The Evening Blues - 12-23-21
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features Chicago blues guitarist Luther Tucker. Enjoy!
Luther Tucker - Lonesome Boulevards
“In 5-billion years the Sun will expand & engulf our orbit as the charred ember that was once Earth vaporizes. Have a nice day.”
-- Neil Degrasse Tyson
News and Opinion
US Special Envoy for Iran warns of "escalating crisis" if talks fail to revive Iran nuclear deal
The time left to revive the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran is running out and raising the risk of an "escalating crisis," the United States Special Envoy for Iran, Rob Malley, told CNN's Becky Anderson on Tuesday.
"At some point in the not-so-distant future, we will have to conclude that the JCPOA is no more, and we'd have to negotiate a wholly new different deal, and of course we'd go through a period of escalating crisis," Malley, who is indirectly negotiating with Iran a return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the formal name for the agreement.
On Friday, the seventh round of nuclear talks between Iran and the remaining parties to the JCPOA ended in Vienna with little visible movement toward a new agreement. It is unclear when talks might resume, but, Malley said, "we hope relatively soon."
Malley also said Iran is nearing the capability to develop a nuclear weapon in the near future.
"If they continue at their current pace, we have some weeks left but not much more than that, at which point, I think, the conclusion will be that there's no deal to be revived," he said.
‘YOU should come up with GUARANTEES' – Putin fires back at Sky News’ provocative stance
Russia claims it will begin talks with US and Nato
Russia claims it has agreed to begin talks with the US early next year to discuss Moscow’s demands for “security guarantees” in Europe, including a ban on Ukraine’s entrance into the Nato military alliance. If confirmed, the talks would begin a contentious effort to avert a Russian offensive in Ukraine this winter, as Kyiv and eastern European governments have demanded not to be left out of any deal with Moscow that affects their interests as well. ...
The White House pointed to a Monday statement from Emily Horne, a spokesperson for the national security council, regarding a call between national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Yuri Ushakov, foreign policy adviser to Putin.
Sullivan “indicated US readiness to engage in diplomacy through multiple channels, including bilateral engagement, the Nato-Russia Council, and the OSCE,” Horne said. “He made clear that any dialogue must be based on reciprocity and address our concerns about Russia’s actions, and take place in full coordination with our European allies and partners. ...
Asked about the call, Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, told reporters: “That is consistent with our ongoing outreach and engagement with the Russians, with the Ukrainians, with the Europeans as well that happened through the course of last week.” Psaki added on Wednesday: “There is an open line of discussion and engagement that is happening and that we expect to continue, we hope to continue.”
In his interview Lavrov said: “We do not want war. We do not need conflicts and, hopefully, everyone else does not view conflicts as a desirable course of action.”
Russia needs 'immediate' guarantees, doesn't want conflict, says Putin
Kremlin denies restricting gas supplies to Europe for political gain
The Kremlin has denied using Russia’s gas resources to turn the screw on Europe, after gas in a pipeline to Germany switched direction to flow eastwards for a second day, keeping prices near record highs as midwinter approaches. Flows through the Yamal-Europe pipeline to Germany declined over the weekend before stopping on Tuesday and reversing, data from the network operator Gascade showed.
Gazprom, the Russian state gas firm, said the supply was flowing to Russia instead because of cold weather and high demand there.
The supply squeeze came as Mario Draghi, the Italian prime minister, called for urgent action to counter rocketing fuel costs. He said companies profiting from the crisis should contribute to efforts to curb higher bills for households and businesses. ...
The German power suppliers RWE and Uniper, both among the largest customers of Gazprom, said the state firm was meeting its delivery obligations. Gazprom has previously said it is meeting all long-term contracts with its European customers
The pipeline reversal has added to other pressures that have kept gas prices high for much of 2021, with knock-on effects that have included a raft of UK energy suppliers going bust.
Protesters in Kabul call for release of Afghanistan’s assets
Hundreds of protesters marched through the streets of Kabul toward the shuttered U.S. Embassy on Tuesday, urging the release of Afghanistan’s frozen assets.
Holding banners reading, “Let us eat” and “Give us our frozen money,” the protesters chanted slogans and marched down a central avenue, with the ruling Taliban providing security.
International funding to Afghanistan has been suspended and billions of dollars of the country’s assets abroad, mostly in the United States, were frozen after the Taliban took control of the country in mid-August.
THIS is a War Crime. Hello? Hello? Hello? #Biden https://t.co/1nPxmXHsPZ
— George Galloway (@georgegalloway) December 22, 2021
AOC Leads Demand for Biden to Work on Ending Saudi Blockade of Crucial Yemen Airport
Amid new airstrikes on Yemen's Sanaa International Airport by the U.S.-backed Saudi-led coalition and an imminent reduction in critical food assistance to the war-torn nation, a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers have joined global humanitarian organizations in urging the immediate reopening of the vital travel, trade, and aid hub.
In a December 16 letter to U.S. President Joe Biden made public Wednesday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-N.Y.), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) state that "restrictions on Yemen's ports of entry are a form of collective punishment in violation of international and U.S. law and such practices must be decoupled from ongoing negotiations and brought to an immediate end."
The lawmakers note that the closure of Sanaa International Airport—which, like the eponymous Yemeni capital, is controlled by the Houthi rebels fighting the coalition—"has exacerbated the ongoing crisis in Yemen and had a devastating impact on millions of innocent Yemenis."
"Re-opening the airport will be vital to ensuring a resolution to the conflict, and to ensure desperately needed humanitarian aid is able to enter the country and reach those who need it," they write.
On Wednesday, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) announced that it would soon be forced to cut food aid to 13 million Yemenis due to a funding shortfall.
"The Yemeni people are now more vulnerable than ever, reeling from relentless conflict and the deepening economic crisis that has pushed millions into destitution," said Corinne Fleischer, WFP's regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, in a statement. "WFP food stocks in Yemen are running dangerously low at a time when budgets for humanitarian crises around the world are stretched to the limit."
"Every time we reduce the amount of food, we know that more people who are already hungry and food insecure will join the ranks of the millions who are starving," Fleischer added. "But desperate times call for desperate measures and we have to stretch our limited resources and prioritize, focusing on people who are in the most critical state."
Exacerbating the crisis, BBC reports that Saudi-led warplanes bombed six targets at the airport Monday, with coalition military leaders claiming to target facilities related to the Houthis' unmanned aerial drone attacks against Saudi Arabia. Such bombings, the U.S. lawmakers note, render the airport "unsafe for both commercial and humanitarian use."
The legislators' letter aligns with calls by international humanitarian aid workers to lift the Saudi-led blockade on the airport.
"It is vitally important that the airport is re-opened as quickly as possible, and that the two sides commit to keeping the airport out of the conflict in the future," Ahmed Mahat, the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) head of mission in Yemen, told Middle East Eye this week.
"Each time that the airport is closed, it has a real impact on MSF and other humanitarian actors' ability to run our operations... causing consequences for many Yemenis relying on humanitarian aid," he added.
The U.S. letter notes the grim realities of life and death in Yemen, home of the "world's worst humanitarian crisis": Nearly 80% of the population requires urgent humanitarian assistance; 16.2 million—including 400,000 children under age five—are at risk of starvation; millions of people have been displaced; and outbreaks of cholera and Covid-19 are ravaging a society lacking adequate critical healthcare and sanitation infrastructure and services.
"The United Nations Development Program predicts that if unabated, the war in Yemen will lead to 377,000 deaths by the end of this year—nearly 60% of those due to indirect causes such as disruptions in access to food, clean water, and adequate healthcare," the lawmakers warn.
COINTELPRO 2.0?: FBI Infiltrated BLM Protests In Portland
“It’s a Win for Us” Striking Kellogg’s Workers Get Raises, Improved Benefits & Avoid Two-Tier System
The focus of the Democratic party, Sanders says, must be "to restore faith with the American people that they actually stand for something."
Stressing a need to pass the "enormously important" Build Back Better bill, Sen. Bernie Sanders said this week that failure to do so would indicate to Americans that Democrats "don't have the guts to take on the powerful special interests."
The Vermont Independent's remarks on MSNBC's "Rachel Maddow Show" on Monday night came after Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia announced on Fox News that he was a "no" on his party's social spending and climate reconciliation package, delivering a potential death blow to the legislation his opposition had already weakened. ...
In an apparent reference to Manchin and another right-wing Democrat, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), Sanders criticized "two senators" who've acted with regards to BBB negotiations that "it's my way or the highway."
Such a stance, said Sanders, is "an arrogance that I think is unacceptable."
He also rebuked "people like Mr. Manchin," who are "turning their backs on the working families of this country, allowing the big money interest once again to prevail and basically saying, 'If I don't get everything I want, I'm not going forward.' That is not acceptable to me."
What has to happen now, he said, is for leadership to bring the BBB bill to the Senate floor for a vote. Then, Manchin "will have to tell the people of West Virginia and this country why he is supporting all of the powerful special interests in this country—the drug companies, the insurance companies, the fossil fuel industry, the very wealthy who do not want to pay anything more in federal taxes."
Another step is for Democrats to have better messaging around the bill, said Sanders. He gave as one example the monthly checks from the expanded Child Tax Credit families are poised to see cut off-—"despite the fact we've reduced childhood poverty through that by almost 40%."
The focus right now, Sanders said, must not be solely on Manchin but instead fall more broadly.
"It is about the Democratic Party trying to restore faith with the American people that they actually stand for something," said Sanders.
"Do we have the guts to take on the drug companies who are spending over $300 million in lobbying right now? Is that the Democratic Party?" he asked.
"Do they have the guts to take on the private insurance company who do not want us to expand Medicare and dental, hearing, and eyeglasses?" he added. "Do we have the courage to do what the scientists are telling us has to be done and transform our energy system away from fossil fuel?"
Amazon COVERED UP Worker Deaths
Corporate Donations Poured Into Manchin's PAC Ahead of Final 'No' on Build Back Better
New federal disclosures reveal that major corporations poured donations into West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin's political action committee in the weeks leading up to his pivotal announcement Sunday that he would oppose the Build Back Better Act, a stance that progressives argue is motivated by the senator's deference to special interests.
CNBC reported late Tuesday that Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings show that donors to Manchin's Country Roads PAC raked in 17 contributions from corporations in October and 19 in November as he pared back and repeatedly threatened to tank Democrats' $1.75 trillion social spending and climate legislation.
Manchin donors during that period, according to CNBC, included corporate behemoths such as Goldman Sachs, American Express, UnitedHealth Group, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and Lockheed Martin, many of which took part in the massive big business lobbying blitz against the bill, which included key child poverty-reducing benefits and significant investments in clean energy.
"Country Roads raised over $150,000 in October from corporate donors such as Verizon, Union Pacific, Wells Fargo, and PACs tied to the coal and mining industries," CNBC noted.
As founder of the West Virginia-based coal company Enersystems, Manchin is well acquainted with the fossil fuel industry, which donated at least $400,000 to the West Virginia Democrat between July and October as he worked to gut the Build Back Better Act's key climate provisions. The Washington Post reported last week that Manchin's share in Enersystems—currently run by the senator's son—is "worth between $1 million and $5 million."
Biden Flip Flops On Student Loan Pause
President Biden extends student loan payment freeze through May 1
On Wednesday, President Biden announced that pandemic relief for about 41 million federal student loan borrowers will be extended once again until May 1.
Loan payments, interest accruals and collections of defaulted federal student loans have all been on hold since the start of the pandemic — first thanks to the CARES Act, then due to extensions from former President Donald Trump, former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and President Biden.
"We know that millions of student loan borrowers are still coping with the impacts of the pandemic and need some more time before resuming payments," President Biden wrote in a statement. The statement urged borrowers to prepare for repayments to resume.
Before Wednesday's announcement, payments were set to resume in February of 2022.
Republicans woo Joe Manchin as senator clashes with Democrats
For many Democrats, Joe Manchin has become an unshakeable problem. The centrist senator is at odds with other Democrats on everything from filibuster reform to climate policy, and he recently announced his opposition to the Build Back Better Act, the lynchpin of Joe Biden’s legislative agenda.
But Republicans think Manchin now represents an opportunity to boost their numbers. As Democrats have leveled fierce criticism at the West Virginia senator in the past few days, Republicans have resurrected their campaign to recruit him to their party.
The stakes of this charm offensive could not be higher. With the Senate split 50-50, Manchin’s party change would give Republicans the majority. If Republicans take control of the Senate, they would have the ability to block Biden’s nominees and quash Democratic bills.
Speaking to the New York Times on Tuesday, the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, reiterated his invitiation to Manchin to join the Republican caucus. “Obviously we would love to have him on our team,” McConnell said. “I think he’d be more comfortable.” ...
Manchin has not given any indication that he is seriously considering switching parties. In a Monday interview with West Virginia Radio, Manchin said he believed there was still room in the Democratic party for someone with his views.
Alarm as Texas quietly restarts controversial voting program
Texas officials have quietly restarted a controversial program to ask people on the voter rolls to prove their citizenship, sparking alarm that thousands of eligible voters could be wrongfully targeted.
The Texas secretary of state’s office has identified just under 12,000 people it suspects of being non-citizens since September, when the program restarted (there are more than 17 million registered voters in Texas). About 2,327 voter registrations have been cancelled so far. The vast majority of cancellations were because voters failed to respond to a notice giving them 30 days to prove their citizenship.
Would be?
Why the collapse of Biden’s Build Back Better would be a major blow to the climate fight
The collapse of Joe Biden’s Build Back Better legislation would have disastrous consequences for the global climate crisis, making it almost impossible for the US to comply with its greenhouse gas reduction pledges made under the Paris accords. ...
The Build Back Better (BBB) legislation earmarks $555bn to tackle the US’s largest sources of global heating gasses – energy and transportation – through a variety of grants, tax incentives and other policies to boost jobs and technologies in renewable energy, as well as major investments in sustainable vehicles and public transit services.
It is by far the largest chunk of federal funding for Biden’s climate crisis initiatives, without which experts say it will be impossible to meet the administration’s target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% below 2005 levels by 2030. ... Without it, the Biden administration would be forced to rely on a web of new regulations and standards which could be overturned by future presidents.
Green Group Launches Suit Over Biden Administration's Failure to Protect Polar Bears From Arctic Drilling
Asserting that "continued oil and gas exploration and development is fundamentally incompatible with polar bear survival and recovery," the Center for Biological Diversity on Wednesday launched a lawsuit against the Biden administration for failing to protect the imperiled animals from an oil exploration project in the Western Arctic.
"Every new oil well in the Arctic is another step toward the polar bear's extinction," Kristen Monsell, a senior Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) attorney, said in a statement announcing the group's legally required 60-day notice of intent to sue.
Monsell added that President Joe Biden "should be phasing out oil and gas activity in the Arctic, not flouting key environmental laws to let oil companies search and drill for more oil in this beautiful, increasingly fragile ecosystem."
At issue is 88 Energy's Peregrine Exploration Program, a five-year project targeting an area of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska along the Colville River that is currently free from fossil fuel development. The undertaking was approved in the final days of former President Donald Trump's tenure but the Biden administration's approval is required to drill any new wells.
While Biden was praised by climate, environmental, and Indigenous groups for suspending fossil fuel drilling leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in June, the president has come under fire for approving drilling permits at a faster rate than either the Trump or Obama administrations.
CBD's notice of intent—addressed to U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Director Tracy Stone-Manning, and Acting BLM State Director for Alaska Tom Heinlein—accuses BLM of violating Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) "because it is failing to ensure that its authorization and management of activities at 88 Energy's massive Peregrine Exploration Program in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska is not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of the polar bear... or adversely modify its critical habitat."
"BLM is also in violation of Section 9 of the ESA by permitting and managing these activities without the requisite incidental take authorizations, thereby causing an unauthorized take of an ESA-listed species," the document alleges.
According to the notice:
An overwhelming body of scientific literature confirms that the threats from Arctic climate change and resulting sea ice loss are worsening as global greenhouse gas emissions continue unabated.
Indeed, range-wide studies project that most of the world's polar bear subpopulations, including the Southern Beaufort Sea population, will go extinct within this century—and as early as midcentury—absent immediate, aggressive reductions in greenhouse gas pollution.
Continued oil and gas activity not only exacerbates the climate crisis, it increases other harms to polar bears through oil spills, physical obstructions, den destruction, and disturbance from noise pollution, among other detrimental impacts.
"The best way to remedy these violations," the notice argues, "would be to order an immediate suspension of operations at 88 Energy's Peregrine Exploration Program and reject the company's application for a permit to drill."
Monsell added that "polar bears shouldn't have to suffer from yet more noisy, harmful oil drilling. Letting the oil industry ramp up drilling is also fundamentally inconsistent with addressing the climate crisis. Arctic drilling has got to go."
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Israel’s Gantz Urges Vienna Negotiators to Take Harder Line on Iran
The Big Threats Are The Ones We Can’t Come Back From: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix
What Russia Says About Its Not-An-Ultimatum Demands To The U.S. And NATO
When will Democrats do their job and protect Black people’s right to vote?
Why the Idea of Progress Is Dead in America
Follow the green leader: why everyone from Prince William to Jeff Bezos is looking to Costa Rica
Author: The Criminal Justice System CRUELLY Punishes America's Most Vulnerable Simply For Being Poor
A Little Night Music
Luther Tucker - Luther's tribute to Elmore
Luther Tucker - Five Long Years
Luther Tucker - L.T. Shuffle
Luther Tucker - Mean Old World
Luther Tucker - Playboy
Luther Tucker & The Ford Blues Band - Luther's Lament
Luther Tucker, Bayshore Bluesicians - Falling Rain
Luther Tucker - You Got What You Wanted
Luther Tucker - Keep on Drinking
Luther Tucker - Sweet Home Chicago
Comments
Good evening Joe, thanks for the Evening Blues.
Happy xmas eve-eve. I haven't watched the clip yet, but Cointelpro 2.0 cannot happen because Cointelpro never stopped. They quit calling it that openly, and most likely internally too, but nothing whatsoever changed operationally and, if anything, it got broader and deeper and sleazier, more criminal and more vicious, but it never stopped or even paused. In fact, it long ago become synonymous with the name "FBI".
be well, have a good one, and happy eve-eve.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
evening el...
i completely agree with your point about cointelpro. after the program was exposed to the public, they had to deep-six the name, but the functions remain.
have a great eve-evening!
A slight ray of hope in the Assange situation.
evening humphrey...
yeah, it's a small bright spot, but at the same time it is part and parcel of the legal strategy to keep assange locked up until he dies.
i hope that there will be a warm spot by the fire in hell for brandon and the many others who are behind this continuing crime.
Good evening, Joe
Thanks for the news.
Differing with Caity's opinion a bit. I think the clear and present danger are the Covid Control measures happening now and what they portend. In Australia, Caity. Don't be so certain we can come back from any of what is going on.
The saber-rattling against China and Russia and Iran and Yemen etc etc etc are the Distractions from what threatens TEOTWAWKI. Pointing at nuclear endings are so 1950's. I guess I am in the category of what she calls sloppy thinkers, or whatever that was.
"The only ultimate threats to humanity are those we can’t fix later on. Nuclear annihilation. Environmental collapse. Dystopia where total information control and automated weaponry make revolution impossible. On anything else we can always course correct after realizing our mistake. We’re only really locked in if we make a mistake that we can’t come back from."
I'll read her piece again in case my sour take was hasty.
NYCVG
evening nycvg...
here's the text that i assume that you are differing from:
as opinions go, i think that this one is reasonable (as opposed to being truth with a capital "t").
i think she's probably right that the idiots that we have elected are indeed idiots and are not using the threat of global thermonuclear destruction as a smokescreen for the continuing authoritarian expansion of their powers. in my view, they have progressed far enough in imposing authoritarian rule that they no longer really need a smokescreen.
i think brandon, blinki and the cast of neocon morons cheering them on are stupid enough to start such a war. frankly, given the cast of morons that has managed to acquire these weapons, it's just dumb luck that we have survived this long.
on the other hand, a global thermonuclear war might end covid. whee!
ummmm sorry
The focus on nuclear makes as much sense now as it did when we were diving under our desks at school covering our heads with our hands.
Yes---we will not come back from a nuclear blast.
We also will not come back from the systematic deprivation of our rights and the heartless authoritarianism it is ushering in. Ask the citizens of Northern Australia being herded into Covid Camps how they feel about what's going on. And what their fears are. Not nuclear, I'd bet.
Caity is brilliant but in this case seems suspiciously akin to the DNC.
NYCVG
A mad Russian Christmas
just in case you don't have enough candies in your nuts ..
evening qms...
thanks for the tune!
plenty of xmas music coming your way in the eb tomorrow.
worth noting:
UN General Assembly Adopts 59 Third Committee Texts on Trafficking in Persons, Equitable Access to COVID-19 Vaccines, as Delegates Spar over Language. All important, but one to highlight is:
Naturally the USA wasn't having any of that "woke" nonsense at home. What's interesting are the abstentions:
evening marie...
it's nice of the world to tell ukraine and the u.s. that they are innovating in a field which the world wishes to leave behind. i suppose that nothing will come of it.
pity those poor countries that have to look the other way.
Except for a few of the abstaining countries,
Nazism was never fully extinguished in the others. Floats under the radar.
Congress is AWOL on Amazon denying people worker’s rights
They know what Bezos is doing, but have turned a blind eye to it and to all the other businesses that are screwing workers. OSHA looks away from lots of law breaking, but it just more non representation from government. We are supposed to have labor laws, but the agency overseeing business has been captured too.
The MoA essay from yesterday is one of the best roundups on Russia/American relationships I’ve ever read. Gotta follow the links at the top to get the whole picture. I think Russia has backed Biden into a corner that he leaves at his own risk. I just hope that his handlers make the right decision.
I just washed my car yesterday and so we’re having 4 days of weather. High 40's now, but heading down soon. Yay…
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
evening snoopy...
i guess we'll see if congress has had enough of bezos' bad behavior soon. i read where little marco rubio and sherrod brown are pushing the labor department to investigate amazon's labor practices.
yep, there are a lot of interesting links in that moa piece. i've read through most of them and there is some good analysis there. i suppose that brandon being forced to back down is the best possible outcome. there is still the possibility that the mic would rather destroy most life on the planet than lose control, though.
i hope that the weather stays tolerable there so that you and sam can get your walks in. pass on a scritch for me.
have a great evening!
scritch delivered ..thanks
She got to play with her BFF Booker a vesulia (sp) dawg today so she’s sacked out. They just run and run and body wrestle or one will find something that the other wants and the chase is on. I get tired just watching them do all that running. 40 degrees out with snow and Sam jumps in the crick anyway. He waits for her to get out and off they go again. It makes my heart smile how well they get along. Reminds me of when I was a kid and ran everywhere just for the joy of running. Then I grew up.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Greed and need for energy is bringing out the worst in everybody
For example, many Brits are finding that keeping their homes heated is impossible for them financially. They find themselves working full time just to pay their electricity bills. You ask, why are they heating with electricity? (when its 3 times more expensive) Good question, evidently its all that many apartments lived in by poor people have.
I sleep in long underware, and go top great lengths to make my energy use more efficient. It saves a lot of money.
But its still expensive in the winter.
evening zed...
perhaps a cold public will gather with torches to keep warm.
Some reflections on the press.
$3500 for Kenyans the British Colonial regime castrated for try
ing to get their family's land back.
The British killed at least 200,000 people, and brutally tortured hundreds of thousands more. And got away with it.
The Kiyuku were in the way of the UK regimes's "settlers" land grabbing so they had to be punished.
How dare they stand up for their rights!
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hviKpM6mSog]
Western countries, especially the UK and France, left the former colonies in extremely unequql marginalized people. People in countries like Kenya and India and Latin America are still subjugated by the theft of their lands. The powers that be are still stealing peoples lands. All land that is held communally is beinbg stolen, systematically. We Americans have tio stand up for the rights of native peoples everywhere. We must dump the corporate politicians and DemoGops. Throw them back into the swamp they crawled out of. We dont want these kinds of theives who get away with murderhere. Lets hunt them down like the Nazis they are. They are criminals who engaged in genocide, many of them. There is no large middle class elsewhere there like there has historically been in the US. And it drives the global economy and hopefully, still exists at least for a bit longer, even though its being stolen along with the jobs. People have no hope of getting out of poverty without a means of making money but without land or jobs that is impossible. Now all business thats has been brought by investors to africa is alleged to be driven by the low wages. That is an undesirable state of affairs. Who wants to make less as a condition of employment, nobody. A system designed to drive people into deeper and deeper poverty is no good system at all.
STOP THE RECOLONIZATION OF TERRA
One dependent on "the cheapest labor in the world" is flocking there. Not because they do a good job, or deserve good work . All the western business that is fixated on huge profits and subjugation of workers aspiration, or similar is on the wrong track. We need to change all this, but the corporate statists say that the yields are not high enough if they must pay good wages, they don't want that, Is this progress?
No!
Once again Brandon comes up short.
howdy bluesters
Hi Joe,
Hope all is well out there. On the eve of the eve of the eve of Boxing Day. Sorry I have been too busy to stop by. Finally gettin' a breath here...
Luther Tucker was an amazing guitarist! What an incredible player. Awesome sheet mon. Bursts of speed fast as the wind, the jazz influence, and very creative as the Lonesome Boulevard leads... wow. Great dynamic range from dirty to clean too. A world class player's player.
That Lead Belly was awesome too... what an influential player he was. All the covers speak for themselves. I like that George Harrison quote "no Lead Belly, no Lonnie Donnegan, no Beatles". Jimmy Page was a Lonnie Donnegan fan too. Lonnie who stole the name from Lonnie Johnson cause LJ was so good. ROFLMAO. A lot goes back to Lead Belly.
Raw roots. I love 'em.
Thanks for the great soundscape Joe!
be well all!
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
evening dystopian...
well, everything is going well here at chez shikspack. even the dog is happy, having put an extra special shine on her bowl tonight due to the presence of turkey parts. i hope that all is well at your place and you are getting some sort of well-deserved break.
luther tucker was probably the best chicago blues guitar player to support a harmonica player. you'll hear his work on a lot of classic little walter tunes. he also worked a lot with james cotton over the years, too. somewhere i have a tape i need to find that a friend of mine made when we saw cotton backed by luther and piano player dave torkanowski at a local dive. if i come across it, i'll see if i can put it up on youtube sometime.
have a good one!
Hi Joe.
Many thanks for delivering all the news for us.
The season is fast upon us, so I'm getting my mood on.
Ho. Ho. Ho.
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
afternoon pluto...
thanks for reading!
have a great season of ho, ho, ho!
Woof!
Huskies and malamutes and Samoyeds and similar smart northern breed dogs are great
They keep you warm, too.
Cuban Missile Crisis in reverse.
Unfortunately, its true that the dream of our capitalists is a world without walls, regulations of obstacles of any kind. Meaning one world, one country. Then the dominance in the USEU they have bought with their money, will translate to dominance of the entire world. No Russia, no China, only the firm, the one Corporation under money, with liberty and justice under money.
We the Corporation. Not we the People.
In her book The Origins of Totalitarianism, the brilliant political author Hannah Arendt deconstructed some basic truths about totalitarianism, one is that to put it kindly, Totalitarianism does not play well with others. It does not tolerate a diversity of opinion even though its obvious that a creative, innovative society requires same. To put it bluntly, totalitarianism wants to take what it considers to be its due. Totalitarianism wwants to dictate all rules, not be dictated to. In the world of total corporate control, who are people to want a vote to want a say. they take whatever is allowed them, or they starve. The whole game is one of power and control. I'm currently reading about the British Empire's dismantlement in the 1950s and 1960s (much of the same applies to Americans) and its very illuminating. Now many in the UK clearly wish the Empire which brought England tremendous wealth could be revived so that the UK (and US) wish the old ways could be brought back (protectionosim, especially) So they could funnel a great deal of unearned wealth to its people - breaking agreements with the rest of the world that the UK and US wrote and made.. wealth often created by the backbreaking (or exhausing on other ways) labor of other people. That is a principle inherent to self styled empires. They take what they want. They are law makers, the losers are law takers. The social contract in empires depends to some extent on slavery and things like it. Democracy would if we had it demand on a right of the people to decide policy that could be implemented. The reason the politicians lie to us is that for people to have a democracy the government cannot be regulated like we and the UK agreed to do in order so their systems did not fall apart then. they agreed to a NIEO. Putting off the agreed changes and the realizations of same into the future. The losers were then agreed to be the "middle class" not themselves. It was to become the turns of the work supplying nations best educated. Of course the working poor end up with nothing (except the penniless who do get help so they do not die in the streets) under a fully money based corporate state, since they have nothing. Otherwise too many must be helped. And no profits would accrue to the sellers of many scarce products. And everything must be paid for. In the immediate aftermath of the second world war a generation grew up with expectations of a high standard of living that was created by labor demand and scarcity, and a very high level of educational spending relative to most other countries, many of whom ad been destroyed during the war. Creating a middle class, that is usually absent under corporatism. Rights such as they are they are under corporatism, are limited. Corporatism elevates and creates now rights for property owners and investors in policy space that subsumes all other rights democracies had to govern, (which were unpredictable, meaning that investors were fearful that political change might devalue their investments, as long as democracy exists, the possibility of regulation terrifies oligarchs that their wealth, the huge advantages that possess over others, could be regulated or taxed away. Globalism's reason d' etre its creed, corporate rule brings with it myriad new rights to certainty, Global orgs rule the world, not voters. The rich thereby regulate all governments, giving absolute certainty to elites. Along with rights to move their money anywhere in the world and buy anything. Even the absolute essentials like drinking water and heating fuel, gas, are entitlements of global business, to be sold to the highest bidders. . Everything governments do must be minimally trade restrictive and nothing more. This means that none of the planks Democrats run on can be implemented unless they are the absolute minimal possible in terms of cost to corporations.
Government spending is limited, and all corporations are given rights to establish business and compete globally, bidding profits down to the lowest possible amount. This means that the special privileges that an empire would use to pay its people back for the loss of freedos is likely prohibited. You cannot have an empire's winners without a class of losers whose rights are taken away so that others economic positions can be elevated. Like the European settlers who flocked to Kenya's smallpox decimated "White highlands" and America's California, the countries are structured around their needs. They were shocked when the situation that kept them wealthy disintegrated around them due to changes in global mores. It no longer being possible to just kill people and take everything they had had. No matter how high the pressures upon the governments were. Unlike his predecessors, Mr Putin cannot do what he wants. (if indeed he does want that, I doubt if he is that stupid. Nor are Americas leaders. However eventually he is going to have to come clean with the truth and make the sacrifices that if won might make it possible for Americans to live a fairly decent life without being displaced for profits. Good luck, America!
Like indigenous people, it seems as if that change would be difficult. the criteria can be anything, the creation of an abnormally priviliged group is often arbitrary, wealth is always "justified" by the oligarchical society.
In our society, based as it is around money money is everything. Its natural for people to die because they cannot afford life saving drugs in an epidemic. That wont be changed until the system really does change, and that change is unlikely to happen without deeper changes than those seen on the mainstream media or TV.
Since the dissolution of the former USSR (due to deep rooted structural failures in the country) A political market failure has been building. The competition that once existed between the two blocs led to a mmore efficient world. Now the monopoly has led to a diminuation of the meareket competition in ideas. And a period of stagnation.
We are told capitalism won and communism lost so we cant have public services like public water systems, public higher education, public retirement systems, and other so called trade barriers.. What is really being said is that they are not profitable enough for the rich. Such large areas are too big to be removed from the most brutal aspects of the economy. Medicare for All, instead we must have Medicaid for all which leaves people bankrupted before they become eligible for help. A system that leaves the poor totally penniless and if they lie punishes them with a lifetime of crippling debt. That is justice, they got sick while poor, the cost of poverty. They should have been born rich.
This is America. Our people got rich off of others. thats how we treat the world. We were deceived shamelessly by our oligarchs. That is their way.
Fascism's continued presence disturbing
Especially in our alleged allies in Latin America.
The OAS was one of the main boosters of the creation of the WTO. There was a close link between South American Nazis and the globalist movement. (which originated in Vienna, Austria and Geneva)
The world's second national Nazi party was based in Paraguay.
What about the Punta Del Este group (PEG)? Globalists are certainly anti-democracy.