The Evening Blues - 2-10-22
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features zydeco singer and accordion player Alton Jay "Rockin' Dopsie" Rubin. Enjoy!
Rockin' Dopsie & The Zydeco Twisters - The Louisiana Two Step
“We bomb homes, and these people have families -- and the U.S. refuses to apologize for these civilian deaths. The absence of concern makes their actions almost equal to a deliberate targeting of civilians.”
-- William Blum
News and Opinion
Experts Detail Deadly Consequences of US Drone Strikes at Senate Hearing
Experts on the conduct and consequences of U.S. drone strikes delivered harrowing testimony Wednesday at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on two decades of aerial bombardment during the so-called War on Terror.
"Our nation is at a turning point," Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said upon opening the hearing. "In the months after 9/11 we strayed from our values, engaging in torture and indefinite detention at Guantánamo, which continues."
"We also began conducting lethal strikes in unprecedented ways," he continued, later acknowledging the tens of thousands of men, women, and children killed U.S. airstrikes in at least half a dozen nations over the past 20-plus years. ...
The first witness was Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU's National Security Project, who said that former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama "started using drones strikes in Yemen without Congress or the American public ever even having a conversation about it."
"Successive presidents have unilaterally claimed the power to use secretive war-based rules to kill terrorism suspects in multiple other countries around the world where we were not, or are not, at war," Shamsi continued. "Despite widespread, credible reports of terrible civilian deaths and injuries, and lacking any strategic assessment of costs and consequences, or an end goal, the executive branch has kept expanding this program geographically, and in the categories of groups and people who could be killed based only on a president's say-so."
"The legal justifications are vague and ever-shifting, and virtually no other country agrees with them," she added. "If any other country launched this program, we would rightly call it an unlawful, extrajudicial, and arbitrary use of force. Yet it is a core component of what Americans now call our forever or endless wars."
Shamsi later came under fire from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who angrily interrupted her while she was attempting to offer a nuanced answer to a question about whether or not al-Qaeda and ISIS would attack the United States if they could.
Testifying after Shamsi, Radhya al-Mutawakel, chair of the Yemen-based group Mwatana for Human Rights, noted that "the United States has been using lethal force in Yemen for nearly two decades. Regardless of which president or party has controlled the White House, the United States has never fully investigated the civilian cost of its operations in Yemen, has never taken sufficient steps to review the efficacy of these operations, and has never provided civilian victims the acknowledgment, apology, and reparations they are owed."
Al-Mutawakel described in graphic detail how men, women, and children "were going about their everyday lives—driving to visit friends, bringing food to their families, sleeping in their homes—when killed or injured" by U.S. drone strikes, which "also caused other forms of deep and long-lasting civilian harm." ...
Shamsi—an attorney who represents the survivors of an August 29, 2021 drone strike that killed 10 Afghan civilians including seven children as U.S. forces withdrew from Kabul—spoke of fathers who had to "gather up their children's body parts" after aerial attacks.
"My clients' grief is compounded by the fact that, for 19 days, our government kept up false and stigmatizing allegations about their loved ones, wrongly asserting the strike was 'righteous' and 'successful' against ISIS operatives," she said.
"The Pentagon later withdrew those justifications and admitted the strike was a mistake, but the damage is done," she added. "The falsehoods are still widespread in Afghanistan today and my clients remain in daily and imminent danger. Months ago, our government promised to evacuate them. They are still waiting."
Lack of accountability for—or even acknowledgment of—harm done by U.S. drone strikes was a common theme in both Shamsi and al-Mutawakel's testimonies. ...
Shamsi ended her testimony with a set of actions U.S. lawmakers can take "to mitigate actual security concerns abroad and at home" and "help pull us out of this endless war-based spiral and its human, legal, and policy costs."
"First, you can use your oversight powers to demand that executive branch officials testify about their legal and policy justifications for using lethal force in countries where Congress did not authorize it, and make public any legal and policy opinions that seek to justify such drastic and extralegal measures," she said.
"Second," Shamsi continued, "use your core Article I power of the purse to deny funding for unauthorized and unlawful use of force."
Finally, she said, the senators should "help restore our constitutional system of checks and balances and reverse the executive branch's power grab on matters of war and peace."
Al-Mutawakel stressed that "20 years after the U.S. began its secret and unaccountable killings in Yemen, the U.S. should, at long last, change toward a rights-respecting course."
'We're Not Threatening Anyone... We’re the Ones Being Threatened!' - Lavrov
"We Need Restraint": Rep. Ro Khanna Cautions Against Sending U.S. "Lethal Aid" to Ukraine
Even Pentagon States That Russia Has No Plans to Invade Ukraine - Lavrov
The Guardian keeps the propaganda coming:
Belarus military drills to begin as Russia ratchets up Ukraine tensions
Russia and Belarus will begin 10 days of joint military drills on Thursday, setting in train one of the most overtly threatening elements of the Kremlin’s buildup of forces around Ukraine’s borders. Valery Gerasimov, the head of the Russian general staff, arrived in Belarus on Wednesday to oversee the drills. Russia has moved up to 30,000 troops, two battalions of S-400 surface-to-air missile systems and numerous fighter jets into Belarus for joint training exercises with the Belarusian army. Satellite imagery shows much of the hardware has been moved to locations close to the border with Ukraine.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, reportedly told France’s Emmanuel Macron this week that the troops would leave Belarus when the exercises ended on 20 February. Even if that does happen, the drills show that Belarusian dictator, Alexander Lukashenko, is a firm ally in Putin’s Ukraine policy. ...
From the border with Belarus, it is only about 130 miles (210km) down a highway to Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, and the joint exercises add a new front to a potential Russian assault on Ukraine. There is also a threat from the south, where Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014, and from the east, where Moscow has directed an insurgency against Kyiv’s authority and has massed troops close to the Russia-Ukraine border.
War threat escalates as Israel strikes Syrian army targets
In a dramatic escalation of US and NATO provocations against Russia, Israel launched multiple strikes on Syrian army targets near Damascus early Wednesday morning, killing one soldier and wounding five more. The attack brought a rare and sharp denunciation from Russia. ...
Last December, IDF jets overflying the Mediterranean Sea launched one of Israel’s biggest attacks, hitting shipping containers at Syria’s main commercial port Latakia, igniting a massive blaze. While Israel claimed its targets were arms shipments to Hezbollah and Iranian militias, Syrian fire officials in Latakia said the containers held spare auto parts and oil. It followed another attack on the port earlier in December. According to the Russian Center for the Reconciliation of Warring Parties in Syria, Syrian air defences did not engage with Israeli planes because a Russian air force plane was landing at the nearby Khmeimim airbase, implying some degree of collusion between Moscow and Tel Aviv.
Collaboration between the two countries has been close since Syria called for Russian support against the Islamist militias in 2015, with Israel’s former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paying frequent visits to Moscow. Last October, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and President Vladimir Putin reportedly discussed security coordination in Syria at Russia’s Black Sea resort Sochi, with an Israeli minister who attended the meeting hinting that Putin had agreed to let Israel operate freely against Iranian and Hezbollah targets in Syria. As a result, Israel has been able to bomb Syria without fear of any response from Russian planes.
This thaw has ended with the ramping up of US and NATO’s war threats against Russia. US Lieutenant General Erik Kurilla, nominated to take over Central Command that oversees Middle East operations, told the Senate Armed services Committee, the Russia-Ukraine conflict could spill into Syria. Damascus, which signed an agreement with Moscow in 2015 granting it free use of its airbase at Khmeimim, recently extended Russia’s lease on its naval base at Tartus, Moscow’s only naval base in the Mediterranean Sea. Last Friday, Russian naval ships arrived at Tartus to take part in large-scale drills. In mid-January, Syrian and Russian fighter planes and early warning and control aircraft began joint patrols of the airspace along Syria’s borders, including the Golan Heights that have witnessed frequent Israeli air strikes. Moscow said these patrols would now be a regular occurrence. ...
In a sharp break with its previous practice, Moscow responded angrily to Israel’s latest airstrikes. Alexander Yefimov, Russia’s ambassador to Syria, told Novosti that Russia views the Israeli retaliatory strike as “illegal.”
“Russia strongly condemns the Israeli raids on Syria, and calls for an end to them,” he said. “We inform West Jerusalem of this position constantly and at various levels.” Israeli strikes on Syria are “absolutely illegal in terms of international law,” and “leave human casualties, cause tangible material damage, violate Syria’s sovereignty, pose a threat to international civil aviation, and in general increase tension in the already escalating military-political situation.” ...
Israel, which is home to many immigrants from both Russia and Ukraine, had sought to balance between Moscow and Kiev as the conflict escalated. It has largely remained silent in the war of words between the US and its European allies and Russia, as a war would have a disastrous impact on Israel’s economy, reliant as it is on Ukraine as a source of cheap labour for its high-tech industries. ... Israel’s airstrikes against Damascus therefore can only be understood as the result of orders from Washington to up the ante against Russia.
Rep. Ro Khanna: The U.S. Could End the Yemen War Tomorrow. It's Time to Stop Arming the Saudis
CENTCOM Vows More Involvement in UAE’s War Against the Houthis
Gen. Frank McKenzie, the head of US Central Command (CENTCOM), visited the UAE this week and vowed more support for Abu Dhabi’s war against the Houthis as the US escalates its involvement in the war in Yemen.
In the wake of recent Houthi attacks on the UAE, the US is deploying the USS Cole to the country, and McKenzie said a squadron of US F-22s would arrive next week. “We’re going to bring in a squadron of F-22 fighter jets, the best air superiority fighters in the world,” he said, according to UAE state media.
McKenzie said the F-22s will work with the UAE to “help defend the nation.” In recent weeks, the US helped Abu Dhabi intercept Houthi missiles. He said the USS Cole will “patrol the waters of the UAE, working closely with UAE air defenders to protect their nation.”
The cooperation is framed as “defensive” in nature, but it’s important to note that the Houthis wouldn’t be attacking the UAE if the country hadn’t been waging war on Yemen since 2015.
Afghans Demand Truth About Kabul Airport Massacre as U.S. Continues to Deny Soldiers Shot Civilians
Dozens of Republican Senators say they would thwart any Iran agreement if terms were not submitted to Congress for approval
Thirty-three Republicans in the United States Senate have pledged to thwart a new Iran nuclear deal if the administration of President Joe Biden does not present its terms to Congress for approval.
The latest threat from Republicans, who widely opposed the initial 2015 deal and its revival, came on Monday, a day before talks between Iran and other signatories to the accord were set to resume in Vienna. The US is participating indirectly in the negotiations, which all sides have indicated could be reaching an endgame. ...
The Senators argued an agreement would be of “such gravity for US national security” that it would by definition be a treaty requiring the advice and consent of two-thirds of the Senate. ...
Republicans had previously sought to block the 2015 deal, reached under former President Barack Obama, with a resolution, however, Democrats used a mechanism known as the filibuster to block its passage.
Heh, I knew that Ronald Reagan was a terrorist!
"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help. "
Feds Say Questioning Them Is LITERALLY TERRORISM
US-Canada bridge blockade risks huge economic damage, governments warn
Blockades on the busiest border bridge between Canada and the US could have a serious impact on the economies of both countries, disrupting the automotive industry, agricultural exports, and causing multimillion-dollar losses, the two countries’ governments have said.
The warnings came as business associations said that manufacturing plants at the heart of North America’s automotive industry face potential shortages, shutdowns, layoffs as “freedom convoy” protesters continue to block traffic on the Ambassador Bridge, between the car-manufacturing cities of Detroit and Windsor. ...
Late on Wednesday Ford announced that it had been forced to close an engine plant in Windsor, and reduce hours at a second factory because of the blockade.
David Adams, president of auto industry group Global Automakers of Canada, told the Guardian that between 5,000 and 7,000 trucks use the Ambassador Bridge daily to deliver automotive parts. The bridge is responsible for 27% of all Canada-US trade. “It’s a pivotal border crossing,” he said. Vehicles are Canada’s second-largest export, with the US buying more than 90% of that supply.
Business associations warned that manufacturers in the region risk losing $50m a day because of delays.
Pelosi BOWS To Public Pressure To BAN CONGRESS STOCK TRADES
Pelosi Appears Ready to Drop Opposition to Stock Trading Ban
Following pressure from progressives and government watchdog groups, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is reportedly moving toward a proposal to ban members of Congress from trading individual stocks.
The development, first reported Wednesday by Punchbowl News, which cited multiple sources involved in the discussion, marks a shift from Pelosi (D-Calif.). She's previously defended individual stock trading by federal lawmakers, declaring, "We are a free market economy."
The House Administration Committee is reportedly drafting a proposal, which would then be put before Pelosi for her stamp of approval.
According to the reporting, Pelosi and other House Democratic leaders are looking at making changes to the 2012 STOCK Act and possibly other laws including the Ethics in Government Act, and are working out details including how such a proposal would affect lawmakers' family members' stock activity.
In addition to members of Congress, the suite of reforms could also cover senior staff and federal judges.
The shift comes just days after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) indicated he's going to help push a stock trading ban forward—a development which, according to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), is "a big deal."
"It means more and more members are feeling pressured to take a stand on this," the group said. "Let's keep the pressure up!"
Krystal Ball: Woke Union Busters are DESTROYING the Country
Progressives Double Down on Opposition to Clyburn's Anti-Labor SCOTUS Choice
Progressive lawmakers and advocates are intensifying calls for President Joe Biden to consider the interests of working people—not corporations—when he nominates a judge to replace Justice Stephen Breyer on the U.S. Supreme Court as House Majority Whip James Clyburn ramps up his lobbying campaign on behalf of Judge J. Michelle Childs.
"You want somebody who is going to be reflective of the needs of working families and understands that we are moving towards an oligarchy in this country," Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) told Politico Wednesday, without naming a preferred candidate.
As Common Dreams reported last week, Clyburn (D-S.C.) has openly called on Biden to nominate Childs, who is from his home state of South Carolina and who represented numerous employers rather than workers in workplace discrimination and civil rights cases while a partner at law firm Nexsen Pruet.
At The American Progressive, Alexander Sammon wrote on February 2 that Childs has handed down numerous punitive decisions in criminal justice cases, with several being "eventually overturned on appeal by higher courts."
"Judge Childs's repeated opposition to leniency in sentencing and alleged abuse cases brought by prisoners is notable in its own right," wrote Sammon. "That she made those decisions on such dubious grounds that they were routinely overturned by higher courts indicates a commitment to tough-on-crime rulings."
In addition to garnering support from far-right Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Clyburn's push for the U.S. district judge appears to have been effective with some Democratic senators who have a history of supporting workers' rights and other progressive causes, including Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio).
Brown told Politico Tuesday that he would be "enthusiastic" if Childs is the nominee and that Clyburn and others had "reassured" him that she would be a good candidate for the lifetime appointment.
Journalist Emma Vigeland asked on Wednesday how Brown, an ardent backer of the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which would strengthen protections for workers, would square that with his support for Childs.
Representatives of the American Federation of Government Employees and the Association of Flight Attendants told the Washington Post last week that they were wary of Childs' potential nomination, particularly considering the more progressive record of another possible contender—federal Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Brown Jackson, who was confirmed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit last year, spent two years as a public defender, an experience she said resulted in her taking "extra care" as a trial judge later in her career to ensure that defendants "were aware of what was happening to them and why," according to Amy Howe of SCOTUS Blog.
The judge also served as vice chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission.
"During her tenure, the commission sought to alleviate harsh sentences for drug crimes by enacting several amendments to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, including allowing some people with crack-cocaine convictions to seek lighter sentences," wrote Howe earlier this month.
Between Brown Jackson and Childs, the choice for Biden—who has made history by nominating numerous former public defenders to federal judicial seats—"should be easy," tweeted Vigeland.
With Childs appearing to be "the establishment pick," said Reason associate editor Billy Binion on Tuesday, Biden's selection is "a test" of whether he will work to rectify what the president has said were past mistakes regarding the criminal justice system.
Speaking to New York Times columnist Charles Blow on the Black News Channel last week, economist Julianne Malveaux acknowledged that Childs is distinct from many Supreme Court justices and nominees in that she does not have an Ivy League law school education.
"At the same time, I'm extremely concerned about the many ways she has gone with the predatory capitalist view of the world," she said, noting Childs' past labor and criminal justice legal cases.
"There is an embarrassment of riches," Malveaux added, regarding Biden's pledge to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court. "There are so many Black women who are not only qualified, but they are more than qualified."
Did Black Lives Matter Leaders Cash In on a Movement?
Capitol attack inquiry narrows on Trump as panel subpoenas top aide
The House select committee investigating the Capitol attack on Wednesday subpoenaed Donald Trump’s former White House senior adviser Peter Navarro, escalating its inquiry into the former president’s efforts to return himself to office and the January 6 insurrection.
The move to pursue Navarro, who helped finalize the scheme to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election win with political operatives at the Willard hotel in Washington DC, suggests the panel is edging ever closer to examining potential culpability for Trump.
'Manchin Has Probably Doomed the Party': Support for Dems Dips After Child Tax Credit Killed
New polling revealed Wednesday that as Democratic lawmakers have failed in recent months to enact the Build Back Better Act, support for party members has dropped among U.S. voters affected by the expiration of the expanded child tax credit.
The House-approved Build Back Better package would have continued the popular child tax credit (CTC), which gave families monthly payments of up to $300 per child until it ended in December—but the bill stalled in the upper chamber, largely due to Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.).
Some observers blamed the senator for the new Morning Consult survey results—an early signal of what Democratic congressional candidates could face in this year's midterms.
As journalist Jon Walker put it: "You win by delivering for people and you lose by giving them nothing. Manchin has probably doomed the party."
The Week's Ryan Cooper said it is "hard to imagine a better way to tank your own popularity than creating a nice program with a big constituency and then canceling it a few months before campaign season starts."
In a December survey conducted before Manchin declared the Build Back Better Act "dead," 49% of CTC recipients told Morning Consult they would more likely vote for a Democratic congressional candidate, compared with 37% who would back a Republican.
The latest poll, conducted earlier this month, found that now only 44% of recipients would support a Democrat, while the share who said they would vote for a Republican jumped to 43%. In both cases, 14% of recipients said they didn't know or had no opinion.
The share of CTC recipients with unfavorable views of Democrats in Congress rose from 35% to 50% between the December and February polls. Republicans saw a similar but smaller increase in unfavorability during that period—from 41% to 51%.
UN rapporteur ‘appalled’ by convictions for Honduran environmentalists who opposed open-pit mine
Six Honduran environmentalists have been found guilty of crimes against a mining company, in a case widely condemned by legal and human rights experts. The activists, from the small community of Guapinol, have been held in pre-trial detention for two and a half years after opposing an iron oxide mine which has polluted rivers relied upon by thousands of people.
The huge open-pit mine, which is owned by one of the country’s most powerful couples, sits inside a protected national park in Tocoa, a municipality in the country’s northern Colón department. It was sanctioned without community consultation in a process mired by irregularities, according to international experts.
On Wednesday, in a two-to-one divided decision, the court ruled that José Márquez, Kelvin Romero Martínez, José Abelino Cedillo, Porfirio Sorto Cedillo, Orbín Nahúm Hernández, and Ewer Alexander Cedillo Cruz were guilty of criminal damage and illegal detention of the company’s security chief. Two men, Arnold Alemán and Jeremías Martínez, were absolved of the same charges.
Amnesty International, which considers the Guapinol environmentalists to be prisoners of conscience, described the verdict as “outrageous”. ... Mary Lawlor, the UN special rapporteur on human rights defenders, said she was “appalled”, especially given Honduras last month took its seat the UN human rights council. “Honduras has yet again stained its record by not adhering to agreed international obligations. The conviction of the six Guapinol defenders should be quashed,” she said.
The defence intends to seek an amnesty for the convicted men, through a controversial law just passed by the new president.
Scientists Fear Soaring Methane Levels Show Climate Feedback Loop Has Arrived
Fresh U.S. government data spotlighting the rapid growth of atmospheric methane concentrations in recent years has scientists increasingly concerned that the human-caused climate crisis has triggered a vicious feedback loop, potentially resulting in unstoppable planetary warming.
Research published in January by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) showed that atmospheric concentrations of methane—a greenhouse gas that's 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period—soared past 1,900 parts per billion in 2021, which ranked as the fourth-warmest year on record.
As Nature reported Tuesday, "The growth of methane emissions slowed around the turn of the millennium, but began a rapid and mysterious uptick around 2007."
"The spike has caused many researchers to worry that global warming is creating a feedback mechanism that will cause ever more methane to be released, making it even harder to rein in rising temperatures," the outlet noted. "Potential explanations [for the methane surge] range from the expanding exploitation of oil and natural gas and rising emissions from landfill to growing livestock herds and increasing activity by microbes in wetlands."
Euan Nisbet, an Earth scientist at Royal Holloway, University of London, told Nature that "methane levels are growing dangerously fast" as powerful countries around the world refuse to end the extraction of coal, natural gas, and other sources of the pollutant.
"Is warming feeding the warming? It's an incredibly important question," said Nisbet. "As yet, no answer, but it very much looks that way."
Scientists have long feared that the continued burning of fossil fuels risks setting in motion a chain reaction whose consequences—particularly ever-more global warming—are irreversible.
While researchers are still working to discern the extent to which human activity is responsible for the alarming spike in atmospheric methane levels in recent years, scientists have previously warned against categorizing certain causes of methane emissions—such as thawing permafrost—as "natural," given that they are typically a result of human-driven warming.
"Regardless of how this mystery plays out, humans are not off the hook," Nature stressed Tuesday. "Based on their latest analysis of the isotopic trends, [NOAA scientist Xin Lan's] team estimates that anthropogenic sources such as livestock, agricultural waste, landfill, and fossil-fuel extraction accounted for about 62% of total methane emissions since from 2007 to 2016."
NOAA's latest figures were released months after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned in its 2021 landmark report that atmospheric methane levels are currently higher than at any point in the last 800,000 years.
Despite such a dire finding, global policymakers took few steps to substantively address methane emissions at the COP26 climate summit in November. While dozens of additional countries signed on to a pledge to reduce methane emissions by 30% from 2020 levels by the end of the decade, climate groups argued that "pledges are just words on a page without concrete action to make them real."
Amid the COP26 talks, the Biden administration unveiled rules aimed at cutting U.S. methane emissions, but critics said they do not go nearly far enough. The U.S. is the second-largest emitter of methane in the world.
"For too long, we've known the damaging impacts of this potent heat-trapping pollutant, known that oil and gas operations continue to be a major source of it, and known that solutions to drive rapid reductions across the sector already exist—yet still, oil and gas operations continue to release untenably high and entirely preventable methane emissions," Julie McNamara, deputy policy director of the Climate and Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in a statement at the time.
"Swiftly reducing methane emissions," said McNamara, "will result in significant and much-needed near-term climate progress."
Record temperatures forecast as winter heatwave heads for California
An unusual winter heatwave is expected across California this week with record temperatures in the forecast for multiple cities from the San Francisco Bay Area to Los Angeles.
In southern California, where temperatures are predicted to be 15 to 20 degrees above normal from Wednesday morning through Sunday, the National Weather Service upgraded a heat watch to a heat advisory.
The heat watch and advisory were the first to be issued by the Los Angeles weather office in the month of February, according to records dating to 2006. Most heat watches and warnings in the area are issued from May through October. ...
In southern California, bursts of Santa Ana winds accompanied the unseasonable warmth, which was expected to climb to 90F in some areas. Forecasters predicted a high of 87F (30.5C) for downtown LA on Wednesday, just under the date’s record of 89F (31.6C) set in 2016. The normal high is 68F (20C). Downtown LA’s highest February temperature was 95F (35C) on 20 February 1995.
Temperature records could also fall elsewhere, including the San Francisco Bay Area and the Central Valley. In northern California, record temperatures were expected in downtown Sacramento and Redding, which could see a high of 84F.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
China & Russia Declare New Era of Multipolarity
Boris Bashing & the Assange Factor
WallStreetBets Founder: Assange Raises MILLIONS With Crypto
They Don’t Just Lie To Us About Wars. They Lie To Us About Everything.
MintPress Study: NY Times, Washington Post Driving U.S. to War with Russia Over Ukraine
Biden BANS Press From Ukraine Troop Deployment Area
Washington ignores Amnesty Israel ‘apartheid’ report at its peril
13 Youth File 'Vital' Constitutional Climate Lawsuit Against Virginia
“Dignity in the Digital Age”: Rep. Khanna Calls for Wealth Tax & Decentralizing, Diversifying Tech
'Freedom Convoy': US - Canada border crossings closed as protests continue
Canadian Truckers Are Actually WINNING
A Little Night Music
Rockin' Dopsie & The Zydeco Twisters - Allons A Lafayette
Rockin' Dopsie & The Twisters - Rock Me Baby
Rockin' Dopsie - The Back Door
Rockin' Dopsie - No Good Woman
Rockin' Dopsie - My Baby She's Gone
Rockin' Dopsie - Old Time Zydeco
Rocking Dopsie - Zydeco 'Round The World
Rockin' Dopsie & The Zydeco Twisters - Lucille
Clifton Chenier & Rockin' Dupsee - Don't You Want a Man Like Me
Rockin' Dopsie & The Zydeco Twisters - Keep A Knockin'
Comments
Enjoyed learning the two step to zydeco music
in small town hoe downs Saturday nights
while down on the bayous ..
Very similar sound to todays featured artist Rockin' Dopsie
Squeeze box and washboard rhythm. Fun stuff!
Never had a clue what they were singing about
Well some nation should call Israel on the carpet for their aggressive actions.
Won't be the US, for sure. Biden just appointed a billionaire from Raytheon
to head the pentagoons. Wonder what that will lead to? I don't.
Thanks Joe
evening qms...
heh, many years ago i had a visitor from france stay at my house and i played him some zydeco music. he said he could only understand about half of it.
if somebody on the global stage with some clout is going to call out israel in the near term, it's probably russia. that ought to cause some hooting and hollering.
If all the world's powerful are only good at making war
what are they waiting for? At least there would some hope left, that it kills some of them as well.
Can't wait for it.
Thank you for the EB, even if I can't read it anymore.
Have a good Evening all.
evening mimi...
it seems to me that starting wars is only one of their special talents, though arguably the most visible. ah, what would the news be without them?
have a great evening!
War and environmental destruction...what's new?
Sad isn't it?
I like fantasy...imagine if we spent our efforts waging peace and living in harmony with the planet.
Been spending media time in Ottawa...what a fun inspiring protest. OWS on steroids. Tonight might be the police action (about 3 AM). They know that Sat. will be a huge gathering. I suspect the border shut downs are the real burr under the saddle...that's big profit loss. I think there are four crossings now blocked, and a slow roll around the Ottawa airport has been happening today. It's gonna be hard to put the toothpaste back in the tube.
Thanks for the music and news. Like QMS I've been to the town diner/pub/dance in several LA towns. The unique two step is fun. All those little dance halls support lots of little bands. One reason their music is so rich.
All the best!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
evening lookout...
that is a rich vein of fantasy you're mining there.
heh, a nation like canada can easily afford for its parliament to be shut down - for months or years. but it can't afford to have its trade shut down.
have a good one!
"Phew" say democrats after hearing that
I just get the feeling that democrats really don’t want to hold all brand of government because then people expect them to do something beneficial for their lives. We all know what democrats could do if they actually wanted to be in control. They know what happened the last 2 times they promised much and delivered little. And they know that we know why they won’t, but come election time again they will once again promise us much.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
evening snoopy...
i'm sure that they are having trouble imagining how they got in this predicament of controlling both houses and the white house at the same time. however, they are doing a great job of insuring that it won't happen again anytime soon.
Good evening Joe &
snoop.
Dems have been busy insuring that when the train stops entirely, it will be on the next POTUS' watch. Or even sooner than that, both Legislative houses as well as SCOTUS in less than a year.
Joe, the Zydeco was spirit-lifting. really enjoyed it and thank you.
Interesting that Russia is criticizing Israel. Good to see. Not if it leasds to more deaths, however.
The RT clip was the first time I can recall Lavrov looking and sounding anything but genial and confident.
Something wicked this way comes may be true, even if it has seemed like another Wag The Dog play from DC up until now.
As we have been discussing on The Dose, Border Crossing Blockades are a whole other thing from Truckers and bouncy castles. This trade impediment strategy cannot be allowed to stand. The Powers we oppose must DO Something and they will.
I am worried and a little frightened.
This feels like it is for all the marbles. All on the line. Pick your own cliches.
NYCVG
evening nycvg...
heh, to put it in context, those clips were shot after a meeting between lavrov and liz truss who imbibes heavily in the british delusions about russian agression. it was apparently not a pleasant meeting for lavrov.
sounds like a great time, eh?
the blockage of trade is a great strategy if the people are united and wish to depose the state apparatus and replace it.
it appears to me that canada is not at that point.
the powers that be will indeed put a stop to it by whatever means necessary if the blockade goes on past the point of the important people's tolerance. they will probably make a point of crushing the protesters pretty severely in order to make an example of them.
all they want is our money
And their favorite ploy is to scare us about the "others".
oh by the way, I hate Jim Clyburn. And Nancy Pelosi. Pretty much all Democrats and all Republicans.
We were talking, shaharazade and I last night, that if we had a vote between Biden and Putin we wouldn't be voting for Biden. Even though Putin is an old KGB guy (which makes him the equivalent of Daddy Bush, the CIA man). I'm still glad I voted for Biden over Trump. I'm in favor of kicking everybody out as quickly as possible. I know Biden is barely better than Trump...maybe not even that...but I wanted Trump out and now we'll have to get Biden out. And if he doesn't run and if Kamala Harris is the nominee I'm pretty sure the Dems will lose all 3, the Presidency and the two parts of Congress.
Lastly, for today, this is the most cynical I've ever been!
Heh, c'mon, buck up lad, I'm sure ya can do better -
be well and have a good one
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 --
So funny, el
Have you any advice for how to buck up ; ?
My first thought was how to remain discerning in what to buck up to.
Frequent re-reading of The Devil's Dictionary helps.
be well and have a good one
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 --
Those are some great one-liners, el
Thanks for the mention, I had no idea.
My pleasure. My copy is tattered and dog-eared. ;-) n/t
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 --
Don’t get too comfortable at being this cynical
I often think that I can’t get anymore cynical than I am, but then something else comes along and it gets worse. Didn’t Lily Tomlinson say something about that? I’m betting democrats are hoping that Trump does run again because that’s the only way Biden gets re-elected. Clyburn…doing what momma told me to..if I can’t say anything nice… We got Trump because Obama was such a horrible president. I’ve posted an article on how if Biden pulls an Obama we’re getting to get a Trump again, but this time he won’t be as dumb as Trump was. But he’ll be a lot worse. Let me know if you want to read it.
shaharazade made such a good point about how the media doesn’t report the news anymore. It’s true. Right after I read that I looked at HuffPost and saw that half of what they wrote about was Trump, republicans saying something stupid about 1/6, saying something stupid about something else and then lots of articles putting others down and the rest was just gossip about something or someone being stupid. She’s right. No actual reporting on anything that is happening everywhere.
Oops I forgot to hit reply.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Good evening Joe, thanks for the Evening Blues. Be
sure to stay away from all that Democratic gazpacho, can't be good for anybody.
Meantime, as to this:
, perhaps what they really need is restraints, plural. OTOH, as heads is tails, just call me Lucifer ...
OK easy peasy, name = Uncle Sam aka CIA
nature of game = unadulturated evil
be well and have a good one
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...
heh, that ro khanna is a pretty mealy-mouthed mediocrity. i guess biden needs to make a "nice" war with russia.
the gazpacho is coming and i guess we're all in the soup now.
have a great evening!