The Evening Blues - 6-23-17



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Don & Dewey

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features rock and rollers Don & Dewey. Enjoy!

Don & Dewey - Big Boy Pete

"Bernie Sanders said that he “couldn’t remember an American president with more authoritarian tendencies than Trump.” Really, Bernie? It’s hard to get more authoritarian than Obama killing American citizens by drone without an indictment, trial or declaration of war. Trump’s authoritarianism comes with the office."

-- Jeffrey St Clair


News and Opinion

Recommended for a full read:

Deep History of America’s Deep State

Everybody seems to be talking about the Deep State these days. Although the term appears to have entered the lexicon in the late 1990s, for years it referred only to shady foreign governments, certainly not to our own “indispensable nation.” Does the sudden presence of an American Deep State – loosely defined as an unelected elite that manipulates the elected government to serve its own interests – pose a novel, even existential, threat to democracy?

Not exactly. The threat seems real enough, but it’s nothing new. Consider these facts: 230 years ago, an unelected group of elite Americans held a secretive meeting with an undisclosed agenda. Their purpose was not merely to manipulate lawful government in their own interests, but to abolish it altogether. In its place, they would install a radically undemocratic government – a “more perfect” government, they said – better suited to their investment portfolios. History does not identify these conspirators as the Deep State. It calls them the Founders. The Founders did not consider themselves conspirators, but “republicans” – not in reference to any political party, but rather to their economic station in society. But their devotion to “republicanism” was transparently self-serving. A current college text, The American Journey: A History of the United States, explains though does not explicate “republican ideology”:

“Their main bulwark against tyranny was civil liberty, or maintaining the right of the people to participate in government. The people who did so, however, had to demonstrate virtue. To eighteenth century republicans, virtuous citizens were those who were focused not on their private interests but rather on what was good for the public as a whole. “They were necessarily property holders, since only those individuals could exercise an independence of judgment impossible for those dependent upon employers, landlords, masters, or (in the case of women and children) husbands and fathers.” [Emphasis supplied]

Republicanism was a handy idea if you happened to be a master or a landlord, who were the only persons this ideology considered “virtuous” enough to vote or hold political office. Thus, “republicanism” – virtually indistinguishable from today’s “neoliberalism” – created the original Deep State in the image of the economic system it was designed to perpetuate.

The Pentagon Says One Civilian Died in Drone Strike on Syrian Mosque. Witnesses Say It Killed Dozens.

Earlier this month, the Pentagon announced the results of an internal review into a U.S. drone attack on a mosque in a village in Syria. There had been allegations that at least 38 people, all of them civilians, had been killed in the March 16 attack, but the Pentagon review upheld the Defense Department’s initial statement that it had targeted an Al Qaeda meeting. Only one person — “small in stature” — may have been a child who was killed, the review found. The strike was “legal.”

Yet by its own admission, the U.S. military did not interview any locals who had actually been at the site of the attack, nor did any U.S. personnel visit the bombing site.

A number of first responders, medical staff, and other witnesses to the strike who spoke to The Intercept maintain that dozens of civilians were killed in the attack, which they said hit a village mosque packed with locals attending an evening service. Describing scenes of carnage that killed both ordinary worshippers and speakers who had come to deliver a lecture, their testimonies directly contradict the U.S. military claim to have hit a gathering of terrorists. ...

The accounts collected by The Intercept add to a pile of evidence countering the official U.S. narrative around the strike. A Human Rights Watch investigation published in April raised the possibility that U.S. officers may have committed a war crime by being “criminally reckless in authorizing the attack.”

Here are some excerpts from an interesting article, rich in detail from Gareth Porter:

How America Armed Terrorists in Syria

Three-term Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, a member of both the Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees, has proposed legislation that would prohibit any U.S. assistance to terrorist organizations in Syria as well as to any organization working directly with them. Equally important, it would prohibit U.S. military sales and other forms of military cooperation with other countries that provide arms or financing to those terrorists and their collaborators. Gabbard’s “Stop Arming Terrorists Act” challenges for the first time in Congress a U.S. policy toward the conflict in the Syrian civil war that should have set off alarm bells long ago: in 2012-13 the Obama administration helped its Sunni allies Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar provide arms to Syrian and non-Syrian armed groups to force President Bashar al-Assad out of power. And in 2013 the administration began to provide arms to what the CIA judged to be “relatively moderate” anti-Assad groups — meaning they incorporated various degrees of Islamic extremism.

That policy, ostensibly aimed at helping replace the Assad regime with a more democratic alternative, has actually helped build up al Qaeda’s Syrian franchise al Nusra Front into the dominant threat to Assad. The supporters of this arms-supply policy believe it is necessary as pushback against Iranian influence in Syria. But that argument skirts the real issue raised by the policy’s history. The Obama administration’s Syria policy effectively sold out the U.S. interest that was supposed to be the touchstone of the “Global War on Terrorism” — the eradication of al Qaeda and its terrorist affiliates. The United States has instead subordinated that U.S. interest in counter-terrorism to the interests of its Sunni allies. In doing so it has helped create a new terrorist threat in the heart of the Middle East.

The policy of arming military groups committed to overthrowing the government of President Bashar al-Assad began in September 2011, when President Barack Obama was pressed by his Sunni allies — Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar — to supply heavy weapons to a military opposition to Assad they were determined to establish. Turkey and the Gulf regimes wanted the United States to provide anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons to the rebels, according to a former Obama administration official involved in Middle East issues. Obama refused to provide arms to the opposition, but he agreed to provide covert U.S. logistical help in carrying out a campaign of military assistance to arm opposition groups. CIA involvement in the arming of anti-Assad forces began with arranging for the shipment of weapons from the stocks of the Gaddafi regime that had been stored in Benghazi. ...

The CIA’s covert arms shipments from Libya came to an abrupt halt in September 2012 when Libyan militants attacked and burned the embassy annex in Benghazi that had been used to support the operation. By then, however, a much larger channel for arming anti-government forces was opening up. The CIA put the Saudis in touch with a senior Croatian official who had offered to sell large quantities of arms left over from the Balkan Wars of the 1990s. And the CIA helped them shop for weapons from arms dealers and governments in several other former Soviet bloc countries. ...

One U.S. official called the new level of arms deliveries to Syrian rebels a “cataract of weaponry.” And a year-long investigation by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project revealed that the Saudis were intent on building up a powerful conventional army in Syria. ... This flood of weapons into Syria, along with the entry of 20,000 foreign fighters into the country — primarily through Turkey — largely defined the nature of the conflict. These armaments helped make al Qaeda’s Syrian franchise, al Nusra Front (now renamed Tahrir al-Sham or Levant Liberation Organization) and its close allies by far the most powerful anti-Assad forces in Syria — and gave rise to the Islamic State.

Long-term US anti-Iran agenda begins with destabilizing Syria

Iran nuclear chief warns US over support for Saudi Arabia

The head of Iran’s atomic energy organisation, one of the architects of the 2015 landmark nuclear deal, has warned the US to stop upsetting the regional balance of power by siding with Saudi Arabia. Writing in the Guardian, Ali Akbar Salehi said “lavish arms purchases” by regional actors – a reference to the Saudi purchase of $100bn of US arms during Donald Trump’s recent visit to Riyadh – would be seen as provocative in Tehran and that it would be unrealistic to expect Iran to remain “indifferent”.

Salehi said it was possible to rescue the deal’s engagement if it was met with reciprocal gestures. “Often following hard-won engagement, some western nations, whether distracted by short-sighted political motivations or the lucrative inducements of regional actors, walk away and allow the whole situation to return to the status quo ante,” wrote Salehi, who is also a vice-president of Iran. Salehi warned of “chaotic behaviour” and “further tension and conflict” if the other side disregarded Iran’s security concerns, failed to adhere to its commitments and insisted on what he called alternative facts including ideas such as the “clash of civilisations”, “Sunni-Shia conflict”, “Persian-Arab enmity” and the “Arab-Israeli axis against Iran”. ...

“Stoking Iranophobia” or failure to deliver on promises under the deal would jeopardise engagement, Salehi wrote. “We would all end up back at square one,” he cautioned. “Unfortunately, as things stand at the moment in the region, reaching a new state of equilibrium might simply be beyond reach for the foreseeable future.”

'Close al-Jazeera': Saudi Arabia gives Qatar 13 demands to end blockade

Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies have tabled 13 demands on Qatar, including the closure of the Qatar-funded broadcaster al-Jazeera, as the price for lifting a two-week trade and diplomatic embargo of the country. The list of demands, obtained by Associated Press, marks another escalation in the Gulf’s worst diplomatic dispute in decades.

Saudi Arabia and the other nations leading the blockade – the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt – have in recent days been put under pressure by the US state department to set out their specific demands in an effort to help establish a mediation process. The Saudi-led alliance regards al-Jazeera, the most widely watched broadcaster in the Arab world, as a propaganda tool for Islamists that also undermines support for their governments. Other key demands made of Qatar include reducing ties with Iran and closing a Turkish military base, severing ties with “terrorist organisations”, and ending what the list describes as “interference in sovereign countries’ internal affairs”.

The list was handed to Qatar by Kuwait, which is attempting to mediate in the crisis. Qatar has been given 10 days to comply, but the ultimatum is silent on what would happen if the demands are not met.

[Click link for full listing of demands. -js]

US Interrogates Prisoners at UAE Torture Sites in Yemen

US Occupation of Afghanistan 'The Main Obstacle' to Peace: Taliban

The U.S. occupation of Afghanistan is "the main obstacle" to peace, the Taliban's leader said Friday.

In his comments to mark the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada also denounced the plan to increase number of U.S. troops in the country, and accused the U.S. and its allies of "destabilizing the whole region."

The Pentagon is reportedly weighing sending an additional 4,000 troops to Afghanistan. Akhundzada appeared to reference that development, saying, "The more they insist on maintaining the presence of their forces here or want a surge of their forces, the more regional sensitivity against them will intensify."

"Americans should understand that continuation of war in Afghanistan, upsurge of bombardment ... will never usher in success for them. The Afghans are not a people to kowtow to someone," he said.

Echoing previous comments made by the Taliban, he said, "The occupation is the main obstacle in the way of peace." He added that "constructive and good relations with you and the world" would follow a withdrawal of forces.

Excellent:

Cannibal Corpse

A rhetorical question conceived to initiate a line of reasoning is: did the Third Reich have political ‘centrists?’ This is neither to suggest any relation between American political centrists and Nazis or that the political decision making process is analogous. It is to ask the question: can any worldview that is less than the most extreme be considered centrist, the ‘relativist’ view, or is there non-contextual criteria, an ‘absolute’ view, that can be brought to bear?

For insight into the genesis of the question I take you back to 2003, before the American political leadership murdered a million or so innocent Iraqis, displaced several million more (Syria, anyone? Anyone?), re-vitalized a global array of torture camps and eventually created ISIS. The New York Times’ Bill Keller does the honors (top link), explaining contemporaneously how liberals were critical to selling the war. Here is Bill Clinton doing so. Here is a recap of Hillary’s role.

Further back in history, it was the American political ‘center’ that continued slaughtering innocents in Vietnam a full decade after one of its own (McNamara) concluded that the war was a lost cause. Liberals Bill Clinton and Barack Obama provided the socially benign gloss needed to the build-out of the American surveillance state. And in the realm of the economic, free-trade liberals have been the most effective proponents of neoliberalism under the delusion that a corporate-state amalgam would respond in the public interest during a crisis of capitalism.

There are two reasons for addressing this catastrophe-generating tendency now. The first is that the New York Times is calling the disenfranchised (by the DNC) supporters of old-school Democrat (and reliable guardian of empire) Bernie Sanders extreme while their own record of supporting genocidal clusterfucks (top link) has been depressingly consistent. The second is that centrist Democrats, the most likely beneficiaries of ‘the Resistance,’ never met a social catastrophe they didn’t love. ...

So, was the political leadership that launched the U.S. war against Iraq centrist? How about the political leadership that conceived and went about building-out mass incarceration, militarization of the police, the surveillance state, the ‘unitary’ presidency and the mass deportation of immigrants? These are all bi-partisan ‘accomplishments’ that received the blessing of quasi-state organs like the New York Times and Washington Post. But how likely is it that they would have been put forward as centrist if the rich and powerful had been put at risk by them?

Grenfell Tower fire: police considering manslaughter charges

Police have said they are considering manslaughter charges in relation to the deadly Grenfell Tower blaze as they revealed that the insulation and cladding tiles at the building failed safety tests. Det Supt Fiona McCormack, who is overseeing the investigation, said on Friday that officers had established the initial cause of the fire was a fridge-freezer and that it was not started deliberately.

She said they were trying to get to the bottom of why the fire grew so quickly and tests had pointed towards the cladding using aluminium composite tiles and the insulation behind it. Investigators will now seek to establish whether the use of these materials was illegal. McCormack said: “Preliminary tests show the insulation samples collected from Grenfell Tower combusted soon after the tests started. The initial test on the cladding tiles also failed the safety tests.”

She added that the insulation proved “more flammable than the cladding”. McCormack said police would investigate how the tiles were installed. “We will identify and investigate any criminal offence and, of course, given the deaths of so many people, we are considering manslaughter, as well as criminal offences and breaches of legislation and regulations,” she said.

Another hilarious episode of the pot calling the kettle black. The running dog lackey of the bourgeoisie, er, Wall Street's man in the Oval Office condemns the Republicans for replicating his own success in ripping off the American people:

Obama attacks Republican health bill as 'massive transfer of wealth' to the rich

Barack Obama sharply condemned the healthcare plan unveiled by Senate Republicans on Thursday as a “massive transfer of wealth” to the rich, at the expense of poor and middle-class Americans. In a Facebook post hours after the Republican bill was made public, the former president made some of his most pointed comments since leaving office in defense of what remains the most signature accomplishment of his two terms.

“The Senate bill, unveiled today, is not a healthcare bill,” Obama wrote. “It’s a massive transfer of wealth from middle-class and poor families to the richest people in America.”

New Lawsuit Accuses Trump of 'Destroying Essential Historical Records'

A new lawsuit accuses President Donald Trump and White House staff of illegally destroying presidential records.

A pair of watchdog organizations, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and the National Security Archive (NSA), filed the suit Thursday a federal district court to challenge actions by the White House "that seek to evade transparency and government accountability" and appear to violate the Presidential Records Act.

That law, passed in the wake of the Watergate scandal, requires that the offices of the president and vice president preserve records and make them accessible to the public.

"Yet, the evidence to date suggests that President Trump and others within the White House are either ignoring or outright flouting these responsibilities," the complaint (pdf) states, citing Trump's use of Twitter and reports of White House staff use of the encrypted messaging application Signal, which can auto-delete messages, as well as another encrypted messaging app, Confide, which deletes chats after they're read.

Republican Healthcare Bill Gives Tax Cuts to the Rich by Gutting Safety Net for Poor & Middle Class

Supreme Court ruling makes it harder to undo wrongful convictions

Would the jury have convicted these men of murder if they’d known there was another suspect? That was the pivotal question addressed by the Supreme Court in its Thursday decision to uphold the convictions of seven men in a high-profile murder case, even though the prosecution had withheld crucial information during the trial. In his majority opinion, Justice Stephen Breyer called the case “factually complex,” but in the end, the Court determined, “It is not reasonably probable that the withheld evidence could have led to a different result at trial.”

This is the latest SCOTUS decision to focus on impact of suppressed evidence, instead of its mere existence, making it harder to get a new trial to challenge a conviction. Before a trial, prosecutors are obligated to share any evidence that could acquit the defendant. It’s called Brady disclosure, after a 1963 Supreme Court case, Brady v. Maryland. There’s no standard to determine which evidence qualifies, leaving prosecutors with a tremendous amount of discretion. A defendant can successfully challenge his conviction on Brady grounds if he can prove three things: that evidence was suppressed, that it’s favorable to him, and that it could have affected the outcome of the trial. ...

Justice Breyer stated in the opinion that the suppressed evidence was “too little, too weak, or too distant from the main evidentiary points to meet Brady’s standards.” In her dissent, Justice Kagan pointed to the alternative theory the defendants could have presented with the evidence: “With the undisclosed evidence, the whole tenor of the trial would have changed … In my view, that could well have flipped one or more jurors — which is all Brady requires.”

DC cops sued for alleged cavity searches on antifa protesters

Pepper sprayed, deprived of food and water, intrusively probed, and handcuffed so tightly to the point of numbness and bleeding — these are just some of the abuses several people allegedly endured at the hands of the D.C. police in the aftermath of the Inauguration Day protests in January.

After protests surrounding Trump’s election got rowdy, the D.C. police rounded up protesters, charging over 200 people in connection with rioting, vandalism and destruction of property. Now, the American Civil Liberties Union is suing the Washington D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department on behalf of a photojournalist, two protesters, and a legal observer, not only claiming that the four of them were innocent, but that the officers used excessive force against them.

In a lawsuit filed Wednesday evening, the ACLU said the plaintiffs were “held for hours without food, water, or access to toilets; handcuffed detainees so tightly as to cause injury or loss of feeling; and subjected some detainees to manual rectal probing.”

The lawsuit delves into graphic detail about the treatment of the photojournalist Shay Horse and the consequences he suffered. “As a result of Defendants’ manual rectal probing and grabbing of his testicles, Mr. Horse suffered humiliation, anxiety and emotional distress. He feels as if he has been raped,” the lawsuit alleges.

“The MPD’s extreme tactics against members of the public, including journalists, demonstrators, and observers, were unjustifiable and unconstitutional,” Scott Michelman, a lawyer for the ACLU said in a statement.



the horse race



Trump questions impartiality of Russia investigation chief Robert Mueller

Donald Trump has questioned the impartiality of special counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the investigation into Russia’s meddling in the US election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign. In an interview with Fox News aired Friday morning, Trump argued that Mueller, a former FBI director, is “good friends” with James Comey, Mueller’s successor at the spy agency whom Trump fired on 9 May. Trump later acknowledged he took this step with the Russia investigation in mind.

When George W Bush was president, Mueller and Comey worked together – Mueller as FBI director and Comey as deputy attorney general. Trump also said that some of the staffers that Mueller has hired for his investigation “are all Hillary Clinton supporters”. US news reports say some of these staffers have made campaign contributions to Democratic candidates.

Asked point blank if Mueller should recuse himself from the Russia investigation, Trump said: “Well, he’s very, very good friends with Comey, which is very bothersome. But he’s also – we’re going to have to see.” Trump added: “I mean we’re going to have to see in terms – look, there has been no obstruction. There has been no collusion. There has been leaking by Comey.”

Democrats in the Dead Zone

This year the Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico is expected to grow larger than ever. Oceanologists predict the lifeless expanse of water below the Mississippi River Delta will swell to an area bigger than the state of Vermont, an aquatic ecosystem despoiled by industrial fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, oil leaks and the lethal effects of a warming climate. But the desolate waters of the Gulf pale next to the electoral dead zone now confronting the Democratic Party, which seems to occupy about two-thirds of the geographical area of the Republic—a political landscape deadened by the Party’s remorseless commitment to neoliberal economics, imperial wars and open hostility toward the working class base which once served as its backbone.

The latest political zombie offered up as a vessel to freight the electoral asperations of the Democrats was a pious former congressional staffer called Jon Ossoff, whose name sounds like one of those creepy Svengali-like characters from a Tod Browning horror film of the 1930s. But the candidate wasn’t as scary as all that. In fact, Ossoff scared no one, which was both his campaign theme and his problem. One of his problems, anyway. Ossoff presented himself as an anodyne candidate, a nowhere man, a quiescent emissary for a return to civility in politics. He was the white Rodney King, who plaintively asked why we couldn’t all just get along. Of course, who really wants civility in politics, when you’re working two jobs, can’t pay the power bill, have a kid with asthma and just had your Ford Focus repossessed. ...

In an age crying out for a new kind of politics, Ossoff campaigned directly from the Clinton playbook (Hillary version), apparently hoodwinked into believing that absent Russian interventionism this stale platform was a winning strategy. His main opponent was Trump, not even Trumpism, which might offend some of the Republican voters he was targeting. In what became a kind of daily ritual on the campaign trail, Ossoff repeatedly scrubbed himself clean of any taint of populism or progressive inclinations. Ossoff denounced single-payer health care, kept himself at arm’s length from Bernie Sanders and never uttered even a minor critique of American imperialism. Think of him as a prettified Tim Kaine. ...

There are Pyrrhic victories, where the cost of winning a battle is so great that you lose the war. The Ossoff campaign might be considered a Pyrrhic loss, where so many financial and psychic resources are invested into a relatively minor skirmish that the defeat dooms the course of the larger war, when ultimate victory was well within your grasp. The loss is compounded by the lessons the Democratic elites have drawn from the post-mortem. That Ossof’s campaign was too progressive for the region. That the Democrats need to turn away from populism and return to the corporate-friendly conservativism of the Bill Clinton years, with a little of the old Lester Maddox race-baiting thrown in where needed. Thinking like this all but ensures that the next made-for MSDNC candidate will be even more feeble than Ossoff.



the evening greens


Yellowstone grizzlies can be hunted after endangered protections lifted

Protections against hunting Yellowstone national park grizzly bears will be lifted this summer after US government officials ruled Thursday that the population is no longer threatened. The delisting of the bears as an endangered species means that states would be allowed to plan limited bear hunts outside the park’s boundaries. Hunting bears inside Yellowstone would still be banned. The bears roam both inside and outside the park, and their range has been expanding as their numbers have grown.

Grizzlies in all continental US states except Alaska have been protected under the Endangered Species Act since 1975, when just 136 bears roamed in and around Yellowstone. There are now an estimated 700 grizzlies in the area that includes north-western Wyoming, south-western Montana and eastern Idaho, leading the US Fish and Wildlife Service to conclude that the population has recovered. ... Grizzly bears once numbered about 50,000 and ranged over much of North America. Their population plummeted starting in the 1850s because of widespread hunting and trapping, and the bears now occupy only 2% of their original territory.

The Obama administration first proposed removing grizzlies as a threatened species by issuing an initial ruling in March 2016. The 15 months that have passed since then have been used to by federal officials to evaluate states’ grizzly management plans and respond to themes of concern generated by 650,000 comments from the public, including wildlife advocates and Native American tribal officials who are staunchly opposed to hunting grizzly bears.


Also of Interest

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

If the Iran deal is to survive, the west must change course

The Criminal ‘Laws’ of Counterinsurgency

Palestinians Still Demand Human Rights


A Little Night Music

Don and Dewey - Justine!

Don & Dewey - Koko Joe

Don and Dewey - My Heart Is Aching

Don & Dewey - Baby Gotta Party

Don & Dewey - Heartattack

Don & Dewey - The Letter

Don & Dewey - Bim Bam

Don & Dewey - Deacon Hop

Don & Dewey - Little Sally Walker

Don & Dewey - Farmer John

Don and Dewey - Get Your Hat



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joe shikspack's picture

i'm on the road and won't have access to wifi tonight, so y'all have a great time and i'll catch up with you later.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@joe shikspack

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

I have been reading the philosopher Graham Harman's book on Dante. Following Heidegger and the broken hammer, Harman titles his book "Dante's Broken Hammer"

And I was reading a book from 2001 of poets writing about Dante and came across Osip Mandelstam the Russian poet. I read his wife's book over 50 years ago on his life "Hope Against Hope."

I looked him up and found this article from May of this year

“It gets people killed”: Osip Mandelstam and the perils of writing poetry under Stalin The cat-and-mouse game between the poet Osip Mandelstam and the Soviet dictator could only end in death.

Graham Harman major point is the importance of the background. When the hammer breaks, the background, other possibilities show up.

Far too much of our politics avoids the background -- one of the places is the commons

Reading the article on the poet reminded me of how bad things were in Russia under Stalin.

**
It looks like the Russia Hacked The Election is not going to be a winning strategy. When the DNC refused the FBI or Homeland Security to analyze their hacked server, that alone shows that it was not a national emergency.

But Russia has done bad stuff , but, but, but, it is not worth a nuclear war that might happen by accident

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The parties have ignored and/or denied the issue and we have the worst elections of over 40 purported democracies. (2 articles from WA Post last year that I will link if anyone interested.

Here in Central Ohio, 2 men have written a half dozen books about elections and here is what they posted after the GA election

Jim Crow GOP Steals Another Election As Brain Dead Democrats and Media Say Nothing

They published "The Strip and Flip Election of 2016" before the election and have updated it after the election.

You should know about Cross Check which was used by Chris Kobach and then exported to other states allowing possibly hundreds of thousands of people to be stripped from voting rolls.

Greg Palast has been on this for years and he covered it along with other issues before the GA special election. Here he is on democracynow on June 15 last week

Greg Palast: How Racist Voter Suppression Could Cost Jon Ossoff the Georgia Election

I also know that the center dem candidate was part of the problem, but when is the democratic party going to make this an issue and get it out in public and get the system fixed.

because Kris Kobach lost in court, I found out about Ari Berman. Here is what happened to Trump's selection to steal the vote from the entire country

Court Fines SOS Kobach $1000 for Misleading Court on NVRA Documents, Allows ACLU to Depose Kobach

Posted on June 23, 2017 2:02 pm by Rick Hasen

The 24-page order and opinion of the magistrate judge could be appealed. The underlying document—Kobach’s advice to Trump as to how to make it harder for people to register to vote by changing the federal National Voter Registration Act (NVRA)—remains under seal, but, as Josh Gerstein explains, “Despite the ruling, the memo Kobach took into the meeting with Trump may well wind up in the public domain eventually. O’Hara suggested that if one of parties files the memo in court as part of formal pleadings in the case, it is likely to be made public.”

The magistrate judge also gave a glimpse as to what the document under seal actually says:

In response to the motion, defendant made patently misleading representations to the court about the documents, which at the time had not been produced to either the court or plaintiffs, such that the court was required to take defendant at his word. For example, in discussing the text of the draft amendment, defendant stated, “that text does not propose to ‘amend or alter’ an ‘eligibility-assessment procedures [sic] mandated by the NVRA.’” A review of the draft amendment, however, indicates that the text proposed amending the NVRA’s provisions governing the type of information a state could require voter-registration applicants provide to enable the state to assess the applicant’s eligibility.

from

http://electionlawblog.org/?p=93347

Ari Berman had an article in NY Times Mag 10 days ago on June 13

The Man Behind Trump’s Voter-Fraud Obsession How Kris Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state, plans to remake America through restrictive voting and immigration laws.

Ari also wrote these articles and has a book as well

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/welcome-to-the-first-president...

https://www.thenation.com/article/the-gops-attack-on-voting-rights-was-t...

and from the Brennan Center we learn that, this year

Overall, at least 99 bills to restrict access to registration and voting have been introduced in 31 states. Thirty-Five such bills saw significant legislative action (meaning they have at least been approved at the committee level or beyond) in 17 states.

https://www.brennancenter.org/analysis/voting-laws-roundup-2017

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(made a mistake. deleted my own comment)

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snoopydawg's picture

@DonMidwest
Before people blame Russia for interfering with the election, they need to first look at what the republicans have been doing in-regards to gerrymandering districts for decades.
And the democrats need to address the lack of voting machines in districts that are heavily democratic.
People wait in lines for hours because of this problem and many people don't get to vote because the polls close.

As you stated, there are many ways for people to get kicked off the voting rolls or had their party affiliation changed. This happened mainly to Bernie's supporters. If those people didn't get to vote during the primary, why would they try to get this fixed so they could vote for Clinton?

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

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Creosote.'s picture

because I trust Laura Poitras, but now question the integrity of the New York Review of Books itself, which has given prominent space to an attack on Assange:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2017/07/13/nihilism-of-julian-assange-wi...
including the assertion that somehow he promoted Russian access to the voting process in 2016. I thought the NYRB was better than that.

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Arrow's picture

Nice EB tonight.

Oh and Vladimir...WTF...No orders? I've been sitting on my hands for over a year and not a peep. Damn Vlad...I was all ready to go too. Russian agent/apologist/fellow traveler that I am. Gee no orders...nothin... I'm miffed. (Grumbles and goes back to listening to Blues)

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I want a Pony!

Arrow's picture

@Arrow no gets.

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I want a Pony!

snoopydawg's picture

Gabbard has proposed legislation that would prohibit any U.S. assistance to terrorist organizations in Syria as well as to any organization working directly with them. Equally important, it would prohibit U.S. military sales and other forms of military cooperation with other countries that provide arms or financing to those terrorists and their collaborators.

I am pretty sure that the constitution has this covered when government officials swear an oath when they take office. This part stands out loud and clear and

I swear to protect this country from enemies Foreign and domestic.

I think that arming and funding the same group of terrorists that has attacked this country, killed and injured American troops during the Iraq war means that they qualify as our enemies.
It really is that simple.

This is a fun article about Barack supporting the Clinton cabal when what he should have done was distance himself from the Clintons and their brand of politics.
Another what could have, should have but didn't opinion piece. How many people are going to finally wake up and see the disastrous policies that Barack gave us and the Middle East.

Obama’s Terrible, Awful Clinton Gamble

And he won big. So he had a clear mandate to reverse our approach toward globalization and implement a more nationalistic trade policy. He also had a clear mandate to break with Hillary Clinton's foreign policy. He had a mandate to keep the federal government out of the debate over gay marriage. In other words, he could have done the very things that many of Donald Trump's supporters want. If he had carried through with his pledges — if he had really broken with the Clintons and their divisive policies — he could have created a new center, and American politics would look very different today.

But Obama, for all his criticism of the Clintons, decided to trust them one more time. In his heart, he was not the outspoken tribune of the people that he played in 2008 — but the former editor of the Harvard Law Review who believed in his fellow elites. After hammering Hillary Clinton for her poor judgment on foreign policy, he made her secretary of state. After pledging to adopt economic policies that would help the average American, he staffed his economic team with Clinton retreads like Larry Summers and Tim Geithner. He devoted the first few years of his presidency to achieving Hillary's dream of health care reform. He stuck to the Clinton/Bush line on open borders. And, of course, he abandoned his criticism of our Clintonesque trade policy — eventually becoming a full convert to big multilateral deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership. He never did declare China to be a currency manipulator.

Thanks for another week of EBs. Have a great weekend.

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snoopydawg's picture

In this episode, Hinckley shoots Reagan and the FBI/CIA try to find evidence that shows that Russia ordered the assassination.
This is rich Smile
Those darn Russians are everywhere.

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

after 10 hours (with 8 more to go, tomorrow), and I'm plumb tuckered out. Hope you Guys have a good and safe trip!

I've meant to mention, but often forget--really enjoy your 'quotes' section--everyday! I've 'borrowed' more than one for my sig line, in case you haven't noticed.

BTW, thank you for another excellent edition of News & Blues.

Everyone have a nice weekend!

Bye

Mollie


"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage."--Lao Tzu

"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart."--Helen Keller

"You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink."--Old English Proverb

COUNTDOWN TO (FULL) RETIREMENT

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

snoopydawg's picture

Let's look at what happened to votes in California.
Why aren't the democrats speaking out about this?
In an extensive mini series

This video shows how millions of votes weren't counted in the California election. And how many other states had this type of problem?
If the democrats actually want to keep voting safe from outside interference, they would go back to paper ballots and find a secure way to count them.
Instead, we get silence about that.

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You know better.

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Fighting for democratic principles,... well, since forever

Government attempted to consume humanity, but no one was that stupid. Let those be the words. Welcome class of the most bizarre rituals: Here we are: In this exhibit; A putative state of democracy, a planet of monkeys of all colors, punching buttons on a computer that for all intents and purposes: laughs.

The irony: Priceless.
The bill: Beyond belief.
Post notes and apologies:

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Fighting for democratic principles,... well, since forever

LeChienHarry's picture

as she was growing up.

Here was one of her favorites:
[video:https://youtu.be/P9MQp2pJXVU]

Lyrics:

Mammer Jammer Lyrics
B yDon and Dewey

Mammer jammer, mammer jammer
Mammer jammer, hoot nanny
Mammer jammer, mammer jammer
Mammer jammer, hoot nanny
You ought to see my little girlfriend nanny
She back up and do the mammer jammer to the hoot nanny

You got to do the mammer jammer
If you want my love
You got to do the mammer jammer
If you want my love
It only takes two
Come on baby, me and you

Mammer jammer, mammer jammer
Mammer jammer, hoot nanny
Mammer jammer, mammer jammer
Mammer jammer, hoot nanny
You ought to see my little girlfriend nanny
She back up and do the mammer jammer to the hoot nanny

You got to do the mammer jammer
If you want my love
You got to do the mammer jammer
If you want my love
It only takes two
Come on baby, me and you

Uncle John
Big and fat
You do the mammer jammer
Like an alley cat
It only takes two
Come on baby, me and you

Mammer jammer, mammer jammer
Mammer jammer, hoot nanny
Mammer jammer, mammer jammer
Mammer jammer, hoot nanny
You ought to see my little girlfriend nanny
She back up and do the mammer jammer to the hoot nanny

You got to do the mammer jammer
If you want my love
You got to do the mammer jammer
If you want my love
It only takes two
Come on baby, me and you
It only takes two
Come on baby, me and you
It only takes two
Come on baby, me and you

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You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again you did not know. ~ William Wiberforce

If you can donate, please! POP Money is available for bank-to-bank transfers. Email JtC to make a monthly donation.

mimi's picture

I just started to read Friday's EB and got immediately caught up reading the whole article in consortiumnews.com site, which Joe excerpted as the first article in his collection:
Deep History of America’s Deep State - by Jada Thacker

That was really more than worth reading in full. It's worth (to me) to print it out and hang over my bed, because I know I will forget how all the dots were connected:

In Towards an American Revolution: Exposing the Constitution & Other Illusions, historian Jerry Fresia sums the Founders’ views succinctly: “The vision of the Framers, even for Franklin and Jefferson who were less fearful of the politics of the common people than most, was that of a strong centralized state, a nation whose commerce and trade stretched around the world. In a word, the vision was one of empire where property owners would govern themselves.” [Emphasis supplied]

Self-government by the people was to remain permanently out of the question. The Deep State was to govern itself. “We the People,” a phrase hypocritically coined by the ultra-aristocrat Gouverneur Morris, would stand forever after as an Orwellian hoax.

The tricky task of the hand-picked delegates was to hammer out a radical new system of government that would superficially resemble a democratic republic, but function as an oligarchy.
...
William Hogeland’s excellent Founding Finance, recounts the anti-democratic vehemence expressed at the Convention: ‘Our chief danger,’ Randolph announced, ‘arises from the democratic parts of our constitutions. … None of the constitutions’ – he meant those of the states’ governments – ‘have provided sufficient checks against the democracy.’
....
Over a hundred years ago, Charles A. Beard completed his exhaustive study of the Constitution and confirmed that it most likely was ratified by a majority – of a minority of the people.

Among Beard’s final conclusions were these: “The Constitution was ratified by a vote of probably not more than one-sixth of the adult males….The leaders who supported the Constitution in the ratifying conventions represented the same economic groups as the members of the Philadelphia Convention….The Constitution was not created by ‘the whole people’ as the jurists [judges] have said; neither was it created by ‘the states’ as Southern nullifiers long contended; but it was the work of a consolidated group whose interests knew no state boundaries and were truly national in their scope.”

The Deep State, in other words. It was darkly appropriate that a document whose primary purpose was to defeat democratic rule was, itself, brought into force without a majoritarian vote.

Holy frigging cow ... First time I understood how to connect the dots. Can't thank the author and Joe enough for writing and posting it. REad it, it explains very well the shenanigans of how to defeat democratic representation through issues of bonds and how to tax the livelihood out of subsistance farmers and the role of paper money vs gold and silver bullions to make sure to defeat a democratic system. I need to read some more times again to 'get it'.

In any case this article covered in a fantastic clear way many questions I had and never quite had answers for or understood.

Goes over my bed, framed ! Smile

Thanks for the EB !

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joe shikspack's picture

@mimi

i am delighted that you read and found that article interesting.

one of the authors cited in your excerpt, william hogeland, also wrote (i think) the best history ever of the whiskey rebellion, which to my mind was the final act in putting down the peoples' resistance to the founding oligarchy's control of the country. it's a fascinating read.

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Meteor Man's picture

Good evening one and all. Just getting settled in after getting released from Wasco California State Pen for a probation violation. I was violated for a dismissed vandalism charge, which is how California keeps their prisons full. They call it "life on the installment plan". More on that later.

Freedom is good. Glad to see the good folks at caucus99percent are still fighting the good fight.

Peace Out.

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"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn