The Evening Blues - 1-12-18



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Boozoo Chavis

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features zydeco musician Boozoo Chavis. Enjoy!

Boozoo Chavis - Johnny Billy Goat

"Don't tell me what you believe, show me what you do and I will tell you what you believe."

-- Meteor Blades


News and Opinion

The Same Democrats Who Denounce Donald Trump as a Lawless, Treasonous Authoritarian Just Voted to Give Him Vast Warrantless Spying Powers

Leading Congressional Democrats have spent the last year relentlessly accusing Donald Trump of being controlled by or treasonously loyal to a hostile foreign power. Over the last several months, they have added to those disloyalty charges a new set of alleged crimes: abusing the powers of the Executive Branch – including the Justice Department and FBI – to vindictively punish political opponents while corruptly protecting the serious crimes of his allies, including his own family members and possibly himself.

The inescapable conclusion from all of this, they have relentlessly insisted, is that Trump is a lawless authoritarian of the type the U.S. has not seen in the Oval Office for decades, if ever: a leader who has no regard for Constitutional values or legal limits and thus poses a grave, unique and existential threat to the institutions of American democracy. Reflecting the severity of these fears, the anti-Trump opposition movement that has coalesced within Democratic Party politics has appropriated a slogan – expressed in the hashtag form of contemporary online activism – that was historically used by those who unite, at all costs, to defeat domestic tyranny: #Resistance.

One would hope, and expect, that those who genuinely view Trump as a menace of this magnitude and who view themselves as #Resistance fighters would do everything within their ability to impose as many limits and safeguards as possible on the powers he is able to wield. If “resistance” means anything, at a minimum it should entail a refusal to trust a dangerous authoritarian to wield vast power with little checks or oversight.

Yesterday in Washington, Congressional Democrats were presented with a critical opportunity to do exactly that. A proposed new amendment was scheduled to be voted on in the House of Representatives that would have imposed meaningful limits and new safeguards on Trump’s ability to exercise one of the most dangerous, invasive and historically abused presidential powers: spying on the communications of American citizens without warrants. ... House Democrats held the power in their hands to decide whether or not Trump – the President they have been vocally vilifying as a lawless tyrant threatening American democracy – would be subjected to serious limits and safeguards on how his FBI could spy on the conversations of American citizens.

Debate on the bill and the amendments began on the House floor yesterday afternoon, and it became quickly apparent that leading Democrats intended to side with Trump and against those within their own party who favored imposing safeguards on the Trump administration’s ability to engage in domestic surveillance. The most bizarre aspect of this spectacle was that the Democrats who most aggressively defended Trump’s version of the surveillance bill – the Democrats most eager to preserve Trump’s spying powers as virtually limitless – were the very same Democratic House members who have become media stars this year by flamboyantly denouncing Trump as a treasonous, lawless despot in front of every television camera they could find.

Pelosi Just Helped Trump Spy On You!

With Support From Nancy Pelosi, House Gives Trump Administration Broad Latitude to Spy on Americans

With bipartisan backing, the House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday that would renew one of the government’s most sweeping surveillance authorities for six years with minimal changes. The measure, which passed 256-164, reauthorized Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which was set to expire later this month. ...

The law serves as the legal backing for two mammoth NSA programs revealed by Edward Snowden: Upstream, which collects information from the internet junctions where data passes in and out of the country, and PRISM, which collects communications from U.S.-based internet companies, like Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Yahoo.

The programs rest on the notion that they are “targeting” foreigners, but they also collect massive amounts of data on Americans, including wholly domestic communications. Amazingly, the intelligence community has never disclosed how much. Numerous members of Congress have requested an estimate since 2011, but both the Obama and Trump administrations have refused to provide one. ...

On Thursday, the House failed to pass an amendment to the bill offered by Rep. Justin Amash, R.-Mich., which would have required federal law enforcement agents to get a warrant before searching NSA data for information on Americans. The amendment was defeated 183-233, with 125 Democrats voting for it and 55 Democrats against, including Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif..

As it is, the bill contains a cosmetic reform to the practice of “backdoor searches,” which requires the FBI to get a warrant whenever conducting searches related to an established criminal investigation. But it carves out massive exceptions, including for any investigation related to national security and whenever the FBI determines there is a “threat to life or serious bodily harm.” The issue is largely moot anyway because current rules allow the FBI to conduct queries even before opening an investigation.

Iran nuclear deal: Trump waives sanctions but sets deadline for overhaul

Donald Trump has waived a raft of sanctions against Iran as required under a 2015 nuclear agreement, staying within the deal for the time being, but has vowed that it would be the last such waiver he signs if the accord is not radically altered.

With his announcement, the president in effect began a four-month countdown until the US ceases to comply with its obligations under the agreement. The next sanctions waivers fall due on 12 May.

The president made clear he was only reluctantly continuing US participation in the agreement, which he has habitually called “the worst deal ever”.

At the same time as waiving oil and banking sanctions that were suspended under the agreement (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, known as JCPOA), he ordered the imposition of new sanctions on 14 individuals and entities, on human rights and weapons proliferation grounds.

‘US are occupiers’: Washington to stay in Syria indefinitely to counter Iran

Air Force deployed B-2 stealth bombers to Guam as sensitive talks involving North Korea commenced

The U.S. Air Force deployed three stealth B-2 Spirit bombers to Guam this week as discussions between the North and South Koreans involving the Winter Olympics were about to commence, a move that the service says was scheduled in advance but came at a particularly sensitive time.

The bat-winged B-2s and 200 airmen deployed to Andersen Air Force Base on the U.S. island territory from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. They are part of what the U.S. military characterized as a short-term deployment that is part of the Pentagon’s bomber assurance and deterrence mission in the Pacific. The Air Force has rotated bombers in the Pacific for 15 years in a show of support for its allies in the region.

But the deployment of B-2s during the Winter Olympics — and shortly after President Trump taunted North Korea by tweeting Jan. 2 that his “Nuclear Button” was bigger than North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s — may be seen as inflammatory in the region. The planes have stealth technology and the ability to carry nuclear weapons, something that the B-1B Lancer bombers deployed to Guam last year do not have.

B-2s also are the only aircraft capable of dropping a relatively new conventional 30,000-pound bomb known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, which is designed to pierce hardened bunkers and tunnels such as the ones in North Korea.

Pentagon Investigates Video of US Soldier Shooting Afghan Civilian

A leaked helmet camera video out of Afghanistan showing a US soldier shooting an Afghan civilian driving a truck has been removed from social media sites and led to a promise of an investigation by the Pentagon.

The video, initially leaked on YouTube, showed a soldier’s camera view as his armored vehicle drives past a civilian truck. He then fires a shotgun directly into the driver’s side window, shattering it.

It looks like Merkel will keep her job as Germany’s Prime Minister

Donald Trump rates himself as the ultimate dealmaker, but Germany’s Angela Merkel may have him beat after her last bit of miracle politicking. On Friday, Merkel appeared to be zeroing in on a solution to a three month-long political stalemate that has left her leadership of the country in doubt.

After a marathon all-night negotiation session, Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) announced they had reached a breakthrough, agreeing to launch formal talks to form a new coalition government.

The parties, Germany’s two biggest political forces, still face a number of hurdles before they can revive the “grand coalition” under which they have governed the country since 2013. But the 28-page coalition agreement represents the best chance yet at ending the political deadlock that has left Europe’s most powerful country rudderless since federal elections in September.

Under the agreement, the two sides hammered out compromises on issues which had previously proven to be dead-ends, such as immigration, fiscal policy and healthcare. It also called for strong cooperation with France to strengthen the European Union.

Days of rage: 2 Palestinian teens killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers over Jerusalem move

Ahed Tamimi offers Israelis a lesson worthy of Gandhi

Sixteen-year-old Ahed Tamimi may not be what Israelis had in mind when, over many years, they criticised Palestinians for not producing a Mahatma Gandhi or Nelson Mandela. Eventually, colonised peoples bring to the fore a figure best suited to challenge the rotten values at the core of the society oppressing them. Ahed is well qualified for the task.

She was charged last week with assault and incitement after she slapped two heavily armed Israeli soldiers as they refused to leave the courtyard of her family home in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, near Ramallah. Her mother, Nariman, is in detention for filming the incident. The video quickly went viral. Ahed lashed out shortly after soldiers nearby shot her 15-year-old cousin in the face, seriously injuring him. ...

Distinctive for her irrepressible blonde hair and piercing blue eyes, Ahed has been filmed regularly since she was a small girl confronting soldiers who tower above her. Such scenes inspired one veteran Israeli peace activist to anoint her Palestine’s Joan of Arc. But few Israelis are so enamoured. Not only does she defy Israeli stereotypes of a Palestinian, she has struck a blow against the self-deception of a highly militarised and masculine culture. She has also given troubling form to the until-now anonymised Palestinian children Israel accuses of stone-throwing.

Palestinian villages like Nabi Saleh are regularly invaded by soldiers. Children are dragged from their beds in the middle of the night, as happened to Ahed during her arrest last month in retaliation for her slaps. Human rights groups document how children are routinely beaten and tortured in detention. Many hundreds pass through Israeli jails each year charged with throwing stones. With conviction rates in Israeli military courts of more than 99 percent, the guilt and incarceration of such children is a foregone conclusion. They may be the lucky ones. Over the past 16 years, Israel’s army has killed on average 11 children a month.

The video of Ahed, screened repeatedly on Israeli TV, has threatened to upturn Israel’s self-image as David fighting an Arab Goliath. This explains the toxic outrage and indignation that has gripped Israel since the video aired. Predictably, Israeli politicians were incensed. Naftali Bennett, the education minister, called for Ahed to “end her life in jail”. Culture minister Miri Regev, a former army spokeswoman, said she felt personally “humiliated” and “crushed” by Ahed. But more troubling is a media debate that has characterised the soldiers’ failure to beat Ahed in response to her slaps as a “national shame”. ... Ahed has exposed the gun-wielding bully lurking in the soul of too many Israelis. That is a lesson worthy of Gandhi or Mandela.

New Orleans City Council Passes Measure Pushed By BDS Activists

New Orleans approved a resolution on Thursday pledging to take steps to avoid contracting with or investing in corporations whose practices violate human rights — an initiative pushed in the council as part of the campaign to boycott, divest from, and sanction Israel for its occupation of Palestinian territories. New Orleans became the first city in the South — and one of the largest in the country — to pass a resolution in accordance with the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction Movement, known by its initials BDS.

“This resolution specifically recognizes the city’s social and ethical obligations to take steps to avoid contracting with or investing in certain corporations, namely those that consistently violate human rights, civil rights, or labor rights,” said council President Jason Williams just ahead of the vote. The resolution passed the council unanimously, with all five members present voting in support. ...

Both backers and detractors agree that the movement to boycott Israel is growing. In recent weeks alone, a New York court has been hearing the case of a pro-BDS student group that was banned from a college campus and pop singer Lorde acceded to boycott activists’ requests that she cancel a show in Israel. Some local governments have passed measures in opposition to the BDS movement — and such measures have been pushed on the federal level as well — but cities like Portland, Oregon, have passed limited pro-BDS measures.

Greece strikes cause transport chaos and healthcare delays

Strikes in Greece have caused transport chaos and slowed hospital care and shipping as thousands of workers protested against proposed changes to a 36-year-old industrial action law demanded by the country’s creditors.

Nine thousand people demonstrated in the city centre against the overhaul, part of a multi-purpose bill to be voted on in parliament on Monday, with protesters chanting “Hands off strikes”. At the end of the protest, police fired teargas to repel a small group of demonstrators who tried to enter the parliament building. Further strikes and protests will be held on Monday.

Sailors and hospital doctors participated in the walkout, along with staff on the Athens metro, causing huge traffic jams in the capital as commuters used their cars instead. The union GSEE said the bill – demanded by the country’s creditors – “deals a killing blow to workers, pensioners and the unemployed ... effectively eliminating even constitutionally safeguarded rights such as the right to strike”.

US ambassador to The Hague apologizes for making Muslim remarks after denial

The new US ambassador to The Hague has apologised for saying Muslim migrants had created “no-go zones” and “burned” politicians in the Netherlands.

In extracts from an interview with De Telegraaf newspaper to be published in full on Saturday, Pete Hoekstra said that with hindsight, “I’m shocked I said it. It was a misstatement. It was simply wrong.”

Hoekstra, a Dutch-born former Republican congressman who was Donald Trump’s pick to represent the US, added: “I got countries mixed up. I got it wrong, and I don’t know how it could have happened.”

During a panel discussion in 2015, Hoekstra said “the Islamic movement” had caused “chaos in the Netherlands – there are cars being burned. There are politicians that are being burned and, yes, there are no-go zones in the Netherlands”.

The ambassador caused upset on his first day on the job this week after presenting his credentials to King Willem-Alexander, clashing with reporters and refusing to answer repeated requests for clarification about the statements.

“Completely Racist”: Edwidge Danticat on Trump’s “Shithole Countries” Remark Targeting Africa, Haiti

U.S. ambassador to Panama just quit because he can’t serve under Trump

The United States ambassador to Panama has resigned. His reason: He can no longer serve under President Donald Trump.

John D. Feeley — who served as an active-duty military helicopter pilot for the Marine Corps prior to joining the State Department in 1990 — began his role as ambassador to Panama in February 2016. The State Department confirmed Feeley's resignation Friday. He will leave on March 9.

“As a junior foreign service officer, I signed an oath to serve faithfully the president and his administration in an apolitical fashion, even when I might not agree with certain policies," Feeley wrote in his resignation letter, according to Reuters. "My instructors made clear that if I believed I could not do that, I would be honor-bound to resign."

Trump caused a controversy on Thursday when he reportedly referred to Haiti, El Salvador, and countries in Africa as “shithole countries” during a meeting on immigration with senators in the Oval Office. The president lamented the influx of immigrants from such countries, and, according to senators present, indicated a preference for immigrants from countries like Norway, whose Prime Minister had visited the White House the day before.



the evening greens


New Report on Radioactive Tap Water Renews Concerns About Trump Nominee for Top Environmental Role

A new five-year investigation revealing that more than 170 million Americans were drinking water contaminated with radioactive elements is also renewing concerns about President Donald Trump's pick for a top environmental position in his administration—Kathleen Hartnett White, who ran Texas' environmental agency while it was falsifying reports of radiation levels in tap water. White chaired the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) from 2003 to 2007, and admitted to local reporters in 2011 that the agency intentionally lowered the radiation level reported to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) because, "We did not believe the science of health effects justified EPA setting the standard where they did."

She is now a fellow at Texas Public Policy Foundation—a conservative think tank that's funded by the Koch Brothers and other major corporate donors—but if Trump gets his way, White will head the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), which is charged with making sure federal environmental agencies are following the law. ...

In December, the Senate Enivornment and Public Works Committee declined to approve her, and Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) released a statement explaining, "White's concerning record, unacceptable statements, and shockingly poor performance before the EPW Committee last month have elicited serious concerns on both sides of the aisle and all across the country." Despite the committee's decision, the Trump administration resubmitted White's nomination earlier this week.

For its study, EWG tested for radioactive elements in tap water across the country from 2010 to 2015, and found "radium, the most common radioactive element found in tap water" in "more than 22,000 utilities serving over 170 million people in all 50 states." While California has the highest number of residents affected by radiation in tap water—about 25 million people, or 64 percent of the state's population—the state with the most widespread contamination is Texas, where utilities serving 22 million people, or about 80 percent of the state's population, reported radium in drinking water.


Also of Interest

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

Money for nothing: is Finland's universal basic income trial too good to be true?

Donald Trump’s Vile Words Should Remind Us That America Owes Everything to Haitians

El Salvador’s Youth Are Trapped Between Gang Violence and Police Abuse

After 16 Years Without Trial, Guantánamo Inmates and Rights Groups Demand End to 'Unconscionable' Imprisonment

Viral Video of Hospital Dumping Woman Into Freezing Cold Stirs Demand for 'Medicare for All'

Janis Joplin: the singer who screamed a very American pain

Hat tip Snoopydawg:

Court Order Confirms DNC Fraud Lawsuit Appeal Will Proceed


A Little Night Music

Boozoo Chavis - I'm Going To The Country To Get Me Mojo Hand

Boozoo Chavis - Zydeco Cha Cha

Boozoo Chavis - Paper In My Shoe

Boozoo Chavis - Lula Lula Don't You Go To Bingo

Boozoo Chavis - Crying Waltz

Boozoo Chavis - You're Gonna Look Like A Monkey

Boozoo Chavis - Dance All Night

Boozoo Chavis - Bottle Up And Go

Boozoo Chavis - Do It All Night

Boozoo Chavis - Motor Dude Special


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Comments

ggersh's picture

Tickets get your tickets

"Why Would We Come?" Norwegians Respond To Trump's Immigration Offer

"Of course people from #Norway would love to move to a country where people are far more likely to be shot, live in poverty, get no healthcare because they're poor, get no paid parental leave or subsidized daycare and see fewer women in political power."

14548
JAN 12, 2018 2:01 PM
119

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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

joe shikspack's picture

@ggersh

heh. i'm surprised that many generations of scandinavian immigrant families aren't packing to go back and leave this shithole.

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no wonder the dems were scared of Bernie

and the oligarchs are afraid of Bernie

Jimmy Dore had a segment where he read the response of Schumer from a question about his stand on single payer. He said that some super, wonderful insurance solution to health care ...

meanwhile, what about the Russians???

***
I came back and edited the comment to add "are afraid of Bernie" to the end of the sentence

then I had a thought

are the establishment democrats oligarchs? For sure they serve the Oligarchs

remember in past years, it seems so long ago, that something like 2/3 of Americans thought they were in the middle class

how may are now in the oligarch class?

and to think that just a few years ago I never used the word Oligarchs in the context of the USA

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joe shikspack's picture

@DonMidwest

well, there is the traditional meaning of oligarch which suggests that they directly run things and there is the more modern meaning from russia which refers to a class of very wealthy business leaders who have enormous political influence.

while many politicians are wealthy in comparison to the average serf american, offhand i'd surmise that those we might call oligarchs are on average wealthy in comparison to the professional political class by an even larger margin than the political class is wealthy compared to the rubes average americans. all of which is a roundabout way of saying that i think the political class are more appropriately thought of as lackeys than oligarchs.

and to think that just a few years ago I never used the word Oligarchs in the context of the USA

i think that those that would fairly be called oligarchs (who in my view are part of an international class of oligarchs who are interrelated and answer to capital and each other more than any individual nation) were more careful in the past to hide their hand of influence deeply within their puppets, think tanks, opaque institutions and astroturf organizations.

now, it seems to me that there are two reasons why they have started to drop the curtain. One, because they feel so empowered that it is (as wallace shawn might put it) inconceivable that they can be stopped from doing whatever they damned well please, and two, because they view most of us as surplus "human capital" that they intend to divest themselves of by the usual sorts of attrition processes - wars, austerity, unremedied climate disasters and the like.

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@joe shikspack

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orlbucfan's picture

@DonMidwest is one of the classic examples of this culture. Rec'd!!

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Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.

divineorder's picture

Go millenials!

Today New York, tomorrow the world!

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

joe shikspack's picture

@divineorder

well, it's not quite this, here:

but, it hit 60 degrees here today, with lots of rain and fog. so, yep, i stayed pretty warm today. yay!

also yay about the millenials delivering a swift kick in the oil industry's wallet area. i hope that they are in time.

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thanks joe, riding the wild crawfish in the cajun rodeo.

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joe shikspack's picture

@QMS

watch those crawfish, they're pretty spicy. Smile

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Raggedy Ann's picture

Well, I'm going to take my shithole self to my shithole house in my shithole town in this shithole country. WHEW! I just had to be honest about it. What a shithole!

Revolution is the only answer.

Have a beautiful evening and weekend, everyone! Pleasantry

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"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

@Raggedy Ann the biggest shithole is trump's mouth. teachers used to slap the face of misbehaving students. Seems nobodies got big enough britches to slap that bitch. I will.

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joe shikspack's picture

@Raggedy Ann

such a beautiful land with such an ugly ruling class making shitholes wherever you look.

have a great weekend!

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I recall when Bernie was running he made important points about election fraud by the democrats to block Bernie.

The things it looked like he was predicting, didn't turn out.

I was on youtube the last couple of days and he came up so I clicked on it

Here is one from today that he continues to say that Hillary will be indited for classified emails on her server

Lots of them 34 - secret or top secret emails, went from server to her blackberry

here is the link I am listening to right now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDE5Pi9jgFk

......

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divineorder's picture

The house Dems vote on FISA bill shows the continuing lie about the problem only being the Republicans.

Thanks also for the news about Ahed. What a horror Israeli leadership has created with the occupation.

Thanks also for the specifics about the Suomi guaranteed income project. A little less excited about it now that I learn more about who introduced it and why. Sill, will be interesting to see the findings.

Brand New Congress is upbeat about the coming year.

In response to:

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

joe shikspack's picture

@divineorder

Thanks also for the specifics about the Suomi guaranteed income project. A little less excited about it now that I learn more about who introduced it and why. Sill, will be interesting to see the findings.

regardless of the fact that it is a program created by a bunch of libertarian rich jerks trying to figure out how to keep the lower classes from revolting for the least cost possible, it would still represent a step forward here in the u.s., where the rich libertarian types are trying to figure out how to get the lower classes to die faster.

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ain't it wonderful to be modern!!!

look at all the gadgets we have to entertain us

we even have politics as part of our entertainment

but the effect of our freedom is to trash the earth

what if the earth strikes back?

9th Grade Students Gain the Attention of Scientists After Their Experiment Reveals a Dark Truth About WiFi

there have been hints that cell phones are dangerous. What if our beloved WI FI is attacking us?

interesting to see if this line of research is pursued

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@DonMidwest @DonMidwest I've long suspected the rads coming out of our info/communication devices are effecting brain wave activity. This is why we cut TV reception many, many years ago. Reading books is entertaining enough. Makes it easier to develop independent thinking.

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mimi's picture

(added stuff)
he used to say: "Show me the books you read and I'll tell you who you are".
hmm, now I want to know who said this first. It's a common quote or saying in Germany.
Well, what does it mean if you read twitter ... ?
And what is MB doing one starts to mull over after that quote...

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joe shikspack's picture

@mimi

did your father mean books read over the course of a lifetime? what one is currently reading?

i guarantee that my bookshelves would confuse the hell out of him, because over the course of a lifetime i have read widely. Smile

i think that mb's quote holds up pretty well as a general rule of thumb and indeed applies to him as well as everybody else.

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mimi's picture

@joe shikspack
and for sure it shows you read widely and that's why you and your friends confuse me profoundly...
Smile

Well, I was a dreamer once, so I dreamed of a little bookstore, you see, like a "live-in-the-upper-floor-and-go-down-to-your-own-store-on-the-street-level" kind of life-style and be left in peace making some peanuts to pay the bills ... And then those www tubes came along and as an aspiring bookseller I dutifully went to New Orleans to listen what previous booksellers had to say on their association's conference. And while I was listening to understand that in no way I had the money to fulfill my secret dreamer's dream, there was this little man (I need to check how large his hands are) in the audience and he had probably not read much, but he managed to confuse a lot of 'reading' poor booksellers in spe. He talked about the www tubes and how they could make "Bookselling" and "America" "Great again". A year later he started shouting on the www tubes of "How great his business was". Over 1.5 million titles all online. "The greatest bookseller on earth". (I wonder if he had any relations to Mr. Twitler).

So, now MB, err I mean me, should ask him/myself what is better, what Mr. Besoz was DOING to understand what he was believing or ask oneself what was Mr. Besoz reading and conclude who and what he was (and is). It might be worth to ask it, because Mr. Bezos is today worth 103 billion dollars. Not bad for a little non reading bookseller, I guess...

Oh and btw, as I am a quasi caretaker of my sister these days, in my parents house, we both grew up in, and as this house contains now all the books my father and mother had, all the books of my sister and her daughter had gathered over their life time and all of my own books I schlepped over the oceans, I have a constant little pissy fight with her. She bashes me because I don't read "books" as she calls it, and I bash here, because she doesn't understand how to use the 'puter and doesn't know what one reads online, because all she reads is fiction and I at least try to read "the real stuff". And then, you see, my son's girl friend reads "The Neverending Story" online for free.

Now, who is more confusing the books or their readers?
For you and MB ...
Give rose

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mimi's picture

@mimi
is to the point
[video:https://youtu.be/5sFvpr7pmHk]
and of course the necessary charitable donations make up for all the other shit
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos donates $33 million to help send 1,000 Dreamers to college
heh ... Jeff Bezos is not a good guy.

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snoopydawg's picture

would we still need to keep an eye on Iran? Is this a chicken and egg type of question?

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

Azazello's picture

@snoopydawg
They have a list of seven countries and every president, regardless of "party", has to work on completing that list. That's the deal.

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

snoopydawg's picture

@Azazello

Iran has been toast for a long time. Trump, Bibi and the Saudis are doing everything they can to get their war started.

Wes Clark told everyone what was going to happen and it happened anyway. And people believed the reasons for the wars. Sigh Sad

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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

our dark overlords say yes.

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mimi's picture

calls the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in Germany a center-left one. I am not long enough back in my home country to be certain, but to me the SPD is not center left, if she ever was, but centrist. Same phenomena here as in the US. Both parties are growing to be more similar than in the sixties and distinctions seem to be needed to justify campaigning against each other. So they artificially make you believe that minor distinctions are being huge, while the next day, they are just "what they are", nothing much to get all stinky about. The younger folks among 99 percenters of the Social Democrats don't want to be centrists, and it's them the elite Social Democrats have to convince, them and the few elderly working class Social Democrats of the old school.

Merkel, I think, has no appetite anymore to stay in 'business', but I guess she takes her task as a German mommy of the nation seriously and doesn't quit just because it's a miserable thing to be 'Prime Minister' or mommy for that matter. But she thinks about the children. I am sure and stays put.
Mosking

And we are supposedly getting an European Finance Minister. Huh? The United States of Europe? Really? Well, I guess it's all Trump's fault. He unites even the most egoistic nations among the Euroepan ones.

I am too tired to not be silly. Good Night.

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joe shikspack's picture

@mimi

heh, i guess things have worked out in germany that the little (very important) distinctions that separate the centrist parties have to be negotiated away in order to do the much more important business of the owners of the state. they'll get back to it later.

i guess you need a finance minister to obfuscate the fact that central bankers run the economy.

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hecate's picture

Used to be when came word of someone ranting about "shithole countries" and having to pay off the sex workers, it was some actor like Mel Gibson or Charlie Sheen, spiraling into rehab. Now it's just another day's episode of The Apprentice President.

I am glad Sheen and Gibson never had any bombs. I wish this fellow didn't have any, either.

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joe shikspack's picture

@hecate

doesn't it make you wonder if trump was put into office in order to develop public demand for government more directly by the deep state?

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hecate's picture

@joe shikspack
the theories as to why the micropenis is meth-bowling in the Whiter House.

This person claims it is because the Masters of the Universe decided they wanted everything in the Walmeths to be made in the US, rather than in the shithole countries.

I am currently leaning towards the theory that his election was an attempt by the voting to signal that it is just shit made up.

These messages are arriving from the voting with increasing frequency. Since the election of The Hairball—a patently impossible person—there has been that quantum extravaganza in Virginia, where first one candidate was declared the victor of the voting, then the other candidate prevailed, then some people in Robes said the voting was a Tie, and then the Winner was selected from a Bowl. Now the voting is going into a Court, to see if there can be more of it.

Meanwhile down in Alabama mass quantities of white people sobbed to the polls to select as their representative a man who straps a granite slab of Yahweh-commands to his back and then moves through the malls masturbating on the little girls in the strollers.

None of this can possibly be Real.

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janis b's picture

@hecate

is pure performance art. Only it's real?

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hecate's picture

@janis b
says that Smith is the winner, and that Jones is the winner, and that Smith and Jones are tied, and therefore there is no winner . . . just how Real can it be? ; )

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janis b's picture

@hecate

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snoopydawg's picture

@hecate

Now let's throw in some reusable nukes and we can all join in on the fun. How much more crazier are the masters of the universe going to get? Stay tuned because we're in for a bumpy ride. YeeHaw!

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

mimi's picture

@hecate
how to read. No wonder I had more a relation to numbers than to letters. Jeez. Does it get a little easier to understand?

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hecate's picture

@mimi
know. You could try this one, in which he opines the Germans are Meanies and Dangers, who demand the other peoples obey them; if they do not, the Germans will march on their bones. Or this one, where he says the Dumbness of the Americans will cause the Germans and the Russians to have a sex orgy in the gas.

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