The Evening Blues - 4-22-16



eb1pt12


Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features r&b and blues guitarist and singer Robert Ward. Enjoy!

Robert Ward & Ry Cooder - Your Love Is Real

"The United States and Saudi Arabia have an extraordinary relationship that dates back to Franklin Roosevelt."

-- Barack Obama


News and Opinion

Senator Says Bombing Yemen Is Distracting Saudis From Fighting Terror

As President Obama meets with Gulf State leaders in Riyadh, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., is questioning the Saudi commitment to fighting Al Qaeda and ISIS, warning that the war in Yemen is distracting Saudi Arabia from operations against extremists. ...

Murphy introduced a bill last week, along with Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., that would block arms transfers to Saudi Arabia unless the State Department certifies that the kingdom is “taking all necessary measures” to target AQAP and ISIS, and is minimizing civilian casualties.

Saudi Arabia launched its U.S.-backed air campaign in Yemen last March after Houthi rebels threatened the rule of the Saudi-backed president. Throughout the campaign, the Saudi Air Force has largely refrained from engaging AQAP, who are also fighting the Houthis. ...

The New York Times noted last fall that most Saudi aircraft had shifted from the air war in Syria — where they were ostensibly bombing ISIS — to combat in Yemen. ... The Obama administration has steadily provided arms and support to the Saudi-led coalition as it waged war in Yemen, even as thousands of civilians have perished in the fighting.

Yemen peace talks: UN-sponsored negotiations begin in Kuwait

'True Cost of Covert Killings' Demanded as Drone Strike Victims Speak Out

Faisal bin ali Jaber, an environmental engineer from Sanaa, Yemen continued his lengthy battle for justice on Wednesday, filing a federal lawsuit (pdf) in Washington, D.C. demanding his "a legal right under FOIA" for the Department of Defense, Department of Justice, Department of State, and Department of the Treasury to provide him with pertinent information about the strike that killed his brother-in-law Salem and his nephew Waleed in 2012.

Thus far, according to human rights organization Reprieve, which is representing Jaber, the agencies have not provided "substantive responses" to FOIA requests related to the killings.

Reprieve points to the contrast between the administration's treatment of Jaber with that of a 2015 drone strike that killed an American, Warren Weinstein, and an Italian, Giovanni Lo Porto. As Common Dreams previously reported:

U.S. citizen Weinstein and Italian national Lo Porto were killed in a January 2015 drone strike in Pakistan. In a much-vaunted public apology in April, Obama declared: "Amid grief that is unimaginable, I pray that these two families will find some small measure of solace in knowing that Warren and Giovanni’s legacy will endure."

The administration has never acknowledged the killings of Jaber's family members—though he was given "a plastic bag containing $100,000 in sequentially-marked U.S. dollar bills as a condolence payment," according to Reprieve. In 2015, Jaber filed suit in 2015 seeking only public acknowledgement that the strike was unlawful, later offering to take merely an apology—as Weinstein and Lo Porto's family were given. The U.S. government declined the settlement offer and requested a court dismiss the suit.

It was dismissed — which led Reprieve to say in a statement: "The ruling would indicate that even the most heinous war crimes by the U.S. government are beyond the reach of the U.S. Courts."

Sen. Bob Graham: How our government has used deceit to withhold truth

On April 11, CBS's 60 Minutes led with an important segment about the tragedy of 9/11 and how a 28-page chapter of the final report of a congressional investigation has been withheld from the American people for almost 13 years.

This was not a coverup. It was the result of aggressive deception. Your government has purposely used deceit to withhold the truth. ...

Of the many unanswered questions of 9/11, the most significant, I believe, is whether the 19 hijackers operated alone or were aided by a support network. The official position of the U.S. government is that they acted alone. Like myself, the lead investigators of 9/11 find it implausible that these 19 poorly educated Arab men — most unable to speak English and with no prior experience in the U.S. — could have conducted such a complex plot without assistance from within our country. ...

The Saudis blatant attempts to avoid liability as co-conspirators in the crime of 9/11, and the U.S. government's acquiescence by refusing to release information (and opposition to reforming laws that would hold collaborators in murder to account) has been a clear signal to the Kingdom that it is immune from U.S. sanctions. With that impunity, it continues to finance terrorists and fund mosques and schools used to indoctrinate the next generation of terrorists in intolerance and jihad.

Obama says political progress needed before more Iraq aid

President Barack Obama strained to ease tension with Persian Gulf allies Thursday, pledging U.S. help in confronting Iran and other security threats. Yet he failed to win the commitments he sought to boost economic aid to Iraq.

Obama’s trip to Saudi Arabia — the fourth and probably last of his presidency — did not result in any major breakthroughs. Obama said Gulf leaders attending the regional summit had agreed to step up the campaign against the Islamic State group, but did not lay out specifics. He described the talks as a chance to clear up misperceptions among allies, insisting the U.S. and Gulf partners had “tactical differences” but similar goals. ...

Obama, in meetings with Saudi King Salman, the ruling emirs of Qatar and Kuwait and others, appealed for more financial and political support to help Iraq. Yet the leaders appeared reluctant to invest until Iraq’s government overcomes a political crisis and better integrates Sunnis into the process.

In a shift in tone from just a day earlier, Obama said the U.S. and its Gulf partners should wait to see whether Iraq can resolve the crisis before committing more aid. He warned that the paralysis is impeding U.S.-led efforts to defeat the Islamic State group and reconstruct war-damaged Iraq.

Obama Pledges to Defend Gulf States Against Iran

During his visit to Saudi Arabia to attend the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit, President Obama provided the GCC member nations with a personal guarantee that the United States would defend their nations against “Iranian aggression.”

The offer is likely an empty one, since Obama’s comments do not constitute a treaty of defense, and with him out of office in just eight months, it would be up to future presidents to decide if they actually wanted to get involved in future wars in the region.

Conflicting Reports as Russian Jet Intercepts Israeli Warplanes Along Syria Border

In the days leading up to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Moscow, Israeli media outlets are now reporting on an incident along the Syrian border in which a Russian jet intercepted one or more Israeli warplanes.

There are several conflicting accounts on the matter, with some saying the incident was on the Israel-Syria border and others suggesting it was on Syria’s coast, which would put the incident on the Lebanon border. Either way, the reports insist that the situation didn’t escalate into any sort of “confrontation.” ...

Israeli overflights of Syria aren’t unusual, and indeed Israeli attacks on Syria are fairly common, without Russian interference. If the incident happened on the coast, however, as some reports claim, it would put Israeli planes near the Russian naval base at Tartus, which Russia might interpret as provocative action.

An interesting interview, here's a taste:

Interview: Seymour Hersh Dishes on Saudi Oil Money Bribes and the Killing of Osama Bin Laden

Ken Klippenstein: In the book you describe Saudi financial support for the compound in which Osama Bin Laden was being kept in Pakistan. Was that Saudi government officials, private individuals or both?

Seymour Hersh: The Saudis bribed the Pakistanis not to tell us [that the Pakistani government had Bin Laden] because they didn’t want us interrogating Bin Laden (that’s my best guess), because he would’ve talked to us, probably. My guess is, we don’t know anything really about 9/11. We just don’t know. We don’t know what role was played by whom.

KK: So you don’t know if the hush money was from the Saudi government or private individuals?

SH: The money was from the government … what the Saudis were doing, so I’ve been told, by reasonable people (I haven’t written this) is that they were also passing along tankers of oil for the Pakistanis to resell. That’s really a lot of money.

...

KK: You write that Obama authorized a ratline wherein CIA funneled arms from Libya into Syria and they ended up in jihadi hands. [According to Hersh, this operation was coordinated via the Benghazi consulate where U.S. ambassador Stevens was killed.] What was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s role in this given her significant role in Libya?

SH: The only thing we know is that she was very close to Petraeus who was the CIA director at the time ... she’s not out of the loop, she knows when there’s covert ops. ... That ambassador who was killed, he was known as a guy, from what I understand, as somebody who would not get in the way of the CIA. As I wrote, on the day of the mission he was meeting with the CIA base chief and the shipping company. He was certainly involved, aware and witting of everything that was going on. And there’s no way somebody in that sensitive of a position is not talking to the boss, by some channel.

‘Long arm of Ankara’: Netherlands feeling ‘the pinch’ from Turkey

Ukraine’s New Speaker Of Parliament Is A Neo-Nazi

So much for plausible deniability. While apologists and propagandists for the government in Kiev have tried their best to dismiss concerns about the government’s connection to neo-fascist movements, the jig is undeniably up.

The new speaker of the Ukrainian parliament, Andriy Parubiy, is a longtime neo-Nazi activist who was a founder of the national socialist party of Ukraine. The party was recently renamed Svoboda which, along with many neofascists, has seen its political fortunes rise in the wake of the 2014 US-backed coup.

Parubiy played a significant role in the coup, serving as commandant of the Euromaidan, where he and other neo-fascists helped violently overthrow the democratically-elected President Viktor Yanukovych. ...

How long Parubiy will stay in his post is anyone’s guess. Post-coup Ukrainian politics is marked by intense political instability.

Venezuela announces daily, nationwide power cuts

Snowden to take Norway to court to secure free passage

Edward Snowden will take the Norwegian state to court in a bid to secure free passage there, a Norwegian law firm representing the former U.S. spy contractor said on Thursday.

Snowden has been invited to Norway to receive a freedom of speech award from the local branch of writers' group PEN International, but is worried that he would be handed over to the United States, his lawyers say. ...

"U.S. authorities have already asked that Snowden will be extradited to the U.S. if he was to arrive in Norway," Hallvard Helle, the lawyer representing Snowden, told Reuters.

"It is a case they (the Norwegian authorities) have not wished to comment on previously, so therefore we want a legal clarification of this," Helle said, when asked whether Norway had said it would extradite Snowden if he entered the country.

FBI Mass Child-Porn Hack Ruled Illegal on a Technicality

When the FBI hacked over 1,000 computers to ensnare consumers of child pornography early last year, its actions were illegal, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. ...

In this case, a magistrate judge approved a warrant allowing the FBI to deploy malware to infect every visitor to a child-porn website called Playpen. Because users of the site were using Tor, a popular anonymity tool, the FBI couldn’t figure out who they were or where they were coming from — until the malware revealed their IP addresses.

Judge William Young of the U.S. District Court in Boston ruled that the FBI’s search of Playpen visitor Alex Levin’s computer — located in Massachusetts — was unlawful because the magistrate judge who issued the warrant was in Virginia. According to Rule 41 of federal criminal procedure, magistrate judges can’t authorize a warrant outside their geographical jurisdiction.

Government lawyers two years ago began the multi-stage process of changing the rule to allow judges to grant warrants for remote searches of computers located outside their district or when the location is unknown. Despite angry protests from civil liberties advocates and technologists including the ACLU and Google, who described it as a power grab by the FBI to be able to conduct mass hacks with impunity, the rule change was approved by several judiciary panels, and is widely expected to be approved by the Supreme Court any day now. Congress has six months to modify or reject it, or else it will take effect.

'Worth it': FBI admits it paid $1.3m to hack into San Bernardino iPhone

The FBI paid about $1.3m for software to hack into the iPhone of San Bernardino gunman Syed Farook, director James Comey told a London audience on Thursday.

The staggering price illustrates the growth of the so-called “exploit market” for digital spy tools and cyber weapons as governments increasingly use hacker tricks for law enforcement and war. Prices for such software are rarely disclosed, although anything in the seven-figure range is extremely expensive.

Comey made the comments Thursday during an on-stage interview at the Aspen Security Forum in London. ...

Computer security experts have accused governments, including the US, UK, China and Russia, of creating a black market for malicious computer code that puts all consumers at risk.

Apple should pay more tax, says co-founder Steve Wozniak

Apple should pay more tax, according to Steve Wozniak, the company’s co-founder.

Speaking to the BBC, Wozniak expressed discomfort with reports that Apple avoids tax, saying that paying taxes was just “part of life” – something that “every company in the world” should do.

Apple has been criticised over its tax affairs and accused of using tax shelters in Luxembourg and Ireland to protect its revenues, allegations being investigated by the European commission.

Apple also faces pressure from US authorities to repatriate much of its enormous cash holdings, valued at more than $215bn in its end-of-year accounts. More than 90% of that money is held outside America, partially because Apple faces a 40% tax bill if it attempts to repatriate the cash hoard. “I don’t think that’s a reasonable thing to do,” the company’s chief executive Tim Cook has said.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live’s Wake Up to Money, Wozniak said: “I don’t like the idea that Apple might be unfair – not paying taxes the way I do as a person. I do a lot of work, I do a lot of travel and I pay over 50% of anything I make in taxes and I believe that’s part of life and you should do it.”

UK Issues Travel Warnings Against 'Anti-Gay' US States

The UK this week issued travel advice to tourists that warns of the dangers of visiting "anti-gay" U.S. states like North Carolina and Mississippi, both of which recently passed discriminatory legislation.

"The US is an extremely diverse society and attitudes towards LGBT people differ hugely across the country," the travel warning states. "LGBT travelers may be affected by legislation passed recently in the states of North Carolina and Mississippi. Before traveling please read our general travel advice for the LGBT community. You can find more detail on LGBT issues in the US on the website of the Human Rights Campaign," referring to the national equal rights advocacy group headquartered in Washington, D.C. ...

Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant earlier this month signed a controversial "religious freedom" law that critics say codifies LGBTQI discrimination, following a similar action by North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory, who in March approved a law that mandates transgender people use the bathrooms that correspond with their biological sex, rather than their gender identity, among other requirements.

Uber Drivers Will Stay as Contractors Following $100M Settlement

Uber has agreed to pay up to $100 million to settle a class-action lawsuit with drivers in California and Massachusetts, avoiding a trial which could have forced the company to treat them as employees.

The settlement resolves, at least for now, a major challenge to its business model by allowing the ride-hailing service to carry on classifying its drivers as independent contractors. It must be approved by a judge before it is finalized.

The lawsuit had claimed that Uber drivers are employees and thus entitled to reimbursement of expenses and other employment rights and benefits.

The case against Uber had been closely watched in Silicon Valley, as other companies in the on-demand tech economy share Uber's reliance on independent contractors. The class action had been scheduled for a trial in San Francisco federal court in June. ...

Nothing about the settlement prevents a future court, or US labor authorities, from deeming Uber drivers as employees, Shannon Liss-Riordan, an attorney for drivers, said in a statement.

American Suicide Surge Parallels Era of Economic Woes

Coinciding with growing income inequality, widespread economic stagnation, and a continued lack of basic health services during the same time period, a new federal report reveals a surging suicide rate among the U.S. population over the last three decades.

Published Friday by the National Center for Health Statistics, an arm of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the new report shows how—after a plateau in the 1980s and 90s—the suicide rate in the U.S. dramatically increased from 1999 to 2014, with the largest increase taking place after 2006. According to the CDC, suicide remains the 10th leading cause of death in the country.

"It’s a broad-based increase in suicide," Sally Curtin, a statistician with the CDC and one of the report’s main authors, told the PBS Newshour.

Among the key statistics contained in the report:

  • From 1999 through 2014, the age-adjusted suicide rate in the United States increased 24%, from 10.5 to 13.0 per 100,000 population, with the pace of increase greater after 2006.
  • Suicide rates increased from 1999 through 2014 for both males and females and for all ages 10–74.
  • The percent increase in suicide rates for females was greatest for those aged 10–14, and for males, those aged 45–64.
  • The most frequent suicide method in 2014 for males involved the use of firearms (55.4%), while poisoning was the most frequent method for females (34.1%).

According to the Guardian, "This new suicide data underpins recent studies that showed a decline in life expectancy among middle-aged, white Americans – especially women. Such studies attributed the increasing death rate to drug and alcohol misuse, as well as suicide. However, the NCHS data did not analyze racial and ethnic differences in suicide."

This is an interesting article with a great deal of information, well worth a full read.

Google’s Remarkably Close Relationship With the Obama White House

Over the past seven years, Google has created a remarkable partnership with the Obama White House, providing expertise, services, advice, and personnel for vital government projects.

Precisely how much influence this buys Google isn’t always clear. But consider that over in the European Union, Google is now facing two major antitrust charges for abusing its dominance in mobile operating systems and search. By contrast, in the U.S., a strong case to sanction Google was quashed by a presidentially appointed commission.

It’s a relationship that bears watching. “Americans know surprisingly little about what Google wants and gets from our government,” said Anne Weismann, executive director of Campaign for Accountability, a nonprofit watchdog organization. Seeking to change that, Weismann’s group is spearheading a data transparency project about Google’s interactions in Washington. ...

Google representatives attended White House meetings more than once a week, on average, from the beginning of Obama’s presidency through October 2015. Nearly 250 people have shuttled from government service to Google employment or vice versa over the course of his administration.

No other public company approaches this degree of intimacy with government. According to an analysis of White House data, the Google lobbyist with the most White House visits, Johanna Shelton, visited 128 times, far more often than lead representatives of the other top-lobbying companies — and more than twice as often, for instance, as Microsoft’s Fred Humphries or Comcast’s David Cohen.



the horse race



Hillary Clinton won New York, but her image is underwater

Hillary Clinton got what she needed in New York, a solid victory that stopped Bernie Sanders’s weeks-long winning streak. But any cause for celebration among her supporters probably will be tempered by the reality that her unexpectedly difficult nomination battle has taken a significant toll on her candidacy. ...

The damage to Clinton from her battle with Sanders is borne out in the latest NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll. The longer this race has gone on, the more she has shown vulnerabilities. The top-line number that caught the eyes of so many analysts shows her now in a dead heat with Sanders nationally — ahead of him by just two percentage points, 50 to 48 percent. ...

Meanwhile, her negative ratings have been rising and now outweigh her positives by 24 points, according to the NBC-Wall Street Journal poll. ... Clinton’s image is at or near record lows among major demographic groups. Among men, she is at minus 40. Among women, she is at minus nine. Among whites, she is at minus 39. Among white women, she is at minus 25. Among white men, she is 17 positive, 72 negative. Her favorability among whites at this point in the election cycle is worse than President Obama’s ever has been, according to Bill McInturff, a Republican pollster who conducted the NBC-Wall Street Journal poll with Democratic pollster Peter Hart.

“By any conventional standard, this is a candidate who’s been disqualified to be president [by the voters],” McInturff said. “Her terrible numbers for months have been masked because we have the one candidate in modern history who has worse numbers. The spectacle of Donald Trump has gotten so much attention that she’s slipped under the radar for what ought to be a real story. .?.?. Her numbers have gone from terrible to historic and disqualifying.”

Hillary Clinton Delegate Will Oversee New York Primary Audit

Scott Stringer, the New York City comptroller who ordered the audit of the New York City Board of Elections, is on the record as a Hillary Clinton delegate.

In a primary election fraught with voter suppression complaints, prompting an official investigation from New York’s Attorney General, a Hillary Clinton delegate in charge of overseeing the audit of New York City’s voting processes raises red flags. However, Stringer told BuzzFeed News that if he finds any issues that require him to recuse himself, he will. ...

Stringer’s name is found on page 9 of the State of New York’s official primary certification documents, listed as a Hillary Clinton delegate from New York’s 10th Congressional District, which covers parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Stringer, who previously served as borough president of Manhattan, got a higher percentage of the vote (10.3 percent) during Tuesday’s primaries than any other delegate in the district, according to BuzzFeed.

Tulsi Gabbard Stumps for Sanders and Attacks Clinton's Syria Policy

Backing Bernie's Bold Vision, Biden Knocks Hillary's "No We Can't" Mantra

"I don't think any Democrat's ever won saying, 'We can't think that big,'" the vice president said.

Although Vice President Joe Biden has promised to stay neutral on the Democratic presidential candidates this campaign season, he offered high praise for Bernie Sanders' message in an interview with the New York Times published Thursday: Biden will "take Mr. Sanders' aspirational approach over Mrs. Clinton's caution any day," the newspaper reports.

"I like the idea of saying, 'We can do much more,' because we can," Biden told the Times.

The vice president had harsh words for Clinton's call for slow, incremental change over political revolution. Biden said, "I don't think any Democrat's ever won saying, 'We can't think that big—we ought to really downsize here because it's not realistic," he said in a mocking tone, according to the newspaper. "C'mon man, this is the Democratic Party! I'm not part of the party that says, 'Well, we can't do it.'"



the evening greens


As Paris Deal Is Signed, Gulf Coast Residents Demand End to Drilling -- Entirely

Facebook, Google campuses at risk of being flooded due to sea level rise

Technology giants including Facebook and Google face the prospect of their prestigious Silicon Valley headquarters becoming swamped by water as rising sea levels threaten to submerge much of the property development boom gripping San Francisco and the Bay Area.

Sea level forecasts by a coalition of scientists show that the Silicon Valley bases for Facebook, Google and Cisco are at risk of being cut off or even flooded, even under optimistic scenarios where rapid cuts in greenhouse gas emissions avoid the most severe sea level increases. ...

“Facebook is very vulnerable,” said Lindy Lowe, a senior planner at California’s Bay Conservation and Development Commission. “They built on a very low site – I don’t know why they chose to build there. Facebook thinks they can pay enough to protect themselves. ...

The situation is a little better for Google, located in Mountain View and also unwilling to discuss sea level rise, and Cisco, headquartered in San Jose. But should the Antarctic ice sheet disintegrate, as outlined in a recent scientific paper, seas will be pushed up beyond 6ft and swamp both businesses.

Mitsubishi scandal deepens after US regulator demands test data

In Japan, Mitsubishi admitted this week that it manipulated test data to overstate the fuel efficiency of 625,000 cars and there are fears that more models may be involved. Government officials raided one of its offices on Thursday.

An official at the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration told Reuters that the regulator had asked Mitsubishi for information on vehicles sold in the US. ...

Japanese media reported that Mitsubishi had submitted misleading mileage data on its i-MiEV electric car, which is also sold overseas. The previously disclosed models whose fuel economy readings Mitsubishi has admitted to manipulating are only sold in Japan – four of its mini-cars, two of which it manufactured for Nissan.

Oil Drilling Underway Inside the Yasuni National Park of Amazonian Ecuador

Fracking Executive Says Rich Neighborhoods Safe from Drill Sites

At a closed-door seminar earlier this month, Range Resources official says drilling companies avoid 'big houses' of wealthy and influential people

An executive from a top shale drilling firm told attendees of a fossil fuels seminar in Pennsylvania earlier this month that fracking companies deliberately avoid setting up shop near the "big houses" of the wealthy, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.

Two environmental groups, the Sierra Club and the Center for Coalfield Justice, last week sent a letter to the state Office of Environmental Justice to review Range Resources' practices to see if it has indeed avoided rich neighborhoods and targeted low-income areas for shale gas development. Attorneys from both organizations were present at the Pennsylvania Bar Institute's Environmental Law Forum on April 7.

The comments were made by Terry Bossert, Range's vice president of legislative and regulatory affairs, and were reportedly made off-the-cuff as he was giving a PowerPoint presentation titled "Environmental Issues Facing the Oil and Gas Industry." ...

Joanne Kilgour, director of the Sierra Club's Pennsylvania chapter, said the remarks "pose significant environmental justice issues, and raise the question whether the companies coming into the communities are really operating in the best interests of those communities."


Also of Interest

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

New Yorkers Against Wall Street

GAO: JPMorgan Chase Customers Lost $5.4 Billion to Madoff

Why Haven’t Bankers Been Punished? Just Read These Insider SEC Emails

The (un)Democratic Primary: Why We Need a New Party of the 99%

Zero-waste bloggers: the millennials who can fit a year's worth of trash in a jar

Why Are Bankrupt Oil Companies Still Pumping?

Declassified: How Israel misled the U.S. about its nuclear program

The FBI’s dangerous Apple-hack rationalizations: How it’s now stealing a page from the CIA’s torture playbook

Listen to an FBI “Honeypot” on the Job


A Little Night Music

Robert Ward - Black Bottom

Robert Ward & Ry Cooder - Forgive Me Darling

Robert Ward - Potato Soup

Robert Ward - I Will Fear No Evil

Ohio Untouchables (Robert Ward) - Hot Stuff

Robert Ward - I'm Gonna Cry A River

Robert Ward - I Ain't Drunk

Robert Ward - Meat Off The Bone



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stevej's picture

Looking forward to the weekend!
Quick plug:
Photography Open Thread going up in a couple of hours - this week its all about photographing flowers. No art history this time just practical tips and stuff. This weeks assignment will be architecture.

saphotography (1 of 1)-4_3.jpg

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“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire

joe shikspack's picture

sounds like a great post!

IMG_3082cl-s

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stevej's picture

Nicely done!

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“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire

Lookout's picture

Spring is a nice time of year. It is almost blackberry winter here.

IMG_4583.jpg

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

stevej's picture

in the last two weeks. Pretty flower.

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“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire

joe shikspack's picture

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Haikukitty's picture

for his having to come in and "save" the party? I've always kind of like Biden as a person, but he's still the same old, same old.

What is the reason behind the statements he's made, I wonder?

Also, here's this shocking news out of Colorado - Insurance companies mobilizing to quickly stamp out a campaign for a statewide single payer option:
https://theintercept.com/2016/04/22/colorad-single-payer/

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joe shikspack's picture

heh, biden (or as i remember him, "the senator from mbna") is probably just reminding folks that he is still alive and available if serendipity points his way.

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divineorder's picture

Green Party’s Stein Predicts DNC Will Sabotage Sanders, Try to Reabsorb Supporters

"You cannot have a revolution inside of a counter-revolutionary party," said 2016 Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein.
By Barry Donegan -
Feb 29, 2016

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

NWIA's picture

To the fullest extent possible. Because Hillary has stretched my creep-out meter to an inconceivably high degree. Biden is just a nice smile barely hiding the capacity to do idiotic things.

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OLinda's picture

Very interesting take, Haiku. Hmmmm. I wonder.

I also had wondered on reading, if anyone had tried to walk that back for him.

It is said that he is the one, if Clinton falters. Apparently Clinton delegates don't have to automatically go to Sanders if Clinton has a disqualifying event. They can vote for whoever they want. Of course, I would hope Americans would finally take to the streets if that happened.

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

he's pandering, just in case FSC is indicted, and he's drafted to run by the Dem Party Establishment.

I say that because from all that I've read and heard, Biden and PBO are quite close. And since PBO has made it known that he wants FSC 'to carry his legacy,' it's hard for me to imagine that Biden is actually purposely, much less openly, trying to undermine PBO's wishes/goals.

But, I could be wrong. It wouldn't be the first time.

(Like my prediction about the recent standoff in Oregon, LOL!)

(Music City) Mollie
Mollie


"Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare."--Japanese Proverb
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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

PastorAgnostic's picture

I am still scratching my head how I got on her list.

Pastor Agnostic,

I know you get a lot of emails, and I know how valuable your time and money are. So, I'm going to make this quick and get right to the point.
Our nation's future is on the line in this election. In fact, the future of the free world is dependent on who the United States elects as our next President.
We simply cannot afford to get this wrong...

When I think about the country I want my grandchildren to grow up in, it's one where they are safe. It's one where we know there will be American jobs and they will have every opportunity to have a wonderful life. It's one where the unborn are protected and our borders are secure.

There is only one candidate who has the experience and leadership needed to right the wrongs of Barack Obama and put our country back on a path of prosperity and success. That candidate is Ted Cruz.

But, Pastor Agnostic, Ted can't win without us, and he needs our help RIGHT NOW.

DONATE NOW

Ted is the proven conservative -- in poll after poll -- who can and will defeat Hillary Clinton, but before he can do that, he's got to defeat Donald Trump.
Donald Trump has access to millions and millions of dollars. Just this week, he dumped an additional $20 million dollars into his campaign and is prepared to spend whatever it takes to buy this nomination. He is willing to say and do ANYTHING to win.

That is because Donald Trump not only represents the status quo and rigged system in Washington D.C., he IS the system!

We may not be able to compete with Donald's personal war-chest, but we can beat him with the people who power Ted's campaign -- his SUPPORTERS like you.

I told Ted that I would help his campaign reach their goal of raising $250,000 by April 25th, but I need your help to get there.

Will you chip in right now to help Ted win this nomination and then go on to defeat Hillary?

DONATE NOW

The fact is -- Ted is our only chance at saving our country. We don't have the luxury of not taking immediate action. We must stand with Ted this very minute if we want our nation's future to be bright.
Imagine how awful it would be six months from now to think, "We would have won if only we had stood with Ted in April."

This election is like no other, so that's why I'm emailing you right now.

The time to stand with Ted is TODAY. Join me in taking a stand for our nation's future by supporting the only candidate who we know will always support us.

Thank you for all you have done thus far.

Sincerely,

Carly Fiorina

P.S. Ted is the only candidate who can defeat Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. But he can't do that unless he has our immediate financial support. We've set a goal to raise $250,000 by Friday April 25th. No matter the size of your contribution it will make a huge impact for Ted. So please follow this link right now to make an online contribution for our nation's future.

I just had to share this with you all.

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joe shikspack's picture

what did you ever do to deserve that? Smile

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PastorAgnostic's picture

I probably was an enforcer for the Spanish Inquisition in a former life.

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riverlover's picture

Lo and behold, Ted Cruz? Those confused people.

I was just thinking about the doublespeak we get. Right to work (for less), Patriot (or else...) Act, Constitution Pipeline (today, I hope DOA), Dominion Energy, (my 3-miles-away gas pumping station with cameras trained around the plant)--that name creeps me out. Dominion is also my house Insurance service in Canada, aka Travelers. So it's not just the US.

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

Raggedy Ann's picture

I don't want to hear from Cruz, EVER! LOL!

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

Raggedy Ann's picture

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

Alison Wunderland's picture

"Halp! Throw me the life preserver!"

"No way, man. Aren't you supposed to be able to walk on water?"

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featheredsprite's picture

Cruz is the only Republican around that can defeat both Trump and Clinton.

Of course, if the Rs had any sense, they would nominate Kasich but I don't think they are that smart.

Did I hear something about an armed attack if Trump loses the nomination?

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Life is strong. I'm weak, but Life is strong.

LeChienHarry's picture

Happy birthday Mother Earth. This is our line in the sane; our place to make our stand.

The planet is ours to save. Actually, if we as a top of the pyramid species don't survive, others will. And the extinctions will create niches for new or adapted species.

Mother Earth will survive us. Will we survive ourselves?

Thanks to JtC and the crew (or none) for all the great no nonsense changes. Everyone makes participating easier.

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You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again you did not know. ~ William Wiberforce

If you can donate, please! POP Money is available for bank-to-bank transfers. Email JtC to make a monthly donation.

joe shikspack's picture

higher ground sounds like a pretty good idea these days given that the chesapeake bay is going to come creeping up my way one of these days.

we are probably the luckiest species on the planet. we understand to a greater degree than any other species how the climate works. we also have the means to stop doing the stupid crap that we are doing that harms our ability and the ability of the other species that we share the planet with to survive.

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divineorder's picture

MB says his main issue is working on climate change street politics which calls for thousands of progressives to run for office across the US in a a much reccd post after NY results.

Jill Stein says Bernie will be thwarted because of the nature of the Party.

Green Party’s Stein Predicts DNC Will Sabotage Sanders, Try to Reabsorb Supporters
http://truthinmedia.com/jill-stein-predicts-dnc-sabotage-sanders-reabsor...

"You cannot have a revolution inside of a counter-revolutionary party," said 2016 Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein.
By Barry Donegan -
Feb 29, 2016

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

joe shikspack's picture

that is exactly what the establisment dems would like to do. what we have to do is make it too expensive for them to try to pull that crap.

we have to make it clear that not only will we not be assimilated into the democrat borg, but that we will fight hillary all the way - thousands of pissed off, social media-savvy progressives will be attacking her republican positions and calling her out for every lie.

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lotlizard's picture

If we are to survive, the rest of the species must pull the plug on the elites tout suite — “The clue train stopped there four times a day for ten forty years and they never took delivery.”

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Bisbonian's picture

No wonder it is so screwed up.

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"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

joe shikspack's picture

heh, he certainly is a fine representative of his class, which is the elite group that controls the system.

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lotlizard's picture

Trump or the Koch brothers are kitty cats next to the Saudis, who are hyenas.

Oh, sorry, gee, I insulted an allied head of state! In Germany, I can be prosecuted for that!

(Background: Erdogan, who is in the process of regressing Turkey toward dictatorship, complained about a comedian on German TV insulting him and Angela Merkel approved allowing a criminal indictment to go forward.)

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joe shikspack's picture

better keep your head down, those saudis are pretty humorless, too, and doubtless merkel needs something from them. Secret

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Lookout's picture

Another great news edition. The stuff with Saudi is too much. We are such hypocrites. Assad must go...he's so bad, but the Saudis who behead people every week for minor offenses (and bomb the poor people of Yemen with planes they bought from us...actually from Hellery), they're our friends.

Oh well. Thought the Robert Ward stuff was fun. Off to my weekly session tonight. Have a great evening!

fiddlers convention 1925.jpg

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

joe shikspack's picture

the us relationship to the saudis is perverse and, i strongly suspect, not good for the people of either nation.

regarding assad - i'd like for us to leave it up to the syrian people as to whether he remains in power or not.

what external powers (including the us) have done to the syrian people is beyond barbaric and inexcusable.

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enhydra lutris's picture

Aramco consisted of:
Standard Oil of California became Chevron merged into Chevron-Texaco
The Texas Oil Co. (Texaco) merged into Chevron-Texaco
Standard Oil of New Jersey (Exxon) merged into Exxon-Mobil
Socony Vacuum (later Mobil) merged into Exxon-Mobil

Two of the 3 biggest super majors, sharing power and profits 50-50 with the Saudi Royals.

I won't even mention that Condolezza Rice had a Chevron Supertanker named after her before she went to work for GWB and it had to be renamed.

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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 --

Unabashed Liberal's picture

to thank you for tonight's excellent EB, Joe!

Hope to have a blurb by early evening on the (fairly) recent Medigap Policy cuts. We've now both within 18 months or enrolling, so talked to a planner at our firm earlier this week, since Mr M wants me to start researching Medigap plans.

Not good 'news' for new OR current retirees on this front. If I don't have a complete post, I'll at least explain 'why' those cuts will actually apply to everyone (some folks may already know this).

I hope to start including a couple of sorta 'bullet points' from the No Labels 'Playbook' when I post here (most evenings, anyway).

For about a year now, they've had the outline of the '4' goals, obviously not providing any details. Now that I've read some of their tax reform plank, it's even more plain then ever, that they are simply putting forth the Bowles-Simpson proposal. (They actually even make mention of it, which surprises me a little bit.)

If anyone is interested, here's a quick poll.

Are you familiar with the 'No Labels' organization, and its reform goals?

No, never heard of them!
Yes, but I don't think that they can affect the outcome of the 2016 Presidential election. So, their proposed reforms don't interest me.
Yes, and I'd like to know more about their reform planks, so that I can form a solid judgment about them.
Yes, and because I understand that they are a cabal of nonpartisan corporatist neoliberal lawmakers, out to implement austerity measures, I'm interested in knowing all that I can about their 2016 National Strategic Agenda.
Other
Please Specify:

myiq

Anyhoo, catch up with you Guys later. Have a nice afternoon!

(Music City) Mollie
elin karlsson @ WordPress


"Every time I lose a dog, he takes a piece of my heart. Every new dog gifts me with a piece of his. Someday, my heart will be total dog, and maybe then I will be just as generous, loving, and forgiving."--Author Unknown
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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

joe shikspack's picture

charles pierce had a good piece on no labels yesterday:

Honestly, Who Wants to Listen to Jon Huntsman and Joe Lieberman?

It's 2016, so we were overdue for another epistle from the No Labels grifters, the vagabond Bedouin merchants who ply The Empty Quarter of American politics. Led by badly beaten footnote also-rans Jon Huntsman and Weepin' Joe Lieberman, they've released their new policy playbook for whoever gets elected president in November. ...

A bone gets tossed to the plain folks on capital gains, but you can say farewell to the mortgage interest deduction, the deduction of local and property taxes, and charitable donations. Also, the corporate tax deduction drops 14 points to 25 percent. And the ultimate goal, of course, is to "reduce the federal deficit" because a balanced budget is the Grail legend of this particular desert cult. They do not recognize the immutability of Blog's First Law of Economics: Fck the deficit. People got no jobs. People got no money. ...

As for their fiscal ideas, which is pretty much the only reason that No Labels exists, they'd like a Fiscal Responsibility Act that would "Prohibit Congress from passing budgets that would increase the national debt as a share of the overall economy, except in cases of war, disaster or recession."

Slate has an excellent piece:

What Election Is Joe Lieberman Watching?

Former Sen. Joe Lieberman, co-chairman of the nonpartisan “problem-solving” advocacy group No Labels, has a novel theory of what we’re seeing this campaign. “Take a look at the two most interesting, surprising candidacies of the presidential year,” he said Thursday at an event celebrating the release of No Labels’ “policy playbook” for the 2016 election. “They want people to do something different. The best politics may be unconventional politics.” Lieberman, unconventionally, was explaining why he believes the moment is ripe for entitlement reform.

Perhaps No Labels has been watching a different election. Anger and the appetite for breaking the status quo in Washington are absolutely the gusts lifting the campaigns of Donald Trump and Sen. Bernie Sanders. But working people across the country are not packing these rallies to demand the sort of technocratic dickering No Labels offers in its new 60-point policy platform, introduced Thursday at a luncheon in Washington’s luxury Mayflower Hotel. There has been bipartisan energy linking the anti-establishment bases of both parties this year, which theoretically should please No Labels. That energy, however, has been populist and directed at the sort of Washington elites whom they no longer trust to represent their interests. For today’s discontented voters, the sort of ballroom-luncheon centrism practiced for so long by the likes of Lieberman is more the target than the solution. ...

Bill Galston, the Brookings Institution scholar who served as a policy aide in the Clinton administration and who did the legwork for No Labels’ Social Security section, said the group polled just about every Social Security solution that’s been put forth over the past decade. Four policies made the cut: raising the payroll tax cap from $118,500 to $240,000, increasing the payroll tax by 1 percent on both the employer and employee sides, slowing the rate of growth for the top 20 percent of beneficiaries, and tightening eligibility requirements and “reducing fraud” for Social Security disability benefits. There are criticisms that can (and would) be leveled against each of these tweaks. But polling ensured that the most unpopular ideas usually found in centrist Social Security reform proposals—like raising the retirement age—were wisely excluded.

they also got some coverage in the Wall Street Journal (naturally) and US News & World Report: ’No Labels’ Seeks a NonPartisan Washington

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

to several excellent pieces/resources. I hadn't seen any of them, except, of course, the 'Playbook' itself, which I plan to post bullet points from.

I had to laugh when I saw one of their 'solutions' for securing Social Security--3. Slow the growth of future benefits for the top 20% of beneficiaries. Heck, I almost had to literally pick myself up off the floor from laughing.

Wink

Seriously, this budget/policy framework is mostly based upon the Bowles-Simpson proposal--which definitely did not recommend 'cuts' to Social Security monthly benefits by adjusting the formula (bend points) for the PIA, for ONLY the top fifth of seniors. And I don't buy for one second that this is the true intention of so-called No Labelers.

Remember Jan Schakowski's words in her Reuters Op-Ed, entitled, The Sham Of Simpson-Bowles:

Under Simpson-Bowles, long-term solvency for Social Security is achieved mostly by cutting benefits. Seventy-five years out, the ratio of spending cuts to revenue increases is 4 to 1.

They propose raising the age of full Social Security benefits to 69 – claiming that everyone is living longer. But a sizable percentage of Americans, mostly lower-income workers, especially women, are actually living shorter lives, and a large chunk of other Americans just can’t work that long – even if they can find a job. Their plan cuts benefits for current and future retirees by reducing the cost-of-living adjustment.

For future retirees, all these changes taken together would reduce the average annual benefit for middle-income workers – those with annual earnings of $43,000 to $69,000 – by up to 35 percent.

I plan to flog this proposal, along with B-S's, from now until Election Day.

It can't be said enough--most of the corporatist neoliberal technocrats who run our federal Government are out to dismantle what's left of the Social Safety Net.

We really must remain vigilant.

Have a nice weekend!

(Music City) Mollie, C99P & DKos
elinkarlsson@WordPress


"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went."--Will Rogers
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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

lotlizard's picture

How about saying you intend to “pillory” (rhymes with She of Whom Criticism Must Be Constructive) this proposal?

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

Merriam-Webster provides almost opposite meanings.

Define flog : to beat or whip (someone) severely — flog in a sentence. Full Definition of flog, flogged, flogging. transitive verb. 1 a : to beat with or as if with a rod or whip b : to criticize harshly. 2 : to force or urge into action : drive. 3 a chiefly British : to sell (as stolen goods) illegally . . .

Pillory is a perfectly acceptable word--actually, a more precise one--and is definitely a less ambiguous one.

Now, if only I can remember to use it!

Wink

Thanks!

Have a good one.

Mollie
elinkarlsson@WordPress

Screenshot Of 'Barabas' -- Dual Photo From WP With Caption.png


Visit Us At Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD)

"I think dogs are the most amazing creatures; they give unconditional love. For me they are the role model for being alive."
----Gilda Radner, Comedienne

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

OLinda's picture

for another great news and blues.

It is around 75 degrees F here west of Denver. Expected to be high 60s and low 70s for the week. I'm enjoying it so much! We have had cold and snow recently with +1 foot accumulating several days ago. It was the 2nd 1-foot dumping in several weeks. Sooo ready for summer. (We don't really have Spring. It's goes straight from Winter to Summer.)

It's so apparent I have SAD (seasonal affective disorder). I feel better today after a couple of days of sunshine than I have in months. Not just emotionally with a better mood, but physically with more energy as well.

Take care, Bluesters. Happy Friday!

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joe shikspack's picture

i'm glad you're not sad. Smile

heh, it's been a longish winter here, too. spring has been kind of unusual for this area with many more evening freezes than usual. things seem to be back on track now, though. it was up in the 70's here today, too. this past week was reasonably warm with one absolutely perfect day - upper 60's, beautiful sunshine, slight breeze... mmmm...

have a great weekend!

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divineorder's picture

Isn't it interesting that the local picture is often great for individuals [i.e. here in N. California camping on the northern coast the weather has been shockingly sunny and clear for April] while the overall picture for the planet is HOT HOT HOT!

Seriously, hope you don't mind me hopping in here and sharing this post I saw at our fav weather blog.

https://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/show.html

Warmest March in Global Recordkeeping; 2016 Roars Ahead of Pack

By: Jeff Masters and Bob Henson, 4:39 PM GMT on April 19, 2016

Here's a pic from Russian Gulch State Park which is usually cold and foggy, but while we were there earlier this week it was really quite mild.

 photo 20160419_085310_zpsmnsegsie.jpg

Hope we don't fry in our tent in the Zambian 'winter' next week.

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

joe shikspack's picture

russian gulch looks kinda pleasant, i hope that zambia is similarly pleasant while you guys are visiting next week.

i'll be looking forward to news of your travels and, of course, the photos.

have a great weekend!

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divineorder's picture

Seems like you have had your share of rainy days and then some last year.

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

Unabashed Liberal's picture

with you and JB--I must say, your new avatar is pretty cool, too!

Wink

Have a nice, safe trip, you two!

Mollie
elinkarlsson@WordPress

Screenshot Of 'Barabas' -- Dual Photo From WP With Caption.png


Visit Us At Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD)

"I think dogs are the most amazing creatures; they give unconditional love. For me they are the role model for being alive."
--Gilda Radner, Comedienne

"The function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil."--Cicero

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

divineorder's picture

that picture of us from back in the day on Facebook, and I saved it from there. Jakkalbessie took that pic a few days ago from what I think is one of the most magic grove of trees on the entire planet. Thought it was symbolic of me looking out at the future from a life well lived but facing mortality and infinity.

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

Unabashed Liberal's picture

wouldn't have guessed that the photo was taken stateside; but, wherever you were (California?), it sure is striking.

Tell JB that she did a great job on the camera end!

Wink

Mollie

Postcript:

BTW, as I was typing this, a XM Radio Host (Michael Smercomish) interviewed Bill Johnston-Walsh of the Pennsylvania AARP Director, who said that AARP is glad that we're having the conversation about raising the retirement age and means testing!

Both Kasich and Cruz have come out publicly, for deep cuts.

Glad we let our AARP membership drop several years ago. Knew that they didn't fight hard enough to stop a Grand Bargain, but Johnston-Walsh's words were truly mind boggling, coming from the so-called premier seniors advocacy organization in the US.

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

enhydra lutris's picture

that'll sell you catch of the day to cook at camp (ask for any rockfish or deep water species). Also a really great fish & chips joint if you don't wish to cook your own food.

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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 --

riverlover's picture

I start feeling down the day after summer solstice. Too much life stuff going on, I started Lexapro. And then this spring increased the dose because of more stuff. And then my dog died, which was not unexpected, and I was appalled by my lack of tears. I tried cold-turkey and had two mornings of panic attacks. So I am now in wean-down.

But I know that June 21, second day of summer, I will be missing those seconds of sun. And yes, it does affect body. Cheers!

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

Gerrit's picture

I'm working to see how its a bad thing :=) Great music, as always. Enjoy your weekend,

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Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.

joe shikspack's picture

see, the good thing is that all of those aerobicized, gym denizen yuppies can probably tread water pretty well. it'll come in handy for them, i'm sure.

have a good one!

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riverlover's picture

The Kingdoms want to interact with Big Oil, MIC Corporations but are not very beneficent rulers, and give or sell or use our weapons to institute unrest in all Muslim-dominated countries, except for Iraq, which they hate. It sounds like all warring factions are trading or stealing products from our MICs, except they are now multinational corporations and so are everywhere and nowhere, similar to the changing warring factions. And the US government acts as the intermediary to all sides, depending on the week.

Is this about right?

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

joe shikspack's picture

yes, the saudis, by pricing oil in dollars have propped up our economy for years. their enormous purchases of military hardware and training supports our mass-murder industry and give us something to sell them that helps with what would otherwise be a very uneven balance of trade.

if they were to use their influence to price oil internationally in some other currency, our economy would be toast. on the other hand, that would probably be the end of the house of saud as regime change would be virtually assured.

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mimi's picture

lovely attitude to go after those, who he thinks disrespect him in souvereign countries outside of Turkey. What a nice authoritarian free speech disrespecting head of government they have there. Yesterday I was pretty straight forward about yesterday's RT, today's made me listen now to a lot of German TV discussions about it. I am not used anymore to German-style debates on TV. Smile

The major problem to solve is the crisis of the refugees and how to help them, the problem to solve is to allow to get rid of a very old law, which made it possible for Erdogan to push Merkel to accept that the comedian is prosecuted for his hate-poem.

Even if that looks like Merkel is caving in to Erdogan's policies of utter oppression of free speech in his own country, on the other hand Merkel had the nerves to give the German justice system to play out their proper role as the third branch of the government to judge, if that law and Merkel's obedience towards that law, is appropriate in today's world, as it originates out of a time period that makes it in current times completely inappropriate to use.

So, I understand the "outcry" that freedom of speech subject has TV moderators salivating over, I would say, it would be more important to salivate over the fact that the EU has not solved the refugee crisis so far and that is what Merkel is after. I can't blame her for that.

But I admit that I might not get all the details of the difficulties to handle the refugee crisis.

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Obama Bows to Turkish Genocide Denial as Erdogan Calls for War on Armenia

There is broad historical consensus that the 1915 ethnic cleansing constituted genocide. The Armenian population at the time of the atrocity was some 2 million, meaning that only 25% of the country’s inhabitants survived or escaped the slaughter.

Nazi leader Adolf Hitler justified the extermination of Europe’s Jewish population by referencing the Ottoman Empire’s savage genocide of the Armenians. On August 22, 1939, Hitler proclaimed "Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"

As a candidate in 2008, President Obama understood the importance of acknowledging genocide, to signal to the world’s despots that atrocities will not be tolerated.

On January 19, 2008, Obama said, "The Armenian Genocide is not an allegation, a personal opinion, or a point of view, but rather a widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence. The facts are undeniable. An official policy that calls on diplomats to distort historical facts is an untenable policy."

Nonetheless, with one last opportunity to identify a historical truth and properly honor the suffering of an entire people, President Obama once again joined a chorus of deniers, embracing what he once called an untenable policy, and sending a direct message to his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan that the US endorses his plans to kill dissenting ethnic minorities to recreate his version of the Ottoman Empire.

That message to Erdogan comes at a troubling time, as the once stable Turkish democracy creeps towards an undemocratic theocracy sponsoring and supporting terrorism throughout the region. In recent months, Erdogan’s regime has systematically imprisoned and censored dissenting voices, has been implicated in a false-flag sarin gas attack in Syria in an attempt to bait the US into war, and has been proven to have engaged in regular arms and oil trade with

Daesh terrorists.

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joe shikspack's picture

erdogan seems to be quite the bastard. one is tempted to use the word megalomaniac to describe him.

merkel is in an unenviable position, but cowardice does not become her. her biggest problem, in my view, is that europe has made a terrible deal with turkey in order to avoid doing the right thing in the middle east.

the right thing to do in the middle east is to end the conflict, which could actually be accomplished fairly quickly. (i have a plan for syria, it's really simple, stop trying to oust assad from office, cooperate with his government, russia and various kurdish factions to remove isis and al nusra and disarm the other factions. allow assad to run an internationally-supervised caretaker government for about a year and then hold elections.) once the conflict is over, the migrants that flowed in can flow back out as people return to rebuild their countries with significant financial aid from the western countries that stirred up the conflict and destroyed those nations.

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mimi's picture

and as always, as it is the US who wants to oust Assad, the Europeans bow down to the US. That's the base cowardice imo. Merkel is part of it, but then who is not?

You know the details better. I think it's just mind boggling that a comedian's poem, which is from the artistic view point a mediocre one, can arouse such a reaction not only in Erdogan, but then also in Germany and the EU. It's just hard to grasp for me.

Anyway I would have to read much more of the German press and media to really know how to judge Merkel in this (I consider the Social Democrats as "coward" in this as well), and I don't know enough about the details about the EU-Turkey deal, it's too complicated. I need to catch up on this. Even with all you post in the EB, I have not the head anymore to absorb and grasp it all. I am sorry to admit it.

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O.k. When is the next meeting for the revolution?
-FuturePassed on Sunday, November 25, 2018 10:22 p.m.

joe shikspack's picture

thanks, have a great weekend!

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Raggedy Ann's picture

What a feast of news! Sometimes I wonder if the establishment is afraid of what Bernie might find out and expose as POTUS. That's what came to mind reading the Sen. Bob Graham 60 minutes blurb.

It's always great to hear that our government is spending that tax money I just sent them so wisely. My contribution to their $1.3m to find nothing on the San Bernadino killers phone is why I'm proud to send them that money. Don't worry about us poor slogs out here with our picks and shovels making our way in America - we love funding your escapades, no matter how fruitless they turn out to be. Shall we all bend over so you can give it to us some more?

HRC's favorables in the toilet? I don't believe it. Look how much love she has over at GOS. That article is just making things up - probably making those numbers up in some meeting room, yucking it up at the expense of poor HRC. Shame on them for their sexism. NOT!!!

I'm enjoying Mr. Ward, joe - thanks for the great tunes.

Have a weekend - everyone - make it meaningful to you!

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

joe shikspack's picture

yeah, i've been pretty peeved about what the establishment does with my tax contributions for years. i sure hope that this movement is the one that can finally put an end to the 1% control of the government.

what, people don't like hillary? imagine that.

have a great weekend!

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magiamma's picture

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Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook

joe shikspack's picture

thanks for the link! i'm glad that sanders is showing some spine. i hope that it stiffens up even more.

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Crider's picture

If Recep Erdogan was any more inbred he would be a sandwich. Now I know why everybody insults Erdogan behind his back.

If I wanted to kill myself, I’d climb to Erdogan's ego and jump to his IQ. Erdogan is one of those people who would be enormously improved by death, and so would the world.

Erdogan's gene pool could use a little chlorine. He looks like a before picture. The best part of him ran down his mother’s legs. Somewhere, a tree is tirelessly producing oxygen so that he can breathe. I think he owes that tree an apology.

He's so ugly, even Hello Kitty said goodbye to him. He looks like his face caught on fire and someone tried to put it out with a fork.

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joe shikspack's picture

there is something about erdogan that just makes you want to reshape his moustache to reflect reality.

heh, i guess that means i better not travel to turkey.

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divineorder's picture

international travel business,. is very much world affairs oriented, and constantly posts critiques of US actions/policy on Facebook (which I 'like' when I agree, but just shake my head when he posts the obvious CT ones) was hammering on Erdogan today. He would LOVE your characterization of Erdogan for sure.

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

mimi's picture

a phenomenon that makes me wonder. I wouldn't have thought Hollywood had one. (Clint Eastwood among them). Now it's officially falling apart:
Friends of Abe, Hollywood Conservatives’ Secret Society, Is Calling It Quits (Exclusive) - Posted on Apr 21, 2016 - By Kasia Anderson

Friends of Abe, a secret organization made up of some 1,500 right-leaning members of the Hollywood community, is effectively disbanding.
....
According to David Stein, a former member with active lines into the group, Friends of Abe headquarters sent out an email Thursday informing members that, as Stein put it, “the organization is dissolving, along with its hard-fought-and-won 501(c)(3).”
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A little history before getting further into the matter, which Stein speculates is related to the 501(c)(3) factor: The group, launched in 2004 by founding member and longtime leader, actor Gary Sinise, with assistance from screenwriter Lionel Chetwynd, has included the likes of Kelsey Grammer, Jon Voight, Clint Eastwood ....
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Sinise started the organization, which takes President Abraham Lincoln as its namesake, to create a space in which Hollywood professionals of a certain conservative bent—from both in front of and behind the camera—could build solidarity, network and enjoy free meetups, as well as more formal, pay-to-play events featuring big names from the right. Because of the potential risks involved in “outing” themselves as conservatives hoping to stay employed within what they consider an overwhelmingly liberal industry, and also because of the glamor involved in being part of a secret society, members put a high premium on privacy.

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FriendsofAbe.net, states that “any type” of conservative is welcome to join, from fiscal and social conservatives to “religious conservatives, foreign policy conservatives, Eisenhower conservatives” and even “ ‘South Park’ conservatives,” there is one significant caveat. The Friends of Abe site mentions that the organization is “generally” open to including some libertarians, but aspirants might note that “FOA is an extremely pro-military, pro-hawkish foreign policy group” and “it’s important for people like [anti-war libertarians] to ask themselves if they’d truly feel at home
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Abe’s most rarefied circles have been treated to VIP dinners with guest lists that read like a who’s-who of the GOP elite. Former Vice President Dick Cheney, current Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, former House Speaker John Boehner, conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer, party mastermind Karl Rove and media darlings Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter have all been featured speakers at the group’s special events, typically held at the fortresslike Luxe Hotel on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.

It falls apart over a fight with the IRS about the non-for-profit status and some rivalry between the alpha-males Clint Eastwood and Donald Trump.
This is Hollywood

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joe shikspack's picture

damn, that's what i forgot to do yesterday, start a secret society! Smile

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mimi's picture

in the secret back alleys of C99p. There is a guy called John who appeared on my laptop, so secretive, I can't tell you what he is up to. May be he appears on your 'puter too? Smile

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enhydra lutris's picture

ringed by wetlands. Rich don't mean smart, as they say. So much of the news is unsurprising, yet, truly terrible, that one has to pause and wonder just how in the hell we got to this point. Neo-nazis in charge? Sure, of course. The 9/11 team had so far undisclosed help? Of course they did, and probably not Osama. The Saudi's are a plague? What's new about that? and on and on and on. Damn I'm jaded. It's scary.

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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 --

joe shikspack's picture

i'm sure that zuckerberg can just pile up stacks of bills underneath the building until it rises up above the water level.

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lotlizard's picture

The Other Gandhi

(found via Rob Kall’s website OpEdNews)

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joe shikspack's picture

interesting fellow who, like many others seems to have fallen into just the wrong positions of power to leave a long trail of victims.

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lotlizard's picture

Janiece Farris for OpEdNews: What on Earth Are We Thinking?

The entire establishment, far larger than the candidates, or parties, or even the nation I'm sure, have realized we are not buying what they are selling any longer and it terrifies them to their very core. They are in full fight mode. It's life or death for them. All of them: the government, media, politicians, bankers, corporations, judges, NSA, CIA, FBI, DEA, CFR, IMF…… I could go on and on for pages probably about how many crooked institutions and even the foreign co-warmongering terrorist dictators doing what we all know amounts to genocide of monstrous proportions if we are honest; they know the terror alert is RED.
. . .
Every single institution in power today has multiple motives to steal our vote.

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lotlizard's picture

From Juan Cole’s website Informed Comment:
The Bernie Sanders miracle: American crowd in Brooklyn cheers Palestinian dignity

Yes, this is the Juan Cole whom in 2006 Yale University was considering for a professorship, an appointment ultimately sabotaged by an intense neocon lobbying effort.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/06/05/cole
http://www.thenation.com/article/burning-cole/

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