The Evening Blues - 6-5-19
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features Texas blues musician, "The Master of the Telecaster," Albert Collins. Enjoy!
Albert Collins & The Icebreakers - Same Old Thing
"It's a sad day in America when foreign governments with deep pockets have more influence in our own country than our great citizens."
-- Donald Trump
News and Opinion
Trump officials approved Saudi nuclear permits after Khashoggi murder
The Trump administration twice approved licenses for the export of nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia after the murder of the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, it emerged on Tuesday. In response to repeated requests, the US Department of Energy informed the Senate on Tuesday that, of a total of seven permits for nuclear technical expertise transfers to Riyadh, one was approved on 18 October last year – 16 days after Khashoggi’s murder and dismemberment in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The most recent approval was dated 18 February this year. ...
Trump and his secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, have ignored US intelligence findings that the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, almost certainly ordered the killing of Khashoggi. Trump and Pompeo have continued to treat the crown prince as a close ally.
The administration refused to comply with a congressional demand that it reach a determination about the Saudi government’s responsibility for the murder of the Saudi dissident who had been a US resident before he was killed. It also bypassed Congress to approve “emergency” sales of arms to Saudi Arabia.
U.S. lawmakers to push back against Trump on Saudi weapons sales
Members of the U.S. Congress, including some of President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans as well as Democrats, are preparing legislation seeking to block his plan for $8 billion in weapons sales to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, congressional aides and lawmakers said on Tuesday. The first measures could be introduced within days, congressional aides said.
Declaring a national emergency because of tensions with Iran, the Trump administration informed congressional committees on May 24 that it was going ahead with the 22 military deals, circumventing a long-standing precedent for lawmakers to review major weapons sales. The decision angered members of both parties, who worried that Trump’s decision to blow through the “holds” process would eliminate Congress’ ability to prevent not just Trump but future presidents from selling weapons where they liked.
The array of military products cleared for sale by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo included offensive equipment like precision-guided munitions, mortars and fighter jet engines, some of which would take many months to be produced and shipped, which lawmakers said belied the administration’s contention that it was addressing an emergency.
In the House of Representatives, which is controlled by Democrats, lawmakers were considering a bill that would require the 22 licenses approved by the administration to be pulled back and resubmitted through the regular notification procedure, including a 30-day congressional review, Democratic congressional aides said. House members also may seek to rewrite the Arms Export Control Act of 1976 to impose tighter restrictions on the use of the “emergency authority” provision, tightening the loophole the Trump administration used to justify the sale so it could only be used for “true emergencies,” aides said. House members said they expected any measure would have support from members of both parties.
Saudi Arabia First
As President Donald Trump’s critics focus anew on whether he obstructed justice to thwart Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, a more flagrant abuse of presidential power is unfolding in plain sight. For weeks, Trump has continued America’s involvement in the war in Yemen, siding with Saudi Arabia against Congress, the body that the Constitution vests with the power to declare war. The House last month approved a resolution, 247 to 175, directing the president to withdraw the U.S. from the war on Yemen. A bipartisan Senate majority had already approved the same resolution. And the American public has no appetite for a long war in Yemen.
On its own, waging war after an official call from Congress to stop doing so ought to be regarded as a violation of the Constitution that warrants impeachment. But there’s even more to the Trump administration’s “Saudi Arabia First” foreign policy: Citing a provision in the Arms Export Control Act that allows the president to bypass the legislative approval process in an emergency, the administration is circumventing a block on arms sales to the Saudis. ...
Congress ought to eliminate the emergency provision. But the provision’s existence does not justify its invocation when there is no actual emergency. ... Put succinctly, the Trump administration unlawfully defied Congress to extend American participation in a war in Yemen, and now it is defying America’s elected representatives again to funnel more weapons to that war’s ringleader.
It’s the legislature’s move. ... So long as some of its members are invoking alleged obstruction of justice to justify impeachment proceedings, they ought to invoke abuse of the war power, too.
Congressman admits to war crimes while defending Navy SEAL accused of same things
Farmlands Burn as Fighting Rages in North Syria; Both Sides Trade Blame
As fighting picks up around the outskirts of Syria’s Idlib Province, one
of the area’s most important aspects, it’s farmland, is being destroyed
in fires, taking out vital crops, olive groves and orchards.The World Food Programme (WFP) is accusing the military campaign in the area of turning food supplies into a weapon of war. It’s not clear who is setting the fires, however, or if they are deliberate. Both the Syrian military and al-Qaeda are blaming one another for the fires, and there are a lot of displaced civilians who were forced out of the farmland by fighting.
.@RepAOC @AOC questions officials from the FBI and TSA on facial recognition. "Has the FBI ever used facial recognition deployed at or near a protest, political rally, school, hospital, court house or any other sensitive location?"
Watch full video here: https://t.co/wUfn1DkGzT pic.twitter.com/vsAkW4UOnB
— CSPAN (@cspan) June 4, 2019
Watchdog says FBI has access to about 640M photographs
A government watchdog says the FBI has access to about 640 million photographs — including from driver’s licenses, passports and mugshots — that can be searched using facial recognition technology.
The figure reflects how the technology is becoming an increasingly powerful law enforcement tool, but is also stirring fears about the potential for authorities to intrude on the lives of Americans. It was reported by the Government Accountability Office at a congressional hearing in which both Democrats and Republicans raised questions about the use of the technology.
Police Raid Home of Aussie Journalist Who Reported on Secret Domestic Spying Program
Australian police raided the home of one of the country's prominent journalists Tuesday, raising questions about press freedom in that country and across the western world.
Journalist Annika Smethurst, the national politics editor at Sydney's Sunday Telegraph, was the target of the early morning raid. Police served a warrant at her home related to materials she obtained and used in a story on April 29, 2018, about an Australian government plan to expand surveillance capabilities for the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD). In response to the raid, News Corp Australia, Smethurst's employer, decried the police actions as "a dangerous act of intimidation." ...
In Smethurst's 2018 story, she detailed how the ASD intended to seek greater powers over surveillance targets—including Australian nationals, which the ASD is not permitted to surveil under Australian law. The new rules, if put in place, would have allowed the agency to access the private information of Australian citizens "without a trace," reported Smethurst, citing "top secret letters between the heads of home affairs and defence." Those secret documents provided the impetus for the raid, according to a police statement. "This warrant relates to the alleged publishing of information classified as an official secret, which is an extremely serious matter that has the potential to undermine Australia's national security," the Australian Federal Police statement read.
There's a movement throughout the west to turn journalists who report on and publish classified information into criminals. This thuggish Australia search of Annika Smethurst's home is more evidence of that. But the greatest threat is the Assange indictment: that's the blueprint: https://t.co/H6aSg4iqAu
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 4, 2019
Smethurst wasn't the only Australian journalist threatened by authorities Tuesday. Hours after the raid, broadcaster Ben Fordham revealed that the government had opened an investigation into Fordham's reporting on refugee boats turned away from the Australian coast. Fordham said he would not be bullied into divulging his source. "The chances of me revealing my sources is zero," Fordham said. "Not today, not tomorrow, next week or next month. There is not a hope in hell of that happening."
Republicans Clash with Trump over Proposed Tariffs of Up to 25% on All Mexican Imports
Trump’s Own Party Is Plotting to Stop His Trade War With Mexico
Donald Trump spent Monday night tucking into steamed halibut and watercress mousse alongside the Queen at Buckingham Palace. Back in Washington, Republican lawmakers were plotting their biggest standoff with their party’s leader since he was elected.
According to a report by the Washington Post, Republicans were in talks Monday, strategizing to prevent Trump from using executive power to circumvent the will of Congress by imposing tariffs on Mexico.
In February, Trump bypassed Congress to declare immigration at the southern border a national emergency, and is using the purported emergency to justify the tariffs, which are due to come into effect next week. But the law allows Congress to override the national emergency by passing a resolution of disapproval. Lawmakers passed a similar resolution in March, but Trump vetoed it. This time around, Congress is seeking a veto-proof majority to stop his plans. ...
GOP lawmakers are increasingly concerned that Trump’s tariffs would amount to a tax on U.S. consumers and businesses. The tariffs are also likely to blow up the United States Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA), Trump’s proposed replacement for NAFTA.
Trump warns 'foolish' Republican senators in rare clash over Mexico tariffs
In a rare confrontation, Republican senators declared deep opposition Tuesday to Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs on all goods coming into the US from Mexico. But it’s unclear they have the votes to stop him, and Trump said they’d be “foolish” to try.
All sides, including officials from Mexico meeting Trump negotiators in Washington this week, remain hopeful that high-level talks will ease the president away from his threat. But with the tariffs set to start next Monday, and Trump declaring them “more likely” than not to take effect, fellow Republicans in Congress warned the White House they were ready to stand up to the president.
The public split and looming standoff over 5% tariffs on all goods imported from Mexico revealed a fundamental divergence in values between the president and his party. Trump uses tariffs as leverage to get what he wants, in this case to force Mexico to do more to halt illegal immigration. For Republicans, tariffs are counter to firmly rooted orthodoxy and viewed as nothing more than taxes they strenuously oppose. The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, said with understatement: “There is not much support in my conference for tariffs, that’s for sure.”
At a lengthy closed-door lunch meeting at the Capitol, senators took turns warning Trump officials there could be trouble if the GOP-held Senate votes on disapproving the tariffs. Congressional rejection would be a stiff rebuke to Trump, even more forceful than an earlier effort to prevent him from shifting money to build his long-promised border wall with Mexico. ...
The outcome would be uncertain – Trump could try to veto a disapproval resolution as he did before. But many Republicans who voted against Trump earlier this year actually supported his ultimate goal of building the border wall. They were just uneasy with his executive reach to do it. The president doesn’t have anywhere near the same backing for the tariffs.
ICE Blames “Processing Delays” For Keeping Migrant Kids in a Hot Van for 2 Nights
Last July, 37 migrant children who had been separated from their parents at the border were driven to a detention center in Los Fresnos, Texas, to be reunited with their families. Before that could happen, though, the children were forced to wait nearly two days in a van, according to emails obtained by NBC News. ...
The first child was returned to their parents at 1:30 Monday morning, 11 hours after the van first arrived, according to emails between BCFS employees. The final child wasn’t processed until 5:50 a.m. on Tuesday, 39 hours after the van full of children arrived. Most children reportedly spent at least 23 hours in the vehicle. ...
A former HHS official told NBC that the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, was “clearly not ready to deal with the separations and did not take steps necessary to ensure a speedy reunification with their parents.”
In other news, several Congressional Democrats seek emergency hospitalization for repetitive stress injuries to their wrists.
House passes bill offering 2 million migrants a chance at citizenship
Democrats shunned a White House veto threat and muscled legislation through the House on Tuesday that would bestow a chance for citizenship on an estimated 2 million-plus migrants, a bill that stands virtually no chance of enactment but lets them showcase their efforts on one of their highest-profile priorities.
The measure is just one skirmish in Democrats’ multi-front battle against most congressional Republicans over immigration, an issue that has deadlocked the two parties for decades but intensified under the harsh policies and rhetoric of Donald Trump. It is likely to join a host of other House-passed measures advancing Democrats’ agenda that are running aground in the GOP-run Senate, including legislation on healthcare, gun control, climate change and election security.
The bill passed on a near party-line 237-187 vote as supporters in the House visitors’ galleries roared “Yes we can” and other chants, a rare display of raucous emotion in a chamber whose rules require decorum by its guests. Seven Republicans from mostly moderate districts were the only lawmakers to cross party lines.
NY Mayor Confronted At Gym By Homeless Advocate
Los Angeles homeless population hits 36,000 in dramatic rise
Los Angeles has experienced a 16% increase in the homeless population over the last year, the latest sign of severe income inequality and a worsening housing crisis plaguing California.
There are now more than 36,000 homeless people in the city of LA, and nearly 59,000 across LA county, a 16% and 12% uptick respectively, according to an annual LA county report released on Tuesday.
The county “point-in-time count”, conducted by thousands of volunteers in January each year, is an estimate of the number of people living on the street, in tents, in cars and in shelters. The sharp increases paint a picture of a growing public health crisis in a region home to some of the richest neighborhoods and people in the US. ...
The report found that 53% of people suffering homelessness for the first time cited “economic hardship” as a leading factor, and that roughly one-quarter of the unsheltered adults lost their housing in 2018. A majority of the homeless people have also lived in the county for more than 10 years.
Donald Trump Is The Most Honest US President Of All Time
To be clear, I am not saying that Trump actually tells the truth with his words; he obviously does not. Trump is so comfortable with lying that he once tweeted the claim that he’d never urged House Republicans to vote for a particular immigration bill, three days after posting a tweet explicitly urging House Republicans to vote for that bill. He left both tweets up. I mean, that’s like one click away from literally looking someone in the eye while urinating on their leg and telling them it must be the rain. No, when I say that Trump is the most honest US president of all time, what I mean is that he has a unique gift for exposing the face of the empire for exactly what it is, in all its depravity, all its deceitfulness, all its corruption. ...
His whole cabinet is basically human versions of the departments they represent. His Secretary Treasurer was a Goldman Sachs executive. His CIA Director literally tortured people. His National Security Advisor is an Iraq-raping Bush-era neocon. His Secretary of Commerce is a former Rothschild executive. His EPA Administrator is a former coal lobbyist. His Secretary of State came straight out of the CIA. It’s like he designed a convenient labeling system for everyone who’s unsure of what it is that each department in the executive branch of the US government actually does. Trump has been continuing and expanding all of the depravities of his predecessors, but he’s been doing so openly, making it look exactly as ugly and disgusting as it is. His supporters try to justify this by claiming he’s making brilliant 4-D chess maneuvers against the Deep State, but Trump isn’t playing chess. He isn’t even playing checkers. He’s playing Uno, and he’s playing it with his hand fully exposed on the table, with his only defense being to point at a red card and say “This one’s green” and point at an eight and say “That’s a two. It’s the best two, absolutely terrific two.”
Even his dishonesty is honesty, in a way. He lies constantly, brazenly and unapologetically, while his predecessors have lied sneakily, subtly and usually only by distortions, omissions and half-truths. Trump is a walking public service announcement that US presidents are liars. Which is the truth.
And I for one think that’s great. It’s entirely possible that Trump will be ousted in 2020 by Joe Biden or by one of Joe Biden’s 397 ideological clones who are also in the race, and that will make a lot of people very happy. It will make them happy because they won’t have to look at the ugly face of Orwellian dystopia anymore, because an infinitely smoother and more charismatic leader will go back to hiding it for them. And then things will at long last go back to normal, the way they always were: no partisan divisiveness, no corrupt politicians, no racism in America, and brunch all day, every day. The most aggressive anti-Trumpists have no interest in real change, they just want things to go back to the way they were before Trump, which is actually just wanting to go back to the conditions which gave rise to Trump. They’re not interested in waking up, they’re interested in smoothing an uncomfortable wrinkle in their bedsheets so that they can go back to sleep.
The lunatic right is getting ready.
Ginni Thomas Plans New Conservative Supergroup to “Protect President Trump”
Conservative activist Virginia “Ginni” Thomas is launching yet another project to wage war on multiple fronts of America’s most heated cultural and political debates. This time, however, her plan will include a project to “protect President Trump” using at least two new campaign-related political entities, according to a presentation obtained by The Intercept and Documented. Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, unveiled the new venture in a closed meeting of GOP lawmakers, donors, and Christian-right leaders last month, seeming to make reference to the movement disarray and electoral losses suffered by conservatives in the Trump era — and the gains made by left-wing groups and politicians. ...
Some of the most controversial icons in conservative circles will be involved with other branches of Thomas’s new project, which is dubbed “Crowdsourcers.” One such project is titled “Protect Our Heroes,” led by conservative filmmaker and provocateur James O’Keefe. The node of the project focused on political campaigns — slated to do business under the name “American D-Day” — will be set up by Cleta Mitchell, a well-known Republican campaign finance lawyer and partner at the law firm Foley & Lardner. D-Day will include a 501(c)(4) arm that can solicit undisclosed donations and a separate PAC registered with the Federal Elections Commission. ...
Thomas and Mitchell announced the suite of projects at an invite-only gathering hosted by the Council for National Policy in McLean, Virginia, in mid-May. The CNP meetings are influential and secretive gatherings designed to advance a hard-edged view of social and political causes. ... The sweeping presentation covered a range of topics, including the “mob tactics” used by leftists against those wearing “Make America Great Again” hats and how the “hard left” has co-opted “the corporate community” to support a ban on housing and employment discrimination against LGBTQ people.
The campaign entities and O’Keefe project are among several initiatives to be “incubated” by Thomas’s Crowdsourcers initiative. The presentation lists efforts to “Build Robust Infrastructure,” led by Bill Meierling, chief marketing officer of the American Legislative Exchange Council, and “Brand the Left: You’ve Been Lied To!” led by direct-mail consultant Richard Viguerie. ...
Thomas warned that the “fascist left” had encouraged violence over the hearings to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court and would continue waging a cultural war against conservatives. That war included, she said, a push to use “rainbow flags” to send “powerful, subtle messages” against conservatives. She also cited the left-wing shooter who arrived at the congressional baseball game in 2017 to target GOP lawmakers. The members of Congress targeted were lucky that Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., had security with him, Thomas said.
“We all have guns and concealed carry,” Thomas said, “to handle what’s coming.”
2020 Democrats Are Literally Begging For $1 On Facebook: “Can You Chip In?”
For New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, the announcement merited a “BREAKING” tag in a barrage of Facebook ads. Former Housing and Urban Development secretary Julian Castro called it “astounding.” Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who's 68, gave it no less than two siren emojis in a Facebook post. The news? The Democratic National Committee announced its plan last week to cull the unruly field of 24 candidates for president by setting a 130,000 donor threshold to qualify for its third and fourth debates this fall. That move set off a scramble for cash on Facebook, inundating voters with fundraising appeals and blowing up ad prices.
The new Democratic debate rules have made “Chip in” the unofficial, decidedly thirsty rallying cry for several campaigns desperate to make the cut. The resulting fight for small donors has helped Facebook rake in more than $1 million each week from the sprawling Democratic field, according to company figures. “ALERT: We need 130,000 donors this summer to be guaranteed a spot at the next Democratic debates,” Inslee’s page said in one version of a Facebook ad appealing for donations as low as $1. “Help keep Jay’s mission to defeat climate change front and center on the stage. Chip in before midnight!”
But here’s the rub: Longshot candidates may need to spend more on Facebook ads and other digital outreach than donors actually give to their campaigns. “There are plenty of people who qualify for the debate stage but could be bled dry by the process to get there,” said Niko Duffy, managing director of CommonWealth Media, a progressive digital strategy firm. ...
The New York Times reported Friday that two unnamed campaigns said strategy firms told them they’d charge $40 for each new $1 donor. That’s as much as 5- or 10-times typical rates — and higher than the average donation some campaigns have raised from their small-dollar donors. ...
“You’re going to see more and more campaigns try weirder and weirder tactics to hit that donor number — Gillibrand playing beer pong is a famous example,” said Daniel Scarvalone, senior director of Bully Pulpit Interactive and a former Democratic operative. “Who has the in-house creativity and talents to do that well? And who’s going to jump the shark?”
Elizabeth Warren’s Ready to Unleash Her Economic Plans — Starting with Green Manufacturing
Elizabeth Warren has already put out a flurry of policy proposals in her bid for 2020, and now the “woman with a plan” is about to deluge us with new plans to bring “fundamental, structural changes” to the American economy. To get the ball rolling on her vision for economic policymaking, Warren says she will get rid of the Commerce Department and replace it with the so-called U.S. Department for Economic Development, which would also subsume the Small Business Administration and the Patent and Trademark Office. The idea is to streamline numerous government programs into a single super-powered office with one goal: creating and defending American jobs. ...
Warren’s first big undertaking for her new economic plans is all about green manufacturing, as one part of a larger Green New Deal to stop the escalating global climate crisis that is set to become irreversible, according to climate scientist, in a little over a decade. She’s calling for a $2 trillion investment in the next decade in green research and manufacturing. The plan has three main legs:
• Green Apollo Program: With a name that’s an obvious wink at the space race, Warren says that $400 billion will need to be invested in clean energy research in development in the next 10 years, a more than tenfold increase. While Warren’s bringing the axe to numerous federal agencies, her Green Apollo would create the National Institutes for Clean Energy.
• Green Industrial Mobilization: Warren wants to use the federal procurement process — by which the government identifies goods and services needed and how it purchases them — and pouring $1.5 trillion into that process to spur U.S. development of green technology and products that the government will use. (Warren contrasts this idea with the U.S.’s current plan to spend a “bloated” $1.5 trillion on defense in the next decade.)
• Green Marshall Plan: Warren’s creating another new federal office that's entirely dedicated to selling U.S. renewable and emission-free products abroad and allotting $100 billion to help foreign countries implement U.S. green tech. The plan shares the namesake with the U.S.’ economic plan to rebuild Western Europe after World War II.
Warren contracted Moody’s Analytics for a third-party risk assessment of her climate proposal. The firm determined that the plan will have “meaningful macroeconomic benefits” by adding to the U.S.’s GDP and creating jobs.
Teen activists face US government in crucial hearing over climate trial
Twenty-one youth activists faced off with the US government in an Oregon courthouse on Tuesday, where their attorneys petitioned a panel of judges to let their climate case go to trial. Until it does, their attorneys argued, fossil fuel development should be halted on public lands. The case of Juliana v the US charges the federal government with violating the constitutional rights of youth by perpetuating systems that contribute to climate breakdown. Those young people – who range in age from 11 to 23 and hail from all corners of the nation – argue that the constitution gives them and future generations a right to an environment free of climate catastrophe.
Their previously scheduled trial was abruptly halted in October 2018 after the government successfully petitioned the supreme court for review. Now, a three-judge panel at the ninth circuit has the final say. The panel did not issue a ruling on Tuesday. ...
Jeffrey Bossert Clark on Tuesday argued against the trial on the government’s behalf. A former George W Bush administration appointee, he has publicly equated greenhouse gas regulation with socialist attempts to seize the economy and use of United Nations science as synonymous with US rule by foreign scientists. Clark said that the suit constituted a direct attack on the separations of powers, and that the young activists wrongly want the courts, instead of elected officials, to direct things such as energy policy.
Julia Olsen, a lawyer for the activists, argued federal energy policy “puts children in harm’s way”. Olsen also stressed courts can and have intervened when government actions violate the Constitutional rights of citizens.
The US government has not disputed that climate breakdown is real, or that an environmental crisis looms. In fact, government experts generally agree with the plaintiffs’ experts on the science. Government attorneys have instead argued that the court does not have the legal authority to tell the federal government what to do about climate change, and that a trial would be too burdensome. They have also argued that Americans don’t have a right to “a climate capable of sustaining human life”.
Deforestation of Brazilian Amazon surges to record high
Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon surged last month to the highest May level since the current monitoring method began, prompting concerns that president Jair Bolsonaro is giving a free pass to illegal logging, farming and mining.
The world’s greatest rainforest – which is a vital provider of oxygen and carbon sequestration – lost 739sq km during the 31 days, equivalent to two football pitches every minute, according to data from the government’s satellite monitoring agency. Although a single month is too short to confirm long-term trends, May is considered an important guide because it marks the start of the dry season, which is when most burning and other forms of forest clearance are carried out. ...
Since the far-right Bolsonaro came to power in January, he has weakened the environment ministry, loosened controls on economic exploitation of the Amazon, halted demarcation of indigenous land and encouraged mining and farming interests to expand in the region. Since the president criticised the government’s main monitoring agency as a “fines industry”, it has issued a fewer penalties than at any time in 11 years and the number of inspection operations is down 70% from last year.
His environment minister, Ricardo Salles, who was convicted for environmental fraud and had never visited the Amazon region before this year, has further undermined morale by failing to appoint regional chiefs and by firing veteran inspectors. Earlier this week, Folha reported he was moving to privatise the satellite monitoring of the forest. He has also vexed donors Norway and Germany by proposing to weaken the voice of civil society in deciding how the $1.3bn Amazon Fund is spent.
'Blatant Attempt to Intimidate': Trump Administration Proposal Threatens Pipeline Protesters With Up to 20 Years in Prison
Building on efforts by multiple states to crack down on those fighting the construction of climate-destroying fossil fuel infrastructure, the Trump administration unveiled a proposal on Monday that would criminalize pipeline protests at the federal level and hit demonstrators with up to 20 years in prison.
The new proposal, released by Transportation Department's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, was immediately denounced by environmentalists as a serious threat to the First Amendment. ...
As Politico reported Monday, the Transportation Department's proposal would "treat some pipeline protests as a federal crime, mirroring state legislative efforts that have spread in the wake of high-profile demonstrations around the country."
The Trump administration, according to Politico, is "calling for Congress to expand a law that threatens fines and up to 20 years' prison time for 'damaging or destroying' pipelines currently in operation. The expanded version would add 'vandalism, tampering with, or impeding, disrupting, or inhibiting the operation of' either existing pipelines or those 'under construction.'" ...
House Democrats signaled that they would oppose the measure, which comes just two weeks after the Texas state Senate passed a bill that would hit pipeline protesters with up to 10 years in prison.
Activists Stage Blockade to Block Work on Line 3 as Court Tosses Out Proposed Pipeline's Approval From Regulators
Enbridge's Line 3 was dealt a setback by the Minnesota Court of Appeals on Monday while a trio of water protectors sustained strong resistance to the project by locking themselves to machinery to block work on the proposed oil pipeline.
The three-judge panel, with one of the judges objecting, reversed the approval that the state Public Utilities Commission (PUC) gave last year to the Calgary-based company's environmental impact statement, calling it "inadequate because it didn't address the potential impact of an oil spill into the Lake Superior watershed." ...
The decision means the statement goes back to PUC, as the Star Tribune reported.
Extreme Flooding Across Midwest 'Exactly In Line' With Scientific Warnings of Climate Crisis
Farmers and residents across the Midwest are currently "living climate change," according to experts and scientists who are observing catastrophic flooding from one of the rainiest springs on record. Since March, heavy rains in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, and other states have led the Mississippi River and other waterways to overflow, with the Mississippi cresting at more than 21 feet in one Iowa city on Sunday—the second highest level since historic flooding in 1993 decimated farms, homes, and whole towns. ...
Climate experts including meteorologist Eric Holthaus and 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben tweeted that the "unprecedented" flooding was new evidence of a "hot new world."
Incredible flooding along Midwest rivers already --and now there's a potential tropical storm in the Gulf which will dump a lot more rain. Records falling everywhere #hotnewworldhttps://t.co/kro8UppntG
— Bill McKibben (@billmckibben) June 3, 2019
While a rainy season is not necessarily indicative of the effects of the climate crisis, the nonprofit climate action group Earthjustice wrote that the relentlessness of the current flooding and its level of destruction "is not normal." ...
As National Geographic reported Monday, the floods serve as some of the most tangible evidence that the changing climate is affecting farmers' livelihoods. Increased water vapor in the atmosphere can result from a warmer climate, and "climate scientists say the devastating rains falling over the Midwest are exactly in line with what they’ve been predicting," Sarah Gibbons wrote
"Overall, it's climate change," Donald Wuebbles, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, told National Geographic. "We expect an increase in total precipitation in the Midwest, especially in winter and spring, with more coming as larger events." ...
While many of the warnings about the effects of the climate crisis focus on coastal cities being washed away by rising sea levels, Megan Molteni wrote last month at Wired, "climate change will bring more moisture to the middle parts of the country too"—a shift for which the Midwest is poorly equipped. "After decades of draining wetlands and clearing forests for agricultural use," wrote Molteni, "those changes to the timing, type, and amount of precipitation will fall on a system already profoundly altered in ways that make flooding much more likely."
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
The American Cult of Bombing and Endless War
What the Latest Secret Government File Says About UK Middle East Policy
In Scott Warren’s No More Deaths Trial, Prosecutors Attempt to Paint a Web of Conspiracy
‘Cultural Marxism’: The Mainstreaming of a Nazi Trope
What’s Behind the New Anti-Trust Movement around Google, Amazon and Facebook?
France to ban destruction of unsold consumer products
Joseph Stiglitz: The climate crisis is our third world war
Biden's Climate Plan Not Nearly Enough, Say Green Groups
A Bernie Sanders Narrative for Seniors
A Little Night Music
Albert Collins - Defrost
Albert Collins - If Trouble Was Money
Albert Collins - Frog Jumpin'
Albert Collins - Conversation With Collins
Albert Collins - My Woman Has A Black Cat Bone
Albert Collins - Homesick
Albert Collins - Lights Are On But Nobody's Home
Albert Collins - Listen Here
Albert Collins - Snatchin' It Back
Albert Collins - Collins Shuffle
Comments
evening folks...
i will be scarce this evening, i have to run down to virginia to pick up some folks at the airport tonight during "prime time" for the eb, so i'll catch up with you when i can.
have a great evening!
Good afternoon Joe and the bluzers...
...the (much needed) rain ran me in early, and I was pleasantly surprised to see you post the EB this early. Thanks as always for the news and the tunes!
Don't know if Caity has T-rump right or not, but no doubt he has the UK stirred up...
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7yRHQtMQnk]
Certainly he has removed the mask, but he also precipitated the Trump Derangement Syndrome eliminating many folks critical thinking skills.
Hope you all have a nice evening!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
I like that notion
Trump infected the British with "Trump Derangement Syndrome eliminating many folks critical thinking skills."
It really is a virus. Like shingles.
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Very much like shingles, considering that
shingles is a flare-up of a dormant virus (chicken pox). Time was when almost everyone caught chicken pox in childhood, and so almost everyone was vulnerable to shingles (they have vaccines now that reduce the likelihood but can't eliminate it completely).
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
I'm increasingly serious
...about the hypothesis that a significant portion of the population has a biological tripwire on board.
I don't know how it was pre-installed, or exactly what the trigger was (a word? a subliminal image? repitition?) — but the profound mental distress is real. It presents like an acute reaction to a brain chemistry antagonist for an unknown duration across the population.
At first, I thought that the politicians, media, and federal law enforcement were all faking it — that they did not believe the cynical and preposterous tale they were telling. After all, they did participate in producing fake evidence and pushing propaganda. But now I wonder if they, too, are infected — and to some degree, innocent. I wonder if the trigger also induces the capacity for a multiple personality realm.
In any event, I've been searching and have not found many historical records of such a finely structured mass hallucination with such strong defenses against the sanity of reality and logic. There was St. Vitus Dance, which was biologically induced. A great deal of DOD research in methods to attain mind control over enemy populations. Plenty of deep work in propaganda, both conscious and subconscious. But nothing accounts for those who are unaffected or immune. I also notice certain "actors" can and do direct their focus, using a cadence similar to Q. Using double negatives to express truth. Describing things by describing what they are not.
Weird times.
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Good evening, joe and bluzerz!
Does anyone remember the Soviet Union? The KGB? It has been brought to America in whole cloth!
Had a comment discussion with Wendy Davis in her last essay about changing the system. The whole system. She seemed confused, where I thought saying "changing the system" was pretty descriptive. Well, it seems like the system HAS been changed - to the fascist oligarchy we are witnessing. Journalists are being persecuted for publishing truth about abusive governments. Smart speakers are spying on people in their own homes. Facial recognition will soon have us all in handcuffs. Better yet, I can envision us whispering to one another and wondering who we can trust. I say - let's change the system to work for all of us and not just the 1%. Isn't that what we've been here for, for the last three+ years?
Let me know if you're having trouble understanding what I'm saying because I'm wondering if I'm at all clear.
On that note - have a lovely evening, folks!
"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
Fascist oligarchy seems exactly what is happening
and not only here, but in lots of other western countries too. The gloves started coming off during Bush's tenure and more during Obama's when he let the war and financial criminals go free and now they are totally off since Trump became president. War criminals are leading the government instead of being in prison. Banks are getting ready to crash the economy again and Trump is continuing to transfer all wealth to the upper class. Plus he's letting corporations pollute as much as they want and he is continuing Obama's drill everywhere including the Arctic. Then there's all the tariffs and sanctions he's been throwing out right and left. Good chance that they will crash the economy and cause a global recession. Not sure how this benefits the rich though. And of course there's the war against journalists. Yup. We're there. Inverted Totalitarianism. Yippee.
So yeah there is a lot that needs to change and fast if it's not too late already.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
In a global recession the fat cats have the wherewital to
pick up shitloads of tangible assets including land at fire sale prices; also a lot of intangibles too.
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 --
I was just saying
pretty much this to Mr. RA just now. We’re going to Mexico on vacation - I’m wondering if we’ll get there or back!
"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
Make sure that you take your 'papers'
I've been reading about how DHS has been raiding greyhound buses and demanding that people show their papers. Plus going through the border you might have to show your phone just to make sure that you haven't said something bad about Trump. DHS has no business pulling over the buses and they don't have to let them on, but they keep doing it. The ACLU says it's not legal for them to do that but greyhound just keeps pulling over.
I keep hoping for jury nullification for the guy who took water to the desert for immigrants, but I'm not holding out much anymore. It's sad that he is even on trial for that when the DHS has done some very heinous things isn't it?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
Yo sabe just fine.
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 --
Muchas gracias, mi amigo!
"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
The times they are a changin'
environmentally if not politically.
Once tried to learn this one. Still not in the repertoire....
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxvVk-r9ut8]
We are experiencing great change whether we know it or not.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
I guess I'll weigh in on this, too.
Hi
I'm with you on changing the system, and I know just what you mean. Sweeping change is inevitable because the present is unsustainable in every way you can think of.
But I firmly believe current system is the same system that was in place a century ago, or longer. Everything you are seeing now was already inside of us, inside our culture.
The only real change has been technology. We have been living through the Third Industrial Revolution. Otherwise, American/Colonial/Imperial values are the same as they always were. We merely have more advanced tools to work with.
I don't really know what the Soviet Union or early 20th century Russia was like. I no longer believe the written histories.
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Clear as a bell raggedy
No confusion involved in your message. perhaps some in the ears of others, but I get it!
Thanks, QMS. You're the best!
Sometimes I wonder about myself. Of course, I know what I mean, but I need to ensure others know, too!
"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
Trump definitely has a knack ...
for casting evil cartoon characters as his partners in crime.
Nice of Trump to help Giuliani out of a jam like that. Don'tcha think?
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
Yes it's time to move on from Russia Gate
and everything that has come from it. Aaron Mate was on Jimmy's show recently and they talked about how Mueller set Trump up to still be accused of working with Russia without having a way to prove that he didn't. Did someone post that here recently? I think so..
Here's Aaron's article on his opinion on what Mueller did.
Congress has many reasons to bring impeachment charges against Trump. Abusing the power of his office is probably the biggest one, but if Trump is removed we still have Pence, Bolton, Pompeo and the power structure behind them. But I'm betting that Nancy will continue being a door stop so that won't happen. Just like she did when Cheney abused his power.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
Are you referring to this Dore discussion?
I thought things got very spooky about the 11:00 mark.
I came away with an enhanced understanding of the game Mueller is still playing. I recommend it to those interested in psychological warfare. The man is demented, in the demon sense of the word.
And Jimmy really blew his own mind with his analysis. You could hear a pin drop in their little studio.
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
This article is interesting
Yes that's the video I was talking about which I posted in my essay on how Twitter helped Russia elect Trump with no evidence of how they did it.
How Mueller + Barr = Trump’s Reelection
I have long thought that Hillary actually did win the election, but it was given to Trump because he could finish the asset stripping of the country much faster than any democrat that just does it in small increments.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
Thanks for elaborating on that.
Sound analysis, in my view.
Fun speculation. Where it holds together for me is that Trump could do it faster. He has this very tight and targeted agenda of executive actions, analogous to a loaded assault weapon. Every day he ploughs through reversals of standing orders, new deregulation orders, and myriad executive actions and political sabotage that many did not even know were possible. His strange cabinet is a private army, who also seem to be working from a script doing the same thing. But where did he get this To Do List? Seasoned politicians are still baffled by this, including Republicans. Once in awhile he ends up looking stupid, like when he tried to replace ObamaCare with the great new Republican Plan — only to discover that the Republicans never had a plan and never will. But 90 percent of what he does flies under the radar.
Here's where is doesn't hold together. This power doesn't come because he's a Republican or Hillary is a Democrat. In fact, I believe that most of the serious modern damage we abhor was done under Democratic presidents — although both Right Wing party Elites have worked together on the asset-stripping-for-Empire agenda and passed the ball back and forth. I think Trump's power comes from the fact that he is an outsider and populist. He doesn't get the normal pushback and controlled opposition. Instead, he gets sputtering insanity and conspiracy theories and fake news that he can mock and dismiss. He follows a very organized and precise agenda with the discipline of a real estate developer. Every tenth item is some unthinkable new arrangement pertaining to Israel or Saudi Arabia, that gets lost in the staccato bursts of action. If anything, the Russia Hoax that melted the American brain has made it all possible.
It's simple to see that Trump is executing the Deep State agenda globally. The Russia Hoax is also a Deep State project that is executed domestically, to provide political cover. It may not have started out that way, but that's how it ended up. There's lots of overlap, but somehow Trump hasn't made the connection. These people are definitely descendants of the German elite extracted from Europe in the early 20th century. They've blanked themselves out on Ancestry.
Something to think about
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
But where did he get this To Do List?
Well we know that he's getting his judges from the federalist society who had them all wrapped up and ready to go once he was elected. My theory on this is that back when the democrats were sane they passed some decent legislation, but if the PTB can get the right people in place then they can roll back some of it. Democrats used to stand with unions, but they have long ago sold out. But many of the worker's rights are still in place. Thus enter the right wing judges to overturn them.
Many of the neocons like the Kagans, Kristal and the others that wrote up PNAC were republicans, but they didn't like what Trump was saying about wars and possible detente with Russia so they fled to back Hillary. But Trump is now expanding the wars so the Sheldon Anderson of the world are getting their people installed. This is where Bolton and Abrams came from.
Absolutely! Both Clinton and Obama did lots of long term damage to the country, but they are both still thought of as great presidents. Bill helped setup the economic crisis and then Obama did nothing to help us recover from it. Plus people gave Obama a pass for his wars, his war on whistleblowers and even for trying to put SS on the table. I'm still seeing people saying that he ended two wars and didn't start any new ones and that he was the best president since FDR. The war quote was just last month. SMDH! Obama killed the anti war movement.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
Good evening Joe. Thanks for the OT and good old AK.
Saw him at one of the venues (The Fillmore?) oh so many decades ago.
Have a good one.
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 --
His first- recorded in Houston 1958
with Rhythmn Rockers. On Kangaroo Records.
Will take any excuse to post this one. Jumping like a Kangaroo!
Check saxophone solo by Tiny Little.
One of the best! Thanks for bringing him here.
Good evening joe, and all bluesers
Last evening I commented I prevailed in a suppression hearing.
Today, I was told an associated felony case that relied upon the same defective warrants for arrest and search would be dismissed.
My client said he lacked the vocabulary to express his appreciation, so I told him tips are accepted, and told him my beer preference, and my paralegals beer preference, so it is just all good.
And a basal cell carcinoma I had surgically removed last week has been determined to be all gone.
And to Raggedy Ann, I agree your admonition to change the system was clear as a bell.
1. public finance of all elections. Eliminate private/PAC contributions to any candidate.
2. tax the rich and corporations to take the burden off of the middle class.
3. roll back/eliminate most or all of the surveillance measures that were put into place after 9/11.
4. Enforce whistleblower protection.
5. Paper ballot voting.
6. Shut down foreign military bases.
7. Allow more than two parties or three parties or four parties on the ballots.
8. Everything our government does should be directed towards combatting climate change.
I could go on, but with money ruling politics, these were my off the cuff, pre-dinner scattered suggestions.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Good post and good news.
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Hola, Joe! Well, the problem with the 'narrative'
suggested by the NC piece is that it's not based upon truth, or facts. I'm appalled every time that I hear Bernie and Jayapal dissembling, by saying that their proposal "simply expands the benefits of the current (1965) Traditional Medicare/Original Medicare program." This is false. Their Bills would dismantle, then, replace TM. In two sections of their Bills, it's spelled out that the current TM program 'ceases to exist,' once their UMFA kicks in--with all its 'managed care.' Do they really believe that seniors can't read? Phew!
Got more news on the Dems' proposed Medigap policy 'reforms.' (which are causing premiums to skyrocket--like the 'Cadillac Tax' in the ACA, insurers are proactive, and get ahead of the increased risk) Guess I'll just screenshot the portion of the Bill which pertains to it, and, put it in my sig line, since I 'know' that it's a very boring topic, especially, if one is not affected by it.
Good news! Unless our trip to SA is disappointing, it's "Uruguay here we come."
Instead of harping on the cuts to our (US) pitiful social safety net, as I gather more info about Uruguay, and its excellent health care system, etc.--I plan to post about it, so there's something more 'positive' to talk about.
The more I read about that place, the more we think it would be ideal (for us). Even like the way they handle pet travel--some of the strictest rules of any country, but, stop short of imposing a quarantine. Yeah!
Also, Uruguay is one of '3' countries ranked as having "the best weather." The other two are Ecuador and Malta.
It's the second smallest country in SA, and, its capital--Montevideo--is the most 'southern' (in South America). Apparently, it's quite socially progressive. (The Government of) Uruguay still backs Maduro, BTW, which is encouraging.
Hey, hope you're having a nice evening. If you don't get to stop by tonight, we'll see you later this week.
Oh, we're bracing for severe thunderstorms for next couple days. Knew I spoke too soon!
Mollie
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
I don't find it boring.
I got hooked on the health care puzzle back during the ACA.
I can't quite piece together the details of the managed care issue that makes it manditory, so anytime you post about it, I look forward to reading. I have noticed something odd on that front, lately. Television is full of adds pushing Medicare Advantage. I've never seen that outside of enrollment periods. Now they say there's a special loophole that lets you join right now and switch out of Supplement policies. The hook is dental and vision and pharma inclusion, which sounds great to people stressed by those additional costs. I think they are probably scooping up those people like mad right now. No disclosures, of course. It's all very sneaky.
Or, and Uruguay. That's a good idea. Ecuador is dead to me now.
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Hi, Pluto--good to see you! Well, glad it
doesn't bore you to tears.
That being the case, think I will go ahead and elaborate on a point or two about the 'reform' to Medicare Supplement/Medigap Plans, that I've been gripping about. (tonight, or, next week at EB
BTW, after reading your comment about MA, did a search--guess what?
Wow! What a ripoff. Thanks for noticing, and bringing this up.
See link/blurb below.
(IOW, this is in addition to the AEP which runs from October 15 thru December 7 each year.)
Mollie
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
thanks for the bad news and good blues... ;)
Something about Albert Collins was love at first hear for me. Pure awesomeness. His sound, his speed, his subtlety, vibrato, sustain, is all just amazing. I love his voice and singing style too, not to mention his talking guitar... what great stage presence, what a showman... no wonder Roy Buchanan liked him... if he only knew what shoulder to put his strap on... like Hank Aaron not holding the bat right. LOL
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein