The Evening Blues - 5-7-19
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features blues singer and piano player Charles Brown. Enjoy!
Charles Brown - Rockin' Blues
“Remember that all through history, there have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they seem invincible. But in the end, they always fall. Always.”
-- Mahatma Gandhi
News and Opinion
Creeping Toward Tyranny
The destruction of the rule of law, an action essential to establishing an authoritarian or totalitarian state, began long before the arrival of the Trump administration. The George W. Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq and implementation of a doctrine of pre-emptive war were war crimes under international law. The federal government’s ongoing wholesale surveillance of the citizenry, another legacy of the Bush administration, mocks our constitutional right to privacy. Assassinating a U.S. citizen under order of the executive branch, as the Obama administration did when it murdered the radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen, revokes due process. The steady nullification of constitutional rights by judicial fiat—a legal trick that has enabled corporations to buy the electoral system in the name of free speech—has turned politicians from the two ruling parties into amoral tools of corporate power. Lobbyists in Washington and the state capitals write legislation to legalize tax boycotts, destroy regulations and government oversight, pump staggering sums of money into the war machine and accelerate the largest upward transfer of wealth in American history, one that has involved looting the U.S. Treasury of trillions of dollars in the wake of the massive financial fraud that set off the 2008 economic collapse. The ruling elites, by slavishly serving corporate interests, created a system of government that effectively denied the citizen the use of state power.
This decades-long disregard by the two major political parties for the rule of law and their distortion of government into a handmaiden for corporations set the stage for Donald Trump’s naked contempt for legality and accountability. It made inevitable our kakistocracy, rule by the worst or most unscrupulous (“kakistocracy” is derived from the Greek words kakistos, meaning worst, and kratos, meaning rule). ...
The mechanisms that once made democracy possible have withered and died. We no longer have elections free of corporate control; real legislative debate; an independent press rooted in verifiable fact that lifts up the voices and concerns of the citizens rather than peddling conspiracy theories such as “Russiagate” or cheerleading for disastrous military interventions and occupations; academic institutions that vigorously examine and critique the nature of power; or diplomacy, negotiation, détente and compromise. Puffed up by self-importance, intoxicated by the ability to wield police and military power, despots and their grotesque courtiers are freed with the collapse of the rule of law to carry out endless vendettas against enemies real and imagined until their own paranoia and fear define the lives of those they subjugate. This is where we have come, not because of Trump, who is the grotesque product of our failed democracy, but because the institutions that were designed to prevent tyranny no longer function. ...
The corporate capitalists who hold real power view Trump as an embarrassment. They would prefer to put a more dignified face on the American empire, one like Biden who will do their bidding with the decorum of a traditional president. But they will work with Trump. He has given them huge tax cuts, is slashing what is left of government oversight and regulation and has increased the budgets for internal security and the military. It may be an uncomfortable relationship, as was the relationship between German industrialists and the buffoonish leaders of the Nazi Party, but for the corporate elites it is far preferable to having to deal with a Bernie Sanders or an Elizabeth Warren. Capitalists, throughout history, have backed fascism to thwart even the most tepid forms of socialism. All the pieces are in place. The hollowing out of our democratic institutions, which cannot be blamed on Trump, makes tyranny inevitable.
John Bolton Has Wanted War With Iran for 20 Years. Now Could Be His Best Chance
There is a tiny bit more detail about the alleged threat that Bolton's proctologist has discovered in this article than in a previous article that I posted the other day.
U.S. Rushes Ships to Middle East Over Unspecified Iran Threats
At the White House, National Security Adviser John Bolton said Sunday night that the U.S. was deploying the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and a bomber task force to the U.S. Central Command region, an area that includes the Middle East. In a statement, he said the move was in response to “a number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings,” but did not provide more details. ...
“It is absolutely the case that we have seen escalatory actions from the Iranians and it is equally the case that we will hold the Iranians accountable for attacks on American interests,” Pompeo said. “If these actions take place, if they do by some third-party proxy, a militia group, Hezbollah, we will hold the Iranian leadership directly accountable for that.”
Asked about “escalatory actions,” Pompeo replied, “I don’t want to talk about what underlays it, but make no mistake, we have good reason to want to communicate clearly about how the Iranians should understand how we will respond to actions they may take.”
Asked if the Iranian action were related to the deadly events in Gaza and Israel — militants fired rockets into Israel on Sunday and Israel responded with airstrikes — Pompeo said, “It is separate from that.”
Here's the Navy announcing Bolton's "announcement" one month ago. https://t.co/dof2RDYHyV pic.twitter.com/ElYrimdC4n
— Micah Zenko (@MicahZenko) May 6, 2019
How The U.S. Is Pressing Iran To Breach The Nuclear Deal
The U.S. is not only sanctioning Iranian trade that was promised to be opened under the JCPOA deal, it is also trying to eliminate all other beneficial elements of the deal. The U.S. provided waivers for several nuclear trades that were part of the JCPOA deal. Some of these were now eliminated, others were put under time restrictions. Iran is allowed to enrich Uranium under the deal, but it is not allowed to hold large amounts of ready enriched Uranium. Enriched Uranium is valuable and Iran found a customer who bought it. Iran also produces heavy water, needed to cool some types of reactors, and exports it. These trades were previously provided with waivers. The Trump administration did not renew those wavers and the export of those products will end. Iran will have to either stop all enrichment and heavy water production or it will have to store what it produces and thereby come into breach of the JCPOA agreement.
Another nuclear trade was about the revamping of the Arak heavy water reactor. Running that reactor in its original form would have produced some plutonium as a byproduct. After the JCPOA agreement Iran contracted a Russian company to convert the Arak reactor into a type that could produce isotopes for medical purposes. The U.S. waiver for that deal has now been time restricted to 90 days. The Russian company is now under a 90 day threat of U.S. sanctions for a project that takes years of design and construction.
Iran is starting to counter the U.S. moves. On Wednesday the Iranian president Rouhani will announce that Iran will take measures based on paragraphs 26 and 37 of the nuclear deal (pdf). Paragraph 26 says that the the EU and the U.S. will lift all nuclear related sanctions and will refrain from re-introducing any. It continues:
Iran has stated that it will treat such a re-introduction or re-imposition of the sanctions specified in Annex II, or such an imposition of new nuclear-related sanctions, as grounds to cease performing its commitments under this JCPOA in whole or in part.
Paragraph 37 is part of the "Dispute Resolution Mechanism" which ends with an involvement of the UN Security Council where the U.S. can block the process. It therefore includes at its end:
Iran has stated that if sanctions are reinstated in whole or in part, Iran will treat that as grounds to cease performing its commitments under this JCPOA in whole or in part.
Iran will use these clauses to 'breach' some of the provisions of the deal while keeping the deal intact. It will continue to allow the IAEA free access to all elements of its nuclear facilities. Iran will not cease enrichment. It will begin to store enriched uranium above the level that is above the one allowed under an intact JCPOA. The same will apply to the heavy water Iran produces. It will probably also announce the construction of a new self developed reactor that is designed to produce radioactive isotopes for medical purposes. The EU, Russia and China have been unofficially informed about the steps Iran is going to take. Tomorrow there will be expert level talks over JCPOA between Iran, Germany, UK, France, Russia and China in Brussels.
That Iran is forced to temporarily accumulate products above the level allowed in the deal is solely caused by the U.S. breach of that deal, i.e. its new sanctions. It is unlikely that the other JCPOA signers will regard Iran's as being in breach of the JCPOA. The U.S. will of course scream bloody murder and will continue to do what it would have done anyway - ratchet the tensions further up.
Iran, Venezuela and China: Finalists for America’s Next Top Battle
Reporter INSIDE Venezuelan Embassy Under Siege! w/Anya Parampil
CNN Falsely Claims Venezuela’s Guaido Was Elected President in January
Continuing to try to advance the US narrative that Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido is the “duly elected” president, CNN went to the trouble on Sunday afternoon of inventing an entire election to base this around.
In the CNN report, they declared “pressure is mounting on Maduro to step down, following elections in January in which voters chose opposition leader Juan Guaido over him for president.” There was no election in January.
In reality, Venezuela’s presidential election was held on May 20, 2018. The opposition boycotted the vote, Maduro won with 67.8% of the vote, while Guaido did not participate at all.
Venezuela crisis: Pence to offer incentives to push army officials to drop Maduro
The Atlantic Illustrates Everything That’s Wrong With Media Coverage of Venezuela Sanctions
“Trump’s Venezuela Policy: Slow Suffocation,” an Atlantic report (4/17/19) by Uri Friedman and Kathy Gilsinan, passed up a rich opportunity to expose the humanitarian pretexts for economic intervention, and instead exhibited the worst tendencies of corporate media coverage of US policy in Latin America. ...
While the headline on its own could be read as accurately suggesting that the Trump administration’s policy was one of “slow suffocation” of the Venezuelan people, the subhead makes it clear that the Atlantic was really saying that the aim was “to tighten the noose on Nicolás Maduro”—described in the piece as Venezuela’s “authoritarian” leader. By primarily framing US sanctions against Venezuela as a “diplomatic” alternative to the “military solution,” and as a continuation of a new Cold War contest against Russia, the report continued the corporate media practice (FAIR.org, 2/6/19) of downplaying the real harm sanctions are already inflicting on Venezuelans. ...
Economists Mark Weisbrot of CEPR and Columbia’s Jeffrey Sachs (CEPR, 4/25/19) have estimated that the death toll from US sanctions is more than 40,000 in 2017-18 alone, based on the experience of other countries in similar situations. They note that sanctions produce lethal effects by increasing unemployment and restricting access to essential imports like food and medicine, as well as preventing easy fixes to problems like rampant hyperinflation (Real News, 1/18/19). This is why UN human rights experts denounce US sanctions as “economic warfare,” which could amount to “crimes against humanity,” and compare the way they kill Venezuelans to a medieval siege (Independent, 1/26/19; Grayzone, 4/7/19).
Although it’s hard to see how one measures the “success” of sanctions—except by their capacity to immiserate the target populations—apparently the only “open question” for the Atlantic is whether or not “gradual economic strangulation” will “prove a match” for the support for Maduro from “foreign patrons” like Russia, China and Cuba. By confining itself to questions of tactical efficacy, and whether sanctions will triumph over the American empire’s rivals, the report completely omits questions of whether or not the US possesses the moral prerogative, and legal authorization, to impose unilateral sanctions and embargoes for regime change purposes.
Most importantly, the Atlantic blindly peddled the humanitarian pretext offered by Trump administration officials, that they are merely opposing “tyranny” in Latin America officials. Instead of recalling the US’s history of using sanctions to undermine popular leftist governments to “make the economy scream,” installing reactionary dictatorships in countries like Chile, or supporting a failed 2002 Venezuelan coup to remove the popularly elected President Hugo Chávez (Extra!, 5–6/02), the authors leaned into corporate media tropes about Latin American leftists. ... However, one shouldn’t expect corporate media to provide the kind of illuminating journalism that would expose and contradict official pretexts, because their support for sabotaging popular left-wing political agendas abroad is fully consistent with their practice of discrediting similar agendas at home (FAIR.org, 2/8/19).
On Contact - The deep rot of American journalism w/Matt Taibbi
US warns Beijing's Arctic activity risks creating 'new South China Sea'
The US plans to beef up its Arctic presence to keep Russia’s and China’s “aggressive behaviour” in check in the resource-rich region, the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, has warned “The region has become an arena of global power and competition” owing to vast reserves of oil, gas, minerals and fish stocks, Pompeo said in a speech in northern Finland. “Just because the Arctic is a place of wilderness does not mean it should become a place of lawlessness,” he said.
Speaking on the eve of a meeting of the eight members of the Arctic Council, Pompeo took on Beijing and Moscow. “China’s pattern of aggressive behaviour elsewhere will inform how it treats the Arctic,” he said. He warned against scenarios whereby nations become ensnared by debt and corruption, of low-quality investments, militarisation and uncontrolled exploitation of natural resources, all of which he said were potential effects of allowing rising Chinese influence.
“Do we want the Arctic Ocean to transform into a new South China Sea, fraught with militarisation and competing territorial claims?” he said. ...
Beijing has invested massively in the region – almost $90bn between 2012 and 2017, according to Pompeo – and intends to fully benefit from the advantages of the Northern Sea Route. The shipping channel, which drastically cuts sailing times between the Pacific and Atlantic by passing north of Russia, is increasingly usable as the ice melts. China and Russia would like to make the Northern Sea Route a part of the New Silk Road project, a vast Chinese investment programme which several countries, especially the US, see as an attempt to gain control.
China Hits Back at Trump’s Tariff Threats: “Do Not Even Think About It”
China has hit back at President Trump’s new plan to impose crippling tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese goods. In China’s words: “Do not even think about it.”
A trade war has been simmering between the two countries for more than a year. The new tariffs, which are set to go into effect at midnight on Friday, could bring it to a boil.
The message from the Chinese government came hours after U.S. trade representative Robert Lighthizer confirmed that the White House was making good on Trump’s threat to increase tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods from 10 percent to 25 percent, and impose new tariffs on $325 billion worth of Chinese goods so far untouched in the trade war.
Democrats Demand White House Hand Over Documents on Trump's "Abominable" Hurricane Response in Puerto Rico
A group of House Democrats on Monday sent letters to the White House, FEMA, and the Department of Health and Human Services demanding documents related to the Trump administration's "abominable" hurricane response in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The letter (pdf) to the White House—led by House Oversight Committee chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.)—accuses Republicans of stonewalling Democratic requests for Puerto Rico records in 2017 and 2018, when the GOP controlled the House.
"Republicans actively blocked all Democratic requests over the past two years while President Trump heaped scorn on the very people who lost thousands of their loved ones," reads the letter. The House Democrats called on the White House to turn over all documents and communications related to hurricane assessments, preparation, and response in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
The request was signed by every Democratic member of the House Oversight Committee, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.). In their letter to FEMA, Democrats requested—among other documents—"communications regarding mass graves found in Puerto Rico" in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. ...
The Democrats' letters come as hurricane relief funding for Puerto Rico remains stalled in Congress due to Trump and Republican opposition.
Group Disrupts Pa. Statehouse in Bid to End Legalized Bribery
A group of activists dedicated to ending corruption in Pennsylvania politics temporarily shut down the the statehouse in Harrisburg Monday after a five-day march from Philadelphia. Members of the MarchOnHarrisburg group staged a rally outside the statehouse before eight activists from the organization disrupted statehouse proceedings.
The group wants Pennsylvania to pass HB 1291, or Gift Ban legislation, to curtail the power and influence lobbyists have over state lawmakers. "H.B. 1291 would make it illegal for lobbyists to bribe Pennsylvania legislators with gifts like cars, vacations, and fancy meals," the group explained in a statement.
Pennsylvania is one of eight states that has no limit on the amount of gifts lobbyists can give legislators.
Ex-Goldman Sachs banker extradited to US to face charges
A former Goldman Sachs banker has been extradited from Malaysia to the US to face criminal charges connected to the $4.5bn (£3.4bn) corruption scandal at the 1MDB state investment fund. Malaysia’s attorney general said Roger Ng had been transferred to the US for 10 months, after which he would be returned to face charges in his home country. Ng, who left Goldman Sachs in 2014, has been detained in Kuala Lumpur since last November after the US justice department charged him with allegedly laundering funds diverted from the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) fund.
At the federal court in Brooklyn on Monday, Ng pleaded not guilty to paying bribes to government officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi. ... Vast sums were allegedly looted from 1MDB in a fraud said to have extended to the former Malaysian leader Najib Razak and his associates, triggering an international outcry and embroiling one of the world’s biggest investment banks in a financial scandal. Last month, Razak went on trial on corruption charges linked to 1MDB. He denies the charges.
Ng is among former bankers at Goldman Sachs accused of helping to misappropriate $2.7bn of funds, bribing officials and giving false statements when helping to issue bonds that would raise proceeds for 1MDB. ...
Goldman Sachs is under scrutiny for its role helping to underwrite and arrange three bond sales that raised $6.5bn for 1MDB. US authorities estimate that about $4.5bn was misappropriated by senior 1MDB officials and their associates between 2009 and 2014, including some of the funds that Goldman Sachs helped to raise. US prosecutors claim the diverted cash was used by conspirators to buy luxury property in cities such as New York, acquire expensive artwork and fund the production of Hollywood films including The Wolf of Wall Street.
Trump's labor department is giving the gig economy carte blanche
Two days before May Day, the Trump administration quietly punished the American worker. In a ruling lost in the din of the Mueller report and the 2020 inanity, Trump’s labor department determined that an unidentified company’s workers were contractors and not employees – a decision that could free tech behemoths everywhere to further exploit the people who help generate their titanic value. The Trump administration ruled that the company, which apparently pays workers to clean residences, did not have to offer the federal minimum wage or overtime, or pay a share of social security taxes. Though the judgment applies only to this single company, it signals the labor department under Alexander Acosta will give so-called gig companies carte blanche to deny their workers any semblance of benefits. ...
The labor department’s determination is fantastic news for Uber and Lyft, the ride-hail giants set to go public. About to vacuum up billions, they’ve never turned a profit. In this fantasy economy of easy credit and rule-breaking, they don’t have to. Their model is essentially feudal: let poorly paid drivers do all the actual work while the company reaps all the value as angel investors continue to pour cash into the corporation. Many millionaires and billionaires will be minted, and like any good capitalist grift, the workers will be left with virtually nothing.
The tech industry’s abuse of the American worker long predates Trump and Democrats should also be recognized for their fealty to industries that view human beings, especially poor ones, as expendable. Democratic politicians championed the explosion of the ride-hail industry, even as cars clogged roads, drove competing taxi drivers to economic ruin, and starved public transit of revenue as more people chose the convenience of a black car over a train or bus. Democrats also beseeched Amazon to pick their locality for a new headquarters, tossing revenue-sapping tax breaks at an anti-union corporation now worth a trillion dollars.
Trump’s latest move should be understood both for what it is and in the context it belongs: to a neoliberal swerve away from the battle for worker empowerment that characterized the first half of the 20th century. Uber has estimated recognizing drivers as employees would increase their labor costs by 20 to 30%. They regard this as a travesty: any move that could raise the standard of living of every day people but cut slightly into the corporation’s valuation is verboten.
This Is How Quickly We’re Killing the Planet
One million of the planet’s nearly 9 million species are facing extinction within decades, all thanks to humans, according to a new United Nations report. The report, a summary of which was released Monday, is being described as one of the most comprehensive assessments of the unprecedented, human-caused effects of climate change on biodiversity. According to its authors, plants and animals are dying off at a rate that humans have accelerated to be tens or hundreds of times faster than normal. And it’s not just about the loss of animals and lush plant life: As biodiversity erodes, people will suffer — primarily those living in poverty or nations that overwhelmingly rely on agriculture and fishing for their livelihood. ...
“We are indeed threatening the potential food security, water security, human health and social fabric” of humanity, Robert Watson, a former NASA scientist who led the report, told the Associated Press. Nearly 75% of all land habitats and 66% of marine habitats have been “significantly altered by human actions,” according to the report. That makes amphibians the most at risk, with a whopping 40 percent predicted to die off.
Here’s what else the report says humans have done:
- Due to a global rise in agriculture production and urban areas, land- and marine-based habitats have been severely harmed.
- More than 33% of marine fish stocks were harvested at unsustainable levels in 2015, which stressed marine ecosystems.
- Plastic pollution has gravely affected coastal ecosystems, stoking more than 400 ocean “dead zones” that can choke marine life.
- The number of invasive species per country has risen nearly 70 percent since 1970, driven by global transportation and commerce
- Greenhouse gas emissions and the burning of fossil fuels have contributed to climate change and warming ocean temperatures
... In another report published six months ago, the U.N. also warned that the world had about 12 years left to address catastrophic global warming or face a point of no return.
Gunmen attack prominent Colombian environmental activist
One of Colombia’s most-prominent grassroots activists and winner of a prestigious international environmental prize has been attacked at a meeting with community leaders.
Francia Marquez, who survived Saturday’s attack, said gunmen launched a grenade and opened fire into a crowd of activists gathered in the southern town of Santander de Quilichao. Two people were injured as bodyguards protecting some attendees battled the attackers, whose identities are unknown.
President Ivan Duque ordered an investigation.
Marquez won last year’s Goldman Environmental Prize for her work fighting illegal gold mining by armed groups in her Afro-Colombian community.
Obama’s Agriculture Secretary, Now Working for the Dairy Industry, Urges 2020 Democrats to Be Nice to the Dairy Industry
In a campaign speech on Sunday at the Swine Arena in Osage, Iowa, Sen. Bernie Sanders outlined an agricultural policy rooted in breaking the power of vertically integrated farm monopolies. He called for breaking up consolidations in the pork, beef, corn, and soybean seed industries; an end to “contract farming” in which farmers raise livestock they do not own at low prices predetermined by agribusinesses; re-establishing the Grain Inspection, Packers, and Stockyards Administration, which the Trump administration dissolved; and returning to a “price parity” system in which farmers can ensure a reasonable price above costs and supply is matched with demand.
Sanders is not alone among 2020 candidates in targeting big ag. Sen. Cory Booker’s strongest and most ambitious policy designs have been in the area of agriculture, and he introduced a moratorium and merger review bill last year. Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s farm policy includes reversing mergers she says should have never been approved, like the Bayer-Monsanto deal that consolidated the seed and pesticide industry. ... With 30 percent of the Iowa economy tied up in agriculture, the concentration crisis seems like fertile ground for Democrats. The way of life of the independent family farmer is slowly slipping away, supplanted by mammoth agribusinesses: industrial-sized confinement lots, ruthless livestock companies and seed merchants, monoculture crops stretching for miles. These monopolists have grabbed a significant share of food profits; farmers used to earn 37 cents of every retail dollar, now down to only 15.
Any Democrat looking to improve life for everyday Iowans, then, could highlight preventing or reversing big ag consolidation as a way to salvage rural America. Anyone, that is, except for Tom Vilsack, former Iowa governor and former President Barack Obama’s agriculture secretary. Which makes sense, because he’s a mouthpiece for the corporate dairy industry. ... Speaking on the “Iowa Starting Line” podcast last month, he warned Democratic candidates against talking about farm monopolies. “Well, there are a substantial number of people hired and employed by those businesses here in Iowa,” Vilsack said. “So you’re essentially saying to all of those folks, you might be out of a job. That’s not to me a winning message.” If the conversation is about lost jobs, Vilsack has it backward: Farm consolidation causes job loss, from family farmers cashing out to Bayer cutting 12,000 jobs when it merged with Monsanto. ...
Vilsack is president and CEO of the U.S. Dairy Export Council, joining just days after wrapping up as Obama’s agriculture secretary. The council’s members include the large corporate players who have made the dairy business a rolling disaster in America. ...
Pulling rank on the 2020 field, Vilsack claimed that the fervor over agricultural monopolies stems from “folks in think tanks in urban centers who have had very little experience, if any, with rural places.” Most 2020 candidates haven’t taken Vilsack’s advice, including the junior senator from the dairy state of Vermont. “I come from a state where agriculture is very important,” Sanders told HuffPost last month. “Literally every week another farmer is going out of business … so the answer is vigorous antitrust legislation, break them up.”
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Will the U.S. Start a War Against Iran?
What if Iran Retaliates and Shuts Down the Strait of Hormuz?
The Eagle, the Bear and the Dragon
Syria - Russian And Syrian Airforce Prepare The Ground For An Attack On Idlib Province
Why The Powerful Always Paint Their Side As The Victims
Antitrust in American History: Law, Institutions, and Economic Performance
Top Ten Questions About the Mueller Report
Sandra Bland Recorded Her Traffic Stop. Now the Footage Is Out.
A small town, a chemical plant and the residents' desperate fight for clear air
'The future of life on Earth lies in the balance' – a picture essay
A Little Night Music
Charles Brown - Drifting Blues
Charles Brown - Risin' Sun
Charles Brown - Sunny Road
Charles Brown - Black Night
Charles Brown & Amos Milburn - My Little Baby
Charles Brown - Trouble Blues
Charles Brown - Just a Lucky So and So
Charles Brown - Bad, Bad Whiskey
Charles Brown & Dr John - A Virus Called The Blues
Charles Brown - These Blues
Charles Brown - Let's Walk
Comments
Who can deny that America needs a head-doctor ?
Here's Aaron Maté with his dad, Dr. Gabor Maté, to talk about trauma, projection and the psychology of Russiagate.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR07OtEhKPE width:500 height:300]
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
can't help to talk again and thank you for this
interview and conversation between father and son.I think we all need a head doctor like Dr. Gabor Maté, espcially I would like to know more what he has to say about trauma.
Yeah, mock me, I capitulate. Can't stay silent.
https://www.euronews.com/
Dr. Gabor Maté has multiple videos on youtube
Another medical professional from the socialized medical system of Canada. The other physician mentioned on C99 has been Dr Jason Fung.
Here is Dr Maté speaking to an audience of health care providers.
Dr. Gabor Maté Part 1 of 3 Trauma & recovery across the lifespan: insight into addictions
Part 1 38 minutes
Part 2 29 minutes
Part 3 24 minutes
I tend to listen to the medical audience talks and so my bookmarks are a little narrow. He has a number of discussions to general audiences. I hope you are able to view them in Germany.
Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.
thank you, I am discovering him and his videos
I guess I could need him as a head doctor.
https://www.euronews.com/
evening mimi...
i'm delighted to see you again, thanks for dropping in.
have a great evening!
thanks to you and JtC to keep a seat warm for me here
I know I am a difficult patient, who can't live without you guys. /s
https://www.euronews.com/
You'd think that people would be happy to learn that Trump
isn't under Vlad's thumb, but no. No matter what evidence is shown that proves that Russia Gate was a concoction of Hillary's, the DNC and had plenty of help from the Obama administration people will go to their grave convinced that Russia stole the election from Hillary.
Here's an article on how Mueller really messed up his investigation by not mentioning how many people involved with trying to entrap people from Trump's campaign had connections to the FBI. Consortium has written other articles on how Mueller never interviewed the players in the FBI or especially Julian Assange. You'd think that he might want to have talked to the VIPS folks too who showed how the DNC computers weren't hacked.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
evening snoopy...
yeah, it's really kind of funny. despite the fact that trump could be impeached at any time for his violations of the emoluments clause or a variety of war crimes, people are bummed out that they can't get rid of him for being controlled by russia.
it's a very particular fetish that some people have developed.
evening azazello...
thanks for that video, it was really excellent.
Cops stand by while Guaido's goons block food delivery
I'm sure we can guess who is giving them and the SS their orders. Hopefully something can be legally done to them. Both the goons and the cops.
America land of the free...
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
apparently notions of being equal before the law...
is just another quaint idea printed on some damned piece of paper.
How far will they let the violence go?
and what happens if someone gets hurt badly or worse? I just remembered that cops don't have a duty to protect. Is this right? But I bet there would be some civil liabilities that could be charged. Stay tuned.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
heh, well...
as i understand it (i am not a lawyer) cops have a duty to protect the public (though not a specific individual) and a duty to protect and defend the constitution.
it's my general impression from years of reading news reports that the police tend to have special legal teflon in most instances and are able to wiggle out of accountability for failures such as might occur at the venezuelan embassy.
Jesse states it well
https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/
07 MAY 2019
The Political Elite and the Rise of Global Populism
"What the two sets of party elites also share is contempt for their parties’ base of activists, voters and non-donor constituencies. Aside from paying them lip service during election season, Republican elites have no use for their base of religious voters, anti-immigrant activists and small-business people...
Similarly, Democratic Party leaders have no use for the priorities of their voters and activists, who by large margins support Medicare-for-all, the Green New Deal and an end to our militarized foreign policy...
The realization of how little the agendas of ordinary people matter to the elites of both parties has made it a lot more acceptable for their betrayed bases to look for alternatives, which would have been unthinkable a decade ago. In fact, this realization is the genesis of the populist moment in current American politics."
Bill Blum, Democratic [and Republican] Elite Could Care Less About the Life of the Party
“Incestuous, homogeneous fiefdoms of self-proclaimed expertise are always rank-closing and mutually self-defending, above all else.”
Glenn Greenwald
“People with advantages are loathe to believe that they just happen to be people with advantages. They come readily to define themselves as inherently worthy of what they possess; they come to believe themselves 'naturally' elite; and, in fact, to imagine their possessions and their privileges as natural extensions of their own elite selves.”
C. Wright Mills
"Propaganda is the executive arm of the invisible government."
Edward Bernays
There is no point in trying to persuade and cajole the various party elites, of either side of the aisle, to redirect their attention back to the American public. Their minds and hearts belong to the donor class and the power elite, and while they may pay lip service to reform and rights and the public welfare, their venal instincts bring them around to follow the money, every time.
Obama betrayed the progressiver trust in the mandate he was given for reform. That is a difficult but key admission towards freeing oneself from the unthinking herd. And abandoning the ''lesser of two evils' rationale.
Have you ever wondered why there are effectively only two parties in this vast America?
Trump talks a good game as well, albeit more loudly and more crudely and more shamelessly, but he is betraying his own base of supporters as well. He is remarkably adept at shifting the blame, and blowing all the familiar dog whistles when his natives get restless. The benefit to him is that he is riding a wave of irrational anger and backlash, and he feeds and channels it like most unscrupulous demagogues do so well.
The American people soundly rejected Hillary and her party apparatus which was made evident in the last election. And as a result of what could have been a learning experience the Democrats may talk a good game about change, and then the party elite serve up who— the corporatist party hack Joe Biden, probably the least reform-minded and progressive candidate in the field. And all the courtiers to corporate power in the media and the other enabling organizations fall immediately into line.
And try to shame anyone who disagrees or dissents from the prevailing narrative.
Liberals like to pride themselves with their intellectual sophistication and high-principled judgement, as compared to 'the deplorables.' Conservatives do the same thing, with a strong emphsis on morality and common sense.
But when it comes to it, they both will stand by and accept terrible injustice, if not outright crimes, and toss aside the very principles for which they apparently stand. For the sake of winning. But oh no, not for their own benefit, but for the sake of 'justice' for the right kind of people. Never mind the methods they must regretfully employ.
They will bend themselves into logical knots, and paint their hypocrisy with rationales designed to let them keep their pride and sense of being better than the rest, whom they despise. They are the most noble, untainted by the things that they despise. But they embrace what they hate in other guises.
They will do it for the sake of 'the party,' for winning, for the continuing power of an organization which has been waylaid by a relatively small group of the servants of the powerful few, and primarily serves itself, while couching its actions as 'the lesser of two evils.'
For the sake of victory over the forces of evil these jokers will make Faustian bargains, for the sake of expediency and some higher good, with the same thought and care with which they change their underwear.
Change will come. But it will be jarring, and disruptive.
Winning....
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=702&v=4xPCMhwyHy0]
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=825&v=qY2pv3Bt_jM]
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
evening ggersh...
thanks, good stuff!
can i have, "do the owners find it infelicitous to have a party that represents the tenants?" for a thousand alex?
Cancer alley
Thanks as usual for all the hard work putting together the Evening Blues night after night. It is such an thought provoking time in my day.
Reading about the people in the town of Reserve infuriates and breaks my heart at the same time. To see this happen again and again as people move on and seem to say oh well. Saw this in Houston after Harvey when the reporters went to the areas around the chemical plants that had leaked contaminants and nothing was done to help these people or even clean up the area for the long term.
As we move into the 2020 election cycle, this one of the reasons why so many are disillusioned with what the Democratic party seems to be pushing for in the form of Biden. Just last weekend talking with a friend who felt Biden was the best choice for our country and to be able to beat Trump. Could not make him seem to understand why Biden was possibly the worst choice.
On a much more pleasant note, am leaving tomorrow to connect with my sister who has come down from Michigan to enjoy some woman's softball in College Station, Texas and then take the train from Austin to Chicago and spend a few days there exploring before continuing on train journey to Ann Arbor where she has many activities planned. Included are a train ride to Montreal, Canada to do a multiple day bike ride on a former train track now hike/bike trail. All should be interesting since have not been in this area before. More from the road later.
Life is what you make it, so make it something worthwhile.
This ain't no dress rehearsal!
evening jb...
yep, reserve seems to be one of those "sacrifice zones" that chris hedges wrote about in one of his recent books. the people there are considered disposable. it looks like those folks who thought that they were immune to this sort of thing because they are the social betters of the people of reserve are soon to find out that they are disposable, too.
it's hard to believe that people are still sucked in by the dnc's centrist "electability" narrative after what happened in 2016. but here we are.
sounds like you are off on a pleasant adventure! do please report in from the road.
Have a wonderful trip.
I too would like to hear a report about your train travels, It sounds like an interesting way to go.
Good evening, joe and bluzerz!
We are oblivious to the fine line we are walking. I’m watching the traffic, back and forth, to and fro as usual. What will the tipping point be?
A storm is moving in with rain chances this week and increasing by the weekend. Spring showers and all that - it’s true!
Have a cozy evening, everyone!
"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
evening ra...
heh, yep, keep moving ahead and don't look down.
glad to hear that there's some more rain on the way for you guys. so far, this sounds like it has been a pretty good winter/spring for your area. i hope that your holding tanks are filling up.
Joe Biden Faceplants With Slogan Stolen From Mango Mussolini
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1ukGmVFr4k]
The Gentricratic Party is fuckin' dumb. Fucking. Dumb. They're perfectly fine with 4 more years with Trump and his Mafia because they're making bank off of it as well. Get ready for pitchforks, torches and guillotines, assholes.
Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.
Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.
evening ac...
yeah, that biden guy is just the poster boy for morality.
let the farce begin!
about 40 years ago, the newly elected Tory
Premier of Manitoba (comparable to a governor) announced, "Today Manitoba, Tomorrow Canada", hilariously echoing Goebbels.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
I enjoyed
the Matt Taibbi interview (and the Thomas Frank one and the Mark Blyth as well). Taibbi's book won't be out till October he says...but looks as if it can be accessed on line.
Corporate media is in large part responsible for the mess we are in. From ggersh's comment: "Propaganda is the executive arm of the invisible government." If people would just decide not to believe the garbage, that might be a start.
Thanks for the EB.
evening randtntx...
taibbi has been releasing serial bits of his new book online. i don't know if it is all there, but i have read a couple of chapters that way. what i have read has been very good.
yes. sadly, these people are allowed to help shape what americans take for reality. it is an awesome power that is put into the hands of utterly corrupt people who should not be allowed to wield any sort of power.
great blues JS!
Great tunes, what a voice, and yeah his playin'... Rockin Blues was beautiful. All with
great guitar playing... saw it was Robert Cray on These Blues, sweet stuff.
Great Ghandi quote. Remind me, I forget, what empire did not collapse?
Shouldn't his card say: John 'bloodthirsty' Bolton, neocon warmonger?
Wonder what Ted Turner thinks of what CNN has become? Gauido won an election!?!?!?!
I do not see the current SCOTUS being one that protects endangered species. Usually the "what is important, a frog, or jobs destroying forests and releasing carbon?" wins.
May the farce be with you!
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
evening dystopian...
charles brown worked with some really great guitarists over the years. early on, he worked with a guitarist named johnny moore who is worth looking for (check johnny moore's three blazers), he did some great stuff over the years.
yeah, if that frog species life depends on brett kavanaugh ... perhaps we ought to send him that budweiser ad with the three frogs in order to associate frogs with something that he cares deeply about ...