The Evening Blues - 2-8-21
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features blues and soul singer Earl Gaines. Enjoy!
Earl Gaines - It's Love Baby 24 Hours A Day
"The merging of the military-industrial complex, surveillance state and unbridled corporate power points to the need for strategies that address what is specific about the current warfare and surveillance state and the neoliberal project and how different interests, modes of power, social relations, public pedagogies and economic configurations come together to shape its politics."
-- Henry Giroux
News and Opinion
Amazon’s New CEO Is Shaping How the Military Uses Killer Robots
On July 1, Amazon will have a new CEO. Andy Jassy, who is replacing Jeff Bezos, helped build the company’s cloud business from scratch, cementing its servers as a cornerstone of the internet. But not all of Jassy’s work has been inside Amazon. The incoming CEO is also a commissioner on the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI), which was created by Congress in 2018 to advise on how best to use A.I. for war and defense.
The commission is now approaching its final report, which will be submitted to Congress as official recommendations from the 15 commissioners. The NSCAI is led by former Alphabet CEO Eric Schmidt, and other commissioners include executives at Microsoft, the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab, Google, Oracle, and military venture capital firm In-Q-Tel.
Most recently, the commission made news when its draft final report recommended that autonomous killer robots still be developed and used by the U.S. military. The draft, which is subject to change until it is presented to Congress, says that the U.S. has shown it can use autonomous killing machines in accordance with international human rights laws, and that other countries will not hesitate to build these kinds of robots. Organizations like Human Rights Watch vehemently oppose autonomous weapons, and Google workers organized a massive walkout in opposition of a project that would align the company with autonomous drone targeting and surveillance. ...
Although the commission’s final report doesn’t represent the sentiment of any one individual member, Jassy’s alignment with government and law enforcement use of surveillance technology makes it clear that Amazon’s new CEO is bullish on the rollout of A.I. in the military, federal government, and consumer space.
Biden reduces US role in Saudi war on Yemen, but leaves room to continue crisis
Biden will not lift sanctions to get Iran back to negotiating table
Joe Biden has said the United States will not lift its economic sanctions on Iran in order to get Tehran back to the negotiating table to discuss how to revive the Iran nuclear deal.
Asked if the United States will lift sanctions first to get Iran back to the negotiating table, Biden replied: “no” in an interview with CBS News, which was recorded on Friday but released on Sunday ahead of the Super Bowl.
Donald Trump, the former president, unilaterally withdrew the US in 2018 from the atomic deal, which saw Iran agree to limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. Biden has said he will seek to revive the deal, but insisted that Iran must first reverse its nuclear steps, creating a contest of wills between the nations.
Asked if Iran had to stop enriching uranium first, Biden nodded. It was not clear exactly what he meant, as Iran is permitted to enrich uranium under the 2015 nuclear deal within certain limits.
“Will the US lift sanctions first in order to get Iran back to the negotiating table?” CBS News anchor Norah O’Donnell asked.
“No,” Biden responded.
“They have to stop enriching uranium first?” O’Donnell asked. Biden nodded.
Caitlin Johnstone: Biden’s Iran Policy Is Just Trump’s Iran Policy With A Rainbow Flag Emoji
In a new interview with CBS Evening News, President Biden confirmed that his administration will not be lifting sanctions imposed upon Iran in order to bring Tehran to the negotiating table for the restoration of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal. ...
With Iran resuming its enrichment of uranium, we asked Pres. Biden if the U.S. will lift sanctions first in order to get Iran back to the negotiating table on a nuclear deal.
“No,” Pres. Biden says, affirming that Iran will have to stop its enrichment program first pic.twitter.com/OPszf15Q1o
— Norah O'Donnell (@NorahODonnell) February 7, 2021
There are a few things that are ridiculous about this, the first being that the JCPOA does not require that Iran “stop enriching uranium” at all. As explained by Al-Monitor‘s Arash Karami, the deal only calls for Iran to “keep its level of uranium enrichment at up to 3.67 %”, a level it only began exceeding when the Trump administration backed out of the deal and imposed sanctions. The administration later clarified that Biden meant Iran would have to return to its JCPOA levels before negotiations could begin, but the fact that neither the United States president nor the high-profile reporter interviewing him appear to have been clear on this says a lot about the vapid nature of America’s political/media class.
More importantly, this is confirmation from the horse’s mouth that Biden is in effect continuing Trump’s Iran policy. Trump began strangling Iran with crushing sanctions in an effort to force it to obey US dictates, and Biden is continuing that exact same strangulation while continuing to demand compliance with its dictates. The demands might be a little different, but the effect is identical since Tehran would never bow to either of them.
The Iranian government has repeatedly made it abundantly clear that it will not be rejoining the JCPOA until the United States comes back into compliance, since it was the US who first abandoned it. It claims, correctly, that it was in full compliance with the agreement when the Trump administration unilaterally backed out in May 2018. The argument that it is therefore Washington’s responsibility to come back into compliance first is indisputable. Why would it re-enter a deal with a government that is clearly acting in bad faith and could just back out and impose civilian-killing sanctions on the nation again?
And that’s just getting back to the negotiating table for re-entering the deal as it is written. Gareth Porter reported last month that the Biden administration may plan on using the sanctions regime it inherited from the previous presidency as a “Trump card” to try and coerce Tehran into agreeing to a modified version of the deal.
Neither of these things are going to happen. Iran will not modify the deal, and it will not come back into compliance before the government which first abandoned the deal comes back into compliance. And the Biden administration appears to be perfectly fine with this, reportedly toying with the idea of waiting all the way until after Iran’s presidential elections in June to even begin approaching the deal.
The end result being that we still have a US presidency waging economic warfare upon Iran in exactly the same way it was before the 20th of January. Civilians are still having the life squeezed out of them by a far more powerful nation which does not view them as human beings, and it’s only a matter of time before this administration or a subsequent one causes another flare up which pushes things to the brink of hot war like we saw a year ago.
Biden’s Iran policy is in effect just a continuation of Trump’s Iran policy that liberals can feel good about. It’s Trump’s Iran policy with gender pronouns in its bio.
Choosing to continue an immoral course of action is just as immoral as choosing to initiate an immoral course of action. If you’re beating someone up and you leave when I get there, and then I choose to continue assaulting that person, I am just as culpable in that assault as you are. Presidents who choose to perpetuate one another’s depraved policies are just as guilty of that depravity as their predecessors.
Starvation sanctions are the only type of warfare in which it is considered normal and acceptable to deliberately target a civilian population with deadly force. But it is not normal, and it is not acceptable. Biden and his team of ventriloquists fully own the effects of their warmongering. They don’t get to just scribble “TRUMP’S FAULT” across them in crayon and act like they’re innocent.
ICC's "Landmark Decision" Could Open Door to Prosecuting Israel for War Crimes in Palestine
Palestinians Welcome ICC Decision Enabling War Crimes Probe of Israel
Palestinian families and human rights groups are welcoming a Friday decision that clears the way for the International Criminal Court to investigate allegations against Israel of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of apartheid in occupied Palestinian territories as a long-overdue step toward justice.
Given that the state of Palestine—as recognized by the United Nations and scores of countries, though not the United States nor Israel—is party to the Rome Statute, the ICC's pre-trial chamber I decided by majority that the court's jurisdiction "extends to the territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem."
The ruling, Reuters reports, "could lead to criminal investigations of Israel and Palestinian militant groups including Hamas. No probe was expected in the near future... ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said she would now examine the decision and pointed to the 2014 Gaza war between Israel and militant groups in Hamas-controlled Gaza, the 2018 Gaza border protests, and Israeli settlements in occupied territory."
Bensouda had said in 2019 that there was a "reasonable basis" to investigate the Israeli military for war crimes but asked the court to weigh in on the question of jurisdiction. Despite uncertainty over how the prosecutor will now proceed, Palestinians who have lost family members and homes hailed Friday's ruling.
"Better late than never," Subhi Bakr told a reporter with the Associated Press on Saturday, while walking on the beach in Gaza where his son Mohammed and three cousins—all under the age of 12—were killed by Israeli missiles in 2014 while playing soccer, sparking international outrage and condemnation.
"The most important thing for the investigation is to start; if it did not, then there is no justice in the world," Bakr said. Israel, which closed a military investigation into the killings, "can't be the judge and executioner and I do not trust them," he added. "We need the international law to do justice for us."
Myanmar general repeats pledge of new election as thousands join protests against coup
Myanmar: tens of thousands march against military coup for second day
Large crowds gathered in the main city of Yangon and elsewhere, condemning the military for ousting the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in a coup. ...
Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint have not been seen in public since they were detained in early morning raids last Monday. Their party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), won a thumping election victory in November but the military has refused to accept the results of the vote. It has alleged widespread electoral fraud, a claim observers have rejected.
The junta blocked internet access for about 24 hours from Saturday afternoon in an attempt to stop protests, but large crowds continued to join the biggest demonstrations in the country since the 2007 “saffron revolution”, when thousands of Buddhist monks marched against military rule.
By mid-morning on Sunday protesters had taken to the streets in Yangon, as well as in the city of Mandalay in central Myanmar and the coastal town of Mawlamyine in the south-east. Hundreds more camped overnight outside a police station in the town of Payathonzu in Karen state, where local NLD politicians were reportedly arrested. They remained outside on Sunday morning, singing pro-democracy songs, Reuters reported.
People marched from across the city to Sule Pagoda, a rallying point for previous protest movements, raising their hands in a three-finger salute, a gesture used by pro-democracy activists in neighbouring Thailand, which signals opposition to the military. Many wore red shirts or carried red balloons, the colour of the NLD. As they walked through the city drivers sounded their horns, while young children who were passing by with their families waved small NLD flags.
The Shecession: Women Face Staggering Job & Income Losses Amid the Pandemic's Economic Crisis
January jobs report shows ongoing economic disaster as US Senate strips minimum wage increase from the relief bill
The US Senate voted Friday morning to approve a budget bill, a key step toward enactment of the Biden administration’s $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package. In securing passage of the budget bill the Democrats made several key concessions to Republicans, barring a rise in the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour during the pandemic, putting a graduated income cap on the $1,400 stimulus payment to individuals and barring payments to undocumented immigrants.
The action on the relief package came as new government economic figures show there was a net increase of just 49,000 jobs in January following a revised figure showing a loss of 227,000 jobs in December. November employment figures were also revised downward. For the week ending January 30 there were 779,000 new claims for unemployment benefits, a decline from the previous week, but still an unprecedented level. ...
The employment figures show the continued heavy economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic on workers and their families. With the daily COVID-19 death toll running at over 3,000 and wide areas of the economy nonfunctional, millions are suffering destitution, hunger, the cutoff of medical benefits and the danger of eviction.
Following the Senate vote Biden said it is likely the minimum wage increase would be dropped from the final relief bill after it emerges from the House-Senate reconciliation process. He claimed it would be put forward later as a separate measure, but passage even in a scaled-back form is extremely unlikely given the ability of Senate Republicans to block legislation using the filibuster.
The refusal of the Democrats—in full control of Congress and the White House—to draw a line in the sand over the minimum wage increase, a measure that would potentially benefit 32 million workers, shows the insincere character of Biden’s claims, reiterated at a news briefing on the pandemic relief measure Friday, that he was prioritizing the needs of workers over the wealthy. A full time worker earning the current minimum wage takes home about $15,080 annually. That is well below the absurdly low official poverty level of $17,240 annually for a family of two and $21,720 for a family of three.
Krystal and Saagar: Biden CAVES On $15 Minimum Wage, BREAKING Key Promise
'Unbelievable,' Says Sanders, That Some Dems Want to Further Limit Eligibility for Covid-19 Relief Checks
Sen. Bernie Sanders took to Twitter Saturday night to call out Democrats in Congress who are considering a proposal to exclude millions of Americans from receiving $1,400 Covid-19 relief checks with narrower eligibility restrictions than the previous coronavirus pandemic packages passed under former President Donald Trump.
As the new chair of the Senate Budget Committee, Sanders (I-Vt.) is playing a key role in congressional Democrats' efforts to enact President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. Amid reporting this week about lawmakers potentially further restricting direct relief, Sanders has repeatedly and forcefully spoken out against that.
"Unbelievable," Sanders tweeted Saturday. "There are some Dems who want to lower the income eligibility for direct payments from $75,000 to $50,000 for individuals, and $150,000 to $100,000 for couples. In other words, working-class people who got checks from Trump would not get them from Biden. Brilliant!"
Sanders followed up with a post reiterating his position: "I strongly oppose lowering income eligibility for direct payments from $75,000 to $50,000 for individuals and $150,000 to $100,000 for couples. In these difficult times, ALL working-class people deserve the full $1,400. Last I heard, someone making $55,000 a year is not 'rich.'
After 14+ Hours of Votes, Senate Approves Covid Relief Resolution With Zero GOP Support
Following more than 14 hours of votes on nonbinding Republican amendments that often had nothing to do with coronavirus relief, the Senate early Friday morning approved along party lines a budget resolution that sets the stage for construction of a pandemic aid package containing up to $1.9 trillion in spending on direct payments, expanded unemployment benefits, vaccine distribution, and more.
The House is expected to act on the Senate-passed resolution on Friday, jumpstarting committee work on a filibuster-proof reconciliation bill amid unified Republican opposition.
In a floor speech just ahead of the resolution's passage—which Vice President Kamala Harris pushed over the finish line with a tie-breaking vote—Senate Budget Committee Chairman Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said that "we have the opportunity not only to address the pandemic, to address the economic collapse, to address the reality that millions of our kids have seen their education disrupted."
"But we have the opportunity to give hope to the American people and restore faith in our government by telling them that... we understand the pain that they are experiencing and we are gonna do something very significant about it," said the Vermont senator.
Biden says herd immunity 'difficult' by end summer
President Joe Biden said that it will be difficult for the United States to reach herd immunity, at least 75% of the population inoculated against the coronavirus, by the end of this summer.
“The idea that this can be done and we can get to herd immunity much before the end of next - this summer, is - is very difficult,” Biden told CBS news in an interview.
GOP Senators Under Fire for Obstructing Biden HHS Pick as Pandemic Rages
Government watchdog organizations and former top federal health officials are accusing Senate Republicans of deliberately undercutting the Biden administration's response to the raging coronavirus pandemic by slow-walking the process of confirming Xavier Becerra, the president's nominee to head up the crucial Department Health and Human Services.
The U.S. Covid-19 death toll surpassed 450,000 this week, but the Senate made little progress in advancing Becerra's nomination thanks in large part to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) obstruction of a must-pass organizing resolution, a stalling tactic that prevented the new Democratic majority from quickly taking charge of key committees.
While the Senate finally passed the resolution on Wednesday, the needless delay caused by McConnell's attempt to protect the archaic legislative filibuster delayed work on Becerra's confirmation; the HHS nominee has yet to have his first confirmation hearing, leaving the key agency without a permanent director.
HHS Deputy Assistant Secretary of Budget Norris Cochran is currently serving as acting head of the agency, which plays a central role in the federal government's response to the pandemic—including crafting public health guidelines and overseeing vaccine distribution.
"Delaying a hearing for the head of Health and Human Services in the middle of a pandemic that has claimed more than 450,000 American lives is negligence in plain sight," Mairéad Lynn, spokesperson for watchdog group Accountable.US's Senate War Room, said in a statement Thursday. "There has never been a more critical need for strong, consistent leadership at our nation's top health agency, and instead Senate Republicans have refused to prioritize this nominee and are signaling that this obstruction and delay might continue."
"American lives are on the line," Lynn added, "and Senate Republicans have a choice: keep shilling for special interests like the drug companies, or let the Biden administration tackle the pandemic head-on and finally get our country back on track."
Kroger Closes Stores To Avoid Paying Workers Covid Hazard Pay
ICE Threatened to Expose Asylum-Seekers to Covid-19 if They Did Not Accept Deportation
Three Cameroonian asylum-seekers locked up at the Pine Prairie ICE Processing Center in Louisiana say that a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement guard threatened to expose them to Covid-19 if they failed to obey his orders and submit to a transfer. The guard made the threat clear, Clovis Fozao, one of the detained men, told The Intercept: If the detained migrants didn’t submit, they would be transferred to Bravo-Alpha, the detention unit where Covid-19-positive detainees are held in quarantine.
“They were forcing us out of the dorm, pushing and dragging us,” Fozao said, explaining the altercation when the guards tried to force them to submit to the deportation. “They threatened to call the SWAT team. They said they were going to put all of us into Bravo-Alpha, which is for quarantine, where they keep everyone with coronavirus.”
The Pine Prairie facility, which is operated by the private prison firm GEO Group, currently has 21 confirmed coronavirus cases, according to ICE’s own tracker.
After the threat of contagion, guards forcefully dragged and pushed the group of Cameroonian asylum-seekers — five in total — yelling at them and repeatedly threatening them in an attempt to begin the deportation process, three of the detainees involved told The Intercept. ...
All five of the men had spent over a year in detention, said the three asylum-seekers, after fleeing a brutal and homicidal regime in Cameroon that has been targeting protesters supporting, or even adjacent to, the Anglophone separatist movement. In recent years, there have been massacres and mass atrocities in Cameroon — what some observers are calling a genocide — sparking increasing numbers to flee in search of safety. Nonetheless, the U.S. grant rate of asylum applications for Cameroonians plummeted over the last year and, as recently as last November, Cameroonians were deported en masse. Some of the deported were detained and tortured upon arrival back in the country, according to returned asylum-seekers I’ve spoken with.
Former AOC Staffer Corbin Trent RESPONDS: Why We’re Primarying Joe Manchin
The crucial differences in Trump’s second impeachment trial
Trump stands accused of inciting an insurrection when he urged supporters to “fight” his election defeat before they stormed the US Capitol in Washington on 6 January, clashed with police and left five people dead. In some ways it will be a replay of his first impeachment trial a year ago. Again Trump himself will not be present and again the outcome, given his subjugation of the Republican party, has an air of inevitability – acquittal.
But there are crucial differences the second time around. Trump is now a former president, the first to be tried by the Senate after leaving office. For this reason the sessions will be presided over not by John Roberts, the chief justice of the supreme court, but 80-year-old Patrick Leahy, the longest-serving Democratic senator.
Whereas Trump offered running commentary on the first trial via Twitter, he has now been banned from the platform for incendiary statements. And whereas his first trial, on charges of abuse of power and obstructing Congress, turned on whether phone records and paper trails showed that he pressured the president of Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden, the sequel promises to be more raw and visceral. ... The nine Democratic impeachment managers are expected to present new video footage and eyewitness testimony that will vividly evoke the terror felt by members of Congress as they barricaded themselves inside offices and feared for their lives.
“If the Democrats do what’s being reported and present the visual evidence, it will be nothing a Senate trial has ever seen before,” said Charlie Sykes, founder and editor-at-large of the Bulwark website. “It’s going to be a graphic narrative of the build-up and the attack and the violence and the scope of the threat and it’s going to be very difficult to minimise that, especially because every one of those senators was a witness to it in some way. “So I actually think that it’s going to be more powerful than some people expect. The result is preordained – I don’t have any illusions about that – but, because the evidence has been mounting over the last several weeks, I am expecting it to be dramatic.”
Krystal and Saagar: Time Magazine ACCIDENTALLY Stokes GOP Fears Election Was Rigged
Liz Cheney raises possibility of criminal investigation of Trump for provoking violence
Liz Cheney, the third most senior Republican in the House of Representatives, has raised the possibility of Donald Trump being criminally investigated for provoking violence during the 6 January US Capitol insurrection, pointing to a tweet attacking his own vice-president, Mike Pence, that was posted after the assault had begun.
In extraordinary remarks on Fox News Sunday, Cheney made specific reference to the “massive criminal investigation” on the Capitol insurrection that is now sweeping the country. She said that the investigation would cover “every aspect” of the events of 6 January and look at “everyone who was involved”.
But she reserved her most pointed words for Trump. “People will want to know what the president was doing,” she said. “They will want to know whether the tweet that he sent out calling Vice-President Mike Pence a coward while the attack was underway was a premeditated attempt to provoke violence.”
Cheney’s evoking of possible criminal action against the former president comes just two days before the start of his impeachment trial in the US senate for “incitement of insurrection”. Though she will not be participating as a juror at the trial – that role is performed by senators – her comments signaled the turmoil that the impending proceedings are causing in her party.
Last week she survived an attempt by fellow House Republicans to remove her from her leadership position in protest at her support of Trump’s impeachment. On Saturday, the Republican party in her home state of Wyoming voted to censure her, calling for her immediate resignation. Cheney said Sunday she would not step down.
Saagar Enjeti: How MITT ROMNEY Is Outflanking Dems In FDR Style Program
Court Rules Dakota Access Pipeline Operating Illegally, Dems Demand Biden It Shut Down
Five Democratic lawmakers on Friday encouraged President Joe Biden to order an immediate shutdown of the Dakota Access pipeline after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit last week delivered a victory to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe by ruling that DAPL is operating illegally.
The three-judge panel upheld (pdf) a lower court's ruling that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) violated the National Environmental Policy Act when it granted an easement for DAPL to cross a federal reservoir along the Missouri River, less than a mile from the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.
The court ordered a full environmental impact statement examining the threats posed by the oil pipeline. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, as the Democrats' letter to Biden notes, "rightfully fears an oil spill could disproportionately affect their drinking water, as well as hunting and fishing rights."
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Chairman Mike Faith said in a statement that "we are pleased that the D.C. Circuit affirmed the necessity of a full environmental review, and we look forward to showing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers why this pipeline is too dangerous to operate."
Despite mandating the review, the panel did not order DAPL to stop operating. Jan Hasselman, the EarthJustice attorney representing Standing Rock, said after the ruling that "this pipeline is now operating illegally."
"The appeals court put the ball squarely in the court of the Biden administration to take action," Hasselman said. "And I mean shutting the pipeline down until this environmental review is completed."
Five lawmakers are now backing that call: Reps. Nanette Diaz Barragán (D-Calif.), Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.), and Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) as well as Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). ...
While former President Barack Obama—under whom Biden was vice president—denied DAPL permission to cross beneath Lake Oahe on unceded ancestral tribal lands, former President Donald Trump, the letter notes, "reversed course and granted the easement while ignoring the concerns of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe." ...
As DeSmog noted Thursday, DAPL is facing more than just legal trouble: Westchester Fire Insurance Co. notified pipeline owner Energy Transfer in early January that it had lost a $250,000 "bond that Iowa, one of the four states it passes through, required the pipeline to maintain."
Krystal Ball: Corporations Are POISONING Babies While Regulators Look The Other Way
Congressional Report Reveals Manufacturers 'Knowingly' Sold Toxin-Tainted Baby Food
Leading baby food manufacturers are selling—knowingly and without warning—unsafe products contaminated with dangerous levels of toxic heavy metals that can cause serious and often irreversible damage to infant brain development, according to a new congressional investigation that is generating renewed calls for greater regulation of the industry.
"Dangerous levels of toxic metals like arsenic, lead, cadmium, and mercury exist in baby foods at levels that exceed what experts and governing bodies say are permissible," Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, which conducted the investigation, told CNN Thursday.
"We know that in a lot of cases, we should not have anything more than single digit parts per billion of any of these metals in any of our foods," Krishnamoorthi added, yet evidence provided by manufacturers shows that some baby foods contain hundreds of parts per billion.
The report (pdf) is based on an analysis of data provided by some of the nation's largest manufacturers of baby food, both organic and conventional. Out of seven companies asked to participate, only four cooperated with the investigation.
"The subcommittee's investigation revealed that manufacturers knowingly sell tainted baby food to unsuspecting parents, in spite of internal company test results showing high levels of toxic heavy metal, and without any warning labels whatsoever," Krishnamoorthi said in a statement.
Scores feared dead as glacier causes dams to burst in north India
About 140 people are feared dead in northern India after a Himalayan glacier broke off and caused a high velocity surge of water down a river, sweeping away one dam in its path and damaging another.
A frantic rescue mission began to recover the scores of bodies washed away when an avalanche of water, mud and rocks swept down a narrow gorge in Chamoli district, in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand.
Nine bodies had been recovered by Sunday night, officials said, and 140 people remained missing.
According to India’s national crisis management committee (NCMC), the flood along the Himalayan valley was caused by a mountain glacier partially breaking off into Rishiganga river and causing a dramatic rise in water levels upstream.
While some have said the incident shows the growing impact of the climate crisis – a 2019 survey found that the Himalyan glaciers are melting at “alarming speed” – local activists and writers have also blamed the intensive building along Uttarakhand’s rivers and mountains of dams and hydropower infrastructure, which they argue is destabilising the ecologically fragile Himalayan region and resulting in more extreme weather events.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Trump May be on Trial, but System That Produced Him Will Be Acquitted
Glenn Greenwald: 'Journalists Are Authoritarians'
US Sails Warship Near Chinese-Controlled Islands in South China Sea
For Media, Bezos’ Self-Made Billions Are a Separate Story From Amazon Stealing Tips
Congressional Report Reveals Manufacturers 'Knowingly' Sold Toxin-Tainted Baby Food
Tim Berners-Lee’s Plan to Save the Internet: Give Us Back Control of Our Data
SEC: 621,000 Shares in GameStop Trades Had Not Properly Settled by January 14
"This is for you, Dad": Interview with an Anonymous GameStop Investor
Until Africans get the Covid vaccinations they need, the whole world will suffer
FBI net closes on Maga mob that stormed the Capitol
Caitlin Johnstone: Electoral Politics Use The Same Containment Strategies As Alzheimer’s Facilities
Why were big investors such babies over GameStop?
Krystal and Saagar: Biden WH UNDERCUTS CDC Director On School Reopenings
Zaid Jilani: Dems Could BLOW IT In Georgia If They Don’t Deliver Checks
A Little Night Music
Earl Gaines - You Belong To Me
Earl Gaines - I Don't Need You Now
Earl Gaines - Nine pound steel
Earl Gains - Its worth anything
Earl Gaines - It's Drivin' Me Mad
Earl Gaines - Have Faith (In Me)
Earl Gaines - Tell Me Tonight
Earl Gaines - I Can't Face It
Earl Gains - The Best Of Luck To You
Earl Gaines - Meat And Potatoes Man
Earl Gaines - Hymn Number 5
Comments
Hey Joe, thanks for the blues n news
We all know ameriKKKa is but a charade built on the back of the Stock Markit, oh wait
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
Good evening Joe. Thanks for the news and blues.
You know, it hurts when you make me laugh like that. We can't even use humans and human controlled weapons in accordance with human rights laws, nor drones either. What are we going to name the first one, Agent Orange?
Yeah DAPL is illegal, so what, it's legal if you can't make it stop.
Echoes and rhymes:
Wasn't there an enormous flap a few decades ago when they got caught selling toxic baby formula in Africa? So now they do it here? WTF? I assume, that the government will make them slap a warning label on it it in at least 2 point type, or something.
And the SEC, heh, gotta admire how blatant they are. Nobody delivered on their shorts? Ah well, better but it in the monthly report. Now where were we?
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 --
If I'm not mistaken during Dubya's tenure
time after time Chinese products were meant to be of extremely poor quality, then the Chinese govt. fought back to keep american corporations from making Chinese workers/companies as the culprit until it finally stopped. The answer to all this is of course we now make jack shit in america.
As for this, I thought it went a step further and stated that america has found that they can do whatever it cuz if we don't someone else will. Why not try to make a treaty worldwide to ban such stuff? Rhetorical, sadly rhetorical.
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...
i am old enough to remember when all the shoddy products came from japan.
Sorru gg. My post was just supposed to be a stand alone post,
not a reply to or directed at you.
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 --
evening el...
sorry about that. i think that we are all going to have to invest in more robust, liquid-proofed monitors if they keep churning this crap out.
i was thinking to myself, "what, they invented a machine that can read baseball cards?"
regarding the tainted baby food, i wonder when the masters of the universe are going to admit that they are trying to pull off a major population cull.
Reminds me of the car commercial yesterday
Edward Scissorhand couldn’t take part in regular life because his hands ruined everything he touched. A car company spent millions/billions on making a car that has all push buttons in it. I thought imagine if they had spent it on a new pair of hands so he could do more things than drive a car? I was called a spoil sport.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Do you remember flipping them,
the baseball cards, that is? I loved that activity, mostly because I was good at it and could collect them for my brother ; ).
Even if they’re (the masters of the universe) not trying, they’re succeeding. I wonder whether the masters have any capacity at all to grasp what their processes mean for the rest of the population. What a sad state of humanity.
Tonight's reading was like watching contemporary theatre of the absurd ... But then there is the potential of the ICC’s decision and the encouragement to shut down the Dakota pipeline.
Thanks for Earl Gaines. What an interesting musical progression from his early work to his later work.
evening janis...
we weren't into baseball cards. we collected marbles, stamps and coins.
heh, well, these are the elites we are talking about. they are the ones that have all of the advantages and go to the best schools. they fancy themselves the best and smartest people on the planet.
if they don't understand the foreseeable outcomes of their actions then they are criminally bewildered.
glad you enjoyed earl gaines. sadly he didn't achieve the sort of stature that his talent marked him as due, but he certainly did create some great music.
You have a way with words ...
'criminally bewildered'. I like that expression, thanks.
heh...
i think that i might have stolen that phrase many years ago. i can't remember who i stole it from - possibly frank zappa.
i am a reader and a writer and a good turn of phrase is something that i admire greatly.
have a great evening!
I am mostly a reader,
who enjoys 'a good turn of phrase'. Thank you for both creating and remembering them.
This is what google offered regarding the expression of 'criminally bewildered’ ...
On first glance, I thought the close-up portrait of Frank Fraser looked like Leonard Cohen. Couldn’t be more wrong ...
evening ggersh...
heh, it makes you wonder what they spent the other 4% on? window washing? retreats? executive blow jobs?
D) all the above
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
The Times article is worth a read
If only half this focus had been made to improve the US response to COVID-19, assist citizen understanding of the scope of the problems facing us and successful actions taken throughout the world by individuals and governments concerned about the well being of their citizens. Think where we could be.
The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election
Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.
"Time" could present this
because the participants wanted the history told. The secrecy was short-term to avoid nasty countermoves by the Trump campaign and whatever secretive GOP and/or wealthy donors that were in operation. The latter have no intention of disclosing their secret operations, but perhaps one day someone will manage to find out a bit of them.
Time magazine has always been a reliable Deep State conduit
https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/henry-luce-henry-r-luce-and-the...
Support the Contras in Nicaragua? Of course!
http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,1075086,00.html
A counter-narrative to the plotters spiking the football in the pages of Time could illuminate events from a different angle:
There WAS a color revolution in the US after all – and its architects now BOAST of how they “fortified” the 2020 election
evening soe...
it's nice that time reported on the efforts of large organizations to protect the contest between two geriatric candidates of the 1% as if the november elections were all that mattered and not the process that led up to them.
i wonder when time will get around to delving into the efforts to "fortify" the primaries?
China executed people poisoning baby foods
A number of years ago, the Chinese government executed two people and jailed others for knowingly putting industrial poisons in baby foods. The affected families had to fight government and other corruption, but still, the scandal was too big for Beijing to let go. A co-worker from Hong Kong said these food scandals are why rich Chinese will only buy and eat Western made foods. Wonder if that will change.
China executes two for tainted milk scandal. Official news agency says death sentences carried out on pair who added industrial chemical to infant formula
They should know better, our companies got caught
doing this long ago, but they were selling it into Africa.
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 --
evening mr w...
heh, yep, i remember that. they caught companies adding melamine to milk.
while i abhor the death penalty, at least the chinese government took its responsibility to respond and protect the general welfare seriously. i'll be surprised if the us government even attempts to identify the people who are responsible for this latest travesty, much less prosecute them. hell, those responsible will probably get promotions and raises from their companies.
Imma bad dawg
At first I thought including him stuttering was in bad form, but then I remembered all the bills that Obiden voted for that made my life worse and thought f it cuz he’s an asshole and doesn’t deserve my sympathy for his stutter. The rest of it is brilliant and worth watching cuz it keeps getting worse.
It never fails does it? Lie hard enough and big enough and you get rewarded for it. She lied under oath with Democrat’s permission and knowledge and nothing will happen to her. How many people are serving time for lying to cops during an investigation?
I haven’t read this yet but it’s Matt. Or maybe you already included it. I haven’t read yet.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
evening snoopy...
that matt orfalea piece is sure hard to watch. i got about halfway through it and couldn't take any more. i guess i'm supposed to be glad that the correct demented old man got into the white house.
heh, "principal deputy assistant attorney general." boy they sure can make up titles in washington, can't they?
that taibbi piece is behind a paywall and i'm not a subscriber (yet).
For me too
I hadn’t read it yet and it’s sad that it’s paywalled.
So not only is Obiden fudging the numbers for herd immunity, but so is Fauci. He once said that he thought 70% was a good number for it, but then he kept pushing the numbers up and he said 90% before he walked that back.
I read about a teacher that was forced back to work and got Covid and sounds like she is very lucky to be alive. Her lung X-ray are almost all white so even though she’s having breathing problems she wasn’t admitted to hospital because no beds were available. If she lived in China she could have gone to one of their new hospitals that they built for overflow patients. Here she is just damn lucky to be alive.
And Biden, democrats and 2 independents are saying that kids must get back to school now even though there are more contagious viruses exploding across the country. Wait till teachers have full immunity and then reopen them. That is what scientists are saying to do. Will they listen?
Maybe that video is a required taste. That isn’t the right word is it?
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
heh...
i don't know if it is a required taste, but if you thought it was good in some way, it's probably an acquired taste.
yeah, i feel like i don't have enough good information to work with in the school reopening debate. that said, i think that it is pretty stupid to open the schools before teachers and staff have had the vaccine and time for it to work in their systems and develop what passes for full immunity. (even the best vaccines are only 90-some percent effective against the strains that were prevalent some months ago)
perhaps if some of these folks were as busy looking for ways to enrich online learning for everybody as much as they were looking for data that supports their particular interests, things would go better for everybody.
Was it India that stopped using Pfizer?
Because they found out that immunity was much lower than what Pfizer said and Pfizer refused to send them information on their studies. Maybe I need to start watching mainstream media again just to see if they are talking about this or any of the things I’m reading. This should be a big story. But more so is that baby food makers are poisoning our babies. A long time ago and about more stories.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
here you go...
India: Pfizer withdraws COVID vaccine application for emergency use
a bunch of countries are also backing off of the astra-zeneca vaccine because of its low effectiveness, especially against the new african variant.
Heh
acquired. Yep that is the word I couldn’t come up with. Ruff couple of days. I cooked a pizza and didn’t hear the timer go off and who knows how long it over cooked? Dammit. Now the house smells like pizza but there ain’t any. Pretty ruff couple days.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
heh...
sorry to hear that things are not as good as they should be, i hope everything straightens out and you're back to a much better normal soon.
Me too
It’s been going on too long.
Have you seen this headline?
Russia, Iran & China To Hold Joint Naval Drills As CENTCOM Chief Blasts Iran As "Driver Of Instability"
You know if our leaders were sane this would be a flashing neon light saying back off. I can guess how ours will react.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
heh...
do you hear that voice saying, "excellent, smithers!" too?
Well now looky here
I’m too disgusted to embed the article.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-hosts-pacific-war-games-austra...
Because of course we are. Zero hedges also has an article on Obiden ramping up the Syrian war and they want regime change like what happened in Libya and making it a failed country. I don’t think Russia is going to let us do that. Not on our terms.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
oh great...
so, we've proceeded to the elaborate ritual stage, have we?
i've always found this macho posturing that nations do to be quite sadly amusing.
More woke weirdness at the New York Times
https://quillette.com/2021/02/09/with-a-star-science-reporters-purging-m...
And:
Goldman [Sachs] is evil but McKinsey is worse
evening lotlizard...
interesting article. i liked the opening especially:
i think perhaps the persecution of people like mcneil and andreessen whose use of the magic words was clearly not with malign intent is in keeping with mcwhorter's observation.
mobs in the throes of a religious frenzy get bored and restless, sometimes they just want to watch a witch burning, and, well, see monty python's instructional video:
Not to me ---
But then, in addition to my regular assignments, I once worked on a corporate project and McKinsey was hired as our consultants. My two teammates and I were never able to figure out if the consultants were crooks or incompetents; so, we settled on them being both and saved our employer a few hundred million dollars by killing the proposal.