The Evening Blues - 10-26-21



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Lee Dorsey

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features New Orleans r&b singer Lee Dorsey. Enjoy!

Lee Dorsey - Give It Up

"It’s a pretty interesting coincidence how western news media just happen to keep discovering reasons why censorship of internet platforms is gravely necessary in a globe-spanning empire that’s held together by global narrative control."

-- Caitlin Johnstone


News and Opinion

Glenn Greenwald discusses his former funder's political inclinations, here's a snippet to get you started:

Pierre Omidyar's Financing of the Facebook "Whistleblower" Campaign Reveals a Great Deal

It is completely unsurprising to learn, as Politico reported last Wednesday, that the major financial supporter of Facebook "whistleblower” Frances Haugen's sprawling P.R. and legal network coordinating her public campaign is the billionaire founder of EBay, Pierre Omidyar. The Haugen Show continues today as a consortium of carefully cultivated news outlets (including those who have been most devoted to agitating for online censorship: the New York Times’ "tech” unit and NBC News's “disinformation” team) began publishing the trove of archives she took from Facebook under the self-important title "The Facebook Papers,” while the star herself has traveled to London to testify today to British lawmakers considering a bill to criminally punish tech companies that allow “foul content” or “extremism” — whatever that means — to be published.

On Sunday, Haugen told The New York Times that her own personal Bitcoin wealth means she is relying on “help from nonprofit groups backed by Mr. Omidyar only for travel and similar expenses.” But the paper also confirmed that the firm masterminding Haugen's public campaign roll-out and complex media strategy, a group "founded by the former Barack Obama aide Bill Burton,” is “being paid by donors, including the nonprofit groups backed by Mr. Omidyar." He is also a major donor to a shady new group calling itself “Whistleblower Aid” — bizarrely led by anti-Trump lawyer and social media #Resistance star Mark Zaid, who has been one of the most vocal critics of actual whistleblowers Edward Snowden and Julian Assange, both of whose imprisonment he has long demanded — that is now featuring Haugen as its star client. ...

Omidyar's central role in this latest scheme to impose greater control over social media is unsurprising because he and his multi-national foundation, the Omidyar Network, fund many if not most of the campaigns and organizations designed to police and control political speech on the internet under the benevolent-sounding banner of combating "disinformation” and “extremism.” Though one could have easily guessed that it was Omidyar fueling Frances Haugen and her team of Democratic Party operatives acting as lawyers and P.R. agents — I would have been shocked if he had no role — it is still nonetheless highly revealing of what these campaigns and groups are, how they function, what their real goals are, and the serious dangers they pose.

Is FB 'Whistleblower' A Billionaire CENSORSHIP Plant? | Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar

The Facebook Papers: Docs Reveal Tech Giant’s Complicity in Hate, Lies & Violence Around the World

Biden remarks on Taiwan leave administration scrambling

President Biden’s public remarks Thursday that the United States would come to Taiwan’s defense if it were attacked by China left White House officials scrambling to explain it did not represent a shift in U.S. policy. ...

The White House on Friday sought to walk back Biden’s comments. “He wasn’t announcing a change in policy nor have we changed our policy,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters. “We are guided by the Taiwan Relations Act.”

Under the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979, the U.S. is committed to providing Taiwan with arms for its defense. The law does not commit the U.S. to sending troops to Taiwan to defend it.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday dodged questions about Biden’s remarks, and about whether the U.S. would defend Taiwan from a military attack by China. “Nobody wants to see cross-strait issues come to blows, certainly not President Biden, and there’s no reason that it should,” Austin said from NATO headquarters in Brussels.

No deal with US on use of airspace: Pakistan

Rubbishing a US media report, Pakistan on Saturday categorically denied that any understanding with the United States was in place to allow the use of Pakistan’s airspace for military and intelligence operation in Afghanistan.

Quoting three sources, a CNN report published Friday claimed of the Biden administration had told the lawmakers of nearing a formalized agreement with Pakistan for use of its airspace to conduct military and intelligence operations in Afghanistan.

However, responding to the US media claim, the Foreign Office spokesperson said, “No such understanding is in place”. “Pakistan and the US have longstanding cooperation on regional security and counter-terrorism and the two sides remain engaged in regular consultations,” he maintained.

‘Countdown to catastrophe’: half of Afghans face hunger this winter – UN

More than half of Afghanistan’s population is facing acute hunger as the country has been thrown into one of the world’s largest food crises. Almost 23 million Afghans will be hungry due to conflict, drought and an economic downturn that is severely affecting livelihoods and people’s access to food as a harsh winter looms, the UN has warned; an increase of nearly 35% compared with last year.

“Afghanistan is now among the world’s worst humanitarian crises – if not the worst – and food security has all but collapsed. This winter, millions of Afghans will be forced to choose between migration and starvation,” the World Food Programme’s executive director David Beasley said, adding that “we are on a countdown to catastrophe”.

The Taliban takeover in August has contributed to the economic upheaval as billions of dollars in foreign aid payments – 40% of the country’s gross domestic product – have ceased and almost $10bn (£7.3bn) of Afghan central bank assets have been frozen.

Half of all Afghans will be facing crisis or emergency levels of acute food insecurity between this November and March next year, the UN report said.

As desperation grows, the number of beggars throughout Afghanistan’s major cities – including children – has risen as urban residents, for the first time, suffer similar rates of food insecurity to rural communities; a shifting pattern of hunger in the country.

“Devastation and Anger” in Sudan as Military Coup Halts Country’s Democratic Transition

Sudan’s army seizes power in coup and detains prime minister

Sudan’s military has seized power in a coup, arrested leading civilian politicians including the prime minister, Abdalla Hamdok, and declared a state of emergency as thousands of protesters flooded the streets of Khartoum in opposition.

A health ministry official said late on Monday that seven protesters had been killed and 140 people wounded after security forces fired on demonstrators. As night fell in Khartoum, witnesses described gangs of young men armed with sticks reportedly beating anyone found on the streets.

Sudan has been on edge since a failed coup plot last month unleashed recriminations between military and civilian groups who have been sharing power since the toppling of the autocrat Omar al-Bashir two years ago.

Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who headed Sudan’s power-sharing “sovereign council”, justified the seizure of power and the dissolution of the country’s transitional government by saying infighting between the military and civilian parties had threatened the country’s stability. The military was meant to have passed leadership of the joint sovereign council to a civilian figure in the coming months.

“The armed forces will continue completing the democratic transition until the handover of the country’s leadership to a civilian, elected government,” Burhan claimed in a statement, adding that the country’s constitution would be rewritten and a new legislative body formed.

Adam Schiff DENIES Knowledge Of Assange Kidnap & Murder Plot, PRESSES CIA For More Info

Saudi crown prince a ‘psychopath’, says exiled intelligence officer

A former senior Saudi intelligence officer has claimed that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is a “psychopath with no empathy” who once boasted that he could kill the kingdom’s ruler at the time, King Abdullah, and replace him with his own father. In an interview on US television, Saad Aljabri, who fled Saudi Arabia in May 2017 and is living in exile in Canada, also said he had been warned by an associate in 2018, after the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, that a Saudi hit team was heading to Canada to kill him.

Aljabri told 60 Minutes on CBS he was warned “don’t be in a proximity of any Saudi mission in Canada. Don’t go to the consulate. Don’t go to the embassy.” When he asked why, he said he was told “they dismembered the guy, they kill him. You are on the top of the list.” ... He also spoke of the plight of his two youngest children, Sarah and Omar, who were arrested and are in prison in Saudi Arabia in what is widely seen as an attempt to force their father back to the country. ...

Aljabri was a close adviser to Mohammed bin Nayef, a former crown prince and interior minister who is being held in Saudi Arabia and has been seen as a potential political rival to Prince Mohammed. “I expect to be killed one day because this guy will not rest off until he see me dead,” Aljabri said.

Aljabri has strong support in the US, where former intelligence officials have credited their Saudi counterpart for helping to save American and Saudi lives following the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the US.

Heather Long: Is INFLATION Here To Stay For Biden?

Pfffftttt!!! Congressional "Progressives" in the "pre-fold" position?

Progressives Vow to 'Push Very Hard' to Keep Agenda From Being Gutted Beyond Recognition

Reps. Ro Khanna, Ilhan Omar, and other House progressives on Monday stressed that they will fight for the inclusion of dental, hearing, and vision benefits, along with a host of other popular measures, in the Build Back Better agenda put on the chopping block by corporate Democrats.

[Hey, I got news for you guys. You don't have to fight. You just have to vote no. - js]

Echoing Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) weekend remarks that a proposed expansion of Medicare benefits—one of the pending legislative package's most popular provisions—is "not coming out" of the reconciliation bill to appease right-wing Democrats, Khanna (D-Calif.) told Democracy Now's Amy Goodman that the Vermont Independent "is absolutely right."

"This is actually the most popular part of the Build Back Better agenda," said Khanna. "That's not an opinion; it's a fact, if you look at the polling."

Surveys show that 84% of U.S. adults, including nearly nine in 10 Democratic voters, support Sanders' long-standing proposal to expand Medicare to cover dental, hearing, and vision care for tens of millions of older Americans.

"It's not coming out," Khanna added. "We will push very hard to make sure it stays in. I know that this is a top priority for the senator, and it's a top priority for House progressives." ...

In his interview, Khanna suggested that House progressives intend to push back against the Democratic Party's conservative obstructionists, whose opposition to the Build Back Better Act's transformative proposals has resulted in a significantly weaker version of the bill.

Asked about paid family leave, which was already on the verge of being cut to four weeks before it was reported that the number could actually be zero, Khanna said, "It's absurd to have it at four weeks."

"This is an area, again, where progressives are pushing very hard," Khanna continued. "We're saying do the 12 weeks, do what every other wealthy democracy and wealthy nation does, every other OECD country does." ...

Omar (D-Minn.) suggested on Monday that the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) may also withhold its support for the Build Back Better Act if the package continues to be gutted beyond recognition.

"Let's be clear," Omar tweeted. "Votes need to be earned."

"Progressives are fighting to tackle the climate crisis, expand Medicare to cover dental, vision, and hearing, and guarantee family leave in America," she added. "These are the investments major countries make in their communities and we can too."

Rep. Andy Levin (D-Mich.) has also emphasized that no deals have yet been reached.

Obama Says QUIET PART OUT LOUD: Vote Dem Even If We Fail

US conservation group to drop Audubon name over ‘pain’ caused by slaveholder

A leading US conservation group, the Audubon Naturalist Society (ANS), has announced it will change its name, due to the “pain” caused by the 19th-century ornithologist and slaveholder John James Audubon. The group, which holds wildlife sanctuaries across Washington DC, Virginia and Maryland, said that it had become clear its name did not connect to its diverse set of programmes and that some members and volunteers had objected. ...

Originally called the Audubon Society of the District of Columbia, ANS was set up in 1897 as part of a wave of such groups seeking to protect bird species then under threat from hunters. Audubon achieved lasting fame for his detailed studies and illustrations of American birds, made in the early 19th century.

More recently, he has come under scrutiny for his buying and selling of enslaved people in the 1820s; for his objections to the abolitionist movement; and for writings that portrayed black and indigenous people as inferior to whites.



the horse race



Much more at the link:

an. 6 Protest Organizers Say They Participated in ‘Dozens’ of Planning Meetings With Members of Congress and White House Staff

As the House investigation into the Jan. 6 attack heats up, some of the planners of the pro-Trump rallies that took place in Washington, D.C., have begun communicating with congressional investigators and sharing new information about what happened when the former president’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. Two of these people have spoken to Rolling Stone extensively in recent weeks and detailed explosive allegations that multiple members of Congress were intimately involved in planning both Trump’s efforts to overturn his election loss and the Jan. 6 events that turned violent.

Rolling Stone separately confirmed a third person involved in the main Jan. 6 rally in D.C. has communicated with the committee. This is the first report that the committee is hearing major new allegations from potential cooperating witnesses. While there have been prior indications that members of Congress were involved, this is also the first account detailing their purported role and its scope. The two sources also claim they interacted with members of Trump’s team, including former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who they describe as having had an opportunity to prevent the violence.

The two sources, both of whom have been granted anonymity due to the ongoing investigation, describe participating in “dozens” of planning briefings ahead of that day when Trump supporters broke into the Capitol as his election loss to President Joe Biden was being certified. “I remember Marjorie Taylor Greene specifically,” the organizer says. “I remember talking to probably close to a dozen other members at one point or another or their staffs.” ...

These two sources also helped plan a series of demonstrations that took place in multiple states around the country in the weeks between the election and the storming of the Capitol. According to these sources, multiple people associated with the March for Trump and Stop the Steal events that took place during this period communicated with members of Congress throughout this process. Along with Greene, the conspiratorial pro-Trump Republican from Georgia who took office earlier this year, the pair both say the members who participated in these conversations or had top staffers join in included Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.), Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), and Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas).

“We would talk to Boebert’s team, Cawthorn’s team, Gosar’s team like back to back to back to back,” says the organizer. And Gosar, who has been one of the most prominent defenders of the Jan. 6 rioters, allegedly took things a step further. Both sources say he dangled the possibility of a “blanket pardon” in an unrelated ongoing investigation to encourage them to plan the protests. “Our impression was that it was a done deal,” the organizer says, “that he’d spoken to the president about it in the Oval … in a meeting about pardons and that our names came up. They were working on submitting the paperwork and getting members of the House Freedom Caucus to sign on as a show of support.”

Video Shows Possible Fed In Middle Of January 6

Corporate Dems of US Senate Blamed as GOP Texas Governor Approves 'Rigged' Voting Maps

Bolstering criticism of the few U.S. Senate Democrats who continue to impede key party priorities—including voting rights protections—by refusing to reform or abolish the filibuster, Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday signed "extremely gerrymandered" political maps that could help the GOP retain control of the state for another decade.

Abbott's approval of Texas' new congressional, legislative, and State Board of Education districts—which will be used for next year's elections if not blocked in court—comes just after U.S. Senate Republicans filibustered the Freedom to Vote Act.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), a key opponent of killing the filibuster, failed to win 10 GOP votes in favor of that compromise federal legislation, which he helped craft after Republicans repeatedly blocked the bolder For the People Act earlier this year.

"The inaction by corporate Democrats in the U.S. Senate encourages this behavior," the group People for Bernie said in response to Abbott's move Monday.

Noting that the "rigged" Texas maps "consolidate white power as the white population is shrinking as a percentage of the state," journalist and voting rights expert Ari Berman wrote last week for Mother Jones:

This stranglehold on power will embolden Republicans to continue to pass extreme and unpopular policies, like the six-week abortion ban, permission to carry guns without a permit, and the sweeping voter suppression bill enacted in the last year.

Some of the most egregious examples of gerrymandering are achieved by targeting diverse communities and those who represent them.

Dismantling competitive districts in once-reliably Republican suburbs where Hispanic, Black, and Asian American voters are electing their preferred candidates or are on the verge of doing so is a defining feature of the new maps.

Common Cause Texas executive director Anthony Gutierrez noted in a statement Monday that redistricting intended to favor Republicans isn't new to the state. ...

Following the failure of the Freedom to Vote Act last week, President Joe Biden said during a televised town hall that "we're going to have to move to the point where we fundamentally alter the filibuster," confirming to host Anderson Cooper that he supported reforms to pass voting rights legislation "and maybe more."



the evening greens


UN warns world set for 2.7C rise on today's emissions pledges

A Tale of Two Damages: Double Standard for Jessica Reznicek and Energy Transfer Partners

Jessica Reznicek was sentenced to eight years in federal prison, ordered to pay millions in fines and labeled a terrorist by the government for her actions of civil disobedience that damaged the equipment of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) is owned by Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) a $54 billion dollar corporation that also co-owns the Bayou Bridge Pipeline. When ETP intentionally and illegally damaged the private property of hundreds of people in Louisiana, the company received no criminal consequences at all.

Both actors damaged private property. Jessica Reznicek was labeled a domestic terrorist that is, “dangerous to human life.” Even after the courts deemed Bayou Bridge’s property destruction illegal, the company received no criminal charges and the company was ordered by the district court to pay a mere $150 to each objector. To understand why these two actors have received such different consequences in response to their private property destruction, we must examine their current places within existing power structures.

In July 2017, Jessica Reznicek and a friend from the Des Moines Catholic Worker community held a press conference and admitted several acts of civil disobedience which damaged the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline across Iowa. “We are speaking publicly to empower others to act boldly, with purity of heart, to dismantle the infrastructures which deny us our rights to water, land, and liberty,” they said. No one was harmed as a result of their actions.

On October 9, 2019, the U.S. Department of Justice brought nine felony charges against Reznicek and her co-defendant. Reznicek always admitted she had engaged in civil disobedience and damaged property and did so in court. On June 30, 2021, she was sentenced to eight years in federal prison and ordered to pay $3,198,512.70 restitution. At sentencing, the federal judge agreed to the prosecution request to impose a terrorism enhancement upon Reznicek’s sentence, even though she was never charged with any acts of terrorism nor did she plead guilty to terrorism. Intentionally, no one was harmed during their actions at remote valve sites. Jessica Reznicek is now in federal prison while her sentence is being appealed.

“I think you’re talking about somebody who needs to be removed from the gene pool” ETP CEO Kelcy Warren remarked in response to their actions. The Dakota Access Pipeline is operated by Energy Transfer Partners which has over 10,000 employees and operates more than 90,000 miles of pipeline.

In the summer of 2018, Bayou Bridge Pipeline, a continuation of the Dakota Access Pipeline, began illegally destroying trees and land in the Atchafalaya River Basin in Louisiana, America’s largest freshwater swamp. Bayou Bridge Pipeline is a pipeline operating as a joint venture of Energy Transfer Partners and Phillips 66 Partners and operated by ETP. Kelcy Warren’s net worth is estimated at $4 billion.

Bayou Bridge used barges and huge machines to dredge out large long trenches, while they began construction of a pipeline through private property in the Atchafalaya Basin in Louisiana. The corporation savagely altered the environment as it plowed through - see pictures of its destruction here and here and here. They also damaged private property with no legal authority to do so. They did not have a court order nor did they have permission from hundreds of co-owners.

A few small property owners objected. Months after Bayou Bridge Pipeline destroyed their private property, a Louisiana state district court judge agreed that the action was absolutely illegal but only awarded the objectors one hundred and fifty dollars ($150.00) each in damages. Both a court of appeal and the Louisiana Supreme Court agreed that the destruction of the private property was totally illegal. On appeal, damages of $10,000 plus attorney fees to the property owners were ultimately confirmed by the Louisiana Supreme Court.

Neither Bayou Bridge Pipeline nor ETP were ever prosecuted by any federal, state or local authorities. The corporations poured money into state and local law enforcement by hiring a security company which hired state and local law enforcement to arrest people who protested against their illegal actions. To date, there have been no criminal consequences for ETP nor Bayou Bridge for their illegal destruction of private property.

So, why would a billion-dollar corporation which intentionally and illegally destroyed private property for profit not even get a slap on the wrist while a person who commits civil disobedience to protect the earth and its people is labeled a terrorist and imprisoned for eight years?

Four reasons explain the double standard.

One is Donald Trump, who was President when the charges were brought against Jessica Reznicek and not brought against ETP. The Guardian reported that Donald Trump invested somewhere between $500,000 and $1 million dollars in ETP and leaders of ETP gave well over $100,000 to Donald Trump’s election campaign. Energy Transfer Partners was represented by a law firm assisting Donald Trump in the 2016 campaign.

Two is the general power that huge corporations like ETP exercise over all phases of society. Government officials must constantly appease the financial powerful, as they did in this instance.

Three is the ongoing campaign to label all protestors who damage property as terrorists. Human Rights Watch pointed out that environmental activists committing civil disobedience have been charged as terrorists across the globe for years. The Intercept likewise reported that U.S. Attorney General activated the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces to go after Black Lives Matter protestors.

Four is the nationwide campaign by oil and gas interests to hyper criminalize protests around pipelines. Under the leadership of the right wing American Legislative Council, dozens of bills and executive orders have been introduced in over 30 states to up the penalties for people who protest against oil and gas pipelines according to Inside Climate News. More than a dozen states have passed those laws, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Readers who are interested in fighting back can find more information at- Protecting Water is Never Terrorism: Repeal Jessica Reznicek’s Terrorism Enhancement.


Drenching storms ravage California, sparking floods and mudslides

A huge storm surged south in California on Monday after flooding highways, toppling trees, and causing rock slides and mud flows across northern part of the state over the weekend. The state, which has spent months mired in a devastating drought, is expected to be soaked through Tuesday. Santa Barbara county officials said the storm was expected to produce roughly 1in of rain per hour, threatening the newly charred coastal areas burned in the Alisal fire. Residents were ordered to stay in and lock their doors and windows or move to higher ground. ...

The system had already left flooding and flows in its wake to the north. Drenching rains and strong winds accompanied the arrival of an atmospheric river – a long plume of Pacific moisture – into the drought-stricken state, shattering records in several cities and pounding high elevations of the Sierra Nevada with heavy snow. “It’s been a memorable past 24 hours for the Bay Area as the long talked-about atmospheric river rolled through the region,” the local weather office said. “We literally have gone from fire [and] drought conditions to flooding in one storm cycle.”

Through Sunday the National Weather Service (NWS) peppered the state with flash flood warnings as emergency crews rushed to evacuate towns hit hardest by the storm. Flooding was reported across the San Francisco Bay Area, closing streets in Berkeley, inundating Oakland’s Bay Bridge toll plaza and overflowing rivers in Napa and Sonoma counties. Power poles were downed and hundreds of thousands of people in the North Bay were left without electricity.

The NWS called preliminary rainfall totals “staggering”. In just one day, towns in southern Marin reported more than 1ft of rain. Mount Tamalpais saw more than 16.5in of rain. About 150 miles to the north, the California highway patrol closed a stretch of State Route 70 in Butte and Plumas counties because of multiple landslides within the vast Dixie fire burn scar.

Hurricane-force winds also pummeled the region with gusts so strong it broke the equipment used to measure them in some cities. In the Santa Cruz mountains the wind was records at nearly 90mph and to the north trucks were toppled as they crossed bridges.



Also of Interest

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

Capitalism Is Violence: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

Assange: A Threat to War Itself

Israel announces plan for 1,300 homes across seven West Bank settlements

Microsoft Blames Russia For Failure To Enforce Its Vendors Account Security

Critics See Menendez Villainy Equal to Sinema's on Medicare Drug Pricing Fight

Journalists Misread Delayed Poll as Sticker Shock on Biden Bill

Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow Says U.S. Third Quarter Growth Was Almost Nil at 0.5 Percent; Wall Street Economists Are Forecasting Over 3 Percent

Trump’s judges will call the shots for years to come. The judicial system is broken

Pablo Escobar’s ‘cocaine hippos’ are people too, US court rules

The US government is trying to starve Venezuelans

Ryan Grim: Dark Money Group FLOODED Dems With Cash As They Fought Against Tax Hikes On The Rich

Media Blames SHOPPERS For Supply Chain DISASTER, Voters Disapprove Of Biden's Handling Of Issue

Keiser Report | The Tragedy of the Treadmill

HORRIFYING Details Of Fauci's Dog Torture Research Exposed


A Little Night Music

Lee Dorsey - Everything I Do Gohn Be Funky (From Now On)

Lee Dorsey - Gotta Find A Job

Lee Dorsey - Get Out Of My Life Woman

Lee Dorsey - Holy Cow

Lee Dorsey - Ride Your Pony

Lee Dorsey - Confusion

Lee Dorsey - Sneakin' Sally Through The Alley

Lee Dorsey - Behind the 8-Ball

Lee Dorsey - Night People

Lee Dorsey - Working In The Coal Mine


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16 users have voted.

Comments

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

Thanks for the round-up.

Not something I ever say to Monsanto, LOL.

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12 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

joe shikspack's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

heh, i can say everything that i need to say to monsanto with one finger. Smile

have a great evening!

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8 users have voted.

putin_0.PNG
Russia is going to get this

Russian President Vladimir Putin is happily needling the EU over sky-high energy prices, but the bloc doesn’t really have any instruments to force a change of behavior in Moscow.

Putin's latest jab came earlier this week during the Valdai conference in Sochi, where he ridiculed the EU for dropping long-term gas contracts with Russia, trotted out an old Russian folk tale where he compared the bloc to a hapless wolf with its tail frozen in an ice hole thanks to a canny fox — and added he could help by sending the EU the extra gas it needs, if regulators would only approve his pet project, the Russia-to-Germany Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

U.S. still fighting it

A senior U.S. state department official has warned Europe against bowing to Russian pressure and waiving the lengthy process needed to approve Nord Stream 2, a controversial Baltic Sea natural gas pipeline to Germany.

Amos Hochstein, a senior advisor for global energy security at the State Department, said that if Russia has more gas to ship to Europe to ease the continent’s supply crunch, it should do so through existing export pipeline infrastructure, including the ones that transit Ukraine.

And then this happened today

Allowing Nord Stream 2 to pump Russian gas to Germany will not threaten supplies to the European Union, the German Economy Ministry said on Tuesday, clearing a major hurdle for the disputed pipeline.

While the pipeline is ready to start operations, it still needs to be certified by Germany's Federal Network Agency and the ministry's supply analysis is a key requirement for the regulator to continue that process.

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9 users have voted.

@gjohnsit looks weaker every day.

Huffing and Puffing over Nord Stream II will not be effective.

Neither will the "Strongly worded letter" Biden and the dems sent to Israel about their expansion of settlers housing in the West Bank. over 1,000 families face eviction---if I've got the numbers right.

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10 users have voted.

NYCVG

joe shikspack's picture

@gjohnsit

heh, the u.s. government can't seem to believe that europeans would rather do business with russia than freeze in their homes this winter.

go figure.

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9 users have voted.
ggersh's picture

MOA explains ameriKKKa's foreign policy delusion

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2021/10/on-the-delusion-in-us-foreign-poli...

October 26, 2021
On The Delusion In U.S. Foreign Policy And What Might Change It

The current U.S. foreign policy is delusional. Its attempts to command the world are getting laughed at. How did this happen and what might change it?

Here are excerpts from two smart essays which discuss the theme.

Thanks for the EB's Joe!

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9 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 .

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6 users have voted.

NYCVG

joe shikspack's picture

@ggersh

moa's piece is excellent. it is sad that we allow deranged morons to play with the dangerous toys we have in the u.s. arsenal. i wonder when the tipping point will come when the deranged morons realize that they are not powerful, cannot command other large nations and have no recourse but to exit the stage or blow it all up.

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7 users have voted.
ggersh's picture

@joe shikspack before they figure out they really would rather destroy the world then go down w/out a fight....but then I'm a dreamer and believe in Karma, Karma is taking it's time though ;-(

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7 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

dystopian's picture

Hi all, Hi Joe,

I gotta get back to work so can't hang ...

Pierre Omidyar does whistleblower aid? Is that like buying the intercept to own the Snowden hard drive and then burying it? So the aid is for the deep state, right? Figures. What a con he is.

P.S. It's been a long time since school, but wouldn't mudslides put out fires?
(with apologies)

have good ones all!

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8 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

heh, i guess that when you get to be a multi-billionaire you get a seat at the table with the deep state if you want one.

yeah, i would presume that 6 or 12 inches of rain would do the job of putting out most fires.

i guess now we will be able to find out how the sequoias fared.

have a good one!

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4 users have voted.

Good collection toniight.

What is bugging me today is the connection and the differences between the USA's torture/mistreatment of Julian Assange and Stephen Donziger.

With Julian, the claim was "National Security," which for too many people is a get out of jail free card awarded to our government. You know, "They are protecting us."

Stephen Donziger, otoh, fought for restitution for the people of Ecuador from the despoiling of their land by Texaco/Chevron. And he won his 20 year case. Now the punishment is horrible.

Donziger is not a "National Security" issue. It is a "Profits for the Big Corporation at the expense of the resident population issue," and the government is counting on the apathy of the propagandized sleepwalking American people for their abuse of Stephen Donziger to continue.

Anything the government frowns upon will be expunged and what do we think we can do about it.....

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NYCVG

ggersh's picture

@NYCVG

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

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

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

joe shikspack's picture

@NYCVG

heh, see the connection is that oil companies are a significant part of "american interests" that the spooky people and the military work to subjugate other countries to maintain a compliant environment for resource exploitation.

assange's work interfered with the tool of subjugation (the military/spooks) and donziger's work interfered with the object of the subjugation - unfettered extraction and exploitation.

oh, and from the worst news of the day department:


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@joe shikspack and terrifying.

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NYCVG

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joe shikspack's picture

@humphrey

yep, quite true.

for context, here's the tweet at the top of the thread:


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Here is the headline leading up to the climate summit.

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/578603-white-house-plans-f...

White House plans for $500B for climate in Democratic spending bill

I remember these headlines.

https://www.science.org/content/article/what-vice-president-biden-s-moon...

13 Jan 2016 .

What Vice President Biden's moonshot may mean for cancer research.

Details vague, but researchers anticipate more funding for data sharing, tumor genomics, other initiatives—and caution against a single cancer cure

Then there is this.

https://www.livescience.com/65717-biden-cancer-cure.html

If former Vice President Joe Biden gets elected in 2020, he's curing cancer. At least that's what the presidential hopeful promised at a campaign stop in Ottumwa, Iowa, on Tuesday this week.

"I promise you if I'm elected president, you're going to see the single most important thing that changes America," Biden announced. "We're gonna cure cancer."

The crowd cheered in response. But Biden's promise made one cancer expert cringe.

The likelihood of these happening is about as truthful as $2000 checks will go out after we get control of the senate.

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joe shikspack's picture

@humphrey

i guess his political epitaph might be something like this:

here lies joe biden (repeatedly), he was better at making promises than keeping them.

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@joe shikspack to say thanks Joe and pass on this on sleepy joe. Reminds me a bit of my favorite vape cartridge called: "Where's my bike"...

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joe shikspack's picture

@peachcreek

heh, that's pretty good. thanks!

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snoopydawg's picture

who told people to go in the capital. I’m not holding out hope that Garland will answer the questions.

Heh..love it that Biden says something he will do and then the WH comes out and says that he didn’t actually mean it like that. So who is fact checking the president? Blinken? Susan Rice? Klain? Bueller?

Lots of lakes in California are very happy today. Could be happier but they’ll take what they can get. Tahoe too. We got a great soaking too. More coming.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

heh, i hope that congress subpoenas merrick garland if necessary in order to get him to reveal how many feebs and assorted other undercover assets were involved in the planning and execution of 1/6.

i'm sure that the feebs will do their best to cover their tracks, but i have a feeling that they are not going to be able to since there is so much footage of the events in the public domain and so many people digging through it.

glad that the southwest is getting some much-needed water, i hope that it makes a positive difference.

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snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack

from the day and some of it is quite damning to the narrative. I did see one video of Trump supporters just standing around being peaceful and cops used tear gas and fired rubber bullets at them for no reason. Then they started getting feisty back to the cops. Hard to know what to believe anymore about it. Garland was in front of one committee and he refused to answer Massive's questions.

Ned isn’t even bothering to hide the agenda.

I’d be happy to see Durham nail him for his role in Russia Gate. He’s as smarmy as Vicky Nuland.

ETA. This is not right. No one in congress has said a word about this travesty of justice.

Courts have also been captured, but then we’ve known that for some time. On the Trump judges don’t forget that democrats helped McConnell put them on the court. None of them would even get approved if both the democrat and republican senator from their state didn’t agree to give them the nod. Blue slips. Schumer let McConnell fast track quite a few too without debate. Justice for sale.

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

Considering all the corporate dems (including Obama) who rallied in support of McAuliffe.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/578635-biden-invokes-trump-in-bid-...

ARLINGTON, Va.—President Biden hit the campaign trail with Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe on Tuesday as Election Day in the commonwealth reaches its final stretch.

Biden used the speech, which lasted over 15 minutes, to urge voters to head to the polls, warning that a victory for Republican Glenn Youngkin would be a victory for former President Trump.

“I ran against Donald Trump, and Terry is running against an acolyte of Donald Trump,” Biden told the crowd.

LOL

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/578587-rnc-targets-mcauliffe-bi...

The Republican National Committee (RNC) will target President Biden’s campaign event with Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe (D) on Tuesday by showcasing a mobile billboard in the Old Dominion that features a clip of McAuliffe commenting on the president’s rising unpopularity in the state and nationwide.

The mobile billboard, which will appear in Virginia on Tuesday ahead of Biden’s campaign event with McAuliffe, will feature a video on loop of comments the former governor made during a virtual rally with supporters earlier this month regarding the president’s waning popularity.

“We are facing a lot of headwinds from Washington, as you know. The president is unpopular today, unfortunately here in Virginia,” McAuliffe says in the video.

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joe shikspack's picture

@humphrey

when all else fails, use the "the other guy sucks worse," strategy.

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I will listen to some videos when my Dear One turns off the Blue Tooth Speakers, which are currently playing yo yo ma and some blue grass string artists.
Hope you are well, my friend.
And tomorrow afternoon, when Donzinger heads to prison for CIVIL contempt, I will feel they first come for the lawyers...

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

joe shikspack's picture

@on the cusp

funny, up here the bluetooth speakers are playing root boy slim. Smile

it looks like the flunky lawyers of the captured "justice" system are coming after the human rights lawyers first. sort of. they've also been coming after environmental activists and just about everybody else doing anything good for a long time before they got donziger.

oh well, duck!

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@joe shikspack but two is STEREO and FANTASTIC so on, and so forth.
I cannot tell you how the lawyer doing 6 months, day for day, in prison affects me. Punishment for winning. Seems only if the win is for the plaintiffs harmed. No Corporate atty has had so much as a hand slap.
When the judicial system (sorry Azazello, it is a system) crashes, everything we know will be changed. For the worse.

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

Azazello's picture

@on the cusp
It is a system with identifiable parts and written rules and procedures.
The solar system is a system too. Again, identifiable elements and rules governing the behavior of those elements. There is, however, no such thing as a "capitalist system" since those characteristics are missing.

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

mimi's picture

'Dark Money Group' is, Ryan Grim is talking about here Ryan Grim: Dark Money Group FLOODED Dems With Cash As They Fought Against Tax Hikes On The Rich

the rest of the original comment is bullshit. I erase it.

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joe shikspack's picture

@mimi

that you don't know who they are (specifically) is the whole point of a "dark money group."

they fund things that they support and avoid being identified.

in this case, as in most cases, you can pretty much assume that the group includes very wealthy people and/or their corporations.

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