The Evening Blues - 5-11-17
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features Chicago blues musician J.B. Lenoir. Enjoy!
J. B. Lenoir - Big Change
"Take a step back and oversee the picture, and you’ll find that Trump is not the biggest threat to American democracy, the media are."
-- Raúl Ilargi Meijer
News and Opinion
Abu Zubaydah to waive immunity to speak publicly about his torture
Abu Zubaydah, the Guantánamo detainee who endured some of the most brutal CIA interrogation techniques in the post-9/11 era including waterboarding, has waived his immunity in order to testify at an upcoming hearing at which he will seek to expose “the unspeakable torture of an innocent man”.
Zubaydah is set to testify at a pre-trial hearing of the Guantánamo war court that is scheduled to open on 19 May as a precursor to the long-delayed military trial of the five men accused of the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. Previous attempts to hear from the prisoner were frustrated by a legal dispute over whether his testimony could be later used to incriminate him at his own military trial.
But Zubaydah has now agreed to waive all immunity and has promised, through his lawyer, to give a fiery account to the Guantánamo court of his treatment at the hands of CIA agents who waterboarded him at least 83 times at a secret “black site” following his capture in Pakistan in 2002. Should the hearing go ahead next week, it would mark the first time that Zubaydah has publicly talked about his torture by the US government.
“Unlike the CIA, [Zubaydah] has nothing to fear from the truth,” the detainee’s leading civilian lawyer, Mark Denbeaux, writes in a letter to the department of defense. “Abu Zubaydah will take the stand, unafraid of the truth that will emerge, confident that the world will come to know that he has committed no crimes and that the United States has no basis to fear him and no justification to hold him for 15 years, much less to subject him to the torture that the world has so roundly condemned.” ...
Denbeaux told the Guardian that the full extent of the torture used against his client would only become clear when charges were brought against Zubaydah and a trial held. He said: “My endless goal is to force the US to bring charges against him so that he can be tried and the truths will become obvious. It is clear that the refusal to charge him is to protect the CIA – thereby making the military commission prosecutor complicit in the CIA cover up.”
U.S.-backed Syria militias say Tabqa, dam captured from Islamic State
U.S.-backed Syrian militias said they fully seized the town of Tabqa and Syria's largest dam from Islamic State on Wednesday, a major objective as they prepare to launch an assault on Raqqa, the jihadists' biggest urban stronghold. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, have been battling the militant group for weeks in Tabqa, some 40 km (25 miles) west of Raqqa, along the Euphrates River.
With air strikes and special forces from the U.S.-led coalition, the SDF are advancing on Raqqa to ultimately take the city, which is also the Islamic State's base of operations in Syria. ... The Raqqa campaign appeared to have stalled around Tabqa, where the SDF made only slow progress after besieging the city. They pushed into Tabqa nearly two weeks ago, capturing most of its districts and encircling Islamic State at the dam.
The battle for Tabqa began after U.S. forces helped SDF fighters conduct an airborne landing on the southern bank of the Euphrates in late March, allowing them to gain control of an important nearby airbase. Despite fierce objections from NATO ally Turkey, the United States this week approved supplying arms to the powerful Kurdish YPG militia, a key component of the SDF and their campaign.
Can Syria continue to exist as a single state?
Jordanians 'won't support ground intervention in Syria'
A joint military exercise between Jordan and the US sparked a frenzy of speculation about an imminent American, British and Jordanian military intervention inside Syria to stem the threat posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group. ...
But according to Jordanian analysts, sending Jordanian ground forces inside Syria would have dire consequences for Jordan's stability and national security. It would be wise for Jordan, argues retired General Mousa al-Odwan, to keep a defensive-offensive posture on the Syrian borders.
"We should not intervene in the Syrian conflict unless there is a clear and present terrorist threat to our national security," said Odwan, a former commander of Jordan's Special Forces and former deputy chief of staff of Jordan's armed forces.
Kshama Sawant: Don't Wait for Authoritarian Trump to Be Impeached, This is the Moment to Revolt
FBI refuses to disclose documents on Trump’s call to Russia to hack Clinton
The US justice department is refusing to disclose FBI documents relating to Donald Trump’s highly contentious election year call on Russia to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails.
Senior DoJ officials have declined to release the documents on grounds that such disclosure could “interfere with enforcement proceedings”. In a filing to a federal court in Washington DC, the DoJ states that “because of the existence of an active, ongoing investigation, the FBI anticipates that it will … withhold all records.” ...
In his dismissal letter to Comey, Trump wrote: “I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation.” But the FBI’s refusal to hand over the documents implies that it believes Trump’s call on Russia to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails was at least relevant to their ongoing inquiries. The then Republican presidential candidate ignited an instant uproar when he made his controversial comment at a press conference in Florida on 27 July. By that time Russia had already been accused by US officials of hacking Democratic National Committee emails in a bid to sway the election. ...
The FBI’s refusal to disclose documents relating to Trump’s Russia hacking invitation was made in response to a freedom of information lawsuit lodged by Ryan Shapiro of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard and the journalist Jason Leopold. They jointly submitted a Foia request last August requesting from the FBI “disclosure of any and all records, including investigative records, mentioning or referring to Donald Trump’s statement on 27 July 2016”.
A Trump-Russia special prosecutor can be appointed by one person — the man who justified firing Comey
Following the abrupt firing of FBI Director James Comey Tuesday evening, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said appointing an independent prosecutor was the “only way” to have confidence in the investigation. Sen. Mark Warner, the highest ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said the moment “demands the appointment of a special counsel.” Democratic senators have begun stalling hearings and blocking Trump appointments in protest. ...
But Democrats may be shouting into the wind. No Republican lawmaker has backed their call for a special prosecutor, and even if they did, Congress no longer has the power to appoint one. The Ethics in Government Act of 1978, passed in the wake of Watergate, gave Congress that authority, but only until the act expired in 1999. Congress would have to pass another law, and then Trump would have to sign that law — or Congress would have to override his veto — in order to restore its authority. ...
Ultimately, the decision to appoint a special prosecutor in the Trump-Russia investigation falls to one man: Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the man who wrote the memo laying out the case for firing Comey. Rosenstein alone can determine whether to appoint a special prosecutor, who to appoint, and how much power to give that person. The ACLU has been calling for the special prosecutor to have “full plenary power,” meaning authority equal to the attorney general, but Rosenstein can set limits.
Should Trump be awarded a point for trolling the US media wurlitzer?
U.S. journalists had to find out what happened in the Oval Office from the Russian press
Ordinarily, presidents try to avoid even the whiff of scandal. But President Donald Trump, who seems to revel in it, invited Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak to the Oval Office — and then forbade American reporters from seeing it.
Instead, all photos of the meeting are credited to TASS, the official Russian news agency, as Gizmodo’s Matt Novak pointed out on Twitter.
Photos of Trump's meeting with Lavrov and Kislyak just hit the Getty wire and they're all credited to Russian news agency TASS pic.twitter.com/qE9lWB6KuS
— Matt Novak (@paleofuture) May 10, 2017
However, the White House press pool was allowed at least one photo op Wednesday: That of the president chatting with Henry Kissinger, Richard Nixon’s former national security adviser and secretary of state. Apparently, according to Team Trump’s PR playbook, when members of Congress are calling you “Nixonian,” the best way to beat back the criticism is to invite one of Nixon’s most famous officials in for a chat.
Sergey Lavrov clearly enjoys doing a little trolling, too.
Sergey Lavrov's White House visit reveals little about Trump and Russia
Sergey Lavrov came to Washington on Wednesday after an absence of four years, and was absolutely shocked – shocked! – to hear that Russia had been accused of meddling in US internal affairs. ... “Was he fired? You’re kidding! You’re kidding!” the Russian foreign minister exclaimed when a journalist asked him whether Comey’s downfall might throw a shadow over the Russian’s visit. The surprise was archly theatrical, of course, delivered with the knowing smirk of Captain Renault expressing astonishment at gambling going on in the casino in Casablanca. ...
The White House and the state department put out terse statements on the day’s discussions, and the state department gave no briefing, leaving it once more to the Russians to frame the presentation. At a press conference in the Russian embassy, Lavrov praised Trump and Tillerson, repeatedly calling them “businesslike” and comparing them favourably to the Obama administration and what he called its “dirty tricks”. He portrayed the Kremlin and the Trump administration as working together to clear up the mess left behind, a reference in part to the continuing US sanctions on Russia for its intervention in Ukraine and its role in the US presidential election. ...
As for the uproar about the Trump team’s relationship with Moscow, Lavrov projected his own deadpan brand of bemusement at the very idea of Putin as puppeteer. “Regarding this noise about our contacts, that fake information by which we are allegedly in control of the domestic policy of the US – yes, it [has become] the normal background for our relations,” he said. “It must be humiliating for the American people to realise that the Russian federation is controlling the situation in America. How is it possible for such a great power and such a great country?”
You Are Already Currently In A Media War
Well would you look at that - CNN is suddenly aggressively questioning the collusion narrative! ... Here’s dead-eyed oligarchic bukkake slut Wolf Blitzer taking it to Dianne Feinstein a few days earlier:
As I predicted a couple of weeks ago, now that Trump has been pressured into being a good boy the deep state has been calling off its dogs. The xenophobic anti-Russia propaganda will continue because it is crucial to manufacturing public consent for escalations and proxy wars with that nation, but the accusation that Trump colluded with the Russian government to win the 2016 election will be gradually dialed down until the only people still talking about it are a few obsessive rank-and-file Democrats. The whole thing was a ruse. The Pissgate dossier, Rachel Maddow’s nonstop maniacal McCarthyist rants, the whole thing. Some doofy partisan hacks are trying to say that the Comey firing will lead to Trump’s impeachment because it is evidence of collusion. It will not, and it isn’t. ...
The whole thing was a brutal, sadistic act of psychological warfare upon the American public to ensure that the mass media’s oligarchic controllers get their way. Mainstream America was psychologically and emotionally pummelled into believing that the President of the United States was videotaped being urinated on by Russian prostitutes and is now a subversive agent of supervillain mastermind Vladimir Putin, who is bent on spreading fascism and oppression throughout the world. They still believe these things. ... Like it or not, you are at war. Your nation’s unelected power establishment has been waging an aggressive, destructive psywar upon you and your countrymen throughout your entire lifetime, and it’s getting more and more brazen in its psychological assaults as the public gets more and more access to new media.
U.S. set to ban large electronic devices on flights from Europe, reports say
The federal government is cracking down yet again on the use of personal electronics on certain international flights. The Department of Homeland Security is planning to announce on Thursday that laptops will be banned in the cabins of flights from Europe to the United States, according to Reuters and the Daily Beast. ...
The move from DHS has been rumored for some time, and it follows up a similar decision from March to ban in-cabin usage of electronic devices larger than a smartphone on direct flights between the U.S. and the Middle East. The stated reason for the Middle East electronics ban was safety, though critics have batted around ulterior motives such as giving U.S. carriers an advantage on international routes.
Over 50K anti-net neutrality comments on the FCC’s website are fake
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has been asking the American people since late April to comment on his proposal to deregulate the open internet by leaving a comment on the commission’s website. But what should have been a relatively straightforward public comment process has become a trainwreck.
On Monday, the day after comedian John Oliver implored his viewers to leave a pro-regulation, pro–net neutrality comment, the FCC claimed it had suffered a DDoS (denial of service) attack that crashed its website. Two days later, a ZDNet report revealed that more 58,000 anti-net neutrality comments left on the site used the exact same language, although the origin of the text appears unknown.
People contacted by ZDNet and the Verge who supposedly left those comments were unaware that they had done so, suggesting that someone is using a bot to manufacture thousands of comments. In total, the agency has received more than 550,000 comments so far. Representatives for the FCC did not respond to a request for comment, although the agency’s practice is not to discuss individual public comments. ...
[W]hile the FCC claimed in a statement that it had suffered a DDoS attack, the agency has yet to show any evidence for the claim, prompting a letter from Democratic lawmakers demanding to see the proof.
Keiser Report: Fake Powers
'Single Payer! Single Payer!': Key Trumpcare Backer Drowned Out During Town Hall
Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.), one of the chief architects of the GOP's healthcare plan, faced five hours of questions and booing from hundreds of constituents at a forum Wednesday night in his hometown of Willingboro as "Payback Recess" continued.
MacArthur, who helped craft the amendment to the American Healthcare Act (AHCA) that gutted protections for preexisting conditions—appeasing enough hard-line conservative lawmakers to get the bill passed in the House of Representatives—became a prime target of the resistance movement, with more than 300 people in the crowd at the John F. Kennedy Community Center and more protesting outside.
"This is your healthcare bill. It was dead in the water and could have stayed dead in the water. It was done," said Derek Reichenbecher, a teacher from Point Pleasant who told MacArthur he had a heart condition and fears facing the insurance marketplace if he loses his job. "You brought it back from the dead. It's yours. You own it." ...
Many took the opportunity to grill MacArthur about the need for single payer healthcare, an issue which has gained significant traction in recent years—and especially over the last few months. (Indeed, a record 104 House Democrats signed on to co-sponsor a "Medicare-for-All" bill introduced in April.)
As MacArthur attempted to say that the insurance market was "collapsing," an audience member shouted, "Because you drilled holes in it!" and a spontaneous chant began: "Single payer! Single payer! Single payer! Single payer!"
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos does not receive a warm welcome at historically black university
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos delivered the commencement speech at historically black Bethune-Cookman University Wednesday amid a cacophony of boos and yells so loud the university president threatened to cut the ceremony short. ... Students and alumni began voicing their displeasure as soon as DeVos was announced as the Daytona Beach, Florida, school’s commencement speaker, on May 1. The NAACP called for the resignations of the university’s president and board chairman.
In late February, following a “listening session” with leaders of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), she called the schools “pioneers when it comes to school choice,” that are “living proof that when more options are provided to students, they are afforded greater access and greater quality.” HBCUs were created in response to Jim Crow laws in the South that prevented black students from attending other schools. Her comments drew widespread criticism and mockery. ...
Just four days before DeVos’ speech, Trump indicated in a signing statement concerning a $1.1 trillion government spending bill that he may deem longstanding funding programs for HBCUs and other minority education programs to be unconstitutional.
The Trump administration’s magic legislative wand will stop working at midnight
President Donald Trump, with the help of Congress, has been using a little-known legislative magic wand to repeal several regulations put in place under Barack Obama — but his authority to use it ends at midnight Wednesday. What happens then?
Dubbed the Congressional Review Act (CRA), the 1996 law permits Congress to review and effectively overrule regulations enacted within the past 60 congressional workdays. Before Trump took office, the law had been used once in 2001 to kill a Clinton-era regulation aimed at preventing workplace injuries. Since his inauguration, Trump has signed 14 disapproval resolutions passed by Congress.
Once the rule expires at midnight, Trump will have to rely on other legislative means to overturn Obama-era regulations.
“As opposed to destroying work done by a previous administration, President Trump will need to start constructing changes to the federal government,” said Mark Harkins, a senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Government Affairs Institute. “Any further changes to existing regulations will require patience to run through the standard regulatory process.”
'Huge Victory' in Seneca Lake: After Years of Protest, Gas Storage Project Abandoned
After a years-long popular resistance against a proposed fracked gas storage project in Seneca Lake, N.Y., the people have emerged victorious. The Arlington Storage Company announced Wednesday that it was finally abandoning a contentious plan to store fracked gas in unlined salt caverns along the pristine lake in New York's Finger Lakes region.
"This has been a long drawn out battle to protect a world class region from a Texas-based oil and gas corporation. They only see dollar signs, where we see tranquil beauty, clean air, and fresh water," said Joseph Campbell, president of the Gas Free Seneca coalition of businesses, in a statement.
Ecologist and author Sandra Steingraber, who has been involved with the protests led by We Are Seneca Lake since they began in 2014, reported for EcoWatch:
The news broke Wednesday in the most banal of venues: the biweekly environmental compliance report submitted by Arlington Storage Company to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
Deep in the third paragraph of section B, this wholly owned subsidiary of the Houston-based gas storage and transportation giant, Crestwood Midstream, announced that it was walking away from its FERC-approved plan to increase its storage of methane (natural gas) in unlined, abandoned salt caverns along the shoreline of Seneca Lake.
In its own words, "Arlington has discontinued efforts to complete the Gallery 2 Expansion Project."
"It was a blandly expressed ending to a dramatic conflict that has roiled New York's Finger Lakes region for more than six years," Steingraber observed.
Dakota Access pipeline has first leak before it's fully operational
The Dakota Access pipeline has suffered its first leak, outraging indigenous groups who have long warned that the project poses a threat to the environment. The $3.8bn oil pipeline, which sparked international protests last year and is not yet fully operational, spilled 84 gallons of crude oil at a South Dakota pump station, according to government regulators.
Although state officials said the 6 April leak was contained and quickly cleaned, critics of the project said the spill, which occurred as the pipeline is in the final stages of preparing to transport oil, raises fresh concerns about the potential hazards to waterways and Native American sites.
“They keep telling everybody that it is state of the art, that leaks won’t happen, that nothing can go wrong,” said Jan Hasselman, a lawyer for the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, which has been fighting the project for years. “It’s always been false. They haven’t even turned the thing on and it’s shown to be false.” ...
The April spill, which was first uncovered this week by a local South Dakota reporter, illustrates the need for the more robust environmental assessment that the tribe has long demanded, said Hasselman. “It doesn’t give us any pleasure to say, ‘I told you so.’ But we have said from the beginning that it’s not a matter of if, but when,” the Earthjustice attorney told the Guardian on Wednesday. “Pipelines leak and they spill. It’s just what happens.”
Heh, was the Comey firing good for the environment?
John McCain May Have Killed an Anti-Environment Bill Out of Spite Over the Comey Firing
Something very unusual happened in the U.S. Senate today: a vote scheduled by the majority leader failed. The legislation would have repealed an Obama-era rule designed to prevent methane emissions from leaking out of drilling operations on public lands. Brought up under the Congressional Review Act, the resolution only needed 50 votes to pass the Senate, after already passing the House along party lines. But it failed 49-51. ...
Three Republicans voted against repealing the methane rule, which was backed by the president. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, had already announced their intention to vote no before the vote. But John McCain, R-Ariz., “unexpectedly” joined them. ... McCain has a reputation for being a little, shall we say, vindictive. It’s not out of the question at all that he would torpedo this vote, regardless of his ideological preferences, because of a fit of pique about the FBI director he admires getting unceremoniously dumped. ...
Whatever the reason, the vote against the methane repeal is quite a blow, because Congress faces a Thursday deadline to complete any resolutions under the Congressional Review Act. That means that the methane rule is likely safe from repeal through the congressional process, potentially preventing 180,000 tons of methane per year from rising into the atmosphere.
Workers Fear Radiation Exposure After Nuclear Waste Storage Tunnels Collapse in Washington
US Glacier national park losing its glaciers with just 26 of 150 left
It’s now “inevitable” that the contiguous United States will lose all of its glaciers within a matter of decades, according to scientists who have revealed the precipitous shrinkage of dozens of glaciers in Montana.
Warming temperatures have rapidly reduced the size of 39 named glaciers in Montana since 1966, according to comparisons released by the US Geological Survey (USGS) and Portland State University. Some have lost as much as 85% of their expanse over the past 50 years, with Glacier national park, site of 37 of the surveyed glaciers, set to lose all of its eponymous ice formations within the next few decades. Of the 150 glaciers that existed in the park in the late 19th century, only 26 remain.
The disappearance of glaciers in Montana is part of a broader loss that will see all glaciers, defined as moving bodies of snow and ice larger than 25 acres, largely vanish from the lower 48 states of America by the mid point of the century, according to Dr Daniel Farge, lead USGS scientist.
“It’s inevitable that we will lose them all over the next few decades,” Farge said. “The Colorado glaciers started melting before Montana’s and while there are larger glaciers in the Pacific north-west that will hold on longer, the number vanishing will steadily grow until none are left.”
Montana is warming nearly twice as quickly as the global average – and changes in precipitation patterns are eroding away glaciers in the state and elsewhere along the Rocky mountains. .. Warming winters are bringing more rain, rather than glacier-forming snow, to Montana and other states. Even when there is plenty of snow, as Montana experienced this winter, the increasing heat of spring and summer is melting it away more quickly. Spring snow melts are now occurring at least two weeks earlier than they were in the 1960s.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Someone needs to tell the president: The war in Afghanistan cannot be won
Watergate Redux or ‘Deep State’ Coup?
Ilargi: Comey and the End of Conversation
Impeach Trump for Right Reasons
Spanish MPs vote to make sure Franco is still dead
A study named Mexico the second deadliest country – but is it true?
Tunnel Collapse at Hanford Nuclear Dump—Harbinger of the Collapse of the Entire Industry?
Nestlé Still Extracts Water From Public Land for a Pittance
A Little Night Music
J.B. Lenoir - Do What I Say
J B Lenoir - Back Door
J.B. Lenoir And His African Hunch Rhythms - I Feel So Good
J B Lenoir - How Much More
J. B. Lenoir & His Combo - Let's Roll
J B Lenoir - Don't Touch My Head
JB Lenoir - I Sing Um The Way I Feel
JB Lenoir - Five Years
JB Lenoir - She Don't Know
Comments
Re: Seneca Lake victory, it's incomplete
Crestwood still wants to store LPG in the abandoned salt caverns. More work to do, more protests will happen.
How much of news is now propaganda or psy-ops? It seems to spin crazier every day now, and I don't see TV.
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...
i guess that folks are taking their victories where they can. i poked around some of the local papers and found this piece that would suggest a less than "tremendous victory" :
Hope Springs Eternal. Come Celebrate the 99% Spring.
An oldie, but goodie editorial cartoon.
A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma
evening jnh...
fake occupiers have moved on to become fake resistance. they sure have a major commitment to co-opting left movements and grinding them into the dirt.
Hey joe and Bluesters!
Sorry I've been mia for a bit. I usually read and pass out tips even though I don't have anything to say.
The USPS food drive is this Saturday, so I'm reposting a comment I put in Monday's morning open thread in case anyone is interested:
TY for the reminder
Wrote it in my day book.
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 olinda...
thanks for the heads up! sounds like a good time to clean out some of those canned goods hiding in the back of the cupboard.
have a great evening!
Good Evening everyone!
Two things:
Corrine Brown has been found guilty on 18 of 22 charges against her.
A Russian hacker alleges that he was offered cash, immunity and US citizenship by the FBI if he would testify that he hacked Hillary Clinton at the behest of Putin and Trump, per Newsweek.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
evening dervish...
wow, corrine brown seems to have really grasped what washington politics is all about.
that story about the russian used car salesman arrested in prague and asked by the fbi to take the fall for hacking hillary sounds interesting. i hope the fellow has some means to back up his allegations or some documents find their way into the public view.
OMG! They are desperate aren't they?
Hell if I was offered citizenship in New Zealand, cash and an apartment, I'd confess to hacking the DNC and Podesta's emails.
The very offer is contaminated and if anyone believes that then I have a solid gold bridge for sale.
Jeebus weeps.
Trump didn't ask Russia to hack Hillary's emails. He said that if anyone HAS them they should release the ones that she deleted. The 30,000 emails that she said were personal. I bet that they were personal alright. They showed how she got money donated to her foundation.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
Donald and Comey
Poor Donald. I have read that he and his administration are truly surprised at the criticism they are receiving over Comey. I do believe he didn't know there would be a problem with the Prez firing the FBI Director who was investigating him.
Here is an interesting mashup that Trump tweeted to show that point of view:
He has a point.
and,
plausible...
it seems entirely plausible that trump is such a bewildered stumblebutt that he expected to be able to reprise his television role and shout, "you're fired" and receive applause all around.
i guess he should realize that if he wants applause and adulation from democrats, though, he needs to bomb some brown people.
Trump and Comey
We all need to remember that El Trumpo is as shallow as an oil stain on the garage floor. Attributing any Machiavellian deviousness to him is laughable.
"Do I really look like a guy with a plan? You know what I am? I'm a dog chasing cars. I wouldn't know what to do with one if I caught it. I just do ... things ...the Mob has plans, the cops have plans, Gordon's got plans. They're schemers ..."
El Trumpo just does ... things. Other people are schemers. He doesn't trust them, doesn't listen to them. His world view is simple, and shared (at least) with the Bushes (the Clintons too, I imagine, probably most people in power)- you're on our team or you're the enemy. Through the election Trump convinced himself that Comey was on his team, hurting Clinton for his (Trump's) benefit. Over the last couple of weeks he found out that Comey was a career FBI man, following an investigation where it leads. He isn't a Trump stooge, so he's the enemy. "Yer fired". No thought to the consequences, no suspicion that there would be consequences. A week from now he may not remember he did it.
"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone
evening woodsdweller...
it seems that trump may not be the greatest strategic thinker to tread the floors of the white house.
We are all just beautiful losers these days
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM-8QNkqx4M]
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
evening steven...
heh:
Ya got to give it to tptb
The propaganda of Russia interfering with the election that has gone on for over 7 months or longer shows their desperation for getting people behind their upcoming war with Russia.
We usually only get a speech from tptb such as the woman who told us that she saw the Iraqi army was throwing babies out of incubators, while she was actually a student at some university in DC or somewhere and she was related to an ambassador of some country that I can't remember. The gulf of Tonkin and Saddam having WMDs apparently are not enough to get people on board with their wars so they have to continually keep hammering away with their propaganda. Too bad that people can't see what they are doing.
Now I see why Obama passed all his legislation in the last 60 congressional days before he left office. It gave
HillaryTrump the right to throw them out.Damn sad news about glacier park and the number of glaciers left. I grew up going there every summer and then I went back after I grew up a couple times. The Going to the Sun highway has incredible waterfalls cascading down the rocky hills. Absolutely my favorite park.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
evening snoopy...
when the powers-that-be want americans to learn some geography they certainly give it everything they've got and make the topic nearly unavoidable.
i've managed to get to glacier park twice, nearly 50 years apart. the changes were pretty dramatic but the park is still one of the most beautiful places in america.
If you get the chance to go again
try to include Waterton park too. It's actually Glacier/Waterton park. We used to take a boat into Canada and I think that is where the Prince George hotel is.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
CNN’s little Syrian girl = this year’s phony “incubator” story
https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/proof-that-your-government-is-lying-t...
@ lotlizard - can't stand it anymore
I don't understand that "Die Zeit" and other German papers write stuff I never thought they would. Warnings about Russians will interfere in German elections etc....I mean if at all they shoot just digits at each other.
When I clicked on something reading the EB from the 10th, I ended up clicking through some links that lead me to this here. On the left hand side you see correspondents and reporters, several of them, people I know personally, on a "Not Wanted" list. Sorry folks, I "Want Them, NOT Dead but Alive".
That's when my guts say something smells bad, just don't know from which directions the fish is stinking. That's why I can understand that my brother cut himself off any TV and internet completely. Which just means without both news access venues you are an ignorant not knowing what's going on in the world and with both connections venues open you are an ignoramus, still not knowing what's the truth.
I miss the stone ages. At least it would have taken half your lifetime to carve the propaganda lies into stone. ...
https://www.euronews.com/live
Thanks joe.
So much happening in the world of politics, war and Russia of course.
All of the news about global warming is barely mentioned with the exception of here and a few other sites.
Nothing mainstream because that's the way the masters want it. An ignorant populace is the goal.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
evening pricknick...
yes, it would be bad for the 1% if the people had a clue.
An ignorant and divided populace
And they got it.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
Hey now!
Careful who call ignant. I'm saving it for my dementia years.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
For some reason, a Speech from the classic "Lost Horizon"
Is coming to mind.... With regards to the state of the world.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsO-O8SG7yc]
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
evevning dmw...
i guess some things haven't changed much since the 30's except for the scale of manunkind's ability to destroy.
How elegant the trolling of the press and the Democrats
…yesterday in DC. One cannot take sides, but only point to the folly. Thanks to Joe's embedded links in the news, we can all enjoy the nuance.
This entire hyper-hysteria about Russia, which has rendered the Democratic Party apoplectic, is based on a one-line wisecrack coming from Donald Trump on July 27th, 2016, while tweaking the press in Florida during his campaign. Democratic operatives called his sarcastic comment a "material threat to national security." They spent the next eight months trying to convince the American population that their minds, their futures, their very nation was now being controlled by Russia.
What was Trump's wisecrack?
He was referring, of course, to Hillary's email server, which the FBI was actively investigating, looking for the 30,000 "personal" emails that Hillary's staff had erased. The server, itself, was no longer in use and not connected to the Internet, in any case.
For Trump's remark, the nation of Russia was actually sanctioned by the US. Classy. Now, fast forward through the past eight months of sinister delusion to today, when Trump reprised his epic tweak of the press with a new one. Trump invited Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to a special meeting in the Oval Office, but would only allow the Russian press inside, leaving the US press in the hallway.
On Lavrov's part, as he passed by fielding questions from American reporters, he expressed absolute shock – shock! – to hear that Russia had been accused of meddling in US internal affairs. And he was "stunned" at the very idea of Putin as Americas's puppeteer. He remarked:
Can you imagine what will happen when Trump follows the traditions set by Bush and Obama, and begins appointing his Czars to provide oversight?
Meanwhile, when I went to stream Russia Today on my Rocu last night, I was informed that their account had been closed.
Seems a tad petty.
IMAGINE if you woke up the day after a US Presidential Election and headlines around the the world blared, "The Majority of Americans Refused to Vote in US Presidential Election! What Does this Mean?"
evening pluto...
heh, that lavrov. if the foreign diplomacy thing doesn't work out, he would make an excellent late night talk show host. i bet that he could string together a blistering monologue.
i really despise trump, but then again i also despise the stenographic presstitutes and his trolling of them was perfect. it reminds you of why, when faced with a choice between two elite morons, so many people chose an elite moron that makes fun of other elite morons.
The story from Roku
is that RT was cancelled at its own request, which I find highly improbable. Gotta watch it another way now.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
Hell hath no fury ...
All this Russiagate crap is Hillary Clinton's parting gift to the country. Thanks a bunch Hilz.
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
What????
Do you mean the account was closed by Rocu?
I'm having no issue with streaming but I don't use Rocu.
Silly.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
Zubaydah to testify about Guantanamo got a rise out of me.
Waterboarded 82 times is just insane. We've done some of the most heinous things to people, in the War Of Error, under the guise of "freedom" and "liberty," as we devolve further and further in a downward spiral. It's hard to stake any claim on democracy or liberty, when you can't even guarantee habeas corpus.
Totally justified firebrand rhetoric, in my opinion.
Sawant is such a bad-ass. She is exemplary as an elected official to believe in. Calling out the FBI for its history as a racist agency out to crush LW dissent. Ripping the cowardly corporate Democrats on healthcare. She doesn't mince words.
She's right; this is the moment for real revolt, against the system. The disgust is immense, on both sides. A coalition of the 99% is just waiting to be formed.
Great news about the Finger Lakes movement to stop fracking, too.
Thanks Joe. Hope you've been well, brother.
"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...
i've been doing ok, i hope that all is well with you and yours.
the war crimes that have been committed by bush and obama are quite heinous and i hope that the military commissions will be forced by zubaydah's courage to address the issue in the open where it will be reported by some of the press. (well, ok. the miami herald and the alternative press will report on it.)
sawant is correct about this being the time for a political realignment and we need it to proceed far beyond what the democrats are trying to use the moment for. i was really glad to see the story above about the republican town hall meeting where people were shouting for single payer rather than following the fake democrat resistance movement line of "saving obamacare."
it appears to me that single payer/medicare-for-all might be an issue where the left-leaning base of the democrats is ready to push the party droids aside and demand real change.
(R-NJ) starts Town Hall with Pledge of Allegiance. How pathetic
"Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel."
I loathe more than most anything else about this country, the rise in faux patriotism, at ballgames, in advertising, in our institutions, etc.
Like a bunch of kindergarteners, everybody seemed to rise at once together. What if you were inclined to not participate in the propaganda conditioning? Would there be a cop to escort you out, as I've been told by a friend happened to him, at a Mets baseball game, for not remaining in his seat for the
7th Inning Stretch, now apparently the singing of the god-awful God Bless America?Sinclair Lewis was right. "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."
Ugh, nauseating, typical RW grandstanding of hiding behind the flag. Hillary's minions affirmed at the DNC that they are no different than the Rethugs. "When they chant 'No More War,' you scream 'USA! USA! USA!'"
Ok, gonna go back now to watch a bit of the clip at the Common Dreams link you posted, which has the full video, to watch this guy get his ass handed to him...
"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
Of all the crazy things I witnessed last year
…it was the "USA! USA! USA!" chanting at the Democratic National Convention that gave me a little touch of PTSD.
It reminds me of the first Apple Macintosh television commercial, 1984. You know the one?
IMAGINE if you woke up the day after a US Presidential Election and headlines around the the world blared, "The Majority of Americans Refused to Vote in US Presidential Election! What Does this Mean?"
Agree, Pluto. Should never forget the fascism at the DNC.
Thanks. Hadn't seen that commercial/don't remember it. And frankly, having made a very concerted effort to watch hardly any tv, and when I do either avert my eyes from commercials when I can't just turn its off - and always reflexively mute the sound, my intent is to extricate all remnants of predatory, manipulative commercial bullshit stored in my brain.
As for the DNC, a few of us from C99 met in Philly the weekend before and it was amazing. The whole city was dominated by a fervor for Bernie that had to be witnessed, which of course wasn't covered by the MSM at all. Bernie supporters blanketed the city, there were huge marches and congregations everywhere.
When I got home just before it started and saw the missives from citizen journalists there I was fucking livid. The fascists thuggery was on full display through a constant flow of tweets (and some good reporting, frankly, from TYT).
I started a draft of all that I could compile around that time, to chronicle for posterity the heavy-handed and bullying ways the DNC/Clinton Cabal were treating Bernie delegates/supporters.
If the #DNCFraudLawsuit gets going that would be a great time to revisit and then publish it. Maybe either way it should see the light of day.
I personally don't want that stuff to slip down the Memory Hole. The Neoliberal Dems running this party should have their acts of thuggery pushed back in their face.
"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
It's a singular effort that can change the future.
In an important quantum way, there are some informing moments, code if you will, that must be hand carried into the future. It's an assignment for the conscious-capable, which reminds me of another piece of speculative fiction. In Fahrenheit 451, select people feel compelled to memorize and become living books in order to carry them beyond the present — where books are burned and disappeared — into a future where they are needed. The vast war on forbidden information has been going on for a very long time.
IMAGINE if you woke up the day after a US Presidential Election and headlines around the the world blared, "The Majority of Americans Refused to Vote in US Presidential Election! What Does this Mean?"
(R-NJ) starts Town Hall with Pledge of Allegiance. How pathetic
"Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel."
I loathe more than most anything else about this country, the rise in faux patriotism, at ballgames, in advertising, in our institutions, etc.
Like a bunch of kindergarteners, everybody seemed to rise at once together. What if you were inclined to not participate in the propaganda conditioning? Would there be a cop to escort you out, as I've been told by a friend happened to him, at a Mets baseball game, for not remaining in his seat for the
7th Inning Stretch, now apparently the singing of the god-awful God Bless America?Sinclair Lewis was right. "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."
Ugh, nauseating, typical RW grandstanding of hiding behind the flag. Hillary's minions affirmed at the DNC that they are no different than the Rethugs. "When they chant 'No More War,' you scream 'USA! USA! USA!'"
Ok, gonna go back now to watch a bit of the clip at the Common Dreams link you posted, which has the full video, to watch this guy get his ass handed to him...
"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
So very revealing.
Pretty “fascist” of them — you’d think more folks would remember.
Or how about “We came, we saw, he died” — a pretty “fascist” thing to say, isn’t it?
MfQ, Cuomo banned fracking in NY two years ago.
What Crestwood wanted to do was shove fracked gas from PA into storage facilities like the salt mines under Seneca Lake to push it forward to the Northeast. Probably a money play until a cold winter. Good that it fizzled, excellent, in fact. But they are still trying for liquid propane storage there. I use that as my heat/hot water source (bad decision).
There are salt mines under at least Seneca and Cayuga Lakes in the Finger Lakes. Some under Seneca Lake have been penetrated to the Lake, it has a higher salt content than the adjacent Lakes, and hypertensives and parents of infants are warned of that. Do Not Drink the Water. In a tourist destination?
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.
Thanks for the clarification on the Finger Lakes, riverlover.
All due to a great activist movement Upstate that constantly harassed the Neoliberal Nightmare of NY every where he went. I don't trust that guy whatsoever, and certainly not with the Free College bill either. The fine print, as usual for politicians who just like to grandstand underneath a slogan, is what we should be wary of. And from what I understand, there's a lot in there too that doesn't make it cut and dry, as Free College once was in this City (State?) in the 1970's.
Cuomo is the quintessential Protectorate of the
Economic TerroristsRich, who fund his campaigns. He buried the Moreland Commission, which was just a front of tough talk to get elected, and then went on to approve mining in State Park areas and casinos (what a corporate schmuck - just what we need to raise money, violate protected land and addle poor working class folks with gambling addictions). Refused to levy an even 1% tax on high-speed, computer-generated transactions the Wall St scumbags further game the system with. I loathe that guy.I really like the Finger Lakes, and glad to hear this. Thanks for the background of the salt mines there.
"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
Zubaydah
is sacrificing himself at great risk, for the benefit of humanity as a whole. Now that's what I call martyrdom, unlike the idiots who blow themselves up for either Allah or a lot of virgins, depending on your "news" source.
Off topic, but just out of curiosity - is there really that much appeal in virgins? I really don't get that one...
Hola, Joe & Gang! Today's quote is spot on--
adopting it immediately!
I'm seeing videos of folks--single-payer activists/constituents, I suppose--who are claiming that tens of thousands of folks will be subject to pre-existing conditions clauses if the AHCA passes. Unless they've seen something that I haven't seen, this is not correct.
A figure of 130 million--who have pre-existing conditions--is being bandied about, which I accept as correct. However, unless one loses their employer-sponsored or their public health insurance coverage (Medicare, Medicaid, CHIPS, etc.), and have to enter the individual private market, including the ACA Exchanges--folks are not going to be affected by the implementation of high risk pools.
IOW, as I've read it, the AHCA does not allow employers to drop community rating and/or guaranteed issue, or, to charge their employees [who have pre-existing conditions] higher health insurance premiums. As has always been the case, employers can waive enrollment in group insurance (or other benefits) during an employee's probationary period. And, possibly, than can still impose a very short-term initial 'exclusionary' periods (not sure of this).
Thanks for tonight's excellent edition of News & Blues, Joe. Look forward to checking out the CNN video after I file a claim for 'the B.'
Speaking of 'the B,' gotta run him out--which I dread because walking with him at night is rather dicey. Mostly, our weather will be nice over the weekend, which we're grateful for, since we're having a mini-Family reunion--some of which is planned to be held at an outdoor pavilion.
Everyone have a nice evening, and a nice and safe holiday weekend, in case Family arrives early tomorrow, and I don't get to drop by!
Happy Mother's Day!
[Edited: Added italics.]
Mollie
"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went."--Will Rogers
"Take a step back and oversee the picture, and you’ll find that Trump is not the biggest threat to American democracy, the media are."--Raúl Ilargi Meijer
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
evening mollie...
thanks for the info. since most folks have health insurance through their employer, they won't be affected unless they lose a job or their employer stops offering health benefits. on the other hand, the people who are affected are really screwed and there will be significant numbers of them over time, i would imagine.
have a good evening and a great reunion!
We tortured some folks and some folks lost body parts
In the Zubaydah article there's this little tidbit.
I don't think that he was just walking around or in his cell and noticed that he had lost an eye.
I'm pretty sure that his losing his eye was somehow related to the torture he endured.
In Impeach Trump for the right reasons it states that even though our country isn't a signatory of the International Criminal Court, any country that has can prosecute any one who has committed heinous war crimes and I think that what Zubaydah went through qualifies for being prosecuted. Too bad that most countries are our poodles.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
Is everyone aware of the significance of the little Syrian girl?
Reposting this link as a comment to the open thread as a whole.
Proof that your government is lying to you and the media is helping them