The Evening Blues - 11-19-21
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features harmonica player Kim Wilson. Enjoy!
The Kim Wilson Blues All-Stars Live at KNKX Public Radio
"War is mankind's most tragic and stupid folly; to seek or advise its deliberate provocation is a black crime against all men."
-- Dwight D. Eisenhower
News and Opinion
Eastern Europe teeters on war
Tensions over refugees at the Polish-Belarus border, Ukraine’s conflict with Russia, and NATO’s aggressive actions in the Black Sea threaten to provoke a military conflict in Eastern Europe involving the world’s major powers. On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that as part of exercises in the Black Sea, NATO bombers had flown within 20 kilometers of his country’s borders, an act that he described as “crossing the line.” In April of this year at his annual address to the nation, Putin used similar language to warn that his government would take “asymmetric, rapid, and tough” actions when it determined that “red lines” were crossed.
In his remarks yesterday to a gathering at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Kremlin leader accused the West of aggravating the situation in Ukraine by providing Kiev, which is currently waging a civil war to retake two breakaway pro-Russian regions in its east, with modern weapons. He said that in addition to its maneuvers along Russia’s southwestern flank, NATO has been conducting training operations very close to other parts of Russia’s borders. ... As this has been unfolding, there are reports in the Russian press that Ukrainian forces shelled parts of the Lugansk People’s Republic, one of the areas seeking to separate from Kiev, this week. The government of President Volodymyr Zelensky, which recently sent an additional 8500 troops to its border with Russia, said that its marines are now carrying out drills near the Crimean Peninsula in the Black Sea.
Meanwhile, the situation along the Polish-Belarusian border remains fraught. On Wednesday, Polish forces unleashed tear gas and water cannons on thousands of primarily Iraqi refugees trying to enter the country in order to make their way to Germany. With Warsaw, Brussels, and Washington accusing Minsk of engaging in “hybrid warfare” by allegedly causing a migrant crisis along Poland’s border, the same day German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the Polish prime minister to declare “Germany’s full solidarity with Poland.” ... The men, women, and children being drenched with freezing water, gassed, and left to die in the forests along Poland’s borders are all fleeing countries that have been laid waste by the very powers now applauding their persecution on the basis of the inverted reality that somehow Belarus’ decrepit dictatorial regime is the real source of their misery.
Senate advances defense bill after delay
The Senate on Wednesday advanced a sweeping defense policy bill over an initial hurdle after hours of behind-the-scenes haggling. The Senate voted 84-15 to move the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) toward a floor debate, which could start as soon as Thursday.
The vote was initially scheduled to take place on Wednesday morning, but Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) delayed the vote as Republicans threatened to block the bill because Schumer wanted to include anti-China competitiveness legislation in the defense bill. ...
Democrats are hoping to finish the defense bill before they leave for the Thanksgiving recess, an ambitious goal given that the bill normally takes roughly two weeks to get to a final vote, or alternatively have a path to finishing the bill once they get back.
Matt Stoller: Clinton-Era DEREGULATION, Consolidation Is Responsible For The Supply Chain Crisis
'Sacrifice and Solidarity' Pay Off as Striking John Deere Workers Win Bigger Wage Hike
Factory workers at John Deere officially ended their historic month-long strike late Wednesday by approving a six-year contract that includes an immediate 10% wage increase, reinstatement of a cost-of-living adjustment, and an $8,500 ratification bonus—provisions the United Auto Workers hailed as a major victory.
"Our members' courageous willingness to strike in order to attain a better standard of living and a more secure retirement resulted in a groundbreaking contract and sets a new standard for workers not only within the UAW but throughout the country," said Chuck Browning, vice president of the UAW, which represents the 10,000 employees who walked off the job last month to demand fair pay and benefits. ...
The deal came after striking Deere workers—part of a broader upsurge in labor actions nationwide—rejected two previous contract offers as inadequate, particularly as company profits soared to record highs amid the pandemic and as CEO John May's overall pay jumped to $15.6 million in 2020.
"When you factor in the pandemic, being deemed essential workers, and in our case, having a company turning a record profit, the CEO giving himself a 160% raise, and giving a 17% dividend raise, we kinda feel like we're left to kick rocks," a striking UAW member told Labor Notes last month.
As union researcher and organizer Colleen Boyle recently noted, John Deere "could have paid each of its 69,600 worldwide employees an additional $142,000" with the money it handed to shareholders between fiscal year 2016 and the first nine months of fiscal year 2021.
According to UAW leadership, which angered rank-and-file members by endorsing an earlier tentative contract offer from management, the new contract contains "an $8,500 signing bonus; 20% increase in wages over the lifetime of the contract with 10% this year; return of cost-of-living adjustments; three 3% lump sum payments; enhanced options for retirement and enhanced [Continuous Improvement Pay Plan] performance benefits."
"Healthcare remains the same for the life of the agreement," added the union, which said Deere members ratified the deal by a vote of 61% to 39%.
HuffPost labor reporter Dave Jamieson argued that while "plenty of Deere workers still wanted to hold out for better," the new contract "seems leagues better" than the original Deere-UAW deal that led to the strike.
"That initial agreement, which included immediate raises of just 5% or 6%, was rejected by 90% of the membership in early October," Jamieson noted.
'Solidarity Forever': 40,000 Kaiser Workers Set to Strike to Defend 700 Fellow Union Members
Tens of thousands of nurses, technicians, and other healthcare workers at Kaiser Permanente in Northern California staged a walkout Thursday in sympathy with about 700 engineers who have been on strike for two months, calling on the company to offer the employees a fair contract and, advocates said, demonstrating the power of labor unions and solidarity between workers.
About 40,000 workers represented by Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare West (SEIU-UHW), Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) Local 29, and International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) Local 20 will go on strike from 7:00 Thursday morning until 7:00 Friday morning.
The strike exemplified the labor movement's motto of "Solidarity Forever," tweeted labor organizer Shane Ruiz, co-chair of the East Bay chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America.
The engineers are represented by the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 39, which announced late Wednesday that Kaiser's latest offer did not meet the workers' demands for competitive pay in the San Francisco Bay area—one of the most expensive places to live in the United States.
According to the engineers' union and the California Nurses Association (CNA), which represents thousands of nurses who are striking in solidarity, Kaiser Permanente has raked in $13 billion in profits since the coronavirus pandemic began in March 2020, but the company has proposed to "float engineers among facilities" in its network of healthcare centers rather than increasing staffing, and has offered "the lowest raise in decades for Local 39 engineers that will not keep up up with other area hospitals."
"This model would institutionalize the staffing shortages that have already hurt patients and workers," said CNA in a statement. "Rather than accept this takeaway, engineers have been on strike for nearly two months."
According to the SEIU-UHW, the action will be the largest "sympathy strike" in recent history. "Nurses know the devastating impact that short staffing has on our community's health and well-being," said Cathy Kennedy, president of CNA. "We also know that in order to provide the safe patient care our communities need and deserve, we must be able to count on our coworkers and they must be able to count on us. So we are standing with the Kaiser engineers in their righteous fight for a safe and just workplace."
The company's failure to pay the workers adequately is the latest sign that Kaiser has "lost its way," said one health educator who planned to strike in solidarity.
The company "is putting its drive for profits over people, hurting our patients and union co-workers," Ethan Ruskin, who works at Kaiser San Jose, told The Mercury News. "The Local 39 engineers play a critical role in maintaining our facilities and the equipment we use to take care of patients."
Organizers expressed hope that the sympathy strike would put pressure on executives to offer the engineers adequate pay and staffing.
Dems Saved Pharma HALF A TRILLION Dollars
Build Back Better Act CBO Score Released
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Thursday that it "estimates that enacting this legislation would result in a net increase in the deficit totaling $367 billion over the 2022-2031 period, not counting any additional revenue that may be generated by additional funding for tax enforcement."
The $367 billion figure does not account for the $207 billion that the CBO projects in Internal Revenue Service savings, "meaning CBO's effective estimate is $160 billion in new deficits," noted NBC News' Sahil Kapur. "Treasury estimates IRS enforcement saves $400 billion, which could satisfy Dems on pay-fors—if they trust it."
Responding to the CBO publication, President Joe Biden tweeted that the $1.75 trillion social and climate package "is going to lower costs, create jobs, and rebuild our economy."
"Let's get this done," the president said. ...
Right-wing Democrat Stephanie Murphy of Florida said Thursday she would vote to approve the package after seeing the CBO figures. ...
Obstructionist holdout Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va) told CNN Thursday that he did not know whether he would vote for the measure when it reached the upper chamber.
"I'm still looking at everything," he said. "I just haven't seen the final bill. So when the final bill comes out, CBO score comes out, then we'll go from there." ...
Meanwhile, Senate Budget Committee Chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) took aim at a provision of the reconciliation package that would extend a $285 billion tax cut in the form of a higher cap on the state and local tax (SALT) deduction, saying, "It's bad policy, bad politics."
Pelosi confident of Build Back Better plan’s passage as bill advances
House Democrats on Thursday moved to advance an ambitious $2tn domestic policy package that would overhaul large swaths of the American economy, with House speaker Nancy Pelosi confident they would ultimately deliver the second pillar of Joe Biden’s legislative agenda. ...
After months of gridlock and intra-party warring, Pelosi expressed optimism that the House was on the cusp of passing the measure, just two weeks after the House gave final approval to a separate effort investing in the nation’s aging infrastructure.
With their paper-thin majority, Democrats can spare only a handful of defections on the package, called Build Back Better. Party leaders had hoped to pass the measure in tandem with the infrastructure bill, but a last minute objection from a small band of centrist Democrats concerned over the cost of the package derailed those hopes.
Pelosi said the House would proceed to a vote on the measure following the release of a cost estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, as requested by the group of centrists. The agency said it would complete the analysis on Thursday.
US House passes Biden’s historic social spending bill
House Democrats pass Biden’s expansive Build Back Better policy plan
House Democrats on Friday morning passed the Build Back Better Act, the expansive domestic policy package that promises to overhaul large swaths of the American economy.
The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, triumphantly brought down her gavel to mark the passing, to enthusiastic applause throughout the chamber from Democratic members. Republican minority leader Kevin McCarthy had derailed the schedule to vote on Thursday night by delivering a record 8.5-hour speech overnight. ...
The bill now goes back to the US Senate, where it faces total opposition from Republicans and an uphill battle, in its current form, against centrist Democratic Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. ...
The Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, has indicated that he wants the bill to pass the Senate, return to the House and be on the president’s desk by Christmas for signing, a tall order with more fierce debate yet to come and a crowded legislative calendar on Capitol Hill in December.
Judge blocks New York Times from publishing Project Veritas materials
A New York trial judge has temporarily blocked the New York Times from publishing some materials concerning the rightwing activist group Project Veritas, a rare step that the newspaper said violated decades of first amendment constitutional protections. The order by Justice Charles Wood of the Westchester county supreme court covers memos written by a Project Veritas lawyer and obtained by the New York Times.
Wood scheduled a hearing for next Tuesday to consider a longer prohibition against publication, and whether the Times should remove references to privileged attorney-client information in an 11 November article about Project Veritas’s journalism practices.
“This ruling is unconstitutional and sets a dangerous precedent,” Dean Baquet, the Times’s executive editor, said in an emailed statement. ... "We are seeking an immediate review of this decision.“
I was trying to ignore this shitshow, but it doesn't seem to be going away:
Paul Gosar retweets same video aimed at AOC after House censures him
Just minutes after being censured by the US House, the Republican congressman Paul Gosar of Arizona retweeted the violent video that depicts him murdering Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, US media reported. ...
Gosar also retweeted other Republican politicians and public figures, both on his personal and congressional Twitter accounts, that have called Gosar a political “martyr” and denounced his censure. Gosar has not apologized for the video and called the censure “kabuki theater” and a “hysterical mob” in a series of new tweets published after the vote.
Following the censure vote, Gosar also released a statement saying that his censure could incite violence, comparing the censure to the events that led up to the 2015 Charlie Hebdo massacre. “I remind everyone that pretending to be upset over a cartoon is what happened to the Charlie Hebdo magazine in France,” said Gosar. “All right-thinking people condemned that then, and they should condemn the Democrats now for their violation of free speech.”
Elijah McClain’s family to reportedly receive $15m from Colorado in highest ever settlement
The city of Aurora, Colorado, has reportedly agreed to pay $15m to the family of Elijah McClain to settle a civil rights lawsuit filed over his death at the hands of police.
It will be the highest police settlement in the history of Colorado, ABC News quoted an official close to the matter as saying. CBS News said three sources “familiar” with the agreement confirmed the $15m total for the settlement, which will close a civil rights lawsuit filed by McClain’s family.
In a statement to the Guardian, a spokesperson for the city of Aurora, Ryan Luby, said: “The city of Aurora and the family of Elijah McClain reached a settlement agreement in principle over the summer to resolve the lawsuit filed after his tragic death in August 2019.
“City leaders are prepared to sign the agreement as soon as the family members complete a separate but related allocation process to which the city is not a party.”
The agreement comes more than a year after McClain’s family sued the Aurora police department and medical officials, accusing the police of a longstanding pattern of racism and brutality.
‘I just killed a man’: defendant who fatally shot Ahmaud Arbery testifies
Hundreds of pastors rallied and prayed outside the trial of the three white men accused of murdering 25-year-old Black jogger Ahmaud Arbery in 2020, with the gathering on Thursday organized in response to a defense lawyer’s bid to keep Black church leaders out of the courtroom.
Inside the court house, the defense rested its case on Thursday afternoon, shortly after Travis McMichael, who fatally shot Arbery on 23 February 2020, testified that the younger man’s demeanor struck him as suspicious but that Arbery didn’t threaten him in any way before he opened fire.
Testimony had resumed in Brunswick, south-east Georgia, as the Rev Al Sharpton organized the large group of Black ministers. Many carried signs reading, “Black pastors matter,” and some wore buttons with Arbery’s picture and the hashtag they were using for the case, “#JusticeForAhmaud.” ...
Ben Crump, a civil rights attorney representing the Arbery family, predicted the defense would ask the judge for a mistrial because of the demonstration outside the courthouse.
Not a well organized exposition, but the best information and analysis that I've seen so far:
Is Kyle Rittenhouse Guilty? w/ Olayemi Olurin
Kyle Rittenhouse defense attorneys ask judge to declare mistrial over video
Defense attorneys for Kyle Rittenhouse asked the judge on Wednesday to declare a mistrial, arguing that they did not receive the same quality of a drone video as the prosecution. Defense attorney Corey Chirafisi said they initially received a compressed version of a video taken by a drone that the state prosecutors played for jurors during closing arguments.
Prosecutors say it showed Rittenhouse pointing his gun at anti-racism protesters before being chased by Joseph Rosenbaum, the first man he shot and killed during a night of racial injustice unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last August, in which Rittenhouse eventually shot three people, killing two and injuring one.
“The idea that the state would provide lesser quality footage and then use that footage as a linchpin in their case and it is the very reason they requested and were granted the provocation instruction by the court. The failure to provide the same quality footage in this particular case is intentional and clearly prejudices the defendant,” the motion read.
Kyle Rittenhouse, Who Killed Two People, Acquitted of Homicide Charges
Kyle Rittenhouse has been acquitted of all charges. The jury in the high-profile trial found the teenager was acting in self-defense during a pair of deadly encounters last summer in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Who Killed Malcolm X? Two Men Are Exonerated As Manhattan DA Reveals Details of FBI Coverup
No country has met welfare goals in past 30 years ‘without putting planet at risk’
No country has managed to meet the basic social needs of its population in the past 30 years without putting undue pressure on the Earth’s supply of natural resources, according to a study. Looking at a sample of 148 nations, research by the University of Leeds found wealthy countries were putting the future of the planet at risk to make minimal gains in human welfare, while poor countries were living within ecological boundaries but underachieving in areas such as life expectancy and access to energy.
The report, which follows the conclusion of the Cop26 climate change talks in Glasgow, said that on current trends the next 30 years would see the pattern repeated and called for a rethink of growth-dominated economic models. ... The report, which was published in the journal Nature Sustainability, said wealthy countries, including the US, the UK and Canada were achieving minimal social gains despite using resources at a level that was consistent with climate and ecological breakdown. Poorer countries such as Bangladesh, Malawi and Sri Lanka were living within planetary boundaries, but still falling short on meeting many basic human needs.
Researchers tracked country performance on 11 social priorities broadly aligned with the 2030 United Nations sustainable development goals. The indicators included life expectancy, nutrition, sanitation and access to education. The study also assessed whether countries were operating within six planetary boundaries, including global heating, excessive fertiliser use and land-system change.
Canadian Police Raid Wet’suwet’en Pipeline Blockade, Arrest 15 Land Defenders
US mountain states battle wildfires despite impending winter
Wildfires spread by strong winds tore across Wyoming, Montana and Colorado, rocking the mountain states even as they prepare for winter.
With low temperature forecast at just above freezing this week in Colorado, a fire burning roughly 50 miles from Denver forced evacuations and sent plumes of smoke toward the eastern plains. The area is awaiting its first measurable snowfall, already historically late. Fire weather warnings were issued by the National Weather Service, which forecasted low humidity, high winds and warmer temperatures.
The Kruger Rock fire erupted after strong winds pushed a tree on to a power line. The fire spread quickly through the steep forested area covered in pine and scrub brush. Winds gusting at 45mph (73 km/h) fanned the fire slowly eastward while local fire crews struggled to gain access. “The terrain where most of the fire was burning made it too dangerous to insert firefighters to battle the fire directly,” officials wrote in an update on Wednesday. “The gusty winds, higher than normal temperatures, and low relative humidity suggested great potential for the fire to grow quickly.” ...
Fires also forced evacuations in northern Wyoming and south-central Montana, with deputies in some areas going door-to-door warning residents to flee.
“Miseducation”: How Fossil Fuel Lobbyists Push Climate Denialism to Kids in U.S. Schools
Residents brace for torrential rains in already flooded western Canada
Communities in western Canada are bracing for more damage as torrential rain is forecasted next week in areas already devastated by heavy flooding. Hundreds of troops were deployed to the country’s westernmost province to help some 18,000 people stranded by landslides, struggling to find food among bare grocery store shelves. ...
“I am not concerned about today’s rain. What I’m concerned about is next week, and what’s coming,” said Henry Braun, mayor of the city of Abbotsford where officials kept close watch over a pumping station. If the pumps failed, Braun warned, the results would be “catastrophic” for a community already grappling with thousands of drowned farm animals and a bill that could reach $1bn to rebuild the city.
As the province braces for a better understanding of the sheer toll of the disaster, including warnings to expect more fatalities, residents say the recent days have exposed the vulnerability of small communities to natural disasters worsened by the climate crisis.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
The US makes the rules, and Syria massacre was no exception
Nobody Who Says “You Can Criticize Washington AND Beijing” Actually Does
Turkey - A Crazy Economic Theory Is Ruining The Country
Why It’s So Hard to Tax Billionaires
After House Passage, Sanders Vows to Strengthen Build Back Better 'In a Number of Ways'
The forgotten oil ads that told us climate change was nothing
Revealed: the places humanity must not destroy to avoid climate chaos
Original copy of US constitution sold to unknown buyer for $43m
Angela Davis: “Forces of White Supremacy” Are Behind Attacks on Teaching Critical Race Theory
Jimmy Dore: U.S. Trying To Overthrow Nicaragua Government Again
A Little Night Music
Kim Wilson - Lookin' For Trouble!
Kim Wilson - Fine Little Woman
Kim Wilson and his Blues All Stars - You're The One
Kim Wilson & His Blues All Stars - Low Down Woman
Kim Wilson - Hand To Mouth
Kim Wilson - Telephone Blues
Kim Wilson - Big Walter's Boogie
Kim Wilson - I'm Leaving You
The Healers featuring Kim Wilson - Early Every Morning
Kim Wilson and his Blues All Stars - Shake your Money Maker
Stevie Ray Vaughan, Duke Robillard, Kim Wilson Jam- December 2, 1988
Comments
Obama is still bamboozling his followers.
evening humphrey...
either obama is a master bamboozler or his fanbase really enjoys being bamboozled.
Damn man, that's one hot jam
SRV, Duke and Wilson.
Finger lickin' good
Thanks Joe!
Oh, BTW, wasn't Eisenhower some kinda general before he was demoted to preznit?
how does that square?
Zionism is a social disease
evening qms...
yep, when i ran across that jam video i figured that a lot of folks would dig it.
eisenhower was indeed a general before his demotion. while he waited until the end of his career to unload some of his better thinking, i guess better late than never.
Good evening, Joe
Another difficult week comes to an end.
Just read the article you've provided where Bernie is making his hopes wishes desires known.
It is extremely unlikely that his views will prevail. On much. If anything.
So, my question is, "Bernie, you've fought the good fight for so many decades. Is it not time to leave the Senate and pursue your goals in another way?"
The party he caucuses with hates him and humiliates him every chance they get. This party is thrilled by a robot fascist empty suit now, (Petey and his ilk) and things are not going to improve.
Leave when the Senate passes a bill that rewards the rich rather than lowering drug prices for everybody or negotiating with Medicare to lower them, let alone lowering the age for Medicare.
There's nothing good here for you.
Gay gezinta heit---my very bad Yiddish loosely translates as Go in Good Health. It is a wish,or maybe a benediction, to you from me/us that good fortune and good health are yours as you leave this stage.
NYCVG
evening nycvg...
heh, at this point i don't expect much out of bernie - and i expect even less out of the dems. i suppose that if he's got one good trick up his sleeve to use on the way out the door, that'd be good.
I was wondering what the difference is between
being locked down and being locked up. Well, it feels bad, no matter if it is locked up or locked down.
For the time being it feels here in Germany as if being locked down is the same as being locked up.
Many thanks for the EB. Can't make comments, as I can't read that much anymore.
Have all a wonderful weekend and I hope that whatever weather you have in your parts of the world, it is nice and comfortable.
https://www.euronews.com/live
evening mimi...
there's probably no functional difference between being locked down or being locked up.
if there's a difference, it might be that being locked up might suggest an external locus of control while being locked down might suggest an internal locus of control. or maybe it's just my imagination.
have a good one!
Hi bluesters
Hi Joe! Hope all are well!
Great blower ya got here man! Most excellent sounds. I gotta get back to work though.
Sure would vote for an Eisenhower Republican in a heartbeat nowadays!
Take care all!
Have a good weekend Joe!
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
evening dystopian...
yep, wilson has a solid body of work to his credit, he's always worth a listen.
heh, eisenhower reminds one of the fact that there were once republicans with one brain cell to rub against the next. poor taste in veeps, though.
have a great weekend!
From a leading NYC Progressive (until he went for mandates)
https://twitter.com/JumaaneWilliams
https://advocate.nyc.gov/press/public-advocates-statement-kyle-rittenhou...
"
"This trial and the verdict it produced are clear and devastating representations of the way our country and our legal system view innocence and guilt, vigilantes and villains, race and the fight against racial injustice. A white seventeen year old killing protesters with a weapon of war is celebrated and acquitted. A black seventeen year old walking the community with a bag of Skittles is criminalized and murdered.
"Across the country we see people committed not to changing systems of injustice, but using those systems to harm those who would object or protest against them. This verdict sets a new standard that will only encourage future Kyle Rittenhouses – some in the streets armed with weapons, some in government armed with oppression.
"Today, I’m praying for the families of Kyle Rittenhouse’s victims, that they might someday find peace even in the face of this verdict, and continuing the work to change the systems that led to today’s result. We can be demoralized, devastated by this verdict, but we cannot be deterred."
In other words, we fight on.
NYCVG
I will add my 2 cents.
Crime bill Brandon weighs in.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/582394-biden-on-rittenhouse-...
SMH
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/582451-former-ferguson-officer-...
WTF is she talking about ?
So, some person, or group of persons, designed a "system" that would protect idiots like Kyle Rittenhouse.
Who were these people that designed this system ?
When did they do this ?
Can we describe the elements of this system and the rules that determine their behavior ?
Sadly, no.
This kind of talk doesn't make any sense.
There Are No Systems
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
heh...
when large numbers of people collude because of an intersection of their interests and it becomes part of the social and/or economic fabric of an area, it's a something. what do you suppose it is?
How are you going to change a "system"
if you can't even describe it ? Rittenhouse got off because the jury believed he acted in self-defense. That's not a system, that's a law, a single law, probably been on the books forever. Again, to my questions, she claims the "system was designed" to protect Rittenhouse. By who was it designed, and when ? What if it's not a system at all ? We used to call this the profundity of the vague.
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
well...
the reich wing has gotten the verdict it wanted and while it might not be evident immediately, i think that this will change the country in ways that are going to be unpleasant.
we now live in a nation where people who want to express dissent have to run a gauntlet of heavily-armed vigilantes. this will not end well.
Will likely make peaceful protests
in open-carry states more challenging. Will probably make "proud boys" feel even more empowered. However, except for cops, shooting because one fears for his/her life doesn't appear to be a low bar; otherwise, the incidence of such killings with immunity would be far more prevalent. Legally, this case is similar to that of the killing of Trayvon Martin.
What gets left out of such incidents is how the presence of a gun changes the dynamics. That kid would have fled in tears as soon as he was taunted if not for the AR-15 he'd strapped on. The gun made him the aggressor and not some innocent merely protecting himself (or taking it upon himself to protect a car dealership that he had no personal attachment to and there was no reason for him to have been there, much less armed).
I think we’re getting too close to Putin’s red line
First with us playing chicken in the Black Sea, and putting more countries in NATO, but this might be the final straw.
Russia reacts to NATO proposal to move nukes into Eastern Europe
This dude and his merry men should buy themselves a mirror and look into it and they can see who has been mucking up the world. It’s probably a good thing that Russia took Crimea because I doubt that they would allow a US/NATO base just a few miles from their homeland. It might be a smoking crater by now.
Yep this.
The media told lots of lies about what happened from the gitgo starting with his mom drove him over state lines with a gun. It didn’t happen like that. I’m betting there are going to be some lawsuits coming up.
Well she does get to be the first woman president of the USA so there’s that.
Sam asked why the cow was so fuzzy.
I went to see what the camping spots were like on antelope island for a thanksgiving trip and I liked the ones down close to the lake. This is the view out the door.
There’s one area that has full hookups but the views aren’t as nice nor the restroom as close…I’ve winterized the trailer already and it’s dry camping. It has been below freezing here already.
Have a good weekend everyone. Thanks Joe for the week of blues and news.
The message echoes from Gaza back to the US. “Starving people is fine.”
evening snoopy...
wow, that moron stoltenberg is really itching for a war. what a sick son of a bitch.
the view from the camping spot looks pretty fabulous. does each spot come with its own picturesque bison, too?
have a good one!
Heh…
I went camping with my parents there and in the morning the Buffalo were all over the campground and a few right outside the window. So yeah they go where they want to go. That one was less than 10 feet from my car. I just peeked around the back and his head came up and he looked right at me. Got back in the car quickly I’ll say. Went x country skiing in Yellowstone one winter and we climbed a trail to see the waterfall and one parked himself right next to the trail we skied down. 5 feet away and we couldn’t wait long for it to move because it was so cold. I can truthfully say I played chicken with a Buffalo.
It’s really pretty out there if you like desert. But I remember when the water was much closer. Used to worry about the water overlapping the causeway, but it’s just sand on both sides now. I’m witnessing the dying of the great salt lake. And the birds. I saw 3 the whole time I was there.
Did anyone see the moon this morning? It was cloudy here..bummer.
The message echoes from Gaza back to the US. “Starving people is fine.”
heh...
i remember driving through yellowstone back in '16 and got kinda stuck in a bison-caused traffic jam. for a few minutes i was a few feet away from a gigantic bull and we sat there staring at each other. when i saw that the traffic was going to move, i got my camera out and asked him if it was ok to take his picture. he just kept staring at me, so i clicked off a couple of photos as i eased away.
buffalo chicken
what a concept
now sold in deli's
missed the lunar eclipse this AM due to clouds
but the big, bright ball in the sky is visible tonight
Zionism is a social disease
Oh yeah
Any idea what Russia will do if we do put more nukes over there? Will they put some in Cuba again? Or maybe they will shut off the gas to Europe. Stupid people playing with billions of lives.
BTW Russia is sending 4 boats of gas to us. RT has the article.
The message echoes from Gaza back to the US. “Starving people is fine.”
well,
kinda hard to tell, russia has lots of options. they are also fairly sophisticated diplomats compared to the u.s., so they will probably be pretty good at recognizing u.s. intentions.
so long as the u.s. isn't stupid enough to make an existential threat, i would expect putin to work with his partners with soft power measures gradually ratcheting up pressure.
Evening all, and Happy Friday ...
Thanks joe, for curating this daily collection for all these years.
I learn so much.
Here's a tune:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wINtLfUIXcI width:300 height:240]
This thread is a good summary of Russiagate: Glenn Greenwald on Twitter
Remember this one ?
How romantic.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-rIw1eofoA width:300 height:240]
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
evening azazello...
thanks for the tunes, good stuff!
have a great weekend!
That is exactly how they planned it. Gotta take care of the ....
big donors.
heh...
but you know, it's harder to impress rich people than poor people, so the size of the gratuity that the democrats have to engineer for their owners is pretty large.
Evening Joe...
I've been meaning to ask you about how your vinyl to digital transfers are going. Making any headway into that huge collection you have?
heh...
it's still moving along, just slowly at this point. life is busier now that we aren't locked down (thank goodness). i have already done a lot of the best, cleanest vinyl that i've got and i've got a big pile of it waiting until i can afford an ultrasonic cleaner, which will make the transfers sound much better.
i looked into putting stuff up on youtube and it appears that youtube limits the quality of the audio considerably, which is kinda sad, but i'll probably start putting some stuff up eventually when i figure out how to make a decent video and work out how to make a playlist. perhaps when i get that all figured out i'll start posting an "album of the week" feature on weekends here.
Good evening Joe, thanks for the news and blues.
nice tunes to ease into the weekend with. Perhaps its time for every black person in Kenosha to get a gun and carry it openly everywhere, for "self defense". Maybe carry them over to Antioch, Ill. and hang out in parks and public places all over town with them.
so build backwards beggarly passed the house, after more drama than King Lear and Hamlet combined, and Chuckie the Shoom wants it done by xmas? Is there some enormous pile of corporate welfare hidden in it that nobody knows about yet?
Have a wonderful weekend and, of course, be well and have a good one
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 --
evening el...
yep, it looks like it's time for all americans to practice their divine right to armaments and create their own weapons systems, self-protective armor and home shielding.
perhaps i should get that medieval castle i've always wanted and some nice crossbows for when i want to go out.
it seems reasonable that the build back burglary bill is loaded with pork for the wealthy and their corporations, otherwise it wouldn't pass the legislature.
have a nice weekend!