The Evening Blues - 1-12-21
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features Chicago blues allstar band The Legendary Blues Band. Enjoy!
Legendary Blues Band - Crazy 'Bout That Thing
“The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern.”
-- Lord Acton
News and Opinion
An excellent piece by Matt Taibbi, worth a full read:
We Need a New Media System
The moment a group of people stormed the Capitol building last Wednesday, news companies began the process of sorting and commoditizing information that long ago became standard in American media. Media firms work backward. They first ask, “How does our target demographic want to understand what’s just unfolded?” Then they pick both the words and the facts they want to emphasize.
It’s why Fox News uses the term, “Pro-Trump protesters,” while New York and The Atlantic use “Insurrectionists.” It’s why conservative media today is stressing how Apple, Google, and Amazon shut down the “Free Speech” platform Parler over the weekend, while mainstream outlets are emphasizing a new round of potentially armed protests reportedly planned for January 19th or 20th.
What happened last Wednesday was the apotheosis of the Hate Inc. era, when this audience-first model became the primary means of communicating facts to the population. For a hundred reasons dating back to the mid-eighties, from the advent of the Internet to the development of the 24-hour news cycle to the end of the Fairness Doctrine and the Fox-led discovery that news can be sold as character-driven, episodic TV in the manner of soap operas, the concept of a “Just the facts” newscast designed to be consumed by everyone died out.
News companies now clean world events like whalers, using every part of the animal, funneling different facts to different consumers based upon calculations about what will bring back the biggest engagement kick. The Migrant Caravan? Fox slices off comments from a Homeland Security official describing most of the border-crossers as single adults coming for “economic reasons.” The New York Times counters by running a story about how the caravan was deployed as a political issue by a Trump White House staring at poor results in midterm elections.
Repeat this info-sifting process a few billion times and this is how we became, as none other than Mitch McConnell put it last week, a country:
Drifting apart into two separate tribes, with a separate set of facts and separate realities, with nothing in common except our hostility towards each other and mistrust for the few national institutions that we all still share.
The flaw in the system is that even the biggest news companies now operate under the assumption that at least half their potential audience isn’t listening. This leads to all sorts of problems, and the fact that the easiest way to keep your own demographic is to feed it negative stories about others is only the most obvious. On all sides, we now lean into inflammatory caricatures, because the financial incentives encourage it.
Matt Stoller: Why The Left Will REGRET Cheering On Deplatforming
Donald Trump being banned from social media is a dangerous distraction
In the wake of Donald Trump’s instigation of a shocking attack on the US Capitol, it’s easy to demand that Trump be barred from social media. “These corporations should announce a permanent ban of his accounts,” said Representative Bennie Thompson, chair of the House homeland security committee. “Nothing short of that will meet this moment.” Indeed, Facebook, Google and Twitter have taken action, suspending the president from their platforms or removing videos.
But whatever one thinks of stopping Trump fomenting violence by limiting his ability to communicate, the ability of democratically unaccountable monopolies with extraordinary control over communications infrastructure, like Facebook and Google, YouTube’s parent company, to silence political speech is exceptionally dangerous. It also sidesteps the underlying problem – that it’s their dominance and business model that promotes conspiratorial, fake and violent content to millions.
Trump is not the first demagogue America has seen and he won’t be the last. But his power is amplified by a corrupted information ecosystem created by Google, Facebook and media barons like Rupert Murdoch. Those who came to the Capitol to riot sincerely believed they were stopping the subversion of American democracy because an entire information ecosystem encouraged them to discount any political or media institution that told them otherwise. That ecosystem of disinformation, extremism, rage and bigotry won’t go away by banning Trump or his supporters. That’s because the driving force behind it is profit: Facebook and Google make billions by fostering it. ...
The problem, in other words, won’t go away with banning Trump, because the problem is that the steady supply of toxic, addictive content that keeps eyeballs on ads is at the heart of these monopolies’ business models. Trump is far from the only supplier of that content now, and there’s no doubt others will rise up to replace him, with a boost from Facebook and Google. ...
But until political leaders recognize that these tech barons make their billions by selling tickets to the end of American democracy, it will continue to creep ever closer. Seeing Trump booted off Facebook may be emotionally satisfying and even potentially prevent dangerous behavior in the short term. But only a wholesale restructuring of our online communications infrastructure can preserve democracy.
Trump Banned from Social Media -- Free Speech & Big Tech.
Pelosi Quietly Thanks Democrats Pushing to Expel Members of Congress
A slew of rank-and-file Democrats made headlines over the weekend calling for the investigation and possible expulsion of fellow members of Congress who backed President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. But few took note as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi quietly seemed to bless those efforts in a letter to Hill Democrats.
Pelosi didn’t explicitly mention the possibility of expelling members, but she did thank Democrats for expressing their views on the constitutional amendment that would make it possible. Democrats have sought to punish fellow members of Congress who are found to have supported the Trump efforts that led to the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol.
In a Sunday letter on measures being taken in the House in response to the riots, Pelosi mentioned Democrats’ efforts to remove members using the 14th Amendment. “Your views on the 25th Amendment, 14th Amendment Section 3 and impeachment are valued as we continue,” she wrote to her colleagues.
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which was ratified after the Civil War, reads:
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
Ryan Grim: GOP Members CAUGHT Helping Organize January 6th Protest
Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Biggs Helped Plan January 6 Event, Lead Organizer Says
The head of the House Freedom Caucus, Republican Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, helped plan the January 6 event that culminated in a storming of the Capitol, according to Ali Alexander, a lead organizer of the gathering. Alexander, a pro-Trump personality, was an early founder of the “Stop the Steal” movement, and helped bring together various right-wing factions around a mass event on January 6, aimed to coincide with objections to the counting of Electoral College votes.
Alexander made his claim in three separate livestreams in late December, adding that Reps. Paul Gosar of Arizona and Mo Brooks of Alabama were also involved. “We’re the four guys who came up with a January 6 event,” Alexander said. On December 8, the Arizona Republican Party boosted Alexander, asking supporters if they were willing to give their lives in the fight over the results of the presidential election.
His claim is also buttressed by a fourth video from a December 19 rally at the Arizona state Capitol, at which Alexander played a video that Biggs had supplied. In the video, Biggs mentions Brooks as his ally in the fight. Gosar spoke in person at the event.
Biggs’s connection to Alexander was reported on Sunday by the Arizona Republic, which quoted his spokesperson, Daniel Stefanski, denying any connection to Alexander. “Congressman Biggs is not aware of hearing of or meeting Mr. Alexander at any point — let alone working with him to organize some part of a planned protest,” Stefanski said. “He did not have any contact with protestors or rioters, nor did he ever encourage or foster the rally or protests.”
Neither Gosar nor Brooks responded to inquiries from The Intercept. Brooks, after the event, sought to legitimize political violence in a radio interview. Alexander did not respond to a text or phone call; his voicemail was full. Alexander, who adopted a new name after pleading guilty to felony property theft in 2007 and felony credit card abuse in 2008, has been suspended from Twitter and other platforms for his role in organizing the January 6 event. As the Daily Beast reported, he has said he has been unfairly blamed for the violence on January 6, and has gone underground.
Trump disavows any responsibility for his supporters' Jan. 6 attack
An interesting piece that might be worth a full read:
A Mob Attacked the Capitol for Trump. Now What?
I spent the last year talking with people from militant groups on the American right and always driving toward the same question: And then what? You’re armed and trained and linked up with your outfit. And then what? You’re ready to stand up to the leftist mob or defend Donald Trump from the inevitable attempt to steal the election. And then what? You’ll fight if you have to. OK, and then what?
I keep pushing down this path because in the end, it leads to war and I want to have a discussion about what that means. Because I hope that behind all the prepping and posturing from that side — and the level 11 hysteria that pervades America generally — we all realize that we’re comfortable and fat and free, and that real war means your house will get wrecked and your kids or your neighbor or the cashier you trade hellos with at your fully stocked supermarket will die. My fear is not that some people somewhere will start a real conflict intentionally, having first grappled with the consequences of that and thought it all through, but that they’ll keep taking that next step toward one without ever understanding what they’re really asking for.
What happened at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday is not a militia story; they were there but so was every other part of Trump’s coalition. Yet it was the next blind step toward an outcome no one wants, led by people who can’t answer that same basic question: And then what? Trump was never going to accept the election if he lost. What set the nation on this course was so many Republicans deciding to back his claims that it was stolen. It lent the narrative crucial layers of legitimacy and gave people the sense that if they resisted the transfer of power, they’d have establishment backing. First Trump’s enablers were just going to let him have his days in court. OK, and then what? Then they were going along with efforts to block or delay certification in the states. And then there was Sidney Powell alleging an international globalist-Marxist conspiracy in a press conference at the Republican National Committee. There was the suit alleging widespread fraud backed by 17 Republican attorneys general and 126 Republican members of Congress. Then there was Wednesday’s ploy to challenge the Electoral College vote and the rally and the Trump speech and the mob.
The nation dodged a bullet because the people who broke into the Capitol, most of them at least, never seemed to get past that same “and then what” dilemma. They threatened lawmakers, killed a police officer, and delayed the count but didn’t make a serious effort to hold their ground. If they’d pressed their advantage and made it an occupation, it could have grown into something much larger. ... Any space can become symbolic quickly through the narrow lenses of TV cameras and social media feeds. That’s how a dispute over cattle-grazing rights at the Bundy Ranch in Nevada mushroomed into a seminal event for the militant right in 2014.
Some version of that could still happen. Trump and his onetime national security adviser Michael Flynn, whom many in the militant movement see as a natural leader, have so far stopped well short of the kind of clear provocations that could incite it. There’s also the chance that the outcry over the Capitol riot — and the fact that rioters are facing criminal charges and doxxing campaigns and losing their jobs — could suck the momentum from the movement and force people to realize that they don’t want to upend their lives. I think it depends on how many officials in the Republican Party continue to lend credibility to the idea that the election was stolen either by outright support for Trump’s conspiracy theories or by winks and nods or by silence.
Two Capitol police officers suspended over behavior during riot
Two Capitol police officers have been suspended as a result of their actions during the storming of the US Capitol, as pressure mounts on law enforcement to hold rioters accountable and to secure Washington DC from further violence ahead of Joe Biden’s inauguration next week.
Tim Ryan, a Democratic senator of Ohio, told reporters on Monday that one of the officers took a selfie with someone and the other put on a “Make America Great Again” hat. He says of the latter that the “interim chief determined that to be qualifying for immediate suspension”. ...
Ryan said says Capitol police were looking at everybody involved that could have potentially facilitated the incursion “at a big level or small level in any way”. He said they did not want an officer working on Joe Biden’s inauguration “who was not doing the job on the January 6 event”. ...
The Capitol police force on Monday named Yogananda Pittman as the new acting chief of the force, which was plunged into crisis by the security breach. ... Pittman said that the police department was “actively reviewing video and other open source materials of some [Capitol] officers and officials that appear to be in violation of department regulations and policies.”
“Our office of professional responsibility will investigate these behaviors for disciplinary action, up to, and including, termination. Several [Capitol] officers have already been suspended pending the outcome of their investigations,” she said in a statement Monday evening.
Acting US homeland security secretary Chad Wolf resigns
Chad Wolf, the acting homeland security secretary, who helped enact key pieces of the Trump administration’s hardline immigration agenda, resigned on Monday, as the nation confronts heightened security threats after an attack on the US capitol by supporters of the president.
Wolf said in a letter to staff at the Department of Homeland Security that he had intended to remain in office until the inauguration of Joe Biden but would instead step down at 11.59pm on Monday night.
His departure, he said, was compelled in part by “recent events” and by court rulings invalidating some of the Trump administration’s immigration policies, citing findings that Wolf was illegally serving in the role.
“I am saddened to take this step, as it was my intention to serve the Department until the end of this Administration,” said Wolf, who had been serving in an acting capacity since November 2019 and was never confirmed by the Senate.
America Has Entered the Weimar Era: Walden Bello on How Neoliberalism Fueled Trump & Violent Right
Republican attorneys general condemned over robocall that urged march to Capitol
Leaders from the Republican Attorneys General Association face mounting criticism after sending out a robocall that urged supporters of Donald Trump to join the 6 January march on the US Capitol that resulted in a deadly insurrection.
“At [1pm''] we will march to the Capitol building and call on Congress to stop the steal,” a robocall from the Rule of Law Defense Fund (RLDF), a fundraising arm of the Republican Attorneys General Association, said. The voice then said: “We are hoping patriots like you will join us to continue the fight to protect the integrity of our election.”
The association’s chair, Georgia attorney general Chris Carr, is now among several officials who claim to have “had no knowledge or involvement in this decision”, distancing themselves from or outright condemning the call.
“The stance of the protesters was not consistent with [the attorney general’s] position on election fraud,” Carr spokesperson Katie Byrd told NBC News. “He has been saying since moments after seeing news break, the violence and destruction we saw at the US Capitol is unacceptable and un-American.”
FBI warns of potential boogaloo violence during Jan. 17 rallies
Federal authorities are warning state and local law enforcement about threats of possible violence by right-wing extremists at a series of protests planned for later this month in Washington and in state capitols, according to an FBI document obtained by Yahoo News.
The situational information report, produced by the Minneapolis field office of the FBI, is based on information provided by what it describes as “collaborative sources,” and was issued the week before a mob of Trump supporters violently stormed the U.S. Capitol. It addresses concerns about rallies that the far-right boogaloo movement plans to hold in cities across the country on Jan. 17.
The Dec. 29, 2020, report warns that “some followers indicated willingness to commit violence in support of their ideology, created contingency plans in the event violence occurred at the events, and identified law enforcement security measures and possible countermeasures.” Specifically, the report describes evidence of credible threats related to events planned for Jan. 17 at the state Capitol buildings in Michigan and Minnesota.
Those rallies are part of what members of the violent far-right and libertarian boogaloo movement are hoping will be a nationwide “armed march” on Capitol Hill and all 50 state capitols next Sunday. Though it’s not totally clear how many people are expected to participate in the boogaloo-backed protests, the Jan. 17 events appear to be the next major organizing effort by extremist groups following the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, which left five people dead, including a U.S. Capitol Police officer.
Krystal Ball: Why is Joe Scarborough Suddenly A Bernie Bro?
As the Revolving Door Spins, Lobbyists Hired for Top Jobs in Congress Yet Again
Beyond the headlines around the unprecedented storming of Capitol Hill by rampagers and violent extremists, a more mundane group of Washington, D.C., insiders is trickling into the halls of government. The newly elected Congress is hiring a wave of corporate lobbyists to fill key staff roles. ...
In the Senate, lobbyists are scoring top jobs on a weekly basis. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, an influential moderate, hired a new chief of staff who previously represented Alaska mining interests last month. Shortly after his reelection in November, Sen. Gary Peter, D-Mich., who sits on a subcommittee overseeing internet policy, hired a former Google lobbyist as his counsel and committee legislative aide. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., after his reelection hired a Kentucky lobbyist whose firm touts its ties to the Kentucky congressional delegation while representing AT&T, DaVita, and Cisco, among other clients.
Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., the incoming ranking member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, last week chose Martha Scott Poindexter as the committee’s top GOP staffer. Poindexter currently works as a lobbyist for the agribusiness transit firm Bunge.
In the House of Representatives, lobbyists are similarly snagging senior positions. The newly appointed chief of staff to Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., is Sarah Slocum Collins, who just left her position as an in-house lobbyist for Tyson Foods, the factory farming giant. Rep. Tracey Mann, R-Kan., selected the former government relations manager of the Farmers’ Rice Cooperative. Earlier this month, Rep. Kathy Manning, D-N.C., appointed Sarah Curtis, a lobbyist for the Mayo Clinic, as her chief of staff.
Dem operative tries to protect Pelosi. Pfffftttt.
STUNNED When Journalist Asks Why She Held Up Stimulus Bill
'Inheriting a mess': grim outlook for Biden goal of 100m Covid vaccinations in 100 days
Joe Biden has been promising Americans that “help is on the way” since his election, with a goal of inoculating 100 million people with the Covid-19 vaccine within the first 100 days of his presidency. But just days away from his inauguration, Biden is reportedly frustrated with his own coronavirus taskforce, and concerned they might not reach their goal in time, according to Politico.
The president-elect reportedly told Jeff Zients, head of the taskforce, and his deputy, Natalie Quillian, that the team was underperforming. At least 1,777 new coronavirus deaths, and 208,338 new cases were reported in the US on 10 January, according to Johns Hopkins University data. In the past two weeks, there has been a 38% increase in average cases per day from two weeks prior, according to the New York Times. Currently more than 22 million Americans are Covid-19 positive.
Meanwhile, the vaccine rollout under the Trump administration has been rocky at best, with only 7m vaccines administered in the first three weeks, and Biden’s team is discovering that the massive infrastructure needed to disseminate the vaccine at a population level is far from complete. Furthermore, the Trump administration has reportedly been withholding information amid the transition.
“They’re inheriting a mess,” Andy Slavitt, former Obama administration acting Medicare and Medicaid chief, told Politico. “I think they’re uncovering how bad it is.”
Joe Biden picks veteran diplomat William Burns as CIA director
The veteran diplomat William Burns is to become the new director of the CIA, Joe Biden announced on Monday, in an “apolitical” appointment that marks a clear break with the partisan use of intelligence under Donald Trump.
The US president-elect hailed Burns as an “exemplary diplomat” and said that the American people will be able to “sleep soundly with him as our next CIA director”. If confirmed, Burns would become the first leader in the agency’s history whose career was spent at the US state department.
A former ambassador to Russia and Jordan, Burns led the US delegation in secret talks in 2013 with Iran over its nuclear programme. He has served under Republican and Democratic presidents and is expected to gain some bipartisan support. In 2014 he retired from the foreign service to run the Carnegie Endowment of International Peace.
Biden taps William Burns to head Central Intelligence Agency
As a top-level State Department official through the administrations of Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II and Obama, longtime US State Department official William Burns is implicated in virtually every crime of US imperialism over the past three decades, including the war in Iraq, the US-NATO attack on Libya, the military coup that drowned the Egyptian Revolution in blood, and the US intervention in Syria. Burns specialized in the Middle East and Russia, moving up the ladder from US Ambassador to Jordan (1998-2001) to Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs (2001-2005), where he was responsible for State Department operations in conquered Iraq, ruled as a virtual US colony, as well as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In 2005, George W. Bush named him Ambassador to Russia, one of the top US diplomatic postings. He returned to Washington in 2008 to be undersecretary of state for political affairs, and was maintained in that position when Hillary Clinton became secretary of state under Obama. In 2011, Obama promoted him to deputy secretary of state, the number two position, where he was the day-to-day leader of the State Department, first under Clinton, then John Kerry. After such a career, as the saying goes, Burns knows where all the bodies are buried. Now he is assigned to head an agency that is probably responsible for more killing, torture and mass suffering than any other on the planet: the CIA.
One of his less-publicized activities was helping suppress the revolutionary movement of the working class in Egypt which erupted in 2011, and was drowned in blood after the 2013 military coup. As Deputy Secretary of State, Burns traveled to Egypt before and after the July 3, 2013 military coup by dictator general-General Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi, who has remained in power ever since with Washington’s blessing and favor.
Also in 2013, Burns headed a special high-level State Department detail that was sent to Russia to try to convince President Vladimir Putin to turn over National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden. He later chastised China for permitting Snowden to escape Hong Kong after his devastating revelations about systematic spying by the NSA against the world’s population, including Americans. The Chinese reluctance to detain—i.e., kidnap—Snowden on behalf of the US government “was not consistent with the spirit... the type of relationship—the new model—that we both seek to build.”
A preview of what to expect from a Burns-led CIA was given during an interview with National Public Radio’s Mary Louise Kelly on “US Global Leadership” held June 19, 2019 at the Truman Center for National Policy in Washington, DC. In the extended conversation, Burns defended the US and NATO-led coup in Libya which ended with the grisly murder of Muammar Gaddafi, followed by an ongoing civil war, the torture and killing of refugees and the return of slave-markets.
Outgoing Trump Administration to Designate Cuba a 'State Sponsor of Terrorism'
Cuban and American officials as well as progressives in various parts of the world on Monday blasted the soon-to-be-departed Trump administration's decision to put Cuba back on the U.S. State Department's list of "State Sponsors of Terrorism," a move that critics say reveals the U.S. government's hypocritical approach to the topic of "terrorism."
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's last-minute announcement, which reverses an Obama-era effort to improve diplomatic relations with the neighboring island nation, comes just before President-elect Joe Biden takes office on January 20.
On its way out the door, the Trump administration is "laying political land mines" for Biden—not only in Cuba but also in Yemen and Taiwan—wrote Robbie Gramer and Jack Detsch in Foreign Policy on Monday.
"The decision is a part of a blitz of 11th-hour moves by the Trump administration to push through hard-line policies championed by influential domestic political constituencies despite the complications they create for State Department lawyers, humanitarian interests abroad, and the incoming Biden administration," The Washington Post reported Monday.
Gramer and Detsch, however, suggested that the Trump administration is carrying out these actions not despite the harm they will cause the Biden administration but rather because the changes will constrain the incoming White House.
Cuba joins Iran, North Korea, and Syria on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, a list that critics say conspicuously leaves out "U.S. allies that actually do sponsor terrorist groups: Saudi Arabia and Pakistan."
Sticking Point in Afghan Peace Talks: Two Forever Prisoners at Guantánamo
After close to two decades of fighting, the U.S. war in Afghanistan might be close to an end. Against long odds, the Afghan Taliban seems not only to have survived its conflict with the United States but is today negotiating terms in Qatar-based talks about its future role in Afghan politics. One of the remaining issues in the peace talks is the matter of prisoners of war held by all sides. Thousands of Taliban prisoners have been released by the U.S.-backed Afghan government in recent months, part of a process intended to build goodwill and settle accounts from the conflict.
The U.S. itself also has an ongoing, direct role in prisoner releases — a delicate political situation that could create a hang-up in the talks. Thousands of Afghans have been held in U.S. prison facilities over the two long decades of the war, either in Afghanistan itself or at covert “black sites” abroad. Two of the U.S.’s Afghan prisoners, though, remain imprisoned at the U.S. detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba: Muhammad Rahim and Asadullah Haroon. Their fate has now become a point of contention in the peace talks, with the Taliban reportedly asking the U.S. to release them as part of any final agreement. ...
Rahim and Haroon are among the 40 prisoners still held at the Guantánamo Bay detention center, where the first prisoners began arriving 19 years ago on Monday. Their ordeals are exemplars of the prison’s excesses: Despite being held there for over a decade, neither has been charged with any crime. An Al Jazeera investigation into Haroon’s background published in 2016 casts doubts on the U.S. government’s allegations that he had been a commander for an Islamist militant group — a group that has since signed a peace deal with the Afghan government — and former courier for Al Qaeda. Instead, Al Jazeera found that little concrete information about Haroon exists in official documents, and its reporting suggested that his detention and rendition to Guantánamo arose from a case of mistaken identity.
Slightly more is known about Rahim. Now in his 50s, Rahim was among the last prisoners to arrive at Guantánamo, renditioned there in 2008 following his capture by Pakistani authorities in the city of Lahore. A detainee assessment conducted that year alleged that Rahim had worked as a facilitator for Al Qaeda members in Afghanistan — a generic catch-all accusation leveled at many held at Guantánamo. Over the years, he periodically popped up in the news offering opinions on life in prison and American culture, using the English-language skills he has refined behind bars. After nearly a decade and a half in U.S. custody, however, no evidence has ever been presented to substantiate the terrorism allegations that originally landed him at Guantánamo, let alone charges.
Along with Haroon and a handful of others, Rahim has been cast into the legal black hole of being a so-called forever prisoner at Guantánamo Bay — someone whom the government is unable to charge with a crime yet also unwilling to release.
Justice Democrats Endorses Nina Turner for Congress Based on Record of 'Fighting to Uplift' Working People
The progressive political action committee Justice Democrats on Monday endorsed former Democratic Ohio state senator and 2020 Bernie Sanders presidential campaign co-chair Nina Turner in her bid to represent the Buckeye State's 11th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.
"We are so proud to support Nina Turner because she has stood with our progressive movement since day one," Justice Democrats executive director Alexandra Rojas said in a statement.
"She has a strong public service record of fighting to uplift working-class people and deliver justice," the statement added. "We know Sen. Turner will help create a mission-driven team in Congress to deliver relief during this pandemic and fight for Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, racial justice, and getting big money out of politics."
Turner announced her congressional candidacy last month following President-elect Joe Biden's selection of Rep. Marcia Fudge as his nominee to head the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Krystal and Saagar EXPOSE NYT Hit Job On Andrew Yang For Mayor
Insect populations suffering death by 1,000 cuts, say scientists
Insect populations are suffering “death by a thousand cuts”, with many falling at “frightening” rates that are “tearing apart the tapestry of life”, according to scientists behind a new volume of studies.
The insects face multiple, overlapping threats including the destruction of wild habitats for farming, urbanisation, pesticides and light pollution. Population collapses have been recorded in places where human activities dominate, such as in Germany, but there is little data from outside Europe and North America and in particular from wild, tropical regions where most insects live.
The scientists are especially concerned that the climate crisis may be causing serious damage in the tropics. But even though much more data is needed, the researchers say enough is already known for urgent action to be taken.
Insects are by far the most varied and abundant animals on Earth, with millions of species and outweighing humans by 17 times. They are essential to the ecosystems that humanity depends upon, pollinating plants, providing food for other creatures and recycling nature’s waste.
New horizons in stoopid:
Case of manatee with 'Trump' etched into back under investigation
Federal wildlife officials in Florida are reportedly seeking information on the perpetrators of an attack on a manatee, which apparently had the word “Trump” scraped into its back.
The attack on the animal was reported by the Citrus County Chronicle, which showed a picture of the large aquatic mammal with the name of the US president clearly visible by being etched into its skin.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Biden Exploits His Capitol Gains
47 Lawmakers Join Rep. Cori Bush's Resolution to Remove GOP Members for Inciting Attack on Capitol
The Terror Of Liberals In A Time Of Insurrection
Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman Has Covid-19 After Hiding From Trump Mob With Maskless GOP Lawmakers
Parler sues Amazon for yanking account following US Capitol siege
7,000+ Lawyers, Law Students Demand Hawley and Cruz Resign for Inciting 'Violence and Terror'
Meet the “Conservative” Groups that Fueled a Violent Insurrection at the Capitol on January 6
Republican civil war: what's the party’s future after the US Capitol attack?
The Squad Won’t Fight Pelosi and Corporate Power
Biden Pentagon pick could make up to $1.7M from leaving Raytheon
Aid Groups Sound the Alarm Over Houthi Terror Designation
FYI Trump’s Latest Yemen Move Is Far Worse Than The Capitol Riot
Media Cry Wolf for Third Time on Afghan ‘Bounties’
Why New Covid “Super Strain” is a Game-Changer
Trump’s speech that ‘incited’ Capitol violence: Full transcript
Dutch officials seize ham sandwiches from British drivers
Krystal and Saagar: Trump Faces MAJOR Post-Presidency Issues As Banks Cut Ties
Saagar Enjeti: DON’T Impeach Trump, Pass $2000 Checks And Let's Move On
A Little Night Music
Legendary Blues Band - Life of Ease
Legendary Blues Band - Hush Hush
Legendary Blues Band - In the Rain
The Legendary Blues Band - I Almost Lost My Mind
The Legendary Blues Band - Things could be worse
Legendary Blues Band - Blues Today
Legendary Blues Band - High Heel Sneakers
Legendary Blues Band - For You My Love
Legendary Blues Band - Snakeskin Strut
Comments
I for one welcome our new Big Tech overlords
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4jWAwUb63c]
Somewhere, J. Edgar Hoover is kicking himself for overlooking the simple strategem of arranging for some Black militants to be let in and allowed to LARP (live-action role play) inside the Capitol for an hour or two during the March on Washington.
Hoover’s nemesis, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and his whole movement would have been discredited; Dr. King himself could have been put on trial like the Chicago Seven, charged with inviting thousands of followers to come to Washington to riot; and instead of “I have a dream” all that posterity would remember would be Black Power stereotypes from central casting, in weird fake revolutionary-guerrilla costumes, sullying the sacred seat of our exalted Congress, memorialized in a ten-page photo spread in Life magazine.
evening lotlizard...
heh, it's hard to imagine that an evil genius like jedgar would overlook that sort of thing. perhaps the very idea of black people in the chambers of power gave him the willies so bad he couldn't bear the thought of it.
AOC circles the wagons, impeach the Donald, Patriot Act 2.0?
and Clowngress. W/Snuffelopoluos on ABC with a headline "Democracy under Fire".
"Trump must go never to be seen again" "We came close to having half the House nearly dying". Of course no mention of the nearly 400k Americans dead from Covid.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JagPHIZQmls]
Thanks again for the news and Blues Joe!
EDIT: adding this link to Graham Elwood w/Whitney Webb.....Whitney Rules!
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cUQyoT2B30]
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
evening ggersh...
aoc is becoming a bit over the top these days. it's like she is trying to win the grievance sweepstakes by proving that she will not be out-aggrieved by a bunch of brain-addled trumpsters.
i guess it's easier than doing the difficult work of helping americans attain their survival needs.
Joe that seems to be a feature w/our politicians doesn't it.
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
heh...
there seem to be a lot of democrats that are pretty good at getting all pie-eyed and acting the victim.
Yes, tell the dumb proles they can never vote for a populist
The message was there. People were sick of the deterioration of their lives. Sick of snooty pols sneering at their religion and their way of life. Sick of being cattle to the duopoly. On a different blog years ago I talked of my 2016 conversations with Trump supporters. When Bernie was mentioned most said, "Yes, He's good too." Trumpistas do include the would be Klansman and old commie-under-the-bed finders. But most were honest people screwed by the system that voted for Change instead of Obama's phony change that only changed the skin color of the banks' water boy. Dems are creating a new version of the "stab in the back" that will come back to haunt them.
Certainly punish those who committed overt acts. But if they don't turn Trump into a martyr, people will come to see that he was just a huckster. Pelosi and her ilk are throwing gasoline on a fire.
The next man on a white horse that the desperate proles turn to may actually be a competent dictator.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Yep and as bad as tRump is
the neocons/neolibs fascists coming to us soon are heaps worse.
Fasten your seat belts everyone we have turbulence ahead.
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
Hey, the end of Kali Yuga or dawning of the Age of Aquarius *IS*
supposed to be heralded by an avatar of Vishnu literally riding a white horse…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalki
In the Puranas there are prophecies, padawan, as space-opera Dumbledore said to Harry.
I used to make fun of folks who talked about the Book of Revelation and the Antichrist, but here we are with payment processors now moving in hard to pick and choose who can donate, buy, or sell, on the basis of people’s associations and political beliefs.
Mark (Zuckerberg?) of the Beast, anyone? Mark of the Bezos*?
*Jeff Bezos, Lord Amazon, owner of the Washington Post, whose motto is
Finally some good news
Interesting development. Stay tuned.
Just saw a tweet about a mom who works full time, but can’t afford $1,000 for insulin for her 9 yo son who was just diagnosed type 1 diabetes and he takes a shot every 2 hours.
Thanks Trump. You unmasked the folks behind the scenes and showed them for what they are.
Snoopydawg you should watch the video above of
Graham w/Whitney Webb it deserves an essay on it's own.
What went down in DC was bad but it was allowed to happen to divide
the left and right, trumpsters v socialists. We're screwed, protesting
has weaponized by tptb so any protest will be crushed.
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
Yeah I’ve been thinking along those lines myself
The bannings, impeachment and the other stuff done against Trump and his supporters is just going to piss them off more, but maybe that’s the plan? In one video I watched it sure looked like the police opened the doors to the hallway and 8 cops watched as people entered into it. One did tell a reporter that no one was allowed in, but he may as well have been telling her the weather report.
They have made the woman who was killed into a martyr and someone to rally around. I swear on some videos I heard people shouting that they would shoot anyone who doesn’t stop. She didn’t stop.
BTW Sam gets confused when I go in the kitchen for something, but I forgot what it was. lol she escorts me around the house and it’s funny to watch when we come to where I can go straight, left or right. She enters all 3 just to make sure. And she is growing. Fastly.
I will watch it a little later for sure.
I watch that too...
Worth the time IMO. The corruption is deep.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
evening snoopy...
i am delighted to hear that rick snyder is finally going to face charges for his actions. i hope that they are serious charges considering the vast number of people he and his neoliberal flunkies have harmed irreversably.
cnn has some video footage of the dc us attorney's presser. it doesn't sound like they are going after the organizers that were behind the scenes or the funders, rather it sounds like they are going after the footsoldiers.
too bad.
Of course!
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Oh no
That is not right that those who enticed the violence and paid for some of it get to just walk away with no consequences. How many people that have been fired for going there will get their jobs back after the hype winds down? How many lives are going to be ruined by federal charges and misdemeanors because they were at the capital? Guilt by association?
This was funny before I read your comment.
justice for thee
though not for you and me
question everything
Yep
I hadn’t read the news yet and just read this:
It’s really the system and the political environment that is the problem. The system is corrupt beyond measure and people know it. Especially after congress transferred all that money to the top while arguing over crumbs for the rest of us. If congress had been supporting people economically does anyone think that riot would have happened? Or as many people at it? Not all of them were republican yuppies. Some were just working Jane and Hanks who thought that they had permission to do something....whatever it was in their minds. IMO.
I'm positive that most
thought they were taking their country back from a Communist takeover. Impeaching trump without evidence just to prevent him from running in 2024 will just convince others that Der tag has come and the Commies have seized Washington by massive vote fraud. Why not? I'm convinced that wall street has taken overt control of the government that they have bribed for half a century, ever since they offed JFK for cracking down on the Steel trust.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Doesn't nabbing the little fish
often lead to catching the big fish?
While most at the riot were clueless bozos, there may be a couple that put together an insurance file. Something to trade with the prosecutors if things get really hot an ugly for the rioter. Like the Watergate burglar James McCord. Or the WH staffer John Dean.
Only if they bother to go after the big fish
and that almost never happens when the big fish have Big Money.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
True that legal authorities
rarely bother to go directly after the big guys. Mitchell resigned within a couple weeks of the Watergate burglary but wasn't indicted until long after the burglars had been convicted.
Hope is the best we little people can do.
evening marie...
sure, it can. but i would note that our prisons are full to overflowing with small fish.
That's because not many
small fish have anything to bargain with and aren't that difficult to catch.
Hope the report of an impending
indictment of Snyder & Co is accurate. A conviction with serious penalties might make some of these Republicans and neo-liberal scum pause in their cruelty towards ordinary people.
Covid killed one in ten thousand UK residents in the last week.
no, not cumulatively, but just in the one week.
but as we've been told, it's only one in ten thousand, so no bigs. i mean realistically, the average person in the UK didn't know any of them, and didn't even know anybody well who knew any of them well.
in case you're wondering, the usual weekly mortality in the UK (and most wealthy western nations) is about two in ten thousand. it's my understanding, inferred from the writings of certain critics (of government policy and public attitudes), that this means hardly anybody ever dies, ever or from anything, and the rest of us need not worry about it happening to us. better keep pumping dough into that retirement plan, you're gonna need it.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
Sweden, meanwhile, has now lost over 1/1000 of its
total population. This isn't official yet, as official death reports for a given date don't "settle" for 10 days to 2 weeks. The count for Dec 29 has finished at much worse than I thought it would. I said it would be 8900+, and though I was estimating on the optimistic side (because if you give your best estimate, and you're any good at estimating, you're going to be too high 50% of the time -- and then some FUDster is going to tell anyone listening that you're a Chicken Little, that the planet isn't warming and Covid isn't killing), even my most pessimistic private estimate (~9,200) would have undershot the reality: 9,324.
The current count for January 11 is 9637, but this will eventually settle at something north of 10,000. And another 2,000 - 2,500 Swedes will die between now and the end of January -- it's a done deal.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
That is a lot of people
what is the actual number of deaths? It isn't just numbers. It is so very many people who have lost family members, neighbors, friends....so much grieving.
6900+
Population of UK is somewhere between 68 and 69 million. As far as I can tell, this was the first time since Covid emerged that their official nationwide 7-day mortality exceeded 1/10,000. There were probably a few weeks in April where they crossed this line, but those deaths were undercounted, as indeed Covid deaths have been, almost everywhere and at all times throughout the pandemic -- FUD to the contrary notwithstanding.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
Some UK numbers:
deaths:
April 1, 2020 - 2,352
May 1, 2020 - 27,510 (there was a death data dump of 4,240 on April 28),
June 1, 2020 - 39,045
July 1, 2020 - 43,906
August 1, 2020 - 46,193
September 1, 2020 - 41,405
On Aug 11, the UK removed 5,377 deaths. Allegedly to be consistent with the reporting from (iirc) Wales and NI and possibly Scotland. The new standard: "Only deaths that occur within 28 days of a positive test will be counted as COVID-19 death."
uk weekly mortality has doubled since mid-december.
It will continue to rise over the next 3 weeks, as another 30,000 UK residents lose their lives. With luck it could peak over the final week of january, with about 12k deaths.
That's not counting the ones who will die of other things because medical care is not available. What we will learn from the experience is that the billions spent on hospitals and urgent care each year, an expense that cripples our economy like so much sand and glue in the wheels of enterprise, is not really necessary, because even without such care not that many more people would die. If every hospital in the UK or USA closed its doors tomorrow, the effect on mortality wouldn't be all that much more significant than the effect that Covid has had. Indeed, it might be less. It certainly wouldn't be anything like the Black Plague. So why all this fuss about MFA? We're all gonna die, right? And who knows, if everyone understood that their first heart attack was most probably going to their last, they might take better care of themselves.
I think the car companies were right -- all that safety engineering makes cars too expensive for poor people to drive, while saving relatively few lives (maybe somewhere between 1/10,000 and 1/20,000 Americans per year). Screw that burdensome seatbelt, you'll live a millennium before you die in a car accident.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
Now you're sounding like the
"Freakanomics" guy. Although in general I don't disagree that US healthcare is high-cost and low quality wrt to deaths. As for seatbelts, spared me serious injuries in two accidents.
btw -- the UK isn't alone in experiencing significant COVID-19 death increases in the past two months. 42% of Germany's total were in December. It's escalating in Japan and S Korea.
evening ur...
i am wondering what the new (more transmissible)variant of covid is going to do to the death rate in the uk and what it portends for the u.s.
given that some places in the u.s. are already overwhelmed, a strain that increases the rate of infection will be pretty awful.
Meh
So we have on average ten thousand weeks to live. Two centuries. Wish i had two centuries. Maybe ten years, maybe two weeks, maybe I won't wake up tomorrow. Not scared.
I don't think most people are scared. Today shopping at target, I left an aisle because an old woman with a mask over only her mouth came in. a she had a honker of a beak too. We went to an attended aisle instead of the usual self serve because she was right in the middle of it with none of the employees saying anything.
I told the young man at the register (masked) "I'm not choking on this damn mask to catch the virus from someone walking around exposed!" I wasn't in a good mood, stabbing pain in my left lung. Mask wearing is not good with COPD. My wife had to tell him three times to put on gloves before touching or food purchases. Me, I was just glad that he was wearing a mask and properly.
People don't beleive in the boogieman anymore. we have seen too many people catch it and recover. My 84 year old invalid brother-in-law with diabetes and bad COPD (require oxygen) got it and recovered in two weeks. it is NOT the Black death. Some people die. the overwhelming majority live. What is dying is our freedom and our meager livelihoods. Every time i turn around I see 20-25% price raises. cereal at Jewel-Osco is $5 a box, meat is only for the wealthy. SS has a big big 1.3% COLA. Literal starvation seems more likely than dying from COVID. So does dyimng of exposure once the eviction bandwagon takes over.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Supercar
As it relates to absolutely nothing, except puppets playing roles.
question everything
This is even better
Stingray 1964
question everything
evening qms...
heh, one of my favorites:
funny clip
especially liked the war weapons coming out of mount rushmore heads
america f@ch yeah
question everything
Good evening Joe and bluzers...
No big news here. Started a few flats...cabbage, broccoli, onions, and so on.
I personally think the impeachment is a mistake. Such a waste of time. $2000 checks would do a lot to put water on the fire....but no its impeachment to incite more MAGA outrage.
Meanwhile pompous announces more sanctions against Cuba. How interesting they've handled the COVID crisis much better with a fraction of the death rates....and they've sent doctors all over the world to help others.
They had a big football game in Tuscaloosa and I saw on the news people were hollering side by side and face to face...bet it is another spreader event. Guess you saw the rethugs refuse masks during the congressional lockdown and now several dims have COVID.
Well thanks for the music and news!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
One of my daughter's neighbors was evicted
An old lady. My daughter didn't learn about until the city slapped a tow sticker on the lady's car. My daughter would have taken her in if she had known. Up here renters are not being evicted yet, but I guess they are in Alabama. Being homeless there is not like being homeless here. I hear your weather s upper thirties and rainy. Pneumonia weather. Here the ground has a deep blanket of snow and nights are around 20, soon to crash to single digits. It's unusually warm. Still being without shelter overnight means you will be dead in the morning.
I once almost froze. I was soaked to the skin and collapsed in the snow about a block and a quarter from home after walking two blocks dripping wet. It is true that you start yo feel warm as your nervous system shuts down. I think that was the only time in my life that I gave up. My buddy, who was dry, dragged me up the stairs two doors away where a third buddy's father, the town drunk, lived. He took me in and even offered me a swig from his Muscatel bottle (I was 12 years old) and the disgusting beans he was cooking. He meant well, Not like the "Christian" who set me off to walk three blocks in the cold and snow soaking wet. I think that was when I stopped believing in Christianity.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
evening lookout...
heh, no big news here, either. ms. shikspack's seed catalogs have been arriving but nothing is going to get planted for a couple of months yet. the beds are mostly cleaned up, but we have to start erecting better squirrel and deer protection before we plant anything seriously.
heh, if pompous maximus could order a nuclear strike we'd all be in a world of trouble.
it looks like three dems so far have tested positive after exposure to republicans.
Good evening Joe. Thanks for the news and blues. The
Boogaloo Bros might be entertaining and there's a chance that they might even show up and act up, a rare incidence of prescience for the feebs. Of course, a group that size has to have a snitch or two, and almost certainly a few provocateurs too, so there we are. The 17th. Uh,huh.
'Til then, of course, gotta keep the news cycle running, so stuff will happen. When will Cuba stand up and declare the US to be not only a state sponsor of terrorism, but the world's #1 state sponsor of terrorism?
And the Taliban v Gitmo, that could be an interesting soap. Heh.
Ah well, gotta go get to work on dinner.
be well and have a good one
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 --
Gitmo
I’ve seen people saying that the republicans that took part in the 'coup' should be sent to Gitmo. The comments get lots of recs. Unbelievable.
Sadly, beleivable
Maybe I better shut up and just keep my head down. The wheels are coming off the cart. i do not beleive we will ever have an honest election again, if indeed we have have honest elections in the last twenty years, which I'm not sure of. The gloves ar3e coming off, the scum rising to the top (biden/Harris saviors the people OMG!). The Rubicon has been crossed. Cold comfort that i voted only Green (and Republican for the cook county offices only).
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
More calls for Gitmo and worse
Long time member, 11 recs.
evening el...
i would imagine that the boogaloos have been heavily infiltrated by feebs, maybe there are even some double agents that we will be treated to trials eventually trying to figure out whose side they are really on. that should be interesting.
i wonder if this is the time that the fascists will rise up and try to start something. it could make for an interesting inauguration if so.
have a great evening!
newly captcha'd nan pelosi vid
singing *let me entertain you* circa early 60's
question everything
My that Trump speech
I got through 2/3rds of it before my brain started spinning trying to follow what he was saying. He goes off on 2-4 tangents in every paragraph and then gets back to his point. But man those tangents huh?
@snoopydawg It's like a rail road
It's like a rail road spike in the temple. Painful to watch and keep track!
C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote
heh...
yeah, trump is easily distracted when giving a speech.
i mostly posted the link for reference purposes in case somebody wanted to see the context for quotes that have shown up in things i've posted to bolster or deprecate claims that trump had called for violence.
Gee, and they think Socialist are Bad
From the Intercept:
This guy is openly admitting to wanting to commit serious and egregious war crimes!
These people talk a lot about "defending the constitution", while also talking about how they're going to be killing women and children and nailing them to walls? How does that work? The logic just doesn't make sense to me.
Of course, those tank drivers wives and children, are not my enemy nor are they attacking the constitution or our country.
These MAGA morons permeate both police and military ranks, which is a tinder box for roid raging morons to convenience themselves they are "defending the constitution", while murdering anyone they think is pink-o-commie-liberal, like women and children.
What concerns me, I was attacked by one of these MAGA morons in 2018. I called the cops to report the assault, and they never even showed up.
Another concern I have is, I have no clue as to how to reach out and de-escalate these people. I just would not know where to start, the cognitive dissonance is so, out of whack.
I think we're beyond popcorn at this point. Pass the ammo... 9mm please.
(snark on)
Maybe I could turn this into a business opportunity, give training classes for liberals on how to defend you and your family from MAGA morons!
Calling all Liberals, Democrats and Boutique progressives, learn how to make home made and inexpensive IDE's, with just using items from around your home.
The kids can join in to, like a scavenger or Easter egg hunt! Lot's of family fun!
Only $1,500 per person. This month's special - Children half off!
Security systems? Why we have those too! Just $99 dollars down and $99 dollars a month.
Be Safe. Be Secure. Be Ready.
For the Next American Revolution!
100% completely liberal friendly, you don't even have to own a gun!
(some assembly required, 30 day money back guaranty, postage and batteries not included, see fine print for details.............)
See the video of our latest graduate, top of her class in our "special operations" training!
[video:https://youtu.be/2cXDgFwE13g]
(snark off)
C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote
evening rr...
heh, that's a fellow who clearly enjoys his hatreds and spends many happy hours in hatred fantasy camp.
people who are jangled on hate are not susceptible to logic. your best hope is diplomacy and diversion if you wind up being their interlocutor.
i guess we'll find out in a few days if they are a serious organization or a paper tiger being fluffed up by the media to induce fear and complicity in the public.
The same way that they joined with the police
to fight against BLM after spending their lives getting ready for when the government oversteps its bounds. Cops were attacking people who were using their 1st amendment right to protest, but instead of defending BLM they joined the cops. Go figure.
My thought is to agree with improving voting and elections
Can we all agree we have problems in our electoral system? If so that might be a way to offer an olive branch and suggest we can work together on a common mission. The problem is the pols ain't interested in disrupting their control over (especially) the primaries. They prefer to keep us divided (and misinformed).
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Not a bad idea
But it means I'll have to read up more on our elections. Personally I want paper ballots and a receipt, that shows who I voted for, after I vote. I hate those stupid sticker "I voted", but I don't know who some electronic system recorded my vote.
So yeah, I think you're on to something.
Thanks!
C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote