The Evening Blues - 3-16-17



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Louis "Mr. Bo" Collins

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Detroit blues singer, guitarist and songwriter Louis "Mr. Bo" Collins. Enjoy!

Mr Bo - Detroit, Michigan

“Moral maxims are surprisingly useful on occasions when we can invent little else to justify our actions.”

-- Alexander Pushkin


News and Opinion

Hillary Clinton Campaign Was Connected To Russian Government

Russian bank Sberbank has now admitted to hiring a lobbying firm connected to the Hillary Clinton campaign to fight sanctions against the Russian government. The Podesta Group was founded by John Podesta, who served as campaign chairman for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her 2016 presidential campaign.

According to senate lobbying disclosure forms, John’s brother and current head of the firm, Tony Podesta, was paid $170,000 in 2016 to represent Sberbank to end one of the Obama administration’s economic sanctions against Russia.

Podesta and other lobbyists worked Congress and set up meetings between the Russians and State Department officials to discuss ways to end the sanctions imposed in Executive Order 13660 in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Sberbank and VTB Capital—the first and second largest banks in Russia, respectively—paid $700,000 for the lobbying work. ...

Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak met with advisers to the Clinton campaign during the 2016 election. ... Whether Kislyak was able to recruit any advisers to Hillary Clinton to work for Russian intelligence remains unknown. ... The extent to which the Clinton campaign was connected to the Russian government has yet to be fully investigated.

The Kagans Are Back; Wars to Follow

The Kagan family, America’s neoconservative aristocracy, has reemerged having recovered from the letdown over not gaining its expected influence from the election of Hillary Clinton and from its loss of official power at the start of the Trump presidency. Back pontificating on prominent op-ed pages, the Family Kagan now is pushing for an expanded U.S. military invasion of Syria and baiting Republicans for not joining more enthusiastically in the anti-Russian witch hunt over Moscow’s alleged help in electing Donald Trump.

In a Washington Post op-ed on March 7, Robert Kagan, a co-founder of the Project for the New American Century and a key architect of the Iraq War, jabbed at Republicans for serving as “Russia’s accomplices after the fact” by not investigating more aggressively. Then, Frederick Kagan, director of the Critical Threats Project at the neocon American Enterprise Institute, and his wife, Kimberly Kagan, president of her own think tank, Institute for the Study of War, touted the idea of a bigger U.S. invasion of Syria in a Wall Street Journal op-ed on March 15. ...

Robert Kagan took to the high-profile op-ed page of The Washington Post to bait key Republicans, such as Rep. Devin Nunes, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee who was pictured above the Post article and its headline, “Running interference for Russia.” Kagan wrote: “It would have been impossible to imagine a year ago that the Republican Party’s leaders would be effectively serving as enablers of Russian interference in this country’s political system. Yet, astonishingly, that is the role the Republican Party is playing.” ...

Many Democrats and liberals may find it encouraging that a leading neocon who helped pave the road to war in Iraq is now by their side in running down Republicans for not enthusiastically joining the latest Russian witch hunt. But they also might pause to ask themselves how they let their hatred of Trump get them into an alliance with the neocons. ... As often is the case, the Family Kagan has charted the course of action – batter Republicans into joining the all-out Russia-bashing and then persuade a softened Trump to launch a full-scale invasion of Syria. In this endeavor, the Kagans have Democrats and liberals as the foot soldiers.

Oh my, it looks like the Kaganate of Nulands script described in Parry's article above is growing in popularity ...

It Finally Happened: John McCain Has Called Rand Paul A Russian Agent On The Senate Floor

Arizona Senator John McCain, who has yet to be struck by lightning despite my many attempted pacts with various religious deities, lurched to the Senate floor yesterday and proclaimed that anyone who objected to his push to expand NATO by including the unstable nation of Montenegro in its alliance was enacting the will of Putin. When Rand Paul —who has consistently opposed Russia-antagonizing NATO expansionism— objected, McCain flipped his lid in a way I’ve never seen an eighty year-old man do outside the confines of a locked Alzheimer’s unit and declared that Senator Paul was “working for Vladimir Putin.”

Yes, really. In real life.

When America Interfered in a Russian Election

The U.S. is the unchallenged champion of hijacking, fixing and subverting elections around the world. On every inhabitable continent – from Italy to Iran to Accra to Tegucigalpa -- Washington has stolen people’s rights to elected leaders of their choice. Only two decades ago, Bill Clinton and his operatives were busy stealing Russia’s first post-Soviet elections. But, U.S. corporate media seem to have forgotten such inconvenient facts. ...

In 1996 American political consultants and the Bill Clinton administration made certain that Boris Yeltsin remained in the Russian presidency. There is no need for conjecture in this case. The story was discussed quite openly at the time and included a Time magazine cover story with the guilty parties going on record about their role in subverting democracy.

Polls showed that Yeltsin was in danger of losing to the Communist Party candidate Gennadi Zhuganov. The collapse of the Soviet Union had created an economic and political catastrophe for the Russian people. Oligarchs openly stole public funds while government workers went without pay. Russians lost the safety net they had enjoyed and the disaster resulted in a precipitous decline in life expectancy and birth rates.

The United States didn’t care about the suffering of ordinary Russians. Its only concern was making sure that the once socialist country never turned in that direction again. When Yeltsin looked like a loser the Clinton administration pressed the International Monetary Fund to send quick cash and bolster Yeltsin’s government with a $10 billion loan.

Clinton had an even more direct involvement. Led by a team connected to his adviser Dick Morris, a group of political consultants went to work in Moscow, but kept their existence a secret. One of the conspirators put the case succinctly. "Everyone realized that if the Communists knew about this before the election, they would attack Yeltsin as an American tool.” Of course Yeltsin was an American tool, and that was precisely the desired outcome.

Adam Schiff hyperventilation alert. Someone please check the congressworm's vital signs.

House Intel Ranking Member Says Trump May Have Unintentionally Exposed Classified Hack of CIA

When asked by Fox News host Tucker Carlson why he hasn't gone to the agencies he is "in charge of," to "gather evidence" to support his claim that President Barack Obama tapped Trump Tower, Trump said: "Because I don't want to do anything that's going to violate any strength of an agency. You know we have enough problems. And, by the way, the CIA—I just want people to know—the CIA was hacked and a lot of things taken. That was during the Obama years. That was not during us."

That information, it appears, was not for the public.

[well gosh, it was all over the news, now they tell us we weren't supposed to read it! - js]

On Thursday, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, which has asked the administration to provide evidence of the alleged tap, accused Trump of "leaking" classified information.

As for the initial claim, Trump told Carlson that his definition of wiretap "covers a lot of different things," and promised that the Department of Justice "will be submitting things" to the House committee "very soon," despite missing a Monday deadline for evidence.

"You're going to find some very interesting items coming to the forefront over the next two weeks," the president said.

Russia linked to Yahoo breach

The Justice Department on Wednesday announced indictments against four individuals linked to the Russian government for the colossal Yahoo user data breach revealed last September.

The four men indicted for the 2014 hack — which compromised 500 million user accounts — include two Russian spies, Dmitry Aleksandrovich Dokuchaev and Igor Anatolyevich Suschin, and two cybercriminals, Alexsey Alexseyvich Belan and Karim Baratov. Baratov, a Kazakh national and a resident of Canada, according to the Justice Department, was arrested in Canada on Tuesday.

At a press conference to discuss the indictments, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the National Security Division Mary McCord said that the indictments detail how “Russian federal security service (FSB) officers working together with criminal hackers conspired to plan and carry out one of the largest cyber intrusions in U.S. history.”

Abbate and the other officials declined to speculate too much on the motive for the hack, but McCord pointed out that one of the defendants, Belan, used credit numbers and 30 million stolen accounts to run an email scam for personal profit. Additionally, the summary of allegations released by the Justice Department notes that “some victim accounts were of predictable interest to the FSB,” including those belonging to Russian journalists, officials of various governments, and prominent figures in the private sector.

Ukraine blocks road and rail links with breakaway regions

Ukraine’s government said Wednesday it would cut off all transport connections with Russian-backed separatist territories in the country’s east, potentially undermining a fragile ceasefire and jeopardizing the country’s tentative economic recovery.

The announcement was made at a special meeting of the country’s security and defense council with President Petro Poroshenko, and represents a dramatic hardening of the government’s position. Only humanitarian traffic will be allowed — cutting off flows of goods and people that had persisted despite almost three years of a war that has taken 10,000 lives. ...

Dozens of activists have been blocking four railroad junctions since the end of January, preventing coal from the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk “People’s Republics” from traveling west into government-controlled areas, and, at the same time, stopping iron ore and other inputs for the steel industry from reaching factories in rebel-controlled territory.

This week, Kiev seemed to be moving to end the blockade — dismantling one of the blockaders’ base camps and detaining more than 40 activists, who were later released.

But even that tentative step unleashed nationalist protests in Kiev. ... The blockade’s leaders, a mix of nationalists and Western-leaning reformers, said they have two goals: to force the release of Ukrainian political prisoners and POWs held in the east and in Russia, and to bring an end to all trade with Russia and the breakaway territories.

More US ground troops in Syria

U.S. military likely to send as many as 1,000 more ground troops into Syria ahead of Raqqa offensive, officials say

The U.S. military has drawn up early plans that would deploy up to 1,000 more troops into northern Syria in the coming weeks, expanding the American presence in the country ahead of the offensive on the Islamic State’s de facto capital of Raqqa, according to U.S. defense officials familiar with the matter.

The deployment, if approved by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and President Trump, would potentially double the number of U.S. forces in Syria and increase the potential for direct U.S. combat involvement in a conflict that has been characterized by confusion and competing priorities among disparate forces.

Trump, who charged former president Barack Obama with being weak on Syria, gave the Pentagon 30 days to prepare a new plan to counter the Islamic State, and Mattis submitted a broad outline to the White House at the end of February. Gen. Joseph Votel, head of U.S. Central Command, has been filling in more details for that outline, including by how much to increase the U.S. ground presence in Syria. Votel is set to forward his recommendations to Mattis by the end of the month, and the Pentagon secretary is likely to sign off on them, according to a defense official familiar with the deliberations.

While the new contingent of U.S. troops would initially not play a combat role, they would be entering an increasingly complex and dangerous battlefield. In recent weeks, U.S. Army Rangers have been sent to the city of Manbij west of Raqqa to deter Russian, Turkish and Syrian opposition forces all operating in the area, while a Marine artillery battery recently deployed near Raqqa has already come under fire, according to a defense official with direct knowledge of their operations.

Aid Worker Decries U.S.-Backed "Relentless War" in Yemen Causing Widespread Threat of Starvation

SEAL Team 6 Attempted a Second Yemen Raid One Month After Botched Operation

Navy Seals attempted to conduct another raid inside Yemen earlier this month but aborted the mission at the last minute, according to a senior U.S. military official.

Members of SEAL Team 6 deployed to Yemen in early March for a ground assault targeting suspected members of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a group U.S. officials view as the most dangerous branch of the terrorist organization. The aborted mission followed a botched January 29 raid in the village of al Ghayil, in al Bayda province. That raid left a Navy SEAL dead and two others seriously injured, and killed more than two dozen Yemeni civilians, including at least 16 women and children. The leader of AQAP, Qassim al Rimi, released a statement mocking Donald Trump and stating that 14 men died in the assault. ...

After SEAL Team 6 aborted the March mission, the Joint Special Operations Command, or JSOC, which oversees the SEAL unit, chose to target suspected AQAP personnel and facilities with drone strikes, according to the U.S. military official, who requested anonymity to discuss classified information. It could not be learned why SEAL Team 6 aborted the mission. A Pentagon spokesperson declined to comment on the aborted raid.

Trump Has Called the Afghan War a “Mess.” His Generals Want to Escalate It.

You remember Afghanistan, right? The longest war in U.S. history and the most unpopular one, too? The ongoing conflict that’s been ignored by politicians and pundits alike, despite 2,400 U.S. dead and a whopping $1 trillion price tag?

Afghanistan hardly got a look in during the election campaign. The decade-and-a-half-long war was mentioned only once in the three presidential debates — in the form of a passing reference by Hillary Clinton. Trump, however, might want to put down the golf clubs and start paying attention to the forgotten struggle against the Taliban, which was supposed to have formally ended in December 2014. His generals, backed by GOP hawks in Congress, want to drag it out for a few more years. Their unspoken mantra? When in doubt, double down. ...

Last month, while all eyes were on Jeff Sessions’s confirmation as attorney general on the floor of the Senate, Gen. John Nicholson, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee to ask for a “few thousand” more U.S. troops. Last week, his boss, Gen. Joseph Votel, head of U.S. Central Command, echoed Nicholson’s request, telling senators that a new “strategy” for Afghanistan had to “involve additional forces.” And this week, Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham and John McCain, who never met a Muslim-majority nation they did not want to bomb, invade, or occupy, used a Washington Post op-ed to call for — surprise, surprise — “additional U.S. and coalition forces” in Afghanistan, including “special operations forces and close air support.”

What was that definition of insanity again?

Sunni Politician Warns U.S. of Mounting Civilian Casualties in Mosul

A prominent Iraqi Sunni politician on Monday warned Washington the acceleration in a military campaign in western Mosul to drive out Islamic State jihadists was causing a sudden surge in civilian casualties that threatened to undermine the effort to crush the militants.

Khamis Khanjar, who has used his leverage to lobby the U.S. administration and the Iraqi authorities to ensure the major campaign in Mosul minimizes civilian losses among its population, said at least 3,500 civilians have been killed since the push into the western side of the side last month.

The army had earlier recaptured the east of the city in an offensive that began last year. ...

Khanjar said the mounting casualties came mainly from air strikes and indiscriminate shelling of heavily crowded neighborhoods as the U.S trained elite Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) forces push deeper into the Old City and city center. ...

Some 850,000 people are still believed to be living there, according to Khanjar.

In Historic Report, U.N. Agency Says Israel Is Imposing an "Apartheid Regime" on Palestinian People

Tillerson threatens to withdraw US from UN Human Rights Council

The Trump administration is reviewing membership in the UN Human Rights Council, and “considerable reform” within the organization would be necessary for the US to remain, according to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. ...

State Department officials – including Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley – say their goal is to fix the organization and its “bias” against the Jewish state. The Human Rights Council and United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) are the two organizations are under the most intense scrutiny by Trump administration officials over their treatment of Israel.

Meeting with Tillerson last week, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman suggested the US pull its membership. He accused the council of “distorting reality” in an effort to hurt Israel, according to the Defense Ministry, and noted that 60% of all decisions made by the body are Israel-related.

Tillerson concedes US efforts to 'denuclearise North Korea' have failed

The US secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, has conceded that 20 years of US attempts to “denuclearise” North Korea have failed, and called for a new approach towards the regime’s nuclear weapons programme.

Speaking in Tokyo at the start of a four-day visit to Japan, South Korea and China, Tillerson said on Thursday: “I think it’s important to recognise that the political and diplomatic efforts of the past 20 years to bring North Korea to the point of denuclearisation have failed.

“That includes a period where the United States has provided $1.35bn in assistance to North Korea as an encouragement to take a different pathway. In the face of this ever-escalating threat, it is clear that a different approach is required. Part of the purpose of my visit to the region is to exchange views on a new approach.”

Tillerson said he and his Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kishida, had discussed a fresh approach to North Korea’s “dangerous and unlawful” nuclear programme, but neither revealed details.

Trump's budget overhaul: domestic programs slashed to fund military

Donald Trump unveiled a $1.15tn budget on Thursday, a far-reaching overhaul of federal government spending that would slash many domestic programs to finance a significant increase in the military and make a downpayment on a US-Mexico border wall.

Trump’s proposal seeks to upend Washington with cuts to long-promised campaign targets like foreign aid and the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as strong congressional favorites such as medical research, help for homeless veterans and community development grants.

“A budget that puts America first must make the safety of our people its number one priority because without safety, there can be no prosperity,” Trump said in a message accompanying his proposed budget, entitled America First: A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again.

The $54bn boost for the military is the largest since Ronald Reagan’s Pentagon buildup in the 1980s, promising immediate money for troop readiness, the fight against Islamic State militants and procurement of new ships, fighter jets and other weapons. The 10% Pentagon boost is financed by $54bn in cuts to foreign aid and domestic agencies that had been protected by Barack Obama.

The budget goes after the frequent targets of the party’s staunchest conservatives, eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts, legal aid for the poor, low-income heating assistance and the AmeriCorps national service program established by Bill Clinton.

Populist Geert Wilders fails to live up to hype in Dutch elections

Populist firebrand Geert Wilders and his PVV party failed to live up to the hype following them into the Netherlands elections Wednesday, winning only 20 seats in the country’s parliament — far short of the 30 they were predicted to win at the start of the year.

The results will keep the anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant Wilders firmly outside of any ruling coalition government. Instead, by sheer virtue of a highly splintered Dutch electorate, and despite losing 8 seats, incumbent Prime Minister Mark Rutte and his center-right VVD party remain the largest party in government, and best positioned to head up the country’s next coalition government. ...

Overall, this election cycle saw a decline in support for all the mainstream Dutch political parties. The center-left Labour party experienced historic losses in the polls, shedding 29 seats. The desertion of traditional center-left parties was a boon for the so called “Dutch Trudeau” Jesse Klaver, whose Groenlinks party picked up 12 seats. Many voters on the left were uneasy about the willingness of traditional parties to adopt parts of Wilders’ extreme anti-muslim rhetoric.


Trump's Second Travel Ban Blocked By Hawaii Judge

Key portions of President Donald Trump’s new travel ban won’t take effect at 12:01 a.m. on Thursday morning because U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson has granted Hawaii’s request for a nationwide temporary halt.

In a hearing Wednesday, Hawaii Attorney General Douglas Chin argued that the travel ban discriminated against Muslims and would have severely damaged key Hawaiian institutions and industries like higher education and tourism. U.S. Justice Department lawyers argued that because the ban applied to only a small fraction of the world’s majority-Muslim countries, it wasn’t discriminatory.

Watson disagreed with that assessment.

“The illogic of the Government’s contentions is palpable,” he wrote in his ruling. “The notion that one can demonstrate animus toward any group of people only by targeting all of them at once is fundamentally flawed.”

Watson also cited Trump’s repeated campaign promises to enforce what would likely be an unconstitutional Muslim ban as evidence of the order’s true intent.

Loose talk came back to haunt Trump in judge's travel ban ruling

For months, critics of the president have been told that they should take Trump’s words seriously, but not literally. On Wednesday night federal district judge Derrick K Watson refused to take the bait. He insisted that Trump’s words on “banning Muslims” should be taken seriously and literally. ...

The judge set out to determine if the revised executive order, which now makes no reference to religion, was simply a pretext for an unconstitutional act of religious discrimination. To do so he recalled the many things that the president said about the purpose of the executive order he issued, both before and after his took office.

Watson insisted on taking literally Trump’s electioneering statement: “Donald J Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” In addition, he offered a long list of statements to that same effect made by Trump and his spokespeople.

He called particular attention to the statement of Rudy Giuliani when he went on television to explain how the initial executive order came to be. The judge reminded the readers of his opinion of what Giuliani said: “When [Trump] first announced it, he said, ‘Muslim ban’. He called me up. He said, ‘Put a commission together. Show me the right way to do it legally.’”

The judge tellingly referred to what he referred to as “plainly worded statements made in the months leading up to and contemporaneous with the signing of the executive order, and, in many cases, made by the executive himself” that, Watson insisted, “betray the executive order’s stated secular purpose”.

ACLU Lawyer Esha Bhandari on Your Rights If Border Agents Try to Seize Your Cell Phone at the Border

Donald Trump Isn’t Even Pretending to Oppose Goldman Sachs Anymore

The continuity of Wall Street’s dominant role in American politics — regardless of what party sits in power or how reviled the financial industry finds itself across the country — was perhaps never more evident than when Jake Siewert, now a Goldman Sachs spokesperson, on Tuesday praised the selection of Jim Donovan, a Goldman Sachs managing director, for the No. 2 position in the Treasury Department under Steve Mnuchin, himself a former Goldman Sachs partner. ...

The punch line? Siewert was counselor at the Treasury Department to Timothy Geithner, as well as a White House press secretary under Bill Clinton.

The ubiquity of Goldman Sachs veterans across numerous presidencies throughout history, both Republican and Democratic, has been well documented. But Donald Trump sold himself as something different, an economic nationalist determined to rankle Wall Street. He even ran campaign ads savaging bankers like Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein for their role in a “global power structure.”

That populist smokescreen is long gone now.

[There are plenty of gory details of the bankster's takeover of the Trump economic policy apparatus at the link. - js]

US Federal Reserve raises interest rates to 1% in bid to hold off inflation

The US Federal Reserve has sought to head off rising inflation with a third interest rate rise since the 2008 financial crash and the second in three months, taking the base rate from 0.75% to 1%.

The central bank set aside concerns about the impact of higher interest rates on consumer spending to confirm analyst projections that it is prepared to increase rates several times this year to keep a lid on inflation as it rises above its 2% target level.

The Fed’s chair, Janet Yellen, said a wide range of indicators showed the US economy was in rude health, allowing its interest rate setting committee to push rates back towards historically normal levels. Policymakers voted nine to one to raise rates.

Republicans concede healthcare bill must change in order to pass

Their healthcare overhaul imperiled from all sides, the White House and top House Republicans acknowledged on Wednesday that they would make changes to the legislation in hopes of nailing down votes needed to pass the the party’s showpiece legislation soon.

House speaker Paul Ryan declined to commit to bringing the measure to the House floor next week, a fresh indication of uncertainty. Republican leaders have repeatedly said that was their schedule, but opposition mushroomed after a congressional report concluded this week that the measure would strip 24 million people of coverage in a decade.

Ryan told reporters that he and the other Republican leaders could now make “some necessary improvements and refinements” to the legislation, reflecting an urgency to buttress support.



the evening greens


New Zealand river granted same legal rights as human being

After 140 years of negotiation, Māori tribe wins recognition for Whanganui river, meaning it must be treated as a living entity

In a world-first a New Zealand river has been granted the same legal rights as a human being. The local Māori tribe of Whanganui in the North Island has fought for the recognition of their river – the third-largest in New Zealand – as an ancestor for 140 years.

On Wednesday, hundreds of tribal representatives wept with joy when their bid to have their kin awarded legal status as a living entity was passed into law. “The reason we have taken this approach is because we consider the river an ancestor and always have,” said Gerrard Albert, the lead negotiator for the Whanganui iwi [tribe].

“We have fought to find an approximation in law so that all others can understand that from our perspective treating the river as a living entity is the correct way to approach it, as in indivisible whole, instead of the traditional model for the last 100 years of treating it from a perspective of ownership and management.”

The new status of the river means if someone abused or harmed it the law now sees no differentiation between harming the tribe or harming the river because they are one and the same.

Bald eagle population threatened by lead poisoning, US scientists warn

His head twisted almost upside down and his body all but paralyzed, the bald eagle sat on its haunches, talons clenching, while two humans neared to put him in a cage. They could not save the bird from lead.

The eagle was the third this year to die from lead poisoning at the Blue Mountain Wildlife center, in north-east Oregon, where Lynn Tompkins has helped rehabilitate sick and injured birds for 30 years. “They eat things that have been shot,” Tompkins said, “whether it’s big game like deer or elk or coyotes or ground squirrels.”

The poisoned birds suffer paralysis, don’t eat and struggle to stand. As with mammals, lead causes blindness, brain damage and organ failure.

One of the recent eagles, Tompkins said, had 622 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood in its body, and a second had 385. ... “The short answer is that no level of lead is acceptable for living things – eagles, condors and people,” said raptor biologist Glenn Stewart.

Bald eagles have rebounded across the US since 1972, when the government banned the pesticide DDT. But 10-15% of bald eagles die in the first year because of lead poisoning, Stewart said, in part because the young birds almost exclusively eat carrion. ...

The solution, according to scientists and a growing coalition of hunters, is non-lead ammunition.


Also of Interest

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

Trump is Considering Expanding Killing Powers Abroad. The Consequences for Civilians Will be Disastrous.

Protect and Survive: Armageddon advice guide to be republished

Celebrating the Balfour Disaster

AIPAC Gave $60K to Architect of Trump’s Muslim Ban


A Little Night Music

Mr Bo & His Blues Boys - I Ain't Gonna Suffer

Mr Bo and his Blue Boys - Baby Your Hair Looks Bad

Mr. Bo - I'm Leaving This Town

Mr. Bo & His Blues Boys - Lost Love Affair

Mr Bo - Heartache & Troubles

Mr Bo - Buzz Me

Louis "Mr. Bo" Collins - Born In The Country

Mr. Bo - If Trouble Was Money

Mr Bo - Fire Down Below



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cybrestrike's picture

With regards to the Rachel Maddow clown show…hopefully this stops the Democratic Party’s ineffective Red Scare tactics in favor of actual policy alternatives to Trump, but we’ll see. The reactions that I'm seeing indicates that they still haven't learned their lesson. Clue for the Crowd: Flyover Country does not care about Russia–they care about jobs, jobs, jobs.

Russia doesn’t make jobs…because the natural progression of thinking they had directly (I said, DIRECTLY–like stuffing ballot boxes and hacking polling machines, which is empirically impossible) affected the 2016 election means that we have to go to war with them. And that means nuclear weapons, which means the planet won’t be habitable anymore.

The Russians may have affected the election through indirect media means and “fake news”, but the United States has done as much as Russia (and worse) when it comes to INDIRECT manipulation of an electorate.

But elections don’t happen in a vacuum. Hilary Clinton ran a terrible campaign. Trump played on public resentment of the neoliberal status quo and took great advantage of it.

In closing, the Russians are peripheral. Trump’s hardcore right wing assault on the American way of life is the current field of battle, and should have always been.

Also, why the hell are we having to deal with Chelsea Clinton? It’s like the Neoliberal Borg Queen’s hive mind consciousness just slipped into another drone to create a new Borg Queen. I’ve had it–the Villagers have got to stop their nonsense already. The hell has Chelsea done except be born in the “right” family and married wealthy with the “right” connections? Ugh.

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joe shikspack's picture

@cybrestrike

great to see you! i keep wondering if the dems are trying to make themselves irrelevant. it's hard to believe that they could be this clueless. it seems like they have decided that their job is to take up space on the ballot (so that the people have a "choice") and suck all of the oxygen out of the media space.

ha, chelsea:

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JekyllnHyde's picture

@joe shikspack

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A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma

JekyllnHyde's picture

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A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma

@JekyllnHyde
I lurve it, especially the comments.

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divineorder's picture

@JtC

PS. How's you, the man behind the curtain Jtc doin' ?

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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.

@divineorder
Thanks for asking.

I just finished setting up a new dev site with hopes of making some improvements on the site's commenting system. And hope to improve the quality of the c99p mobile version. Hopefully I can get that done in the next few days.

How goes it with JB and yourself?

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joe shikspack's picture

@JekyllnHyde

how's it going?

that is just about a perfect illustration! thanks!

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smiley7's picture

carrying on...thank you for being here,

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OLinda's picture

It Finally Happened: John McCain Has Called Rand Paul A Russian Agent On The Senate Floor

Rand Paul responded to McCain's comments by saying:

"He makes a really really strong case ….

... for term limits.

He's passed his prime, maybe a little bit unhinged."

Yes, he said that, lol. He did go on in all seriousness to explain his position on NATO if anyone wants to see the video.

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joe shikspack's picture

@OLinda

heh, the one, small bright spot in this ludicrous moment is watching the creepy congressmonkeys throw poo at each other.

popcorn time.

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OLinda's picture

I thought there was a firm rule in Congress that you can't insult a fellow Senator or Congressman on the floor. Seems to me it calls for censure, iirc. That's why they are all "my good friend," and "my esteemed colleague." How does McCain get away with basically saying Paul is a traitor/spy?

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divineorder's picture

@OLinda
... we can all dream, right?

Heh.

http://news.antiwar.com/2Sen. Paul did issue a statement explaining his opposition, however, saying the US is already engaged militarily in dozens of countries, and has pledged to defend 28 NATO members military as well, saying he believes it is unwise for the debt-ridden US to take on more military obligations.

It is possible that Sen. McCain could face censure from the Senate for “impugning the motive of a colleague,” which the statement undoubtedly amounts to. McCain’s office already issued a “clarification” that removed the allegation and instead asked for a reasoning why “brave” Montenegro was denied from “joining in the defense of the free world.” The Senate leadership has not yet said if McCain faces any further reprimand, though this is certainly not his first time going off the rails on the floor when he didn’t get his way.017/03/15/sen-john-mccain-rand-paul-is-working-for-vladimir-putin/

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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

@OLinda

would certainly be appropriate for the senile old bastard from arizona.

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divineorder's picture

Got some news this afternoon showing that retiree lobbying efforts are having an effect, that some Republicans in TX legislature have proposed millions to help fund the huge shortfall for the TRS teacher retiree health plan. That amount if it passes, won't maintain the status quo but good to see movement, and help did come last biennium from the legislature after intense lobbying from retirees. But this time private lobby groups have been calling for screwing us. We will see. Other state workers do not have to go through this trying to get new funding every two years like teachers do. They have a very strong benefit. Go figure.

http://trta.org/legislation/legislative-updates/big-news-on-trs-care-we-...

Now is a Critical Time!

As TRTA has been saying all month, “the March is On!” This month is critical when it comes to finalizing the state budget, including funding for TRS-Care.

All of this budget negotiation comes to a head the final week of March, right when TRTA is hosting its 64th Annual Convention (March 27-28) and TRTA Day at the Capitol (March 29). In fact, votes on the budget may take place on March 31!

Think about the impact we will make when thousands of retired teachers arrive in Austin just days before the budget goes to a vote!

Here’s what you can do to help:

Call your State Senator and Representative using our Toll-Free Legislator Hotline 1.888.674.3788. Express your gratitude and your willingness to work with them to “Keep TRS-Care Affordable!”
Email your State Senator and Representative, Governor, and Lieutenant Governor!
Click here to email your Senator
Click here to email your Representative
Above all, if you can, PLEASE ATTEND TRTA DAY AT THE CAPITOL ON MARCH 29. Learn more about Day at the Capitol here.

Thank You

Thank you for your membership to TRTA. We are fighting ardently for your benefits every day at the Capitol. If you are not yet a TRTA member, please join here. Be sure to read our comprehensive Frequently Asked Questions about TRS-Care here.

Be sure to like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Medicare for All
Still, can't help but think that we should really be putting everything we can into helping speed consideration for single payer at the federal level.

Here's an interesting action to take that might just be timely if the media can show it in comparison to Trumpublicancare.

http://www.peaceteam.net/hr676_cbo.php

MILLION FAX MARCH ACTION PAGE: (sends e-faxes for you, just submit the form)
The CBO Needs To Score H.R.676 Now
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has apparently never done a score of H.R.676, Medicare For All, first introduced in 2003, reintroduced in every congressional session since, and newly revised, according to a search of the CBO website. It is urgent that such a score be done now, for consideration in the current health care policy debate.

The one click form below will send your personal message (together with the petition text above) to all your government representatives selected below, with the subject "The CBO Needs To Score H.R.676 Now." At the same time you can send your personal comments only as a letter to the editor of your nearest local daily newspaper if you like.
http://www.peaceteam.net/hr676_cbo.php


PNHP Doctor in the news, Doc Arrested at Trump Rah Rah

PNHP president Dr. Carol Paris was led out of President Trump's Nashville rally yesterday after she stood up and demanded Medicare for All as the solution to America's health woes.

"It was nerve-racking, but I had to do it," she told The Tennessean. "People are dying in this country for lack of health care. I'm a physician and I can't stand by that."

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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.

MarilynW's picture

@divineorder
or illegal or insulting? This was one of 45's campaign promises was it not. I just can't understand why this was booed and she was ejected from the rally.

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To thine own self be true.

divineorder's picture

@MarilynW

FWIW following is a tweet I found from another org she belongs to.

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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

@divineorder

i'm glad to hear that there is some progress towards maintaining the benefits that you earned for your many years of work.

if they don't maintain your benefits, perhaps you could sue texas for theft of wages in federal court. it seems to me that a decent lawyer could make a case that your benefit package was promised by contract in lieu of wages and therefore denial of contracted benefits is retroactive theft of wages.

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divineorder's picture

@joe shikspack into my mind after your comment! Ack

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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.

MarilynW's picture

The greatest danger to life on earth right now is pollution and its effect on our climate. The budget proposes to gut the EPA by almost ⅓ at the same time as it increases military spending. It's a dangerous murderous budget. Not to mention defunding the Arts which we need more than ever during these harrowing political times. The country with the largest military in the world proposing to increase its military spending, it's an upside down world.

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To thine own self be true.

joe shikspack's picture

@MarilynW

we are living in absurd times.

perhaps we ought to celebrate the loss of arts funding by creating an arts movement that plasters the phrase "ship of fools" on every one of the institutions that are driving us to destruction. also, we should probably find a way to create a warning, visible from space, that this planet is overrun by savage, dangerous animals called "humans."

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thanatokephaloides's picture

@joe shikspack

perhaps we ought to celebrate the loss of arts funding by creating an arts movement that plasters the phrase "ship of fools" on every one of the institutions that are driving us to destruction.

I know I've posted this before, but damnit, it fits!

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HTcet_BgYM width:500 height:306]

I won't slave for beggar's pay
Likewise gold and jewels
But I would slave to learn the way
To sink your Ship of Fools....

-- Garcia/Hunter

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

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

@Steven D

that maybe the only kind of war that i can get behind. Smile

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Azazello's picture

Is this what our politics has become ?
I'm no Trump fan but if this is The Resistance ...
"Heroic" artist ...

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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

@Azazello

shaking my head. perhaps i just don't get it.

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Steven D's picture

@joe shikspack Theater of the Absurd crossed with the Theatre du Grand Guignol.

And most of the well off are sitting high up in their protected towers watching all the murders and listening to the all the screams of the dying and saying to themselves "That's entertainment!"

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

mimi's picture

@Azazello
after being tortured with psy-op propaganda for decades. Or I don't get it. I guess it's better I don't get it.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@mimi That's exactly what it is. You nailed it.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

snoopydawg's picture

Many Democrats and liberals may find it encouraging that a leading neocon who helped pave the road to war in Iraq is now by their side in running down Republicans for not enthusiastically joining the latest Russian witch hunt. But they also might pause to ask themselves how they let their hatred of Trump get them into an alliance with the neocons. ...

So far some of the members on DK have praised Bush, McCain and a few others that they used to despise and now they are on the side of the Kagan family.
Many of us stated that once Trump either expanded the existing wars or started a new one then they would find their outrage for wars again.
I read an article this morning that said that many intelligent agencies and some democrats are backing off the idea that Russia actually had anything to do with interfering with the election because they can't prove it.
I wonder if someone in authority admitted that Russia wasn't involved with the election, how many people would even believe it after spending so much energy on it and if anyone from DK would say Never Mind, I was wrong?

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

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

pretty darkly funny, i guess.

glenn greenwald has an article up over at the intercept that i'll post tomorrow evening about the democrats worrying that after all of the frothing and whipping they've done, there is no evidence, no silver bullet that will take down trump - and what will happen with their base dupes when they find out that they have been played for fools.

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divineorder's picture

@joe shikspack

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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.

Unabashed Liberal's picture

to say 'hi,' and thanks for tonight's edition of News & Blues!

Been mired down trying to figure out the extent of a breach which affected a smart phone. Getting conflicting (so-called) expert advice. Seriously, it's quite frustrating, but one thing we know is that we're going to replace the phone, and the laptop. Having to do quite a bit of research on those items, since we've not had an Apple phone or laptop, to date. If anyone knows of models to stay clear of, please advise.

Here's a link to an odd, but sorta interesting piece about a hermit that I ran across (for a change of pace and mindless distraction). Wink

The long read
Into the woods: how one man survived alone in the wilderness for 27 years

After tonight, looks like the weather's going to temper, and rain moves in. (Water is still standing from before the cool/cold snap, so I'm not particularly looking forward to it.)

Hey, Everyone have a nice evening!

Bye

Mollie


"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went."--Will Rogers
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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

joe shikspack's picture

@Unabashed Liberal

good luck with your phone and laptop replacement. some folks that i know have macbook pros, which they like. the one thing that i don't like about them is that if you want to plug in to ethernet, you have to purchase an expensive adapter (and then keep track of the thing).

it's supposed to warm up a bit here over the weekend into the 40's-50's, though nighttime temps are supposed to stay pretty cold for a while. i was completely ready for spring before this cold snap. oh well.

have a good one!

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

@joe shikspack

the salesperson about the ethernet adapter. We came close to purchasing a MAC notebook when we got our last Dell about two years ago Spring, but, truthfully, for our purposes, the Dell Latitude (business) laptop pretty much fits the bill. We've not found anything about them that we strongly dislike--although, I'm of the opinion that the best one [that we've had], was our first one. The keyboard 'feel' was 'to die for.'

Biggrin

Also, thanks for the info 'bout the 3310 Nokia. I always liked the brand--my first cell phone was a Nokia bar phone. Actually, the phone that I suspect was hacked, is a Nokia. (But, the phone in question, is no longer manufactured by them.) About 6 months ago, I purchased a very inexpensive service plan to use with an old fashioned flip phone--for just talking. It's a large one, and has a lot of bells and whistles for that type of phone. Anyhoo, I luv smartphones--but, I hate talking on them.

(Of course, I'm actually a Blackberry person, still in shock and withdrawal at having to give mine up.)

Per a computer nerd/expert, I am in the process of checking out one app, to see if there could be a program breach, instead of an actual hack into the phone. Fingers crossed!

Mollie


"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went."--Will Rogers
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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

Oldest Son Of A Sailor's picture

@Unabashed Liberal You never go back...

I'm on a Mid 2010 White MacBook still and I'm just now giving serious consideration to upgrading. The RAM is maxed out at 4Gb and I've got a Solid State Drive installed, but with 3 browsers open with multiple tabs in each, Mail, Messenger, Preview, Text, Open Office, Gimp, and iMovie editing a video, it bogs down a bit sometimes... Still it's a Speed Demon, on a cold start it can be online and downloading in 8 seconds, I used uTorrent set to open on startup and a download already started to time this because my clicking to start it would have slowed the test down... I believe a Windows based computer would still be contemplating loading Windows in that timeframe...

I can't think of how many Windows based laptops I would have gone through while I've had this computer... 2 or 3 would be my conservative best guess...
My wife went through 3 desktop PC's while I've had this MacBook...

Probably the best advice I could give you is whatever Mac you decide to get, if something you are trying to do seems hard you are screwing up and trying to do it wrong. With a Mac it is always easier to do something, than on a Windows based computer, and you'll have bunch of bad Windows habits to break. Just Google what you are trying to do and you'll find a bunch of solutions usually from Apple Support, Mac Rumors, CNET, Apple Insider, OSX Daily and a ton of others... Remember those "Keyboard Shortcuts" they are your friend!

As someone who transitioned from a Blackberry to an iPhone I assure you that you won't miss that Blackberry a bit. You'll find the MacBook and iPhone integrate seamlessly like they were designed to work together... LOL

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"Do you realize the responsibility I carry?
I'm the only person standing between Richard Nixon and the White House."

~John F. Kennedy~
Economic: -9.13, Social: -7.28,
Unabashed Liberal's picture

@Oldest Son Of A Sailor

your experience with, and enthusiasm for MACs.

As I mentioned to Joe (Friday's EB), I'm still shopping, but I'm somewhat leaning toward just upgrading with a newer Latitude, since I found out that I could have a dual operating system installed at no extra cost. (IOW, dual-boot with Windows 7 Professional, and a Linux distro.)

The other option is a MAC Pro or Air, and having it 'boot-camped'--which I'm told is having both the Windows and MAC OS installed. (That would help Mr M. Years ago, my agency used Macintosh computers, so I feel sure that I wouldn't have too much of a problem adjusting to the OS, but he might.)

I must say, I can't recall anyone saying that they regretted moving to a MAC; so, I'll give them due consideration. And, I've been assured by the computer store that I can spend ample time on a MAC display model, if that's what it takes to decide.

Have a good one!

Mollie


"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went."--Will Rogers
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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

Oldest Son Of A Sailor's picture

@Unabashed Liberal Virtual Machine and run Windows Apps, but to tell you the truth I Haven't Purchased Any Software to run on this Macbook. Open Office replace MS Office, Gimp replaced Adobe PhotoShop, and tell you the truth OS X just did many of the functions that Windows needed extra software programs to make things happen...

I initially thought I needed Windows but that proved to be unfounded...

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"Do you realize the responsibility I carry?
I'm the only person standing between Richard Nixon and the White House."

~John F. Kennedy~
Economic: -9.13, Social: -7.28,
thanatokephaloides's picture

Another article on the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Disaster (Nakba) can be found here. It's Robert Fist at Counterpunch, and it's pretty good.....

And again, thank you, JtC, gulfgal and all the rest for this place where I can point that out without fear of being hide-recced into oblivion!

Wink

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

janis b's picture

Thank you joe for bringing this historic development to our attention.

From hikingnewzealand.com ...


This was the precedent ... and also my favourite place in NZ for its extraordinary beauty, magic, and history, including some heavy activism.

A wonderful evening to all.

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There are zero environmentally sustainable Tech companies, what are you gonna do?
Apple and Intel Cease Use of Conflict Minerals

Some advocates may applaud Apple and Intel for taking this step, but the reality is that the two tech giants did not have much of a choice. When the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act passed through the American Congress and won President Obama’s signature last July, one section buried in the bill (revealing the brilliance or madness of how America churns legislation) issued regulations to prevent the purchase of conflict minerals, effective this month. The enforcement of this prevision has been left to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which in 2012 will require companies to audit their mineral supplies to verify that any purchases were not made from vendors that have any affiliation with the conflict in eastern Congo.

Corporate self-regulation, because that's worked so well in the past. winkwink

http://chinalaborwatch.org/home.aspx On par with WalMart is how it looks to me. To quote Jimmy Dore "You're not supposed to fellate the people wrecking unions" but no circuit boards are manufactured here anymore, what are you gonna do?
Try to grab local control over the horrifying externalized pollution Clinton unleashed with MFN in 1993. List of countries by carbon dioxide emissions Roots of climate destruction: Clinton Grants China MFN, Reversing Campaign Pledge. Make it stop.

I say startup manufacturing circuit boards in California again, raise wages, and deal with the ecological cost. If Tech is so smart, they can figure out how to be sustainable, why not? World peace might break out? Imagine that. Who needs a Nuclear Navy when there are no Trade Lanes to protect? Thanks.

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