The Evening Blues - 8-22-18



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Amos Milburn

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues and r&b piano player and singer Amos Milburn. Enjoy!

Amos Milburn - Chicken Shack Boogie

“What have they done to the earth?
What have they done to our fair sister?
Ravaged and plundered and ripped her and bit her
Stuck her with knives in the side of the dawn
And tied her with fences and dragged her down”

-- Jim Morrison


News and Opinion

Is Climate the Worst Casualty?

How do you clear a room of climate activists? Start talking about war. It’s not just environmentalists that leave. It’s pretty much everyone. ... The military-civilian divide has been called an "epidemic of disconnection." But the biosphere doesn’t see uniforms, and the environmental devastation caused by bombs, burn pits and depleted uranium cannot be contained to a combat zone. We haven’t counted the massive carbon footprint of America’s endless wars because military emissions abroad have a blanket exemption from both national reporting requirementsand the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.There will be no exemptions in the coming climate collapse. We’ve all got skin in the war game now.

The cost of America’s post-9/11 wars is approaching $6 trillion, and the price tag will continue to climb right along with sea levels, temperatures, atmospheric CO2, and methane, a potent greenhouse gas. We can look forward to an escalation in global food insecurity, climate refugees, and the release of long-dormant, potentially lethal bacteria and viruses. Research published in the journal Pediatrics in May 2018 revealed that "children are estimated to bear 88 [percent] of the burden of disease related to climate change." Nevertheless, public health agencies don’t discuss what war costs our climate when they discuss what climate change will cost our children.

The Pentagon uses more petroleum per day than the aggregate consumption of 175 countries (out of 210 in the world)and generates more than 70 percent of total United States greenhouse gas emissions, based on rankings in the CIA World Factbook. "The U.S. Air Force burns through 2.4 billion gallons of jet fuel a year, all of it derived from oil," reported an article in Scientific American. Since the start of the post-9/11 wars, U.S. military fuel consumption has averaged about 144 million barrels annually. That figure doesn’t include fuel used by coalition forces, military contractors, or the massive amount of fossil fuels burned in weapons manufacturing.

According to Steve Kretzmann, director of Oil Change International, "The Iraq war was responsible for at least 141 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MMTCO2e) from March 2003 through December 2007." That’s more CO2e than 60 percent of all countries, and those figures are only from the first four years. We downsized the war in December 2011, but still haven’t left, so the U.S. invasion and 15 years of occupation likely has generated upward of 400 million metric tons of CO2e to date. The money misspent on that war — a war for oil, let’s not forget — could have purchased the planetary conversion to renewable energy. Just sit with that for a moment. Then stand up and get back to work, please. ... We have to keep working to "keep it in the ground," but if we don’t get serious about stopping the U.S. war machine, we could lose the biggest battle of our lives.

The Limits of Elizabeth Warren

Senator Elizabeth Warren at the National Press Club in Washington on Tuesday launched into a blistering attack on unfettered corporate power in America but waffled when asked about military spending and Israel’s recent brutal reaction to Palestinian resistance. Warren outlined with great specificity a host of proposals for eliminating financial conflicts, closing revolving doors between business and government and reforming corporate structures. ...

But Warren’s laudable tenacity in ripping corporate lobbyists’ “pre-bribes” evaporated when faced with questions on the bloated U.S. military budget and ongoing Israeli assaults on Palestinian children. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic progressive who shocked the party by upsetting incumbent Congressman Joe Rowley in a New York primary election in June, had been mentioned earlier in the press conference. So I asked Warren if she agreed with Ocasio-Cortez who has proposed “slashing the military budget to help pay for human and environmental needs.” I also asked Warren if she would consider introducing and sponsoring [a version of] Rep. Betty McCollum’s (D-MN) bill on Palestinians children’s rights in the Senate?

Warren responded:

I now sit on Armed Services and I have been in the middle of the sausage making factory on that one. And that has pushed me even more strongly in the direction of systemic reforms. I want to be able to have those debates. I want to be able to get them out in the open and talk about these poor issues that affect our government, affect our people. I want to be able to debate them on the floor of the senate. I want to be able to do amendments on them. Right now the whole [hold?] of big money over our government stops much of that. It chokes off much of the debate we should have. So I am going to give you a system-wide answer because I think that’s what matters here. This is not about one particular proposal, this is all the way across. How is it that we get the voices of the people heard in government instead of over and over the voices of the wealthy and the well connected. The voices of those with higher armies of lobbyists. So for me that’s what this is about.

It was a classic politician’s evasion of sticky questions. She tells us she’s on the inside, invoking the cliché of “sausage-making.” She says she wants to debate the system. But she says she can’t. Warren seems to be crying out, trapped as she is in the compromise of power. ... “Inside Washington, some of these proposals will be very unpopular, even with some of my friends,” Warren said at the Press Club. “Outside Washington, I expect that most people will see these ideas as no-brainers and be shocked they’re not already the law.”

The public would probably also be shocked to learn that funding perpetual war, unauthorized by either Congress or the U.N., is already against the law.

The U.S. Is Building a Drone Base in Niger That Will Cost More Than $280 Million by 2024

A U.S. drone base in a remote part of West Africa has garnered attention for its $100 million construction price tag. But according to new projections from the Air Force, its initial cost will soon be dwarfed by the price of operating the facility — about $30 million a year. By 2024, when the 10-year agreement for use of the base in Agadez, Niger, ends, its construction and operating costs will top a quarter-billion dollars — or around $280 million, to be more precise.

And that’s actually an undercount. The new projections from the Air Force do not include significant additional costs, such as salaries of the personnel stationed at the base or fuel for the aircraft flying out of Agadez. The facility, which is part of the expanded U.S. military footprint in Africa, is now the largest base-building effort ever undertaken by troops in the history of the U.S. Air Force, according to Richard Komurek, a spokesperson for U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Air Forces Africa.

The outpost — officially a new airfield and associated facilities at Nigerien Air Base 201, or AB 201 — was once billed as a $50 million base dedicated to surveillance drones, and it was to be completed in 2016. Now, it’s slated to be a $100 million base for armed MQ-9 Reaper drones which will finally take flight in 2019, though the construction cost is hardly the end of the tab for the facility.

US ready to drive Iranian oil exports to zero, says US national security adviser

The US is prepared to use sanctions to drive Iranian oil exports down to zero, the US national security adviser, John Bolton, has said. “Regime change in Iran is not American policy, but what we want is massive change in the regime’s behaviour,” Bolton said on a visit to Israel, as he claimed current sanctions had been more effective than predicted.

Donald Trump took the US out of Iran’s nuclear deal with the west in May and is imposing escalating sanctions, both to force Iran to renegotiate the deal and to end Tehran’s perceived interference in Yemen, Syria and Lebanon. Complete removal of Iranian oil from world markets would cut oil supply by more than 4% probably forcing up prices in the absence of any new supplies.

Saudi Arabia seeks death penalty against female human rights activist

Saudi Arabian prosecutors are seeking the death sentence for five human rights activists, including a woman who is thought to be the first female campaigner in the country facing execution, rights groups have said. Israa al-Ghomgham, a Shia activist arrested with her husband in 2015, will be tried in the country’s terrorism tribunal even though charges she faces relate to peaceful activism, Human Rights Watch said.

“Any execution is appalling, but seeking the death penalty for activists like Israa al-Ghomgham, who are not even accused of violent behaviour, is monstrous,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at HRW. Together with her husband, Moussa al-Hashem, and three other defendants, Ghomgham faces charges that “do not resemble recognisable crimes”, HRW said. They include participating in protests, chanting slogans hostile to the regime, attempting to inflame public opinion and filming protests and publishing on social media.

Saudi Shia citizens face systematic discrimination in the majority-Sunni nation, including obstacles to seeking work and education, and restrictions on religious practice. Ghomgahm had joined and documented mass protests for Shia rights that began in 2011 as the Arab spring swept across the region. ...

Women have been executed before in Saudi Arabia, which has one of the world’s highest rates of execution: suspects convicted of terrorism, homicide, rape, armed robbery and drug trafficking face the death penalty. But Ghomgham is the first woman to possibly face execution for activism, and other campaigners fear it could set a dangerous precedent. She will be tried in the specialised criminal court set up in 2008 for terrorism cases. The kingdom has previously executed Shia activists following trials at the same court that Amnesty International described as “grossly unfair”. The UN has also previously warned that Saudi Arabia was abusing anti-terror laws and institutions to crack down on dissent.

Facebook pulls 652 fake accounts and pages meant to influence world politics

Facebook has removed 652 fake accounts and pages with ties to Russia and Iran attempting to exert political influence in the US, UK, Middle East and Latin America.

The accounts and pages were divided between four separate campaigns, three of which originated in Iran, of “coordinated inauthentic behaviour”, disclosed by the social network today.

Maya Little, UNC Student Whose Protest Ignited the Movement to Topple a Confederate Statue

US immigration officers accused of refusing parole for asylum seekers

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officers are ignoring a court order that says they must end a practice of blanket refusal to allow asylum seekers to go free while courts decide their fate, several detainees and their lawyers say. US district judge James E Boasberg of Washington DC, issued an injunction in July that said Ice must decide whether to grant “humanitarian parole” to asylum seekers by examining each individual case, in response to a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union earlier this year.

Before the Trump administration, more than 90% of people who applied for asylum at US ports of entry were granted parole, which allowed them to live and work in the United States while their request was considered. But at five Ice field offices covered by the ACLU lawsuit, virtually no paroles were granted after Trump took office, even though administration officials said there had been no change in parole policy, lawyers said. ...

The Ice field offices covered by Boasberg’s injunction are El Paso, Los Angeles, Detroit, Philadelphia and Newark, New Jersey. Those offices handle about a quarter of all the asylum requests made by people presenting at ports of entry, which is a legal means of entry into the United States. For many people around the world, it is the only means available to them for legal entry into the US.



the horse race



When Things Fall Apart: The Trump Era and the Missing Left

Russiagate is an indicator that things are falling apart for the capitalist empire headed by the United States. Trump is not supposed to be in the White House. His opposition to NATO, the EU, and the foreign policy goals these institutions embody make this fact clearer by the day. It does not matter how many tax cuts Trump gifts to the super rich. His support of Israel, drone warfare, and militarized immigration policy has not satisfied the appetite of the US ruling class one bit.Trump’s very presence in the White House means he cannot as an individual pursue the entire program of the ruling class, which includes most importantly the containment of Russia and China.

This containment strategy reached dangerous heights under Obama. Obama placed US military hardware on Russia and China’s borders. Trump’s Presidency has complicated the US imperial project toward the rising powers to the East. He has waged a fraudulent “trade war” with China all the while conceding to the People’s Republic on issues such as Korea. While Trump has been pressured by the ruling class to continue sanctions toward Russia, his summit with Putin in July and his antipathy toward NATO has led to very real instability between the imperialist countries. Trump is no anti-imperialist warrior. His hostile yet contradictory postures toward Latin America and Iran speak for themselves. However, these positions are not the principle contradiction of the Trump era. The sum of contradictions under the rule of Trump has inevitably led to stagnation and decay in the military arena.

Russiagate has attempted to bury the reality of decay and crisis in a heap of old “Cold War” logic. The ruling class cannot afford to admit that Trump is the product of a general crisis of imperialism. The profit-motive does not allow monopoly corporations and banks to concede that China has already surpassed the US in terms of Purchasing Power Parity (PPP). It also cannot admit that endless war does not create the conditions for a capitalist economic recovery like it did in the mid-20thcentury. Imperialism has reached a point of no return where austerity, poverty, and state terror are all that much of the planet can expect under US domination. ...

The Trump era is another signal toward the end of US empire. However, the empire will not go down without a fight. Trump cannot offer what the masses of people need and want. Resentment is bound to fester as things continue to fall apart. The moribund politics of the ruling class posing as “the resistance” are creating the perfect conditions for another four years of Donald Trump. It is a mistake to think that fighting Trump alone can lead to anything like the development of an independent political party that represents the interests of working class and poor people. This party can only arise when the Democratic Party is no longer able to masquerade as a party of the left. An independent political party should be able to articulate why the empire is falling apart and provide a clear vision for what should replace it: socialism. And no, socialism doesn’t need “democratic” in front of it to be attractive. The power of the people requires no reservations. However, it does need to be articulated and given real expression in the form of organization. No Democrat can do that, regardless of how radical they sound.

Michael Cohen Pleads Guilty & Implicates Trump as Paul Manafort Is Convicted. Is Impeachment Next?

Paul Manafort found guilty on 8 criminal counts

Paul Manafort has been found guilty on eight out of 18 criminal counts in the tax and bank fraud case against him brought by special counsel Robert Mueller.

The jury said they were not able to reach a verdict on the remaining 10 counts, and the judge declared those a mistrial — meaning prosecutors will be able to bring them to trial again.

Michael Cohen broke campaign finance laws “at the direction of a candidate”

Donald Trump’s self-described “fixer” and personal lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to eight federal charges, including violating campaign finance laws with a hush-money payment to two women who claimed to have slept with President Trump. Cohen appeared in New York’s federal court Tuesday after surrendering himself to the custody of the FBI earlier in the day.

Cohen, dressed in a black suit, and visibly shaken, asked the judge if he could stand before the packed courtroom to read his plea. His voice occasionally wavered as he pleaded guilty to five counts of tax evasion, one count of making false statements to a lender, one count of making an illegal campaign contribution, and one count of making an excessive campaign contribution. He faces a maximum sentence of 65 years in prison and up to $1.6 million in fines. He will also have to forfeit any property derived from the false statements he made to the lender.

In a startling admission, Cohen pleaded guilty to breaking campaign finance laws at the “direction of a candidate for federal office.” Those charges concerned two payments — one for $150,000 and another for $130,000 — which were made to two unnamed individuals who Cohen said had information that was “damaging” to the unnamed candidate. ...

Cohen said one payment for $150,000 — the amount paid to Playboy model Karen McDougal — was made in coordination with “the CEO of a media company.” He said made the second payment for $130,000 — the amount paid to porn star Stormy Daniels — on his own, but said he was later reimbursed. Both payments, Cohen said explicitly, were made “in coordination and at the direction of a candidate for federal office” who was concerned about “damaging” information getting out before the election.

California congressman Duncan Hunter and wife charged with corruption

A federal grand jury in California has indicted US representative Duncan Hunter and his wife on corruption charges. ... Prosecutors said the panel in San Diego charged Hunter and his spouse with converting more than $250,000 in campaign money to pay for personal expenses, including dental work, fast food, golf outings, and vacations and trips for their family and nearly a dozen relatives.

The 48-count indictment alleges the money was taken between 2009 and 2016. It alleges that the couple concealed the misuse by falsifying campaign finance records, claiming the expenses as being campaign-related. Asked for comment, a representative for Hunter sent a 6 August letter from his attorney, Gregory A Vega, to the deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein. The letter called the indictment process politically motivated.

In a statement, House Speaker Paul Ryan stripped Hunter of all his committee assignments, writing: “The charges against Rep. Hunter are deeply serious. The Ethics Committee deferred its investigation at the request of the Justice Department. Now that he has been indicted, Rep. Hunter will be removed from his committee assignments pending the resolution of this matter.”



the evening greens


As Trump Drags US Backwards, China's Massive Spending on Clean Energy Delivers Reduction Targets 12 Years Early

Twelve years ahead of schedule, a new report finds that China may already have had its worst year for carbon emissions—a sign that the world's largest producer of greenhouse gases could be well on its way to meeting the goals put forth by the Paris climate agreement. "As part of the Paris Agreement, China pledged to peak its CO2 emissions by 2030. In retrospect, the commitment may have been fulfilled as it was being made," wrote several scientists who reported on their findings in Nature Geoscience on Tuesday.

The study found that China produced 9.2 billion tons of carbon in 2016, down from 9.5 billion tons in 2013. The emission levels of the country, which surpassed the U.S. as the world's biggest carbon producer in 2007, have declined every year from 2014 to 2016. The downward slope represents "stability," according to Dabo Guan, a professor of climate change economics at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom. "This is quite important, because it can play a demonstration role to the global South countries like India or Indonesia," Guan told the Daily Beast. "The future of climate change mitigation is in the hands of the global South countries."

Scientists are still determining emission levels for 2017 and 2018, and coal consumption in China went up last year—but the researchers' findings of major progress more than a decade before China's carbon emissions were set to be at their worst, provoked optimism in scientists who were not involved in the study.

Trump Administration Admits 1,400+ More People Will Die Each Year Following Coal Plant Deregulation

Recent Arrests Under New Anti-Protest Law Spotlight Risks That Off-Duty Cops Pose to Pipeline Opponents

Over the weekend, four opponents of the Bayou Bridge pipeline and an independent journalist covering their activities were arrested and charged under Louisiana House Bill 727, which makes trespassing on “critical infrastructure” facilities — a category that explicitly includes oil pipelines — a felony punishable by up to five years in prison, a fine of $1,000, or both. A total of eight people have now been charged under the law since it took effect on August 1. HB 727 is one of numerous anti-protest laws that states have considered or enacted in the wake of the mass mobilization against the Dakota Access pipeline, which drew tens of thousands of people to gather near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in 2016 and 2017. The arrests also expose the blurred line between private security and public law enforcement that has become typical in the policing of anti-pipeline struggles.

On August 9, the first three arrests under the law were carried out by probation and parole officers with Louisiana’s Department of Public Safety and Corrections moonlighting as security guards for Bayou Bridge pipeline parent company Energy Transfer Partners. Ken Pastorick, communications director for the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections, told The Intercept that the department’s director authorized the officers to work on behalf of the Bayou Bridge pipeline as a form of “extra-duty employment.” “They have the ability to enforce the law in Louisiana even when off-duty and working extra-duty security details,” he said. Given the complex land ownership and public access rules that govern the bayou, handing discretionary arrest powers to a private company is particularly controversial. ...

For two weeks prior to the first arrests under the new law, pipeline opponents paddled in the public waters transected by the pipeline easement, prompting workers to halt construction. Under Louisiana’s Civil Code, navigable waters are open to the public even if they contain a pipeline easement. But on August 9, shortly after the law went into effect, Cindy Spoon says that she and another activist, who prefers to remain anonymous to avoid retaliation, were arrested while canoeing outside the borders of the pipeline easement. According to Spoon, armed guards wearing Department of Public Safety and Corrections polo shirts used the force of the air from their boat’s propellers to blow the canoe out of the main waterway and into a nearby inlet, which is part of the easement. Spoon said the officers then reached down and yanked the two women from their boat by the wrists, placing them in handcuffs.

According to records provided by the St. Martin’s Parish Sheriff’s Office, the activists were arrested under the security guards’ authority as probation and parole officers. The security guards also arrested a third Bayou Bridge pipeline opponent who was kayaking nearby. The protesters were charged with unauthorized entry of a critical infrastructure facility and resisting arrest. They were released later that day.

Amid plutonium fears, schools ban visits to new Colorado wildlife refuge

The nation’s newest national wildlife refuge, filled with swaying prairie grass and home to a herd of elk, is slated to open next month just outside Colorado’s largest city. But seven Denver metro area school districts have already barred school-sanctioned field trips to the preserve. A top local health official says he would probably never hike there. And a town is suing over what the soil might contain. ...

The 2,119-hectare (5,237-acre) Rocky Flats national wildlife refuge, due to open on 15 September, sits on land surrounding what once was a nuclear weapons production facility. From 1951 to 1989, the Rocky Flats Plant manufactured plutonium triggers – grapefruit-size spheres that, when compressed by explosives, catalyze a nuclear reaction. Though the area, about 20 miles north-west of Denver, has been cleaned up and declared safe by the government, plutonium remains in the ground where the facility once stood.

Sightseers at the refuge won’t have access to the site of the demolished plant. The 526-hectare (1,300-acre) patch is fenced off, and the US Department of Energy monitors and manages the area. It’s the land surrounding the plant, a one-time buffer zone, that the US Fish and Wildlife service (USFWS) plans to open next month. “We rely on the science and the agencies that are responsible,” said the refuge manager, David Lucas. “We believe it’s safe for the public and all of our visitors.”

After the plant was raided by the FBI and EPA in 1989 over possible environmental crimes, such as dumping toxic waste into drinking water, it was added to the EPA’s Superfund national priorities list. The Department of Energy originally estimated the cleanup would take 60 years and cost more than $30bn (£23.3bn). But the process, carried out by an independent contractor, only took 10 years and cost $7bn (£5.4bn). During that time, more than 800 structures were decontaminated and demolished; the refuge site was determined to need zero remediation. The executive director of the public health department in Jefferson county, where the refuge is located, has his own doubts about the park’s safety. “If I honestly felt that the data showed the risks of hiking out there were very, very little, I wouldn’t fight them opening it,” said Mark Johnson. “I think it’s too convenient that the original [cleanup] estimate of 70 years and billions of dollars was cut so short and so cheap.”

Sweden's reindeer at risk of starvation after summer drought

Sweden’s indigenous Sami reindeer herders are demanding state aid to help them cope with the impact of this summer’s unprecedented drought and wildfires, saying their future is at risk as global warming changes the environment in the far north. The Swedish government this week announced five major investigations aimed at preparing the country for the kind of extreme heatwave it experienced in July, when temperatures exceeded 30C (86F) and forest fires raged inside the Arctic circle.

But it has yet to come up with any concrete measures for the country’s 4,600 Sami reindeer owners – the only people authorised to herd reindeer in Sweden – and their 250,000 semi-domesticated animals, raised for their meat, pelts and antlers. The owners are asking for emergency funding to help pay for supplementary fodder as a replacement for winter grazing lands that could take up to 30 years to recover from the summer’s drought and fires.

“We are living with the effects of climate change,” Niila Inga, chair of the Swedish Sami Association, told the SVT news agency. “The alarm bells are ringing. We face droughts, heatwaves, fires. This is about the survival of the reindeer, and of Sami culture, which depends on them.” The owners are warning that without help some of their herds may not survive the year. They are also concerned that some young reindeer calves may have become so weakened by the prolonged drought they would not be able to follow their mothers to new feeding grounds.

They also want a longer-term government aid programme to help them manage and adapt to the effects of climate change.

Hurricane Lane strengthens to category 5 as it heads for Hawaii

Hurricane Lane strengthened to a category 5 storm on Tuesday as it headed toward Hawaii, where residents prepared for “life-threatening” winds and flooding when it hits the US islands this week, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

The hurricane was expected to bring 160mph (260km/h) winds to Hawaii’s Big Island on Thursday with gusts capable of damaging roofs and knocking out power, the NHC warned. “Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion,” the NHC said.

The centre of the storm is expected to track “dangerously” close to or over the islands between Thursday and Saturday, the NHC said. ... After hitting the Big Island, the storm is expected to move north over the islands of Maui, Lanai and Moloka’i, which were all under hurricane and flash flood watches.

Forget 'survival of the fittest' – the laziest will inherit the earth

Researchers who studied nearly 300 forms of mollusc that lived and died in the Atlantic over the past five million years found that a high metabolism predicted which species had gone the way of the dodo. The sea snails, sea slugs, mussels and scallops which burned the most energy in their daily lives were more likely to have died out than their less energetic cousins, especially when they lived in small ocean habitats, the scientists found.

While the causes of extinction are varied and complex, the work points to a new link between the rate at which animals use energy to grow and maintain their body tissues and the length of time the species has on Earth.

Instead of ‘survival of the fittest’, maybe a better metaphor for the history of life is ‘survival of the laziest’, or at least ‘survival of the sluggish’“The lower the metabolic rate, the more likely the species you belong to will survive,” said Bruce Lieberman, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology who led the research at Kansas University. ...

“This result doesn’t necessarily mean that lazy people are the fittest, because alas sometimes those lazy people are the ones that consume the most resources,” Lieberman added. “Humanity’s laziness, when it comes to trying to arrest the changes to the planet we are causing, may be the biggest peril our own species faces.


Also of Interest

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

The #Resistance Has a New Grift, and Liberals Are the Perfect Mark

An Open Letter to ‘Socialists’ Who Might be Fronting for the Democratic Party

Prison Strike Organizer Warns: Brutal Prison Conditions Risk “Another Attica”

Medicare Part D: Delight, or Debacle?


A Little Night Music

Amos Milburn - Vicious Vicious Vodka

Amos Milburn - Rock, Rock, Rock

Amos Milburn - Flying Home

Amos Milburn - I'm In My Wine

Amos Milburn - All Is Well

Amos Milburn - Hold Me Baby

Amos Milburn - Bow-Wow!

Amos Milburn - Three Times A Fool

Amos Milburn - Roll, Mr Jelly

Amos Milburn - I Done Done It

Amos Milburn - Down the Road a Piece


Share
up
0 users have voted.

Comments

Raggedy Ann's picture

Had a little fun with my dem buddiy today. I received a couple of links to articles on the Manafort and Cohen crap - my friend thinking that this is moving to the impeachment of Herr Drumpf - which I never read because I am well aware she is caught up in the russia narrative. So, I sent her a link (copy to all in the email) about Pelosi saying the dems are not interested in impeaching HD. So I said this, "Too bad the stooped democraps love Herr Drumpf in spite of what's going on around him. Looks like they have something to hide as well, like how they engineered the Steele Dossier and started the whole 'Russia interfered crap.' Hmmmmm....."

So my friend replied, "they all suck. I don't have the energy for this."

I told her that she is giving them what they want by not having the energy to fight. It's what they are bargaining for. Revolution is the only way, sigh.

A nice rainy morning.

Have a beautiful evening, everyone! Pleasantry

up
0 users have voted.

"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

joe shikspack's picture

@Raggedy Ann

yeah, i've noticed that there is much rejoicing in mudville democratland over the day's verdicts.

oh my, surely impeachment is on the table now! Wink

up
0 users have voted.
Unabashed Liberal's picture

may give a shot at posting a comment (over there), which I haven't done in quite some time. Fingers crossed!

Instead of posting something depressing this evening, thought I'd leave folks with a Tweet, and a blurb from a health blog which I find to be quite informative/interesting. Here you go,

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

and,

and,

Pleasantry

(My newly found fondness for Goldens mostly stems from having landed on the LCC Comfort Dog Twitter feed; then, meeting one locally, a few months later. Love their 'happy' facial expressions, and, ever-waging tails.)

Thanks for tonight's EB, Joe. Weather's rainy, but, fairly moderate. Yeah!

Everyone have a nice evening!

(Edited #2 - Tweets not showing correctly, so, trying to see if change to code corrects the problem. Sorry.)

Bye

Blue Onyx

"Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong."
~~W. R. Purche

"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage."~~Lao Tzu

up
0 users have voted.

Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

joe shikspack's picture

@Unabashed Liberal

hmmm... perhaps if you take a nice nap with a puppy, you'll wake up smarter and happier. Smile

up
0 users have voted.

She was a Republican most of her life. The woman chose, then changed, her political party based upon which she thought was better for "financial markets." Even after becoming a Democrat come lately, she said she voted Republican sometimes. There was the business of identifying herself as a native American when seeking a job in Massachusetts because, according to her, she hoped to meet more members of First Nations that way. (Who expects to meet people to socialize with based on what their job application contains?)

She was a Bush hire to admonster (Freudian slip typing there) the freakin' bailout. Even Obama didn't want to keep her on, so he had the DNC--yeah, the one headed by DWS--sic her on Massachusetts. In six very costly to taxpayer years, not a single bill she has written has become law. Yet, she keeps writing bills that are "not expected to pass." Why? (Google Elizabeth Warren bill not expected to pass.)

But media keeps describing her as a "liberal firebrand" and Schumer appointed her liaison to the left or some such nonsense. (Which, of course, begs the question why the head of Senate Democrats felt the need for a liaison to the left. Christ, they're supposed to BE the frickin left.

Elizabeth is very short on bang for the buck and very long on acting for TV cameras. Alas, she will no doubt be re-elected. Because Democratic incumbent in Massachusetts (Think the long, long tenures of Barney Frank, John Kerry, et al. I'm guessing Ted Kennedy was the only long-timer who gave Massachusetts--not to mention US health care--its money's worth )

up
0 users have voted.
QMS's picture

@HenryAWallace but afeared she is another puppet. Sounds f*ing awesome, but loses credibility quickly. Like Bernie. Give them something to believe in, then shut it down. Sorry kids, we didn't mean it after all.

up
0 users have voted.

question everything

joe shikspack's picture

@HenryAWallace

heh. i don't think warren has a prayer of becoming president. if she somehow manages to surpass my expectations, i'd guess that she'd be a pretty ineffectual president as she seems to have little idea of how to address the problems that we face. she'd just be a prelude to another trump-like presidency.

up
0 users have voted.

@joe shikspack

Obama said the politically correct things, too.

up
0 users have voted.
Lily O Lady's picture

@HenryAWallace

Bureau, which provided needed consumer protections until Trump came in. Dems didn’t let her remain to run it however. I guess they were afraid she would upset the donors.

up
0 users have voted.

"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"

@Lily O Lady

was a college professor and author in that field. How detailed her concept was at that time, I honestly do not know. Dodd Frank created what currently exists in 2010. When she left the federal government a year later, the regulations for the agency had not been written. (The Daily Show, Stewart still hosting at the time, did a skit about that.)

How much of what exists now was Warren and how much of it was Congress and/or the rulemaking process under Cordray, we'll probably never know for certain. However, I do know Warren's main idea about protecting consumers was disclosure, which pisses off lenders and card issuers a lot less than deeper kinds of regulation and, which, IMO, is inadequate. (There was already a ton of disclosure for credit card issuers and those granted mortgages, well before 2007. I don't know if there was also that level of disclosure for other types of financial transactions.)

up
0 users have voted.
Lily O Lady's picture

@HenryAWallace

it’s own regulations per the Dodd-Frank Act. Had Warren been allowed by Obama to run the CFPB, she could have had a big impact. However, she was “kicked upstairs” to the Senate to keep her from making too much mischief, IMO.

up
0 users have voted.

"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"

Azazello's picture

Evening all. Most readers of the Evening Blues are familiar with the National Endowment for Democracy and its role as regime-change facilitator. Max Blumenthal went to one of their events, as reported on RT.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKm5V-xS5Wk width:500 height:300]
Hey, wait a minute. Why isn't the NED pushing for regime-change in Saudi Arabia ?
More from RT: Media shouts about Assad’s assault on ‘peaceful’ Idlib, fails to mention it’s under jihadist control
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrnRG_5ctR4 width:500 height:300]

up
0 users have voted.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@Azazello

heh, america = good. whatever america does must also be good. see?

why is max blumenthal so upset that america is releasing democracy sparkle ponies in other countries?

B)

up
0 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

He too is asking for $500,000 to help with "his legal defense" just a few months after he bought a $6.7 million apartment in NYC. Lanny Davis helped him set it up. Davis is long time flunky of the Clintons so of course Cohen is going to flip on Trump. This has the Clinton's dirty hands all over it. Plus Davis is going to allow Cohen testify to congress about Trump's role in the Russian collusion, but he says that he is refusing an immunity agreement. Nor will he accept a pardon from the most corrupt president.... What lawyer would allow his client to do that?

This says it all doesn't it?

"

Trump’s very presence in the White House means he cannot as an individual pursue the entire program of the ruling class, which includes most importantly the containment of Russia and China

.

As long as Trump keeps from admitting that Russia had any involvement with his winning the election he is going to continue to be hit with all kinds of false accusations. I can't tell if he's holding out so that he feels that he has some control over his presidency or if it's because he refuses to acknowledge that he didn't win the election fair and square. Which he did. Sure can't say that about Hillary and her winning the primary ehh?

Great round up tonight. The climate and wars connection is awesome. Stupid country!

up
0 users have voted.

Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

heh, cohen knows a good grift when he sees one, and professional grifter lanny davis is just cohen's sort of guy.

heh, trump seems to be doing pretty well under the circumstances. he has recognized all along that he is in the monkey cage in the midst of a shit-throwing contest. his best defense is not to appear to have none on him, but to continuously throw more shit at his opponents than they throw at him.

i guess we'll see if the strategy continues to work out for him.

up
0 users have voted.
Pricknick's picture

@snoopydawg
about grifters?
Once received, never returned.

up
0 users have voted.

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

the good news

In the first half of 2018, the share of job postings requesting a college degree fell from 32 percent to 30 percent, according to an analysis by labor-market research firm Burning Glass Technologies covering some 29 million job postings.

Share of posts requiring three or more years of job experience have dropped from 29 percent in 2012 to 23 percent in 2018, which translates to 1.2 million jobs that could be open to less-experienced candidates.

Even better … some one million job openings—for everything from preschool teachers and warehouse workers to e-commerce analysts--have opened up to candidates with “no experience necessary” in the last year.

Some companies no longer even insist on performing criminal background checks or drug testing on the candidates.

the bad news
Capture_3.PNG

up
0 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@gjohnsit

i guess it's good news that there are more jobs for the serfs, especially since the wages are so suppressed that they have to have more than one job to make ends meet.

up
0 users have voted.

@gjohnsit

Mamas (and Papas), don't let your babies grow up to attend public schools. Instead send them to charter schools, run on tax dollars for private profit that are not subject to the same requirements. Or send them to purely private parochial schools with vouchers paid for by tax dollars. Or home school them. Don't go to college. Go to trade school or junior college. (Thanks, WOE warrior, Obama, from Columbia University and Harvard Law.)

The last thing this country needs is "Ivory Tower Academics" who speak out against abuses by government and don't participate in the dumbing down of America. No. Actually, that's the next to last. The last thing we need are lawyers who sue both government and businesses for abuses.

up
0 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

Gaius Publius: What to Expect from a Kavanaugh Court – Government-Funded “Religious” Education

This begins a short series detailing the radical changes to the way our government operates — changes to its constitution if you will — that will be force on the nation by an unelected Supreme Court containing Brett Kavanaugh as the final piece of a 5-4 radical majority.

The list of these changes is long and frightening. They include:

The list of these changes is long and frightening. They include:

> Reversal of Roe v. Wade, freeing states to outlaw abortion
> Presidential freedom from prosecution, further establishing the “imperial presidency” so feared by the founders
>Destruction of remaining Fourth Amendment protections, freeing government even more in matters of surveillance, search and seizure, while at the same time…
> Expanding First Amendment protection to corporations
> Assault on efforts to mitigate climate change
> Assault on government regulation of all kinds, including…
> Constitutional assault on the regulatory state itself, on the right of the Executive Branch to regulate commerce at all
> Assault on freedom from discrimination based on race, gender and sexual preference, but…
> Expanded First Amendment protection for discrimination based on “religious” reasons
> Even greater assault on labor unions, worker protection and consumer protection
> Reintroduction of Jim Crow-style voting restrictions
>Court-confirmed death of net neutrality (it violates the First Amendment rights of ISPs

)

And finally:

Conversion of the country, to the greatest extent Court rulings make possible, into Charles Koch’s ideal libertarian paradise

That’s a hefty, scary list, especially the last, which will not be difficult at all to document. For a hint at what the “Koch network” (author Nancy MacLean’s phrase) has planned for America, consider just some of the constitutional amendments they want to pass at the Constitutional Convention they’re pushing so hard to create.

Gee. To think that Kavanaugh's appointment could have been prevented if the 'greatest president in our lifetime' and the democrats had pulled out all the stops to get McConnell to put Garland up for a vote. There were many congressional actions that they could have taken to force McConnell to do that. But no .... that wasn't the game plan that the rulers had for the country.

BTW. Obama and Kerry could have stopped both Roberts and Alioto's appointments to the SC by not voting for them to pass out of the committee. Just like that's a way to stop Kavanaugh from getting a vote which just enough democrats will vote for.

h/t moneysmith.

up
0 users have voted.

Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

sliding into fascism is proceeding apace. perhaps the democrats will figure out how to stop kavanaugh, but the next nominee will likely be no better.

up
0 users have voted.
Pricknick's picture

@joe shikspack

up
0 users have voted.

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

@snoopydawg to save the day! Just keeping that powder dry...any minute now...this takes time, can't rush it...have to get it right...soon....maybe next month....after the elections...maybe in 2020.....when we have a super majority.....or 2022....

up
0 users have voted.

I knew the Pentagon was a heavy user even compared to other countries. But those numbers are staggering.

Chris Hedges talks about the first way to bring justice to America is to stop the imperial war machine. To stop the war machine is to also literally to save the earth. This just makes the anti-war movement all the more important.

Thanks for the links you put up.

up
0 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@MrWebster

The stupidity of this country invading one country after another so that the corporations can get their hands on oil and other resources while wasting huge amounts of those same resources is the most asinine thing imaginable. I've read that one hour of flight time for jets wastes uses as much fuel as a family does in one year. Then add in all that air pollution, land contamination and then the affect on climate and it becomes even more asinine.

Anyone read Under the Dome? It's a Stephen King book about the affects on a small town after some alien kids basically puts the town under a dome or a bottle just to see what happens to the people in the town. Anyway I wonder if there are some aliens who watch our stupid actions and what billions of us allow a few thousand do to us and our planet. I imagine that they are either laughing their little green butts off at us or wondering how we ever got beyond the Stone Age. It's long past time for the billions of us to put a stop to those mad men and women who are deliberately destroying the planet and not only people, but especially the animals. Hundreds of species go extinct every day and yet they continue on with their quest for planetary genocide!

up
0 users have voted.

Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.

Thanks.

up
0 users have voted.