The Evening Blues - 11-5-18
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features "The Philosopher of Soul" Johnnie Taylor. Enjoy!
Johnnie Taylor - Who's Making Love
"No matter who wins on Tuesday, the wars are guaranteed to continue, the oligarchs are guaranteed to keep siphoning more and more money out of the pockets of ordinary Americans, opaque and unaccountable intelligence agencies are guaranteed to continue expanding intrusive surveillance practices and narrative control psyops in collaboration with powerful Silicon Valley corporations, and we’re guaranteed to keep hurtling toward climate catastrophe on the back of an economic system which requires infinite growth on a finite planet. The only thing that might change a tiny bit is America maybe temporarily having a government which pretends to care about oppressed minorities sometimes."
-- Caitlin Johnstone
News and Opinion
U.S. Elections Are Neither Free Nor Fair. States Need to Open Their Doors to More Observers.
Voter suppression. Disenfranchisement. Gerrymandering. Can Tuesday’s midterms in the United States really be considered free and fair elections?
Perhaps we should consult with the experts. Few Americans have heard of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, or OSCE; even fewer are aware that OSCE observers have been keeping tabs on U.S. elections since 2002, at the invitation of the U.S. State Department. On October 26, the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights in Washington, D.C., issued an interim report on the 2018 midterms. It didn’t make for pleasant reading. “The right to vote is subject to many limitations,” warned the report, “with racial minorities disproportionately impacted.”
This isn’t the first time the OSCE has sounded the alarm. In the wake of the 2016 presidential race, OSCE observers praised the U.S. for holding a “highly competitive” election while also criticizing a campaign “characterized by harsh personal attacks, as well as intolerant rhetoric” and changes to election rules that “were often motivated by partisan interests, adding undue obstacles for voters.”
“Suffrage rights,” the 2016 observers concluded, were “not guaranteed for all citizens, leaving sections of the population without the right to vote.”
Is that what a free and fair election is supposed to look like? It should be a source of shame that the United States, once held up as a model to emerging democracies around the globe, now needs outside observers to remind it of its most basic democratic obligations.
Native Americans Fight for the Right to Vote in North Dakota
Twas the night before votemas
and the M-I-C had awoken
A threat to their profits!
They whipped out their wallets
And, yea verily, the gummint was broken ...
Weapons Makers Rushing Campaign Cash to Democrat in Line to Chair Defense Industry’s Key House Committee
Weapons makers are moving last-minute money to the Democratic congressman in line to chair the defense industry’s key House committee, as he is under assault from a fellow Democrat, who is attacking his pro-war record just ahead of a rare intra-party general election. If Democrats take the House of Representatives, the next chair of the Armed Services Committee, which oversees military affairs and defense spending, will likely be Rep. Adam Smith, a hawkish Democrat from Washington state who represents a district in the Seattle-area, where important elements of the military-industrial complex are concentrated.
But standing in his way is Sarah Smith, a working-class activist and democratic socialist, hoping to channel progressive momentum to dislodge the incumbent lawmaker in an unusual Democrat versus Democrat general election matchup. In a year that has seen several high-profile incumbent Democrats challenged, this race stands out for its focus on foreign policy and the pernicious influence of the weapons industry.
Sarah Smith has mounted a surprisingly spirited bid, attacking the “corrupting influence of the military-industrial complex” and demanding that the country shift “away from our economy of violence toward an economy of peace.” She has singled out Adam Smith’s votes in favor of war and against restrictions on cluster munitions, as well as his support for bills that have expanded the reach of the sprawling homeland security and surveillance state.
Sensing an opportunity to influence the race and the potential future committee chair, major weapons contractors have given the lawmaker last-minute campaign support. Lobbyists and executives associated with General Dynamics, one of the largest weapons makers in the world, have given over $10,000 in recent weeks, in addition to the $9,500 from the company over the last quarter. In just the last week of October, Teresa Carlson, an Amazon industry executive overseeing the company’s bid for a $10 billion military IT contract, gave $1,000; Bechtel, which managed Iraq reconstruction contracts, gave $1,000; Rolls-Royce, which manufactures parts for a variety of military jets, including a model of the controversial F-35, gave $3,500; and Phebe Novakovic, the chief executive of General Dynamics, gave $2,700.
Adam Smith has served in Congress since 1997 and has compiled a relatively interventionist voting record. He cast a vote in favor of the Iraq War during George W. Bush’s administration and initially warned against winding down the war in Afghanistan during Barack Obama’s administration.
For the first time since the Cuban crisis, nuclear war threat is real – Stephen Cohen
Georgia’s GOP candidate has launched a “banana republic” probe into Democratic election hacking
The office of Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp accused the state’s Democratic Party Sunday of trying to hack the voter registration system — two days ahead of the midterms. Kemp, who is currently Georgia’s secretary of state overseeing the election, gave no evidence to back up his claim — a “reckless” allegation, according to one cyber security expert.
“While we cannot comment on the specifics of an ongoing investigation, I can confirm that the Democratic Party of Georgia is under investigation for possible cyber crimes,” Kemp’s press secretary Candice Broce said in a statement. “We can also confirm that no personal data was breached and our system remains secure.”
The allegation came hours after Kemp’s office was notified of new vulnerabilities in the voter registration website by a team working for the Democratic Party.
In most democracies, what Brian Kemp is doing in Georgia would simply be impossible: nobody else - not the Brits, not the German, nobody - would entrust the enforcement of election laws to one of the very people competing in that election https://t.co/SXUx20DcK1
— David Frum (@davidfrum) November 4, 2018
Brian Kemp Campaign Energized After Seeing Early Voter Suppression Numbers
Brian Kemp Campaign Energized After Seeing Early Voter Suppression Numbers https://t.co/avVfbEc0by pic.twitter.com/REM1wll8Uu
— The Onion (@TheOnion) November 5, 2018
“It’s very exciting to see that with five days to go before the election, thousands of Georgians have already unsuccessfully attempted to cast their ballots,” said communications director Ryan Mahoney, noting that while these figures were not entirely predictive, they indicated a strong likelihood that the number of minority voters turned away at polling places would be extremely high on Nov. 6. ...
Mahoney also urged Republican voters in urban areas to assist the campaign by making a plan to intimidate their friends and neighbors this upcoming Tuesday.
Noam Chomsky on Midterms: Republican Party Is the “Most Dangerous Organization in Human History”
Chris Hedges: Scum vs. Scum in This 2018 Midterm
Scum versus scum. That sums up this election season. Is it any wonder that 100 million Americans don’t bother to vote? When all you are offered is Bob One or Bob Two, why bother? One-fourth of Democratic challengers in competitive House districts in this week’s elections have backgrounds in the CIA, the military, the National Security Council or the State Department. Nearly all candidates on the ballots in House races are corporate-sponsored, with a few lonely exceptions such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib, members of the Democratic Socialists of America who are running as Democrats. The securities and finance industry has backed Democratic congressional candidates 63 percent to 37 percent over Republicans, according to data collected by the Center for Responsive Politics. Democratic candidates and political action committees have received $56.8 million, compared with Republicans’ $33.4 million, the center reported. The broader sector of finance, insurance and real estate, it found, has given $174 million to Democratic candidates, against $157 million to Republicans. And Michael Bloomberg, weighing his own presidential run, has pledged $100 million to elect a Democratic Congress.
“In interviews with two dozen Wall Street executives, fund-raisers, donors and those who raise money from them, Democrats described an extraordinary level of investment and excitement from the finance sector … ,” The New York Times reported about current campaign contributions to the Democrats from the corporate oligarchs. Our system of legalized bribery is an equal-opportunity employer. Of course, we are all supposed to vote Democratic to halt the tide of Trump fascism. But should the Democrats take control of the House of Representatives, hate speech and violence as a tool for intimidation and control will increase, with much of it directed, as we saw with the pipe bombs intended to decapitate the Democratic Party leadership, toward prominent Democratic politicians and critics of Donald Trump. Should the white man’s party of the president retain control of the House and the Senate, violence will still be the favored instrument of political control as the last of democratic protections are stripped from us. Either way we are in for it. ...
You cannot use the word “liberty” when your government, as ours does, watches you 24 hours a day and stores all of your personal information in government computers in perpetuity. You cannot use the word “liberty” when you are the most photographed and monitored population in human history. You cannot use the word “liberty” when it is impossible to vote against the interests of Goldman Sachs or General Dynamics. You cannot use the word “liberty” when the state empowers militarized police to use indiscriminate lethal force against unarmed citizens in the streets of American cities. You cannot use the word “liberty” when 2.3 million citizens, mostly poor people of color, are held in the largest prison system on earth. This is the relationship between a master and a slave. The choice is between whom we want to clamp on our chains—a jailer who mouths politically correct bromides or a racist, Christian fascist. Either way we are shackled. ...
We will not arrest the decline if the Democrats regain control of the House. At best we will briefly slow it. The corporate engines of pillage, oppression, ecocide and endless war are untouchable. Corporate power will do its dirty work regardless of which face—the friendly fascist face of the Democrats or the demented visage of the Trump Republicans—is pushed out front. If you want real change, change that means something, then mobilize, mobilize, mobilize, not for one of the two political parties but to rise up and destroy the corporate structures that ensure our doom.
Facebook pulls Trump campaign's racist anti-immigration ad
Facebook has stopped the Trump campaign from running its racist anti-immigration commercial as an ad on the site. "This ad violates Facebook's advertising policy against sensational content so we are rejecting it. While the video is allowed to be posted on Facebook, it cannot receive paid distribution," Facebook said in a statement Monday afternoon.
The move came shortly after NBC and Fox News said they would stop airing the ad across their networks. CNN had previously determined that the ad is racist and declined to sell airtime for it.
The Trump campaign began running the ad on Facebook on Sunday, targeting voters in Florida and Arizona. By Monday morning, it had reached millions of users on the platform. A Facebook spokesperson said the ad had been allowed to run in error.
According to data from Facebook's ad archive, Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. spent at least $20,000 and possibly as much as $80,000 on the ad buy.The ad tries to motivate GOP turnout by playing on fears of the migrants traveling through Mexico.
Trump on racist ad: "I don't know about it [...] a lot of things are offensive. Your questions are offensive" pic.twitter.com/YfqjVIm6is
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) November 5, 2018
Trump is using antifa to scare people into voting for Republicans
Donald Trump has a new boogeyman to scare midterm voters, an unruly mob known as antifa. “These are bad people,” the president said at the rally for Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp in Macon, Georgia, on Sunday. “These are the people causing problems and the press doesn’t want to talk about them.”
Trump implied that black-clad anti-fascist protesters are effectively a paramilitary force working on behalf of the Democrats. “If the radical resistance wins power – and that’s what they are, the radical resistance – they will move immediately to reverse America’s progress and eradicate all the gains we’ve made,” Trump said.
The president’s decision to play up the threat by the far-left anti-fascist movement comes as the country is still reeling from a number of violent incidents carried out by individuals influenced by the far-right. In the last month alone, the Proud Boys, a fascist street gang, brawled with protesters in New York and Portland, an ardent Trump fan in Florida sent more than a dozen package bombs to the president’s biggest critics, a white man fatally shot two black people at a supermarket in Kentucky, and an anti-Semitic man killed 11 people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh.
And most recently, on Saturday – one day before Trump’s back-to-back rallies in Macon – a man who engaged with nationalist and misogynistic or “Incel” content online opened fire on a yoga class in Tallahassee, leaving two dead and five injured.
Gab is back online — and already flooded with anti-Semitic hate
Gab, the preferred social network of the far right, came back online Sunday — and was immediately flooded with anti-Semitic comments.
The website’s hosting provider GoDaddy pulled the plug last week after it was revealed that Robert Bowers, the gunman who allegedly killed 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, had an account on Gab where he regularly shared violently racist content. After going offline, Gab founder Andrew Torba accused the media of demonizing the site while ignoring similar problems on mainstream networks such as Twitter and Facebook.
Torba got his site back online Sunday after it secured the services of Epik, a Seattle-based hosting company. “I do believe the guys that are on the site are vigilant,” Epik CEO Rob Monster told the Seattle Times about Gab’s promise to police its platforms more thoroughly.
Yet within minutes of Gab’s return, users were once again posting anti-Semitic content.
A March to Disaster: Noam Chomsky Condemns Trump for Pulling Out of Landmark Nuclear Arms Treaty
Rouhani Vows to Defy 'Unjust' Sanctions Imposed by 'Bullying Enemy' Amid Mounting Warnings of War
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani vowed to "proudly break the unjust sanctions" the Trump administration re-imposed on Monday amid warnings that the sanctions will primarily impact the Iranian people and that U.S. President Donald Trump intends to destabilize the nation rather than improve diplomatic relations or the nuclear treaty from which Trump withdrew earlier this year.
"We must make the Americans understand in clear language that they cannot deal with us with force, pressure, and sanctions," Rouhani reportedly said during public remarks at a cabinet meeting on Monday. This round of sanctions targets Iran's oil-and-gas, shipbuilding, shipping, and banking industries.
"The fact that the U.S. has exempted eight countries from the sanctions after they threatened to bring Iran oil exports to zero, isn't this a victory for us? And isn't this a retreat for the United States?" he added. "The Islamic Republic of Iran can sell its oil and will sell its oil even if the eight countries had not been exempted from the sanctions."
Rouhani also compared Trump to former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein during the 1980s Iran-Iraq war.
"We are in the economic war situation. We are confronting a bullying enemy," he said. "Yesterday, Saddam was in front [of] us, today Trump is front of us. There is no difference. We must resist and win."
Trump says Yemen bus attack was due to bombers not using weapon properly
Donald Trump has said the air attack on a school bus in Yemen by Saudi-led Coalition forces using a US bomb in August was the result of the bombers not knowing how to use the weapon properly. At least 51 people died in the attack, including 40 children, most of them aged between six and 11. The attack highlighted the use of US arms by the Saudi-led coalition in the country, which is fighting the Iran-backed Houthis.
Asked in an interview with Axios on Sunday night if he was bothered by the Saudi-led coalition using US bombs to kill civilians, Trump called the attack a “horror show” and said “Bother’s not strong enough”. But he said ultimately the attack was down to user error.
“That was basically people that didn’t know how to use the weapon, which is horrible,” he said. “I’ll be talking about a lot of things with the Saudis, but certainly I wouldn’t be having people that don’t know how to use the weapons shooting at buses with children.”
In September Saudi-led coalition in Yemen admitted the air attack on the bus was unjustified and pledged to hold anyone to account who contributed to the error. This rare admission came after mounting international pressure, including from allies, to do more to limit civilian casualties in the three-and-a-half-year civil war that has killed more than 10,000 people and pushed the already impoverished country to the brink of famine.
Family Separation: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
“The United States Is Not a Safe Country”: Canadian Advocates Want to End a Policy That Turns Asylum-Seekers Back to U.S.
Ronald Sylvain was feeling confident as he approached the U.S.-Canada border crossing in Champlain, New York in a taxi with his wife and their 9-month-old son last July. The 36-year-old Haitian national had been assured that it was best to “do it legally.” After all, they are professionals: Ronald is an economist and his wife Pamela is a nurse. While other refugees opted to roll their suitcases into Canada over a narrow dirt path five miles to the west at Roxham Road, border agents would surely understand Ronald’s asylum request, based on the fact that gangs in Haiti had threatened him. Instead, an agent directed his family to wait overnight. They slept uncomfortably on hard benches at the Lacolle Inspection Station next to a public restroom. The next morning, they were turned back to the United States. Under the Safe Third Country Agreement, a 2004 treaty between the United States and Canada, most refugees who approach Canada at an official border crossing are rejected, on the grounds that they should have tried for asylum in the United States first.
Two weeks later, Ronald and his family decided to try to enter Canada again, this time over Roxham Road. (“Given the current situation in the U.S., we were really afraid to stay there,” Ronald later testified.) The process was smooth, eerily so. Yet migrants who attempt to cross the border at land ports only have one chance to make a refugee claim. Without realizing it, they had already blown their shot. Ronald and Pamela are now fighting a deportation order from Canada.
The theory behind the Safe Third Country Agreement, or STCA, is that the United States and Canada are interchangeable options for refugees. Not everyone agrees. Three major organizations fighting for immigrant rights in Canada — the Canadian Council for Refugees, the Canadian Council of Churches, and Amnesty International Canada — filed a challenge in federal court last year to the “safe third country” designation. For the second time in a decade, they’re arguing that the United States is not, in fact, safe. Janet Dench, executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees, can quickly tick off conditions in the United States that make the country hostile to refugees. Asylum claimants often don’t have access to counsel and are often kept in detention while their claims are assessed. The Trump administration has launched an aggressive crackdown on asylum-seekers, through policy changes that Amnesty International recently said “appear to be aimed at the full dismantling of the U.S. asylum system.” (Most recently, President Donald Trump has threatened to hold asylum-seekers along the southern border in tent cities.) Whereas in Canada, detention is rare (less than 1 percent of all foreign entries annually, according to government data) and many claimants, depending on which province they entered through, can have access to a free lawyer.
Noam Chomsky: Members of Migrant Caravan Are Fleeing from Misery & Horrors Created by the U.S.
Oh my, what could possibly go wrong with this?
Wall Street Moves to Gut Post-Crisis Financial Rules
On the campaign trail, Donald Trump frequently pledged to “dismantle” the Dodd-Frank financial reforms passed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. On Wednesday, with the Federal Reserve’s release of a proposal to roll back capital and liquidity requirements, he caught his big whale.
Those requirements, imposed by the Dodd-Frank Act, were put in place to ensure that critical financial institutions could weather economic storms. The liquidity ratio was only finalized in September 2014. And yet, just four years later, on October 31, the Federal Reserve announced proposed changes that would reduce liquidity requirements by almost a third for banks such as Capital One and Charles Schwab with assets of $250 billion to $700 billion. Smaller banks would have even fewer restrictions.
In the lone dissent on the Fed’s four-member board, Lael Brainard said she could not support the proposal, which, among other things, would “weaken the buffers that are core to the resilience of our system.”
The proposal was one of a series of dramatic changes pushed forward by the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, which Congress passed in May with bipartisan support. That bill also weakened the Volcker Rule, implemented in 2015 to limit banks’ ability to make speculative proprietary investments — another centerpiece of Dodd-Frank designed to rein in potentially fatal risk-taking by big banks. ...
Both Fed proposals — on liquidity and Volcker — were promoted as an effort to reduce compliance costs. Jerome H. Powell, chair of the Fed, said of the Volcker proposal that it simply offered “a more streamlined set of requirements” for banks. Both proposals were widely seen as a victory for Wall Street. “Big Banks to Get a Break From Limits on Risky Trading,” read one New York Times headline about the Volcker proposal. Sen. Elizabeth Warren described it as a favor from Wall Street’s “banker buddies turned regulators.”
Break-in Attempted at Assange’s Residence in Ecuador Embassy
An attempted break-in at Julian Assange’s residence inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London on Oct. 29, and the absence of a security detail, have increased fears about the safety of the WikiLeak’s publisher. Lawyers for Assange have confirmed to activist and journalist Suzie Dawson that Assange was awoken in the early morning hours by the break-in attempt. They confirmed to Dawson that the attempt was to enter a front window of the embassy. A booby-trap Assange had set up woke him, the lawyers said. There was a previous break-in attempt at the embassy in August 2016.
Scaffolding has appeared against the embassy building in the Knightsbridge section in London, which “obscures the embassy’s security cameras,” the lawyers said. On the scaffolding electronic devices, presumably to conduct surveillance, can be seen, just feet from the embassy windows.
Later on the day of the break-in, Sean O’Brien, a lecturer at Yale University Law School and a cyber-security expert, was able to enter the embassy through the front door, which was left open. Inside he found no security present. Someone from the embassy emerged to tell him to send an email to set up an appointment with Assange. After emailing the embassy, personnel inside refused to check whether it had been received or not. O’Brien then noticed more scaffolding being erected and observed the devices, which he photographed. Though a cyber-security expert, O’Brien said he could not identify what the devices are.
The devices are pointed towards the embassy, where all the blinds were open, and not the street, he said. “The surveillance devices in the photos reveals no manufacturer branding, serial numbers or visible device information,” Dawson said. “The combination of the obscuring of the street-facing surveillance cameras and the installation of surveillance equipment pointed into instead of away from the Embassy, is alarming.” ...
O’Brien said that previous visitors had described to him “closed and locked doors. Security guards manning the desk at all times. Privacy drapes, dark rooms with shuttered blinds. For such a reversal of position to have occurred, there is only one conclusion: the Ecuadorian Embassy is open for business. Wide open.”
Landmark Youth Climate Suit Moves Ahead as Supreme Court Rejects Trump Admin. Request to Halt It
The nation's top court on Friday turned down the Trump administration's latest attempt to put the brakes on a landmark lawsuit brought by a group of young people who charge that the federal government has violated their constitutional rights by actively causing climate instability. "The youth of our nation won an important decision," said Julia Olson, executive director and chief legal counsel of Our Children's Trust and co-counsel for the youth plaintiffs. She said the finding by the U.S. Supreme Court "shows even the most powerful government in the world must follow the rules and process of litigation in our democracy."
The plaintiffs, aged 11-22, assert (pdf) that the government "continued their policies and practices of allowing the exploitation of fossil fuels," despite knowing, for 50 years, that doing so "would destabilize the climate system on which present and future generations of our nation depend for their well-being and survival."
The trial did not begin on October 29 at the United States District Court in Oregon as they'd hoped because the Supreme Court issued a temporary stay while it weighed the federal government's request for dismissal. In denying an extension of the temporary stay, the new order says the "government's petition for a writ of mandamus does not have a 'fair prospect' of success in this Court because adequate relief may be available in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit." The three-page order also states that Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch would have extended the stay. ...
Still, for the plaintiffs, Friday marked "an important date," said Philip Gregory, co-counsel for the youth in Juliana v. United States, which first starting winding its way through the courts three years ago. "We just filed a request with [U.S. District Court ] Judge Aiken, hoping the Court sets an immediate pre-trial conference and a prompt trial date. We are extremely pleased that the courthouse doors are re-opened. Plaintiffs are ready to start trial right away."
Noam Chomsky: The Future of Organized Human Life Is At Risk Thanks to GOP’s Climate Change Denial
Sighting of sperm whales in Arctic a sign of changing ecosystem, say scientists
A rare sighting of sperm whales in the Canadian Arctic is the latest sign of a quickly changing ecosystem, say scientists, as a growing number of species expand their range into warming Arctic waters.
Brandon Laforest, a marine biologist with the World Wildlife Fund, and guide Titus Allooloo were working on a project monitoring the effect of marine traffic on the region’s narwhal population when they spotted the pair of large whales just outside Pond Inlet, a community at the northern tip of Baffin Island in September.
Video of the incident, released at the end of October, captures the second known sighting of sperm whales in the region. In 2014, hunters from Pond Inlet spotted them in the area.
While a number of whales species thrive year-round in the Arctic, including beluga, bowhead and narwhal, the physiology of a sperm whale makes it difficult for them to navigate colder waters. Their heads and upper parts of the body are soft and contain an oily fat – long prized by whalers – that turns waxy in cold waters. Their bodies – which can weigh as much as 125,000lb (56,700kg) – are also ineffective at breaking through ice.
While they don’t represent a threat to the ecosystem, there are worries sperm whale could become trapped as winter approaches. “Inexperienced whales exploiting a northern habitat may not know to leave early enough before the sea ice forms,” Laforest told the CBC.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Joseph Stiglitz: 'America should be a warning to other countries'
Fox News Is Poisoning America. Rupert Murdoch and His Heirs Should Be Shunned.
Despite Saudi Crisis, US Increases Threats Against Iran
Ukraine activist Kateryna Handzyuk dies from acid attack
Former CIA Director Brennan endorses Democrat Beto O’Rourke
What Empire Loyalists Are Really Saying When They Bash Julian Assange
America's marijuana map How it might change after the midterms
If US Politics Were Real, A Massive Blue Wave Would Be 100% Certain
A Little Night Music
Johnnie Taylor - I Could Never Be President
Johnnie Taylor - Hello Sundown
The Highway QCs - Somewhere to Lay My Head
Johnnie Taylor - Toe Hold
Johnnie Taylor - Where There's Smoke There's Fire
Johnnie Taylor - Separation Line
Johnnie Taylor - Steal Away
Johnnie Taylor & Carla Thomas - Just Keep On Lovin' Me
Johnnie Taylor - Mr. Nobody's Somebody Now
Johnnie Taylor - Hijackin Love
Johnnie Taylor - Testify (I Wonna)
Comments
Hi, Joe.
With apologies to this evening's featured performer...
Who's hacking Georgia Democrats while Dems are out hacking Kemp?
Worth an encore:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jO3TfsTxcI]
evening henry...
hmmm... who's been stealin' votes from your old lady while you were out stealin' votes?
Freedom of Speech: Contradiction
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gnz4HEXTn9o]
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.
evening ac...
yep, it's a decent explanation of popper's paradox of tolerance. thanks!
Nicely elaborated on Jimmy Dore's
episode (including some of the same graphics) from a couple of weeks ago.
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
Good Evening, May the candidates of your own preference
win tomorrow. That is all I have for today's Evening Blues Well Wishes.
Thank You as always for your indefatiguable work.
Good luck.
https://www.euronews.com/live
evening mimi...
heh, unfortunately all of the offices will be filled by people who will in short order begin to disappoint us to varying degrees.
Green's on verge of being Germany's #1 party
this doesn't fit the narrative
evening gj...
heh, i've read things that suggest to me that the german greens might have mellowed out on a lot of issues that used to piss off the establishment. see this from the economist, for example:
True
they aren't exactly socialists anymore.
They are more like liberals now.
But this is still totally contrary to narrative of a far-right surge.
absolutely...
in places where the left can get its message out, it stands a decent chance against the far right, since both are offering answers to the same problem for the same constituency (and the left's answer is better).
The Greens afaik went into coalition with the CDU
and didn't go into opposition to them. From Wikipedia:
In my opinion the fact that they accepted a Jamaica coalition is a sign that the Greens are not a reliable partner as to form a true opposition to the CDU and the right of the center forces. Just because you claim to be Green, doesn't mean you are socially to the left of the center. SPD and the Greens failed to stand by their words. The didn't walk their talk. Die Linke is the only solid opposition under Wagenknecht today, at least as far as I understand it in these confusing times.
https://www.euronews.com/live
Heh ...
evening snoopy...
heh, perhaps the reason that we didn't "give" (perhaps a better word might be "impose") "them gerrymandering, strong federalism, embedded inequality in one national chamber, locally run elections overseen by partisans using different registries or Electoral College.."
is that uncle sam didn't feel the need for a complex system of controls in its colonial outposts, opting to impose dictators more or less directly - eschewing the velvet glove that obscures the iron fist.
Elections
Thanks as usual for all the hard work you put into getting these articles and music out to us every week. Think Caitlin and Chris summed up the reality of the election no matter who wins. I will be glad when this cycle is over and our phone will be silent for awhile. Team Beto has texted us at least twenty times in the past week asking for our help block walking, phone banking time or even a donation. On Thursday the message was their hope to reach out to one million Texans by Election Day. Well have a great evening and hope your weekend was fun!
Life is what you make it, so make it something worthwhile.
This ain't no dress rehearsal!
evening jb...
heh, i too, will be glad when this cycle concludes. i think that i can heat my house this winter with just the election related materials that have jammed my mailbox for months now.
in the past local races didn't generate a lot of paperwork, every now and then some local politician or his minions would appear on my porch for a chat and perhaps they'd hand me a flyer or a card, but this year even local races are generating nasty mailers from shadowy groups, not to mention the higher office races.
the printing industry must be happy.
#GreenUprising
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Hello js, Bluesters.
Hope your weekend brought some happiness and was restorative!
Great job on this as usual. Have an English expat friend in South Africa who really thinks Murdoch is the worst.
Very interesting info on the whales. We last saw whales in Mendocino area last April. Always count it a plus when that happens.
Hey, came across this on Twitter. Don’t know who she is, can’t really vouch for the content, but watched it and man was it interesting.
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
evening do...
thanks! i had a great weekend, the leaves in central pennsylvania and new york were ablaze with color, the weather was just right and the company was pleasant.
rania khalek is an excellent journalist who has written extensively on the middle east. i listened to most of the video (so far) and what she is saying about the mek squares with the reporting that i have read over the years about them.
Great video, do, thanks.
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 --
Wowz
Awesome video. I laugh every time I hear that Iran is the biggest supporter of terrorism when it's been this country and its allies all along. Propaganda baby. It works every damn time.
Need clarification, please.
The clip with John Oliver has once again brought a number which is very inconsistent with other numbers that I have seen regarding how many children have been separated from their parents at the border. This magic number is around 250+. This has been confusing me for some time, so I am looking for some clarification...does anyone have some idea of what is going on with the following numbers?
Here is one news item:
How many migrant children are still separated from their families?
Here is another from June 2018:
What We Know: Family Separation And 'Zero Tolerance' At The Border
A couple of paragraphs later in the same article:
And here is one from a fact check in May:
Are More Than 10,000 Children in U.S. Detention Centers?
From another fact check group in June:
Q&A on Border Detention of Children
From another source (not familiar with this one but they quote HuffPo, so....):
And we get bounced back to the high numbers yet again:
NUMBER OF IMMIGRANT CHILDREN IN DETENTION REACHES HIGHEST LEVEL EVER
Nobody seems to be able to get their numbers correct. There is a bit of a difference between 250 something and over 12,000 something. (I learned that in math classes.)
Anyone have a clue?
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
evening wd13...
well, i don't have a good answer for you on exact numbers. since we are counting on the government to report the numbers, who knows what the truth is.
here's what the new york times said back in september:
i suspect much of the confusion in the numbers may have to do with different situations being reported upon. in some cases, children who cross the border with parents and are in their custody are separated and put in cages. in other cases children cross the border unaccompanied. i suspect that there might be some reporting that only covers the former situation and provides that number as "children separated from their parents," while other reporting might report both groups together under the same label. to further confuse matters, the trump administration is under orders to return children to their parents, and numbers are adjusted to indicate their progress at that. and, of course there are new children entering the system daily, so...
anyway, that's my guess as to why the numbers are all over the place.
Ah, now that makes sense.
People keep using the smaller number (e.g., John Oliver) which would be children who were separated from parents and as of yet not returned. The larger number then would be the unescorted children, and Trump is grabbing anyone (sponsors or family) who comes to get them. Too bad no one in the media (cannot expect this gov't to do it) is interested enough to spell all of this out.
Thanks! Numbers flopping all over the place was driving me sane. = )
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
It's been over 100 days since a judge ordered
children separated from their parents to be given back to them and no one has been held accountable for it. I think if the judge threw a few people into prison then we'd see some action on this.
I've read that some of the children who have been reunited with their parents are going through horrendous PTSD. But people have moved on from this scandal and on to the next one. BTW. Anyone heard what happened in Vegas yet? How long ago was that massacre?
People go to jail?
This is America! No one who makes a million a year goes to jail, and the ones making less are not the ones ordering this.
I doubt if anyone is keeping a scorecard on the massacres, either the number of them or the results. If it does not fit a corporate agenda, it will be swept under a rug.
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
Hey, Joe, thanks for the EB. Have a great evening and a
wonderful Tuesday.
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 --
evening el...
thanks, have a good one, too!
Cuz it is funny and has some good
underlying messages:
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
you have a right to a provisional ballot...
and of course there's no way that they wouldn't be counted.
Yeah, but . . .
they still get the sticker, right? We need new stickers: I Voted Provisionally. Or for the one that says "My Vote Counted" that would be "My Vote Will Not Be Counted."
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
This is only a concern if the
nukes or climate do not get us first:
How the Economic Lives of the Middle Class Have Changed Since 2016, by the Numbers
(Do not forget to right click on link and opt for an incognito window to bypass pay wall)
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