The Evening Blues - 2-5-20



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Johnny "Guitar" Watson

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues guitarist Johnny "Guitar" Watson. Enjoy!

Johnny "Guitar" Watson - Oh Baby

"The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command."

-- George Orwell


News and Opinion

Krystal Ball: Iowa was rigged, here's the proof

Bernie Got Robbed in Iowa, And It Could Throw Fuel on His War With the Democrats

The Iowa caucus fiasco just re-ignited the defining narrative in the Democratic Party. In 2016, it was all about Sen. Bernie Sanders’ feud with the Democratic National Committee, which seemed hell-bent on nominating Hillary Clinton at all costs. Now, a cascade of problems at the Iowa Caucus appears to have momentarily deprived Sanders of a win — and that could change the course of the campaign.

Polling averages suggested that Sanders was running away with it in Iowa. And that would have likely propelled a multimillion-dollar surge in donations and positive media coverage, particularly since it appears as though the presumptive frontrunner, former Vice President Joe Biden, severely underperformed.

Instead, the delay in results created an information vacuum that quickly turned into a circular firing squad of recriminations on the left. ... And the Vermont senator left Iowa without what might have been a momentum-building news cycle and huge fundraising opportunity.

The screw-up has screamed incompetence and even conspiracy to Sanders supporters and progressive media figures who’ve been key in boosting the senator’s message online. ... Reddit users in the huge r/SandersForPresident community dunked on Democratic bigwigs. #MayorCheat trended on Twitter after Pete Buttigieg, whose campaign has previously contracted the firm behind the app, claimed a win last night with no data to be had. And Kyle Kulinski, a popular lefty YouTuber and co-founder of Justice Democrats, called on DNC Chair Tom Perez to resign.


Sanders & Buttigieg Lead in Early Iowa Results After Faulty App Leads to Catastrophe at Caucus

Bring back the paper ballots!

Fear Is the Democracy Killer, Not Hackers

Something changed, some synapses snapped deep in the American psyche, when it became perfectly normal to accuse someone who disagrees with you online of being a robot. The breathless, perpetually freaked out coverage of Russian social media spamming before the 2016 election birthed its own cottage industry; technology reporters, cable pundits, and bored Twitter users into battlefield correspondents overnight, deep in tweet-pocked trenches of “information warfare,” “misinformation ops,” and other themes at home in a late-career Tom Clancy novel. A buggy smartphone app, reportedly rushed into use, has been blamed by the Iowa Democratic Party for delaying the transmission of caucus results, expected Monday night, well into Tuesday afternoon. Whatever the screw-ups at the Iowa Caucus may turn out to be — malicious or merely stupid — that botched tallying process, and the loud reaction it has provoked, is indicative of a danger nearly as grave as whatever “cybersecurity experts” say concerns them: When you’re told over and over that we’re at Cyber War, everything is going to feel like an attack.

Using an app in any part of an election, particularly an app rushed together on a shoestring budget, is of course a bad idea. It’s a bad idea because literally anything on a smartphone can be tampered with given sufficient motivation, time, and resources. Any credible expert in the field of voting and electoral integrity will tell you that hardware and software should be kept to an absolute lo-fi minimum, for the simple reason that there’s almost always a way to hack a computer, but it’s quite harder to hack a thin sheet of tree pulp and ink.

But adding computer code to a caucus also allows for an outcome much likelier than a digital intrusion: hysteria, confusion, and civic nihilism.

Iowa Dem Chairman Pretends To Be Competent

DNC Completely Loses Public Trust In Its Primary Process On Very First Day

After a 2016 presidential primary race riddled with scandals, all of which worked against Bernie Sanders to the advantage of anointed establishment favorite Hillary Clinton, the 2020 Democratic presidential primary elections officially began with a massive scandal working against Bernie Sanders to the advantage of an establishment favorite.

The 2020 Iowa caucuses turned out to have been designed to depend on the use of a new, untested app with extensive ties to establishment insiders and to the Pete Buttigeig campaign, and because of problems using this app as of this writing we are still waiting on the full results of the election. The Iowa Democratic Party has bizarrely released a partial result with 62 percent of 99 counties reporting, which just so happens to have favored the campaign of a Mr Peter Buttigeig, who in the sample came out on top in delegates despite coming in second in votes.

According to an Iowa precinct chair, the problems using the app (developed by the aptly named Shadow, Inc) included literally switching the numbers entered into it on the final step of reporting results.

“A precinct chair in Iowa said the app got stuck on the last step when reporting results,” CNN reports. “It was uploading a picture of the precinct’s results. The chair said they were finally able to upload, so they took a screenshot. The app then showed different numbers than what they had submitted as captured in their screenshot.”

It doesn’t actually matter anymore who really won Iowa at this point; the damage is already done. Iowa is a sparsely populated state with an insignificant number of delegates; nobody campaigns there for the delegates, they campaign to make headlines and generate excitement and favorable press for themselves in the first electoral contest of the presidential primary race. This has already happened, and with Buttigeig first declaring victory before any results were in, followed by his delegate count lead announced hours later, the favorable press has predominantly gone his way.

Even if Sanders turns out to have won the delegate count as well, this will already have happened. He will have already lost the opportunity to start off the primary contest with a win and a rousing victory speech. In every way that matters, he has already been robbed, by extremely shady establishment dealings, in the very first electoral contest of the race.

The very first. Berners are already as outraged as they were at the height of the 2016 DNC scandal, which was still months out from this point in the race. They’re already getting screwed over, and it’s just getting started.

I see many people blaming this on incompetence, some in bad faith and some in good, but in either case there is no legitimate reason to do that anymore. It has been my experience that if someone seems to be totally incompetent but every “oopsie” they make just happens to end up benefiting them, it’s manipulation you’re dealing with, not incompetence. Some people are happy to look dumb if they can get what they want. If you watch their actions and ignore their words, a very revealing pattern shows up immediately.

This is all extremely blatant, and the feelings it brings up in people are completely legitimate. Yet narrative managers like Neera Tanden and Shannon Watts are telling everyone they’re just like Trump if they suspect the Democratic establishment is again doing the thing it did just four years ago.


If such extremely shady shenanigans had occurred in Russia or Venezuela, within minutes Mike Pompeo would have been holding a press conference demanding a new election under UN supervision and an international coalition of sanctions. It’s hilarious how America is constantly staging coups, implementing sanctions and arming violent militias on the basis that their government has an illegitimate democratic process, yet its own most important electoral proceedings would make any third world tin pot dictator blush.

Who Is More Competent? The Democrat Establishment Or The Sanders Campaign?

So, one talking point being spun out is that Bernie’s people aren’t competent enough to run government because their expertise lies in winning primaries. This is a prime example of the flailing that occurs when an establishment is scared of losing power (and when your Billionaire boss is being crushed.)

First, everyone who gets into power has as a primary competence the ability to get into power. There aren’t a lot of slots at the top, especially not in the Senate or the Presidency. If you got there, you have something on the ball. People don’t like to admit it about people they hate, but even Trump was shockingly competent at campaigning.

Second, after the Democratic party couldn’t build an app that worked to handle Iowa caucus results AND the Sanders campaign could, well, perhaps it’s the outsider who’s competent? ...

And I imagine the Bernie administration, unlike the Obama one, will be able to build a healthcare website if they have four years to do it in.

Cutting Israel-PA coordination: The ace in the sleeve Mahmoud Abbas can't use

President Mahmoud Abbas’ statement on Saturday couldn’t have seemed more clear: in the face of impending Israeli annexation and the US’ humiliating “deal of the century”, the Palestinian Authority (PA) was cutting security ties to both countries. Yet the next day the close security cooperation continued as normal, with the liaison offices operating as if nothing had happened. ...

Despite Abbas’ strong words at an Arab League summit in Cairo two days ago, immediately severing ties was never part of Abbas’ thinking, according to a senior Palestinian government official. The announcement, the source said, was instead "a hint" he would use "an important card" to pressure the US and Israel. ...

Twice recently, in 2015 and 2017, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, a leading component of the PA, has announced it was cutting ties with Israel. But these decisions were never implemented by the PA. Certainly, following through with such a threat would be a game-changer.

But such a strategic step could only be implemented if the rules of the PA’s relationship with Israel are completely changed, a senior Fatah movement official told MEE. "Stopping security coordination may lead to armed conflict, and this may lead to the collapse of the Palestinian Authority,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

'Majority of Mine Victims Are Children': EU Condemns Trump Rollback of Landmine Restrictions

The European Union on Tuesday condemned U.S. President Donald Trump's decision last week to roll back restrictions on the American military's use of landmines despite the deadly history of the weapons around the world.

Virginie Battu-Henriksson, spokesperson for the E.U.'s diplomatic service, said in a statement that Trump's rescission of an Obama administration order banning landmine use outside of the Korean peninsula "undermines the global norm against anti-personnel mines."

That international norm, said Battu-Henriksson, "has saved tens of thousands of people in the past twenty years."

"The majority of mine victims are children," Battu-Henriksson added. "The conviction that these weapons are incompatible with International Humanitarian Law has led 164 states to join the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, including all member states of the European Union. Their use anywhere, anytime, and by any actor remains completely unacceptable to the European Union."

The E.U.'s statement came days after the Trump White House announced Friday that it officially canceled the previous administration's policy restricting landmine use by the U.S. military, a move arms control groups and peace activists warned could lead to an increase in civilian deaths and set back the global movement to rid the planet of the dangerous weapons of war.

Ex-Obama official exits Israeli spyware firm amid press freedom row

A former Obama administration official who has faced criticism from press freedom groups for her role as a senior adviser at NSO Group has stepped down from the Israeli spyware company.

The disclosure of the public departure of Juliette Kayyem, a high-profile national security expert and Harvard professor, as a senior adviser to NSO came just one day after a controversy over her role at the spyware group prompted Harvard to cancel an online seminar she was due to host.

The “webinar”, which was focused on female journalist safety, was cancelled after officials from the Committee to Protect Journalists, among others, criticised Kayyem’s work for NSO, whose technology is claimed to have been used to target journalists and human rights campaigners. NSO has denied the allegations.

Ahmed Zidan, CPJ’s digital manager, said in a tweet that the former Homeland Security official’s role at the event was akin to inviting a “coal executive to talk about renewable energy”.

The decision by Harvard’s Shorenstein Center to cancel the event after receiving criticism of Kayyem’s involvement in the webinar is the latest sign that spyware companies are coming under increasing scrutiny.

Former Speechwriter: Why SOTU doesn't matter like it used to

Trump impeachment: Republican Susan Collins vows to vote for acquittal

Donald Trump moved a step closer to winning perfect Republican support on Tuesday in his quest for impeachment acquittal, gaining a vow from senator Susan Collins of Maine to vote to acquit on both articles of impeachment.

Before a final vote scheduled for Wednesday afternoon on whether to convict Trump, senators began a round of speeches on how they think the third presidential impeachment trial in US history should end.

As he prepared to deliver the State of the Union address at the Capitol on Tuesday night, Trump appeared headed for acquittal on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. About half of the 100 senators had delivered speeches by Tuesday evening, with no signs of partisan defections.

But a small sense of suspense continued to attend the trial, over the question of whether Trump and his surrogate, the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, would maintain total party discipline.

Krystal and Saagar: Pelosi's SOTU stunt is why Trump's approval is sky high

Montana Republican refuses to quit over call for socialists to be 'jailed or shot'

A Montana Republican lawmaker who says the US constitution allows for socialists to be jailed or shot will only resign “if God asked me to”. State representative Rodney Garcia, of Billings also said he has been congratulated by supporters for his controversial stance and has filed to run for state senate.

Garcia made his claim at an event featuring former interior secretary Ryan Zinke on Friday, then stood by it after a Billings Gazette report attracted national attention.

He was rebuked by his party and three Republican legislative leaders called on him to resign over remarks they called “un-American”. But Garcia remained unrepentant, saying socialism, which he called “pretty much communism”, is dangerous. ...

Socialists “have to be tried, and if they’re found guilty” they can be jailed or shot, he insisted. “But more than likely they would never be shot because we just don’t do that in today’s society. We’re supposed to be civilized.” As previously, Garcia could not cite which part of the constitution supports his claims. ... Garcia’s comment about socialism being “pretty much communism” echoed remarks by the president in a Sunday interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity.

Federal Judge Reverses Conviction of Border Volunteers, Challenging Government’s “Gruesome Logic”

A federal judge in Tucson, Arizona, reversed the conviction of four humanitarian aid volunteers on religious freedom grounds Monday, ruling that the government had embraced a “gruesome logic” that criminalizes “interfering with a border enforcement strategy of deterrence by death.” The reversal, written by U.S. District Judge Rosemary Márquez, marked the latest rebuke of the Trump administration’s crackdown on humanitarian aid providers in southern Arizona, and the second time in matter of months that a religious freedom defense has prevailed in a federal case involving the provision of aid to migrants in the borderlands.

The defendants in the case — Natalie Hoffman, Oona Holcomb, Madeline Huse, and Zaachila Orozco-McCormick — were fined and given probation in March of last year for entering the Cabeza Prieta Wildlife Refuge in the summer of 2017 without a permit, driving on a restricted access road and leaving food, water, and other humanitarian aid supplies for migrants passing through in the summer heat. They were the first among a group of volunteers with the faith-based humanitarian group, No More Deaths, to go to trial for their aid work in 2019.

The remains of roughly 3,000 migrants have been recovered in Pima County alone since 2000. Experts are confident that the true death toll is much higher. ...

The defendants established that they were exercising their “sincere religious beliefs,” Márquez wrote, while the government failed to demonstrate that its application of the refuge rules was carried out in the “least restrictive” manner available.



the horse race



Smells bad:

Pete Buttigieg holds early lead in Iowa caucuses after chaos over results

Pete Buttigieg, the previously little-known former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, held a narrow lead in the Iowa caucuses on Tuesday night, according to a partial release of a majority of the results by the state Democratic party a day after an embarrassing organizational breakdown that marred the biggest night of the election year so far.

With 62% of the precincts reporting from all of Iowa’s 99 counties, Buttigieg held 26.9% of the state’s delegate count, trailed closely by the Vermont senator Bernie Sanders with 25.1%, the Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren with 18.3% and the former vice-president Joe Biden falling well behind with 15.6%. Sanders, meanwhile, had so far earned the largest share of total votes cast.

However, clouded by doubts and uncertainty, the result could change as additional precincts report.

“We know this data is accurate and we also have a paper trail,” Troy Price, chair of the Iowa Democratic party, said at a press conference in Des Moines. “We have been working day and night to make sure these results are accurate.”

He declined to answer questions about when the state party would release the remainder of the results.


TYT's Emma Vigeland slams media for dismissing Bernie's popular vote lead


#TomPerezResign: DNC Chair Under Fire for Iowa Disaster, Favoritism for Billionaire Oligarch Bloomberg

Calls for Tom Perez to step down as the head of the Democratic National Committee grew louder Tuesday in the aftermath of the Iowa caucus fiasco in which party mismanagement of the process delayed the results from Monday night's contest and left the 2020 Democratic presidential primary in disarray.

"The Iowa caucus debacle is so insulting to the candidates, their volunteers, the caucus-goers, and the DNC's own process," tweeted HuffPost senior reporter Zach Carter. "Tom Perez has to resign."

Multiple petitions on Change.org called on Perez to relinquish his position as chair of the DNC. One of the most popular ones had over 13,600 signatures at press time. #ResignTomPerez trended on Twitter overnight.

While Perez and the DNC were not technically in charge of the process Monday night, the national party's influence on the process likely led to the caucus meltdown. Top-level party officials' concerns about Russian interference in the 2016 election have created a cottage industry of technology security experts offering protective services for elections.

On Monday an app developed to report results by little-known but party-connected tech company Shadow encountered problems, throwing the entire process into chaos.

As Common Dreams reported, secrecy around the app, its developer, and the process by which it failed have sown distrust in the primary process among the Democratic rank and file. Perez's position at the head of the party has made him the focus of that anger and frustration.

The anger at Perez had been brewing for days.

On Friday, news that the DNC was going to adjust its debate rules to allow billionaire Mike Bloomberg onstage drew outrage and accusations that the party was allowing the former New York City mayor to buy his way into the election—and the beginning of the latest wave of calls for Perez's resignation. Activist Shaun King, a supporter of the Democratic presidential bid of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), referred to both issues in a tweet on Tuesday.

"I'll be glad to see Tom Perez step down from the DNC," said King. "After a clusterfuck of an election in a state the DNC had a year to prepare for, that was preceded by the DNC changing the rules for a billionaire to buy his way into the race, the man has lost the respect of millions."

Latest Poll Shows Sanders With 'Commanding Lead' as Democratic Hopefuls Head to New Hampshire

While the world awaited delayed results from Monday night's Democratic Party caucuses in Iowa, 2020 presidential candidates on Tuesday headed to New Hampshire, where new polling shows that Sen. Bernie Sanders has "a commanding lead."

The 7 News/Emerson College Polling survey of New Hampshire Democratic voters from Monday night showed Sanders (I-Vt.) at 32% support, followed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and former Vice President Joe Biden at 13%, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg at 12%.


The survey—the second of a continuous eight day tracking poll leading up to next week's vote—has a margin of error of +/- 4.3%. As a statement explained Monday night, the latest results represent "a shift" from Sunday, "as Sanders gained three points, Biden and Buttigieg lost one point, Warren gained one point, and Klobuchar gained four points."



the evening greens


Canadian court upholds Trans Mountain pipeline expansion approval

Canada’s federal court of appeal has dismissed legal objections to the contentious Trans Mountain pipeline expansion that would nearly triple the flow of oil from the Alberta oil sands to the Pacific coast.

In a 3-0 decision, the court rejected four challenges from First Nations in British Columbia to the federal government’s approval of the project.

That means construction can continue on the project, though the First Nations have 60 days to appeal to the supreme court. ...

The pipeline expansion would triple the capacity of an existing line to carry oil extracted from the oil sands in Alberta across the snow-capped peaks of the Canadian Rockies. It would end at a terminal outside Vancouver, resulting in a sevenfold increase in the number of tankers in the shared waters between Canada and Washington state.

Global Witness Accuses Exxon of 'Exploitative' Contract That Robs People of Guyana of $55 Billion in Lost Oil Revenue

International human rights and anti-corruption group Global Witness is calling on the Guyanese government to renegotiate a oil license deal with fossil fuel giant Exxon after the group's analysis showed that Guyana stands to lose $55 billion while the oil giant takes control of one of the largest oil reserves found in years.

Global Witness found that the rushed deal left Guyana with a lower profit share from Exxon's Stabroek oil license than countries generally get from such negotiations. The group based its findings on a study by financial analysis firm OpenOil comparing Guyana's contract with Exxon to deals between governments and oil companies around the world.

Under the deal, Guyana could lose up to $1.3 billion per year—money which could be used for schools, hospitals, infrastructure, and to repair crumbling sea walls in a country where "90% of the population [is] at risk from rising sea level," Global Witness said in its report, entitled "Signed Away."

Global Witness interviewed Guyanese citizens last summer about the country's high unemployment rate, sugar farms which have been forced to close, and the revenues needed to protect the country from sea level rise—a phenomenon largely driven by the climate crisis and extractive activities like oil drilling.

"In Mahaicony, Guyana's breadbasket on the coast, we were shown wide swathes of farm fields flooded with salt water," the report reads. "The sea wall had collapsed, crops were ruined, livestock was getting sick, and it would be years before the land recovered. Money was desperately needed to rebuild coastal defenses."

Patrick Galey, environment correspondent for Agence France Presse, tweeted that Guyana's resources have been "plundered by oil barons."

Obama Helped Make Cars More Efficient, but Now They Spew Black Carbon

If you’re getting more bang for your buck at the gas pump today than you were a decade ago, you can thank the Obama administration. Obama’s 2012 updates to the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards, or CAFE standards, made new cars more fuel-efficient and reduced their carbon dioxide emissions. But a studypublished this week casts a dark shadow over that success story. Researchers found that the path we’ve chosen to better fuel economy could end up costing the U.S. hundreds of lives each year.

“I think this was a classic case of unintended consequences,” said Rawad Saleh, an assistant professor at the Air Quality and Climate Research Laboratory at the University of Georgia and a co-author of the study.

Here’s what happened. To get in line with the CAFE standards, automakers leapt at a technology called the gasoline direct injection, or GDI, engine. In 2008, GDI engines were in a mere 2.3 percent of new vehicles sold in the U.S., but by 2018, that number jumped to 51 percent. The EPA expected it to rise to 93 percent by 2025 under the rules set out under Obama, which the Trump administration is trying to roll back.

Before GDIs came along, most cars had port fuel injection engines, or PFIs. With a PFI engine, gasoline mixes with oxygen from the air, forming a vapor, before reaching the engine. In a GDI engine, the liquid fuel is injected directly. GDI engines produce more power for every drop of fuel, but the fuel burns less uniformly. The result is a car that emits less CO2 per mile driven, but the incomplete combustion creates more particulate pollution, like black carbon. Black carbon is one of many pollutants known as “particulate matter 2.5” or PM2.5 — tiny, inhalable, solid particles that are 2.5 micrometers and smaller and are linked to respiratory diseases, asthma, and premature death for people with heart or lung disease. Exposure to black carbon has also been associated with cancer and birth defects. Unlike CO2, a gas that hangs around in the atmosphere for hundreds of years, black carbon particles float around for a few days to a few weeks before falling back to earth. The dark surface of the particles directly absorbs radiation from the sun, adding heat to the atmosphere and contributing to climate change.

Saleh said there has been a growing body of evidence documenting the dirty little secret behind GDI engines ever since they hit the market. His team’s new study puts the issue into perspective by calculating the public health and climate costs of switching the entire U.S. vehicle fleet over to these engines. The researchers found that such a change could almost double the number of premature deaths associated with PM2.5 vehicle emissions, up to 1599 per year from 855 in 2011. The health risks would be most severe in neighborhoods surrounded by major roadways, which are disproportionately communities of color that already suffer from poor air quality, like Oakland, California.


Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

Intercepted podcast: On the Ground in Iowa

Buttigieg Backer Top Funder of Group Behind Iowa’s Disastrous Voting App

Vowing No Repeat of Iowa Caucus Fiasco, Nevada Dems Say They Won't Use Secretive Shadow Inc. App

Iowa Wasn't a Technology Failure. It Was a Failure of Democratic Values.

Iowa, Democrats, and Elite Incompetence

Cornel West on Missing Zinn

Democracy Now: In State of the Union, Trump Celebrates Hate & Xenophobia While Touting “Great American Comeback”

Jimmy Dore: DNC Takes Over Counting Remaining Iowa Votes

Jimmy Dore: Clinton Advisor Ties To Iowa App Maker “SHADOW”

Jimmy Dore: Chris Christie Lays Hammer Down On Bloomberg

Saagar Enjeti: Bernie's EPIC billionaire battle is coming

Rising: Buttigieg Surrogate suggests he got three Iowa media bumps

Reid Wilson: Is Biden a 'dead man walking'?

Rising: New Hampshire polls give Bernie a big lead

Rising: Who got screwed in Iowa?


A Little Night Music

Young John Watson - Highway 60

Young John Watson - You Can't Take It With You

Johnny "Guitar" Watson - Don't Touch Me

Johnny "Guitar" Watson - The Bear

Young John Watson - Gettin Drunk

Young John Watson - Motor Head Baby

Johnny "Guitar" Watson - Those Lonely, Lonely Nights

Johnny "Guitar" Watson - Too Tired

Johnny "Guitar" Watson - Three Hours Past Midnight

Johnny "Guitar" Watson - Hot Little Mama

Johnny "Guitar" Watson - Gangster of Love

Johnny (Guitar) Watson - Rat Now

Johnny (Guitar) Watson - Looking Back

Johnny Guitar Watson - The Late Freight Twist


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Comments

ggersh's picture

Well it's gotta be official
1/ameriKa is a banana republic
2/ a constitutional convention is coming our way
3/the D party is dead
4/the fat lady is signing

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtGxusvUT3k]

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12 users have voted.

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

mimi's picture

@ggersh
may be you could get a parliamentary system with somewhat decent electoral procedures.
That would be revolutionary the most normal thing to do.

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6 users have voted.
OzoneTom's picture

@mimi
... there are powerful interests who would love to start over with a new constitution excluding troublesome aspects they have thus far failed to remove through corrupted representatives and courts.

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6 users have voted.
lotlizard's picture

@OzoneTom  
The authoritarians leading both parties will just happen to have a finished draft, complete in every detail, that they pull out of a drawer someplace, ready to go without public disclosure or discussion.

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6 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@ggersh

#1 - agreed
#2 - i hope that the cure is less painful than the infection
#3 - the d party has been a zombie since it lost it's last effective charlatan, obama

sorry, i can't resist:

4/the fat lady is signing

well, we're making progress, at least the fat lady is following the ada and making accommodations for the deaf. Smile

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6 users have voted.
Raggedy Ann's picture

The ratfuckery continues. The comments are hilarious.

I posted this video earlier. I think he's spot on.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d1PWr1_Ygw&feature=youtu.be]

Have an investigative evening, folks! Pleasantry

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9 users have voted.

"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

joe shikspack's picture

@Raggedy Ann

heh, these people are so corrupt, they just can't help themselves. they know that they have created a situation where everybody is paying attention to their actions and that the campaigns have their own documentation - but they cheat anyway.

it's really pretty incredible.

i think beau is pretty much on target, too.

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12 users have voted.
Raggedy Ann's picture

@joe shikspack
that they've been caught this time.

It just occurred to me why they were so very blatant about it. When you do a wrong and suffer no consequences, it emboldens you to be worse next time. I worked with a woman who embezzled $1m over a 10 year period. She started out small potatoes but was stealing $6,000/mo when she finally got caught. The paper trail showed the progression.

The dimwit party hasn't been caught like this. We know her heinous is full of dirty tricks. Here's yer sign! Pleasantry

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9 users have voted.

"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

joe shikspack's picture

@Raggedy Ann

if your example holds and extends, we're going to see a pretty amazing shitshow. buckle up!

DNC Lawyers Argue DNC Has Right to Pick Candidates in Back Rooms

On April 28 the transcript was released from the most recent hearing at a federal court in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on the lawsuit filed on behalf of Bernie Sanders supporters against the Democratic National Committee and former DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz for rigging the Democratic primaries for Hillary Clinton. Throughout the hearing, lawyers representing the DNC and Debbie Wasserman Schultz double down on arguments confirming the disdain the Democratic establishment has toward Bernie Sanders supporters and any entity challenging the party’s status quo.

Shortly into the hearing, DNC attorneys claim Article V, Section 4 of the DNC Charter—stipulating that the DNC chair and their staff must ensure neutrality in the Democratic presidential primaries—is “a discretionary rule that it didn’t need to adopt to begin with.” Based on this assumption, DNC attorneys assert that the court cannot interpret, claim, or rule on anything associated with whether the DNC remains neutral in their presidential primaries.

The attorneys representing the DNC have previously argued that Sanders supporters knew the primaries were rigged, therefore annulling any potential accountability the DNC may have. In the latest hearing, they doubled down on this argument: “The Court would have to find that people who fervently supported Bernie Sanders and who purportedly didn’t know that this favoritism was going on would have not given to Mr. Sanders, to Senator Sanders, if they had known that there was this purported favoritism.” ...

Later in the hearing, attorneys representing the DNC claim that the Democratic National Committee would be well within their rights to “go into back rooms like they used to and smoke cigars and pick the candidate that way.” By pushing the argument throughout the proceedings of this class action lawsuit, the Democratic National Committee is telling voters in a court of law that they see no enforceable obligation in having to run a fair and impartial primary election.

The DNC attorneys even go so far as to argue that the words “impartial” and “evenhanded”—used in the DNC Charter—can’t be interpreted by a court of law.

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Raggedy Ann's picture

@joe shikspack
Pleasantry

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1 user has voted.

"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

mimi's picture

if the DNC, the corporate elite of the Democratic Party and the Democratic Party in Iowa just had asked their arch-enemies-bot friends, the Ruskies, for help with the app, I am sure, Putin would have delivered one that works perfectly well. Being a Russian asset pays well, that is if you can count the votes bucks.

The Putinchen under my bed couldn't stop kicking and screaming about that botched love affair between them. I really had to calm him down./ok/s/for security reasons.

Hope I can continue through the EB to the bitter end. May be I will be dead like the Iowa caucus, when I have finished reading it tonight.

Good Night.

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joe shikspack's picture

@mimi

heh, see, the democrats could have hired somebody competent to write an app and have been done with it. the problem is, they didn't want an app that would just tabulate the votes honestly and quickly - they wanted one that would provide a particular result while maintaining plausible deniability of corruption. that's why they had to hire some of their corrupt flunky associates.

happy reading!

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9 users have voted.
Azazello's picture

Evening all,
My heart swells with pride.
Raytheon chooses Tucson for headquarters of combined missiles/defense unit
Feb. 6 is 'Ronald Reagan Day' in Arizona
These are longish, but worth a read:
Nazi collabo families and racist propaganda in the New York Times
War for Fun and Profit
I don't have a link, but it's being reported that vote totals have been altered in Blackhawk County, Iowa.

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10 users have voted.

We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

joe shikspack's picture

@Azazello

i can only imagine your pride at having a raytheon facility in town. i used to live right next door to one which thankfully moved on, though you can't swing a dead rat in my area without hitting some outpost of mic profiteers. so, um, my condolences.

thanks for the links, the yasha levine article was excellent - i give it four snorts. Smile

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6 users have voted.
Azazello's picture

@joe shikspack
for a long time. The Raytheon HQ is new, and of especial interest to local Realtors, but they've had a bomb factory here for years. If you add up Raytheon, Davis-Monthan and the ANG unit at Tucson airport, Federal "defense" spending is a huge part of our economy. And it's not just Tucson, all of southern AZ is more or less MIC dependent.

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3 users have voted.

We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

mimi's picture

[video:https://youtu.be/Lvm3xeO1lA0]
at least it helps some ... to understand Jonathan Pie.

(fixed spelling)

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8 users have voted.
mimi's picture

@mimi

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joe shikspack's picture

@mimi

thanks!

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3 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

..

Here was Romney lying to the country and saying that Russia invaded Ukraine when of course it never happened. Is not happening now either and Russia isn't stopping in Ukraine before they come here to fight us. But lots of people think that this is what's really happening. And Biden is not Trump's political opponent. He is the opponent of every person running for president. And now he is tanking in the polls and again he has not made it out of Iowa.

The Resistance welcomes a new hero. How did this play on DK?

If the Republican party has a future, its face is Willard Romney.

Oh gag me.

Had President Kennedy still been alive he had included this act as an update to his book Profiles in Courage

Yeah nothing hinky about this.

Jimmy and Ron. Who's on first?

Oh gag me.

Had President Kennedy still been alive he had included this act as an update to his book Profiles in Courage

Jimmy and Ron. Who's on first?

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9 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

wow. mittens has joined the resistance. do you think there's still time for him to get into the democrat primary for president? surely obama would endorse him in gratitude for having written his healthcare plan.

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9 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack

Don't give them any ideas. Romney was a half way decent governor of Massachusetts once long ago and if ex republican Bloomberg can buy his way on to the debates then why shouldn't Romney? But it's the acceptance he's found on DK that gets me. I was so hoping Manchin would vote opposite Romney just to see some heads explode. He wanted to just censure Trump and if democrats would have gone with that I bet some republicans would have joined them. But noooo! And remember Schiff promised us that he would show us the evidence of Trump's Collusion. We are still waiting, Adam.

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6 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

thought of it. rahm emanuel probably has mittens on speed dial.

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3 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack

I'm guessing you only need one guess to pick.

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3 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

dystopian's picture

Johnny Guitar Watson was awesome! What a player! And a major major influence on many. He was pushin' the limits in his day. 'Nother Texan too. It's like they farmed 'em down here. He sure had a bright attack. Great voice too, amazing singer. Always liked 'In France' on Them or Us (Zappa 84) which was Johnny Guitar with Frank.

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4 users have voted.

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

joe shikspack's picture

@dystopian

yep, watson was heavily influenced by t bone walker (like a lot of blues guitarists) and created an interesting style from it. i really like his 50's stuff a lot, more than his later funk reinvention, but that's just me.

anyway, have a good one!

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janis b's picture

Thanks joe, for the news and cruisey blues with funky lyrics.

My response to the Montana Republican ...

M R: Dear G-D, I pray that you give me permission to shoot Socialists? It will be difficult in these modern times, but I think I'm up to the task.

G-D: I think you need to go back to the past … you want me to take you there?

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joe shikspack's picture

@janis b

both parties have their share of homicidal loonies, but it seems like trump has brought some truly shameless ones out of the closet and onto the ballot.

go figure.

have a great evening!

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3 users have voted.
janis b's picture

@joe shikspack

I'm looking forward to a nice evening, even if I have some figuring to do ; ).

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2 users have voted.

As always...I particularly enjoyed the interview of Cornell West on his friend and colleague Howard Zinn. This little nugget helps in these times:

I’ll tell you one thing about Brother Howard that was interesting to me: he was a prisoner of hope. People call him an optimist, and he would always have to say: “Wait, wait, wait, let’s be clear about what that term means. I’m no optimist in terms of being naive. I know we’re living a nightmare. But nothing can exhaust or suffocate my energy to think, and fight, and laugh, and love.” I loved that about him. But you know, he used to say that one truth can conquer a hundred lies. And that’s very upbeat. I’m more Chekhovian: that the world is full of mendacity, criminality, cupidity, love of domination, so that sometimes a hundred lies can push out the truth. Howard would always end on the upbeat note, whereas I’m much more of a blues man, you know? Because as a black man in America, we’ve been crushed, defeated so many times. So, when you talk about having swing, and you keep swinging and it don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing, victory is redefined. It’s not so much whether you’re able in the end to triumph, but it’s whether you’re able to keep on keeping on. You thought you crushed us, but we still come in with a smile and style. You thought that you had suffocated us, but we got new energy, new oxygen, new vitality. See, that’s much more of a tragicomic, blues-like, Chekhovian orientation. I detect that in moments of Brother Howard’s work, but I think that Russian, Chekhovian element, ironically, is closer to me than it was to him. In that sense, he’s more American than I am. I’m more Russian, isn’t that interesting?

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6 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@peachcreek

glad you enjoyed it, west always seems to be a good read. of course, one of the things that i like best about west is his love of the blues and the occasional bits he drops in interviews about it.

when i was reading that section you quoted a couple of tunes ran through my head - one was jb lenoir's "been down so long" and the other, which i thought kind of addressed it better was this tune:

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3 users have voted.
Anja Geitz's picture

Even in my worst suspicions about that software app, I could NOT have predicted the level of ratfuckery we witnessed in real time on caucus night.

Even when I ran across the info about the DNC using this new “smartphone software” and included that in Tuesday’s OT leading up to the caucus, could I scarcely imagine the lengths our suspension of disbelief was asked to go about an untested App that was plagued by security concerns.

And as brazenly confident as these strutting MoFo’s seem to be now, me thinks that maybe they have miscalculated what happens to a people when there finally is no faith in a system that keeps destroying our future.

How does the song go? The times they are a changing? Hell, could we have imagined 20 years ago that Donald Fucking Trump would be our president and how that disaster came into being? Or how about a Jewish senior citizen with an army of internet savvy 20 something supporters running for President whose campaign has figured out a way to raise money on their own and build a media platform that will make cable “news” irrelevant to voters of the future?

I dunno. I feel like things on the ground might be more fluid then we realize.

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6 users have voted.

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

joe shikspack's picture

@Anja Geitz

well, seeing how things are going, it may be that success for sanders and the movement he has pulled together may ultimately depend upon his willingness to go outside of the party system ... or the movement's ability to unite behind some candidate willing to move the platform forward as a third party candidate if sanders wimps out.

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4 users have voted.
Anja Geitz's picture

@joe shikspack

But wouldn't a third party also have to confront a hostile power structure that has their hands on the levers of the entire electoral system?

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3 users have voted.

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier