The Evening Blues - 1-12-22
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features Chicago blues guitarist Eddie Taylor. Enjoy!
Eddie Taylor - Bad Boy
“Success sometimes may be defined as a disaster put on hold.”
-- Nadine Gordimer
News and Opinion
Ukraine talks: Russia sees no grounds for optimism ahead of Nato meeting
The Kremlin has said it sees “no significant reason for optimism” about diplomatic solutions for the Ukraine crisis, ahead of a meeting in Brussels between Russia and Nato’s 30 member states. As Moscow was playing down the chances for success at the negotiating table after initial US-Russian talks in Switzerland on Monday, Russian forces deployed near Ukraine conducted a live-fire military exercise involving 3,000 troops and tanks, in a clear rejection of US demands for a de-escalation in the region. ...
Sherman and Ryabkov pointed to the “useful” and “professional” nature of the Geneva talks, in which the US proposed reciprocal confidence-building measures limiting missile deployment and military exercises in Europe. But Ryabkov said the negotiations had made no progress towards fulfilling Vladimir Putin’s central demand: a guarantee that Ukraine will never become a Nato member and that US troops and equipment would be withdrawn from former Soviet bloc countries in eastern Europe that are now in Nato.
“So far, let’s say we see no significant reason for optimism,” the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters, adding that Russia was looking for quick results and would make an assessment of progress at the end of the week, following the Nato talks and a meeting on Thursday of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, is due to hold a press conference on Friday. “There are no clear deadlines here, no one is setting them. There is just the Russian position that we will not be satisfied with the endless dragging out of this process,” Peskov said. ...
Kadri Liik, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said the approaches followed by the US and Russia were fundamentally incompatible, with the US seeking to reduce the talks to technical arms control issues while Russia wanted to use them to redefine Europe’s whole security order. “In Moscow’s view, the arms control agreements should follow the logic of the newly agreed order, not substitute for it,” Liik said.
Whatever the outcome of this week’s diplomacy, she predicted it would “likely shape Europe’s strategic landscape for many years to come”.
Ukraine talks: NATO head says differences with Russia will be hard to bridge
Holding $9 Billion Hostage, US Offers $300 Million as Afghan Starve
The Biden administration said Tuesday that it will contribute roughly $308 million to humanitarian assistance efforts in Afghanistan, where millions are on the brink of starvation and at risk of freezing to death in the aftermath of the U.S.-led war.
But the newly announced aid falls far short of estimates of the war-torn country's immediate needs and pales in comparison to the $9.4 billion in Afghan government assets that the Biden administration is refusing to unfreeze, despite growing pressure from progressive members of Congress and human rights advocates.
On Tuesday morning, the United Nations launched what was described as its "largest single country aid appeal ever," requesting just over $5 billion in assistance that officials said would go toward providing food and other relief to Afghans struggling to survive as winter sets in.
"This is a stop-gap, an absolutely essential stop-gap measure that we are putting in front of the international community today," said U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths. "Without this being funded, there won't be a future."
20 Years and 4 Presidents Later and Gitmo Still Not Closed
Human rights defenders marked the 20th anniversary of the opening of the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba under the administration of former President George W. Bush by noting that three American presidents have come and gone without anyone being held accountable for the horrific crimes that have occurred there, while calling on the fourth—Joe Biden—to finally close what one advocate called an "indelible stain" on the nation.
"Four American presidents have overseen the facility and three have promised to close it," the ACLU tweeted Tuesday. "Every day Guantánamo remains open is an affront to human rights, justice, and the rule of law."
"Since 2002, 779 Muslim men and boys have been held at Guantánamo, nearly all without charge or trial," the ACLU continued.
According to retired U.S. Army Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, who served as chief of staff to Bush-era Secretary of State Colin Powell, Bush, along with his vice president and defense secretary, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, knew that most of the prisoners were innocent, but kept them locked up for political reasons.
"Today, 39 men remain indefinitely detained," noted the ACLU. "Twenty-seven have never been charged with a crime, and 14 of those prisoners have been cleared for transfer or release, some for years."
In July 2021, the administration of Biden—who has signaled his intention to close Guantánamo—released 56-year-old Abdul Latif Nasser after 19 years of detention and repatriated him to his native Morocco. No other Gitmo prisoners have been transferred during Biden's tenure.
Biden's former boss, President Barack Obama, signed executive orders after entering the White House in 2009 that were meant to end torture and close Gitmo. Obama—who was blocked by Congress from implementing the prison's closure—broke a campaign promise and the law by actively shielding Bush-era officials from accountability while torture continued at Gitmo.
Obama's successor, former President Donald Trump, vowed to "load up" Gitmo with "bad dudes" and "bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding" while signing an executive order to keep the facility open. However, the prison's population did not increase under his tenure and in 2019 he said his administration would search for alternatives to Guantánamo.
Connecting the four presidents of the Guantánamo era is a military commission regimen under which detainees accused of the most serious crimes—including planning and supporting the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States—are slated to be tried. Numerous military officers have resigned from what former lead prosecutor Col. Morris Davis called the "rigged" commission.
As the U.S. military slowly moves ahead with the commission proceedings, human rights advocates urge Biden to succeed where his predecessors failed and finally close Guantánamo once and for all.
"President Biden, keep your campaign promise to put the brutal legacy—torture, detention without charges or trial—of Guantánamo Bay detention center behind us," Marcy Winograd of the women-led peace group CodePink tweeted, while calling on the president to appoint a special State Department envoy "to close this hellhole."
"President Biden needs to fulfill his pledge to finally end this shameful chapter of American history," the ACLU asserted. "He can do this by ending indefinite military detention and the unconstitutional military commissions system."
Agnes Callamard, the United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions, wrote Tuesday that "it is not only about closing Guantánamo. It is also about delivering accountability for the violations committed within its settings."
"Guantánamo is an indelible stain on the United States' history, a chapter it must now close and never repeat," she stressed.
Silvio Berlusconi steps up Italy presidential campaign with threat to coalition
Silvio Berlusconi has reportedly threatened to withdraw his Forza Italia party from Italy’s governing majority if the current prime minister, Mario Draghi, is elected president later this month. The scandal-tainted media tycoon, who served four times as prime minister, is in Rome from Tuesday on the hunt for votes as he ramps up his own presidential campaign.
The secret ballot by more than 1,000 parliamentarians and regional representatives begins on 24 January and is expected to go through several rounds before a successor to Sergio Mattarella, who steps down on 3 February, is elected.
There are no official candidates in Italy’s presidential elections, although party leaders usually try to agree on a candidate. Berlusconi, 85, is a favourite among the rightwing parties for the seven-year-mandate. However, Draghi, who is credited with restoring stability in Italy, as well as keeping the broad coalition in line, is tipped as the frontrunner.
Kroger CEO GREED Makes Employees Suffer. Dems LOSE Working Class To GOP, Do Right Populists Deliver?
Worth a full read. Another reason why Bill Clinton should be shunned by all decent people:
States Hoarding Welfare Funds Amid Rising Need in US
When Congress passed welfare reform in 1996, states were given more autonomy over how they could use federal funding for aid to the poor. They could demand welfare recipients find work before receiving cash assistance. They could also use their federal “block grants” to fund employment and parenting courses or to subsidize childcare.
Twenty-five years later, however, states are using this freedom to do nothing at all with large sums of the money. According to recently released federal data, states are sitting on $5.2 billion in unspent funds from the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, or TANF. Nearly $700 million was added to the total during the 2019 and 2020 fiscal years, with Hawaii, Tennessee and Maine hoarding the most cash per person living at or below the federal poverty line.
States have held on to more of this welfare money amid rising poverty. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 16.1 percent of children under age 18 lived in poverty in 2020, up from 14.4 percent the year before. The poverty rate also ticked up for people aged 18 to 64, from 9.4 percent to 10.4 percent. As unused TANF dollars have accumulated, applications to the cash assistance program have waned, though it’s not for a lack of need, say experts and people who have applied to the program. ...
The unused welfare stash tells a larger story of how the 1996 welfare reform law has failed the poor: It allows states to not distribute cash assistance even when they have the money to do so. Each year, the federal government awards states a block grant, or lump sum, of funding, with the intention that the money be spent to help poor people meet their basic needs, become employed and start two-parent families. States have discretion in how they can use, or not use, the money and have increasingly used it to fill unrelated budget gaps. Experts say it’s reasonable for states to have some TANF reserves, even as large as their annual block grant, but when they stockpile the money from year to year it’s cause for concern.
Tennessee has $790 million in federal welfare funding sitting around — the largest pool of unspent welfare dollars nationwide — though it has recently promised to spend it. Hawaii has $364 million idling in an account, equivalent to $2,923 per person living in poverty. And Oklahoma has $264 million, nearly double its annual TANF budget of $138 million. ... The coronavirus pandemic and accompanying economic travails did not make a dent in states’ TANF reserves. Between June and November 2020, the national poverty rate made its largest jump since the government began tracking it 60 years ago, from 2.4 percent to 11.7 percent. Other parts of the federal government’s social safety net increased aid to help some of the 7.8 million Americans who fell into poverty, with stimulus packages and expanded unemployment benefits. TANF, conversely, is helping fewer people.
California could become first US state to offer universal healthcare to residents
California is considering creating the first government-funded, universal healthcare system in the US for state residents. The proposal, which lawmakers will begin debating on Tuesday, would adopt a single-payer healthcare system that would replace the need for private insurance plans.
Lawmakers are debating two bills – one would create the universal healthcare system, another would outline plans to fund it by increasing taxes, especially for wealthy individuals and businesses. The sweeping healthcare reform faces significant hurdles, including opposition from powerful lobbies for doctors and insurance companies. If the bills are approved by the legislature, voters would ultimately have to approve the taxes to fund the new system in an amendment to the California constitution.
California has tried and failed to replace private health insurance with a universal, state-funded program for years. Voters rejected such a proposal in 1994 and state lawmakers failed to find a way to fund a single-payer health system in 2017.
Fatal shooting of Black man by off-duty officer sparks protest in North Carolina
Protesters gathered in Fayetteville, North Carolina, for a second night in a row on Monday after a man was killed by an off-duty sheriff’s deputy. The Fayetteville police department identified the man killed on Saturday as Jason Walker, a 37-year-old Black man who the deputy told authorities jumped on to his vehicle. The Cumberland county sheriff’s office identified the deputy as Jeffrey Hash.
In a statement, Fayetteville police said a preliminary investigation revealed that Walker “ran into traffic and jumped on [the] moving vehicle”.
“The driver of the vehicle shot [Walker] and notified 911,” it said.
Hash, who has been with the Cumberland county sheriff since 2005, was taken into custody but not arrested. On Monday, he was put on administrative leave, pending an internal investigation. By Tuesday, no charges had been filed. ...
Elizabeth Ricks, a trauma nurse, told WRAL News she was on the scene and tried to save Walker’s life. “I did not see anyone in distress. The man was just walking home,” she said. “It breaks my heart he didn’t survive and I’m trying to cope with that as well. I don’t want to take away from Jason or the injustice and I’m not going to be silent.”
Joe Biden backs filibuster rule change to push voting rights bill
Joe Biden on Tuesday gave his most forceful endorsement to date of changing the Senate filibuster rule in order to pass sweeping voting rights legislation, saying he was “tired of being quiet” in a high-profile speech in Georgia. In one of the most significant speeches of his presidency so far, Biden drew a connection in history between the civil rights movement, the 6 January attack on the US Capitol by extremist supporters of Donald Trump, and the unprecedented efforts in many states to restrict the vote over the last year.
He said America was at a moment to choose “democracy over autocracy”.
But despite the passion, some prominent Georgia civil rights activists, proclaiming themselves more interested in action than speeches, declined to attend the event in Atlanta on Tuesday where Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris spoke and urged progress in Congress to pass key legislation currently stalled there.
Describing himself as an “institutionalist”, Biden, who served in the Senate for more than three decades, said Republicans had “weaponized” the filibuster, turning the US Senate into a shell of what it once was. “We must find a way to pass these voting rights bills. Debate them, vote, let the majority prevail. And if that bare minimum is blocked, we have no option but to change the Senate rules – including getting rid of the filibuster,” Biden said during remarks at the Atlanta University Center Consortium amid a clutch of campuses of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs).
He did not endorse a specific change to the rule but said he backed changing the filibuster, which currently requires 60 votes to advance legislation – an insurmountable challenge for the voting rights legislation given lack of support from Republicans.
Biden Backs Filibuster Reform to Pass Voting Rights Bills After Sustained Grassroots Pressure
Capitol attack panel closes in on Trump inner circle with three new subpoenas
The House select committee investigating the Capitol attack closed in on Donald Trump’s inner circle on Tuesday, issuing subpoenas to three new White House officials involved in planning the former president’s appearance at the rally that preceded the 6 January insurrection.
The new subpoenas show the select committee is moving ever nearer to Trump in its investigation and suggests the panel is now examining whether the former president’s speech suggested that the White House had advance knowledge of plans to attack the Capitol.
Congressman Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the select committee, issued subpoenas to the former White House strategists Andy Surabian and Arthur Schwartz, suggesting they helped coordinate Trump’s appearance by communicating with the organizers and speakers at the rally.
The chairman also authorized a subpoena for Ross Worthington, the former White House official who drafted the speech Trump delivered at the rally, during which the former president lied that he won the 2020 election and urged his supporters to march to the Capitol. ...
The rally at the Ellipse has grown in significance for the select committee in recent weeks, as it examines whether Trump obstructed a congressional proceeding by inciting his supporters to storm the Capitol and stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election win.
Glenn Greenwald: Ted Cruz GRILLS FBI For Fed's Role In January 6, REPEAT Of 9/11 War On Terror?
Hottest ocean temperatures in history recorded last year
The world’s oceans have been set to simmer, and the heat is being cranked up. Last year saw the hottest ocean temperatures in recorded history, the sixth consecutive year that this record has been broken, according to new research.
The heating up of our oceans is being primarily driven by the human-caused climate crisis, scientists say, and represents a starkly simple indicator of global heating. While the atmosphere’s temperature is also trending sharply upwards, individual years are less likely to be record-breakers compared with the warming of the oceans.
Last year saw a heat record for the top 2,000 meters of all oceans around the world, despite an ongoing La Niña event, a periodic climatic feature that cools waters in the Pacific. The 2021 record tops a stretch of modern record-keeping that goes back to 1955. The second hottest year for oceans was 2020, while the third hottest was 2019.
“The ocean heat content is relentlessly increasing, globally, and this is a primary indicator of human-induced climate change,” said Kevin Trenberth, a climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado and co-author of the research, published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences.
Warmer ocean waters are helping supercharge storms, hurricanes and extreme rainfall, the paper states, which is escalating the risks of severe flooding. Heated ocean water expands and eats away at the vast Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, which are collectively shedding around 1tn tons of ice a year, with both of these processes fueling sea level rise.
US hit by 20 separate billion-dollar climate disasters in 2021, Noaa report says
The US was battered by 20 separate billion-dollar climate and weather disasters in 2021, one of the most catastrophic climate years on record which led to at least 688 deaths, according to the annual report of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa).
Damage from the year’s 20 most costly disasters, which included thousands of wildfires burning across western states, frigid temperatures and hail storms in Texas, tornadoes in the south-east, and tropical storms saturating the east coast, totaled around $145bn.
This makes 2021 the third costliest extreme weather year on record, with four tropical storms – Elsa, Fred, Ida and Nicholas – accounting for just over half the total price tag.
The deadly mega-disasters were scattered throughout 2021 and hit communities from coast to coast, starting with flash floods and bomb cyclones in California and ending with Colorado’s most destructive ever wildfire, which tore through almost 1,100 homes and 6,000 acres (2,400 hectares), causing more than $10bn of damage. Between 44% and 56% of the country was affected by drought during the course of 2021.
Overall, the US saw its fourth-hottest year on record fueled by historic highs in December (beating 2015) that produced spring-like temperatures on parts of the east coast. Ten states – Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas – also had their warmest December on record.
Environmental Justice Activists Want NJ Gov. to Vote No New Gas-Fired Power Plant in Newark
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
US-Russia Talk About Where Not To Place Missiles
Yemen: Saudi-led coalition accused of using Iraq war film as 'evidence' of Houthi missiles
Obits for a South Korean Dictator Gloss Over US’s Anti-Democratic Role
Why is so little known about the 1930s coup attempt against FDR?
Slovenian PEN Center Elects Assange as Honorary Member
150+ NY Groups Back Public Banking Bill to Declare 'Independence From Wall Street'
Mainstream Media Has Morphed from Battling the Fed in Court in 2008 to Groveling at its Feet Today
How the speed of climate change is unbalancing the insect world
Green Groups Urge Biden to 'Do Much More' to Stop Arctic Drilling
‘He was a handful’ – Hunter S Thompson’s PA and photographer relives her wild job
A Little Night Music
Eddie Taylor - Ride 'Em On Down
Eddie Taylor - I'm Gonna Love You
Eddie Taylor - Big Town Playboy
Jimmy Reed with Eddie Taylor - Big Boss Man
Eddie 'Playboy' Taylor & The Aces - Wreck On 83 Highway, 38 Pistol
Eddie Taylor - E T Blues
Eddie Taylor - Anna Lee
Eddie Taylor - Stop Breaking Down
Eddie Taylor - Look On Younders' Wall
Comments
Evening, Joe
Crested. Peaked. On the downswing. That's Omicron.
That's the language in New York. It's my story,too. And I will be sticking to it.
Meanwhile the NATO/Russia bad news is hyped up every passing day.
Is war closer or is the threat of war with Russia the new thing we are supposed to be frightened about---IDK.
NYCVG
Not to worry. The neocons at State Department have everything..
under control. /S
The talks are going well I'm told.
If not there is always plan "B"
The article by Evelyn Farkas.
https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2022/01/us-must-prepare-war-against-rus...
Russia
be afraid of war with Russia
Don’t believe there will be war
Russia is no longer a secondary player in world power games and it has more friends
We have a hamfisted foreign policy
What's scary
is that our political leadership does know that Russia is not a secondary power, does know that Mutually Assured Destruction, our destruction as well as their destruction, is assured if we use nuclear weapons, and does have a policy of making first use of nuclear weapons in order to get our way.
We're supposed to be reassured that President George Herbert Walker Bush would consider it a "win" in nuclear war if 20% of the American people survived. So when our leadership spends $1.5 trillion to make nuclear weapons "more usable," calls them "tactical nukes," and refers to a "limited nuclear war," they're working with the assumption that most of us would be incinerated, but that, even so, we would win.
Your last
paragraph is worthy of a deeper dive. Without violating Too many rules;
Apply that last thought to, say, a certain set of ever changing ‘Health’ policies we seem to be enjoying.
When I have more time I’ll probably take it up in the appropriate forum and reference back to your comment above.
Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .
Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .
If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march
Thank you. I do
understand your connection to the discussion on health policy. I've stayed out of those discussions because I am neutral. I don't harbor any resentment toward Americans arguing on either side because I believe they're acting in good faith.
But the anthrax case opened our awareness to the fact that our government had illegal biological weapons research projects going on that included at least 400 private individual contractors using the strain used in the attack. This information came from scientists who went public when the FBI didn't interview them. One scientist said in an interview that there were only 5 people who could have weaponized that anthrax and that the FBI hadn't interviewed any of them. He said, "I know, because I'm one if them."
evening nycvg...
my guess is both. but the thing that frightens me most is the stupidity of the people who will lead us into war.
In my book
By Definition if you try to lead anybody Into war
You would be Stupid
the Grand you
Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .
Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .
If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march
Good evening Joe, thanks for the Evening Blues.
I see some editor(s) didn't really do the job, so I'll append a corrected version here:
And somebody claims to find today's abuse surprising, disturbing, or both? How so? Everybody saw this coming, and it started happening on a smaller scale almost immediately.
HEH: -
That's Biden giving the Afghanis a little of Bill's "welfare", bet's it all goes to contractors?
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 --
that grand old body, the union of 'murican states
gives nothing away without reward
citizens here get nothing
other countries citizens get nothing
if you ain't into the game for making money
on bombs and war, don't expect much
it's the 'murican way!
Just ask Bush, Cheney, Obomber, Trump, Biden, etc.
evening el...
everybody, including people at the time saw what was coming in the welfare reform bill, but clinton pressed on and signed it.
heh, we wouldn't want to just give the afghanis welfare and start a cycle of dependency and indolence. better they starve. (/s)
Yeah, look at the cycle of dependency we started
with the MIC. Maybe we should take a machete to that, or better yet, a Daisy Cutter.
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 --
The Israeli government must think that people are stupid.
The horrors!
https://thehill.com/policy/technology/589444-israel-says-it-broke-up-ira...
I guess that they think that people aren't aware of Google or Google maps.
https://www.google.com/search?q=U.S.+Embassy+when+it+was+in+Tel+Aviv&sxs...
evening humphrey...
heh, for the israelis, diplomacy consists largely of pounding the table and fake outrage based on dubious evidence at best.
And cartoons
Not easy to forget Bibi's art presentation to the UN General Assembly.
NYCVG
Bibi got mocked for that (rightly so)
I absolutely love
the HST article. I'm gonna go get that book...
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
evening usefewersyllables...
i am a big fan of hst's writing. if the book shows up at my library, i'll for sure read it.
I don't know how your local library works.
But here it is a simple matter of requesting they stock a book you are interested in. They are usually very happy to comply. I think librarians get a little endorphin rush getting us our fixes. It's mutual.
Thanks for the news and blues as always.
Release date in Feb.
This is a bit pricey for me, but I’ll be sure to put in a request for it at my local library so I don’t have to wait too long for a chance to turn those pages!
“ …and when we destroy nature, we diminish our capacity to sense the divine,and understand who God is, and what our own potential is and duties are as human beings.- RFK jr. 8/26/2024
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds
Great description of what we get bombarded with daily from the MICIMATT. Think tanks dictate to the stenographers at the government’s mouthpiece sites and people have no idea that is what they are reading. Not actual news, but someone’s idea of what we should be doing war-wise. I’ll read a doom and gloom headline on HuffPost and then see inside that someone has written something so off the wall that if ProporNot was a true fact checking site there would be a huge stamped FAKE NEWS on it. So then I check MoA to see what actually happened. Or I’ll read The Sky is Falling headline only to see inside an acorn fell from a tree way down at the bottom after learning how dangerous the sky is. Lots of people don’t read the whole story. Just enough to confirm their belief that the sky is very dangerous.
Anyone see that article that picked apart how people do read most articles? He was describing how we do and asked how many people just skipped the last sentence? I raised my hand cuz it’s how I used to read most articles. Wish I could find it because he pointed out why we do that. Now if it’s something I want to know about I read every word. I think people read the Russian bounty story that way because if they had read the whole thing they would have found that it wasn’t true.
Yesterday Jake Sullivan talked with people from a think tank and their idea was for us to give Ukraine more weapons including javelin ones. And not to try to find peace with Russia. And Blinken’s mouth once again said that we were still considering admitting Ukraine to NATO.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
evening snoopy...
yep, it and they are all nuts. it brings back the lines of a song to me:
The NY Times is now competing with The Onion as a satire site
To think that they have this buffoon on the payroll.
After daily warnings of an immanent Russian invasion we get this.
heh...
while i've always thought that the more you read the nyt the more your intelligence declines, it seems apparent that writing for nyt may heighten the effect as years of doing so has turned friedman from a guy who interviewed cabbies for their wisdom into a raving, drooling moron.
I feel your outrage
and Joe---dismay. disbelief at the cupidity and stupidity of the narratives we are fed.
Democracy left the building some time ago. Along with whatever useful brain cells Tom Friedman had back when he wrote From Beirut to Jerusalem. At least I thought it was smart a long time ago.
NYCVG
heh...
yeah, but how long ago was that in friedman units?
oops, I read that as fried brain units
would have to dissect the gray matter to sauce out those little gems ..
I can’t believe she wrote this
Just because democrats call Trump supporters Nazis doesn’t mean that they are anything like the Nazis of the FDR time period. Nowhere close to it. The Night at the Gardens was a full blown Nazi shindig and there were a lot of businessmen openly supporting Hitler’s ideas on white supremacy. But how many people will read that, but not keep reading to see this:
Also Trump supporters were not armed or being paid nor did they want to install a fascist dictatorship.
Outside a small group of people who had made plans for that day I think most people went to the capital because Trump told them to march there and take back the country peacefully.
Oh those poor businessmen.
They weren’t the ones who were suffering from the Great Depression so I think that’s a lousy excuse to give them for planning their coup. And the more things change…doh!
Good grief seriously?
Groan.
It wasn’t Wall Street behind the capital riots and yes that’s what they boil down to. No one has been charged for insurrection or treason like that group of men should have been charged with, it was ordinary people who for went to the capital to protest and for some reason others were there during Trump’s speech. Democrats want to charge the people who paid for Trump’s speech, but I’m pretty sure that is protected under the 1st amendment. And why wouldn’t the lady from the FBI say whether or not some of the people there were undercover FBI agents? And who the hell is Ray Epps?
I didn’t see any people dressed like those in the video. I think that this is journalistic malpractice. First off she’s giving credence to what democrats are making up.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
You have me stumped.
Who is she?
My bad
The woman who wrote this article.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/11/trump-fdr-roosevel...
I guess I thought all of you would understand who I meant and from which article. Hey you should live with my brain. You telling me you aren’t mind readers?
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
heh...
she would be sally denton the author of the guardian article: Why is so little known about the 1930s coup attempt against FDR?
Blinken's tough guy policy (sanctions) has the recipients ...
shaking in their boots. HAH!
heh...
my goodness, that might be enough to make blinken forget about russia for 5 minutes.
There are always receipts for hypocrisy
Anyone watch Cruz asking the FBI lady if there were agents embedded at the capital?
"I can’t answer that."
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
yep...
much as i generally dislike cruz, his questions were not unreasonable and the feeb's intentional evasion of those questions speaks volumes.
She may be running in 2024
I'd love to leave the US in Marianne Williamson's hands.
Her campaign slogan should be:
Just give enlightenment a chance.
IMAGINE if you woke up the day after a US Presidential Election and headlines around the the world blared, "The Majority of Americans Refused to Vote in US Presidential Election! What Does this Mean?"
evening pluto...
it would be interesting to see what would happen if she won. i'd vote to see that.
Really. What's the worst
...she could do?
Give peace a chance?
IMAGINE if you woke up the day after a US Presidential Election and headlines around the the world blared, "The Majority of Americans Refused to Vote in US Presidential Election! What Does this Mean?"
Hello, is anybody listening? (Healthcare GENOCIDE)
"California could become first US state to offer universal healthcare to residents"
NO THIS IS NOT TRUE! YOU WERE ALL LIED TO ITS THE OLDEST TRICK IN THEIR BOOK.
IF YOU WANT AFFORDABLE HEALTHCARE, APPLY TO IMMIGRATE TO CANADA, which is the only country (soon) where healthcare is a right and not vulnerable to being savaged by the WTO rules.
Britons too, take notice of this. To keep on receiving affordable healthcare you must be in a country that does not sell for profit health insurance anywhere. Or charge for healthcare. Make a note of that because the cost of living in a country where healthcare is supplied on a commercial basis" several years ago (and its gone up substantially) was (much) more than $400,000 per capita for women and more than $350000 over ones lifespan for men. Thats more than enough to buy a home in most of the US. (except the coastal states and the big metro areas elsewhere. )
So unless you enjoy pouring your money and votes down the drain vote for progressive Canadian candidates in Canada not sell out candidates here.
WRONG: THIS IS LIES: "California is considering creating the first government-funded, universal healthcare system in the US for state residents. The proposal, which lawmakers will begin debating on Tuesday, would adopt a single-payer healthcare system that would replace the need for private insurance plans".
CALIFORNIA FOLKS, COULD YOU PLEASE CALL THEM AND TELL THEM THEY ARE FALLING FOR A BULLSHIT COVER UP! You can read proof in a huge wealth of literature all around the world. The state of Maine did an investigation of this in 2006 and came to the conclusion that they could not do this if they provided "like" service that had the effect of replacing for profit commercial healthcare. The US decided ion 1993-1994 that the issue was permanently settled and made permanent WTO commitments to open healthcare to global competition. This will allow the offshoring and outsourcing of both services and patients, eventually. We have already agreed to even that, according to Rudolph Adlung of the WTO. (when we made our commitments they overrode the carve out we think blocks outsourcing patients, he says the other commitment we made in our Schedule of Specific Commitments is not limited by the written carve out only allowing USG to pay for US licensed providers. People who received subsidized care may have to go wherever its cheapest. Or pay out of pocket or get private insurance thats not a plan subject to ERISA . (Nongroup coverage)
The gist of what I think he means is that one type of commitment in our schedule nullifies the carve out limiting the government subsidies to USlicensed providers. Its clear from the negotiations that that is not the intent, because the TISA esppecially has been (unsuccessfully so far) negotiating in numerous meetings going back to 2006 (NOT 2013, they have been going on under the radar in fact from 2006, the TISA "Friend of Services" central bankers started meeting at a Chinese restauraunt, in Geneva as the "Fu Lung Group" much earlier starting in 2006. At the top of their to do list has been deregulation of all kinds of sketchy banking and the globalization of health care all around the world. the SoSC already committed us as agreeing to do it. If you want the source, exactly where he says that PM me. I will dig it up. Look up Rudolph Adlung. He is quoted very specifically on this in a book published in Canada about trade treaties and medical tourism. Chapter 10.
More bullshit follows from self-interested thieves masquerading as politicians.. The lawmakers need to bone up on our trade commitments, which subsume domestic regulation.
""Lawmakers are debating two bills – (In their dreams!) one would create the universal healthcare system, another would outline plans to fund it by increasing taxes, especially for wealthy individuals and businesses.
Sorry, this was taken off the table in 1994 when Clinton signed the URAA.
The sweeping healthcare reform faces significant hurdles, including opposition from powerful lobbies for doctors and insurance companies. If the bills are approved by the legislature, voters would ultimately have to approve the taxes to fund the new system in an amendment to the California constitution." IN YOUR DREAMS, this is prohibited by international law unless we negotiate our withdrawal from the relevant parts of the General Agreement on Trade In Services and CANCEL ANY NEGOTIATIONS BEING CONDUCTED FOR THE TRADE IN SERVICES AGREEMENT.
California has tried and failed to replace private health insurance with a universal, state-funded program for years. Voters rejected such a proposal in 1994 and state lawmakers failed to find a way to fund a single-payer health system in 2017."
BULLSHIT! You all know this has been blocked by our 26 year old committments in the WTO YEs, for decades!
STOP DOING THIS. (LYING TO PEOPLE) No US Federal, state or local entity, certainly not the biggest state in the country, with undoubtedly a lot of healthcare jobs, economomically could do this without successfully negotiating the withdrawal of the US or state from our WTO commitments on health care FIRST. That means we must negotiate the Article XXI withdrawal. Even from India. Who are resolutetohave us keep our agreement, as it involves potentially millions of jobs. Massive outsourcing.
(The country has us before the WTO tribunal right now, and if we lose, millions of nursing and teaching and many other jobs will be outsourced. They are constantly pushing for us to keep our past promises and fully open up these sectors to competition, outsourcing millions of healthcare and education and many other jobs as promised. (an unlimited number to qualified firms)
Are you part of a conspiracy to defraud desperate for affordable healthcare and poor Democrats of our votes, steal our votes with bogus healthcare hope stealing lies. I dont care for the same old lies over and over. Two wrongs don't make a right. This is murder, no ,genocide, as a doctor friend puts it. Its about time we Democrats woke up to what is being done, Its killing 200 poor Americans a day. If we go back to when it began (which I was actually informed was far earlier but lets use the date the WTO came into force, January 1, 1995 thats over a million of our poorer people. Wake up people. We DEMS are being shamelessly lied to. Over and over again. HOW could you all possibly be so GULLIBLE?