The Evening Blues - 8-9-16
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features blues singer and harmonica player Harmonica Slim. Enjoy!
Harmonica Slim - You Better Believe It
"Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"
-- Joseph Welch, to Senator Joseph McCarthy
News and Opinion
Democrats’ Tactic of Accusing Critics of Kremlin Allegiance Has Long, Ugly History in U.S.
A frequent weapon for Democrats in the 2016 election is to publicly malign those they regard as critics and adversaries as Russia sympathizers, Putin stooges, or outright agents of the Kremlin. To put it mildly, this is not a new tactic in U.S. political discourse, and it’s worth placing it in historical context. That’s particularly true given how many people have now been targeted with this attack.
Strongly insinuating that the GOP nominee, Donald Trump, has nefarious, possibly treasonous allegiances to Moscow has migrated from Clinton-loyal pundits into the principal theme of the Clinton campaign itself. “The depth of Trump’s relationship with the Kremlin is revealing itself by the day,” her website announced yesterday, and vital “questions” must be answered “about Trump’s cozy relationship with Russia.” The Clinton campaign this weekend released a 1-minute video that, over and over, insinuates Trump’s disloyalty in the form of “questions” – complete with menacing pictures of Red Square. Democrats cheered wildly, and really have not stopped cheering, ever since the ex-Acting CIA Director (who, undisclosed by the NYT, now works for a Clinton operative) went to The New York Times to claim “that Mr. Putin had recruited Mr. Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation.”
But this smear tactic extends far beyond Trump. It is now used to vilify anyone perceived to be an impediment to Clinton’s victory. When WikiLeaks published thousands of DNC emails shortly before the Democratic Convention, which ultimately forced the resignation of four top officials, it was instantly asserted that it was The Russians who gave them those emails. ... When Bernie Sanders looked earlier this year to be the one who was standing in Clinton’s way, slimy suggestions began emerging of his dark connections to Russia. In January, Clinton’s Senate ally Claire McCaskill went to The New York Times to warn of ads “with a hammer and sickle” if Democrats nominate Sanders.
On Saturday, it was Jill Stein’s turn in the Kremlin seat. As the Green Party candidate rises in the polls, it was only a matter of time before Democrats turned their Russia-smearing eyes toward her. One of the most widely-shared tweets of the weekend was this one from Andrew Weiss of the Carnegie Endowment:
Creepy @DrJillStein video from Moscow gushing over Russian support for human rights, dinner w Putin, RT anniv party https://t.co/GQ4zihWC6A
— Andrew S. Weiss (@andrewsweiss) August 6, 2016
This tweet is, to state it plainly, a lie. Stein simply did not “gush over Russian support for human rights.” To the contrary, in this very video, she criticized Russia for diverting scarce resources into military spending while its people suffered, and merely praised her fellow participants from around the world who attended an RT-sponsored conference. But no matter: Democratic operatives and journalists widely hailed it as proof that she, too, is some sort of Russia dupe or worse. ...
Democrats have now explicitly adopted the exact smears that were used by the Far Right for decades to demonize liberals and the left as disloyal Kremlin stooges. For the entire second half of the 20th Century, any Americans who opposed U.S. proxy wars with Russia, or advocated arms control deals with them, or generally desired less conflict, were branded as Useful Idiots of the Kremlin, loyal to Moscow, controlled by Russian leaders. Democrats have taken this script – one of the most shameful and destructive in American history – and have made it the centerpiece of their 2016 presidential campaign.
Turkey-Russia thaw: Russia to end sanctions on Turkey gradually
Erdoğan and Putin discuss closer ties in first meeting since jet downing
A meeting between Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Vladimir Putin is under way in St Petersburg, the first since the two leaders fell out over the Russian fighter jet downed by the Turkish air force last November. The Russian president received his Turkish counterpart on Tuesday afternoon as both leaders attempt to put the bad blood of the past nine months behind them.
It is Erdoğan’s first visit abroad since the failed coup attempt in Turkey last month, and in his opening remarks he thanked Putin for his support. “Your call straight after the coup was very pleasing for me and our leadership and our people,” said the Turkish president. ...
Western leaders have criticised Turkey for the crackdown in the aftermath of the coup, and for suggestions by Erdoğan that the death penalty could be reintroduced. Erdoğan has been strongly critical of the EU and US response to the coup attempt, and there is a sense that Putin may have seen an opportunity to provide a supportive shoulder for the Turkish leader, despite the rancour of the past months. ...
The rapprochement between Erdoğan and Putin has jangled nerves in Brussels. MEPs recently warned about the Putinisation of Turkey, amid concern over the sweeping crackdown on suspected coup plotters in the civil service and judiciary.
Pictures appear to show British special forces on Syrian frontline
The first images of what appear to be British special forces operating on the ground in Syria have emerged, showing vehicles patrolling near the scene of an attack by Islamic State.
The pictures were taken in June and were first published by the BBC.
It is believed to be the first time British forces have been photographed operating inside Syria, where they are engaged in relatively small numbers in wide-ranging roles that include surveillance, advisory and combat.
The images depict British special forces sitting on Thalab long-range patrol vehicles as they move around the perimeter of a rebel base close to the Syria-Iraq border.
Al-Tanf, where the vehicles were reportedly photographed, is a border crossing between Syria and Iraq that had been under Isis control, and is also not far from the Jordanian border. ... The images seem to show British forces securing the perimeter of the rebel base following an attack by Isis, according to the BBC. The soldiers can be seen carrying anti-tank missiles, sniper rifles and other heavy artillery.
US Faces Major Limits on Libya Intervention
The Obama Administration has made very public their intention to get heavily involved in Libya for months on end, and finally started doing so last Monday, with airstrikes launched at the request of the “unity government” against the city of Sirte.
It’s still early going, but with the US keen to get heavily invested in Libya, the “unity government” could prove a major hindrance, as the faction has little territory, very little capacity for offensives to justify US air support, and a very rudimentary system of organization to grow that involvement.
The capture of Sirte has been seen as a major goal for all the different would-be governments in Libya, and the “unity government” didn’t seem particularly likely to take it on their own, which led to them asking for US help. It was the excuse to intervene that the US had been waiting for, but came at the price of throwing their weight behind one of the least formidable of the many limited Libyan factions. ...
So the US has gotten its wish, and ended up in Libya. That military intervention is sure to last a long, long time, but the justification for the sort of endless escalations we’ve seen in their other wars just aren’t in place yet, which could leave them spinning their wheels for some time.
In Split With Clinton, Sen. Kaine Sees No Legal Authority for New Libya War
When the US attacked the Libyan city of Sirte last week, they did so without any explicit Congressional authorization. This was unsurprising, of course, as they never got Congressional authorization for the last Libya war either, nor for the ongoing ISIS wars in Syria and Libya.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D – VA) tried and failed to get war authorizations passed before, and on Sunday was quick to warn that he doesn’t believe there is any legal authorization for this new war, cautioning it sets a dangerous precedent. With no White House intentions to seek such authorization, this would be a non-story, except Sen. Kaine is the Democratic nominee for Vice President.
His running-mate, Hillary Clinton,was quick to disagree with him public, insisting that she has no doubt that the 2001 authorization for the use of military force (AUMF) after 9/11 covers the Libya War, even though it only authorizes force against those involved in 9/11, which ISIS obviously was not.
US Dramatically Escalates Role Supporting Saudi Bombing of Yemen
Between the year and a half Saudi war against Yemen not achieving the expected quick victory, and the growing talk of war crimes as the civilian death toll from Saudi airstrikes soars, a lot of nations would be looking to distance themselves from the disastrous failure. Not the US, however, as they brag up their escalating support for the Saudi air war.
The newest data, released by Central Command, reveals that US refueling operations in Yemen are up some 60% over the past six months, a span of time which included a long ceasefire and failed peace talks. The Saudis never stopped bombing though, and the US never stopped facilitating.
US-sold bombs dropped by US-sold planes refueled by the US Air Force have been at the center of some of the most glaring war crimes in Yemen so far, and while the Obama Administration is claimed at times to be pushing the Saudis to reach some sort of settlement, there’s no sign that’s actually happening.
Bernie Sanders Denounces Brazil’s Impeachment as Undemocratic, Calls for New Elections
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders yesterday denounced in harsh terms the impeachment of Brazil’s democratically elected president. As the Brazilian Senate heads toward a final vote later this month, Sanders described his position, set forth in a statement posted on his Senate site, as “calling on the United States to take a definitive stand against efforts to remove Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff from office.” He added: “To many Brazilians and observers the controversial impeachment process more closely resembles a coup d’état.”
Sanders also condemned the unelected center-right coalition under Michel Temer that has seized power during Rousseff’s suspension and is now trying to install themselves through 2018. ...
Sanders’ denunciation of the attack on Brazilian democracy is part of a growing international recognition of the illegitimacy of Temer’s rule. Just two weeks ago, “40 Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives published a letter … expressing ‘deep concern’ about threats to democracy in Brazil.” Similar denunciations of Dilma’s impeachment have been issued by British MPs and labor leaders, the Organization of American States, dozens of members of the EU Parliament, and Brazil’s first Pulitzer Prize winner. So dubious is Temer’s standing that, as AP reported last month, many world leaders are avoiding the Rio Olympics so as to avoid the quandary of whether to shake his hand.
One question that arises from Sanders’ statement is timing: why, after months of silence on Brazil’s political crisis, did he finally speak out now? ... Requests had been made for Sanders by his supporters to speak out on Brazil during the primary race, but those requests were rejected or ignored. ...
Whatever the explanations on timing, Sanders’ statement is strong and unequivocal. Perhaps most significant is his call for the U.S. Government to “demand that this dispute be settled with democratic elections” – the solution which a large majority of Brazilians also support as the resolution to their political crisis, but which the country’s anti-democratic elites, fearful of who would be elected, vehemently oppose.
'Stop coup in Brazil!' Rio Olympics marred by political protests against interim president
Expulsions of Protesters at Rio Olympics Draw Rebukes
The expulsions of ticket holders from Olympic sites after they protested Michel Temer, Brazil’s interim president, is fueling a debate over the limits of freedom of expression in a country that remains on edge amid a period of extraordinary political upheaval.
Videos, news reports and first-person accounts that circulated widely in Brazil on Sunday on social media showed the removal of several fans at a women’s soccer match in the city of Belo Horizonte. They had lined up wearing T-shirts reading “Out with Temer” while holding aloft letters that read in English, “Come back democracy.” ...
Mr. Temer endured a chorus of boos when he briefly declared the start of the Olympics during the opening ceremony on Friday. Ticket holders appeared at various Olympic events over the weekend with placards reading, “Fora Temer” (Out with Temer.)
A video of security personnel forcibly removing a protesting man from the stands of an archery competition provoked outrage among bystanders who witnessed the episode. ...
Mario Andrada, a spokesman for the Rio Olympics organizing committee, said in an interview that the Olympic charter included a policy prohibiting political propaganda in venues. “People who violate this requirement will kindly be asked to leave,” Mr. Andrada said.
FBI Agent Goaded Garland Shooter to “Tear Up Texas,” Raising New Alarms About Bureau’s Methods
According to an affidavit filed in a related case last week, Elton Simpson — one of two men who donned body armor and fired assault weapons before being shot dead by a Garland police officer — had been corresponding with an undercover FBI agent. And in a text message roughly a week before the attack, as they discussed the cartoon contest, the agent had exhorted Simpson to “Tear up Texas.”
The FBI, in the affidavit, explained the comment as “an effort to continue their dialogue” with the suspect.
But testing the willingness of suspects to take certain steps in a conspiracy is one thing; actively encouraging them to commit a violent, criminal act is another.
“The FBI uses informants and undercover agents to pressure suspected ISIS sympathizers into committing acts of violence, so that they can then be prosecuted. The Garland shooter case is the most striking illustration yet of the dangers of this approach,” says Arun Kundnani, a lecturer on terrorism studies at New York University. “Essentially, it suggests the government may be manufacturing the very threat it is supposed to be countering.”
Kundnani called for “an independent congressional investigation of the FBI’s tactics.”
Murdered by a SWAT Team for Traffic Tickets: Inside the Police Killing of Black Mother Korryn Gaines
Facebook Removes Potential Evidence of Police Brutality Too Readily, Activists Say
As more details emerge about last week’s killing by Baltimore County police of 23-year-old Korryn Gaines, activists have directed growing anger not only at local law enforcement but also at Facebook, the social media platform where Gaines posted parts of her five-hour standoff with police.
At the request of law enforcement, Facebook deleted Gaines’ account, as well her account on Instagram, which it also owns, during her confrontation with authorities. ... Statements made by officials in the days after the incident revealed little-known details of a “law enforcement portal” through which agencies can ask for Facebook’s collaboration in emergencies, a feature of the site that remains mostly obscure to the general public and which has been criticized following Gaines’ death. ...
So far, Facebook seems to have struggled with its role at the heart of the national conversation on race and policing. Just last month, the site removed live video posted by the girlfriend of Philando Castile, a 32-year-old African-American man who was shot during a traffic stop in a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota. Castile’s girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, started livestreaming and narrating his death seconds after police shot him, garnering nationwide attention. On that occasion, Facebook said the video’s disappearance, which lasted about an hour, was due to a “technical glitch.” It later reinstated the post, with an added graphic-content warning, and the video has since been viewed 5.7 million times.
Then last week, before Gaines was killed, Facebook deactivated her accounts in response to a request by Baltimore County police — drawing criticism that it censored free speech and even accusations that it was complicit in her death. The accounts have since been reinstated, but most of the videos have not. ...
Nicole Carty, a campaigner with the corporate watchdog group SumOfUs, told The Intercept that “by deactivating Korryn Gaines’ account, Facebook created a really dangerous precedent of censorship by orders of police. … It’s a fundamental threat to civil liberties. Social media and shareable video are instrumental in exposing the epidemic of police violence against black people in the United States.”
Full video #KorrynGaines son speaking to his aunt from the hospital. The only living eyewitness that isn't police.https://t.co/QtBF6AXqUL
— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) August 4, 2016
Korryn Gaines case: Video posting by suspects poses new challenges for police
When the visit by Baltimore County police to serve a warrant on Korryn Gaines in her home this week escalated into an armed standoff, the Randallstown woman chose a path that has grown increasingly familiar: She began recording video and posting the footage online.
County police responded with a move that, for the department, was unprecedented: They asked Facebook to shut down Gaines' account.
Nearly seven hours into the standoff Monday, and with Gaines' Facebook and Instagram accounts turned off, officers shot Gaines to death. ...
"Facebook helped Baltimore police kill #KorrynGaines in the dark," the artist Ferrari Sheppard tweeted.
Handcuffed While Dying: Police Killing of Black Teenager Paul O'Neal Sparks Protests in Chicago
The US government will track killings by police for the first time ever
The US Department of Justice, for the first time, will keep a comprehensive database of fatal officer-involved incidents, amid rising skepticism around police accountability.
It seems impossible to ignore that the announcement from the Federal Register came late on Monday, just one day before the two-year anniversary of the death of Michael Brown — the unarmed black teenager who was shot dead by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. His death sparked protests, sparked a national conversation about policing, and shone a spotlight on the systemic racism that pervades criminal justice in the US. ...
The new DOJ system is modeled after "The Counted" — a groundbreaking initiative by The Guardian which kept track of police killings since 2015 by relying on local media reports, and as a result has created a more complete picture of police killings in the US.
All law enforcement agencies — 19,450 in total — will be required to submit quarterly reports of all officer-involved deaths directly to the DOJ. ... Medical examiners and coroners will also be required to submit reports to the DOJ whenever they receive a body of someone who was killed by police.
Keiser Report: Collapse of Political World
Incredible. The way to get to the top is to lie, cheat and steal - and not get caught.
How a Goldman Sachs executive allegedly stole government data to woo clients
By 2013, Joseph Jiampietro, a Goldman Sachs managing director, was in a bind. Though recognized as an expert in the wonky world of banking regulation, his bosses expressed concern about his performance.
Jiampietro's managers told him to "increase the amount of revenue generating business he brought to firm," court documents alleged.
Before long the investment banker was allegedly scheming to obtain confidential regulatory and government information to help advise Goldman Sachs' clients, according to government regulators and court documents. Jiampietro coached an employee of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Rohit Bansal, on how to get a job with Goldman Sachs and then repeatedly encouraged him to obtain documents from his former employer, federal regulators claim.
The leaks allegedly provided Goldman executives a window into the Fed’s private thoughts on regulatory matters -- and helped the executive woo clients, according to regulators.
Sorry you lost your home: Americans deserve more than an apology for the foreclosure fraud epidemic
“I lost my home of 30 years to fraudclosure.”
“I have been fighting this bank for over five years now. I am finally losing everything to their fraud.”
“We feel captive in our own home.”
This is a sampling of what I have awakened to practically every day for the past few months, since my book “Chain of Title: How Three Ordinary Americans Uncovered Wall Street’s Great Foreclosure Fraud” came out. Hundreds of people have emailed me, sent me letters, attended my public events, to relate their personal horror stories of foreclosure and dispossession. They come from across America, from different social and economic backgrounds. Some lost everything, and some haven’t given up.
They contact me, a non-lawyer who has only written about and not participated in their struggle, because they have been abandoned, by a government that chose sides against them after the crash of 2008. They seek answers that I mostly don’t have and support I mostly cannot provide. Outside of referring them to legal aid, I cannot solve their foreclosure problems. I cannot convince a judge disinclined to rule in their favor, or a bank disinclined to see them as anything but a financial asset to be plucked, to change their minds. I can only note in sorrow that the massive netting of fraud laid by the mortgage industry over a decade ago continues to capture people like them. ...
Political analysts still manage to wonder why people are angry in a time of economic recovery, without ever even hinting recognition of the scarring impact of the foreclosure disaster. More than 9.3 million American families gave up their home between 2006 and 2014, either in a foreclosure or a short sale or some other transaction. That translates to about 14 million people, all of whom have family and friends and colleagues who at least know of the pain caused by the foreclosure crisis. There have been more since then.
It didn’t have to turn out that way. All of the losses didn’t have to be placed upon homeowners.
Stiglitz quits Panama Papers probe, cites lack of transparency
The committee set up to investigate lack of transparency in Panama's financial system itself lacks transparency, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz told Reuters on Friday after resigning from the "Panama Papers" commission.
The leak in April of more than 11.5 million documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, dubbed the "Panama Papers", detailed financial information from offshore accounts and potential tax evasion by the rich and powerful.
Stiglitz and Swiss anti-corruption expert Mark Pieth joined a seven-member commission tasked with probing Panama's notoriously opaque financial system, but they say they found the government unwilling to back an open investigation.
Both quit the group on Friday after they say Panama refused to guarantee the committee's report would be made public.
"I thought the government was more committed, but obviously they're not," Stiglitz said. "It's amazing how they tried to undermine us."
Death of Shawn Lucas Brings Attention to DNC Role of Prestigious Law Firm
A politically connected law firm in Washington, D.C., Perkins Coie, may find itself in the embarrassing and reputation-damaging position of being named a co-defendant in a high profile case where it is the sole legal counsel of record for the defendants. The Federal lawsuit was brought by Senator Bernie Sanders’ supporters against the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and its Chair, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, for overt acts to undermine the Sanders’ campaign while boosting the prospects of Hillary Clinton as the Democratic Presidential nominee. Under the DNC’s own bylaws, it must act in a fair and impartial manner to all Democratic candidates during the primaries.
After the lawsuit was filed, Wikileaks released almost 20,000 emails that had been hacked at the DNC by an unknown party. The emails buttressed the allegations in the lawsuit and created so much media notoriety against the DNC that Wasserman Schultz stepped down as Chair along with three other DNC executives whose emails were leaked. Multiple emails also show lawyers at Perkins Coie engaging in strategy that appears to benefit Clinton over Sanders.
Adding to the growing interest in the lawsuit, a 38-year old process server, Shawn Lucas, who served the lawsuit on the DNC at their Washington, D.C. headquarters on July 1, was found dead last Tuesday in his bathroom of still-to-be-determined causes. The Lucas death came just nine days after an attorney for the Sanders’ plaintiffs, Jared Beck, released a YouTube video outlining the serious allegations it plans to make against Perkins Coie in court. In the video (embedded below), Beck reads from an email that had been sent to Perkins Coie on July 25, indicating that plaintiffs’ lawyers anticipate the filing of a motion in the Federal Court case “to disqualify Perkins Coie LLP (‘Perkins Coie’) as defense counsel in this case. It has come to our attention that Perkins Coie appears to be a potential material witness and/or defendant in this case and, moreover, appears to have a potential disqualifying conflict of interest.”
...
Perkins Coie has both revenues and reputation at risk in this matter. ... What has to be equally distressing to a powerful law firm is that the Chair of its Political Law practice, Marc Elias, has been implicated in the leaked emails from Wikileaks and is turning up in the pages of the Washington Post, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, the CEO of its client, Amazon.
Filings made to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) show that Perkins Coie has received at least $970,000 from the Hillary for America committee since 2015 for legal work while simultaneously receiving more than $500,000 from the DNC, not including reimbursement of its expenses for things like postage, catering and printing. Perkins Coie is also representing a Super Pac that is supporting Hillary Clinton called “Correct the Record.” FEC records show Correct the Record paid Perkins Coie $15,000 for legal services on April 26, 2016.
Robert Fitrakis: Sanders May Have Lost Due to Election Fraud
NOOR: So could you start just by telling me about the specific instances about election fraud youve seen in this campaign. Youve been exposing these instances of fraud for a long time. We were speaking before, off camera, about 2004 for instance. But youre here making a point of bring this up in this 2016 election. Explain the significance.
FITRAKIS: Well one of the obvious things in this election was the visible hijacking of Bernie Sanders voters. Bernie brought in what political scientists would call an asymmetrical entrance of new voters. He went out and got a lot of people that hadn't voted previously and at first emerged in New York City, in Brooklyn where you had 126 thousand people. Overwhelmingly new voters supporting Bernie that were purged at the last second from the voting rolls. And that's being investigated but it turned out to be a clerk said to have Republican leanings. But just prior to the purge, the daughter of a Clinton super delegate had bought property from her. A million and a half dollars over the street value that wasn't even being listed. So at least it calls into question, whether it was an old fashioned Tammany Hall bribe for purging voters.
So it's what me and my co-author Harvey [Wasserman] call vote stripping, right? I think before this is all through the leaks by the Democratic National Committee, you'll find that somebody had access to those databases and were targeting the Bernie people to purge them.
Parents of two Americans killed in Benghazi attack sue Hillary Clinton
The families of two Americans killed in the 2012 terrorist attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, have filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Hillary Clinton, accusing the former secretary of state of “extreme carelessness in handling confidential and classified information”, which they say contributed to the death of their sons.
Patricia Smith, mother of Foreign Service information management officer Sean Smith, and Charles Woods, father of Navy Seal Tyrone Woods, accuse the Democratic presidential candidate of making “false and defamatory statements negligently, recklessly, purposefully, and/or intentionally with actual malice … by stating that plaintiffs were lying about Clinton having told them that the Benghazi attack was caused by an anti-Muslim YouTube video”.
The lawsuit, filed on Monday in the US district court for the District of Columbia, claims that “as a direct result” of Clinton’s use of private email servers during her tenure as secretary of state, “Islamic terrorists were able to obtain the whereabouts of Ambassador Christopher Stevens ... and subsequently orchestrate, plan, and execute the now infamous September 11, 2012 attack”.
Yet another Republican is publicly disowning Donald Trump
Senator Susan Collins from Maine became the latest senior Republican, and the most prominent so far, to break rank with her party by announcing she will not vote for Donald Trump for president. Her defection is of a heavier caliber than any other so far in the party, and may open the gates to more high-profile rejections.
"Donald Trump does not reflect historical Republican values nor the inclusive approach to governing that is critical to healing the divisions in our country," Collins wrote in a critical op-ed in the Washington Post Monday disavowing her own party's presidential nominee.
Collins added that she could not bring herself to vote for Trump because of his fondness for bullying and "disregard for the precept of treating others with respect," which she pointed out was "an idea that should transcend politics."
Is Debbie Wasserman Schultz 'Dodging Debates' With Progressive Challenger?
On the same day he filed a Federal Election Commission (FEC) complaint against former Democratic National Committee (DNC) chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, congressional candidate Tim Canova questioned whether the incumbent congresswoman indeed plans to debate him as promised before the August 30 Democratic primary.
Six-term U.S. Rep. Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) said last week she would debate her progressive challenger, a law professor who is backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders and—as of Monday—the Democratic Progressive Caucus of Florida.
But while Wasserman Schultz told a Local 10 News reporter Monday that "we're working out those details," Canova wrote in an open letter on the same day that he has "still not heard from you or anyone on your campaign about setting a schedule for debates."
"Perhaps you have no intention of debating at all and that this was simply a smokescreen," he wrote, noting that he initially pitched a series of six debates with Wasserman Schultz. "I understand. It's a strategy used by many entrenched incumbents who are fearful of having to defend their records."
He continued: "Tens of thousands of voters have already signed petitions calling on you to debate me. Perhaps we will have them delivered to you as your silence continues. Voters rightfully expect you to defend your record as their U.S. Representative and to appear before them in public debates and town halls."
Matt Taibbi: Trump's All White Male Economic Team Includes "Financial Crisis Villain" John Paulson
Paul Ryan's Wisconsin challenger leaps from obscurity in congressional seat bid
Paul Ryan, who as speaker of the House is the most senior elected Republican in the land, is up for re-election in his own backyard on Tuesday. The Janesville resident is being challenged by Paul Nehlen, a maverick businessman from out of state seeking to ride the Trump wave (“blue-collar makes it to VP of Fortune 500”, says his Twitter account), in a primary election to decide which Republican will contest the House seat for Wisconsin’s first congressional district in November.
Ryan was bitterly criticised at the time of the GM plant shutdown, and again in 2012 when, running for vice-president, he tried to pin the blame on Barack Obama. Nehlen, like Trump, has railed against factory closures, promised to “repatriate” jobs to the US and branded Ryan a “soulless globalist”. ...
Such is the power of Twitter and Trump that it took just a 10-word tweet from the candidate – “Thanks to @pnehlen for your kind words, very much appreciated” – last Monday to catapult Nehlen from obscurity to the news networks. A day later, Trump told the Washington Post that he was “not quite there yet” when it came to endorsing Ryan and praised Nehlen for running “a very good campaign”. But on Friday, the brash billionaire finally gave his backing to Ryan at a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, from which Nehlen, who had driven three hours to attend, was humiliatingly ejected.
When Nehlen arrived at the Trump rally he was informed that he could not attend because he did not have a ticket. “They said you can’t come in here, they brought a detective – I don’t know what it was,” Nehlen told the Washington Post the following day.
Long-studied Alaskan wolf pack may be dead after years of aggressive hunting
The East Fork wolf pack, found near Denali, North America’s tallest mountain, was first researched in the 1930s and provided the first detailed accounts of wolf behavior and ecology. But years of hunting, trapping and habitat disturbance reduced numbers to just one known female, a male and two pups earlier this year. It’s now believed all may have perished. ...
Alaska reinforced the trapping and shooting of predator animals after the Republican senator Frank Murkowski was elected as governor in 2002.
His successors, including Sarah Palin, have all supported a policy of “intensive management” that removes wolves and bears with the goal of boosting moose and caribou numbers for hunters. This stance has led to significant numbers of bears and wolves being killed if they wander away from national park land.
But the state has repeatedly clashed with the FWS, which has now decided to clamp down on hunting on federal land. Dan Ashe, director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service
(FWS), said “special interest groups” have worked to undermine the protection of species and landscapes.Public lands are “not game farms managed for a slice of their diversity for the benefit of a few people who would call themselves hunters”, Ashe said. “Nor are they places where we can or should allow the practices authorized under Alaska’s ‘intensive predator management’ initiative.
“In the name of hunters and hunting, [Alaska has] approved shooting of brown and grizzly bears over bait; shooting mother bears with cubs, and even the cubs themselves; targeting bears and wolves from planes; and killing wolves and wolf pups in their dens. This is not sportsmanship.” ...
Alaska’s department of fish and game claimed the the new FWS regulations “override the state’s sovereign authority” to manage wildlife.
Humans are Poisoning the Ocean—and It's Poisoning Us Back
New study shows deadly bacteria levels spiking in North Atlantic as ocean temperatures rise
It's no secret that we have trashed, poisoned, and warmed oceans at an unprecedented rate via human-caused climate change and pollution.
It seems that oceans may be paying us back in kind, according to a new study that found levels of bacteria responsible for life-threatening illnesses spiking in the North Atlantic region.
The study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) discovered that a deadly variety of bacteria known as vibrios is spreading rapidly throughout the Atlantic as a result of hotter ocean temperatures.
Marine ecologist Donald Boesch, president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, who was not involved in the research, described the shift to the Washington Post as "an ecosystem-level effect of climate change":
What this new research does is present evidence of the increased prevalence of these bacteria over broad regions of the North Atlantic from preserved samples collected over 54 years. The prevalence of these bacteria has increased as the ocean has warmed, both as result of global warming and multi-decadal variations in ocean circulation. This trend may be caused by changes in the plankton community rather than just the temperature alone. In other words, increased prevalence may be an ecosystem-level effect of climate change.
Vibrio bacteria cause infections in humans and animals, and a growing number of people are hospitalized each year after consuming fish contaminated by the pathogen, the study notes, observing that the rapid rise in vibrio levels on the U.S. and European Atlantic coasts corresponds with the increasing number of hospitalizations for vibrio infections on both continents.
"We were able to demonstrate that there was an increase in the numbers of vibrios, probably a two or threefold increase, correlated with the increase in climate temperature, and then correlated with outbreaks of vibrio infections that have been recorded in the medical records," said Rita Colwell, a microbiologist at the University of Maryland who is a co-author of the study, to the Post.
2016 Third Warmest for U.S. Through July
In the midst of the dog days of summer, the U.S. is still having its third-hottest year on record through July. The month also saw two states — New Mexico and Florida — clinch their hottest July, while Alaska continued to stay on track for its warmest year in the books.
For the contiguous U.S., the year-to-date temperature was 54.3°F (12.4°C), or 3.0°F (1.7°C) above the 20th century average, according to data released Monday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Every state was warmer than average for the same period.
“The January-July period was the third warmest by a fairly wide margin,” NOAA climatologist Jake Crouch said in an email.
The U.S. has been just one hotspot on the planet, which is having its warmest year on record by a good margin. The globally hot year is largely the result of the excess heat trapped by ever increasing amounts of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Obama's ISIS War Enters Year 3 as Court Fight Over Its Legality Heats Up
Privacy Scandal Haunts Pokemon Go’s CEO
The state of cyber security: we’re all screwed
Bush Administration Official: Saudi Ties to 9/11 Hidden to Protect Iraq War Narrative
Not All Bernie Backers Buying His Clinton Pitch
Not Alone, But Together: Sanders Campaign Declares Creation of 'Our Revolution'
To kill or not to kill? California voters to decide who should die for their crimes
A Little Night Music
Harmonica Slim - My Girl Won't Quit Me
Harmonica Slim - Drop Anchor
Harmonica Slim - Thought I Didn't Love You
Harmonica Slim - Lonely Hours
Harmonica Slim - Do What You Want To Do
Harmonica Slim - Mary Helen
Harmonica Slim - Going Back Home
Comments
Conflicted Soul in the Google Era
A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma
afternoon jnh...
ah! a cartoon that expresses the evening blues conundrum.
Ah, the perennial problem exacerbated to the nth degree.
I could almost get a tattoo of that if I could figure out where to put it.
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 --
Exhibit A
A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma
Hey Joe, thanks. Fascinating as the lawsuits and related
info may be, my vote for top subject goes to vibrios. Changes like that take ages to manifest and also to reverse. An interesting irony is that so much pressure for Brexit came from the fisheries industry "because quotas", something which may become slowly moot.
Have a nice one.
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 --
evening el...
yep, the vibrios is an interesting story and quite consequential. when the oceans change it's big news - and probably not good news, either.
I never know how to reply to these posts, they are
that jam packed with music, info and controversy.
Thank you very much for putting them together. It's a lot of work.
(Some honky tonk in Slim's blues harmonica. I like it!)
evening hw...
heh, seems like you did a great job of responding.
the harmonica slim recordings above are mostly his 1950's era stuff, a lot of it with lloyd glenn on piano. glenn was a very versatile player and is probably significantly responsible for some of the honky tonk sound.
Between the rapprochement with Russia and...
...the de facto theocracy Erdogan is not so subtly creating, Kemal Ataturk must be spinning in his grave. Turkey can start packing her bags to leave NATO and the EU. The Kurds, supported by the US and Israel, must not be happy either. In a way, this trend also helps Iran.
The Chinese must be toasting behind the scene.
I am sure Hillary can fix it all. Then again I give her less chances than Trump to just nuking the whole Middle East.
The political revolution continues
evening shockwave...
that erdogan is a serious gambler (among other unsavory traits) - his counterparties are in for quite a ride. he wants his dictatorial powers, his caliphate and he doesn't care how many dead bodies he has to walk over to get it.
he is going to give those europeans a run for their money. he's pretty sure that he has them over a barrel with the millions of refugees that he's prepared to weaponize. he's also pretty sure that he has the us over a barrel if he can stay alive long enough. my guess is that he is going to gauge his power over the us by the results he has in getting gulen extradited. if he gets that, things may settle down. if not, i bet he finds a way to escalate.
So we can't even video tape the attacks??
So we can't show the world the brutal cops in a way to possibly defend ourselves...
THIS is what my spouse has told me to do in case I'm ever scared of being harmed by a "cop"... you see, my son is disabled and my daughter is too afraid of "cops" to get a driver's license as driving is a sure fire way to have an encounter with a "cop" .. anyways.
We are an anti-gun home. But lately I've been questioning that and stating that maybe we might need one to defend our home from a "PIG". My husband said we will just be able to testify with uploaded video. I tried to point out that some cops say they thought a camera/phone was a gun if you hold it up so if you film them they shoot you an say they saw a gun.
So he says there are some home security systems that videotape....
Well that's out now.
My workplace just put up new video alarm system... in case we need to protect ourselves from the "cops"... cops now just shoot the cameras dead.
You have a better chance defending yourself and your family from a rapist, killer, burglar, addict, then you do a fucking cop.
Sorry... I'm in a sick and sad mood at the state of my country when even I can't stomach my increasing hatred of the damned police.
"Love One Another" ~ George Harrison
evening dj...
my guess is that having a gun increases your chances of death at the hands of a cop.
of the options that you've mentioned, perhaps a very well-concealed video system might be the way to go if you think that it is likely that a cop will invade your home, car or person.
Hey Joe and c99ers
Another good round up of the news, and in my half year on the site your first artist repeat - and a good one at that with Slim.
So the dems follow in the footsteps of McCarthy. A sensitive topic for me since a good friend was called up by the House on Unamerican Activities and faced trial for running a communist spy ring with Eleanor Roosevelt. Another great tool of distraction with the demoRATs running the scam.
Think the interest in Libya is their high quality light crude oil?
So the FBI encourages violence in order to entrap people. The white police shoot a black kid, handcuff him, and let him bleed to death while bitchin' about having to do desk duty for a month cause they shot him. What have we become? Seem like giant steps backwards. I thought maybe we had accomplished something in the sixties, but it seems like deja vu all over again.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
evening lookout...
over the course of several years of music selections, i've repeated many, if not most of the artists that you see featured. wherever possible, i try to feature different selections each time i present them. that is not always possible, though, since some artists made few recordings and/or are not well represented on youtube.
heh, a few decades ago i would never have predicted the democrats turning into a party of flaming mccarthyite, red-baiting assholes. but, well, here they are.
go figure.
thanks Joe, this evening it's a pretty dynamite news collection
Robert Fitrakis interview ... I read the whole transcripts ... very scary stuff.
More reading, less comments, that's how it goes.
Have a good evening all.
https://www.euronews.com/live
evening mimi...
happy reading!
i thought that the fitrakis interview was excellent. i watched the first half of max keiser this afternoon and thought that it was really pretty good, too.
yes, same here, I didn't listen to all of the Keiser report
but found it today way more interesting than some others. But then I have more difficulties with the financial stuff. Time to change that too...
https://www.euronews.com/live
actually I now listened to both halves of the Keiser report
and the fact that I didn't give up just tells you how good it was. Just amazing to see how much in the fog we live and how good it is to listen to someone who can see in from the outside but with lots of insider knowledge. I like the lady. She is refreshingly non rhetorical, but pretty honestly reporting what she sees.
https://www.euronews.com/live
Thanks for the EBs, joe
Great collection of how we and others are being screwed by whoever is is actually in charge of running and ruining the world.
This is an interesting article about the clusterfuck happening in Libya, I don't know how all the players can keep their stories straight or how not to blow up the terrorist groups that each country is supporting in Syria
But it looks like Putin is kicking ass over there and at least trying to help the poor people in Syria who have been unfortunately caught up these country's pissing matches.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article45257.htm
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
evening snoopy...
i don't necessarily credit putin with great sympathies for the common man. i just don't know him, i never had the chance that dubya had to look into his soul.
pretty much everything that putin has done in syria can be seen through the prism of russia's strategic interests in the region without regard to charity.
that said, putin is on the right side of the law in a way that the us, nato, most of the the neighboring arab states, israel and an assortment of individual european nations are not. syria's elected government requested russia's assistance and russia is the only nation conducting military operations in syria that can be reasonably said to be legal under international law.
Bernie's Statement On The Brazilian Coup
There. Fixed it for Bernie.
"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
evening mm...
i wonder what sort of revelation it will take for bernie to stand up and say that he was robbed.
That is what I don't understand about Bernie
He saw how millions of people were stopped from voting for him, how DWS, the DNC and Hillary robbed him and us out of his presidency, yet he hasn't said a word about it.
I saw an interview where he was asked if Hillary had won the election fair and square and he answered Yes.
After spending over a year stating that Hillary isn't qualified to be president, now he is saying that she is.
If he was serious about turning around the direction this country is going, he could have endorsed Hillary as he promised and then run 3rd party or joined the Green Party.
Instead he stating that the democrats have written the most progressive platform ever. I think the that Obama had the most progressive platform ever and look at how that turned out for us.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
snoopy ...
Bernie was apparently only sheepdogging for the Dem party, to keep all the lefties following him for some 18 months instead of getting together and organzing themselves for nonpartisan solutions to the problems facing the 99%.
Big Al kept trying to tell everyone this from way early on, but, especially after the Great Migration of Bernie supporters in March, hardly anyone wanted to hear him.
As for what Sanders is up to now, check out detroitmechworks' comment below - he just bought his third house on a Vermont island for a cool $600,000. According to the news article from which The Hill got the story, Jane and Bernie only plan to use this house "seasonally."
Only connect. - E.M. Forster
I agree, dr that he was sheepdogging.
And as Hobo states below and many people on this site and in other articles stated that if Bernie was really in it to win, then he would have attacked Hillary on so many other things except for the issues. What really woke me up was an article about when Bernie said during the debates that 'he was tired of hearing about her damned emails'.
That gave Hillary's supporters a lot of ammunition about how the emails were another right wing talking point, when they were so much more than that.
It went to the heart of how untrustworty she is and how she kept lying to us when she said that she didn't send any classified emails. How the hell could she do her job if she didn't send emails with classified information on them?
Plus now we see how people are starting to take notice about how involved the state department personnel were in collusion with her foundation and the pay for play.
Yes, Big Al did try to tell us that he was sheep dogging as did many people try to warn us about Obama. His voting present on bills so that he wasn't on record on certain issues. that would come back and bite him on his ass.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
Bernie
I don't think Bernie could endorse Hillary and then run on a third party ticket. That would be
be inconsistent. I went to a Bernie rally, and I don't remember him really attacking Clinton , I
think he just focused on the issues. He did not need to paint Clinton for us, we have been watching her
for a long time.
But i think Bernie, because he is a national figure with a lot of influence after the campaign.... had he
done what you suggest... he believed, if he had run on another ticket, which he had the power to do .. but
he thought it was a lost cause... winning the presidency ,and
he would have insured the election of Trump. That, he could not do. I respect his decision there.
However, since I am not a person of great influence.. I do not feel that I have to
support Clinton.
Good evening, joe and bluzerz!
What a day! The news is jam packed and c99p has been hopping! It's been a busy work day for me, but I couldn't stay away from commenting. Wish I had more time to throw down my $.02.
Better run - leaving work soon as Raggedy Andy just called and said he's on his way!
Have a beautiful evening, dear friends!
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
evening ra...
have a great evening and happy reading!
good read at the "Bush Administration Officials..." link.
i found this part particularly interesting, especially since the guy referenced in it is the same one who just announced his support for hillary clinton--which says a lot about how scary she is:
"Wilkerson says the 9/11 Commission’s avoidance of troubling conclusions about Saudi Arabia was pre-ordained with the selection of Philip Zelikow as its executive director. Zelikow had previously co-authored a book with Bush National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, served on the Bush transition team and had even written an articulation of Bush’s preemptive war doctrine that was issued in 2002 under the president’s signature."
(bolding mine)
evening bz...
larry wilkerson's an interesting guy. he's a registered republican and proud of it, but he appears to have some principles. he's a frequent contributor on the real news and his pieces are worth seeking out.
may be with him the principles come from some sort
of decent belief in some sort of morality as he understands it to be based on scripture without taking anything literally or even let it show. Just a sort of 0.02 cents of gut feeling I have about him.
https://www.euronews.com/live
Joe
God Bless You for these Evening Blues? Especially today, I appreciate because I'm in the same boat as the woman in the 1st comment cartoon. I want to be informed, but it is all getting to be too much.
Seems like daily there are multiple reminders of just how very, very corrupt the whole shebang is.
evening granma...
thanks!
i keep thinking that not only is the system corrupt, but it feels so well entrenched that they don't even try to hide the corruption much anymore. they just call anybody who points it out a commie.
i wonder if one day the collective disgust of the vast majority of us will lead to some sort of action. it's taking a damnably long time.
Entrenched from the Constitution, forward.
Ever consider that they won long ago?
I'm somewhat optimistic, though. For the first and last time, the people have a chance to topple both Parties at the same time. They can then reform the election process, and ratify it, too!
They might figure it that out before it's too late. Our Overlords certainly recognize the possibility.
IMAGINE if you woke up the day after a US Presidential Election and headlines around the the world blared, "The Majority of Americans Refused to Vote in US Presidential Election! What Does this Mean?"
If you want to feel haunted sentimental
I would suggest listening (not neccessarry, spelling eludes me now) to the Four Tops.
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 riverlover...
i've loved the four tops music since i was a kid. it's great stuff.
i hope that you're feeling better. take it easy!
On a happier note
I was polled a few days ago. It was a long poll, took almost 20 minutes. One of the questions I was asked was to rate the following on a scale of 1-100. 100 being a very positive opinion. I had the fun of giving both Trump and Clinton a zero. Though in fairness to Trump, who is not as shrill as Clinton, I maybe should have given him a 1.
I have no sympathy for Trump, but the Clinton campaign, and the media, are lying about what he says, as they did about Bernie, and are doing to Stein. What in the world has Clinton promised the media people?
heh, clinton is the candidate of the 1%...
it's no surprise that the media industry is coalescing behind her. after all wall street and the military-industrial complex, the prison-industrial complex, the energy industry and scads of other industries have lined up behind her.
clinton is the official candidate of the 1%.
Regarding the new US invasion of Libya:
Of course it will last a long time. That's the key to war profits. And since every cent of the US war costs is paid entirely from the pockets of American workers, that makes them the ones who are getting asset-stripped by the war profiteers.
But wait! Don't we have to arm the enemy first?
Ever wonder who foots the massive costs of arming all the enemies we fight? The US spends more on defense than the next ten nations combined, and the US military can't keep up. Really, who's funding and arming all these enemies we can't defeat? The reach of ISIS doubled last year. wtf?
This pot-shot-style fighting and all these re-re-re-interventions costs a lot of money and we never, ever win because the bad guys are too formidable.
The military needs more money if the US is ever going to win a war. We must cut more social programs and impose greater austerity on the American people. The people really like that. That's why they vote for Hillary.
"Not just a Neoliberal but a Neocon, too. Now with Austerity-Plus!"
A most entertaining read tonight, Joe. Thanks.
IMAGINE if you woke up the day after a US Presidential Election and headlines around the the world blared, "The Majority of Americans Refused to Vote in US Presidential Election! What Does this Mean?"
Pluto, maybe this article will help clear things up
for you. Or not.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article45257.htm
There are many articles available that shows that the United States and its allies are the ones who are creating and funding not only ISIL but all the other terrorists groups in the Middle East.
The whole damned war of terror is just another resources grab for the corporations and to drain the treasury of our money in order to make a bunch of people fucking rich as you wrote.
And the goals for these wars isn't to win, but to keep them going in order to say that there is no money for our social programs.
And the people who are going to vote for Hillary while stating that she isn't a warmonger have got to be the most ignorant people who continue to be willfully blind.
Over at LOF, diary after diary are being written each time a republican endorsed her. They believe that it's because Trump is so dangerous, but just like Obama and his 21 dimensional chess, she's telling them and us exactly what she is going to do after she is elected president.
Dumbasses.
If you read Subir's snarky diary this morning, he posted it on LOF and of course the tip jar was hidden.
Great website to read are the ones joe puts at the end of the EBs, counterpunch, truthdig and global research
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
Thanks for the link, snoopydawg
I always look those over.
Like you, I get pretty stuck on the war issue. Because I can see it so clearly, I also pay a lot of attention to there propaganda fire hose. It's been on full blast for a couple of years now. It's dreadful to see the effect it has on people's emotions and on society; the deliberate seeds of misinformation that sabotage a truthful narrative are the worst. Happens here, too, especially noticable in discussions that touch on Ukraine, Russia, Trump, Sunnis vs Shiites — but I am also amazed how high the community has set the reality bar at c99 without stifling the free flow of thought experiments. Omitted facts is another subversive propaganda tool the gov/media uses that really messes with public discourse.
And that goes to the Trump fear you mention, that remains unprocessed by critical thinking, thus really potent. I pointed to that here, earlier.
Onward into the fray...
IMAGINE if you woke up the day after a US Presidential Election and headlines around the the world blared, "The Majority of Americans Refused to Vote in US Presidential Election! What Does this Mean?"