The Evening Blues - 10-25-18



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Big Maybelle Smith

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features early r&b singer Big Maybelle Smith. Enjoy!

Big Maybelle - Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On (1st recording, preceeded Jerry Lee Lewis' version)

"One nuclear bomb can spoil your whole day."

-- unknown


News and Opinion

US missile treaty withdrawal: “Prepare for nuclear war”

On Saturday, US President Donald Trump announced that the United States will withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, which prohibited Washington and Moscow from developing short- and medium-range missiles. It is difficult to overstate the criminality and recklessness of this action. The lives of billions of people in Europe and East Asia have been deliberately placed in the crossfire of Washington’s nuclear buildup against Beijing and Moscow. ... The New York Times has treated the US withdrawal from the treaty as a non-issue. It was not even front-page news, and the newspaper published no editorial or columns about it. Nor was it discussed on the Sunday talk shows. The Democrats have been almost entirely silent on the consequences, and the danger of global war—or any opposition to war—has been excluded as an issue from the 2018 midterm elections, just two weeks away.

In the foreign policy press and the publications of think tanks, however, nuclear war is a preeminent issue. Even before the White House’s announcement, Foreign Affairs dedicated its current issue to a discussion of nuclear war, with its cover featuring a missile launch. The issue features a column by Elbridge A. Colby, one of the principal authors of the National Defense Strategy published by the Pentagon in January, which proclaimed the effective end of the “war on terror” and the beginning of “great-power competition.” Colby, the former deputy assistant secretary for strategy and force development, titled his article, “If You Want Peace, Prepare for Nuclear War.” He writes: “The risks of nuclear brinkmanship may be enormous, but so is the payoff from gaining a nuclear advantage over an opponent.” Colby warns, “Any future confrontation with Russia or China could go nuclear.” A sane person would see this as an argument for the abolition of nuclear weapons. But in the minds of the Pentagon’s professional killers, it speaks to the urgent need to build and use such weapons. ...

The driver of Washington’s nuclear brinkmanship is the protracted decline of the global economic power of the United States relative to its rivals, principally China. But this process has entered an acute phase in recent years, with a concerted effort on the part of the Chinese ruling elite to promote the country’s high-value manufacturing and high-tech sector. In a speech announcing a new military and economic escalation against China earlier this month, US Vice President Mike Pence demanded that China cease its efforts to control what he called the “commanding heights of the 21st century economy,” including “robotics, biotechnology, and artificial intelligence,” making it clear that under the Trump administration, the United States is “defending our interests with renewed American strength.”

“We’re modernizing our nuclear arsenal,” Pence threatened. “We’re fielding and developing new cutting-edge fighters and bombers. We’re building a new generation of aircraft carriers and warships. We’re investing as never before in our armed forces.” The active preparations for nuclear war, which would be a total war complete with a police-state crackdown on all political opposition, are being made behind the back of the public, which overwhelmingly opposes it. Far from opposing the military build-up, the Democrats have focused their criticism of Trump for the past two years on claims that he is insufficiently aggressive against Russia, which has been used as the pretext for imposing a regime of internet censorship aimed at silencing domestic opposition.

Putin just threatened Europe: no new U.S. nukes on the continent

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Europe Wednesday that any country accepting new U.S. nukes on its territory risks a retaliatory strike from Moscow. The threat came as NATO launched its largest war games exercise since the Cold War Thursday, with more than 50,000 personnel from 31 countries drilling a mock invasion of Norway.

Putin was responding to President Donald Trump’s call Sunday for the U.S. to withdraw from from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, credited with ending an arms race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union in the dying years of the Cold War. Trump pledged Tuesday to build up the U.S. nuclear stockpile in a deterrence posture against Russia and China. The Russia president said that the Kremlin’s response to such a move would be “very quick and effective.”

“There would be nothing left except an arms race,” he said.

Speaking at a news conference in Moscow after talks with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, Putin said Washington’s exit from the treaty would be “very dangerous,” adding, “If the United States does withdraw from the INF treaty, the main question is what they will do with these newly available missiles?”

“If they are supplied to Europe, then of course we will have to respond in kind, and the European countries that agree to this — if things come to this — should understand that they will be subjecting their own territory to the threat of a possible retaliatory strike,” he added.

Our planet can’t take many more populists like Brazil’s Bolsonaro

Unless every poll is wildly wrong, Brazil will probably elect a racist, sexist, homophobic advocate of torture at the end of this month. The former army captain Jair Bolsonaro nearly won outright in the first round, securing the votes of almost 50 million people – despite his extreme views being well known. What is less well understood, however, is the catastrophic environment implications of his rise to the brink of power. And in this, Bolsonaro is not unique: around the world, diminishing resources are fuelling a global rise of authoritarian leaders dedicated to doing the bidding of some of the world’s most environmentally damaging interests. ...

History tells us that when environments deteriorate, societies turn to supposed strongmen and religious zealots rather than smart, pragmatic leaders. That is happening now. ... In the US, with massive support from the fossil-fuel industry, Donald Trump has undermined the Environmental Protection Agency, opened up swaths of national parks to industry, cut pollution controls and promised to pull out of the Paris accord. In Australia, Malcolm Turnbull was ejected from power by his colleagues because he tried to fulfil promises to cut carbon emissions. And now in Brazil, voters are backing a politician who has vowed to pull his country out of the Paris deal, abolish the main government agency tackling deforestation and end the demarcation of indigenous land.

Bolsonaro has the backing of agribusiness and mining leaders, who are rubbing their hands in glee at the prospect of an Amazon denuded of its greatest protections. The markets – which are heavily driven by extractive industries – also love him. The main stock index and exchange rate of the Brazilian real spiked after his first round win. An editorial in the Wall Street Journal endorsed him as a “conservative populist”. Such neo-fascist politicians should not be blithely dismissed. They are the hired guns of the industries working against the Paris accord and other international agreements that aim to prevent further environmental catastrophes, which hit the poorest hardest. Their “anti-globalism” is first and foremost anti-nature and anti-future. An extraction-first approach may bring economic benefits in the short term, as cronies and campaign donors clear more forests, open up plantations and dig more mines – but the profits are concentrated while the environmental stress is shared. ...

At some point, voters will realise that ecological stress is at the core of the world’s current woes. The aha! moment may be when water grows prohibitively expensive, or crops fail owing to successive heatwaves, or the refugee crisis sparks war, but at some point the weakness of the strongmen will be apparent, and people will seek change. The danger is, by then it may be too late. Climate and politics alike will have passed a tipping point, leading to social chaos and the morphing of populists into full-blown dictators-for-life.

American Executives: Election of Far-Right Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil Is a “Bullish Opportunity for Us”

Financial markets appear more than happy to overlook the authoritarian impulses and violent promises of Brazilian presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro, hoping he will deliver decisive, pro-business economic policies. In a giddy investor call on Thursday, Timothy Hassinger, chief executive officer of Lindsay Corp., the Nebraska-based farming equipment manufacturer, referred to the far-right politician as “considered strongly as pro-ag,” calling his likely election victory a “bullish opportunity for us.” ...

Many human rights advocates are alarmed by Bolsonaro’s repeated praise for Brazil’s military dictatorship and a platform calling for a more repressive approach to the country’s crime and social problems, which includes reintroducing the death penalty and making it harder to investigate and prosecute cops who kill in the line of duty. But the global financial community is pleased by his strong performance, heartened by his choice of Paulo Guedes as his chief economic adviser. A right-wing, University of Chicago-trained banker, Guedes would take charge of finance, planning, trade, and other domestic policies. Bolsonaro’s economic record in the Brazilian Congress was more moderate, and he has been criticized for his lack of economic literacy, but his choice of Guedes has been seen as a signal that he will embrace the neoliberal consensus that investors have been pressuring Brazil to execute.

Guedes has promised to sell off state assets, cut the public pension system, revise the tax code, and deregulate the economy. Another Bolsonaro adviser, Nabhan Garcia, told Reuters that the administration would slash fines for farmers who violate environmental rules in sensitive areas like the Amazon. ... In September, when polling numbers suggested that Haddad was gaining steam, the Brazilian currency, the real, plummeted to multiyear lows, but has since bounced back by more than 12 percent against the U.S. dollar. As news of Bolsonaro’s performance spread, investors immediately responded. CNBC noted that “the benchmark Brazilian Bovespa index gained 4.6 percent” the Monday after the election, while the “iShares MSCI Brazil exchange-traded fund (EWZ) jumped 6.74 percent its biggest one-day gain since May 19, 2017, when it rose 6.75 percent.”

A number of finance industry analysts took to the airwaves to lay out how impressed Wall Street investors are with the prospects of a Guedes-guided Bolsonaro administration. Julia Leite, a Bloomberg News reporter who covers Brazil, appeared on Bloomberg Markets on October 8 and offered that view. “Markets are reacting really well,” she said. “Markets have a clear preference for Bolsonaro, whose economic adviser is very liberal, who wants to privatize everything, wants to have a smaller state. … So for markets, this is really clear-cut. They want Bolsonaro.”

Ex-military officers support Bolsonaro's rise in Brazil

Well worth a full read:

Facebook Censorship of Alternative Media ‘Just the Beginning,’ Warns Top Neocon Insider

This October, Facebook and Twitter deleted the accounts of hundreds of users, including many alternative media outlets maintained by American users. ... Facebook claimed that these pages had “broken our rules against spam and coordinated inauthentic behavior.” However, sites like The Free Thought Project were verified by Facebook and widely recognized as legitimate sources of news and opinion. John Vibes, an independent reporter who contributed to Free Thought, accused Facebook of “favoring mainstream sources and silencing alternative voices.”

In comments published here for the first time, a neoconservative Washington insider has apparently claimed a degree of credit for the recent purge — and promised more takedowns in the near future.

“Russia, China, and other foreign states take advantage of our open political system,” remarked Jamie Fly, a senior fellow and director of the Asia program at the influential think tank the German Marshall Fund, which is funded by the U.S. government and NATO. “They can invent stories that get repeated and spread through different sites. So we are just starting to push back. Just this last week Facebook began starting to take down sites. So this is just the beginning.” Fly went on to complain that “all you need is an email” to set up a Facebook or Twitter account, lamenting the sites’ accessibility to members of the general public. He predicted a long struggle on a global scale to fix the situation, and pointed out that to do so would require constant vigilance. ...

During a March 2018 interview on C-Span, Fly complained that “Russian accounts” were “trying to promote certain messages, amplify certain content, raise fringe views, pit Americans against each other, and we need to deal with this ongoing problem and find ways through the government, through tech companies, through broader society to tackle this issue.” Yet few of the sites on PropOrNot’s blacklist, and none of the alternative sites that were erased in the recent Facebook purge that Fly and his colleagues take apparent credit for, were Russian accounts. Perhaps the only infraction they could have been accused of was publishing views that Fly and his cohorts saw as “fringe.” What’s more, the [German Marshall Fund's]Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD) has been forced to admit that the mass of Twitter accounts it initially identified as “Russian bots” were not necessarily bots — and may not have been Russian either. ...

Fly stated that he was working with the Atlantic Council in the campaign to purge alternative media from social media platforms like Facebook. The Atlantic Council is another Washington-based think tank that serves as a gathering point for neoconservatives and liberal interventionists pushing military aggression around the globe. It is funded by NATO and repressive, US-allied governments including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Turkey, as well as by Ukrainian oligarchs like Victor Pynchuk.

This May, Facebook announced a partnership with the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab) to “identify, expose, and explain disinformation during elections around the world.” The Atlantic Council’s DFRLab is notorious for its zealous conflation of legitimate online dissent with illicit Russian activity, embracing the same tactics as PropOrNot and the ASD.

FBI hunts bomber targeting Trump critics as packages sent to Biden and De Niro

Suspicious packages sent to former US vice-president Joe Biden and the actor Robert De Niro were being investigated on Thursday, as the FBI hunted for a mail bomber terrorising prominent critics of Donald Trump. Two packages for Biden were intercepted in Delaware, according to the FBI. A photograph of one of the packages, obtained by local media, indicated that it matched those sent to former president Barack Obama and several other Democrats. Police in New York were meanwhile investigating another matching package received at De Niro’s offices in Manhattan.

The new discoveries mean that eight high-profile Trump critics have been sent a total of 10 packages so far. All the packages were intercepted without detonating and no injuries were reported. Biden has stridently condemned Trump’s presidency since leaving office, while De Niro received a standing ovation at the Tony awards in New York in June for an speech criticising the president. A spokesman for Biden declined to comment.

Trump and White House officials on Thursday rejected suggestions that he bore any responsibility for the circumstances around the attempted bombings, instead claiming that the media was to blame for America’s inflamed politics.

Trump Blames Media for Inciting “Anger” After Bombs Sent to CNN & High-Profile Democrats


Prominent conservatives accuse liberals of sending the bombs to themselves

So far, almost nothing is known about the person behind the six explosive devices sent to high-ranking officials in the space of 48 hours. But the fact that all six recipients of the devices are associated with the Democrat Party — and frequent targets of right-wing conspiracies — meant that it didn’t take long for the internet to assign the suspect a nickname: MAGAbomber. As that hashtag crept up Twitter’s trending column, the conservative spin machine was hard at work weaving its own narrative, peddling the kinds of conspiracy theories you’d normally associate with the likes of Infowars and other dark corners of the internet.

Many suggested that the devices were the handiwork of liberals with an end goal of making the GOP look bad, divert attention from “left-wing mobs,” and distract from the caravan of about 7,000 Central American migrants traveling up to Mexico on foot with the ultimate goal of reaching the Southern border. ... Rush Limbaugh, the grandfather of conservative conspiracy talk radio, took to the airwaves as the news of the bombs developed to opine, with absolutely no evidence, that the string of pipe bombs could be a false flag from the Left.

“Republicans just don’t have a behavioral history like this,” Limbaugh asserted, apparently unaware that a conservative-identifying Texas man killed at least two people in Austin during a string of bombings in March. Limbaugh suggested the bombs sent out this week were actually a coordinated campaign by Democrats to make the GOP look bad leading up to the midterms. He also suggested it was an effort to distract from the migrant caravan, or even possible impending “Mueller leaks.”

Donald Trump sees terrorists everywhere, but not under his own nose

This blunt-spoken White House, best known for its smash-mouth president, doesn’t usually shy away from fightin’ words. Just this week a tough-talking Donald Trump declared himself a nationalist, accused Democrats of organizing mobs, and dismissed Puerto Rico’s entire leadership as inept. Which makes it so glaring when Team Trump tiptoes so gingerly while talking about a series of pipe bombs. Normal people call a coordinated series of bombs something as simple as terrorism. This White House calls them “terrorizing acts”, presumably performed by actors rather than terrorists.

For a group that campaigned on its desire to talk about “radical Islamic terrorism, this is perplexing. Terrorism is meant to sow confusion and fear, but there’s nothing quite as befuddling to the Trumpsters as what appears to be anti-liberal terrorism.

George W Bush used to say you were either with us or with the terrorists. Donald J Trump prefers to say there are very fine people on both sides. When he finally emerged to condemn the terrorism, Trump couldn’t bring himself to say the word. Instead he conjured up something altogether different. “Acts and threats of political violence have no place in the United States of America,” he said at the start of an event about opioid addiction.

Acts and threats of political violence covers a wide range of stuff: insults, mobs, tweets, and apparently pipe bombs. There are Isis and Taliban terrorists who no doubt think they are engaged in acts of political violence. This president has chosen to call that terrorism. Then again, this president has also chosen to whip people at his mob-like rallies into a hate-filled frenzy. So it must have been someone else who made him say this: “In these times, we have to unify. We have to come together.”

Documents Show the Army Tried — And Failed — to Prove GOP Claims That Antifascist Protestors Are a National Security Threat

On Wednesday, The Daily Beast reported that newly released Army documents from 2017 show military officials tried, unsuccessfully, to prove that "antifa" protestors are a threat to national security.

The Army assessments, dating from mid-2017, were meant to alert servicemembers to potential risks anti-fascists posed to military or military installations. But they also stated that the U.S. Military is "not aware of any threats from Antifa directed at the Army or DoD [the Department of Defense] in general." The heavily redacted documents, marked unclassified, were provided to The Daily Beast by the transparency nonprofit Property of the People and are believed to be the first public disclosures of Defense Department references to antifa.

The documents showed the Army struggling to characterize antifa, or antifascism, a decentralized movement that confronts extremist right-wing forces. Despite conceding that antifa is not connected to any known threat facing servicemembers, the documents showed the Army is encouraging servicemembers to "maintain situational awareness" of the movement, whose profile has soared after the election of Donald Trump — and which mainstream Republican politicians demagogically describe as a Democrat-aligned mob.

It is unsettling to see the military seemingly try to endorse the far right's attacks on their political opponents, and it reflects a broader, worrying trend of our government institutions taking right-wing political stances under the auspices of national security. Last year, the FBI targeted civil rights protestors marching against police brutality as "black identity extremists." And more recently, Border patrol agents attended a private screening of the white nationalist propaganda film "Killing Free Speech," after which the agents' union endorsed the film.

California Neo-Nazi Group Members Arrested for Role in Violence at Rallies in CA and Charlottesville

California White Supremacists Arrested on Riot Charges

The leader of a Southern California white supremacist group and two other members were arrested on charges of inciting violence at California protests and at a deadly riot in Charlottesville, Virginia, last year, prosecutors said Wednesday. The arrests come weeks after other group members were indicted in Virginia on similar charges.

Rise Above Movement leader Robert Rundo was arrested Sunday at Los Angeles International Airport after returning to the U.S. from Central America, U.S. Attorney’s office spokesman Thom Mrozek said. Rundo was denied bail in Los Angeles federal court on Wednesday. Two others, Robert Boman and Tyler Laube, were arrested Wednesday morning, and Aaron Eason remains at large, Mrozek said. All four are charged with traveling to incite or participate in riots. ...

The men allegedly took actions with the “intent to incite, organize, promote, encourage, participate in, or carry on riots,” according to a complaint from the U.S. Attorney’s office. “RAM members violently attacked and assaulted counter-protesters” at events in Charlottesville and in the California cities of Huntington Beach, Berkeley and San Bernardino, an FBI affidavit accompanying the complaint said.

Prosecutors have described the Rise Above Movement as a militant white supremacist group that espouses anti-Semitic and other racist views and meets regularly to train in boxing and other fighting techniques. ... Members refer to themselves as the mixed martial arts club of the “alt-right” fringe movement, a loose mix of neo-Nazis, white nationalists and other far-right extremists. “They very much operate like a street-fighting club,” Oren Segal, director of the ADL’s Center on Extremism, said earlier this month. The group has roots in the racist skinhead movement in Southern California, Segal said.

Dining club emails reveal Kavanaugh's close ties to Trump's solicitor general

Brett Kavanaugh, the new supreme court justice, counts the Trump administration’s solicitor general, who will be arguing cases before the high court on behalf of the president, as a close professional friend, according to emails that offer new insights into an all-male dinner club that Kavanaugh used to attend. Emails obtained by the Guardian show that Kavanaugh, who was narrowly confirmed to the supreme court earlier this month, participated in monthly evening cocktails and dinners from 2001 to 2003 with a group of men that included Noel Francisco, who now serves as the Trump administration’s solicitor general. It is not clear whether the dinners continued after Kavanaugh became a federal judge in 2006. ...

The so-called “Eureka” dinners – named after the college that Ronald Reagan attended – were briefly raised in a written question that was submitted to Kavanaugh by senators following his initial confirmation hearing. Asked what the Eureka Club was, Kavanaugh said in a written response: “A group of friends sometimes gathered for dinner. The scheduling emails for those dinners would sometimes be titled ‘Eureka’.” What Kavanaugh’s answer did not fully explain was that the dinners were attended by an elite group of men closely associated with the Federalist Society, the rightwing organization that has played a major role in vetting and choosing judicial appointments for Republican presidents since its founding in 1982.

The Eureka emails seen by the Guardian cover a limited period while Kavanaugh worked for the White House under George W Bush. They show that the dinner companions who Kavanaugh described as “friends” include Viet Dinh, who now serves as a senior legal adviser to Rupert Murdoch and is a godfather to Lachlan Murdoch’s child; John Yoo, who wrote the so-called “torture memos”; and Robert Coughlin, the former deputy chief of staff at the Department of Justice who pleaded guilty to a conflict of interest crime related to the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. Coughlin was disbarred but reinstated as a lawyer in 2016. Paul Clement, a lawyer at the firm of Kirkland & Ellis who frequently appears before the supreme court, also attended.

The emails indicate that the men met on the first Monday of every month, usually reserving a table at Bobby Vans restaurant, though they appeared to prefer the Caucus Room, an upscale steakhouse. The dinners were often arranged by Adam Ciongoli, who served as an adviser to then-attorney general John Ashcroft and now works as general counsel of Campbell Soup. Ciongoli is also a member of the Federalist Society.



the horse race



Republicans and Democrats prepare bipartisan agenda of social cuts and war

With only two weeks until Election Day, November 6, early voting has already begun in many states to select 435 members of the House of Representatives, 35 state governors and 36 US senators, as well as thousands of members of state legislatures. The Democrats and Republicans are raising and spending a record amount, more than $5 billion, to carry out mudslinging attacks on each other and promote the illusion that voters have a real choice between these two equally right-wing parties controlled by the corporations and the wealthy. ...

The Republican Party, led by President Trump, is campaigning on a program of undisguised racism directed at immigrants, rejection of even the mildest domestic reform proposal as “socialism,” and militaristic bluster. Trump chose campaign rallies last week as occasions to make a series of belligerent threats: to send troops to the US-Mexico border, to tear up the Intermediate Nuclear Forces treaty with Russia, to step up trade war with China. The Democratic Party has retreated steadily over the past two years before Trump’s ultra-right barrage, offering only token opposition to such measures as the persecution of immigrants, the $1.5 trillion tax cut for the wealthy, and the installation of two far-right justices on the Supreme Court. They have embraced Trump’s policies of militarism and economic warfare, joining in the near-unanimous passage of a record $716 billion military budget, and applauding his trade war measures against China and other countries.

The Democrats have even sought to outflank the Trump administration from the right, demanding an even more aggressive foreign policy in regards to Russia, using the Mueller investigation and bogus allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election to justify censorship of the Internet and sweeping attacks on democratic rights. ... Behind the strident denunciations and recriminations between the two capitalist parties, however, preparations are well under way for a new stage of bipartisan collaboration against the working class once the election is safely past.

Current polls suggest that the Democratic Party will emerge in control of the House of Representatives, which requires a net gain of 23 seats, while the Republican Party will retain control of the US Senate. When Congress reconvenes in January, Washington will likely return to “divided government,” with the two parties negotiating a bipartisan policy whose outlines are beginning to emerge. Statements last week by Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell suggest the most important features of such a bipartisan regime. McConnell responded October 16 to reports of a sharp increase in the federal budget deficit by demanding significant cuts in social spending. ... President Trump, speaking at a campaign rally October 20, announced that he was tearing up the Intermediate Nuclear Force treaty with Russia, setting the stage for a new arms race, as part of an increasingly confrontational policy. ...

These two comments suggest the outlines of the bipartisan policy that would be put into effect after the elections: Trump and the Republicans will carry out the more aggressive anti-Russian policy demanded by the Democrats; the Democrats will join forces in the enactment of a bipartisan onslaught against social benefits, to make working people and the retired pay the price of military escalation. ... The two newspapers that serve as the main voices for the Democratic Party wing of the ruling class, the Washington Post and the New York Times, signaled their support for this deal-in-the-making, each newspaper addressing one side in the impending trade-off.

DNC Fraud Lawsuit Suffers Suspicious Judge Recusal

A spin of the speculator 2 weeks out:

Senate Slipping Away as Dems Fight to Save Blue Wave

In the closing stretch of the 2018 campaign, the question is no longer the size of the Democratic wave. It’s whether there will be a wave at all.

Top operatives in both political parties concede that Democrats’ narrow path to the Senate majority has essentially disappeared, a casualty of surging Republican enthusiasm across GOP strongholds. At the same time, leading Democrats now fear the battle for the House majority will be decided by just a handful of seats.

“It’s always been an inside straight, and it still is,” Democratic pollster Paul Maslin said of Democrats’ outlook in the Senate, where they need to pick up two seats while holding on to several others in Republican-leaning states to seize the majority. “If it had been a different year, with a different map, we might have had a terrific sweep. That would be a long shot.”

While the trend may be troubling for Democrats, the evolving political landscape remains unsettled two weeks before Election Day, even with millions of votes already cast across 20 states.

There are signs that the Democrats’ position in the expanding House battlefield may actually be improving. Yet Republican candidates locked in tight races from New York to Nevada find themselves in stronger-than-expected positions because of a bump in President Donald Trump’s popularity, the aftermath of a divisive Supreme Court fight and the sudden focus on a caravan of Latin American immigrants seeking asylum at the U.S. border.

Tim Canova is running as an Independent against the execrable Debbie Wasserman Schultz:

Debbie Wasserman Schultz Corruption EXPOSED!



the evening greens


Wow. Reminds me of the movie "Thank You For Smoking."

Trump’s Air Pollution Adviser Denies Link Between Dirty Air and Health Problems

Last spring, air pollution researchers from around the world gathered to discuss their latest findings. Among them were scientists who led landmark studies linking smog and soot to deadly health problems. So it was shocking when one speaker essentially told everyone in the room that they were wrong.

In his half-hour presentation, Tony Cox, a risk analyst from Denver, claimed that researchers are overstating the dangers of air pollution. He explained how his own statistical modeling of health data found no connection between dirty air and respiratory problems or heart attacks. Scientists and others at the Health Effects Institute annual conference were appalled. Some added to their speeches what they had thought was obvious: Yes, air pollution really is dangerous.

Cox might have been just shrugged off as a provocateur, a denier of established science. But he leads the Trump administration’s panel of scientists that offers advice on how to protect the health of about 126 million Americans who live in smoggy and sooty places. In that role, he’s in a prime position to spread his skepticism of the science of air pollution: The Environmental Protection Agency is poised this year to review its health standards for fine particles known as PM2.5 and ozone, the main component of smog. These decisions, scientists say, literally could mean life and death for people in cities across the United States. ...

According to documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, Cox was nominated for the science board’s top position by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has sued the EPA multiple times in an effort to loosen air pollution standards. The nomination came from Dan Byers of the chamber’s Global Energy Institute, who leads “efforts to promote and maintain coal’s vital role in America’s energy system.”

Cox has made his living challenging established science on behalf of industry. He has worked as a consultant for more than a dozen companies or industry groups that lobby against clean air or worker safety rules and are major sources of pollution, according to his website. He consulted for the American Petroleum Institute, which represents oil and gas companies, and the Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association, which represents makers of diesel and gasoline engines. He also consulted for the mining industry and tobacco giant Philip Morris.

New York Sues ExxonMobil for Defrauding Investors by Hiding Climate Threat

After a three-year probe and amid mounting demands that the fossil fuel industry be held accountable for driving the climate crisis, New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood on Wednesday filed suit against ExxonMobil, the world's largest oil and gas company, for defrauding investors by downplaying the financial threat of regulations crafted to mitigate human-caused global warming. ...

"Investors put their money and their trust in Exxon—which assured them of the long-term value of their shares, as the company claimed to be factoring the risk of increasing climate change regulation into its business decisions. Yet as our investigation found, Exxon often did no such thing," Underwood said in a statement. New York investigators, she said, concluded that "Exxon built a facade to deceive investors into believing that the company was managing the risks of climate change regulation to its business when, in fact, it was intentionally and systematically underestimating or ignoring them, contrary to its public representations."

The complaint (pdf) details years of troubling actions by Exxon's leaders—including former CEO Rex Tillerson, who spent more than 40 years at the company prior to his short-lived tenure as the President Donald Trump's first secretary of state.


Also of Interest

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

Justice Dept Must Open Criminal Investigation Into Potential War Crimes by U.S. Mercenaries in Yemen

How Billionaires Bought Kavanaugh’s Seat on the Supreme Court

Roger Waters, Marielle Franco, and the Power of Inspiration in the Face of Darkness and Danger

Don’t Lose Sight of the Real Stakes: Jamal Khashoggi’s Murder Is About Repression of Free Speech in the Middle East

‘They’re Going to Pen You In and Charge You for It’

Chris Hedges: The Rule of the Uber-Rich Means Tyranny or Revolution

Bolsonaro backers wage war on the rainforest

Some of the countries leading on climate change might surprise you

Oil Under Threat As Global Economy Struggles


A Little Night Music

Big Maybelle - That's A Pretty Good Love

Big Maybelle - Too Tight Mama

Big Maybelle - My Big Mistake

Big Maybelle - Ramblin' Blues

Big Maybelle - Way Back Home

Big Maybelle - Rain Down Rain

Big Maybelle - I Ain't Mad at You Live

Big Maybelle - So Good To My Baby

Big Maybelle - I've Got A Feeling


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divineorder's picture

Thanks for the news.

Beautiful day here in Santa Fe. Rained day and night, but now some nice snow up on the mountaintops. Needed that rain.

Thanks for the news.

History lesson?

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

WindDancer13's picture

@divineorder
the Dust Bowl last night. I was thinking we could sure use some photographer-essayists like Dorothea Lange and Margaret Bourke-White right about now. Black and white photos can have a lot more impact than a stream of videos with talking heads.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@divineorder

glad to hear that you guys are getting good rain and snow out there, i hope that it keeps up for you.

i wonder if america is capable of being as hospitable towards migrants as they were during the dust bowl (which is to set the bar pretty low) - the u.s. seems to have run short on its supplies of altruism some time ago.

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divineorder's picture

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0 users have voted.

A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

snoopydawg's picture

@divineorder

Just about every website and tweet I've seen on the bombs are saying that they were sent to people who were critical of Trump. It's almost like the motive was decided on before they were sent out. And there's no way that they were sent through the mail. The packages only have 6 stamps on them and I'm betting that they weigh more than a few ounces. Plus the stamps aren't canceled. With as many cameras placed around the country I don't think it'd take long to find images of who sent them.

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joe shikspack's picture

@divineorder

with any luck, the identity of the (maga?) mailer will be known soon.

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divineorder's picture

to wait for the refugee caravan to cross 1000 miles of Mexico on foot?

Just Security
@just_security

A forum on law, rights, and US national security. Editorial Board includes former USG officials, top civil society attorneys, and law profs. DM us for Signal.
justsecurity.org

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

joe shikspack's picture

@divineorder

i guess how this issue shakes out may depend upon the whether congress changes hands in the next couple of weeks.

i could see, for example, trump declaring that there is a terrorist threat at the border and that the aumf allows him to employ the military. at current there are only a few republicans that would bother to stand up to him over this.

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The Aspie Corner's picture

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwRVJ3GZdXU]

'Murica pays the price for imperialism, again.

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

joe shikspack's picture

@The Aspie Corner

one would hope that trump would be called to account for overstepping the powers of his office and/or his delusional views of migrants as security threats. one would hope ...

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WindDancer13's picture

A thought that I had last night:
Maybe teaching children at their schools to hide under their desks and cover their ears to avoid becoming deaf during a nuclear attack needs to be revived. It seems to have staved off nuclear destruction in the 50s and 60s. Maybe it can work again. (someone recently told me I need to mark my comments so /s = ))

Edit: *sigh* Thanks, Joe, for the news!

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

joe shikspack's picture

@WindDancer13

heh, i thought the reagan administration's innovation was more pragmatic:

''Dig a hole, cover it with a couple of doors and then throw three feet of dirt on top."

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WindDancer13's picture

@joe shikspack

shoveling dirt are going to have a problem. Not to mention that trying to get out of that hole 30+ years later has problems of its own. At least covering your ears means you won't hear it coming and so lessens fear (which won't happen in that deep dark hole). Although, I believe the final result is going to be the same...unhealthy.

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

snoopydawg's picture

ever see pictures of what their country looked like during and after WWII? I just don't get why they would be hung ho about going to war again. Putin has stated very succinctly that if war happens again that Russia would be standing at the end of it. Oh well. Guess the defense companies haven't bled this country dry enough yet.

Trident Juncture 2018 Is About to Kick Off: NATO’s Big War Games Near Russia’s Borders Never End

The NATO-led Trident Juncture 2018 (TRJE18) exercise that is to be held in October and November is the largest massive and coordinated show of force since the Cold War. It will primarily be hosted by Norway. The training event will largely take place in the central and eastern parts of this Nordic country that neighbors Russia, as well as over the skies and in the seas of Sweden and Finland. The maritime component will be conducted in the surrounding areas of the North Atlantic and in the Baltic Sea. TRJE18-related activities will take place as far away as Iceland. Russia has been invited to send observers to watch the exercise.
*
Until now, both Scandinavian nations have shied away from holding Article 5 exercises. The Trident Juncture 2018 is a drastic shift in that policy, which is being carefully evaluated by Russia.

At an unofficial level, Sweden and Finland have already joined NATO through other groups and agreements, such as their trilateral cooperation with the US. The militarization of Norway, as well as all of the Scandinavian Peninsula and the Baltic states is being perceived by Russia as a provocation and a threat that demands a response. The Baltic states continue to request an increased military presence on their soil. NATO is stockpiling weapons, military equipment, and ammunition in the Baltic region and Poland.
*
It is true that the terrorist threat is no big prize for the defense industry. Opposing such big potential foes as Russia or China promises huge financial benefits for companies involved in military production. These never-ending and provocative exercises are needed to keep tensions high and justify the allocations of funds. This state of constant confrontation with Russia and China rakes in profits. The ends justify the means.

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Azazello's picture

@snoopydawg
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khpF6kP0FGA width:500 height:300]

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

snoopydawg's picture

@Azazello

I'm hearing that too. "Putin told Trump to tear up the INF so he can build more nukes." Gawd don't these people ever bother to think how stupid things like that make them sound? Instead of being upset that Bolton killed another weapon deal which puts the world at risk they only think how it relate to Russia Gate.

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@snoopydawg Did they forget history as recently as World War II. Do they see the parallel between now and the Nazis and their allies massing on the Russian border?

My theory is that the majority of Western countries simply did not experience the massive destruction that happened in Eastern Europe and particularily in the Soviet Union. The blitz on London killed something like 40,000 souls. That was the death toll just from bombing Stalingrad, never mind what happened to Leningrad. Countries like Norway and the Danes think they played significant rolls and scarfice in defeating the Nazis when in fact it was the Soviet Union.

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snoopydawg's picture

@MrWebster

during WWII fighting the Nazis and it was Russia that won the war. Did any of us learn that history in school? Probably not. I heard that if we hadn't jumped into the war we would all be speaking German today. American exceptionalism strikes again.

Anyone hear that we're building a base in Norway? Me neither, but it's true. Troops used to be stationed there for 6 months, but now they will be there for 5 years.

Assessing US Marines Deployment to Norway: No Big Deal or Serious Threat to Russia?

I'm thinking it's the latter. Criminal indeed. This is from the first article posted.

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@snoopydawg Another rumor is that the US intends to build nuclear facilities in Saudi Arabia.

This makes some sense if you think that war with and containment of Iran is our goal. Pretending that Iran is a dangerous enemy in order to cover for our intended theft, invasion, occupation and conquering of pipelines, oil, resources, everything.

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NYCVG

@snoopydawg Another rumor is that the US intends to build nuclear facilities in Saudi Arabia.

This makes some sense if you think that war with and containment of Iran is our goal. Pretending that Iran is a dangerous enemy in order to cover for our intended theft, invasion, occupation and conquering of pipelines, oil, resources, everything.

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NYCVG

@snoopydawg
the Russians would have defeated Nazi Germany unaided, unless the Germans had successfully developed an atomic weapon. Yes, it would have taken a lot longer, and many more millions of Russians would have died, but the bottom line was that they outnumbered the Germans 5 to 1 and they had almost unlimited resources.

We did help the European cause significantly, even before D-day, by supplying war materiel both to the UK and to the Russians (I saw a Khrushchev quote once suggesting that, many rude jokes notwithstanding, the Russians were very happy to receive figurative and possibly literal boatloads of Spam.). Hard to say how things would have turned out for the UK had we not sent our air force to bomb the bejesus out of Germany and keep the Luftwaffe on the defensive indefinitely. It is not hard to say that our sacrifice -- which was not small, especially in the Pacific Theater -- paled beside that of the Russians. Of course, it's not like they had a choice (other than to surrender). And also of course, most of those millions of casualties were civilians.

I don't know the context of Kinky Friedman's remarks -- he kinda went off the rails about 10 years ago -- but anyway, he said something that pissed off The Waterboys' Mike Scott:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lj08pb_f4x0]

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

lotlizard's picture

@MrWebster  
But the AfD is against restarting the Cold War and wants peace and partnership with Russia.

The AfD’s platform supports NATO only in its original role as a defense pact, not for invading, destabilizing, and occupying countries in Central Asia, North Africa (e.g. Libya), and the Middle East.

Whereas all the other parties (excepting a few diehard ex-communists in the Left Party) take an expanded German role in an aggressive NATO as a given, along with all the military buildups and interventions far from Germany’s borders which that strategic doctrine entails.

So whose foreign policy is more “Nazi” in practice, and in effect on ordinary people in other countries?

The AfD’s stay-at-home, “defend Germany’s borders” — e.g. against “invasion” by migrants — policy?

Or the Atlanticist, whatever-Washington-says, “Full Spectrum Dominance” anti-AfD consensus, resulting in sending combat forces and weapons systems all over the globe?

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joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

heh, and people look at me funny when i call our elite leadership a death cult.

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WindDancer13's picture

@joe shikspack

because of what you are saying. Have you looked in the mirror lately? You are neon pink.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@WindDancer13

perhaps that's it. Smile

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After 2016 I simply do not believe polls. Among the many bullshit polls was one in Oregon that had Bernie losing to Hillary by double-digits. One pundit said that Trump had lost white women.

On the INF treaty. Example of what Aaron Matte calls the Russian Cult. Putin wanted Trump to get out of the treaty. You see, the Russians were violating the treaty, but somehow the treaty was also constraining Putin who does what he wants anyway. Oh my head.

From non-resistance sources, comes observation that it is the War Machine in the US that will benefit the most. And, the US had no response to a number of game changer weapon systems such as Russians hyper speed missiles which follow the treaty. Given the soruces I have seen, the Russians can now destroy the entire US Navy with some of their newly developed weapons. The only response wuntil the US figures it it out, is put nukes on Russia's border.

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joe shikspack's picture

@MrWebster

heh, why would post-truth america need accurate polls? the more wildly inaccurate they are, the more they match the government propaganda and political rhetoric.

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WindDancer13's picture

need so many weapons? There are at least 10 countries currently selling arms to Saudi Arabia. I have not seen anything about someone trying to attack them, so why all the weapons?

Wouldn't it be funny (not ha ha funny) if the Saudis were planning to cut off all oil to the US and other western countries and then use "our"weapons to attack us? After all, it has now been a long time since they did it the last time.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@WindDancer13

many have conjectured that the saudis purchase of weapons is largely a kickback scheme, that allows the saudis to have leverage in the u.s. economy.

the saudis are not that good at using the weapons. the idea that they could attack a world class military and prevail is pretty much laughable.

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WindDancer13's picture

@joe shikspack

no wonder they do not seem fearsome. It is so hard to fight in silk as it produces a lot of static electricity. Plus, it is very hard to get blood stains out of silk which will make them more cautious.

Could be why they used "our" own commercial airlines the last time.

Thanks for the new site.

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

Azazello's picture

Some interesting discussion here: Tulsi Gabbard's Foreign Policy and the Progressive Left
Pretty sure I'd vote for her if she were to run.
File this under Duh: International Studies Quarterly

NAFTA's Army: Free Trade and US Military Enlistment

Abstract

I argue that international trade increases military enlistment in the United States. Trade-related job losses reduce economic opportunities in local labor markets, and the government responds by increasing military recruitment efforts in those counties. This dynamic challenges conventional accounts of globalization, which tend to overlook the local impact of free trade and only examine the traditional welfare policies that governments offer to compensate “trade losers.” This study analyzes an original, county-level data set on army enlistment and trade-related job losses from 1996 to 2010. The results suggest that a trade shock of one thousand job losses is associated with a 33 percent increase in army enlistment in the median county. To illustrate the causal mechanisms that link free trade to army enlistment, this study also presents a case study based on original interviews in Catawba County, North Carolina, a county particularly impacted by trade liberalization.

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

joe shikspack's picture

@Azazello

thanks for the links. i have a generally good opinion of gabbard, on the other hand, i'd like to know more about her specific plans for military deployment to fight terrorism. after all, obama sounded pretty dovish when he said that he wasn't in favor of "dumb wars."

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snoopydawg's picture

In a speech announcing a new military and economic escalation against China earlier this month, US Vice President Mike Pence demanded that China cease its efforts to control what he called the “commanding heights of the 21st century economy,” including “robotics, biotechnology, and artificial intelligence,” making it clear that under the Trump administration, the United States is “defending our interests with renewed American strength.”

Good grief. Imagine a world where this country worked with China on developing things that can help all of humanity. In a sane world. Or in my dreams....

The EBs lived up to its name today. Sheesh. From Pence threatening China, Vlad threatening Europe to Bolsonaro possibly destroying the Amazon to all the rest of the news here it's simply quite depressing.

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joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

The EBs lived up to its name today.

as one of my old friends used to say, "wow we're moving fast, and what are we doing in this handbasket?"

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snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack

and probably true. Thanks for the chuckle. It helped.

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mimi's picture

@joe shikspack @joe shikspack

The Blues Got the World...
Bruce Cockburn
I've been down to parliament, I've been in school
I've been in jail to learn the golden rule
I've been to the workhouse, served my time in those hallowed halls
The only thing I know is the blues got the world by the balls
I've been to the tundra and the mountain too
I've been in Paris doing what the Frenchmen do
I've been in Boston where the buildings grow so tall
Everywhere you go the blues got the world by the balls
You can catch 'em from the preacher or from the pool shark
You can find 'em in the grammar of the socialite's remark
Or down in the washroom you can read it on the wall
Everywhere you look the blues got the world by the balls

[video:https://youtu.be/JY__agG_eXc]
always learning something new at the Evening Blues ... Thank You, for everything.

PS: What kind of guitar is that with the greenish enamel style to cover the body?

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joe shikspack's picture

@mimi

heh, i think that the blues may have upgraded its grip in both scope and intensity since that song was recorded. Smile

re: the guitar - this page says that it is a custom instrument made by linda manzer.

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lotlizard's picture

@joe shikspack  
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=boogie+woogie+bugle+boy&iax=videos&ia=videos

The Bluesy Newsy Google Boy from Company FB, not so much. Rather the opposite, I’ll warrant.

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enhydra lutris's picture

damnit. Too much news and too much good music. Ah well, have a great one and thanks.

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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 --

joe shikspack's picture

@enhydra lutris

fortunately, there is no final exam. Smile

have a great evening!

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but doesn't this describe our latest supreme court justice:

Unless every poll is wildly wrong, Brazil will probably elect a racist, sexist, homophobic advocate of torture at the end of this month.

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

joe shikspack's picture

@UntimelyRippd

absolutely. there seem to be plenty of dangerous fascists to go around.

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