The Evening Blues - 12-16-15



eb1pt12


Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Chicago blues guitarist Buster Benton. Enjoy!

Buster Benton - Spider In My Stew

“The idea that we must choose between the method of "winning hearts and minds" and the method of shaping behavior presumes that we have the right to choose at all. This is to grant us a right that we would surely accord to no other power. Yet the overwhelming body of American scholarship accords us this right.”

-- Noam Chomsky


News and Opinion

US Not Seeking 'Regime Change' in Syria, John Kerry Says After Meeting With Russian President

Following lengthy talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow today, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has said the United States is not seeking regime change in Syria and that the U.S. and Russia see the conflict "fundamentally very similarly."

“The United States and its partners are not seeking so-called regime change as it is known in Syria,” Kerry said in a news conference inside the Kremlin, before immediately adding that the U.S. continues to believe that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has no possibility of remaining the country’s leader in the future. However, Kerry said the talks didn’t focus on “what can or can’t be done immediately about Assad” but rather on establishing a political process where Syrians will be able to choose their own leader.

The statement appeared to be the most explicit sign yet that the U.S. is softening its policy towards Assad and marked a significant rhetorical shift for the U.S. towards Russia’s policy in Syria, which previously American officials have said was almost fundamentally at odds with their own.

SoS Kerry Says US, Russia See Syria's Future the Same Way

During his visit to Moscow, Secretary of State John Kerry talked at length with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and came out of those talks with a shocking declaration that “the United States and its partners are not seeking regime change in Syria.”

The declaration is not only bizarre, in that many of America’s “partners” in Syria are rebel factions formed explicitly to oust the government, but because Kerry himself, as well as other high-ranking US officials, have been openly demanding unconditional regime change for several years now. ...

The US has previously had officials hint that their stance on Syria could change, but this is the first time such a high-profile official has openly renounced regime change. That it was Kerry is particularly noteworthy since Kerry led the failed 2013 effort to get Congress to approve of a US invasion to impose regime change there, repeatedly likening Assad to Hitler during the effort.

New evidence supports claims about Syrian state detention deaths

A leading rights group has released new evidence that up to 7,000 Syrians who died in state detention centres were tortured, mistreated, or executed and insisted that holding officials to account should be central to peace efforts.

[One might wish that HRW would be so forward about holding the American government officials to account for deaths, torture and other crimes against humanity that they have committed. - js]

Human Rights Watch has identified 19 victims from a mass collection of photographs known as the Caesar files, which were released by a military defector who chronicled deaths in Syrian regime custody for more than two years.

Details of the deaths shed new light on the conditions endured by detainees in at least five government-run detention centres, which are thought to have held at least 117,000 people since anti-regime protests broke out in March 2011.

The new details were released on Wednesday morning in Moscow, two days before a 17-nation meeting of the International Support Group on Syria is due to reconvene in New York to try to map a way out of the nearly five-year war that continues to ravage the region and reverberate throughout Europe.

Russia and the US have been increasingly vocal in efforts to end the crisis. However, both sides remain poles apart over what steps needed to be taken. Moscow has consistently opposed allowing regime officials to be held to account through international justice. The US, meanwhile, has sent mixed signals on a political transition away from the Syrian leader, Bashar al-Assad, a key demand of opposition groups fighting to oust him.

Turkish MP investigated for treason after sarin gas claims on RT

A Blind Eye Toward Turkey’s Crimes

Theoretically, it would be a great story for the American press: an autocrat so obsessed with overthrowing the leader of a neighboring country that he authorizes his intelligence services to collaborate with terrorists in staging a lethal sarin attack to be blamed on his enemy and thus trick major powers to launch punishing bombing raids against the enemy’s military.

And, after that scheme failed to achieve the desired intervention, the autocrat continued to have his intelligence services aid terrorists inside the neighboring country by providing weapons and safe transit for truck convoys carrying the terrorists’ oil to market. The story gets juicier because the autocrat’s son allegedly shares in the oil profits.

To make the story even more compelling, an opposition leader braves the wrath of the autocrat by seeking to expose these intelligence schemes, including the cover-up of key evidence. The autocrat’s government then seeks to prosecute the critic for “treason.”

But the problem with this story, as far as the American government and press are concerned, is that the autocratic leader, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is in charge of Turkey, a NATO ally and his hated neighbor is the much demonized Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Major U.S. news outlets and political leaders also bought into the sarin deception and simply can’t afford to admit that they once again misled the American people on a matter of war. ...

It remained easier for The New York Times, The Washington Post and other premier news outlets to simply ignore the compelling tale of possible Turkish complicity in a serious war crime. After all, what would the American people think if – after the mainstream media had failed to protect the country against the lies that led to the disastrous Iraq War – the same star news sources had done something similar on Syria by failing to ask tough questions? ...

But that imperative – not to admit another major mistake – means that the major U.S. news media also must ignore the courageous statements from Eren Erdem, a deputy of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), who has publicly accused the Erdogan government of blocking an investigation into Turkey’s role in procuring the sarin allegedly delivered to Al Qaeda-connected terrorists for use inside Syria. ...

The U.S. government and the mainstream media have put their goal of having another “regime change” – this time in Syria – and their contempt for Putin ahead of any meaningful cooperation toward defeating the Islamic State and Al Qaeda.

This ordering of priorities further means there is no practical reason to revisit who was responsible for the Aug. 21, 2013 sarin gas attack. If Assad’s government was innocent and Erdogan’s government shared in the guilt, that would present a problem for NATO, which would have to decide if Turkey had crossed a “red line” and deserved being expelled from the military alliance.

Russia names Syrian rebel groups it says it is supporting with air strikes

Russia's defense ministry said on Tuesday its planes had carried out air strikes to support four rebel groups in Syria, saying it was working to try to unite the efforts of the Free Syrian Army and government troops against Islamic State.

The General Staff of the Russian army issued the statement as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry held closed-door talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, with Syria topping the agenda.

It said over 5,000 Syrian opposition rebels were fighting against Islamic State in concert with the government forces of President Bashar al-Assad and that some rebels were supplying Russia's air force with targets for air strikes.

It said it had conducted strikes in support of a group called "Ganim" which it said was part of the Free Syrian Army, as well as in support of a group called "Desert Lions", another group called "Kalamun," and another called "the Democratic Forces."

Bad Russians Decide to Ignore European Human Rights Court

Human rights are good, Russians are bad:

President Vladimir Putin has signed a law allowing Russia’s Constitutional Court to decide whether or not to implement rulings of international human rights courts.

The law, published on Tuesday on the government website, enables the Russian court to overturn decisions of the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) if it deems them unconstitutional.

President Putin must be a terrible person.  Human rights.

The law comes after the ECHR ruled in 2014 that Russia must pay a 1.9 billion euro ($2.09 billion) award to shareholders of the defunct Yukos oil company

So, Europe used the ECHR to inflict 2 billion dollars of losses on Russia for doing something that it would take a great deal of twisting to say is a human rights violation.

Putin replied by taking away jurisdiction from “human rights courts” over Russia.

When you abuse your powers and use them unfairly, those who can will take those powers away from you.  This is known as legitimacy.  Now when Russia does things that are actually human rights issues, with respect to gays, for example, the ECHR will be able to do nothing.

Saudis, Other Gulf States Mull Sending Troops to Syria

According to Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, his nation, along with the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Bahrain are engaged in discussions about the possibility of sending ground troops, particularly special forces, into Syria to fight ISIS. ...

Though the US troops are deployed in Hasakeh, likely embedding with the Kurds, it is unclear where Saudi forces would embed, as their primary allies in Syria are Islamist factions like Ahrar al-Sham with limited territory of their own.

Another potential complicating factor for a Saudi special forces operation is the ongoing war in Yemen, in which large numbers of Saudi and other GCC troops are presently engaged.

Pentagon: ISIS ‘Operationally Active’ in Afghanistan

Delivering its bi-annual assessment of Afghanistan to Congress, the Pentagon today warned that the ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan has progressed beyond its “initial exploratory phase to a point where they are openly fighting the Taliban for the establishment of a safe haven, and are becoming more operationally active.”

Previously, officials had downplayed talk of ISIS in Afghanistan being more than a passing branding effort by some disaffected figures in the Taliban, but growing in-fighting in the Taliban, and the ISIS affiliate asserting itself with some territory of its own, appears to be shifting this perspective.

The Middle-East reacts with outrage to Donald Trump's "Ban Muslims" remarks

Congress adds contested cybersecurity measures to 'must-pass' spending bill

Civil liberties experts said they were dismayed that Congress had used the late-night bill to pass some of the most invasive parts of the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (Cisa).

“Once again, members of Congress are using the government funding bill to pursue their extremist agendas,” said Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. “Sneaking damaging and discriminatory riders into a must-pass bill usurps the democratic process and is irresponsible.”

The House intelligence committee reportedly dominated discussion of the bill in conference and stripped it of what opponents, including Oregon senator Ron Wyden, described as already too-meager privacy protections. Language that would have prevented consumer financial data from being shared directly with the NSA, for example, is not in the final version of the bill.

Cisa would create a system for corporate informants willing to share their customers’ data with the Department of Homeland Security, which would then pass the information to other federal agencies, defined in the final text as the departments of commerce, defense (which oversees the CIA), energy, justice (the FBI), the treasury (which oversees the IRS), and the office of the director of national intelligence (which oversees the NSA).

In return, companies participating would be shielded from regulatory action related to the information they passed along and any Freedom of Information Act requests filed by the public to determine exactly what kind of user information was being handed over to the government.

Basic Goods 'Suspiciously' Begin to Appear in Venezuela Stores

In 1970, U.S. President Richard Nixon ordered the CIA to make the “Chilean economy scream,” a conspiracy to overthrow the first democratically elected socialist government of Latin America that was accompanied by disappearing basic products from the shelves of stores across the country.

[For more information about "mak(ing) the economy scream," see: "Make the Economy Scream": Secret Documents Show Nixon, Kissinger Role Backing 1973 Chile Coup and this document, National Security Council, National Security Decision Memorandum 93, Policy Towards Chile, November 9, 1970. - js]

The same plan was implemented against Venezuela. And the fact that after the Dec. 6 victory of the right-wing opposition, according to many social media users in Venezuela, basic products are beginning to appear in stores throughout the South American nation, suggests that the right-wing opposition, backed by the U.S., implemented the same plan. ...

The social media users have indicated that the sudden reappearance of these goods and the fact that they have expired dates on them expose that there have been no issues with production, but rather with distribution, which many right-wing business people control.


[Translation: “John Kerry’s wife, Teresa Heinz, is a Heinz shareholder, the same company that stopped producing goods in Venezuela. What a coincidence!”]

In some tweets, social media users note the link between food company Heinz and the economic war, as the U.S. food processing firm announced it would begin production again after months of inactivity. ...

On Saturday, the leader of the Heinz workers' union, Hernan Garcia, said that after various months of failed attempts to sign a collective contract with the company on Dec. 9 they finally achieved their objectives and that they would begin working again.

This fact has been considered by many Venezuelans as evidence that Heinz participated in the economic war.

The Nemesis of Brazil’s Beleaguered President Is Now the One Feeling the Heat

Eduardo Cunha — the speaker of Brazil's lower house of Congress, who is also the nemesis of the country's president whom he wants to see impeached — did not have a good Tuesday.

The day began with police cars surrounding Cunha's official residence in Brasília in the latest phase of a criminal investigation into the country's biggest-ever corruption scandal. Police said they were executing 53 search-and-seizure warrants to "avoid important evidence being destroyed by those under investigation."

It was later reported that the warrants were related to a new Supreme Court inquiry into whether Cunha had abused his position to obstruct the vast corruption probe. ...

Tuesday then brought Cunha more bad news. Despite repeated delays orchestrated by his supporters, the congressional ethics committee voted to authorize an investigation that could lose him the speakership.

Cunha is accused of benefiting from a vast kickback scheme centered on state-run oil giant Petrobras that is being probed by an unprecedented criminal investigation, known as Operation Lava Jato, or Car Wash. Cunha is accused of taking a $5 million dollar bribe that was hidden in Swiss bank accounts.

Woman charged with attempted murder for failed self-induced abortion

A 31-year-old woman in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, has become the latest person to fall foul of the creeping criminalization of pregnancy after she was charged and jailed for attempted first-degree murder following a failed self-induced abortion.

Anna Yocca faces the possibility of a life sentence after she was indicted by a grand jury in Rutherford County for attempting to kill her unborn child.

Yocca was 24 weeks pregnant in September when she allegedly attempted to induce a miscarriage using a coat hanger. According to local news reports based on accounts from the arresting police officers, she lay in a bath before piercing herself with the hanger but became alarmed by the amount of blood she was losing and called her boyfriend, who rushed her to hospital. ...

Yocca was arrested on 11 December and charged with attempted first-degree murder. She is being held on a bond of $200,000 in the Rutherford County adult detention center and is scheduled to appear in court for the first time on 21 December. It is not known whether she has yet been assigned a public defense lawyer. ...

Tennessee has also joined 37 other states in adopting so-called “fetal homicide” laws, whereby fetuses are offered the same legal protections from violent attack as individuals after birth. In the case of Tennessee, it has gone even further and is one of 23 states that define the moment at which the fetus acquires legal rights as the point of conception.

So far there is no sign of Yocca being prosecuted under the state’s fetal assault law. Rather, she has been charged under general attempted homicide laws, which were never designed to be applied to fetuses and could open the state up to constitutional challenge.

Memphis teen 'was running away' when shot dead by police, witnesses say

Darrius Stewart, the unarmed black 19-year-old shot and killed by a white Memphis police officer in July, was moving away from the officer when the second shot was fired, according to several eyewitnesses quoted in the official investigation.

The investigation, conducted by the Tennessee bureau of investigation and released by the Shelby County district attorney general on Tuesday, includes two eyewitness accounts of the incident that describe Stewart as turning to run from the officer, contradicting the officer’s account that Stewart advanced at him.

One witness said Stewart “stood up and ran away” from Schilling as the officer fired the second shot. Another witness claimed that the officer shot Stewart “as he turned away”. That same witness also claimed to hear Stewart yell “I can’t breathe” before the teen was hit with the second and, according to the Stewart family’s attorney, fatal bullet.

The identities of all the witnesses were redacted before the file was made public and the investigation notes that “while no witness saw this incident in its entirety, each person saw a portion of it”.

Witnesses testify at Homan Square hearing in Chicago

Detainees, legal advocates and activists testified on Tuesday at the first public hearing to examine Homan Square, the Chicago police interrogation facility exposed by the Guardian and falling under renewed scrutiny amid intense examination of the city’s law enforcement officials.

As protests continue to grip Chicago following the release of video footage and a landmark investigation by the US Justice Department, police practices at the warehouse received a rare political convening at city hall, which has all but dismissed public comment – despite an ongoing Guardian investigation revealing at least 7,000 people held off-the-books there. ...

Flint Taylor, the longtime civil rights attorney who helped press for a landmark reparations ordinance earlier this year and whose clients are suing the city for unconstitutional “widespread and interrelated Chicago police department patterns and practices” at Homan Square, gave a testimonial in front of the commission and sizable crowd of citizens who watched.

“Some of the activities in Homan Square fit into the definition of torture, internationally, under the UN’s definition,” Taylor said, “and Homan Square needs to be looked at under that light.”

He argued that allegations logged in lawsuits and a series of Guardian articles fit into a long history of police practices stemming from the police detective Jon Burge, who who tortured more than 200 Chicago citizens who were in police custody across two decades.

Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody reinterpreted for 40th anniversary



the horse race



Bob Herbert on GOP Debate: Democracy Is Being Dismantled Before Our Eyes

Sanders 'Talks Shop' and Socialism with Renowned Rapper

"I didn't get into politics to figure how I could become President or a senator. I got into politics because I give a damn," said Bernie Sanders, seated in a barbershop chair in Atlanta.

In an interview published on Tuesday, the senator from Vermont and presidential contender talked frankly with rapper and activist Killer Mike about everything from socialism to marijuana, from social justice to voter ID laws.

The six-part video was filmed when Sanders made a campaign stop in Georgia's capital city last month and was uploaded Tuesday to the rapper's You Tube channel with the title, "Talking Shop with Bernie Sanders and Killer Mike."

Ted Cruz Under Attack in Iowa for Bucking Ethanol Lobby

Just as Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz is surging in the Iowa polls, his failure to kowtow to the powerful ethanol lobby there has produced an onslaught of special interest attack ads.

The pro-ethanol group America’s Renewable Future (ARF) recently started running radio ads in Iowa targeting Cruz over his opposition to the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), a federal mandate that is a boon for the ethanol industry.

“Cruz backs policies that threaten rural Iowa and thousands of jobs,” warn the radio spots, which according to Majda Sarkic, a spokesperson at the organization, will be buttressed with mailers and digital advertising. The first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses are on February 1. ...

Sarkic, the spokesperson, previously worked for Democratic lawmakers and campaigns, including Organizing for America.

Arun Kundnani (Author of "The Muslims Are Coming!") on Donald Trump



the evening greens


There is a new form of climate denialism to look out for – so don't celebrate yet

After the signing of a historic climate pact in Paris, we might now hope that the merchants of doubt – who for two decades have denied the science and dismissed the threat – are officially irrelevant.

But not so fast. There is also a new, strange form of denial that has appeared on the landscape of late, one that says that renewable sources can’t meet our energy needs.

Oddly, some of these voices include climate scientists, who insist that we must now turn to wholesale expansion of nuclear power. Just this past week, as negotiators were closing in on the Paris agreement, four climate scientists held an off-site session insisting that the only way we can solve the coupled climate/energy problem is with a massive and immediate expansion of nuclear power. More than that, they are blaming environmentalists, suggesting that the opposition to nuclear power stands between all of us and a two-degree world.

That would have troubling consequences for climate change if it were true, but it is not. Numerous high quality studies, including one recently published by Mark Jacobson of Stanford University, show that this isn’t so. We can transition to a decarbonized economy without expanded nuclear power, by focusing on wind, water and solar, coupled with grid integration, energy efficiency and demand management. In fact, our best studies show that we can do it faster, and more cheaply.

Flint mayor declares 'manmade disaster' over lead-tainted water supply

The city of Flint, Michigan, has declared a state of emergency over contaminated water supplies amid calls for a criminal investigation, the resignation of the state governor and a class action lawsuit that could top $1bn. ...

Critics believe the entire city has been affected to varying degrees by high levels of lead and other pollutants in the water. This includes the 100,000 residents and those who commute to Flint for work. ...

The Flint authorities had switched the public water supply in April 2014 from Lake Huron to the Flint river. The river flows through the city but had not been used for consumption since the early 1960s because of industrial pollution.

After the switch, many residents immediately reported that the water coming out of their taps was yellowy, cloudy and odorous.People reported suddenly breaking out in rashes or losing their hair.

Public protests followed, but the authorities repeatedly said the water was safe, despite stepping up water treatment and occasionally issuing advice to residents to boil it. ...

The city was being run under state-imposed emergency powers when it converted to use the local water supply in April 2014, in an effort to save money.

Initial reports of high bacterial and chemical pollutants in the water reportedly necessitated higher levels of chlorination, which then resulted in Flint violating the federal Safe Drinking Water Act during three tests in 2014. ...

[A] lawsuit, filed in US district court in Detroit on 13 November, claims 14 officials, including Governor Snyder and former Flint mayor Dayne Walling are responsible for replacing water in Flint with a supply that was “dangerous, unsafe and inadequately treated … in conduct that was so egregious and so outrageous it shocks the conscience”.

[See also: Flint's state of emergency is a sign that democracy is working there again - js]

I missed this when it was first reported a couple of weeks ago:

Massive natural gas storage leak alarms California residents, climate activists

It’s the climate equivalent of the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico: the rupture of a natural gas storage site in California that is spewing vast amounts of methane into the atmosphere and is likely to go unchecked for three months.

The breach of the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage site, near Porter Ranch has forced the relocation of hundreds of families, who complained of headaches, nosebleeds and nausea from the rotten-egg smell of the odorant added to the gas to aid in leak detection.

The leak, which was detected on 23 October, now accounts for at least a quarter of California’s emissions of methane. Already, the ruptured storage facility has released well over the equivalent of 800,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide – about the same amount that would be generated by driving 160,000 cars for a year, according to the California Air Resources Board.

Melissa Bailey, a spokeswoman for the company, said on Friday it could take three or four months to plug the leak. “This is a very unique leak,” she said. “All of our attempts to kill the well haven’t worked.”

This is not from The Onion:

US town rejects solar panels amid fears they 'suck up all the energy from the sun'

A US town has rejected a proposal for a solar farm following public concerns.

Members of the public in Woodland, North Carolina, expressed their fear and mistrust at the proposal to allow Strata Solar Company to build a solar farm off Highway 258.

During the Woodland Town Council meeting, one local man, Bobby Mann, said solar farms would suck up all the energy from the sun and businesses would not go to Woodland, the Roanoke-Chowan News Herald reported.

Jane Mann, a retired science teacher, said she was concerned the panels would prevent plants in the area from photosynthesizing, stopping them from growing.

Ms Mann said she had seen areas near solar panels where plants are brown and dead because they did not get enough sunlight.

She also questioned the high number of cancer deaths in the area, saying no one could tell her solar panels didn't cause cancer.


Also of Interest

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

During Paris Summit, Climate and War Refugees Continued to Perish

Torture by Iraqi militias: the report Washington did not want you to see

‘Pentagon Papers’ Whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg Explains Why We Go To War

Venezuela's Election Results Hold Global Significance

Next Cold War Roundup 12/16/15

Mystery, Confusion Surrounds Americans Detained in Yemen


A Little Night Music

Buster Benton & Carey Bell - Born With The Blues

Buster Benton - Lonesome for a Dime

Buster Benton - Blues And Trouble

Buster Benton - Sorry

Buster Benton - Love Like I Wanna

Buster Benton - Dangerous Woman

Buster Benton - Sweet 94

Buster Benton - From Missouri

Buster Benton - Money Is The Name of The Game

Buster Benton - Hole In My Head

Buster Benton - Do As You Please

Buster Benton - Catch Up With The World

Buster Benton - That's Your Thing

Buster Benton - Gone Fishin'



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Pluto's Republic's picture

Iran wasn't trying to build an atomic bomb, after all. Duh.

IAEA closes its investigation of Iran’s past nuclear weapons activities

The International Atomic Energy Agency on Tuesday closed its investigation into Iran’s past nuclear weapons activities, clearing the way for implementation of the nuclear deal signed with global powers last summer.

The IAEA board of governors unanimously approved a report issued by the agency’s director general two weeks ago that concluded that although Iran conducted some uncoordinated research until 2009, it had ended its active program to develop a nuclear weapon in 2003.

The report, and the board’s acceptance of it, is part of the agreement under which nuclear-related international sanctions against Iran will be lifted in exchange for Iran’s dismantlement of most of its nuclear infrastructure and ongoing verification that its program is limited to energy purposes.

IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano told the board that he will inform them “promptly” once the preparatory steps agreed to in the deal have been completed and implementation can begin. That could be as early as next month, although some experts think it will take Iran months to complete the promised dismantlement of centrifuges and other steps it has agreed to take.

Hopefully, Iran will finally get the nuclear power plants it has wanted all along, with the help of Russia and France.

The Neocon war-wankers in the US and Israel will just have to try harder.

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The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
joe shikspack's picture

gosh, what a surprise. not.

The Neocon war-wankers in the US and Israel will just have to try harder.

i think that they've pretty much destroyed their credibility with the iaea by recycling israeli propaganda, forcing the iaea to spend a lot of time and effort chasing down false leads.

Hopefully, Iran will finally get the nuclear power plants it has wanted all along, with the help of Russia and France.

frankly, i'd rather that they went to solar and/or wind power, but, yeah, they're a sovereign nation they should be able to do what they want within the limits of the treaties that they are signatories to.

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Pluto's Republic's picture

Maybe the Chinese can persuade them.

I think they are still hung up on this guy:

This poor guy is hung up on Wiley Coyote:

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The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
joe shikspack's picture

kinda reminds me of boris badenov.

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Pluto's Republic's picture

…featured in Evening Blues, above?

Civil liberties experts said they were dismayed that Congress had used the late-night bill to pass some of the most invasive parts of the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (Cisa).

If he does, it pretty much finishes the US tech industry internationally — as the Industry has repeatedly warned the President.

Just weeks ago, the EU overturned the Safe Harbor agreement with the US. which is the first step to kicking US tech companies out of Europe.

In the wake of the Snowden revelations, privacy activists in Europe began exploring legal channels to curtail U.S. surveillance. In 2013, Max Schrems [15], an Austrian law student, brought a case in Ireland against the Safe Harbor agreement based on information revealed in the Snowden files. He argued that the NSA’s spying showed that there was no effective data protection regime in the United States and that the Safe Harbor agreement could not protect European citizens from mass surveillance. Ireland’s High Court appeared to agree, finding that “the Snowden revelations demonstrate a massive overreach on the part of the security authorities, with an almost studied indifference to the privacy interests of ordinary citizens. Their data protection rights have been seriously compromised by mass and largely unsupervised surveillance programmes.” The ECJ, in its ruling [16], cited the Irish High Court’s findings on the Snowden documents and directly tied the fate of the Safe Harbor program to the blurring of private-sector data collection and public surveillance in the United States, concluding that

national security, public interest, and law enforcement requirements of the United States prevail over the safe harbour scheme, so that United States undertakings are bound to disregard, without limitation, the protective rules laid down by that scheme where they conflict with such requirements. The United States safe harbour scheme thus enables interference, by United States public authorities, with the fundamental rights of persons.

By transforming U.S. technology companies into tools of national intelligence, Washington has badly damaged their corporate reputations and exposed them to foreign sanctions. Their international profits—not to mention a substantial chunk of the U.S. economy—depend on the free flow of information across borders. Foreign officials, political activists, and judges who limit these flows to protect their citizens from U.S. surveillance strike at the heart of these companies’ business models. The ECJ’s Safe Harbor ruling has now forced Washington to decide whether it values its unrestricted ability to spy on Europeans more than an open Internet and the economic well-being of powerful U.S. businesses. The EU has, in effect, used the United States’ own tactics against it.

Meanwhile, U.S. firms have few attractive long-term options if they want to transfer data across the Atlantic.

European data protection authorities have given Washington a few months’ reprieve to shape up but have threatened to take action if the United States has not reformed its privacy rules by the end of January 2016. They are demanding that the EU and the United States agree on a binding legal arrangement, such as a treaty, that guarantees European privacy rights by keeping data from U.S. intelligence agencies.

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2015-12-14/transat...

If President Obama signs the Budget Bill, with the poison-pill Cisa amendment included, while the US is scrambling to revive the Safe Harbor agreement recently overturned in the EU, it will be the kiss of death for the US economy.

Restoring the individual Constitutional Rights of the rest of the world, and blocking the international criminal actions of the NSA, has been a long time coming. Closing down the NSA minions world wide — the US technology industry — was predicted within days of the first Snowden revelations.

Governments are required to protect the constitutional rights of citizens, and many nations of the world have modern constitutions that protect their citizen's privacy, including electronic privacy, from foreign governments.

If the US is worried about terrorism, they should stop murdering muslims and get the hell out of the Middle East where they have no business.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
joe shikspack's picture

which is the end of the oil export ban.

if obama signs it, not only are we one step further down the road to a fascist state, we are also one step closer to climate disaster.

not only that, if you consider the likelihood of ending the oil export ban causing dutch disease, then the us economy will totally tank.

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Pluto's Republic's picture

The price is held artificially low by the Saudis + OPEC, so why would the private owners of America's oil want to sell into that market? The American people are forced to pay the same price for their own oil as the highest bidder on the global commodity market. Plantation rules.

Dutch disease in what sense? More investment outside the US?

Hey Joe, EB is filled with vexing stories tonight, dripping with irony. Is that the way the new is tonight, or did you curate it that way? Thanks, either way.

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The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
joe shikspack's picture

the ban also applies to gas as well as oil and the price of both commodities is higher in europe despite the saudi induced glut. so, the companies can get more money for their product overseas and drive up prices at home by reducing available supply. the other reason is that by making supplies of oil and gas available to europe it diminishes the threat of russia cutting europe off and puts further downward pressure on prices, hence the russian economy since their resources sell for less.

regarding dutch disease, i would expect that a sudden massive exporting of oil and gas would create currency inflows that would strengthen the dollar, thus harming already anemic us exports of other goods, especially manufactured goods, which will cost even more american jobs in the manufacturing sector and create an even more unfavorable trade balance.

heh, i wasn't thinking that tonight's news was any more or less vexing than most nights. i dunno, i curate based on which stories interest me on that given day and sometimes create narratives by juxtaposition.

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Pluto's Republic's picture

A fracking well is only good for about 18 months. That's a lot of investment for so little output for such a small price for gas.

I assumed Europe buys at commodity spot prices the same as the rest of non-oil producing world. For oil, gas, and refined gas. What they get through the pipelines may be priced differently, perhaps. But what they get off a boat from the US (or any other gas producer) would cost the same. It doesn't really matter how low gas goes. Russia made an oil/gas deal with China right after the Ukraine overthrow. The largest in world history. They'll be fine in all this toothless price-ficing.

BTW, did you hear that Russia is going all in on organic farming. Putin says Russia will feed the world? Or what's left of it after GMO poisoning. It's their next big thing.

Ah. Dutch disease makes sense. B-b-but the Feds raised interest rates today, so the strong dollar must not be hurting exports, or something.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
joe shikspack's picture

the frackers are desperate to get a higher price for their product. the average well may only last 18 months, but they can drill an imponderable number of them. beyond that, the leases of the land/mineral rights are also time limited, so they have run through an enormous amount of capital purchasing leases and if they can't get a break-even or better price for it there are a lot of frackers that owe a lot of money that are going to go under. there's a very large amount of debt riding on the price of gas.

moving russia to organic farming is a very good move as capitalist industrial farming is destroying our soil very rapidly all over the world.

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Pluto's Republic's picture

...capitalist industrial farming is destroying our soil very rapidly all over the world.

Putin was lamenting that they never took advantage of having the richest soil in the world. (Plus an unspoken "thank god for global warming" which boosts the growing season in that part of the world.)

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Crider's picture

Today's close for Brent (world) crude $37.19
and the close for WTI (domestic) $35.71

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Pluto's Republic's picture

Thanks, Crider. The Robber Barons can make two dollars more through exports, minus shipping costs.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
enhydra lutris's picture

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

joe shikspack's picture

always a pleasure, have a good one!

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Seems we can't have too many nice things at once - read that GMO labeling at state level survived the spending bill sausage machine but now we have CISA. And even among the "good" things, we need to be satisfied with crumbs like the above (instead of mandatory labeling in USA). Sigh....

ISIS in Afghanistan - the Midas touch of US/West seems to be in great shape as ever.

A science teacher is worried about solar panels sucking off sun. Charming. Maybe she is a "recovering" science teacher.

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joe shikspack's picture

we can only have the minimum number of nice things that it takes to induce obama to capitulate.

fortunately, the "science" teacher is retired.

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embedded in the New Deal (ref to : Ira Katznelson's book "When Affirmative Action was White" ). I know SS excluded groups early on but didn't know New Deal was heavily distorted towards WHites. Too many tweets to embed so here's the link if you want to check out :

https://twitter.com/ClintSmithIII/status/675728849649446912

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Freedom fighter/shoe thrower Mundtadhar Al Zaidi's heroism now commemorated with a statue :

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Crider's picture

bush-snow.gif

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to do in years.

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abroad to see any semblance of accountability for our war criminals.

"USA! USA!"..... Slow clap.....

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joe shikspack's picture

somebody made a really nice little flash time-waster game out of it so that everybody could enjoy winging shoes at shrubya.

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Pluto's Republic's picture

…and I guess this as good a time as any:

The Onion was never so prescient as in January of 2001:

http://www.theonion.com/article/bush-our-long-national-nightmare-of-peac...
 

WASHINGTON, DC–Mere days from assuming the presidency and closing the door on eight years of Bill Clinton, president-elect George W. Bush assured the nation in a televised address Tuesday that "our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is finally over."  

"My fellow Americans," Bush said, "at long last, we have reached the end of the dark period in American history that will come to be known as the Clinton Era, eight long years characterized by unprecedented economic expansion, a sharp decrease in crime, and sustained peace overseas. The time has come to put all of that behind us."

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato

predicted the rise of ISIS correctly way back in 2003. While our own Pravda, Izvestia - NYT, Wapoo etc were lying to drum up support for war.

http://www.theonion.com/multiblogpost/this-war-will-destabilize-the-enti...

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joe shikspack's picture

you mean that the average snotty-nosed, cheese-eating, teenage smartass could predict what was going to happen when the us invaded iraq in 2003?

what a surprise.

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mom's basement.....

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mimi's picture

comment thread. I learned something. Well, I didn't know what a Dutch disease is. Now I know. Smile

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I get a lot of links on my twitter feed and this evening it felt like the coup d'etat is accelerating

So many gifts for the corporations hidden in the budget bill, and as pluto pointed out, the attack on internet freedom

and the corporate media keeps rolling along

here is one link from last evening

this guy might not be the biggest brain in the world, but he was an insider and he took a stand for the constitution. Most of the interview is on the middle east including Syria where he was an expert. He is getting back into the swing of things fairly rapidly and says that it sure is good to be able to speak his mind

My interview w/ former CIA agent & whistleblower John Kiriakou on ISIS

Published on Dec 14, 2015
John Kiriakou is a former CIA counter-terrorism operations officer in Pakistan who drew the agency’s ire by telling the truth. He's one of the leading experts on the Middle East.

In December 2007, three years after resigning from the CIA, he confirmed during an ABC News interview that torture had been used during interrogations of al-Qaida prisoners. For his continuing candor with reporters, Kiriakou was charged with disclosing classified information and the name of a covert CIA officer (though the agent’s name was never reported). He pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act and was sentenced to 30 months in a low-security federal prison. He was released in February.

Now Kiriakou, 51, a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, is held in high regard by advocates for civil liberties, of openness in government and an expert on the Middle East.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tXTtCHZs0g&feature=youtu.be

Excellent interview. An informal talk learned new stuff on him. Recommend it.

Here is his newsletter

http://us10.campaign-archive2.com/?u=2f35562bb8824a9464945d535&id=b76b83...

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Crider's picture

from China that resists all known antibiotics. It's been found in Europe. Of course, China is in no way the only one to have overused antibiotics in animal agriculture.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ9bP6wo8rA]

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joe shikspack's picture

yep, american industrial farmers have long used antibiotics just like the chinese have. 80% of the antibiotics sold in the us are used by the meat and poultry industries.

but that's only one way that big ag might kill us all. it has some other methods.

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snoopydawg's picture

And of course the democrats didn't try fighting against them.
The Internet bill, the reversal of gas exports and the reversal of food companies having to say where the food comes from. Meat coming from China is a good reason to go vegan.

This stood out
"[One might wish that HRW would be so forward about holding the American government officials to account for deaths, torture and other crimes against humanity that they have committed"

And it's good to see that Homan square is finally being looked into. Torture has been going on in our prisons for decades, but it's amazing how over 7,000 people were tortured and stripped of their constitutional rights. I guess I shouldn't be amazed by anything that happens here.
Interesting how Kerry says that the U.S. isn't trying to do regime change in Syria and in the next sentence still says that Assad has to be removed from power.
He has certainly come a long way from his testimony in front of congress about Vietnam.
Kos came out today to tell us that the site is still going to suck.
I saw a lot of brown nosers there.
He's blaming the lack of traffic and comments on the holidays.
Yeah sure you betcha as O'Neill would say.

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

detroitmechworks's picture

Since day 2 I was saying roll it back.

Got a very condescending reply from Kos implying that I was lying about how fast a decent company like 2K will fix a problem for users.

Kos, the EA of the Left. That's NOT a good thing...

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

A crocodile eats a dog on a South Florida golf course

This is really crazy - I guess abuse of environment is even more easier in hotter climes via "development". Seems Crocodiles are fighting back for their freedom against Homo Sapiens.

I like making fun of FL in the same way people there make fun of us for the cold weather. I have heard jokes about snakes & alligators in FL. Is it true FL has lots of snakes? Or a stereotype? I am sure they do have some - just like all other states. Garrison Keillor once joked about how people in the South won't do laundry because snakes will come & take shelter in the laundry room there when it gets cold. I did hear/read a story few years back about how Iguanas "introduced" into FL were suffering during an unusually cold winter.

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joe shikspack's picture

you could ask gulfgal. my limited experience of florida (amounting to a couple of weeks) tells me that they have snakes and a largish number of animals that are the sort that you probably want to give a wide berth to. and then there were the mosquitos, yeesh! not to mention the other bugs - they have something called a palmetto bug that looks like an enormous cockroach.

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- ah, the perks of being in touristy spots.

"Land of 10000 mosquitos" is a not so well-known nickname but no surprise given that many stagnant bodies of water in MN. Though I have rarely felt them in the city, by the city lakes etc, a friend of mine in the suburbs used to keep their door closed in the evenings. Don't know how mosquito control is done in each city etc.

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gulfgal98's picture

Mosquito control is done by fogging trucks.

When I lived at the north Florida coast, I would bundle up from head to toe to walk the dogs at night because the mosquitoes were so bad. You cannot leave doors or windows open in Florida unless they are screened.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

mimi's picture

Dealing with Snakes in Florida's Residential Areas - Identifying Commonly Encountered Snakes1 Now with the Phytons it seems to be a little different...
The Snake That’s Eating Florida
Snakes on the 'Glades - In the past decade, giant serpents have slithered into the Everglades in large numbers and wreaked unbelievable havoc.
But look that these lovebirds from Florida, too cute.
mantees - 87c8484b8c6c80ee150cb5c9ec2515ef.jpg
I have never been to Florida. Just down to Charlotte, NC. It was just too hot and humid. I like me my cool, fresh air... Smile

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are there for a reason. But the ones introduced to make a place "exotic" are a problem as is in the case of the Pythons. I don't want to be in FL in summer. It is so humid and I can't do even what little thinking I am capable of. But as I said above, I love making fun of FL.

Thanks for the pic of supra-cute love birds.

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gulfgal98's picture

They eat anything and everything including gators. I do not know if they will ever get the python population under control, I mean eradicated because there is no way to control them.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

gulfgal98's picture

I love manatees. They are mammals. The biggest threat to the manatees is motor boats. They are such wonderful creatures. There are a lot of them in the Crystal River area, but I have heard of people seeing them in north Florida in the summer months.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

mimi's picture

I found your OT very nice, just had my head so full and couldn't concentrate on the detailed information you embedded in your OT.

I remember the manatees, because when I still was working in TV studio one of hour correspondents made a real nice 6 minute piece about them. She drove down there to somewhere in Florida, where those manatees - I guess one could say - nursed, or at least protected and taken care of. The camera crew took great footage, above and under water. So, I was reminded of that thinking about Florida. Another piece another correspondent (both women btw) was about the Key West islands. Again a very cute little six minutes piece for which she got an award even. Hmm, when is it the coldest in Florida. I feel so ashamed to have never been there.

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gulfgal98's picture

Tallahassee where I am from and is the capital of Florida is in the northern part of the state, about 30 miles south of the Georgia border. We used to get three real seasons there until recent years: spring, brutally hot and humid summers, and fall. We still get spring and definitely summer, but our fall is becoming shorter and shorter.

In central Florida where I grew up, I did not even own a coat. On the west coast, it was warm and mild nearly all year long because we got really nice breezes off the Gulf. In the interior, it gets pretty hot in the summer. Florida is a huge state and I do not know south Florida very well.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

mimi's picture

I met my first American friend with her family in Italy and we exchanged our thoughts, as we both felt like a German and an American in the Italian diaspora. I remember she told me she can't understand why Europeans, who come the US, feel always very lost and almost scared, just because it's such a big country, especially the country side of the US and the forests. There is something that scares me still about the US. If I drive through the country side of regions, I am still a little bit "uncomfortable". That's a feeling I never had in Europe. It must have to do with the vastness of the land. You can get lost in there.

So, I am heading to the West Coast of Florida where it's nice and mild and not so hot...God willing. Smile

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gulfgal98's picture

Florida is almost like three different states. Florida DOES have a lot of snakes and definitely alligators. I had heard that there are crocs in south Florida which is where I have never lived and have only rarely visited. The Everglades is a huge swamp and a place where much Florida wildlife lives including the Florida panther. I actually spotted one several years ago as it was crossing a major highway in central Florida.

Most of the snakes in Florida are non-poisonous and do a lot of good. But we do have rattlesnakes and water moccasins, both of which are poisonous. Alligators are in all parts of Florida and although they mainly reside in freshwater lakes and ponds, they have been known to swim in salt water too. I saw one in my north Florda neighborhood that was walking through and was 1/2 mile from the nearest pond. I think he had been run off by a larger gator and was searching for a new pond. Mosquitoes are prevalent, but most cities and counties have a fogging program to keep them controlled. To me, one of the nastiest things we have in Florida are palmetto bugs which are giant flying cockroaches.

i would never swim in any freshwater lake or river in Florda and even if I go to the beach, I do not go out into the water beyond knee deep because there are sharks and jellyfish.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy