The Evening Blues - 8-30-16
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features Chicago bluesman Little Smokey Smothers. Enjoy!
Little Smokey Smothers - I Get Evil
“Some allies are more dangerous than enemies.”
-- George R.R. Martin
News and Opinion
Our "allies" think that genocide is "useful." Would this not be an opportune time to reconsider US alliances?
Israeli think tank: Don’t destroy ISIS; it’s a “useful tool” against Iran, Hezbollah, Syria
According to a think tank that does contract work for NATO and the Israeli government, the West should not destroy ISIS, the fascist Islamist extremist group that is committing genocide and ethnically cleansing minority groups in Syria and Iraq.
Why? The so-called Islamic State “can be a useful tool in undermining” Iran, Hezbollah, Syria and Russia, argues the think tank’s director.
“The continuing existence of IS serves a strategic purpose,” wrote Efraim Inbar in “The Destruction of Islamic State Is a Strategic Mistake,” a paper published on Aug. 2. ...
“Allowing bad guys to kill bad guys sounds very cynical, but it is useful and even moral to do so if it keeps the bad guys busy and less able to harm the good guys,” Inbar explained. ...
Inbar, an influential Israeli scholar, is the director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, a think tank that says its mission is to advance “a realist, conservative, and Zionist agenda in the search for security and peace for Israel.”
The think tank, known by its acronym BESA, is affiliated with Israel’s Bar Ilan University and has been supported by the Israeli government, the NATO Mediterranean Initiative, the U.S. embassy in Israel and the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs.
And here is the result of the US-Israeli strategy to "let bad guys kill bad guys."
Up to 15,000 Isis victims buried in mass graves in Syria and Iraq
A survey of mass graves in Syria and Iraq has identified 72 sites in which Islamic State buried victims of its atrocities.
Up to 15,000 victims of genocide and mass slaughter may be buried in the sites across territory where the militants formerly held sway, according to a comprehensive assessment by the Associated Press.
The figures are based on documentation and mapping of the 72 mass graves as well as excavations by Iraqi officials, the testimony of survivors, Isis propaganda campaigns and analysis of the ground where the victims were buried.
The numbers offer the clearest evidence yet of the scale of Isis’s crimes as it eliminated enemies and minorities to establish its stronghold in Syria. The figures shed light on the violence it wrought as it surged into Iraq in 2014 and conquered the plains of Nineveh, killing and enslaving thousands of members of the Yazidi religious minority as well as members of the Shia community.
Further mass graves are expected to be uncovered as Isis retreats in the face of offensives by a US-led coalition and allied forces on the ground in Iraq and Syria, ceding ground outside of Mosul and Raqqa, the two most populous cities under its control.
The study identified 17 mass graves in Syria alone, including one with the bodies of hundreds of members of a single tribe that was largely exterminated when Isis captured the region.
Turkish forces advance deeper into Syria
Three US allies are now fighting each other in northern Syria
The US military called for an end to clashes between Turkey, Syrian rebels and Kurdish fighters as the NATO ally pushed deeper into Syria, bringing the diverging priorities of the various American allies into stark relief.
The Pentagon said it was not supporting the Turks or the Syrian rebels against the US-backed Kurds, and that the clashes were "unacceptable and they are a source of deep concern."
The US has been providing air cover to aid Turkey's incursion into northern Syria — called Operation Euphrates Shield — in what Turkey said was an effort to move Islamic State militants away from its border with Syria and to halt the expansion of Kurdish-controlled territory. ...
"The United States was not involved in these activities, they were not coordinated with US forces, and we do not support them," said Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook. "We regret all loss of life in these reported clashes and have expressed our condolences to Turkey for the apparent loss of a Turkish soldier."
Northern #Aleppo now:
CIA/DoD/#Turkey-backed FSA opposition factions
vs.
DoD-backed SDF anti-#ISIS factions.
= Disgraceful mess.
— Charles Lister (@Charles_Lister) August 27, 2016
Obama, Erdogan to meet Sunday in China
President Barack Obama will meet his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday in China on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit, with Syria high on the agenda, top aide Ben Rhodes announced Monday.
"They will be discussing the counter-ISIL campaign and the fact that we need to stay united," Ben Rhodes, the deputy US national security advisor, told reporters. ...
Obama´s meeting with Erdogan would be their first since a failed coup attempt in Turkey on July 15.
Tensions between the two allies have risen sharply since then, with Turkey demanding that the United States extradite Fethullah Gulen, an exiled former imam who Ankara claims was behind the coup attempt.
Syrian Kurdish Forces Reinforce Manbij as Turkey Continues Push
The Kurdish YPG is dispatching substantial additional forces into the city of Manbij, captured earlier this month with substantial US backing, following Turkey’s invasion of the city of Jarabulus, and reports that the Turkish tanks are heading southward toward Manbij as well.
YPG officials, however, are eager to make semantic arguments about how the reinforcements that they sent to Manbij aren’t technically YPG once they reach Manbij, which allows them to argue to the US that they indeed aren’t in Manbij, despite clearly being in Manbij.
The argument centers on the laws of Rojava, the YPG-dominated Kurdish autonomous region in Syria. Rojava defines YPG territory as east of the Euphrates River, and Manbij is on the western shore of that river. Thus, once they cross that river, they can’t be YPG fighters anymore.
Turkish Deputy PM: Turkey Not in a War, Not Occupying Syria
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numaan Kurtulmus sought to downplay last week’s invasion of northern Syria in comments today, insisting that Turkey is “not entering a war” in Syria, and “is not an occupying country.”
Kurtulmus went on to say that Turkey informed Russia of their intention to enter Syria, and that “we are sure” that Russia informed the Syrian government about that, meaning that Syria’s government was fully aware of what was happening.
Turkey Extends Anti-Kurd Airstrikes Into Northern Iraq
Fighting a protracted war against Kurdish forces inside southeastern Turkey, and invading northern Syria last week primarily with an eye toward fighting against the Kurdish YPG forces there, Turkey’s military today confirmed anti-Kurd strikes in a third country, Iraq.
The state media reported a series of cross-border airstrikes into the Gara region in northernmost Iraq, hitting targets which Turkey claimed were linked to the PKK. It is not unusual for Turkey to make such claims in strikes against Iraq, though often the locals insist there was no PKK presence in targeted areas. ...
Turkey claimed to have destroyed targets in northern Iraq, but there are so far not any casualty figures or any confirmations out of Iraq about what was hit. Generally speaking, neither the Iraqi government nor the Kurdistan Regional Government offer much more than token criticism of such strikes.
Report of Soviet nukes sent US on highest alert during ’73 war
The United States went on high alert in October 1973 because of intelligence indicating that the Soviet Union was delivering nuclear weapons to Egypt at the height of the Yom Kippur War, newly declassified CIA papers show.
It has long been known that the National Security Council under President Richard Nixon ordered a DEFCON III (or Defense Condition III) alert, the highest available in peacetime, because of a possible nuclear threat against Israel.
What was not known until last week, when the CIA declassified its briefings for Nixon, was what triggered the concern. ...
Previous reporting showed that the Soviets were alarmed by the DEFCON III alert and sought to quickly defuse the situation, reassuring the Americans that no nuclear action was planned.
New Migration Wave from Libya Forces Single-Day Rescue of 6,500 Refugees
Calm seas in recent days have brought a new wave of refugees attempting the treacherous sea crossing from Libya to Italy, forcing the rescue of 6,500 people in 40 separate operations on Monday alone, according to Italy's coast guard.
On Sunday, 1,100 migrants were rescued from sinking boats, the Italian coast guard said.
"The refugees, believed to be mostly from Somalia and Eritrea, were on flimsy rubber dinghies that become highly unstable in high seas," Al Jazeera reports.
The Mediterranean rescue mission of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), which took part in the rescue operations on Monday, tweeted heartbreaking photos from the day:
UPDATED: 6500 #people were rescued from 40 boats yesterday. It's 2016 & there is still no safe way to flee #Libya. pic.twitter.com/MsOr6t0qPV
— MSF Sea (@MSF_Sea) August 30, 2016
@MSF_Sea so heartbreaking. Worth remembering Warsan Shire's words for everyone who thinks this is an easy choice. pic.twitter.com/QSIQbd7tVQ
— Nanjala Nyabola (@Nanjala1) August 30, 2016
Pew Finds that Austerity-Mad Red States Recieved More Federal Aid
Governments of Republican-leaning states are seemingly always banging the drum of austerity: decreasing corporate taxes, slashing spending, and cutting programs. But red states' ideology and their preferences at the voting booth are not reflected in their state budgets, as a new report (pdf) by Pew Charitable Trusts on Monday found that those locales are the greatest beneficiaries of federal money.
According to The Hill's analysis of the Pew data, "the average state that voted against [President Barack] Obama twice relied on federal funding for an average of 33.8 percent of its budget." In contrast, "Among the 27 states that voted for Obama twice, federal grants made up 29.9 percent of the average state budget."
Mississippi and Louisiana each claim more than 40 percent of their budget from federal grants in 2014, followed by Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, and Georgia, which each receive more than 36 percent. Each of these states voted for Sen. John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012. ...
"Republican states rely more heavily on federal dollars as a share of their budgets than do more Democratic states, largely because Southern states, especially, are more likely to have a higher percentage of residents living in poverty," The Hill notes. States use these funds to pay for programs in areas ranging from education to transportation to healthcare.
Chaos in Brazil as Rousseff’s impeachment is underway
Dilma Rousseff: Impeachment trial has 'bitter taste' of torture
Brazil's suspended president, Dilma Rousseff, mounted a defiant and emotional defense of her herself, her presidency, and her accounting practices during her impeachment trial in the country's senate on Monday.
"During the struggle against the military dictatorship I was tortured, I suffered for years in prison, and I saw my comrades abused and even killed," Rousseff told the senators, recalling her youth as a left-wing guerrilla. "I cannot avoid feeling again the sour and bitter taste of arbitrary injustice." ...
Her speech appeared designed more for the history books than as an effort to sway the opinions in the chamber. Most believe the senate will condemn Rousseff and leave her job permanently in the hands of interim president Michel Temer until her term runs out in 2018. ...
Rousseff highlighted the fact that some of the leaders of the impeachment drive face much more more serious allegations of corruption within the so-called Lava Jato, judicial investigations into kickbacks within the state-run oil company Petrobras that has tainted dozens of politicians from across the political spectrum.
"An irony of history?," she asked. "No way. This was a deliberate action that could count on the complicity silence of sectors of the Brazilian media."
Rousseff also alleged that the impeachment process was essentially a misogynist move against the country's first female president who had been elected to office twice with a mandate to combat injustice. She underlined that Temer initially appointed a cabinet that was all male and all white, in a country where more than half the population is mixed race.
French PM suggests naked breasts represent France better than a headscarf
The French prime minister has drawn criticism for suggesting that naked breasts are more representative of France than a headscarf, in the latest flare-up of the bitter political row over the burkini.
Manuel Valls, who clashed with France’s education minister over his support for mayors who have banned full-body swimsuits from beaches, gave a rousing speech on Monday night in which he hailed the bare breasts of Marianne, a national symbol of the French Republic.
“Marianne has a naked breast because she is feeding the people! She is not veiled, because she is free! That is the republic!” he thundered at a government rally. ...
Mathilde Larrere, a historian of the French revolution and French citizenship, tweeted: “Marianne has a naked breast because it’s an allegory, you cretin!” She then explained in a long series of tweets that images of Marianne with a naked breast harked back to classical allusions.
The UN has called on French beach resorts to lift their bans on the burkini, labelling them a “stupid reaction” that did not improve security but fuelled religious intolerance and the stigmatisation of Muslims, especially women.
Ireland's Outrage Over EU's Apple Ruling Reveals Fraudulent Global Tax System
Progressives worldwide are celebrating a whopping $14 billion tax bill slapped on Apple, Inc., by the EU for the multinational's evasive tax practices in Ireland—so why is the Irish government up in arms about the windfall?
The European Commission on Tuesday issued a sweeping ruling against Apple, Inc., demanding that the company pay Ireland $14 billion in back-taxes. The commission found Ireland's tax levy on the multinational company a "sweetheart deal" that amounted to illegal state aid under European policy.
Consumer advocates and corporate watchdogs cheered the ruling, arguing that absurdly lenient corporate taxes amount to nothing less than fraud on middle-class taxpayers who are not granted such allowances and must pay their fair share.
Yet both Apple and Ireland are appealing the decision, and the U.S. Treasury Department has been warning Europe since last week to avoid levying a massive tax bill on Apple or to be prepared to face unspecified "potential responses" from the United States.
Facebook fires trending team, and algorithm without humans goes crazy
Just months after the discovery that Facebook’s “trending” news module was curated and tweaked by human beings, the company has eliminated its editors and left the algorithm to do its job. The results, so far, are a disaster.
Facebook announced late Friday that it had eliminated jobs in its trending module, the part of its news division where staff curated popular news for Facebook users. Over the weekend, the fully automated Facebook trending module pushed out a false story about Fox News host Megyn Kelly, a controversial piece about a comedian’s four-letter word attack on rightwing pundit Ann Coulter, and links to an article about a video of a man masturbating with a McDonald’s chicken sandwich. ...
A source familiar with the matter told the Guardian that the trending team was fired without notice in a meeting with a security guard present. The ex-employees received four weeks’ severance.
In May, the Guardian published the guidelines used by Facebook’s Trending module team after Gizmodo revealed that the module was in fact curated by humans. The revelation fuelled accusations of potential bias at the social network, which has become the world’s largest distributor of news.
France demands an end to TTIP talks
France’s trade minister has increased the pressure on the proposed EU-US trade deal by calling for the talks to be called off.
Matthias Fekl, the French minister for foreign trade, tweeted that his government demanded negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) should cease.
François Hollande, the French president, also raised doubts about TTIP and said France would not support a deal this year.
In a speech to French ambassadors, Hollande said: “The negotiations are bogged down, positions have not been respected, it’s clearly unbalanced.” He said he would withhold support from any agreement reached before the end of Barack Obama’s presidency in January.
France has been sceptical about TTIP from the start and has threatened to block the deal, arguing the US has offered little in return for concessions made by Europe. All 28 EU member states and the European parliament will have to ratify before it comes into force.
Could the Presidential Election Be Hacked? FBI "Flash" Alert Urges States to Bolster Security
Maine’s “Instant Runoff” Proposal Could Banish Its Governor From State Politics
Maine's colorful governor, http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2016/08/26/gov-paul-lepage-leaves-ob...
http://www.pressherald.com/2016/08/26/house-democrats-condemn-lepage-att...LePage’s antics have left many people outside Maine wondering how the bland, sensible state ever elected him. The answer’s straightforward: LePage has never needed a majority of Maine’s votes to win. Maine has a standard first-past-the-post voting system plus a strong tradition of third parties and politicians running as independents. With multiple candidates running against LePage during his two races for governor, he was able to squeak into office both times with just a plurality of votes.
But everything about Maine politics may change this November. Partly in reaction to LePage’s victories, activists have put Question 5 on the ballot, an initiative that would create what is called a “ranked choice” or “instant runoff” voting system for all state-level races. If Maine votes yes on Question 5, it would mean that no one could be elected to state-level office in Maine — meaning governor, U.S. senator and representative, and state senator and representative — without the support of a majority of voters.
Hillary Clinton, the Podesta Group and the Saudi Regime: A Fatal Ménage à Trois
If I told you that Democratic Party lobbyist Tony Podesta, whose brother John Podesta chairs Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, is a registered foreign agent on the Saudi government’s payroll, you’d probably think I was a Trump-thumping, conspiratorial nutcase. But it’s true.
The lobby firm created by both Tony and John Podesta in 1988 receives $140,000 a month from the Saudi government, a government that beheads nonviolent dissidents, uses torture to extract forced confessions, doesn’t allow women to drive, and bombs schools, hospitals and residential neighborhoods in neighboring Yemen.
The Podesta Group’s March 2016 filing, required under the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, shows that Tony Podesta himself oversees the Saudi account. At the same time, Tony Podesta is also a top campaign contributor and bundler for Hillary Clinton. So while one brother runs the campaign, the other brother funds it with earnings that come, in part, from the Saudis. ...
The brothers seem to have no problem mixing their roles into the same pot. Tony Podesta held a Clinton campaign fundraiser at his home featuring gourmet Italian food cooked by himself and his brother, the campaign chairman. The fundraiser, by the way, came just days after Tony Podesta filed his Saudi contract with the Justice Department, a contract that included an initial “project fee” payment of $200,000.
The Podesta-Clinton-Saudi connection should be seen in light of the recent media exposes revealing the tawdry pay-to-play nature of the Clinton Foundation. Top on the list of foreign donors to the foundation is Saudi Arabia, which contributed between $10 million and $25 million.
Corporate Media Casts Fog Over Wikileaks to Protect Clinton
Nasa: Earth is warming at a pace 'unprecedented in 1,000 years'
The planet is warming at a pace not experienced within the past 1,000 years, at least, making it “very unlikely” that the world will stay within a crucial temperature limit agreed by nations just last year, according to Nasa’s top climate scientist.
This year has already seen scorching heat around the world, with the average global temperature peaking at 1.38C above levels experienced in the 19th century, perilously close to the 1.5C limit agreed in the landmark Paris climate accord. July was the warmest month since modern record keeping began in 1880, with each month since October 2015 setting a new high mark for heat.
But Nasa said that records of temperature that go back far further, taken via analysis of ice cores and sediments, suggest that the warming of recent decades is out of step with any period over the past millennium.
“In the last 30 years we’ve really moved into exceptional territory,” Gavin Schmidt, director of Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said. “It’s unprecedented in 1,000 years. There’s no period that has the trend seen in the 20th century in terms of the inclination (of temperatures).”
The Empire Files: Chevron vs. the Amazon
North Dakota oil pipeline protesters stand their ground: 'This is sacred land'
The Cannonball river flows into the mighty Missouri about 50 miles due south of Bismarck, North Dakota.
At its confluence, a protest encampment – really a series of camps, on both sides of the Cannonball, strewn with kitchens and canteens, portable toilets, stabling for horses, sweat lodges and tall teepees, and stands selling indigenous art – has sprung up. ...
Many at the encampment speak of two prophecies, dating back to the 1890s. A leader called Black Elk foretold that in seven generations, the Native American nations will unite to save the Earth; another legend predicted that a zuzeca snake – a black snake – would threaten the world. For many of the protesters here, the pipeline is that black snake. They are the seventh generation: their moment of destiny has come.
The pipeline’s planned route takes it close to the northern boundary of the Standing Rock Sioux reservation and the town of Cannon Ball within it, which means it would cross the Missouri immediately upstream, endangering, protesters say, the reservation’s drinking water and threatening sacred sites. At Standing Rock, they have put their bodies between the water and the oil. ...
The population of the camp ebbs and flows. Many have given up jobs and brought their families here, and a core of between 500 and 1,000 people live here semi-permanently. Some, such as Wiyaca Eagleman, a member of the Sicangu Lakota from Rosebud, South Dakota, have been here since the beginning of April. He plans to be here, he said, “as long as it takes”.
It is an unprecedented gathering. Members of more than 90 Native American nations and tribes have a presence here, according to Eagleman, who has become a sort of unofficial spokesman for the protest camp. Up the road, where the building site was besieged, the flags of many of those nations now fly together. The unity on display here is a dream come true for Eagleman. “There has been no moment like this in history,” he said.
On Saturday, a delegation from the Crow nation arrived from Montana, bearing offerings of firewood and 700lb of buffalo meat. That’s truly historic: the Crow and the Lakota have been enemies for more than a century. They were at war once; the Crow acted as scouts for Gen George Custer. Buffalo meat has powerful symbolic value: a gesture of solidarity and friendship from longtime former foes.
A massive luxury cruise is now sailing through the Arctic
Thanks to climate change, a giant cruise ship is charging through the once-unnavigable Northwest Passage, bringing an unprecedented number of tourists to remote Arctic communities for the first time.
After slipping through the Dolphin Straight—a dangerous and narrow channel that has only been charted in recent decades—the Crystal Serenity cruise ship docked on Monday in Cambridge Bay, a hamlet of about 1,500 people in Canada's Nunavut territory, where hundreds of eager tourists were shuttled to shore.
Groups of 200 people swarmed the hamlet on the hour, every hour, throughout the day, taking photos, asking questions, watching drum dances and buying souvenirs, according to a stressed-out staffer at the Arctic Coast Visitors Centre. The cruisers paid between $22,000 and $120,000 for cabins on board the ship.
While the cruise ship—the largest ever to navigate the treacherous passage—has been welcomed by local politicians touting its economic benefits, climate scientists and environmental groups have hailed it as a harbinger of a rapidly melting Arctic, and say it will encourage fleets of cruises to follow.
The unforgiving Northwest Passage, which famously defeated the British Franklin expedition in the 1840s, leading to the deaths of 129 men including their captain Sir John Franklin, is now a shortcut for ships seeking to cross North America, and saw its first ice-free summer in 2007. Since then, cruise companies have eyed the channel for its tourism potential.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Prosecution of Financial Crisis Fraud Ends With a Whimper
Why Washington Is Addicted to Perpetual War
Palestine’s latest evictions are a human rights crisis – world leaders must act
Dramatic photos show refugees fleeing Libya being rescued at sea
At a Time of Political Darkness in America, Our Whistleblowers and Activists Give Us Reason to Hope
A Little Night Music
Little Smokey Smothers - 43rd Street Blues
Little Smokey Smothers - I Need Love So Bad
Little Smokey Smothers - I Better Go Now
Elvin Bishop & Little Smokey Smothers - That's My Partner!
Little Smokey Smothers - You Don't Love Me
Little Smokey Smothers - Sweet Little Angel
Little Smokey Smothers + Elvin Bishop - Roll Your Moneymaker
Little Smokey Smothers - Days Are Dark
Comments
endless war
and we can sell arms to them all. That's probably what Obomber and Erdogan are meeting about.
The media has gone to hell. No one is even question the invasion of Syria by Turkey. Guess it's up for grabs since the duly elected president "Must Go". And the world sits by (participating in Olympics) while Dilma is thrown out on a coup orchestrated by the oligarchs. Criminal Senators ruling on the impeachment. And world sits silent... just workers protesting in the street.
(1 min of the protest)
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeJw33z-v58]
(1 more min in other cities) The people are pledging to fight the coup
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ms0qXrUgNaA]
Looks like the best they can hope for is a called election, but the oligarchs will fight that tooth and nail.
Podesta's bro and Huma both have Saudi ties. This is all pretty suspicious.
And cruise ships in the Arctic? I guess Alaska isn't enough.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
evening lookout...
we sell arms to some, give them to others and wait for them to be captured by still others. the middle east will be awash in our weapons large and small for generations.
whoops!
the media is worse than useless.
Yes worse than useless.
But the media conglomerates have lost their grip on the flow of information. Inconvenient truth is leaking out all over the place, most certainly right here as well. The official narrative has got so many holes in it now, it just barely hangs together at all.
native
evening native...
i've been wondering what happens when a society loses its organizing principle narrative, when nobody believes much of anything because there is simply no fully trustworthy source of information. will we become a society of conspiracy theorists? perhaps clusters of people will form into groups based upon their group-accepted narrative.
it could be pretty amusing, though it will likely end in tears.
Good evening joe,
I have been wondering the same thing. I'm hoping that most Americans have enough innate common sense to not get too crazy. For all our faults and differences, we do tend to be a practical lot. And it could be that the various msm narratives are doing as much to create divisions as to unite people. But who knows? The media landscape seems to be taking on a life of its own.
native
Useless
Well it seems things don`t change.
Am I correct when remembering a certain traitor named Petreus who "lost" thousands of arms & ammo to the Iraqis while heading the control aspect of all those arms in Iraq, then after being promoted for his incompetence, to a much more sensitive position in the US government administration, handed top secret note books he was charged with keeping safe, to his mistress writing his autobiography while also being a traitor to his wife. He appeared in full military regalia for his hearings before congress while not being a military officer any longer. He looked just swell in his uniform he had recently dishonored, didn`t he.
I know why I never wanted to join any "uniformed" group, from the boy scouts to a biker gang, nor the church after a very brief stint as an (alter boy).
Me, an alter boy!!! At least I honored my heart & soul then. I was quite young.
But fuck all those war mongering dealers in weapons & the destruction they cause.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2mabTnMHe8
I`m already against the next war
Podesta's bro Tony
has long been a cash machine for DC Democrats. He rakes it in from all over the place, skimming off a goodly portion for himself of course. He's famous for wearing red Prada shoes. What a rebel.
https://www.washingtonian.com/2014/08/11/the-making-and-unmaking-of-a-po...
native
Hey good evening, he says, while I'm having a slightly late
lunch. Good evening to you too, Joe. Good to see allies living up to the usual high standards of inhaminity that we have come to know and love. Thanks for the news and blues.
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 --
evening el...
i hope lunch was good. it getting really hard to tell the difference between our allies and our enemies these days. obama seems to be dealing with it by arming everybody and letting god sort them out.
Great post as usual however dismal
The world is a complete mess and it will get worse thanks to Middle East geopolitics, global warming, population increase and corruption. One data point will be the massive increase in refugees, both political and climate.
Italy rescues 3,000 migrants from Mediterranean as arrivals surge
Maybe an advanced civilization can come and help us;
Space signal detected by Russian radio telescope: Is anybody calling?
The political revolution continues
This article that joe provided
has the video of the rescue of the refugees.
I commented on it down thread.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/29/dramatic-photos-show-refug...
I think that the aliens are watching us on their version of tv and laughing their grey asses off at how stupid the humans are for destroying the only place they have to live on.
I bet it's like dancing with the stars and they place bets on what is the next stupid thing mankind does
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
evening shockwave...
i would be surprised if any advanced civilization would waste its time and resources straightening out mankind's sorry asses. after all, we'd probably try to kill them and steal their stuff as a reward for their generosity.
Well yeah, but they might
want to save the polar bears and whales though. All they'd need to do is just put all the humans in concentration camps for a few hundred years until things get back to normal. Put us all on a vegetarian diet maybe.
native
"Toto, I've a Feeling We're Not in Arkansas Anymore!"
A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma
evening jnh...
good to see that the cartoonists are starting to warm up to hillary as a source of humor.
Hah!
So our Israeli allies admit that
ISISBandar is a "useful tool." I'm sure his name will never show up in one of Huma's emails, it'll be redacted for "national security" reasons. Too bad about Huma's marriage to Weiner though, what's a single Mom to do ? Maybe she can get work with the Podesta Bros. I'm sure they can always use someone who's fluent in Arabic.We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
evening azazello...
i'm sure that the israelis love bandar. he has been so good at inserting jihadis into israel's neighbors, giving israel's good friends in the us government a pretext to destroy them.
It's a menage a trois I tell ya',
Bandar, Bibi and Barack, the Three Stooges of the Apocalypse.
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
what i want to know is...
which one's moe?
Moe?
The one with "Moe" power.
Bandar.
I`m already against the next war
Joe, is the information in this article correct?
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-skeptics/why-washington-addicted-pe...
I thought it was the Syrian rebels that used the sarin gas which they got from the CIA. Which was running weapons out of the Benghazi embassy and had belonged to Gaddafi, according to the articles I have read.
The video of the refugees being rescued by the Italian navy is heartbreaking. Those poor people risking their lives because of what the US and its allies have done to their country so that other can get their hands on those country's resources is a crime against humanity, but most Americans believe that the US is over in the Middle East for humanitarian reasons and to save lives.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/29/dramatic-photos-show-refug...
Just think if we had a functioning media that would report the truth, maybe more people would start protesting these wars instead of cheering them.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
evening snoopy...
well, it's not very rich in detail. he correctly identifies the premise that assad gassed people as the basis for the neocon demand that obama strike syria. it would have been better if he had indicated that the premise was faulty and that evidence that assad had crossed a red line was absent.
but yes, you're correct, robert parry wrote a number of excellent articles about the collapsing case against assad:
That is where I got the information, from Hersh
Here are two links to different articles about the wars in the Middle East, the gas attacks and why and which countries are behind them.
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/10/seymour-hershs-news-report-banned...
http://nsnbc.me/2013/10/07/top-us-and-saudi-officials-responsible-for-ch...
And this one describes how Hillary was complicit in sending the sarin gas to the rebels.
http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2016/04/28/seymour-hersh-hillary-a...
Over one thousand innocent people were heinously murdered so that the US and Saudi Arabia could have an excuse to invade Syria.
Again I can't imagine the psychopathology of people who have no problem with killing innocent civilians in order to further their agendas.
I hope that there is a place in hell for these types of people!
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
heh...
i hope that someone saves them a nice warm spot by the fire.
Joe Shikspack
I`ve been stockpiling flammable shit for a number of years to donate to the stokers of the flames in the lower levels of where these fucks are going to spend their eternity.
I`m already against the next war
Good evening!
White phosphorous bombs in Aleppo.
....
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
evening crider...
i wonder who supplied the willy pete party favors.
I bet it was one of Saudi Arabia, United States or Israel
Israel through a third party, of course. I know they used it in their last Lebanon activity and also, as I recall, against civilians in Gaza. And we used it in Iraq. And just to be sure, I looked it up to confirm that the Saudis have been using it in Yemen.
A regular axis of evil, if you ask me. Maybe an axis of Elvis.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlWZZMGYdBA]
Oh. My. God!
The second video was too painful for me to watch. So no one else needs to, it shows a young child crying after being burned by white phosphorus!
Anyone remember Bush saying that "you are either with us or with the terrorists "?
All the while he knew that members of the House of Saud had financed the terrorists 'responsible' for 9/11!
And the United States has sold them not just jets and other weapons that they are using on Yemen, but also cluster bombs.
And they are refueling Saudi Arabia's jets.
And when the UN wanted to sanction SA, they were told that if they did then SA would quit funding it. And of course the Obama administration backed them up!
This needs to be seen by more people than just on this site and in our comments!
The inhumanity is staggering on what is happening to the people in the Middle East!
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Daily Kos: “Melting the skin off of children (warning: graphic)”
From back in 2005, when there were featured writers at GOS who cared about such things. And such children.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/11/09/163726/-Melting-the-Skin-Off-of...
But that was when Bush was president
Since Obama became president and continued the wars in the Middle East.
And the US is complicit in this because they are refueling Saudi Arabia's jets.
DK hasn't been writing diaries about the horrors of wars. Except for when gjonsit writes one and then very few people comment in them.
Any bets on how many will be written if Hillary becomes president?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Elvis jokes aside
That stuff breaks my heart.
Whiskey Pete
I made this image at the time the US was raining this banned weapon on Falouja during their epic failure of Mission Accomplished.
The flesh burnt off of the bones of a pitiable human. (a sea shell)
The town itself, with the smoking stench of melted flesh. (The Arabic styled buildings from a Camel cigarette pack)
The crackling bolts of death in the pictured sky. (The torment in my heart)
The eyes of the soul of another tortured human. (Mine, since I had to envision their torment, over & over again.)
I`m already against the next war
'Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.'
Thanks for the digest and the tunes!
Dell opened a factory there years ago and I wondered if Eire was giving away the farm for jobs.
Saw today where Apple said it was jobs or taxes. Heh.
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
evening do...
lovely photos!
it sounds like apple is pushing the neoliberal plan to allow the wealthy elites to utterly dodge taxes for the amazing benefit of providing a life of drudgery to a bunch of proles for wages that the governments' men with guns can beat out of them.
The leprechaun wanted a deal with Apple to hire more leprechauns
— The Joy of Tech
Good evening, joe and bluzerz!
Is the question: will things have to utterly disintegrate before they improve?
Thanks for the tunes, tonight. Little Smokey is just the right mood-setter.
Have a beautiful evening, my friends!
"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
Florida primary
With 97% of precincts reporting, Rubio won 72% of Republican senate primary. (He had won only 27% of Republican presidential primary in March.) Wasserman Schultz won only 57% of the Democratic primary for her district.
It would appear that Rubio had a stronger showing than Wasserman Schultz in the Florida primary, or am I looking at this wrong?
Rubio's race was state-wide,
Debbie's was only in fl-23.
But when I checked the dem primary for senate (about 90% of precincts counted), Rubio - the republican incumbent - had more votes than all the votes cast in the democratic primary. My, dems are really excited about Murphy. Grayson got clobbered, but given the the allegations released, that wasn't surprising.
My point being that a 57% win
My point being that a 57% win for an incumbent is not very high is it?
correct, incumbents usually get much higher numbers
we're left to wondering what Canova might have done if Bernie had showed up and campaigned for him. When Canova was asked about Bernie's no-show he said "no comment".
I guess Bernie, too, couldn't find a pair of comfortable shoes to make good on his earlier promise.
Sorry; misunderstood you.
Heya, DO. We saw no Jacanas in Africa (Kenya), but have
enjoyed their antics in Belize and Costa Rica.
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 --
Did you see shoebills?
They're so funny. I'd love to see one.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfUX5dfr3MU]
Hey Joe, thank you for putting the cruise ship story
in the Greens section. The story made me shudder thinking of those ships endangering the Arctic. They drop their pollution, sometimes it's grey water sometimes it's raw sewage into the sea. They drop their recycling off shore in small towns and take tons of clean water from these towns. They run their diesel engines 24 hours a day to maintain the electricity needed for what is actually a floating hotel. What they are doing to the ecosystem up there is unthinkable. The cruise ship industry is the largest in the world. A good review of the damage they do can be found in "Overbooked" a revealing book on the tourist industry.
To thine own self be true.
Obama's Legacy
He not only sold the most arms, he helps those countries use them on civilians. I would call him a War President.
To thine own self be true.
Hi Marilyn W
No, I do not believe it`s taken for granted. The "too busy to care" citizens have been fed the kook-aid of the US being the benevolent caretaker of the planet with GOD on our side.
What could go wrong?!!
I`m already against the next war
I haven't posted at Top in so long, but had to address
the idiotic sudden turn to "conspiracy theory" with this:
Gustogirl aggieric Aug 30 · 11:55:20 PM
What is all this about Russia? No one has offered a scintilla of hard evidence that Russia had anything to do with it, yet the press is going mad to implicate Russia everywhere? It’s innuendo, there is no firm basis nor evidence nor clue that this is Russia. Give me evidence.
What, the brown people in the Middle East aren’t a big enough target for all our MIC weapons that must sooner or later be replaced if our economy must work?
All this Russia crap has the stink of propaganda all over it. If you can’t see that, you lack realism.