The Evening Blues - 1-19-18
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features Chicago blues guitarist Jimmy Dawkins. Enjoy!
Jimmy Dawkins - Chitlins Con Carne
“This is the greatest country in the world, but we do have some really stupid people representing it from time to time.”
-- Senator Orrin Hatch
News and Opinion
Disgusting. This election will surely be a measure of the depths we are plumbing as a nation.
GOP Candidate for Pennsylvania Special Election is a Former Abu Ghraib Interrogation Consultant
Rick Saccone, the GOP nominee in Pennsylvania’s 18th congressional district, is a former intelligence support consultant for the U.S. Army at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison. He has written extensively in support of interrogation tactics widely condemned by human rights experts as torture.
Over the years, drawing upon his experience in Iraq, Saccone has promoted waterboarding, stress positions, sleep deprivation, as well as threatening prisoners with execution, dogs, and electrocution, as necessary tactics for obtaining information from detainees.
On Thursday, President Donald Trump appeared in North Fayette Township in Pennsylvania to promote Saccone’s candidacy. Despite the district going to Trump by some 20 points in November, the GOP is at risk of losing it to Democrat Conor Lamb.
The election was triggered by the sudden resignation of Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Penn., after revelations last year that the pro-life lawmaker had pressured his mistress to seek an abortion.
Syria: Turkey bombards Kurdish-controlled Afrin region
Turkey begins assault on Kurdish-held enclave in Syria
The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia has said Turkish forces have fired about 70 shells at Kurdish villages in the Afrin region of north-western Syria, as Ankara said its threatened military assault was “de facto” under way.
The bombardment from Turkish territory began at around midnight and continued into Friday morning. Turkey considers the Syrian Kurdish militia as an extension of Kurdish rebels fighting Turkey and has vowed to attack their Afrin enclave, massing troops and tanks on its border for several days.
Military action, however, risks further inflaming relations with the US, which allied with the Kurdish-led Syrian Defence Force in its campaign against Islamic State.
The Turkish defence minister, Nurettin Canikli, on Friday said the assault had begun. “The operation has actually started de facto with cross-border shelling,” Canikli told the broadcaster A Haber. “When I say ‘de facto’, I don’t want it to be misunderstood. It has begun. All terror networks and elements in northern Syria will be eliminated. There is no other way.” ...
Military action would mean confronting Kurds allied to the United States at a time when Turkey’s relations with Washington are reaching breaking point. The US state department has called on Turkey to focus on the fight against Isis and not send its troops into Afrin.
Syria threatens to 'destroy' Turkish warplanes
Syria threatened on Thursday to "destroy" any Turkish warplanes that fly into its territory as Ankara prepares to launch a cross-border military operation to wipe out Kurdish fighters it calls "terrorists".
Turkish officials have repeatedly vowed to attack the Syrian-Kurd militia known as the YPG at any moment in the Afrin region in northern Syria, near the border with Turkey.
The move comes after the United States announced this week it would train the YPG-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to be part of a 30,000-strong "border force" - a statement US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Thursday was "misportrayed".
Syria's government warned Turkey it would shoot down Turkish fighter jets and bombers that flew into its airspace.
"We warn that the Syrian Air Force is ready to destroy Turkish air targets in the skies of Syria," Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al-Mikdad was quoted as saying by the official SANA news agency.
Airwars annual assessment 2017: civilians paid a high price for major Coalition gains
By the end of 2017, almost all the territory so-called Islamic State (ISIS) had once controlled in Iraq and Syria had been captured, but at significant cost. The year in many respects was a watershed for popular conceptions of modern warfare. Sold as the “most precise campaign in history” by US officials, the urban battlefields laid waste by bombs, artillery and improvised explosives told another story.
ISIS took every opportunity to endanger civilians, even as the Coalition increased the intensity of its own actions. The Coalition-backed assault on Mosul also grew bloodier in 2017 as fighting moved into denser pockets of the city, leaving thousands dead. In June, after months of bombing the vicinity, Coalition-support ground forces also began battling inside Raqqa. The ferocity of these simultaneous campaigns yielded the largest civilian casualty total from likely Coalition strikes ever monitored by Airwars.
Non-combatant deaths from Coalition air and artillery strikes rose by more than 200 per cent compared to 2016, rising to between 3,923 and 6,102 civilians estimated killed during the year according to Airwars tallies. By another measure, roughly 65% of all civilian deaths from Coalition actions tracked by our team since 2014 occurred over the last 12 months. This unprecedented death toll coincided with the start of the Trump presidency, and suggested in part that policies aimed at protecting civilians had been scaled back under the new administration.
The huge ramp up in Coalition actions came in parallel with a relative reduction in Russian operations in Syria. From January 2017, for eight straight months until September, Airwars tracked many more allegations per month against the Coalition than against Moscow’s forces. Despite international concern over increased civilian deaths, Russia continues to deny any civilian harm from its strikes – while the Coalition has downplayed the devastating impact of its own actions in Iraq and Syria.
Russian fever sweeps Sweden!
Sweden is bracing its citizens for war with Russia
The Swedish government will distribute leaflets to the country’s 4.7 million households later this year explaining what to do if war breaks out with Russia, the Civil Contingencies Agency in Stockholm said Thursday. The announcement comes in the middle of a heated parliamentary election campaign, and amid a renewed fear of hostilities with its eastern neighbor. ...
The move was prompted in part by the “security situation” in the Baltic Sea, officials told CNN. Russia has built up a significant military presence on its western border in recent months.
The leaflets will suggest preparing long-abandoned Cold War bunkers and stockpiling food, water, and blankets.
Japanese group wants Kim charged with crimes against humanity
The families of Japanese citizens kidnapped by North Korea want Kim Jong Un prosecuted in The Hague, the head of a support group told Reuters Friday.
The group will present a petition to the International Criminal Court requesting an investigation into the kidnappings – and the regime’s silence about the disappeared – as crimes against humanity.
The group, which represents families of people Pyongyang has either admitted to kidnapping or is suspected of kidnapping, hopes their actions will shine a light on the decades-old issue and exert some pressure on Pyongyang, its leader Kazuhiro Araki said.
Homeland security may have violated court order during travel ban
The Department of Homeland Security was almost entirely unprepared for implementing Donald Trump’s January 2017 travel ban, and appears to have violated federal court rulings during the order’s enforcement, a stinging government review has found. ...
The ban, which targeted refugees and visa holders from several Muslim majority countries, led to chaos at airports around the US and was later blocked by a series of court rulings which found grounds for violations of the constitution.
Trump’s order was eventually rescinded but the administration subsequently issued two more limited bans, which were, at times, also been blocked by court rulings. On Friday the supreme court announced it would consider a challenge to Trump’s third ban. The nine justices in the nation’s highest court had already allowed the ban to go into effect during their review.
The inspector general’s report into the first ban found that: “Answers to critical questions necessary for implementation were undefined when the EO [Executive Order] issued. No policies, procedures and guidance to the field were developed. This meant that Homeland Security and other other government departments were forced to “improvise policies and procedures in real time”.
As Shutdown Looms over Immigration, Trump’s Rejection of Refugees Could Have Global Domino Effect
Trump’s border wall obsession is going to shut down the government
President Trump’s zigzagging on immigration reform as the country careens toward a Friday night government shutdown deadline has Congress frustrated. ... A group of bipartisan senators have a bill they thought the President would back based on his comments last week. But after the infamous “shithole” meeting, no one can pin the White House down on immigration reform, making the possibility of a shutdown imminent.
“Their demands are nebulous, their messaging makes no sense, they continuously move the ball,” said David Bier, a policy analyst at the conservative CATO institute. “I think it’s a sign that the administration doesn’t want a deal.” ...
This week President Trump doubled down on his disapproval for the Graham-Durbin immigration plan, calling it “horrible” and “very, very weak.” One reason for the whiplash could be a memo that White House staff gave to the President before last Thursday’s meeting. The memo, obtained and reviewed by Axios, lists five objections to the bill: it fails to secure the border, increases illegal immigration, grants legal status to parents of “Dreamers,” increases chain migration and fails to end the visa lottery.
In fact, the bill includes $2.7 billion for border security, prohibits citizenship for parents of “Dreamers”, limits the number of family members a U.S. resident can sponsor, and terminates the diversity visa lottery program, allocating those visas for a merit-based system. “The idea that they gave the President everything that he asked for, these are dramatic things that are going to have a permanent effect on our immigration system,” said Kamal Essaheb, Director of Policy and Advocacy at the National Immigration Law Center. “For the President to just scoff at that and say that’s weak, it’s just beyond words.”
As ICE Targets Immigrant Rights Activists for Deportation, Suspicious Vehicles Outside Churches Stoke Surveillance Fears
When word came down from the upper floors of Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan that Immigration and Customs Enforcement was taking custody of Ravidath Ragbir and intended to deport him, hundreds of his supporters, standing outside on the cold sidewalk, raised up their hands to the monolithic building and screamed. ...
The New Sanctuary Coalition of New York City, where Ragbir is the executive director, emphasizes the power of illuminating the dark and confusing workings of the federal immigration machine. The coalition runs workshops to help immigrants fleeing violence in their home countries to apply for asylum. It sends groups of friendly volunteers to accompany people called to hearings in immigration court or mandatory check-ins with ICE officials. It builds a community of trust and mutual aid among New York’s most vulnerable and isolated immigrants.
The New Sanctuary Coalition’s work builds on a movement begun by religious congregations in the 1980s to support Central American refugees in defiance of Reagan-era immigration policies. Grounded in religious congregations, the movement relies in part on the government’s reluctance to send law enforcement into houses of worship. The concept of sanctuary — that people inside houses of worship enjoy some special protection from agents of the state — goes back centuries. But it doesn’t rest on any firm legal footing. While certain actions, like disrupting religious ceremonies, are illegal, the force keeping ICE officers from raiding churches has more to do with optics, said Rev. Michael Ellick, a former pastor at Judson Memorial Church and a friend of Ragbir. “It’s like, ‘OK, you can come and do that, but we’re going to have cameras rolling and everyone’s going to see you storming a church,’” he said. “Previous administrations, we thought they wouldn’t do that. But this administration? Who knows?”
Ragbir’s detention was the second such arrest of a New Sanctuary Coalition leader by ICE in the space of a week. It was only the most recent and public in a series of developments that advocates believe is part of a concerted effort to intimidate and dismantle the immigration rights movement in New York City. Coalition members say unmarked cars with heavily tinted windows have begun surveilling churches and movement leaders’ homes. Clergy who work with New York’s immigrant communities say that ICE agents have repeatedly entered church property and interrogated people as they come and go from houses of worship. The events in New York are taking place against a national backdrop of escalating actions against prominent immigrant rights figures.
Sweet Jesus, these people are still at it! Newsweek published this steaming pile yesterday. I want to know who got to Larry Lessig and performed the lobotomy.
Hillary Clinton Could Still Become President if Russia Probe Finds Conspiracy Evidence
Nearly a year after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, a Harvard University professor says 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton could still become commander in chief.
Lawrence Lessig, the Roy L. Furman professor of law and leadership at Harvard Law School, penned an essay for Medium in October outlining a series of hypothetical scenarios that could take place should the ongoing probe find that the Trump campaign actually conspired with Russia to influence the results of the election.
If Trump did conspire with Russia, the president “should resign, or, if he doesn’t, he should be impeached,” Lessig wrote in his essay. Vice President Mike Pence would also have to either resign or get impeached, which would make House Speaker Paul Ryan the president of the United States, Lessig wrote at the time.
Given that there is “no mechanism in American law for a new election,” nor “a mechanism for correcting the criminal results of the previous election,” Ryan ought to nominate “the person defeated by the treason of his own party, and then step aside, and let her become President,” Lessig went on to say.
"Collusion" Author Can’t Say Where Collusion Is!w/ Aaron Maté
Trump-Russia inquiry is told Nigel Farage may have given Julian Assange data
Nigel Farage may have given Julian Assange a thumb drive of data and was possibly a more frequent visitor than was publicly known to the Ecuadorian embassy where the WikiLeaks founder lives, according to testimony given to US congressional inquiry into the Trump campaign’s alleged ties to the Kremlin.
Glenn Simpson, a private investigator whose company compiled the controversial dossier alleging a conspiracy between Trump campaign officials and Russian agents, told the House intelligence committee that he was told by an unnamed source that the former Ukip leader had given data to Assange, but had no proof of the exchange.
“I’ve been told and have not confirmed that Nigel Farage had additional trips to the Ecuadoran [sic] Embassy than the one that’s been in the papers and that he provided data to Julian Assange,” Simpson told the committee, according to a transcript released on Thursday. Asked what kind of data Farage was alleged to have passed to the WikiLeaks founder, Simpson replied: “A thumb drive.”
Assange has denied working as an agent of Russia and Farage has ridiculed suggestions that the Kremlin influenced either the US election or Britain’s 2016 vote to exit the European Union. Farage’s relationship with Assange is of key interest because US intelligence and law enforcement officials see the WikiLeaks founder as a conduit for the Russian government.
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor: Democratic Party Faces Reckoning for Purging Sanders Supporters
The DNC promised $10M to rebuild state parties. It has not delivered
Last July, eight months after the Democratic Party experienced one of its most devastating defeats in history, DNC chairman Tom Perez announced an “unprecedented” rebuild of the party from the ground up with a $10 million fund dedicated to state parties. That fund could provide hundreds of thousands of dollars to each state party, an enormous sum for often cash-strapped organizations.
That money hasn’t arrived. In fact, the DNC didn’t even have $10 million on hand as of November 30 and declined to comment on whether it had the money now. ... Some Democratic officials argue that Perez and the new staff at the committee are simply doing the best they can after mismanagement of the DNC during the Obama years. “Clearly Tom inherited a shithole, not just in fundraising but in terms of morale as well,” Ken Martin, head of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and of the Association of State Democratic Chairs, said in a wry reference to President Trump’s incendiary “shithole” comment last week about immigration.
There has also been minimal help from Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, or Bernie Sanders—the biggest stars of the party—to fundraise, and a lot of money being raised on the Left is going to a host of shiny new “resistance” organizations or candidates rather than the Democratic Party itself. Others attribute current problems to 2016 elections that left the DNC with a tarnished brand, complicating efforts to generate enthusiasm and donations.
Dem senator puts hold on Trump nominees over offshore drilling plan
Florida Sen. Bill Nelson (D) is blocking quick confirmation of three Trump administration nominees, saying he hasn’t gotten sufficient assurances regarding offshore drilling off Florida’s coasts.
Nelson spokesman Ryan Brown said the senator sent Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke a letter last week seeking details on Zinke’s pledge to remove Florida from consideration for drilling.
But Zinke hasn’t responded to that letter, prompting the hold late Wednesday on three Interior Department nominees.
Brown said Nelson “will keep the holds in place until Zinke rescinds the draft five-year drilling plan published in the Federal Register on Jan. 8 and replaces it with a new draft plan that preserves the current moratorium in the eastern Gulf of Mexico beyond 2022 and fully protects all of Florida’s coasts from the threat of both offshore drilling and seismic testing.”
After a brief meeting last week with Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R), Zinke said Florida’s waters would be taken out of the drilling plan.
Elizabeth Warren Wants to Know Why a Banned Banker Is a Senior Adviser at the EPA
Sen. Elizabeth Warren is questioning whether Albert Kelly, a senior adviser at the Environmental Protection Agency, is fit for his job. Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, sent Kelly a letter requesting information from Kelly in light of The Intercept’s December investigation that revealed he had been banned from the financial industry. ...
Before becoming an EPA senior adviser in May, Kelly was chair of SpiritBank, a community bank in Oklahoma that made loans to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. Though Kelly had no experience with environmental issues, Pruitt hired him and tasked him with oversight of the agency’s Superfund program – just two weeks after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation fined him $125,000 for making a loan not approved by the banking regulator. In July, he was banned from the banking industry for life.
In her letter Warren noted the significant financial losses SpiritBank experienced under Kelly’s leadership, as well as the bank’s inability to repay more than $21 million it received in federal funds through the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, both first reported by The Intercept.
The Superfund program manages clean-up of the country’s most contaminated areas and has a direct impact on Americans’ health and safety. Some 53 million people live within 3 miles of one of the more than 1,100 such sites around the country. And hundreds of the sites are at increased risk of flooding due to climate change.
As Warren noted, the program’s budget has been on the decline since 1999, and the Trump administration has proposed slashing it even further. “Given these financial struggles,” Warren wrote, “it is essential that the EPA personnel responsible for the Superfund program — including the personnel making recommendations on the Superfund’s future — are capable of properly managing and allocating the program’s finances.”
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Chelsea Manning: 'I'm a very different person than I was 10 years ago'
Americans Are In An Abusive Relationship With Oligarchy, And It’s Not Their Fault
Forget About Siri and Alexa — When It Comes to Voice Identification, the “NSA Reigns Supreme”
The biggest risk to American journalism isn't posed by Trump
Bibi says Iran will soon have 100 nuclear bombs. Well, where are they?
Lumiere London light festival - in pictures
A Little Night Music
Jimmy Dawkins - Born In Poverty
Jimmy Dawkins Rumping 'N' Stomping
Jimmy Dawkins - Feel So Bad
Queen Sylvia & Jimmy Dawkins - Life And Troubles
Jimmy Dawkins - Dawkins' Mood
Jimmy Dawkins - Kant Sheck Dees Bluze
Jimmy Dawkins - Night Rock
Jimmy Dawkins - Goin' Down
Queen Sylvia Embry with Jimmy Dawkins
Jimmy Dawkins - Skopje Jazz Festival
Comments
hi joe
Lessig is a dingbat. He is like the guys who used to run the Fleur de Lys restaurant in San Francisco, who were convinced that any day now the French monarchy would be restored.
The Swedes and the Russians have had many stupid wars over the centuries. The one in the 1740s was a nonsense called the "Hats War." They need to all calm down, and listen to Hats, instead.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cORMA0EVlko]
evening hecate...
yeah, but, lessig never used to be this goofy. i mean, trying to figure out how to make the bloodthirsty warmonger hillary to be the president is ludicrously goofy.
oh well. hats. everybody needs to calm down and get real.
Forget that "Hillary Still Might
get Her Presidency"
stuff, if this report is
anywhere close to the truth the only
place Hillary going is off to jail.
Please Gawd let it be true!
And DWS and DOJ and... right along with Her.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
Here's some information about the "Un-masking"
that the other article mentioned.
I didn't pay much attention to this when it first became known that Susan Rice was trying to get the names of the people that the FISA warrant covered. But this article has Un-named sources and I've had a problem with the others that use them. But I share your hopes.
Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?
evening wink...
yeah, the "hillary could still be president" folks are special people. there ought to be a special place for them. the place for hillary, though, requires her to wear an orange jumpsuit and be present in the hague. whatever her election-related crimes or the election-related crimes of her erstwhile obama admin companions, they pale in comparison to her (and many of their) war crimes.
given the attitude of privilege and impunity with which they've acted in other matters, though, one might expect that their reverence for election laws and fair elections mirrors that of their (obvious lack of) reverence for the constitution generally, not to mention the human lives of (mostly brown) people beyond u.s. borders.
so, i wouldn't be surprised if clinton and obama minions did some pretty awful things, though i would be surprised if they got caught out and punished for it.
I'm not holding my breath
So the default answer here is that it is just more of the kabuki theater. Anything else will, as Glen pointed out in that quote, require the evidence.
A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard
You should have just posted the full Aaron Matte interview.
https://youtu.be/9Ikf1uZli4g
It is shorter & right on point Jimmy Dore wastes a lot of time trying to be funny- but without a lot of insight.
chuck utzman
TULSI 2020
evening chuck...
yep, i did post the original video and a variety of commentary about it when it had just been posted a while ago. i figured folks might be interested in hearing about it again and maybe getting as much background info as can be extracted from jimmy dore's interview.
thanks for posting the link to the original!
Hey all ...
Lovely afternoon today in the Old Pueblo, 75 degrees as I write this.
Here's an interesting piece from ninaillingworth.com. It's long and full of links Here's the last paragraph:
I think she's right. The media has most of the country believing that Vladimir Putin is
some kind of Bond villain intent on taking over the whole world. Why ? Cui bono ?
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
US establishment’s recent fascination
with blatantly Russophobic propaganda isn’t really all about the almighty dollar. Silly indeed. US empire banks don't want to play second fiddle to a Sino-Russo-Iranian financial system. Then they would lose the Argentine-Venezuelan-Cuban group as well. Hell to pay for these banking empires that try to sanction foreign economies for their own benefit. Comes a time when the greedsters bully their way out of relevancy. Now the Canadians and Mexicans don't want to play liars poker no more. Guess it's time to crank up the world destruction machine again. I don't think the US empire will take this without cremating the socialist others. Then it's time to see just how many friends the us mic still has.
Except tv coverage
of the Iraq invasion
was pretty much limited to the
actual week of the invasion, with Baghdad
Bob telling everyone "we've won! The Americans are in retreat!"
ok, cut! that's a wrap. you guys can take your cameras and head home. we got this.
He's wrong about 'Nam coverage, too. While Networks were pretty much limited in what pictures they were sending back to American tv sets, reporters there were less limited in their reporting. Eventually, as noted in the example of Walter Cronkite wearing Army helmet, reporters caught on that this war wasn't going anywhere.
The MIC took note of the 'Nam coverage and said never again. And, with the exception of the first few days of action, The Media has been blocked from nightly coverage of their fuckups ever since.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
evening azazello...
thanks for the link to the article. i'm part way through it and i find myself nodding a lot as i read. it's an excellent background piece on u.s. militarism/imperialism.
cui bono?
perhaps a history of wartime profiteering might be useful, along with an analysis of how war profits have advanced many of the great, dynastic fortunes.
glad to hear that you're having decent weather out there, we're headed for 50 degrees tomorrow. woohoo!
have a great evening!
We're s'posed to get a few days of winter
starting tomorrow, lows down in the 30s. The weather here has just been crazy for the last couple of years. I'd be willing to bet that there are fewer climate change deniers in Tucson now because of it. Or at least I hope there are.
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
Oh dear god PLEASE!
I sure do wish I had a handy reference like this to pass off to friends. That would make it a ton easier to counter the "We're there fighting terrorism" angle. I'd be able to say, "Maybe. But the last 3000 times they said that they were lying."
A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard
Howdy Az
I learned to hate Russians all through my whole life
If another war comes, it's them we must fight
To hate them and fear them, to run and to hide
And accept it all bravely with God on my side
But now we got weapons of chemical dust
If fire them we're forced to, then fire them we must
One push of the button and a shot the world wide
You never ask questions when God's on your side.
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X
Oh, BTW
Bisbee '17 premiered at Sundance yesterday.
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X
The Collusion author makes perfect sense
This pretty much sums up the Russian investigation. Somebody said this to that guy who didn't talk to anyone in Russia but they're angry with Putin and Trump went to Russia a few times back in the 80's and a bank in Germany loaned him some money and then Trump beat Hillary and now he's president.
Why is this hard to understand? Oh yeah and now all of the GOP are Putin's puppets and traitors. Seems simple enough to me. This makes as much sense as anything else that people believe.
Oh yeah,
Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?
evening snoopy...
do you ever get the feeling that the democrat/deep state/media dark alliance is running out of sharks to jump?
There is a good chance of Saccone winning
Especially when the democrats aren't supporting Lamb. The DCCC said that for now they have no interest in his campaign. They let the guy who recently retired run unopposed the last two elections. It's pretty hard to win an election if you don't run a candidate, but maybe that's just my take on it.
The Russian article you linked to is a doozy. It's full of neoliberal talking points starting with the little headline.
The US is concerned that Vladimir Putin favours Cold-War-style intimidation
The neoliberal talking points. Hmm, how many false assertions were made in this ?
Here's a different take on what's happening with Russia.
It’s Nato that’s Empire-building, not Putin
Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?
it's up to the voters of pennsyltucky...
to keep the bipartisans from colluding to put the deep state's torturer into the house of representatives. counting on the voters of pennsyltucky seems like a slim reed to lean on.
The Biggest Risk To American Journalism
I had to read the Guardian a couple of times to identify the culprit. The problem:
The culprits:
(emphasis added)
Police and other authorities? That's a little vague. Local police are backed up by prosecutors and judges. Local police usually receive general guidance from Mayors and City Councils who set their budget. So local law enforcement authorities are the biggest threat?
Since I'm reading this story in The Guardian I have to wonder if the silence of the entire American Media from top to bottom could be a significant contributing factor. Would front page headlines make a difference? Well that ain't gonna happen so we will never know.
How about a complete breakdown of America's judicial system from coast to coast. How do these cases get repeatedly prosecuted with little or no pushback from judges?
Political silence from local, state and national politicians is a contributing factor. Where's the outrage from "our" leaders?
The Guardian article was correct that Trump is not the biggest threat. There is no single "biggest" threat. The problem is a systemic breakdown of public and political institutions at every level. We need a new soap opera. I suggest As The Empire Crumbles.
"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...
i'm glad that you found the culprit.
i think that actually it's even a bit more complex than you've outlined.
i was interested to see a fairly mainstream outlet like the guardian cover this and see what they say. perhaps their reticence to name culprits would make it obvious that mainstream media is also a major culprit.
in most recent episodes where journos have run-ins with "the authorities," journos from mainstream media are generally treated with kid gloves and usually let off. on the other hand, freelance journos (like the freelancer who recently stood trial with a group of j20 protesters) are not generally accorded the same treatment.
this all seems of a piece with the mainstream media/big tech/government effort to silence left media.
imo. ymmv.
Good evening, Joe. When did Lessig lose his mind? Is this
the price of trying to become a over and shaker in the Democratic party?
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...
i just can't imagine what, except for perhaps early onset dementia, would cause an intelligent mammal to go as far around the bend as lessig has.
surely if he's just trying to kiss ass, he should know that the reward will be being allowed to kiss more ass. unlike most of the clintonite sychophants, he already has a reasonably well-paying job and no need to worry about being fired for utter incompetence. further, he has no political prospects that will be furthered by his service to the clintons, so his angle here is pretty hard to make out.
OK, that's pretty mch in line with my thinking, unless he
perhaps has eyes on being some sort of eminence grise
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
@Joe Shikspack - you certainly know more about him, but
trying to find an answer to your question of why he has bent so much, when he has already a reasonably well-paying job and no need to worry about being fired for utter incompetence and further to understand of why he wouldn't understand that he has no political prospects that will be furthered by his service to the Clintons, my first thought was... ok, I better don't express that here, but ...
One link indicated that he is indeed a personal friend of Barack Obama. They have become friends during the time they taught both at the University in Chicago. So, I would think, to him NOT supporting Obama and indirectly Clinton and the Democrats, would amount to a personal betrayal. May be he can't handle that very well.
When I listened to what he said, my first reaction was ... a German-ish lawyer using his code (in law and in programming) to wiggle himself out of any responsibility like a fish who jumped out of the fish tank, trying to find a way to survive without water.
Lawyer eats Lawyer and both get diarrhea thereafter. Then they use their brains and knowledge about "the code" to make people believe it doesn't smell. His goal is to change the code with regards to electoral college and campaign finance reform. I guess he is frustrated that he can't find a way to do it.
I am still searching for a book of lawyers' role in Nazi Germany in the early 1933ies in my boxes.
I always wanted to study it again. I remember that I could only scan the book some twenty years ago or so and it was the first time that I had some "doubts" about "lawyers' skills" to match their conscience (if they had it at all) with their actions and wording.
I think, to him, all of what he said in that article is an intellectual game. Apparently along the lines of some quote by Robert Oppenheimer in the play "Die Physiker" by Friedrich Dürrenmatt - (of course I can't find that quote anymore - but it is in my head for a reason, as I studied this play when I was in highschool to give a presentation about "Absurdes Theater") - Robert Oppenheimer saying in that play something like 'you can't stop a human brain from thinking'.
That came to my mind:
and because once upon the time I was a chemist that spoke to me as well back then...
and this old man once had also some truthiness in his words...
Thanks for the EB. I am an ally of Joe Shikspack's Sanctuary Blues Shack... for now. Don't bend and don't think too much. /s
https://www.euronews.com/live
ManKeeanga-Yamahtta Taylor is someone I need to hear more from
The only idiotic thing she said was that there was some sort of debate about the course of the Democratic party. There is? Did I miss something somewhere? I've seen a bit of ruffled feathers and some random flapping around. I haven't seen anything that looks like a meaningful debate... at least among the Democrats.
Edited to add:
And about "Vice News". After reading just a bit of that article I got suspicious immediately and did a quick scan. I'm chalking them up as a part of the neolib machine.... or else idiots. For instance, they offer up this little gem: DEMOCRATS ARE EMBRACING SINGLE PAYER FOR REAL. Their rational for that conclusion is:
What? Huh? ROFL. I have to decide between credulous fools or knowledgeable neolib propagandists. That article seemed spun pretty strongly and I'd have to parse every word as if they'd been spoken by Bill Clinton in order to have an opinion on it. I simply don't care enough about the rebuilding of the Democratic party or whatever challenges they claim they are facing.
What do you folks know about Vice News?
A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard
evening snapple...
vice news is supposed to be news for hipsters. some of its stuff is good - and they cover things that other mainstream outlets don't. a lot of their stuff is cringe-worthy. you have to pick and choose, as with most mainstream outlets.
Apropos of nothing.... but it made me laugh
I freely admit I've never understood the open thread system and/or evening blues. I never participated on them at GOS and don't really get it here. So if this is the wrong place for this someone let me know.
I'm offering this up only because it made me laugh. This is what happens when a really, really smart guy gets intrigued with by an interesting email he receive regarding an excellent opportunity to get rich quick.
[video:https://youtu.be/_QdPW8JrYzQ]
A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard