The Evening Blues - 11-26-18



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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Guy Davis

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues singer and guitarist Guy Davis. Enjoy!

Guy Davis - Waiting On The Cards To Fall

“There will be, in the next generation or so, a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude, and producing dictatorship without tears, so to speak, producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them, but will rather enjoy it, because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda or brainwashing, or brainwashing enhanced by pharmacological methods. And this seems to be the final revolution”

-- Aldous Huxley


News and Opinion

All wars come home. Here's the intro to a Jeremy Scahill interview with Bernard Harcourt transcribed at the link and worth a read:

The Counterinsurgency Paradigm: How U.S. Politics Have Become Paramilitarized

Donald Trump ran a campaign promising to refill the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison, to “bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding,” to “take out” the families of suspected terrorists, to ban Muslims from entering this country, and to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Yet these policies didn’t start with Trump: Torture, indefinite detention, extraordinary renditions, record numbers of deportations, anti-Muslim sentiment, mass foreign and domestic surveillance, and even the killing of innocent family members of suspected terrorists all have a recent historical precedent.

Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, continued some of the worst policies of the George W. Bush administration. He expanded the global battlefield post-9/11 into at least seven countries: Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia, Pakistan, Yemen, and Syria. At the end of Obama’s second term, a report by Council of Foreign Relations found that in 2016, Obama dropped an average of 72 bombs a day. He used drone strikes as a liberal panacea for fighting those “terrorists” while keeping boots off the ground. But he also expanded the number of troops deployed in Afghanistan. Immigrants were deported in such record numbers under Obama that immigration activists called him the “deporter-in-chief.” And then there were the “Terror Tuesday” meetings, where Obama national security officials would order pizza and drink Coke and review the list of potential targets on their secret assassination list. For his liberal base, Obama sanitized a morally bankrupt expansion of war, and used Predator and Reaper drones strapped with Hellfire missiles to kill suspected terrorists, including U.S. citizens stripped of their due process. The Obama administration harshly prosecuted whistleblowers in a shocking attack on press freedoms. By the end of his presidency, official numbers on civilian deaths by drone were underreported; we may never know the true cost of these wars, which continue today. ...

And steadily, all of the counterinsurgency tactics of these foreign wars have crept back home, Bernard Harcourt argues in a recent book. Called “The Counterrevolution: How Our Government Went to War Against Its Own Citizens” and it makes the argument that through NSA spying; Trump’s constant, daily distractions; and paramilitarized police forces or private security companies, the same counterinsurgency paradigm of warfare used against post-9/11 enemies has now come to U.S. soil as the effective governing strategy. We are in the middle of an unprecedented paramilitarization of state and local law enforcement agencies in this country. Police at protests and demonstrations often look like they’re SEAL Team 6 getting ready to raid Osama bin Laden’s compound. Many agencies have received military equipment through a Defense Department program that allows police to obtain military equipment after it’s been used in foreign war zones.

Ukraine president proposes martial law after Russia's ship seizure

The Ukrainian president has proposed imposing martial law after Russian forces shot at and seized three Ukrainian navy vessels in the Black Sea, injuring six crew members according to Kiev, in a major escalation of tensions between the two countries. The seizure sparked protests by dozens of people outside the Russian embassy in Kiev. Some placed paper boats outside the residence while others threw smoke grenades and set fire to tyres piled up outside. ...

Sunday’s hostilities began when Russia prevented three Ukrainian navy vessels from passing beneath its bridge in the Kerch strait by blocking the way with a cargo ship. Two artillery ships and a tug boat were subsequently fired on and seized. According to the FSB, Russia’s principal security agency, three Ukrainian sailors were wounded, none of whom were in a life-threatening condition. The Kerch strait connects the Sea of Azov with the Black Sea. Russia has constructed a $3.69bn (£2.7bn) bridge over the strait following its occupation of Crimea to link the Russian mainland and the peninsula. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, officially opened the bridge in May.

The FSB said its patrol boats had seized the three naval vessels, saying the boats had entered its territorial waters illegally. It was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying the Ukrainian ships “illegally entered a temporarily closed area of Russian territorial waters”. It said Ukraine’s ships were carrying out “provocative actions” and “their aim is clear – to create a conflict situation in this region”.

Ukraine said it had given Russia advance warning of the route its ships – which are obliged to pass through the strait to reach the Sea of Azov – would take. ...

The vote on whether to impose martial law in Ukraine comes four months ahead of presidential elections that Poroshenko is expected to lose. If Ukrainian MPs vote to suspend normal government, the elections could be postponed. Martial law was not declared in Ukraine after the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014 or during the ongoing war in eastern Ukraine with Russian-backed forces.

Russia accuses Ukraine of naval 'provocation' in Kerch strait

The simmering confrontation between Moscow and Kiev has sparked a new global crisis, after Russia fired on and seized three Ukrainian vessels and their crews in the Kerch strait separating Crimea from the Russian mainland, and the Ukrainian government called for the imposition of martial law. ... The incident sparked an emergency debate at the UN security council, where the Russian and Ukrainian ambassadors accused each other’s governments of seeking to trigger a conflict to deflect from their own domestic unpopularity.

The Ukrainian ambassador to the UN, Volodymyr Yelchenko, said the Russian naval authorities had been notified that the three Ukrainian vessels, two cutters and a tugboat, wished to pass through the strait, and had been waiting to hear confirmation on Sunday morning, when they were attacked. ... The Russian ambassador, Dmitry Polyanskiy, claimed the Ukrainian ships had entered Russian territorial waters, and portrayed the incident as a long-planned provocation by the Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, and his western backers to distract from the Ukrainian president’s unpopularity in the run-up to elections scheduled for next March. “[The declaration of martial law] is about cancelling the elections,” he said. The Ukrainian ships had “illegally crossed Russia’s border”, he said, and “responsibility lies with those who gave the illegal order” for the ships to cross the Kerch strait.

Since the completion of the bridge over the Kerch strait, Moscow has demanded that Ukrainian ships not only give notice of their intention to transit the strait but request permission, a change that Kiev has rejected. According to western diplomats, the dispatch of the three ships was intended to assert freedom of navigation and also to reinforce a very small Ukrainian naval presence in the Sea of Azov. ...

In a statement accusing Ukraine of deliberately provoking the incident to provide a pretext for further anti-Russian sanctions, the foreign ministry in Moscow said Russia would respond harshly to any attempts to undermine its sovereignty and security. “The Russian side acted strictly within both domestic and international law,” said the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, during a daily press briefing, adding that Moscow had opened a criminal case “in connection to the violation of Russia’s borders”. He gave no details on the fate of the Ukrainian sailors held by Moscow.

On Contact: Crucifying Julian Assange

Newsweek-Employed Spy Explains To Us Why Assange Should Be Prosecuted

So it turns out it’s really really important for powerful people to be able to lie to us with impunity, you guys. I know this because an actual, literal spy told me that that’s what I’m meant to believe in an article published by Newsweek yesterday. If you were wondering how long it would take the imperial propagandists to ramp up their efforts to explain to us why it is good for the Trump administration to prosecute WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange after we learned that sealed charges have been brought against him by the United States government, the answer is eight days. If you were wondering which of those propagandists would step forward and aggressively attempt to do so, the answer is Naveed Jamali.

To be clear, I do not use the word “propagandist” to refer to a mass media employee whose reliable track record of establishment sycophancy has propelled him to the upper echelons of influence within platforms owned by plutocrats who have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo, as I often mean when I use that word. When I say that Jamali is a propagandist, I mean he is a current member of the United States intelligence community telling Newsweek‘s readers that it is to society’s benefit for the US government to pursue a longstanding agenda of the US intelligence community in imprisoning Julian Assange. Jamali is currently a reserve intelligence officer for the United States Navy, and is a former FBI asset and double agent. He is also like many intelligence community insiders an MSNBC contributor, and is a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, a think tank which has featured many prominent neoconservative war whores like Donald and Frederick Kagan, Max Boot, and James Woolsey. ...

His Newsweek article, titled “Prosecuting Assange is Essential for Restoring Our National Security”, begins with the sentence “Full disclosure: I am not a fan of Julian Assange or Wikileaks,” and doesn’t get any better from there. The article consists of two arguments, the first being that since Assange is “not a journalist” he is not protected by the First Amendment from prosecution by the US government. This argument is bunk because (A) this is a made-up nonsense talking point since neither the US Constitution nor the Supreme Court have made any distinction between journalists or any other kind of publisher in press freedom protections, and (B) WikiLeaks has won many awards for journalism. The second argument is that it is very important for the US government to be able to hide any kind of secrets it wants from the American people.

Top Democrats accuse Trump of lying about CIA's Jamal Khashoggi report

Senior Democrats in Congress have accused Donald Trump of lying about the CIA’s findings on the involvement of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.

Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, said on Sunday it was false for Trump to claim the CIA “did not come to a conclusion” on whether Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing of the dissident journalist. “I think the president is being dishonest with the American people,” Schiff told CNN’s State of the Union. He said he had been briefed by the CIA on the agency’s assessment of Khashoggi’s killing, which reportedly concluded that Prince Mohammed was directly involved.

Schiff’s remark followed similar comments from Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, who said on Friday Trump was lying about the CIA’s findings. On Sunday, Senator Mike Lee, a Republican from Utah, also contradicted the president’s comments.

Hmmmm...

France's "yellow vest" movement: Will it last?

Macron to respond to grievances of low-paid in France after protests

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has said the government must present a “clear answer” to the anger of people on low incomes after protesters marched in Paris against rising fuel taxes and what they called an elite political class cut off from reality. The government has vowed not to back down on the new taxes on diesel and petrol, which were the starting point for grassroots citizens’ protests across France. The movement has since broadened into a wider outpouring against inequality and accusations that Macron’s policies favour the rich. The protests in Paris had the support of a majority of French people.

Macron told reporters in Brussels that the government must present a clear answer amid speculation he would next week call for a consultation on living standards or suggest measures to soften the impact of rising petrol costs. But, having staked his political identity on not giving in to street protests, the president is not expected to roll back on the fuel tax.

Thousands of demonstrators – known as the “gilets jaunes” or “yellow vests” because they wear fluorescent, high-visibility vests – poured on to the Champs-Elysées in Paris on Saturday where they sung the national anthem and called for Macron to resign. By nightfall, barricades were set on fire, luxury shop windows smashed and traffic lights uprooted. Twenty-four people, including five police officers, were injured and 130 arrested. The government blamed the violence on a small minority of “ultra-right” trouble-makers who infiltrated the demonstrators.

The ‘gilets jaunes’ struggle to hold power to account, an ever harder task in the west

For eight days, France has been convulsed by targeted blockades of streets and motorways causing huge traffic jams, but not from the usual suspects: lorry drivers, farmers or students. This is a spontaneous movement of “gilets jaunes” (named after the hi-vis vests they wear) who use social media to co-ordinate themselves as popup protesters of all ages and classes, wanting to stop the impending sharp hike in fuel duties. It is an assertion of power from below, an insistence that the “imperial” President Emmanuel Macron should listen. Macron is on the defensive.

Six thousand miles away, the former chair of Nissan Renault, Carlos Ghosn, is spending his seventh night in a tiny cell in the Tokyo detention centre. One of the most important, ruthless and, it now seems, greedy executives in the global car business was arrested on Monday on charges of embezzlement, mis-statement of company accounts and personal use of company money. It was the Nissan part of the alliance that deposed him after a near 20-year reign at the top. This, too, is an assertion of power, a long overdue check to a man who for too long had played the system to become a corrupt corporate monarch.

Two days earlier, Facebook had to acknowledge, after some days of denial, that the New York Times report that it had hired a muckraking firm – Definers Public Affairs – to spread lies about its detractors, including antisemitic smears about George Soros, was correct. Facebook, carrier of too much fake news and tax avoider-in-chief, has abused its financial muscle and been found out. This, too, was an assertion of power – an old-fashioned press investigation exposing misdeeds in high places. ...

In every case, the actors felt they could get away with bad acts without effective challenge; be sure much more of the same is going on undiscovered. ... What keeps executives, owners and politicians honest are embedded and strong institutions representing other forces – unions, strong consumer groups, independent regulators, checks and balances within companies and effective political parties as alternative governments-in-waiting. ... Effective countervailing power has to be institutionally embedded and well-resourced.

Left Party in Germany supports the French president’s call for a European army

In a press statement issued Monday, the leader of Die Linke, the Left Party’s parliamentary fraction, Dietmar Bartsch, stated he had “listened with interest to the speech by [French president] Emmanuel Macron on the occasion of the Day of Mourning [Volkstrauertag, a public holiday in Germany to commemorate members of the armed forces and civilians who died in armed conflicts].” Macron had “made a plea on behalf of Europe,” and the remarks made by the French head of state were “quite reasonable.”

In his speech to the German parliament (Bundestag) November 18, Macron reiterated his demand for the creation of a “real European army” and spoke out in favour of a European world power policy under German-French leadership in order to compete with the US, China and Russia. To the applause of the vast majority of members of parliament, he declared: “Europe and the Franco-German duo have a duty to prevent the world sliding into chaos.” Europe must take more responsibility for its defence and security. It must become stronger and more independent, and needs greater sovereignty, he said. The French president left no doubt that this would mean a massive increase in military spending and preparations for interventions in wars. “This fight is not won, this fight will never be won,” Macron said. “Everyone of us” will have to “share an increasing part of their budget, or even tax revenue, to effectively defend Europe.”

It is evident that the construction of a European military union and the preparations for war are also directed against growing social and political domestic opposition. Significantly, in his Berlin speech, Macron sought the support of the German bourgeoisie as hundreds of thousands protested in France against higher petrol taxes. Protesters blocked roads and demanded the resignation of the “president of the rich.”

Amazon Workers STRIKE In Italy, Spain, Germany & UK!

From Facebook to climate change: how to bury bad news

For government agencies and corporations with bad news they are reluctant to put out, there’s long been a tradition in public relations called the Friday news dump. In essence it’s a way of saying, OK, fine, we screwed up somehow, but let’s wait to admit to it until the last possible moment so fewer people will hear about it. The problem is now that everyone is constantly connected to their phones, news travels further on a typical Friday evening than it used to. The Trump administration and Facebook needed another way to bury a couple of alarming stories last week. Enter the Thanksgiving news dump.

On Wednesday evening, just as large numbers of Americans were traveling for the Thanksgiving holiday, punching out of work early or preparing their homes for guests, Facebook’s head of communications and policy, Elliot Schrage, published a blogpost admitting that the embattled tech giant had in fact hired the right-leaning public relations firm Definers to disparage critics with dirty tricks including alleging connections to billionaire George Soros, a regular boogeyman of the right and subject of antisemitic conspiracy theories.

Facebook heads Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg had previously denied knowledge of the firm’s involvement. ...

And on Friday the Trump administration released financial disclosure forms for its communications director, Bill Shine. Shine, the former co-president of Fox News, will continue to be paid by the network for the next two years even as he works in the White House.

While those all sound like serious and important news stories none of them are going to matter if civilization as we know it comes to an end. In a vastly more alarming news dump on Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year, the Trump administration released the findings of a major climate science report.

James Fields is going on trial for killing Heather Heyer in Charlottesville. Here’s why jury selection will be tough.

Jury selection starts Monday in the trial of the young Ohio man who plowed his car into a crowd of counterprotesters during last year’s violent Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, killing Heather Heyer and injuring dozens of others. Lawyers representing James Alex Fields Jr., 21, will face off against prosecutors in what’s likely to be a difficult and tense jury selection process, given that emotions over that day in August 2017 are still so raw for many residents of the small Virginia college town. ...

Jurors will consider whether Fields, who is facing first-degree state murder charges, intentionally drove his car into a downtown intersection where a crowd of counterprotesters, many of whom were nonwhite, were standing. The impact of the car sent bodies flying. Heyer, 32, was killed, and more than 35 were injured. In addition to the murder charges, Fields is also facing three counts of malicious wounding, three counts of aggravated malicious wounding, two counts of felonious assault, and one hit and run. Separately, Fields is also facing 29 counts of federal hate crime charges – and the possibility of the death penalty.

The pool of potential jurors totals 360, which, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, is the largest in recent memory.

Denise Lunsford, the former head prosecutor for Albemarle County, is representing Fields, who’d traveled to the rally from his home in Ohio. In August, Lunsford filed a motion to move the trial to a different venue, arguing that it would be very hard to find an impartial jury in Charlottesville, which is still reeling from the rally. Lunsford also presented more than 2,000 pages of local news reports, suggesting that jurors would be biased from media coverage. Charlottesville Circuit Court judge Richard E. Moore said he thinks that it’s possible to seat an unbiased jury, but added that he would consider her arguments during the trial. ...

Fields has pled not guilty to all charges, but we know little about what line of defense his lawyer will likely take. During his arraignment on federal charges earlier this year, Fields told a judge that he was receiving treatment for bipolar disorder, anxiety, depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Rev. William Barber: Tear Gassing Central American Migrants is Inhumane, Unconstitutional, Immoral

US agents arrested 42 migrants on American side of the border, official says

Officials arrested 42 migrants on the US side of the border with Mexico on Sunday, a border patrol official said, claiming agents released teargas only when attacked with rocks. The US official also answered criticism of the use of gas on groups including women and children, images of which spread rapidly online on Sunday, by saying the migrants pushed “women and children towards the front”.

The arrests came amid clashes with members of a migrant caravan attempting to enter the US from Tijuana, where teargas was used to repel people trying to run across the border. Rodney Scott, the chief agent for the San Diego sector, told CNN on Monday morning his agents arrested 42 people who made it across the border. Thirty-nine arrests were reported on the Mexican side of the border.


Scott said eight of those arrested were women, and there were “only a few” children involved. “The vast majority of the people we’re dealing with are adult males,” he said. The official rejected criticism of the use of teargas on a group that included children, saying some migrants had pelted agents with rocks and debris. ... Three agents were struck by rocks but were wearing helmets, shields and vests and were not seriously injured, Scott said. He said a number of border patrol vehicles were damaged. ...

Democrats and other critics called the Trump administration’s use of teargas toward the migrants an overreaction, and blamed the administration for rejecting efforts to address larger immigration issues. “Teargassing families seems unnecessary,” Lee Gelernt, the deputy director of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, told CNN.

Mexico to deport migrants who tried 'violently' to breach US border

Mexico plans to deport migrants who were in a group of 500 people who it said tried on Sunday to “violently” and “illegally” cross the border into the US, the Mexican interior ministry has said in a statement. It added that Mexican authorities had contained the protest at the crossing between Tijuana and San Diego and that, despite heightened tensions there, Mexico would not send military forces to control 7,417 migrants from a caravan who have gathered at the border.

Amid heated rhetoric from Donald Trump and confusion over a reported deal to keep asylum seekers in Mexico, all traffic was halted for several hours on Sunday at the busy border crossing between San Diego and Tijuana. US Customs and Border Protection said traffic in both directions was suspended at the San Ysidro port of entry before later allowing traffic to flow once again.

The Associated Press reported earlier that migrants approaching the border were enveloped with teargas after a few tried to breach the fence separating the two countries. US agents fired the gas, according to an AP reporter on the scene. Children were screaming and coughing in the mayhem. Honduran migrant Ana Zúñiga, 23, told the AP she saw migrants open a small hole in concertina wire at a gap on the Mexican side of a levee, at which point US agents fired teargas at them. ...

Mexico’s Milenio TV showed images of migrants trying to jump the fence. A few yards away on the US side, shoppers streamed in and out of a mall. Images of young children fleeing tear gas prompted concern in some quarters of the US.



the evening greens



'This Is a Climate Emergency': Extinction Rebellion Takes to Streets to Stand for the Planet Over Polluter Profits

As scientists warn that the "window of opportunity for action" to prevent catastrophic and irreversible planetary harm from the climate crisis "is almost closed," members of the Extinction Rebellion movement took to the streets of London on Saturday to demand an urgent response to the world's ecological emergency and mourn the lives that human-caused climate change has already taken—and will take in the near future in the absence of radical change.

"Last Saturday we celebrated all the life we wanted to save. This Saturday we mourn all the life we've lost, are losing, and are still to lose," Extinction Rebellion said in a statement. "We rebel because we love this world, it breaks our hearts to see it ravaged, to watch so many people and animals all over this world already dying, to know that this will soon happen to our children if nothing changes. There is no way forward without giving credence to our grief."


After kicking off last weekend, Extinction Rebellion demonstrations have spread to over a dozen countries, bringing thousands into the streets to disrupt the everyday workings of major cities and demand the attention of governments that have either resisted taking bold climate action or attempted to move in the opposite direction to appease the destructive fossil fuel industry. "We will continue sitting down in city streets," reads Extinction Rebellion's website. "Only through daily economic disruption will the government recognize the gravity of the crisis we all face and agree to meet with us to address our demand for radical action."

Bill McKibben: New Report Reconfirms Climate Change is Shrinking Inhabitable Parts of the Planet

World's fastest shark speeding toward extinction

The world’s fastest shark may be swimming towards disaster after a major fisheries body failed to address continued overfishing of the highly vulnerable species, conservationists have warned. The shortfin mako – which can reach speeds of up to 43mph – is fished worldwide but is not subject to any international fishing quotas. It is considered exceptionally vulnerable in the North Atlantic, where scientists have recommended all landings be reduced by at least two-thirds to prevent overfishing.

Member states of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), which includes the European Union, agreed last year to narrow landing conditions and to report and review all mako catches in 2018. But a review of January to June landings shows catches were already 50% higher than the annual recommended threshold – proving that ICCAT is wildly off track in reducing the shark’s mortality and stopping its overfishing, according to Ali Hood, director of conservation at the UK-based Shark Trust.

“ICCAT has failed to make time to responsibly review and amend a measure for one of the most imperilled species within its purview, and it’s simply outrageous,” said Hood. “Most of the blame falls squarely with the EU, which – despite being responsible for the vast majority of mako catches – offered no explanation or plan for improvement.”

The mako – a cousin of the great white shark – is a prized catch for commercial fisheries and sport anglers alike. Although sharks are technically considered bycatch, with tuna and swordfish usually the target, in many fisheries they make up the majority of landings: in the Azores, sharks represent more than 80% of the catch in some longline fisheries, said Hood. “The shark bycatch is what makes the fishery economically viable,” she added.

EU fishing vessels were responsible for 65% of all reported catches of North Atlantic makos from January to June this year, according to Shark Trust.

Hundreds of apparently 'flash-frozen' turtles wash ashore in New England

An unusual number of sea turtles have washed ashore in New England in the recent cold snap, many dead and appearing to have been “flash-frozen”.

Many of the turtles are from a critically endangered species, Kemp’s ridley, Robert Prescott, director of Massachusetts Audubon Society’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, told the Cape Cod Times.

The number of stranded turtles has already surpassed what is considered normal for the season. Prescott told the Times that at least 219 turtles washed ashore from Wednesday to Friday on Cape Cod beaches. He told CNN 173 of those turtles had died. ...

Prescott believes a warming trend in the Gulf of Maine has allowed the turtles to delay migration south.


Also of Interest

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

Why You Should Care About the Julian Assange Case

Is It Easier to Imagine the End of the World Than the End of the Internet?

Hedda Martin’s GoFundMe, Spectrum Health, and Putting a Band-Aid on the Cancer of American’s Health Care System

NPR Infomercial for Its Sponsor Amazon Omits Labor and Environmental Criticisms

In South Texas, Border Residents Struggle to Cope With the Latest Military Surge

3 big takeaways from the government’s bleak climate report

More Oil Moving by Rail Now Than at Time of Mégantic Disaster


A Little Night Music

Guy Davis - Loneliest Road That I Know

Guy Davis w/Fabrizio Poggi - That's no way to get along

Guy Davis - Walk On

Guy Davis - Black Coffee

Guy Davis - Pay Day

Guy Davis - Did You See My Baby

Guy Davis - Matchbox Blues

Guy Davis - Statesboro Blues

Guy Davis - Rolling In My Sweet Baby's Arms


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mimi's picture

And this seems to be the final revolution”

as
"And this seems to be the 'final solution'".
Thinking that through though, that too might not be that far off either ...

Good Evening, I will now read your links. Couldn't help being scared of my own misreading.

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joe shikspack's picture

@mimi

well as long as the multitudes are passive, fat and happy and require no effort to control... what more could the ruling class want? (probably plenty)

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Azazello's picture

to start a war with Russia. Will NATO come to the rescue when Ukraine gets its ass kicked ? Our media is already calling the incident at Kerch Strait "Russian aggression".

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

mimi's picture

@Azazello @Azazello
what a thought. ...

Then the only question would be, who is the bigger idiot of the two, Russia or the US, and take Poroshenko to the wood shack.

I think the news media have an orgie and are all high on something. I don't want to have what they apparently are inhaling.

Jeez, now I have no stomach to read on.

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joe shikspack's picture

@Azazello

I'm wondering if Poroshenk has been given the green light

quite possibly. i'm sure that the powers that be enjoy seeing plucky little ukraine hectoring russia, much like a crow might hector a hawk.

Will NATO come to the rescue when Ukraine gets its ass kicked ?

good question. i suppose that it depends upon how cocky the masters of the universe are feeling that day.

Newly released documents concerning Radio Free Europe broadcasts during the 1956 Hungarian uprising against the Soviets confirm what many Hungarians remembered and others suspected: that commentators encouraged the Hungarians to battle on in the false understanding that they would receive reinforcements from the West. ...

The main item shedding new light on the broadcasts is an internal Radio Free Europe memorandum written by William Griffith, then a political adviser at the Munich-based station, a few weeks after the rebellion was crushed.

Mr. Griffith noted that a broadcast on Oct. 27, four days after the revolt began, ''fairly clearly implies that foreign aid will be forthcoming if the resistance forces succeed in establishing a 'central military command.' ''

A program on the following day, Mr. Griffith said, stated that ''Hungarians must continue to fight vigorously because this will have a great effect on the handling of the Hungarian question by the Security Council.'' Without saying so directly, the author of the broadcast, a Hungarian emigre, implied that the United Nations would give active support to Hungarians if they kept on fighting, Mr. Griffith said.

Many Hungarians still remember listening to the broadcasts, which many said gave tremendous hope -- false hope, it turned out -- that help was on the way.

On Nov. 4, for example, the day the Soviets suppressed the rebellion, a Radio Free Europe broadcaster, Zoltan Thury, told his listeners, ''In the Western capitals a practical manifestation of Western sympathy is expected at any hour.'' Mr. Griffith noted in his memo that Mr. Thury's broadcast constituted the ''most serious policy violation of all.''

The question of whether the broadcasts unduly incited the Hungarian fighters caused such a storm in Washington that Congressional hearings were held in 1957. Radio Free Europe was then exonerated.

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mimi's picture

Is It Easier to Imagine the End of the World Than the End of the Internet?

at least for me and for right now.

Well, I have to read it tomorrow. I am done for today.

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joe shikspack's picture

@mimi

perhaps if we changed the name from "internet" to "the communion of electronic souls..." Smile

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Raggedy Ann's picture

I'm still waiting for that proverbial straw that is going to break the back of the world. We seem to be on some sort of precipice - will we fall into darkness or will we rise up to the light? Will we do as Huxley professes and live happily in our servitude or will we snap to the reality that is at hand, at the right time?

Too much for me to think about today. Had a lovely holiday break now back to work for four weeks and I'll be off for two.

Have a beautiful evening, folks! Pleasantry

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"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

glad to hear that you had a great holiday and the next one is imminent. it's good to work in academia this time of year. Smile

heh, i suppose that it is darkly amusing to speculate on which turn of the great wheel of fortune might bring down our whole dark carnival of empire, perhaps without even providing lovely parting gifts.

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Raggedy Ann's picture

@joe shikspack
both in working in academia and down tge rabbit hole we go ~ where we land.....gasp!

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"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

and experienced the yellow vest protests.
The locals said it started with hikes in diesel prices, but other movements and grievances are sort of hitching on to that as an opportunity to gather en masse to address the many grievances of the 99%.
It stopped traffic on the many roundabouts. You only got through if you displayed a yellow vest.
I didn't meet anyone who disapproved.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

snoopydawg's picture

@on the cusp

The French people have been protesting against Macron's policies for over 6 months or longer. The people who worked for the trains were some of the first ones to walk out. Did Macron pull an Obama or did he run against someone worse? He's horrible for France.

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joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

He's horrible for France.

heh, macron is just horrible - a soulless, francophone obama.

i keep wondering if there's a secret robot factory where the neoliberals manufacture people like big dog clinton, obama and macron.

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snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack

I went looking for a secret robot factory ...

IMG_2840.JPG

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joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

i just knew that there must be one. Smile

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Bollox Ref's picture

@snoopydawg

He started off poorly, and has gone downhill ever since.

MacTwat.jpg

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

joe shikspack's picture

@on the cusp

i find the yellow vest movement to be one of the most interesting political events in a long time. it appears to be pretty much spontaneous, utterly unorganized and cut across all sorts of ideological lines.

occupy had a core of organization that this movement appears not to have. in that, it appears (at least on the information that i have available to me) that one could describe it as an incipient anarchist event. i am fascinated to see where this will go.

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@joe shikspack I think "glom on to this" is what is happening. Lots of solidarity among the tour guides and bus drivers and hotel staff. They are not allowed to talk politics, but if you can get them away from the crowds, they will cut loose.
Full disclosure: I am a smoker. The locals and I go away from the crowds, and we feel free to speak our minds.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Azazello's picture

@on the cusp
I find that smoking is a great way to meet and talk to people. We're pushed out to some "smoking area" so we're all social outcasts in the first place and there's solidarity in that, and then talk seems to come naturally. I've met a lot of people like that and learned a lot too.

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

@Azazello Wherever I travel in the world, I get real conversations with locals in the smoking area. Far away from the crowds, knowing we have a sin in common, so what the hell?
I pass around my expensive Benson and Hedges, and make fast friends!

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

joe shikspack's picture

@on the cusp

it's funny how the act of smoking tobacco creates a certain intimacy amongst smokers sharing a common ritual. i stopped smoking many decades ago, but i still step outside at parties to hang with folks who do.

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@joe shikspack and that you do not wear a mask and lecture and avoid those of us who haven't.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

joe shikspack's picture

@on the cusp

it was easy for me to stop. heck, i did it more than once. Smile

but seriously, when i was a smoker, there was nothing that anybody could have said to me to turn me into a non-smoker. that desire had to originate internally. so if somebody says that they want to stop and need help, i'll do what i can in the way of advice and support. but, i recognize that many people actually enjoy smoking and pestering them about the health benefits of quitting is generally not a good way to be kind to them.

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@joe shikspack My grandpa quit smoking every night! Easy peasy!

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

enhydra lutris's picture

@joe shikspack
Dany the Red?

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

joe shikspack's picture

@enhydra lutris

red is the new green?

heh, the interesting thing to me is that (at least from what i have been reading) there is no similar charismatic figure that has appeared in the recent uprising. perhaps one will emerge, or some union or political party will co-opt the movement, it's hard to say. surely they will try. this many people acting politically is too good a target for recruitment by political schemers to ignore.

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snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack

IMG_2842.JPG

Smile

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snoopydawg's picture

Not when it's easier to equip the police with almost everything that the military uses.

And steadily, all of the counterinsurgency tactics of these foreign wars have crept back home, Bernard Harcourt argues in a recent book. Called “The Counterrevolution: How Our Government Went to War Against Its Own Citizens” and it makes the argument that through NSA spying; Trump’s constant, daily distractions; and paramilitarized police forces or private security companies, the same counterinsurgency paradigm of warfare used against post-9/11 enemies has now come to U.S. soil as the effective governing strategy.

IMG_2838.JPG

How many of these guys have been trained by someone who was trained by Israel's military? They are taught not to see us as people who they are supposed to work for, but as insurgents who needs to be contained and controlled. Add in the fact that they know that they will probably get away with killing us as long as they say they are afraid for their lives. Or even if they don't say that. Then there's that little fact that if police won't do something the PTB can just hire mercenaries to do it.

The door for us to have done something about what has happened to us has been welded shut. Kettle of frogs we be.

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joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

well, the powers that be have certainly worked their way around the plain meaning of the posse comitatus act by remanufacturing the police as soldiers.

Too many police departments today are infused with a more general militaristic culture. Cops today are too often told that they're soldiers fighting a war, be it a war on crime, on drugs, on terrorism, or whatever other recent gremlin politicians have chosen as the enemy. Cops today tend to be isolated from the communities they serve, both physically (by their patrol cars) and psychologically, by an us and them mentality that sees the public not as citizens police officers are to serve and protect, but as a collection of potential threats.

given that the cops kill more than 3 americans a day on average, it appears that they are very much taking on the job of soldiers. a soldier's job is to kill enemies and break things. a "peace officer's" job used to be to keep the peace.

well, maybe.

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@joe shikspack Now, they scare me.
They consider that they are putting their life on the line all day, everyday, and are willing and ready to shoot anyone that keeps them from getting home at night. They brag about how brave they are for being a cop.
They are trained to be menacing and deadly.
None of them locally have gone beyond high school education lever. Some are former military.
My local sheriff trained in Israel on SWAT tactics.
We are a county of 23,000 people who haul logs and work the Oil Patch.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

joe shikspack's picture

@on the cusp

i've always felt that the more unpleasant cops that i've run across are living in a fantasy world enabled by the owners (as in the george carlin usage) creation of a dog-eat-dog society.

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ggersh's picture

@joe shikspack is no longer on police cars
the people no longer matter, it's
all about "deserving to coming home safe"

A Chicago cop just got killed in the
"Mercy hospital shooting" he's a hero
god's greatest man ever and the Cardinal
did his service where he was lionized to
the degree McCain was, the others killed meh.

The police have become one with tptb

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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

used CRISPR technology to edit the genomes of 11 in-vitro fertilized human eggs, then implanted them in their mothers, and two of them successfully grew into little babies that were born apparently healthy.

with the emphasis on "apparently". this was a phenomenally unethical and ill-advised experiment in human reproduction. he has created the first "knockout strains" of homo sapiens. the gene he knocked out is responsible for letting HIV into cells. the motivation was that the fathers in the experiment were all HIV positive, while the mothers were HIV negative.

the problem is, neither he nor anyone else has any idea how important that gene might be with respect to other functions of human physiology -- though the current research consensus is that the gene is important in protecting us from other viruses. what kind of other viruses? oh, just really really rare ones, like, you know, influenza.

this is absolutely horrifying.

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

joe shikspack's picture

@UntimelyRippd

this is absolutely horrifying.

i wonder what unknown clowns are doing that they have chosen not to publish. well, perhaps i don't want to know.

in many ways humans are horrifying creatures.

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@UntimelyRippd really deserve any better? As individuals, maybe. But as a species? I think not. I keep thinking we did this to ourselves and the planet and we're supposed to work for a second chance-at what?!? Finishing off this blue ball?
400 Nuclear power plants within 3meters of sea level-FOUR HUNDRED? Fukushima on steroids for the Win!
Guess I just ain't feeling the Love.
fuck

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

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

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

Seems like the US MIC might be getting some competition from the European MIC. Where are all the new customers going to come from? We're going to need some more war. Maybe there'll be a global trade war on war.

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Beware the bullshit factories.

joe shikspack's picture

@Timmethy2.0

heh, perhaps some enterprising munitions firm will soon realize that the future is in cockroach-usable weaponry.

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@joe shikspack n/f

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

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

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

@joe shikspack

perhaps some enterprising munitions firm will soon realize that the future is in cockroach-usable weaponry.

It would be even more disturbing if the cockroach devices became toys on the consumer market just like the drones did.

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Beware the bullshit factories.

joe shikspack's picture

@Timmethy2.0

well, i was thinking of the paradox of the munitions market - the better the product they make (where better = more lethal) the smaller the market for it becomes with use (which the mic also encourages). so far, humans have managed to reproduce faster than the mic has arranged for their slaughter, but with improved products and greater encouragement eventually the human market for weapons will be zero. that's where the cockroaches come in ...

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dystopian's picture

great Guy Davis - I really only learned any slide in 'open E', and it was so hard to get the damn 12 strings into standard tuning, I wasn't about to go back and forth. Long before today's mindless tuners. Which have done to folks knowing how to tune what calculators did for basic math skills.

How the MSM has treated and covered the Assange situation should tell everyone everything they need to know about them. Great Hedges/Lauria piece. I see a few outlets saying something about freedom of the press the last few days.

Seems today's militarized police aren't even "us and them" more like "us AGAINST them".

A price war on war tools and equipment does seem somewhat overdue? Almost Christmas?

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

joe shikspack's picture

@dystopian

heh, when i was a kid, somebody gave me an ill-tempered 12 string guitar that they got from a five and dime. it was impossible to tune when i got it, so i just played it in random tunings that sounded ok. after a while i got a decent guitar and the 12 string became a part of somebody's sculpture project, which was undoubtedly its greatest contribution to the furtherance of the arts. Smile

i've always sort of wanted another (decent) 12 string because i love the sound, but memories of stringing that thing and attempting to tune it (a feat that i can accomplish with some aplomb on a 6 string) put me off of it.

heh, i don't follow the msm enough to know what they are saying about assange. i would assume that if they say anything, it probably won't be a good thing.

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dystopian's picture

@joe shikspack mostly the MSM has blacked assange out, as if he were Bernie in '16. Just the last week I have seen the Boston Globe, Al Jazeera, the Hill, and other sources that had been silent all chiming in on what a BAD idea prosecuting Julian is. As did the NYT attorney. So some are speaking up, too little too late.

Now with these new tuners a 12 has to be easy to tune. Its visual, you just dial it in. I imagine there is a way to change the octave on good ones to get the second set of strings. I had a Yamaha 12 I loved. Stolen. Great wonderful sound that other octave adds for very little work. I don't have a tuner though, just took a couple decades to get it right... slow learner here. But changing the strings sucks on a 12. Smile

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein