The Evening Blues - 12-7-17
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features jazz, blues and boogie woogie piano player and bandleader Sammy Price. Enjoy!
Sammy Price Septet - One O'Clock Jump
"Diplomats are just as essential to starting a war as soldiers are for finishing it... You take diplomacy out of war, and the thing would fall flat in a week."
-- Will Rogers
News and Opinion
Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel capital sparks West Bank clashes
US missions across the Middle East are braced for a second day of violent protests over Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital after widespread clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces on Thursday. American diplomatic staff and families are operating under tight security restrictions ordered by the state department as fears mounted that spreading protests could target US interests in the region after Friday prayers.
Israel deployed extra security forces in anticipation of more clashes in Jerusalem and West Bank cities. The increased security measures came as Hezbollah’s secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah, echoed calls made by Hamas earlier in the day for support for a new Palestinian intifada.
The most violent confrontations on Thursday occurred in Ramallah, Bethlehem and Hebron, where Israeli forces fired teargas and plastic-coated rounds as hundreds of protesters threw stones and set alight barricades. In the Gaza Strip, dozens of protesters gathered near the border fence with Israel and clashed with Israeli troops. Two missiles reportedly launched against Israel later in the day both detonated within the coastal enclave.
The protests spread to Jordan, where demonstrators near the US embassy in Amman torched the US flag and pictures of Trump.
PLO Leader Hanan Ashrawi: Trump’s Jerusalem Order Violates Int’l Law & “Destroys” Chance for Peace
Both Parties Pushed Trump Toward Reckless Action on Jerusalem
Trump’s announcement [recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and that the U.S. embassy would be moved there] is actually the culmination of years of pressure by a large bipartisan majority of Congress and leaders of both political parties towards the White House. It represents the fulfillment of the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995, which mandates that the United States move its embassy to Jerusalem, though the bill allows a president to waive that requirement every six months if deemed in the national interest.
In the Senate, the bill was cosponsored by such prominent Senate Democrats as Joe Biden and John Kerry and only one Democrat (the late Robert Byrd) voted no. On the House side, just thirty out of 204 Democrats voted no, along with the independent then-Congressman Bernie Sanders.
Since then, every President has taken advantage of the waiver to prevent such a provocative move, despite continued bipartisan pressure from Congress. As recently as this past June, just days after Trump issued his first waiver of the requirement, the Senate voted 90-0 in favor of a resolution re-affirming the 1995 law and calling on President Trump “to abide by its provisions.” Co-sponsors included such leading Democrats as minority leader Chuck Schumer and Ben Cardin, ranking Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, as well as Tammy Baldwin, Kirsten Gillibrand, Cory Booker, and Ron Wyden. Schumer has openly encouraged Trump to move the embassy and previously criticized his “indecisiveness” on the issue.
Support by Congressional Democrats and party leaders for moving the embassy is not due to demand from their constituents. A recent poll shows that 81 percent of Democrats oppose moving the embassy while only 15 percent approve. And polls show there is not strong support for such a move among American Jews, either. This is an extreme example of how the Democratic leadership and Congressional delegation diverge from their constituencies on major foreign policy issues. ...
Trump’s dangerous and provocative move regarding Jerusalem—like so many of his reckless policies both abroad and at home—requires strong, broad-based opposition. It is unfortunate that, at least in this case, there is no real opposition party.
“Settlers in the White House”: Palestinians Denounce Trump Jerusalem Order & Protest in Day of Rage
Trump calls on Saudis to immediately end Yemen blockade
President Donald Trump on Wednesday called on Saudi Arabia to end its Yemen blockade immediately, citing humanitarian concerns.
"I have directed officials in my Administration to call the leadership of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to request that they completely allow food, fuel, water, and medicine to reach the Yemeni people who desperately need it," Trump said in a statement.
A Saudi-led coalition has been fighting to defeat the Iran-backed Houthis — at one point allied with ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh's forces in Yemen — since March 2015. The coalition has imposed a blockade on the country, with the aim of reinstating the internationally recognized government of Saleh's successor, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. ...
Global anti-poverty organization Oxfam praised Trump's action but called on him to do more to stop the bloodshed, including pushing for a ceasefire and ending arms sales to the Saudi-led coalition.
Is Saudi Arabia Destroying Yemen to Plunder It?
Saudi air strikes on Yemen intensify, residents in capital stay indoors
A Saudi-led coalition stepped up air strikes on Yemen’s Houthis on Wednesday as the Iran-allied armed movement tightened its grip on Sanaa a day after the son of slain former president Ali Abdullah Saleh vowed revenge for his father’s death.
Former president Saleh plunged the country deeper into turmoil last week by switching allegiances after years helping the Houthis win control of much of the country’s north including the capital. He was killed in an attack on his convoy on Monday.
The pro-Houthi Al Masirah television station said on Wednesday Saudi Arabia and its allies had bombed Saleh’s residence and other houses of his family members now controlled by the Houthis. Air strikes also hit northern provinces including Taiz, Hajjah, Midi and Saada, it said.
There was no immediate word on casualties. ...
Many Sanaa residents were staying indoors on Wednesday out of fear of a Houthi crackdown. On Tuesday, Saleh supporters said his nephew Tareq, another top commander, and the head of his party, Aref Zouka, had both been killed.
Putin declares "complete victory" on both banks of Euphrates in Syria
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday a complete victory had been achieved over Islamic State militants on both banks of the Euphrates river in Syria.
In comments released by the Kremlin, Putin said the military operation in the area was now finished, and that the focus would switch to a political process that would eventually involve presidential and parliamentary elections.
Putin did not specify whether he was referring to the end of military operations in the whole of Syria, or just the areas around the Euphrates valley.
North Korea says U.S. threats make war unavoidable
Two American B-1B heavy bombers joined large-scale combat drills over South Korea on Thursday amid warnings from North Korea that the exercises and U.S. threats have made the outbreak of war “an established fact.”
The annual U.S.-South Korean “Vigilant Ace” exercises feature 230 aircraft, including some of the most advanced U.S. stealth warplanes. They come a week after North Korea tested its most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) to date, which it says can reach all of the United States.
North Korea’s foreign ministry blamed the drills and “confrontational warmongering” by U.S. officials for making war inevitable.
“The remaining question now is: when will the war break out?” it said in a statement carried by North Korea’s official KCNA news agency.
“We do not wish for a war but shall not hide from it.”
Crisis of Honduras democracy has roots in US tacit support for 2009 coup
Eleven days after its general election, Honduras still has no president. Since the 26 November vote, at least 11 people have died in clashes with security forces, and tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in protests over an electoral process marked by suspicious delays, inexplicable irregularities – and opposition claims that the ruling party is trying to steal the election. ...
For many, what is at stake is the credibility of Honduran democracy, which is still reeling from a 2009 military coup against populist president Manuel Zelaya. The political turmoil will likely have far-reaching consequences, and the United States, which wields considerable influence in the country, shares some responsibility for creating the political landscape that laid the ground for the crisis. ...
As well as calling for an end to the electoral crisis, Honduran protesters have expressed outrage over a string of scandals including the murder of environmental activist Berta Cáceres, the pilfering of the country’s social security agency and allegations that associates of rightwing incumbent Juan Orlando Hernández are involved in the drug trade.
Honduras has long been a strategic partner for Washington: since 2009, the US has invested nearly $114m in security assistance to establish elite military and police units, ratchet up border security, and carry out counternarcotics operations as part of Hernández’s crackdown on gangs. ... And despite corruption scandals implicating the government, Hernández is still regarded as a reliable US ally. But the US government has barely commented on the current crisis, beyond a few embassy statements praising a partial recount and “lamenting” the violence.
As Egypt Arrests and Tortures Gay People, It Enlists the Help of Pro-LGBTQ PR Firm in Washington
To commemorate Gay Pride month this past summer, Howard Pulchin, an executive at the giant public relations and lobbying firm APCO, published a somber essay on the company’s website. Pride “feels awfully different” this year, he wrote, alluding to a rising tide of anti-gay sentiment. News had broken of anti-gay pogroms in Chechnya. In Washington, President Donald Trump’s administration was rolling back protections for transgender students. “It feels more urgent and a bit less celebratory,” Pulchin wrote. APCO Chief Executive Brad Staples weighed in, too: “The corporate world is taking a stand,” he wrote. “The next generation of young global citizens will ask a simple but difficult question: ‘Why did it take so long?’” To accompany these essays, APCO created a video and hashtag, #WhyPrideMatters, celebrating its queer employees.
Less than a month later, APCO took on a $1.2 million annual contract to work with Egypt’s notorious spy services, the General Intelligence Directorate, to promote the Egyptian government’s interests in D.C.
The contract with Egypt was an especially awkward fit for APCO, given the firm’s public association with gay rights causes. Egypt has a long record of persecuting its LGBTQ citizens. Going back to the 1970s, Egyptian courts have interpreted anti-sodomy laws to target those deemed sexually subversive. Soon after APCO signed its deal with Cairo, police in Egypt launched an especially brutal crackdown, rounding up dozens of suspected gay people and subjecting some to forced anal probes. ...
While Egyptian police rounded up LGBTQ citizens, APCO got to work. The group ignored the crackdown and instead wrote and distributed flattering pamphlets praising the Egyptian government, reached out to influential American think tanks on Egypt’s behalf, tried to persuade American news outlets to write upbeat items about Egypt’s trajectory, and circulated positive news articles about Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi — whose public prosecutor, Nabil Sadek, spearheaded the attacks on gay Egyptians.
US evangelical preacher should be banned from entering UK, critics say
Opposition is mounting to a planned visit to the UK by a leading American conservative evangelical Christian who has made Islamophobic and anti-gay statements, with critics saying it will promote prejudice and damage interfaith relations.
Several MPs, including a government minister, have urged the home secretary to consider refusing UK entry to Franklin Graham, with some suggesting his comments contravene British laws on hate speech. A petition against Graham being granted a visa has gathered more than 4,600 signatures.
Nina Parker, the pastor of Liberty church in Blackpool and the organiser of the petition, said: “As a Christian and as a leader of a church that particularly welcomes LGBT people, I’m horrified that other local churches are inviting someone with this record of hate speech.”
She said Graham’s visit had triggered an “enormous amount of protest from Christians in the north-west” of England, and his presence would be “extremely destructive in the area”.
MSNBC Reverses Decision to Fire Contributor Sam Seder
Progressive radio and television personality Sam Seder will be offered his MSNBC contributor job back and plans to accept, according to multiple MSNBC sources. Seder and MSNBC were set to part ways when his contributor contract expired next year, with reports indicating the departure had to do with a 2009 tweet from Seder surfaced by the far-right provocateur Mike Cernovich. After initially caving in to right-wing internet outrage over the tweet, MSNBC reversed its decision to not renew Seder’s contract.
“I appreciate MSNBC’s thoughtful reconsideration and willingness to understand the cynical motives of those who intentionally misrepresented my tweet for their own toxic, political purposes,” Seder said in a statement to The Intercept. “We are experiencing an important and long overdue moment of empowerment for the victims of sexual assault and of reckoning for their perpetrators. I’m proud that MSNBC and its staff have set a clear example of the need to get it right.”
Cernovich is a right-wing provocateur and conspiracy theorist who works in hand-in-glove with white supremacists. Cernovich dug up a 2009 tweet from Seder and claimed it endorsed rape. The tweet was meant as a satirical criticism of accused rapist Roman Polanski’s liberal defenders, but MSNBC took Cernovich’s bad-faith reading at face value and fired Seder.
“Sometimes you just get one wrong,” said MSNBC president Phil Griffin in a statement to The Intercept, “and that’s what happened here."
Shouting #StoptheFCC, Net Neutrality Defenders Target Lawmakers and Verizon Nationwide
With the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) slated to vote on Chairman Ajit Pai's plan to kill net neutrality on Dec. 14, open internet advocates and free press groups participated in planned protests on Thursday at congressional offices and more than 700 Verizon stores in all 50 states, plus D.C.
Ahead of the day of action, BattlefortheNet.com, Demand Progress, Fight for the Future, and Free Press Action Fund partnered to launch a website featuring an interactive map to help supporters locate demonstrations in their area as well as a three-page guide for organizing protests.
Protesters are targeting Verizon because Pai is a former lobbyist for the company, which has—along with major internet service providers (ISPs) Comcast and AT&T—invested heavily in pressuring lawmakers to support policies that benefit telecom companies at the expense of consumers.
Despite the ongoing lobbying efforts, those who have helped organize the demonstrations remain hopeful that widespread outrage over Pai's plan could push members of Congress to take action to protect net neutrality.
Republicans Plan to Cut Food Stamps as Homelessness Rises in the US
Even though poverty is a difficult, many-faceted problem, the US stands out in how openly it hates the poor, even as its economic system looks increasingly designed to produce more of them.
The Republican party, doing the bidding of members of the 0.1% and ideologues who treat poverty as the result of the lack of a work ethic, have made cutting the food stamp program a top priority. ... Democrats are all with the bogus premise that Federal deficit spending is a problem, and therefore budget cuts are necessary and desirable. Since neither party will cut military spending or corporate pork, the only thing left to cut is social safety nets. ...
The Republican canard is the claim that the food stamp program is full of modern welfare queens, slough-offs who need to get off their couches and find work. First, as readers know all too well, there is plenty of un and underemployment in the US. People would not be accepting debilitating warehouse jobs at Amazon if there was adequate demand for workers. Nearly 95% of the jobs created when Obama was in office were part time or contract work. Those willing to work can’t necessarily cobble together the equivalent of a full time paycheck.
Second, many jobs pay only the minimum wage, which is below a living wage for a family even with two earners, and below a living wage even for single people in virtually all cities in the US. And what are people in the boonies told to do? Move to cities to get work, even though they seldom have the personal connections to help them land a job there, and often don’t have enough scratch to fund a relocation (as in have enough money to put down a deposit on a rental). Third, in keeping with the fact that many jobs don’t pay a living wage, people who are employed are also on food stamps. ...
Don’t expect the Democrats to do much, save for a few bona fide progressives who run on the Democratic party ticket. They also think the well-off deserve their high incomes, and while they express more concern about the poor, they are loath to spend any chips.
Keiser Report: Tax Tyranny
The cop who gunned down Walter Scott sentenced to 19-24 years in prison
The white police officer who gunned down a black man in broad daylight two years ago as he fled on foot in Charleston, South Carolina, was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison.
In May, Slager pleaded guilty to Deprivation of Rights Under Color Of Law, a federal civil rights charge, in exchange for dropping the two other federal charges and the original state murder charges he was facing. His state trial ended in a mistrial last December because jurors couldn’t agree whether Slager had committed a crime or not.
The civil rights charge carries a potential sentence of anywhere between no time to life.
U.S. District Judge David Norton ruled that Slager committed second-degree murder and obstruction of justice, both underlying charges, and set sentencing guidelines of 19 to 24 years in prison. Norton said that Slager took Scott’s life “out of malice,” according to reporters in the courtroom.
What a surprise. I'm shocked, shocked, I tell you...
Leaked Memo: Democratic Campaign Committee Demands “Unity” of 2018 Candidates
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is making several demands of candidates preparing for the 2018 House elections, according to an internal memo obtained by TYT. The memo dictates policies on campaign spending and sexual harassment, and outlines requirements for Democratic Party “unity.” An email accompanying the memo gives campaigns until Thursday, December 8, to respond. ...
Although the memo does not mention the highly contentious 2016 presidential primary, it includes a requirement that the campaigns must agree “not to engage in tactics that do harm to our chances of winning a General Election.” The memo does not identify what tactics it is prohibiting. Candidates also must “hold a unity event with their primary opponents following a primary,” the memo says. What would constitute a “unity event” is also not made explicit.
With a wave of left-wing primary challengers seeking office, the memo’s dictates are being seen by some campaign staff as discouraging intraparty debate. One strategist working on a Democratic congressional campaign, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said that barring primary candidates from using tactics that might disadvantage the winner in the general election gives the edge to “corporatist candidates who have super PAC backing.” Those super PACs could carry out such attacks while smaller, grassroots campaigns without super PACs would be unable to respond.
“This is systematically designed to disadvantage progressives,” enrich DCCC “cronies,” and discourage the hiring of “progressive campaign staff,” the strategist said.
House votes to stop effort by some Democrats to impeach Donald Trump
The House on Wednesday voted to stop an effort by some Democrats to impeach Donald Trump. A total of 58 Democrats voted to move forward on articles of impeachment brought by congressman Al Green, a Democrat of Texas. Another four voted “present”, a vote indicating neither for nor against.
In his resolution, Green said Trump’s “association” with white nationalism, neo-Nazism and his incitement of hatred and hostility was evidence that he was not fit to occupy the Oval Office. The resolution did not make reference to the Russia inquiry. “I have a low tolerance for bigotry,” Green said in an interview after the vote. “I don’t think that obstruction of justice is more important to this country than racism, xenophobia, the hatred and the ugly behavior that’s coming from the White House. I think that we have for too long put hatred on the back burner.” ...
Green took the setback in stride, calling it a “step” in a long, protracted process. He said he was already drafting additional articles of impeachment but had not made a decision on when he will bring those forward. ... Asked if he knew in advance that so many Democrats would support the resolution, Green said he was equally surprised by the number of Democrats who did not.
Al Franken said he’ll resign but didn’t admit to sexual misconduct
Sen. Al Franken announced on Thursday that he will resign from the Senate in the coming weeks, after eight women accused him of forcibly kissing or groping them.
In an emotional speech on the Senate floor, the Minnesota Democrat largely denied the allegations against him and took time to kick President Donald Trump and Alabama Republican Roy Moore, who’s running for Senate, on his way out.
“Some of the allegations against me simply are not true. Others I remember very differently,” he said. “I know in my heart that nothing I have done as a senator — nothing — has brought dishonor on this institution. And I am confident that the Ethics Committee would agree.”
It’s worth noting that only one woman accused Franken, 66, of sexual misconduct while he was a sitting senator (since 2009). The other allegations occurred either during his run for Senate or earlier, when he was a touring comedian and had a radio show.
Climate change is the story you missed in 2017. And the media is to blame
Which story did you hear more about this year – how climate change makes disasters like hurricanes worse, or how Donald Trump threw paper towels at Puerto Ricans? If you answered the latter, you have plenty of company. Academic Jennifer Good analyzed two weeks of hurricane coverage during the height of hurricane season on eight major TV networks, and found that about 60% of the stories included the word Trump, and only about 5% mentioned climate change.
Trump doesn’t just suck the oxygen out of the room; he sucks the carbon dioxide out of the national dialogue. Even in a year when we’ve had string of hurricanes, heatwaves, and wildfires worthy of the Book of Revelation – just what climate scientists have told us to expect – the effect of climate change on extreme weather has been dramatically undercovered. Some of Trump’s tweets generate more national coverage than devastating disasters.
Good’s analysis lines up with research done by my organization, Media Matters for America, which found that TV news outlets gave far too little coverage to the well-documented links between climate change and hurricanes. ABC and NBC both completely failed to bring up climate change during their news coverage of Harvey, a storm that caused the heaviest rainfall ever recorded in the continental US. When Irma hit soon after, breaking the record for hurricane intensity, ABC didn’t do much better. ...
If we are to fend off the worst possible outcomes of climate change, we need to shift as quickly as possible to a cleaner energy system. We could expect more Americans to get on board with that solution if they more fully understood the problem – and that’s where the critical role of the media comes in. As the weather gets worse, we need our journalism to get better.
'We're fighting for our way of life': Republican tax bill presents grave threat to Alaska's tribal groups
For tribal people in northern Alaska, a Republican tax overhaul that was hastily cobbled together in congressional backrooms 3,000 miles away has raised fears that their entire way of life could be erased from this frigid corner of the US. The Senate’s tax bill may land a decisive blow in a 30-year environmental battle over the Arctic national wildlife refuge, a vast untrammeled area hailed as America’s Serengeti by conservationists, by finally prising open the wilderness to oil and gas drilling. The region’s Gwich’in people fret that their primary food source, caribou, may be lost, and with it the future of the tribe itself.
“We are fighting for our way of life right now,” said Bernadette Demientieff, the executive director of the Gwich’in steering committee, who is spending the week in Washington DC to frantically plea the tribe’s case to Congress. “Caribou provide 80% of our food, as well as our clothing. This is a sacred place and we will be wiped out if there is drilling there. We live off the land and this is our garden. Take that away and we starve.”
The reliance on hunted food like caribou is practical in an isolated place where a store-bought box of cereal can cost $24. But it is also deeply cultural – the Gwich’in, a community of 9,000 people spread across 15 settlements in Alaska and Canada, revere the animal in song and dance dating back as long as anyone can remember.
The 170,000-strong porcupine caribou herd, named after a river in the heart of a range the size of Wyoming, are hunted along their lengthy migratory route but the Gwich’in steer clear of them once they reach their coastal calving grounds each spring, so they can give birth and feast on lichen, moss and other foliage. More than 40,000 caribou are born each year before they trudge onward along the coast, to avoid the summer mosquitoes. It’s in this nursery area on the coastal plan of the Arctic refuge, also known as the 1002 zone, that drilling is set to be permitted, with two lease sales for oil and gas to be sold off in the next decade. Scientists, aware of the refuge’s geography, where mountains and foothills press up against the coast, have warned that this narrow corridor could be broken up by new fossil fuel development.
California: Four wildfires rage in the Los Angeles area
California wildfires: winds pose ‘extreme danger’ for Los Angeles
Wildfires blazing through California have entered the heart of Los Angeles as authorities warned of an “extreme fire danger” across the city. Firefighters in the affluent Bel-Air neighbourhood battled to save multimillion-dollar estates in the path of the flames, which have destroyed homes near the Getty museum in America’s second-largest city.
Video and photographs posted on social media showed hillsides above busy roads covered in flames, rows of houses reduced to ash, and firefighters spraying water on walls of fire. The largest blaze, the Thomas fire, has covered more than 95,000 acres, destroying more than 150 homes and threatening thousands more in Ventura, about 50 miles (80 km) north-west of Los Angeles.
With winds forecast to reach 80mph, officials have warned the worst could be yet to come. An alert sent by the countrywide emergency system in Los Angeles said: “Strong winds overnight creating extreme fire danger.” The fear is that the winds, blowing westward from the California desert, could stoke several blazes burning in the Los Angeles area that have already forced an estimated 200,000 people to evacuate.
“We are in the beginning of a protracted wind event,” Ken Pimlott, the director of the California department of forestry and fire protection, told the Los Angeles Times. “There will be no ability to fight fire in these kinds of winds.”
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Franken’s Opportunism on the Iraq War
Nine examples of Netanyahu's interference that would make Vladimir Putin blush
In article on Jerusalem, New York Times falsifies history of 1948, 1967
Russia-gate’s Reach into Journalism
Shaun King goes all in for lesser-of-two evils voting
Amazon is running its own hunger games – and all the players will be losers
A Pizza Problem: Why Those Third Party Polls Don’t Pan Out
A Little Night Music
Sammy Price - 133rd Street Boogie
Sammy Price - Things about coming my way
Sammy Price - I'm wondering
Sammy Price - Lead Me Daddy, Straight to the Bar
Sammy Price - Black Cat Bone
Sammy Price And The Rock Band - Rib Joint
Sammy Price - The King Of Boogie
Sammy Price & His Texas Blusicians - Do You Dig My Jive
Sammy Price And The Rock Band - Bar-B-Q-Sauce
Comments
Hello js, bluesters! How’s the weather?
We finally got some snow in Santa Fe today, really beautiful to see piled up on top of the trees and plants and buildings.
Sending this from the NM Railrunner train to Albuquerque where we will attend the annual WildEarth Guardians Treehugger Bash! Should be both informative and fun, food at The Grove is always tasty!
Something to celebrate, and fight for?
Have a great evening, all !
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
evening do...
it has been reasonably nice here for quite a while, but it is starting to cool off.
who knew this winter thing might happen?
anyway, it is supposed to start getting down into the teens at night here by midweek next week, for now it's in the mid thirties.
hope everything there is going well and the wild earth guardians are kicking ass and taking names.
I'm late to the party on this one...
This song apparently came out 20 years ago, I just found it yesterday.
Iris Dement "Livin' in the Wasteland of the Free"
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYqDpL0YCvI]
plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose
Modern cities can burn. The Oakland fire in 1991 proved that. It's being proven again in SoCal today. Even Rupert Murdoch's estate got singed. Burning Bel Air down ... sounds like a song, doesn't it? Winds are too strong for the slurry bombers to make runs. People are probably reluctant to bulldoze mansions to create fire breaks.
I've been expecting the collapse of industrial civilization for almost 40 years now. It isn't playing out the way I thought it would, and it took a long time to get started, but now it's happening with breathtaking speed. Isn't that always the way?
"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone
evening woodsdweller...
cool tune, thanks!
that's the thing about collapses, they hit a tipping point, things give way and gravity takes over. i think that we're still waiting for the "things give way" part to kick in for the upper floors of the structure to go - but when she goes, it's going to be impressive.
The DCCC Can Lose A Wave Election
Because losing is what the DCCC excels at. Down With Tyranny explains an MOU that instructs candidates to send 75% of all campaign contributions to the DCCC for help from their "campaign professionals". This was the response:
Or:
Because the DCCC has a long tradition of losing:
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2017/12/could-dccc-staff-actually-de...
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
From your article
Yep. There's a difference between the two parties alright. After the shellacking democrats got, instead of trying to stop the hemorrhage, Pelosi picked the worst candidate ever to run the DCCC.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
evening mm...
i keep wondering how much the dems can lose and remain a viable party. they are pretty far down now, having lost a thousand seats across the country in state legislatures and almost enough states have turned over to allow the republicans to call a constitutional convention.
whigs?
So, the good news is the VA backtracked...
On cutting HUD-VASH completely.
The bad news is that they still have to counsel me to stop using marijuana, even though it's the most currently effective medication for my PTSD. Welcome back to the big pharma train that I loathe, but if I wanna get paid a living pension instead of the little one I get now, I have to jump through the hoops...
You know, I sometimes feel like I've got my life all set up the way I like it... then the government goes and pushes out a Country update that screws everything up again... And I'm really not stoked about this new expansion they want us to pay for...
Hell with it. I think we here in Oregon should try some open source Citizenship for a change. America is so loaded with legacy bugs that the griefers demand we keep, the damn thing's nearly unplayable.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
evening dmw...
glad to hear that the republicans (and some democrats) are not going to express their gratitude to you by cutting your benefits.
take care!
Oh man, I just went off.
Got a phone call, land line, the caller id said Washington, D.C. Decided to answer it, figured it was either a job offer or some kind of a poll.
The voice on the other end went into a spiel about the tax reform bill, how it was good for Americans and wanted support to help it along.
Heh, I bet his ear is still hurting, I didn't give him a chance to reply to my tirade. Boy, as soon as I heard him say it was good for Americans I laid into him, poor guy, but maybe he'd already heard it from others. He probably wished I hadn't answered the phone.
"See that, it's a tree".
"It is not, it's a rock".
"Fuck you, it's a tree!, Jesus can't you see?"
I don't know, like I said the other day, going off the rails on a crazy train.
evening al...
glad that you have the patience to talk to those fellows and lay the truth on them. i hope that it feels good to get it off your chest, too.
Evening joe,
in retrospect, I should have given him a chance to respond but I wasn't in the mood. Anyone who isn't rich or very well off AND selfish that believes this bill is good for all americans is just stupid. I'm tired of dealing with that level of stupidity.
homeless
Evening all,
Thanks for the news as usual Joe. Coming into Albuquerque on the train from Santa Fe saw two tents set up right by the tracks. Exceprional, right? Getting down to 16 tonight and know they are not the only people out there. Sad to see what is happening in to food stamps and other assistance for people.
On another note, slightly cynical, the fires in california much like hurricane harvey do not pay attention to wealth. Climate change affects us all. Heart goes out to all who are experiencing these fires.
Life is what you make it, so make it something worthwhile.
This ain't no dress rehearsal!
evening jb...
yeah, it's a tough time to be living outdoors. in researching how to put solar panels on top of my camper, i ran across a bunch of youtube channels dedicated to helping people who wind up living in their cars figure out how to survive the assorted difficulties of living that way. it appears that networks of mutual aid are developing amongst that community (which warms the cockles of my anarchist heart) and they are helping each other get by.
while i am glad to see the support community develop, i am pissed that so many people have to live that way in a country where all of the scarcity of needs is manufactured.
Re: camper
If I still had money (I don't and probably never will again) I would be looking into building a survival camper. There might be a period of a couple years when it's too dangerous to stay in one place, but services are still available to keep a rig operating. Stay out of the refugee camps at any cost.
Panels on the roof - look at the roof of an RV, they are full of crap. In particular are the heating/air conditioning units designed for plugging into the grid aren't a good use of roof space if you're off grid. Clear off as much area as possible and pack it with panels.
Tesla has batteries that are about three inches thick designed for wall mount, and RVs have lots of wall area, not much floor area.
On-demand water heater, of course, possibly with a solar pre-heater.
Four season construction (not common, but available).
Replace the refrigerator with a high efficiency model.
Water filters.
You can't do much in the way of food production, but you could grow sprouts.
It's an interesting problem.
"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone
Democrats and food stamps. Killing off FDRs legacy.
When the last time the democrats controlled the Senate under Obama, they cut $4 billion from food stamps so this was 2012 I believe--that sent those cuts onto the House. On another forum I complained, and a poster who was a total dem party apologist said cuts okay because of Obama improved the economy and more people had jobs. Of course, professionals in the field of food scarcity and hunger called the cuts utter bullshit. You know, Bush was more better on food stamps as he increased them I believe in one of his terms because the economy was tanking.
And so Obama signs a bill which cut food stamps in 2014 by $8.7 billion. In signing the spending bill he called it a great example of bi-partisanship. Said jack shit about those cuts.
Of course, the original hit on food stamps was the Clinton's attack on welfare/safety nets.
What gets me is that if there was an utterly righteous program during the FDR years, it was the start of the food stamps program. A program defining the very heart of the New Deal.
I would go into the worst invective about democrats who undermined food stamps, but I will just make myself sick.
Obama was the most effective evil ever
he got a pass on many issues because his supporters only saw the person on the outside. Even when he continued, or ramped up most of the Bush policies, his supporters never held him accountable. He lobbed a tomahawk missile into Yemen the same week he received his Nobel peace prize. He'd bomb wedding parties and funerals and for more fun, he'd drop another one on the people who came to help them. What did we hear from his supporters? Silence.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
evening mr w...
Obama was just doing his job for the .1%
Excellent points, Mr W--thanks! ;-D EOM
Mollie
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
Epic performance from Max and Stacy today.
I hope everyone caught the Keiser Report above.
Winter already in the Old Pueblo, down to 35 or so tonight. Seems like only yesterday it was summer. I had some mesquite left over from last winter, we'll have a fire tonight and some wine.
Have a good night y'all.
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
evening azazello...
max and stacy were definitely right on today.
heh, we are having the same weather for once.
have a great fire and drinks!
I'm experiencing survivor guilt
For now it's only affecting able bodied people, but how long until it gets to people who have disabilities? The elderly?
We're on the path to slow genocide. sociopaths
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
evening snoopy...
yep, the 1% believes that they need to maintain an underclass in order to keep themselves in luxuries, so they manufacture scarcity and subjugation.
on the other hand, they are so ruthless and evil that i shudder to think what might happen if they come to realize that, thanks to advances in automation, a large underclass is not necessary in order to maintain their lifestyle.
Oh yeah, that is being talked about
Have the PTB decided that there are too many people for the dwindling resources? This is what I'm seeing in various comments on the nets. And if so, are we going to take it lying down or fight back. Or die trying?
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
Boy. Shaun King got hammered in the comments
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
heh, good...
i was so offended by his article that i dropped a comment in there for him. i wonder if he reads them.
Yah, I was surprised by that.
And from what I read, the conservative candidate is nowhere near on the same level as Trump but at a local level. The piece was a bit hysterical in a way.
Hola, Joe! Guess I'll
post my 'Deplorables' video tomorrow--got sidetracked by a couple of pressing phone calls (relating to business matters). Actually, it's dawned on me that it may not post at a Drupal site. I'll see what happens after I post this comment. I detest posting 'links,' but this 10-minute video is really worth watching; so, if that's all I can muster--so be it.
Missed Al's resignation speech. It's been criticized by many of the CNN and MSNBC Cable News talking heads this afternoon--as not quite contrite enough. I'm still trying to figure out 'how' it is that they've become the nation's arbitors of morality. Whew!
Seriously, Franken wasn't much of a liberal, but my understanding is that he was pretty diligent and hardworking. IIRC, Al had a perfect SAT score. (Think he's a Harvard grad.)
Regarding Gillibrand, I think that she's running for President. She has to run on identity politics because she's both a New Dem and a member of the Blue Dogs. (I'll post her photo with the BD Coalition if she declares her candidacy. I made a screenshot of it last week.)
Did folks notice that Jim Nabors passed away? Honestly, I thought he was hilarious as Gomer, so was sad to hear it.
Thanks for tonight's EB, Joe. I'm bracing for a hectic day tomorrow, but, at least it's Friday. Also, expecting considerably colder weather over the weekend (even down here). Thankfully, we had major servicing to the heating/cooling system a few weeks ago--including a new and 'fancier' thermostat.
Hey, Everyone have a nice evening!
Mollie
"The standard of living of the average American has to decline. I don't think you can escape that."
--Paul Volcker, The New York Times, October 18, 1979, Page 1.
“If we can divide the electorate this way, we can have them expending their energies fighting amongst themselves, over issues that for us, have no meaning whatsoever."
--USA Bankers Magazine, August 25, 1924
"Every time I lose a dog, he takes a piece of my heart. Every new dog gifts me with a piece of his. Someday, my heart will be total dog, and maybe then I will be just as generous, loving, and forgiving."
--Author Unknown
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
evening mollie...
i've had pretty good luck posting most videos here. take a peek at the embed code and see if it looks similar to youtube or vimeo embed code, if it does, it will probably work here.
yeah, i will give franken credit for being smart and grasping the details of issues. his interaction with betsy devos at her confirmation hearings was a classic. on the other hand, it seems like he let progressives down on a regular basis. surely minnesota can come up with somebody else that's better. as i understand it, keith ellison is on the list of possible replacements.
stay warm and have a great evening!
I'll try it--I figure that some folks
would be less inclined to follow a link, than watch an embedded video. So, fingers crossed!
Guess I should issue a correction - thought I heard that Al Franken had a perfect 1600 SAT score. Just now, came up with this article--guess he didn't.
SAT Scores of the Famous
(Now, I wonder where I heard that. It was during the period of his radio program on Air America.)
I'm going to try to re-find Ryan's 'Better Plan,' and post the portion regarding Medicare 'reform.' Gotta get ahead of it, if possible.
Mollie
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
Good evening, Joe. There seem to be a lot of
Democrats, liberals, progressives and the like really pissed at the lack of greater support for the impeachment bill. Perhaps MR. Green would do better if he could specify where hatred and nazism fell on the spectrum of criminality - are they high crimes, or misdemeanors? Surely he doesn't claim that they are treason, or does he? More importantly, isn't there something meaningful that he could be working on?
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 --
This is rich
Anyone can be removed for Bribery. Isn't this what lobbyists do? They throw enough money to their congress puppet and they pass legislation that is in their favor. If that was ever investigated, it would be one way to get a new congress.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
Sadly, the Supremes redefined bribery to make it
nearly impossible to sustain such a charge unless the parties thereto are morons. You have to *prove* that both parties knowingly and intentionally entered into a specific quid pro quo wherein a specific amount and type of consideration was tendered and accepted in exchange for the performance of a specific act or set of acts. That's why yu almost never see anybody brought up on bribery charges.
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 --
which is, of course, why...
no president will ever be impeached for bribery, it's too obvious that both houses of congress should be cleared out for bribery.
evening el...
apparently, there is a pretty low bar for impeachment in the us, though a higher bar for removal.
conduct, such as receiving an extra-marital consensual blow job (and/or lying about it) is enough to get one impeached by the house.
in my book, cultivating racial hatreds ranks as worse than extra-marital consensual blow jobs and/or lying about them. other people's mileage may vary.
but, frankly, congress does not have a good record of recognizing high crimes when presidents commit them - if they did, pretty much every modern president (along with an assortment of their minions) would be cooling their heels in a jail cell today.
in my view, impeachment is just another silly game with elaborate, exquisitely designed rules that is played out under the big top for the benefit of the rubes in the cheap seats.
Heh. They impeached him for the bj, but they claimed that
it was for perjury. The biggie, as you note is "and Conviction ..." Even so, I can't see the House impeaching for "the crime of racism", not only because there is no statute, but because they'd have to impeach the entire administration.
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 --