The Evening Blues - 10-14-21



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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Professor Longhair

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features New Orleans piano player Professor Longhair. Enjoy!

Professor Longhair & The Meters - Tipitina

“One of the greatest advantages of the totalitarian elites of the twenties and thirties was to turn any statement of fact into a question of motive.”

-- Hannah Arendt


News and Opinion

Netflix To Launch WikiLeaks Smear Job Three Days Before Assange Court Date

Netflix will begin streaming a brazen hatchet job on Julian Assange and WikiLeaks for its American subscribers on October 24th, just three days prior to a significant court date in Assange’s fight against extradition from the UK to the United States on October 27th.

“You can stream We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks on Netflix starting Sunday, October 24, 2021, at 12 AM PT / 3 AM ET,” Netflix Schedule reports.

We Steal Secrets was a “documentary” that is now so outdated beyond its 2013 release that one of its central characters, Chelsea Manning, is referred to by a dead name throughout its entirety. Why choose this specific moment to release it?

Well it doesn’t make much sense at all, if the timing wasn’t deliberately geared toward damaging Assange’s reputation in the nation whose government is trying to extradite him for exposing its war crimes. Assange’s October court date was set way back in August and Netflix didn’t announce it had scheduled to begin streaming this film until two weeks ago.

After all, We Steal Secrets was so egregious in its spin that not only did WikiLeaks supporters like World Socialist Website and journalist Jonathan Cook pan it as a smear at the time, but WikiLeaks itself went to the trouble of publishing a line-by-line refutation of the mountains of propaganda distortion heaped on the narrative by filmmaker Alex Gibney.

“The title (‘We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks’) is false,” WikiLeaks writes at the beginning of its response. “It directly implies that WikiLeaks steals secrets. In fact, the statement is made by former CIA/NSA director Michael Hayden in relation to the activities of US government spies, not in relation to WikiLeaks. This an irresponsible libel. Not even critics in the film say that WikiLeaks steals secrets.”

“Gibney’s latest release—We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks—is something else again,” World Socialist Website wrote in 2013. “The 130-minute feature is a political hatchet job against Julian Assange and dovetails with the media and US government campaign against the WikiLeaks web site. Whether Gibney has shifted to the right or simply revealed the fatal limitations of his liberal ‘oppositional’ views is a matter for a separate discussion. In any event, his newest work is an effort at disinformation.”

“The job of a good documentarist is to weigh the available material and then present as honest a record of what it reveals as possible. Anything less is at best polemic, if it sides with those who are silenced and weak, and at worst propaganda, if it sides with those who wield power,” critiqued Jonathan Cook at the time.

This would not be the first time Netflix has helped circulate narratives that advance the interests of the US empire, or the second, or the third, having already run blatantly propagandistic “documentaries” advancing imperial interests in nations like Ukraine, Russia, Egypt, and multiple ones about Syria. Netflix has also signed deals with the Obamas and with British royalty.

So they’re not exactly looking out for the little guy, which from a company worth an estimated $229 billion should come as no surprise.

Still, such open facilitation of the world’s most powerful government in its campaign to imprison a journalist for inconvenient journalistic activity is a special kind of reprehensible. If there is a healthy humanity in the future, it will look back on the worldwide smear campaign against Assange and WikiLeaks with horror.

Progressives to Put US War Crimes on Trial and Demand Freedom for Julian Assange

A group of prominent global progressives on Wednesday announced a return of the Belmarsh Tribunal, where participants will put the United States government on informal trial for war crimes and demand freedom for jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

On October 22, Progressive International's Belmarsh Tribunal, named after the notorious London prison where Assange is imprisoned as he faces possible extradition to the United States, "will try the U.S. government for its crimes of the 21st century—from atrocities in Iraq to torture at Guantánamo Bay to a surveillance program."

"We are convening parliamentarians, journalists, lawyers, and investigators to fight for truth and justice against Assange's extradition to the United States," said Progressive International, which held a similar tribunal last year. "In doing so, the Belmarsh Tribunal turns the tables in the extradition hearing against Julian Assange... a case that will shape the future of journalism for decades to come."

Britain's High Court has been considering the Biden administration's appeal in the extradition case against Assange, with a full appellate hearing scheduled for October 27 and 28.

"WikiLeaks exposed the reality of the War on Terror," said Progressive International. "It revealed war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan, over 300 incidents of torture, and secret killings by the United States armed forces. For exposing the criminality of the War on Terror, the U.S. and its allies have persecuted, imprisoned, and plotted to assassinate Julian Assange."

Last month, Common Dreams reported that in 2017 the Central Intelligence Agency, under then-Director Mike Pompeo, plotted to kidnap—and possibly murder—Assange to avenge WikiLeaks' publication of the "Vault 7" documents exposing CIA cyber warfare and surveillance activities.

The Belmarsh Tribunal is inspired by the Russell Tribunal, a 1966 event organized by philosophers Bertrand Russell and Jean-Paul Sartre to hold the U.S. accountable for its escalating war crimes in Vietnam.

British historian and activist Tariq Ali, one of the original Belmarsh Tribunal members, will participate in this year's event.

Some of the members of the 2021 Belmarsh Tribunal include German Left Party lawmaker Heike Hänsel; Solidarity Party of Afghanistan spokesperson Selay Ghaffar; Greek lawmaker Yanis Varoufakis; former Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa; Italian investigative journalist Stefania Maurizi; ACLU attorney Ben Wizner; and British Labour parliamentarians Apsana Begum, Richard Burgon, Jeremy Corbyn, and John McDonnell.

"At the Belmarsh Tribunal, we will turn the world the right way up," Corbyn tweeted Wednesday, "placing crimes of war, torture, kidnapping, and a litany of other gross human rights abuses on trial."

US: Blinken to warn Lapid of risks of cooperating with China in ‘candid’ talk

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will have a “candid” conversation with Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, during which he will caution against Chinese investment in the Israeli economy, a senior State Department official said Tuesday.

The comments — made during a briefing with reporters previewing the Wednesday meeting in Washington between Blinken, Lapid and UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed — appeared to mark an uptick in US rhetoric against Israel’s warming ties with China. ...

Biden administration officials have raised their concern over Chinese investment with their Israeli counterparts in the past, but it was done behind closed doors, a senior Israeli official told The Times of Israel on Wednesday.

The official said that Jerusalem is willing to modify its relationship with China, and has not shied away from criticizing Beijing’s human rights record in international forums. However, Israel, along with other allies, has been put off by US requests to reject tenders from certain Chinese companies when those same firms are operating on American soil, the Israeli official added.

Amid a US-China trade war that has ebbed and flowed in recent years under both the Trump and Biden administrations, Israel and China have seen warming relations and more interest in Israeli innovations, especially in medical tech, robotics, food tech, and artificial intelligence.

US and Israel exploring ‘plan B’ for if Iran does not resume nuclear talks

The United States and Israel have warned that they are exploring a “plan B” for dealing with Iran if Tehran does not return in good faith to negotiations to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal. With talks to revive the deal at a standstill, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said on Wednesday that the window for the Islamic Republic to return to the agreement is closing.

“Time is running short,” he said at a joint press conference with the Israeli foreign minister, Yair Lapid. “We are prepared to turn to other options if Iran doesn’t change course, and these consultations with our allies and partners are part of it.”

“We will look at every option to deal with the challenge posed by Iran,” Blinken said. “And we continue to believe that diplomacy is the most effective way to do that. But, it takes two to engage in diplomacy, and we have not seen from Iran a willingness to do that at this point.”

He did not elaborate, but Lapid, without being contradicted, said of Blinken’s comments: “If a terror regime is going to acquire a nuclear weapon, we must act. We must make clear the civilized world won’t allow it.” ...

The US warnings came as the EU chief negotiator Enrique Mora travels to Iran with a message that the talks are in deep crisis, in the latest attempt to convince Tehran to return to talks. A European diplomat said: “It is now up to Iran to unambiguously state its intention and explain its choice to the international community and its own citizens.”

Krystal Ball: Is CNN Getting Cash to COVER for UAE Dictatorship?

Chile president Piñera faces impeachment after Pandora papers leak

Opposition politicians have launched impeachment proceedings against Chile’s president, Sebastián Piñera, over possible irregularities in the sale of a mining company, after new details about the deal were revealed in the Pandora papers. Lawmakers cited an “ethical duty” to hold the president accountable for the alleged irregularities in his involvement in the controversial Dominga project.

Earlier this month Chile’s public prosecutor’s office said that it would open an investigation into possible bribery-related corruption charges and tax violations linked to the sale, which was completed in the British Virgin Islands.

The move is the latest blow for centre-right Piñera as he approaches the end of a turbulent four-year term. Presidential and legislative elections are due in November, with polls suggesting leftwing candidates are likely to gain ground.

Piñera’s family sold their stake in the Dominga mine project in 2010 to his close friend and business partner, Carlos Alberto Délano. The Pandora papers investigation found evidence to suggest that the third installment of the payment contained a clause requiring the government not to strengthen environmental protections in the proposed area for the mine in the north of Chile.

Jaime Naranjo, a leftist lower house lawmaker and one of the drivers of the impeachment proceeding, said Piñera had “openly infringed the constitution … seriously compromising the honor of the nation”.

Docs 'Show What We Feared' About Amazon's Monopoly Power

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday renewed her call to break up Amazon after internal documents obtained by Reuters revealed that the e-commerce giant engaged in anti-competitive behavior in India that it has long denied, including in testimonies from company leaders to Congress.

"These documents show what we feared about Amazon's monopoly power—that the company is willing and able to rig its platform to benefit its bottom line while stiffing small businesses and entrepreneurs," tweeted Warren (D-Mass.) "This is one of the many reasons we need to break it up."

Warren is a vocal advocate of breaking up tech giants including but not limited to Amazon. The company faces investigations regarding alleged anti-competitive behavior in the United States as well as Europe and India. The investigative report may ramp up such probes.

Aditya Karla and Steve Stecklow report that "thousands of pages of internal Amazon documents examined by Reuters—including emails, strategy papers, and business plans—show the company ran a systematic campaign of creating knockoffs and manipulating search results to boost its own product lines in India, one of the company's largest growth markets."

"The documents reveal how Amazon's private-brands team in India secretly exploited internal data from Amazon.in to copy products sold by other companies, and then offered them on its platform," according to the reporters. "The employees also stoked sales of Amazon private-brand products by rigging Amazon's search results."

As Reuters notes:

In sworn testimony before the U.S. Congress in 2020, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos explained that the e-commerce giant prohibits its employees from using the data on individual sellers to help its private-label business. And, in 2019, another Amazon executive testified that the company does not use such data to create its own private-label products or alter its search results to favor them.

But the internal documents seen by Reuters show for the first time that, at least in India, manipulating search results to favor Amazon's own products, as well as copying other sellers' goods, were part of a formal, clandestine strategy at Amazon—and that high-level executives were told about it. The documents show that two executives reviewed the India strategy—senior vice presidents Diego Piacentini, who has since left the company, and Russell Grandinetti, who currently runs Amazon's international consumer business.

While neither Piacentini nor Grandinetti responded to Reuters' requests for comment, Amazon provided a written response that did not address the reporters' questions.

Millions in US fear utility shutoffs as debts rise

Millions more Americans fell behind on utility bills during the pandemic. Utility debt increased from around $12bn before the pandemic to an estimated $32bn by the end of 2020, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association (NEADA).

The UK, Europe and China have been racked by soaring energy prices. So far most of the US has been spared the worst of it but economists are predicting that here too an energy crisis is looming, and as winter approaches prices are rising, potentially threatening the utilities of millions more. ...

Mark Wolfe, executive director of NEADA, noted utility debt could have been much worse without supplemental funding through the American Rescue Plan in March 2021 and additional funding to the annual budget of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).

Only Washington DC and three states – New York, New Jersey and Wyoming –have continued utility shutoff moratoriums that were begun during the pandemic. But worries of increases in utility debt remain. Unemployment benefits for millions of Americans expired in early September and natural gas prices are expected to rise by as much as 30% for consumers this winter throughout the US, Europe and Asia.

“The upcoming winter is of serious concern. Natural gas, heating oil and propane prices have become very expensive and will put pressure on families this winter,” said Wolfe. “If additional funding is not provided then I expect that arrearages will spike again, unless Congress provides additional funding for energy assistance programs.”

US supply chain woes leave schools scrambling to feed kids lunch

On Tuesday mornings, three Little Caesars stores across Oakland county, Michigan, make 273 pizzas, even before they open for business. On Wednesdays, another 320 pies are out the door before noon. But their customers aren’t sports fans ditching work to watch a day game. They’re students in the Huron Valley schools in Highland, Michigan, north-west of Detroit.

“Our little kids cheer when the pizzas come. It’s one thing our kids can count on,” said Sara Simmerman, food and nutrition supervisor for the 8,600-student district.

Like most districts across the country, Huron Valley is facing unprecedented food and labor shortages caused by what supply chain experts say is nearing a “global transport systems collapse”. Experts say as the economy reopened after lockdowns, many industries – including those involved in delivering food and supplies to schools – have faced increased demand they can’t meet.

Many predict the backlog of orders could extend throughout the rest of the school year. Forced to adapt their meal programs to a grab-and-go system last year when schools shut down for remote learning, school nutrition departments are now scrambling to find menu items and enlisting front office staff and school administrators to serve meals. They’re adapting their menus almost daily, depending on deliveries, and putting off equipment purchases to make up for higher prices on food and supplies. ...

The US Department of Agriculture recently announced $1.5bn in assistance to help school nutrition departments keep up with rising costs. The funds will provide schools with fruit, vegetables, meat and dairy products. This would free up other funds to offer hiring bonuses to address staffing shortages. But Diane Pratt-Heaver, spokesperson for the School Nutrition Association, noted that agricultural commodities usually account for only 15 to 20% of what districts serve, and they still have to rely on vendors and distributors for other food and supplies.

White House FREAKS Over Christmas Shortages Backlash

Biden orders companies to ease supply chain bottlenecks or he’ll ‘call them out’

Joe Biden has warned companies that he will “call them out” if they fail to “step up” to ease supply chain bottlenecks ahead of the holiday season. The US president, facing grim opinion polls and a stalling legislative agenda, is eager to avert fresh political damage from choked ports, highways and railways resulting in higher prices and empty shelves.

“I know you’re hearing a lot about something called supply chains and how hard it is to get a range of things from a toaster to sneakers to bicycles to bedroom furniture,” Biden acknowledged in a short address at the White House on Wednesday. “With the holidays coming up, you might be wondering if the gifts you plan to buy will arrive on time.”

Biden announced that the Port of Los Angeles – which has recently suffered a record backlog – will expand to 24/7 operations, following the example of the Port of Long Beach, also in California.

About 40% of shipping containers imported to the US come through the two ports, which are among the world’s busiest but typically operate five days a week, closing at night and weekends. The change will see the Port of Los Angeles add more than 60 hours of operation a week, almost double its total earlier this year.

Biden, who set up a supply chain disruption task force in June, said the announcement has the “potential to be a game-changer” but added: “I say potential because all of these goods won’t move by themselves. “For the positive impact to be felt all across the country and by all of you at home, we need major retailers who ordered the goods and the freight movers who take the goods from the ships to factories and to stores to step up as well.”

WORKERS QUIT In RECORD Numbers In Healthcare, Retail, Food | Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar

Is America experiencing an unofficial general strike?

Last Friday’s jobs report from the US Department of Labor elicited a barrage of gloomy headlines. The New York Times emphasized “weak” jobs growth and fretted that “hiring challenges that have bedeviled employers all year won’t be quickly resolved,” and “rising wages could add to concerns about inflation.” For CNN, it was “another disappointment”. For Bloomberg the “September jobs report misses big for a second straight month”.

The media failed to report the big story, which is actually a very good one: American workers are now flexing their muscles for the first time in decades. You might say workers have declared a national general strike until they get better pay and improved working conditions. No one calls it a general strike. But in its own disorganized way it’s related to the organized strikes breaking out across the land – Hollywood TV and film crews, John Deere workers, Alabama coal miners, Nabisco workers, Kellogg workers, nurses in California, healthcare workers in Buffalo.

Disorganized or organized, American workers now have bargaining leverage to do better. After a year and a half of the pandemic, consumers have pent-up demand for all sorts of goods and services. But employers are finding it hard to fill positions. Last Friday’s jobs report showed the number of job openings at a record high. The share of people working or actively looking for work (the labor force participation rate) has dropped to 61.6%. Participation for people in their prime working years, defined as 25 to 54 years old, is also down.

Over the past year, job openings have increased 62%. Yet overall hiring has actually declined. ... All told, about 4 million American workers have been leaving their jobs every month since the spring.

The media and most economists measure the economy’s success by the number of jobs it creates, while ignoring the quality of those jobs. That’s a huge oversight.

Congressional Democrats Slam Biden's Refusal to Round Out FCC

Congressional Democrats are reiterating their warning that President Joe Biden's glaring failure to fully staff the five-person board of the Federal Communications Commission could result in a 2-1 Republican majority on the panel by year's end, jeopardizing efforts to secure high-speed internet for all and restore net neutrality.

Despite advocating for universal broadband access and signing an executive order urging the FCC to reinstate the Obama-era net neutrality rules repealed by the Trump administration, Biden—after almost nine months in office—has yet to take the steps necessary to achieve those goals: pick a permanent chair and nominate a candidate to fill the fifth and final seat on the panel.

"Biden's delay is historic," Politico noted Wednesday. "The closest parallels are Jimmy Carter and Richard Nixon, who waited until mid-September to name their agency chiefs."

In contrast to Biden, former President Donald Trump tapped former FCC chair Ajit Pai to lead the agency on the fourth day of his term, and by December 2017, the corporate-friendly commissioner was giving internet service providers (ISPs) the power to block or slow down certain websites while opening the potential to charge extra fees for access to "fast lanes" that would betray the bedrock principle of treating online traffic equally.

Last December, Trump nominated Nathan Simington, a former Commerce Department aide, to join fellow Republican Brendan Carr in serving on the FCC board—an appointment then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) rushed to confirm during the lame-duck session. Pai, a former Verizon lawyer, resigned on the day Biden was sworn in, creating the agency's current 2-2 split of Republican and Democratic commissioners.

Biden was praised by progressives for naming Democratic commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel as acting chair of the FCC on January 21, but as Politico explained, "Rosenworcel's term lapsed in June 2020, which means she'll have to leave the commission by the end of the year unless Biden nominates her and the Senate confirms her to another five-year term—a Herculean task with so few legislative days left this year and so much else on Congress' schedule."

"With Rosenworcel out," Politico reported, "the remaining Democrat, Geoffrey Starks, would become acting chair. He would have the power to set the voting agenda at monthly open meetings, but the two Republican commissioners could outvote him on every item if they so chose."

Biden's foot-dragging—long condemned by progressive advocates—has frustrated Democratic lawmakers, who are becoming increasingly vocal about the White House's refusal to fill the vacant seat and either renew Rosenworcel's term or replace her.



the horse race



The Nation’s John Nichols: Trump’s Coup Nearly Succeeded. He Will Try Again in 2024

House Capitol attack panel issues subpoena to Trump official Jeffrey Clark

The House select committee investigating the Capitol attack on Wednesday issued a subpoena to top Trump justice department official Jeffrey Clark, escalating its inquiry into the former president’s efforts to reinstall himself in office and the 6 January insurrection.

The new subpoena underscores the select committee’s far-reaching mandate in scrutinizing the origins of the Capitol attack, as it pursues an investigation into Donald Trump’s role in pressuring the justice department (DoJ) to do his bidding in the final weeks of his presidency. In targeting Clark, House select committee investigators followed up on a Senate judiciary committee report that last week detailed his efforts to abuse the justice department to support Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

The House select committee chairman, Bennie Thompson, said in a statement that he authorized a subpoena for testimony from Clark to understand how the Trump White House sought to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory during the joint session of Congress. “We need to understand Mr Clark’s role in these efforts at the justice department and learn who was involved across the administration. The select committee expects Mr Clark to cooperate fully with our investigation,” Thompson said.

The new subpoena targeting Clark came a day before the select committee was scheduled to conduct depositions against top Trump administration officials over their potential role in the 6 January insurrection and what they knew in advance of the Capitol attack. But it was not clear hours before the deadlines whether the Trump officials – former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino, strategist Steve Bannon and defense department aide Kash Patel – would testify on Thursday and Friday.

Dems PANIC As Suburban Women Go 'Back To Brunch'

In Dead of Night, Texas House Approves GOP's Gerrymandered Map

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, while much of the country slept, the Republican-dominated Texas House approved a heavily gerrymandered district map that critics have denounced as part of an anti-democratic and racist GOP power grab—one that right-wing lawmakers could try to replicate across the United States.

At around 3:30 am local time, Texas lawmakers passed the GOP's state House redistricting proposal in a largely party-line vote after roughly 14 hours of debate. The bill, authored by state Rep. Todd Hunter (R-32) and designed to set boundaries for the 150 Texas House districts, now heads to state's Republican-controlled Senate.

On top of a slew of other right-wing priorities, the Texas legislature is racing to approve state House, state Senate, and congressional district maps before its third special session of the year expires on October 19.

Democracy is "quite literally dying in the dark," Mother Jones reporter Ari Berman tweeted in response to the Texas House's passage of its map. Earlier this month, Berman argued that—if fully approved—the Republican-drawn district maps would make Texas' "political representation far whiter and more Republican, all but ending competition at the very moment when ascendant Democrats are finally making the state competitive."

Biden's Approval Numbers Plummeting For A Reason



the evening greens


Biden officials announce ambitious plan to dot US coastline with wind farms

Seven major offshore wind farms would be developed on the east and west coasts and in the Gulf of Mexico under a plan announced Wednesday by the Biden administration.

The projects are part of Joe Biden’s plan to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030, generating enough electricity to power more than 10 million homes.

Deb Haaland, the interior secretary, said her department hoped to hold lease sales by 2025 off the coasts of Maine, New York and the mid-Atlantic, as well as the Carolinas, California, Oregon and the Gulf of Mexico. The projects could avoid about 78m metric tons of planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions, while creating up to 77,000 jobs, officials said.

“The interior department is laying out an ambitious road map as we advance the administration’s plans to confront climate change, create good-paying jobs and accelerate the nation’s transition to a cleaner energy future,” Haaland said.

In addition to offshore wind, the interior department is working with other federal agencies to increase renewable energy production on public lands, Haaland said, with a goal of at least 25 gigawatts of onshore renewable energy from wind and solar power by 2025.

One in five of Europe’s bird species slipping towards extinction

The common swift, common snipe and rook are among species slipping towards extinction in Europe, according to the continent’s latest “red list” report, which finds that one in five bird species is now at risk.

From the Azores in the west to the Ural mountains in the east, birds that have been the cornerstones of European ecosystems are disappearing, according to the BirdLife International analysis, which is based on observations of 544 native bird species. Three species have become regionally extinct in Europe since the last report in 2015 – Pallas’s sandgrouse, common buttonquail and pine bunting.

In total, 30% of species assessed are showing population decline, according to observations from thousands of experts and volunteers working in 54 countries and territories. At a European level, 13% of birds are threatened with extinction and a further 6% are near threatened. “The results are alarming but we are not surprised,” said Anna Staneva, interim head of conservation, BirdLife Europe and Central Asia.

Key trends echo findings from the three previous publications of the red list, in 1994, 2004 and 2015, showing declines continuing unabated. The data is based on millions of observations made since 1980. “We’re running out of time, the clock is ticking. We don’t want to see the dramatic changes we’re seeing now happening in the next five or 10 years,” said Staneva.

The findings – which were collected in 2019 – are based on the IUCN red list categories and criteria applied at regional level. They corroborate conclusions from the State of Nature in the EU 2013-2018 report, which found only a quarter of species have good conservation status. Loss of habitat, intensification of agriculture, the overexploitation of resources, pollution and unsustainable forestry practices are driving declines, with the climate crisis a growing factor.

Court orders France to meet its own greenhouse gas reduction targets

‘Toilet of Europe’: Spain’s pig farms blamed for mass fish die-offs

Pollution from hundreds of intensive pig farms may have played a bigger role than publicly acknowledged in the collapse of one of Europe’s largest saltwater lagoons, according to a new investigation. Residents in Spain’s south-eastern region of Murcia sounded the alarm in August after scores of dead fish began washing up on the shores of the Mar Menor lagoon. Within days, the toll had climbed to more than five tonnes of rotting carcasses littering beaches that were once a top tourist draw.

Images of the lagoon’s cloudy waters and complaints over its foul stench dominated media coverage across Spain for days, as scientists blamed decades of nitrate-laden runoffs for triggering vast blooms of algae that had depleted the water of oxygen – essentially leaving the fish suffocating underwater.

A four-month investigation by Lighthouse Reports and reporters from elDiario.es and La Marea examined how intensive pork farming may have contributed to one of Spain’s worst environmental disasters of recent years.

This summer, as lifeless fish continued to wash up on the shores of Mar Menor, the regional government banned the use of fertilisers within 1.5km (0.9 miles) of the lagoon, hinting that blame for the crisis lay solely with the wide expanse of agricultural fields that border the lagoon. The central government was more direct, accusing local officials of lax oversight when it came to irrigation in the fields. But neither mentioned the pig farms that have proliferated in the past decade in the Mar Menor catchment basin. ...

“It’s obvious that the main source of pollution is intensive agriculture in the Mar Menor basin, but there are approximately 450 pig farms in the catchment area that nobody is talking about,” said María Giménez Casalduero, professor at the University of Murcia and regional coordinator of the political party Más País. “It’s as if we’re giving amnesty to the pork industry.”


Also of Interest

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

The Totalizing Principle Of Profit, and the Death of the Sacred

Why Nature-Based Solutions Won't Solve the Climate Crisis—They'll Just Make Rich People Even Richer

How natural disasters benefit rich people but make the poor poorer – an illustrated story

Manchin's Means-Testing and Work Requirements Are a Recipe for Building Back Worse

New 'Stop Facebook' Campaign Demands Ban on Data Harvesting and Corporate Surveillance

Konstantin Kilimnik, Russiagate's Last Fall Guy, Speaks Out

Blinken: US Policy Is to ‘Oppose the Reconstruction of Syria’

The Corporate-Funded Rehabilitation of Rahm Emanuel

Wall Street’s Takeover of Nature Advances with Launch of New Asset Class

Lake Tahoe water level hits four-year low as drought pummels tourist spot

'Historic Showdown' Coming as Fossil Fuel CEOs Agree to Testify on Climate Deception

Were Krystal and Saagar WRONG About Inflation?

Saagar Enjeti: Biden, IRS Proposal TARGETS Regular Americans, Lets Billionaires Off

Kim Iversen: Dems Want IRS To SPY On Bank Accounts With Transactions Over $600

AOC's Ridiculous Word Salad Over Israel Funding Vote

Ryan Grim: General Strike LOOMING? Why 10K John Deere Workers WALKED OFF The Job, In Their Words


A Little Night Music

Professor Longhair - Rockin' Pneumonia

Professor Longhair - Longhair Blues Rhumba

Professor Longhair - Mess Around

Professor Longhair - Something On Your Mind

Professor Longhair - Go To The Mardi Gras

Professor Longhair - Tell Me Pretty Baby

Professor Longhair - Bald Head

Professor Longhair - Professor Longhair Blues

Professor Longhair - Stag O' Lee


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Lookout's picture

The last of summer wanes as cool temps emerge this weekend in the South.

It's been nice to have some dry weather to get caught up on the mowing. Help arrives tomorrow to open back up some grown over areas. It is always something...but at least there is something.

The political kabuki doesn't mean much except as a distraction while we're all funneled into neofeudalistic serfdom. They push fear...of COVID, economic collapse, war with China and Russia, protests movements and much more to paralyze people from acting in their own best interest. Workers are calling it out. Anti-vaxpassport protests in Italy and France are not putting up with it, And let's hope an anti-China war movement rises, cause they are in the US empires cross hairs. Nothing like a war to improve a failed economy, you know.

Well, so it goes...and so do we. At least I got some mowing done and it makes me feel better to to see a bit of civilization here in the wilderness.

Thanks for the music and news!

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14 users have voted.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@Lookout

heh, the political kabuki continues, but i think that the working class may have had enough of it. i could be wildly off base, but it seems like a disorganized sense of disgust is rising on a global scale and is slowly falling into a pattern of resistance. if so, it's about time.

the weather here is supposed to remain fairly warm for the weekend, but next week temps are supposed to start dropping into the 40's at night. i guess it's time to weatherize again.

have a good one!

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12 users have voted.

@joe shikspack On the weather---Fall is expected in NYC on Sunday. Until then, warm---almost 80 degrees and sunny. Petunias and lantana doing very well. And the chat about zinnias with Dawn made me think about them for next year.

I tend to agree with Joe that there is a stirring in the land. Everything is going so wrong and yet we see strikes and some activity other than Marches to Nowhere.

For my own political activity, I am thinking about approaching our soon to be new City Council member about working on revising the Heating Laws in view of the altered climate we have been seeing. Landlords will be behind my ideas, for sure. Tenants, often oblivious and entitled, less so.

I think that laws which we all grew up with, just like the totally out-of-touch Planting Season rules, need to be changed in accordance with our changed reality.

We do not need the heat turned full on from October 15 to May 31. Period. Shortening the season to start on November 1 and end on April 30 makes good sense. Let's see if I can start a process to make this happen.

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8 users have voted.

NYCVG

snoopydawg's picture

@NYCVG

The mountains got dusted with it and a few towns up north got hammered with snow. It froze last night too. I’ve had to turn on my heat for 2 weeks already too. And we are in a rain pattern. Good start to winter and hopefully it keeps up.

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On the corner of Napoleon and Tchoupitoulas , on the edge of uptown. Couple blocks down from the street car line on St. Charles. Saw some great acts there: Professor Longhair, Neville Brothers, John Lee Hooker, Irma Thomas, lots of blues artists. Lived not far away. The cool thing about the place (way back then), it was small and intimate. Could rub elbows with the players.

Tipitina-s-Exterior-Shot---Lines---Joshua-Spidey-McGowan-_2400px_F29688A3-5056-B365-AB60EA4508715CC6-f29687365056b36_f29688fa-5056-b365-ab8f714d28260d8d.jpg

Thanks for the musical tribute! King cakes and golden coconuts!

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10 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@QMS

How much fun I had there. Went for conferences and only attended one meeting cuz I went to the football game or that party or on a river boat cruise or site seeing this and that. Well those are the ones I remember. I visited the daiquiri machines that were just like the slurpy ones in 7-11. Or Pat O'Rileys for a hurricane that knocked me on my butt. Danced in the fountain till the cops came along and asked me to get the hell out of it.

The hotel screwed up our reservation and so they gave us a two story suite at the end of Bourbon street right by Jackson park and Cafe Mondu.

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@snoopydawg

Cafe au lait and Beignets 24 hours a day..

th_3.jpg

usually stumbled in there after a few hurricanes
get up and go with that chicory coffee to find
the street car back home before sunrise

glad you too have good memories

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10 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@QMS

Close but no cigar?

Man that hotel suite was so very nice. It had a phone in every room including the bathroom. 2 story windows too. The doctors were very jealous cuz our room was nicer than there’s.

Imagine the culture shock coming from Utah. In so many regards.

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9 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

@QMS

tipitinas sounds like a good place to stick on the bucket list. i've been wanting to visit new orleans for a long time, but the planets have never aligned as it were.

have a great evening!

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8 users have voted.

Jupiter is riding above the waxing moon, very bright!

Jupiter-Saturn-moon-Fomalhaut-Oct13-14-15-2021-e1630898569728.jpg
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9 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

Umm he actually just tried to read the teleprompter and had to scratch his head to get it right. And boy am I glad that he’s going to 'call them out' if they don’t do it. That will scare the bosses into hopping too. He’s getting blamed for high gas prices, higher food prices and the transitory inflation that keeps getting worse.

Saagar had a anti China pro military lobbyists on his show recently. His progressive bonafides are questionable at times. Krystal called democrats Seinfelds. They say a lot but don’t do anything they say they would. Pelosi still runs on passing MFA and addressing drug prices and yet neither gets a vote.

Psaki: the buck stops with Biden.
Jimmy: that means that he’s not going to have much of a spending bill.

Happy birthday to Sam. I can’t believe how fast she grew up. Those 10 months went by very fast.
Her 1st day home. Her 1st shoe. Her 1st snoopy. Her 1st mess.

368580E0-79A4-4EAE-91A3-115CB52A0BCE.jpeg

I’m getting the "hey aren’t we going for a walk" look. I put some butter on the rice and she’s eating it now. Thanks for the suggestion! I’m also getting the "I’m starving" look can I have more chicken?" look. Again…

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13 users have voted.

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joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

heh, i think that biden's port speech is about developing an entity that he can point fingers at when people start calling him the grinch that stole christmas.

saagar is far from a progressive and enough of his positions bother me that i tend to tune him out a lot of the time.

yep, those dogs grow up pretty fast. i hope that sam is feeling well and not chafing too much about being cooped up at home.

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11 users have voted.

@snoopydawg Thanks for sharing her with us.

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9 users have voted.

NYCVG

snoopydawg's picture

@NYCVG

and share her with you guys cuz she is so funny. She keeps bringing me a toy. I say thank you and she goes and gets another one. Thank you and off she goes…They are scattered all around the house again. I don’t know what is going on in her head but it’s been funny.

@joe shikspack

Yes she seems back to full health already. She spent more time in the yard today with of course her toys. I’m still working on sterilizing the house and will have to have someone come and clean the carpets and do the yard. No camping for a month so I got the trailer winterized and we will go down south before the snow flies. I’ve never spent much time in the desert parts of Utah. But my goodness it seems that most of America has decided to visit since Covid. All the parks have long lines waiting for parking spots and it’s becoming a nightmare and problem for the state. 2 hour lines to get into arches and it’s packed with people. Luckily I spent time there in the 80's when it was empty.

I don’t know what this is called but it was cool to see.

79A8CE43-6FA0-4039-975E-D285FC42524E.jpeg

Double arch maybe?

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snoopydawg's picture

@NYCVG

on Rogan..it’s a doozy.

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The Liberal Moonbat's picture

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9 users have voted.

In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

joe shikspack's picture

@The Liberal Moonbat

i suppose that fear is a natural and probably somewhat useful thing in that it prepares the vital organs for action. persistent fear is probably not as useful in that it may prevent you from thinking clearly about potential options to avoid, inactivate or conquer (as fits the situation) the object of your fear.

so, to the extent that suppressing your fear allows you more mental resources to deal with the object of your fear, i guess that's a good thing.

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8 users have voted.
The Liberal Moonbat's picture

@joe shikspack ...fear is absolutely an obsolete bodily function (and don't get me started on my more general philosophy regarding emotions); question is, HOW?

This individual's case could hardly interest me more: https://www.wired.com/2010/12/fear-brain-amygdala/

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5 users have voted.

In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/576793-biden-likely-to-tap-r...

President Biden is expected to nominate Robert Califf to lead the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), multiple sources familiar with the deliberations said Thursday.

Califf previously held the role of FDA commissioner during the Obama administration, where he served for less than a year.

One source said the pick was not fully finalized amid back and forth with Califf about the job, but he is the likely choice.

Looks harmless until you do a bit of research.

From Califf's wikipedia page.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Califf

Relationships with the pharmaceutical industry
Califf worked very closely with pharmaceutical companies at the Duke clinical trials center "convincing them to do large, expensive, and, for Duke, profitable clinical trials."[10] He was a paid consultant for Merck Sharp & Dohme, Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, and Eli Lilly per ProPublica from 2009 to 2013. The largest consulting payment was $87,500 by Johnson & Johnson in 2012, and "most of funds for travel or consulting under $5,000", which has been called "minimal for a physician of his stature".[11] From 2013-2014 he was paid a total of $52,796, the highest amount was $6,450 from Merck Sharp & Dohme, followed by Amgen, F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, Janssen Pharmaceutica, Daiichi Sankyo, Sanofi-Aventis, Bristol-Myers Squibb and AstraZeneca.[12] He was the Director of Portola Pharmaceuticals, Inc. from July 2012 to January 26, 2015,[11] An advisor of Proventys, Inc., Chairman of the medical advisory board of Regado Biosciences, Inc. and has been a member of the medical advisory board since June 2, 2009, and a member of the clinical advisory board of Corgentech Inc.[13] Forbes wrote that his close ties to the drug industry were the reason for him not being nominated for the FDA Commissioner position in 2009

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12 users have voted.

@humphrey so should we to this awful selection.

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9 users have voted.

NYCVG

joe shikspack's picture

@humphrey

i see biden has put an accessory motor on the revolving door.

i hope his approval process fails due to the obvious conflicts of interest.

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10 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

Tulsi Gabbard had just returned from a 4 month tour of duty in Africa when asked by Tucker Carlson to comment on the situation in Afghanistan. Among other things Tulsi said that Islamists are still a big threat, and that it was better to fight them using surgical operations than what had happened in Afghanistan. Afghanistan had shown that invasion, war, and occupation was a bad idea. Nation building by occupation was a bad idea since it always leads to failure and chaos.

Even though she had been saying those exact things for a long time, all of a sudden it was an unforgivable sin in the eyes of many of her most vocal past supporters. What were their arguments? Why are they upset? Some are claiming that Islamists are not a problem, that it is “Islamophobic,” whatever that means, for Tulsi to say otherwise. Some said that because Hillary Clinton and her associates support the same kind of use of surgical warfare, Tulsi is somehow just like Hillary and the pro-war establishment. They said that Tulsi was being a war hawk, that she is supporting the hegemonic ambition of US elites and Israel, others said that she has become a right-winger.

The idea that the pro-war establishment and Tulsi are on the same page is based solely on Tulsi being for the use of military action to counter jihadist insurgency. That is not what the military industrial complex is all about. They are about world hegemony — not simply the fighting of jihadists. The military industrial establishment serves the political agenda of the power elite in their quest for a unipolar hegemonic empire. Just because they also believe in fighting jihadists some times — that doesn’t equate to Tulsi also supporting world domination by the power elite. That argument is a false equivalence. It is like saying if your friend grows a mustache — therefore he is the same as anyone else with a mustache.

What if Biden had OK’d a drone strike on Saudi forces in Yemen? Would they be upset if Tulsi supported that use of drones? I doubt it. Progressives hate what the Saudis are doing in Yemen — for years and years they have been killing and causing starvation and mass suffering. But since Tulsi supported military action against a supposed “non-existent Islamist threat,” she is seen as being either irrationally hawkish, pro-war, and or Islamophobic. But to me it doesn’t look like their real gripe with Tulsi is about drones or military action, I am sure they would support drones if used against the Saudis in Yemen. I believe what their real problem with Tulsi is, is with Tulsi speaking against Islamists.

There’s more of course. For the record I’d be against the drone strike on Saudi troops. I’m for ending funding for their planes and weapons and what nots.

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joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

kinda twisted logic in that article. tulsi may not be in favor of global domination, but she is apparently in favor of u.s. involvement in places that it has no business in in support of its goal of global domination.

i'm sure that everybody has some inconsistencies in their belief systems, but this would seem to be a pretty glaring one.

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9 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack

But I posted it since I got her views on war wrong recently. But I did think that if she was in a country where we’re messing it does seem that she does believe in the mission. If I see her tweet again I’ll post it. Anti war to me means that we leave other countries alone and bring the troops home and close our 800 plus bases. Imagine how much money we’d have to fix this country and shore up social programs.

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The Liberal Moonbat's picture

...but this could be pretty incredible: https://twitter.com/PaizoWorkers/status/1448698340745486364

EDIT/UPDATE: Upon further exploration, I have a terrible reason to suspect this is all going to go in the wrong direction. Suffice it to say, people around here are familiar with the evils of Twitter gossip and moral panic, a bug that had already bitten this company hard - and not for the better.

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6 users have voted.

In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

@The Liberal Moonbat

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paizo

Good luck with your endeavour.

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7 users have voted.
The Liberal Moonbat's picture

@humphrey ...I was never an employee, merely one of countless consumers worldwide (and I've stopped buying stuff from them since they moved onto a new edition of their signature game title a few years ago, which is a can of worms under even the best circumstances - and these weren't, for including-but-not-limited-to certain unusual reasons that are too niche to go into here).

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4 users have voted.

In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

joe shikspack's picture

@The Liberal Moonbat

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4 users have voted.
dystopian's picture

Hi bluesters, hey Joe! Hope all are well. Great tickling of the ivories there, what a great player. Interesting the wiki saying he learned on one missing keys! You can sure hear his influence in the other N'awlin's players after.

I missed gettin' by a few days ago... but that Cherry Red - Eddie Vinson with Mike Bloomfield is 5 star AAA grade stuff. Amazing to awesome, sure good they got it on tape!

Most birders have always disliked 'Common' as a name, as for most, there are many places where they are not common. What does it say when things named 'Common' are in trouble?

Remember the Passenger Pigeon!

thanks for the great soundscape!

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10 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

new orleans is a city that has produced some of the finest blues and r&b piano players on the planet. to stand out in that company as fess does, is a serious accomplishment.

heh, on the new earth, i guess common will drop out of common usage. Smile

have a great evening!

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5 users have voted.
Azazello's picture

Rania Khalek reports from Beirut.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmGXhJw9nfQ width:600 height:360]
Victoria Nuland has been in Russia for the past few days, Reuters.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wQ3IA3Dsu8 width:600 height:360]

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8 users have voted.

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

@Azazello @Azazello

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7 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@Azazello

i guess nuland has been baking another batch of those cookies of doom.

thanks for the vids, have a good evening!

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5 users have voted.

Here is hoping that they are wrong.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-14/la-nina-2021-arrives-...

A weather-roiling La Nina appears to have emerged across the equatorial Pacific, setting the stage for worsening droughts in California and South America, frigid winters in parts of the U.S. and Japan and greater risks for the world’s already strained energy and food supplies.

The phenomenon—which begins when the atmosphere reacts to a cooler patch of water over the Pacific Ocean—will likely last through at least February, the U.S. Climate Prediction Center said Thursday. There is a 57% chance it be a moderate event, like the one that started last year, the center said. While scientists may need months to confirm whether La Nina has definitely returned, all the signs are indicating it’s here.

“Everything you want to see in having a La Nina we are seeing,” Michelle L’Heureux, a forecaster at the center, said in an interview. “We are pretty confident La Nina is here.”

Signs have been emerging for months that the pattern was likely forming, marking the world’s second La Nina in a row. La Nina—like its counterpart, El Nino—usually peaks in the Northern Hemisphere’s winter, but its effects can trigger widespread consequences across the globe. Its onset this season could have a powerful impact on agriculture markets relying on South American crops, which could face dryer conditions, as well as palm oil across Indonesia, where there may be increased flooding. Cold and storms tend to favor the U.S.’s Pacific Northwest and northern Plains when La Nina emerges, squeezing regional energy markets.

Due to La Nina, California may see little relief from its ongoing drought, making its wildfire season even worse. The most populous U.S. state usually receives the bulk of its annual water from rain and snow spread between November and April, a pattern La Nina threatens to disrupt by shifting storm tracks north. La Nina will likely spell bad news for farmers in southern Brazil and Argentina as well, where the phenomenon can bring drought, hitting already ravaged production of corn, coffee, and soybeans.

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9 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@humphrey

A colder but less wet winter for the west. But the farmers almanac says the opposite. Since we got snow so early I was hoping for a winter like'87 when SLC got 4 feet of snow on October 11. Lake effect. I was getting ready for work and the TV said that if you don’t need to go to work stay home. I looked out and there was an inch so off I went. The closer I got to salt lake the more snow. 4 feet in the parking lot. My boss told me to go home. I said no I’m not driving through that again. By noon the sun came out and made a huge mess of it. I know..why did I keep driving? Couldn’t find anywhere to turn around without getting stuck. I was following some other sucker's tracks. Everyone who lived close by did stay home. Anyway…I’m hoping they are wrong. We must have water.

This doesn’t seem right. McCabe lied to congress 4 times. Flynn never lied to anyone but got hammered anyway. Clapper and Brennan lied to them too, but congress is sending the marshals to get Bannon?

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/biden-admin-reinstates-andrew-mccabe...

McCabe should be punished just for setting Russia Gate on the country. Someone should have to pay for that. Lie to congress and keep your pension? Sell too much marijuana and spend time in prison. Not right.

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snoopydawg's picture

@snoopydawg

There’s a series of articles on it. Seems that Sussman who was charged for lying about who he worked for had ties to the owners of Crowdstrike who investigated the DNC computers.

https://spectator.org/john-durham-and-the-amazing-disappearing-dnc-hack/

Think about that. When presented with allegations of a devastating foreign cyber attack on one of the two major political parties, the FBI meekly agreed to allow CrowdStrike and Perkins Coie to do the forensic examination and, for all intents and purposes, run the investigation.

Comey was asked if he looked at the server and said no and that he relied on what Crowdstrike told him instead of getting a warrant and doing it himself. It’s not like he couldn’t have done that. It’ll be interesting to see if Durham starts climbing up who was involved in the scam if Garland will shut him down. If McCabe getting off offers any clues I think he will. People at the top are rarely held accountable for anything anymore.

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6 users have voted.

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enhydra lutris's picture

Professor Longhair is a great way to wind down the week, especially this one. It has been a complete madhouse here and tomorrow doesn't look like it will be any less hectic. Be well and have a good one

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6 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

glad you liked the tunes, i hope the hectic goes back to from whence it came.

have a good one!

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5 users have voted.