The Evening Blues - 2-2-18
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features Georgia blues musician Johnny Jenkins. Enjoy!
Johnny Jenkins & the Pinetoppers - Pinetop
“I was ecstatic when they re-named "French fries" as "freedom fries." Grown men and women in positions of power in the U.S. government showing themselves as idiots.”
-- Johnny Depp
News and Opinion
'Nunes memo' published after Trump declassifies controversial document
Republicans on Friday released a controversial memo that alleges an abuse of power by the FBI in its investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, after Donald Trump declassified the document and accused top officials of bias.
The House intelligence committee chairman, Devin Nunes, published the memo minutes after the president’s approval, despite a warning from the Department of Justice that it would be a “reckless” act. Democrats have portrayed the memo as a crude attempt to undermine the credibility of the Robert Mueller investigation into possible collusion between the Kremlin and members of the Trump campaign.
The four-page memo, released with a letter from the White House, alleges that the FBI omitted key information when it applied for a wiretap on an adviser of Trump’s campaign. The findings “raise concerns with the legitimacy and legality of certain DOJ and FBI interactions” with the court that approves surveillance requests, the memo says. It also claims they “represent a troubling breakdown of legal processes established to protect the American people from abuses”.
The memo’s central claim is that the FBI omitted context in its application to surveil the Trump adviser, Carter Page. The document notes that the FBI used material compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele, whose work was funded by Democrats, and who the memo says was “desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being president”.
The memo also claims that the FBI “terminated” Steele as a source because he spoke with the media, and that texts between an FBI agent and FBI attorney “demonstrated a clear bias against Trump”. The agent was removed from the investigation in December.
Obviously, Dems think memo is dumb & irrelevant, & GOP think it's explosive. Regardless, if these 2 claims in the Nunes memo are true - and it's a big "if" - how is it not significant: 1) DOJ concealed function/origin of Steele dossier; 2) McCabe said no FISA warrant w/o dossier?
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 2, 2018
Russiagate is Dangerous, Will Washington Get the Memo?
Here’s what’s in the GOP’s FBI memo Trump just released
The declassified copy contains some new evidence of the dossier's use, although not much. Here are the main points:
The memo claims that the dossier was an “essential” part of the surveillance application. The memo claims that Former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe testified to the House Intelligence Committee that the FBI would not have gone to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, also known as the FISA court, which grants these types of warrants, without the dossier. There's no quote of his testimony though. The memo also says that the FBI and the Justice Department did not disclose to the FISA court that the dossier had been paid for by Trump’s political opponents, including Hillary Clinton. The initial surveillance application for Page cited a Yahoo News article with information about Page's July 2016 trip to Moscow, when he may have met with the CEO of Russia's leading oil company who's also a longtime associate to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The memo claims that rather than corroborating the dossier, the Yahoo story was actually a product of a leak from Christopher Steele, a former spy who created the dossier and was meeting with journalists. It's unclear, however, what evidence Nunes has. In 2016, Steele told Deputy Attorney General Brad Ohr that he was "desperate" for Trump not to be elected. The Department of Justice and the FBI sought and received authorization for electronic surveillance of Page on Oct. 21, 2016. The FISA court renewed its surveillance authorization for Page three times. Current Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who’s overseeing special counsel Bob Mueller’s Russia investigation, applied for permission to continue surveillance of Page at least once. The memo also confirms that information about George Papadopoulos — who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in October about his communications with Russian officials — spurred the FBI to open a counterintelligence investigation into Russian ties to Trump advisors in July of 2016. That information was first reported by the New York Times.
Dow plunges 600 points -- worst week in 2 yearshttps://t.co/MXhTZ8SZLW
— Ana Cabrera (@AnaCabrera) February 2, 2018
U.S. Media’s Objectivity Questioned Abroad
Pick up a major newspaper or watch the television news in a European country, and it’s more likely than not you’ll quickly find a reference to the New York Times, the Washington Post, or CNN in reporting about the United States. In the era of Donald Trump, this mainstream media “Triad” continues to set the agenda for many foreign news organizations following events in the U.S., providing them with a viewpoint that is promptly transmitted to their readers and viewers as the authoritative interpretation of what’s going on in America.
A funny thing is starting to happen though: well-known public figures and journalists are beginning to point out the obvious, that these important news outlets no longer look objective. Rather, it seems they see themselves as part of the “resistance” against the President. In just the past month, this writer has heard radio hosts, political analysts and even diplomatic personnel in Italy and Switzerland couch their public remarks about Trump with the observation that the U.S. mainstream media can no longer be considered objective. This is a notable shift, because even among those who are decidedly anti-Trump, the Triad is increasingly seen as representing the voice of a certain “establishment,” a grouping that does not speak for the majority of the American people. ...
The 2016 presidential election was a jolt to the system. Suddenly everyone was forced to confront the fact that almost all of the respected media and commentators had gotten it wrong, clearly failing to understand how so many could vote for a candidate considered dangerously unprepared and offensive. Outside of the United States, people were forced to reassess whose news and opinions they could trust, leading to a period of more serious discussion of the economic and social dynamics in the United States and beyond. If half of the voters – combining the support for Gary Johnson, Jill Stein and others with that for Trump – were willing to give their vote to outsiders promising deep changes in the system, then clearly things must not be going as well as the media had been saying.
Trump vs The FBI: What way will public opinion go?
Mattis: 'I need to make the military more lethal'
Defense Secretary James Mattis on Thursday told House and Senate GOP lawmakers gathered at a party retreat here that the Trump administration will request $716 billion for defense spending for the new fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. That figure is nearly $50 billion, or 7 percent, higher than Trump’s fiscal 2018 budget request for the Pentagon. ...
“I need to make the military more lethal. Some people think I’m supposed to be an equal-opportunity employer,” Mattis added, according to several sources in the closed-door meeting. That appeared to be a veiled shot at Democrats who have called for fiscal parity, with domestic spending receiving the same increase as defense spending. ...
Mattis has said he needs a 3 percent to 5 percent increase over inflation each year to rebuild readiness that has eroded after years of budget dysfunction. He also wants the growth to align with the new National Defense Strategy in which the military is set to pivot from years of focusing on terrorism to returning to a so-called great power competition with rivals such as Russia and China.
White House Wants Pentagon to Offer More Options on North Korea
The White House has grown frustrated in recent weeks by what it considers the Pentagon’s reluctance to provide President Trump with options for a military strike against North Korea, according to officials, the latest sign of a deepening split in the administration over how to confront the nuclear-armed regime of Kim Jong-un.
The national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, believes that for Mr. Trump’s warnings to North Korea to be credible, the United States must have well-developed military plans, according to those officials.
But the Pentagon, they say, is worried that the White House is moving too hastily toward military action on the Korean Peninsula that could escalate catastrophically. Giving the president too many options, the officials said, could increase the odds that he will act.
The tensions bubbled to the surface this week with the disclosure that the White House had abandoned plans to nominate a prominent Korea expert, Victor D. Cha, as ambassador to South Korea. Mr. Cha suggested that he was sidelined because he warned administration officials against a “preventive” military strike, which, he later wrote, could spiral “into a war that would likely kill tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of Americans.” ...
For now, the frustration at the White House appears to be limited to senior officials rather than Mr. Trump himself. But the president has shown impatience with his military leaders on other issues, notably the debate over whether to deploy additional American troops to Afghanistan.
Syrian Kurds outraged over mutilation of female fighter
Syrian Kurds have accused Turkish-backed rebels of mutilating then filming the body of one of their female fighters after a video emerged of her corpse. ... A Kurdish official identified the woman as Barin Kobani, who took part in a US-backed campaign to drive the Islamic State jihadist group from the northern town of Kobani.
The Kurds blamed the “terrorist allies of the enemy Turkish state” for mutilating the body of Kobani, who was a member of the all-female Kurdish Women’s Protection Units. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group based in Britain, said it received the video from a Syrian rebel fighting with Turkish forces in the Afrin offensive.
The Kurdish community reacted with outrage, and social media users shared a portrait of Kobani smiling next to another shot of her brutalised body. ...
An SDF spokesman, Mustefa Bali, said the video was reason to continue fighting back against Turkey and its allies. “Imagine the savagery of these invaders with the bodies of our daughters. How would they behave if they took control of our neighbourhoods?” he wrote on Facebook. “All this hatred and barbarity leaves us with a single option: to continue the resistance.”
Tillerson floats possible Venezuelan military coup, says US does not advocate 'regime change'
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Thursday that the U.S. does not advocate for "regime change" in Venezuela, but speculated that the country's military could move to oust President Nicolás Maduro.
Speaking at the University of Texas at Austin ahead of a five-country swing through Latin America and the Caribbean, Tillerson said he did not know whether a military ouster of Maduro would happen, but he hoped change would happen peacefully.
"In the history of Venezuela and South American countries, it is often times that the military is the agent of change when things are so bad and the leadership can no longer serve the people," Tillerson said. "Whether that will be the case here or not, I do not know," he continued.
But Tillerson also said he believed that political change in the country would come, and it would be "easiest" if Maduro chose to step aside. ... He also suggested that if Maduro were to step down amid pressure, he could flee to Cuba.
"If the kitchen gets a little too hot for him, I'm sure he's got some friends in Cuba that can give him a nice hacienda on the beach and he can have a nice life over there," Tillerson said.
EU Imposes Anti-Union Law on Greece
Under instructions from the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the Greek government pushed through the most anti-union legislation in Europe on Monday 15 January.
The move was demanded, along with other draconian measures, as a condition of the latest tranche of what is called Greece’s bailout but which in reality is bailing out the European financial institutions which recklessly encouraged Greek borrowing.
The key concession required from the Syriza government was that industrial action would now require a yes vote from more than half of the total number of union members in a workplace, regardless of the actual turnout. This is even worse than the provisions in the Trade Union Act which came into law in the UK in March 2016.
... The European Union is turning the screw on the most fundamental of all workers’ rights, the right to strike, and using Greece as a test bed for policies it would like to see across all member states. Without the right to take effective strike action, workers have no protection save the courts, and capitalist courts consistently favour the employers.
The Failure Of The Líberal Elíte With Claire Connelly
Draft Legislation Suggests Trump Administration Weighing Work Requirements And Rent Increases For Subsidized Housing
Draft legislation obtained by The Intercept suggests the Department of Housing and Urban Development is eyeing a proposal to overhaul the federal government’s administration of subsidized housing, through measures such as rent hikes and conditioning aid on employment.
This change would significantly impact those who rely on public housing and housing choice vouchers, often referred to as Section 8 in reference to Section 8 of the Housing Act. The news comes just weeks after the Trump administration announced that states could start imposing work requirements as a condition of Medicaid eligibility. ...
It is unclear at this time whether the draft legislative language, dated January 17, will be proposed as a standalone bill or included within existing legislation. There are many parts of the 28-page document that are vague and even contradictory. However its text strongly suggests the administration is considering rent reform.
Under current regulations, most households that receive federal housing subsidies pay 30 percent of their adjusted income as rent. Adjusted income is a household’s gross income minus money taken out for four mandatory deductions: dependent deductions ($40 per month per dependent), elderly and disabled deductions ($400 per year), a child care deduction, and medical and disability expense deduction. This 30 percent threshold, which has been the standard for most rental programs since 1981, is based on a rule-of-thumb measure that estimates a household can devote 30 percent of its income to housing costs before it becomes “burdened.”
The draft legislation eliminates all four deductions, effectively making the changes most burdensome on households with children, the elderly, or people with medical problems.
Democrats Anonymously Target Muslim Candidate, Questioning His Eligibility to Run for Michigan Governor
On the same day that he unveiled an urban agenda that highlights public transportation, affordable housing, and criminal justice reform, Michigan gubernatorial candidate Abdul El-Sayed came under fire in what he has described as a “birther”-like campaign questioning his eligibility to run for governor.
El-Sayed, a lifelong Michigander whose campaign has raised nearly $2 million, could be the first Muslim-American governor in the United States. He is considered the most serious challenger to Democratic frontrunner Gretchen Whitmer ahead of the August primary. And on Monday, Bridge, a Michigan magazine, published an article saying the stint El-Sayed spent as a medical student and professor at Columbia University in New York between 2013 and 2016 could be used against him, writing that “questions surrounding El-Sayed’s candidacy are an open secret among Democrats, particularly in southeast Michigan.”
Most of the Democrats and election lawyers the magazine interviewed spoke on condition of anonymity, because they “didn’t want to be caught up in a controversy.” A controversy has resulted nonetheless, with much of the Detroit press picking up the story. El-Sayed, in a fundraising email, said the article is the work of “establishment Democrats resorting to the kind of birther tactics that opponents to Barack Obama used to discredit his run for the presidency.” ...
The Michigan constitution provides that a candidate for governor must have been a “registered elector in this state” for four years prior to the election. El-Sayed grew up in metro Detroit. He played high school sports and started medical school at the University of Michigan. He completed his medical education in New York, but returned to Detroit in 2015 after being tapped to lead the Detroit Health Department. “While we knew the attacks were coming, we didn’t think they would come in the from of insider Democrats using Trump’s ‘birther’ tactics,” the campaign said in a statement.
Author Of Anti-Trump Book Kicked Off Morning Joe
Ohio and Iowa Are the Latest of Eight States to Consider Anti-Protest Bills Aimed at Pipeline Opponents
Lawmakers in Ohio and Iowa are considering bills that would create new penalties for people who attempt to disrupt the operations of “critical infrastructure” such as pipelines. The bills make the states the latest of at least eight to propose legislation aimed at oil and gas industry protesters since Donald Trump’s election.
The bills were proposed less than a week after the right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council, which has close ties to the fossil fuel industry, finalized a model policy titled the “Critical Infrastructure Protection Act,” which calls for more severe punishment for those who trespass on facilities including oil pipelines, petroleum refineries, liquid natural gas terminals, and railroads used to transport oil and gas. ...
The Iowa bill — developed by a group that includes Dakota Access pipeline parent company Energy Transfer Partners — creates a new felony, “critical infrastructure sabotage,” punishable by up to 25 years in prison and a $100,000 fine.
The Ohio bill includes clauses specifically dedicated to barring drones from flying over infrastructure projects. During the height of protests against the Dakota Access pipeline, a small number of Native American drone pilots used drones to monitor the progress of construction and the activities of police, as well as to publicly document an indigenous aerial perspective of events.
The bills are part of a nationwide trend of states pushing legislation to quiet disruptive protests that beyond fossil fuel development, have centered on themes including police violence, white supremacy, and anti-immigrant policy. According to a database created by the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, 56 bills that would restrict people’s right to peaceful assembly have been introduced in 30 states since the 2016 election.
Almost four environmental defenders a week killed in 2017
The slaughter of people defending their land or environment continued unabated in 2017, with new research showing almost four people a week were killed worldwide in struggles against mines, plantations, poachers and infrastructure projects. The toll of 197 in 2017 – which has risen fourfold since it was first compiled in 2002 – underscores the violence on the frontiers of a global economy driven by expansion and consumption.
“The situation remains critical. Until communities are genuinely included in decisions around the use of their land and natural resources, those who speak out will continue to face harassment, imprisonment and the threat of murder,” said Ben Leather, senior campaigner for Global Witness.
Most of the killings occurred in remote forest areas of developing countries, particularly in Latin America where the abundance of resources is often in inverse proportion to the authority of the law or environmental regulation. Extractive industries were one of the deadliest drivers of violence, according to the figures, which were shared exclusively with the Guardian in an ongoing collaboration with Global Witness to name every victim.
Global Witness believe many more murders go unreported. Defenders are also being beaten, criminalised, threatened or harassed. ... Justice is rare. The assassins are often hired by businessmen or politicians and usually go unpunished. Defenders, who tend to be from poor or indigenous communities, are criminalised and targeted by police or corporate security guards. When they are killed, their families have little recourse to justice or media exposure.
Former national monuments shrunk by Trump to be opened for mining claims
Hundreds of thousands of acres of land that were part of two US national monuments shrunk by Donald Trump are being opened on Friday to mining claims for uranium and other minerals. It is a symbolic step in a broader conflict over the fate of America’s public lands, on which Trump hopes to encourage greater access for extractive industries.
In December, Trump ordered that Bears Ears national monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monument, both in southern Utah and home to ancient Native American sites, spectacular landscapes and rare flora and fauna, be downsized by a total of 2m acres.
His proclamation judged that large portions of the monuments were not unique or of particular scientific or historic interest, a point fiercely contested by environmentalists, Native American groups and scientists, who have brought five lawsuits. Today is when “the Trump administration is no longer stopping itself from opening up those lands to development”, said Dan Hartinger, national monuments campaign director at the Wilderness Society.
A prospector for uranium, gold or other minerals would merely have to hammer poles in the ground or build rock piles demarcating the area they would like to claim, an archaic-seeming approach derived from an 1872 law. For oil and gas it is a lengthier process that, in theory, could see land auctioned off on EnergyNet, a website dubbed “the eBay for public lands”, later this year. Some of the excluded land is still protected under other regulations.
Groundhog Day: Punxsutawney Phil predicts six more weeks of winter
The handlers of Punxsutawney Phil said the furry rodent has predicted six more weeks of winter after seeing his shadow at dawn on Friday.
The top hat-wearing members of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club’s Inner Circle reveal Phil’s forecast every 2 February. It is based on a German legend surrounding Candlemas. The legend says if a furry rodent casts a shadow that day, winter continues. If not, spring comes early. ...
Records dating to 1887 show Phil has now predicted more winter 103 times while forecasting an early spring just 18 times including last year. There are no records for the remaining years.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Ai Weiwei: The refugee crisis isn’t about refugees. It’s about us
No, Kansas, you can’t ban contractors from boycotting Israel
Trump: I 'Didn't Care' About Arctic Drilling Until My Big Oil Friend Said I Should
Trump’s Durable Base: Eight Reasons
A Little Night Music
Johnny Jenkins - Don't Start Me Talkin'
Otis Redding & Johnny Jenkins - Shout Bamalama
Johnny Jenkins - Bashful Guitar
Johnny Jenkins - Blind Bats And Swamp Rats
Johnny Jenkins - 'Til the Blues Go Home
Johnny Jenkins and the Pinetoppers - Love Twist / Spunky
Johnny Jenkins & Duane Allman - My Love Will Never Die / I Don't Want No Woman
Johnny Jenkins - Voodoo In You
Johnny Jenkins - Leaving Trunk
Johnny Jenkins - Rollin' Stone
Johnny Jenkins - Honky Tonk
Johnny Jenkins & the Pinetoppers
Comments
Leave the groundhog alone.
The stupidity of harassing a creature to come up with a stupid, unscientific forecast seems to fit right in with the mentality of the general population.
You wake me up at dawn only to be mauled.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
evening pricknick...
heh, the groundhog is just trading on his looks and shiny coat. the forecast is made up by humans. if it's any consolation, i seem to remember hearing that "phil" is somebody's pet and lives a fairly pampered existence for a groundhog.
Phil's a pet.
I believe that's correct. Phil's no wild critter. And he (and all the Phils before him) does live a very pampered life for a groundhog.
There's only one non-human mammal more spoiled on this Continent: my cat, Chocolate!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Porky Dems Gaslighting Net Neutrality
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6KdNiVhlCg]
Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.
Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.
evening ac...
what a surprise to find out that the (ppi/turd way) corporate dems are fighting for big money interests. i can barely contain my shock.
thanks for the vid!
The kids are alright ...
Good interview with Claire Connelly, I'd never heard of her before. People like her and Aaron Mate give me hope. I did have one tiny quibble with Claire. She says, early in the interview that the UK and Australia "followed the US" into Neoliberalism. Not so. Neoliberalism has always been Trans-Atlantic, an Anglo-American project involving all Anglophone countries. Maggie Thatcher was elected before Ronald Reagan was. Britain was an imperialist power long before the US was, and if you want to go back even further, African slavery, our nation's original sin, was instituted when Americans were British subjects.
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
evening azazello...
i'd agree with you about the transatlantic origins of neoliberalism. it seems to me that it is an outgrowth of industrial capitalism. you might say that neoliberalism was born when very early industrial capitalists realized that they were going to have to create scarcity (cut people off from their traditional means of support including hunting, subsistence agriculture, etc.) in order to create a labor pool of slaves for their factories.
Today is the 75th anniversary
of the Red Army's victory at Stalingrad. If history tells us anything, it's don't fuck with the Russians. What are they thinking ?
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
heh...
i dunno. frankly, i think they're nuts. death wish?
i'm sure that they have an angle, though.
Ranks right up there with "Don't get bogged down in a land
war in Southeast Asia". But, the thing is, we're exceptional.
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 --
African slavery
Started by Africans selling their neighbors as slaves to the white people.
And those Africans were also British subjects, for the most part!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Aaron MATÉ and Steven F. Cohen interview
is the kind of analysis I appreciate most. Thanks for posting it.
Nobody other than Cohen has said that (or at least I haven't read or heard it)
A lot of things to get angry about.
Good Night.
https://www.euronews.com/
evening mimi...
cohen has been a consistent voice warning about the build up to a hot war with russia by the neocons and their media wurlitzer.
have a great weekend!
Then we hypocritically call out Russia for its aggression
Oh noes, Russia is responding to our putting troops into countries that share borders so that means that Russia is being aggressive and we have to get ready for war.
The war with them was planned before the election and Hillary's loss gave them their excuse to accuse Russia of stretching their britches and we need to take them down a peg. Not to mention that little coup in Ukraine which also gave us an excuse to send all types of military equipment into it. Neo Nazis are running wild? Oops, our bad. But we gotta get this war on. Gawd I wish people would wake the Hell up and see how they are being played.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Some experts are saying that we are closer to nuclear war
than anytime during the Cold War. This poking the Russian bear has real and dire consequences, yet people are not aware of what they are trying to do with Russia by hampering Trump. And I don't have a lot of faith in the military people he has surrounded himself with. But it's great for the defense companies profits.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Hi, Snoopy, Hi Joe, Hi folks ...
as you know almost everything I read and hear is beyond my paygrade, the only thing I get are my guts and this leaves me with trusting or believing in just few authors and interviewers.
Here is one which always makes clear to me what I didn't understand before. Also, I am a normal person with a life, so most of the things you all know, pass by me unrecognized. This one is an example for what I needed to hear to understand why - as it was often mentioned here - guys like Pence are so dangerous. I mean, who in the world would know something like it in Germany? Although these "elements' of the Christian Right cultist ideologgues, swim into our spheres here and create lots of damage, but so far not much realized, I assume. This clip is not new, but still helps me to remind myself what is going on. The images shown of how people are broken down in the backrooms of the churches. It's terrifying. So, I got for the first time what the Christian Right and Alt Right is really all about and I do believe that they both are terribly cruel and dangerous.
[video:https://youtu.be/BGvo9BeJjB8]
Here is another example that I needed to understand at least the minimum of the whole Steele dossier, Nunes memo and other 'collusion' stuff. (The things Blumenthal says about Isikoff's book and the accusations against Jill Stein is beyond my imagination to have happened and the FISA abuses at the FBI) So darn confusing, you would never get this across to the average person in the German public. May be it's just me - but if I look around - no it's not just me) And often I think it's not fair to the average mama to talk too much and too confusingly funny or ironically or sarcastically and not make the effort to "bring it down to the main points". The Real News outlet consistently does a good job to bring the confusing stuff in order and explain it in ways that are more easily be understood (at least by me).
[video:https://youtu.be/7p62o9EMWxw]
Sorry to not understand more from the material I run into. The whole accusations of Russians meddling in the US election and campaigns in 2016 was so outlandish to me that I didn't pay attention really to the arguments brought forwards. If I were serious I would have to spend my whole life in sorting through the giant nothingburger stuff myself and I won't do that. So, everyone, who brings the mess down to a format that can be followed more easily, is my friend. Thanks for giving me some slack.
Oh, PS. I just was able to listen to the whole Lee Camp interview with Claire Conelly. For the first time I understood the connection for a country to issue its own currency and solving social issues in their countries independently. So many difficulties to understand the criticism against EU supporting politicians and why the role of the EU is so important to them and the need to understand what in fact it does mean to the individual countries being members of the EU. I think it needs to be epxlained much more plainly. At least I got a hint now to pursue it further to understand it more.
https://www.euronews.com/
Punxsutawney Phil is full of crap
We had unseasonably warm weather here and our years long drought is back. Punxsutawney Phil is probably a Trump supporter.
Beware the bullshit factories.
evening timmethy...
heh, should i post my recipe for groundhog stew?
i got it from a fellow whose album i produced a bunch of years ago. he had this big, fat groundhog that was undermining the foundation of his barn with his incessant digging.
"U.S. Media’s Objectivity Questioned Abroad"
Writing that the NYTiimes, Washington Post and CNN are no longer considered objective internationally because they are resisting Trump, this writer should name his sources instead of vague "well-known public figures and journalists."
"the observation that the U.S. mainstream media can no longer be considered objective"
That's certainly true, read Fox News and Wall St. Journal for example.
Thanks Joe for another taste of Evening Blues.
To thine own self be true.
evening marilyn...
his claims are anecdotal (and speculative) and he goes on to note in the article that content from the times, wapo and cnn are widely reprinted in europe and are the basis of most european reporting about the u.s. so he is not making any claims that a tipping point has been reached, with a turning of the media tide.
anyway, i thought the anecdotal observations interesting and will be looking to see if there are indications in the foreign media that i pay attention to about the reliability of mainstream u.s. media.
good to see you, have a great weekend!
Thanks js for the eb, particularly enjoyed the
RNN vid interview with Cohen and Camps interview with the Aussie.
Speaking of Net Neutrality, we switched over to Tmobile’s 55 plus unlimited plan recently. Already used up over 25gbin two weeks. Where before we had the left political incorrect Binge on for vids, Hulu, Pandora etc which didn’t count toward our data bucket, now we have unlimited. We have traveled around 400 miles in the last couple of weeks Austin Houston etc and I have gleefully used the google maps and Waze. Played pandora. Watched vids on EB. Occurred to me today that were we sticking around in US the rest of the month we would bump up against the 50gb ceiling and get throttled.
Skeery times that Cohen talks about. Lots to think about generally.
We wonder: While we are off on our budget travel adventures will we return to find that my mother be turned out of the tech nursing center because Medicaid is chopped? Will a war breakout with Korea, Russia or who knows and leave us stranded in the Costa Rican or Zambian outback. Should we stay here and buy some tin foil to cover our windows and doors and duct tape to seal ourselves in? More cheetohs?
Heh. In the last couple of days have visited with friends and relatives in the Austin area ranging from a college prof contemporary of Cohen , a lawyer, a carpenter. Couple of them are big fans of the NYTImes. One can’t believe that the TImes might be wrong about Russiagate, that the Times might be wrong about Trump violating the emoluments clause, that Obama might be responsible for the current powers that Trump is exercising....
Hey, thanks for the news and tunes! Hope you had a good week. Have good weekend!
Jb got some good health news so lawd willing we will be off to CR soon.
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Obama gave Trump his power
After he inherited them from Bush. The difference for me though between Bush and Obama is that Obama ran against the Bush intervention policies. This is why he beat Hillary in the first primary.
As usual Caitlyn has written about this.
Trump Isn’t Another Hitler. He’s Another Obama.
Ahh Caitly, you do have a way with words. The article is worth reading.
We were promised another Hitler. Instead, we got another Obama, who was himself another Bush.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
SD yes we were talking
about that article earlier this week it's spot on.
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...
glad to hear that jb is doing well, congrats jb!
heh, there are some things that are too random to plan for. like the trump administration. i'd say that you are doing the one thing that comes to mind quite frequently when i reflect on the fact that the cheetoh man is the presidunce - getting the hell out of the country. it seems like maybe a good idea.
you guys have a great weekend!
When the PTB saw people shrug when they learned
that they were being spied upon, they decided that if people didn't want to keep their 4th amendment then why not take more of their civil liberties? Asset forfeiture is now the rule of the road. Revoking Habeous Corpus slipped by unnoticed as well as the law that lets the military arrest people and hold them indefinitely without charges or access to a lawyer that Obama signed into one of the NDAAs.
Then they saw people shrug again when cops attacked peaceful protesters so now they're making unconstitutional laws that take away their rights altogether.
This country is slipping into fascism if it's not there already and people are still shrugging. After ICE is done deporting the immigrants, who will they come for next?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
I guess if they build the wall
will it be to keep "those people out" or "us people" in?
evening snoopy...
good observations.
now, when they get rid of the immigrants and the trump base realizes that their lives still suck, i guess they will have to move on to the next group on the list of excuses. i'm sure that they will find another group, and another, and another, until wars, famines, pestillences, deadly climate events, etc. wipe out the rest of the non-elect.
Here is another Jenny Jenkins...
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlPIvFljhSc]
Oh.
Johnny.
Never mind.
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X
evening bisbonian...
heh, that's a pretty good jenkins, anyway.
That's pretty good, too,
. Amazing how much his guitar sounds like a banjo, though.
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X
Actually, it is claimed that Tony Tedesco could make his guitar
sound enough like a banjo that most people couldn't tell.
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 --
Good evening, Joe. Jimmy Dore provided some nice
giggles tonight, thanks. Humor much welcome and much needed these days.
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 --
chooches!
Loved the train/railway images with "Rollin' Stone"!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides