The Evening Blues - 11-2-17



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Billy Boy Arnold

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Chicago blues harmonica player and singer Billy Boy Arnold. Enjoy!

Billy Boy Arnold - My Babe

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."

-- H. L. Mencken


News and Opinion

Trump & Media Focus on Muslims After Attack in NYC, Even as NYPD Says Islam Played No Role

Americans Furiously Debate Islam Vs. Russia While Plutocracy Kills Everyone

Ahh, good! It’s finally happening. We’re finally seeing American liberals and conservatives reaching across the gaping echo chamber divide to directly debate whose imaginary boogeyman is scarier: Russia… or Radical Islamic Terrorism™. Conservatives insist that Islam is far scarier, citing the recent suicide-by-cop attempt of a Muslim man who committed vehicular mass murder in Manhattan before brandishing toy guns at police officers. Liberals are asserting that the attack is proof that Russia is clearly the greater threat, citing as evidence some imaginary alternate reality in which Uzbekistan is part of Russia. [See article for examples of tweeted outrage of conservatives and liberals. - js] ...

I for one think it’s cool that liberals and conservatives are finally addressing the elephant in the room and engaging the “who has the better imaginary enemy” debate head-on. The Manhattan attack has forced a rare occurrence in which the made-up boogeymen of both mainstream partisan hack franchises are overlapping just enough for a few people to experience some dissonance and maybe get some insight into how fucking ridiculous they look all the time. Not many will, but a few might. I’ll take it.

Meanwhile, the nationless plutocracy which has loosely centralized its operations in the United States has created so much economic injustice that two-thirds of Americans would struggle to cover a crisis that cost $1,000 while depriving the nation’s citizens of social safety nets granted to everyone else in every other major country on earth, destroying the ecosystem with psychotic neoliberal deregulation and expansion, bombing countries all over the world that most Americans couldn’t find on a map, ramping up an increasingly militarized police state and Orwellian surveillance programs, and brainwashing the nation with establishment propaganda to convince them that this is all normal.

But yeah. Muslims and Putin, boooo, scary.

Uzbekistan Cooperated with CIA Rendition & Torture Post-9/11, As Govt. Boiled Dissidents Alive

Defense Department: The War On Terror Has Cost $250 Million A Day For 16 Years

American taxpayers have spent $1.46 trillion on wars abroad since September 11, 2001.

The Department of Defense periodically releases a “cost of war” report. The newly released version, obtained by the Federation of American Scientists Secrecy News blog, covers the time from the September 11th terrorist attacks through mid-2017. The Afghanistan War from 2001 to 2014 and Iraq War from 2003 to 2011 account for the bulk of expenses: more than $1.3 trillion. The continuing presence in Afghanistan and aerial anti-ISIS operations in Iraq and Syria since 2014 have cost a combined $120 billion.

The report’s costs include only direct war-related expenses such as operating and maintaining bases, procuring equipment, and paying for and feeding troops. It most notably does not include the expense of veteran’s benefits for troops who serve in these wars or the intelligence community’s expenses related to Global War on Terror. ...

According to the Congressional Research Service, the only war in U.S. history to cost more than the Global War on Terror is World War II, at more than $4.1 trillion in present dollars. Direct war-related expenses from the Vietnam War cost $738 billion in today's dollars.

Code Pink Conference: Divest from the War Machine

In Shocking, Viral Interview, Qatar Confesses Secrets Behind Syrian War

A television interview of a top Qatari official confessing the truth behind the origins of the war in Syria is going viral across Arabic social media during the same week a leaked top secret NSA document was published which confirms that the armed opposition in Syria was under the direct command of foreign governments from the early years of the conflict.

And according to a well-known Syria analyst and economic adviser with close contacts in the Syrian government, the explosive interview constitutes a high level "public admission to collusion and coordination between four countries to destabilize an independent state, [including] possible support for Nusra/al-Qaeda." Importantly, "this admission will help build case for what Damascus sees as an attack on its security & sovereignty. It will form basis for compensation claims."

As the war in Syria continues slowly winding down, it seems new source material comes out on an almost a weekly basis in the form of testimonials of top officials involved in destabilizing Syria, and even occasional leaked emails and documents which further detail covert regime change operations against the Assad government. ... This process of clarity has been aided - as predicted - by the continued infighting among Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) former allies Saudi Arabia and Qatar, with each side accusing the other of funding Islamic State and al-Qaeda terrorists (ironically, both true). Increasingly, the world watches as more dirty laundry is aired and the GCC implodes after years of nearly all the gulf monarchies funding jihadist movements in places like Syria, Iraq, and Libya.

In an interview with Qatari TV Wednesday, former Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani revealed that his country, alongside Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the United States, began shipping weapons to jihadists from the very moment events "first started" (in 2011). ... According to Zero Hedge's translation, al-Thani said while acknowledging Gulf nations were arming jihadists in Syria with the approval and support of US and Turkey: "I don't want to go into details but we have full documents about us taking charge [in Syria]." He claimed that both Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah (who reigned until his death in 2015) and the United States placed Qatar in a lead role concerning covert operations to execute the proxy war.

Russia is using oil to undermine the U.S. around the world

Iraq sent tanks rolling into combat against its own renegade province of Kurdistan in mid-October, raising the specter of a new Iraqi civil war that U.S. diplomats had spent the summer scrambling to avoid. America’s attempts to prevent Kurdistan’s independence referendum in September failed — both because of the Kurds’ long-held determination to establish their own country, and, thanks to the big vote of confidence Kurdistan received from Russia’s top state-controlled oil company, Rosneft.

Analysts say Russia’s power play in Kurdistan was just the latest example of a trend that’s picked up pace this year: In places like Iraq, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea, Russian oil is emerging as a powerful counterweight to U.S. political and economic statecraft, with the effect of undercutting U.S. objectives in a way that’s alarming U.S. policymakers and members of Congress. “There’s no doubt in my mind that Russia has brazenly used the geopolitics of oil, directly propping up of regimes that are antithetical to the United States,” Rep. Trent Franks (R – AZ), told VICE News. “They have literally used oil as a strategic weapon.”

These investments, analysts say, put a new twist on Moscow’s decades-old strategy of using energy to bind itself closer to client states around the globe. But this time, Moscow’s agents are also seeking profits. “The Soviet Union used its energy resources to gain political advantage,” Chris Weafer, a longtime business consultant in Moscow, told VICE News. “Modern Russia is combining what they see as good politics with good economics.” ... Though providing funds to Kurdistan or Venezuela might appear to officials in Washington like an attempt to undermine U.S. policies, “the view from Moscow is the opposite,” Weafer said. “They’re finding opportunities where the U.S. has totally screwed up, and then they’re moving in.”

YouTube and Facebook Are Removing Evidence of Atrocities, Jeopardizing Cases Against War Criminals

Abdulsalam was in the middle of Friday prayer at his neighborhood mosque in al-Bab, Aleppo, when he heard a crash — a nearby bakery had just disintegrated under the force of barrel bomb, a deadly metal container filled with shrapnel and explosives, favored by the Syrian military. Scanning the sky he saw the hovering chopper that had dropped the weapon. He tried to snap photos as it loomed above the rubble, but the images looked fuzzy. Abdulsalam hopped on the back of a passing ambulance and was among the first on the scene. He trained his camera on the smoldering facade of a bakery, panned to series of blasted-apart food stalls, and then settled his lens on mangled bodies. He kept snapping photos in rapid succession, until he spotted his cousin amid the carnage. Holstering his camera, Abdulsalam decided to join the rescue effort and helped his relative to a nearby hospital. ...

Within hours of the attack that injured his cousin, Abdulsalam uploaded his photos to Facebook. He thought it was the best way to simultaneously preserve the images — he didn’t know when his camera or computer could be destroyed — and get them out to the world. “It was a particularly horrific bombing,” he told me recently. There had been a pause in the fighting that week, and families who’d spent months cowering inside had just emerged to stroll through an outdoor bazaar near the mosque.

Seven months later, Abdulsalam got an automated email from Facebook notifying him that the images had been removed. Other users had complained that his photos were too gory. By the time he got the email, Abdulsalam’s other copies of the pictures were gone; his hard drive had been burned, along with his small office, when the Islamic State stormed al-Bab and Abdulsalam fled across the border to Turkey.

There’s good reason to believe Abdulsalam’s photos could have been used to address the atrocities he had witnessed. Since the beginning of the Syrian Civil War, investigators with Human Rights Watch have been making regular trips to Aleppo to document potential war crimes, including a disturbing pattern of Syrian helicopters blowing up bakeries with barrel bombs. By time time Abdulsalam snapped his pictures, the Islamic State had begun to move into the city, and HRW could no longer collect on-the-ground evidence. ... The disappearance of Abdusalam’s photos are part of a pattern that’s causing a quiet panic among human rights groups and war crimes investigators. Social media companies can, and do, remove content with little regard for its evidentiary value. First-hand accounts of extrajudicial killings, ethnic cleansing, and the targeting of civilians by armies can disappear with little warning, sometimes before investigators notice. When groups do realize potential evidence has been erased, recovering it can be a kafkaesque ordeal. Facing a variety of pressures — to safeguard user privacy, neuter extremist propaganda, curb harassment and, most recently, combat the spread of so-called fake news — social media companies have over and over again chosen to ignore, and, at times, disrupt the work of human rights groups scrambling to build cases against war criminals.

Spanish judge jails eight members of deposed Catalan government

A judge in Madrid has ordered eight members of the deposed Catalan government to be remanded in custody pending possible charges over last week’s declaration of independence, and Spanish prosecutors are seeking a European arrest warrant for the region’s ousted president, Carles Puigdemont.

Carmen Lamela, sitting in Spain’s national court, jailed the eight former ministers – including Puigdemont’s deputy, Oriol Junqueras – on Thursday while they are investigated on possible charges of sedition, rebellion and misuse of public funds. Lamela ruled that a ninth, who resigned the day before the Catalan parliament voted to declare independence last Friday, could remain at liberty on bail of €50,000 (£44,600).

Lawyers for those under investigation said their clients would appeal against the judge’s decision, which they described as unjustified, disproportionate and predetermined. ...

Lamela’s decision to remand the leaders in custody on the grounds that they could be a flight risk was swiftly condemned by politicians and civil society groups in Catalonia and beyond. ... The mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, described it as a black day for Catalonia. “A government democratically elected at the ballot box is in jail,” she said. “There is a common front to achieve the freedom of the political prisoners.”

Pablo Iglesias, the leader of the anti-austerity Podemos party, said: “I’m ashamed that they lock up opponents in my country. We don’t want Catalan independence, but today we say ‘free the political prisoners’.”

How General Kelly's Attitudes Reflect the U.S. of A

When retired Marine General John Kelly became White House Chief of Staff and thereby the leader of the ruling junta the media were effusive about the "grown-up," and "adult" man. ...

Kelly just proved again that the lauded "adult" and "grown-up" is just another militaristic right-winger, has little knowledge outside of his narrow training and is as smug as the president he nominally serves:

"White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly on Monday called Robert E. Lee “an honorable man” and said that “the lack of an ability to compromise” led to the Civil War, once again thrusting himself into the public spotlight on an emotionally charged issue."

How does one compromise over slavery? The "right" to own and abuse other humans to increase the wealth of their owners was the main issue the southern states fought for. ... General Lee was not a nice man. A slave owner himself. he liked to torture his "property" when it did not obey. ...

There is nothing astonishing about this. Kelly did not become a 4-star Marine general for being an enlightened defender of humanity. The illusions some liberal luminaries expose when they lament about Kelly is quite astonishing. ... The differences between the motives and attitudes of the southern states in the civil war and the motives and attitudes of the U.S. of A towards the world are marginal. Kelly comprehends that well.


Guantánamo tribunals face chaos as top defence lawyer punished for contempt

The military tribunals at Guantánamo Bay are facing chaos after a trial judge sentenced the chief defence counsel, a marine general, to 21 days’ confinement in his trailer for contempt. ...

In court on Wednesday, Marine Brigadier General John Baker, who oversees defence teams at the facility, attempted to argue the court had no jurisdiction over him. But Air Force Colonel Vance Spath, the judge in the case about the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen, refused to let him speak and ordered him to sit down, according to the Miami Herald.

Spath declared Baker in contempt for excusing three civilian defence lawyers from the case because of an unspecified ethics conflict involving attorney-client privilege. Spath ordered the general confined to his quarters in a trailer near the court and to pay a $1,000 fine.

Spath ordered the civilian lawyers to return to Guantánamo Bay or appear by video-link next week.

The defendant in the USS Cole case, a Saudi national, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, has asked the US district court in Washington to halt the trial because the only defence attorney left at the trial is a navy lieutenant who graduated five years ago and has never tried a murder case. Nashiri is facing a potential death sentence.

Cops Having Sex With Detainees Should Always Be Considered Rape, Say New York Politicians

When New York City Council Member Mark Treyger read about Anna Chambers’s case, he was appalled. News of the alleged rape of an 18-year-old by two undercover detectives from the New York Police Department while she was detained in their car was disturbing enough. When the Brooklyn City Council member learned that officers Eddie Martins and Richard Hall had claimed that the sex was consensual, and that consent in police custody was even a possibility under New York law, he was moved to action. Both officers were indicted on first-degree rape charges on Monday, but for Treyger and others, the very idea that a consent claim was legally possible remains a problem.

The alleged rape of Chambers (the teen’s online pseudonym) has shed light on a flaw in the New York penal code. As I reported for The Intercept, sex between an arresting officer and a detainee in custody is not necessarily rape under law. The law recognizes that no consensual sex can take place between prison guards and their inmates, or parole officers and parolees, but fail to cover police with detainees yet to be placed in cells.

That’s the legislative gap Treyger, along with colleagues on both the city council and in the New York state house, are working to fill. He is drafting legislation that would make sexual consent for arresting officers a legal impossibility. “People are shocked that this is not already a law,” said Treyger, who told me that there was a “coalition” of his colleagues both in city council and lawmakers at the state level who, struck by the Chambers case, are eager to see a swift change in legislation. New York City Council cannot change rape laws alone; Treyger’s bill could at most introduce police rape in this context as a misdemeanor. It would take a state-level intervention to make sex in police custody an automatic felony rape.

Plan to divide California into 3 new states clears first hurdle

A plan to split California into three separate states has cleared its first hurdle. Supporters are set to begin collecting signatures to qualify for next year's ballot. The plan is being funded by Bay Area tech billionaire Tim Draper, who previously funded a similar proposal back in 2014 to divide the state up into sections. That plan failed.

Draper argues that citizens would be better served by three smaller state governments, rather than one large one. The three-way split goes like this: Northern California would include the Bay Area all the way to the Oregon border, Southern California would begin in Fresno and cover most of the southern state. A new California would begin in Los Angeles county and cover most of the coastal areas.

House Republicans unveil tax plan to benefit corporations and the wealthy

Donald Trump’s push for deep tax cuts reached a milestone on Thursday as his fellow Republicans in the House of Representatives unveiled a long-awaited plan which would benefit corporations and the wealthy but is less generous to the middle class. The legislation would permanently lower the corporate tax rate to 20% from 35% and repeals the inheritance tax on multimillion-dollar estates in what would be the most sweeping change to the United States tax code in three decades. It also would reduce the number of tax brackets from seven to four and nearly double the standard deduction that most Americans take on their tax returns to $12,000 for individuals and $24,000 for couples.

Although the Republicans had long described their effort as a push for “tax reform”, the bill entitled “the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” was presented explicitly as a tax cut on Thursday. The GOP speaker, Paul Ryan, hailed the plan as a “very important and special moment” for the country and claimed that it would reduce taxes for a family of four that makes $59,000 a year by $1,182, while fellow Republicans such as the majority whip, Steve Scalise, boasted that it would allow Americans to fill out their taxes on a postcard.

The sweeping tax cuts, long a priority of the Trump administration and congressional Republicans, faces major obstacles to passage as Democrats are almost uniformly skeptical of the plan and a number of Republicans have concerns. Among the biggest red flags within the GOP are a provision to cap the deduction for state and local income taxes, which has faced skepticism from Republicans who represent high-tax states such as New York and New Jersey and the plan’s addition of $1.5tn to the national debt, which may raise the ire of deficit hawks. The bill would eliminate the tax deduction for state taxes and leave only a limited deduction for up to $10,000 in local property taxes.

The legislation is expected to face fierce opposition from realtors and the homebuilding industry as well over a provision to cap the deduction for mortgage interest on newly purchased homes at $500,000.

Record number of Americans renouncing citizenship

Americans are on pace to renounce their citizenship in record numbers in 2017, according to the latest quarterly report from the Treasury Department.

Some 5,411 U.S. citizens expatriated in 2016, a record high that topped 2015's numbers by 26 percent.

2017 is currently on track to beat those figures, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday, estimating a tally of 6,813 by the end of the year if the fourth quarter is similar to 2016's.



the horse race



Sen. Susan Collins: Senate intel panel should recall John Podesta, Debbie Wasserman Schultz

Sen. Susan Collins said Sunday that Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz “absolutely” need to be interviewed again by the Senate Intelligence Committee to talk about payments to a political firm that dug up dirt on President Trump last year.

“They absolutely need to be recalled,” Mrs. Collins said on CBS’s Face the Nation. “It’s difficult to imagine that a campaign chairman, that the head of the DNC, would not know of an expenditure of this magnitude and significance. But perhaps there’s something more going on here. But certainly, it’s worth additional questioning of those two witnesses,” said Mrs. Collins, Maine Republican.

Mr. Podesta and Mrs. Wasserman Schultz, who was the head of the Democratic National Committee last year before resigning over the summer, reportedly denied to congressional investigators that they had any knowledge about an arrangement to pay the firm Fusion GPS for opposition research into Mr. Trump.

Donna Brazile blasts ‘cancer’ of Clinton campaign’s stranglehold on DNC



the evening greens


Escalade ‘Monster’ Killed

The Navajo Nation Council squashed a years-long battle over a controversial proposal for a tourist development at the confluence of the Little Colorado and Colorado rivers. At a special session, the council skewered the Confluence Partners, who wanted to bring 10,000 tourists per day to an area containing sacred sites, grazing land, and traditional homelands to hundreds of Navajo families.

The developers wanted to build a resort that included a gondola tram that glided into the confluence of the Colorado and Little Colorado rivers, in Grand Canyon National Park. Ultimately, the council voted 16-2 to kill the measure.

Don Yellowman, president of the Bodaway/Gap Chapter, said this is a step toward unity. For years, the proposed Escalade had divided the community. For more than a half century, families from this area were exiled under the federal Bennett Freeze Act. In spite of the law, hundreds of families — many traditional sheep and cattle herders — struggled for survival. The U.S. Census Bureau documented that their living conditions were unacceptable by any measure anywhere else in the world. Numerous neighbor tribes joined the battle to oppose the Escalade, including the Hopi Tribe, which has shared sacred sites and ancestral claims to the region that the outside developers had sought to once again strip away from the people. ...

Norman. M. Begaye, the council delegate representing Alamo area, said the reason he opposed the development is because it failed to benefit anyone in the area, He said: “It’s the People. .. We realize it’s the people. If we approve this, we would open the flood gates on what is sacred.”

Hat tip dkmich:

Michigan continues to collapse, with no solution planned

More than a quarter of a million people in Michigan’s richest county have to boil their drinking water this week. If you haven’t heard, that’s because a four-foot wide water transmission line apparently broke in Farmington Hills Monday night. This has gotten a lot of publicity, far more so, say, than the Flint water crisis in its early stages. If you are a poor person of color in Flint, you might think this is because the people affected now are far more affluent, better connected, and nearly all white.

I won’t say that’s wrong. We don’t yet know what caused that pipe to break. It was 47 years old and was made to last for a century, but had never been inspected. This happened, by the way, almost ten months to the day after the giant sinkhole collapse in Macomb County that completely destroyed three houses. I haven’t heard any conspiracy theorists say these two events are linked. But in fact they are, every bit as much as if terrorists had been involved. Don’t like water mains breaking and sewers collapsing? Well, get used to it – it may well happen in your neighborhood soon.

And if you helped elect politicians who refuse to raise enough revenue to maintain our infrastructure, you deserve it. The blunt fact is that our state is wearing out. It is going to cost billions to fix, and our lawmakers need to raise our taxes now. They won’t do that, of course. Too many are ideological nincompoops who signed a pledge never to raise taxes for any reason, as crazily irresponsible as that seems. ...

The fact is that we need grownups back in charge. I’ve broadcast more than two thousand of these essays over the past dozen years, and in the very first one, I quoted U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, a conservative Republican. Ninety years ago, he wrote that “taxes are what we pay for civilized society.” We might differ on what we feel is worth paying for, but my guess is that just about all of us would include drinking water and plumbing that works on the list.


Also of Interest

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

Spain wants revenge. But arresting Catalan leaders only gives us strength

The “Amazon Amendment” Would Effectively Hand Government Purchasing Power Over to Amazon

Why the far right believes a US civil war will start on Saturday

I started Occupy Wall Street. Russia tried to co-opt me

Archaeologists discover mysterious void deep within Great Pyramid of Giza


A Little Night Music

Billy Boy Arnold - I Wish You Would

Billy Boy Arnold - I Was Fooled

Billy Boy Arnold - 99Lbs

Billy Boy Arnold - Last Night

Billy Boy Arnold - Goin Back To Arkansas

Billy Boy - Here's My Picture

Billy Boy Arnold - Rockin Itis

Billy Boy Arnold - You Got To Love Me

Billy Boy Arnold - Shake Your Hips


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Comments

Meteor Man's picture

This is the only part of the tax cuts plan I agree with:

The legislation is expected to face fierce opposition from realtors and the homebuilding industry as well over a provision to cap the deduction for mortgage interest on newly purchased homes at $500,000.

The mortgage interest tax deduction must be capped to provide developers with incentives to focus on affordable housing.

I'm gonna watch that Code Pink video about divesting from the war machine. It can't happen soon enough.

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"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

Meteor Man's picture

@Meteor Man
Col. Wilkerson's concluding remark, "America is the greatest terrorist organization on the globe "

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"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

joe shikspack's picture

@Meteor Man

i agree that the mortgage interest cap is a good idea, i'd like to see it implemented a little differently, though. i'd like to see it indexed by region, so that people who live in, say, parts of california or new york city where entry level home prices are much higher than in the rural areas of many states aren't at a disadvantage in purchasing a home.

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Meteor Man's picture

@joe shikspack
$500k will buy a whole lot more house in Arizona than California. It's a sore spot with me that I subsidize the mansions Bill Gates and Mitt Romney build with my tax dollars.

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"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

joe shikspack's picture

@Meteor Man

that tees me off, too. in fact, i'd also like to index the amount that employers are allowed to write off for salaries/benefits and other perks (total compensation including free use of corporate jets, etc.). i would like them to be able to write off no more than 10x the total compensation of the lowest-paid employee of the company.

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Meteor Man's picture

@joe shikspack
For all gross income over one million dollars. Tax the rich and feed the poor.

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"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

Delaware

In Delaware, you don't need a licence to own a shotgun.

You don't need a permit to buy a shotgun or carry a shotgun.

If you're over 18, and you pass the background check, the state won't interfere with your shotgun.

Sparklers, however, are a different matter.

Unless you have a permit for a public display, it is illegal to sell or possess fireworks in Delaware.

That includes sparklers - which the law specifically mentions.

The maximum fine is $100. Last year, 17 people were arrested in Delaware for fireworks offences.

While the US constitution does uphold the right to bear arms, it doesn't uphold the right to bear roman candles.

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joe shikspack's picture

@gjohnsit

heh. in maryland there are still laws prohibiting bowling. but there's nothing prohibiting people from taking their shotgun out and shooting bowling pins, i guess. our gun laws are considerably tighter than delaware's, though. Smile

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Arrow's picture

Expatriation. It's on my agenda.
Things would have to go wellfor me down here. But, I cansee that happening.
Technical note: If youdo it you want to 'relinquish' your citizenship not 'renounce'.
The State Department is charging a fortune to 'renounce'. Take a volunteer job as an official of a forein government and get a document saying you are. That's called an expatriating event.
(See clauses in the constitution)

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I want a Pony!

joe shikspack's picture

@Arrow

i suspect that most people renounce their citizenship for tax reasons - i.e. they are working overseas, have obtained citizenship and don't feel like paying taxes to two countries.

on the other hand, i hope that you find a more sensible country that finds it more reasonable to spend your tax dollars on the welfare of its people rather than on terrorizing other countries.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@joe shikspack
designed to eliminate double taxation, including a credit against one's US taxes for taxes paid to a foreign country. There are a few countries, however, where they might not work so well due to some country specific wrinkles.

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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 --

Roy Blakeley's picture

@enhydra lutris FATCA is a nightmare for US citizens living abroad. No space to go into the details (you can find a summary on Wikipedia), but it is a major driver of US citizens living abroad renouncing their US citizenship (including long-time friends of mine). It came into effect in 2010. Before that, living abroad was much easier.

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smiley7's picture

Hope you are well and in good spirits.

The Mencken quote rings true. Having read some of his work in the formative years--sounds like an advertisement for white bread :)--little me can not ignore or forget his brilliance with a pen.

i do have a writer friend who makes a case that he was an elitist using in part the quote following about the 'plain folks' in his arguments. Certainly, he was bred and educated well and that in itself should not be a punishment as people become people from all stratospheres of human beginnings from what i've experienced so i choose to ignore most of my friend's argument in favor of Mencken's challenging thinking.

“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” ~ H.L. Mencken

Thanks as always for stimulating conversation and the music.

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joe shikspack's picture

@smiley7

i'm doing and feeling well, i hope you are the same.

mencken can probably fairly be called an elitist. if you google for his quotes about democracy, you'll find ample reason to suspect that.

for example:

"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard."

"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance."

“We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.”

“I am suspicious of all the things that the average people believes.”

but then again, there are things like this:

"Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under."

“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, and intolerable...”

“In the present case it is a little inaccurate to say I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible to any public office of trust or profit in the Republic. But I do not repine, for I am a subject of it only by force of arms.”

“The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naïve and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who likes his country more than the rest of us, and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime; he is a good citizen driven to despair.”

so, perhaps an elitist, but an interesting one. Smile

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smiley7's picture

@joe shikspack

“The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naïve and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who likes his country more than the rest of us, and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime; he is a good citizen driven to despair.”

The notion permeating social values today through twitter, facebook and all undermines reason built upon previewing collective works, time and aspirations--the whole of a history of a human or organization, not a soundbite.

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

@smiley7

treatment, etc., is going well. Glad to hear that you got into the program!

Just in case I can't drop by your OT this Saturday, I wanted to mention that I found out that many of the Part D formularies are being very much pared down for 2018. A relative (securities/insurance broker) has the stats for most of the various plan formularies. I'm bringing this up because you've mentioned that drugs were very expensive (for you). Anyhoo, if you're still weighing Part D plans, and don't have the info on the 'number of drugs' in the various formularies, and need the numbers, please let me know. Hopefully, I can get the stats for you.

Pleasantry

Mollie


“I believe in the redemptive powers of a dog’s love. It is in recognition of each dog’s potential to lift the human spirit, and therefore, to change society for the better, that I fight to make sure every street dog has its day.”
--Stasha Wong, Secretary, Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD)

SOSD - A volunteer-run organisation dedicated to the welfare of Singapore’s street dogs. We rescue, rehabilitate, and rehome strays to give them a second chance.

On Twitter - SOSD Singapore@SOSDsg

SOSD 'Smiling' Dog.png

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smiley7's picture

@Unabashed Liberal

on Express Scripts, now, am taking a look; guess i'm okay with Mom's plan given her situation, facility says hers should be.

BTW, didn't see you Sat. but this little pup stole my day, delightfully.

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

@smiley7 @smiley7

get, and post, those RX formulary numbers for the 3 Express Scripts (RX) Plans that I've found for NC.

Hope they are the correct plans--they are Express Scripts Saver, Value and Choice.

Mollie

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snoopydawg's picture

@smiley7

there are so many animal rescue places that could use the support and I dreamed of traveling the country to find them and drop some cash for their love for animals.
But sadly, the most I won was $5.00
But it's still my dream.
This video brightened my day. Thanks.
Acute

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

@smiley7

but I'll post them at your OT this weekend. (to make sure that you see them!)

Wink

Mollie

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Meteor Man's picture

Over at Counterpunch. Terrific analysis and smackdown of the American police state with a reference to the movie V for Vendetta. Here's the lead in paragraph:

"Jesus! Where will it end? How low do you have to stoop in this country to be President? … We’ve come to a point where every four years this national fever rises up — this hunger for the Saviour, the White Knight, the Man on Horseback — and whoever wins becomes so immensely powerful … that when you vote for President today you’re talking about giving a man dictatorial power for four years… The whole framework of the presidency is getting out of hand. It’s come to the point where you almost can’t run unless you can cause people to salivate and whip each other with big sticks. You almost have to be a rock star to get the kind of fever you need to survive in American politics.”

—Hunter S. Thompson, gonzo journalist

Trump And The Police State Check it out:

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/11/02/97153/

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"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

joe shikspack's picture

@Meteor Man

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

thanks for tonight's EB, Joe! It's sorta like a form of Chinese water torture (for me) not to get to kibitz with you Guys for a bit! Biggrin But, still following [as close as possible ] what's going on with the tax bill.

Although I'm strongly against tax cuts for the wealthy and/or corporations--including the Estate Tax--I was relieved to see that one major tax expenditure, which affects all employees, wasn't eliminated. It's a tax expenditure that Dems have been angling to eliminate since Bowles-Simpsom, with no exceptions based on income--taxing employer-sponsored group health plans. Cutting this tax expenditure would have affected somewhere between 150 to 170-plus million employees.

IMO, it is especially unfair to eliminate it now, since self-employed individuals get to deduct their premiums, and millions and millions of Americans are having part, or all, of their health care tab picked up through either federal health insurance programs, or tax credits in the ACA Exchange. (Which I have no problem with, BTW.) But, since this tax expenditure crosses all economic lines--applying equally to the janitor and the file clerk, as well as the executive suite--it should be among the last to be eliminated, IMO. Good

Got an ear full (about the DNC fiasco) on satellite radio this afternoon--not good. I'm marking my calendar so that I can pull the transcript, and post it when we get back. (It won't be available for 24-48 hours.)

The only good thing about this kerfuffle is that it might once and for all dispel the notion that the Dem Party can be 'reformed.' If that happens, then something good may have come from all of this, after all.

Hey, weather's not been too bad, aside from the fallout from a hurricane and a tropical storm, that is. Wink

Unfortunately, everywhere we've traveled lately, many of the leaves have already fallen before they reached peak color. Hey, Everyone have a nice evening, and a fun weekend!

Bye

[Added - 'million' employees.]

Mollie


“I believe in the redemptive powers of a dog’s love. It is in recognition of each dog’s potential to lift the human spirit, and therefore, to change society for the better, that I fight to make sure every street dog has its day.”
--Stasha Wong, Secretary, Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD)

SOSD - A volunteer-run organisation dedicated to the welfare of Singapore’s street dogs. We rescue, rehabilitate, and rehome strays to give them a second chance.

SOSD Rescue 'Barabas The Brave'

Barabas The Brave -- Photo 1.png

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joe shikspack's picture

@Unabashed Liberal

yeah, the tax bill looks to be a mixed bag. overall, it seems like a bad idea to so drastically reduce revenues when it appears that congress is unwilling to trim the fat of the military budget and is all-too-willing to cut into the tender parts of the budget that provide much-needed benefits to "the little people."

tax simplification sounds like a great idea in theory, but the devil (as always) loves to hide in the details. thanks for keeping an eye on the details and keeping us informed about what you find.

glad to hear that the weather is good where you are. today was gorgeous here. we had been having something of a cold snap, but today was just one of those perfect, sunny, neither too hot nor too cool days that make you think, damn, i need to do some work outside, today would be great for that! sometimes great weather has a downside. Smile

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

@joe shikspack @joe shikspack

if they are no longer American citizens. (It's the main reason that, at present, we have no plans to give up US citizenship.) We'd have to be 'beyond' well-situated in another country's medical system, before even considering disenrolling in Traditional Medicare, Medigap, and our Part D plan.

Mollie

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snoopydawg's picture

@Unabashed Liberal

it looks like most of them have found their way to my backyard. I seem to have 4x as many this year than ever before.
Yesterday I mulched them and for 5 minutes the yard was clear of them. This morning there were twice as many as yesterday. I have 3 maple trees that have huge leaves and I have to put them in my garbage can which fills up in 5 minutes. Then I have to wait a week until the truck comes by and empties it.
I think it's going to be 10 weeks before I can get them all gone. I'm sure that it's going to snow before this happens.
Tonight it's very windy which should clear the remaining ones off the trees, but it's also raining.
Last year it snowed before I could get them up and it was a pain to get them up this spring before they ruined my grass.
This might be the last year that I have to deal with them.
Oh well, this has been one of the most beautiful falls in many years. And the weather has been perfect.

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

@snoopydawg

get to drop in for last Friday's Photo OT, I later saw the many gorgeous photos that you posted--the ones with all the striking golden leaves. You sure as heck live in a beautiful part of Utah, which must be especially enjoyable for an accomplished photographer like yourself. Pleasantry

Like you, we've had a very nice Fall. The only disappointment was that our leaves fell so early in both the mid- and Deep South this year. Guess it's partly due to the couple of cold snaps we experienced very early in the autumn season.

Have a good one!

Mollie

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snoopydawg's picture

@Unabashed Liberal

I have been walking at the cemetery by my house for years, but I see something new everyday and usually take pictures of it.
I saw an incredible image today where a almost leafless tree was standing guard over 3 headstones. But I only had my camera phone and I needed my one that would let me blur the background. I'm still not sure if I could have captured this and this is why I'd love to learn how to draw. But I have something wrong (?) with my brain that makes it very difficult for me to do this. Even if I have a step by step instruction in front of me that shows me what line to draw, I still can't.

I was at mammoth lakes and the scenery was incredible, but I couldn't capture it with my camera. I came across someone who was drawing it and I was so jealous of his ability. Maybe if I stop spending my days on the nets, I could learn to draw Smile

Fall is my favorite time of year because of all the colors. Spring is second with watching everything come back to life. I'm hoping to get a wide angle lens for close up photos like others have been posting. Hope to see you tomorrow night..

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Thanks as usual for the great compilation of the news. Listened to the CodePink video and was very informative to listen to. Interesting the information about the voting down of the Escalade project. Spent last night at Homolovi State Park in the high plains on the Little Colorado in Arizona. Turns out this is an area rich with Hopi ruins and still visited by Hopi tribes today. Drove through the Navajo Nation on the way back to Santa Fe. Glad to see there is still some positive news in relation to great outdoors.

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Life is what you make it, so make it something worthwhile.

This ain't no dress rehearsal!

joe shikspack's picture

@jakkalbessie

glad to hear that your travels are going well. hopefully that do fellow has taken some interesting photos. the color of the water contrasted with the canyon walls of the colorado and little colorado rivers is just spectacular, especially early in the morning (which i always have a hard time waking up for) - i hope to get out there again in the next few years.

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divineorder's picture

@joe shikspack away from grazing dependency. Hard to imagine it working for them with Climate Change. If they could even get paid fairly for their water rights would possibly help.

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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.

Raggedy Ann's picture

Great EB - so much information! Right out of the gate - Mecken's quote is spot on, but who's paying attention to that drivel, anyway.

The first video from Democracy Now! is worth watching. I heard it in my car on the way home.

So, without our permission, $1.3 trillion has been used to kill with abandon under cover of our name.

What do Donna Brazile and Qatar have in common? They suddenly want more sunshine coming their way, or leaving their mouths. So much transparency in such a short time. Are they starting a trend? Let's hope so.

Aren't we the share bears? We've set a fine example for Russia to beat us at our own game. We've provided them with the blueprints to play and were damn mad about it!

What's the future of Catalonia? There's one to watch.

How anyone thought that ass Kelly was an adult in any room speaks volumes about them.

Susan Collins is making some noise. She's alive! Let's hope someone is listening.

Congrats, Navajo Nation. There was no doubt you would do the right thing.

Wish I could go on - so many interesting things and terrific tunes, too!

Have a beautiful evening, everyone! Pleasantry

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

joe shikspack's picture

@Raggedy Ann

glad you found a lot of interest.

i wonder how much coverage brazile's revelations will get. so far, given the magnitude of the corruption that she admitted, you'd think that it would be everywhere, but it doesn't seem to have exploded like it should.

qatar's revelations (probably part of its grudge match with the saudis and the gcc) will probably not get much traction in the us media, since the us war machine is implicated. i hope that al thani does release the documentation that he has so that the alt press can publicize them (though they will likely be excluded from google searches).

anyway, have a great evening!

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Raggedy Ann's picture

@joe shikspack
short circuiting over this because it's not in the playbook. If they ignore it, the pretense continues unabated.

I'm with you on Qatar. The Saudi's must not have had their money on this one.

Enjoy your evening, joe!

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

divineorder's picture

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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

sure thing. i'm a big fan of codepink.

have a good evening!

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Interesting essay. But lots of itching powder also. The phone call he relates getting from the Russian front group sounds like a scene from a 1950's espionage novel.

The interview with Yan Big was immediately uncomfortable. The phone quality was terrible: it sounded like he was calling internationally or through a distant internet connection. He had a strange accent and an unusual way of phrasing questions. He was obviously not a typical American

.

He then goes on to assume the caller is African. But dang it, later realizes from revelations of the deep state, the voice was Russian. Seemed way to hickey to me.

The themes of Russian facebook trolls seems to be repeated but with some nuance. If the Russians want to protest rights abuses in Oakland they should be ready to do the same in Moscow. The Russians should not interfere even if they can get more protesters and followers. As one comedian quipped--the Russians seem to care more about BLM than white Americans.

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enhydra lutris's picture

tonight. One could overdose.

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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 --