The Evening Blues - 9-24-18



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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: John Littlejohn

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Chicago blues guitarist John Littlejohn. Enjoy!

John Littlejohn & Carey Bell - Hoochie Coochie Man

"When they say [Donald Trump] is not "presidential": I asked myself what does it mean to be "presidential"? You wear a suit; you talk to the American people like you possess the character and the dignity of one who seeks the highest office in the land, and behind the door you're the worst criminal on the planet, plotting the overthrow of nations and governments, and regime change, and sending drones to kill people you don't like? That's presidential."

-- Louis Farrakhan


News and Opinion

Deadly Yemen famine could strike at any time, warns UN boss

A famine inflicting “huge loss of life” could strike at any time in Yemen, as food prices soar and the battle rages over the country’s main port, the UN humanitarian chief, Mark Lowcock, has warned.

Lowcock said that by the time an imminent famine is confirmed, it would be too late to stop it. Accelerating economic collapse has caused prices of staples to increase by 30% at a time many millions of Yemenis were already finding it hard to feed their families.

Meanwhile, fighting over the port of Hodeidah has limited its capacity, shut down its grain mills and closed the main road inland towards the capital, Sana’a, threatening a lifeline that has allowed aid agencies to reach 8 million people and stave off famine so far this year.

“One of the things about what happens in famines is there’s a sudden collapse of which you get no notice,” Lowcock, the UN under-secretary for humanitarian affairs, told the Guardian on the eve of a UN general assembly meeting on Monday to discuss the Yemeni crisis. “When the collapse happens, it’s too late to do anything. There’s a huge loss of life very, very quickly. So that’s the issue we’re flagging.”

Trump War Whore Celebrates Starvation Of Iranian Civilians At MEK Rally

Just when you thought this administration couldn’t get more cartoonishly villainous, Trump lawyer and Simon Bar Sinister stunt double Rudy Giuliani takes to the stage and enthuses about how US sanctions are making Iranian citizens so desperate they are offering to sell their internal organs for $500 in order to stay alive. “Probably a fortune in Iran today. This is truly pitiful!” he crowed triumphantly to the crowd at the Iran Uprising Summit in New York on Saturday, pleased as punch by the US government’s success in torturing everyday Iranians with starvation.

Giuliani, who is basically what you’d get if necrophilia and racist police shootings had a baby, fumbled his way through a paid speech for the MEK terror cult with all the grace of a drunken creepy uncle MCing his way through a family wedding. In it he not only gloated over the starvation and severe impoverishment of Iranian civilians, but openly proclaimed that regime change was coming to Iran due to the actions of the Trump administration. ...


Corpse bride Nikki Haley was quick to distance the Trump administration from Giuliani’s regime change rhetoric, as was the US State Department in a statement to Reuters, because as we saw them do with Libya and as we’ve seen them attempt with Syria, the US government has ever since the disastrous Iraq invasion had a standing policy of denying that it is pushing for regime change in key strategic regions while doing exactly that.

Iran's Rouhani accuses US, Saudi Arabia, Israel of being behind military parade attack

They Think It Would Be Fun to Run a Newspaper

The announcement that Time magazine would be bought by software CEO Marc Benioff highlighted the growing trend of billionaires buying up media outlets. While media moguls have always been wealthy—with press barons (Rupert Murdoch, Michael Bloomberg, Donald Newhouse, etc.) still well-represented on Forbesrunning list of the world’s billionaires—what distinguishes this new breed of press magnate is that they bought their media properties with fortunes made in other industries.

Some, like Benioff, come out of the tech industry; tech tycoons like Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, eBay’s Pierre Omidyar and Steve Jobs’ widow Laurene Powell Jobs have profited from a tech boom (or bubble) that gives them plenty of cash to spend. Others come out of the financial sector, which has doubled its share of the US economy over the past 70 years. Real estate developer Mort Zuckerman—who owned The Atlantic from 1980–1999, the Daily News from 1993–2017, and still owns US News & World Report, which he bought in 1984—was a harbinger of non-media money coming into the media sector.

Wherever their money comes from, the new moguls’ interest in buying up outlets is generally less the direct profit involved—media profits are typically declining as the old local monopoly model erodes—and more the power that comes with control of the public conversation. Being a latter-day Citizen Kane is a personal ego boost, to be sure, and provides a platform for an individual ideology—whether it’s Philip Anschutz’s social conservatism or Omidyar’s civil libertarianism.

If RussiaRussiaRussia doesn't induce immediate somnolence for you at this point, this is a good wrap up of the (lack of) evidence available. Here's a teaser:

The New York Times as Judge and Jury

We’ve seen it before: a newspaper and individual reporters get a story horribly wrong but instead of correcting it they double down to protect their reputations and credibility—which is all journalists have to go on—and the public suffers. ... The most egregious example was the reporting in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq. Like nearly all Establishment media, The New York Times got the story of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction—the major casus belli for the invasion—dead wrong. But the Times, like the others, continued publishing stories without challenging their sources in authority, mostly unnamed, who were pushing for war. ...

In a massive Timesarticle published on Thursday, entitled, “‘A Plot to Subvert an Election: Unravelling the Russia Story So Far,” it seems that reporters Scott Shane and Mark Mazzetti have succumbed to the same thinking that doubled down on Iraq. They claim to have a “mountain of evidence” but what they offer would be invisible on the Great Plains.

With the mid-terms looming and Special Counsel Robert Mueller unable to so far come up with any proof of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign to steal the 2016 election—the central Russia-gate charge—the Times does it for him, regurgitating a Russia-gate Round-Up of every unsubstantiated allegation that has been made—deceptively presented as though it’s all been proven. This is a reaffirmation of the faith, a recitation of what the Russia-gate faithful want to believe is true. But mere repetition will not make it so. The Times’ unsteady conviction is summed up in this paragraph, which the paper itself then contradicts only a few paragraphs later:

“What we now know with certainty: The Russians carried out a landmark intervention that will be examined for decades to come. Acting on the personal animus of Mr. Putin, public and private instruments of Russian power moved with daring and skill to harness the currents of American politics. Well-connected Russians worked aggressively to recruit or influence people inside the Trump campaign.”

But this schizoid approach leads to the admission that “no public evidence has emerged showing that [Trump’s] campaign conspired with Russia.” The Times also adds: “There is a plausible case that Mr. Putin succeeded in delivering the presidency to his admirer, Mr. Trump, though it cannot be proved or disproved.” This is an extraordinary statement. If it cannot be “proved or disproved” what is the point of this entire exercise: of the Mueller probe, the House and Senate investigations and even of this very New York Times article? Attempting to prove this constructed story without proof is the very point of this piece.

Google Suppresses Memo Revealing Plans to Closely Track Search Users in China

Google bosses have forced employees to delete a confidential memo circulating inside the company that revealed explosive details about a plan to launch a censored search engine in China, The Intercept has learned. The memo, authored by a Google engineer who was asked to work on the project, disclosed that the search system, codenamed Dragonfly, would require users to log in to perform searches, track their location — and share the resulting history with a Chinese partner who would have “unilateral access” to the data.

The memo was shared earlier this month among a group of Google employees who have been organizing internal protests over the censored search system, which has been designed to remove content that China’s authoritarian Communist Party regime views as sensitive, such as information about democracy, human rights, and peaceful protest. According to three sources familiar with the incident, Google leadership discovered the memo and were furious that secret details about the China censorship were being passed between employees who were not supposed to have any knowledge about it. ...

Internal security efforts at Google have ramped up this year as employees have raised ethical concerns around a range of new company projects. Following the revelation by Gizmodo and The Intercept that Google had quietly begun work on a contract with the military last year, known as Project Maven, to develop automated image recognition systems for drone warfare, the communications team moved swiftly to monitor employee activity. The “stopleaks” team, which coordinates with the internal Google communications department, even began monitoring an internal image board used to post messages based on internet memes, according to one former Google employee, for signs of employee sentiment around the Project Maven contract. Google’s internal security team consists of a number of former military and law enforcement officials.

A bunch of chain-wielding thugs attacked an Italian lawmaker after an anti-racism rally

A left-wing Italian lawmaker and her friends were attacked by chain-wielding far-right extremists as they left an anti-racism rally Friday night, in a brutal assault that left her assistant with a 3-inch gash in his head. And she’s blaming Italy’s populist new government, which has pursued a high-profile campaign against illegal immigration since coming to power in June, for emboldening far-right extremist groups.

“It was terrifying,” Eleonora Forenza, a member of the European Parliament for left-wing alliance The Other Europe, told VICE News Monday. “My assistant was very seriously injured to his head. He was losing a lot of blood. I was very scared about the possibility of something very serious happening to him.” Forenza said she and her friends were walking home from an anti-racism rally in the southern city of Bari late Friday when they passed a young Eritrean woman with a baby. The woman was intimidated as her path home was being blocked by a group of 20 or so supporters of the far-right CasaPound movement, who were gathered outside their local headquarters.

As Forenza and her group stood with the woman, the CasaPound group started marching toward them, then chased them down the street. ... The politician said she was shoved against a wall by the attackers, but the two men in her group, including her parliamentary assistant Antonio Perillo, bore the brunt of the violence, with the extremists beating them with the chains. She said the assault, carried out by at least five attackers, continued until the assailants spotted another group of left-wing demonstrators and ran off after them.

Forenza reported the assault to police and says she is confident arrests will be made, and she’s called on the Italian government to shut down the operations of CasaPound and other neo-fascist groups through Italy.

A 124-year-old statue reviled by Native Americans – and how it came down

In the middle of the night and with dozens of Native Americans watching, San Francisco city workers tied safety ropes around a 124-year-old bronze statue and pulled. Carefully, they dislodged the piece from a granite platform and laid it on top of a flatbed truck. It was a moment stoked with meaning. After decades of effort, the Early Days statue, a symbol of colonization and oppression to many, was gone. ...

Erected in the aftermath of the California mission era, the Early Days statue depicts a Native American on his back, defeated, a Catholic priest above him pointing to the heavens, and an anglicized vaquero bestriding the scene in triumph. The statue is part of the Pioneer Monument celebrating the state’s origins. Native Americans saw it as dehumanizing art but no one had managed to convince politicians to take it down. It wasn’t until gender- and racially-diverse city boards, as well as backlash against Eurocentric depictions of dominance, that change came.

Over the last few months, I spoke with Native Americans who said the existence of this type of art in a public sphere kept alive false narratives. That native people’s systematic killing was a necessary means to an end of the state’s development and current prosperity. It’s the type of thinking that becomes gospel if only one side tells you what to believe in.

Dallas police officer who fatally shot neighbor in his apartment is fired

A white Dallas police officer accused of fatally shooting her black neighbor inside his own apartment has been dismissed, the police department announced on Monday.

Dallas police fired Officer Amber Guyger weeks after she fatally shot 26-year-old Botham Jean inside his own apartment on 6 September. Court records show Guyger said she thought she had encountered a burglar inside her own home.

Guyger was arrested on a preliminary charge of manslaughter days after the shooting. She is out on bond. Jean family attorneys and protesters called for her firing following the shooting.

Report: Senate Aides Knew of Second Kavanaugh Sexual Assault Claim & Tried to Rush His Confirmation

GOP Reportedly Knew of Second Accuser While Pushing for Kavanaugh

Senate Republicans’ reason for attempting to push through a vote on Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation came into view Sunday night after The  New Yorker reported on a second woman who’s accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault—an accusation that Senate Republicans have reportedly known about since last week.

In a report by Ronan Farrow and Jane Mayer, a Yale University classmate of Kavanaugh’s named Deborah Ramirez alleged that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a party.

“Senior Republican staffers also learned of the allegation last week and, in conversations with The New Yorker, expressed concern about its potential impact on Kavanaugh’s nomination,” wrote Farrow and Mayer. “Soon after, Senate Republicans issued renewed calls to accelerate the timing of a committee vote.”

Another Kavanaugh accuser has talked to Maryland authorities, report says

A possible fourth person has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault, Maryland law enforcement officials told a Maryland newspaper. An anonymous witness told Montgomery County investigators over the weekend about another incident that occurred while Kavanaugh was in high school, according to a Monday report in the Montgomery County Sentinel.

In a response to this report, The Montgomery County Police Department put out a statement that said it had not received a request from an alleged victim to start a criminal investigation — though it’s unclear if the witness from the Sentinel’s report is an alleged victim.

“At this time, the Montgomery County Police Department has not received a request by any alleged victim nor a victim’s attorney to initiate a police report or a criminal investigation regarding Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh,” the statement said. Montgomery County prosecuting attorney John McCarthy told the Sentinel that authorities are working to determine if the alleged incident happened within the county. “We are prepared to investigate if the victim wants to report to us, and we can determine it occurred in the county,” he said.

It’s the latest in a series of sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh. ... A second woman, Deborah Ramirez, who attended Yale with Kavanaugh told the New Yorker that the Supreme Court nominee exposed his genitals to her without her consent.

Michael Avenatti, the attorney representing adult film star Stormy Daniels, said Sunday that he was representing a third client who had accused Kavanaugh, his childhood friend Mark Judge, and more men of “targeting of women with alcohol/drugs in order to allow a ‘train’ of men to subsequently gang rape them.” Avenatti later said that the woman has worked in the U.S. government and had “multiple security clearances” in the past.

Maryland Governor Rebuffs Call for Criminal Investigation Into Brett Kavanaugh Attempted Rape Allegations

On Friday morning, Maryland state Sen. Cheryl Kagan, a Democrat, sent a letter to her state’s Republican Gov. Larry Hogan calling on him to direct the Maryland State Police to launch an investigation into Christine Blasey Ford’s sexual assault allegations.

Ford “deserves the basic fairness she has been denied, and you have the power to give it to her because the assault allegedly occurred in Montgomery County, Maryland.” Kagan wrote. ...

Hogan rejected Kagan’s request at a news conference several hours later, according to the Baltimore Sun. “The Maryland State Police will not be getting involved in this,” he said, without further explanation. Kagan tweeted that she was “disappointed” in Hogan and “hopes he’ll reconsider!” Two hours later, she tweeted again that she hopes the governor “changes his tune and decides to stand up for Maryland women who have been assaulted. #InvestigateKavanaugh”

The Maryland Democratic Party seized on the opportunity to blast the governor, sending out an email with the subject line: “BREAKING: After Months of Silence on Kavanaugh, Hogan Stands with Trump in Defense of SCOTUS Nominee.” The email included a quote from Democratic state party chair Kathleen Matthews, saying: “If Donald Trump doesn’t have the integrity to authorize an independent investigation by the FBI, then Larry Hogan has a duty to authorize an independent investigation by Maryland state police.”



the horse race



Glenn Greenwald: Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 11/9” Aims Not at Trump But at Those Who Created the Conditions That Led to His Rise

"Fahrenheit 11/9," the title of Michael Moore’s new film that opens today in theaters, is an obvious play on the title of his wildly profitable Bush-era “Fahrenheit 9/11,” but also a reference to the date of Donald J. Trump’s 2016 election victory. Despite that, Trump himself is a secondary figure in Moore’s film, which is far more focused on the far more relevant and interesting questions of what – and, critically, who – created the climate in which someone like Trump could occupy the Oval Office. For that reason alone, Moore’s film is highly worthwhile regardless of where one falls on the political spectrum. The single most significant defect in U.S. political discourse is the monomaniacal focus on Trump himself, as though he is the cause – rather than the by-product and symptom – of decades-old systemic American pathologies. ...

The overriding value of "Fahrenheit 11/9" is that it avoids – in fact, aggressively rejects – this ahistorical manipulation. Moore dutifully devotes a few minutes at the start of his film to Trump’s rise, and then asks the question that dominates the rest of it, the one the political and media establishment has steadfastly avoided examining except in the most superficial and self-protective ways: “how the fuck did this happen”? Moore quickly escapes the dreary and misleading “Democrat v. GOP” framework that dominates cable news by trumpeting “the largest political party in America”: those who refuse to vote. ...

One of the most illuminating pieces of reporting about the 2016 election is also, not coincidentally, one of the most ignored: interviews by the New York Times with white and African-American working-class voters in Milwaukee who refused to vote and – even knowing that Trump won Wisconsin, and thus the presidency, largely because of their decision – don’t regret it. “Milwaukee is tired. Both of them were terrible. They never do anything for us anyway,” the article quotes an African-American barber, justifying his decision not to vote in 2016 after voting twice for Obama. Moore develops the same point, even more powerfully, about his home state of Michigan, which – like Wisconsin – Trump also won after Obama won it twice. ...

After many months of abuse, of being lied to, of being poisoned, Flint residents, in May, 2016, finally had a cause for hope: President Obama announced that he would visit Flint to address the water crisis. As Air Force One majestically lands, Flint residents rejoice, believing that genuine concern, political salvation, and drinkable water had finally arrived. Exactly the opposite happened. Obama delivered a speech in which he not only appeared to minimize, but to mock, concerns of Flint residents over the lead levels in their water, capped off by a grotesquely cynical political stunt where he flamboyantly insisted on having a glass of filtered tap water that he then pretended to drink, but in fact only used to wet his lips, ingesting none of it. A friendly meeting with Gov. Snyder after that – during which Obama repeated the same water stunt – provided the GOP state administration in Michigan with ample Obama quotes to exploit to prove the problem was fixed, and for Flint residents, it was the final insult. “When President Obama came here,” an African-American community leader in Flint tells Moore, “he was my President. When he left, he wasn’t.”

Like the unregretful non-voters of Milwaukee, the collapsed hope Obama left in his wake as he departed Flint becomes a key metaphor in Moore’s hands for understanding Trump’s rise. ... Moore could have easily made a film that just channeled and fueled standard anti-Trump fears and animus and – like the others who are doing that – made lots of money, been widely hailed, and won lots of accolades. He chose instead to dig deeper, to be more honest, to take the harder route, and deserves real credit for that. He did that, it seems clear, because he knows that the only way to move forward is not just to reject right-wing demagoguery but also the sham that masquerades as its #Resistance. As Moore himself put it: “sometimes it takes a Donald Trump to get us to realize that we have to get rid of the whole rotten system that gave us Trump.”

Banks Run Commercial ENDORSING Corporate Democrats

Rod Rosenstein, deputy attorney general, to meet Trump amid resignation reports

Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein remains in his job, after reports on Monday said he had resigned or offered to do so. The White House said Donald Trump and Rosenstein had “an extended conversation” about news stories published last week reporting that Rosenstein discussed with colleagues secretly recording Trump or having him removed from office.

The two plan to meet on Thursday, after the president’s return from a United Nations general assembly meeting in New York, press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement. Sanders said the meeting was at Rosenstein’s request.

The New York Times reported last week that he discussed secretly recording the president and invoking the 25th amendment to remove Trump from office. Rosenstein said the report was “inaccurate”.

Trump ditches plans to quickly release Russia probe documents

President Donald Trump on Friday abandoned plans to quickly declassify and release sensitive documents connected to the FBI's Russia investigation, citing a "perceived negative impact" on the probe and concerns raised by "key allies" about dumping the materials.

Trump instead announced that he would defer to a Justice Department watchdog — Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who he once derided as an "Obama guy" — to finish a review of whether anti-Trump bias affected the FBI's handling of its 2016 Russia probe.

"Therefore, the Inspector General ... has been asked to review these documents on an expedited basis," Trump tweeted Friday morning. "I believe he will move quickly on this (and hopefully other things which he is looking at). In the end I can always declassify if it proves necessary. Speed is very important to me — and everyone!"

Trump had sought the release of classified portions of a surveillance warrant application used to track former campaign adviser Carter Page. He also said he wanted to publish the interview notes of a top Justice Department official and the text messages sent by former FBI Director James Comey and other senior bureau officials.



the evening greens


Duke Energy says coal ash isn’t contaminating Cape Fear River; state awaits its own tests

Duke Energy said Sunday that flooding of the Cape Fear River caused by Hurricane Florence has not resulted in coal ash contamination downstream, as environmentalists had feared. The Charlotte-based utility company has received expedited lab results on water samples taken upstream and downstream of the Sutton power plant in Wilmington, where the company had deposited the pollutant in the ground for decades.

“Initial water tests from Duke Energy’s L.V. Sutton Plant in Wilmington confirm that discharges from the cooling lake to the Cape Fear River are not harming water quality downstream,” the company said. “Water samples captured on Friday (upstream) and downstream of the Sutton plant site show little to no impact to river water quality. All results are well within the rigorous state water quality standards in place to protect the environment.” One of Duke’s coal ash impoundments at the Sutton power plant flooded Friday when rising water breached the dam, filling adjacent Sutton Lake and then flowed over the ash.

Cape Fear River Watch, an environmental group, and the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality have been monitoring the situation by boat. Both took their own water samples but have not yet received the lab results. DEQ hopes to have results by mid-week. “It takes time to properly conduct the analysis of samples,” said Bridget Munger, a DEQ spokeswoman.

Climate Change Will Cost U.S. More in Economic Damage Than Any Other Country But One

The United States stands to lose a lot more from climate change than it realizes. In a study published Monday, scientists estimate for the first time how much each country around the world will suffer in future economic damage from each new ton of carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere. What they found may come as a surprise: the future economic costs within the U.S. borders are the second-highest in the world, behind only India.

The results suggest that the U.S. has been underestimating how much it benefits from reducing its greenhouse gas emissions and that the country has far more to gain from international climate agreements than the Trump administration is willing to admit. "Our analysis demonstrates that the argument that the primary beneficiaries of reductions in carbon dioxide emissions would be other countries is a total myth," said lead author Kate Ricke, an assistant professor at the University of San Diego's School of Global Policy and Strategy and Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Some smaller countries will lose significantly larger portions of their economies to climate change. But the authors found, after modeling hundreds of scenarios, that the U.S. consistently faces among the costliest damages, as measured by what economists call the social cost of carbon. "It makes a lot of sense because the larger your economy is, the more you have to lose. Still, it's surprising just how consistently the U.S. is one of the biggest losers, even when compared to other large economies," she said. ...

This study, published in the scientific journal Nature Climate Change, estimates the future costs to each country based on all the ways climate change currently effects economies, such as higher health and energy costs and damage to property and agriculture. But the authors stress that it's still a conservative estimate because it doesn't capture longer-term effects that are still coming, including sea level rise that will put coastal cities at risk and ocean acidification that can damage fisheries.

'We're moving to higher ground': America's era of climate mass migration is here

After her house flooded for the third year in a row, Elizabeth Boineau was ready to flee. ... Last year, after Hurricane Irma introduced 8in of water into a home Boineau was still patching up from the last flood, local authorities agreed this historic slice of Charleston could be torn down. “I was sloshing through the water with my puppy dog, debris was everywhere,” she said. “I feel completely sunken. It would cost me around $500,000 to raise the house, demolish the first floor. I’m going to rent a place instead, on higher ground.”

Millions of Americans will confront similarly hard choices as climate change conjures up brutal storms, flooding rains, receding coastlines and punishing heat. Many are already opting to shift to less perilous areas of the same city, or to havens in other states. Whole towns from Alaska to Louisiana are looking to relocate, in their entirety, to safer ground. The era of climate migration is, virtually unheralded, already upon America. ...

By the end of this century, sea level rise alone could displace 13 million people, according to one study, including 6 million in Florida. States including Louisiana, California, New York and New Jersey will also have to grapple with hordes of residents seeking dry ground. ... Within just a few decades, hundreds of thousands of homes on US coasts will be chronically flooded. By the end of the century, 6ft of sea level rise would redraw the coastline with familiar parts – such as southern Florida, chunks of North Carolina and Virginia, much of Boston, all but a sliver of New Orleans – missing. Warming temperatures will fuel monstrous hurricanes – like the devastating triumvirate of Irma, Maria and Harvey in 2017, followed by Florence this year – that will scatter survivors in jarring, uncertain ways.

The projections are starting to materialize in parts of the US, forming the contours of the climate migration to come. “I don’t see the slightest evidence that anyone is seriously thinking about what to do with the future climate refugee stream,” said Orrin Pilkey, professor emeritus of coastal geology at Duke University. “It boggles the mind to see crowds of climate refugees arriving in town and looking for work and food.” Pilkey’s new book – Sea Level Rise Along Americas Shores: The Slow Tsunami – envisions apocalyptic scenes where millions of people, largely from south Florida, will become “a stream of refugees moving to higher ground”.

“They will not be the bedraggled families carrying their few possessions on their backs as we have seen in countless photos of people fleeing wars and ethnic cleansing, most recently in Myanmar and Syria,” Pilkey states in his book. “Instead, they will be well-off Americans driving to a new life in their cars, with moving trucks behind, carrying a lifetime of memories and possessions.”


Also of Interest

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

Chris Hedges: American Anomie

Medea Benjamin Shows America What Real Resistance Looks Like

Mark Judge’s Memoir About Brett Kavanaugh’s High School Portrays a Culture of Aggression and Excessive Drinking

St Louis workhouse denounced as a modern-day debtors' prison

Facebook Brushed Off the U.N. Five Separate Times Over Calls for Murder of Human Rights Worker

So You Want to Use the 25th Amendment to Get Rid of Donald Trump? Here Are the Hurdles to Removing a Mentally Impaired President.

This Blessed Plot: Art Untangles Conspiracy at the Met Breuer


A Little Night Music

John Littlejohn - So Glad You're Mine

John Littlejohn - Dream

Johnny Little John - Kitty O

John Littlejohn - What In The World You Goin' To Do

Johnny Littlejohn - Keep On Running

Johnny Littlejohn - Guitar King

Johnny Little John - I Need Lovin

Johnny Little John & Menard Rogers - Can't Be Still

John Littlejohn & Carey Bell - Mama Told Me

Johnny Littlejohn - 1975 Pori Jazz, Kirjurinluoto, Pori, Finland



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ggersh's picture

Enjoy while we can, it seems as if the four sorrows have come

“Four sorrows are certain to be visited on the United States.

First, there will be a state of perpetual war.

Second is a loss of democracy and Constitutional rights as the presidency eclipses Congress and is itself transformed from a co-equal ‘executive branch’ of government into a military junta.

Third is the replacement of truth by propaganda, disinformation, and the glorification of war, power, and the military legions.

Lastly, there is bankruptcy, as the United States pours its economic resources into ever more grandiose military projects and shortchanges the education, health, and safety of its citizens.”

Chalmers Johnson, The Sorrows of Empire, 2005

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

snoopydawg's picture

@ggersh

Those 4 sorrows have arrived and they are making themselves well at home. But don't forget to get out and vote.

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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

@ggersh

yep, he certainly nailed it. "sorrows of empire" was a really great book and holds up quite well today.

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The Aspie Corner's picture

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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

well, we certainly have nothing to lose with trump trashing nafta. it was a terrible agreement, though not for the reasons that trump thinks it is/was. given its lack of worker safety and environmental protections, and its design to destroy mexican agriculture (thus exacerbating migration north) to name only a few of its shortcomings, people in all three countries are better off without it.

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snoopydawg's picture

Guess who decided to take them off of it? None other than HRC when she was SOS. Not that the American members were in any danger of being charged for working with terrorists. Kinda makes you wonder why we even have laws for certain crimes doesn't it? Of course crimes like this are always prosecuted.

Ten Years After Not One High-Level Banker Sent to Jail for Tanking Global Economy, This Man Gets 20 Years in Prison for Stealing Cigarettes

Ten years after the behavior of over-leveraged and fraudulent banks created a global financial disaster that resulted in hundreds of billions of dollars in losses; a multi-trillion bailout using public money; and millions of people losing their homes to foreclosure, but saw not one high-level financial executive go to jail, a man in Florida has been sentenced to a 20-year prison term for stealing $600 worth of cigarettes from a local convenience store.

He went into the Circle K in the 200 block of West Cervantes Street and took 10 cartons of cigarettes from a locked manager's office in the stock room.

He was found nearby, matched a description of the suspect, was wearing the same clothing and had the cigarettes, according to the State Attorney's Office.

Spellman had 14 felony and 31 misdemeanor convictions prior to this charge, so his 20-year sentence qualifies him as a habitual felony offender.

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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

justice may be blind, but by golly, she sure can smell the money on a wealthy defendant.

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divineorder's picture

She shows how it is done!
Medea Benjamin modeling how The Resistance should really be doing.
Jb and I fit the bill of Climate Refugees in the US. Except we got out before we were forced to .

We had bought a distressed property down on a coastal bay and through hours of ‘sweat equity’ and a good nick out of our savings we turned it into a ‘poboy’ Shangri-la.

Friends and family were stunned when after getting hit a glancing blow by Rita we sold it and moved.

So many climate refugees already had to leave the coast after Katrina, Rita etc, and never were able to return.

Many more (including our friends and relatives) are unprepared for what is to come.

Rather than fund endless war Congress could do much help with the coming migration .

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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

yep, internal migration is the wave of the future. i'm glad that you were able to pick up and move to higher ground - it's a thought that crosses my mind increasingly more often these days.

thanks for the article link!

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Bill Maher praised the film and what he seemed to describe is not what Greenwald seemed to describe. Moore was very uncomfortable taking on Obama in an segment with Bill Maher. But really lit up over sexual abuse of Trump toward his daughter. If the messasge that Greenwald says is there, it seems to overwhelmed by parts of the film that are stright Trump is the problem.

I will have to see it, but looks like Moore wants to tell the truth but has to placate those who don't want to hear it without getting kicked off the executive board of the resistance.

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Deja's picture

@MrWebster
Even cheaper: Netflix. I wouldn't waste my money at the theater on it -- not even the matinee.

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lotlizard's picture

now says we should go ahead and believe as conclusive, something for which there is no proof.

This after decades and decades — from the Sixties through to the 21st century — of establishment and elite scoffing “conspiracy theory” and “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” whenever people wanted deeper, more impartial investigation of anything.

The “Big Lie” of Russiagate is being propagated and repeated endlessly up and down the media chain — even in the middle of a story about the Massachusetts gas explosions:
https://whowhatwhy.org/2018/09/22/mass-gas-grid-blows-up-and-answers-are...

McDowell-Smith said that sabotage attacks on utilities are a reality — transformers in Silicon Valley were targeted by individuals working for the power company, itself, in 2013 — and referenced the well-documented 2016 election sabotage effort by Russian agents.

I beg your pardon? “Well-documented”?

It’s really simple, isn’t it? Those in control of the means of mass communications think that if they keep referring to a lie as if it were a “well-documented” fact, it essentially becomes a fact. This is the CIA doctrine of “operational truth” (if you can get enough people to believe it so it accomplishes your goal, for purposes of public discourse and official history it’s “true”) presented in my first-year college Political Science course.

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@lotlizard One reason the Russia hysteria has not caught on is that it does not effect or has effected daily life like 9/11 did. Russia means nothing to people in their daily lives. As the Russia hysteria fades away or gets to the point of satire and self-parody (I just read an article by a Tufts prof warning that Putin may hack the Boy Scouts as his next set of victims.), something will be needed to have people put Russia front and center in their lives--such as oh my gawd, the Russians blew up Boston.

The Russia/Putin is now our modern version of Satan, or referring back to Nazi Germany, our modern version of the Jews as universal antagonists against the motherland and European civilization.

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mimi's picture

can't keep up with reading, but the piece by Peter Maass about Kavanaugh's highschool years in Georgetown Prep, for sure are credible to me. Happened to become aquainted with Georgetown Prep a couple of years later, as they 'advised' me that my son was so 'intelligent' (cause he tested well in Math) that he didn't need eights grade and could directly go there into nineth grade at their school. I was highly sceptical about it, but was so 'fear-mongered to not get him into the DC public school's school eights grade by 'people in the know about all things schools in DC'), that I didn't resist Georgetwon Prep's arguments enough.

I warned them, they said I am an overprotecting mom. WTF. The schooling of my son is a saga worth to be written a book about, but I won't. Three month later (ironicawally always around Thanksgiving) they (them teachers on the school board) regretted to inform me that my son failed academically and had to leave before Christmas. Boosted my son's already badly damaged self-esteem tremendously. yep. ((By that time my son had already gone into schools of three different country's, teaching in their own country's languages). Fuck them. I am mad til today, 35 years later. And it happened twice that the esteemed teachers were unable to listen to mothers, who happen to know their kids' life a little better than them supersmart educators, who have no clue about anything outside their US environment and their own US based upbringing and US based ideologies. Especially if those kids are not grown up with American parents and inside the American school system or inside of the US. Ok, what doesn't kill you, makes you strong it's said. Sigh.

I would show this article to my son, but won't, because he doesn't need to be reminded of the bullshit of private schools. Private schools, who also look for their interests to meet their racial quota of their student body and - of course - their own budget needs. Not everybody can pay those schools' outrageous tuition... to find a black kid, whose parents could, because 70 percent of the highschool tuition was paid by my kid's fathers employer, was something that was of interest for those schools. You are damned if you are well off and damned if you are poor, jeez...what a life.)

I detested the private-public school system divide in the US from the day I came to the US and 'got' it, especially in the DC environment, where public schools were 'bad' - as everybody warned me - and private schools were for the rich elite of politician's kids. Yep.

Coming from Germany, where private schools are more or less completely irrelevant, til today, i have a deep dislike for the 'private, but so-called excellent schools' in the US. Sorry, that I am so biased and emotional about it. I am sure something is excellent of many private schools and colleges, but something basic is wrong about that public/private divide, imo. And racial quotas should not exist. If social injustice is so strong it won't be improved by introducing race-based (or sex-based) mandatory quotas to hide the social injustice behind it to begin with.

Another article which I found excellent is the one one by James Risen about why and how to remove a 'mentally impaired President' via the 25th amendment is so difficult. Very well explained and written.

It is a little sad that due to the time zones in which many of us live in, we never can make meaningful comments during the times the US based folks are awake. And when we would have finished most of the articles, you are already coming up with the next EB collection.

Only consolation there is to this is, that so far the evil doers of the world haven't managed yet to stop the earth from rotating around its own axis.
Wink

Have a good night and day whereever you are at reading this, and thanks for your work. A few good men and all this shebang ... it's a challenge to find new words for saying thank you each day.
Smile

Trying to read some more of your linked articles now ... sigh, I am so addicted, darn it.

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