The Evening Blues - 7-26-17



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Casey Bill Weldon

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features a great, often overlooked early slide guitar player, Casey Bill Weldon. Enjoy!

Casey Bill Weldon - Blues Everywere I Go

Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build the big bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks

-- Bob Dylan


News and Opinion

Here are some excerpts from an interview conducted by Dennis Bernstein with Kate Gould, Legislative Representative for Middle East Policy for the Friends Committee on National Legislation:

House GOP Seeks to Curb Yemen War

Republicans are taking the lead in blocking U.S. participation in the Saudi slaughter in Yemen, which has plunged that country to the brink of starvation and sparked a cholera epidemic. Surprising to many, there was a vote by the Republican-led House of Representatives to block U.S. participation in the Saudi-led war. The key amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act — prohibiting U.S. military support for the Saudi-led coalition’s bombing of Yemen — was sponsored by Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio. Though the amendment gained bipartisan support — and another restrictive amendment was sponsored by Rep. Dick Nolan, D-Minnesota — the Republican leadership on this issue reflects the changing places in which Democrats have become the more hawkish party in Congress. ...

DB: It is interesting that the Republican-led House has voted to block US participation in the war in Yemen. It seems somewhat counter-intuitive.

KG: It is definitely surprising. Although I’ve been working around the clock on this recently, even I was surprised. What happened is that last week [week of July 9] the House of Representatives voted on the major military policy bill for fiscal year 2018. This is a major piece of national security legislation which authorizes funding for the Pentagon. It has to get passed every year and it provides an opportunity for members to vote on amendments that have to do with national security.

Two of these amendments were particularly consequential for Yemen. One was introduced by a Republican, Warren Davidson of Ohio, and the other by Rick Nolan, a Democrat from Minnesota. They added language that would require the Trump administration to stop providing refueling for Saudi and Emirati bombers, as well as to stop intelligence sharing and other forms of military support. It wouldn’t stop the weapons sales, which is another process, but it would stop military support for this indiscriminate war.

The Davidson amendment would prohibit US military action in Yemen that is not authorized by the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force. Given that US participation in the Saudi-led war in Yemen is not targeting Al-Qaeda, it is not authorized by the 2001 AUMF and is prohibited by this amendment. The Nolan amendment prohibits the deployment of US troops for any participation in Yemen’s civil war.

This means that the House just voted to end US funding of our military for the Saudi-led war in Yemen. This is really unprecedented and it builds on the wave of congressional momentum that we saw last month when 47 senators voted against sending more of what we call “weapons of mass starvation” to Yemen. So we have clear signals from both the House and the Senate that there is no support for Trump’s blank check to Saudi Arabia for this devastating war.

DB: So now this goes to the Senate?

KG: Yes, and there we are going to face a more difficult fight. We’re preparing for that now. We definitely will see some important Yemen votes in the Senate. It could come up right after a health care vote in early August or it might not be voted on until the fall. But we will see votes on Yemen. It is unclear whether a Senate member will offer amendments similar to the Davidson or Nolan amendments.

Newly Declassified Documents Confirm U.S. Backed 1953 Coup in Iran Over Oil Contracts

Newly declassified State Department documents show oil contracts played a key role in the U.S.-backed 1953 coup in Iran that led to the overthrow of the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. "What the documents show is actually the importance of oil in the coup," says Professor Ervand Abrahamian. "The conventional wisdom is, oh, it was all the Cold War scare, communism. But here you see, actually, very occasionally, when Eisenhower intervenes in a discussion, it’s about question of oil contracts and so on and how nationalization would disrupt the whole international framework and would be a threat to U.S. interests, oil interests, elsewhere."

Colonialism and Greed: Trump Considers Afghan War Expansion to Exploit Minerals

As the 16th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan approaches, President Donald Trump is reportedly being pressured by a billionaire financier and a chemical executive to extend the scope of the conflict for one simple, greedy reason: to exploit Afghanistan's mineral reserves.

According to James Risen and Mark Landler of the New York Times, the Trump administration is "considering sending an envoy to Afghanistan to meet with mining officials" as the president is receiving encouragement from Stephen Feinberg, the billionaire head of DynCorp, and Michael Silver, the head of American Elements, a firm that specializes in "extracting rare-earth minerals."

"In 2010, American officials estimated that Afghanistan had untapped mineral deposits worth nearly $1 trillion," Risen and Landler note. This large figure reportedly "caught the attention of" the president, who has in the past argued that the biggest failure of the U.S. in Iraq was not"taking" the country's oil.

Trump is hardly the first president to notice and eagerly examine Afghanistan's mineral reserves. "In 2006, the George W. Bush administration conducted aerial surveys of the country to map its mineral resources," Risen and Landler note. "Under President Barack Obama, the Pentagon set up a task force to try to build a mining industry in Afghanistan—a challenge that was stymied by rampant corruption, as well as security problems and the lack of roads, bridges or railroads." Nonetheless, Trump appears to be committed to the belief that mineral extraction "could be one justification for the United States to stay engaged in the country," despite warnings from security analysts that such a strategy could risk further deadly confrontations with the Taliban.


US weapons complicate Afghan war

Weaponry provided to the Afghan military over the last 16 years has slowly trickled down to the Taliban through corruption and battlefield losses. Armored vehicles, night vision devices, M-4s, laser illuminators and scoped optics have all found the way into Taliban hands over the years. And at times the U.S. has been forced to combat its own armored vehicles and weapons. ...

In areas of Uruzgan province, the Afghan National Army, or ANA, is afraid to conduct night operations, impacting its ability to hold re-captured terrain, a U.S. military official told Military Times. Large numbers of Taliban fighters in the area have night vision, ACOGs, and M-4s, and they are fighting an ANA force supplied with only M-16s, helmets and flak jackets, the official said. In one instance, an ANA night patrol in the region experienced nearly 20 casualties because the opponent was better equipped, the official said.

America Had Already Lost Its Covert War in Syria—Now It’s Official

President Trump has shut down America’s covert program to arm and train Syrian rebels fighting the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Trump decided to terminate the secret CIA program nearly a month ago, the Washington Post reported Wednesday. The program had, since 2013, provided training, salaries, and weaponry to “vetted” rebel factions waging war on the Assad regime.

America has definitively ended its commitment to regime change in Syria—half-hearted though it was. Trump’s decision is, on some level, an admission of defeat. But it is also a concession to reality, and an acknowledgement that America’s covert military program in Syria was misconceived from the start.

The program was intended to build a moderate rebel force that could apply serious enough military pressure on the regime to force Assad to step aside as part of a negotiated political settlement. But the latter part of that objective, a compelled transition, was always fantasy. As for the “moderate rebel force,” for the last several years much of America’s support has gone to “Free Syrian Army” (FSA) factions that have functioned as battlefield auxiliaries and weapons farms for larger Islamist and jihadist factions, including Syria’s al-Qaeda affiliate.

The problem with the program, which was reportedly running the CIA nearly a billion dollars a year, was not that it was under resourced or “insufficient in scale.” The problem was that its logic was wrong and out of sync with the basic dynamics of the insurgency. ... There’s a fairly clear cause-and-effect logic from truckloads of weapons to massacres and chaos—which some people might call “victory,” I suppose. But instead, the U.S. government tried to use a remotely managed proxy war to force an extremely delicate, negotiated political resolution. It was an elaborate, Rube Goldbergian military-political project that could never work.

France: Libyan PM Al-Sarraj and Haftar agree to ceasefire at Paris talks

Libyan Unity Govt, Key General Agree to Ceasefire

Libya’s UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj and the divided country's eastern commander General Khalifa Haftar agreed to a conditional ceasefire and elections at Paris talks on Tuesday.

"We commit to a ceasefire and to refrain from any use of armed force for any purpose that does not strictly constitute counter-terrorism," the rival leaders said after the talks.

French President Emmanuel Macron hosted the talks, stating that he hoped to “facilitate a political agreement” between the head of Libya's unity government and the powerful Egyptian-backed commander when they met at a chateau in La Celle Saint-Cloud, outside the French capital.

One of the key problems is that Libya numbers two rival parliaments and three governments (the latest was formed in UN-brokered talks and was meant to replace the other two). Haftar rejected the authority of Sarraj’s UN-backed government as his forces gained ground in the east of the country, supported by Egypt and United Arab Emirates.

House votes overwhelmingly to approve new Russia sanctions

The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to slap new sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea, despite President Donald Trump's objections to the legislation.

Senate leaders have not said when they might consider the House bill. The White House said the president had not yet decided whether he would sign the measure.

'Tipping point': Israel & Palestine trade barbs at UNSC over Jerusalem protests

The drama of pots and kettles continues...

Erdogan: Israel is harming Jerusalem’s Islamic character

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has intervened in the continuing crisis surrounding the Jerusalem holy sites by accusing Israel of undermining the city’s “Islamic character”, in comments likely to further inflame regional tensions. The comments by Erdogan, which came as Muslim leaders called on Palestinians to continue prayers and protests in the city, triggered an immediate tit-for-tat with Israeli officials, who said the accusation was “absurd” and pointed to Turkey’s own human rights record.

Protests have been held each evening outside the compound housing Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque after Israel introduced new security measures, which followed the killing of two Israeli police officers at the entrance to the shrine by three Israeli Arabs.

Speaking at a conference in Ankara, Erdogan said: “Israel is harming Jerusalem’s Islamic character ... Nobody should expect us to remain silent against the double standards in Jerusalem.” He added that Turkey “cannot tolerate” constraints placed on Muslims visiting the site during prayers. Erdogan’s intervention looks set to raise the temperature again, with Israel’s foreign ministry accusing Turkey of behaving as though the Ottoman empire still existed.

“It’s absurd that the Turkish government, which occupies northern Cyprus, brutally represses the Kurdish minority and jails journalists, lectures Israel, the only true democracy in the region,” said a spokesman, Emmanuel Nahshon. The evolving crisis has seen Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority suspend security cooperation with Israel on the West Bank, as well as the nightly mass protests in Jerusalem that are beginning to take the shape of a campaign of civil disobedience.

CIA and FBI documents on investigation into Kennedy assassination are released

More than 3,800 records related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy have been released today by the National Archives.

Most of the documents were previously released with parts redacted, and 441 have never been released before. Of those that were previously redacted, some have now had the redactions removed.

Among the materials, which include CIA and FBI records, are transcripts and 17 recordings of interviews with Yuri Nosenko, a former KGB agent who defected in 1964 and claimed he was in charge of the KGB file on Lee Harvey Oswald when Oswald was in the Soviet Union.

The list of documents released Monday also includes some referring to the investigation into Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination in 1968, five years after President Kennedy was killed.

War In Afghanistan Driving U.S. Opioid Crisis

By now, most Americans should be aware that the country is in the middle of a serious opioid addiction crisis. Drug overdose is now the leading cause of death for Americans under 50, two thirds of which are from opioid overdoses. While approximately half the opioid overdose deaths are from prescription drugs, heroin use has also dramatically increased. ... Often after getting addicted to a prescription opioid like OxyContin or Vicodin, a now-addict is cut off by a physician from legally obtaining an opioid drug. That person then moves to heroin, which is readily available on the black market and in high-quality form.

And where is all this high-quality heroin coming from? Afghanistan.

Since the U.S. invasion in 2001, opium production in Afghanistan has spiked – paralleling the spike in opioid use in the United States. This increased production has led to the U.S. (and other places) being flooded with cheap and very potent heroin. Given the scale of the opium production in Afghanistan, it would be absurd to claim the U.S. government is somehow unaware of the activity. In fact, all available evidence suggests U.S. forces are tolerating the thriving opium trade in exchange for loyalty from Afghan political leaders – a process that, at one time at least, went all the way up to the president. ...

While there is a realpolitik argument for making alliances with drug dealers to achieve larger geopolitical goals, it does fundamentally undermine the moral preening associated with the so-called U.S. “War on Drugs.” But if the U.S. government really wants to curtail the opioid crisis, it has at least one clear and obvious action it can take – stop the war in Afghanistan.

In “Dangerous” Move, Republicans Push to Strip Healthcare From Millions Without Holding Any Hearings

Don’t Be Fooled by This Senate Vote: The Road to Repealing Obamacare Is Just as Long as It Was Yesterday

Driven forward by taunts and threats from President Donald Trump, 50 Republicans snapped to attention in the Senate on Tuesday and voted in dramatic fashion to proceed to a debate on repealing the Affordable Care Act. The vote paves the way for Republicans to move forward — though the Senate seems unlikely to be able to carry out any of its most ambitious plans for undoing President Barack Obama’s signature health care reform law. Instead, Republicans appear poised to pass a limited repeal of several elements of the Affordable Care Act, if even that much. ...

While McCain begged the Senate to return to “regular order” — committee votes, thoughtful legislating, that sort of thing — the process his vote unleashed could make the last six months look downright deliberate. And, in the best case (legislative) scenario for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., a conference committee will deliver a take-it-leave it bill that 50 of his colleagues will agree to take.

To get to this point, McConnell had to effectively take off the table the proposals that had been on it up until last week. The pomp and the circumstance served to obscure the reality that the only thing accomplished was an agreement to debate something — though that something is still itself obscured. ... The new idea, per NBC News, is to come up with a “skinny repeal.” This would consist merely of eliminating the individual and employer mandates and, perhaps, the medical device tax on large non-retail medical equipment.

That “bill,” the lowest common denominator of relatively unpopular Obamacare items, would then go to a House-Senate conference to merge with the House-passed American Health Care Act. There it would be dramatically re-written. ... Whatever came out of conference would then get an up-or-down vote in both chambers of Congress. “All the things you are trying to avoid will emerge from that conference,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., warned his moderate Republican colleagues.

Trump to rally: GOP senators who oppose health bill 'will have a lot of problems'

Donald Trump warned that Republican senators who don’t support legislation repealing and replacing Obamacare “will have a lot of problems”. Speaking for an hour at a campaign-style rally in Youngstown, Ohio, Trump took a victory lap after the Senate voted to begin debate on legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act. “We are now one step closer to liberating our citizens from this Obamacare nightmare,” he said.

Before a raucous crowd in the blue-collar city, Trump went on to warn that “any senator who votes against repeal and replace tells America that they are fine with the Obamacare nightmare, and I predict they’ll have a lot of problems”.

Democratic Senators Plan To Jam Up Repeal With Hundreds Of Amendments

Sen. Jeff Merkeley, D-Ore., has a stack of more than a hundred amendments ready to propose during the debate over repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, according to sources familiar with Merkley’s thinking. The unusual Senate process that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is employing creates the opportunity for unusual situations on the Senate floor — allowing for maneuvers like the one planned by Merkley.

The first 20 hours of debate will be fairly normal, evenly divided between the two sides with major amendments offered and voted on. None of them are expected to pass, because McConnell does not have the votes for full repeal or for his replacement measure. Instead, he is focused on a “skinny repeal” targeting merely the individual and employer mandates for insurance, and the medical device tax.

Along the way, however, the Senate will have a period of time known as a vote-a-rama, where an unlimited number of amendments can be offered. Merkley plans to take advantage of that process and offer as many as physically possible.

'I wish I could get President Trump to see this': Fairground becomes a makeshift hospital 'like you'd expect to see in Sudan' to deal with the US health care crisis as officials grumble over Obamacare

President Trump has been urged to visit a country fairground in Virginia which has become a makeshift hospital to deal with the US health care crisis. As Republican officials continue to grumble over Obamacare, the reality on the ground is stark - people camping overnight to be first in line for free treatment at a pop-up outdoor medical center. Hundreds of desperate patients, some in their 90s, traveled miles to be seen to by doctors who used animal stalls, articulated lorries and barns to carry out examinations and treatment.

Pictures show rows of people lying in beds being treated by doctors walking on dirty tarmac and it was described by one charity worker as a scene that might be expected in countries such as Sudan. Describing the chaotic scenes, Brit Stan Brock who founded Remote Area Medical, the charity behind the event, told the Daily Telegraph: 'I just wish I could President Trump to come and see this. 'The people here are Mr Trump's constituency, they're his voters, and it drives me up the wall.

'This organisation was designed to parachute into the most God-awful places. I expected to see stuff like this in South Sudan and Haiti, but it's right here in the United States of America.'

[See article for photo essay. - js]



the horse race



If Trump wants to fire Jeff Sessions, let him – it would be a gift to America

Everyone is speculating that Trump is trying to force Sessions to resign, or will eventually fire him directly if Sessions does not act himself. Strangely, many Democrats seem to be worried that Trump will actually pull the trigger, when they should be welcoming this development with open arms. Sessions leaving the justice department would be a gift to the American public on multiple levels. ...

Think about all the abhorrent policies Sessions has already put into motion in his five short months at the helm. He has provided legal backing for Trump’s extreme immigrations policies. He has argued that authorities can keep grandparents apart from their family when enforcing Trump’s controversial travel ban. He is laying the groundwork to crack down on the millions of people who use recreational marijuana in states where it is now legal. He has planned a crackdown on leakers and whistleblowers, while also refusing to rule out prosecuting news organizations directly for doing their job.

He plans on essentially dismantling the vital civil rights division at the justice department and giving local police officers a free hand to continue to discriminate against African Americans. He wants to reverse the Obama-era policy on mandatory minimum sentences and press for still longer terms, whose impact is so extreme they are rightly seen as racist. Sessions has rejected scientific findings about improving the forensic evidence process that has led to countless innocent people being thrown in prison. The list goes on.

Sessions is exerting more power over millions of Americans than any other Trump cabinet member and is an unmitigated disaster for civil rights, civil liberties and criminal justice reform. If Trump wants to fire him, then good! ...

Sessions leaving office leads to the best of all worlds: a uniquely horrible Trump cabinet official who is making life miserable for millions of Americans is gone; it will be incredibly tough for Trump to get a new attorney general confirmed; he won’t be able to make a recess appointment; and it might further the obstruction of justice case against him.

Is Trump’s Base Turning on the President Over His Humiliation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions?



the evening greens


Pepsico, Unilever and Nestlé accused of complicity in illegal rainforest destruction

Pepsico, Unilever and Nestlé have been accused of complicity in the destruction of Sumatra’s last tract of rainforest shared by elephants, orangutans, rhinos, and tigers together in one ecosystem. Plantations built on deforested land have allegedly been used to supply palm oil to scores of household brands that also include McDonald’s, Mars, Kellogg’s and Procter & Gamble, according to a new report.

“If more immediate action is not taken to enforce ‘no deforestation’ policies, these brands will be remembered as the corporate giants responsible for the destruction of the last place on earth where Sumatran elephants, orangutans, rhinos and tigers roamed side by side,” says the study by Rainforest Action Network (RAN).

Using satellite data, photographic evidence and GPS coordinates, the research builds on evidence gathered earlier this year to show ongoing illegal forest clearances across swathes of the 2.6m hectare Leuser ecosystem, despite a moratorium announced last June. ...

Leuser’s vanishing ecosystem is already have a devastating effect on critically endangered elephants which use it as a migratory corridor. At least 35 elephants were killed in Leuser between 2012-2015, and human-animal conflicts are fast increasing as palm plantations fragment animal habitats.

Their greed knows no limit. The timber industry bastards want to take their chainsaws to the Giant Sequoia National Monument.

Trump plan could open Giant Sequoia monument to logging and wildfires

For the largest living things standing on the planet, California’s giant sequoias have an unassuming, almost gentle aura to them. The recognizable cinnamon-colored bark is soft and fibrous. Its cones are modest. When cut down, the trees tend to shatter and won’t produce reliably sturdy timber. These majestic plants have a lineage stretching back to the Jurassic period, but fears over their future have prompted a somewhat counterintuitive plan presented to the Trump administration – in order to save the giant sequoias, some say, their surrounding area must be stripped of protected status.

As part of the Trump administration’s determination to roll back regulation and open public land to private industry, the interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, is currently undertaking a review of more than two dozen national monuments declared since the 1990s. The stated goal of the review is to reboot extractive industries such as mining and logging. Supporters of the Giant Sequoia monument fear a unique ecosystem is at risk from timber industry advocates who would peel back protections. ...

At a boisterous public meeting in June, the Tulare County supervisors voted 3-2 in support of a plan to shrink the Giant Sequoia national monument, which contains the majority of the world’s population of the towering trees, to less than a third its current size. The decision sparked bellowing acrimony that required the county sheriff to step in to restore calm. “It kind of got out of control,” said Steve Worthley, vice-chairman of the board of supervisors in Tulare County, California.

In a letter to Zinke, the supervisors decry a “tree mortality epidemic” fueled by lengthy drought and raging wildfires. The solution, the county members suggest, is to reduce the size of the monument area so that loggers can remove trees that may combust and threaten the stands of sequoias. A 328,000-acre connected protected area on the slopes of the southern Sierra Nevada would be transformed into small pockets of no-logging zones covering just the sequoia clusters themselves – a plan that some scientists warn would degrade the wider ecosystem and, ultimately, the sequoias.

Exxon, Shell and other carbon producers sued for sea level rises in California

Three Californian communities have launched legal action against some of the world’s biggest oil, gas and coal companies, seeking compensation for the current and future costs of adapting to sea level rises linked to climate change. San Mateo and Marin Counties, coastal communities in northern California, and Imperial Beach, a city in San Diego County, have filed complaints against 37 “carbon majors”, including Shell, Chevron, Statoil, Exxon and Total.

They claim greenhouse gas emissions from the fossil fuel companies’ activities over the last 50 years have locked in substantial sea level rises, which will cause billions of dollars’ worth of damage to properties and businesses, as well as endangering lives. According to the complaint, the defendants “have known for nearly 50 years years that greenhouse gas pollution from their fossil fuel products has a significant impact on the Earth’s climate and sea levels”. Rather than working to reduce impacts, the complaint claims the companies engaged in a “co-ordinated, multi-front effort to conceal and deny their knowledge of these threats”.

A spokeswoman for Shell said “we believe climate change is a complex societal challenge that should be addressed through sound government policy and cultural change to drive low-carbon choices for businesses and consumers, not by the courts.” A spokesman for Statoil said this lawsuit was not the first against the industry and that “previous cases have been dismissed as [providing energy while meeting climate commitments] is a political, not a judicial, issue”.

Exxon and Chevron declined to comment specifically on the litigation. BP and Total did not respond to the Guardian’s request for comment.

Britain to ban sale of all diesel and petrol cars and vans from 2040

Britain is to ban all new petrol and diesel cars and vans from 2040 amid fears that rising levels of nitrogen oxide pose a major risk to public health. The commitment, which follows a similar pledge in France, is part of the government’s much-anticipated clean air plan, which has been at the heart of a protracted high court legal battle.

The government warned that the move, which will also take in hybrid vehicles, was needed because of the unnecessary and avoidable impact that poor air quality was having on people’s health. Ministers believe it poses the largest environmental risk to public health in the UK, costing up to £2.7bn in lost productivity in one recent year.

Ministers have been urged to introduce charges for vehicles to enter a series of “clean air zones” (CAZ). However, the government only wants taxes to be considered as a last resort, fearing a backlash against any move that punishes motorists.

“Poor air quality is the biggest environmental risk to public health in the UK and this government is determined to take strong action in the shortest time possible,” a government spokesman said.


Also of Interest

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

Intercepted Podcast: Glenn Greenwald on the New Cold War

Fusion GPS Illuminates the Brave New World of Manufactured News for Hire

Are the Latest Russia Sanctions Really About Forcing US LNG on Europe?

The future of fake news: don't believe everything you read, see or hear

Koch Brothers Orchestrate Grassroots Effort to Lower Corporate Taxes, Documents Show

Brazil's right on the rise as anger grows over scandal and corruption

100,000 Pages of Chemical Industry Secrets Gathered Dust in an Oregon Barn for Decades — Until Now

Scary Dairy: You Scream, I Scream... Monsanto Roundup Ice Cream

A people-owned internet exists. Here is what it looks like

Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 shortlist - in pictures

Recommended:

Macron’s Maneuvers on the New Cold War - An Interview with Diana Johnstone


A Little Night Music

Casey Bill Weldon & Brown Bombers of Swing - Walking In My Sleep

Casey Bill Weldon - You Gotta Do Your Duty

Casey Bill Weldon - Has My Gal Been Here

Casey Bill Weldon - Go Ahead, Buddy

Casey Bill Weldon - Guitar Swing

Casey Bill Weldon - You Just as Well Let Her Go

Casey Bill Weldon - New Round and Round

Memphis Minnie & Casey Bill Weldon - New Orleans Stop Time

Casey Bill Weldon - Flood Water Blues No. 1

Washboard Rhythm Kings w/Casey Bill Weldon - Arlena


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Not Henry Kissinger's picture

The new idea, per NBC News, is to come up with a “skinny repeal.” This would conI sist merely of eliminating the individual and employer mandates and, perhaps, the medical device tax on large non-retail medical equipment.

Actually, I can live with this.

The Federal mandate that all US citizens buy flawed and unusable financial products from private health insurance cartel is up there with the Alien & Sedition Acts as one of the least popular laws in the history of the United States. And with good reason.

Getting rid of the domestic tariff on medical devices helps US manufacturing and trade.

If those two repeals are all that result from this fiasco, I'm OK with the outcome.

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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

joe shikspack's picture

@Not Henry Kissinger

yep, i'd be happy to see the individual mandate go as well. i don't know enough about the medical device tax to opine one way or the other on it.

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Not Henry Kissinger's picture

@joe shikspack @joe shikspack

which just gets passed along to the hospitals who then pass it along to the patients in the form of higher machine fees (CT scans, etc.).

It raises about $3 billion a year with the money supposedly subsidizing insurance companies offering plans to low income Obamacare patients.

So basically, the government is taxing patients by means of a hidden machine fee and handing that money to the health insurance insurance cartel - all the while making it more expensive for domestic manufacturers of the machines to innovate.

I do want to clear something up from my previous comment. The machine excise tax does not apply to exports, which all told means it's probably a wash in terms of trade.

But it's still yet another example of how the US health delivery system makes it more expensive for people inside the US to get health care than it does for people abroad.

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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

joe shikspack's picture

@Not Henry Kissinger

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SparkyGump's picture

I can't stand that little prick. He wants to restart the drug war to fill all those private prisons. He also wants to increase civil forfeiture and treat medical cannabis patients like criminals. This guy actually said he liked the klan until he found about their cannabis use. Eff that jerk.

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The real SparkyGump has passed. It was an honor being your human.

joe shikspack's picture

@SparkyGump

i just don't see a downside to beauregard being ejected from office. i will hoist a glass to toast his removal whenever or however it happens.

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Steven D's picture

a people owned internet and the "Poison Papers."
Both quite revealing.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@Steven D

i've been wondering for quite a while if there is a means for people to take back the internet from the nosy corporate overlords that are holding it hostage. i hope that we see a lot of organic growth of the people's internet.

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A good symposium. Per your link on US un-involment with Syria. Do they really think we are that stupid? We've spent the last 25 years and untold trillions in black ops to get their pipelines. Does anyone awake realise this is another in the long line of prop BS? I think so. Many are starting to question, so now is the time for the PTB to spin. Yeah right, the US military is going to stop harassing governments that won't go along with the oil cartel (Rexxon). Serious doubts there.

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joe shikspack's picture

@QMS

heh, of course it's just a retrenchment. the great game continues. the us will never give up trying to rule the world.

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enhydra lutris's picture

The timetable on the Yemeb bill seems a bit lackadaisical. Here the military and the admin are waging an illegal war without Congressional permission, so we'll look into doing something about it oncew were done with more important business, like fucking around with the ACA. Uh, huh.

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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

yes, it is a day late and a donut short, but, it seems like a miracle that it made it to the floor of the house without the leadership blocking it. it seems unlikely that it was an oversight.

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

to say 'hi,' and thanks for tonight's EB. Since I'm so late getting here, I'll post excerpts about single-payer plans another evening.

Will swing back and check out more articles after we chow down, shortly. Good article, but I'm not certain that I agree with Dan Wright regarding the cause of the 'heroin crisis.' Frankly, I would lay the fiasco at the feet of our lawmakers who enacted laws that may have been well-meaning (creating tamper-proof opiod drugs, and restricting the use of them, to the point that the prices have skyrocketed), but were mostly disastrous when executed.

Hey, hope Everyone has a nice evening--stay cool!

Bye

[Edited: Dan Wright, not Dan Miller. Wacko ]

Mollie


“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

Cole - SOSD

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

joe shikspack's picture

@Unabashed Liberal

heh, yeah, with something like the newly-discovered opioid crisis, there are so many factors vying for the position of "the cause," that it is difficult to simplify. anything involving drugs has been so ham-handedly mishandled by the government for decades that the best thing that could possibly happen would be for all levels of the government to cease all efforts at regulating drugs through law enforcement powers. they are just making things worse.

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

@joe shikspack

Heard about it on XM Radio, but hadn't seen any photos.

The medical and dental professionals who participate/volunteer are saints, IMO.

Kudos to them all!

Give rose

Mollie

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

for your roundup. I'm too bleary-eyed to read much tonight but will revisit this week's EB on Friday. That story on the opioid issue reminds me of that History channel special that I think Azzelo recommended about the Drug War. I was able to watch two of those episodes but then I wasn't able to access the last one. Anyway it was a fascinating program.

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snoopydawg's picture

of their oil. The Rockefellers owned standard oil, which became British petroleum, or BP. The royal family also were complicit in the coup.

I too wouldn't mind seeing Sessions hitting the road. His drug policies are heinous and if he gets them enacted, the states that have legalized marijuana will lose millions from taxes. Colorado has made $500 million since they legalized it.
What needs to happen next is for the government to allow the stores that sell it to be able to accept more than just cash. If the banks can get away with laundering drug money for the cartels, then so should regulator Americans.
Dammit Janet spoke about the difficulties she had when she worked at the dispensary.,
(speaking of her, has anyone heard from her or know how she is doing? There seems to be quite a few missing people who have left this site. I see a few of their names on other websites and wish that they would pop in and say "Heya")

On a related note, the DEA is fighting in courts in Utah to be able to access people's prescribed drug history without a warrant to see how many prescriptions that they get from doctors. I'm sure that they are doing this anyway, they just want to make it legal.

I recently wrote about the problems I'm having with my pain clinic regarding my pain prescriptions and how the opioid epidemic is affecting people who are in chronic pain and their difficulties with getting their doctors to prescribe pain medications.
I see my surgeon tomorrow, so please wish me luck with what's going to happen regarding my treatment.

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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

the iran/oil thing falls under the category of things that we always knew but the government would never admit. i guess that it's timely that they are admitting it just as trump (note the juxtaposition in the eb above) is considering escalating the war in afghanistan (again) in order to control the trillion dollars worth of (ahem, "our") minerals mysteriously lurking under the afghan soil.

good luck with your surgeon! i hope that you are able to get what you need without further difficulty.

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snoopydawg's picture

Into cities in the USA for decades and being complicit in getting people addicted to them, then in what world does it make sense to lock people up with long prison sentences?

We know that they brought heroin into Harlem in the 70's after they smuggled it out of Vietnam. Anyone who has addiction problems should get to enter a drug treatment facility on the government's dime instead of being locked up in prisons.

The CIA has been a criminal organization since its inception.
Truman had second thoughts after he helped create it and JFK wanted to shatter it into a thousand pieces, he just never got the chance to do it. This is another reason why they killed him.

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