The Evening Blues - 2-11-21
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features blues singer and guitarist John Lee Hooker. Enjoy!
John Lee Hooker - Boom Boom
"This is Democratic bedrock: we don't let people lie in the ditch and drive past and pretend not to see them dying. Here on the frozen tundra of Minnesota, if your neighbor's car won't start, you put on your parka and get the jumper cables out and deliver the Sacred Spark that starts their car. Everybody knows this. The logical extension of this spirit is social welfare and the myriad government programs with long dry names all very uninteresting to you until you suddenly need one."
-- Garrison Keillor
News and Opinion
Krystal Ball: Was ECONOMIC ANXIETY A Factor In Capitol Riots? New Study Says Yes
Earn the Peoples’ Trust Rather Than Rely on Fortresses
“It is far better to earn the confidence of the people than to rely on fortresses.” —Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince.
Judging by the response of the Biden administration and Congress to the violent takeover of the Capitol it’s clear Machiavelli’s advice has been ignored. Instead of winning the confidence of the American people by enacting an agenda that serves their interests rather than billionaires’, the new Democratic rulers are busy building fortresses. Washington DC will remain an armed camp of thousands of National Guardsmen until at least March following the inauguration and weeks after the Capitol siege. ...
Rather than earning the confidence of the American people with a legislative agenda that meets their needs, especially national health insurance in the middle of a pandemic (which Biden and Democratic congressional leaders opposes), the president (who is proud of writing the basis of the Patriot Act) has proposed a new domestic terrorism law that targets the population.
The U.S. faces a crisis of confidence in government, not a domestic terrorism crisis.
The Democrats are further eroding the people’s trust with government censorship by proxy through social media giants aligned with the party’s goals. They started with banning Donald Trump from Twitter and Facebook, then Parler was destroyed, and now leftist social media accounts have been demonetized, suspended or removed. The aim appears to be not only to silence its critics, but to chip away at the right and left margins so that only centrist, official mainstream media will be left standing—in a fortress of information.
Jeff Stein: Fed Chair REVEALS Real Unemployment Rate Higher Than Great Recession
'Maybe We Ought to Go to $20 an Hour. Why Stop at $15?' Scoffs House Republican Arguing Against Wage Hike
Attempting to undermine the overwhelmingly popular push for an increase in the long-stagnant federal minimum wage, a Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee on Tuesday said derisively that "maybe we ought to go to $20 an hour."
"Why stop at $15?" Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) asked during a marathon committee mark-up session Tuesday, a rhetorical question that conservatives often deploy in some form when arguing against raising the federal minimum wage, which hasn't been increased in more than a decade. ...
Democrats on the education and labor panel ultimately rejected the arguments of Walberg and every other Republican on the committee and, in the early hours of Wednesday morning, voted to keep the Raise the Wage Act in its portion of the coronavirus relief package. If passed into law, the measure would phase in the $15 minimum wage over the next four years and index it to median wage growth thereafter.
CDC study recommends double masking to reduce Covid-19 exposure
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found close-fitting surgical masks worn underneath cloth masks – known as double masking – can significantly enhance protection against Covid-19.
This is the first CDC-backed research to recommend “double-masking”, although the nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr Anthony Fauci, has recommended the public consider the measure in past briefings.
“There’s nothing wrong with people wearing two masks,” Fauci said at a press briefing one week before the research was released. “I often myself wear two masks.”
The CDC study found the most protective masks fit well around the face “to prevent leakage of air around the masks edges”, and also recommended knotting ear loops near the facial covering portion of the mask to contour the mask closer to the face.
At Confirmation Hearing, Bernie Sanders Calls Out Neera Tanden's History of 'Vicious Attacks' on Progressives
While Republicans have worked to focus a sizeable portion of budget office nominee Neera Tanden's confirmation process on her past tweets condemning GOP lawmakers, Senate Budget Committee chairman Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday was sure to make note of the Center for American Progress president's long history of attacking progressives—including himself and his supporters.
"There were vicious attacks made against progressives, people who I have worked with, me personally," Sanders (I-Vt.) said during Tanden's appearance before the Senate budget panel on Wednesday for the second hearing on her nomination to lead the Office of Management and Budget, a crucial agency particularly during a time of economic calamity.
Sanders did not cite specific examples, but Tanden—a longtime loyalist to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton—became notorious during the 2016 presidential race for disparaging the Vermont senator, his staff, and the progressive ideas he champions, including raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, a proposal that is now well within the mainstream of the Democratic Party.
Tanden's left-punching became an issue once more during the 2020 Democratic presidential primary after ThinkProgress, CAP's now-defunct news site, published an article and video criticizing then-candidate Sanders' appearance and book income and accusing him of being hypocritical in his denunciations of income inequality.
"Center for American Progress leader Neera Tanden repeatedly calls for unity while simultaneously maligning my staff and supporters and belittling progressive ideas," Sanders wrote in a letter to CAP's board in April of 2019. "This counterproductive negative campaigning needs to stop. The Democratic primary must be a campaign of ideas, not of bad faith smears."
In response to Sanders' questioning Wednesday, Tanden expressed regret for her past rhetoric and "expressions on social media" and vowed that, if confirmed to lead OMB, her approach to personal interactions will be "radically different."
Sanders also used the budget committee hearing to press Tanden on CAP's prolific corporate fundraising during her more than nine years as the Democratic establishment-aligned think tank's president and CEO.
"I happen to believe that big money interests have an undue influence over the economic and political life of our country," Sanders said. "That, too often, campaign contributions are what determine policy rather than needs of ordinary Americans."
The Vermont senator pointed to Washington Post reporting detailing how since 2014, CAP has received millions of dollars in donations from Walmart—which Sanders noted pays its workers starvation-level wages—and other major corporations such as Google, Facebook, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo.
In an interview with the Post in 2015, Tanden said that "we're proud of our donors" and pointed to the list of contributors on CAP's website, which today features such corporate behemoths as Amazon.com, Bank of America, and Microsoft.
On Wednesday, Tanden—a past proponent of Social Security and Medicare cuts—said CAP's corporate donors "will have zero impact" on her decision-making at OMB and added, "It will be my role to ensure that I am only serving the interests of the American people."
Biden orders sanctions on Myanmar generals as key Aung San Suu Kyi aide detained
US President Joe Biden has approved an executive order for new sanctions on those responsible for the military coup in Myanmar, as the army detained another key aide to civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Further protests were expected on Thursday following days of demonstrations in major cities and towns inside Myanmar calling for the military to cede power following its 1 February coup.
Biden said the order enabled his administration “to immediately sanction the military leaders who directed the coup, their business interests as well as close family members.” Washington would identify the first round of targets this week and was taking steps to prevent the generals having access to $1bn in Myanmar government funds held in the United States.
“We’re also going to impose strong exports controls. We’re freezing US assets that benefit the Burmese government, while maintaining our support for health care, civil society groups, and other areas that benefit the people of Burma directly,” Biden said at the White House. “We’ll be ready to impose additional measures, and we’ll continue to work with our international partners to urge other nations to join us in these efforts.”
Overnight, one of Aung San Suu Kyi’s closest aides, Kyaw Tint Swe, was detained in a new wave of arrests, an official of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party said in a post on Facebook. Kyi Toe, an information committee member of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), said Kyaw Tint Swe and four other people linked to the previous government had been taken from their homes overnight.
Biden says US will sanction military leaders, family members behind Myanmar coup
Call me maybe? Disquiet in Israel that Biden has yet to phone Netanyahu
It has been three weeks since Joe Biden’s inauguration and Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to receive a call from the White House. The Israeli prime minister has let it be known he is not happy but he is waiting by the phone.
[music to read this story by. -js]
Danny Danon, the head of World Likud, the global arm of Netanyahu’s party, tweeted a message to Biden on Wednesday, pointedly listing all the countries whose leaders have recently been graced by a call from the Oval Office.
@POTUS Joe Biden, you have called world leaders from#Canada#Mexico#UK#India#France#Germany#Japan#Australia#SouthKorea#Russia
Might it now be time to call the leader of #Israel, the closest ally of the #US?
The PM's number is: 972-2-6705555 pic.twitter.com/OYgPvVga6F— Ambassador Danny Danon | דני דנון (@dannydanon) February 10, 2021
“Might it now be time to call the leader of #Israel, the closest ally of the #US?” asked Danon, who was Israel’s ambassador to the UN until last year. For good measure he added: “The PM’s number is: 972-2-6705555.”
That number is listed on the website of Israel’s ministry of foreign affairs, but calls are answered by a recorded message, saying that it is out of service. “Please check the number and dial again,” the message says.
Netanyahu has said he expects to receive a call from Biden soon.
Twitter says Trump ban is permanent – even if he runs for office again
Donald Trump’s ban from the social media platform Twitter is going to stick even if he runs for the White House again – and even if he won again, a senior executive said on Wednesday.
The former president’s permanent block from Twitter is permanent, Twitter’s chief financial officer, Ned Segal, said during an interview on CNBC when he was asked whether Trump’s tweeting privileges could be restored if he ever returns to power.
“The way our policies work, when you’re removed from the platform, you’re removed from the platform,” Segal said.
He added: “Whether you’re a commentator, you’re a CFO, or you are a former or current public official. Remember, our policies are designed to make sure that people are not inciting violence, and if anybody does that, we have to remove them from the service and our policies don’t allow people to come back.”
Google, Facebook tell SCOTUS it should be harder for you to sue them
Suing technology firms when they mess up is already hard, especially when it's over privacy violations. Now, Facebook, Google, and the trade groups representing all the big tech firms are asking the Supreme Court to make it even harder for class actions to pursue cases against them.
Facebook, Google, and all the others submitted a filing (PDF) to the Supreme Court this week essentially arguing that if you cannot prove the specific extent to which their screwup injured you, you should not have any grounds to be part of a lawsuit against them.
Class-action suits start with a lead plaintiff—basically a representative of the group who stands in for hundreds or thousands of other individuals in a similar, or theoretically similar—but not necessarily identical—situation. This is particularly key in cases relating to privacy and data, where a small handful of plaintiffs for whom something goes badly wrong may be the reason that hundreds, thousands, or even millions of users then discover that their data is being similarly mishandled.
The tech firms, however, want the court to say that everyone in the class has to be able to prove a similar injury in order to participate—a limitation that would severely curtail lawsuits such as the biometric privacy case Facebook just settled in Illinois from going forward.
South Dakota Strikes Down Democracy
Salesforce shifts away from in-person work: 'The 9-to-5 workday is dead'
Salesforce has become the latest tech company in San Francisco to signal a transition away from in-person work, declaring the “9-to-5 workday is dead”.
The city’s largest private employer announced on Tuesday it would permanently allow many employees to work from home, even after it becomes safe to return to offices following the Covid-19 pandemic.
Salesforce said that after polling employees on their preferences, it would transition the majority of workers to a “flex” situation in which they come into an office just one to three days per week. Only a small part of the workforce will continue to work from an office location four or more days per week. Employees who do not live near an office are free to work remotely indefinitely. ...
Amid the changes to traditional workplace models, many tech professionals have left the Bay area, opting to work from more affordable cities now that jobs provide more flexibility. The most common destination for tech workers leaving the Bay is Austin, Texas, followed by Seattle, New York, and Chicago, according to moveBuddha, a site that compiles data on moving.
The exodus of tech talent could have a big impact on the Bay Area, which has been shaped by the tech boom and the money that came with it. The transformation of the city came with gentrification, rising rent costs, increases in homelessness and decreases in diversity. As more high earners leave the city, San Francisco has seen rents decrease substantially.
Amazon Hired Koch-Backed Anti-Union Consultant to Fight Alabama Warehouse Organizing
Amazon is bringing on a set of well-trained union suppression consultants in its high-profile fight to keep its massive warehouse workforce free of organized labor. The Seattle-based conglomerate recently retained a consultant named Russell Brown to help thwart the union election that began recently at its fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama, new disclosures show.
Brown was brought on by Amazon on January 25 for a contract to help persuade Amazon’s Alabama employees not to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, or RWDSU, a union that is affiliated with the United Food and Commercial Workers, also known as the UFCW. He is paid $3,200 per day, plus expenses, for the work.
Brown is the head of RWP Labor, which touts itself as a specialty firm that assists companies in “maintaining a union free workplace.” The company features a team of consultants that includes a former International Brotherhood of Teamsters trainer who now assists corporations with defeating union campaigns. The firm brags that it has won many previous anti-union drives and specializes in training company leaders, persuading employees, and developing corporate social responsibility plans devised to prevent union interference. ...
Brown also serves as the president of the Center for Independent Employees, a think tank that has received funding from the billionaire Koch network that routinely lobbies to weaken the political power of labor unions.
The vote at the Bessemer warehouse could be pivotal. If a majority of the 5,800 workers at the facility, located in the suburbs outside Birmingham, vote to join the union, they will form Amazon’s first unionized facility in the U.S. Amazon has worked furiously to derail the effort.
Capitol Attack: Impeachment Managers Build Case vs. Trump with Chilling New Video of Mob’s Violence
Georgia prosecutors open criminal investigation into Trump phone call
Prosecutors in Fulton county, Georgia, are investigating Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the southern state’s 2020 presidential election results, according to a letter, in the second criminal investigation faced by the former president.
The Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, has sent a letter asking state government officials to preserve documents, including those related to the then president’s call to the Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, pressuring him to “find” more votes.
“This matter is of high priority, and I am confident that as fellow law enforcement officers sworn to uphold the constitutions of the United States and Georgia, our acquisition of information and evidence of potential crimes via interviews, documents, videos and electronic records will be cooperative,” said the letter dated 10 February.
“This letter is notification that all records potentially related to the administration of the 2020 general election must be preserved, with particular care being given to set aside and preserve those that may be evidence of attempts to influence the actions of persons who were administering that election.“
Lincoln Project Types FLOAT Third ‘Integrity’ Party
Giuliani pressured Ukraine to investigate Biden family, new transcript reveals
A new transcript has surfaced of the former Trump lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, putting pressure on the Ukrainian government to open an investigation into the Biden family.
The transcript of a 40-minute call between Giuliani and two Ukrainian officials, was obtained by Time magazine, and served as a reminder of Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial, even as his second is under way in the Senate. ...
Giuliani’s call to the Ukrainian officials came three days before Trump’s, on 22 July 2019, to two Zelenskiy aides. One of them, Igor Novikov, sent the transcript to Time earlier this month. “Let these investigations go forward,” Giuliani told them, according to the transcript, which Time said it has verified. “Get someone to investigate this.”
The former New York mayor is more restrained in his language than Trump. According to the transcript, he does not make overt threats but repeatedly warned the Ukrainians “to be careful”. ...
Novikov has said he will assist a federal investigation of Giuliani reported to be under way in New York, as well as an effort to strip Giuliani of his license to practice law.
Krystal and Saagar: Andrew Yang DOMINATES New Poll Of NYC Mayoral Race
Minnesota Police Want a Pipeline Company to Pay for Weapons Claimed as PPE
A Minnesota sheriff’s office has requested that the tar sands pipeline company Enbridge reimburse the department for nearly $72,000 worth of riot gear and more than $10,000 in “less than lethal” weapons and ammunition, including tear gas, pepper spray, bean bag and sponge rounds, flash-bang devices, and batons. The sheriff’s office of Beltrami County, which sits at the center of an Indigenous-led fight to stop the construction of Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline replacement project, labeled the weapons as “personal protective equipment.”
The invoices, some of which were first described by the blog Healing Minnesota Stories, await review by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. The agency maintains an escrow account set up so that Enbridge can reimburse public safety agencies for expenses associated with Line 3 construction, especially costs for policing protests. In its construction permit, the utilities commission clarified that the fund “may not be used to reimburse expenses for equipment, except for personal protective gear for public safety personnel.” The commissioners did not define the term “personal protective gear.”
'People should be alarmed': air pollution in US subway systems stuns researchers
People traveling on subway systems in major US cities are being exposed to unsafe amounts of air pollution, with commuters in New York and New Jersey subjected to the highest levels of pollution, research has found.
Tiny airborne particles, probably thrown up by train brakes or the friction between train wheels and rails, are rife in the 71 underground stations sampled by researchers during morning and evening rush hours in Boston, New York City, Philadelphia and Washington DC, the cities that contain the bulk of subway systems in the US.
The levels of these tiny specks of pollution, called PM2.5, were well above nationally determined safe daily levels of 35 micrograms per cubic meter in each of the cities. New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) system had 251 micrograms per cubic meter, followed by Washington DC with 145 micrograms per cubic meter. Philadelphia was, comparatively, the cleanest system but still breached the limit beyond which serious health hazards are risked.
“New Yorkers in particular should be concerned about the toxins they are inhaling,” said the study co-author Terry Gordon, a professor at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine, with the research finding that concentrations of hazardous metals and organic particles were anywhere from two to seven times higher than outdoor air samples in the city.
Christopher Street, a Manhattan station that helps connect New York and New Jersey, had an incredible particle pollution level of 1,499 micrograms per cubic meter, about 77 times higher than the above-ground pollution. This is a pollution level more commonly found near a large wildfire or during a building demolition, the researchers said.
After 9th Circuit Decision, Youth Climate Campaigners Vow to Take Landmark Case to Supreme Court
For the second time in as many years, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday rejected a landmark climate lawsuit brought by a group of young people—who say they will now take their case to the United States Supreme Court.
Bloomberg Law reports the San Francisco-based federal appeals court denied (pdf) a request by plaintiffs in Juliana v. United States for the full court to hear their full constitutional climate suit.
The lawsuit argues that the federal government is directly fueling the climate crisis by maintaining an energy system that causes global heating, and that in doing so the government has violated the plaintiffs' constitutional rights to life, liberty, property, public trust, and equal protection under the law.
The litigants—who were children and teenagers when their lawsuit was filed in 2015—had sought a second chance after a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court threw out the case by a vote of 2-1 last January.
While the judges had concurred that the climate crisis has brought the world close to the "eve of destruction" and that "the government's contribution to climate change is not simply a result of inaction," they "reluctantly concluded that the plaintiffs' case must be made to the political branches or to the electorate at large," according to the ruling.
In a scathing dissent to the 2020 ruling, Judge Josephine Staton wrote that "the government accepts as fact that the United States has reached a tipping point crying out for a concerted response—yet presses ahead toward calamity."
"It is as if an asteroid were barreling toward Earth and the government decided to shut down our only defenses," she added. "Seeking to quash this suit, the government bluntly insists that it has the absolute and unreviewable power to destroy the nation."
The plaintiffs said Wednesday that they would press forward with their case. They also appealed to the Biden administration and U.S. Department of Justice to reach a settlement in the case.
"I hope and need the Biden administration to hear what the youth are saying, and to recognize how we are disproportionately affected by climate change," plaintiff Sahara V. said in a statement (pdf). "I hope that President Joe Biden will understand the crisis we're in, stop fighting our claims and our rights, and will decide to come to the settlement table in our case."
Julia Olson, executive director and chief legal counsel for Our Children's Trust—the nonprofit public interest law firm representing the plaintiffs—added that "the 9th Circuit failed to correct the legal errors in the panel decision."
"It's now up to the U.S. Supreme Court to protect the ability of our federal courts to interpret the U.S. Constitution and resolve controversies through a declaration of law," Olson added.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Tearing Down the Edifice of American Democracy
The inside story of how the Pentagon blocked efforts to end the Iraq War
NYC Taxi Drivers Shut Down Brooklyn Bridge in Demand for Debt Forgiveness
Explosive Growth, Vaccines And Covid Variants
Krystal and Saagar: Neera Tanden CONFRONTED, ‘Called Sanders Everything But An Ignorant Slut’
Krystal and Saagar: Tech Media TRIES TO DESTROY Clubhouse With Fake ‘Misinformation’ Attack
Krystal and Saagar: LAST DAY Of Dem Impeachment Arguments, Can Trump EVER Win Office Again?
Cannabis Entrepreneur On State Of Legalization Across America
A Little Night Music
John Lee Hooker - Whiskey And Wimmen'
John Lee Hooker - It Serves Me Right To Suffer
John Lee Hooker - Blues For Big Town
John Lee Hooker - Baby, Please Don't Go
John Lee Hooker - Blues Before Sunrise
John Lee Hooker - Boogie Everywhere I Go
John Lee Hooker - Time Is Marching
John Lee Hooker feat. Los Lobos - Dimples
John Lee Hooker - I'm In The Mood
John Lee Hooker - I Didn't Know
John Lee Hooker - Endless Boogie, Parts 27 And 28
Comments
Sure!
He's a racist, warmongering, apartheid enabling war criminal.
Hows that for a call?
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
evening pricknick...
sounds like the right call to me.
have a great evening!
Nothing says “closest ally” like a hero’s welcome for the
spy, born in the U.S. yet with no loyalty to the U.S., the spy most damaging to U.S. interests in modern times, Jonathan Pollard.
https://jewishinsider.com/2020/11/jonathan-pollard-israel-released/
https://www.qwant.com/?q=jonathan%20pollard%20hero%27s%20welcome%20israe...
And:
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/israel-attacks-uss-liberty
We need many more people like this young lady!
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
My gawd did she nail the hypocrisy
flooding out of too many mouths without any pushback. And good for her to call out for justice for Julian Assange. "He’s been rotting in prison for a decade after exposing US war crimes. Navalny is our racist puppet and the kids need to stop worshiping him just because he’s against Putin. Oh yeah and he’s in the rare few that have survived being exposed to THEE most deadly nerve agent ever and lived.
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
Vodka based immunity?
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
evening ggersh...
now there's a woman who can make a minute count for something!
too bad the european neoliberal commission will studiously ignore everything that she said.
have a great evening!
The clown show continues
Speaking of violent rhetoric! Turley.
- But Congress could wind up looking like an unimpeached co-conspirator — not in the riot, but in our ongoing political discord.
- Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) later called on people to confront Republicans in public; Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) insisted during 2020’s violent protests that “there needs to be unrest in the streets.” Then-Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) said “protesters should not let up” even as many protests turned violent or deadly.
- “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has condemned fellow members as effectively traitors and the “enemy within.” She was criticized last year for stating, in the midst of violent protests, that “I just don’t know why there aren’t uprisings all over the country. Maybe there will be.”
- Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the leading impeachment manager, was chided for using “fight like hell” in a 2019 interview with The Atlantic — the very words replayed repeatedly from Trump.
- Reckless rhetoric reflects our age of rage. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) stood in front of the Supreme Court and, citing two justices by name, declared menacingly: “Hey, Gorsuch. Hey, Kavanaugh — you’ve unleashed a whirlwind. And you’re going to pay the price.” Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) seemed to defend the recent violent takeover of a St. Louis prison by tweeting the words of Martin Luther King that “a riot is the language of the unheard.” Nor is this limited to Washington: Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) defended state Rep. Cynthia Johnson (D) who called for “soldiers” to “make [Trump supporters] pay” for criticizing and harassing her.
Since the Republican National Committee was targeted with a pipe bomb on Jan. 6, would that constitute incitement to arson or violence? Not under Brandenburg.
And who can forget Schumer threatening Trump with "the intelligence agencies that have 6 ways to Sunday to come after you" on Rachel Moscow’s show?
Why are we even talking about reforming democrats and continuing taking part in the vote process when they say whatever they think we want to hear for us to vote for them. Obama really woke up a lot of people, democrats screwing Bernie in 16 and then in 20 again should have been the last straw. Congress has abdicated their duty to us so why are they even needed anymore? They have overseen the asset stripping, the destruction of the bill of rights and breaks so many laws every damn day they’re in session (158 of them) and are now actively killing us. Yeah they have outlasted their usefulness to the country.
We are hit with higher taxes every year and on things that should not be taxed such as food and certain items people have to have. They then give it to their owners and strip our social programs almost every year. Nope we no longer need to have a government that does not represent us. I think we should sue them. Get a class action suit against their dereliction of duty. Who’s with me?
gulp.....
Good Grief!
Not. The. Point! Not even in the same gd zip code. Warrants are still needed for personal property. Right? Dammit the troops are in the wrong countries since people think they are defending their freedoms. I say bring them home and defend us from congress and the courts.
Oh yeah..don’t forget that the border extends 100 miles from it. Yeah that’s not pushing the boundaries on rights.
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...
i was a little disappointed by the turley article. it appears to me that he appears to be trying to elide the context in which words like "fight like hell" are spoken. for example, my high school soccer coach exhorted my team to "fight like hell" from time to time. surely he was not guilty of treason. so when congressman raskin uses the phrase "fight like hell" sitting in a room with a journalist - nobody expects a riot to follow immediately.
here. glenn greenwald explains it very well in this article:
i would argue that the context of trump's remarks on january 6 are far different than raskin's (or any of the others cited by turley) and i think turley is wrong to improperly conflate them.
i'd like to keep my free speech rights, thank you very much, and i am not inclined to trade them for the possibility of precluding trump's future political ambitions.
Krystal and Saagar
have it right about Yang. The buzz he's created is palpable in NYC.
Also, Biden has it right about Bibi. No rush to contact that racist monster, who by the way is on trial in Israel for fraud and corruption. This trial has been delayed for years.
Thanks for all the updates, Joe.
NYCVG
evening nycvg...
i'm glad to hear that yang is doing well against the machine politicians.
heh, no doubt biden has a strong memory of what bibi did to his boss, coming to address a joint session of congress at the invitation of the opposition party.
it will be surprising if biden doesn't keep bibi at arm's length.
Good evening, joe and bluzerz!
I sent the Joe Lauria article to my brother, stating it was one of the reasons I cannot vote for the dimwits. His response:
My response:
Tomorrow he’ll rail about my response. At 80, he still thinks our government is not in decline! I’ve told him the empire is falling but he lives with his daughter who thinks Shillary is relevant. Families - sheesh!
Enjoy the evening!
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
evening ra...
heh, the last time somebody pulled that argument on me, i kinda got peeved. i said that sometimes life offers us distinctly unpleasant choices, sometimes the choice is a shit sandwich on rye with mustard or a shit sandwich on a kaiser roll with lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise. those are the times when i choose to go on a diet.
they told me that i was unreasonable. i told them that i was happier that way.
have a great evening!
Interesting phrasing don’t you think?
That is a great scathing rebuke on the court decision. This seems timely.
We have wanted single payer for decades and yet when Clinton, Obama had and now Biden has it still isn’t the time to do it. Instead starting with Clinton they all passed horrid legislation that hurt us in every way while helping their donors. I bet if I ask a few centrists why they aren’t hammering democrats to finally pass all the things they have been running on for decades they will tell me that now is not the time. But no word on ramping up war or the next patriot act. They are the minority party. Period. Game over. Oh now we have to get rid of the centrists first before we can get those things...and in 20 years people will still be asking the same damn question.
Cuomo should be in jail waiting for his bail hearing. He has gotten away with so much, but this.
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...
nah, in 20 years half of us will be treading water because the centrists wouldn't address climate change and the other half will be trying to figure out what to do with all of the refugees.
heh, i'm sure that cuomo will find a way to paper this over, after all, he's fixing social security.
Well yeah there’s that
lol..this is looking more like the keystone cops.
"As for Putin, he used his executive power to allow Navalnyi (who was on parole) to immediately fly to Germany for treatment as soon as the Russian medics stabilized him."
So much for being a dictator. Good article by the saker. I think lots of plans were put in motion last fall and they just went with what worked.
http://thesaker.is/the-headless-chicken-and-the-bear/
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
Good evening Joe, thanks for the Evening Blues. What's
with Krystal? Doesn't she know that Team Hillary and their Junior affiliate Team Kos declared "economic Anxiety" to be nothing more than an euphamism for white working class male misogynist racists? Jeez.
great tunes, as usual.
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...
heh, isn't economic anxiety the religion of deplorables?
i thought that was what mitt clinton said.
have a good one!
We think alike,
@#5.1...
It gets me in trouble but, I, too, am happier that way!
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
heh...
as i have gotten older, i find that the more white hair i have in my beard, the more that i can be unreasonable and nobody minds.
Economic anxiety.
The subject makes me anxious. Taibbi has a piece about this in sheerpost; https://scheerpost.com/2021/02/10/this-is-for-you-dad-interview-with-an-...
After the gamestop thing, someone posted on reddit a comment about how they were investing for their Dad who lost everything because of the banksters in 2008. After that one comment, there was a whole slew of comments about families who had been devastated by the debacle of 2008. Taibbi called it the "untold history of America after the 2008 financial crisis".
A few examples;
Matt Taibbi sums it up, Krystal touched on it. Economic anxiety, another phrase for deplorables.
Krystal's idea that we can go one of two ways is interesting, I'm not sure I agree but I hadn't thought of it that way.
Thanks for the EB Joe, have a good one.
evening randtntx...
yep, in my view the system cannot stand as it is and there are two approaches that can be taken. we can have a new, new deal that creates a new agreement between the rich and everybody else or we can have revolutions until such time as either everybody is satisfied or dead. however, the current balance is unsustainable in the longer term.
i guess we'll see what happens.
We're not going to get a "new New Deal".
Nobody left in the DC Swamp has the brains or the guts to stand up and fight for one (no, not even Bernie, who talks a good fight but sits down when it's time to stand up).
So it's going to be the other. Fasten your seat belts.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
Erudites? Hum, joe, in blues,
some live.
Thank you for bringing the music.