The Evening Blues - 11-30-22
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features jump blues musicians The Treniers. Enjoy!
The Treniers - Rock 'n' Roll Call
"A shocking crime was committed on the unscrupulous initiative of few individuals, with the blessing of more, and amid the passive acquiescence of all."
-- Tacitus
News and Opinion
Trump Sued in Iraqi Court for Assassinations
More than two years after the assassination of Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad, at least 78 Iraqis filed a lawsuit in an Iraqi court on Sunday against then U.S. President Donald Trump and other officials of his administration. The plaintiffs demanded legal action against the accused, including Trump and his secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, among others, in their petition filed at Baghdad’s federal court of appeal. The plaintiffs include Muhammad Hassan Jaafar al-Muhandis, the brother of Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
Though the new Iraqi government led by Prime Minister Shia al-Sudani had promised to take legal action against Trump once in power, it is not clear whether the plaintiffs have the backing of the government.
Soleimani, commander of Iran’s elite al-Quds forces, part of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), and Muhandis, commander of the Iraqi militia Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), were assassinated in a drone attack on Jan. 3, 2020, near the Baghdad airport.
Russia Breakthrough in Donbass: Bakhmut Encircled, Vuhledar to Fall Soon; EU Buys More Russian LNG
Ukraine Says NATO Must Step Up Weapons Production or It Won’t Win War
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Monday that NATO countries need to ramp up weapons production, or Kyiv won’t be able to win the war against Russia.
Kuleba said that NATO countries must “begin the production of necessary weapons today.” If that doesn’t happen, he said Ukraine “won’t be able to win — as simple as that.” ...
While being entirely reliant on military aid, the vast majority being provided by the US, Ukrainian officials are not afraid to criticize their backers. Kuleba said there are countries “in the world who have what Ukraine needs but who are not going to sell it in sufficient quantities for political reasons.”
Senior Ukraine military delegation visits Israel in bid for defense aid
A senior Ukrainian military delegation visited Israel last week in a bid to secure defense assistance, according to a news report on Israeli television Monday.
The delegation, which included a top Ukrainian military commander, held several meetings with Israel Defense Forces and Defense Ministry officials, Channel 13 news reported.
The Ukrainians reportedly sought to push ahead with creating a missile alert system, which Israel has allegedly promised to build for Ukraine.
The delegation also pushed Israel to supply weapons systems, which Israel has so far refused to do, sending only humanitarian aid and protective equipment.
The network added that Israel tried to play down the delegation’s visit to avoid sparking tensions with Russia.
Ukraine pleads for help to fix energy grid hit by Russian bomb raids
Ukraine’s supplies of spare parts for its battered electricity grid are running out amid sustained Russian bombing, and European companies are being asked to urgently donate surplus kit to help the country get through the winter.
There were power cuts lasting 48 hours or more across the country last week after a fresh wave of Russian missile attacks, the latest step in a wave of bombings targeting power plants and substations which route energy around the network. ...
Although 37 shipments have already been organised it is unclear if enough kit is available to keep Ukraine’s lights on, prompting a call for more donations and heightened concern among the country’s western allies.
The warning came as ministers from Nato member countries met for a two-day meeting in Bucharest, Romania, where it is likely the 30-nation alliance will make fresh pledges of non-lethal support to Ukraine including fuel, generators, medical supplies and winter equipment, on top of new military support.
Europe Accuses U.S. Of War Profiteering Off Ukraine
Turkey delivers its terms to US, ground invasion imminent
More info at the link.
UK Govt Deployed 15 Staff on Secret Op to Seize Assange
The British government assigned at least 15 people to the secret operation to seize Julian Assange from the Ecuadorian embassy in London, new information shows.
The WikiLeaks founder was given political asylum by Ecuador in 2012, but was never allowed safe passage out of Britain to avoid persecution by the U.S. government.
The Australian journalist has been in Belmarsh maximum-security prison for the past three and a half years and faces a potential 175-year sentence after the High Court of England and Wales green-lighted his extradition to the U.S. in December 2021.
“Pelican” was the secret Metropolitan Police operation to seize Assange from his asylum, which eventually occurred in April 2019. Asylum is a right enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The operation’s existence was only revealed in the memoirs of former Foreign Minister Sir Alan Duncan which were published last year. The U.K. government routinely blocks, or obfuscates its answers to information requests about the Assange case.
Taiwan Voters Choose China Over Independence!
"Enough Is Enough": Rail Workers Decry Biden's Push to Impose Strike-Breaking Labor Deal
Congress expected to impose contract on US railroad workers to avert strike
The US House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has announced that her fellow members of Congress plan to vote this week on imposing a new contract for railroad workers to avert a looming labor strike.
Pelosi made the announcement late on Monday afternoon just after Joe Biden called on Congress to intervene to prevent a strike, a possibility if an agreement between the freight rail industry and unions is not made by 9 December.
In a statement referring to the president’s request, Pelosi said that Democrats were “reluctant to bypass” negotiations but “we must act to prevent a catastrophic nationwide rail strike, which would grind our economy to a halt”. ...
The deadlock between management and the unions is mostly over paid sick leave. The union argues that workers should get at least six days of paid sick leave. They are currently expected to use vacation time if they call out sick and are penalized if they take time off without using vacation days. The agreement Congress is considering does not include a sick leave provision.
I guess the culture wars are the priority for dems during the interregnum before the new legislature comes in, rather than protecting social security and other economic issues.
US Senate passes bill protecting same-sex marriage
The US Senate has passed the Respect for Marriage Act, legislation to protect same-sex unions that Democrats are hurrying to get to Joe Biden to be signed into law before Republicans take over the House next year.
The House must now pass the bill, a step the majority leader, Steny Hoyer, said could come as soon as Tuesday 6 December. Nearly 50 House Republicans supported the measure earlier this year. In the Senate, support from 12 Republicans was enough to override the filibuster and advance the bill to Tuesday’s majority vote, which ended 61-36.
Although the Respect for Marriage Act would not codify Obergefell v Hodges, the 2015 supreme court decision which made same-sex marriage legal nationwide, it would require states to recognise all marriages that were legal when performed, including in other states. Interracial marriages would also be protected, with states required to recognise legal marriage regardless of “sex, race, ethnicity, or national origin”
.
Same-sex marriage has been thought under threat since June, when the conservative-dominated supreme court struck down the right to abortion. Then, the hardline justice Clarence Thomas wrote that other privacy-based rights, including same-sex marriage, could be reconsidered next.
Five officers charged after man paralysed in Connecticut police van
Five Connecticut police officers have been charged with cruelly neglecting a Black man after he was partially paralysed in the back of a police van, despite his repeated and desperate pleas for help.
Randy Cox, 36, was being driven to a New Haven police station on 19 June for processing on a weapons charge when the driver braked hard at an intersection to avoid a collision, causing Cox to fly headfirst into a metal partition in the van.
“I can’t move. I’m going to die like this. Please, please, please help me,” Cox said minutes after the crash. As Cox pleaded for help, some of the officers at the detention centre mocked him and accused him of being drunk and faking his injuries, according to dialogue captured by surveillance and body-worn camera footage. Officers dragged Cox by his feet from the van and placed him in a holding cell prior to his eventual transfer to a hospital.
“I think I cracked my neck,” Cox said after the van arrived at the detention centre. “You didn’t crack it, no, you drank too much ... Sit up,” said Sgt Betsy Segui, one of the five officers charged. Cox was later found to have a fractured neck and was paralysed.
The five New Haven police officers were charged with second-degree reckless endangerment and cruelty, both misdemeanors. The others charged were Oscar Diaz, Ronald Pressley, Jocelyn Lavandier and Luis Rivera. All have been on administrative leave since last summer.
San Francisco officials vote on police bid to use deadly robots
Police in San Francisco could get the ability to deploy potentially lethal, remote-controlled robots in emergency situations if supervisors of the politically Democratic city grant permission on Tuesday in a highly watched board vote.
Police oversight groups are urging the 11-member San Francisco board of supervisors to reject the idea, saying it would lead to further militarization of a police force already too aggressive with poor and minority communities. They said the parameters under which use would be allowed were too vague.
The San Francisco police department said it did not have pre-armed robots and had no plans to arm robots with guns. But the department could deploy robots equipped with explosive charges “to contact, incapacitate, or disorient violent, armed, or dangerous suspect” when lives are at stake, the SFPD spokesperson Allison Maxie said in a prepared statement.
“Robots equipped in this manner would only be used in extreme circumstances to save or prevent further loss of innocent lives,” she said.
The proposed policy does not lay out specifics for how the weapons can and cannot be equipped, leaving open the option to arm them. “Robots will only be used as a deadly force option when risk of loss of life to members of the public or officers is imminent and outweighs any other force option available to SFPD,” it says.
NYC Dems FORGED SIGNATURES Of Residents, Appointed Them To Cmte WITHOUT Their Knowledge: Report
Record early voting in runoff for Georgia Senate seat
The number of people casting early ballots in the runoff election for one of Georgia’s seats in the US Senate has already broken records since the process began on the weekend, with some counties posting staggeringly long wait times at early voting sites during the first days of early voting.
Reports on Monday’s turnout varied from more than 250,000 voters to more than 300,000 on the first day of statewide early operation of the polls. Some counties began earlier.
As of mid-afternoon Tuesday, 11 of 27 early voting locations in Fulton county, the state’s most populous, had a wait time of at least an hour. Several reported wait times of more than two hours.
In Gwinnett county, in suburban Atlanta, eight of the 11 early voting sites reported wait times of at least 45 minutes, including three sites with wait times of more than an hour. Zach Manifold, the county’s election administrator, attributed the long waits to “heavy turnout and only seven days of advance voting”. Georgia Republicans passed a law last year that shortened the runoff period from nine weeks to four.
Manifold said his county was operating at “maximum capacity on check-ins” and was equipped to handle about 20,000 voters a day. Nearly 18,000 people voted in person in the county on Monday, according to state data.
Air pollution linked to almost a million stillbirths a year
Almost a million stillbirths a year can be attributed to air pollution, according to the first global study.
The research estimated that almost half of stillbirths could be linked to exposure to pollution particles smaller than 2.5 microns (PM2.5), mostly produced from the burning of fossil fuels.
The study covered 137 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, where 98% of stillbirths occur. Dirty air was already known to increase the risk of stillbirth but the research is the first to assess the number of foetal deaths. The work was based on data from more than 45,000 stillbirths and live births. ...
The research, published in Nature Communications, used data on stillbirths and air pollution between 1998 and 2016 from 54 low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), including Pakistan, India and Nigeria. This was used to estimate the number of stillbirths attributable to PM2.5 exposure across the 137 LMIC countries, taking into account the fact that the impact of dirty air was greater on older mothers.
Virtually all the mothers in the study were exposed to PM2.5 levels above the WHO’s current guideline level of 5 micrograms per cubic metre (μg/m3). There were 2.09 million stillbirths recorded in the studied countries in 2015, and 950,000 of them (45%) were attributable to exposure above the 5 μg/m3 level, the study estimated.
From Floods to Droughts, Every Region of the World Suffered Water Extremes Last Year: UN
The World Meteorological Organization said Tuesday in its first annual State of Global Water Resources report that every region of the world suffered water extremes last year as the climate crisis intensified flooding and droughts, inflicting deadly damage on the most heavily impacted areas.
"In 2021, all regions experienced significant hydrological extremes in the form of floods and droughts, having substantial impacts on communities, including numerous fatalities," the WMO, a United Nations agency, notes in its new report. "Record-breaking floods were observed in western Europe and in the northern Amazon. At the same time, the Paraguay and Paraná Rivers experienced all-time record low water levels."
Petteri Taalas, secretary-general of the WMO, attributed last year's global water extremes to "the impacts of climate change," which he noted are "often felt through water—more intense and frequent droughts, more extreme flooding, more erratic seasonal rainfall and accelerated melting of glaciers—with cascading effects on economies, ecosystems, and all aspects of our daily lives."
To mitigate the impacts of water-related extreme weather events—which have continued to wreak havoc on a massive scale in 2022—the WMO urged countries to "accelerate development of end-to-end drought and flood early warning systems for reducing the impact of hydrological extremes on people, lives and livelihoods, ecosystems, and the economy at large in all parts of the world."
The report also focused on dangerous shortages of freshwater access, a growing emergency made worse by increasingly intense and frequent extreme weather.
The WMO estimates that 3.6 billion people across the globe lack adequate access to clean water for at least one month each year, a number that's expected to surpass 5 billion by 2050 without urgent action from policymakers.
For the first time in the history of the U.N. climate conferences, water scarcity was on the agenda at the recently concluded COP27 summit in Egypt as drought-stricken nations teamed up to work on solutions to the crisis. As Reuters reported earlier this month, Senegal and Spain formed an alliance "to help each other manage water scarcity by sharing technology and expertise."
"By 2050, weather disturbances, including drought as well as heavy winds and rains, could cost the global economy some $5.6 trillion, a report published in August by environmental engineering consultancy GHD found," Reuters noted.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Calls for SCOTUS Ethics Probe Grow as Court Lawyer Defends Alito
Progressives in Congress Begin to Push Back Against Biden Betrayal of Rail Workers
Twitter stops enforcing policy against Covid-19 misinformation
Researchers discover two new minerals on meteorite grounded in Somalia
What's driving humanity's progress and its uneven distribution?
No One Will Talk To Israeli Reporters At World Cup Over Palestine
New York City Will FORCIBLY REMOVE Mentally Ill From Streets, Even If They're Not Violent
A Little Night Music
The Treniers - Good Rockin' Tonight
The Treniers - Rockin' is Our Bizness
The Treniers - Ragmop
The Treniers - Poontang
The Treniers - It Rocks! It Rolls! It Swings!
The Treniers - Hadacole (That's All)
The Treniers - (We Want A) Rock & Roll President
The Treniers - Go! Go! Go!
The Treniers - Bug Dance
Comments
This one hurts
I was never a music buff like most here seem to be, but I did love Fleetwood Mac and Christine and Stevie. Unbelievably Christine was 79 years old and the others in the band aren’t much younger if not older.
I read that the house allowed the railroad workers to get 7 days of sick leave, but I don’t remember where I read it. I’ll post it if I find it. People bitch when others are sick and they don’t stay home until they are better, but how many people even have sick leave available? Maybe well paid workers do, but not so much for poor people. Or they can’t afford babysitters…especially single moms.
Yep they did, but it’s not expected to pass in the senate nor are the chances of Biden signing it great. House democrats have played this game for years and during Trump’s tenure Pelosi passed one great bill after another knowing that McConnell had her back and wouldn’t let it pass. Notice how now that democrats have all 3 houses she hasn’t brought them up again knowing that Schumer didn’t have the cover to not pass them? Can y’all say kabuki theater?
Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?
one of my favorite Fleetwood tunes
Seems Like a Dream - got me Hypnotized
floating away with that one
and
Tusk
oh, that marching band
If I am in a bad mood,
Tusk will snap me out of it.
RIP, Christine.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
evening snoopy...
heh, i really dug christine mcvie back when she was christine perfect, playing with a band called chicken shack. she was still great when she joined the mac, but they strayed from their blues roots a good bit. not that there's anything wrong with that, i suppose.
here's some chicken shack stuff followed by a 1984 album that you'll probably like. i think that the gods of copyright may have blocked a tune or two from the album.
Christine Perfect with Chicken Shack - Mean Old World
Chicken Shack ft. Christine Perfect - Hey Baby
Christine McVie - Christine McVie
So finally a German politician speaks up to the fact that
Germany is being screwed by this Ukraine War and calls for
the removal of all US military bases from Germany!
https://sputniknews.com/20221128/german-statesman-slams-eu-leaders-spine...
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
evening ggersh...
it's good to see a german politician with both a brain and a spine.
as is true for Sarah Wagenknecht
who was his wife for a while, if I remember correctly.
https://www.euronews.com/live
Good evening, Joe
I was glad to see the bit about One China. The Russia Ukraine conflict is pretty much over and now we are to turn to the new alliance between China and Russia.
Intel Slava reported on Air manouevers---nothing new---but with china's planes landing in Russia and Russia's planes landing in China. Very New and a signal.
"Russia and China conducted another joint air patrol in the Asia-Pacific region.
An air group of Russian Tu-95MS strategic missile carriers and Chinese Hun-6K strategic bombers flew over the waters of the Japan and East China Seas. Russian Su-30SM and Su-35S fighters provided escort for the air group.
For the first time in the course of joint air patrols, Russian aircraft landed at an airfield in China and Chinese aircraft landed at an airfield in Russia
Also recently, a new railroad opened going from Russia to China.
A new financial instrument to replace the dollar is moving along.
Talk of Poland getting control of Lvov in western Ukraine.
All signs say this war will be over soon. Biden will have to find new grifts for our taxpayer money.
NYCVG
wonder how the gang-ho patriot war mongers
will react to losing another one?
Another in a growing list of failed ventures.
Wrap it up kids. Close the bases, bring home
the troops and fix the homeland already!
evening nycvg...
i sure hope that it's just about over. i am still concerned that the fruithats and nutbars in power in the u.s. may not stop just because they have lost.
well yes
If they can still squeeze profits out of Ukraine they will persist.
Winning there was never possible.
NYCVG
I have my doubts that the war will over in the near future.
This from a Ukrainian propaganda site.
evening humphrey...
certainly an early end to the war is not on the agenda of the military industrial complex, which runs american foreign policy.
Hey, joe!
Always happy when cops get charged with crimes!
A friend who was a cop in Houston said arrestees always got a bumpy, stop and go ride in the back seat on the way to jail there. They laughed when the detained scream in pain. A fun cop game.
Comical to hear Europe bitch about the US now, when they could have been bitching since about 1948 or so.
Well, Pelosi is dethroned, time for someone else do do their grifting.
Alito being too chummy with RWNJs? That will be investigated! /s
Thanks for all you do, friend!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
evening otc...
"rough rides" have been a cop tradition forever, i'm surprised that it took so long since freddie gray's trial for another one to enter the national media.
i keep wondering how stupid europeans can be, and then i remember that we americans put up with far worse at home.
heh, i'm sure that nancy will use her position of speaker emerita to get some grifting in on the way out the door.
Another thing that is
maddening is the "push" by the media to defend Assange. Now. 3 years later.
Globally. All at once. Now.
Wonder what prompted a global "concern" about the right to publish?
They are still joined with government spy agency at the hip.
Hmmm...
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
heh...
isn't it funny when several large institutions all have the same idea at the same time? gosh, i wonder how that happens.
Lots of swear words about the media finally addressing
Assange. They stayed silent while he has been tortured by every government that could for over 10 years. I’ll give them kudos for finally speaking up for him, but I will not forgive their cowardice for not doing it sooner. Luke Harding should make a public apology for what he has said about Assange and his work.
Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?
I am not going rah! rah!
about the sudden publishers shift to help Assange because of the unknown impetus for all of them to abruptly, out of the blue, globally, to come to his defense. Simultaneously.
These publishers of "news" all get their talking points and marching orders from spy agencies.
There is no impending or immediate appellate ruling forthcoming. Things are slowly moving along in his legal proceeding, according to their plan.
I can't conceive of the reason the spy agencies told them to come forth as the good guys. Now.
What is in it for Assange is not my focus. What is in it for the spy agencies is my focus.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
The DMZ and armistice in Korea
Gave rise to a huge permanent US military infrastructure and presence in northeast Asia and the permanent wartime state at home. So I think the idea of NATO as an obsolete alliance with the end of the cold war required some reinvigoration, and this war in Ukraine provided the remedy for the long term corrupt special interests in the US, after the so called war against terror lost its luster. A state of permanent war in Ukraine similar to the 72 year stalemated conflict in Korea can be the basis of the US semi-colonial empire in Europe. The center of gravity of the US Asian military empire is in Japan. Japan historically is Korea's mortal enemy and abuser. The never ending Korean conflict provided the raison d'etre for the extensive permanent US military presence in Japan and Okinawa. The desire to extend that presence over Taiwan is really little more than an irredentist inclination of both Japan and the US.
The implications of the US military occupation of South Korea since the Korean armistice also imply militaristic authoritarian regimes at least for South Korea. The trappings of democracy in South Korea are actually quite weak. The "republic" operates more like a protectorate of the US. If a presidential election results in a democratic leader wishing to pursue some type of accommodation with North Korea, integration, at least in the economic and social sense, the prospect of Korea's greater commercial integration with the Eurasian mainland arises and increased relative independence from domination by Washington DC and the pentagon. The US then mobilizes all its propaganda assets against it. Politically and economically South Korea is an island because of the DMZ. Naturally, any movement whatsoever toward normalization with North Korea is viewed as an unacceptable threat by Japan.
(Source- 열린공감TV youtube, 11.30.22) We didn't protect Roh Moo-hyun but we must protect Lee Jae-Myung!
A demonstration is planned in Seocho, Seoul Korea, December 3, starting at four pm. This is the so called candlelight movement. The last candlelight demonstration in Seoul, two weeks ago, marched to the Presidential Office building in Yongsan, and was estimated at 350,000 people. The organizers' goal is to have a million people demonstrating against the authoritarian regime of president Yoon Seok-yeol. Yoon's "division of lawyers" is currently investigating or prosecuting anyone who is anyone in the political opposition or democratic party with fabricated political motivated charges. This includes former ministers and agency directors of the previous administration and the former presidential candidate, assembly member, and leader of the democratic party, Lee Jae-myung, who has been the victim of spurious investigations and prosecutions for years. Why are these political leaders and their families being investigated and prosecuted? Why are they being slandered in the press? Essentially because, they favor normalization of relations with North Korea as the former Moon Jae-in administration did and progressive social policies. They want an end to the armistice. They want the rail lines and roads through the DMZ opened up. They want the US enforced sanctions eased for this purpose and more. They don't buy the US-Japanese agenda for their country. The authoritarian militarist Yoon calls them communist sympathizers and will put them in prison by hook or crook, as he has been doing for years. The demonstrators are also opposed to Yoon's complete capitulation of South Korea to US and Japanese anti-China policies and his adoption of the so called Indo-Pacific strategy.
Opposition presidential prospects, political leaders and their families are hounded by corrupt reporters and right wing investigators and prosecutors until they go to prison or commit suicide. Examples include Han Myung-suk, former prime minister; Cho Guk, former minister of justice; Roh Mu-hyun, former president; Park Won-soon, former Seoul mayor; and now Lee Jae-myung. There are numerous other political victims of Yoon's "revenge politics" currently.
Seocho is the site of the central prosecutor's office where a team of 58 prosecutors and hundreds of support personnel at the cost of millions of dollars a month are operating to put one man, Lee Jae-myung, (and his family) the leader of the political opposition in prison. Lee Jae-myung is the recent former democratic party presidential candidate who ran against Yoon Seok-yeol the current president. It is also believed that Yoon intends to put the former president Moon Jae-in in prison. The mainstream ultraconservative press in South Korea have been in league with Yoon for years. Yoon and his Justice Minister Han Dong-hun and their prosecution clique have been the defenders of crooked bankers, land developers, and industry leaders for years. They are desperate to stay in office at any cost, because if they fail, they know they will be the ones going to prison. This is the group that the US and Japan consistently support in South Korea.
Looking forward to the demonstration in Seocho this Saturday. Hoping hundreds of thousands will show up in the heart of South Korea's corrupt legal administration. The prosecution main offices, favorite bars, restaurants, and luxury apartments are in this neighborhood. Yoon still lives there as far as I know.
語必忠信 行必正直