The Evening Blues - 9-24-21



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Lynn August

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features zydeco singer and accordion player Lynn August. Enjoy!

Lynn August - 58 Pink Cadillac

"To protest in the name of morality against 'excesses' or 'abuses' is an error which hints on active complicity. There are no 'abuses' or 'excesses' here, simpily an all-pervasive system."

-- Simone de Beauvoir


News and Opinion

House Passes Amendment to Cut US Complicity in Saudi Bombing of Yemen

Anti-war groups on Thursday welcomed the U.S. House's passage of an amendment to the annual defense bill that would cut off the flow to Saudi Arabia of U.S. logistical support and weapons "that are bombing civilians" in Yemen.

"This is BIG," tweeted the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) following the afternoon 219-207 vote, which fell largely along party lines, with just 11 Democrats voting "no."

At issue was Rep. Ro Khanna's (D-Calif.) amendment to H.R. 4350, the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). It's one of dozens of amendments to the NDAA under consideration by the House this week.

According to Khanna, the vote "sent a clear message to the Saudis: end the bombing in Yemen and lift the blockade."

Speaking on the House floor Wednesday, he made a succinct case for why the measure is so needed.

Khanna said his amendment "would end all U.S. logistical support and transfer of spare parts for Saudi warplanes that are bombing Yemen, that are bombing schools, that are killing children, that are bombing civilians in the largest humanitarian crisis around the world."

"We're not going to use taxpayer dollars to give them equipment for their planes to bomb Yemeni kids," Khanna added, urging his colleagues to help "finally begin to end this war."

16 million in Yemen ‘marching towards starvation’ as food rations run low – UN

At least 5 million people in Yemen are on the brink of famine and a further 16 million are “marching toward starvation”, as the country’s humanitarian crisis spirals out of control.

The situation in Yemen, which has been torn apart by civil war, has been described as “rapidly deteriorating” by experts.

The World Food Programme (WFP) has raised grave concerns about the number of people facing starvation over the coming weeks and months.

The WFP’s executive director David Beasley said supply chains in the country had been disrupted and food prices were “spiking”.

He said: “With food pricing and the lack of fuel, it is catastrophic. We’ve got 5 million people right now knocking on famine’s door, we’ve got 16 million people marching toward starvation.”

Beasley also told the UN general assembly that without further funding, the organisation will be forced to cut 3.2 million people’s food rations by October, increasing to 5 million people by December.

$778 billion! Sure congress can come up with that, it's just short of $8 trillion over 10 years pissed down a rathole. But $3.5 trillion over 10 years for stuff Americans need, well, sorry you pissants, go away.

House passes sweeping defense policy bill

The House on Thursday passed its sweeping annual defense policy bill that would add billions of dollars to President Biden’s defense budget proposal, call for answers on failures in the war in Afghanistan and require women to register for the draft.

The House easily approved its $778 billion fiscal 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) in a bipartisan 316-113 vote Thursday night. Thirty-eight Democrats and 75 Republicans voted against the bill's passage. ...

The $778 billion in funding that would be authorized by the NDAA is about $25 billion more than Biden proposed in his fiscal 2022 budget request, an increase that was approved when 14 House Armed Services Committee Democrats in vulnerable seats or with national security backgrounds sided with a Republican amendment during the committee’s consideration of the bill.

Republicans have argued for months that Biden’s defense budget proposal, which was $13 billion more than the Trump administration’s final defense budget, was inadequate in the face of threats from China and Russia and was actually a cut when accounting for inflation.

Bids to Slash Pentagon Budget Fail

Anti-war groups on Thursday lamented the failure of two progressive-led amendments to the fiscal year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act that sought to slash the Pentagon's funding by tens of billions of dollars, with one peace campaigner calling the $780 billion U.S. military budget a "national shame."

The defeat of the amendments to next year's NDAA—one by Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) that would have reduced the Pentagon budget by 10%, and another from Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) that would have canceled $25 billion in additional military funding over what President Joe Biden requested—was expected.

UK forces linked to deaths of nearly 300 Afghan civilians

British forces are linked to the deaths of 86 children and more than 200 adult civilians during the Afghanistan conflict, with compensation of just £2,380 paid on average for each life lost, new figures reveal. They are recorded in official Ministry of Defence (MoD) compensation logs, obtained by a series of freedom of information requests. According to the data, the youngest recorded civilian victim was three years old.

One of the most serious incidents listed in the records is the award of £4,233.60 to a family following the death of four children who were mistakenly “shot and killed” in an incident in December 2009.

Some of the payments amounted to less than a few hundred pounds. In February 2008, one family received £104.17 following a confirmed fatality and damage to a property in Helmand province, while another was compensated £586.42 for the death of their 10-year-old son in December 2009.

The data was compiled by Action on Armed Violence (AOAV), which examined the logs to coincide with the withdrawal of western forces from Afghanistan last month culminating in the chaotic airlift from Kabul airport.

Furious French defence contractor to seek compensation over Aukus deal

Australia has signed up to an empty promise by agreeing to a US nuclear powered submarine deal for which there is no clear delivery date or technology transfer agreement, the furious head of the French defence contractor Naval Group has warned.

Pierre Eric Pommellet also said his firm will be seeking compensation for Australia’s cancellation of a €56bn (£48bn) contract for 12 new Attack-class submarines, which he described as a purely political decision which came without warning.

His comments to Le Figaro were the latest allegations that Australia’s decision to replace the French contract with the Aukus deal with the UK and US was political rather than defence-based. Australia has implied that the contract cancellation followed a new assessment of the security threat posed by China.

Catalan separatist leader Puigdemont leaves Italian jail after arrest in Sardinia

Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont arrested in Sardinia

The former Catalan government head Carles Puigdemont has been detained by Italian police in Sardinia, his office said in a statement. Puigdemont was detained on Thursday when he travelled to the city of Alghero from Brussels to attend the Adifolk International Exhibition and to meet with the regional head of Sardinia and its ombudsman, his office said in a statement.

“When he arrived at the Alghero airport, he was stopped by the Italian border police. Tomorrow he will be placed at the disposal of the judges of the court of appeal of Sassari, which is competent to decide whether to release him or extradite him,” his office said in the statement.

Spain has accused the Catalan separatist leader of sedition, claiming he helped organise a 2017 independence referendum deemed illegal by Spanish courts.

FDA approves Pfizer booster shots for people who are ‘high risk’ or over 65

The US Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday authorized a booster dose of the Pfizer and BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for those ages 65 and older and some high-risk Americans, paving the way for a quick rollout of the shots.

The booster dose is to be administered at least six months after completion of the second dose, and the authorization would include people most susceptible to severe disease and those in jobs that left them at risk, the FDA said.

Those people include “healthcare workers, teachers and daycare staff, grocery workers and those in homeless shelters or prisons, among others,” said Janet Woodcock, acting commissioner of the FDA. “This pandemic is dynamic and evolving, with new data about vaccine safety and effectiveness becoming available every day.”

Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said the agency will “continue to analyze data submitted to the FDA pertaining to the use of booster doses of Covid-19 vaccines and we will make further decisions as appropriate based on the data”.

A US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advisory panel could vote on Thursday on the use of a third shot of the vaccine, an agency official said at a public meeting of the panel on Wednesday. The CDC will have to approve any booster shot before it can be given.

CDC experts advise Covid booster shots for over-65s and vulnerable Americans

The US vaccination drive against Covid-19 stood on the verge of a major new phase as government advisers on Thursday recommended booster doses of Pfizer’s vaccine for millions of older or otherwise vulnerable Americans – despite doubts the extra shots will do much to slow the pandemic.

Advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said boosters should be offered to people 65 and older, nursing home residents and those aged 50 to 64 who have risky underlying health problems. The extra dose would be given once they are at least six months past their last Pfizer shot.

Deciding who else might get one was far tougher. While there is little evidence that younger people are in danger of waning immunity, the panel offered the option of a booster for those 18 to 49 who have chronic health problems and want one. But the advisers refused to go further and open boosters to otherwise healthy frontline healthcare workers who are not at risk of severe illness, but want to avoid even a mild infection.

“Our Health or Our Homes”: Tenants Facing Eviction Help Introduce New “Keeping Renters Safe Act”

GOP plan to block House measure could trigger an unprecedented $28tn default

Top Republicans in the Senate are poised to block a key spending package advanced by Democrats in a move that could precipitate the dual fiscal crises of a government shutdown and an unprecedented US default on its colossal debt obligations.

The House has approved a combined stopgap funding measure that would keep the federal government open until early December and suspend the debt limit until after the 2022 midterm elections, sending the legislation to the Senate.

But the Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell swiftly announced that Republicans would sink the measure with a filibuster and prevent it from receiving the 60 votes needed to pass – causing a government shutdown on 1 October and a default weeks later. ...

At issue are the consequences of an unprecedented default on federal debt, which could plunge the economy into an immediate recession, trigger a meltdown in global financial markets and lead to the downgrading of America’s credit rating. Economists say a prolonged impasse could cost the US economy millions of jobs, wipe out trillions in household debt and send unemployment rates surging.

ECONOMIC TIPPING POINT: Political System BACKS Big Business While RIPPING Worker Leverage Away

A record number of cargo ships are stuck outside LA. What’s happening?

Southern California is dealing with a traffic jam unlike any other, as a record number of container ships have been stuck waiting in the waters outside the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to unload cargo. The bottleneck this week at America’s busiest port complex is the result of a shortage of trucks and drivers to pick up goods, coupled with an overwhelming demand for imported consumer products.

As of Wednesday, 62 container ships were waiting offshore to unload cargo, according to the Marine Exchange of Southern California. The backup of ships has grown since last week, when 60 ships were waiting to unload. On Sunday, there were a record 73 cargo ships waiting to enter the ports.

The surge has put increasing pressure on the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex, already the largest in the US and the ninth largest in the world. Together the ports move 40% of container imports in the US and 30% of exports, and serve as a key gateway for imported goods from Asia. ...

With the peak shipping period getting under way as the holiday shopping season approaches, in recent weeks the ports have been setting new records for ships in port almost daily. Traffic has been rising since last summer amid a pandemic-induced buying boom that created a backlog at both ports and overwhelmed the workforce, some of whom were themselves recovering from Covid.

David Sirota: Dem Rep SLIPS & Says The Quiet Part Out Loud, FLAILS Justifying Big Pharma Ties

Anti-abortion bill modeled after Texas ban introduced in Florida

An anti-abortion bill that would ban abortions after an embryonic heartbeat is detected, about six weeks, and allow citizens to sue doctors who perform them, modeled after Texas’s abortion ban SB8, was introduced in Florida on Wednesday.

Filed by the Republican representative Webster Barnaby, the bill allows people to sue practitioners and others who aid people seeking abortions up to six months after an abortion was performed versus only four months allocated in Texas’s SB8. The implications of the bill have alarmed many concerned about the role of anti-abortion vigilante lawsuits.

Previous attempts to pass such restrictive abortion laws in Florida had failed, but the supreme court’s decision not to block Texas’s anti-abortion law has ignited new attempts to pass anti-choice legislation across the country. In addition to Florida, Republican leaders in at least five other states have said that they are interested in passing legislation similar to the Texas abortion ban.

Governor vows to make California a ‘reproductive freedom state’

The California governor signed two laws that aim to protect the privacy of abortion providers and their patients, declaring the state to be a “reproductive freedom state” and drawing a sharp contrast with Texas and its efforts to limit the procedure.

One law makes it a crime to film people within 100 feet (30 meters) of an abortion clinic for the purpose of intimidation, a law abortion rights groups believe to be the first of its kind in the country. The other law makes it easier for people on their parents’ insurance plans to keep sensitive medical information secret, including abortions.

The laws, signed by Gavin Newsom on Wednesday, intensify the political rivalry between the nation’s two most populous states. California and Texas have become bastions of their respective political ideologies, with each state carving out opposing positions on issues including healthcare, immigration and the environment. ...

“These are dark days. I don’t think one can understate the consequential nature of the moment that we are living in,” Newsom said. “It becomes of outsized importance that California assert itself.”

David Simon defends decision to pull HBO series from Texas following abortion ban

David Simon, creator of The Wire, announced that he will not be filming an upcoming HBO series in Texas because of the state’s abortion ban that passed earlier this month.

While the specific HBO project has not been announced, Simon said that the restrictive abortion law passed in Texas, which bans the procedure after about six weeks and allows citizens to sue doctors and others who help people access procedures, motivated his decision to film in other locations.

“[As] an employer, this is beyond politics,” Simon wrote on Twitter. “I’m turning in scripts next month on an HBO non-fiction miniseries based on events in Texas, but I can’t and won’t ask female cast/crew to forgo civil liberties to film there. What else looks like Dallas/Ft. Worth?”

Rep. Maxine Waters: Biden Admin Must End “Inhumane” Deportation & Whipping of Haitian Asylum Seekers

The Biden administration has condemned abuses at the border – while maintaining the policies underlying these abuses. That’s beyond cynical

You’ve probably seen a photograph haunting the internet this week: a white-presenting man on horseback – uniformed, armed and sneering – is grabbing a shoeless Black man by the neck of his T-shirt. The Black man’s face bears an unmistakable look of horror. He struggles to remain upright while clinging dearly to some bags of food in his hands. Between the men, a long rein from the horse’s bridle arches menacingly in the air like a whip. The photograph was taken just a few days ago in Texas, but the tableau looks like something out of antebellum America.

The image is profoundly upsetting, not just for what it portrays but for the history it evokes. What’s happening at the border right now puts two of our founding national myths – that we’re a land of liberty and a nation of immigrants – under scrutiny. To put it plainly, we don’t fare well under inspection. ...

This might explain why the White House, which has executive authority over the border patrol, rushed to condemn the pictures. But is this just image control? At the same time that it condemns the actions of its own law enforcement agency, the Biden administration has refused media access to the camp at Del Rio, invoked a Trump-era order (the rarely used public health law known as Title 42) to expel asylum seekers without review, and forcibly deported hundreds of Haitians in Texas – many of whom left the country more than a decade ago, after its 2010 earthquake – back to a country that is not only reeling from a massive earthquake last August but also from a political earthquake, the assassination of its president, last July.

Without review, it’s impossible to know who is facing real threats of persecution when returned to Haiti. The United Nations human rights spokesperson, Marta Hurtado, said that the UN “is seriously concerned by the fact that it appears there have not been any individual assessments of the cases”. Why does the Biden administration not share her concern? One has to wonder if the same policies expelling Haitians from the US today would be in effect if those arriving at the border were Europeans or even Cubans. If history is any guide – for decades, the US privileged Cubans over Haitians and other Caribbean peoples in immigration matters – the answer is no.

US envoy to Haiti resigns over ‘inhumane’ decision to deport migrants

The US envoy to Haiti has resigned after just two months in the role, in protest at what he called the Biden administration’s “inhumane” mass deportation of Haitian migrants and asylum seekers to what he said was a highly dangerous “collapsed state”.

Daniel Foote’s angry resignation letter is a serious blow for an administration which came to office promising a more humane approach to immigration in the wake of Donald Trump’s policy of child separation. The state department said he had given a misleading account of his resignation. A senior official said that Foote had advocated sending in US troops to impose order, and that had been rejected. ...

Foote, who has previously served as deputy chief of mission in Haiti and ambassador in Zambia, was appointed special envoy after Moïse’s killing, which remains unsolved.

After about 14,000 migrants gathered in an impromptu camp under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) bureau started flying hundreds out on multiple flights every day, without the opportunity for asylum appeals or hearings.

“I will not be associated with the United States’ inhumane, counterproductive decision to deport thousands of Haitian refugees and illegal immigrants to Haiti, a country where American officials are confined to secure compounds because of the danger posed by armed gangs to daily life,” Foote said in his letter to the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, that was leaked on Thursday. “Our policy approach to Haiti remains deeply flawed, and my policy recommendations have been ignored and dismissed, when not edited to project a narrative different from my own.”



the evening greens


New Legal Campaign Aims to Protect People and Nature From Polluters' 'Irreparable Damage'

Frontline communities in Latin America and advocacy groups on Thursday announced a new global campaign that targets major polluters and aims "make the right to a healthy environment an internationally recognized human right" through court action.

Launched ahead of United Nations climate talks scheduled for next month, the campaign kicked off with a pair of lawsuits filed in Chile and Colombia by the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and member organizations in each country.

"#SeeYouInCourt is not just a hashtag or a publicity campaign," FIDH said in a statement. "It launches a series of actions to hold companies accountable for their harmful practices that prevent tens of thousands of communities around the world from living in a healthy, safe, and clean environment."

A campaign video released Thursday calls out polluters for not only disregarding human rights and the environment but also pressuring governments "to conduct business at any cost."

"Money isn't everything: Nature is priceless and its destruction causes lasting, irreparable damage," said Luis Misael Socarras Ipuana, a human rights defender and leader of the Wayuu communities of Guajira in Colombia. "Defending nature means denouncing the social, economic, and spiritual harm that companies have caused by destroying it, putting the survival of our people at risk."

In Colombia, the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers' Collective (CAJAR), an FIDH member, joined with communities impacted by the diversion of a waterway, the Arroyo Bruno, to expand the massive Cerrejón open-pit coal mine.

"The environmental and climate impacts of the diversion have endangered the lives of local Indigenous communities and destroyed the fragile tropical dry forest ecosystem," explains FIDH's webpage for the case. "All of this is taking place in the context of a water and climate crisis."

In Chile, FIDH member Observatorio Ciudadano, the Terram Foundation, and members of the communities of Quintero and Puchuncaví, filed a constitutional protection action against the company AES Gener—recently renamed AES Andes—and the Chilean government for the impacts of coal-fired power plants.

José Aylwin, director of Observatorio Ciudadano, explained that they are taking on "the complacency of the state and the lack of even the most basic due diligence by the companies responsible for greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change with serious human rights impacts."

The new lawsuits follow other coordinated legal actions against multinational polluters over the past year taken in the pursuit of justice and promoting the right to a healthy environment, noted FIDH's statement.

"Protecting the planet and fighting the climate crisis are two of the greatest challenges of our time," said FIDH president Alice Mogwe. "States must listen to communities' demands to recognize the human right to a healthy environment and better regulate businesses with respect to the impacts of their operations."

Thunberg rallies climate activists for German vote 'of a century'

In 'Landmark' Decision, EPA Finalizes Rule Cutting Use of Super-Pollutant HFCs

The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday finalized a rule long pushed for by climate campaigners that slashes the use of chemicals identified as "super-pollutants" that are commonly used in air conditioners and refrigerators.

The Biden administration announced a new rule requiring the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) be cut by 85% over the next 15 years, implementing a measure in the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act, which was passed by Congress last year.

"Today EPA is taking a significant step forward to advance President Biden's bold agenda to tackle the climate crisis," said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. "Cutting these climate 'super pollutants' protects our environment, strengthens our economy, and demonstrates that America is back when it comes to leading the world in addressing climate change and curbing global warming in the years ahead." ...

HFCs, which frequently leak from appliances, heat the atmosphere at a rate hundreds of thousands of times faster than carbon dioxide and are used widely in grocery stores across the country. Undercover investigators with the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) found earlier this year that HFC leaks existed in the freezers and refrigerators of 55% of supermarkets it surveyed in the Washington, D.C. area. ...

The reduction in HFCs resulting from the rule is expected to be the equivalent of 4.5 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide and will generate about $272 billion in cost savings and public health benefits over the next three decades, according to the White House. The regulation is also expected to promote job creation as companies manufacture alternative cooling mechanisms.

How big corporations and Bill Gates took over the UN food Summit

Worth a click and a full read or, watch the video above:

How big corporations and Bill Gates took over the UN food Summit

This September 23, the United Nations holds its Food Systems Summit in New York. Under the guise of the UN system, and despite sleight-of-hand language about “equal opportunities,” this summit represents a hostile takeover of world governance by corporate forces and the billionaire elite. Today, social movements are standing up for democracy and against big capital’s devastation of their lands, farms, and communities. The United Nations is based on the idea of multilateralism, where states seek peaceful solutions on the basis of equality and respect, replacing the colonialist institutions that preceded it. That’s why for decades, the United States government has instead pushed for things like G-7, NATO, and other forms of control over geopolitics. As far-right governments have pulled back from multilateral institutions like the UN and the WHO, corporate actors have been moving in. ...

La Vía Campesina is possibly the world’s largest social movement. Made up of 200 million small farmers, peasants, farm workers, and indigenous peoples, it has popularized the idea of food sovereignty as the right of peoples to control and defend their own food systems using healthy, agro-ecological methods. After years battling against free-trade agreements and the World Bank in the streets of Seattle, Cancun, and Seoul, La Via Campesina made an incursion into institutional politics, helping to draft and carry the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants through 18 years of negotiations, until it was passed by the UN General Assembly in December 2018. This declaration protects the right of rural people to access land, water, seeds, and other resources in order to produce their own food and that of their society. Worldwide, 70% of food is produced by small farmers, who use only one-quarter of total farmland.

Meanwhile, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation created the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, or AGRA, in 2006. AGRA promised to double yields and incomes for 30 million families while cutting food insecurity by half in 13 African countries by 2020. Over the ensuing decade, AGRA collected nearly $1 billion in donations, and spent $524 million on programs promoting the use of genetically modified and hybrid seeds, commercial fossil fuel-based fertilizers, and chemical pesticides. After 14 years of mega-philanthropy’s knee on the neck of Africa, a 2020 Tufts University study showed that, in AGRA’s 13 focus countries, hunger had jumped 30%, as farmers were pushed to abandon nutritious, traditional polycultures to focus on monoculture fields of imported corn seed. Opposition to AGRA’s corporate takeover of the African countryside is part of what drove La Via Campesina and farmers across the continent to demand a place at the table in UN debates about food. ...

In June 2019, the office of UN General Secretary António Guterres, without previous discussion in the General Assembly or any other intergovernmental process, signed a strategic partnership with the World Economic Forum. ... The 2021 UN Food Systems Summit was initiated through a partnership with the World Economic Forum, with limited participation of other UN bodies, such as the Food and Agriculture Organization or the Committee on World Food Security, which traditionally handle food policies. In contrast to previous food summits, there was no intergovernmental body that convened the summit. The current president of AGRA, Agnes Kalibata, was named as special envoy to the summit, a clear sign of the hand of the Gates Foundation. ...

The summit seeks to erase the last 15 years of progress in recognizing human rights in food systems, and instead promotes false solutions like “zero-net emissions”, “soil carbon pricing”, and “a new deal for nature”, that in practice put more control over land, biodiversity, and water in the hands of elite and secretive bodies run by corporations.


Also of Interest

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

Covid Funds Spent on Police and Prisons

US Air Force Official: China Might ‘Strike From Space’

12 former security officials who warned against antitrust crackdown have tech ties

Heads Roll As Biden Policies Move To The Right

The Wages Of Embarassing Elites Are Death

Australians Need To Decide If This Is The Kind Of Country We Want To Live In From Now On

Florida to Boycott Ben & Jerry’s Parent Company Over Israeli Settlement Ban

Civil Rights Leaders Decry Senate's Failure to Pass Police Reform Bill

NYC Set to Pass Food Delivery App Laws Securing Workers Minimum Pay, Bathrooms and More

US public health workers leaving ‘in droves’ amid pandemic burnout

“It’s Going To Spill”

Waste Watch: Ocean Cleanup Yields Meager Results

New Zealand is no ‘off-grid’ safe haven from the apocalypse

Human footprints thought to be oldest in North America discovered

Understand the GOP Bible

Democracy Now: Former Member of Afghan Parliament Says U.S. War Ushered in “Another Dark Age” for Women


A Little Night Music

Lynn August - When I Woke Up This Morning

Lynn August - Railroad Blues

Lynn August - Dont You Know I Love You

Lynn August - All the Things I Did for You

Lynn August - I'd Rather Go blind

Lynn August - Black Olives

Lynn August & the Hot August Nights - Blind Man

Lynn August - Bo Weevil

Lynn August - Hippi Ty O

Lynn August - Miquen


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Comments

"The House on Thursday passed its sweeping annual defense policy bill that would add billions of dollars to President Biden’s defense budget proposal, call for answers on failures in the war in Afghanistan and require women to register for the draft."

Evening, Joe

Have I been in a coma? required registration for a draft?

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NYCVG

@NYCVG I think that at your age you are not likely to be drafted. /S

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9 users have voted.

@humphrey obviously, Humphrey.

I did not know that we have re-instated any kind of draft.

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7 users have voted.

NYCVG

enhydra lutris's picture

@NYCVG

to global warming. What to do, what to do?

be well and have a good one

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11 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 --

@NYCVG
BTW my middle grandson is married to a Syria combat veteran. Seems strange. But she's a good woman, practical, serious, and willing to do what's required without being squeamish. he's good for her too, honest, playful, fun loving. He cheers her up. she hold his feet to the ground. I love them bpth and was honored to be Best Man at the wedding and to host the wedding dinner. (Olive Garden but it was a small wedding).

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

joe shikspack's picture

@NYCVG

heh, so the liberals finally got their wish.

i remember years ago the people who would grow up to be the elders of today's liberals were arguing amongst themselves about whether it would be productive to draft women. the argument of the liberals was that if women were eligible to be drafted that congresspeople would "think twice" about sending their daughters to war.

at the time all of the smart people were saying "hell no" and noting that the children of the elite were absolved of the responsibilities of real service and that congressworms have no souls.

i guess we shall now see who was right and wrong.

have a great weekend!

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11 users have voted.

But what about this?

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Lookout's picture

@humphrey

those horses were overdosed on ivermectin.

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12 users have voted.

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

@humphrey a barbaric sick country.

It keeps on getting worse.

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NYCVG

joe shikspack's picture

@humphrey

someday it will occur to the commentariat that we are a warlike, violent and brutal people and have been so since before the founding of the nation.

even the most cursory look at our history and our present would show that these images are not surprising in the least and accurately reflect what we are as a nation.

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Pluto's Republic's picture

A study of big data and epidemic models indicates with 50 percent probability that the first COVID-19 infection in the United States may have occurred between August and October 2019, and the earliest possible case was on April 26, 2019, in Rhode Island, according to a preprint of a study published on Wednesday.

The study, conducted by researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China and the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, is published on the Chinese preprint server ChinaXiv and is still undergoing peer-review.

After analyzing daily epidemic data published by local health authorities from 11 US states and the District of Columbia, the researchers said they are 50 percent confident that the first COVID-19 cases in the US emerged between August and October 2019, considerably earlier than the currently acknowledged date of the first confirmed US case, on Jan 20, 2020. "The calculations show that the COVID-19 epidemic in the United States has a high probability of beginning to spread around September 2019," according to the paper.

The 11 states are New Jersey, Vermont, Virginia, Michigan, New Hampshire, Louisiana, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Massachusetts, Delaware and Rhode Island.

"A series of previous studies showed that the United States, Spain, France, Italy, Brazil and other countries had been attacked by the coronavirus before its outbreak in China," the researchers wrote.

Last week, a team of Laotian and French researchers published a preprint study saying they had discovered three coronaviruses found in horseshoe bats that live in northern Laotian limestone caves that are the closest known ancestors yet of the COVID-19 virus.

These viruses share a key feature with SARS-CoV-2 in the part of its genome known as the receptor binding domain, a region that allows it to latch onto cells. This research supports the hypothesis that the COVID-19 virus originated from the horseshoe bat species.

Last month, researchers from the University of Milan and the Italian National Institute of Health reported that a different version of the COVID-19 virus may have been circulating in Lombardy, northern Italy, as early as late summer 2019.

The Italian preprint study suggested that a wider geographical area and a broader time span should be considered when investigating the origins of the virus.

I'm still acquiring links to these. Meanwhile there are scores of conformational studies based on tissue samples and specimens taken from patients around the world. Scientists from around the world are writing the true story of Covid-19 origins in the United States.

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____________________

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

@Pluto's Republic @Pluto's Republic
"failed" to come up with a COVID-19 test kit that didn't become widely available until March? By this time the virus was rampant throughout the country. That would certainly have obscured the origin of the pandemic.

Here Fauci explains lack of testing:

[video:https://youtu.be/xvW17dSuX5Q?t=295]

Note: In this same video Fauci said that the vaccines were in Phase 1 trials by Mar 8, 2020! So, the CDC managed to design and manufacture a vaccine for a "novel" coronavirus before they could manufacture the relatively simple PCR tests?

Another strange thing was that some states had obtained the PCR tests much sooner but were prevented from using them because they were "not authorized".

Germany had come up with a kit on January 17, 2020 followed by China on Jan 24, 2020 and both countries were well on their way to tracking the new epidemic by the first week of January.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@CB

we couldn't use foreign and especially UN tests because not invented or made here and America First was presnit. Our own initial batches wee munged by bad reagents and contaminated swabs and assorted shit and then further delayed because countries with health care systems were scarfing up all the reagents and we couldn't get any.

The vaccines have been in process since SARS. They were working steadily on an all purpose covid tool kit that merely needed a clean DNA readout from the virus so they could use the exact specific spike protein for this particular SARS version, which they got from China fairly early on.

be well and have a good one

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8 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 --

CB's picture

@enhydra lutris
so, fortuitously, they were VERY well prepared to start production on a vaccine for the spike protein from the SARS coronavirus.

https://denisbider.blogspot.com/2021/07/dr-david-martin-with-reiner-fuel...
Events prior to Covid-19:

  • Moderna knew it was going to be placed in the front of the line with respect to development of a vaccine in March 2019. At that time, for reasons that are not transparent, they amended a series of rejected patent filings to specifically make reference to a deliberate or accidental release of coronavirus. They amended 4 failed patent applications to begin the process of coronavirus vaccine development. They began dealing with a problem they had, which was that they relied on technology they did not own. Two Canadian companies, Arbutus and Acuitas, actually own the patent on the lipid nanoparticle envelope that's required to deliver the injection of the mRNA fragment. Those patents have been issued in Canada, the US and around the world. Moderna knew it did not own the rights and began negotiating with Arbutus and Acuitas to get a resolution of LNP technology available to put into a vaccine. In November, they entered into a cooperative R&D agreement with UNC Chapel Hill with respect to getting the spike protein to put inside the LNP, so that they actually had a candidate vaccine before we had a pathogen allegedly running around.
  • Their due process is similar to other pharmaceutical companies where they evergreen applications and continually modify applications to enjoy the earliest priority dates available.
  • From 2016 until 2019, at every one of NIAID advisory council board meetings, Anthony Fauci lamented that he could not find a way to get people to accept the universal influenza vaccine, which was his favorite target to get the population to engage in this process
  • By March of 2019, in the amended patent filings of Moderna, we see there's an epiphany that says "What if there was an accidental or intentional release of a respiratory pathogen?" The phrase is exactly recited in the book A World at Risk, which is the scenario put together by the WHO in September 2019 – months before there was an alleged pathogen – which says "We need a coordinated global experience of a respiratory pathogen release, which by September 2020 must put in place a universal capacity for public relations management, crowd control and the acceptance of a universal vaccine mandate." The language of an intentional release of a respiratory pathogen was written into the scenario that "must be completed by September 2020."
  • This is the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board's unified statement. There are a number of people who have taken credit and then backed away from credit for it.

Our own initial batches wee munged by bad reagents and contaminated swabs and assorted shit

That doesn't make any sense - the American pharmaceutical companies are one of the most advanced in the world.

then further delayed because countries with health care systems were scarfing up all the reagents and we couldn't get any.

The US has the world's largest drug manufacturing industry and you're saying they can't supply the relatively common reagents for PCR tests when German, Swiss and Chinese managed to make and get them out much quicker in a fraction of the time?

How many lives did this 'shit' cost the US as thousands of the elderly were placed together, infected and non-infected? The same for hospitals in the two months we had to wait.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@CB

issues just like they were with ppe, just because we can make something doesn't mean we will make it available at home, I suspect reported shortages of components were probably due to bulk sales and contractual sales commitments to others made before it took hold here. You'd be surprised, btw, how much of our pharma production is outsourced, used to be primarily to Puerto Rico, not sure where today.

be well and have a good one.

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1 user has 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 --

CB's picture

@enhydra lutris @enhydra lutris

we couldn't use foreign and especially UN tests because not invented or made here and America First was presnit.

Both SARS-CoV-1 and the methods of detection were patented in 2004. There's no difference in detecting SARS-CoV-2.

Coronavirus isolated from humans
Justia Patents Viral ProteinUS Patent for Coronavirus isolated from humans Patent (Patent # 7,220,852)
Apr 12, 2004 - The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Disclosed herein is a newly isolated human coronavirus (SARS-CoV), the causative agent of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Also provided are the nucleic acid sequence of the SARS-CoV genome and the amino acid sequences of the SARS-CoV open reading frames, as well as methods of using these molecules to detect a SARS-CoV and detect infections therewith. Immune stimulatory compositions are also provided, along with methods of their use.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@CB

back into public gummit narrative and not science history, you will find US govt insisting shit had to be done here and UN product, especially, not acceptable. We could've simply bought tons, but refused to do so, there was punditry or press jabber about same on T mismanaging shit theme.

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1 user has 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

@Pluto's Republic

thanks for the info. i hope that the global scientific community gets to the bottom of covid's origins, though, undoubtedly the us elites will reject the science when it contradicts their favored narrative.

have a great weekend!

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

@joe shikspack

The US has refused to allow the WHO to conduct their investigation in the US at Ft. Detrick. However, the genetic evolution studies point a pretty clear path to the US as the origin.

The US objective was to smear China and build hate in the US; a willingness to go to war and to destroy China's progress. They've succeeded with this bioweapon blame, and with the Xinjiang genocide, with NEDs attempted revolution in Hong Kong, and all the propaganda about China stealing US jobs, stealing US IP, all the scientists arrested and standing trial for spying in the US.

The truth will not stop US atrocities. It takes healthier, better educated, econmically secure citizens to do that.

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8 users have voted.

____________________

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

A lovely day here, hope yours was good too.

Sure is a good thing we can overfund the MIC while no longer being at "war". I often hear, "We don't make anything in America." Oh yes we do, bombs, drones, aircraft carriers, and on and on, more than any other country. Sell the most too...and you better buy from us or our uncle sam will pay you a visit...about like the mafia.

The last story on the UN food summit is more important than people may be aware. Seems the reset is aiming to control food and have power over people. Profit and greed is a powerful motivator for many. Kinda weird to me. I'd rather have my little garden, and like using our local producers too. There's more healthy food being grown in the US but it is small scale (as it should be). This site has some good producers. http://eatwild.com/

Thanks for the music and the news!

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15 users have voted.

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

@Lookout
Wait for it!
CHINA!

Showing what a big farce it all is.

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10 users have voted.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@Lookout

i sure hope that one day the people will have had enough of overfunding the military while many americans live in misery. i guess the misery has to spread some more before we get there.

the weather here was delightful today, i love it when it cools off, even though it reminds me that my favorite farm stands will soon be closing for the season and i will have to go to the grocery store again for the bulk of my food.

have a great weekend!

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7 users have voted.

I purchased a book called "The Truth About COVID-19 (Exposing The Great Reset, Lockdowns, Vaccine Passports, and The New Normal), which someone, maybe you, posted in a comment here. I will get started on it over the weekend.
Thanks for all your research.

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8 users have voted.

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

CB's picture

@on the cusp
I may have posted it before but Im not sure. I haven't started reading it yet. I'm currently reading a book on the history of China starting with the Opium Wars.

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9 users have voted.

@CB I think it was Janis B who mentioned the Foundation Triogy a few days ago and I am rereading that.

Her remarks mentioned a country that won a war because their enemy depended on them and all they had to do to win was---nothing.

Look at the Shortages, Ports clogged, etc. (Above---China makes the chips for our military.)

A siege and a blockade by other names.

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12 users have voted.

NYCVG

joe shikspack's picture

@on the cusp

heh, i think that someone else posted about that book, maybe cb or pluto. the title sounds interesting. let us know what you learn from it.

have a great weekend!

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7 users have voted.
TheOtherMaven's picture

@joe shikspack

(Longtime hardcore science fiction fan!)

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2 users have voted.

There is no justice. There can be no peace.

ggersh's picture

Oh wait, not this

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5lrkdvEZGg]

BUT THIS

https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/australians-need-to-decide-if-this

Thanks for the Blues Joe, and stay safe everyone!

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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

@ggersh for the people of Australia to decide much of anything. The future has arrived without
their input.

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9 users have voted.

NYCVG

joe shikspack's picture

@ggersh

heh, australia looks alot like every american city where people get uppity.

have a great weekend!

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7 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

Great article by Ian Welsh. The title and topic are pretty much some sort of cross between common knowledge and an assumed given, but the lead-off examples were very good, well selected and visceral.

Like NYCVG I found references to registering for the draft a bit daft, but then I remembered that all of that sorry-assed process is still on the books, just waiting for some politician to re-activate the draft, which could happen at any time now. Grandparents are now going to have to teach granddaughters about draft resistance. I assume that the cards are still flammable, heh. Wink

Good to hear a bit of zydeco for a change, thanks

be well, have a good one and have a fantastic weekend.

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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 --

@enhydra lutris and was happy listening to Pink Cadillac.

Then, I saw the draft item.

I had no idea that there is a statute on the books which would allow for drafting anybody.

Are we becoming United States plus Israel? 50+ 1? dreadful thought.

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11 users have voted.

NYCVG

enhydra lutris's picture

@NYCVG

scaffolding, they simply stopped drafting people. As I understand it, the Selective Service Act and related acts and regs were never repealed, just put on hold, and then Jimmy Carter reactivated all parts retroactively except actual induction of people into the armed services (so we'd be ready to go fuck with the Russkies in Afghanistan and/or Afghan proxies). So everyboddy gots to register, but they aren't actually drafting anybody, barring some further Presidential order starting that up too.

be well and have a good one

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11 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 --

CB's picture

@enhydra lutris
All you need is poverty, high unemployment and lack of opportunity. But we did need the draft for the Vietnam War because America was relatively prosperous for the average person at the time.

In a pinch, TPTB can always make a case for war with a false flag or perceived threat. This has worked every f'ing time.....

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joe shikspack's picture

@enhydra lutris

but the lead-off examples were very good, well selected and visceral.

heh, i'm sure that they were all unfortunate coincidences. Smile

i shall be quite happy to instruct my grandkid and all of her friends in the fine art of draft card burning.

have a great weekend!

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7 users have voted.
Azazello's picture

Here's Dore & Maté again, this time re:Hunter's laptop.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7mBgOQDxQo width:500 height:300]
The Lancet - An appeal for an objective, open, and transparent scientific debate about the origin of SARS-CoV-2

On July 5, 2021, a Correspondence was published in The Lancet called “Science, not speculation, is essential to determine how SARS-CoV-2 reached humans”.
The letter recapitulates the arguments of an earlier letter (published in February, 2020) by the same authors which claimed overwhelming support for the hypothesis that the novel coronavirus causing the COVID-19 pandemic originated in wildlife. The authors associated any alternative view with conspiracy theories by stating: “We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin”. The statement has imparted a silencing effect on the wider scientific debate, including among science journalists.
The 2021 letter did not repeat the proposition that scientists open to alternative hypotheses were conspiracy theorists, but did state: “We believe the strongest clue from new, credible, and peer-reviewed evidence in the scientific literature is that the virus evolved in nature, while suggestions of a laboratory leak source of the pandemic remain without scientifically validated evidence that directly supports it in peer-reviewed scientific journals”. In fact, this argument could literally be reversed. As will be shown below, there is no direct support for the natural origin of SARS-CoV-2, and a laboratory-related accident is plausible.

Slate - The Unbelievable Grimness of HermanCainAward, the Subreddit That Catalogs Anti-Vaxxer COVID Deaths
Have a nice dang night.

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9 users have voted.

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

CB's picture

@Azazello

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6 users have voted.
Azazello's picture

@CB
I don't do Reddit but I know it's huge. There's a Subreddit for everything.

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6 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, so those russkies are at it again, going after poor, drug-addled hunter. Smile

i sure hope that the scientific community is able to conclusively get to the bottom of the question of where covid-19 came from soon. all of the wrangling and spinning is getting annoying.

have a great weekend!

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8 users have voted.
CB's picture

@Azazello

An appeal for an objective, open, and transparent scientific debate about the origin of SARS-CoV-2
...
There is so far no scientifically validated evidence that directly supports a natural origin. Among the references cited in the two letters by Calisher and colleagues 1,2, all but one simply show that SARS-CoV-2 is phylogenetically related to other betacoronaviruses. The fact that the causative agent of COVID-19 descends from a natural virus is widely accepted, but this does not explain how it came to infect humans... the authors conclude in favour of a natural proximal origin... strong similarity between receptor binding domains of SARS-CoV-2 and pangolins provides a more parsimonious explanation... However, the pangolin hypothesis has since been abandoned, so the whole reasoning should be re-evaluated.

Although considerable evidence supports the natural origins of other outbreaks (eg, Nipah, MERS, and the 2002–04 SARS outbreak) direct evidence for a natural origin for SARS-CoV-2 is missing. After 19 months of investigations, the proximal progenitor of SARS-CoV-2 is still lacking. Neither the host pathway from bats to humans, nor the geographical route from Yunnan (where the viruses most closely related to SARS-CoV-2 have been sampled) to Wuhan (where the pandemic emerged) have been identified...
...
A research-related origin is plausible. Two questions need to be addressed: virus evolution and introduction into the human population. Since July, 2020, several peer-reviewed scientific papers have discussed the likelihood of a research-related origin of the virus. Some unusual features of the SARS-CoV-2 genome sequence suggest that they may have resulted from genetic engineering, an approach widely used in some virology labs. Alternatively, adaptation to humans might result from undirected laboratory selection during serial passage in cell cultures or laboratory animals, including humanised mice. Mice genetically modified to display the human receptor for entry of SARS-CoV-2 (ACE2) were used in research projects funded before the pandemic, to test the infectivity of different virus strains. Laboratory research also includes more targeted approaches such as gain-of-function experiments relying on chimeric viruses to test their potential to cross species barriers.
...
Scientific journals should open their columns to in-depth analyses of all hypotheses... As shown above, research-related hypotheses are not misinformation and conjecture. More importantly, science embraces alternative hypotheses, contradictory arguments, verification, refutability, and controversy. Departing from this principle risks establishing dogmas, abandoning the essence of science, and, even worse, paving the way for conspiracy theories. Instead, the scientific community should bring this debate to a place where it belongs: the columns of scientific journals.

This Lancet article lends credence to the thread started by Lookout on Wed, 09/22/2021

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9 users have voted.

https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2021/09/24/pge-charged-with-manslaught...

REDDING (CBS SF/AP) — A Northern California district attorney announced manslaughter and numerous other charges against Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) Friday after its equipment sparked the Zogg Fire last year that killed four people and destroyed hundreds of homes.

It is the latest action against the nation’s largest utility, which pleaded guilty last year to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter in a 2018 blaze ignited by its long-neglected electrical grid that nearly destroyed the town of Paradise and became the deadliest U.S. wildfire in a century.

In a news conference, Shasta County District Attorney Stephanie Bridgett announced the 31 charges, including 11 felonies, against the company. She said in July that her office had determined that PG&E was “criminally liable” for last year’s Zogg Fire, which burned near the city of Redding.

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10 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@humphrey

i guess it will be up to the court to fashion a punishment that somewhat satisfies the anger of vast numbers of aggrieved people while not upsetting the ruling elites too much.

i suppose you can't send pg&e to the electric chair.

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7 users have voted.
dystopian's picture

Hey Joe! Hope all are doing well! Hope fall has found everyone. Texas had its first real fall front this week producing the lowest temps in five months, since April. And took the humidity away. Finally some relief from the drippy summer heat here. And most of the hummingbirds leave on the front. Day of when it arrives, and day and two after, riding the northerlies for a free 10-15mph extra, for a day or two, adds a lot of free miles. Which are big when you are just a few inches long. We went from 125+ to less than 25 in 2 days.

That Guitar Slim was awesome... great great player. Fast, really creative and innovative in his day, it was cutting edge playing. Outstanding stuff!

Have a good weekend Joe! Be well all!

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7 users have voted.

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 haven't seen a hummingbird here for a couple of days, so i am guessing that our friendly neighborhood hummingbirds have packed it in and moved on.

heh, frank zappa listed guitar slim as one of his primary guitar-playing influences in one of the biographies that i read a while back. it makes sense to me, i can hear it.

have a great weekend!

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6 users have voted.