The Evening Blues - 1-11-22



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Hot Lips Page

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features jazz trumpeter and singer Hot Lips Page. Enjoy!

Hot Lips Page Trio - Evil Man’s Blues

“One nation's common sense is another nation's high blood pressure.”

-- E.B. White


News and Opinion

US-Russia talks over Ukraine ‘useful’ but no progress made

US and Russian diplomats have emerged from a day of negotiations in Geneva over the fate of Ukraine, describing the talks as “useful” and “very professional” – but also stressing they had not made progress towards resolving fundamental disagreements.

The two sides largely spent the eight hours of talks presenting their points of view on the situation in Ukraine, currently hemmed in by some 100,000 Russian troops, and on European security in general, and deferred further debate on them to a meeting in Brussels on Wednesday between Russia and all Nato members.

“We had useful discussions and exchanges today that will help inform our way forward,” Wendy Sherman, the deputy US secretary of state and leader of the delegation in Geneva, told reporters after the day of talks.

Her Russian counterpart, Sergei Ryabkov, said: “The conversation was difficult, long, very professional, deep, concrete, without attempts to embellish or smooth over sharp corners. “We have been left with the impression that the American side approached the Russian proposals very seriously, studied them in depth,” Ryabkov said. ...

Ryabkov said the two sides had continued to clash over what the agenda of future talks should be. While the US has sought to focus on technical arms control issues, Ryabkov described those as a secondary concern compared with the far thornier demand to limit Nato’s presence in central and eastern Europe. He also noted that elements of Russia’s demands, such as an effective veto on future Nato enlargement, appear to be non-starters for the US and its allies. Analysts have said that the aggressive demands made by Russia mean that the negotiations are headed for a dead-end.

Russian-led troops to start leaving Kazakhstan in 2 days

Foreign meddling behind Kazakhstan unrest, Putin claims

Vladimir Putin has claimed the unrest in Kazakhstan last week that killed at least 164 people was the result of foreign meddling, and said a Russian-led military bloc should take steps to ensure that future attempts to interfere in the region failed.

“The events in Kazakhstan are not the first and far from the last attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of our states from the outside,” said the Russian president, who was speaking at a video conference of leaders of the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), a military alliance that deployed about 2,500 troops to Kazakhstan this week at the request of Kazakhstan’s president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

The CSTO, which also includes Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia and Tajikistan, has never before deployed troops, and many in Kazakhstan expressed extreme unease at having Russian troops on the ground.

“The measures taken by the CSTO made it clear that we would not let anyone destabilise the situation at our home and implement so-called ‘colour revolution’ scenarios,” said Putin. The Russian president believes former Soviet nations should fall into Moscow’s sphere of influence, and has frequently dismissed popular uprisings as “colour revolutions” organised and financed from abroad. Putin also said the events in Kazakhstan showed the dangers of social media and unrestricted internet use.

Journalist DETAILS Devastating Unrest In Kazakhstan.Were Protests HIJACKED By Violent Operatives?

Hey, Hey, USA! How Many Bombs Did You Drop Today?

The Pentagon has finally published its first Airpower Summary since President Biden took office nearly a year ago. These monthly reports have been published since 2007 to document the number of bombs and missiles dropped by U.S.-led air forces in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria since 2004. But President Trump stopped publishing them after February 2020, shrouding continued U.S. bombing in secrecy.

Over the past 20 years, as documented in the table below [click article link to see table - js], U.S. and allied air forces have dropped over 337,000 bombs and missiles on other countries. That is an average of 46 strikes per day for 20 years. This endless bombardment has not only been deadly and devastating for its victims but is broadly recognized as seriously undermining international peace and security and diminishing America’s standing in the world.

The U.S. government and political establishment have been remarkably successful at keeping the American public in the dark about the horrific consequences of these long-term campaigns of mass destruction, allowing them to maintain the illusion of U.S. militarism as a force for good in the world in their domestic political rhetoric.

Now, even in the face of the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, they are doubling down on their success at selling this counterfactual narrative to the American public to reignite their old Cold War with Russia and China, dramatically and predictably increasing the risk of nuclear war.

The new Airpower Summary data reveal that the United States has dropped another 3,246 bombs and missiles on Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria (2,068 under Trump and 1,178 under Biden) since February 2020.

The good news is that U.S. bombing of those 3 countries has significantly decreased from the over 12,000 bombs and missiles it dropped on them in 2019. In fact, since the withdrawal of U.S. occupation forces from Afghanistan in August, the U.S. military has officially conducted no air strikes there, and only dropped 13 bombs or missiles on Iraq and Syria - although this does not preclude additional unreported strikes by forces under CIA command or control.

Presidents Trump and Biden both deserve credit for recognizing that endless bombing and occupation could not deliver victory in Afghanistan. The speed with which the U.S.-installed government fell to the Taliban once the U.S. withdrawal was under way confirmed how 20 years of hostile military occupation, aerial bombardment and support for corrupt governments ultimately served only to drive the war-weary people of Afghanistan back to Taliban rule.

Biden’s callous decision to follow 20 years of colonial occupation and aerial bombardment in Afghanistan with the same kind of brutal economic siege warfare the United States has inflicted on Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Venezuela can only further discredit America in the eyes of the world.

There has been no accountability for these 20 years of senseless destruction. Even with the publication of Airpower Summaries, the ugly reality of U.S. bombing wars and the mass casualties they inflict remain largely hidden from the American people.

How many of the 3,246 attacks documented in the Airpower Summary since February 2020 were you aware of before reading this article? You probably heard about the drone strike that killed 10 Afghan civilians in Kabul in August 2021. But what about the other 3,245 bombs and missiles? Whom did they kill or maim, and whose homes did they destroy?

The December 2021 New York Times exposé of the consequences of U.S. airstrikes, the result of a five-year investigation, was stunning not only for the high civilian casualties and military lies it exposed, but also because it revealed just how little investigative reporting the U.S. media have done on these two decades of war.

In America’s industrialized, remote-control air wars, even the U.S. military personnel most directly and intimately involved are shielded from human contact with the people whose lives they are destroying, while for most of the American public, it is as if these hundreds of thousands of deadly explosions never even happened.

The lack of public awareness of U.S. airstrikes is not the result of a lack of concern for the mass destruction our government commits in our names. In the rare cases we find out about, like the murderous drone strike in Kabul in August, the public wants to know what happened and strongly supports U.S. accountability for civilian deaths.

So public ignorance of 99% of U.S. air strikes and their consequences is not the result of public apathy, but of deliberate decisions by the U.S. military, politicians of both parties and corporate media to keep the public in the dark. The largely unremarked 21-month-long suppression of monthly Airpower Summaries is only the latest example of this. ...

The failure of the U.S. government, politicians and corporate media to honestly inform and educate the American public about the systematic mass destruction wreaked by our country’s armed forces has allowed this carnage to continue largely unremarked and unchecked for 20 years.

It has also left us precariously vulnerable to the revival of an anachronistic, Manichean Cold War narrative that risks even greater catastrophe. In this topsy-turvy, “through the looking glass” narrative, the country actually bombing cities to rubble and waging wars that kill millions of people, presents itself as a well-intentioned force for good in the world. Then it paints countries like China, Russia and Iran, which have understandably strengthened their defenses to deter the United States from attacking them, as threats to the American people and to world peace.

The high-level talks beginning on January 10th in Geneva between the United States and Russia are a critical opportunity, maybe even a last chance, to rein in the escalation of the current Cold War before this breakdown in East-West relations becomes irreversible or devolves into a military conflict.

If we are to emerge from this morass of militarism and avoid the risk of an apocalyptic war with Russia or China, the U.S. public must challenge the counterfactual Cold War narrative that U.S. military and civilian leaders are peddling to justify their ever-increasing investments in nuclear weapons and the U.S. war machine.

Media SILENT As Afghan Civilians STARVE TO DEATH

Ryan Grim: Arrested DEA Informant Who Financed Haiti Plot Says US APPROVED Of Taking Out President

Iran Imposes Sanctions on Americans Over 2020 Killing of Top General

Iran on Saturday imposed sanctions on dozens more Americans, many of them from the U.S. military, over the 2020 killing of General Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike.

Iran's Foreign Ministry said the 51 Americans had been targeted for what it called "terrorism" and human rights violations. The step lets Iranian authorities seize any assets they hold in Iran, but the apparent absence of such assets means it will likely be symbolic.

The ministry said in a statement carried by local media that the 51 had been targeted for "their role in the terrorist crime by the United States against the martyred General Qassem Soleimani and his companions and the promotion of terrorism and violations of fundamental human rights".

Lithuania pays Guantánamo ‘forever prisoner’ Abu Zubaydah €100,000 over CIA torture

Lithuania has paid more than $110,000 to Abu Zubaydah, the Guantánamo detainee known as the “forever prisoner”, in compensation for having allowed the CIA to hold him at a secret site outside Vilnius where he was subjected to forms of torture.

The €100,000 ($113,500) payment comes more than three years after the European court of human rights ordered the Lithuanian government to pay compensation for violating European laws banning the use of torture.

It marks a significant shift in the treatment of Zubaydah, who has been detained by the US without charge for more than 20 years.

Zubaydah was captured in Pakistan six months after 9/11. The CIA and lawyers for the Bush administration attempted to justify his torture by claiming he was a very senior figure in al-Qaida. It emerged that he was not a member of the organisation and he has never been charged with involvement in 9/11. For much of the time since his arrest, Zubaydah has been held incommunicado, at the insistence of the CIA as part of its efforts to prevent details of his torture from becoming public.

Lawyers for Zubaydah believe it is highly unlikely that Lithuania would have made the compensation payment without approval from Washington.

Guantánamo 2.0: Former Prisoner Mansoor Adayfi Says Injustice Continues Even After Release

McCarthy plans to oust Schiff, Swalwell and Omar from committees if GOP takes House

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Monday he plans to remove Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from their respective committees if Republicans retake the House majority.

McCarthy's comments offer a preview of the scorched-earth tactics Republicans may adopt if they win back control of Congress in 2022.

McCarthy has long said the removals of Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) from their committees set a new standard that his party will not hesitate to use against Democrats.

SHOTS FIRED: Dem Senator Moves To BAN Corrupt Stock Trading

'Good News for Seniors': Becerra Orders Medicare to Reassess Premium Hike

As the head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced Monday that he was ordering a review of a planned 15% hike in the Medicare Part B premium for 2022, healthcare reform advocates stressed the need for Congress to pass a Build Back Better bill with a provision allowing the federal government to negotiate the price of prescription drugs.

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said that he was instructing the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) "to reassess the recommendation for the 2022 Medicare Part B premium"—a hike that progressive critics said was largely the result of the pharmaceutical industry's outrageous profiteering.

Alex Lawson, executive director of the advocacy group Social Security Works, called Becerra's announcement "good news for seniors."

"Older Americans should not have to pay $22 more for Medicare every month to cover the outrageous prices of prescription drugs," he said in a statement.

Last November, CMS announced that monthly Medicare Part B premiums would increase nearly 15% from $148.50 in 2021 to $170.10 for 2022.

Family mourns teenager killed by LAPD

The Rev Al Sharpton delivered a eulogy on Monday for Valentina Orellana-Peralta, the 14-year-old girl killed by a Los Angeles police officer, denouncing LAPD’s longstanding abuses, as her family remembered a bright young girl who excelled in school and had big dreams for her life in the US.

“There is nothing normal about shooting so recklessly that a young teenage girl looking to live the American dream, shopping with her dear mother … for a Christmas dress, ends up being dressed for her funeral,” Sharpton said in his eulogy, recounting his marches in LA and fight for justice 31 years ago when LAPD beat Rodney King. “I led marches and joined in all kinds of efforts to call on the prosecution of those police, and calling on the Los Angeles police department to reform how they do policing … Through those 31 years, we keep seeing LAPD get it wrong. Here we are again. How long will it take for you to get it right?” ...

The killing of a young bystander has prompted widespread scrutiny of the LAPD, which shot a total of six people in a nine-day period last month, contributing to a sharp increase in officer shootings and killings in 2021.

LA’s mayor, Eric Garcetti, has said the LAPD will review its tactics, training and policies in the wake of the killing. But the case has renewed calls for the defunding of the department, with critics arguing that ongoing reform efforts have failed to prevent police violence, and that officers must face accountability for misconduct and unjust killings.



the horse race



His Bernieness has an interview with the Guardian. If you are amused by Bernie's sad attempts to talk the party into action, you'll love the inteview.

Bernie Sanders says Democrats are failing: ‘The party has turned its back on the working class’

Senator Bernie Sanders has called on Democrats to make “a major course correction” that focuses on fighting for America’s working class and standing up to “powerful corporate interests” because the Democrats’ legislative agenda is stalled and their party faces tough prospects in this November’s elections.

The White House is likely to see his comments as a shot across the bow by the left wing of a party increasingly frustrated at how centrist Democrats have managed to scupper or delay huge chunks of Biden’s domestic policy plans.

In an interview with the Guardian, Sanders called on Joe Biden and the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, to push to hold votes on individual bills that would be a boon to working families, citing extending the child tax credit, cutting prescription drug prices and raising the federal hourly minimum wage to $15.

Such votes would be good policy and good politics, the Vermont senator insisted, saying they would show the Democrats battling for the working class while highlighting Republican opposition to hugely popular policies.

“It is no great secret that the Republican party is winning more and more support from working people,” Sanders said. “It’s not because the Republican party has anything to say to them. It’s because in too many ways the Democratic party has turned its back on the working class.”

Krystal Ball: Bernie BLASTS Dems as Primary LOOMS

Groups Tell Biden He's Not Welcome in Georgia Without a 'Finalized Voting Rights Plan'

President Joe Biden is set to visit Atlanta on Tuesday to deliver a major speech on the state of voting rights in the U.S., but his planned visit has gotten a chilly reception from Georgia advocates who say they're sick of lofty rhetoric and no action from Democratic leaders.

In a joint statement ahead of Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris' trip, a coalition of advocacy groups including the Black Voters Matter Fund, the Georgia NAACP, and the Asian American Advocacy Fund said the president must bring with him "an announcement of a finalized voting rights plan that will pass both chambers, not be stopped by the filibuster, and be signed into law."

"Anything less is insufficient and unwelcome," the groups said. "We reject any political visit that does not also come with policy progress—with signs of clear work done, of something accomplished. We reject any visit that fails to begin with the question, 'How does this serve the people of Georgia?' It is time for final action on voting rights, and Georgians are waiting." ...

In their statement, the coalition of Georgia-based advocacy groups noted that "in the past year alone, voters and advocates have fought an onslaught of devastating anti-voter proposals" in the state "and have organized in the aftermath of the passage of SB 202."

"Right now, advocates and local leaders are fighting to stop the closure of seven out of eight polling places in Lincoln County—where over one-third of voters are Black," the groups said. "Just next week, the state legislature will convene, with Republican leaders already proudly touting their plans to attack voting access, push to ban drop boxes, and erect new hurdles in the path of voters. And the voters and advocates in Georgia remain, ready to do the work to try and slow them down and stop them from taking away their freedom to vote."

"So as President Biden and Vice President Harris plan their visit to Georgia, our message is simple," they continued. "We have voted, we have advocated, and we have organized. We have done the work. Now, it is time for you to deliver, and for you to do the work. We need President Biden and Vice President Harris to demand we restore the Senate and pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act NOW."

Dems FLEE Congress As Polls Show Armageddon For Biden

GOP steps up bid to persuade Hogan to run for Senate in Md.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and other top Republicans are stepping up a personal campaign to persuade Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan to run for the Senate and help the party’s chances of regaining control of the chamber.

The recruitment effort has included McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, who held Cabinet positions in the Trump and George W. Bush administrations. Moderate Senate Republicans, including Susan Collins of Maine, have also been in direct contact with Hogan to note that his centrist brand of politics would be welcome in a chamber riven with partisanship. Several other Washington officials have made financial pledges or shared internal polling to try to convince Hogan that he has a path to victory.

President Joe Biden carried Maryland by 32 percentage points in 2020 and a Republican hasn’t won a statewide federal office in more than 30 years. Hogan, who is prevented by term limits from running for reelection, has long resisted the idea of challenging Democratic incumbent Sen. Chris Van Hollen. One of the GOP’s most prominent critics of former President Donald Trump, Hogan has toyed with mounting a presidential campaign in 2024.
Still, his willingness to recently engage with high-profile recruiters suggests Hogan has not ruled out a Senate run. If he were to enter the Senate race instead, it would force Democrats to devote money and other resources in a longtime blue state at a time when they’re already bracing for a difficult campaign season across the country.

Congressman Jim Jordan refuses to cooperate with 6 January committee

The Ohio Republican Jim Jordan is the second sitting congressman to refuse a request for cooperation from the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack.

In a Sunday night letter to the committee chair, Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the Trump ally accused the panel of “an outrageous abuse” of its authority.

He also claimed “an unprecedented and inappropriate demand to examine the basis for a colleague’s decision on a particular matter pending before the House of Representatives”.

“This request is far outside the bounds of any legitimate inquiry,” he said, “violates core constitutional principles and would serve to further erode legislative norms.”



the evening greens


Climate crisis: last seven years the hottest on record, 2021 data shows

The last seven years were the world’s hottest on record, with the first analysis of global temperature in 2021 showing it was 1.2C above pre-industrial levels.

The assessment of the year, by the European climate agency Copernicus, also found carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached record levels and that the potent greenhouse gas methane surged “very substantially”, also to a new record.

The rise in greenhouse gas concentration means more heat is being trapped than ever before but 2021 ranked as the fifth hottest year on record. This is because a natural and cyclic climate phenomenon called La Niña exerted a cooling influence by bringing cold Pacific waters to the surface.

The climate crisis continued unabated with extreme weather striking across the world. Europe suffered its hottest summer on record and broke its maximum temperature record in Sicily with 48.8C, while intense wildfires raged in Italy, Greece and Turkey. Severe floods made up to nine times more likely by global heating also wreaked havoc in Germany and Belgium

Extreme heat also caused the “mother of all heatwaves” in the west of the US and Canada. Temperature records were smashed by 5C and scientists calculated the event was made at least 150 times more likely by global heating. In California, the Dixie wildfire was the second largest in history.

Global heating could lead to an increase in kidney stone disease, study finds

Rising temperatures due to the climate crisis will lead to a rise in people suffering from kidney stones – a painful medical condition exacerbated by heat and dehydration, according to a new study. Researchers used two climate scenarios to estimate the burden of heat and humidity related kidney stone disease by the end of the century in South Carolina – a state in the south-east US, a region which currently has a higher than average incidence rate. ...

According to researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (Chop), the number of cases will increase between 2.2% and 3.9% depending on whether greenhouse gas emissions continue at the current rate or are cut to an intermediate level, leading to a huge rise in health costs either way. ...

The incidence of the condition has escalated over the past two decades, particularly among people of color, women and adolescents.


Also of Interest

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

What War With Russia Would Look Like

Blinken Warns Kazakhstan Against Inviting Russian Troops

The Russia-U.S. Talks In Geneva Are Likely To Fail

Anti-War Voices Denounce Knighting of Ex-PM Tony Blair

Saudis Say ‘Urgent’ Situation, They’re Running Out of Patriot Missiles

On March 31, the Fed Has to Name Names under Four of its Emergency Loan Programs to Wall Street. Will the Media Censor that News Also?

Michael Hudson: What is Causing So Much Inflation?

Pete Buttigieg’s Dark Money Donors

Manchin’s Coal Corruption Is So Much Worse Than You Knew


A Little Night Music

Hot Lips Page - Last Call For Alcohol

Hot Lips Page & His Band - Lafayette

Artie Shaw (Hot Lips Page, vocal) - Blues In The Night

Hot Lips Page - The Monkey (The Jungle King)

Hot Lips Page - There Ain't No Flies On Me

Hot Lips Page - Uncle Sam's Blues

Hot Lips Page - I Won't Be Here Long

Hot Lips Page - The Cadillac Song

Hot Lips Page - Harlem Rumbain' the Blues


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21 users have voted.

Comments

This is an especially juicy round-up. Thank you for your effort and your hardy endurance.

First, to Snoop---Joe's posted the Medicare item you mentioned yesterday. As I said then, it is probably too late as the SS checks go out the third and fourth week of the month.

Which might be a metaphor for the booming theatrics I hear behind me as Joe Biden is pretending that whatever he is saying matters to Americans.

(It's too late, baby. Yes, it's too late.)

Yelling about voters rights in a country concerned with paying for their household necessities and who have largely concluded that voting no longer helps them, is bound to be a tirade that goes unnoticed.

11 million people watch Joe Rogan's episodes.

All the media combined total a fraction of that startling number. If you do not believe me watch any news on your TV and note that the advertisers have largely fled. Except for Pharma and sad neglected starving pets and people in PSA.

We know that Elections and Politics are frauds. Shams. Theater at best, and that no help is coming from either party.

In a similar vein, I taped Bernie who was on with Seth Miller last night and watched it on this frosty day when I stayed home.

Oy vey---"Millionaires and billionaires have to pay their fair share."

Not kidding. That's what he's got for us.

We have crossed the Rubicon. Passed the point of no return. Pick your own metaphor.

The big question I have is "What Now?" The center cannot hold. What comes next.....

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15 users have voted.

NYCVG

Pluto's Republic's picture

@NYCVG

And good question:

The center cannot hold. What comes next?

I think the center will hold. The American people know almost nothing about the world. They know almost nothing about the carnage they pay for in the world. They blame each other for all problems in their midst. They adapt rapidly to the new normal. They accept injustice. They vote repeatedly. They question very little. They die quietly, without accountability.

We lived through times when change was possible, but the people didn't have what it takes. Now those possibilities are gone and the world has moved on.

What else could possibly come next but 'More of the same?'

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12 users have voted.

____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato

@Pluto's Republic @Pluto's Republic I may be crazy.....

But this time seems more ominous to me, than it has ever been.

Add in the hard times we only know if we are experiencing them. For example, some NYC subway lines have been stopped because there are no healthy workers to operate the train system.

Same as flights canceled due to sick pilots.

BUT---if you are a low income worker lucky enough to have a 1/2 Fair Fare card, the subway may be the only way you can get to work and still show a profit from your labor..

Same with high gas prices. End of Eviction moratoriums.
Schools closed and half emppty.

The pain is real and very widespread even though most of us only understand what affects us personally.

I think the weight of what is going bad is not same as usual.

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11 users have voted.

NYCVG

ggersh's picture

@NYCVG I believe that 22 will be a historic beating if the election
even happens. Joementia is our prez, hardly, any day he says something
Blinken, Psaki, etc.etc.etc. contradict what is said.

Peace in Afghanistan, yep but in areal genocidal way

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14 users have voted.

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

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

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

joe shikspack's picture

@NYCVG

will the center hold? i don't know. the government has been making itself progressively more irrelevant to the vast majority of americans since reagan took office.

when biden announced a big show on voting rights down in georgia and people told him to shut up and get to work instead, i would hope that biden and his democrat cronies will get the message.

if biden continues to dither and pretend to be powerless along with the democrats, i would guess that a whole lot of people who were once invested in the system will disinvest.

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11 users have voted.

@joe shikspack The Georgia Democratic Leaders and the NAACP found that they had previous engagements.

Nobody is listening to Biden.

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7 users have voted.

NYCVG

ggersh's picture

https://www.mintpressnews.com/j-k-rowlings-books-and-films-full-of-antis...

This is a good read about JK Rowling, and how she defends Israel using the if your against Israel meme your against Jews

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11 users have voted.

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

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

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

joe shikspack's picture

@ggersh

interesting stuff. sad that rowling has turned into a corbyn hater. i guess she's not good at inhabiting worlds that are not purely black and white.

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8 users have voted.
TheOtherMaven's picture

@joe shikspack
Some of which have to do with her being a lazy writer and relying on stereotypes and cliches for "characterization".

Some of which may be her habit of yanking fans' chains snapping back to bite her in the butt.

Some of which may be "open mouth, insert foot".

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2 users have voted.

There is no justice. There can be no peace.

JekyllnHyde's picture

If not, here's a summary.

Why is so little known about the 1930s coup attempt against FDR?

America had hit rock bottom, beginning with the stock market crash three years earlier. Unemployment was at 16 million and rising. Farm foreclosures exceeded half a million. More than five thousand banks had failed, and hundreds of thousands of families had lost their homes. Financial capitalists had bilked millions of customers and rigged the market. There were no government safety nets – no unemployment insurance, minimum wage, social security or Medicare.

Economic despair gave rise to panic and unrest, and political firebrands and white supremacists eagerly fanned the paranoia of socialism, global conspiracies and threats from within the country. Populists Huey Long and Father Charles Coughlin attacked FDR, spewing vitriolic anti-Jewish, pro-fascist refrains and brandishing the “America first” slogan coined by media magnate William Randolph Hearst.

And this one by Matt Taibbi - A Tale of Two Authoritarians - The appearance of Dick Cheney in the House of Representatives on the anniversary of January 6th helped identify the true villain on the scene - https://taibbi.substack.com/p/a-tale-of-two-authoritarians

I don’t mean to understate the seriousness of January 6th, even though it’s been absurdly misreported for over a year now. No one from a country where these things actually happen could mistake 1/6 for “a coup .” In the real version, the mob doesn’t take selfies and blaze doobies after seizing the palace, and the would-be dictator doesn’t spend 187 minutes snacking and watching Fox before tweeting “go home.” Instead, he works the phones nonstop to rally precinct chiefs, generals, and airport officials to the cause, because a coup is a real attempt to seize power. Britannica says the “chief prerequisite for a coup is control of all or part of the armed forces, the police, and other military elements.” We saw none of that on January 6th, but it’s become journalistic requirement to use either “coup” or “insurrection” in describing it:

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13 users have voted.

A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma

Pluto's Republic's picture

@JekyllnHyde

And there have not been enough voices representing the sane perspective on the "attempted coup." Both parties are too political to speak with sanity on either side of the issue. This was a welcome read.

I did not see the FDR coup story. There's not much written on it and it is seldom referenced as an example of anything. Thanks for that link.

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9 users have voted.

____________________

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

@JekyllnHyde

good to see you!

i posted the taibbi article the other night, but not the other article, the retelling of smedley butler's testimony which i didn't run across in my reading.

thanks for posting the link!

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10 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

One person did a spiel on Pelosi’s eyebrows. For every 50 likes she’d raise them higher. By the end Pelosi’s forehead was really, really big.

I read that the reason why they might cut the Medicare increase is because of the Alzheimer’s drug maker is cutting the cost in half. It’s $56,000 a year price tag was way it was increased so much which people wrote about at the time that it would increase the deductible. A couple doctors at the FDA quit when it was approved because they said it wouldn’t work very well which the tests proved. In fact it didn’t show any effectiveness until the makers tweaked it to say that it did.

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11 users have voted.

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

Pluto's Republic's picture

@snoopydawg

I must confess, I haven't followed the Medicare increase. Medicare doesn't cover drugs, that's a separate policy, isn't it? This is sort of confusing. And the drug doesn't work anyway? Why does everything medical feel so corrupt lately? Thanks for the head's up on this.

As for Pelosi, she has destroyed her legacy and ended as a betrayer of the American people. She deserves the nation's contempt. I cannot think of one thing she touched that made life in the US any better. If her handlers hadn't given her emoji eyebrows, she might have retained some dignity.

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9 users have voted.

____________________

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

@snoopydawg

yeah, i read that the alzheimer drugmaker cut the price to a (cough) much more palatable $26k. the article speculated that the drugmaker had intentionally given a stratospheric price in order to give them room to drop the price and still make an enormous killing.

heh. perhaps pelosi could take some singing and dancing lessons. after all, there's a good bit of money in being michael jackson.

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9 users have voted.

@snoopydawg
cosmetic surgery procedures and one ends up looking like a freak.

Pelosi has had too many but is still one procedure away from being a freak. Unlike Ivana Trump and Michael Jackson that both had extreme procedures and too many subsequent follow-ups. Then there were the Bogdanoff twins,

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6 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@Marie

that she is over 80. You couldn’t pay me to have facial surgery. I was offered free eyeliner tattooing by my doctor I worked for but just shuddered thinking about it. It looks great but I couldn’t take the numbing injections. Ouch.

I don’t know who those twins are. Little hint?

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5 users have voted.

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

@snoopydawg
the French twins: Plastic surgery gone horribly wrong: Formerly hunky French actors now resemble Jocelyn Wildenstein In the news this week because both died of Covid-19.

wrt Pelosi. Tough to ignore the eyebrows. However, she has fared better than most women would for a few reasons. First - first rate (and expensive) plastic surgeon. Second - she's Italian; generally thicker skin and age more slowly. So, she began getting procedures a decade later than women with fair and and thin skin do. (Also helped that she was attractive and didn't need any other adjustments.) Thicker skin can be tightened more often.

As tattoos in general gross me out, never considered the pain involved in getting one, One friend did the eyebrows, eyeliner, and lipstick tattoos, very subtle and looked great. My interest ended when she told me the price. If free and like you, the pain element would have led me to pass.

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5 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@Marie

Did they get their money back for that? Yikes!

I have snoopy and Woodstock on the inside of my ankle so I can see them. But as I had just gone through major facial reconstructive surgery I didn’t think I could tolerate the numbing injections. But my friends who got it done still look great after 30 years. It was brand new at the time too so I wasn’t sure how it would hold up.

It definitely wasn’t cheap back then. Plus he was offering it for free cuz he was still learning how to do it.

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3 users have voted.

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

@snoopydawg
with the results.

My friend had the semi-permanent tattoos; so, only a couple of years for her.

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3 users have voted.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/589239-fetterman-calls-for-ban-on-...

Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D) on Tuesday urged Congress to ban lawmakers, their spouses and their senior staffers from trading stocks.

Fetterman, one of the top Democratic candidates in Pennsylvania's midterm Senate contest, joins a growing list of high-profile congressional candidates embracing the popular proposal.

"Allowing members of Congress and their spouses to trade stocks is a clear conflict of interest,” he said in a statement. “Lawmakers should not be making profits off of the same companies they are supposed to be regulating, based on closed-door information that isn’t available to the public.”

The Dems don't care what the public thinks. There job is to keep their big donors happy

In a recent poll, 76 percent of voters expressed support for banning members of Congress from trading individual stocks, including 70 percent of Democrats, 78 percent of Republicans and nearly 80 percent of independents.

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12 users have voted.

@humphrey is # 1.

Filling their own pockets comes in at a close second.

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7 users have voted.

NYCVG

Pluto's Republic's picture

@NYCVG

....come home a millionaire.

If everyone voted against incumbents, this would be a better nation.

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10 users have voted.

____________________

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

@humphrey

funny how the corporate democrats don't seem to care about the appearance (and/or the actuality) of corruption.

they used to be skittish about that sort of thing.

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6 users have voted.

fine for the wealthy for the majority not so much.

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10 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

Just don't get this proposed stock trading law, I mean, we live in a rigged and corrupt economy, shouldn't those in charge of keeping it that way be allowed to play too? Wink

be well and have a good one

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7 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 --

snoopydawg's picture

@enhydra lutris

It’s a free country.

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6 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

@enhydra lutris

i suppose that we ought to make wall street find other ways to more directly pay their flunkies in congress for their rigging activities rather than providing them with inside information to bet on. i'm sure that they will find a legal way to do it.

have a good one!

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4 users have voted.
lotlizard's picture

Habitat for human animals is disappearing throughout the world, and abrupt climate change has barely begun. In the near future, habitat for Homo sapiens will be gone. Shortly thereafter, all humans will die.

— Guy McPherson, Nature Bats Last blog, 2 August 2016

https://guymcpherson.com/climate-chaos/climate-change-summary-and-update/

Real life, as opposed to the universe of fantasy … is … so … darn depressing …

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7 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@lotlizard

yep, live it up. humans are too smart in creating their means of destruction and too stupid to stop using those means at the same time.

will some cosmic muffin or hairy thunderer step in to save humanunkind? why would they bother?

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7 users have voted.