The Evening Blues - 1-18-19



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: James Cotton

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues harmonica player James Cotton. Enjoy!

The James Cotton Band - Boogie Thing

“I can’t believe that this world can go on beyond our generation and on down to succeeding generations with this kind of weapon on both sides poised at each other without someday some fool or some maniac or some accident triggering the kind of war that is the end of the line for all of us. And I just think of what a sigh of relief would go up from everyone on this earth if someday–and this is what I have–my hope, way in the back of my head–is that if we start down the road to reduction, maybe one day in doing that, somebody will say, ‘Why not all the way? Let’s get rid of all these things’.”

-- Ronald Reagan


News and Opinion

'People making lots of money on this': Trump plans missile defence system to orbit Earth

Trump announces huge expansion of US missile defense system

Donald Trump has announced plans for a huge expansion of US missile defense with aim of destroying enemy missiles “anywhere, anytime, any place”. The missile defense review, which Trump unveiled on Thursday in a speech at the Pentagon, calls for a major upgrade in land and sea-based missile interceptor systems, as well as the development of a layer of satellite sensors in low orbit that would help track new types of cruise missiles and hypersonic glide vehicles (HGVs) countries like Russia and China are developing.

The review argues that nuclear deterrence is the main defense against major nuclear powers like Russia and China, which both own large and sophisticated arsenals. And it restates US policy that the primary aim of such defenses is to counter well-armed “rogue states”, North Korea and Iran. Seven months after Trump declared that the North Korean threat had been eliminated, the new missile review states that Pyongyang “continues to pose an extraordinary threat and the US must remain vigilant”. ...

Arms control experts expressed alarm at the review and Trump’s presentation, warning that it would feed already substantial Russian and Chinese fears that US missile defense was aimed at blunting their deterrent. The review could drive those states to build more missiles with more capabilities to overcome US defenses, and trigger an arms race. ...

It is unclear whether Congress will fund Trump’s missile defense ambitions, especially with a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives. Congress crushed a similarly ambitious plan developed by the George W Bush administration. The US has nonetheless spent nearly $300bn on missile defense since 1983, when Ronald Reagan launched his Strategic Defense Initiative (widely known as Star Wars), according to estimates by Stephen Schwartz, a senior fellow at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. ...

Melissa Hanham, an expert on weapons of mass destruction at the One Earth Future foundation, said that any idea that missile defence could limit the damage of a nuclear war was “fantasy”. “If we invest as much money in lowering tensions and de-alerting missile systems, we would be safer by far,” Hanham said.

Rep. Ro Khanna: U.S. Troops Are a “Sitting Target” in Syria; It’s Time to Bring Them Home

ISIS Fighters in Syria Are Trying to Push Into Iraq, Where U.S.-Backed Forces Can’t Get Along With Militias Supported by Iran

As the fight against the Islamic State in eastern Syria — where some of the U.S. troops President Donald Trump has promised to withdraw are based — enters its final stages, ISIS fighters are trying to cross into Iraqi territory. “We normally have daily sightings,” Col. Saleh Al-Yacoubi of the Iraqi border guard said of the ISIS fighters, who are now cornered in a handful of villages on the reeds-enveloped east bank of the Euphrates River. ...

Al-Yacoubi spoke at a base north of Al Qaim, about 500 yards from the last ISIS position in Syria. His U.S.-backed forces, together with the Iraqi army, secure this side of the border, working closely with U.S. and French coalition troops stationed nearby. The Popular Mobilization Forces, or PMF, an umbrella group of largely Shiite paramilitary units backed by Iran, meanwhile, patrols the Iraqi border south of Al Qaim. To the west of the border fence, some 2,000 ISIS militants are wedged between the U.S.-backed Kurdish forces to the north and Syrian regime fighters to the south.

The array of armed groups on both sides of the border underscores the breadth of the coalition that has come together to fight ISIS in Iraq and Syria. But it also hints at what could go wrong if the militants take advantage of the impending U.S. withdrawal to stage a comeback. In Al Qaim, the last Iraqi urban center to be freed from ISIS in November 2017, the Iraqi security forces, which receive air cover, intelligence, and strategic advice from the United States, and the Iranian-backed PMF have long distrusted each other. ...

With their common foe on the verge of defeat, the rifts between the U.S.-led coalition and the PMF appear to be deepening. The PMF has been increasing its numbers along the border with Syria, where some of its units also fight alongside Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian government troops. Among them is Kata’ib Hezbollah, a U.S.-designated terror group and just one of a half-dozen Shia-led PMF units that have set up shop here. A large surveillance balloon hovers over the American base nearby, monitoring the area. The U.S.-led coalition and the PMF have divided areas of control to avoid confrontation, but that hasn’t been enough to calm tensions. During a tour of PMF areas south of Al Qaim, Ahmed Nasrallah, who commands a PMF unit called Liwa Al Toufuf, rattled off a list of grievances against the Americans: They tried to undermine the PMF’s authority by supporting local Sunni PMF units; they used their surveillance assets to spy on the PMF; and they deliberately targeted PMF positions. ... Nasrallah accused the U.S. forces of aiding ISIS, a widespread but unsubstantiated belief among the PMF that highlights the depth of antagonism between the two sides.

In the absence of direct communication between the PMF and American troops, the Iraqi army serves as a go-between, passing on information about troop movements to avert clashes. It’s an inefficient arrangement that seems prone to errors and hampers information-sharing about the presence of ISIS militants.

Police brutality during Yellow Vest protests: 'Move along, nothing to see here?'

Sudanese police fire on protesters demanding president step down

Thousands of people have taken to the streets in cities across Sudan, including the capital, where activists said a child and a doctor were killed in clashes between police and protesters calling for the end of Omar al-Bashir’s 30-year-old rule. Thursday’s protests marked some of the most widespread disturbances since unrest began on 19 December.

The protests were triggered by price rises and cash shortages, but have quickly developed into demonstrations against Bashir.

In the day’s most violent clashes police in Khartoum’s Burri neighbourhood fired rubber bullets and teargas, and chased demonstrators with batons, witnesses said. Several people were overcome with teargas, while some were bruised by rubber bullets and others beaten. ... A live video posted on social media and verified by Reuters showed security forces pointing guns at protesters in Burri. The sound of gunfire could be heard. ...

Bashir is wanted by the international criminal court over charges, which he denies, of masterminding genocide in the Darfur region.

A Coup in Progress? Venezuelan Foreign Minister Decries U.S. & Brazil-Backed Effort to Oust Maduro

The man behind Brexit says there could be a do-over vote

Brexit architect Nigel Farage said Friday that Britain’s exit from the European Union will likely be delayed — and a second, do-over referendum is now a distinct possibility. The former UKIP leader told Sky News that the current parliamentary deadlock over a withdrawal deal meant that Brexit would not take place on the scheduled date of March 29.

“I fear that the House of Commons is going to effectively overturn that Brexit. To me, the most likely outcome of all of this is an extension of Article 50,” he said, referring to the two-year window in which the terms of the divorce were to be settled. “There could be another referendum,” he added. Calls have been growing for a so-called “people’s vote” to revisit the decision to leave, as the withdrawal date draws nearer with no deal with the EU in place. ...

Despite the growing call from sections of his party to push for a second referendum, Corbyn has only said he may consider it, although he would prefer a general election. May has said a second referendum would harm the public’s faith in democracy. If a second referendum were to be held, it would take a year to organize, according to government guidance shown to MPs Wednesday.

Corbyn could face string of resignations if he backs 'people's vote'

Jeremy Corbyn could face up to a dozen resignations from the Labour frontbench if the party backs a second referendum as a way out of the Brexit crisis. A string of junior shadow ministers have told the Guardian they are strongly opposed to the idea of a second referendum, which they fear would expose Labour to a vicious backlash in leave-voting constituencies.

The development follows another tense day of brinkmanship in Westminster between Theresa May and the Labour leader as they seek a way out of the crisis that has engulfed both major parties.

Corbyn refused to enter talks with Theresa May on Thursday until she ruled out the idea of a no-deal departure, and demanded that his party’s MPs refuse similar invitations. Later May wrote to Corbyn telling him that ruling out no-deal was “an impossible condition” and calling on him to join cross-party discussions. With no sign of the impasse being broken, pressure is growing on Labour to consider a so-called people’s vote as the UK prepares to leave the EU on 29 March. ...

At a meeting in Hastings, East Sussex, Corbyn remained uncommitted on the idea of a second referendum, saying again that it remained one of several options if an election did not happen. Explaining why he was the only opposition leader not to meet May for one-to-one talks, Corbyn dismissed the cross-party discussions as a “stunt”, adding that May appeared unable to grasp the fact that her withdrawal agreement was now “dead”.

“She seems to be prepared to send the country hurtling towards a cliff-edge,” he said.

Most of the other issues in this article have been well covered in others, but the excerpt here is worth some attention:

The L.A. Teachers’ Strike Is About So Much More Than Wages

Some teachers were pointedly critical of Los Angeles School Superintendent Austin Beutner, a man media outlets describe as “A former investment banker with no history working as an educator.” Andy Dowdell, from Fleming Middle School, said, “He’s kind of like some of those people that Trump’s hired to dismember, to take apart these bureaucracies, and he’s trying to do that to our district.” Dowdell suspects that Beutner’s real agenda is to privatize the school district.

In fact, LAUSD insists on keeping more than 25 percent of the budget as surplus instead of the required 1 percent, raising suspicions about its agenda (what would be enough of a reserve, one wonders?). Mike Fahy, a special education teacher at Le Conte Middle School, explained to me that the broken computers he needs to teach dyslexic students to read need to be replaced. But the district won’t fund the needed upgrade. “There’s simply no money for supplies for my school, so I end up buying the supplies myself, because I don’t want to run a ‘poverty program,’ ” he said.

Fahy has a theory. “We’re being set up to fail by the decisions of the district and the school board,” he told me. Le Conte shares its campus with a charter elementary school. “In my school the students come in and they’re 90 percent brown. At the charter school on our campus, the students are 90 percent white. So the white kids go over there and the brown kids come over to my school.” According to Fahy, “The other school is being run like a private school on the public dime.” In the long run, he fears that unregulated charter school growth will result in LAUSD becoming “a special-ed district for the ‘problem kids.’ ” He has good reason to issue such a dire warning. Examples abound in places like New Orleans, where public school systems embraced charter schools only to end up an even more segregated system that fails students and teachers.

But corporate-minded elites across the U.S. are hellbent on viewing education as a business, and they see teachers as ungrateful moochers who are looking for easy paychecks funded by taxpayers. The Wall Street Journal published a sneering editorial on the first day of the Los Angeles teachers strike, fixating on the increasing costs of teacher salaries and pensions as requiring new tax programs every few years. The paper’s editors did not even acknowledge the third-world conditions that L.A. schools struggle with—schools situated in the world’s fifth largest economy and within the world’s richest nation. They defended charter school expansion and laughably described such schools as a “refuge for low-income and minority students.” In contrast, New York Times contributing writer Erin Aubrey Kaplan explained last year that “[i]t’s partly because diversity can be managed—or minimized — that charters have become the public schools that liberal whites here can get behind.”

Protesting Outside GOP's 'Lavish Retreat,' Federal Workers Demand End to Shutdown Amid Growing Calls for Strike

Amid growing calls for federal workers to walk off the job in protest as President Donald Trump continues to hold their paychecks hostage and downplay their financial hardship, government employees rallied outside of the Washington Nationals' ballpark in the frigid D.C. weather on Thursday to demand an end to the government shutdown as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his fellow Republicans held a "retreat" inside the stadium.

"Clearly McConnell thinks his lavish retreat is more important than 800,000 families," declared the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), one of several unions that took part in the demonstration.

Facing severe economic pain from the shutdown—which is now the longest in U.S. history—the workers called on McConnell to immediately allow a vote on House-passed legislation that would reopen the government and put an end to the pervasive financial anxiety and safety risked posed by the lapse in federal funding. "It's past time for McConnell to call the vote instead of partying with his colleagues at Nationals stadium," the AFL-CIO wrote on Twitter.

The workers' rally comes as the widespread economic strain caused by the shutdown has led some to call on federal workers to go on strike to pressure Congress and Trump to reopen the government. Long-time activist and journalist Barbara Ehrenreich—who co-authored a New York Times op-ed on Monday urging low-paid Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers to strike—echoed her call in an interview with Democracy Now! on Thursday, arguing that public employees are "being treated in a mean and humiliating fashion."

Trump just grounded Nancy Pelosi

President Donald Trump is going tit-for-tat with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in their public fight about the partial government shutdown: She suggested that the president postpone his State of the Union address until the government reopens — so he canceled her travel plans.

Pelosi said Trump hasn’t directly responded to her request yet, but Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted a pretty clear answer on Thursday: a letter signed by the president to Pelosi which said he'd be postponing her upcoming trips to Egypt, Belgium, and Afghanistan. Major political leaders are usually allowed to use military transport for travel, but Trump noted that buying a commercial flight would “certainly be [Pelosi’s] prerogative.”

“In light of the 800,000 great American workers not receiving pay, I am sure you would agree that postponing this public relations event is totally appropriate,” Trump wrote.

Even if Pelosi wanted to take the trip on her own dime, Trump may have blown up her spot. Trips taken by Congress — including their locations — are usually kept secret for security purposes, reporters have noted.

As federal staffers go without paychecks, Congress goes on vacation

Even as hundreds of thousands of federal workers are running out of money or fear they soon will, the two people with the most control over when they receive their next paycheck — President Donald Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — still aren’t talking.

And they’re far from the only politicians avoiding each other in the Capitol or getting out of Dodge as the partial government shutdown stretches into its 28th day. The House of Representatives has already left town for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and won’t be back for four days, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell allowed his chamber to leave Washington, so they won’t be back for 10 days. ...

So while around 800,000 federal employees are now close to going a full month without receiving a check, in Trump’s Washington the current response to the shutdown remains tit for tat, or silence. And frustration is growing.

The Trump administration lost track of thousands of migrant children separated from their parents

The Trump administration separated thousands of migrant children from their parents and then lost track of them after they were released from custody — long before the practice of family separation became formalized under the administration's “zero tolerance” policy last year. That’s according to a new report by the Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services released Thursday, which shed light on the utter chaos in the implementation of the immigration policy.

The report identified a spike in family separations beginning in the summer of 2017, and found that HHS officials failed to make records of what happened to children after they were released from Office of Refugee Resettlement custody, including whether they were reunified with parents or non-relative sponsors.

A class action filed in June 2018 challenging the administration’s policy on behalf of parents led to a federal court order requiring the government to end its family separation practice and reunify the 2,737 children in its care with their parents. ... Before the court order, HHS says they were not legally required to identify or track children who had been separated from their parents. Officials told the Inspector General that they estimate “thousands” of children were taken into custody before the court order, not marked as separated from their parents, and then released.

Laquan McDonald death: Chicago police trio found not guilty of cover-up

Three Chicago officers have been acquitted of trying to cover up the 2014 shooting of a black teenager by a white officer who was seen pulling the trigger on the shocking dashcam video that showed Laquan McDonald getting hit with 16 bullets. In rejecting the prosecution’s entire case, Judge Domenica Stephenson seemed to accept many of the same defense arguments that were rejected by jurors who in October convicted officer Jason Van Dyke of second-degree murder and aggravated battery. He is scheduled to be sentenced Friday.

Stephenson said there was no indication that officers tried to hide evidence. “The evidence shows just the opposite,” she said. She singled out how they preserved the graphic video at the heart of the case.

McDonald’s family immediately questioned how the two cases could produce such different decisions. His great uncle, the Rev Marvin Hunter, told reporters that the verdict means “that if you are a police officer you can lie, cheat and steal”. ...

The judge rejected prosecution arguments that the video demonstrated officers were lying when they described McDonald as moving even after he was shot. She repeatedly stated that McDonald was moving after being hit by the first few bullets and refused to relinquish the knife. “An officer could have reasonably believed an attack was imminent,” she said. “It was borne out in the video that McDonald continued to move after he fell to the ground.” Those and other comments suggest she accepted an argument jurors in the Van Dyke murder trial seem to rejected: that McDonald was a bona fide threat.

The video appeared to show the teen collapsing in a heap after the first few shots and moving in large part because bullets kept striking his body for 10 more seconds.

Women's March to take to streets after controversy divides movement

Just two years after leading the largest recorded protest in US history, the third annual Women’s March on Saturday is set to proceed under a cloud of controversy. This year’s march is shaping up to be smaller and more splintered than before, after several major sponsors withdrew and local chapters disaffiliated from the central organization which leads it, following allegations of antisemitism.

Leaders were slow to deny and condemn allegations they had made antisemitic comments, and recent reporting has revealed deep ties between top officials and the Nation of Islam, whose leader, Louis Farrakhan, is a notorious antisemite. Major progressive groups which sponsored the first march in 2017 have quietly withdrawn, including leading unions, environmental groups and women’s organizations. Of the many Jewish groups listed as partners in previous years, only a few remain. The Democratic National Committee, which had previously appeared on a list of 2019 Women’s March sponsors, recently disappeared too.

It’s a major blow for the movement that marked the beginning of the “resistance” in the wake of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential upset, when hundreds of thousands descended on the National Mall in Washington DC, a mass demonstration roughly three times the size of Trump’s own inauguration. This year, however, the showing is expected to be fractured.

Following a protracted fight over the organization’s leadership, Vanessa Wruble, a Brooklyn-based activist who was pushed out of the organization in 2017, went on to help found another organization called March On, which emphasizes supporting local activists and denouncing antisemitism. The result is that there will be two major women’s marches taking place on the streets of New York and many other cities around the country on Saturday – the original one, which emphasizes leadership by women of color, and another – March On – formed in opposition to antisemitism. “Founded by the leaders of many of the marches across the country, March On is women-led, but open to all, and will employ a sophisticated political strategy to coordinate concrete actions at the federal, state, and local level through the joint efforts of millions of marchers,” the March On website states.

Even without the infighting, turnout for the main Women’s March – which kicks off on Saturday on the National Mall in Washington DC – was expected to be lower than in previous years. Crowds in 2017 came in part as a response to Trump’s presidential inauguration. But this year’s rally takes place on the heels of a successful midterm election for Democrats, and at a time when options for civic involvement extend well beyond donning a pussy hat. Many of the biggest stars of the Democratic party, including those who are running for president and were prominently featured at the march in 2017 will not be making appearances this year. They include Senators Kamala Harris, Cory Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand, who once called the women’s march the “most inspiring and transformational moment I’ve ever witnessed in politics”.



the horse race



House Democrats’ HR 1 – Faking the Funk on Voting Rights, Spreading Fear and Gunning For the Greens in 2020

Trump “directed” Michael Cohen to lie to Congress, report claims

The House Intelligence Committee will investigate a bombshell report published Thursday that claims Donald Trump instructed his lawyer Michael Cohen to lie to Congress the deal to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. Citing law enforcement officials, the report is the strongest indication yet that Trump criminally obstructed the investigation into his ties to Russia.

According to BuzzFeed, special counsel Robert Mueller’s team is aware that Trump instructed Cohen to lie and has evidence beyond Cohen’s testimony, including “interviews with multiple witnesses from the Trump Organization and internal company emails, text messages, and a cache of other documents.”

The report also claims that Trump agreed to Cohen’s plan to set up a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2016 to kickstart the tower project. “Make it happen,” Trump reportedly told his lawyer. Trump has yet to respond to the allegation, but his current lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, told the Washington Post: “If you believe Cohen, I can get you a great deal on the Brooklyn Bridge.”

Democrats, however, pounced on the revelations. ...

Sources told BuzzFeed that Cohen admitted to Mueller that Trump “directed” and “personally instructed” him to lie to Congress about the work he was doing on the Trump Tower Moscow project. Details are scant, but the sources said the aim was “to obscure Trump’s involvement” in the deal.

70% Of House Republicans Vote Against Trump & Side With Dems



the evening greens


Flint water crisis: hope for justice as top Democrat vows to review investigation

New Democratic leadership in the investigation into the Flint water crisis has sparked hope among activists that a tougher line will be taken on prosecuting officials and compensating victims of the environmental disaster. ...

Now newly elected Democratic Michigan attorney general Dana Nessel has taken over the investigation from 1 January. She enters office after a 2018 campaign in which she labeled the prosecutions “politically charged show trials” designed to benefit her predecessor, Republican Bill Schuette, who ran for governor last year. Though Schuette’s special prosecutor, Todd Flood, initially charged suspects with felonies like involuntary manslaughter and false pretenses, he ended up negotiating seven plea deals for misdemeanors as minor as “disturbing the peace at a public meeting”. At the same time, Schuette spent over $25m in taxpayer money on legal fees, some of which funded the state’s fights against the civil lawsuits seeking compensation.

But Nessel has pledged to fully re-evaluate the investigation, and after a week in office she announced a dramatic shift in the state’s approach to Flint. On the criminal side, Nessel asked a Democratic prosecutor to review and take over the investigation. That could lead to more charges, or frivolous charges being dropped. Nessel also directed the state to settle civil lawsuits brought against it, which would result in victims finally receiving compensation.

With Democrats now investigating Flint, there’s a sense among many activists and community leaders that Michigan is finally serious about seeking justice for victims. The Republican-led investigation “was never about the state taking responsibility and making sure that the health of Flint’s families was the focus,” said Michigan senate minority leader and Flint resident Jim Ananich. “It was about trying to protect the governor’s image and do public relations, and now it will be about getting Flint the justice it deserves, and making families whole,” he said.

'Step Up or Step Aside': Youth Climate Leaders Occupy Schumer's Office to Demand Support for Green New Deal

Keeping up the pressure on the Democratic leadership to embrace bold and popular solutions that are aligned with the science, youth climate leaders on Thursday occupied the D.C. office of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y) to demand that he either show true leadership by supporting a Green New Deal or "step aside."

"Real climate leadership means a commitment to bold climate action and a just transition. It means a Green New Deal," a 16-year-old New Yorker named Jordan declared during Thursday's demonstration, which comes just weeks after young climate campaigners demonstrated at the offices of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).

"We're not going anywhere, Sen. Schumer," 350.org, one of the groups that organized the action, wrote on Twitter. "We're going to keep showing up until Democratic leaders like you step up and show the real climate leadership we need—or step aside."

Another thing you may not know about Bitcoin: it's killing the planet

I make Bitcoin, and in a previous life, I covered the oil industry as a journalist. ... Bitcoin’s environmental footprint will haunt it. Nobody has pointed this out, but it is painfully clear: if we can at all predict an industry’s growth by that of a different one, then oil is Bitcoin’s crystal ball.

Most cryptocurrencies, of which Bitcoin is the first and most valuable, are created by running servers to crunch mathematical puzzles, or “mining”. I have a facility that does that in Canada’s oil capital of Calgary, and its business model is similar to that of the city’s dominant industry. Both profit by generating and selling a product whose price swings with supply and demand. Some in Calgary partake in both.

The cryptocurrency world is bigger than mining, just as the vaguely defined big oil is more than those who extract crude. But shares in either industry move in sync with the value of the underlying asset. Oil is considered volatile in finance. In the two years after 2014, its price fell more than 70%, similar to Bitcoin’s crash in 2018. Layoffs swept both industries. ...

Bitcoin mining uses as much power as a small country, according to some estimates. Miners compete for limited coins, resulting in an arms race, and that power usage increases constantly and rapidly. In China, which leads Bitcoin mining, 60% of energy comes from coal. Even if mining uses clean power, it carries the opportunity cost of not using said power for greener purposes, such as charging electric cars, which replace fossil-fuel-guzzling vehicles. ...

It is not this day, but a day may come when big oil shrinks or changes, becoming less of a target for environmentalists. Bitcoin is the natural next enemy. ... Abkhazia has announced the shutdown of 15 mining sites over electricity use concerns. Municipalities in Washington state have reined in the activity. Norway has excluded miners from power subsidies, with one leftwing politician calling the activity “the most dirty form of cryptocurrency output”.


Also of Interest

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

Bar Barr or Regret this Dictatorial Attorney General

Sy Hersh: The Vice President’s Men

Repeating the Mistakes of 1914?

GoFundMe CEO: ‘Gigantic Gaps’ In Health System Showing Up In Crowdfunding

WaPo Misses the Story: Either Scott Walker Doesn’t Understand Taxes or He Lies to Fifth Graders

John Bogle’s Bombshell Gift to Americans

Antarctic expedition yields remains of tiny, ancient 'water bears'


A Little Night Music

James Cotton - Sugar Sweet

James Cotton - Here I Am (Knocking At Your Door)

Muddy Waters, Johnny Winter, James Cotton - Black Cat Bone/Dust My Broom

James Cotton - Juke

Chris Thomas King w/James Cotton - Come On In My Kitchen

James Cotton - Mississippi Freight Train

James Cotton & Ruthie Foster - Wrapped Around My Heart

Magic Slim and James Cotton - Ship Made Of Paper

James Cotton - 1978 Canada


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WoodsDweller's picture

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCOBp1Lrlf4]

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

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"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone

joe shikspack's picture

@WoodsDweller

thanks for the earworm! here's the one that i had today...

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WindDancer13's picture

we are supposed to be so very afraid of Russia?

Anyone else remember that Reagan's ploy to destroy the USSR was to make them overspend on the military and bankrupt the country? In today's dollars how does Russia's military expenditure stack up against the US's current appropriations?

What is the betting looking like regarding how long it would take a space "defense" program to become a space "offense" program?

The news most often just leads me to more questions. So, thanks, Joe, for keeping me awake.

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass

joe shikspack's picture

@WindDancer13

we are supposed to be so very afraid of Russia?

my cynical answer is, because they are the best, most credible enemy that the u.s. mic has in stock.

the powers that be have spent decades brainwashing and training americans to poop their pants at the very thought that the russians might invade us.

listen to your fearleaders, children and get under your desks right now to practice for when the russians bomb us!

What is the betting looking like regarding how long it would take a space "defense" program to become a space "offense" program?

here's an article that i wrote back in 2012 about the intentions of the military to automate battlefield earth from space.

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WindDancer13's picture

@joe shikspack

of cowering under my desk waiting to die. I see even less sense in it now.

After reading your excellent article, I am leaning toward a biblical world destruction so either humankind can start over or perish completely; the later would be a boon for the rest of the universe. So...the president believing he/she is above the law didn't start with Trump. Just kidding. I remember Nixon and others.

In one of the biblical stories, god said that it would not cause the waters to rise to destroy humankind with a flood again. But nowhere, does it say that humans cannot be drowned by their own stupidity.

The only reason I can think of why Russia would be considered the "best, most credible enemy" is because propaganda tells us so, not facts. I lean more to the idea that Russia under Communism (at least the image of it) was a 'godless" society, and our christian socio-pathological approach is that they then must die. Maybe our endless wars should be thought of in the light of an Endless Crusade against reason.

Okay, starting to wander . . .

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass

joe shikspack's picture

@WindDancer13

In one of the biblical stories, god said that it would not cause the waters to rise to destroy humankind with a flood again.

god needn't have worried. humankind loves to punish itself.

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@WindDancer13 all eyes up in the skies, back on earth things still fall apart, bigly.

After years fighting terrorism, the SEALs turn their eyes toward fighting big wars

ARLINGTON, Va. — After spending the better part of the past two decades supporting wars in a desert region, the U.S. Navy is starting to bring the SEALs back into the fold as it faces threats from major powers such as China and Russia.

The Navy is incorporating its elite special warfare teams into strategic calculations for every potential major power combat scenario, from China and Russia to Iran and North Korea, said Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Bill Moran in a round-table with reporters at the Surface Navy Association’s annual symposium.

The movement toward reconnecting with the blue water force (the Navy’s regular ships, aircraft and submarine forces) started under former Naval Special Warfare Command head Rear Adm. Brian Losey, who retired in 2016. The effort has continued to grow under subsequent commanders, said Moran.

"said moran,"

At the same time, there are indicators that the heavy deployment schedule of SEALs has taken a toll on the elite teams, with concerns ranging from drug use in the force and suicides to war crimes committed downrange.

future veterans
genocide is hard work
downrange

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Chicago cop gets less than 7 years for deliberate murder of unarmed man walking away from him
Shot him 16 times, nine of them in the back. Cop is white, victim is black. I'd be equally outraged if the colors were reversed or both were the same.

The blood is still red.

Daughter tells judge, "Don't send my father away." Why? So he can shoot you seventeen times when you come home late?

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

joe shikspack's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

i guess the guy will probably be out and on parole in 2-3 years unless he does something awful in prison. somehow it just doesn't seem like much of a sentence for what he did. people have gotten more time for possessing pot than for murdering somebody in cold blood. go figure.

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@joe shikspack @joe shikspack
The judge is the former law partner of one of the defense attorneys. A juror like that would never be seated.

Defense attorney is now appealing because his client was sentenced on battery with a weapon and second degree murder. Claims the Illinois law is that battery with a weapon is the worse crime so the second degree murder charge should be set aside.

If this was 1968 the city would be aflame and I wouldn't blame the black community.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

dystopian's picture

The Willie Dixon was great too... I love 'em.

On that WaPo: "Either Scott Walker Doesn’t Understand Taxes or He Lies to Fifth Graders"

I really think that both are more than just a distinct possibility. He does not understand shit except how to bullshit people for a buck. Scott Walker is a walkin' talkin' lie nearly at the level of Trump. He has the George W. Shrub level of stupid written all over his face. If it looks dumb, and it quacks dumb...

And on this one: "as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his fellow Republicans held a "retreat" inside the stadium."

You mean to tell me they had the bastards all in one place, surrounded, cornered,
and they let them go?????????????????

Thanks for the blues!

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

joe shikspack's picture

@dystopian

yep, willie dixon and james cotton were both national treasures. scott walker on the other hand ...

You mean to tell me they had the bastards all in one place, surrounded, cornered, and they let them go?????????????????

the way things are going, i wouldn't be surprised to see a little bossnapping.

have a great weekend!

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burnt out's picture

Missle defense system to protect us against Russian invasion… Yippie, nothing to worry about then.

Must be one hell of a defense system considering that Russia and the US both have around 1400 nuclear warheads each, already deployed on subs, bombers and landbased missles, and both countries have several thousand more stockpiled, just in case the first 1400 don’t do the trick ya know.

Maybe instead of a wall, we should spend a bit more and build a dome. I think we might even get the rest of the world to pay for it if we promise to never come out.

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All I want is the truth. Just give me some truth. John Lennon

joe shikspack's picture

@burnt out

heh. i have a hint for the fiscally-minded mr. trump. peace is cheaper.

i'm quite certain that we could achieve global peace for a fraction of the trillions and trillions that we spend on war and armaments.

or, we could keep on servicing the doomsday machine. because lockheed martin, general dynamics and northrup grumman need their stinking welfare checks.

a dome? oh heck, let's just become the mole people.

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janis b's picture

@joe shikspack

My former husband said I was like a ‘maulwurf’ (‘mole’, in English) because I’d turn off at least half the lights he’d turn on to see with. Maybe we need to go back to candlelight to see things more clearly ; ).

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joe shikspack's picture

@janis b

i have been thinking about the virtues of an underground home lately. as climate change warms the surface to temperatures that i find unpleasant, a few feet below the surface in my zone it is 55 degrees (f) all the time.

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janis b's picture

@joe shikspack

You could add a glass dome with good ventilation for light and fresh air.

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janis b's picture

@burnt out

Maybe instead of a wall, we should spend a bit more and build a dome. I think we might even get the rest of the world to pay for it if we promise to never come out.

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@burnt out Domes for everyone! You get a dome! And, you get a dome!

Everyone (that can afford it) can just live in their own, private, climate-controlled Dome!

Self sufficient, auto-controlled domes for everyone. Filtering pollutants, isolated from danger, what more could you need?

The future: we're all living in our shitty cars.

And, they're not Teslas.

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Amanda Matthews's picture

Mueller's office disputes BuzzFeed report that Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress

*

"BuzzFeed's description of specific statements to the Special Counsel's Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen's Congressional testimony are not accurate," said Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mueller's office, in a statement.

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/01/18/politics/mueller-statement-buzzfeed/i...

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

Centaurea's picture

@Amanda Matthews

Mueller's statement is already bring twisted and spun.

As an example, this tweet by twitter user @FordJohnathan5 is making the rounds of social media:

Hold fast!!
Mueller isn't disputing the basic story.

What Mueller is telling people, he didn't leak it, he's not the source, some information isn't 100% accurate.

Buzzfeed is saying they stand by thier[sic] reporting.

I think Mueller just wants people to hold fast and calm down!

Scratch one-s head

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"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi

"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone

WindDancer13's picture

@Centaurea

The report that I saw stated as fact many things that Mueller did not say in its effort to debunk the story from Buzzfeed. "Not accurate" (Mueller) could mean a lot of things that do not point to the story being incorrect.

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass