The Evening Blues - 6-26-17



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: James Carr

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features soul singer James Carr. Enjoy!

James Carr - At the dark end of the street

"In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies."

-- Winston Churchill


News and Opinion

Seymour Hersh explodes the media story about the most recent faked sarin attack in Syria, blamed on Assad by the major US media. Worth reading in full and worth considering why Hersh had to take it to a German news outlet to get it published.

Trump‘s Red Line

On April 6, United States President Donald Trump authorized an early morning Tomahawk missile strike on Shayrat Air Base in central Syria in retaliation for what he said was a deadly nerve agent attack carried out by the Syrian government two days earlier in the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun. Trump issued the order despite having been warned by the U.S. intelligence community that it had found no evidence that the Syrians had used a chemical weapon.

The available intelligence made clear that the Syrians had targeted a jihadist meeting site on April 4 using a Russian-supplied guided bomb equipped with conventional explosives. Details of the attack, including information on its so-called high-value targets, had been provided by the Russians days in advance to American and allied military officials in Doha, whose mission is to coordinate all U.S., allied, Syrian and Russian Air Force operations in the region. Some American military and intelligence officials were especially distressed by the president's determination to ignore the evidence. "None of this makes any sense," one officer told colleagues upon learning of the decision to bomb. "We KNOW that there was no chemical attack ... the Russians are furious. Claiming we have the real intel and know the truth ... I guess it didn't matter whether we elected Clinton or Trump.“

Within hours of the April 4 bombing, the world’s media was saturated with photographs and videos from Khan Sheikhoun. Pictures of dead and dying victims, allegedly suffering from the symptoms of nerve gas poisoning, were uploaded to social media by local activists, including the White Helmets, a first responder group known for its close association with the Syrian opposition.

To the dismay of many senior members of his national security team, Trump could not be swayed over the next 48 hours of intense briefings and decision-making. In a series of interviews, I learned of the total disconnect between the president and many of his military advisers and intelligence officials, as well as officers on the ground in the region who had an entirely different understanding of the nature of Syria’s attack on Khan Sheikhoun. I was provided with evidence of that disconnect, in the form of transcripts of real-time communications, immediately following the Syrian attack on April 4. In an important pre-strike process known as deconfliction, U.S. and Russian officers routinely supply one another with advance details of planned flight paths and target coordinates, to ensure that there is no risk of collision or accidental encounter (the Russians speak on behalf of the Syrian military). This information is supplied daily to the American AWACS surveillance planes that monitor the flights once airborne. ... Russian and Syrian Air Force officers gave details of the carefully planned flight path to and from Khan Shiekhoun on April 4 directly, in English, to the deconfliction monitors aboard the AWACS plane, which was on patrol near the Turkish border, 60 miles or more to the north. ...

The crisis slid into the background by the end of April, as Russia, Syria and the United States remained focused on annihilating ISIS and the militias of al-Qaida. Some of those who had worked through the crisis, however, were left with lingering concerns. “The Salafists and jihadists got everything they wanted out of their hyped-up Syrian nerve gas ploy,” the senior adviser to the U.S. intelligence community told me, referring to the flare up of tensions between Syria, Russia and America. “The issue is, what if there’s another false flag sarin attack credited to hated Syria? Trump has upped the ante and painted himself into a corner with his decision to bomb. And do not think these guys are not planning the next faked attack. Trump will have no choice but to bomb again, and harder. He’s incapable of saying he made a mistake.”

More Reasons Have Emerged To Doubt The Official Narrative About Syria

The highly decorated Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh is back again, throwing yet another monkey wrench in the propaganda narratives of the US war machine.

Hersh’s latest piece, titled “Trump’s Red Line”, was published in the German publication Welt am Sonntag, reportedly after London Review of Books backed out for fear that it would make them “vulnerable to criticism for seeming to take the view of the Syrian and Russian governments”. LRB’s decision is understandable in light of today’s fact-free McCarthyist feeding frenzy given the criticism they’d already received from establishment loyalists for publishing Hersh’s explosive 2013 report “Whose Sarin?”, which attacked establishment allegations of Assad having used chemical weapons that year. Their decision points straight at the invisible state censorship that goes on within the editorial boards of every western outlet and the self-censorship that goes on in the minds of every western journalist when confronted with these uncomfortable and seemingly unreportable truths. The ruling class can make life very difficult for you if you don’t sing their propaganda song.

Hersh’s central source, whom Welt reportedly was able to contact and confirm the veracity of, describes a US president hell bent on attacking Syria regardless of facts, evidence, logic, or what he was being told by his own advisors.

How Trump Risks a Saudi-Qatar War

The split inside the Trump administration over how to deal with the Qatar crisis has opened a dangerous situation that could soon lead to armed conflict. The State and Defense Departments have largely sided with Qatar, but the White House has undermined the leverage the U.S. has over Saudi Arabia to rein in Riyadh’s aggressive behavior towards its neighbor. President Donald Trump, for instance, last week called Qatar “a major sponsor” of terrorism, ignoring that Saudi Arabia is a big supporter, too. ...

After U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged an end to the economic embargo and called on the Saudis to make “reasonable” proposals, Riyadh on Friday released a list of 13 demands, designed to be rejected by Doha. Saudi Arabia laid down a 10-day deadline for Qatar to respond by July 7. The Saudis did not say what would happen next, but the signs are ominous. Qatar has already rejected the demands as unrealistic. ...

In Syria and Afghanistan, Trump has left decisions largely up to the military, rendering many of his tweets and statements irrelevant. But Trump is asserting himself in the Gulf crisis. He even tried to take credit for the embargo after his visit to Riyadh last month, where he also met the Qatari emir. While the Pentagon and the State Department want a mediated settlement, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said on Friday the crisis should be left up to the participants to solve. “The four countries that are part of that – we believe it’s a family issue and that they should work [it] out,” Spicer said. ...

Spicer’s remark reminded Ali al-Ahmed, director of the Institute for Gulf Affairs in Washington, of the George H.W. Bush administration’s ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie, telling Saddam Hussein in 1990 that the U.S. had “no opinion on inter-Arab disputes, such as your border disagreement with Kuwait.” Eight days later Saddam invaded Kuwait. Al-Ahmed thinks Spicer’s remark is similarly a sign that Trump has given Riyadh a green light to invade Qatar. He said the elevation last week of Mohammed bin-Salman to Saudi Crown Prince is another ominous sign. Bin-Salman, who has shown his aggressiveness as defense minister with a two-year, open-ended disastrous attack on neighboring Yemen, replaced Muhammad bin Nayef, who was “seen as too close to Qatar, and had to be pushed out,” al-Ahmed told me.

Bin-Salman will want to consolidate his power in his new position the way he did when he was named defense minister, by launching a war, al-Ahmed said. He drew another parallel with Saddam Hussein who invaded Iran a year after he came to power to shore up his authority, with U.S. support that time too. The stalemated war in Yemen has drained the Saudi treasury. So there is also the matter of seizing control of Qatar’s supply of natural gas, the world’s third largest, through a puppet regime that Riyadh would seek to install in Doha, al-Ahmed said.

Syria: US-backed Syrian Democratic forces make fresh gains in IS Group's stronghold of Raqqa

Yemen orders probe into alleged torture by UAE, US

Yemen's government has opened an investigation into alleged torture and forced disappearances by the United Arab Emirates and its allied Yemeni forces in the country's south. Prime Minister Ahmed Obeid bin Daghr on Saturday ordered a six-member committee, chaired by Justice Minister Mohamed Omar, to focus its probe on areas recaptured from Houthi fighters and their allies. ...

The reports of abuses were revealed on Thursday in two separate investigations conducted by the Human Rights Watch (HRW) group and the Associated Press (AP) news agency. ...

In Washington, multiple senators called for an investigation after AP reported that US military interrogators had worked with the forces accused of torture. ... Amnesty International said on Friday the US could be complicit in crimes under international law if it took part in interrogations of Yemeni prisoners or received information that may have been obtained through torture.

Norway-Russia relations to deteriorate following U.S. Marines' base extension

Norway's decision to extend the presence of U.S. Marines on its soil will worsen relations with neighboring Russia and could escalate tensions on NATO's northern flank, the Russian embassy in Oslo told Reuters on Saturday. Some 330 Marines will be stationed in Norway until the end of 2018, the government said on Wednesday, doubling the length of what was initially billed as a one-year trial period.

The deployment last January to practice winter warfare and cross-country skiing, and to participate in joint exercises, marked the first foreign troops to be stationed in the NATO member country since the end of World War Two. "We consider that this step contradicts Norwegian policy of not deploying foreign military bases in the country in times of peace," the Russian embassy wrote in an statement to Reuters.

It further "makes Norway (a) not fully predictable partner, can also escalate tension and lead to destabilization of the situation in the Northern region," it added.

Does US have right to data on overseas servers? We’re about to find out

The Justice Department on Friday petitioned the US Supreme Court to step into an international legal thicket, one that asks whether US search warrants extend to data stored on foreign servers. The US government says it has the legal right, with a valid court warrant, to reach into the world's servers with the assistance of the tech sector, no matter where the data is stored.

The request for Supreme Court intervention concerns a 4-year-old legal battle between Microsoft and the US government over data stored on Dublin, Ireland servers. The US government has a valid warrant for the e-mail as part of a drug investigation. Microsoft balked at the warrant, and convinced a federal appeals court that US law does not apply to foreign data.

The outcome has huge privacy ramifications for consumers and for the tech sector, which is caught between a rock and a hard place. The sector is being asked by the US government to comply with court orders that sometimes conflict with the laws of where the data is stored. To remedy that, Congress is trying to hash out legislation that would allow the US government to enter into reciprocity agreements with other countries so that each side has the right to access data on foreign servers—with a valid warrant.

Pffffttt!!! How is it that morons like this get elected to office or appointed to high government positions?

Trump CIA director blames 'worship of Edward Snowden' for rise in leaks

Mike Pompeo, the director of the CIA, has blamed the “worship” of leakers such as Edward Snowden for a rise in the public disclosure of US intelligence. Donald Trump’s pick to head the intelligence agency said more needed to be done to stem what he called an increase in the leaking of state secrets.

“In some ways, I do think [leaking has] accelerated,” Pompeo told MSNBC in an interview broadcast on Saturday. “I think there is a phenomenon, the worship of Edward Snowden, and those who steal American secrets for the purpose of self-aggrandizement or money or for whatever their motivation may be, does seem to be on the increase.”

Pompeo added: “It’s tough. You now have not only nation states trying to steal our stuff, but nonstate, hostile intelligence services, well-funded – folks like WikiLeaks, out there trying to steal American secrets for the sole purpose of undermining the United States and democracy.”

There is lots of interesting and kinda creepy detail in this article. Here's a piece of the intro:

Flimsy Evidence and Fringe Sources Land People on Secretive Banking Watchlist

A corporate database used by banks and other institutions to screen clients for crimes such as money laundering and terror financing has labeled dozens of U.S. citizens as connected to terrorism on the basis of outdated or unsubstantiated allegations. An analysis of a 2014 copy of the database, which is known as World-Check, also indicates that many thousands of people, including children, were listed on the basis of tenuous links to crime or to politically prominent persons.

The database relied on allegations stemming from right-wing Islamophobic websites to categorize under “terrorism” people and groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations, several mosques, and national and regional Islamic organizations.

Political activists also had World-Check listings originating from old, minor infractions. For instance, 16 Greenpeace activists who were arrested for protesting the “Star Wars” missile-defense program in 2001 were listed under the general “crime” category, though they ultimately pleaded guilty to misdemeanor trespassing and never served time.

World-Check, which is owned by Thomson Reuters, contains over 2 million entries, most of them for people who are in government, on international sanctions lists, or have convictions for financial crimes. Thomson Reuters claims that World-Check is a risk-assessment tool, not a blacklist, and that a listing is not necessarily meant to imply wrongdoing. Yet many of the entries, especially for activist groups, raise questions about World-Check’s criteria.

A copy of the World-Check database from 2014, containing some 2.2 million entries, was discovered online last year by security researcher Chris Vickery; it had been left unprotected on a third party’s servers. The Intercept worked with media organizations across the world to analyze and research the World-Check database.

Philando Castile's mother reaches $3m settlement over son's shooting death

The mother of Philando Castile, a black motorist who was killed by a Minnesota police officer last year, has reached a nearly $3m settlement in his death. ... The settlement avoids the drawn-out process of a federal wrongful death lawsuit stemming from Philando Castile’s death. ...

Yanez, who is Latino, was acquitted of manslaughter and other charges this month. The jury decision prompted protests that continued this weekend, with marchers interrupting the Pride gay rights event in Minneapolis.

Supreme Court Partially Lifts Block on Trump's 'Bigoted' Travel Ban

The Supreme Court on Monday announced it would hear arguments on President Donald Trump's proposed travel ban—also known as the Muslim Ban 2.0—which had previously been blocked by two federal appellate courts, one of which ruled the ban is "rooted in religious animus" and therefore unconstitutional.

Arguments in the case are set to be heard in October.

Commentators were quick to point out that the Supreme Court's announcement contained a victory for the Trump administration, as the court decided to reinstate portions of the Muslim ban, exempting only those with "a credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States."

Support Grows For Single-Payer Medicare-For-All Plan Instead of Massive Cuts to Healthcare

‘They’re sentencing me to death’: Medicaid recipients on the Republican healthcare plan

On Thursday, Senate Republicans unveiled legislation that would satisfy a long-held campaign promise: the repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The plan would also achieve another GOP priority: deep cuts to Medicaid, a program that covers the healthcare needs of nearly one in five Americans.

Medicaid is the nation’s largest public insurance program, providing health benefits to nearly 74 million Americans including low-income adults and children, seniors and people with disabilities. It has unparalleled reach: about half of all babies are born on Medicaid and four in 10 children are covered by Medicaid or its sister benefit, the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

Those programs also cover roughly three in 10 people suffering from opioid addiction. Medicaid has also become a critical benefit for elderly Americans whose medical needs are not covered by Medicare, including six in 10 residents in nursing homes. ...

The Senate healthcare plan, like the House bill that narrowly passed last month, would phase out Medicaid expansion under the ACA, under which 31 states and the District of Columbia added more than 11 million low-income adults to the program. ... An analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that under the House bill, such changes would cut Medicaid spending by $834bn over 10 years, and lead to 23 million fewer people having insurance coverage.

California Gov. Jerry Brown Thinks Single Payer Can’t Work

California's Senate passed legislation to create a first-in-the-nation single-payer universal health care system earlier this month, but it faces tough odds against a skeptical Assembly. It also faces opposition from California’s Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown. “We’re hearing the governor is doing everything he can to make sure this never gets on his desk,” Paul Song, co-chair of single-payer advocacy group Campaign for a Healthy California, told the Sacramento Bee in early June.

Brown has complained that such a system would be too expensive in the recent past. “Where do you get the extra money?” Brown asked in a chat with reporters that took place in March. “This is the whole question. I don’t even get … how do you do that?”

[Apparently, Jerry Brown used to know the correct answer to his question. One has to wonder what it was that dislodged that answer from his memory banks. Must have been a powerful stimulus. -js]

Hmmm, I guess it doesn't matter what Jerry Brown can't remember. There's another overfed rat in California's woodpile.

Ire for Democrat Who Pulled Plug on California's Single-Payer Bill

Advocates of the single-payer healthcare proposal which has been steadily advancing through the California legislature were voicing outrage and disappointment on Saturday after Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, a Democrat, announced he was pulling the bill from further consideration this year.

Known as the Healthy California Act, or SB 562, the measure had already passed the state Senate and was making its way through the lower chamber when Rendon said Friday it was being shelved by the Assembly Rules Committee, which he chairs, "until further notice."




the horse race



Prominent Democratic Fundraisers Realign to Lobby for Trump’s Agenda

After President Donald Trump’s upset election victory, Democratic insiders who worked on Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential bid weren’t necessarily relegated to the sidelines. Many, in fact, are cashing in as lobbyists — by working to advance Trump’s agenda.

Lobbying records show that some Democratic fundraisers, who raised record amounts of campaign cash for Clinton, are now retained by top telecom interests to help repeal the strong net neutrality protections established during the Obama administration. Others are working on behalf of for-profit prisons on detention issues, while others still are paid to help corporate interests pushing alongside Trump to weaken financial regulations. At least one prominent Clinton backer is working for a health insurance company on a provision that was included in the House Republican bill to gut the Affordable Care Act.

While Republican lobbyists are more in demand, liberal lobbyists are doing brisk business that has them reaching out to fellow Democrats to endorse — or at least tamp down vocal opposition to — Trump agenda items. “These cases are clear, disturbing examples of the gulf between the interests of many of the Democratic Party’s big-money donors and those of the party’s progressive base and America’s working families,” said Kai Newkirk, co-founder of Democracy Spring, a progressive coalition. ...

The Intercept spoke to several progressive activists who expressed outrage that leading Democratic Party officials are now advancing the Trump agenda, but were reluctant to comment on the record, for fear of angering powerful Democrats. ... Becky Bond, an activist and former Bernie Sanders adviser who also spoke out, said, “When Democratic insiders team up with Comcast and the private prison industry, they make it pretty difficult to see how the party can rebuild relationships with the voters it needs to bring back into the fold.”

“Destroying the internet and maximizing the profitability of mass incarceration,” she added, “is not what I would call a winning strategy for Democrats who want to take back power in 2018.”

Left-wing activism on the rise in the United States

Heh, now the crazed, deluded Democrats are going for each other's throats.

Top Democrat Schiff criticizes Obama over reaction to Russian hacks

The Obama adminstration “should have done a lot more” to combat Russian interference in the 2016 US election before the result was known, a top congressional Democrat said on Sunday.

Adam Schiff, the ranking member of the House intelligence committee, also said Donald Trump’s complaints about White House inaction, tweeted after the Washington Post reported that Barack Obama knew about Russian interference as far back as August 2016, were like “knowingly receiving stolen property [and] blaming police for not stopping the theft”.

“I think the Obama administration should have done a lot more when it became clear that not only was Russia intervening but it was being directed at the highest levels of the Kremlin,” Schiff said. “And indeed Senator [Dianne] Feinstein and I were repeatedly trying to make that case to the administration initially when they didn’t want to make attribution, to talk publicly about Russia’s role, and later when we issued our own statement and they did attribute the conduct to Russia,” he said, referring to the California Democrat.

“I was urging that they begin then the process of sanctioning Russia, the administration talking more forcefully about what the Russians had done. I think that was a mistake.” Schiff’s comments were echoed by Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a Democratic member of the Senate intelligence committee who told CBS’s Face the Nation that once knowledge of Russian interference had been “verified and cross-checked [it] should have been made public”.

Democrats Face Failing Russia-gate Scheme

Democrats in Congress and other party leaders are starting to face an emerging reality: The “winning issue” of Russia is a losing issue. The results of a reliable new nationwide poll — and what members of Congress keep hearing when they actually listen to constituents back home — cry out for a drastic reorientation of Democratic Party passions. And a growing number of Democrats in Congress are getting the message.

“Frustrated Democrats hoping to elevate their election fortunes have a resounding message for party leaders: Stop talking so much about Russia,” The Hill reported over the weekend. In sharp contrast to their party’s top spokespeople, “rank-and-file Democrats say the Russia-Trump narrative is simply a non-issue with district voters, who are much more worried about bread-and-butter economic concerns like jobs, wages and the cost of education and healthcare.” The Hill coverage added: “In the wake of a string of special-election defeats, an increasing number of Democrats are calling for an adjustment in party messaging, one that swings the focus from Russia to the economy. The outcome of the 2018 elections, they say, hinges on how well the Democrats manage that shift.

Such assessments aren’t just impressionistic or anecdotal. A major poll has just reached conclusions that indicate party leaders have been operating under political illusions. Conducted last week, the Harvard-Harris national poll found a big disconnect between the Russia obsession of Democratic Party elites in Washington and voters around the country. The poll “reveals the risks inherent for the Democrats, who are hoping to make big gains — or even win back the House — in 2018,” The Hill reported. “The survey found that while 58 percent of voters said they’re concerned that Trump may have business dealings with Moscow, 73 percent said they’re worried that the ongoing investigations are preventing Congress from tackling issues more vital to them.” ...

But ever since the election last November, Democratic congressional leaders have been placing the party’s bets heavily on the Russia horse. And it’s now pulling up lame.



the evening greens


New study confirms the oceans are warming rapidly

The most important measurement of global warming is in the oceans. In fact, “global warming” is really “ocean warming.” If you are going to measure the changing climate of the oceans, you need to have many sensors spread out across the globe that take measurements from the ocean surface to the very depths of the waters. Importantly, you need to have measurements that span decades so a long-term trend can be established.

These difficulties are tackled by oceanographers, and a significant advancement was presented in a paper just published in the journal Climate Dynamics. That paper, which I was fortunate to be involved with, looked at three different ocean temperature measurements made by three different groups. We found that regardless of whose data was used or where the data was gathered, the oceans are warming.

ocean warming

As Trump moves to privatize America's national parks, visitor costs may rise

America’s national parks need a staggering $11.5bn worth of overdue road and infrastructure repairs. But with the proposed National Park Service budget slashed by almost $400m, the Trump administration says it will turn to privatizing public park services to address those deferred maintenance costs.

“I don’t want to be in the business of running campgrounds,” Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said at a meeting of the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association in Washington this month. This came after Donald Trump proposed cutting the Department of the Interior budget by 13%.

But some public lands advocates are concerned that privatization would drive up costs for visitors and put the egalitarian nature of visiting a park out of reach for some.

The park service did consider privatizing more services during the 1980s and 1990s, says John Garder, director of budget and appropriations of the National Parks Conservation Association. He says what the agency discovered is that, “for most part, you can’t privatize services significantly without having to raise the cost of visitation”.

Grand Canyon is our home. Uranium mining has no place here

The Havasupai – “people of the blue-green waters” – live in Supai Village, located at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Today our lives and water are being threatened by international uranium mining companies because the US government and its 1872 mining law permit uranium mining on federal lands that surround the Grand Canyon. In 1986, the Kaibab national forest authorized a Canadian-based uranium company to open Canyon mine, a uranium mine near the south rim of Grand Canyon national park. The Havasupai tribe challenged the decision but lost in the ninth circuit court of appeals. Miners were just starting to drill Canyon mine’s shaft in 1991 when falling uranium prices caused the company to shut it down for more than two decades. ...

As uranium prices began to rise again in 2007, the uranium company reopened three closed mines on lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management, north of the Grand Canyon. More than 10,000 new claims were also filed on those public lands and US Forest Service-administered lands on the south side, above where we live. In 2009, the Havasupai gathered together hundreds of supporters at Red Butte to oppose the reopening of the nearby Canyon mine. Red Butte is the sacred lungs of our Grandmother Canyon. It is also important to many neighboring tribes. We joined in prayer and ceremony to stop the desecration.

The Havasupai tribe also filed a lawsuit against the Forest Service for failing to consult us and other tribes when it permitted Canyon mine to reopen. They did not consider new evidence of its potential to pollute our people’s sole source of drinking water or to harm Red Butte. We are anxiously awaiting a decision on our case that we argued before the ninth circuit court of appeals in December 2016. Earlier this year, miners drilled Canyon mine’s shaft to a depth of 1,400ft. But before they could start mining and trucking uranium ore to the mill in Utah, millions of gallons of water needed to be pumped from the mine’s shaft after it was flooded with water from underground sources. The company reported that water in the mine’s containment pond had three times the level of uranium considered safe for human consumption.

In 2012, we celebrated the Obama administration’s order that honored our request to stop thousands of unproven claims from going forward and to close the area to prospecting for uranium. Now, misguided politicians in Arizona’s Mohave County are asking Donald Trump to overturn the decision because they claim they need uranium mining to help grow their economy. We oppose their request because we don’t want them to pollute our blue-green waters.

Once again, our sacred water and lands are being attacked to profit other people. ... Please stand with us to put an end to mining uranium in our home, which has always been the Grand Canyon.


Also of Interest

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

Ralph Nader: The Democrats Are Unable to Defend the U.S. from the “Most Vicious” Republican Party in History

Lawyers Representing Bernie Sanders Supporters Fear for their Life

What jobs will still be around in 20 years?

Lies That Capitalists Tell Us


A Little Night Music

James Carr - Forgetting You

James Carr - Coming back to me baby

James Carr - Love Attack (Version 2)

James Carr - A Man Needs A Woman

James Carr - Sock It To Me Baby!

James Carr - I'm A Fool For You

James Carr - That's What I Want To Know

James Carr - Bring Her Back

James Carr - Pouring Water On A Drowning Man

James Carr - Freedom Train


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mimi's picture

Seymour Hersh story and the James Carr songs.
PS. I can't help it, but doesn't the Weasel on the Rose Ann DeMoro tweet looks a little bit like Jeff Sessions? /s/ducking.

It's after midnight here, so, Good Night, EB-ers.

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joe shikspack's picture

@mimi

or morning as the case may be.

that weasel is so generic as to resemble not only beauregard sessions but quite a lot of other politicians. Smile

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karl pearson's picture

That Intercept interview with Ralph Nader was a good summary of what has happened to the Democratic party over the last several decades. The first sentence says it all:

The Democratic Party is at its lowest ebb in the memory of everyone now alive.

Because of the Democratic party's collapse, there is no real opposition to the Republican party, which has become the most "radically extremist, cruel, vicious, Wall Street, militarist" Republican party in its history.

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joe shikspack's picture

@karl pearson

i could probably condense it further to, "there is only one party with two intramural teams."

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enhydra lutris's picture

Somebody needs to remix the badger, badger, badger ... video replacing "badger" with "Russia".

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

joe shikspack's picture

@enhydra lutris

i like it. badger, badger, badger, badger, putin, putin ...

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Amazing. According to that Guardian article, with this new proposed health-care legislation, those who have been wanting to slash Medicaid are going to get their wish. At the other end of the spectrum, 6 in 10 rely on some Medicaid for Nursing Home care? Wow, sounds like we're going back to the good old days when babies and grandmas pulled themselves up by their bootstraps.

On top of that, as Ralph Nader points out, we can forget about expecting any help from the Democrats to put up a fight. But we already knew that.

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joe shikspack's picture

@randtntx

i got a hot stock tip - invest in ice floes.

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thanatokephaloides's picture

@joe shikspack

..... pistol manufacturers ....

Bad

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

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Shahryar's picture

They can't switch their narrative until they come up with an alternative but they are afraid of dealing with issues. And working on a new message would be an admission that the Russian thing is a mistake. They would look like....losers! They can't back out, much like a cow who has wandered part way through the front door of the house.

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joe shikspack's picture

@Shahryar

lately i've been thinking that all of the yelling, screaming and stomping is just a distraction to cover the fact that they are being paid to take a dive.

another election cycle or two ought to do it and the republicans should have enough state legislatures for a constitutional convention.

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mimi's picture

@joe shikspack
hmm, I would invest may be in stocks of land mine detection euqipment companies and as a secure job I suggest "de-miners". Really a safe job. No fears to be layed off from those.

What else:
Yemen orders probe into alleged torture by UAE
Prime Minister sets up panel to probe alleged abuse and forced disappearances by UAE and its allied Yemeni forces.

No wonder the Saudis want from Quatar that Al-Jazzeera has to be shut down.

Now I don't know anymore, what I have read where and where it was mentioned here and who plays what kind of psy-op with whom.

Going nuts is the only healthy option in here considering this little note:
WaPo: Obama Knew Putin Was Directly Involved in Election Interference.
I am concerned about Obama's nightly sleeplessness that for sure is going to haunt him for a long time to come.

Sometimes all that is left is the desire to cry and not being able to.

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snoopydawg's picture

Hersh wrote about the first sarin gas attack in 2013 which Obama used for his red line. Hey if it almost worked the first time, then why not try using it again with a new president?

Yes I know that Hillary lied about how and why the embassy in Benghazi was attacked. But what the republicans failed to ask was what was happening at the embassy at the time of the attacks. If they had asked her about that, they might have discovered this little tidbit.

Seymour Hersh Says Hillary Approved Sending Libya’s Sarin to Syrian Rebels

Hersh also said that a secret agreement in 2012 was reached between the Obama Administration and the leaders of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, to set up a sarin gas attack and blame it on Assad so that the US could invade and overthrow Assad. «By the terms of the agreement, funding came from Turkey, as well as Saudi Arabia and Qatar; the CIA, with the support of MI6, was responsible for getting arms from Gaddafi’s arsenals into Syria».

I still cannot fathom the mind set of people who can do the heinous things they do to other human beings, especially children. This is the definition of evil!

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

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

there is a mindset that people who hold high office fall into, where they start thinking about "the people" not as individuals, but as large groups. when they reach this point of abstraction they are able to make the sort of decisions that we would consider pure evil without causing themselves cognitive dissonance.

"The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic."

-- Joe Stalin

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snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack
1 murder is heinous, 1,000 is collateral damage.

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

lotlizard's picture

@joe shikspack  

We think it is worth it.
—Madeleine Albright

We came, we saw, he died. (laughs)
—Hillary Clinton

That’s what passes itself off as “moderate” and “sane” in America.

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thanatokephaloides's picture

"I guess it didn't matter whether we elected Clinton or Trump.“

-- Seymour Hersh

I hate to say "I told you so", but....

Diablo

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

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

joe shikspack's picture

@thanatokephaloides

yep. bullseye.

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Meteor Man's picture

Here's the procedural tactic the Democrats can use to block a vote in the Senate, from Reader Supported News:

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/44287-focus-the-democrats...

To pass the AHCA swiftly, the Republican Party has utilized a procedure called “Budget Reconciliation.” This offers them the advantage of being able to pass the AHCA with only 51 votes instead of the 60 that most bills require. But there’s a catch. In return for lowering the vote threshold, the Republicans must allow Democrats to file amendments to the bill. And here’s the best part: there is no limit to how many amendments can be filed.

This is how the Democrats can cause chaos and shut down the AHCA proceedings — file hundreds, even thousands of amendments, grind the Senate to a halt and force the Republicans to allow the public a glimpse at what McConnell and his team have been brewing in the shadows.

A procedural filibuster. Sounds simple enough to me.

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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

joe shikspack's picture

@Meteor Man

that might just be what the republicans want at this point, since it appears that they are unlikely to be able to find a compromise that their various factions can all agree upon. if they can blame their failure on those awful democrats, they might be able to bamboozle their base some more.

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

"no news, is good news,' which pretty well describes me this evening. I've been puzzled as to why a single-payer bill has not been introduced by now, but I guess Schumer's comments about introducing a 'bold agenda/platform' in the next month (on a Sunday show) pretty much says it all. IOW, I suppose they're trying to wait out the Repubs (regarding them passes/or not passing an ACA 'reform' bill), and then they'll roll out what they're running on in 2018--which will include a single-payer bill, since they know one won't possibly pass in a Repub-controlled Congress. Somehow I think I've seen this movie before!

Thanks for tonight's edition of News & Blues, Joe.

We've had very moderate/pleasant weather for a couple of days, but we're bracing for the heat to roll in by this weekend.

Hey, Everyone have a nice evening!

Pleasantry

Mollie


"Every time I lose a dog, he takes a piece of my heart. Every new dog gifts me with a piece of his. Someday, my heart will be total dog, and maybe then I will be just as generous, loving, and forgiving."
____Author Unknown

"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went."--Will Rogers

“I believe in the redemptive powers of a dog’s love. It is in recognition of each dog’s potential to lift the human spirit and therefore–to change society for the better, that I fight to make sure every street dog has its day.”
--Stasha Wong, Secretary, Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD)

The SOSD Fantastic Four

Available For Adoption, Save Our Street Dogs, SOSD

Taro
Taro, SOSD

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

Meteor Man's picture

It's all good. Obstruction worked for the Republicans. If the Dems can find their backbone they can fire up their base.

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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

Easyfish

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

divineorder's picture

Not exactly sitting downtown in a railway station but waiting to depart . Reading the EB.... Hope all is well.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@divineorder

i guess you guys are in flight now, but in case there's wifi on the plane - have a great (and safe) flight!

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