The Evening Blues - 12-29-20



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Mercy Dee Walton

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues piano player Mercy Dee Walton. Enjoy!

Mercy Dee Walton - The Main Event

"A man who doesn't detest a bad government is a fool. And if there were such a thing as a good government on earth, it would be a great joy to serve it."

-- Ursula K. Le Guin


News and Opinion

Krystal Ball: 2020 Was The Year Of Institutional Failure

In 2020, Americans helped each other out – because our government wouldn't

While politicians debate whether sending a thousand bucks to people who have lost jobs, homes, loved ones, and health insurance to an economic crisis and a still very active pandemic counts as a “handout” to freeloaders, the people themselves have decided to share their resources with those who need it. This year, Americans, many of us having no idea if we were next to lose our jobs or what changes the future might hold, gave generously to help feed, bail out of jail, and heal strangers across the country.

In a time of shockingly selfish behavior – and here I mostly mean Mitch McConnell interfering with a stimulus deal and figures like Nancy Pelosi playing politics instead of moving to provide relief for people who are struggling – many people showed that they do actually care for one another and want to make sure their fellow human beings are as safe and secure as possible. Millions of dollars flooded into mutual aid funds and bail funds and social justice nonprofits and food pantries even as the combination of protests against police violence and the rise in unemployment left people vulnerable and stretched thin financially. Community bail funds, which help people avoid spending sometimes months in jail awaiting trial by helping to pay their cash bail, reported record-breaking donations this year. Other mutual aid networks, set up to help people pay for food, rent, and medicine, also reported a flood of donations and attention. ...

Maybe it goes without saying that mutual aid funds should not have to exist, but we are living through a crisis of leadership and authority. Pelosi claims the Democrats are “feeding” the people hit the hardest by the pandemic; meanwhile more families than ever are reliant on charities like food banks to keep themselves from going hungry. Politicians such as California governor Gavin Newsom issue strict lockdown orders to control the spread of the coronavirus, but are then caught breaking those rules with a night out at an expensive restaurant or issuing “stay at home” orders from their vacation homes. No other country has had such an inept, or dangerous, response to the pandemic, leaving people physically and economically troubled. We should be able to trust that our politicians and leaders will support us during this time of unprecedented disaster. But they didn’t, so we had only ourselves to rely on.

Joseph Stiglitz on the Pandemic Economy & Why He Backs Sanders’ Filibuster for $2000 Stimulus Checks

All Eyes on McConnell After House Approves $2,000 Coronavirus Relief Checks

Demands from progressive lawmakers and the public surged for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to urgently support and hold a vote on a bill that would boost coronavirus pandemic direct relief checks from $600 to $2,000 after at least two-thirds of Democrat-controlled House approved the legislation on Monday evening.

The measure passed the House by a bipartisan 275-134 vote but faces an uncertain future in the GOP-majority Senate, considering that McConnell (R-Ky.) refused to hold votes on previous House-approved Covid-19 bills for several months this year. The new bill to raise the direct payment amount comes after President Donald Trump belatedly signed a $900 billion relief package into law late Sunday, after criticizing the legislation and demanding $2,000 direct payments last week.

In a statement Monday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said that "following the strong bipartisan vote in the House, tomorrow I will move to pass the legislation in the Senate to quickly deliver Americans with $2,000 emergency checks."

"Every Senate Democrat is for this much-needed increase in emergency financial relief, which can be approved tomorrow if no Republican blocks it—there is no good reason for Senate Republicans to stand in the way," Schumer noted.

"There's strong support for these $2,000 emergency checks from every corner of the country," he added. "Leader McConnell ought to make sure Senate Republicans do not stand in the way of helping to meet the needs of American workers and families who are crying out for help."

Trump, in a statement announcing he would sign the $2.3 trillion package that includes $1.4 trillion to fund the government and $900 billion in Covid-19 relief, said that "the Senate will start the process for a vote that increases checks to $2,000, repeals Section 230, and starts an investigation into voter fraud."

The Hill reported that a Monday night statement from McConnell "made no mention of the legislative commitments referenced by Trump, and the GOP leader has not yet announced plans to bring up a proposal that would increase the amount of the direct payments."

Late Sunday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)—who has been pushing for $2,000 relief checks since March—said that "Trump must get Mitch McConnell and his Republican friends in the Senate to pass legislation to provide $2,000 in direct payments to the working class."

After the vote Monday, Sanders tweeted: "The House passed a $2,000 direct payment for working people. Now it's the Senate's turn. If McConnell doesn't agree to an up or down vote to provide the working people of our country a $2,000 direct payment, Congress will not be going home for New Year's Eve. Let's do our job."

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) announced on Twitter Monday that he will join Sanders "in blocking the defense bill until we get a vote on $2,000 in direct cash relief. That relief passed in the House today with 44 Republicans voting for it. Senate Republicans must do the same and get the American people the help they need."

House Passes $2K Checks! Bernie Plays HARDBALL In Senate

New York Lawmakers Poised to Pass Nation's Strongest Eviction Ban as Millions Face Housing Insecurity

Shortly after New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced an extension of his eviction moratorium via executive order, the state legislature offered additional protection to renters on Monday, passing a bill that Democratic lawmakers called the strongest in the country.

The legislation passed in a vote of 40 to 21 in the state Senate and at the time of this writing was poised to pass in the state Assembly.

Both the state Senate and state Assembly convened remotely Monday for special sessions to pass the legislation, a day after President Donald Trump signed the $900 billion coronavirus relief bill which he had delayed approving for several days. As Common Dreams reported Monday, the president's delay could cost millions of people a full week in unemployment benefits, intensifying fears that families will struggle to make ends meet in the new year.

Under New York's Covid-19 Emergency Eviction and Foreclosure Prevention Act, tenants who are struggling to pay rent due to the coronavirus pandemic will be able to declare that they're facing a financial hardship due to lost income, increased medical or family care expenses, or inability to find employment due to the crisis.

Tenants will not have to prove their financial hardship and will not be subjected to income limits.

"By enacting this comprehensive residential eviction and foreclosure moratorium, we are delivering real protection for countless renters and homeowners who would otherwise be at risk of losing their homes, adding to the unprecedented hardship that so many are facing," state Sen. Brian Kavanagh, a Democrat who sponsored the legislation, said Sunday as the special session was announced.

Cuomo's eviction moratorium is set to expire on January 1, and currently blocks landlords from evicting tenants only if the renter can prove financial hardship.

After courts in the state "have been remarkably unsympathetic to tenants' situations," Ellen Davidson, a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society, told the New York Times, the new legislation is "going to save a lot of people's homes. It's going to save lives."

Under the legislation, which the Democratic governor is expected to sign, landlords will be barred from evicting tenants for the next 60 days in cases that are already underway in the court system. For renters who submit a new "Standardized Hardship Declaration Form" explaining their circumstances related to the pandemic, landlords will not be able to begin eviction proceedings until May 1.

The bill will also protect landlords against foreclosure and tax liens if they own 10 or fewer properties and will prohibit negative credit reporting and credit discrimination against owners who fall behind on mortgage payments due to the pandemic.

Will Progressives Stand Up To PELOSI? #ForceTheVote

House Votes to Override President Trump’s NDAA Veto

The House convened on Monday for an override vote of President Trump’s veto of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). In a vote of 322 to 87, the House secured well over the two-thirds majority needed for the override, and the bill now moves on to the Senate.

The Senate is expected to convene for the override vote on Tuesday. Before President Trump’s veto, the NDAA passed through the Senate by a vote of 84 to 13, well over the two-thirds majority needed for the override. But the bill could be delayed if a senator chooses to drag out procedural hurdles. If the vote is delayed past January 3rd, Congress will have to restart the NDAA from scratch.

Trump ATTACKS Golden Calf Of Washington With NDAA Veto

Biden accuses Trump administration of obstructing his national security team

Joe Biden, the US president-elect, complained on Monday that his national security team has run into “obstruction” and “roadblocks” from political leadership at the Pentagon.

The criticism came after the defence department earlier this month suddenly suspended briefings with the Biden transition team, and with Donald Trump still seeking to overturn his election defeat.

“From some agencies, our team received exemplary cooperation,” Biden said in Wilmington, Delaware, after a briefing by his foreign policy advisers. “From others, most notably the Department of Defense, we encountered obstruction from the political leadership of that department.”

Both the defence department and Office of Management and Budget erected “roadblocks”, he added. “Right now we just aren’t getting all of the information that we need from the outgoing administration in key national security areas. It’s nothing short, in my view, of irresponsibility.”

The president-elect, who takes office on 20 January, warned that his team needs “full visibility” into the budget process at the Pentagon “in order to avoid any window of confusion or catch-up that our adversaries may try to exploit”.

Lawyer Paul Dickinson: The U.S. Promised Iraqis Justice. Trump’s Blackwater Pardons Took It Away.

Andre Hill: white officer involved in fatal shooting fired amid investigation

A white Ohio police officer was fired Monday after bodycam footage showed him fatally shooting Andre Hill, a Black man who was holding a cellphone, then refusing to aid him for several minutes.

Columbus police officer Adam Coy was fired hours after a hearing. His firing was announced in a statement from Ned Pettus Jr, the director of Columbus public safety.

“The actions of Adam Coy do not live up to the oath of a Columbus Police officer, or the standards we, and the community, demand of our officers,” the statement read. “The shooting of Andre Hill is a tragedy for all who loved him in addition to the community and our division of police.”

Coy remains under criminal investigation for last week’s shooting.



the horse race



Mitch McConnell Rushed to Save His Senators, but Left Trump Twisting in the Wind

One of the enduring mysteries of the 2020 presidential election was Mitch McConnell’s apparent lack of interest in helping to reelect President Donald Trump. From the perspective of the White House, the political press corps, Democrats, and effectively everybody watching the race, there was one major thing they thought would go a long way to delivering four more years for Trump, and that was a major round of stimulus in the weeks before the election, complete with checks destined for voters. Given that a swing of fewer than 100,000 votes in the right states would have flipped the election to Trump, it’s fair to say that such a stimulus could indeed have turned the tide for Trump.

Yet McConnell stood in the way. We now know with certainty that the Senate majority leader is well aware of the political value of stimulus checks. “Kelly and David are getting hammered,” McConnell told his Republican flock, explaining why the party would be agreeing not just to a historic-sized piece of legislation, but also to one that included $600 checks for everybody with under a certain income. ... Both Loeffler and Perdue are facing runoffs in January, and both have used their perch in the Senate to acquire financial information they used to profit on stock trades. But that’s not why they’re getting hammered. They’re getting hammered over checks. Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock have been blasting away for weeks at Perdue and Loeffler for blocking another round of stimulus, and in particular for blocking checks.

And so McConnell bent to political reality, doing what he didn’t want to do in order to keep control of the Senate. But if it was a price he was willing to pay for Kelly and David and control of the Senate, why wouldn’t he pay the same price to keep control of the White House? The option was available to him. Even if Democratic leaders would have preferred to pass the stimulus after the election, their obstruction beforehand would either have been politically untenable or, if held firm, politically suicidal. So McConnell had the option to press the button, and he knew the button would help Trump, yet he didn’t press it. The only reasonable conclusion that can be drawn is that McConnell did not want to help Trump win. ...

With Trump gone, McConnell becomes the most powerful Republican in the party again and, on some days, the most powerful politician in the country. McConnell knows Joe Biden well and has his number. The few times that Biden met McConnell at the negotiating table during the Obama years, McConnell left with Biden’s wallet. ...

If Biden’s transition is any guide to his presidency, his insistence on working with Republicans and refusal to use executive action will make GOP pickups more likely, damage the Democratic brand, and pave the way for Republicans to win back unified control of Washington in 2024 — by which time there will be more judicial vacancies to fill, more regulations to undo, and more taxes to cut. And, if McConnell has his way, this time he’ll be able to do it all without having to smile next to Trump.

Did Mitch McConnell Want Trump To Lose?

Over a Year Away From Primaries, NY State Democratic Leader Warns AOC Against Challenging Schumer

With more than a year to go until Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer faces a potential primary challenge for the seat he's held for nearly two decades in New York, the state's Democratic leadership is already expressing concern that progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will run against Schumer.

In an interview with the New York Post, state Democratic Committee Chairman Jay Jacobs said Saturday that a challenge by Ocasio-Cortez would be driven more by the congresswoman's "ambition" than a need for new representation for New York in the U.S. Senate.

"She has a constituency that admires her and supports her, and they're in her community, and I think it would be a loss for them if she were to do that," Jacobs told The Post, despite the fact that Ocasio-Cortez's current constituents in The Bronx and Queens would still be represented by her in the upper chamber should she win Schumer's seat.

Ocasio-Cortez has not directly expressed a desire to challenge the four-term senator, but has been vocal since she first ran for office in 2018 about her belief that the Democratic Party must better represent working people by embracing policy proposals that Schumer and other centrists reject.

Earlier this month, the congresswoman told The Intercept that while she is "not ready" to take over the role of House Speaker from Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), she believes "we need new leadership in the Democratic Party."

She directly criticized establishment Democrats' embrace of the Affordable Care Act and their insistence that the law—which has left nearly 30 million Americans uninsured and healthcare spending on the rise—should be "strengthened" instead of replaced with Medicare for All.

"For me personally, it was when I was waitressing and I would hear Democrats talk about why the Affordable Care Act was so amazing all the time and how this is the greatest thing ever and the economy is doing wonderfully," she told The Intercept of how she decided to run for Congress in 2018. "Frankly, it is the same trick that Trump pulls, which is, you know, people touting the Dow as a measure of economic success when we’re all getting killed out here."

Although Jacobs described Schumer as "a progressive force," he has not embraced Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) Medicare for All proposal. Recent polling from the Kaiser Family Foundation has shown that 87% of Democratic voters and 63% of Independents have a positive view of the term "Medicare for All," and 53% of the public favors expanding Medicare to all Americans under a national healthcare plan.

Jacobs' comments and other efforts by establishment Democrats to discourage Ocasio-Cortez's political ambitions only serve to divide the party, tweeted grassroots organization Our Revolution.

"The Establishment should embrace progressive ideas that over 85% of Democrats already support!" the group said.

In an interview with Vanity Fair in October, Ocasio-Cortez said that while she doesn't believe she is "going to be staying in the House forever," she aims to assess where "can be more effective" before running for a Senate seat or filling a cabinet position.

"I don't see myself really staying where I'm at for the rest of my life," she told the magazine. "I don't want to aspire to a quote-unquote higher position just for the sake of that title or just for the sake of having a different or higher position. I truly make an assessment to see if I can be more effective. And so, you know, I don't know if I could necessarily be more effective in an administration, but, for me that's always what the question comes down to."

Oliver Willis of the American Independent noted that the Democratic Party's underestimation of Ocasio-Cortez in 2018, when she challenged powerful nine-term congressman Joe Crowley, is now being repeated by her detractors, including Jacobs.

Others on social media wrote that considering Ocasio-Cortez's national profile and her strong support for numerous popular policies—including Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, and tuition-free public college—the congresswoman would have a strong chance of defeating Schumer.



the evening greens


'If You Own the Seeds You Own the Food System': Campaigners Demand Public Ownership to Counter Big Ag Privatization

A growing number of people around the world are calling for the public ownership of seeds, which they say is essential for a more democratic and ecologically sound food system, as the coronavirus-driven spike in empty supermarket shelves and the continued loss of biodiversity this year sparked a rise in the popularity of saving and swapping seeds and shed more light on the negative consequences of allowing a handful of agrochemical corporations to dominate the global seed trade.

In the United Kingdom, the seed saving movement had been "quietly growing" for awhile, but "from March onwards, when the pandemic hit the U.K., seed producers and seed banks across the country were overwhelmed with demand," with multiple organizations experiencing a "sharp surge in orders, 600% in some cases," Alexandra Genova reported Monday in The Guardian.

"People crave connection," David Price, managing director of the Seed Cooperative, told The Guardian. "They want connection with other people and connection with the planet, and growing and saving seed is a way of getting both."

Genova noted that while "many British consumers feel disconnected from the processes of food production... seed saving allows everyone to be involved in the food system." Moreover, advocates say seed saving can contribute to reversing the dramatic decline in the availability of plant varieties that are "richly diverse, well adapted to the soil and local climate, and more resilient to climate change."

The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) has estimated that since the beginning of the 20th century, roughly 75% of the genetic diversity of agricultural crops and 93% of unique seed varieties have disappeared. This biodiversity loss has been attributed to industrialized agriculture and what Genova called "the big boom in agrochemicals."

As the FAO has explained, the increasingly commercialized nature of plant breeding has permitted transnational seed and agrochemical corporations—which enjoy so-called plant breeders' rights that give "patent-like protection to breeders with limited monopoly rights over the production, marketing, and sale of their varieties"—to privatize access to genetic resources taken from countries in the global south.

Scholar-activist Pat Mooney of the ETC Group coined the term "biopiracy" to describe how genetic material originally nurtured by impoverished farmers is turned into patented seeds that now generate huge profits primarily for BASF, Bayer/Monsanto, ChemChina-Syngenta, and Corteva Agriscience.

In a 2018 report (pdf) on industrial food chain concentration, Mooney explained that these "four companies have gained oligopolistic control over more than two-thirds of commercial seed and pesticide sales, while decimating the innovative contribution of public sector researchers and threatening the 12,000-year-old right of peasants to breed, save, and exchange their seeds."

The blossoming of what researchers Karine Peschard and Shalini Randeria call "seed activism" is "largely in response to the intensification of corporate seed enclosures and to the loss of agrobiodiversity," Genova reported. "Many seed savers are motivated by this idea of dismantling the increasing privatization of seeds... by drawing attention to the negative impact of such high levels of concentration." She continued:

Less than 50 years ago, most of the world enjoyed food that came from entirely open-pollinated seed varieties, which could be saved for future crops. Much of the seed sold now by the large companies are, in contrast, GM or F1 hybrid seeds. These cannot be saved for use in following years because they are genetically unstable and are protected by seed and patent laws, meaning most farmers are tied to chains of dependency.

According to Helene Schulze, who works on the Seed Sovereignty Program of the U.K. and Ireland and co-directs the London Freedom Seedbank, "Covid made people really understand how our food system is dominated by a few large corporations, and this has put a focus on seed sovereignty," which Genova defined as "a grower's right to breed and exchange diverse, open source seeds, which can be saved and are not patented, genetically modified, or owned by one of the four agrochemical companies that control more than 60% of the global seed trade."

Campaigners at Open Source Seeds, the Campaign for Seed Sovereignty, and elsewhere are pushing for seeds to be brought back into public ownership, arguing that "something as universal as food crops should belong to everyone, not a small group of agrochemical companies."

Promising new studies suggest the long elusive nuclear fusion technology may be capable of producing electricity for the grid by the end of the decade

If all goes as planned, the US will eliminate all greenhouse gas emissions from its electricity sector by 2035 – an ambitious goal set by President-elect Joe Biden, relying in large part on a sharp increase in wind and solar energy generation. That plan may soon get a boost from nuclear fusion, a powerful technology that until recently had seemed far out of reach.

Researchers developing a nuclear fusion reactor that can generate more energy than it consumes have shown in a series of recent papers that their design should work, restoring optimism that this clean, limitless power source will help mitigate the climate crisis.

While the new reactor still remains in early development, scientists hope it will be able to start producing electricity by the end of the decade. Martin Greenwald, one of the project’s senior scientists, said a key motivation for the ambitious timeline is meeting energy requirements in a warming world. “Fusion seems like one of the possible solutions to get ourselves out of our impending climate disaster,” he said.

Nuclear fusion, the physical process that powers our sun, occurs when atoms are pushed together at extremely high temperatures and pressure, causing them to release tremendous amounts of energy by merging into heavier atoms. Since it was first discovered last century, scientists have sought to harness fusion, an extremely dense form of power whose fuel – hydrogen isotopes – are abundant and replenishable. Moreover, fusion produces no greenhouse gases or carbon, and unlike fission nuclear reactors, carries no risk of meltdown.


Also of Interest

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

Glenn Greenwald: The Threat of Authoritarianism in the U.S. is Very Real, and Has Nothing To Do With Trump

US Downgraded as Civil Liberties Deteriorate Across the Americas

Border Patrol Politicization Was Explicit Under Trump. It’s Up to Biden to Contain It.

Neera Tanden and Antony Blinken Personify the 'Moderate' Rot at the Top of the Democratic Party

The 'Mighty Wurlitzer' - How U.S. Financed 'Human Rights' Organizations Create Anti-Chinese Headlines

Neoliberal Champion Larry Summers Opens Mouth, Inserts Both Feet

Caitlin Johnstone: The Unspoken Premise Of Modern Capitalism Is That The World Will Be Saved By Greedy Tech Oligarchs

Congress Passed Legislation Making the Treasury Secretary the Boss of the Federal Reserve During a Financial Crisis: That’s Creating Its Own Crisis

Effects Of The New 60% More Infectious Covid Strain

Biden Already Facing Pressure to Tackle Backlog of 'Unfunded' Toxic Waste Sites Threatened by Climate Crisis

How The Fracking Revolution Is Killing the U.S. Oil and Gas Industry

Fifty journalists killed in 2020 and most 'deliberately targeted' for their work, RSF watchdog says

Keiser Report | The Grapes of Gatsby

Navalny poisoning: CIA, MI6, 'discredited' state-funded Bellingcat play key role in accusing Russia

Krystal and Rachel: How The Middle Class Has Come Unglued As Inequality Soared

Georgia Reporter: Trump's Stimulus Play Puts Georgia Seats In Jeopardy


A Little Night Music

Mercy Dee - My Woman Knows the Score

Mercy Dee Walton - My Woman And The Devil

Mercy Dee Walton - One Room Country Shack

Mercy Dee Walton - Five Card Hand

Mercy Dee - Mercy's Party

Mercy Dee - Come Back Maybellene

Mercy Dee Walton - Bird Brain Baby

Mercy Dee Walton - Trailing My Baby

Mercy Dee Walton - Mercy's Shuffle


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Comments

snoopydawg's picture

Oh the irony or more so the effing hypocrisy.

Only we can lock up journalists and get away with it, UK embassy warns China

Moon of Alabama destroyed this narrative yesterday. Worth a read.

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17 users have voted.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

it always amazes me that diplomats and other functionaries can tweet out crap like that without a hint of irony.

wow. just wow.

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12 users have voted.

I was very glad to see the essay on seeds and hope more people become aware of how Big Ag has not only driven small farmers off their lands, it has corralled seed ownership throughout the world.

This stuff is so scary and so science fictiony out there, that when I first heard of it years ago I had difficulty believing it.

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19 users have voted.

NYCVG

joe shikspack's picture

@NYCVG

a friend of mine from iowa who worked for a while as a researcher sequencing genes for a big ag seed manufacturer used to tell me that the more that you know about what big ag is doing, the scarier it gets. so far, his conjecture has been correct. it seems, with each incremental increase in my awareness of what big ag does, i have grown incrementally more alarmed.

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11 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

Where to start? Lessee

Lawyer Paul Dickinson: The U.S. Promised Iraqis Justice. Trump’s Blackwater Pardons Took It Away.

Bwahahaha. We got thrown out of Iraq because they wouldn't give Obama permission to stay unless we did away with the clausses exempting our people from their laws and arguably almost all of ours too. Nonetheless they were given our solemn political promise that justice would be done to a couple or three token war criminals. Justice US style, like that handed down to Lt. Calley's troops, that is. One guy, one lousy guy got, effectively 3 years and spent most of it out on bail, which boils down to exactly how many days per killer?

Somebody has to replace Chuckie the Shoom, AOC couldn't really be any worse.

'If You Own the Seeds You Own the Food System': Campaigners Demand Public Ownership to Counter Big Ag Privatization

Yep, buy use save and share regular old seeds. Non-gmo seeds are a lot less likely to be protected by patents. Everybody grow something, ok, pot and something else,

Promising new studies suggest the long elusive nuclear fusion technology may be capable of producing electricity for the grid by the end of the decade

I suppose that it will, at last, be "too cheap to meter". Hasn't it been 10 more years since about 1955?

Thank Ishtar for the music, it'd be too crazy without it.

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12 users have voted.

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

@enhydra lutris

grow out of this morass Wink

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6 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@enhydra lutris

heh, i wonder if aoc does manage to replace chuckie, will she call mcconnell "papa bear?"

you know what, i have been running a proof-of-concept operation for cheap nuclear fusion power for years.

i've got this fusion reactor at a more-or-less safe distance (for about the next 10 billion years) - about 93 million miles away. in my yard i have a bunch of collector units which take in the cheapest nuclear fusion energy around and run some lights at night so that i don't trip over ms. shikspack's flower beds in the dark.

i invite all of my fellow earthlings to set up their own collection devices and use my fusion reactor - for free! i won't charge you a penny for it.

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9 users have voted.

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5 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

@QMS

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8 users have voted.

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

ggersh's picture

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8 users have voted.

I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

joe shikspack's picture

@ggersh

heh, even donnie knows that if you want the machine to work, you have to put coins in the slot - and most machines don't take pennies.

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8 users have voted.

@ggersh
McConnell

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5 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

mimi's picture

so dizzy, my inner eyes see leader Trumpolinio hit by a golf ball on his left temple so hard that his right temple will be as dysfunctional as the left one and he decides to give up living in his temple.

Considering the love relations between McConnel and Trump, there never was one. McConnel suffered under the a fake stepford wife role and hated the man he served for it. Just my own guts telling me that.

AOC will not swim against the current and either drowns of exhaustion or just floats with the water til she reaches a water fall and then there is only prayers left to make for her.

Bernie should filibuster his heart out and Pelosi needs to be fed another hundred plus roses and forced to eat it with the thorns. I guess that would help to make her talk less.

I told you it is not good to get me dizzy reading the EB. I become a person, I can't stand. Can't wait til all of it is over.

I want me my brain back and functioning calmly.

Just another great EB. Thanks for your strength and consistency to preduce them day in and day out.

PS. I definitely grow my food as of this spring and will keep my seeds well protected.

PS. I like AOC as a person and do not mean to hurt her feelings. I just think a good-hearted person like her should not try to go into politics. The swamp is too toxic to waste your life away in it.

So now help me to become a nice person again.

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6 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@mimi

heh, sorry that the news is still mostly bad. if i were king of the world ...

heh, i don't dislike aoc, either. i suspect that we don't have to worry about hurting her feelings, since i doubt that she reads our blog.

aoc seems like a nice person that i'd enjoy chatting with. that said, i think that those are both the qualities that make her electable and at the same time ineffectual at dealing with her colleagues who are mostly ruthless sociopaths, some of them gifted with charisma like aoc is. i just don't see the steel in her to do what needs doing. it's a shame.

have a great evening!

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7 users have voted.
mimi's picture

@joe shikspack
I make you a king and if you ever run for something in the toxic swamp of politics, I come and rescue you before you drown.

Thanks for keeping up with me. Obviously I am a little mentally disturbed these last days. Have a good one and stay safe with your family.

I miss a family and I miss my son. I want to be able to travel again safely and have trust back into the US.

Thanks for helping me out.

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4 users have voted.

The corporated hoarding of seeds reminds me that many popular scifi dystopian films involves corporations and elites controlling critical resources. Why bother with those movies when one can just read the news.

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11 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@MrWebster

heh, think of it as pre sci-fi.

since the end of feudalism, the game has been for the elites to control the supply of existential needs and dole them out parsimoniously in order to compel the struggling masses to do the work and other acts of servility demanded of them by the elites.

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8 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

But still many people on the right believe democrats are socialists. Propaganda baby.

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9 users have voted.

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

@snoopydawg @snoopydawg
In 2012 a Republican friend told me that Obama was a Socialist.
I said, "No he's not, Paul. If he was I would vote for him."
Paul gasped and said, "Tony! You don't know what you are saying!"

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9 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Azazello's picture

I'd love to talk with Caitlin about systems and stuff.

Since ideological echo chambers tend to develop their own dialects and definitions which can make cross-ideological conversation damn near impossible, I should clarify that what I mean by capitalism is the current system dominating our world today wherein human behavior is driven as a whole by the pursuit of capital. The current system of profit-seeking and competition as the primary determining factor of what humans are doing on this planet.

Profit-chasing as the driving factor in human behavior is what got us here. As long as it remains profitable to destroy the environment and human behavior is driven by profit, then humans will continue destroying the environment. Inevitably. This will have to happen.

So for purposes of this conversation it’s actually irrelevant whether capitalism enthusiasts believe the current system is “real capitalism” or not, whether you believe the markets are “free” or not, or whether or not you prefer Austrian over Keynesian models of economic theory. Since we’re talking about any system where profit-chasing and competition drives human behavior at mass scale, we are necessarily talking about whatever pet definition of capitalism you happen to prefer.

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8 users have voted.

We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

joe shikspack's picture

@Azazello

heh, i'm sure that would be an interesting discussion.

does it work for you to substitute the phrase "complex of variables" for "system?"

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6 users have voted.
Azazello's picture

@joe shikspack
I do think that, probably, the only way to get rid of "capitalism"
is to outlaw private property.
Not such an easy thing.
My new favorite Elvis tune:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf2VYAtqRe0 width:400 height:240]

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7 users have voted.

We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

joe shikspack's picture

@Azazello

i think that the way to get rid of the particularly nasty effects of capitalism is to make the things that people need to live and thrive ubiquitous and make it a serious offense with serious repercussions to degrade the environment.

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6 users have voted.
Azazello's picture

@joe shikspack
We need laws saying nobody can be an asshole,
and if somebody is an asshole
then they will be punished for their assholery.
That would be a big step, if we could do that.
But there are no systems.

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7 users have voted.

We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

joe shikspack's picture

@lotlizard

heh, i have very limited ability to read german, but i'll turn on the speculator and guess that his new line of work gives him a sense of control that he can't get in the old line of work which constantly reminded him that he is trapped on a planet being ruthlessly destroyed by people who he can't rein in.

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8 users have voted.
lotlizard's picture

@joe shikspack  
for a while now to get the dominant, the genderfluid pirate Captain Capitalism, to ease up. But the latter, he-she-they just isn’t listenin’.

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4 users have voted.

It's gonna come a hard rain tomorrow and the next day, so being cooped up will not be from the 'Rona.
I hope to start moving furniture into my reconstructed office the first week of January, with the complete move and final construction before February.
Meanwhile, I learned the local lawyer fee ploy. Charge $100 per hour, based upon 35 hours of work to get someone a fairly uncontested divorce.
I charge $300 per hour, which is typically a 7 hour work product for a nominally uncontested divorce. Are these lawyers refreshing their memory on the damn code and rules every case? Do I believe they spend a solid week working on a typical divorce? What a damn scam.
I am going to write checks to at least a dozen charities this weekend.
If you have a particular favorite or favorites you wish for me to include, let me know, joe.
Thanks for all you do.

edit: I give predominantly to animal rescues and environmental causes.

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6 users have voted.

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

mimi's picture

@on the cusp @on the cusp
HeroRats
I love them for ever since years.
HeroRAT Magawa awarded PDSA Gold Medal for lifesaving work

Over 60 countries are contaminated with hidden landmines and other explosive remnants of war, that cause tragic accidents and hamper communities from developing their productive land.

Meanwhile, slow and inaccurate detection methods make tuberculosis the world’s most deadly infectious disease. 10 million new people contract TB every year, 3 million go undiagnosed, and 1.8 million die from the disease.

The solution

APOPO's scent detection animals, nicknamed 'HeroRATs' and 'HeroDOGs', help to rid the world of landmines and tuberculosis – returning safe land back to communities for development, and freeing people from serious illness so they can get back on their feet.

I think it is good to know that not only a dog can be a hero, but a rat as well.

Coolest and cutest rats they are.

Add-on: Imagine they could be trained to smell covid virus infections. Oh, it would be so awesome...

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6 users have voted.

@mimi I will give them a donation today.

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5 users have voted.

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

mimi's picture

@on the cusp
Clapping

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4 users have voted.