Open Thread - The Weekly Watch
Much of the country continues trying to explain the election of T-rump. The DNC is in turmoil as many want a new direction and the corporists try to hang on to control. Meanwhile the climate conference was held in Morocco this week with a little accomplished. Despite the Army corp of engineers ruling, the construction of DAPL continues and water protectors are still being arrested. The ICC (international criminal court) lost Russian (and perhaps the Philippine) participation.
The first three stories this week may seem disconnected, but I think they dovetail into each other and point us in a progressive direction. The first piece is on globalism and the failure of economic systems to provide for working people. The second piece explains how the fossil fuel industry helped create staggering income inequality around the world. And the third piece is on the inevitability of clean energy. If we accept the last idea, that clean energy is where we must go, then it is the fossil fuel industry we will have to face again and again. Since they own most of our politicians, this must be a people's battle. I think this is our fate for the next several years.
We are poorly informed by a media of mass distraction. The best analysis I heard this week came from economist Mark Blyth, who accurately predicted both Brexit and Trump. He explains in clear language how globalization and capitalism are failing people throughout the world – with analysis by Jimmy Dore (16 min – the first 8 min are well worth your time)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-K8bf6dbYt4
The fossil fuel industry is interconnected with the banks as a powerful economic and political force on the planet. How did it happen? Economist Richard Wolff gives us a great explanation (19 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ChsQAx2j6Q
If natural economic forces aren't manipulated by the fuel industry, their days may be limited. Tony Seba suggests energy systems are headed for a Clean disruption...we will go solar, wind, etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmnSFdk5ISg (4 min trailer)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kxryv2XrnqM (1 hour lecture)
The power of the fossil fuel industry must be challenged, and it is being challenged at Standing Rock. That's part of the reason I continue to think and feel the struggle at Standing Rock is the issue of the day and the election is just a distraction from what is important.
Drone footage captures drilling or at least drill placement despite the Army Corp ruling. (2.5 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih05eFYIxEw
RFK speaks at Standing Rock press conference (8 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdvSQaWYk8M
Partial transcript:
... instead of aligning itself with the law abiding citizens of our country, the power of this state and other states are aligning themselves with the law breaking entity. I say they are law breaking because I’ve been an environmental attorney for 30 some years and I’ve been fighting these battles and I know what they are doing is illegal. They are trying to build this pipeline fast so that they don’t have to face their day in court. So that they can say it’s already built. “Yeah we trampled on some of the laws but it’s already built.”
A reporter asked me an hour ago, “what’s the point of stopping them now, they’ve already built most of the pipeline.” And I said to the reporter, if you had people robbing a bank and they came in the bank with their guns blazing and they tied up people and they started emptying the cash register, and the police then came, do you think the police would say ‘well they got this far, we might as well let them just take the money.’ What’s they difference.
What they are doing here is an environmental crime and there are real victims.
What they did is in order to get away with breaking EPA, EPA is our most important environmental statute, National environmental policy act. That was our first environmental statue passed in 1969, and it was the first time that the US government said that when somebody has a proposal to do something that requires a federal permit that is going to distribute or possibly diminish the value or change the use…that they have to do a cost benefit analysis first.
This company took that loophole [Permit 12] and they tried to draw it around a 1,200 mile pipe. XL pipeline didn’t even think they’d get away with that. That pipeline, only 7 miles longer than this one, did the full environmental impact statement. The way that they did it is called segmentation, and it’s an old strategy and it is a device of chicanery that when we wrote EPA everyone foresaw.
“What would happen if a really diabolical polluter said I’m going to build something and only build a little bit at a time…and therefore each segment…it will just be an incremental change in the status quo so I won’t have to do an environmental impact statement.
They are trying to invoke that loophole for a project that is going to disrupt 209 streams. If they were going to disrupt one stream, they’d have to do a full environmental impact statement. They are trying to invoke that loophole for a project that will produce the same amount of carbon as 29 coal burning power plants.
We know what the law is. This company knows what the law is, and they use a flim-flam to break the law, and when peaceful protestors are saying ‘wait a minute, we want to see a cost-benefit analysis’ the company is saying ‘no, we aren’t going to do that.’
And the reason they don’t want to do it, is because they don’t want the American people to see the results of that cost-benefit analysis. We all know what it says.
This pipeline is not going to benefit the American people. This pipeline, this is what they’d be forced to disclose, this pipeline is going to benefit a few billionaires like Donald Trump and it’s going to make the richer by impoverishing the rest of us. By impoverishing the American people. By diminishing the quality of life for people around the globe. By adding to global warming which is the biggest threat to civilization."
Nice ceremony and presentation at Standing Rock with RFK (5.5 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgIbR4xrWhw
RFK talks with Thom Hartmann about DAPL and T-rump's part in it. (13 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI0vRptYlw0
Thousands stand in solidarity with Standing rock in hundreds of towns and cities. NoDAPL continues to grow! Will the U.S. government listen to the voice of the masses? (45 sec)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x88L-6z3wPY
Tara Houska, national campaigns director for Honor the Earth, describes how she was "arrested for criminal trespass as I was leaving a peaceful demonstration and getting into my car on a public road." She says police handcuffed her with zip ties and held her in a dog kennel for six hours without charging her with a crime. "After that, I was strip-searched and then thrown into jail and, finally, late, late that evening, was charged with a crime." (5.5 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXp3wpgmyNc
Activist and journalist Derrick Broze from the Conscious Resistance is interviewed about a looming heritage war near the Standing Rock reservation. He addresses using Soros as a way to misdirect attention from the important issues. Nice interview from someone on the ground. (15 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdaY4CiINJc
The Election
The media is so good at distracting people from the real challenges. Keep everyone focused on the election and keep those ratings high. Here's a few election analysis I found interesting (last week's edition offer many views)
Some post-election notes by Raúl Ilargi Meijer
https://www.theautomaticearth.com/2016/11/no-more-flyover-country/
Is it Urban vs. Rural?
http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-reasons-trumps-rise-that-no-one-talks-about/
Or is it the disappearing middle class?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/15/rust-belt-middle-c...
Jon Stewart's take on the election (6 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUkv_jPgTeg
Obama's half brother thinks T-rump is like Malcolm X? Poor judgment must run in the family.
http://www.africanews.com/2016/11/09/trump-is-the-white-malcolm-x-obama-...
Jimmy Dore sees some upsides to Donald Trump's appointment of white nationalist and racist Steve Bannon as chief strategist. (11 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShJxc6uLpbY
Ed Schultz looks at T-rumps appointees (4 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUgQjw3QHTg
Lee Camp wades in on the future cabinet (4.5 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Me1nh8ixBec
Struggle for the DNC... what a disappointment
Glen Greenwald thinks the Democratic Party is in shambles as a political force. I agree.
https://theintercept.com/2016/11/18/the-stark-contrast-between-the-gops-...
Aggressive Progressives Jimmy Dore and Steve Oh discuss how Progressives should take over the DNC and bring up the protests at Standing Rock. (3 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLPWAZ5h5Jg
Debbie, the sane progressive, loses subscribers as she criticizes Bernie and the Democrats (25 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzb6Y2lsXWU
Jon Schwarz piece on Schumer from the Intercept. He suggests Schumer might as well have been grown in a lab to be exactly the wrong face for opposition to Donald Trump
https://theintercept.com/2016/11/14/chuck-schumer-the-worst-possible-dem...
Jimmy Dore blasts the Democratic Party's decision to make Wall Street crony Chuck Schumer the minority leader has led to anger and protests. (11 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zEZpRVyjzY
Mike Papantonio discusses the Democrats' Chaos (11 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2hjrc4QFMA
Keith Ellison may not be the best person to head the DNC. Jimmy Dore (9 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifknPWKE8cU
Debbie, the sane progressive, isn't happy about Ellison either. (15 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZUYoPs93J0
Why can't the DNC admit that Bernie is the obvious leader of the party from RT (6 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rZ3e1kEERU
Jeffrey Sachs support of Bernie and Kieth Ellison (2.5 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbUk9AeycwU
Assange appeals to T-rump to drop the US criminal investigation into wikileaks. (2 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj7AZzSFYGA
The Economy
Economist Dr. Richard Wolff, discusses Global Trade Agreements...Donald Trump has promised big things for the economy once he takes office (12 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9KMzEZ1JQ4
Economist Michael Hudson sits down with Sharmini Peries to talk about the elections and his new book ‘J is for Junk Economics’ part 1 (15 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXF7xJP6hW8
Economist Michael Hudson explains how economic terms like capital gains are deployed to mislead the public about who is benefiting from economic policy and where wealth is going (18 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=No6PUjGmMP4
Around the world
Assad comments about the future with T-rump (2 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_aPlqjvJno
Russia withdraws from the International Criminal Court (ICC) (2 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPAjPDpRLgc
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte said he might follow Russia and withdraw from the ICC. (30 sec)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYYvv2OzO4A
A group of demonstrators took over the chamber of Brazil's lower house of Congress on Wednesday, sparking a chaotic scene. (30 sec)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4k6ArZD-204
Police blasts Union marchers in Chile with water cannons (1 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPYAkmIHybQ
Three lawmakers in Venezuela step down to ease political tension (30 sec)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3jonmawCPM
Honduras indigenous groups met Tuesday in Tegucigalpa to discuss different issues of rivers and mining companies, and also the government concessions to Hydroelectric Projects (30 sec)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XHgsVsjpKc
The Environment
Marshall Islands poet and climate activist Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner. She reads her poem, "Two Degrees. (3 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdqyInZQb28
If we do not take the next exit ramp from the fossil fuel highway, we commitment ourselves to dangerous and irreversible changes in our climate, says Dr. Michael Mann on TRN (14 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFjfQ5KpmiI
COP22 was held this week with few real results. Reporting from Marrakech, Dimitri Lascaris says inertia afflicting prior conferences is still at play despite determination of the global community to move ahead with climate change efforts (10 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZKeJCCKkGE
Democracy Now speaks with Dipti Bhatnagar, a climate justice and energy coordinator at Friends of the Earth International who is based in Mozambique, and with Vidya Venkat, senior assistant editor at The Hindu from COP22. (6 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=079zbhMtb9E
Jeffrey Sachs, director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University. "If Donald Trump goes in the way that his rhetoric … ha[s] portrayed, we’re going to have a brawl in the United States." (8.5 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hP4zmLHMjec
And praises the young folks suing the government and fossil fuel industry over climate change (6 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOO8hXkcCrI
Giant concrete shield is being placed over Chernobyl (30 sec)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNgSymEICuM
RT offers panoramic views from the ISS (1.5 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNgSymEICuM
This is an open thread. Please share your thoughts and any stories that speak to you.
Comments
Here are a couple more,
for those with a hour to kill. In each of these, Max and Stacy talk about the election in the first half, Michael Hudson is the guest for the second.
Keiser Report (992), YouTube
Keiser Report (993), YouTube
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
thanks Azazello
I forget about the keiser report. RT has some reasonable news shows. Let's hope the Clinton's will ride off into the sunset and count their money and pretend to do good work with their foundation.
I did catch and post the Michael Hudson interview on the real news.
Thanks again for the links!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Many thanks - looks like a day of good reading
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
Nothing makes sense
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
High on the list has to be breaking the media monopoly.
It's rather amazing there isn't more discussion about that. Everybody knows the media isn't trustworthy, that's another old thing just getting worse. Everybody knows over 90% of the media is corporate owned by six corporations that are in turn owned by the ruling elite. It should be simple, end the corporate media monopoly.
Without their media to spread their propaganda they're nothing.
The failure to enforce the antitrust laws with vigor started
with Carter - though he looks good in comparison with what's come after him - and it has eroded our democracy. I don't remember when the repeal of the laws about concentration of ownership in media markets occurred but certainly there's been no serious effort to correct that mistake.
The Fairness Doctrine needs reinstating.
The licensing requirement that tv stations provide a minimum of community service or lose their license should be put back into law.
And even minor things like tv stations couldn't broadcast commercials as content has been given up.
I don't have a tv or subscribe to mass circulation newspapers and people can live without them.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
1996
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_Act_of_1996
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Thank you. I wanted to know that. Clinton, eh? and the loyal
"progressive" Democrats supplied many of the votes.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
At a minimum...
we should take over (back?) public broadcasting. You can't have a democracy when people are ill informed.
To paraphrase Twain -
Those who don't watch the news are not informed. Those who do are misinformed.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
I wish there were one good source for basic news. I guess that
would not sell advertising so we can piece together news from a variety of sources.
There won't be a worthwhile PBS until the profession of journalism agrees on professional standards, in my opinion. What used to be a profession with ethics and a code of conduct has disappeared, or at least it seems that way.
With the disgraceful conduct of the NY Times and Washington Post and PBS at least most people are aware that you cannot rely on them for straight reporting and better had ignore them. I think many had already concluded that about broadcast news.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
Democracy now...
is the best general news IMO. Amy has been a little reactionary about T-rump since the election, but their 15 min news summary every weekday is the best broadcast news I know about.
PBS and NPR have been (like our government) bought by the Koch Brothers. Think about that... the Koch's own the house, senate, and VP. I'm not sure about T-rump.
edit - PS and don't forget Joe's evening blues....best weekday news around period.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Yes, certainly Joe's evening news.
I think it's a symptom of the vanished standards when the WSWS - Trotskyites!? - have a better web page for international news than many mainline and well known, news outlets.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
This was going to be optimistic, positive
but there's always something brings it to a screeching halt, like when "both sides do it" ends up meh. Dysthimia.
Thanks Lookout. I like Jimmy Dore. Does everyone know the U.S. Citizenship test only teaches the two party system? If I were a Green, I'd start there with the unrigging. Every new citizen should know the system is weighted, so they can change it if need be. Need be!
My bold talking about DACA, Obama could only protect them with an un-doable executive order I guess.
Sonoma County law enforcement foresee no local immigration crackdown under Trump. Great! And but then this other stuff, plus what about the DACA list? Destroy it before Sessions takes hold, that's what I think:
P.S. RIP Andy Lopez. I am not sure who the good guys are, really. It does boil down to economics, those with money have power. Everyone else has guns, or so it seems.
Magic Dick ease my pain. Thanks
Thanks eyo
I sure feel bad for the dreamers. Things won't be good with Jeff "dumbass" Sessions as AG. I've met him a few times, and he's from the shallow end of the gene pool. He's from south AL. Not to be name calling - just describing him - he's an idiot.
Our other right wing senator, Shelby (head of the banking committee if that gives you a clue) is from Tuscaloosa. I think he's 80 and just won his umpteenth term (several as a democrat). At least he has walking around sense even if he is a servant of TPTB.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
This cross post from TPW is scarier than hell.
Obama’s true legacy: A Democratic Party in smoking ruins and, soon, a Constitution rewritten by the GOP
http://theprogressivewing.com/obamas-legacy-a-democratic-party-in-smokin...
We should all tweet it to @chuckschumer
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
image writing a new constitution now
Hi dkm,
Almost 30 states have called for a constitutional convention (in theory to pass a balanced budget amendment). Reckon how the Koch brother ALEC would write a new constitution? That's scary.
http://www.sweetliberty.org/standing_calls.htm
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
You can call me dk - it is what I was called at work
for 30 years.
How many states are required?
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
two-thirds
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
No more than 2 or 3 left if a recent article is right.
Since there's a disparity in how these resolutions are worded there may be some judicial review.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
new constitution
Updated, group sourced, for and by the people. Like the Pirate Party in Iceland. They are working on it. I think we can too?
dk, I have read many articles that place the blame for
Hillary's loss on Obama.
As the article starts out, during his presidency the country has lost so many democratic positions.
But this sums up his presidency. He didn't fucking TRY to pass any decent legislation until after the republicans were able to block all his legislation and instead of calling them out on it, his weekly addresses blames 'congress' not the republicans. And even though they said they wouldn't work with him, he kept meeting them more than half way and giving them more that what they asked for.
Over at the Orange Cesspool there is a diary laughing at everyone who is going to lose their Medicaid coverage because they voted for Trump over Hillary.
I called them out on their callousness and I am sure you can imagine how that went over.
I also told them that Bill Clinton would have privatized social security if Monica Lewinsky hadn't saved it.
Of course not one person addressed that issue.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Many/most of us Bernie voters would have been happy
to Bern it all down. That concerns me not. Input would be important, however. Smoking ruins might have been fine, except by nuclear bombs.
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.
Re: Inevitability of clean energy.
Something that long gave me the SMFHs over at GOS was the number of people who, when the discursive push came to shove, asserted flatly that one policy or another was a nonstarter because, "The American people are never going to accept X", where X would be whatever modification in behavior and luxury would be required under the given policy, and there was just no way to go forward with the conversation, because their imaginations simply couldn't project into a future where the American people weren't going to have a goddamned choice, because PHYSICS and MATH.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
the beginning of his lecture...
He shows NYC 1900 street scene with one car in it. Then he shows another from 1913 with one horse and buggy in it.
The problem I see with his trend lines involve the power of the fossil fuel industry to stifle progress. I agree with Sabe, it is inevitable.
Here's the links again if anyone missed them -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmnSFdk5ISg (4 min trailer)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kxryv2XrnqM (1 hour lecture)
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
My problem is the source of the batteries
lithium, forever? and the size and location of the mega factories. Like Sherwin Wiliams Paints will they "cover the earth?"
But I'm very glad I saw the vid. Since we are forced to accept that people will not give up their cars, this is one way out, change the fuel, drop fossil fuels.
I guess every environmental solution brings its own set of problems but none as bad as fossil fuels. We have to stop using them asap.
To thine own self be true.
as well as the waste
Clean energy will also have its dirt. There just ain't no free lunch!
Thanks Marilyn for your link below too.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Thanks, looks to be great collection. Hope I find time for all o
of the stuff that looks like "must read/watch".
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 --
Podcast: Thomas Frank discussing the election
http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thesundayedition/president-elect-trump-the-truth...
Sunday morning , Nov. 13, 2016
Thank you for the essay on "the Chinese hoax."
To thine own self be true.
Wow! Great collection of reading!
I have a MUCH shorter post Over There this evening, another edition of Aminal Nooz. I hope those of you who still venture Over There will come visit! http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/11/20/1602346/-Aminal-Nooz-Yakkity-...
WARNING: DKos link! Thank you!
Please check out Pet Vet Help, consider joining us to help pets, and follow me @ElenaCarlena on Twitter! Thank you.
no to Boxer's new bill
Just read some news where Barbara Boxer has introduced a bill to abolish the presidential electoral college system and move to a popular vote.
I say no, for the simple reason that I don't want California and NYC electing my future president. I want my more rural state to still have a vote that counts!!
So much good stuff, thanks
Just checked the cookie jar and cant buy that Tesla yet, but a self driving EV is definitely on my wish list.