The Evening Blues - 6-22-21
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features Stax artist Ruby Johnson. Enjoy!
Ruby Johnson - Weak Spot
"The key element of social control is the strategy of distraction that is to divert public attention from important issues and changes decided by political and economic elites, through the technique of flood or flooding continuous distractions and insignificant information."
-- Noam Chomsky
News and Opinion
Worth a click and a full read:
Congress is voting to repeal the wrong war authorization
In the news business, we call certain stories “evergreens” because they are essentially always true. One example of this kind of story is “Congress does something pointless, again.” ... But Congress always manages to find a way to take the art of wasting time into a Banzai Charge of bulls**t. To wit: Lawmakers are close to repealing the wrong authorization for use of military force in a symbolic half-measure that will do nothing to end the Forever Wars.
On June 17, the House of Representatives voted to repeal the 2002 authorization for use of military force that allowed then-President George W. Bush to order the invasion of Iraq. The Senate is also expected to vote on the matter this year, according to the Washington Post. ...
Since Saddam Hussein is dead; his alleged stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons turned out to be fantasies; and Saddam’s supposed ties with Al Qaeda proved to be lies, it would appear that the 2002 AUMF has been largely irrelevant since all U.S. troops left Iraq at the end of 2011. Granted: In August 2014, then-President Barack Obama initially cited the 2002 AUMF among his legal justifications for ordering military action against the Islamic State terrorist group in Iraq and Syria; but his administration eventually presented Congress with a report that argued the war against ISIS was legal under the 2001 authorization for use of military force – also known as the father of the Forever Wars.
The 2001 AUMF has allowed every president over the past two decades to wage war without congressional approval by providing the legal justification to conduct military operations against, “those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons” – which has been repeatedly interpreted to include any terrorist group that is even loosely connected to Al Qaeda.
Some people might say that if Congress ultimately repeals the 2002 AUMF, it would be a good first step toward ultimately getting rid of the 2001 AUMF, which actually matters. I am not one of those people. For whatever it’s worth: It looks to me as if Congress is trying to get out of its job by pretending to be productive.
Why can’t world leaders agree that a nuclear war should never be fought?
Meeting last week, the US and Russian presidents issued a joint statement declaring: “a nuclear war should never be fought and could never be won”. This consciously echoes what Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev said in a landmark summit in 1985, when the US and USSR started to step up nuclear arms control, and gradually reduced the world’s fear of nuclear catastrophe. Many reports of the Biden-Putin summit have not even mentioned this joint statement, because it sounds like simple common sense. Who wants a nuclear war?
Yet getting these words into a joint US-Russia statement has been surprisingly controversial and complicated. Experts who work on arms control, along with former world leaders, have been advocating for years for the “P5” – the five states that are legally recognised as nuclear powers, and who also wield vetoes on the UN security council – to reaffirm what Reagan and Gorbachev agreed during the cold war.
For some years the US has been saying no – and so have the leaders of the UK and France. Even last week, British and French diplomats were privately briefing nuclear security experts that it wasn’t the right time for leaders to state that a nuclear war is unwinnable and should never happen. Their positions have turned out to be out of step with the new White House. More than that, though, governments’ resistance to even saying that a nuclear war is unwinnable and should not be fought illustrates the big gap between nuclear weapons policy and public awareness of that policy. The dominant concepts about nuclear weapons are the notions of deterrence and “mutually assured destruction”. ...
Of the nine states with nuclear weapons, only China and India are willing to say that, in a conflict, they will not be the first country to use them: a policy known as “no first use”.
The US stated in its most recent nuclear policy review, in 2018, that its nuclear weapons are not in fact only there to deter nuclear attacks by others, but to deter non-nuclear aggression on either the US or its key allies. That could be a conventional military attack on the US or its allies, or potentially a major hi-tech threat, such as a massive cyber-attack. It is possible that President Biden will change US policy and state that nuclear weapons should only be used to deter – or retaliate against – another nuclear attack (a position called “sole purpose”). He has suggested as much on the campaign trail.
After backing Maidan coup in Ukraine, is Biden ready for peace?
West tightens Belarus sanctions to make Lukashenko regime ‘run dry’
Western countries have extended sanctions against Belarus, with a pledge to make Alexander Lukashenko’s regime “run dry”, following last month’s forced landing of a Ryanair flight to arrest a dissident. In a coordinated move against Lukashenko, the UK, US, EU and Canada announced travel bans and asset freezes on senior Belarusian officials and entities that bankroll the regime as a punishment for the arrest of the activist and journalist Raman Pratasevich and his girlfriend, Sofia Sapega, who were detained after being hauled off a flight from Athens to Vilnius.
EU foreign ministers agreed to add 86 people and entities to the bloc’s sanctions list while the UK announced it was imposing sanctions on seven individuals and one entity linked to the illegal forced landing of the Ryanair flight, as well as four people and one entity implicated in human rights abuses. The US Treasury Department said it was freezing any US assets and barring any transactions with 16 individuals and five entities including Lukashenko’s press secretary, Natallia Mikalaeuna Eismant.
Going one step further, EU ministers also endorsed a plan for sanctions targeting the Belarusian economy, in an attempt to intensify pressure on Lukashenko’s regime. “We will no longer only sanction individuals but also areas of the economy which are important to the regime. We want to make Lukashenko’s regime run dry financially,” said Germany’s foreign minister, Heiko Maas, in a statement on the German foreign ministry’s Twitter account.
“Sanctions are a way of putting pressure on the government of Belarus and these are going to hurt. These are going to hurt the economy of Belarus heavily,” the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, told reporters. ...
Officials are working on sanctions to hit Belarus’s export industries, including oil, tobacco and potash, a salt used in fertiliser, which is a big source of foreign currency for Belarus. In a bid to further choke off funding to Lukashenko’s regime, EU banks will also be banned from offering loans or investment services.
Raisi sets out hardline stance in first remarks since winning Iran election
Iran’s president-elect staked out a hardline position in his first remarks since his landslide election victory, rejecting the possibility of meeting Joe Biden or discussing Tehran’s ballistic missile programme and support of regional militias.
The comments by Ebrahim Raisi on Monday offered a blunt preview of how Iran might deal with the wider world in the next four years as it enters a new stage in negotiations to resurrect its tattered 2015 nuclear deal with global powers.
A news conference in Tehran marked the first time the judiciary chief found himself confronted on live television about his role in the 1988 mass execution of political prisoners at the end of the Iran-Iraq war. Raisi offered no specific response, but appeared confident and defiant as he described himself as a “defender of human rights”. ...
The 60-year-old cleric, a protege of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, took nearly 62% of the 28.9m votes in Friday’s presidential election, which had the lowest turnout in the Islamic Republic’s history as millions of Iranians stayed at home in defiance of a vote where serious rivals were blocked from standing. Tehran province had a staggeringly low 34% turnout, roughly half that of previous years, with many polling stations noticeably deserted.
Raisi promised to salvage Iran’s nuclear deal with the west to secure relief from devastating US sanctions, but ruled out any limits to Iran’s missile capabilities and support for regional militias – among other issues viewed by Washington as shortcomings of the landmark deal that the Biden administration wants addressed. “It’s non-negotiable,” Raisi said of Iran’s ballistic missile programme, adding that the US “is obliged to lift all oppressive sanctions against Iran”.
Iran Urges US to Make Nuclear Deal Before New President Takes Office
Iran’s elections have come and gone, and Ebrahim Raisi is now the president-elect. The conservative Raisi may be a more difficult partner to negotiate the Iran nuclear deal with, but outgoing FM Javad Zarif suggests that there is a good possibility that a nuclear deal could still be made before Raisi takes office.
Deputy FM Abbas Araghchi, in Vienna for the ongoing talks, says the deal is “closer than ever,” and that the US needs to make some decisions to get it done. The outgoing Rouhani government staked a lot on the deal, and is keen to salvage it for their legacy.
Bases to CIA ‘out of question’: Pakistani PM Imran Kahn
Prime Minister Imran Khan has categorically said that Pakistan will ‘absolutely not’ allow any bases and use of its territory for any sort of action inside Afghanistan.
“Absolutely Not. There is no way we are going to allow any bases, any sort of action from Pakistani territory into Afghanistan. Absolutely not,” the prime minister told ‘Axios on HBO’ in an interview. In an excerpt of the interview shared on Axios website to be aired early Monday morning, interviewer Jonathan Swan questions, “Would you allow the American government to have CIA here in Pakistan to conduct cross-border counter-terrorism missions against al-Qaeda, ISIS or the Taliban?” Stunned over the prime minister’s clear-cut response of ‘absolutely not’, the interviewer interrupts him asking, “seriously”, to reconfirm his words.
The US is in talks with Pakistan and other regional countries for cooperation in future operations in the war-torn country to keep a check on militancy. However, the country has conveyed to Washington that it is not possible.
Earlier, in a press briefing at the White House, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan had said that they had constructive discussions through military, intelligence, and diplomatic channels with Pakistan about the future of America’s capabilities to ensure that Afghanistan never again becomes a base from which al Qaeda or ISIS or any other terrorist group can attack the United States. “But in terms of the specifics of what that will look like, that will have to remain in those private channels as we work through them,” he had said without sharing further details. Sullivan had said they are talking to a wide range of countries about how they build effective, over-the-horizon capacity, both from an intelligence and a defence perspective, to be able to suppress the terrorism threat in Afghanistan.
Macron and Le Pen to review strategies after poor election results
Traditional parties on the left and right are likely to keep control of most regions in mainland France after a historically low turnout in Sunday’s first-round vote and disappointing scores for both Emmanuel Macron’s ruling centrist party and Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National (National Rally).
Lists of candidates from the mainstream right and centre-right topped the vote in six out of 13 regions in mainland France, leaving Nicolas Sarkozy’s old party, Les Républicains, as the dominant force, while a variety of left lists, where the Socialists dominate, finished first in five.
But after decades of growing abstention and disillusionment with the political process, only about 33% of the electorate turned out to vote in the regional and local départmentales elections. The abstention rate among 18–24-year-olds was over 80%. It was the worst turnout in an election since 1958 – with the exception of a 2000 referendum on the length of the presidential term – leaving Macron’s entourage shaken.
The interior minister, Gérard Darmanin, said: “Abstention is a message. The French people are telling politicians they do not trust them.”
Krystal Ball: Media IGNORES SCOTUS Goldman Sachs Giveaway
US Covid deaths dip below 300 a day for first time since March last year
US deaths from Covid-19 have dipped below 300 a day for the first time since March last year during the first wave of the pandemic. Data from federal sources also showed the drive to put shots in arms at home approaching an encouraging milestone: 150 million Americans fully vaccinated.
Joe Biden was however expected to fall short of his commitment to shipping 80m Covid-19 vaccine doses abroad by the end of June, because of regulatory and other hurdles. Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, told reporters getting the shots shipped was proving to be “a Herculean logistical challenge” – which the administration has been unable to meet.
The US death toll from Covid-19 stands at more than 601,000. The worldwide count is close to 3.9m. The real figures in both cases are believed to be markedly higher.
About 45% of the US population has been fully vaccinated, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 53% of Americans have received at least one dose, the CDC also said on Monday.
From Black Lung to BlackRock: Striking AL Coal Miners Protest Wall St. Financiers of Warrior Met
Fears for future of American journalism as hedge funds flex power
As the pandemic recedes in the United States, few businesses may emerge so transformed as local and regional newspapers. More than 70 local newsrooms have closed over the past 15 months, with hundreds of media jobs lost, as the already difficult financial conditions in the industry intensified during the crisis. By some estimates, a staggering 2,100 local newspapers, or one in four, have closed in the US since 2005.
But into the carnage a new breed of owner has emerged: one that has industry veterans and media observers deeply worried about the future of journalism in America and its ability to act as part of a functioning democracy. According to a recent analysis, hedge funds or private equity firms now control half of US daily newspapers, including some of the largest newspaper groups in the country: Tribune, McClatchy and MediaNews Group.
Last month, shareholders of Tribune Publishing, the parent company of the New York Daily News, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun and others, approved a $630m deal to be taken over by Alden Global Capital, a hedge fund that through its MediaNews Group already has stakes in about two hundred American newspapers. Alden’s holdings already spanned the country, including the Denver Post, the Boston Herald, the St Paul Pioneer Press, the Orange County Register, the Trentonian, the Saratogian and the Los Angeles Daily News.
Alden Capital and other players in the sector are widely feared by the industry for cutting staff and selling off real estate assets to boost profits. Last month the Washington Post reported on a labor department investigation that found Alden had “probably” violated federal pension protections by putting $294m of its newspaper employees’ pension savings into its own funds. But as lenders of last resort for businesses too sickly to meet lending requirements of conventional banks, hedge funds say they are being unfairly depicted as grave robbers. ...
But efforts to steer the sale of newspaper groups away from hedge funds have come to nothing. Besides Alden, Fortress Investment Group, via GateHouse Media, acquired Gannett for $1.4bn, making it the biggest US newspaper publisher by titles and circulation. Chatham Asset Management bought McClatchy, which includes the Miami Herald and Sacramento Bee, out of bankruptcy last August.
Trump proposed sending Americans with Covid to Guantánamo, book claims
The stunning revelation is contained in a new book, Nightmare Scenario: Inside the Trump Administration’s Response to the Pandemic That Changed History, by Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damian Paletta, two Washington Post reporters. The Post published excerpts on Monday.
According to the paper, at a meeting in the White House Situation Room in February last year, before the onset of the pandemic in which more than 600,000 have now died in the US, Trump asked aides: “Don’t we have an island that we own? What about Guantánamo?” Trump also reportedly said: “We import goods. We are not going to import a virus.”
The reporters write that aides blocked the idea when Trump brought it up again.
In 2019, the book A Warning by Anonymous – later revealed to be Miles Taylor, a former homeland security official – reported that Trump suggested sending immigrants to the base in Cuba. According to Taylor, Trump proposed designating all migrants entering the US without permission as “enemy combatants”, then shipping them to Guantánamo.
Republicans Won’t Even Debate “For the People Act” as They Flood States with Voter Suppression Bills
Obama backs Manchin’s voting rights compromise before crucial Senate vote
Barack Obama has backed conservative West Virginia Democratic senator Joe Manchin’s voting rights proposal, calling it a “product of compromise” as the landmark legislation struggles towards a crucial vote in the US Senate on Tuesday.
The former US president weighed in, as did his wife and former first lady, Michelle Obama, decrying Republican efforts in many statehouses across the country to bring in new laws that restrict voting, and urging Congress to pass federal legislation “before it’s too late”.
Barack Obama said the future of the country was at stake. ...
The Senate is preparing for a showdown Tuesday, a test vote of the For the People Act, a sweeping elections bill that would be the largest overhaul of US voting procedures in a generation. ... Manchin has been a vocal Democratic Party holdout on Capitol Hill, opposing the For the People Act and insisting on gleaning bipartisan support for such legislation.
But last week he introduced a list of compromises he would support, including 15 days of early voting and automatic voter registration. His compromise would also ban partisan gerrymandering and requiring voter ID.
Biden Packs Courts With Trumpers
Criminal Probe Into DeJoy Demanded Over 'Suspicious' GOP Donations
An election watchdog organization on Monday demanded a state-level criminal probe into Postmaster General Louis DeJoy after research uncovered "suspicious" new details surrounding a straw donor scheme he allegedly orchestrated during his time as chief executive of the North Carolina-based firm New Breed Logistics.
While the FBI is already investigating the scandal-plagued postmaster general for potential violations of campaign finance laws, the advocacy group Common Cause North Carolina said that Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman should also open a criminal probe into DeJoy's conduct at New Breed Logistics, which he headed while simultaneously serving as a major fundraiser for Republican political candidates.
In a 20-page report (pdf) submitted to the North Carolina State Board of Elections on Monday, Common Cause alleges that "the pattern of campaign contributions from Louis DeJoy and New Breed employees to the gubernatorial campaigns of Pat McCrory follows the same pattern of other company owners who have been found guilty in North Carolina of funneling money through their employees to state candidates"—an illegal practice known as straw donations.
Prepared for Common Cause by campaign finance expert Bob Hall, the analysis builds on bombshell Washington Post reporting detailing former New Breed employees' allegations that they were "urged by DeJoy's aides or by the chief executive himself to write checks and attend fundraisers at his 15,000-square-foot gated mansion beside a Greensboro, N.C., country club."
"Employees familiar with New Breed's financial and payroll systems said DeJoy would instruct that bonus payments to staffers be boosted to help defray the cost of their contributions, an arrangement that would be unlawful," according to the Post.
Hall's analysis of campaign finance records shows that 60 New Breed employees pumped a combined $300,000 into the 2008 and 2012 gubernatorial campaigns of former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican.
"After DeJoy and his wife gave their maximum to McCrory [in 2008], seven [New Breed] employees donated a combined $3,000 to the McCrory's campaign, all on the same day—October 23, 2008," the report notes. "For all seven, it was their first donation to a NC candidate."
Similarly questionable were the donations that dozens of New Breed employees sent to McCrory's campaign during his successful bid for governor in 2012. According to Hall's findings, 54 New Breed executives and three of their wives donated $143,130 to the McCrory campaign during the 2012 race.
"For 46 of the 54 employees," Hall notes, "it was their first reportable contribution to a North Carolina candidate."
Bob Phillips, executive director of Common Cause NC, said in a statement Monday that "these new, detailed findings reveal an alarming and highly suspicious pattern of campaign donations by Louis DeJoy's employees while he led New Breed Logistics."
"We respectfully urge District Attorney Freeman to review these new findings and begin a full investigation into Mr. DeJoy's alleged political donation scheme," Phillips added. "These allegations should be thoroughly investigated and, if true, Mr. DeJoy must be held accountable."
Ross Barkan: Eric Adams WEAPONIZES Race To Attack Yang, Cover Corporate Politics
Biden Subsidies for Liquid Natural Gas Could Doom International Climate Goals
The liquid natural gas industry is angling for cash from the Biden administration to help green its image abroad. The grants and subsidies are aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from industry infrastructure by helping LNG firms build out and modify planned export hubs using carbon capture technology — a controversial approach among climate experts, many of whom view it as “greenwashing,” putting an environmentally friendly patina on climatically dangerous energy efforts.
Critics say any federal supports that prop up the growing U.S. LNG industry will doom efforts to reach international goals to contain the climate crisis. Even with carbon capture attached, LNG remains a polluting fossil fuel. Recent research suggests that for the goals of the Paris climate agreement to be met, planned LNG terminals either must be canceled or must shut down before the end of the new facilities’ lives, leaving billions of dollars in stranded assets. Adding expensive carbon capture infrastructure would only add new financial and political incentives to allow the industry to continue shipping natural gas — imperiling the possibility of meeting the Paris goals. ...
If all 14 LNG export terminals currently approved for construction are completed, it will triple the number of operating export hubs. LNG exporters have struggled to find buyers for their product in part because U.S. natural gas is viewed as particularly dirty. President Donald Trump significantly slowed efforts to regulate natural gas flaring, the burning of unwanted gases at the extraction point. In turn, producers in West Texas continue to burn off a significant volume of excess gas, allowing climate-warming methane to escape into the atmosphere. Seven LNG projects along the Gulf Coast have announced plans to add carbon capture infrastructure to help sell their products to reluctant European markets. ...
The carbon capture projects will be all but impossible without federal subsidies, and President Joe Biden’s inner circle has already signaled support for the plans. A recent Department of Energy press release stated that the administration “is looking closely at carbon capture and sequestration technology, which would take emissions from LNG plants and other facilities, move them by pipeline and then inject them underground.” With Biden betting his climate legacy on infrastructure legislation, the LNG industry may soon be poised to take advantage of new federal backing for its greenwashing marketing ploy — and at least one company is already vying for an existing Biden-backed subsidy.
Australia hits out at threatened UN downgrade of Great Barrier Reef
Great Barrier Reef should be listed as ‘in danger’, Unesco recommends
The Great Barrier Reef should be placed on to a list of world heritage sites that are “in danger”, according to a recommendation from UN officials that urges Australia to take “accelerated action at all possible levels” on climate change. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization says the world’s biggest coral reef system should be placed on the list at the world heritage committee meeting next month.
The recommendation has sparked a flurry of activity from the Australian government, with the environment minister, Sussan Ley, saying she had already joined the foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, in a call to Unesco’s director general, Audrey Azoulay.
If the committee followed the recommendation, experts said it would be the first time a natural world heritage site has been placed on the “in danger” list mainly because of impacts from the climate crisis. Global heating caused by fossil fuel burning has driven ocean temperatures higher, leading to three mass bleaching events on the 2,300km reef since the last time it was assessed by the committee in 2015.
Ley said the government would “strongly oppose” the recommendation, claiming officials had been “stunned” by what she described as a “backflip on previous assurances” by UN officials the step would not be taken this year. ... The Unesco report says a revision of Australia’s key reef policy – the reef 2050 plan – should “fully incorporate” conclusions from a major government review that “accelerated action at all possible levels is required to address the threat from climate change”.
The report said despite efforts and achievements by the state and federal governments, key targets on improving water quality had not been met. “The plan requires stronger and clearer commitments, in particular towards urgently countering the effects of climate change, but also towards accelerating water quality improvement and land management measures,” it said.
Western States Face Record Heat & Historic Drought, But GOP Rejects Green Infrastructure Funding
Big Sur fire: hundreds of firefighters battle blaze raging in California
Firefighters are battling to contain a wildfire that erupted near Big Sur last week, as the flames continue to engulf the dry California landscape and threaten historical sites, cabins, and ranches.
More than 2,400 acres have burned in Monterey county since the fire broke out on Thursday evening. The Willow fire has not yet claimed any structures but officials report that 100 are under threat. Roughly 450 firefighters have hiked through the steep, rugged terrain to battle the blaze, which remained at 0% containment as of Monday morning.
The area is also home to endangered species and contains cultural sites that could be at risk if the fire continues to grow, and the Los Padres national forest resource advisors have brought in biologists, botanists, and Chumash tribal members to aid in protecting sensitive areas.
“We have to take our time accessing these areas because we can’t get the equipment in there,” said Amanda Munsey, a public information officer with California interagency incident management team 11. “Weather is also a big factor,” she adds, “and it has been very hot for a number of days – and very dry.”
Meanwhile, hundreds have been ordered to evacuate the mountainous area, including most of those at the Tassajara Mountain Zen Center, a historic Zen Buddhist monastery.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Guantanamo Bay: Two Yemenis win release after being held without charge for 17 years
The New Atlantic Charter & Julian Assange
A U.S.-Mexico Pledge to End Disappearances Fails to Grapple With the Complicity of the State
The War On Afghanistan Is Lost But The U.S. Still Tries To Keep A Foot In Its Door
NSA to NSO: Filmmaker examines US surveillance, Israeli spyware and the pandemic
Tabloids Want Crime, Not Rent, on NYC Voters’ Minds
Donations flood in to restore Gaza bookshop destroyed by Israeli airstrikes
Tasmanian devils wipe out thousands of penguins on tiny Australian island
California man arrested for allegedly stealing 42,000lb of pistachios
Mindat: The Wikipedia for Minerologists, Miners, and “Rock Hounds” (Except Not)
Krystal and Saagar: American Airlines Took BAILOUT BILLIONS, Fired Workers, Claims Labor Shortage
Krystal and Saagar: Amazon CAUGHT Destroying MILLIONS Of Perfectly Good Products For Profit
Krystal and Saagar: Infrastructure DEAL Is Private Sector Giveaway Con
Jimmy Dore: White House Reporters Won’t Ask About Julian Assange
Jimmy Dore: Roger Waters Tells Mark Zuckerberg "F*** You!"
A Little Night Music
Ruby Johnson - I'm Hooked
Ruby Johnson - Don't Start Nothing
Ruby Johnson - Keep on Keeping On
Ruby Johnson - I'll Run Your Hurt Away
Ruby Johnson - Reach Out And Touch Me
Ruby Johnson - When My Love Comes Down
Ruby Johnson - Calling All Boys
Ruby Johnson - Here I Go Again
Ruby Johnson - Worried Mind
Ruby Johnson - Won't Be Long
Ruby Johnson - Why You Want To Leave Me
Ruby Johnson - I've Been Hurt (so many times before)
Ruby Johnson - I'd Rather Fight Than Switch
Comments
In today's "It's ok when Our Side Does It" news...
Remember when the left flipped out because in court Fox News's lawyers argued their viewers knew they were engaging in hyperbole and shouldn't be taken literally? Well...you'll just be shocked, SHOCKED, to see who is using that same defense now:
https://greenwald.substack.com/p/a-court-ruled-rachel-maddows-viewers
I'm surprised this hasn't gotten more coverage *snort*
(EDIT: this isn't even a new argument. I remember Limbaugh squealing that he was just an entertainer when someone took him to task ages ago. This feels like the legal version of the same claim. None of these people actually believe their crap. They just find a lane and run it.)
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
lol…
Boy have I been retweeting this and giving Rachel sh*t about it. This made my day.
ETA the judge’s decision:
The judge should visit DK once in awhile to see how people take Rachel’s word as gospel and she is always spot on.
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
So sad ...
I'm just home from vacation. We went to the Pacific Northwest where I visited an aunt. She's in her 80s and is a regular viewer of MSNBC. A few months back I sent her a copy of Hate Inc. I was curious. How would she take it? "I don't read fiction," she said, "and I won't talk politics with you anymore except to say that we are infinitely better off with Biden than with Trump." I didn't press it. It's just sad, that's all. My MIL, also in her 80s, is a Fox News devotee. I can't talk to either one of 'em and they both vote.
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
evening dr jc...
i suppose that this is the predictable outcome of what has been happening since the 1970's - the merging of news and entertainment.
on the other hand, most of us have been aware that media in our society is a clown show and rarely to be taken at face value. so, i suppose that it is good of the court system to provide regular reminders which the news industry will largely fail to report.
have a great evening!
Just finished reading the EB from the 21rst,
now I am so exhausted and know that I am definitely a masochist reading it. Like I say in my prayer: "God give me my little poison pill, because I need it."
Well, the poison pill from today's EB I haven't swallowed yet.
Thanks for the poison. At least one can hope to die from it. What better could happen? /heh that is poisonous snark, in case you didn't understand my Germania snark.
Be well and have a good evening, good weather and a garden to
dielive for. Thanks for all your work.https://www.euronews.com/live
evening mimi...
heh, the beatings will continue until morale improves.
have fun reading and have a great evening!
Interesting article on Glenn and Taibbi
Ed Snowden on censorship.
Too much to find an excerpt so read it if interested.
For the cat lovers…
Actually I like cats just don’t want one that goes outside in my neighborhood and keeping one inside isn’t fair to a cat. IMO.
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 was gonna' link that if no one else did.
Very good: What happened to Glenn Greenwald?
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
Have you seen this article yet
It puts Pelosi’s "no one is above the law'" to rest.
On the Carroll case it makes sense because Trump was asked about it while he was president during a press conference and in office. But when our government is never held accountable for its actions then how can we jail people on lesser charges? We are supporting Israel’s ethnic cleansing, have done just as bad, but it’s okay because of American exceptionalism. Trump absolutely riled his supporters up for months and on the 6th he told them to stop the vote thing. If he skates then everyone skates and especially now that we know the FBI was involved. Seems like entrapment, but I’m not a lawyer.
I feel you. I lost my uncle to Rachel and if I thought he was opinionated before Trump he is so much worse now. Did Clinton do the telecommunications bill so that the media could divide us more? After reading your comment it makes sense. Oh yeah and he loves Nichol Wallace who used to be Bush’s mouthpiece. I hope he lives long enough to see Trump rehabilitated like Bush has been.
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
Well of course!
President My-Boss didn’t go after the Bush gang for actual war crimes. Why did anyone think Biden would go after Trump for anything (even if there was some there there, which for Jan 6th I don’t think there would be.) Power protects power. Big club. Yada yada.
And for no particular reason, here’s Tiffany Trump (his daughter) and Naomi Biden (his granddaughter) partying together in 2018:
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
lol!
It’s a big club and we ain’t in it. Trump and the Clintons are BFFs too. Maybe not so big?
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...
cook's article is very well done.
as i see it, greenwald and taibbi are doing their job, challenging the powers-that-be from the largest platforms that will allow them to speak uncensored.
people like nathan robinson are the ones that we should be asking "what happened" about. they are now acting just like the journalists that smear julian assange, protecting the powers-that-be from challenge.
Agreed
People make fun of them for going on Fox, but then they don’t care to have their beliefs questioned because Rachel told them some thing else. Rachel..I crack myself up some times.
I have never seen a firefly and this is so cool.
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
IMHO the Jonathan Cook
article is best read after reading How To End Up Serving The Right by Nathan Robinson. Robinson is a good thinker and writer, this is a good article, and he makes many excellent points. However, the flaw(s) in it isn't that tough to spot. He appears to fully understand that DC/DP Democrats are bad but clings to the notion that they moderate or limit GOP evil and sometimes do something good. One of his examples of Trump evil:
True enough, but if Senate Democrats effectively pushed back half as much on Trump judicial nominations as McConnell did on Obama nominations, there would be far fewer Trump judges on the bench today. And that going along with Trump/GOP legislation prevailed for four years. IOW, Democrats only saw evil in Trump but not in his legislative agenda.
A majority of Senate Democrats in 2002 backed the IWR (as did Greenwald). That's not lesser evil; that's not even intelligent because it was easy to get that one right.
The vast majority of people are tuning out all this drama; it's just words that are poorly defined and less understood that aren't connecting to their lives. They're retreating to shopping on Amazon to save money but can't understand how the more they save the less they have.
Great point
Thanks for including the link to his article. Reading it should have been 1st.
Nate should read Aaron Mate's book on debunking Russia Gate and see how that affected SO MANY writer's viewpoints and what nots. Blue MAGA loves to make fun of Red MAGA. I keep saying people should buy a mirror before they start flinging mud.
Interesting how the bros never noticed that Pelosi acted like she wouldn't give Trump a dime for any of his wacky ideas, but then went on to do it on most issues anyway. How did they miss it?
As for the 'Trump' judges I learned that no judge gets a nomination unless 1 Dem and 1 repub agree to advance their names. A few dems were wanting the 'blue checks' (iirc) to be changed somehow, but Feinstein put the kibosh on that. But boy Pelosi sure left all her arrows in her quiver which she apparently left at home because dems did squat shutting down the Barrett hearings for the SC. And they let Feinstein run it even tho for a week before many dems were saying that her mental acuity wasn't all there. Built in excuse for why Barrett got placed.
Nor were they the warmongers and 'savages' that I was led to believe. They just happened to be the 1st defenders of the homeland and trying to stay alive. Imagine if we had been taught from an early age how many millions we killed in various and heinous ways. Will we ever learn the real truth? Kidnapping kids from families to be raised as 'whites'.
Little help?
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
Elites learned long ago
that when an entity thwarts their desire to steal the resources of that entity, demonizing that entity is the surest way to get the masses to do the bidding of the elites. The masses never seem to catch onto this trusty tool of the elites.
I tend to be complacent in the midst of "OMG, things are worse than ever," because generally it's not true. If one compares the authentic past to the authentic now. Just got around to viewing [video:https://youtu.be/cs8Qae0QgGw] (You or someone else posted it in the past few days.) It's also good, and prompts me to question if Facebook/twitter censorship is really different and worse than what people have long been subjected to. Imho, potentially yes but not so far. Not seen, not heard is less powerful than manufactured falsehoods seen and/or heard.
I'm far more concerned about what the media did to Jeremy Corbyn than censorship of the material on Hunter Biden's laptop. For those to whom it mattered, Hunter's corrupt dealings and Joe's facilitation of it were known early in the primary season if not before then. Contrary to Greenwald's assertion there were questions of authenticity when the laptop docs were first reported in October 2020. It also impinged on two generally accepted media standards: 1) leave the kids alone (the emails didn't directly implicate Joe) and 2) beware "October surprises." To its credit, the MSM was mindful of #2 in 2016 and didn't run with Russiagate in the last weeks of the election. (That frustrated the hell out of the Clinton team, but they were peddling garbage. More worrisome is that even now they can't admit that it was a pack of lies. iirc it was decades before Nixon admitted that he knew Jerry Voohis wasn't a communist, but Nixon's lie began his political career and ended the career of an excellent pubic servant.)
What's worse, censoring Hunter's laptop or censoring the truth about WMD? Recently saw Shock and Awe. The reviews weren't good and therefore, hardly anybody heard of it. Doesn't have all the fake thriller bells and whistles of successful docudramas, but it's factually more authentic than most. Why I paid attention to the Knight Ridder reports in 2002-03 was because it was consistent with facts that could be known at that time, IOW had the ring of truth. Big lies always substitute faith for facts.
A difference between Aaron Mate and Nathan Robinson is that Mate put in the time to build journalistic creds. He's also at least eight years older and therefore, he was an adult during the Bush era and has seen the major failings of Democrats over the past twenty years. (And before as he was a researcher of Klein's "Shock Doctrine.") In addition to his age handicap, Nate's life experiences have been limited to academics which was never the case with his role model Noam Chomsky.
Please explain
That social media is censoring so many different issues I think it’s worse, but maybe I wasn’t paying attention. But the Hunter Biden story is not going away. That they censored it in the first place was blatant election interference. Imagine if Comey covering up for Hillary’s email server and that the original charge was grossly negligent to getting a slap on her hand and to this day people still think that republicans made it up. Really too bad that Trump didn’t follow through with charging her, but as we see some people are above the law. They made sure that no other opinions on Covid were heard and how many lives did they cause to be snuffed out because they focused only on getting the vaccines instead of finding ways to treat it. And now that the studies show that it works we are still getting fear porn daily to scare people into getting vaxxed instead of telling them that there are treatments available. This is what makes me question too damn many things from government. Remember Bush’s color codes to drive up fear of the newly created boogie man.
They did it to Bernie too but not on that scale as Corbyn. Israel wants the people they own in there so they won’t question what they are doing. But Russia huh?
The WMDs scam was transparent to me from the git go too, but to this day many people think that Saddam had attacked us on 9/11 so I see your point.
I may be a little off following your line of thinking. It’s not you….
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'll try -- but there's subjectivity on my part.
Let's go back to 2002-2003 and Knight Ridder WMD reporting. This was pre-Facebook/twitter. Other news/media orgs (all of whom have long piggybacked on reports by their competitors) didn't (or didn't to any meaningful extent) include Knight Ridder's findings. Didn't link to it in their on-line articles. No media platform has a duty to tell viewers/readers what other media platforms are reporting. Was that censorship? Not really. What it was was extremely bad reporting by all other the MSM news reporters and editors. The steno journos that like most in Congress never met a war they didn't like. Still, there were just enough KR readers who could pass along the info to others and left of center blogs, that were new at that, quickly globed onto it. Unfortunately their reach was too limited to change the course of the country. (Similarly, within a day bloggers had debunked the Sept 2002 Blair dossier, but again that debunking didn't get into the MSM.) (Alas, KR is no more (it owned the SJ Mercury News when it published Gary Webb's "Dark Alliance" in the mid-1990s); part of McClatchy, SJ Mercury was spun off and sold to MediaNews.) Authentic and actual national news reporting in MSM newspapers is no more (and ended decades ago on TV; talking heads don't count as that's merely promotion of whatever the interviewee has written and posted on some other platform and they continue to use omission by not inviting those with views at odds with their management/owners. Greenwald and Mate are welcomed on Fox because they criticize Democrats, which is music to the ears of Fox viewers, but how many Fox viewers read what they've written? Few to none, and therefore, they aren't adding to the dialogue among those not stuck in rigid partisanship. Unlike Robinson, I doubt that it's harmful; merely not constructive, but alternatives with large audiences don't exist.)
Many stories don't go away. As long as they can gin up some level of outrage for some people they get repeated and sometimes further developments are included. The Facebook/twitter exclusion last October was too publicly overt and therefore, probably increased the traffic to the Daily News articles because being banned piques interest. (Since I'm not an idiot that relies on Facebook/twitter for news, I read it.)
wrt Clinton's emails, she violated State Dept regs, but so have others and no senior official has been or likely ever will be charged. With reasonable certainty, we know why she did it. She gambled that the risk was lower for her to do so than risk having any damning email surfacing in the public domain. It did take six years for anyone outside her circle to recognize what she'd done. It's not as if she hasn't admitted that her public and private positions differ. She's not trustworthy and that mattered to just enough people in the 2016 general election. (Mattered to far more Democrats in the 2008 primary.)
wrt Covid -- when putting out a fire, distractions and disputes aren't helpful. It was bad enough that the POTUS spouted all sorts of nonsense. For better or worse, we went into this with the medical industrial complex that we have (and apparently love). The CDC is no more up to its task than the media is up to its job. Every jagoff has the panacea for every illness -- and they range from harmless snake oil to harmful snake oil. It was up to doctors and nurses doing their best to treat patients and the peanut gallery wasn't helpful. Agree that the focus on vaccines instead of public health, tried and true measures was harmful, but so American as we want a magic cure for everything. What was inexcusable was Fauci and others on masks. Agree NYC wouldn't have lost so many transit workers if they and riders were masked. (There's much more that was inexcusable but it's somewhat off topic.)
Doubt there's ever been an effective vaccine that wasn't controversial. To visit George Washington at a war camp, Marthe rolled up her sleeve to get infected with cowpox. Smallpox had already been decimating war camps. This treatment (not without risk) had by then been around for several decades and people were still afraid of it. Has there ever been a risk free vaccine? Too soon to know the true effectiveness of these vaccines, but potentially could prevent infection with any coronavirus.
I can't say that the WMD hoax was immediately obvious to me. I'm biased in that opposing wars always seems to be the better position. And GWB did say in 2000 that if he had a chance he would go after Saddam. Still, I did my homework and ground through a lot of data on the possibility that over the past decade that Saddam had acquired WMD. Concluded from that data that it wasn't possible. At best he had stockpiles of very old and degraded chemical weapons that were no threat to US or UK because he had no delivery system.
WaPo relentlessly attacked Sanders but most other media simply ignored him. Of course that was a primary and not a general election. However, the WaPo attacks weren't much like what was done to Corbyn. The entire UK MSM landscape endlessly repeated one charge: anti-Semitic. Like a chant. Like WMD. Both false. And people were too stupid to see through either. (Also somewhat bizarre to me because racism and anti-semitism are high in the UK.)
Tech isn't going to save us. Every new media/communication platform soon devolves to the lowest common denominator. Which is where TPTB want the public.
Corbin is England's problem.
And example. Hunter Biden's laptop is our problem, affecting every aspect of our daily life.The perfect example of media propaganda.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
It was a test run and
passed with flying colors. It will be done here if ever there's a left of center Dem nominee or far right nominee. Could have worked with Trump if they could have come up with a single charge that angers a majority and repeated it endlessly. Like Russiagate but more plausible to more people than that one is/was.
It was 80 years ago today ...
"What?", you ask. Plan Barbarossa, of course, the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, June 22, 1941.
Here's a YouTube playlist for a Russian docudrama series. It's 18 episodes, 50 minutes each with English subs. They have a dubbed version too but I like this one better: StarMediaEN
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
evening azazello...
thanks for the link to the documentaries!
have a great evening!
From RT 2 good articles
Written by Putin.
HomeRussia & Former Soviet Union Vladimir Putin's view on the 80th anniversary of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union: Being open, despite the past
US government ‘SEIZES’ website of Iran’s Press TV, two other media outlets
Can’t handle the truth? Shut it down.
Hey JtC I just got a certificate warning for the site.
FYI.
Just lost my comment. It’s been hot here this month.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
heh...
i have a feeling that putin's letter will fall on deaf ears.
the u.s. attempting to silence iran, its perceived allies and co-religionists seems like a pretty transparently chickenshit act. i guess this is how modern u.s. technocrats envision promoting abroad alleged u.s. values like freedom of expression.
Not surprising at all
Look at how much our education system has been censured. Took me a long time to understand that the ‘Indians' were never our enemy like I was taught. And imagine my surprise to learn that it was Russia that won WW2 and not us. It wasn’t until I started reading RT to see how false that was.
China and Russia are asking some organization to look into how we and Canada treated native Americans way back then. I so wish Putin had mentioned Assange when he was asked about Navalny. Chicken journalists would never ask that of Biden. But then….
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
Of course Native Americans
were "our" enemy. They occupied the lands "we" wanted.
When did schools stop revealing which countries were WWII allies? Not that it was dwelt on, but at least we learned the heavy toll that the USSR suffered. The late 1960s and early 1970s were a great time to learn more accurate history, as part of the need to understand and then protest against the Vietnam War. AIM was held in high regard by younger people. No wonder the FBI had to get busy.
I also got that warning,
It was normal earlier today. But about a half an hour ago I got that message. Switched browsers and got the same result. Checked out a few other sites and they were OK. visited elsewhere and when I attempted again it worked.
It’s fixed now
You can still access the site if you’re willing to give up your first child. I’m jesting.
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
Medea Benjamin is correct once again.
Biden barely knows how to make p!ss anymore
Just sayin'.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
Goldman Sachs wins again
evening gj...
heh, but of course:
Empirical SCOTUS: The big business court
Not what I would call good publicity. LOL
https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/559745-nyt-test-finds-...
Years ago
somebody did the same thing with chicken mcnuggonnaeatems.
Same results. Not identifiable as chicken.
Fast food can be identified by unnatural, unhealthy byproducts, with a dash, pinch or dallop of man made poison.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
Yuck!
I liked their seafood sandwich long ago, but I’m guessing it’s as bad as the tuna. Anyone know where good sandwiches are made? Asking for my stomach that some times tells me to feed it now. I still go to the burger king now and then, but I’m guessing that the tests results will say no beef.
Hey…where’s the beef?
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
Easy.
My house. Come taste for yourself, chica!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Do you deliver?
I’m not quite up to traveling just yet, but I’m craving some good bbq if you’re making it. Oh wait…still on soft food. Next week then shall we say? You have my address right?
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Good evening Joe, thanks for the evening blues.
Good to see Rachel outed for the propagandisst she is, though I doubt many will believe it. Not so good to have to work around the expired security cert. - what's with that? Not your fault, I know.
But 1) It's different, & 2) It's oddly entertaining. Ah well
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
evening el...
yep, it would be nice to see maddow face some well-deserved disapprobation for her bullshit spreading, but i am guessing that her audience is too dull to be upset at her for confirming their biases.
i think that jtc took care of the cert just a little while ago. hopefully it will trouble us no more - until next year.
have a great evening!
Lots of good music and interesting news!
Good to know the Supremes announced, or pronounced, Maddow to be the drama queen actress that she is.
Made it out of the courthouse without getting into a fist fight with an amateur videographer, a cell phone kinda of gal. I did have the bailiff on alert to nab that phone if used inappropriately.
Thanks for all you do!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
evening otc...
wow, i didn't realize that you had reached the point of being a celebrity with your own papparazzi. congratulations!
have a great evening!