The Evening Blues - 12-28-16



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Furry Lewis

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Memphis bluesman Furry Lewis. Enjoy!

Furry Lewis & Will Shade - Muscle Shoal Blues

“Palestinian and Israeli leaders finally recover the Road Map to Peace, only to discover that, while they were looking for it, the Lug Nuts of Mutual Interest came off the Front Left Wheel of Accommodation, causing the Sport Utility Vehicle of Progress to crash into the Ditch of Despair.”

-- Dave Barry


News and Opinion

Kerry defends US decision not to veto UN condemnation of Israeli settlements

The US secretary of state, John Kerry, has offered a blistering defence of the United States’ decision to not veto a UN resolution condemning Israeli settlement building in a speech that marked the toughest remarks on Israel by a US official in years.

Framing a two-state solution as “the only way to achieve a just and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians”, Kerry also took aim at the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for building a coalition that was “the most rightwing in Israeli history, with an agenda driven by the most extreme elements”.

“I am compelled to respond today that the United States did in fact vote in accordance with our values,” Kerry said of UN security council resolution, which demanded that Israel “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem”.

“If the choice is one state, Israel can either be Jewish or democratic,” Kerry said. “It cannot be both.”

Set against the backdrop of an unusually charged back-and-forth between the US and Israeli governments, Kerry strongly rejected characterisations of the Obama administration’s actions as hostile toward one of its closest allies.

“Some seem to believe that the US friendship means the US must accept any policy, regardless of our own interests, our own positions, our own words, our own principles - even after urging again and again that the policy must change,” Kerry said. “Friends need to tell each other the hard truths.”

Netanyahu 'told New Zealand backing UN vote would be declaration of war'

Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly told New Zealand’s foreign minister that support for a UN resolution condemning Israeli settlement-building in the occupied territories would be viewed as a “declaration of war”.

According to reports in Israeli media, the Israeli PM called Murray McCully, the foreign minister of New Zealand, before Friday’s resolution, which was co-sponsored by Wellington. Netanyahu told him: “This is a scandalous decision. I’m asking that you not support it and not promote it.

“If you continue to promote this resolution, from our point of view it will be a declaration of war. It will rupture the relations and there will be consequences. We’ll recall our ambassador [from New Zealand] to Jerusalem.”

McCully, however, refused to back down, telling Netanyahu: “This resolution conforms to our policy and we will move it forward.”

A western diplomat confirmed that the call took place and described the conversation as “harsh”.

The details of the call – disclosed in Haaretz – suggest a mounting sense of panic on the part of Netanyahu in the run-up to the UN security council resolution that passed on Friday demanding an end to settlement building.

UK's key role in brokering UN resolution on Israeli settlements confirmed

Britain played a key behind-the-scenes role in brokering the UN resolution condemning Israel for violating international law with its policy of building settlements on occupied Palestinian territory, it has been confirmed. The UK helped draft some of the key wording to ensure it met US concerns.

The UK role, first highlighted by Israeli diplomatic sources, leaves the UK on a collision course not just with Israel, but at odds with Donald Trump, the US president-elect and a strong opponent of the UN resolution, the first to be passed that is critical of Israel for seven years.

The UK has never hidden its support for the UN resolution, voting for its terms, and subsequently both UK ministers and diplomats have publicly justified its wording. It is also usual for the UK to play a key brokering role on UN resolutions, especially on the Middle East.

It has been confirmed the UK helped with drafts of the resolution with Egypt and the Palestinians in a bid to ensure that it met with the concerns of the US president, Barack Obama. The US said it did not veto the resolution because it was balanced, condemning violence and incitement, as well as illegal settlements. The US has insisted it did not draft the text, and did not even tell other delegations how it intended to vote in the key consultations process.

Well then, despite The Donald's problems with the CIA, he seems to have found an intelligence agency that he wants to brief him. Presumably, there will be no complaints from bipartisans about foreign influence over this.

Mossad chief gives secret intelligence briefing to Trump staff

The head of Israel’s Mossad national intelligence agency made a secret visit to the United States to meet with members of President-elect Donald Trump staff and give them a security briefing.

Mossad Director Yossi Cohen briefed the Trump staff members on the Iranian nuclear deal, the Syrian civil war, terror threats and the Palestinian issue, Ynet reported Saturday. The report did not say when the briefings took place.

The security delegation was organized by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

An Israeli press take on Trump's pick for US ambassador to Israel:

David Friedman, Trump's radical-right ambassador, makes Netanyahu look like a J Street lefty

By Israeli standards, Donald Trump’s designated Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, is an extreme right-winger. ... He makes Benjamin Netanyahu seem like a left-wing defeatist. From where Friedman stands, most Israelis, never mind most American Jews, are more or less traitors. ... He opposes a two-state solution, supports settlements and advocates annexation, has denigrated President Obama as an anti-Semite, questioned the citizenship of Israeli Arabs, compared J Street to Holocaust-era kapos and so on. It’s good he’ll be coming with diplomatic immunity: For some of his articles and statements, Friedman could get arrested by the Israeli police on suspicion of incitement. ...

The nomination of Friedman will raise alarm in European capitals and in many non-aligned countries. It is likely to be viewed by Palestinians as a signal that Trump intends to stray from any semblance of an even-handed approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to throw his full weight behind Israel. Right-wingers, who tend to believe that a strong hand is the only thing needed to quell the restless natives, will assert that such resoluteness can make Palestinians “accept reality.” But the opposite might also be true, especially if Friedman’s appointment is a harbinger of Trump’s intention to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem: It could weaken Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority – which would please Friedman, as he has often written – and give rise to more extreme leaders who will try to spark a new and violent intifada.

Whether intentionally or out of sheer meshugas, Trump is indicating that he pays no attention to customs and precedents, and that he is likely to surprise the world each and every day of his tenure. If you like excitement in life, stay tuned. If you think this is no way to run a nuclear superpower in such a dangerous age, Friedman’s appointment provides no comfort. Stay worried.

Jameel Jaffer on Obama's National Security Legacy & What Lies Ahead with Trump

Erdogan says he has evidence US-led coalition has given support to Isis

The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he has uncovered evidence that US-led coalition forces have helped support terrorists in Syria – including Isis. ...

“They were accusing us of supporting Daesh [Islamic State],” he told a press conference, according to Reuters.

“Now they give support to terrorist groups including Daesh, YPG, PYD. It's very clear. We have confirmed evidence, with pictures, photos and videos.”

The US State Department has rejected Mr Erdogan's claim as “ludicrous”.

Erdogan: 'Confirmed evidence' US-led coalition supports ISIS & other terrorists in Syria

Russia and Turkey may have agreed on a tentative cease-fire plan for Syria

Russia and Turkey have negotiated a general cease-fire in Syria, according to a Turkish state-run news agency, potentially signaling the beginning of the end of the five-year conflict that has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.

An unnamed source speaking to the Anadolu Agency said the plan would cover all areas where Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime and the opposition are fighting, but that terrorist organizations would be excluded. Both parties aim for the cease-fire to go into effect at midnight (5 p.m. ET) Wednesday, according to the same report. ...

If the cease-fire takes place — and holds — then talks aimed at shaping a longer-term solution will begin in Kazakhstan next month, with Turkey and Russia acting as guarantors. Russia, which is the Syrian government’s main ally, and Turkey, an important backer of the opposition forces, announced last week that they would seek to bring an end to the civil war in Syria. Iran will also play a role in possible peace plans.

Russia: US Providing Arms to Syrian Rebels a ‘Hostile Act’

Russian Foreign Ministry officials today warned that US efforts to ease restrictions on arms shipments to Syrian rebels were seen as a “hostile act,” saying in particularly that the provision of shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles could directly threaten Russian forces in Syria.

The most recent US military spending deal included provisions which sought to dramatically ease arms shipments to Syrian rebels, including the shoulder-fired “MANPADS.” The State Department, however, insisted that the US is not providing MANPADS to the rebels.

Changing world order? What 1917 could teach us about 2017

An interesting read from Gareth Porter:

Behind the Real US Strategic Blunder in Syria

President Barack Obama has long been under fire from the US national security elite and the media for failing to intervene aggressively against the Assad regime.

But the real strategic blunder was not that Barack Obama didn’t launch yet another war in Syria, but that he decided to go along with the ambitions of America’s Sunni allies to create and arm a Syrian opposition army to overthrow the regime in the first place.

Now a former Obama administration official who is knowledgeable on the internal discussions on Syria policy, speaking to this writer on condition of anonymity, has shed new light on how and why that fateful decision was made.

The former official revealed that when Obama made the first move toward supporting the arming of Syrian opposition forces, the president failed to foresee the risk of a direct Iranian or Russian intervention on behalf of the Syrian regime in response to an externally armed opposition – because his advisors had failed to take this likelihood into account themselves. ...

The former administration official confirmed the recollections of both former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and former Pentagon official Derek Chollet that Obama’s advisers believed Assad’s fall was inevitable.

Some of those advisers believed Assad lacked the “cunning and fortitude” to remain in power, as Chollet put it.

More importantly, when Obama was making crucial Syria policy decisions in September 2011, no one on his national security team warned him that Iran had a very major national security interest in keeping the Assad regime in power that could draw the Iranians into the war, according to the former official.

Obama’s advisers assumed instead that neither Iran nor Russia would do more than offer token assistance to keep Assad in power, so there was no risk of an endless, bloody sectarian war.

Obama set to hit Russia with further sanctions before leaving office

The outgoing US administration is poised to hit Russia with further sanctions before Barack Obama leaves office next month, in response to allegations of Russian hacking and interference in the US electoral process.

The Obama administration has had a rocky relationship with Russia and has already imposed several rounds of sanctions on Moscow, mainly for its actions in Ukraine. ...

Lindsey Graham, a hardliner on Russia and a constant critic of Trump, told a news conference in Latvia that Congress would “investigate the Russian involvement in our elections”.

“There will be bipartisan sanctions coming that will hit Russia hard, particularly Putin as an individual,” Graham told CNN. “I would say that 99 of us believe the Russians did this and we’re going to do something about it.” ...

The fate of new sanctions remains unclear, however, with Trump due to take over the White House in little more than three weeks. During the campaign, Trump not only suggested he might lift sanctions on Russia, but also said he would look into the possibility of recognising Crimea, annexed from Ukraine in 2014, as part of Russia.

CIA Interrogator: At Time of U.S. Invasion, Saddam Hussein Was Focused on Writing Novel, Not WMDs

Amazon refuses to let police access US murder suspect's Echo recordings

Amazon has refused to hand over data from an Echo smart speaker to US police want to access as part of an investigation into a murder in Arkansas, according to court records seen by tech industry news site The Information.

Arkansas police issued a warrant to Amazon to turn over recordings and other information associated with the device owned by James Andrew Bates. Bates has been charged with the murder of a man found dead in his hot tub in November 2015.

The Seattle-based tech company twice declined to provide the police with the information they requested from the device, although it did provide Bates’s account information and purchase history, the report said court records show.

Although the Echo is known for having “always-on” microphones to enable its voice-controlled features, the vast majority of the recordings it makes are not saved for longer than the few seconds it takes to determine if a pre-set “wake word” (usually “Alexa”) has been said. Only if that wake word has been heard does the device’s full complement of microphones come on and begin transmitting audio to Amazon.

While that would seem to limit the use of the Echo data in the investigation, the device is also occasionally accidentally activated, through similar sounds. Those snippets of audio could potentially be useful to police investigating a crime, as could the timing information of when they were recorded. According to the report, the court records show police took the Echo and extracted some data from it.

Report: After Legislative Coup, North Carolina Can No Longer Be Considered a Democracy

Trump’s Homeland Security Pick Falsely Claimed “Narcoterrorism” Has Killed 500,000 Americans

John Kelly, the retired Marine general who Trump has chosen to lead the Department of Homeland Security, has his own pattern of exaggerating the border threat. Between 2012 and his retirement in early 2016, Kelly served as head of U.S. Southern Command. In this role, he coordinated all U.S. forces in the Western Hemisphere south of Mexico, including the Caribbean and Guantánamo, which is home to the hemisphere’s largest overseas U.S. military base. As Obama trimmed the military’s budget with the sequester, and prioritized Asia and the Middle East over the relatively peaceful Western Hemisphere, Kelly complained that the budget cuts were undermining regional security.

In a 2014 interview, he said that the flow of drugs and instability in Latin America posed an “existential” threat to the United States. During a March 2015 hearing before the Senate Armed Service Committee, Sen. Mike Lee. R-Utah, asked him to explain why the southern border posed such a large threat. Kelly responded with these words:

…there’s 40,000 Americans that die every year from the drugs that move up through my part of the world, and into Bill’s [Adm. William Gortney, who was then head of Northern Command], and into our homeland ­­— 40,000 people a year.

You know, since 9/11, there’s — half a million people have died from narco­terrorism, as we call it in — down where I live — narco­terrorism. Five hundred thousand Americans have died. Very few have died from, you know, traditional terrorism, if you will, since 9/11. It costs our country $200 billion a year to deal with the people that are into drugs but are not, you know, dying. So I see that as a huge, huge, huge threat.

Kelly’s first claim — drugs kill roughly 40,000 Americans each year — is accurate. It is also true that drugs have killed more than half a million Americans in the 15 years since 9/11.

But Kelly’s second claim to the Senate committee, that 500,000 Americans “have died from narcoterrorism” since 9/11, is a significant exaggeration. The real number of Americans who have died of post-9/11 terrorism in all its forms is well under 1,000, according to a 2014 study that was supported by the Department of Homeland Security. And at least one-third of the 40,000 killed by drugs annually do not die, as Kelly claimed, from drugs coming into the U.S. across the southern border, but from overdoses of legally prescribed opioids. Almost all of the profits from those addicts flow not to drug cartels but to pharmaceutical companies. ... Kelly’s claim of 500,000 deaths doesn’t appear to be reflected in any known official numbers.



the horse race



Progressives see a leader in Bernie Sanders as they prepare to fight back

Hillary Clinton was supposed to be president. The Democrats were supposed to be competitive in the Senate and the House. ...

Some Sanders progressives now see Trump’s victory as a validation of the populist agenda Sanders championed during his campaign.

“Progressives are used to punching up, but here we find ourselves in a real position of credibility and power,” said Raul Grijalva of Arizona, a co-chair of the Congressional Progressive caucus.

As the party seeks to rebuild in 2017, caucus members believe the election of the DNC chair is an early test of whether Democrats will embrace economic populism.

Sanders’ first priority is to elect Keith Ellison, the progressive congressman from Minnesota, as DNC chair. Ellison, who is seen as the frontrunner, is being challenged by the labor secretary, Tom Perez, who enters with support from allies of Clinton and the Obama administration.

“Right now we are fighting for the chair of the DNC and it is truly emblematic of the division within the Democrats,” said RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of the National Nurses United, which endorsed Sanders during the primary. “If the Democratic party rejects the Sanders base, it will be at their extreme peril.”



the evening greens


Right-wing Republicans have attacked the Endangered Species Act for years—and now they're aiming to repeal it altogether

The Endangered Species Act (ESA)—dubbed "America’s foremost tool for protecting biodiversity" by the Center for Biological Diversity—has for decades been the target of right-wing Republicans. In 2015 alone, the Republican-dominated Congress launched an unprecedented 130 legislative assaults (pdf) on the law, including bills intended to undermine the ESA and legislative amendments that would greatly weaken the law's protections.

One Republican congressman, Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah), who chairs the House Committee on Natural Resources, has now set his sights on completely dismantling the pivotal 1973 law. Josh Zaffos reports for High Country News that after backing bills to weaken the ESA for years, earlier this month Bishop "went even further and told E&E News the ESA is so dysfunctional that lawmakers may 'simply have to start over again,' and 'repeal it and replace it.'"

"That might mean giving state wildlife management agencies primary responsibility for species conservation," explains High Country News. "Protections could vary widely, and since states get their funds from hunting licenses and fees, they might be tempted to prioritize game management over at-risk species." ...

The Center for Biological Diversity observes that "[w]ere it not for the Act, scientists estimate, at least 227 species would have likely gone extinct since the law's passage."

Export-Import Bank gave $8.5bn to Mexico oil firm despite deadly accidents

Fires, explosions and collapsing offshore rigs have cost the lives of more than 190 workers at facilities run by Mexico’s state-owned oil company since 2009.

Yet American taxpayers have backed loans to the company worth more than $8.5bn during the Obama years, through an obscure agency which has quietly spoiled the president’s record on climate change.

Since January 2009, the US Export-Import Bank has signed almost $34bn worth of low-interest loans and guarantees to companies and foreign governments to build, expand and promote fossil fuel projects abroad.

However, one company benefited more than any other. The Mexican state-owned oil company, Petróleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, has collected more than $8.5bn in taxpayer-backed loans and guarantees from the Ex-Im Bank.

During this period, more than 190 Pemex workers and contractors have died and more than 570 were injured as a result of fires, explosions and offshore rig collapses, according to data compiled by Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism’s Energy and Environmental Reporting Project and Guardian US.


Also of Interest

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

Five Reasons For Progressives To Feel Optimistic About 2017

Why Politicians Are to Blame for Most Terrorist Attacks

Palestine 2017: Time to Bid Farewell to Washington and Embrace the Globe

Symbolic Failure Point: Female Afghan Pilot Wants Asylum In The US

Stiglitz Explains How Trump Could Nuke the Economy

Shhh! Don’t Tell this Bank Regulator We’ve Got a Derivatives Problem

Facebook Doesn’t Tell Users Everything It Really Knows About Them

California Blames Incarcerated Workers for Unsafe Conditions and Amputations

U.S. appeals court revives Clinton email suit

The funniest and most unusual animal photos of 2016


A Little Night Music

Furry Lewis - Falling Down Blues

Furry Lewis - Furry Lewis Rag

Furry Lewis - Black Gypsy Blues

Furry Lewis - Kassie Jones

Furry Lewis + Backwards Sam Firk - I've Got A Bird To Whistle

Furry Lewis - Goin´to Kansas City

Furry Lewis - Im Going To Brownsville

Furry Lewis - Good Morning Jury / John Henry / Furry's Blues



Share
up
0 users have voted.

Comments

Steven D's picture

by Afro Celt Sound System:

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfgBz89sxMA]

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

extra mellow, thanks!

up
0 users have voted.
Lookout's picture

and I hope yours was good one too (regardless of weather).

Hey maybe the wish for peace is bearing some fruit with Russia, Turkey, and Iran with Syria. It has been so obvious that leaving Assad in power is key to peace. If we (the US) would just quit fomenting war!

peace_2.jpg

Here's a good piece explaining why Obummer has the ass at Putin
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-12-25/losers-malice-whats-behind-obam...

NC isn't a functioning democracy, and I would argue the nation itself isn't either. Rev Barber's interview from the other week was great. You posted it Joe, but I'll put the links here if anyone missed it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc4MY_2f21Y (20 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdkhDPaLmIk (5 min)

Thanks for the music and news!

up
0 users have voted.

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

joe shikspack's picture

heh, what really needs to happen for peace to occur in syria is for the us to get the hell out of the way. obama was instrumental in creating the war there because the neighborhood bullies (qatar, saudi, turkey) would not have attempted it without the us behind it, as gareth porter wrote in one of the articles i posted upstairs:

Obama did make a statement suggesting that Assad should step aside, but he made it clear privately that he had no intention of doing anything about it. “He viewed it as simply a suggestion, not a hard policy,” the ex-official said.

But soon after that, a bigger issue arose for the administration’s policy: how to respond to pressure from Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar for a US commitment to help overthrow Assad.

In September 2011, the Saudis and Turks not only wanted the US to provide arms to the opposition. “They wanted the US to provide anti-aircraft missiles and anti-tank missiles,” recalled the ex-official.

Turkey even offered to send troops into Syria to overthrow Assad, but only if US and NATO agreed to create a “no-fly zone” to protect them. ...

Apparently to assuage the dissatisfaction of the Sunni allies, then-director of the CIA David Petraeus devised a plan, which Obama approved, to help move the small arms from Libyan government stocks in Benghazi to Turkey. ...

The combination of those two policy decisions committed Obama – albeit half-heartedly- to the armed overthrow of the Assad regime.

up
0 users have voted.
Azazello's picture

I don't need Erdogan to tell me that.
Evening all ...
I just started a new book. It's called Shadow Wars: The Secret Struggle for the Middle East by a Brit named Christopher Davidson. I'm about 100 pages in, reading about Ronnie, Maggie and the Mujahideen; "the moral equivalent of the Founding Fathers," as Saint Ronnie put it. Anglo-American interests have always favored Islamic fundamentalist regimes going back to the 1940s. The thing they don't want is any sort of secular, nationalistic governments that might want to use oil revenue to, you know, help their people. The proof is there for all to see. "Our" best allies in the Middle East are the fundamentalist head-choppers in Riyadh and Qatar while secular governments in Iraq, Libya and Syria were all targeted for regime-change. "Our" support for ISIS is just the continuation of a long historical pattern.

up
0 users have voted.

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

joe shikspack's picture

heh, anybody who has been paying attention does not need erdogan to tell them that the us has been supporting isis (or al qaeda, or half a dozen other bands of murderous thugs) - but most people don't pay attention. beyond that erdogan's contention that he has twenty seven eight-by-ten color glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one was to be used as evidence against obama, will grab people's attention.

'course, nobody who hasn't been paying attention is going to cotton to the fact that this is one of the greatest exhibitions ever put on by pots and kettles in the blackening competition arena.

anyway... that sounds like an interesting book, let us know how it turns out. Smile

up
0 users have voted.
Lookout's picture

Shadow World with Chris Hedges - http://shadowworldfilm.com/ - about the arms dealing business. It can be streamed for a few dollars: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/shadowworld

The producer and writer Andrew Feinstein discusses being witness to a corrupt weapons deal in post-apartheid South Africa which sparked his quest to uncover the world of war profiteers and weapons contractors Here's the first of five segments (7 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FuyezSk000

up
0 users have voted.

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

one of the most influential albums released in the 1950's and helped start the folk music boom.

Furry Lewis was featured with his Kassie Jones, one of the best performances on the set. Nice that you are featuring him. The set has been reissued on 3 CDs.

up
0 users have voted.

"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

joe shikspack's picture

i grew up during the folk music boom and got exposed to a really wide variety of music thanks to guys like harry smith and the lomaxes. my parents weren't particularly grateful for that at the time, but well, i am. Smile

up
0 users have voted.

that set and a lot of their material was released on Camden the RCA budget label. I also liked Dock Boggs and the Memphis Jug Band & Cannon's Jug Stompers. I found out later that The Masked Marvel was Charley Patton.

The idea that commercially made music - music made to turn a profit - could be folk music was new with Harry Smith I think. Field recorders for the Smithsonian, for instance, recorded a lot of front room musicians who didn't record for a company and that was folk music til Harry convinced them otherwise.

up
0 users have voted.

"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

joe shikspack's picture

the first time that record companies (which were largely owned by furniture companies at the time) realized that there was money to be made in recording rustic black folk and fiddling hillbillies was in the 20's and there was a big rush to record them. the man that (imo) was one of the great geniuses of the era was ralph peer to whom (imo) america owes a debt of gratitude.

up
0 users have voted.

among others. I agree with you.

up
0 users have voted.

"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

group that recorded for Peer and he changed their name to Hill Billies( or maybe Billys) - this was in the 20's.

My wife taught school for ten years at Galax when we lived at Fancy Gap 10 miles away. A friend of mine, Joe Wilson, was president of the National Council for Traditional Arts(or something like that) and was instrumental in giving the theme and layout to the Blue Ridge Music Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway. He researched a lot of the "musicianers" in the area and their forebears and even found the remains of Eck Dunford's house on Rte 608 in Carroll County 2 miles from the Music Center.

The counties of Carroll & Grayson, the independent city of Galax, and neighboring Surry County, NC, were a hot bed of music that suddenly became very popular and influential.

up
0 users have voted.

"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

OLinda's picture

I have a smart water meter, and it has occurred to me since I live alone, I could use it if I ever needed an alibi. I could prove I was home with Water Dept. records that show exactly what time I was home and flushed the toilet.

Instead of an alibi, I saw a recent blurb about the prosecution using records from a smart water meter to show that an unusually large amount of water was used at a certain time. Probably, the prosecution says, to clean up a mess after a murder.

up
0 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

yep, pretty soon you're going to have to live completely off the grid if you want any sort of privacy. it seems to me that personal data is just too interesting to a variety of corporate and government organizations to leave it alone. once they manage to eliminate cash, it will be pretty much all over.

up
0 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

I disagree with this statement.

There is a dangerous disconnect in the minds of governments and news organisations between what happens in the war in Iraq and Syria and the long-term consequences this has on the streets of Europe.

They know damned well that the cause of terrorism is because people are tired of seeing their countries destroyed and citizens killed because of this bogus war on terror.
During both the terrorist attacks on France the terrorists told them they were doing it because of what France's military had done to their country and citizens.
Many Americans think that our military has the right to invade or bomb other people's countries, but then act surprised when there is blowback from it.
Look at how many people agree with Trump that he should kill the terrorists and their families. That is very frightening that people think that is okay.

And both Putin and Erdogan are correct. The Obama administration has been funding the same terrorists groups that we fought against during the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
There are pictures of McCain meeting with the terrorists leaders. If one of the members of those groups attack our country then anyone who has been involved with funding them, they should be charged with treason for creating them in the first place.
The USA has been invading and overthrowing other countries for over two centuries.

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.

joe shikspack's picture

i agree with you. if that disconnect exists it is either in the minds of the citizenry, or in the honesty with which the media and the chattering classes address those realities in public.

up
0 users have voted.
Big Al's picture

if the cat was any farther out of the bag regarding Syria than it already is, we'd be chasing it down the street. And yet still "my guitar gently weeps" and the people act like sheeps. Hey, there's a poem in there somewhere. Or maybe a rap song, except I don't do rap. Well maybe I could, but I don't want to. Not right now.

up
0 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

sometimes i wonder what the mushroom people, who get all of their information from the nicely-groomed people on teevee, know about syria. probably not much. they probably haven't seen a cat in years.

up
0 users have voted.

This afternoon, President Obama issued a proclamation for a 1.35 million acre Bears Ears National Monument in southeastern Utah. This is 2/3 of the area proposed by a coalition of Native American Tribes and conservationists, and supported in polls by 70-80 percent of Utahns.

The smaller-than-expected monument is close to what Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT) had in his Public Lands Initiative bill (in the form of national conservation areas), which failed in the House of Representatives because it was loaded with corporate giveaways of our public lands.

President Obama's concession to the Tea-GOP was predictably met with rage, not gratitude from Senator Orrin Hatch and Utah Gov. Gary Herbert. Both are threatening to work with Trump to destroy the newly-designated national monument. More info:

http://www.sltrib.com/home/4675012-155/mike-lee-staffer-says-bears-ears?...

up
0 users have voted.

"We've done the impossible, and that makes us mighty."

joe shikspack's picture

wow, looks like obama stirred up the bee-hive state. funny how something supported by 70-80% of utahns is not (per the article) supported by a single public official. i wonder how much money it takes to make that happen.

up
0 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

I bet that Bishop is steaming about this because of his plans to sell it off to his oil and fracking buddies.
I can believe that Hatch and Lee are pissed too about this as well as a lot of idiots in Utah.
Thanks for linking to the article.

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.

Crider's picture

Am surprised there are so many copies on youtube.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59shqtQf4Yw]

What surprises me is why now? There hasn't been enough votes in the Israeli Knesset to support a two-state solution since their early 2009 elections. Kerry has been talking as if the two-state thing was a hot dish on the table and that everybody was working toward this until Israel suddenly started being an asshole -- building settlements out in occupied Palestinian land. Maybe the Obama administration has been playing the idiot/pretend game for the past eight years. Or could they have not noticed that the Israelis elected enough racists and fascists since 2009 who could care less about ridiculous things such as peace or human rights for other than Jews.

Anyway, I remember when Juan Cole reported on the news, which shocked me at the time. I certainly hadn't forgotten and was quickly able to find the article from February 11. 2009 on google.

The outcome of the Israeli election has sounded the death knell for the two-state solution. There are not 61 votes for it in the new Knesset of 120 seats. A good 64 of the just-elected and/or re-elected Members of Parliament favor accelerated Israeli colonization of the West Bank and oppose Palestinian statehood. Most militant of all is Avigdor Lieberman, a former bouncer from Moldova who has risen in Israeli politics on a platform of racial hatred for Israeli-Palestinians (20% of the population), whom he has urged be “executed” or made to take loyalty oaths, stripped of their citizenship and possibly transferred to the Palestine Authority.

.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftt4f2H3GDs]

up
0 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

yeah, if it wasn't so sad it'd be funny. i mean, i'm shocked, shocked i tell you, to find out that the 2 state solution has been brutalized to death in a back room by a bunch of rabid irredentist morons.

up
0 users have voted.
Crider's picture

There are upcoming elections in Israel! No wonder Bibi is being so dramatic about this declaration of war on Israel stuff. LOL.

up
0 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

up
0 users have voted.

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 --

joe shikspack's picture

have a good one!

up
0 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

She apparently had a stoke while helping her son plan funeral arrangements for Carrie Fisher
The poor family. Dealing with carrie's death wasn't going to be difficult enough for them?
Can this year get any worse?
http://www.tmz.com/2016/12/28/debbie-reynolds-dead/

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.

Crider's picture

Adios!
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRcWMHhxig8]

edit: I changed the vid

up
0 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

wow, that's sad news.

Can this year get any worse?

i've learned not to ask that question. it has produced both surprising and unpleasant results in the past.

up
0 users have voted.
janis b's picture

up
0 users have voted.
janis b's picture

From Murray McCully, NZ’s conservative foreign minister …

”We have been very open about our view that the [security council] should be doing more to support the Middle East peace process and the position we adopted today is totally in line with our long established policy on the Palestinian question," he said in a statement.

From Martin Bradbury, NZ’s fiery progressive …

If Netanyahu has honestly threatened that our vote against them in the UN is a declaration of war, we should immediately demand they remove their embassy from our shores!
Right Now!
We are New Zealand, we don’t put up with threats of war from anyone. The mainstream media’s silence on this is only further proof of how completely redundant their role has become. They are merely a clickbait farm and it highlights what the term ‘fake news’ should really means.

Thanks for Furry Lewis, and I've Got a Bird to Whistle

up
0 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

good to see that both sides can agree on something. Smile

have a good one!

up
0 users have voted.

up
0 users have voted.

Beware the bullshit factories.

Not Henry Kissinger's picture

Israel is declaring war on New Zealand?

The Onion has officially become obsolete.

up
0 users have voted.

The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

janis b's picture

I'm not sure what to make of this, but it's interesting.

up
0 users have voted.
Not Henry Kissinger's picture

They sure aren't going quietly.

up
0 users have voted.

The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

janis b's picture

up
0 users have voted.
divineorder's picture

the headlong rush to a new Cold War.
Who is opposing this track?
Got this in an email today from http://justforeignpolicy.org/ .

Sens. Elizabeth Warren & Chris Murphy will be in a strong position to shape debate over Russia policy in the next Administration. Elizabeth Warren will be on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Chris Murphy, the first Senator to publicly challenge the Obama Administration's support for the devastating Saudi war in Yemen, is on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Unfortunately, some Democrats are planning to make common cause with John McCain & Lindsey Graham on Russia policy, pushing for a new Cold War that would likely jack up the already bloated Pentagon budget at the expense of domestic priorities like expanding Social Security, while undermining prospects for de-escalation of conflicts in Ukraine, Syria, and Yemen.

Urge Senator Elizabeth Warren & Senator Chris Murphy to stand up for diplomacy and against the Russia hawks by signing our petition at MoveOn.

Thanks for all you do to help make U.S. foreign policy more just,

Robert Naiman, Avram Reisman, and Sarah Burns
Just Foreign Policy

http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/senwarren-chrismurphyct?r_by=1135580

How can this be stopped?

An alternative?

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.

divineorder's picture

The Global Warmer, our embarrassing diesel 2001 F250 4x4 off road with the Craigslist special 1996 Roamer slide in camper.

Road our bikes today in the windy but balmy 40 degree weather. Has been warm everywhere on the planet this year, and Santa Fe is no exception.

Guess the nightly lows in the teens off and on this month finally did in the 6 year old batteries. Yikes, but the two AGMs were expensive.

We use it about 6 weeks out of the year, sits up the rest of the time, but we keep holding on to it with some vague idea we might need it more sooner rather than later. Heh.

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.