The Evening Blues - 10-16-20



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: The Fabulous Thunderbirds

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues rock band The Fabulous Thunderbirds. Enjoy!

The Fabulous Thunderbirds - My Babe

“Fascism is capitalism plus murder.”

-- Upton Sinclair


News and Opinion

The Bad Apple-in-Chief is at it again:

Trump Boasts About Federal Task Force Killing Antifascist Wanted for Murder in Portland

In chilling remarks at a campaign rally in North Carolina on Thursday, the president of the United States boasted about federal agents killing an antifascist activist suspected of murdering one of his supporters in Portland, Oregon this summer, calling the suspect’s death without trial an example of his leadership.

“We sent in the U.S. Marshals,” President Donald Trump said proudly of the federal task force that killed the suspect, Michael Reinoehl. “Took 15 minutes, it was over,” he added. “We got him.” ...


Trump had bragged about the killing to Fox News last month, saying in an interview, “the U.S. Marshals killed him, and I’ll tell you something — that’s the way it has to be. There has to be retribution.”

Reinoehl was in fact killed by local officers in Washington state who were deputized as federal agents as part of a fugitive task force led by United States Marshals. Multiple witnesses have come forward in recent weeks to dispute the claim from officers that they fired on Reinoehl instead of trying to arrest him because he pointed a gun at them.

The president’s latest comments stirred particular outrage online because video snippets from his rambling, only somewhat coherent monologue suggested that he agreed with the witnesses, who told reporters for The Oregonian, The New York Times, Oregon Public Broadcasting, and ProPublica that the officers had fired on Reinoehl without attempting to detain him.

Trump calls Whitmer “dictator” as evidence emerges of involvement of Wisconsin militia in Michigan coup plot

President Donald Trump continued to denounce Democratic Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer Thursday, calling her a “dictator” and legitimizing the actions of the fascist militiamen who plotted to kidnap and kill her. “Michigan, she [Whitmer] has to open up,” Trump said on Fox Business. Whitmer “wants to be a dictator in Michigan and the people can’t stand her,” he said, insisting that people “want to get back to work … the schools have to open, the businesses have to open.”

This effective endorsement of the plot against Whitmer confirms that Trump is still plotting an attempt to ignore the results of the election on November 3 and use far-right forces in a bid to stay in power. His thinly veiled threats also highlight the critical role played by the far-right militias as the spearhead of the ruling class’ policy of “herd immunity.” Fascists are being mobilized to threaten violence against officials responsible for implementing even the most mild lockdown measures in order to force the entire country back to work.

[See full article for details about administration involvement with militias. -js]

Much more detail at the link:

Private firms provide software and information to police, documents show

Scores of private firms, consultants and non-governmental organizations have provided software, equipment, training and information to law enforcement agencies in a burgeoning profit-making industry, according to documents from the so-called Blueleaks information dump. The documents show how private actors – from major corporations to small-scale contractors – have aided police in militarizing their operations, expanding their surveillance capacities, and pursuing the so-called “war on drugs”.

Those firms not directly profiting from their interactions with police can often be seen attempting to influence the agenda of law enforcement, or prioritizing police interests over those of their customers. The documents reveal that police are training in the use of military and surveillance technologies of which there may be little public awareness. ...

[R]epeatedly advertised throughout the trove are training sessions between 2017 and 2020 in the use of license plate and facial recognition software from Vigilant Solutions, acquired by Motorola in 2019, which sells the PlateSearch and FaceSearch systems. The company has been the center of controversy over its massive nationwide collection of license plates.

In 2016, the Atlantic reported the company had collected 2.2bn photographs of number plates, and that it had some 3,000 law enforcement agencies as clients. In 2018, the Electronic Frontiers Foundation issued a report showing that shopping malls in Southern California had been capturing license plates and adding the images to a pool used by law enforcement agencies including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice).

Portland-based Kristian Williams is the author of Our Enemies in Blue and other critical accounts of American policing. He said that “it’s not surprising” that companies have seen an opportunity to provide such equipment to law enforcement. Williams added that “the enormous funding that goes into the criminal legal system does not stop at the criminal legal system. It has created a domestic market for military equipment.”

Inside Bolivia's right-wing base on eve of election

As McConnell Vows No Vote on Major Covid Skinny Relief Bill, GOP Seen as Strategizing for Austerity Under Biden

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday firmly rejected putting a $1.8 trillion or higher pandemic relief package on the floor for a vote—a statement that came a day after reporting suggested the Kentucky Republican's refusal is part of a broader GOP effort to set the stage for an austerity-focused sabotage of the economy if Joe Biden wins the election.

"That's not what I'm going to put on the floor," McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters in Kentucky of any compromise between the White House's $1.8 trillion and House Democrats' $2.2 trillion proposals.

McConnell said that the $1.8 trillion figure is "where the administration's willing to go."

"My members think what we laid out, a half a trillion dollars, highly targeted, is the best way to go," he said.

President Donald Trump even told Fox News Thursday—while taking swipes at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi—that he would "absolutely" consider a higher amount than the $1.8 trillion proposal. ...

So "given that spending more now would likely boost Trump's reelection chances, why aren't Senate Republicans on board?" the Washington Post's Greg Sargent wrote in a column Wednesday.

To suss out Senate Republicans' thinking, Sargent pointed to a key portion of Bloomberg reporting on Wednesday:

A GOP strategist who has been consulting with Senate campaigns said Republicans have been carefully laying the groundwork to restrain a Biden administration on federal spending and the budget deficit by talking up concerns about the price tag for another round of virus relief. The thinking, the strategist said, is that it would be very hard politically to agree on spending trillions more now and then in January suddenly embrace fiscal restraint.

As Sargent sees it, "Republicans almost certainly suspect Trump will lose even with a big stimulus and already hope to put an incoming President Joe Biden in a fiscal straitjacket, saddling him with the terrible politics of a grueling recovery."

"A big package now under a GOP president would make that harder to get away with," he added.

"The calculation," Sargent suggests, "is probably not just about avoiding the hypocrisy of spending big now and embracing austerity under a Democratic president" but also avoiding a legislative aid package that could deliver a boosted economy to a Biden White House.

More House Dems BREAK With Pelosi On Stimulus Bill

As Trump and GOP Refuse Aid Package, Studies Show 8 Million Forced Into Poverty Since McConnell Let Relief Expire

The authors of two separate poverty studies out of three top universities said Thursday that their findings make the unmistakable case for more federal economic aid for families struggling to make ends meet during the coronavirus pandemic.

Seven months after Congress passed the CARES Act, which included expanded unemployment benefits and one-time direct payments of $1,200 for many adults and $500 per child, the package's positive impact on poverty levels have already been reversed, according to a study by researchers at Columbia University's Center on Poverty and Social Policy and one out of the University of Chicago and Notre Dame. 

While the number of people living in poverty fell by about four million after the CARES Act was passed, the Columbia study found that eight million more Americans are now poor than were in May—signaling that the pandemic has plunged more people into poverty than before the crisis.

While the number of people living in poverty fell by about four million after the CARES Act was passed, the Columbia study found that eight million more Americans are now poor than were in May—signaling that the pandemic has plunged more people into poverty than before the crisis. 

The University of Chicago and Notre Dame study found that six million people have fallen into poverty in the past three months. Both reports found that the number of children living in poverty is rising, with 2.5 million more poor children since May. 

Washington Post reporter Jeff Stein tweeted that the studies represent just one piece of bad news this week for families struggling with joblessness and the threat of Covid-19, as an agreement between the White House and congressional Democrats and Republicans "remains out of reach."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) spoke with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Wednesday about a potential aid package, but the two sides came no closer to reaching a deal. House Democrats want more direct aid for families while Republicans in the Senate proposed a far more meager package last month with payroll assistance. President Donald Trump has shown some support for a means-tested direct payment while the White House has objected to financing a nationwide coronavirus testing strategy as cases surpass 7.9 million.

Larry Kudlow, Trump Admin Official CAUGHT In New Corruption Exposés

US Postal Service Agrees to Reverse Changes That Slowed Mail Nationwide

The U.S. Postal Service agreed Wednesday to reverse dramatic changes to mail operations imposed in recent months by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, settling a lawsuit filed by Montana's Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock seeking to ensure that mail services throughout the country—including the timely delivery of ballots and medicines—would be fully functional amid a pandemic that has increased the demand for mail-in voting.

The lawsuit filed against DeJoy and the USPS on September 9 "argued changes implemented in June harmed access to mail services in Montana, resulting in delayed delivery of medical prescriptions, payments, and job applications, and impeding the ability of Montana residents to vote by mail," the Associated Press reported Thursday.

USPS agreed to reverse all changes, which entailed various forms of sabotage including reduced hours and restricted overtime, closure of processing facilities, and removal of sorting machines as well as collection boxes, as Common Dreams has reported.

According to AP, the agreement also requires USPS to prioritize election mail in the crucial coming weeks, and the restoration of services applies nationwide.

'What Right-Wing Extremism Is All About': Sanders Slams Barrett for Refusing to Say If Social Security, Medicare Are Constitutional

In keeping with her evasive answers on other key issues—from voting rights to reproductive rights to climate change—President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett on Wednesday refused to say whether she believes Social Security and Medicare are constitutional, prompting progressive advocacy groups and lawmakers to warn the judge's confirmation could pose an existential threat to the programs.

"Social Security has been law of the land for 85 years, Medicare for 55," Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said in response to Barrett's comments. "Tens of millions are dependent upon these programs for retirement security and healthcare. And Judge Barrett doesn't know if they are constitutional. Really? That's what right-wing extremism is all about."

Questioned by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) during Wednesday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Barrett would not say whether she agrees with a right-wing scholar who has argued that Medicare and Social Security are unconstitutional because they exceed the spending powers of Congress. The Supreme Court deemed the Social Security Act of 1935 constitutional in a series of rulings in 1937.

"I'm not familiar with that article," Barrett said, referring to a 2015 essay by University of San Diego School of Law professor Mike Rappaport, "so I don't know what reasoning he advances."

When pressed further on whether she agrees with so-called originalists who argue that Medicare is unconstitutional, Barrett said she "can't answer that question in the abstract... I also don't know what the arguments would be, though I assume Professor Rappaport lays out a case. But it's not a question I've ever considered before."

"It's hard for me to believe that that's a real question," Feinstein responded, "because I think the Medicare program is really sacrosanct in this country."

Dark Money & Barrett Nomination: The Link Between Big Polluters & the War on ACA, Roe & LGBT Rights

Top Senate Republican says he has the votes to confirm Amy Coney Barrett

The Republican Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, said he has the votes to confirm the nomination of conservative Amy Coney Barrett as a supreme court justice as the upper chamber’s judiciary committee scheduled a vote for 22 October to advance the nomination towards a full Senate ballot shortly after. ...

Democrats on the judiciary committee, who are in the minority and who signaled on Thursday that they were out of tools and tactics to stop the Barrett nomination from advancing. ...

But with a 53-47 Republican majority in the Senate, McConnell expressed optimism that his caucus would be able to overcome Democratic objections and make Barrett Trump’s third supreme court justice to be installed in just four years. The last president to install justices so quickly was Ronald Reagan, who saw three justices confirmed during his second term in the late 1980s.

“We have the votes,” McConnell told reporters.

Two Republican senators, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, have signaled that they would not back the Barrett nomination, out of concern that it fell too close to a presidential election. But the rest of the Republicans have fallen in line, including those who objected to a Barack Obama nominee in March 2016 on the grounds that the nomination fell too close to an election being held eight months later.



the horse race



CHOMSKY Confronted! "Under Water" Outreach Strategy to Drowning Voters!

Andrew Cuomo and the New York Dems go to war against third parties:

New York WFP Organizes to Thwart Existential Threat to Its Ballot Line

In an effort to protect itself against an assault by New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the New York Working Families Party is calling on New Yorkers to vote for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on the WFP ballot line this November.

The push comes in response to a Cuomo-backed change that requires minority parties to obtain the higher of 2 percent of total voter turnout or 130,000 votes. If the left-leaning WFP fails to meet that threshold in the upcoming election, its ballot line will be eliminated before 2022, when Cuomo is up for reelection. In that case, the party would have to collect 45,000 petition signatures to make the ballot, following a change last year that tripled a 15,000-signature requirement.

In 2018, Cuomo handily defeated his WFP-backed primary opponent, Cynthia Nixon, but the group’s influence has grown nonetheless. Thirty-three WFP-backed candidates won contested state primaries in June, and another four WFP-backed congressional candidates won their primaries: Jamaal Bowman and Mondaire Jones, in safely blue districts, and Jackie Gordon and Dana Balter in competitive districts in Long Island and Syracuse, respectively.

In New York, candidates can appear on both the Democratic Party line on a ballot, as well as on the WFP. Several WFP-backed politicians — including Bowman, Jones, state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi, Assembly Member Yuh-Line Niou, state Sen. Julia Salazar, and New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams — are now taking part in the group’s campaign to urge voters to save the WFP by voting the WFP line next month.

Social Media CENSORING Hunter Biden Article!

Progressives Warn Against Accepting—Let Alone Applauding—Twitter Ban of "Garbage" NY Post Story

Press freedom advocates and progressive journalists continued to sound the alarm Thursday following moves by both Twitter and Facebook to ban or restrict sharing of controversial New York Post reporting published earlier this week that claimed to uncover new details about the past work of Hunter Biden, son of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, based on emails and documents supposedly found by a computer repairman on an abandoned laptop and then given to Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump's personal attorney.

As the Guardian reports:

In an unprecedented step against a major news publication, Twitter blocked users from posting links to the Post story or photos from the unconfirmed report. Users attempting to share the story were shown a notice saying: "We can't complete this request because this link has been identified by Twitter or our partners as being potentially harmful." Users clicking or retweeting a link already posted to Twitter are shown a warning the "link may be unsafe."

Ryan Grim, Washington bureau chief for The Intercept, was among those critics Wednesday who said that while the reporting may itself have little or no merit, the decision by Twitter to block users' ability to share the Post's article—and to shut down the right-wing newspaper's main Twitter account—was a counterproductive and troubling move with long-term implications that should not be overlooked.

"This whole thing is an absolute gift to the right wing. It was a garbage story that wasn't going anyway, just showed Hunter doing the corruption we know about," Grim argued in a tweet. "Now the right will use this censorship to further delegitimize the election."

Right on cue late Thurdsay morning, Republican Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Ted Cruz of Texas were among those charging that Twitter and Facebook, by their actions against the Post's story, were guilty of rigging the election in favor of the Democrats.

Grim's colleague at The Intercept, co-founder Glenn Greenwald, also let loose with his criticisms in a series of tweets Wednesday and again Thursday morning. For his part, in addition to other implications, Greenwald warned that all kinds of crucial reporting based on "unauthorized materials" would be in future jeopardy if such a policy by powerful media platforms was to remain unchallenged. ...

Greenwald also condemned self-identified liberals who were applauding Twitter's moves seemingly based on the sole fact that the actions were taken against a right-wing paper that published a story potentially damaging to Democrats. Such applause, he warned, misses the bigger implications of powerful tech corporations in the era of social media having such outsized impact on the public's ability to access information.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris flew with people who tested positive for Covid-19

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris both travelled on flights that carried someone who subsequently tested positive for the coronavirus, it emerged on Thursday.

Harris, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, abruptly canceled her travel for the coming few days after two people associated with the Biden-Harris election campaign tested positive for coronavirus.

That news came earlier on Thursday and was followed by a later statement from the campaign that Biden, the presidential nominee, had been on a flight in which a crew member had tested positive.

The campaign stressed that Biden was “not in close contact”.

SPLIT SCREEN Reality At Trump, Biden Town Halls As Moderators Approaches Differ

Trump's attacks on Obamacare could cost him in Texas and Florida

When Donald Trump began campaigning for the presidency that he captured in 2016, he promised to decimate the Affordable Care Act. His agenda was in no way hidden. “It’s gotta go,” Trump said of the ACA in an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash. “Repeal and replace with something terrific.”

More than five years later, the president still hasn’t articulated a plan for a system to replace Obamacare. But his administration’s repeated attacks on Barack Obama’s signature presidential achievement, along with other policy decisions, have contributed to a dramatic surge in the number of uninsured Americans – and provoked a movement that might shape the results in two huge battleground states.

“There is absolutely no doubt that healthcare is one of the top issues in this election and one of the most important for Latino voters in Florida,” said Abel Iraola, a spokesman for the Florida office of NextGen America, which supports progressive candidates by rallying the youth vote. “Latino families in Florida are facing the brunt of this crisis on every level, from healthcare to their pocketbooks.”

This was true well before the pandemic hit, and not just for Latinos. According to a Capital & Main analysis of data released by the US census bureau last month, the number of uninsured Americans increased by 2.3 million in the first three years of the Trump administration – prior to the onset of Covid-19, which has since prompted mass layoffs and job and benefits losses in the millions. Moreover, from 2016 to 2019, the two states that saw their numbers of uninsured rise most sharply were Florida, with 240,000 newly uninsured, and Texas, which saw its count swell by an astounding 689,000. Those two states, both captured by Trump in his first presidential run, are now considered dogfights, and their collective 67 electoral votes could easily swing the election.

Rising Battlegrounds PENNSYLVANIA Edition: The Epicenter Of Our Potential Election NIGHTMARE



the evening greens


Alleged animal abuse in US dairy sector under investigation

Evidence of what appears to be aggressive animal abuse, practices leading to heightened disease risk and cows being passed off as organic at a Texan auctioneers has been presented to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) by undercover welfare investigators. A second, separate abuse investigation at a dairy farm is on its way to court in California. ...

The first investigation centres on Texan auctioneers, Erath County Dairy Sales (ECDS). Undercover video footage filmed at ECDS between January and March 2020, and released online on Thursday, was delivered to the USDA by the US-Brazil based NGO, Strategies for Ethical and Environmental Development (Seed).

In one video, the undercover investigator, hired as an animal handler, is told that removing a cow’s ear tags, and replacing them with new “back tags” that indicate a cow is organic, can triple or quadruple their meat sale value. ... A Seed spokesperson said the tags were designed to control disease transmission risks – between animals and from animals to humans – linked to factory farms and the movement of animals from farms to auction and slaughterhouses. ...

A lawyer for California-based NGO, Animal Legal Defense Fund, said she was “not too surprised” by the tag switching accusations. “We have seen this type of thing before,” said Kelsey Eberly. She fears the practice is “more common” than people would expect, mainly “because the price premium is so much higher” for organic and better welfare meat and dairy.

Eberly is currently taking legal action against the California-based Dick Van Dam Dairy, accusing it of systemic abuse. The lawsuit, filed on 30 September with the California superior court for Riverside County, is based on undercover video footage filmed by Animal Outlook in November 2019. The video is narrated by actor Kate Mara. Drawing on the video evidence the lawsuit alleges that Dick Van Dam Dairy supervisors and staff used violence to control the cows.

California: 100,000 people without power amid extreme wildfire risk

Thousands of people in northern California were without power on Thursday amid an autumn heatwave that brought another round of extreme wildfire danger.

The utility company Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) began shutting off power on Wednesday evening to about 50,000 customers – about 100,000 people – in portions of 24 counties, mainly in the Sierra Nevada foothills and the San Francisco Bay Area. Another 20,000 people were expected to lose power later on Thursday.

The outages were a “last-resort option”, said Mark Quinlan, PG&E’s incident commander.

The National Weather Service had issued heat advisories through Friday for temperatures in the 90s and even triple digits in many parts of the state. Red-flag warnings were up in much of the San Francisco Bay Area, where Diablo winds bringing hot, dry gusts up to 55mph (88.5km/h) were expected to pose a threat of sparking new blazes in a region that already has seen some of the worst wildfires in state history.


Also of Interest

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

Intercepted podcast - Part Two: Administration of Xenophobia

Talking Tough & Carrying a Radioactive Stick

Azerbaijan Says Hit Missile Launch Sites in Armenia

Bolivian coup officials and supporters stalk international election observers, launch violent incitement campaign

‘Persecuting Assange Is a Real Blow to Reporting and Human Rights Advocacy’

Media Again Falsely Claim That Joe Biden's Intervention In Ukraine Was Innocent

Up in Arms Over Failed Barrett Hearings, Watchdog Calls for Feinstein's Removal as Ranking Member on Senate Judiciary

Dems Silent As Barrett Evades Climate Query With Shell Case Looming

Ohio's quarter-mile early-voting lines? That's what voter suppression looks like

Move Over, Hunter Biden. Meet Eric Branstad, the China Ambassador’s Son Who Got Rich in Trump’s Swamp.

The Useful Tool: Kamala “Heartbeat Away” Harris

Resurgence of Child Labor Amid Global Pandemic Offered as Proof That 'Capitalism Is Monstrous'

Jacinda Ardern prevails in final debate before New Zealand election

A Desperate Trump Rallies in Iowa as He Cancels Ads, Loses Ground

Jimmy Dore: OBAMA's Legacy -- Facing The Truth

David Sirota: Obama Alum Valerie Jarrett Goes ALL IN For Top Wall Street Banker's Mayoral Campaign

More People Say They're Better Off Under Trump, Will It Save His Bid?


A Little Night Music

The Fabulous Thunderbirds - She's Tough

Stevie Ray Vaughan and The Fabulous Thunderbirds - Tuff Enuff

The Fabulous Thunderbirds - Girls Go Wild

The Fabulous Thunderbirds - Why Get Up?

The Fabulous Thunderbirds - Wrap it up

The Fabulous Thunderbirds - Wait on Time

The Fabulous Thunderbirds - Rock With Me

The Fabulous Thunderbirds - Powerful Stuff

The Fabulous Thunderbirds at Rockpalast


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21 users have voted.

Comments

mimi's picture

I comprehend this bullshit til Monday. Will check back in then.

Have a good weekend all.

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6 users have voted.
mimi's picture

@mimi
very special. Smile Super babe. Thanks for that. Gosh, I am so kaputt.

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5 users have voted.
mimi's picture

@mimi

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5 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@mimi

glad you enjoyed the music, have a great weekend!

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2 users have voted.
ggersh's picture

have a safe/good weekend all!

all the corruption yet no one goes to jail, damn it anyway as I doubt many would be able to live out their sentence.

UFB!

https://www.rt.com/news/503715-radioactive-fukushima-water-dropping/

Japan expected to dump over 1 MILLION TONS of radioactive Fukushima water into Pacific, fishermen fear ‘catastrophic impact’

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12 users have voted.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@ggersh

i periodically read that japan is about to dump a bunch (more) radioactive water into the pacific. god only knows how much has already been released by the initial incident and afterwards. perhaps we don't need to worry about acidification and temperature rise killing off all of the fish and the corals if they are just going to become poisoned by radiation.

have a great weeekend!

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8 users have voted.

@joe shikspack
washing up on the West Coast. Last year?

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5 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

joe shikspack's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

well, debris from the tsunami washed up on the west coast for years. radiation has also reached the west coast. every day fukushima still leaks radioactive water into the ocean, there are various estimates of how much. government sources all seem to discount the possibility of contamination of water and aquatic life at a level that is harmful to humans if ingested. do you believe them? some people do, some people don't.

one thing is pretty sure, dumping concentrated radioactive stuff into the ocean for dispersal is not a good thing to do.

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10 users have voted.

@joe shikspack
Well I won't eat Pacific fish anymore. But then I'll never fly in a Boeing aircraft again, although I read the other day that the FAA has re-certified the 737MAX despite all tests not being completed. It ain't my father's FAA.

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4 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

enhydra lutris's picture

Uppity Sinclair left a word out there, but I fixed it:

“Fascism is capitalism plus MORE murder.”

-- Upton Sinclair

Either that or he retroactively redefined historical capitalism. I mean, when were war and murder not part of the package.

Thanks for the News and blues.

be well and have a good one. Also have a fabulous weekend.

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10 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

perhaps it should be, "fascism is capitalism with a warped sense of style."

have a great weekend!

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8 users have voted.
Granma's picture

So much bad news....but you don't make it, you just round it up to share with us.
Have a great weekend.

I have grandkids overnight for the first time in a very long time. They live in a virus careful household. I'll be tired tomorrow, but it is worth it to see them.

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14 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@Granma

just got back from dinner with the kids and grandkid. ms shikspack made tamales and the grandkid made her own brand of pleasant mayhem.

glad to hear you've got the grandkids, it's the best kind of worn out you can get.

have a great time!

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11 users have voted.
Azazello's picture

More on Hunter Biden here: Daily Mail.
It's all Russian lies, of course: NBC, NYT
The most interesting thing I read all day: Western Lockdown to Shut Down China
Have a nice weekend.

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5 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! it looks like the hunter biden story isn't going to go away until somebody can explain how the stuff that was on the laptop hard drive got there and why it got left in the hands of a repair shop in delaware. if it's all fake, it is an amazingly elaborate hoax, for sure.

some interesting points in the saker piece, thanks!

have a great weekend!

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6 users have voted.
Lookout's picture

All I can say is whatta a mess. Climate, economic, social, and ecosystem collapse all at the same time. Best enjoy what we have in our different worlds....friends, family, the nature we do have around us.

Oh baby it's wild world

Onward through the fog. Wishing you all the best!

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11 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

joe shikspack's picture

@Lookout

as they say, get it while you can. we had a lovely planet and there are still some nice places left, thank goodness. i guess we'll see how long that lasts.

have a great weekend!

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6 users have voted.
Unabashed Liberal's picture

of countries which will allow US Citizens to travel to/visit. Of course, the ones we are interested in, aren't included. Bad

Where Can Americans Travel Right Now? A Country-by-country Guide
From lounging on Caribbean beaches to sightseeing in Serbia, Americans now have options when it comes to international travel.
BY ALISON FOX UPDATED OCTOBER 14, 2020

Now, we're considering Malta, if it looks like Uruguay won't open up soon. Catch is, we'd have to travel to another country for two weeks, before entering. (then, there's no quarantine)

By no means, is it our first choice, but, heh--not many countries are open to US citizens. Smile That's 'why' they're not on the list I've posted, although, if Americans are willing to take an indirect route, they're still welcome. (unless something has changed since 1 September)

Gotta run, and take a peak at Part D Plans for 2021. Will report on what I find, later. (really dread it, more than ever--hard to believe that most plans won't be considerably more expensive, in light of COVID-19)

Mr M is eager to fire up 'Columbo.' Last night, saw George Patton's wife in an episode (can't remember her name, right now)--she's a pretty decent actress. Oh, now I remember her name--Trish Van Devere.

Thanks for tonight's EB, Joe. Will swing back by to read, after din-din, before we settle in for the evening

Everyone have a nice weekend. First frost, this evening--enjoyed cooler mid-50's all day. Stay warm!

Bye Pleasantry

Mollie

"The leaders of this new movement are replacing traditional liberal beliefs about tolerance, free inquiry, and even racial harmony with ideas so toxic and unattractive that they eschew debate, moving straight to shaming, threats, and intimidation."
~~Matt Taibbi, The American Press Is Destroying Itself, June 12, 2020

“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die, I want to go where they went.”
~~Will Rogers, Actor & Social Commentator (1856-1950)

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6 users have voted.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@Unabashed Liberal

malta sounds nice!

have a great weekend!

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2 users have voted.
WoodsDweller's picture

It's more than a little scary that the man's general incompetence may not have been enough to sink his reelection. It took a a colossal screw up that cost 220,000 lives and counting.

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6 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

i guess trump may have to change his blather about how he could shoot people on fifth avenue and get away with it to being able to kill hundreds of thousands of americans and still get reelected.

apparently, some americans don't value competence as much as they value their perceptions of liberty. they don't mind being slaves so long as they don't have to wear masks and black people have it worse than they do.

go figure.

have a great weekend!

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6 users have voted.
dystopian's picture

Hi JS! and all! Hope its all good for everyone! Great sounds for a Friday night! I saw you did Curtis Mayfield, he was so great. Pure artistry. And tragedy at the end.

I heard DiFi's 'questioning' act with Amy Conehead Barret described as "fawning" and "swooning", quite accurately I would say. Such a resistance! We're so screwed. How did DiFi last this long? I was in CA when her and Pelosi got elected. Might have voted for them. They ran as populists, like Obama, and flicked like a switch, like Obama.

Damn the bad news and full speed ahead!

Have a good one!

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7 users have voted.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@dystopian

heh, why would difi care about amy conehead barrett? difi is rich and barrett is being put into the court by rich people to serve the interests of rich people.

have a great weekend!

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5 users have voted.
travelerxxx's picture

Regarding the apparently extra-judicial killing of suspect Reinoehl in Portland, Trumps remarks gave me the chills. The statement to Fox is especially worrisome (to put it mildly):

“...the U.S. Marshals killed him, and I’ll tell you something — that’s the way it has to be. There has to be retribution.”

For those wondering, here is the quote in the original German from 1933:

"Die US-Marschälle haben ihn getötet, und ich werde Ihnen etwas sagen - so muss es sein. Es muss Vergeltung geben.“

Oh... wait – this was just last month.

.

I vaguely remember the time a band named The Fabulous Thunderbirds was booked at a dance hall a few blocks from my house in Redondo Beach. This was back around 1979. I'd never heard of them and didn't go. What a dummy I was.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

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7 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@travelerxxx

it sounds so much more appropriate in german. thanks!

have a great weekend!

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3 users have voted.

My building contractor will be thrilled his first cousins are still popular!
I am in a cabin, enjoying Lake Sam Rayburn for a couple of days.
It is chilly, but wonderful.
You take good care!
My morning appointment was a widow needing to probate her husband's will. He died of COVID=19. I won't go into the gory details, but NOBODY should suffer like that.

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7 users have voted.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@on the cusp

i'm pretty sure your contractor's cousins have never gone out of style and probably won't for a long time to come.

have a great vacation and a great weekend!

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5 users have voted.
Benny's picture

Evenin' Joe...sorry so late, but actually, this time of the day is perfect for listening to the T-birds, as I used to do in college on Friday or Saturday nights. And I saw them open for the Stones in 1981. Geez, nearly 40 years ago.

This song is from Butt Rockin', which is my favorite T-Birds LP.

And as usual, thanks for the round-up!

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5 users have voted.

One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will. To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.--Tennyson

joe shikspack's picture

@Benny

thanks for the tune! funny how fourty years goes by so fast.

have a great weekend!

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4 users have voted.