The Evening Blues - 6-9-17



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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: T Bone Walker

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features West Coast by way of Texas bluesman T Bone Walker. Enjoy!

T Bone Walker - Don't Throw Your Love On Me So Strong

"For a year, the Blairites whined, ranted and screamed that Jeremy Corbyn would destroy the Labour Party. Now it looks likely that Corbyn, despite ceaseless attacks from within his own party and neoliberal rags like The Guardian, will outperform both of the previous Labour leaders, Eddie Milliband and Gordon Brown. It should now be obvious even to the Blairites themselves that Tony Blair destroyed the British Labour Party and that the political agenda advanced by Jeremy Corbyn is the last ticket toward its rehabilitation…Don’t expect any apologies."

-- Jeffrey St. Clair


News and Opinion

The youth for today: how the 2017 election changed the UK's political landscape

Jeremy Corbyn has defied the pundits and the pollsters to restore the Labour party as a serious electoral force and deliver a devastating blow to Theresa May’s political authority. ... This remarkable election saw a surge in both Conservative and Labour votes as the first-past-the-post system amplified the return of the two-party system after an absence of nearly 20 years.

More than anything else it was a night in which Britain’s younger generation flexed their political muscles to real effect for the first time. Despite their calamitous campaign, the Conservatives increased their share of the vote to 42% – up five points since 2015 – which in any other election in the past three decades would have been enough to build a commanding majority.

But Labour outperformed even that achievement as a unique alliance of enthused younger voters and previous non-voters combined with older austerity-hit, anti-establishment Ukippers to deliver a 10-point rise in Labour’s vote compared with two years ago, to 40%. This is just below the 41% secured by Tony Blair in his 2001 landslide victory.

The “youthquake” was a key component of Corbyn’s 10-point advance in Labour’s share of the vote – exceeding even Blair’s nine-point gain in his first 1997 landslide. No official data exists for the scale of the youth vote but an NME-led exit poll suggests turnout among under-35s rose by 12 points compared with 2015, to 56%. The survey said nearly two-thirds of younger voters backed Labour, with Brexit being their main concern.

Labour's Jeremy Corbyn Rides Leftist Tide in U.K. Election in Rebuke of Austerity & Conservatives

May reaches deal with DUP to form government after shock election result

Democratic Unionist leader and last first minister of Northern Ireland Arlene Foster says she wants to “bring stability to our nation” by backing Theresa May and the Tories to continue in power. Foster added that she is now entering discussions with May over the details of any arrangement that would prop up a new government. ...

DUP figures insist their relationship with May’s team has been close since she became prime minister 11 months ago. Party figures say late night talks with the DUP had been driven on by their dismay at the possibility of Jeremy Corbyn becoming prime minister. A DUP source said: “We want there to be a government. We have worked well with May. The alternative is intolerable. For as long as Corbyn leads Labour, we will ensure there’s a Tory PM.” ...

Senior DUP figures claim they moved quickly to form an agreement to stop any chance of Corbyn entering No 10 because of his and John McDonnell’s past support for Sinn Féin and the IRA.

Hung Parliament a Stunning Victory for Corbyn's Labour Party in UK Elections

Jeremy Corbyn has caused a sensation – he would make a fine prime minister

This is one of the most sensational political upsets of our time. Theresa May – a wretched dishonest excuse of a politician, don’t pity her – launched a general election with the sole purpose of crushing opposition in Britain. It was brazen opportunism, a naked power grab: privately, I’m told, her team wanted the precious “bauble” of going down in history as the gravediggers of the British Labour party. Instead, she has destroyed herself. She is toast. ...

Look at the political capital she had: the phenomenal polling lead, almost the entire support of the British press, the most effective electoral machine on Earth behind her. Her allies presented the Labour opposition as an amusing, eccentric joke that could be squashed like a fly that had already had its wings ripped off. They genuinely believed they could get a 180-seat majority. She will leave No 10 soon, disgraced, entering the history books filed under “hubris”. ...

This was the highest turnout since 1997, perhaps the biggest Labour percentage since the same year – far eclipsing Tony Blair’s total in 2005. Young and previous non-voters came out in astonishing numbers, and not because they thought, “Ooh, Theresa May doesn’t stick to her promises, does she?” Neither can we reduce this to a remainer revolt. The Lib Dems threw everything at the despondent remainer demographic, with paltry returns. Many Ukip voters flocked to the Labour party.

No: this was about millions inspired by a radical manifesto that promised to transform Britain, to attack injustices, and challenge the vested interests holding the country back. Don’t let them tell you otherwise. People believe the booming well-off should pay more, that we should invest that money in schools, hospitals, houses, police and public services, that all in work should have a genuine living wage, that young people should not be saddled with debt for aspiring to an education, that our utilities should be under the control of the people of this country. For years, many of us have argued that these policies – shunned, reviled even in the political and media elite – had the genuine support of millions. And today that argument was decisively vindicated and settled.

Don’t let them get away with the claim that, “Ah, this election just shows a better Labour leader could have won!” Risible rot. Do we really think that Corbyn’s previous challengers to the leadership – and this is nothing personal – would have inspired millions of otherwise politically disengaged and alienated people to come out and vote, and drive Labour to its highest percentage since the famous Blair landslide? If the same old stale, technocratic centrism had been offered, Labour would have faced an absolute drubbing, just like its European sister parties did. ...

Social democracy is in crisis across the western world. British Labour is now one of the most successful centre-left parties, many of which have been reduced to pitiful rumps under rightwing leaderships. And indeed, other parties in Europe and the United States should learn lessons from this experience.

Will Obstruction of Justice in Comey Firing See Trump Ousted Or Is Impeachment a "Liberal Fantasy"?

James Comey, a Washington Operator, Knows How to Play the Game

Former FBI Director James Comey cut an impressive figure during his sworn testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday. His presentation was poised, low-key, and almost cold-blooded as he laid out what amounted to a meticulously constructed case against President Donald Trump. Two overflow rooms and multiple live network broadcasts suggested that Comey’s mastery of public relations and the theater of government rivaled that of his former boss. The image of a decent government man dutifully saying his piece stood in defiant contrast to the atmosphere of vulgarity and naked self-interest that Trump has brought to the Oval Office.

But the character who appears in Comey’s written accounts of his meetings with Trump — the James Comey who the former FBI director asked the committee to believe — was a far humbler man than the one who showed up for the hearing. Despite Comey’s self-reported concerns that Trump’s pattern of inappropriate and possibly illegal conduct was a threat to the independence of the FBI, he never fully voiced those concerns to Trump’s face while he was among the nation’s top law enforcement officials. Instead, he wrote them down.

Today, Comey revealed that his release of details from his conversations with Trump was carefully timed to trigger the appointment of a special counsel, a development that could bring about the end of Trump’s presidency. Beneath the mask of the by-the-book, duty-driven Comey was a more cunning man, an operator who quickly identified a dangerous adversary and plotted several moves ahead in order to get the best of him.

Donald Trump lawyers to file complaint against 'leaker' James Comey

Donald Trump called his former FBI director a “leaker” on Friday, one day after James Comey testified under oath that the president lied about his firing and the FBI in an effort to undermine the agency’s investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Trump’s legal team was confirmed to be preparing to file a complaint against Comey, for sharing his memos of meetings with the president with the New York Times.

“Despite so many false statements and lies, total and complete vindication ... and WOW, Comey is a leaker!” Trump tweeted in his first public comments on Thursday’s Senate intelligence committee hearing, bringing to a close an unusually prolonged silence for a president whose first line of defense is often expressed in 140 characters or less.

Trump appeared to be accusing Comey of lying to Congress in a hearing that was watched across the country. After Comey’s testimony, Trump’s lawyer Marc Kasowitz said in a brief statement to the press the former FBI director had “admitted that he unilaterally and surreptitiously made unauthorised disclosures to the press of privileged communications with the president”.

The legal complaint will be filed with the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Justice early next week, according to a source close to the legal team who did not want to speak on the record before the complaint was filed.

The legal team will also send a complaint to the Senate judiciary committee regarding Comey’s testimony before that panel last month – as well as his testimony before the intelligence committee – to clarify on the record what Trump’s legal team views as discrepancies and falsehoods in the displaced FBI director’s testimony.

‘Soft Coup’ on Trump, Hiding in Plain Sight

So what were we watching in ex-FBI Director James Comey’s testimony on Thursday: an upright public servant punished for resisting a power-mad President or a participant in a political scheme to use the law as a way to overturn a U.S. presidential election?

There was a general consensus in the mainstream media that it was the first, that Comey was the noble victim and President Trump the conniving villain. And, surely, Trump could be criticized for his clumsy firing of National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and ensuing expression of “hope” to then-FBI Director Comey that Flynn would not be punished further. But – outside the view of the MSM – there are other troubling aspects of what is now unfolding, including the scene of FBI Director Comey informing President-elect Trump on Jan. 6 about a defamatory annex to an intelligence report detailing unproven but salacious allegations and then seeing those details leaked almost immediately to humiliate Trump in the days before his Inauguration. ...

Given the mainstream media’s determined promotion of Russia-gate as a legitimate scandal, the extraordinary nature of this briefing incident has passed largely unnoticed. If, however, you substituted FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover for FBI Director Comey, the significance of the I.C.’s gratuitous inclusion of such an unsubstantiated smear might take on a different coloring. It was, after all, the decision to tack this classified annex onto the Jan. 6 report that gave the mainstream media the hook to disseminate the “golden shower” accusation across the country and around the world.

Rather than minimizing “potential embarrassment to the President-elect,” as Comey demurred, the classified annex was guaranteed to maximize Trump’s embarrassment, which it did. In other words, just as Comey said he inferred an improper or illegal order when Trump expressed “hope” that Flynn’s legal ordeal might end, Trump might well have deduced that Comey’s elevation of the urination story amounted to coercion or blackmail from the Intelligence Community. ...

Just three days earlier, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow that Trump was “being really dumb” by taking on the Intelligence Community because “they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you.” In the five months since the Jan. 6 briefing, Trump has gotten a taste of how accurate Schumer’s observation was. ... Obama’s intelligence chiefs, including Comey, have testified repeatedly before Congress while they or their allies have leaked derogatory information about Trump to The New York Times, The Washington Post and other mainstream news outlets.

In other words, what we may have witnessed in Comey’s ballyhooed testimony on Thursday was just the latest chapter in a “soft coup” to remove Trump – either through a forced resignation or impeachment. The thinking is that Trump is so incompetent that “wise men” must step in to “correct a mistake” made by the U.S. electorate and made possible by the Constitution’s Electoral College system, which enabled Trump to win the presidency despite losing the popular vote,

Over at The Intercept, Ryan Grim seems to think that making the case that Trump "corruptly endeavored to influence" the administration of justice in his interactions with Comey, is not informed by Trump's actual words and his lack of a directive. His analysis seems a little shaky to me, but, then again, I'm not a lawyer.

Obstruction of Justice: Here’s the Legal Definition


The exchange raises the question, then, of whether an explicit order is necessary for the definition of obstruction of justice. Here’s the relevant section of the federal legal code (our emphasis):

(a) Whoever corruptly, or by threats or force, or by any threatening letter or communication, endeavors to influence, intimidate, or impede any grand or petit juror, or officer in or of any court of the United States, or officer who may be serving at any examination or other proceeding before any United States magistrate judge or other committing magistrate, in the discharge of his duty, or injures any such grand or petit juror in his person or property on account of any verdict or indictment assented to by him, or on account of his being or having been such juror, or injures any such officer, magistrate judge, or other committing magistrate in his person or property on account of the performance of his official duties, or corruptly or by threats or force, or by any threatening letter or communication, influences, obstructs, or impedes, or endeavors to influence, obstruct, or impede, the due administration of justice, shall be punished as provided in subsection (b).

That definition does not require that there be a direct order that would quash or affect the investigation. “The key question here is whether the president acted with corrupt intent,” Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor, told CNN.

Newly Threatened by Terror, Iran’s Cold Conflict With Saudi Arabia Could Escalate

While the Middle East has been ravaged by over a decade of terrorist attacks from ISIS, Al Qaeda, and other terrorists groups, Iran has largely escaped deadly incidents like the one that struck Tehran on Wednesday. In a statement responding to the incident, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps suggested that “mercenaries” working on behalf of Saudi Arabia and the United States were responsible, vowing to take revenge.

Along with targeting civilians in a city long considered to be safe from terrorism, however, the Islamic State’s first attack in Iran also seemed designed to further aggravate tensions in the Persian Gulf region. On his recent visit to Saudi Arabia, President Donald Trump endorsed the virulently anti-Iranian stance of the ruling Saudi monarchy and seemed to go out of his way to fan regional tensions rather than temper them. Trump’s messages on that trip were reasonably interpreted by many as giving a green light for Saudi leaders to take aggressive action against Iran. But while there is no evidence to suggest a direct Saudi role in the terrorist attack in Tehran, even the suspicion of Saudi involvement during a period of high tension between the two countries could have major consequences. ...

While it’s unclear what kind of retaliation the IRGC might employ, its reaction would not necessarily have to involve attacking the Saudi homeland. Over the past several years, Iran and Saudi Arabia have been waging a brutal proxy war across the Middle East, with active conflicts in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. Iran could easily escalate in any one of these conflict zones, targeting Saudi allies or personnel. A major escalation in any of these conflicts would be even more dangerous because the United States is increasingly an active belligerent in all these countries, having escalated its direct support for Saudi-allied forces since Trump’s election.

Qatar vows no surrender in Gulf crisis as U.S., Kuwait seek solution

Qatar vowed on Thursday to ride out the isolation imposed on it by fellow Arab states over its alleged support for terrorism and said it would not compromise its sovereignty over foreign policy to resolve the region's biggest diplomatic crisis in years.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt severed relations with the small Gulf Arab state on Monday, accusing it of supporting Islamist militants and their arch-adversary Iran - charges Qatar calls baseless. Several other countries later followed suit.

Would-be mediators including U.S. President Donald Trump and Kuwait's ruling emir have struggled to ease a crisis that Qataris say has led to a blockade of their nation.

Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said Qatar had not yet been presented with a list of demands by countries that cut off diplomatic and transport ties, but insisted the matter be solved peacefully. "We have been isolated because we are successful and progressive. We are a platform for peace," he told reporters in Doha in a defiant tone. "We are not ready to surrender, and will never be ready to surrender, the independence of our foreign policy," he said, warning that the dispute threatened the stability of the region.

This is an interesting article about both Trump's fundamental misunderstanding of the politics of the middle east and the history of the contention between the Saudis and Qatar. Here's an excerpt that's helpful in understanding some of the background:

Trump’s Blunders Fuel Mideast Conflicts

[T]he al-Saud are convinced that there can be absolutely no legitimate or admissible challenge to the Islamic purity of their credentials as successors-in-authority to the Quresh (the tribe of The Prophet), or as the guardians of Islam’s two holy shrines. And secondly, as followers of Mohammad al-Wahhab, they are convinced that they alone – the representatives of the Wahhabi orientation – constitute the true and only Islam. The Shi’a, by contrast, are viewed as apostates, innovators, revisionists and “rejectionists” (i.e. deniers of this history of legitimate transmission of Islamic authority to the al-Saud).

What has this to do with Qatar (which is Wahhabi too)? Well, a number of things: firstly, the Qatari leadership in the Saudi view, is upstart (i.e. purely a product of British colonial politics), and does not – through its independent actions – show any due respect for the legitimacy and rightness of Saudi authority and leadership. Rather, Qatar sets itself up as a peer rival – as a usurper.

Secondly, Hamas: The point here is not that Hamas is a Palestinian resistance movement, or “terrorist.” It is that it is a part of the Muslim Brotherhood, and that during its Nasserist exile in the Gulf, it gave intellectual polish to the Wahhabist doctrine (i.e. Salafism) at the Saudi behest, but then added a mean “twist” to its tail: Instead of awarding worldly sovereignty to the Saudi monarchs – horror of horror – the Muslim Brothers (MB) ascribed sovereignty to the Umma (the community of Believers). Qatar, in patronizing Hamas therefore, is seen as empowering the strain of Sunni Islamism, which directly challenges Saudi kingship and legitimacy. They (the al-Saud) want the MB crushed – not because they are “terrorist” (as Trump evidently assumes), but because they disdain hereditary, monarchial rulership.

But additionally, Qatar harbored, and still harbors (and pays for), an irreverent, “disrespectful” press that both questions the status quo and gives play to Muslim Brotherhood “democratic” sentiments. The UAE and Saudi Arabia want Qatar’s irritating media closed. All of it: Al Jazeera, Al Arabi al Jadid, Al Quds al Arabi, and the Arabic edition of Huffington Post, along with the expulsion of Azmi Bishara, a Qatar-based Palestinian public intellectual and author who is now general director of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies.

And as the final “sin,” Qatar (in company with GCC members Oman and Kuwait), seeks a modus vivendi with Iran (i.e. with the “rejectionists,” themselves), and therefore is putting the very principles of the “Sunni Alliance” at risk. ... In brief, this dispute has nothing to do with simplistic Western notions of fighting “terrorism” – it has everything to do with power — restoring and bolstering Saudi power. Saudi Arabia’s leaders are feeling weak and vulnerable. It is time, they feel, to draw “a line in the sand”: The unexpected, but plainly pre-prepared, strike at Qatar represented the drawing of a “line.”

'Significant escalation' of civilian deaths in Mosul

Up to 80 civilians were reportedly killed late last month in an air raid on an ISIL-held neighbourhood outside the Iraqi city of Mosul, the United Nations said on Thursday.

The UN human rights office (OHCHR) said in a statement it was seeking further information on the May 31 strike on the Zinjili district, which killed between 50 and 80 people.

A US-backed military offensive to retake ISIL's last three remaining enclaves, including Zinjili, outside Mosul's Old City began nearly two weeks ago - the latest push in a major operation that began in October. Several reports in recent weeks, including Pentagon investigations, have found that civilians have repeatedly been killed by air raids from a US-led coalition supporting Iraqi troops. The Iraqi air force has also been bombing ISIL targets.

OHCHR also said there had been a "significant escalation" of civilian deaths by ISIL, whose fighters have targeted those trying to flee Mosul. "Credible reports indicate that more than 231 civilians attempting to flee western Mosul have been killed since 26 May, including 204 over three days last week," the agency said, reporting a much higher figure than what it had said earlier this week.

Well worth reading in full.

The US Hand in the Libyan/Syrian Tragedies

Police investigations and media reports have confirmed that two of the bloodiest terrorist attacks in Western Europe — the coordinated bombings and shootings in Paris in November 2015, which killed 130 people, and the May 2017 bombing of the arena in Manchester, England, which killed 23 — trace back to an Islamic State unit based in Libya known as Katibat al-Battar. Since those attacks, a number of analysts, myself included, have characterized them as a form of “blowback” from NATO’s disastrous campaign to depose Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. By turning Libya into an anarchic staging ground for radical Islamist militants, that intervention set in motion the deadly export of terror back into Western Europe.

But such a Eurocentric critique of NATO’s intervention misses the far greater damage it wreaked on Syria, where nearly half a million people have died and at least 5 million refugees have had to flee their country since 2011. U.S., British and French leaders helped trigger one of the world’s great modern catastrophes through their act of hubris in seeking another “regime change” – the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad – in Syria.

A decade ago, Libya was a leading foe of radical jihadis, not a sanctuary for their international operations. A 2008 State Department memo noted that “Libya has been a strong partner in the war against terrorism.” It gave the Gaddafi regime credit for “aggressively pursuing operations to disrupt foreign fighter flows,” particularly by veterans of jihadist wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

All that came to an end in 2011, when armed rebels, including disciplined members of al-Qaeda and Islamic State, enlisted NATO’s help to topple Gaddafi’s regime.

A recent story in the New York Times on the genesis of recent terror attacks on France and Britain noted in passing that the Islamic State in Libya, composed of “seasoned veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan,” was “among the first foreign jihadist contingent to arrive in Syria in 2012, as the country’s popular revolt was sliding into a broader civil war and Islamist insurgency.” A former British counter-terrorism analyst told the newspaper, “some of the baddest dudes in Al Qaeda were Libyan. When I looked at the Islamic State, the same thing was happening. They were the most hard-core, the most violent — the ones always willing to go to extremes when others were not. The Libyans represented the elite troops, and clearly ISIS capitalized on this.”

These Libyan jihadists leveraged their numbers, resources, and fanaticism to help escalate Syria’s conflict into the tragedy we know today. The mass murder we now take for granted was not inevitable.

[Thanks, Hillary! -js]

Catalonia calls independence referendum for October

Catalonia’s long-awaited and bitterly controversial referendum on independence from Spain will be finally held on 1 October, the regional government announced on Friday, triggering yet another political and judicial showdown with Madrid. The Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont, said that voters in the unilateral referendum would be asked the question: “Do you want Catalonia to be an independent country in the form of a republic?”

Puigdemont’s pro-sovereignty administration insists the wealthy north-eastern region has a political, economic and cultural right to self-determination.

But the Spanish government is implacably opposed to secession, arguing that it is a violation of the constitution, and has vowed to use all possible means to stop the referendum from being held.

Puigdemont said that Madrid had left his government with no choice but to call the vote. “When they’ve asked us what we Catalans want, we’ve given them proposals - all kinds of proposals,” he said. “But they have all - without exception - been rejected or seriously cut back.”

Criminal gang arrested for selling Apple users' private data in China

A massive underground criminal operation run by employees of an Apple “domestic direct sales company and outsourcing company” to steal and sell the private data of Apple users has been uncovered in China, according to authorities.

Chinese law enforcement detained 22 people on suspicion of infringing the privacy of Apple users and illegally obtaining their digital personal information, according to local police in southern Zhejiang province.

The authorities did not specify whether the data belonged to Chinese or foreign Apple users. Of the 22 suspects, 20 were employees of companies who worked with Apple, who allegedly used internal systems to gather users’ names, phone numbers, Apple IDs and other personal data, which was then sold as part of a scam worth more than 50m yuan (£5.8m).

Reality Winner indicted for transmitting national defense information

A woman accused of leaking US government secrets to a reporter was indicted by a federal grand jury as she awaited a court hearing Thursday to determine whether she must remain jailed pending a trial.

Prosecutors plan to ask a judge to deny bond for 25-year-old Reality Winner, according to court records filed in the case. A grand jury returned an indictment Wednesday in US district court charging her with a single count of illegally retaining and transmitting national defense information.

Federal authorities used the same charge to arrest Winner, a government contractor and former air force linguist, after FBI agents interviewed her and searched her Augusta home Saturday. FBI agent Justin Garrick said in an affidavit that Winner admitted she copied a classified report containing top-secret information and mailed it to an online news organization.

The charge Winner faces carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Evidence of Homeland Security Cooperating With Alt-Right Militia in Portland

Fourteen people were arrested at an alt-right rally in Portland, Oregon, last weekend. A man named Todd Kelsay helped with one of the arrests. In videos and photographs posted online, Kelsay can be seen on his knees with a group of police officers, reaching behind one of their backs to retrieve a plastic handcuff to arrest an unidentified black-clad protester. In one video, Kelsay appears to be assisting three officers in cuffing the suspect. ...

The discrepancy in appearance arose because Kelsay is not with the Portland police nor with the federal DHS police whom he was aiding.

Kelsay, who is a member of the American Freedom Keepers, a right-wing militia, was there helping to secure the free speech rally” organized by alt-right activists. (The Freedom Keepers, Kelsay said, did not officially take part in the rally.) In an interview Tuesday, Kelsay told The Intercept that he was instructed by DHS police to assist in the arrest. “I was asked, while I was on the ground, by a police officer, ‘Help me, hand me the handcuffs.’ He was looking at me. So I handed him the cuffs,” Kelsay said. But that wasn’t the only time Kelsay or other alt-righters played cops at the rally.

With the extremes of the American political spectrum squaring off nearly every week in tense rallies and counter-protests, where violence erupts not infrequently, police are drawing outside aid from only one side: the far-right. That police forces would ask for and accept help from far-right protesters might not be as surprising as it seems: In January, The Intercept revealed that right-wing infiltration of law enforcement had grown so prevalent that the FBI investigated the trend.

The relationship works both ways: Police get help, and alt-right demonstrators are seemingly put above the law in return. The result is that militia members who work security for alt-right events are carrying out policing activities with impunity under the gaze of actual police. At the June 4 Portland rally, eyewitnesses report at least two other instances in which alt-right forces apparently attacked protesters without instigation.

Republicans are making Trumpcare happen while no one is looking

While former FBI Director James Comey captivated the country calling President Trump a liar, Senate Republicans quietly and behind closed doors continued to cut deals to make Trumpcare the law of the land by the end of the summer.  

Three Republican Senators who have been resistant to supporting the health care bill — Rob Portman of Ohio, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, and Dean Heller of Nevada — came together this week on a potential amendment that would address their concerns about cutting Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion. That expansion extended coverage to 11 to 12 million people in 31 states including Ohio, West Virginia, and Nevada.

The proposed deal would provide a “significant glidepath” in Medicaid cuts by phasing out the expansion over seven years, Portman said. He also indicated the number of years was also open to negotiation, saying “we’ll see where we end up.” While it is still unclear what the final bill will be, it will almost certainly result in tens of millions of fewer people with health insurance while cutting many of Obamacare’s taxes.

The proposed amendment has not been widely adopted yet and it’s possible that it could alienate conservative Senators like Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky who see it as an expensive entitlement that gives health care to able-bodied Americans. But the concrete proposal from these three Senators indicates that the Republicans are closing in on their long-stated goal of repealing and replacing President Obama’s controversial healthcare law.



the horse race



Bernie Sanders to mark the 'turning point' for his political revolution

Bernie Sanders’ speech at the People’s Summit in Chicago on Saturday will mark a “turning point” for the political revolution he inspired, according to the organizers behind the three-day activist event. Sanders will headline the event on Saturday night, while high-profile celebrity activists including Mark Ruffalo, Jessie Eisenberg and Naomi Klein will also attend.

Some of the most influential progressive organizations in the country – representing millions of people – are behind the summit, including People for Bernie, National Nurses United and the Sanders-backed Our Revolution.

“It’s going to be a turning point for the people who have been really invested in the Bernie revolution,” said Winnie Wong, a key organizer of the summit and a co-founder of People for Bernie, an independent group with more than a million members who supported his bid for president. Wong said the summit would be a “political education for organizers ahead of 2018”.

“They will be better prepared to create campaigns that are authentic and credible and principled. The program is conceived to make sure that people leave with a plan.” More than 4,000 people – including recently elected progressive Democrats, former Sanders campaign staffers, and grassroots activists – will gather at McCormick Place in Chicago on Friday.

Some of the sessions will focus specifically on training progressives to run for office or organize campaigns ahead of the 2018 mid-terms. Jane Sanders, wife of Bernie Sanders, on Wednesday launched the Sanders Institute, a not-for-profit group that aims to educate people on progressive issues, and the institute will organize events bringing people from each of the 50 states together to plan campaigns.



the evening greens


Hawaii and California Assert Leadership on Climate Action

Less than week after President Donald Trump announced that he was pulling the United States out of the Paris climate agreement, Hawaii rebuffed that stance and became the first state in the nation to enact legislation to uphold the goals of the landmark accord.

“Hawaii is committed to environmental stewardship, and we look forward to working with other states to fight global climate change. Together, we can directly contribute to the global agenda of achieving a more resilient and sustainable island Earth," said Gov. David Ige Tuesday upon signing two bills, SB 559 and HB 1578.

SB 559 was introduced by state Senate Majority Leader Kalani English, who'd seen the writing on the wall for the U.S. involvement in the global pact. The bill calls on the state "to expand strategies and mechanisms to reduce greenhouse gas emissions statewide in alignment with the principles and goals adopted in the Paris Agreement." 

The other legislation (pdf) establishes a task force to identify "carbon farming" agricultural practices to boost soil health and sequester CO2. ...

On Tuesday Gov. Jerry Brown inked an agreement with China to rein in greenhouse gas emissions. Brown's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping was "a full-frontal offensive to position his state not only as a leader on climate action, but as a quasi-nation-state looking to fill the void in reliable American leadership created by Trump," Mother Jones writes.

According to a statement from Brown's office, the nonbinding agreement

expands cooperation on the advancement of low-carbon, renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies such as zero-emission vehicles, energy storage, grid modernization and low-carbon urban development. Under the agreement, California and China will also deepen their partnership and coordination on greenhouse gas emission and air pollution reduction programs, including emissions trading systems and carbon capture.

"Nobody can stay on the sidelines. We can't afford any dropouts in the tremendous human challenge to make the transition to a sustainable future," Brown said to the Associated Press. "Disaster still looms and we've got to make the turn."

Exxon May Have Erased 7 Years of Tillerson's 'Wayne Tracker' Emails, Witness Says

Up to seven years of emails that former ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson wrote under the alias "Wayne Tracker" may have been erased, a company witness has told investigators for the New York attorney general.

The gap is far longer than the three months Exxon initially reported.

The disclosure came from Connie Feinstein, Exxon's information technology security and consulting manager, who was questioned about Tillerson's secret email alias, created in 2007 under the pseudonym "Wayne Tracker."

During a daylong question-and-answer session related to the attorney general's investigation into whether Exxon mislead investors about climate change, Feinstein explained under oath both how a computer program allowed for the scrubbing of Tillerson's Wayne Tracker emails and the considerable effort the company put in trying to recover them.

A 301-page transcript of the April interview became public last week as part of a batch of documents released by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office. He lodged them in a state court in support of his claim that Exxon's climate accounting was a "sham" under Tillerson, who is now the U.S. secretary of state.

Feinstein said that a program designed to automatically erase emails from the account's queues after 13 months had never been disabled on the Wayne Tracker account. That opened the possibility that an unknown number of emails may have been erased as far back as 2007.

Could Mars be our Planet B?


Also of Interest

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

The Facts Proving Corbyn’s Election Triumph

As Britons Vote, Tabloids Scream Advice, But Broadcasters Keep Mum

False Dawn or New Hope: Right-Wing Pact Imperils UK Paradigm Shift

Trump faces growing Senate resistance on Saudi arms deal

Qatar-Gulf crisis: Who are the 'terrorists'?

The Arab Struggle Against Bigotry

Kim Jong-un Isn’t Crazy and China Doesn’t Have a Solution

Five Things I Learned From Watching The Comey Testimony

Single-Payer is Not a Priority Even for Democrats Who Say They Support Single-Payer


A Little Night Music

T Bone Walker - Ain't This Cold, Baby

T-Bone Walker - Play On Little Girl

T-Bone Walker - No Worry Blues

T-Bone Walker, Jr. - You Don't Know What You're Doing

T-Bone Walker - Going To Build Me A Playhouse

T Bone Walker - T-Bone Shuffle

T-Bone Walker - I Know Your Wig Is Gone

T Bone Walker - Hypin' Woman Blues

T-Bone Walker - Too lazy to work and too nervous to steal

T-Bone Walker - Papa Ain't Salty

T-Bone Walker - Get These Blues Off Me

T-Bone Walker vs. Chuck Berry


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Big Al's picture

Greece.

Actually, another word - Missouri. I.e., I'll believe it when I see it.

The media makes it sounds at times like people have never fought back against oligarchy and plutocracy in the past.

You know what this does. It makes some Americans think we might actually be able to make progress by electing politicians. That's not a good thing.

What's that saying? Throw the dog a bone.

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joe shikspack's picture

@Big Al

it looks like despite the heavy lifting that the progressive faction of labour has done, the uk will yet be ruled by a coalition of awful people.

i think that the media is, as usual, pushing the narrative. they have to sell papers and eyeballs - and they know that people love a surprise ending where the underdog, against long odds does the improbable. naturally, they will avoid telling their own part of the story wherein they smeared, scoffed at and undermined the hero at every turn, thus making his improbable feat more um, improbable.

it will undoubtedly add to the ferment here in the us amongst people who think that our institutions might be similarly susceptible to a long-running campaign of the righteous.

it would be well to remind the people that, though the neoliberal faction of labour did their damndest to drive corbyn out of the party, their party rules are not like ours. they don't have superdelegates to supervise the peasantry. also, i saw the most amazing thing on the internet. i saw footage of british people in a room with others watching them counting paper ballots - can you imagine that? transparency and a retrospectively verifiable result.

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snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack
I have been wondering what would be happening if Bernie was president instead of Trump? Would he be able to get his legislation passed, or would the Clinton democrats be fighting him?
I do know that not much in the foreign policy department would have changed, except for possibly less civilians being killed.
I would like more Americans to imagine what those people's lives are like and think how they would feel if they watched as 5 million people fled the country or knew that half a million people were dead.
The wars are not on too many people's radar. And if they do bother to think about them, too many think that the troops are fighting to defend our freedoms and keep our country safe. The military worship has gotten way out of hand. No take me out to the ballgame , just gawd bless America crap. I don't think gawd would approve of this country killing millions in the name of profits. But that might be just me.

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joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

if bernie was president, they'd be using different tactics to neutralize him, but they would be doing it nonetheless. it's their country, goddamnit!

i'd say more, but john prine said it more eloquently:

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dervish's picture

@snoopydawg how many repeat the talking points, ad nauseum. It should be blatantly clear to anybody by now that we aren't promoting civility, human rights and justice abroad, in fact, US policy is the catalyst for slaughter and mayhem.

Yet they gleefully cheer on conflict with the next enemy du jour.

I really hope Qatar stands firm. If they cave, a lot of darkness will follow.

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"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."

snoopydawg's picture

@dervish
Why so many people believe this patriotic bullshit! They think they were just minding their business and out of the blue this country was attacked on 9/11. I just had an online fight with someone who believes that all Muslims should be wiped off the face of the earth.
I said that many people in our military consider themselves Christians who go into other people's countries and kill people who had not threatened our country.
They buy the BS that our troops are defending our freedoms. I always ask them how could the terrorists take away our freedoms. This shuts them up.

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dervish's picture

"Famous Last Words".

We were watching birds at a feeder, and I said "Look at the female cardinal".

Lady Dervish: "How can you tell it's female"?

Dervish: "Easy, it's very similar to the male, just not as bright".

Maybe she'll forgive me someday...

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"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."

joe shikspack's picture

@dervish

i hope that you enjoy the doghouse. Smile

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

I have to wonder if it's possible that Comey might have gone beyond being clever, to practicing entrapment. Folks may recall that it was reported that FSC's campaign consulted with mental health professionals in charting their campaign strategy against DT. And, I've been very surprised that the PtB would consider appointing Mueller to head this investigation, considering his ultra-close relationship with Comey.

I say that because Comey's reputation was supposedly that of an individual of unquestionable integrity--who's never afraid to stand up to the PtB, or to 'speak truth to power!' IMO, Comey offered no valid excuse for not calling DT out--if his account of the 'loyalty' meeting was truthful, and I don't necessarily doubt that it could have been--unless 'self interest' qualifies as a valid reason. IOW, he liked his cushy and privileged job, and didn't want to risk it. So much for serving one's country with honor!

Biggrin

BTW, Former AG Eric Holder is described as a mentor to both Comey and Mueller--both of whom were federal prosecutors serving under him in the 1990's--in the Clinton Administration. And, Comey was Mueller's replacement as FBI Chief/Director.

If you Google the two names, numerous pieces come up describing them as very close personally, as well as professionally. (Both Comey and Mueller were prepared to resign if Ashcroft had signed some order/bill during the famous 'gall bladder' incident. Neither had to do so, since Ashcroft acquiesced to their demands.) Most often, Mueller is described as one of Comey's closest mentors. See below.

8:16 PM, May 17 by Peter Holley

‘Brothers in arms’: The long friendship between Mueller and Comey

They’ve been described as law enforcement twins and “brothers in arms.”

Once again, James Comey and Robert Mueller — two respected FBI veterans — have found themselves sharing the same high-profile headlines.

The two men’s working relationship can be traced back to at least December of 2003, when Comey joined Mueller in Washington after he became John Ashcroft’s deputy attorney general, according to a 2013 Washingtonian article about the two men’s longstanding relationship.

“He and Mueller spent many hours together, developing a close partnership — and watching together the disarray in the government over how to respond to the unfolding war on terror,” Washingtonian notes. “They shared a horror at the poor quality information infiltrating the upper reaches of government.”

The article goes on to point to personal similarities as well as professional. Both men were educated at Virginia universities — Mueller at the University of Virginia, Comey at William & Mary.

“Just years apart in the 1990s, they both gave up their top-tier private law firm jobs to return to the trenches of prosecuting criminals — Mueller as a junior prosecutor in Washington, DC, and Comey in Richmond, Virginia,” Washingtonian reports. “Both men were rising stars mentored and guided by Eric Holder in the 1990s during Holder’s time in the Justice Department under the Clinton administration.”

Their relationship was made stronger during an incident in 2004. At the time, the Los Angeles Times reported, Comey, Mueller and a number of other law enforcement officials were on the verge of resigning in opposition to a Bush administration plan to reauthorize a domestic surveillance program that was launched after the terror attacks of 9/11. President Bush eventually agreed to modify the secret program after both men jointly intervened — an experience that is suspected to have drawn them even closer. . .

Wolf and others at CNN fall all over themselves pointing out their 'close' relationship, which rather baffles me. If anything, I would think that this would be the last thing that they would want to make public. A amicable and/or friendly 'working relationship' is one thing, but, article after article draw a picture of two men who have a very close personal relationship. Go figure.

BTW, Mueller is the epitome of a 'deep state' insider, since he attended the same exclusive boarding school that John Forbes Kerry attended--and a slew of Vanberbilts!

Wink

Also, I wonder whey he thought that it was wise or appropriate to boast about leaking his notes. Comey even testified that he had hoped that doing so would result in the appointment of a Special Counselor. Again, in this case, the appointment of a close friend.

Credit where credit's due, Comey was wise to keep MFR's--they only serve to strengthen one's testimony.

Regarding the single-payer legislation, it doesn't surprise me at all that almost none of the 112 politicians mention their support on their websites--it's clearly mostly Kabuki! If I'm not mistaken, ultra fiscal conservative Jim Cooper (US Rep, TN) signed onto the bill--the same Jim Cooper who's a member of The Blue Dog Coalition, The New Dems, The DLC, and No Labels. So, I'm glad that someone is challenging these lawmakers/signees.

Thanks for tonight's excellent edition of News & Blues, Joe.

Here's wishing you, and all the rest of the Dads at C99P a wonderful Father's Day!

[Edit: Got my weekends mixed up, so, Happy Father's Day one week in advance. Duh!]

Pleasantry

Hey, Everyone have a nice and safe holiday weekend!

Bye

Mollie


“I believe in the redemptive powers of a dog’s love. It is in recognition of each dog’s potential to lift the human spirit and therefore– to change society for the better, that I fight to make sure every street dog has its day.”
--Stasha Wong, Secretary, Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD)

The SOSD Fantastic Four

Available For Adoption, Save Our Street Dogs, SOSD

Taro
Taro, SOSD

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

joe shikspack's picture

@Unabashed Liberal

parry has been on the track of the washington rats for a while now. he articulated in this article something that i've been thinking about for a while, that rather than showing trump the kennedy movie, they showed him that golden shower dossier and have followed up with months of leaked stories smearing him.

seems like a tactic pretty much guaranteed to get the goat of a narcissist like trump and cause him to make foolish mistakes and bad retaliatory moves.

thanks for the info about mueller and comey.

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

@joe shikspack

seems like a tactic pretty much guaranteed to get the goat of a narcissist like trump and cause him to make foolish mistakes and bad retaliatory moves.

It makes sense that when the Deep State realized that they had nothing on DT that would allow them to go forward with impeachment proceedings (meaning that the British dossier could not be collaborated, and that DT had no direct ties to Russia that they could prove), they proceeded to use his own mental/emotional foibles/dysfunction against him. (That's what I meant by entrapment.)

Going by DT's comments to reporters' questions earlier today [during a Press Availability], I don't think I've ever seen anyone who has so much difficulty showing constraint. For all the talk about his Family, it appears that none of them have the power to persuade him to 'put a sock in it'--under any circumstance. If he ends up impeached, it will be at least partly because he simply can't resist being baited. It's like watching a train wreck in slow motion!

Wink

Mollie

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

Steven D's picture

Onion worthy:

Trump faces growing Senate resistance on Saudi arms deal

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

joe shikspack's picture

@Steven D

perhaps if the subhead read something like:

"senators concerned that they are being cut out of the kickbacks on giant deal"

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Steven D's picture

@joe shikspack That T-Bone Walker vs. Chuck Berry one is fabulous.

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

featheredsprite's picture

@Steven D My, what a cynical boy you are!

Smile

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Life is strong. I'm weak, but Life is strong.

Steven D's picture

@featheredsprite but life has a funny way of changing a person.

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

thanatokephaloides's picture

@Steven D

I didn't use to be [cynical,] but life has a funny way of changing a person.

"No matter how cynical you become, it's never enough to keep up."
-- Lily Tomlin

"The more cynical an answer to a question, the more likely it is to be correct!"
-- me

Smile

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

joe shikspack's picture

@Steven D

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@featheredsprite or sumptin

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snoopydawg's picture

@Steven D
Trump is doing after they stayed quiet when Barry was doing the same things. The definition of hypocrisy.

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snoopydawg's picture

The Deep State is running this soft coup on Trump, but he won't be pushed out of office until all our regulatory agencies have been dismantled and the republicans get their tax breaks and they destroy the last bit of our social packages.
This is another rerun of McCarthyism, but this time instead of accusing people of being a Russian mole, the masses are cheering it on. Edward Murrow would be very ashamed of the sheep.
Have a great weekend everyone.
Yesterday was in the high 90's, Monday is going to be in the low 60's. Weird weather.

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joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

weather here has been odd, too. it's been unseasonably chilly for a few days and it's supposed to go up into the 90's soon. go figure. global warming? nah, couldn't be. it was just chilly.

i'm beat and i'm going to clock out early tonight. you guys have a great weekend!

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janis b's picture

the livestream of The People’s Summit. Howard Zinn (as delivered by Kendrick Simpson) and Bill McKibbon were a great duo.

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divineorder's picture

@janis b

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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.

Wink's picture

"The assumption of the critics of the president, of his pursuers, you might say, is that somewhere along the line in the last year the president had something to do with colluding with the Russians … to affect the election in some way," Matthews said on the network after Comey had testified.

"And yet what came apart this morning was that theory," Matthews said.

Link... Tweety not buying what bots selling

bing!

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

divineorder's picture

In between lion and cheetah sightings taking a nap and signal is slow working but we wanted to get your news and say hi to all. 7 hours time difference etc means probably will not see this but wanted say thanks for the news on Corbyn et al!

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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 you could check in! it's good to hear from you guys.

i hope all is going well and that the wildlife is cooperating spectacularly well for your camera.

best to you and jb.

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divineorder's picture

@joe shikspack @joe shikspack @joe shikspack and the climate diff from the biblical drought last year has been welcome. Of course more rain and green means more work finding sigtings as animals can be more dispersed outside of dry season. Great stuff though, and nice to take a break from all politics all the time . When we come upon others who have located things 'with big teeth' it often gets, as the South Africans like to say 'hectic.'

Some might be interested to know about internet here. The cities have 4G but not much outside where we like to be.

We have both MTN local sim with data bundle and our brought with us T-Mobile Simple Choice which includes unlimited data, international text, and 20c a minute calls from many countries. Still, out in the bush we have been getting 2g speeds on downloads and very erratic on uploads thus no pics to EB like we would want. All the best! Jakkalbessie the safari driver, and divineorder the photog.

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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.

Unabashed Liberal's picture

@divineorder

are doing well. Had to be absent a bit myself, lately; but, a couple days ago, got the sense that you Guys hadn't checked in for a while. Obviously, I was hoping that it was only because you're having a fabulous time. It did cross my mind that your Wi-Fi reception might be spotty, to nonexistent.

Wink

Look forward to seeing more of your dynamite photos. Stay safe!

Mollie


“I believe in the redemptive powers of a dog’s love. It is in recognition of each dog’s potential to lift the human spirit, and therefore, to change society for the better, that I fight to make sure every street dog has its day.”
--Stasha Wong, Secretary, Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD)

The SOSD Fantastic Four

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

divineorder's picture

Just passed at 96. She always loved our travel blog posts, always responded she was praying for our safety. Thanks for your words of support . Thanks for your comment above about he a Healthcare. Appreciate your news. See comment to js above about internet hete.

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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.

divineorder's picture

Just passed at 96. She always loved our travel blog posts, always responded she was praying for our safety. Thanks for your words of support . Thanks for your comment above about he a Healthcare. Appreciate your news. See comment to js above about internet hete.

up
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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.

divineorder's picture

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

janis b's picture

@divineorder

is having trouble keeping up with you. I look forward to your photos of animals enjoying the rain and the green it produces.

Enjoy!

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divineorder's picture

JB lost her reading glasses so we went out of the Park to a town . Splurged and go Sim for another is and so far working a little better

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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.