The Evening Blues - 12-16-22
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features Mississippi hill country trance-blues guitarist Junior Kimbrough. Enjoy!
Junior Kimbrough - Most Things Haven't Worked Out
"If a battle cannot be won, do not fight it."
-- Sun Tzu
News and Opinion
US to send Patriot missiles to Ukraine: The “most escalatory action to date”
This week, nearly all of the major newspapers and cable news networks in the United States have reported that the Biden administration is preparing to imminently send Ukraine at least one battery of Patriot surface-to-air missiles. The Patriot missile system, CNN reported, is “expected to ship quickly in the coming days.” With each battery costing over $1 billion and requiring a crew of 90 people to operate, the Patriot would become the most expensive and complex weapons system transferred to Ukraine.
“This is a major step up in US commitment,” Sean McFate, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council told Syracuse University News. He added, “The Patriots will provoke a Russian reaction,” calling it, “the US’s most escalatory action to date.”
Commenting on the significance of the announcement, Keir Giles of the pro-war think tank Chatham House, told NBC, “We’ve seen an incremental process of the US supplying more essential capabilities to Ukraine as it becomes clear that Russia’s ‘red lines’ are no more than bluff and bluster.” True to President Joe Biden’s declaration in December 2021 that “I don’t accept anybody’s red lines,” the US has systematically identified and carried out actions that the Kremlin previously implied would provoke military retaliation against NATO.
In April, the US assisted Ukraine in sinking the Moskva, the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet. This was followed shortly by the announcement that the American military was actively assisting Ukraine in targeting Russian generals for assassination and the admission that the Pentagon had deployed military personnel to Ukraine. The United States has in just a matter of months provided Ukraine with many of its most advanced weapons systems, including the M777 towed Howitzer, the HIMARS long-range missile system, the M109 Paladin self-propelled armored gun, the HARM anti-radar missile, and the NASAMS air defense system.
The expected announcement that the US will now deploy the Patriot missile system to Ukraine would continue this pattern of escalation, playing a deadly game of chicken with nuclear-armed Russia.
General Zaluzhny, Ukraine at a fork in the road
Russia Warns of 'Unpredictable Consequences' If US Sends Patriot Missiles to Ukraine
Responding to reports that the Biden administration is finalizing plans to send Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine as the country endures waves of deadly Russian missile strikes, a top Kremlin official said Thursday that such a move would be viewed as an escalation in hostilities.
Citing anonymous sources, CNN reported Tuesday that a Pentagon plan to send an unknown quantity of Raytheon MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air missile systems is awaiting approval by U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin before being sent to President Joe Biden's desk.
"We strongly advise those who make decisions in Washington to listen at last, if not to us, then at least to themselves, to draw the right conclusions from our repeated warnings that any weapons systems supplied to Ukraine, including Patriot systems, respectively, with the operating personnel, have been and remain legitimate priority targets for the Russian Armed Forces," Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova told reporters Thursday during her weekly press conference in Moscow.
"Given the growing amounts of direct U.S. military aid, including the presence of U.S. servicemen on the ground, the transfer of such sophisticated weaponry, the handling of which requires months of training, would mean an expansion of the involvement of regular U.S. military personnel in combat operations with all the ensuing consequences," she added.
On Wednesday, the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C. said that "an information campaign has been launched in the U.S. about alleged preparations for sending cutting-edge air defense systems to Kyiv."
"If this is confirmed, we will witness yet another provocative step by the [Biden] administration that may lead to unpredictable consequences," the embassy continued. "Even without delivery of the Patriot systems, the United States is increasingly drawn into the conflict in the post-Soviet republic. The weapons flow is growing, the training of servicemen is expanding. The Ukrainian army is being supplied with intelligence data. Sending American military specialists to the combat zone is discussed more and more often. In addition, U.S. citizens participate in the confrontation as mercenaries."
Biden, Like Trump Before Him, Derails Effort to End U.S. Support for Saudi War in Yemen
Senate Passes Massive $858 Billion NDAA
The Senate on Thursday night passed the massive $858 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) in a vote of 83-11. The spending bill has already been approved by the House and now heads to President Biden’s desk for his signature.
The $858 billion bill is $45 billion more than Biden asked for and represents an 8% increase from the 2022 NDAA. It marks the second year in a row that Congress added tens of billions of dollars to the president’s original request, as massive military spending is popular on both sides of the aisle.
Out of the $858 billion, $817 billion will go to the Pentagon, and the remaining funds will go toward military spending for other departments, including $30 billion for the Energy Department’s nuclear weapons program.
War's Chokehold On Culture w/ Matt Hoh
Peru Civil Society Calls for National Strike as Unelected President Declares State of Emergency
Organized labor and progressive civil society groups in Peru are calling for a national strike as unelected interim President Dina Boluarte imposes a 30-day state of emergency in a bid to quell protests demanding her resignation and an end to the country's neoliberal economic model.
Thousands of Peruvian workers have taken to the streets in recent days to push for the immediate dissolution of Congress, fresh elections, and the creation of a new constitution by a constituent assembly.
They are also advocating for the release of ousted leftist President Pedro Castillo, who was removed by the country's deeply unpopular right-wing majority Congress and jailed last Wednesday in what critics describe as a U.S.-backed legislative coup. The state's violent repression of demonstrators has left at least eight people dead.
"We declared ourselves in a popular insurgency against the coup d'état planned and perpetrated by Congress, the leadership of the armed forces, the mainstream media, and the judiciary, which acted as operators of economic groups," the Agrarian and Rural Front of Peru (FARP) and the National Peoples' Assembly (ANP) said in a recent joint statement, teleSUR reported Thursday.
Massacre in Peru: Death Toll Tops 17 as Protests Mount After Ouster & Jailing of President Castillo
Former Peru president ordered to remain in custody for 18 months as protest death toll rises to 12
A judge in Peru has ruled that former president Pedro Castillo be held in preventive detention for 18 months pending trial on charges of rebellion for his attempt to shutter congress and rule by decree, as the death toll from a week of violent protests sparked by his ousting rose to 12.
Four people were killed and 39 injured on Thursday in Ayacucho, in Peru’s southern Andes, as protesters clashed with soldiers and police, the local health authority confirmed. The country’s Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office issued a statement demanding the armed forces “immediately cease the use of firearms and teargas bombs launched from helicopters”.
Social media videos from the scene of the protests in Ayacucho showed soldiers using firearms on the streets of the city as protesters threw stones and stormed the airport.
The country’s new government declared a 30-day nationwide state of emergency on Wednesday, deploying the army on the streets and suspending the right to gather and move freely.
The spike in violence comes on the seventh day of protests against Peru’s new president, Dina Boluarte, with demonstrators calling for the replacement of all lawmakers and the reinstatement of Castillo.
House Approves Statehood Vote for Puerto Ricans
Reps. Nydia Velázquez and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, two of the four current Puerto Rican members of the U.S. House, were among those who celebrated the passage of the Puerto Rico Status Act on Thursday as lawmakers made history by approving a binding process for a referendum in the territory regarding potential statehood.
The proposal passed with a vote of 233-191, with 16 Republicans joining the Democratic Party in supporting it. ...
The White House supports the Puerto Rico Status Act, but with the majority of Republican lawmakers opposed, it is not expected to pass in the U.S. Senate.
Reparations panel deliberates on compensation for Black Californians
After more than a year delving into history and studies to make its case for reparations to California descendants of enslaved Black people, a first-in-the-nation taskforce began deliberations on Wednesday to quantify how financial compensation might be calculated and what might be required to prove eligibility.
Conversations for how to determine payments are in the early stages, with taskforce members acknowledging they have more questions than answers. Economists hired by the taskforce are seeking guidance in five harms experienced by Black people: government taking of property, devaluation of Black-owned businesses, housing discrimination and homelessness, mass incarceration and over-policing, and health.
California’s taskforce met at city hall in Oakland, a city that was the birthplace of the Black Panthers but has lost some of its African American population as rising home prices forced people out.
The taskforce must determine when each harm began and ended and who should be eligible for monetary compensation in those areas. For example, the group could choose to limit cash compensation to people incarcerated between 1970 – when more people started being imprisoned for drug-related crimes – to the present. Or they could choose to compensate everyone who lived in over-policed Black neighborhoods, even if they were not themselves arrested.
The taskforce has a 1 July deadline to complete its final report for the Legislature listing recommendations for how the state can atone for and address its legacy of discriminatory policies against Black Californians. Lawmakers will need to pass legislation for payments and other policy changes to take place.
New JFK Documents REVEALED By Biden Admin
US National Archives releases more than 12,000 documents on JFK assassination
The US National Archives on Thursday released thousands of documents related to the 1963 assassination of then President John F Kennedy shortly after Joe Biden issued an executive order authorizing the release that also kept hundreds of other sensitive records secret. ...
Congress in 1992 had ordered that all remaining sealed files pertaining to the investigation into Kennedy’s death should be fully opened to the public through the National Archives in 25 years, by 26 October 2017, except for those the president authorized for further withholding. In 2017, then President Donald Trump released a cache of records, but decided to release the remaining documents on a rolling basis.
All of the remaining JFK files were originally supposed to have been released in October 2021. Biden postponed that planned release, citing delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, and announced they would be instead disclosed in two batches: one on 15 December 2021, and another by 15 December 2022, after undergoing an intensive one-year review.
With Thursday’s release, 95% of the documents in the CIA’s JFK assassination records collection will have been released in their entirety, a CIA spokesperson said in a statement, and no documents will remain redacted or withheld in full after an “intensive one-year review” of all previously unreleased information.
In a memorandum on Thursday, Biden said that until 1 May 2023, the National Archives and relevant agencies “shall jointly review the remaining redactions in the records that had not been publicly disclosed”. After that review, “any information withheld from public disclosure that agencies do not recommend for continued postponement” will be released by 30 June 2023.
‘Firmageddon’: Oregon conifers suffer record die-off as climate crisis hits hard
Scientists have discovered a record number of dead fir trees in Oregon, in a foreboding sign of how drought and the climate crisis are ravaging the American west.
A recent aerial survey found that more than a million acres of forest contain trees that have succumbed to stressors exacerbated by a multi-year drought. Images released by the US Forest Service show Oregon’s lush green expanses dotted with ominous swathes of red.
“It is stunning,” said Daniel DePinte, an aerial survey program manager with the Forest Service who led the agency’s Pacific north-west region aerial survey, noting that this year saw the highest mortality rate for firs in this area in history. These evergreen conifers are less able to survive in drought conditions than other heartier trees that line the landscapes.
Keystone XL Pipeline Suffers HISTORIC LEAK
Climate Defenders Celebrate as Manchin's Dirty Deal Defeated a Third Time
The U.S. climate movement and people on the frontlines of the planetary crisis celebrated Thursday after the U.S. Senate declined to add Sen. Joe Manchin's fossil fuel-friendly permitting bill to a military spending package.
While the $858 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was ultimately approved, the West Virginia Democrat's amendment fell short of the 60 votes needed to include his Building American Energy Security Act.
The 47-47 vote Thursday evening came after two earlier defeats: The bill was left out of the NDAA draft last week; and in September, Manchin asked Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)—who agreed to push through permitting reforms if Manchin voted for the Inflation Reduction Act—to remove a previous version from stopgap funding legislation. ...
Ahead of the vote, Biden on Thursday reiterated his support for Manchin's proposal, provoking widespread outrage.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Report: US Mulls Sending Small Number of Troops Into Ukraine to Track Weapons
Ukraine - What Its Military Leadership Says
US Heavy-Handedness Forges Russia-Iran-India Ties
Hungary Asks the War Questions and Probes Merkel’s Minsk Deception
Unilever settles Israel dispute with Ben & Jerry’s board
Cop15: Lula calls on rich nations to give more to protect Earth’s ecosystems
Daniel Ellsberg Demands Biden Throw Him In Jail With Assange
A Little Night Music
Jr Kimbrough - Done Got Old
Junior Kimbrough - Lord, Have Mercy on Me
Junior Kimbrough - Sad Days, Lonely Nights
Junior Kimbrough - Feels So Good #1
Junior Kimbrough - Jr Blues
Junior Kimbrough - My Mind Is Rambling
Junior Kimbrough - I'm In Love
Junior Kimbrough - I'm Gonna Have to Leave Here
Junior Kimbrough - Keep Your Hands Off Her / I Feel Good, Little Girl
Junior Kimbrough - Old Black Mattie
Comments
Told y’all that Caitlin was fed up with Twitter antics
Uncle Joe strikes again…blehh! Hey Jill can’t you reign him in?
Kissinger is calling for peace in Ukraine. Russia just pulls out now, Ukraine gets tied into NATO and maybe there will be some talk about how Russia might keep the Donbas. Jakey Sullivan says that now is not the right time to talk about peace talks in Ukraine….wait what? I thought it was up to Zelensky to decide whether he wants peace or not? But yeah good luck with Russia agreeing to any treaties with Ukraine and NATO any time soon after what Merkle admitted.
I got the oil changed in the beast and was told that my air filter was slightly dirty and they could replace it for me for $129. I double checked the number and that’s how much it costs. Good thing I had a $30 off coupon and it only cost me $79. What the holy hell? Last time I got it changed it was $40. Maybe 2 years ago and on my Mazda. Anyone else going through sticker shock?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
evening snoopy...
heh, caitlin may be pissed at elon, but what the hell, are you not amused? i mean, musk is using his own money and there is this spectacle now where lots of people are revealing themselves. what could be more amusing?
ok, maybe joe biden wiping his nose on babies is more amusing.
looks like kissinger is not reading the tea leaves well. there is no will to end this thing until there is a decisive military conclusion. the u.s. and britain have ensured that.
heh, my response to the shop guy would be, it doesn't look that dirty, how's about i give you five bucks to blow it out with an air hose?
the response i'd be thinking in my head would be, "129 samoleans? how much is that without the cocaine and the blowjob?"
if you feel like you might be able to replace the air filter yourself, i'd probably shop for a replacement filter either at a local parts store or online in hopes of finding something less expensive.
Oh I’m definitely amused at the Twit fiasco
I have been since he released the twit files…oops let’s back up. Since he bought it and the shitlibs freaked out. Olbermann posted a hella rant on DK over his suspension, but he was quite livid when Trump was allowed back on. Nothing but fcking hypocrites over free speech and who gets to speak it.
I turned down that sweet deal because I knew that I could buy one at the parts store and put it in myself. The guys at the store might even install it for me. But I was flabbergasted at the price. How much do you pay for oil change? My Mazda was a v-6 and the beast is an 8 but still that’s quite the price hike. It would have been as much as the air filter if I didn’t have the coupon. Yikes.
I see that I wasn’t clear above. I did turn down the filter and the price I paid was for the change.
If anyone is interested here’s the next Twitter file
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/twitter-files-twitter-fbi-subsidiary
I’m sure that republicans will be all over the news that there was definite election interference that cost them the presidency…right Mitch? And remember that Biden admitted that democrats did rig the election. The Times (I think) also showed how it was done.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
heh...
in the last couple of years the cost of an oil change has gone through the roof around here. i pay more for may main car because i get full synthetic (which gives me 5000 mile intervals, ulimately saving me money) for 80-90 bucks. my camper-hauling vehicle is astronomical because it's a v-10 that takes 15 quarts of oil. i haven't driven it much in the last couple of years, so i haven't had to change it in a while. the dreaded interval is coming up soon, so i guess i'll find out. eek.
Oil changing is over rated. Filters are what’s important.
Unless oil’s lubricosity has degraded due to extreme operating temperatures (well above normal) or contaminants (cooling fluid or over rich fuel air mixture) the oil is functionally adequate almost forever. What is critical is having an oil filter that is patent and not clogged with the particulates it is designed to trap and isolate from the circulating oil. It is this abrasive particulate matter that causes wear on the parts, not ‘worn out’ oil.
To accentuate the importance of the oil filter it is important to understand a little known feature of oil filters: the bypass valve. When the filtering medium becomes clogged, a spring loaded valve will open at a certain pressure to allow the oil to BYPASS the filtering medium altogether, and allow the UNFILTERED OIL to return to the sump for further circulation. This feature is there to prevent the total obstruction of oil circulation. Dirty oil is better than NO oil.
If you only change the oil, but leave a dirty filter in place, you will eventually be running completely unfiltered oil. This will DEFINITELY significantly shorten the useful life of the engine.
On the other hand, if you change the FILTER regularly, simply topping up the oil level when needed, the risk of premature wear is minimal, even if you only change the oil infrequently or even NEVER.
Back in the 60’s, when I was a young gear-head, an engineer bought a brand new Ford station wagon and made quite a stir when he drove the car over 200,000 miles (a remarkable achievement in those days with Detroit iron) changing only the oil filter and topping up the oil level, but never changing the engine oil.
I follow a more modest departure from what I call the ‘oil change scam’, changing only the filter for two oil change intervals and changing both only at every third interval. I’ve never experienced any lubrication related engine problems or increased oil consumption due wear on any of the many vehicles I’ve owned over the past 50+ years.
So, if cost or availability of motor oil becomes an issue you can cut corners on the change interval but continue to protect the engine with regular oil filter changes. Your dealer will likely object to this program and it might affect claims under your new car warranty. Dealers rely on service work income, after all.
“What the herd hates most is the one who thinks differently; it is not so much the opinion itself, but the audacity of wanting to think for themselves, something that they do not know how to do.”
-Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
I am not sure what model the "beast" is so can't be more
specific.
Here is a link to possibly use in the future.
https://www.google.com/search?q=replacing+a+automobile+air+filter&oq=rep...
It’s a Nissan Armada
and a huge gas guzzler. It’s so I can pull my trailer.
Thanks for the link.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
dirty air filters work just fine
Automotive air filters are engineered to last 50k - 70k miles. They work just fine when they look dirty. Super-fine "Arizona red dust" (it's a standardized thing - SAE J726) is about the only thing that clogs 'em quickly.
Compensated Spokes Model for Big Poor.
Good to know
The slightly dirty too told me that I shouldn’t have them do it. Normally they bring it to me and show me how dirty it is but she didn’t do that. She also offered some type of fuel cleaner that I’m sure I didn’t need since it doesn’t have a lot of miles on it.
Now my problem is how to reset my warning alerts that shows up on my dashboard. I have 2 places in the entertainment center screen where I can set alerts for oil changes and whatnots and I’ve reset them about 10 times but they still show in my dash each time I start the car and I have to click the button to dismiss them. Tiny annoyance but I just want it gone. I thought once they replaced the oil filter something would reset internally but…gah! I swore I wouldn’t get one with all the extras but I got a good deal on it and low miles. Sure makes me appreciate the old Toyota that doesn’t have all those extras. Anyone know what I’m talking about and can offer hints?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
indeed
this is the bane of newer vehicles
it requires a tool called a code reader to find out
what the car computer is bitching about. plug it in and then the fun begins
it is not an expensive tool (about $60 before inflation), but you can read
what the confuser does to cause idiot lights. Re-setting codes requires
pushing a series of buttons (like the radio + mileage + whatever) and the
warnings go away. a good mechanic will re-set the error codes after an
oil change or other service, but you have to ask for it in most cases.
basically requires an engineering / computer language degree to fully
understand. black box thinking only enriches the service shops.
I got quite familiar with that tool
My engine light on my Mazda kept coming on and of course I was told that it needed replaced which I did 3 times and it wasn’t cheap. It kept coming on over the years. Finally found a mechanic that would just reset it and let me drive it long enough to give the computer info for me to pass emission. It was a 2001 with no bells..
Something is suddenly out of wack on the beast. When I’m backing up it suddenly lurches backwards which is a pain when there is a car behind me I’m trying not to back into. It’s hard getting out of my drive because there are cars everywhere behind me. I was hoping that the oil change would have fixed it but alas I’m going to have to take it in. It’s doing something else that just doesn’t seem right. I saw that there was a recall for other Nissan for something to do with the transmission after turning off the engine and they lurch forward and it may be what is happening to mine. Putting it in park and it jumps forward… I’ve been setting the parking brake but it’s not recommended during winter because it might freeze. It’s down to single digits this week.
Everyone and their dawg parks on the street but some city shit turned me in for having the trailer on it and the plows can’t clear the gutters. So I have to put it in storage which will leave all the cars still parking on the street and blocking that shit…from clearing the gutters. I sure hope that he is visited by karma. I think it’s discrimination against my trailer when everyone else can still do it. It’s up on the curb and not taking more space than the cars! Trailer storage is sparse here.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
Nissan Armada? Yikes.
A customer of ours had an almost new Armada, several years ago, that she drove into her garage with, when it lurched forward, right through the garage wall into her back yard. The dealer tried to tell her that she had had a brain fart and stomped on the gas instead of the brake, while she maintained that she was foot on the brake pedal trying to slow the beast.
I never heard the follow up and exactly how that situation resolved. I do know she got rid of that car.
You might search for recalls or incident reports on your make, model and year to see if any others have experienced any similar locomotion incidents. I believe it is NHTSA.gov that tracks incidents and recalls for vehicles.
Good luck.
“What the herd hates most is the one who thinks differently; it is not so much the opinion itself, but the audacity of wanting to think for themselves, something that they do not know how to do.”
-Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
This is what US ambassadors do in their spare time.
evening humphrey...
heh, our spooks are busy little bees and people are dropping like flies. remaining a global hegemon is hard work.
Yah they certainly are busy using the same playbook.
I could add a few more to Ben Norton's list such as Bolivia and Belarus and Venezuela.
Good evening Joe, thanks for the Evening Blues
just dropped in to say stay well and have a wonderful weekend, so --
stay well and have a wonderful weekend
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...
have a great weekend!
Iconic bookstore, burned down during BLM riots, finally reopened
Uncle Hugo’s / Uncle Edgar’s.
http://unclehugo.com/prod/index.shtml
Also:
Unfortunately, MangaKissa, the manga library and Japanese visual culture hangout I frequent when I’m in Utrecht, has been forced to close. Their former building was sold out from under them and the rents jacked up. They’re looking for a new location and in the meantime will maintain a “pop-up” operation at Dutch events such as the yearly Abunai! con.
evening lotlizard...
glad to hear that the bookstores survived. i hope that the manga library finds a new home safe from the depredations of rentiers.
have a great weekend!
I am not sure what will happen but I have doubts that Zelensky
will like the future.
Douglas Macgregor - Major Escalation of The War in Ukraine?
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBUIpjd6UjA]
Having finished viewing it Colonel Macgregor paints a very dire picture of Ukraine's future.
excellent interview...
thanks!