The Evening Blues - 2-4-21
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features Detroit bluesman Eddie Kirkland. Enjoy!
Eddie Kirkland - Must Have Done Somebody Wrong
“All censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently, the first condition of progress is the removal of censorship.”
-- George Bernard Shaw
News and Opinion
YouTube Financially Deplatforms Swath Of Indie Media Accounts
The Google-owned video sharing platform YouTube has demonetized numerous independent media accounts, a jarring escalation in the steadily intensifying campaign against alternative news outlets online.
Progressive commentators Graham Elwood, The Progressive Soapbox, The Convo Couch, Franc Analysis, Hannah Reloaded and Cyberdemon531 have all received notifications from YouTube that their videos are no longer permitted to earn money through the platform’s various monetization features, as has Ford Fischer, a respected freelancer who films US political demonstrations. No explanation has been offered for this decision beyond the vague claim that “your channel is not in line with our YouTube Partner Program policies” due to “harmful content”.
Like all large online platforms, YouTube’s appeals process is notoriously opaque and unaccountable. These accounts could remain demonetized for months, or forever, without any clear explanation at all. Ford Fischer, who has been in this situation before, said on Twitter that his account was left demonetized for seven months before YouTube reversed its decision.
“Last time you demonetized my channel, I spoke out for seven months. I didn’t delete a single piece of content. You admitted you were wrong. I forgive you. Please don’t do this again,” Fischer tweeted.
“No superchats, no ad revenue, no YouTube premium money,” tweeted Elwood, who also said “I have a call with my lawyers later today.”
“You guys have destroyed my channel without legit explanation as to why,” tweeted Jamarl Thomas of Progressive Soapbox. “No videos are given – and frankly there is literally zero ‘harmful’ content on my channel. This is a radically bad error that needs to be corrected.”
The Convo Couch’s Jonathan Mayorca tweeted the notification he received from YouTube which gave the reason as “Harmful content: Content that focuses on controversial issues and that is harmful to viewers,” saying no specific video or subject was named. Nobody receiving these notifications appears to have any idea what is meant by “harmful” or “controversial” or why YouTube is mentioning them in the same breath as though these two things are connected or synonymous in some way.
YouTube has been providing template responses saying “We recommend making the needed changes to your content and reapply in 30 days” while refusing to specify what the “needed changes” even are.
Speaking for myself, I can say with absolute certainty that I would not be able to create content at anywhere near the pace I do were I not making enough money from it to do it full time. Life is far too demanding with far too much else going on for me to be able to maintain anything like daily output; being financially deplatformed and having to get another job would force me down to an essay a week in my spare time, if that. Anyone who works in independent media full time knows this, and so do the powerful people who are steadily ratcheting up the campaign to silence anyone who hasn’t passed through the gatekeepers of the plutocratic media.
Financial deplatforming is censorship. People were given an opportunity to devote themselves to the vocation of creating media outside the gatekeeping apparatus of billionaire news institutions, which is arguably the single most important vocation anyone can give themselves to in our world right now, and they built their lives around their ability to do this. Now it’s being ripped away from them; their literal jobs are being taken away. They were offered a reason to think they’d be able to make a living doing very important work, and then they were sucker punched with what amounts to political censorship.
This has been a continually escalating trend for years. The general population is herded onto huge monopolistic social media platforms offering democratization of information where your voice can be heard, and then those platforms proceed to censor an increasing amount of political speech in increasing coordination with the US government.
If the democratization of information online is successfully reversed and the mass media gatekeepers are again the sole authorities on what’s real and true, people will be locked into forming their ideas on how to think, act and vote based on what they are told by the same plutocratic media institutions which have been deceiving them into every war and manipulating them into accepting the status quo for generations.
If the door is locked to the possibility of a grassroots information rebellion against the narrative hegemony of our rulers, we will remain doomed to continue along the same ecocidal, omnicidal trajectory these bastards have us on until it reaches its inevitable conclusion. This must be resisted.
Deplatforming Dissent -- Independent Media Targeted
Biden and Yellen urge Democrats to go big and bold on Covid relief package
Joe Biden and his new treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, are encouraging Democrats in Congress to go big and bold on the Covid-19 relief package and have effectively panned a Republican alternative that is less than a third the size of the president’s $1.9tn rescue plan.
Senate Democrats took steps on Tuesday to push ahead with the huge bill, with or without Republican support, despite the ostensibly amicable bipartisan talks at the White House the day before. Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, warned that the coronavirus crisis could drag on for several years unless maximum effort for large-scale relief is made on Capitol Hill. ...
On Tuesday, Biden and Yellen joined the Democratic senators for a private virtual meeting and both declared the Republicans’ $618bn relief offer too small. They urged ambitious and fast action to stem the coronavirus pandemic crisis and its economic fallout. Biden on Wednesday was meeting with congressional Democrats. In a call-in to the weekly meeting of Democratic representatives he said he was willing to consider tighter limits on who gets $1,400 direct payments under his Covid-19 relief plan but not the size of the checks, CNN reported.
Will Biden Honor Promise To Bernie On $15 Minimum Wage?
Seattle's Kshama Sawant: How $15 Minimum Wage Spread Like WILDFIRE
120 Democrats Demand Repeal of 'Obscene' Tax Cut for Millionaires That GOP Buried in Previous Covid Relief Bill
More than 100 Democratic members of Congress are calling on their party's leadership to ensure that a tax break for millionaires that Republicans quietly buried in an earlier coronavirus relief package is repealed in upcoming aid legislation, arguing the rollback would free up hundreds of billions in revenue which could be used to help struggling families.
Led by Reps. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) in the House and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) in the Senate, the coalition of lawmakers sent a letter to Democratic leaders on Tuesday demanding the reversal of "costly tax breaks for so-called 'net operating losses' that Republicans tucked into the CARES Act," a $2 trillion relief measure that former President Donald Trump signed into law last March.
"These special-interest giveaways will confer over 80 percent of the benefits to just 43,000 taxpayers, each earning at least $1 million per year," reads the letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). "We urge you to repeal these unwarranted tax cuts, as HEROES and HEROES 2.0 proposed and President Biden has recommended. This would save over $250 billion, which should be repurposed to help Americans who have lost income due to the pandemic and its economic fallout."
"In addition to presenting immediate hardships, the Covid-19 pandemic has laid bare and magnified our nation's troubling economic inequality," the letter continues. "Relief must address this inequality, not exacerbate it. The CARES net operating loss provisions will further worsen economic inequality by providing an average tax break of $1.6 million to just 43,000 very high-income taxpayers. This is unacceptable, especially when compared to the limited relief most Americans have received."
As The Intercept's Akela Lacy reported last April, Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee tried to cut the millionaire tax break from the CARES Act during the negotiation process but were ultimately unsuccessful. The panel's Democrats then failed to alert their colleagues to the provision, which made its way into the final legislative package and into law.
"A spokesperson for Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley, a member of the House committees on financial services and oversight, said Republican Senate staffers added the provision at the last second to the final bill text, and that relevant leadership and committee staff did not have a heads-up," Lacy reported. "California Rep. Ro Khanna, a member of the House committees on oversight and budget, said he found out about the provision after seeing reporting from the Washington Post."
After a Joint Committee on Taxation analysis released shortly after the provision's passage showed the tax cut would overwhelmingly benefit rich Americans—including wealthy hedge fund and real estate investors—Whitehouse said in a statement that "Congress should repeal this rotten, un-American giveaway and use the revenue to help workers battling through this crisis."
Mohamed Younis: SHOCK Poll Shows Collapse In American's Personal Finance
“Viruses Know No Borders”: In Push for Global Vaccine Equity, U.S. AIDS Program Offers Blueprint
One Pfizer/BioNTech jab gives '90% immunity' from Covid after 21 days
One dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine gives people about 90% protection from Covid by 21 days, according to an analysis of Israel’s mass vaccination programme.
The data analysis, carried out by researchers from the University of East Anglia with UK government funding, runs counter to an earlier study from Israel which suggested that one dose may not give adequate protection.
Prof Nachman Ash, in charge of the Israeli vaccination effort, said last month that a single dose appeared “less effective than we had thought”, and was also lower than Pfizer had suggested. Pfizer had said efficacy was 52% after a single dose.
But Prof Paul Hunter and Dr Julii Brainard say their reanalysis of the data, which has not been peer-reviewed, shows high protection just before the second dose was given at 21 days. However, they warn that the risk of infection doubled in the first eight days after vaccination – possibly because people became less cautious.
US Halts Plans to Move 12,000 Troops Out of Germany
The U.S. is no longer actively preparing to move nearly 12,000 troops out of Germany, putting an initiative proposed by the Trump administration on ice while the Pentagon reviews it, the top American general in Europe said Wednesday.
The plan, which called for relocating U.S. European Command from Stuttgart to Belgium, returning the Vilseck, Germany-based 2nd Cavalry Regiment to the U.S. and a host of other moves, would have been one of the largest repositioning of forces in Europe in decades.
"At this very moment, every single one of those options, they are all on hold. They will all be reexamined from cradle to grave," U.S. European Command's Gen. Tod Wolters told reporters.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has begun "a very thorough review" of the proposed drawdown, which was announced in July by his predecessor, Mark Esper, Wolters said.
Then-president Donald Trump had ordered the Pentagon to come up with a plan to reduce the U.S. military presence in Germany, saying that there were too many American troops in the country, which he repeatedly said was not investing enough in its own defense.
Biden War Mongering Iran Already!
To Secure Lasting Peace in Afghanistan, Task Force Proposes Prolonging Longest US War
In order to achieve a lasting peace in Afghanistan, the United States needs to keep waging its longest-ever war there. That's the encapsulated conclusion of a report published Wednesday by the Afghanistan Study Group, a congressionally mandated task force that is recommending the Biden administration keep U.S. troops in the war-torn nation beyond the May 1 deadline set under former President Donald Trump.
According to the study group—a 15-member bipartisan panel led by former Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford, and former United States Institute for Peace CEO Nancy Lindborg—the Taliban has not met the prerequisite conditions for the withdrawal of the remaining 2,500 U.S. troops in the country.
"The study group... believes that it will be very difficult, and perhaps impossible, for those conditions to be achieved by May 2021," the report states. "Achieving the overall objective of a negotiated stable peace that meets U.S. interests would need to begin with securing an extension of the May deadline."
The conditions, established during the talks that led to the February 2020 Doha agreement between the Trump administration and the Taliban, include reducing violence, severing ties with al-Qaeda militants, and engaging in intra-Afghan talks. Under the agreement, the U.S. committed (pdf) to reducing the number of forces in Afghanistan from 13,000 to 8,600 within 135 days, with a complete withdrawal within 14 months.
Canada designates Proud Boys as terrorist organization beside Isis and al-Qaida
Canada has described the far-right Proud Boys group as a “serious and growing threat” and branded it a terrorist organization alongside Isis and al-Qaida, amid growing concerns over the spread of white supremacist groups in the country.
On Wednesday Bill Blair, public safety minister, also announced the federal government would designate the white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups the Atomwaffen Division, the Base and the Russian Imperial Movement as terrorist entities. The federal government also added offshoots of al-Qaida, Isis and Hizbul Mujahedin to its list. ...
In late January, Canada’s parliament unanimously passed a motion calling on the federal government to designate the rightwing Proud Boys as a terrorist group. The motion had no practical legal impact, but spoke to a growing worry over rightwing extremism in Canada. ...
The Proud Boys were founded in 2016 by the Canadian Gavin McInnes, a co-founder of Vice magazine. The group first made headlines in Canada three years ago, after five military reservists, dressed in the group’s black and yellow shirts, disrupted a protest by the Indigenous community over a controversial statue. The group was banned by Facebook and Instagram in October 2018 after violating the platforms’ hate policies and is classified as an extremist organization by the FBI.
Kenosha prosecutors want to arrest Kyle Rittenhouse for bail violation
Prosecutors are seeking a new arrest warrant for Kyle Rittenhouse – the Illinois teen charged with shooting three people, killing two of them, during a protest over police brutality in Wisconsin – after he apparently violated his bail conditions.
Rittenhouse failed to inform the court of his change of address within 48 hours of moving, Kenosha county prosecutors alleged in a motion filed with Judge Bruce Schroeder on Wednesday. The motion asks Schroeder to issue an arrest warrant and increase Rittenhouse’s bail by $200,000. ... Conservatives raised $2m to cover his bail and he left jail in November.
Prosecutors wrote in their motion Wednesday that they learned Rittenhouse was no longer living at his Antioch address after the court mailed him a notice and it was returned as undeliverable on 28 January. Kenosha detectives traveled to the address on Tuesday and discovered another man had rented the apartment and had been living there since mid-December.
The prosecutors said in their motion that it’s unusual for any homicide defendant to be allowed to roam freely and the court needs to know where Rittenhouse is at all times. They did not say whether they knew where Rittenhouse now resides, saying only that he has failed to provide the court with a new address.
“He posted no money so he has no financial stake in the bond,” they wrote.
Biden administration drops Trump-era discrimination lawsuit against Yale
The Biden administration announced on Wednesday it had dropped a discrimination lawsuit against Yale University, which alleged that the institution was illegally discriminating against Asian American and white applicants.
While a judge must still sign off on the decision, justice department officials noted in the two-sentence filing in the US district court in Connecticut that it would voluntarily dismiss the action that had been filed by Donald Trump’s administration in October.
Federal prosecutors under Donald Trump had argued the university violates civil rights laws when it “discriminates based on race and national origin in its undergraduate admissions process”, and that “race is the determinative factor in hundreds of admissions decisions each year”. ...
The department’s investigation – which stemmed from a 2016 complaint against Yale and its fellow elite universities Brown and Dartmouth – also found that Yale used race as a factor in multiple steps of the admissions process, and that the school “racially balances its classes”.
Biden Boots 'Union Busters and Anti-Government Ideologues' From Key Labor Panel
In another early win for organized labor, President Joe Biden on Tuesday requested that all 10 members of a key federal panel—who were appointed by his predecessor—immediately resign, and then fired the two appointees who refused to do so.
As Government Executive noted, former President Donald Trump had stacked the Federal Service Impasses Panel (FSIP), which handles disputes between agencies and unions during collective bargaining negotiations, "with anti-labor partisans, most of whom lacked experience in labor-management relations or conflict resolution."
Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees—which represents over 700,000 government workers and had accused the Trump appointees of improperly favoring agencies—told Bloomberg Law that "FSIP is a critical component in the federal negotiating process, and we look forward to President Biden's future picks issuing just decisions, unencumbered by political interference."
Although presidents have previously replaced all panel members, Bloomberg Law pointed out that Biden acted more quickly than his predecessors:
Trump dismissed all members of the FSIP in May 2017—about four months after he took office—and then moved that summer to begin installing a new panel. Former President Barack Obama dismissed the panel in March 2009 and began naming new members that September.
FSIP members are appointed by the White House and serve at the pleasure of the president; they don't require Senate confirmation and don't have defined terms.
Chicago Teachers Might Strike. A Group of Parents, Backed by a Right-Wing Law Firm, Stands to Sue.
This week in Chicago, as the local teachers union considers whether to strike over the safety of the city’s school reopening plan during the pandemic, a group of at least nine parents represented by the Liberty Justice Center, a conservative public interest law firm, say they’re ready to sue if educators vote for a work stoppage.
awyers with the Liberty Justice Center — the same legal organization which brought the landmark Janus v. AFSCME lawsuit in 2018 to the U.S Supreme Court — argue a Chicago Teachers Union strike would be in violation of Illinois law and the union’s current collective bargaining agreement. The CTU contract commits to avoiding strikes or pickets while the agreement is in effect. “That doesn’t change even if [Chicago Public Schools] engages in an unfair labor practice or allegedly requires teachers to work in an unsafe environment,” attorney Jeffrey Schwab wrote recently in the Chicago Tribune. “It has become clear that kids are collateral damage for the union’s political and financial leverage.”
Chicago is not the only city where the anti-union law firm is seizing on parents’ frustration with virtual learning to help bring challenges against one of their long-standing political targets. The Liberty Justice Center is also representing parents in Chandler, Arizona, and Fairfax County, Virginia, where educators have organized sick-outs to protest school reopening plans. The group is an affiliate of the right-wing State Policy Network and has ties to the Bradley Foundation and the Koch network. Kristen Williamson, a spokesperson for the Liberty Justice Center, told The Intercept their lawyers stand ready to sue if teachers “use the illegal tactic again” and that they represent parents free of charge. ...
Other conservative organizations are capitalizing on parent frustrations with school closures to further political goals around weakening labor unions and public education. Since March, the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank in D.C., has been urging state and federal lawmakers to push private school vouchers and new subsidies for homeschooling in light of the pandemic. And this year, a wave of new private school voucher bills have been introduced in over 15 states across the country, with lawmakers hoping to advance the policies with less public resistance than they might typically face. ...
While it might seem counterintuitive to have conservative organizations fighting to get students back into the very traditional public schools they typically rail against, Charles Siler, a former lobbyist for the libertarian think tank Goldwater Institute, says hastening teacher returns can also help advance conservative movement goals of accelerating staff departures from the public school system altogether. “If you force teachers to return to work in an unsafe environment, especially when safe alternatives exist, a lot of teachers will retire early or choose to not renew their contracts,” he said. “Fewer people will also want to become teachers because they see what’s happening, the lack of funding and respect. This exploitative assault could cripple public education for decades.”
Krystal Ball: Dems ABANDON Populism, Go ALL IN On QAnon For Midterms
Plant-based diets crucial to saving global wildlife, says report
The global food system is the biggest driver of destruction of the natural world, and a shift to predominantly plant-based diets is crucial in halting the damage, according to a report.
Agriculture is the main threat to 86% of the 28,000 species known to be at risk of extinction, the report by the Chatham House thinktank said. Without change, the loss of biodiversity will continue to accelerate and threaten the world’s ability to sustain humanity, it said.
The root cause is a vicious circle of cheap food, the report said, where low costs drive bigger demand for food and more waste, with more competition then driving costs even lower through more clearing of natural land and use of polluting fertilisers and pesticides. ...
The report, supported by the UN environment programme (Unep), focused on three solutions. First is a shift to plant-based diets because cattle, sheep and other livestock have the biggest impact on the environment.More than 80% of global farmland is used to raise animals, which provide only 18% of calories eaten. Reversing the rising trend of meat consumption removes the pressure to clear new land and further damage wildlife. It also frees up existing land for the second solution, restoring native ecosystems to increase biodiversity.
The availability of land also underpins the third solution, the report said, which is farming in a less intensive and damaging way but accepting lower yields. Organic yields are on average about 75% of those of conventional intensive farming, it said.
Court convicts French state for failure to address climate crisis
A Paris court has convicted the French state of failing to address the climate crisis and not keeping its promises to tackle greenhouse gas emissions. In what has been hailed as a historic ruling, the court found the state guilty of “non-respect of its engagements” aimed at combating global warming. Billed the “affair of the century”, the legal case was brought by four French environmental groups after a petition signed by 2.3 million people. ...
The court ruled that compensation for “ecological damage” was admissible, and declared the state “should be held liable for part of this damage if it had failed to meet its commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions”.
It did not uphold a claim for symbolic compensation, saying compensation should be made “in kind”, with damages awarded “only if the reparation measures were impossible or insufficient”. However, the court ruled that the applicants were entitled to seek compensation in kind for the “ecological damage caused by France’s failure to comply with the targets it had set for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It said this needed further investigation and gave the state two months to respond.
It awarded each organisation a symbolic €1 for “moral prejudice”, saying the state’s failure to honour its climate commitments was “detrimental to the collective interest”.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Covering School Reopening, Chicago Papers Pit Unions Against Parents
'Eviction Moratorium Is Not Enough': 200+ Groups Demand Rent Cancellation, Debt Relief
AOC Is Right About Hawley and Cruz & America Is A Coup-able State
Who Is Aleksei Navalny? NYT Once Knew, but Has Since Forgotten
Corrupt firm funded by right-wing candidate will produce Ecuador election exit polls
Severe Dysfunction in Washington and Wall Street Puts the U.S. at Risk of Capital Flight
The Border Patrol Calls Itself a Humanitarian Organization. A New Report Says That’s a Lie.
Chris Hedges: Battling White Supremacy in the Ring
Keiser Report | The Revolt of the Public
Jimmy Dore: Documentarian Censored For Hate Speech Despite Being Film Against It
Saagar Enjeti: GOP’s Problem Is That Republican Elites AND Marjorie Taylor Greene SUCK
Rising: MASHUP Shows All The Times Dems Promised $2000, Will They Pay A Price For Backtracking?
Krystal and Saagar: SEC To INVESTIGATE Redditors On GameStop, Call Star User Before Congress
Rising: Pandemic ACCELERATES Automation As Workers Left In The Cold
A Little Night Music
Eddie Kirkland No Shoes
Eddie Kirkland - Pity On Me
Eddie Kirkland - I Need You, Baby
Eddie Kirkland - Please Don't Think I'm Nosey
Eddie Kirkland - I Tried
Eddie Kirkland - Train Done Gone
Eddie Kirkland - Daddy, Please Don´t Cry
Eddie Kirkland - Turning Point
Eddie Kirkland - Mother in Law
Eddie Kirkland - Man of Stone
Comments
To Secure Lasting Peace in Afghanistan
kill everyone
thanks Joe
question everything
We gotta leave one person to hand the government over to
so that he Or she can had all of the mineral rights over to us and made it all legit.
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 qms...
heh. from the devil's dictionary:
plant based diet proponents...
have not been exposed to regenerative agriculture which can restore systems and reduce carbon. Before Europeans in the US, more animals were grazing here than are being produced today. The problem is CAFOs not the animals...it is the way they are raised.
The other issue with plant based diets is the processed food/ cereal companies pushing it. Do any of you really think an artificial chemically enhanced "impossible burger" is better for you than a grass raised burger? I sure don't.
The proof is in the restoration. Here's Savory's farm
https://www.agriculture.com/livestock/cattle/meet-allan-savory-the-pione...
Savory’s transformative methods in action in the bone-dry Karoo region of South Africa: The land on the left side of this fence line started out as bare ground and small desert bushes several decades ago. The neighboring land on the right remained under conventional management over the same period.
Lots of detractors and proponents. I've never heard a regenerative producer do anything but rave about their results. https://carboncowboys.org/
Quick take here...https://carboncowboys.org/stories/synopses
Didn't mean to knee jerk on you joe, just hate to see the misinformation. Now anyone who is vegan or vegetarian...I got no problem...dietary choices are personal decisions, but the idea animals are bad for the planet is obviously a mistaken notion...CAFOs yes, grazing and pasture raised no.
Thanks as always for the news and blues. Caity is dead on as usual. Have a nice night!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
How about the claim that cow farts are worse than auto exhaust?
Was there something in the bison digestive tract that prevented farting?
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
yes...
the food they eat.
bison roaming the plains ate grass. cattle are fed grain and other nasty things that cause fermentation as well as digestive irritation that causes (grain fed) cattle to produce more gas.
also, free ranging bison are good for the soil. they eat, poop and move on. both their limited trampling of the grass and the nutrients from their poop create conditions that allow soil to absorb more carbon.
I haven't seen corn fed beef for sale in years.
All the supermarket signs say "grass fed". But does it really come from here? I heard a news report about infected pork in China. A few days later I was in Sam's Club and they had pork chops for $1.19 a pound, cheaper than chicken. Pork loin was $1.34. I couldn't help but wonder if this was rejected pork from China?
Anyway, thanks for confirming what lookout said about range grazing cattle.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
In Germany, nowadays meat labelling must show country of origin,
FWIW (= for what it’s worth). Not that corrupt EU-based business execs are incapable of coming up with ways to fake certifications and labels, but still.
TPP (that Biden favors)
Would make county of origin labeling
immoral. EDIT: ILLEGAL, not immoral.Trump 2016 showed how the people rejected Clintonism.
Biden 2020 showed how they reject Trump (but not Trumpism).
If Trump had kept his hands off the Twitter keyboard, I believe he would have been reelected.
Although perhaps, Identity Politics was a the key and white Blue collar workers are doomed to be the 21st Century underclass forever.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
heh...
in the supermarkets that are in my area, there is only a small portion of the beef available that is labeled "grass fed." most of it is not labeled that way.
another thing that i would question is what "grass fed" really means and whether the beef that you are seeing as "grass fed" meets any sort of standard.
if you don't know your farmer and your butcher, you probably have a severely constrained knowledge of what you're eating, is my guess.
The term to look for is pasture raised...
both grass fed and "free range" only means at some point in their life they had access. In the case of chickens, one open door in a barn with 1000's of birds qualifies as free range. It is a rigged game.
You are so correct, knowing the producer is key to high quality meats.
PS good answer above on bison!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Grass fed until the feed lot
EDIT: spelling
Or as a straight out lie.
Yes, I can believe that of Kroger. Easily. I no longer bother bother looking at the meat counter at Jewel (owned by Albertson's). The prices were outlandish prior to Covid.
About a decade ago, we visited my wife's grandfather's farm in Rural Michigan. He must have been quite something because just mentioning his name got us royal treatment. Anyway, we were in a local grocery store and i was admiring the excellent produce and locally grown fruit (Cherries important in the local economy). My wife whispered to me,"Did you see that meat! It looks perfect!". I told her, "Those steaks were probably mooing in a pasture two days ago." If I make it to Calhoun County, I'll buy T.P. and the like at big box stores, but I look forward to local produce and meat like rural Michigan.
Incredibly, I still haven't tasted Alabama BBQ pulled pork and fried catfish, but my mouth is watering thinking about it. Up there near Traverse City (MI) that cherry ice cream was incredible! Real ice cream, fresh churned using local cherries and cream. I was actually thinking of retiring there until I asked about winter (it was July with temperatures in the mid-70s) and was told, "Oh not bad! We do get eight foot drifts of snow, but actual snow is rarely higher than three feet. Not bad by Minnesota or Michigan standards but worse than IL and WI (lake effect snow in Western MI). I do like the idea of a place where a lousy half inch of snow strikes terror. Right now my trees look like bushes because the snow is right up to the branches. My krsymk-1 plum looks like a submerged bush and the BUD-9 apple is totally covered. but they are Russian varieties and laugh at being encased in blocks of ice (the plum when it was young).
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
One thing that is not obvious but the cow pats in the woods,
pasture, grass lands, are more palatable to Dung Beetles without wormicide. Areas covered with biocide containing pats are sterile instead of recycling fertilizer.
A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.
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I have read that cows fart methane and cars fart CO2
Both are greenhouse gasses that contribute to global warming. Apparently the more persistent gas is methane, which means its warming effect last longer in the upper atmosphere than CO2. I am not a climate scientist so you needn’t take my word for it, but it seems a plausible enough explanation to me.
“The story around the world gives a silent testimony:
— The Beresovka mammoth, frozen in mud, with buttercups in his mouth…..”
The Adam and Eve Story, Chan Thomas 1963
heh...
link
Thanks Joe
I’m too exhausted to be cruising for links tonight. You’re da man!
“The story around the world gives a silent testimony:
— The Beresovka mammoth, frozen in mud, with buttercups in his mouth…..”
The Adam and Eve Story, Chan Thomas 1963
heh, my pleasure. n/t
Another heinous thing that Trump did was
relaxing methane gas emission standards on oil wells. The big producers actually objected because they had already spent the money on containment and then Trump allowed smaller competitors to save that money by releasing more, putting the big boys at a disadvantage during a down market.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
evening lookout
heh, you sound just like ms shikspack.
i post articles like that not because i agree with them, but because i want folks to see what the current "conventional wisdom" of the mainstream press is and what is being shoveled into the public mind.
in my view, the problem has always been industrial agriculture, which uses inappropriate methods which are antithetical to good stewardship of the earth in order to convert petroleum into vast quantities of low quality food.
that said, thanks for the links and info.
Hi Joe, late as always. I'm with LO on this. Firstly, when
years ago, I had to go to NY for treatment for L. Borreliosis, and assorted coinfections (Lyme) I had to have daily infusions of lots of stuff. The shocker for me was the number of vegetarians in the facility, Mt. Kisko, I went to who were there for weekly or half weekly infusions of vitamins, minerals and assorted other things they needed as they were vegetarians. When I first got sick I was close to one myself, but began to crave hamburgers. A wise South African(there aren't many) physician said the amino acid chains in meat are the most accessible to humans. From vegetables even high in protein, the body has to work much harder to make the chains needed, and even then not all are available. He urged me to go back to a red meat diet.
That said, many years later, I have developed a real interest in Regenerative Agriculture, through my first introduction in the book 'Wilding' by Isabella Tree.
Here is a before and after picture of the tired over used land of their farm, Knepp Estate, with the improvement after only a few years. Her book is very dense, but immensely readable.
After that 'Overstory', 'Secret Life of Trees', 'Feral' by George Monbiot (first of its kind out) and now many others.
Knepp Estate
Wild Range Meat
Farmers and agriculteurs who adopt this idea to their local conditions find they have increased water on their land, more free time, riddance of most large farm equipment, hardy animals and crops.
In France we have labels which show: where an animal was born, where raised, where processed, and if local, which farm. Many chains offer local farm produce: eggs, vegetables, bottled anything, meats, processed meats, cheeses, chocolates, bakery items and on. We have so many small producers, that the prices are normalized for the most part. The concept of 'organic' called 'bio' is what is done. There are large operations in the flat areas of France, but there is government movement to reduce chemistry. It will mean reducing the size of each farm if it is industrial.
A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.
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Yes, the protein in meat is not only more
easily absorbed by humans, but the amino acids are complete which is what humans require. It's not easy to put together a vegetarian or vegan diet that has sufficient complete protein. However, the addition of small amounts of food that contain complete protein is all that's necessary. For example, vegan chili is high in protein and calories but too low in complete protein. A bit of meat in the chili or cheese on top corrects the problem.
Maybe I'm just making an excuse
but it seems my weight ballooning started when our primary care physician had us stop eating red meat and limit all meat forbidding potatoes. My wife never ate much potato but my Mom always had them as they are a staple in the German diet. So I grew up with potatoes or spaghetti at every meal. My wife hates spaghetti and tolerates it only with Alfredo sauce instead of good healthy spicy tomato sauce.
Now with covid we are eating takeout all the time from Panera and Subway. Not much meat but WAY too much bread. Actually getting a burger (Still more bread) from Steak and Shake or Culver's. Doctor would faint, greasy red meat and cheese! I sure miss my mother's meat loaf. She would pour a small can of Hunt's Tomato sauce over the top which I now understand is not usual.
Predicting -11 now here in Chicago Suburbs. Probably will ruin my peach crop. Most of all I like my fresh raspberries (an old variety) and fresh peaches from my back yard. I used to grow beets at another house but rabbits gobble up the seedlings here. Besides, I'm getting too old to bend down. I usually buy a flat of butternut squah too which produce lots of squashes in Fall. Easy to grow in Midwest soil. The vines grow visibly overnight once they get going. I eat all of those fresh squash. The rind is too thin to peel so I eat it all.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Why are you eating takeout?
I cook dinners for 2-3 of my neighbors 3-4 days a week. (Large servings meals were two dinners.) Had no difficulty getting all the ingredients throughout the shut-downs, etc. I try not to make anything one or more of them dislike (moussaka that I love has always been a hard sell for me) and try to vary what I cook. If they get something they don't like, they say nothing and eat it because it's healthy.
When I retired, my wife retired too
She'll only make frozen meals, salad and soup from a can. I'd love to cook but that is verboten.
(I'm too "messy"). Today was cereal for breakfast with sliced banana and Trail Mix. The trail mix is recent but sure improves boring high fiber cereal (I like dried fruits too). Today lunch is soup ala Campbell's (New England clam chowder, has to be white of course). Lot's of snow so probably a frozen dinner tonight. Yesterday was beef corn dogs (they don't taste as good as regular hot dog corn dogs).
Moussaka! The Greeks must have sold their soul for the recipe! Ambrosia! I even like sliced fried eggplant. Sometimes I see a light purple with white stripes eggplant in groceries. They call it Sicilian eggplant. I bought seeds once, but it takes 200 days to maturity and that's too long for Chicago. I had to take it in in Fall and put it back out in Spring. It had delicous fruit in late summer the second year, but that was too much work. I advised my daughter to try growing it in Alabama. Moussaka reminds me to see if can get takeout from Greek Islands in DuPage county. I wonder if we can make Easter reservations this year. They were closed last Easter per Pritzker's orders to all restaurants. We've been going there for Easter ever since my Dad died. When he died, Mom didn't want to do Easter meals any more. He died on Holy Saturday, the day before Catholic Easter. I usually get a glass of 7 star Metaxa and drink a toast to Dad. Dad didn't drink Metaxa. I bought him a bottle for Christmas once and he refused to drink it, keeping it for company (no bite). Dad drank cheap rotgut blended whiskey. It was the taste of his youth in the speakeasys.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
"Too messy" or is that
your wife's polite way of saying you can't cook?
The thing is fast food and frozen meals, while not exactly crap, have too much hidden sugar, oil, and chemicals in them. That means you're not eating as healthily as one should.
I fudge a bit by making extra of a few things that freeze really well. Have done some experimenting over the past couple of years to refine a few dishes, both for taste/texture, health, and quality after freezing. Happy to share any if you want. (Moussaka is a project; therefore, not worth the effort for two people, although it freezes reasonably well.
I know, I know
But I can cook. My three grandsons inhaled my spaghetti and meatballs and every thing else I made. Granted, one teen boy and two pre-teens would probably slurp up an army mess hall, but I made goulash once from a book recipe. I seasoned it to taste and would up using three times the (imported Hungarian) paprika that it called for. My mother was alive then and when I asked her how it stacked against Grandma's, she hesitated and said, "I honestly think it's better." My mother wouldn't lie to me, not about Grandma. When I was a teen my buddy across the alley would come over on Friday nights and we would make pizza and sometimes stuffed cabbages (his father was Polish, mother Italian). Wow. I haven't had a stuffed cabbage since my Aunt's funeral, held at a Polish banquet house on Chicago's South Side. Hands down best Chinese food I ever had was in Oakland. As they guy who brought us to the little storefront restaurant said, "Bad Chinese Restaurants don't last around here." I've even baked pies. Mostly big tarts because I don't like crust so I don't put a top on them. I don't grill a bad steak either, but that's no trick. Still some guys manage to turn steak into charcoal. In better times I would grill a half turkey for thanksgiving. Lots of applewood chips.
I appreciate the offer and will take you up on it when this bone-chilling cold is over. I guess it's Greek islands for the Moussaka. And the grilled lamb and dolmades. Which reminds me. as a kid I tried making stuffed grape leaves from leaves from our Concord grape. Didn't taste very good. I think concord is not the right grape to use.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
heh -- from your list
I'm sure you did make a big mess in the kitchen. (People who cook infrequently haven't learned the art of cleaning up as you go along.) If you can convince your wife to let you in the kitchen a few times a week (sell it as a trial period), keep the following in mind:
1) organize and purchase all the ingredients in advance (don't look to your wife to pop down to the store because you forgot something).
2) clean-up during and after cooking
3) cook meals she likes and season to her taste (might need two pots for some things). (You didn't mention if you wife liked the goulash or spaghetti.)
4) don't make a big deal out of it or expect praise. Welcome criticism from your wife; it's how cooking skills improve and increases the satisfaction of the customer (your wife).
5) keep it simple on most cooking days. Prepping a day before can also be helpful. Some dishes are better a day later.
good luck.
Good evening Joe. Just got me first shot of the Modena
Vax today, from lot 013M20A (in the left deltoid) at around 2Pm local, about 3 hrs ago.
Didn't feel it then, don't feel it now. Numbah 2 is already scheduled and confirmed.
Listening to Krystal and Saagar, and, as usual, they're on the money. Get ready for another mid-term dem. disaster. The only question is whether or not the GOP manages to come up with a worse election theme.
Censorship keeps heating up, wonder if we could get an old mimeograph on e-bay, just in case, you know. Posters and shit, all that compromat stuff but maybe late night guerrilla projectors shining stuff on building walls like the artists were doing a while back.
Thanks for the evening blues. I must admit that I was hoping for a cover of the Ernie K Doe version of Mother in Law, but ya can't win 'em all as they say.
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...
glad to hear that you were able to get your vax. i am still waiting for maryland to make it available for folks like me. seems to be taking forever.
yep, you can set your watch by the dems screwing up a great opportunity. the only question is whether the reps will implode into internecine warfare and limit their gains.
heh, i was having similar thoughts about listservs, low power broadcasting and broadsheets.
Thanks for the tune. Hadn't thought of listservs, but
been thinkng about low power broadcasting for a while, but they can just track the signal and steal your rig on some pretext or another. Same with Hams - I think they even have TV now, and I know they have a sat or two. Maybe somebody like Ada Fruit will come up with something to redo fidonet via cellular modems or something.
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 --
Maryland. Are you a Terp too?
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
heh...
nope. i did not go to the university of maryland, thus i am not a terp (terrapin).
Left deltoid, OUCH! n/t
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Y’all thought I was kidding about that horse last night huh?
Here’s a upbeat story after days of bad news.
We too could have cities like this if we either cut the military budget or nationalize the defense companies. Sigh I know.
I wonder if any of the democrats wanting the tax cuts deleted are asking for the SALT tax bill Pelosi put in removed? Nah...only republicans are bad and do bad things. Boy people at brunch better pay their tabs and get back to pushing Biden left before it’s too late. ......
They did it. This will probably blow back on democrats some day.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
evening snoopy...
heh, we could have cities like that as well as many other things, but our national priorities are about making a very few people very rich so that they can piss away the money on space exploration ventures and whatever other fantasies strike them.
we probably won't need cities much after they finish botching the coronavirus response and killing off vast segments of the population, though.
wow, that puppy is growing like a weed!
have a great evening!
I wonder if it hurts to grow that fast
My goodness I blink and she grows an inch.
This is so damn funny, but it shouldn’t be because just as many people believe everything about Russia Gate as the Q people believe in their theories.
Schiff told the world that he had evidence of Trump being naughty with the Russians, but not one person has asked him about it since Mueller called game over.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
well...
humans sometimes experience pain from rapid growth, i assume that it's possible for canines, too.
but, but, but, russia!!!
i mean, it's not like americans have anything to complain about. aren't our dark overlords the richest?
Sure beats Levittown, eh? What ever happened to U.S. visionaries
like Walt Disney (EPCOT in Orlando Disney World originally stood for “Experimental Prototype Community Of The future”) or Buckminster Fuller?
Oh, that’s right, they’ve been superseded by the likes of Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk.
What I’m getting at is, if even a poor country like Burma / Myanmar can just up and build a whole new
coup arenacapital city on a greenfield site, what’s rich, heart-o’-the-empire America doing (besides waging wars and occupations and impoverishing its own middle class)?They're selling building lots on Mars.
Cheap when you book a flight there with them.
Meme I saw at Way of the Bern: Noah’s snark?
https://www.reddit.com/r/WayOfTheBern/comments/lcccxf/the_way_of_the_ber...
evening lotlizard...
heh, pretty good!
have a great evening!