The Evening Blues - 2-16-18



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Bonnie Raitt

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues and rock singer and guitarist Bonnie Raitt. Enjoy!

Bonnie Raitt - The Road's My Middle Name

"In a sane world, being a neoconservative would carry the same social stigma as being a child molester or a serial killer."

-- Caitlin Johnstone


News and Opinion

Check Out Nikki Haley Pretending She Doesn’t Love Violence And Dead Children

Neoconservatism is not some political ideology which can be placed on a left-to-right spectrum based on one’s ideas about fiscal policy and social issues, it is the civilian-slaughtering American supremacist agenda to butcher, bomb, sanction, starve, bully and manipulate the world population in order to ensure the hegemony of the US-centralized power establishment. I am not condemning an opposing set of political opinions here, I am condemning the mass murder of innocent men, women and children.

Neoconservatism is what fuels support for the war machine which has scattered hundreds of military bases all over the planet, which armed terrorist factions in Syria killing half a million people, which created a failed state in Libya, killed a million Iraqis, facilitated the mass slaughter in Yemen, and escalated the new cold war with Russia which threatens to kill everything on earth, all just in the last few years.

So forgive me if I indulge in a bitter scoff when Nikki fucking Haley tweets about how heartbroken she is about the recent mass shooting in Florida.


UN Ambassador Haley, who has been described by journalist Michael Tracey as “the most dangerous member of the administration,” pushes relentlessly for dangerous escalations with all targets of the US war machine, seemingly at every opportunity. Virtually any time you see her face she’s trying to rally an international coalition against Syria, Iran, Russia, Venezuela, or North Korea. The push is always toward escalation instead of de-escalation, toward war instead of peace. Nikki Haley is a neocon, and she loves war. ...

So when Nikki Haley says that she is shocked and disturbed by the mass murder of civilians, she is lying. She is a death machine awkwardly imitating a human being.

Wilkerson: From Trump Parade to Budget, There's 'Too Much Military'

Nuclear risk at its highest since Cuban missile crisis, says ex-energy secretary

The world has been lucky so far to escape the launch of nuclear weapons through miscalculation, but the odds of such a catastrophic accident are increasing, according to the former US energy secretary Ernest Moniz. Moniz, a nuclear physicist who played a central role in securing a landmark non-proliferation agreement with Iran in 2015, said the margin for error in avoiding disaster was getting thinner because of the introduction of new, smaller weapons, the broadening of circumstances in which their use is being contemplated, and a lack of high-level communications between major nuclear weapons powers.

As a result, Moniz told the Guardian, the chance of nuclear use “is higher than it’s been since the Cuban missile crisis”.

Moniz, who is now CEO and co-chairman of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, pointed to a recent false alarm by Hawaii’s public alert system as the sort of technological glitch that could lead to fatal miscalculation. The alert sent islanders running for cover, and it took nearly 40 minutes for the mistake to be rectified. ...

“We know we’ve had those warnings many times in history and we’ve managed so far to dodge the bullet,” he said. “But dodging the bullets is more difficult when there’s not significant communications going on and a lot of tensions between the countries.”

Admiral warns US must prepare for possibility of war with China

The navy admiral nominated to be the next US ambassador to Australia has told Congress America must prepare for the possibility of war with China, and said it would rely on Australia to help uphold the international rules-based system in the Asia-Pacific.

In an excoriating assessment of China’s increasingly muscular posture in the region, Harry Harris said Beijing’s “intent is crystal clear” to dominate the South China Sea and that its military might could soon rival American power “across almost every domain”.

Harris, soon to retire as the head of US Pacific Command in Hawaii, told the House armed services committee, the US and its allies should be wary of Beijing’s military expansionism in the region, and condemned China’s foreign influence operations, predatory economic behaviour and coercion of regional neighbours.

“China’s intent is crystal clear. We ignore it at our peril,” he said. “I’m concerned China will now work to undermine the international rules-based order.”

Harris also warned of a “cult of personality” developing around Chinese president Xi Jinping.

No 'bloody nose' plan for North Korea: U.S. official, senators

The senior U.S. diplomat for Asia, Susan Thornton, said on Thursday she understood the Trump administration had no strategy for a so-called bloody nose strike on North Korea, but Pyongyang would be forced to give up its nuclear weapons “one way or another.” ...

Two U.S. senators, a Democrat and Republican, who spoke at Thornton’s confirmation hearing for the post of assistant secretary for East Asia, said they and other senators had been told by senior White House officials on Wednesday that there was no such strategy.

Asked by Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen if the Trump administration had no “bloody nose” strategy, Thornton replied: “That is my understanding, senator, yes.”

Republican Senator James Risch said the lawmakers had been told “by administration people, about as high up as it gets, that there is no such thing as a ‘bloody nose strategy.'” Risch added that the officials said they had never considered it or talked about it.

Thornton, currently the acting assistant secretary for East Asia, said Washington was open to talks with Pyongyang but that North Korean denuclearization would be the only issue.

Russia Says Five of Its Civilians May Have Been Killed in Syria by U.S.-Led Forces

Five Russian citizens may have been killed in Syria in clashes with U.S.-led coalition forces this month, but they were not Russian military personnel, a Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman said on Thursday.

"Based on preliminary information, as a result of an armed encounter, the reasons for which are now being investigated, we could be talking about the deaths of five people," the spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova told a briefing.

"The assumption is that these are Russian citizens. But all that needs to be checked, in particular, of course, their citizenship, are they indeed citizens of Russia, or of other countries," she said. ...

Zakharova said media reports about dozens or hundreds of Russian dead in the Syria clashes were "disinformation". She added that U.S. actions in Syria were probably designed to undermine the country's territorial integrity.

13 Russian nationals indicted for meddling in U.S. election

The Russia investigation just produced its next round of indictments.

On Friday, special counsel Robert Mueller and his team indicted 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities for interfering in the 2016 presidential election. The eight counts of the indictment include charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, and six counts of “aggravated identity theft.”

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced the indictments Friday afternoon, saying that the defendants had conducted an operation of “information warfare” against the United States. The indictment lays out a comprehensive campaign called “Project Lakhta” conducted on the web and in person by the defendants to in an effort to “sow discord in the U.S. political system.”

That campaign began as early as 2014 and sought to undermine American politicians in both parties. By early 2016, when the presidential primaries were beginning, the indictment alleges that the Russians “primarily intended” to attack Hillary Clinton, Sen. Ted Cruz, and Sen. Marco Rubio, while supporting Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. By mid-2016, after those primary battles were mostly settled, the Russians turned their focus to “supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump (“Trump Campaign”) and disparaging Hillary Clinton.” ...

The defendants stand accused of creating social media accounts posing as Americans, in some instances using stolen identities, to reach “significant numbers of Americans” in order to disrupt the 2016 election. Some defendants even “traveled to the United States under false pretenses” and purchased “computer infrastructure” to obfuscate their Russian origin.

One of the Russian-operated accounts named in the indictment was the Twitter profile @TEN_GOP, or ”Tennessee GOP,” whose foreign origins were first revealed by a Russian news outlet in October. The account was active from November 2015 through last August, and was retweeted by Trumpworld officials — including Donald Trump Jr., Sebastian Gorka, and Kellyanne Conway — in the days leading up to the 2016 election.

Steve Bannon has been spending a lot of time with Robert Mueller

News about the special counsel investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia has died down in recent days, but we know Robert Mueller works quietly, and it turns out he’s just hit a major target: Steve Bannon.

Behind the scenes, Mueller’s team has spent about 20 hours this week talking with Bannon, the president’s former chief strategist, NBC News reports.

Neo-McCarthyite hysteria at US Senate Intelligence Committee hearing

Tuesday’s Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on “Global Threats and National Security” was an exercise in right-wing hysteria aimed at promoting the claim that all social opposition in the United States is the product of foreign subversion. This fraudulent narrative was advanced to justify censorship and police state repression.

Not since the McCarthyite witch hunts of the 1950s has Congress seen such a vitriolic denunciation of supposed foreign subversion. Russia, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told the committee, “perceived its past efforts [at manipulating the 2016 elections] as successful and views the 2018 US midterm elections as a potential target.” It is necessary to “inform the American people that this is real,” Coats proclaimed, and that “resilience is needed for us to stand up and say we’re not going to allow some Russians to tell us how to vote, how we ought to run our country.”

One after another, senators pressed the assembled intelligence officials about purported Russian and Chinese plots to “sow divisions” within American society, calling on the intelligence agencies to work with technology companies to censor the Internet and prevent the dissemination of “divisive content. Chinese students were denounced as potential spies and subversives and Americans were instructed not to buy smartphones made by Chinese companies.

All of these accusations were made without the slightest attempt at proof or substantiation. This is because they are simply made up.

The ICC must hold the US accountable for crimes in Afghanistan

As dignitaries and civil society gather in The Hague this week to mark the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC), the Court stands poised to demonstrate its maturity as it weighs a request to investigate members of the US Central Intelligence Agency and the US armed forces for torture and other serious crimes committed in Afghanistan or in Eastern Europe in the so-called “war on terror.” A criminal investigation of US torture – and other serious crimes in Afghanistan – is long overdue.

In November, the ICC prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, lodged a request to open a formal investigation following a decade-long preliminary investigation into possible international crimes committed in Afghanistan since it became a member of the court in May 2003, as well as to related crimes in other member states since July 2002.

It also follows longstanding efforts by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) to hold high-level Bush administration officials accountable, through the principle of universal jurisdiction, for many of the human rights violations that the imminent ICC prosecution would encompass. We’ve pursued former US officials in Canada and around Europe, seeking to hold them accountable for torture at Guantánamo, Afghanistan, and secret “black sites” around the globe.

To date, no high-level US official from the civilian leadership, military, CIA, or private contractor has been prosecuted for war crimes and crimes against humanity. An ICC investigation could finally change that – bringing an end to the impunity US officials have enjoyed and, critically, some measure of redress to victims of the US torture program.

War Profiteers Control American Trade Deals w/ Jan Weinberg

Netanyahu tells African migrants to leave Israel or face jail time

Israel is giving African migrants seeking asylum in the country an ultimatum — leave or end up in jail.

The deportation plan, announced January 1, has stirred alarm among the international community and human rights groups, who say imprisoning asylum seekers goes against Israel’s democratic ideals and is the latest example of the country shedding its responsibility to refugees.

“Instead of jailing them, Israel should fairly identify and protect refugees among them,” said Gerry Simpson, associate refugee director at Human Rights Watch, in a statement last month. He added that the latest crackdown is part of Israel’s ongoing “quest to dodge its refugee protection duties.” ...

African migrants and black Israelis have borne the brunt of the country's sharp turn toward right-wing nationalism in recent years, facing repeated outbursts of violence, harassment and hate speech. And members of Israel’s political parties, including Miri Regev of the Likud party, have played into the anti-migrant wave. “Today, I said in Parliament, the Sudanese are a cancer in our society,” yelled Regev during an anti-migrant rally that turned violent in 2012.

Hoping to put an end to the saga, Israel’s new plan incentivizes voluntary deportations, offering $3,500, airfare and travel document assistance for all those that leave by the end of March.

Brazilian army to take control of security in Rio as violence rises

Brazilian president Michel Temer has signed a decree putting the military in charge of security in Rio de Janeiro, following a rise in street crime and drug gang violence.

Massed robberies and gunfights during carnival, followed by a storm that killed four and caused chaos, have heightened a sense that the city is slipping out of control. “I am taking this extreme measure because the circumstances demand it,” Temer said after signing the decree on Friday. “Enough.” ...

Temer’s decree will also put the army in charge of the city’s police force – the first time Brazil has taken such a decision since it introduced a new constitution in 1988 following two decades of military dictatorship.

It takes immediate effect, though a vote in Congress could overturn it, and lasts until the end of the year.

One in 10 senior politicians in Brazil funded by companies 'linked to slavery'

More than one in 10 of Brazil’s high-ranking politicians, among them President Michel Temer, received campaign donations from companies linked to modern-day slavery, an investigation has found. Party leaders, state secretaries and five of ex-president Dilma Rousseff’s governors are among the elected parliamentarians who received R$3.5m (£760,000) during the last general election, according to the NGO Repórter Brasil.

Temer’s election committee was found to have received R$700,000 (£150,000) from OAS, a Brazilian construction company found guilty of keeping 111 workers in slave-like conditions during the expansion of São Paulo airport, in 2013. “This is just one of an ocean of shocking practices that Temer’s administration has exposed,” said Xavier Plassat, head of the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT).

President Temer is being investigated for corruption as part of the nationwide Lava Jato (“Car Wash”) enquiry following accusations that he received bribes from JBS, the meat-packing company. JBS was at the heart of a series of Brazilian corruption and meat-industry scandals last year, including investigations of reported slavery in its supply chain. ...

Twenty-one of the 51 MPs who received donations from companies identified by the authorities as using slave labour are part of the extremely influential rural caucus in congress. This lobby has continually attempted to limit efforts to combat slavery in Brazil and, late last year, supported Temer’s attempt to restrict the legal definition of modern-day slavery.

Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s New President, Known for Moving Profits to Offshore Tax Havens

As profits soar, US construction workers see increase in death and injury on the job

Deaths and injuries among workers in the booming construction industry in New York state in 2016 showed a striking parallel in both the rate and causes of death in the industry nationwide, according an annual report “Deadly Skyline,” published last month by the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH).

NYCOSH reports that construction deaths in the state of New York reached a 14-year high in 2016, with 71 workers killed on the job. This amounts to a nearly 30 per cent increase from 2015, when a total of 55 construction workers were killed on the job in the state.

As the WSWS has reported, there were 5,190 fatal workplace injuries recorded in the United States in 2016, an increase of seven percent from the 4,836 workers killed on the job in 2015.

Overall, construction workers in the US saw the highest number of deaths in any industry in 2015. That year, a total of 937 construction workers were killed on the job, marking the second straight year of fatality increases in construction, according to the most recent data available to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Unreported incidents undoubtedly place the numbers even higher, as injury and deaths among migrant and undocumented workers who are forced to accept the most hazardous jobs routinely go unreported.



the evening greens


Jakarta is the world’s fastest sinking city

Jakarta is sinking — and it’s sinking fast, with current estimates predicting half the city will be underwater by 2030. To cope with the unfolding crisis, the city is building a $10 billion sea wall to keep flood waters out, but that’s only a temporary solution. Parts of the city, home to nearly 10 million people, have sunk over 10 feet in the last few decades, and some areas are submerging at a rate of up to seven inches per year.

The problem is driven by the millions of Indonesians who rely on drawing water up from aquifers that lay beneath the city’s foundation to survive. And since the city was built on-top of marshlands, this practice is directly contributing to the ground’s collapse.

Finding a viable long-term solution has put city-planners, politicians and citizens at odds with one another. “The only step forward is to evacuate four to five million people, or build this outer sea dike, which gives you another 20 to 50 years to solve all of the problems.” says JanJaap Brinkmann, a Dutch Hydrologist who is working on solutions for Jakarta.

60,000 Chinese troops are about to plant enough trees to cover Utah

Some 60,000 Chinese troops have been deployed to plant trees in an extended area around Beijing roughly the size of Utah, according to Asia Times.

The region suffers from dense air pollution, with the vast reforestation project intended to counter smog that regularly envelops the capital and parts of the northern provinces, especially in winter.

More than 6.66 million hectares (32,500 square miles) of new forest will be planted in 2018, with the People’s Liberation Army reassigning tens of thousands of infantry, with additional help from the police force.

Many of the troops will work in the heavily industrial province of Hebei, which circles Beijing. Authorities in Hebei have pledged to raise total forest coverage to 35 percent by the end of 2020.

The initiative is part of a wider plan to increase China’s overall level of forestation from 21.7 percent to 23 percent by the end of the decade, and to 26 percent by 2035.


Also of Interest

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

Moon’s chief of staff takes centre stage in inter-Korean detente

Story of Israel’s influence shadows the Russian influence story

Russians Spooked by Nukes-Against-Cyber-Attack Policy

NYT’s ‘Really Weird’ Russiagate Story

The Intercept Is Transitioning From Guard Dog To Attack Dog For The Establishment

Empire Loyalists: Skepticism Of Mainstream Syria Narrative Is “Dangerous”

Native American Activist Critical of Elizabeth Warren Says Her Speech Was a “Step in the Right Direction”


A Little Night Music

Bonnie Raitt - Runaway

Bonnie Raitt - Love Me Like a Man

Ray Charles & Bonnie Raitt - Do I Ever Cross Your Mind

Bonnie Raitt - Guilty

Bonnie Raitt & Roy Rogers - Gnawin' On It

Bonnie Raitt & John Prine - Angel From Montgomery

Taj Mahal & Bonnie Raitt - Done Changed My Way of Living

John Lee Hooker w/ Bonnie Raitt - I'm In The Mood

The Rolling Stones w/ Bonnie Raitt

Eric Clapton, BB King & Bonnie Raitt - Blues Jam - Live At Earl Court 10 17, 1998

Bonnie Raitt - Old Grey Whistle Test


Share
up
0 users have voted.

Comments

The Aspie Corner's picture

up
0 users have voted.

Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

joe shikspack's picture

@The Aspie Corner

we are definitely an empire in decline. on the other hand, israel will never agree to allow a nation that they have no control over (russia) to mediate a conflict that they have no interest in ending.

up
0 users have voted.

this is good news. It's what the earth needs after all. Happy Chinese New Year! And, thanks for the Bonnie UUU (big smiles).

up
0 users have voted.
TheOtherMaven's picture

@QMS
Will wonders never cease!

Think the US would ever do anything comparable? (Naaaaahhhh.....)

up
0 users have voted.

There is no justice. There can be no peace.

@TheOtherMaven with their power, unlike the once greatest joke turned sulking cowards.

up
0 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@QMS

china is doing an excellent job of pointing out that the u.s. is a pariah state.

up
0 users have voted.

jamming a while back, on a hill somewhere in MA, looking at the stars, imagining perfection in a taco shell.

up
0 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@QMS

i've never seen lyle lovett live, though i've always liked his music, especially his duets with francine reed.

up
0 users have voted.
janis b's picture

Thanks joe for the news and blues. Have a nice weekend.

It sounds as if it could be a lot worse than a bloody nose ...

... but Pyongyang would be forced to give up its nuclear weapons “one way or another.” ...

Brasil. It's awful. I was recently talking with a young Brasillian man working in New Zealand and applying for residency. He said he could no longer tolerate living in Brasil and watching good people do immoral things just so their families could survive.

up
0 users have voted.

@janis b delightful people. Spent a short eternity in Belem. So much social power then, 30 years ago. Could have started a movement, but had no leaders. Entertainment ruled. Lessons learned, now it's US. Hope NZ fares better. Another missed opportunity.

up
0 users have voted.
janis b's picture

@QMS

describes this young man perfectly. I hope he gets to stay.

up
0 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@janis b

well, the bloody nose would just be a prelude to what trump (and presumably the mic) are aiming for, which will be much, much worse. it's probably not too soon for the people of the world to take to the streets and demand that this crap gets stopped in its tracks.

brazil is being taken down by neoliberal forces. i predict that there will be a resurgence of the military dictatorship within a few years. i'm glad that the young man you met has a chance at residence in the kiwi socialist paradise. odd that so many libertarian types are drawn to nz as a shelter from the storm that they are creating.

up
0 users have voted.
janis b's picture

@joe shikspack

I seriously hope that they find less purchase here. We don't need the storms they create wherever they land. I'll try to keep you in touch with what our current government manages in that regard.

up
0 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@janis b

i'm greatly interested in what our 1% destroyers are up to, in particular what their plans are for abandoning the rotting, smoking crater left over after they extract everything that they can from the land and people here.

up
0 users have voted.
divineorder's picture

@janis b

up
0 users have voted.

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

mimi's picture

@janis b
they will use their "shelter" to escape from the stormshit they created, the same way other cowardly "empire lovers" have done, you know, like killing themselves as the only solution left. I am all for it. Hope they don't take too many 'adoring females' with them while doing so (like the German guy, if you know what I mean) and I can't wait for them to be gone.

up
0 users have voted.
OLinda's picture

Bluesters!

In case anyone wants to see a picture of Glenn Greenwald's two adorable kids, he put up a new background banner on his Twitter account. Smile

up
0 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@OLinda

cute kids!

heh, i just happened to see this when i clicked your link:

up
0 users have voted.
OLinda's picture

Nuclear risk at its highest since Cuban missile crisis, says ex-energy secretary

The Doomsday Clock is at 2 minutes to midnight.

up
0 users have voted.
janis b's picture

@OLinda

look, if not adorable, at least trustworthy ; ).

up
0 users have voted.
mimi's picture

@janis b
to never trust the men who say "trust me", even if they have the cutest little lovable trustworthy looks.

Dogs are the only ones whose looks are cute and trustworthy. Yep. I miss my dog.

up
0 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@OLinda

up
0 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

helluva WPA project. Then there's watering and pruning and such afterward. Of course locating some place to do it would be a trick. The department of Beef, Logging, and Mining would probably take some fast growing pulpwood trees to put into the crop rotation, but most private owners and localities would probably say no.

up
0 users have voted.

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 --

@enhydra lutris BLM was a respectable enemy out west. Yeah, we had our beefs, but fences and signs didn't mean too much. We did our thing and didn't worry. Course now is different. Your new description of BLM made me laugh, tho it is sad to say, sold out. We do own that land, as a nation. It does not change if the govt. puts up no trespass signs. We, the people own it.

up
0 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@enhydra lutris

beef, logging and mining wouldn't do it, 'cuz all those damned trees would get in the way of the cows and the mines.

up
0 users have voted.

Still yawning on Friday news dump re Russiagate. I just love the "sowing discord" accusations. So 19th century don't you think? Eris tossing the apple. It appears, I could be wrong, that Russian nationals spent slightly more than Morocco did in getting What's her name to remove their designation as an oppressive regime. Now the important stuff. I've never really appreciated Bonnie Raitt as a blues artist in spite of her undeniable talent. To me she'll always be country, and a great country artist.And there's John Prine with hair! These days I keep humming his song "that's how every empire falls."

up
0 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@GusBecause

yeah, i haven't gotten around to looking into what the people who posted mean things about hillary on facebook are charged with. i'm sure that it will be amusing.

i keep wondering if i could post mean things about jacinda ardern's opponent on facebook the next time new zealand is in that delicate time for any "democracy" (election time) and get new zealand to demand my extradition to their island paradise. Smile

up
0 users have voted.
OLinda's picture

James Risen has an article at The Intercept where he discusses his belief that Russians interfered with the 2016 election to help Trump win. I found it interesting, but much of it is the same we've been hearing without proof.

THERE ARE FOUR important tracks to follow in the Trump-Russia story. First, we must determine whether there is credible evidence for the underlying premise that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help Trump win.

Second, we must figure out whether Trump or people around him worked with the Russians to try to win the election.

Next, we must scrutinize the evidence to understand whether Trump and his associates have sought to obstruct justice by impeding a federal investigation into whether Trump and Russia colluded.

A fourth track concerns whether Republican leaders are now engaged in a criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice through their intense and ongoing efforts to discredit Mueller’s probe.

This, my first column for The Intercept, will focus on the first track of the Trump-Russia narrative. I will devote separate columns to each of the other tracks in turn.

He gets a bit over the top:

One year after Trump took office, it is still unclear whether the president of the United States is an agent of a foreign power.

and asks if Trump is a traitor. So that gives you an idea of the tone, and where Risen's head is at.

Greenwald posted about it and said (words to the effect) that the fact that this article was published at The Intercept should prove once in for all that he (Greenwald) does not have control over articles, is not the Editor in Chief, and that reporters have independence. And, then he didn't link to the article. LOL.

up
0 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@OLinda

i started reading that article this morning, got disgusted with it and put it down. risen's tone is not as bad as a lot of the journos that are on fire with the russia fever, but his assumptions in the early part of the article are quite disappointing.

i couldn't make myself slog through the whole thing to see if there is anything redemptive in what i hadn't read yet. perhaps i'll return to it over the weekend.

up
0 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

It's refreshing to see that the Trump administration is being honest about Venezuela. Instead of creating some story about how cruel the president is, they are outright calling for regime change and military intervention.

Other presidents have had to make up excuses for why they needed the military to do their work for them, but not Trump. Bush told us that Saddam had WMDs, Obama told us that Gaddafi was arresting people who were protesting against him and journalists too.

How did regime change happen to become our way of getting US hegemony? Hillary's BFF, of course.

To create the environment for the Chilean coup, President Nixon ordered the CIA to “make the economy scream.” Henry Kissinger devised the coup noting a billion dollars of investment were at stake. He also feared the “the insidious model effect” of the example of Chile leading to other countries breaking from the United States and capitalism. Kissinger’s top deputy at the National Security Council, Viron Vaky, opposed the coup saying, “What we propose is patently a violation of our own principles and policy tenets .… If these principles have any meaning, we normally depart from them only to meet the gravest threat … our survival.”

How long has this country wanted control of Venezuela?

The U.S. has been seeking regime change in Venezuela since Hugo Chavez was elected in 1998. Trump joined Presidents Obama and Bush before him in continuing efforts to change the government and put in place a U.S.-friendly oligarch government.

Bibi skates on genocide, gets tripped up on graft

up
0 users have voted.

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

@snoopydawg as rebuttal, but can not find anything refreshing about the US f-king up Argentina or Brazil or Honduras or any of our other southern neighbors. Think truth is better than lies, understood. Still

up
0 users have voted.
divineorder's picture

@snoopydawg

Jb's family lived in a Phillips Petroleum oil camp for 6 years in Venezuela back in the 50s. She says she thinks that the oil industry was nationalized was why they moved back to US

up
0 users have voted.

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

@snoopydawg

i'm pretty sure that the ptb have been doing everything that they can to make venezuela's economy scream. sadly, chavez did not diversify his economy enough and had all of his economic eggs in one basket (oil).

i'm sure that trump's candor will disappear during the transition from dirty tricks and making the economy scream to outright military hostilities. i would presume that trump will employ the traditional excuse that the empire is saving the venezuelan people from a terrible dictator and working to promote their wellbeing once the bullets start flying.

up
0 users have voted.
divineorder's picture

This from a former GOS fp writer made me laugh right out loud ...

Thought wholeTwitter thread was spot on.

Thanks for the news and the Bonnie. First time we traveled outside of TX in US to CO back in the day we stayed at a hostel in Aspen. There we learned that Raitt was giving a concert at the stunning Red Rocks outside Denver. We inhaled, hopped in th 6cyl long wheel base standard tranny hippy Ford lwb van we had at the time and whewwwww yippee, away we went. Rocky Mountain high, yo!

One time back in Austin she featured Muddy Waters at Willie Nelson owned venue. Small enough place we all could dance below the stage. That girl gave me chills with the slide on de guitar. And of course Muddy... damn it was good. Truth be told on and I are pretty eccentric. Heh. We often break out singing ' Let's give'em something to talk about.

Smile Smile

Hope you have a good weekend planned. We have a couple of nights in San Jose at an inexpensive but very well placed Airbnb down the street from former Nobel winner Ocar Arias. We might even go get some culture tommorow and hit a museum and old architecture areas.

up
0 users have voted.

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

scott's got a pretty sharp wit, his facebook posts are often quite amusing.

heh, i love red rocks. it is a great place to see a band, back in 1978 i flogged my six-cylinder, 3-on-the-tree, former forest service pickup out to morrison to catch the grateful dead for a couple of nights. it was awesome and much inhaling was accomplished. Smile

i have a pretty good weekend ahead, the granddogs are coming over for a visit, so if the weather cooperates there's probably a nice hike through the woods in the offing.

have a great time in san jose!

up
0 users have voted.
divineorder's picture

@joe shikspack

up
0 users have voted.

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

snoopydawg's picture

@divineorder

I've seen a few others trying to push back against this only to get told to STFU and stop being a Putin apologist.

This is a great article about WMDs part two

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/02/16/the-war-on-dissent-the-specter-o...

up
0 users have voted.

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

LOVE reading about this and wouldlove to see the same happen in US.

All the Russiagate news, remember when was a young teacher and participated in reading group with other teachers at the home of our Social Studies supervisor.

She had been a teacher during the McCarthy era and was very careful to take notes of our meetings. Thought she was being paranoid but now realize it can be a scary time with these witchhunts.

By the way really do love Bonnie Raitt and are glad you featured her.

up
0 users have voted.

Life is what you make it, so make it something worthwhile.

This ain't no dress rehearsal!

joe shikspack's picture

@jakkalbessie

it appears to me that if we want to reforest like the chinese, we are on our own. we the people will have to arrange it ourselves because the government, if has ever been a tool of the 99% people's will, is not now and will not respond to our desires for a clean and healthy environment.

perhaps we should start "team lorax" and get to it.

on the other hand, that will probably get us listed as russians or terrorists or russian terrorists. Smile

glad you guys enjoyed bonnie raitt - have a great time in san jose!

up
0 users have voted.

it's NOT a political ideology, it's a death cult that We pay for.

Stop These Fucking Wars

peace

up
0 users have voted.

Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .

Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .

If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march

joe shikspack's picture

@Tall Bald and Ugly

damned straight.

up
0 users have voted.

Like that idea and maybe a t-shirt to start the conversation!!!

up
0 users have voted.

Life is what you make it, so make it something worthwhile.

This ain't no dress rehearsal!

Pricknick's picture

Music and news wise.
What is it good for?
Thanks again.

up
0 users have voted.

Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.