The Evening Blues - 9-15-21



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Mound City Blue Blowers

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features jazz band Mound City Blue Blowers. Enjoy!

Mound City Blue Blowers - St. Louis Blues

"Most of our faults are more pardonable than the means we use to conceal them."

-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld


News and Opinion

Greenwald - Absolutely worth a full read.

The Masking of the Servant Class: Ugly COVID Images From the Met Gala Are Now Commonplace

From the start of the pandemic, political elites have been repeatedly caught exempting themselves from the restrictive rules they impose on the lives of those over whom they rule. Governors, mayors, ministers and Speakers of the House have been filmed violating their own COVID protocols in order to dine with their closest lobbyist-friends, enjoy a coddled hair styling in chic salons, or unwind after signing new lockdown and quarantine orders by sneaking away for a weekend getaway with the family. The trend became so widespread that ABC News gathered all the examples under the headline “Elected officials slammed for hypocrisy for not following own COVID-19 advice,” while Business Insider in May updated the reporting with this: “14 prominent Democrats stand accused of hypocrisy for ignoring COVID-19 restrictions they're urging their constituents to obey."

Most of those transgressions were too flagrant to ignore and thus produced some degree of scandal and resentment for the political officials granting themselves such license. Dominant liberal culture is, if nothing else, fiercely rule-abiding: they get very upset when they see anyone defying decrees from authorities, even if the rule-breaker is the official who promulgated the directives for everyone else. ... But as is so often the case, the most disturbing aspects of elite behavior are found not in what they have prohibited but rather in what they have decided is permissible. When it comes to mask mandates, it is now commonplace to see two distinct classes of people: those who remain maskless as they are served, and those they employ as their servants who must have their faces covered at all times. Prior to the COVID pandemic, it was difficult to imagine how the enormous chasm between the lives of cultural and political elites and everyone else could be made any larger, yet the pandemic generated a new form of crude cultural segregation: a series of protocols which ensure that maskless elites need not ever cast eyes upon the faces of their servant class.

Last month, a delightful event was hosted by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for wealthy Democratic donors in Napa — the same wine region of choice for Gov. Newsom's notorious dinner party — at which the cheapest tickets were $100 each and a "chair” designation was available for $29,000. Video of the outdoor festivities showed an overwhelmingly white crowd of rich Democratic donors sitting maskless virtually on top of one another — not an iota of social distancing to be found — as Pelosi imparted her deep wisdom about public policy. ... Similar scenes were visible at the even more opulent birthday bash which former President Barack Obama threw for himself to commemorate his 60 years on the planet. Held at his sprawling $12 million weekend estate on Martha's Vineyard, Obama and 400 of his closest maskless friends spent hours in indoor tents dancing, chatting in close circles, and yelling in each other's ears over the live music. While custom-made masks engraved with Obama's renowned humility were provided to the guests (“44×60”), only the servants were reported to have worn masks. ...

An avalanche of similarly repugnant imagery poured forth on Monday night at the most gluttonous and opulent royal court spectacle of them all: the annual Met Gala held by long-time Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour. ... Much of the attention on Monday night was devoted to the appearance on the red carpet by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). ... Fortunately, many of AOC's most devoted socialist supporters stepped forth with passionate defenses of their leader. As they pointed out, AOC had painted onto the back of her pristine white gown — in perfectly proportioned and tastefully scrolled red ink highlighting the stunning virtues of the designer dress' silhouette -- a leftist phrase, Tax the Rich, that not only assaulted the Biden-supporting liberal celebrities in attendance but made them feel endangered in their own habitat, as if their wealth and privilege were being imperiled not from afar but from one of their own, from within. Far from being what AOC's dirty and petty critics tried to malign this as being — an attention-seeking, celebrity-building, branding opportunity in which AOC yet again lavished herself in the multi-pronged rewards of the very economic and cultural hierarchies she claims to despise and vows to combat -- she was actually engaged in a revolutionary and subversive act, injecting into aristocratic circles a beautifully artistic yet hostile message.

This was not, contrary to the grievances of her small-minded and jealous critics, AOC reveling in one of Louis XVI's court festivities. Instead, she was storming the Bastille: not with weapons or fire but with the graceful designer elegance of the insurgent Marxist renegade, which made her presence all the more deceptively disruptive. While it may have appeared that Vogue's perfectly-coiffed red-carpet correspondents and other Met luminaries were gushing with admiration and awe at her bold fashion statement, they were actually shaking with fear over what AOC had wrought. They were quivering with rage and fear, not swooning with delight as it appeared. ...

Even with all of this deceit and manipulation, there is something uniquely disturbing — creepy even — about becoming accustomed to seeing political and cultural elites wallowing in luxury without masks, while those paid small wages to serve them in various ways are forced to keep cloth over their faces. It is a powerful symbol of the growing rot at the core of America's cultural and social balkanization: a maskless elite attended to by a permanently faceless servant class. The country's workers have long been faceless in a figurative sense, and now, thanks to extremely selective application of decisively unscientific COVID restrictions, that condition has become literal.

Kim Iversen: Rand Paul And America WANT To Know, Who Is Being TARGETED By Predator Drones?

Human Rights Groups Blast Biden Plan to OK Millions in Military Aid for Egypt

Left-leaning Democratic lawmakers joined human rights groups Tuesday in decrying the Biden administration's reported decision to withhold a small portion of the $1.3 billion in annual U.S. military aid to Egypt over human rights crimes perpetrated by the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

A U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity—the administration's decision had not yet been announced—told multiple media outlets Tuesday that of the $300 million in military aid to Egypt that is subject to human rights conditions, $170 million will be initially authorized.

"If they complete the human rights criteria that we laid out for the Egyptians, they also get the $130 million," the official said of the el-Sisi administration, according to The Washington Post. Details of the conditions for the remaining funds were not disclosed.

Politico reports the unnamed official said that Secretary of State Antony Blinken will take the unprecedented step of not issuing a national security waiver that would allow military aid to flow regardless of human rights violations. Similar "national security"-based waivers were issued annually since 2010 by the Obama and Trump administrations in order to provide U.S. military aid to nations whose militaries use child soldiers.

Eighteen human rights groups on Tuesday issued a joint statement calling the Biden administration's decision "a terrible blow to its stated commitment to human rights and to the rule of law."

"This administration has repeatedly vowed to put human rights at the center of its foreign policy and specifically its relationship with Egypt," the statement said. "This decision, however, is a betrayal of these commitments."

"By immediately releasing $170 million and temporarily withholding the remaining $130 million," the statement continued, "the administration sidesteps the intent of Congress, which passed legislation clearly stating that $300 million in U.S. military aid should be withheld until Egypt has taken steps to 'strengthen the rule of law,' 'implement reforms that protect' basic freedoms, and 'hold Egyptian security forces accountable.'"

Multiple Democratic U.S. lawmakers also criticized the admnistration's move, with Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) calling it "a mistake."

"Egypt has 60,000 political prisoners. They torture political dissidents," Murphy tweeted. "The administration should have held back the full $300 million. This half-measure sends a muddled message about our commitment to human rights and democracy."

According to Amnesty International—one of the 18 groups to sign Tuesday's statement—there is "credible evidence confirming use of U.S.-provided arms in flagrant violations by [Egyptian] security forces, including extrajudicial killings."

"Arbitrary arrests and detainments, torture, and enforced disappearances are regularly carried out against human rights defenders, LGBTQI+ Egyptians, and journalists in Egypt," Amnesty International added. "Egyptian prisons hold thousands of political prisoners, with dozens dying following denied medical care in 2020. The world's third worst executioner, Egypt has executed dozens in 2021, and in June upheld the imminent executions of 12 men convicted via sham trial."

The 18 groups' statement noted that "the Biden administration has frequently sought to distinguish itself from the Trump administration by claiming to take a stronger stance on human rights and promising to be tough on... el-Sisi, whom Biden referred to as [former President Donald] 'Trump's favorite dictator.'"

Norway’s left-leaning parties begin talks to form a government

Norway’s left-leaning opposition parties have begun talks to form a new coalition government after winning a landslide victory in elections dominated by the climate crisis and the future of the country’s huge oil and gas industry.

The Labour party leader, Jonas Gahr Støre, is hoping to persuade the agrarian Centre party and left-wing Socialist Left to join a government that would have 89 MPs, four more than needed for an absolute majority in the 169-seat parliament.

But the three potential allies disagree on issues ranging from energy policy to private ownership and EU relations, with the main bone of contention likely to be the speed of any transition away from fossil fuels in western Europe’s largest producer. ...

The result, which means all five Nordic countries will soon be run by left-wing governments, should avoid the need for Støre, a former foreign minister, to enlist the support of the Marxist Red party or the Greens, who fared less well than expected. But he is by no means certain to achieve his goal of a three-party coalition. The Centre party has long said it is unwilling to enter government with the Socialist Left, which itself has pledged not to cooperate unless its priorities are met.

“It’s simple maths,” said the party’s leader, Audun Lysbakken. “There will be no majority on the red-green side without the Socialist Left. This means everyone must respect each other, including our red lines on inequality and climate.”

Cuban scientists say ‘Havana Syndrome’ theories ‘violate laws of physics’

Cuba has issued its most detailed report to date from prominent local scientists criticizing allegations that US and Canadian diplomats were subject to mysterious attacks while posted on the island and developed health problems. The report by the 20-member panel from Cuba’s Academy of Sciences questioned whether the variety of reported symptoms could even be referred to as a single syndrome and said that some of the proposed explanations violated basic laws of physics. ...

A report released in December by a US National Academy of Sciences committee found that “directed, pulsed radio frequency energy appears to be the most plausible” explanation for the illnesses among American diplomats in Cuba and China. That study did not name a source for the energy and did not say it came as the result of an attack.

The Cuban document called that conclusion “puzzling because the report cites no direct evidence for the involvement of [radio frequency] in the events in Havana or elsewhere.”

“No known form of energy can selectively cause brain damage [with laser-like precision] under the conditions described for the alleged incidents in Havana,” it said.

The report said the only explanation so far that cannot be dismissed is the possibility of psychological suggestion leading to symptoms.

Haiti prosecutor calls for prime minister to be charged over president’s killing

The investigation into the assassination of the Haitian president Jovenel Moïse has taken a sensational turn after the country’s chief prosecutor asked a judge to charge Haiti’s prime minister in connection with the crime. Ariel Henry, a 71-year-old neurosurgeon, became Haiti’s principal leader in July, two weeks after Moïse was killed at his home in the capital Port-au-Prince.

Supporters describe Henry as an upstanding member of Haiti’s medical community who had been grappling with the unenviable task of trying to stabilize a country rocked by the murder of its president and then a 7.2-magnitude earthquake that killed more than 2,000 people. But on Tuesday Haiti’s prime minister was sucked into the heart of the alleged plot behind Moïse’s murder as the country’s chief prosecutor, Bed-Ford Claude, asked a judge to charge him with suspected involvement.

“There are enough compromising elements ... to prosecute Henry and ask for his outright indictment,” Claude wrote in the official request, according to the Associated Press.

The Haitian newspaper Le Nouvelliste said Claude had also asked immigration officials to prevent Henry from leaving the country because of the “gravity” of the facts that had emerged.

Ryan Grim: Progressives Can FORCE The $3.5T Budget Resolution, Here’s How

House Democrats' Tax Plan Lets Billionaires Off Easy

Sen. Ron Wyden, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, warned Tuesday that House Democrats' newly released tax plan would let U.S. billionaires off the hook by omitting key reforms that progressive lawmakers, advocacy organizations, and President Joe Biden have embraced.

"It would be a monumental mistake for Congress to pass a bill that really exempts billionaires," Wyden (D-Ore.) told the New York Times in response to the House Ways and Means Committee's proposal, which was spearheaded by Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.).

While the House plan (pdf) would hike taxes on large corporations and the top 1% of earners in the U.S., analysts and Democratic lawmakers have voiced concerns that it doesn't go nearly as far as it should to raise revenue for policy priorities and tackle the nation's runaway income inequality, which the coronavirus crisis has made even worse. According to one recent analysis, the collective wealth of U.S. billionaires has risen by $1.8 trillion—62%—during the pandemic.

Wyden's committee is in the process of crafting a tax plan of its own as Democrats race to compile their sprawling budget reconciliation package, which is expected to include major investments in green energy, healthcare, housing, and other key areas.

Specifically, Wyden and progressive organizations criticized the House Ways and Means Committee for failing to tackle a loophole that allows the ultra-wealthy to pass on massive fortunes to their heirs tax-free. Earlier this year, Biden released a tax plan that would close the loophole.

"It's important to address the fact that billionaire heirs may never pay tax on billions in stock gains," Wyden told HuffPost on Monday. "The nurses, firefighters, and teachers who pay their taxes with every paycheck know the system is broken when billionaire heirs never pay tax on billions in stock gains."

Steve Wamhoff, director of federal tax policy at the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), echoed Wyden's concern, noting in an interview with the Washington Post that "if the Ways and Means plan was enacted as is, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk would still pay an effective rate of $0 on most of their income if they pass their assets on to their heirs."

"It's obviously a big improvement over the tax code we have now," Wamhoff said of the House plan, "but there are a lot of things Biden suggested that would go a lot further.”

Briahna Joy Gray: Joe Manchin Is WRONG On The Child Tax Credit, Proposed Work Requirement Is FLAWED

3 Corporate Dems Threaten to Block Drug Pricing Reform in Reconciliation Bill

Three corporate Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee drew condemnation from progressives on Tuesday after announcing they plan to stand in the way of passing President Joe Biden's Build Back Better legislation if it includes a key provision to allow the federal government to negotiate drug prices—a broadly popular reform that could help millions of Americans save on the medications they need each year.

Reps. Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.), Scott Peters (D-Calif.), and Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.) reportedly claimed as the committee was marking up the $3.5 trillion Build Back Better plan, which would invest in human infrastructure, that including Medicare drug price negotiations in the package would keep the legislation from ultimately passing—despite polls showing the provision has widespread support.

"I do not support advancing policies that are not fiscally responsible and jeopardize the bill's final passage," said Rice, while Peters said he had proposed his own drug pricing negotiation scheme. ...

Ninety percent of Rice's constituents support the provision, while only 18% believe the argument long made by pharmaceutical companies that allowing negotiation by Medicare will "harm innovation."

Similar poll results were found in Peters' and Schrader's districts, Protect Our Care reported on Tuesday. ...

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, all three lawmakers have accepted campaign contributions from the pharmaceutical industry. Peters and Schrader have both accepted tens of thousands of dollars in donations from the pharmaceutical industry this election cycle. Pharmaceutical companies are the top contributors to Peters' campaign in the 2021-22 cycle, donating more than $88,000 so far.

FBI director faces new scrutiny over investigation of Brett Kavanaugh

The FBI director, Chris Wray, is facing new scrutiny of the bureau’s handling of its 2018 background investigation of Brett Kavanaugh, including its claim that the FBI lacked the authority to conduct a further investigation into the then supreme court nominee. At the heart of the new questions that Wray will face later this week, when he testifies before the Senate judiciary committee, is a 2010 Memorandum of Understanding that the FBI has recently said constrained the agency’s ability to conduct any further investigations of allegations of misconduct.

It is not clear whether that claim is accurate, based on a close reading of the MOU, which was released in court records following a Freedom of Information Act request.

The FBI was called to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh during his Senate confirmation process in 2018, after he was accused of assault by Christine Blasey Ford, a professor who knew Kavanaugh when they were both in high school. He also faced other accusations, including that he had exposed himself to a classmate at Yale called Deborah Ramirez. Kavanaugh denied both accusations.

The FBI closed its extended background check of Kavanaugh after four days and did not interview either Blasey Ford or Kavanaugh. The FBI also disclosed to the Senate this June – two years after questions were initially asked – that it had received 4,500 tips from the public during the background check and that it had shared all “relevant tips” with the White House counsel at that time. It is not clear whether those tips were ever investigated.

The FBI said in its letter to two senators – Sheldon Whitehouse and Christopher Coons – that the FBI did not have the authority under the 2010 MOU at the time to “unilaterally conduct further investigative activity absent instructions from the requesting entity”. In other words, the FBI has said it would have required explicit instructions from the Trump White House to conduct further investigation under the existing 2010 guidelines on how such investigations ought to be conducted. But an examination by the Guardian of the 2010 MOU, which was signed by the then attorney general, Eric Holder, and then White House counsel, Robert Bauer, does not make explicitly clear that the FBI was restricted in terms of how it would conduct its investigation.



the horse race



California Votes No: Governor Gavin Newsom Survives Republican-Led Recall Effort



the evening greens


90% of global farm subsidies damage people and planet, says UN

Almost 90% of the $540bn in global subsidies given to farmers every year are “harmful”, a startling UN report has found. This agricultural support damages people’s health, fuels the climate crisis, destroys nature and drives inequality by excluding smallholder farmers, many of whom are women, according to the UN agencies.

The biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions, such as beef and milk, received the biggest subsidies, the report said. These are often produced by large industrialised groups that are best placed to gain access to subsidies.

Without reform, the level of subsidies was on track to soar to $1.8tn (£1.3tn) a year by 2030, further harming human wellbeing and worsening the planetary crisis, the UN said. Support for the “outsized” meat and dairy industry in rich countries must be reduced, while subsidies for polluting chemical fertilisers and pesticides must fall in lower-income countries, the analysis said.

The report, published before a UN food systems summit on 23 September, said repurposing the subsidies to beneficial activities could “be a game changer” and help to end poverty, eradicate hunger, improve nutrition, reduce global heating and restore nature. Good uses of public money could include supporting healthy food, such as vegetables and fruit, improving the environment and supporting small farmers.

Numerous analyses in recent years have concluded the global food system is broken, with more than 800 million people experiencing chronic hunger in 2020 and 3 billion unable to afford a healthy diet, while 2 billion people are obese or overweight, and a third of food is wasted. The total damage caused has been estimated at $12tn a year, more than the value of the food produced.

Ancient sequoia trees threatened by growing wildfire in California’s Sierra Nevada

A growing wildfire, sparked by lightning and spread through the dense, dry, forested Sierra Nevada, is posing dangers to the ancient sequoia trees in their namesake national park.

The Paradise fire and the Colony fire, which have burned together to become the KNP Complex fire, surged through more than 3,000 acres of steep and difficult-to-reach terrain since igniting on 9 September in Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks, with 0% containment by Tuesday morning.

Fueled by dried brush and desiccated ponderosa pine tinder – dead trees that had already succumbed to dire drought conditions and insect infestations – the flames are burning so intensely that park officials fear that the world’s largest trees could be in peril. “There is a threat to the groves. It is a serious threat,” said Mark Ruggiero, the Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks fire information officer.

Sequoias, which stretch hundreds of feet into the sky and have adapted to thrive in fire, are incredibly resilient. The giant trees have evolved to withstand the heat, with bark that protects them and seed-carrying cones that rely on flames to open. Fires are usually considered healthy for the forests, helping to clear the undergrowth to create space for seedlings.

But blazes burning hotter and with increasing intensity have posed new threats for the trees that have survived there for thousands of years. Last year, more than 10% were lost to flames. ...

Between 2015 and 2020, two-thirds of the area where the giant sequoia groves grow burned, according to the NPS, while only a quarter of that region burned during the century before. The Castle fire alone was responsible for killing up to 10,600 large sequoias – 42% of the trees that stood in its path. Ruggiero noted that the KNP Complex is burning with the same intensity and through similar a landscape as the Castle fire, which erupted in August 2020 and torched 175,000 acres of the park before it was finally put out in December.

Outcry over killing of almost 1,500 dolphins on Faroe Islands

Even the staunchest defenders of traditional whaling in the Faroe Islands have condemned the “cruel and unnecessary” massacre on Sunday of a superpod of nearly 1,500 dolphins, which were driven into shallow waters of the Skálabotnur beach on the island of Eysturoy and left writhing for hours before being killed.

The Sea Shepherd group, which has been campaigning to stop the traditional Faroese “Grind” hunt since the 1980s, has claimed Sunday’s hunt was “the largest single killing of dolphins or pilot whales in the islands’ history”, with more animals perishing than in an entire season at the infamous “Cove” at Taiji, Japan.

This time though, the scale of the killing was such that even many Faroese, who frequently view the hunt as part of their cultural heritage, expressed disgust. ...

The Grind is significant for many Faroese people, with spectators coming out to watch from the shore, and the meat from the catch traditionally shared among the families that participated, with any excess then spread among local villagers. But one local told the Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet that there was no way that locals would want to consume this much dolphin meat. ...

Captain Alex Cornelissen, the global chief executive of Sea Shepherd, which campaigns against whaling, said that in the midst of a global pandemic it was “absolutely appalling to see an attack on nature of this scale in the Faroe Islands”.


Also of Interest

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

When Wall Street came to coal country: how a big-money gamble scarred Appalachia

What Was Biden's Diktat The Saudis Are So Furious About?

Report Falsely Claims Iran Could Have Enough Uranium for a Nuke in a Month

Israeli Warplanes Destroy Poultry Farms in Gaza Strip

Once More Unto Covid and Schools

18 Vaccine Experts, Including Top FDA Scientists, Publish Review in The Lancet Saying Current Evidence Doesn’t Support Need for COVID-19 Vaccine Boosters for the Fully Vaccinated

Butterflies released in Finland contained parasitic wasps – with more wasps inside

U.S. Drone Killed 10 Afghans Including Aid Worker & 7 Kids After Water Jugs Were Mistaken as Bombs


A Little Night Music

Mound City Blue Blowers - Indiana

Coleman Hawkins & The Mound City Blue Blowers - Hello Lola!

Mound City Blue Blowers - San

Mound City Blue Blowers - Tailspin Blues

Mound City Blue Blowers - Barb Wire Blues

Mound City Blue Blowers - Wah-Hoo!

Mound City Blue Blowers - Deep Second Street Blues

Mound City Blue Blowers - Arkansaw Blues

Mound City Blue Blowers - Blue Blues

The Mound City Blue Blowers - Play me slow

Mound City Blue Blowers - Red Hot!

Mound City Blue Blowers - Red Sails In The Sunset


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15 users have voted.

Comments

that really exempts billionaires"
.
Although absolutely keeping their real role in protecting the rich intact.
.
Love the Mound City Blue Blowers rendition of "Red Hot"
.
Thanks Joe!

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13 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@QMS

heh, congress specializes in monumental mistakes favoring the wealthy. it will be no big surprise if the infrastructure bill is configured for the enrichment of the wealthy elites, in fact it would be shocking if anything gets on the little people.

i'm really glad to see that lots of folks dug the mound city blue blowers. i don't always get a lot of feedback when i dip into jazz for the eb, so i'm glad to see folks digging it.

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6 users have voted.
ggersh's picture

Did I miss something or was this a real coup?

The MSM and MIC/CIA axis of evil is making Trump look like the bad guy and even though he
was a pathetic president he was mostly against war and he was the one who got us out of
Afghanistan in theory.

And if I remember my history correctly it is the MIC/CIA/MSM trio who always advocate for more war.

Of course this next link gave me an 404 error code

But it states Pelosi was in on it also

S2 E4 Nancy Pelosi talks to general Mark Milley the ...
[Search domain anchor.fm] https://anchor.fm/robbie-woods8/episodes/S2-E4-Nancy-Pelosi-talks-to-gen...
S2 E4 Nancy Pelosi talks to general Mark Milley the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, about Donald Trump being unhinged and not being safe with the nuclear codes.

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11 users have voted.

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

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

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

snoopydawg's picture

@ggersh

The shitlibs are happy with what Milley did because Trump was crazy. But now that Vindman has come out against Milley I think I’m gonna see some whiplashes pretty darn quick. Stay tuned. Vindman became a hero to them when he testified against Trump during the 1st bogus impeachment trials. I can’t stop laughing. And I agree with him. But Pelosi also talked to the pentagon about keeping the keys to the nukes locked away from Trump.

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4 users have voted.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@ggersh

there might have been something of a coup. in time things will undoubtedly be revealed that flesh out the scope and scale of the efforts to sideline civilian authority.

no doubt we will get dribs and drabs as the various elite players all write their self-congratulatory vanity tomes to let all of the little people who aren't in the know about the wonderful acts of bravery they committed to save us all from the evil monster trumputin.

have a great evening!

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5 users have voted.
Pluto's Republic's picture

They should think about this:

In the US, elected representatives are accepting drug company money — in exchange for using their votes to keep drug prices so high that poor Americans (including many of their constituents) cannot afford to buy their medical prescriptions. In any foreign nation I can think of these embezzlers and saboteurs would be in jail awaiting trial. Perhaps that's because I cannot think of a foreign nation that does not have national health care. Or one that does not negotiate drug prices to protect the well being of its citizens.

I seriously do not believe it has ever occurred to foreign nations how depraved the US actually is. I think they would be stunned by this thought.

This is nothing new in US Federal politics, of course, And that is why the US is now a failed state.

It's not so much that the government is thoroughly corrupt from top to bottom and despised throughout the world. It's that the American People are not smart or informed enough to see the wide-spread corruption that is harming them. And, they are so broken that if they are told that the corruption is mostly harming their political opponents or the poor, then they cheer on both the crime and the criminals. Somehow, they think they will personally benefit if weaker parts of society are ripped off.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, all three lawmakers have accepted campaign contributions from the pharmaceutical industry. Peters and Schrader have both accepted tens of thousands of dollars in donations from the pharmaceutical industry this election cycle. Pharmaceutical companies are the top contributors to Peters' campaign in the 2021-22 cycle, donating more than $88,000 so far.

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13 users have voted.

____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
joe shikspack's picture

@Pluto's Republic

It's that the American People are not smart or informed enough to see the wide-spread corruption that is harming them.

i think that americans are generally pretty aware that there is wide-spread corruption - and they are aware of some of the people that benefit from it.

my guess is that americans feel that the corruption and inequality it fosters are impossible to rid themselves of. after many, many cycles of "throwing the bums out" to no great effect, i think that americans are just worn out and cynical. hence the lack of participation and/or interest in politics beyond celebrity watching.

And, they are so broken that if they are told that the corruption is mostly harming their political opponents or the poor, then they cheer on both the crime and the criminals. Somehow, they think they will personally benefit if weaker parts of society are ripped off.

this is a by-product of the savagery of the system that the capitalists have imposed on the u.s.

americans have been brainwashed to accept that there is real scarcity and that they are competing against their fellow citizens for scarce resources. of course the truth of the matter is that all scarcities are manufactured by capitalists in order to control the citizenry.

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8 users have voted.
Raggedy Ann's picture

Dropping this here for anyone who is interested.
https://rumble.com/vmcalv-critically-thinking-with-dr.-m-and-dr.-n-episo...

Enjoy the evening! Pleasantry

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6 users have voted.

"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

joe shikspack's picture

@Raggedy Ann

thanks, have a great evening!

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3 users have voted.
mimi's picture

Mound City Blue Blowers St. Louis Blues blows all the bad stuff away while listening. Great guys - thank you.

I would now be ready to kill myself over the Sequoia trees that are dying in the fire.

It is all sad, bad news and I want it to be over with.

What are they doing with the dolphins?

Are they completely nuts?

Mankind will eat its shit it produces and I just say well paid, I hope the shit makes you so sick, you wii die over it.

I really, really love the first video of the Blue Blowers.

Thank for their blues, no thanks for the news.

I hope it is all well chez the Shikspacks and their hometurf. Just try to be happy.

And to all Bluzers - stay happy as well and have so good sing along and evening.

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7 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@mimi

thanks for the forgiveness. Smile

i was pretty disgusted by the dolphin slaughter in the faroe islands.

i am generally in sympathy with people maintaining their traditional way of life, but this event seems like they have lost the thread of stewardship and kinship with wildlife that generally underlies the indigenous cultures that i am familiar with. i am working hard to bite back my revulsion to listen for the facts, but the facts in evidence haven't really much tempered my shock and disgust at their actions.

all is well at chez shikspack, thanks!

glad you dug the music, have a great evening!

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8 users have voted.

The Glenn Greenwald piece is epic. Forced me to re-think my attitude. Always a good thing. The masked servant class is quite reminiscent of The Handmaid's Tale, in that the lower class's outfits are dictated by the higher class. Although even the lowly handmaids, shrouded as they were, did not have half their faces covered. We are well on our way to someplace very dire, it seems.

Thanks for this latest collection of news and blues.

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11 users have voted.

NYCVG

ggersh's picture

@NYCVG

We are well on our way to someplace very dire, it seems.

Being black and smoking marijuana gets you 5 to 20, these guys just walk

The Justice Department agreed to drop the prosecution if the three men comply with the terms for three years.

zerohedge.com

Three Former US Officials Admit To Providing Hacking Technology To UAE
Authored by Ivan Pentchoukov via The Epoch Times,

Three former U.S. intelligence and military officials have agreed to pay $1.7 million to the U.S. government and admitted to providing hacking technology to the United Arab Emirates, the Department of Justice announced on Tuesday.

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12 users have voted.

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

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

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

joe shikspack's picture

@ggersh

some of our spooks got off the ranch. time to slap them on the wrist and demand that they provide their dirty deeds services exclusively to uncle.

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8 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@NYCVG

if greenwald had only pointed out aoc's hypocrisy with biting sarcasm, i would have read the article, but it wouldn't be nearly as interesting and revealing. i think that greenwald has pointed out another strong indicator of the largely unquestioned and unnoticed ways that we are bifurcating as a society.

i guess we can start calling masks the working class burqa.

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13 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

Plus he did talk a bit about people needing to get healthy.

This is quite damning. He says that the lady in charge of making decisions is getting paid 10's of millions from big pharma to make them.

It looks like the 3 congress members did block the bill and we know that they are getting paid to do it. But Pluto is absolutely spot on. Very few countries call out our leaders for letting so many of die from preventable diseases and illnesses. Hitler’s ideas didn’t die because they were imported here. Too harsh?

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11 users have voted.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

fauci's advice there seems generally sound pre-pandemic. at the time i don't think that there was anything going around that a healthy person would have to mask up to avoid in public. (now there could be arguments made that if one was in a hospital, a mask would have been quite helpful at the time and perhaps necessary, but fauci is dispensing general advice.)

heh, looky, three corrupt democrats identified themselves. naturally, progressives won't have shit to say about it.

Reps. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.), Scott Peters (D-Calif.), and Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.) voted against the measure to allow the secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate lower drug prices, a long-held goal of Democrats.

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10 users have voted.
Pluto's Republic's picture

@snoopydawg

Hitler’s ideas didn’t die because they were imported here. Too harsh?

Hitler got his ideas from the American genocide. He was obsessed with it. But Hitler was an amateur compared to our home-grown psychopaths. The following was borrowed from a much longer footnoted history I'm reading:

Take for example, Dwight Eisenhower, and his clean up job in Germany. Few people today are aware the Americans in Germany hold a record for brutal mass murders, provably having murdered between 12 and 14 million Germans in American concentration camps – in Germany – after the war ended.

And US military General Curtis LeMay. He was one of the most insane genocidal maniacs and mass murderers history, largely responsible for the killing of perhaps 1,000,000 civilians during the American fire-bombing of Dresden and many other cities in Germany. In Korea, LeMay bombed and totally destroyed every city, town and village, as well as the dams on which the nation’s food supply depended, later boasting “We killed what – 40% of the entire population?”, and also supervised the distribution of biological pathogens over large parts of North Korea and of North-Eastern China. In Japan, LeMay fire-bombed almost 100 Japanese cities, killing fully 50% of the civilian inhabitants, a death toll of at least 10 million. The fire-bombing of Tokyo’s Shitamachi District alone produced about 1 million deaths

Henry Kissinger holds the record for the largest number of civilians ever killed in Asia, for which he was given the Nobel Peace Prize. Kissinger and US President Lyndon Johnson share responsibility for not only the 5 million primarily civilian deaths in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, but for the 1965-1966 genocidal civilian exterminations in Indonesia where at least three million were killed in the single greatest human slaughter in recorded history, and one which the US still attempts to deny today. Kissinger is also famous for the reprehensible NSSM 200 document, essentially a world depopulation program.

Ronald Reagan was responsible for supporting a decade of mass civilian slaughter throughout Latin America by the CIA Death Squads, with deaths in the millions. These involved the infamous ‘School of the Americas’ torture institution, and the distribution and instruction of their 1,000-page torture manual, and which altogether cut a swath of torture, massacres, altogether constituting one of the most brutal and terrifying periods of repression of civilian populations the world has ever experienced. American brutality in South and Central America during this time was so obscene it finally turned the stomach of the entire world. Reagan’s Secretaries of State were Alexander Haig and George Shultz, with Haig also active in Vietnam and Korea.

It was Robert McNamara who planned the firebombing of Japanese cities by Curtis Lemay, openly admitting that was a heinous war crime, since the fire-bombing of those cities would mean the killing almost entirely of civilians – women, children and the elderly. Yet in writing his memoirs he not only dismissed this fact and displayed absolutely no remorse for his actions. It was McNamara who designed Project 100,000 in which he recruited and shipped almost 500,000 severely retarded young men (average IQ about 65) to Vietnam, poorly-trained and pitifully unable to deal with the complexities of jungle warfare. Few returned. He was responsible for the production and widespread distribution of the dioxin Agent Orange and of the use of napalm. It was under McNamara’s supervision that was created the Phoenix Project that tortured to death more than 45,000 thousands of Vietnamese civilians. It was under McNamara that plans were first formulated and funds requested from Congress to research and develop the biological weapon we now know as HIV.

.

And those years were tame compared to the atrocities we inflict on the world today. That explains why twenty-four US service members kill themselves each and every day. They can't live with it. Those still alive, we hire to work in our local police forces. Meanwhile, ordinary Americans seem to be programmed to hoard handguns and assault riffles, ready to kill each other when the depopulation switch is flipped.

I don't see any deescalation in America's increasingly desperate future. I'd love to be surprised.

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10 users have voted.

____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
snoopydawg's picture

@Pluto's Republic

But we didn't fight a world war to wipe out OUR genocidal tendencies like we had to for Hitler''s even though many people here helped him in many ways. Yes I know that Adolf got a lot of his ideas from our past. And many of the Americans who helped him were not opposed to egunict ideas. (sp)

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5 users have voted.

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

Azazello's picture

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12 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

$2 million isn't enough. it leaves all of the guilty institutions fundamentally unchanged and the taxpayers poorer.

have a great evening!

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10 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

Really got a kick out of the mound city blue blowers, though I would point out that the Wahoo is a fish.

The latest Israeli raid on Gaza is pretty chicken shit, IMO.

be well and have a good one

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10 users have voted.

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

yep, the mcbb were a happy youtube find. they turned up when i was looking for coleman hawkins material. i really dig them.

all israeli raids on gaza are chickenshit. sending a modern airforce to bomb people armed with slings and rocks is pretty much the definition of chickenshit. i sure hope that there is plenty of room by the fire in hell to accommodate the perpetrators of these actions.

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8 users have voted.