The Evening Blues - 3-16-18



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Odds and ends

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features odds and ends found while putting together other features. Enjoy!

Willie Jones - Wheres my Money

"If you think Russia poisoning a spy is bad, wait til you hear what the United States did to Flint, Michigan."

-- Found on Facebook


News and Opinion

There's a lot more information in the article, it's well worth reading in full.

The UK government is manufacturing its nerve agent case for ‘action’ on Russia

On Monday, Prime Minister Theresa May announced that former Russian spy, Sergey Skripal and his daughter Yulia, were poisoned with “a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia” known as ‘Novichok’. ... May referred to the British government’s “knowledge that Russia has previously produced this agent and would still be capable of doing so” as a basis to conclude that Russia’s culpability in the attack “is highly likely.” ...

But there is a problem: far from offering a clear-cut evidence-trail to Vladimir Putin’s chemical warfare labs, the use of Novichok in the nerve gas attack on UK soil points to a wider set of potential suspects, of which Russia is in fact the least likely. Russia did actually destroy its nerve agent capabilities according to the OPCW [UN Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons]. Yet a concerted effort is being made to turn facts on their head. ...

[I]n September 2017 declared that the independent global agency had rigorously verified the completed destruction of Russia’s entire chemical weapons programme, including of course its nerve agent production capabilities. ... The OPCW’s reports on Russia confirm that the agency found no evidence of the existence of an active Novichok programme.

It should be noted that Dr. Robin M. Black, formerly of Porton Down’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory — which reportedly confirmed the use of Novichok in the Salisbury assassination — sits on the Scientific Advisory Board of the OPCW. Yet a scientific review by Dr. Black also raised doubts about Novichok, noting that its properties and structures had not been independently confirmed.

So in short, the OPCW does not agree with the vague US and British insistence that Russia failed to declare all its chemical weapons stockpiles and facilities, and does not agree with the insistence that Novichok stockpiles or production facilities exist in Russia. ... The crux of it is this: At this point, neither the US nor Britain have offered any actual evidence as to why the OPCW’s verification process regarding Russia’s dismantlement of its chemical weapons capability should be disbelieved. They have provided no evidence that Russia retains any Novichok stockpiles.

Corbyn Calls for Evidence in Escalating Poison Row

Kremlin says accusing Putin of ordering spy attack is 'unforgivable'

The Kremlin has called direct international accusations that Vladimir Putin ordered the Salisbury nerve agent attack “shocking and unforgivable”. The remarks come amid rising tensions between London and Moscow. The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov have said repeatedly that Moscow would retaliate soon for the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats by Theresa May.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Peskov repeated denials that Russia had ordered the attack on Sergei Skripal, a former Russian double agent, and his daughter, Yulia, in Salisbury. “Any references to our president is nothing other than shocking and unforgivable from the point of view of diplomatic behaviour,” he said. ...

Russia’s powerful Investigative Committee, which handles high-profile cases, announced on Friday it had opened a criminal investigation into the attempted murder by poisoning of Yulia Skripal, the daughter of the former double agent targeted in the Salisbury nerve agent attack. The law enforcement agency also opened an investigation into the murder of Nikolai Glushkov, an associate of the late oligarch Boris Berezovsky who was found dead, probably as a result of strangulation, in his home in London on Wednesday. British police have not said he was murdered.

The Investigative Committee said it would manage the investigation “in accordance with the requirements of Russian law” and that investigators were ready to cooperate with British law enforcement. Russia has previously complained that Britain has not shared facts in the case, including samples of the nerve agent that London says was developed in the former Soviet Union. It may choose to demand those samples as part of the investigation.

Lavrov accuses UK of violating law, Moscow opens case into the poisoning of Skripal's daughter

Liberals, Conservatives Worry About Korean Peace Threat

Commentators across the spectrum of acceptable establishment opinion are alarmed by the possibility of peace breaking out on the Korean peninsula. ... Rachel Maddow (MSNBC, 3/9/18) seemed flabbergasted by the prospect of a meeting between the leaders:

It has been the dream of North Korean leaders for decades now that they would advance their weapons programs and their nuclear programs so much so that the United States would be forced to acknowledge them as an equal and meet with the North Korean leader…. They got there with [Trump] and I don’t know that the administration intended it to be that kind of a gift. It’s just a remarkable time to be covering this stuff.

MSNBC blogger Steve Benen (3/9/18) says he’s “not opposed to direct diplomacy,” but he sounded like a time capsule from 1951 when he warned that

Trump has agreed to give Kim Jong-un exactly what he wants. North Korean leaders have sought this kind of meeting for decades because it would necessarily elevate the rogue state: It would show the world that North Korea’s leader is being treated as an equal by the Leader of the Free World.

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof  (3/9/18) also claims to prefer that the US and North Korea exchange words rather than missiles, but he expressed relief that the threat of peace was minimal: “It’s genuinely encouraging that Kim doesn’t object to the US resuming military exercises,” he wrote, but worried that America

has agreed to give North Korea what it has long craved: the respect and legitimacy that comes from the North Korean leader standing as an equal beside the American president.

For Maddow, Benen and Kristof, a catastrophic nuclear war likely to kill millions is less threatening than the (frankly remote) possibility of America treating a small Asian country as an equal. This sort of commentary shows that liberal analysts are every bit as capable of a chest-thumping jingoism as their counterparts on the right.

50 Years After My Lai Massacre in Vietnam, Revisiting the Slaughter the U.S. Military Tried to Hide

White House acknowledges the U.S. is at war in seven countries

The U.S. is officially fighting wars in seven countries, including Libya and Niger, according to an unclassified White House report sent to Congress this week and obtained by the New York Times.

Known officially as the “Report on the Legal and Policy Frameworks Guiding the United States’ Military Force and Related National Security Operations,” the document is part of a new requirement outlined in the 2018 defense spending bill. The White House is already required to update Congress every six months on where the U.S. is using military force.

The new report comes at a time when the Pentagon has expanded its war authority in several active conflicts while adopting an increasingly secretive approach, and is likely to raise new and old concerns around the constitutionality of executive war-making privileges put in place after September 11, 2001.

Though President Donald Trump campaigned on a more isolationist foreign policy platform, he’s largely expanded or reinvigorated his predecessor’s conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, and Niger. The report gives the clearest indication to date of America’s most pressing military conflicts under Trump, largely detailing an uptick in direct and indirect combat, as well as “advise and assist” operations across

Sanders Resolution Against War in Yemen Challenged by Mattis

GOP leaders want to put off Yemen war powers vote

The Senate is expected to debate a war powers resolution next week that calls for the United States to end its involvement in the Yemen conflict, but a top Senate Republican leader signaled Thursday GOP leaders would prefer to put off a final vote on the divisive issue until after it can be more closely studied in committee.

"I think it would be better for the committee to consider it and make a recommendation after having a hearing so everybody understands exactly what the consequences are," said Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 GOP leader in the chamber, referring to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. ...

Three senators -- Mike Lee, a Republican from Utah, Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, and Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut -- authored the privileged resolution and are working to force a vote on it. They believe the refueling and other actions by the US armed forces are akin to "boots on the ground" and that Congress needs to authorize it.

They described their bill as the "first-ever vote in the Senate to withdraw US armed forces from an unauthorized war."

Boo! Scary...

Has North Korea Built An Underground Military Base In Syria?

The United States is monitoring reports of a large underground North Korean military base in Syria which could be used for "advanced weaponry and nuclear-related work," according to the Washington Free Beacon.

Regional news reports that North Korea is close to completing construction of the base near the town of Qardaha, Syria - the hometown of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The site can be seen here.

Meanwhile, U.S. officials told the Washington Free Beacon that they are monitoring these reports. ...

That said, there were also reports that Saddam Hussein hid chemical weapons in Syria after nobody could find them - rumors which were later disproven.

Trump hints he may withdraw troops from S. Korea over trade issues

President Donald Trump hinted he may withdraw American troops from South Korea if the U.S. ally doesn’t concede more in trade negotiations, a newspaper reported.

The Washington Post quoted Trump as saying Wednesday in a fundraising speech that the United States was losing money on trade with South Korea as well as the military presence that is meant as protection against aggression from the North.

“We have a very big trade deficit with them, and we protect them,” Trump said Wednesday in audio obtained by the Post. “We lose money on trade, and we lose money on the military. We have right now 32,000 soldiers between North and South Korea. Let’s see what happens.”

“Our allies care about themselves,” he said in the 30-minute speech to donors in Missouri. “They don’t care about us.”

South Africa: Authorities hit Jacob Zuma with arms deal corruption charges

South Africa reinstates corruption charges against Jacob Zuma

South Africa’s chief prosecutor has said the former president Jacob Zuma will face prosecution on corruption charges that haunted much of his term in office.

Zuma, who was forced to resign by the ruling African National Congress (ANC) last month, will be prosecuted for corruption relating to a 30bn-rand (£1.8bn) arms deal in the late 1990s, Shaun Abrahams told a media conference on Friday.

“After consideration of the matter, I am of the view that there are reasonable prospects of successful prosecution of Mr Zuma on the charges listed in the indictment,” the chief prosecutor said. Zuma disputes all the allegations against him, he added. Abrahams told a media conference that Zuma’s attempts to head off the charges that have been hanging over him for more than a decade had failed.

“I am of the view that a trial court would be the most appropriate forum for these issues to be ventilated and to be decided upon,” he said.

Zuma will face 16 charges relating to 783 counts of alleged wrongdoing, the spokesman for the National Prosecuting Authority, Luvuyo Mfaku, said. The charges, which include racketeering, corruption, money laundering and fraud, carry lengthy custodial sentences on conviction.

The “Alt-Right” Label: What’s Real, What’s Fake, And Why It Matters

The Southern Poverty Law Center has issued a full retraction and apology for a bizarre screed it published last week lumping anti-war leftists in with fascists and Nazis. As of this writing two other articles by the same author, Alexander Reid Ross, have also been pulled by the Southern Poverty Law Center “pending further review”. ...

The retracted article is worth reading in light of the fact that the SPLC is unwilling to stand by its claims, so here’s an archive if you’re curious. It’s full of weird arrow graphs that would look more at home on an Illuminati conspiracy website and academic jargon like “Atlanticist”, “fascist engagées“, “Duginists”, “LaRouchite” and “Eurasianist” that most normal people don’t use or understand. Ross weaves that mess into a barely decipherable conspiracy theory about a “red-brown populist collaboration” to advance fascist regimes against American hegemony, making the anti-imperialist left “a willing accomplice” to fascism.

Right. Gotcha. It can’t possibly be that antiwar leftists recognize that US military violence is literally always disastrous and literally never accomplishes what its proponents claim it will accomplish. It can’t possibly be that the far right objects to American lives and resources being spent on pointless wars that create refugee crises. It can’t possibly be that for those two reasons the antiwar left and anti-interventionist right often find themselves on the same side of the debate on issues like Syria. It’s that they both secretly love the idea of fascist foreign governments rising to power in a multipolar world. If you squint at it just right through Ross’ convoluted, conspiratorial reality tunnel, it almost kinda sorta makes sense.

Among those caught up in the article’s accusatory ramblings were Vanessa Beeley (who Ross hilariously labels a “conspiracy theorist”), the Ron Paul Institute’s brilliantly lucid anti-war conservative Daniel McAdams, the always excellent Margaret Kimberley of Black Agenda Report, Ben Norton (who ironically has on more than one occasion used his platform to falsely smear me in exactly the same way Ross falsely smeared him), Max Blumenthal and Rania Khalek. ...

The one error that Ross has conceded he might possibly have made in the article was his baseless and easily disproven claim that journalist Tim Pool had once attended a conference for Holocaust deniers in Iran. Unlike the Southern Poverty Law Center, however, Ross has not conceded that he also inaccurately labeled Pool as an “Alt Right journalist” while reporting his false claim about the Iran conference, which greatly offended Pool.

Hackers Are So Fed Up With Twitter Bots They’re Hunting Them Down Themselves

Once a mere nuisance for Twitter, accounts created by software programs pretending to be human — “bots” — have become a major headache for the social network. In October, Twitter’s general counsel told a Senate committee investigating disinformation that Russian bots tweeted 1.4 million times during the run-up to the last presidential election, and such bots would later be implicated in hundreds of tweets that followed a school shooting in Florida. In January, the New York Times detailed how U.S. companies, executives, journalists, and celebrities often purchase bots as followers in an attempt to make themselves seem more popular.

The fallout for the company has been withering. In Vanity Fair last month, writer Nick Bilton, who has tracked the company closely as an author and journalist, accused Twitter of “turning a blind eye to the problem” of bots for years in order to artificially inflate its count of active users. Meanwhile, disgruntled former Twitter executives told Maya Kosoff, also in Vanity Fair, that the social network was throwing too many humans and too little technology at the problem of bots and other misbehavior. “You had this unsophisticated human army with no real scalable platform to plug into,” one said.

Even if Twitter hasn’t invested much in anti-bot software, some of its most technically proficient users have. They’re writing and refining code that can use Twitter’s public application programming interface, or API, as well as Google and other online interfaces, to ferret out fake accounts and bad actors. The effort, at least among the researchers I spoke with, has begun with hunting bots designed to promote pornographic material — a type of fake account that is particularly easy to spot — but the plan is to eventually broaden the hunt to other types of bots. The bot-hunting programming and research has been a strictly volunteer, part-time endeavor, but the efforts have collectively identified tens of thousands of fake accounts, underlining just how much low-hanging fruit remains for Twitter to prune.

Charlottesville: Beaten black man to stand trial on Friday

Activists in Charlottesville are calling on authorities to drop the charges against DeAndre Harris, an African American beaten by at least six white nationalist demonstrators at the August 12 Unite the Right rally. A video of Harris's beating went viral in the days following the white nationalist rally, prompting an outcry. Harris was initially charged with a felony, but it was later reduced to a misdemeanour.

Harris's first date in court for misdemeanor assault against a white nationalist is Friday. Local activists are holding a vigil Thursday evening in front of the court house where he will appear, which is also near to the garage where he was beaten. Organisers fail to see how an African American in the middle of a white nationalist demonstration could be charged with misdemeanor assault and battery of his attackers. For them, it was self-defence.

Black man severely beaten at Charlottesville rally cleared of assault

A black man who was severely beaten during a violent white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and then charged with misdemeanor assault over the same incident, has been found not guilty.

Local news outlets reported that a Charlottesville judge said on Friday it was clear DeAndre Harris did not intend to harm the man who made a complaint against him.

Trump could soon be on to his third national security adviser

Donald Trump is set to fire his second national security adviser, the Washington Post reported Thursday, with H.R. McMaster just one of several top officials potentially facing a White House exit on “Firing Friday.”

Others rumored to be for the chop include Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and chief of staff John Kelly — according to multiple media reports.

The president has never gelled with McMaster, who replaced Michael Flynn, and is now “comfortable” with getting rid of him, the newspaper reported citing five sources with knowledge of Trump’s plans.

Trump finalizing opioid plan that includes death penalty for dealers

The Trump administration is finalizing a long-awaited plan that it says will solve the opioid crisis, but it also calls for law enforcement measures — like the death penalty for some drug dealers — that public health advocates and congressional Republicans warn will detract from efforts to reverse the epidemic.

The ambitious plan, which the White House has quietly been circulating among political appointees this month, could be announced as soon as Monday when President Donald Trump visits New Hampshire, a state hard hit by the epidemic. It includes a mix of prevention and treatment measures that advocates have long endorsed, as well as beefed-up enforcement in line with the president’s frequent calls for a harsh crackdown on drug traffickers and dealers.

Trump’s plan to use the death penalty in some cases found at least one fan among congressional Republicans: Rep. Chris Collins of New York, one of the president’s most consistent cheerleaders. “I’m all in on the capital punishment side for those offenses that would warrant that,” he said when asked about the plans Thursday afternoon. “Including drug cases. Yep.”

But several congressional Democrats said they were alarmed by Trump's plan to ramp up punishment. “We are still paying the costs for one failed 'war on drugs,' and now President Trump is drawing up battle plans for another," said Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts. "We will not incarcerate or execute our way out of the opioid epidemic."



the horse race



Stormy Daniels was threatened with physical harm, lawyer says

The attorney representing porn star Stormy Daniels, who claims to have had an affair with President Donald Trump, said his client was physically threatened — although he wouldn’t go into specifics. Daniels’ attorney Michael Avenatti was asked by Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski if Stormy Daniels had been “threatened in any way,” during an appearance to tease his client’s upcoming interview on “60 Minutes” on March 25.


“Yes,” Avenatti responded.

“Was she threatened physical harm?” Brzezinski pushed.

“Yes,” Avenatti said.

“Was her life threatened?” Brzezinski asked again.

Avenatti then declined to respond and pointed to the upcoming March 25 interview for answers.



the evening greens


Bottled Water, Brought to You by Fracking?

The new Food & Water Watch report Take Back the Tap: The Big Business Hustle of Bottled Water details the deceit and trickery of the bottled water industry. Here’s one more angle to consider: The bottled water business is closely tied to fracking.

The report reveals that the majority of bottled water is municipal tap water, a common resource captured in plastic bottles and re-sold at an astonishing markup—as much as 2,000 times the price of tap, and even four times the price of gasoline. Besides being a rip-off, there is plenty more to loathe about the corporate water scam: The environmental impacts from pumping groundwater (especially in drought-prone areas), the plastic junk fouling up our waterways and oceans, and the air pollution created as petrochemical plants manufacture the materials necessary for making those plastic bottles filled with overpriced tap water. ...

There is a growing international awareness that plastic is a serious problem. In 2016, about 4 billion pounds of plastic were used in the bottled water business, and most of those bottles are not recycled—meaning they often end up in landfills or as litter. ...

But perhaps the biggest problem is where we get all this plastic in the first place. Many of the raw materials used to create those plastic bottles come from fracking. In addition to air and water pollution, the fracking boom has delivered an abundant supply of the hydrocarbon ethane, which is used in petrochemical manufacturing to create ethylene, which is turned into plastic.

Despite Unprecedented Year of Extreme Weather, FEMA Ditches Every Single Mention of 'Climate' From Four-Year Strategic Plan

While 2017 was the costliest year ever for destruction from extreme weather events—and even as much of Puerto Rico is still struggling with a slow and "dehumanizing" recovery nearly six months after Hurricane Maria—a look at the new Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) four-year strategic plan reveals there is not a single mention of "climate change" or "global warming."

The document (pdf), as Bloomberg points out, "doesn't mention climate, global warming, sea-level rise, extreme weather, or any other terminology associated with scientific predictions of rising surface temperatures and their effects." With this "dangerous" decision, FEMA's 2018-2022 strategy departs from the version developed under the Obama adminitration, which "repeatedly cited the challenges caused by a changing climate, and the need for FEMA to incorporate those risks into its long-term plans."

The new plan claims that "[l]arge scale, complex incidents, including FEMA's responses to Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, as well as the 2017-2018 California wildfires, underscore the criticality of our shared mission and remind us of the importance of learning from past disasters" and acknowledges that "[d]isaster costs are expected to continue to increase due to rising natural hazard risk, decaying critical infrastructure, and economic pressures that limit investments in risk resilience."

However, despite the record-breaking costs of natural disasters last year, FEMA's new plan fails to mention the how global warming—largely driven by greenhouse gas emissions generated by fossil fuel use—is fueling the "rising natural hazard risk" and has exacerbated these recent disasters.

Federal employees protecting public lands now wear oil rigs on their lapels

Under the Trump administration, the Bureau of Land Management has some new branding, one that prominently features oil rigs.

The Bureau of Land Management gave out new identification cards for all its employees to wear out in the field — complete with illustrations of oil rigs and cowboys. Under the heading “our vision,” the card also outlines the agency’s current vision: “to enhance the quality of life for all citizens through the balanced stewardship of America’s public lands and resources."

The cards also highlight the agency’s “multiple-use mission” in sustaining the “productivity of the public lands” and pursuing “excellence in business practices.” The language also mentions the work the agency does for “customers” and “stakeholders” — words have become code for industry under the Trump administration.


Also of Interest

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

Acceptable Bigotry and Scapegoating of Russia

US Revives Debunked Electrical Grid Hacking Charges Against Russia

As Haspel Nomination Reopens Dark CIA Chapter, Liz Cheney Leads Pack of Torture Apologists

Bernie Sanders: The corporate media ignores the rise of oligarchy. The rest of us shouldn't

Minted: the rich guys in Trump's cabinet who can't resist public money

Romanian court tells man he is not alive

Poll: 67% support assault weapons ban


A Little Night Music

Toppers - Baby Let Me Bang Your Box

The Bees - Toy Bell

The Swallows - It Ain't The Meat It's The Motion

Ella Mae Morse - Rock Me All Night Long

Googie Rene - Wiggle Tail

The Spiders - I'm Slippin' In

Don Gardner - My Baby Likes To Boogaloo

The Pirates - Cuttin'Out

Pleasure Seekers - What a Way To Die

The G-Men - Raunchy Twist

Mel McGonnigle - Rattle Shakin Mama

Sir Douglas Quintet - She's About A Mover

Hank Marr - The Out Crowd

Minnie Epperson - Grab Your Clothes

The Trashmen - Malaguena


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Comments

enhydra lutris's picture

Today all reports would've been immediately classified and the whistle blower tortured, tried and incarcerated.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

joe shikspack's picture

@enhydra lutris

yep, it's a good thing that we had the "radical-transparency activist" sy hersh back then.

have a great evening!

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Azazello's picture

Not only is it tied to fracking, it's contaminated with plastic particles.
On the other hand, it may be better that the city water a lot of us are getting from our long-neglected municipal water systems.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@Azazello

yep, it's only a slow, downhill slide to the point where capitalism allocates the "best use" of clean, fresh water to those wealthy enough to afford it.

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Somehow I got this

Flint is not far from Detroit.

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@QMS in Cumberfund Farms, Steven Eleven may not quite be pure water Cause It's loaded with Electrolyites. Which needs more face to face ways to pull out a level mutuall working conversation.

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joe shikspack's picture

@QMS

Flint is not far from Detroit.

and both are located in the failed state of michigan.

heh, here's a tune that's begging for an update:

"Michigan water tastes like sherry wine, I mean sherry wine
Michigan water tastes like sherry wine
But Mississippi water taste like turpentine"

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divineorder's picture

RE news about bottled water scam.
We were talking with fellow visitors to Costa Rica from France last night. They asked we thought the wayer was safe.
Heh.
We told them we filter our water both here and at home. Hee with Katyn Base Camp gravity fill bladder into a large collapsible container and use that to fill and reuse our bike water bottles we bring with us from home from home.

We once observed a white faced monkey here in Costa Riva pop the cap off a big plastic storage tank and stick his hands in it we think to wash his food but still.. no telling where that bad boy had had his hands....

Edited to fix spelling

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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

i have been thinking for a while that it might be prudent to get a water filtering system for the camper. i saw one guy on youtube who had assembled in line a reverse osmosis filter, an ultraviolet purifier and an activated charcoal system. i thought that it might be a little over the top, but then again, i might want to visit michigan someday. Smile

have a great weekend!

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divineorder's picture

@joe shikspack place in Santa Fe, being downstream from los Alamos. Will have to look for that youtube.

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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.

snoopydawg's picture

Everything that the leaders have accused Putin of doing, they have done far worse. I don't remember the last country Russia invaded on false pretenses. You? Will Russia Gate ever end? We should make a pool for what he's accused of next.

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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

i would imagine that eventually they will get around to either accusing putin of a peculiar affection for young boys or cannibalism. probably both.

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Anja Geitz's picture

The Southern Poverty Law Center has issued a full retraction and apology for a bizarre screed it published last week lumping anti-war leftists in with fascists and Nazis

I think even Nazi's would find that premise ludicrous

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

snoopydawg's picture

@Anja Geitz

and I'm thinking that she is going to be very ashamed of herself for what she did during this time period. I bet if Obama had decided to meet with Kim she would have reacted much differently. Money does change everything, doesn't it?

IMG_1779_0.PNG

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

Lily O Lady's picture

@snoopydawg

too busy being right all the time.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

joe shikspack's picture

@Anja Geitz

yes, nazis have been notoriously anti-war and anti-militarism, so it must be hard to tell them apart from anti-war/militarism/imperialism lefties. that must be why splc's writer had such difficulty distinguishing them. /s

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Thanks for all the news and music as always. We have escaped the heat and humidity of the coast and are in a small village on the edge of Chirripo, the tallest mountain in Costa Rica at 12,532 ft. There is a foot race here every year which starts at the plaza de futbol across the street from where we are staying and contestants run up Chirripo to Base camp Cretones at about 10,000 feet and back down again for a distance of 21 miles and a 6000+ elevation gain. Fastest time is,three hours. This sounds a little crazy but not as maddening as the "liberal"press upset about peace or negotiations,with North Korea, more Russia Russia madness and tracking and bottled water.

Spent the day watching incredible birds up here but soon we will be returning to the states and hopefully will not get too depressed!

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

This ain't no dress rehearsal!

joe shikspack's picture

@jakkalbessie

wow, that sounds like a pretty demanding run! i think i'll just stick to walking. Smile

it's still crazy here. enjoy your time away and if you can, say hello to a toucan or two for me.

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@joe shikspack Sadly we have not seen toucans up close this year but today we saw two emerald toucanets trying to get into some woodpeckers nest. The poor woodpeckers were going crazy flying at the toucanets who eventually flew away.

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

ok, i looked up the emerald toucanet - that's probably close enough. Smile

around here, i frequently see smaller birds harassing much larger birds of prey. the hawks don't stand a chance against the crow gangs that hang out in the woods here and dive bomb them.

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divineorder's picture

@joe shikspack got our attention, but before long there was a pair of orioles, a summer tanager, a great kiskadee, all expressing their displeasure with the two emerald toucanets. The toucanets eventually gave up and fled.

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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.

enhydra lutris's picture

even though flamenco and surf were both high up on my playlist back then. I really fun rendition.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

mimi's picture

it would be a good job creation program to paint the White House in black. May be we wouldn't see it anymore in the news, because it would be embedded in all the darkness around.

Thanks for your stamina and extensive work ethics to help us seeing the light in the dark.

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janis b's picture

@mimi

And what a shame the black person occupying the white house for 8 years couldn't paint it differently.

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mimi's picture

@janis b

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@mimi

Seems to be an occupational hazard...

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

mimi's picture

@janis b
"CIA vs. Senate: Who Is Obama Protecting"?
[video:https://youtu.be/MOp9sVndn4Q]

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@mimi

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

mimi's picture

that I am sure Merkel would approve to let a dead Romanian immigrant into Germany to find work and shelter, especially around Easter time. "Auferstanden von den Toten"... seems fitting./s

Some weird stories in this EB. I read the original article the SPLC had published and then retracted. (it was a link to its archives in the article). I suggest to not read it.

I can't believe what the author Alexander Reid Ross was thinking, when he wrote that article. Can't believe the editors of SPLC let it go through. It was one piece extreme "Kauderwelsch" with "igittigit" slimey distractions, in no way understandable to a genuine human being outside the "intelligence non-community". Yack. That was a almost as bad as dreaming to be waterboarded with cold water for a second.
So, that's me:

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and that's is my better half-angel up in heaven watching me:
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Aren't you glad we don't have an EB on weekends?
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