The Evening Blues - 3-29-24



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Sly And The Family Stone

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features soul and funk band Sly And The Family Stone. Enjoy!

Sly And The Family Stone - I Want To Take You Higher

"The only thing worse than a liar is a liar that's also a hypocrite!"

-- Tennessee Williams


News and Opinion

There's much more at the link than these snippets:

Naked Hypocrisy: The US Cited UNSC Resolutions to Invade Iraq, Now Call Gaza Ceasefire Demand ‘Non-Binding’

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller on Tuesday characterized the United Nations Security Council resolution 2728 demanding an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza conflict as “non-binding,” a phrase also used by US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield.

The US was rebuked by China, according to Akmal Dawi at VOA: “‘Security Council resolutions are binding,’ Lin Jian, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said on Tuesday.” Beijing is correct on the law, and the Biden administration is being disingenuous. If President Biden did not want a ceasefire resolution to pass, he should have vetoed it. By abstaining and letting the world community vote on the matter, Biden has elicited a binding decision, and his officials should stop dancing around it. ...

Washington’s hypocrisy on this matter is legendary and stunning. After the Gulf War of 1990-1991 the UN Security Council passed resolutions demanding the disarmament of Iraq. We now know that Iraq complied. But the US and other major powers refused to believe Baghdad’s assertions or even documents in this regard. One of the grounds that George W. Bush put forward for invading Iraq was precisely its failure to abide by those UN Security Council resolutions. He actually represented the US not as acting unilaterally for narrow American purposes but as upholding the authority of the UNSC.

Robert McMahon at Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty wrote in 2002, “Expressing frustration and alarm, U.S. President George W. Bush says Iraq’s long defiance of United Nations disarmament resolutions has placed the UN’s credibility in question.”

So disobeying the UNSC according to Washington is so serious a matter that it could get you invaded and your government overthrown. I guess that’s not non-binding.

Biden's Criticism of ISRAEL Appears Timed to PUBLIC's Souring View of Netanyahu

‘Famine is setting in’: UN court orders Israel to unblock Gaza food aid

The international court of justice has ordered Israel to allow unimpeded access of food aid into Gaza, where sections of the population are facing imminent starvation, in a significant legal rebuke to Israel’s claim it is not blocking aid deliveries. A panel of judges at the UN’s top court, which is already considering a complaint from South Africa that Israel is committing genocide in the Palestinian territory, issued the ruling after an emergency measure in January obliging Israel to admit emergency aid.

The judges, who were unanimous in their decision, said Palestinians in Gaza were facing worsening conditions of life, and famine and starvation were spreading. “The court observes that Palestinians in Gaza are no longer facing only a risk of famine … but that famine is setting in,” the judges said.

In its legally binding order, the court told Israel to take “all necessary and effective measures to ensure, without delay, in full cooperation with the United Nations, the unhindered provision at scale by all concerned of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance” including food, water, fuel and medical supplies.

The ICJ also ordered Israel to immediately ensure “that its military does not commit acts which constitute a violation of any of the rights of the Palestinians in Gaza as a protected group under the convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide, including by preventing, through any action, the delivery of urgently needed humanitarian assistance”.

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson : The State Dept Lies for Israel


Israel 'at risk of sanctions' if it ignores UNSC Gaza ceasefire resolution

Israeli international law experts have warned that Israel could face sanctions if it ignores a UN Security Council's (UNSC) resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, Haaretz reported on Tuesday.

The UNSC resolution passed on Monday lacks a mechanism for implementing sanctions on Israel without another vote, which would almost certainly face a US veto. However, experts warn that individual countries could use the resolution as a means to enact their own sanctions on Israel.

"Countries, not the Security Council, imposed sanctions on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine, including cutting off economic relations, aviation connections, and isolation from the banking system," Dr. Tamar Hostovsky Brandes of Israel’s Ono Academic college said.

"The decision taken in the UN Security Council, the orders given by the International Court of Justice against Israel, and the advisory opinion to be published by the Court in The Hague regarding the legal consequences of Israel’s actions in the Palestinian territories, all these create the image of a state that does not respect international law."

Professor Eliav Lieblich from Tel Aviv University said that if Israel does not comply with the UNSC decision, it will be further isolated from the international community.

Heavy fighting reported around Gaza’s al-Shifa and Nasser hospitals

Heavy fighting took place around two key hospitals in Gaza on Thursday, while a third was reportedly under Israeli siege, amid mounting international concern for the safety of patients, civilians and remaining medical staff in the facilities. The most intense fighting once again appeared to be focused on the al-Shifa complex, Gaza City’s main hospital before the war, where the Israeli army said it continued to operate around the site after storming it more than a week ago.

Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles had also massed around Nasser hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, the Gaza health ministry said, adding that shots were fired but no raid had yet been launched. The Red Crescent said thousands of people were trapped inside. Israeli forces were also blockading al-Amal hospital in Khan Younis, and several other areas in the city had come under Israeli fire, residents said.

The Israel Defense Forces claim to have killed about 200 gunmen in the area of al-Shifa hospital since the start of the operation there, “while preventing harm to civilians, patients, medical teams, and medical equipment”. Early on Thursday, the Israeli army said militants had fired on troops from within and outside the hospital’s emergency ward. ...

Unverified footage on social media showed al-Shifa’s surgery unit blackened by flames and nearby apartments on fire or destroyed. The armed wings of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad militant groups said in a statement they had “bombed, with a barrage of mortar shells, gatherings of Israeli soldiers in the vicinity of the al-Shifa complex” in a joint operation. The claims of neither side could be independently verified.

The Palestinian Red Crescent (PRC) said seven people working for the organisation who were arrested in a raid on al-Amal hospital on 9 February had finally been released after 47 days in Israeli prisons. Among them was the director of ambulance and emergency services in the Gaza Strip, Mohammed Abu Musabeh. Eight members of the association were still being detained, the PRC said in a statement.

Putin slams allegations about Russia’s plans to invade Europe as utter nonsense

Russian President Vladimir Putin has slammed allegations that Russia is planning to fight against Europe as utter nonsense.

"As for the allegations that we are planning to invade Europe after Ukraine, this is utter nonsense meant solely to intimidate their population to make them pay more money," he said at a meeting with military pilots in the Tver Region.

He noted that this narrative unfolds "amid the slumping economy and deteriorating living standards." "This is absolutely clear and is acknowledged by everyone. This is not propaganda. This is what is really happening. They need to justify themselves, so they are intimidating their population with a potential Russian threat while seeking to expand their dictation onto the entire world," Putin stressed.

Russian missile strikes intensify

Russia criticised for using veto to end UN monitoring of North Korea sanctions

Russia has blocked the renewal of a UN panel monitoring sanctions against North Korea, weeks after the body said it was investigating reports of arms transfers between Moscow and Pyongyang. The move was met with a flurry of criticism, including by Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, who took to social media to call the veto “a guilty plea” amid allegations that Pyongyang is aiding Moscow in its war against Kyiv.

The United States called the veto by Russia a “self-interested effort to bury the panel’s reporting on its own collusion” with North Korea.

Moscow’s veto at the security council does not remove the sanctions on North Korea, but spells the end for the group monitoring their implementation – and myriad alleged violations. The panel’s mandate expires at the end of April. Russia had never previously tried to block the work of the panel of experts, which had been renewed annually by the UN security council for 14 years and reflected global opposition to North Korea’s expanding nuclear weapon programme.

Russia’s UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the council before the vote that western nations were trying to “strangle” North Korea and that sanctions are losing their “relevance” and “detached from reality” in preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the country.

But US deputy ambassador Robert Wood called the panel’s work essential and accused Russia of attempting to silence its “independent objective investigations” because it “began reporting in the last year on Russia’s blatant violations of the UN security council resolutions.” He said Russia’s veto will embolden North Korea to continue jeopardising global security through development “of long-range ballistic missiles and sanctions evasion efforts”.

Squeezed by African Coups, Biden Cozies Up to the World’s Worst Dictator

U.S. commandos have shown a special interest in strengthening ties with one of the most corrupt, abusive, and repressive regimes on the planet. The delivery of aid by Special Operations forces to the coastal African nation of Equatorial Guinea last month followed pilgrimages to the country’s pariah president by top U.S. officials. The move came amid shifting West African geopolitics. A Pentagon report last year mentioned Equatorial Guinea as the potential site of a future Chinese military base. At the same time, U.S. relations with longtime allies in Central and West Africa have frayed, often in the aftermath of coups d’état by American-trained military officers.

The aid to Equatorial Guinea appears to be the latest facet of a U.S. charm offensive to woo the country’s president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, a tyrant now in his sixth decade in power, as the U.S. has lost influence in the African Sahel.

“We hope that this donation is the beginning of additional cooperation,” said Commander Michael White, the defense attaché to the U.S. Embassy in Equatorial Guinea, after U.S. Special Operations Command Africa spearheaded a modest donation of humanitarian aid to the tiny, oil-rich central African nation.

U.S. Ambassador to Equatorial Guinea David Gilmour expressed hope that the recent donation of medical supplies would be the “first of many opportunities to partner with” the government there. It follows high-level engagement by the administration of President Joe Biden with Obiang’s regime.

“This seems to run counter to every value that the Biden administration publicly espouses when it comes to democracy, human rights, and anticorruption,” said Cameron Hudson, a former Africa analyst at the CIA, now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “The administration is doing everything it can to maintain a military foothold on the continent. And if we don’t already have a foothold, to create one. So establishing or deepening relationships with particularly odious regimes like Equatorial Guinea are not off the table.”

Former US Lawmaker Finally Enjoys Social Policies He Fought for—In Europe

A former U.S. lawmaker who spent nearly half a century fighting for a nation that would have universal healthcare coverage and less gun violence is finally living in such a place—but he had to retire and move to Europe to find it.

In recent interviews with Roll Call and The Washington Post, former Democratic Congressman Jim McDermott, who also served in the Washington state Legislature, discussed life in France and the threat of former GOP President Donald Trump, who is set to face Democratic President Joe Biden in November.

"It was like I walked through an invisible door," McDermott told the Post's Elizabeth Becker about going to France. "Now I saw and felt what it's like to live in a community where everyone can go to the doctor. Where children aren't massacred by gun violence. It changes everything."

McDermott visited Civrac-en-Médoc in 2017, the same year he retired from Congress, and quickly bought a stone cottage. The 87-year-old keeps a residence in Seattle and remains an American—he is a member of Democrats Abroad and plans to vote for Biden. However, he largely lives in the rural French village, where he "doesn't need to lock his doors at night" and "loves that kids in the neighborhood don't worry about gun violence," as Roll Call's Ariel Cohen reported Wednesday.

France—which requires a psychological test for a gun license—has a population of about 68 million and each year sees 3.23 firearm-related deaths per 100,000 people, according to World Population Review. The United States, home to over 333 million, has 10.84 gun deaths per 100,000 people and mass shootings are on the rise.

During his decades on Capitol Hill, McDermott, a psychiatrist, supported stricter U.S. gun laws and nationwide universal healthcare. While progressives including U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) continue the battle for Medicare for All in Congress, McDermott is experiencing France's full coverage system, which was built over seven decades.

"The system covers most costs for hospital, physician, and long-term care, as well as prescription drugs; patients are responsible for coinsurance, copayments, and balance bills for physician charges that exceed covered fees," according to the Commonwealth Fund. "The insurance system is funded primarily by payroll taxes (paid by employers and employees), a national income tax, and tax levies on certain industries and products."

McDermott told Cohen "I spent 16 years in the Washington state Legislature trying to get single-payer healthcare. Then I spent nearly 30 years in Congress trying to get single-payer. Then I came to France and in three months I had single-payer. Was that mind-blowing? You bet."



the horse race



South Carolina Republicans can use discriminatory map for 2024, court rules

A federal court will allow South Carolina Republicans to use their congressional map for the 2024 election, it said on Thursday, despite an earlier finding that the same plan discriminates against Black voters. The decision is a big win for Republicans, who were aided by the US supreme court’s slow action on the case.

In January 2023, a three-judge panel struck down the state’s first congressional district, which is currently represented by Nancy Mace, a Republican. The judges said legislative Republicans had impermissibly used race when they redrew it after the 2020 census. As part of an effort to make it more solidly Republican, lawmakers removed 30,000 Black voters from the district into a neighboring one. Republicans argued that they moved the voters to achieve partisan ends, which is legal. The district was extremely competitive in 2020, but Mace easily won the redrawn version in 2022.

The ruling is a significant boon to House Republicans, who are trying to keep a razor-thin majority in Congress’s lower chamber this year.

The US supreme court heard oral arguments in the case, Alexander v South Carolina Conference of the NAACP, on 11 October and seemed poised allow the GOP map to remain in place. But the court has not yet issued a decision. The justices still could potentially order the state to come up with a new map before the 2024 election, though that seems less likely as the state’s 11 June primary approaches. The supreme court has adopted in recent years an idea called the Purcell principle in which it does not disrupt maps or election practices as an election nears.

“A second election under an infirm map is justice delayed when plaintiffs have made every effort to get a decision and remedy before another election under a map that denies them their rights,” said Leah Aden, a lawyer with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, who argued the case at the supreme court last year.

CNN Guest Shocks Panel: “Prosecuting Trump Will Cost You The Election!”

Protesters Disrupt Record $25 Million Biden Fundraiser in NYC as Thousands March Against Gaza War

Biden campaign raises $25m ‘money bomb’ at event with Obama and Clinton

Joe Biden and his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, headlined a star-studded fundraiser with Bill Clinton on Thursday that organizers said raised more than $25m for the US president’s re-election campaign.

Such a haul, which Politico called an “NYC money bomb”, will widen Biden’s lead over Donald Trump in fundraising for the November election.

Amid improving polling for Biden, the two presidential campaigns recently posted February fundraising figures. Federal filings showed Biden nearly $40m up in cash raised, leading the president’s campaign to taunt their rival as “Broke Don”.

On Thursday, a Trump campaign adviser said the candidate won’t be able to match Biden’s totals, blaming the disparity on the Democrat’s “billionaire” supporters and painting a picture of a Trump campaign as being fueled by grassroots, working-class supporters.



the evening greens


Vegetables are losing their nutrients. Can the decline be reversed?

In 2004, Donald Davis and fellow scientists at the University of Texas made an alarming discovery: 43 foods, mostly vegetables, showed a marked decrease in nutrients between the mid and late 20th century. According to that research, the calcium in green beans dropped from 65 to 37mg. Vitamin A levels plummeted by almost half in asparagus. Broccoli stalks had less iron.

Nutrient loss has continued since that study. More recent research has documented the declining nutrient value in some staple crops due to rising atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels; a 2018 study that tested rice found that higher CO2 levels reduced its protein, iron and zinc content.

While the climate crisis has only accelerated concerns about crops’ nutritional value, prompting the emergence of a process called biofortification as a strategy to replenish lost nutrients or those that foods never had in the first place.

Biofortification encompasses multiple technologies. One involves genetically modifying a crop to increase its nutritional contents, which allows for the rapid introduction of new traits. Another, agronomic biofortification, utilizes nutrient-rich fertilizers or soil amendments to concentrate particular minerals in plants. Lastly, selective plant breeding can produce new varieties, though it can take a decade or more to yield a single variety.

Biofortification is an alternative to fortification, which has been part of the US industrial food system since the 1920s, when the nation began boosting table salt with iodine to reduce conditions related to mineral deficiency, such as goiter. Biofortification puts nutrients directly into the seed, as opposed to fortification, which adds nutrients into food once it’s grown. On the global stage, international stakeholders such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) have deemed the development of nutrient-enhanced biofortified crops as one of their leading goals in achieving food security.

'Don't Call Back' Manchin BLOWS OFF Poisoned West Virginians

Surge of new US-led oil and gas activity threatens to wreck Paris climate goals

The world’s fossil-fuel producers are on track to nearly quadruple the amount of extracted oil and gas from newly approved projects by the end of this decade, with the US leading the way in a surge of activity that threatens to blow apart agreed climate goals, a new report has found. There can be no new oil and gas infrastructure if the planet is to avoid careering past 1.5C (2.7F) of global heating, above pre-industrial times, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has previously stated. Breaching this warming threshold, agreed to by governments in the Paris climate agreement, will see ever worsening effects such as heatwaves, floods, drought and more, scientists have warned.

But since the IEA’s declaration in 2021, countries and major fossil fuel companies have forged ahead with a glut of new oil and gas activity. At least 20bn barrels of oil equivalent of new oil and gas has been discovered for future drilling since this point, according to the new report by Global Energy Monitor, a San Francisco-based NGO.

Last year, at least 20 oil and gas fields were readied and approved for extraction following discovery, sanctioning the removal of 8bn barrels of oil equivalent. By the end of this decade, the report found, the fossil-fuel industry aims to sanction nearly four times this amount – 31bn barrels of oil equivalent – across 64 additional new oil and gas fields. The US, which has produced more crude oil than any country has ever done in history for the past six years in a row, led the way in new oil and gas projects in 2022 and 2023, the report found. Guyana was second, with countries in the Americas accounting for 40% of all new oil sanctioned in the past two years.

The failure to even slightly slow down the hunt for new oil and gas risks a fatal blow to already slender hopes of the world remaining below 1.5C, a limit that scientists expect will be surpassed within a decade.


Also of Interest

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

At The UN It Is A Rogue U.S. Against The Rest Of The World

The Crimes They Are a-Changin’

Israel’s Shadow Over Free Speech: The Truth Behind the TikTok Ban Bill

Starvation: Anatomy of ‘a very cruel, slow death’

The Crocus City Hall Attack – An Operational Failure

IMF, in a Quiet Slap to the US, Urges Non-Alignment in Second Cold War

Study: ‘gamechanger’ diabetes drugs cost up to 400 times more than needed

Norman Finkelstein: UN ceasefire resolution shows that Biden is scared


A Little Night Music

Sly And The Family Stone - You Can Make It If You Try

Sly & The Family Stone - Everyday People

Sly & The Family Stone - Family Affair

Sly & The Family Stone - Africa Talks to You

Sly & The Family Stone - Stand!

Sly & The Family Stone ~ Hot Fun in the Summertime

Sly & The Family Stone - Love City

Sly & The Family Stone - Sing A Simple Song

Sly & The Family Stone - Dance To The Music

Sly & The Family Stone - Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)


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Comments

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harkens back to simpler times
don't remember catching their act
but the Detroit area radio stations
played the hell out of them

enjoy your weekend joeS and thanks!

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9 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@QMS

there are several of their songs that bring back some memories. and that bass line from "thank you for lettin' me be mice elf again" really grabbed me then and now.

have a great weekend!

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@joe shikspack
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isn't that the name of Sly Stones autobiography?

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5 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@QMS

i think he did name his biography after the song title.

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3 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

.

I’m sending more planes and bombs to Israel.

Citing Pentagon and State Department officials, the American daily says the new arms package includes 1,800 MK-84 2,000-pound bombs and 500 MK-82 500-pound bombs, along with 25 F-35s that were initially approved as part of a larger package by Congress in 2008. Israel requested the third squadron of 25 F-35s last July, which when delivered will bring the total size of the fleet to 75.

Yep if the world ever gets serious Biden and his heinous goons will be in the dock with Israel. The genocide conviction is very clear. Do not aid and abet.

And I’m really mad that Israel is allowing their people to steal Palestinian land!

Russia Russia Russia…but never Israel?

And after another week of genocide and terrorism and infrastructure catastrophes I think we all need this feel good story.

I wonder if Sam could find her way to the cemetery? The damn dawg was in the yard again and when I hollered at it the damn thing stole one of Sam’s toys. She went to great effort to pilfer it.

Thanks for the news and blues, Joe. Have a weekend. We are gonna get hammered with weather.

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

@snoopydawg

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joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

i sure wish biden good health so that justice can catch up with him and send him to live out his final years in prison.

there is no adequate human retribution for the blood that biden has spilt, but it would be nice to see him in an orange jumpsuit anyway.

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snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack

'Horrifying' Footage Shows IDF Killing Two Gazans, Burying Their Bodies With a Bulldozer

Video footage broadcast Wednesday by Al Jazeera shows Israeli soldiers gunning down two Palestinians on the coast of northern Gaza, even as one of them waves what appears to be a piece of white fabric.

The footage shows one of the men walking in the direction of an Israeli military vehicle with both hands raised. Despite the absence of any clear evidence that the man posed a threat, Israeli forces shot him from a short distance away. Another man is seen on the ground not far behind.

Al Jazeera's Tareq Abu Azzoum said the killings took place near where World Central Kitchen recently dropped off food aid.

The video then shows Israeli soldiers burying the bodies with a bulldozer.

"Probably certain words should be invented for this sort of thing," Marwan Bishara, AI Jazeera's chief political analyst, said in response to the footage. "I am not sure we have the sufficient vocabulary to describe this sort of twilight zone of Israel's fantasy of being the world's most moral army."

Video in article. I don’t watch war porn and especially when it’s done to civilians.

Let’s remember that Biden is THE most empathetic president ever! Both Clinton and Obama said that they support Biden’s support of genocide. Obama did nothing either in 2014 when Israel mowed the lawn and sent them more bombs after they ran out.

Biden will never order the military to get food trucks into Gaza like Wilkerson suggests. I read that the world famous chef who is setting up food kitchens in Gaza is another disgusting Zionist. Apparently Biden can get some food into Gaza, but just not those trucks that would make a difference. Another child died from starvation and those on the brink will probably not recover even if they get food tomorrow. They need massive medical attention. Gawd damn every person who is allowing this to happen. Hell will need to build another circle for all of them. Just wish we could Skype it.

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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

we definitely have a language problem in that there don't seem to be words to describe the magnitude of the biden administration's, congress' and israeli hypocrisy and malevolence.

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mimi's picture

in Baltimore. I have running the German version of the TV channel EURONEWS non stop and it makes me sick to watch the live images. .

Be as well as you can and stay confident that times will be better in the future. Greetings to my American home friends. Thanks to all for what you do and offer to c99p.

Thank you.

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@mimi
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of the battle between commerce and infrastructure
glad you are still kicking!

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joe shikspack's picture

@mimi

great to hear from you!

baltimore in general is doing okay. there is even some schadenfreude to be had - apparently there are some navy boats trapped in the harbor:

However, two of the vessels in Baltimore are high-value assets - the steamships SS Antares and SS Denebola. These are two out of eight Fast Sealift Ships - a class of former SeaLand boxships that were converted for military ro/ro service in the 1980s. They are among the fastest cargo ships in operation today, and their peak speed tops out at 33 knots.

The eight FSS vessels have delivered goods for every major U.S. conflict since the First Gulf War.

i guess the gummint might start thinking a little harder about all of the work on infrastructure it has delayed so that they can give tax cuts to rich people now that their military stuff is broken.

have a great weekend!

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janis b's picture

@mimi

I wish you all the same you wish others. It is very heart warming to hear from you and experience the connection. All the best, always.

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mimi's picture

@janis b
I am so over the top of things lately, that I just tumble down over everything and say 'fuck it'
It ia always a pleasure to read your comments. Stay put, wherever that is.

Germany is a hellish something. If I could get away from here I would sing

Hallelujah

Be well, friemd

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joe shikspack's picture

@humphrey

well, mandatory lobotomies for mainstream journalists would explain a lot ...

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soryang's picture

He slips back into the old "war on terror" mode at the end of the Judge's video. I don't feel that the Judge really challenged him on his interpretation. "ISIS-K is going to hit us, we're definitely going to get hit," blah, blah, blah.

This was probably the best comment on the video- "Exactly where and how did Maria Zakharova lose the thread of logic, as Wilkerson said? I wish the Judge had asked him where he believed that her reasoning failed. It did not." Right, the judge just let him get away with this bs "war on terror" crap.

Perhaps the colonel was not up to date on this, was just pulling stuff out of his butt. etc. I can't believe he could put such a simple minded superficial explanation out there. Either that, or he went dark there. I don't trust him. Fool me once, shame on me, fool me twice...

Don't hear much about R2P anymore do we?

I love this poster for the Candlelight Parade tomorrow in Seoul:

Got the image from a Simone Chun tweet promoting the demo tomorrow. The other pics show people showing up between Namdaemun and City Hall in Seoul. I wrote about the significance of the green onion gaffe Yoon made in the supermarket showing he had no comprehension of what daily life and prices are for ordinary people. It was a "let them eat cake" moment.

Some people think harping on Yoon's gaffes trivializes the political process, the election campaign season etc. I couldn't disagree more. Yoon has made comments in the past such as "poor people know nothing about freedom;" "defective food products shouldn't be regulated, just let the poor buy adulterated goods at a lower price;" and "labor unions are special cartels" whose leaders and organizers are "criminals and enemies of the state," who should pay for the criminal damage they cause to corporations.

The green onions stand for the aristocratic class of chaebols, their inherited class advantages, and total disregard for anyone but themselves. I find the "can't we all just learn to get along and be a democracy" accusations against the opposition parties and their leaders, (both being actively persecuted by the ruling party prosecutors), to be hypocritical claptrap feigning a goodwill consensus. The latter editorial line is aimed at defusing a very dynamic campaign by the opposition while the ruling party flounders about demonstrating incompetence, corruption, and malevolence.

Thanks for the great news roundup and Sly tunes JS.

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語必忠信 行必正直

joe shikspack's picture

@soryang

heh, when wilkerson said that isis-k was going to hit us, my jaw dropped and i thought, not to worry, isis-k are too busy with the cia's and mossad's projects to have time to hit us.

wilkerson definitely has some blind spots that are probably the product of years working in government and the mindset that requires. on the other hand, on many topics he seems to have a better take than one might expect. he's certainly not my favorite of napolitano's regular interviewees but he's often within tolerable parameters and seems to express how people in government think.

thanks for the update on the struggle leading up to elections in south korea, have a great weekend!

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soryang's picture

@joe shikspack Wilkerson said "they're definitely going to hit us" and "it's going to be worse than 911." Otherwise I completely agree with your take on Wilkerson. He even bolstered his source, a former FBI type who speaks fluent Arabic, the best, etc.

This is quite alarming not because it can't happen, but because it doesn't mean that if something like that does happen, the CIA or other covert US, Israeli, Ukrainian or NATO forces aren't the ones behind it. Such an attack would serve a bundle of political purposes simultaneously for the US and Israel. We're the country that would be put on a war footing again just as we were after 911 and the executive, the surveillance state, and the war machine would go into overdrive assuming all kinds of extraordinary powers.

You too Joe, have a good one!

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6 users have voted.

語必忠信 行必正直

joe shikspack's picture

@soryang

it seems to me that a lot of people are aware that isis, al-qaeda, al-nusra and related organizations have been trained, armed and are working for our spooks and israel's. if isis-k were to hit us, lots of people would assume that it was a false flag operation of our covert services or israel's.

frankly, i am more worried that russia may find irrefutable evidence of u.s. involvement in the recent terror attack in moscow blamed on isis-k than that the cia or mossad is imminently ready to attack inside the u.s.

but, that said, your objections are fair and it is somewhat alarming to see wilkerson laying the groundwork for media explanations of a false flag event. i certainly hope that wilkerson's action is unintentional, but of course you never know. it don't think that i have heard his construction from anyone else or any other outlet, so hopefully it's a one-off and not part of a campaign.

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snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack

Al Qaeda to bomb Allepo which killed 40 civilians. Biden has warned Iran and Hezbollah to stand down so a big war doesn’t start and yet Israel has free rein to bomb whatever country it wants which risks dragging the area into war.

Israel recently pissed Russia off by giving Ukraine its iron dome system and last I heard Russia’s Air Force was patrolling the border….and yet here’s Israel causing mayhem without consequences. Sheesh does Putin have any red lines that he will enforce?

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snoopydawg's picture

@snoopydawg

Did Israel Provide the U.S. With the Intelligence on ISIS-K?

If this is true it raises all sorts of new angles to consider. For example, a member of Netanyahu’s ruling party said this in October:

Amir Weitmann, the head of the libertarian caucus in Israel’s Likud Party, appeared on Russia’s state-run RT News network this week and spoke about fighting between Israel and Hamas militants, as well as Russia’s war with Ukraine.

While speaking about recent claims relating to al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, Weitmann criticized Russia, saying that “we’re gonna finish this war, we’re going to win because we’re stronger. After this, Russia will pay the price, believe me, Russia will pay the price.”

“Russia is supporting the enemies of Israel. Russia is supporting Nazi people who want to commit genocide on us and Russia will pay the price,” Weitmann said. “We’re gonna win this war. Afterwards, we’re not forgetting what you’re doing, we’re not forgetting, we will come, we will make sure Ukraine wins. We will make sure that you pay the price for what you have done, you as Russia.”

Israel is making other moves to support Ukraine in its war with Russia. On March 2:
….

“Israel will take a more aggressive stance against Russia” from now on, he believed, adding that if the Ukraine war is not over by the time Israel has dealt with its local problem. “Israeli weapons would find their way to Ukraine.”

That is a threat and it is not an idle one. And it raises the legitimate question — was Israel involved in any way with helping facilitate the 22 March terrorist attack? Let me add one more piece to the puzzle. Here is a video of an ISIS operator pronouncing judgment on another Muslim for supporting Hamas. Let that sink in for a moment.

If it turns out that Israel had knowledge of the plot a did not make an attempt to warn Russia then relations between Israel and Russia will be in shambles.

It’s been 6 months since Israel said it’s supporting Ukraine over Russia and yet Russia still isn’t doing a damn thing to keep Israel from attacking its ally, Syria. The Russian people just gave Putin a mandate to take the gloves off and yet…..

Hey. Did anyone watch the dawg video? I thought it was a heart warming story.

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joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

interesting stuff!

yep, i watched the dawg vid, i enjoyed it. funny what dogs do when their people pass on.

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enhydra lutris's picture

I see they've got a floating crane on site but are waiting for 9 more. It is time to start your stopwatch. The Golden Gate Bridge is only slightly longer than the Francis Scott Key Bridge. It took a little under 4 and 1/2 years to build (and came in under budget). Tick,

Thanks for the good friday nite tunes. Have a great weekend

Be well and have a good one

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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 --

snoopydawg's picture

@enhydra lutris

China can build them in half the time, but Mayo Pete says it will take a decade to build the FSK one. That’s if we can find enough steel to build it. Guess we shouldn’t have outsourced all our manufacturing facilities. I wonder if there are enough people here with the knowledge and manpower?

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joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

there is some good news regarding steel...

Steel is Back in Baltimore

given that the infrastructure is sitting there, right next to the site and there are plenty of former steelworkers living in the neighborhood, they might just be able to put something together.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@snoopydawg

slave labor and conscripts and have their military making sure that they don't take breaks and work 12 hour days. You can't expect us to compete with them, especially with all them damn unions slowing everboddy down.

The US is fourth in steel production, but we'd have to stop what we're already doing with it to use it for bridges. Don't know if we can afford it, however, so we'll probably go to India or Japan

be well and have a good one

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6 users have voted.

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 --

joe shikspack's picture

@enhydra lutris

well, if pete buttigeig is in charge of this thing, maybe by the year 3000. Smile

have a great weekend!

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dystopian's picture

Hi all, Hey Joe!

Hope it's good all over out there!

Love Sly, he was real popular in L.A., and certainly amongst a bunch of the hippie white stoner kids. We loved him. Dude exuded cool. And now in a way the music sounds like 'proto-funk'. It was at the cutting edge at the time.

A good new Rick Beato on the industry and biz is up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klxif5McurI

So they want to gmo crops to overcome the lack of nutrients in todays. I only read the part you posted, but... my understanding is that one of the biggest reasons this is such a pervasive problem is that one of the original drives in gmo was to shorten time to harvest. Crops that used to 2 per year can often be three now which adds up to dollars by the bushel. The biggest part of the lack of nurtients is that we no longer leave things on the tree branch, on the vine, or in the ground, as long as possible for it to ripen as much as possible before harvest. So it can acquire more nutrients, and what was that other thing that used to matter, oh yeah, flavor. So much of the problem is not climate change, it is the new growing regimens of squeezing extra harvests and crops out of a season. A problem created by greed and solved with gmos. Now they have a gmo for that? How 'bout they can all F off and grow my vegetables and fruits so they fortified and tasted they way they used to? sorry for the rantlet...:)

Thanks for the great sounds Joe! The Ry was great last night too! Have a great weekend.

happy trails all!

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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

janis b's picture

@dystopian

Let it go ; )

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joe shikspack's picture

@dystopian

proto-funk sounds like a pretty good description. larry graham, the bass player was definitely a big part of that sound.

heh, yeah, gmo's gonna solve everything. i wonder why they don't work on building up the soil they grow crops in rather than injecting nutrients into the seeds. oh, well i guess building up the soil is probably too expensive and time consuming for corporate agriculture. (i can hear them in the boardroom now, "it's just dirt! the problem must be in the seeds, call dr. nerd!") i wonder whether nutrients injected into the seed will be bioavailable in the same way that crops grown by traditional methods are. i guess we're set to find out.

have a great weekend!

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janis b's picture

Dance to the music, classic!

Du-du-du-du-du-dum-dumm

Enjoy the weekend and thanks.

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joe shikspack's picture

@janis b

have a great weekend!

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is so much better than dance to no music.
Sly and the Family Stones were such fun. Brings back many good memories.
I intend to watch a couple of more videos tonight.Thanks for the excellent selection of news goodies tonight.
have a great weekend, joe!

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

joe shikspack's picture

@on the cusp

enjoy the tunes!

have a great weekend!

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