The Evening Blues - 2-2-21
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features blues piano player Curtis Jones. Enjoy!
Curtis Jones - You Don't Have To Go
“It was a day when I was preparing a speech to be delivered in praise of the Emporor; there would be a lot of lies in the speech and they would be applauded by those who knew that they were lies."
-- St. Augustine
News and Opinion
Biden and Republicans agree to further Covid relief talks but deep divisions remain
Ten Republican senators have agreed to continue talks with the White House in an attempt to negotiate a bipartisan coronavirus relief package, after a two-hour meeting with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on Monday night ended short of a breakthrough.
The meeting lasted much longer than expected, providing a visible example of the president’s stated ambition to reach across the aisle. But the group of senators who emerged from the Oval Office shortly after 7pm did so empty-handed.
The leader of the Republican pack, Susan Collins of Maine, described the meeting with the president and the vice-president as “excellent”, and “frank and very useful”. But she was clear about the huge gulf that still exists between Biden’s proposed $1.9tn package and the alternative posed by the 10 senators, which is less than a third of that size. ...
After the meeting, the White House put out a statement that bluntly underlined Biden’s unwillingness to allow his relief efforts to be delayed. “While there were areas of agreement, the president reiterated his view that Congress must respond boldly and urgently, and noted many areas which the Republican senators’ proposal does not address.”
The lack of any major advance between the two sides means that Democrats are likely to continue to press ahead quickly with plans to push through Biden’s much larger package without Republican support. Hours earlier, the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, and the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, filed a joint budget resolution, a step towards passing a relief package without Republican backing.
The crazy part about the current debate over a check for $1400 vs $2000 is that both are inadequate.
The discussion must be about recurring monthly payments for at least $2000, and there should be back pay for the fact that our government failed to act for months.
— Charles Booker (@Booker4KY) February 1, 2021
Bolstering Reconciliation Case, Study Shows $15 Wage Would Boost Federal Budget By $65 Billion
A new study by a labor economist at the University of California, Berkeley estimates that raising the national minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025 would have a positive federal budget impact of $65.4 billion a year, a finding that could bolster progressive lawmakers' push to pass the long overdue pay hike through the filibuster-proof reconciliation process.
Under current Senate rules, measures deemed to have a "merely incidental" impact on the federal budget cannot be approved through reconciliation, which requires just a simple majority vote.
But U.C. Berkeley economist Michael Reich, the author of the new research paper (pdf), told the New York Times on Sunday that his analysis shows boosting the federal minimum wage to $15 along the lines proposed by the newly introduced Raise the Wage Act of 2021 would have "pretty substantial budgetary impacts."
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the incoming chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, pointed to Reich's findings as further evidence that the minimum wage increase would meet the standard required by the so-called "Byrd Rule," which gives senators the ability to block provisions of reconciliation bills that don't have a direct impact on the federal budget.
"We've got to address the crises facing working families and we're going to pass reconciliation," Sanders told the Times.
New: A $15 minimum wage would save taxpayers $65.4 billion a year including:
-$32 billion in reduced spending
-$21.2 billion in more revenue
-12.2 billion in Social Security expendituresIf that's not a direct impact on the budget, I don't know what is. https://t.co/enHunY9SSx
— Warren Gunnels (@GunnelsWarren) February 1, 2021
Jordan Chariton: Amazon Worker Death SPOTLIGHTS Alleged Unsafe COVID Conditions
All 10 GOP Senators Behind Skimpy $600 Billion Covid Relief Offer Happily Voted for $740 Billion Military Budget
Each of the 10 Republican senators who threw their support behind a widely criticized $600 billion coronavirus relief proposal on Sunday recently approved a whopping $740 billion military budget, a vote progressive lawmakers are highlighting as further evidence of the GOP's warped priorities amid a devastating pandemic and economic crisis.
"Every single one of these Senate Republicans voted to give the Pentagon billions more than what they're willing to give to the American people," Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), chair emeritus of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), tweeted Sunday in response to the GOP's proposed "compromise" package.
Ryan Grim: How AOC Is FORCING Schumer’s Hand On Stimulus
Billionaire WV GOP Gov SHAMES Joe Manchin On Stimulus
As CBO Warns Employment Won't Recover Until 2024, GOP Offers Mere 3-Month Extension of Jobless Aid
As the Congressional Budget Office projected Monday morning that U.S. employment likely won't recover to pre-pandemic levels until 2024, a group of Senate Republicans unveiled a $618 billion coronavirus relief proposal that would only extend emergency jobless aid for three months—an offer that Senate Democrats immediately rejected as cruel and unacceptable.
"The package outlined by 10 Senate Republicans is far too small to provide the relief the American people need," Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), incoming chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement. "In particular, a three-month extension of jobless benefits is a non-starter."
With pandemic unemployment programs set to expire next month without congressional action, Wyden said that "we can't keep jumping from cliff to cliff every few months." At present, around 18 million Americans are receiving some form of unemployment assistance.
"Many states still have not gotten benefits out the door after Donald Trump's tantrum in December caused them to lapse, and we're facing another cliff in just six weeks," said the Oregon Democrat. "Workers who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own shouldn't be constantly worrying that they are going to lose their income overnight."
Russia's Sputnik V Is Found to Be 91.6% Effective, Providing Boost for Global Vaccination Effort
Black Americans make up only 5.4% of Covid-19 vaccine recipients, CDC finds
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found only 5.4% of coronavirus vaccine recipients were black, in its first analysis of how vaccines were given out among different demographic groups in the first month of US distribution.
That is lower than the proportion of black people who are either residents of long-term care homes in the US (14%) or who work in the healthcare field (16%). Both were in the highest priority groups for immunization.
However, the federal health agency emphasized its analysis was hampered by lack of data. While the 64 states and territories and five federal jurisdictions that undertook vaccination reported age and gender in nearly all cases, just over half of records included data on race or ethnicity.
Latinx Covid Deaths Soar 1,000% in Los Angeles as Communities of Color Lag Behind in Vaccine Rollout
Iran’s Zarif Offers Way Out of Nuclear Deal Impasse With US
In an interview with CNN on Monday, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif was asked how the US and Iran could revive the 2015 nuclear deal since each side is calling on the other to act first.
“There can be a mechanism to basically either synchronize it or coordinate what can be done,” Zarif said. He noted that the JCPOA created a Joint Commission headed by the EU foreign policy chief, who is now Joseph Borrell.
Zarif said the Joint Commission could oversee the return to the deal. He said Borrell could “sort of choreograph the actions that are needed to be taken by the United States and the actions that are needed to be taken by Iran.”
Myanmar coup: Suu Kyi no longer West's priority?
Fears army will tighten grip in Myanmar after Aung San Suu Kyi detained
Myanmar has been placed on knife edge, with activists fearing a further clampdown after the military detained Aung San Suu Kyi and other civilian leaders in early morning raids and took direct control of the country in a coup.
A statement attributed to Aung San Suu Kyi said the military, which directly ruled Myanmar for more than 50 years, was trying to reimpose a dictatorship. “I urge people not to accept this, to respond and wholeheartedly to protest against the coup by the military,” it said. It is not possible to verify the message.
Aung San Suu Kyi has not been seen since the coup, but a Facebook message posted on the account of Kyi Toe, the official spokesman of the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD), said she was being held at her official residence, adding: “She’s feeling well — walking in the compound frequently.”
The military’s actions, which came a decade after it agreed to share power with civilian leaders, were condemned by governments around the world.
The US president, Joe Biden, called on the international community to press Myanmar’s military to give up power, release detainees and refrain from violence against civilians. He threatened sanctions, adding that the US will defend democracy around the world.
Threat of Myanmar coup was never far away
Since her election as Myanmar’s de facto leader in 2015, Aung San Suu Kyi’s position has always been a precarious one. For all the international celebration of Myanmar’s transition to democracy after half a century of military rule, in reality the power of the military barely diminished at all. The threat of a coup, the fallback position of the military for decades, had always lingered.
For the past five years, Aung San Suu Kyi has governed Myanmar on the basis of a 2008 constitution drawn up by the military themselves. It enshrined military power, allowing them to appoint 25% of seats in parliament, and preserve their interests while curbing some of the crucial powers of the democratically elected leader of the government.
It was the same constitution that prevented Aung San Suu Kyi being allowed to rule Myanmar as president, due to a clause – aimed specifically at her – which did not allow anyone with foreign relatives to hold presidential office (her children have British citizenship). In the end, she was given the title of state counsellor; a constant reminder that she was never ultimately in charge.
Yet the international community, in particular the EU and US, also holds some responsibility for the events that led up to Monday’s coup. In 2013, blinded by the promise of “political progress” and Aung San Suu Kyi’s release from house arrest, it was the EU that rushed to lift decades of debilitating economic sanctions in Myanmar, without securing any significant concessions from the military and no binding assurance the 2008 constitution would be rewritten.
The US then followed suit in 2016, with Barack Obama keen to have a democratic Myanmar at the heart of his “pivot to Asia” policy. ... Left without leverage over the military after the EU lifted sanctions and the US prepared to do the same, Aung San Suu Kyi evidently felt she had no choice but to take power under the 2008 constitution.
Oregon Decriminalizes Low-Level Possession of All Drugs
In what justice advocates celebrated as a major shift away from the devastating and failed policies of the nation's so-called "war on drugs," Oregon on Monday officially became the first state to decriminalize possession of small amounts of all drugs with a new policy that also aims to boost access various related services.
Oregon voters passed Measure 110, also called the Drug Addiction Treatment and Recovery Act, by a 17% margin in November. The ballot initiative was spearheaded by Drug Policy Action—the advocacy arm of Drug Policy Alliance—in partnership with Oregon groups and supported by over 100 local, state, and national organizations.
"Today, the first domino of our cruel and inhumane war on drugs has fallen—setting off what we expect to be a cascade of other efforts centering health over criminalization," said Drug Policy Alliance executive director Kassandra Frederique in a statement Monday. "For the first time in at least half a century, one place in the United States—Oregon—will show us that we can give people help without punishing them."
"This law is meant to protect people against persecution, harassment, and criminalization at the hands of the state for using drugs and instead [give] access to the supports they need," Frederique explained. "Over the last year, we have been painfully reminded of the harms that come from drug war policing and the absence of necessary health services and other support systems in our communities. Today, Oregon shows us a better, more just world is possible."
As VICE senior editor Manisha Krishnan tweeted, it is a "historic day for drug reform," noting that the measure is expected to reduce racial disparities in drug arrests.
US to resume deporting asylum seekers after judge rejects Biden order
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) is preparing to resume deportations of asylum seekers after a Trump-appointed Texas judge ruled against a 100-day suspension ordered by Joe Biden. The ruling, in response to a challenge from a leading figure in the Republican effort to overturn the election result, marks the first shot in a legal rearguard action by Trump loyalists intended to stymie the Biden administration’s agenda.
Human rights activists said the resumption of flights also raised the question of whether Ice agents, who have been accused of systemic abuse of migrants and detainees, might seek to resist the new administration’s efforts to reform the agency. ...
On taking office on 20 January, the Biden administration ordered a 100-day halt to deportation flights, with certain limited exceptions, while Ice procedures were reviewed to “enable focusing the Department’s resources where they are most needed”. However, a federal judge in Texas, Drew Tipton, appointed by Donald Trump last June, ordered a stay, blocking the suspension, but not the new guidelines. ...
The case against the moratorium was brought by the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, who played a leading role in the effort to overturn the 2020 election result. ... Echoing the language widely used to denounce the ransacking of the Capitol, Paxton described the 100-day deportations moratorium as “a seditious left-wing insurrection” which he had stopped.
Keiser Report | Price Discovery in an Age of Paper
Caitlin Johnstone: Everything About The Biden Administration Is Fake
A new exclusive from The Daily Beast titled “White House Reporters: Biden Team Wanted Our Questions in Advance” reports that the White House press corps is being pressured to provide briefing questions ahead of time in a way that makes even mainstream media journalists uncomfortable.
“While it’s a relief to see briefings return, particularly with a commitment to factual information, the press can’t really do its job in the briefing room if the White House is picking and choosing the questions they want,” one White House correspondent told The Daily Beast. “That’s not really a free press at all.”
“It pissed off enough reporters for people to flag it for the [White House Correspondents Association] for them to deal with it,” another source reportedly said.
While Obama’s deputy press secretary Eric Schultz calls the move “textbook communications work” designed to ensure that Biden’s press secretary has answers ready instead of having to “repeatedly punt questions”, clearly the reporters on the job feel differently.
“The requests prompted concerns among the White House press corps, whose members, like many reporters, are sensitive to the perception that they are coordinating with political communications staffers,” writes the Beast.
Having questions in advance would indeed be a good way to help insulate press secretary Jen Psaki (for whom liberals are already developing an unwholesome celebrity crush) from hard questions. This would avoid sticky situations like when Psaki deflected inquiries about treasury secretary Janet Yellen’s conflict of interest with the Citadel controversy by babbling about Yellen being the first woman in her position and claiming that receiving $800,000 in speaking fees from that company is no reason for her to recuse herself.
So this is just one more item on the steadily growing pile of fake things about this administration. Everything about it is phony. This is the Astroturf Administration.
Biden and his cohorts point-blank lied about sending out $2000 checks.
Deportations are continuing unimpeded despite all the campaign pledges to the contrary.
The kids in cages that made Rachel Maddow cry on air during the Trump administration are still in their cages and will remain there for the foreseeable future.
The pro-environment candidate has authorized dozens of new oil drilling permits within days of taking office.
Re-entering the Iran nuclear deal seems as far off as ever, with the administration continuing Trump’s “maximum pressure campaign” even as Tehran says the US ending its cruel sanctions is a precondition to resuming the deal.
Biden still hasn’t taken any solid steps to end the horrific war on Yemen, or even to end US facilitation of the slaughter as he promised on the campaign trail (he could have taken major steps toward doing this the day he took office and chose not to).
While this president hides from the press due to his rapidly deteriorating ability to answer questions in complete sentences, the mass media churn out think pieces about how taking himself out of the spotlight is actually a brilliant political move.
As Our Hidden History recently put it, “We got sold a sack of political oregano.”
And that’s all the US empire ever is, really: a murderous, tyrannical planetary oppressor covered up by varying degrees of dishonesty. During the Trump administration the depravity was a little more honest about itself, now during the Biden administration it’s a little more dishonest. The only major change is the thickness with which the makeup is slathered over the skull.
Everything about life in our current world order is dominated by phoniness. Our culture is manufactured by Hollywood. Our dominating political structure is manufactured by think tanks. Our perceptions of what’s going on in the world are manufactured in Langley and Arlington. The whole thing is so fake and stupid.
Donald Trump scrambling to assemble impeachment defense before deadline
With mere hours left before a deadline for Donald Trump to officially answer the impeachment charge against him, the former president was still scrambling to assemble a legal defense, announcing that he had hired two new lawyers after a five-person team abruptly quit their roles.
Trump has until noon on Tuesday to reply to a charge of incitement of insurrection, for encouraging the assault on the US Capitol on 6 January in which five people died. His trial in the Senate is scheduled to begin on 9 February.
With most Republicans signaling support for the former president, the trial is seen as having little chance of ending in conviction, which would open the way for the Senate to bar Trump, 74, from ever holding office again. ...
The unveiling of Trump’s new legal pairing – one a Fox News commentator and former counsel to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the other a former county prosecutor who opposed charging Bill Cosby with sexual assault – fueled concerns the provisional return to normalcy since Joe Biden’s inauguration was about to be upended.
The trial could be particularly dangerous, legal scholars said, if Trump built his case around his lie that the November election was stolen and Senate Republicans effectively endorsed that lie, in unprecedented numbers, by voting to acquit. Multiple reports suggested Trump jettisoned his previous legal team because they were unwilling to recite the election fraud lie. Trump’s new lawyers, David Schoen and Bruce Castor, did not indicate what defense they had planned.
Mysterious California sea lion deaths linked to toxic synthetic chemicals
Sea lions in California had been dying of a mysterious cancer for decades. Now, scientists say they have finally uncovered the likely cause: toxic chemicals from industrial trash, pesticides and oil refinery waste. ...
The findings, published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science, are the result of 20 years of research, gleaned from tissue samples collected from 394 sea lions. ...
Frances Gulland, a University of California, Davis, researcher and other scientists studied sea lions that died of various causes along the Sausalito coast. The levels of pollutants found in the sea lions blubber are “among the highest recorded in any marine mammal” the researchers said, likely because of the high levels of dumping along the California coast in the 1970s. DDT, the insecticide which was banned in the US in 1972, takes generations to break down and can accumulate easily in fat tissue.
While the findings begin to answer longstanding questions about what has been plaguing sea lions off California’s coast, it also raises concerns about the effects of ocean pollution on other mammals, including humans.
Blue whales threatened by ship collisions in busy Patagonia waters
The largest mammal ever to live on the Earth, the blue whale, is under threat from boat collisions as one of its main feeding grounds in Chilean Patagonia is overrun with vessels, a new study has revealed.
The endangered whales must contend with up to 1,000 boats moving daily through an important feeding area in the eastern South Pacific, according to research published in the scientific journal Nature.
Scientists researching the feeding patterns of the largest cetacean found that 83% of daily operating vessels belonged to the extensive salmon farming industry in the area of northern Chilean Patagonia.
The blue whale – which can weigh 150 tonnes and measure as much as 30 metres in length – has made a dramatic comeback in numbers in Antarctic waters but remains endangered and was on the brink of extinction due to industrial whaling in the last century.
Satellite tracking of blue whales and vessel traffic data released by the Chilean fisheries service Sernapesca has made it possible to pinpoint where ship strikes are more likely to occur for the species.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Biden Is Determined To Lose Congress In 2022
What we know about the South African variant of Covid
Biden Takes First Step Toward Restoring Reproductive Health Program Crippled by Trump
Blinken Misleadingly Claims Iran Weeks From Having Bomb Material
Mass Dems Chair Apologizes to Party Members for Role in Scandal — but Not to Alex Morse
Rochester police officers suspended after girl, nine, handcuffed and pepper-sprayed
Dante's descendant seeks to overturn poet's 1302 corruption conviction
Did Glenn Greenwald Get NY Times Editor Fired?
Krystal Ball: Business Guru Tells Redditors To Workout And Get A Girlfriend
Krystal and Saagar: Jimmy Kimmel Says RUSSIANS May Be Behind GameStop Rise
Krystal and Saagar: GOP Civil War ERUPTS As McConnell Calls Marjorie Taylor Greene A ‘Cancer’
Krystal and Saagar: Is Biden About To CAVE To GOP On 2k Checks Or Will He Stand Firm?
Rising: CNN SHOCKED After Cuomo TRASHES Public Health ‘Experts’
A Little Night Music
Curtis Jones - Cool Playing Blues
Curtis Jones - Highway 51 Blues
Curtis Jones - Tin Pan Alley
Curtis Jones - Reefer hound blues
Curtis Jones - Trouble Blues
Curtis Jones - Down In The Slums
Curtis Jones - Moonlight Lover Blues
Curtis Jones w/Lillie Mae Kirkman - Hop Head Blues
Curtis Jones - Curtis Jones' Boogie Woogie
Curtis Jones - Gee' Pretty Baby
Comments
CJ hits it again
The whole thing is so fake and stupid.
Good blues!
evening qms...
it's kinda like sitting on the shore and watching the waves break. the new administration raises expectations only to stand back and watch them crash like waves on the rocks, then they turn to you and tell you that it was the other team that made them crash.
the choppier the sea, the better the show, i guess.
Thanks for the EB and the St. Augustine Quote
Just tried to read the headlines. Hope the snow storm isn't a danger to your part of the woods. One day I will be smarter and know how adjust my innner biological clock to feel comfortable in four different time zones at the same time.
Too bad I am so busy working I won't have time and strength to read the articles. Will try to catch up later.
Good Night, thank you and be well.
https://www.euronews.com/
evening mimi...
the snowpocalypse has mostly moved on here. i dug my car out this afternoon so that i could go mail my bills and as soon as i got to the main road everything was nice and clear. it's still snowing a little bit on and off, but i think my area is going to be just fine. further north they got a lot more snow than we did here.
happy reading and have a great evening!
And I thought it is one of the one yard high snow dumps
we had beck in the days I was still over near your woods. I remember I couldn't open my front door. Oh well, even the weather reports are not what they used to be, it's all Putin\s and Russia|s fault sez the mad(cow) lady.
Well, the kids may have fun with the sleds. Hopefully. We definitely need a lot of more fun these days.
[video:https://youtu.be/s0dfa2_11YQ]
Oh, I am one day late. So, I am goona go to today's EB. Sorry.
https://www.euronews.com/
And here we go
NY Times Calls For Biden To Appoint "Reality Czar" To Fight "Misinformation"
teaser image
Here comes the Ministry of Truth...
TUE FEB 2, AT 5:20 PM
7
https://www.zerohedge.com/
Thanks for the news and blues JS, stay safe everyone!
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
evening ggersh...
heh, i had just read the times article that the zerohedge piece is based on a little while before i logged on here. i don't usually read much at the nyt site but they sucked me in with the phrase "reality crisis."
it's worth a full read, and i will feature it tomorrow night. in some ways it's an alarming article, because you can see that a lot of the elites' intellectual firepower is focused on coming up with solutions to what they think that the crisis is.
sadly, i think that they are probably going to elide the central problem, which is that most americans day-to-day reality sucks, and attempt to attack the symptoms with predictable orwellian results.
Good evening Joe. Thanks for the News and Blues
Gotta agree with QMS, what is there to say, good music and a metric shit ton of crazy. I really wonder if the crgo cults didn't have it right, just sit down and go through the motions and wait for utopia to erupt around us.
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, yep there's a whole lot of crazy goin' on.
have a great evening!
I agree with a Republican
Watch her face
Democrats are pushing Biden to cut checks off at #75,000 for couples and $50k for individuals because the chamber of commerce sent a letter to Biden telling him that the census shows that people don’t really need money right now. Of course many of them have lost their jobs since then, but hey, it’s not like they just give money out Willy nilly...oh wait they did. I’ll find the article soon.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
If we all get $2000 or $1400 or $20,000
I'm ok with it. but now someone else is going to get it and I'm not. I don't like that. Really angry about it. I don't care if Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk get $1400 checks either. it means nothing to them and the 1% are but well one percent. As soon as some of us are more equal than others, I have a problem.
Oh, yes, I'm a second class citizen because I'm one of the dread old white males. That makes me even angrier. I didn't like racism, sexism and agism when I was a kid in the '50s and '60s. I like it even less now that I'm the target.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
evening snoopy...
thanks for prompting me to watch the spokesdroid. i had seen that clip in one of the rising segments today but was paying attention mostly to the governor. i hope that gal has enough makeup to cover up the bruise she got when her chin dropped on the desk.
that sudden look of surprise that something outside of the elite consensus was slipping out onto her air was precious. thanks!
the snowpocalypse. What’s that?
Wait a minute... I do remember way back when I was just a pup we got snow through the ting yang that lasted on the streets till April or longer. One year we didn’t get to the back country until august (seriously iPad doesn’t know how to spell this?) and the wildflowers were just blooming. but this year has been very stingy. I’ve only shoveled once and really could have let it melt. The backyard...groan. I had the twigs and such all raked into a nice pile for this spring. I HAD...they are now all over the yard along with lots and lots of toys.
She’s baaack.....
Nah she’s never stopped.
Poor lady. She has probably never been talked to like that in her life. But Joe and the nitwits know damn well that Obama’s stimulus was too little and to the wrong people. But if Biden is going to let Blackstone steal people’s houses again he can’t give people too much money. Especially if they are just going to save it. Boo. But airlines, banks etc never have to face that question. "Can’t you sell some of the stock you’ve been buying all year with our blessings?" Congress gave them permission to buy back more stocks. Read it somewhere.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
heh...
the snowpocalypse is what the local news here proclaims when we are about to get a couple of inches of snow. the local media are all entirely consumed first with predictions, then preemptive closures and warnings about road conditions followed by a breathless retelling of the falling of the flakes and updates on road conditions and the dispersal of the snow trucks. it's really quite a show. you get a lot of bang for your few inches of snow.
perhaps some wag will record maddow saying russia and remake the internet classic, "badger, badger, badger ... mushroom, mushroom ... snake ... badger, badger, badger ... "
this one:
Another clip of Russia Maddow babbling away
What's noteworth to me in the Gov Justice
interview is that he's being responsive to financially strapped West Virginians, most of whom are Republicans; whereas the WV Democratic Senator is being responsive to non-WV Republicans and neither Democrats nor Republicans in WV. (The WV GOP Senator is probably in the same box with Manchin.)
Yeah and good for him for saying that
Manchin...what more needs to be said about him? He is now on board with using reconciliation except that it needs to be bipartisan. Schumer and Biden have ways to deal with him, but they won’t. Cuz just like Pelosi is the roadblock in the house, he’s the senate boogie man now that McConnell's job is done.
N
Remember his daughter jacked the price for epipens just because she could. And nothing came from her doing it. How do you put money over people’s lives? Dunno but lots of em do it.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Here’s the article I mentioned
Found these while I was looking. How many slaps on the wrist is this now?
Admitted no wrongdoing. Again. My gawd he should buy a lottery ticket.
It’s going to be a long week isn’t it? I went to Park City today. Absolutely beautiful drive.
Wanship dam off a side road to who knows where? Loved this shot the moment I saw it.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
heh...
yep, everybody in america is just faking poverty. thanks chamber!
one small bit of good news about that jp morgan settlement from the article:
that looks like a lovely view, even if it's probably too cold to sit on that bench for long.
It was brisk today that’s for sure
In the 50's but breezy. I see I read that wrong and they did admit wrongdoing. Funny how my brain read something different. Might be history for how many times they have gotten away with everything.
By spring Sam should be big enough to wear the seatbelt and we can toodle along country roads with the top down. I have a cute video of Charlie that I should upload to YouTube if I can figure out how to. Is it hard? Anyone...
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Buenos evening todos ...
Got my paper copy of The Nation today.
There's an interesting book review in it:
The long history of forecasting capitalism’s demise.
I've been thinking along these same lines.
There are no systems.
Ella es mala yo lo se,
pero no quiero entender ...
Here's a good tune, Ramon Ayala:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhchRKNb-MM width:400 height:240]
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
evening azazello...
thanks for the tune.
unfortunately, the nation won't let me read it, they don't like my browser or something. that said, yep there has been a long history of people forecasting the demise of capitalism. but of course if we got rid of the medium through which most of us experience oppression, how would we spend our time?
in the midst of our long running reality crisis, there is, of course, a crisis of imagination - nobody has yet been able to articulate a compelling narrative that allows all of us to rise up, shake off the chains that bind us to our oppression and create the sort of world that we wish to live in.
does that require creating a system? who knows? maybe a good bedtime story would do.
From the article:
Is there really a "capitalist system", or a "socialist" one ?
I'm just so tired of the 20th Century, of Boomer culture, and all this talk about systems.
Let us look afresh, without all the Boomer baggage.
There are no systems.
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
I support your sentiments Azazello
"Let us look afresh, without all the Boomer baggage.
There are no systems."
Not much is really eternal in the bigger picture of history, nor logical.
I enjoyed the Ramon Ayala song very much, thanks.
The King of Norteno accordion ...
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7Iq4YUrVW0 width:500 height:300]
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
Capitalism dies, at least here, years ago. We need a name
for what it is we got, but it ain't capitalism.
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 --
Corporate greed?
Or perhaps Oligarchy?
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
On this day, Nazis surrender to Soviets at Stalingrad.
Churchill said that from that moment the Nazis could not wage offensive warfare. An in-law was a four year old child in the city during the battle.
Following video of an American World War II historian puts to rest how the Nazis were defeated which goes against popular concepts of the the war current in America and Western Europe.
Thank you, MrWebster for the reminder.
What an event that was, back in the mid-20th century.
Who can forget Chuikov's HQ on the right bank of the Volga, Rodimtsev's crossing of the river, the encirclement at Kalach ?
Thanks again.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY5TUiqjyBc&feature=related width:500 height:300]
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
Almost divine intervention that made Chuikov commander.
What a brilliant commander and one tough mother to endure and lead Soviet forces. Read a story that he almost came to an ignoble end. After the victory he crossed the frozen Volga on foot to meet with Khrushchev. On the way back he fell into the river but was saved.
evening mr w...
heh, the u.s. is committed to a narrative that barely mentions the sacrifices of the soviet union in the fight against the germans. i guess it's part of our narrative of exceptionalism and indispensability.
thanks for the video!
Polls of Americans, Germans, and French.
Recent polls of Americans, Germans, and French show that they believe that the US played the pivotal role in the defeat of Nazi Germany. It may be a fun academic debate, but the revised history does in fact become foundational for American exceptionalism which in turn pushes behavior toward other countries. It is no accident that the leaders we want to dispose get compared to Hitler such Saddam and later as Hillary would with Putin.
This belief by the West worries me as it produces an arrogant over confidence with makes war that much more likely with countries like Iran and Russia who have the means to fight back.
The west won't listen, but ...
Putin explains why we need new economic policies (Putin has some damn good speechwriters.) A snippet:
Where, when did Americans hear something similar?
evening marie...
i am guessing that fdr made something of an impression.
it's time, though, for an update to this rhetoric that incorporates the possibilities that are created through automation and artificial intelligence. the reliance on jobs as the basis of the individual and family well-being is overdone. in light of what we could be doing and the opportunities we are missing in the development of individual potential because so many individuals lives are wasted, engaged in meaningless drudgery or bullshit jobs, we should reconsider the role of jobs in our economy.
I said recently that Putin cut the military budget
so Russia could address poverty instead. At the end of his 1st term he was asked what his greatest accomplishment was. And what was his worst failure.
He said that Russia’s poverty rate was down. It wasn’t down enough and that there was more work to do on it. Our government keeps raising the military budget while more Americans are pushed into poverty. They don’t slip. They’re shoved into it with both hands of congress. They know it and could care less.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Evening joe and bluesters
Sometimes I can hardly get past the quote, which always seems to reflect perfectly the spirit of the time.
[video:https://youtu.be/PKpd_6a13IU]
I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine
I dreamed I saw St. Augustine
Alive as you or me
Tearing through these quarters
In the utmost misery
With a blanket underneath his arm
And a coat of solid gold
Searching for the very souls
Whom already have been sold
“Arise, arise,” he cried so loud
In a voice without restraint
“Come out, ye gifted kings and queens
And hear my sad complaint
No martyr is among ye now
Whom you can call your own
So go on your way accordingly
But know you’re not alone”
I dreamed I saw St. Augustine
Alive with fiery breath
And I dreamed I was amongst the ones
That put him out to death
Oh, I awoke in anger
So alone and terrified
I put my fingers against the glass
And bowed my head and cried
https://www.bobdylan.com/songs/i-dreamed-i-saw-st-augustine/
evening janis...
thanks! i'm glad that the things that strike me touch a common chord.
have a great evening!
Yup...democrats want to lose in 22
Not the party of Trump during his first run and now it’s not the party of Q. Of course they won’t be able to talk about how great the economy is doing because it will be in crisis and the epidemic will still be rampaging through the country because big pharma doesn’t want it to end too soon because they want higher profits. Yay. I’m looking forward to republican rule for the next couple of decades. You guys?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
heh...
of course they want to lose. otherwise they might have to do something that will offend their donors.
oh, one small thing:
Nope no chance of that happening
If this is true then we have our answer on how democrats would be now that they are in total power now.
Boy it’s a good thing that Bernie is the big budget guy in the senate and for the last 2 weeks he’s been saying how we have to go big and pass the bills he’s been talking about for the last 3 decades. And here was his chance to do what he has always said he wanted to do. How very sad to see that he’s just been all talk and no bite for who the hell knows how long? Sad end to what we thought we were working towards. Bernama. Obernie. Obernie it is.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Actually that isn’t true
They voted to proceed on the Covid relief bill. Relief for whom? Betcha anything that Pelosi snuck the SALT tax in the bill.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
heh...
i guess bernie gets one wish per year.
the relief bill is not cast in stone now, but as i understand it, the size of the bill in the reconciliation process is set at the beginning, though the details of the bill may change. i am, however relying on memory from past years, so i could be wrong. but if i'm correct, that means that bernie has $1.9 trillion of pocket change.
Thanks
Remember when Pelosi passed the $3 trillion bill that McConnell sat on a year for her? Then Trump offered less and she settled on $2.2 T, but said that it wasn’t enough. Now she’s gone even lower and calling it good.
No one is talking about the millions of people who owe close to $10k in back rent or mortgages. Democrats have put deadlines on this bill and so in September they either have to do another one or people will be evicted at the start of winter. It’s really something to watch congress murder the United States of America isn’t it?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.