The Evening Blues - 1-28-16



eb1pt12


Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues singer and harmonica player Buster Brown. Enjoy!

Buster Brown - Fannie Mae

“We are beckoned to see the world through a one-way mirror, as if we are threatened and innocent and the rest of humanity is threatening, or wretched, or expendable. Our memory is struggling to rescue the truth that human rights were not handed down as privileges from a parliament, or a boardroom, or an institution, but that peace is only possible with justice and with information that gives us the power to act justly.”

-- John Pilger


News and Opinion

UN Report Finds ‘Systematic’ Saudi Targeting of Yemeni Civilians

A leaked report by a UN panel of experts is calling for a formal inquiry into Saudi human rights abuses, saying the nation is “deliberately starving” Yemeni civilians in its war, and targeting civilians in airstrikes in a “widespread and systematic manner.”

The report went on to document 119 attacks on civilians that were likely violations of international law, saying some of the attacks could amount to “crimes against humanity.” They also faulted the Saudis for failing to respect any of the brokered ceasefires. ...

So far, the Saudis have not commented on the matter, and the US State Department has refused to discuss the report because it wasn’t supposed to be public, saying only that they’re concerned about “allegations of abuse.” The US has repeatedly endorsed the Saudi war, and is continuing to provide both arms and logistics support.

UN exposes ‘widespread’ Saudi strikes on civilian targets in Yemen, UK arms exports questioned

Harrowing Treatment of Yemeni-Americans Demands Government Probe

Civil liberties groups have asked the State Department’s Office of Inspector General to investigate what they said were years of misconduct at the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa, including a wave of dubious passport revocations.

The request, which includes previously unreleased emails from seemingly desperate Americans stranded in Yemen, comes as seven civil rights and immigration lawyers from across the U.S. tell The Intercept that their clients have had their passports revoked without due process, resulting in them being separated from their children, fired from jobs, placed under suspicion, singled out for treatment not inflicted on other immigrant groups, and told to remain silent about their ordeals, among other travails.

The report to the State Department paints a similarly harrowing picture of the treatment of Yemeni-Americans who had passports confiscated. Submitted yesterday by Asian Americans Advancing Justice — Asian Law Caucus and CLEAR, a free legal clinic at the City University of New York School of Law, it details instances of coercive interrogations and of U.S. citizens stranded in Yemen and separated from family members for years. Although many were eventually allowed to fly back to the U.S., they continue to face various restrictions on their travel.

The report says the Yemeni-Americans were coerced into signing confessions that fraudulent names were used in their naturalization documents or the naturalization documents of their fathers. In some cases, a translator was not present and the people did not understand what they were signing.

Covering War to End War: New Film Recounts Legacy of James Foley, Journalist Killed by ISIS

Sweden sends sharp signal with plan to expel up to 80,000 asylum seekers

Sweden is to reject up to 80,000 people who applied for asylum in the country last year, as many as half of whom will be forced to leave against their will, according to official estimates.

The interior ministry has called on police and migration authorities to prepare for a sharp increase in deportations, and to arrange charter flights to expel refused asylum seekers to their country of origin. Sweden is also approaching other EU countries, including Germany, to discuss cooperation to increase efficiency and make sure flights are filled to capacity, it said.

The country received more than 160,000 asylum applications last year – by far the biggest influx in the EU as a proportion of the population. Between 60,000 and 80,000 of them will be rejected, the interior minister, Anders Ygeman, told Swedish media on Thursday.

The revelation that a large proportion of asylum seekers will be turned down, and as many as half of failed applications will be forcibly ejected, sends another signal to refugees that Sweden is no longer extending the warm welcome it offered to them just a few months ago.

Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei closes Denmark exhibition to protest migrants' law

Pentagon: US Seeks ‘Worthy Partners’ for Libya War

Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook confirmed to reporters today that there is a “small” presence of US ground troops in Libya, trying to establish contact with various militias and other factions to “get a better sense of who the players are,” and “who might be worthy of US support.”

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joe Dunford confirmed late last week that the US is planning to attack ISIS in Libya, and intends to announce a formal decision to that effect in the next few weeks, but the conspicuous lack of allies on the ground has raised doubts about how the US would try to copy the model of their Iraq and Syria wars onto Libya.

Iraqi Kurds Agree to Hold Referendum on Secession

Ongoing tensions between Iraq’s central government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) look like they’re going to be getting much worse today, with Kifah Mahmoud, an adviser to the Kurdish president, reporting that the KRG has agreed to a referendum on declaring independence from Iraq.

The Kurds have had long-standing ambitions to secede from Iraq, and officials have talked up the idea of withdrawing from Iraq as soon as the war with ISIS is over. The US has opposed this, saying they want a “unified” Iraq.

The biggest question arising from a possible secession of the KRG is what territory they’ll take with them, as early in the ISIS war they seized key oil-producing regions, including Kirkuk, and more recently have been expelling Arabs from the Sinjar area to try to make it a Kurdish-Yazidi dominated region too.

Iranian Navy Warns US Warship Out of Training Area

A US warship, reportedly the guided-missile cruiser the USS Monterey, was loitering around in the Sea of Oman today when it got a warning from the Iranian Navy to withdraw, cautioning that the ship had entered the area of an ongoing military exercise.

Iranian Admiral Habibollah Sayyari accused the US ship of trying to spy on the live-fire exercise ... They also reported warning a US jet away from the area.

US Navy officials confirmed that Iran had announced a “closure” in the area because of a live-fire exercise, which is common practice, but offered no explanation for why the US warship strayed into the area, beyond saying they don’t consider announcements like that to be “orders."

Iranian president told 'you can count on us' as he drums up business with France

In a speech attended by the French prime minister, Manuel Valls, at a meeting of the pro-business confederation Medef in Paris, Hassan Rouhani said the first official visit to France by an Iranian president in 17 years was a clear sign that French companies were welcome to Tehran.

“France has announced that it is ready to once again enter Iran with a new energy and a new will. We have also come here today to welcome French entrepreneurs, investors to begin economic activities in Iran,” Rouhani told the business leaders. Valls replied that Iran could count on France.

Rouhani then met the French president, François Hollande, at the Elysée palace. The two are due to give a press conference later in the day.

Since his arrival in Paris on Wednesday afternoon, Rouhani has held a series of closed-doors meetings in the hotel where he is staying. He was accompanied at the Medef gathering by a large number of his cabinet members, including the oil minister, Bijan Zanganeh.

News of Iran purchasing 114 planes from Airbus has dominated the agenda but French companies including the construction firm Vinci, the car manufacturer Peugeot, SNCF and the energy company IFP are also in talks.

Tony Blair refuses to be questioned over IRA and Gaddafi

The former prime minister has refused to be questioned in public by the Northern Ireland affairs committee in parliament over his dealings with Gaddafi and about negotiations aimed at compensating victims of the Lockerbie plane bombing as well as the murder of PC Yvonne Fletcher.

Blair has been accused of ignoring demands from IRA victims to press Gaddafi on the issue of compensation for people in Northern Ireland and Britain who were injured or whose loved ones were killed by Libyan-supplied semtex explosives and weaponry.

During the Troubles Gaddafi’s regime sent the Provisional IRA tonnes of arms and explosives to boost its arsenal. Some of the most notorious attacks in England involved Libyan-suppied semtex explosives, used to trigger the huge bombs that devastated Bishopsgate and Canary Wharf in London.

In their letter to Blair’s office released this week, the Northern Ireland affairs committee challenges him with a list of 11 questions about his government’s negotiations with the former Gaddafi regime in Tripoli. ...

In their letter, the MPs and lords on the committee describe Blair’s reasons for refusing to be questioned by them as “superficial” and “disappointing”.

McCarthyism on the Rise in Israel

Some of Israel’s most prominent artists have been described as “leftwing moles” by a far-right group at the forefront of a growing campaign targeting activists and cultural figures perceived as being disloyal.

The billboard campaign by Im Tirtzu denounces figures – including two of Israel’s most internationally recognisable writers, Amoz Oz and David Grossman – as “infiltrators inside [Israeli] culture”.

It follows the recent release of a video by the group that accused leftwing NGO workers of being foreign agents.

The move – denounced as reminiscent of the US senator Joseph McCarthy’s anticommunist witch-hunt in the 1950s – comes amid a wider campaign of pressure, including by government ministers, against groups and individuals regarded as critical of Israel.

A bill backed by Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, aims to compel Israeli human rights groups critical of Israel to disclose foreign government funding. The legislation, which would not apply to rightwing NGOs, has already been condemned by EU officials as potentially threatening to free speech.

Israel’s culture minister, Miri Regev, is seeking to limit government funding of the arts only to groups “loyal to the state”

Oregon Militia Leader Ammon Bundy Urges Remaining Occupiers to Go Home

The leader of a month-long armed occupation of a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon urged remaining protesters on Wednesday to leave the site and go home, a day after his arrest and the death of a supporter.

Ammon Bundy, who was taken into custody with several members of his group at a traffic stop along Highway 395, north of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in southeast Oregon, urged federal authorities to let his comrades leave the compound without being prosecuted. The FBI had earlier said that the remaining occupiers were free to go and had encouraged them to do so.

"To those remaining at the refuge, I love you. Let us take this fight from here. Please stand down. Please stand down. Go home and hug your families. ... Please go home," Bundy said in a statement read by his attorney, Michael Arnold, following a court hearing.

An Unprecedented Threat to Privacy

Throughout the United States—outside private houses, apartment complexes, shopping centers, and businesses with large employee parking lots—a private corporation, Vigilant Solutions, is taking photos of cars and trucks with its vast network of unobtrusive cameras. It retains location data on each of those pictures, and sells it.

It’s happening right now in nearly every major American city.

The company has taken roughly 2.2 billion license-plate photos to date. Each month, it captures and permanently stores about 80 million additional geotagged images. They may well have photographed your license plate. As a result, your whereabouts at given moments in the past are permanently stored. Vigilant Solutions profits by selling access to this data (and tries to safeguard it against hackers). Your diminished privacy is their product. And the police are their customers. ...

To install a GPS tracking device on your car, your local police department must present a judge with a rationale that meets a Fourth Amendment test and obtain a warrant. But if it wants to query a database to see years of data on where your car was photographed at specific times, it doesn’t need a warrant––just a willingness to send some of your tax dollars to Vigilant Solutions, which insists that license plate readers are “unlike GPS devices, RFID, or other technologies that may be used to track.” ...

Many powerful interests are aligned in wanting to know where the cars of individuals are parked. Unable to legally install tracking devices themselves, they pay for the next best alternative—and it’s gradually becoming a functional equivalent.

Now More Than Ever, Obama's Immigration Policies Are Punishing the Persecuted

Just before Christmas 2015, news broke that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would begin taking immigrants who had deportation orders into custody in order to immediately remove them from the United States. With no further information, during the first few days of 2016, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents began banging on doors across the country, causing ripples of fear throughout immigrant communities. ...

The vast majority of the victims of the raids have been from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras — a region plagued by horrific violence called the Northern Triangle — and are here in the United States fleeing soaring rates of murder and gender-based violence in their home countries. With governments that will not protect them, children and families have no choice but to flee in order to save their own lives; the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees calls their migration a refugee crisis of alarming proportions. It appears that the raids are one part of the Obama administration's clumsy plan to deter this particular group of refugees from crossing the US border.

Another is the resurrection of "family detention," or the placement of Central American refugee mothers with their children in remote, prison-like facilities where they have minimal if any access to legal and health services. Thousands of children — they average 6 years old, and many are infants — and their mothers, the vast majority of whom are seeking asylum and have survived significant mental and physical trauma, have been held in these jails for months on end. The environment is stifling, the conditions inhumane, and the message loud and clear: You are being punished for seeking refuge.

Inside these detention centers, there have been allegations of sexual misconduct by guards, forcible separation of children from mothers, suicide attempts, and stifled hunger strikes. Mothers and children have shown signs of distress such as nightmares, headaches, weight loss, and severe insomnia. All this — in addition to a lack of access to legal counsel — makes it much harder for these families to adequately present their cases for asylum. Despite numerous calls from advocates, pressure from lawmakers, and two federal court orders to cease family detention, the Obama administration is fighting to ensure that it is able to continue this barbaric practice.

Inside Washington's Shadowy Power Elite

Wave Of Corporate Defaults Could Be Coming, Financial Watchdog Warns

The Office of Financial Research, a division of the Treasury Department set off the alarm bells on corporate debt Wednesday in its annual report to Congress. With companies feeling growing pressure from painful exchange rates and energy prices, the U.S. is at a higher risk of seeing a wave of corporate defaults, the report said. ...

The combination of slowing global growth and plunging energy and commodities prices, the report said, "has diminished the ability of multinational companies and firms in the energy and commodity industries to repay their debts."

After years of issuing bonds at historically low interest rates — due to the Federal Reserve's historically low interest rates following the financial crisis — nonfinancial corporations now hold roughly $4.7 trillion in outstanding debt, or about 70 percent of national GDP, much of which is owned by institutional investors like pension funds and insurance companies.

But in recent months corporate profits have begun to dip, imperiling some companies' abilities to make regular bond payments. Together, the report said, those factors "are hallmarks of the late stage of the credit cycle, which typically precedes a rise in default rates."

[For even more good news about the OFR report, see this: 5 Wall Street Banks Have Lost $219.7 Billion in Market Cap in 7 Months - js]

The $29 Trillion Corporate Debt Hangover That Could Spark a Recession

There’s been endless speculation in recent weeks about whether the U.S., and the whole world for that matter, are about to sink into recession. Underpinning much of the angst is an unprecedented $29 trillion corporate bond binge that has left many companies more indebted than ever. ...

Strains are emerging in just about every corner of the global credit market. Credit-rating downgrades account for the biggest chunk of ratings actions since 2009; corporate leverage is at a 12-year high; and perhaps most worrisome, growing numbers of companies -- one third globally -- are failing to generate high enough returns on investments to cover their cost of funding. Pooled together into a single snapshot, the data points show how the seven-year-old global growth model based on cheap credit from central banks is running out of steam. ...

Much of the cheap credit accumulated by companies was spent on a $3.8 trillion M&A binge, and to fund share buybacks and dividend payments. ...

The emerging cracks “are part of the same symptomatic problem -- an economy that’s got stuck on stimulus,” said Luke Hickmore, an Edinburgh-based senior investment manager at Aberdeen Asset Management, with about 284 billion pounds ($406 billion) of funds under management, according to its website. “It’s not sustainable.”

LIBOR Traders Get Off Scot Free in Rate-Rigging Scandal

‘Nothing happens to the police’: forced confessions go unpunished in Chicago

A five-month investigation reveals five officers were accused of using torture to coerce 11 false confessions for murder – and remain on the force

On a breezy June evening in 1995, twenty years before the fatal police shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald would envelop Chicago in scandal, Derrick Flewellen hobbled into St Bernard’s Hospital on the south side of the city, seeking care for an open wound on his right foot. As the night progressed and Flewellen’s girlfriend kept him company, the 31-year-old was treated with antibiotics and pain medicine before being bandaged up and discharged around 2am the next morning.

But soon after his departure from the hospital, Flewellen would again be in pain. Two Chicago police detectives, Francis Valadez and Steve Buglio, had arrived to St Bernard’s in search of Flewellen and allegedly intimidated the couple into heading straight to violent crimes unit headquarters from the hospital, for questioning. According to testimony from the criminal trial that eventually saw Flewellen’s acquittal for two murder charges, based on DNA evidence, he was heard screaming from inside a police interrogation room, in the hours that followed, after Valadez – now one of 22 district commanders leading the Chicago Police force – stomped on Flewellen’s injured foot and proceeded to crush the wheels of a metal chair into his wounds.

In all, Flewellen says in his lawsuit that seven detectives beat him over the course of 36 hours, ignoring his pleas for a lawyer, sleep and pain medication while threatening that the department of children and family services would take his girlfriend’s infant son away from her. Following the barrage, he “confessed”. ...

Unable to afford bond, Flewellen languished for four and a half years in Cook County jail before a judge would find him not guilty, even after each of the officers who interrogated Flewellen testified against him. Six months after he was set free, Flewellen filed a civil complaint against the detectives. Although the officers denied his accusations, the City of Chicago eventually settled Flewellen’s claims of false arrest and malicious prosecution for $250,000 in 2002. ...

A five-month investigation by the Guardian reveals that officers Francis Valadez, John Halloran, Steve Buglio, Luke Kelly and Daniel McDonald have cumulatively been accused of coercing at least 11 false confessions for murder – by men who have each been exonerated, acquitted or had their criminal charges thrown out. After spending a collective 110 years behind bars, eight of the men, and the estate of one man since deceased, have filed civil complaints against the officers. With half of the lawsuits still unfolding in civil court, the cases have resulted in $7.8m in settlements thus far. ...

In stark contrast with Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s post-reparations promise, the continued employment of officers implicated in the torture scandal, with records bearing patterns of alleged coercion and violent misconduct, signifies a high level of tolerance for corruption and brutality in the force, according to Deborah Jacobs, a law enforcement expert and former executive director of the New Jersey chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. “Patterns tell you that you have a bad orchard, not just a bad apple,” she said.

A Bipartisan Congressional Panel Just Agreed on Ways to Send Fewer Americans to Prison

A task force appointed by Congress to suggest ways to reduce the federal prison population and improve the corrections system provided its final recommendations to the White House today, including changes that both the executive branch and Bureau of Prisons can enact without any approval from Congress.

Chief among the recommendations of the nine person, bipartisan Charles Colson Task Force on Federal Corrections is sending fewer low-level drug offenders to federal prison, and sentencing offenders to far fewer years behind bars, which would reverse two of the changes that have driven the federal prison population to grow by 700 percent since 1980.

But the task force also dug into the minutiae of how the prison system is operated, including how it evaluates the success of its programs, the recidivism rate, and how it uses its resources. In their final report, members suggest that the prisons should actually devote more resources to addiction treatment, cognitive behavioral therapy, classes, and faith programs, and incentivize participation by offering offenders reducing time from their sentences and a "second look" at their cases by a federal judge after they've served certain number of years.



the horse race


Paul Krugman Unironically Anoints Himself Arbiter of “Seriousness”: Only Clinton Supporters Eligible

For years, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman has repeatedly complained about the DC orthodoxy-enforcing tactic of labelling only those who subscribe to Washington pieties as “Very Serious People,” or “VSPs.” It’s a term Krugman borrowed (with credit) from the liberal blogger Atrios, who first coined it to illustrate how Iraq War opponents were instantly marginalized in establishment discourse and only war advocates are deemed to be Serious. Krugman mockingly uses it so often that The New York Times created a special tag for the term. The primary purpose of the “VSP” tactic is to malign anyone who dissents from DC establishment pieties as non-Serious or un-Serious, thus demeaning them as someone who can (and should) be ignored as residing on the fringe, unworthy of engagement or a real platform regardless of the merits of their position.

Yesterday, one of the purest and most noxious examples of this tactic was invoked — by Paul Krugman. The long-time Clinton defender announced that all Serious policy experts “lean Hillary”; he even used the term “serious” unironically to advance his claim:

Meanwhile, the Sanders skepticism of the wonks continues: Paul Starr lays out the case. As far as I can tell, every serious progressive policy expert on either health care or financial reform who has weighed in on the primary seems to lean Hillary.

Let’s repeat that: “every serious progressive policy expert on either health care or financial reform who has weighed in on the primary seems to lean Hillary.”

Hillary Clinton's 'Faux Feminism'

As Clinton Attends Investor Gala, Sanders Tells Iowans, "I'd Rather Be Here With You"

Bernie Sanders struck a blow against Hillary Clinton's campaign priorities on Wednesday night, noting that while she was attending a fundraising event hosted by a $17 billion investment fund, he was revving up an overflow crowd in Iowa, which holds it primary caucus in just four days.

"My opponent is not in Iowa tonight. She is raising money from a Philadelphia investment firm," Sanders told a crowd of about 1,000 people at the Music Man Square in Mason City, Iowa. "Frankly, I would rather be here with you."


Who Cares if Hillary is Warm? I Care About Her Wars

Primary season is in its prime and feels familiar in almost every respect. Eight years on, it’s the same candidate, the same point of contention. Is Hillary Clinton warm enough? I’m not debating that this is sexist stuff: all this focus on her warmth, her style, her smile. ...

When it comes to Clinton, it’s not the warmth, it’s the wars I’m worried about. I’ve actually read her books, both of them, and I don’t think she’s ever seen a bombing mission she didn’t approve, going back to the 1990s, when the whole insidious “humanitarian” war idea took root with NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia.

Bernie Sanders voted for that bombing too, so he should score no points from peaceniks on that account. Still, it really is pretty rich for Hillary Clinton to pose as the great anti-gun and anti-violence crusader when you think of how the humanitarian war idea’s played out. Killing people to save people? Bringing democracy at the end of a rocket? Backing rebels we know next to nothing about. It’s been almost unending intervention and war since the Clintons let that particular genie out of the bottle.



the evening greens


The existence of human-caused climate change could not muster 60 votes amongst the idiot rich in the Millionaires Club. The resolution went down to defeat 50-49.

The big question remains, is the Senate too stupid and corrupt to represent the American people?

US Senate Voted That Human-Caused Climate Change Does Not Exist

United States Senators stood up for what they believed in today—and it wasn’t pretty. During a debate over construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, intended to carry oil from Canada to the United States, the Senate voted on an amendment—just for show, really—on whether climate change “is real and not a hoax.” Easy question—everyone said yes, it’s real. (Well, not everyone. Good job, Senator Roger Wicker, Republican from Mississippi. You do not believe science.) But then Brian Schatz, Democrat from Hawaii, decided to push the issue. He introduced another amendment adding that human activity was a significant contributor to the aforementioned climate change. And the Senate voted again.

The results? Ahem. Fifty US senators affirmed that they indeed do believe that the activities of human beings contribute to climate change. OK. But 49 senators—fully half the upper house that represents our grand republic—do not.

Flint Residents Take Clean Water Fight to Federal Court

Michigan's governor renewed his pledge to fix the water crisis in the long-depressed city of Flint on Wednesday, but a group of residents want a federal court to make sure it gets done.

A lawsuit filed Wednesday morning asks a judge to make sure that a permanent solution to the problem of lead-tainted water in Flint gets carried out as soon as possible, and with the public properly informed in the meantime.

"We believe that not asking the court to order these activities would be foolish," said Henry Henderson, the Midwest director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the groups suing on behalf of Flint residents. "The ability of the state, the city, and the federal government to do their duty has been demonstrated to be lacking."

The suit asks a judge to order authorities "to actually obey the law as opposed to flout it," Henderson said. That means proper testing of the city's water and sharing "accurate and reliable" results with Flint residents, "as opposed to telling them that the brown, stinky, poisonous water that's coming out of their tap is safe."

The lawsuit invokes the federal Safe Drinking Water Act to demand the complete replacement of all lead pipes in Flint "at no cost to customers."

Zika virus spreading 'explosively', says World Health Organisation

The World Health Organisation has convened an emergency committee to discuss the “explosive” spread of the Zika virus, which has been linked to thousands of birth defects in Latin America.

“Last year the disease was detected in the Americas, where it is spreading explosively,” Margaret Chan, the WHO director general, said at a special briefing in Geneva. It was “deeply concerning” that the virus had now been detected in 23 countries in the Americas, she added.

Between 3m and 4m cases of Zika can be expected, said Marcos Espinal, an infectious disease expert at the WHO’s Americas regional office, though he gave no time frame for these figures. ...

Chan said: “A causal relationship between Zika virus and birth malformations and neurological syndromes has not yet been established – this is an important point – but it is strongly suspected.

“The possible links have rapidly changed the risk profile of Zika from a mild threat to one of alarming proportions. ... This year’s el Niño weather patterns mean mosquito populations are expected to spread, Chan added.


Also of Interest

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

On the Effort to Exonerate Team USA for the Rise of ISIS

Krugman’s Cowardly, Dishonest Attack on David Dayen Over Krugman’s Misrepresentation of Sanders’ Financial Reforms

I worked on Wall Street. I am skeptical Hillary Clinton will rein it in

If Paris Changed Everything, Why Are We Still Talking Pipelines?


A Little Night Music

Buster Brown - Raise a Ruckus Tonight

Buster Brown - Sugar Babe

Buster Brown - Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby

Buster Brown - I'm Goin But I'll Be Back

Buster Brown - War Song

Buster Brown - I Get The Blues When It Rains

Buster Brown - My Blue Heaven



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Pluto's Republic's picture

US Navy officials confirmed that Iran had announced a “closure” in an area of the Sea of Oman because of a live-fire exercise, which is common practice, but offered no explanation for why the US warship strayed into the area, beyond saying they don’t consider announcements like that to be “orders."

If the US insists on ringside seats to watch Iran's live-fire exercises, Iran's Navy should relocate its war games to more "International" waters, just as the US Navy does. The International waters off the coast of Santa Barbara could be a win-win for everyone. The Pacific Ocean would be an interesting new experience for the Iran Navy, and the US Navy could save fuel money if Iran staged their military training closer to the US.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
joe shikspack's picture

that could work. it looks like provocation is the name of the game, so it would allow uncle to get the sort of fearmongering fodder it needs and allow the iranians a change of scenery. the pacific coast is very attractive, after all.

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cybrestrike's picture

I wanted to post a video of myself today, but that's not going to happen. First of all it's about my voice. I don't like the sound of it. In my head it sounds okay. But when I hear it as it's played back it sounds too nasal. Second, my right eye is doing some really weird stuff today. Pain around the inside corner of my eye, and it's constantly tearing up. Going to try and flush it out with water because eye drops weren't doing the trick. Lots of work today, worked late and I'm totally beat. Traveling back to Fort Hood on Sunday. Ugh. Fifth year in a row in which I'm going to miss watching the Super Bowl with my buddies because of the travel involved with this job. I'm going to take leave or something next year. And I'm the only sports fan on my team.

One of those years was during the Blackout Bowl--Baltimore Ravens versus the San Francisco 49ers. We had to travel to Aberdeen Proving Ground (oh, I'm a defense contractor by trade--I'll explain later). Two coworkers who I was traveling with (on Super Bowl Sunday--I swear, my bosses have zero awareness of the sports world) wanted to arrive in Baltimore during the game. Screw that! Since I had the rental car in my name, I flew out first--earliest flight I could get to find a bar to watch pre-game stuff and the actual game while waiting for my coworkers to arrive.

Ended up at the Water Street Tavern in Baltimore's Inner Harbor--a dive bar, my kind of place. I'd been there before, and the bartenders greeted me when I strolled in. Since the Ravens were playing, it was packed pretty well--but I got lucky and found a decent spot at the bar. I had a beer and dinner (bar food can be hit or miss--it was edible though). The bartender set up shot glasses all around the bar, in front of every patron. When the Ravens scored that first touchdown, he poured a shot for everyone in the house and we downed them happily. The blackout delay happened (it was like an hour and a half or something), and I picked up my coworkers shortly after (it's a quick trip to the airport from downtown Baltimore). I watched the rest of the game from the closest bar to the extended stay hotel--at a Holiday Inn Express bar. Yeah, that's my life. And here we go again.

Let's see what's happening on our broken planet...
Kurds want to break away? Let 'em. Sure, most everyone in the Middle East will soil their trousers at such a prospect, but at this point it's time to break it up. Iraq is unfixable. We broke it, and now everyone is going to fight for oil again. This is such a mess.

Somebody ought to get along to talking about Chicago's rampant corruption. Paging President YOLO...nah, that'd never happen.

I'm really angry at President Obama's horrific immigration policy. I mean, there's trying to out-Republican Republicans, but this policy seems so over-the-top malicious. Last time I checked, the United States wrecked those countries people are fleeing from. Don't we have a responsibility to shelter the helpless and vulnerable from the chaos we have wrought upon them? I have too much faith in humanity sometimes.

Libya is permanently broken. Ghaddafi, as complete of a monster as he may have been, held the place together quite nicely. Sort of. At least better than now. It's Mad Max over there now.

Glennzilla's takedown of Krugman at the Intercept is awesome. Epic.

I've been checking out my Facebook friends lately. Out of the political set of friends that I have, most of them are liberals. I've got conservative friends as well, though not as much. It's always fun to have my friends wonder how, as a member of the US Army, I didn't end up as a Republican. What they don't realize is that the military is socialism for the most part. Out of my liberal friends, most of them support Sanders. Only two (my brother and a second cousin) support Clinton. I haven't seen any other of my mates supporting Clinton (sharing articles, links, etc). And I've got like nearly 700 friends (and I don't collect friends on FB like Pokemon) on there. Kind of weird.

One thing that I'm happy about is the paucity of the mentions of religion and faith on the Democratic side of the primary. It's a welcome change.

GOS is unreadable today. Hunter is trolling on the Front Page, a nothingburger of a story that people will forget on Monday has a thousand-plus comment diary, and an alleged Occupy Wall Streeter just announced their support Hillary Clinton without the slightest hint of how ironic that is.

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joe shikspack's picture

heh, if you like dive bars, baltimore is the town for you. next time you visit, check out fell's point. there are more hole-in-the-wall bars per square foot there than anywhere i have ever been. some of them are pretty cool places to hang out.

i am hoping that the kurds finally get their own state, they have had it coming to them for more than a hundred years.

i really enjoyed seeing glenn rip krugman apart. after what krugman used his megaphone to do to dday, he deserves a major smackdown.

i'm delighted that this electionyear there doesn't seem to be a fundie eruption on the rethug side, nor do any of the democratic candidates seem to be going out of their way to make sure that people see that god is on their sleeve. on the other hand, clinton's ties to "the family" have not been addressed by any of the chattering classes, and that is something that should get broader notoriety.

heh, i haven't been reading at the gos lately and it has been quite relaxing. i know that there are folks there doing some excellent work for bernie, but i sure don't miss the trolls and the shills.

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snoopydawg's picture

She will talk to Rahm and tell him to cut it out.
It's unbelievable that those cops aren't in jail for what they did to innocent people and made them confess to crimes that they didn't commit
Looks like Rahm is taking a page out of Obama's play book. " Let's look forward on torture".
The Clintons are great friends with Rahm.

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

mimi's picture

and thought "ok, nice of him to comment". Smile

I was somewhat not that amazed about his diary, but wouldn't have thought he would write out a piece like that so clearly takes sides so short before the Iowa caucus, especially because he hasn't written much there in the last half year or so.

I am not capable of verifying his arguments and am certain I will not understand HRC's plans to "Reign in Wallstreet" ... "incrementally"... or so and the comment thread was annoying in the sense that he asked we should read HRC's plan and then refute it or compare against Sanders.

Nobody can read the plan while commenting immediately to his diary. It would take time. I hope someone who is in the "know" would explain in simpler language with explanations for Wallstreet illiterates what's better about her plan etc. But then I am most probably too lazy to even try to understand that stuff. And I don't trust HRC, nor her connections.

I saw bobswern, OPOL, Ministry of Truth and Tool commenting. Not for long. I have met Tool and Olliegarkey and remember Ministry of Truth. It was sad to see what was said. My trust goes to Tool and bobswern and my sympathies to Ministry of Truth and OPOL. I thought Olliegarkey was in Scotland. He had in mind going there and write. He is a nice and decent guy and can talk and write quite a bit. But I am disappointed to see who he decided to support. I think it's not where he should be. But that's just my personal take on it.

Anyway just saying I was happy to see you commenting critically over there.

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Nothing but hysterical Bernie/Hillary rox/sux, plus "let's invent a scandal", and I don't know what else.

Meanwhile, real stuff is happening in the ME (specifically northern Syria) and Libya, and in the economy.

Thank Gawd for C99P

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Up right now is gjoinsit article on the excess stock buy back by corporations. It looks out of fashion to run a business the old fashioned way. Among other things, the effects of interest rates of zero for years have allowed this to happen. And banks took the bail out money and spent it on themselves or bought more banks.

When will the crash come? Before the presidential election?

What will the economists have to say about it?

Joe posted this article

The $29 Trillion Corporate Debt Hangover That Could Spark a Recession

and

Wave Of Corporate Defaults Could Be Coming, Financial Watchdog Warns

In my comment on gjohnsit's article above I said that I sold my Lucent stock when they played games. What I forgot to say was that when the stock crashed, there were many true believers in LU who lost a bunch - with years of 401K savings all put into LU stock, some people lost $1 million from the crash.

Less than a year ago there was an article on salon.com with the title something like "The middle class is gone and it will not come back"

It is not hard to imagine that things would get so bad that the poor situation we are in today could, in a dark future, look like the good old days.

Don't have a clue how to get out of this mess.

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joe shikspack's picture

heh:

When will the crash come? Before the presidential election?

if i could time the crash...

like the fellow quoted in one of those articles upstairs said, the situation is unsustainable amd i think that this time a lot of people see it coming.

it's really kind of sad, there are clearly two economies, one for the rich which is measured by the traditional measures that you see every night on the news and one for the rest of us which is never really measured accurately because it is hard to adequately measure misery. what measure captures the conditions imposed by economic austerity (driven by greedy rich people) on the people of flint, or for that matter the people of the communities around st. louis, like ferguson, who are hounded and stripped of assets by a system starved for funds by the low tax demands of wealthy people?

as misery loves company, it might be tempting to look forward to the greedy bastards' economy disintegrating and the spectacle of them registering the scale of their losses. unfortunately, it looks like this time when the economy crumbles, large pension funds will be among the wealth that is suddenly vanished in order to balance the books. the rich people's 1's and 0's - largely intangible wealth will take a hit, but the average folks will probably take the brunt of the suffering yet again. and unless the revolution gets going, the government will again make the rich people whole at the expense of everyone else.

sorry to be so cheerful, but this situation looks really grim to me.

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mimi's picture

through most of the EB tonight, but I was quite happy to see the TRN piece about Hillary's faux feminism. Sharmini Peries facial expressions amused me too, I couldn't help seeing some almost perfectly hidden tongue in cheek chuckling going on within her. Glad some people write about the feminism exploit of HRC for political gains and compare it with what she really accomplished with regards to fighting or helping working women and mothers. I think women have all their own personal experiences, which either make them supporting HRC and believing in her or .. just the opposite. Of course, if it's the opposite, you can't talk about it, because ... ack, who cares.

Good Night.

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joe shikspack's picture

i am glad that some folks on the left are starting to point out the elite nature of hillary's "feminism." i hope that this consciousness of what hillary is about spreads.

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Crider's picture

His little show is streaming on http://www.cbsnews.com/live/ and he did an alpha-male beat down of Fox's debate audience. It appears that CBSN isn't running any commercials during this Donald Show.

What a bombastic sociopath!

I keep having these nightmare scenarios in my imagination where he wins the presidency because the economy tanks, making it difficult for any Democrat to retain the White House. It really could happen.

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detroitmechworks's picture

I count my blessings that I don't mind the cold, Like Canadian food, and have friends in the Toronto/Edmonton Area.

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

Crider's picture

Much more reasonable — especially since their last election.

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lotlizard's picture

I don't mind the cold

The cold never bothered me anyway.

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joe shikspack's picture

heh, that donald should get his own show. oh, wait. Sad

your nightmare scenario is sadly kind of plausible. after all, the donald has a lot of experience with bankruptcy (personal and moral).

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Crider's picture

often saying that he's going to make great deals as President. Sounds rather ominous.

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lotlizard's picture

and both humanity and the planet would benefit.

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NCTim's picture

Thanks for sorting the news.

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

joe shikspack's picture

my pleasure! i hope everything's going well.

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NCTim's picture

I am contemplating an update. The changes have been dramatic and the time is getting short.

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

joe shikspack's picture

i'm sorry to hear that things have unraveled so precipitously. i hope that you both are able to find some comfort in the midst of all you are going through.

as always, if there's anything that can be done to help, please speak up.

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

to say 'hi,' and thanks for tonight's excellent 'news and blues' roundup!

Glutton for punishment that I am, I'm juggling two (nutty) Republican so-called debates/forums, so I'll pass on posting an article this evening.

Ironically, got an update on my cell phone news feed earlier this evening, about the two Wisconsin homicide cases which were recently featured on Netflix's streaming service [that I mentioned a day or two ago].

I'll post it tomorrow. The news is positive, since it appears that (at least) the young teenage boy, now in his mid-twenties, may have another route to appeal his verdict/sentence.

Hey, Everyone have a nice evening!

Mollie
elinkarlsson@WordPress


“If a dog won’t come to you after having looked you in the face, you should go home and examine your conscience.”-- Woodrow Wilson
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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

Crider's picture

I keep reading these announcements about dead rockers.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwFR5fjs8m4]

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NCTim's picture

Don't worry, they are still making rockers.

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

hecate's picture

back in the great wide open. Where he's most content.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK3Js9yo5qY]

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wendy davis's picture

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enhydra lutris's picture

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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 --

NCTim's picture

I hope all is well 'old' friend.

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -