The Evening Blues - 7-20-16
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features New Orleans blues musician Guitar Slim. Enjoy!
Guitar Slim - I'm Guitar Slim
“To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.”
-- Nuremburg War Tribunal
News and Opinion
Civilian Death Toll From Coalition Airstrikes in Syria Could Be Single Largest in U.S.-Led War on ISIS
Scores of civilians trapped in Islamic State-controlled territory in northern Syria were reportedly killed Tuesday by airstrikes from Western coalition aircraft. The reported death toll, potentially the highest ever to result from a coalition bombing in the international campaign against ISIS, continued to climb as The Intercept reached out to monitoring groups tracking operations in the area. ...
Airwars, a nonprofit that tracks claims of civilian casualties resulting from the international air campaign against ISIS, said incoming reports indicated the death toll may prove to be well over 100 civilians — potentially making it the largest single loss of civilian life resulting from coalition airstrikes since the U.S.-led campaign to destroy ISIS began nearly two years ago. Tuesday’s reports were the latest in a string of recent incidents in which coalition aircraft have been implicated in the deaths of civilians in the Manbij area.
“Really these civilians are in a desperate situation,” Chris Woods, head of Airwars, told The Intercept. “We’ve never seen anything like this.” ...
By all accounts, life for the 70,000 civilians in the area, who remain trapped between ISIS fighters and the coalition campaign, has been hellish. Groups monitoring conditions on the ground have reported corpses decomposing in the streets and bodies left buried under the rubble of airstrikes, inaccessible due to the insecurity in the area. Airwars estimates at least 190 civilians have been killed in coalition strikes since the campaign began, including at least 39 children and 23 women. ...
Woods, of Airwars, said Pentagon data shows roughly 98 percent of the coalition airstrikes in the Manbij campaign are overseen by the U.S., and last week was the largest number of civilian casualties since the effort began in August 2014.
US Airstrikes Kill Up to 200 Civilians in Northern Syria
US and coalition airstrikes against the northern Syrian villages of Tokhar and Hoshariyeh have killed at least 56 civilians, including 11 children, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Other groups claimed the civilian toll was as high as 200.
The villages are ISIS-held villages near the city of Manbij, which US-backed rebels are attacking. This civilian toll comes less than 24 hours after an incident in which US airstrikes against Manbij itself killed 20 civilians. ...
The increased death tolls come after an April decision to dramatically expand the rules of engagement, and introduce a “sliding scale” of the number of civilians US forces are allowed to kill based on the target of the attack. The rules broadly remain secret, and it’s unclear if the 56 killed today, or the 20 killed yesterday, would be considered “acceptable” according to them. We likely will never get answers, since the Pentagon will likely refuse to investigate either incident.
US may ‘take a pause’ in aiding Syrian rebels after beheading of Palestinian boy
US-Backed Rebels Filmed Beheading Boy in Northern Syria
As if to punctuate a recent report by Amnesty International detailing the human rights violations committed by several US backed rebel factions in Syria, the Nour al-Din al-Zinki Movement, one of the US supported factions, has been caught on film beheading a young Palestinian boy.
The video shows fighters from the rebel group with a boy who is described as 13-years-old, presenting it as capturing “an Assad soldier.” A second video was released showing them cutting the same boy’s head off in the back of a truck.
Turkey's latest reaction to coup attempt: ban academics from traveling
Turkey's High Board of Education placed a travel ban on academics, temporarily barring them from leaving the country, according to an official speaking on state-run broadcaster TRT.
"Universities have always been crucial for military juntas in Turkey and certain individuals are believed to be in contact with cells within the military," the official said, explaining the goal of the ban was to keep any professors involved in Friday's attempted overthrow from leaving the country.
This is just the latest effort against Turkey's academics. Also on Wednesday, Istanbul University ousted 95 professors and just one day earlier, the higher education board demanded that more than 1,500 deans resign from their university posts throughout Turkey. Meanwhile, for more than 21,000 private school teachers lost their licenses in a sweeping move from the Ministry of Education.
Turkey blocks access to WikiLeaks after Erdoğan party emails go online
Turkey has blocked access to the WikiLeaks website, the telecoms watchdog has said, after nearly 300,000 emails from president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) were put online as Ankara grapples with the aftermath of a failed military coup.
The emails date from 2010 to 6 July this year. Obtained before the attempted coup, the date of their publication was brought forward “in response to the government’s post-coup purges”, WikiLeaks said on its website, adding that the source of the emails was not connected to the coup plotters or to a rival political party or state.
Turkey’s telecommunications communications board said an “administrative measure” had been taken against the website – the term it commonly uses when blocking access to sites. Turkey routinely uses internet shutdowns in response to political events, which critics and human rights advocates see as part of a broader attack on the media and freedom of expression.
Turkey's long road to EU membership just got longer
Tanks on the street, parliament under attack and fighter jets buzzing over the Bosphorus: Turkey’s failed military coup, which led to the deaths of at least 232 people, has underlined the fragility of democracy in a country that thought it had left military adventurism in the past.
But the chaotic events also underscore how far away Turkey remains from joining the European Union, an outcome held out as an imminent prospect by the Vote Leave campaign, led by Boris Johnson – now British foreign secretary – only weeks ago.
Instead, the wide-ranging crackdown led by the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has increased the distance between Turkey and the EU. EU-Turkey relations have not been more difficult since the country became a candidate for EU membership in 2005. After a decade of slow-moving, stop-start talks, the two sides may be approaching a fork in the road. ...
Marc Pierini, a former EU ambassador to Turkey, thinks relations are now at a turning point. “Everything the EU has to say or wants to say because of its rules – whether it is freedom of expression, the death penalty or in the technical sphere of public procurement or competition policy – in all these fields the EU used to be a norm.” But now, he says, the EU “has become an impediment to the march of an executive presidency”.
White House Won’t Criticize Turkey for Crackdown
During a press briefing following last week’s failed military coup, White House press secretary Josh Earnest refused to criticize Turkey’s post-coup purge, insisting it was an “extraordinary situation,” and that while they wanted to see restraint from Turkey’s government, they weren’t comfortable criticizing anything they’d done.
Earnest also walked back Secretary of State John Kerry’s warning yesterday that the crackdown could imperil Turkey’s NATO membership, insisting that the US strongly values Turkey as a NATO member irrespective of their post-coup behavior.
Libya: As 3 soldiers die in action, France finally admits it has special forces on the ground
Iraq war contractor accused of inflating costs – but still holds Pentagon contract
DynCorp, which held a contract with the US state department for training Iraqi police, is accused of defrauding the public by knowingly overbilling
The US justice department has accused a security contracting giant of defrauding the public even as the same firm continues to contract with the Pentagon.
Papers filed in a Washington DC federal court on Tuesday allege that DynCorp, a fixture of wartime US contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, knowingly inflated costs during a four-year stretch when the company held a contract with the US state department for training Iraqi police.
Since 2010, DynCorp has held a contract with the US defense department for training Afghanistan’s ministry of defense and its own national police. DynCorp essentially inherited that contract thanks to a prior deal for the same Afghan police training with the state department that began in 2003. ...
The fraud allegation against DynCorp stems from a subcontractor it used, Corporate Bank, during a period from 2004 to 2008 when it held the Iraqi police training contract. According to the justice department complaint, DynCorp was aware that rates from the subcontractor – for hotels for US government officials, local security personnel, drivers and interpreters – were “unreasonable”, yet the firm billed them to the state department anyway.
“DynCorp’s invoices, which reflected these inflated subcontractor rates, and DynCorp’s own fees and mark-ups, were false and fraudulent claims,” the complaint alleges.
Joe Biden does a little sabre-rattling and pot-stirring demonstration for the folks in the peanut gallery.
Joe Biden promises 'secure sea lanes and open skies' in pointed riposte to China
America will “ensure the sea lanes are secure, and the skies remain open” in the Pacific, the US vice-president, Joe Biden, has vowed in a pointed riposte to Chinese territorial ambitions in the South China Sea.
In a wide-ranging foreign policy speech in Sydney on Wednesday, Biden paid tribute to the US-Australian alliance, describing it as “a partnership that reminds us what is best in ourselves”.
But his most pointed remarks were clearly directed towards China, which has been building and weaponising artificial islands in the South China Sea in an effort to exclusively claim the surrounding maritime territory as its own. ...
Biden told his Australian audience the US was, and would remain, a committed power and presence in the Pacific.
Quoting Barack Obama, he said of US involvement in the Pacific region: “we are all in”.
“We are not going anywhere. And that is vital because our presence in the region ... is essential to maintaining peace and stability, without which the economic growth and prosperity I believe would falter.
Meanwhile, Trump's people at the RNC platform committee rein in the neocon morons who want to stir up a war with Russia over Ukraine.
Trump campaign guts GOP’s anti-Russia stance on Ukraine
The Trump campaign worked behind the scenes last week to make sure the new Republican platform won’t call for giving weapons to Ukraine to fight Russian and rebel forces, contradicting the view of almost all Republican foreign policy leaders in Washington.
Throughout the campaign, Trump has been dismissive of calls for supporting the Ukraine government as it fights an ongoing Russian-led intervention. Trump’s campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, worked as a lobbyist for the Russian-backed former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych for more than a decade.
Still, Republican delegates at last week’s national security committee platform meeting in Cleveland were surprised when the Trump campaign orchestrated a set of events to make sure that the GOP would not pledge to give Ukraine the weapons it has been asking for from the United States. ...
Trump staffers in the room, who are not delegates but are there to oversee the process, intervened. By working with pro-Trump delegates, they were able to get the issue tabled while they devised a method to roll back the language. ...
For Trump, the biggest threat to Europe is not Russia, according to people familiar with his thinking. He believes the United States should focus on helping Europe fight Islamist terrorism and open borders, not confronting Putin. He has called for a reduction of the U.S. commitment to NATO. He simply doesn’t see Russia as a dangerous threat.
The world is taking its revenge against elites. When will America's wake up?
A snapshot of America in the middle of June 2016. It is several days before the first great shock of the summer, the Brexit vote, and here in America, all is serene. The threat posed by Senator Bernie Sanders has been suppressed. The Republicans have chosen a preposterous windbag to lead them; the consensus is that he will be a pushover. For all the doubts and dissent of the last year, the leadership faction of the country’s professional class seem to have once again come out on top, and they are ready to accept the gratitude of the nation.
[...]
But by the time of Hillary Clinton’s speech the happy, complacent mood was already beginning to crumble. Just a few days before her salute to tech winners came Brexit, a blunt and ugly rejection of some of her cohort’s most cherished ideas. A short while later came the FBI’s pronouncement on Hillary Clinton’s email practices, removing the threat of prosecution but not the aura of outrageous misbehavior. And then, like a drumbeat of horror, came a series of police shootings of black men, followed quickly by the murder of five policemen in Dallas. Over it all hung the fear that these events might somehow propel this unthinkable man, Donald Trump, into the White House.
The world of accepted ideas was coming apart, and no one caught the new mood better than the New York Times’s David Brooks, a man who has spent his career describing the inner lives of the nation’s prosperous white-collar elite. Ordinarily a dealer in witty aphorisms and upper-crust humor, Brooks now wrote a column entitled “Are We On the Path to National Ruin?” in which he speculated darkly about the possibility of fascism in America. “The crack of some abyss opened up for a moment by the end of last week,” he wrote. “It’s very easy to see this country on a nightmare trajectory.”
Brooks-in-despair is a pitiful sight, and one can’t help but sympathize. But what’s really remarkable about the response to these shocks of people like him has been their inability to acknowledge that their own satisfied white-collar class might be part of the problem. On this they are utterly in denial and whatever the disaster, the answer they give is always … more of the same. More “innovation”. More venture capital. More sharp young global Stanford entrepreneurs. There is no problem that more people like they themselves can’t solve.
It’s easy to see the problems presented by a cliquish elite when they happen elsewhere. In the countries of Old Europe, maybe, powerful politicians sell out grotesquely to Goldman Sachs; but when an idealistic American president announces that he wants to seek a career in venture capital, we have trouble saying much of anything. In Britain, maybe, they have an “establishment”; but what we have in America, we think, are talented people who deserve to be on top. One wonders what kind of a shock it will take to shake us out of this meritocratic complacency once and for all.
'I hear the screams every night': Freddie Gray's death haunts man who shot video
Kevin Moore sits on a low stone wall at the edge of the handicapped ramp where Freddie Gray was apprehended, thrown to the ground and hogtied with a knee on his neck in Baltimore in April 2015. ...
“I never in my life woulda thought that I filmed the last few minutes of Freddie’s life, the last few minutes of him breathing, of his life,” said Moore, who took a cellphone video of Gray’s arrest and brought policing in Baltimore to the world’s attention. The video showed him being dragged along the ground into the police van, as he screams, seemingly in intense pain.
“I hear it every night. Still. I hear the screams every night. ‘I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe, I need help, I need medical attention.’ This is the shit that play in my mind over and over again.”
There was a time when Moore thought his video might change something. In the year since Gray’s death he dedicated himself to filming police for a group called Copwatch, while continuing to work at a nearby deli and raise his children.
Now, after a third officer was found not guilty on Monday of all charges for his role in Gray’s death and another round of viral videos brings attention to the way police treat African American men, Moore, like many in Baltimore, has all but lost faith in the legal process. ...
Moore has now filmed more than 300 videos of police interactions with citizens in and around Gilmor Homes, where Gray was arrested. He says he endures taunting by the police.
“They pull they cameras out on they little cellphone and they record me,” he said. “I’m tired of this bullshit. I’ve got three kids that I got to leave here after I die, you think I want them fighting the same shit that I’m going through right now?
Black Activists Occupy Police Union Offices in NYC & DC, Demand End to Protection for Brutal Cops
Goldman Sachs Announces Its Biggest Layoffs Since Financial Crisis
Goldman Sachs announced on Tuesday morning that it had slashed 1,700 positions in the past three months. It’s the firm’s largest quarterly reduction in headcount since the financial crisis, and it underscores the troubles Goldman is having maintaining profitability at a time when Dodd-Frank and other regulations have significantly limited its ability to make money. ...
The layoffs mean that Goldman reduced its staff by 5% in the second quarter alone. It’s the third quarter in a row that the firm has eliminated positions. All told, Goldman has cut 2,100 employees in the past nine months. ...
But it’s not clear that the firm is all that committed to cost-cutting where it matters. Despite the layoffs, pay doesn’t seem to have been dented at the firm. For the second quarter, Goldman gave its remaining 34,800 employees a 30% raise. Average pay (in compensation and benefits) rose to $95,718 for the second quarter of the year. That means the average Goldmanite, including assistants, junior reporters, and IT employees, based on the second quarter, is still paid just over $380,000. Indeed, not much sacrifice there.
Google says government surveillance requests hit all-time high
Governments across the globe requested more user data from Google during the second half of 2015 than ever before, the internet giant said Monday.
Google received 40,677 requests for user data between July and December 2015, up from 35,365 in the first half of the year, the company said in its latest bi-annual transparency report.
The requests pertained to 81,311 different Google accounts, and resulted in information being disclosed to authorities 64 percent of the time.
The United States tops the list by having filed more requests for user data with Google than any other country, according to the report. Investigators in the U.S. filed 12,523 requests with Google during the second-half of 2016, or nearly one-third of the total number received. Those requests affected 27,157 different user accounts, and 70 percent resulted in data being delivered to investigators.
Boris Johnson grilled over past ‘outright lies’ at uneasy press conference
Boris Johnson was embarrassingly forced on to the back foot during his first London press conference as foreign secretary on Tuesday as he was repeatedly pressed to explain his past “outright lies” and insults about world leaders, including describing the US president as part-Kenyan and hypocritical.
Standing alongside John Kerry, the US secretary of state, Johnson claimed his remarks had been misconstrued, that his past journalism had been taken out of context, and world leaders he had met since his appointment fully understood his past remarks. ...
He came under strongest attack from American journalists who asked him if he was going to apologise to world leaders for his past insults, including to Barack Obama, and whether other politicians could trust him. ...
Pressed by an American reporter on a series of remarks he had made about world leaders, Johnson was asked whether he wanted to apologise or instead take them with him as foreign secretary. He joked that it would take “too long” to issue an apology for all the things he had written.
"We're Screwed": GOP Pollster Laments Losing Millennial Voters to Socialism and Sanders
The future of the Republican Party is "screwed," as one delegate put it after being informed by GOP pollster Frank Luntz that conservatives have "lost" an entire generation of voters.
The comments were overheard by a reporter for the The Hill during a breakfast event Tuesday for the South Carolina delegation to the Republican National Convention (RNC), which is being held this week in Cleveland, Ohio.
"We have lost. It's not like we are losing, we have lost that generation. And I don't care if you are a Democrat, Republican, independent, none of the above. The fact that 58 percent [of millennials] say socialism is the better form of economics, that is the damage of academia," Luntz reportedly said.
Rather than contemplate how a party that has systematically dismantled the rights of women and minorities, and refuses to acknowledge the reality of climate change, is waning in popularity, the prominent conservative pollster blamed the loss on brainwashing by liberal educators.
"The No. 1 priority to me is what happens at universities. And yes, Capitol Hill matters, yes politics matter, but a whole generation is being taught by professors who voted for Bernie Sanders," he continued. "That's a problem that begs for a solution."
The Democrats Are Spoiling for One Last Fight
Last Thursday, a coalition featuring supporters of both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders notified the Democratic National Committee that they will formally introduce a plan to the Rules and Bylaws Committee to eliminate superdelegates, the 712 party leaders and elected officials who hold a vote in the presidential nominating race. The coalition wants the nomination to only be decided by primary voters, not party poohbahs free to vote for whomever they want.
Fourteen progressive groups are behind the proposal, which can be found at EndSuperdelegates.com. “The superdelegate system is unrepresentative, contradicts the purported values of the party, and reduces the party’s moral authority,” they wrote the DNC. Organizers expect between 100,000 and 200,000 to use activist tools at the website and take action this week—including direct appeals to Rules Committee members on social media. ...
The action begins before the convention. Today, Rules Committee member and Rhode Island State Representative Aaron Regunberg will file the proposal to end superdelegates, stating that all delegates should be selected through the popular vote in the states. The change would apply to the 2020 nomination and beyond, but not to 2016. (No last-ditch #NeverHillary effort here.)
The Rules Committee meets to finalize party nomination rules on Saturday. EndSuperdelegates claims that more than two dozen of the 187 Rules Committee members will co-sign the Regunberg proposal. That doesn’t seem far-fetched, considering that even Barney Frank, the chair of the committee, endorsed eliminating superdelegates last month. He has said that he expects a robust debate on the matter, which also doesn’t seem far-fetched.
If the Rules Committee agrees to the Regunburg proposal, it will likely be passed by acclamation at the convention without a fight. If they shoot it down, you can expect a fight on the floor to get all delegates on the record.
Ban Guns, Not Tennis Balls: As NRA Addresses RNC, CodePink Protests Ohio's Open-Carry Law
Cleveland Police Swarm Protestors Brandishing Tennis Balls
Dozens of police officers swarmed protestors from the activist group CodePink outside a main entrance to the Republican National Convention Tuesday, because they were holding tennis balls.
In June, the City of Cleveland added tennis balls to its list of prohibited items inside a 3.3 square mile “event zone,” surrounding the Quicken Loans Arena. Other prohibited items included tape, rope, bike locks, and any stepstool that could be used to address a crowd. But the prohibition did not apply to guns – meaning that convention attendees and onlookers are allowed to openly carry firearms, including assault weapons. ...
According to CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin, an officer told her “tennis balls can be very dangerous, because you can open them up and put something inside of them.” The officer suggested that they could be filled with feces. Benjamin replied that assault weapons were more dangerous, but the officer reiterated that he was just following orders.
Dozens more police then showed up and formed into lines, blocking off a path towards the convention hall to protect delegates from the protestors’ frightening tennis balls.
Protestors began chanting: “How many people die a year in tennis-related accidents?”
Chris Christie Stages Mock Trial of Hillary Clinton Despite Corruption Charges Dogging His Own Staff
Chris Christie's attacks on Clinton stoke convention mob mentality in Cleveland
There was a mood of mob justice at the Republican convention on Tuesday as delegates, egged on by New Jersey governor Chris Christie’s charge sheet against Hillary Clinton, stood punching the air and chanting: “Lock her up! Lock her up!” ...
“Let’s do something fun tonight,” Christie told the delegates. “As a former federal prosecutor, I welcome the opportunity to hold her accountable for her performance and her character.”
The crowd erupted in cries of: “Lock her up! Lock her up!” Far from discouraging them, Christie beamed and said: “All right, we’re getting there. Give me a few more minutes and we’ll get there.” ...
He proceeded to read an “indictment” against the former secretary of state, asking delegates after each charge whether she was guilty or not guilty. They shouted “guilty!” on every count. ...
Finally, Christie turned to potentially the most damaging charge against the former secretary of state: the private email server she set up at her home and what the FBI described as her “extremely careless”, but not criminal, handling of classified information.
“Let’s face it,” Christie said. “Hillary Clinton cared more about protecting her own secrets than she did about protecting America’s secrets. Then she lied about it over and over again.”
The director of the FBI had contradicted her statements on whether information was marked classified, whether she emailed any of it and whether all work-related emails were returned to the state department, Christie added. “As to Hillary Clinton, putting herself ahead of America: guilty or not guilty? Hillary Clinton, lying to the American people about her selfish, awful judgment: guilty or not guilty?”
Jill Stein: RNC Celebrating the 'Theatre of the Absurd'
Fracking Tycoon Admits Democrats Better for Business Than GOP
Despite the widely-held belief that the Republican Party and the fossil fuel industry are natural allies, one of the world's most prominent fracking tycoons admitted Tuesday that, actually, his business has fared better under Democrats.
"The industry has actually historically done better under Democratic presidents during my 42 years, going back, than under Republican presidents," said Scott Sheffield, chairman and CEO of Pioneer Natural Resources, which runs an enormous oil drilling operation in West Texas' Permian Basin.
Sheffield went on to explain how from the time Democratic President Barack Obama took office in January 2009 to the crash of the oil market at the end of 2014, his business skyrocketed, with Pioneer stock reaching the fifth place on the S&P exchange and first in the industry market.
The remarks came in response to a question from a reporter with Inside Climate News during a CEO speaker session at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). The reporter was asking Sheffield to comment on how important the 2016 presidential election is for the future of fossil fuel industry, and more specifically, the industry's tepid support for Republican Party nominee, Donald Trump.
Trump and the Fascistization of America
South Africa's great white sharks are on the brink of dying out
South Africa's famous great white sharks have become a major draw for tourists in recent years, but according to a new report that human interaction may be one of the main threats to the population's future. The latest research reveals that the number of great white sharks off the South African coast is declining rapidly, with the current population potentially too low to revive.
There are 350-520 great white sharks left off the South African coast, 50 percent fewer than previously thought, according to a six year study carried out mainly in Gansbaai, a shark hotspot nearly 100 miles from Cape Town. According to the researchers, the sharks could die out as they face threats of human interference, ocean pollution, and a limited gene pool. ...
Thousands of tourists travel to South Africa's Western Cape each year to catch a glimpse of the ocean's top predator from underwater cages, but human interaction has made the largest contribution to declining local shark numbers.
Shark nets used to protect swimmers and surfers killed more than 1,000 great whites off the Durban coast in the 30 years up to 2008, while trophy hunting and pollution also killed off large numbers of a species which can trace its lineage back 14 million years.
Hottest ever June marks 14th month of record-breaking temperatures
As the string of record-breaking global temperatures continues unabated, June 2016 marks the 14th consecutive month of record-breaking heat.
According to two US agencies – Nasa and Noaa – June 2016 was 0.9C hotter than the average for the 20th century, and the hottest June in the record which goes back to 1880. It broke the previous record, set in 2015, by 0.02C.
The 14-month streak of record-breaking temperatures was the longest in the 137-year record. And it has been 40 years since the world saw a June that was below the 20th century average.
Volkswagen sued in three US states over diesel emissions cheating
Three US states are suing Volkswagen alleging that bosses knew the automaker’s cars had been engineered to cheat US pollution tests and had concluded that “breaking the law and risking the imposition of fines was an acceptable cost of doing business”.
New York, Massachusetts and Maryland have filed lawsuits alleging that former VW chief executive Martin Winterkorn and other top executives were involved in a campaign of “systematic cheating and deception” to mislead US regulators over the emissions of its diesel cars.
An 84-page lawsuit filed by New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman on Tuesday alleges that VW had been fiddling with technology to reduce the appearance of its cars emissions as far back as 1999. The company went on to develop bespoke software, termed a “defeat device”, that allowed its cars to produce up to 40 times as much pollution on the roads than under strict US emissions test conditions. ...
The lawsuits come despite VW agreeing a $14.7bn settlement with federal regulators and owners.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
President Erdogan could be using the coup against him to turn Turkey towards full-scale Islamisation
‘Fraud’ Alleged in NYT’s MH-17 Report
Notorious Victoria: the first woman to run for US president
Trump U-Turn on Israel Confirms Unified Disdain for Palestinian Hopes
Brazil’s Largest Newspaper Commits Major Journalistic Fraud to Boost Interim President Temer
Richard Cordray: Blacks Are Trapped in a System of Financial Barricades
Sanders Delegation Plotting in Public and Secretly to Shake Up Democratic Convention
RNC Headliners Avoid Talking About Jobs and Donald Trump on Day to Talk About Jobs and Trump
Why Now Is the Perfect Time For a Radical Labor Movement
A Little Night Music
Guitar Slim - Twenty-Five Lies
Guitar Slim - Along About Midnight
Guitar Slim - The Things That I Used to Do
Guitar Slim - Well, I Done Got Over It
Guitar Slim - Think It Over
Guitar Slim - Standin’ At The Station
Guitar Slim - Strange Things Happening
Guitar Slim - Later for You Baby
Comments
Evening Joe
Great as always
Hey...have you noticed the number of hit pieces on Jill Stein over at TOP?
Seems they don't care to much for #JillnotHill. Go figure.
Being in the hospital..I've been playin the blues.
Like this one:
I want a Pony!
evening arrow...
sorry to hear that you're in the hospital. i hope everything is ok and you are feeling well.
heh, i almost never visit top anymore. i haven't for months. i've just gotten out of the habit, because i presume that while there's an election on, there will be little of interest going on there.
it doesn't surprise me in the least that there is a lot of sturm and drang about stein over there. i'm sure that if hillary loses, top will be feature endless repetitions of the nader fallacy, new and improved with different names.
Best wishes for a quick recovery, Arrow! ;-D EOM
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
Hey Joe
Radical Labor Movement? I will be looking for a second career.
Still drinking from the firehouse, but I decided not to be intimidated. It helped that the ADA seats are right up front. I am looking forward to some bad ass string pulling.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
evening tim...
looks like you are going to have a fantastic evening of string pulling, twisting, bending and plucking.
then after that maybe you can become a radical union organizer. i bet you'd do quite well at it.
have a great one!
A story from today
I keep getting these calls saying they are the IRS. They are scammers, the IRS uses the USPS certified mail. I am tired of jumping to get the phone, so I called them 812-827-4796. I cussed them out and told them not to call my house again. The I called them and called them names like scum and liar, and told them not to call my house again. I was especially rude to the ones that answered IRS. "No you aren't you lying scum! I will hunt you down. Don't call my house again!"
I probably called them 40 times. Then I filed an FTC complaint. Then I did a reverse lookup, got their business address and called them and said, "I know where you live and I will have my Cali boys come visit".
At some point mid-reverse harassment, I agitated one of them enough to have him say, "Suck my dick!". I said, "Sure meet me in the alley". He declined.
I don't mind if anyone else calls them and tells them they are scammers. Heh, heh.
Funk them!
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
These guys are persistent
These guys are nothing if not persistent. I must have gotten ten of these calls in the past year, always somebody with a foreign accent. It's insulting they think I'm going to fall for their inept "IRS" scam.
"We've done the impossible, and that makes us mighty."
Is anyone getting the computer calls from someone with a
heavy foreign accent? Mine started 6 months ago when I was having problems with my internet connection and this call came in during this time. The guy sounded like I had a legitimate problem with my connection but he wanted me to give them access to my computer .
Big red flag there so I called my provider and then Apple.
The calls kept coming no matter how many times I told them to stop.
Then they started calling my mom who had recently given her computer away.
Now I let most calls go to voicemail.
Then there's the Nigerian prince emails.
I read that people fall for these scams quite frequently. Especially the elderly.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
evening snoopy...
i just don't answer any call from a number that i don't recognize. if it's important, they'll leave a message.
heh...
sounds like a stress release program in the making.
TOP hit piece against Jill Stein
High on the rec list
Author is a
newly minted DNCer - suspect that he is attempting to build up his own political capital within that organization.
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
Tried logging in, still NR.
Screw them again, tired arguments anyway. I logged out again.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
evening gj...
i'm fairly amused.
wow, an emperor that refuses to practice imperialism and eschews the methods of empire.
Another example
of these brain washed idiots total lack of cognitive thinking. How can they not see that they make no sense whatsoever. They fit the explanation to match their pea brained one track minds and the build a story that lacks any cohesion to reality. Just don't bother with them they are lost souls and have no mind other then 'exterminate'. They are freaking online Daleks Which is sad as their programmed delusions are widespread across the net. Creepy and not at all reality based as they twist the story line with no regard for continuity.
evening shaz...
the over-the-top rhetoric should be a big tip-off to anybody reading it that the author is not from the reality-based community. i suspect, though, that he's writing for an audience that will lap up what he's serving.
Followed gjohnsit over to see comments there on his bond
Market essay he said 8n comments here he was going to cross post. Flagged a commenter for name calling . Saw that post on Stein and read it. TomP called the fail out in the comments glad to see.
Voted for Jill Stein last election and will again. IMO she might benefit from coaching by Bernie on press interview skills and preparation. Have seen her interviewed by Democracy Now Amy Goodman about running again and I just cringed a bit. I want her to get 15% and I would love for her to take after Bernie and learn how to deflect and come back to platform and not be crucified by the fcking corporate press.
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
I kinda liked this comment thread ;-)
http://www.dailykos.com/comments/1550081/62651301#comment_62666651
Edit to add: TomP is getting behind unity for Hillary. I just can't go there.
Please check out Pet Vet Help, consider joining us to help pets, and follow me @ElenaCarlena on Twitter! Thank you.
Chris Christie's performance
Chris Christie racked up a truly impressive lie to word ratio last night, accusing Hillary Clinton of everything he could think of. Wouldn't it be funny if the Dems nominated Bernie next week (it probably won't happen, but it's still possible)?
Look, nobody believes Christie didn't know what was going on in his own office. Bridgegate was planned by people who worked for him directly, and sat just across the hall from him. How hard will it be to prove he's guilty?
"We've done the impossible, and that makes us mighty."
evening rmw...
sure it's a case of the pot calling the kettle black, but black doesn't even begin to describe the degenerate state of either the pot or the kettle.
Agree with Joe's analogy. Also, think Christie was correct
on several points.
Of course, I've been wearing my his waders!
Mollie
“I believe in the redemptive powers of a dog’s love. It is in recognition of each dog’s potential to lift the human spirit, and, therefore, to change society for the better, that I fight to make sure every street dog has its day.”
--Stasha Wong, Secretary, Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD)
National Mill Dog Rescue (NMDR) - Dogs Available For Adoption
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
MSM freaking out--Cruz refused to 'endorse' Trump! ;-D Thanks
for tonight's EB, Joe.
Listening to another night of mindless Repub babble--ugh!
Pence coming on now.
(Except for his grown children, who are excellent speakers, it's been a real chore, having to sit through all this.)
Have a nice evening, Everyone!
Mollie
“I believe in the redemptive powers of a dog’s love. It is in recognition of each dog’s potential to lift the human spirit, and, therefore, to change society for the better, that I fight to make sure every street dog has its day.”
--Stasha Wong, Secretary, Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD)
National Mill Dog Rescue (NMDR) - Dogs Available For Adoption
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
evening mollie...
you must have a cast-iron constitution. i can barely stand to watch the bits of the convention that show up in youtube clips.
have a great evening!
I've been getting my excerpts of the GOP
convention Mike Malloy's radio program. Much better when Mike provides the commentary. Today's show had me laughing so hard I thought I might have a stroke. I haven't listened to him since we left Hawaii 5 years ago, but saw his name pop up a couple weeks ago and discovered that his 9:00PM show is live streamed at 9:00AM here in Malaysia. What a way to start the day!!
“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”
George W. Bush
Love the Evening Blues but...
...although I used to be optimistic about the future of humanity I find myself being pessimistic now based on all the news. I cant't remember one day when the news were positive overall.
The world today reminds me of the boiling frog metaphor. And I'm not talking about global warming only.
I was a very active Berner because he gave me hope. He could have trounced Trump. Hillary not so much. If Trump get elected it's over very fast. If Hillary wins, the water will get hotter and may boil.
The political revolution continues
This "news" on Trump came out today
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q82LZEF63uI]
The political revolution continues
evening shockwave...
i don't know what to do about the news being bad. it has always been that way as long as i can remember.
what i find that cheers me in the news is the reportage of people who, despite knowing how the world is still work to make it better - sometimes in funny and interesting ways like the codepink people who protested at the rethug convention by bringing contraband tennis balls to a protest that it would have been within their rights to bring assault weapons to. i also appreciate as good news the efforts of people who despite personal risk go into dangerous situations (largely of our government's making) to report to us the truth of what the government is doing so that we will know and can demand that our "public servants" cease their awful actions.
Speaking of Code Pink and personal risks...
...I was at an event at the house of one of the founders in Beverly Hills 4 years ago (?) when there was a bomb threat. For reasons that nowadays I cannot comprehend, I stayed in the house after everybody got out and I spent time until the bomb squad showed up looking for a bomb. It was an empty threat(thankfully). I understand I am insane but I also understand the toughness of these incredible activists who face constant threats. They are an inspiration.
The political revolution continues
Speaking of Code Pink, just heard they snuck into the RNC easily
Medea Benjamin was just on WBAI Pacifica Radio and told the interviewer with a laugh that they had done so for two days in a row. And get this, said she's been successful at it for something like the last 5 conventions!
She said the whole point was to challenge the whole faulty and penetrable lie that we have the best security in the world. Like so much of the fraudulence of American Exceptionalism, a bald faced lie to appease and distract scared middle class white people. A hero, her.
I love activists like them, and the Yes Men.
"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
they are indeed an inspiration...
medea benjamin is on the left in pink on the bicycle in this photo.
A petite powerhouse that Medea is, for sure.
Seen her at many protests, sometimes with the Not In Our Name folks, from whom I bought my "We Will Not Be Silent" t-shirt with the Arabic words printed underneath it.
"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
I have resigned myself to being dead ...
before the final days of humanity. Hopefully before the total misery phase.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
But if you die
before the real shit hits the fan you won't get to know how the story ends. I once got so depressed as a young'un I thought about suicide as a valid choice .I contemplated the pros and cons and came to the conclusion that not only would I miss the ending of the mystery but since death was an option I was free to take the road forward I wanted. It was a liberating moment from my youth that stuck. Your one of the most life affirming people I have met online. You make me feel it's worth the misery to ride the love train to the end of the line.
ok you two...
Realizing one isn't immortal in their current life form is an eye opener. It finally occurred to me somewhere in my 40s.
Thanks to the miracle of chemistry, we can now use those ashes and keep on keeping on.
From comet water and stardust to animal to a plant. Who says there is no such thing as reincarnation.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Cool
I want to be reincarnated as a plant. Maybe a lilac bush or magnolia tree, depending on latitude.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Don't get me wrong
I am playing out my hand, I just think man will instigate the end of humanity. In the mean time.
I think I will go to politiacal rallies to heckle.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Guiliani seems to have been on drugs while speaking
I heard Henry Giroux on TRN with Paul Jay for the first time. Since the last three days I have no problems to support his analysis.
I feel somehow I got to the end of the road. I will cut myself off the access to the internet and TV. Just the only way to not get sick.
Thanks for still producing the EB. I never could do it. All I want is not knowing what is going on, because it haunts me, if I know... since ...
Have a good night everybody.
https://www.euronews.com/live
evening mimi...
i think that rudy has been on drugs for the entirety of his public career.
yes, yes, but you really want to know what is going on. and you'd like to do something about it. right?
have a great evening!
unfortunately you are right, and that makes me sick too... lol
now the tennis ball thingy was really a hilarious idea and made me laugh. I like the lady Medea Benjamin more and more. I saw her at Naders Breaking through Power conference and she is one tough cookie, if that is acceptable to say. When it comes for journalist to risk their lives in dangerous places, yes, it becomes a real heroic activity sometimes. I don't appreciate that situation but respect them for their courage. But it makes me mad and scares me.
https://www.euronews.com/live
I like the existentialists mimi
I read them all when I was young. Sarte was to me the most depressing. I preferred Camus. I think it's best to just keep pushing that rock up the hill as this in self is the meaning of life as a human. Awareness is essential other wise how do you know where the top is. Just don't look down or fear what just keeps piling up behind you. xxx
someone asked me today if I am giving up ...
I remember you said a couple of days ago you pulled out a book from your boxes and re-read it, Orwell it was.
See, I will give up reading online (aside from news story collections like the EB, but not much more). But I am fiercely determined to get my old age set up that I can open my book boxes and read. And I am determined to fight the distraction and influence of online reading has on me. I just have that to accomplish and I will be ok.
Thx, Shaharazade. in the end it was Simone Beauvoir, who depressed me more, after a period of admiring her and her relationship to Sartre.
But you know, I was working as a night assistant nurse at night shifts and worked in an (old and stinky) organic chemistry lab straight six hours during the day at my university and in the hours left I had not much head to read and be patient with Sartre. I pulled myself through six years of university studies and I didn't come from of a poor working class family. So, I had not even the nice social support other students had, who were poor.
In the end Sartre and Beauvoir lived a privileged life as academics and they had very little influence on my thinking on the long run. I felt never like I got the education I would have liked to have had. But I like some quotes some times...
Joe selects quite some good quotes which also relate to the main theme of the EB at hand.
OMG Ted Cruz is still talking. Jesus Christ. How can you stand it? Good Night.
https://www.euronews.com/live
You liked Camus
... because he is an Absurdist, quite different than Sarte or Kierkegaard.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Good stuff Joe
Is Guitar Slim any relation to Guitar Shorty?
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
No but Guitar Shorty
married Jimi's half sister and gave Jimi his first wah pedal.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
not that i'm aware of...
i think that they both just really loved to play the guitar.
How can people talk so much and say so little and then on top of
it pretend they are excited about it?
Watching C-SPAN RNC convention... wow, an incredible boring show, not even one bit of entertaining.
I wanna go to sleep. When is Trump going to speak? Not tonight? Tomorrow night? Ted Cruz is on now. I hope he does something bad. ... OMG can't listen.
https://www.euronews.com/live
heh...
it's madison avenue's miracle of modern marketing.
the good thing is that most products are sold with 10-60 second messaging, albeit in repetitive, time-release format, whereas the candidate commodity is sold with hours-long advertisements reinforced with repetitive short-form messaging.
while you are watching the convention, bow down your head in prayer and give thanks to the gods of capitalism that toothpaste brands do not have a convention.
Thanks Joe
I usually miss the EB due to being the cook and bottle washer here. Not to mention we live musicians hours and the the cool of the evening is when I hit the garden. I don't hold the news against you but man o man it's crazy out there. Will it go around in circles? I sure hope so.
I saw Billy Preston in the late 70 early eighties giving an impromptu concert in a park in LA waiting for a bus. It was just him his organ and a soul singing sister. It was magic.
I am deeply involved in my prayers now. Joe you have now
converted me to be a believer in the gods of capitalism for their wisdom.
How do you come with such stuff? You made me laugh out loud and shaking my head. Thanks for that.
https://www.euronews.com/live
so, am I bamboozled now by Gingrich and Mike Pence
listening to them I get the sense that Hillary Clinton will not beat Trump in November, if those two campaign with Trump. But I was bamboozled like that before, at the Obama convention in 2012. So, you think Trump himself will deliver something better than Gingrich, Pence and even his son? What a pity, now I have to listen to Trump to find out. Sigh. I could imagine Americans like Pence better than Trump ... Clinton has pandered to the right so much, that it's hard for her to be more convincing in contrast to the Republicans. Am I completely off?
https://www.euronews.com/live
It's his 3 oldest children who will help him the most (IMO). NT
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
Every story or link to a story about the US airstrikes in Syria
should include the phrase, "illegal and unconstitutional airstrikes by war criminal Obama". I think people focus on the damage and murders while forgetting its illegal as hell and there is zero justification. It's worse than Bush and Iraq because Obama didn't even bother going to the U.N. and lie for authority, he just used his Nobel Peace prize authority to go kill people. In a just world he should have been impeached and thrown in prison long ago.
And this is someone that Bernie Sanders says has done a good job as President.
The good news, Al,
is that Obama, age 54 - and even Biden, age 74, Bush, age 70, and replaceable-parts Cheney, age 75 - are all young enough to face trial at a second Nuremburg Trials even if it takes another 20 years, which I doubt it will - and, of course, financial ruin along the way. After all, the Germans have been trying conscripted camp guards in their mid-90s as recently as this past year.
Lots of accountability to go around from heads of state to gameboy drone assassination teams. That all US serial murderers in this world war have been volunteers is not going to help in their defense.
Only connect. - E.M. Forster
No doubt dr. The case could be made that this
should be the necessary first step to a Revolution. Put an end to it once and for all then everything else will fall into place. A reckoning. And we have a veritable war criminal who will probably become the next President. One that could one up both Obama and Bush. If we don't rally to stop that, I don't know what it will take.
I read an article today about how the rich of this world have become rich off the backs, murders and impoverishment of other people and that all their riches should be taken away. Can't remember where I saw it or I'd link it. But we know that all too well with this country founded on slavery and genocide. There's only one answer and its really big. I guess that's why few choose to take that path.
evening al...
i agree completely. that's why the quote at the top tonight is from the nuremberg tribunal.
Evening joe, didn't catch that.
Fuckin A.
The question was asked if it would be ok
If Turkey sent a drone to Pennsylvania and killed the cleric who they think was complicit in the coup attempt and not only killed him but some innocent civilians too.
The United States has set the precedence for this type of activity by its use of drones to take out anyone that they think is a terrorist and also kill anyone else in the vacinity.
I think it's a good question and people who are okay with Obama's use of drones in countless countries that have killed thousands of people should think about why they are okay if the US can do this then why can't other countries do the same thing to people in this country or the other countries that are involved in this asinine war on terror.
The persons who committed the terrorist attacks in both Paris and Brussels said that the attacks were in retaliation for the killings of innocent civilians in the countries that they are attacking.
When innocent people were killed in Paris, Brussels and Nice by terrorists, the world's leaders were outraged and said that the terrorists were going to be held accountable for their actions, but where is the world's outrage over the recent killing of the innocent civilians because of the the United States were the party responsible for them?
Many people on my local news website said that 'we need to flatten those countries' without any thoughts or feelings for the innocent people who are caught between the terrorists and the countries fighting them.
One of the terrorists groups that the US has been arming, training and funding cut off a young kid's head off because they said that he was fighting for the another terrorists group. Apparently he was from Pakistan and wasn't involved in any terrorists group or organization. Where is the outrage over his murder?
The US and the other countries that are involved in destroying Iraq, Libya, Syria and gawd knows where else don't give a rat's ass about the people in those countries that are caught in the middle between the terrorists and their bombs.
Someone posted a link to the people who wrote PNAC about the goals in the Middle East and in it, it said that Assad needed to be removed back in the 1990's. And what is the real reason for why these country's leaders had to be removed? So that Israel will be the only super power in the Middle East. If this is correct, then why the hell is our military doing the fighting and risking their lives and why are we funding the wars instead of the Israelis?
Meanwhile back home our congress keeps cutting our social programs and ignoring many other things that our taxes should be going to.
We have been fighting this so called War on Terror for over 15 years and the world is less safe than when it started.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
The labels "terrorist" and "freedom fighter"
all depend on which side you're on.
As for drone-assassinating Gulen, why not? It would be especially rich if no one claimed credit for it.
What we're watching is the muddle.of a world war complete with propaganda exceeding that of WWI, with the added dollop of an unprecedented surveillance state in the so-called "West."
It's not pretty, but then it hasn't been pretty since Papa Bush kicked it off with the Highway of Death in '91.
Only connect. - E.M. Forster
Tells you how controlled the U.N. is snoopydawg.
Just think about this century so far. The possibilities are unbelievable.
12 y.o. US-by-proxy beheaded boy
was murdered because the US-supported (paid and armed) "moderate" head-choppers claimed in the video of his "extrajudicial execution" that his *father* was a pro-Syrian government fighter. (Shades of Trump calling for killing the families of "terrorists", or the Israelis bull-dozing houses of families of similarly identified Palestinians).
The child was kidnapped from a hospital where he was receiving a monthly blood transfusion for a blood disorder. Pic of the kid shows the IV tubing taped to and dangling from his arm.
Oh, and all reports I've seen, snoopy, have ID'd as a Palestinian.
Story and clearly marked links to pics and videos here:
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2016/07/us-considers-pause-in-supplies-for-...
and here:
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2016/07/cia-rebels-behead-kid-and-other-rec...
Also, it's clearly "approved" propaganda, because the BBC was one of the first to report the story and is keeping it going with updates - plus the pieces about it that Joe included above. Someone is stirring the pot. Cui bono.
Only connect. - E.M. Forster
I think people outside the US don't care, because
Bush had done the same, so basically who would care, if Obama is a more successful war criminal, who engages in unconstitutional and illegal military activities in foreign countries compared to Presidents before him? Why would you blame Obama more than Bush? Why would that be relevant? I guess if I put my nose more in history books I will find more US Presidents who engaged in illegal war crime activities.
To me it seems the world doesn't expect anything else anymore from the US. And most don't care about it anymore, because they can't do anything about it. I think they just hope that miraculously one day there might be a change of your system that allows political and constitutional integrity to be reinstated.
https://www.euronews.com/live
I say that in the sense that Obama has expanded the
imperialist reach while foregoing any pretense of legitimacy. He's institutionalized the War OF Terror while pretending to be some kind of reasonable diplomat with a Nobel Peace Prize. It's Orwellian to the max.
All Presidents have been in on the deal, no doubt. My point is eventually we might want to end it, therefore the more we highlight the reality of it maybe enough people will care.
That change will be the collapse of the petrodollar,
which is imminent, at which point not only will no one loan the US money to continue its rampages they also will not accept repayment in worthless US script or pixels on a screen. Repayment will be in gold and physical assets only, purple mountains majesty, amber waves of grain.
At least this will be preferable to living amidst nuclear rubble.
Only connect. - E.M. Forster
I just wait for the day when Germany gets serious
and wants its stored gold in the US back on their own soil. ...
I guess Germany will never get serious though.
https://www.euronews.com/live
Jeeze mimi
quit watching the Republican Convention. No need to fry your brain. It's just not worth it as it all a circus a bad horror show to scare you into acquiescence.
Oh, it's not all bad.
Caught PBS reporting that Cruz' wife was escourted out of the arena by security during his speech when delegates began yelling "Goldman Sachs" at her.
Even (some) Republicans are cognizant of who the real enemy is and aren't being diverted by "divide and rule" tactics.
Only connect. - E.M. Forster
Shows you how damn destructive this duopoly is.
Not just the duopoly, Al, but
the whole idea of a "representative democracy."
I've been intrigued with the Swiss system of direct democracy for quite some time. It's got some strange-seeming features, but it has kept them out of wars for over 200 years now, so at least they're onto something on the antiwar (except for defense) front.
Americans really don't have to "innovate" everything themselves -- that's simply hubris. Nothing wrong with borrowing ideas that have already worked elsewhere for centuries.
Only connect. - E.M. Forster
Amen.
I'm often asked in my railings against our representative system and my calls for a boycott what my solution is. There are solutions if we decide we want to seek them.
the problem is that it is not even a bad horror show
its simply a bad show and it doesn't scare me into anything. What scares me is that there will be an election and that those forces, who scare me, will remain in power, no matter who is voted in and out.
Y
https://www.euronews.com/live
Well seriously
other then looking at a soap opera/reality show who gives a shit? We all here know what this is about and I'm sick and tired of people acting like this whole farce of an election matters at all. It's a con, A carefully produced complicit side show. A wrestlin' match. Sorry I just can't watch either party's ritual farce of democracy in action. The players on both side R&D are freaks. Just gimme some truth. Meanwhile I'm done. Outside there is an answer and it will take solidarity among humans. Why fight about our degrees of misery and move on out? This present fuckatude is a human construct how come we cannot resurrect the corpse of democracy. Now there's a concept humans developed. Never mind the Bollocks. It's a good one. Let's get it back
Because we've been propagandized, shaz,
into thinking that voting matters, that "news" beyond people we can speak to face-to-face is important (are there really wars in the Middle East, or is that just some faked-up thing on screens? I dunno), into a whole lot of bs.
I think of it as the Tyranny of the Screens, the internet as a "CIA [behavior observation and control] project" as Putin called it And I've been intrigued at watching mimi be the first here to cotton onto the fact that happiness lies in shutting the damn things down - and her continuing to return to this site despite her understanding it's not good for her (or anyone's, really) mental health.
Why does she, do we keep returning despite the cesspit each site after another has become? mimi answered that, too, in a comment she made months ago that struck me deeply - because we're lonely.
I'm always intrigued that
able-bodied people in cities spend any time on the internet at all, because there are surely more fulfilling places to spend their time. But ... are there? Corps have killed almost all one-of-a-kind coffeeshops, bookshops, diners, all the places people used to gather for community, to alleviate loneliness. Even the malls as public squares have died or are dying, because of Amazon. So where do Americans go to alleviate their loneliness - to screens, where we are propagandized that screens are the answer to our loneliness, among other nefarious and less-than-nefarious ideas.
There"s a linkage between the screen fixation and the failure of democracy that I haven't quite sussed out yet. Maybe mimi or Al or you might have some ideas. I'd be interested in reading them.
Only connect. - E.M. Forster
^^ mimi, Al, Shaz ^^
Only connect. - E.M. Forster
ah, you are a tough cookie with your questions, dancingrabbit,
it's just several realizatiosn I made over the years including my conclusions I drew from my own navel gazing tendencies. They all are just pieces of a puzzle I can't quite finish. I need some time to put an answer together. Bare with me. I'll get it together eventually.
https://www.euronews.com/live
Good evening in the morning, Joe! One of my commenters on
Video News sent me over here. Good video interview of Jill Stein above! The more I hear her, the more I like her. She makes a good argument that choosing the lesser of evils brought us all the things we wanted to vote against. The Repugs are worse, but by voting for the slightly less worse Dems, they brought us the same, just perhaps a little more slowly.
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