The Evening Blues - 2-16-23
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features jazz blues vocalist Jimmy Rushing. Enjoy!
Jimmy Rushing - Going To Chicago
"You were put here to protect us.
But who protects us from you?"-- KRS-One
News and Opinion
One in 20 US homicides are committed by police – and the numbers aren’t falling
In the US, an estimated one in 20 gun homicides are committed by police, as law enforcement killings have failed to decrease despite years of nationwide protests.
Law enforcement officers killed at least 1,192 people in 2022, the highest number recorded in a decade, according to Mapping Police Violence, a prominent non-profit database of police killings. More than 1,100 people were killed by the police in both 2020 and 2021. The vast majority of these deaths were police shootings.
There were more than 25,000 total homicides in the US in 2020 and 26,000 in 2021, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). National data for 2022 is not yet available.
Police shooting deaths represented 5% of all gun homicides in 2020 and 2021, and total police killings represented nearly 5% of all homicides, according to the best available public data. Because only a small number of deadly incidents each year receive wide media attention, many Americans may not realize that “a meaningful fraction of homicides in the US are police killings”, said Justin Feldman, a researcher at the Center for Policing Equity.
The number of US homicide victims who die in mass shootings each year, for instance, is smaller than the number killed by police. While definitions of “mass shooting” vary, the estimated number of people killed in these incidents have ranged from a few dozen to 700 people a year in recent years.
U.S. Knew Chinese “Spy” Balloon Was A Weather Balloon All Along
Chinese spy balloon may have been blown off intended course – report
The US is reportedly examining the possibility that the Chinese spy balloon was pushed off course by strong winds when it entered US airspace, having tracked it since its launch days earlier.
Of the four flying objects shot down by the US in recent weeks, only the first has been attributed to Chinese surveillance efforts. The balloon took off from China’s Hainan island, before travelling on a path which appeared to go over Guam, according to the Washington Post on Tuesday. It then took an “unexpected” turn to the north, the report said, citing anonymous US officials. After it entered Canadian airspace, strong winds blew it south over the border, the Post reported.
The deviation has prompted analysts to explore whether China meant for it to enter US airspace. US officials remain adamant the balloon’s purpose was surveillance.
The possibility emerged as the White House said on Tuesday that preliminary evidence suggested the three latest objects detected were “benign” and not involved in a broader Chinese spy balloon program.
COVERUP: UFO Debris May NEVER Be Recovered
US Officials Now Say Chinese “Spy Balloon” Flew Over The US Accidentally
The Washington Post has a weird new article out citing multiple anonymous US officials saying that the Chinese “spy balloon” we’ve been hearing about for the last two weeks was never intended for a surveillance mission over North America at all.
The article is titled “U.S. tracked China spy balloon from launch on Hainan Island along unusual path,” and throughout it alternates between the objective journalistic terms “suspected spy balloon” and “suspected Chinese surveillance balloon” and the US government’s terms “spy balloon” and “airborne surveillance device”. There is at this time no publicly available evidence that the balloon which was famously shot down on February 4th was in fact an instrument of Chinese espionage; the Chinese government has said that the balloon was a civilian meteorological airship that got blown off course, and the Pentagon’s own assessment is that a Chinese spy balloon would not “create significant value added over and above what the PRC is likely able to collect through things like satellites in Low Earth Orbit.”
What makes the article so weird is that it actually contains claims which substantiate Beijing’s assertion that this was in fact a balloon that got blown off course, yet it keeps repeating the unevidenced claim that it was a “spy balloon”. Here’s an excerpt, emphasis mine:
By the time a Chinese spy balloon crossed into American airspace late last month, U.S. military and intelligence agencies had been tracking it for nearly a week, watching as it lifted off from its home base on Hainan Island near China’s south coast.
U.S. monitors watched as the balloon settled into a flight path that would appear to have taken it over the U.S. territory of Guam. But somewhere along that easterly route, the craft took an unexpected northern turn, according to several U.S. officials, who said that analysts are now examining the possibility that China didn’t intend to penetrate the American heartland with their airborne surveillance device.
The balloon floated over Alaska’s Aleutian Islands thousands of miles away from Guam, then drifted over Canada, where it encountered strong winds that appear to have pushed the balloon south into the continental United States, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive intelligence.
The article really reads like someone trying to reconcile two contradictory narratives, claiming that although China didn’t intend to send the balloon over the United States, it decided to seize the opportunity to surveil US nuclear sites while it was there anyway.
“Its crossing into U.S. airspace was a violation of sovereignty and its hovering over sensitive nuclear sites in Montana was no accident, officials said, raising the possibility that even if the balloon were inadvertently blown over the U.S. mainland, Beijing apparently decided to seize the opportunity to try to gather intelligence,” write the article’s authors Ellen Nakashima, Shane Harris, and Jason Samenow.
“Intelligence analysts are unsure whether the apparent deviation was intentional or accidental, but are confident it was intended for surveillance, most likely over U.S. military installations in the Pacific,” they write.
No mention is made of the two weeks of hysterical shrieking from the western political/media class about China’s outrageously brazen intrusion into US airspace, or the claims from conservative China hawks that it proves Biden has failed to make Beijing sufficiently afraid of American might. No mention is made of the rhetoric from warmongers like House China Select Committee Chairman Mike Gallagher, who claimed the balloon is evidence that China is “a threat to American sovereignty, and it is a threat to the Midwest — in places like those that I live in.” And no mention is made of the White House’s recent admission that the three unidentified objects that US war planes shot down over the weekend were most likely benign balloons.
“The intelligence community’s considering as a leading explanation that these could just be balloons tied to some commercial or benign purpose,” the National Security Council’s John Kirby told the press on Tuesday.
So it’s entirely possible that the American political/media class has been spending the month of February furiously demanding more militarism and more cold war escalations over four harmless balloons. It’s entirely possible that the world’s mightiest air force just spent two weeks waging kinetic aerial warfare on random pieces of junk in the sky. And that this is being used to manufacture consent for more aggressions against China.
In a recent article titled “Media ‘Spy Balloon’ Obsession a Gift to China Hawks,” Fair.org’s Julianne Tveten documents the ways the western media have been committing journalistic malpractice with their obedient regurgitation of US government slogans about a “Chinese spy balloon” despite a complete lack of evidence for this claim:
Despite this uncertainty, US media overwhelmingly interpreted the Pentagon’s conjecture as fact. The New York Times (2/2/23) reported that “the United States has detected what it says is a Chinese surveillance balloon,” only to call the device “the spy balloon”—without attributive language—within the same article. Similar evolution happened at CNBC, where the description shifted from “suspected Chinese spy balloon” (2/6/23) to simply “Chinese spy balloon” (2/6/23). The Guardian once bothered to place “spy balloon” in quotation marks (2/5/23), but soon abandoned that punctuation (2/6/23).
Given that media had no proof of either explanation, it might stand to reason that outlets would give each possibility—spy balloon vs. weather balloon—equal attention. Yet media were far more interested in lending credence to the US’s official narrative than to that of China.
And of course getting lost in all this is the obvious fact that it’s no big deal for major governments to spy on each other; they all do so constantly, and the US does it more than anyone else. To suddenly treat increasingly flimsy claims about Chinese spy balloons as some kind of incendiary existential threat is ridiculous.
As commentator Matthew Petti recently observed on Substack, the US has historically been so insistent on its right to fly surveillance aircraft over foreign countries that it has repeatedly come close to war with nations who’ve shot down its spy planes. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, then-attorney general Robert Kennedy issued a red-line threat to the Soviet ambassador that if the Cuban military didn’t stop shooting US spy planes, the United States would launch an invasion of Cuba. Just in 2018 the US came close to the brink of war with Iran when its military shot down a US surveillance drone, and was only averted because Trump was talked out of it by TV pundit Tucker Carlson.
If the US insists on its right to conduct aerial surveillance on foreign nations, it’s a bit silly for it to throw a tantrum when foreign nations return the favor. It would be even sillier to throw a tantrum over a surveillance mission its own intelligence says was accidental. It would be even sillier for the news media of the western world to assist it in doing so.
Sometimes I think American media should abandon its whole “free press” charade and just switch to publishing the news straight out of the Pentagon. This is definitely one of those times.
U.S. Media Refuses To Cover Bombshell Nord Stream Story!
Russia Requests UN Security Council Meeting Over New Nord Stream Report
Russia has requested a UN Security Council meeting to be held following the report from investigative journalist Seymour Hersh that alleged the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines were bombed at the order of President Biden.
“In light of new information regarding the bombing of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, we have requested a UN Security Council meeting be held on February 22, at 3:00 pm New York time,” Dmitry Polyansky, Russia’s first deputy representative to the UN, wrote on Telegram on Wednesday.
Also on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that foreign media outlets should look into the details of Hersh’s report. “I urge you perhaps to carry out such probes because no one is banning you from conducting a journalistic investigation,” Lavrov said, according to the Russian news agency TASS.
Russia in Paraskovievka, Bakhmut; Few NATO Tanks, Nord Stream Questions for Stoltenberg, Sullivan
U.S. focuses on training Ukrainian troops to use less ammo
The U.S. is prioritizing helping the Ukrainians tweak the way they fight, relying less on artillery barrages and more on how the troops maneuver on the battlefield, as concerns mount over Western nations’ ability to replenish ammunition stocks.
The war in Ukraine has been marked by the massive use of artillery by both sides, with thousands of shells smashing into the front lines daily, straining the ability of the U.S. and European countries to keep up. ...
As the U.S. and Europe look for ways to increase their output of shells to keep their own warehouses stocked and supply Ukraine for its warm weather offensives, they are looking at the current training efforts in England and Germany to change how Ukraine moves on the battlefield. Part of that means figuring out ways to fend off Russia without expending too much ammo.
European Commission takes Poland to court over ‘legal Polexit’
The European Commission is taking Poland to court over rulings from Polish judges considered by experts as a “legal Polexit” that fundamentally undermine the EU’s legal order.
The decision to refer Poland to the European court of justice on Wednesday – described by one expert as a bombshell – comes as Poland’s rightwing nationalist government battles to secure €35.4bn (£31.4bn) in EU Covid recovery funds that have been frozen over concerns about government-influenced courts.
The latest legal step ratchets up pressure on the Polish government, which faces elections this autumn and has been struggling to convince EU authorities to release billions of grants and loans.
The EU’s legal case is a response to a July 2021 decision by Poland’s constitutional tribunal that declared measures imposed by the ECJ unconstitutional, a fundamental breach of the principle of the supremacy of EU law, which Warsaw signed up to when it became an member state.
Legal experts have described the July 2021 decision as “legal Polexit” that could indicate a first step towards Poland’s departure from the union, despite opinion polls showing the popularity of the EU across the country.
Ooops. Was that a gauntlet I heard hit the floor?
Jeremy Corbyn will not be Labour candidate at next election, says Starmer
Jeremy Corbyn will not stand as a Labour MP at the next election, Keir Starmer has said, as he vowed to paint his party as one that has changed under his leadership. Starmer had previously publicly indicated that Corbyn would not be able to stand as a Labour candidate, but had not gone as far as confirming the barring of the Islington North MP.
“Let me be very clear, Jeremy Corbyn will not stand at the next general election as a Labour party candidate,” Starmer said on Wednesday while answering questions after a speech in east London. “What I said about the party changing, I meant, and we are not going back, and that is why Jeremy Corbyn will not stand as a Labour candidate at the next general election.”
The Labour leader was speaking as he marked an “important moment” for Labour after the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) lifted the party out of special measures over its past failings on antisemitism.
In a clear mark of his growing confidence, Starmer also invited Labour MPs who have long supported Corbyn to leave the party if they did not agree with his stance on driving out antisemitism. Corbyn led the party for nearly five years, and has been supported by Momentum since his 2015 leadership campaign. If he decided to run at the next election as an independent, it would pose a potentially existential dilemma for the grassroots group.
Chagos islanders must get full reparations for forced exile, says NGO
The UK should pay full and unconditional reparations to generations affected by its forcible displacement of Chagos Islands inhabitants in the 1960s and 70s, an action that constituted a crime against humanity, Human Rights Watch has said.
The NGO said that individuals should be put on trial for the expulsion of Chagossians when the UK retained possession of what it refers to as British Indian Ocean Territory, or BIOT, after Mauritius gained independence in 1968.
Forced deportations were carried out so that the largest island, Diego Garcia, could be leased to the US to use as an airbase. Human Rights Watch (HRW) says this was a crime against humanity by both the UK and its transatlantic ally.
Additionally, it says the UK committed two more crimes against humanity by blocking the return of the Chagossians – despite UN’s highest court ruling that the continuing British occupation was illegal – and through racial persecution of the people.
Clive Baldwin, senior legal adviser at HRW and lead author of the 106-page report, published on Wednesday, said: “The UK is today committing an appalling colonial crime, treating all Chagossians as a people without rights. The UK and the US, who together expelled the Chagossians from their homes, should provide full reparations for the harm they have caused.”
Rising U.S. Interest Rates Push Countries in Global South Toward Economic Collapse
US could default this summer unless $31.4tn debt ceiling is raised, CBO warns
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on Wednesday said the US treasury department will exhaust its ability to pay all its bills sometime between July and September, unless the current $31.4tn cap on borrowing is raised or suspended.
In a report issued alongside its annual budget outlook, the non-partisan CBO cautioned that a historic federal debt default could occur before July if revenue flowing into the treasury in April – when most Americans typically submit annual income tax filings – lags expectations.
The pace of incoming revenue, coupled with the performance of the US economy in the coming months, makes it difficult for government officials to predict the exact “X-date”, when the treasury could begin to default on many debt payments without action by Congress.
“If the debt limit is not raised or suspended before the extraordinary measures are exhausted, the government would be unable to pay its obligations fully,” the CBO report said. “As a result, the government would have to delay making payments for some activities, default on its debt obligations, or both.”
Separately, the CBO said annual US budget deficits will average $2tn between 2024 and 2033, approaching pandemic-era records by the end of the decade – a forecast likely to stoke Republican demands for spending cuts. Meanwhile, the CBO estimated an unemployment rate of 4.7% this year, far above the current 3.4%.
Ohio Train Disaster Story Gets EVEN WORSE
The toxic rail disaster in Ohio: The homicidal indifference of the ruling class laid bare
The conscious exposure of the residents of East Palestine, Ohio, and the surrounding area to a toxic brew of chemicals in a “controlled burn” last week has once again laid bare the homicidal indifference of the capitalist ruling elite to the lives and well-being of the working class in its ruthless pursuit of profit. The shocking images of thick black smoke spewing high into the atmosphere and reports of animals dropping dead have spread quickly around the world on social media. The contaminants from the disaster have spread far from the initial train derailment through the air and in water.
The February 6 burn came just three days after the Norfolk Southern train carrying the chemicals, which included highly carcinogenic vinyl chloride, derailed and caught fire just outside the village of 4,700 located 40 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And just three days after that on February 9, residents who had been forced to flee from the area around the wreck were allowed back into their homes. Hundreds of people were cleared to return despite the fact that there had been no systematic testing to determine what chemicals may have poisoned their drinking water and contaminated their homes. Exposure to even the smallest amount of vinyl chloride is known to cause cancer. When it is burned, it breaks down into hydrogen chloride, an irritant, and phosgene, a chemical which was used in World War I to kill soldiers in their trenches.
The focus of Norfolk Southern executives and government regulators was to reopen the rail line and get trains running again as quickly as possible, regardless of the consequences for the people living in the area. ...
The American rail companies have attained the highest profit margin of any industry, over 50 percent, by neglecting infrastructure and ruthlessly exploiting railroad workers, refusing paid time off and pushing to reduce the number of workers on a train down to just one. In this mad drive, the modern robber barons have partners in the union bureaucracies and the Democratic and Republican parties. This found expression in the banning of a rail strike and the enforcement of concessions contracts by President Joe Biden and the Democrats in Congress at the end of last year, which the union bureaucracy endorsed as part of its effort to suppress the class struggle.
The list of precedents for the systematic poisoning of the American population in the pursuit of profit is long and goes back to the earliest days of industrial development. Despite the implementation of regulations and the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency in the 1970s, the release of toxic chemicals into drinking water and the air continues to be a daily occurrence across the country, without any serious consequences for corporations. This is particularly true in working class neighborhoods that have been devastated by decades of deindustrialization and mine closures.
Bomb Train: Rail Giant Norfolk Southern Skips First Public Meeting on Toxic Train Derailment in Ohio
Ohio, Pennsylvania Senators Demand Federal Action Over Toxic Train Derailment
As residents of East Palestine, Ohio prepared for a Wednesday night town hall meeting about the recent derailment of a Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous materials, U.S. senators from the state and neighboring Pennsylvania called for federal action.
Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), and J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) sent letters to a pair of federal agencies sounding the alarm about the safety of East Palestine residents and communities at risk from future derailments.
In their letters to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chair Jennifer Homendy, the senators wrote that "while we are grateful no injuries or fatalities resulted directly from the derailment, we are deeply concerned about the release of hazardous materials into the air and groundwater."
After noting that East Palestine residents had to leave the area due to the derailment, fire, and "controlled release" of vinyl chloride—just one of the hazardous materials the train was transporting—the senators said, "No American family should be forced to face the horror of fleeing their homes because hazardous materials have spilled or caught fire in their community."
Protesters standing on a street corner in downtown East Palestine. Town hall meeting for residents at 7pm. @WTOV9 pic.twitter.com/uXExImoIBP
— Chloë Mesogitis (@ChloeWTOV9) February 15, 2023
While praising the EPA's initial response to the disaster, in coordination with state and local entities, the senators also asked the agency to keep monitoring the region, and to use its authority under federal law "to ensure that Norfolk Southern pays for the cleanup of these hazardous materials, as well as compensates residents and affected businesses as required."
"Norfolk Southern has a responsibility to these first responders and the workers that put their lives on the line to keep the community safe by fighting fires, going door to door to evacuate residents, and working on getting the derailed train, hazardous material, and contaminated water and soil removed from the immediate area," they wrote to Regan.
The senators also sent the EPA administrator a series of questions and requested a response by February 24.
In their letter to Homendy, the federal lawmakers lauded the work of the NTSB staff to "collect perishable evidence quickly from the site of the derailment" and provide updates about the initial stages of the agency's investigation into the incident.
"The NTSB's independent investigation to determine probable causes of the East Palestine derailment is critical to preventing future derailments involving hazardous materials in Ohio and Pennsylvania, as well as across the nation," the senators wrote. "We will use NTSB's findings and any pertinent safety recommendations to advance measures that Congress and the U.S. Department of Transportation [DOT] can implement to prevent derailments involving hazardous materials." ...
The NTSB letter also states that the senators "will be pressing the U.S. Department of Transportation to conduct new analysis and act to improve railroad safety practices and prevent derailments of trains carrying hazardous materials."
BREAKING: ANOTHER Train With Hazardous Cargo DERAILS Near Detroit
Half of Americans Think National News Media Mislead, Misinform the Public
Polling released Wednesday by Gallup and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation reveals half of American adults "feel most national news organizations intend to mislead, misinform, or persuade the public," which could impact the future of both the industry and U.S. democracy.
The report is the second in a series that began with a publication in October and builds on a body of research that Gallup and the Knight Foundation have conducted about Americans' trust in the news media since 2017.
"This data offers further evidence that sustainable journalism begins and ends with trust," said Knight Foundation president Alberto Ibargüen in a statement. "We believe a citizenry that trusts the news is more informed, more engaged, and better prepared to participate meaningfully in our democracy."
Key findings from the latest survey include that 53% of about 5,600 Americans across political affiliations have an unfavorable view of the U.S. news media overall, compared with just 26% who hold a favorable view. In line with previous polling, younger adults have less favorable views.
The survey shows a stark difference between how Americans view national versus local media. While nearly three-quarters believe national outlets "have the resources and opportunity to report the news accurately and fairly to the public," just 35% think such organizations can be relied on to provide needed information and generally care about how the impact of their reporting.
"Americans don't seem to think that the national news organizations care about the overall impact of their reporting on the society," John Sands, senior director for media and democracy at the Knight Foundation, toldThe Associated Press.
According to the polling, 52% of Americans don't believe that most national news organizations "care about the best interests of their readers, viewers, and listeners." Just 23% say national media do care about those interests.
"That was pretty striking for us," Gallup consultant Sarah Fioroni told the AP. Summarizing her, the outlet added that "the findings showed a depth of distrust and bad feeling that go beyond the foundations and processes of journalism."
Ex-Intel Officials Backpedal Over Hunter Laptop Story
‘Extreme situation’: Antarctic sea ice hits record low
The area of sea ice around Antarctica has hit a record low, with scientists reporting “never having seen such an extreme situation before”. The ice extent is expected to shrink even further before this year’s summer melting season ends.
The impact of the climate crisis in melting sea ice in the Arctic is clear in the records that stretch back to 1979. Antarctic sea ice varies much more from year to year, which has made it harder to see an effect from global heating.
However, “remarkable” losses of Antarctic sea ice in the last six years indicate that the record levels of heat now in the ocean and related changes in weather patterns may mean that the climate crisis is finally manifesting in the observations.
Scientists were already very concerned about Antarctic ice. Climate models suggested as far back as 2014 that the giant West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS), which sits on the continent, was doomed to collapse due to the levels of global heating already seen then.
The increasing loss of sea ice exposes ice sheets and their glaciers to waves that accelerate their disintegration and melting, researchers warned. A recent study estimated that the WAIS would be tipped into gradual collapse – and four metres of sea level rise – with a global temperature rise as low as 1C, a point already passed.
Investigation under way as ninth dead whale washes up in New Jersey
A ninth dead whale has washed up on the New Jersey coastline, as conservationists and local authorities investigate the causes of an unusual number of such deaths along the US east coast. The humpback was found in Manasquan, New Jersey, on Monday.
The whale was removed from the beach on Tuesday and taken to the county landfill for a necropsy and to collect tissue samples, a spokesperson for Noaa Fisheries, part of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, told Gothamist. The whale is one of many recently found dead off New York and New Jersey. At least 10 humpback whales have died in east coast waters in 2023, six near New York and New Jersey, CBS reported.
Noaa Fisheries is investigating the cause of such “unusual mortality events”, data for which has been collected since 2016.
Conservatives and some conservationist activists attribute the rise in deaths to increasing offshore wind projects, calling on federal authorities to do more to protect the coastline. But federal officials have pushed back against claims that wind turbines are to blame, saying evidence does not support the contention wind energy projects cause whale fatalities.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Trump against empire: is this why they really hated him?
20 Years Ago Today: We Didn't Stop the Invasion of Iraq, But We Did Change History
Russian Diplomats Issue Dire Warnings that War with US Is Close
NATO Chief ADMITS Ukraine War Began In 2014!
Briahna Joy Gray: Nord Stream Pipeline Blast BURIED By Mainstream Media, OBVIOUS Evidence Ignored
The Buildup To War In Ukraine - February 15 2022
Kyiv Says It Shot Down Russian Balloons Over Ukraine's Capital
After Ten Days Of Panicky Hype The Weather Balloon Nonsense Is Finally Buried
Israeli operative leading secretive unit 'manipulating elections' around the world
The Core Of Class Struggle From Below
Buttigieg Pretends He’s Powerless To Reduce Derailment Risks
US military accused of obstruction over cancer linked to ‘forever chemicals’
Electric car enthusiasts tantalized by new idea: converting old vehicles
Republican Base TURNS On Ukraine Aid
Media Hacks COVERUP Ohio Derailment Corruption
rance pension reform: 5th day of mobilisation before a still hypothetical vote in the Assembly
Sadistic US sanctions block Syria earthquake aid
Pete Buttigieg SLAMMED By Tucker, Tulsi As 'OUTRIGHT EVIL' After Inaction On East Palestine Disaster
A Little Night Music
Jimmy Rushing - I Left My Baby
Jimmy Rushing - Harvard Blues
Jimmy Rushing - Good Morning Blues
Jimmy Rushing - Mr. Five by Five
Jimmy Rushing - Blues in the Dark
Jimmy Rushing - Gee Baby Ain't I Good to You?
Jimmy Rushing - Good Morning Blues
Jimmy Rushing - Sonny Boy Blues
Jimmy Rushing - Everyday I Have the Blues
Comments
FWIW here’s an essay on the chemicals in the train crash
and how toxic they are It’s over my head, but here’s another tidbit of interest.
He has more information about how many crashes there have been the last 4 years and other tidbits.
Bottom line for me is that crashes should be very rare and not over a thousand every year. And train companies should have to be more responsible and making sure that they have enough qualified workers for every train running. Every deregulation should be rolled back to the time trains were considered safe and no time found then make it safer.
ETA: I’ve seen photos of 1st responders close to the train without any airway protection and thought back to when the Bush administration mouthpiece said that the air at ground zero was safe to breathe. Then congress spent decades denying the responders medical attention and their families were left with huge bills long after the workers died. Are we going to see a repeat of that?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
evening snoopy...
probably, nothing has changed in the incentive structure and wall street is still firmly in control of the congress and the regulatory system.
i guess we'll see if anything changes this time, but my guess is that this falls out of the media in a few days barring some colorful incident and the social attention moves on to some other atrocity of the system.
Derailed train is just the start of the crisis. And less ammo.
Reading early reports, full of accounts how the poison from the railcars can move into the environment over long distances. The media spins seems to be that the damage is localized to just the small town. Some described the spill as our Chernobyl. Not sure if that analogy is totally off. The people in the affected areas will face the same road blocks and denials as people in Flint.
I read long ago about how many rounds of small arms ammo was needed to take out an individual "enemy" in various wars. Just insane how much ammo is shot off. From 2011:
US forced to import bullets from Israel as troops use 250,000 for every rebel killed Forces using 1.8 billion rounds of ammunition a year
I don't think in the case of the artillery shells, the Ukrainians are just arbitrarily shooting them off. One military pundit thought that 70% of Ukrainian casualties were due to Russian artillery. But use less. Such is the gruesome math of war.
yeah man
What we know about gov and corp early reporting on eco-disasters is that typically the underestimate is at best 10% of the real damage. In this case it is likely below that. They don't begin know what they did environmentally, and don't seem to want to be finding out very much. It seems to me to be many factors worse than it is being presented as.
Imagine the amount of lead on the ground in these areas where we lets guys loose with guns and tell them to 'shoot 'em up' real good. OK, now it rains. And where is that lead bleeding but into their water tables, ergo wells. Gardens? It is crazy to do this, and we do it all over the place without a thought of consequences. There is a guy here, I swear his hill must be full of lead by now. Just up above his well. He seems a bit off. Glad its a couple miles away.
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
Maybe Ukraine can stop shelling the Donbas if they want
to save their ammunition and just shell those Russian varmits instead. Anyone think that Biden’s mouthpieces will suggest that to them? Yah me neither. But hey at least Blinken told them that they can’t take Crimea. But he didn’t say that they can’t try to.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
evening mr w...
yep, it's funny how the media presents the burning of the toxic material as the end to it. because we all know that when you burn things, everything stays put right there, the wind doesn't blow stuff all over the place and gosh the byproducts of burning are never anything dangerous like dioxins or phosgene. and what goes up never falls down ... it just keeps going up, right?
somebody ought to find and preserve the wind data for a few days in the broader area where the accident took place so that they can match the patterns of the winds with the cancer clusters that show up later on.
Hi bluesters
Hi all, Hey Joe!
Things have really changed. Now instead of record low Arctic sea ice, we now have record low Antarctic sea ice. Wow fantastic, great news! /s Any balloons today?
Bummer about the Humpback Whales back there... uh Wot's the Deal? (to quote a Pink Floyd song title). Awesome animals, I have seen lots up real close, looked 'em in the eye close. Just quick hold your breath and grab your nose closed if you are close and downwind of a whale blow. It is not pleasant.
Thanks for the soundscape!
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
evening dystopian...
heh, all of the ice must go. profits, dammit!
i guess we'll find out what is happening with the humpbacks in the next couple of years as the results of the studies are published. i am guessing that the claims of the people who say that it has to do with wind power installations are probably going to be repudiated. if we were going to make a list of the probable causes of the humpback losses, wind power probably wouldn't make the first page.
Anyone else wondering how the vaunted senators
Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), and J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) voted on sending the rail workers back to work with their shitty contract? Every person who voted to do that owns their part in the disaster. Seems like every president has a Bush’s Katrina. Obama’s was the BP blowout when he said that the water was fine for drinking and then proceeded to prove it by taking a false sip of it. Did Pete ever explain why it took him many days to say anything about it?
The trick is how to wake up the other half. After the ‘Saddam has WMDs' fiasco, the ‘Gaddaffi is giving his troops viagra' , ‘Russia put Trump in office and took out bounties on our troops in Afghanistan' and other lies that the mainstream media has told us I can’t believe that anyone even watches them let alone believes them.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
bad news/no news
Fewer and fewer people watch the news. Which is not a good solution because the population tuned out cannot solve anything. Misinformation or No information----some choice. Either way you remain ignorant and helpless.
Not that knowing helps much either.
NYCVG
Mark Twain said something very much like:
If you do not read the news you are uninformed; if yu do read the news you are misinformed.
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 snoopy...
brown: Brown Votes To Pass Legislation To Avert Rail Strike
casey: PA Senators Split on Vote to Derail Strike
fetterman and vance had just won election and were not seated to vote yet when the treachery was done.
heh, if the other half hasn't awakened by now, you've got to wonder what it's going to take.
Thanks
It'nt funny how congress loves to bitch about things that they are responsible for? Bernie and Liz are once again coming up with all kinds of stuff that will help the working class now that republicans hold the senate? Kinda like when Pelosi sent Mitch lots of bills that she knew would never pass, but when democrats held all branches she forgot all about them.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
you're combining two horrifying Obama events
BP was the pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico when the government lied about how much oil was spilling out, saying it was 1,000 gallons a day when it was really something like 100,000 gallons. And then the Obamas went to a different part of the Gulf to wade around, having a wonderful time, to show how everything was groovy.
The false sip was in Flint when he asked for a glass of water to demonstrate how safe it was to drink the stuff, pretended to take a sip, then put the glass on the lower shelf, never to be picked up again.
For me the BP thing was the end.
Meanwhile, looking at some of the items in tonight's Evening Blues, jeez, Starmer! What a way to frame it. Maybe Starmer should be asked to step down by those opposing pedophiles. Is Starmer a pedophile? I doubt it but that sentence uses the same logic. Prevent Corbyn from running or you're endorsing antisemitism. No, you're not! Glad I'm not in Britain or I'd hate Starmer even more.
Similarly, that article that "the reason" anyone opposed Trump is because he's anti-empire (is he?) is another exercise in bad reasoning. Personally I hate him because he's a dictator waiting to happen. Same for DeSantis. I hate Biden for different reasons. That article starts off saying "sure, he's incoherent and crass but...". Yeah, and he'd also like to be a dictator.
Did I mention I hate them all?
Yep and thanks
I knew something was off about my comment but I couldn’t remember what it was. I kept thinking about Jacksonville, but that was Trump’s Katrina…and I think that was the hurricane that hit Florida.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
they're both jaw dropping
there were so many points in that guy's 8 years that could have been "the last straw", where people who'd supported him, either in the primary vs Hillary, or in the elections vs McCain and/or Romney, finally wised up. Those were two of those points.
2008 was the last time I voted for a Democrat
as a first choice, and also the last time I stayed up on election night to watch a victory rally. We gave Obama an overwhelming mandate and both chambers of congress to truly be the “transformative president” he claimed he wanted to be, and then watched him piss it all away for eight years.
I have so many friends who couldn’t understand why I wasn’t in a state of perpetual outrage over Trump…
Ditto
I could have written your comment except that it was the last time I voted period. But I did the perpetual outrage for Bush for 8 years thinking that democrats and Obama would hold him accountable, but when they didn’t it just showed how Pelosi et al had actually enabled all his bad things and rotten legislation.
Impeachment is OFF the table! Gawd what an in your face after what we gave Obama and democrats. But if there’s no rule of law can there be a democracy?
Trump was not any worse than Bush or Obama, it’s just that the media covered his every word and deed. Imagine if they had done that to Obama. Maybe more people would see him as the worthless president he was.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Nuland admits that regime change is still the plan
I doubt that Russia will ever trust any agreement by America and Vicky makes it more doubtful.
Nuland outlines US goals in Ukraine
Well Vicky I think Russia remembers how their future looked during the Clinton administration when you guys robbed everything that wasn’t nailed down and sent millions of Russians into poverty that ended up killing millions. But in case you missed it Vicky Russia will not allow Ukraine to build up its military again after they end the war on their terms. All you are doing is getting most Ukrainian males killed and getting your jollies off watching it happen. Twitter is full of videos of Ukrainians being pulled out of their homes and off the streets so they can get sent to the front. It’s abhorrent and if the men doing wants people to go fight then they should high themselves off to the front.
Gawd what an ugly human being Nuland is.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
"better future"
you have to wonder how these people can say that shit with a straight face. the people of russia are not interested in being ruled by a drunken flunky of the west again as all of their assets are siphoned off.
i think that all putin has to do to have people demanding to serve in a volunteer army is to playback nuland's speech behind photos of boris yeltsin and tanks firing on the duma.
Nuland is doing everything possible to avoid a peace settlement
Rand Paul really reveals Nuland's intentions in this video where she wants conditions that in no way will lead to peace. She wants unconditional surrender and the removal of Putin. Which may actually as some pundits have said lead to somebody even more aggressive and anti-West.
Why can't we "regime change" Nuland
and get somebody sane in her place? Who's bankrolling her and propping her up? Is it the War Machine?
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
New Corroborating Evidence
New Corroborating Evidence Emerges Showing US Trace Behind Nord Stream Blasts
Soldiers don’t have to follow illegal orders or watch as war crimes are committed. Huge kudos to the source for Hersh for spilling the beans. Btw democracy now and salon have become tankies according to kos for interviewing Hersh on his bogus story. But Caitlin is still the number one tankie!
A rehash.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
with any luck...
there will continue a steady drip of information about the u.s. destruction of the nordstream pipeline, followed by an accountability moment for the sitting government.
Do you remember the talk about an admiral visiting
A submarine last summer and how unusual that was? In the essay he says that an admiral was on the ship and I’m wondering if it’s the same one? Little pieces might start coming together and adding up to a smoking gun. Russia is taking their case to the security council, but alas it follows the rules based order these days.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
nope...
i don't remember that one offhand, sorry.
russia can take its case to the un, but i suspect that the security council will be useless since the u.s. can veto anything. i would imagine that it would take some pretty fancy dancing to get some sort of un ruling and sanction against the u.s.
about police shootings
Simplest way not to get shot by police is don't shoot at them. Second is don't point a gun at them. If you do have a gun act very very carefully, because they are going to have very specific things for you to do until they feel that you can't kill them.
A couple weeks ago some protester in Georgia shot at police from inside his tent or something. Ya, I know, big conspiracy etc.
Of the 6% of unarmed people shot by police a non zero number are shot because the cop was protecting his life, like trying not to ge deliberately run over, or fighting for possession of the policeman's service weapon (Michael Brown).
An amazingly high number of people are buying their first gun. It's not healthy. No instruction whatsoever. At the least it should say somewhere "don't point this thing at people".
This post is clearly meant to antagonise.
Do you have a limit to masochism for alienation?
evening ban nock...
what color is the sky in your world?
think of what you wrote
"Of the 6% of unarmed people shot by police a non zero number are shot because the cop was protecting his life, like trying not to get deliberately run over, or fighting for possession of the policeman's service weapon (Michael Brown)"
Does that mean anything other than 94% of unarmed people shot by police are shot for no good reason?
As for Michael Brown, consider the Ahmaud Arbery case where he, too, was fighting for possession of a weapon...because someone had a weapon and meant to kill him. Do you think it's wrong for someone to try to get the gun away from the potential killer? And yet right for that killer to then shoot *because* there was a fight over the gun?
@Shahryar the other 94% are armed
the other 94% are armed, and assumedly a threat. In the US pointing a firearm at anyone is considered a deadly threat, and anyone is justified in using deadly force to protect themselves.
Michael Brown wasn't disarming someone trying to kill him. He was fighting a sworn officer in his car.
The person who murdered Ahmaud Arbery was convicted of murder, the cop who shot brown was exonerated and that was upheld by Obama's Attorney General. There is a vast difference between murder and justifiable homicide.
That oath
is to serve and protect citizens. Cops have qualified immunity from prosecution. Citizens do not.
Cops do the criminal investigations of accused cops. There is no civilian oversight.
Obama's administration had 100% appointees who were specifically selected to maintain the power structure and increase the power of police, FBI, NSA, and CIA when the opportunity presented itself.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Evening joe and bluesters
Take a look at this amazing feat of help from a roof top ...
[video:https://youtu.be/Q-Gt5Kyj66g]
evening janis...
wow, that's quite a feat.
glad to see that you're back, i hope that everything is going ok for you.
Thanks joe
All is good here this late afternoon. The sun is shining and I even managed to hang some photographic work in a local group exhibition today. The weekend looks to have favourable weather, so the locals will be out and about, at least those who can. There are others who are just trying to put their life together after the storm.
How cool for you to get to do that
Hanging your photos for others to see is great for you after your experiences this month. Let us know how it went. Some day I’d like to exhibit my photos somewhere and see if I can sell them. I like the idea of my photos hanging in other’s homes.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
It has been a wonderful lift, snoopy
I totally relate to the the pleasure of knowing someone, somewhere is enjoying your art on the wall. I think the timing for everyone participating is a gift.
I'll hang out there for some time tomorrow, and maybe again on Sunday. I'll let you know how it goes.
It is OK everything is back to normal in Ohio.
this is very bothersome
chemicals settled down to the bottom of creeks is a portent of harm
similar to the dispersants they applied to the GOM BP blowout
It doesn't just go away, it becomes part of the ecosystem with
long ranging effects. Out of sight, out of mind seems the solution.
I think that this was after a presidential press conference.
We have nightmares
...and difficulty sleeping about this more than four months after the experience. Our lives will never be the same.
Glad things worked out Janis.
語必忠信 行必正直
Hi soryang
I’m sure if I lost my home as you did I’d also be having nightmares. The morning after the record rainfall (3 weeks ago today), when I discovered a major landslip just 2.5 metres from a corner of the house was shocking to say the least, and nightmarish enough to cause many disturbed days and nights. At the moment I feel encouraged that I will not lose my home, but it’s far from worked out. My sense of encouragement is primarily due to the fact that the house and land remained stable through the cyclone that came next.
I have done some important remedial work in the meantime, but won’t have a geotechnical engineer's report which will indicate a much more extensive and permanent solution before a month from now, probably longer considering the extent of the damage nationwide from both storms. Winter is coming, and that is a concern, as traditionally it brings lots of rain. But being stable for now allows me to continue to hope for the best and gives me time to do at least a little more temporary remedial work.
When do you expect to be settled in your future home?
I'm very sorry Janis
...about the uncertainty you still face Janis.
We just don't know when or where we will move. I had a discussion with the contractor yesterday discussing our fear that we won't have a place to live if he doesn't move this reconstruction of our storm damaged home along. I know I shouldn't complain, (especially to you), because we have many neighbors who have similar problems. Ironically, I've reading a lot about Confucianism; a person who complains about distress in life, demonstrates poor character. Synchronicity. Many neighbors are living in trailers or campers in the driveway. Some who couldn't afford that just continue to live in homes that either were or still needed to be gutted. I reminded of all the victims of war in the world, and the state of homeless refugees. It's not that bad but similar in some respects.
A recurring thought I have is no one trained me on how to build a home or rebuild one. So I find myself inadequate. The main issues are the unanticipated sequelae, which are social, economic, and legal. We find it extremely difficult to start our lives over again like young people at our age. We have gone from being somewhat financially stable, in a modest way, to being full fledged members of the precariat. I hesitate to go on because we are so vulnerable. It's no exaggeration to say, that the main threat is psychological, but the government is a potential problem as well. Can you imagine paying property taxes on a home that has been destroyed?
I'm relying on my training at survival school many years ago. My wife didn't have such training, I think she has it worse than I. The smallest frustration can drive a person over the edge in this situation. Everything the neighbors tell us, about their situation adds to her distress. Apparently some neighbors with mortgages can't get their insurance money from the mortgage company who received it first. Everyone's problems are somewhat different depending on their situation but all of them are very serious.
I had a land subsidence problem "settling" they call it several years ago, after very heavy rains, although my home wasn't on an elevation like yours. I had to put steel piers under the foundation at considerable cost to save it. What I'm anticipating now, is another hurricane season, which will start almost immediately after the home is restored to whatever state I can achieve with the money the insurance company gave me to fix it. This is climate change.
Best wishes Janis.
語必忠信 行必正直
This is the Korean news
...being covered right now in English language media-
North Korea warns of military action over joint S Korea-US drills
North Korean spokesperson said ‘strong counteractions’ would follow if South Korea and the US conducted planned military exercises.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/2/17/north-korea-warns-of-military-a...
This is the related news in South Korea not covered at all by western media even though it is a remarkable development- As indictment and an arrest warrant are imminent for the leader of the democratic party in South Korea, virtually the entire body of National Assembly democratic party representatives call out the Yoon administration as a dictatorship run by Yoon's prosecutors. Former presidential candidate and National Assembly member Lee Jae-myung is just one of many opposition politicians, reporters, labor and civic leaders subjected to arbitrary political persecution by Yoon Seok-yeol's administration in South Korea.
(Source 빨간아재 youtube 2.16) Democratic Party National Assembly members (center) surrounded by local government officials and party members from all over South Korea assembled in front of the National Assembly building in Yoido to condemn the government of Yoon Seok-yeol as a dictatorship run by prosecutors.
Pushing the military confrontation with North Korea, and the South' descent into dictatorship are directly related.
Thanks for the Blues Joe.
語必忠信 行必正直