The Evening Blues - 12-20-16



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Walter Davis

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues singer and piano player Walter Davis. Enjoy!

Walter Davis - M & O Blues

“The state — or, to make matters more concrete, the government — consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can’t get, and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time it is made good by looting ‘A’ to satisfy ‘B’. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is a sort of advanced auction on stolen goods.”

-- H.L. Mencken


News and Opinion

This is an excellent article worth a full read:

This Political Theorist Predicted the Rise of Trumpism. His Name Was Hunter S. Thompson.

Most people read Hell’s Angels for the lurid stories of sex and drugs. But that misses the point entirely. What’s truly shocking about reading the book today is how well Thompson foresaw the retaliatory, right-wing politics that now goes by the name of Trumpism. After following the motorcycle guys around for months, Thompson concluded that the most striking thing about them was not their hedonism but their “ethic of total retaliation” against a technologically advanced and economically changing America in which they felt they’d been counted out and left behind. Thompson saw the appeal of that retaliatory ethic. He claimed that a small part of every human being longs to burn it all down, especially when faced with great and impersonal powers that seem hostile to your very existence. In the United States, a place of ever greater and more impersonal powers, the ethic of total retaliation was likely to catch on.

What made that outcome almost certain, Thompson thought, was the obliviousness of Berkeley, California, types who, from the safety of their cocktail parties, imagined that they understood and represented the downtrodden. The Berkeley types, Thompson thought, were not going to realize how presumptuous they had been until the downtrodden broke into one of those cocktail parties and embarked on a campaign of rape, pillage, and slaughter. For Thompson, the Angels weren’t important because they heralded a new movement of cultural hedonism, but because they were the advance guard for a new kind of right-wing politics. As Thompson presciently wrote in the Nation piece he later expanded on in Hell’s Angels, that kind of politics is “nearly impossible to deal with” using reason or empathy or awareness-raising or any of the other favorite tools of the left. ...

Thompson’s Angels were mostly working-class white men who felt, not incorrectly, that they had been relegated to the sewer of American society. Their unswerving loyalty to the nation— the Angels had started as a World War II veterans group—had not paid them any rewards or won them any enduring public respect. The manual-labor skills that they had learned and cultivated were in declining demand. Though most had made it through high school, they did not have the more advanced levels of training that might lead to economic or professional security. “Their lack of education,” Thompson wrote, “rendered them completely useless in a highly technical economy.” Looking at the American future, they saw no place for themselves in it. ...

We parents tell our children that when you know you’ve lost an argument or a race, the right thing to do is to be a good sport and to “get ’em next time.” But if there is no next time, or you know that every next time you are going to be in the loser’s lane again, what’s the use of being a good sport? It would make you look even more ignorant, and more like a loser, to pretend like you think you have a chance. The game has been rigged against you. Why not piss on the field before you storm off? Why not stick up your finger at the whole goddamned game? ...

The idea that Trumpism is “populist” seems misplaced. Populism is a belief in the right of ordinary people, rather than political insiders, to rule. Trumpism, by contrast, operates on the presumption that ordinary people aren’t going to get any chance to rule no matter what they do, so they might as well piss off the political insiders using the only tool left available to them: the vote. While many commentators say Trump will have to bring back jobs or vibrancy to places like the Rust Belt if he wants to continue to have the support of people who voted for him, Thompson’s account suggests otherwise. Many if not most Trump supporters long ago gave up on the idea that any politician, even someone like Trump, can change the direction the wind is blowing. Even if he fails to bring back the jobs, Trump can maintain loyalty in another way: As long as he continues to offend and irritate elites, and as long as he refuses to play by certain rules of decorum—heaven forfend, the president-elect says ill-conceived things on Twitter!—Trump will still command loyalty.

Cheeky.

Wikileaks offers to help Obama authenticate Russia hacking claims

Wikileaks has offered to help US President Barack Obama authenticate spy agencies' assessment that Russia was behind the leak of hacked Democratic emails during the presidential election. ...


Mr Assange had previously claimed in an interview on the Russian state-funded RT channel that Moscow was not the source of the emails. RT says on its website that it seeks to acquaint international audiences "with a Russian viewpoint on major global events".

Chris Hedges: ‘Fake News’ in America: Homegrown, and Far From New

The media landscape in America is dominated by “fake news.” It has been for decades. This fake news does not emanate from the Kremlin. It is a multibillion-dollar-a-year industry that is skillfully designed and managed by public relations agencies, publicists and communications departments on behalf of individuals, government and corporations to manipulate public opinion. This propaganda industry stages pseudo-events to shape our perception of reality. The public is so awash in these lies, delivered 24 hours a day through electronic devices and print, that viewers and readers can no longer distinguish between truth and fiction.

Donald Trump and the racist-conspiracy theorists, generals and billionaires around him inherited and exploited this condition, just as they have inherited and will exploit the destruction of civil liberties and collapse of democratic institutions. Trump did not create this political, moral and intellectual vacuum. It created him. It created a world where fact is interchangeable with opinion, where celebrities have huge megaphones simply because they are celebrities, where information must be entertaining and where we can all believe what we want to believe regardless of truth. A demagogue like Trump is what you get when you turn culture and the press into burlesque. ...

Most of the sections of a newspaper—“life style,” travel, real estate and fashion, among others—are designed to appeal to the “1 percent.” They are bait for advertising. Only about 15 percent of any newspaper is devoted to news. If you were to remove from that 15 percent the content provided by the public relations industry inside and outside government, news falls to single digits. For broadcast and cable news, the figure for real, independently reported news would hover close to zero.

The object of fake news is to shape public opinion by creating fictional personalities and emotional responses that overwhelm reality. Hillary Clinton, contrary to how she often was portrayed during the recent presidential campaign, never fought on behalf of women and children—she was an advocate for the destruction of a welfare system in which 70 percent of the recipients were children. She is a tool of the big banks, Wall Street and the war industry. Pseudo-events were created to maintain the fiction of her concern for women and children, her compassion and her connections to ordinary people. Trump never has been a great businessman. He has a long history of bankruptcies and shady business practices. But he played the fictional role of a titan of finance on his reality television show, “The Apprentice.”

“The pseudo-events which flood our consciousness are neither true nor false in the old familiar senses,” Daniel Boorstin writes in his book “The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America.” “The very same advances which have made them possible have also made the images—however planned, contrived, or distorted—more vivid, more attractive, more impressive, and more persuasive than reality itself.”

Reality is consciously deformed to easily digestible sound bites and narratives. Those involved in public relations, political campaigns and government stay relentlessly on message. They do not deviate from the simple sound bite or cliché they are instructed to repeat. It is a species of continuous baby talk. And it dominates the news and talk shows on the airwaves.

A Deadly Day: Russian Ambassador Assassinated; 12 Dead in Berlin Truck Crash; Zürich Mosque Attacked

Berlin Christmas market attack leaves 12 dead and 48 hospitalized

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday morning that it would be “particularly repugnant” if it turned out the attack on a Berlin Christmas market on Monday night – which left 12 people dead – was carried out by a refugee who “asked for protection and asylum in Germany.”

Calling the attack an “unspeakable act,” Merkel promised to bring the full weight of the law to bear on the perpetrators. She said: “We must assume it was a terrorist attack.” The chancellor, who has faced strong criticism for her open door policy in relation to refugees, said it would be “particularly repugnant in the face of the many, many Germans who have dedicated themselves day after day to helping refugees.” ...

Federal prosecutors in Germany have taken over the investigation into what is now seen as a “probable terror attack,” Berlin police said. “Our investigators are working on the assumption that the truck was intentionally driven into the crowd at the Christmas market on Breitscheidplatz.”

After Berlin, Angela Merkel’s open door to migrants might be about to slam shut

So far this century, Germany has been lucky compared with France, where Islamic extremist terror has claimed hundreds of lives – and of course the United States where 3,000 people were massacred on 9/11. But terror incidents in Germany have been isolated, perpetrated by lone wolves and with no victims or only a few.

Now this happy state has reached a bloody end. A taste of things to come was the shooting spree at a Munich McDonald’s last July, when a German-Iranian student took the lives of nine as well as his own. A psychiatric patient, he had no criminal record, nor an obvious political motive. Then, this week, “Nice” came to Berlin. ...

Above all, if the perpetrator does turn out to be a refugee, Merkel’s “open door” policy on refugees will get a decisive make-over. Recall last year when she flung the country’s doors wide open. Proclaiming “wir schaffen das” – we can do it – she essentially relinquished control over Germany’s borders. Some 800,000 people from the Middle East as well as North Africa arrived. ...

Thus do good intentions come to a nasty end. For Merkel, the “open door” was a grand moral gesture stemming from Germany’s ugly past – an act of historical atonement. So is the ultra-liberal state that followed Nazi totalitarianism. “Never again!” explains why Germany, remembering the deadly fate of its Jews trying to escape extermination, opened its borders last summer.

Russia and Turkey call the assassination an attempt to spoil their relationship

The assassination of Russia’s ambassador to Turkey before press photographers Monday prompted fears the killing could be a flashpoint that unleashes even greater chaos in a volatile region.

But Russia and Turkey have sought to swiftly tamp down tensions over Andrey Karlov’s murder in an Ankara art gallery, out of an apparent concern to maintain a fragile accord between the powers over the Syrian crisis, analysts say.

“Given the tensions in the region and in the relationship between Russia and Turkey, this could easily have sparked off something much more serious,” Andrew Monaghan, a senior researcher at Chatham House’s Russia and Eurasia program, told VICE News.

“Both sides appear to be admirably stable.”

China returns US drone seized by navy after 'friendly consultations'

The Pentagon has said that Beijing has returned the unmanned underwater drone that the Chinese Navy seized last week. China’s defence ministry said it handed the drone back after “friendly consultations.”

In a statement issued late on Monday, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said the Chinese navy vessel that had seized the drone returned it close to where it had been taken from. The incident occurred in the South China Sea near the Philippines.

Evacuation of Aleppo Picks Up as UN Announces They’ll Send Monitors

The evacuation of the rebel-held district of the Syrian city of Aleppo continued was going at full pace again today, after some weekend delays involving al-Qaeda blocking evacuations from Shi’ite villages in Idlib. Today, the refugees were able to leave both areas in buses.

An estimated 7,000 people were evacuated from Aleppo today, bringing the total gotten out of the rebel district since last week to 17,000. Estimates vary, but the higher-end suggested about 50,000 people overall needed to be evacuated, and if no new obstacles emerge, that might only take a few days.

The UN Security Council, in a move that is likely entirely too late to make any difference, today agreed to deploy around 100 monitors into Aleppo to prevent “massacres.” The deal was a compromise between French and Russian officials, and UN officials say they’ll be able to deploy the monitors almost immediately.

Trump aide: Israeli envoy pick is not a rejection of two-state solution

Donald Trump’s chief of staff said on Sunday that the president-elect’s pick of lawyer David Friedman as the ambassador to Israel was not an indication that he rejects the notion of the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“There’s going to be things that individually people may believe in their hearts or in their mind,” Priebus said Sunday of Trump’s nominees to top posts. “But ultimately, it’s their job to represent the president-elect of the United States and his foreign policy.” ...

In a November interview with The Times of Israel in November, Friedman indicated that Trump would seek to forge a comprehensive peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, but was open to alternatives outside the two-state framework embraced by official US policy for decades.

Friedman stated that, based on his discussions with Trump, “a two-state solution is not a priority” for the president-elect. “I don’t think he is wed to any particularly outcome. A two-state solution is a way, but it’s not the only way.”

Italian government seeks €20bn to prop up banks, LaGarde guilty of Negligence

A Canadian island couldn't convince anyone to move there — until two sisters offered a deal on Facebook

Sisters Heather Coulombe and Sandee MacLean have received more than 100,000 applications over the past four months to work a minimum wage job in their country store called the Farmer’s Daughter in Whycocomagh on Cape Breton Island off the coast of Nova Scotia. All they had to do is promise their workers three acres of their land.

Coulombe and MacLean own more than 100 acres of forested land on Breton Island. When it became clear that their store needed more workers, they came up with their unique offer to trade work for land. Many of their applicants are seeking a new way of life in addition to a new job.

Coulombe and MacLean say there’s only one requirement that each applicant must meet to be considered: they must plan to permanently live on Breton Island, which has seen its year-round population shrink rapidly in recent years.

[See video at the link. - js]

New Orleans reaches settlements for police shootings after Hurricane Katrina

New Orleans has reached settlements totalling $13.3m (£10.7m) in lawsuits over deadly police shootings following Hurricane Katrina.

Announcing the compensation on Monday, which also covered a fatal beating just before the storm in August 2005, the mayor, Mitch Landrieu, apologised to the victims’ families on behalf of the city. ...

A total of 20 current or former New Orleans police officers were charged in a series of justice department civil rights investigations following the hurricane. All but one of the cases centred on alleged police misconduct during the chaos that gripped the flooded city.

Eleven officers pleaded guilty to charges related to deadly shootings on a bridge less than a week after Katrina’s landfall. Officers shot and killed two unarmed people and wounded four others on the Danziger Bridge before engaging in a cover-up that included a planted gun, fabricated witness statements and falsified reports. ...

Lawsuits over the bridge shootings had been placed on hold while the criminal cases were pending.

What America's largest police union wants

The Fraternal Order of Police, the largest police union in the U.S., gave candidate Donald J. Trump one of his highest-profile endorsements in September. Now, the group wants to call in its chits with the president-elect, issuing a list of recommended actions for his first 100 days in office.

The organization’s wish list ranges from curtailing police reform and efforts to demilitarize police, to slashing funding for so-called “sanctuary cities.” It even touches on foreign policy, urging Trump to curtail thawing relations with Cuba until it gives up “cop killers,” like Assata Shakur, a black civil rights activist who has been living there as a fugitive after escaping from prison in 1979 where she was serving a life sentence for the murder of a state trooper.

But topping the FOP’s list is the hope that Trump will overturn President Barack Obama’s executive order to limit the Department of Defenses 1033 program, which allowed military surplus equipment, like grenade launchers, blankets, and Humvees, to be made available to local law enforcement agencies. Since 1990, the program has handed out approximately $5.6 billion worth of military gear to law enforcement agencies, including 625 MRAPs, mine-resistant armored vehicles from the battlefield in Iraq.

In addition to restoring the pipeline of military surplus to local police departments, union leaders asked that the president “de-prioritize implementation of some or all of the recommendations made by the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing,” which emphasized “community policing” as a means to heal divisions between law enforcement and people of color.

IBM Employees Launch Petition Protesting Cooperation with Donald Trump

IBM employees are taking a public stand following a personal pitch to Donald Trump from CEO Ginni Rometty and the company’s initial refusal to rule out participating in the creation of a national Muslim registry.

In November, Rometty wrote Trump directly, congratulating him on his electoral victory and detailing various services the company could sell his administration. The letter was published on an internal IBM blog along with a personal note from Rometty to her enormous global staff. “As IBMers, we believe that innovation improves the human condition. … We support, tolerance, diversity, the development of expertise, and the open exchange of ideas,” she wrote in the context of lending material support to a man who won the election by rejecting all of those values. Employee comments were a mix of support and horror. Now, some of those who were horrified are going public, denouncing Rometty’s letter and asserting “our right to refuse participation in any U.S. government contracts that violate constitutionally protected civil liberties.”

The IBMPetition.org effort has been spearheaded in part by IBM cybersecurity engineer Daniel Hanley, who told The Intercept he started organizing with his coworkers after reading Rometty’s letter. “I was shocked, of course,” Hanley said, “because IBM has purported to espouse diversity and inclusion, and yet here’s Ginni Rometty in an unqualified way reaching out to an admin whose electoral success was based on racist programs.” The petition now has 51 signees, which is a tiny fraction of the company’s enormous global staff, but to date has circulated only privately.

Conflicts of Interest Not New to the Age of Trump: Many Politicians Voting for the TARP Bailout Protected Their Own Wealth

Amid heightened focus on conflicts of interests, new research shows how legislators’ votes on the 2008 bank bailout tracked with the exposure to peril of their personal stock portfolios President-Elect Donald Trump recently announced that “in theory, I could run my business perfectly, and then run the country perfectly.” Since the President and Vice President enjoy the singular privilege of being exempt from conflict-of-interest statutes, he can perhaps make that position stick, though not everyone is convinced and his claim has touched off a lively debate. ...

While scholars widely agree that a politician’s vote depends on their ideological position and their electoral prospects — which in turn are related to the politician’s ability to convince voters that he or she is the best advocate of their interests, and also by his or her ability to raise campaign funds — we show that the effect of the vote on a given politician’s personal wealth can also influence his or her voting on legislative proposals.

Using the politicians’ voting records on the bill that eventually became the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act — which bailed out American banks in the wake of the 2008 financial collapse — and detailed data on the equity stake of individual politicians in those financial institutions, we document that politicians whose portfolios were exposed to the stricken financial institutions are almost 60% more likely to vote in favor of the bailout plan than politicians whose wealth was relatively immune to the crisis.



the horse race



A Colorado elector’s punishment for voting Bernie instead of Hillary may be unconstitutional

In the aftermath of Election Day, a substantial amount of excited conjecture erupted over the potential power of electors to defect — that is, to vote against the results of the general election in their state.

Those hoping for a resultant Clinton miracle win in the Electoral College vote were disappointed Monday afternoon when Donald Trump was officially elected after just four Democratic electors successfully defected. And in Colorado, at least one elector unsuccessfully did so after casting a vote for Bernie Sanders instead of Hillary Clinton.

Colorado went on to file all nine of its electoral ballots for Clinton because the elector who voted for Sanders was replaced in accordance with state law, as Fox 31 Denver reported. A Colorado judge had recently ruled that state electors who didn’t vote for Clinton could face up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Thirty states have laws that restrict electors, though they differ in how much they restrict them and whether they can be replaced if electors defect to “vote their conscience.” And those laws that do in some way mandate a replacement may violate the Constitution; the single Supreme Court case related to elector freedoms didn’t clearly address the issue.

Robert Reich on the First 100 Day Resistance Agenda Against Trump: Protest & "Boycott Everything"

Electoral College 'Uprising' Marks New Phase for Anti-Trump Resistance

Monday saw President-elect Donald Trump secure victory in the Electoral College, while also marking the beginning of the next phase of resistance to his #NotNormal administration.

Trump easily surpassed the 270-vote threshold needed to defeat Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, winning 304 electoral votes with just two Republican electors breaking ranks to give Ohio Gov. John Kasich and former Rep. Ron Paul one vote each.

But protests at state capitols across the nation "offered a preview of a tumultuous inauguration and first 100 days of the new administration," the New York Times reported, pointing to progressive groups' developing plans to confront "Trump's cabinet and White House appointments, his pick to fill a vacant seat on the Supreme Court, his financial conflicts of interest, and his stated plan to quickly repeal the Affordable Care Act."

Indeed, Monday's actions—which emphasized the fact that Trump lost the popular vote, despite more than half of Republicans thinking otherwise—"reaffirm that Trump has an absolute lack of mandate," said Anna Galland, MoveOn.org civic action executive director. ...

Trump will face fierce opposition, if Monday's protests are any indication.



the evening greens


Austerity on Trial as Flint Emergency Manager Slammed With Criminal Charges

Putting austerity on trial, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette on Tuesday announced criminal charges against four high-level officials for their role in causing the Flint water crisis, including former city manager Darnell Earley, who made the budget-driven decision to switch the city's water supply to the dangerously corrosive Flint River.

"There are some who would simply wish that the problems in Flint would go quietly away, and there are voices out there who hope the poisoning of the water would be swept under the rug," Schuette said during a Tuesday morning press conference. "These voices hope to simply blame nameless bureaucrats, call it a day and move on." ...

Earley, as well as another former emergency manager Gerald Ambrose—both appointees of Republican Governor Rick Snyder—are being charged with false pretense and conspiracy to commit false pretense, which each carry a 20-year sentence, as well as misconduct in office and willful neglect of duty.

Earley, who ran the city from 2013 to 2015, "knew the plant was not prepared to produce water and, nevertheless, allowed it to be provided to the public," Jeff Seipenko, a special agent with the attorney general's office in 67th District Court, told the Detroit News. And despite concerns over health issues, Earley declined to switch back to the previous source, the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department.

Similarly, while serving as emergency manager in 2015, Ambrose overruled a city council vote to return to the cleaner, safer Detroit system, essentially "saying the people of Flint couldn't afford anything better than the rust-colored, foul-smelling swill being pumped from the river into their homes," as Curt Guyette, investigative reporter with the ACLU of Michigan recently put it. With the state appointment of an emergency manager, Guyette observed, "Democracy had been hijacked, with an austerity-driven autocracy installed in its place."

City officials Howard Croft, who was public works superintendent at the time, and his subordinate, utilities administrator Daugherty Johnson, also face charges of misconduct in office and willful neglect because they "put pressure on individuals at the water treatment plant to get the plant to work, despite having been told it wasn't ready," Seipenko said.

"All too often, there's been a fixation on finances and balance sheets," Schuette said during the Tuesday press conference. "This fixation cost lives. This fixation came at the expensive of protecting the health and safety of Flint. It's all about numbers over people, money over health."

Nearly 3,000 US Communities Have Lead Levels Higher Than Flint: Reuters

A Reuters investigation this week uncovered nearly 3,000 different communities across the U.S. with lead levels higher than those found in Flint, Michigan, which has been the center of an ongoing water contamination crisis since 2014.

The investigation found that many of the hot-spots are receiving little attention or funding. Local healthcare advocates said they hope the reporting will spur action from influential community leaders.

All of the communities Reuters investigated had lead levels at least two times higher than Flint's; more than 1,000 were four times higher. In most cases, the local data covered a 5- to 10-year period through 2015, the analysis states.

Areas affected by lead poisoning populate the map from Texas to Pennsylvania, reported Reuters' M.B. Pell and Joshua Schneyer. The available data charts 21 states that are home to about 61 percent of the U.S. population.


Drones involved in 2 pipeline protest criminal cases

Two participants in the Dakota Access Pipeline protest have been charged with crimes related to using drones in what may be the first criminal cases in North Dakota against drone operators.

One man is charged with stalking after he used a drone to photograph private security workers and another man is charged with felony reckless endangerment for allegedly flying a drone near a North Dakota Highway Patrol aircraft.

Meanwhile, the use of drones and other surveillance tactics by the pipeline company and law enforcement are being questioned by attorneys representing the pipeline resistance camp.

Open records requests filed recently by the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Lawyers Guild seek to find out what surveillance methods have been used by law enforcement and whether any of it has been unconstitutional. ...

Residents of the Oceti Sakowin camp north of the Standing Rock Sioux reservation say low-flying helicopters and airplanes routinely pass over the camp, sometimes waking campers up at night or early in the morning. ...

Campers also have seen drones flying overhead that do not belong to registered media or anyone staying at the camp, said Dallas Goldtooth, an organizer with the Indigenous Environmental Network.

“We don’t know whether it’s Dakota Access or it’s law enforcement,” Goldtooth said.

The snow has gone from the polar bear capital of the world

Churchill, on the banks of the Hudson Bay in Canada, is known as the polar bear capital of the world. Hundreds of bears gather there each year before the sea freezes over in October and November so they can hunt seals again from the ice for the first time since the summer.

I first went there 12 years ago at this time of year. The place was white, the temperature was -20C, and the bears were out feeding.

This year I came back to make a film for Danish TV and set up live feeds of the bears. It was so different. In mid-November there was no snow or sea ice or ice; the land was green or brown and the temperature was 2C. The bears were walking around on the land waiting for the ice to form. It was like summer. ...

This has had a massive effect on the bear. The western Hudson Bay population has declined by more than 20% in 30 years. It’s the same elsewhere. New analysis of data from the southern Beaufort Sea in north-west Canada and Alaska suggest even greater population declines there. ...

The polar bear is an icon of climate change. What is happening near Churchill is a clear sign that change is taking place now. When I returned to Europe, the frost finally came. It should have been one month earlier. This is about much more than polar bears. If an animal that is designed to survive here can’t make it, we are in trouble. It’s really about us.

Republicans and Democrats alike want more clean energy

It’s almost an accepted dogma that in the United States (and in several other countries), liberals are much more in favor of taking actions to curb climate change whereas conservatives block such actions. That’s certainly true within the halls of power. For instance, in the United States, it has become a litmus test for Republication candidates to deny humans are causing climate change, to try to claim that it isn’t important, in many cases to demonize the messengers (the scientists), and to work to halt climate science so we won’t know how bad the problem is.

Conventional wisdom – and in fact the seemingly obvious message from this past election – is that this denial is good politics. If you want to get elected as a conservative, you have got to be anti-science.

But perhaps what we thought was so just isn’t. A fascinating study was just released by Yale and George Mason Universities that involved a national survey of American opinions. What this survey found was astonishing. Almost 70% of registered voters in the U.S. believe that their country should participate in international agreements to limit global warming. Only 1 in 8 registered voters believe the U.S. should not participate in such agreements. Similarly, 70% of respondents support limits on carbon dioxide, the most important human-emitted heat trapping gas.

Moreover, they agree to limits even if that means electricity costs will increase (although they won’t). What this means is that 7 in 10 registered voters agree with President Obama’s signature climate accomplishment, the Clean Power Plan. When considered by party affiliation, the responses were 85% for Democrats, 62% for Independents, and 52% for Republicans. Yes, even among Republicans, whose elected officials systematically mock science, the majority of voters are in agreement about the importance of taking climate change seriously.


Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

An al Qaeda Christmas: the Touching Tale of How Hate Figures Became American Heroes

Extracting Aleppo from the Propaganda

Amnesia at the UN: the Massacres Samantha Power Conveniently Forgot to Mention

Truth is evaporating before our eyes

The Case for Bringing Back Torture Is a Ticking Time-Bomb

The New Exterminatory Warfare

Urgent to Progressives: Stop Fueling the Anti-Russia Frenzy


A Little Night Music

Walter Davis - You Don't Smell Right

Walter Davis - That Stuff You Sell Ain't No Good

Walter Davis - Don't You Want To Go

Walter Davis - Cotton Club Blues

Walter Davis - Teasin' Brown Skin

Walter Davis - Travellin' This Lonesome Road

Walter Davis - Jungle Blues

Walter Davis - Blue Sea Blues

Walter Davis - Sloppy Drunk Again

Walter Davis - I Just Can't Help It



Share
up
0 users have voted.

Comments

Azazello's picture

I heard Robert Reich on Amy's show today. It occurred to me that Reich was making a category error with respect to Trump's attitude towards the press. Donald Trump is not an elected official, he's a television personality. This means he doesn't see the press in the same way as an elected official like a mayor or a member of congress. Trump is from TV world, not the real world, and his name, his brand, is all he has to sell. Therefore, he can be expected to act differently. Instead of a White House press secretary, Trump wants a publicist just like any other TV personality. Where Reich sees something alarming and vaguely fascist, I see just another celeb, more like Wolfgang Puck than Benito Mussolini. I think Hedges is making a similar point is piece on fake news. TV is a fake world populated by fake people. It's sad that so many Americans think TV world is real but we shouldn't really be surprised that they've elected a celebrity with no substance.

up
0 users have voted.

We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

divineorder's picture

It's sad that so many Americans think TV world is real but we shouldn't really be surprised that they've elected a celebrity with no substance.

... after we elected a politician with no substance, who, as it turned out, really wanted to be a tv personality more than he wanted to work for the causes he campaigned on [in 2008].

http://www.msnbc.com/the-cycle/the-power-the-entertainer-chief

The Power of the Entertainer-in-Chief
12/12/14 02:26 PM—Updated 12/15/14 11:24 AM

by Dr. Kathryn Cramer Brownell
Author of Showbiz Politics: Hollywood in American Political Life.

“Every American likes to be entertained… So if you can’t fight it, PUT ON A SHOW. And if you put on a good show, Mr. and Mrs. America will turn out to see it,” wrote the California political consultants Clem Whitaker and Leon Baxter in 1934. Rooted in California politics in the 1930s, this practice reverberates today and continues to shapes the modern American presidency. On December 8th, President Barack Obama appeared as a guest on the Colbert Report. Taking over for the comedian as the host of the show, Obama changed the segment “The Word” to “The Decree.” His comedic performance highlighted both his humor and acting talents. In a strategy reflective of his decision to appear on Zach Galifianakis’ Between Two Ferns to promote the Affordable Care Act, and to rap the news with Jimmy Fallon to advocate for his student loan policies, Obama again showed his ability to flourish in his role as “Entertainer-in-Chief.”

Like many of his predecessors in the White House, Obama has turned to a “showbiz politics.” Following an electoral defeat for the Democratic Party last month, Obama’s entertainment efforts have helped him to reclaim the media narrative of his presidency and re-invigorate the activism of his younger supporters, whose voices he needs to push his policies through a Republican Congress over the next two years.

up
0 users have voted.

A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

joe shikspack's picture

“Government is the Entertainment division of the military-industrial complex.”

-- Frank Zappa

up
0 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

good points. it has always seemed to me that the american people were addled by teevee, that it is like a drug that fills their heads with escapist fantasies about wealth and celebrity.

the whole thing reminds me of that old joke, a neurotic dreams of castles in the air, a psychotic moves into it.

up
0 users have voted.
mimi's picture

as much as I agree with your analysis of Trump being a television personality, he unfortunately became an elected official and therefore we should treat him like one and not the way he may want us to treat him. You have to hold him accountable the same way you held all other Presidents accountable for what they are saying and doing. If you think he can get away playing "Who wants to be a President" like it's a game show on TV in a real governmental role, you should think again. No way that people will accept it worldwide and it has to be resisted. Either Trump gets responsible or he has to unpresident himself.

No mercy, sorry. The little people, as much as they might distract themselves and be addicted to TV, they still live in the real world of their daily jobs, families and environmental surroundings. They do NOT live in a fake world of TV. And for sure they will pretty soon be reminded of it, wake up and smell the coffee so to speak.

I considered Reich's remarks on Amy's show courageous. I support his suggestions. If you don't support fake news, fake media and the destructiveness of new technologies, you certainly don't support a fake TV personality who claims to be the greatest President ... whatever you think he is you can fill out the blanks.

Just my angry 0.02 cents.

up
0 users have voted.
divineorder's picture

We had exercise class this am followed by some volunteer work at WildEarth Guardians doing a mailout of 'thank yous' to generous year end donors who appreciate the work the group does.

Now back at the condo is jakkalbessie's worst nightmare-- me in the kitchen. We are oil and water, virgo and gemini and I rarely make the grade in the kitchen as far as orderliness and cleanliness is concerned.

I decided I wanted some potato and celery soup for dinner. Jakkalbessie does not particularly care for celery. My mother used to make potato soupoften, but she's in the nursing facility with alzheimer's and although they have cooking classes there on occasion (!) she won't be making it for me. (During our last visit we asked about the cafeteria food and he told us she had to cook her own food. Later found out about the cooking activity. Heh). So I decided to give it a go. Wish me luck?

Thanks for the news and views!

up
0 users have voted.

A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

OLinda's picture

Mmm. Potato and celery. Sure sound good to me. I don't make soups, but need to learn. I get put off when I look at recipes and see things I need to buy that I don't have. Like flour, lol.

A new deli opened up nearby, cozy, with tables. They offer soup and I've made a mental note that it's a place to stop by on a cold wintery night and warm up for awhile over a bowl. Their other fare is sure delicious, so I have high hopes for the soup. They are open to 7PM which is nice.

up
0 users have voted.
divineorder's picture

Jakkalbessie said the soup had a good flavor . It's not as good as my mother's but was tasty.

Hope you have a nice bowl and a warm night!

up
0 users have voted.

A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

Azazello's picture

I do potato soup with leeks instead of celery. I'm grilling burgers tonight.

up
0 users have voted.

We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

divineorder's picture

about being most happy in the kitchen when she can begin cooking by sauteing onions. She's not a big fan of potato and leak soup, but I like it. Hope your enjoy your dinner!

up
0 users have voted.

A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

Azazello's picture

Maybe it's the potatoes she doesn't like.

up
0 users have voted.

We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

divineorder's picture

up
0 users have voted.

A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

joe shikspack's picture

glad that you were able to pitch in to help what seems like a really good bunch.

good luck with your soup construction plans and sharing the kitchen. i've collected my share of sidelong glances and helpful hints (things will go better if you clean as you go along!) from ms shikspack who is a far more systematic cook than i am.

happy dining! Smile

up
0 users have voted.

Seems that Ms Shikspack and I would do very well together in the kitchen! Do like celery in some instances but have been getting stringy celery which do not like at all! A friend made us some potato/leek soup that was delicious but not something I would make.

By the way the soup turned out delicious and best of all, there were leftovers!

And as usual, thanks for all the news you provide us.

up
0 users have voted.

Life is what you make it, so make it something worthwhile.

This ain't no dress rehearsal!

joe shikspack's picture

i'm sure that you and ms shikspack would have a wonderful time in the kitchen. do has regaled us with tales of the wonderful food that emerges from your kitchen on a regular basis. It sounds like you share an adventurousness in creating new tastes and interesting combinations.

glad to hear that the soup turned out well, especially since there are leftovers.

have a great evening!

up
0 users have voted.

Seems that Ms Shikspack and I would do very well together in the kitchen! Do like celery in some instances but have been getting stringy celery which do not like at all! A friend made us some potato/leek soup that was delicious but not something I would make.

By the way the soup turned out delicious and best of all, there were leftovers!

And as usual, thanks for all the news you provide us.

up
0 users have voted.

Life is what you make it, so make it something worthwhile.

This ain't no dress rehearsal!

CB's picture

a number of times. I do that when making horse douvers with celery. Makes them nice and tender.

up
0 users have voted.
Unabashed Liberal's picture

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)

The SOSD Fantastic Four

up
0 users have voted.

Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

divineorder's picture

about about wolf reintroduction both in Yellowstone/Grand Teton, and in the Gila where WildEarth Guardians has been most active. Have been fortunate to see quite a few in Yellowstone/Grand Teton by finding the wolf researches set up on the roadsides. Would love to see wolves get a strong foothold in NM and trapping ended.

up
0 users have voted.

A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

riverlover's picture

I did not have a clue why, but they said it was important. I could pay bills in Canada, transfer funds into Canada (through them). I believe I tossed it when my penultimate printer died. I sold my property in Canada (yay!) and partial funds were released to my account. Ontario holds the rest (25%), while my hired (!) accountant proves I owe no capital gains tax. I had to get a Canadian tax identification number. I don't know what the number is, too many details. The closing deposit was made into my account last Monday. HSBC held it for a week, today I was allowed to access (and repatriate) funds. I need that stupid little keypad. Another three weeks of float for them. On to 2017!

up
0 users have voted.

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.

joe shikspack's picture

congratulations on getting your property sold! i hope that everything settles out without the banks grabbing too much value from you.

up
0 users have voted.
OLinda's picture

Good evening, Bluesters!

I've been MIA for a couple of days, so just want to drop in and say hi. And, joe, I'm reading, listening, and enjoying even if I don't comment.

Well, it's Dec. 20 and I am finally putting a few Christmas lights on the porch. At least so far I have the extension cord plugged in outside and I have tested the lights at an indoor plug to see if they light up. They do!

Usually I try to get them up early Dec., or it's not worth it to hassle with for such a short period of time. Don't know what got into me to want to go ahead this late. I'll probably take them down around the 1st, so it is 10 days of lights.

I don't celebrate Christmas. No tree. No presents. So, I don't know why I do the porch decorations. I decorate for spring and fall outdoors, so I guess I just like to decorate!

Temperature is cooperating. Around 55 deg. F. with lots of snow on the ground.

up
0 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

glad to hear that it has warmed up and the weather is accommodating you. i love christmas lights, too. i'm not the biggest christmas fan either. now that the kids are grown up i generally don't bother with a tree, but i always go out and check out the christmas light displays for a couple of nights. with any luck i'll get around to visiting 34th street in baltimore where a whole block goes absolutely whacko pazutti with lights.

up
0 users have voted.
Steven D's picture

Saw Chuck Mangione at Red Rocks outside Denver when this was a big hit (dates me I guess):
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwkwjOd7MCU]

up
0 users have voted.

"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

joe shikspack's picture

i was really glad to see that your wife's condition has improved and that she'll be home soon.

have an extra mellow evening!

up
0 users have voted.

have deodorant companies ignored You Don't Smell Right?

The piano in the beginning of that song and in another of the songs you posted reminds me of Scott Joplin for some reason I cannot identify. The lyrics of his 1930s songs are funky, but the music gets funkier in his 1940s songs and I don't much like the 1950s songs. But, his delivery is good throughout.

Thank for another evening of interesting music I've never heard, Joe.

Reactions to some of your news items:

1. Heaven help me; I am already sick of stories about Trump.

2. Whoever is responsible for brain damaging an entire townful of children over a few dollars a month should be imprisoned for life.

3. FWIW, I don't think law that punish failthless electors are unconstitutional because, in 1789, so much about voting was left to the states and a lot of it still is. Of course, my opinion carries zero weight at the Supreme Court.

4. My take on fake news from another thread today dovetails some with Chris Hedges':

Who shall protect us from fake news from government and politicians? Wouldn't you love to know why Obama got a statute passed that allows the U.S. government to "propagandize" its own citizens? You KNOW that one was not about the U.S. government telling the truth.

Unfake News Flash: No one is going to eliminate fake news, which has been around since the serpent promised Eve she would be like the gods if she ate the forbidden fruit. To test your honesty, people used to ask if you ever told a lie. If you said no, they knew you were dishonest. What they may well do, however, is create a "chilling effect" for freedom of political speech. What is possible and decent, but they probably won't go that route, is educating citizens to be less gullible.

http://caucus99percent.com/comment/226159#comment-226159

Thanks for another great thread, Joe, and have a nice evening, everyone.

up
0 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

i'd enjoy seeing the deodorant commercial created to go along with "you don't smell right." Smile

regardless of how sick you are of stories about trump, they are inevitable. trump is the sort of personality that the mainstream media will be unable to take their eyes off.

i suspect that we are at the beginning of a deluge of all trump, all the time news coverage.

i am wondering how it is that rick snyder is not in jail awaiting trial for the poisoning of flint. then there's the fraud that he perpetrated with the automated unemployment fraud detection system...

i'll be interested to follow decisions about the constitutionality of punishing "faithless electors." my understanding of the constitution is that the electors were intended to exercise independence.

finally, it's all fake news. it may even be a fake world. Smile

up
0 users have voted.
divineorder's picture

The New Exterminatory Warfare
by Edward Hunt, December 20, 2016

what can I say, seems like Obama et al were trying to what Trump says he will do. Meh.

up
0 users have voted.

A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

joe shikspack's picture

it seems like the difference between obama and trump, like the difference between obama and bush is likely a difference of style rather than substance.

up
0 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

This stood out.

Exterminating Combatants

As US officials have worked to systematically eliminate the Islamic State’s leaders, they have also conducted a far more extensive campaign against the militant organization. Over the past two years, US officials have worked with coalition forces to launch more than 15,000 airstrikes against IS as part of a comprehensive military campaign to systematically kill as many IS fighters as possible.

But during the Syrian war, Obama didn't bother to bomb the miles long convoys of ISIS trucks coming and going in and out of Turkey until Putin asked Obama if he wanted to see the satellite photos of those convoys.
Then Obama lobbed a few missles at them, but that has been going on for over a year or more.
And remember that our government is arming and funding Al Qaida in Syria to help them overthrow Assad. But they don't call them AQ but moderate rebels who have been free to commit human rights abuses like decapitating that 12 year old boy as well as many other atrocities.
And of course the American people aren't aware of this and believe that our troops are defending our freedoms and it's only Russia and the Syrian government committing war crimes.

up
0 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Lookout's picture

The Solstice is upon us, and winter begins tomorrow at about 5 am central.
http://earthsky.org/earth/everything-you-need-to-know-december-solstice

Solstice at brodgar.jpg

Round we go...

up
0 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

joe shikspack's picture

a good reminder that no matter what silly humans do and think of as history, the earth keeps spinning.

have a great evening!

up
0 users have voted.
Crider's picture

the days are getting longer.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoZ1-xPbNHg]

up
0 users have voted.
divineorder's picture

Yesterday a child came out to wonder
Caught a dragonfly inside a jar
Fearful when the sky was full of thunder
And tearful at the falling of a star
And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time
We can't return we can only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game

Then the child moved ten times round the seasons
Skated over ten clear frozen streams
Words like, when you're older, must appease him
And promises of someday make his dreams
And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time
We can't return we can only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game

Sixteen springs and sixteen summers gone now
Cartwheels turn to car wheels through the town
And they tell him,
Take your time, it won't be long now
Till you drag your feet to slow the circles down
And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time
We can't return we can only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game

So the years spin by and now the boy is twenty
Though his dreams have lost some grandeur coming true
There'll be new dreams, maybe better dreams and plenty
Before the last revolving year is through
And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time
We can't return, we can only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game

Read more: Joni Mitchell - Circle Game Lyrics | MetroLyrics
http://www.metrolyrics.com/circle-game-lyrics-joni-mitchell.html

up
0 users have voted.

A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

Unabashed Liberal's picture

piece is an excellent 'must read.' Hunter Thompson/McWilliams probably got it mostly right. But, according to some of the pieces that I've read about Trumpsters, it appears that more than a few of them might actually be hopeful that DT can bring back (at least some) manufacturing jobs.

(Of course, since the bulk of our lawmakers are free traders, it seems pretty naive to buy into that line of thinking. And, who even knows if he's sincere.)

Anyhoo, about the only thing that I've found mildly entertaining about DT's run, is that he's willing to call out the 'lying and dishonest' mainstream media. I've longed to see a politician--any politician--call them out for being the corporate wh*res that they are. (Which is not to say that he has any room to talk.)

Admittedly, though--we have to laugh when his crowds chant "CNN sucks . . . "

The other evening, we watched the first 10 or 15 minutes of his Mobile, Alabama 'thank you' rally, mostly because I was curious to see Ladd (now Ladd-Peebles) Stadium. I attended several college Bowl/play-off games there during the Joe Namath/Bear Bryant era as a child, so, I was curious to see if he could pack the stadium. (It appeared that he did.) Actually, I think that I might deserve a medal for that, since, of all people, Franklin Graham showed up. Biggrin Don't worry, I'll spare you guys the quotes from his spiel--ugh!

Hey, gotta run 'the B' out, since there was mixed precip for much of the afternoon. Some choice--walking in sleet, or when it's pitch dark!

Wink

Everyone have a nice evening--stay warm, or dry, depending.

Bye

[Edited: Corrected verb tense--'have,' not 'has']

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)

The SOSD Fantastic Four

Available For Adoption, Save Our Street Dogs, SOSD

Taro
Taro, SOSD

up
0 users have voted.

Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

joe shikspack's picture

heh, i must say i do enjoy those chants of "cnn sucks," even if they are inspired by a pot that is calling the kettle black.

i can't imagine how you managed to sit through franklin graham, aren't there laws against torture? Smile

have a great time walking the b, and give him a good scritch for me.

up
0 users have voted.
shaharazade's picture

don't usually make it to the EB's as I'm a morning blogger. You do a fine news. I really liked the Cape Breton, Nova Scotia story. I also like the Hunter Thomson article. As a youth once i left home I got my 'news' and music news from Rolling Stone back when it was printed on flimsy newsprint, a weekly?, monthly? publication. I'd buy it at the head store along with my rolling papers. Hunter was my first encounter with a creative ranting political rabble rouser and all around truth teller. According to my take of the world as we found it way back then and strangely still relevant in the now.

Rolling Stone and Rampart Magazine was where where I went for some truth. Of course all truths are subjective or objective I can't remember which applies, but I have found in this long strange trip from then to the here and now that the writing in those early days of Hunter Thompson and even Gary Trudeau were a good counter point to the Fake News that even then emanated from the establishment media. Different outlets for the media same bs. pumped across the mind bending media. Perhaps the net with all it's sound and fury has helped to wake people up globally to the false narratives the owners of the place catapult in order to keep their game afloat.

up
0 users have voted.
mimi's picture

... well, I know now that EB friends are escaping to the kitchen and into cooking (even if their better halves are rolling their eyes about how they go about to prepare a meal). I like me my cooking addicts better than the TV addicts, for sure, especially because you get something "real" to eat!

It's not easy to keep up with what's going on. Haven't figured out yet how to watch or listen to Amy's show in the morning, as I used to do, while being at the East Coast.

I hope I will calm down again. A lot of stuff to digest.

Have a good morning... Smile

up
0 users have voted.
mimi's picture

has as many identities as a good anonymous online blog posters with several "handles". The guy they are chasing and looking for now is known under four different names and known to have changed his temporary "residences among others in refugee camps" several times. Oh well. He was also known as
I hope they find him and have proofs beyond reasonable doubts of him being the attacker.

... to be continued.

up
0 users have voted.
mimi's picture

(redacted because it's CT)

up
0 users have voted.