The Evening Blues - 5-11-22



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Lula Reed

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features r&b singer Lula Reed. Enjoy!

Lula Reed - I Got A Notion

"All Americans need to really deeply ingest the fact that their government is currently decoupling Covid relief funding from Ukraine proxy war funding because it wants to make sure that the proxy war funding actually passes. Really sit with what that says about everything."

-- Caitlin Johnstone


News and Opinion

Glenn Greenwald, as usual worth a full read:

Biden Wanted $33B More For Ukraine. Congress Quickly Raised it to $40B. Who Benefits?

From the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, the Biden White House has repeatedly announced large and seemingly random amounts of money that it intends to send to fuel the war in Ukraine. The latest such dispatch of large amounts of U.S. funds, pursuant to an initial $3.5 billion fund authorized by Congress early on, was announced on Friday; “Biden says U.S. will send $1.3 billion in additional military and economic support to Ukraine,” read the CNBC headline. This was preceded by a series of new lavish spending packages for the war, unveiled every two to three weeks, starting on the third day of the war:

  • Feb. 26: “Biden approves $350 million in military aid for Ukraine": Reuters;

  • Mar. 16: “Biden announces $800 million in military aid for Ukraine”: The New York Times;

  • Mar. 30: “Ukraine to receive additional $500 million in aid from U.S., Biden announces”: NBC News;

  • Apr. 12: “U.S. to announce $750 million more in weapons for Ukraine, officials say": Reuters;

  • May 6: “Biden announces new $150 million weapons package for Ukraine”: Reuters.

  • Those amounts by themselves are in excess of $3 billion; by the end of April, the total U.S. expenditure on the war in Ukraine was close to $14 billion, drawn from the additional $13.5 billion Congress authorized in mid-March. While some of that is earmarked for economic and humanitarian assistance for Ukraine, most of it will go into the coffers of the weapons industry — including Raytheon, on whose Board of Directors the current Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, sat immediately before being chosen by Biden to run the Pentagon. As CNN put it: “about $6.5 billion, roughly half of the aid package, will go to the US Department of Defense so it can deploy troops to the region and send defense equipment to Ukraine.” As enormous as those sums already are, they were dwarfed by the Biden administration's announcement on April 28 that it “is asking Congress for $33 billion in funding to respond to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, more than double the $14 billion in support authorized so far.” The White House itself acknowledges that the vast majority of that new spending package will go to the purchase of weaponry and other military assets: “$20.4 billion in additional security and military assistance for Ukraine and for U.S. efforts to strengthen European security in cooperation with our NATO allies and other partners in the region.”

    It is difficult to put into context how enormous these expenditures are — particularly since the war is only ten weeks old, and U.S. officials predict/hope that this war will last not months but years. That ensures that the ultimate amounts will be significantly higher still. The amounts allocated thus far — the new Biden request of $33 billion combined with the $14 billion already spent — already exceed the average annual amount the U.S. spent for its own war in Afghanistan ($46 billion). In the twenty-year U.S. war in Afghanistan which ended just eight months ago, there was at least some pretense of a self-defense rationale given the claim that the Taliban had harbored Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda at the time of the 9/11 attack. Now the U.S. will spend more than that annual average after just ten weeks of a war in Ukraine that nobody claims has any remote connection to American self-defense.

    But as gargantuan as Biden's already-spent and newly requested sums are — for a ten-week war in which the U.S. claims not to be a belligerent — it was apparently woefully inadequate in the eyes of the bipartisan establishment in Congress, who is ostensibly elected to serve the needs and interests of American citizens, not Ukrainians. Leaders of both parties instantly decreed that Biden's $33 billion request was not enough. They thus raised it to $40 billion — a more than 20% increase over the White House's request — and are now working together to create an accelerated procedure to ensure immediate passage and disbursement of these weapons and funds to the war zone in Ukraine. ... While it is extremely difficult to isolate any benefit to ordinary American citizens from all of this, it requires no effort to see that there is a tiny group of Americans who do benefit greatly from this massive expenditure of funds. That is the industry of weapons manufacturers. So fortunate are they that the White House has met with them on several occasions to urge them to expand their capacity to produce sophisticated weapons so that the U.S. government can buy them in massive quantities.

    Russia, NATO, and Biden's "inflection point" w/Robert Barnes

    John Kerry warns a long Ukraine war would threaten climate efforts

    The longer the war in Ukraine carries on, the worse the consequences will be for the climate, the US presidential envoy John Kerry has warned. Many countries are struggling with an energy crisis while also urgently needing to cut greenhouse gas emissions to limit global heating to 1.5C, he said.

    “If it’s a long period of time, obviously that makes [staying within 1.5C] very complicated,” Kerry said. “It depends on what happens with the war, where the war goes and how long it lasts. If miraculously we can somehow find a way to resolve some of the fundamental problems in the next six months, then maybe we could just accelerate everything together. I think we can make up some distance [in progress on tackling the climate crisis].”

    But he added: “The longer this goes on, the harder it becomes [to stay within 1.5C]. There are a number of scientists who believe we are on the edge of 1.5C now. Anything that is not part of the acceleration [of emissions-cutting efforts] gets in the way.” ...

    The US president, Joe Biden, has come under heavy criticism from green campaigners in the US for allowing the expansion of gas drilling, opening up new tracts of public land for exploration and development. Kerry said more gas was needed in the short term, to make up for supplies lost from Russia, but that companies should beware of building large amounts of new gas infrastructure that would be left as stranded assets when the energy crisis passes.

    Wall St. Journal Urges U.S. To Force Nuclear War

    Putin could use nuclear weapon if he felt war being lost – US intelligence chief

    Vladimir Putin could view the prospect of defeat in Ukraine as an existential threat to his regime, potentially triggering his resort to using a nuclear weapon, the top US intelligence official has warned.

    The warning on Tuesday came in an assessment from intelligence chiefs briefing the Senate on worldwide threats. The prediction for Ukraine was a long, gruelling war of attrition, which could lead to increasingly volatile acts of escalation from Putin, including full mobilisation, the imposition of martial law, and – if the Russian leader felt the war was going against him, endangering his position in Moscow – even the use of a nuclear warhead.

    The grim forecast came on a day of continued fighting in the east and south of Ukraine, and Russian missile attacks on the port of Odesa, with the UN conceding that the civilian death toll from the war will probably be far higher than the current official estimate of 3,381.

    The director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, told the Senate armed services committee that Putin would continue to brandish Russia’s nuclear arsenal in an attempt to deter the US and its allies from further support for Ukraine. The shift of focus to the east and the south are most likely a temporary tactic rather than a permanent scaling back of war aims, she said.

    The Russian leader would not use a nuclear weapon until he saw an existential threat to Russia or his regime, Haines argued. But she added that he could view the prospect of defeat in Ukraine as constituting such a threat. “We do think that [Putin’s perception of an existential threat] could be the case in the event that he perceives that he is losing the war in Ukraine, and that Nato in effect is either intervening or about to intervene in that context, which would obviously contribute to a perception that he is about to lose the war in Ukraine,” Haines told the committee hearing.

    Israel commits war crimes. Crickets.

    Palestinian American Reporter Shireen Abu Akleh Killed in Israeli Raid in Jenin

    Beijing accuses US of ‘political manipulation’ in latest Taiwan row

    Beijing has accused Washington of “political manipulation” and attempting to change the status quo after the US state department quietly amended its website to remove a line stating it did not support Taiwanese independence. In a delicate geopolitical balancing act, the US has long acknowledged, but not supported, China’s claim to Taiwan under its version of the “one China principle”. However, experts say that policy has been eroded as Beijing has become more assertive. ...

    In an updated page on the state department’s online “fact sheet” Washington last week removed some key lines from the 1979 US-PRC joint communique. It included a line saying “the US recognised the government of the People’s Republic of China as the sole legal government of China, acknowledging the Chinese position that there is but one China and Taiwan is a part of China”.

    The line saying the US “does not support Taiwan independence” – which appeared in a previous version published on 31 August 2018 – has also been removed from the website. The new version said the US “continues to encourage the peaceful resolution of cross-Strait differences consistent with the wishes and best interests of the people of Taiwan”. ...

    On the same day, Beijing criticised the change. A foreign ministry spokesperson, Zhao Lijian, called the edit “an act of political manipulation and an attempt to change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait, which will backfire and the US itself will get burned”.

    How Obama & Biden Lied About Protecting Abortion

    Pro-choice group claims arson attack on Wisconsin anti-abortion office

    Federal agents and detectives from the Madison police department are investigating a claim by a pro-choice group that it was behind a weekend arson attack on an anti-abortion office in Wisconsin.

    The headquarters of Wisconsin Family Action in Madison was attacked in the early hours of Sunday, with a molotov cocktail thrown through a window, starting a small fire, and graffiti spray-painted on an exterior wall. Nobody was hurt.

    In a statement reported on Tuesday by the Lincoln Journal Star, which said it was unable to verify the group’s authenticity, Jane’s Revenge said it launched the attack because of the organization’s anti-abortion stance, and demanded that similar institutions across the US disband or face “increasingly extreme tactics”.

    “Wisconsin is the first flashpoint, but we are all over the US, and we will issue no further warnings,” the statement said, citing the violence of anti-choice groups who “bomb [abortion] clinics and assassinate doctors with impunity” as justification.

    Whiner:

    Susan Collins calls the cops over polite abortion message chalked outside home

    A Republican US senator called local police to investigate a pro-abortion rights – but otherwise harmless – message written in chalk in front of her home, according to authorities.

    The Maine senator Susan Collins called officers last Saturday evening to complain about an anonymous message written in chalk on a sidewalk just outside her residence in Bangor that asked her to support abortion rights legislation, according to a police report that was obtained by the Guardian.

    The chalk art, described in the police report as “intricately drawn” and non-threatening, read: “Susie, please, Mainers want WHPA —–> vote yes, clean up your mess.” WHPA refers to the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would codify abortion rights.

    In the report, police wrote that they did not notice anything suspicious around Collins’s residence. They also said that the chalk message did not constitute a crime.

    A Bangor public works department employee later went to Collins’s home to wash off the chalk message. The senator provided a statement to the Bangor Daily News, which first reported on the chalk message, saying, “We are grateful to the Bangor police officers and the city public works employee who responded to the defacement of public property in front of our home.”

    Senate Dems Won't Protect Abortion Rights, But Vote Unanimously to Protect Justices From Protests

    Progressives are intensifying calls for the U.S. Congress to pass legislation codifying Roe v. Wade into federal law to counter Republicans' plan to overturn the landmark abortion rights ruling, but on Monday evening Senate Democrats' attention was on a bill aimed at protecting the U.S. Supreme Court justices' family members from protests like those held over the weekend.

    There were no reports of violence at pro-choice protests held outside the homes of right-wing Justices Brett Kavanaugh and John Roberts over the weekend, but Republicans including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.)—who was photographed raising his fist in support of the January 6, 2021 insurrection—compared the gatherings of around 100 people to sites of "mob violence" and demanded that Democrats condemn the protesters.

    White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki obliged Monday, saying President Joe Biden strongly believes that protests should "never include violence, threats, or vandalism"—suggesting that the demonstrators, including Kavanaugh's neighbors, who chanted pro-choice slogans and carried signs, had posed a threat to the justices' safety.

    The legislation that was passed unanimously later that day in the Senate would ensure that the family members of Supreme Court justices are afforded the same level of protection as senators' families.

    "It's remarkable how quickly the Senate has acted to protect the privacy and safety of five justices," tweeted journalist Judd Legum. "It's something senators are unwilling to do for millions of women."

    The bill passed Monday and sent to the House was co-sponsored by Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) and introduced shortly after a draft opinion was leaked last week showing that the high court's right-wing majority voted earlier this year to overturn Roe v. Wade—despite the fact that 64% of Americans favor keeping the ruling in place. ...

    While the Supreme Court is poised to roll back reproductive rights for 166 million women, said progressive journalist David Sirota, "the Senate's response was to give the justices and their families more royal guards."

    Adam Serwer of The Atlantic noted that while Democrats have said in recent days that a backlash against the impending Supreme Court ruling will secure victories for the party in the midterm elections, the unanimous vote on Monday suggests "the party leadership don't seem to like the idea of there being a backlash."

    Max Berger of pro-labor rights media organization More Perfect Union tweeted that protests held at Supreme Court justices' homes are "a legitimate outlet for the majority to express anger with an increasingly antidemocratic political system."

    While voting to protect justices from such protests, Berger wrote, "the Senate can't defend a right supported by 70%" of Americans.

    Sen. Bob Casey Commits to Vote for Abortion Rights After Sit-In at His Office

    Progressive activists occupied Democratic Sen. Bob Casey's office in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on Tuesday, after which the historically anti-choice lawmaker announced his intention to vote for the Women's Health Protection Act to codify the reproductive rights that are now in peril thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court's right-wing majority.

    "This week, I will again vote yes to advance debate on the Women's Health Protection Act and I will support the bill if there is a vote on final passage in the future," Casey said in a statement.

    The Pennsylvania Democrat's statement was released just minutes after members of Lancaster Stands Up occupied his office in the state capital.

    "Community pressure works," said Becca Rast, managing director of Justice Democrats.

    In his statement, Casey said that "in the nearly three months since the Senate last voted on the Women's Health Protection Act, the circumstances around the entire debate on abortion have changed."

    "In light of the leaked Supreme Court decision draft overturning Roe v. Wade, and subsequent reports that Republicans in the U.S. House and Senate will introduce legislation to enact a nationwide six-week ban," he continued, "the real question of the moment is: do you support a categorical ban on abortion? During my time in public office, I have never voted for—nor do I support—such a ban."

    The Women's Health Protection Act would enshrine patients' right to receive legal and safe abortions and healthcare professionals' right to provide them. Casey and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) were the only two Democrats who refused to co-sponsor the Senate's version of the legislation when it was reintroduced last year.

    Disinformation Governance Board Chief LIED On CNN About Surveillance

    US immigration agency operates vast surveillance dragnet, study finds

    US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) has built a vast digital surveillance system that gives it access to the personal details of almost every person in America, a two-year investigation by Georgetown University law center has found.

    Researchers from the Center on Privacy & Technology on Tuesday released one of the most comprehensive reviews of Ice activities, concluding that the federal organisation has strayed well beyond its duties as an immigration body to become what is in effect a domestic surveillance agency. Operating largely in secret and with minimal public oversight, Ice has amassed a formidable armory of digital capabilities that allows its agents to “pull detailed dossiers on nearly anyone, seemingly at any time”.

    The vast mountain of data to which Ice now has access includes:

  • Driver’s license data for three of every four adults living in the US.

  • Data drawn from the utility records of 75% of adults, covering more than 218 million unique utility consumers in all 50 states.

  • Information on the movements of drivers in cities that contain 75% of the US population.

  • Facial recognition technology drawn from the driver’s license photos of at least a third of all adults.

  • The Georgetown researchers base their report, American Dragnet: Data-Driven Deportation in the 21st Century, on hundreds of freedom of information requests and a review of more than 100,000 previously unseen Ice spending transactions. ...

    The agency operates an enormous dragnet of information stored by state and local government, utility companies, social media platforms and private data brokers. The end result is that Ice enjoys almost universal reach, with its intelligence weaponised through the use of powerful algorithmic tools for searching and analysing data. Almost all of that activity, the report points out, is done in the absence of warrants and in secret, beyond the purview of federal and state authorities.

    Disinfo Czar: BLUE CHECKS Should Have Power To 'Add Context' To Other People's Tweets

    "On Our Side": NLRB Sues Starbucks to Reinstate "Memphis 7" Workers Illegally Fired for Union Drive

    93% of districts in major US cities unaffordable to Black residents

    More than 90% of neighborhoods in America’s major cities were unaffordable to the majority of local Black residents at the start of the pandemic, according to a new study on the worsening housing crisis in urban regions across the US.

    The National Equity Atlas, a research initiative focused on racial and economic equity, compared rents and wages in the 100 most populous American metropolitan regions in 2019 and examined whether the majority of households of different racial groups made enough income to afford median market rents in their neighborhoods. ...

    The majority of zip codes that were affordable for Black, Latinx and low-income households were classified as “low opportunity” neighborhoods, meaning they have long suffered from disinvestment and lack high-quality schools, clean air, parks, safe streets and good jobs, the researchers said.

    “Longstanding patterns of racial segregation are deepening,” said Rasheedah Phillips, co-author of the report and director of housing at PolicyLink, a research organization that co-produces the National Equity Atlas with the USC Equity Research Institute. “Low-income Black and brown households are being pushed out of their neighborhoods … and confined to the outskirts of what are otherwise prosperous cities.”

    The crisis was particularly acute in California, which has some of the least affordable housing in the nation and a humanitarian homelessness disaster.

    Why Can’t Conservative Pundits Stop Defending Corporate Elites?: Briahna Joy Gray



    the horse race



    Party Of The RICH? Poorer States ABANDON Voting Dem, The Rich Cast Ballots In Droves: Report



    the evening greens


    Vanuatu’s push for legal protection from climate change wins crucial support

    Vanuatu’s push for the international court of justice to protect vulnerable nations from climate change has received the backing of 1,500 civil society organisations from more than 130 countries, as it heads toward a crucial vote at the UN General Assembly later this year.

    In 2021 Vanuatu announced its intention to seek an advisory opinion by the international court of justice on the rights of present and future generations to be protected from climate change.

    If it succeeds, the ICJ’s advisory opinion - although non-binding - carries legal weight and moral authority which experts say could help shape international law. The opinion could also influence domestic and regional courts and tribunals when addressing issues relating to climate change. ...

    Vanuatu is one of the countries most affected by the climate crisis, with a combination of climate risks that include sea level and temperature rises, as well as extreme weather events including cyclones, storm surges, landslides, flooding and droughts.

    French farmers worried about their cereal production due to early heatwave

    Just one of 50 aviation industry climate targets met, study finds

    The international aviation industry has failed to meet all but one of 50 of its own climate targets in the past two decades, environment campaigners say. A report commissioned by the climate charity Possible assessed every target set by the industry since 2000 and found that nearly all had been missed, revised or quietly ignored. The charity says the findings undermine a UK government plan to leave airlines to reduce their emissions through self-regulation.

    Leo Murray, Possible’s director of innovation, said: “This forensic investigation shows just how implausible and credulous the government’s jet-zero strategy is shaping up to be. How can we credibly expect this industry to overdeliver on emissions reduction when they’ve never met any of their previous climate targets?

    “It’s clear that we need to demand reduction via a frequent flyer levy, which would discourage the frequent flying by a small group of people which makes up the bulk of emissions from planes.”

    Air travel accounted for 2.1% of human-produced carbon dioxide emissions in 2019, equivalent to about 915m tonnes, according to the Air Transport Action Group. It is estimated that 15% of people take 70% of all flights, Possible says. ...

    The researchers conclude that climate target setting is in effect a smokescreen for business as usual. Such targets “appear to function principally as a tactic for giving an impression of progress and action to address aviation’s environmental impacts to the public and policymakers, in order to prevent any policy barriers to ongoing growth in the industry”, the report says.


    Also of Interest

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

    Fake Political Parties In A Fake Democracy: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

    Spain’s spy chief sacked after Pegasus spyware revelations

    Leftist Mélenchon as French PM Would Shake Europe – Renaud Lambert

    Losing Roe And The New Dred Scott

    Right-Wing Court's Attack on Abortion Rights Is Call for Mass Revolt

    Former Black Panther Sundiata Acoli to be released from prison after 49 years

    France: New PM to be named in the coming days

    'I'm Angry Every Day': Amy Vilela Goes HEAD TO HEAD With Corporate Dems


    A Little Night Music

    Lula Reed - Rock Love

    Lula Reed - Sick And Tired

    Lula Reed - I´m a Woman (But I Don´t Talk Too Much)

    Lula Reed - Jealous Love

    Lulu Reed & Freddy King - (Let Your Love) Watch Over Me

    Lulu Reed & Freddy King - You Can't Hide

    Lula Reed - Your Key Don't Fit It No More

    Lula Reed - Give Me The Right

    Lula Reed - Baby Baby

    Lulu Reed - What makes you so cold

    Lula Reed - You Gotta Have That Green


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    up
    15 users have voted.

    Comments

    have decided to sell the farm in order to hamper their imagined enemy
    to the tune of 40 billion war bucks, while the homeland disintegrates

    priorities are all askew as far as I can tell
    we have a failing infrastructure, climate catastrophe and rampant
    poverty going on and all the billionaires who have sold out this
    country want to do is shoot rockets into outer space and control basic
    liberties such as speech, health, housing and food
    this is a problem

    Lulu sings it well -- getting sick and tired
    thanks joe for covering the cacamontes

    peace out

    up
    11 users have voted.

    @QMS @QMS
    for federal dollars that you list get subjected to the "how ya gonna pay for it" critique that can't be answered and therefore, no funding. MIC/war funding doesn't need to be paid for; so, all the DC bozos can act like big shots funneling US federal dollars to military boondoggles.

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    12 users have voted.
    joe shikspack's picture

    @QMS

    if our elites love ukraine so much, i think that we should send them there (never to return) so that they can live out their fantasies close-up.

    have a great evening!

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    11 users have voted.

    difficult for me to watch as talking heads TV and cable TV news. I lose patience after a few minutes. Occasionally, usually with the shorter presentations, I can stick with Mercouris to the end. Not sure why, but Mercouris seems to add more information as he goes along and engages in less self-aggrandizing talk just to talk.

    I did get through half of the posted Duran video. Stopped when I couldn't take more of Robert Barnes being wildly inconsistent in his analysis of different topics. Or perhaps his analyses are colored by his biases. Thus, on Ukraine he appeared to be on solid ground, but as far off the mark on the 2020 US presidential election as Democrats are on the 2016 presidential election. On COVID/pandemic as lame as any garden variety conspiracy nutter. Why is it so hard for people to see that the US health system is as poorly positioned to respond to a real pandemic as the USMIC is able to fight wars? Both are high cost and low quality and more inept than ept and only succeed on small bore threats?

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    9 users have voted.

    @Marie

    Both are high cost and low quality.

    BTW, can't do talking heads or podcasts either
    Although George Galloway and a few others can
    be entertaining in a weird way.

    good luck

    up
    6 users have voted.

    @QMS
    Scottish accent and he's a good lefty. Still, can't take much of his talk show either. Jimmy Dore mixes his up with news clips, humor, and has talking head company; so, view more of his than others. For me, Lira was one of the most off-putting and didn't bother trying to figure out why.

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    4 users have voted.
    joe shikspack's picture

    @Marie

    i generally prefer to get my information by reading rather than watching a talking head flapping their gums. i include videos because i know that a lot of folks would rather hear/watch content than read. there are generally only a few folks that make videos that i consistently get all the way through, among them chris hedges, alexander mercouris and glenn greenwald.

    i agree with you about robert barnes' commentary.

    have a great evening!

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    7 users have voted.

    @joe shikspack
    fifteen to thirty minutes video for the same info. And if I think I might have misread v. misheard some point, it's so much easier and faster to look back at text.

    That said, I do appreciate that you post videos. I do sample many as a break from reading.

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    8 users have voted.
    Lookout's picture

    @joe shikspack

    on the real news network...for those that have an interest. His most recent episode is with Gerald Horne on Paul Robeson. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fvZae_Wngc

    Heroic dissidents are demonized, marginalized, physically and psychologically destroyed, or assassinated by the American ruling class. Before the persecution of Julian Assange, before the FBI assassination of Fred Hampton and Malcolm X, before the murder of Martin Luther King, there was the relentless campaign to silence the activist, actor, and singer Paul Robeson. Robeson, the most internationally known and revered Black American of his day, was a socialist and a militant who stood with the crucified of the earth.

    Historian Gerald Horne is author of the biography "Paul Robeson: The Artist as Revolutionary," and is the Moores Professor of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston. In this episode of The Chris Hedges Report, he joins Chris hedges to discuss the life of “the most blacklisted performer in America,” linking the persecution of Paul Robeson directly to the persecution of Julian Assange, held today in a high security prison in London where his mental and physical health—like Robeson's at the end of his life—is in serious decline.

    My understanding is they overdosed him with LSD. Hey its our mafia branch of government.

    Thanks for all the music and news!

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    8 users have voted.

    “Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

    joe shikspack's picture

    @Lookout

    thanks for the heads-up and the link.

    have a great evening!

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    2 users have voted.

    @Lookout
    [video:https://youtu.be/wuO7XpFelNw]

    [video:https://youtu.be/1pgyACdT1rM]

    A reason why I cringe at the use of the "wokie" by "liberals" these days.

    Robeson was a brilliant Renaissance Man. Attorney, professional football player, actor, singer, social activist.

    [video:https://youtu.be/eh9WayN7R-s]

    [video:https://youtu.be/B0bezsMVU7c]

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    8 users have voted.
    janis b's picture

    @Marie

    He was truly a Renaissance Man, as you said. Such a shame that his voice was silenced, so thanks for bringing it back.

    I found the following article interesting. I am glad Jackie Robinson, a 'hero' of my family came around in the end ...

    "Toward the end of his life, Jackie Robinson had a chance to reflect on the incident and his invitation to testify before HUAC. He wrote in his autobiography, “I would reject such an invitation if offered now…. I have grown wiser and closer to the painful truths about America’s destructiveness. And I do have increased respect for Paul Robeson who, over the span of twenty years, sacrificed himself, his career and the wealth and comfort he once enjoyed because, I believe, he was sincerely trying to help his people.”
    https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what-paul-robeson-said-77742433/

    I'm sure the biography the author of the article uses as a source would be interesting and inspiring to read.

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    2 users have voted.
    snoopydawg's picture

    I took Sam to the dam to play in the water and boy was she a happy dawg! She ran and ran and ran up and down the shoreline and she accidentally swam a few times. I’d throw a stick in the water for her and most times she would back out before getting to it, but a few times she treaded water and got it. Funny watching her jump, jump, jump back cuz it was too deep. I thought that once she knew she could swim she’d get some confidence, but no. I’ve never had a dawg that wouldn’t swim. My 3 beagles who don’t like water knew how to. Dusty dawg used to swim out so she could sit on the raft with me.

    It was nice not having to walk forever to reach the water. It’s almost full, but then they aren’t letting much out. The river was very low. Another dry spring.

    Edit

    She ran and ran and ran up and down the shoreline

    I meant that she runs in the shallow water if that wasn’t clear. She loves getting wet every chance she gets as long as it isn’t too deep.

    1462B480-DC44-4AD3-88D6-3A530AC10052.jpeg

    At the great salt lake where it’s inches deep. Boy did she have a blast. Too bad I can’t figure out how to do videos. I’d post the one where she played in the mud puddle. Then shook all over me.

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    12 users have voted.

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

    @snoopydawg

    says Zelenski to Trudeau
    and profitable too!
    smiles all around

    yikes!

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    11 users have voted.
    snoopydawg's picture

    @QMS

    Just a happy little war where everybody’s happy.

    up
    7 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

    @snoopydawg

    heh, great tweet!

    a lab that doesn't like to swim? that's pretty unusual. all of the labs that i've ever known are happiest when they are mostly immersed in water, or have just gotten out and have a chance to shake the water all over the place.

    glad that you guys had a great day, have a great evening and give sam a scritch for me.

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    8 users have voted.
    snoopydawg's picture

    @joe shikspack

    Never a day goes by that she doesn’t jump in the creek or the pond during our walk. Running joke is "there goes Sam." And she ran into the water today, but she doesn’t like to swim. Just paws at the water if it’s too deep. More of a slap like she’s angry that it’s too deep. Her thought bubble is full of !*@#$!!!

    I went to look at a camp spot and there was a little stream by it and in she went over and over and of course waited till she got to me to shake off.

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    janis b's picture

    @snoopydawg

    Knowing how unwelcome at times, but also funny it is when your dog sprays you with water when s/he is shaking it off, I can imagine the scene. Maybe she'll swim in deeper water if you go in first ; ). Is the water very cold?

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    snoopydawg's picture

    @janis b

    because she waited to shake off until she was standing next to me. I did laugh after she bathed in the mud puddle because I was coated in mud and because she had such a good time getting every inch of her muddy. I should try posting the video to YouTube and posting it here.

    Yes the water is very cold now cuz it’s snow melt. I will get in when it warms up and see if it helps her learn to swim. I took 2 other dawgs there so I could swim with them but every time I got in the water they got out and sat on the beach wondering what I was doing. They wouldn’t come in with me. Like I said, dawgs.

    Sam doesn’t play ball either. She might get it 2 times and then wanders off. Abby would play for hours. I think Sam skipped lab school.

    Sam ran so fast in the lake that she left a wake. Can you see it? Plus she has a big smile on her face.

    Smile

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    janis b's picture

    @snoopydawg

    and maybe even a silhouette of a smile. You are the proud companion of a truant dog … skipping school is fun if you don’t get caught ; ).

    I hope you try the youtube downloading and have success.

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    ggersh's picture

    Well today just 2 days after it being 40degrees it hit 90 with
    full on humidity. Not that I'm complaining about it being warm
    but going from 40 to 90 with humidity knocked the shit outta me.
    At least give us time to get used to it, but nah it's the new
    normal.

    How they all became Nazi's

    https://thesaker.is/rebranding-nazism/

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

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

    Heard from Margaret Kimberley

    joe shikspack's picture

    @ggersh

    we've been having unusually chilly weather here in the mid-atlantic, but it was sunny today and got up into the low 70's which felt fantastic. sorry to hear about the weather's extremism in your area. Smile

    nice article from the saker, thanks.

    have a great evening and i hope that the weather straightens itself out!

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    snoopydawg's picture

    @ggersh

    It was in the 80's last week and will be again this weekend, but we’re in the 60's now. And it’s been windy. Knocked a power line down and a train and truck struck the live wire.

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    enhydra lutris's picture

    So why didn't Kerry tell the President to quit working to prolong the war? If he believes what he says about the link to climate, then he's just pretending to be greenish unless he tosses down that particular guantlet. Of course, it might not be relevant if the GOP wins in the mid-terms are enough to give them a veto-proof majority once all the conservadems and opportunistic ass-kissers hop on the bus. But he should at least try if he wants to be remotely credible.

    Heh. Nuthin' says party of the rich like having the historic Senator from MBNA as your leader, just sayin'.

    be well and have a good one

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    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 --

    joe shikspack's picture

    @enhydra lutris

    i'm sure that kerry's priorities align with his washington peers in that war is more important than anything. it is the primary business of the u.s. and must be fostered at all times regardless of the death, destruction and misery it causes. then there's the priority of appearances ...

    have a great evening!

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    snoopydawg's picture

    Loose lips sink ships and boy there’s been a lot of loose lips lately that have told the world that Russia was right. They are going to end the war that NATO started 8 years ago. Hey Vicky they thank you for confirming that yes indeed we have bio labs in Ukraine.

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    joe shikspack's picture

    @snoopydawg

    he could only have done better if he had accounted for the billions that the u.s. has spent to "not provoke" russia.

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    @snoopydawg
    Kirby seems not to have noticed that the modern western backed and trained Ukie army is getting its butt kicked.

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    snoopydawg's picture

    If Manchin can hold up everything democrats want to pass then Bernie has the same power to derail this bill. But of course Bernie was always a sheepdawg for people who strayed from the democrats. But he will be on Twitter tomorrow bitching about how congress needs to do something for we the people and lots of people will cheer him for his courage to say that. How the hell people can be so blind is mind boggling.

    Stuff it, Jaime!

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