The Evening Blues - 8-9-22



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Otis Rush

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Chicago blues guitarist Otis Rush. Enjoy!

Otis Rush - Double Trouble (Live 1973)

“To my thinking there is no vermin in the world worse than a thief. Another takes what you can spare, but a thief steals the work of your hands, the sweat of your brow, your time ...”

-- Fyodor Dostoevsky


News and Opinion

US Senate targets Social Security and Medicare

Last week, Republican Senator Ron Johnson called for ending Social Security and Medicare as entitlement programs, instead transferring them into the discretionary budget where they would be gutted. Johnson’s proposal follows a similar call by Florida Senator Rick Scott, who earlier this year called for putting Social Security and Medicare up for renewal every five years.

Social Security and Medicare spending is allocated as mandatory spending, funded by workers’ payroll taxes, to prevent them from being pillaged. Transferring these programs to the discretionary budget would mean their abolition, slashing US life expectancy as millions of retirees die in poverty and from preventable disease. “If you qualify for the entitlement, you just get it no matter what the cost,” Johnson said. “And our problem in this country is that [mandatory spending takes up] more than 70% of our federal budget, of our federal spending.”

Yes, retired workers are “entitled” to these benefits, because they have been paying for them their entire lives. Out of every dollar workers have earned, they paid eight cents to finance their Social Security and Medicare benefits, matched by equal payments from their employer. But Johnson and Scott, lackeys for the billionaires that rule over America, are demanding that these funds that workers have been paying into over a lifetime of toil and struggle be stolen from them to make the oligarchy richer and to fund America’s new “forever wars.” ...

These senators have articulated as a positive proposal what has been a goal of generations of Democratic and Republican politicians, military strategists and leading think tanks. In 2010, Democratic President Barack Obama formed the bipartisan “National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility,” chaired by former Republican Senator Alan Simpson and Democrat Erskine Bowles, a former chief of staff in the Clinton administration. The commission called for slashing funding for Social Security and Medicare. On the basis of its proposals, the federal government oversaw a squeeze on social spending at the federal, state and local levels, together with significant cuts to Medicare and Social Security.

Now, amid the social crisis triggered by the pandemic, the eruption of war with Russia and the conflict with China, America’s financial oligarchy is renewing its calls for the dismantling of these bedrock social safety net programs. ... While there is allegedly no money to pay retirees their retirement benefits, there is no limit to what can be handed out to defense contractors to fund the US conflicts with Russia and China. ... This massive surge in military spending is accompanied by a systematic effort to reduce workers’ wages with the aim of further enriching the financial oligarchy.

U.S. to Send Ukraine $5.5 Billion in New Fiscal, Military Aid

The United States will send an additional $5.5 billion in aid to Ukraine, made up of $4.5 billion in budgetary support and $1 billion in military assistance, to help it come to grips with the turmoil of this year's Russian invasion.

The $4.5 billion budgetary grant will fund urgent government needs including payments for pensions, social welfare and healthcare costs, bringing total U.S. fiscal aid for Ukraine to $8.5 billion since Russia's February invasion, the U.S. Agency for International Development said.

The funding, coordinated with the U.S. Treasury Department through the World Bank, will go to the Ukraine government in tranches, beginning with a $3 billion disbursement in August, USAID said.

It follows previous transfers of $1.7 billion in July and $1.3 billion in June, USAID said. Washington has also provided billions of dollars in military and security support.

CBS WALKS BACK Reporting That 70% US Aid Sent To Ukraine Is MISSING, Biden Sends ANOTHER $5.5B

Ukraine: head of occupied Zaporizhzhia plans referendum on joining Russia

The Russian-installed head of the occupied part of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region signed a decree on Monday providing for a referendum on joining Russia, in the latest sign that Moscow is moving ahead with its plans to annex seized Ukrainian territory.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has ruled out any peace talks with Russia if the country proceeds with referendums in the occupied areas.

Yevgeny Balitsky, the head of the pro-Russia administration in the region, announced the decision to kickstart the process during a pro-Moscow forum entitled “We are with Russia” organised in Melitopol, the largest city controlled by Russia in Zaporizhzhia.

“I am signing the order for the central election committee to start the preparations for holding a referendum on the reunification of the Zaporizhzhia region with the Russian Federation,” Balitsky said.

Roughly two-thirds of Zaporizhzhia is under Russian occupation, part of a swathe of southern Ukraine that Moscow captured early in the war, including most of the neighbouring Kherson region, where Russian officials have also discussed plans for a referendum.

Roger Waters: Biden Is A 'WAR CRIMINAL' For Fueling Ukraine PROXY WAR, Provoking China

oger Waters Destroys CNN Host About Ukraine & Taiwan

UN special rapporteur says Israeli strikes on Gaza are ‘illegal’

The United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories says Israel’s air raids on the besieged Gaza Strip “not only are illegal but irresponsible”, calling for a diplomatic solution to the latest bout of violence, which began on Friday when Israel launched air attacks on Gaza City.

“The situation in Gaza is on the verge of a humanitarian crisis,” Francesca Albanez told Al Jazeera.

“The only way to secure the wellness of Palestinians wherever they are is to lift the siege and allow aid to enter.”

Israel has characterised the assault as a “preemptive” act of self-defence against the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group and said its operation could last a week.

Albanez blasted the United States for saying that it believed Israel had the right to defend itself. “Israel cannot claim that it’s defending itself in this conflict,” Albanez said.

Joint List MK: Lapid went to war to win election, ‘at expense of Palestinian blood’

An Israeli Arab politician slammed Prime Minister Yair Lapid on Sunday, claiming he launched the operation in Gaza in an attempt to win the upcoming Knesset election “at the expense of Palestinian blood” and criticizing the Israeli public, which he claimed had “lost its humanity.”

In a statement, Joint List MK Sami Abou Shehadeh of the opposition said that “recent election polls have upset Lapid and [Defense Minister Benny] Gantz,” adding that “they are trying to pave their way back to power at the expense of Palestinian blood.”

Earlier, in a TV interview with the Kan public broadcaster, Abou Shehadeh referred to the latest operation in Gaza — dubbed Operation Breaking Dawn by Israel — as a “war crime.”

Taliban 'couldn't find' Al-Zawahiri's body after US assassination in Kabul

The Taliban says it has not found the body of the US-assassinated Al-Qaeda leader, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, following a probe conducted after his killing.

Last week, the United States confirmed the killing of Al-Zawahiri in a drone strike in Afghanistan. ...

The Taliban's information minister, Zabiullah Mujahid, was quoted by local Radio Azadi as saying that the investigation launched at the site of the killing concluded that a body was not present at the time of the strike.

"Everything was destroyed, but we did not find a body there," he said.

EU team submit ‘final text’ at talks to salvage 2015 Iran nuclear deal

The European Union has submitted a “final text” at talks to salvage the 2015 deal aimed at reining in Iran’s nuclear ambitions. The revival of the agreement now awaits “political decisions” in Tehran and Washington after negotiators in Vienna agreed the text thrashed out between Iranian and European representatives over the past five days was the final text and could not be amended further.

The EU foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, said: “What can be negotiated has been negotiated, and it’s now in a final text. However, behind every technical issue and every paragraph lies a political decision that needs to be taken in the capitals. If these answers are positive, then we can sign this deal.” ...

The US described the tabled draft as “the best and only basis on which to reach a deal”. ...

The first official reaction in Tehran was cautious, amid concerns the US would not deliver on the commitments made in the agreement. Robert Malley, the US special envoy in Iran who was also a lead negotiator on the 2015 deal, has been in Vienna over the past five days and has been consulted by the EU negotiating team. ...

Tehran has also been exploring the extent to which the US administration is willing to give binding commitments that any business contracts signed before the next US presidential elections will be honoured if a new administration in Washington again pulls out of the deal.

Colombian narco militia seeks peace talks after calling ‘unilateral’ ceasefire

One of Colombia’s most feared armed groups has announced a “unilateral” ceasefire in the hopes of entering peace talks with the government of Colombia’s new leftist leader, Gustavo Petro.

The Gulf Clan, a notorious drug-trafficking militia, has unleashed a campaign of terror following the May extradition to the US of its leader – Dairo Antonio Úsuga, or “Otoniel”, assassinating dozens of police and holding large swaths of the country hostage.

The rightwing group said the ceasefire, announced by the group on Sunday, was an “expression of goodwill with the new government and its broad willingness to search for paths of peace”.

The offer comes as Petro said his government was “about to restart” negotiations with leftist National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels, for the first time since the Colombian government broke off peace talks after the rebels carried out a car bomb attack at a police academy in Bogotá in 2019.

The two armed groups are among the largest and most powerful in Colombia, both wanted internationally for narco-trafficking.

Ahmaud Arbery’s murderers sentenced to life in prison for federal hate crime

The white father and son convicted of murder in Ahmaud Arbery’s fatal shooting after they chased him through a Georgia neighborhood were sentenced on Monday to life in prison for committing a federal hate crime.

Travis McMichael, 36, and Greg McMichael, 66, received their sentences from US district court judge Lisa Godbey Wood in the port city of Brunswick. The punishment is largely symbolic – the McMichaels were sentenced earlier this year to life without parole in a Georgia state court for 25-year-old Arbery’s murder.

Wood said the pair had received a “fair trial”.

“And it’s not lost on the court that it was the kind of trial that Ahmaud Arbery did not receive before he was shot and killed,” the judge said.

The McMichaels were among three defendants convicted in February of federal hate crime charges. Their neighbor, 52-year-old William “Roddie” Bryan, was sentenced later on Monday to 35 years in prison for the federal hate crime.



the horse race



Donald Trump says FBI raided his Mar-a-Lago home

Federal investigators searched the contents of Donald Trump’s safe at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, the former president said in a statement on Monday, the latest indication of an intensifying criminal investigation by the justice department into his affairs.

The FBI executed a search warrant around 6pm ET at Trump’s residence, which appears to have been related to an investigation into Trump unlawfully taking White House documents with him to Mar-a-Lago after his presidency, according to a source familiar with the matter.


As FBI Raids Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, Public Citizen Calls Again for Trump to Be Prosecuted for Jan. 6

The Classified Materials At Heart Of Trump FBI Raid

Photos suggest Trump blocked toilets with ripped-up White House documents

Claims that Donald Trump periodically blocked up White House and other drains with wads of paper appear to be borne out in photographs leaked ahead of the publication of a new account of the 45th presidency.

On Monday, Axios published photos of folded-up paper, marked with Trump’s telltale handwriting, using his favored pen, a Sharpie, submerged at the bottom of various toilet bowls.

The photographs were released in advance of the publication of Confidence Man, a book by the Trump White House correspondent for the New York Times, Maggie Haberman, set for October.

Trump, described by Axios as “a notorious destroyer of Oval Office documents”, was the alleged flusher. But photographs of presidential White House toilet document dumps are possible evidence of a violation of the Presidential Records Act.

According to Haberman, the disposals occurred multiple times at the White House, and on at least two foreign trips. Most words are illegible, but one name that is clearly visible is that of the New York Republican congresswoman and potential 2024 running mate Elise Stefanik.

Krystal Ball: GOP WARNS: Stop The Steal Keeping Base From Voting



the evening greens


Climate impacts have worsened vast range of human diseases

More than half of the human diseases caused by pathogens have been worsened at some point by the sort of impacts associated with the climate crisis, a new and exhaustive study of the link between disease and climatic hazards has found.

Diseases such as Zika, malaria, dengue, chikungunya and even Covid-19 have been aggravated by climate impacts such as heatwaves, wildfires, extreme rainfall and floods, the paper found. In all, there are more than 1,000 different pathways for these various impacts to worsen the spread of disease, a cavalcade of threats “too numerous for comprehensive societal adaptations”, the researchers wrote.

Global heating and changed rainfall patterns are expanding the range of disease vectors such as mosquitoes, ticks and fleas, resulting in the spread of malaria, Lyme disease, West Nile virus and other conditions.

Storms and flooding have displaced people, bringing them closer to pathogens that cause outbreaks of gastroenteritis and cholera, while climate impacts have weakened humans’ ability to cope with certain pathogens – drought, for example, can lead to poor sanitation, resulting in dysentery, typhoid fever and other diseases.

“We are opening a Pandora’s Box of disease,” said Camilo Mora, a geographer at the University of Hawaii who led the research. “Because of climate change, we have all these triggers all over the world, over 1,000 of them. There are diseases out there just waiting to be unleashed. It’s like we are poking a stick at a lion – at some point the lion will come and bite us in the ass.”

The most awe-inspiring and exuberant birds are facing extinction first – let’s stop nature becoming boring

For decades ecologists have been warning about the homogenisation of diversity – species becoming more alike – in the living world. Now, researchers at the University of Sheffield have published research predicting that bird species with striking and extreme traits are likely to go extinct first. “The global extinction crisis doesn’t just mean that we’re losing species,” says the study’s leader, Dr Emma Hughes. “It means that we are losing unique traits and evolutionary history.” This shows that human activity is not just drastically reducing numbers of species, it is probably disproportionately destroying the most unique, unusual and distinctive creatures on Earth. ...

Many of the potential impacts are unpredictable, but bleak. As Hughes says, we are losing species that could “confer unique benefits to humanity that are currently unknown”. And we already know the knock-on effects of species loss can be catastrophic. The decline of vultures in India and the loss of their scavenging, carrion-eating niche has already had negative consequences for human populations, including the spread of disease. ...

Losing any species is tragic, but we’re also facing a decline in the species that inspire the most awe in humans. In short, we can expect the world to become “really simple and brown and boring”, Dr Eliot Miller, of the Cornell lab of ornithology, told the New York Times. More sparrows; fewer puffins. ...

This latest research illustrates what the often hard-to-imagine biodiversity crisis looks like: a less resplendent, less vibrant world. It is heartbreaking, yes, but galvanising, and an opportunity for focus and pressure on those in power. The vast majority of us don’t want to live in a world bereft of toucans and puffins. Or a boring world, or a dying world. So would politicians care to mention how they square the myopic focus on “growth” with a burnt-out, used-up Earth that is clearly telling us to stop?

This Is Not a Climate Solution: Indigenous Land Defender Warns Senate Bill Will Aid Fossil Fuels

Biden tours flood-ravaged Kentucky as White House highlights climate crisis

Joe Biden on Monday toured parts of eastern Kentucky devastated by the worst flooding in the state’s history and pledged to help recovery, while his spokesperson warned that the climate crisis was having an impact on such events there and across America.

At least 37 people have died in the flooding since a deluge late last month that dropped up to 10.5in of rain on Kentucky in only 48 hours.

The US president said the nation had an obligation to help all its people, declaring the federal government would provide support until residents were back on their feet.


Also of Interest

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

Policy By Other Means - By Helmholtz Smith

Australian Labor Party & Assange: Burying the Politics

China Is Better Than The USA: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

Without Any Legislative Powers, the Fed Is Rewriting the Law and Creating a Permanent $500 Billion Bailout Facility for Wall Street

Sinema Received Over $500K From Private Equity Before Shielding Industry From Tax Hikes

Pro-Israel PACs Are Subverting Open Debate and Free Elections

Emails Raise Questions About WashPost Fact Checker

Wildlife Defenders Slam Senate Dems' Bill for Not Protecting Refuge in Alaska

‘The new normal’: how Europe is being hit by a climate-driven drought crisis

Maddow's OUTRAGEOUS Defense Of Russiagate Coverage

Kim Iversen on leaving The Hill, defying corporate media censorship

US GOVERNMENT Funds Groups 'Fact-Checking' Ukraine Information On Facebook: Alan MacLeod

Mar-a-Lago Raid Green Lit By Judge Who Reportedly DEFENDED Epstein STAFF In 2008

Russia Storming Key Town of Bakhmut. Zelensky Admits Suffering Heavy Losses. FT, Turkey Realigning

Trump, Mar-a-Lago raid. CBS weapons story retracted. 3D Elensky, ban Russians everywhere.


A Little Night Music

Otis Rush - So Many Roads

Otis Rush - It's my own fault, baby

Otis Rush - Crosscut Saw / Chitlins Con Carne

Otis Rush (Feat. Duane Allman) - Reap what you sow

Otis Rush - Sweet Little Angel

Otis Rush - Keep on Loving Me Baby

Otis Rush - Working Man

Otis Rush - Hold That Train

Otis Rush - All Your Love (I Miss Loving)


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Comments

when it doesn't do the same for the citizens here?
Another extraordinary crime from our rulers.

Oh, and gutting social security and medicare will not go over well either.
The polly-ticians are asking for trouble. A well deserved whack is coming due.

Enjoying the Otis. Thanks joe!

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18 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@QMS

it's clear that our political elites just aren't that into us. apparently they find the ukronazis appealing, though.

the elites have been goosing the politicians for years to get rid of social security and medicare, but so far, the politicians haven't dared. it looks like they might be ready to make a run at it now.

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joe shikspack's picture

@gjohnsit

the manager will probably get a promotion for it.

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joe shikspack's picture

@Marie

heh, a bunch of years ago, somebody i knew online made a parody of "cocaine" as a song about male pattern baldness titled "rogaine."

i guess that there's some room for a further parody based upon ukraine.

have a great evening!

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7 users have voted.

by buffoons.

https://thehill.com/homenews/3594308-what-is-the-dark-brandon-meme-that-...

The phrase “Let’s Go Brandon” started off as a dig at President Biden that spread quickly online and became a political slogan adopted by the president’s critics on the right, including former President Trump.

The phrase became popular among Trump’s base after a TV commentator mistakenly interpreted the crowd’s background chanting of “f— Joe Biden” as “Let’s Go Brandon,” in support of NASCAR driver Brandon Brown.

But recently, the use of the phrase has shown signs of shifting.

The White House has attempted to reclaim the “Let’s Go Brandon” catchphrase in the wake of recent wins by the Biden administration via a new “Dark Brandon” meme that has flooded the internet.

Uncomplimentary “Dark Brandon” memes first started to make the rounds online shortly after Biden was elected president, according to Politico.

But on Sunday, new imagery started to gain popularity on Twitter — one that was complimentary. Some shared images of Biden as “Dark Brandon” — ominous, darkly lit, Terminator-esque images of the commander in chief with bright red eyes.

“Dark Brandon is crushing it,” tweeted deputy White House press secretary Andrew Bates, who shared a photo of Biden with laser red eyes that said: “Your malarkey has been going on for long enough, kiddo.”

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joe shikspack's picture

@humphrey

silliness always abounds when politicians try to pretend that they are young and hip.

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8 users have voted.

So we have a race to the apocalypse. We see the environment going fast and then there is the constant escalation in Ukraine. The Ukrainians are deliberately targeting a nuclear power plant. Some random expert said the facility could melt down without electricity needed to cool it down and that is what the Ukrainians seem to be aiming at--power lines. Just read where US has supplied Ukraine with radar tracking missiles to take out radar. Only problem another expert said, these are only known to be fired from F-16s as air to surface missiles. F-16's flying in Ukraine?

Some humans will survive. Not sure the rich in bunkers will. Their servants will turn on them.

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joe shikspack's picture

@MrWebster

if there were bragging points to be had in the afterlife, i suppose we could start a betting pool as to which of the four horsemen will win.

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TheOtherMaven's picture

@joe shikspack

because he's DEATH.

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4 users have voted.

There is no justice. There can be no peace.

Pluto's Republic's picture

@MrWebster

It turns out that the US gave these missiles to Ukraine. Or so CNN is reporting.

This is a very big, possibly insurmountable, mistake. Russia released photos of fragments of the AGM-88 HARM anti radiation guided missile. The only users of this weapon are USA/NATO jets that can fire them on usa integrated electronics.

The following day, the US Defense Secretary says yes, they gave the missiles to Ukraine, although this technology transfer is not mentioned in any existing paperwork.

Occam's razor says that NATO jets have been firing on Russia from the backfield, targeting Russian air defense systems and other strategic or false flag targets.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/08/politics/anti-radar-missiles-ukraine-russ...

This is likely another one of those neocon-style 'brainstorms' that will take us to nukes.

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____________________

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

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@humphrey
You kind of forget after a while that the law is supposed to apply to rich people too.

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snoopydawg's picture

@gjohnsit

than sending 30 FBI agents into Trump’s private home? Do we know if it was a no knock warrant or if guns were drawn like they did with Roger Stone? Funny how it’s unacceptable to have documents from your presidency and the FBI needs to raid your home, but crimes against humanity are forgotten once the president leaves office and the president gets to go on and live his life in peace.

I see nothing to cheer about this. Trump has been targeted since the minute he rode down the escalator. The press and democrats rode his ass and lied about him for over 6 years now. You’d think he was still the president with all the daily coverage he gets. I see this as just more of the crap he’s had to endure.

Weird how the FBI has protected Hillary and Hunter instead of raiding their homes. But I would be against that too. But it’s very weird IMO. Hillary deleted 30k emails that had been subpoenaed by congress and her server might have been hacked and classified information was stolen. More of a crime than possibly some documents.

The shitlibs have made up a story that Trump was going to sell them to Russia just because Rudy bought some plane tickets with cash. How can they know that? But then they are very pleased that it happened to Trump because Orange Man Bad.

PS. Nancy says that no one is above the law. Well she certainly let Bush be above it and herself with her insider trading. I just hope that I live long enough to see her statement come back and bite her in her buttocks!

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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's picture

@snoopydawg

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/taibbi-welcome-third-world

As of now, it’s impossible to say if Trump’s alleged offense was great, small, or in between. But this for sure is a huge story, and its hugeness extends in multiple directions, including the extraordinary political risk inherent in the decision to execute the raid. If it backfires, if underlying this action there isn’t a very substantial there there, the Biden administration just took the world’s most reputable police force and turned it into the American version of the Tonton Macoute on national television. We may be looking at simultaneously the dumbest and most inadvertently destructive political gambit in the recent history of this country.

The top story today in the New York Times, bylined by its top White House reporter, speculates this is about “delayed returning” of “15 boxes of material requested by officials with the National Archives.” If that’s true, and it’s not tied to January 6th or some other far more serious offense, then the Justice Department just committed institutional suicide and moved the country many steps closer to once far-out eventualities like national revolt or martial law. This is true no matter what you think of Trump. Despite the early reports of “cheers” in the West Wing, the mood in center-left media has already drifted markedly from the overnight celebration. The Times story today added a line missing from most early reports: “The search, however, does not mean prosecutors have determined that Mr. Trump committed a crime.” There are whispers throughout the business that editors are striking down certain jubilant language, and we can even see this playing out on cable, where the most craven of the networks’ on-air ex-spooks are crab-crawling backward from last night’s buzz-words:

Maggie Haberson is the person who says Trump threw some papers in the toilet. Has she ever been right about anything she writes about?

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11 users have voted.

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

enhydra lutris's picture

@snoopydawg

the Biden administration just took the world’s most reputable police force and turned it into the American version of the Tonton Macoute on national television.

I can't believe that they are all that reputable, and especially not world wide. As for the tonton macoute, they were a special subunit, most US police forces have their own version, and then there's ice and the feebs, a great many prior demos of tonton macoutismo, Rodney King, for just one example.

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 --

Pluto's Republic's picture

@snoopydawg

...is to make it impossible for Trump to run for President. After two impeachments and the January 6 investigation, the Dems feel the need to pile on one more scandal to smear Trump's brand for good.

If this is a faked up charge, like the Ukranian impeachment sting or the Mueller fiasco, there's a possibility it could backfire on the Democrats. The population is so filled with misinformation and fear from the constant stream of government-designed narratives — that it's hard to predict what people will vote for— those who are not too disgusted to vote.

And, the fact is, it makes no difference at all. The truly important issues facing the nation are the international issues involving the sincere cooperation of all nations. The reputation of the US was finally ruined for good under Trump. However, Joe Biden and his handlers have demonstrated that they are little more that the Diet-Trump administration. The foreign policies of the Neocon coup government are loaded with catastrophic failure for humankind.

As for the US Domestic dystopia, both parties, which are beholden to the same predatory corporations, have been handing out the same shit sandwiches for decades. And the people's lives are steadily diminished. This cannot change in the US under the current political system.

We are all Winston Smith, now.

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____________________

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

@gjohnsit

The double standard keeps repeating itself Ad infinitum. Raiding Trump will not change anything.

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joe shikspack's picture

@humphrey

that man appears to be trying to give weasels a bad name.

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@humphrey
First as an Asst US Atty in the FL district, Reinhart wouldn't have had that level of authority. Second, no evidence that Reinhart participated in the Federal plea deal. Those from the FL US Attorneys that are known to have had some involvement are: Alex Acosta (then US Attorney) and A Marie Villafana (then Asst US Attorney) who signed the plea deal agreement. A Matthew Menchel (then Asst US Attorney) who worked on the plea (and apparently had a brief relationship with many years earlier with one of Epstein's attorney, Lily Ann Sanchez who had previously worked in the US Attorney's office. An Alice S Fisher may have signed some correspondence but she denies having been involved. This whole matter was handled by the GW Bush DOJ.

Alan Dershowitz has long been credited with having hammered out the NPA and pressured the Feds. He was a member of Trump's impeachment defense team. Otherwise, he's a Zionist first and conserva-Dem second.

Reinhart left the US Attorney's office Jan 1, 2008 and the next day signed on to represent Epstein's pilots, Sarah Kellen, and Nadia Marcinkova. The Epstein NPP was signed September 24, 2007. Kellen and MarcinKova were were two of the named potential co-conspirators that would not be federally prosecuted IF Epstein fulfilled all his obligations under the Federal and State plea agreements. They should have had counsel before 2008.

Much effort has been expended on the Epstein case to politicize it as either a Republican or a Democratic scandal. The facts have not been cooperating.

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karl pearson's picture

The Federal Reserve was established in 1913 because the U.S. financial system was being controlled by a small number of banks for the benefit of a few business titans of the day. At least the Fed basically "lasted" almost 100 years; Glass-Steagall legislation was repealed after 66 years. I'm wondering if Chairman Powell is anticipating bailing out Deutsche Bank this winter, if Germany experiences a severe recession due to its support of Russian sanctions. He's given himself the authority to do so now.

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11 users have voted.

@karl pearson Karl,
Sounds as if the Federal Reserve has returned to pre Federal Reserve days.

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joe shikspack's picture

@karl pearson

it has long appeared to me that the fed has become captive to the big banks that own it. surely the fed's actions in the aftermath of the bankster-induced 2001 housing market crash are strong evidence of its capture.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@karl pearson

FED grew out of a meeting of banksters and such folks on some island not too long before its creation who came up with an ideal system to run banks in the favor of a few elites and who then lobbied for its creation and were blown away when congress pretty much gave it to them lock, stock, and barrel.

be well and have a good one

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8 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

CB's picture

Going Rogue With Caitlin Johnstone

China is better than the United States of America. Not because China is perfect, but because the US is quantifiably the single most destructive and murderous government on this planet by an extremely massive margin.

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joe shikspack's picture

@CB

i'd have to agree with caity, but pointing it out seems to be damning china with faint praise.

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9 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

I see Trump is accusing Radical Left Democrats of pulling strings and arranging things. I don't think the the two or three arguably left Dems can pull any strings, but Radical Left Dems? The man is clearly just as crazy Joe Biden.

Türkiye (U00FC) and Russia could become a very interesting partnership is, as some suggest, NATO and Türkiye part ways. More importantly, it could signal a whole new world, I mean, those two have been going at it almost forever. They should both demand reparations from the UK for the Crimean War.

And what's with this shit?

The Taliban says it has not found the body of the US-assassinated Al-Qaeda leader, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, following a probe conducted after his killing.

Al-Zawahiri was killed July 31, so the faithful have 24 hours, which is until some time August 1, to bury him. The Taliban say that they didn't even know he was in town, so how do they know that some of the faithful didn't bundle up and bury the scraps while they were still trying to figure out what was going on. Or, somebody else, or is this whole operation a cover for some sort of CIA - AL Qaeda operation paperclip? Or, since nobody really gives a shit, are they simply helping keep the story alive, and, if so, why?

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

the whole notion of radical left dems makes me giggle. i suppose that i have no problem describing some dems as radical right. but any dems that are even a little bit left are such a bunch of milque-toasts that the idea of them standing up for something and giving more than lip service to a left ideology is laughable.

i think erdogan is a despicable bastard, but he is not stupid. he seems to be making a fairly safe bet that russia will be a better long-term partner than the west.

i am guessing that we will never know if the cia bagged al zawahiri or not. regardless, brandon will continue to brag about it and the taliban will continue to deny it. rinse and repeat.

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CB's picture

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I also like the image.

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snoopydawg's picture

@humphrey

7128A1CE-6500-4CE5-8C21-C396C17A58C2.jpeg
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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

CB's picture

Australian journalist, author and documentary filmmaker John Pilger has dedicated his life to the pursuit of truth and shining a light on inconvenient facts that often contradict the mainstream media narrative. In this episode of Talking Post, Pilger sits down with SCMP chief news editor Yonden Lhatoo to discuss the war in Ukraine, the West versus China and the plight of jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9pEotvlW-s]

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CB's picture

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snoopydawg's picture

Excellent read from naked capitalism on our abysmal health care system and how millions go missing every year from lack of health care. Even during the epidemic no one in government thought that giving us health care was a good idea. The downturn in life expectancy really got started during Reagan when the neocons took over government and its not just because of lack of health care, but lack of everything else that helped people be successful as opposed to being poor. NAFTA hollowed out our jobs and people started having to work more than one job.

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2022/08/america-land-of-the-dying-alarmi...

Our government started its war against we the people on the orders of their donors and it’s only going to get worse now that everyone in government has been captured. Meanwhile we are still thinking that voting will get us out of this mess. Obama refused to give us single payer in his 1st term and yet people voted him back in. Hillary told us that universal health care will never ever happen and people voted for her anyway. Bernie promised us twice that he would pass it and yet most people rejected him. I get a kick out of shitlibs bitching about their health insurance knowing that they rejected Bernie and voted for Hellabitch.

Libby Montana has universal health care and no one thinks that if they can have it we all should.

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

snoopydawg's picture

@snoopydawg

Schumer originally exempted it from the bill, but the real culprit was Joe Biden himself rescinding Trump’s executive order for it only costing $35. But by gawd it’s easier to blame it on republicans instead of laying the blame where it belongs.

I hope people will read this because it really sums up what has happened in America because its leaders have sold us out so they can get rich. It all boils down to that.

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@snoopydawg like Epipens. It is for the rich.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

snoopydawg's picture

Trump might not have been president if Hellabitch hadn’t elevated him. But he got to be president while she failed twice! I’ll laugh at that till I die.

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