The Evening Blues - 12-29-16



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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Jesse Fuller

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features San Francisco blues musician Jesse Fuller. Enjoy!

Jesse Fuller - Lining Up the Track & Railroad Blues

“The real power in America is held by a fast-emerging new Oligarchy of pimps and preachers who see no need for Democracy or fairness or even trees, except maybe the ones in their own yards, and they don't mind admitting it. They worship money and power and death. Their ideal solution to all the nation's problems would be another 100 Year War.”

-- Hunter S. Thompson


News and Opinion

Fake news at The Guardian:

The Guardian’s Summary of Julian Assange’s Interview Went Viral and Was Completely False

Julian Assange is a deeply polarizing figure. Many admire him and many despise him (into which category one falls in any given year typically depends on one’s feelings about the subject of his most recent publication of leaked documents). But one’s views of Assange are completely irrelevant to this article, which is not about Assange. ... One’s views of Assange are completely irrelevant to this article because, presumably, everyone agrees that publication of false claims by a media outlet is very bad even when it’s designed to malign someone you hate.

[A] shoddy and misleading Guardian article, written by Ben Jacobs, was published on December 24. It made two primary claims – both of which are demonstrably false. The first false claim was hyped in the article’s headline: “Julian Assange gives guarded praise of Trump and blasts Clinton in interview.” ...

The second claim was even a worse assault on basic journalism. Jacobs set up this claim by asserting that Assange “long had a close relationship with the Putin regime.” The only “evidence” offered for this extraordinary claim was that Assange, in 2012, conducted 8 interviews that were broadcast on RT. With the claimed Assange-Putin alliance implanted, Jacobs then wrote: “In his interview with la Repubblica, [Assange] said there was no need for WikiLeaks to undertake a whistleblowing role in Russia because of the open and competitive debate he claimed exists there.”

But none of that actually happened. Those claims are made up.

Despite how much online attention it received, Jacobs’ Guardian article contained no original reporting. Indeed, it did nothing but purport to summarize the work of an actually diligent journalist: Stefania Maurizi of the Italian daily la Repubblica, who traveled to London and conducted the interview with Assange. Maurizi’s interview was conducted in English, and La Repubblica published the transcript online. Jacobs’ “work” consisted of nothing other than purporting to re-write the parts of that interview he wanted to highlight, so that he and the Guardian could receive the traffic for her work.

Ever since the Guardian article was published and went viral, Maurizi has repeatedly objected to the false claims being made about what Assange said in their interview. But while western journalists keep re-tweeting and sharing the Guardian’s second-hand summary of this interview, they completely ignore Maurizi’s protests – for reasons that are both noxious and revealing. ...

The people who should be most upset by this deceit are exactly the ones who played the leading role in spreading it: namely, those who most vocally claim that Fake News is a serious menace. Nothing will discredit that cause faster or more effectively than the perception that this crusade is really about a selective desire to suppress news that undermines one’s political agenda, masquerading as concern for journalistic accuracy and integrity. Yet, as I’ve repeatedly documented, the very same people most vocal about the need to suppress Fake News are often those most eager to disseminate it when doing so advances their agenda.

On Contact: A New McCarthyism with Ellen Schrecker

US, Russia Poised to Announce ‘Retaliation’ Against One Another

The Obama Administration and the Russian government are both preparing to announce tit-for-tat “retaliations” against one another this week, with the White House making very public their plan to announce a whole series of new anti-Russia measures as soon as Thursday, and Russia vowing to respond in kind.

The White House measures are nominally “retaliation” for accusations that Russia “hacked” the US election against Hillary Clinton. ...

Russian Foreign Ministry officials expressed annoyance at the constant “lies” about them hacking the election, saying that they view Obama’s moves as a deliberate provocation, and that Russia is preparing a retaliation as soon as the White House announces theirs.

Obama Urged to Take U.S. Nukes Off High Alert Before Trump Takes Office

Escalating the Risky Fight with Russia

The neocons and their liberal-interventionist chums never seem to think through one of their “regime change” schemes. It’s enough that they wrote the plan down in some op-ed article or reached a consensus at a think-tank conference. After that, all there is to do is to generate the requisite propaganda, often accompanied by intelligence “leaks” and maybe some heartbreaking photos of children, to rile up the American people so they can be easily herded into the next slaughterhouse.

We’ve seen this pattern play out over and over again, from Iraq to Libya to Syria to Ukraine. You could even go back to the 1980s and the project for arming Afghanistan’s mujahedeen and a collection of international jihadists led by Osama bin Laden, a project enthusiastically supported by both Republicans and Democrats. ...

But the next grand idea arguably could be the last one. After several years of intensifying anti-Russian propaganda, the United States reportedly is ready to escalate the New Cold War with Russia by inflicting new punishments in retaliation for the still-unproven allegation that President Vladimir Putin authorized the hacking of Democratic emails and then released them to the American people via WikiLeaks.

Though the Obama administration has yet to provide any public evidence to support the charges, mainstream news outlets – particularly The Washington Post and The New York Times – have lapped up their own leaks from the Central Intelligence Agency, which appears to have been operating under instructions from President Obama to discredit President-elect Donald Trump’s victory. ...

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, spoke for many of his colleagues when he tweeted, “My goal is to put on President Trumps desk crippling sanctions against Russia.”

In a new leak to The Washington Post on Wednesday, Obama administration officials vowed to do just that, readying “a series of measures to punish Russia for its interference in the 2016 presidential election, including economic sanctions and diplomatic censure [as well as] covert actions that will probably involve cyber-operations.”

This latest U.S. escalation of tensions with nuclear-armed Russia actually culminates at least a half decade of probing by the United States for Moscow’s vulnerabilities to “regime change,” an operation that appears to have begun around Russia’s 2011 elections and continued with protests against Putin’s election in 2012, street demonstrations dubbed by the West’s media as the “snow revolution,” since all these strategies seem to require a “color” or a similar special identification marking. ...

As destructive as the past distortion of intelligence has been, the Obama CIA’s apparent interference in an attempt to reverse the outcome of a U.S. presidential election arguably ranks with the worst intelligence scandals in U.S. history.

And, compounding the CIA’s political intervention is the fact that this controversy has taken on a life of its own as the Obama administration prepares to hit nuclear-armed Russia with a combination of new economic sanctions and covert cyber-attacks, apparently with the goal of heading off any rapprochement between Putin and Trump.

Syrian government and rebels have signed ceasefire deal, says Putin

The Assad government and armed Syrian opposition have signed a ceasefire agreement and agreed to begin a new round of negotiations to find a political solution to the country’s civil war, Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, has said.

The ceasefire, which was confirmed by a rebel official, the Syrian army and the Turkish foreign ministry, is to come into force at midnight on Thursday (22.00 GMT). ...

Putin said three documents had been signed: a ceasefire agreement between the Syrian government and the armed opposition; a list of control mechanisms to ensure the ceasefire would work; and a statement of intent to begin negotiations on a political end to the conflict.

Putin described the ceasefire as fragile and said it would “require a lot of attention”.

Turkey and Russia would act as guarantors, Turkey’s foreign ministry said, adding that the agreement excluded groups the UN security council deemed to be terrorists.

Al-Qaida grows as Isis retreats

When three al-Qaida veterans were killed in Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan in October, it barely created a ripple. So dominant has Isis become in the realm of jihadist lore, that you could be forgiven for thinking that its precursor has been relegated to a mere footnote. You’d be wrong. Those three deaths, all in US airstrikes, paradoxically hint at a resurgence of al-Qaida, at a time when Isis is in retreat in Iraq, Syria and Libya. Quietly, and more through soft power rather than harsh atrocity, al-Qaida is trying to mount a revival. ...

Al-Qaida and its affiliates have deliberately shunned the savagery of Isis, seeking to build support across the Islamic world through outreach to tribal leaders, power brokers and sometimes the broader community, rather than outright fear and coercion. The group does not seek publicity. “Al-Qaida’s strategic experience is that if it makes a big deal of seizing territory, it attracts CT [counter-terrorism] resources, so it is simply not being as loud about it,” said Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, an expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracy, a US thinktank. ...

The most significant theatre may well turn out to be the Levant. Though most analysts believe Isis will remain a powerful – even if fragmented – force in the region for years to come, al-Qaida may be the biggest winner.

The key to its strategy has been the Syria-based group now called Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (JFS). Formerly known as al-Nusra Front, the powerful faction was rebranded in late July as a force without links to the global jihadi struggle but dedicated only to fighting Bashar al-Assad’s regime and its allies. In recent years, al-Qaida has repeatedly attempted to downplay its links to local groups to avoid alienating communities which do not want to be part of a “global jihad” but which hope Islamic hardliners might impose order and honest, if rigorous, administration in areas they control.

Western officials fear JFS will not only dominate the jihadi landscape in the Levant following the defeat of Isis, but may also provide a springboard for al-Qaida to launch strikes into Europe, should the group change its current strategy.

An excellent, short review of Obama's legacy of assassinations and civilian killings by his fleet of flying death robots. Here's a taste, highlighting some of Obama's favorite, oft-repeated lies about drones:

Obama’s drone war is a black mark on his legacy that cannot be ignored

In [an] interview, a thought-provoking piece from The Atlantic’s Ta-Nehisi Coates, Obama raised the issue of drone warfare, which has become a signature policy of his administration:

“The truth is that this technology really began to take off right at the beginning of my presidency. And it wasn’t until about a year, year and a half in where I began to realize that the Pentagon and our national-security apparatus and the CIA were all getting too comfortable with the technology as a tool to fight terrorism, and not being mindful enough about how that technology is being used and the dangers of a form of warfare that is so detached from what is actually happening on the ground.”

“And so,” Obama added, “we initiated this big process to try to get it in a box, and checks and balances, and much higher standards about when they’re used.”

That this is the drone narrative Obama wishes to promulgate as he leaves the Oval Office is telling. It is also false.

As Coates’ Atlantic colleague, Conor Friedersdorf, notes in a response to the interview, it is true that drone strikes escalated substantially around the time Obama took office. Former President George W. Bush ordered about 50 drone strikes in the latter years of his administration, but Obama has launched more than 10 times that number, topping 500 in the fall of last year. ...

In other words, Obama actively embraced drone warfare from the very beginning of his presidency, and he has been intimately involved in the process throughout. As The New York Times famously revealed in 2012 — well after Obama’s “year, year and a half” timeline of reform initiatives — the president personally approves each name added to the kill list of drone strike targets, reviewing “baseball cards” of suspected terrorists to be bombed.

CIA Interrogator Reveals Saddam Hussein Predicted Rise of ISIS & U.S. Failure in Iraq

Iraqi troops resume push to take Mosul from Isis after two-week lull

Iraqi troops backed by US-led airstrikes have pushed deeper into eastern Mosul in a multi-pronged assault after a two-week lull in the operation to retake the Islamic State-held city.

Elite special forces pushed into the Karama and Quds neighbourhoods, while army troops and federal police advanced into the nearby areas of Intisar, Salam and Sumor. Smoke rose across the city as explosions and machine gun fire echoed through the streets.

Stiff resistance by the militants, civilians trapped inside their houses and bad weather have slowed advances in the more than two-month-old offensive to recapture Iraq’s second largest city, the extremist group’s last urban bastion in the country. It is the biggest Iraqi military operation since the 2003 US-led invasion.

Lt Gen Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi, commander of the special forces in eastern Mosul, said on Tuesday that his forces had been bolstered by reinforcements and were now less than two miles from the Tigris river which divides the city. A coalition airstrike this week destroyed the last remaining bridge over the river.

The special forces, officially known as the Counter Terrorism Service, have done most of the fighting, pushing in from the east. Regular army troops on the city’s south-east and northern edges, as well as militarised federal police further west, have not moved in weeks, unable to penetrate the city.

German intelligence agent drove alleged perpetrator in Christmas market attack to Berlin

One week after the attack on a Christmas market in Berlin, there is a growing chorus of demands for a massive strengthening of the state apparatus, the elimination of basic democratic rights, and the erection of new barriers against refugees.

At its upcoming congress at the start of January, the Bavarian-based Christian Social Union (CSU), part of the coalition government headed by its sister party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), plans to call for more personnel and better equipment for the security services, additional powers for law enforcement, more monitoring of emails and communications services such as Whatsapp and Skype, and increased data exchanges between the European Union countries.

This is despite the fact that the Berlin attack cannot be attributed to a lack of surveillance or police powers granted to the security and judicial authorities. On the contrary, the alleged perpetrator, Anis Amri, prepared his action literally under the eyes of the authorities. It has now emerged that the 24-year-old Tunisian was driven to Berlin by an undercover informant of the Intelligence Service (“Verfassungsschutz”), which closely monitored Amri for months before he drove a large truck into a crowd on December 19.

Amri had been imprisoned in Italy for four years for criminal offenses and was reportedly radicalized while in jail. In 2015, he was released and went to Germany, where he applied unsuccessfully for asylum. According to an investigation by the German television program “Report Munich,” he joined an Islamic network in which at least two spies for the German intelligence service were active.

Kerry says that Israel's settlements threaten that two-state solution thing that Israel has never intended (and has recentlly trumpeted its opposition) to allow to come to fruition.

John Kerry just gave Israel his harshest possible rebuke at the last possible moment

Tensions ratcheted higher between the U.S. and Israel on Wednesday as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry delivered his harshest rebuke of Israeli settlement expansion, saying it leads toward a “separate but unequal” one-state reality that puts any hope of an Israel-Palestine two-state solution in “serious jeopardy.”

“The settler agenda is defining the future in Israel. And their stated purpose is clear: They believe in one state: greater Israel,” Kerry told those gathered at the State Department. “So if there is only one state, you would have millions of Palestinians permanently living in segregated enclaves in the middle of the West Bank, with no real political rights.”

Kerry delivered his vision for the end of the longtime Israeli-Palestinian conflict — a negotiated two-state solution that has been standard U.S. policy for decades — with less than a month before his term expires and amid rapidly escalating tensions between the U.S. and Israel. The late-term timing of the speech led critics on both sides of the discussion to ask why now?

“This is an excellent speech, but it is also quite dismal that they shared this in Obama’s twelfth hour as president, and not when they could have actually marshaled U.S. power internationally to give it meaningful impact,” said Noura Erakat, a human rights lawyer and Assistant Professor at George Mason University. Erakat said that the speech was likely little more than the Obama administration attempting to disassociate the president’s legacy on Israel from President-elect Trump’s future policies.

Obama/Kerry: "Don't worry Bibi, it was just a bit of window dressing for the rubes. Thanks for making a big stink about it to help our dupes absorb the propaganda!"

White House: Obama will veto any other UN resolution critical of Israel

President Barack Obama will not allow any further United Nations measures critical of Israel to pass during the remainder of his term, deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes promised on Wednesday.

When asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper if Secretary of State John Kerry had indicated in his speech earlier Wednesday that the US would veto any other potential UN resolution that may come forward during the rest of Obama’s presidency, Rhodes said “yes.”

Since the anti-settlements resolution passed in the Security Council last Friday, Israel has expressed concern that another measure may come up before the international body for a vote and that the US may once again refrain from using its veto power.

Following Kerry’s speech Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a bitter response, noted that “the United States, if it’s true to its word, or at least if it’s now true to its word, should now come out and say we will not allow any resolutions, any more resolutions in the Security Council on Israel. Period. Not we will bring or not bring – we will not allow any (further resolutions), and stop this game, the charades.”

Leaked Doc Claims US Informed Palestinians of UN Abstention in Advance

In the course of their outrage at the UN Security Council resolution against settlement expansion in the occupied territories, Israel has repeatedly claimed evidence the US “colluded” with the UN, and with the Palestinians, on the resolution. Today, we got our first glimpse of what amounts to “evidence.”

An Egyptian newspaper has published what it calls “leaked documents,” believed to be from the Egyptian government, which say that Secretary of State John Kerry met with a Palestinian delegation 10 days before the UN vote, and told them the US would not veto the resolution “if its wording was balanced.”

This appears well short of “collusion,” as media reports in the weeks leading up to the vote were all saying materially the same thing, that the Obama Administration was likely to withhold the veto if a resolution was introduced. Despite this “leak” being far from shocking, the State Department denied that it was true.

Benjamin Netanyahu subject of criminal investigation – report

Israel’s attorney general has ordered police to open a criminal investigation into two unspecified matters involving the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s Channel 10 television has said.

A spokeswoman for Israel’s justice ministry declined to respond to the report. Netanyahu has in the past denied wrongdoing in the purchase of submarines from Germany, where media have reported a potential conflict of interest involving his lawyer.

The Channel 10 report on Wednesday said one of the two cases that the attorney general, Avichai Mandelblit, had been examining was not known to the public. ...

Netanyahu admitted this year that he had accepted thousands of euros from Arnaud Mimran, who was later convicted of fraud and sentenced to eight years in prison.

And in May it was reported that Sara Netanyahu could face fraud charges over the management of the prime minister’s residence. The claims reportedly focused on whether the state was defrauded into paying for private expenses.

Gosh, they better hurry up and rebuild Gaza, or it won't be ready for the next time the Israelis decide to "mow the grass."

The long road to rebuilding Gaza

Hundreds of families in Gaza still live in caravans, a temporary solution to the mass displacement that followed the 2014 war. Many have no idea when they will be able to leave the caravans and rebuild their destroyed homes - a situation for which they blame Israel and Egypt, who have blockaded Gaza for the past decade, and the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority.

According to the United Nations, the war killed more than 2,000 Palestinians, destroyed thousands of homes in Gaza and ravaged more than 70 percent of the territory's infrastructure.

The World Bank, which has been monitoring international pledges made at the Cairo conference towards the reconstruction of Gaza, says that two years after the war, less than half of Gaza's completely destroyed homes have been totally or partially reconstructed. Thousands of families have yet to receive reconstruction funds.

"Reconstruction in Gaza has stumbled," acknowledged Adnan Abu Hasna, a spokesperson for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). "Unfortunately, the countries who pledged billions to rebuilding the Gaza Strip have not made good on their promises."

[And, of course, you can't expect the Israelis to act fairly and responsibly to compensate the thousands of civilians whose homes they destroyed, hence the need for charity. - js]

Facing Possible Threats Under Trump, Internet Archive to Build Server in Canada

Damning Investigation Finds Trump's Philanthropy Largely a "Facade"

President-elect Donald Trump continues to boast about his charitable giving, but those claims were cast into further doubt on Thursday after a damning Washington Post investigation into his philanthropy concluded that it is, for the most part, a "facade."

Despite claims of tens of millions of dollars donated to charitable causes, the months-long investigation by Post reporter David A. Fahrenthold was only able to verify "$7.8 million in charitable giving from Trump's own pocket since the early 1980s," and none since 2009.

Fahrenthold acknowledges that, because the president-elect has refused to release his tax records, it is impossible to know for certain. Nonetheless, the reporter contacted "420-plus charities with some connection to Trump," finding "only one personal gift from Trump between 2008 and the spring of this year"—a less than $10,000 donation in 2009 to the Police Athletic League of New York City.

Fahrenthold notes that the largest recipient of Trump's charity "appears to be his own: the Donald J. Trump Foundation." The foundation, which he has said he will dissolve, is currently under investigation by the New York Attorney General over accusations that it fraudulently used funds to settle personal lawsuits.

Texas officer shot black man as he walked away, dashcam video suggests

A police dashcam video appears to show a Texas officer shooting a black man as he is walking away from the officer and not posing any immediate threat.

A lawyer for David Collie released a copy of the video showing the July encounter with a Fort Worth officer and a Tarrant County sheriff’s deputy. The officer and deputy were off duty at the time and working a security detail together at an apartment complex, attorney Nate Washington said on Wednesday.

He said Collie was shot in the back, leaving him paralyzed.

This release of dashcam footage comes on the heels of another recording involving alleged police misconduct in Fort Worth posted on Facebook Live last week. It showed an officer aggressively arresting a woman and her two daughters.

Washington said he released the video to show that last week’s incident was not an isolated case.

Amanda Palmer: 'Donald Trump is going to make punk rock great again'

Amanda Palmer has called the past few months in the United States “a total shit show”, but there’s one silver lining she’s looking forward to in president Trump’s America: a renaissance of political art.

Speaking at a press conference during Woodford Folk festival in rural Queensland – where she announced she and husband, the author Neil Gaiman, had just been granted five-year working visas for Australia – the Dresden Doll, solo artist and cult cabaret icon invoked the flourishing of art and culture in Weimar Germany as proof that “frightening political climates make for really good, real, authentic art”.

“It’s been a really scary time in America. I don’t know how it’s felt over here [in Australia] for the past few months, but it’s a total shit show over there. Especially if you’re an artist, a woman, a minority, gay – anything but a rich white man – it’s really very scary,” she said.

“But being an optimist ... there is this part of me – especially having studied Weimar Germany extensively – I’m like, ‘This is our moment.’ Donald Trump is going to make punk rock great again. We’re all going to crawl down staircases into basements and speakeasies and make amazing satirically political art.

“If the political climate keeps getting uglier, the art will have to answer. We will have to fight. It’s already happening – the artists in my tribes have been like, ‘Alright. This is not good.’ We are sharpening our knives for a large buffet.”



the evening greens


We Have Released a Monster: Previously Frozen Soil Is "Breathing Out" Greenhouse Gases

A study published in the journal Nature has revealed an alarming new climate feedback loop: As Earth's atmosphere continues to warm from anthropogenic climate disruption (ACD), soils are respirating carbon -- that is, carbon is being literally baked out of the soils.

Microorganisms in soil generally consume carbon, then release CO2 as a byproduct. Large areas of the planet -- such as Alaska, northern Canada, Northern Europe and large swaths of Siberia in Russia -- have previously been too cold for this process to occur. However, they are now warming up, and soil respiration is happening there. As a result, these places are contributing far, far more CO2 and methane to the atmosphere than they ever have. ...

This means that even if all human fossil fuel emissions were halted immediately, soils would continue to release approximately the same amount of CO2 and methane emissions as the amount produced by the fossil fuel industry during the mid-20th century. ...

The discovery of the soil feedback loop intensifies concerns about our rapidly warming climate. Increasing soil respiration -- also known as "the compost bomb" -- is set to add between 30 and 55 billion tons of extra CO2 to the atmosphere over the next 35 years, as Earth's temperature warming approaches 2C.

Moreover, the study categorizes its findings as conservative estimates. In fact, the Earth could well see as much as four times the amount of CO2 (2.7 ppm) from soil respiration alone if the phenomenon becomes more wide-ranging than expected. And given that scientific predictions rarely keep pace with how rapidly the planet is changing, it would not be surprising if the prevalence exceeds expectations.

Surprise: Climate Change is Likeliest Cause for Extreme Arctic Heat

This year's remarkably warm Arctic winter would have been "extremely unlikely" without climate change, according to a new analysis from a consortium of scientists dedicated to understanding the impacts of global warming.

World Weather Attribution (WWA) released its report after the Arctic was hit with record-breaking temperatures amid the hottest year in recorded history.

The North Pole's temperature anomalies "were not seen in our natural world ensemble," the group wrote. "In contrast, events like 2016 or hotter occur in our current world model simulations but are rare, with a return interval of roughly 200 years. These results suggest that it is extremely unlikely this event would occur in the absence of human-induced climate change."

As Andrew King, a researcher with the University of Melbourne who worked on the study, told the Washington Post on Wednesday, "We found that in our natural simulations, those without any human influences, we didn't see Arctic winters as warm as this at all. In our simulations that kind of represent the world of today, including human forcings, it was a roughly one in a 200 year event."

Senate Dems Demand to Know EPA Nominee's Ties to Koch Brothers

Senate Democrats are demanding to know what's behind Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head nominee Scott Pruitt's ties to the reclusive conservative billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch.

The lawmakers, led by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, wrote a letter (pdf) to Pruitt on Tuesday demanding that he provide "a full disclosure" of his relationship with the Rule of Law Defense Fund (RLDF), a right-leaning public policy organization that receives funding from Freedom Partners—a group that funds initiatives supported by the Kochs, who have deep investments in fossil fuels.

Pruitt's association with the RLDF is one of several "troubling" ties to the energy industry, the letter states. The fund, which provides a forum for Republican attorneys general to engage on state-level policy, has been known to oppose EPA regulations.

"Before the Senate votes to confirm you to run EPA, it is important that you provide a full disclosure of your relationship with the energy industry so we can determine how that will influence your ability to run the agency," the letter states.

Pruitt currently serves as state attorney general in Oklahoma, which has been the site of increased earthquakes linked to hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. His credentials have previously been called into question by environmental groups, who have called him a "puppet" of the fossil fuel industry and said naming him to head the EPA was like "putting an arsonist in charge of fighting fires."

Scientists Scramble to Protect Decades of Climate Research Before Trump Takes Office

Standing Rock activists eye pipeline finances to cement Dakota Access win

Indigenous activists are focussing on the Dakota Access pipeline’s finances before Donald Trump takes office in an effort to further strain the oil corporation and cause continuing delays that they hope could be disastrous for the project.

After the Obama administration denied the company a key permit to finish construction, Native American activists warned that the win was only temporary and that Trump, an investor in the pipeline corporation, would seek to quickly advance the project next year. ...

In asking a judge to speedily green-light the $3.8bn project, vice-president Joey Mahmoud claimed that the loss of shippers could “effectively result in project cancellation”, leading advocates and analysts to declare that a missed January deadline could be financially disastrous for ETP and a huge feat for Standing Rock.

But in emails to the Guardian, DAPL spokeswoman Vicki Granado claimed that January was just an “initial target” and not a “contractual date”, which is “much later”, though she refused to say when.

Her statement, which contradicts the company’s official court testimony on multiple occasions, has prompted accusations that the corporation has either committed perjury or is lying to reporters. (Granado claimed that the court filing didn’t explicitly say that 1 January was a contract deadline even though the language strongly suggested it was.) ...

Regardless of the significance of the January date, opponents of the project argued that the continuing suspension of the project is already having a big impact on the ETP’s bottom line. ... The corporation claimed in court that each month of delay cost the company $4.5m and that a failure to launch on time would lead to losses of $913m in 2017.

Madrid bans half of cars from roads to fight air pollution

Madrid has ordered half of most private cars off the roads on Thursday to tackle worsening air pollution, a first in Spain.

The restrictions will operate between 6.30am and 9pm. The city council said in a statement: “vehicles with even-number registration plates will be allowed to drive around on even-number days and cars with odd-number registration plates on odd-number days”.

The measure is activated when levels of harmful nitrogen dioxide in the atmosphere go above 200 microgrammes per cubic metre in at least two measuring stations for two days running, and if the air is unlikely to clear imminently.

On Thursday, city environment councillor Ines Sabanes said the ban would not be extended as smog levels had dropped by the required amount. Other measures, including a ban on street parking for non-residents and reduced speed limits, will continue.


Also of Interest

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

The U.S. is selling weapons to a country that's killing a child every 10 minutes

Summing Up Russia’s Real Nuclear Fears

Top Secret Snowden Document Reveals What the NSA Knew About Previous Russian Hacking

John Kerry's Middle East plan mirrors Bill Clinton's futile end-of-term attempt

Man wrongly arrested over Berlin attack says he fears for his life

EFF: The Fight to Rein in NSA Surveillance: 2016 in Review

Obama’s Christmas Gift to Trump: A Ministry of Truth

Trump’s Transition Team Is Stacked With Privatization Enthusiasts

The Reason the Fed is Raising Rates, and Why It Won’t Work

Did Big Media Run Fake Headlines on the Deutsche Bank “Settlement” ?

The Ugly Unethical Underside of Silicon Valley

More than one-third of schoolchildren are homeless in shadow of Silicon Valley


A Little Night Music

Jesse Fuller - San Francisco Bay Blues

Jesse Fuller - Beat It On Down The Line

Jesse Fuller - Motherless Children

Jesse Fuller - Hesitation Blues

Jesse Fuller - The Monkey And the Engineer

Jesse Fuller - Fables Aren't Nothing But Doggone Lies

Jesse Fuller - Leavin Memphis, Frisco Bound

Jesse Fuller - Cincinatti Blues

Jesse Fuller - Stranger Blues



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Jazzenterprises's picture

and feel like dying...

Here's a better purpose for the old shovel:

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9-ltPsbw9g]

Thanks as always Joe!

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Progressive to the bone.

joe shikspack's picture

wow, i like that shovel. it doesn't seem like the sort of machine that'll make the snow go away, but i bet it could help one successfully ignore it for a while. Smile

i hope that you feel better soon.

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Steven D's picture

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

joe shikspack's picture

a very sprightly composition, thanks!

have a great evening.

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The dogs think i've lost my mind, but I love it.

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NCTim's picture

Music vids! So Trump is going to make punk rock great again? Thing1 thinks of himself as a punk, but not like us old timers think of punk. When it comes to rawness, I prefer garage rock, or over electrified blues (see tomorrow's Friday Open Thread). Darn Russians ->

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

joe shikspack's picture

heh, i think that the cramps are the punk band for the trump era.

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Lookout's picture

from Alabama. Back in the 80's and 90's we did quite a few festivals together. (2 min)
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=025QQwTwzdU]

Jesse's first clip reminded me.

What a great piece from greenwald on the guardian's fake reporting on Assange. It illustrates the whole media dilemma.

I don't understand US Israeli relations. Why don't we pull our significant funding back until they stop the settlements and treat the Palestinians like human beings? Is it all about oil, or bank ownership, or ...? I guess we need to treat our first nation people like humans too.

Well have a good evening Joe and c99ers...

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

joe shikspack's picture

greenwald is becoming something of a national treasure. at a time when very few seem to have the talent or inclination to perform journalism, he's doing it and doing it well.

why don't we pull our significant funding from israel. i'd imagine that it is a complex bunch of reasons political, economic, military and geographic that have thus far kept our public servants from acting honorably.

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Crider's picture

I think it's the most powerful and effective lobby in America. And don't think there are only Democratic party stooges under their thumb. Republicans are worse. But Obama pretty much had to wait until the end of his administration before he was 'brave' enough to dare criticize the Israelis. I bet that if Clinton had won he wouldn't have dared throw stones at Netanyahu. Modern politicians are such cowards.

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ggersh's picture

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

joe shikspack's picture

pryor makes a great point about the corrupting influence of power and wealth on "reformers." sadly he and his interviewer don't follow up and indicate that the problem won't be solved by working within the system.

“For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us to temporarily beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change.”

-- Audre Lorde

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janis b's picture

with great videos.

The video COMMUNIST AUTO WORKER BEAUTIFULLY EXPLAINS CAPITALISM & RACISM IN THE DETROIT AUTO PLANTS, 1970 is brilliant.

Here is a link to the background of it.

I’m looking forward to watching Gerald Horne on #BlackLivesMatter.

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ggersh's picture

What a story, I learned late in fathers life that Grandpa was a card carrying Commie, though I never heard any of the tales except for the FBI snooping around my imagination sometimes runs rampant. Pardon

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

riverlover's picture

globalcookies.jpeg

Had a discussion with the baker, and I recommended trying to green/blue the marshmallows. At least I can upload other people's pix.

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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

cookies for our times, indeed.

have a great evening!

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janis b's picture

and the image it leaves in the mind. What a way to make a statement like that, through something sweet. I think I would have turned the smile upside down, though.

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riverlover's picture

or a frown.

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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.

janis b's picture

... "just a melting Earth." : (

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Azazello's picture

Evening all ...
As I read Christopher Davidson's Shadow Wars I find myself wondering just who is the senior partner in the Saudi-US regime-change partnership. I'm still in the first part of the book, reading about Operation Cyclone in Afghanistan in the 80s. It began as an operation to oust the government in Kabul, before the Russian invasion. The muhajedeen, you'll remember, were not the local Taliban but rather "Arab Afghans", fundamentalist Muslims who traveled from all over the Arab world to join the jihad. This international effort was financed and organized by the Saudis using various charities and "NGOs" as fronts. From the book:

Most important, however, was the role played by the Mecca-based Muslim World League, which by then was serving as a sort of umbrella for a number of these charities, including the International Islamic Relief Organization. Closely tied to key Saudi government officials and ruling family members, it was repeatedly presented to the international media as a non-governmental organization, but a growing body of evidence suggests it was a de facto arm of the Saudi state as of course both King Faisal and the US Department of State clearly intended it to be some twenty years earlier. In 1999, for example, the proceedings of a Canadian court case confirmed it to be a fully Saudi government-funded organization, while in 2013 an extensive report prepared for the European parliament made the allegation that both the Muslim World League and its IIRO subsidiary were extensively used by Saudi intelligence during this period as vehicles to transfer money to the jihadists.

The Muslim World League is the outfit that finances the Abedin family business and so, if you'll pardon a bit of entirely reasonable CT, we are left with the following question: Did Saudi intelligence have a mole, first in the Clinton White House and later in the State Department, in the person of Huma Abedin ? We know about Price Bandar's closeness with the Bush administration, now I'm beginning to Saudi fingerprints all over the place and starting to wonder if it is they who are calling the shots.

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

joe shikspack's picture

it wouldn't be too surprising if huma abedin was a saudi mole, i suppose. i wonder if that sort of relationship would be considered a bad thing by the obama administration given the historical closeness of saudi intelligence services and us intelligence services and their intertwined finances and missions.

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Mark from Queens's picture

such as Amiri Baraka in the mid-60's, and then later on when he moved to Berkeley CA and absorbed to counter-culture and anti-war movement in the market 70's.

He rose higher than any comedian of his generation (parallel with progressive icon George Carlin). And while not quite going as far to indict capitalism and America's materialism and consumerism as Carlin did, which he took to new heights every time he appeared until his death in 2008, Pryor had lots of moments in which he took on the whole machine, especially racism and the war. While in Berkeley he worked on a project with others called the Great American Dream Machine, in which he did a skit called "Uncle Tom Wants You Dead, Nigger."

Pryor walked a fine line with indicting the American economic system, yet he knew it inside and out.

Thanks for the clip.

Hey Joe and everybody. Dreary day here...we're all sick after the infant caught a stomach virus/ear infection, and passed it on to us. Usually love this forlorn, contemplative winter solstice vibe, but today it just weighed heavy on me.

Great HST quote in the beginning. Love that Nation piece by the granddaughter of the great Editor in Chief Carey McWilliams, who gave Thompson the assignment on motorcycle gangs which eventually led to Hell's Angel's, making him a best-selling author, saying HST predicted Trumpism back then as he embedded with the Angels.

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"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

joe shikspack's picture

thanks for the info.

i hope that all of you recover quickly from what the kid dragged in, take care!

that article about thompson is really good. i posted it here a while ago, but if folks missed it, i recommend clicking mark's link and checking it out.

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janis b's picture

From "Uncle Tom Wants You Dead, Nigger."

Why don’t you leave me alone, man?
You do it your way, I’m doing it mine.
I don’t want no trouble, man
I’m trying to be somebody.,
and you trying to mess that up.

Hope you're all well again soon.

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janis b's picture

Just want to wish you all the most delight the new year can bring.

Thank you joe, for your dedication to keeping us informed and entertained. It's very much appreciated.

Flowers and fern for you ...

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joe shikspack's picture

a happy new years to you, too!

thanks for the lovely photo of ferns and orchids(?) - very nice.

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janis b's picture

"because NZ is always in such a rush", I will celebrate the new year tomorrow, ; ).

They're lilies.

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joe shikspack's picture

this time. Smile

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janis b's picture

enough, that you are ever first ; ).

One year, when my daughter was young we celebrated her birthday in NZ, and then again when we arrived in America. That was quite a cool experience for all.

[video:https://youtu.be/lhGqugHuAyQ]

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divineorder's picture

Everyone coming to the party on Jan 20?

Today have been married to the lovely jakklabessie for 46 years ! In the last 10 years we both have survived critical illnesses, so it's easy to feel thankful to have made it through another year.

What a wonder it has been, and soon we will be back on the road again.

Have a virtual glass of wine to celebrate with us, won't you?

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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

happy anniversary! my best to the both of you. i hope that you guys are having a wonderful day and consuming something more satisfying than virtual wine. Smile

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divineorder's picture

starting to pack up for the road. Great dinner.

Jb has gone in to wash dishes, and though I do wash them from time to time she likes to do so it is 'done right' lol. I asked her how many times she has washed dishes over the year and her top of the head estimate was 21,900 easy!

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

janis b's picture

Cheers!

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divineorder's picture

Hope is all well on islands North, South, and Stewart !

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

janis b's picture

it is blazingly sunny and warm. Umbrella weather!

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divineorder's picture

so never saw it in all it's green glory!

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

janis b's picture

so you saw it in all it's grey/green, wet, glory! Beautiful, just the same.

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Crider's picture

Enjoy the road!

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divineorder's picture

go health wise in recent years. Thanks for the kind words!

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

snoopydawg's picture

Congrats for the 46 years of wedded bliss
Yep coming through a medical crisis gives you a different perspective on life, don't it?
Virtual toast.

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

divineorder's picture

thinking about it.

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

janis b's picture

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Yes, having more than virtual wine. Enjoying a home cooked meal, one of our comfort meals, of grilled eggplant, field peas, and salad with a nice glass of wine. Since we arrived back in Santa Fe in August, have really enjoyed hanging out at the homestead instead of blowing the budget.

Did have a nice dinner out last night after we had to replace the batteries on the truck and decided to eat out since was late and thoroughly enjoyed and so that was our night out. Both laughed as we went into the place to eat because in our "working on the truck clothes" but here in Santa Fe, it is OK.

Thanks as always for all the news you bring to our table. Lots to think about and try to share with some of our friends.

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

This ain't no dress rehearsal!

joe shikspack's picture

glad to hear that you are having a nice celebration with real wine and great food. heh, enjoying being a homebody? say it ain't so! on the other hand, i guess if you are going to have a home, it's probably good to stay there from time to time so it doesn't get lonely.

take care and have a great road trip!

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Yes, having more than virtual wine. Enjoying a home cooked meal, one of our comfort meals, of grilled eggplant, field peas, and salad with a nice glass of wine. Since we arrived back in Santa Fe in August, have really enjoyed hanging out at the homestead instead of blowing the budget.

Did have a nice dinner out last night after we had to replace the batteries on the truck and decided to eat out since was late and thoroughly enjoyed and so that was our night out. Both laughed as we went into the place to eat because in our "working on the truck clothes" but here in Santa Fe, it is OK.

Thanks as always for all the news you bring to our table. Lots to think about and try to share with some of our friends.

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

This ain't no dress rehearsal!

Unabashed Liberal's picture

with the idea of a Ministry of Truth several years ago!

Just kidding! Wink

Seriously, here's an excerpt to a tech piece, after WJC's interview on CNBC.

Bill Clinton Thinks The Internet Needs A Taxpayer Funded Ministry Of Truth

However, do we really need a federal fact checking agency?

That appears to be the opinion of former President Bill Clinton who suggested such an agency would be a good use of taxpayer money:
"Let's say the U.S. did it, it would have to be an independent federal agency that no president could countermand or anything else because people wouldn't think you were just censoring the news and giving a different falsehood out," Clinton said.

"That is, it would be like, I don't know, National Public Radio or BBC or something like that, except it would have to be really independent and they would not express opinions, and their mandate would be narrowly confined to identifying relevant factual errors" he said. "And also, they would also have to have citations so that they could be checked in case they made a mistake. Somebody needs to be doing it, and maybe it's a worthy expenditure of taxpayer money."

[Re-paragraphed.]

I meant to post the transcript of the 2011 interview at one of Phoebe's essays (several weeks ago), but due to travel, didn't get a chance. I think folks would find it quite interesting--the video of the conversation between WJC, a cyber security expert (his name will be in the transcript--don't remember it, except he's from India), and CNBC's 'Money Honey' (now at Fox Business Channel, I believe) was so fascinating, that the video link was later killed.

Jazz posted an excellent essay about FSC 'keeping scarce.' Actually, I fear that it only applies to making public appearances in front of progressive activists/Dem Party Base. From what I'm reading, she has all but make overtures to her big donors that she hopes to run again in 2020--after all, if it hadn't been for the Big Bad Russians/James Comey, she'd be the President-Elect today!!!!!!!!!

Seriously, I read just yesterday that on her social media accounts (none of which I follow), she talks of looking forward to the 'fight ahead.' I'm sure you Guys know that both 'O' and Biden are sticking around D.C.--from what I hear on POTUS Channel, partly so they can influence the direction of the Dem Party.

Regarding Warren and Bernie helping rally the Party faithful via rallies mid-January, it appears that they are being tasked with being fundraisers-in-chief, ostensibly, so that the Dem Party can distance itself from its Wall Street/Big Money donors. Oh, and yesterday, I got a piece saying that one of Warren's recent Committee assignments makes it look like she's planning a run in 2020. (I bookmarked the piece, but I'll have to post it tomorrow, since Mr M--out of error--took off with my cell phone. Anyhoo, it states that the remainder of Bernie's campaign funds will be used to fund these rallies.)

Also, in some quarters, Cory Booker's name is being pushed as a possible Dem Party candidate in 2020. My 'guess' is that Dems will strategically put up a candidate to represent every so-called interest group/faction that they have. Since the MSM appears to define 'the Base' as millennials, minorities, and (mostly) white professionals, I expect that the next election cycle will see at least three major Dem Party candidates--with one preselected to take the nomination, of course.

Thanks for tonight's News & Blues, Joe.

Everyone have a nice evening--and, stay safe if you travel during the Holiday weekend!

Bye

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

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

janis b's picture

It doesn't sound as if those elite's new year resolutions will contribute to the change we desperately need.

Be well and keep smiling ; ).

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

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

janis b's picture

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joe shikspack's picture

i'm pretty sure that all of the usual dlc suspects are going to be angling to maintain the dem party as their private, neoliberal preserve. i'm also pretty sure that progressives have little chance of wresting the institution from them, but the dlc dems will be delighted to help keep progressives busy for a while rather than drive them off to pursue their own projects.

i did see an article the other day in the hill that more or less matches the description of the one that you bookmarked:

Warren stirs talk of 2020 White House run

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janis b's picture

is different than the parallel to Kaine suggests.

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

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

enhydra lutris's picture

right for today somehow. Heh, I wrote this shortly after the EB posted, but somehow the "Save" click never took and here it still is. It's been that kind of day.

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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

better late than never, as they say. glad you're enjoying jesse.

have a great evening!

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divineorder's picture

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

janis b's picture

We can’t rely on the profit motive to bring forth new cures, when it’s just as easy for companies to make big profits by redesigning or tweaking drugs that already exist.

I guess finding real cures is counter-productive to pharmaceutical companies. Go natural, as much as possible!

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snoopydawg's picture

Now the drug companies can get their dangerous drugs on to the market easier.

Whereas drug approval traditionally required the demonstration of real clinical benefit in a randomized clinical trial, under the Act drug firms will increasingly be able to rely on flimsier forms of evidence for approval of their therapies (incremental steps in this direction, it is worth noting, have already occurred). The Act, by reconfiguring the drug regulatory process, lowers the standards for drug approval—a blessing for drug makers, but an ill omen for public health.

I
Drugs like vioxx, avandia and many others that caused conditions like heart attacks or organ damage were rushed to the market and even after the evidence came out that those drugs were dangerous, it took years for them to be pulled from the market.
The class action lawsuits were worth paying out a couple million after they made billions in profits.
The cholesterol drugs do nothing to prevent heart disease or strokes and in the ads about them they admit it.
But they take essential enzymes from the kidneys and livers and that's why people get muscle cramps.
Listening to the potential side effects of the newer drugs makes me wonder why any doctor would prescribe them.
The potential side effects lists are long but I appreciate that they let us know that means including death.
Our regulatory agencies have long been captured.
Rachel did a show almost a decade ago about how some of the people in those agencies went to the parties thrown by who they were supposed to be regulating and they were snorting cocaine off of people's body parts and from inside some.
Why bother spending money on the regulatory agencies if they are also being paid by the corporations? Think of the money we could save.
smdh

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

Unabashed Liberal's picture

for posting it. I'll read it very shortly. I also have a couple other concerns about that bill, which I'll post if I can find the article.

I saw your comment, just as I was about to post well-deserved 'congrats' to you and JB--definitely an event that calls for a major celebration!

Congratulations gifs photo:  ae.gif

BTW, thanks for keeping up the activism for MFA. If things settle down enough, I hope to follow the fight over the ACA beginning mid-January. In general, I'll be very interested in seeing 'the language' that the Dem Party Establishment employs when they defend Medicare/Medicaid/the ACA.

After all, several Dems--Richard Gephardt (1981), Alice Rivlin (2010) and Ron Wyden (2011)--have supported voucherizing Medicare. Rivlin and Wyden co-sponsored bills with (now) Speaker Paul Ryan.

So, we must remain vigilant.

Happy New Year!

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)

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0 users have voted.

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