The Evening Blues - 6-5-18



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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Black Ace + Oscar "Buddy" Woods

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features 2 slide guitarists from Texas, Black Ace and Oscar "Buddy" Woods. Enjoy!

Black Ace - I Am The Black Ace

"Giuliani is taking a lot of heat for saying that Trump could murder someone and not be indicted. But that's fully consistent with the Obama precedent. He ordered a hit-by-drone on an American citizen and was never prosecuted."

-- Jeffret St Clair


News and Opinion

The Origins of America’s Unique and Spectacular Cruelty

A friend, recently, told me a very interesting and telling story. She’d recently been in the States, where she was taking the subway to work, and she fell down, injuring her wrist. Not a single person helped her up — they all stared at her angrily as if to say: “you are going to make us late for work!!”. (Ironically, the train was full of doctors, nurses, and healthcare workers). She contrasted that with London — where, the last year, when she’d broken a limb, and had a cast on, people would regularly, and very courteously, give up their seats on the tube.

It’s a tiny example. And perhaps you will say it’s just a meaningless anecdote. But by now, American cruelty is both legendary — and one of the world’s great unsolved mysteries. Just why would people in a rich country leave their neighbours to die for a lack of basic medicine, their young without good jobs or retirements, make their elderly work until their dying day, cripple students with lifelong debt, charge new mothers half of average income just to have a baby — not to mention shrug when their kids begin massacring each other at school? What motivates the kind of spectacular, unique, unimiaginable, and gruesome cruelty that we see in America, which exists nowhere else in the world? ...

My answer goes something like this. Americans, you must remember, grew up in the shadow of endless war. With two “sides” who championed atomic individualism, lionized competition and brutality, and despised weakness and fragility. And thus, America forgot — or maybe never evolved — the notion of a public interest. Each man for himself, everyone against everyone himself. So all there is left in America is extreme capitalism now. Few championed a more balanced, saner, healthier way of life, about a common good, about virtue, about a higher purpose. And in that way, America has become something like, ironically enough, a mirror image of its great enemy, the Soviet Union. It is a totalist society, run by and for one end — only a slightly different one: money.

That created a society in which there is no real opportunity to cultivate, nurture, or develop kindness or gentleness, which as we will see, are qualities, that a society needs to invest in, too. The American economy is extreme capitalism, through and through. For example, in other rich countries, at least half the economy is not for profit, sometimes more. But in America, it’s just a few percent. So American life is made mostly only of the values of predatory capitalism now — bruising competition, domination, greed, punishment, discipline, cunning, ruthlessness, egotism. We might call them malignantly narcissistic values. But when the sole end of all thought, action, and effort is making money, even at the detriment of others, what else can exist?

But because most of America is now managed by and predatory capital — even its healthcare, media, and education — there is little room, space, opportunity, chance to discuss and suggest and educate people about higher ideals, values, and purposes. For example, on the BBC, I can watch endless documentaries by academics on everything from Renaissance art to French literature — but in America, I’m stuck with Ancient Aliens, poverty porn, police-state reality shows. What is that going to teach me, show me, induce in me — except ignorance, paranoia, resentment, and spite? The result is a kind of impoverishment we don’t often discuss. A lack, or deficit, of civilizing mechanisms. ... So when we speak of American cruelty, we are really speaking about a lack of civilizing mechanisms, which encode, normalize, sustain, and nurture higher values, or enduringly good human qualities, however you want to put it.

[Check out this article as a companion piece: Meet the Economist Behind the One Percent’s Stealth Takeover of America -js]

Oh looky, Americans do show their concern for others. With guns drawn... click link for video.

Police Broke Into Chelsea Manning’s Home with Guns Drawn — in a “Wellness Check”

Shortly after Chelsea Manning posted what appeared to be two suicidal tweets on May 27, police broke into her home with their weapons drawn as if conducting a raid, in what is known as a “wellness” or “welfare check” on a person experiencing a mental health crisis. Manning, a former Army intelligence analyst turned whistleblower and U.S. Senate candidate, was not at home, but video obtained by The Intercept shows officers pointing their guns as they searched her empty apartment.

The footage, captured by a security camera, shows an officer with the Montgomery County Police Department in Bethesda, Maryland, knocking on Manning’s door. When no one responds, the officer pops the lock, and three officers enter the home with their guns drawn, while a fourth points a Taser. ...

Welfare checks like this, usually prompted by calls placed to 911 by concerned friends or family, too often end with police harming — or even killing — the person they were dispatched to check on. Manning was out of the country at the time of the incident, said Janus Cassandra, a close friend who was on the phone with her that night. “If Chelsea had been home when these cops arrived with guns drawn, she would be dead.” ...

The problem, mental health experts say, is that police should not be the ones to check on suicidal people in the first place. In 2017, mental illness played a role in a quarter of 987 police killings, according to a tally by the Washington Post. People of color experiencing mental health crises are particularly at risk. In 2018 alone, police have shot and killed at least 64 people who were suicidal or had other mental health issues, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. ...

“It’s not necessary for police to be the first responders when somebody calls 911 and says they’re suicidal,” said Carl Takei, a senior ACLU attorney focusing on policing, in an interview. “In the same way that if I were to call 911 and say I’m having a heart attack, I would expect a medical response. As a society, we should expect a mental health response when somebody calls 911 and says they are suicidal, rather than dispatching somebody who is armed with a pistol and most of whose training is directed at enforcing criminal law and how to use force with people whom they suspect are breaking the law.”

Perhaps American cruelty isn't totally unique, though it is still quite spectacular:

Dozens drown in Mediterranean as Europe cracks down on immigrants

Dozens of African refugees died in three separate boat disasters across the Mediterranean Sea yesterday. It was the deadliest day for immigrants since October. As the weather warms, hundreds of thousands are preparing to cross into a European continent dominated by right-wing governments intent on blocking their entry and deporting those refugees already present.

Off the coast of Tunisia, rescue divers recovered the drowned bodies of 46 African immigrants destined for the Italian island of Lampedusa. “There were around 180 of us on board the boat,” which was 30 feet long, one survivor told a Tunisian radio station. The boat “sank because of a leak,” the immigrant said, describing a scene of panic and horror as the boat and its passengers were slowly lowered into the sea. Another survivor told the press from a hospital bed, “I survived by clinging to wood for nine hours.” Tunisian government officials report that 70 immigrants have been rescued, meaning roughly 65 remain unaccounted for.

At the other end of the Mediterranean, another boat capsized yesterday morning off the coast of Demre, Turkey, leaving nine dead, including six children. Survivors said there were 14 or 15 people on board. Spanish officials also announced they had rescued 240 immigrants Sunday from 11 boats. Forty-one of the immigrants were rescued at the last minute from a sinking boat. At least one was confirmed dead. So far in 2018, 660 immigrants have died crossing the Mediterranean, or 2.8 percent of the total who have attempted to cross.

The death toll is the product of policies carried out by European governments to block rescue efforts and deter future crossings. Beginning in 2014, the European Union implemented a policy of keeping coast guard ships far from areas with frequent shipwrecks. Internal EU documents reveal policymakers arguing that more deaths would equate to lower refugee totals.

'Destruction comparable to decades of war': Amnesty Intl criticizes US-led coalition in Raqqa

U.S. Airstrikes Violated International Law in “War of Annihilation” in Raqqa, Syria, Says Amnesty International

[In Amnesty International's] latest report, [entitled “War of Annihilation,”] researchers spent two weeks visiting more than 40 locations where coalition strikes took place and interviewing over 110 witnesses and survivors of these attacks. Based on these findings, the report’s authors write that there exists “prima facie evidence that several Coalition attacks which killed and injured civilians violated international humanitarian law,” adding that “Coalition forces did not take adequate account of civilians present in the city and failed to take the precautions necessary to minimize harm to civilians and civilian objects.”

The exact number of civilians who died in coalition strikes on Raqqa last year remains unknown. The independent monitoring group Airwars has estimated that the death toll was at least 1,800, though the true figure may be considerably higher. During the height of the fighting last August, the United Nations issued a statement criticizing the coalition for the “unacceptable price” that its attacks were inflicting on civilians in the city. A U.N. humanitarian mission that traveled to the city this April said they were “shocked by the level of destruction, which exceeded anything they had ever seen before.” ...

The battle to liberate Raqqa from the Islamic State resulted in the near-total destruction of the city, with an estimated 11,000 buildings destroyed or damaged during the fighting. The U.S. military admitted to the use of “annihilation tactics” during the campaign, and Defense Secretary James Mattis rationalized civilian casualties as a “fact of life.” But for many, the most galling aspect of the battle for Raqqa was that, after many months of fighting, the coalition ultimately allowed safe passage for ISIS fighters to leave the city. This negotiated withdrawal raised serious questions about whether the campaign needed to be waged as brutally as it was.

“Many people in Raqqa are asking why the coalition deemed it necessary to kill so many civilians and destroy the entire city, only to ultimately let the ISIS fighters it was targeting leave,” said Donatella Rovera, a researcher for Amnesty International who conducted field interviews in the city. “If the coalition had deemed it necessary to take certain risks that would lead to them killing civilians, but deemed those necessary risks to target ISIS fighters, why, in the end, did they decide to let the ISIS fighters withdraw from the city with impunity, taking their weapons along with them?”

Rovera says the level of destruction in the city, coupled with the unwillingness of the coalition to carry out serious investigations of its strikes — including site visits and interviews of the types that independent researchers have conducted — casts doubt on U.S. claims that they take pains to minimize civilian casualties during their operations. The concerns are not limited to Raqqa. U.S. authorities have justified airstrikes in other parts of Syria and Iraq that were alleged to have caused widespread civilian casualties, but in each case, there’s no evidence that the military actually interviewed witnesses and survivors.

Forever AUMF Stalls at Senate Foreign Relations Committee

As the Forever AUMF 2018 (SJRes 59) (Authority for the Use of Military Force) continues to await action by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, one can only imagine the extent of the behind-the-scene efforts underway to sway those few wavering Senators who may be reluctant to go down in American history as voting to eliminate Congress’ sole, inviolate Constitutional authority ‘to declare war’. Article 1, Section 8, Clause 11. The law would remove Congress from its statutory authority as it transfers “uninterrupted” authority on “the use of all necessary and appropriate force” to one individual, allowing the President of the United States to pursue the Taliban, al Qaeda, ISIS and other ‘associated forces” including a proverbial too little-too late report to Congress 48 hours after the use of military force in a “new foreign country,” presumably in the Middle East (other than Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Yemen or Libya).

In addition to pressure within the Committee itself, it can be expected that those who will benefit most from a Forever State of War are currently pounding the Senate’s marble halls, perhaps even stalking members of the Committee as lobbyists from the MIC, AIPAC and other enthusiasts for war, will do whatever it takes to bring adoption of the AUMF to a favorable committee vote. Since more than half the Committee, fourteen of its twenty one members received a grand total of $3,397,755 from pro-Israel PAC’s as identified by the Center for Responsive Politics, whenever and if ever the final vote comes, it will be positively titillating to compare the vote and the money.

One factor in pushing for speedy AUMF approval might be that there is some new military escapade about to unfold with the need for an unwieldy Constitutionally mandated Congressional debate and vote too onerous, requiring too much effort and consuming a colossal amount of time whereas the Section 8 clause might better inform the American public whether their tax dollars are being efficiently used to improve their lives or might even threaten a halt to the steady drumbeat of war.

Perhaps the delay may be attributed to ongoing negotiations of the finer points in an attempt to create a more perfect air-tight vehicle. Whether there is a sunshine date or some i’s are not dotted or t’s not crossed makes little real difference in the final outcome since the ultimate goal is to allow war to go forward without meaningful Congressional participation while failing to provide the pesky public with information about why their sons and daughters are losing their limbs or lives in some far-away country that is no threat to our national security. It is difficult to recognize a more ill-considered, reactionary vote of enormous global consequences as adoption of a Forever AUMF which will surely hasten the Final Chapter of the American Empire.

'Keep mouth shut': US envoy to Israel slams journalists for criticizing IDF violence

US Ambassador to Israel Tells Journalists Who Report Truth of Gaza Massacre: 'Keep Your Mouths Shut'

U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman has a message for journalists who dare to report the truth about Israel's ongoing massacre of nonviolent demonstrators in Gaza: "Keep your mouths shut."

Friedman's "anti-democratic demand" came during his speech at a media conference in Jerusalem on Monday, in which he complained without evidence that "nine out of ten articles that are written about the Gaza conflict are critical of Israel."

"Just keep your mouths shut until you figure it out," Friedman told reporters. "Because otherwise, all you're doing is creating impressions that have no basis in fact. They fit a narrative. They fit an opinion. They fit an agenda. But it's not reporting, because it's not based on hard, factual analysis."

While Friedman insisted that the media, and the U.S. media in particular, was biased against Israel in its coverage of the Israeli military's murder of over 60 unarmed Palestinian protesters last month—a massacre that prompted a U.N. war crimes probe—independent analysts have come to the precise opposite conclusion.

Trump may seek separate Nafta talks with Canada and Mexico

Donald Trump may seek separate talks with Canada and Mexico in an effort to get individual trade deals with the two countries, the White House economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, said on Tuesday.

“He is very seriously contemplating kind of a shift in the Nafta negotiations. His preference now, and he asked me to convey this, is to actually negotiate with Mexico and Canada separately,” Kudlow said in an interview with Fox News. “He may be moving quickly towards these bilateral discussions instead of as a whole.”

The United States, Canada and Mexico have been in months of negotiations to rework the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), which Trump has long criticized as having harmed the United States economically.

Kudlow’s comments come as tensions between the US and its two largest trading partners are escalating. On Tuesday Mexico announced it was imposing tariffs on a raft of US goods including including pork, cheese, apples, potatoes, Tennessee or bourbon whiskey and cranberries.

The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, who will host what looks set to be a heated summit of the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations this week, called the tariffs an affront to the longstanding security partnership between Canada and the United States, and announced retaliatory steps.

Germans Appalled by Threat From Trump’s Ambassador to Help Far-Right Nationalists Take Power Across Europe

The German government demanded a formal explanation from the United States on Monday of what, exactly, the new U.S. ambassador in Berlin, Richard Grenell, meant when he promised to use his office to help far-right nationalists inspired by Donald Trump take power across Europe. In an interview with Breitbart News, published on Sunday, Grenell said he was “excited” by the rise of far-right parties on the continent and wanted “to empower other conservatives throughout Europe, other leaders.”

Grenell was apparently not asked if that group includes the far-right Alternative for Germany — known by its German initials AfD — the largest opposition party in the German parliament, but he did praise Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, a center-right politician who is in coalition with the Freedom Party, which was formed in the 1950s by a former Nazi officer.

A spokesperson for the German foreign ministry told reporters that Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government had “asked the U.S. side for clarification” as to whether the remarks “were made as reported.”

Grenell, a former Fox News pundit whose abrasive Twitter style had already alienated many Germans, tweeted on Monday that it was “ridiculous” to suggest that he would endorse candidates or parties, but stood by his claim to Breitbart that Europe, like America, was “experiencing an awakening from the silent majority — those who reject the elites and their bubble. Led by Trump.” ...

Sevim Dagdelen, a member of the left-wing German opposition party Die Linke, suggested that Grenell had revealed himself to be Trump’s “regime change envoy.”


Truckers' strike highlights 'a dangerous moment' for Brazil's democracy

A nationwide trucking strike over fuel prices in Brazil finally came to an end last week after 10 days of chaos in which roads were blockaded, South America’s biggest economy suffocated, and the CEO of Brazil’s state-controlled oil company was forced to resign. Supplies are back in the shops, and trucks back on the roads. And yet, things are far from normal.

Brazilians were spooked by the ease with which the truckers brought the country to its knees, and by their calls for “military intervention” – a euphemism for a military coup. A secret government poll at the height of the strike found that one third of Brazilians wanted a military takeover, according the Folha de S Paulo newspaper. “This strike showed that the country has extreme fragilities,” wrote economic commentator Miriam Leitão in her blog for O Globo newspaper. ...

There has been little debate over why the country is so dependent on road transport. Instead, Brazilians argue over when and how state-controlled oil company Petrobras should set fuel prices – the cause of the strike – and whether it should make money for its shareholders or swallow losses for the benefit of the nation. Brazilians can’t even agree on what the dictatorship was. Many “interventionists” mistakenly believe there was no corruption under the military. And others point out that hundreds of regime opponents were executed and thousands more viciously tortured under the repressive regime that ran the country for two decades until 1985.

Amid a growing sense that Brazil is adrift, a poll by the Datafolha polling institute found that 87% of Brazilians supported the strike – but rejected tax rises or spending cuts to pay for the fuel subsidies that eventually resolved it. The cash-strapped conservative government of Michel Temer found the money by cutting investment elsewhere, including for health and education – a move likely to increase social tension in a country where poverty is on the rise.

“We have watched a flirtation with collective suicide,” wrote rightwing commentator Reinaldo Azevedo, who compared Brazilians heading to the polls in October’s congressional and presidential elections to lemmings heading for a clifftop. Leftist commentators are equally alarmed.

The 2016 impeachment of Workers’ party president Dilma Rousseff – who was removed for breaking budget rules amid widespread anger over an enormous corruption scheme – was seen by some as a justified action against a corrupt government. But a recent poll 48% said they thought the controversial process was a coup.

Mick Mulvaney Is Required by Law to Meet With His Consumer Advisory Board. But He’s Refusing, Board Members Say

The leadership of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is required by law to hold in-person meetings with its consumer advisory board, yet according to more than a dozen of its members, they are refusing to do so. “It appears the bureau does not want to engage with us,” said Ann Baddour of the consumer organization Texas Appleseed and chair of the current Consumer Advisory Board, or CAB, who joined a conference call Monday with other board members who have decided to speak publicly. “Staying silent would violate our ethical responsibility to the bureau and the American people.”

The CFPB, under Acting Director Mick Mulvaney, has canceled two in-person meetings with the CAB, as well as numerous conference calls. Contact has been limited to one phone call in March that was supposed to last one hour but ended after 20 minutes. The most recent cancellation was for a scheduled meeting this week; members only found out about it when they coordinated with CFPB to make travel arrangements.

Section 1014 of Dodd-Frank mandates the creation of a consumer advisory board of experts to consult with the CFPB about emerging practices and concerns within the lending industry and across the country. The board, whose 25 members are drawn from academia, consumer groups, and the financial services industry, “at a minimum, shall meet at least twice in each year,” per the statute.

Betsy DeVos says school safety panel will not study role of guns

Betsy DeVos on Tuesday said the federal commission on school safety set up after a Florida high school shooting won’t be looking at the role of guns in school violence. The education secretary was asked during a congressional hearing whether the panel, which she is chairing, will look at guns in the context of school safety.

“That is not part of the commission’s charge per se,” DeVos told a Senate subcommittee overseeing education spending. “We are actually studying school safety and how we can ensure our students are safe at school.”

Senator Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, who asked the question, quipped. “So you are studying gun violence, but not considering the role of guns.” ...

DeVos is chairing the panel that Donald Trump created following the February shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida. Seventeen people were killed.

“Hidden Horrors”: Reporter Debbie Nathan on Mass Trials & Kids Separated from Parents at the Border


Sen. Jeff Merkley denied entry into one migrant detention facility, claims he saw kids caged in another

Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley tried to visit an immigration detention facility in Texas over the weekend, but was soon denied access into the building. This prompted questions about what's going on behind closed doors at some of the country's detention facilities amid concerns about the separation of children from their parents who have attempted to cross the border illegally.


"I wanted to be able to visit the facility where apparently upwards of 1,000 children are being held in that massive building, a former Walmart, and the federal government, President Trump and team, Attorney General Sessions, Homeland Security, they do not want members of Congress or the public to know what's going on," Merkley later told CNN in a phone interview on Monday. ...

And amid uproar over the treatment of children who make it into the U.S. after being forced to part ways with their families, Merkley claimed in his interview with CNN that he witnessed kids in cages at a separate facility in McAllen, Texas.

"When I was at the center at McAllen Border Station, this is the processing center, earlier and I was admitted there and I did see the people, hundreds of children locked up in cages there at that facility," said Merkley, claiming that the federal government was "whitewashing" the challenges of the entrance system. He added, "They have big cages made out of fencing and then wire and nets stretched across the top of them so people can't climb out of them."



the horse race



Going “Full Dictator”? Trump Claims He Has Right to End Mueller Investigation or Pardon Himself

Paul Manafort tampering with witnesses, say Mueller investigators

Federal investigators have accused Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, of tampering with potential witnesses while on bail ahead of his federal bank fraud and tax case. Prosecutors asked that the judge overseeing his case “revoke or revise” the order releasing him ahead of trial.

In a court filing on Monday, prosecutors working for the special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, said Manafort and an associate “repeatedly” attempted to contact witnesses using his phone and an encrypted messaging application. They allege it happened shortly after a grand jury returned a new indictment against Manafort, violating the terms of his house arrest.

On Tuesday, US district judge Amy Berman Jackson gave Manafort until Friday to respond to the allegations of attempted witness tampering and set a hearing for 15 June. In an emailed statement Manafort’s spokesman, Jason Maloni, said: “Mr Manafort is innocent and nothing about this latest allegation changes our defense. We will do our talking in court.” Mueller has indicted Manafort in federal courts in Washington and Virginia. He was released to home confinement after his arraignment in October.



the evening greens



Man begins six-month swim through 'Great Pacific garbage patch'

Ben Lecomte, who has previously swum across the Atlantic Ocean in 1998, left the shores of Choshi in Japan on Tuesday morning, heading east. The 50-year-old plans to swim from Japan to San Francisco in 180 days, covering 8,000km. His journey will take him through 1,600km of the garbage patch, in an attempt to raise awareness about plastic pollution. ...

Lecomte and his support team intend to sample the water they swim through every day of the journey, and gauge the level of plastic and microplastic pollution.

The expedition’s first mate, Tyral Dalitz, told the ABC the team wanted to dispel a myth about the garbage patch. Rather than being made up of large pieces of plastic, most of the pollution is made up of invisible pieces of microplastic that sit in the water like a “plastic smog”, he said. “In reality the truth is much worse – the ocean is now filled with microplastics ... Rather than calling it an island of trash, it is more like plastic smog throughout the ocean.”

As Planet Chokes on Plastic Waste, UN Report Offers Roadmap to Tackle Global Crisis

In what's being called "hope for a better planet on #WorldEnvironmentDay," a United Nations report published Tuesday found "surging momentum in global efforts" to eradicate single-use plastics while also warning that poor enforcement is hindering regulations and bans worldwide.

Single-Use Plastics: A Roadmap to Sustainability (pdf) details "what has worked well, what hasn't, and why" in terms of regulating plastic. The report was released by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) as part of a global effort on Tuesday to raise awareness about initiatives to #BeatPlasticPollution.

Plastic pollution has become "one of our planet's greatest environmental challenges," Erik Solheim, head of UNEP, wrote in the introduction of the report, the first comprehensive review of efforts in more than 60 countries to address the crisis.

"Our oceans have been used as a dumping ground, choking marine life and transforming some marine areas into a plastic soup," Solheim continued, detailing the scope of the issue. "In cities around the world, plastic waste clogsdrains, causing floods and breeding disease. Consumed by livestock, it also finds its way into the food chain." ...

"Governments need to improve waste management practices and introduce financial incentives to change the habits of consumers, retailers, and manufacturers, enacting strong policies that push for a more circular model of design and production of plastics," the report states. "They must finance more research and development of alternative materials, raise awareness among consumers, fund innovation, ensure plastic products are properly labeled, and carefully weigh possible solutions to the current crisis."

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres issued a call to action on Tuesday, noting that "microplastics in the seas now outnumber stars in our galaxy," and warning that "if present trends continue, by 2050 our oceans will have more plastic than fish."

As Bayer Ditches Monsanto's Toxic Name in Merger, Green Groups Say There's No Erasing Its "Toxic Legacy"

Monsanto may soon be dead in name, but its "toxic legacy" lives on.

That's how Friends of the Earth responded to the German pharmaceutical giant Bayer's announcement on Monday that it will ditch the name "Monsanto" after its merger with the globally reviled agrochemical giant is finalized later this week.

"Bayer will become Monsanto in all but name unless it takes drastic measures to distance itself from the U.S. chemical giant's controversial past," Adrian Bebb, a food and farming campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe, said in a statement responding to Bayer's decision. "If it continues to peddle dangerous pesticides and unwanted GMOs then it will quickly find itself dealing with the same global resistance that Monsanto did."

Food safety groups and environmentalists have argued Bayer and Monsanto's "merger from hell"—which won approval from President Donald Trump's Justice Department last week—will tighten the stranglehold a few powerful corporations have on the global agriculture market, endangering people and the planet.

"This merger will create the world's biggest and most powerful agribusiness corporation, which will try to force its genetically modified seeds and toxic pesticides into our food and countryside," Bebb told the Guardian on Monday. "The coming together of these two is a marriage made in hell—bad for farmers, bad for consumers and bad for our countryside.”

After Bayer's $62.5 billion purchase of Monsanto is complete, the company will be named simply "Bayer."


Also of Interest

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

Meet the Economist Behind the One Percent’s Stealth Takeover of America

Massive Truckers’ Strike Exposes Political Chaos as Brazil Gears Up for Elections in October

Anonymous Snipers and a Lethal Verdict

How a Hacker Proved Cops Used a Secret Government Phone Tracker to Find Him


A Little Night Music

Oscar Buddy Woods - Come On Over To My House Baby

Black Ace - Your Legs Too Little

Oscar Buddy Woods - Lone Wolf Blues

Black Ace - You Gonna Need My Help Someday

Oscar Buddy Woods - Don't Sell It (Don't Give It Away)

Black Ace - Bad Times Stomp

Black Ace - Little Augie

Oscar "Buddy" Woods - Low Life Blues

Black Ace - Whisky And Woman

Oscar "Buddy" Woods - Muscat Hill Blues

Black Ace - Ace's Guitar Blues

Oscar "Buddy" Woods w/the Wampus Cats - Token Blues

Black Ace - Evil Woman Blues

Oscar "Buddy" Woods - Evil Hearted Woman Blues

Black Ace - Lowing Heifer

Oscar "Buddy" Woods & Jimmie Davis - She's a Hum Dum Dinger (From Dingersville)

Kitty Gray & her Wampus Cats - Baton Rouge Rag



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Raggedy Ann's picture

I'm happy I'm busy at work and unable to contribute to the destruction of c99p by those who need to win their point of view (a guess at what is giving JtC heartburn and threatening to close down my only safe haven for truth, justice, and the socialist way [or is that too partisan, as well?]).

However, I can see why tension runs high and passions are deep. Look at the news you've posted - all like we are living in an alternate dimension. People are beginning to become frantic. Organizing that energy into real change is what needs to happen - IMHO.

This morning I heard that only two businessmen have ever been elected US president - Herbert Hoover and Herr Drumpf. I immediately noticed that Herr Drumpf might push us over the precipice right smack dab into the same deep canyon of despair that Hoover did. We seem to love repeating history because we refuse to learn from it. That's my take, anyway.

Thanks for the tunes. Been loving those blues to work by.

Have a beautiful evening, folks! 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

heh. somebody forgot to tell some folks that there is nothing to win here.

if you come up with the greatest, most intellectually devastating argument ever thought of by the human brain, no announcer will come over your system speakers saying, "johnny tell them what they've won!"

nor will the nonexistent c99 game show host announce in mellifluous tones, "and today's losing interlocutor will receive lovely parting gifts, including a case of turtle wax and a gift certificate from the spiegel catalog chicago 60609..."

all like we are living in an alternate dimension

heh, the funny thing is that thanks to the information war being waged by a variety of interested parties, there are several simultaneous alternate dimensions to choose from - yes virginia, you can choose your own facts!

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divineorder's picture

@joe shikspack

Wish there was some award or reward for you for your continued fabulous production of the EB .

Peace to all 99%ers, goodwill to all on our shared planet.

divineorder and jakkalbessie, Kruger National Park, South Africa

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

joe shikspack's picture

@divineorder

glad to hear from you! i hope that all is going well for you guys over there in s.a. and everybody is well and the animals are politely posing for some fabulous photos.

take care, safe travels!

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enhydra lutris's picture

@Raggedy Ann

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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 --

Raggedy Ann's picture

@enhydra lutris
All failures.

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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

Azazello's picture

I got some stuff tonight, some on Yemen and some on Venezuela.
Here's something a little lighter:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tImyQDZakM width:500 height:300]

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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

excellent links, thanks!

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joe shikspack's picture

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@joe shikspack and diarrhea of the mouth. Maybe stems from the gastrointestinal inability to digest the shit we're fed? Just wondering. Thanks Joe for keeping it alive in any case.

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Lookout's picture

Americans, you must remember, grew up in the shadow of endless war. With two “sides” who championed atomic individualism, lionized competition and brutality, and despised weakness and fragility. And thus, America forgot — or maybe never evolved — the notion of a public interest. Each man for himself, everyone against everyone himself. So all there is left in America is extreme capitalism now. Few championed a more balanced, saner, healthier way of life, about a common good, about virtue, about a higher purpose. And in that way, America has become something like, ironically enough, a mirror image of its great enemy, the Soviet Union. It is a totalist society, run by and for one end — only a slightly different one: money.

This is what has been running through my mind. We have become dehumanized by the cruelty we impose on our own citizens and other people and countries around the world....to the point where our kids shoot one another.

Swimming through plastic is a good analogy of the mess we're in.
trash island.jpg

I don't think voting today helped, but I cast my ballot...for people who will lose, but at least they know there are some of us out here.

Thanks for the news and music...hey two days in a row.

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

@Lookout

the cruelty we impose on our own

does not include us? We only beat each other with soft sponges and bananas. Wink

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Lookout's picture

@QMS

we as the US. I need to watch that bad habit of mine.

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

@Lookout oh lawdy, it ain't just a habit no mo.

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@QMS

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snoopydawg's picture

@Lookout

IMG_2210.JPG

It says that we are the only country where children practice for getting shot at school. Instead of trying to figure out why there have been more school shootings and working on America's gun problem, people are coming up with ways for kids to survive an event. The American capitalistic way of life.

I remember seeing pictures of the first garbage patch over a decade ago and can't believe how much worse it has gotten since then. It's bad enough that humans kill other humans and have been since we lived in caves, but our disregard for animal lives is another thing. Thousands of species have gone extinct and thousands more are threatened daily.

I think I remember gawd telling Adam and Eve that they were supposed to be the stewards of the animals? Guess they didn't listen to him about that either.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@Lookout

We have become dehumanized by the cruelty we impose on our own citizens and other people and countries around the world....to the point where our kids shoot one another.

the more i think about it, the more i think that common people are being driven crazy by market conditions and television programming. the elites have been driven to distraction by their inability to have it all fast enough and are fixing to have them a big die-off party so that they can take back all the stuff that they think is theirs from the "useless eaters" that have been taking up space and breathing the rich folks' air.

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snoopydawg's picture

The first article about America's cruelty is spot on isn't it?

Those things, those great virtues, do not really exist in America anymore, except maybe in church sermons, which is to say, not in the real world.

Some of the church goers that I know say some of the cruelest things about people who are down on their luck.

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

mimi's picture

@snoopydawg

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joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

Some of the church goers that I know say some of the cruelest things about people who are down on their luck.

i've had the same experience. i sometimes wonder if those church goers ever read the magic book that their religion is (allegedly) based upon. they seem not to be able to read for comprehension.

mark twain had the same experience, too.

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mimi's picture

Grenell should be recalled and leave Germany. Persona non grata.

We have enough troubles with AfD folks, don't need some USians come here and cause more troubles.

There is so much political trash swimming in our waters as there is plastic trash in oceans and rivers.

It's just unbelievable.

Thanks for the EB

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@mimi long as I got my plastic wheezus riding on the dashboard of my car.

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Azazello's picture

@QMS
but here's a well-known rendition.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNtftzGqrmY width:500 height:300]

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

@Azazello Not a celluloid nut, but think that yours may be taken from a movie Cool Hand Luke?

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Azazello's picture

@QMS
I remember the song from my childhood, well before the movie.
Here's what Wikipedia has: Plastic Jesus (song)

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

@Azazello Thanks for that background. Knew I'd heard it before, as I sang along with Prine. Diid not know from where it came. Now it makes better sense.

run by a dentist and religious fanatic who "sold the most outrageous stuff imaginable, all with magical healing properties

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@QMS

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joe shikspack's picture

@mimi

germans would be quite wise to send mr. grenell packing.

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for the link to the article about the Nobel laureate economist James Buchanan. I am one of those with a degree in economics who had never heard of the man before, a massive oversight in my education. Wow just wow - the uber-wealthy have been plotting the demise of us unworthies since before I was born. Now I understand exactly where a wealthy relative of mine got his idea that, since I'm not worth many millions, I may as well die sooner than later, because he feels completely unobligated to support anyone who cannot pull their own weight.

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Only connect. - E.M. Forster

joe shikspack's picture

@dancingrabbit

i had never heard of buchanan, either. granted, i only had a couple of econ courses in college, but considering the obvious penetration of his ideas in conservative circles and his sponsorship, it seems like he should be more well known. that said, his thinking certainly seems a perfect fit for modern conservatives.

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@dancingrabbit and he was a major engineer of the coup

woman found his papers and wrote the book getting his work out in the open

i have not read the book but a friend who did read it said is was excellent and scary

using democratic institutions and corruption to end democracy

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in the sweepstakes of life, losers have better prizes than the winners. Fleeting nuggets of clarity. No, really, the bibble told me so!

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joe shikspack's picture

@QMS

well if it's any consolation, the people with the worst ideas always seem to be the most successful in human society...

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@joe shikspack @joe shikspack can you identify?

quite a few, imagine.

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joe shikspack's picture

@QMS

i recognize a lot more of the musicians than the other celebs.

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Azazello's picture

@joe shikspack
The car is famous too. It's a Lancia Aurelia Spyder.

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

@Azazello year I was born. Gotta put that on my bucket list to drive one! Thanks man, I'm inspired.

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@joe shikspack too many to categorize in one flash. Will try again when the brain re-spongenates. Bowie killed the camera twice!

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enhydra lutris's picture

news sucks and generally consistently does so. But be of good cheer and remind yourself that it's God's will. Had he not wished the world and all its creatures to suffer immeasurably, Columbus and all of his ilk would have met watery graves.

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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 --

@enhydra lutris of limited depth perception, we stumble forth, knowing you to be the incubator of all un-fake news, forever, until the next erection, in the name of the senate, the executive and the house of lords, amen.

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joe shikspack's picture

@enhydra lutris

i'm sure that if columbus and his merry men hadn't made it to these golden shores to exploit, pillage, rape and plunder in ways that merciful god approves, some other substitute for our suffering pleasure would have been found.

have a good one.

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TheOtherMaven's picture

@joe shikspack @joe shikspack

The Norse already had, but they couldn't keep it (too few colonists, and no technological or bacteriological "edge").

The Portuguese probably had, but kept quiet about it because they didn't see anything there to exploit.

The Basques and other deep-sea fishers had most likely been trolling the Grand Banks for decades at least - and likewise keeping quiet, so as not to have everyone come horning in on their favorite fishing grounds.

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.