The Evening Blues - 4-15-22



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Ronnie Earl

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues guitarist Ronnie Earl. Enjoy!

Ronnie Earl - All Your Love

"We’re about to see a judge sign off on Julian Assange’s extradition to the United States for exposing the empire’s war crimes while that same empire blasts us all in the face with an unprecedented war propaganda campaign about rescuing Ukraine’s freedom and democracy.

“Russia must be held accountable for its war crimes,” said the empire while imprisoning a journalist for trying to hold it accountable for war crimes.

Just the fact that the US and UK are imprisoning a journalist for exposing the war crimes of a war criminal president—just that one fact by itself—completely invalidates all criticisms of Russia from Washington and its allies."

-- Caitlin Johnstone


News and Opinion

Russia warns of nuclear weapons in Baltic if Sweden and Finland join Nato

Moscow has said it will be forced to strengthen its defences in the Baltic if Finland and Sweden join Nato, including by deploying nuclear weapons, as the war in Ukraine entered its seventh week and the country braced for a major attack in the east.

However, the Lithuanian defence minister, Arvydas Anušauskas, claimed on Thursday that Russia already had nuclear weapons stored in its Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad, which borders Lithuania and Poland. That claim has not been independently verified but the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) reported in 2018 that nuclear weapon storage bunkers in Kaliningrad had been upgraded.

The Russian former president Dmitry Medvedev, a senior member of Russia’s security council, said on Thursday that all its forces in the region would be bolstered if the two Nordic countries joined the US-led alliance. ...

Finland and Sweden are deliberating over whether to abandon decades of military non-alignment and join Nato, with the two Nordic countries’ leaders saying Russia’s onslaught on Ukraine has changed Europe’s “whole security landscape”.

Their accession to the alliance would more than double Russia’s land border with Nato members, Medvedev said. “Naturally, we will have to reinforce these borders” by bolstering ground, air and naval defences in the region, he said.

Russia Warns U.S. About Arms Sales to Ukraine as Weapon Makers Reap “Bonanza” from War

Moscow Accuses Ukraine of Launching Helicopter Strikes inside Russia

Russian officials on Thursday accused Ukraine of sending helicopters to bomb a town in the southern Bryansk region about 10 kilometers (six miles) from the border, after reporting seven injured in shelling.

“Using two military helicopters carrying heavy weaponry, Ukrainian armed forces illegally entered Russian air space,” Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said in a statement.

“Flying low, acting deliberately, they carried out at least six air strikes on residential buildings in the settlement of Klimovo,” investigators said.

As a result, they said, “at least six residential buildings were damaged... and seven people received injuries of varying severity including one small child born in 2020.” ...

Also on Thursday, Russia’s security agency the FSB told TASS news agency that Ukraine fired at border checkpoint where over 30 Ukrainian refugees were crossing into Russia. It added that there were no injuries.

A sad comedy highlighting the hypocrisy of Blinki Man and the government he represents:

Human rights and democracy eroding among US allies in Middle East, report says

The US State Department has said respect for human rights and democratic norms have continued to worsen across the Middle East, with authoritarian states, including Washington's allies in the region, detaining opponents and activists seen as posing a threat to their rule.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken described what he called a continued "recession" in basic rights and the rule of law over the past year, as he unveiled the US government's annual assessment of the global human rights situation on Tuesday. "Governments are growing more brazen, reaching across borders to threaten and attack critics," Blinken said, as he cited an alleged effort by Iran's government to abduct an Iranian-American journalist from New York.

The report also laid out a litany of alleged abuses by both allies and rivals, including forced disappearances in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. ...

"In his remarks accompanying the report, Secretary Blinken said the 'United States will continue to support those around the world struggling for human dignity and liberty'," said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn). "It is hard to square this statement with the US government aiding and arming some of the worst human rights abusing governments in the world.

"The real question we should be asking is why is the US government ignoring its own evidence and laws to continue supporting some of the most abusive governments in the world."

Vijay Prashad on the War in Ukraine & the West’s “Open, Rank Hypocrisy” in Condemning War Crimes

Omar: US 'Hypocrisy' on ICC Hamstrings Justice for Putin's War Crimes

As the Biden administration and U.S. lawmakers from both sides of the aisle voice support for the International Criminal Court's probe of likely Russian war crimes in Ukraine, one progressive congressional Democrat is leading calls for the United States to break with the hypocrisy that critics say has long defined its policies and actions by joining the global tribunal in The Hague.

In a Wednesday Washington Post opinion piece, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.)—who said she would introduce legislation to set the U.S. on a path to joining the ICC—wrote that Russian atrocities in Ukraine including "massacres of civilians, mass graves, and rapes" evoked her own "traumatic past." ...

While Omar praised the "bipartisan calls for accountability" in the U.S., as well as President Joe Biden's labeling of Putin as a "war criminal," she noted that "unfortunately, a glaring asterisk hangs over any calls for justice made by the United States."

"That's because, more than two decades after its creation, we have yet to ratify the Rome Statute—the treaty establishing the ICC," she explained. "We are in the company of countries such as Iran, Sudan, China, and, yes, Russia as one of several nations that have refused to sign onto this bedrock of international law."

Furthermore, the United States passed two laws during the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations prohibiting U.S. funding of the ICC and barring the country from assisting the court—and even authorizing military action to secure the release of any American personnel detained by or on behalf of the tribunal.

In 2020, the Donald Trump administration was so infuriated by the prospect of the ICC investigating alleged U.S. war crimes in Afghanistan that it sanctioned then-Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and other court officials.

"Biden thankfully lifted these sanctions," noted Omar. "But Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated our country's 'long-standing objection to the court's efforts to assert jurisdiction over personnel of nonstate parties' last year. In other words: We're not joining, and don't investigate us or anyone that is not a member."

The congresswoman asserted that this stance "is now hamstringing the United States as we seek accountability for Putin."

"If we oppose investigations into countries, like our own, that haven't joined the ICC," she asked, "how can we support an investigation into Russia, another country that hasn't joined the court?"

Further complicating matters is the fact that Ukraine is also not a signatory to the Rome Statute.

Omar offered a "simple solution" to the conundrum: "The United States must join the International Criminal Court."

"If we truly believe in prioritizing human rights and enforcing international law," she asked, "how can we not be part of the court that upholds that law?"

"Our absence also allows regimes to commit human rights abuses with impunity," Omar continued. "If the most powerful country won't hold itself accountable to the rule of law, other countries feel emboldened to violate it. And indeed, we have turned a blind eye to wanton human rights violations by regimes in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, El Salvador, and even India, in the name of political convenience."

The U.S. also bristles at any attempt by the ICC or any other global body to hold Israel—which is also not a member of the court—accountable for policies and actions in Palestine that international officials and human rights organizations have called apartheid.

Amid a debate last year over redress mechanisms for victims of war crimes committed outside the ICC's jurisdiction, Omar was attacked not only by congressional Republicans but also by leading Democrats including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for demanding "the same level of accountability and justice for all victims of crimes against humanity" in the face of "unthinkable atrocities committed by the U.S., Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban." ...

In a Wednesday interview with HuffPost, Omar took aim at the Bush-era law requiring the U.S. to "use all means necessary" to stop the ICC from investigating American war crimes.

"We've engaged in a process for a long time of delegitimizing these international institutions that essentially call for accountability," the lawmaker said, "and I think it is really disturbing that we now think they are powerful enough… to hold Russia accountable."

"It's easy for people to see the hypocrisy," she argued, "when we've said previously that we don't believe in the ability of the court to [be] unbiased."

"Think about just how much more powerful of a statement it would be," Omar added, "if we didn't just call for accountability for war crimes in Ukraine in holding Russians accountable for the possible war crimes they have committed but if we actually had skin in the game."

Google Threatens YouTubers Over Ukraine War Coverage

US federal alert warns of the discovery of malicious cyber tools

Multiple US government agencies issued a joint alert Wednesday warning of the discovery of malicious cyber tools created by unnamed advanced threat actors that they said were capable of gaining “full system access” to multiple industrial control systems.

The public alert from the Energy and Homeland Security departments, the FBI and National Security Agency did not name the actors or offer details on the find. But their private sector cybersecurity partners said the evidence suggests Russia is behind the tools – and that they were configured to initially target North American energy concerns.

One of the cybersecurity firms involved, Mandiant, said in a report that the tools’ functionality was “consistent with the malware used in Russia’s prior physical attacks” though it acknowledged that the evidence linking it to Moscow is “largely circumstantial”. It called the tools “exceptionally rare and dangerous”.

The CEO of another government partner, Robert M Lee of Dragos, agreed that a state actor almost certainly crafted the malware, which he said was configured to initially target liquified natural gas and electric power sites in North America.

Putin Confident Russia Will Find New Buyers Of Its Energy

As many Western buyers shun Russian oil, gas, and coal, Moscow will find new customers for its energy products both domestically and overseas, Russian President Vladimir Putin was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

“As for Russian oil, gas, coal, we will be able to raise their domestic consumption, stimulate higher complexity of feedstock processing and raise energy supplies to other parts of the world -- somewhere, where they are really needed,” Putin said during a meeting with the cabinet and company representatives, as carried by Bloomberg. ...

Buyers in Asia are taking some of the oil unwanted in the West, but logistics, high freight rates, insurance, bank guarantees, and payment hurdles prevent willing buyers in Asia from purchasing all the oil Russia has traditionally sold on the European market.

Russian oil production fell in the first week of April by 4.5 percent compared to the March average—the steepest decline in output since May 2020, according to Russia’s energy ministry data seen by Bloomberg.

New York AG Launching Probe Into Price Gouging by Oil Companies

New York Attorney General Letitia James is launching a formal investigation on Thursday to determine whether the fossil fuel industry has engaged in gas price gouging, according to multiple news reports.

The full-scale investigation, believed to be the first of its kind in the U.S., will examine the state's entire supply chain of production—including major oil companies, crude refineries, independent operators of pipelines, manufacturers, retailers, distributors, and shipping firms.

The probe won praise from climate organizer and Fossil Free Media director Jamie Henn, who tweeted, "These moves to hold Big Oil accountable add momentum to the growing push for a Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax."

"Soaring gas prices are forcing working New Yorkers and low-income families to make difficult decisions on whether to pay bills or put food on the table," James said in a statement to CNN. "Price gouging is unfair and illegal and my office is determined to make sure it doesn't happen in our state."

Gas prices have been skyrocketing across the U.S., while oil and gas companies are reporting record-setting profits.

Executives from Big Oil giants BP America, Chevron, Devon Energy, ExxonMobil, Pioneer Natural Resources, and Shell were asked to testify at the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee's Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee hearing on price gouging on April 6.

The seven oil companies in attendance reported more than $71.2 billion in profits in 2021 and used over $38 billion of those record profits on shareholder dividends and over $8 billion on stock buybacks, according to Accountable.US.

"At a time when gasoline in America is now at a near-record high at $4.17 a gallon, guess what?" Bernie Sanders said in early April. "ExxonMobil reported that its profit from pumping oil and gas alone in the first quarter will likely hit a record high of $9.3 billion."

While the price of crude oil has fallen nearly 20% from March, gas prices have remained steadily high—causing financial challenges for many Americans.

American Petroleum Institute spokesperson Bethany Williams responded to price gouging claims by telling CNN, "This is an industry of price takers, not price makers, and countless investigations throughout history have shown that changes in gasoline prices are based on market factors."

An April analysis from BailoutWatch, Friends of the Earth, and Public Citizen revealed how Big Oil has exploited various crises over the past year—including Russia's war on Ukraine, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the global climate emergency—to vastly enrich shareholder profits in the form of dividends and buybacks.

New York's price-gouging statute grants authorities wide-ranging power to investigate oil supply chains, and according to the attorney general's website, state law bans "unconscionably excessive" prices, including both "unconscionably extreme" prices and prices set through "unfair leverage or unconscionable means."

CRUSHING DISSENT: George Galloway, Chris Hedges, Scott Ritter & Jill Stein

Elon Musk offers to buy Twitter for more than $40bn

Elon Musk has launched an audacious bid to buy Twitter for $43.4bn (£33bn), saying he wants to release its “extraordinary potential” to boost free speech and democracy across the world.

The Tesla chief executive and world’s richest person revealed in a regulatory filing on Thursday that he had launched a hostile takeover of Twitter. He further confirmed the move in a public appearance at the TED conference in Vancouver later that day.

“Having a public platform that is massively trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization,” Musk said during an interview with Chris Anderson, Ted conferences curator and a former editor of Wired.

The news of the attempted takeover came just days after Musk revealed he had bought a 9.2% stake in the social media company and was subsequently offered a seat on the board, but then declined to take up the position. ...

Musk, who has more than 80 million followers on Twitter, said if his offer was not accepted he would “reconsider my position as a shareholder” as he did not have “confidence in [Twitter’s current] management”.

“This is not a threat,” he added. “It’s simply not a good investment without the changes that need to be made.”

Housing Market: Rent, Mortgage Rates SURGE Nationwide | Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar

More Than $900 of Your Tax Dollars Went to Corporate Military Contractors

Most of us want our tax dollars to be wisely used—especially around tax time.

You've probably heard a lot about corporations not paying taxes. Last year, individuals like you contributed six times more in income tax than corporations did.

But have you heard about how many of your tax dollars then end up in corporate pockets? It's a lot—especially for corporations that contract with the Pentagon. They collect nearly half of all military spending.

The average taxpayer contributed about $2,000 to the military last year, according to a breakdown my colleagues and I prepared for the Institute for Policy Studies. More than $900 of that went to corporate military contractors.

In 2020, the largest Pentagon contractor, Lockheed Martin, took in $75 billion from taxpayers—and paid its CEO more than $23 million.

Unfortunately, this spending isn't buying us a more secure world.

Last year, Congress added $25 billion the Pentagon didn't ask for to its already gargantuan budget. Lawmakers even refused to let military leaders retire weapons systems they couldn't use anymore. The extra money favored top military contractors that gave campaign money to a group of lawmakers, who refused to comment on it.

Then there's simple price-gouging.

[https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/04/14/more-900-your-tax-dollars-... There's the infamous case of TransDigm, a Pentagon contractor that charged the government $4,361 for a metal pin that should've cost $46—and then refused to share cost data. Congress recently asked TransDigm to repay some of its misbegotten profits, but the Pentagon hasn't cut off its business.]

Somewhere between price-gouging and incompetence lies the F-35 jet fighter, an embarrassment the late Senator John McCain, a Pentagon booster, called "a scandal and a tragedy."

Among the most expensive weapons systems ever, the F-35 has numerous failings. It's spontaneously caught fire at least three times—hardly the outcome you'd expect for the top Pentagon contractor's flagship program. The Pentagon has reduced its request for new F-35s this year by about a third, but Congress may reject that too.

Most serious of all, there's the problem of U.S. weapons feeding conflicts in ways the Pentagon didn't foresee, but probably should have.

When U.S. ground troops left Afghanistan, they left behind a huge array of military equipment, from armored vehicles to aircraft, that could now be in Taliban hands. The U.S. also left weapons in Iraq that fell into the hands of ISIS, including guns and an anti-tank missile.

Even weapons we sold to so-called allies like Saudi Arabia have ended up going to people affiliated with groups like al Qaeda.

Military weapons also end up on city streets at home. Over the years, civilian law agencies have received guns, armored vehicles, and even grenade launchers from the military, turning local police into near-military organizations.

Records also show that the Pentagon has lost hundreds of weapons which may have been stolen, including grenade launchers and rocket launchers. Some of these weapons have been used in crimes.

Taxpayers shouldn't be spending $900 apiece for these outcomes. My team at the Institute for Policy Studies and others have demonstrated ways to cut up to $350 billion per year from the Pentagon budget, including what we spend on weapons contractors, without compromising our safety.

Even better, we could then put some of that money elsewhere.

Compared to the $900 for Pentagon contractors, the average taxpayer contributed only about $27 to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, $171 to K-12 education, and barely $5 to renewable energy.

How much more could we get if we invested even a fraction of what we spend on military contractors for these dire needs.

Most Americans support shifting Pentagon funds to pay for domestic needs. Instead of making Americans fork over another $900 to corporate military contractors this year, Congress should put our dollars to better use.

Starbucks’ CEO Invokes “The Holocaust” To Squash Union

Groups Force Policing Reforms to Settle Attack on Protesters Outside Trump White House

In what one rights advocate called "a win for the ongoing resistance" against police brutality, the U.S. Department of Justice and the ACLU of Washington, D.C. on Wednesday announed a partial settlement that will require law enforcement officers to significantly reform the tactics they use to disperse crowds.

The settlement was reached in a case brought by the ACLU on behalf of Black Lives Matter organizers and individual protesters who faced a militarized police response to their racial justice demonstration on June 1, 2020 in Lafayette Square in the nation's capital.

The Trump administration reportedly ordered the clearing of the square so former President Donald Trump could walk to St. John's Church to have his picture taken with a Bible amid a nationwide uprising over racial justice, and law enforcement agents used flash-band grenades, tear gas, and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd. ...

According to the ACLU, under the settlement, the U.S. Park Police and the Secret Service will be:

  • Barred from revoking demonstration permits absent "clear and present danger to the public safety";
  • Required to enable the safe exit of demonstrators if a protest is being dispersed;
  • Required to provide audible warnings before dispersing a crowd;
  • Required to wear clearly visible identification;
  • Prohibited from displaying gas masks and shields at protests, unless approved by a high-ranking officer; and
  • Barred from "guilt-by-association policing" with new guidelines making clear that "uses of force and dispersals are not normally justified by the unlawful conduct of some individuals in a crowd."

Authorities will be required to enact the changes within 30 days.



the horse race



Republican party withdraws from US Commission on Presidential Debates

The Republican National Committee voted unanimously on Thursday to withdraw from the Commission on Presidential Debates, saying the group that has run the debates for decades was biased and refused to enact reforms.

“We are going to find newer, better debate platforms to ensure that future nominees are not forced to go through the biased CPD in order to make their case to the American people,” the committee’s chairperson, Ronna McDaniel, said in a statement.

The RNC’s action requires Republican candidates to agree in writing to appear only in primary and general election debates sanctioned by the committee.

The non-profit commission, founded in 1987 to codify the debates as a permanent part of presidential elections, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Democratic National Committee, the RNC’s counterpart for the party of President Joe Biden, was also not immediately available.

It was unclear what format future RNC-backed debates would take or whether they would take place as often as in recent decades.

So This Is Pramila Jayapal’s Strategy

The campaign apparatus representing Washington, D.C.’s most prominent progressive lawmakers on Wednesday spurned Nina Turner, one of the highest-profile progressive candidates in the country. The group, the Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC, has painted the decision as a pro forma one. But progressive lawmakers are now intervening in a hotly contested House race to back a corporate-aligned Democrat over a progressive candidate who co-chaired Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign and who the party’s conservative wing set out to destroy last year.

Pro forma or not, the refusal to endorse Turner may be the logical endpoint of where progressive leader Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) has led her caucus over the past year — prioritizing inside-game strategies and fealty to Democratic Party norms, even when such tactics conflict with progressive goals. ... Now, with Turner once again challenging Brown in the regular election for the seat, the CPC has picked sides, endorsing the incumbent — who belongs to both the CPC and the rival, pro-business New Democrat Coalition — even though CPC Chair Jayapal endorsed Turner in the special election less than a year ago. ...

A look at Jayapal and her caucus’ recent behavior suggests that the move was no aberration from her caucus’ tactics, however. While the CPC represents the nascent progessive wing of the party, over the past year, under Jayapal’s direction, the organization has worked closely with the Democratic establishment with few clear legislative victories to show for it.



the evening greens


Canada ignored warnings of virus infecting farmed and wild salmon

Canada was warned in 2012 by its own scientists that a virus was infecting both farmed and wild salmon, but successive governments ignored the expert advice, saying for years that risks to salmon were low.

Justin Trudeau’s government has said it will phase out open-pen industrial fish farms off the coast of British Columbia by 2025. But both his government and the previous Conservative government were in possession of a newly released report that linked large-scale farms and wild salmon to the highly contagious Piscine orthoreovirus (PRV).

In 2012, biologists with the department of fisheries and oceans investigated the presence of the virus, which has been found in both farmed and wild salmon. In March, a federal information commissioner ordered the report be released, after a multi-year access-to-information battle between the group Wild First, which opposes open-pen salmon farms, and the federal government. Details of the report were made public on Thursday by the Globe and Mail.

Kristi Miller-Saunders, a federal biologist and an author on the study, called the delay in releasing the report a “travesty” and said its omission has contributed to longstanding doubt over whether farmed salmon were infecting wild salmon. ... Miller-Saunders said in a statement her research was the first to discover the virus in North America and that the virus was “being actively transmitted between farmed and wild salmon in B.C.”

A study last year from the University of British Columbia confirmed her work, concluding that the closer wild Chinook are to fish farms, the higher the likelihood they’ll be infected by the Piscine orthoreovirus. The decade-old findings take on a new urgency as both the federal government and officials in British Columbia grapple with a decimation of wild Pacific salmon stocks in the region, which experts fear could have far-reaching ecological consequences.

Russia's invasion impact on economies: Price of fertilizers jumps due to sanctions

EPA opens civil rights investigations over pollution in Cancer Alley

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has opened a series of civil rights investigations into state agencies in Louisiana to examine whether permits granted in the highly polluted industrial corridor, known locally as Cancer Alley, have violated Black citizens rights. The news, first reported by the New Orleans Advocate, marks further enforcement action taken by the federal agency in the region since the EPA administrator, Michael Regan, visited the area late last year.

One investigation, targeted at the state’s health department, will examine whether the department violated the rights of Black residents and schoolchildren living near a neoprene facility in St John “by allegedly failing in its duty to provide parish residents with necessary information about health threats”, and whether the department failed to make recommendations to community members and local government over how to reduce exposure to pollution.

The neoprene facility, operated by the Japanese chemicals firm Denka, is the only location in America to emit the pollutant chloroprene, listed by the EPA as a likely human carcinogen. Residential locations around the site, including an elementary school near the plant’s fence line, often record levels of chloroprene well above the EPA’s lifetime exposure guidance levels.

The investigations will also examine permits related to a proposed gargantuan plastics site in the neighboring parish of St James, operated by the Taiwanese company Formosa, permitted to emit up to 15,400lb of the cancer-causing chemical ethylene oxide. That project has been placed on hold during a federal government review.


Also of Interest

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

A Brief Summary Of The Effects Of Russia Sanctions

The Assange Case Invalidates US Criticisms Of Russia: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

Ukraine Is Smashed – This Is How It Will Be Repaired

Yanis Varoufakis: Cloudalists: Our New Cloud-Based Ruling Class

China's biggest offshore oil and gas producer is preparing to exit operations in the US, UK, and Canada due to concerns around sanctions, a report says

Amazon Lashes Back in Staten Island Warehouses

Overheating Conditions Indicate High Probability of a US Recession

Our food system isn't ready for the climate crisis

Lightning-sparked forest fires set to increase in North America

Scottish quarry fossils belong to long-toed lizard-like creature, experts say

DEBATE: Has Corruption, Messaging TANKED Climate Policy?

MI Governor Kidnapping Planned By FBI All Along?

The Duran: Let's talk about Russia, Ukraine, NATO and Biden (Livestream)


A Little Night Music

Ronnie Earl And The Broadcasters - Moanin'

Ronnie Earl & the Broadcasters - Some Day, Some Way

Ronnie Earl - T-Bone Boogie

Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson and Ronnie Earl with the Magic Rockers - Easy Baby

Ronnie Earl & The Broadcasters - Blues in D natural

Ronnie Earl - Bobby's Bop

Ronnie Earl & The Broadcasters - Blues For George Floyd

Ronnie Earl & The Broadcasters - Okie Dokie Stomp

Ronnie Earl & The Broadcasters - Double Trouble

Ronnie Earl & The Broadcasters - You've Got Me Wrong


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Comments

snoopydawg's picture

Earlier this week, Vice President Kamala Harris announced new efforts from the White House to ease the burden of unpaid medical bills. “I have met so many people in so many communities in our nation who are struggling with this burden. Many of whom are managing an illness or an injury at the same time and who stay up at night, staring at the ceiling wondering if they’ll ever be able to pay off their medical debt,” Harris said at a press briefing. “No one in our nation should have to endure that. No one in our nation should have to go bankrupt just to get the healthcare they need.”

In addition to stopping medical debt from wrecking credit scores, the administration is ensuring that it won’t be a barrier to getting a federally-backed housing loan, and will use the CFPB to investigate credit reporting companies and debt collectors who aggressively harass and intimidate people who owe to hospitals and other providers. The CFPB will also provide more consumer education tools to help patients navigate medical debt and billing. The administration is also moving to help get veterans’ medical debt forgiven.

Well that and $5.00 will get you a cup of coffee and you’ll still risk going bankrupt from medical debt, Kamala because you will still have medical debt! That 500,000 people a year do go bankrupt because of it must have slipped your radar.

I also read that states are decreasing food stamp benefits. No problem with transferring trillions to the already rich and continuing to give subsidies and tax breaks to companies making record profits. But vote blue folks because things can always be worse when republicans are in control. Nice of Biden to roll back Trump’s obscene tax cuts isn’t it? Or reverse any of the financial damage he did to poor people. Let me guess…Joe Manchin didn’t want to do that so Biden just shrugged and said oh well.

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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

heh, here, i can fix kamala's speech:

"we democrats have heard you. we know how you suffer and what needs to be done. vote for us and we'll continue to talk about it."

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6 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack

Did you see this essay by Norton on how the NY Slimes smeared him?

https://consortiumnews.com/2022/04/15/nyt-smears-journalist-calls-2014-u...

I got chills watching Max and Jimmy tip toeing around the way that YouTube is censoring everyone who doesn’t toe the government’s line on the Russia/Ukraine conflict. We are watching in real time how 1984 is coming to pass and there ain’t a damn thing we can do about it. They have already told the world that spilling government secrets will not be tolerated with the persecution of Assange and now they are getting their mouthpieces to go after other journalists. Scary times. How far are they going to take this? How long until substack gets closed down? I just keep remembering that you can’t fight city hall. But hey we have half of the country fully behind government censorship. It’s not just the country that is a failed state. Its citizens are too.

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8 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

i missed that ben norton piece, it must have gone up sometime after i checked consortium news for today's eb. pretty orwellian, eh?

i was impressed with max's rhetorical dancing around google's rules. i don't suppose that it will matter in the long run, though. if this war goes on much longer, i would imagine that google will probably silence dissenting voices.

i hope that somebody is working on alternative platforms, this could get pretty ugly before it's over.

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7 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack

He should build his own platform with tweets, video and a new farcebook. I don’t know what Trump could have done when Twitter banned him, but it seems that he just rolled over and took it. Killing a US president in broad daylight is one thing, but banning another is something else. Or something like that. But that people cheered the banning…I’m running out of words tonight on how fck’d up this country is.

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7 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

there's a lot to be said for making a fresh start from scratch - i would prefer competition to replacing the leadership of a monopoly, but a fresh start would have a fairly long timeline.

i'd be happy to see either outcome at this point, assuming that musk is as good as his word regarding a commitment to free speech.

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5 users have voted.
mimi's picture

How to get sane again? Good Evening, Joe. I wanna be insane, otherwise I am going bananas.

Thanks for still doing this job of yours. Seems the only sane thing to do, but who wants to be sane in this world these days?

Do something crazy for a change, because I fear for your sanity otherwise.

I write my testament. Do you want to fill up your basement with more old records? Transport is on me.

Have a good easter break, all my eggs are broken already. So whatever. Nothing to say. No comment.

Peace and Love to the Bluezers and all of you.

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12 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@mimi

i think that "bananas" sounds better than "insane," so if there is a choice, maybe pick bananas. Smile

sure, i love old records. i have a little room in my basement. i've been going through the boxes of records i have down there and cycling them through my collection upstairs.

have a great weekend!

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7 users have voted.

is long but filled with many truth's which should be screamed from the rooftops.
The crucifixion of Julian Assange. Quite appropriate on a "Good Friday".
Among many other gems. Thanks for the EB's and have a good weekend!

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11 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@QMS

i just finished watching the part i didn't have time to watch earlier. it's a bracing discussion, but one very much worth the time. i really enjoyed the different perspectives on our unsustainable social and political organization and what can be done about it.

have a great weekend!

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6 users have voted.
ggersh's picture

I guess Russians are inferior once again. Why my
Grandparents never told me proves the point? s/

This bitch certainly doesn't

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10 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

joe shikspack's picture

@ggersh

wow, how embarrassing for that woman to have disclosed her savage racism for all to see on teevee. you'd hope that her interlocutor would gently lead her out of her state of ignorance and degradation, though being popular teevee, her views undoubtedly represent the media owner class opinions.

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8 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@ggersh

No xenophobia there aye? I see people saying things just like that on numerous shitlib sites. Putin is a gangster and the Russian people are dumb savages. Oh yeah and the vote is always rigged for whomever wins. Thanks democrats for turning Americans into Russian xenophobic assholes. Goes well with the xenophobia they feel about other races.

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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.

CB's picture

@snoopydawg

Another case of absolute lawlessness on the territory of the former Ukraine. In the Dnepropetrovsk region, where the Nazi Boris Filatov manages everything, a woman was tied to the "pillory" not even for looting, but for not knowing the meaning of the word "palyanitsa"

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9 users have voted.

Seems to be getting harder and harder to sift through the news these days. Thanks for the many timely articles you brought to my attention.

Working to try and keep my pecan trees alive in my yard; that does not really exist but like the idea of letting things grow right now and keep from sparking a fire from mowing. We are in severe drought conditions here but not to the point of designated watering days but they are coming. Doing some yard work, riding my bike in the early hours and then inside out of the heat. Glad this old place seems to be able to hold some of the cool from the night and minimize my cooling efforts.

Have a great holiday weekend and thanks for your hard work day after day.

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9 users have voted.

Life is what you make it, so make it something worthwhile.

This ain't no dress rehearsal!

joe shikspack's picture

@jakkalbessie

heh, finding news and analysis worth posting is getting progressively more difficult. even many of the better outlets have bought into the war propaganda and their product has suffered a great deal. some of the better writers these days are being more and more suppressed by media outlets and big tech social media companies.

good luck with your pecans! perhaps a drip line might be a water-saving alternative for the trees?

have a great weekend!

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6 users have voted.
Lookout's picture

Just the fact that the US and UK are imprisoning a journalist for exposing the war crimes of a war criminal president—just that one fact by itself—completely invalidates all criticisms of Russia from Washington and its allies."

That really says it all.

Thanks for all the news and blues! Great conversation on CN with Scott, George, Jill, and Chris. The truth will set you free...was kinda the theme.

Have great Easter weekend!

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9 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

joe shikspack's picture

@Lookout

yeah, caity really nails the concept with that one.

heh, a cynical mind like mine is prone to wonder: if the truth really will set you free, would the cia advertize it? Smile

have a great weekend!

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7 users have voted.
dystopian's picture

Hi all. Hey Joe. Hope everyone is well! Ronnie Earl was a great great player. What feeling, what a touch. We had our primary computer crash here this week so a bit out of sorts...

Thanks for the great soundscape Joe! Have a great weekend.

be well all!

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5 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

sorry to hear about your computer. i hope that easter brings about a meaningful resurrection for your machine. Smile

have a good one!

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4 users have voted.