The Evening Blues - 12-15-20



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Screamin Jay Hawkins

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues singer and piano player Screamin Jay Hawkins. Enjoy!

Screamin Jay Hawkins - I Put A Spell On You

"What is to be expected of them is not treachery, or physcial cowardice, but stupidity, unconscious sabotage, an infallible instinct for doing the wrong thing."

-- George Orwell


News and Opinion

"Amazing" Hypocrisy: Democrats Make Wreck of Covid-19 Relief Negotiations

A senior Democratic congressional aide is irate tonight.

“The Democrats,” the aide seethed, “have just done the worst negotiating in modern history.”

At issue: a pair of new Covid-19 relief bills, just submitted by a bipartisan group of Senators. Republican Senator Susan Collins gushed that a“Christmas Miracle” allowed the two parties came together on the twin bills, which the press describes as totaling $748 billion and $160 billion, respectively. “Bipartisanship and compromise is [sic] alive and well in Washington,” clucked West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin.

It sure is. With the election over, the Democratic leadership in the space of a few weeks somehow negotiated against themselves, working with Republicans to push the total amount of a Covid-19 relief deal further and further downward, to the point where previous plans offered by the likes of Mitch McConnell and Steve Mnuchin now look like LBJ’s Great Society.

Democrats ultimately settled for less than a third of what they had set as a baseline for state and local aid, accepted a package without any $1,200 direct payments, and signed off on a plan that, after offsets, includes less than $350 billion in new money, well below a slew of pre-election proposals rejected by Democrats like Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer as being too low.

“They totally caved,” the aide says. ...

With the Orange One on his way out of the White House, denying the president a political win is no longer even theoretically important. Because of this, there’s a school of thought that this deal is revealing something important about how Democrats want to lead under Biden, i.e. willing and/or anxious to work with Republicans on programs signaling fiscal restraint, and away from aggressive social programming ideas of the type favored by the Party’s progressive voters. Maybe that’s not the case, and this is an aberration. But it sure seems like the Democratic leadership went out of its way to take less, once it was finally safe to demand more.

Governmental priorities. You're probably not one of them.

Stimulus Bill Bails Out Defense Contractors, Denies Direct Payments to Families

Earlier this year, Republican senators slammed the idea of spending money to pay Amerians not to work during the pandemic. Only a few months later, a group of GOP senators has signed onto stimulus legislation that would authorize the government to pay idle defense contractors to not work, even as those contractors’ rack up big profits during the pandemic. Meanwhile, the same bill excludes bipartisan provisions authorizing direct payments to millions of Americans struggling to survive.

The stimulus legislation released by Republican and Democratic senators this afternoon includes an extension of a program to replace the wages of certain government contractors who miss work due to COVID-19. The program, Section 3610 of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, allows federal agencies to reimburse contractors who are unable to work in person due to the pandemic, and whose jobs do not allow telework, for up to 40 hours per week of lost wages. In effect, the program uses government money to reimburse defense contractors for giving paid leave to their employees.

The provision was added to the last page of the 525-page bill after defense contractors sent a letter to congressional lawmakers lobbying for the language. The same bill does not authorize direct payments to millions of Americans — nor does it reimburse small businesses for providing paid leave benefits to their workers.

U.S. Government to citizens: "Fuck off and die."

'What a Failed State Looks Like': GOP Under Fire for Blocking Necessary Funds as Covid Vaccine Distribution Begins

As U.S. distribution of the newly approved Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine kicked off Sunday with the shipment of millions of doses to sites across the nation, Senate Republicans faced mounting outrage for continuing to block federal funds that crisis-ravaged states and localities desperately need to carry out an unparalleled mass inoculation effort.

Facing large budget shortfalls due to the Covid-19 pandemic and lack of relief from the deadlocked Congress, state and local governments will soon be tasked with executing a rapid vaccination campaign that will require large quantities of supplies as well as new clinics, additional workers, and public outreach—all of which will cost money that states and localities fear they don't have.

As the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday, "State leaders say they are short billions of dollars in funding needed to successfully provide Covid-19 vaccinations to all Americans who want to be inoculated by health officials' June goal."

"The federal government is providing the vaccine, along with syringes, needles, face masks, and shields," the Journal noted. But local officials are warning of a repeat of the Trump administration's slow and inadequate rollout of protective equipment in the early months of the pandemic, a failure that resulted in a chaotic free-for-all as states scrambled to obtain necessary supplies.

Nevertheless, the Journal reported, "officials in several states said they would spend whatever is needed to get residents vaccinated. Some said that might force spending cuts in areas like education, unless Congress provides additional funding or the federal government reimburses a large chunk of their rollout costs."

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for emergency use, setting in motion an unprecedented and urgent campaign to distribute the vaccine as U.S. Covid-19 deaths approached 300,000.

The FDA's move, and the subsequent shipment of around three million doses of the vaccine to facilities across the nation, came as talks over a coronavirus relief package remained at a standstill, calling into question whether billions of dollars for vaccine distribution and additional relief to state and local governments will be approved before the end of the year.

"If you want to know what a failed state looks like, this is it," David Dayen, executive editor of The American Prospect, tweeted Sunday. "The end of a tragic, crippling pandemic [is] in sight and Senate Republicans can't get around to authorizing any money to complete the job."

Slavoj Zizek: We're entering post-human era & will have to invent new way of life

US Covid deaths pass 300,000 as first Americans receive coronavirus vaccine

More than 300,000 people have now died because of Covid-19 in the United States, with the latest milestone coming amid record daily fatalities and the national rollout of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. The first shot in the US mass vaccination program was given shortly after 9am ET on Monday morning at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens, New York. Intensive care nurse Sandra Lindsay became the first person not enrolled in the vaccine trials to receive it. ...

As hospitals around the US continue to describe a crisis of capacity in intensive care units, experts have described this winter as likely the most perilous time, despite the hopes brought by the recent vaccine progress. It also comes less than a month after the country lost a quarter of a million people to the disease.

The latest figures from Johns Hopkins University’s coronavirus resource center show more than 300,456 fatalities in the US, and more than 16m cases. It took just 27 days to go from 250,000 deaths to 300,000 - the fastest 50,000-death jump since the pandemic began. Some models project that hundreds of thousands more people could die before vaccines become widely available in the spring and summer.

As COVID Surges Behind Bars in California, Why Is San Quentin Transferring Hundreds of Prisoners?

Intensive care units fill to capacity across California amid Covid-19 surge

Intensive care units filled to capacity across California this weekend, as Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations continued to rise at alarming rates. Hospitals in the San Joaquin Valley, the state’s agricultural hub, reported on Saturday its ICU bed capacity had dropped to zero for the first time. The region’s capacity fluttered back to 1.5% on Monday, but the situation remained precarious.

Overall ICU capacity across California dropped to 7.4% on Monday, as hospitalizations reached record highs. Meanwhile, infections continued to rise. More than 33,000 new cases were reported statewide in the last 24 hours, even though more than 77% of the state is under regional stay-at-home orders in hopes of easing the pressure on a stretched-thin healthcare system. ...

One in 10 residents in the San Joaquin Valley who have taken a Covid test have tested positive. Counties within the region either neared ICU capacity or filled to capacity this weekend – San Benito county had no ICU beds while San Joaquin county had just six beds. Kern county had 10 ICU beds for a county of 900,000, and Kings county had three beds. Los Angeles county, the country’s most populous county, broke a record again for coronavirus hospitalizations on Sunday, with more than 4,000 people hospitalized for Covid-19. The southern California region currently has a 4.2% ICU capacity. ...

Across California, public health officials are reporting rates of infection unseen before in the pandemic. California has recorded more than 1.5m cases and more than 21,000 deaths, with numbers expected to keep rising. Public health officials had expected a surge to come with the flu season, as well as with the Thanksgiving travel, but the numbers have been jarring, nonetheless. “This is the most challenging moment since the beginning of this pandemic,” Newsom said last week.


Thanks to GOP Stonewalling, Experts Say Congress 'Already Too Late' to Prevent Lapse in Unemployment Benefits

At the end of July, the $600-per-week federal boost to unemployment benefits provided by the CARES Act expired thanks to Republican opposition to a legislative fix—intransigence that dramatically slashed the incomes of millions of jobless Americans.

Fast forward to the present, with the U.S. economy still in shambles and trending in the wrong direction, and a similarly devastating situation is playing out: Continued GOP stonewalling and demands for sweeping corporate liability protections have dragged out coronavirus relief talks to the point where, even if Congress approves a deal before year's end, millions of people will likely see a temporary lapse in their unemployment benefits.

On December 26, the day after Christmas, two CARES Act unemployment programs are set to expire, depriving an estimated 12 million jobless workers of a key lifeline. According to experts, passage of an extension before the December 26 deadline—far from a sure thing—will not be enough to avert a benefit lapse because of the time rickety and overwhelmed state systems need to adjust.

"We're already too late," Michele Evermore, senior policy analyst at the National Employment Law Project (NELP), told Politico last Friday, adding that it could take some states "three weeks or four weeks" to start distributing the benefits again, depending on the details of the potential legislative package.

On Monday, a bipartisan group of lawmakers is expected to unveil text for a $908 billion relief proposal that includes a $300-per-week boost to unemployment insurance—half the benefit level that the GOP allowed to expire over the summer—and additional weeks of benefits for those who have been jobless for more than nine months.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)—who has indicated that many Senate Republicans would not accept the bipartisan plan—and the Trump White House have proposed extending the emergency unemployment benefits without adding a weekly federal supplement, offers that Democratic lawmakers rejected as woefully inadequate and unacceptable.

In a blog post aimed at helping unemployed workers navigate the weeks ahead, Evermore warned that "if your benefits stop on December 26 and Congress passes an extension of the programs, it may well be the case that there is a programming lag and you will get restored benefits, albeit in a delayed manner."

"Do not stop asking why your benefits were delayed or why they have been so small the past few months," Evermore added. "Come together with your neighbors, your union, worker centers, state and local organizing groups, groups organizing unemployed workers like Center For Popular Democracy, Unemployed Action, Unemployed Workers United, Moms Rising, ExtendPUA, and other groups bringing unemployed workers together to fight for a better system for the future.

The emergency unemployment programs are far from the only benefits set to expire at year's end if Congress fails to approve a legislative package.

As the Washington Post reported last week, "More than two dozen federal stimulus programs crafted to help cash-strapped workers and businesses weather the coronavirus pandemic are set to expire in a matter of weeks," a convergence of deadlines that has been dubbed the "Covid Cliff."

Among the programs set to expire are an eviction moratorium—the end of which could lead to millions being kicked out of their homes—and paid sick and family leave benefits that have helped prevent tens of thousands of coronavirus infections by allowing people to take time off work without losing income.

"We will find ourselves early next year in the midst of a humanitarian crisis brought upon by cruel indifference," tweeted Michael Tubbs, the Democratic mayor of Stockton, California. "There will be a hunger and eviction crisis if we don't act."

According to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau, 26 million U.S. adults said they didn't have enough to eat in late October and early November.

"They're already behind on rent, they're already behind on bills, they're already struggling to pay utilities, and now they're about to lose the little bit of income they still have," Julia Simon-Mishel, head of the unemployment compensation practice at Philadelphia Legal Assistance, told Politico.

Krystal Ball Breaks Down The AOC VS Jimmy Dore M4A Debate

Jimmy Dore and Matt Stoller Go At It


Bernie TRASHES Pelosi, Schumer Stimulus Negotiating Skills

As Trump denies electoral defeat, Democrats preach bipartisanship

While the Republican Party traffics in incitement of violence and discussion of secession, the Democratic Party, under the direction of President-elect Biden, continues to preach bipartisan collaboration. Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer are deeply engaged in discussions with these same Republicans on the details of a new COVID-19 relief package—which will go largely to big business—while both the Senate and House have passed a record military spending bill by huge bipartisan margins, in the face of a veto threat by Trump over secondary matters. ...

The New York Times, which serves as the main mouthpiece for the Democratic leadership, elaborated the case for bipartisanship in a lengthy editorial Sunday, under the headline, “Build on Common Ground.” While the editorial goes on at great length about possible agreements between the two parties on an array of minor issues, from rural high-speed broadband to prescription drug prices to business tax credits to promote carbon capture technology, it reduces the overriding question of the coronavirus pandemic to a single sentence which says nothing at all about a policy to avert the impending deaths of several hundred thousand Americans.

The reason for the silence is clear. There is a bipartisan agreement that nothing should be done to stop mass death: no lockdowns, no school closures, no shutdowns of nonessential businesses. As servants of big business, both parties agree that workers must stay on the job producing profits for the capitalists, regardless of the consequences to their health and lives.

The editorial advises that Biden should be “turning down the temperature of the culture wars” (i.e., making concessions to Christian fundamentalist bigotry) and “backing a policy agenda with broad public support” (i.e., nothing that offends the Chamber of Commerce or Wall Street), while confining himself to “common ground that’s already been scouted and surveyed” (cosmetic measures already before Congress that will do nothing to alleviate the massive social crisis triggered by the pandemic). ...

Only the day before, the same newspaper’s lead editorial decried Republican “nihilism” and asked, “What is left to say about a political party that would throw out millions of votes?” The Times’ answer to its own question is: join forces with them as quickly as possible, and on their terms.

Newt Gingrich and loyalists tapped for Defense Policy Board as Henry Kissinger is ousted

The Trump administration continued efforts to replace Pentagon advisers with loyalists as it tapped former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and others Monday to replace ousted members of the Defense Policy Board, an independent outside body.

Weeks after former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and Madeleine Albright were removed in a sudden purge of longstanding experts, Gingrich and nine others have been named as intended replacements, the Pentagon announced. The administration made similar moves with the Defense Business Board last month. ...

The board, overseen by the undersecretary of defense for policy, provides top-ranking Pentagon officials with independent, informed advice and opinions on matters of defense policy. Foreign Policy broke news of the changes last month, reporting that Defense Secretary Mark Esper and acting Under Secretary of Defense for Policy James Anderson had resisted the moves before they were sacked.

US regulator begins inquiry into data collection by tech firms

Biden weighs Samantha Power for USAID

Joe Biden is considering Samantha Power to head the United States Agency for International Development, which would place a high-profile figure atop foreign aid and coronavirus relief efforts, people familiar with the matter tell Axios. ...

Power, currently a professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School, has been a leading advocate for using military force [...] to achieve humanitarian goals. ...

Power’s husband, Cass Sunstein, who ran the highly influential Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in Obama’s first term, could return to government, as well.

'Smash & Grab' | Rights groups decry new French police crowd control tactics

Report Details 'Staggering' Number of Attacks on US Journalists, Press Freedoms in 2020

A new report draws a "devastating" picture of press freedoms in the United States, finding that 2020 has seen a 1200% increase in the number of journalists arrested compared to 2019.

According to Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), there were 117 arrests or detainments of journalists—a figure that stood at just 9 the year before. The organization used data from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker—a project of FPF and the Committee to Protect Journalists—and found 1000 press freedom violations including physical attacks and border stops. "We know of no police officer criminally charged for illegally arresting a journalist," the report adds.

"This report shows an unprecedented press freedom crisis engulfing the United States," FPF executive director Trevor Timm said in a statement.

The "most startling statistics," says the report, occurred in the week after the May 25 police killing George Floyd in Minneapolis. That time frame included 71 journalists arrested while covering protests.

"So many of the journalists arrested in the United States in 2020 were reporting on protests that it was perhaps inevitable reporters would be caught up in the same police techniques typically used to break up demonstrations," the report states, and points to the tactic of so-called kettling. "Kettling in particular shows up in nearly two dozen of the arrests and detentions that the U.S Press Freedom Tracker has documented across the country."

"Time and again," says the report, "police disregarded press freedom rights when their kettled crowds included journalists."

The report also draws attention to press violations that occurred in Portland, and "the dangers [that] intensified when, on President Donald Trump's orders, federal agents were deployed in the city."

"The Department of Homeland Security tapped protesters' phones and established 'intelligence reports' on journalists who published leaked documents about the agency's operations," the report adds.


Beyond abuses associated with journalists covering the national social justice uprising, "the electoral loss by a president who had spent much of his administration vilifying the press sparked one of the biggest spikes in press freedom violations since the first month of the George Floyd protests in May and June," says the report.

Throughout the year, the report says that many of the arrests were accompanied by police violence. In fact, according to the tracker data, 26% of the arrests included police deploying "unnecessary use of force," which may include knocking journalists to the ground, pepper-spraying them, or whacking them in the gut with a baton.

Still other journalists faced police violence such as being hit with projectile while reporting before being arrested.

The report further notes that, while many saw their charges dropped, at least 16 journalists—including 10 freelancers—are still facing legal "long-term legal trouble."

While the tally of journalists arrested dwarfs those of previous years, it may not be exhaustive; the report points out that the organization is still sorting through a dozen other possible violations that occurred this year.

"Journalists should not have to worry about being arrested for doing their job," added Timm, "yet across the country police have disregarded their rights on a staggering scale."

"We hope this report will spur local, state, and federal officials to act," he said.

Calling the findings "devastating," Kirstin McCudden, managing editor of the U.S.Press Freedom Tracker, writes in the report's foreword, "The courage and commitment of these journalists, arrested or detained for exercising rights promised to them in the Constitution, is anything but a statistic."

William Barr Resigns as Attorney General After Acting as Trump's "Enabler-in-Chief" at DOJ

William Barr steps down as Trump's attorney general

The US attorney general, William Barr, one of Donald Trump’s staunchest allies, has resigned just weeks after he contradicted the president by saying the justice department had uncovered no evidence of widespread voter fraud that could change the outcome of the 2020 election.

Barr’s departure ends a tenure marked by brazen displays of fealty to a president whose political agenda he willingly advanced. Critics said Barr had turned the Department of Justice (DoJ) into an obedient servant of the White House, eroding its commitment to independence and the rule of law.

Trump sought to play down tensions as he announced Barr’s resignation in a tweet on Monday, moments after members of the electoral college officially pushed Joe Biden over the 270-vote threshold to win the White House on Monday. The procedural step effectively ends Trump’s unprecedented bid to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election based on false claims of widespread voter fraud that Barr concluded were meritless.

Jeff Rosen, the deputy attorney general, who Trump called “an outstanding person”, will take over the role of acting attorney general and “highly respected” Richard Donoghue, an official in Rosen’s office, would become the deputy attorney general.



the horse race



Election Chaos Adds Fuel to Campaign for a National Popular Vote to Elect U.S. President

Electoral College makes it official: Biden won, Trump lost

he Electoral College formally chose Joe Biden on Monday as the nation’s next president, giving him a solid electoral majority of 306 votes and confirming his victory in last month’s election. The state-by-state voting took on added importance this year because of President Donald Trump’s refusal to concede he had lost. ...

For all Trump’s unsupported claims of fraud, there was little suspense and no change as all the electoral votes allocated to Biden and the president in last month’s popular vote went officially to each man.

Biden handily beat Trump, who had 232 electoral votes, a 74-vote margin that Biden noted Trump had called a landslide when he won by that much in 2016. On Election Day, the Democrat topped the incumbent Republican by more than 7 million in the popular vote nationwide. ...

But there was no concession from the White House, where Trump has continued to make unsupported allegations of fraud.

Biden OFFICIALLY WINS, Barr RESIGNS, Stephen Miller Holds Out Hope For Trump Win

Due to 'Credible Threats of Violence,' Michigan Capitol Shuttered as Electoral College Meets to Confirm Biden Victory

When Michigan's electors to the Electoral College meet in Lansing on Monday afternoon to confirm President-elect Joe Biden's victory at the polls, the state capitol, including legislative buildings, will be closed to the public due to security concerns, officials announced Sunday night.

Amber McCann, a spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey (R), told the Detroit Free Press that the Senate chose to close its offices on Monday "based on recommendations from law enforcement."

"The decision was not made because of anticipated protests, but based on credible threats of violence," McCann said Sunday.

State Rep. Kevin Hertel (D) tweeted that precautions were being taken "because credible threats have been made as Michigan's electors to the Electoral College will meet at the Capitol."

Gideon D'Assandro, a spokesman for House Speaker Lee Chatfield (R), did not provide details about potential security risks to reporters. He told the Detroit Free Press that while the Michigan State Police (MSP) did not mandate closure of the office buildings, "House and Senate Leadership conferred with [MSP] and then made the call... to ensure everyone's safety."

Rep. Gary Eisen (R) on Monday morning was reprimanded by his Republican colleagues in the state legislature for refusing to disavow a violent disruption of the Electoral College vote at the capitol in Lansing, as The Hill reported.

During an early morning radio interview, Eisen told the program host that he could not promise that nobody would be hurt "because what we're doing today is uncharted." Though it remained unclear what Eisen was referring to, he said that "it'll be all over the news later on."

Heightened fears of possible political violence coincide with the relentless efforts of President Donald Trump and more than 100 Republican lawmakers to challenge the election results in Michigan and other key battleground states won by Biden.

Loonies on the march:

Sarah Palin hits campaign trail in Georgia, denying Trump lost alongside QAnon-supporting Republican

Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, joined the GOP campaign trail in Georgia, urging supporters to “crush” the vote for senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler to avoid “another rigged election.” ...

Ms Palin attended her first event of the campaign called the “Save America Tour”, which was organised by the conservative group Club for Growth. She has repeated the claims President Trump has been making of the election being rigged against him.

Before Ms Palin, representative-elect Marjorie Taylor Greene also addressed the crowd and said: "We all know for a fact that Joe Biden did not win Georgia. We know that Georgia re-elected Donald J Trump."

According to NBC News, when questioned why she was repeating election conspiracy theories that have already been debunked by multiple courts and Georgia's Republican governor and secretary of state, Ms Greene said: "Those aren’t conspiracies that have been debunked. Those are real things that happened and they haven’t been debunked."

She also defended her past support of QAnon conspiracy theories, saying: "I'll never apologise for looking up other information. I have no apology there."



the evening greens


Fossil fuel fund set aside to help Utahns being returned to industry, lawsuit says

In July 2019, a proposed railway intended to shuttle fossil fuels across a mountainous corner of eastern Utah received a $28m grant from a local, state-run community fund. The financing allowed the group behind the railway – the Seven County Infrastructure Coalition – to kick off a federally mandated environmental impact survey, that would need to be completed before construction could begin.

There was just one problem: the grant came from a pot of money set aside to help Utahns recover from the state’s legacy of oil drilling, not help the industry expand deeper into the state. Established in 1982, the Utah Permanent Community Impact Fund “was supposed to alleviate the boom and bust cycle of energy production,” said Wendy Park, a lawyer with the Center for Biological Diversity.

Park believes that the $28m grant violates the spirit of the fund, which has provided money for a range of municipal projects like new sewer systems, medical facilities, road improvement and new public buildings.

The CBD, along with the Utah-based environmental group Living Rivers, is suing to stop the municipal agency from funding the $1.5bn railroad. The suit asks a fundamental question: is the development of yet more fossil fuel infrastructure the best way to help rural communities thrive? ...

Under the Trump administration, the oil and gas industry has enjoyed an increasingly cozy relationship with the federal agencies that oversee the nation’s public lands. The proposed Uinta Basin railway could take one of three potential routes – the favored of which would plow through 390 acres of state lands and 401 acres of roadless US Forest Service lands.


Also of Interest

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

Glenn Greenwald: The Case For a Pardon of Edward Snowden by President Trump

Trump Repeats Threat to Veto NDAA

Trump Regulator Set to Consider Approving the Banking Model that Ushered in the Great Depression – Uninsured Deposits

Unemployment Skyrocketing? An Evolved Society Would Celebrate.

After George Floyd, Carbon Capture Tech Tiptoes into Racial Justice

Northern lights photographer of the year – in pictures

Keiser Report | The Central Bank Nappy

Jimmy Dore: CNN's Saudi Arabia Propagandist!

Jimmy Dore: Will Trump Pardon Assange & Snowden?

Rising: LIARS James Clapper, John Brennan Lobby AGAINST Edward Snowden Pardon

Rising: MSNBC, CNN TERRIFIED Of Post-Trump Ratings Collapse


A Little Night Music

Screamin' Jay Hawkins - Shut Your Mouth When You Sneeze

Screamin' Jay Hawkins - Whistling Past The Graveyard

Screamin' Jay Hawkins - Alligator Wine

Screamin Jay Hawkins - Ice Cream Man

Screamin Jay - It's Only Make Believe

Screamin' Jay Hawkins - Do You Really Love Me

Screamin' Jay Hawkins - Armpit #6

Screamin' Jay Hawkins - Little Demon

Screamin Jay Hawkins - I Am The Cool


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Comments

ggersh's picture

the R's are only the muscle while the D's are the enabling evil.

https://vk.com/@580896205-revisiting-henry-wallaces-century-of-the-common-man

one snippet

"Yes, and when the time of peace comes, The citizen will again have a duty, The supreme duty of sacrificing the lesser interest for the greater interest of the general welfare. Those who write the peace must think of the whole world. There can be no privileged peoples. We ourselves in the United States are no more a master race than the Nazis. And we can not perpetuate economic warfare without planting the seeds of military warfare. We must use our power at the peace table to build an economic peace that is just, charitable and enduring.

"If we really believe that we are fighting for a people's peace, all the rest becomes easy." [All Emphasis Mine]

Reading between the lines, we can sense Wallace's apprehensions about what the USA will become; and as we've witnessed, he was quite correct in his suspicions. But the people were quickly duped and he didn't have any chance of besting Truman in 1948 being attacked in media by those who supported him and FDR during the Depression and war--very much like the attacks on Sanders during the last two election cycles. As Wallace feared, something very similar to Nazism took hold within the USA quickly after the war. Behind it then as now stood Private Finance and the Neoliberals went to work, their goal to privatize everything and ensure the Common Folk owned nothing but the debt that enslaved him/her. No other political-economic example was to be allowed to exist; their one greatest failure and the only reason we're now on the path to the better world we should have already attained if the sort of Christian Commonwealth vision Wallace had and many shared could have arisen instead of the latent fascism within the USA gaining control.

EDIT: Thanks for the blues and the news Joe, the times they are a changin!

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90WD_ats6eE]

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14 users have voted.

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

@ggersh

.. but the debt that enslaved him/her.

key point

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12 users have voted.
ggersh's picture

@QMS unfortunately tptb seem quite adept at making it a left/right fight.

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12 users have voted.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@ggersh

heh, fdr created a niche for the dems - cutting a deal with the oligarchs that keeps the peasants from revolting.

since clinton/dlc/turd way, the dems have become disinterested in cutting the deal as the money is in screwing the peasants. so, there's nobody to cut a deal, the oligarchs feel pretty good about their odds should the shit hit the fan and the oligarch media has done a fantastic job of setting the poors against themselves.

wallace was certainly on to something there.

have a great evening!

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14 users have voted.

Of course had a comment written and the monster in the machine erased it. It seems to be getting harder to read the news that is posted here but realize it is very important to remain informed of what is ahead of us. There are days when feel like running screaming out into the street! This might be the best option.

Am still riding out the Covid in Austin with my sister-in-law and her husband. A series of events compelled me to return to Texas from New Mexico and part of the reason was also the overwhelming sense of isolation in Santa Fe and so am enjoying the company of them but am getting a little restless and wanting to head to the homeplace.

In this next year am hoping to make a decision on whether to keep the condo in Santa Fe or sell it and downsize to one property. Not getting any younger and the future for the West does not look good.

Well, enough of the ramblings but do appreciate the chance to delve into the music of unknown to me musicians.

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15 users have voted.

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

This ain't no dress rehearsal!

joe shikspack's picture

@jakkalbessie

heh:

There are days when feel like running screaming out into the street!

if you are wondering what to scream, may i suggest, "i'm mad as hell and i'm not going to take it anymore!" Smile

glad to hear that you are among friends while riding out the covid mess. good luck with your property decisions.

have a great evening!

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12 users have voted.
mimi's picture

Must have been a Benin sorcerer. Wink

Thank You for the EB news articles.

I ask myself why some call the US a failed state. No offense, I simply say it is a shit state, but they are not alone, it it is simply a shit world. All the shit turns into compost some day.

Good evening to all. I hope you all stay healthy and warm somewhere.

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7 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@mimi

i don't know about others, but i have reasons for calling the u.s. a failed state.

when a state can (or will) no longer provide the basic needs of its citizens, whether that is due to conditions of war, famine, plague, general malaise, the conflicting greeds of its oligarchs or whatever condition, leaving the citizens to fend for themselves, it is a failed state.

the u.s. is a failed state for millions of its citizens who are unable to secure their basic existential needs (food, clothing, shelter, medicine, etc.) and have to resort to begging, camping in cars or under bridges, theft or other means to stay alive.

my $.02.

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17 users have voted.
mimi's picture

@joe shikspack
because I am not an American. Out of the mouth of a German it would not sound right.

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2 users have voted.
Raggedy Ann's picture

I’m mystified that people are not up in arms over this latest legislation. To receive zero is unconscionable. The George Orwell quote couldn’t be more appropriate.

Enjoy the evening! Pleasantry

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16 users have voted.

"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

as far as i can see, it is about time for the torches, pitchforks, tar and feathers.

i don't know why it hasn't happened yet.

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11 users have voted.

@Raggedy Ann @Raggedy Ann may not be getting the full picture.

If you are struggling to provide for yourself and your family you probably aren't following the latest news.

People like us who watch and comment are in a separate less vulnerable category. We see and we have been warned.

The BLM protests this year showed all of us how violent the police are. I'll never forget the elderly man the Police knocked to the ground cracking his head open. Then the Supervisor on scene forced his men to keep on marching, ignoring the victim.

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7 users have voted.

NYCVG

snoopydawg's picture

The world rose up with BLM after Floyd's death because they too were sick of cops getting away with murder and we all saw how cops responded to it. Now the world just watched the same cops do nothing to Trump supporters. Even when they were violent. Our laughing stock meter just went way up.

Welp this might wake up a lot of people. If it doesn’t then I doubt anything will.

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12 users have voted.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

no stimulus checks. and at $1200 they are a trifle when you consider that millions of americans are around $5400 in arrears on rents/mortgages.

when the oligarchs brutal blue thugs start pitching millions of people out of their homes, i suspect that there might be some ugliness.

i guess we'll see.

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13 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack

when the oligarchs brutal blue thugs start pitching millions of people out of their homes, i suspect that there might be some ugliness.

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3 users have voted.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

consider this. somewhere between 15 and 40 million people (depending on which estimate you look at) suddenly become homeless.

there are not enough beds in shelters or other homeless facilities to handle this sudden onslaught in a nation that badly provides for a homeless population orders of magnitude smaller.

what do you suppose might happen when millions of people are dispossessed in the middle of a pandemic, in the middle of winter? presumably they will not be very happy and there will be a lot of them.

for reference, there are 1.3 million troops in the u.s. armed forces. there are about 700,000 cops in the u.s.

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7 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

Mr. Hawkins is, of course, perfect for the season, year and era.

Some of the news, however, is utter bullshit, like this bit:

“The Democrats,” the aide seethed, “have just done the worst negotiating in modern history.”

Like Hell! I say. This is the brilliant climax of several years of untiring effort on behalf of the oligarchs, financiers, donor class and MIC to crush the common folk and cripple the so-called middle class. Early on they threw the hoi and polloi a few crumbs to blind them as to what they were really doing, but not the can go seriously downtown on us all and have wasted no time in doing it. Pure genius.

May, just maybe Baldwin may prove right, one can only wait and see.

be well and have a good one

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11 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

joe shikspack's picture

@enhydra lutris

heh, there's one song in particular that seems totally apropos to this time:

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10 users have voted.

@joe shikspack

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7 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

@joe shikspack

resonates.

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6 users have voted.

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 --

dystopian's picture

@joe shikspack It's time for Street Fightin' Man again. Gimmie Shelter Prodigal Son. I can't get no satisfaction. Time waits for no one, but Time is on my side. Can't you hear me knockin? I'm shattered. Sha doo be. I'm a Midnight Rambler Monkey Man with Sympathy for the Devil. I could use Mother's Little Helper and a Little T & A to get my Rocks Off before I have my 19th Nervous Breakdown. I know You can't always Get what you Want. I'm just sittin' on a Fence, like it was A Hundred Years Ago, Dancin' with Mr. D, but I won't be a Beast of Burden When the Whip Comes Down Heartbreaker. And all these Dead Flowers All down the Line, are a Bitch. It's Off the Hook, I wish they'd just Get Off of My Cloud.

I wasn't lookin' too good, but I was feelin' real well...

Wink

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14 users have voted.

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

joe shikspack's picture

@dystopian

Smile

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10 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@enhydra lutris

And well planned. They played the long game and we all knew it was coming, but then I truly thought I’d be dead first. How long till cashless society is here?

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9 users have voted.

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

dystopian's picture

Screamin' Jay was the bomb! The original shock rock. His lyrics are awesome, great singer. Took 'showman' to a new level. Obviously a great influence, from Alice Cooper to Arthur Brown and many others. Great sounds man!

I cannot believe that Kissinger and Albright are still F'n things up for us. Seems like we the people should have the list of these 9 unelected flunkies making policy? Those 2 should be in jail. I'll accept house arrest under the condition no one ever asks them what they think when it comes to foreign policy. Haven't we suffered enough already 'cause of them? Please make it stop. Wink

Hope its all good!

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14 users have voted.

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

joe shikspack's picture

@dystopian

heh, screamin jay was simply amazing.

i found this list of many current and former defense policy board advisory committee members.

you'll recognize a lot of the names, mostly for unpleasant reasons.

have a great evening!

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8 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@dystopian

Because they were all Secretary of State and every new SOS meets with the previous ones and they all make sure that what they have planned goes off without a hitch. I can’t remember who said that. A month or so ago after the 1st firings. Can’t have someone working for peace or anything like that. Oh no.

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12 users have voted.

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

snoopydawg's picture

Democrats just agreed to take seven times less than the $1.13 trillion they asked for in the HEROES Act, and about half of Mnuchin’s $300 billion offer in October that Pelosi rejected as “sadly inadequate.”

Every new paragraph is about how unfuckingbelieveable the bill is.

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13 users have voted.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

thanks, dems!

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8 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack

can you excerpt it tomorrow for us? I refuse to give the richest person a penny to read what’s written there.

If anyone else can could you?

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7 users have voted.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

check your mailbox.

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1 user has voted.
TheOtherMaven's picture

@snoopydawg

They are NOT "idealists".

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6 users have voted.

There is no justice. There can be no peace.

A California Christmas
[video:https://www.youtube.com/embed/28MO3ngJNto width:500]
Buy Plump Jack!

Dear Netflix get the fuck out of Sonoma County you leeching lying fuckheads! Aaargh! That stinks like an Obama Propaganda Production. PU! OMG I am sick to my stomach after watching that trash, but real life makes me sicker.

Montage Healdsburg luxury resort opens as shutdown limits stays

All of the rooms are individual bungalows, with amenities including private patios and indoor-outdoor showers, and rates ranging from $695 to $1,695 per night. The presidential suite, which spans more than 4,600 square feet and includes three bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms, goes for $10,000 a night.

Almost 9.4 million gallons of sediment-laden runoff escaped the site into tributaries of the Russian River, including Foss Creek, a steelhead trout stream, according to the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board.

On Friday, a two-year enforcement action over 38 documented environmental violations led the water board to fine Green and his project subsidiary more than $6.4 million, the largest such environmental fine in North Coast history. A compliance officer in the case said the developer had been “grossly negligent” with soil safeguards on the site.

Peanuts! The rich will pay off that six mil in two years. And then profit! PU that stinks. Useless regulators from hell, they're what's for dinner.

Back to the body bags and makeshift morgues...

Even the joyful first inoculations at one of Northern California’s biggest hospitals were tinged with sadness Tuesday.

Because the health workers are already burnt to a crisp after months of no-help, all they have left is a hope that the super sekret mRNA reprogramming of proteins works like Pfizer says it does. Not like a Solarwinds virus, right? Oh wait that's different. Oh wait, no it's not.

Now is when Newsom finally asked the military to come build extra ICU beds, after his donor pals have made profits maxing out the existing workforce, they are offering too little, too late, VOTE D! Give Newsom his own fine Emmy why not.

good luck

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6 users have voted.

with, a large underground group of Texans said to me yesterday that if Biden swears in, Texas will secede.
I told him that in a few short years, I would be living on Social Security and be given health care through Medicare, so good luck, count me out, give me time to move to another state.
Things could get very dangerous very quickly.

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7 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

TheOtherMaven's picture

@on the cusp

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5 users have voted.

There is no justice. There can be no peace.