The Evening Blues - 4-29-21



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: George "Wild Child" Butler

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Chicago blues harmonica player George "Wild Child" Butler. Enjoy!

George "Wild Child" Butler - Do Something Baby

"Too many have dispensed with generosity in order to practice charity."

-- Albert Camus


News and Opinion

Worth a full read:

The hunger industry: does charity put a Band-Aid on American inequality?

Alyson Graham raised three children by juggling multiple jobs and making tough choices about what they should go without. For more than 20 years, she made weekly visits to a food pantry, before going to the store to supplement the free groceries using food stamps and whatever money she had left after paying rent and bills. It was a struggle to put nutritious food on the table. “I always had two jobs when my kids were growing up, but still couldn’t make ends meet,” said Graham, 51, who worked minimum-wage jobs in call centres, bars and restaurants in Houston. “I couldn’t let the lights or water go off, and there were always other expenses like shoes and books, so I relied on food pantries and frozen food like chicken nuggets to fill them up. The system is so skewed, it’s almost impossible.”

Graham’s story is a typical American story, and one that predates the unprecedented economic crisis caused by the pandemic. Every month, millions of working folks are forced to choose between rent, bills, healthcare, childcare and food because they are not paid a living wage. According to one measure, 43.5% of Americans were living in poverty or low-income households in 2017, with the latter often just one emergency or missed paycheck away from falling below the poverty line.

Even when the economy is booming, at least one in eight families with children in the world’s so-called richest country do not have reliable access to sufficient nutritious food needed for a healthy active life, according to USDA data collected since the mid-1990s. In times of recession, a fifth or more families have experienced food insecurity, which research shows can cause lifelong damage to a child’s health, education and employment potential.

No matter what the state of the economy, the need for food aid has continued to rise as wages and government assistance have failed to keep up with the cost of living. A third of food-insecure people are not considered poor enough to qualify for government food assistance.

“Food charity has become so normalized, it’s deeply embedded in our cultural and social values. But charity doesn’t address the root causes of food insecurity, rather it perpetuates it,” said Alison Cohen, senior director of programs at WhyHunger, a global nonprofit working to end hunger and advance the human right to nutritious food.

Russian foreign minister warns of a new “cold war”

Tensions between the United States, its NATO allies and the Russian government continue, despite the Kremlin’s pull back of troops last week from the border with US-ally Ukraine and the announcement by the right-wing oppositionist Alexei Navalny—clearly acting on cue from the White House—that he was ending his hunger strike. Against the backdrop of a possible meeting between the American and Russian presidents in June, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned Wednesday of the start of a new “cold war.”

After canceling the deployment of navy warships to the Black Sea in mid-April, the US is now sending a Coast Guard vessel into the waters, which Moscow considers key to its geopolitical survival. Russia’s fleet is starting military combat exercises there this week, including live-fire drills with helicopters.

A diplomatic conflict between Russia and US-allied states in eastern Europe, the Baltics, and the Balkans is also ratcheting up, with Moscow adding embassy staff from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Slovakia to a list of individuals instructed to leave the country. Already a total of sixteen American, Czech, Polish, and Bulgarian diplomats have been expelled, with the prospect of dozens more. Russian government representatives have also been kicked out of these countries.

Following on the heels of the Czech government’s accusation that Russia was involved in an explosion at a munitions depot in 2014—a charge that the Kremlin denies—Bulgaria is now claiming Russian involvement in similar incidents on its territory in 2011 and 2012.

Several days ago, Russia’s foreign ministry announced it is drawing up a formal list of “unfriendly states.” In addition, the Kremlin declared that it has proof of a plot to assassinate Belorussian President Alexander Lukashenko and his family and American involvement in that plot. It has yet to reveal any details, a fact which is also true of recent allegations by the US security services that Moscow sought to influence the 2020 elections. ...

When asked on Tuesday to respond to Putin’s recent comment that Russia would draw “red lines” that, if anyone should cross, would have dire consequences, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin expressed his agreement and stated that the two countries “continue to understand and support each other in safeguarding our respective sovereignty, security and development interests.” He described the latest round of anti-Russian sanctions imposed by Washington as “power politics and hegemonic bullying.”

US Still Servicing Saudi Warplanes That are Bombing Yemen

The Biden administration has finally clarified the extent to which it is still supporting Saudi Arabia’s military in Yemen.

In comments to Vox, Pentagon officials admitted that the US is still maintaining Saudi Arabia’s warplanes by using contractors. The US could cancel the contracts at any time, which would effectively ground the Saudi Air Force, ending the vicious bombing campaign that has been raging since March 2015

“The United States continues to provide maintenance support to Saudi Arabia’s Air Force given the critical role it plays in Saudi air defense and our longstanding security partnership,” a Pentagon spokesperson told Vox over the weekend. ...

The admission comes over two months since President Biden said he was ending support for Riyadh’s “offensive” operations in Yemen.

"Humanitarian" interventionist killer war criminal Samantha Power reinstalled in the empire:

Senate confirms former Obama official Samantha Power to lead USAID

The Senate on Wednesday confirmed Samantha Power to lead the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Senators voted 68-26 to confirm Power, who served in the Obama administration as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

President Biden is also expected to put Power on the White House National Security Council, where she served during Obama's first term.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee advanced Power’s nomination earlier this month by a voice vote. But she faced questions during her confirmation hearing about the surge of migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border and about her previous support for military intervention in Syria and Libya.

House Dems Ask AG Garland to Review Chevron's 'Unjust Legal Assault' on Steven Donziger

Six members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus sent a letter Tuesday urging U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to immediately review an ongoing legal case involving human rights lawyer Steven Donziger, who has endured more than 600 days of house arrest related to his efforts to help hold oil giant Chevron accountable for its Ecuador disaster.

"Environmental justice advocate Steven Donziger helped hold Chevron accountable for dumping toxic chemicals into Indigenous communities," said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.). "Now he's facing an unprecedented and unjust legal assault."

Along with Reps. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), McGovern is leading the call for the U.S. Department of Justice to review the prosecution of Donziger by a corporate law firm with ties to Chevron.

Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), and Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) also signed the letter (pdf) requesting that Garland's office "act quickly to conduct an immediate full and fair review of the deeply concerning process by which Mr. Donziger's current case has thus far played out, and the equally troubling signal it sends to frontline communities in urgent need of legal support."

Donziger, who represented more than 30,000 Indigenous people and farmworkers harmed by over three decades of oil drilling in the Ecuadorian Amazon, led the legal team that won a $9.5 billion judgement against Chevron in 2013.

The oil giant was found guilty of deliberately dumping more than 16 billion gallons of toxic wastewater and other hazardous pollutants in the delicate ecosystem—resulting in a "rainforest Chernobyl" that has caused widespread suffering throughout the local population.

Although the ruling was upheld by three Ecuadorian courts, Chevron moved its operations out of the country to avoid paying for cleanup and alleged that the $9.5 billion settlement had been fraudulently obtained.

U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of the Southern District of New York, a former corporate lawyer with ties to the oil company, "granted Chevron a temporary restraining order against the Ecuador judgment in an effort to block enforcement of it anywhere in the world," The Daily Poster's Walker Bragman reported Wednesday. ...

Donziger, awaiting the start of his May 10 trial on a misdemeanor contempt of court charge, has been confined to his home since August 2019.

In their letter, the House Democrats wrote that "we are unaware of such restriction having been imposed on any lawyer in the United States facing a similar allegation."

"We have deep concerns that the unprecedented nature of Mr. Donziger's pending legal case is tied to his previous work against Chevron," the lawmakers continued. "It is vital that attorneys working on behalf of victims of human rights violations and negative environmental impacts of corporations not become criminalized for their work."

Warning of the chilling effects of corporate retaliation, the members of Congress added that "if these restrictions are permitted, advocates across this country will feel as though tactics of intimidation can succeed in stifling robust representation. The results of this case will have a lasting impact in the legal practice, suggesting that representation and advocacy can then impede one's ability to exercise fundamental protections."

The House Democrats' letter is the latest in a series of appeals to the DOJ. As the members of Congress noted, "beleaguered Amazon communities have stood by Mr. Donziger throughout this case."

"A coalition of 56 Nobel Prize Laureates, Amnesty International USA and other human rights organizations, and distinguished members of the European Parliament have issued statements, demanding Mr. Donziger's immediate release from home detention, protesting the questionable and disparate treatment of Mr. Donziger by U.S. Courts, and requesting an investigation of potential judicial abuse," the lawmakers added. "They also have called for the dismissal of the criminal contempt case against Mr. Donziger."

As Bush said Tuesday, "Too often, Indigenous and frontline communities are denied the justice they deserve after racist fossil fuel pollution and corporate violence put their lives and livelihoods at risk."

"Donziger's successful lawsuit on behalf of Indigenous [Ecuadorians] was a remarkable exception. His bravery and brilliance will inspire others to fight back against corporate power," Bush added. "Chevron's attacks on him are a threat to safety, justice, and accountability."

King Manchin is on the right side of an issue!?!?!

Sen. Joe Manchin Supports IP Waiver to Allow Generic Covid-19 Vaccines

Sen. Joe Manchin expressed support for the World Trade Organization proposal to temporarily suspend enforcement of patent and intellectual property enforcement for Covid-19 medical treatments.

The waiver request, led by India and South Africa and backed by a coalition of countries, would allow more widespread global production and distribution of generic coronavirus vaccines, tests, and treatments.

Asked about the waiver proposal on Thursday, Manchin said it sounded like a good idea.

“I’ve always been a supporter of generics coming on,” said Manchin, speaking to The Intercept on Capitol Hill.

The West Virginia Democrat referenced the fact that the U.S. government financed the research, development, and domestic deployment of coronavirus vaccines. He noted that the drug companies “shouldn’t” generate profits from a product sponsored by taxpayers.

New COVID-19 Variant, Linked to India’s Record Wave of Infections & Deaths, Now Seen in 19 Countries

Two weeks’ paid sick leave at Walmart could have prevented 7,500 Covid cases, report finds

More than 7,500 Covid-19 infections and 133 deaths could have been prevented if Walmart offered employees two weeks of paid sick leave, according to a report released on Wednesday.

The public health not-for-profit Human Impact Partners calculated the impact that better paid sick leave could have had for employees of Walmart, the largest employer in the US, using findings from the University of Wisconsin that universal sick leave could lead to a nearly 6% reduction in coronavirus infections and deaths for workers in Wisconsin.

Researchers used the US national Covid-19 case rate to determine that at least 125,000 Walmart employees, of which the company says there are nearly 1.6m in the US, contracted Covid-19 between February 2020 and February 2021. The company has not publicly released data detailing how many employees have had the virus.

Cynthia Murray, an employee of a Walmart in Laurel, Maryland, and a leader with United for Respect, a worker advocacy group, said that the company’s sick leave system was confusing and had left workers worried that calling in sick would lead to losing their jobs. Walmart has a point attendance system that docks employees with points for things like showing up late to or missing a scheduled shift, Murray said. An employee will be fired if they get five points during a six-month period. ...

“It really makes it hard, so you have a lot of workers who come to work sick because they don’t want to be fired,” Murray said, adding that workers also “don’t really have any kind of money that they can take [an unpaid] day off”.

Edward Ongweso Jr: Amazon Unveils Algorithm To Track Worker Tendon And Muscle Use

“Rejection of the Neoliberal Framework”: Biden Proposes Trillions in New Spending, Taxes on the Rich

Ivy League college apologizes for using bones of Black children in course

An Ivy League university which kept the bones of a Black child killed by police for use in its research and which were also later used as a “case study” in an online forensic anthropology course has apologized for its actions.

The physical remains of one of the children who were killed in the bombing of the Move black liberation organization in Philadelphia in May 1985 have been in the anthropological collections of the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton for the past 36 years.

The institutions have held on to the heavily burned fragments, and since 2019 have been deploying them for teaching purposes without the permission of the deceased’s living parents. The remains have never positively been identified, but almost certainly belong to one of the older Move girls who died in the inferno – 14-year-old Tree Africa and Delisha Africa, who was 12. All members of Move take the last name Africa to denote their collective commitment to Black liberation.

In a statement sent to its faculty, senior leaders of Penn apologized. ... The revelation of the bones possession and use by the university comes as Philadelphia prepares to stage its first official day of remembrance over the bombing, following a formal apology issued last year.

A Penn anthropologist acquired the remains after being asked to provide specialist advice to the Philadelphia medical examiner in an attempt to identify the fragments. The academic then kept possession of the bones, and in 2001 took them with him when he transferred to Princeton.

Ahmaud Arbery killing: three men charged with federal hate crimes

The US justice department has indicted three men on federal hate crime charges in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia. Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, was jogging when he was shot and killed in Brunswick on 23 February last year. Arbery’s family characterized his death as a modern-day lynching.

The former police officer Gregory McMichael, 65, his son Travis McMichael, 35, and William “Roddie” Bryan, 51, were each charged on Wednesday with interference with rights and attempted kidnapping. The McMichaels are also charged with using, carrying and brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence. ...

Arbery’s death sparked fury after his murder was caught on video and went viral on social media in May 2020, about 10 weeks after he was killed. Many expressed outrage at the time that no one had been arrested. Later, all three men were charged in state court with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, false imprisonment and criminal attempt to commit a felony. All three pleaded not guilty. A trial date for the state charges has not yet been set. ...

One year after his death, Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, filed a lawsuit against prosecutors, law enforcement officers and the three men charged with murdering her son alleging that they engaged in a cover-up.

Juror says video of George Floyd’s death was like attending a funeral every day

The first of the 12 jurors who convicted former police officer Derek Chauvin of murder in the killing of George Floyd has broken his silence, likening the ordeal of having to watch and rewatch the video of the Black man’s death during the trial to attending a funeral every day. Brandon Mitchell, known as juror 52 in the courthouse in Minneapolis where Chauvin was found guilty of murder and manslaughter last week, has voluntarily spoken out in a round of media interviews. He has opened a window on the stresses of the case and the deliberations within the jury room.

Talking to CNN, Mitchell described the emotion of repeatedly viewing multiple video recordings of the 9 minutes and 29 seconds in which Chauvin knelt on the neck of Floyd. “It was just dark. It felt like every day was a funeral and watching someone die every day.”

Asked by ABC’s Good Morning America on Wednesday whether the jury felt any pressure to convict Chauvin given the huge public interest in the case, Mitchell said the atmosphere in the courtroom was so intense there was no space to worry about the outside world. “We weren’t watching the news so we didn’t know what was going on. We were really locked in on the case, there was so much stress,” he said. He added that public opinion was “so secondary because throughout the trial you are watching somebody die on a daily basis. That stress alone is enough to take your mind away from whatever’s going on outside the courtroom.” ...

Mitchell told ABC that for the most part the jury’s deliberations, which lasted only about 10 hours over two days, were straightforward. One juror took about four hours to agree with the other 11 that the former police officer was guilty of a lesser charge. Mitchell said that the argument was over the precise meaning of the judge’s instructions. “We went round the room, we broke down the words and what the meanings were until we came to a conclusion,” he said.

California man dies after police pin him to ground for five minutes

Police in California on Tuesday released body-cam footage showing officers pinning a man to the ground for more than five minutes during a fatal arrest that his family said should result in murder charges. Mario Gonzalez, a 26-year-old father and east Oakland resident, stopped breathing after an 19 April encounter with police at a park in the city of Alameda, in the San Francisco Bay Area.

An initial police statement said Gonzalez had a “medical emergency” during an altercation with police after officers tried to arrest him, but his family says he was killed by police who used excessive force. “What I saw was different from what I was told,” Gerardo Gonzalez, Mario Gonzalez’s brother, told local station KTVU after watching the body-camera footage. “The medical emergency was because they were on his back while he was lying on the ground. It was brought by the officers on top of his head.”

Officers had approached Gonzalez in the park after receiving 911 calls that he appeared to be disoriented or drunk. ... The nearly hour-long video from two officers’ body cameras shows the officers first talking to Gonzalez, who seems dazed and struggles to answer questions. When Gonzalez does not produce any identification, the officers are seen trying to force his hands behind his back to handcuff him and taking him to the ground when he resists. ...

Gonzalez, who weighed about 250lb (113kg), is seen on the video grunting and shouting as he lies face down on wood chips while the officers restrain him. One officer puts an elbow on his neck and a knee on his shoulder. One officer appears to put a knee on Gonzalez’s back and leaves it there for about four minutes as Gonzalez gasps for air. “I didn’t do nothing, OK,” Gonzalez can be heard saying. Gonzalez’s protests appear to weaken and after about five minutes he seems to lose consciousness.

Shortly before he stops breathing, one officer asks the other: “Think we can roll him on his side?” The other answers: “I don’t want to lose what I got, man.” The first officer asks: “We got no weight on his chest?” then repeats: “No! No weight … no weight.”

“He’s going unresponsive,” one officer says. The video shows officers rolling Gonzalez over and performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation. He was later pronounced dead at a hospital.



the horse race



Even CNN Asks Squad To Use Their Leverage!

Fresh Calls for Cuomo's Removal After Nursing Home Data Revelations

Critics of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo renewed their calls for his resignation or impeachment on Wednesday following a New York Times report detailing efforts by his office to hide the number of nursing home deaths from Covid-19 last year.

The Times' reporting provides new details about Cuomo's top aides' involvement, over a period of at least five months last year, to stop state health officials from releasing accurate data about the number of New York nursing home residents who died of the disease. 

State lawmakers and others began suspecting last spring, two months into the pandemic, that the Cuomo administration's official tally of 6,000 nursing home resident deaths did not include those who died after being transferred to hospitals to treat the coronavirus infections they developed in nursing homes.

A report by state Attorney General Letitia James in January found that Cuomo's tally may have undercounted the deaths by as much as 50%—but it wasn't until Wednesday that it became publicly known that Cuomo's top aides knew about the discrepancy for nearly a year. 

The state Health Department began preparing a report on nursing home deaths in the spring of 2020, with the governor's top advisors supervising the effort. When the report was made publicly available last July, it emphasized that nursing home admissions from hospitals "were not a driver of nursing home infections or fatalities" and included the death count of 6,000. 

But another unpublished draft which was reviewed by the Times stated that 9,739 nursing home residents had died of Covid-19 through the end of May 2020—"approximately 35%" of all deaths in the state, rather than 21%, as the published draft stated. 

In the following months, Cuomo's office withheld data on the deaths of nursing home patients, declining to cooperate with the Trump administration's request for the information, which the governor said was likely made in an effort to embarrass Democratic governors like Cuomo and portray them as handling the coronavirus pandemic badly. 

Cuomo, the Times report suggested, also appeared to avoid disclosing accurate numbers regarding nursing home deaths by asking for further analysis of the data, while releasing a best-selling book heralding his own coronavirus response in October. The governor also used the supposedly low percentage of nursing home deaths as a "talking point" regarding his approach to the pandemic.

MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes said the behavior detailed in the revelations was "enraging and unforgivable," while a number of critics called for the governor's resignation or removal.

"It is unfathomable that Andrew Cuomo is still in office," tweeted journalist Mark Harris. 

Intercept Reporter Melts Down Attacking Podcasters



the evening greens


Nearly all the world’s glaciers are melting at an accelerated pace, study finds

Worth a full read:

Speed at which world’s glaciers are melting has doubled in 20 years

The melting of the world’s glaciers has nearly doubled in speed over the past 20 years and contributes more to sea-level rise than either the Greenland or Antarctic ice sheets, according to the most comprehensive global study of ice rivers ever undertaken.

Scientists say human-driven global heating is behind the accelerating loss of high-altitude and high-latitude glaciers, which will affect coastal regions across the planet and create boom-and-bust flows of meltwater for the hundreds of millions of people who live downstream of these “natural water towers”.

Between 2000 and 2019, glaciers lost 267 gigatonnes (Gt) of ice per year, equivalent to 21% of sea-level rise, reveals a paper published in Nature. The authors said the mass loss was equivalent to submerging the surface of England under 2 metres of water every year.

This was 47% higher than the contribution of the melting ice sheet in Greenland and more than twice that from the ice sheet in Antarctica. As a cause of sea-level rise, glacier loss was second only to thermal expansion, which is prompted by higher ocean temperatures.

The authors found the pace of glacier thinning outside of Greenland and Antarctica picking up from about a third of a metre per year in 2000 to two-thirds in 2019. This is equivalent to an acceleration of 62Gt per year each decade.

Black Americans of all income levels exposed to more air pollution sources

Whether they’re breathing factory fumes and truck exhaust in urban centers or choking on dust on rural farm roads, people of color face exposure to more sources of harmful fine particle air pollution than white people, a new, comprehensive national study shows. A team of environmental researchers from universities across the US sought to find the air pollution sources that contribute the most to racial disparities. Their hope was that the information could help shape policy to reign in those sources of pollution.

But, according to Christopher Tessum, a University of Illinois researcher and lead author on the study, the team was surprised to find that the racism turned out to be much more pervasive and systemic than they expected, and disparities would not be solved by simply addressing a few types of polluters. Across the board, Black people were disproportionately exposed to all types of air pollution sources. The study also showed that Asians and Latinos lived with greater than average amounts of most types.

“We were hoping to tell a story of how we could go about fixing the problem, but what we found was not what we expected,” said Tessum.

Between 85,000 and 200,000 deaths in the US are attributed to fine particle (PM 2.5) air pollution each year. Even as the nation has brought down overall air pollution levels, environmentalists have remained stumped by the fact that the burden of air pollution continues to fall along racial lines in the US. ... It’s long been known that people of color are more affected by pollution in general, but new data techniques allowed the researchers to develop a complex model of the sources of PM 2.5 air pollution and to follow where the dirty air travelled on a national basis.

The researchers found that the people of color were disproportionately affected by PM 2.5 in pretty much all states and all urban areas.

Republicans’ climate credibility hit by make-believe ‘war on burgers’ claim

At a major summit hosted by Joe Biden last week, a procession of world leaders fretted over the spiraling dangers of the climate crisis, with some pledging further cuts to planet-heating emissions, others touting their embrace of electric cars and a few vowing the end of coal.

In the US, however, Biden’s political opponents were focused on one pressing matter – meat.

“Bye, bye burgers” was an on-screen graphic on Fox News, which ran the false claim that Biden would, tyrannically, allow Americans just one burger a month. Larry Kudlow, a former economic adviser to Donald Trump and now Fox Business host, baselessly envisioned Fourth of July celebrations where people would only be allowed to “throw back a plant-based beer with your grilled Brussels sprouts” on the barbecue.

Prominent Republicans seized upon the supposed Biden climate diktat – which does not exist. The Texas governor, Greg Abbott, retweeted a claim of a 4lb-a-year meat allocation with the comment: “Not gonna happen in Texas!” The far-right conspiracy theorist Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican representative, called Biden the “Hamburglar” while Garret Graves, ostensibly a more moderate House Republican, said the president’s plan amounted to “dictatorship”.

The unfounded claims, which appear to have somehow sprouted from a University of Michigan study on the impact of meat eating, do not reflect Biden’s actual proposals to tackle global heating, which make no mention of personal meat consumption. But they have dealt a hefty blow to Republicans’ latest efforts to present themselves as committed to taking on the climate crisis.


Also of Interest

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

A Half-Century of Joe Biden’s Stances on War, Militarism, and the CIA

Revealed: UK Campaign to Force Assange From Ecuadorian Embassy

US Warships Fire Warning Shots On Iranian Boats in Persian Gulf

U.S. Four Star Generals Ask DNI To Stop Lying

Something Is Wrong When You Need A High Rate Of Fire But The Ammunition Costs $500 Million Per Shot

Supreme Court: Let's Make It Easier for Judges to Send Teenagers to Die in Prison

Study Commissioned by Sanders Shows US Pays 2 to 4 Times More for Prescription Drugs Than Other Nations

Over 47 tons of plastic found at US marine reserve

‘Big-brained’ mammals may just have small bodies, study suggests

Krystal Ball: Is The Biden Admin All Downhill From Here?

Rising: Corporate Democrats BALK At Hiking Capital Gains Tax

Krystal and Emily: Kamala's OUTRAGEOUS Comments To Guatemalan President Erases CIA Plots


A Little Night Music

Wild Child Butler - Spoonful

Wild Child Butler - My Forty Year Old Woman

George "Wild Child" Butler - Put It All In There

George "Wild Child" Butler - Jelly Jam

Wild Child Butler - Speed

George "Wild Child" Butler - It's a Pity

George "Wild Child" Butler - The Devil Made Me Do It

Wild Child Butler - Open up baby

Wild Child Butler - Harmonica Prayer

Wild Child Butler - No one women's Man


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Comments

I've heard him speak on several podcasts. The whole situation is really upsetting. I'm too cynical to expect much, but I'm glad someone outside of the lefty independent media is talking about him. The whole situation is bigger than him, but at the very least, he shouldn't be suffering for doing something noble, IMHO.

And Cuomo, it just keeps going with him, doesn't it? Shit, wasn't it about a year ago when people were practically begging him to jump in the presidential race? I wonder how many other current politicians of either party could just keep on as he has in spite of all that's come out. I'm still not convinced he's going to finally reach the "you gotta go" line, but when you've lost MSNBC...

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16 users have voted.

Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

joe shikspack's picture

@Dr. John Carpenter

like you, i'm glad to see some noise being made in the corridors of power about donziger. i am crossing my fingers that maybe it will help him out, but also like you, i am not too hopeful. chevron has been pretty successful at treating the us justice system like one in a third-world country and getting what it wants.

as for cuomo, the guy's tenacity is pretty amazing. like everybody else, i am waiting for the thud.

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9 users have voted.

@Dr. John Carpenter @Dr. John Carpenter plight has been on my radar for at least a decade. At this point it will be a relief if something humane and decent happens.

As for Cuomo---as I have been saying since this disgraceful reveal of what a monster this guy is finally reached public consciousness--- Cuomo will serve until the last second of his term. Which means until January 1, 2023. I'd love to be wrong on this one....

Scott Stringer is following in Cuomo's shoes as multiple bad stories are coming to light. He will neither drop out of the Mayoral race, nor will he resign his current post as NYC Comptroller. These 2 guys grew up together in the DNC school and they have never done anything else except carry the banner of supremacy, globalism and the entire RW Democratic agenda. They are more like Trump than they are like Bernie.

In Scott's case it is not just the sexual harassment brouhaha. Politico outed him a few days ago and I will be adding Scott's words here, again so you can see who he is. ( I will post this and then find the Politico quotes and be back to edit.)

His biggest supporters, young DSA and Progressives who were conned by Stringer have either withdrawn their support or indicated that they were leaning in that direction. It is discouraging that they could not see who this guy is. He has never been progressive but when he stood with them against Amazon they made an unfortunate leap of faith.

https://twitter.com/ZachandMattShow/status/1386089159220203520

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12 users have voted.

NYCVG

mimi's picture

[video:https://youtu.be/ejI65G7wM3o]
ah, wrong gender, she is not a he.
[video:https://youtu.be/IVvkjuEAwgU]

Good Evening Joe and EB-ers. Thank you for your work. I always curse in German when I read through your list's titles. But then horseshit is a very potent fertilizer, so I should just be reasonable. Which I will be... tomorrow.

Now I am very reasonable and go to sleep.
Good night and have some of those spanish pipe dreams.
[video:https://youtu.be/DWmG9wCE440]

Have a good one.

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11 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@mimi

thanks for the clip about rudy. i'm not yet really following that story very closely, since it's still in what i call the speculative buzz phase. a lot of newsdroids are chattering at each other about what the prosecutors might be up to, looking for, etc. - but nobody really has a clue yet about what's going on.

anyway, have a great evening and have a good time cursing in german. my grandfather used to curse in german and it seemed to make him feel much better than cursing in english. Smile

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6 users have voted.
mimi's picture

@joe shikspack
some smear propaganda, perhaps. Shame on me. Amyhow the propaganda gets too confusing and I shouldn't give a damn.

Over here we celebrate the first of Mai. It is supposed to be what is Labour Day in your country, just, because your clocks march to another drummer, you have that day in Seütember.

So we continue working like slaves and even celebrate that fact? Stranger things have happened.

Have a nice 1rst of May, all.

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3 users have voted.

In case no one has talked about this.

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7 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@gjohnsit

heh, so i got to wait until we colonize mars before i finally get my flying car? Smile

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6 users have voted.
Pluto's Republic's picture

...paid leave and the endless Coronavirus infection in the US — and to demonstrate one small example of why the US is believed to have the worst labor laws among the world's developed and emerging nations —

Here's the fate of workers under the US Slave-Owners Constitution:

paid-leave.jpg
.

This is what happens in a country where the authentic political left has been suppressed and has never emerged.

I think a time will come when Americans will finally start to understand how much harm their obscure eighteenth-century constitution has delivered to them. No doubt the consequences of backwardness and denial of justice will play a transforming role in the twenty-first century.

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16 users have voted.

____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato

@Pluto's Republic
I've never had an employer that didn't have two weeks of paid vacation. Sometimes more. Not counting the Federal Government where I eventually had five weeks plus 13 days of paid sick days.

Granted, not counting part time ans summer jobs that had no leave. I'm talking about full time jobs.

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5 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

@The Voice In the Wilderness I’m pretty sure that’s what the chart is showing. As far as I know, FMLA is the only US legal requirement for any time off to “qualified employees” and it doesn’t have to be paid. And I’ve had recent jobs with as few as five days of PTO and nothing else.

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Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

@Dr. John Carpenter @Dr. John Carpenter
So if common practice in the USA is two weeks and another country mandates two weeks, what's the difference? OTOH, I remember a co-worker, Turkish, at IH who had worked in Germany said that in Germany four weeks was the legal minimum. this was in the late 1970's. Also, at his shipyard, they had a wine and cheese party every Friday sfternoon. I figure the only reason he came to the USA was social ostracism.

EDIT: BTW unused Federal sick leave accumulates. I never saw this in private industry.

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5 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

@The Voice In the Wilderness Well, for starters, they don't have to offer anything. I can't accept "common practice" as a guarantee. I've been in situations where any of these scenarios happened: I had less than 2 weeks PTO, I was kept at less than full-time so they wouldn't have to offer PTO, newer employees were offered less PTO (or even more) than the 2 weeks I had or offered a position with no PTO. I also know one of our biggest employers (Eli Lilly) has a lot of it's workforce as "contractors", essentially permanent temps, who may or may not have any time off despite being full-time employees of many years.

Personally, I'd rather have it be law, even if I know determined bosses will find ways around it like they do for overtime and other laws.

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5 users have voted.

Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

Pluto's Republic's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

...that grants workers paid leave in the US. Many workers will go to work sick because they need the money. Part timer workers and maids also receive paid leave, by law.

Government workers do have paid leave In the US. Apparently it was convenient for them to lobby legislators.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato

@Pluto's Republic
Why don't states like California, Illinois, and New York pass them?

Are you saying those other countries guarantee vacations for part time workers?

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1 user has voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

@Pluto's Republic
Federal worker protections are steadily declining. So much for Unions blind devotion to the DNC.

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4 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

joe shikspack's picture

@Pluto's Republic

heh, most of our institutions still have that same eighteenth century mindset and are dominated by the descendants of the slaveocracy.

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BTW as far as Yemen is concerned.

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@humphrey
Not only older than their crews. Older than their crews parents!

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

joe shikspack's picture

@humphrey

i guess we'll see what the taliban does on may 1, when uncle sam officially breaks the agreement he made with them.

apparently, biden is feeling lucky.

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@humphrey arriving is leaving

Alice in Wonderland

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NYCVG

So it seems.

https://www.oregonlive.com/wildfires/2021/04/one-of-the-best-weapons-to-...

DENVER — As Western states prepare for this year’s wildfire season, the world’s largest firefighting plane has been grounded and could be converted to help fight against another crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic.

After investing tens of millions into upgrading the Global SuperTanker and its technology, the revenue coming mostly from contracts with the U.S. government and California did not produce enough profit for the company to continue the funding the tanker, said Roger Miller, managing director at Alterna Capital Partners LLC, the investment company that owns the plane.

Alterna’s decision to ground the SuperTanker was made on April 19, according to the firm, which had funded the plane’s operations and upgrades since 2016. Since the announcement, the Connecticut-based firm has received several offers to buy the SuperTanker and turn it into a freight carrier aircraft, Miller said.

“The COVID crisis has led to a huge boom in the aircraft freighter market flying around PPE, flying around vaccines, just all the stuff that you can’t afford to put on a ship and wait 45 days to get,” Miller said.

The investment firm is open to potential investors who want to continue using the SuperTanker for wildfire response, but if freight companies present a more attractive offer, the firm will sell it to them, Miller said.

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joe shikspack's picture

@humphrey

apparently, people are willing to pay more to keep from dying from a virus than to keep from being burnt alive. who knew?

thanks capitalism for allocating resources so successfully.

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enhydra lutris's picture

wonderful quote by Camus up there.

Good to see the call for an investigation of the persecution of Donziger, but I doubt much will come out of it. We're talking about Chevron-Texaco here, their legal budget probably exceeds that of the entire Justice department. Shit, they buy and sell whole governments.

So we're firing warning shots at foreign ships for "dangerous behavior", such as sharing navigable waters with US warships seeking an excuse to down another Iranian airliner or something. What a crock.

So Biden has made his show speech, pretending to really wish to achieve "liberal" goals, knowing that we won't close the door on the filibuster and hence will do zip shit on any non-trivial front.

be well and have a good one.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

joe shikspack's picture

@enhydra lutris

i am not expecting much from the calls to investigate the process that steven donziger is receiving.

on the other hand, chevron-texaco is doing an excellent job of demonstrating what a corruption-infested, flea-bitten mob of coin-operated large marsupials the american court system is.

i decided not to listen to biden's address. i figured that my blood pressure will thank me.

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@joe shikspack
I've already exceeded my life-time quota of bullshit.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

As usual, gave me more than enough to go through for the evening and I really love you do this! I know it is a lot of work and I cannot say how much your parsing does to allow me to stay up with what is going on and not spend my entire day enjoying going through all the possible sources of information I have.

Am back in my old place outside Austin enjoying the evening and solitude. All the plumbing repairs have seemed to hold and now to do the final cleanup from that. Nice view of the river out front and at lunch was treated to about 100-200 white pelicans circling overhead. Will go and see where they landed or if they moved on.

Have a good evening all.

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12 users have voted.

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

This ain't no dress rehearsal!

joe shikspack's picture

@jakkalbessie

glad to hear that things are working out with your repairs and maintenance and you are comfortable at home with lots of cool birds around.

happy reading and have a great night!

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Maybe the teleprompter is broken.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/551082-biden-speech-interrup...

President Biden's rally to mark his 100th day in office was interrupted as soon as it began by protesters calling for an end to detention centers and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Biden was in the process of thanking Georgia voters at the outset of his remarks when protesters could be heard shouting "End detention now" and "Abolish ICE." One protester called out "Our families are dying," and noted that they voted for Biden in the 2020 election.

"I agree with you," Biden called back. "I’m working on it, man. Give me another five days."

There should be no private prisons, period," Biden added.

I wonder how long it will take for Psaki to walk it back?

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mimi's picture

@humphrey
he is not with the folks, he tries to be folksy, but the hypocrisy is steaming out of his mouth and ears. At least his steam is less steamy than that of his predecessor.

Sigh. Lots of folks, I like, like Max Blumenthal get depressed and want to get away from it all. I don't blame him. He needs to do his taxes,

What would happen if we all left social media behind and don't use it anymore? I consider it. As this site is the only social media platform I use, it would mean I am a lost member.

Oh well, we will see and wait what happens. I am an unreliable person, so expect nothing from me. Smile

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Azazello's picture

Good segment from Rising, talking about that Carville interview:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D13_MrrSLh8 width:500 height:300]
This is good too, at least the first hour, which is all I've seen so far.
Alternative Security Conference: "Woke Imperialism" with Aaron Maté, Katie Halper and Rania Khalek
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HC2f4GuY5iU&t=3177s width:500 height:300]

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10 users have voted.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@Azazello

thanks for the vids! i dunno. carville didn't seem too upset to see the professional class and its wealthy donors muscle aside the working class back when. perhaps his new understanding of class dynamics comes courtesy of trump's movement. i guess better late than never.

i'll have to watch the halper/khalek/mate one on the weekend.

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6 users have voted.
Pluto's Republic's picture

..at the US.

Last week they delivered a UN style while paper on US Human Rights Violations for 2020. I have to say, they did a really good job. It looks a lot like a UN report.

You can download the report from this page.

Sometimes they compare photos of trains or public places in the US and China. Or skylines or city bridges. The differences are striking.

But I really got a laugh when I discovered North Korea was getting in on the act:

northkorea.jpg
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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
joe shikspack's picture

@Pluto's Republic

that's one thing about a military culture, they pick up their visible trash. (or paint it green)

i'd guess that parts of north korea compare very favorably to parts of most major metropolitan areas in the u.s. - there are lots of parts of baltimore that look a lot like that picture from detroit.

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@joe shikspack It could be the old Packard plant.

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joe shikspack's picture

@humphrey

possible, but detroit has a lot of decaying industial properties to choose from. Smile

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Pluto's Republic's picture

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato