The Evening Blues - 6-29-17



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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Lazy Lester

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Louisiana blues harmonica player and guitarist Lazy Lester. Enjoy!

Lazy Lester & Lazy Boots - Sugar Coated Love

“There would be an end of war and preparations for war if the cost were borne by those responsible for war. There would be an end of armaments and preparedness if incomes and inheritances and the landed estates of the feudal classes paid for the protection which their privileges enjoy. War and preparations for war are possible only because the ruling classes are able to shift a great part of the cost onto the poor by indirect taxation and loans. War expenditures are tolerated only because the burdens are concealed in the increased cost of the things people consume. ‘The art of plucking the goose without making it cry out’ has been developed to a high state of perfection at the hands of the war makers.”

-- Frederic Clemson Howe


News and Opinion

Why don't deficit hawks care about the cost of military adventurism?

Crippling deficits and a nightmarish national debt are popular, recurring tropes in American politics: Every few months, politicians and the pundit class seem to recall that we’re broke. While some are no doubt sincere in their concern, our pocketbook cops are wildly inconsistent. They complain that America is running out of money when it comes to helping the poor, people of color, the disabled and the elderly. Their worries miraculously disappear whenever the military wants to start a new war.

Let’s begin with a recent editorial in the Washington Post alleging that single payer in the U.S. is simply unaffordable. It cited studies showing it would cost “$32 trillion over 10 years.” Yet in the past 20 years of editorials on U.S. wars — every one of which the paper has supported — the Post has never framed the issue of bombing and occupying as one of cost. Most glaringly, its 2003 editorials in support of invading Iraq never mentioned dollars and cents, even though that war ended up costing the U.S. more than $2 trillion (not including the subsequent costs of fighting Islamic State). Never in any of its cheerleading did it stop to consider the war’s affordability.

In the Democratic primary debates and in press conferences, Sen. Bernie Sanders was grilled on “how he would pay” for his free college and healthcare plans over and over again. Putatively liberal publications including the New Yorker and Vox decried Sanders’ “vague and unrealistic” price projections. But nobody asked his challenger, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, how she would pay for the “no-fly zone” in Syria she championed that, according to the Pentagon, would require at least 70,000 servicemen and dozens of aircraft. ...

One common rejoinder to this complaint is that military spending is about national security and protecting lives and is thus sheltered from such calculus. Even if you believe that’s true (it’s not), it’s still a bad answer. An estimated 44,000 Americans die a year because they don’t have access to healthcare, whereas you’re more likely to die taking a bath than at the hands of a terrorist. Why is spending on the latter existential and beyond cost-cutting, but working urgently to address the former a budget-buster we can’t afford?

Politics is priorities, and ours align with a specific class whose interests are far out of line with the collective good.

Senate panel passes $700B defense policy bill

The Senate Armed Services Committee unanimously passed its $700 billion version of the annual defense policy bill, the committee announced Wednesday.

The bill, broken down into $640 billion for the base defense budget and $60 billion for a war fund, follows the funding levels Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) has pushed for months and flies past the administration’s budget request.

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) “starts the process of rebuilding our military after six years of devastating cuts to our defense budget,” McCain said in a statement Wednesday. “By supporting $640 billion for defense, this legislation begins to address the readiness shortfall, crisis in modernization and eroding military advantage by recapitalizing and reinvesting in our forces.”

The Trump administration requested a $603 billion base defense budget and $65 billion for the war fund, known as the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) account.

What Happened to America’s Wealth? The Rich Hid It

If you find yourself traveling this summer, take a closer look at America’s deteriorating infrastructure — our crumbling roads, sidewalks, public parks, and train and bus stations. Government officials will tell us “there’s no money” to repair or properly maintain our tired infrastructure. Nor do we want to raise taxes, they say. But what if billions of dollars in tax revenue have gone missing?

New research suggests that the super-rich are hiding their money at alarming rates. A study by economists Annette Alstadsaeter, Niels Johannesen, and Gabriel Zucman reports that households with wealth over $40 million evade 25 to 30 percent of personal income and wealth taxes. These stunning numbers have two troubling implications. First, we’re missing billions in taxes each year. That’s partly why our roads and transit systems are falling apart. Second, wealth inequality may be even worse than we thought. Economic surveys estimate that roughly 85 percent of income and wealth gains in the last decade have gone to the wealthiest one-tenth of the top 1 percent.

That’s bad enough. But what if the concentration is even greater?

Wall St. Democrats vs. Working Class Democrats

Nina Turner and Paul Jay discuss the fight within the Democratic Party and the need for the Sanders movement to more seriously take up the question of war and U.S. foreign policy

Gonna’ Have to Face It, You’re Addicted to War

The last time I thought there might be a world war was in the 1980s. Ronald Reagan and his minions were placing cruise missiles designed to be armed with nuclear warheads all across Europe. Millions across Europe and the United States were protesting this deployment. ... Meanwhile, Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher schemed and maneuvered the legislatures of their respective countries into approving the basing of nuclear missiles on their soil. The madness of the leaders and the war industry that leads them and the generals like so many craven submissives was all too clear and on display to the world. ...

Earlier in the month, the United States military shot down a Syrian fighter plane flying in Syrian air space. This action was a clear violation of international law and seemingly intended to provoke a military response. In addition to that singular act, the fact that the US military is in a foreign country (Syria) without any pretense of an invitation from that nation’s government is a gross violation of that nation’s sovereignty. In response to the shooting down of the Syrian plane, Russia is now insisting both verbally and through its own military that US planes stay away from the region of Syria where the plane was shot down. Washington, meanwhile is predicting another chemical attack as a pretext for a pre-emptive attack against the Syrian nation. ... Meanwhile, in northern Korea, the ongoing game of provocation between Washington and Pyongyang continues. This game, which is essentially continued primarily because of Washington, has as much of a potentially lethal ending to it as the situation in Syria. ... Then there are the numerous US-involved conflicts taking place across the globe. From Afghanistan (where US troop numbers are once again being increased by at least four or five thousand) to various places in Africa to the Philippines and elsewhere, US forces are being deployed. ...

Here in the US, the possibility of war being a couple shots away is mostly ignored. Some ignore the possibility because the situation is so confusing and complicated by lies and half-truths. Still others do not seem to care what happens. Clinton-haters blame Clinton and Obama while their opposites blame Trump and the GOP. The real blame falls on politicians of both parties and the system they support and manipulate in favor of their class. The fundamental reason for the growing threat of all-out war by the US is a desire to control the flow of the earth’s resources and markets; and to maximize Wall Street profits from that control. This is why the only thing the US does consistently and often is go to war. This is the definition of imperialism. Neither the GOP nor the Democrats are anti-imperialist. In other words, both parties are to blame. So are those who support the military and its wars. The arrogance and stupidity disguised as naiveté that defines the current status of the US polity in 2017 may well be the world’s demise. Friends and families of addicts hope to intervene before the addict dies from an overdose. The US has reached that point again. It’s time for rehab.

Mosul mosque where Isis declared caliphate 'has been recaptured'

Iraqi forces claim to have recaptured the Great Mosque of al-Nuri in Mosul – where Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed himself leader of Islamic State three years ago. The seizure marks a highly symbolic moment in the war, placing government troops in the heart of the Old City – the last redoubt of Isis in Mosul – and probably within a fortnight of recapturing all of Mosul.

Baghdadi declared a caliphate from the mosque three years ago to the day – 29 June 2014 – at the height of the group’s power. Isis last week toppled the Hadba minaret adjoining the mosque, causing extensive damage to the surrounding compound. The fight for the terror group’s last redoubt was grinding and savage, with Iraqi troops reporting house-to-house fighting with a battle-hardened enemy, which refused to surrender.

Iraqi special forces entered the compound and took control of the surrounding streets on Thursday afternoon, following a dawn push into the area, said Lt Gen Abdul Wahab al-Saadi.

Mattis claims Syria heeded U.S. warnings over chemical strike: ‘They didn’t do it’

Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis claimed Wednesday that the Syrian government backed down after the White House said that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces were preparing for another possible chemical attack.

“They didn’t do it,” Mattis said.

Speaking to reporters aboard a flight to Brussels, the retired four star general gave few details to support the assertion that the Syrian military stepped back from plans for a possible chemical strike. On Monday, the White House warned that Syrian forces would “pay a heavy price” if they carried out another chemical strike.

Mattis’s remarks come a day after the Pentagon said it had seen “active preparations for chemical weapons use” at Shayrat Airfield, the same place struck by more than 50 cruise missiles earlier this year. ...

Mattis did not say if the Pentagon had seen activity elsewhere, but indicated that Assad’s chemical weapons program remains firmly intact despite his earlier pledges to dismantle it.

Trump is setting up his generals as fall guys for Afghanistan

As a business executive (and reality show host), Trump cultivated an image of being unambiguously the guy in charge. Now as commander in chief, he is opting for a more detached approach. When it comes to war, he functions less as full-time CEO than as part-time board chairman. This represents a sharp departure from established American practice. Ever since President Truman and Gen. Douglas MacArthur butted heads over who should run the Korean War, presidents have played an assertive, at times even intrusive, role in managing military matters. Not Trump, however. Although nominally the boss, Trump appears content to let his generals run things. ...

We cannot say for certain why the president has chosen to distance himself from this war that he inherited. But one possibility is this: Having learned through painful experience to recognize a losing proposition, he has no intention of being left holding the bag for this one. The savvy Mattis must suspect that he is the designated fall guy. If not, he will discover it next year or the year after when Trump relieves himself of responsibility for a still unwon war and looks to pin the blame on someone else.

Republicans Have Trifecta Control of 25 States & Need 6 More to Call for a Constitutional Convention

FBI agent charged with lying about his role in Oregon standoff activist's killing

An FBI special agent lied about his involvement in the fatal shooting of a protester who helped lead an armed takeover of an Oregon wildlife refuge, according to a federal indictment on obstruction of justice charges.

A grand jury in Portland has charged W Joseph Astarita with three counts of making false statements, alleging that he lied when he claimed he did not fire his weapon during the attempted arrest of LaVoy Finicum, a key figure in the Oregon militia standoff at the Malheur national wildlife refuge in 2016. The charges, revealed in federal court records on Wednesday, raise fresh questions about the death of Finicum and the FBI’s response to the high-profile protest in rural eastern Oregon, which was led by ranchers and rightwing activists, who seized federal property to protest government land regulations.

Astarita, who pleaded not guilty in federal court in Portland, was assigned to arrest the leaders of the standoff on 26 January 2016 when Finicum drove off the road and into a snowbank, before attempting to flee on foot. During the ensuing confrontation, some of which was captured on film, Oregon state police officers shot and killed Finicum, an Arizona rancher, who police say was reaching for his gun. Police later said the shooting was “justified”.

Soon after the incident, however, Astarita “knowingly and willfully made a false statement” to a supervisory special agent when he said he did not fire his weapon according to the grand jury charges. The “misleading conduct” and failure to disclose the fact that he had fired two rounds played a role in the FBI’s decision not to call a shooting incident response team to investigate, according to federal officials.

Historian: Republican Push to Replace Obamacare Reflects Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America

If Republicans lose the healthcare fight, it's the beginning of the end

At the beginning of this week, Republican senators were planning to head home for the Fourth of July recess and celebrate the nation’s independence and freedom by enacting their idea of liberty: denying health insurance to more than 20 million people. By the middle of the week, their hopes were dashed. ... Once again the Republicans have found themselves in the peculiar position of possessing total control of the elected branches of the federal government, yet unable to act on one of their longstanding dreams: not just slowly destroying Medicaid, a federal program that guarantees healthcare to millions of poorer people, but also forcing people to rely upon the free market for their healthcare.

One reason the Republicans are having such a hard time of it is that the public is overwhelmingly against the Senate bill. ... But that only begs the question: why haven’t the Republican free-market fanatics mobilized their base in support of the bill? Why aren’t they flooding the Senate with phone calls in favor of making people fend for themselves in the healthcare insurance market? Where’s the passion for the market, the hostility to the welfare state, that has so defined the conservative cause since the New Deal? ...

If the Republicans can’t turn their trifecta of control into a conservative policy victory – and with the exception of the appointment of Neil Gorsuch to the supreme court, the Republicans under Trump, Ryan and McConnell have yet to achieve any major victory – it will mean that the movement is no longer able to translate its faith in the market into the full-spectrum dominance it once had. ... In 1977, 1983 and 1993, the federal government launched a major retrenchment of Social Security. Benefits were slashed, benefits were taxed and the retirement age was raised. In two of those instances, the Democrats controlled the White House and Congress. In all those instances, the Democrats controlled the House. Throughout the past four decades, in other words, entitlement programs have been under attack – by both parties.

It will be truly significant, if the Republicans are able to overturn Obamacare, that they could only do it by the skin of their teeth, with zero support from the Democratic party. That they’re now struggling not to lose three Republican votes in the Senate tells us how far the politics of the welfare state has come.

Keiser Report: Molar City

A Mexican Town Is Giving Americans Something Donald Trump Can’t: Affordable Dental Care

Wearing medical scrubs and a welcoming smile, Pablo introduces himself, his hand seamlessly producing a business card from his breast pocket between handshakes. “We have the best prices in town,” he says, confidently running through a litany of dental procedures his employer offers.

It’s a pitch Pablo makes dozens — perhaps hundreds — of times a day to tens of thousands of dental refugees who stream across the border at Yuma, Arizona, each year seeking the affordable dental care they only dream of back home. With an astounding 600 dentists in this town of just 6,000, competition for customers is brisk. And there is no shortage of them.

“Buddy, it’s a mine for us,” Pablo tells me.

It’s also a necessity. While Donald Trump and Congress have made repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act one of their top legislative priorities, what’s rarely mentioned is that the US is in the midst of a dental care crisis. According to the National Association of Dental Plans, 114 million Americans don’t have dental insurance, including 46.3 million people aged 65 or older. And for those who do, the costs of dental work can still be out of reach. ...

Oral health care legislation typically focuses on the uninsured; for instance, Congress is considering a bill that would help the poorest Americans gain dental care through community clinics. But providing universal dental care isn’t a priority for either party. Nor is bringing down costs. The current version of the House’s repeal-and-replace bill does not include any language aimed at boosting dental insurance rolls, and the American Dental Association has warned that changes to Medicaid and other provisions could result in children and low-income Americans losing what little coverage they now have.

Enter Molar City, the dental Shangri-la of the Mexican desert that’s doing what nobody in Washington has done: keeping American mouths healthy and happy at a fraction of the price.

Says Los Algodones Mayor Christian Camacho: “We’re helping the United States take care of the people they are not able to.”

Why the world should pay attention to America’s civil war over healthcare

For observers around the world, Tuesday’s setback for Senate Republicans in their attempt to reverse Barack Obama’s healthcare reforms may seem like another perplexing chapter in America’s checkered history with the issue. While Britain and other European states have succeeded in securing general access to relatively low-cost, high-quality care for citizens, the United States has repeatedly failed to follow suit, causing anguish at home and bemusement abroad.

But the developments this week in the US saga are of special and urgent importance, according to policy experts, not only for those Americans who need help the most, but for Donald Trump’s presidency and for the social fabric of the country, where the divide between haves and have-nots is painfully felt at every level of the healthcare system. “In all my time in the field, which is longer than I’ll tell you, I’ve actually never seen legislation like this,” Drew Altman, president and CEO of the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation, said in a conference call about the Republican Senate bill that stalled on Tuesday (though a version of the bill may yet pass). “Uniquely, it produces many more losers than winners, and that could come back to haunt Republicans in the midterms [next year] if it passes.”

The proposed changes defy comparison to the kind of limited privatization that has happened within Britain’s NHS, said Gerard Anderson, a professor of health policy at Johns Hopkins University who has compared insurance systems worldwide. “It’s a very different social fabric in the UK versus the US,” Anderson said. The healthcare debate in United States, he said, exposes “a lack of social solidarity – a lack of feeling that we as a society have a responsibility to our poorest citizens”. “We just don’t do that,” Anderson said. “We know that we’re going to cause 22 million, 23 million people to lose their health insurance – and they won’t really have an alternative to purchase it in the free market, so they’re just going to lose their health insurance. And there’s some feeling that that’s OK.”



the evening greens


TigerSwan Faces Lawsuit Over Unlicensed Security Operations in North Dakota

Tigerswan, the private company behind a monthslong, multi-state surveillance operation targeting opponents of the Dakota Access Pipeline, illegally provided security and investigative services to the pipeline’s parent company, Energy Transfer Partners, despite being denied a license to do so, a new civil lawsuit alleges. Even after oil began to flow through the contested pipeline, and long after the crowded Dakota Access resistance camps gave way once again to empty prairie, TigerSwan continued its unlicensed security operations in North Dakota.

The allegations are part of a lawsuit the North Dakota Private Investigation and Security Board filed against TigerSwan and its founder James Reese on Tuesday. Violating the license law is a class B misdemeanor in North Dakota, though local prosecutors have not filed criminal charges. ...

Two weeks prior to the initiation of the suit, The Intercept published a selection of more than 100 leaked situation reports prepared by TigerSwan for its client ETP, as well as additional documents obtained via public records request detailing the scale of TigerSwan’s security operation and its close collaboration with law enforcement. Communications to the security board obtained via public records requests show that as late as December, Reese, a former Army Delta Force commander, declared that TigerSwan was only “doing management and IT consulting for our client and doing no security work.” But internal company reports as well as an overview of TigerSwan’s operations that was shared with law enforcement show the company had been doing much more than that since September. Both sets of documents were included in the lawsuit. ...

TigerSwan is also facing pressure in Illinois, where the environmental group Food & Water Watch is demanding that the state’s attorney general, Lisa Madigan, launch an investigation into the company’s activities after The Intercept revealed that TigerSwan had infiltrated local activist groups that had little to do with the Dakota Access fight. Food & Water Watch was mentioned repeatedly in the leaked reports.

Trump Picks DAPL Lobbyist to Oversee EPA Water Safety in Same Week He Rolls Back Water Safeguards

EPA’s New Water Safety Official Is a Lobbyist With Deep Ties to the Dakota Access Pipeline

Dennis Lee Forsgren, a former lobbyist recently tapped to lead the Environmental Protection Agency office in charge of water safety, has deep ties to a fossil fuel advocacy group engaged in the promotion of the Dakota Access Pipeline as well as controversial offshore drilling efforts.

The appointment signals a victory for industrial opponents of clean water regulations. The department that Forsgren will now help oversee, the EPA’s Office of Water, is in charge of implementing the landmark Clean Water and Safe Drinking Water Acts passed in the early seventies. In that capacity it studies the toxic effects of fracking on groundwater safety, the downstream consequences of industrial pollutants, and the environmental impact of oil spills.

Before arriving at the EPA, Forsgren was an attorney for HBW Resources, a fossil fuel lobbying firm known for orchestrating campaigns on behalf of industry clients.

Ogoni widows file civil writ accusing Shell of complicity in Nigeria killings

The widows of men who were hanged by Nigeria’s military government in the 1990s have launched a civil case against Shell, accusing it of complicity in their husbands’ executions. Esther Kiobel, the widow of Dr Barinem Kiobel, and three other women whose husbands were hanged in 1995, served a writ in a Dutch court this week, following a 20-year battle with the oil giant.

Kiobel’s husband was executed along with the writer and human rights activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, and seven other men, who became collectively known as the Ogoni nine. They were hanged in a military court following a peaceful uprising by 300,000 Ogonis against Shell’s widespread pollution in Ogoniland. The men had been convicted of the murder of four leaders in the Ogoni community, who were opponents of the uprisings against Shell. The trial, which was widely discredited, sparked international outrage and led to Nigeria’s suspension from the Commonwealth.

Amnesty International, which has supported Kiobel’s legal team, has accused Shell of complicity in the state executions.


Also of Interest

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

Robert Parry Awarded Gellhorn Journalism Prize

Berkeley Capitulates to Police Militarization and Spying

After Passing Stress Tests, Wall Street Banks to Spend Like a Drunken Sailor – on their Own Stock Buybacks

Low-income workers who live in RVs are being 'chased out' of Silicon Valley streets


A Little Night Music

Lazy Lester & Lazy Boots - If You Don't Want Me Baby

Lazy Lester - Whoa Now

Lazy Lester - Bye Bye Baby Gonna Call It Gone

Lazy Lester - You're gonna ruin me baby

Lazy Lester - They Call Me Lazy

Lazy Lester - Go ahead

Lazy Lester - Tell Me Pretty Baby

Lazy Lester - I'm A Lover Not A Fighter (alt.)

Lazy Lester - I'm Leavin'

Lazy Lester - I Hear You Knockin'


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Raggedy Ann's picture

As long as war is profitable for those that receive the profits, we are doomed to find every reason on earth to keep up the fight! My solution - DON'T JOIN THE MILITARY! Are the millennials getting it? Every time I see a ROTC troop doing exercises on campus all I can think of is "how many of you will still be alive in 5 years?" Then again, they will be the officers ensuring that those serving below them are at risk, sigh. Please tell your friends, relatives, etc., not to join the military. It's the only way to stop the madness. Once they implement the draft, the real fight will begin. Am I talking through my ass? Perhaps. Time will tell.

I have family coming in for the holiday. They begin arriving tomorrow. I'll be off all next week. I can hardly wait for the time off. We are expecting rain Saturday through Monday, so I hope it materializes! It has cooled down about 10 degrees, which is nice. Now, instead of going to my car in 104 degree heat, I go in 94 degree heat. Much more amenable to me!

Have a beautiful day, folks and if I don't get here tomorrow, have a lovely holiday! Pleasantry

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

joe shikspack's picture

@Raggedy Ann

currently the mic is getting away with it because they have not implemented a draft and most of the troops come from the underclasses. sure, many of them will protest that they are "middle class," but anybody who can read a chart can tell that the middle class is pretty much gone.

you're right, if they have to impose a draft to get enough cannon fodder for their imperial adventures, the poop will eventually hit the fan.

have a great holiday with your family!

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I lived in San Jose for a few months and cannot fathom on how alot of people were able to live there. San Jose if memory serves was moving people along who were forced to live in the cars. The city tried to buy some abandoned parking lot so homeless women with children living in cars could have a safe place to stay at night--huge opposition to it. Many Hispanic immigrants rented a sleeping spot in a living room but cannot spend the day there. Intel had a lottery for new teachers to help subsidize their rent as nobody on a teacher's salary could afford rent in Santa Clara county. I remember nurses in Palo Alto striking because they couldn't afford the medical insurance of the hospitals they worked.

Favorite spot was Municipal Rose Garden.

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joe shikspack's picture

@MrWebster

i hear that servants quarters are making a comeback.

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Steven D's picture

to get my teeth fixed.

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"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

joe shikspack's picture

@Steven D

by the time the republicans are finished, there may be millions of american refugees living in "trumpvilles" all over mexico.

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Arrow's picture

@Steven D Steven D maybe even go Ex-pat like me. The 'free' healthcare here isn't free nere. But it's damn cheap all things considered. Including Dental.

Ok so I rub it in a little. My bad/

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I want a Pony!

Unabashed Liberal's picture

Russia!!!" is a farce! Take a gander.

’Going for jugular’: Undercover filmmakers take aim at CNN

Published time: 27 Jun, 2017 21:23
Edited time: 28 Jun, 2017 09:33

https://on.rt.com/8g98

(Sorry that I can't get the video to embed.)

Video of a CNN producer describing the network’s coverage of the alleged Russia scandal as “bullsh*t” peddled for ratings is genuine, an official at Project Veritas told RT, adding that the undercover filmmakers are just getting started.

“We weren’t specifically looking for this angle,” Project Veritas communications director Steven Gordon told RT. “We didn’t know exactly what we’d catch.”

The sting video published Tuesday shows CNN producer John Bonifield admitting the network has no evidence of claims that President Donald Trump or his campaign colluded with Russia to subvert the 2016 presidential election.

“I think the president is probably right to say, like, look, you are witch-hunting me,” Bonifield can be heard saying. . . .

Gotta place an online order for dinner. but hope to get back in time to post a brief excerpt of Van Hollen's interview about 'single-payer.' (Read, public option.)

Thanks for tonight's EB--looking forward to checking it out when we return. Especially, the piece about the Silicon Valley jerks.

Which reminds me--hope folks 'out west' are getting some relief from the heat. Last evening, had a conversation with a Call Center Rep in Nevada. She said it was still miserable there.

Bye

Mollie


"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage."--Lao Tzu

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

COUNTDOWN TO (FULL) RETIREMENT

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

Unabashed Liberal's picture

@Unabashed Liberal

for 'verifying' a video?

Sorta left me wondering 'why' they bothered to air it, if there is a question as to its authenticity. The beginning of the footage, which did not clearly show the CNN Producer's face as he spoke, may be dubious. But, other portions of the video appear to be true footage to me.

Here's what CNN said in a statement,

CNN doesn't dispute sting video, but media still skeptical

by Eddie Scarry | Jun 28, 2017, 8:55 AM

Many in the national media are questioning a new undercover video showing a CNN producer admit that the Trump-Russia collusion story might be "bullshit," even though a spokesperson for CNN did not dispute the veracity of the video.

In the video, published online Tuesday night by the right-leaning Project Veritas website, CNN medical team producer John Bonifield is seen discussing his network's coverage of the Russia story. He said it's done mostly to generate higher ratings, even though the issue "could be bullshit."

After the video surfaced, a spokesperson for CNN did not object to any of its content and only said the network "stands by our medical producer John Bonifield" because "diversity of personal opinion is what makes CNN strong, we welcome it and embrace it."

Still, the New York Times did not cover the video, and seemed to dismiss it in a story published Tuesday night related to the White House's criticism of CNN. The Times referred to the sting operation in passing as "a video filmed by a controversial right-wing activist, James O'Keefe, that showed a low-level CNN producer criticizing his network."

Bonifield is not a "low-level" producer, but rather a supervising producer who works on CNN's coverage of health issues.

Strange.

Mollie

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

joe shikspack's picture

@Unabashed Liberal

would include the general details about who, what, where, when - and probably more critically, seeing the raw footage to determine whether the posted video really represents the expressed point of view of bonifield or if things were excerpted out of context to give a false impression.

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lotlizard's picture

@joe shikspack  

who, what, where, when

People have accepted all kinds of “fake news” about, for example, Osama bin Laden, without the government ever having provided any verifiable proof.

At least James O’Keefe isn’t saying, look, we absolutely know this is true because the guy admitted it after being waterboarded 183 times.

And when there is veriable proof, torture videos, Abu Ghraib photos etc., CIA guys just destroy it or some president says, no, sorry, my decision, classified, the press and the public can go pound sand.

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mimi's picture

@lotlizard
I am a non-citizen in the US and have been a legal permanent resident in the US since 1987. I won my green card in the green-card lottery back in 1987. It was a greencard unlimited for the whole duration of my life. I got my drivers license and a social security number independent of my green card, if I remember correctly. One of my first jobs in the US was as a teaching assistant for a short time at what was considered a "good university". I first became a student there (having had already a MS degree equivalent from Germany) in an MS program. That gave me entrance to a minimum wage job at a "good hospital" as a "runner" from the hospital pharmacy to distribute the medication to the patients. I was at that time in the US as an accompanying spouse visa of a G4 visa holders, the visa my then non-US citizen husband had. The G4 visa is a visa employees have, who work in international organizations. (and their spouses and children as well).

When I became aware of the 'green-card lottery' I applied and miraculously I won the lottery and got a time unlimited green-card for life (and my son as well). That was the reason why I could stay and work in the US after my divorce.

Later on somewhere in the 2008 range of time, this was changed. People who had that kind of green-card I had, needed to get a new one, which was NOT time unlimited anymore, but had to be renewed after a couple of years. My current one is still valid for a couple of years. Never have I gotten a registration card to vote from the DMV. My then husband, later my divorced former husband and then later my deceased former husband never bothered to get a green card, when he was still working in the international organization with his G4 visa. He got very late in his life (already retired) a green card, but never a voter registration card.

My son, who had a similar greencard as I had, later became US citizen (because he was so kind to risk his precious life in the Iraq war invasion under GWB and as a thankyou gift he couldn't refuse the US citizenship offer the US military helped him to get). He got his voter registration papers with it and could then vote.

I never could vote.

So, my question is, how do people, who are not US citizen, get a voter registration card? Where is the loopwhole that doesn't get checked at the DMV? For your Drivers License you need a Social Security number, which you get as soon as you have an employer, I think. But you do not have to show proof of your US citizienship via the naturalization papers, which you get when you gain US citizenship.

So, I mean, if so many people, who are not US citizens, get somehow the DMV enough papers to get themselves voter registration cards, whose fault is it? Apparently the system is terribly easy to cheat then? Stolen SS cards or what?

If the US wanted to check on the legality of a person to be a US citizen, the administration who gives out the voter registration cards, needs to check the naturalization paper of the person. They don't seem to do that. They may check only your SS card number and/or your green card.

It's the fault of a sloppy administrative procedure to check, if someone is a US citizen or not and therefore has the right to vote or not.

I never understood why they are unable to find a system that is more or less bullet proof and "uncheatable". When I mentioned the advantages of ID card for each US citizen, independent of DL or SS cards, as a paper of proof for voting registration, I got some pushback as a typical German authoritarian. National ID cards for each citizen? Fascist...Here in Germany I have to register my pysical address and have to get an ID card (Personalausweis) and then get automatically send the voter registration cards to my physical address. It indeed feels very "fascist" to me... not.

Since then I thought the US has the voting system it deserves, a deplorable one. Wink I can not vote in the US legally, my son can, but may be he has "no bock" anymore... I don't know. He didn't vote for Obama the second time around. The first time around he canvassed for him. You don't have to be a well educated person to "get" it, when a politician is a phony.

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lotlizard's picture

@mimi  
The answer to those questions you raise — how do they do it? — would be of extreme interest to me as well.

To begin with, we need to find someone with institutional access to Elsevier’s scientific publications, or who is otherwise willing to pay to obtain that one article.

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mimi's picture

@lotlizard
the article will reveal how non-citizens cheat to get a voter registration card. But we will see.

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mimi's picture

@joe shikspack @joe shikspack
it's always the raw footage that might reveal the truth but the raw footage is cut by the video editors to present the intention of the producer and correspondent, who is the "owner" of the broadcasted end product and or posted online video.

The raw footage (because TV news producing studios have tons of it) not necessarily gets archived.

One of my tasks as a small news studio video archivist was to decide if I just should archive the end product of broadcasted news piece or if I in addition should archive the raw footage the camera crew brought back from their shoots. You ususally get a couple of tapes from the camera team back and some sloppy overworked cameraman or producer doesn't label the tapes properly.

I can't tell you how often these tapes were not labelled at all, had mistaken date entries and had no clear entry for the location where they were shot. I can admit here that I could have gone to the jugular of some "cool, sloppy producer and journalists", because they couldn't get even the date right. (In our case constant mix up with the date entries which are mm/dd/yy in the American/English writing, but are dd/mm/yy in the German writing - add to that that we worked with American and German producers and cameramen, you get the picture of how in endless rows of tapes from 1968 to 2016 in the basement of our studio you could "totally easy find" a clip that was shot somewhere, some day back then, by whoever, covering that event back then, you know which one I mean ... Sigh, memories. NO, not easy to find. - Do you feel I am somewhat glad I retired from that job? - Though it was fun too - I miss working).

In addition normally in a news piece, either broadcasted in TV or posted online, there may be clips inserted into it, which the studio got through "pool feeds". This is video footage that gets shot by various American TV broadcasters' camera crews, which you can have a contract with and then share it with the permission to use it. So, this is material not from your own camera crew shoots, but the assigned camera crews from various American broadcasters which rotate to cover White House/Congress and some major events. And if you use those, it becomes plenty difficult to "verify". Add to that the skills of any technician in news studios in Photoshop and fancy tricks in video editing etc. ... you are ... in the wild wild West so to speak concerning the verification of "who, when, where and what".

It's easy to lie ... and difficult to verify ... really ...

Just saying. I got the "picture" on that subject ... Wink

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OzoneTom's picture

@Unabashed Liberal
Where is the usual "only his opinion" garbage from the corporate media?

Any explanation from this (overly candid) producer?

Seriously, if they get sick of this, then perhaps they should return to their old trade of "journalism".

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

@OzoneTom

(by CNN), pretty much says it all.

Also, I love the reference to the 'failing' New York Times! Did the Washington Examiner, which is very editorially conservative, actually expect that any of the most egregious actors in the MSM, who are busily touting the ridiculous Russia narrative, are going to call out someone for exposing CNN? Pleeeeezzzzzz!!!!!

Seriously, the only thing (politically) that I've seen going on lately that I have actually enjoyed, is seeing the corporatist media 'being told to go pound sand.'

Now, I would have loved to have seen a liberal do it--but, hey, I'll take what I can get!

Biggrin

In the event that I don't get to check in early tomorrow,

Everyone have a wonderful and safe long weekend!

Mollie

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

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

@Unabashed Liberal
of an untrustworthy outfit like "Project Veritas" to know that CNN's coverage of Russia stinks to high heaven. I suspect that this network's continuous anti-Russia propaganda is motivated by something more sinister than just a quest for ratings.

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native

joe shikspack's picture

@Unabashed Liberal

i'll be interested to see whether this pans out. i haven't posted the story due to the source (james o'keefe) whose stories often tend to blow up after more detail about them becomes available. but, you never know.

have a great evening!

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Azazello's picture

@joe shikspack
YouTube (33 min.)

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

joe shikspack's picture

@Azazello

i like dore's commentary and framing, i hope that the story turns out to be as advertized.

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enhydra lutris's picture

reluctance to air anything by o'keefe, he's one of those guys with negative credibility.

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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

o'keefe's attacks on acorn and planned parenthood some years ago demonstrated that he is the scum of the earth, and anything associated with him could only be labelled "veritas" as an exercise in the darkest humor. his work at the time showed that his commitment to his ideology utterly eclipsed any concern for truth.

while i have little respect for his target in this case, the lingering memories of his tactics in prior videos suggests to me that it is best to wait for the full facts to emerge rather than jumping on the bandwagon because this time he is hitting a target that seems richly deserving of a swift kick in the patoot.

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The Aspie Corner's picture

@joe shikspack O'Keefe would no doubt be in prison were it not for his connections on high, especially with his trying to prove voter fraud by commiting it himself or that time he crossed the Mexican Border dressed as Bin Laden. Regarding the Planned Parenthood fiasco: if I'm not mistaken, Mike Pence had the little rat bastard in his pocket at the time.

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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.

Unabashed Liberal's picture

@The Aspie Corner

O'Keefe did to Acorn was despicable. But, IMO, it has little to do with this particular situation; that is, the taping of the CNN Dude/Producer.

Since CNN declined to ask for a detraction, I have to figure that there is at least a chance that this video is valid, if not a likelihood. But, time will tell. OTOH, if this video has been doctored in any way, I'll be among the first to say that so-called Project Veritas should been held accountable.

Throw the suckers back in jail, I say!

Wink

Ultimately, I place the blame squarely on the Democratic Leadership for throwing Acorn under the bus, not on a handful of right-wing losers.

Have a good weekend!

Mollie

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

lotlizard's picture

@The Aspie Corner  
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261379414000973

Do non-citizens vote in U.S. elections?

Abstract

In spite of substantial public controversy, very little reliable data exists concerning the frequency with which non-citizen immigrants participate in United States elections. Although such participation is a violation of election laws in most parts of the United States, enforcement depends principally on disclosure of citizenship status at the time of voter registration. This study examines participation rates by non-citizens using a nationally representative sample that includes non-citizen immigrants. We find that some non-citizens participate in U.S. elections, and that this participation has been large enough to change meaningful election outcomes including Electoral College votes, and Congressional elections. Non-citizen votes likely gave Senate Democrats the pivotal 60th vote needed to overcome filibusters in order to pass health care reform and other Obama administration priorities in the 111th Congress.

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@The Aspie Corner
describes O'Keefe to a tee.

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native

A great round up.
Mr. Treasure of Info.
After an intense work day, I slipped away, brought back beer, ended the work week for my staff with them having a beer.
Oh, yeah. On me!
So, prostitution is on the rise. Beautiful young ladies are not wanting their fair share of community properties. They want out of marriages. They have no visible means of support.
Somehow, they have great make up, hair, nails, clothes, and no bank accounts.
I am seeing a whole lot of this.
Hearing about more of it.
Every night club locally has been turning a blind eye from what happens in the parking lot. Convenience stores, truck stops.
We are there. We are a shitty 3rd world country.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

joe shikspack's picture

@on the cusp

your dedication to providing workplace benefits is outstanding. cheers! Smile

we've been a shitty third world country for a long time. it's just that the sacrifice zones are growing in size and population. as with our other declining indicators of social equity, i'm sure that we will soon be on par with other, more well-known third world peers soon.

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That's a wonderful excerpt from Frederic Clemson Howe. The cost should be born by those responsible.

I enjoyed the clip of the Kaiser report. The picture that is painted of American dental refugees drooling at the slot machines....hmm, is that a version of .....you reap what you sow?

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lotlizard's picture

Saudi Arabia wants to reduce Qatar to a vassal state

Palestinians are seeking justice in Jerusalem, not an abusive life-long mate

Israel’s efforts to hide Palestinians from view no longer fool young American Jews

Turning off the damn arms and money spigot to Israel and Saudi Arabia, and using the resources to improve the quality of life at home — now that would really be “progressive” and “resistance” and a “revolution.“ Otherwise it’s all just talk.

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divineorder's picture

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

lotlizard's picture

http://hazlitt.net/feature/hitlers-cartoon-problem-and-art-controversy

… [The Nation editor Victor] Navasky found that the one piece that really unnerved his staff and readers alike was a cartoon David Levine did in 1984 showing Henry Kissinger copulating with a woman whose head is shaped like a globe.

Titled “Screwing the World,” Levine’s drawing was both visually superb and very disturbing.

 
Also: Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman interviews cartoonist Art Spiegelman following the Islamic terrorist attack on the satirical French weekly Charlie Hebdo
https://www.democracynow.org/2015/1/8/cartoonists_lives_matter_art_spieg...

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