The Evening Blues - 4-25-22
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features Chicago blues musician Big Daddy Kinsey. Enjoy!
Big Daddy Kinsey - Tippin' On In
"The hyperbolic language westerners use to describe fairly normal modern warfare in Ukraine suggests they’ve invested exactly zero thought in what their own governments have been doing in the middle east for the last two decades.
It’s like, yes, killing, violence and destruction is what war looks like. You’re describing the thing that war is. It’s creepy that you’re only just discovering this now. What did you think your government has been using to conduct its wars this whole time? Dank memes?"
-- Caitlin Johnstone
News and Opinion
Russian Negotiator Confirms 'Several Long Conversations' Took Place With Ukrainian Side
Russian and Ukrainian negotiators held discussions on Friday, the head of Moscow's delegation said, but Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said diplomatic efforts to end the war remained stalled.
Russia's chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky confirmed a TASS news report that "several long conversations" had been held but he gave no details. Earlier this week the Kremlin said Russia had submitted a new written proposal, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he had neither seen nor heard about it.
It remains unclear whether the two sides can revive their faltering peace efforts, more than eight weeks after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.
In separate comments on Friday, Lavrov, who has previously accused Kyiv of dragging out the peace process, sounded a downbeat note about the peace talks.
"They have now stalled because our latest proposal that was handed to the Ukrainian negotiators some five days ago and formulated taking into account the comments we received from them remains unanswered," Lavrov told a briefing.
Baghdad Bob shows up in Kiev:
Ukrainian PM Sees War Victory Soon, Despite UK's Johnson Saying Russia Could Win
Ukraine will be victorious in its war against Russia very soon, its prime minister said on Friday, after Britain's Boris Johnson said it remained a realistic possibility Russia could still win.
"We are absolutely sure that Ukraine will win in this war and victory will be in (a) very short period," Denys Shmyhal told CNN, when asked about Johnson's comment.
What are these people smoking?
US says Ukraine 'can win' the war with 'right equipment'
Israel loves them some Nazis:
Israel is still arming Ukrainian Nazis
Israeli anti-tank weapons are being used by Nazi soldiers in Ukraine.
A video published by Ukraine’s Azov Battalion on Twitter this week showed one of its fighters firing an anti-tank missile. In the tweet Azov claimed it had hit a Russian vehicle.
Israeli media on Wednesday identified the missile system in the Azov video as a Matador, a weapon developed by a consortium involving Rafael, a state-owned Israeli arms manufacturer.
‼️Полк «Азов» продовжує знищувати ворожу техніку pic.twitter.com/1B2RvgKNXE
— АЗОВ (@Polk_Azov) April 19, 2022
Yahoo News reported last month that Ukraine had bought 5,100 of the missile systems from a German manufacturer – the same firm that jointly developed the Matador with Rafael.
[More at the link. -js]
Russia’s Plan A and Plan B, explained by Jacob Dreizin
Russian general says goal of war in Ukraine is ‘full control’ of Donbas and south
ARussian general on Friday claimed that Russia’s ambitions in Ukraine extend outside the Donbas region and stretch across the country's southern districts.
"Since the start of the second phase of the special operation...one of the tasks of the Russian army is to establish full control over the Donbas and southern Ukraine," Major General Rustam Minnekaev told Russian news agencies. ...
Defense officials have said that Russia is planning to pinch the Luhansk and Donetsk regions by invading from the north through Kharkiv and up from the south through Mariupol.
But the general’s Friday statements suggest that cities as far south as Odesa could be seeing a similar fight to the ongoing battle in Mariupol. ... Minnekaev on Friday said the goal was not only to create a land bridge between the Donbas and occupied Crimea but to gain superiority over all Black Sea ports – extending its coastal access outside the Sea of Azov.
Biden Defense Sec Says US Aims To WEAKEN Russia In Ukraine
From The Guardian's propaganda catapult:
Ukrainian cities take heavy shelling as top US officials meet Zelenskiy in Kyiv
Russian forces continued heavy shelling of Ukrainian cities on Sunday as people in both countries observed Orthodox Easter and the US secretaries of state and defence made their first visit to Kyiv since the invasion.
Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin arrived in Kyiv and were holding talks with the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Zelenskiy, said on Sunday in a social media video. Ukrainian officials plan to tell Blinken and Austin of the immediate need for more weapons, including anti-missile systems, anti-aircraft systems, armoured vehicles and tanks, Zelenskiy aide Igor Zhovkva told NBC News on Sunday. ...
The Russian military reported hitting 423 Ukrainian targets overnight, including fortified positions and troop concentrations, while its warplanes destroyed 26 Ukrainian military sites, including an explosives factory and several artillery depots. Most of the Easter fighting focused on the eastern Donbas region where Ukrainian forces are concentrated and where Moscow-backed separatists controlled some territory before the war. ...
Moscow’s forces launched fresh airstrikes on a Mariupol steel plant where up to 1,000 civilians are holed up along with about 2,000 Ukrainian fighters. Serhiy Volyna, commander of Ukraine’s 36th marine brigade forces in Mariupol, said in an interview with an opposition lawmaker posted on YouTube on Sunday that Russia was hitting the complex with air and artillery bombardments.
Scholz Says Top Priority Is Avoiding NATO Confrontation With Russia
NATO must avoid a direct military confrontation with Russia that could lead to a third world war, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in an interview with Der Spiegel when asked about Germany's failure to deliver heavy weapons to Ukraine.
Scholz is facing growing criticism at home and abroad for his government's apparent reluctance to deliver heavy battlefield weapons, such as tanks and howitzers, to Ukraine to help it fend off Russian attacks, even as other Western allies step up shipments.
Asked in an extensive interview published on Friday why he thought delivering tanks could lead to nuclear war, he said there was no rule book that stated when Germany could be considered a party to the war in Ukraine.
"That's why it is all the more important that we consider each step very carefully and coordinate closely with one another," he was quoted as saying. "To avoid an escalation towards NATO is a top priority for me.
"That's why I don't focus on polls or let myself be irritated by shrill calls. The consequences of an error would be dramatic."
New York Times Smears Anti-War Journalists As “Conspiracy Theorists”
US warns Solomon Islands against China military base as Australian MPs trade blame
The US government has warned Solomon Islands it will “respond accordingly” if its security agreement with China leads to a Chinese military presence in the Pacific island nation.
A visiting US delegation including Indo-Pacific security adviser Kurt Campbell delivered the message to the Solomon Islands prime minister, Manasseh Sogavare, directly, the White House said, as fallout over the agreement continued to dominate the Australian federal election campaign.
Details of the agreement have not been made public. But according to a draft version of the deal, it would allow armed Chinese police to be deployed at Solomon Islands’ request to maintain “social order”. It would also allow China to “make ship visits to, carry out logistical replenishment in, and have stopover and transition in Solomon Islands”, and Chinese forces could also be used “to protect the safety of Chinese personnel and major projects in Solomon Islands”.
In a statement, the Biden administration said Sogavare assured the US there would be no long-term Chinese presence on the islands. But the US would nevertheless “follow developments closely in consultation with regional partners”.
It's Wrong to Think of the South Pacific as a US Sphere of Influence
The U.S. is scrambling to check the growth of Chinese influence in the Pacific nation of the Solomon Islands after Beijing struck a security pact with the islands that would allow China to dock their ships, deploy security forces to protect Chinese-built infrastructure, and help the government restore order.
The United States and Australia have been panicking ever since about a possible Chinese foothold. Washington has rushed top White House and State Department officials to Honiara to pressure their government to cancel the agreement, but this has served mostly to annoy them and signal that the U.S. doesn't respect their sovereign decisions.
The United States routinely rails against the idea of spheres of influence when other states claim them, but in its rivalry with China the U.S. assumes that Pacific Island nations belong firmly in the American sphere of influence. U.S. entreaties are likely too late to change minds in the Solomon Islander government, and they show that the U.S. doesn't really believe that small states get to make their own decisions when it comes to foreign policy.
The details of the final agreement with China are not yet public, but the pact is believed to be close to the leaked draft version that became available last month. According to that version, the government can request China to send police and military personnel in the event of local disorder. There was significant unrest in the country last year caused by longstanding internal divisions and resentment that the government switched its diplomatic relations from Taiwan to China three years ago.
Because of Australia's traditional role as security provider for the country, news of the agreement with China has been received very poorly in Canberra. Australia's Labor Party seized on the issue to criticize the coalition government and characterized it as the "worst Australian foreign policy blunder in the Pacific" since WWII. There has even been some reckless talk from pundits that Australia should invade the country and bring down the government to halt the agreement.
While it is understandable that Australia has concerns about closer ties between China and one of its neighbors, the reaction to this agreement has been out of all proportion to its significance.
For its part, the U.S. has neglected the Solomon Islands and taken the country for granted for many years, and it is only when it seems to be drifting towards Beijing's orbit that our government can be bothered to pay close attention. There hadn't been a U.S. embassy in Honiara for almost 30 years until it announced it was being reopened earlier this year, and even that was justified as an anti-Chinese move. Washington says that it believes that small states should be able to decide for themselves how to make their security arrangements and decide their foreign policy orientation, but it doesn't adhere to that line when a government builds closer ties with China.
Saudis’ Biden snub suggests crown prince still banking on Trump’s return
Saudi Arabia appears to be banking on Donald Trump’s return to office by refusing to help the US punish Russia for the Ukraine invasion, and by placing $2bn in a new, untested investment fund run by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
In seeking to persuade Riyadh to increase oil production so as to lower prices by as much as 30%, and thereby curb Russian government revenue, the Biden administration is looking for ways to reassure the Saudi government that it is dedicated to the kingdom’s security.
The White House said on Thursday it was an “iron-clad commitment from the president on down”, and the Pentagon is reported to be working on a draft of a new statement of US-Saudi security arrangements, but observers say it is likely to fall short of the firm guarantees the Saudis and other Gulf states are demanding.
The kingdom’s de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, reportedly declined to take a call from Joe Biden last month, showing his displeasure at the administration’s restrictions on arms sales; what he saw as its insufficient response to attacks on Saudi Arabia by Houthi forces in Yemen; its publication of a report into the Saudi regime’s 2018 murder of the dissident and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi; and Biden’s prior refusal to deal in person with the crown prince.
Instead, Prince Mohammed shows signs of betting on the return to office of Trump in 2024, and the resumption of the Trump administration’s cosy relationship with Riyadh.
Macron Defeats Le Pen in French Election Amid “Tremendous Amount of Dissatisfaction” Among Voters
The arrogant neoliberal shit beats the xenophobe!
Victorious Macron vows to unite France after fending off Le Pen
The pro-European centrist Emmanuel Macron has vowed to unite a divided France after winning a second term as French president in a decisive victory against the far-right’s Marine Le Pen, who nonetheless won more than 12 million votes in a historic high for her anti-immigration party.
Macron became the first French leader to win re-election for 20 years, scoring a clear margin of 57% to 43%, with almost 95% of the votes counted on Sunday night.
Addressing a victory rally at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, where his supporters waved French and European flags, Macron vowed to respond “efficiently” to the “anger and disagreement” of voters who chose the far right.
“I know that a number of French people have voted for me today, not to support my ideas but to stop the ideas of the far right,” he said and called on supporters to be “kind and respectful” to others, because the country was riven by “so much doubt, so much division”. ...
Macron beat Le Pen with a lower margin than the 66% he won against her in 2017. Turnout was also lower than five years ago, with abstention estimated at a record 28%.
Twitter Poised To SELL To Elon Musk
EU agrees rules to force big tech to rein in illegal content or face huge fines
Large online platforms including Facebook, Google and Twitter will have to do more to tackle illegal content or face multibillion euro fines under a new European Union regulatory regime agreed on Saturday. The wide-ranging Digital Services Act (DSA) can fine a company up to 6% of its global turnover for violating the rules – which would be $7bn (£5.9bn) in the case of Facebook’s owner – while repeated breaches could result in a tech firm being banned from doing business in the EU.
The new rules, which come into force in 2024, include:
- Banning advertising aimed at children or based on sensitive data such as religion, gender, race and political opinions.
- Allowing EU governments to request removal of illegal content, including material that promotes terrorism, child sexual abuse, hate speech and commercial scams.
- Forcing social media platforms to allow users to flag illegal content in an “easy and effective way” so that it can be swiftly removed.
- Online marketplaces like Amazon will need similar systems for suspect products, such as counterfeit sneakers or unsafe toys.
The DSA has been drawn up against a backdrop of political and regulatory action against online platforms around the world. The UK is introducing the online safety bill, which imposes a duty of care on tech firms to shelter users from harmful content, while in the US, the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission has filed antitrust actions against Google and Facebook.
Billionaires (Musk/Thiel/Omidyar) vs The Media? (W/ Glenn Greenwald)
Katie Porter Leads Letter Urging Biden Not to Dump More Money Into Medicare Advantage
Democratic Rep. Katie Porter led a group of lawmakers this week in urging the Biden administration not to increase taxpayer funding for Medicare Advantage plans after a government report showed that the privately run program received $12 billion in overpayments in 2020—a problem driven by insurers exaggerating how sick their enrollees are.
Despite the March report's findings, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced earlier this month that Medicare Advantage (MA) plans will see an 8.5% revenue bump on average in 2023—one of the largest payment increases to MA insurers in the program's history.
One healthcare reporter characterized the payment hike as "a bonanza of taxpayer cash."
In their letter on Wednesday, Porter (D-Calif.), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), and 16 other lawmakers urged CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure to "reconsider the decision to finalize policies that will increase payments for insurers in the Medicare Advantage program at the cost of taxpayers, traditional Medicare beneficiaries, and the Medicare [Hospital Insurance] Trust Fund."
"The record profit margins of health insurers participating in the Medicare Advantage program in 2021 indicate that insurance companies are generating significant revenue from excess Medicare Advantage payments. In 2021, Anthem reported profits of $6.1 billion—more than double its profits from a decade ago," the lawmakers wrote. "Anthem's explosive profit growth was driven by taxpayer dollars, which accounted for 61% of Anthem's $137 billion in revenues."
"Instead of failing to curb overpayments to Medicare Advantage plans for 2023," they continued, "we encourage CMS to recoup these overpayments and reduce them over time to extend the life of the HI Trust Fund, ensure parity in payment between Medicare Advantage and fee-for-service Medicare, and improve and equalize benefits for all Medicare beneficiaries."
The members of Congress argued that while Medicare Advantage plans are marketed as a way to provide "full Medicare benefits for less money than what it costs the government to provide those benefits through traditional Medicare, traditional Medicare remains more cost-effective."
AOC gets out in front of a movement she did little for; success has a thousand fathers, failure is an orphan.
Ocasio-Cortez to unionized Amazon workers: victory is ‘just the beginning’
The progressive congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told Amazon’s first unionized workers in New York on Sunday that their victory was “the first domino to fall” in what she expected to be a wave of similar votes for representation across the country. The leftwing Democrat joined Vermont senator Bernie Sanders on stage in Staten Island to celebrate the historic achievement and to call for workers in more Amazon facilities in the US to follow their example.
“What happened out here … what you guys did in Staten Island was just the beginning. It was the first domino to fall,” she said, noting that workers at a second Amazon sorting facility in the New York borough were voting on Monday. “We have another election tomorrow, and we’re going to support them in that. And the day after that, and the day after that, all the way. But what we need Amazon to do first and foremost is to recognize the union that won their election.”
Amazon has so far refused to acknowledge the vote at its Staten Island fulfillment center, after it was accused of intimidating and hounding workers during the campaign with anti-union messages, and spending millions of dollars to try to ensure the vote failed.
Joe Biden Met With Son Hunter’s Business Partner AT THE WHITE HOUSE In 2010: NY Post
Florida Lawmaker Says Gerrymandered State Maps Are Part of Racist Strategy, "Not Just a Culture War"
Highly contagious marine epidemic rips through Caribbean’s coral reefs
Krista Sherman understands ocean conservation work takes a good deal of patience. But the Bahamian-born marine scientist had never encountered a foe like stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD), and after efforts to monitor and treat the highly contagious outbreak in the Bahamas’ corals stalled, her patience was running thin. “The disease is spreading really quickly. In some areas where we’ve been able to assess the rate of spread, we’re looking at a mile a month,” says Sherman, a researcher with the Bahamas-based Perry Institute for Marine Science.
“There’s a shift taking place at some sites, from healthy, vibrant reefs to what looks like a coral graveyard. And it’s really devastating to see; it’s just heartbreaking.”
First discovered in Florida in 2014, the disease, which scientists believe is carried by ocean currents and commercial ships, has now been confirmed in 22 countries and territories across the Caribbean, according to data compiled by the Atlantic and Gulf Rapid Reef Assessment (AGRRA), a conservation organisation that has been tracking the outbreak.
SCTLD afflicts more than 20 coral species – including some of the largest and most important reef-building corals, which can take centuries to grow – eating away at their soft tissue until nothing but a skeleton remains. Infected colonies can be wiped out in months. Algae moves in, leaving large swaths of a once-colourful reef covered in dull grey-green or red-brown fuzz.
Scientists have yet to pinpoint the pathogen that causes the disease. So far, the only effective treatment involves applying antibiotic paste on to individual corals, a labour-intensive and expensive method. Once SCTLD infects a colony, any delay in response means more dead coral. Yet those involved in treatment efforts across the Caribbean say obstacles to their work are common – from pandemic lockdowns to lack of funding and government bureaucracy.
One dead and thousands forced to flee as wildfires sweep across US
Wind-driven wildfires sweeping through parts of Nebraska contributed to the death of one person and injured at least three firefighters, authorities said Sunday. ... The death came as wind-driven wildfires destroyed hundreds of structures in northern New Mexico and forced thousands to flee mountain villages as blazes burned unusually early in the year in the parched US south-west.
Two wildfires merged north-west of Las Vegas, New Mexico, and raced through 15 miles (24km) of forest driven by winds over 75mph (121km/h), destroying more than 200 buildings, state authorities said. To the north-east, a fire about 35 miles east of Taos doubled in size to become the largest burning in the United States, forcing the evacuation of a scout ranch and threatening several villages.
The wildfires are the most severe of nearly two dozen in the US south-west and raised concerns the region was in for a brutal fire year as a decades-long drought combined with abundant dry vegetation. ...
Climate change has lowered winter snowpacks and allowed larger and more extreme fires to start earlier in the year, according to scientists. ...
Elsewhere in the region, the fire danger in the Denver area on Friday was the highest it had been in over a decade, according to the National Weather Service, because of unseasonable temperatures in the 80s (26C-32C) combined with strong winds and very dry conditions.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
US narrative won’t survive defeat in Donbass
Ukraine - Gonzalo Lira, War Aims, Railway Supplies And Incoming Fire
The Ukraine War Clock Is a Time Bomb – It Blows Up On November 8, US Election Day
EU Commission, U.S. Submit To Reality
Shitlibs Are Foam-Brained Human Livestock: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix
Dark Times with a Sliver of Light
John Kiriakou on Abu Zubaydah and Unethical CIA Practices
American Phone-Tracking Firm Demo’d Surveillance Powers by Spying on CIA and NSA
Once Trump's Asylum Ban Became Biden's, Corporate Media Outrage Faded Away
Blaming Workers, Hiding Profits in Primetime Inflation Coverage
When You’re Mad About Tax Paperwork, Here’s Who To Blame
'A Win in Our Fight for Net Neutrality': Industry Loses Another Attempt to Block California Law
Five charts that show why our food is not ready for the climate crisis
Reddit Mods CENSOR Amazon Workers' Union Drive
Saagar Enjeti: Obama's DANGEROUS Attack On Online Free Speech
Malaise & frustration: French abstention rate the highest in 50 years
A Little Night Music
Big Daddy Kinsey - Hard Life
Big Daddy Kinsey & Sons - Do You Need Me Like I Need You? & Dancin Shoes
Big Daddy Kinsey - These Kinda Blues
Big Daddy Kinsey - Mannish Boy
Big Daddy Kinsey - Baby Don't Say That No More
Big Daddy Kinsey - Good morning Mississippi
Big Daddy Kinsey - Howlin' Wolf
Big Daddy Kinsey - Walking Thru The Park
Big Daddy Kinsey & The Kinsey Report - Bad Situation
Comments
Twitter sale to Elon Musk’s private investor group—it’s official
https://www.theverge.com/2022/4/25/23028323/elon-musk-twitter-offer-buyo...
https://twitter.com/MarketWatch/status/1518664625595760645
evening lotlizard...
woohoo! an oligarch to the rescue!
i guess that's good news for now.
The shitlibs are freaking out about it
A few comments from them on hearing the news:
All the FAKE Russian account will be back , white supremacists will spread their hateful ideology all so that Elon can make even more money
Just deleted my account. Maybe if enough of us do the same today, shareholders will see exactly what the future holds with that mindless libertarian asshat at the helm.
I don’t use twitter but I like the First Aamendment.
- Been nice knowing you Twitter, you’re about to take a hard turn into Dumbfuckograd
- No wonder you're OK with this-- you're a crypto enthusiast and an Elon fan boy. Dem or not, it's time to put more important things, like saving our democracy and REAL free speech instead of a marketplace ruled by bullies,, ahead of earning a crypto fortune.
Time to #GTFOTwitter. For real.
What a dummy he is.
And boy are they freaking out about seeing Trump’s tweets again. Ya know the only reason we saw so many of his tweets was because the media KEPT SHOWING THEM. Just like they made sure that we heard every dumb thing he said and did. Let’s not forget who told the media to cover Trump’s every move and thought during the primary. He got $1-2 billion in free advertising thanks to HerHeinous. Great move dummy.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
As long as EM sticks
to his previously stated position about making Twitter more consistent with the First Amendment -- err on the side of free speech, restricting only those areas not currently protected by the 1A -- then he has my blessings. It's possible he might go to a subscription service, which is ok so long as it's kept very low -- a dollar/mo for instance. That would help weed out many of the trolls.
Will be interesting to see this fresh approach to allowing speech more consistent with our traditional democratic values. The MSM only wants to talk about all the chaos that will ensue, omitting to mention how much speech content is currently being suppressed for ideological reasons.
Good evening...
The narrative vs reality in Ukraine is quite the contrast. Russia is winning the war despite Blinky and elensky's BS. As Alex says the West is winning the PR (ie lying) war, but Russia wins the real war. The majority of the world sees us for the hypocrites we are...too bad we can't.
Well thanks for the news and blues, much appreciated.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
evening lookout...
it's interesting to watch the events and the propaganda travelling on a long, convergence track. it'll be interesting to see what comes of the train wreck when they catch up to each other. hell, i'm just waiting to find out what's/who's in the basements of the steel plant in mariupol.
have a great evening!
Hiding monstrous experiments like in the “Resident Evil” movies?
The Field Marshalls at TOP predicting Ukrainian victory.
I went over to TOP to read what the Field Marshalls there are writing. They are trying to convince themselves and fellow travelers that the Russians will lose badly as they are a incompetent bunch lead by a madman. Looks like Kos himself is the Chief of Staff leading diary writer.
I dunno but maybe my sources are biased but what they say makes sense over time. The videos I see seem to validate their insights. For example, two pundits said the Ukrainian army has been locked in place by being surrounded in the Donbass and protecting Kiev. I have seen no videos showing mass movement of equipment and supplies by Ukrainians, but many of Russian convoys.
There is going to mass cognitive dissonance in about two months are so among the narrative managers as Caitlin describes them.
I want a negotiated peace as soon as possible to avoid more bloodshed, but man, let's be objective about the course and purposes of the war/invasion.
evening mr w...
heh, good to see that the keyboard commandos at the gos are still as i remember them.
i am guessing that by the time the november elections roll around, there will be dispositive news from the ukraine and the dems will likely be poised for serious defeat. i wonder how the folks in kosville will take it.
have a great evening!
Heh heh…
I have been reading their coverage too since it started and boy-o are they swinging from the trees. Either their sources are just the mainstream stenographers repeating what Biden and his mouthpieces are dictating or they think they are smarter than they are. Today I read that the war will be over in 2 weeks and Putin and his dawgs will crawl back to Russia with their tails between their legs. I’ve also read on the anti war site that Biden MUST send jets to Ukraine and also a nice description of the killer drones that Biden is sending. And they cheer whenever a general is reported killed. It’s almost like rereading that we kill Al Qaeda's number 2 daily. Those poor
NazisUkraine troopshidingtaking cover in the steel mill are going to ambush the Russian troops and win back the city. Any day now. I don’t read the kos diaries because I know that most of them are just fiction, but the rubes love to quote him in theirs. "Let’s go Nazis!" Blehh. Some of the most misinformed people on the planet.The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Probably a waste of time
for Russia to sit down to negotiate anything w/UKR -- they can't be trusted, are controlled by the US/UK, and would likely reneg on any agreement as soon as the opportunity presented. Agree w/Gonzalo Lira that Russia is going to just take the Donbass and the southern area and not give it up as they have sacrificed so much to gain it, to later become integrated officially into Russia. One open question is what becomes of the small Transnistria area in the west where a lot of ethnic Russian live.
Evening folks
Aaron said that if Russia was destroying Ukraine and bombing indiscriminately then there’s no way Blinken and Austin would waltz into Kiev and meet with Zelensky. Or is that Elensky because countries have abandoned the Z? One Russian tank had the whole alphabet written on as a prank. Delete this! ‘Twas a good one.
Over payments…is that what we’re calling Medicare fraud these days? I remember the risk I took turning the doctor I worked for into the medical board because I didn’t want to be involved in Medicare fraud only to see him get away with it and continue bilking the system and his patients. Oh well my conscience is clear. But look it seems that there is money for health insurance after all. It’s just going to the wrong people. Doh!
I wonder where Azazello and Humphrey have wandered off to? Hey guys you okay? I did hear from NYCVG and she said she is okay. I hate it when people just disappear.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
evening snoopy...
there has been a virtual parade of western dignitaries visiting kiev. they can't all be crazy, so they must be reasonably assured that kiev's government zone and their means of arrival there is safe.
heh, this time the insurance fraud isn't (just) being committed retail by individual greedy docs, it is being committed wholesale by insurance corporations. i guess since the corporations own the government it's just a form of recycling.
i would guess that azazello has wandered off on one of his vacations, he often disappears for a week or two. i have no idea of what's up with humphrey, i hope that he'll check in soon. glad to hear that nycvg is doing well.
It’s the amount of money that democrats have been shoveling to
insurance companies when they could just as easily shovel some to us. As for the corrupt doctors it doesn’t seem like the medical police give a rat’s ass about it. Cardiologists are some of the most corrupt, but even a doctor I respected would order ‘baseline' tests are people who probably weren’t going to have problems down the line. It’s just that there was some pathology in the retina so yippee let’s document it. He knew how benign it was as did I. On the doctor I turned in he ordered the test just so I could train my replacement. No pathology at all. I just quit before my 2 weeks was up. The test was not without risk and I wasn’t going to be a party to it.
Hey remember when democrats gave insurance companies money so people could afford to stay on COBRA? And then AOC got them to pay for funerals. But nothing that would have actually helped us. Just pisses me off that we have allowed congress to screw us for so long.
Keep your damn hands off my social security! I don’t want government health care!
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
heh...
congress is corrupt, insurance corps are corrupt and doctors are corrupt. it's a trifecta!
i suppose that if we tried to have all of them investigated, we'd just find out that lawyers, judges and courts are corrupt. it's a super trifecta!
This seems timely
https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/prominent-covid-doctor-accused-15-mil...
Gotta wonder who turned him in? I abhor corrupt doctors. It’s a betrayal of trust. With the one I turned in he should have been charged with assault and battery.
Oh yeah speaking of batteries I figured out the trailer debacle. I hooked it up and still had no running lights until I was waiting for the gate to open and they came on along with the camera. Got through the gate and they went off again. After lots of poking around he found the problem in the socket that plugs into the car. And apparently the wires came loose and somehow the camera wire decided to take power from the battery. It’s like a scene out of horror movie where the evil guy gets cut off but finds another way to get more evil. I just think that’s weird. Battery dead, dead, dead. It’s dead Jim!
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
heh...
i guess that greens fees and the price of big houses near golf courses have skyrocketed.
glad that you got your trailer problems troubleshot and things are working as they should.
have a great evening and give sam a scritch for me.
heh
99% of wiring issues are in the plug
or connecter
I should have mentioned that, the camera and genny
threw me off
glad you’re getting a handle on it
enjoy you’re trip
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
Yeah I shouldn’t have mentioned the generator at all
It had nothing to do with the problem except that everything started after it was installed. But as EL said it’s just there waiting for me to plug in from the trailer to get power. They didn’t touch the wiring. Duh! I figured that out on Sunday and boy did I feel like a ditz. But it’s just weird that everything just stopped working all at once after it was installed on the rack they built for me. It was actually the wires that connected to the plug that came loose. I just don’t see how it happened in something so sturdy if that’s the right word. Anywho it’s working now so I’ll plan my trip for next week. I’m just going to the island again and make sure that everything is copacetic and then I’m heading south. I haven’t spent much time in southern Utah and it’s time I saw what everyone is talking about. But I can’t wait to get back to the Uintahs after the snow melts.
Thanks everyone who tried to help. Remember that I’m just a dawg that doesn’t know much about electric things. I had to take home eck not shop.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Good evening Joe, thanks for the Evening Blues.
Good news on the Net Neutrality front, at least. And tweeter seems like a lot of howling and frothing at the mouth about fantasies fears and hypotheticals. All I'm seeing is the spooks, stenographers, and shitlibs running around shrieking in deathly fear that there might be a tiny modicum of free speech resulting from the whole thing, free speech, the killer, the destroyer of worlds, shit, all this time I thought that was Shiva.
Ah well, tomorrow is another day and another crises in the
mindspsyches of the forever fearful.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...
heh, i'd tell the shitlibs that it is unlikely that musk will really create a free-speech platform and that while they might have to suffer with donald trump and unwoke comments on twitter, they probably will not have to worry about "russian disinformation" or whatever they are calling uncomfortable truths these days - but i must say that i am kind of enjoying seeing the shitlibs froth at the mouth and threaten to leave the room.
have a great evening!
I remember
when the shitlibs said if dRumph won, They were moving to Canada, or Mexico, or someplace Else
the idiots will Still be using twatter after Elon
cause they’re Still Here after dRumph
thanks for all you do keeping us up to date
MUCH appreciated
oh yeah, the blues you post have been a Real education
for this northeast whiteboy
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