The Evening Blues - 8-21-17
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features 60's girl group The Ronettes. Enjoy!
The Ronettes - Be My Baby
"I wouldn't mind paying taxes - if I knew they were going to a friendly country."
-- Dick Gregory
News and Opinion
Dick Gregory, pioneering US comedian and activist, dies aged 84
Dick Gregory, the black comedian who broke down racial barriers in the 1960s and used humour to spread messages of social justice, has died. He was 84.
He provoked us to think and to change. And he made us laugh, too. Rest, our dear elder, #DickGregory. pic.twitter.com/LxSgYMhI8K
— The King Center (@TheKingCenter) August 20, 2017
Gregory was one of the first black comedians to find mainstream success with white audiences in the early 1960s. He rose from an impoverished childhood in St. Louis to become a celebrated satirist who deftly commented upon racial divisions at the dawn of the civil rights movement. “Where else in the world but America,” he joked, “could I have lived in the worst neighborhoods, attended the worst schools, rode in the back of the bus, and get paid $5,000 a week just for talking about it?”
Gregory’s sharp commentary soon led him into civil rights activism, where his ability to woo audiences through humor helped bring national attention to fledgling efforts at integration and social equality for blacks. ...
He remained active on the comedy scene until recently, when he fell ill and cancelled a show in San Jose, California, followed by a 15 August appearance in Atlanta. On social media, he wrote that he felt energized by the messages from his well-wishers, and said he was looking to get back on stage because he had a lot to say about the racial tension brought on by the gathering of hate groups in Virginia. “We have so much work still to be done, the ugly reality on the news this weekend proves just that,” he wrote.
Covering Up the Massacre of Mosul
Iraqi Kurdish military intelligence reports have estimated that the nine-month-long U.S.-Iraqi siege and bombardment of Mosul to oust Islamic State forces killed 40,000 civilians. This is the most realistic estimate so far of the civilian death toll in Mosul. But even this is likely to be an underestimate of the true number of civilians killed. No serious, objective study has been conducted to count the dead in Mosul, and studies in other war zones have invariably found numbers of dead that exceeded previous estimates by as much as 20 to one, as a United Nations-backed Truth Commission did in Guatemala after the end of its civil war. In Iraq, epidemiological studies in 2004 and 2006 revealed a post-invasion death toll that was about 12 times higher than previous estimates.
The bombardment of Mosul included tens of thousands of bombs and missiles dropped by U.S. and “coalition” warplanes, thousands of 220-pound HiMARS rockets fired by U.S. Marines from their “Rocket City” base at Quayara, and tens or hundreds of thousands of 155-mm and 122-mm howitzer shells fired by U.S., French and Iraqi artillery. This nine-month bombardment left much of Mosul in ruins (as seen here), so the scale of slaughter among the civilian population should not be a surprise to anybody. But the revelation of the Kurdish intelligence reports by former Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari in an interview with Patrick Cockburn of the U.K.’s Independent newspaper makes it clear that allied intelligence agencies were well aware of the scale of civilian casualties throughout this brutal campaign.
The Kurdish intelligence reports raise serious questions about the U.S. military’s own statements regarding civilian deaths in its bombing of Iraq and Syria since 2014. As recently as April 30, 2017, the U.S. military publicly estimated the total number of civilian deaths caused by all of the 79,992 bombs and missiles it had dropped on Iraq and Syria since 2014 only as “at least 352.” On June 2, it only slightly revised its absurd estimate to “at least 484.” The “discrepancy” – multiply by almost 100 – in the civilian death toll between the Kurdish military intelligence reports and the U.S. military’s public statements can hardly be a question of interpretation or good-faith disagreement among allies. The numbers confirm that, as independent analysts have suspected, the U.S. military has conducted a deliberate campaign to publicly underestimate the number of civilians it has killed in its bombing campaign in Iraq and Syria.
The only rational purpose for such an extensive propaganda campaign by U.S. military authorities is to minimize the public reaction inside the United States and Europe to the killing of tens of thousands of civilians so that U.S. and allied forces can keep bombing and killing without political hindrance or accountability. ... How will we, the American people, in whose name all these wars are being fought, hold both ourselves and our political and military leaders accountable for this mass destruction of mostly innocent human life? And how will we hold our military leaders and corporate media accountable for the insidious propaganda campaign that permits rivers of human blood to keep flowing unreported and unchecked through the shadows of our vaunted but illusory “information society”?
The Goal of ‘Not Losing’ in Afghanistan
Taking a break from his defense of the “very fine people” who marched with Nazis in Charlottesville, President Trump will reportedly meet with his national security team today (Friday, August 18) at Camp David to discuss a far deadlier but ironically less controversial issue: the war in Afghanistan. That war, the longest in our history, has cost the United States more than 2,350 killed, 20,000 injured, and a trillion dollars. Yet unlike Charlottesville, it arouses little passion. It gained impeccably bipartisan credentials through successive Republican and Democratic administrations. Although a huge majority of Americans today oppose the war, they lack sufficient conviction to prevent Congress from continuing to appropriate tens of billions of dollars each year to fund it.
Trump is in a bind. As Taliban forces continue to rack up military and political gains across their country, no serious expert can possibly believe that continued U.S. intervention will deliver “victory.” Sixteen years of experience show that almost every U.S. tactic has not only failed, but backfired. Far from winning hearts and minds, nighttime Special Forces raids and bombing runs have turned countless villagers against the Afghan government and its foreign backers. Far from bolstering Kabul’s resources, tens of billions of dollars in U.S. aid created an epidemic of corruption that decimated the government’s credibility and put money and weapons in the hands of the Taliban.
Far from defeating Islamist tyranny, the United States has empowered viciously cruel warlords. Far from promoting law and order, U.S. anti-drug campaigns turned poppy-growing peasants into allies and funders of the Taliban. And far from closing off Taliban sanctuaries in Pakistan, Washington’s surly relations with Islamabad have amplified dangerous anti-American sentiments in that nuclear-armed, Islamic state. ...
Donald Trump, who had no trouble advising President Obama to quit the war, has reportedly ruled out a withdrawal from Afghanistan and complained to his military advisers that they aren’t giving him a strategy to win.
Trump to outline new Afghanistan strategy, clearing path for troop deployments
President Trump will outline a new Afghanistan strategy Monday that will clear the path to deploy several thousand more U.S. troops to help local forces in the conflict that has stretched on for nearly 16 years.
In a prime-time speech, Trump is also expected demand more assistance from NATO allies and the Afghanistan government itself.
Trump will address the nation at 9 p.m. ET from Fort Myer, Va., a military base just a few miles from the White House. In front of a group of soldiers, Trump will "provide an update on the path forward for America's engagement in Afghanistan and South Asia," the White House said in a statement.
The prime time address comes three days after Trump convened a high-level national security meeting at Camp David, capping a drawn-out review about how to address an issue that has frustrated Trump, just as it predecessor George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
“The president has made a decision,” Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters during a Sunday flight en route to Jordan.
US-South Korea military drills could lead to uncontrollable phase of nuclear war - Pyongyang
North Korea warns Australia that supporting Trump is a 'suicidal act'
North Korea has warned Australia it has committed a “suicidal act” by committing its troops to help the US in any conflict over Pyongyang’s nuclear program and by joining military exercises with US and South Korean forces. The official KCNA news agency noted that the Australian prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, had recently vowed his country’s military would fight alongside the US if the latter was attacked by North Korea.
The prime minister told 3AW last week that Australia and the US were joined at the hip on defence matters, and “if there is an attack on the US, the Anzus treaty would be invoked” and Australia would come to the aid of the United States.
In response to the warning from North Korea, Turnbull hit back on Monday night, issuing a short statement saying: “North Korea has shown it has no regard for the welfare of its own population, no regard for the security and good relations with its neighbours and no regard for international law.”
Email Shows UAE’s Ambassador Worried About ‘Targeting of Civilian Sites’ in Yemen War
In the Fall of 2015, the United Arab Emirates’s ambassador to the United States, Yousef Al Otaiba, sent a concerned email to a group of high-level officials in his government. The war in Yemen, he said, was becoming a public-relations nightmare. The Obama administration, he told leadership back home, remained reluctantly supportive, but the ongoing Saudi-led campaign was harming the U.S.’s reputation and thus putting his own country, an active and eager participant in the war, in a delicate position. ...
Publicly, Otaiba has not conceded the level of human suffering the Saudi/UAE war is causing the people of Yemen. During an event at the Center for American Progress — a top Democratic Party-aligned think tank that takes UAE funds — in the fall of 2016, Otaiba struck a very different tone, acting as if the country does not care about political fallout in the West over the conflict. ...
Otaiba in 2016 pledged $700,000 to the Center for American Progress, according to a Dec. 17, 2015 email exchange he had with Brian Katulis, who is a senior CAP analyst for the region.
Otaiba used his memo to clarify that he’s not “proposing a modification of strategy,” but that the UAE and Saudi engage in a diplomatic offensive to repair their image, including by meeting with media, academics, and NGOs. His very last suggestion was for the UAE to “at least temporarily, urge caution when selecting military targets (this applies to saudi air force, where apparently most of the errant strikes are occurring).”
Trump Elevates US Cyber Command to a Formal Military Command
The move to elevate Cyber Command to a full Unified Combatant Command and split it off from the National Security Agency or NSA shows that cyber intelligence collection and information war are rapidly diverging fields. The future leadership of both entities is now in question. The move would mean that the head of Cyber Command would answer directly to the Defense Secretary and the National Security Agency would get its own head.
The split will give the commander of Cyber Command central authority over resource allocation, training, operational planning and mission execution. The commander will answer to the Defense Secretary directly, not the head of Strategic Command. “The decision means that Cyber Command will play an even more strategic role in synchronizing cyber forces and training, conducting and coordinating military cyberforce operations and advocating for and prioritizing cyber investments within the department,” said Kenneth Rapuano, assistant defense secretary for Homeland Defense and Global Security. ...
The elevation of Cyber Command represents a big step forward for the military’s cyber ability, but it has yet to be catch up to the NSA in terms of collecting signals intelligence or creating network accesses, according to Bill Leigher, who as a rear admiral helped stand up Navy Fleet Cyber Command. Leigher, who now directs government cyber solutions for Raytheon, applauds the split because the NSA, which collects foreign intelligence, and Cyber Command, a warfighting outfit, have fundamentally different missions.
Trump's DOJ Demands Personal Info On 1.3M Visitors to "DisruptJ20" Inauguration Protest Website
Abbas: I Met Trump's Envoys 20 Times and Still Don't Understand Their Peace Plan
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told a delegation from the left-wing [Israeli] Meretz party that he does not understand the conduct of the Trump administration when it comes to the Israel-Palestinian issue. Abbas noted that in meetings with envoys representing U.S. President Donald Trump in recent weeks, he heard that they support a two-state solution to the conflict and a settlement construction freeze. However, the Palestinian president said they are refusing to say so publicly and to present Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with such a position as an American demand.
"I have met with Trump envoys about 20 times since the beginning of his term as president of the United States," Abbas said according to notes taken by some of the meeting's participants. "Every time they repeatedly stressed to me how much they believe and are committed to a two-state solution and a halt to construction in the settlements. I have pleaded with them to say the same thing to Netanyahu, but they refrained. They said they would consider it but then they didn't get back to me."
Trump attacks Boston counter-protesters as 'anti-police agitators'
Donald Trump described anti-fascist and anti-racist demonstrators who converged on Boston as “anti-police agitators” on Saturday, in a tweet that seemed destined to revive the still simmering controversy over his remarks equating the far right and anti-Nazis in Charlottesville last weekend.
“Looks like many anti-police agitators in Boston,” Trump tweeted. “Police are looking tough and smart! Thank you.” But he later seemed to back the right to demonstrate, posting: “Our great country has been divided for decades. Sometimes you need protest in order to heal, & we will heal, & be stronger than ever before!”
He added: “I want to applaud the many protestors in Boston who are speaking out against bigotry and hate. Our country will soon come together as one!” An estimated 40,000 leftwing counter-protesters – including various Black Lives Matter groups and activist group Violence in Boston – marched through the city to historic Boston Common, dwarfing a small group of conservatives holding a “free speech rally”.
The White House is Now Run Entirely by Hucksters, Democrats, and Generals
There is no one left in the White House who has any idea what they’re doing. At least nobody conservative. President Donald Trump never tires of reminding audiences that he is not a politician, and he proves it on an hourly basis. He is by turns a nationalist, a populist, and a demagogue — but rarely acts as a traditional conservative.
As the previous occupant of the White House once said, a president’s “success is determined by an intersection in policy and politics.” With the far-right White House strategist Steve Bannon gone, the team left behind appears to be ill-equipped to maneuver the political challenges needed to turn the administration’s ambitious policy goals into successes. The chasm between Trump’s approach and that of his nominal allies in the Republican-controlled Congress is about to be sharpened in relief — and the resumes of his remaining staffers are ill-suited to overcome the gulf.
Trump’s new chief of staff, John Kelly, is a retired general. His national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, is an active-duty general and the bane of Breitbart, the far-right website Bannon used to run. Trump’s top remaining advisers are Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, a married couple who happen to be Trump’s son-in-law and daughter. ... Hope Hicks, perhaps the most talented figure left in the White House, was working as a spokesperson for the Trump Organization before she was drafted into the service of the Trump campaign, and then the White House. She is now the acting communications director.
Gary Cohn, the senior economic adviser, was president of Goldman Sachs — and a Democrat before going to work for Trump. Dina Powell, another senior adviser and New York liberal, also came from Goldman Sachs. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was CEO of Exxon Mobil and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin also came from the banking world. Kellyanne Conway is not a political novice, but has long been a fringe figure in Republican politics. That is Trump’s team.
Hawks soaring after Bannon's departure
Stephen Bannon may have been a political adviser to President Donald Trump, but his firing Friday could have an impact on U.S. foreign policy from Europe to the Middle East and Asia. Bannon's exit clears an obstacle for backers of an active U.S. foreign policy in line with recent presidencies — and is a resounding win for Bannon’s internal rival, national security adviser H.R. McMaster.
Bannon was a regular participant in national security debates, often as an opponent of military action and a harsh critic of international bodies like the United Nations and the European Union. He has also been a withering critic of diplomatic, military and intelligence professionals—“globalists” he says have repeatedly shown bad judgment, particularly when it comes to U.S. military interventions abroad. That put him at loggerheads with Defense Secretary James Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, as well as McMaster.
“If you look at the balance of power of isolationists versus internationalists in the White House now, it seems safe to say that the pendulum has swung towards the internationalists,” said Danielle Pletka, senior vice president for foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. Though Bannon has not described himself as an “isolationist,” he has proudly adopted Trump’s “America First” motto, which he says argues for spending less blood and treasure overseas for anything less than America’s most vital interests.
In the immediate term, foreign policy insiders agreed, Bannon’s departure also could increase the chances of a U.S. troop increase in Afghanistan—a plan championed by McMaster but strongly opposed by Bannon, who managed to draw out debate on the issue with direct appeals to Trump. More generally, it will remove an internal brake on U.S. military action abroad. Bannon has argued greater U.S. intervention in Iraq and Syria and was among the few White House officials to oppose President Donald Trump’s early-April missile strike in Syria.
Don't pin your hopes on military generals saving the world from Trump
Chaos continues to reign at the White House, with Steve Bannon its latest casualty. Despite the best efforts of the new chief of staff, John Kelly – a retired United States Marine Corps general – to impose order, the real source of the chaos is the president himself. That’s bad enough for domestic politics, but given the deteriorating situations in Afghanistan and on the Korean peninsula, there’s a wholly reasonable fear that our thin-skinned, egomaniac commander-in-chief just might tweet us into a major shooting war.
In the face of these fears, there has arisen around the White House and among the “wise men” of Washington the comforting idea that responsible grownups are firmly at the helm of America’s national security. Many experienced hands in Washington now believe the Pentagon brass won’t let the president do anything stupid, nor would they follow a suicidal order to launch attacks. After all, they’ve already ignored Trump’s ridiculous “trans-ban”, right? There’s actually talk among establishment insiders about an unofficial “Committee to Save America” made up of the generals, Trump’s New York cabal and a few Republican senators.
What’s wrong with this picture?
Civilian control of the military is one of the defining innovations and bedrock values of American democracy. Ours was the first country since Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon to reject juntas by charismatic generals. ... Defiance of an elected president, no matter how venal that president, or how justified that defiance, would certainly spark a constitutional crisis. What could Congress do? Or the courts? ... Would the Pentagon’s refusal to obey the president’s orders constitute a rebellion? Or a military junta? What if some commanders decided to obey the president and ignore orders from the Pentagon chain of command? Would they move against the Pentagon to put down the “rebellion”? Might we devolve into just another banana republic? ... So before you start hoping the generals will deliver us from that guy in the White House, be careful what you wish for.
Arizona's 'concentration camp': why was Tent City kept open for 24 years?
‘Hitler! Hitler!” the prisoners chanted to the TV cameras in protest. It was 4 February 2009. More than 200 Latino men in black-and-white striped uniforms, shackled to each other, were being marched towards an outdoor unit especially for “illegal alien” prisoners in Arizona’s infamous jail, Tent City. The chants were directed at the Maricopa County sheriff, Joe Arpaio, who a few months before had called this outdoor jail close to downtown Phoenix – his own tough-on-crime creation – a “concentration camp” in a speech to political supporters at his local Italian-American club.
When asked about the comment by the Guardian in July, Arpaio brushed it off as a joke. “But even if it was a concentration camp, what difference does it make? I still survived. I still kept getting re-elected,” he said. The jail survived too. For more than 20 years, Tent City stood within a larger jail compound in an industrial area 10 minutes south of downtown Phoenix. At its peak in the late 1990s, it comprised 82 Korean war-era military tents and housed 1,700 inmates. After 2009, it could hold up to 200 undocumented immigrants.
Despite multiple lawsuits from mistreated former prisoners, mounting public outrage and intense criticism from groups such as Amnesty International, which derided the facility as inhumane, overcrowded and dangerous, the outdoor prison remained open. Even the justice department accused Arpaio of racially profiling Latinos on his patrols and denying prisoners basic human rights in his jails. But now, like Arpaio’s own legacy, Tent City’s tenure is about to come to an end, leaving many local city residents, civil rights groups and former inmates asking: how did it survive for so long?
Michael Manning, a litigation attorney and one of Arpaio’s most ardent critics, says at times Tent City was overcrowded, making it a “horrendously dangerous environment”.
“He got away with it because people could excuse the embedded racism in his message,” Manning adds. “Because he fashioned it always as: ‘I’m going to protect you from people who are out there breaking the law and threatening your lives and property.’”
The US government destroyed the Ku Klux Klan once. It could do so again
In 1870 and 1871, Congress passed three Enforcement Acts that safeguarded the rights of African Americans to vote, hold office, serve on juries and receive equal protection under the law. These acts, also known as the “Ku Klux Klan Acts,” targeted the Klan for acting murderously to prevent African Americans from exercising their rights as citizens.
Today 146 years later, we could use the Enforcement Acts once more.
President Ulysses S Grant pushed the legislation through Congress and called on the Army to help federal officials “arrest and break up bands of disguised night marauders”. Grant’s attorney general, Amos Akerman, a 49-year-old graduate of Dartmouth College and an outspoken champion of black suffrage, relished the opportunity to fight white terrorists in southern states. In a biography of Grant published in 2001, Jean Edward Smith quoted historian William S. McFeely who observed that “no attorney general before or since ‘has been more vigorous in the prosecution of cases designed to protect the lives and rights of black Americans’”. ...
Akerman knew that destroying the Klan would require “extraordinary means”. To his mind, there was only one side in this fight, not “many”. There was no equivalence to be drawn between the Klan and the African Americans who had been attacked and murdered. Grant did not view the Confederates as heroes. He did not embolden them or stoke their resentment about the Confederacy’s defeat. Instead, after the Enforcement Acts were passed, he sent federal troops to the South and stated categorically that “insurgents were in rebellion against the authority of the United States”.
By 1872, the Klan had been defeated. The weight of the federal government broke the back of the organization and reduced racial violence throughout the South. Frederick Douglass declared that without Grant’s actions, black Americans likely would have been trapped in a condition similar to slavery. The violence did not end altogether, but the Klan was no longer a formidable player in American politics. Nor would it be until 50 years later, when the second Klan rose in the 1920s. ...
In Ken Burns’ 1990 documentary, The Civil War, historian Barbara Fields explained, “The Civil War is not over until we today have done our part in fighting it.” The tragic events in Charlottesville have shown us just how urgent and necessary it is for us to continue the fight. There is still much to fight for. The Civil War, Fields observed, “is still to be fought and regrettably it can still be lost”. The president has shown that we can expect nothing from him in terms of moral leadership. We have yet to see if other branches of government will take strong action to condemn white supremacy and carry on the fight.
Wells Fargo Reshuffles Board With Scandal-Ridden Insiders
Wells Fargo, the current poster child for corporate crime recidivism, announced that three of its board members would step down at the end of the year, in a nod to the company’s many incidents of customer abuse. But, in an example of what passes for accountability in the modern age, they did not claw back any compensation from those board members. Instead, the departing board members were allowed to take an early retirement. And the replacements are either already on Wells Fargo’s payroll, or come from close corporate partners.
Stephen Sanger, who only took over as chair of the board of directors after the resignation of CEO and chair John Stumpf last year, will step down Jan. 1, along with two colleagues, Cynthia Milligan and Susan Swenson. The trio are among the bank’s longest-serving board members; Milligan joined in 1992, Swenson in 1998, and Sanger in 2003. And all three served during Wells Fargo’s decade-plus practice of instituting fake accounts to goose sales growth, not to mention recent revelations of nickel-and-diming mortgage borrowers, auto loan customers, small business owners, and investors. ...
Yet Wells decided to replace Sanger by promoting someone from inside the company. Former Federal Reserve Governor Elizabeth Duke will take the chair position. Duke has served on the Wells Fargo board since 2015. During that time, the board was made aware of the fake accounts scandal, before it was revealed to the public.
This is part of a pattern with Wells Fargo. When Stumpf stepped down last October, Tim Sloan, then president and chief operating officer, took the top slot. Sloan was groomed for years to replace Stumpf, and four months before the transition, he vowed not to change the bank’s high-pressure sales culture, which led to the fake accounts scandal.
EPA Welcomed Industry Feedback Before Reversing Pesticide Ban, Ignoring Health Concerns
Before the Environmental Protection Agency issued its March 29 decision to reverse a proposed ban on the pesticide chlorpyrifos, the agency considered information from industry groups that wanted to keep it on the market, according to internal agency documents. But the heavily redacted documents may be most notable for what they do not include.
The Intercept obtained internal emails, reports, and memos via a Freedom of Information Act request for materials used to brief EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt on chlorpyrifos.
Although the documents reflect several direct communications between the EPA, big agricultural groups, and, in one instance, Donald Trump, they included no evidence that the agency met with environmental or public health groups or weighed concerns about the pesticide’s damaging effects. There was also no substantive discussion of the many studies detailing health effects. The story that emerges from the documents is a simple one of agricultural industry lobbying and, after its success, celebration.
Before the presidential election, the EPA had proposed banning chlorpyrifos based in part on evidence that the chemical causes lasting harm to children’s brains, including attention problems, memory loss, tremors, and autism. In reports issued in 2014 and 2015, the agency acknowledged research showing that children exposed to chlorpyrifos were more likely to have certain developmental problems. In November the EPA issued a report recommending a ban. A 90-day waiting period pushed the finalization of the ban into March, after Trump’s inauguration.
Trump's day of doom for national monuments approaches
Dave Willis, a grizzled woodsman and backcountry outfitter, has spent decades laboring to protect the mountains of south-western Oregon, one of the most beautiful, biodiverse regions in the country. Through grassroots activism, Willis and his conservationist allies have won the support of two US presidents. In 2000, Bill Clinton created the roughly 52,000-acre Cascade-Siskiyou national monument, proclaiming it an “ecological wonderland”. Located just outside of Ashland, it was the first such monument established solely for its extraordinary species diversity. It’s a place that harbors rare lilies and endemic trout, Pacific fishers and goshawks, black bears and a stunning array of butterflies.
During his final week in office, meanwhile, Barack Obama added about 48,000 acres to the Cascade-Siskiyou monument, nearly doubling it in size. Now, the Trump administration is threatening to undo it all. In April, the White House announced its intent to review 27 different national monument designations, as the Interior Department looks for commercial opportunities for the oil, mining and timber industries on American public lands. And the Cascade-Siskiyou preserve is on the list. ...
With the monument review due to the president on Thursday, conservationists like Willis are on edge. Ryan Zinke, the swaggering Montana native who is the secretary of the interior and is leading the effort, has already unveiled some of his recommendations. They include shrinking the Bears Ears national monument in Utah, a 1.3 million-acre monument created by Obama to protect Native American antiquities. Zinke said six monuments should be left alone, which leaves 20 including the Cascade-Siskiyou at risk of being reduced in size, eliminated or opened to industrial uses.
In late July, Zinke, visited Cascade-Siskiyou; he met with monument opponents and supporters. He hasn’t yet publicly signaled the direction he is leaning in. But since his arrival in Washington, Zinke has been remaking the interior department by filling senior positions with representatives from extractive industries and rightwing advocacy groups.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Truth and Lives vs. Career and Fame
Bernie Would’ve Won… And He Wouldn’t Have Been Much Better
How Jeff Sessions and Donald Trump have restarted the war on drugs
Steve Bannon Is Gone, But His Bigotry Stays in the White House
Historic Settlement Reached on Behalf of CIA Torture Victims
UAE ambassador says 'whole of Saudi Arabia is cuckoo' in leaked email
The U.S. Spy Hub in the Heart of Australia
Russia-gate’s Evidentiary Void
Don’t Believe the Alarmist Propaganda About North Korea
North Korea's bold wave of propaganda art - in pictures
A Little Night Music
The Ronettes - Baby, I Love You
The Ronettes - Chapel of Love
The Ronettes - Walking In The Rain
The Ronettes - "What'd I Say"
The Ronettes - Do I Love You
The Ronettes - When I Saw You
The Ronettes - I Wonder
The Ronettes - You Baby
Ronettes - So Young
Ronettes - Best Part of Breakin Up
The Ronettes - Is This What I Get For Loving You
The Ronettes - Here I Sit
The Ronettes - Shout
Comments
Great EB tonite Joe
I promised everyone pictures from Mancora Peru.
I got a few good ones.
One is where I'm staying.
One is locals building a raft they use to fish from.
The beach and the obligatory Sunset. The nearest landfall west is the Solomon Islands 8500 miles away.
I want a Pony!
evening arrow...
glad to hear that you're still having a great time at the beach! sadly, i can't seem to see the pictures, though.
have a good one!
Good evening, joe and bluzerz!
I think Herr Drumpf is missing out on a very loyal force of people (people who are willing to fight the good fight against all the brown people) to fight his wars in the Middle East. The "very fine people" who showed up in costume in Charlottesville that he identifies with need to be recruited and shipped overseas so they can get out there and fight, fight, fight! Seems to be all they're good for.
Ah, the Ronettes - so many memories from my younger years - thanks for that, joe!
I got to see the partial eclipse in my area. It was awesome!
Have a beautiful day, folks!
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
evening ra...
while it sort of sounds appealing to have our "very fine" nazi morons shipped out of here, after thinking about it, it seems kinda irresponsible.
we had a partial eclipse here, but it was so cloudy, all i could see was that it got a little dark. kind of a meh experience. perhaps the one in 2024 will be better.
have a good one!
Good evening or day or whatever time of day
got 90% eclipsed in my neck of the woods, pretty
fuckin awesome!!!
Thanks for the tunes, like RA it does bring us back
to a time....
but the system as a whole is failing, here's a good read
on that for all out there.
http://www.unz.com/tsaker/the-neocons-are-pushing-the-usa-and-the-rest-o...
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
evening ggersh...
an interesting article which makes a few very good points about the neocons. they will eventually destroy the empire. thanks for the link.
Good evening, Joe. No time to read everything
but thanks for the fabulous quote from Dick Gregory.
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 --
evening el...
have a good one!
79,000 Bombs & 500 Civilian Casualties?
Wow! Is this a great country or what?
"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
evening mm...
assuming that this isn't a trick question, i believe that "what" is the correct answer.
Bernie Might Have Been Worse
Can't argue with this anymore. I tried Bernie, I really tried my best to believe you were better than Obama.
You support Trump on N. Korea and Russia sanctions?
https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/bernie-wouldve-won-and-he-wouldn-t-ha...
.
Fuck you Bernie and fuck Yo Mama too!
"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
not only worse...
but more dispiriting due to his abject failure. i wrote an article a while ago describing how bernie had set himself up for failure. it's an old story and anyone who has been paying attention will immediately understand the phrase,"guns and butter." that is why bernie would fail.
you cannot fund both the mic and the sort of socialist programs that bernie set his sights on. the mic will always eat up all of the resources needed to improve the lives of the great unwashed.
Evening joe. Couldn't help myself. We watched
a streaming of Mr. Trumps speech.
Patriot patriots strong men and women power power treasure strong heavy on the platitudes. He did emphasize the word 'loser' which I wonder was on the teleprompter.
Heh. Here's some tweets gleaned from a search for keywords 'endless war' .
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
heh...
i just couldn't bring myself to do listen to donnie drone on tonight. i figured there's be plenty of clips of the important parts tomorrow.
thanks for the collection of commentary previewing the latest fail.
Did you see this link in the comments on this article?
Some emails from Mook, Hillary's campaign manager, to someone involved with the primary show that Bernie might have had a nonaggression treaty with Hillary.
This was why he didn't address Hillary's foundation or her pay to play deals that she made with the Saudis and many other governments, corporations, financial institutions and certain people.
One example was after the Saudis donated millions to her foundation, she sold them billions of dollars for their weapons.,
As many have stated, she was strictly told to keep her foundation separate from her duties as SOS by both congress and Obama.
I'm going with sheepdawg. He has signed on to the Russian propaganda and the other issues you stated
Sheepdawg for the Democratic Party?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
nonaggression pact
Holy Stalin, Batman!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Everybody loves Ronnie's voice.
Music by The Wrecking Crew.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9-FfwwXRDg width:400 height:240]
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
I heard all of tonights musical posts
way back in 1967/68 in Germany, when I was first "introduced" to "racial issues". It's like a time that won't ever come back.
Kind of too sad about it. I hope I can get out of it.
evening azazello...
excellent documentary, thanks! it was really cool to hear some of those guys talk about their experiences.
Thanks for the EB - I guess
the totality of the articles you put together reflect pretty much on my comment here in the sense that I have given up believing in the effectiveness of writer's activism.
Dick Gregory's life was so extraordinary in that he never gave up believing.I remember when I was marching with some African-American ladies way back and I saw a huge image of him and didn't know who he was. So, I asked, and the ladies just looked at me and somewhat unenthusiastically told me he is a very famous and important man for the civil rights activism during the last decades. I felt a little ashamed to not have known about him before.
and
I feel ashamed but it feels tough to laugh these days aside from having given up believing. In the sense that many here haven't, I applaud and thank you for going on keeping on.
evening mimi...
heh, yeah, writers activism probably isn't the "one thing" that will change the world, neither is protesting.
hopefully they are part of a process of "the people" discussing things among themselves and sorting out what needs to happen.
"the people" may not get it together in time. it's much harder to organize a vast number of people with disparate experiences, needs, desires and consciousness than it is for the powers that be to sort out their differences and get their common interests serviced. usually, it takes some sort of catalyzing event - and then the best organized group of people with the clearest vision often prosper.
it's what some of us can do, and it feels better than doing nothing.
take care!
take care yourself, for sure it feels better
than doing nothing ...
Hotal, Joe & Gang! Experienced 'Total' Eclipse
at 1:30 pm, only because we traveled north for a follow-up vet exam of 'the B.' We were east of Nashville a bit, and deliberately stopped an hour before the max or total eclipse occurred, because we didn't have the special glasses. Dagnabbit!
Also, we didn't want to get caught up in the traffic--with folks rubbernecking and driving at the same time. Not good! 
What I can tell you is that I've never seen dark like that--it was pitch black as viewed from an indoors window. Also, viewed it on the NASA website. Turns out that our local University's STEM Center had a major rally and viewing, with professors lecturing on the science of the event before giving out thousands of eclipse glasses--first come, first served. Didn't hear about it until it was too late to reschedule the vet appointment, since, we could have made a detour in order to attend for a couple of hours. Oh, well--maybe next century!
Seriously, just glad that the traffic won't be as bad on the way back south.
(Actually, it seemed to cool off a bit, afterwards. Could say that an eclipse is the ultimate in 'cloud cover,' which I'm always praying for on super hot days.)
I'll swing back to post a pie chart that I've been meaning to post for a week or better. It illustrates one of the problems with Part C, or Medicare Advantage plans. A friend has run into a major problem with finding a physician specialist in her Plan C plan that has hospital privileges at her preferred hospital--one which is local and has an outstanding reputation for cardiac specialty care. She's sweating bullets right now.
Anyhoo, we're very grateful and relieved that we don't have that headache. I'm hoping that the pie chart might serve as a helpful tool for folks who may be choosing between Traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage, in the future. Also, PNHP mentioned the problem with Part C hospital networks in a recent piece. If I can dig it up, I'll post it, too.
Gotta run 'the B' out.
Later.
Mollie
"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage."--Lao Tzu
"I think dogs are the most amazing creatures--they give unconditional love. For me, they are the role model for being alive."--Gilda Radner
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
Thanks ! Here's something to fight re Debt Ceiling
jakkalbessie found this today.
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
evening do...
heh, those republicans are always after social security, i reckon they just need the opportunity when the democrats will give them bipartisan cover to destroy it.
evening mollie...
glad you caught some of the eclipse, sounds like you were in the right spot. i'm going to have to wait until 2024 and hope for a clear sky that day.
looking forward to the medicare info. take care!
Just got back from eclipse road trip
Eclipse pictures taken at 41.118730, -89.201538
Hazy skys mostly but got these through gaps in the clouds
Compensated Spokes Model for Big Poor.
evening gls...
nice shot, thanks!
Beautiful shots, GLS! Because we didn't
have 'eclipse glasses,' I just viewed the total blackout through a window, then made a beeline to watch the NASA live stream on the computer. *Sigh*
You gave a coordinate--I'm curious, which state, or viewing sight were you at? I didn't realize until a couple days ago that this was going to be a major moneymaker for many localities. Instead, I viewed it as a windfall for the makers of the glasses. Duh!
Have a good one!
Mollie
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
Magnolia, IL...entirely by happenstance
We had planned to travel to the Shawnee National forest in IL (near Carbondale), the best place on earth (astronomically) to view the eclipse. For us that is a 7 to 8 hour drive. Then my bursitis started acting up and I can not sit for long periods (or stand or lay or recline.....gotta keep changing positions) so with that and the cloud cover predictions (Shawnee/Carbondale high chance of cloud cover) we decided to wing it. At 8:00am we set out from WI-01, headed west to go around Chi-town then south. Got on I39 south and traveled a bit, then saw a clear spot in the sky to the west. Hung a righty on IL 18, came to the 'crossroads" by Magnolia and stopped. The rest, except for the 4 wonderful people we met there doing the same thing, is mental & photographic history.
Husband and Mama
Compensated Spokes Model for Big Poor.
GLS, thank you for the rich and vivid
description of your eclipse experience--felt almost like I was there. Imagine that you'll never forget those good folks you ran into, having shared such a memorable experience with them.
BTW, hope you Bursitis is better!
Mollie
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
Thanks Mollie
Bursitis is no worse and maybe a little better.
Compensated Spokes Model for Big Poor.
special inspector general for Afghanistan - quarterly report
does anyone read them?
is there any discussion in the media?
tweeted by Dan Froomkin
spent 1/2 billion on intelligence capacity building
Afghanistan National Defense and Security Forces: DOD Spent $457.7 Million on Intelligence Capacity-Building Programs, but Impact Cannot Be Fully Assessed Because of a Lack of Performance Metrics
that one is only 31 pages
this big one is 272 pages - an audit well well
Special Inspector General for SIGAR Afghanistan Reconstruction JUL 30 2017
Today Jeremy Scahill published an article on The Intercept saying that the strategy of US military is assignation. It was put in an article on common dreams to highlight his point.
TRUMP MAY NOT FINISH HIS TERM BUT THE ASSASSINATION COMPLEX WILL LIVE ON
look what we have learned in the last couple of years
the presidential election showed us how the dems and Clintons sold the country down the drain
the neo liberal economic policies of both parties continue to fail and the establishments democrats are struggling to get off the payroll of the wealthy. Not clear if they will make it.
The New Climate regime is the dominant political actor in the world but not being taken seruously
the Republican party with Trump's antics has been shown that it is a hallow core and not clear how much the right wing ideology along with religious fanatics -- how much longer it can hold up
there has been a coup and no one is taking the steps to bring us back to some semblance of a republic with election integrity and credible courts (Chris Hedges today on the collapse of the judiciary), etc., etc.
still far too many people are acting like this is just political turmoil rather than a new world
good to see people on the street. I was worried that the government at all levels would shut down protest
Bernie continues to put the heat on the political order and corporations. Health care is 20% of the economy and radical progress in that area could possibly lead to needed action in almost all other areas
institutions corrupt, some are a little corrupt, but it takes years to build a competent institution and the Trump administration is killing them off as fast as it can. Especially ones that expose those doing harm.
and so on
*(*
even though there are audits linked above, the DOD has not had an audit in decades and has lost trillions of dollars. I guess politicians who spoke out against this would simply be murdered.
***
back when Bernie made his first speeches he said that only millions of people could bring about change. I shrugged -- yea but where are they going to come from
He was right and as various issues become more entangled, there are new alliances and maybe, just maybe, things will open up
Thanks DM.
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
evening don...
sigar has been compiling reports for quite a while now on afghanistan. they are chock full of information that should embarrass the hell out of the various administrations that have run this war and the pentagon. i've posted a lot of the stories here in eb over the years, but, while they do make the mainstream press from time to time, they never get the attention that they deserve, either in the press or in the legislature.
the basic problem is, the pentagon is a hole into which money is poured, everybody knows that it is wasted, but at least it's not being spent on those useless eaters. and by golly, we need the biggest, baddest military that money can buy. even if it can't subdue even a small bunch of cave-dwelling, gun-toting, religious fanatics who want to live in the dark ages.
moving on, yeah it's good to see people in the streets. protest will not be shut down until it becomes effective.
This was why TPTB wouldn't allow Bernie to become president
at any cost. Caitlyn's article about how nothing would have changed if Bernie had won the election.
They weren't afraid of Bernie or his policies, they were afraid of us
The link to the article is included just before the videos.
Good read, great commentary.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
We had a 91% eclipse in Utah
The dawgs and I went to the local dawg park (cemetery) to watch it. I thought it would have gotten darker than it did, but I could tell that there was less light. The dawgs got up and acted like something was happening right at the time it hit 91%. I thought that maybe they could tell that something was wrong. Or maybe they both smelled food, who knows?
This is pretty cool.
NASA records the ISS flying in front of the solar eclipse
If Trump wanted Bannon to stay, did he have a choice?
Did Trump have to sign the Russian sanctions legislation? What would happen if he didn't sign it?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
evening snoopy...
heh, i'd go with, "they smelled food."
i don't think trump was forced to cut bannon loose. i think that it was an ego thing. bannon was getting too much attention. trump hates that.
regarding the russia sanctions trump could sign it (and attach a signing statement), veto it or just not sign it (pocket veto).
given that the bill was passed by such overwhelming margins, it seems likely that trump's veto would have been overridden. given that it would have been his own party overriding his veto, some folks consider that to be the sort of internecine fight that a president might want to avoid.
As this pie chart illustrates, some Medicare Advantage
plans are pretty deficient when it comes to the menu of hospitals that they offer in their provider networks. See below.
I suppose this chart is pretty much self-explanatory--it's really important to carefully select a Part C plan, or, one could find oneself in a lurch if/when highly specialized medical care is necessary, since many plans have skimpy or inadequate hospital networks.
Several months ago, Mr M and I were advised that it's sometimes best to go with Traditional Medicare, coupled with a comprehensive Medigap Plan, or other supplemental/additional health insurance plan--especially if travel is in the cards. That's because most MA plans are either local or regional--there may be some exceptions, but not many in our primary residential region. Which means that if/when an individual enrolled in a Part C plan (MA) moves, or perhaps just spends a prolonged period of time in another region, they'll likely need to find a plan that covers care in that area.
Of course, Traditional Medicare is a national plan--the only network requirement for any type of provider (hospital, physician, lab, etc.) is that they participate in Part A or Part B of Medicare, whichever is applicable to them, or to the service that they provide--as opposed to the hospital and other provider networks being negotiated by the insurer in the MA plans, in order to achieve a cost reduction (for the insurer).
Got back so late, I'll post the excerpt from the PNHP piece later this week.
Hope all of you enjoyed 'Eclipse Day,' however you spent it. Have a nice evening, and stay cool!
[Edited: Deleted 'the' and corrected garbled syntax.]
Mollie
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
thanks much for the info!
i'm not looking forward to when i have to go on medicare and figure out the hoops that congressmen want us all to jump through.
De nada, Joe - I guess there's no 'right or wrong'
choice--just mostly what one feels comfortable with, and/or what meets one's needs, taking into consideration several factors, including cost.
Thanks for tonight's EB, as usual. And thanks for The Ronettes!
Mollie
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
these addtional medigap plans
one can get, when you start getting Medicare Plan A and Plan B, are quite numerous and different. I got Medicare in 2014 and the Medigap Plan that covered nationwide. It was too expensive, so I changed it later to Kaiser Permanente, covering in MD only, for much less money ($20 bucks a month). Now, being in HI, I had to get the HI Kaiser Permanente Plan here in HI, they fortunately offer, but it is 9 times as costly ($ 180 bucks a month). Well, in addition I pay health insurance in Germany, as I am planning to stay half there and half in HI. If I get really sick and need complicated therapies, I go back to Germany, or just die away. Why would I want to live that long anyway.