The Evening Blues - 1-21-21



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Jimmy McCracklin

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues singer and songwriter Jimmy McCracklin. Enjoy!

Jimmy McCracklin - Georgia Slop

"This is the face of our political class: arrogant, authoritarian, and on the level of some banana republic south of the border. Welcome to the New America, where leader-worship has taken the place of politics, Team Red and Team Blue battle it out to see who gets to be El Supremo for the next four years, and politics resembles a prolonged soccer game."

-- Justin Raimondo


News and Opinion


'This is not freedom': militarized US Capitol a sign of forever wars coming home

In early 2003, as government buildings across Iraq were being looted, Donald Rumsfeld told reporters, “Freedom’s untidy.” Iraq was “being liberated”, he said. “Free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things. They’re also free to live their lives and do wonderful things.” Iraqi journalist Ali Adeeb Alnaemi was in Baghdad at the time. “I was driving around and seeing looting and burning while American soldiers were standing there, and they would say to me, ‘We have no orders to interfere,’” he said. He knew what he was seeing: “This is not freedom.”

Almost two decades later, supporters of a different Republican president invaded and looted the US Capitol and left five people dead. Amid a huge security crackdown in the aftermath, a secure “Green Zone” has even been created in the heart of Washington DC – just as the US military did in Baghdad. Alnaemi watched the news coverage in shock. It was like “living a nightmare again”, he said. Also as in 2003, the chaos and violence he was witnessing had originated from lies spread by the US president and his administration. The invasion of Iraq had been justified by false claims about weapons of mass destruction. “Now it’s, ‘take back your country’, ‘Stop the steal’,” Alnaemi said. “Different lies, but they have similar effects.” ...

“I expected this in Baghdad. I never imagined this in Washington,” said Seth Moulton, a Massachusetts congressman who fought in Iraq, to the Guardian. “It’s hard to see the pantheon of our democracy fortified like the war zones I used to know,” tweeted Jason Crow, a Colorado congressman, saying that he had fought in Iraq and Afghanistan “so we could enjoy peace at home”.

Other American veterans said the images from Washington were surreal, but not exactly surprising. Matt Gallagher, a writer and army veteran who served in Iraq, described “this strange sense of inevitability”, as he looked at the photographs of concertina wire and traffic control points and “young national guardsmen, many of whom were probably born around 9/11”.

“Their America has always done this elsewhere,” he said. “Now it’s happening here.” Captioning a photograph of troops on Capitol Hill, he wrote, “We’ve done forever-warred ourselves.”

John Brennan Says Biden Intel ALREADY Ramping Up Domestic Surveillance

Warning Against Further 'Erosion' of Civil Liberties, Tlaib Leads Charge Against New Domestic Terrorism Laws

Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib of Michigan on Tuesday sent a letter to House and Senate leaders in which she and nine colleagues argued against expanding the national security state and further curtailing civil liberties in the aftermath of the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob.

"The Trump mob's success in breaching the Capitol was not due to a lack of resources at the disposal of federal law enforcement, and in this moment we must resist the erosion of our civil liberties and Constitutional freedoms, however well-intentioned proposed security reforms may be," the lawmakers wrote in the letter (pdf), which was endorsed by Demand Progress, Free Press, Win Without War, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

"We firmly believe that the national security and surveillance powers of the U.S. government are already too broad, undefined, and unaccountable to the people," added Tlaib and nine additional Democratic representatives—Earl Blumenauer (Ore.), Jamaal Bowman (N.Y.), Pramila Jayapal (Wash.), Mondaire Jones (N.Y.). Ro Khanna (Calif.), Barbara Lee (Calif.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.), and Ayanna Pressley (Mass.).

"To further degrade those rights and liberties in reaction to this attack," they wrote, "would undermine our democracy at a time when we must join together to defend it with all our collective might."

Several initiatives throughout the nation's history were "sold as being necessary to fight extremism but quickly devolved into tools used for the mass violation of the human and civil rights of the American people," the ten legislators asserted, including the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO), the USA Patriot Act, and the FBI's anti-Black Lives Matter Operation Iron Fist.

"While many may find comfort in increased national security powers in the wake of this attack, we must emphasize that we have been here before and we have seen where that road leads," they wrote.

The lawmakers stressed how quickly "expanded national security and surveillance powers [are] turned on law-abiding Americans," especially individuals who are non-white and/or anti-capitalist. They noted that "to expand the government's national security powers once again at the expense of the human and civil rights of the American people would only serve to further undermine our democracy, not protect it."

The letter comes amid reports that some Republican lawmakers at the state level are already exploiting the January 6 insurrection to introduce anti-protest bills in what critics say is an opportunistic attempt to build upon preexisting efforts to criminalize left-wing dissent and civil disobedience rather than a push to undermine the growth of right-wing extremism.

Populist Right & Left Joining Forces Against Establishment

Banned from Youtube for life Conservative Radio host to find new platform for political purposes

QAnon's 'Great Awakening' failed to materialize

Shortly before Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States, Dave Hayes – a longtime QAnon influencer who goes by the name Praying Medic – posted a photo of dark storm clouds gathering over the US Capitol on the rightwing social media platform Gab. “What a beautiful black sky,” he wrote to his 92,000 followers, appending a thunderclap emoji. The message was clear to those well-versed in QAnon lore: “the Storm” – the day of reckoning when Donald Trump and his faithful allies in the military would declare martial law, round up all their many political enemies, and send them to Guantánamo Bay for execution by hanging – was finally here. 20 January 2021 wouldn’t mark the end of Trump’s presidency, but the beginning of “the Great Awakening”.

Instead, Trump slunk off to Florida and Biden took the oath of office under a clear blue sky. Now QAnon adherents are left to figure out how to move forward in a world that, time and time again, has proven impervious to their fevered fantasies and fascistic predictions. And while some seem to be waking up to reality, others are doubling down, raising concerns among experts that the movement is ripe for even more extreme radicalization. ...

As Biden took the oath of office just before noon on Wednesday, a QAnon channel on Telegram lit up with laments.

“We’ve been lied to,” wrote one person.

“I think we have been fooled like no other,” another responded, adding: “Hate to say it. Held on to hope til this very moment.”

“I feel like I’m losing my mind,” said a third. “I don’t know what to believe anymore.”

“Anyone else feeling beyond let down right now?” read a popular post on a QAnon message board. “It’s like being a kid and seeing the big gift under the tree thinking it is exactly what you want only to open it and realize it was a lump of coal the whole time.” ...

Others returned to the process of “baking” – or reinterpreting through their obscure and esoteric epistemology – the thousands of missives that Q has posted over the years, in order to find a new way to understand the unfolding events, and to tell themselves that Q was right all along. “Like many of you, I am in shock by today’s [events] and then I realized why it had to happen and that Q told us it would happen and, why this NEEDED to happen,” read one popular post on a QAnon forum, which went on to detail a new theory that explains why Q’s false predictions were in fact correct.

One of the most important figures in QAnon, Ron Watkins, appeared ready to call it quits, writing to his more than 100,000 followers on Telegram: “We gave it our all. Now we need to keep our chins up and go back to our lives as best we are able.”

“The Work Continues”: Cornel West & Maria Hinojosa on the Promise & Dangers of the Biden Admin

Joe Biden marks start of presidency with flurry of executive orders

Joe Biden has marked the start of his presidency by signing a flurry of executive orders on a suite of issues, including Covid-19, the environment, immigration and ethics.

Some of the executive actions undo significant actions from Donald Trump’s administration, including halting the travel ban from Muslim-majority countries, and ending the declaration of a national emergency used to justify funding construction of a wall on the US-Mexico border.

He also signed an order allowing the United States to rejoin the Paris climate agreement and end the Trump administration’s efforts to exclude undocumented immigrants from the census data used to determine how many seats in Congress each state gets.

In other moves, Biden also revoked the permit granted for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline and instructed all executive agencies to review executive actions that were “damaging to the environment, [or] unsupported by the best available science”. Biden also ordered all executive branch employees to sign an ethics pledge and placed limits on their ability to lobby the government while he is in office. The new president also ordered federal agencies to review equity in their existing policies and come up with a plan in 200 days to address inequality in them.

Krystal Ball: Biden ABANDONS Immediate $2k Checks

Biden's bold pledge to vaccinate 100m Americans in 100 days faces stern test

With President Joe Biden now in the White House his bold pledge to vaccinate 100 million people in 100 days is to be tested.

If fulfilled effectively, Biden’s promise would strike a significant blow against the coronavirus and give a country battered by the pandemic a major boost after a year of mismanaged response that has seen more than 400,000 people die and more than 24 million infected.

But carrying out Biden’s promise will be challenging.

Following a rocky transition, Biden’s Covid-19 team will face a steep learning curve, the need to authorize more vaccine candidates and manufacture more vaccines and, perhaps most importantly, convince a sometimes skeptical American public that vaccines are the safe, effective key to ending the pandemic. ...

While independent scientific panels have found the two vaccines already authorized to be safe and highly effective, not all Americans are convinced they should get one. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation tracking poll found only 41% of Americans would “definitely get” the vaccine.

Reverend William Barber: Why Biden’s Nice Words Won’t Be Enough To Heal Nation

"Nothing will fundamentally change."

Biden Blasted for Continuing Trump's Recognition of Guaidó Coup Regime and Deadly Sanctions in Venezuela

In a perpetuation of Trump administration policy and nearly two centuries of U.S. imperialism in Latin America, Antony Blinken, President Joe Biden's nominee for secretary of state, told senators Tuesday that the United States will continue to recognize the coup leader Juan Guaidó as legitimate president of Venezuela.

Reuters reports Blinken told senators during his confirmation hearing that Venezuela needs "an effective policy that can restore... democracy" to the nation of 28 million people. 

Although Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has alienated allies and adversaries alike with his government's numerous and serious human rights violations, he was democratically elected in 2013, and reelected in 2018. 

Blinken also told the senators that the Biden administration would seek to "more effectively target" Venezuela with economic sanctions, which have been described as a form of "economic terrorism."

The sanctions are largely responsible for the crippling of Venezuela's once-thriving economy and have caused tremendous suffering for the poor and working-class people whose dramatic uplift was once hailed as the great success of the Bolivarian Revolution launched under the late President Hugo Chávez.

According to a 2019 report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a progressive think tank based in Washington, D.C., as many as 40,000 Venezuelans have died due to sanctions, which have made it much more difficult for everyday people to obtain food, medicine, and other necessities. ...

Blinken's remarks to the senators were one of a series of recent signs that the United States—which has been supporting coups and dictators in Venezuela for over a century—would stay the imperialist course under Biden.

During the contentious and sometimes calamitous transititon between administrations, Republicans and Democrats alike took comfort in a policy meeting between Elliott Abrams, former President Donald Trump's special representative for Venezuelan affairs, and members of the Biden transition team.

Abrams, whose history in the region includes involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal and covering up massacres committed by U.S.-backed death squads in Central America, called the meeting "pleasant" and left assured that he did not foresee any "major changes" in American policy toward Venezuela under Biden.

Zaid Jilani: China FIRES WARNING Shot At Biden. Be Tough, Go Broke

China announces sanctions against 'lying and cheating' outgoing Trump officials

China has said it wants to cooperate with Joe Biden’s new US administration, while announcing sanctions against the “lying and cheating” outgoing secretary of state Mike Pompeo and 27 other top officials under Donald Trump.

The move was a sign of China’s anger, especially at an accusation Pompeo made on his final full day in office that China had committed genocide against its Uighur Muslims, an assessment that Biden’s choice to succeed Pompeo, Anthony Blinken, said he shared.

In a striking repudiation of its relationship with Washington under Trump, the Chinese foreign ministry announced the sanctions in a statement that appeared on its website as Biden was taking the presidential oath.

Pompeo and the others had “planned, promoted and executed a series of crazy moves, gravely interfered in China’s internal affairs, undermined China’s interests, offended the Chinese people, and seriously disrupted China-US relations”, it said.

The other outgoing and former Trump officials sanctioned included the trade chief, Peter Navarro; national security advisers Robert O’Brien and John Bolton; the health secretary, Alex Azar; UN ambassador Kelly Craft; and former top Trump aide Steve Bannon. The 28 ex-officials and immediate family members would be banned from entering mainland China, Hong Kong or Macao, and companies and institutions associated with them restricted from doing business with China.

NYC Workers STRIKE at World's Largest Food Market.



the horse race




Midterm Curse Awaits Joe Biden, but He Has Had 50 Years to Prepare

No president in American history has had more personal experience with the importance of midterm elections than Joe Biden will, upon his inauguration today. And that familiarity may make the difference in his presidency. Biden knows that he is swimming against historical currents and that he has little room for error. Every president since Harry Truman (save one) has lost seats during his first midterm — some in seismic, generation-shaping waves.

Biden has been in office for all of the major midterm waves over the last 50 years: 1974, 1978, 1994, 2006, and 2010, and he campaigned from retirement for Democrats during the 2018 wave. There is no consensus as to why presidents tend to fare so poorly in their first midterms; every unhappy midterm is unhappy in its own way. But it’s safe to say that the results hinge on a combination of the strength of the economy, approval of the president’s performance, gerrymandering, and broader structural realignments expressing themselves through elections.

A president has significant sway over most of those key elements, and Biden has a few things working in his favor. First, there is broad consensus within the party on the need for significant economic stimulus, and the recognition that former President Barack Obama suffered by not going big enough fiscally at the outset and by pivoting harmfully to austerity. ... It may have been an obviously bad idea to politically self-immolate by allowing the recession to drag out longer than it otherwise would, but the one upside is that Biden was there to witness it, as was the rest of the Democratic leadership in place now. Biden knows the price of going too small.




the evening greens


'The Last Administration Able to Act in Time': Youth Climate Leaders Say Global Future Depends on Boldness of Biden

Fed up with "empty promises" from world leaders, a dozen youth activists on Wednesday demanded newly sworn-in President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris take swift and bold climate action—even more far-reaching than promised on the campaign trail—stating that their "present and future depend on the actions your government takes within the next four years."

"Are you going to do what science is asking you to do to fight the climate crisis?" the youth, including Disha A. Ravi of Fridays For Future India and Sofía Gutiérrez of Fridays For Future Colombia, asked in an open letter.

The letter from the global activists was released on Biden's inauguration day as he won praise from climate organizations for a number of expected climate-related, "day one" executive actions including revoking the presidential permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline and rejoining the Paris climate deal.

Referencing the accord's more ambitious goal for a global temperature increase threshold, the youth wrote: "The next four years will decide whether we can limit temperature rise to 1.5°C. Your place in history makes you the last administration able to act in time."

Urgent action is especially important in light of the past four years, during which former President Donald Trump's deregulatory agenda and war on science fanned the flames of the climate and ecological crises. Merely going above that low bar is insufficient, according to the youth.

"Being better than Trump isn't enough," they wrote. "But also simply continuing where the Obama administration ended is far from sufficient."

According to the young activists, Biden's stated goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 is simply too late. "Be braver," they wrote.

Biden returns US to Paris climate accord hours after becoming president

Biden’s executive action, signed in the White House on Wednesday, will see the US rejoin the international effort curb the dangerous heating of the planet, following a 30-day notice period. The world’s second largest emitter of greenhouse gases was withdrawn from the Paris deal under Donald Trump.

Biden is also set to block the Keystone XL pipeline, a bitterly contested project that would bring huge quantities of oil from Canada to the US to be refined, and halt oil and gas drilling at Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, two vast national monuments in Utah, and the Arctic national wildlife refuge wilderness. The Trump administration’s decision to shrink the protected areas of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante will also be reviewed.

The flurry of first-day action on the climate crisis came after Biden, in his inauguration speech, said America needed to respond to a “climate in crisis”. The change in direction from the Trump era was profound and immediate – on the White House website, where all mentions of climate were scrubbed out in 2017, a new list of priorities now puts the climate crisis second only behind the Covid pandemic. Biden has previously warned that climate change poses the “greatest threat” to the country, which was battered by record climate-fueled wildfires, hurricanes and heat last year. ...

Gina McCarthy, Biden’s top climate adviser, said Biden will in all reverse “more than 100” climate-related policies enacted by Trump.


Also of Interest

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

Trump as Othello in a Corporate Theater

Can Joe Biden Succeed Where Barack Obama Failed?

Bernie Sanders: Joe Biden must put an end to business as usual. Here's where to start

LEE CAMP: What Biden Can Do Without Congress (But Won’t)

Caitlin Johnstone: The Next Two Years Will Be The Democratic Party At Its Most Transparent

Media Elevate Eugenicists, Sideline Disabled Voices in Discussions of Covid Rationing

New York City police attack striking Hunts Point warehouse workers

What’s Next for the Militias?

Joe Biden's inauguration speech – full text

Wikipedia: The Overlooked Monopoly

'One of a kind': calls to protect Alabama's 60,000-year-old underwater forest

Saagar Enjeti: QAnon Supporters MELT DOWN As Biden Takes Office. TRUMP Is To Blame

Rising: GOP Focus Group GOES OFF THE RAILS, Is America Deceased?

Rising: Bannon Says Trump Will BE BACK In 2024

Keiser Report | A Very Large Stimulus Package

Bernie Sanders becomes internet meme with giant mittens during US inauguration ceremony

Rising: The Good, Bad, And WEIRD Of Biden’s Inauguration Day


A Little Night Music

Jimmy McCracklin - She's Gone

Jimmy McCracklin - He Knows The Rules

Jimmy McCracklin - The Walk

Jimmy McCracklin - Rockin' All Day

Jimmy McCracklin - You Look So Fine

Jimmy McCracklin - Just Got To Know

Jimmy McCracklin - Stinger

Jimmy McCracklin - Double Dealing

Jimmy McCracklin - The Wobble


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Comments

lotlizard's picture

https://www.reddit.com/r/WayOfTheBern/comments/l1tvdb/to_all_the_haters_...

America has been at war for over twenty years. We’re currently bombing eight different countries. We have childhood poverty, an extortionist for-profit healthcare system that bankrupts and kills thousands each year, and invest more of our tax money on ever-escalating military budgets than on our own citizens. This “democracy” we supposedly practice is a wealthy orchestrated farce to give the illusion of choice without valid representation. To top it all off, we have the largest prison population on earth.

The individual that just got sworn in as President helped us get here, in documented, verifiable ways. His career is chock full of policies which shaped this reality. It took Trump as contrast for him to even be seen as acceptable, and most people just voted against Trump, not for him. The television may cheer him on as some sort of champion of sanity and democracy, but that false imagery doesn't reflect historical fact. Yes, fake news happens on mainstream media all the time, even outside of Fox studios.

I’m told talking about this makes me sound conspiratorial, even “like a Trump supporter,” or some Q-anon wacko. I am coached to find a more positive outlet, to “let go” of this “negativity.” And that there is nothing I can do to change any of it, so stop trying. To them I say—why are you okay with this? Why are you happy? Don’t these things matter? What good is hypocritical idealism? As long as these things are normalized and don’t affect you it’s fine? Cruelty and injustice are OK—if it’s no longer in your face?

You ask why I continue raging against this. I ask why you don’t.

— user “CharredPC” at Reddit

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joe shikspack's picture

@lotlizard

charredpc certainly nails it. thanks!

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Pluto's Republic's picture

...from the inauguration proceedings, that art and enlightenment still hold our heads up above the corruption we are drowning in as a nation.

Those who have a durable consciousness know this when they see it — and I firmly believe it is the only lifeline to the redemption that can rescue the People. This nation will not survive the anti-generational tyranny of the crowd of very old and deeply corrupt people, and their own spawn and their mutant apprentices that we elect to sit above us, and make laws against us. We watch them grasping to control the nation's remaining treasure and potential powers — without recognizing that the people we elect are empowered victims of the predatory corruption of capitalism. The American People never benefit from what they do; instead their lives are incrementally diminished.

Rejuvenate the soul of America. Put more idealistic young people in power who can represent the dreams of every generation. Vote smarter. Abolish the incumbents in both Parties. Send them back to the states to solve the problems of austerity that war profiteering has caused.

Poet leaves pundit speechless.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
joe shikspack's picture

@Pluto's Republic

one of the things that i muse about from time to time is that the difference between now and the 60's is the existence of a pervasive art/music movement that educated, ennobled, aligned and drove the youth movement forward.

thanks for the vid, have a great evening!

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Pluto's Republic's picture

@joe shikspack

In almost every circumstance:

doubtfire.jpg
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16 users have voted.

____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
ggersh's picture

Interestingly now that Dementia Joe is prez, the local schools are opening, restaurants are getting the OK to open and other subtle happenings are occurring.

And now Doc Falsey says he's free to speak......man are we fucked

https://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=33157641

Dr. Anthony Fauci says he now feels liberated to speak freely on science, risk of Covid under Biden

Fauci returned to the White House briefing room Thursday for the first time under the new administration.

Anthony Fauci addresses the daily press briefing at the White House on Jan. 21, 2021.Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

Jan. 21, 2021, 4:01 PM CST / Updated Jan. 21, 2021, 5:04 PM CST
By Lauren Egan

WASHINGTON — Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the nation’s top public health experts, signaled that he feels free to speak honestly about Covid-19 now that former President Donald Trump is out of office.

In his first news briefing since President Joe Biden was sworn in, Fauci said that the new administration was committed to being "completely transparent, open and honest," a sharp break from the Trump White House when Fauci said he often felt there would be repercussions for speaking honestly about the pandemic.

"It was very clear that there were things said, be it regarding things like hydroxychloroquine and other things like that, that really was uncomfortable because they were not based in scientific fact," Fauci told reporters of the Trump administration.

"The idea that you can get up and talk about what you know, what the evidence is, what the science is," Fauci continued, "it is somewhat of a liberating feeling."

Dr. Fauci: A ‘new thing in this administration is if you don’t know the answer, don’t guess’JAN. 21, 202102:03

Fauci helped lead the nation's response to the coronavirus when the pandemic first hit nearly a year ago, working alongside Trump and members of his White House coronavirus task force. But the relationship was rocky.

Trump was criticized for spreading false or misleading information about the pandemic, frequently contradicting warnings from Fauci and other experts that the situation was dire and needed to be taken seriously. He often refused to wear a mask and ultimately caught the virus himself.

Early on in the pandemic, Fauci often appeared alongside Trump in the briefing room as the president used the platform to give long winded news conferences aimed at touting his own record as president while he was on lockdown in Washington and unable to campaign in-person for his re-election.

Those news conference often put Fauci in a difficult position, as he attempted to delicately push back on Trump's inaccurate claims on live television.

There was frequent speculation that Trump would fire Fauci for contradicting him.

Fauci said that just 15 minutes before the news conference he had met with Biden and discussed how "everything we do will be based on science and evidence."

"One of the new things about this administration is that if you don't know the answer, don't guess. Just say you don't know the answer," Fauci said in response to a reporter's question on a matter he was unaware of.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki has said that Fauci and other public health officials will make more regular appearances in the briefing room to discuss the coronavirus, after the Trump administration largely declined to update the public in the final months of his presidency.

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

joe shikspack's picture

@ggersh

i guess we'll see if the government response improves now that fauci has had the gag removed.

my sense is that if he was gagged by the trump admin, the proper thing to do was very publicly resign and then hector the administration from outside. but, i am looking in from the outside, so i am more than willing to listen to what drove fauci's decision to stay in place.

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@ggersh

The idea that you can get up and talk about what you know, what the evidence is, what the science is," Fauci continued, "it is somewhat of a liberating feeling."

Dr. Fauci: A ‘new thing in this administration is if you don’t know the answer, don’t guess’JAN. 21, 202102:03

Scientists guess all the time. If you have ever worked as a grad student, you know that. Science is NOT Holy Scripture from Mount Olympus. Once Phlogiston was "Science". Once Science said that atoms were immutable. Once Science said that the Universe was forever, then expanding, then oscillating, now what?". I haven't kept up with the theories. They change. On the whole they get better. A quote from the late Isaac Asimov "When an eminent but elderly scientist says something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When an eminent but elderly scientist says something is impossible, he is almost certainly wrong."

Science is not religion. You don't have to bow your head when someone says Science, capitalized.

EDIT:
Scientists guess all the time. But it's an informed guess. Like when your lawyer guessews how a judge will rule or your broker guesses the direction of the market or your doctor guesses what disease you have. Sometimes they are wrong. Hopefully, your doctor and lawyer are right more often than your broker!

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

enhydra lutris's picture

Paris Agreement. I'd feel much better if we would, in complete sincerity, rejoin all of the Geneva Accords. I had an acquaintance very well acquainted with Paris and its predecessors who told me 1) Paris' goals might slow down the rate of increase in global warming, but they will not stop or reverse it, and 2) Paris was designed to be able to achieve its goals without the cooperation of the US because nobody really expected it.

Yeah, we're still imperialist, still after Venezuela, still a warfare state, and all that. Biden said that his word and a President's word (2 separate things) are important and meaningful and then lied about giving everybody 2K. Heh.

be well and have a good one

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

joe shikspack's picture

@enhydra lutris

everybody in the world knew that obama was not negotiating in good faith at the un climate summit. after snowden's revelations, they found out that obama had the nsa spy on them before and during copenhagen.

it is no wonder that much of the world figured that they were on their own.

biden was in office for one day and he had already beclowned himself and broken his word to the american people.

way to go, joe!

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Lookout's picture

A chilly drizzle today. Fooled around today with the new seedlings. Light on some, heat pad under others. Otherwise a quiet day here.

Nothing much to add to the news. This is similar to my take on the inauguration.

Biden’s inaugural address: Banality and empty abstractions to cover over reality
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/01/21/pers-j21.html

I'm just hoping for no new wars.

Take care and thanks for the news and blues!

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

joe shikspack's picture

@Lookout

heh, it was nice and sunny here today in the upper 40's. it's been dipping into the low 20's at night, though. weatherman says we might get a little snow next week, though he's been wrong often enough. good luck with the seedlings!

yeah, i have low expectations for biden. we need a high-performing president and we most likely have a dud on our hands. the commentariat keeps talking about him taking after fdr, but i can't even imagine that.

oh, well, gotta go, the handbasket is waiting.

have a great evening!

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enhydra lutris's picture

@joe shikspack

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6 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 --

mimi's picture

@joe shikspack

we need a high-perfoming president

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2 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@mimi

nah, she's just another handbasket driver.

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12 users have voted.
mimi's picture

@joe shikspack

Scratch one-s head

world gone mad.png

Well, ok, it's me.

I would like it very much to be driven around in handbasket

baby in basket.jpg

But some people insist to be driven to hell in a Rolls Royce. Spoiled brats.

In my woods it is 4:30 am in the night. And I would sacrifice my handbasket if I just could sleep.

Good NIght.

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joe shikspack's picture

@mimi

it's another one of those american idioms. check this out.

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7 users have voted.

@Lookout
I'm hoping we don't start shooting at Chinese warships in the Strait of Taiwan! General Jack D. Ripper has many clones.

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3 users have voted.

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

snoopydawg's picture

what with all this boot licking from the media.

Hey you blonde woman. Biden voted for every war Trump continued and will probably start new ones with the gang he got back together. How many did Trump start? Oh that’s right he wanted to bring the troops home.

Well I finally got out today and headed for Nevada for some goodies and how the hell do people arrive where they are going alive? 40 mph in a 60 zone in the fast lane? Or matching speed with the car next to you so no one can pass either. Pulling out in front of people and then puttering along at whatever speed you choose. And tons of other things. Argh! Hey anyone want to babysit a little black dawg for a week or two?

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12 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

it looks like biden is going to get an extended honeymoon with lots of tongue-baths from mainstream media clowns.

heh, if that dawg is housebroken, i'd be delighted to dawg sit. too bad utah is so far away.

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9 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack

She is halfway house broken. Does that count? No pooing inside for weeks, but that quick squat is something she doesn’t understand. She loves getting milkbones after she potties outside and sits when told, but connecting outside with squatting is stuck. Any suggestions? Besides me peeing outside? I did tell my neighbor that though. She has a reddish brown lab that’s a month older than Sam. I need them to get together, but it has been so cold here for 2 months.

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9 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

Any suggestions?

well, this is the shikspack method that has worked with quite a few dogs over the years.

install bell(s) on the door that leads to where the dog pees that the dog can ring.

take the dog out every 30 minutes, ringing the bell with its nose then praising it as you open the door. take dog out and wait. on the occasions when the dog pees, give it a treat and make a fuss.

this process usually takes a couple of days to firm up. but every dog i've ever had has gotten it within two days.

after you relax the schedule and let the dog choose the time to go out, keep an eye on it out the window and when it does something give it a treat and make a fuss. after a few days you can just start giving it a treat when it comes back in, which can be backed off after a couple of weeks.

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15 users have voted.

@snoopydawg
in the '70s our puppy always had accidents on a certain carpet. It finally dawned on us that the carpet was green and the pup associated green with the lawn where it is ok to "go". She wasn't allowed to "go" on the white concrete patio or the off-white linoleum. The other carpets were blue, light grey, and dark red. She only "went" on the green carpet. The previous owners, a colonel with the Defense Mapping Service, had a dog door and the mother dog would scoop up the pups and take them outside when she noticed them squatting. Easiest dog to train that I ever had!

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4 users have voted.

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

@snoopydawg https://vimeo.com/360591575

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4 users have voted.

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

snoopydawg's picture

Student of earth left this comment in the OT:

Despite the overwhelming presence of far-right and openly white nationalist activists in the Capitol, the right-wing has exploited Sullivan’s presence to blame the left for a catastrophe that Trump inspired. A recent Data For Progress/Vox poll showed how the right’s narrative has broken through, with 47% of Americans and 68% of Republicans holding Antifa responsible for inciting the violence in the US Capitol on January 6.

It’s beyond mind boggling. Didn’t people watch videos of the event and see that it was mostly white people and Trump supporters? Did they see anyone that looked like BLM? Besides Sullivan. Mind boggling indeed.

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13 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

yah, it's propaganda that has the advantage of being what a lot of people want to believe.

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9 users have voted.

@joe shikspack

from Utah for the 2nd time recently (he was in DC as a counter demonstrator at the Dec. 5th Trump rally. Which he can easily afford on his gig as an Uber driver, just to peacefully observe (in the company of a CNN reporter) since no one at all responded to his various notices for counter demonstrators to meet at the Washington monument at 11:00 AM on Jan. 6th.

Just happened to enter the Capitol with her and just happened to video the shooting of Ashlee Babbit...

Because, well, stuff just happens.

John Earl Sullivan on appropriate dress for mostly peaceful protest (or killing a bunch of conservatives if you take a mind to):

Dec. 6, 2020

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2 users have voted.

@snoopydawg @snoopydawg

people there who were Trump supporters some of whom did bad/stupid/illegal stuff, but Sullivan's own brother contends that there were over 200 Antifa there, that the attack was planned and that John Sullivan had a leading role in it.

There is nothing to suggest that Trump directly incited this in his speech. Neither the speech content nor the timeline work - the initial incursions began well before Trump even finished speaking at the Ellipse.

Suggest a look at this Japanese journalist's analysis - interviewed by Epoch Times:

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3 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@Blue Republic

sullivan is a nutcase who has been cast out by all of the left groups he has tried to associate with. his brother is one of the proud boys. as such, neither of them has any credibility.

frankly, the idea that antifa directed the right-wing hordes at the capitol, including proud boys who have been involved in fighting and doxing antifa seems just a bit too convenient for the right-wing.

believe what you want, but to me, this right-wing talking point reeks of propaganda.

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11 users have voted.

@joe shikspack @joe shikspack @joe shikspack

is regarded as a provocateur by many on the left yet you seem to rule out the possibility that that is precisely what he was doing at the Capitol?

the idea that antifa directed the right-wing hordes at the capitol, including proud boys who have been involved in fighting and doxing antifa seems just a bit too convenient for the right-wing.

It was "pretty convenient" for a lot of people that the objections to electors and debate on the matter was mostly circumvented and buried as a news item by the Capitol incursion.

Because it hadn't been, there was an unacceptable risk that people who had been tuned out of anything regarding the substance of complaints about election irregularities might have actually taken it upon themselves to educate themselves on the subject and start paying attention. Even questioning the OVoE (Official Version of Events)...

I don't doubt at all that there are plenty of paid provocateurs among Antifa/BLM - question is just for whom are they working? I'd suggest continuing violence by left-wing groups will be used to justify a domestic terrorism Patriot Act 2.0 by deflecting criticism that it is just going after conservatives.

Because "even-handed" repression is somehow more acceptable.

"Sure, we'll have fascism here, but it will come as an anti-fascism movement."

- Huey Long

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2 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@Blue Republic

and missed our discussions on this:

I'd suggest continuing violence by left-wing groups will be used to justify a domestic terrorism Patriot Act 2.0 by deflecting criticism that it is just going after conservatives.

Many of us feel that the capital incursion was‘allowed' to happen at some level and that it’s going to be used as an excuse for Biden to pass the patriot act 2.0. You see this problem only from the right, but I see it as an excuse to silence both the right and left because we threaten the powers that be's power.

This site is divided with whether it is censorship or not. Me? I believe that it is censorship even if they are private companies which I do not believe they are. From what I’ve read they are connected to the government through the FBI and other intelligence agencies. As well as their connections with the Atlantic Council which is full of ours and foreign government goons as well as NATO. Anyway that’s my view on this subject.

As to whether the election was fair or not. The democrats rigged the primaries twice so why shouldn’t I think that election fiddling goes on? Was it a coup? Dunno. But a lot of things that were predicted have happened including the build up of troops in DC. That was almost a sure thing and the capital event sealed the deal for it to happen.

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11 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@snoopydawg @snoopydawg

with you in general, Snoop.

I don't think, though that my perception of events is "only coming from the right", however.

For one thing, the left-right paradigm as is generally used is (maybe intentionally? confusing and misleading, I much prefer the alternative proposed in Gary Allen's 1971 work "None Dare Call it Conspiracy" (#2 in the chart)

L-R paradign alternative None Dare Call_4.jpg

which proposes to classify things on a continuum from absolute authoritarian to anarchy - seems a lot more straightforward way to look at things.

We would all do well not to be blinded by ideology - credit and credibility where its due - hey, even The Squad get it (mostly) right on occasion - I don't have any problem acknowledging it when it happens.

Despite having some very significant differences with him on policy (Iran/fracking/5-G and much else) Trump, I think, has been sincere in his trying to work for all Americans and actually grew as a person in the course of his presidency. Think there's much chance of that happening with Kamala?

IMHO a lot of the things Trump and his supporters are criticized for is way off base and when it is, I don't at all mind saying so saying so - a lot of it is simply dumb and unsupported: they are all racists, fascists, ignorant... not only is most of it demonstrably untrue, it does not do anything to advance solving real problems and as such, a form of cop-out.

Trump, in his farewell address said that his mission had been to restore the allegiance of government to the people - and a lot of what he and his supporters have been about is just that, essentially high school civics text (of my generation) vision of America. Which, even if never perfectly realized, is a pretty reasonable thing to aspire to.

It's also a pretty reasonable thing to get seriously pissed-off at being insulted/vilified/fired/physically attacked/doxed/cancelled for holding such views.

Trump wasn't able to drain the swamp, but he did wake a lot of people up to the fact that the country was being run by and for a callous, self-serving elite that had become so smug in their position that they barely bothered to conceal the fact. And they are *very* motivated to make sure that neither Trump himself or anyone else that threatens their power and perks is ever able to arise and challenge them again.

Ironically, even though liberals deride any espousal of "American Exceptionalism", their own adoption of a form of it has facilitated this coup - by clinging to the unrealistic belief that "it can't happen here". Which blinded many people, even those who thought they were paying attention, to what was happening right in front of them.

It doesn't take an in-depth reading of Sun Tzu to realize one of the greatest advantages an attacker can have is the belief by his enemies that no possibility of an attack on them even exists.

Ain't no cavalry on the way, people - it's on us to deal with this - or be dealt with.

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3 users have voted.

@Blue Republic
except for trump. a cheap grifter. No more. no less. And more than a little crazy. That dead pan expression all the time. autism?
A showman. a conman. But not as polished an actor as Bill Clinton or Barack Obama.
Biden has that same spaced-out blank expression and a VERY harsh speaking voice, ala Adolph whose throat was ruined by mustard gas.

America's best and brightest? I could pull anyone at random from any American ghetto and come up with better. Well, Obama had a silver tongue, I'll grant him that. Ok, Clinton too. Let's not think to hard on how he used his tongue. The present and previous failed chimps? The real rulers must be laughing their asses off at the gullible public. Would you seriously allow either of them into your home?

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4 users have voted.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@Blue Republic

How is it that Sullivan is regarded as a provocateur by many on the left yet you seem to rule out the possibility that that is precisely what he was doing at the Capitol?

i don't take issue with the idea that sullivan is a provocateur.

i strongly disagree that sullivan is a provocateur for antifa or in any way directed by antifa.

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4 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

doing war doesn’t take too much time to plan since it’s just never ending, but look at how quickly they move when it comes to war.

How long until troops are back in Syria? Speaking of Syria, guess who Israel is bombing again? On Biden’s 1st day in office. Imagine if Russia bombed any country. Or any country bombed Israel. Bibi is letting Biden know who is in charge. Not that anyone in congress is going to stand up against Israel. But Russia huh? The effing insanity.

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16 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

but look at how quickly they move when it comes to war.

we are a warlike people. war is what we do.

i'm sure that biden will goose up the war machine in short order.

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9 users have voted.
lotlizard's picture

@snoopydawg  
(TIL = “today I learned”)

https://jewishinsider.com/2021/01/sheldon-adelson-private-jets/

The late Sheldon Adelson was one of the people who really decide what the U.S. government does in the Middle East. Trump and now Biden just work for billionaire donors like him.

The “good” billionaire, like media mogul Bill Parrish whom Anthony Hopkins played in the movie Meet Joe Black, is fiction — such people don’t exist in real life.

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9 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@lotlizard

He’s the democratic Sheldon Adelson just not as rich. Biden said that if Israel didn’t exist we’d have to invent it. Israel is an inland aircraft carrier for us. Never Again is still happening in Yemen in case Israel hasn’t noticed that. It’s the entitlement that bugs me.

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7 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

lotlizard's picture

@snoopydawg  
the other day, as the “Axis of Kindness” — sarcastically, of course.

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9 users have voted.
The Liberal Moonbat's picture

@snoopydawg ...or as my generation knows him, 'The Power Rangers Guy'.

Talk about souring on people you used to look up to (if only by proxy) - then again, I remember their Saturday-morning PSAs from the 1990s; his brand of politically-correct establishmentarianism was pretty visible even then.

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3 users have voted.

In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

The Liberal Moonbat's picture

Sometime within the past week (pertinent events all being pretty recent), someone, somewhere on here, posted a video of some liberal activist (young Hispanic chick) who was in DC the day of "the Siege", and repudiates the standing narrative as an eyewitness - something about the timing being impossible, as I recall.

Can anyone do me a small favor and dig that up for me? I should've bookmarked that when I saw it the first time (not that my personal bookmarks are very easy to navigate these days, either, especially not my Politics section).

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3 users have voted.

In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

lotlizard's picture

@The Liberal Moonbat  
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGIOJcOfT7o]

At the moment that video can be found in the third row (“Earlier live streams”) of the Convo Couch’s YouTube channel page:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnESeKWQPmL85jLaZU6Babg

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5 users have voted.
The Liberal Moonbat's picture

@lotlizard This is probably pretty vital shit, best circulated ASAP among all our more MSM-credulous kith and kin.

EDIT: I've watched the first 12 minutes so far, and as far as that goes it's not terribly impressive - can you tell me at which point she gets to the actual revelation/evidence?

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1 user has voted.

In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

lotlizard's picture

@The Liberal Moonbat  
It’s everyone saying an “insurrection” took place on January 6 who seem to be claiming something impressive happened, namely that President XLV gave a fiery speech, every inch a Captain Jack Sparrow rallying the crew of the Black Pearl, inciting a private army of pirate landlubbers to hoist the colors and storm the Capitol . . .

Apparently Fiorella Isabel was getting called a Trump lover and Nazi enabler by people who weren’t even there, so she felt she needed to get on the record that the Convo Couch film crew were there and witnessed nothing of the kind. It’s the people equating 1/6 with 9/11 or Pearl Harbor who need to back up their claims with evidence and, content to surf on a wave of emotions against a figure nobody whom they like likes, they haven’t done it.

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3 users have voted.
lotlizard's picture

@The Liberal Moonbat  
It wasn’t: “Trump spoke; then, obeying him, his followers swarmed the Capitol and broke in.”

It was: “A motley crowd was already swarming the Capitol and some began to break in, while Trump was still speaking at least a mile away.”

The Convo Couch was getting flak because their take was much like this guy’s:
https://freemansperspective.com/are-we-still-allowed-to-ask-questions/

So Fiorella Isabel was like, “I’m ‘Left’ but I’m a journalist and questioning and verifying is what journalists do. And Trump is not wrong about the election being rigged, because due to many intentional built-in weaknesses in the process, all elections in the U.S. are and have been rigged for some time, with mail-in just adding even more vulnerabilities and opportunities.”

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2 users have voted.