The Evening Blues - 2-26-20



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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Garnet Mimms

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features r&b singer Garnet Mimms. Enjoy!

Garnet Mimms & The Enchanters - Cry Baby

"Our contest is not only whether we ourselves shall be free, but whether there shall be left to mankind an asylum on earth for civil and religious liberty."

-- Samuel Adams


News and Opinion

Family Separations at the Border Constitute Torture, New Report Claims

The separation of families by U.S. immigration officials at the U.S.-Mexico border amounts to torture, according to a group of medical and human rights experts that performed psychological evaluations of asylum-seekers. Their report for Physicians for Human Rights, a U.S.-based nonprofit that investigates human rights violations around the world, found that the policy of family separation — which officially ended in the summer of 2018 continues today — “constitutes cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.” In other words: torture.

As far as we know, as of last December, over 5,500 children had been forcibly separated from their parents under a policy first implemented in 2017 and drastically expanded in 2018 as part of the Trump administration’s so-called zero tolerance crackdown on the border. In their investigation, “You Will Never See Your Child Again: The Persistent Psychological Effects of Family Separation,” PHR evaluated 17 adults and nine children from Central America who had been separated between 60 and 69 days. All of the parents reported already having suffered trauma in their home countries, and feared that their children would be harmed or killed if they remained or returned. And so, in search of protection, they fled.

Instead of finding safety or refuge in the United States, however, they were met with new abuses, and further trauma. Children were “forcibly removed from [parents’] arms” or simply “disappeared” while their parents were taken to court. Some of the parents were then taunted and mocked by U.S. immigration officials when they asked after their children. The subsequent shock, terror, and grief was not only expected, but intentional — designed to push parents into giving up their asylum cases.

“U.S. officials intentionally carried out actions,” the report explains, “causing severe pain and suffering, in order to punish, coerce, and intimidate Central American asylum seekers to give up their asylum claims.” That intentionality is a key factor that the report leans on to make the argument that the abuse meets the legal standard for torture.

Supreme court blocks Mexican family's legal bid over teen killed by border agent

The US supreme court has refused to open the door for foreign nationals to pursue civil rights cases in American courts, declining to revive a lawsuit by a slain Mexican teenager’s family against the US border agent who shot him from across the border in Texas.

The court ruled 5-4 to uphold a lower court’s dismissal of the lawsuit against the agent, Jesus Mesa, who shot 15-year-old Sergio Adrián Hernández Guereca in the face in the 2010 incident.

The family sued in federal court seeking monetary damages, accusing Mesa of violating the US constitution’s fourth amendment ban on unjustified deadly force and the fifth amendment right to due process. The court, with the five conservative justices in the majority, refused to allow people who are not in the United States at the time of a cross-border incident to file civil rights lawsuits in federal court.

Julian Assange Was Strip-Searched Twice After the First Day of His Extradition Hearing

Julian Assange was stripped naked, searched, and repeatedly handcuffed once he was returned to prison at the end of the first day of his high-profile extradition trial, according to his legal team.

The allegation was made by Edward Fitzgerald, a lawyer on Assange’s defense team, during the second day of the extradition hearing in London. Fitzgerald pleaded with the judge to intervene as “his treatment will impinge on these proceedings and his preparations to be able to participate.”

“Yesterday Mr. Assange was handcuffed 11 times, he was stripped naked two times at Belmarsh, and was put in five separate holding cells," Fitzgerald said in court this morning, the London Evening Standard reported.

As well as being strip-searched and handcuffed repeatedly after the hearing had adjourned for the day, Fitzgerald said Assange had his case files, which the Wikileaks founder was reading in court on Monday, confiscated by guards when he returned to prison later that night.

Judge Vanessa Baraitser said she did not have the legal power to rule on Assange’s conditions, and she encouraged the defense team to formally raise the matter with the prison authorities.

WikiLeaks password 'leaked by journalists'

Thousands of classified US diplomatic files obtained by WikiLeaks were only made public after the password to unlock the trove was published in a book, Julian Assange's lawyer says. Mark Summers has told Assange's extradition hearing British journalists David Leigh and Luke Harding published the password in their book WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy in 2011.

"Far from being a reckless, unredacted release ... what actually occurred is that one of the media partners published a book in February 2011, the password to the unredacted materials in a book, which then allowed the world to publish those unredacted materials," Summers said at London's Woolwich Crown Court on Tuesday.

"The gates got opened, not by Mr Assange or WikiLeaks." ...

The US government says the release of the files was reckless and that Assange knowingly put the lives of sources at risk. But Summers said WikiLeaks had initially been very cautious about releasing the files and reached out to newspapers including The Guardian, Der Speigel, Le Monde, El Pais and the New York Times. He said they worked out a process of redaction together and the media partners had even run the redactions by representatives of the US government and the US State Department.

WikiLeaks repeatedly tried to warn the US State Department and the US embassy about a possibly impending leak, Summers said.

New Data Shows the U.S. Military Is Severely Undercounting Civilian Casualties in Somalia

During the first six months of 2019 alone, U.S. Africa Command tracked seven reports of American and allied attacks in Somalia that allegedly killed or wounded at least 18 civilians, according to internal AFRICOM documents obtained by The Intercept. But the U.S. does not acknowledge killing or wounding a single civilian in Somalia last year, according to AFRICOM spokesperson John Manley.

In fact, AFRICOM contends that hundreds of airstrikes and commando missions over more than a decade – aimed at members of the terrorist groups al-Shabab and the Islamic State – have caused only two civilian casualties in Somalia: a woman and a child killed in an airstrike near the central Somali town of El Buur on April 1, 2018.

New data released Tuesday by Airwars, a U.K.-based airstrike monitoring group, offers a stark rebuke to AFRICOM’s claims. The group contends that the number of civilian deaths may be as much as 6,800 percent greater than the command asserts. ...

Using official AFRICOM statements, local and international news reports, photos, videos, social media posts, and other open-source information, as well as internal military documents obtained by journalists (including myself) via the Freedom of Information Act, Airwars has created an immersive, multimedia website that incorporates mapping, geolocation, interactive timelines, and a searchable database for every known U.S. air and ground action in Somalia since 2007. The result is nothing less than a redefinition of the scope and contours of America’s long-running, undeclared war in the Horn of Africa.

Airwars places the number of avowed U.S. attacks — airstrikes and ground raids since 2007 — at 204, a 40 percent increase over an earlier estimate by the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism, whose data Airwars took over and refined before launching the new site. Add alleged kinetic actions that the U.S. military hasn’t confirmed, and the number jumps to 280.

Hindu Nationalist Mobs in India Are Hunting and Beating Muslims

As President Donald Trump praised India’s Hindu nationalist leaders for their work on religious freedom in New Delhi Tuesday, hardline supporters of the government were rampaging through the city hunting Muslims.

Mobs tore through Muslim-majority neighbourhoods in north-east New Delhi, attacking individuals, burning homes, businesses, and places of worship, and targeting victims on religious lines. Officials reported that the death toll since Monday had reached 11 — the deadliest violence in the Indian capital in decades. More than 150 people were injured, including a journalist for the JK24 news channel who was in a serious condition after being shot, according to reports.

Footage of the shocking violence circulated on social media, showing assaults, burning buildings, and heavily bleeding men being dragged through the streets.

Hosni Mubarak 1928 – 2020: "His legacy is a brutal security and military state"

Hosni Mubarak buried with full military honours

Former Egyptian autocrat Hosni Mubarak has been buried in Cairo with a full military funeral, following his death aged 91.

Mubarak’s body was transported from a mosque on the outskirts of the Egyptian capital to the family cemetery on Wednesday amid tight security. His coffin was pulled by horse-drawn carriages alongside a procession led by his sons Gamal and Alaa Mubarak and the current president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, flanked by military top brass and leading religious figures. ...

Mubarak’s 30-year rule was the longest presidency in Egypt’s history, and until his overthrow in 2011 he was the only ruler that many young Egyptians had ever known. Rising through the ranks of the military, he came to power following the assassination of Anwar Sadat in 1981 and maintained his grip on office through a crackdown on political opposition, routinely running for re-election unopposed and stifling free speech.

His rule appeared unshakeable for many Egyptians, despite the contrast between growing poverty and corruption at home and images of Mubarak enjoying a luxurious lifestyle in his many palaces and villas. The former president courted international powers, receiving annual donations of American military aid as a reward for maintaining a “cold peace” with Israel, and winning tacit acceptance from western leaders, who saw him as a driver of regional peace and stability.

Mubarak’s overthrow in 2011 was a political earthquake for Egypt and the wider Middle East, part of a wave of Arab tyrants swept from power by popular protests against corruption and repression.

Starbucks worker says he was fired for union organizing and 'to create fear'

Gabriel Ocasio Mejias worked as a barista at Starbucks in Orlando international airport for two years before he was fired on 18 February, shortly after he emerged as one of the leading organizers to unionize his co-workers with labor union Unite Here.

“I was fired three hours after another union organizer was fired,” Mejias told the Guardian. “They took me to the back of the food court, in a dimly lit area, and a manager fired me over a third write-up for drinking water. That was their way to get rid of me, for drinking water, because they know I was one of the strongest organizers. They targeted me specifically to create fear for my co-workers of joining the union.” ...

Mejias’s comments come as a new report from Unite Here found significant issues for some Starbucks workers employed by HMS Host, an airport and highway food service company that has maintained exclusive rights to operate Starbucks stores in airports throughout North America until earlier this month, when both companies announced the exclusivity deal would end.

The Unite Here report found that pay for black Starbucks workers was $1.85 less than white Starbucks workers, based on data taken from HMS Host locations between February and December 2019.

CORONAVIRUS: What you need to know

Coronavirus could cause 'severe disruption' in America, CDC says

The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has warned that the coronavirus outbreak could cause “severe disruption” to the lives of ordinary Americans, and urged families and communities to start making preparations. The extent of the spread of the virus in the US is uncertain, as the CDC stopped the distribution of coronavirus testing kits after they were found to be flawed. Working testing kits are now available in only a handful of states, and it is not clear when new kits will be ready.

Donald Trump told journalists in India on Tuesday that coronavirus is “very well under control in our country” and “is going to go away”.

However, the head of immunization at the CDC, Nancy Messonnier, said that disruption to everyday life may be severe as the virus spreads among local communities. ... “Ultimately, we expect we will see community spread in this country. It’s not so much a question of if this will happen any more, but rather more exactly when this will happen, and how many people in this country will have severe illness.”

In the absence of a vaccine or medicines, other methods would be needed to contain the spread of the disease, including possible school closures, and telecommuting where possible instead of travelling to workplaces.




the horse race



“The Billionaire Election”: Anand Giridharadas on How 2020 Is a Referendum on Wealth Inequality

Krystal and Saagar: Who won and lost last night's debate

Bernie Sanders faces onslaught from rivals in South Carolina debate

Democratic candidates rounded on Bernie Sanders at the crucial 10th primary debate in South Carolina on Tuesday night, seeking to slow his momentum as the current frontrunner in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. The Vermont senator, who cruised to victory in the Nevada caucuses last weekend and holds a firm lead from the first three early voting states, faced fire from rivals looking to halt his rise in the race to become the Democratic candidate to take on Donald Trump in November’s election.

Former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg used his first answer to criticize Sanders over recent reports that Russia is interfering in the 2020 election to help his campaign. Trying to recover from his disastrous first debate performance last week, Bloomberg said Russia’s efforts showed Sanders is the weakest candidate Democrats could put up against Trump. ...

Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren, a fellow progressive, also took aim at Sanders, saying the pair agree on a lot of things, but that she’d be a “better president”. ...

The candidates on stage – who also included former vice-president Joe Biden, Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar, former mayor Pete Buttigieg, and billionaire hedge fund manager Tom Steyer – frequently bickered and talked over each other as they tried to make their mark days ahead of the South Carolina primary on Saturday, and Super Tuesday on 3 March, when 16 states and territories will have their say.

Bernie Sanders Gains Support in South Carolina as Billionaire Tom Steyer Draws Votes from Joe Biden


Reporter: Billionaire Bloomberg Says He Released His Tax Returns as NYC Mayor. This Was a Lie.


Hmmm... Bernie is making some gains in the late-night comedian market:

Bernie Sanders’ Rise Prompts Media Meltdown, Establishment Panic: A Closer Look

Chris Matthews Called Out By MSNBC Guest On Air!

NYT’s Look at Democratic Tax Plans Is an Orgy of Really Big Numbers

I have often gone after the media on printing large numbers that are meaningless to almost all their readers. The point is that when you throw out numbers in the millions, billions and trillions, very few readers have any idea what these numbers mean. It is possible to make them meaningful by simply adding some context, such as expressing them relative to the size of the economy or as a per-person amount.

I actually got Margaret Sullivan, then the New York Times public editor, to completely agree with me on this point. In her column, she also enlisted the enthusiastic agreement of then Washington editor David Leonhardt. But then nothing changed.

We see the fruits of this failure in a New York Times article (2/22/20) that compares the tax and spending plans of the leading Democratic contenders. It gives a true orgy of really big numbers, in the form of trillions of dollars of additional taxes and spending, providing readers with no context that would let them know how much impact these taxes are likely to have on the economy and/or their pocketbooks.

We are told that:

Even Mr. Bloomberg, a billionaire himself, would raise taxes on the rich and corporations by an estimated $5 trillion, which is about 50% more than Mr. Biden would.

A bit later we get:

Mr. Sanders’ policy agenda is by far the most expensive of the leading candidates, though estimates vary. The cost of his policy plans on just a handful of topics — healthcare, higher education, housing and climate change—could exceed $50 trillion over ten years. By contrast, the federal government is currently projected to spend roughly $60 trillion over the next decade. [Total federal spending is some context.]
…In addition to a Medicare for All program that would require an estimated $20.5 trillion in new federal spending over ten years, Ms. Warren’s proposals include a sweeping set of new programs addressing areas like Social Security, climate change, higher education, K–12 schools and housing. Taken together, those proposals and her Medicare for All plan have an estimated 10-year price tag of more than $30 trillion.

Since most readers probably don’t have a very good idea of how much money $30 trillion would be over the next decade, a useful starting point might be the projected size of the economy. The Congressional Budget Office puts GDP over this ten-year period at roughly $280 trillion. That means $30 trillion in additional taxes and spending would be a bit less than 11% of projected GDP. Mr. Bloomberg’s projected $5 trillion in taxes would by roughly 1.8% of projected GDP.

To get a bit more context, the tax take projected for 2020 is 16.4% of GDP. By contrast in the late 1990s boom, tax revenue was over 19% of GDP, peaking at 20% in 2000. This means that Bloomberg’s proposed increase in taxes would still leave us with revenues that are far smaller as a share of GDP than what we paid in the late 1990s.

The proposals from Warren and Sanders would raise above the late 1990s level, but perhaps by less than the really big numbers in this piece might lead readers to believe. If we increased taxes by 11% of GDP, it would raise them to a bit more than 27% of GDP, roughly 7 percentage points about the 2000 peak.

The Sanders proposals would imply an increase in taxes of roughly 18 percentage points of GDP, putting us at a bit over 34% of GDP. That is considerably more than the 2000 peak, but still much lower than in most other wealthy countries. (To get a full comparison, we have to add in state and local taxes. This is difficult to do, since many of Sanders’ proposed federal expenditures [e.g. Medicare for All] would in part replace spending currently being undertaken by state and local governments.)

These proposals can certainly be discussed in considerably more detail, but a piece like this could at least try to put the numbers in some context that would make them meaningful to readers, rather than just tossing around “trillions” like it is some sort of mantra. The reality is that the Biden/Bloomberg proposals are not terribly big deals in terms of the budget and what we have done historically. Clearly the Warren and Sanders proposals are more ambitious. Readers can decide whether they think the potential benefits are worth the cost; taking a few minutes to add a little context would give readers an idea of what is at stake.

Krystal Ball: Did the DNC rig the debate audience?

Progressives Warn Democratic Establishment Against Brokered Convention Shenanigans

Sen. Bernie Sanders at a CNN town hall event Monday night reiterated his belief that the candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination with the the most delegates should be the party's standard bearer in the general election, a view shared by progressives who worry establishment leaders could use a brokered convention to find a more conservative nominee.

"If I or anybody else goes into the Democratic convention with a substantial plurality, I believe that individual, me or anybody else, should be the candidate of the Democratic Party," said Sanders.


The chance that no candidate enters the Milwaukee convention, set for July 13–16, 2020, without a majority of delegates remains high. Eight Democrats are still vying for the nomination: Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), former Vice President Joe. Biden, former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, and billionaire Tom Steyer.

With South Carolina casting ballots February 29 and 14 states voting in the Super Tuesday contests on March 3, it's likely the field will shrink in the coming weeks.

Sanders has a delegate lead after winning contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada and is the first candidate in a contested primary to ever win the popular vote in the first three states to vote. But that lead, thus far, has not translated into a clear majority, despite February 22's overwhelming victory in the Nevada caucuses. A strong showing across the country and in big states like California and Texas on March 3 could bolster his convincing lead while not delivering a technical majority. ...

In Jacobin on February 21, Sam Lewis and Beth Huang made the case for progressives to use grassroots organizing to pressure party insiders to do the right thing:

Sanders supporters should be preparing now for mass mobilizations to demand that superdelegates respect the will of the voters, and should articulate an explicit strategy to remove those who don't concede to that demand. We can have the most impact by keeping our focus on the slight majority of superdelegates who are national, state, or local elected officials who the Sanders base can hold accountable through primary elections, and the dozens who are labor leaders elected by their own members to represent their interests.

Both Bloomberg and Warren surrogates have made little secret about their candidates' path to the nomination going through a brokered convention.



the evening greens


Even 'Worst Fossil Fuel Banker' JPMorgan Chase Will No Longer Fund This Way of Destroying the Planet

Faced with mounting public pressure to take the climate crisis seriously and to end its financing for the fossil fuel industry, the investment bank JPMorgan Chase announced Monday that it will stop backing extraction projects in the Arctic and phase out loans for coal by 2024 but keep funding oil and gas developments across the globe.

"Activism works, what do you know," author and activist Naomi Klein tweeted in response to the news late Monday. "So much more to do but this is something."

JPMorgan is not only the largest bank in the United States, it is also the biggest funder of fossil fuels, according to the latest annual report from Rainforest Action Network (RAN), which revealed last March that the bank poured nearly $196 billion into coal, oil, and gas companies since world leaders adopted the Paris climate agreement in December 2015.

"In the context of the climate emergency, the biggest fossil bank in the world—by a 29% margin—has a unique responsibility to phase out its climate impact," RAN climate and energy senior campaigner Jason Opeña Disterhoft said in a statement Monday. "Today's policy does not meet that responsibility."

"That said, the measures that JPMorgan Chase took today are steps forward," he added. "For the world's biggest banker of Arctic oil and gas to stop funding new fossil fuel projects in the region adds to the growing signal that the Arctic is a no-go zone for fossil expansion. These measures are a continued credit to the power of the advocacy by the Gwich'in Steering Committee and their allies, who have been organizing for years to defend the Arctic Refuge from fossil fuel development. And Wall Street's biggest coal mining banker setting an aggressive exit date on some major miners will accelerate coal becoming unbankable."

Costa Rican indigenous land activist killed by armed mob

A Costa Rican indigenous defender has been killed by an armed mob while trying to reclaim ancestral land – the latest in a spate of violence targeting native communities in Central America’s safest country. Yehry Rivera, 45, from the Brörán community in Térraba, was shot dead around 11pm on Monday after being surrounded by a group of angry locals armed with sticks, machetes, stones and at least one gun.

The attack took place amid mounting tensions in Térraba, where human rights groups had warned authorities in recent days about non-indigenous groups violently confronting Brörán families reclaiming ancestral land. ... The killing comes just two weeks after Mainor Ortiz Delgado, 29, a leader of the Bribri indigenous people in neighbouring Salitre, was wounded in a gun attack, and less than a year since Sergio Rojas Ortiz, 59, was shot dead. Both cases remain unsolved. ...

Bribri and Brörán people have been subject to a string of violent attacks, racist harassment and trumped-up retaliatory lawsuits with almost total impunity. In 2013 Rivera survived a brutal beating while trying to stop illegal loggers. The alleged perpetrator was set free after being ordered not to return to Térraba for six months. As a result, in 2015 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights issued precautionary measures, calling on Costa Rican authorities to protect the lives and physical integrity of the Bribri and Brörán people. Rivera, Delgado and Ortiz were ostensibly recipients of these safety measures when attacked.

Amid growing international condemnation about the impunity, the government has pledged to investigate the growing list of crimes but denies responsibility for the spate of violence.


Also of Interest

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

Intercepted podcast - We Are Not Your Firewall: Nina Turner and Briahna Joy Gray on South Carolina and the Attacks They Endure

ASSANGE EXTRADITION: Your Man in Public Gallery – Day No. 1

ASSANGE EXTRADITION: Assange Helped Manning Crack Password to Download Video Games, Not State Secrets, Court is Told

As Assange’s trial begins, his lawyers highlight risk of extradition with CIA spying operation’s ‘extreme measures’

Wall Street Banks, Insurers Sell Off — Dangerously Linked by Derivative Trades

Russia Isn’t Dividing Us — Our Leaders Are

'String of Intentional Outright Lies': Bloomberg Campaign Deletes Tweets Containing Fake Quotes of Sanders Praising Despotism

When Two Judges Knocked Down Sentences to Protect Immigrants From Deportation, Amy Klobuchar’s Office Appealed and Won

A 'brokered convention' designed to block Bernie Sanders would be a poison pill

'How Does Bernie Pay for His Major Plans?': Sanders Campaign Releases Detailed Answer

Michael Hudson: The Democrats’ Quandary – In a Struggle Between Oligarchy and Democracy, Something Must Give

Jimmy Dore: Warren Uses Sexist Stereotype To Appeal To Women

Jimmy Dore: Bloomberg’s Racism, Sexism, & His LOVE For Trump!

Jimmy Dore: Bernie Calls For Iowa Recount

Jimmy Dore: Chris Matthews Asked To Resign Over Bernie Bashing

Jimmy Dore: Unhinged Clinton Adviser’s Stunning Red-Baiting Of Bernie

Saagar Enjeti: CBS's debate from hell

Ryan Grim on donors 'primal scream', Bernie takes on AIPAC

Rising: Pete Buttigieg surrogate Jennifer Holdsworth sets expectations for South Carolina

Cenk Uygur: South Carolina predictions and MSNBC's turning point?

Democratic Strategist: if Bernie wins South Carolina it's over

Rising: Did Bernie win debate by default?

Rising: Who should drop out now?

Rising: Nancy Pelosi signals comfort with Sanders nomination


A Little Night Music

Garnet Mimms - As Long As I Have You

Garnet Mimms - There Goes My Baby

Garnet Mimms - Prove It To Me

Garnet Mimms - A Little Bit Of Soap

Garnet Mimms & The Enchanters - Baby Don’t You Weep

Garnet Mimms & The Enchanters - For Your Precious Love

Garnet Mimms - Looking For You

Garnet Mimms - The Truth Hurts

Garnet Mimms & The Enchanters - A Quiet Place

Garnet Mimms - That Goes To Show You

Garnet Mimms - Nobody But You


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Comments

price 'em out

Unusually loud booing and jeering directed disproportionately at Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren during Tuesday night's Democratic presidential debate—particularly when the senators criticized billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg—sparked probing questions about the class composition of the audience packed inside the Gaillard Center in Charleston, South Carolina.

Journalists and other observers pointed to local reporting from Feb. 6 on the Charleston County Democratic Party's offer of a $1,750 to $3,200 sponsorship package that included tickets to the Charleston debate and other events.

"Most working people that I know don't spend $1,700 to get a ticket to a debate."
—Sen. Bernie Sanders

"This is something that the average person doesn't usually get to go to," Colleen Condon, chair of the Charleston County Democratic Party, told local television news station WCSC-TV.

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14 users have voted.

@gjohnsit

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6 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@gjohnsit

heh, perhaps next debate sanders can borrow one of john lennon's best lines:

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6 users have voted.
WoodsDweller's picture

Good evening, everyone. Dropped off my ballot today, voted for an old Jewish guy from Brooklyn by way of Vermont. Each of us needs to vote like our vote is the deciding one, that means it's decided!

Ran across this little ditty yesterday.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqWj72-TknQ&list=PLkPR1DRJjO8S81rWpMpPx8...

Not sure what the point is of wearing rings the size of kiwi fruit, but otherwise a nice song.

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14 users have voted.

"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone

joe shikspack's picture

@WoodsDweller

glad you get a chance to make your voice heard at the front end of the process. it always seems like my state doesn't vote until after it's all over but the shouting.

thanks for the tune, have a good one!

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6 users have voted.
Azazello's picture

I got some stuff tonight.
AMLO and public banking in Mexico: Mexico’s AMLO Shows How It’s Done
Yasha Levine: CNN features fascist-adjacent activist as expert on Russian disinfo
Kim Iversen on RT:
DNC distract with new Russian meddling claims
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-9LjvUIkeE width:500 height:300]
Lastly, tennis player Maria Sharapova is retiring. It's always bugged me that everybody in the media mispronounces her name. In Russian, surnames are gendered. Maria's dad was named Sharapov (sha-RAH-pov). The female version of that surname is Sharapova. That's sha-RAH-po-vah, not sha-rah-PO-vah. Here's a old clip from Russian TV so you can hear it pronounced correctly:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZTshuevzWE width:400 height:240]
Later

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15 users have voted.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@Azazello

thanks for the links! i'm glad to hear that amlo is implementing public banking in mexico and starting to break the grip of oligarchy there. it's kind of creepy how the ukranian fascists have managed to tunnel into a variety of western institutions at the same time their thugs are training thug-wannabes from countries all over the world.

have a great evening!

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5 users have voted.

Klobocop is a gift that keeps on giving. Beneath the nice smile & flowery rhetoric about "moderation" and "civility" & all that, evil intentions lurk. True for all other "moderates" - Billary Clintons, Obomba, Klobocop, Kamalacop, Bloomocop, Pete McKinsey Macron, Joe ByeDone etc etc.

I may not be getting my wish after all :-(.Klobocop is leading in MN by 6% pts or so over Bernie. Not much polling but this one poll of ~500 voters (with MoE ~ 4% IIRC). Still lots of undecided voters. We'll see...

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joe shikspack's picture

@Funkygal

well, klobocop looks to get klobo-clobbered into irrelevance in pretty much every other state, so in the larger picture it probably doesn't matter if she is klobocharged in minnesota.

on the other hand, i think that it is probably a matter of turnout. if the turnout of young people and minorities is up, klobochar will probably be toast.

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7 users have voted.

@joe shikspack Agree on the big picture Joe. But the reason for my obsession is her barely liberal policies. Here in MN she resorts to provincialism ("Minnesota, Minnesota, oh my Minnesota") to appeal to Repubs besides her corporate policies. She embraced cutting deficits to show her bipartisanshit cred. Maddow used to do puff pieces on how Klobocop wont sponsor bills without a Repub co--sponsor. And then her lovefest with McCain-Graham.That's why I would love to see her smacked by Sanders(or even Warren). Although, even if she wins, she wont get a landslide like in Senate race so some consolation. She will get her 2 moments in limelight on Tuesday I suppose.

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5 users have voted.

in other news...

Approximately 120 Years Too Late, US House Passes Law to Make Lynching a Federal Crime

who says congress is impotent?

and

swamp_monster.png

thought alligator ed would appreciate this one

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joe shikspack's picture

@QMS

heh, maybe in another couple of centuries, congressworms will seriously consider reparations for slavery. Smile

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4 users have voted.

@QMS The Creature from the Black Lagoon didn’t live in the swamp.

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3 users have voted.

Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

by Al Sharpton. But he gives some valuable history lesson against red-baiting.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/26/we-are-not-stupid-rev-al-sharpton-says-black-voters-wont-be-fooled-red-baiting

Glad Sharpton hasn't been bitten by the MSDNC bug.

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10 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@Funkygal

i don't think that it's an official endorsement, however, it is a marker that sharpton is laying down. he's probably going to hold off on an official endorsement until the nomination is in the bag for sanders.

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4 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

Julian's dad on how the trial has been rigged ahead of time.

The guardian's Luke Harding should be sweating right now because he posted some of the Wikileaks files without refracting the names in his reports. The judge is so obviously against giving him a fair trial it should be easy to appeal. Unless every judge in Britain has sold out.

Bernie will be in Salt Lake Monday. It's an outdoor venue so I'm thinking about going. Someone showed the line to get in one of his today and it's crazy long.

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13 users have voted.

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

it's kind of interesting how little the powers-that-be seem to care how obvious their disdain for justice is. one wonders why they are even going through the motions.

heh, i doubt that luke harding has any reason to sweat. he very obviously works for the deep state.

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4 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack

if this judge rules against Assange? There has to be an appeals process if this judge rules like it looks like she will. She has been denying him so many blatant things that it's a given that Wikileaks will appeal. And anyone still thinks that they have a doomsday file?

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4 users have voted.

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

here's what i think i know ...

depending on the outcome of this round, either side can appeal it. then a further appeal could be made to the uk supreme court. then at the end of the judicial actions, if extradition is allowed, the uk home secretary has to approve it.

could be years yet.

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5 users have voted.
mimi's picture

I think her answers not only tell the truth, but also show that she in no way (as some have suggested some time ago even here) using her military career as a Major in the Hawaiian National Guard and her Combat Veteran status to promote her "hero-Veteran-status" for political gains or purposes. Quite the opposite.

She deserves a lot of respect for her character. I hope Sanders is giving her the consideration she deserves in return one day in the future.

If not, he is toast in my books. She was a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee from 2013 to 2016, when she resigned to endorse Senator Bernie Sanders for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination.. She sacrificed something for Sanders, I hope Sanders responds in similar honorable ways to her in return. I think it is not often that a politician argues against military interventionism and against pre-emptitve foreign wars on the basis of their own military role in those wars.

[video:https://youtu.be/7RRdVKmHKfc]

Ohh, what a f*'k, They pulled the video?. Or can you see it?. For me it was visible when I started writing the comment and now it is not anymore available for me to see. It was from the 24th. She spoke on "The View". But you can see it on you tube.

Tulsi Gabbard Educates Ignorant Women Of The View
225 Aufrufe
•24.02.2020
Can you see that?

ok, Gute Nacht Marie, I am miffed and go to sleep.
Thanks for the EB. Good Night.

I think you should watch the whole video. Tulsi is great. Jimmy Dore deserves our thank covering the View's videos and his fury about the View's Madames is more than understandable. Megan McCain serve in a war on the ground and then come back crying about your own idiocy you present on TV.

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9 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@mimi

i can't see the embed, but i can follow the link and watch it on youtube. thanks!

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5 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

have a good one.

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3 users have voted.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@enhydra lutris

have a great evening!

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4 users have voted.
Raggedy Ann's picture

Brrrrr - it's cold out there. A cold front moved in yesterday and today - it should warm back up to the high 50's low 60's tomorrow. But rain might be on the horizon. We are getting quite a bit and it's winter! Better than snow, actually.

My son was in your neck of the woods, driving from Florida back to Boston. Went through VA today, drove through DC and called me to tell me how awful it was, lol. Anyway, he's somewhere in Jersey tonight and home tomorrow.

Enjoy the evening, everyone! Pleasantry

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6 users have voted.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@Raggedy Ann

it's been kind of moderately warm here for a few days now and looks to stay that way for a bit. the daffodils are nice and green and about 9-10" tall, they might bloom soon. perhaps they know more than the weatherman. Smile

my sympathies to your son for having to drive in the virginia - d.c. area. the traffic is terrible and some of the worst drivers on earth have virginia plates and cruise around the d.c. beltway terrorizing other drivers.

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4 users have voted.
Raggedy Ann's picture

@joe shikspack
I might have been terrorized while he drove through! Shok

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2 users have voted.

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

smiley7's picture

convention: the numbers suggest, if the momentum continues on it's present trend, Bennie may top 50%, a little. But, a long shot if Warren does not drop out after super day and get behind her mentor.

Having splendid conversations with little charlie, feel like Steinbeck in my room. Smile

Thanks for the news and blues and enjoy.

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4 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@smiley7

heh, i really don't have a feel for how bernie's numbers are going to go just yet. i think that i'll be more ready to prognosticate after super tuesday. if bernie kills it on super tuesday, uniformly delivering with the kind of margins he had in nevada, i think that even if he fails to get over 50%, it is going to be hard for the party to rob him. however, if his performance is spotty, up in a few states and down in some others, the dnc might just go for it.

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4 users have voted.
smiley7's picture

@joe shikspack

the absolute steam-roller Bernie could be by July if warren would just ...

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3 users have voted.
GreatLakeSailor's picture

.
.

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10 users have voted.

Compensated Spokes Model for Big Poor.

joe shikspack's picture

@GreatLakeSailor

that's a really well made video, thanks!

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5 users have voted.

@GreatLakeSailor I just discovered Dixon recently when he brought some of Bloomberg's comments to light publicly. That's a well produced, and (I hope) effective ad.

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6 users have voted.
GreatLakeSailor's picture

@konondrum
.

Benjamin P Dixon be like:

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3 users have voted.

Compensated Spokes Model for Big Poor.

smiley7's picture

@GreatLakeSailor

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3 users have voted.
Anja Geitz's picture

That Killer Mike video is killer. Bernie’s got some potent surrogates out there.

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4 users have voted.

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