The Evening Blues - 8-11-22



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Ann Peebles

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features soul singer Ann Peebles. Enjoy!

Ann Peebles - Trouble Heartaches & Sadness

"All media exist to invest our lives with artificial perceptions and arbitrary values."

-- Marshall McLuhan


News and Opinion

CBS Wanted To Do Critical Reporting On Ukraine’s Government But Ukraine’s Government Said No

Following objections from the Ukrainian government, CBS News has removed a short documentary which had reported concerns from numerous sources that a large amount of the supplies being sent to Ukraine aren’t making it to the front lines.

The Ukrainian government has listed its objections to the report on a government website, naming Ukrainian officials who objected to it and explaining why each of the CBS news sources it dislikes should be discounted. After the report was taken down and the Twitter post about it removed, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said this was a good start but still not enough.

“Welcome first step, but it is not enough,” Kuleba tweeted. “You have misled a huge audience by sharing unsubstantiated claims and damaging trust in supplies of vital military aid to a nation resisting aggression and genocide. There should be an internal investigation into who enabled this and why.”

The CBS News article about the documentary was renamed, from “Why military aid to Ukraine doesn’t always get to the front lines: ‘Like 30% of it reaches its final destination’” to the far milder “Why military aid in Ukraine may not always get to the front lines.” An editor’s note on the new version of the article explicitly admits to taking advisement on its changes from the Ukrainian government, reading as follows:

“This article has been updated to reflect changes since the CBS Reports documentary ‘Arming Ukraine’ was filmed, and the documentary is also being updated. Jonas Ohman says the delivery has significantly improved since filming with CBS in late April. The government of Ukraine notes that U.S. defense attaché Brigadier General Garrick M. Harmon arrived in Kyiv in August 2022 for arms control and monitoring.”

CBS News does not say why it has taken so long for this report to come out, why it didn’t check to see if anything had changed in the last few months during a rapidly unfolding war before releasing its report, or why it felt its claims were good enough to air before Kyiv raised its objections but not after.

Someone uploaded the old version of the documentary on YouTube here, or you can watch it on Bitchute here if that one gets taken down. It was supportive of Ukraine and very oppositional to Russia, and simply featured a number of sources saying they had reason to believe a lot of the military supplies being sent to Ukraine aren’t getting where they’re supposed to go.

The original article quotes the aforementioned Jonas Ohman as follows:

“All of this stuff goes across the border, and then something happens, kind of like 30% of it reaches its final destination,” said Jonas Ohman, founder and CEO of Blue-Yellow, a Lithuania-based organization that has been meeting with and supplying frontline units with military aid in Ukraine since the start of the conflict with Russia-backed separatists in 2014.

“30-40%, that’s my estimation,” he said in April of this year.

“The US has sent tens of thousands of anti-aircraft and anti-armor systems, artillery rounds, hundreds of artillery systems, Switchblade armored drones, and tens of millions of rounds of small arms ammunition,” CBS’s Adam Yamaguchi tells us at 14:15 of the documentary. “But in a conflict where frontlines are scattered and conditions change without warning, not all of those supplies reach their destination. Some also reported weapons are being hoarded, or worse fear that they are disappearing into the black market, an industry that has thrived under corruption in post-Soviet Ukraine.”

“I can tell you unarguably that on the frontline units these things are not getting there,” the Mozart Group‘s Andy Milburn tells Yamaguchi at 17:40. “Drones, Switchblades, IFAKs. They’re not, alright. Body armor, helmets, you name it.”

“Is it safe to characterize this as a little bit of a black hole?” Yamaguchi asked him, perhaps in reference to an April report from CNN whose source said the equipment that’s being sent “drops into a big black hole, and you have almost no sense of it at all after a short period of time.”

“I suppose if you don’t have visibility of where this stuff is going, and if you’re asking that question, then it would appear that it’s a black hole, yeah,” Milburn replied.

“We don’t know,” Amnesty International’s Donatella Rovera tells Yamaguchi at 18:45 when asked if it’s known where the weapons being sent to Ukraine are going.

“There is really no information as to where they’re going at all,” Rovera says. “What is more worrying is that at least some of the countries that are sending weapons do not seem to think that it is their responsibility to put in place a very robust oversight mechanism to ensure that they know how they’re being used today, but also how they might and will be used tomorrow.”

A news outlet pulling a report because their own government didn’t like it would be a scandalous breach of journalistic ethics. A news outlet pulling a report because a foreign government didn’t like it is even more so.

We’ve already seen that the western media will uncritically report literally any claim made by the government of Ukraine in bizarre instances like the recent report that Russia was firing rockets at a nuclear power plant it had already captured, or its regurgitation of claims that Russians are raping babies to death from a Ukrainian official who ended up getting fired for promoting unevidenced claims about rape. Now not only will western media outlets uncritically report any claim the Ukrainian government makes, they will also retract claims of their own when the Ukrainian government tells them to.

It’s not just commentators like me who see the western press as propagandists: that’s how they see themselves. If you think it’s your job to always report information that helps one side of a war and always omit any information which might hinder it, then you have given yourself the role of propagandist. You might not call yourself that, but that’s what you are by any reasonable definition of that word.

And a great many western Zelenskyites honestly see this as the media’s role as well. They’ll angrily condemn anyone who inserts skepticism of the US empire’s narratives about Ukraine into mainstream consciousness, but then they’ll also yell at you if you say we’re not being told the truth about Ukraine. They demand to be lied to, and call you a liar if you say that means we’re being lied to.

You can’t have it both ways. Either you want the mass media to serve as war propagandists or you want them to tell the truth. You cannot hold both of those positions simultaneously. They are mutually exclusive. And many actually want the former.

This can’t lead anywhere good.

Finland, Estonia Say BAN ALL Russians From Europe

Zelensky Calls on West to Ban Russian Travelers, Says ‘Whole Population’ of Russia Is Responsible for the War

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday said the “whole population” of Russia is responsible for the war in Ukraine and called on Western nations to ban all Russian travelers as a punishment.

“Whichever kind of Russian … make them go to Russia,” Zelensky told The Washington Post. “They’ll understand then. They’ll say, ‘This [war] has nothing to do with us. The whole population can’t be held responsible, can it?’ It can. The population picked this government and they’re not fighting it, not arguing with it, not shouting at it.” ...

Zelensky said the current sanctions regime was “weak” compared with banning all Russians from traveling and a total embargo on Russian energy, which would send global oil prices skyrocketing. Russian airlines have already been banned from flying over most of Europe and North America, but a blanket ban on Russian travel hasn’t been implemented.

Crimea airbase explosions. EU's Borrell says 'we are at war'

China halts military drills around Taiwan but ‘war preparation’ continues

Beijing has announced an end to its military drills surrounding Taiwan but said further “training and war preparation” would continue.

It made the announcement shortly after reaffirming its commitment, in a major policy paper, to use force against Taiwan if it could not take control “by peaceful means”.

A spokesperson for the PLA Eastern Theater Command said on Wednesday afternoon the exercises had been successfully completed, and “effectively tested the integrated joint combat capabilities of the troops”, according to state media.

The statement pledged to continue monitoring the Taiwan strait, regularly patrol the area and remain ready for combat.

US will send warships through Taiwan Strait “in the coming days,” US Naval Institute reports

Amid the military standoff in the Taiwan Strait triggered by the visit of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan last week, the US is planning to send warships through the Taiwan Strait “in the coming days,” the publication of the United States Naval Institute reported Tuesday.

On Monday, the Pentagon confirmed earlier statements by the White House that the US was planning another so-called “freedom of navigation exercise,” with Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl stating, “We will continue to do Taiwan Strait transits, as we have in the past, in the coming weeks… We will continue to do freedom of navigation operations elsewhere in the region.”

The United States has stationed a carrier strike group, led by the USS Ronald Reagan, in the waters near the island, flanked by the amphibious assault carrier USS Tripoli. The USS America Expeditionary Strike Group is currently in port nearby in Sasebo, Japan.

In recent years the United States has increased the tempo of its provocative operations near Chinese waters, on the other side of the world from the American mainland.

But none of these operations, which routinely involve American and Chinese warships shadowing each other and issuing radio warnings, have ever taken place in such a tense military and political climate. ... Following Pelosi’s trip, the Chinese government and Chinese military forces have cut off communications with their US counterparts, giving the looming standoff between US and Chinese forces an even greater element of danger and unpredictability.

Iran Nuclear Deal Appears Within Reach as Negotiators Send “Final Text” to Tehran & Washington

US charges Iranian man over alleged plot to kill ex-Trump aide John Bolton

The US has charged an Iranian man it says is a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) with attempting to hire a hitman for $300,000 to kill John Bolton, the former national security adviser in the Trump administration.

The Department of Justice said Shahram Poursafi, also known as Mehdi Rezayi, offered the money in November 2021 to an unidentified person in the US to “eliminate” Bolton, apparently to avenge the drone killing of the IRGC commander Qassem Suleimani, in January 2020.

Poursafi is alleged to have said that after Bolton was killed, there would be another job, for which the hitman would be paid $1m.

The person offered the money became an FBI confidential informant, and continued to exchange texts on an encrypted communications app with Poursafi, who is believed to have tried to orchestrate the plot from Tehran. According to US authorities, Poursafi has never visited the US. ...

Iran rejected the allegations late on Wednesday, with foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani saying: “Iran strongly warns against any action against Iranian citizens under the pretext of these ridiculous and baseless accusations.”

As Rent Soars & Evictions Spike, Will Biden Address Housing Crisis with Same Urgency as Gas Prices?

Biden Celebrates 'ZERO Inflation' Despite High Rent, Electricity

US inflation falls to 8.5% in July but still close to multi-decade high

The pace of price rises dipped in the US in July as gas prices eased, bringing down the annual rate of inflation to 8.5%, still close to a multi-decade high but lower than the four-decade peak it hit in June.

July’s figure, while still high, represents a significant fall from the annual rate of 9.1% recorded in June and will raise hopes that inflation has finally peaked in the US. It follows other indicators that have suggested price rises are moderating.

But the report showed once again how broadly inflation has spread through the economy. After stripping out food and energy costs – which are highly volatile – prices climbed by 5.9% in the year to the end of July, matching last month’s reading.

Gas prices have dropped sharply in the US after hitting a national average of $5 a gallon in mid-June. They now average just over $4 a gallon, up about $1 from the same time last year, according to AAA. Prices for other commodities including copper, wheat and corn have also dipped in recent weeks after rising sharply following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The labor department reported that the gasoline index fell 7.7% in July, offsetting increases in the food and shelter indexes. The food index increased 10.9% over the last year, the largest 12-month increase since the period ending May 1979.



the horse race



Trump Has FBI RAT In His Orbit

FBI searched Trump’s home seeking classified presidential records – sources

Federal investigators searched Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida on Monday bearing a warrant that broadly sought presidential and classified records that the justice department believed the former president unlawfully retained, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

The criminal nature of the search warrant executed by FBI agents, as described by the sources, suggested the investigation surrounding Trump is firmly a criminal probe that comes with potentially far-reaching political and legal ramifications for the former president.

And the extraordinary search, the sources said, came after the justice department grew concerned – as a result of discussions with Trump’s lawyers in recent weeks – that presidential and classified materials were being unlawfully and improperly kept at the Mar-a-Lago resort. ...

The statute governing the wilful and unlawful removal or destruction of presidential records, though rarely enforced, carries significant penalties including: fines, imprisonment and, most notably, disqualification from holding current or future office.

But the justice department may take no further action now that it has secured what sources said were around 10 boxes’ worth of documents in addition to 15 boxes recovered from Mar-a-Lago earlier this year – but what it does next was not immediately clear.

FBI SEIZES GOP Congressman's Phone Over Jan 6



the evening greens


Global heating has caused ‘shocking’ changes in forests across the Americas, studies find

Forests from the Arctic to the Amazon are transforming at a “shocking” rate due to the climate crisis, with trees advancing into previously barren tundra in the north while dying off from escalating heat farther south, scientists have found. Global heating, along with changes in soils, wind and available nutrients, is rapidly changing the composition of forests, making them far less resilient and prone to diseases, according to a series of studies that have analyzed the health of trees in north and South America.

Many areas of forest are now becoming more susceptible to ferocious wildfires, causing the release of further greenhouse gases from these vast carbon stores that heat the planet even more. “It’s like humans have lit a match and we are now seeing the result of that,” said Roman Dial, a biologist at Alaska Pacific University.

Dial and his colleagues have discovered that a patch of white spruce trees in north-west Alaska have “hopped” north into an area of the Arctic tundra that hasn’t had such trees in millennia. The scientists’ new research paper, published in Nature, estimates the spruce are advancing north at a rate of around 4km a decade, aided by warming temperatures and changes to snow and wind patterns influenced by the shrinkage of sea ice in the region.

“It was shocking to see trees there. No one knew about them but they were young and growing fast,” said Dial, who first spotted the shadows of the trees on satellite imagery and then took a single-engine plane journey, followed by a five-day hike, to find and study the advancing forest. “The trees basically hopped over the mountains into the tundra. Going by climate models, this wasn’t supposed to happen for a hundred years or more. And yet it’s happening now.” ...

Farther south, separate research has found a transformation is under way at the boundary between the boreal and temperate forests, with species of spruce and fir increasingly unable to cope with the hotter conditions. Scientists estimate that even small amounts of further heating, caused by human activity, could cause up to a 50% die-off of traditional boreal forest trees in certain places, with many other trees becoming stunted in their growth.

Fate of ‘sleeping giant’ East Antarctic ice sheet ‘in our hands’ – study

The fate of the world’s biggest ice sheet rests in the hands of humanity, a new analysis has shown. If global heating is limited to 2C, the vast East Antarctic ice sheet should remain stable, but if the climate crisis drives temperatures higher, melting could drive up sea level by many metres. The East Antarctic ice sheet (EAIS) holds the vast majority of Earth’s glacier ice. Sea levels would rise by 52 metres if it all melted. It was thought to be stable, but is now showing signs of vulnerability, the scientists said.

The EAIS is far larger than the West Antarctic ice sheet (WAIS), which hosts the so-called “doomsday” Thwaites glacier, which has lost significant stability. Total loss of the WAIS would cause 5 metres of sea level rise.

Sea level is rising faster today than for at least 3,000 years, as mountain glaciers and the Greenland ice cap melt, and ocean waters expand as they heat. Even a few metres of sea level rise will redraw the map of the world, with profound consequences for millions of people in coastal cities from New York City to Shanghai. ...

The analysis shows that keeping below 2C of global heating, the upper limit agreed by the world’s nations in the 2015 Paris climate agreement, would result in EAIS contributing less than 0.5m of sea level rise by 2300. But continued high emissions and a temperature rise well above 2C would result in a rise of 1.5 metres to 3 metres by 2300 and up to 5 metres by 2500.

“The fate of the EAIS remains very much in our hands,” said Prof Chris Stokes, at Durham University in the UK, who led the study. “This ice sheet is by far the largest on the planet and it’s really important that we do not awaken this sleeping giant. We used to think ice sheets in East Antarctica were much less vulnerable to climate change, compared to West Antarctica or Greenland, but we now know there are some areas already showing signs of ice loss.”

Climate Bill A Huge Giveaway For Oil Industry Admits Joe Manchin

Record Death Valley flooding ‘a once-in-1,000-year event’

Recent severe rains in Death Valley that flushed debris across roadways, damaged infrastructure and carried away cars are being described by meteorologists and park officials as a once-in 1,000-year event. The arid valley was pelted with roughly an inch and a half of rain on Friday, near the park’s rainfall record for a single day.

The storm poured an amount of water equal to roughly 75% of the average annual total in just three hours, according to experts at Nasa’s Earth observatory. Hundreds visiting and working in Death Valley national park were marooned and all roads continue to be impassable, according to park officials. ...

Daniel Berc, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Las Vegas, described the deluge as a historic “1,000-year event”, with a 0.1% likelihood during a given year.

But events like this one, once thought to be exceedingly rare, are on the rise. Scientists are finding that weather extremes, fueled by the climate crisis, are becoming more likely in the American west, which continues to be mired in drought. Periods of dryness are expected to be broken with strong, destructive storms as the world continues to warm.

Described as “a land of extremes”, the desert basin is the driest place in North America and is known for temperatures that have climbed higher than any other place on Earth.


Also of Interest

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

Since 9/11 the US Has Increased Military Interventions to Historic Levels

Will Biden Stumble into a New World War?

Nancy Pelosi, White Supremacy, and China

How Ukraine Lost Its Riches

Problems Remain With Kaliningrad Transit Despite EU Deal - Russia

Ukraine Halted Oil Flows to Europe Over Payment Issue, Russia's Transneft Says

Young Americans Who Go Hungry

Top Economists Hail Chilean Constitution as 'New Global Standard' on Climate, Inequality

Historic Climate Bill, Say Clear-Eyed Critics, Still 'Pours Gasoline on the Flames'

‘This is the future’: the Oxfordshire village living without running water

Newly identified Langya virus tracked after China reports dozens of cases

Ilhan Omar wins closer-than-expected House primary in Minnesota

“Political Pawns”: Immigrant Activists Decry Texas Gov. Abbott for Busing Asylum Seekers to NYC

Poor Getting HOSED By Inflation, Could Be Unemployed By FED

Krystal Ball: Candace Owens is RIGHT! Defund the FBI!!

Briahna Joy Gray: Marjorie Taylor Greene Is RIGHT About The FBI, They're Coming For YOU

War funding conference: Ukraine calls for more money

The Dumbest Thing Pelosi’s Ever Said

Germany Running Out Of Gas Due To Russian Sanctions


A Little Night Music

Ann Peebles - I Can't Stand the Rain

Ann Peebles - It's Your Thing

Ann Peebles - Run Run Run

Ann Peebles - I Feel Like Breaking up Somebody's Home Tonight

Ann Peebles - What You Laid on Me

Ann Peebles - I Needed Somebody

Ann Peebles - I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down

Ann Peebles - Old Man With Young Ideas

Ann Peebles - Slipped, Tripped and Fell in Love


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Comments

ggersh's picture

than a 3rd world country. We got more than enough money for the war in Ukraine, amerikan
schools not so much.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rcp97mudnjw]

Thanks for the EB's Joe!

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16 users have voted.

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

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

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

joe shikspack's picture

@ggersh

i guess that there's a tragic eclipse of imagination in the capitalist class as they can't think of anything that they would like another generation of americans to do.

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14 users have voted.
janis b's picture

@joe shikspack

except for their own, so they can learn how to make more money.

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3 users have voted.

Ha ha, It's a joke to these nimwits. Ha ha.. Funny how your concocted virus killed a million or so.
This guy is a riot. Maybe his next gig will be stand-up comedy?

Anthony Fauci jested that coronavirus emerged not from China, but from his kitchen

https://www.rt.com/news/560661-fauci-joke-covid-us/

thanks for thoughtful EB joe!

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14 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@QMS

heh, i'm guessing that fauci's running out of careers. it's time for him to spend more time telling bad jokes to the grandchildren.

have a great evening!

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janis b's picture

@QMS

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snoopydawg's picture

When I was a little girl, I was told at the beach if I dug a hole deep enough, we would reach China, so we've always felt a connection there."
Nancy Pelosi, August 5, 2022, in Tokyo, Japan

Her position makes her statement about digging a hole to China all the more disgraceful. It is an old trope which gives expression to China’s perceived otherness, that it isn’t just far away, it is actually the very opposite of how Americans see themselves in all their racist and exceptionalist glory.

She made her unfortunate remarks about digging a hole while in Tokyo at the end of her multi-country Asian tour. Her insulting words should be scorned but not before they are examined for their true meaning. Pelosi’s honesty is a reflection of the entire country’s leadership. They have deemed China an adversary in large part because it is not a white nation. It was fine for China to open itself to capitalist trade and become a World Trade Organization (WTO) member that would supply Walmart with cheap products for American consumers. That role fit the supremacist narrative perfectly. Of course China took that ball and ran with it and now has an economy of comparable size and strength to that of the U.S.

Racism is the only explanation for treating Xi Jinping and other government officials as if they are dumb.

While Nancy thinks that retelling stupid and racist fables explains away her actions, China is taking real action and Taiwan is suffering. The island has effectively been blockaded by military exercises, the country it depends upon for trade is depriving it of materials like sand, which is needed in its all important microchip production industry. Biden administration amateurs, fresh off their loss in Ukraine, (don’t forget the debacle of Afghanistan) have ignominiously repeated their failure.

Every failed attempt to assert U.S. strength leads other countries to form their own alliances in order to protect themselves. China and Russia are closer now than they have ever been thanks to invasions, coups, sanctions, and proxy wars which make the U.S. the enemy of most of the world. Other nations will follow their lead as U.S. desperation creates more crises.

Just a really dumb move to offshore our factories and jobs and debt to China and then declare them too big for their britches and make them our enemy. You think inflation is bad now? Smile

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Sam loves to just sit and contemplate life.

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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 in making my client healthy and happy. Please, keep it up. You know she will contact me immediately to write a demand letter, and according to how many "arfs, they will determine the sternness of the demand letter.
Please continue, know that I am on 24/7 standby for my client, Sam.

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9 users have voted.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

it makes for pretty weird news watching when your country is run by a bunch of decrepit, demented morons who can't string a bunch of words into a coherent paragraph. free word salad for everybody!

i guess that the chinese would do well to relax and enjoy the show knowing that america's oddly juvenile gerontocrats will be as obnoxious as possible to the winners.

glad to see sam looking so well. please deliver a scritch for me. have a great evening!

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snoopydawg's picture

@on the cusp

It’s easy to make her happy since she was born happy. Most everyone who meets Sam says that she’s the happiest dawg they’ve met. And she is. But she’s also a stinker. I had a hard time getting to sleep last night and just as I was nodding off she put her football in my hand and giggled.

@joe shikspack

Well hopefully the geriatrics are getting up there in age and they will finally retire and ride off in the sunset with their ill gotten millions. Nancy took her son with her to Taiwan but said that he didn’t do business there. I guess it’s just a coincidence that he has ties to industries there. She also bragged about how her husband Paul is good at guessing which companies to buy shares in just before they get deals from congress. I’ll try to find the tweet again.

Yeah I’m sure that the new armed IRS agent is going to visit some of the people listed in the Panama papers and the other leaked documents about which of our oligarchs are hiding money offshore. Sure they are.

Labor laws be damned. You are mandated to work more than 40 hours a week. Maybe that’s why Bezos is certain that he can break labor laws at his Amazon work houses? If I could get appointed to one of our government agencies I’d ask to be labor secretary since they haven’t done diddly on labor abuses in decades.

Scritch delivered. She’s been staring at me for an hour waiting to go for another walk. My goodness our humidity is over 50%. It’s monsoon season and last night we got caught in the rain and drove home with the top down. Sam loved it of course. The 1st picture is just after she got out of the creek.

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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

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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

the current humidity in my town is 54%, which in these parts we consider kinda dry. Smile

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janis b's picture

@snoopydawg

You've just described perfectly how I have always imagined you two, like 'giggling girls'.

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3 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@janis b

We start the morning with giggles and laughter. She finds new ways to make me laugh every day. I’ve been taking off my socks and hiding them underneath a pillow on the couch and she thinks it’s funny to bring them to me when I use the restroom. She’s so happy that she finds them and brings them to me there. She really is a happy dawg.

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

janis b's picture

@snoopydawg

may just be the answer to all the rest.

I'm happy for you both.

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4 users have voted.

@snoopydawg
turned me into a Valley girl: Gag me with a spoon. (First time I've found a use for that phrase.)

At a work related luncheon, I stared as a colleague cleaned his plate. I then asked him, "India or China?" Without missing a beat, he said China. I said the same, but I'm still not going to eat this chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes smothered in gravy.

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snoopydawg's picture

@Marie

Valley girl and gag me with a spoon. Well done. What mischief has the Boston terrier gotten up to lately? Are you still dawggie sitting him/her?

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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
Spoiled rotten. Next to zero tolerance for being alone. We're working on that but it's very slow going. Rings the bell on the door when he has to go potty -- or he wants to go outside to screw around, eat some grass, find a twig to chomp on. Still killing his toys. Totally demands a morning walk to check out his neighborhood, bark at any strangers, and leave his piddle calling card in as many places as possible. He had a girlfriend for a while. A Golden Retriever mix puppy. Alas, she's become huge; so, not a good playmate anymore. He's developed a routine for the days he's with me. In the morning he gets two dog biscuits that he doesn't much like that he hides. During the day he sometimes checks to make sure they're still there. When his owner gets home from work, he demands that she come into my apartment and watch him get his biscuits and eat them. Haven't a clue what he's communicating.

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6 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@Marie

Grandpa taught his dawg to ring the bell when she wanted to go out too. He put a bell underneath a board that they walked over when they went outside and eventually he moved it to the side and shed step on it telling him she wanted to go out.

I don’t know why dawgs hide their food like that. If you figure it out let me know. Dusty dawg my first beagle went backpacking with my friends and I and took one piece of food after another to hide in different directions. I guess some squirrels were happy to find it?

Sam hasn’t killed her favorite toys yet, but others she enjoys ripping out the stuffing. Same with the toilet paper if I forget to put on the roll immediately. Once looked out the window and she was throwing it up in the air and making a huge mess. I saw a magazine on how dawgs think. Maybe I’ll get it and figure out Sam. If I find anything I’ll let you know. Smile

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janis b's picture

@snoopydawg

it is for dogs to hide/bury food. You never know when the buried treasure will save you.

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5 users have voted.

@snoopydawg
Potty Bells

I laughed when the owner first described this to me, Then was surprised at how quickly the dog learned to use it.

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4 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@Marie

Simple design and easy to train them to use it. I guess if you also have a cat it’d be hard to tell which rang them. I know…get a video camera so you can tell who needs to go out or who’s just ringing your bell without having to get up.

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janis b's picture

@snoopydawg

Sam looks so serene while contemplating.

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Evening Joe and friends,

As mentioned a few days ago the Democrats are whooping and hollering about the munificence of the new HealthCare advances for seniors.

Here is the piece I mentioned that I was missing: The When? on the yearly Cap.

A $2000.00 yearly Cap on Prescription Drug Out-Of-Pocket costs! Sounds good, right?

Not so fast.

This feature does not kick in until 2025.

After the Presidential Election. Not to mention, this year's Mid-Terms.

A $2000.00 Cap would only be valuable IF it was 1) for Everybody---young and old and 2) tied to Medicare Prescription Drug's yearly cost.

Of course, it will not be.

That's why it is a sham just like the rest of the proposal.

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14 users have voted.

NYCVG

joe shikspack's picture

@NYCVG

heh, as usual, the large print giveth and the fine print taketh away.

i suppose that i didn't really expect the democrats to actually do something useful with their moment in power.

have a great evening!

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10 users have voted.

First a bit of a refresher.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/colombia-major-non-nato-ally-president-ivan...

The White House on Thursday said it intends to designate Colombia as a major non-NATO ally in a strategic partnership aimed at strengthening security, ending the COVID-19 pandemic and addressing climate change. President Iván Duque Márquez of Colombia celebrated the move, saying that it is a "very important diplomatic achievement."

"This signifies the most important recognition of the importance that we have built over the years," Duque told CBS News senior White House and political correspondent Ed O'Keefe. "This will allow Colombia to have access to investment and trade and security in matters that will strengthen our relationship and protect Colombia."

The designation will add Colombia to a growing list of more than a dozen major non-NATO ally countries, and will provide certain defense trade and security cooperation privileges to Colombia, according to the U.S. Department of State.

LOL

In other news is seems as if NATO isn't the only group having war games.

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9 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@humphrey

heh, i'm sure that brandon will dispatch some state department lackey off to colombia shortly to try to bully them into accepting juan guaido as the official president of venezuela. if that doesn't work, there are a number of traditional and to varying degrees unpleasant options for the spooks to engage in.

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7 users have voted.

NYCVG

janis b's picture

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4 users have voted.
CB's picture

Russia has no use for anti-Russia Kiev

The following is an excellent synopsis of the Russian operation in Ukraine.

Senior US Marine Corps Officer Expresses Admiration For The ‘Revolutionary’ Way In Which Russia Has Fought Its War In Ukraine
11.08.2022

Ordinary people in the West reading and listening to the mainstream media have been presented with a series of narratives regarding the war in Ukraine. Apparently, Russia has been losing its war in Ukraine since the first days of the conflict. The evidence to support this is the fact that Russia apparently failed to conquer Kiev and other northern cities in the first few weeks of the conflict. During its failed attempt to conquer Kiev and other northern cities, Russian troops have committed numerous war crimes due to the artillery and missile attacks that they have launched on civilian infrastructure and residential areas. To compound matters, Russia’s armed forces have suffered staggering losses, high desertion rates and its generals are a set of bungling fools who could not organise a booze up in a brewery. Apparently, it is only a matter of time before the evil Russian hordes are pushed back across the border with their tails between their legs due to a combination of Ukrainian bravery and Western weaponry.

The picture that has been presented of the war in Ukraine is completely at odds with the reality of the situation on the ground. Surprisingly, information that supports this assertion, which totally undermines the Western media narratives regarding the war, is provided by an article in the August edition of the United States Marine Corps Gazette. Writing under under the pen name Marinus, a senior marine corps officer, provides an objective analysis of Russian military strategy since late February. It totally undermines the narratives provided by Western media and pro Washington politicians.

Marinus observes how Russia has pursued three distinct military campaigns since the beginning of the war in late February 2022. In the north fast moving Russian troops never attempted to capture cities such Kiev or Kharkov, they never made any attempt to convert temporary occupation into permanent possession. Their whole purpose was to act as a ‘grand deception’ which led the Kiev government to divert large forces from its main field army in the Donbass. This gave the Russian army the time to deploy its artillery units in large numbers into the Donbass, secure transport networks and accumulate large quantities of ammunition for the long campaign ahead.

In the southern campaign Russian armed forces ‘took immediate possession of comparable cities’. This was accompanied by a thoroughgoing political transformation whereby Russian civil servants took control of local government and Ukrainian banks and cell phone providers were replaced with Russian ones. Alongside this, Russian forces conducted raids in the vicinity of the city of Mikolaiv. These raids as in the ones around the northern cities forced the Ukrainian military to send forces to defend Mikolaiv and Odessa that otherwise could have been sent to the main theatre of operations in the Donbass.
...
In the final section of his article Marinus emphasis the stark contrast between the different types of warfare waged by Russian forces in different parts of Ukraine. They all formed part of an overall grand strategy whose primary goal was to destroy Ukrainian forces in the Donbass and free the Peoples Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk from Kiev’s control.

Russia’s three key objectives of the ‘special military operation’ the protection of the DPR/LPR, denazification’ and ‘demilitarization’ of Ukraine required ‘the infliction of heavy loses on Ukrainian formations fighting in the Donbass’. Marinus is at pains to point out that none of these key objectives required Russian forces to occupy parts of Ukraine where the majority of the population identified as Ukrainian and supported the Kiev government. Again, this is a point lost on the so called military analysts of the Western media. However, in the south of Ukraine the Russian campaign served direct political aims which were to incorporate territories inhabited by large numbers of ethnic Russians into the ‘’Russian world’’.

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13 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@CB

"marinus" seems to be on the same page as scott ritter - his analysis is very similar.

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10 users have voted.
CB's picture

@joe shikspack
if they don't have to save civilians. This town was abandoned since the Ukrainians took it over in 2014. It is now being 'cleansed'.

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6 users have voted.
CB's picture

Face and food recognition at automatic till. I think this will become standard before 2025 starting with companies, schools and universities.

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4 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

Iran Nuclear Deal Appears Within Reach as Negotiators Send “Final Text” to Tehran & Washington

Iran has to know that the US won't abide by the deal as does their ally and backer Russia, so WTF is really going on here? Iran must not be giving up anything that they wanted in the first place and is simply trying to get the US to piss off Israel before abrogating the deal.

be well and have a good one

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5 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 --

joe shikspack's picture

@enhydra lutris

yep, iran knows as well as anybody that u.s. treaties and agreements are signed in disappearing ink. hell, the u.s. has never fully honored any treaty that it made with its indigenous population for more than 200 years. why would anyone in their right mind expect the u.s. to act with any honor? it has no honor. only interests.

perhaps iran is hoping that other nations will step in when the u.s. once again demonstrates its mendacity and provide some sort of relief.

have a great evening!

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dystopian's picture

Hi all, Hey Joe! Hope all are well!

Great cartoons y'all posted above!

Joe, loved that Otis Rush the other day... he was awesome. Next level read deal player.

That rain in Death Valley was amazing. I spent a lot of nights at Furnace Creek where it was, at the park HQ area. Birders peak on Memorial Day weekend and we would often sleep on the edge of the golf course so as to get hit by the sprinklers at night and cool off. I can't imagine rain and washes looking like that there. Amazing.

The changes in the forest are mind blowing right here where I am in south central Edwards Plateau of central Texas. Desertification is at full tilt here. Thousands of dead trees. Especially the deciduous types like Maples and Pecans that require lots of water. While partly a drought issue, when it is most of 20 years, it is climate change. The 30 inches per year rainfall line that runs north south across the middle of Texas, used to fall on us 60 some miles WEST of San Antonio is now 30 some miles EAST of San Antonio in the Seguin area per Texas A & M. It is happening everywhere, screaming at any real biologically inclined observers out there. Plants are moving upslope at altitude as well. Birds in Siberia that were found at the tree line are moving north with the new shrubery. Tropical fish being recorded further north and south than ever before. Stop me anytime. Wink

Thanks for the great soundscapes!

be well all!

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9 users have voted.

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

joe shikspack's picture

@dystopian

i've been working on uploading some otis rush to youtube, though it's going slowly. my isp says that i need a new network interface doohickey because the one i've got is slowing down uploads. so, hopefully this week but maybe not til next.

yeah, it's pretty interesting to keep an eye out for the changes that climate change is making locally. so far, my area is not experiencing as profound or dramatic changes as some other places, but i am seeing a lot more algae in the bay and other bodies of water here and some changes in the mix of trees that are prospering or not. probably the most obvious change is the loss of pollinators which is pretty huge. i guess i'll probably see much more as time goes forward.

have a great evening!

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janis b's picture

@dystopian

I’ll bet the naturalists of yore, and the indigenous populations living closely with the land also sadly observed ominous changes over their lifetime, but maybe not as extreme. I wonder, for instance, what caused the people of Chaco Canyon to leave?

Please don’t ever stop relating your keen observations of nature and the changes you’ve witnessed. It’s tragic, but in some odd way it is also comforting that you state them.

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janis b's picture

Ann Peebles, what a voice, and lyrics to boot!

"Because my man is twice my age, they say he’s got one foot in the swing and the other one in his grave”

Not all media ... for instance, c99 ; ).

Be well all

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4 users have voted.