The Evening Blues - 3-30-21



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Albert Ammons

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features boogie-woogie piano player Albert Ammons. Enjoy!

Albert Ammons - Albert's Special Boogie Woogie

"If you don’t want a house built, hide the nails and wood. If you don’t want a man unhappy politically, don’t give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none."

-- Ray Bradbury


News and Opinion

Glenn Greenwald nails it. Worth a full read:

Congress, in a Five-Hour Hearing, Demands Tech CEOs Censor the Internet Even More Aggressively

Over the course of five-plus hours on Thursday, a House Committee along with two subcommittees badgered three tech CEOs, repeatedly demanding that they censor more political content from their platforms and vowing legislative retaliation if they fail to comply. The hearing — convened by the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Chair Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), and the two Chairs of its Subcommittees, Mike Doyle (D-PA) and Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) — was one of the most stunning displays of the growing authoritarian effort in Congress to commandeer the control which these companies wield over political discourse for their own political interests and purposes.

As I noted when I reported last month on the scheduling of this hearing, this was “the third time in less than five months that the U.S. Congress has summoned the CEOs of social media companies to appear before them with the explicit intent to pressure and coerce them to censor more content from their platforms.” The bulk of Thursday’s lengthy hearing consisted of one Democratic member after the next complaining that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google/Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey have failed in their duties to censor political voices and ideological content that these elected officials regard as adversarial or harmful, accompanied by threats that legislative punishment (including possible revocation of Section 230 immunity) is imminent in order to force compliance (Section 230 is the provision of the 1996 Communications Decency Act that shields internet companies from liability for content posted by their users).

Republican members largely confined their grievances to the opposite concern: that these social media giants were excessively silencing conservative voices in order to promote a liberal political agenda (that complaint is only partially true: a good amount of online censorship, like growing law enforcement domestic monitoring generally, focuses on all anti-establishment ideologies, not just the right-wing variant). This editorial censoring, many Republicans insisted, rendered the tech companies’ Section 230 immunity obsolete, since they are now acting as publishers rather than mere neutral transmitters of information. Some Republicans did join with Democrats in demanding greater censorship, though typically in the name of protecting children from mental health disorders and predators rather than ideological conformity.

As they have done in prior hearings, both Zuckerberg and Pichai spoke like the super-scripted, programmed automatons that they are, eager to please their Congressional overseers (though they did periodically issue what should have been unnecessary warnings that excessive “content moderation” can cripple free political discourse). Dorsey, by contrast, seemed at the end of his line of patience and tolerance for vapid, moronic censorship demands, and — sitting in a kitchen in front of a pile of plates and glasses — he, refreshingly, barely bothered to hide that indifference. At one point, he flatly stated in response to demands that Twitter do more to remove “disinformation”: “I don't think we should be the arbiters of truth and I don't think the government should be either.” ...

But it is vital not to lose sight of how truly despotic hearings like this are. It is easy to overlook because we have become so accustomed to political leaders successfully demanding that social media companies censor the internet in accordance with their whims. Recall that Parler, at the time it was the most-downloaded app in the country, was removed in January from the Apple and Google Play Stores and then denied internet service by Amazon, only after two very prominent Democratic House members publicly demanded this. At the last pro-censorship hearing convened by Congress, Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) explicitly declared that the Democrats’ grievance is not that these companies are censoring too much but rather not enough. One Democrat after the next at Thursday’s hearing described all the content on the internet they want gone: or else. Many of them said this explicitly. ... Words cannot convey how chilling and authoritarian this all is: watching government officials, hour after hour, demand censorship of political speech and threaten punishment for failures to obey. ...

We are taught from childhood that a defining hallmark of repressive regimes is that political officials wield power to silence ideas and people they dislike, and that, conversely, what makes the U.S. a “free” society is the guarantee that American leaders are barred from doing so. It is impossible to reconcile that claim with what happened in that House hearing room over the course of five hours on Thursday.

Keiser Report | Conspiracy Theories Fill the Ratings Gap Down

Bucking US threats, China and Iran sign 25-year treaty

This weekend, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi traveled to Tehran and signed a 25-year treaty with his Iranian counterpart, Javad Zarif. The terms of the treaty were not disclosed. However, US news outlets noted that an earlier draft of the treaty, obtained by US officials and shown to the New York Times, entailed $400 billion in Chinese investment in Iran in exchange for exports of Iranian oil, as well as a strategic alliance.

Beijing is defying economic sanctions imposed by former US President Donald Trump after he unilaterally scrapped the 2015 Iranian nuclear treaty in 2018, and that incoming US President Joe Biden has yet to remove. In February, Biden suddenly bombed an Iranian-backed militia in Syria, killing at least 17 people.

Beijing’s decision to sign the treaty with Tehran followed a disastrous US-China summit earlier this month in Alaska. ... By signing a treaty with Tehran, Beijing is signaling that it has concluded that it must make its own preparations against a Biden administration that will be aggressive and relentlessly hostile. It is no doubt confirmed in this view by continuing, groundless war propaganda from US politicians, debunked by scientists, alleging that COVID-19 was manufactured in a Chinese lab. ...

According to China’s state-run Global Times, Wang told Iranian officials “China is willing to oppose hegemony and bullying, safeguard international justice and fairness as well as uphold international norms together with people of Iran and other countries.”

Chinese diplomat calls Justin Trudeau 'running dog of US' as tensions escalate

A Chinese diplomat has dismissed Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau as a “boy” in a social media attack marking a new low in the fractured relationship between the two countries. China and Canada have clashed repeatedly in recent months, and last week the two countries imposed sanctions on each other in a growing row over Beijing’s treatment of its Uighur minority.

But on Sunday, Trudeau was singled out for insult by China’s consul general to Rio de Janeiro, Li Yang in a tweet blaming him for the diplomatic crisis. “Boy, your greatest achievement is to have ruined the friendly relations between China and Canada, and have turned Canada into a running dog of the U.S,” he tweeted.

The demeaning term “running dog” , a relic of Maoist China, is often used to describe nations that are subservient to countries like the United States.

Li’s twitter feed is often combative, taking aim at both gun violence, the legacy of slavery in the United States and treatment of asylum seekers, but Trudeau was the only leader the diplomat chose to single out for ridicule.

Report Reveals Large Landlords' Profits During Coronavirus Pandemic

Although many large landlords have complained that the federal eviction moratorium—which on Monday was extended through the end of June—harms them financially, an analysis published by CBS MoneyWatch revealed that major property owners have largely realized profits, some of them massive, during the coronavirus pandemic.

For example, CBS found that Invitation Homes, the nation's largest renter of single-family residences, enjoyed its most profitable year ever in 2020, despite the moratorium. Established in 2012 by the private equity firm Blackstone in order to purchase tens of thousands of homes whose previous owners were expelled due to foreclosure during the Great Recession, Invitation Homes collected $50 million more last year than in 2019, a 30% increase. Invitation Homes' stock price reflected its profitable year, with the company's shares soaring 64% last year.

Invitation Homes isn't alone. Mid-America Apartment Communities, which owns around 100,000 units, saw operating profits increase by 60% last year, by far the company's biggest-ever increase.

Figures from the real estate data firm Trepp also show that apartment owners have relatively low mortgage delinquency rates compared with other property owners, CBS said. In January, just 2.3% of apartment building owners were behind on their rent, compared with 19% of hotel and 13% of mall proprietors.

Apartment building owners are also expected to reap further benefits from the nearly $50 billion in rental assistance included in the American Rescue Plan, the $1.9 trillion pandemic recovery and relief bill signed into law by President Joe Biden earlier this month.

Diane Yentel, president of the advocacy group National Low Income Housing Coalition, told CBS the assertion by some landlords that the rent moratorium should end because it is causing financial hardship "is very hard to make."

"Some of the larger landlords had access to other resources or protections, including the Paycheck Protection loans and forbearance programs," said Yentel. "With the latest stimulus bill, Congress has now put in billions in rental assistance, with most of that money going straight to landlords. So help is on the way. It is essential that the federal eviction moratorium is extended, at least until these emergency funds are expended."

The new analysis came on the same day that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) extended (pdf) the moratorium—which has protected around 20 million households during the pandemic and was set to expire on Wednesday—through June 30.

Biden says up to 90% of adults will be eligible for Covid vaccine by 19 April

Up to 90% of US adults will be eligible for a Covid-19 shot by 19 April, Joe Biden said on Monday as he announced a major expansion of the nation’s vaccination program.

Hours after Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned of “impending doom” in the race against the resurgence of infections, the US president delivered the counter measure.

Talking from the White House after a briefing from his coronavirus team, Biden promised that 90% of US residents would be living within five miles of a vaccination site within three weeks. “We’re going to send more aid to states to expand the opening of more community vaccination sites, more vaccines, more sites, more vaccinators, all designed to speed our critical work,” he said. ...

Biden said the vaccination figures – 75% of Americans over 65 inoculated in his first 10 weeks in office, and the new target of 200m shots in his first 100 days – gave him optimism. ...

“I’m reiterating my call for every governor, mayor and local leader to maintain and reinstate the mask mandate,” he said, adding that he thought states should also pause reopening efforts because of the recent rise in cases.

Michigan must tell Johnson & Johnson vaccine recipients that it was developed using stem cells

Residents of Michigan receiving the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine must be told it was developed using a stem cell line originating from an aborted human fetus, according to a state law passed by Republicans. The requirement only applies to vaccinations funded by the federal coronavirus relief package, prompting accusations from Michigan Democrats that Republicans in control of the state legislature are politicizing the public health effort. ...

According to the Free Press, the bill states that anyone who receives a vaccine paid for through $110m appropriated in the relief legislation “shall be provided with information or informed if and in what manner the development of the vaccine utilized aborted fetal tissue or human embryonic stem cell derivation lines”. ...

Catholic leaders and anti-abortion groups have raised obections to the use of fetal cells, a process common in vaccine development since the 1960s, including for chickenpox, rubella, hepatitis A and rabies.

Earlier this month the Michigan Catholic Conference said use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was “morally problematic”.

Ryan Grim: Schumer MAY Push $15 Minimum Wage BUT Progressives Are Nervous

Chuck Schumer Eyes a Second Shot at Raising the Minimum Wage Through Reconciliation

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is considering putting a $15 minimum wage into the next reconciliation package, which will be focused on infrastructure, multiple sources familiar with the New York senator’s thinking told The Intercept.

Senate Democrats attempted to include the wage hike in President Joe Biden’s Covid-19 relief package, but the Senate parliamentarian ruled it was out of order, and Senate Democrats allowed that ruling to stand. An effort to overturn the ruling, which required 60 votes, garnered just 42.

Schumer has suggested to progressive groups that there is a glimmer of hope that the parliamentarian would rule differently this time: The new legislation is focused on infrastructure, and setting wages is directly related to the budget impact of any infrastructure spending. If there’s even a small chance of it working, he reasoned, it’s worth the fight.

Schumer, though, is encountering resistance from some backers of increasing the minimum wage, who argue that attempting to include it is doomed to fail just as it did last time, and in the process it will trigger another wave of indignation from the public at the failure. Debate over the $1.9 trillion relief package was consumed in its final days by anger over the lack of inclusion of the wage hike, with pressure on progressives to vote it down.

Ilhan Omar Gives Hilarious Word Salad When Challenged on Strategy w/Justin Jackson

Minimum Wage Would Be $44 Today If It Had Increased at Same Rate as Wall St. Bonuses

A new analysis released Monday by the Institute for Policy Studies shows that the U.S. federal minimum wage would currently be just over $44 an hour—more than six times higher than the current wage floor—if it had increased at the same rate as Wall Street employee bonuses between 1985 and 2020.

But during that 35-year period, the federal wage floor remained largely stagnant while the average Wall Street bonus soared by 1,217%, IPS finds, citing the latest data from the New York State Comptroller. The $7.25-an-hour federal minimum wage has not been raised since 2009, leaving minimum wage workers worse off today than they were more than a decade ago due to rising costs of living.

"While low-wage workers are still waiting for a raise in the minimum wage, Wall Street employees enjoyed a 10% bump in their bonuses in the first year of the pandemic," noted Sarah Anderson, director of the Global Economy Project at IPS and the author of the new analysis. "Since 1985, the average Wall Street bonus has increased 1,217%, from $13,970 to $184,000 in 2020."

"These bonuses come on top of salary and other forms of compensation," Anderson added. "The average salary (with bonuses) for all securities industry employees in New York City was $406,700 in 2019. At the very top end, CEOs of the top five U.S. investment banks hauled in an average of $27.9 million in total compensation in 2019." ...

As Congress has left the federal minimum wage at a starvation level, Anderson pointed out, federal regulators have refused to implement Wall Street pay restrictions mandated by the 2010 Dodd-Frank law, allowing financiers to accumulate large bonuses as low-wage workers struggled to get by on stagnant pay.

"These two failures speak volumes about who has influence in Washington—and who does not," Anderson wrote.

To rein in the soaring compensation of executives in the financial industry and throughout corporate America, Anderson urged Congress to consider two recently introduced bills, including Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) Tax Excessive CEO Pay Act. Unveiled earlier this month, the legislation would raise taxes on companies with a CEO-to-median-worker pay ratio of 50 to 1 or higher.

Anderson also pointed to the Stop Subsidizing Multi-Million Dollar Corporate Bonuses Act, Democratic legislation aiming to end "special tax deductions for huge executive bonuses and prevent publicly traded corporations from deducting the cost of multi-million dollar bonuses from their corporate tax bills."

Amazon Security Staff Reported Its Own Hostile Tweets as “Suspicious,” Fearing They’d Been Hacked

After Amazon’s public relations account sent a number of tweets taunting public officials, staffers were so concerned about the “unnecessarily antagonistic” tone that a security engineer filed a suspicious activity report, believing that the company’s social media account had been hacked, according to internal company documents obtained by The Intercept. One tweet, responding to Rep. Mark Pocan’s criticism of Amazon labor practices, said, “You don’t really believe the peeing in bottles thing, do you?”

“These tweets are unnecessarily antagonistic (risking Amazon’s brand), and may be a result of unauthorized access by someone with access to the account’s credentials,” the report states. “The tweets in question do not match the usual content posted by this account, and doesn’t seem to match the quality careful wording, and doesn’t report the same source-label (the offending tweets all report ‘Twitter Web App’ instead of ‘Sprinklr’).”

The report, which was first mentioned by Recode, was filed on Friday, according to two Amazon employees who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid professional reprisal, but was promptly closed out. An internal Amazon correspondence log provided to The Intercept said the tweets were “not a technical issue”: “I got details from [redacted] that this is [an] ongoing PR issue and does not require any technical support. PR leadership are aware of it.” ...

According to Recode, the suspicious tweets in fact came at the behest of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who had recently conveyed disappointment to Amazon officials that the company was not pushing back against criticisms that he considered misleading.

Derek Chauvin Defense Blames “George Floyd Himself for His Own Death,” Not the Police “Blood Choke”

More trial details at the link:

Prosecutors accuse Derek Chauvin of killing George Floyd as trial starts

Prosecutors accused former police officer Derek Chauvin of killing a defenceless George Floyd by “grinding and crushing him until the very breath, the very life, was squeezed out of him”, at the opening on Monday of a murder trial regarded by millions as a litmus test of US police accountability. ...

“What Mr Chauvin was doing, he was doing deliberately,” the prosecutor, Jerry Blackwell said as he outlined his case to the jury in the court room in Minneapolis, the city where Floyd was killed. The prosecutor said Chauvin used excessive and unreasonable force “without regard for Floyd’s life”. Blackwell said it was “an assault” that led to the victim’s death.

Chauvin, 45, has denied charges of second- and third-degree murder, and manslaughter, over the death of the 46-year-old African American man who was detained on suspicion of trying to buy cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill last May. The former officer, who was fired, faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted of the most serious charges.

Chauvin’s lawyer, Eric Nelson, told the jury in his opening statement that the evidence will show that Floyd was under the influence of drugs and that the force used against him was reasonable because of his behaviour.

“Crisis of Capitalism”: Roberto Lovato on How U.S. Policies Fuel Migration & Instability

Jamaal Bowman Blames Decades of US Capitalism, Imperialism for Flow of Asylum-Seekers

New York Democratic Congressman Jamaal Bowman appeared on CNN's "Inside Politics" Sunday evening and said decades of U.S. imperialism and capitalist interests in Central America are largely responsible for those now seeking asylum at the nation's southern border.

Bowman emphasized the U.S. must prioritize better resources, safety, and housing to those currently seeking asylum, while also committing to rebuilding communities the U.S. helped destroy in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and elsewhere.

"We need to have an honest conversation about immigration," he told host Abby Phillip. "We have disrupted the political, social, and economic systems in Central America for over a century, because of our personal capitalist interests."

"The best we can do is implement a 21st century Marshall Plan and help to rebuild Central America in the same ways that we have destroyed it," Bowman continued. "We wanted their land and their natural resources, and we were engaged in coup d'etats and other behaviors in those areas in order to do so. Now we have to right our wrongs."

Krystal Ball: Media Ignores WAR ON DRUGS In Border Panic

The Border Patrol Is Dropping Migrant Families in Arizona Desert Towns With Little Capacity to Receive Them

The rural Arizona border community of Gila Bend declared a state of emergency this week following a significant change in U.S. Border Patrol operations that has the agency dropping migrant families off in tiny desert towns with scarce resources to receive them. “It’s 30 miles to the next type of town — and that’s 30 miles of open desert,” Mayor Chris Riggs said on Tuesday. “Come July and August, we’re going to be finding bodies.” The town council of Gila Bend, population 2,000, voted unanimously in favor of the emergency declaration. Riggs told Arizona’s Family, a local TV news outlet, that he and his wife recently used borrowed vans to personally drive 16 people — Chilean and Venezuelan families with young children — some 70 miles northeast to Phoenix.

Gila Bend is not alone. In the unincorporated community of Ajo, 40 miles to the south, the Border Patrol has dropped off dozens of people in the past week. The town has no hospital, no fire department, and no police force. With around 3,700 residents, Ajo is surrounded by a vast expanse of federal lands that include some of the Sonoran Desert’s deadliest and most remote terrain. In 2020, when Arizona broke a 10-year record for the most human remains recovered in a single year, many of those bodies and bones were found in the valleys and washes outside Ajo.

Aaron Cooper, executive director of the International Sonoran Desert Alliance, a community organization that often serves the functions of a local government in Ajo, said the first group of migrants was dropped off last Friday. There were 21 people, Cooper said; a total of 54 people have been dropped off in Ajo since the shift in policy began, and 38 more are expected to arrive today. “It’s been all family units to date,” Cooper told The Intercept. “No individual females or males and no unaccompanied children. It’s been mostly mothers with young kids — kids from age 2 up to 13.” Many of the families have been from Venezuela, he added, but Cubans and Chileans have arrived as well as well. ...

Historically, migrants apprehended in the Arizona desert have been taken to a nearby Border Patrol station before being transferred to a second location, often Tucson, for the next stage of their journey through the nation’s interlocking criminal and immigration systems. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, most migrants who were not part of a family unit would first be prosecuted criminally at Tucson’s federal court under a program known as “Operation Streamline” before being moved into the immigration system. The process for families could be more complicated and dependent on individual circumstances but still involved transfer from the desert into cities with available resources. Now the Border Patrol is processing those individuals whom the agency cannot expel as fast as possible, terminating custody at the station level and then dropping them in the nearest possible population center. ...

Earlier this month, the Arizona Republic published a detailed account of the Border Patrol’s “dramatic shift in policy,” describing how the agency told local officials, churches, and aid organizations to expect hundreds of migrants to be dropped off in their communities, releases that would coincide with the state’s blistering summer months, when migrant deaths in the desert historically skyrocket. According to the report, the Border Patrol dropped approximately 1,000 migrants off at three small border communities with little to no resources from mid-February through mid-March.



the horse race



Sherry Vill is latest to accuse Andrew Cuomo of sexual misconduct

Sherry Vill remembers feeling embarrassed and stuck as the New York governor Andrew Cuomo “manhandled” her and came onto her in her own home, in front of her husband and son. “He towered over me,” she said during a press conference on Monday. “There was nothing I could do.”

Vill, 55, met Cuomo in May 2017, when he visited her suburban house near Rochester, New York, while surveying flooding damage in the area. Hers is the latest in a series of allegations detailing a pattern of sexual misconduct by the now infamous chief of state.

Vill recalled Cuomo holding her hand, forcibly grabbing her face, aggressively kissing her cheeks and calling her beautiful. The unwanted advances made her uncomfortable, especially around her family and neighbors. She later received a letter and pictures from the governor, addressed only to her, and a personal invitation to attend one of his local events.

“The whole thing was so strange and inappropriate, and still makes me nervous and afraid because of his power and position,” Vill said.

Cuomo’s office did not immediately return a request for comment, but his administration has so far generally denied any inappropriate touching by the governor despite a swathe of accusations from multiple women about his behavior.

Fox Biz Host BEGS Bezos To Use WAPO To DESTROY Bernie Sanders



the evening greens


White House moves toward approving huge windfarm off east coast

The Biden administration is moving to sharply increase offshore wind energy along the US east coast, saying on Monday it is taking steps toward approving a huge windfarm off New Jersey as part of an effort to generate electricity for more than 10m homes by 2030.

Meeting the target could mean jobs for more than 44,000 workers and for 33,000 others in related employment, the White House said. The effort also would help avoid 78m metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year, a key step in the fight to slow the climate crisis.

Joe Biden “believes we have an enormous opportunity in front of us to not only address the threats of climate change, but use it as a chance to create millions of good-paying, union jobs that will fuel America’s economic recovery,” said the White House climate adviser Gina McCarthy.

“Nowhere is the scale of that opportunity clearer than for offshore wind.” The commitment “will create pathways to the middle class for people from all backgrounds and communities”, she added.

The administration said it intends to prepare a formal environmental analysis for the Ocean Wind project off New Jersey, moving it toward becoming the third commercial-scale offshore wind project in the US.

Trapped in gloves, tangled in masks: Covid PPE killing animals, report finds

The masks and gloves protecting people from coronavirus are proving a deadly threat to wildlife when thrown away, a report has found.

A fish trapped in the finger of a rubber glove in the Netherlands, a penguin in Brazil with a mask in its stomach and a fox in the UK entangled in a mask were among the victims.

The researchers searched news sites and social media posts from litter collectors, birdwatchers, wildlife rescue centres, and veterinarians and found incidents on land and in water across the world. But they said much more information is needed and have launched a website where anyone can submit a report.

The study, published in the journal Animal Biology, is the first overview of cases of entanglement, entrapping and ingestion of Covid-19 litter by animals. The PPE litter was mainly single-use latex gloves and single-use masks, consisting of rubber strings and mostly polypropylene fabric.


Also of Interest

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

Journalists Attack the Powerless, Then Self-Victimize to Bar Criticisms of Themselves

Report: US Preparing to Offer New Proposal to Iran

Blinken Complains About Chinese Sanctions on US Officials

Repealing AUMF will mean nothing if we don’t get out of Afghanistan first

Fox News hires Lara Trump as a contributor

Caitlin Johnstone: The Fact That Americans Think Biden Has Changed Things Shows How Narrative Rules Our World

‘Atomic Cover-Up’ Reveals A Previously Unseen Story Of Human Devastation

Lee Camp: Why Biden’s Choice to Bomb Outer Space Is So Damn Exciting

The Vast Confusion Of Implicit Assumptions Like Wages And Productivity

LEAKED AUDIO: Koch Operatives CAUGHT Admitting Bashing Billionaires Is WILDLY Popular

Rising: Amazon CAUGHT Using Fake Account With Dude Perfect's Face

Buttigieg FORCED To Backtrack GAS TAX As Biden Infrastructure Comes Together


A Little Night Music

Albert Ammons - Boogie Woogie Stomp

Albert Ammons - Bass Goin' Crazy

Albert Ammons - Chicago In Mind

Albert Ammons - St. Louis Blues

Albert Ammons - Backwater Blues

Albert Ammons Rhythm Kings - Jammin' The Boogie

Albert Ammons - Deep in the heart of Texas Boogie

Albert Ammons Rhythm Kings - Nagasaki

The Boogie Woogie Dream


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21 users have voted.

Comments

ggersh's picture

I haven't a clue as to how I missed that George Floyd killed himself.

what kind of fucked up country have we become? rhetorical

I've heard the courthouse has become another Green Zone that's becoming
quite the thing in modern day ameriKKKa -sigh-

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13 users have voted.

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

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

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

joe shikspack's picture

@ggersh

I haven't a clue as to how I missed that George Floyd killed himself.

oh, you didn't hear? it was a drug overdose - fentakneel.

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12 users have voted.

Thanks for peeling back the layers of BS.
Boogie Woogie is great too!
Question... why does congress seem to think $15/hr
is a living wage sometime in the future? What the hell
do they think $15 buys nowadays anyways?
Rhetorical question Wink

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12 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@QMS

a little boogie woogie now and then is medicinal in my book. Smile

15 bucks an hour! an outrage, why millions of americans live comfortably on $2.13 an hour plus the kindness of strangers.

if we start paying 15 an hour, the little drones might stop coming to work midweek. /s

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7 users have voted.

@QMS are Lucy with the football, imho

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7 users have voted.

NYCVG

@QMS are Lucy with the football, imho

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2 users have voted.

NYCVG

Pricknick's picture

Was walking into a local animal feed store (name excluded for personal safety) behind a young lady.
She got to the door and exclaimed "Fuck!" She had forgotten her mask.
The diatribe continued all the way back to her car which amused me in some sad way.
All I could think about is how privileged so many of us think we are.
Thanks as always joe.

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9 users have voted.

Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

@Pricknick

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3 users have voted.

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

Pricknick's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness
forgetfulness was a detriment.

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4 users have voted.

Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

joe shikspack's picture

@Pricknick

glad to hear that the day went well, have a great evening, too!

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4 users have voted.
Lookout's picture

For some reason, I just keep waiting for a train...should have known in America we're all supposed to have cars.
This is a pretty good clip! Easy to see/hear why Jimmie was a super star.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaBJhaQjGYs]

They say people lined the train line that took Jimmie home
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNvcnWNWVpk (3.5 min)

John Phillip Sousa may have been the first super star but Jimmie was the first of have clear lyrics. I think that was key to his success
Not sure what brought Jimmie to mind but guess it was meant to be.

Here's a fun follow up to the dumbrill video I posted in the EB yesterday.
https://moderaterebels.com/china-xinjiang-us-war-daniel-dumbrill/

The war drum beats...
Don't listen!

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8 users have voted.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@Lookout

jimmie wrote some great songs that hold up pretty well today:

thanks for the videos!

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6 users have voted.

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7 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@humphrey

heh, greenwald must be making democrat heads explode with his coverage. i hope that he gets a lot of eyeballs, because the dems pushing censorship deserve a smackdown.

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8 users have voted.

with Roberto Lovato on Democracy Now even though it barely scratches the surface of the problem. Still, it's good, glad you included it.

Thanks for the news & blues as always, much appreciated.
Have a good one.

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6 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@randtntx

i guess it's hard to cover in 10 to 20 minutes what u.s. policy has done over the years to destabilize just our neighbors south of the border, much less around the world. it's no wonder that much of the world sees the u.s. as a great threat.

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6 users have voted.

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8 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@humphrey

if the elites will just leave, where will they go? there are taxes just about everywhere you can put a mansion.

maybe they will go to space? good riddance!

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8 users have voted.

@joe shikspack we heard from Bloomberg for 12 years and here it is again 8 years later.

Really wealthy people live wherever they want to.

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7 users have voted.

NYCVG

snoopydawg's picture

It’s funny how Amazon's spokesman was so insulting that his security service wrote him up. The essay states that it was his behavior that caused even more people to complain about Amazon’s treatment of employees. But one thing that is in Biden’s power is to send OSHA into every Amazon factory and see how the workers are treated. There has been enough negative reporting on Amazon that congress should have stepped in long ago. That they didn’t gives me the clue that Biden won’t either.

Thanks for the news! Such as it is.

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11 users have voted.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

i am wondering if we are working up to an accountability moment for bezos and how a fellow with his titanic ego will react to it.

should be interesting.

have a great evening!

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6 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack

and whilst I’m dreaming of rainbows congress finally does step up and reins him in and we get some redistribution of wealth. His ego weathered his divorce pretty well and he lost a lot of money. But seriously just how much does one need when it’s on the backs of people you aren’t paying a living wage and making them work in nightmarish conditions. This is when our government agency for workers should have stepped in. And remember that RV article on old folks who work there but can’t afford rent. Thanks Obama and Blackstone! Seeing that congress bailed out big landlords over the people again and the rent moratorium being extended till July confirms my suspicions that they were just waiting for warmer weather to let banks and landlords kick people out of their homes and apartments. Damn that’s cold. But who is going to rent them when no one has jobs that pay enough?

Chauvin’s lawyer, Eric Nelson, told the jury in his opening statement that the evidence will show that Floyd was under the influence of drugs and that the force used against him was reasonable because of his behaviour.

I used to be on a high dose fentanyl and I was never violent nor could anyone tell I was. People would take chance on life taking the dose I used so that should be factored in by his lawyer. And was it prescribed or street drugs?

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6 users have voted.

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

@snoopydawg
of why George Floyd wasn't cuffed hands and feet and tossed into a paddy wagon. It is possible that his neck was knelt on to restrain him (has the Minneapolis PD acknowledged that that is an approved technique?). It looks in the video like another cop was just standing there looking. Why didn't he start handcuffing? Weren't they issued handcuffs? Did they call for a wagon and it wasn't dispatched? Lots of questions here not answered by "Cops bad/ Cops good". Yes, the video establishes that he knelt on Floyd's neck for nine minutes. But it doesn't answer the other questions. Where is the comprehensive police internal report? It does suggest neglect, arrogance, and cover up.

Am I the only one that wants the truth?

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1 user has voted.

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

snoopydawg's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

Chauvin did caused his death because you think someone or something could explain why it wasn’t wrong I don’t know what to say. Chauvin was told 3 times that Floyd didn’t have a pulse. He had to know that Floyd had stopped breathing as did the cops kneeling on his back and legs. Floyd’s chest didn’t rise or fall anymore. That means that HE'S NOT BREATHING because he’s dead.

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

snoopydawg's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

There is a lot of information in the article Joe posted and Google could help answer your questions. I’m definitely not going to try to explain anything to you.

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

@The Voice In the Wilderness evidence of the alleged criminal act, and provide to the defense any mitigating evidence. The scope of this trial may not include the info you seek if it has no direct evidentiary value to the criminal case.

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1 user has voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Pricknick's picture

@joe shikspack
that Blue Origin, SpaceX Starship and Virgin Galactic all slam into the same hole on the fourth of July.
Full mast goes the flag.

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7 users have voted.

Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

mimi's picture

@snoopydawg
with Besoz from the beginning in 1994. But most didn't know who Besoz was and what he did and Biden was just that nice guy from Delaware who offered Besoz (and others) the good conditions for incorporating in his state. So, best buddies since a long time. Now we know who both are.
More I don't know, but I guess It is enough to know. I don't want to know more.

Thanks for your medicinals (music) Joe, best doctor in the universe. You dispense always the right amount to feel better.

Good morning from Germany.

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6 users have voted.

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8 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@humphrey

too bad it doesn’t extend to Muslims living elsewhere and especially in the Middle East. It kinda makes us look like hypocrites. We can’t vote that out.

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11 users have voted.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@humphrey

if the war criminal mass murderer henry kissinger can get it, i'd say all blinken has to do is kill a vast number more people and then sign a major treaty.

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8 users have voted.

@joe shikspack

We can't our droner in chief Obama who got one. LOL

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2 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@humphrey

and shockingly, i think that he got it before he became a mass-murderer in earnest.

go figure. i guess they could spot his talent a mile away. Smile

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5 users have voted.

@humphrey threatening our Oil and Resources world wide.

What choice do we have but to bomb them into submission? \s

Same as it ever was. Our Warrior Nation is built on the backs of theft and oppression.

We are closer in behavior to the Vikings than we ever were to democracy.

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4 users have voted.

NYCVG

TheOtherMaven's picture

@NYCVG

Once they got their hands on some territory, they started building instead of destroying. They built the first real towns in Ireland: Dublin, Waterford, Wexford, Cork....

They built Normandy into a power strong enough to stand off the King of France, and to go grab off England.

They built Iceland from the ground up - wasn't anybody there before they came except *maybe* a few Irish monks (who, the story says, took to the sea in their coracles as soon as they saw Norse sails on the horizon).

They even built Russia, although the Russians (and still less the Ukrainians) have never wanted to admit it.

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3 users have voted.

There is no justice. There can be no peace.

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7 users have voted.