The Evening Blues - 3-27-18



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Robert Nighthawk

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features delta bluesman Robert Nighthawk. Enjoy!

Robert Nighthawk - Sweet Black Angel Blues

"There is no one today. Only the Schumers and the Pelosis. And they have become with this Russia gate stuff, claiming that Putin attacked America and it was like Pearl Harbor or 9/11. I mean I never call people names, but this is warmongering. That’s exactly what it is. If you claim Russia attacked America, the assumption is we have to attack Russia. And we’re talking about nuclear war potentially. So what kind of political leadership is, we have descended into a morass of degraded commentary on Russia that has never even when the Soviet Union existed, even during the worst days of the Cold War, we didn’t have this kind of discourse."

-- Stephen Cohen


News and Opinion

Why Are Progressives Cheering Cable News’ Parade of Hawks and Liars?

When the “War on Terror” was launched in 2001, mainstream media—especially cable TV news—started a parade. It was a narrow parade of hawkish retired military and intelligence brass promoting war as the response to the crime of 9/11, predicting success and identifying foreign enemies to attack. ... Who can forget David Barstow’s 2008 Pulitzer Prize–winning expose for the New York Times (4/20/08)—based on 8,000 pages of internal Pentagon emails and transcripts—showing that network TV’s hawkish retired generals were not only being paid by big military contractors, but were being spoon-fed talking points and spin by the Pentagon, month after month as they paraded on TV?

Who can forget that NBC/MSNBC’s top military analyst, ex-Gen. Barry McCaffrey, relentlessly pushed for war based on falsehoods—like warning of “thousands of gallons of mustard agents, sarin, nerve agent VX still in Iraq”; offered continuously ridiculous punditry (like praising Defense Secretary Rumsfeld’s advance planning of the Iraq occupation); and famously crowed on MSNBC, “Thank God for the Abrams tank and the Bradley fighting vehicle”—without mentioning his role at military contractor IDT that made millions for doing God’s work on the Abrams and Bradley? ...

MSNBC, apparently.

I turned on the “progressive” news channel a few nights ago to see Chris Hayes politely interviewing General McCaffrey. Did Hayes—during the week marking the 15th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq—press McCaffrey on his role in that disaster? Perhaps demand an explanation or an apology? No. The topic was Trump’s weird attraction to Putin. That’s a worthy topic. But Barry McCaffrey as expert and arbiter! Still?

Just as they did in the lead-up to the Iraq invasion, MSNBC and CNN now serve up a steady parade of war-hawks, spies and liars, presenting them as credible and almost heroic as long as they criticize the despicable man in the White House. ...

Progressives should be wary of the growing alliance between Clintonite/MSNBC-style liberals and neo-con militarists forever in search of the next enemy — an alliance that began before the Trump campaign, and will likely continue after Trump is deposed (hopefully soon).

Who Will Stop the US-Russia Arms Race?

Some speculative food for thought:

We Are One False Flag Event Away From World War 3

In September of the year 2000, the extremely influential neoconservative think tank Project for the New American Century published a report titled “Rebuilding America’s Defenses” which laid out an agenda for ensuring US world dominance in a post-Cold War world. It called for massive, sweeping changes in the current model for US policy, about which it made the following observation:

“Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event — like a new Pearl Harbor. “

Today journalist Abby Martin highlighted a Trump quote from January of this year, less than three months before the president would select [John Bolton] a primary PNAC architect and insatiable warmonger to the most important advisory position in the executive branch. The quote got lost in the shuffle of the news churn and didn’t get as much attention as it should have.


... The US-centralized empire is now according to its own data entering into a state of “post-primacy”, which means in order to advance the neoconservative agenda of global domination something drastic is going to have to occur. In my estimation, that is what we are being prepped for with all this nonstop anti-Russia propaganda today. ...

Prior to the end of 2016 the average American rarely even thought about Russia, almost never thought about Vladimir Putin, and had no idea what a Kremlin was. Now hatred for Russia is at the forefront of consciousness in mainstream America, and now infected the UK as well and is quickly metastasizing throughout Australia and Europe. The wood has been slowly dried for some major future event, and a false flag event will be like a lit match on the kindling. The media will pick it up and run with it full-throttle, and people will be herded by fear toward the war door.

6,700 More U.S. Missiles for Saudi Arabia to Shoot at Yemeni Kids

How much more slaughter in Yemen is the United States government willing to help with? We found out when State Department announced on March 23 the sale of 6,700 anti-tank missiles to Saudi Arabia.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to discuss the Saudi-led bombing of Yemen on March 23 and the missile deal was announced a few hours later. The State Department notified Congress of the proposed sale which is a part of a $1 billion weapons sales deal. The State Department on Thursday announced the sale of 6,700 anti-tank missiles to Saudi Arabia, hours after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to discuss the Saudi-led bombing of Yemen.

Coming almost three years to the day that Saudi Arabia, supported by the U.S., began a campaign of airstrikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen, the State Department ironically and sarcastically wrote: “This proposed sale will support U.S. foreign policy and national security objectives by improving the security of a friendly country which has been, and continues to be, an important force for political stability and economic growth in the Middle East… and will not alter the basic military balance in the region.”

The U.S. increased its air strikes in Yemen in 2017 by having six times more airstrikes that in 2016.

A 13-Year-Old Boy and Other Yemeni Civilians Were Killed in U.S. Drone Strikes This Month

On March 5, 13-year-old Amer Ali al-Saqra Huraidan and his cousin were on their way home from visiting relatives in al-Hudhi, a small town in the eastern Yemeni province of Hadramout. As they drove along a desert highway around 4 p.m. local time, a U.S. drone circled overhead. Somewhere thousands of miles away, the drone operator launched a strike. A short time later, Amer’s cousin Hasan awoke to fire and smoke rising from the mangled pickup truck and heard the buzz of the drone overhead. He had wounds on his right hand, leg, and head; chunks of shrapnel would later be removed from his body. But Amer was barely recognizable. The strike had charred his body and torn it to pieces, killing him instantly.

In a phone interview with The Intercept, Hasan, 19, said first responders were reluctant to come to the scene because they were concerned about a possible second strike by the drone that still hovered overhead. He and his family have been left wondering how the U.S. military mistook a fifth grader for a militant. ...

The strike that killed Amer was the first of three attacks near al-Hudhi in the span of a week. Seven other people were killed in strikes on March 7 and March 9, according to members of the al-Mahashima tribe to which all of the dead belonged. Independent sources on the ground in Yemen, as well as the international rights group Reprieve, confirmed the tribe members’ accounts. The victims, they noted, were poor people displaced from al-Jawf province, their lives upended by fighting that has raged on since 2014. None of them were affiliated with the Islamic State or Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, known as AQAP, the sources said. ...

Amer is survived by five brothers and sisters. Along with the rest of his family, they have been displaced by the conflict and now live in a tent near an oil field in Marib province — the home that Amer was returning to the day he was killed.

Amer’s uncle, who is a shepherd, told The Intercept by phone that he wants those responsible for what he called “this criminal attack” to be held accountable and asked for compensation for the victims. “We condemn criminal acts from any party, be it from Muslims or non-Muslims. If you take a look at their status in tents,” he added, referring to displaced families like his own, “they need relief — electricity, water, food — and not bombing.”

Is the United States becoming more belligerent?

For WaPo, ‘What Next in Africa?’ Doesn’t Include US Getting Out

“Pentagon Grapples With a Thorny Question After Niger Ambush,” a recent Washington Post headline (3/19/18) read: “What Next in Africa?” Among the possible answers not considered by the Post article: “Close US military bases,” “End US drone strikes” or “Stop US special forces raids.” ...

Post national security reporter Dan Lamothe reports that the four US Green Berets killed in Niger last October “did not have air support for an hour after calling for help, leaving it vulnerable as a larger force of about 50 militants attacked with rifles and machine guns.” According to the Post, the ambush “underscores the danger of dispersing small teams across a vast continent where the Pentagon does not have the same level of support for its service members as it does in a country such as Iraq or Afghanistan,” where US forces “have a more robust network of fire support, aerial surveillance, medical help and quick-reaction rescue units when a crisis erupts.”

By juxtaposing the US military presence in “hot battlefields” like Iraq and Afghanistan with its role in places like Niger and Somalia—sometimes referred to as being outside of “areas of active hostilities”—the implied answer to the question “What next in Africa?” is something along the lines of, “Expand US military infrastructure in Africa to protect and provide support for US special forces who will inevitably engage in hostilities.” The goal is not to prevent US casualties—and, more importantly, the devastation inevitably wreaked by the most powerful military in the world—by, for example, withdrawing US forces from the continent. For the Washington Post, US military presence in Africa is assumed—not challenged or questioned in any meaningful way.

“We Cannot Wait for Change”—Freed Whistleblower Chelsea Manning on Iraq, Prison & Running for Senate

The cops who shot and killed Alton Sterling aren’t being charged

The two white police officers from Baton Rouge who fatally shot Alton Sterling, a black man, won’t face charges. Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry announced Tuesday morning that after a “thorough and exhaustive review of the facts,” his office wouldn’t proceed with the prosecution of either officer who shot and killed Sterling, 37, at close range on July 5, 2016.

“Our investigation concluded that Officers Lake and Salamoni attempted to make a lawful arrest of Alton Sterling with probable cause,” Landry said.

Sterling was shot multiple times outside a convenience store while being held down by the two officers, Howie Lake and Blane Salamoni. The exact sequence of events leading to his death are hazy. Sterling was armed at the time; one of the officers contended he used lethal force after Sterling reached for his gun. Bystanders, however, have disputed that account.

Abdullah Muflahi, the owner of the Triple S convenience store where Sterling was selling CDs when police were called, filmed the fatal encounter. Muflahi said he never saw Sterling reach for his gun, but the video does show the officers removing an object from Sterling’s pocket after they killed him. Muflahi said it was a gun. ...

Landry revealed the state’s decision privately to Sterling’s family before making his announcement. Veda Washington, Sterling’s aunt, spoke to reporters briefly outside Landry’s office after the meeting. “I want people to know the truth about Alton,” Washington said. “He was murdered by two white, racist police officers. He was murdered like an animal. And they said they don’t see nothing wrong? They said they didn’t see anything wrong! You saw the videos. But they said they didn’t see anything wrong. I don’t understand it.”

'They executed him': police killing of Stephon Clark leaves family shattered

“They gunned him down like a dog,” Stevante Clark said of the police shooting of his brother, Stephon. “They executed him.” Stevante was in the back seat of a car, his voice quivering. He stomped his feet 20 times – one for each bullet that police fired at his unarmed brother. “Twenty times. That’s like stepping on a roach. And then stepping, stepping, stepping, stepping, stepping, stepping, stepping.”

The killing of Stephon Clark on 18 March by Sacramento police has sparked outrage and massive protests in the Californian capital, drawing comparisons with other cases of law enforcement killing unarmed black people, such as Oscar Grant, Michael Brown and Eric Garner.

Stephon, an unarmed 22-year-old father of two, was standing in his grandmother’s backyard holding only his iPhone when officers, who did not announce they were police, appeared in the dark, shouted at him to reveal his hands and quickly fired a round of bullets at him before he could respond.

His brother, Stevante, 25, has been thrust into the national spotlight and forced to navigate media, protests, lawyers and donations while struggling through his own grief and anger. “I shouldn’t have to defend my brother. They should be proving their innocence,” Stevante told the Guardian on Sunday night, during an interview in his friend’s car. “I’m exhausted. I hate this. I hate my life.”

At a time when debates about gun laws are dominating the news – surrounding the March for Our Lives rallies organized by Florida students – Clark’s death has served as a harsh reminder that law enforcement fatally shoot hundreds of Americans each year, many more than those who die in mass shootings.

Sacramento can’t explain why police officers muted their body cameras after killing an unarmed black man

Just minutes after shooting and killing an unarmed black man in his own backyard last week, Sacramento police officers muted their body cameras — and the department can’t explain why. ...

About six minutes after the officers shot and killed Clark and backup arrived, one of the officers said, “hey, mute,” body camera footage released by the department shows. “Hey, you guys good?” the officer followed-up before the audio stops. The video, however, continues for about two more minutes. The officers can be seen speaking to each other and at least one civilian before the footage ends.

“We don’t know why they muted the body-worn camera, and it is something that we’ll be looking at,” Sgt. Vance Chandler, a public information officer for the Sacramento Police Department said. During training, the Sacramento Police Department tells officers they have the opportunity to mute their body cameras in certain scenarios, Chandler said. But the department doesn’t have an official policy on the subject.

No state or federal laws exist regarding the use of body cameras, let alone muting them.

Ditch the Second Amendment, says retired Supreme Court Justice

Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens says it’s time we ditch the Second Amendment. In a Tuesday op-ed for the New York Times, Stevens praised Saturday’s massive March for Our Lives demonstrations, calling them a “clear sign to lawmakers” to push for gun control measures like banning semi-automatic weapons and raising the minimum age to buy guns. But, for Stevens, the protesters’ demands don’t go far enough.

“Demonstrators should seek more effective and more lasting reform,” Stevens said. “They should demand a repeal of the Second Amendment.”

Stevens, 97, resigned from the court in 2010 but has remained vocal about his views on gun control. In his 2014 book “Six Amendments,” which he was inspired to write after the 2012 massacre in Newtown, Connecticut that left 26 people dead, Stevens proposed amending the Second Amendment to clarify that individuals do not have a constitutional right to bear arms.

In Stevens’ view, the Second Amendment — which states that “a well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed” — doesn’t preclude state or federal governments from limiting access to guns. Plus, he added Tuesday, the need for a militia is “a relic of the 18th century.”

Oklahoma House passes first tax increase in 28 years to fund teacher raises

Oklahoma just moved a step closer to giving teachers the raise they’ve been demanding for nearly a month.

The Oklahoma House of Representatives passed a bill Monday night that would give teachers, support staff, and other state employees a raise. If the bill becomes a law, it would be the first tax increase Oklahoma has passed since 1990.

Despite the progress, the state’s teachers union, the Oklahoma Education Association, is still planning for a walkout on April 2, the day after the state Legislature is required by law to pass an education budget. ...

“I think it's pretty telling that it's the first major education funding initiative in 28 years, yet still falls short of what teachers are asking. It's an attempt from lawmakers to placate us and say, ‘We gave you this thing. Why aren't you satisfied?’” said Stephen Walden, another teacher at Bartlesville High School.

Missing from the bill is additional funding for education and teacher health insurance totaling $200 million and $255.9 million, respectively, which the Education Association had proposed as part of its plan.

Chris Hedges: 'The Gig Economy' Is the New Term for Serfdom

A 65-year-old New York City cab driver from Queens, Nicanor Ochisor, hanged himself in his garage March 16, saying in a note he left behind that the ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft had made it impossible for him to make a living. It was the fourth suicide by a cab driver in New York in the last four months, including one Feb. 5 in which livery driver Douglas Schifter, 61, killed himself with a shotgun outside City Hall. ...

Schifter and Ochisor were two of the millions of victims of the new economy. Corporate capitalism is establishing a neofeudal serfdom in numerous occupations, a condition in which there are no labor laws, no minimum wage, no benefits, no job security and no regulations. Desperate and impoverished workers, forced to endure 16-hour days, are viciously pitted against each other. Uber drivers make about $13.25 an hour. In cities like Detroit this falls to $8.77. Travis Kalanick, the former CEO of Uber and one of the founders, has a net worth of $4.8 billion. Logan Green, the CEO of Lyft, has a net worth of $300 million.

The corporate elites, which have seized control of ruling institutions including the government and destroyed labor unions, are re-establishing the inhumane labor conditions that characterized the 19th and early 20th centuries. ... The reign of the all-powerful capitalist class has returned with a vengeance. The job conditions of working men and women, thrust backward, will not improve until they regain the militancy and rebuild the popular organizations that seized power from the capitalists. There are some 13,000 licensed cabs in New York City and 40,000 livery or town cars. The drivers should, as farmers did in 2015 with tractors in Paris, shut down the center of the city. And drivers in other cities should do the same. This is the only language our corporate masters understand.

The ruling capitalists will be as vicious as they were in the past. Nothing enrages the rich more than having to part with a fraction of their obscene wealth. Consumed by greed, rendered numb to human suffering by a life of hedonism and extravagance, devoid of empathy, incapable of self-criticism or self-sacrifice, surrounded by sycophants and leeches who cater to their wishes, appetites and demands, able to use their wealth to ignore the law and destroy critics and opponents, they are among the most repugnant of the human species. Don’t be fooled by the elites’ skillful public relations campaigns—we are watching Mark Zuckerberg, whose net worth is $64.1 billion, mount a massive propaganda effort against charges that he and Facebook are focused on exploiting and selling our personal information—or by the fawning news celebrities on corporate media who act as courtiers and apologists for the oligarchs. These people are the enemy.



the horse race



Liberal Ire at Trump and Cambridge Analytica is Misdirected From Billionaires Who Own Your Data

Liberals this week want to drum us into outrageous fury over the fact that Facebook, with almost 2 billion accounts worldwide, handed over user data of millions of people to Cambridge Analytica, a firm retained by the Trump campaign. ...

The angry liberals have forgotten that eight years earlier the Obama campaign hired Mark Zuckerberg’s college room mate and former Facebook architect Chris Hughes to run their web operation, and to deploy and use the social networking data of millions of users and their Facebook friends purchased the same way Trump got it. The Obama crew was so good at using the stuff that a couple months before the election Advertising Age named the Obama campaign its 2008 “Marketer of the Year” beating out the likes of Apple, Amazon and Nike. ...

As usual, the villains in this piece are NOT the ones the liberals want identified. Trump isn’t uniquely evil, he did and is doing exactly what his darling liberal predecessor did, and what a host of commercial firms do, buying and selling your personal online history and information. CA are certainly bad guys, but the only useful difference between them and a half dozen others is that Trump hired the one with Bannon on its board instead of a Democrat.

The issue at the bottom of all this evil mess is that Facebook, the data mining companies and the marketers they sell our data to are NOT just entirely unregulated – they’ve been allowed to write what laws do exist. ... Facebook, Twitter, the data miners and the marketers have purchased laws that prohibit programmers from writing the simple browser plug-ins that would enable users to easily choose whether to share their data with Trump, Obama, Steve Bannon, Amazon, and a host of other players whose names many of us wouldn’t recognize.

'Mad as Hell' Cynthia Nixon Calls Out Gov. Cuomo as Fake Progressive and Bully in Fiery Speech

A week after actress and political activist Cynthia Nixon launched her campaign as a progressive challenger to New York's Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the NYC native headed to the state capitol to talk corruption, inequality, and education.

Speaking on Monday about Cuomo's 2010 campaign promise (pdf) to "Clean Up Albany," Nixon said, "As most New Yorkers would tell you, he's cleaned up Albany about as well as Donald Trump has drained the swamp."

She not only attacked the governor's lack of action on this front, but also denounced campaign donations and how powerful special interests influence the state's politics, which she called "legalized bribery and corruption." "I have come to Albany mad as hell about Republicans, and I have come to Albany mad as hell about Democrats," she said. "We just have to get big money out of politics," she told reporters after the speech. "It's completely subverting our democratic process."

Nixon warned that Cuomo would soon do what he often does: "promise big, get some headlines, and ultimately hand over all the power to his buddies in the Republican Senate." While slamming the state's budget progress and Cuomo's priorities, Nixon, a long-time public education advocate, noted that "we have gross inequities across the system," tying income inequality to flaws in the state's public education system. "The Cuomo budget does not value the lives of the majority of New York's children," Nixon asserted. "The Cuomo budget puts New York's children at the back of the bus, while giving the best seats to millionaires and corporate freeloaders."



the evening greens


Aliso Canyon Disaster Highlights Risks, Inadequate Safety Rules Governing Natural Gas Storage

A recent report spearheaded by researchers at the University of Southern California blames the largest greenhouse gas leak in U.S. history on dysfunctional management and poor regulatory oversight. Southern California Gas (SoCalGas) is the company that operates the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility near the Los Angeles neighborhood of Porter Ranch, which suffered a catastrophic methane leak that lasted from October 2015 to February 2016.

“SoCalGas had lenient requirements for infrastructure record keeping, no comprehensive risk management plan, and no testing programs or plans in place to remediate substandard wells,” concluded Najmedin Meshkati, University of Southern California professor of civil and environmental engineering and senior author on the report. The study was published in the Journal of Sustainable Energy Engineering.

In addition to its notable contribution to global warming, the massive methane leak also required the evacuation of two schools and at least 8,000 residents for months while SoCalGas tried to stop the leak.

The California Public Utilities Commission also issued a report evaluating the failed storage well at Aliso Canyon, and noted that “severe external corrosion was observed in the failure areas.” Based on these reports, it appears that SoCalGas had a policy of allowing its gas storage wells to operate until they failed, such as at Aliso Canyon. ...

In theory, outside inspectors could have potentially caught some of these safety issues during regular evaluations of the infrastructure. But as the University of Southern California’s report details, that is not how the natural gas storage industry operates in the U.S. Instead, its description of the circumstances leading to the leak reads as much like a recipe for future disaster as an analysis of past failures. Previously, the industry has largely been allowed to self-regulate and the trend continues today.

Former Kinder Morgan Engineer Speaks Out Against Trans Mountain Pipeline

scientists are trying to breed super coral that can survive climate change

Coral reefs are among the earth’s most precious natural resources. They harbor a million species and provide food for 500 million people around the world. But warming waters, pollution and overfishing have badly damaged these precious ecosystems; roughly 50 percent of the world’s corals have been lost in just the last 30 years.

“The rates of change in our environment are far outpacing the intrinsic capacity of coral reefs to survive.” said Dr. Ruth Gates, the Director of the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, where she is pioneering research that could help corals survive. “If we don’t mitigate at all, coral reefs will not be the things we’re worrying about, it will be the survival of our species.”

Dr. Gates is just one of the scientists devising innovative ways to take coral reef restoration into their own hands. Her lab has started to breed and distribute, "super coral" — the strongest breeds of coral that can thrive in warmer environments. And in Curaçao, a small coral rich island in the Caribbean Sea, a team of scientists are finalizing a technology that could distribute fertilized coral eggs across the ocean, repopulating reefs worldwide.

Stand by me: bears adapt to hunting ban on family groups by keeping cubs longer

Female brown bears have learned to protect themselves from being shot by spending more time caring for their young as they adapt to legislation banning the hunting of mothers with cubs. The finding, published on Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications, was made by a team of international researchers who spent 22 years studying data on the reproductive strategy and survival of Scandinavian brown bears.

“Man is now an evolutionary force in the lives of the bears,” said Professor Jon Swenson from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU).

In Sweden, Scandinavian brown bears – Ursus arctos – are heavily hunted and anyone can hunt without having a specific licence, but bears in family groups are protected by law.

Over the scope of the study, the researchers found that some female bears began to adapt their mothering tactics in order to increase their survival chances – the ursine equivalent of a human shield. In that time, some mother bears extended the period of care from 18 months to 2.5 years. “Generally, the cubs have followed their mother for a year and a half,” said Swenson, with the researchers finding no evidence of the longer care period before 1995.

But over the past two decades that has changed with more cubs now staying with their mothers for an additional year, thereby increasing the survival chances for both the mother and her offspring.


Also of Interest

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

Journalism of, by and for the Elite

Worst. Putin Puppet. Ever.

Let's Call Bolton What He Is: A War Criminal with Terrorist Ties, Not Just "Hawkish"

Trump Should Withdraw Haspel Nomination, Intel Vets Say

Michigan Gubernatorial Candidate Brands Himself as the “Bernie” of the Race. But He Donated to Clinton and McCain.

Texas sinkholes: oil and gas drilling increases threat, scientists warn

Hotting up: how climate change could swallow Louisiana's Tabasco island

Lost Amazon villages uncovered by archaeologists


A Little Night Music

Robert Nighthawk - Take It Easy Baby

Robert Nighthawk - Maggie Campbell

Robert Nighthawk - The Moon is Rising

Robert Nighthawk - Six three 0

Robert Nighthawk w/Ethel Mae - Down the Line

Robert Nighthawk - Nighthawk Boogie

Robert Nighthawk - I'm Gettin' Tired

Robert Nighthawk - Can't No Grave Hold My Body Down

Robert Nighthawk - Blues Before Sunrise

Robert Nighthawk - Someday


Share
up
0 users have voted.

Comments

now claiming the Bernie mantle, or the 'single payer' mantle, or other lefty hot buttons. Unfortunately, if you dig into their records, it's all beholden to daddy big bucks. Now they lie with a specific demographic in mind, shamelessly. Down ticket's see the elite crooks as role models. Well, if the big dogs can lie without consequence, it's acceptable norm.

up
0 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@QMS

heh, well, that's pretty much the program of the modern democrat party - pretend to be lefty enough that working class voters will think you might do something for them once elected - and then screw them mercilessly once their vote is collected.

the "bernie" brand is just another means of signalling to the working class. of course the bastards are going to exploit it.

up
0 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

about Pelosi and Schumer being warmongers. That would have reached a lot more people and maybe they would have thought about it.

The media went nuts when Trump congratulated Putin yet didn't say a word about Trump meeting with the butcher of Yemen in the Oval Office. Priorities, right?

I've been asking the same question Caitlin did. I'm still seeing people saying that Trump is a puppet even after everything he has done to Russia. I looked at the Greenwald twitter thread to see if Glenn changed anyone's minds. Nope. Some people are so vested in believing Russia Gate that nothing will change their minds and. One person said that it was no big deal that Trump kicked out the Russians because Putin still has his main man in the WH.

How does this even make sense?

up
0 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

sadly, i seriously doubt colbert would ever say that. it's not an approved narrative.

How does this even make sense?

it doesn't. but that doesn't matter. americans are to believe what they are told by the (correct) media to believe.

up
0 users have voted.
mimi's picture

@snoopydawg
In Washington DC And that was the end of it for me.
[video:https://youtu.be/3vETTB3g7D0]
I have given up on Comedians making a serious point and having influence. This was for me the most disappointing rally I have witnessed in Washington DC. Despite all the jokes and fun and excellent work on pulling off such a show. I used to watch them all the time and still do online some times.
YMMV.
I made my peace with comedian political talking heads. It's not courageous to make some pretty good jokes about despicable political affairs, it's just an hour fun and distraction, nothing more, nothing less.
[video:https://youtu.be/jyC8h6Oq1Eo]
I like political satire and comedians. I can't forget though that the news outlets have to produce something 24/7 and as such rallies like that are just convenient to cover. But it's not what is needed. It's beyond the stage where comedians can make the world believe all that is needed is making their jokes, even if they are very good ones, to change US foreign policy activities.
[video:https://youtu.be/PXZiFpqqnyI]
YMMV
Watching this today, I am just turned off and a little angry. I feel arrogance behind the jokes, no matter how much both try to be self-aware of it and trying to avoid by humbly self-mocking their own efforts.

So, no, I doubt it would make a difference if Colbert had said Pelosi and Schumer are war mongers. snoopydawg.

For foreigners this is irrelevant stuff. Wars are executed overseas, in foreign countries, foreign people are killed and bombed. What these comedians say is not understood by them. Nothing more difficult than to translate satire and word-play jokes to those people, who just got hurt overseas.

I mean what is there to laugh about getting shot and bombed by US police or military? Nothing.

Today you can't even say anymore "Ami go home" (like most people shouted during the Vietnam era on demonstration and marches overseas). Because these days the 'Ami' stays home and bombs via remote control from some desert location within the US.

I remember that when I learned how you fight 'your enemies'(the ones you, the US, created in their own population's minds and used the MSM media and later the internet to promote and spread out), ie you fight them without a human being involved in the fight with no US soldier risking their lives, being just some very lonely US soldiers sitting in a facility inside the US territory and remotely drop bombs somewhere in the Africa or ME locations or Far East.

All I thought back then was that there is not a more coward way of fighting. And for sure it backfires not only on the folks, who are suffering under the bombardments, but on those, who are ordered to bomb them without any risk for themselves. All they risk is losing their sanity over what they are ordered to do per contract they have with the US military. And those who profit from the wars and the weapons sales or weapons productions, all of them having the politicians in their pockets, don't care one bit if their soldiers lose their minds or not.

Do you really still care who says what? Why and what for? It doesn't change anything if you care. Something else is needed.

up
0 users have voted.
mimi's picture

@mimi
I just got this in my inbox and thought what I pity I am not anymore in Washington DC.

Can I promote this here, or am I an a**hole and or d**ck if I would do? I assure you I am not any of the two. Trust me. I am a she. Mommy said, never trust a man that says 'trust me'... oh well, I am a very trusting person... and just want to have a little fun here.
Shok
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WPFW Website
Donate Now!
To Help Replace the Transmitter for WPFW 89.3FM
Click HERE, visit wpfwfm.org, or call 202-588-9739.
Get Your Tickets Now
Join WPFW for our RESISTANCE COMEDY II:
SOCIAL MEDIA - THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE FUNNY

Our featured comedians are Jason Rosalez, Haywood Turnipseed Jr., Mary Bolton, Huang He, Gigi Modrich and Chip Jones.

Date: Thursday April 5th
Time: Kitchen Opens at 7pm with food and beverages for purchase. Show starts at 8pm.
Where: Westminster Presbyterian Church 400 I St SW Washington, DC

Get Your Tickets to this Exclusive Event Before it is Sells Out!

To make a tax deductible donation Click HERE.

Link to iOS Store
Attention WPFW fans! Download our new WPFW mobile app absolutely FREE, for both Android and iOS. Listen to Live and On-Demand programming and podcasts. Available now on the App Store and Google Play.
Twitter Facebook Instagram YouTube
TELL A FRIEND ABOUT WPFW 89.3 FM BY FORWARDING OUR EMAILS AND/OR FOLLOWING US ON SOCIAL MEDIA

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If one of you is going, let me know what your guts told you about the event. WPFW 89.3 FM was my favorite radio channel to listen to for years. Sigh. Times long bygone.
Cray 2

Have a good Wednesday Morning.

up
0 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@mimi

wpfw is a great radio station, well worth supporting.

i am only able to listen to it when i'm in the car, somewhere south of where i live, but i've been listening to it for years when i get the chance.

up
0 users have voted.
Mark from Queens's picture

I don't read them as much as should. Thanks for the reminder. Citizen and journalist watchdogs of how our media operates are so crucial right now (which explains how wildly successful Jimmy Dore's show has become. Btw, just tonight heard him interview Oliver Stone. He's been getting heavy hitters now for some time. Stone was very complimentary of how important Dore is right now.)

This jumped out at me from "Journalism of, by and for the Elite: How the New York Times and Wall Street Journal mirror the 1% they cover"

It is unclear whether a master’s degree from an institution such as Columbia University confers added skills or simply builds a journalist’s network, thereby giving them access to jobs at elite papers such as the WSJ and NYT. Social networks may be disproportionately important in publishing and the arts/humanities generally, given that there are fewer quantitative gauges of output (patents earned/peer-reviewed articles submitted) and talent is more subjectively judged in journalism and publishing.

Reminded me of the Hedges book "Death of the Liberal Class, in which he goes into that pretty well. Also took me back to the excellent film Lewis Lapham made called "The American Ruling Class." If you haven't seen it (was made in 2005) it's still just as relevant if not more now.

Hope you're well Joe. I'm up to my neck here with baby duties and havoc from not sleeping.

up
0 users have voted.

"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

joe shikspack's picture

@Mark from Queens

i've been following fair for decades. they are simply the very best media watchdog there is. they are especially needed now as the confluence of media consolidation and wealth consolidation happens. fair does a great job of documenting the failure of the media to serve the people.

thanks for the film recommendation, it looks great, and i see that kurt vonnegut at least has a cameo in it, heh!

good to see you! my best to your partner and kids.

up
0 users have voted.
Wink's picture

Hall of sorts in my town tonight, Tues., 27th, and I actually got off my deadbeat ass to attend. Mostly to see and be seen, "don't I know you?" But also to see Ratigan up close and personal. One thing he is is woke. He is also a smooth talkin' politician, even though this is his first race for anything. My impression is, should he win, he will forget about this district 5 minutes after he takes the oath. But that can be said about most congress critters, their re-elections practically guaranteed by way of gerrymandering. Fully 90% of congress critters get re-elected despite the lowest favorability poll numbers in history.

up
0 users have voted.

the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

The Aspie Corner's picture

up
0 users have voted.

Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.