The Evening Blues - 2-8-17
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features Texas bluesman Juke Boy Bonner. Enjoy!
Juke Boy Bonner - Well Baby/Rock With Me Baby
"American privilege: When interventionism is just a word to you because it's not your front door those drone strikes come knocking on."
-- Caitlyn Johnstone
News and Opinion
Democrats Have A Nasty Case Of American Privilege
I was chatting with an Armenian American clear-eyed rebel yesterday who said something that summed up so much of what’s wrong with the average rank-and-file Democrat in just two simple words, and I think it’d be awesome if those two words caught on. She shared her experience of telling her liberal friends how she couldn’t support Clinton because Clinton is an interventionist, and was she was told by her friends that interventionist is “just a word.” Same with warmongering; they honestly saw it as just an empty term that has no relevance to them or their fears and values.
“That’s American privilege,” my friend said.
Boom. That’s it right there, isn’t it? Two words: American privilege. Democrats will gleefully accuse their political opposition of white privilege, male privilege, straight and cis privilege in their attempts to hand the government over to politicians who want to topple governments and drop cluster munitions on cities overseas, because the alternative might make things a little uncomfortable for them at home. How many of my readers were accused of “white privilege” for their decision to back Jill Stein over Hillary Clinton in the general election? Quite a few I’d imagine. They’d rather have elected a President with an extensive history of supporting disastrous military intervention after disastrous military intervention, who was promising to shoot down Russian military planes over Syria and provide “military responses” for Russian “cyber attacks”, than fight the political system that forces them into voting for World War 3 in a pants suit. All because the orange guy said he’d build a wall. ...
Destroyed nations, hundreds of thousands killed, millions displaced, terrorist factions arising in the midst of the suffering and chaos and being armed to the teeth to help them topple more regimes, children ripped to shreds by cluster munitions, all that’s fine as long as it’s happening in someone else’s backyard and I get to keep my Obamacare. That’s an extreme abuse of American privilege right there, and Democrats are the very worst offenders.
US Congresswoman calls for Trump impeachment because Putin’s attacking... Korea?
If Americans Truly Cared About Muslims, They Would Stop Killing Them by the Millions
In the most dramatic expression of insider opposition to a sitting administration’s policies in generations, over 1,000 U.S. State Department employees signed on to a memo protesting President Donald Trump’s temporary ban on people from seven predominantly Muslim countries setting foot on U.S. soil. Another recent high point in dissent among the State Department’s 18,000 worldwide employees occurred in June of last year, when 51 diplomats called for U.S. air strikes against the Syrian government of President Bashar al Assad.
Neither outburst of dissent was directed against the U.S. wars and economic sanctions that have killed and displaced millions of people in the affected countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Rather, the diplomatic “rebellion” of last summer sought to pressure the Obama administration to join with Hillary Clinton and her “Big Tent” full of war hawks to confront Russia in the skies over Syria, while the memo currently making the rounds of State Department employees claims to uphold “core American and constitutional values,” preserve “good will towards Americans” and prevent “potential damage to the U.S. economy from the loss of revenue from foreign travelers and students.”
In neither memo is there a word of support for world peace, nor a hint of respect for the national sovereignty of other peoples -- which is probably appropriate, since these are not, and never have been, “core American and constitutional values.” ... Since 2001, war has been normalized in the U.S. -- especially war against Muslims, which now ranks at the top of actual “core American values.” Indeed, so much American hatred is directed at Muslims that Democrats and establishment Republicans must struggle to keep the Russians in the “hate zone” of the American popular psyche. ...
But, where is the peace movement? Instead of demanding a halt to the carnage that creates tidal waves of refugees, self-styled “progressives” join in the macabre ritual of demonizing the “countries of concern” that have been targeted for attack, a process that U.S. history has color-coded with racism and Islamophobia. These imperial citizens then congratulate themselves on being the world’s one and only “exceptional” people, because they deign to accept the presence of a tiny portion of the populations the U.S. has mauled.
Castigating Trump for Truth-Telling
Gaining acceptance in Official Washington is a lot like getting admittance into a secret society’s inner sanctum by uttering some nonsensical password. In Washington to show you belong, you must express views that are patently untrue or blatantly hypocritical. For instance, you might be called upon to say that “Iran is the principal source of terrorism” when that title clearly belongs to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf state allies that have funded Al Qaeda, the Taliban and the Islamic State. But truth has no particularly value in Official Washington; adherence to “group think” is what’s important.
Similarly, you might have to deny any “moral equivalence” between killings attributed to Russian President Vladimir Putin and killings authorized by U.S. presidents. In this context, the fact that the urbane Barack Obama scheduled time one day a week to check off people for targeted assassinations isn’t relevant. Nor is the reality that Donald Trump has joined this elite club of official killers by approving a botched and bloody raid in Yemen that slaughtered a number of women and children (and left one U.S. soldier dead, too). ...
This “moral equivalence” argument has been with us at least since the Reagan administration when human rights groups objected to President Reagan’s support for right-wing governments in Central America that engaged in “death squad” tactics against political dissidents, including the murders of priests and nuns and genocide against disaffected Indian tribes. To suggest that Reagan and his friends should be subjected to the same standards that he applied to left-wing authoritarian governments earned you the accusation of “moral equivalence.”
Declassified documents from Reagan’s White House show that this P.R. strategy was refined at National Security Council meetings led by U.S. intelligence propaganda experts.
Trump’s Accidental Truth Will Take Him Down
“America is taken advantage of by every nation on earth, virtually,” said Donald Trump, but he was only codifying, in his trademarked nitwit way, a series of messages drummed into us for years from all corners of the media, and from politicians of every stripe: we’re just too darn bighearted for our own darn good! This is Uncle Sam as a big palooka, a barefoot, brawny L’il Abner, innocent to big city ways, who’s constantly preyed on by greasy hustlers who con him out of his Friday pay and funnel it all into social justice programs for African lesbians. ...
Well, not under Trump! “Those days are over, folks,” he assures us, wallowing in the lie; but then two days later—his defenses weakened by sleeplessness and too much vanilla ice cream– he accidentally drops a truth-bomb that horrifies Jake Tapper and Brent Scowcroft alike: “what, you think we’re so innocent,” he says, RE Putin’s murders, “you think we don’t have killers?”
How revealing that the gatekeepers of the American narrative are attacking Trump for his offhand truth, not his perpetuation of the L’il Abner lie. ... Yes, Trump has violated even the Democratic Party version of the Too-Kind Narrative–which, coming from the Democrats–is almost too limp and colorless to even remember: Hillary Clinton’s teeth-grindingly-bad mantra that—oh Christ, the mind can barely spit it back up: “America is great because America is good.” ...
Linger for a moment on that hideous sanctimony, that language of death, every dreary syllable etched in nothingness; marvel at the exact, focus-group-tested amounts of piety, flag-pride and tactical dramatic voice-hush (a favorite technique of Reagan’s, later much advanced by Barack Obama); millions of dollars of PR research, compressed into one tiny but superpowerful nugget of horseshit. ...
Maybe it’s poetic justice: when Trump goes down, it won’t be for a lie; it’ll be for one of his rare but intolerable truths: that we ain’t no L’il Abner.
Iranian Supreme Leader Thanks Trump for Exposing 'Real Face' of America
Days after President Donald Trump announced new sanctions against Iran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said his nation is grateful to the new leader for revealing "the real face of the United States."
Referencing Trump's tweet last week in which he declared that the Middle East nation does not "appreciate how 'kind' President Obama was to them," Khamenei told a gathering of air force commanders: "The new U.S. president says Iran should thank Obama! Why?! Should we thank him for [creating] ISIS, the ongoing wars in Iraq and Syria, or the blatant support for the 2009 sedition in Iran?"
"We actually thank this new president!" Khamenei continued. "We thank him, because he made it easier for us to reveal the real face of the United States. What we have been saying, for over thirty years, about political, economic, moral, and social corruption within the U.S. ruling establishment, he came out and exposed during the election campaigns and after the elections."
"Now, with everything he is doing," Khamenei added, "he is showing the reality of American human rights."
Yemen Withdraws Permission for U.S. Antiterror Ground Missions
Angry at the civilian casualties incurred last month in the first commando raid authorized by President Trump, Yemen has withdrawn permission for the United States to run Special Operations ground missions against suspected terrorist groups in the country, according to American officials.
Grisly photographs of children apparently killed in the crossfire of a 50-minute firefight during the raid caused outrage in Yemen. A member of the Navy’s SEAL Team 6, Chief Petty Officer William Owens, was also killed in the operation.
While the White House continues to insist that the attack was a “success” — a characterization it repeated on Tuesday — the suspension of commando operations is a setback for Mr. Trump, who has made it clear he plans to take a far more aggressive approach against Islamic militants. ...
The raid, in which just about everything went wrong, was an early test of Mr. Trump’s national security decision-making — and his willingness to rely on the assurances of his military advisers. His aides say that even though the decision was made over a dinner, it had been fully vetted, and had the requisite legal approvals.
Mr. Trump will soon have to make a decision about the more general request by the Pentagon to allow more of such operations in Yemen without detailed, and often time-consuming, White House review. It is unclear whether Mr. Trump will allow that, or how the series of mishaps that marked his first approval of such an operation may have altered his thinking about the human and political risks of similar operations.
Hat tip: Not Henry Kissinger
Hearsay Extrapolated - Amnesty Claims Mass Executions In Syria, Provides Zero Proof
A new Amnesty International report claims that the Syrian government hanged between 5,000 and 13,000 prisoners in a military prison in Syria. The evidence for that claim is flimsy, based on hearsay of anonymous people outside of Syria. The numbers themselves are extrapolations that no scientist or court would ever accept. It is tabloid reporting and fiction style writing from its title "Human Slaughterhouse" down to the last paragraph. ...
The claims in the Amnesty report are based on spurious and biased opposition accounts from outside of the country. The headline numbers of 5,000 to 13,000 are calculated on the base of unfounded hypotheticals. The report itself states that only 36 names of allegedly executed persons are known to Amnesty, less than the number of "witnesses" Amnesty claims to have interviewed. The high number of claimed execution together with the very low number of names is not plausible.
The report does not even meet the lowest mark of scientific or legal veracity. It is pure biased propaganda.
[See article for extensive debunking of Amnesty's claims. - js]
Romania: Embattled PM survives no-confidence vote
Poland wants nuclear weapons for Europe
The strongman of Poland’s ruling national-conservative party has stoked a debate that was previously held in only a very limited capacity. In an interview with the daily "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung," Jaroslaw Kaczynski said Europe should be a superpower with a nuclear arsenal to rival that of Russia. He conceded that such a program would, however, be very costly and that he did not anticipate such investment. ...
"It’s not surprising that we’re seeing this kind of debate now," said Nick Witney, former head of the European Defense Agency and now a senior fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. In principle, it’s about the question of whether US President Donald Trump is prepared to sacrifice Chicago to save Warsaw. And what would his answer to that be? The political situation has changed so quickly, and with it the current state of defense policy.
"There is no concrete threat," said Ulrich Kühn of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The arguments for such a discussion are all there now in the Trump era, but at the same time, he says, this is "not helpful." NATO still exists, and under US leadership, conventional weapons are being stationed in Poland stationed in Poland and the Baltics. As long as NATO exists, Europeans should stay away from a nuclear race, he said.
Moreover, Kühn added, the suggestions are not practical. "Russia has between 2,000 and 3,000 tactical nuclear weapons," meaning that Europe would face enormous expenses if it were to acquire an adequate arsenal to serve as a deterrent. And the main question is who would control the red button? Aside from these issues, there’s also the fact that a majority of European citizens, including those in Poland, are against engaging in a nuclear arms race.
Barrett Brown Defense Fund Accuses Justice Department of Illegally Surveilling Its Donors
A legal defense fund for the journalist Barrett Brown is suing the Justice Department, accusing Brown’s prosecutors of abusing their power by monitoring anonymous political contributions to the fund.
After Brown was arrested in 2012 for work related to hacks on intelligence contractors, a San Francisco-based systems administrator named Kevin Gallagher launched the website Free Barrett Brown, which crowd-funded tens of thousands of dollars for Brown’s legal defense.
Free Barrett Brown is now defunct, because Brown was released to a halfway house in November. But the group on Tuesday challenged the legality of a 2013 subpoena that it says violates their donors’ First Amendment rights to anonymously support political causes. The subpoena was sent to the host of the crowd-funded legal defense fund, directing it to send “any and all information” pertaining to the legal defense fund to the FBI.
“The subpoena claimed that the information it requested would be used at the trial of the jailed journalist. However, the identities of, and the amounts donated by, the journalist’s supporters are completely irrelevant to the charges levied against the journalist,” the group says in its filing. Indeed, no such information was presented at trial. The real purpose was to “unlawfully surveil the donors in violation of the First Amendment,” the suit says.
U.S. House passes bill requiring warrants to search old emails
The U.S. House of Representatives voted on Monday to require law enforcement authorities to obtain a search warrant before seeking old emails from technology companies, a win for privacy advocates fearful the Trump administration may work to expand government surveillance powers.
The House passed the measure by a voice vote. But the legislation was expected to encounter resistance in the Senate, where it failed to advance last year amid opposition by a handful of Republican lawmakers after the House passed it unanimously.
Technology companies such as Microsoft (MSFT.O) have lobbied Congress for years to pass the Email Privacy Act, which updates a decades-old law to force authorities to first get a warrant to access emails or other digital communications that are at least 180 days old.
Currently, agencies such as the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission only need a subpoena, which is subject to less judicial oversight than a warrant, to seek such data from a service provider - a standard that has existed since the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) was adopted in 1986.
TSA’s Own Files Show Doubtful Science Behind Its Behavior Screening Program
Newly released documents from the Transportation Security Administration appear to confirm the concerns of critics who say that the agency’s controversial program that relies on body language, appearance, and particular behaviors to select passengers for extra screening in airports has little basis in science and has led to racial profiling.
Files turned over to the American Civil Liberties Union under the Freedom of Information Act include a range of studies that undermines the program’s premise, demonstrating that attempts to look for physical signs of deception are highly subjective and unreliable. Also among the files are presentations and reports from the TSA and other law enforcement agencies that put forth untested theories of how to profile attackers and rely on broad stereotypes about Muslims.
The TSA has deployed behavior detection officers, or BDOs, at security checkpoints and in plainclothes throughout airports to look for travelers exhibiting behaviors that might betray fear, stress, or deception. According to the documents, these officers engage in “casual conversations” such that the passengers don’t realize they “have undergone any deliberate line of questioning.” ...
Looking out for suspicious behaviors is hardly surprising, but TSA’s approach has been roundly criticized by government watchdogs and outside observers who say there’s no scientific basis for the clues the officers rely on as indicators. The program — previously known as “SPOT,” for Screening Passengers by Observation Techniques, and now called “Behavior Detection and Analysis” — has cost $1.5 billion since it was rolled out in 2007, according to a recent inspector general’s report.
In 2015, The Intercept published the TSA’s checklist for behavior detection officers, which included dozens of apparently suspicious indicators, such as “excessive fidgeting,” “strong body odor,” “whistling,” and “exaggerated emotions.” Many of the behaviors on the list contradicted one another, and most seemed like they could apply to any number of travelers going through a security screening and heading to a flight. A former officer in the program told The Intercept at the time that the list was “just ‘catch all’ behaviors to justify BDO interaction with a passenger. A license to harass.”
Oh my, the Senate is staging a major Kabuki production for the benefit of the rubes in the cheap seats. Who would have thought that it would be this easy to ham it up for the parties respective bases? Duck! The red meat is flying now and the partisan groupies are lapping it up.
Senate Dems in Revolt After GOP Silences Warren for Quoting Coretta Scott King
Senate Republicans voted Tuesday evening to formally silence Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), prompting widespread public outcry, for reading a letter by Coretta Scott King from 30 years ago that condemned Sen. Jeff Sessions's (R-Ala.) record on voting and civil rights. In response to the cascade of outrage, Democratic senators on Wednesday began taking to the Senate floor to read the letter that forced Warren from the floor.
[Though, they are carefully omitting the "objectionable" line in the document that Warren was called out for. - js]
Sessions "used the awesome power of his office to chill the free exercise of the vote by black citizens," the letter from Martin Luther King, Jr.'s widow reads, referring to Sessions's crackdown on ballot access—part of a supposed effort to combat alleged voter fraud—during his tenure as Alabama attorney general.
"The senator has impugned the motives and conduct of our colleague from Alabama," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said after Warren began to read, and made the unusual decision to invoke Rule 19 to bar Warren from the floor. With votes along party lines, the motion to silence Warren was approved 49-43, and Warren was forced to stop speaking.
The unprecedented silencing prompted immediate dismay, and people took to social media to voice support for Warren under the hashtags #LetLizSpeak and #ShePersisted, the latter a reference to McConnell's statement that Warren "was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted."
ACLU: We're in a Dangerous Situation as Gov't Claims That Courts Have No Role Reviewing Muslim Ban
Travel ban: judges skeptical about arguments on Trump's executive order
A lawyer seeking to reinstate Donald Trump’s travel ban was grilled by a panel of three judges on Tuesday, facing questions over the president’s inflammatory campaign promise to close America’s borders to Muslims.
August Flentje, of the Department of Justice, was put on the spot over why seven Muslim-majority countries had been targeted in Trump’s executive order, as well as past statements made by the president and his ally Rudy Giuliani.
The hour-long hearing before the San Francisco-based ninth circuit court of appeals was the most significant legal battle yet over the ban. The judges said they would try to deliver a ruling as soon as possible but gave no indication of when.
Trump's FCC chair is mad the media called out his plans targeting net neutrality
Just a couple of weeks into his new job, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai is taking a page out of the president’s playbook and slamming “sensationalized” media coverage of his actions.
Thanks to a series of moves set to weaken net neutrality, reduce regulation of phone carriers, and alter a program meant to subsidize internet and phone access for low-income consumers, Pai, a former lawyer for Verizon, is well on his way toward implementing the GOP’s agenda at the FCC.
On Friday, the FCC said that it would be reversing an order put forth during the Obama administration to allow nine internet service providers (ISPs) to participate in the Lifeline program. ... Established in 1985, Lifeline is a $2 billion subsidy that allows low-income families to shave $9.25 off their phone and broadband internet bills every month; last year the FCC expanded the program’s terms to include ISPs that provide only broadband internet (in addition to ISPs that also provide phone or bundled phone-internet plans).
After a weekend flurry of headlines and criticism from activist groups alleging he’s advancing corporate interests at the expense of consumers, Pai punched back on Monday in a strongly worded blog post.
“Unfortunately, many of the media headlines have sensationalized this story and given some an entirely misleading impression of what is going on,” Pai said. ... When asked for an example of the slanted media coverage to which Pai was referring, FCC spokesperson Mark Wigfield directed VICE News to an article in the Register, a U.K.-based internet industry trade publication. ... According to analytics firm Alexa, less than 30 percent of The Register’s traffic comes from the U.S.
It looks like the Republicans don't have much confidence in Betsy DeVos' competence to get the job done, either. They apparently think that she is so lacking in ability that she would screw up the process of destroying the DOE from within.
GOP lawmaker proposes abolishing Department of Education
On the same day the Senate confirmed President Trump’s secretary of Education pick by a historically narrow margin, a House Republican introduced legislation to abolish the entire department Betsy DeVos will lead.
Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie’s bill is only a page long, after merely stating the Department of Education would terminate on Dec. 31, 2018. ...
Seven other Republicans signed on to Massie’s bill: House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (Utah) and Reps. Justin Amash (Mich.), Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Jody Hice (Ga.), Walter Jones (N.C.) and Raúl Labrador (Idaho).
The Senate confirmed DeVos earlier Tuesday on a 51-50 vote following an all-night session forced by Democrats unanimously opposed to her nomination.
Democrats Are Desperate for Bernie Sanders' Email List
But if they get it, will they know what to do with it?
As the Democratic Party struggles to regain its footing following its disastrous November election, one vestige of the 2016 campaign has taken on much importance: Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' email list. Sanders, who raised $218 million online from a record 2.8 million donors, rewrote the rules of email fundraising during his campaign by relentlessly courting small-dollar contributors. For many of those donors, Sanders was the first Democratic presidential candidate they had supported—or the first politician they had ever helped. ...
Democrats have made no secret they covet Sanders' list, which Sanders controls through his Senate campaign and the political nonprofit he founded, Our Revolution. The decision on what to do with it rests with Sanders. "Our Revolution won't be giving over the list," says the group's president, Jeff Weaver, who was Sanders' presidential campaign manager. Sanders, for his part, has mostly stayed quiet about the future of the list, which one Democratic consultant referred to as his "precious." He told the Washington Post in January that he would "cross that bridge" when he comes to it. "There has been no discussion with the DNC about use of the list," says Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs. ...
But former Sanders staffers and consultants scoff at the demand for the list. The way they see it, clamoring for access misses the point. The list wasn't the campaign's secret weapon; Sanders was. "They keep thinking it's the list," says Becky Bond, who as a senior adviser to Sanders helped build the candidate's national organizing operation. "It's so crazy. It's like someone who buys a $12,000 bicycle and thinks they can win the Tour de France."
How Democrats blew their chance to take down Betsy DeVos
Democrats blew what was arguably their best shot to take down one of President Donald Trump’s nominees when secretary of education nominee Betsy DeVos won confirmation in the Senate on Tuesday. ...
Instead of organizing protests laser-focused on vulnerable Republicans up in 2018, like Sens. Jeff Flake of Arizona and Dean Heller of Nevada, or those in swing states with lots of union employees, like Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, progressive groups opposed to DeVos issued blanket directives to constituents to bombard their home-state senators with calls, even if they were Democrats and already out in opposition to begin with.
DeVos opponents turned out in some of their home states — Toomey saw protests drawing hundreds in Philadelphia over the weekend, for instance — but as senators returned to the Hill this week, the hallways outside their offices were notably silent.
Democrats, meanwhile, made a lot of noise, pledging to vigorously oppose her nomination at a protest outside Capitol Hill Monday night and holding the Senate floor with an all-night talk-a-thon. But Tuesday at noon, the vote still came.
Even some Democrats acknowledged the effort was mostly for show. Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy spoke on the Senate floor at 4 a.m. but admitted the night before that the vote was unlikely to go his way. ... Asked what he hoped to accomplish with a floor speech at 4 a.m., Murphy said the stunt was meant to show resistance.
A Violation of Tribal & Human Rights: Standing Rock Chair Slams Approval of Dakota Access Pipeline
The Army Corps of Engineers announced plans to grant the easement necessary to complete the Dakota Access Pipeline
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says it plans to grant the final easement for the Dakota Access Pipeline, reversing the Obama administration’s decision in December and clearing the way for the project’s completion.
In a court filing in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., the Army Corps said it would allow Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the pipeline, to build under Lake Oahe on the Missouri River. The Sioux Standing Rock Tribe opposed the crossing, alleging that the pipeline puts its water supply downstream at risk. Months of protests resulted.
As it signaled its intent to grant the easement, the Army Corps also cancelled the pipeline’s new environmental impact assessment ordered by the Obama administration, which was expected to take months. ...
In a letter notifying Congress of its decision, deputy assistant secretary of the Army Paul Kramer said that the agency was waiving its policy of waiting 14 days after notification before granting the easement, but he added it would wait at least 24 hours. That means the easement could be granted as early as Wednesday, although construction can’t immediately start if there’s a court challenge to the decision. ...
“The Obama administration correctly found that the Tribe’s treaty rights needed to be acknowledged and protected, and that the easement should not be granted without further review and consideration of alternative crossing locations,” tribe attorney Jan Hasselman said in a statement. “Trump’s reversal of that decision continues a historic pattern of broken promises to Indian Tribes and unlawful violation of Treaty rights. They will be held accountable in court.”
Water Protectors Call for Global Mass Mobilizations as Army Plans to Approve Dakota Access Pipeline
EPA Nominee Pruitt Sued for Withholding Thousands of Energy Co. Emails
One day after hundreds of current and former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) employees voiced their opposition to the man President Donald Trump wants to run that agency—and just ahead of his Senate confirmation vote—a prominent watchdog group is suing Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt for violation of the Open Records Act.
The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) filed suit Tuesday in an Oklahoma court, demanding EPA nominee Pruitt release records detailing his communications with energy companies ahead of the as-yet-unscheduled Senate vote, according to a statement. The suit alleges Pruitt has failed to respond to multiple records requests seeking access to more than 3,000 emails with Koch Industries and other coal, oil, and gas corporations, as well as the corporate-funded Republican Attorney General’s Association (RAGA).
Furthermore, the statement reads: "Despite failing to respond to any records requests for the past two years, Pruitt told U.S. Senators last week to file more open records requests with his office to answer 19 outstanding questions from his confirmation hearing."
Pruitt's strong ties to the fossil fuel industry—exposed in part by CMD—and hostility toward the agency he's been picked to lead evoked massive opposition from the environmental movement as well as intense scrutiny from Democratic lawmakers, who went as far as to boycott Pruitt's committee vote last week.
"Freedom of information is essential to ensure the integrity of our government," said Brady Henderson, legal director of the ALCU of Oklahoma, which is representing CMD alongside law firm Hall Estill. "When public officials like Scott Pruitt fail to abide by Open Records Act requirements, it interferes with the people's ability to do our job holding government accountable. With Pruitt seeking confirmation to become EPA administrator, these public records are essential for the U.S. Senate to do its job too. Public records belong in public view, not hidden for months or years behind closed doors."
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Sanders and Cruz debate ObamaCare
What Slobodan Milosevic Taught Me About Donald Trump
In Trump’s World Where Money Talks, Saudi Arabia Gets a Free Pass
Trump’s Rhetoric On “Radical Islam” Undermines Counter-Extremism Programs in U.S.
A Justice Department attorney had trouble defending Trump’s immigration ban
Moves in Gold Price Suggest There’s Trouble Ahead
This is how people can truly take back control: from the bottom up
The Path to Achieving a Truly Universal Basic Income
A Little Night Music
Juke Boy Bonner - Yakin' in my Plans
Juke Boy Bonner - Carried To The Cleaners and Hung Out To Dry
Juke Boy Bonner - I'm Going Up, I'm Going Down
Juke Boy Bonner - Running Shoes
Juke Boy Bonner - I'm A Bluesman
Juke Boy Bonner - I've Had the Blues
Juke Boy Bonner - I'm Not Jiving
Juke Boy Bonner - Let's Boogie
Juke Boy Bonner - Sad, Sad Sound
Juke Boy Bonner - Going Back To The Country
Comments
Good afternoon, Joe. Another day of global madness
& US wierdness. Thanks for the music. The Dems have no use for Bernie's donor list, they have no idea why those folks gave to Bernie. They do not understand tht "Hi, we're the party of ever more Reaganism" will sot garner any funds from those people, let alone why it won't.
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 --
afternoon el...
yeah, the amusing thing though, is that the dems appear not to have a clue that bernie's email list is useless to them since they have no interest in adopting bernie's issues.
@joe shikspack
Lol, yeah, when the only path they know is that of draining the people and country for corporate benefit so that they get a share of the loot in both money and a little residual power from enforcing their paymasters wishes, they're so outraged when the people do not consent to be willingly and voluntarily further drained on demand. I sometimes don't know whether to giggle or retch... somehow retching always wins, though.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
evening en...
i just got an urgent email from nancy pelosi telling me that she needs $150,000 tonight (tonight!) so that they can throw out all of the jerks who dissed elizabeth warren.
i'm sure that bernie's list would love to get those sorts of emails, too.
I've noticed a large uptick
In those DNC sign the petition email address harvesting scams directed at people upset abut Trump. That trick is as bad as the Nigerian spam scams of old.
Whatever happened to the DNC naming a new leader? Wasn't that supposed to happen a long time ago? I haven't heard anything except every single candidate refused to acknowledge that the old DNC screwed the primary elections to favor Clinton.
I think they're just worthless -- modern-day Whigs.
evening crider...
according to wikipedia:
there are 8 candidates, but i think that it's really between two of them, keith ellison - the bernie sanders-endorsed candidate and, tom perez (former secretary of labor) - the clintonite-establishment candidate.
i haven't seen any handicapping of the race beyond that.
...
[video:https://youtu.be/u-Y3KfJs6T0]
it ain't no use
LOL
@joe shikspack
How come we can't pay all of these destructive jerks just to go away? Or won't that work until they have all of the money in the world and have blown everything up that they might once have bought with it? (Yes, that was rhetorical, lol.)
Just glanced at my inbox and despite discontinuing stuff from various Dems beyond, repeatedly, any Clintons under any email sender, I have a bunch, too.
Apparently Liz Warren is banned from speaking on the floor - too bad she didn't do any of the things she said ought to be done to the financial criminals running things, in any of her scoldings, to get the donors perhaps cleared out of buying policy and politicians so Bernie might have been allowed the nomination he won... couldn't have that, of course...
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
heh, i don't think that we can afford to pay them...
since they already have all the money.
i have toyed with an idea from time to time of working out a means to send them all to an island (we can call it "winners island"), from which they cannot leave but they will be supplied with chalets, fancy french chefs making fabulous food, a high-roller casino, hot and cold running cocaine and escorts (maybe putin can supply them since he says that russian escorts are the finest in the world). their lives will be the subject of reality teevee and they can lecture us all on teevee about whatever they want.
meantime, their wealth will be redistributed and the rest of us can get on with redecorating the planet to suit our tastes.
@joe shikspack
Ooooo, I like your idea!
And all of the polluting industry CEOs and production can go there with them, and they can all frack off together while the rest of us start patching things up.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
That's one of the best ideas I've ever heard!
And there would still be plenty left over for those in real need. "winners island" win/win ; ).
"Winners Island," heh. Excellent, Joe. Vonnegut exposed
the fraud of the duopoly as so:
Big Al will especially love the last bolded line.
What concerns me, though I love this idea, is what Twain said about what man and applies here, I fear.
Their unending greed is all about bragging and being envied. That's mostly what it is all about for them. These are sociopath scum with the stunted brains of spoiled children (e.g. Trump). How else to explain why anyone with that much money could be consumed with making more? It's literally insane.
What I think we really need to impress upon people, is to Stop Worshiping The Rich. But for starters, stop talking about them, and their possessions, and their gaudy shit, and even what your neighbor owns or just bought, etc. Turn off the tv and the celebrity gossip. Interrupt conversations that mention the rich and famous to say you don't give a fuck and to stop wasting our time with such trivial nonsense. If we stop acknowledging them then maybe indeed they will just want to go away. Winners Island is waiting.
To me, this is a topic to be deliberated over more in depth at another time. It's not to be underestimated though, in terms of why people remain head down on the treadmill of pulling themselves up by the bootstraps trying to achieve the purposely elusive American Dream, and subconsciously adopting the mentality of the rich and their propaganda, with respect to becoming a resentment voter who votes against his own interests because he doesn't want someone else to get free handouts and thinks that a progressive tax on the wealthy is unfair because he himself might get there someday and wouldn't want to be taxed so much (for another example, see the RW duping of their faithful to get behind the abolition of the "death tax").
A permanent Fantasy Island for these Winners would be ideal, no doubt.
Thanks for the great job as always Joe.
"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
evening mark...
vonnegut had a pretty good insight into the system.
there are degrees of "loserhood." the bottom of the ladder is really pretty awful. the system works because, a) people don't understand that there is a vanishingly small chance of their joining the "winners" b) most of the people are not at the very bottom of the ladder and they fear sliding down a few rungs - they believe that if they attack the system that they might lose their place.
in other words, the losers live in fear which is manipulated by the winners.
Based on this, I nominate you to run for office...
The platform, it writes itself
@enhydra lutris
Especially hard conning The People out of money for '(s)elections' once this gets out.
The corporate interests/billionaires are eliminating public financing for Presidential elections... Do not miss any of this informational video! I think it's all covered now, and easily 6 feet under.
There is no way of having any real electoral change or even any pretense of democracy in America without the People taking back their delegated powers from those in public office abusing them and enforcing their own Constitutional rights.
And people have to understand this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN-cYCjAAXI
I think I need to find something funny,,,
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
That headline about the DeVos loon
Pretty much sums up His Majesty's Loyal Opposition.
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
evening bollox...
heh, the democrats blew their chance to stand up and be a real party of the people long ago and far away. their dignity died years ago and what remains of their credibilty is fading fast.
Hey Bollox,
Who is that guy in your avatar? Is he friend or foe, ally or opposition?
That would be a small version
of the portrait of King Constantine I of Greece, by de László.
Constantine was caught up in the political trauma surrounding Greece and WWI.
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
So, you had to just make me google some history,
of which I am totally deficient.
From the little I’ve read he sounds like a mixed bag - sometimes war-like and sometimes peace-like.
I should read more, before I comment more ; ). Thanks for the prompt.
I just got off the phone with my mom, who has decided to call Trump, “the so-called president". She said it was in reference to what he said about the judge.
I think all of America is in limbo.
A mixed bag, but he was brother-in-law of the Kaiser
So his family situation didn't sit well with the Greek support for the Allies. Which he understood well and regretted also (he didn't get on well with Wilhelm II).
Anyway, the portrait by de László is halfway decent, though not in the Singer Sargent league, and I'm interested in European history.
Plus he's a very distant cousin.
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
Are we not all,
distant cousins ; ).
Wilhelm also sounds like a mixed bag. Maybe we all
are a mixed bag.
Well,
I sympathize more with the fragile Greek kingdom and democracy, than the bombastic, prussianized, German state that suffered the uniformed clown.
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
Much respect, Bollox ...
[video:https://youtu.be/z2g2TpudHsk]
If there were a higher power, time to behind the woodshed
for leaders of all countries. Things are spiraling out of control. Nobody wins, we all lose now.
My aerogrow has a time problem: 16 on, 8 off. Power disruption, plus I discover I do not like light reflecting into my bedroom after midnight, or before. Still light at 5:45 today, days lenghten.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
evening riverlover...
it appears to me that there is a global movement growing that is ready to throw off the corrupt, self-dealing leaders that plague most countries. tempers are short and people are looking around for other options, though they may just settle for "tear it down and see what happens."
Interesting book for some of the Orange expats here who had
been following and revealing the truth behind the American military interventions in the MENA in spite of stiff resistance from the deluded R2P crowd there. Remember the abrupt switch-over when Obama took over from Bush - the day the anti-war movement died? When it again became fashionable to bomb the country to save the village.
Shadow Wars: An Explosive New History Documents the Rise of ISIS
PS Love the blues. Come for the music, stay for the conversation.
evening cb...
looks like an interesting book, i'll have to check in with my local library. i wonder how long it will take for isis' origins to become common knowledge.
Good evening, joe, and fellow bluesers.
I famously stood up in a local restaurant during a Republican Club meeting, and told a candidate who told me he thought all Muslims should be killed, and would be, if he were elected, to go fuck himself, fuck you, you no good killer fucker, and your mama, you fucker...
he didn't win, but some other bastard with the same ideas and more campaign money did.
Good times. Bush was still in office.
To this day, people I know and love and do business with see nothing wrong with killing Muslims, or banning them, since they are the only ones who are terrorists.
It is not within their comprehension, or Christianity, to view themselves as the cause.
It is also not within their comprehension to view America as anything but a Christian nation.
We blame media and propaganda for much of our ills.
It goes to our hope for a blessed eternity with angels and clouds to associate our world wars and murders with Jesus Himself.
If we cannot extricate religion from motives (oil!) then we are just another Crusade.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
evening otc...
it sounds like you live in deep red territory. i'm sorry to hear that your neighbors are so bloodthirsty and bigotted. i seem to have missed the day in sunday school when they discussed how much jesus wanted us to kill people.
@joe shikspack East Texas. I got
East Texas. I got kicked out of the Baptist Church when I was 11.(I took ballet lessons.)
My law office is on the next block from it.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
heh...
wow, pretty restrictive. perhaps they did you a favor by kicking you out so early in life.
@joe shikspack They wanted to get
They wanted to get rid of me because I was constantly asking questions!
The same lady who kicked me out was a school principal who had me dance in school plays. !?
She did me a favor. My parents let me decide.
They paid lots of $ for my dance lessons.
They thought I would do the right thing, never worried that I missed out on church.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
heh...
i'm glad that you had enlightened parents.
It feels like Muhamed Ali had punched my face
multiple times from the right and the left and made me feel dizzy and fainting. The collection of your news articles is again excellent. Blows my mind and locks my jaws due to unforeseen shocks.
I am glad to learn something from the article: WHAT SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC TAUGHT ME ABOUT DONALD TRUMP - Peter Maass. I trust his and Hedge's judgements, because they reported and lived and saw Kosovo and Bosnia and the Yugoslave collapse. From the end of this article:
I sometimes wondered, if it might be someone in the military, who will finally have enough of the Trump failed demagoguery. Pull that article together with Robert Parry's Castigating Trump for Truth-Telling and John Eskow's article Trump's Accidental Truth will take him down and it helps me a lot to connect the dots.
Heh, Joe, I have to emigrate from Germany and immigrate to Hawaii, so that I can read the EB during daytime hours, when my brain just functions a little bit better, instead of reading late night time hours.
Nevertheless, I keep reading and you all keep trucking. Thanks and have a Good Night, all.
https://www.euronews.com/live
evening mimi...
heh, too bad you are going to have to leave germany and move to an earthly paradise. if you want to "blame" that on the eb, that's ok with me.
heh, just testing the 'vetting authorities' if they
would catch me for my 'true' reasons to love Hawaii. With women like that who wouldn't fall in love with them.
Of course, news item came right in time to make me all wonder... how often you can kill a 'senior al Quaeda leader. May be if it comes to beat a dead horse, all the good things are three. /s
https://www.euronews.com/live
Hi mimi,
I'm sure Muhammed Ali would have given you a hug instead ; ).
heh, i would hope so...
after all, the "rope-a-dope" is not the aesthetic i'm trying to pursue here. heck, even "float like a butterfly and sting like a bee," seems unduly harsh.
I have fond memories of Muhamed Ali
when we were young, in the beginning of our not-so-romantic romantic relationship, my African born later husband to be, showed some real enthusiasm for Muhamed Ali in the 1968 times, I think it was. That was in Berlin and we watched some match with hundreds of other students on a big screen. Don't remember which one. No African student back then who didn't love him for this...
Those were the times ... Those roses are for Ali. It was him who made the US 'great again'.
https://www.euronews.com/live
I agree
that he contributed to making America a better place. Wish he were still here to provide some vision, or some verbal smacks upside the head ; ). There would be many who would listen out of respect.
Hey all
Got an email from world without war today that had some good maps. Here are a couple:
Where the wars are in 2016
Who delivers the most arms?
For more see:
War maps – where are they and who profits?
http://worldbeyondwar.org/mapwar/
They reach these conclusions:
The war in Afghanistan and the foreign occupation of Afghanistan have officially ended, but a map of the nations with troops still occupying Afghanistan still looks like NATO colonialism.
The list of locations of severe wars changes from year to year but sticks to a certain region of the world — a region in which none of the major producers of the weapons of war and few of the big spenders on war can be found — but from which the bulk of refugees flee and in which the biggest concentration of that violence labeled “terrorism” germinates, these being two of war’s many tragic consequences.
The United States dominates the war business, the sale of weapons to other nations, the sale of weapons to poor nations, the sale of weapons to the Middle East, the deployment of troops abroad, spending on its own military, and the number of wars engaged in.
Only Russia is anywhere close to the U.S. in weapons dealing, and this pair of countries nearly splits the vast majority of the nuclear weapons possessed on earth.
Efforts toward peace and disarmament are widespread and coming largely from the less-armed, less bellicose parts of the world, but not entirely.
And those governments that are otherwise doing well by the world tend to be those not engaged in warfare (“humanitarian” warfare or otherwise).
Like Catlin wrote - The ultimate backing of the US dollar is not gold, nor is it oil, nor even plutocratic fiats; ultimately, the US dollar is backed by the might of the US military.
http://www.newslogue.com/debate/328/CaitlinJohnstone
The Sacred Stone Camp has a pretty good up to date website on the struggle in ND
http://sacredstonecamp.org/about/
All the best and thanks for the roundup!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
evening lookout...
thanks for the maps and the links!
the dollar is indeed backed by the us military, but it can be undermined by the corruption of our elites. there may come a point when their ludicrous corruption, facilitated by government deregulation will cause a crash that all of uncle sam's economists and all of his guns can't put the dollar back together again.
So what does the bottom third deliver?
Peace, I hope.
Thanks for calling this out
This was my first thought when I read about this today. And this adds to the outrage porn that so many people are engaged in with everything that the republicans or Trump does or says.
And again for some reason the democrats are helpless to block any cabinet members or anything else that the republicans want to do. And wasn't it just convenient that Reid reversed the rule of needing 60 votes to pass legislation just in time for when the republicans won both houses?
Media Benjamin's article about the hypocrisy of not putting people from Saudi Arabia on the list of people who are not allowed to come to this country.
The leaders of both financing terrorists and human rights abuses are okay with our government because they have a lot of oil.
As others have stated, the protests against Trump's Muslim ban rings hollow because they didn't protest Obamas's killing them with his drones or the Libyan and Syrian wars.
As the saying goes, it's only bad when it is a republican president doing those things.
Trump wants to ban Muslims from coming into the country and Obama gets a pass on deporting almost 3 million people.
How can they not see how hypocritical they are?
evening snoopy...
no problem. i am just getting really tired of the fake outrage and the fake resistance and the kabuki theatre staged by the democrats and their camp followers.
i wonder if there will come a point where the actors will so overplay their roles in this farcical melodrama that the game becomes unavoidably transparent even to the faithful clintonite base who are probably even now scribbling in their checkbooks to right this outrage against elizabeth warren.
I have no idea what it's going to take for
people to wake the hell up and see that they are being played by both sides.
It's the same way every time. When the democrats are the majority, the republicans can block them from doing anything, but when the republicans are the majority the democrats can't do the same things. That right there should show people that it's a damn game played by both sides.
I hope that people will read the article you linked to The violence of silence which further shows the hypocrisy of both sides of the voters.
Cognitive dissonance, indeed!
Evening and thanks, joe and bluesters.
What would Trump know, about anything to do with heart, big or small?
Thanks for the Juke Boy Bonner, who rocks, while others sleep.
That Caitlyn Johnstone quote is pretty rocking too. Now I will read what else she has to say.
Enjoy the evening.
evening janis...
the caitlyn johnstone piece is quite good. i really like her framing, as it might be the sort of thing that gets the attention of people who identify as democrats but have been awol on anti-war issues for quite some time.
have a great evening!
You too!
China seems to be taking global warming seriously
Imagine new cities looking like this:
http://inhabitat.com/chinas-first-vertical-forest-is-rising-in-nanjing/
looks pretty cool...
i've been seeing an assortment of smaller scale vertical farming projects starting to happen in my area, which i hope will spread and perhaps replace some of the industrial monoculture farming going forward.
i hope that china's green cities will start to provide some habitat at least for some of the smaller critters (pollinators especially) that have been having a hard time due to the spread of industrial farming and the ravages created by the chemical industry.
Looks like the Chinese have taken mattters into their own hand
These Photos Capture The Startling Effect Of Shrinking Bee Populations
Hola, Joe & Bluesters! While we
admired Carter [personally], we can vouch for his ultra-fiscal conservatism and neoliberal policy bent. (We lived in Atlanta during the latter part of his term as Governor.) Because of his part in the establishment of the Trilateral Commission, his record is mixed, at best (IMO).
Again, in some areas, Carter demonstrated that he is a man of deep compassion and morality. Mr M has been active in two chapters of Habitat for Humanity over the past 30 plus years, which along with several dog rescue/puppy mill organizations, is where we've put our resources [in regards to US charities]. OTOH, there were the benefit increases to Social Security--enacted under Nixon--that Carter had repealed.
(BTW, this comment is in reply to one of yours at the essay your posted earlier, today.)
Here's a link to Coursera, for others who enjoy learning. Take it from one who's often been accused of being a professional student--it's a good deal.
Check it out.
From Wikipedia,
Heard the ACA Debate last evening--CNN dropped the topic immediately after the debate concluded. (Aside from Jake Tapper and Don Lemon having about a 5-minute conversation about it.) Before it was over, Bernie was agreeing a lot with Cruz, and sorta dropped defending the ACA, saying we need a single-payer system. Cruz pointed out the massive profits to the health care industry over the past several years, at the same time that premiums increased exponentially for many health insurance beneficiaries. For some in the ACA exchanges, the premium increases have been close to 100% (93% in New Mexico, for instance).
(Personally, I think that the folks who are enrolled in the various Exchanges, and Medicaid, should be allowed to buy into Medicare, with subsidized premiums, until a new system is developed. And, those enrolled in Medicaid should have their entire premium paid by Uncle Sugar; while those enrolled in the Extended Medicaid Program should not be expected to pay more than a very nominal fee, if anything. Of course, the 'BS' program that Price has proposed would be a total disaster. Hopefully, it's dead in the water.)
We seem to be in monsoon mode (again), but considering what happened in Louisiana, I shouldn't complain. My best to anyone who was in harm's way, yesterday.
Everyone have a nice evening!
[Edit: Added link to Coursera.]
Mollie
The original meaning of “fiscal conservative” may be gone. In fact, Democrats have had a better claim on the label in recent years than Republicans.
____David Leonhardt, Journalist, NYT, January 9, 2017
"Every time I lose a dog, he takes a piece of my heart. Every new dog gifts me with a piece of his. Someday, my heart will be total dog, and maybe then I will be just as generous, loving, and forgiving."
____Author Unknown
Taro
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
evening mollie...
i agree with your points about carter. i've always felt that he was a somewhat less than adequate president, but an incredible ex-president. as a person, i have always respected his commitment to helping others and to human rights. unlike many other presidents, there is much good to be said of him.
i was kind of surprised to hear that an actual substantive political debate, aired on teevee could really happen in america. i'm sure that cnn regrets it now, because there was no moment of outrage to flog, but i wish that this sort of thing happened more often.
heh, yesterday it hit 72 degrees here, today was quite warm (upper 60's i think) and tonight, we're supposed to get 4 inches of snow in the wee hours of the morning. i like a change of seasons, but this is ridiculous.
Many would argue that
that "American Privilege" was bought and paid for by the loss of American lives on D-Day, Lexington & Concord, and many many battles over the last 300 years, I being one of them. That's NOT to say that the bull$h!t of the last 50 years, or so - those unjustified "wars" - is just that, but that's mostly on the MIC. And Americans not paying attention becuz it's none of their business. They have other worries besides what's going on "over there," and really can't be bothered.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
@Wink
Lol, perhaps point out to the many that a number of other countries in which other people live have also typically fought many battles in the past without laying claim to their 'exceptional right' of accumulating excessive brute military/spy forces (at the cost of and to their own ever-more-drained public) enabling them in the bizarre aim of owning the rest of the world and everyone in it to kill, pollute, dispossess, control and use as they please for the insane profiteering of a relative few pathologically actual and would-be billionaires?
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
Blame all of that
on the MIC and the handful that use it as an offensive rather than defensive force. Our American Privilege has little to do with the Oliver Norths, has much more to do with the real estate it sets on and the soldiers that fought to defend it. We haven't won a "war" since WWII, which is just fine with the MIC. As long as they can continue unobstructedly (by dirty hippies getting in their way) breaking things and killing people "winning" doesn't matter. It's the battle not the victory. None of which has anything to do with American Privilege. Our Privilege comes from the oil and iron ore and coal and minerals and... and bunches of natural resources we sit on, Yuuge lakes filled with fresh water, and the brains required to mix those together to make things. To the point we can flip off the rest of the planet, not needing one damn thing from them, got everything we need for hundreds of years right here, tyvm. That's American Privilege.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
@Wink
Whoops, sorry, guess I was thinking more of the 'exceptional' propaganda affecting people's perceptions of what TPTB are 'entitled' to do in the name of 'American (business) interests' than the fact of the country sitting comfortably, even if most of the people have their benefit from this drained off. That'll teach me to comment before re-reading when overtired.
Edit: although Canada has similar circumstances and lacked that problem, at least until afflicted with Koch-sucking Alberta Oil-Boy Harper, so I still do blame propaganda, either way.
And re-edited as I failed to notice a missed letter the first time. Sigh...
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
Yeah, I kinda guessed
that the author of the initial thread post was refering to exceptionalism. or a RW sense thereof (which, of course, has been co-opted by the MIC). I just remember being in 8th grade, studying the Civil War (was the 100th anniversary of the end of the war that year) and thinking that, besides a military that could kick anybody's ass, the country had everything. Everything. There was a Yuuge sense of security about that.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.