The Evening Blues - 11-9-22
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features blues piano player Georgia Tom Dorsey. Enjoy!
Georgia Tom Dorsey - Mississippi bottom blues
"Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods."
-- H. L. Mencken
News and Opinion
Sorry, not much real news out there today, mostly just election crap.
Zelensky worries about the gravy train:
Ukraine urges US to ‘stay united’ as potential Republican win threatens aid
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has urged the US to stay united in its support amid worries about the consequences of a Republican win in Tuesday’s midterm elections.
If the US Democrats lose control of the House of Representatives and the Senate, the colossal financial and military support provided to Ukraine under the Democrats could falter. Ahead of Tuesday’s results, Zelenskiy called for US politicians to maintain “unwavering unity” and follow Ukraine’s example “until peace is restored”. ...
Most Republicans have supported helping Ukraine defend itself against Russia. In fact, Ukraine has been one of the few issues to garner strong cross-party support in recent years. But in the lead-up to the midterm elections, prominent figures within the Republican party – particularly those in the Donald Trump wing – have put doubts over continuing to fund Ukraine.
Rightwing populist Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene told a Trump rally in Iowa last month that “not another penny will go to Ukraine” if the Republicans win as US interests should come first. The House minority leader, Republican Kevin McCarthy, who could become the next speaker of the House, said that though Ukraine was important, there would be no “blank check” if the Republicans controlled Congress. ...
The US is by far Ukraine’s biggest financial backer. Since the invasion, the US has given Ukraine $18.9bn (£16.3bn) in aid and committed almost twice as much as Ukraine’s European allies.
Pentagon Expects Congress to Provide Wartime Purchasing Power
Bill LaPlante, the Pentagon’s chief weapons buyer, said that he expects Congress to grant the authority to allow wartime purchasing power at a level not seen since the Cold War, Defense News reported on Monday.
To continue arming Ukraine, LaPlante has been calling for the Pentagon to be granted the authority to lock in multiyear contracts for weapons purchases, which are typically reserved for procuring naval vessels and warplanes. The idea is to get arms makers the incentive to ramp up production.
The Senate has added an amendment to its version of the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act to grant the authority. It would allow the Pentagon to make multiyear purchases through 2023 and 2024 of certain arms made by Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace, and Raytheon, the former employer of Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
The Senate is expected to vote on its version of the NDAA sometime this month, and it will then negotiate the final version of the spending bill with the House. LaPlante expects the wartime purchasing powers to make it into the finalized version that will reach President Biden’s desk.
Midterm escalation. Elensky wants G20 win. Pirates hit China & Kolomoysky.
Ukraine Uses Wartime Powers to Seize ‘Strategic’ Companies
Ukraine on Monday announced that it used wartime authorities to seize ownership of “strategic companies” as the government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky continues to consolidate power under martial law.
The Ukrainian government seized control of five companies, including the country’s top oil producer Ukrnafta, and MotorSich, an aircraft engine maker.
The companies were controlled by some of Ukraine’s wealthiest and most powerful businessmen. According to Reuters, Zelensky’s government has long sought to curb their political power.
Europe's energy crisis deepens
US Sets Up New Military Base in NE Syria
A number of US troops and logistics forces have been arriving in the Syrian city of Raqqa recently, and are in the process of establishing a new military base in the area, in Hasakeh Province. ...
This ends questions about the US pullout, and now it looks like re escalation is again the order of the day. Though we don’t know how many troops will be stationed in Raqqa, it looks relatively small. The troops are not invited by the Syrian government, and may find themselves at odds with Syrian forces. ...
Lacking any vision for what the US end to Syria involvement would look like, it has seemed the US was keeping troops in Syria just for the sake of keeping troops there. That has long risked unintended consequences, and the addition of more US troops and another base only increases that risk.
CIA Agent Reveals How They Plant Lies In News Media
London Underground strike will halt nearly all tube services on Thursday
A strike on London Underground will halt virtually all tube services and slow much of the capital to a crawl on Thursday, in the ongoing dispute over jobs and pensions.
Some London Overground and Docklands Light Railway services may also be affected by the 24-hour walkout by members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) union, while buses are expected to be extremely busy and roads congested. Elizabeth Line trains will run as normal.
About 10,000 RMT members working at London Underground and Arriva Rail (London Overground) will be on strike. Disruption will continue through Friday morning rush hour as staff return to work. ...
The Tube strike comes after three 24-hour strikes on national rail planned for this week were called off last Friday.
LIBERAL Portland Outlaws Camping & Criminalizes Homelessness
"Abortion Rights Are Deeply Popular": Voters Back Reproductive Freedom in State Ballot Initiatives
Donald Trump teases ‘big announcement’ amid speculation about 2024 presidential run
Donald Trump has said he will make a “very big announcement” on 15 November, as speculation continues that he is about to announce a 2024 presidential run. ...
“Not to detract from tomorrow’s very important, even critical, election,” he told a crowd that waited hours for this moment. “I’m going to be making a very big announcement on Tuesday, November 15, at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach Florida. We want nothing to detract from the importance of tomorrow.”
Trump was ostensibly in Ohio to campaign for the Republican candidate for the US Senate, JD Vance, who polls say is struggling to stay ahead of his Democratic rival, Tim Ryan, in a race that could decide control of the Senate. But the vast majority of the former president’s 100 minute speech was, as ever, about himself.
As the crowd listened expectantly, Trump rambled through anecdotes about getting soaked by tropical rains in Florida, the life span of windshield wipers, and how he is not allowed to call women beautiful any more before asking a group of them if their “marriages are intact”.
The former president also revealed he knew the difference between socialism and communism as he claimed that under president Joe Biden the US has skipped the first and gone straight to the second.
McCarthy Speakership IN DANGER With Stunning House Results
Fetterman BLOWS OUT Oz As Dem Senate Control On Table | Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar
Cop26 one year on: how much progress has been made?
Last year’s UN Cop26 climate talks in Scotland were framed by John Kerry, the US special presidential envoy on the climate crisis, as the “last best hope for the world to get its act together” and avert climate breakdown. As world leaders gather in Egypt for Cop27, evidence suggests they have yet to fully do so.
The Glasgow conference drew collective promises by governments to “phase down” coal use, curb deforestation, advance remedial payments to developing countries hit hardest by floods, heatwaves and droughts, and to come back the following year with more ambitious emissions reduction targets.
While the proliferation of clean energy is likely to have averted apocalyptic climate breakdown, where the world heats up by an average of 4-5C compared with pre-industrial times, a series of UN reports has made it clear that the world is lagging badly in its efforts to cut emissions, with “no credible pathway” to avoid breaching an agreed limit of 1.5C in global heating.
This century, 2.5C is most likely under current pledges, a scenario that would bring, as the UN stated gloomily, “endless suffering”. As the climate talks begin in Sharm el-Sheikh this week, the finding is a sobering one. “The last year has been a missed opportunity by many countries,” said David Waskow, the director of the international climate initiative at the World Resources Institute, which recommends coal be phased out six times faster than it is currently and that people eat no more meat than the equivalent of two burgers a week to help meet the 1.5C target.
“There is progress, but there is much to be done, more quickly and deeply,” he said. “We are seeing headway with renewables and electric vehicles – but even with those we are not on track. Everything needs to move at a faster clip.”
Tuvalu Proposes Fossil Fuel Nonproliferation Treaty at COP27
Campaigners on Tuesday applauded leaders in the Global South for continuing to lead the way in the fight for far-reaching climate action as the island nation of Tuvalu brought a proposal for a fossil fuel nonproliferation treaty to the United Nations' annual climate change conference.
"We all know that the leading cause of climate crisis is fossil fuels," Kausea Natano, prime minister of Tuvalu, told global leaders at COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. "It's getting too hot and there is very [little] time to slow and reverse the increasing temperature. Therefore, it is essential to prioritize fast-acting strategies."
By formally endorsing the creation of a treaty, said the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, Tuvalu is "proactively seeking solutions to phase out fossil fuels and offer hope to its population and the world."
Tuvalu became the second nation to endorse a treaty which would approach the extraction of fossil fuels as a danger as grave as nuclear weapons, which are the focus of a nonproliferation treaty signed by nearly 100 countries.
Vanuatu proposed a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty at the U.N. General Assembly in September, and advocates celebrated last month when the European Union overwhelmingly passed a resolution formally endorsing the treaty—one year after lawmakers had voted it down.
Following Natano's statement at COP27, environmental scientist Amy Clarke tweeted that "there is an inexorable move towards" a fossil fuel nonproliferation treaty.
The treaty would ban the proliferation of coal, oil, and gas by ending all new production and extraction projects; phase out existing production; and ensure a just transition toward renewable energy that would "enable economic diversification" and "support every worker, community, and country."
Despite the support of the E.U. along with dozens of international cities, the World Health Organization and nearly 200 other global health groups, and more than 100 Nobel laureates in addition to Vanuatu and Tuvalu, The Washington Post reported that Natano's call "didn't get much engagement" from the assembled leaders at COP27.
Greenpeace Dismisses COP27 Deforestation Pact as 'Carbon Trickery'
Greenpeace on Tuesday denounced the so-called Forest and Climate Leaders' Partnership launched by more than two dozen nations at the COP27 summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, arguing that the pact is unlikely to stop deforestation.
"A robust partnership could go a long way to provide the necessary resources to protect, conserve, and restore the world's forests, but this partnership is nothing but a green light for eight more years of forest destruction, with little respect for the rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities," Victorine Che Thōner of Greenpeace International said in a statement.
According to Thōner, the alliance "gives polluters a license to do more business as usual through carbon trickery instead of advancing true climate action."
The countries that formed the Forest and Climate Leaders' Partnership (FCLP), which is led by Ghana and the United States, argued Monday that it "would ensure they hold each other accountable for a pledge to end deforestation by 2030 and announced billions of dollars to finance their efforts," Reuters reported.
During last year's COP26 meeting in Scotland, 145 governments signed the Glasgow Leaders' Declaration "to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation" by the end of the decade.
However, as the annual Forest Declaration Assessment showed two weeks ago, "not a single global indicator is on track to meet these 2030 goals of stopping forest loss and degradation and restoring 350 million hectares of forest landscape."
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
'Putin's Chef' Ridicules U.S. News Outlets - Adds 'Election Interference' Comedy Sketch
The Army’s Big Convention Was Full of Armed Robots
Trump and the Republican Base: A Machine Learning Approach
Real Progressives Live with Michael Hudson: The Destiny of Civilization
How to move a country: Fiji’s radical plan to escape rising sea levels
GOP Election Denier Candidates DECIMATED At Governor Level
Pro Choice CLEAN SWEEP In Red State Ballot Initiatives
Why Did GOP Crime Message FLOP?
Democrats CAUGHT Denying Election Results Over & Over & Over
Maricopa County Voting GLITCH Hits 20% Of Machines, Kari Lake Suggests SABOTAGE Of ‘Red TSUNAMI’
A Little Night Music
Georgia Tom Dorsey - Levee bound blues
Kansas City Kitty & Georgia Tom - Show Me What You've Got
Kansas City Kitty & Georgia Tom - How Can You Have the Blues
The Black Hillbillies (Georgia Tom & Tampa Red) - Kunjine Baby
Jane Lucas and 'Georgia Tom' Dorsey - What's That I Smell
Georgia Tom Dorsey - Rollin' Mill Stomp
Georgia Tom Dorsey - Broke Man's Blues
Georgia Tom & Scrapper Blackwell - Second handed woman blues
Georgia Tom & Scrapper Blackwell - Maybe It's The Blues
Comments
Red tsunami and The Black Hillbillies
sounds like a chess match
who's side are you on?
thanks joe
over and out
question everything
apropos - not who's, WHICH
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
which who's are who's rich
sounds like a Dr. Seuss skit
y'alls always trying to correct me
that's fun up to a point I guess
question everything
evening qms...
heh, chess match, eh?
look out for the red queen.
Sounds more like a tag team match to me
and we all know they're scripted.
On to Biden since 1973
evening doh...
yeah, but a congress full of professional wrestlers would probably be more amusing at least.
I tried to watch the "Election Sketch" video...
...but I couldn't figure out how to turn the sound on.
Yes, I checked to make sure it wasn't my computer.
In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.
Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!
evening moonbat...
perhaps i'm dense, but i'm not sure which video you're referring to as the "election sketch."
The one in the link on Moon of Alabama
"Election Interference"
In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.
Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!
ahh...
yeah, i can't figure it out either. i assume that it's in russian anyway, so i wouldn't be able to understand it even if i could make the sound work.
Yeah the news sucks
This should cheer you up.
We can only imagine having a leader say something like this.
Kudos, Charlie!
We were told that Russia was going to interfere with this election right? So what happened that they didn’t? Well the shitlibs have it all figured out. Putin was too distracted by his disastrous war apparently.
But seriously does anyone believe that the election was on the up and up when voting machines across the country quit working or ran out of paper during the most important election of our lifetime? Both Clinton and Obama got wiped out in their midterms, but Biden didn’t even though he has royally screwed up the economy and has just a hair's breath away from nuclear war? Well do ya? I do not.
Paul Craig Roberts also thinks that it was stolen
He talks about how CNN's exit polls shows that there should have been a red wave and a blue slaughter.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
I think that the GOP overplayed their hand,
especially on the anti-abortion front.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
That doesn’t address what the exit polls showed
And according to the polls more people were upset about the economy going to hell since Biden got elected.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
I am not certain
abortion rights mattered more than the inflation and homeless problems. Hunger sort of takes a place ahead of most other issues.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
the Marvin raw is awesome
thanks snoop
question everything
I don’t usually like Marvin or that song
but even I thought this was awesome! Poor me…I was having fun singing along with my classmates at a young age and the teacher paused the singing and asked who was singing off tune…yeah who’s singing off tune?…the kids around me pointed at me. I was crushed. Years later my own mum said that I couldn’t sing a tune if my life depended on it. Drats crushed again. Now if I sing in the car Sam gets out and walks.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
evening snoopy...
yep, marvin was an incredible singer. we were lucky to have him with us.
the speech from the great dictator has always been a favorite of mine since the first time i saw it when i was a teenager. it has only grown on me since. here's the full speech:
Thanks for posting the words
That’s an awesome speech even if it’s fiction. Nothing in it that I disagree with. Reminds me of the dude who said can’t we all just get along? There’s no reason why we can’t.
I’m now seeing that this was the safest election ever because the dastardly Russians weren’t able to interfere… even though the Putin chef promised that he was trying to.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
You know what it reminds me of, of all things?
A 1-page comic I read YEARS ago, back when I had a subscription to Disney Adventures kids' magazine:
Two villain-characters are in their dingy hideout playing cards - turns out the game is "Go Fish", and an astute observer will notice the table is bare and their hands are both wayyy over the limit.
Each time one asks the other what he's got, the other keeps responding "Go fish!"
This keeps happening until the last panel, when one of them just shouts, "If we're ever going to finish this stupid game, at least one of us needs to STOP CHEATING!!!"
In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.
Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!
Well, who doesn't love Marvin?
Man, he could sing. He didn't need no music! There was an age gap of 32 years between me and my parents. Who did we all idolize? Marvin.
Well, I think Biden saying the pandemic is over, then expanding the pandemic emergency orders so mail in ballots would be used, was just not a "good look".
Voting machine malfunctions are the norm. Like, food processing plants burning to the ground all the time. Everywhere in the country. Normal.
I will get to the Roberts article after I have some pure, unadulterated, Tex-Mex tacos.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
evening otc...
there used to be some lefty types and computer geeks that i followed some years ago when we made the switch to unaccountable blackbox voting, but most of them seem to have disappeared. even bev harris seems to be off duty these days. so, i guess we've all just figured that our voices demanding an audit trail and accountability will not be heard or accommodated by the powers-that-be, who will decide the elections as they choose.
I learned some stuff about Diebold.
A Texas Company, iirc. It appeared to be very unlawful, but appearances can fool ya.
Brought to my attention by righties.
They are unnecessary, always were, for voting. No doubt someone thinks that is streamlining voting and democracy, also thinks black boxes are vital for modern outcomes.
I had a great day in 2 different courts, Dear One cooked dinner, so just fuck the black boxes and let's rock on down the hwy!
Thanks for the news you could find sans election.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Meta cleans up
Agree.
Facebook's AI also agreed that the 2020 election was stolen - or at least it did until it was "cleaned up".
https://nypost.com/2022/08/10/meta-cleans-up-ai-chatbot-that-spewed-anti...
FWIW - In popular terms, there was a Red Wave - counting the vote in House races Republicans are up almost six million votes - a similar margin percentage-wise to 2010 when they flipped over sixty seats...
https://www.cookpolitical.com/charts/house-charts/national-house-vote-tr...
Good evening Joe, et. al. (et. y'all)
Thanks for the evening blues.
So, the voting part of the election is done. So far, CA seems to be doing as well as can be expected, but LA looks like it's going to take a hit in the mayor dept. yet again. We have the sad misfortune that our lesser evils usually really are at least that, with team Q always finding some major whackdoodles to throw into into the fray which results in things like DiFi.
OTOH, we aren't GA, so there's always that.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
evening el...
glad to hear that things are going reasonably well where you are. here in maryland, the cannibis initiative passed, so maybe more people can put up with the clowns that got elected.
have a great evening!
And we got
magic mushrooms in CO! That will make things easier to deal with...
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Biden leaves us guessing until the New Year whether he will
run for a second term.
He still is a wordsmith!
evening humphrey...
well, you gotta admit, the man tosses a mean word salad.
Yeah he even gives Kamala a run for her money
on word salads. Gee what great duo representing America. I’m so glad that the adults are back in charge.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
Speaking of Kamala.
Venn diagrams huh?
I wonder what she’d think of this one?
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
Oh, you kid!
Kamala thinking? Her? Able to think? lol!
Great vinn diagram, btw
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
What a dutz…..
But we’re supposed to believe that he got more votes than Obama for president and that lots of people are happy with the economy and everything else he’s screwed up and they want more of his policies?
We aren’t under any threat from Syria and yet we are building a new military base there? I’d love to know where the hell the world’s outrage about that is?
I guess invading Syria and then occupying and stealing their oil isn’t outrageous enough for them to call out ours and theirs fucking hypocrisy. I guess that the shitlibs are silent about this because the media hasn’t told them about it. Otherwise I’m sure that they would stick some Syrian flags in their bios.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
Pirate USA in Syria
https://old.reddit.com/r/WayOfTheBern/comments/yqi5ud/russia_opens_new_s...
Here's some info on Syria that puts it in proportion: We Destroy and Steal. Russia does the opposite.
Is it breaking some rule to be quoting my own work? Let me know and I'll comply.
NYCVG
It is only early November things are only going to get worse.
yep...
i think that winter is going to be an interesting time in europe. i am guessing that there will be a lot of molotov cocktail hours coming.
Maduro gets it right.
yep...
he's dead on, but he's reminding everybody why america hates him.
More information on the Russia withdrawal from Kherson
https://t.me/intelslava/40814
Don’t forget that Ukraine and NATO had spent the last 8 years building up defenses around the Donbas and they have been well dug in with reinforced infrastructure. Russia just showed that civilian and Russian troops lives are very important to them. And Russia never intended to conquer territory in Ukraine, but to get rid of the Nazis there and destroy their military so they can’t threaten Russia or the people in the Donbas that they went in to liberate. So many people are hung up on Russia withdrawing from places it had occupied. And reading about their battles against other invaders Russia has a history of doing just what they are doing now. They withdrew, regathered, lived to fight another day and then went back on the attack and eventually came out the winners. How many wars has Russia lost?
As for those who say that the war has gone on too long how about the 20 years we just fought in Afghanistan only to limp out and leave the Taliban in charge instead of beating them in combat which was our original goal. Russia has been in Ukraine for only 8 months.
For more in this vein see this excellent comment from MoA.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
The popular red wave
When Republicans flipped 63 House seats in 2010, Republicans won the popular vote (in all House Races) with 51.3% versus 44.8% for Democrats.
Although the Red Wave, in terms of seats gained has not lived up to R expectations/D fears, it seems that in popular terms the wave was there.
As of Thursday, Republicans this time had 50.1 million votes versus Democrats' 44.25 million - 52.3% versus 46.2% yet had flipped far fewer seats than a similar margin got them in 2010...
https://www.cookpolitical.com/charts/house-charts/national-house-vote-tr...