The Evening Blues - 8-1-16
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features blues singer and guitarist Pee Wee Crayton. Enjoy!
Pee Wee Crayton - Blues After Hours
“Kakimi chertyami oni viigrali holodnuyu voinu?"
This translates roughly to: "How the hell did these people win the Cold War?”
-- Dave Barry
News and Opinion
The NSA Is Likely 'Hacking Back' Russia's Cyber Squads
U.S. government hackers at the National Security Agency are likely targeting Russian government-linked hacking teams to see once and for all if they're responsible for the massive breach at the Democratic National Committee, according to three former senior intelligence officials. It's a job that the current head of the NSA's elite hacking unit said they've been called on to do many times before.
Robert Joyce, chief of the NSA's shadowy Tailored Access Operations, declined to comment on the DNC hack specifically, but said in general that the NSA has technical capabilities and legal authorities that allow the agency to "hack back" suspected hacking groups, infiltrating their systems to gather intelligence about their operations in the wake of a cyber attack. ...
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the audience at the Aspen Security Forum Thursday that the U.S. intelligence community was "not quite ready to make a call on attribution," though he said there were "just a few usual suspects out there." The next day CIA Director John Brennan said that attribution is "to be determined" and a lot of people were "jumping to conclusions."
Clinton: We Know Russia Behind DNC Hack, Aims to Influence Election
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton today insisted that everyone “knows” that Russian intelligence services were behind the hacks of DNC servers to release emails by way of WikiLeaks, saying that the Russians were making a deliberate attempt to influence the election and that the US would never tolerate that from “an adversary.” ...
Several Democrats have previously made similar statements, claiming that either Trump is driving the Russian hacks, or that the Russian hacks are part of a scheme to elect Trump as Russia’s candidate of choice. The evidence that Russia did the hacks in the first place is scant, and the evidence of Trump as being Russia’s Manchurian candidate is wholly nonexistent.
Still, after lower ranking Democratic Party officials were trumpeting that narrative all week last week, Clinton’s comments today suggest this is going to be a protracted part of the campaign, apparently interpreting the substantial media coverage of the accusations as proof the tactic has legs as a potential vote-getter.
At the same time, growing efforts to make allegations against Russia on the DNC hack an overt political issue are risking making the White House response, which at present appears to include NSA-launched revenge attacks on Russian networks, appear themselves to be “part of the campaign,” with all the risk that would entail.
Former Cybersecurity Director: ‘Idiots’ Want to Attack Russia Over DNC Hack
Former White House Director for Cybersecurity Policy Chris Finan harshly criticized calls from officials to launch cyberattacks against Russia as “revenge” for their suspected involvement in the hacking of the Democratic National Committee, saying they are “idiots” and “aren’t thinking very creatively or critically.”
Finan warned there was a broad disconnect between rhetoric and what people assume is possible and the reality of the situation, adding that in practice, “you’re often guessing” on hacks. He added that a good attack wouldn’t leave behind much evidence, and would probably leave false evidence to try to implicate someone else.
US Launches Airstrikes in Libya in 'Deeply Concerning' New Offensive
The U.S. on Monday launched airstrikes against the Islamic State (ISIS) in Libya, expanding its war in the region in what the Pentagon indicated will be a long-term offensive against the militant group and what critics said was a "deeply" concerning move.
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) said Monday that she was "deeply concerned about the expansion of U.S. airstrikes in Libya. The U.S. military continues to become more engaged in the Middle East, despite the lack of a Congressional debate or specific authorization." ...
The strategic port city of Sirte was hit by strikes from manned drones and other aircraft, with "additional" bombings to come, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said. While the U.S. has hit areas in Libya before, this marks the first step of a sustained operation, the Guardian reports. ...
Monday's actions came at the request of the United Nations-backed Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA) and had been approved by President Barack Obama, the Pentagon said.
What a surprise, the government that the US & co. imposed on #Libya is requesting that the US bomb Libya. https://t.co/Y4cgAVDX5n
— David Mizner (@DavidMizner) August 1, 2016
Turkey: Erdogan coup crackdown continues
Erdogan is taking full control of the military himself
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan assumed full control over the country's armed services on Sunday, with a decree designed to help him consolidate power in the wake of the failed military coup earlier this month.
The decree gives Erdogan and prime minister Binali Yildrim the power to issue direct orders to army, navy and air force commanders. Military academies will be closed and replaced with a national defense university, with the idea of bringing the armed forces fully under civilian control. The coup that failed between July 15 and 16 was the fifth intervention by the military in government since 1960.
The crackdown also brings under the president's control the country's intelligence service, which is accused of having missed signs of the impending coup.
"We are going to introduce a small constitutional package (to parliament) which, if approved, will bring the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) and chief of staff under the control of the presidency," Erdogan said on Sunday during an interview with Haber TV.
Ban on Erdogan: Germany refuses to show Turkish president's address to supporters in Cologne
Turkey arrests 11 soldiers over alleged Erdogan kidnap bid
Turkish forces have detained 11 commandos who were on the run after their alleged involvement in an attempt to kidnap the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, during last month’s attempted coup.
The 11 soldiers are believed to be part of a group that raided a hotel in the south-western beach town of Marmaris, where Erdogan was on holiday with his family on the night of 15 July. The president was tipped off about the raid and escaped before the commandos arrived. ...
The state-run Anadolu news agency reported that the rogue commandos were caught in the Ula district of Mugla province. According to reports, the fugitive soldiers were spotted by villagers out on a boar hunt, who notified the authorities. Turkish gendarmerie special forces then launched a massive manhunt supported by helicopters and drones, capturing nine of the commandos on Sunday night, and two more on Monday morning. The fugitives clashed with the forces, but there were no casualties reported.
The economy minister, Nihat Zeybekci, said the commandos would bitterly regret trying to overthrow the government. “We will make them beg. We will stuff them into holes, they will suffer such punishment in those holes that they will never see God’s sun as long as they breathe,” he said, according to the Dogan news agency. “They will not hear a human voice again. ‘Kill us’ they will beg.”
Humanitarian situation in Aleppo - "There have been so many patients coming to the hospital today"
Syrian Rebels Start Surrendering in Aleppo
According to Syrian state media, an unidentified rebel faction active within Eastern Aleppo has agreed to surrender to the Syrian Army under the terms of an offer last week by the Assad government, which promised pardons to those that willingly disarmed and surrendered.
Aleppo has been contested throughout the Syrian Civil War, and is split roughly down the middle between the Syrian military and several rebel factions, the largest being the Nusra Front. The military has the rebel-held east surrounded, and has been trying to negotiate a settlement.
There's far more detail in this piece than can be fairly excerpted. Here's a teaser:
Robert Fisk: Don’t be Fooled by Reports that al-Qaeda and Nusra Have Split for the Good of the Suffering Syrian People
Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani is at it again. Qatar’s ruler has been trying to get Jabhat al-Nusra off America’s infamous “terrorist” list once more – and calculating that the institutional memory of the world’s media is that of a street dog. He’s right.
Last year, Tamim’s Al Jazeera satellite channel produced a tiresome two-part interview with Mohamed al-Julani, Nusra’s CEO, in which the poor man boasted that he had absolutely nothing against Christians, Alawites or Americans. Nusra just wanted to get rid of that pesky Assad chappy in Damascus, he told the world, along with Assad’s Russki friends. Syrian Christians to Lebanon and Syrian Alawites to the grave? Nonsense. That was the claptrap peddled by the rotten, horrid Isis of which the Saudis were so enamoured.
Then in May this year, ol’ Doc Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s luckless successor, told Mohamed al-Julani that he could dissociate himself from the original al-Qaeda. Bingo. The split cometh. America’s enemies were breaking apart. Nusra would be the new “moderates”, worthy of America’s backing, certainly of Britain’s – whose then-Prime Minister, David Cameron, had invented 70,000 “moderate” Syrian rebels for the world to support against Assad.
And now, wearingly, we are being served up the same old cocktail again. Claiming that he is giving his first ever recorded message – a palpable nonsense since al-Julani had bored us all last year with the same stuff – the BBC told its audience that “Syria Nusra Front announces split with al-Qaeda”. And yet again, we were treated to al-Julani distancing himself from al-Qaeda and telling us that Nusra is now changing its name to Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (Front for the Liberation of the Levant).
Intelligence Chief Suffers Intelligence Failure Over His Own Team’s Willingness to Brief Donald Trump
The country's top intelligence official, James Clapper, insisted on Thursday that there has been no hesitation within the intelligence community when it comes to giving classified briefings to the presidential candidates, including Donald Trump.
“Is there any hesitation in the intel community to brief either of these candidates?” CNN’s Jim Sciutto asked the director of National Intelligence at the Aspen Security Forum, eliciting laughter from the audience.
“No there isn’t,” Clapper said, going on to describe the briefing as a nonpartisan tradition. “We’ve got a team all prepared,” he said.
But several news reports over the past several months have indicated there was dissension in the ranks when it comes to telling Trump secrets — culminating in a Washington Post story Thursday night that quoted a senior intelligence official saying, “I would refuse.”
All of which raises the question: How good can Clapper be at ferreting out secrets from foreign adversaries if he doesn’t even know what his own staff is thinking?
Then again, he could just have been lying. He’s done it before.
As Israel Prospers, Obama Set to Give Billions More in Aid While Netanyahu Demands Even More
For all the chatter about animosity between U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, The Washington Post reports that “a senior Israeli official will arrive in Washington next week for a final round of negotiations involving the largest military aid package the United States has ever given any country and that will last more than a decade after President Obama leaves office.” The U.S. already transfers $3.1 billion in taxpayer money every year to Israel – more than any other country by far – but the new agreement Obama is set to sign “significantly raises” that amount, and guarantees it for 10 years.
In response to this massive windfall, Netanyahu is angry that he is not getting even more. ...
Usually, when someone hands you billions of dollars in aid, you’re not in much of a position to demand more. But the rules for Israel when it comes to U.S. policy, as is so often the case, are simply different. Even as Israel has aggressively expanded settlements of the West Bank (often in a way designed to most humiliate the U.S.) and slaughtered civilians in Gaza, U.S. aid simply increases more and more. What’s particularly fascinating about all of this is that Netanyahu originally intended to wait until the “next administration” to finalize the deal because, assuming that would be Hillary Clinton, he believed (with good reason) he would get an even better deal, but is now worried about an “unpredictable” Donald Trump, who has spouted standard pro-Israel rhetoric before AIPAC (and worse) but had previously espoused the need for “neutrality” on the Israel/Palestine question and has made “America First” the rhetorical centerpiece of his campaign.
All of this means that the U.S. generally, and Democrats specifically, bear direct responsibility for the hideous brutality and oppression imposed by Israel on Palestinians through decades of occupation. That’s because, as a 2012 Congressional Resources Service report documented, “almost all U.S. aid to Israel is in the form of military assistance. U.S. military aid has helped transform Israel’s armed forces into one of the most technologically sophisticated militaries in the world. U.S. military aid for Israel has been designed to maintain Israel’s ‘qualitative military edge’ over neighboring militaries.” And, of course, Clinton herself has vowed in a letter to Democratic Party billionaire funder Haim Saban and her speech to AIPAC to do everything possible to oppose a boycott of Israel in order to end the occupation.
What’s perhaps most shocking of all is how little attention or debate any of this receives.
Germans face 'the summer of fear and anger' after four attacks in a week
Two weeks ago, Inga Rauber went on an excursion with her girlfriends to the historic German town of Würzburg, riding on a train through lush forests and Bavarian farmland, one of the wealthiest regions in Europe's biggest economy. Just days later, the 64-year-old housewife was shaken to the core: on the same rail line, an Afghan refugee went after passengers with an ax.
It was one of four high-profile attacks in Germany which killed 10 people over a few days, three of them by men who had entered the country seeking asylum. Two have been claimed by the Islamic State. ...
The attack stoked her fears about the country's recent refugee influx, mirroring the unease of a nation that has so far been more welcoming of refugees than anybody else in the European Union. Like more than half of German citizens, Rauber now opposes Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision to welcome more than 1.1 million refugees in the past year — the largest number by far of any European country. ...
Thirty-nine percent of Germans feel less safe than before the attacks and 57 percent say Merkel's refugee policy has failed, according to a poll this Wednesday by the market research company Emnid. This spring, before the recent spate of attacks, 73 percent of Germans surveyed said they feared terrorism.
To quell the fears, Merkel delivered a calm but firm speech Thursday, in which she defended her open-door policy but also emphasized precautions the government would take, laid out in a nine-point plan. She said Germany would conduct joint terrorism trainings for the police and military, add more police to the streets, investigate early signs of radicalization among individuals, and introduce faster deportation for asylum seekers whose requests were rejected.
U.S. Economy Was Growing at the Slowest Pace Since WW II; Now It’s Worse
According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Great Recession (that was brought on by the implosion of Wall Street) ended in June 2009. What we’ve been in since that time is supposed to be the “recovery” part of the cycle. ... On Friday the Commerce Department released second quarter Gross Domestic Product data, showing that the U.S. economy grew at a 1.2 percent annual rate. That tepid number came on the heels of an anemic 0.8 percent rate of GDP growth for the first quarter.
It has now been more than a decade since the U.S. economy grew at an annualized rate of 3 percent or better – the longest subpar growth stretch since the end of World War II. ...
The late Lester Thurow, the prominent MIT economist, explained today’s problem almost 30 years ago. In a foreward Thurow wrote in Ravi Batra’s book, “The Great Depression of 1990,” Thurow explained the economic dilemma of a society in which vast wealth is concentrated in too few hands. Thurow wrote:
“Depression is seen as a product of systematic tendencies for the distribution of wealth to become concentrated among a few. When this happens, demand eventually sags relative to supply and long cyclical downturns commence. Unlike some cyclical analysts, Batra believes that such cycles are not inevitable and can be controlled with social policies essentially designed to stop undue concentration of wealth from developing.
“Essentially, the economic problem is like that of the wolf and the caribou. If the wolves eat all the caribou, the wolves also vanish. Conversely, if the wolves vanish, the caribou for a time multiply but eventually their numbers become too great and they die for lack of food. Producers need consumers, and if producers deprive workers of their fair share of production income they essentially deprive themselves of the affluent consumers they need to make their facilities profitable. One could think of Batra’s argument as a kind of economic ecology where there is a ‘right’ environmental balance.”
The depression that Batra wrongly had in mind for 1990 has become the secular stagnation [secular = long-term trend -js] of today. Its roots, beyond question, stem from concentrated wealth. Equally problematic, you are not likely to be reading about this in front-page newspaper headlines because the billionaires now own the major news outlets.
Into the Political Wilderness with Jill Stein
Third-party support surging
Voters now confronted with the choice between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are making something abundantly clear: They want another option.
Surveys over the last six weeks have found a steady but noticeable jump in support for third-party candidates. The biggest beneficiary has been Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson, who has shot up from 4.5 percent to 7.2 percent in RealClearPolitics polling averages. Green Party candidate Jill Stein has also seen an uptick since June — from 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent. ...
A CNN survey released last week found that 17 percent of Republican voters who didn’t back Trump in the primary now support Johnson, while only 4 percent of Democrats disgruntled with Clinton support him. Stein, meanwhile, took 6 percent support among voters who backed Sanders in the Democratic primaries.
Sanders Supporters Say DNC's Treatment of Surrogate Nina Turner Makes Calls for Unity "Fall Flat"
Nina Turner weighing offer to join Green Party ticket as vice presidential candidate
Nina Turner, the Democratic former state senator from Cleveland who has emerged as a rallying figure for Bernie Sanders' disappointed supporters, said she is considering an offer to run for vice president on the Green Party's national ticket. ...
Turner is less than a year removed for a top position at the Ohio Democratic Party, which she left last fall after joining Sanders' Democratic presidential bid as a high-profile surrogate. The move caused a stir. Turner initially had favored Hillary Clinton, whose husband, former President Bill Clinton, helped Turner raise money for her unsuccessful Ohio secretary of state run in 2014. ...
Turner, 48, is a former Cleveland city councilwoman and state legislator who has become known as a voting-rights champion. She made waves in Ohio seven years ago by being one of few black elected Democrats to support a Cuyahoga County reform initiative and often is mentioned as potential future mayor of Cleveland.
"UnConventional Times": Activists at DNC Publish Independent Newspaper to Cover Protests, Walkouts
Clinton and Kaine tour Rust Belt battlegrounds as shadow of Trump looms
Coal Country, a region where Donald Trump expects to win over blue-collar workers and cultural conservatives, isn’t friendly territory for Democrats. That was precisely why Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine had come.
“Lock her up!” a few dozen protesters jeered as they stepped off the bus into a rainy haze on their fourth stop of their post-convention tour, at Johnstown Wire Technologies factory in Cambria county, which is 93% white and has a median household income of $42,000. Some waved Trump 2016 signs and American flags. Others held homemade posters with phrases like: “Send her a$$ to jail!” Across the road a smaller group huddled. Their signs read: “Steelworkers for Clinton.”
With 100 days to go to the presidential election, Clinton and Kaine have made clear they are going to fight for working-class voters. ...
For decades, Democrats have lost out to Republicans among blue-collar workers and white Americans with a low education. Trump has capitalized on this trend and is counting on making a battleground state out of Pennsylvania, which has not voted for a Republican for president since 1988. The state is central to Trump’s Rust Belt strategy, along with success in the Great Lakes states such as Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Polls show a tight race there. In a head-to-head race, Clinton leads Trump in Pennsylvania by 46% to 42%, according to the realclearpolitics.com average. In Ohio, she leads by less than 1%, 42.6% to 41.8%.
Hillary Clinton Will Be Good for Business, Predicts Chamber of Commerce Lobbyist
When Jennifer Pierotti Lim strode up to the podium on the final day of the Democratic National Convention, she was identified as the co-founder of Republican Women for Hillary, a group of conservative activists supporting Hillary Clinton. ...
But what was even more significant is her day job as a top lobbyist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; she’s the Chamber’s director of health policy.
It was the latest indication that the U.S. big-business community may be preparing to back Hillary Clinton, which would be a truly tectonic shift.
Although the Chamber may present itself as the champion of small businesses, it essentially functions as a money laundry for the world’s largest multi-national corporations, who want to keep their political activity at arm’s length. ...
In an interview with The Intercept after her remarks Thursday night, Lim said she could not speak for her colleagues at the Chamber, but said she hears from a lot of Republicans who increasingly support Clinton on account of her pro-corporate policies.
Amid DNC Scandal, Wasserman Schultz Losing Grip on House Race
The hits keep coming for Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), the disgraced former chair of the Democratic National Committee, as new polling released on Sunday found that her once-longshot challenger Tim Canova is swiftly closing the gap in the primary race for her House seat.
According to FloridaPolitics.com, the survey released by the Canova campaign found Wasserman Schultz leading her opponent 46 percent to 38 percent in Florida's 23rd Congressional District. However, after the pollsters provided more information about the outsider candidate—who has been endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders—to likely voters, Wasserman Schultz's lead plummeted to just three points, 43 percent to 40 percent.
What's more, the survey found that 35 percent of district voters regard her unfavorably, which represents "a staggering decline from her popularity in past campaigns," the pollsters noted. For Canova, the numbers show that he has a "real chance to win" in the August 30th Democratic primary.
In the Hillary Clinton Era, Democrats Welcome Lobbying Money Back Into the Convention
By quietly dropping a ban on direct donations from registered federal lobbyists and political action committees, the Democratic National Committee in February reopened the floodgates for corruption that Barack Obama had put in place in 2008.
Secret donors with major public-policy agendas were welcomed back in from the cold and showered with access and appreciation at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia.
Major donors were offered “Family and Friends” packages, including suites at the Ritz-Carlton, backstage passes, and even seats in the Clinton family box. Corporate lobbyists like Heather Podesta celebrated the change, telling Time: “My money is now good.” ...
Craig Holman, an elections financing expert at Public Citizen, said that the end of the lobbyist contribution ban as well as Congress’s 2014 termination of all remaining public financing of the party conventions has served to undermine democracy. “The implications of these changes are that we have opened up access to the parties and the conventions to just the very, very wealthy,” he said.
Six More Charged in Flint Water Crisis, but Still No Accountability for Snyder
Six additional state employees now face criminal charges for hiding unsafe lead levels leading up to the Flint water crisis—but Gov. Rick Snyder and his top officials continue to evade accountability.
Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette announced the charges in a press conference on Friday, in which he vowed that "the families of Flint will not be forgotten; we will provide the justice they deserve."
Of those charged, Schuette said: "Their offenses vary but there is an overall theme and repeated pattern. Each of these individuals attempted to bury, or cover up, to downplay or hide information that contradicted their own narrative, their story. Their story was there was nothing wrong with Flint water and it was perfectly safe to use."
"These individuals concealed the truth," he said. "They were criminally wrong to do so." ...
"The charges filed today against six state employees involved in the Flint water crisis are a step in the right direction to ensure our government is accountable to its citizens," the pro-democracy group Common Cause and its Michigan affiliate said in a statement on Friday.
"However, there is still a lack of transparency and accountability surrounding the crisis in Flint," the statement continued. "Most of the questions involving the Flint water crisis and Gov. Snyder are still unanswered. The people of Flint, and the entire state of Michigan, deserve to know the full extent of Gov. Snyder's involvement and knowledge of this crisis."
Big Oil and the Battle for Our Future
Growing Oil Glut Shows Investors There’s Nowhere to Go But Down
Money managers have never been more certain that oil prices will drop.
They increased bets on falling crude by the most ever as stockpiles climbed to the highest seasonal levels in at least two decades, nudging prices toward a bear market. The excess supply hammered the second-quarter earnings of Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. Inventories are near the 97-year high reached in April as oil drillers boosted rigs for a fifth consecutive week.
“The rise in supplies will add more downward pressure,” said Michael Corcelli, chief investment officer at Alexander Alternative Capital LLC, a Miami-based hedge fund. “It will be a long time before we can drain the excess.” ...
U.S. oil explorers have boosted the number of active rigs by 58 since the start of June to 374, with three added last week, Baker Hughes Inc. said July 29. American producers have expanded drilling in recent weeks after idling more than 1,000 oil rigs since the start of last year. ...
Over the past five years, their demand for oil has dropped an average of 1.2 million barrels a day from July to October.
Fast-moving wildfire near Big Sur spreads as more people are evacuated
Crews continued on Sunday to battle a massive wildfire near California’s Big Sur that is threatening thousands of homes, as another one broke out in Fresno County and quickly spread, prompting the evacuation of 300 homes near dry, rolling hills.
The fatal blaze north of Big Sur grew overnight to 59 square miles, the California department of forestry and fire protection said. The wildfire has destroyed 57 homes and 11 outbuildings and is threatening 2,000 more structures. It was 15% contained Sunday morning.
More than 5,000 firefighters were battling the wildfire, which killed a bulldozer operator working the fire line. The blaze, about the size of San Francisco, has also scared away tourists after fire officials warned that crews will likely be battling a wildfire raging in steep, forested ridges just to the north for another month.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Building a Progressive International
Video Shows Arkansas Democrats Barring Bernie Sanders Delegate From Convention Floor
Comrade Vladimir and Comrade Donald
Washington let Saudi Arabia commit atrocities in Yemen, then strong-arm the UN into remaining silent
Are we living through another 1930s?
Target of Contested National Security Letter Was a Muslim the FBI Wanted to Turn Informant
Obamas’ holiday idyll shattered by local anger over outsize mansions
A Little Night Music
Pee Wee Crayton - Bounce Pee Wee
Pee Wee Crayton - You Know Yeah
Pee Wee Crayton - I got news for you
Pee Wee Crayton - Rockin' The Blues
Pee Wee Crayton - Come On Baby
Pee Wee Crayton - Tie It Down
Pee Wee Crayton - Time On My Hands
Pee Wee Crayton - When Darkness Falls
Pee Wee Crayton - Red Rose Boogie
Comments
Bernie Just Cannot Compete With THIS
So, this report via Political Wire makes sense.
A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma
evening jnh...
it seems to me that clinton can go every bit as low as trump does, but for her crowd it has to be plausibly deniable and be executed with more polished manners.
the polls lately are kind of all over the place, but the ones that include third party contenders appear to predict a much tighter race. i wonder if word-of-mouth (since the msm isn't going to help much) will help the third parties grow as the negative advertising between the two high-negative makes them even more radioactive to voters.
I tried to publish an essay today, but couldn't figure out how
to do the time. I may have caused it to be buried at one am this morning.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
evening lily...
if you are autopublishing, the time is on a 24 hr. clock (1pm =13:00, 2pm=14:00, etc.), however if you are just publishing your draft as it is ready, all you have to do is hit the publish button.
Oh, dopey me! Thanks, js!
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
Hey Joe and c99ers
Thanks for the news and Pee Wee.
It amazes me that all the corporate media can focus on is that Russia might have hacked the DNC, and at the same time ignore the content that the $hill cheated and colluded to win the nomination. All I hear is how bad Trump is and how great Hellery will be on the main stream. They're brainwashing the sheeple. Business as usual I guess.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/assange-wikileaks-more-hillary-clinton-000000...
Meanwhile we go to bombing in Lybia to support our puppet gov't, promoting violence and instability in Syria, and giving ever larger amounts of money to Israel to suppress Palestinians as our economy unravels. No wonder they cheered USA... USA, after all we are the worlds biggest terrorists.
I enjoyed the Chris and Jill conversation. You reckon Nina will join Jill? I bet it would boost the Greens numbers.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
evening lookout...
heh, perhaps the sheeple will notice this time that they are being propagandized. it's pretty blatant.
i think that nina would make a great veep candidate. on the other hand, i can only imagine the horrible vengeance that the clintonistas would try to visit on her.
Hola Joe, and Bluesters! Quick (friendly) drive-by to
say 'hi,' before braving the heat, and taking 'the B' for his long(er) daily walk. Which is getting a little shorter, every day.
I'm watching the situation with Nina and Jill Stein rather closely, because of Turner's past support of Kasich's and (Cleveland) Mayor Jackson's school reform bill, regarding Charter Schools. (I'm thinking that, at one time, the GP Platform was against any attempts to privatize our public school systems.)
I'll be very surprised if she does join Stein's ticket, since I would think that she would risk burning bridges with the Dems, to do so.
We can hope, I suppose.
Of course, we won't have the option of voting for the GP, unless they pull out a win in the pending suit against the State AG--and that is doubtful.
Hey, thanks for another stellar edition of News & Blues, Joe! And, stay cool.
Everybody have a nice evening!
[Edited - added 'because' and 'Cleveland']
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)
Available For Sponsorship And/Or Adoption, Save Our Street Dogs, SOSD
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
evening mollie...
i was thinking that going green would be a huge career risk for nina turner, too. on the other hand, she may be really peeved by the treatment that she's received at the hands of the clintonistas.
have a nice walk and stay as cool as you can.
Two reporters on XM say FSC has struck deal with Repubs
to get through a spending bill immediately, in exchange for tax reform. (Werner from AP, Mason from XM) This is according to the D.C. rumor mill, so I guess that means that reporters have not been able to get 'official' confirmation.
They were careful not to mention 'entitlement reform,' but since the entire basis of a Grand Bargain is a trade-off between the two--slashing marginal tax rates, and offsetting the cuts with entitlement cuts--I suspect that it was deliberate on their part (not to mention using entitlements for a bargaining chip, in these negotiations).
Seems a bit presumptuous to me, to already be negotiating with Repubs--whew!
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)
Available For Sponsorship And/Or Adoption, Save Our Street Dogs, SOSD
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
Thanks for that info, Mollie
If she is already working with the republicans on a spending bill, I think it's proof that the election is going to be fixed so that she wins.
Trump is doing his part in this theater act by intentionally being more of an asshole and saying things about the Khans that are sure to rile up people who think that the troops walk on water.
I have been meaning to ask about the B's health. Is there a problem with him?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Hey, SD! De nada--just glad that I happened to be tuned in,
when the AP reporter was interviewed.
I forgot to mention that the spending bill will be (mostly) infrastructure spending.
Which I would support, if it were an Eisenhower-type of project.
But, from yesterday's interview with Chris Wallace (Fox News Sunday), we know that she means a giveaway to corporations--or, a public-private partnership.
From their show transcript, July 31, 2016:
I suspect that this is Kay Bailey Hutchison's and John Kerry's corporatist neoliberal 'infrastructure bank' bill. Of course, FSC's true agenda and policies are so opaque, we'll probably never know until it is passed/enacted.
What we do know, is that we'll need to prepare ourselves for many more toll roads, and probably higher tolls.
Whew!
Oh, the reference to 'the B' was because of the heat, or high temps--we're cutting short our early evening walks (some days). In a bit, I gotta get the Andis clippers out, and tidy up his pads--to last him until his next grooming, in 3 weeks.
The spinal 'bone spur' doesn't seem to bother him too much, now that he's taking both a bone/joint supplement, and a Fish Oil supplement. It's likely that he'll eventually have to take something for pain relief. Unless, he's extremely lucky, and it doesn't worsen, or cause nerve damage.
Hey, thanks for asking about him! Have a good evening.
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)
Available For Sponsorship And/Or Adoption, Save Our Street Dogs, SOSD
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
i wouldnt' be surprised to see a grand bargain...
pop up out of nowhere about now. the rethugs are eager for it, too, but just couldn't get a coalition behind making a deal with obama. now that they want to snub trump, the sky (well actually maybe the sewer) is the limit.
Agree, Joe. Suspect that this may be a nightmare Lame Duck! NT
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
Khizr Khan all over the news
Cable TV news loves Khizr Khan, the immigration lawyer who was invited by the Hillary campaign to give an emotional 7-minute speech at the DNC in which he implied Donald Trump is proposing to violate the U.S. Constitution. Khan helpfully pulled out a pocket copy. Because he is a lawyer, Khan avoided making an explicit accusation - he would have been lying. Trump's proposals are in accordance with the Constitution.
Clearly this campaign is going to be about smears, not issues that people care about. But in case Khizr Khan is in search of unconstitutional acts, President Obama's new Libya bombing campaign (with special forces on the ground) certainly qualifies. I look forward to his next cable TV interview.
This is an opportunity for Hillary to oppose further U.S. military involvement in Libya. I'm guessing she doesn't want any debate about Libya.
"We've done the impossible, and that makes us mighty."
evening rmw...
heh, i just heard him on the beeb. the msm is really catapulting the propaganda.
it appears that they have finally found a gaffe that they think that they can make stick to him and they are going to flog it relentlessly.
Yep. I noticed that.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
Lurching towards World War III
This is a must read article. Thanks joe for the link to it.
Again we see that Israel is setting our foreign policies, yet they don't put their troop's lives on the line nor do they finance these wars in the Middle East. We do. Plus we give them our money to make sure they are the only super power in the Middle East while its citizens have decent health care and we don't.
The article describes how the United States has set up missle defense systems so when it attacks Russia with nuclear weapons, Russia won't be able to fight back.
Apparently this isn't the first time that the United States has thought about using nuclear weapons on Russia.
I can't imagine the mind set of people who would have no qualms about using nuclear weapons and killing millions of people, including people in the United States. What type of person can be so damned callous?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
And people thought that Obama was the lesser evil?
Or Hillary is?
I don't think that it matters who is the president of the this country. I believe that there was a military coup in November 1963 when they decided that Kennedy withdrawing troops from Vietnam was getting in the way of their plans for world hegemony.
The president is just a figurehead for the deep state to hide behind.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
evening snoopy...
i am having a hard time choosing the lesser evil out of the choice pairs that have been presented lately. it seems to me that both clinton and trump are greater evils that it is safe to allow into the presidency. obama is also in that category.
That it so true. There is a deep state and a broad
elite consensus.
One more :
I think she used the word "almost" in a sarcastic manner. And then there is the golf buddies pic of Bloomie, Trump, Bill & Guilly. And Trump's wedding pic with Billary.
thanks as always
Look forward to the EB everyday. Now that the campaign has died down, but not over I have more time. Certainly need the distraction. We had a Beyond Bernie meeting a couple of weeks ago and 150 folks showed up and formed work groups and we will meet again to move forward in spite of, not because of. Also, I can smell the smoke from the Big Sur fire 70 miles away. Sigh.
Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation
Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook
evening magiamma...
glad to hear that you have a beyond bernie group going. let us know how your group organizing goes.
i hope that the fires stay well away from you. stay safe!
Beyond Bernie meeting - 150 folks
That is impressive!
Hi joe
Great news round up, joe
It is kind of nice to be back posting again, I just have to get back into the swing of it. Took me a long time to figure out how to blockquote in a diary I just did. gulfgal informs me we call then essays now.
Was following some news on Turkey today. Going to be a lot of problems for Greece coming I fear.
afternoon allenjo...
i'm delighted to see you reading, posting and commenting.
just what greece needs. more refugees. i bet they can hardly wait, especially considering the traditional animosities between the two countries.
Evening Joe, c99%-ers. RT reports on the
pro-Gaddafi uprisings in Libya, quoting Middle East Eye. Don't know what to make of it.
https://www.rt.com/op-edge/353995-gaddafis-ghosts-return-libyan/
But won't be surprised if true. Reminds me of the Iraqi guy who did a mea culpa recently for taking down Saddam's statue.
Was surprised Killary didn't mention Libya at the DNC. I was betting on epic jingoistic dickwaving on Libya. Don't think Obomba mentioned it either - tried to look for transcript but can't find one. Maybe it is a massive clusterf*ck (like in the above link) , the rise of ISIS etc that for a change they are feeling some shame?
Hey, we have a "founding mother" now. Killary is the founding mother of ISIS in Llibya along with Samantha Power & Susan Rice. Remember the feminism-loving lamestream media running puff pieces about a hesitant Obomba being persuaded by the female trinity to bomb Libya.
afternoon funkygal...
hard to figure what to make of it. usually, i look at what the us and european propaganda is and then try to interpolate a middle ground based on facts presented. there is, however, no western reporting to speak of about this.
i guess hillary is no longer considering her arrangement of gaddafi's rape and murder an accomplishment worthy of glee accompanied by trumpets. go figure.
Hey, Joe, good EB, thanks.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Turkey could ditch the refugee deal by October
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/07/turkey-threatens-refugee-deal-eu-1...
Tell the MSM there are more than 2 candidates
"... there has been no hesitation within the intelligence community when it comes to giving classified briefings to the presidential candidates, including Donald Trump.
“Is there any hesitation in the intel community to brief either of these candidates?”
How do we contact the MSM to
tell them that, as well as a great deal of other things on our minds?
Only connect. - E.M. Forster
afternoon dr...
here's a pretty good start. this link goes to fair.org's media contact list.
afternoon dharmasyd...
i googled around trying to figure out if there was a particular set of criteria that the government used to determine whom to brief, but found little. i did find this, though:
Evening Joe and all
I am so happy to have a place like this to go when all around me is bitterness and anger. It must be hard to swallow that bitter pill and pretend you are what you aren't like so many reluctant Hillary supporters are.
There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties.. This...is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.--John Adams