The Evening Blues - 3-8-24
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features blues rock band Savoy Brown. Enjoy!
Savoy Brown - Poor Girl
"Any time you find the government involved in a conspiracy to violate the citizenship or the civil rights of a people, then you are wasting your time going to that government expecting redress. Instead, you have to take that government to the World Court and accuse it of genocide and all of the other crimes that it is guilty of today."
-- Malcolm X
News and Opinion
South Africa Urgently Appeals to ICJ on Gaza Famine
South Africa on Wednesday filed an urgent request with the International Court of Justice for the indication of additional provisional measures and the modification of the court’s order of 26 January 2024 and decision of 16 February 2024 in the case concerning Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel), according to the ICJ in a March 6 press statement.
In its request, South Africa states that it is
“compelled to return to the Court in light of the new facts and changes in the situation in Gaza — particularly the situation of widespread starvation — brought about by the continuing egregious breaches of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide . . . by the State of Israel . . . and its ongoing manifest violations of the provisional measures indicated by this Court on 26 January 2024.”
It requests the court to indicate further provisional measures and/or to modify the provisional measures indicated in its order of 26 January 2024, pursuant to Article 41 of the Statute of the Court and Article 75, paragraphs 1 and 3, and Article 76, paragraph 1, of the Rules of Court, respectively, “in order urgently to ensure the safety and security of 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, including over a million children.”
It urges the court to do so without holding a hearing, in light of the “extreme urgency of the situation.”
The situation in Gaza described by the ICJ as “perilous” on 16 February, “is now so terrifying as to be unspeakable… justifying — and indeed demanding — the indication of further provisional measures of protection,” argued South Africa.
Biden's ABSURD Gaza Port Plan Dismantled
Biden to announce US will build port on Gaza shore for large-scale aid delivery
US forces will build a temporary port on the Gaza shoreline to allow delivery of humanitarian aid on a large scale, Joe Biden will announce in the State of the Union speech, amid warnings of a widespread famine among the territory’s 2.3 million Palestinians. “We are not waiting on the Israelis. This is a moment for American leadership,” a senior US official said on Thursday, reflecting growing frustration of what is seen in Washington as Israeli obstruction of road deliveries on a substantial scale.
The scheme will take several weeks to put into action, however, carrying the risk of supplying too little relief, too late. While aid experts welcomed it as a step in the right direction, they said it was a less effective way of getting aid into Gaza than the US using its leverage to make Benjamin Netanyahu’s government open more land routes to more humanitarian assistance.
“This just shows the lengths to which President Biden is being forced to go to avoid actually putting meaningful pressure on Netanyahu,” said Jeremy Konyndyk, a former senior aid official in the Biden administration, now president of the Refugees International aid advocacy organisation.
The temporary pier will be built by US military engineers operating from ships off the coast of the old Gaza City port in the Rimal district, aid sources said. US troops would not need to step ashore, but could build the floating dock from ships offshore, according to US officials. The aid deliveries will be shipped from the port of Larnaca in Cyprus, which will become the main relief hub.
‘Who is going to distribute it?’: the key flaw in US’s plan to build aid port in Gaza
The US plan to build a floating port off the Gaza coast is a bold move, reminiscent of the Mulberry harbours built after D-day in Normandy, but there are serious concerns that what relief it brings will be too little too late for Palestinians facing starvation.
“When we talk about the sea route, it’s going to take weeks to set up and we are talking about a population that is starving now. We have already seen children dying of hunger,” said Ziad Issa, the head of humanitarian policy at the ActionAid charity.
US officials have presented the plan as Washington taking leadership and “not waiting for the Israelis”, but the Israelis will still have a say on how effective it is in delivering aid, especially in the north, where the threat of famine is most imminent.
Israeli inspectors will be in the Cypriot port of Larnaca, scrutinising cargoes of aid going into southern Gaza, and the inspections will provide Israel a tool with which to regulate the flow in the name of security vetting.
That might be harder for Israel to do when dealing directly with US military logistics officers rather than aid officials, but there are many other ways the Israeli government, a coalition that includes ministers who oppose any aid entering Gaza, can play an obstructionist role.“People say this is a complex situation, but it’s very simple,” Issa said. “Israel is not allowing aid to get to the Gaza Strip.”
Israel will resist pressure to halt Rafah attack, says Netanyahu
Israel will not give in to international pressure to stall an attack on the southern Gaza city of Rafah and will continue its bloody offensive against Hamas, said Benjamin Netanyahu.
“There is international pressure and it’s growing, but … we need to stand together against the attempts to stop the war,” the prime minister told a military graduation ceremony in southern Israel, saying that Israel’s forces would operate against Hamas all through the Gaza Strip “including Rafah, the last Hamas stronghold”.
He added: “Whoever tells us not to act in Rafah is telling us to lose the war and that will not happen.”
The uncompromising statement came just hours after news that Hamas had withdrawn its delegation from indirect ceasefire negotiations in Cairo, suggesting that the chances of even a short pause to the war in Gaza before the Islamic holy month of Ramadan are now very slim.
Scott Ritter & Larry Johnson: Israel is LOSING the War as IDF Cruelty Exposes Battlefield Weakness
Russian Forces Make Steady Gains in Eastern Ukraine
Russian forces have been making steady gains in eastern Ukraine since taking the strategic Donetsk city of Avdiivka last month as Ukraine’s war effort continues to falter.
Russia was expected to be able to start gaining territory more rapidly once Avdiivka was taken if it could keep up the momentum. Ukrainian soldiers on the front are facing severe manpower and weapons shortages, but Ukrainian leadership vows the fight will continue.
Upending the “West’s Dictatorship.” New MP George Galloway on the Next Era of Politics
House Democrat Accuses GOP Colleague of 'Calling For Genocide'
U.S. Rep. Becca Balint, a Vermont Democrat, on Thursday said the latest rant by a Republican lawmaker about Israel's ongoing U.S.-backed slaughter of civilians in Gaza should be recognized for what it is: "a member of Congress calling for the genocide of the Palestinian people."
Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) was confronted by campaigners with the anti-war group CodePink on Wednesday in a corridor at the U.S. Capitol where he repeatedly told them he "will never support" the Palestinians and "will support Israel forever."
Fleischmann refused to answer the protesters as they asked if he would make an exception if Israel was found to be guilty of war crimes and genocide, which the International Court of Justice found was "plausible" in an interim ruling in January.
"Why do you support the genocide and all the war crimes and collective punishment?" asked one campaigner. "Are you concerned about all the children dying in Gaza?"
Fleischmann replied that "they are not guilty of genocide and I will support Israel forever."
Wow.
Tennessee Republican Chuck Fleischmann: "You can tell the Palestinians — I will never support them!"
Protestor: "I am a Palestinian."
Fleischmann: "Then I will tell you, I will never support you. I will tell you to your face: Goodbye to Palestine!"pic.twitter.com/iO8mgbip6h— Prem Thakker (@prem_thakker) March 6, 2024
When one organizer told Fleischmann that he is Palestinian and asked if he supported the killing of his cousins who live in Gaza, the congressman replied: "I will never support you. I will tell you to your face, goodbye to Palestine."
Jack Allen, a Democrat who is running for Fleischmann's seat in Congress, condemned the congressman's "hostility" toward the campaigners and said, "We are well past the need for a cease-fire in this conflict."
Fleischmann's comments came as the far-reaching effects of Israel's blocking of nearly all food aid since October became increasingly clear. Defense for Children International - Palestine reported Thursday that at least 17 children have starved to death so far in the enclave, which has been relentlessly bombarded by Israel for five months.
The deliberate starving of civilians is "a hallmark of genocide," the organization said.
Fleischmann is one of at least two Republican lawmakers to openly call for the destruction of Gaza and its population of more than 2 million people in recent weeks.
Last month, Rep. Andy Ogles, also of Tennessee, responded to an activist who told him: "I've seen the footage of shredded children's bodies. That's my taxpayer dollars that are going to bomb those kids."
"You know what? So, I think we should kill 'em all," Ogles replied.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) also called for Israel to "level the place" in the first days of the bombardment of Gaza.
On Wednesday, Libyan-American writer Hend Amry remarked that the refusal of the Democratic Party, particularly President Joe Biden, to stand firmly against Israel's attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure and its blockade on humanitarian aid "is also teaching Republicans how much they can get away with."
Trump on Israel’s Gaza Slaughter: ‘You’ve Got to Finish the Problem’
Former President Trump, the likely GOP candidate for the 2024 presidential election, said he supported Israel’s brutal military operations in Gaza in an interview with “Fox & Friends” on Tuesday.
Trump agreed when a host described him as being “firmly in Israel’s camp.” He was then asked if he was “on board” with the way the Israeli military was carrying out its campaign.
“You’ve got to finish the problem. You had a horrible invasion that took place, that would have never happened if I was president, by the way,” Trump replied.
Trump did not elaborate on his position and only claimed the October 7 Hamas attack wouldn’t have happened if he was still president. When asked whether or not he would support a ceasefire in Gaza, Trump said, “Look, I hate seeing what’s happening. Again, it would have never happened. This attack on Israel and, likewise, Israel’s counter-attack, which is what it is, would never have happened if I was president.”
House GOP Advances 'Death Panel' for Social Security in Election Year
Congressional Democrats and other defenders of Social Security and Medicare responded with alarm after U.S. House Budget Committee Republicans on Thursday advanced a sweeping resolution that includes support for a fiscal commission intended to gut the crucial programs.
While Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) celebrated the committee's passage of the Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2025, Ranking Member Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) declared that "today, we saw just how backward and extreme House Republicans' vision for the future really is."
"We saw just how willing Republicans are to sell out American families in order to continue giving trillions in tax cuts to price gouging corporations and the ultrarich," Boyle said. "And we saw just how hellbent they are on gutting critical programs—raising the cost of living and pushing the middle class out of reach for hardworking families."
"Budget Committee Democrats know who we're fighting for. That's why we proposed amendments that would have protected Social Security and Medicare, prevented Republicans from raising healthcare costs, and defended American families against the devastating cuts in this budget resolution," he continued. "By voting for this dangerous budget and by rejecting our amendments today, committee Republicans have made it clear who they're fighting for—the wealthy and the well-connected." ...
Social Security Works president Nancy Altman said that "at tonight's State of the Union, President Joe Biden has a golden opportunity to slam the Trump-Arrington death panel. In addition, Biden should renew his promise to protect and expand Social Security—and pay for it by taxing the ultrarich. Then the American people will know which party stands with them and which party stands with the billionaire class."
"The commission is designed to slash vital earned benefits through a fast-track, closed-door process, intended to allow Republicans to avoid political accountability," Altman stressed. "Every Republican who voted for this budget voted to cut Social Security and Medicare."
"This markup comes two days after Donald Trump enthusiastically endorsed Chairman Arrington," she noted. "Arrington is a fervent supporter of the death panel commission, and wants to attach it to must-pass government spending bills. By endorsing Arrington, Trump has endorsed the Social Security death panel."
Biden delivers dark and angry State of the Union
Judge denies Trump request to delay $83.3m E Jean Carroll payment
A federal judge on Thursday denied Donald Trump’s request to delay enforcement of the writer E. Jean Carroll’s $83.3 m verdict in her recent defamation case.
The decision by US district judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan adds to pressure on Trump to line up an acceptable bond during his expected appeal.
In the 26 January verdict, jurors agreed with Carroll, a former Elle magazine advice columnist, that Trump had defamed her in June 2019 by denying he had raped her in the mid-1990s in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan.
Kaplan made the verdict official on 8 February and gave Trump 30 days to post a bond or come up with cash during his appeal, which is expected to challenge the jury’s finding of liability and the amount of damages.
Trump had sought to delay enforcement of the verdict until the judge ruled on his motions to throw it out, which he filed on Tuesday.
Hurricanes are intensifying more rapidly – and the most vulnerable communities are hit hardest
Hurricane Ian, a devastating category 5 storm that led to 149 deaths across the state of Florida, was one of the most powerful hurricanes to ever strike the US. It demolished homes and businesses and left more than 2 million without power. Part of its devastation stemmed from how quickly it progressed; as the storm approached the US, Ian underwent a dramatic and difficult-to-predict escalation in a short amount of time, a phenomenon known as rapid intensification. With climate crisis warming the oceans at a record pace, scientists say these types of storms are occurring more frequently. And unless coastal communities like Sanibel [a barrier island off the Florida coast] invest in robust disaster preparedness, residents may continue to find themselves blindsided by these extreme weather events.
“If you look back in time, historically, storms intensified at a slower rate than they do now,” said Phil Klotzbach, a researcher at Colorado State University who specializes in hurricane forecasting. “If you’re expecting a category 1 hurricane, and you get a category 5, that has a very different set of impacts in terms of the winds but also the storm surge,” Klotzbach said.
Predicting when rapid intensification will strike – and effectively communicating the dangers of such an event to community members – poses challenges for evacuation and emergency management systems. “It’s one of the most important challenges facing our field right now,” said Alex DesRosiers, a researcher at Colorado State University specializing in intensity change. Some recent storms have seen wind speeds increase by 60mph (96.6km/h) in a day. “That’s the difference between a category 2 and a category 5,” DesRosiers said. One such example is Hurricane Michael. In 2018, this devastating storm jumped from a category 2 to category 5 the day before making landfall in Florida.
From 1950 to 2023, meteorologists identified a total of 482 hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean. These are storms with maximum winds of 74mph (119km/h) or greater. Of those, roughly 60% of them underwent rapid intensification – meaning their wind speeds increased by 35mph(56.3km/h) or more in a 24-hour period. Research shows that since 1970s, the number of storms escalating into category 4 or 5 hurricanes has roughly doubled in the North Atlantic.
Xcel Energy admits it was ‘involved in ignition’ of Texas’s Smokehouse Creek fire
The electric utility company Xcel Energy admitted on Thursday that it appeared to have played a role in Texas’s Smokehouse Creek fire, the largest wildfire in modern US history. “Based on currently available information, Xcel Energy acknowledges that its facilities appear to have been involved in an ignition of the Smokehouse Creek fire,” it said in a statement on Thursday. ...
Xcel rejected claims that it was negligent in maintaining and operating its infrastructure, contradicting a lawsuit against it by a homeowner near Canadian, Texas, whose house was destroyed in the fire. In the lawsuit, Melanie McQuiddy claimed the fire was started by one of Xcel’s fallen utility poles.
She is also suing Southwestern Public Service Company, Osmose Utilities Services, and a Georgia contractor responsible for inspecting wood utility poles, alleging the companies “failed to properly inspect, maintain, and replace” the pole in question, which then “splintered, and snapped off at its base”, igniting the fire.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
UN Expert 'Horrified by the Depravity' of Israel's War on Gaza
‘No Comment’ by UK on Israeli Flights Into Britain
Western media concocts ‘evidence’ UN report on Oct 7 sex crimes failed to deliver
I was punished under the Espionage Act. Why wasn’t Joe Biden?
Nothing in Nuland’s Life Became Her Like the Leaving of It
Carved up and sold off: developers plan a ‘new Miami’ in Argentina’s nature-rich wetlands
Principles Of The Green Age After The Collapse: #1
Biden’s SOTU on Gaza: Israeli Daughter of Freed Hostage & Palestinian American Professor Respond
State of the Union: Biden's Domestic Agenda Undermined by Foreign Policy, Says Katrina vanden Heuvel
ROE v WADE No More: Biden DRESSES DOWN Scotus For Its Ruling On ABORTION
Jimmy Dore RESPONDS To Immigration Stance Hypocrisy Accusation!!
A Little Night Music
Savoy Brown - Louisiana Blues
Savoy Brown - Stranger Blues
Savoy Brown - The Saddest Feelings
Savoy Brown - A Hard Way To Go
Savoy Brown Blues Band - Oh! Pretty Woman
Savoy Brown - Stay With Me Baby
Savoy Brown – Needle & Spoon (Live)
Savoy Brown - Hate To See You Go
Savoy Brown - Hellbound Train
Savoy Brown - Tell Mama
Savoy Brown - She's Got A Ring In His Nose And A Ring On Her Hand
Savoy Brown - Hernando’s Hideaway
Comments
Uvalde cops did nothing wrong.
Uvalde shooting: Victims’ families furious after independent investigator clears officers of blame
At the time of Columbine I spoke to a SWAT trainer who explained why cops did not enter the high school. A cop's priority is first his life, the life of good guys, and third life of bad guys. I took this to mean that the life of a cop is more important than even children who are being murdered.
When cops have actually been charged (which is like rare) for murder, juries will let them go if all they profess is that they feared for their lives and anybody killed as a consequence was justified (victim or not).
Hey libs, move to Texas where you and your family are safe.
evening mr w...
i think that you are right about the way the cops interpret the rules.
i guess we need to decide if we really need cops after all if the rules that they operate under suggest that they should shoot first and ask questions later (because their lives are in their view at risk) or if they refuse to investigate inside a building where someone may be shooting children.
Savoy savvy
SB was once a kicker
savory in the party crowds
thanks for the memories JS
who is going to cover Sat OT?
Asking for wonder.
I can't do it this Sat or next, maybe after. n/t
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 --
insomnia works sometimes
-
got the Sat OT in the can
Thanks
Heh, "flagged for inappropriate thanks", the
thanks go to you for taking the Sat OT.
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 qms...
they were a big deal when i was in high school and college. they didn't get as much airplay in my area as other big(ger) name bands, though, so they were kind of an underground band.
Trump appeal
Trump Posts $92 Million Bond for E. Jean Carroll Judgement
The reported bond guarantor is Chubb. Trust that the NY Courts are savvy enough not to accept Chubb as the sole guarantor because its Federal Treasury underwriting limitation is only $18,504,000. No public agency would accept a surety bond in excess of the company's T-list. Formally, the guarantor should be Chubb as co-surety with Ace American or Ace P&C. Or Ace American or Ace P&C as stand alone surety. (The Ace companies operate as Chubb since it was purchased a few years ago. However, the money is held in the Ace companies.)
Way back Chubb had a sterling reputation in the insurance and surety communities. Then along came Enron. As Chubb's Board of Directors was holding a meeting, there was a media report that Chubb was on the hook for several hundred million dollars. They asked for the surety SVP to join them immediately. He was tracked down playing a round of golf; so, there was a slight delay in his immediate appearance. When asked what his department had put Chubb on several hundred million in guarantees, he said, "I don't actually know."
evening marie...
i'm sort of surprised that trump found somebody to guarantee the bond.
kinda funny that it was enron that destroyed chubb. enron seemed to destroy everything it touched.
This is likely true but Genocide Joe and his facilitator
Antony Blinken continue to find ways to prolong the atrocities. Either by the means of vetoes or sending additional arms to Israel.
This is but a few of the numerous examples of Israeli behavior.
evening humphrey...
what some people find humorous strikes me as quite perverse. i can't imagine what is going to change these people to the point that they understand that they have become monsters - and stop enjoying being monsters.
ms. shikspack ran across this piece, it's pretty good:
Beyond the State of the Union, We Must Confront the State of the Genocide
Double standards and the two justice systems
.
Biden and Hillary walk because they had no intent to break the law….
Hillary went even farther because she destroyed 30,000 emails that were used subpoenas and she broke the devices that they were stored on. No intent at all to break the law my left buttock! And Comey gave her staff immunity from charges and so no one talked to him. Sweet!
But Hale and Trump weren’t in the same club as those 2. Blehh!
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
evening snoopy...
political bias in the system? naaahhhh...
There is no shortage of individuals that desire to enter
the ranks of the Ukrainian military. /S
A different view of the same situation.
Those 34 men should have done what just one man did
He decked the guy who was trying to press gang him. Geez they are already facing certain death if they’re sent to the front so why not fight back and take their chances?
Shoigu updated the Ukraine deaths and its 440,000 with 166,000 since the counter attack. I wonder if the Ukraine supporters knew of that number if they’d change their minds and push for peace? And just what will a measly $61 billion more for Ukraine do when they are still losing after getting $200 billion, had the 2nd biggest and well trained army in Europe and some of the best weapons? Biden sent them stripped down Abrams tanks and 3 have already been destroyed by Russia.
Boy this isn’t flattering at all.
Ouch for both of them.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
Anyone hear about this?
.
Hochul was asked: what if people don’t want their bags searched and she said that they shouldn’t take the subway. I’m not seeing too many people objecting to it. Maybe we shouldn’t have rolled over for the TSA. 1 week of everyone boycotting flying would have sent them home.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
heh...
i posted a link to this last night:
it seems like more of an election time political stunt than anything else, but you never know what evil lurks in the minds of our coin-op politicians.
Zelensky certainly is a drama queen.
https://uawire.org/zelensky-putin-tried-to-kill-me-more-than-10-times#:~....
heh...
what polyansky should have said was, "why in the hell would russia assassinate its most useful servant?"
Utter BS
.
Look at Blinken nodding like a fcking puppy when the guy says that we gotta get aid into Gaza. They knew they were being filmed and the Mike was on.
Cook tore Biden a new one on his stupid pier ideal. How far would it be from Rafah where the trucks are just outside the gate? Besides Israel still gets to decide what goes in.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
Everything with regards to Genocide Joe is carefully staged
by his handlers
and Blinken is one of the main ones pulling the strings..More details and it surely leaves plenty of time for Israel to murder more Palestinians.
somehow we are supposed to believe
-
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humanitarian aid covers every covert activity
don't think most of the awares buy it
except to the extent of the bullshit it is
just another phrase invented to muddy the water
Fox is an A-hole idiot
THEY didn’t start anything half of them weren’t even alive when Hamas took power and if Israel hadn’t been starving and murdering them for decades Hamas wouldn’t have tried to stop the fcking slaughter.
It’s going to take 60 days to complete the pier and how many people will still be alive then? This is just as bad as doing nothing. Open the fcking gates.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
heh...
fox talks like a libertarian. reminds me a bit of that robbie suave fellow that proclaims his idiocy fairly regularly while briahna joy gray looks at him with disbelief.
As usual Caitlin Johnstone gets right to the heart of the matter
Saying “Hamas just needs to surrender” is saying “We’ll kill kids until we get what we want”
heh...
biden and bibi are going to have a "come to jesus" meeting? which one of them is coming to jesus? looks like biden, since he still can't bring himself to use his leverage to compel bibi to let aid into gaza and bibi seems to get biden to do anything he wants.
jews generally do not believe in Jesus
-
-
as the messiah the way Christians do
so I'm guessing Zion Joe is the one
seeking redemption and won't find his
Israeli masters there
It is similar to scrub bush waving to
Stevie Wonder
Yep…
Bibi is still making Biden look like a neutered poodle who piddles on the floor and cowers every time the master raises his voice. It’s obvious that the US president isn’t really the most powerful man in the world. Whoever runs Israel is.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
This seems to be related to your comment.
Yeah, but…
Not enough poodles in the picture. Biden should get toy poodles instead of the German shepherds that he can’t handle.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
Good evening Joe. It appears that it is Friday again,
so have a great weekend.
Thanks for the EBs. Pretty much nuthin' to say about everything else, all of the movers and shakers and their stenographers and talking heads just get dumber and dumber.
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...
have a great weekend! i am going to avoid all of the moving, shaking and scribbling this weekend. i've seen enough this week to last me a couple of days.
Hi bluesters
Hi all, Hey Joe,
Great Savoy Brown selection. It will be impossible for me to hear Tell Mama, Street Corner Talkin', Hellbound Train, or I'm Tired, enough times in my life. What a great band they were, v.1 and v.2.0.
Thanks for all the great blues! Have a great weekend!
good ones to all of you!
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...
there will be more of that later version of the band performing the greatest hits live tomorrow afternoon if you tune in.
have a great weekend!
This is true!
But since he calls himself a Zionist he is probably proud of it.
oh, puleese
-
he's just a harmless old man
lost in the snark
Caitlin nails the hypocrisy
.
Ursula once said that Putin was evil for targeting electricity and water for Ukrainians and especially kids.
Biden: Hamas must give the hostages back and lay down its arms.
There’s rarely any talk of Israel releasing the hostages they’ve taken and for decades they have arranged kids and thrown them in prison without charges or trials. But only Israeli people matter to the world. And there’s never any talk about the settlers abandoning their homes and quit taking Palestinian homes. I’m so fcking sick of this world’s fcking blindness and hypocrisy.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
The air drops are simply a useless publicity stunt that does
literally nothing to alleviate the starvation of the Palestinians.
https://thehill.com/policy/international/4520524-pentagon-gaza-aid-port-...
optics
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trying to make the US look good?
Can't they get over it?
I'm being sarcastic. This is the kind of reaction diplomats, think tank flunkies, and USFK officials have to any South Korean that objects to what they are doing. These demos by old folks in Soseong-ri have been going on since 2016. This is great coverage by The Real News Network. I see they are using signs in English, because they want Americans to know about this.
The movement of a THAAD battery into Soseong had to be rushed at the premature end of the Park Geun-hye administration because of her impeachment. The US and ROK Ministry of Defense anticipated that a more democratic administration to follow might not go for it. I still recall a scene where someone threw an egg on the defense minister, when he was claiming the locals had had their hearing and their views were duly considered. So the environmental impact studies and whatever hearings they had were rushed. US Forces Korea got one battery in there before Moon took office and immediately suspended any further deployment of additional batteries. The deployment caused a fairly serious political and economic problem with China which Moon resolved with a three no's declaration. I'm pretty sure the conditions have all been violated by the Yoon administration by now. Additional THAAD launchers are probably stowed away on some USFK base somewhere.
By way of contrast, Japan canceled the deployment of Aegis ashore at two locations in Japan proper and nothing much seemed to come of it. The reason was pretty much the same, the locals just wouldn't have it. An old US Air Force argument I read today said basically well, if Japan isn't going to have a land based ABM system, they'll compensate by adopting offensive firepower for pre-emptive attacks. That prediction pretty much came true.
I remember seeing Migoon na ga ra! (Yankee go home) signs on huge placards along the DMZ many years ago, on the North Korean side. They were so big you could see them from miles away on the south side of course.
Supposedly public support for Yoon and/or his party increased in the last month or so, such that they are 7 percent ahead of the democrats, or something like that. I guess I'm in the dog house because I said on an expert's board, that I had heard three commentators say the polls were manipulated to get the desired results. There are various ways to manipulate poll outcomes and misinterpret them. I'm not an expert but I've seen others go through how this is done.
Yoo Shi-min, and Kim Eo-jun, highly regarded political observers, more or less said the same thing. Political polling is a hundreds of millions dollars business, the poll sponsors have their bias, the polls were off by six to eleven percent on Yoon's election, etc. Yoon only won by 0.7 percent rather than a 7 percent margin that some polls suggested.
The main thing is people don't just change their political views radically in one month just before the election. The range of various polls over the years on the main conservative party is much wider than the various polls on the democratic side. Why is that if polls are so reliable? Well it's okay the pollsters say, if you average them out. Even when you do that, the democratic party has been consistently either even with the conservatives, a point or two above or now a point below, until the votes started shifting to Cho Guk's new party, and other new tiny splinter parties. Now the democratic party is allegedly 7 percentage points down from the PPP. The main change is that quite a few democrats have gone over to Cho Guk's new party. He was the former justice minister whose entire family including himself has been persecuted in the courts by Yoon Seok-yeol (Cho Guk's wife is in prison). That doesn't really change the number of people who want to vote against Yoon's party as a judgement on his presidency. One critic said Yoon uncharacteristically made a 100 billion dollars worth of promises to the South Korea people. Gee, wonder if he'll keep them?
We'll see if I'm wrong in April. If democratic leader Lee Jae-myung, and Cho Guk don't coordinate their campaign efforts carefully, I guess the democrats could suffer notable losses. They said they would cooperate on the news yesterday. I'm certainly not expecting them to get 179 seats again, with all the Soobak/DINO defections from the democratic party. The analysts I follow say it will also depend on turn out. The Wurlitzer for the far right, is relying on their propaganda about how remarkably unpopular Lee is now, and how unpopular the democrats have become, based on these polls, to discourage people from turning out to vote. Otherwise, I'm a conspiracy theorist, and denying reality. The top political analysts on the left say it's bs. The key thing that Cho Guk and Lee Jae-myung have in common is that they and their families have both been slandered and persecuted in the criminal courts by Yoon's gang of thugs in the Public Prosecutors Offices attempting to eliminate them from the political scene and intimidate more timid souls. I don't think Cho-guk would intentionally damage Lee's agenda.
The real issue is I'm impugning the fairness and integrity in the so called "democratic system" in South Korea. Not that what we have is any better.
Thanks for the EBs Joe.
(edit-had to fix a couple of typos)
語必忠信 行必正直
Thanks for the Savoy Brown songs!
Why they were not in the Super Star rank is beyond me.
After I get the evening meal sous prep done, I step away, let the chef take over the kitchen, get the cooking done. He swears I burn shit, but I digress.
Often, his cooking without burning is inspired by a Savoy Brown album blasting away, rattling the windows.
Have a great weekend, my friend!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981