The Evening Blues - 1-18-21



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Percy Mayfield

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features The Poet Laureate of the Blues Percy Mayfield. Enjoy!

Percy Mayfield - Louisiana

"If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin."

-- Charles Darwin


News and Opinion

Biden “recovery” plan will fail to relieve social misery or stop pandemic death

On January 14, President-elect Joe Biden unveiled his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill, dubbed the American Rescue Act, which he has urged Congress to pass within days of his January 20 inauguration. This was followed the next day with a speech in which Biden outlined his vaccination plan, pledging to administer 100 million coronavirus vaccines within the first 100 days of his administration, although the current rate is far below that. The second announcement was significant mainly for what was not in it. Biden focused on the vaccine entirely to the exclusion of efforts to prevent the spread of infections, which will kill hundreds of thousands more before they can be vaccinated. Above all, there is not the slightest suggestion of the only serious measure to contain the pandemic: a full-scale lockdown of the economy, including closing non-essential businesses and schools, and providing income for working people and fully-resourced remote education for children until it is safe for everyone to resume normal life.

In announcing the plan, Biden paid lip service to widening income inequality, taking note of “those few people at the very top who are doing quite well in this economy.” He correctly pointed out that the wealth of the top one percent has grown “roughly $1.5 trillion since the end of last year, four times the amount for the entire bottom 50 percent of American wage earners.” The American Rescue Act does not aim to reverse this trend through aggressive taxes on “pandemic profiteers” such Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, who recently became the world’s richest man after “earning” some $165 billion last year, based almost entirely on the meteoric rise of Tesla stock. In fact, there are no tax increases for the wealthy at all, with Biden allowing the wealthy to keep their ill-gotten gains while the federal government borrows the money—from these same billionaires, at a hefty price in terms of interest payments—to foot the bill.

Despite a majority of House Republicans and senators such as Ted Cruz (Texas) and Josh Hawley (Missouri) seeking to overturn his election victory last week, even after President Donald Trump’s fascistic coup attempt, Biden pleaded for “unity” with his “Republican colleagues.” He welcomed their input in modifying the legislation. This process has already begun, as the $1.9 trillion cost of the package is $1.1 trillion less than the Heroes Act, which passed the Democratic-controlled House last May, largely along party lines.

In fact, the combined cost of the $900 billion relief bill passed last month and this latest $1.9 trillion proposal is still less than the Heroes Act. The effect of the Democratic Party taking control of both houses of Congress as well as the White House is a smaller “relief” package than Pelosi proposed last year, when the Republicans still controlled the Senate and Trump was in the White House. This is under conditions where the need of millions of people for government assistance is far greater than it was roughly eight months ago.

Biden administration: Incoming US President eyes major policy changes

Joe Biden executive orders will reverse Trump on climate, Iran, Covid and more

Joe Biden will sign a series of executive orders in his first days in office, attempting to roll back damage done at home and abroad by Donald Trump, whom the Democrat will replace as president on Wednesday.

Biden, 78, has already outlined plans to send an immigration bill and a Covid stimulus and relief package to a newly Democratic-controlled Congress. On Friday he said he would shake up the delivery of vaccines against Covid-19, mired in chaos under Trump.

Biden plans to return the US to the Paris climate accords and the Iran nuclear deal, overturn Trump’s travel ban against some Muslim-majority countries, restrict evictions and foreclosures under the pandemic and institute a mask mandate on federal property.

In a memo released on Saturday, incoming White House chief of staff Ron Klain said: “These actions will change the course of Covid-19, combat climate change, promote racial equity and support other underserved communities, and rebuild our economy in ways that strengthen the backbone of this country: the working men and women who built our nation. ...

The memo did not mention rejoining the World Health Organization, previously mentioned as a priority. Klain said subsequent orders would address “equity and support communities of color” and address criminal justice reform, access to healthcare and other priorities.

Why #ForceTheVote Was Important To Understanding POWER

Hanna Trudo: Inside Joe Manchin’s Plan To Frustrate Progressives

Nancy Pelosi says lawmakers who aided in Capitol attack may be prosecuted

The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has said it is possible that members of Congress could face prosecution if found to have “aided and abetted” the violent attack on the Capitol earlier this month that left five people dead. “Justice is called for as we address insurrection perpetrated against the Capitol last week,” the Democratic speaker told reporters on Friday.

“If, in fact, it is found that members of Congress were accomplices to this insurrection,” the Democratic speaker said, “if they aided and abetted the crime, there may have to be actions taken beyond the Congress in terms of prosecution for that.”

Pelosi’s comments came after Mikie Sherrill, a Democratic congresswoman of New Jersey, said she saw colleagues leading groups on “reconnaissance” tours of the Capitol a day before the riot.

More than 30 Democrats have signed on to a letter, spearheaded by Sherrill, seeking more information about the tours that took place at the Capitol on 5 January.

Historians having to tape together records that Trump tore up

The public will not see Donald Trump’s White House records for years, but there is growing concern the collection will never be complete – leaving a hole in the history of one of America’s most tumultuous presidencies. Trump has been cavalier about the law requiring that records be preserved. He has a habit of ripping up documents before tossing them out, forcing White House workers to spend hours taping them back together. ...

In the Trump White House “not only has record-keeping not been a priority, but we have multiple examples of it seeking to conceal or destroy that record”, said Richard Immerman, from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations.

And now Trump’s baseless claim of widespread voter fraud – which postponed for weeks an acknowledgement of Joe Biden’s presidential victory – has delayed the transfer of documents to the National Archives and Records Administration, further heightening concern about the integrity of the records.

Lack of a complete record might also hinder investigations of Trump, from his impeachment trial and other prospective federal inquiries to investigations in the state of New York.

Even with requests by lawmakers and lawsuits by government transparency groups, there is an acknowledgment that noncompliance with the Presidential Records Act carries little consequence for Trump. In tossing out one suit last year, US circuit judge David Tatel wrote that courts cannot “micromanage the president’s day-to-day compliance”. The act states that a president cannot destroy records until he seeks the advice of the national archivist and notifies Congress. But the law does not require him to heed the archivist’s advice. It does not prevent the president from going ahead and destroying records.

Stop Saying “This Isn’t Who We Are”: Week In Review | The Amber Ruffin Show

How Trump supporters are radicalised by the far right

Far right “playbooks” teaching white nationalists how to recruit and radicalise Trump supporters have surfaced on the encrypted messaging app Telegram ahead of Joe Biden’s inauguration. The documents, seen by the Observer, detail how to convert mainstream conservatives who have just joined Telegram into violent white supremacists. They were found last week by Tech Against Terrorism, an initiative launched by the UN counter terrorism executive directorate.

Large numbers of Trump supporters migrated on to Telegram in recent days after Parler, the social media platform favoured by the far right, was forced offline for hosting threats of violence and racist slurs after the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January. The documents have prompted concern that far right extremists congregating on Telegram instead of Parler has made it far harder for law enforcement to track where the next attack could come from. ...

One of the playbooks, found on a channel with 6,000 subscribers, was specially drawn up to radicalise Trump supporters who had just joined Telegram and teach them “how to have the proper OPSEC [operations security] to keep your identity concealed”.

The four-page document encourages recruiters to avoid being overtly racist or antisemitic initially when approaching Trump supporters, stating: “Trying to show them racial IQ stats and facts on Jewish power will generally leave them unreceptive... that material will be instrumental later on in their ideological journey. “The point of discussion you should focus on is the blatant anti-white agenda that is being aggressively pushed from every institution in the country, as well as white demographic decline and its consequences.”

The document concludes with its author stating: “Big Tech made a serious mistake by banishing conservatives to the one place [Telegram] where we have unfettered access to them, and that’s a mistake they’ll come to regret!”

US deaths from COVID-19 lead to a more than one-year decline in life expectancy

According to an analysis conducted by researchers from the University of Southern California (USC) and Princeton University, deaths caused by COVID-19 have reduced the overall life expectancy in the United States by 1.13 years. In epidemiologic terms, this is an enormous decline. Life expectancy is one of the most accurate barometers of the health of a society.

Adding to the catastrophe of the pandemic, a new variant of the coronavirus has been detected across more than 12 states, threatening to further exacerbate the crisis.

On New Year’s Day, the US had registered 20.7 million COVID-19 cases and nearly 357,000 deaths, making it the third leading cause of death behind cancer and heart disease. However, this conservative figure only represents confirmed cases.

Overall, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found more than 475,000 excess deaths through early December. It has been estimated that almost two-thirds of excess deaths are attributed directly to COVID-19. Compared to 2019, deaths in the US have climbed more than 10 percent.

Biden Urged to Ramp Up Vaccination Effort as CDC Warns New, More Contagious Coronavirus Variant Could Soon Become Dominant in US

With the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warning Friday that a new, much more contagious strain of the coronavirus could become the dominant source of infection in the country by March, public health advocates underscored the imperative for President-elect Joe Biden to quickly turn the page from the Trump administration's failure-ridden pandemic response by accelerating development and distribution of effective vaccines from day one of his presidency.

The CDC said the new, more contagious variant—known as B117—originated in Britain and is currently circulating at low levels in the United States. 

"I want to stress that we are deeply concerned that this strain is more transmissible and can accelerate outbreaks in the U.S. in the coming weeks," said Dr. Jay Butler, deputy director for infectious diseases at the CDC, according to the New York Times. "We're sounding the alarm and urging people to realize the pandemic is not over and in no way is it time to throw in the towel."

"We know what works and we know what to do," Butler added.

"What to do," the CDC says, includes "universal and increased compliance with mitigation strategies, including distancing and masking." The agency added that "higher vaccination coverage might need to be achieved to protect the public."

On Friday, Biden said that "the more people we vaccinate and the faster we do it, the sooner we can put this pandemic behind us and the sooner we can build our economy back better and get back to our lives and our loved ones." 

To that end, the president-elect unveiled a five-point vaccination plan, promising to invoke the Defense Production Act to help "manage the hell" out of nationwide vaccine distribution.

"The vaccine rollout in the United States has been a dismal failure thus far," Biden asserted, adding that "we remain in a dark winter."

"Things will get worse before they get better," he warned. 

Public health experts said that Biden's $400 billion pandemic mitigation plan—which includes the ambitious goal of vaccinating 100 million people in the first 100 days of his administration—as well as Friday's selection of Dr. David Kessler to head the government's effort to develop, manufacture, distribute, and administer coronavirus vaccines, are promising signs, especially following the colossal failures of the Trump administration to contain the year-long outbreak.

Hospitals across much of the U.S. are overwhelmed with Covid-19 patients. As of Friday evening, nearly 23.5 million people in the United States have been infected with coronavirus, and more than 391,000 have died. The U.S. leads the world in both infections and deaths, both by large margins. 


Biden plan to vaccinate 100m people in 100 days ‘absolutely doable’, Fauci says

Joe Biden’s promise to carry out 100m coronavirus vaccinations in his first 100 days in power is “absolutely a doable thing”, Dr Anthony Fauci said on Sunday. The president-elect has announced ambitious initiatives to combat Covid-19 and its economic toll, seeking to overcome the struggles and failures of the Trump administration, which has presided over a slow start to the biggest vaccination drive in US history.

The challenge is steep: Ron Klain, the incoming White House chief of staff, told CNN on Sunday, Biden’s team projected another 100,000 deaths from Covid-19 in the first five weeks of the administration. According to Johns Hopkins University, by Sunday morning 23,760,523 cases and 395,855 deaths had been recorded in the US. “It’s going to take a while to turn this around,” Klain said.

Fauci, the top US infectious disease doctor, told NBC’s Meet the Press: “I can tell you one thing that’s clear is that the issue of getting 100m [vaccination] doses in the first 100 days, is absolutely a doable thing. What the president-elect is going to do is where we need be, to invoke the [Defense Production Act] to get the kinds of things they need, whatever they may be, be they tests, be they vaccines or what have you. ...

Officials have warned that continued failure to properly plan for distribution and administration might thwart gains from rapid vaccine development. The new administration must also seek to shore up a long-fractured public health system while facing probable Republican opposition to meaningful financial relief via Congress.

Professor Richard Wolff: Does COVID Prove Capitalism Has Finally Failed?

Florida analyst who clashed with governor over Covid data faces arrest

Rebekah Jones, the founder of Florida’s coronavirus database who has clashed publicly with Governor Ron DeSantis in a dispute over data manipulation, said she would surrender on Sunday after a warrant was issued for her arrest.

The state department of law enforcement said it would not reveal details of the allegations against the 31-year-old data analyst until she was in custody. The agency had been investigating allegations Jones illegally accessed a state messaging system and staged an armed raid at her Tallahassee home last month.

Jones, who was fired by the Florida department of health in May for insubordination after claiming she was ordered to censor and manipulate information on the database she founded and managed, said she was told the charge was unrelated to that investigation, and accused DeSantis of retaliation.

“The governor will not win his war on science and free speech,” she said in tweets that also confirmed her intention to turn herself in to police on Sunday night. “He will not silence those who speak out.” ...

Since her dismissal she has continued to amass and disseminate state Covid-19 information online, maintaining a rival to the official database and more recently compiling and publishing information on cases in Florida schools.

'Thoughts and Prayers to the NRA': Reviled Gun Lobby Group Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

"Thoughts and prayers."

That is what many opponents of the National Rifle Association wryly stated in response to news that the pro-gun lobby group had officially filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Friday in the United States.

In a statement on its website, the NRA—which promotes the interests of the gun industry and gun owners unbothered by the unparalleled level of gun violence seen in the country—said it was leaving New York state, where it is currently registered, to restructure in Texas as part of a "new strategic plan" it is implementing. ...

In August, as Common Dreams reported at the time, New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit against the NRA which sought to dissolve the organization based on widespread evidence of corruption and financial self-dealing that violated the state's requirements for nonprofit status.

In a tweet on Friday responding to the NRA's move to divorce itself from New York, James said: "The NRA's claimed financial status has finally met its moral status: bankrupt."

VOA journalists call on director to resign over ‘propaganda event’ for Pompeo

A coalition of Voice of America journalists has called for the director of the organization and his deputy to resign, alleging in a letter they retaliated against a veteran reporter for questioning Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

In the letter dated 14 January, some two dozen reporters charged that three days previously VOA director Robert Reilly and deputy director Elizabeth Robbins “violated” the organization’s journalistic code by staging “a propaganda event” for Pompeo.

They also said that the violation stemmed from the decision to remove Patsy Widakuswara from her role as VOA White House correspondent, after she tried to question Pompeo as he left the network’s headquarters.

The letter also slammed the “sudden and unexplained” reassignment of Yolanda Lopez, formerly central news director.

VOA is an international broadcast service funded by Congress. In his speech there last Monday, Pompeo praised Michael Pack, a Trump-appointee who heads the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which runs VOA, but has faced criticism for allegedly trying to undermine VOA editorial independence. Pack has denied such claims.

Giuliani associate told ex-CIA officer a Trump pardon would 'cost $2m’

An associate of Rudy Giuliani told a former CIA officer a presidential pardon was “going to cost $2m”, the New York Times reported on Sunday in the latest bombshell to break across the last, chaotic days of Donald Trump’s presidency. The report detailed widespread and in some cases lucrative lobbying involving people seeking a pardon as Trump’s time in office winds down. The 45th president, impeached twice, will leave power on Wednesday with the inauguration of Joe Biden.

The former CIA officer John Kiriakou, who was jailed in 2012 for leaking the identity of an operative involved in torture, told the Times he laughed at the remark from the associate of Giuliani, the former New York mayor who as Trump’s personal attorney is reportedly a possible pardon recipient himself.

“Two million bucks – are you out of your mind?” Kiriakou reportedly said. “Even if I had two million bucks, I wouldn’t spend it to recover a $700,000 pension.”

An associate of Kiriakou reported the conversation to the FBI, the Times said.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in His Own Words



the horse race



Krystal Kyle & Friends | Thomas Frank

Andrew Yang talks NYC Mayoral Run on the Breakfast Club



the evening greens


Oil Industry Reconsiders Donations to Election Deniers — but Has Its Own Big Lie

A parade of oil and gas companies nobly announced this week that they will review their political donations in the wake of last week’s riot in Washington, D.C. — an attempt to distance themselves from the spectacle of election fraud conspiracists and white supremacists attacking the Capitol building and temporarily halting the election certification process. Marathon Petroleum, Occidental Petroleum, and the employee political action committees for ConocoPhillips and BP temporarily froze their contributions. Exxon Mobil and Chevron are reviewing their donations. Even energy industry association spokespersons for the American Petroleum Institute, the Independent Petroleum Association of America, the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, as well as a leader of the Koch network said the attack on the Capitol will factor into their future giving. ...

In many ways, fossil fuel companies laid the groundwork for the widespread acceptance of lies big enough to cause an existential threat to democracy’s survival — even humanity’s. “Lying has become a habit,” said science historian Naomi Oreskes, whose book with Eric Conway, “Merchants of Doubt,” documents how veterans of the tobacco industry’s misinformation efforts seeded climate denial among the media and lawmakers. “They have been funding disinformation and anti-climate politicians for a very long time,” she said over email, of the fossil fuel industry. Oreskes said reconsidering political donations for election misinformation is a belated gesture: “A day late and a dollar short. Or, rather, three decades late and hundreds of millions of dollars short.” ...

To climate scientist Michael Mann, the fossil fuel groups’ announcements that they will review political giving serves to evade attention from the fact that, during the Trump administration, the oil and gas agenda was supercharged by the racist rhetoric and lies that swayed elections in the direction of their favored candidates. Indeed, never has the fossil fuel industry’s agenda been carried to fruition so completely as it was over the past four years, achieved using what Mann described to The Intercept as “red meat” thrown out for the racist right, including election disinformation. “It is the fossil fuel industry, the front groups that they fund along with plutocrats like the Koch brothers — these are the groups that have been pulling the strings, that have been throwing out the red meat, that have been instigating this racially motivated, treasonous rebellion by the disaffected base of the Republican Party,” said Mann. “They’re playing with fire, and it’s almost like they don’t really care about democracy.”

I guess we may be about to go through the looking glass into ConservativeWorld, where:

“Trees cause more pollution than automobiles do." -- Ronald Reagan

Many Overheated Forests May Soon Release More Carbon Than They Absorb

The last decades have been filled with dire warning signs from forests. Global warming has contributed to thinning canopies in European forests and to sudden die-offs of aspen trees in Colorado, as well as insect outbreaks that are killing trees around the world. In many places, forests are not growing back. New research shows that Earth’s overheated climate will alter forests at a global scale even more fundamentally, by flipping a critical greenhouse gas switch in the next few decades. The study suggests that, by 2040, forests will take up only half as much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as they do now, if global temperatures keep rising at the present pace.

The study, published Wednesday in Science Advances, analyzed more than 20 years of data from about 250 sites that measure the transfer of carbon dioxide between land and plants and the atmosphere—the way the planet breathes. Forests and the rest of Earth’s land-based ecosystems take up about 30 percent of human carbon emissions, so any big change in that process is important. The data show a clear temperature limit, above which trees start to exhale more CO2 than they can take in through photosynthesis, said co-author Christopher Schwalm, an ecologist and earth system modeler at the Woodwell Climate Research Center. The findings mark a tipping point, of sorts, at which “the land system will act to accelerate climate change rather than slow it down,” Schwalm said.

The study found that, while trees at different latitudes have different temperature thresholds, for many forest types that are important for absorbing carbon dioxide, photosynthesis peaks at 18 degrees Celsius (64.4 degrees Fahrenheit). But the data showed no limits on the amount of carbon dioxide they can release. Plants typically absorb CO2 and release oxygen, but they also “exhale” CO2, particularly at night, when photosynthesis ceases due to the lack of sunlight. Forests also emit more CO2 when they are stressed by increasing temperatures.

Continued warming will reduce photosynthesis and exponentially increase the amount of CO2 trees release through respiration as they try to breathe enough to keep cool. That will turn many vegetated landscapes from carbon sinks into carbon sources within 20 to 30 years, accelerating climate change, the study concluded. The study also showed no signs that forests were able to acclimatize to the rising temperatures of the last two decades.


Also of Interest

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

After Biden Unveils Covid-19 Relief Plan, Tlaib Doubles Down on Demand for $2,000 Monthly Payments

From Paul Ryan to Nikki Haley: GOP Nightmare of Senate Budget Chair Bernie Sanders About to Come True

5 Reasons to Wear a Mask Even After You’re Vaccinated

UN Predicts US Houthi Terror Designation Will Lead to Famine ‘Not Seen in 40 Years’

Biden inaugural guest is Venezuelan coup leader charged with inciting violent assault on gov’t building

Trump’s Twitter Ban May Be Justified, but That Doesn’t Mean Tech Giants’ Power Isn’t Scary

Caitlin Johnstone: The Two Faces Of The US Empire

Congressional Hypocrisy and the Crackdown

'I’m facing a prison sentence': US Capitol rioters plead with Trump for pardons

Illinois Will End Cash Bail — and Limit Use of High-Tech Incarceration

Pelosi Removes Katie Porter… Bringing Joy & Gratitude To Every Crooked Bankster On Wall Street

Trump baby blimp joins Museum of London collection

Phil Spector, pop producer convicted of murder, dies aged 81


A Little Night Music

Percy Mayfield - Strange things happening

Percy Mayfield - Double Dealing

Percy Mayfield - Baby Please

Percy Mayfield - Baby You're Still a Square

Percy Mayfield - Hopeless

Percy Mayfield - Freeway

Percy Mayfield w/ Monroe Tucker & his Orch. - Two Years Of Torture

Percy Mayfield - Walking on a Tightrope

Percy Mayfield - Please Send Me Someone To Love

Percy Mayfield - Hit The Road Jack


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20 users have voted.

Comments

"Fauci, the top US infectious disease doctor, told NBC’s Meet the Press: “I can tell you one thing that’s clear is that the issue of getting 100m [vaccination] doses in the first 100 days, is absolutely a doable thing. What the president-elect is going to do is where we need be, to invoke the [Defense Production Act] to get the kinds of things they need, whatever they may be, be they tests, be they vaccines or what have you. ..."

This version of HappyTalk brought to you by Dr. Fauci, who had been absent for at least a week, is the updated "light at the end of the tunnel" song we heard played all through the Fall.

I want to believe. But it's getting more and more difficult.

New vaccines. NEW ones! Oh boy. In April. Well over 1/2 million of us dead by then.

Keeping hope alive sedates the public. So I expect it to continue.

Thanks Joe, for opening tonight's discussion.

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14 users have voted.

NYCVG

@NYCVG
I don't believe anything he says.

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9 users have voted.

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

@The Voice In the Wilderness His earlier statement about masks totally disqualifies him as an honest broker.

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8 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@NYCVG

i want to like and respect dr. fauci.

i viewed him as the most credible voice in trump administration regarding covid. that, of course, is an incredibly low bar.

i view his continuation in the biden administration with some suspicion. he served an administration that was at best criminally bewildered and at worst mass murderers - and he failed to stand up in public to speak the truth about the trump administration's obviously destined-to-fail actions and challenge that administration to change course.

i recognize the good work that he has done in the past and i hope that he will use this opportunity to redeem himself to the degree possible, considering that hundreds of thousands have died on his watch.

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8 users have voted.

@joe shikspack to like and trust somebody. Dr. Fauci has reached the limits of credulity for now.

Voices on TV all have. Today Gov. Cuomo writes a letter asking Pfizer to sell to NY directly.

Totally disingenuous. Anybody paying attention has heard that that is not how it works.

Pfizer wrote back that they cannot deal with NY unless NY has Federal approval.

It's theater. Drama. Distraction.

NY will be entirely out of vaccines by the end of the week.

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9 users have voted.

NYCVG

snoopydawg's picture

@NYCVG

Weren’t we told that there is no more vaccines available for a month or more because Trump didn’t order enough and now we have to wait till they get done selling to other countries? If so then how is Biden going to be able to vaccinate 1 million people a day? Kinda hard to do with no vaccine.

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8 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@snoopydawg
No one will be able to tell the difference.
Rumors to the contrary are a "putin plot". watch.

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3 users have voted.

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

@snoopydawg spinning at this point.

BS.

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4 users have voted.

NYCVG

snoopydawg's picture

@NYCVG

Maybe it was posted here already? It’s on Fauci and how he handled the AIDS epidemic and others.

https://realalexrubi.substack.com/p/saint-anthony-fauci-the-hidden-history

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6 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@snoopydawg
Reminded me that it was "And the Band Played On" that first led me to put Fauci on my "not to be trusted list." Of course there were numerous other individuals and organizations that also had to go on that list.

Watching/listening to how China responded to SARS-Cov2 was far more informative than anything out of Fauci's mouth. He should be retired and replaced with a more competent and truthful scientist.

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5 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@Marie

and document how Reagan ignored the AIDS epidemic and how many people backed him up on it. Just like what Trump did with COVID. Just read that Biden's new trans health advocate was in charge of her state's nursing homes and she also put recovering people into nursing homes and it caused that state 70% of the deaths. Must have been a memo that went out having all states do that.

Reminded me that it was "And the Band Played On" that first led me to put Fauci on my "not to be trusted list." Of course there were numerous other individuals and organizations that also had to go on that list.

I mentioned Fauci staying silent a few weeks ago that Trump was ignoring how bad COVID was back in Feb like Joe did here. The CDC took over the numbers and suddenly they didn't look so bad anymore. Did he question that? Not to my knowledge.

He should be retired and replaced with a more competent and truthful scientist.

Yes he should be. But people have given him the spotlight because he has gone against Trump. Sometimes. Other times not so much.

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6 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@snoopydawg
Politicizing infectious diseases is one of the stupid things humans do. Stupid because it's counterproductive; increasing the level of transmission and panic.

Expect some writer is currently working on a SARS-CoV2 tome that will be as anger provoking as "And the Band Played On."

My recollection on the CDC being tasked with collecting and reporting the Covid numbers is that they declined to do so in the early days. Someone there fully understood that the political pressure to manipulate the numbers would be too intense to avoid compliance. So, it fell to city, county, and state health departments to collect and report. Those are the reports that Worldometers and I assume John Hopkins uses. The CDC came back into the picture after the local reporting had been established and the CDC had no ability to manipulate the numbers. That doesn't mean that all city, county and state health departments are honestly reporting, but most are. The same situation exists with countries; some are more factually reliable than others.

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4 users have voted.
mimi's picture

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9 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@mimi

i guess the right-wing loonies have developed their own office of pre-crime.

tell that squirrel to start looking for his nuts on march 20. Smile

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8 users have voted.

@joe shikspack
Oh! I forgot. GS has them in a jar in their vault.

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2 users have voted.

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

smiley7's picture

Thanks, as always, for the news and blues

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9 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@smiley7

thanks for the cartoon. perhaps the eagle express will be busy over the next few weeks.

have a great evening!

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6 users have voted.
smiley7's picture

@joe shikspack

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5 users have voted.
ggersh's picture

I find it confusing that not many here question the safety of the Vaccines being passed out.
From what I've read never in history has a vaccine been developed for this type of virus. It seems as if neoliberalism has now given us 3, call me a skeptic and you'd be correct.

https://www.reddit.com/r/WayOfTheBern/comments/l00pv1/cnn_vaccine_covera...

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8 users have voted.

I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

joe shikspack's picture

@ggersh

i think that everyone is concerned about the safety of the vaccines. i certainly am. however, a lot of people (myself included) are also concerned about our continued and potentially escalating risk of contracting covid. the vaccine is certainly a gamble.

i guess the question is, which side do the odds fall on? are your odds better if you take the risk of the vaccine or if you try something else?

i certainly can't make any sort of absolute statement one way or the other.

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12 users have voted.
ggersh's picture

@joe shikspack In today's world my preference is not to defer to what our, no change that to the government decides for me. IOW's I believe that the vaccine is garbage especially when the
hands of Bill Gates are wrapped round it. So I for one will wait it out. Also since the
government hasn't mentioned taking Vit D, Zinc, etc.etc. to help prevent a serious outcome why believe that the vaccine is the silver bullet? JMHO

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3 users have voted.

I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

snoopydawg's picture

@ggersh

I understand that more people are okay after getting it, but it is the uncertainty of the long term effects from the 1st two that weren’t tested long enough in my opinion. And for the reason that I too heard that they can’t make them this quickly. From what I understand they have been working on one for quite some time and couldn’t do it. So why now did it get pushed through? Read how someone in the EU pushed to get the Pfizer vaccine okayed before all the testing was done and the staff wasn’t happy about it. Too much uncertainty.

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11 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

lotlizard's picture

@snoopydawg  
wasn’t it?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precautionary_principle

http://www.ecologyandfarming.com/gmo-safety-issues/

The whole idea was to place the burden of proof squarely on the companies claiming GMO (genetically-modified organisms) are safe — not on critics pointing out possible dangers.

Now, because everyone wants a vaccine so badly, the precautionary principle appears to have been thrown out the window.

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5 users have voted.

@snoopydawg has been approved on an emergency basis.

It's a giant science experiment and any doubts we have are justified.

HIV is a similar virus and 20 years on we have NO vaccine for it.

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5 users have voted.

NYCVG

Dawn's Meta's picture

and un-noticed.

@ggersh @ggersh Norway:
Deaths after Pfizer Vaccine

US, allergic response:
https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/01/18/coronavirus-california-calls-for-...

H/T snoopydawg:
Vaccine Problem

There maybe more...or, not. How would we know??

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4 users have voted.

A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.

Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.

doncha know. Would recommend avoiding state capitals, DC and county courts in the sticks
unless you want to see revolting up-close and personal. Freedom guns firing blissfully unaware of their targets. Frustrated trigger happy over armed whackos with machine gun dreams.

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9 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@QMS

i was driving on saturday and saw signs on the highway saying to avoid travel to washington dc for the next week, and to expect delays and closures if you do.

i guess we'll see what happens.

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5 users have voted.
Lookout's picture

Thanks for the round up of news and music js.

Finished digging holes and prepping for tree planting next month. I'm a good kinda tired tonight.

Don't have much to add to the conversation today. I hope we don't see another "uprising". DC is certainly covered, last I heard 25,000 NG troops.

Jimmy's show is live right now...he's talking with Jordan.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jdoz-J1uONI]

Well y'all have a nice night!

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7 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

joe shikspack's picture

@Lookout

glad to hear that you're making happy progress in your planting schedule.

i would certainly hope that the right-wing loonies decide not to take their guns to town.

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8 users have voted.

I saw the pic you posted and remembered just now wife just got me a one of those "bandit masks" made of two layer nylon. I got it and put it over ny KN95 mask. According to the pic, I may be enhancing protection by 80%. Need to experiment with doing the simple knot to stop lateral opening.

It was a bit hard to breath, but not bad. It really felt like I had the max protection I could get for the money. Especially as I may not be able to get any jab even based on my age (+65) for a long time. Next bit will be to re-start wearing surgical gloves.

But now I have to ask how many people did Fauci kill when he said okay not to wear masks. I was reading and watching closely at the time. I went to the a liquor store and the cashier chided me for wearing a mask as the CDC said they were not needed. When I saw pictures in earlier pandemics wearing masks, I would go with empirical experience and not supposedly experts said which turned out to be fcking lies.

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11 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@MrWebster

yep, mass produced masks generally have gaps in their fit on people. the more that you can keep unfiltered air from coming in, the lower the viral load you are likely to experience should you be nearby a spreader.

i haven't tried the stocking thing yet. ms shikspack has never been the sort to wear them, so we don't have any around. we will pick some up the next time we go to the store to give it a try.

have a great evening!

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6 users have voted.
Dawn's Meta's picture

@MrWebster NOT ok to wear a mask early on. My own research indicated it was important to distance and wear a mask. There just weren't enough to go around.

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2 users have voted.

A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.

Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.

enhydra lutris's picture

It should be on national TV instead of the inauguration, or instead of any commentary and analysis before and after. Thanks for the news and blues.

So Katie Porter got the can, did anybody expect any less from the banksters' gofer, Nancy P?

Haven't looked at this yet, might not, but I am bewildered all the samw -- where the hell did he find any?

Hanna Trudo: Inside Joe Manchin’s Plan To Frustrate Progressives

Don't know about the vaccines, but I just spent most of the day out hiking around a mature mixed sycamore and live oak forest and it did me and my spirit a world of good, as did the Americal Kestrel that ripped through about 5 feet above my head.

be well and have a good one

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13 users have voted.

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 --

joe shikspack's picture

@enhydra lutris

i got a kick out of that amber ruffin video, too. i had never heard of her before, but that video showed up in my feed and i clicked on it and yea, verily it was good. Smile

heh, i guess the banksters own the place and they can have their flunkies kick people off of committees for asking pointed questions that make banksters look bad.

where did manchin find a progressive? heh, he probably didn't, but anybody who promises to do something that benefits the 99% is close enough to a progressive for manchin to want to turn on his frustration machine.

glad to heat that you got out into the woods. i'm hoping to do that one day soon if the weather cooperates.

have a great evening!

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5 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

The people who are killing the planet through global warming and think that they will be able to ride through the worst of it in their bunkers are deluding themselves. If the world gets warm enough to kill off the forests and boil the oceans then the world is not going to recover in just a few years. I asked this last week. What will humanity be like after most of us are gone? Will any of the insects come back? Mammals? Fish? ....? Is there any primordial soup left so the world can start over?

Smart dawg.

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6 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

the only thing i can figure is that we are surrounded by magical thinkers who expect jeebus to drop by and save their sorry asses for being terrible stewards of what they assume god has given them to destroy for profit and comfort.

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8 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack

with this bull?

I’m with Aaron. Haven’t there been enough investigations into Trump/Putin? Remember last week when Pelosi blamed Putin for the capital riots? Did they just tell us that they are going to spend the next 4 years talking about Russia Russia Russia Russia instead of Biden’s issues?

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12 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

i would guess that the delusion is so strong that it will continue, though it may submerge for a while and fester just beneath the surface. no doubt it will bloom again when it becomes convenient to smear some enemy of corporate democrats.

i was just reading an article and this steaming turd appeared in it:

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8 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack

Don’t address the message, but do attack the messenger. Trump was impeached without due process by the house. But that is why they are trying to turn the conversation elsewhere and why not Russia? People still believe in it. Turley thinks that it sets a bad precedent for political speech and the 1st amendment.

He also said that Trump can’t be impeached once he’s out of office because the law isn’t setup to do that. Impeachment is to remove the sitting president from office so the only person who could be removed through impeachment is Biden. He also said that Trump shouldn’t even show up for his trial

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6 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@joe shikspack
As far as I'm concerned all the Russiagators are as insane as the Trumpsters. Neither can deal with the fact that the unworthy candidate they ran for POTUS lost, and the latest winner is no more worthy than Clinton or Trump. The bar for POTUS is now so low that voters only get to assess the level of evil and craziness in the nominees.

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5 users have voted.
lotlizard's picture

@snoopydawg  
being wiped (“with a cloth or something?” / Bernie: “I’m tired of hearing about your damn [30,000] e-mails”) want us to get our dander up about Trump having torn up some correspondence.

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4 users have voted.
Lily O Lady's picture

@joe shikspack

They trust that somebody is going to invent something to save their sorry asses, and when that day comes they plan to have all the money needed to get it for themselves. I’d be really surprised if this isn’t true.

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4 users have voted.

"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

Dawn's Meta's picture

@snoopydawg . No longer the Majority Leader after the 20 of January, who takes the issue forward. It's a new Congress. Schumer becomes Majority Leader, I gather.

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5 users have voted.

A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.

Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.

@snoopydawg
Automation reduces the need for us. After the 1% kill most of us of, keeping maybe five each as servants, the population will be 6% of today's and emissions reduced by 94%

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2 users have voted.

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

janis b's picture

Thanks as always joe.

That quote of Darwin’s describes in such pure form his insight and life experience. It deserves repeating -

"If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin."

-- Charles Darwin

I trust nature will survive in the end, whether that includes us or not.

[video:https://youtu.be/d-VvyrjFSi4]

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9 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@janis b

i suppose that it may be that manunkind is not capable of putting aside his hatreds and greed in order to maintain his habitat, in which case he will turn the planet over to more deserving species. i suppose that falls under the purview of the department of cosmic justice.

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7 users have voted.
janis b's picture

@joe shikspack

That's a good one. What contrasting realms the planet and cosmos has to deal with.

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4 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@janis b

i stole it from ee cummings.

it's quite an interesting poem, here's a good, short (but by no means comprehensive) description of cummings' work:

The poem laments the triumph of progress—defined in terms of science and technology—over nature, describing progress as a "comfortable disease", and declaring "A world of made / is not a world of born". To Cummings, the "busy monster" is a society bent on subverting nature and individual humanity, the loss of which is to be mourned. In closing, the poem's speaker suggests – with an ironic optimism – an escape to "a hell of a good universe next door".

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6 users have voted.

Music: Good.
News: Bad (mostly).
I am surprised at the reprise of Russia Russia horse shit, when Biden has said it is "China" that is a threat to our "security". (Translation: Wall Street).
Any way, I will hunker down, take it all one day at a time, and remain calm.
For what it is worth, only one gun fired off this evening. I was expecting the place to sound like a war zone.
Take care of you and yours!

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9 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

joe shikspack's picture

@on the cusp

heh, i grew up listening to idiots drone on about russia and communists, i suppose that we had a couple of decades of relief and now the idiots are back at near full strength. at least we aren't doing civil defense air raid drills anymore. or perhaps they're coming yet.

have a great evening!

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10 users have voted.

@joe shikspack
Even we grade school kids knew that was nonsense!

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3 users have voted.

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

mimi's picture

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4 users have voted.
mimi's picture

@mimi
Melania’s jacket and nine other defining images of Trump's presidency

Do you care, or don't you care, that's the question, aska Hamlet, the great.

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3 users have voted.