The Evening Blues - 4-2-18



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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Ted Taylor

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features r&b singer Ted Taylor. Enjoy!

Ted Taylor - Somebody's Always Trying

"It is because I recognize the brutality with which my own multi-branched ancestors have been treated that I can identify the despicable, lawless, cruel, and sadistic behavior that has characterized Israel's attempts to erase a people, the Palestinians, from their own land."

-- Alice Walker


News and Opinion

Israel Opens Fire on Palestinian Protesters in Gaza; Trump Envoy Blames “Hostile March”

Israek=li snipers killed at least 15 Palestinian protesters in Gaza on Friday, and injured hundreds more with live fire, as up to 50,000 residents of the besieged enclave answered an activist’s call to embrace civil disobedience by demonstrating close to the border fence, an area defined by the Israeli Defense Forces as a closed military zone.

Video of Israeli marksmen shooting unarmed protesters, including at least one young man who was engaged in prayer at the time, appalled observers from both communities.


... The unarmed protesters had rallied to demand an end to Israel’s decade-long blockade of the Palestinian territory, as well as the recognition of the right of refugees who fled there in 1948 to return, with their children and grandchildren, to their homes inside what is now the Jewish state.

According to plans first sketched out on Facebook by the independent Gazan activist Ahmed Abu Artema, the rally on Friday marked the start of a six-week campaign called “The Great Return March,” intended to culminate on May 15, when Israel celebrates its 70th birthday and Palestinians mourn the Nakba, or “catastrophe,” in which hundreds of thousands of people were driven from what became the state of Israel.

Israel rejects UN and EU calls for inquiry into Gaza bloodshed

Israel’s defence minister has rejected United Nations and European Union calls for an investigation into the killing of more than a dozen Palestinians by the military during demonstrations on the Gaza frontier.

Gaza’s coastal enclave has been shaken by the bloodiest episode in years after protests advertised as peaceful sit-ins turned violent, with Israeli troops firing rounds of live ammunition at crowds of stone-throwers.

Hospitals in Gaza have recorded hundreds of emergency admissions from the protest, and doctors have said most were for gunshot wounds. The UN secretary general, António Guterres, and the EU’s top diplomat, Federica Mogherini, called for independent inquiries into the bloodshed, which left 16 people dead.

But the Israeli defence minister, Avigdor Lieberman, told Israel’s public radio on Sunday that there will not be an inquiry. “From the standpoint of the [Israeli Defence Force] soldiers, they did what had to be done,” he said. “I think that all of our troops deserve a commendation.”

Guatemalan Genocidal Monster Efraín Ríos Montt Dies

Former Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt, who seized power in a 1982 coup, has died. His lawyer, Jaime Hernandez, said the family told him the 91-year-old died of a heart attack.

Ríos Montt, who presided over one of the bloodiest periods of the country’s civil war as soldiers waged a scorched-earth campaign to root out Marxist guerrillas, was convicted in 2013 of genocide and crimes against humanity for the massacre of 1,771 indigenous Ixil Mayans by security forces under his command.

But the ruling was swiftly set aside and a new trial ordered, dismaying human rights activists and victims who long sought to see him punished for atrocities during his 17-month regime.

In October, his trial on genocide charges resumed behind closed doors after being suspended for more than a year while his lawyers argued that he was too senile to participate, with no memory and unable to make decisions. ...

According to a UN truth commission, the worst atrocities of the 1960-1996 Guatemalan civil war took place during his rule. Nonetheless he continued to receive the support of the United States, where Ronald Reagan called him “a man of great personal integrity and commitment.”

Guaranteed Safety by the U.S., Former Guantánamo Detainee Now Faces Deportation to War-Torn Libya and Likely Death

For over 14 years, Libyan citizen Omar Khalifa Mohammed Abu Bakr was imprisoned without due process by the U.S. at Guantánamo Bay. He was never charged with, let alone convicted of, any crimes. After suffering years of torture and mistreatment, Khalifa was released to Senegal in 2016.

His release was the by-product of a deal negotiated by his attorneys with the U.S. government. Khalifa’s lawyer, CUNY School of Law professor Ramzi Kassem, told the Intercept that the agreement expressly guaranteed that the Libyan would have the right to permanently settle in Senegal and rebuild his life there, rather than be returned to war-torn Libya. In addition to the deteriorating security situation in his home country, Khalifa’s status as a former Guantánamo detainee as well as his tribal background meant that being sent back to his country of origin would mean an almost certain death sentence. ...

But last week, the U.S. State Department appears to have abandoned its commitments when releasing Khalifa. A handwritten note in Arabic, delivered to him on Wednesday by Senegalese authorities, informed him that his two years of permitted residency in the country had expired and that he would be deported to Libya on April 3rd. ... Speaking to The Intercept, Kassem, Khalifa’s lawyer, said that without immediate intervention on the part of the U.S. State Department to uphold its commitments by halting his deportation from Senegal, Khalifa faces the prospect of imminent death in Libya.

“My client and I relied on U.S. government’s assurances two years ago that Mr. Khalifa’s resettlement in Senegal would be permanent and that he would face no risk of a forced repatriation to imprisonment and torture in Libya,” Kassem said. “But now, the U.S. State Department is nowhere to be found. Irrespective of who sits in the White House today, the United States should honor its promises. For Mr. Khalifa, this is a matter of life or death.”

‘#WakeUpEurope & help Catalonia’: German politicians visit Puigdemont in prison

Trump invited Putin to White House during congratulatory call last month

Donald Trump has invited Vladimir Putin to Washington, the White House and the Kremlin both confirmed on Monday.

The Kremlin said no preparations had been made by the time the US expelled 60 Russian diplomats last week.

The White House spokeswoman, Sarah Sanders, confirmed that Trump and Putin had discussed a meeting and that the White House was one possible venue, but gave no further details.

A Putin aide, Yuri Ushakov, told Russian news agencies that Trump made the offer when he called Putin to congratulate him on his election win – a call that caused controversy because Trump’s critics argued that congratulations were inappropriate for elections that few saw as being free and fair, and because of Russian aggression in Ukraine and Syria as well as Moscow’s interference in western elections. ...

Asked about the invitation, the White House spokeswoman, Sarah Sanders, issued a statement saying: “As the President himself confirmed on 20 March, hours after his last call with President Putin, the two had discussed a bilateral meeting in the ‘not-too-distant future’ at a number of potential venues, including the White House. We have nothing further to add at this time.”

Russia ‘Novichok’ Hysteria Proves Politicians and Media Haven’t Learned the Lessons of Iraq

If there’s one thing to be gleaned from the current atmosphere of anti-Russian hysteria in the West, it’s that the US-led sustained propaganda campaign is starting to pay dividends. It’s not only the hopeless political classes and media miscreants who believe that Russia is hacking, meddling and poisoning our progressive democratic utopia – with many pinning their political careers to this by now that’s it’s too late for them to turn back. As it was with Iraq in 2003, these dubious public figures require a degree of public support for their policies, and unfortunately many people do believe in the grand Russian conspiracy, having been sufficiently brow-beaten into submission by around-the-clock fear mongering and official fake news disseminated by government and the mainstream media.

What makes this latest carnival of warmongering more frightening is that it proves that the political and media classes never actually learned or internalized the basic lessons of Iraq, namely that the cessation of diplomacy and the declarations of sanctions (a prelude to war) against another sovereign state should not be based on half-baked intelligence and mainstream fake news. But that’s exactly what is happening with this latest Russian ‘Novichok’ plot. Admittedly, the stakes are much higher this time around. The worst case scenario is unthinkable, whereby the bad graces of men like John Bolton and other military zealots, there may just be a thin enough mandate to short-sell another military conflagration or proxy war – this time against another nuclear power and UN Security Council member.

Enter stage right, where US President Donald Trump announced this week that the US is moving closer to war footing with Russia. It’s not the first time Trump has made such a hasty move in the absence any forensic evidence of a crime. Nowadays, hearsay, conjecture and social media postings are enough to declare war. Remember last April with the alleged “Sarin Attack” in Khan Sheikhoun, when the embattled President squeezed off 59 Tomahawk Cruise missiles against Syria – a decision, which as far as anyone can tell, was based solely on a few YouTube videos uploaded by the illustrious White Helmets. Back then Trump learned how an act of war against an existential enemy could take the heat off at home and translate into a bounce in the polls. Even La Résistance at CNN were giddy with excitement and threw their support behind Trump, with some pundits describing his decision to act as “presidential.”

As with past high-profile western-led WMD allegations against governments in Syria and Iraq (the US and UK are patently unconcerned with multiple allegations of ‘rebel’ terrorists in Syria caught using chemical weapons), an identical progression of events appears to be unfolding following the alleged ‘Novichok’ chemical weapon poisoning of retired British-Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, Wiltshire on March 4. ...

Iraq should have taught us all to be skeptical about official claims of chemical weapons evidence, and to face the ugly truth about how most major wars throughout history have waged by the deception – and by western governments. What does it tell us about today’s society if people still cannot see this?

The Coming Collapse of the American Economic System with Richard Wolff

Trump is finally getting his trade war

Donald Trump’s mercantilist fantasy about fighting a trade war edged closer to reality Sunday after China imposed retaliatory tariffs on a raft of U.S. food imports.

Around $3 billion in U.S. goods will be subject to duty of up to 25 percent, measures introduced in response to the steel and aluminum tariffs Trump announced last month.

Some 128 U.S. foods, including almonds, pistachios, wine, and frozen pork, will be subject to Beijing’s levy, which went into effect Monday, according to China’s ministry of commerce.

The ministry said it was imposing the measures to “safeguard the interests of the country and its industry” and called for negotiations as “cooperation is the only correct option” for the two economic superpowers.

Xinhua, the state-run news agency, published an editorial Monday warning that any economic pain inflicted on China would “be done at the expense of enormous American interests.”

Starvation Wages are a “Crime”: Lessons from MLK & 1968 Memphis Sanitation Strike, 50 Years Later

CFPB Head Mick Mulvaney Will Push for Legislative Changes to Hamper the Agency He Runs

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau acting head Mick Mulvaney plans to push for legislative changes to the structure of the agency he helms, all with an eye toward hemming in its authority, according to a draft CFPB document reviewed by The Intercept. Mulvaney will be asking Congress to approve four changes, all of which appear to be aimed at reducing the bureau’s independence and increasing its reliance on Congress. The changes would be made by altering the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. ...

The document, which is part of the organization’s semi-annual report, is expected to be released this week.

Kentucky Screws Teachers-They Fight Back!

Wave of teachers' wildcat strikes spreads to Oklahoma and Kentucky

On Easter Sunday in Tulsa, Oklahoma, those not found in the church could be found touring the Woody Guthrie center downtown. Easter weekend is a time for families and this weekend Oklahoma’s have one thing on their mind: on Monday, teachers in over 100 school districts in Oklahoma are poised to go on strike, demanding higher pay. America is poised to see a wildcat strike wave not seen since the days of the Great Depression when the Oklahoma native Woody Guthrie toured the country, writing songs like This Land is Your Land and Union Maid, inspired by the role of women in a 1940 Oklahoma oil workers’ strike. ...

The strike comes at a turning point for teachers across America’s heartland.

On Friday, teachers in Kentucky went out on illegal wildcat strikes in more than 25 counties against the wishes of union leaders to protest against draconian changes to the state’s pensions plan. The measures passed by the Kentucky legislature last week would raise the eligibility age before teachers can qualify for their pensions, bar future teachers from enjoying traditional pensions in favor of cash balance plans, and even allow lawmakers to unilaterally reduce teachers’ pension plans in violation of previously negotiated collective bargaining agreements. ...

The strikes are unique in that they are not being called for by the leadership of the unions, but often through direct appeals of rank-and-file members using social media and their own personal networks to organize across entire states and now the country. In Oklahoma City, Ed Allen, a veteran union organizer with 26 years under his belt and the head of the state’s largest American Federation of Teachers local in Oklahoma City, initially tried to dissuade his teachers from striking after the state legislature passed the $6,000 raise. ...

In Kentucky, teachers in Lexington and Louisville decided to go on a wildcat “sick out” on Friday to protest against the state’s legislature draconian pension cuts. “[Jefferson County Teachers Association] and [Kentucky Education Association] did not call this sick out,” said striking Louisville teacher Kelsey Hayes Cotts. “This call comes from the rank and file. This is a true grassroots movement.” Teachers in Oklahoma and Kentucky say that they were inspired by the efforts of teachers in West Virginia, who continued illegal wildcat strikes despite calls from union leaders to return to work.

Despite being an illegal wildcat strike, the West Virginia teachers’ strike was ultimately successful because of the mass public support it enjoyed. Unlike 10 years ago, when striking workers had a difficult time gauging public support, teachers striking can now tell in real time how supportive their friends and neighbors are when they post picket line photos on Facebook.

I ran across this over the weekend and thought it was well worth sharing.

Glenn Greenwald, Talk, 27 September 2017

Police officer who shot and killed Alton Sterling at close range has been fired

The Baton Rouge police officer who shot and killed Alton Sterling during an 2016 encounter outside a convenience store has been fired, the department announced Friday evening alongside the release of several graphic videos from the encounter.

Baton Rouge Police Chief Murphy Paul said Friday afternoon that Officer Blane Salamoni, who shot Sterling multiple times at close range, was sacked following a disciplinary hearing. Salamon's partner, Howie Lake, was suspended for three days. Both officers have indicated they plan to appeal the decision, Paul said.

During the announcement, the department also released disturbing body camera footage from the incident.

Texas: protest planned for unarmed black man killed by police officer

A protest and a community meeting are planned for Monday at the location where an unarmed black man with his trousers around his ankles was killed by a Texas police officer. Danny Ray Thomas appeared to be experiencing a mental health crisis when he was shot dead last month by a deputy with the Harris county sheriff’s office who encountered the 34-year-old walking on a north Houston street.

“Until our local officials put policies in place that will discipline officers for shooting an unarmed man, we will continue to see these things,” said Tarsha Jackson, criminal justice director of the Texas Organizing Project, an advocacy group. “The community is hopeful that there is a fair investigation but the fact that his pants were down to his ankles is an indication that there is something going on, there’s something mentally wrong with this man, and how can you feel endangered when you actually are the one with the gun? [The officer] could have used a Taser if he felt he was in danger. “Until we get leadership across the board, local, state and federal, that’s demanding that officers stop being a judge, juror and executioner on the street, we’re going to see this.”

Harris county’s sheriff, Ed Gonzalez, has pledged a transparent and thorough investigation and released dashcam video. The footage shows Thomas engaged in a minor verbal and physical altercation with another man. He then walks towards the officer, Cameron Brewer, 44. The officer, who is black, yells: “I’ll shoot your ass, man, get down, man! … Get down on the ground! Get on the ground!” ...

The time between Brewer arriving at the intersection and firing a single, fatal shot into Thomas’s chest is less than 30 seconds.

A police “hit-and-run” sent a 61-year-old Stephon Clark protester to the hospital

Tensions between Sacramento police and residents continued to boil over the weekend after a Sacramento County sheriff’s vehicle struck a woman protesting the fatal police shooting of 22-year-old Stephon Clark in his own backyard.

The Sacramento community has staged days of protests over the death of Clark, whom two Sacramento police officers shot in the back 7 times, according to an independent autopsy. The incident on Sunday, which critics are calling a “hit-and-run,” adds yet another investigation into the mix and could worsen the already strained relationship between law enforcement and the community.

Sawsan Morrar on Twitter: "#Sacramento PD blocking Florin Road facing protestors who refuse to disperse. Sac sheriff committed a hit and run, injuring a 61 yr old woman, causing peaceful protestors to take to the streets. #StephonClark… https://t.co/RUQkW

Video from the scene — taken by Guy Danilowitz, a lawyer who attended the protest to document any issues — shows officers in two Sacramento County sheriff’s police cruisers, with their sirens and lights on, telling about two dozen protesters who surrounded the vehicles to “back away.” The protesters don’t immediately disperse and continue to shout, “When people are occupied, resistance is justified.”

When the cruisers begin to move, a woman emerges between them and hits the ground rolling after one of the cruisers strikes her.

The Sacramento Bee and the State Hornet later identified the woman as 61-year-old Wanda Cleveland. She was transported to a hospital where she was treated for injuries in her right leg and arm, and the back of her head. “He never even stopped,” Cleveland told the Sacramento Bee while at the hospital. “It was a hit and run. If I did that, I’d be charged. It’s disregard for human life.” The Sacramento Sheriff’s Department said in a press release on Sunday morning that protesters were pounding and kicking the cars.



the horse race



A Guaranteed Jobs-for-All Program Is Gaining Traction Among 2020 Democratic Hopefuls

The conservative approach to social programs has evolved in sophistication over the decades. With frontal assaults on Social Security and Medicaid having been badly beaten back, the GOP has repackaged its attempt to roll back these programs by putting recipients to work. Work requirements were the cornerstone of the 1996 welfare reform, and each subsequent assault on public benefits has used them to kick in the door. Want food stamps? Work. Want Medicaid? Work. Want disability? Work. After all, if a person is physically able to, why shouldn’t they work just like everybody else?

But an approach catching fire among activists and even some high-level elected Democrats answers the question by turning it on its head, drawing on an idea with a storied history in American politics. If working is so important, then why shouldn’t the government provide a job directly to somebody who can’t find one? For years considered the province of renegade economists, the idea that everyone should have a job if they want or need one — and it’s the government’s job to make that possible — has begun once again to creep into mainstream conversation.

In the last week alone, rumored 2020 hopeful Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., told The Nation that “guaranteed jobs programs, creating floors for wages and benefits, and expanding the right to collectively bargain are exactly the type of roles that government must take to shift power back to workers and our communities.” And Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., another presumed 2020 aspirant, has begun looking closely at this issue, a source close to her told The Intercept. Senate aides have begun interoffice meetings to grapple with how to draft a workable bill, aides in two separate offices told The Intercept.

Another politician who many suspect has his eyes on another presidential run, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., hasn’t endorsed guaranteed jobs, but recently invited one of the best known scholars on the subject, economist Darrick Hamilton, to speak alongside Warren and filmmaker Michael Moore at a livestreamed town hall that has drawn at least 3 million viewers. Sanders’s former senior economist on the Senate Budget Committee, Stephanie Kelton, who went on to advise his 2016 presidential bid, has been a longtime proponent of the idea.

Once a fixture of Democratic Party platforms, the idea’s resurgence is evidence that a growing number of Democrats see their political fortunes tied to their embrace of the kind of big, expensive programs that used to be the party’s bread and butter. Perhaps still more significant than this bald-faced embrace of progressive and even left ideas, though, is the broader shift it might signal in how today’s Democrats think about budgets, spending, and deficits. As the 2020 primaries near, there’s a real chance that the party’s hopefuls could begin falling over each other to embrace different versions of a federal job guarantee, along with proposals like “Medicare for All.” In the process, they might just make deficit spending great again.



the evening greens


Louisiana and Minnesota Introduce Anti-Protest Bills Amid Fights Over Bayou Bridge and Enbridge Pipelines

This week, the Louisiana House of Representatives introduced new legislation aimed at criminalizing the activities of groups protesting the extraction, burning, and transport of oil and gas. The bill is similar to a model created by the right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council. Indeed, in the wake of the massive protest movement at Standing Rock, which attempted to prevent completion of the Dakota Access pipeline, at least seven states have introduced or passed “critical infrastructure” legislation. Louisiana’s version comes as opponents of the Bayou Bridge pipeline have ramped up protest activities in the state, staging occupations and blockades aimed at halting construction of the project.

The legislation creates new crimes that would punish groups for “conspiring” to trespass on critical infrastructure sites and prescribes particularly harsh penalties for those whose ideas, if carried out, would disrupt the operations of such infrastructure. The definition of the term critical infrastructure would be amended to include pipelines and pipeline construction sites. The language of the bill reaches far beyond cases of property destruction, and stands to net individuals who do not participate in or condone such activities. The Louisiana bill, unlike the ALEC model, does not require that any disruption to a facility’s functioning take place for penalties to apply — an individual could face huge fines or prison time without ever having set foot on the property. ...

ALEC, which brings together corporations and right-wing legislators to draft industry-friendly policies, finalized its model “Critical Infrastructure Protection Act” in January based on a law passed in Oklahoma last spring, and since then, similar bills have been introduced in Iowa, Ohio, Wyoming, and Minnesota. ... Minnesota’s bill, one of the newest, was introduced earlier this month. ... The controversial Enbridge Line 3 pipeline awaits approval in the state, where it’s facing opposition from local tribes and environmental groups — some of which were also involved in fighting the Dakota Access pipeline.

The Minnesota bill appears to be aimed at those groups. Notably, it creates a felony for anyone who “recruits, trains, aids, advises, hires, counsels, or conspires with” an individual who causes significant damage to critical infrastructure such as pipelines. The penalties for such individuals or entities would be the same as those for the person who did the damage — up to 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine. In the same vein, the law creates a misdemeanor for anyone who aids a person caught trespassing on a property containing critical infrastructure, and “vicarious liability” for any damage that occurs during the trespass. Versions of those items were also recommended by ALEC’s model.

Underwater melting of Antarctic ice far greater than thought, study finds

Hidden underwater melt-off in the Antarctic is doubling every 20 years and could soon overtake Greenland to become the biggest source of sea-level rise, according to the first complete underwater map of the world’s largest body of ice.

Warming waters have caused the base of ice near the ocean floor around the south pole to shrink by 1,463 square kilometres – an area the size of Greater London – between 2010 and 2016, according to the new study published in Nature Geoscience.

The research by the UK Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling at the University of Leeds suggests climate change is affecting the Antarctic more than previously believed and is likely to prompt global projections of sea-level rise to be revised upward.

Until recently, the Antarctic was seen as relatively stable. Viewed from above, the extent of land and sea ice in the far south has not changed as dramatically as in the far north. But the new study found even a small increase in temperature has been enough to cause a loss of five metres every year from the bottom edge of the ice sheet, some of which is more than 2km underwater.

“What’s happening is that Antarctica is being melted away at its base. We can’t see it, because it’s happening below the sea surface,” said Professor Andrew Shepherd, one of the authors of the paper. “The changes mean that very soon the sea-level contribution from Antarctica could outstrip that from Greenland.”

EPA chief Scott Pruitt 'may be on way out' over condo deal, senator says

The Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Scott Pruitt, is under increasing pressure over a rental arrangement he had with a leading energy sector lobbyist.

Leading opposition figures went on the offensive on Sunday, the Democratic Alabama senator Doug Jones saying Pruitt was in “real trouble” and “may be on his way out” over the deal, which was first reported by ABC, Bloomberg and the Associated Press.

The Vermont independent Bernie Sanders said the former attorney general of Oklahoma was “nothing more than a frontman for the fossil fuel industry” and should appear before the Senate environment committee.

Pruitt was already one of a number of Trump appointees dogged by controversy over the use of public money for travel and other expenses. Nonetheless, as a professed climate science skeptic he has thrived in the Trump administration, slashing environmental regulations often established under Barack Obama.

Over about six months in 2017, the AP reported this week, Pruitt paid $50 a night to stay in a Capitol Hill condominium in which three units belong to a corporation co-owned by the wife of J Steven Hart, chair and chief executive of lobbying firm Williams and Jensen. Pruitt’s daughter also stayed in the condo’s second bedroom for three months last summer, according to ABC. The firm’s clients include Exxon Mobil and liquefied natural gas exporter Cheniere Energy, both with billions at stake in decisions over which Pruitt presides. At least once while renting the room, Pruitt met a lobbyist from Hart’s firm at the EPA.

A $50-per-night rate is significantly lower than most rentals on Capitol Hill. One-bedroom apartments range between $1,600 and $2,500 a month. Single rooms for one-night rentals average about $120. An EPA ethics lawyer told the AP Pruitt paid only for nights he occupied the room, totaling about $6,000.


Also of Interest

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

Danny Ray Thomas Was a Broken Man Who Needed Help. Instead He Was Gunned Down by a Cop in Broad Daylight.

The $500,000 GoFundMe Charity Campaign for Wealthy Ex-FBI Official Andrew McCabe Is Obscene

America’s Complicated Relationship with International Human Rights Norms

Julian Assange: Breaking the Silence


A Little Night Music

Ted Taylor - Days Are Dark

Ted Taylor - Only The Lonely Knows

Ted Taylor - I'm Leaving You

Ted Taylor - My Key Jumped Back In My Hand

Ted Taylor - Steal Away

Ted Taylor - Little Red Rooster

Ted Taylor - I Feel A Chill

Ted Taylor - Miss You So

Ted Taylor - Don't Lie

Ted Taylor - Cummins Prison Farm

Ted Taylor - (Love Is Like A) Ramblin' Rose

Ted Taylor - Stay Away From My Baby

Ted Taylor - It Ain't Like That No More

Ted Taylor - It's Too Late

Ted Taylor - Long Distance Love

Ted Taylor - You Give Me Nothing To Go On


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When will the US stop supporting genocide? Human rights is not a commodity to be traded, bought or sold. Erase the arms deals. Are citizens still allowed to protest, or has that also been legislated into the inferno of injustice?

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joe shikspack's picture

@QMS

When will the US stop supporting genocide?

heh. when there's a bully big enough to make them stop.

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Much of Russiagate lives in a world of abstraction and confusion to the lives of ordinary people in both the US and UK. Russiagate had to be elevated to an actual real existential threat to ordinary people. Compare 9-11 to messing with elections and Facebook ads nobody apparently read.

The rhetoric around the poisoning is developing a rational for actual military reprisal of England against the Russians in some manner. My prediction was UK directly bombing Assad. Still is--UK bombs Assad, they get shot down by Russians, and then NATO is at war with Russia.

I have come to believe that the neocons in the US and NATO think that Russia is a paper tiger. In a policy statement written by a member of Hillary's staff at State which called for the direct bombing of Assad, the Russians were directly called out as weak and no stomach except to complain.

Expect the next event during the World Cup.

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snoopydawg's picture

@MrWebster

is just another WMDs false flag that started with the softer target of the election where the only way people could accept Hillary's loss is that Trump had outside help. People bought it.

But before the election we overthrew Ukraine's government and blamed the results on Russia. Then there's that Crimea action where again people were lied to about it. Russia stopped the Syrian coup and every person who was killed during this attempted coup is again blamed on Russia and Assad even though it's our military that is also bombing the country.

Finally we have the Skripal poisoning that is so full of holes I can't understand why anyone believes it.

Russia Gate is nothing but the neocons getting people to give their permission to go to war with Russia regardless of the costs of lives and many possibly in this country if this gets out of hand. This has been planned for quite some time, possibly back to when Hillary was SOS. She told her staff not to discuss the book that had the poison details in it. Now why would she have done this?

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

Azazello's picture

@MrWebster
maybe a terror attack by Saudi-controlled "jihadis" from London.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@MrWebster

i think that the neocons are probably either a) caught up in the hype that some military morons have put out about a "winnable nuclear war," when they were babbling about how wonderful their new, little nukes are, or b) as putin says that he has no use for a world without russia, the neocons may have no use for a world that they cannot utterly dominate.

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snoopydawg's picture

Especially the Trump supporters who think that the tax bill was good for them. I'm seeing people saying that he's the best president because their paychecks are bigger and their 401s are going up. No matter how many times they are told that this is just temporary, they refuse to believe it.

If (when) the economy does crash again and people even think of rising up they are going to be met with overwhelming force. Count on this because of how Trump will react. We'll see that 3 branch of the military that Bush created in the streets. Then that's where Obama's NDAA comes into play. The military will be able to arrest people and hold them indefinitely without charges or any trials.

Very scary times are coming. People don't know that their bank deposits are going to be confiscated and they will be S. O.l. for getting their money out of their bank. Greece experienced this and lots of people killed themselves. Fun times around the corner ..

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

Azazello's picture

@snoopydawg
This may be the most bizarre 5 min. I've ever heard on NPR: Here & Now, 4-2-'18

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

snoopydawg's picture

@Azazello

I think he loves America. Seriously? Trump doesn't love anything but himself and money. One thing that his supporters love is that he is deregulating all environmental protections. Why they think that is good for us is something I can't understand. Just can't.

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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

yep, you'd think that people would be a little more dubious about the prospects of the current economy given the recent crash and the exceptional means that have been applied to shoring up the corrupt institutions that caused the previous crash and are still running the economy.

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mimi's picture

I listened to it in full and found it long, but quite good and convincing, especially the last third of it, when he talked about how the population gets managed by fear of being watched and surveilled when talking openly. I can relate to it, because that fear was with me as a foreigner in the US all the time and it's hard to always have to express yourself in smooth small talk and not be able to voice what you are thinking. I am still fearful. I know many more who are.

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joe shikspack's picture

@mimi

glad you liked it. i thought greenwald did a particularly good job of pointing out that once you get beyond the daily outrage distractions, trump, in terms of his policy, is not an aberration in american politics, rather he is a fairly mainstream politician.

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OLinda's picture

A woman who was considered an expert on impeachment, and who had been involved with Nixon's near impeachment - I don't remember who it was or where I heard it - must have been not listening well - was interviewed and said that rather than Russia or obstruction, knowing Trump, he could likely be impeached for abuse of power. This was back when he was criticizing Nordstroms. Ivanka had products there, and there was a problem or something, so he was attacking them. Anyway, she said watch for more of this. A president can't use his bully pulpit, the power of his office, to harm private companies.

I suppose no one is worried about Amazon or Bezos, but the principle is sure there. He shouldn't be allowed to do this. Wonder what Bluesters thought about this. It bothers me.

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joe shikspack's picture

@OLinda

trump's verbal attacks on individual businesses are pretty ridiculous, wrong and frankly, i don't know if the legislature has ever considered that a president might use his power in this way and created a law against it.

on the other hand, i don't feel particularly sorry for amazon or jeff bozo, who in my view should have a special room in hell reserved.

if trump really had it in for amazon, he has at his disposal the department of justice which has a disused department that handles antitrust litigation - for which amazon is the poster child begging for attention.

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OLinda's picture

@joe shikspack

Evening, joe. It's my understanding that with impeachment, the activity doesn't need to be against a particular law. Just has to meet the threshold of unacceptability according to enough in congress.

If Democrats were serious, they should start warning him that using his office in this way is unacceptable. Get the thought out there. A few warnings, a few more inevitable occurrences and boom! Of course this will never happen. Impeachment aside, he should be told he can't do this.

Our weather lately is snow day - spring - snow day - spring. Crazy. Smile

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joe shikspack's picture

@OLinda

i agree that it's wrong and perhaps law should codify its wrongness. it might even fit into the "high crimes and misdemeanors" category, but, i don't think that it is a silver bullet. if it was, well, the screaming of the phony resistance bots would be deafening.

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@OLinda

... A president can't use his bully pulpit, the power of his office, to harm private companies. ...

But it's evidently fine for him to act against the public and country's interest...

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

OLinda's picture

The Baton Rouge police officer who shot and killed Alton Sterling during an 2016 encounter outside a convenience store has been fired,

“He never even stopped,” Cleveland told the Sacramento Bee while at the hospital. “It was a hit and run. If I did that, I’d be charged.

I wonder how long it takes to join a police force? If there is anyone you wish you could kill, this might be worth looking into. Join up, do the deed. Shoot them. Or run over them with your new patrol car. Probably nothing would happen to you over it, but the worst that might happen is you could lose your job. And, if you did get fired, you could probably get hired at a police force in a different city. The perfect crime, eh?

Note to the NSA, CIA, FBI: I am venting. This is sarcasm. I do not seriously condone this plan, just like I don't condone it as police officers are currently doing it.

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joe shikspack's picture

@OLinda

If there is anyone you wish you could kill, this might be worth looking into.

it seems to me that this would only work well if the target of your enmity fit certain racial and class distinctions, particularly if you wanted to shoot them. if your target was white and well-heeled, your best bet would certainly be to "accidentally" do them in with the patrol car. probably the worst you would get for that as a cop would be vehicular manslaughter so long as you didn't leave a glowing trail of murder motive evidence.

disclaimer: i don't usually think about this stuff, so it's all pure speculation. Smile

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@OLinda

the NSA, CIA and FBI won't give a damn, so since attaining this "Join The Police And Get Away With Murder, Theft And Rape" entree to lawless behaviour was postulated, and any and all potentially murderous behaviour entirely contingent, on this, you should be OK.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Azazello's picture

Here's a new one from Jimmy Dore. It's from one of his live shows. I wish he'd come to Tucson.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlq2xzJjHkE width:400 height:240]

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

snoopydawg's picture

@Azazello

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

joe shikspack's picture

@Azazello

heh, the "war crime shuffle" sounds like the perfect thing to replace "hail to the chief."

we just need a catchy tune and some lyrics.

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Azazello's picture

@joe shikspack
So here's a catchy tune and some lyrics. I woke up last Sunday, or Monday maybe, with just the three opening chords on my mind. Then, along about Tuesday or Wednesday, I remember the lyrics. Then finally, "Eureka, that's the Dead!". Funny how the aging mind works.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J99HEY67hc width:400 height:240]

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

enhydra lutris's picture

@Azazello

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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 --

@Azazello

to invariably and instantly have room for all memories of everything experienced in a life-time of learning and critical thinking all at once.

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0 users have voted.

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.