was declared a living entity with full legal rights by the New Zealand government last week.
Judges Rajeev Sharma and Alok Singh said the Ganges and Yamuna rivers and their tributaries would be “legal and living entities having the status of a legal person with all corresponding rights, duties and liabilities”. The court in the Himalayan resort town of Nainital appointed three officials to act as legal custodians responsible for conserving and protecting the rivers and their tributaries. It ordered that a management board be established within three months.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
The Missing Logic of Russia-gate
The House Intelligence Committee: Evidence Not Required
Some Easy Straw Men: Zack Beauchamp, Sanders, Economics, and Identity Politics
Health insurance woes helped elect Trump, but his cure may be more painful
A Little Night Music
Chuck Berry - No Particular Place To Go / Johnny B. Goode
Chuck Berry - No Money Down
Chuck Berry - Sweet Little Sixteen
Chuck Berry - You Can't Catch Me
Chuck Berry - Little Queenie
Chuck Berry - Too Much Monkey Business
Chuck Berry - Memphis, Tennessee
Chuck Berry + Keith Richards - Nadine
Chuck Berry - Tulane
Chuck Berry - Soul Rockin'
Chuck Berry - Live at the BBC Theatre 1972
Hail! Hail! Top 10 songs inspired by Chuck Berry
Comments
Today, I am just going to say thank you for
these amazing and wonderful daily threads.
Thank you, Joe!
@Joe, @HenryWallace - I join you in that - and all I have today
is a documentary (unfortunately it has no English subtitles, but for whoever might understand German, it's worth listening to on a long rainy weekend. It's one and a half hours long)
Kampf um Europa (Fight over Europe).
Original German text:
It was prodcasted today on German TV and covers lots of details I was not aware of.
https://www.euronews.com/
evening mimi...
sounds quite interesting, but sadly my grasp of spoken german is beyond poor.
it's not surprising that the union of european states is somewhat tenuous at best given the hundreds of years history of bloody wars for dominance and plunder that have consumed europe.
i think that, ironically, a good dose of communist class consciousness might do a great deal to unite europe, though the elites would never allow that sort of thing, i would imagine.
yes, it's time I find a way to download
such documentaries, translate the narrative, produce the subtitles and lay them over the video at the bottom. I regret that so few of the better European produced documentaries are not translated and made accessible to the American viewer. Apparently it's not cost effective and there are tons of copyright issues, I have no clue about. My plan is to not give up on that. Would be a nice "retirement" hobby...
One thing I believed to have understood from the documentary is that the Southern EU countries like Greece and Spain and to a certain extent too France is critical of the neo-liberal aspects of the EU and want to reform from within or leave the EU behind coming from a more socialist / leftist side. What I was not aware of is that Poland and other Easter European countries support more capitalist/neo liberal agenda within the EU and use nationalistic/right-wing thoughts to support the EU and may be, if they were not so desperate would threat to leave the EU if they don't get what they want. But I think they want to stay and profit from its advantages.
As the EU has put tons of money into the Eastern European countries, the Southern European countries got less money out of the pot and stuffered more. That I think gets to the core of the dilemma, because in the end I believe the majority in Germany and France and who knows else is scared to lose the EU, not so much for economic reasons but for fear of nationalistic/right-wing/populist movements to pop up and bring back old nightmares of a European countries at war among themselves.
It feels like Eurpeans fear nationalist populist (right-wing/ racist/ xenophobe) movements more than authoritarian socialist or communist movements. That's why there is less support for the left and more to the centrist agenda.
Sorry, for me this is all new. I didn't get much about the EU political issues, living in the US the last 35 years. And of course I have not the vocabulary of a political and social science scholars. Would love to study again. I feel so lacking in knowledge among most of the folks here.
https://www.euronews.com/
evening hw...
thanks! have a great evening!
I second Henry Wallace, thanks
If they succeed at cutting SS, SSI, SSDI and the other programs and safety networks then they are telling those who are on those programs to Fuck off and Die. There isn't any other way to look at what they want to happen.
And these greedy Fuckers have been on the government's teat for decades and after only serving two terms they get lifetime medical insurance and pensions. I guess cutting those benefits isn't something that they are willing to do.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Discouraging. Any fight left in us? Hope so!
Trump lied.
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Gutting anything further,
from what workers have paid into their future security (all their working life-long), is one of the most shameful of America’s disgraces.
evening snoopy...
thanks!
i hope that the reason why social security is called, "the third rail of politics," is still viable and that there is plenty of current running through that rail.
Yet, Obama emerged unscathed.
Online, I've seen two groups posting on the assumption that everyone who cares about social safety nets is jobless, lazy and poor: Those on conservative Republican boards and those on neoliberal-run Democratic boards.
There have been cuts and, IMO, yes, they do want
"useless eaters" (Kissinger, not me) to die. IMO, their environmental plan is decreasing the surplus population (Charles Dickens, via Ebeneezer Scrooge, not me).
Hey all ...
I thought Abby Martin's interview with Wilkerson was pretty good. In it he says that he doubts the US will ever leave Afghanistan. I have to agree, having read this in the book Shadow Wars by Christopher Davidson:
I'm starting to wonder if these are wars at all. I'm thinking "invasion and occupation" might be a more accurate description than "war", especially with respect to Iraq and Afghanistan. Wars end. Occupations can go on for a long time.
Congrats on the Baltimore minimum wage law, joe. We've got a crisis of aggregate demand in this country and minimum wage increases are the way to start fixing that.
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
evening azazello...
i suspect that from the start, the cheney administration had intentions of anchoring the oil industry in iraq and running pipelines through many of the nations of the middle east after sequentially toppling their governments and replacing them. any place that there are physical assets to be extracted, the empire must post troops regardless of how friendly the dictatorship is.
Evening joe, hope all is well.
What will happen?
Better plan:
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
evening do...
i think that trump's campaign promises about replacing obamacare are undeliverable with the current congress. either trump has to fully discard major promises (which he has partially done already) and goes with repeal without replacement, or it seems unlikely that a deal can be done that can get through the senate.
there's probably not a chance that he could put together moderate republicans and democrats for a solution that they would all agree to either.
looks like trump is going to have to demonstrate some of those incredible negotiating skills.
DH and I both paid into Medicare all our lives.
Moved to Europe and they don't have portable Medicare like other countries do. Refund? Are you kidding? We are traitors for being expats.
You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again you did not know. ~ William Wiberforce
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Will Trump radicalize democratic party base enough to leave?
Regarding Rosen's article. With the recent marginalization of the Bernie wing of the democratic party in terms of leadership positions, will the party base become much, much more progressive than the corporate reactionaries in both Congress and those controlling the DNC? Party leadership is only offering up weak tea on economic issues and relying on Russia to be the electoral silver bullet that will kill the gop werewolf.
I thought the Woman's March was successful even though a number of DC speakers stabbed Bernie in the back during the primaries. Recently to International Woman's Day, which was supposed to be a woman's strike at the same time? Seemed the organizers forgot that a lot of women are wage earners and could not miss work like professional women.
The next big event organized by the Woman's March will be "protecting women's rights by demanding transparency on Trump's taxes and relationship to Putin". This is pure DNC and Congressional democrats driving the agenda. But I don't know. Are people willing to come out and protest Trump's taxes and PUTIN!! in the face of Trump's budget and the collapsing of Obamacare?
Is there a confluence of events that could lead to at least the birth of local and electable third parties as democrats offer nothing and aggressively protect corporate interests?
evening mr webster...
it appears to me that the pussyhat movement has been co-opted by the democratic party (if it wasn't surreptitiously created by them in the first place) and they are being steered into the party agenda. i guess we'll see if large numbers of allegedly progressive women are ready to run into the democrats corral for branding and indoctrination.
i've been thinking about this a lot, lately. it seems to me that the democratic party has either to be coerced into line by progressives or mulched. the powers that be have made it clear that they would rather destroy the party than give progressives a platform. i think that progressives need to play hardball and demonstrate to the powers that be, that if they will not yield, progressives will take the party down - primary their corporate candidates and if the corporocrats win the primaries - work against their corporate candidates in the general, along with defunding and general hell raising. the point is, our third parties cannot compete in the current rigged electoral and media ecosystems, so we will need to get the democrats offstage if they won't cooperate with progressives.
if progressives can unite, they can make the neoliberals an offer they can't refuse. as somebody almost famous was at pains to tell anybody that would listen, the us is a two-party system. if we want a progressive party, we are going to have to make room for it.
Sitting here in rural hill country town that apparently
has its share of teabaggers was interested to see this from OWS twitter stream:
One of these days I need to get his book and read it. Wonder what he will have to say about the recent protests etc.
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
things may be moving in micah white's direction...
trump, with assistance from ryan and tea party congressworms may assist rank and file teabaggers to understand the limited utility of the ideology.
if i remember correctly, white moved to red state land and ran for local office. he didn't make it into office, but he did manage to develop a political space with some of his neighbors. perhaps as time and events move on, his ideas will become more popular in his area.
How Chuck Berry can write a tune
In the middle of the morning,
or an afternoon.
“I met a German girl in England who was going to school in France, said we met in Mississippi at a Alpha Kappa Dance”…”I saw her from the corner when she turned and doubled back And started walkin’ toward a coffee colored Cadillac”.
I think this is from one of his versions of "Nadine"
Thanks Joe, & "hello" to all my "Bluester Friends"
I`m already against the next war
Hey back from jakkalbessie and meshelf.
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
evening knucklehead...
chuck was a wonderful lyricist; i think that he is probably underrated as such because he wedded his compositions to such appealing pop music.
re: nadine, the lines "campaign shouting like a southern diplomat" and "moving through the traffic like a mounted cavalier" always grabbed me.
have a great night!
Hola, Joe & Gang! Thanks for featuring Chuck
Berry's music in honor of his passing, Joe. I look forward to listening to it while we await the delivery of pizza, a little later this evening.
I was thinking of sharing a few thoughts I had about advocating for the equivalent of an American NHS, but I'm just too pooped to organize my thoughts, right now. I'm trying to adjust to an altered schedule, due partly to the push to try and finish preliminary work for probate, and due to 'the B's' medical situation. (He requires going out more often, now.)
Hey, I heard the interview with Mulvaney regarding possible cuts to 'entitlements.' Face The Nation finally posted the transcript.
So, for SD--here it is,
Of course, there were 'reforms' made under 'O.' Remember when I posted the video of The Hill reporter from C-Span in 2015--about the negotiation by O's budget guy, Shaun Donovan, to convert SSDI benefits to a flat stipend based upon the federal poverty level, instead of on an individual's pre-disability income?
I don't know what Mulvaney is referring to in this discussion, but, my 'guess' is that they may be planning to move forward on this cut. My impression was that the only reason it was pulled, was that the MSM and C-Span reported on it before they voted on it. I hope not.
Hey, hope Everyone has a nice evening, and is enjoying pleasant weather like we're having!
Mollie
"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went."--Will Rogers
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
evening mimi...
i think that right now, the right wing is trying to figure out how much of its safety net cutting agenda it will be able to get away with under trump. given the outraged reactions even of trump supporters, it may turn out that they will be compelled to either back off of their agenda or get accustomed to seeing a guillotine at their town hall meetings and exiting hastily.
have a great evening!
Hi Mollie,
I also hope you're wrong regarding the "possible cuts to 'entitlements' "
And, that you and the "B" are benefiting from the additional walks.
Good to see you, Janis! Hey, regarding 'possible' cuts
to SSDI by changing the payment formula, I'll certainly be more than happy if I'm wrong.
Some minor 'reforms' to the SSDI program were included in the 2015 Budget Bill; but, thankfully, none of them were near as catastrophic as the one that the Hill reporter presented on C-Span--the same day that the particular 'reform' got axed.
Mister B says 'thanks' for sending well wishes his direction--he could use some, right now.
Mollie
"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went."--Will Rogers
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
Just watched the "Little Queenie" video, and a few things struck
me.
About the performance:
Obviously the band was miming. And the video had the stereotypical old guy shaking his head in the front, while a table of 4 teenagers (3 girls) are obviously enjoying it (but in the restrained way of the day, no doubt to convey that the white girls must appear constrained toward the black performer).
Then, near the end it made me think the vocal track at least might have be live. Because, when he's soloing on the outro, the drummer, who is charged with doing the very bare minimum in only keeping the 2&4 with both hands, loses the beat. To this, it sounds like Chuck says, after he seems to gesture with his guitar to help him find the beat, "stick with it."
But the end is what really got me. When he finishes, he immediately sticks his hand up in the direction of each band member to slap them five. I didn't think the "slap me five" thing came into the mainstream until the 1970's, or maybe the 60's (which is a little before my time). But 1959? I thought that was a pretty thrilling unexpected gesture at the end of the song.
Man, he really was something else. What struck me again was just how he moved with the guitar, not just the legendary duck walk. So many guitar heroes of the rock generation owe so much to him not only musically, but to the way he moved as well, of which through brought home the music in an even more visceral way.
Thanks for the always excellent thread, Joe.
"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
that 4th teenager (the boy) is Ritchie Valens
the performance is 100% mimed. All that stuff is on the record. But yeah, the slapping palms is really interesting!
evening mark...
heh, berry was more than a musician, he was an entertainer. if you look at the way he moved, say compared to elvis, berry seemed to be promoting his music as good, clean fun. in much the same way his lyrics (i'm thinking about "brown eyed handsome man," especially) sent up the established order in a lightly-mocking way. i think that the attitude that berry projected on stage and in his music was quite formative for the rock and roll that was to come; for example, i can't imagine that the beatles would have been the same band had they not been exposed to chuck berry.
anyway, have a great evening!
and dig this 1941 tune from the Andrews Sisters!
since they say "if you want to shake my hand like they do it in Harlem..." you know it must have been an older thing then this.
Wow, you've gotta be kidding me. Where'd ya find that, Shah?
The Andrews Sisters, on an Abbot & Costello film, and with a song with such a title about such a subject? Man, my mind is blown, and need to know more...
Initially my feeling was, that the existence of such a song, and performed in such an environment of starched white performers and movie set (not one black person to be found, in a song about Harlem no less), makes me slightly uneasy to be reminded yet again of that bygone era, in which mainstream culture always attempted to co-opt any organic coolness and soulfulness of black culture to make it safe for white consumption. Of course, it doesn't appear they were successful, or we would have seen it in other places in the 40's and 50's (such as baseball, movies, etc).
American culture is just littered with examples of whites trying to co-opt black culture, sanitize it for consumption and make big money off of it the way every good boy capitalist aspires to in the USA!USA!USA! (as Shaz piquantly reminds us of often).
So yeah, anyway, I guess the "gimme some skin" greeting was a thing in Harlem way back in the day, according the authors of the song anyway.
About this all, Carlin really nails it with this bit:
Cool catch on the Ritchie Valens. Wonder how it came about to have him there in such a role?
"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
Chuck and Ritchie are from a film...obviously
one of those teen exploitation deals from the 50s, with Alan Freed. Lemme look it up...
"Go, Johnny, Go!" Wow...Jimmy Clanton plays "Johnny".
Performances by Chuck, Ritchie, Jimmy and Eddie Cochran.
I mean, who wouldn’t want to co-opt
black culture, minus making it safe for white consumption. It’s much more satisfying without the remodelling ; ).
and, of course, Bang a Gong
shockingly Chuck didn't sue Marc Bolan.
at 4:20 (meanwhile I'm still thinking)
There's lots of hand action (high five) here ...
[video:https://youtu.be/AkUN0Z85-y4]
Is 'high-five' simply a reflection of common recognition?
Evening joe and Blusters
I agree whole heartedly with HW’s and all others appreciation for the EB's. The news and blues you present are choice. I also appreciate your pithy and gracious comments in the exchanges with all who participate.
Thank you also to everyone here ... and enjoy whatever of the day is left, as well as tomorrow.
Salons, reshaping the social and political landscape is heartening.
It looks as if the larger, more visible protests are sparking greater participation locally. Locally, is where it most needs to happen, and I think most constructive.
edited to add context.
Johnny B. Goode
Good evening! Thanks, joe!
Can't forget this one:
Listening to the live album "Blazing Telecasters" by
Danny Gatton, really good stuff. Other guitar player is Tom Princitato. Very modern for a 1984 record.
Have a cable for the sound system I can plug into the ear plug port on my Mac Mini, so I can get full sound. Ready to rock any time.
Came for the news, and stayed for the blues. Many thank yous for great listening evenings.
I hope what was said about some of the southern EU countries and France is true. They really need to watch the corporate creep. Even in the ten years we have been coming here, we can see the US corporate influence. Sarkozy was a lame duck after year one. Hollande didn't last much longer. In the debate the left candidate Hamon asked Macron if he could say none of his financial support came from...then he listed each corporate sector. No answer.
I'm not sure how this is going to play out. People really don't want Le Pen. They are afraid of her. The French Trump, I hear quite a bit.
You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again you did not know. ~ William Wiberforce
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