The Evening Blues - 3-2-21
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features Chicago blues piano player Sunnyland Slim. Enjoy!
Sunnyland Slim - Jivin' Boogie
“Our way is upward, from the species across to the super-species. But the degenerate mind which says ‘All for me’ is a horror to us.”
-- Friedrich Nietzsche
News and Opinion
Caitlin Johnstone: There’s Only One News Story, Repeating Over And Over Again
There is only ever one news story on any given day, and it is always the same news story: wealthy and powerful people seek more wealth and power, and narratives are spun to advance these agendas.
That’s it. That’s all you’re ever seeing when you read the news. There are sports scores and the occasional celebrity death mixed in for entertainment, but when it comes to major political and governmental events you’re only ever seeing the effects of wealthy and powerful people working to obtain more wealth and power and narratives being spun to promote these agendas.
Today it’s the Democratic Party killing the $15 minimum wage, protests in Haiti, US electoral shenanigans in Ecuador, bombings and sanctions on Syria, China bad, Russia bad. Appearances which taken individually at first glance look like breaking news stories, but when examined closely and integrated into the big picture are actually the exact same dynamics that were playing out yesterday with slightly different shapes. Tomorrow those same dynamics will play out again in different appearances. ...
It’s the exact same news story playing out over and over and over again, day after day after day. Alarm clock goes off at six AM, Sonny and Cher sing “I Got You Babe”, and Bill Murray wakes up to Groundhog Day once again.
“Well it looks like Jibby Jorpson is set to be the new leader, somehow staving off an early challenge from the popular socialist candidate,” reports the news man. “In other news, the ostensibly left-wing party will be unable to help the working class due to bliff blaff bloffa reasons, a dangerous dictator in a crucial geostrategic region urgently needs to be removed from power because widdle diddle doodad, and coming up: do we need more internet censorship to prevent wakka dakka dingdong?”
Next morning. Alarm clock. “I Got You Babe”, Bill Murray, Groundhog Day again.
“Well it looks like Miggy Morpson is set to be the the new leader, somehow staving off an early challenge from the popular socialist candidate,” reports the news man. “In other news, the ostensibly left-wing party will be unable to help the working class due to wing wang wappa reasons, a dangerous dictator in a crucial geostrategic region urgently needs to be removed from power because kooka kakka keeka, and coming up: do we need more internet censorship to prevent yope yap yimmy?”
Over and over and over again. And over and over and over. The excuses change, the narrative spin changes, the component parts of the agendas change, but it’s only ever the same one story: wealthy and powerful people seek more wealth and power, and narratives are spun to advance these agendas.
Joe Biden says his hands are tied on a $15 minimum wage. That's not true
When a Republican is president, Democratic politicians, pundits and activists will tell you that the presidency is an all-powerful office that can do anything it wants. When a Democrat is president, these same politicians, pundits and activists will tell you that the presidency has no power to do anything. In fact, they will tell you a Democratic president cannot even use the bully pulpit and other forms of pressure to try to shift the votes of senators in his own party. A tale from history proves this latter myth is complete garbage – and that tale is newly relevant in today’s supercharged debate over a $15 minimum wage.
In that debate so far, we have seen Democratic senators prepare to surrender the $15 minimum wage their party promised by insisting they are powerless in the face of a non-binding advisory opinion of a parliamentarian they can ignore or fire. That explanation is patently ridiculous and factually false, so Democratic apologists are starting to further justify the surrender by suggesting that even if the party kept a $15 minimum wage in the Covid relief bill, conservative Democrats such as Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema would block it anyway.
The White House itself is now falling back on the idea that it doesn’t have the votes to do much of anything, insinuating that Joe Biden – who occupies the world’s most powerful office – somehow has no power to try to change the legislative dynamic. And this spin is being predictably amplified across social media. ... The apologism is particularly absurd because unlike his predecessor Barack Obama, who was a relative newcomer to politics, Biden’s major selling point was that he knows “how to make government work”. The guy explicitly pitched himself as the best Democratic presidential candidate by suggesting that in an era of gridlock, he knows how to make the Democratic agenda a reality and Get Things Done™, like master of the Senate Lyndon Baines Johnson.
In 1964, Johnson was trying to pass Medicare, but two conservative Democratic senators threatened to take down the entire legislation over a tax issue. In a story flagged by economist Stephanie Kelton, the New York Times noted that months before that legislation passed: “Opponents proposed a large and popular increase in Social Security benefits (and taxes) which would have made passage of new Medicare taxes almost impossible. At the last minute, Senators George Smathers of Florida and Russell Long of Louisiana, both Democrats but Medicare opponents, switched and voted to save Medicare. ‘Lyndon told me to,’ Senator Smathers explained.” ...
There has been a lot of dishonesty and deception floating around Democratic Washington these days. There was the lie two months ago that $2,000 checks would be coming “immediately” to a desperate nation struggling through a pandemic. There is the lie about the parliamentarian supposedly being the reason the $15 minimum wage is stalled. There is once again the lie of a forthcoming “public option”, which Democrats promised but which is barely being discussed at all, and is not part of the Covid relief legislation. But the LBJ story shows that the mendacious narrative of a helpless Democratic president is the most pernicious lie of all.
Reporter in press briefing asks Psaki if WH is pushing harder for Tanden than for $15/hour minimum wage.
Psaki: "That's mixing a few things kind of irresponsibly, if I'm just being totally honest."
— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) March 1, 2021
Bernie Goes ALL IN To FORCE THE VOTE On 15 Minimum Wage
Sanders vows to force vote on $15 minimum wage
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) says Democrats should “ignore” the recent ruling of the Senate parliamentarian and is vowing to force the Senate to vote this week on an amendment to set the federal minimum wage at $15 an hour.
Sanders on Monday declared he would not back down on his signature wage initiative after Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled last week that a provision setting the federal minimum wage at $15 an hour would not be eligible under special budget rules Democrats are using to avoid a filibuster while passing their coronavirus relief bill.
“My personal view is that the idea that we have a Senate staffer, a high-ranking staffer, deciding whether 30 million Americans get a pay raise or not is nonsensical. We have got to make that decision, not a staffer who’s unelected, so my own view is that we should ignore the rulings, the decision of the parliamentarian,” Sanders told reporters.
Sanders added, “Given the enormous crises facing this country and the desperation of working families, we have got to as soon as possible end the filibuster.” ...
Sanders said he will force a vote on an amendment raising the federal minimum wage this week.
By giving up on $15/hour, Biden is saying there are workers who are essential yet don’t deserve a living wage.
— Gravel Institute (@GravelInstitute) March 2, 2021
CDC chief warns of 'potential fourth surge' and urges US to keep Covid rules
Rochelle Walensky, the director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), warned on Monday that a recent increase in coronavirus cases indicated a “fourth surge” could occur before a majority of the US is vaccinated.
“At this level of cases, with variants spreading, we stand to completely lose the hard-earned ground we have gained,” Walensky said, during a White House briefing.
“Now is not the time to relax the critical safeguards that we know can stop the spread of Covid-19 in our communities, not when we are so close. We have the ability to stop a potential fourth surge of cases in this country.”
According to Johns Hopkins University, the US has recorded more than 28.5m Covid-19 cases and nearly 513,000 deaths. Daily case numbers fell steeply after a peak in January but have started to increase again.
Black People Face Higher COVID Infections & Deaths. Should They Have Lower Age Cutoffs for Vaccines?
'Falling off a cliff': pandemic crippling world's most fragile states, finds report
Thousands could starve in the world’s most fragile states as the pandemic comes on top of existing crises, warns a new report today which found aid workers are deeply pessimistic about the coming year. The survey of aid workers by the Disaster Emergency Committee (DEC) found that they believed humanitarian conditions were at their worst in a decade.
The chief executive of the DEC, Saleh Saeed, said reduced funding could force aid providers to prioritise some populations and services over others.
“People living in places made perilous by conflict, violence and climate disasters are coping with the coronavirus pandemic as best they can, but the odds are stacked against them. The knock-on effects of the pandemic have crippled economies, making the world’s poorest people even poorer,” said Saeed.
The report focused on Syria, Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Afghanistan, as well as the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh. It said there had been a significant economic impact in all of these countries, but that the direct health impact of the coronavirus had also been underestimated because of insufficient testing capacity.
Trader Joe’s employee says he was fired for requesting better Covid protections
A former Trader Joe’s employee said he was fired by the grocery store for requesting better coronavirus protection for workers. Ben Bonnema, who worked at the store’s 545 branch on the Upper West Side in New York city, said he wrote to the company’s CEO Dan Bane in February, pointing to new studies about aerosol transmission of Covid-19 and calling for a series of safety measures – including better air filtration, limits to store capacity based on CO2 levels and a “three strikes policy” for customers who refuse to wear a mask.
He also requested that nobody be allowed into the store without wearing a mask and for information about the air filtration systems.
“We put our lives on the line everyday by showing up to work. Please, show up for us by adopting these policies,” he wrote in the letter which he shared on Twitter and has been retweeted over 44,000 times.
Then, on 26 February, he said he was dismissed. “Trader Joe’s just fired me for sending this letter to the CEO, saying I don’t share the company values. I guess advocating for a safer workplace isn’t a company value?” he wrote.
Biden Continues Destabilizing Middle East As Corporate News Cheerleads
Fact-checking Psaki's claim that there 'have not been sanctions put in place' on foreign leaders even in recent past
"Historically, and even in recent history, Democratic and Republican administrations, there have not been sanctions put in place for the leaders of foreign governments where we have diplomatic relations -- and even where we don't have diplomatic relations," Psaki said.
Facts First: It's not true that there "have not been sanctions put in place" against the leaders of foreign governments even in the recent past. In fact, all three of Biden's predecessors who took office in the 21st century imposed direct sanctions on foreign leaders. Psaki made a narrower and more accurate claim on Monday, saying the US has "typically" not imposed direct sanctions on leaders of countries with which it has diplomatic relations.
Gary Clyde Hufbauer, a nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics who has studied sanctions, said Psaki's Sunday assertion "is too broad" given the list of leaders against whom the US has indeed imposed direct sanctions. He added, "What Psaki meant to say is that the US seldom if ever sanctions the leaders of countries regarded as important US allies, nor does it sanction the leaders of nuclear adversaries."
The list of leaders against the US has hit with direct sanctions includes:
- Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who were sanctioned by President Donald Trump;
- North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Libyan then-dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who were sanctioned by President Barack Obama;
- Myanmar's then-leader Than Shwe, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, who were sanctioned by President George W. Bush.
Psaki's claim went too far. Michael Beck, a sanctions expert with the firm TradeSecure, LLC, said that when you consider the list of sanctioned leaders, "it's a bit of an exaggeration to suggest that the United States has not or will not sanction leaders of foreign governments."
Is Biden A HYPOCRITE On Press After Refusing To Hold News Conferences?
Biden Criticized for Lack of Transparency After Refusing to Publicize Virtual Visitor Logs
While President Joe Biden has been less secretive than his immediate predecessor, watchdog groups—unimpressed by the president's ability to clear the low ethical bar set by former President Donald Trump and frustrated by the White House's refusal to release virtual visitor logs despite the ongoing need for online meetings—are criticizing the current administration for its lack of openness and urging Biden to prioritize government transparency.
Emphasizing that "Biden has fallen short" of his previous boss, former President Barack Obama, when it comes to "bringing transparency back to the White House," Politico reported Monday that "the White House has committed to releasing visitor logs. But it doesn't plan to divulge the names of attendees of virtual meetings, which are the primary mode of interaction until the coronavirus pandemic eases."
"We're in a pandemic," said Walter Shaub, former director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics and now a senior ethics fellow at the Project on Government Oversight, an anti-corruption nonprofit. "People meet by video conference instead of in person. Why offer to release visitor logs and then keep virtual meetings secret?"
Politico noted that critics, who want Biden to "do more to restore confidence in the federal government following Trump's chaotic term," also cited his administration's failure to share the president and vice president's schedules online, to reinstate the White House comment line, and to allow for citizen petitions on the White House website.
"And while Biden has received kudos for keeping the American public informed, primarily by resuming the daily White House press briefings, he has yet to hold a news conference of his own," Politico added.
Alex Howard, director of the Digital Democracy Project at the left-leaning Demand Progress Educational Fund, told Politico that the steps taken by the Biden administration are "insufficient to the moment and the need." Howard advocated "opening Cabinet meetings, disclosing information, and using political capital to emphasize that being 'open by default' isn't just an option but an obligation across the government."
As Citizens forResponsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) tweeted, "Being more transparent than Trump (the president who refused to release his tax returns) is a very low bar. Biden should go even farther to ensure that Trump's standard is not the new normal."
Nicolas Sarkozy charged: Corruption conviction rocks French conservatives
Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy sentenced to jail for corruption
When the verdict came, it reduced the Paris court to a stunned silence: Nicolas Sarkozy was guilty of corruption and influence peddling, and sentenced to three years in prison, two of them suspended.
France’s president from 2007 to 2012 had played an “active role” in forging a “corruption pact” with his lawyer and a senior magistrate to obtain information on a separate investigation into political donations, the leading judge declared, and there was “serious and concurring evidence” of collaboration between the three men to break the law.
The conviction and sentence were dramatic, unexpected and historic. Sarkozy, 66, had repeatedly declared his innocence and dismissed the charges as an “insult to my intelligence”.
It is, however, unlikely he will spend a day in jail. His lawyer has announced he intends to appeal, a process that would lead to a new trial, and a one-year prison sentence can be served outside jail under certain conditions, including the wearing of an electronic bracelet or limited home confinement. ...
While Sarkozy was not banned from holding public office, the verdict, delivered on Monday afternoon, is likely to quash his hopes of returning to public life in time for next year’s presidential election. His centre-right Les Républicains (LR) party has been struggling to come up with a credible candidate since Sarkozy’s former prime minister François Fillon was engulfed in scandal during the 2017 presidential race, opening the way for Emmanuel Macron to win.
Report Finds Biden Can Potentially Freeze Dozens of Trump's Last-Minute 'Egregious and Damaging' Rollbacks
Public Citizen revealed Monday that President Joe Biden can potentially freeze—and more swiftly reverse—over two dozen more regulatory rollbacks forced through at the last minute by his predecessor's administration due to violations of federal law.
"The Trump administration's moves to lock-in last-minute regulatory rollbacks were plagued with unprecedented and unlawful legal tactics that make them much more vulnerable to reversal," said Matt Kent, regulatory policy associate for Public Citizen and co-author of the group's new report.
The progressive advocacy organization is urging Biden to expand the scope of his freeze memo from January 20 to include 25 more midnight regulations issued under former President Donald Trump—"many of which will harm consumers, workers, the public's health and safety, and the environment."
Those 25 deregulatory actions, "including some of the most egregious and damaging rollbacks of public protections produced during the entire Trump administration," violated the "obscure but powerful" Congressional Review Act (CRA), according to Public Citizen.
Under the CRA, regulations only take legal effect after they are published in the Federal Register and submitted to the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. Public Citizen's report highlights regulations that weren't sent to either or both bodies of Congress before Biden issued his memo shortly after taking office.
There are also multiple rollbacks, "particularly from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), that were made legally effective immediately in potentially unlawful fashion and would have been subject to the regulatory 'freeze' if those rollbacks had legally proper effective dates," the report says.
As report co-author and Public Citizen regulatory policy advocate Amit Narang put it: "Trump's sloppiness and incompetence has created an opening to undo some of the damage caused by his destructive anti-regulatory agenda."
"Since many of Trump's last-minute regulatory rollbacks technically were not on the books when Biden took office, Biden can immediately freeze potentially dozens of them, making it easier to eventually undo them," Narang added. ...
Over half of the 25 Trump-era rollbacks in the report—which are detailed in a series of charts sorted by topic—relate to energy and the environment, from eliminating safety and inspection requirements for offshore oil and gas drilling operations to opening the Tongass National Forest in Alaska to logging.
There are also multiple actions related to consumer and civil rights, immigration, and labor. Additionally, there is one related to finance and another on agriculture.
They range from narrowing asylum eligibility and shielding corporate giants from liability for franchisees' labor law violations to enabling more discrimination against LGBTQ people on "religious liberty" grounds and allowing federal executions by not only lethal injections but also firing squad and the electric chair.
Massachusetts’ Progressive Lawmakers Push Congress to Abolish Qualified Immunity
Rep. Ayanna Pressley and Sens. Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren, Democrats of Massachusetts, are introducing a bill to fully end qualified immunity, a legal doctrine that protects police and law enforcement officials from civil liability in cases where they are accused of violating someone’s constitutional rights.
Pressley and former Rep. Justin Amash, I-Mich, first introduced a bipartisan version of the bill last summer, as an amendment to the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, a package of sweeping police reforms developed in response to nationwide protests against police brutality. Pressley and Amash’s amendment did not make it into the version of the JPA that was passed by the House in June, which instead included a provision to reform qualified immunity to allow individuals who file civil suits against local and federal law enforcement officers the possibility to recover damages, something the current qualified immunity doctrine widely protects against.
The doctrine of qualified immunity “for too long has shielded law enforcement from accountability and denied recourse for the countless families robbed of their loved ones,” Pressley said, noting that ending systemic racism in policing depends in part on ending qualified immunity. “There can be no justice without healing and accountability, and there can be no true accountability with qualified immunity.”
Markey echoed that sentiment, citing the cases of Daniel Prude in Rochester, New York; Elijah McClain in Aurora, Colorado; “and countless others” that inspired a renewed push to end the doctrine. Colorado became the first state to end qualified immunity in June, picking up efforts to do so in the wake of McClain’s death. The doctrine would have theoretically protected police officers who chose to administer an inappropriate dose of ketamine, a fast-acting sedative, to McClain. “It’s time we end the outdated and judge-made doctrine of qualified immunity and start delivering accountability for the officers who abuse their positions of trust and responsibility in our communities,” Markey said. “There will not be true racial justice until we end qualified immunity.”
Real Reason CORNEL WEST Denied Tenure From Harvard
Krystal Ball: "Cuomosexuals" And The HORRORS Of Political Celeb Culture
Third woman accuses Cuomo of unwanted sexual advances
A third woman has accused New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo of unwanted sexual advances, joining two former aides to the governor who previously released their own accounts.
Anna Ruch, 33, told The New York Times in an interview published Monday evening that she met Cuomo in 2019 at at wedding, during which the governor, 63, put his hand on her lower back. After she says she removed his hand, Cuomo then placed his hand on her cheeks before asking if he could kiss her. A photograph of Cuomo with his hands on her face was provided to the Times.
“I was so confused and shocked and embarrassed,” she told the newspaper. “I turned my head away and didn’t have words in that moment.”
Cuomo faces new calls to resign as harassment investigation looms
A collective of former New York state legislative employees on Monday denounced Andrew Cuomo’s apology for his past behaviour, after the governor was accused of sexually harassing multiple women, and called for his removal or resignation.
Members of the Sexual Harassment Working Group also said they expected more allegations to follow – and accused Cuomo of “gaslighting” his accusers.
Letitia James, the state attorney general, meanwhile, announced the first step in mounting an external investigation of the governor’s behaviour.
A New Form of Jim Crow: Ari Berman on the GOP’s Anti-Democratic Assault on Voting Rights
US supreme court could deal blow to provision protecting minority voters
The US supreme court will hear a case on Tuesday that could allow the court’s conservative majority to deal a major blow to the most powerful remaining provision of the Voting Rights Act, the 1965 law designed to prevent racial discrimination in voting.
The case, Brnovich v Democratic National Committee, involves a dispute over two Arizona measures. One is a 2016 law that bans anyone other than a close family member or caregiver from collecting absentee ballots, sometimes called ballot harvesting. The second is a measure that requires officials to reject ballots cast in the wrong precinct, even if the voter has cast a vote in statewide races.
Arizona rejected more than 38,335 ballots cast in the wrong precinct between 2008 and 2016 and minority voters were twice as likely as white voters to have their ballots rejected, the DNC noted in its brief. Minority voters, including the state’s Native American population, are disproportionately harmed by the ballot collection ban because they are more likely to lack reliable mail service.
The DNC argues that the policies violated section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits voting laws that discriminate based on race. A trial court ruled in 2018 that the policies did not violate the law, and a three-judge panel on the US court of appeals for the ninth circuit later upheld that ruling. But the full circuit voted to rehear the case and last year found that the policies did violate the Voting Rights Act. Now, the Arizona attorney general, Mark Brnovich, a Republican, and the Arizona Republican party are appealing that ruling to the US supreme court.
And though the facts in the case are about Arizona, the stakes could extend far beyond it. Brnovich and the Arizona Republican party are urging the court to use the case as a vehicle for announcing a narrower view of section 2 than the one currently in use.
Native American protesters help delay Arizona mining project
Native American protesters helped delay the Resolution Copper mining project planned for Arizona, after officials on Monday temporarily blocked the transfer of federal lands for the project for at least several months.
Tom Torres, the acting forest supervisor at the Tonto National Forest, the location of the land in question, announced that the Department of Agriculture directed him to withdraw the environmental impact statement that the Trump administration issued five days before his presidency ended.
Due to a previous congressional law, the 2,422 acres of the Oak Flat section would immediately be transferred to Resolution Copper 60 days after the environmental impact statement. But the Forest Service’s Monday actions stopped the automatic turnover.
In his statement, Torres said the department will use the extra time for a “thorough review based on significant input received from collaborators, partners, and the public,” including the concerns presented by tribes.
After Texas, Green New Deal Advocates Push Rooftop Solar. But Will Biden Fund It
In the wake of blackouts driven by extreme weather in Puerto Rico, California, and now Texas, grassroots organizers have repeatedly highlighted the potential for disaster resiliency through community-controlled renewable energy. While right-wing Texas politicians have sought to blame the yet-to-be-enacted Green New Deal — a jobs, energy savings, and clean power initiative — for the outages, aspects of the most progressive versions of the program, like community and rooftop solar energy, are being pushed by leaders from marginalized communities exactly because they will offer better disaster resiliency. Yet so far, President Joe Biden hasn’t made distributed renewables or rooftop solar a central element of his climate plans, and local efforts have faced major hurdles to scaling up.
As the Biden administration prepares to unveil a sprawling economic recovery and infrastructure bill, a coalition of energy justice advocates are calling for new federal policies that would add up to 30 million homes powered by rooftop and community solar energy. “We choose rooftop solar and community solar as an intervention in part to build wealth within communities and have it be something that supports local jobs and results in bill savings and keeps those resources as local as possible,” said Hanna Mitchell, Texas program director of Solar United Neighbors, which is leading the 30 Million Solar Homes plan alongside the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and the Initiative for Energy Justice. Rooftop solar, Mitchell added, also “aids in grid flexibility and resiliency and mitigating peak demand.” ...
Biden has promised that the U.S. will be run on 100 percent clean energy by 2035 and will reach net-zero emissions by 2050. He has also introduced environmental justice goals, including a benchmark of 40 percent of benefits from federal investments going to marginalized communities. And he’s formed two separate environmental justice advisory councils. The path to meeting his goals will be outlined in part by his upcoming economic recovery and infrastructure bill, likely to be unveiled in the coming weeks. It’s unclear, though, how much support will be offered to community solar. Last summer, a task force organized around uniting progressive Democrats behind Biden’s presidential nomination recommended installing 8 million solar roofs and community solar energy systems within five years. There’s no clear indication that Biden is actually moving toward that goal, and meanwhile, a coalition of community solar and energy justice advocates are demanding Biden and Congress go further than that.
A Texas city had a bold new climate plan – until a gas company got involved
When the city of Austin drafted a plan to shift away from fossil fuels, the local gas company was fast on the scene to try to scale back the ambition of the effort. Like many cities across the US, the rapidly expanding and gentrifying Texas city is looking to shrink its climate footprint. So its initial plan was to virtually eliminate gas use in new buildings by 2030 and existing ones by 2040. Homes and businesses would have to run on electricity and stop using gas for heat, hot water and stoves.
The proposal, an existential threat to the gas industry, quickly caught the attention of Texas Gas Service. The company drafted line-by-line revisions to weaken the plan, asked customers to oppose it and escalated its concerns to top city officials. In its suggested edits, the company struck references to “electrification”, and replaced them with “decarbonization”– a policy that wouldn’t rule out gas. It replaced “electric vehicles” with “alternative fuel vehicles”, which could run on compressed natural gas. It offered to help the city to plant more trees to absorb climate pollution and to explore technologies to pull carbon dioxide out of the air – both of which might help it to keep burning gas.
Those proposed revisions were shared with Floodlight, the Texas Observer and San Antonio Report, by the Climate Investigations Center, which obtained them through public records of communications between city officials and the company.
The moves have so far proven a success for Texas Gas. The most recently published draft of the climate plan gives the company much more time to sell gas to existing customers, and it allows it to offset climate emissions instead of eliminating them. The city, however, is revisiting the plan after a backlash to the industry-secured changes.
The lobbying in Austin is not unique. It echoes how an electricity and gas company spent hundreds of thousands of dollars scaling back San Antonio’s climate ambitions by funding the city’s plan-writing process, replacing academics with its preferred consultants and writing its own “Flexible Path” that would let it keep polluting. The American Gas Association in a statement for this story said it “will absolutely oppose any effort to ban natural gas or sideline our infrastructure anywhere the effort materializes, state house or city steps”.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
There Were No Calls for Censorship Against Democrats For Their False Claims About the 2016 Election
Ro Khanna: Syria Strikes 'ILLEGAL' And It's Not Even Close
US Wasted Billions in Afghanistan on Vehicles and Buildings
Pentagon Announces $125 Million in Military Aid for Ukraine
More than a Year Later, Americans Have No Idea Where $9 Trillion of Fed Money Went
House Dems Demand Harris Advance $15 Minimum Wage
Push to recall California governor Gavin Newsom gains steam – but who's behind it?
Investigation Into Chemical Exposure From Fracking in Pennsylvania Provokes Call for Rapid Phaseout
Keiser Report | QE Cantillon Confirmed
Ryan Grim: White House BRISTLES At Suggestion They're Fighting Harder For Neera Than Minimum Wage
Krystal and Saagar: Resistance LIBS FREAK At Reporter For Asking BASIC Question On Neera Tanden
A Little Night Music
Sunnyland Slim - Dust My Broom
Sunnyland Slim - You Put That Thing On Me
Sunnyland Slim - Slim's Shout
Sunnyland Slim - Shake It Baby
Sunnyland Slim - Soft and Mellow Stella
Sunnyland Slim and Jimmy Rogers - That's All Right
Muddy Waters feat. Sunnyland Slim - Mean Dispostion
Sunnyland Slim - Hit The Road Again
Sunnyland Slim - Speak Once And Think Twice
Sunnyland Slim - Be Careful How You Vote
Comments
Joe thanks for all the news and blues. It's always my
first look at what's going on. I truly appreciate the section on green news and frequent links to information about climate change, biodiversity and sustainability.
About Sarkozy...well pfft! These guys come in and are kings for a five year term. Some flaunt it. The one we currently have is the worst corporatist ever. Le Pen has said for years she wouldn't mess with the social safety net and she is no friend of international corporations. While she and her xenophobic party are not right for France she has some understanding what matters to French people. Macron is handing French patramonie over to private interests as fast as he can go. Here, if we get the best candidate, these things can be undone as has often happened in the past.
Bonne chance to all of us.
Thank you.
ETA: our Tekel (wire haired Dachshund) met a smallish blond Lab the other night and took off on a romp for several hours. I thought he was hurt somewhere, but he was partying. He came home not shot, not hurt and very happy. Friend came by tonight, and both dogs howled for real, like little wolves. Seeing Teddy point his nose skyward and howl his heart out, is amazing and sad. It's not safe just to let him go, but he needs a pal better than humans and two cats he lives with.
A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.
Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.
evening dm...
good to see you. i was kind of surprised to see sarkozy actually sentenced, it seems like for the most part countries don't want to punish their executives these days. i suppose that he might yet get away with it on appeal.
i don't really know if he's any better than what you have in office these days. sarkozy's actions towards libya/gaddafi were pretty reprehensible. the little guy you have in office now seems intent on privatizing everything and crushing the domestic opposition. but those are just the impressions that i get from over here. i don't follow french domestic news and politics very closely.
i hope that your dog finds some happy companionship and stays out of trouble. maybe you can set up some play dates with his new friend?
Something this minimum wage fracas has me thinking
Evening all!
Y’know, I don’t think it’s a secret that Kamala Harris is an ambitious woman. I also don’t think it’s crazy to assume her position as VP is intended to springboard her into the top position, one way or another.
But the fight for $15 got me thinking. Sure, no one expected the Biden administration to be worth a shit. But I guess I figured with all the Obama people around, they’d be more graceful at weaseling out of things like this. This is just clumsy.
As for Kamala, it’s interesting that people are correctly pointing out she’s in a position to do something on this. I don’t think she will but, if she intends to further her career in politics, I don’t see how she can not. This wasn’t just Biden’s issue, it was hers too.
And I know it is crazy early in the administration (though I still don’t expect Biden to finish his first term), but it seems like the honeymoon period was very short and is over. I’m not convinced people are “waking up” or whatever but I am seeing more skepticism than I expected.
Again, it’s way early but I wonder if things continue in this direction how it’s not going to torpedo her aspersions. Are they counting on “not Trump” working a second time? There’s just something about the politics of all this that’s striking me as odd and I can’t put my finger on what it is.
Edit: I hope this made sense. It’s kind of hard to put into words what I mean, but I guess I am looking at the Biden administration as a precursor to Kampala’s next run. Again, I know it’s early, but yikes! Obama’s tenure did little for most people, but it did set Biden up for his run. I don’t see Biden being able to do the same for Kamala.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
Like you said…
"it’s early … and, I’m not convinced people are “waking up” or whatever but I am seeing more skepticism than I expected.”
And like you also said ...
I think yours is an interesting perception, and possibly one with a glimmer of hope that there might be a wage increase. But for that glimmer of justice or hope, the population has to sacrifice an unfortunate amount in the political game. As long as American politics continue to be played like a sports game with no handicaps for the deserved, there’s little hope one can find.
Always the way, isn’t it?
Seems like we get nothing these days without making a deal with the devil.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
I can’t help but wonder
if we’ve indebted ourselves beyond repair at times. Wouldn’t it have been smoother in retrospect had we made different choices along the way.
[video:https://youtu.be/kG1Hqjx1pCM]
He can die
And it's fine with me
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Harris is being groomed to take over and soon
DK linked to a story about how she is being groomed in foreign policy and it went out of its way to show all the ways that is being done. I think it’s politico, but not sure. What this accomplishes is that if she has to suddenly assume the position people will be relieved to know that she has the experience to do it. So I think Biden’s out before the end of the year. Way before maybe.
But are democrats that stupid? If Biden continues being as nasty as he is there is no way Harris gets elected president ever. Democrats will be wiped out in the midterm and all those people in Georgia that voted democrat will never do it again. Nor will all the people affected by climate disasters vote for them if they don’t do a 180. (Is the A redundant?)
So they either know what will happen next presidential election or they want the next Trump in office to probably finish us off.
Wow. What a gloomy thought. Dystopian is more what I’m thinking.
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
Many who voted Democrat in Georgia this past
election cycle may not get to do it again due to the machinations of Georgia Republicans in the Georgia State House. There are so many restrictions being voted in by the GOP majority it would make your head swim.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
Too true
and it is not just Georgia republicans trying to make it harder for people to vote. I am seeing lots of new roadblocks being put in place so people can't. I haven't heard anything from the other side about them doing it, but they have their own plans to keep people from voting. This is from Greenwald I think, but don't have the tweet available right now. He says dems are making it harder for third parties to get funding or something to keep them off the ballot. Will look for it later. Hey if they keep rigging the primaries then why do they need more ways to keep them off?
I can't embed the graphic of voters that Obama lost here so you can look at it yourself. It was a self inflicted would and Biden's doing the same thing. They want the minority party controlling what they can do because they both are serving the same agendas. I saw this on a Rising comment thread:
Ryan and Saagar talked about the militarization of DC and how the capital police are getting 20% more money. That wasn't the problem. Leaders did not want the guard at the capital because of the OPTICS. Yeah the ones of lots of angry people were much better. And when will we hear about the other deaths? 2 police officers killed themselves after the day. Trauma or in on it? How many were?
sorry, can't help myself.
DCOTN: On democrats lowering the threshold on who gets bailed out after they got money from Trump.
Dumb shit never thinks that could affect many dem voters that lost their jobs next year. They have become the monsters they think they are fighting against. You don't make fun of people who are suffering. No matter what party they belong to or not.
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 dr jc...
if harris finishes biden's term, that's the only way that she is going to be president. i believe that her ambitions far exceed her competence as a politician.
looking at her performance as a candidate who had to drop out two months before the iowa caucuses because she was performing so poorly, it's hard to imagine her even beating donald trump with all of his baggage. at least trump inspires his followers and there are lots of them.
harris is not an inspiring figure. it was obvious. she can't fake sincerity like biden does.
Sharing
My brother sent me this.
It's the town I grew up in.
Pretty picture
can't make out the text at max zoom tho
question everything
evening gj...
georgia? north of stone mountain?
looks nice from above.
Libby, Montana
you'd never know it was one of the most polluted Superfund sites in America. We never knew until we left.
wow...
i guess if you had stayed, you'd have the dubious benefit of medicare for all. not worth staying for under the circumstances, though.
thanks for sharing!
My mom lived in Libby
Born in Malta and moved with the railroad somehow and ended up in Ogden because of it. Beautiful town, but too high a price. This country has so many areas that qualify for what Libby has because of the environmental crimes and I think cities should start demanding that their legislators work on it. Pipe dream, but start small.
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
Sell more arms to the Saudis Joe!
Related.
evening humphrey...
it's really sad that biden can't figure out a way to manage the business of the u.s. without condoning the saudi invasion of yemen mohammed bin bone saw as a head of state.
it really continues making a mockery of every assertion the u.s. makes about human rights anywhere that we want to change a regime or just kill a bunch of brown people to make raytheon richer.
Especially when we are persecuting Assange
Blinken’s up in arms over Nalvany being in prison and he demands that Russia free him. The media parrots him without anyone mentioning Assange and press freedoms.
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
Blinken is trying to out do Pompeo.
Like I said
Peel off Blinken’s skin and you’ll find Pompeo underneath. He’s just as obnoxious as Pompeo was and he is carrying out not only Pompeo's agendas, but every SOS before them. Remember when Trump canceled Albright’s and Kissinger's security clearances? That was when I learned that they all join a group that keeps the agendas going and they meet with the current one. I wonder what the backstory was on that incident? And did Biden give it back to them? Hmm..
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
This is enough to gag a maggot.
.
1.1.1.1
Hey Joe thanks for the blues n news
Nice interview here sent by a friend across the pond about how government is controlling messaging/narrative
https://gazelda.com/20210301-how-the-government-is-controlling-the-media...
"The incredibly authoritarian messaging by government"
EDIT: BYDONE PULLED NEERA's NOMINATION
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
Did you hear why?
Apparently he had to promise someone from Alaska more drilling if they would vote for Smeera. Yay. Yippee. How many people did she put down so hard it affected them deeply? Or the... ha! union workers are laughing their asses off I bet over this. Just thought of that mid sentence. Bet there are lots of happy people tonight. But won’t someone think of Hillary.
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
I haven't a clue as to why
all I know it's a great day that she's done. Maybe the clintonites are no longer a thing?
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
Umm
I just told you. Biden didn’t want to pay the price. If this story is true.
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
Priceless --
Manchin doesn't backtrack and Biden has nothing he could offer to him. Similarly, there isn't a single GOP Senator that was open to a bribe.
Glad Tanden is out; just wish politicians and nominees could be rejected for their dreadful public policy positions and/or corruption. I'm weary of sexacapes and intemperate speech as the only thing that seems to sink these vermin.
Bernie
said, simply, "She couldn't get the votes."
I'm very happy with this outcome.
NYCVG
Sanders is occasionally a
master of understatement.
evening ggersh...
heh, thanks for the video. it strikes me that the sorts of things that the reporter is describing is pretty common, hence the birth of the term "access journalist" for people who knuckle under to the government's bullying.
one of the things that really concerns me more than this garden variety bullying is what max blumenthal reported the other day about the british government bidding out contracts to news organizations for information operations.
heh, glad to hear that we have avoided the scourge of sneera.
Sneera Tanden is out for that nomination! Great news!
BWAHAHAHA!
https://thehill.com/policy/finance/540289-tanden-withdraws-nomination-as...
Best ever
Wanna rethink that, Neera? lol!
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 alias...
great news.
sadly, the biden admin will find another sinecure for tanden. hopefully, it will be a place where she can't do much damage.
Whoa I think AOC and Bernie might be serious
maybe Wyden too and they are going to push the wage increase through. Being not cynical.
Every democrat in the senate has power over Biden, well they did and if they had used it before it’s too late that might have been settled. But now that she’s out it’s gone. Bummer.
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...
well, i'm hoping that bernie is serious. i've never been certain about how much influence petitions have, though.
perhaps there is something more in the face of legislators that they could do. like tying up the senate's phone lines for days with angry constituents giving their senaturds hell and stuffing their offices with stacks of postcards demanding the minimum wage get raised, or else.
Thanks for the news and blues
The news coming out of Texas is not good for those of us hoping to be moving ahead in the area of Green energy and increased solar in Texas. I still get a mere pittance from the electric company in the town where I have solar on the roof. Guess I am lucky there is that small pittance.
Austin butting heads with the Texas Gas is a familiar situation being played out all over Texas. The fine governor has demanded the resignation of the head of the Public Utility Commission which of course was appointed by him but now, sorry must take the blame with the heads of Epcot. There is no talk that I am hearing about strength the power grid and adding more solar/wind to the grid. Guess it is up to us to make our own way in hardening our own. Am heading to my cabin outside Austin on Thursday where I will also be getting my second jab of the vaccine.
And as a final note, next Thursday, our governor is lifting all restrictions on numbers in restaurants and bars and no mask mandate. Of course, safe practices should be followed he says! I do not know who he will blame when this blows up on him because Texas is definitely not out of the woods as far as bringing down the Covid numbers. My biggest concern is all the front line workers who have not yet caught a break.
Have a good evening to all! Glad to hear the Neera is out. Waiting to hear about Deb Haaland’s confirmation. Would be good news for the wilderness and hopefully strong support against the Resolution Copper mine.
Life is what you make it, so make it something worthwhile.
This ain't no dress rehearsal!
I’m not seeing much news about Texas
This morning I learned that parts of Mississippi are without water for over a week as well. How many other states are having problems still? I read yesterday about Biden’s visit there and it doesn’t look like he’s going to give people there much help. And like you said no talk about green energy even though it worked better than fuel when it’s freezing out. lol
The media’s censorship is getting worse quickly. Big stories are off the air after a day or so. Tiger’s accident got all day coverage. I wonder how it’s going in California where all the wildfires were. Many thousands were affected.
Glad to hear you are okay.
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 jb...
i'm sure that it is going to be an uphill climb to get green energy on the agenda in texas. for that matter it sounds like it is going to be tough to force the current energy titans to weatherize their equipment.
it may be that people by the thousands will have to go off grid in texas before they are accommodated.
sorry to hear that your governor is having yet another crippling attack of idiocy about covid protections. i hope that people take into their own hands insofar as possible to preserve themselves.
i see that the committee vote for deb haaland is scheduled for thursday (the 4th) at 10am. i hope that she has good luck.
Good luck with the jab!
I am going to put myself on a list to get the Johnson and Johnson jab. It is the only one that does not affect people with allergies. At least that is what I have read.
Why our governor removed the precaution mandates right after people had to go to shelters is beyond me. I expect our COVID numbers to rise dramatically in a couple of weeks.
My plumbing repair starts tomorrow morning, will take 2 or 3 days to finish. My fiance' has literally been carrying my water from the stove to the tub for two weeks. All we have at home is cold water to the kitchen sink and water to one toilet. We can live like we are camping, but we do not wish it as a lifestyle.
Take good care!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
good evening...
Hope the no to Neera is true...hooray!
Been cool here...40's, but headed to 60's tomorrow...hooray for that too!
Not much to say about the current bullshit show.
No more Trump... (except at CPAC)
Go to sleeep...
go to sleeep...
And so we die in our sleeep? So it seems.
All the best...thanks as always!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
evening lookout...
well, it appears that it's for real.
biden will still find some sort of position for her, but it won't be one that reqires senate confirmation.
pretty chilly here tonight, too. the weatherman says it's supposed to warm up nicely tomorrow.
Wata world,
I’m very torn on this issue. Once we started removing or banning books where does it end?
Are all the stories that showed straight men beating the crap out of gays been removed yet or had a disclaimer on so people can be warned that something inside it might upset them? Or any of the books about cowboys and Indians or movies that portrayed NA in a bad light? I wouldn’t think that Dr. Seuss would have been racist, but I never thought others I used to respect be eugenicists either so there’s that.
Thoughts?
It’s the doctor’s organization that made the decision in case it wasn’t clear.
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
When you ban Dr. Seuss
you may as well start burning books.
Sure. Much of his work had racial undertones just as strong as what happens in everyday life currently.
I dare anybody to show me how the published works influenced any child to hate.
I'm getting the fire pit ready for some true works of art.
/s
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
Agreed
Most hate is taught in the home. I was envious of huckleberry Finn and big Joe. John? Whatever they had lots of fun together and that’s all I took from the book. Tom got trapped in a cave once with a girl and then they got out and went home. Some one on Twitter posted a picture of what was supposed to be one of his books with blacks in it. They had very black faces, white eyes and big red lips. Okay yeah that is not good. Weren’t there a lot of cartoons like that too? They didn’t make me do anything but laugh. I had 2 blacks in my senior class and I went to a track meet with 6 schools and there were not more than 5 blacks there. Middle 90's. I wasn’t friends with the girl because she was way smarter than me and we had different interests. But of course it’s Utah. So I’m against book censorship. A disclaimer if absolutely needed.
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
How will anyone ever learn the way things were
if old books are banned?
"Uncle Tom," the stereotype bears no resemblance to the man in "Uncle Tom's Cabin," but doubt few people have bothered to read the book. Should note that the stereotype developed very quickly in that instance.
Exactly
It’s the room where Winston rewrote history daily. This is where we are in the book I think with all the censorship and the military patrolling Washington against some unknown threats and today Wray declared the protesters in Oregon are domestic terrorists. Nice. No one blinked an eye at that news. Remember the feds got involved during Trump with them after some buildings burned. I guess Biden hasn’t gotten around to rescinding Trump’s worst orders.
And speaking of Biden’s 1st 100 days he has an opening to roll back lots of Trump’s last minute orders as stated in the article here. This is what republicans were so busy doing during Trump’s. Obama did a lot of things on his way out of town that made him look better than he was, but most of them were rolled back by republicans before they took effect. Obama did some good things. Trump did bad things. What will Biden do about Trump’s? A woman on Rising said that most of Biden’s executive orders were new ones not rolling back Trump’s. Bummer.
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
If my only calling card were
"not X," the first thing I'd do is get rid of what X did.
Sadly, Biden/Harris/Obama don't dislike most of what Trump did. They just didn't like being so much out of power during the Trump years.
not sure what you meant
but if you mean not mention what Trump did or what other presidents did when talking about the current one I don't see how that works when your talking about policies that continue thru admins. If that's not what you meant please explain.
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
I'd be williing to bet that there
isn't a single person who developed racist views from reading Dr Seuss. Or even a single person that had his/her preexisting racism reinforced from reading Dr. Seuss.
Is there any fairy tale that can survive the 'wokies?'
Here are 2 photos I found from Seuss
I can see why this one is questionable. But when I saw it I thought it was a tribe in Africa and not that it depicted blacks in a bad way. The other one I described here somewhere does exaggerate their features. Fox tried to discuss the issue with 2 black men but one guy said that he speaks for the black community and it went downhill from there. No you don’t over and over and he was shouting.
Vulgar. Boorish.Interesting to see what happens with this one.
Both pictures have no context to decide whether they are good or bad. If I had seen the German one when I was young I doubt I’d think anything about it. Maybe older kids or kids earlier knew what it was about, but I wouldn’t even have been curious about it.
I hadn’t seen the words on it and if it was drawn by him then that sure doesn’t look good for him and it goes to what I said about you never know about people. This is racist in my opinion.
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
Not a bad depiction
of what was at first our governments true unwillingness to engage the germans.
There was money to be made.
How can you call that racist?
By definition, capitalism is racist as it makes slavery of those who can not participate.
A lower class.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
In the terms that the German uniform today and the
insignia. CPAC's stage was apparently setup like the German swastika and it’s connection to white supremacy. But Rockefeller and Ford weren’t just in bed with Hitler for the money. Both of them accepted his white supremacy concept and eugenics. They would both be right at home with what’s happening here with Covid.
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
The books are selling up for $1,000 on eBay
This is a funny article on it and shows which books got ditched.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/dr-seuss-books-canceled-over-racist-...
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
They aren't selling.
There are a lot of looky loos but it's insane.
$107$132$152oh fuck stupid people, is the high bid on those who are high. Only the rich will buy as they have nowhere else to park their looting.I love watching the rich blow their money up their noses.
I'll snort the lost dreams and get high as hell.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
Have you seen this
The truth from Ro himself.
Guess we should poll the rest of the squad.
Sirota: "For millions of credulous liberals already binging on West Wing reruns..."
You may have posted his article. 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
What did he say?
the video won't load for me.
I don't want to try to summarize, but here is another link
to a longer video on YouTube (not quite 12 minutes):
[video:https://youtu.be/emGXAwdrAuE]
Or you can go by just the title and brief description:
In fairness, he does say correctly that Bernie is also not a socialist, but a social democrat. (That is, someone who supports capitalism along with social programs, such as is practiced in some Scandinavian countries.) Which is true.
Thanks for the save
and reminder to explain a bit about the tweet or video instead of just posting it. My bad.
This is a great article on Cuomo being made into a savior just because Trump and how horribly much the media is responsible for many of the deaths in NYC nursing homes. While people were dying, Cuomo was being made into something he wasn’t and ignoring the reports about them.
Senator Kim went to the UN over it, but still couldn’t get anyone to pay attention. I think this is why he’s being accused of sexual harassment. Not that it didn’t happen, but again it’s the timing. Why not when he and his brother were yucking it up every night while people died? That would have been a great time to do 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
Thanks --
only got through two minutes and while I don't trust Khanna, I'm shocked that he doesn't even have a rudimentary idea of what socialism is: communism state controls means of production, capitalism private sector controls all means of production, socialism some public spheres, some private spheres, and some public and private. However, an economy is are more than those reductionist descriptions.
heh...
no, i hadn't seen that yet, but it doesn't surprise me. khanna seems to be one of those guys who thinks that capitalism can work as long as there are rules. as he points out sanders is pretty much the same way.
i think that he's got the wrong definition of socialism, in that the people and organizations who practice it these days probably don't follow as strict a description of it as he presents.
i suspect that most of the squad are probably not socialists by his description, either.
The really problematic Dr Seuss cartoons are anti-Japanese ones,
but war fever and discrimination against East Asians are both as American as apple pie, so I notice the book-burners aren’t talking about those.
https://akagihistory.weebly.com/world-war-ii.html
I always took Dr Seuss to task about his blind spot advocating concentration camps for “the other J-people,” but banning these old books, or the school rejecting President Trump’s gift of Dr Seuss’s collected works, are tyrannical acts, serving an ideology that demands total censorship and thought control.
——
Chris Hedges weighs in on elites and their non-response to the climate crisis:
https://scheerpost.com/2021/03/02/hedges-the-age-of-social-murder/
evening lotlizard...
apparently, these unpleasant images are coming out of the woodwork, dating back to the 1920's when dr seuss was working as a magazine illustrator.
i don't know how much these early cartoons say about the fellow he later was, i.e., whether he grew as a human being and left the racism behind. i hope that he did.
Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, 1953–1969
Attorney-general of California in 1942. Member of the lodge Native Sons of California, practically a Western KKK when it comes to ideas about Asians. Headed LBJ’s cov—er, uh, I mean, investigation into the JFK assassination.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/Calif-officials-including-Earl-...
Those racist gags and ads of Dr Seuss are saddening and infuriating. A lot of the early work of the famed underground cartoonist Robert Crumb carries on in that tradition, strangely enough:
https://fantasymerchant.com/2019/08/08/the-day-i-realized-some-of-robert...
Still, figures like Earl Warren who put his stamp on American jurisprudence throughout his career are a d–n sight more consequential than a cartoonist or children’s book author.
At any rate, they never show you these things when you are growing up or fighting for your moment in the sun and it could make some difference. Only when you’re old and your magic is anyhow gone and you have become Harry Potter’s neighbor lady Mrs. Figg, devoid of any powers or attractions, then they come out with things like this as if to mock you. Ha ha, everybody and everything you thought you knew and liked and believed in was actually just the CIA or other elite tool pulling your strings.
Psychedelics? CIA.
The CIA’s secret quest for mind control: torture, LSD, and a ‘poisoner in chief’
Feminism? CIA.
The feminist was a spook
Modern art? CIA.
Modern art was a CIA ‘weapon’
My Grandpa was a Native Son
among other memberships in California. He also worked for Hiram Johnson, who was a Rebublican and a Progressive too.
Biography of Hon. Franklin A. Griffin
His dad came straight to California from Ireland to escape the British landlords that were starving the Irish Catholics to death, yet another stupid economic sanction. Not new. Religious war.
This piece of yarn comes over from the post script I put in another comment about the new new dems, connects to the current Dr. Zuess tweet storms inside my head. To quote the history channel:
Wat
If we erase all the history, what replaces it? It needs to be preserved, I think. Not canceled, that's just stupid. Do people think racism will disappear because the words have been banned? Really? I thought patriarchy would disappear if I stopped saying "man" too, but I am an idiot. Takes one to know one. I'm a racist too, it's in my DNA. Every day I need to be reminded and recognize it, not forget it. dunce cap
Peace and Love
Decreeing a Year Zero with only a purged and purified version of
history, ancestry, and culture allowed from here on, doesn’t work. Why does the West’s intellectual establishment want to repeat the gruesome and grotesque self-inflicted atrocities the Cultural Revolution visited upon China?
I really don’t get it. Okay, maybe I do; I suppose there are groups who think they’re going to benefit from having all these coups and power plays against the supposedly privileged play out.
None of this woke stuff ever touches the truly rich, propertied people who reliably profit from war, slavery, opium, empire, disease, etc., does it? They’re already off hobnobbing on some private island hideaway with the next Epstein, aren’t they? Somehow they always manage to weasel out of the spotlight and evade the dock no matter what.
Why does the West’s intellectual establishment ..
good question
my take would be
establishment rules
deviation from the norm
threatens the order of things
controlling the notion of past events
perpetuates the hold on thought
which furthers their agenda
may be less truth is in
their interest
question everything
Can't get Adam Curtis out of my head
thanks, I see parts 4, 5, and 6 are uploaded to the tube channel recently.
https://www.youtube.com/c/AdamCurtisDocumentary/videos
I mostly listened to parts 1-3 a couple weeks ago, it was hard. Like do I really need to fill my head with Emotional History? Probably not, but I like his narration, except for the soundtrack. Anyway, in part 3 this visual appeared and made me go whoa, screenshot that. Adam Curtis was already inside my head, he is just stirring shit up! heh
CR-39, simply known as "monomer" to the floor workers at SOLA where I worked my first factory job. Was there for the Pilkington years, and we had no PPE except white lab coats and safety glasses. I have liver spots on my forearms where the "monomer rash" used to bubble up after work after splashing a little here and there every time I used the filling machines. Oops, and OW that shit burned like napalm when it was expanding and hardening its way out of my pores. sheesh
http://solahistory.com/
It had become an EPA Toxic Superfund Site by 1991, of course. Leaky acetone barrels stored near the Petaluma River. Why did I ever think California was an environmentally responsible state? Sierra Club? I don't know. Anything, anymore. sheesh
Can't Get You Out of My Head - An Emotional History of the Modern World (2021) TRAILER Docuseries
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thd5bBUNEw8 width:500]
I remember carrying around Mao's Little Red Book, which they handed out on campus at Redwood High along with The Bible, King James Version. Back then anyone could walk on campus and hand out anything and boy did they. "Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare..."
Peace and Love
Beyond sick
And words. On the fracking article. Companies are allowed to pollute environments where poor and minority people live which makes them sick or diseased and that drives up profits for the medical insurance complex. We never defeated Hitler's ideology. We imported it here. Gawd! Hitler may be dead, but there are hundreds of thousands of them across the globe and each doing some pretty horrific things. If it’s true that Biden isn’t going to help people in Texas and the other states affected by the storm and he leaves them to die if that’s what happens. This is genocide. I asked up thread if anyone knew how people in California are doing so if anyone knows anything. How many homes were burned and now ruined by water and all the disasters in between? Where will people live if they just lost everything plus have no jobs? Very sad. Gonna hit the pipe.
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