The Evening Blues - 8-30-23
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features blues singer, guitarist and keyboard player Lucky Peterson. Enjoy!
Lucky Peterson - Blues In My Blood
"So much empire apologia today is just people pretending not to understand what the word “provoked” means."
-- Caitlin Johnstone
News and Opinion
Always Opposing Past Wars But Never The Present One
A lot of empire sycophancy hides behind the fact that it’s always permissible to retrospectively oppose US wars that already happened, but not the current one. It’s permitted now to say the destruction of Vietnam and Iraq and Libya were mistakes, for example, but if you said it at the time people would treat you like a monster and call you all kinds of names.
And it’s important to understand that this is still happening today. One day it will be permissible to say in mainstream circles that it was wrong for the US empire to deliberately provoke the war in Ukraine and keep it going as long as possible to bleed Russia, but it’s taboo to say that now, because the empire hasn’t yet accomplished all its goals in Ukraine.
They always act like the most recent interventionist disaster was the final one. They always act like the hawks may have been wrong all those other times but they’re not wrong now. And then when they’ve killed everyone they wanted to kill and grabbed everything they wanted to grab and there’s no possibility of losing anything they gained, it will suddenly become permissible to make the present disaster the final one while they assure us the next one is completely righteous.
Ukr Stuck Rabotino, Syrsky Worries Kupiansk, Bakhmut, Ukr Rus Drone Attacks; French Rocked by Gabon
Airbase project could pave way for UK to host US nuclear weapons
The US air force has secured $50m (£39m) funding next year for a project that could pave the way for American nuclear weapons to return to British soil for the first time in more than 15 years.
In justifying the expenditure on a 144-bed dormitory at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk, the USAF told Congress the building was intended to “house the increase in enlisted personnel as the result of the potential surety mission”, which is jargon typically used by the Pentagon to refer to handling of nuclear weapons, according to experts.
Construction of the dormitory is due to begin in June 2024 and last until February 2026, and is the latest in a series of signs that preparations are under way for the possible return of US nuclear weapons to UK territory.
Matt Korda, of the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), who first reported on the budget request, said: “The mention of the arrival of the potential surety mission caught my eye as that is a buzzword, a term commonly used in the defence department and the nuclear weapons complex to refer to the positive control of nuclear weapons in a safe and secure way.”
The FAS previously reported that in the 2023 defence budget, the UK was added to the list of countries where infrastructure investment is under way on “special weapons” storage sites in Europe, alongside Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey. The FAS estimates there are about 100 B61 gravity bombs in storage in those five countries. They were withdrawn from the UK in 2007, but the storage facilities for the bombs were mothballed rather than dismantled.
Tucker Carlson Allegedly IN TALKS To Interview Vladimir Putin: Report
Macron Says France Will Support ECOWAS Military Action in Niger
French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday said that his country would support a military intervention in Niger to reinstate President Mohamed Bazoum, who was ousted in a July 26 coup.
“We support the diplomatic action, and when it decides to do so militarily, of ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States), in a partnership approach,” the French leader said, according to Africa News.
Since Bazoum was ousted in a July 26 coup, ECOWAS has been threatening military action if he is not reinstated through a diplomatic solution. The junta, led by Gen. Abdourahamane Tchiani, has shown no sign that it will release Bazoum and is preparing for an ECOWAS attack.
Only Idiots Believe The US Is Protecting Australia From China
The Economist has taken a keen interest in Australia lately, which if you know anything about The Economist is something you never want to see happen to your country. Two articles published in the last few days by the notorious propaganda outlet have celebrated the fact that Australia appears to be the most likely nation to follow the United States into a hot war with China as it enmeshes itself further and further with the US war machine.
In “How Joe Biden is transforming America’s Asian alliances,” The Economist writes the following:
“Meanwhile, the ‘unbreakable’ defence relationship with Australia is deepening, following the AUKUS agreement struck in March, amid a flurry of equipment deals and military exercises. Should war break out with China, the Aussies seem the most willing to fight at America’s side. Australian land, sea and air bases are expanding to receive more American forces. Under the AUKUS deal, Australia is gaining its own long-range weapons, such as nuclear-powered (but not nuclear-armed) submarines to be developed jointly with America and Britain. The three partners want to work on other military technologies, from hypersonic missiles to underwater drones.
“Taken together the ‘latticework’ of security agreements, shows how America’s long-heralded pivot to Asia is accelerating.”
In “Australia is becoming America’s military launch-pad into Asia,” The Economist elaborates upon this war partnership with tumescent enthusiasm, calling it a “mateship” and likening it to a “marriage”, and calling for a rollback of US restrictions on sharing military technology with Australia.
“If America ever goes to war with China, American officials say the Aussies would be the likeliest allies to be fighting with them,” The Economist gushes, adding, “Australia’s geographical advantage is that it lies in what strategists call a Goldilocks zone: well-placed to help America to project power into Asia, but beyond the range of most of China’s weapons. It is also large, which helps America scatter its forces to avoid giving China easy targets.”
The Economist cites White House “Asia Tsar” Kurt Campbell reportedly saying of Australia, “We have them locked in now for the next 40 years.”
“Equally, though, Australia may have America locked in for the same duration,” The Economist hastens to add.
Well gosh, that’s a relief.
“How the world sees us,” tweeted former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr when sharing the Economist article.
“Historians will be absolutely baffled by what’s happening in Australia right now: normally countries never voluntarily relinquish their sovereignty and worsen their own security position out of their own accord. They normally have to lose a war and be forced to do so,” commentator Arnaud Bertrand added to Carr’s quip.
As much as it pains me to admit it, The Economist is absolutely correct. The Australian government has been showing every indication that it is fully willing to charge into a hot war with its top trading partner to please its masters in Washington, both before and after the US puppet regime in Canberra changed hands last year.
This sycophantic war-readiness was humorously mocked on Chinese state media back in 2021 by Impact Asia Capital co-founder Charles Liu, who said he didn’t think the US will actually fight a war with China over Taiwan, but the Australians might be stupid enough to fight it for them.
“US is not going to fight over Taiwan,” Liu said. “It’s not going to conduct a war over Taiwan. They may try to get Japanese to do it, but Japanese won’t be so stupid to do it. The only stupid ones who might get involved are the Australians, sorry.”
He had nothing to be sorry about; he was right. Australians are being very, very stupid, and not just our government. A recent Lowy Institute poll found that eight in ten Australians believe the nation’s alliance with the United States is important for Australia’s security, despite three-quarters also saying they believe the alliance makes Australia more likely to be drawn into a war in Asia.
That’s just plain stupid. A war with China is the absolute worst case security scenario for Australia; anything that makes war with China more likely is making us less secure. Making bad decisions which hurt your own interests is what stupid people do.
That’s not to say Australians are naturally dimwitted; we’re actually pretty clever as far as populations go. What’s making us stupid in this case is the fact that our nation has the most concentrated media ownership in the western world, a massive chunk of which is owned by longtime US empire asset Rupert Murdoch. This propaganda-conducive information environment has been distorting Australia’s understanding of the world so pervasively in recent years that on more than one occasion I’ve had total strangers start babbling at me about the dangers of China completely out of nowhere within minutes of striking up conversation with them.
This artificially manipulated information ecosystem has made Australians so pants-on-head idiotic that they think the US empire is filling their country up with war machinery because it loves them and wants to protect them from the Chinese. That’s as stupid as it gets.
The single biggest lie being circulated in Australia right now is that our government is militarising against China as a defensive measure. China has literally zero history of invading and occupying countries on the other side of the planet. You know who does have a very extensive history of doing that? The United States. The military superpower that Australia’s military is becoming increasingly intertwined with. The belief that we’re intertwining ourselves with the world’s most aggressive, destructive and war-horny military force as a defensive measure to protect ourselves against that military force’s top rival (who hasn’t dropped a bomb in decades) is transparently false, and only a complete idiot would believe it.
We’re not militarising to defend ourselves against a future attack by China, we’re militarising in preparation for a future US-led attack on the Chinese military. We’re militarising in preparation to involve ourselves in an unresolved civil war between Chinese people that has nothing to do with us. China has been sorting out its own affairs for millennia and has managed to do so just fine without the help of white people running in firing military explosives at them, and Taiwan is no exception.
The imperial media talk nonstop about how the People’s Republic of China is preparing to seize control of Taiwan using military force, without ever mentioning the fact that that’s exactly what the US empire is doing. The US empire is preparing to wrest Taiwan away from China to facilitate its long-term agenda to balkanize, weaken and subjugate its top rival.
Only a complete blithering imbecile would believe any part of this is being done defensively. It’s being done to secure unipolar planetary domination for the world’s most powerful and destructive government, and only an absolute moron would agree to risk their own country’s security and economic interests to help facilitate it.
Biden vs. Big Pharma: Medicare to Begin Negotiations to Lower Price of 10 Costly Drugs & Insulin
Biden names 10 drugs for first negotiations to cut Medicare prices
The Biden administration has selected 10 drugs for the first round of price negotiations between Medicare and pharmaceutical companies in an effort to lower costs for seniors, it announced on Tuesday. The list of prescription drugs includes blood thinners and treatments for diabetes, as well as drugs used to treat kidney disease, heart failure and arthritis. Millions of older Americans depend on these drugs – many taken daily – each year, and the negotiations are intended to reduce the financial burden for Medicare beneficiaries.
“When implemented, prices on negotiated drugs will decrease for up to 9 million seniors. These seniors currently pay up to $6,497 in out-of-pocket costs per year for these prescriptions,” Joe Biden said in a statement on Tuesday.
But the negotiations have been met with opposition from the pharmaceutical industry, saying they are unconstitutional. A handful of the most powerful and profitable drugmakers are suing the Biden administration over the cost-reduction program, which was installed through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and gives Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices.
The pharmaceutical giant Merck, maker of Januvia, a prescription pill that helps lower blood sugar in adult patients with type 2 diabetes, became the first to sue the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) over the program in June. Merck said the negotiation program violates the first and fifth amendments to the US constitution, saying the administration was forcing companies to “legitimize government extortion” by forcing them to agree to prices dictated by HHS, according to a complaint filed in a DC federal court.
Gov’t Installs BLACK FENCING Encircling Lahaina!
Ohio Republicans accused of trying to mislead voters with abortion ballot wording
Abortion rights advocates in Ohio filed a lawsuit on Monday, claiming that state Republican leaders are trying to confuse voters on a ballot measure about access to reproductive healthcare.
Last week, the Ohio ballot board – led by the Republican secretary of state, Frank LaRose – approved the wording of Issue 1, a November ballot measure that will ask voters if the state constitution should guarantee a right to abortion, contraception, fertility treatment and miscarriage care.
The new lawsuit accuses the ballot board’s Republican majority of presenting voters with a confusing summary of Issue 1 in an attempt “to mislead Ohioans and persuade them to oppose the amendment”. According to the lawsuit filed with the Ohio supreme court, the ballot board was asked to “put the clear, simple 194-word text of the Amendment itself on the ballot, so that voters could see exactly what they were being asked to approve”.
Instead, the board approved a summary of the amendment that is longer than the amendment itself, replacing the term “fetus” with “unborn child”. The summary also does not mention the other forms of reproductive healthcare guaranteed by the amendment, like access to contraception and fertility treatments.
The summary does not change the content of the constitutional amendment itself, but abortion rights advocates worry that it will mislead voters at the ballot box, dissuading Ohioans from supporting Issue 1.
MTG Says Kevin McCarthy Ready To IMPEACH Biden
Shokin returns. Biden impeachment inquiry gains momentum
Biden privately admitted feeling ‘tired’ amid concerns about his age, book says
Amid relentless debate about whether at 80 Joe Biden is too old to be president or to complete an effective second term, an eagerly awaited book on his time in the White House reports that Biden has privately admitted to feeling “tired”, even as it describes his vast political experience as a vital asset.
“His advanced years were a hindrance, depriving him of the energy to cast a robust public presence or the ability to easily conjure a name,” Franklin Foer writes in The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden’s White House and the Struggle for America’s Future.
“It was striking that he took so few morning meetings or presided over so few public events before 10am. His public persona reflected physical decline and time’s dulling of mental faculties that no pill or exercise regime can resist.
“In private, he would occasionally admit that he felt tired.”
Foer does not cite a source for Biden’s reported private remarks but his book, according to its publisher, Penguin Random House, is based on “unparalleled access to the tight inner circle of advisers who have surrounded Biden for decades”.
“Joe & Hunter Biden Were Being Bribed!” – Says Ukrainian Prosecutor
Biden FAKE NAMES Possibly Linked To 5K Emails In Nat'l Archives Possession: Lawsuit Alleges
Complying With Right-Wing Supreme Court, Biden EPA Guts Wetland Protections
Under a U.S. Supreme Court ruling condemned by clean water advocates earlier this year, the Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday announced a revised rule that could clear the way for up to 63% of the country's wetlands to lose protections that have been in place nearly half a century under the Clean Water Act.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan said he had been "disappointed" by the 5-4 decision handed down in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency in May, but he was obligated under the ruling to issue a final rule changing the agency's definition of "waters of the United States."
As Common Dreams reported, the high court ruled in May that the Clean Water Act protects waters and wetlands that have a "continuous surface connection to bodies that are waters of the United States in their own rights," such as major rivers and coastlines.
Prior to the ruling, the Clean Water Act protected wetlands as long as they had a "significant nexus" to regulated waters, but the EPA rule removes that test from consideration when determining if a waterway should be protected. The rule will leave streams and tributaries—and the communities adjacent to them—without protections from pollution that can be caused by housing and business development, mining, pipeline construction, and a number of industries.
The ruling and resulting EPA rule reflected "the Supreme Court's disturbing pattern of striking down environmental regulations to serve industry interests," said environmental law group Earthjustice on Tuesday.
An EPA official toldThe Washington Post that an estimated 1.2 million to 4.9 million miles of ephemeral streams across the U.S. would immediately lose protections now that the final rule has been issued.
Blow to Biden as offshore wind auction in Gulf of Mexico fails to stir interest
The Biden administration on Tuesday held the first ever auction for the right to develop offshore wind in the Gulf of Mexico, with just one of the three available leases provisionally awarded and only two bidders.
The historic sale fell on the anniversaries of 2005’s Hurricane Katrina and 2021’s Hurricane Ida, climate crisis-fueled disasters that devastated Gulf communities. It also comes the day after the Gulf cities of New Orleans and Houston saw their hottest temperatures in recorded history, and as the largest wildfire in state history ravages Louisiana.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management held auctions on one lease area off the coast of Lake Charles, Louisiana, and two others off the coast of Galveston, Texas, which together have the capacity to power almost 1.3m homes. Last month, officials said the sale would show that the Gulf – currently the nation’s primary source of offshore oil and gas – can become a key player in a new green economy.
But the result was anti-climatic, with neither of the two lease areas off the Texas coast receiving bids. The German developer RWE was provisionally awarded the third area off Louisiana, beating out just one other bidder.
Several factors may have put a damper on developer interest, the newsletter Heatmap reported last week. Gulf wind speeds are often lower than other coastal areas’, requiring the use of specific turbines for which a robust supply chain must be developed. No Gulf states’ energy policies specifically require the use of offshore wind. And analysts say building out offshore wind in the Gulf will be more expensive than in the north-east, making it harder for wind projects to compete in local energy markets, where existing energy prices are lower.
Florida Slammed By MASSIVE Hurricane Idalia
Greece wildfire declared largest ever recorded in EU
A forest blaze in Greece is the largest wildfire ever recorded in the EU and the bloc is mobilising nearly half its firefighting air wing to tackle it, a European Commission spokesperson has said.
Eleven planes and a helicopter from the EU fleet have been sent to help extinguish the fire north of the city of Alexandroupoli, along with 407 firefighters, Balazs Ujvari said on Tuesday.
The EU’s civil protection service said the fire had burned more than 310 sq miles (810 sq km) – an area bigger than New York City.
“This wildfire is the largest in the EU since 2000, when the European Forest Fire Information System (Effis) began recording data,” the service said.
Greece’s fire service said the blaze was “still out of control” in the north-east region’s Dadia national park, a vital sanctuary for birds of prey.
After two climate-decimated harvests, southern peach farmers wonder how to regroup
Farming is inherently risky, a profession that always involves an expectation of loss and damage. But among many farmers, peaches are considered an unpredictable crop, with high risks and high rewards. ...
That’s been the case for many South Carolina growers, who produce more of the fruit than the neighboring “Peach State”, Georgia. This year, a late freeze destroyed about 70% of the state’s harvest. This year’s disaster followed the previous year’s disruption, another freeze that put a major dent in peach growers’ pockets and prospects. As southern peach season draws to a close, farmers worry that climate change threatens the long-term survival of an industry that is an economic powerhouse and deeply tied to regional identity. ...
Peaches are notoriously difficult to farm, both labor-intensive and sensitive to minor fluctuations in weather. During the fall and winter, peach trees enter a dormant period. Depending on the variety, the tree needs a specific number of “chilling” hours during this time – basically, hours spent at temperatures between 32 and 45F. During this season, peach trees are pretty hardy and resilient to freezes. Once the weather warms, the trees begin flowering and eventually producing fruit. But, at that point, the tree and its fruits are a lot more vulnerable to cold and destructive weather, such as hail.
“This year is probably the worst year in my 38 years of working,” said Dr Gregory Rieghard, professor of horticulture and member of the Peach Breeding Lab at Clemson University. He estimated that Georgia lost even more of its crop than South Carolina, keeping only 5% of its peaches.
Rieghard said climate change is jeopardizing peach growing. “What people don’t realize is that when you have warmer temperatures in the Pacific, that warmth moves towards the Arctic and displaces the cold air that is there and pushes it down into North America. So we have an increased risk of these late freezes due to polar vortexes.” Frequent late spring freezes combine with warmer winters and irregular rainfall to make a perfect storm for crop destruction. As global temperatures rise, peach trees are not always getting those necessary “chilling” hours. Warmer air also holds more moisture. It might rain less frequently, but when it does rain, there often is a lot more of it. Both drought and torrential downpours can wreck a season.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
US Victim of Own Propaganda in Ukraine War
Ukraine SitRep: Topography Shapes The Battle Field - Abysmal Medical Service Causes Death
India, a Reluctant BRICS Traveler
Craig Murray: Destitution Capitalism
Noam Chomsky: Humanity Imperiled
Deadly buoys, razor wires, armed guards: Greg Abbott is fixated on keeping migrants out
FBI Collecting Americans' DNA At Same Rate As CHINA, Budget EXPANDING To Add To 21M+ Samples
Rachel Maddow Prematurely FREAKS At Possibility Of Trump Winning In 2024
A Little Night Music
Lucky Peterson - Smooth Sailing
Lucky Peterson - Who's Been Talkin
Lucky Peterson - Six O'Clock Blues
Lucky Peterson - Tin Pan Alley
Lucky Peterson - I'm Ready
Lucky Peterson - Funky Ray
Lucky Peterson - I'm Talking To You
Wynton Marsalis Quintet with Lucky Peterson - C.C. Rider
Lucky Peterson - It Ain't Right
Comments
Good evening bluesters
Enjoy the CC Rider tune, thanks.
Wondering why any country, in their saner thoughts, would play host to nuclear
weapons. Brits may not see the inherent danger, but Belgium, Germany, Italy,
the Netherlands and Turkey must realize the noose is tightening by now?
Here sucker, hold this while I run across the street. Of course Japan wants some of
that action too. Crazy man.
evening qms...
they never seem to ask, "say, what is that thing with concentric circles that you are putting on my back?"
Thanks for the EB's Joe!!
Regarding Tucker and Putin, it appears as if the NSA is
keeping tabs on him
And another ex French colony goes rogue
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/military-seizes-power-opec-nation...
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
anti-colonial sentiments are running high
in the African continent. Good for them. Time to shake off the yoke.
And the NSA has what control over journalists?
Oops, don't ask Julian.
evening ggersh...
yep, but freedom of the press, why that's sacred in our democracy. (snort)
Tucker might be off his meds --
today he resurrected Larry Sinclair, repeated Sinclair's allegations, and Tucker totally believes the allegations,
So Carlson is mentally I’ll?
Or do you mean that his diabetes is out of control? And what are you basing your opinion on?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
I rarely watch interview videos
but if Carlson snags Putin I will watch it. I still haven’t watched Oliver Stone’s interview with Putin, but have read some transcripts from it. Heh…looks like whoever wanted Carlson fired to shut him up didn’t think about all the other venues he has to get his work out. First up though is Ukraine on fire.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Is the fat lady warming up in the wings?
.
Larry Johnson explains what the recent leaks mean.
I’ve read that there are 2 different military factions that have opposing views on the Ukraine war.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
I wonder about this report, too
Increasing Evidence That The US Air Force’s Nuclear Mission May Be Returning To UK Soil FAS 8.23
https://fas.org/publication/increasing-evidence-that-the-us-air-forces-n...
語必忠信 行必正直
I read that this is going to cost $50 million
Again isn’t it weird that government can find a few million here and a few billion there, but can’t afford to keep millions of poor people on food stamps or Medicaid or find a few million from an accounting error to fix homelessness?
But speaking of money. I’m in the process of settling out my worker’s comp case and found that the insurance company has spent over a million dollars on my medical treatment. Wowzer but that’s a lot of money. They could have saved 99% of the money if they had decided to treat me from the beginning. I worked for 8 months after my injury and kept getting worse until my doctor took me off work and then the games began. She would recommend a treatment, they would deny it and off to court we went. The judge ruled in my favor, they refused to do and off to court we went again. She would recommend something else, they would deny it and off to court we went again. This went on for 5 years while I was getting paid to sit at home. And get this. If Arnold hadn’t done away with penalties against the insurance companies I would have received 10% of the total cost of treatment. That’s a fcking big chunk of change I lost out on because Arnold changed the rules and gave the insurance companies everything they asked for.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Sorry to hear that
I really dislike insurers. Workers comp is the worst because it obviously affects health and well being directly. Sorry to hear that you had to go round and round with them. I really don't like the business.
We had to fight the health care insurance co more recently, because a medication a family member needed was so expensive they didn't want to pay for it. Every time the script needed renewal it became an issue. Fortunately after a couple of years of that, the medication went generic, and voila the price dropped to a small fraction of its former price. The problem was resolved only by luck.
I saw my niece once for the first time in years at a family event some time ago. I knew she had become a lawyer. She was working for some big deal insurance defense firm in the northeast. I told her I found insurance defense lawyers loathsome and that they were the bad guys. Later I learned when she returned home, she quit that job. I understand that she was much happier working at a clerk of court office.
Oh one last thing, in Florida DeSantis and the legislature did away with awarding costs and fees to plaintiffs who prevailed in insurance litigation. Who could vote for an Alpha Hotel like that?
Wish you the best Snoopydawg.
語必忠信 行必正直
Good for you waking up your niece!
Glad to hear that she is happier now after quitting working for the insurance company. I too find defense lawyers working for insurance companies just to keep people from getting what they deserve. I also wonder how much money it cost my WC insurance to follow me and see if I was faking my injury. What kind of person would enjoy doing that? Give her my kudos.
I have been walking since the 80's and even after I got hurt I continued walking just so I wouldn’t get worse. My lawyer called one day to inform me that they had tape of my walk. Of course I was scared because a lot could be riding on what they found. Lol it was during winter and I was covered with a hat and scarf over my face and even I couldn’t tell that it was me. Plus a lot of it was from a distance. I use a walking stick instead of a cane because I think it makes me look less vulnerable and I wouldn’t have recognized myself if I didn’t see my stick. The video showed me walking with a limp and some of the video showed the butt of the lady walking behind me. It wasn’t tiny… who films someone with another person in the way? But how much did that cost them?
I’m sure that you know how much time is wasted every day for doctors having to authorize drugs or treatments to someone who doesn’t have any knowledge of the disease being treated? Offices have to hire an extra person just to talk to insurance companies. We had to get authorization for emergency treatment for eye disorders and one day my doctor lost it. He asked how someone with no medical knowledge could tell him what was an emergency or not and especially when he had to explain the disorder and treatment. He said it’s like a 1st grader grading a college student’s work.
That was one of the only ways to hold insurance companies accountable for denying treatment. Arnold ran on WC reform and promised that he would put the injured workers first. Then he gave them everything they wanted and told the workers to go to hell. My case is almost 26 years old and the scam has gotten much worse. My lawyer said that now if they deny a request there is no more option to go to court to get it reversed. The only reason why WC insurance exists in the first place is so that people injured at work can’t sue the company for damages. Now everyone has to see the doctor hired by the insurance company and if you walk in with an amputated arm you will be told that it’s just a sprain and take some aspirin and report for duty tomorrow. Exaggerating a bit, but you get the drift.
Thank you. It will be nice to get away from them and if my doctor wants something I can get it done. My case number is…-666-…. and it’s definitely been the case from hell! Pssst a word of advice. If you get hurt at work don’t report it to WC. Go through your regular insurance and tell them you got injured at home. I didn’t think that it could get worse. It has and much so,
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Many years ago,
Texas made it illegal for worker's comp lawyers to get their fees on a percentage basis, like personal injury lawyers do.
That meant working for hourly rates for people with no income. It killed off worker's comp attorneys.
I do not even know any worker's comp lawyers now, and they are few and between.
Some of the most successful personal injury/medical malpractice lawyers in the state began their careers as insurance defense attorneys. Then, they would quit, become plaintiff's attorneys. They had insider knowledge on how to beat the insurance companies.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Just one more effing system that has been rigged against us
Whoever makes the rules that screws we the people have taken bribes to do it. As you can see Arnold got bribed to screw me out of $100,000. The insurance company’s malfeasances cost me my career and so much more. I put a lot of time and effort into teaching myself how to become an ophthalmic photographer and to understand how the eye and specifically the retina worked only to lose it in an instant. I could have let the patient fall. I didn’t.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
The screwing for people in need got worse.
Lawyers could not advertise in the 80s and 90s in Texas. The rules on advertising were extremely regulated and costly. So the big personal injury, workers comp, and medical malpractice attorneys depended on local attorneys to send them clients. If a local asked me for a referral, the attorney had to split the contingency fees for the case with me.
When Shrub Bush became governor, he signed a law that referring attorneys either had to join into the suit, or report hours spent for hourly wage. Now, how many hours do you think a hot shot pi lawyer would need from some small town family lawyer? Why would a family lawyer go into depositions and trial in a tort case they never tried before?
After Bush, the trend to push do it yourself family law cases and probate cases, make every headache and obstacle possible for small law firms or solo practitioners to go bankrupt, in favor of big corporate law firms, has driven many of my friends and colleagues out of the profession.
I work because I enjoy it. I do not have to let the patient fall, so to speak. The past 3 administrations in DC have raised my taxes. I literally work to support my secretary, her 2 kids, and have money to go on trips.
I am glad everything I own is paid for, and that I am old.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
I actually had a patient that was going to fall
I could have let him and I would still be working. Instead I helped him so he wouldn’t and I lost too damn much.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
evening snoopy...
i'd say that it's more like the fat lady has almost chewed her way through the gag that various entities have placed in her mouth.
HEY!……
Warn us before you make remarks like this. I just got done cleaning my iPad screen.
But that is so aptly said.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
heh...
sorry. (sort of)
Walking Tall
For some reason that stupid Reagan phrase came to mind.
Japan and South Korea should be invited to join Aukus, UK parliamentary committee says
Guardian Aug 29
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/30/aukus-alliance-australia-u...
UK should take China to task on human rights and Taiwan, MPs say
Foreign select committee report published as foreign secretary, James Cleverly, travels to Beijing
Guardian Aug 30
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/aug/30/uk-should-take-china-to...
Then there is the FAS article about the US possibly shipping nukes to RAF Lakenheath. I find the shipment of more tactical nukes to Europe alarming especially B61-12s which are a bunker buster I believe. Even if the story is wrong, it seems like some sort of psy op. How many B-61s does one need to start a nuclear war?
https://fas.org/publication/increasing-evidence-that-the-us-air-forces-n...
Was there ever doubt how North Korea would respond to the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises?
North Korea launches ballistic missiles toward the sea after US flies bombers during drills
AP Aug 30
https://apnews.com/article/north-korea-missile-launch-us-drills-1351d005...
Thanks for the Blues and news Joe!
語必忠信 行必正直
evening soryang...
heh, it'd not as if the uk has the moral authority to press anyone about human rights abuses.
those neocons sure do want to get their war on and their flunkies in governments abroad seem to be singing from the hymnal, so maybe they'll get it. it was nice being here before the nuclear winter.
Good evening Joe, thanks for the Evening Blues.
I see where Pharma is alleging that being subject to price negotiations violates the first and fifth. It seems superficial that they don't have to sell at all, but, whatever. Always willing to provide a public service, here they are:
I guess they are admitting that profit maximization is a religion and that the process interferes with it (1st) and that negotiated prices are a taking (5th), even though haggling with the SSA seems to me to be a determination of just compensation. Of course IANAL, so maybe otc and Soryang can figger it out.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
evening el...
i don't see how a reasonable person could determine that negotiating over the price of a commodity amounts to a taking under the 5th amendment. if it is so deemed by, say, the scrotus, i would imagine a president with cojones might have some other remedies available.
El, can't figure out their 1st Am claim.
Right to speak in false advertising and fake pricing terms? Scratching my head.
As for the 5th Am., applying to criminal proceedings only (silence protecting against self-incrimination) , did Big Pharma just admit they are crooks?
Take good care, El.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Anyone else having trouble embedding tweets
I keep getting an error message saying that either the tweet was deleted or taken private. I tried 10 different accounts and same message. Twitter glitch?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Lots of mentions
of Tucker, but I haven't seen this one mentioned here: Carlson believes the US will instigate a direct war w Russia in the next year. His thesis: the Biden admin will see a precarious economy leading up to election time. People will not be at all keen to go another grueling round of covid shenanigans and vaccine mandates.
Biden will need something to galvanize the public into supporting him. A war w Russia would do the job. Probably via a false flag event attacking another EU country and blaming it on Russia. We have no choice but to go to our ally's defense. (me: It would probably have to be a major EU country to get people here roused. Not Lithuania. Maybe not even Poland.)
I can't disagree with any of his thinking.
evening wokkamile...
i won't disagree with carlson that starting a hot war with russia is a possibility for the biden admin and the neocons. there's certainly a lot of interest in that and it would be foolish to rule out that intention as a possibility.
Great ebs, joe!
Maddow is a nut.
Good night, sleep tight.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
evening otc...
thanks! i am just about to crawl off to bed, sleeping should be no problem.
Caitlin on McConnell
.
Mitch McConnell froze up in public again, the second such incident in the last few weeks.
He just stood there silently — a gentle, childlike smile flickering across his face, probably for the first time since the Truman administration.
In that moment, while Mitch McConnell’s dying brain struggled and failed to make sense of its present reality, all the dourness was gone from his face. All the downward gravitational pull from a lifetime in the DC swamp. All the seriousness. All the scheming. All the warmongering, tyranny and abusiveness.
In that moment of amnesiac innocence, you’d never be able to tell from looking at Mitch McConnell how many people he’s helped kill. How much suffering he’s helped cause. How much health and thriving he’s frozen out of humanity in his joyless facilitation of corporate dystopia.
All you’d see is a man. A cute, harmless, befuddled old man. All the dark, dense, contracted energy gone from his form in a sweet tender moment of intimate indivisibility.
Capitol Hill is where warmongers and principles go to die. It’s an assisted living facility for psychopaths — a nursing home where people who receive sexual gratification from dropping military explosives on foreigners go to wait for their decomposition. The whole place smells like night terrors and urine.
Capitol Hill is gerontocratic command center where miserable octogenarians in wheelchairs and adult diapers keep pulling the levers of ecocide and nuclear brinkmanship like retirees at a Vegas slot machine as a final fuck you to younger generations who are still capable of enjoying life on this planet. It’s where they warehouse souls too atrophied and mummified to take a stand against the empire in order to give Americans the illusion of living in a democracy.
Joe Biden called McConnell his good friend, and of course they are good friends; they are the same kind of monster. The same variety of spent, half-dead Beltway flotsam made of corporate logos and plastic donor class dinner parties held together by nothing but Aricept and wood glue who’ve been pushing war, militarism, austerity and authoritarianism since the instant they were able to claw their way into elected office.
This is the hub of the global empire. This is what it looks like. Corrupt. Decrepit. Blood-spattered. Shitting itself. And then Hollywood perception managers come in and dress it up as something pretty.
But it all faded away in that one moment of neurological misfire. Not even a distant memory as colors, sounds and feelings swirled ineffably in McConnell’s bewildered mind.
Perhaps one day this will happen to the entire empire. The whole thing suddenly vanishing for the lie it always was, all its managers left blinking stupidly in the sunlight, reaching for tools that aren’t there anymore and word magic that no longer has any power.
Perhaps one day all the illusions will disappear like the network of conceptual constructs in Mitch McConnell’s head. Perhaps one day the empire will call upon its servants and no one will answer, and it will be left there anxiously repeating the call, like an actor trapped onstage repeating a line from the script, awaiting a fellow cast member who missed their cue.
I still can’t embed tweets tonight.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Did you know that the US doesn't have a nuclear weapon
...any younger that 30 years old?
They leak, they smell, and quite a few are duds.
The US never learned how to enrich uranium. We get all our plutonium from Russia. I guess that's why Hill and Bill dropped the Uranium off in Russia. Our missiles are slower than a planeload of fat tourists. A pokey 550mph. Easy to intercept, according to Russia.
US strategic weapons are well beyond their sell-by date. when it comes to nukes, Washington's armory is in sad shape; the cans are bulging and the ones that have burst smell really bad and are leaking vile substances.
.
Perhaps its good news that the US has to outsource nukes, like everything else. But the US hasn't invested in these weapons since Reagan. US claims they are working on small tactical nukes, yada yada....
Russia has a No First Strike policy, and they seem confident that they can intercept any incoming from the psychopaths.
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
The quoted article is highly incorrect.
The US has lots of capacity for enriching uranium: that's what Oak Ridge was built for, and they have not stopped doing it. The Hiroshima bomb, Little Boy, was a uranium weapon, not plutonium- they held the Fat Man back for Nagasaki. And I can assure you, without fear of contradiction, that we did not obtain the HEU for the Little Boy and its followons from Russia.
They've torn down the Y-12 electromagnetic separation and thermal diffusion plants, and the K-25, K-33, and followon gaseous diffusion plants- that's true. But Bechtel is happily building a new centrifuge plant right on top of the bones of Y-12 to take over the enrichment process from a number of smaller/older sites within Oak Ridge that are currently doing it. As a cool historical aside, the reason we built the entire Tennessee Valley Authority power generation system was to power Y-12, *not* to provide power to the cities in the area- that was just a public-relations byproduct.
We're not doing bulk plutonium breeding any more, thank Gawd, since they finally shut down the Hanford N reactor in 1987. We don't need any more: we made 114 metric tons of the stuff during the Cold War, which is more than enough.
It is absolutely true that there is no more large scale new pit manufacturing going on after the closure of Rocky Flats, right up the street from me- that plant's various "challenges" are the reason that traces of plutonium can be found all over the Denver area. It made its last new pit for the W-88 SLBM warhead in 1992, and laid everybody off until it was time to try to clean it up and tear it down.
Pantex in Texas is remanufacturing the weapons in the stockpile on a rotating basis. And if they need a new pit, they send an old one off to Los Alamos National Lab for refurbishment. By the way, if you live in Amarillo? You are probably the highest priority target in the US, after the White House and the Pentagon. Sorry if that causes any inconvenience.
I can't argue that the stockpile is aging, and the chances of duds are very high- they've been high for some of the warhead types since day 1, after all. Our solution to that has been to just make more, and launch more at whatever targets we intend to obliterate. Making more has been very profitable, after all.
We may or may not make fuel for civilian nuclear any more, because it really is no longer germane. After Da Gummint made all the plutonium that they needed, they essentially stopped giving a shit about civilian nuclear: the Cold War-era window dressing of "cheap nuclear power" was no longer necessary to let them build their arsenal.
We have not been, and are not, outsourcing our nuclear arsenal. Whatever source that excerpt came from is very mistaken, and I do not like the spin they are attempting to apply: we are still the deadliest animals to ever roam this planet, and there is no comfort to be had in explicitly assuming incompetence. Yes, we're psychopaths as a country. We can end all life on the planet at a moment's notice, and it appears that our leadership is all agog to do so. And we *can*.
Sorry, but I have to call this out.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Don't be sorry.
I don't see an informational conflict here that is at all significant, or that would lead readers to a conclusion that is any different than my own, based on all the known knowns.
The US nuclear weapons arsenal is completely out of date and does not come close to the modern nuclear capability of nations with more advanced science in this area. What's more, the delivery system for these expired weapons is based on dated Cold War science, which makes them vulnerable to advanced interception systems. This is to say nothing about the supersonic delivery system that is the basis of our rivals weapons systems, against which the US has no defense. Thus, recent sabre-rattling on the part of the US in regard to its nuclear weapons strutting and its weak attempts to puff up a threat where none exists tends to makes our rivals laugh.
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
I wish I could agree.
The nightmare is very real.
The slow-moving portions of our delivery systems represent little threat at this point- that's why we finally ended the Chrome Dome alert posture for SAC. We now rely upon our ballistic missiles to provide that uncounterable threat. Mach 5 may be nice, but Mach 17 will be that much harder to counter- and our military is supremely confident that our ICBMs (and especially the SLBMs) will be able to launch such a storm of warheads that some number will get through any defense on the other side.
Whereas the SALTII treaty would have limited the number of reentry vehicles that any single missile would be able to carry (in addition to the total number of missiles active), we never ratified it. So our nice obsolete Minuteman IIIs can carry 3 MIRV warheads, and the Trident III SLBMs can carry 14.
Needless to say, the submarine-launched leg of the triad is the one our war-planning psychopaths are really counting on. The enemy knows exactly where the Minutemen are, so they are basically the cleanup crew if they somehow survive long enough to launch. Any strike would be primarily delivered by the SLBMs, which can come from anywhere that an Ohio-class boat feels like hanging out, and get to their targets more quickly. And we have 14 out there with 20 Tridents each (plus a bunch of slow-moving cruise missiles that will only be useful for either starting the war, or mopping up afterwards). The Ohios carry fully half of our active warheads.
The good old bombers of SAC will get fragged before they can get off the ground, of course. I wouldn't advise that as a career path.
In any case, despite the undeniable obsolescence of SAC's bomber fleet, our nuclear triad is not a paper tiger, and it is not laughed at internationally. It is not laughed at because we are psychotic enough to actually *use it*.
When we eventually do use it, the end will (briefly) look like this- except that the warheads won't be inert, and most of them will airburst at 10-20,00ft altitude instead of hitting the surface. This image is from the now-retired Peacekeeper/MX missile, which could only carry 10 warheads (only 8 loaded here, as the other 2 were for countermeasures).
Or this.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Truth
The omni-strategy in nuclear weapons goes well beyond the physics, as you so clearly suggest.
This discussion goes way beyond the ultimate effects of these weapons. Nuclear weapons were designed to prevent wars. There is nothing tactical about them. Deployment is unending chaos — the very opposite of a strategy. Nuclear weapons make no tactical sense when used against a similarly armed rival. Mutually assured destruction is the only outcome.. By definition, and in practice, nuclear weapons are civilian destroyers. There is no battlefield application that makes physical sense.
Even though most Russian weapons of this type are in constant motion across the massive Siberian continent (and under the world's oceans), I wonder whether Russia would even bother to launch a strike, following a first strike by the US — or whether they would just allow the world to finish dying in the months that follow.
Psychopathy is caused by a physical deformity in the brain. It can now be detected with brain scans. Perhaps we should put some effort into treaties that would weed them out of the world's governments and militaries..I have a hunch that this could be the most effective way to make real progress toward a peaceful world. Enlightened empathy has aways been the key to sustaining life. Thus, an Intelligent species that is controlled by mutants who can feel no empathy, are hurtling toward total extinction. The current threat level toward all life is extreme in every way.
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
And with that,
I can agree wholeheartedly - with every word. The ungodly *immorality* of it all cannot be overstated.
I hate having to know these things, because it smacks too much of supporting them. I study them, because to do otherwise would be to lose my mind more than I already have… Not knowing would be far worse than knowing, to what's left of my mind.
Be well, and thanks for the discussion!
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Russia just put its most potent bomb
on submarines that they say can reach anywhere in the world. And they have others that are just as deadly and a few that our defenses can’t stop. It was asinine that so many presidents dropped out of the treaties that would have made things better.
We really don’t have smart leaders who are running the shitshows. We can’t even make lots of weapons anymore because we have offshored so many factories and have to import materials from people that we are planning to make war with. Duh! Even I can see how dumb that is.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.