The Evening Blues - 3-5-20
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features Chicago blues singer and guitarist Magic Sam. Enjoy!
Magic Sam - Give Me Time
"The American oligarchy spares no pains in promoting the belief that it does not exist, but the success of its disappearing act depends on equally strenuous efforts on the part of an American public anxious to believe in egalitarian fictions and unwilling to see what is hidden in plain sight."
-- Michael Lind
News and Opinion
Where’s the outrage over Netanyahu trying to interfere in the US election?
Concerns about Putin’s impact on U.S. elections has generated countless articles and wall-to-wall cable news coverage. It also fueled an impeachment investigation. However, blatant election interference from other countries is certainly not treated in the same way.
This contradiction was on display over the weekend, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed AIPAC’s annual policy conference via video feed. Netanyahu repeatedly referenced Democratic frontrunner Bernie Sanders, who skipped the conference and claimed that the lobbying group promotes bigotry. At the most recent Democratic debate, Sanders called Netanyahu a “reactionary racist.”
“We were all reminded a few days ago that there are forces who seek to break our alliance,” said Netanyahu, “Last year, those who came to AIPAC were accused of dual loyalty. This year, AIPAC was accused of providing a platform for bigotry. These libelous charges are outrageous.”
Netanyahu wasn’t the only Israeli official to attack Sanders at the conference. Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon said, “We don’t want Sanders at AIPAC. We don’t want him in Israel. Anyone who calls our prime minister a ‘racist’ is either a liar, an ignorant fool or both.”
This certainly isn’t the first time that Netanyahu has intervened in United States politics. In 2015, the Prime Minister infamously visited Washington so that he could argue against former president Barack Obama’s Iran Deal in congress. Obama was never consulted about the visit and the administration called it a “departure from protocol.”
Trump picks official involved in Bush-era torture program as his nuclear envoy
The Trump administration has chosen a special envoy for nuclear talks, with the principal task of negotiating a new arms control agreement with Russia and China, according to congressional sources and former officials.
The proposed special negotiator, Marshall Billingslea, is currently the under-secretary for terrorist financing at the US Treasury. His nomination last year for a top human rights job at the state department was stalled by controversy over the extent of his involvement in the torture programme established by the George W Bush administration, in which he oversaw the conditions of detainees in Guantánamo Bay. ...
The Trump administration has been trying to recruit a high-level arms control negotiator for several months, but several former Republican officials with significant experience in the field turned down the offer.
Billingslea, who has a long record as a hawk on nuclear weapons issues, faces a daunting task. Donald Trump wants to negotiate a new agreement to reduce the vast nuclear weapons arsenals of the major powers, to replace the New Start deal with Russia agreed by Barack Obama. Trump wants China to be included in a new agreement but Beijing has so far refused on the grounds that the Chinese arsenal is a small fraction (estimated at about a 20th) of its US and Russian counterparts.
Trump has accepted an invitation from Vladimir Putin to take part in talks on nuclear arms control and other strategic issues at a summit meeting of the five permanent members of the UN security council, most likely at the time of the UN general assembly in September.
The U.S. Just Hit the Taliban With a Drone Strike, So the Peace Deal Must Be Going Well
The withdrawal agreement between the U.S. and the Taliban to end the war in Afghanistan is only four days old, but it’s already looking shaky. On Wednesday, the U.S. military said it had carried out an airstrike against Taliban fighters in Helmand, its first attack on the militant group since the two sides signed the agreement in Doha on Saturday.
U.S. military spokesman Col. Sonny Leggett said his forces were still committed to peace but blamed continued Taliban attacks on Afghan government troops for forcing it to act. He said Wednesday’s drone strike, in Nahr-e Saraj in the southern province of Helmand, was a “defensive” action ordered to disrupt a Taliban attack against an Afghan National Security Forces checkpoint. ...
[S]oon after the agreement was signed Saturday, problems emerged. The Afghan government said Sunday it would refuse to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners as stipulated in the deal, saying those releases would be discussed in future direct negotiations with the Taliban. In response, the Taliban said Monday it would resume its attacks against Afghan forces, but refrain from attacking foreign forces.
Both the U.S. and the Taliban had held off attacking one another under a partial truce implemented ahead of Saturday’s agreement. But clashes between the Taliban and Afghan government forces were reported in nine provinces Tuesday, including one in which five Afghan policemen were killed, and this resumption of violence has the potential to undo the partial ceasefire.
Turkey shoots down third plane as Syrian forces retake town
Turkish forces downed a fighter jet flown by Syrian government forces over southern Idlib on Tuesday as a strategic town in northwest Syria fell under the control of President Bashar al-Assad's military.
It was the third such shoot-down in three days after Turkey hit two other Syrian aircraft on Sunday. ...
Meanwhile, Syrian government forces overnight took over the key city of Saraqeb, which lies at the junction of the M4 and M5 commercial highways that connect the country's major cities.
Saraqeb has changed hands twice in the last month, but a dramatic escalation in fighting over the past few days saw armed opposition groups retreat to the villages of Nairab and Afis in the west, as Syrian government forces - under cover of Russian air power - secured the city.
Europe migrant crisis: Turkey corners off immediate border zone with Greece
Germany tweets to deter Syrian refugees, fearing 'repeat of 2015'
The German government – anxious about the political consequences of a “repeat of 2015” – is tolerating Greece’s decision to suspend asylum claims at its borders and has launched a social media campaign to deter Syrian refugees from embarking on a journey to central Europe.
About 12,500 people are estimated to be waiting on the Turkish side of the Greek border after the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said on Saturday he would open his country’s borders for refugees fleeing the nine-year war in Syria to cross into Europe.
Thousands of protesters gathered outside Angela Merkel’s chancellory in Berlin on Tuesday night, calling on her to advocate opening the EU’s borders, but her government has declined to publicly criticise the Greek government for suspending asylum claims for one month.
“We don’t want a repeat of the year 2015”, said Horst Seehofer, the conservative interior minister in Merkel’s cabinet, referring to the arrival of approximately 1 million asylum seekers in Germany after the country decided not to close its borders five years ago.
Ukrainian president removes PM in government reshuffle
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has launched a broad government reshuffle, ousting the country’s prime minister amid falling approval ratings and signs that his reform agenda has stalled.
Oleksiy Honcharuk, 35, was dismissed on Wednesday by a vote of lawmakers in Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, automatically causing the resignation of the government. His term as prime minister lasted less than six months and was beset by political infighting and the release of a secret recording in which he referred to Zelenskiy’s understanding of economics as “primitive”.
Zelenskiy has proposed Denys Shmygal, 44, as his replacement. He is a little-known former official and businessman from western Ukraine who used to work for DTEK, an energy firm owned by Rinat Akhmetov, one of Ukraine’s richest men. The shake-up could also elevate other candidates with ties to previous governments and major businessmen, raising further questions of what it could mean for the window of change under Zelenskiy. “The picture in Kyiv today looks very grim indeed,” wrote Melinda Haring of the Atlantic Council thinktank.
Roundtable: Coronavirus Is Best Argument for Medicare for All
Digital rights activists raise money for billboard criticizing Adam Schiff over surveillance fight
Digital rights activists are fundraising for a billboard criticizing House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) over his efforts to reauthorize a surveillance bill that they say does not go far enough in reforming how the government is allowed to spy on everyday Americans.
The two groups, Fight for the Future and Demand Progress, on Tuesday launched a crowdfunding page to raise money for the billboard, which would go up in Schiff's California district.
It's only the latest effort by progressive and civil libertarian activists to target Schiff and other national security-minded Democrats over their support for a bill that they say would only mildly reform a trio of government surveillance authorities set to expire by March 15.
“Just a few weeks ago, Adam Schiff stood before Congress and told all of America that Donald Trump abused the power of the presidency for his personal political gain,” Dayton Young, a director with Fight for the Future, said in a statement, referring to Schiff's role as one of the leading House managers in impeaching President Trump.
“So why does he now want to reauthorize this dangerous legislation that grants the president more powers to abuse?" Young said. "And why is he fighting other Democratic lawmakers pressing for reform? It just doesn’t make sense."
US supreme court takes up most high-profile abortion case in decades
The US supreme court heard arguments in the most high-profile abortion rights case in decades, on Wednesday morning. The nine justices heard arguments on whether Louisiana can impose severe restrictions on abortion doctors, in a case that is controversial on several levels, June Medical Services v Russo. The restrictions would require doctors to have “admitting privileges” at local hospitals, which are difficult to obtain.
“This case is about respect for the court’s precedent,” said Julie Rikelman, lead counsel for the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing an abortion clinic in Louisiana.
Just four years ago, the court ruled a nearly identical law unconstitutional, in a Texas case called Whole Woman’s Health v Hellerstedt. That the highest court even took the case was incredibly rare, leading many to believe it is predisposed to restrict abortion rights. “The Louisiana law at issue here, Act 620, is identical to the Texas law and was expressly modeled on it,” she said. If upheld, the law would “leave Louisiana with just one clinic and one doctor providing abortions”.
The issue of precedent has suddenly cast a spotlight on Chief Justice John Roberts. The court may be newly conservative-leaning, but it is not without competing interests. Roberts is often described as an institutionalist who does not like to disturb precedent, even as he has opposed abortion rights in the past. However, he did little to tip his hand Wednesday. ...
If the justices uphold Louisiana’s law, with a ruling expected in June, it would have wide-reaching, immediate and severe consequences for abortion access across the US. One potential outcome is that the court upholds a law, keeping abortion legal, but in practice almost impossible to access.
Possibly the best news of Super Tuesday:
Nancy Pelosi to Receive First Genuine Left-Wing Challenge in 30 Years
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will face a spirited challenge from activist and attorney Shahid Buttar in the November general election.
Buttar represents a unique, if unlikely challenge to Pelosi, the most powerful elected Democrat in the country and 33-year incumbent for San Francisco’s congressional seat. On Tuesday, Pelosi took 72.5 percent of the vote in California’s 12th Congressional District. Under the state’s unique primary system — where the top-two vote-getters in the primary make it to the general election, even if they belong to the same party — Buttar’s 12.7 percent was enough to get him on the November ballot.
Buttar is a constitutional lawyer who has dedicated his career on reining in American militarism and advancing causes relating to social justice. As a part-time DJ, Buttar may appear at face value as just another reflexive left-wing activist, but he is well-credentialed with a track record in advocacy and community organizing. A graduate of Stanford Law School, Buttar worked on court cases litigating marriage equality and defending the civil liberties of Muslims facing FBI surveillance, and has challenged the constitutionality of the USA PATRIOT Act.
Currently on leave from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Buttar has waged an insurgent effort, campaigning on a promise to ensure that Pelosi faces bonafide electoral opposition from the left for the first time in modern history. The seemingly quixotic bid has given Buttar the opportunity to elevate genuine concerns with Pelosi’s style of leadership, including her compromise bill on drug pricing, which would only impact a few select pharmaceutical products, her support for President Donald Trump’s increased spending on the Pentagon, and what Buttar describes as a failure to fight for federal financing to alleviate the housing crisis in San Francisco and other cities.
Millions of uncounted California ballots to shed light on Sanders' future
Bernie Sanders was declared the winner in California just moments after polls closed but his final haul of delegates could remain uncertain for days, or even weeks, as election officials tally the millions of provisional votes and mail-in ballots. And while triumph in the Golden State will help Sanders remain competitive in what has become essentially a two-person race between him and Joe Biden, the eventual delegate math could indicate a decidedly shakier path to the nomination than the Vermont senator expected last week.
Voting on Super Tuesday in Los Angeles county, the state’s most populous, was marked by chaos after a $300m new voting system resulted in hours-long lines that kept people waiting even as midnight approached. Meanwhile, nearly half the state’s ballots still remain uncounted, estimates Paul Mitchell, with the campaign research firm Political Data Inc, which tracks ballots as they are returned.
“It’s like there’s this black box of how many ballots are at the post office right now,” said Mitchell. So far, about 5.3m ballots have been counted, according to Mitchell, just over 50% of the 10m he expects have been cast in this election. “The x-factor really is: do we see some big surging coming with the uncounted ballot results?” he said. “It’s just a huge unknown.” Many voters dropped off or posted ballots at the last minute, and election officials are required to count mail-ins that arrive as late as Friday, as long as they are postmarked by 3 March.
Democratic Party leaders engineer Biden victory in most Super Tuesday states
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders told a primary night crowd in Burlington, Vermont that he was doing well and expected to win the Democratic presidential nomination and defeat President Trump in November, but he made his appearance earlier than Biden, the traditional position for the election night loser. The outcome was a rebuff to Sanders’ claims that his campaign can transform the Democratic Party into an instrument for “political revolution” or significant social reform. Instead, the results demonstrate the opposite: the Democratic Party is a right-wing political formation, one of the twin parties of the American capitalist class, unbreakably tied to Wall Street and American imperialism.
Rather than bow to Sanders’ apparent momentum after caucuses in Iowa and Nevada and the New Hampshire primary, the Democratic Party leadership intervened massively to bolster the faltering campaign of the most right-wing of the main contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination. ...
Within the framework of the Democratic Party, the opposition to Trump is being diverted in a right-wing, pro-imperialist direction. The Democratic leadership wants to run the 2020 campaign as an extension of the Mueller investigation and the impeachment drive, portraying Trump as a Russian stooge and appealing for the support of Wall Street and the military-intelligence apparatus for Trump’s removal. ...
The New York Times wrote Tuesday in its analysis of the campaign, “Top Democrats now believe that there are only two realistic paths forward in the presidential race: a dominant victory on Tuesday by Mr. Sanders that gives him a wide lead in the delegate count, or a battle for delegates over months of primary elections, that might allow Mr. Biden to pull ahead or force the nomination to be decided at the Milwaukee convention in July.” It now appears that Biden will go into the next two weeks of primaries, in large states like Michigan, Florida, Ohio and Illinois, with a lead in delegates and the full support of the Democratic Party apparatus in those states, as well as a flood of campaign cash from big money Democratic donors who have been holding back, waiting for the emergence of a single right-wing candidate.
Hat tip Marie:
Joe Biden, same old wars, same old interventionism: Ex-State Dept adviser warns of VP's hawkishness
Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden has for decades supported wars and military interventions across the planet. Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton speak with former State Department Russia adviser James Carden about his experience in the Obama administration. We discuss the ex vice president's role in the wars on Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Yugoslavia; his hawkishness against Russia and China; his destructive policies in Latin America; and the Biden family's corruption in Ukraine.
Bernie Needs New Strategy For Biden His “Good Friend”
After Billionaire Bloomberg Ends Bid to Buy Election, Biden Endorsement Shows 'Where the Big Money Is Going'
Progressives celebrated the end of former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's short-lived presidential campaign Wednesday after the billionaire dropped out, but warned that Bloomberg's immediate endorsement of former Vice President Joe Biden displayed the corporate establishment's commitment to defeating the broadly popular, working class-focused agenda of Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Bloomberg poured more than $500 million into his Democratic campaign, less than two years after re-joining the party following nearly two decades as a Republican and an independent. The former mayor focused much of his spending on attacking Sanders.
The fact that Bloomberg has thrown his support to Biden should remove any lingering doubts about where the big money is going and what the Democratic establishment wants.
And what it doesn't want -- a wealth tax, Medicare for All, and a Green New Deal.
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) March 4, 2020
Bloomberg won just 44 delegates during his campaign—carrying only American Samoa in the territory's caucuses on Tuesday as voters in 14 states went to the polls. The former mayor is expected to now pour hundreds of millions of dollars into Biden's campaign.
Writer Daniel José Camacho suggested the billionaire's alignment with Biden should give pause to the former vice president's supporters regarding whose interests his White House would ultimately serve.
Krystal & Saagar debate whether Bernie can make a comeback
Democrats Can Stop Panicking (For Now) About a Contested Convention
For weeks, Democrats had grown increasingly panicked that they were barreling towards a contested convention. Multiple presidential campaigns openly talked about their strategy to win one. House Democrats attended a powerpoint presentation to learn the rules in case they were called on to help decide their party’s nominee at the convention.
Then Super Tuesday happened. Joe Biden’s huge night, the decision of a bunch of candidates to exit the race who otherwise would have snagged caches of delegates, and the collapse of both Michael Bloomberg and Elizabeth Warren on election night has made the presidential election a two-candidate race. And simple math dictates it’s now much easier either Biden or Bernie Sanders to win the 1,991 delegates needed to lock in a clean win for the nomination before the convention.
“The chance that someone will have a majority just went way up,” said Jeff Weaver, a top adviser on Sanders’ campaign.
Warren is out.
Elizabeth Warren speaks about decision to drop out of presidential race
Warren Urged to Help Form 'Progressive Front' With Sanders as Big-Money Establishment Fuels Biden Surge
After Super Tuesday's results made clear that the 2020 Democratic primary is now a two-candidate race between former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders, progressives called for an end to divisive infighting and some urged Sen. Elizabeth Warren to join Sanders in a united front against the party's deep-pocketed and organized establishment wing.
"I'm a Bernie supporter who builds with Warren supporters," tweeted Varshini Prakash, executive director of the youth-led Sunrise Movement, which endorsed Sanders in January. "This isn't the time for infighting and vitriol. Let's leverage our shared power to break through the wall of corporate media, win this primary, and defeat Trump. Let's #BuildTogether."
It was a call for progressive unity that others echoed both before and after Super Tuesday, which saw Biden win 10 of 14 states—including delegate-rich Texas—and take a narrow lead in pledged delegates. Sanders won four states, including California, the largest delegate prize of the night.
With the #BuildTogether hashtag making the rounds among both Sanders and Warren supporters, journalist Sam Adler-Bell said the "posts are quite obviously an effort to build goodwill between two support bases that absolutely must combine to defeat the corporate/billionaire wing of the party. I have no patience for anyone upset about it."
Roger Lau, Warren's campaign manager, sent an email to staffers Wednesday morning announcing that Warren is meeting with her team to "assess the path forward" after she failed to place higher than third in any of the Super Tuesday states, including her home state of Massachusetts. "This decision is in her hands," wrote Lau, "and it's important that she has the time and space to consider what comes next."
Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir echoed that sentiment in an interview with CNN ahead of Super Tuesday. "She has been campaigning very hard, has raised a lot of money, and has earned a lot of votes," Shakir said. "She should be given the time and space to decide for herself about the future of her campaign."
Lau's announcement came shortly after billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg dropped out of the presidential race Wednesday and immediately threw his support behind Biden, handing the former vice president an effectively bottomless source of financial support. ...
New York Magazine's Sarah Jones wrote Monday that because the Democratic establishment and big-money donors are rapidly coalescing behind Biden, it is time for Warren to leave the presidential race and support Sanders for the Democratic nomination.
"For Warren's supporters, this will be difficult to accept, and for good reason," wrote Jones. "The senator has spoken movingly of her working-class background, and introduced a slate of generous policies that represent long overdue corrections to corporate power. In debates, she can be fearsome. She is probably the first person to publicly humiliate Michael Bloomberg in years."
But without a realistic path to the nomination, Jones added, "it would be a catastrophic error in judgement for Warren to remain in the race till the convention."
According to a national Quinnipiac poll released last month, 33% of Warren supporters say Sanders is their second choice for president—a number Jones argued could rise if Warren backs Sanders with a full-throated endorsement.
The New Poll Tax? Long Lines, Closed Polling Stations Hurt Black, Latinx & Student Voters in TX, CA
California and Texas voters faced hours-long lines on Super Tuesday
Voters in Texas and California faced long lines at the polls on Super Tuesday with some waiting several hours or longer to cast their ballots in the vital primary elections: a phenomenon that has triggered renewed concern over the running of America’s elections.
In Texas, voters in multiple cities waited in line waited long into the night after the polls officially closed. In Los Angeles, frustrated voters waited in lengthy queues to cast their votes, prompting the campaign of senator Bernie Sanders to file an emergency request to extend voting hours. The last voter at Texas Southern University cast his ballot in the early hours of Wednesday morning after waiting nearly seven hours in line.
Experts say a combination of factors are responsible for the long lines, but it was an alarming reminder of the extreme barriers Americans can face if they want to cast a ballot on election day.
Tropical forests losing their ability to absorb carbon, study finds
Tropical forests are taking up less carbon dioxide from the air, reducing their ability to act as “carbon sinks” and bringing closer the prospect of accelerating climate breakdown.
The Amazon could turn into a source of carbon in the atmosphere, instead of one of the biggest absorbers of the gas, as soon as the next decade, owing to the damage caused by loggers and farming interests and the impacts of the climate crisis, new research has found. If that happens, climate breakdown is likely to become much more severe in its impacts, and the world will have to cut down much faster on carbon-producing activities to counteract the loss of the carbon sinks.
“We’ve found that one of the most worrying impacts of climate change has already begun,” said Simon Lewis, professor in the school of geography at Leeds University, one of the senior authors of the research. “This is decades ahead of even the most pessimistic climate models.”
For the last three decades, the amount of carbon absorbed by the world’s intact tropical forests has fallen, according to the study from nearly 100 scientific institutions. They are now taking up a third less carbon than they did in the 1990s, owing to the impacts of higher temperatures, droughts and deforestation. That downward trend is likely to continue, as forests come under increasing threat from climate change and exploitation. The typical tropical forest may become a carbon source by the 2060s, according to Lewis. ...
[S]ome rich countries and many companies plan to reduce their emissions via offsetting, often by preserving, replanting or growing new forest.This research shows that relying on tropical forests is unlikely to be enough to offset large-scale emissions. “There is a lot of talk about offsetting, but the reality is that every country and every sector needs to reach zero emissions, with any small amount of residual emissions needing to be removed from the atmosphere,” said Lewis. “The use of forests as an offset is largely a marketing tool for companies to try to continue with business as usual.”
Great Barrier Reef in Danger of Catastrophic Bleaching as Temperatures in Australia Remain High
Australia's Great Barrier Reef is in danger of a catastrophic bleaching event that scientists warn could have dire consequences on the survival of one of the seven natural wonders of the world.
"It's a sobering reality we're in," Georgia Institute of Technology coral reef scientist Kim Cobb told Vice.
Temperatures in the waters surrounding the reef have been high in recent weeks, part of the months-long heatwave that brought devastating fires to Australia that ringed the country in December, forcing thousands from their homes and killing millions of animals. The fires were followed by massive flooding in February.
As Maddie Stone reported for Vice, the heat has led to a dangerous situation for the survival of the reef:
For the past few weeks, the Great Barrier Reef has been running a fever, with temperatures along the 1,400 mile-long ecosystem hovering a degree Celsius or more above normal. At these temperatures, corals become stressed and start to bleach, jettisoning the colorful algae that provide them their food and turning a bloodless white. If the water remains warm for too long, the algae won't return, and the corals will starve.
Experts worry the Great Barrier Reef is now uncomfortably close to that tipping point.
NOAA's Coral Reef Watch Program expects widespread bleaching, the organization said, from the north to the south of the reef.
"You're looking at a bigger, more widespread event," program director Mark Eakin told Vice.
Imaging from the organization shared by James Cook University Coral Reef Studies director Professor Terry Hughes on Twitter showed the increase in temperature.
"More widespread than 2016 or 2017, but hopefully not quite as intense," said Hughes. "I'm particularly concerned about the south, which has not been exposed to widespread bleaching before."
NOAA’s updated bleaching forecast for the #GreatBarrierReef is devastating. https://t.co/xPU2olTJlG
More widespread than 2016 or 2017, but hopefully not quite as intense. I’m particularly concerned about the south, which has not been exposed to widespread bleaching before. pic.twitter.com/eM1gWaDDLT
— Terry Hughes (@ProfTerryHughes) March 3, 2020
Japan lifts evacuation order for town hit by Fukushima disaster
Japan has lifted an evacuation order for parts of a town in the shadow of the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, weeks before the area is to host the start of the Olympic torch relay. Futaba, 2.4 miles (4km) west of the plant, has been almost deserted since the nuclear meltdown nine years ago, while other areas in the region have mounted a partial recovery after the government declared them safe for residents.
The start of the relay’s Japan leg at the end of the month is supposed to showcase Fukushima’s recovery from the world’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986, but some residents say their home towns may never return to normal. ...
The reopening of a 1.5 sq mile area of Futaba means reconstruction workers can stay in accommodation near the railway station, but residents will not be able to return for another two years, when its water supply and other infrastructure will have been restored, according to local officials.
They will be able to enter and leave for short visits without going through security, and will no longer need to wear protective clothing, but will not be allowed to stay overnight.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
For WaPo, Flourishing Elites Are a Matter of Perception
Syria war update:Turkey’s Erdogan seeks to re-establish Ottoman Empire
EPA Expands Rule Limiting Science the Agency Can Use to Make Public Health Policy Decisions
Keiser Report |Telling the Truth About Financial Pandemic
Sanders Kicks Off New Phase of Campaign With Ad Blitz Challenging Biden in March Primary States
Outsider Lulu Seikaly Heads To a Runoff in Diversifying Red Texas District
Jessica Cisneros, a Progressive Favorite, Loses to Incumbent Henry Cuellar
Fear Pervades Black Politics, and Makes Us Agents of Our Own Oppression
South Carolina, Neoliberalism's Stranglehold, and the Mystique of the 'Black Vote'
Jimmy Dore: Tulsi Qualifies For Debate & DNC Excludes Her Anyway
Krystal Ball: Will Warren redeem herself by endorsing Bernie?
Daily Beast Reporter: Is there a flaw in Biden's electability case?
Rising: Can Bernie stage a Michigan comeback 2.0
Rising: How Trump is gearing up to destroy Biden with Hunter
A Little Night Music
Magic Sam - Love Me With A Feeling
Magic Sam - Mr. Charlie
Magic Sam - Easy Baby
Magic Sam - Out Of Bad Luck
Magic Sam - Look Whatcha Done
Magic Sam - I Don't Want No Woman
Magic Sam - I Have The Same Old Blues
Magic Sam - She Belongs To Me
Magic Sam - That's All I Need
Magic Sam - San-Ho-Zay
Magic Sam - Magic Sam's Boogie
Comments
For some shit and giggles
Twiiter and Dore get this right
Found at https://www.unz.com/video/thejimmydoreshow_hillary-starts-her-own-podcas...
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=186&v=PjeWczaERG8&feature=em...
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
You got the joke right?
On the 500 streams before she starts? It's how she lined up delegates before she even declared that she was running. But then she gave those speeches to the banks which is against election law. No biggie though.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
evening ggersh...
wow, somebody who has nothing to say has a podcast.
i'm sure that it will be a great source of inane quotes.
Evening all.
[video:https://youtu.be/Xk7LDzqPAwc]
Saagar’s radar hits the nail square on the head for me. This is what I think really hurt Bernie in 2016 and I feared this was going to happen again. And it looks like it has.
Saagar said the other day “the problem is, the Democratic establishment can’t stand Bernie and Bernie loves the Democratic establishment.” Bernie is a fighter, for sure, but he won’t fight the Dems and I think unless he dramatically changes that, he’s done.
I wish I had a better feeling about this but we’ve seen this play out once before. I know he’s finally making some tentative steps towards going after Joe but it’s too little, too late (and Bernie still doing “Joe is a decent man” bit, which undermines anything his campaign is saying!)
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
evening dr jc...
yep, it looks like the cost of running as a democrat, presumably in order to make it more difficult to be erased by the media, seems to be that bernie can't attack the dem establishment like he ought to.
perhaps it's just an indication that there is no good way to get around the rigging of the process that has been engineered by the oligarchy.
Feeling sorry for 'old joe' jangles
not you mr. shiks
us old hobos sees snakes
question everything
evening qms...
heh, is that the epic story of joe's arrest in south africa when he was trying to see mandela?
Now you got me started ...
I love Jerry Jeff, so many good songs.
This one brings tears to my eyes.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2wRlXAsy-Y width:400 height:240]
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
Good evening Joe. What's with the Guardian??
You'd expect a British paper to know how to spell Smegol, forgawsake.
And Hilary? A blog from the bog? What's with that? She really seems determined to kill the Democratic Party, not that I remotely object.
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 --
evening el...
good gollum, that's an egregious spelling error.
heh, hillary ought to get a spot on fox news. they are great at giving bile-spewing pus bags a platform from which to embarrass themselves and irritate everybody else.
Evening everybody, and Happy Thursday.
I remember when exit polling was considered the most accurate type of polling and a good way to test for election fraud.
We have this, from S. Carolina, and this, from Massachusetts.
Here's a Biden roll from Tucker Carlson:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4ytSI4PFm4 width:500 height:300]
This is an hour from The Duran on the Russia/Turkey Idlib deal, for those who have time for such things.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WncH_cLXAT8 width:500 height:300]
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
evening azazello...
heh, carlson is pretty much on target in most of his analysis. kinda scary how well he understands the dem establishment.
Former law school colleague dishes on Warren.
Good riddance.
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
evening nhk...
good find!
nothing that she says about warren is surprising, but i'm glad that somebody is bringing it to light.
Evening folks
Totally brain dead people. She needs to be in the debate.
This will be fun to run out if she endorses ByeDone
Glenn takes on kos
Kos of course has been deriding Bernie left and right and just doesn't understand that when there are more than two people running it affects the voting numbers.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
evening snoopy...
i hope that the dnc gets a good drubbing for erasing tulsi, but i suspect that they will get away with it. their media allies are unlikely to let them down.
heh, good to see that markos is still the insightful, mature commentator that we all know and love.
Lotsa funny discrepancies...
between the exit polls and the vote tallies.
The whole thread is good, with stuff about SC as well.
And, par for the course, all the discrepancies hurt Bernie....
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
heh...
that bernie. if it wasn't for bad luck, he'd have no luck at all.
Hola, Joe! Bracing for DT's 'visit' tomorrow--
if we had known that he was coming, we'd have gone South, regardless of the nasty weather.
Below is a photo of the 'downtown' of the nearby Community that took the direct hit of the EF-4 tornado early morning hours, Tuesday. Thought it was unincorporated, but, apparently, it's a town of 1300 plus residents per 2010 census.
On Wednesday, the City Manager said three people remained unaccounted for, down from about 88 Tuesday night. Search crews had completed about 90% of their second search of damaged homes.
Yesterday, the National Weather Service office announced that the tornado was rated EF-4 with top winds of 175 mph. (No wonder it looks like a war zone.)
Must have cropped up out of nowhere. Only time that we can recall, that we've only received a tornado 'warning.' (No 'watch' was even issued.)
We're still in disbelief. They are numerous fundraisers underway, thank goodness. Five of the deaths were of children under the age of 13, IIRC.
Phew! Just heard a knock-down, drag-out (verbal) fisticuffs between Hilary Rosen and Nina Turner. Chris Cuomo (CNN) had to cut it off. (didn't catch exactly what they were talking about, but, MLK's name was mentioned a couple of times) Been hearing contentious discussions on Cable teevee, off-and-on, today, that makes it appear that there 'may be' a race-based riff, or dispute brewing between the two campaigns. Wouldn't think that it would be helpful to either camp, considering that many Dem talking heads, and the corporatist MSM often describe the AA Community as 'the Base' of the DP.
Hey, gotta run Rambo out, before rain starts again. Thankfully, we got a break for about 18 hours. Still, the yard's a river, in spots.
Have a nice evening, Everyone. Stay dry!
Mollie
“This above all: to thine own self be true
And it must follow, as the night the day
Thou canst not then be false to any man . . ."
~~William Shakespeare
“Every time I lose a dog, he takes a piece of my heart. Every new dog gifts me with a piece of his. Someday, my heart will be total dog, and maybe then, I will be just as generous, loving, and forgiving.”
~~Author Unknown
“The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.”
~~George Bernard Shaw
Irish Dramatist & Socialist (1856-1950)
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
evening mollie...
glad that you were safe from the tornado! it looks like it was pretty nasty from the little that i've read about it.
heh, i'm sure that nina turner acquitted herself well. i hope that she chews her way through a bunch of chattering class spokesdroids.
have a good one, stay warm and dry and give rambo a scritch for me.
Thanks, Joe. We haven't been
this close to a tornado since we lived in "Tornado Alley." (That is, SW Oklahoma in the 80's--where one came down our street. Miraculously, only several huge 100-year-old plus Oak Trees were uprooted/downed. Not a single home was missing so much as a roof shingle. Go figure.)
We are definitely thanking our lucky stars that it didn't touch down in our town. The area it hit--including numerous subdivisions--is definitely more rural (guess that's obvious from the pic of Main Street). Anyhoo, rescue teams are still searching a nearby field of marsh, hoping to find the remaining survivors (or, casualties). Hope they have success soon. Can't imagine being their family members. So tragic.
Rambo says 'thanks' for the scritch.
Mollie
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
A note on the Nina Turner - Rosen contretemps
plus a second note: Rosen talked over Turner to such an extent that it was difficult to hear exactly what Turner was saying.
What stood out to me, and perhaps others will find it meaningless, is that Rosen spoke about who she called Doctor Martin Luther King and Turner called him Reverend Martin Luther King, Junior. Both repeated the name twice that I could hear. I'm always very careful to include junior whenever I invoke the name Martin Luther King, Junior in writing or speaking. I'm inconsistent on including Doctor or Dr., probably no more than half the time. Rarely include Reverend or Rev.
Rosen was whitesplaining and clueless that she was doing so. That wouldn't have been lost on AAs, but white folks aren't so attuned to that. By referring to Reverend Martin Luther King, Junionr was Turner adding emphasis to what Rosen was doing?
Hi, Marie. Could be. I never did make out
what they were saying, for the reason you mentioned (talking over each other), and, because I'm a lousy multitasker. On a good day, I'm doing good to construct a coherent comment, so, it was all that I could do to make out that MLK's name was being invoked. What was obvious, I thought, was that Chris Cuomo seemed quite uncomfortable, and, (I thought) abruptly cut the discussion off, due to the heated nature of it.
Hey, I'd take Nina over Hilary Rosen--a FSC shill--any day of the week.
Having said that, I have noticed the past day, or so, that the discussions (between surrogates of the two campaigns) are getting rather heated when the topic of the AA voting patterns has come up.
BTW, we reside in two of the southern Super Tuesday states, and Biden picked up both of them, resoundingly. Really didn't surprise us, since polling predicted it.
What did freak us out was the fact that so many Southern AA Mayors got behind Bloomberg. Whoah! From reading, sounds as though he's funneled lots of dough to some of them. But, still. . .
I checked to see if CNN has posted a transcript--they haven't. Will try to find it/post it here, tomorrow evening. Maybe then, I'll have a clue what they were arguing about.
Have a good one.
Mollie
“This above all: to thine own self be true
And it must follow, as the night the day
Thou canst not then be false to any man . . ."
~~William Shakespeare
“Every time I lose a dog, he takes a piece of my heart. Every new dog gifts me with a piece of his. Someday, my heart will be total dog, and maybe then, I will be just as generous, loving, and forgiving.”
~~Author Unknown
“The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.”
~~George Bernard Shaw
Irish Dramatist & Socialist (1856-1950)
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
Elisabeth Warren
What's with all this pie in the sky bs. about Liz endorsing Bernie? Why would she? She's not 'progressive' she's a wall street ringer, and a really obnoxious player of insincere,fake identity politics. Oh yeah the poor little girls that will have to wait for a woman president. Jeeze. Face it the corrupt, crooked Dem. establishment pulled a get Bernie. Liz was right in the tick of it. I know a lot of women who are supporters of her for god knows why. Oh yeah she's a woman
Shahyar (Eric, the husband) likes The Hill's Rising. I don't. Don't know why but she rubs me the wrong way. Never liked The Hill for that matter. Way too insider ball game with iffy weird demographic innuendoes for me. Play to the suburbs Bernie. Yeah right. I do agree that Bernie should put up or shut up. Enough with I like Joe but... or pussyfooting around about his long time political cronies/bedfellows. Hey that's his style. The amendment king. Go for it Bernie your not going to get the suburban yuppie vote regardless of how diplomatic and gentlemanly you are. Get a spine.
I vowed never to get into the political race horse frey again after Obama but here I am again. One thing though I seem to have eyes wide open with no particular horse to back or identify with. Will vote for Bernie, donate to him but won't count on him doing what's necessary to win. Buck up Bernie your in a fight not a civilized debate. Don't fold like last time. Will vote but not for one damn Democratic crooked weasel. That includes local Dem. weasels intent on destroying my city. Re-registered as a Dem. to vote for Bernie but belive me this system on all levels is so rigged that I have no idea how it's going to ever be fixed from 'inside' or worse outside. Still the dude abides.
evening shaz...
great to see you!
i don't really have any indication of which way warren will lean. my cynical sense says that, of course, she will follow her personal interests and wait to endorse until there is a definitive winner from whom she can extract valuable things. on the other hand, i would guess that she will be under a lot of pressure to endorse somebody before there's a definitive winner in order to leverage her endorsement for maximum value.
i love the way warren is so driven by feminism but goes out of her way to erase tulsi gabbard, saying that there are no women in the race.
heh, i don't know if bernie has it in him to go after the demorat establisment and tear it down. his path forward is over the charred remains of the oligarch-driven corporate bureaucracy. either he or his movement is going to have to take them on and vanquish them utterly.
yep, like you, i'll vote for sanders. it's a stretch for me to compromise this much, particularly given his failure to take on the imperialist foreign policy/military establishment. but, his platform does represent the best hope of addressing climate change which there is no second chance for given the timelines.
What made me be pissed at both, Bernie and Biden, are
little things, may be, but I learned in life that it is the little things that stick to your memory, that in the end make you to stay put or make you made a decision from your guts etc.
I remember 1994/5. Besoz from Amazon.com opened up his first warehouse. He chose Delaware. Here are some photos of his warehouse.
Biden never had an interest to defend the little-people-booksellers-stores like (ironically also called Amazon) this one.
Biden was all too willing to let them little people have some shitty part-time jobs in the new Amazon.com warehouse in Delaware. It was not that difficult to see where Amazon.com was heading to. In Washington DC Amazon.com had 'suffocated and killed' all independent bookstores but one during the time of 1996 to may be 1999.
Besoz made a financial offer to Baker & Taylor and Books in Print (wholesellers) they didn't or couldn't refuse. He could buy an exclusive license from them to sell all the books, listed in Books In Print, online, as the only online bookseller.
Did Biden ever care about that? It seemed to be more important to him to bribe his voters with thousands of new shit jobs in Delaware. Sucker, I suggest he works at Amazons fullfillment centers and then we can talk again.
I was really pissed at Bernie for this over the top rant about Putin and the Russians being thugs and meddling in the elections. The intelligence community knows how to push the buttons in the wrong way, even for in other ways a 'good guy' like Sanders. Sad. And isn't it amazing that the kids of multi-millionaire Americans happen to defend in the Ukraine the Crimea as if their own 'American Native Americans' populated the Crimea instead of the evil people that are Russians by their native roots?
It feels like the MIC is unsure who is the most evil dictator, can't make up their mind, and therefore bomb all of them, at least three of them at the same time. As all good things come in threes.
May be this sucker will straighten some other suckers out.
Thank God there are some comedians, whose jokes I can't resist laughing about.
[video:https://youtu.be/DeAu_iF6egE]
Take care. The discussions here are good ones. Thanks to all.
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