The Evening Blues - 8-19-21



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Tab Benoit

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Louisiana guitarist Tab Benoit. Enjoy!

Tab Benoit - I Put A Spell On You

"Welcome back to Serious News Network. For years experts have been trying to understand how dropping military explosives on people could fail to advance humanitarian aims. Here to shed some light on this mystery is an employee of a think tank that’s funded by arms manufacturers."

-- Caitlin Johnstone


News and Opinion

EXPOSING Grifters Of Afghan War: Defense Contractors, Presidents, Media

Biden says US troops may stay in Afghanistan beyond 31 August deadline

Joe Biden has suggested there was no way for the US to withdraw from Afghanistan “without chaos ensuing”, and said US troops may stay past a 31 August deadline to evacuate Americans there.

As critics in the US and abroad questioned his handling of the withdrawal, the president said in his first on-camera interview since the Taliban took Kabul that troops would stay in the country to get American citizens out. “If there’s American citizens left, we’re going to stay until we get them all out,” Biden told ABC News, implying that he would heed US lawmakers who had pressed him to extend the 31 August deadline that he had set for a final pullout.

At the same time, Biden defended his administration’s handling of the withdrawal. ‘The idea that somehow, there’s a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don’t know how that happens,” he told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. The sentiment contradicts what Biden had said weeks back when he insisted that the “likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban over-running everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely”.

“The Afghanistan Papers”: Docs Show How Bush, Obama, Trump Lied About Brutality & Corruption of War

Michael Tracey: IGNORE 'FAKE' Afghan Experts, Real Tragedy Was Corrupt War Itself

Taliban official rules out democracy in Afghanistan

Waheedullah Hashimi, a spokesperson for the Taliban, told Reuters that the country was likely to be governed by a ruling Taliban council, while the Islamist militant movement’s supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, was expected to remain in overall charge, in a role akin to the president.

The power structure that Hashimi outlined would bear similarities to how Afghanistan was run the last time the Taliban were in power from 1996 to 2001. Then, supreme leader Mullah Omar remained in the shadows and left the day-to-day running of the country to a council. ...

“There will be no democratic system at all because it does not have any base in our country,” Hashimi said in an interview with Reuters. “We will not discuss what type of political system should we apply in Afghanistan because it is clear. It is sharia law and that is it.”

IMF suspends Afghanistan's access to Fund resources over lack of clarity on government

Taliban face financial crisis without access to foreign reserves

Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers are likely to face a rapidly developing financial crisis, with foreign currency reserves largely unreachable and western aid donors – who fund the country’s institutions by about 75% – already cutting off or threatening to cut payments. While the hardline Islamist group has moved in recent years to become more independent of outside financial supporters including Iran, Pakistan and wealthy donors in the Gulf, its financial flows – amounting to $1.6bn (£1.2bn) last year – are far short of what it will require to govern.

On Wednesday, Afghanistan’s central bank governor disclosed that the country has $9bn in reserves abroad but not in physical cash inside the country after the Biden administration ordered the freezing of Afghan government reserves held in US bank accounts on Sunday.

Ajmal Ahmady wrote on Twitter on Wednesday that the majority of that – about $7bn – was being held in US Federal Reserve bonds, assets and gold, adding that its holdings of US dollars were “close to zero” as the country had not received a planned cash shipment during the Taliban offensive that swept the country last week. “The next shipment never arrived,” he wrote. “Seems like our partners had good intelligence as to what was going to happen.”

Ahmady noted that the lack of US dollars would probably cause the afghani to depreciate and inflation to rise, hurting the poor. Getting access to those reserves will probably be complicated by the US government considering designating the Taliban as a sanctioned terror group. ...

Complicating the issue for the Taliban is the threat to aid flows that have long sustained Afghanistan’s government – they account for 42.9% of GDP. Germany, one of the country’s top donors, has said it is halting development aid, and others have threatened to do the same. Berlin had been due to provide aid of €430m (£366m) this year.

Krystal Ball: Deep State DECLARES WAR on Joe Biden

Meng Wanzhou extradition case wraps up but verdict will take months

After two and a half years of legal wrangling, an extradition hearing over Meng Wanzhou has wrapped up, leaving the fate of Huawei’s chief financial officer – and potentially that of two detained Canadians caught up in a geopolitical tussle – in the hands of a British Columbia judge.

The arrest and legal saga of the telecoms executive has become a source of immense tension between the economic superpowers China and the United States, but it has been Canada – and two of its citizens – that have suffered the steepest collateral damage.

Meng, daughter of the Huawei founder, Ren Zhengfei, was arrested on a provisional warrant on 1 December 2018 as she transited in the Vancouver airport, en route to Mexico City. ... Officials with the US justice department allege that in 2013, Meng misled bankers at HSBC about the relationship between Huawei and affiliate SkyCom, putting the bank at risk of breaching US sanctions against Iran. The US wants her extradited to New York to face criminal charges.

But Meng’s legal team argued earlier this week that the bank had never faced civil or criminal consequences for breaching American sanctions. Over three days, her lawyers also suggested to the court that there had never been a fraud case in Canada where the mere possibility of prosecution would merit charges, especially if no loss was suffered by the victim. ...

Meng’s legal team also questioned the US evidence, calling it “manifestly unreliable” and suggesting that the only conclusion a court could reasonably make would be to release her.

Chinese president vows to ‘adjust excessive incomes’ of super rich

China’s president has vowed to “adjust excessive incomes” in a warning to the country’s super-rich that the state plans to redistribute wealth to tackle widening inequality. According to reports in state media, Xi Jinping told officials at a meeting of the Chinese Communist party’s central financial and economic affairs commission on Tuesday, that the government should “regulate excessively high incomes and encourage high-income groups and enterprises to return more to society”.

The commission said it would pursue its “common prosperity agenda”, which has become the main focus of China’s policymaking after reports of discontent within the party’s central committee over the rise of a new class of wealthy entrepreneurs. ...

Since last November, when regulators prevented the tech company Ant, 33% owned by its sister company Alibaba, from floating on the Shanghai and Hong Kong exchanges – a move that would have cemented the position of its boardroom chair, Jack Ma, as one of the world’s richest men – the Chinese Communist party has sought to crack down on the almost weekly creation of billionaire company bosses.

Stocks on the Shanghai exchange have fallen since a peak in February after a string of similar regulatory clampdowns on the financial sector and penalties on industries forced to comply with tighter environmental rules. As a result, the country’s richest tycoons have already seen their wealth shrink. The combined net worth of the two dozen Chinese billionaires in tech and biotechnology whose holdings are tracked by Bloomberg dropped 16% since the end of June, according to analysis by the Financial Times.

Separating FACT FROM FICTION As Biden Recommends Booster Shots

Biden says Americans can get Covid booster shots starting next month

Joe Biden said on Wednesday his administration planned to make Covid-19 vaccine booster shots available to all Americans starting on 20 September as infections rise from the Delta variant of the coronavirus.

The White House is prepared to offer a third booster shot starting on that date to all Americans who completed their initial inoculation at least eight months ago, the US Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement.

“This will boost your immune response,” Biden said at the White House. “It’s the best way to protect ourselves from new variants that could arise.”

The president urged anyone 18 or older who got the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine to seek a booster shot eight months after their second dose, echoing the advice from his pandemic response team.

Jabbed adults infected with Delta ‘can match virus levels of unvaccinated’

Fully vaccinated adults can harbour virus levels as high as unvaccinated people if infected with the Delta variant, according to a sweeping analysis of UK data, which supports the idea that hitting the threshold for herd immunity is unlikely.

There is abundant evidence that Covid vaccines in the UK continue to offer significant protection against hospitalisations and death. But this new analysis shows that although being fully vaccinated means the risk of getting infected is lower, once infected by Delta a person can carry similar virus levels as unvaccinated people.

The implications of this on transmission remain unclear, the researchers have cautioned. “We don’t yet know how much transmission can happen from people who get Covid-19 after being vaccinated – for example, they may have high levels of virus for shorter periods of time,” said Sarah Walker, a professor of medical statistics and epidemiology at the University of Oxford.

“But the fact that they can have high levels of virus suggests that people who aren’t yet vaccinated may not be as protected from the Delta variant as we hoped.” ...

The analysis did not directly investigate whether the lower level of vaccine protection against Delta affected jabs’ ability to prevent severe disease. However, Dr Penny Ward, a visiting professor in pharmaceutical medicine at King’s College London, noted: “The low incidence of hospitalisation seen to date suggests that in this respect at least the vaccines are protecting individuals from developing severe Covid.”

'A Big Win': USPS Must Turn Over Docs About DeJoy's Potential Conflicts of Interest

A leading government ethics watchdog on Wednesday cheered a federal judge's ruling ordering the United States Postal Service to hand over documents concerning potential conflicts of interest involving embattled Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.

U.S. District Judge John D. Bates on Tuesday granted Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) a full summary judgment (pdf) and ordered the United States Postal Service (USPS) to give the advocacy group seven documents it requested under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

USPS claimed the documents were FOIA-exempt. According to Law & Crime, "Four of the documents concerned a request for a certificate of divestiture from DeJoy and the remaining three concern his recusal from matters where he may have a conflict of interest."

As CREW explained Wednesday:

Over the past seven years, the USPS has reportedly paid approximately $286 million to XPO Logistics, DeJoy's ex-employer, and has "ramped up its business" with the company since DeJoy's appointment as postmaster general. After his appointment, DeJoy continued to hold financial interests in XPO totaling between $30 and $75 million. DeJoy also held a significant amount of stock in Amazon, a major USPS competitor.

Earlier this month, Common Dreams reported on growing calls to fire DeJoy following the revelation by The Washington Post that USPS will pay XPO Logistics $120 million over the next five years. Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) responded to the Post report by calling DeJoy a "walking conflict of interest."

Last Friday, a Post report that DeJoy had purchased hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of publicly traded bonds from Brookfield Asset Management—where USPS Board of Governors Chair Ron Bloom is a managing partner—fueled further calls for DeJoy's termination, with Connolly calling Bloom and the postmaster general "bandits" whose "conflicts of interest do nothing but harm the Postal Service and the American people."

CREW communications director Jordan Libowitz called Bates' order "a big win not just for CREW, but for transparency advocates everywhere."

"DeJoy's decision-making as postmaster general has raised some serious ethical questions—now we should finally get some answers," Libowitz added. ...

In addition to the alleged conflicts of interest in connection with XPO Logistics and Brookfield Asset Management, CREW, in advocating DeJoy's ouster, notes that:

  • DeJoy and his wife, a former U.S. ambassador to Canada, got their jobs after contributing $2 million to Trump's campaign coffers;
  • DeJoy is the first person in decades to lead the USPS without any previous experience in the agency;
  • DeJoy is under federal investigation for allegedly operating a scheme where he asked employees of his former company to make campaign contributions, then arranged for bonus payments to reimburse the employees; and
  • DeJoy apparently violated federal criminal laws by commanding the USPS to make policy changes at the agency that would depress or delay voting by mail in the 2020 election.

"Bottom line: Louis DeJoy has overseen an attack on the Postal Service and on American democracy itself," CREW tweeted Wednesday. "The USPS Board of Governors must fire him before it's too late."



the horse race



Ted Cruz’s campaign may have spent $150,000 on copies of his book

Ted Cruz’s campaign spent more than $150,000 at US book chain Books-A-Million in the months after the Texas senator’s book was published, Forbes has reported.

Cruz, who was prominent among the Republicans trying to block the certification of Joe Biden’s election, published One Vote Away: How a Single Supreme Court Seat Can Change History in September. A financial disclosure he filed on Monday, reported on by Forbes, shows he received almost $320,000 as an advance in 2020 from the book’s publisher Regnery Publishing. ...

The end-of-year report from Cruz’s committee, filed with the Federal Election Commission, reveals that two weeks after One Vote Away was published, his campaign spent $40,000 at Books-A-Million. Shortly afterwards, it spent a further $1,500, and in December, another $111,900. All of the purchases are described by the campaign as “books”, and Forbes speculated that they may have been used to boost his book sales, quoting Brett Kappel, a lawyer specialising in campaign finance, who said that “the FEC has issued a long series of advisory opinions allowing members to use campaign funds to buy copies of their own books at a discount from the publisher, provided that the royalties they would normally receive on those sales are given to charity”.

On Contact: American coup d'état



the evening greens


'Long Overdue': EPA Bans All Food Uses of Neurotoxic Pesticide Chlorpyrifos

Public health experts and labor rights advocates celebrated Wednesday after the Biden administration announced that it "will stop the use of the pesticide chlorpyrifos on all food to better protect human health, particularly that of children and farmworkers," following decades of demands for government intervention spurred by safety concerns.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its final rule on chlorpyrifos days before a court-ordered deadline stemming from legal action by advocacy groups that have long sought a ban on the pesticide, which is tied to permanent brain damage in children.

"We welcome EPA's long overdue decision to cancel this neurotoxic insecticide," said Bill Freese, science director at the Center for Food Safety, in a statement. "Since farmworkers, pregnant people, and young children are especially vulnerable to harm from exposure to chlorpyrifos, a cancellation of this dangerous product was the only choice."

Pesticide Action Network executive director Kristin Schafer said that the agency "has released a plan that aligns with what scientists have known for decades: Chlorpyrifos is much too dangerous to be using, and its continued use has put children, farmworkers, and rural communities at risk." ...

Although fears of the harms to children led the EPA to end household use of chlorpyrifos two decades ago, as a recent report from the public interest law firm Earthjustice showed, the pesticide and other organophosphates are still widely applied to crops across the United States.

As The New York Times reports:

In an unusual move, the new chlorpyrifos policy will not be put in place via the standard regulatory process, under which the EPA first publishes a draft rule, then takes public comment before publishing a final rule. Rather, in compliance with the court order, which noted that the science linking chlorpyrifos to brain damage is over a decade old, the rule will be published in final form, without a draft or public comment period.

Michal Freedhoff, the EPA assistant administrator for chemical safety and pollution prevention, told the Times that the "very unusual" court directive "speaks to the impatience and the frustration that the courts and environmental groups and farmworkers have with the agency."

"The court basically said, 'Enough is enough'" Freedhoff said. "Either tell us that it's safe, and show your work, and if you can't, then revoke all tolerances."

In a statement, EPA Administrator Michael Regan recognized frustration with the agency's inaction—particularly under former President Donald Trump—up until the new rule's release.

"Today EPA is taking an overdue step to protect public health. Ending the use of chlorpyrifos on food will help to ensure children, farmworkers, and all people are protected from the potentially dangerous consequences of this pesticide," Regan said. "After the delays and denials of the prior administration, EPA will follow the science and put health and safety first."

The agency's statement acknowledged the rule aligns with moves by other policymakers, noting that "a number of other countries, including the European Union and Canada, and some states including California, Hawaii, New York, Maryland, and Oregon have taken similar action to restrict the use of this pesticide on food."

While applauding the EPA rule, advocates also emphasized decades of delays.

"We are relieved that the EPA has finally put an end to the use of chlorpyrifos. Years of backtracking put the health of countless children and farmworkers at risk by negligently and intentionally overlooking the harms of a terrible pesticide," said Anne Katten, Pesticide and Work Safety Project director at the CRLA Foundation. "Finally, our fields are made safer for farmworkers and our fruits and vegetables are safer for our children."

Advocates of outlawing chlorpyrifos also urged the EPA to take action on additional uses of this pesticide as well as other harmful organophosphate pesticides.

Multibillion-dollar Louisiana plastics plant put on pause in a win for activists

The US government has placed further delays on a proposed multibillion dollar plastics plant in south Louisiana, marking a major victory for environmental activists and members of the majority Black community who have campaigned for years against construction.

The planned $9.4bn petrochemical facility, owned by Formosa Plastics, would roughly double toxic emissions in its local area and, according to environmentalists, release up to 13m tonnes of greenhouse gases a year, the equivalent of three coal-fired power plants, to become one of the largest plastics pollution-causing facilities in the world.

The 14 separate plastic plants, spread over a gargantuan 2,300 acres of land in St James Parish, could also emit up to 15,400 pounds of the cancer causing chemical ethylene oxide.

On Wednesday, the US Army Corps of engineers, the agency responsible for granting key construction permits under the Clean Water Act, announced it would commission a full environmental impact statement, which advocates say could delay future construction for a number of years. The announcement comes after the agency suspended an earlier permit last November, after acknowledging errors in its original analysis.

In a short memo, Jaime Pinkham, the acting assistant secretary for the Army for civil works, offered little detail on the parameters of the new review, but said it would “thoroughly review areas of concern, particularly those with environmental justice implications”.

Major UN biodiversity summit delayed for third time due to pandemic

A key United Nations biodiversity summit has been delayed for a third time due to the pandemic, the Chinese environment ministry has announced, as environmentalists pledged the delay would “not mean taking our foot off the pedal”.

In a statement, the Chinese ministry of ecology and environment confirmed that Cop15, the biggest biodiversity summit in a decade, would be delayed, and that negotiations for this decade’s targets will be split into two phases so that governments can meet face-to-face in Kunming, China, in the first half of 2022.

The talks had been scheduled for October this year after two previous delays due to the coronavirus pandemic. The first phase of the meeting, which will be largely procedural, will be held in the Chinese city between 11 and 15 October, with most people attending virtually. Countries will then negotiate the targets for the global biodiversity framework that governments will aim to meet by the end of the decade in Kunming from 25 April to 8 May 2022.

The draft text of the framework includes proposals to reduce pesticide use by two-thirds, eliminate plastic pollution and protect 30% of the Earth’s land and sea.

'The World Is Watching': Indigenous Critics of Line 3 Meet With UN Human Rights Expert

Indigenous women who are leading the fight against Enbridge's Line 3 tar sands pipeline met virtually with a United Nations expert on Tuesday to discuss human rights abuses of those who have joined the movement opposing the polluting project.

"We met with the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights defenders because gross human rights violations are occurring at the hands of police in [a] financial relationship with Enbridge," Giniw Collective founder Tara Houska of Couchiching First Nation said in a statement.

Houska and Honor the Earth executive director Winona LaDuke of White Earth Nation have submitted a formal complaint about actions by law enforcement in Northern Minnesota to Mary Lawlor, the U.N. special rapporteur.

LaDuke and Houska, with support from the Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN), shared with Lawlor details about what Line 3 opponents have endured while protesting the Canadian company's effort to replace an aging pipeline with one that will have larger capacity and cross 200 waterways as well as Anishinaabe treaty territory.

When approving Line 3 in 2018, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission required a Public Safety Escrow Trust funded by Enbridge to reimburse law enforcement for policing costs related to the pipeline—an arrangement that has angered activists on the ground.

Motherboard reported earlier this month that the company has paid police $2 million through the trust. According to the Pipeline Legal Action Network, more than 700 water defenders have been arrested for actions opposing Line 3 in Minnesota.

"Minnesota law enforcement has used pain compliance, psychological trauma, threats, rubber bullets, mace, and chemical warfare on people standing up for water," Houska explained, "which it then bills to a fund Enbridge pays into to the tune of $2 million to date—most of these charges are misdemeanors, all of them are nonviolent."

"We pose no threat. Enbridge threatens Anishinaabe cultural survival, the drinking water of millions, and the public's trust," she added. "Since the U.S. government is yet again failing Indigenous people and future generations, we turn to the international community. The world is watching."

LaDuke thanked Lawlor "for putting attention on what's happening in Northern Minnesota, where an international fossil fuel corporation is once again brutalizing Indigenous people to expand the footprint of its toxic and unneeded tar sands oil project."

"State and local government are working directly at the behest of the Enbridge corporation, and the Biden administration has turned a blind eye," she said, "so we hope that international attention can protect the rights of our people and the water we all depend on."


Also of Interest

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

Biden’s Mounting Pandemic Failures

MSNBC rails against the "fantastically corrupt elite" on the ground that ruined the Afghan mission, but the real corruption was our own

Michael Hudson: Biden Forfeits His Afghan Victory by Defending His Deep State Advisors

Former Afghanistan president Karzai talks with Taliban about power transfer

Afghanistan - What Will Happen Next? A Provisional Government And A New Constitution.

'Twenty Years of War Have Failed': Progressive Caucus Urges US Diplomacy With Taliban

Afghanistan

Serious News For Serious People: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

Manchester University puts Palestinian solidarity statement back in gallery

Rightwing lobbies and dark money funders backing assaults on voting rights

Progressive Democrat Morgan Harper Launches Campaign Against Rep. Tim Ryan for Ohio Senate Seat

Illinois city’s reparations plan was heralded – but locals say it’s a cautionary tale

T-Mobile breach exposes personal information of 40 million US users

Israeli Company Illegally Seizes Ben & Jerry’s Trademark in the West Bank

US Military Should Give Back Hawaii Lands

Biden DEFIANT Amid Absolute CHAOS At Kabul Airport

Jimmy Dore: WashPo Fact Checker 100% Wrong On Facts

Rising: Ryan Grim: Cable News HIDING Defense Industry Ties Of Its Military Analysts

Rising: TX Court Upholds Abortion Ban In SHOCK Ruling, Sets Up Roe V Wade SCOTUS Fight

Rising: U.S. Military Biometrics Devices SEIZED By Taliban To Roundup Afghan-US Allies

Rising: Editor-In-Chief Of Socialist Magazine Accused Of FIRING Staff Over Workers' Co-Op, Outrage Ensues


A Little Night Music

Jimmy Thackery & Tab Benoit - I Ain't Broke

Tab Benoit - Nothing Takes The Place Of You

Tab Benoit - I Got Loaded

Tab Benoit - Down In The Swamp

Tab Benoit - The Blues Is Here To Stay

Tab Benoit - Louisiana Style

Buddy Guy, Tab Benoit & Quinn Sullivan - Drowning on Dry Land

Tab Benoit - Crawfishin'

Tab Benoit - Hot Tamale Baby


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Comments

Now we're witholding---freezing---the Taliban's money. Punishing and starving the people of Afghanistan. Like Venezuela. and Cuba. And Iran. Sanctions. Freezing. It's no comfort to learn that the IMF is doing the same.

What am I missing? This is outright criminal behavior as far as I cn tell. Sieges are cruel and horrific. and will not work. This is the narcissistic bully revenge story our country calls "policy."

In other news, Senators Wicker(R) MS, King (I) ME and Hickenlooper (D) CO have tested positive for Covid. 3 or more out of 100 senators all vaccinated. How about those "efficacious" stats, now, Fauci.

Good Evening Joe. I'm loving Tab Benoit playing as I type. Also Caitlin's quote nails it.

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17 users have voted.

NYCVG

joe shikspack's picture

@NYCVG

yep, the bombing of the afghans is mostly over for now. now the starving will begin.

wow, a surprisingly large number of senators have gotten covid, though i'm not sure which/how many of them were vaccinated before they got infected.

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8 users have voted.

@joe shikspack for today have all been vaccinated.

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6 users have voted.

NYCVG

JekyllnHyde's picture

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18 users have voted.

A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma

lotlizard's picture

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8 users have voted.
Pricknick's picture

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6 users have voted.

Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

enhydra lutris's picture

@Pricknick

Poppies are from Afghanistan here's the song you want

be well and have a good one

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8 users have voted.

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 --

CB's picture

@JekyllnHyde
the Americans said in 1989, "We have achieved our goals."

This is now the second time the Americans are saying that they have achieved their goals in Afghanistan. The first time was in 1989.

The Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan 1989
...
The Soviet decision to withdraw from its disastrous military invasion of Afghanistan occurred as early as October 1985, according to the documents; but Gorbachev did not set a specific timetable until February 1988 while he sought to create a model of cooperation with the United States for resolving regional conflicts. While the Soviets shared the U.S. goal of an independent Afghanistan, they were especially wary of the power of radical fundamentalists, who dominated in the Pakistan-based resistance, supported by the United States. The Soviet leadership believed that the process of national reconciliation would culminate in free elections under U.N. monitoring and the resulting government would be secular and moderate. However, the documents show that eventually the Soviets accepted the fact that the Reagan administration would continue to arm the more radical factions of the Mujahedin through Pakistan, even in violation of the Geneva agreements. Gorbachev was hoping that progress toward a political settlement could be made by working together with the United States after the signing of the Geneva agreements, thus creating a precedent and further cementing U.S.-Soviet global cooperation.

In the end, both in the 1988 Geneva Accords and negotiations with the Bush administration in 1989 and 1990, the sides agreed to disagree, papering over the gaps in their positions, much to the disappointment of Gorbachev and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze. The latter finally erupted during talks with U.S. Secretary of State James Baker in 1990, saying the U.S.-sponsored Mujahedin were not interested in free elections, just power; and Baker did not disagree. As Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin summed up in his memoirs, “Gorbachev’s strategic aim and hope was that Afghanistan would be neutral and that the United States would play a useful role together with us in the future settlement. That turned out to be an illusion.”
...

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joe shikspack's picture

@JekyllnHyde

great to see you!

i guess it's hard for great powers to admit they were defeated by a bunch of medieval mud-hut and cave dwellers.

have a great evening!

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ggersh's picture

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEvudTSS0x0]

Assange also nailed it, and that's why he sits in Belmarsh. One might think that the "war" is now all but over tptb would be a forgiving bunch.....nope, never gonna happen folks

https://centipedenation.com/second-column/wikileaks-shares-an-old-clip-o...

stay safe everyone!

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

Raggedy Ann's picture

@ggersh .
The pandemic is about the money - get the vaccine!!! Get a booster!!! Enrich the pharmaceutical companies!!!

There is a cure - it is called IVERMECTIN. It costs $.02/pill.

Everything is about the money.

Pleasantry

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

joe shikspack's picture

@ggersh

good clips, thanks!

i hope the awareness that the winners of the war were the defense contractors and their role in perpetuating the war moves from fringe media into the mainstream.

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feminism.PNG

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joe shikspack's picture

@gjohnsit

we're #1! we're #1!

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Azazello's picture

Lots of good reads in the EB tonight. I recommend Taibbi and, especially, Michael Hudson from the bottom section. Very good, even if it needs an edit. This one is good too: Progressive Critics Say Investors in US Weapon-Makers Only Clear Winners of Afghan War
Here's Michael Tracey's piece: Ignore The Fake "Experts" — The Real "Catastrophe" In Afghanistan Was Always The War Itself

Shrieking pundits evidently ignored the release of the Afghanistan Papers in 2019 (which did get buried at the time, due to the first impeachment of Trump over something to do with Javelin missiles in Ukraine… who can even recall anymore?). Sifting through those documents, the only viable conclusion is that the entire war effort was rooted in out-and-out fraud. Just one example of the countless from that archive: an official reported that he/she was required to spend $3 million per day in each Afghan district with a USAID presence, and estimated that 90% of this money was straight-up squandered. This individual recounted asking a visiting Congressman if he could “responsibly spend that kind of money” in his own district at home. The Congressman replied, “hell no.”

Here's Pepe Escobar from the 16th, in case you missed it: The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan back with a bang
Ben Norton and Max Blumenthal did a livestream with Pepe today: YouTube( 2hr.5min.) One of the best livestream discussions I've ever seen. I watched every minute of it. These guys know what wars and regime-changes are all about and Pepe is always good on the pipelines and stuff. Highly recommend.
I was with Caitlin 'til she got to the very end.

Which is what leftists have wanted all along. Leftists have always wanted a mass-scale uprising against the systems of exploitation, inequality and injustice which gave rise to the situation we now find ourselves in. It’s just that other ideologies are now, perhaps, starting to catch up.

First of all, not all leftists are Marxists. There were leftists before there were Marxists and not everybody on the left bought in on the Marxist fairy-tale. And secondly, again, there's no such thing as an uprising against a system. What would that even look like ? You can overthrow a government and maybe the new one will institute a new system. But you can't overthrow a system, especially if you can't even define it.

Have a nice night.

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

CB's picture

@Azazello
for reliable information on the Great Game in Asia. I have followed him for 3 decades and never once has he led me astray.

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joe shikspack's picture

@Azazello

here's pepe on grayzone. i haven't had a chance to watch it yet, but it's probably interesting at the very least.

please solve for x and y.

x have long wanted to remove and replace y, which institutionalize the exploitation of vast sections of the populace, enforce egregious and life-threatening maldistribution of income and wealth and incarcerate huge numbers of people, disproportionately from one racial/ethnic grouping as well as incarcerating thousands and thousands of human beings for committing crimes for which there is no victim.

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CB's picture

@joe shikspack
Pepe Escobar is excellent.

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Azazello's picture

@joe shikspack
It offers a certainty and simplicity that doesn't exist in the real world.
For some x, y = Satan, for others y = the "capitalist system".
There is no single y that is the cause of all the world's problems.
Would that it were that simple.

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2 users have voted.

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

A few excerpts from the article.

https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/568674-us-diplomats-in-afgh...

About two dozen diplomats working at the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan warned Secretary of State Antony Blinken in July that Kabul risked falling to the Taliban shortly after the military’s withdrawal, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

The classified cable, sent through the State Department’s confidential dissent channel, detailed swift gains by the Taliban throughout the country, the collapse of Afghan forces and offered recommendations for speeding up evacuation efforts.

The July 13 cable also used tougher language to describe actions being taken by the Taliban, a source told The Journal, highlighting that the administration's officials on the ground gave leaders clear warnings about the group’s advancement.

he cable urged the State Department to begin registering and collecting personal data of Afghan interpreters and other allies who qualify for Special Immigrant Visas to leave the country and said the U.S. should begin evacuation flights no later than Aug. 1.

It also comes as administration officials have sought to blame the intelligence community for not anticipating the insurgent group's rapid-fire takeover of the country.

A total of 23 staffers signed the cable, which went to Blinken along with Director of Policy Planning Salman Ahmad, according to the Journal.

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@humphrey

Link to the informative article.

https://ejmagnier.com/2021/08/19/lebanon-is-under-maximum-pressure-and-t...

Some additional input.

https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2021/08/19/664750/Nasrallah-Iranian-fuel-h...

Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has announced that a ship carrying Iranian fuel will set sail for Lebanon within hours, saying the resistance movement would regard this vessel and other tankers to carry Iranian fuel as Lebanese territory, in an apparent warning to Israel and the United States.

“I would like to announce that the arrangements for the first ship to depart Iran have been completed and the vessel will set sail within hours,” Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Thursday morning in a televised address commemorating Ashura, the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Hussein (AS), the third Imam of Shia Muslims.

The ship will be carrying diesel since it is a top priority for the Lebanese people’s livelihoods, Nasrallah said, promising that it will be followed by other ships carrying more fuel. “We do not accept the humiliation of our people.”

“From the moment the ship begins to sail, [Hezbollah] will consider it Lebanese soil,” he said, warning the enemies against challenging Hezbollah on the matter.

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joe shikspack's picture

@humphrey

why does blinky still have a job?

shhhhh! i don't want to see where he will fail upwards from secretary of state!

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Raggedy Ann's picture

It's a shit show!

Enjoy the evening! Pleasantry

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

joe shikspack's picture

@Raggedy Ann

heh, perhaps we should all move to flushing, new york.

have a great evening!

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lotlizard's picture

@joe shikspack  
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=world%27s+fair+1964

I seem to recall Disney showing off their “audio-animatronic” Abe Lincoln, a lifelike dummy that moved and talked, and a General Electric rotating panorama, extolling the “♫ great big beautiful tomorrow” we were all going to have, thanks to electrical appliances in the home.

Francisco Franco’s fascist dictatorship in Spain tried to improve its image by shipping the original of the painting The Naked Maja across the Atlantic and making it the centerpiece of the Spanish pavilion.

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@lotlizard
national Lampoon 1964 High School Yearbook

Senior class trip -- NYC

...
The high point of the trip was, of course, the 1964 World's fair held at Flushing Meadows, New York. There they inhaled many heady sights and soundssuch as the Pepsi Cola Pavilion, with its many wonderful and interesting Disney-animated mechanical foreigners who sang "It's a Small World After All" over and over and over again. ("I never knew anybody could sing the same song so many times," reported Kangarambler Wendy Ann Dempler, "not even robots. The mechanical sidewalk broke down and we had to listen to it over and over again. Gilbert counted we listened to it 302 times until he lost count on account of his real bad nosebleed. It was kind of creepy.")

Other remarkable sights and views they saw were the GECarousel of Progress, which gave a very interesting lesson on important breakthroughs on advanced refrigerator technology. Also, the Formica House, made entirely of Formica, and the Court of the Universe, where tired toes dabbled in the Fountain of the Planets until somebody yelled at us.
...

(It's a Small World was later installed at Disneyland which unfortunately I rode once.)

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enhydra lutris's picture

For anybody who hasn't watched it yet, Max Blumenthal has an 8/17 Greyzone show under the subheading of Foreign Agents at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ruu9aDHTqJU where he and Marcie Smith Parenti. discuss the work, writings, techniques and such of Gene Sharp who is an architect of the soft coups and color revolutions we have seen in the past that is very informative and possibly even a must watch, if only to find out about From Dictatorship to Democracy which is Sharp's handbook on how to pull this shit off.

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

joe shikspack's picture

@enhydra lutris

thanks for the link.

quite a while ago i started reading sharp's book, which used to be available to download online (don't know if it still is). as i was reading it, i came to the conclusion that the right could probably pull off a color revolution in the u.s. because they have an agenda that they broadly agree upon. the left probably can't because it can't agree on even the most basic stuff in large numbers.

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lotlizard's picture

@joe shikspack  
(diversity, equity, inclusion) already amount to a color revolution of sorts, with the new “rainbow flag plus black and brown” as the “color”…

It’s hardly “left” though, now, is it?

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Pluto's Republic's picture

@joe shikspack

the right could probably pull off a color revolution in the u.s. because they have an agenda that they broadly agree upon.

the left probably can't because it can't agree on even the most basic stuff in large numbers.

.

Unlike the Right, the Left has never established a major political party in the US. This makes it impossible to mount any sort of revolution. The Foreign Right-wing parties in Europe and beyond have strong affiliations with the Republicans in the US. Foreign Left-wing parties do not resonate with the Democrats at all..

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato

Looks like the Deep State media is big time shitting on Biden and will not allow anybody supporting Biden on withdrawal. They have their marching orders.

But the American people so far are on Biden's side barely.

Afghanistan war unpopular amid chaotic pullout: AP-NORC poll

A significant majority of Americans doubt that the war in Afghanistan was worthwhile, even as the United States is more divided over President Joe Biden’s handling of foreign policy and national security, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Roughly two-thirds said they did not think America’s longest war was worth fighting, the poll shows. Meanwhile, 47% approve of Biden’s management of international affairs, while 52% approve of Biden on national security.

Will we see a President Harris?

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joe shikspack's picture

@MrWebster

i wouldn't be surprised to see them take biden down. we're talking about billions of dollars in profits every year - you don't cut off these people from that much profit without them sticking a knife in your back.

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@MrWebster

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snoopydawg's picture

Well no duh. Most of us knew that was the biggest reason for why we were staying in Afghanistan for so long. It’s never about bringing freedums and decrepit American style democracy because we don’t even have it here. OBL was also not the reason since nor was it about protecting women and children because we killed so many with our bombs and troops got caught massacring them and tried to cover it up. Then there were the many weddings and funerals we bombed..the list is long.

Official review exposes how US reconstruction of Afghanistan was built on death, fraud and lies

The shocking extent of America’s failure to build a safe and secure Afghanistan is laid bare in a newly published report. It spells out in explicit detail the mind-boggling corruption and incompetence that doomed the mission.

The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction has issued a withering review of American reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, outlining several “lessons learned” from the calamity.

In all, Washington spent two decades and $145 billion attempting to westernize the country, while struggling to maintain a corrupt, unpopular and illegitimate government in power, and battling an ongoing insurgency against the Taliban and a constellation of armed militias. The report pulls absolutely no punches, finding that almost every US-bankrolled project in Afghanistan was subject to industrial scale grift, delivered wildly over budget, failed in its objectives, and strengthened the Taliban. In far too many cases, these efforts led to people being killed.

References to corruption run rampant throughout – yet, somewhat unbelievably, Washington was said to have “initially failed to recognize the existential threat that corruption posed to the reconstruction effort.” Planners reportedly assumed fraud could only ever be the “deviant criminal behavior of individual Afghan officials,” and concluded that extensive use of contractors would ensure reconstruction endeavors remained above board and on budget.

In reality, this reliance precipitated a veritable feeding frenzy of “virtually unchecked” waste and fraud, enabled in part by an almost total lack of oversight over how funds were spent. Numerous examples of rank incompetence on the part of contractors are also documented – a military compound constructed for $2.4 million being completely unusable as it was carelessly built outside the security perimeter of the base for which it was commissioned is perhaps the most farcical.
….

In these cases, USAID depended on contractors, who could visit locations too risky for US government employees to tread. This meant, though, that monitoring a project’s implementation was extremely difficult, with the agency’s staff “sometimes unable to establish with confidence even the most basic information.” On occasion, what could be verified was in fact bogus – the review records how a Kandahar-based business would for a fee provide contractors with generic photographs of completed projects, replete with fake geotags, to defraud USAID. (Was anyone ever charged for fraud in any war? -sd)
….
In 2000, the Taliban collaborated with the United Nations to eradicate opium production in Afghanistan, resulting in one of the most successful anti-drug campaigns in history, with a 99% reduction in poppy farming in areas controlled by the group, which had accounted for roughly three-quarters of the world’s supply of heroin. The US invasion ended this, and despite spending $9 billion on counternarcotics efforts since 2002, the cultivation of opium in Afghanistan has trended upward ever since.

The explosion of the opium trade funded the Taliban insurgency, meaning poppy fields were heavily defended, and many security services operatives, civilians, US Drug Enforcement Administration agents, and contractors were killed or severely wounded on counternarcotics missions. Even successful incursions were “often only possible under the protection of significant coalition and Afghan security forces,” who couldn’t stay indefinitely in target areas as a deterrent. As a result, these wins were “temporary and unsustainable,” and became ever-shorter lived as coalition forces began to retreat.
….
US government funds also reached the pockets of violent extremists “through a web of corruption that encompassed Afghan officials, drug traffickers, transnational criminals, and insurgent and terrorist groups.” However, “prosecuting these officials, or even removing them from office, proved extremely difficult,” since it would entail “dismantling major pillars of support for the government itself,” including its electoral institutions, in the process severely undermining its public legitimacy.

45BAB90E-B19F-4971-95CF-6EBB1179211F.png

Meanwhile here at home the Sacklers were flooding American cities with opioids and gee congress never bothered to put a stop to it or rarely do investigations on it. Now the Sacklers are threatening to withhold the money they have to pay for their crimes. I didn’t know criminals had that kind of power. Guess if you’re rich enough and pay your friends to look the other way…

Here’s a shocker. Thanks Obama you POS!

Secret gag order hides Israel’s espionage & theft of US nuclear technology

A classified 2012 gag order issued under Obama prohibits all governmental officials, including Congress members, from mentioning Israel’s nuclear arsenal…

Israel has been allowed to get away with massive espionage directed against the US and the theft of material and technology – while also being engaged in a conspiracy that distorts America’s foreign policy, largely done to keep getting the billions of dollars that it is not entitled to receive under existing American law…

This might be construed as treason…

Few Americans are aware of the fact that no U.S. government official, to include congressmen, can in any way mention or discuss Israel’s nuclear arsenal, which is estimated by some observers to consist of as many as 200 tactical nuclear weapons which can be delivered on target by air, land or sea.
….
President John F. Kennedy with Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. JFK told Israel to terminate its nuclear program but was killed before any steps were taken to end the project.

Israel, as is so often the case, gets a free pass on what is for others criminal behavior. Its nuclear program was created by stealing American uranium and weapons technology. Preventing nuclear proliferation was in fact a major objective of the U.S. government when in the early 1960s President John F. Kennedy learned that Tel Aviv was developing a nuclear weapon from a CIA report. He told the Israelis to terminate their program or risk losing American political and economic support but was killed before any steps were taken to end the project.

With the uranium in hand, the stealing of the advanced technology needed to make a nuclear weapon, which is where Hollywood movie producer Arnon Milchan comes into the story. Milchan was born in Israel but moved to the United States and eventually wound up as the founder-owner of New Regency Films. In a November 25, 2013 interview on Israeli television Milchan admitted that he had spent his many years in Hollywood as an agent for Israeli intelligence, helping obtain embargoed technologies and materials that enabled Israel to develop a nuclear weapon. He worked for Israel’s Bureau of Science and Liaison acquisition division of Mossad, referred to as the LAKAM spy agency.

Milchan admitted in the interview that “I did it for my country and I’m proud of it.” He was not referring to the United States. He also said that “other big Hollywood names were connected to [his] covert affairs.” Among other successes, he obtained through his company Heli Trading 800 krytons, the sophisticated triggers for nuclear weapons. The devices were acquired from the California top secret defense contractor MILCO International. Milchan personally recruited MILCO’s president Richard Kelly Smyth as an agent before turning him over to another Heli Trading employee, future Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for handling. Smyth was eventually arrested in 1985 but insofar as is known neither Milchan nor Netanyahu has ever been questioned by the FBI regarding the thefts.

After Bibi’s speech to congress trying to derail the Iran deal, Obama should have rescinded that order. But then the dual citizens of US/Israel might have gotten angry or something. But didn’t Clinton give China nuclear technology or the plans for building nuclear weapons? Oh well it’s not like presidents are above the law or anything. How many terrorists have we supported through the centuries?

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joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

thanks for the articles! yep, it's just about always about the money. and when it's not, it's about the global-domination ambitions of children who refuse to grow the fuck up.

But didn’t Clinton give China nuclear technology or the plans for building nuclear weapons?

apparently, a lot of classified information found its way to china on clinton's watch. some of it probably helped china advance considerably in their weapons design and defense strategies.

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snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack

when she used her private email server. China either hacked into her account or….but Comey declared that she hadn’t been grossly negligent because she didn’t intend to break the rules for government accounts. Or something. Nor did people learn about what the NYC FBI found on her laptop. They were going to expose it, but Lynch threatened them..long story.

I had to wear pants today and turn the heat on. It snowed somewhere down in the central Utah mountains. Couple inches. Tuesday it was in the high 90's. Reminds me of 1983 when it was so cold and rained every weekend and when we finally went to the Uintas the wildflowers were just blooming. I’m sure every state says that if you don’t like the weather just wait 5-10 minutes.

First one is where I’m heading soon. Hey maybe I can have a fire then. And roast milky ways.

How in hell can you plan for something that might happen if you are following the science?

Virus mutations are what the virus decides to do not something that can be predicted to my knowledge. And are the booster vaccines for each individual mutation or just a shot in the dark and hoping that you get it right? But then Biden said that they had been planning for booster shots for a few months. Okay that doesn’t make sense to me either. And for gawd’s sake Walensky does not inspire confidence for me one bit. But then neither does Fauci.

"You want toget out ahead of the virus," Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden's chief medical adviser, told reporters. "If you wait for something bad to happen before you respond to it, you find you're considerably behind your real full capability of being responsive."

Ehh again?

you find you're considerably behind your real full capability of being responsive."

Don’t you respond to something AFTER it happens because how can you respond to something BEFORE it does if you don’t know how it’s going to change? Sorry but I’m confused…or am I.

Biden telling the deep state to F off!

So we were there in Afghanistan to fight their civil war?

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joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

a trip to someplace that is getting snow sounds pretty delightful to me just about now. Smile

Virus mutations are what the virus decides to do not something that can be predicted to my knowledge. And are the booster vaccines for each individual mutation or just a shot in the dark and hoping that you get it right?

that mutations are quite likely is a prediction that's probably pretty safe to make. exactly what those mutations will look like is (as i understand it) not very predictable.

the booster vaccines that are in the works i think are more of the same vaccine. i have read that there is some consideration of tweaking the formula should the effectiveness degrade against new variants, but that is not what is proposed for the next round.

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CB's picture

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President John F. Kennedy with Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. JFK told Israel to terminate its nuclear program but was killed before any steps were taken to end the project.

Which JFK assassination speculator has Mossad/Israel on the list of possible culprits?

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snoopydawg's picture

@Marie

Israel has lots of power and i just wasn’t aware of it until recently. One article said that they either have blackmail material against most countries or they’ve threatened them with nukes. I read it long ago so I can’t provide links. They got away with spying on Trump when listening devices were found outside the WH and didn’t they blackmail Clinton on the Lewinsky scandal? He sure paid a low price for perjury. Brennan and Clapper also perjured themselves but got away with it.

Yeah Israel’s involvement in the assassination of JFK wasn’t on my bingo card this year. Oliver Stone's new movie sounds interesting. The files are still being blocked for release possibly by the CIA. I hope we get to know the truth about it before I die.

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@snoopydawg
Then five years later a disturbed Palestinian immigrant offs RFK.. Hmm.

Perhaps we already know the truth -- as unsatisfying as it is.

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snoopydawg's picture

@humphrey

I’m not sure they see how dumb that looks especially after we just had another Saigon episode in Afghanistan.

Kamala: "America is back!"

Vietnam: "We kicked you out once and we can do it again if we need to!"

I’m having trouble getting Twitter to load tweets if I open it from safari. It started yesterday and I get a something is wrong message and try again. Anyone else having this problem? Little help please.

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@snoopydawg how things work.

I have never had a twitter account so I am not able to comment. That is fine by me. However recently I am not able to open threads. I was able to find a workaround by clicking on opening in a new link. I am not sure if this will help with your issue.

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snoopydawg's picture

@humphrey

I open tweets in a new tab, but it just had stopped working. If I click the date and open in a new tab it works. Or in the Twit app.

Danny DeVito had a blue check which Twitter gives ‘verified' accounts, but after he tweeted support for frito lays workers Twit rescinded his blue check. The message is that the blue checks follow the party line or else. Not an earth stopping event, but an interesting one I think.

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snoopydawg's picture

@snoopydawg

From her article on Julian Assange from 2017.

Twitter Is Using Account Verification To Stifle Leaks And Promote War Propaganda

stumbled across an article in my newsfeed a few minutes ago titled “Julian Assange Says Clinton Campaign Manager Podesta Had 7,300 Child Porn Images”, from an outlet called Hub Pages. The article, archived here, does not have a visible social media share tally or a page view count so I can’t comment on how much it’s been circulated, but I can’t be the only one whose newsfeed it wound up on.
To support its central claim, this clickbait article cited a tweet from the Twitter handle @Real_Assange, which as of this writing currently has 2,541 retweets and 3,467 likes.

In a stunning development to the affair called "Pizzagate," in which the mainstream press, unprecedented to journalism, has labeled an entire subject matter "fake news," Wikileaks founder Julian Assange last Sunday sent a tweet indicating that he knew that former Bill Clinton chief of staff and Hillary Clinton campaign manager John Podesta had been in possession of "over 7,300 images that would've officially put him away for life."

The images can only refer to child pornography, the subject which has been at the center of the Podesta emails as soon as they were allegedly "hacked" by Russian government operatives, according to various US intelligence officials, and published by Wikileaks. The emails revealed correspondences between Podesta, his brother Tony, and their close circle of friends.

The social media of many of the people in the social circle appeared rife with references to children in a sexualized context, and filled with mysterious code talk about "pizza." Some Internet researchers who pored over the emails allege that the words "cheese pizza" stand for "child pornography."

From the archived article:

Podesta recently acknowledged that the leaked emails were authentic, in a backhanded manner, when he responded to a tweet by President Donald Trump from the G-20 conference in Hamburg. Trump tweeted:

"Everyone here is talking about why John Podesta refused to give the DNC server to the FBI and the CIA. Disgraceful!"

Podesta tweeted in response:

"Get a grip man, the Russians committed a crime when they stole my emails to help get you elected President."

Smile

This is what I alluded to about Hillary’s laptop. Both are worth a read.

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snoopydawg's picture

@snoopydawg

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@snoopydawg
First, you skipped the context for Caitlin's first tweet. Here it is:

Second, and more serious, you linked to Caitlin's July 2017 article on twitter verification and excerpt her first two paragraph, but with no disclosure what follows beginning with "In a stunning development" is from the Hub Pages piece. As if you didn't quite understand what Caitlin's article was about. IOW Julian Assange has never claimed that he was in possession of child porn from Podesta's email, and Hub Pages was one of the entities pushing the Pizzagate hoax.

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snoopydawg's picture

@Marie

Danny DeVito had a blue check which Twitter gives ‘verified' accounts, but after he tweeted support for frito lays workers Twit rescinded his blue check. The message is that the blue checks follow the party line or else. Not an earth stopping event, but an interesting one I think.

Then I posted it when I found it again. I did understand what Caitlin's point was. As for Wikileaks emails I’m not sure what your point is. If you’re confused you can look at the article at it’s source which I always recommend people do. I didn’t say Assange had the porn himself. He exposed that Podesta did which you can see if you follow the links in the original article. I have written about that years ago when it first came out.

From the archived article:

Could have been clearer, but again if you follow the links…

I’m not confused about what I wrote but I am at your comment.

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@snoopydawg
I let it drop after a couple of comments, but not this time because you are still wrong.

First, it's not acceptable to post a claimed excerpt from a writer that includes several paragraphs not written by that writer. It was so "off" that it led me to go a read Caitlin and then sort out where the major part of the excerpt you posted came from.

Second, Caitlin's article is about the poor quality of twitter's verification. Cutting off authentic twitter accounts (as in the recent instance of Danny DeVito) and allowing fake accounts to continue and appear to be authentic. She more than suggested (as there was no way for her to authenticate) that the "at Julian_Assange" twitter account was fake. Her first clue, and with which she led her piece, looked at the Hub Pages newsfeed and the article that promulgated that incendiary claim in the tweet "at Julian_Assange." Second clue -- that tweet sounds no more like what Assange and Wikileaks issues than the Porn Hub words you put in Caitlin's mouth.

For the record, Assange has never made claims based on materials that he doesn't possess or hasn't seen and verified as authentic. Thus, if you believe that fake tweet is real, you also have to believe that he had possession of kiddie porn from the Podesta files. And that Assange and Wikileaks wouldn't turn the materials over to several authorities for criminal investigations. Not believable in the least.

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snoopydawg's picture

@Marie

It sounds like you’re problem is more with how Caitlin wrote her essay. As for my excerpts I posted 2 paragraphs and linked the archived article which I included an excerpt in my comment. As for you having to read at the source I recommended that you do it in my 1st reply. As I said I think if people are interested in the excerpt to read at the source. I also recommended fully reading both articles. I can’t make you do it only suggest you do.

As for the Assange stuff I’m really lost.

For the record, Assange has never made claims based on materials that he doesn't possess or hasn't seen and verified as authentic.

Who says he did? I didn’t and said that he posted some of Podesta's information about being a pedophile. Again if you follow the links you’ll see some of the art he has in his home. Again I have covered this before and have seen how atrocious they are.

In one article it states that just reading the descriptions of what’s being offered someone in law enforcement should be taking a closer look at it. Whitney Webb has written extensively on Epstein and how many administrations have been tied to child sex trafficking going back to prohibition days.

So read the articles to get clarity or don’t. Sorry that you couldn’t follow what I wrote. It happens. But even though there is lots of evidence of evil doings I doubt anyone will ever be charged for anything. Focusing on porn hub seems like a squirrel because it distracts from some awful and hideous acts too many powerful people are getting away with. Pizza gate too is either a distraction or saying it’s a conspiracy theory just so people think it is.

I found the Epstein saga interesting because it’s so heinous. Other than that…

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@snoopydawg
problem with Caitlin's 2017 article on the twitter verified accounts? Her article was perfectly fine. And I have read it along with the clickbait Hub Pages article.

What I have a problem with it how you used it in your first comment -- an illustration:

linked article
paragraph 1
paragraph 2
paragraph 3
paragraph 4
etc

Only the first two paragraphs were from Caitlin's article. With no break or disclosure, the others were from the Hub Pages article making it look as if it was all from Caitlin's article. Caitlin critiqued Hub Pages in her opening and labeling it clickbait. Adequately informing her readers not to trust it.

...and said that he [Assange] posted some of Podesta's information about being a pedophile. ...

Where was that? The only thing I've ever seen is that tweet by "@ Julian_Assange" which is a fake Assange account and was used as the source for your linked Hub Pages article.

Assange has stated that Wikileaks published all the Podesta files that they received. Nothing about anyone being a pedophile in those files.

Dragging in the unrelated Jeffrey Epstein into our dispute is poor argumentation. Much remains unknown about his scams. Yeah, I read the Whitney Webb articles on Epstein and wasn't impressed. Lots of dots (many fictional) that she connects with fantasy links.

(Years ago a lawyer friend was totally convinced about the McMartin Preschool pedophilia ring. The stories were too fantastic and implausible for it to be true. Who got that one right?)

Consider a question -- with so many women having come forward with claims of having been sexually abused by Epstein when they were underage (claims that for the most part I accept as true) except for Maria Farmer who was in her twenties, why is there a paucity of claims that Epstein/Maxwell then passed them along to other men? If that were the source of his substantial annual income and wealth, there should be scads of women reporting that they'd been trafficked. Particularly since there's a pot of money that victims may be able to access.

The overwhelming majority of child and adolescent sexual abuse occurs in the home and is perpetrated by relatives and close family friends and secondarily perpetrated by trusted members of the community - teachers, coaches, doctors, boy scout leaders, priests/ministers, celebs, ie Jimmy Saville and R Kelly. Very rarely do such perps act in collusion with other perps. Child porn may proliferate on the internet, but that's because the purveyors and customers don't expect to get caught, and it's a solitary perversion for the customers. So, I'm not dismissing the prevalence of child and adolescent sexual abuse. That said, the postulation of pedophile rings to serve political and/or uber wealthy persons never seems to lead to the exposure of such a ring.

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CB's picture

@snoopydawg
with the twitter link. If it doesn't work I click on the https link in the body and it usually works. It sometimes works if I reload the page and click a second time.

No rhyme or reason.

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4 users have voted.

@snoopydawg
It seems Twits are throttling functionality to repeat users who have not signed up for an account. By signing up you must agree to their terms of service which likely includes the granting of all sorts of invasive permissions to collect and monetize your personal profile while minimizing their legal liabilities.

I’d like to preserve my delusion that I still have a semblance of personal privacy on the internet, even though it’s clear that ship sailed long ago.

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5 users have voted.

Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

CB's picture

@ovals49
upon closing. No history or other settings.

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2 users have voted.
CB's picture

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7 users have voted.
lotlizard's picture

@CB  
with Biden, and he’d still get confused and angry.

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9 users have voted.

A image posted by CB last night.

https://thehill.com/policy/international/middle-east-north-africa/568695...

People evacuated from Afghanistan by the U.S. will not be charged the cost of their flight, State Department spokesman Ned Price told The Hill.

"In these unique circumstances, we have no intention of seeking any reimbursement from those fleeing Afghanistan," he said.

The statement provides a point of clarification over federal law that mandates the State Department seek reimbursement for U.S.-chartered evacuation flights.

The law requires that Americans or other foreign nationals agree to pay back the cost of an evacuation, which is typically comparable to the cost of a full fare economy flight, or comparable transportation to the designated destination.

His statement on the free flights pushes back against reports that those seeking to board American evacuation aircraft have been told they must pay for the flights.

Politico reported in its National Security newsletter on Thursday that at least one person said State Department staff were seeking large payments — up to $2,000 from American passengers and even more from non-U.S. citizens.

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7 users have voted.
CB's picture

@humphrey
still safer than patio seating.

Afghanistan crisis: Afghan national team footballer died in fall from US plane at Kabul Airport

Crowds of people seeking to flee Aghanistan have thronged the airport since Taliban insurgents swept to power on Sunday, many seen trying to board a moving plane.

Ariana said Zaki Anwari fell from a USAF Boeing C-17 and that the death had been confirmed by the General Directorate for Sport.

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5 users have voted.
lotlizard's picture

@CB  
Gruesome either way.

https://twitter.com/BabakTaghvaee/status/1428048845397807112

Babak Taghvaee - Μπάπακ Τακβαίε - بابک تقوایی
@BabakTaghvaee · Aug 18

Very sad to hear that one of the youths who tried to leave #Kabul through grabbing the landing gear bay of a #USAF's C-17A transport airplane few days ago was a player of #Afghanistan's National youth soccer team, Zaki Anvari. His body parts was found in the landing gear bay.

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5 users have voted.
CB's picture

@lotlizard
would attempt hitching a ride on an airplane that way. I understand a few of the dozens of people running alongside the speeding aircraft got run over by the wheels.

There appeared to be some sort of mass psychosis taking place. Darwin Awards to all of them.

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6 users have voted.

https://tass.com/politics/1327935

MOSCOW, August 19./TASS/. Russia is ready to provide civil planes to evacuate Afghan nationals who want to leave the country to any other state, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a briefing on Thursday.

"In the light of the situation that we now see at the airport of Kabul and the inability of some Western countries to arrange the evacuation of their diplomats, military and civilians from Afghanistan, to say nothing about Afghan nationals who cooperated with them, and their families who want to leave the country but have no possibility we would like to say the following: In order to prevent the worsening of the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, we are ready to provide the services of the Russian civil aviation to ensure the flight of any number of Afghan nationals, including women and children, to whatever foreign countries that will show an interest in receiving and accommodating them," the diplomat said.

"Representatives of the new authorities in Afghanistan have assured us that there are no fundamental obstacles for the arrival in Kabul and departure of Russian civil aircraft. The safety of the planes, their crews and passengers is guaranteed," the diplomat added.

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6 users have voted.

@humphrey Russia takes a victory lap

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5 users have voted.

NYCVG

Obviously Biden sucks but the Republicans are even worse. Woe is us!

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8 users have voted.