The Evening Blues - 9-10-21



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: John Mayall

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features English blues musician and bandleader John Mayall. Enjoy!

John Mayall Feat. Eric Clapton - All Your Love

"The mythology of the Reagan presidency is that he induced the collapse of the Soviet Union by luring it into unsustainable military spending and wars: should there come a point when we think about applying that lesson to ourselves?"

-- Glenn Greenwald


News and Opinion

Barbara Lee:

Why are Americans paying $32m every hour for wars since 9/11?

Shortly after the [9/11] attacks, President Bush sent a 60-word blank check to Congress that would give him or any other president the authority to wage war against enemies of their choosing. It was a sweeping resolution known as the 2001 authorization for use of military force, or the 2001 AUMF. I was the lone vote in Congress against the authorization because I feared it was too broad, giving the president the open-ended power to use military force anywhere, against anyone. ...

The Afghanistan war alone has cost more than $2.6tn taxpayer dollars and killed more than 238,000 individuals. The 2002 AUMF, which authorized war against Iraq based on fabricated claims of weapons of mass destruction, has cost $1.9tn and killed an estimated 288,000. Together, these two AUMFs have been used by three successive presidents to engage in war in at least seven countries – from Yemen to Libya to Niger – against a continually growing list of adversaries that Congress never foresaw or intended. The Bush, Obama and Trump administrations have further identified to Congress combat-ready counter-terrorism deployments to at least 14 additional countries, indicating that the AUMFs could justify armed combat in those places as well. Only 56 current members of the House and 16 senators were present at the 2001 vote, making a mockery of the constitutional principle that only the people’s elected representatives in Congress can send our country to war.

The results today are a perpetual state of war and an ever-expanding military-industrial complex that consumes a greater and greater amount of our resources every year. Pentagon spending since 9/11 (adjusted for inflation) has increased by almost 50%. Each hour, taxpayers are paying $32m for the total cost of wars since 2001, and these wars have not made Americans safer or brought democracy or stability to the Middle East. To the contrary, they have further destabilized the region and show no sign of ending or achieving any of the long-ago stated goals.

Additionally, many of these actions were essentially hidden from the American people by using funds from an account meant for unanticipated developments called overseas contingency operations. Congress appropriated nearly $1.9tn for this account, enabling continuing military actions and wars in several countries, exempted from congressional budget rules. Thankfully, President Biden ended this budget practice this year. But two decades of reliance on emergency and contingency funding sources has resulted in less oversight, less transparency and higher levels of waste. ...

[I]t’s not enough just to withdraw our forces. We must rein in executive power and keep it from being abused by any more administrations – Democratic or Republican. In my role on the Democratic platform drafting committee, I successfully advocated for including a repeal of the 2001 and 2002 AUMFs in the Democratic party platform. In a historic 268–161 vote, the House passed my legislation to repeal the 2002 AUMF in June, and the Senate foreign relations committee voted 14-8 in August to do the same, with both votes drawing bipartisan support. I am also calling on Congress to address the outdated 2001 AUMF. ... Congress must reclaim its constitutional duty to oversee matters of war and peace. In addition to repealing these AUMFs, we also need to revisit the broader statutes that govern war powers so that Congress can more effectively rein in presidential war-making – a project being pursued in earnest by my colleagues, Representatives Jim McGovern (D-MA) and Gregory Meeks (D-NY). But we need to go beyond just changing the law. We need to change our approach to the world, away from framing every challenge as one that requires military force as a response.

Rep. Barbara Lee, Sole Vote After 9/11 Against “Forever Wars,” on Need for Afghan War Inquiry

Taliban to allow 200 foreigners to leave on charter flights

Two hundred Americans and other foreigners who remain in Afghanistan were expected to depart the country on charter flights from Kabul on Thursday after the new Taliban government agreed to their evacuation.

The departures will be among the first international flights to take off from Kabul airport since the end of the chaotic US-led evacuation of 124,000 foreigners and at-risk Afghans.

The new Taliban-approved departures come amid mounting concern over the rapidly deteriorating human rights situation under the hardline Islamist group’s new rule, including around freedom of expression and women’s rights.

With the Taliban moving to ban demonstrations after the appointment of a new interim cabinet, Afghan journalists on Thursday described being beaten and detained after covering protests.

Among them were two reporters who were left with welts and bruises after being beaten and detained for hours by Taliban enforcers for covering a protest in the Afghan capital on Wednesday. They were taken to a police station in the capital, where they say they were punched and beaten with batons, electrical cables and whips after being accused of organising the protest.

What Were Yesterday's Tumultuous Pro-Bolsonaro Protests in Brazil About?

What Is Going On In Australia? Bonkers Ruling Makes Facebook Users LIABLE For All Comments On Posts

Biden, Democrats prepare to gut their own social welfare bill

The process of drastically shrinking the social improvements contained in the “human infrastructure” bill, slashing its cost and blocking any significant increase in corporate taxes began in earnest last week, when Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia published a column in the Wall Street Journal headlined, “Why I Won’t Support Spending Another $3.5 Trillion.” Manchin, a multimillionaire owner of coal companies in West Virginia, cited the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, retired Admiral Mike Mullen, as his authority on the danger to national security from too much debt. The senator called for a “strategic pause” in consideration of the budget bill, in effect delinking passage of the corporate-backed infrastructure bill from passage of the broader social legislation.

An unabashed flack for the fossil fuel industry, Manchin has repeatedly opposed environmental regulations on mining and energy in general. He previously called certain provisions in the budget bill aimed at modestly restraining carbon emissions, such as repealing tax subsidies to the fossil fuel industry, “very disturbing.” He has also made it clear he is opposed to raising corporate taxes and would like to “means test” measures such as tuition-free community college, universal preschool, child care tax credits and an extension of the enhanced child tax credit. Other Democratic senators who have publicly opposed the budget bill’s $3.5 trillion price tag (spread out over 10 years) include Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, Jon Tester of Montana and Mark Warner of Virginia, a former tech entrepreneur worth $200 million and now chairman of the Intelligence Committee. On Tuesday, press reports emerged that Manchin had let it be known he was prepared to support a bill costing from $1 billion to $1.5 billion. ...

The response by the White House and the Democratic congressional leadership has made clear that the $3.5 trillion package of social measures will be drastically cut back before any bill is brought up for a vote. The same applies to Biden’s promise to increase taxes on corporations and the wealthy. On Tuesday, Biden told the press, referring to Manchin, “Joe at the end has always been there. He’s always been with me. I think we can work something out, and I look forward to speaking with him.” Pelosi has said she will only bring before the House a budget measure that can be passed in the Senate, i.e., one that accommodates the most right-wing factions in the Democratic Party. Yahoo News cited a “lobbyist familiar with internal deliberations on Capitol Hill” as saying “there was optimism among congressional Democrats that a bill would get passed and sent to Biden for signing into law. But such a bill is likely to be in the range of about $2 trillion…”

The article continues: “While the various House committees are likely to approve bills that would total $3.5 trillion, that number would get whittled down before the legislation is sent to the full House for debate and passage, the source said. That could mean that any proposed tax increases on the wealthy and corporations would not have to be as steep as initially envisioned.”

Nearly 18 Million US Adults Couldn't Afford a Prescription Medication This Year: Study

Around 15.5 million U.S. adults under the age of 65 and 2.3 million seniors were unable to afford at least one doctor-prescribed medication this year, according to a study released Thursday as the Biden administration unveiled its plan to reduce the nation's sky-high drug prices.

The new study (pdf) was based on four nationally representative surveys conducted in recent months by the polling outfit Gallup in partnership with West Health, a nonprofit organization focused on lowering healthcare costs.

Asked whether "you or a family member skipped a pill to save medication in order to save money" over the past 12 months, 10% of survey respondents answered in the affirmative, with the impact falling most heavily on lower-income households.

Seven percent of poll respondents told Gallup/West Health that there has "been a time in the last three months" when they or a member of their household have been "unable to pay for medicine or drugs that a doctor had prescribed" because they "did not have enough money." People who are immunocompromised couldn't afford their prescription medicines at almost twice the rate of Americans generally, Gallup and West Health found.

"Prescription drugs don't work if you cannot afford them," Dan Witters, a senior researcher at Gallup, said in a statement. "Across multiple studies, we are measuring adults from all age, race, and ethnic groups, political parties, and income levels are reporting that they are struggling to afford medications. And amidst these reports are strong and consistent sentiment for more government action to rein in costs."

David Sirota: White House REFUSES To SHARE Vax Recipe Globally DESPITE Biden Support, LEGAL POWER

Biden announces new US vaccine mandates to ‘turn the tide of Covid-19’

Joe Biden, striving to restore public confidence in his handling of the pandemic, announced on Thursday new vaccination requirements for 100 million workers, about two-thirds of the entire American labour force. Channeling national frustration as the virus surges back, the US president adopted his sternest tone yet in reprimanding the tens of millions of Americans who are still not vaccinated against the coronavirus.

“We can and we will turn the tide of Covid-19,” he said firmly. “It’ll take a lot of hard work and it’s going to take some time. Many of us are frustrated with the nearly 80 million Americans who are still not vaccinated even though the vaccine is safe, effective and free.” ...

The president unveiled a six-pronged strategy, relying on regulatory powers and other steps. He said the Department of Labor is developing an emergency temporary standard that will require all employers with more than 100 employees to ensure their workers are vaccinated or tested weekly.

This will affect more than 80 million workers in private sector businesses. Companies that do not comply could face fines of up to nearly $14,000 per violation. Biden said: “The bottom line: we’re going to protect vaccinated workers from unvaccinated co-workers. We’re going to reduce the spread of Covid-19 by increasing the share of the workforce that is vaccinated in businesses all across America.”

The administration will also require all workers in healthcare settings that receive Medicaid or Medicare reimbursement be vaccinated, a move that applies to 50,000 providers and covers more than 17 million healthcare workers. In another nod to public desire for life to get back to normal, the president called on entertainment venues such as sports arenas and big concert halls to require that patrons be vaccinated or show a negative test for entry.

Covid cases among children are surging in the US as students head back to school

As millions of children head back to school across the US, health experts are highlighting a troubling trend: hundreds of thousands of them are testing positive for Covid.

More than 250,000 children had new cases in the last week of August, the American Academy of Pediatrics said in a report published on Tuesday. That’s the highest weekly rate of new pediatric cases since the pandemic began, and it’s a 10% increase in two weeks.

With slightly more than 1m new Covid cases reported in the US during that period, that means one of every four new cases in the country was among children.

Children’s hospitals are straining under the spike in cases. About 2,500 children were hospitalized with Covid-19 in the week up to 6 September, which is also more than ever before, data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows.

NEW Docs Reveal LAPD Collects SOCIAL MEDIA Handles Of Interviewees, Tracking Online Leftists

Unearthed videos show pattern of violence by Louisiana state police

In one long-buried video, white Louisiana state police troopers can be seen slamming a Black man against a police cruiser after finding marijuana in his car, throwing him to the ground and repeatedly punching him – all while he is handcuffed. In another, a white trooper pummels a Black man at a traffic stop 18 times with a flashlight, leaving him with a broken jaw, broken ribs and a gash to his head. That footage was mislabeled and it took 536 days and a lawsuit for police to look into it.

And yet another video shows a white trooper coldcocking a Hispanic drug trafficking suspect as he stood calmly by the highway, an unprovoked attack never mentioned in any report and only investigated when the footage was discovered by an outraged federal judge.

As the Louisiana state police reel from the fallout of the deadly 2019 arrest of Ronald Greene – a case blown open this year by long-withheld video of troopers stunning, punching and dragging the Black motorist – an Associated Press investigation has revealed it is part of a pattern of violence kept shrouded in secrecy.

An AP review of internal investigative records and newly obtained videos identified at least a dozen cases over the past decade in which Louisiana state police troopers or their bosses ignored or concealed evidence of beatings, deflected blame and impeded efforts to root out misconduct.

AP’s review – coming amid a widening federal investigation into state police misconduct – found troopers have made a habit of turning off or muting body cameras during pursuits. When footage is recorded, the agency routinely refuses to release it. And a recently retired supervisor who oversaw a particularly violent clique of troopers told internal investigators this year it was his “common practice” to rubber-stamp officers’ use-of-force reports without reviewing body-camera video.

‘Unjust practices’: US prosecutor takes stand against minor police traffic stops

A Minnesota prosecutor who filed manslaughter charges against a police officer who shot and killed the black motorist Philando Castile in a 2016 stop for a broken tail light says he will no longer pursue cases involving minor traffic infractions.

The aim, according to the Ramsey county attorney John Choi, is to reduce the number of “unnecessary” encounters between police and people of color that can, as in Castile’s confrontation with officer Jeronimo Yanez, turn fatal. “I’m not going to do this any more. I am not going to perpetuate these unjust practices that disproportionately impact my community,” Choi said in an interview with the Daily Beast.

Yanez, who is Hispanic, shot Castile, 32, seven times on 6 July 2016, after pulling him over for the broken light. Castile’s partner Diamond Reynolds, who livestreamed the aftermath of the incident, said the officer opened fire immediately after warning her boyfriend not to reach for a licensed gun he said he owned. ...

Choi, the Ramsey county attorney since 2011, whose biography describes him as the first Korean-American prosecutor in the US, told the Beast that he had never stopped thinking about the innocuous reason for the stop. In Castile’s case, he had been pulled over on at least 40 previous occasions. And in St Paul, Ramsey county’s largest city where only 16% of the population is black, 43% of traffic stops in 2020 were of black motorists.

Biden administration sues Texas over ‘clearly unconstitutional’ abortion ban

The Biden administration sued Texas on Thursday over the state’s extreme abortion law, which amounts to a near total ban on abortion, calling the law “clearly unconstitutional”. The US attorney general, Merrick Garland, said the law that went into effect last week after the supreme court refused to block it and bans almost all abortions in the state was one “all Americans should fear”. ...

The justice department decided to argue that the law, which offers no exceptions for rape or incest, “illegally interferes with federal interests”, the Wall Street Journal first reported. ...

On Thursday, when announcing the lawsuit, Garland said: “The act is clearly unconstitutional” and said that it failed to give women seeking an abortion their constitutional right “at the very moment they need it”.

And he added that the “kind of scheme” that Texas has devised and other states want to follow, where the public enforces the law as a way to avoid legal challenge, and allows individuals to sue abortion providers or those helping a woman obtain the service, was designed to “nullify the constitution”.



the horse race



In Buffalo, Progressive India Walton Fights Off 'Sore Loser' Democratic Mayor and GOP Allies

India Walton, the self-identified democratic socialist who won a primary challenge for Buffalo mayor earlier this year by defeating the four-term Democratic incumbent Byron Brown, celebrated a state appellate court's ruling Wednesday which has put on hold—at least for now—an effort by Brown and his corporate allies to put him back on the ballot in the general election under a new party they created after he lost to Walton in the primary.

"This is clearly a wise decision," Walton said in a statement late Wednesday after the Fourth Judicial Department issued a stay on last week's ruling, which would have allowed Brown to run representing the so-called "Buffalo Party."

"If everyday Buffalonians are late on rent, parking fees, or school assignments, they face consequences. There is no reason the rules should not apply to my GOP-backed opponent as well," Walton added.

As Common Dreams reported in June, Brown and his supporters were stunned when Walton, a democratic socialist, won the primary. A former nurse and longtime affordable housing advocate in the city, Walton has campaigned on issues including immigrants' rights, police and public safety reform, climate action, and strengthening protections for tenants. Walton's victory over the four-term mayor, a longtime ally of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo who has called her an "inexperienced, radical socialist," drew national attention.

Brown soon made clear that he was not prepared to accept the election results, gathering support for his "Buffalo Party" from Republicans including powerful real estate developers.

The mayor missed the May 25 filing deadline by several months. He filed a lawsuit arguing that the deadline, which was established earlier this year by the state legislature, was unconstitutional. In federal court, three Brown supporters filed a separate lawsuit claiming the deadline "violates their rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments."

In an interview with Jacobin on Wednesday, Walton called the mayor a "sore loser" who "did not work to earn the votes of Buffalo residents":

His record over the past sixteen years shows that he doesn't have much care, compassion, or empathy for the people of Buffalo, unless they’re wealthy developers or heads of large corporations.

We’re looking at unprecedented child poverty, a looming affordable housing crisis and housing crisis—not only of affordable units, but we have one of the widest racial wealth and homeownership gaps in the country—and some of the worst health outcomes, like a childhood lead problem that is comparable to Flint, Michigan. That is the legacy that this man leaves behind. And he won't move on so that someone who has a bold and visionary plan to improve our city can begin the process of governance.

In both court cases, the Republican judges ruled in Brown's favor, allowing him to appear on the ballot. In the latter case, Walton denounced U.S. District Court Judge John Sinatra's financial ties to the mayor, calling the ruling "a travesty and a mockery of justice."

As the Walton campaign told Common Dreams, Sinatra faced calls to recuse himself from the case due to his past donations to Brown as well as thousands of dollars his brother has donated to the mayor.

"We saw that a lot of people were very upset and outraged by these Republican decisions, especially in the federal case," Jesse Myerson, director of communications for the Walton campaign, told Common Dreams on Wednesday, adding that Sinatra "has himself donated seven times to various Brown campaigns" while his brother is "a very prominent downtown real estate developer with long-standing and deep ties to Byron Brown."

Following the ruling late last week, Walton called Sinatra "the farthest thing from an impartial judge."

Constituents have also voiced anger over Brown's attempt to circumvent the voters' will and the Board of Elections' deadline.

"Should I be delinquent in paying a parking fine, I will remember to tell the parking enforcement judge that paying an increased fine for being delinquent on a parking ticket is as unconstitutional as having to abide by an election deadline," one voter said at a hearing of the Board of Elections on Tuesday.

"There was a lot of backlash to what is a patently unfair decision to have two sets of rules where Byron Brown doesn't have to play by the rules that everybody else has to play by," said Myerson about the public hearing. "And I think that will inspire more people to get involved."

With Walton's appeal of Sinatra's ruling still pending and the appellate court's Wednesday decision only temporary, the campaign—as election ballots must be filed by the end of this week—is hoping for "very precipitous action to stay the orders of the Republican judges," Myerson said.

Regardless of whether Brown's name ultimately ends up on the ballot on November 2, Walton's campaign plans to continue engaging with voters in Buffalo in order to represent the interests of working people over those of the corporate class.

"Certainly, the urgency is greater if he's on the ballot, but I don't think the strategy changes very much," Myerson told Common Dreams. "The strategy has always been what won the primary for her, which is talking directly with voters on their doors and on the phones, and by mail and advertisements about the issues that are most important to them, and highlighting her bold vision and viable solutions to the challenges that Buffalo faces."

The campaign has seen an increase in small-dollar donations and interest in grassroots volunteering since the rulings were announced last week.

"I return to the mantra of Senator Bernie Sanders: the way to win against organized money is with organized people," Walton told Jacobin. "So we continue to organize."

Dr. Jill Stein on Biden, the Squad, MPP, and the Climate Emergency



the evening greens


Earth’s tipping points could be closer than we think. Our current plans won’t work

The old assumption that the Earth’s tipping points are a long way off is beginning to look unsafe. A recent paper warns that the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation – the system that distributes heat around the world and drives the Gulf Stream – may now be “close to a critical transition”. This circulation has flipped between “on” and “off” states several times in prehistory, plunging northern Europe and eastern North America into unbearable cold, heating the tropics, disrupting monsoons. Other systems could also be approaching their thresholds: the West and East Antarctic ice sheets, the Amazon rainforest, and the Arctic tundra and boreal forests, which are rapidly losing the carbon they store, driving a spiral of further heating. Earth systems don’t stay in their boxes. If one flips into a different state, it could trigger the flipping of others. Sudden changes of state might be possible with just 1.5C or 2C of global heating. ...

If Earth systems tip as a result of global heating, there will be little difference between taking inadequate action and taking no action at all. A miss is as good as a mile. So the target that much of the world is now adopting for climate action – net zero by 2050 – begins to look neither rational nor safe. It’s true that our only hope of avoiding catastrophic climate breakdown is some variety of net zero. What this means is that greenhouse gases are reduced through a combination of decarbonising the economy and drawing down carbon dioxide that’s already in the atmosphere. It’s too late to hit the temperature targets in the Paris agreement without doing both. But there are two issues: speed and integrity. Many of the promises seem designed to be broken.

At its worst, net zero by 2050 is a device for shunting responsibility across both time and space. Those in power today seek to pass their liabilities to those in power tomorrow. Every industry seeks to pass the buck to another industry. Who is this magical someone else who will suck up their greenhouse gases? ...

Even when all the promised technofixes and offsets are counted, current policies commit us to a calamitous 2.9C of global heating. To risk irreversible change by proceeding at such a leisurely pace, to rely on undelivered technologies and nonexistent capacities: this is a formula for catastrophe. If Earth systems cross critical thresholds, everything we did and everything we were – the learning, the wisdom, the stories, the art, the politics, the love, the hate, the anger and the hope – will be reduced to stratigraphy. It’s not a smooth and linear transition we need. It’s a crash course.

World’s biggest machine capturing carbon from air turned on in Iceland

The world’s largest plant designed to suck carbon dioxide out of the air and turn it into rock has started running, the companies behind the project said on Wednesday. ... Constructed by Switzerland’s Climeworks and Iceland’s Carbfix, when operating at capacity the plant will draw 4,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide out of the air every year, according to the companies.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, that equates to the emissions from about 870 cars. The plant cost between US$10 and 15m to build, Bloomberg reported. ...

Proponents of so-called carbon capture and storage believe these technologies can become a major tool in the fight against climate change. Critics however argue that the technology is still prohibitively expensive and might take decades to operate at scale.

Lightning threatens California as fires continue to burn across the state

Ominous weather is again threatening areas of California as dozens of fires continue to burn, with hot, dry conditions and forecasted thunderstorms prompting officials to issue warnings through parts of the state’s north-west.

Higher risks of new ignitions remain through Friday, with the possibility of dry lighting and gusty winds further complicating the containment efforts of thousands of firefighters who have battled large blazes for weeks.

“The combination of possible dry lightning as well as strong winds with the dry fuels could lead to critical fire weather conditions,” forecasters with the National Weather Service wrote on Thursday. ...

The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) also warned of the potential for extreme fire behavior such as pyrocumulonimbus clouds, massive formations generated by smoke and heat that can reach miles into the sky and can even stir up winds, unleash thunder and lightning, or create its own weather. “Plume-dominated wildfire behavior and pyrocumulonimbus development are possible on active large fires in the Sierra into north-east California, central Oregon, and central Idaho,” the department noted.

A National Weather Service heat advisory also stretched down through the Central Valley and into inland southern California, with an excessive heat warning extending eastward across the desert into Nevada.


Also of Interest

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

The Taliban’s Choice of Interim Prime Minister

How Can America Wake Up From Its Post-9/11 Nightmare?

I blew the whistle on my government after 9/11 but fear it did not matter

Afghanistan - State Department Sanctimoniously Laments About 'Lack Of Female Leaders'

Trump White House tried to play down US injuries in attack by Iran, says ex-official

Israeli FM Says Israel Will Act Against Iran if the World Doesn’t

The World’s Deadliest Terrorist Group: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

The Simplest Explanation For Western Decline

Democrats, Abortion and Phony Politics

The Texas county that explains why Republicans are terrified

On Deregulation and Covid Masks, Libertarians Are Loud. On Female Liberty, Deafening Silence

Rashida Tlaib Corrects Jim Clyburn: '$3.5 Trillion Is the Floor'

Closely Watched Atlanta Fed’s GDP Forecast Cuts U.S. Growth by 41 Percent

‘It feels like home’: why are Black Americans moving to Costa Rica?

Big oil’s ‘wokewashing’ is the new climate science denialism

Failing Key Climate Test, Biden Nominates Fossil Fuel 'Crony' to Federal Energy Post

As World Burns, Morrison Says Australia's Sticking With Coal

Upside down rhinos and nose-clearing orgasm studies win Ig Nobel prize


A Little Night Music

John Mayall's Bluesbreakers = Steppin' Out

John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers w/Mick Taylor - Oh, Pretty Woman

John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers - Greeny

John Mayall - The Laws Must Change

John Mayall - Nature's Disappearing

John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers - An Eye For An Eye

John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers - Me & My Woman

John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers - I'm A Stranger

John Mayall w/Peter Green - Someday After A While

John Mayall and Peter Green - Out of Reach

John Mayall's Bluesbreakers (feat. Peter Green) - Live In 1967


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17 users have voted.

Comments

This is the rebuild of what was lost 20 years ago. It's what I see now, 20 years after. It's called The Occulus, but from many angles including my kitchen window, the neighborhood sees it and calls it Stegasuras. If you remember your dinosaurs, you'll get this reference.

The big Memorial Extravaganza which will occur tomorrow has little to do with our neighborhood's lived existence. It is a Theater Piece. Designed to showcase Victims, Heroes and politicians who profit from elaborate displays.

Indeed, no actual community representatives, Community Boards, Tenants Associations, etc have ever been allowed to participate. (I'll find an article detailing this and post it as soon as I finish my remarks.)

https://www.ebroadsheet.com/the-broadsheetdaily-9-9-21-lower-manhattan-c...

In any case, we are the ones who were there and there is a bigger story to tell than what the homogenized media wants you to hear. The story is about the thousands of my neighbors who died from the polluted air. We smelled the burnt air for about a year. More, if you incude the timeframe to include after every rainfall. Meanwhile, Governor Christine Todd Whitman and NY officials assured us the air was safe.

Tenants whose windows face the Hudson River would not sleep for many months as the barges moving up the River to transfer debris to be examined in tents upstate clanged and banged 24/7. This week, victims 1.426 and 1,427 were identified. That search for DNA to give relatives peace, continues, but the barges are long gone.

Then the rebuilding began and landlords like mine decided to clear out middle-class tenants like me. The landlords wanted to remake the neighborhood as a refuge for the Wealthy. And that began my late-in-life Real Estate activism. 6 1/2 years of learning RE law. Organizing. Street Rallies, City Hall rallies. We appeared in the Lower courts and won. Then lost the bigger battle which was to preserve our affordable homes for the next generation.

But we did win lifetime residency, and for that we are grateful.

The neighborhood turned out as the landlords planned. It is the wealthiest area in NYC. Which means clean and safe. Great schools. No full trash baskets or unplowed streets here. Another world entirely.

When we die, one by one, they will have it all.

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15 users have voted.

NYCVG

@NYCVG

Feel sorry for your neighborhood.
After 20 years of no accountability
smells like an inside job

Was hoping the NY southern district court would respond
to the plaintiffs requests to openly investigate this crime
but no .. procedural extensions go on forever

no justice, no closure
just a $2 trillion war with no consequence
sad, really sad

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11 users have voted.

@QMS In my most conspiritorial mode, I read the continuing identification of remains as having a bigger purpose than solace to relatives.

I think figuring out who Did Not Die, but pretended to be dead, is the key to understanding how Building 7 came down. Don't get me started.

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9 users have voted.

NYCVG

lotlizard's picture

@NYCVG  
before it collapsed, but after its interior had already been devastated by explosions unaccounted for in the official explanations…

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=barry+jennings+mystery

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5 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@NYCVG

thanks for your reminiscences. i'm glad to hear that you and your fellow activists were able to get some sort of meaningful resolution.

have a great weekend!

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4 users have voted.

Just what the witch doctor ordered to calm the soul.
TGIF Joe and all.
Another week gone, another crushing reality.
C'est la vie ..

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9 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@QMS

i thought that mayall might hit a sweet spot for a lot of bluesters. Smile

have a great weekend!

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5 users have voted.

@joe shikspack

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2 users have voted.

NYCVG

Azazello's picture

Happy Friday everybody. I've got a new drinking game for 9-11. Monitor the MSM coverage, I'll be listening to NPR, and take a shot every time you hear the name Bandar bin Sultan. It's the perfect drinking game for recovering alcoholics.
Dore is going LIVE this afternoon, here:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1AC5R1cREM width:500 height:300]
I'll watch this later: Aaron Maté - 50 years of 'What's Going On'.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnLzPM-5PFA width:500 height:300]
Have a nice night.

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10 users have voted.

We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

joe shikspack's picture

@Azazello

heh, good luck with your new drinking game. Smile

thanks for the marvin gaye video, it's really a great interview.

have a great weekend!

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4 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@Azazello

It should be Bandar bin Sultan-Bush because he was so close to the Bush family. I saw a picture of him, George and the Dick laughing it up on the WH balcony the day after 9/11. All smiles between them and I can imagine what they were saying to each other….can you?

I recently read about how granddad Prescott Bush was good friends with Hitler and how he helped finance the German army and was implicated in the FDR attempted coup. Bush had his assets seized by FDR after Germany lost the war. He was also into eugenics as were Ford and Rockefeller. Not one of them went to prison though. Of course not. The rich are only punished if they hurt other rich people like Maddof.

Someone tweeted a map that Cheney created showing how he would divide Iraq for the oil companies. Remember that meeting he had with executives? A little trip down memory 9/11 lane. Will we ever learn the truth about it? One of the doctors I worked with had a mother and sister on flight 11 that hit the towers on that fateful day. Local rag wrote about them today and they said that they stayed away from hating the hijackers. He got to carry the Olympic flame when they came to Utah in 2002. Just an FYI…

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enhydra lutris's picture

Ya really got me. I saw the caption on the first video, thought "cool, really liked that song." So I clicked it and Hey, waitaminnit, that ain't them. I've got that on vinyl. Heh. How many decades later was that clip?

Should we begin to sanction the Aussies? Did somebody spike their water?

Thanks for the Ig Nobels and that great Greenwald quote

be well and have a good one. Have a great weekend as well and also, too.

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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 --

joe shikspack's picture

@enhydra lutris

i think that clip is from the late 90's, recorded at mayall's birthday party (70th?).

heh, sure we should sanction the aussies until they free their people. then maybe they can sanction us back for the same thing. it looks like now their aussie dark overlords feel unleashed and they don't care who sees them doing their authoritarian dirty deeds. like trump, they have become in a strange way kind of honest and upfront with their authoritarianism, which is probably spooking their liberal class that traditionally keeps the lid on the people by less obvious, more devious means.

have a great weekend!

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snoopydawg's picture

Cuz you’ll need it before you watch this unbelievable crap from the doctor.

Inalienable rights are not privileges you Twit. Someone should send her to a civics class before she opens her yap on TV again. Toobin the lawyer just sat there…or did he? Oops did I say that out loud?
Smile

It rained for 5 minutes again. Dammit. Have a good weekend folks.

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CB's picture

@snoopydawg
The reporter cut him off at the knees.

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snoopydawg's picture

@CB

This works.

Here’s more from Leana…can you say hypocrite? She’s being a mouthpiece for the WEF who came up with the global reset idea. "Kids are being forced into a herd immunity experiment that they didn’t sign up for." Umm Leana the trials won’t be finished for another year and the control group was unblinded and given the vaccines so we really won’t get the real truth about the safety of the vaccines.

I thought you could. Unbelievable how they can take a stand for one thing, but then ignore it for something else. Will we get to the point where doctor’s letters are ignored and people have to have it come hell or high water? The rumors of where this is heading aren’t doing much for my nerves which are strung out already with everything else going on. Vaers updated number is over 14,000 deaths from 12/20 to now. The swine flu vaccine was stopped at 50 deaths. The injury number is a couple hundred thousand and people are on the hook for their medical bills.

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joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

heh, biden chasing the ice cream truck is golden. it's like that moment in the movie "up," where the dogs all fixate on the squirrel.

yeah, i guess that the constitution is not specific enough in its articulation of individual rights for some folks. of course, this is not the first time that the same sort of elite jackasses have used the hammer of government to smash down unruly nails. the constitution has always been just a piece of paper.

have a great weekend!

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dystopian's picture

Hi Joe, and all,

Hope everyone is doing well as can be expected.

Barbara Lee is a real American patriot and hero.

Re: Dems prepare to gut their own social bill...
Why are they still letting the dems negotiate with themselves when they lose every time?

I love Mayall, since the 60's. He was a great bandleader, besides songwriter, player, singer. He made great bands. Mick Taylor and Peter Green are IMHO as good as it gets. In ways very similar playing styles too, both amazingly melodic, clean (though Peter did like a bit of dirtyish now and then), reserved and judicious, with incredible string control.
Unique world class awesome players. The stuff with Mick and Buddy Whittington is great.

Great soundscape! Thanks for the tunes Joe!

Have a great weekend Joe, and all!

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

joe shikspack's picture

@dystopian

i hope you're doing well and aren't still as busy as a one-armed paper hanger.

heh, my favorite period of the bluesbreakers is the peter green period. green really had a bb king kind of feel during that time, sweet and clean with excellent phrasing. mayall really had a talent for forming interesting bands with people whose talents complemented each other well.

have a great weekend!

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7 users have voted.

Lots of great articles for me to go back to and read more in depth. Interesting article about Fort Bend county in Texas. There is still hope for things to change in Texas.

Enjoying the cooler weather of Santa Fe at the moment and hoping you have a great weekend!

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5 users have voted.

Life is what you make it, so make it something worthwhile.

This ain't no dress rehearsal!

joe shikspack's picture

@jakkalbessie

heh, i sure hope that there's a possibility of decent change in texas. at the moment it looks like it's going to take a while with some favorable population trends, but when the balance tips, i guess the texas taliban better up and run.

glad to hear that you're having good weather in santa fe. it is pretty cool here for this time of year. we're going down into the 50's tonight and temps were only up in the 70's today. needless to say, that puts a smile on my face.

have a great weekend!

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snoopydawg's picture

@jakkalbessie

It’s a big decision isn’t it? I was going to upgrade mine but the housing market went to hell just as I decided to. One house I like was listed for a bit over 200k last February and now it’s doubled in price. I’m sure my house didn’t though. Utah was in the top 5 for where people fled to and Ogden was number 1. Our legislator is full of real estate developers too and no one is building affordable homes here so people have no place to live or buy after landlords either raised the rents or just kicked them out and sold their property to developers.

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lotlizard's picture

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/nyt-confirms-biden-murdered-innoc...

And: excellent essay by CharredPC at WotB on Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/WayOfTheBern/comments/plqkg5/conspiracy_theory/

We live in such a manufactured reality, the real conspiracy is that most things still just happen randomly or by natural happenstance. There's now tons of money and people invested in analyzing data, predicting trends, and informing high-bidder bosses of their foresight. To dismiss that or naively believe otherwise is denying entire well-documented industries.

And those bosses aren’t just curious. They take that information and factor it into their business plan, coordinate necessary media strategies, hedging their bets to keep grips on the wheel of humanity. We can speculate about their goals, decipher parts of it, but their sponsored theater is specifically designed to cover their asses well and keep us confused.

Oligarchs keep winning by being able to play the long game, and adapt to any changes in it they didn’t already plan for.

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