The Evening Blues - 9-26-22



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Lee Shot Williams

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues singer Lee Shot Williams. Enjoy!

Lee Shot Williams - You're Welcome To The Club

"We are in the era of the thermonuclear bomb that can obliterate cities and can be delivered across continents. With such weapons, war has become, not just tragic, but preposterous."

-- Dwight D. Eisenhower


News and Opinion

US pledges “catastrophic” response to potential Russian use of nuclear weapons

In the aftermath of statements by Russian President Vladimir Putin Wednesday threatening to use nuclear weapons in the war in Ukraine, US officials have made clear they are actively discussing the possibility that the conflict will erupt into a nuclear exchange. ... In his appearances on the US Sunday talk shows, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan confirmed a report published in the Washington Post Thursday that US officials had sent “private communications to Moscow warning Russia’s leadership of the grave consequences that would follow the use of a nuclear weapon.” Sullivan made these threats more explicit. He told “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd the consequences would be “catastrophic if Russia went down the dark road of nuclear weapons use.” ...

The escalation of tensions came as Russia held referendums in Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, four regions of Eastern Ukraine under its military control, for joining the Russian federation. The third day of voting was held Sunday. On Saturday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that any regions annexed to Russia will be “under the full protection of the state,” implying that Russia would respond to any attacks on them with the use of nuclear weapons. The Russian parliament could potentially move to incorporate the provinces into the Russian Federation on Thursday, and Putin is tentatively planning to address parliament on Friday. ...

Sullivan’s threats were accompanied by a full court press in the US media rationalizing the potential use of nuclear weapons in the conflict. In perhaps the most egregious example, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat mused that “Kyiv might be willing to accept an unusual degree of nuclear risk, even absorb a nuclear strike, for the sake of its own territorial integrity. In a battle for their very freedom, the Ukrainians … want their children to look back and say that in the greatest crisis, the blood of their fathers ran strong.” In a previous commentary on the World Socialist Web Site, we wrote that the strategists and propagandists of US imperialism see the people of Ukraine as “cannon fodder.” There is no greater confirmation than the suggestion that the people of the impoverished Eastern European country would be happy to “absorb” a nuclear attack potentially capable of killing millions of people.

In no section of the US political establishment has the increasingly obvious reality that the conflict is rapidly threatening to escalate into a nuclear wear been treated as an incentive to push toward a negotiated settlement of the war, which has already killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions. Rather, the US is treating any Russian escalation of the conflict in the wake of the military debacle in northern Ukraine as an opportunity to further escalate its own involvement in the war. US officials, according to an op-ed Sunday by Times columnist David Brooks, wish to “continue to supply Ukraine with weapons, maybe even including tanks and advanced fighter planes. Those systems are apparently on the table.”

Republicans WON’T Fund Ukraine War! Dem Senator Threatens

Neocons are eager to get some nukes in the air ... but don't worry, they're taking this seriously. But, um, not seriously enough to stop poking the bear.

Jake Sullivan: US will act ‘decisively’ if Russia uses nuclear weapons in Ukraine

America and its allies will act “decisively” if Russia uses a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Sunday, reaffirming the Joe Biden White House’s previous response to mounting concerns that Vladimir Putin’s threats are in increased danger of being realized.

“We have communicated directly, privately and at very high levels to the Kremlin that any use of nuclear weapons will be met with catastrophic consequences for Russia, that the US and our allies will respond decisively, and we have been clear and specific about what that will entail,” Sullivan told CBS’s Face The Nation.

Sullivan said that the Russian leader Putin had been “waving around the nuclear card at various points through this conflict”, and it was a matter that Biden’s administration has “to take deadly seriously because it is a matter of paramount seriousness – the possible use of nuclear weapons for the first time since the second world war”. ...

The administration’s security chief said that Russia’s nuclear threat against Ukraine, including extending its nuclear umbrella over eastern parts of the country that are still being contested seven months after its invasion, would not deflect the US and its allies.

Aaron Maté: Putin Reveals NATO 'UNDERMINED' Peace Talks, US Denies Role In Thwarting Negotiations

Russia Says It’s Not Threatening Anyone With Nukes

On Friday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Russia wasn’t threatening anyone with nuclear weapons and said Moscow doesn’t want a direct conflict with the US and NATO. “We are not threatening anyone with nuclear weapons,” Ryabkov said. “The criteria for their use are outlined in Russia’s military doctrine.”

Russia’s doctrine is that it could use nuclear weapons if it is facing an “existential threat,” and Russian officials have made clear throughout the current war in Ukraine that this is still the policy. ...

Ryabkov said that it’s not in Russia’s interest to be in a direct conflict with the US and NATO. “A face-off with the United States and NATO, which is fraught with an open armed conflict, is not in our interests,” he said.

“We hope that the Biden administration understands the risks of uncontrolled escalation of the conflict in Ukraine, given the repeated statements by their officials that they don’t plan to send American servicemen to Ukraine,” Ryabkov added.

Irish Politician Calls Out NATO Warmongering Over Taiwan

Fascism Returns in Italy: Giorgia Meloni Claims Victory, Allied with Right-Wing Parties

Meloni wins. Italy must prepare to take on Ursula and EU

Italy elections: Giorgia Meloni hails ‘night of pride’ as exit polls point to far-right coalition victory

Giorgia Meloni has claimed victory in Italy’s elections and promised to govern for all Italians, after exit polls gave her right-wing coalition a clear majority, putting her on course to create the most rightwing government since the end of the second world war. With full results due on Monday, the Brothers of Italy leader is set to become Italy’s first female prime minister – and a model for nationalist parties across Europe as she heads one of the EU’s six original member states.

The poll, for Italian broadcaster Rai, gave the rightwing coalition 41%-45% against 25.5%-29.5% for the leftwing bloc. The populist Five Star Movement was on 13.5%-17.5%.

Meloni’s party, which has neofascist origins, is also set to scoop by far the biggest share of the votes within the coalition, which includes the far-right League, led by Matteo Salvini, and Forza Italia, headed by Silvio Berlusconi. Early on Monday morning Meloni said Italian voters had given a clear mandate to the right to form the next government and called for unity to help confront the country’s many problems. ...

The coalition’s expected victory, however, raises questions about the country’s alliances in Europe as the continent enters a winter likely to be dominated by high energy prices and its response to Russian aggression in Ukraine. Meloni has sought to send reassuring messages, but the prospect of her as prime minister is unlikely to be welcomed in Paris or Berlin.

Germany’s governing Social Democratic party warned last week that her win would be bad for European cooperation. Lars Klingbeil, the chairman of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s SPD, said Meloni had aligned herself with “anti-democratic” figures such as Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán.

White House BRAGS About Biden's Recession Economy As Markets TUMBLE, Inflation Grows

Biden PLEDGES To Codify Roe With Dem Election Wins

DeSantis portrays himself as champion of immigrants’ welfare after backlash

To hear Ron DeSantis tell it, his splurge of up to $12m of Florida taxpayers’ money to fly migrants between two states he’s not governor of is all Joe Biden’s fault.

The US president’s border policies, the Republican Florida governor insists, left him no alternative but to step in to the immigration fight, which he did by dumping two planeloads of mostly Venezuelan asylum seekers from Texas in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, last week with no advance notice.

“Florida gave them an opportunity to seek greener pastures in a sanctuary jurisdiction that offered greater resources for them,” DeSantis’s office claimed in a statement painting him as a champion of the immigrants’ welfare who is “sharing the burden” of border states.

“They have been provided accommodations, sustenance, clothing and more options to succeed,” the statement added, without noting such aid was provided entirely by authorities on the ground, who moved swiftly to deal with the sudden and unexpected influx. ...

“For DeSantis to now claim that he’s a champion of these asylum seekers and migrants who were lured and tricked on to planes, and brought to Martha’s Vineyard without their meaningful consent, that’s kind of the height of irony, isn’t it?” said Elora Mukherjee, professor of social justice and human rights at Columbia Law School. ...

“But what we’re seeing is DeSantis playing toward the xenophobic and nationalistic white supremacist impulses that are at the base of the modern Republican party. It’s a well-timed act of political theater to propel him forward and gain as much national media attention as possible as part of his bid to become our next president.”



the horse race



JD Vance playing defense in unexpectedly close Ohio Senate race

JD Vance had some explaining to do. After winning a brutal, costly primary to secure the Republican nomination in Ohio’s Senate race, Vance had spent the summer making few appearances on the campaign trail and allowing his Democratic opponent, congressman Tim Ryan, to dominate the airwaves.

Now polls showed Vance, a first-time candidate and author of the bestselling memoir Hillbilly Elegy, running neck and neck with Ryan in a race that many Republicans had hoped would be an easy win.

“We have a tough campaign,” Vance said at an event with supporters in Avon, Ohio, last weekend. “I know that a lot of people are frustrated you didn’t see a whole lot of my TV commercials over the summer. Hopefully that’s started to pick up in the last couple of weeks.”

Vance’s struggle to establish a clear lead in Ohio mirrors Republican Senate candidates’ missteps in other battleground states that could determine control of the vital upper chamber. Like Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania and Herschel Walker in Georgia, Vance was able to win the Republican nomination after receiving Donald Trump’s endorsement, but he has stumbled in his pivot to the general election.

Republicans are now racing to avoid a Democratic victory in Ohio, often at the expense of investing in other close races. If Republicans cannot drag Vance across the finish line in Ohio, it could spell doom for the party’s hopes of flipping the Senate in the midterm elections this November.

2024 Shots Fired: Trump Allies HIT DeSantis on Migrants

Trump’s attempts to delay Mar-a-Lago inquiry largely fail as legal woes mount

Attempts by Donald Trump to delay the criminal investigation into his unlawful retention of government secrets have been largely thwarted after the Department of Justice regained access to about 100 documents with classified markings that the FBI seized from the former US president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

The US appeals court for the 11th circuit this week set aside key parts of an order by a federal judge that barred the department from using the documents in its investigation, and additionally ruled that Trump’s lawyers need not review the documents over potential privilege concerns.

The 29-page decision amounted to a sharp rebuke of the rulings by US district court judge Aileen Cannon, who is overseeing the case in Florida, but it also brought an end to Trump’s attempt to slow down the investigation that his advisers feared was moving perilously fast.

The justice department, according to the search warrant affidavit, is investigating potential violations of at least three criminal statutes, including the Espionage Act concerning national defense information, obstruction of justice and the removal of government documents more generally.

Being allowed to examine the roughly 100 documents marked classified means justice department investigators can now resume the investigation into the most serious lines of inquiry – the willful retention of national defense information and obstruction – with the primary evidence itself.

The fact that the appeals court also ruled that Trump’s lawyers – as well as the special master recently appointed to review the seized materials for potential privilege protections – do not need to review the 100 documents closes off additional opportunities to delay the process further.



the evening greens


Vanuatu makes bold call for global treaty to phase out fossil fuels

The Pacific island of Vanuatu has called for a first-of-its-kind global treaty to phase out the use of fossil fuels in a bold public call at the UN general assembly. “We call for the development of a fossil fuel nonproliferation treaty to phase down coal, oil and gas production in line with 1.5C and enable a global just transition for every worker, community and nation with fossil fuel dependence,” he said.

Urging others to join his call, which would make ecocide punishable by the international criminal court, he added: “We call on states to join the group of nations proposing to include the crime of ecocide in the Rome statute. Acting with the knowledge of severe and widespread or long-term damage to the environment can no longer be tolerated.”

How A Pipeline Bill Gets Greenwashed

As Democrats attempt to depict their newly-released energy permitting bill as a climate “win,” they are being boosted by a “clean power” lobbying group with ties to the fossil fuel industry. The American Clean Power Association, which presents itself as the voice of clean energy and is touting the bill as a way to boost renewables, is led by a former gas industry executive who had previously helped deregulate the industry as President Barack Obama’s energy advisor. Its board of directors also includes officials from electric and gas utilities that could be enriched by the legislation’s provisions to expedite fossil fuel pipelines.

Several prominent news outlets have already amplified the “clean power” association’s recent memo — which asserts that the legislation will “unlock clean energy, American investment, and jobs while protecting the environment.” But few have scrutinized that claim, examined the group’s motivations, or mentioned that its members could benefit from the bill’s pro-fossil fuel provisions.

“A leading renewables trade group says that without permitting reform, roughly 100 gigawatts of clean energy expected to be deployed by 2030 is at risk of not being built,” a New York Times climate reporter tweeted Thursday, citing the American Clean Power Association’s memo pushing the legislation. The lobbying group’s estimate was also cited in a Financial Times article about the clean energy industry’s support for permitting reform, as well as referenced in other major media outlets.

While the association does include clean energy companies, it is also one of many conduits for fossil-fuel-reliant corporations to try to position themselves as part of a green future.

In Congress, those conglomerates that own and rely on fossil fuels are spearheading the “all of the above” legislative strategy embodied by the Inflation Reduction Act and now adopted by the permitting deal, which would grant the president the power to designate 25 energy projects for quick federal approval. Both bills link clean and dirty power together as if they must grow in tandem, even as scientists warn that fossil fuel buildouts must end to stave off the worst impacts of climate change.

EPA's Environmental Justice Office 'Won't Make Up for' Manchin Deal, Campaigner Says

Climate campaigners and other progressives on Sunday praised the Biden administration's announcement that it is establishing a new environmental justice office at the Environmental Protection Agency—but at least one critic noted that the office's work will not cancel out the damage done by the so-called "permitting reform" bill being pushed by Sen. Joe Manchin.

"We've seen a lot of structural changes on environmental justice in the Biden, Obama and Clinton administrations, but we need to see the results," Wes Gobar, an organizer with the Movement for Black Lives, told The New York Times.

According to EPA Administrator Michael Regan, the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights (OEJECR) will invest heavily in ensuring residents of areas plagued by decades of industrial pollution live in a healthier environment.

With about 200 staffers and a director who will be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, the office will oversee the distribution of billions of dollars included in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) for monitoring air quality near schools and impacted neighborhoods and cleaning up pollution in those areas. The OEJECR will also have a budget of $100 million.

Communities that could benefit from the funds include those in so-called "Cancer Alley," between Baton Rouge and New Orleans in Louisiana, where chemical plants stand near residential neighborhoods and cancer prevalence is 44% higher than the national rate in some areas.

Areas affected by redlining, where largely Black, Latino, and low-income neighborhoods were targeted for development by pollution-causing industries, may also benefit. One 2017 study found that Black Americans are nearly four times as likely as white people to die from exposure to pollution.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) issued a round of applause on Twitter following Regan's announcement.

"This is a big step to act on climate in our most vulnerable communities," said environmental legal advocacy group Earthjustice.

But Gobar noted that Regan's announcement came as Manchin seeks to pass his energy infrastructure bill, which would make it easier for fossil fuel companies to complete projects like the Mountain Valley Pipeline in Virginia and the right-wing Democratic senator's home state of West Virginia.

The White House said last week that President Joe Biden is "committed to the deal" between Manchin and party leaders which resulted in the bill in exchange for Manchin's support of the IRA.

"This deal exchanges the health of Black lives across the country in exchange for fossil fuel profits," Gobar told the Times. "And [the OEJECR] won't make up for this side deal—for cutting the federal government's ability to protect Black communities."

Houses washed away after storm Fiona as Canada sends in military for cleanup

Canadian troops are being sent to assist the recovery from the devastation of storm Fiona, which swept away houses, stripped off roofs and knocked out power across the country’s Atlantic provinces.

After surging north from the Caribbean as a hurricane, Fiona came ashore before dawn on Saturday as a post-tropical cyclone, battering Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Quebec with hurricane-strength winds, heavy rains and huge waves.

The defense minister, Anita Anand, said on Saturday that troops would help remove fallen trees and other debris, restore transportation links and do whatever else was required for as long as it took. She didn’t specify how many troops would be deployed. ...

The Canadian Hurricane Centre tweeted that Fiona had the lowest pressure ever recorded for a storm making landfall in Canada. Forecasters had warned it could be the one of the most powerful storms to hit the country.

“We’re getting more severe storms more frequently,” Trudeau said.

More resilient infrastructure was needed to withstand extreme weather events, the prime minister said, adding that what was once a one-in-100 year storm might now arrive every few years because of climate change.

“Things are only getting worse,” Trudeau said.


Also of Interest

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

Washington’s nuclear brinkmanship threatens catastrophe

Exposed: Covert Pro-Western Info Op

John Pilger’s 2014 Warning About Ukraine

Democrats divided over whether to send Ukraine long-range weapons to use against Russia

Why Ukraine referendum is a big deal

Alexander Mercouris: Russia Prepares Knock Out, Ukraine Stalls; Rumours, Saudi Deal Giving Donbass, Kherson to Russia

Alexander Mercouris: Russia Counterblow, NYT Admits Ukraine Massive Losses in Stalled Offensive; UK Teeters on The Brink

China’s FM Tells Blinken the US Is Sending ‘Dangerous Signals’ Over Taiwan

Biden’s UN speech misreads global unity

US Media Held Murdered Russian Journalist to a Dangerous Standard

Is Catalonia still dreaming of independence from Spain?

The forgotten history of what California stole from Black families

For Mormons, a perfect lawn is a godly act. But the drought is catching up with them

Critics of Louisiana LNG Project 'Hopeful' as Huge Sales Contracts Canceled

"We Are Proud Boys": Far-Right Gang Normalized Political Violence, Embraced by GOP

Congressman & Bankers Laugh About How Corrupt They Are ON CAMERA!

Lori Lightfoot SLAMS Biden Admin For Migrant Crisis, Dem Cities 'Left To FEND For Ourselves'


A Little Night Music

Lee Shot Williams - I'm Trying

Lee "Shot" Williams - You Gotta Have Soul

Lee "Shot" Williams - Hold Me, Hold Me, Hold Me

Lee "Shot" Williams - You Hurt Me so Good

Lee Shot Williams - Hello Baby

Lee Shot Williams - I Found A Love

Lee Shot Williams - Mark My Words

Lee Shot Williams - Love Now Pay Later

Arlene Brown and Lee "Shot" Williams" - Impeach Me Baby


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Comments

CB's picture

UKRAINE WAS NOT IN NATO, BUT NATO WAS IN UKRAINE SINCE 2014

The alliance began training the Ukraine military in 2014 averaging 10 000 trained troops annually
"The US and its allies were effectively turning Ukraine into a defacto member of NATO"
If Russians had overthrown a legitimate president in Ottawa, bombed Montreal for speaking French, and amassed a proxy army to US borders, the Americans would not have waited 8 years...

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15 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@CB

mearsheimer should get some sort of truth-telling award for his trouble. he's one of the few that will stand up and inform the public honestly.

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12 users have voted.

@joe shikspack

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9 users have voted.

NYCVG

joe shikspack's picture

@NYCVG

i hope everything is going well, it's good to have you back!

have a great evening!

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8 users have voted.

@CB

You are singing my only song.

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10 users have voted.

NYCVG

The brainwashing never stops!

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joe shikspack's picture

@humphrey

heh, "turned the tide of the war" - before the undertow pulled them out to sea and drowned them.

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13 users have voted.

@humphrey

No end in sight

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10 users have voted.

NYCVG

a possibility.

Notice the proximity to one particular country.

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joe shikspack's picture

@humphrey

i guess the champagne is flowing at zelensky's place.

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7 users have voted.

@joe shikspack

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11 users have voted.

@humphrey

and human existence

The USA/NATO are single-minded

Insane

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NYCVG

Bob In Portland's picture

In anyone remembers the article I wrote back in 2015, I believe it was, I mentioned that while Secretary of State John Kerry solemnly pronounced that he knew who fired the BUK missile that took down MH-17 over Donbass back in 2014. He and the US have never released the satellite
.

It's 2022 and they still haven't released them.

https://www.donbass-insider.com/2020/06/08/mh17-the-us-will-not-provide-...

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joe shikspack's picture

@Bob In Portland

i'm sure that they'll release those photos about the same time that they release all of the information that they have about the kennedy assassination.

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Lookout's picture

and like the US has idiots in charge...(5 min)

I think my last visit to the UK the exchange rate was like $1.6 USD to one pound.

Markets are still reeling after the new Chancellor announced huge tax cuts at the end of last week and today the pound plunged to its lowest value against the dollar. The Chancellor has just said he'll announce a much-called for tax plan to help reinforce the economy in late November.
But until then, what does it all mean for us? Katherine Nash has been to one business which will be counting the cost.

3.5 min

The pound fell as low as $1.0373, before rallying to $1.0672 in early London trading. It was its lowest level since the decimalization of the currency in 1971.

UK pound not doing well against the Euro either...
Screenshot 2022-09-26 at 17-38-08 British Pound to Euro Exchange Rate Chart Xe.png

I wonder if any of them is asking about the sanctions? My guess is no. As Alex and Alexander say, they have no reverse gear.

Thanks for the EB...news and music that makes it tolerable.

Edit to add:
All the talk about Putin's nuclear threat? No one seems to listen to what he says. People project and reporters and politicians repeat. Here's the critical part of the speech...

Nuclear blackmail was also launched. We are talking not only about the shelling of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, which is encouraged by the West, which threatens a nuclear catastrophe, but also about the statements of some high-ranking representatives of the leading NATO states about the possibility and admissibility of using weapons of mass destruction against Russia – nuclear weapons.

To those who allow themselves to make such statements about Russia, I would like to remind you that our country also has various means of destruction, and for some components more modern than those of the NATO countries. And if the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, we will certainly use all the means at our disposal to protect Russia and our people. It’s not a bluff.

The citizens of Russia can be sure that the territorial integrity of our Motherland, our independence and freedom will be ensured, I emphasize this again, with all the means at our disposal. And those who are trying to blackmail us with nuclear weapons should know that the wind can also turn in their direction.

Sorry one more addition about who is making threats and who is Putin talking about...
Liz Truss says she’s ‘ready’ to hit nuclear button if necessary
Tory leadership frontrunner appeared emotionless when asked how ‘annihilation’ would make her feel

Sounds to me like he is saying you start something, we'll finish it. Can you make this say "we're going to use nukes against Ukraine? Cause I can't. People don't listen to Putin...they listen to CIA/MIC spin.

There I got that off my mind...

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

joe shikspack's picture

@Lookout

thanks for the pie video! i like his stuff a lot.

heh, i guess if truss manages to hold onto office for long enough, i'll be able to import an old jaguar for next to nothing.

it doesn't matter what putin says, it will be twisted and mangled to fit into whatever narrative the west wants to broadcast. it's not like america is a terribly literate nation, so few people will notice.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@joe shikspack

load of multiple replacements for all parts made by Lucas, Prince of Darkness, or be ready to strip out all the electrics and replace them with bosch or delco.

be well and have a good one

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9 users have voted.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@enhydra lutris

heh, back in the 70's i had a 67 spitfire which relieved me of any ideas that a british car might evidence anything like reliability. Smile

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enhydra lutris's picture

@joe shikspack

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

@enhydra lutris @enhydra lutris Austin Healy Sprite convertible. Dad could repair it out in the front yard, if needed, with stuff from the garage. Dad sold it to a neighbor's kid after I drove the snot out of it, and he bought me a 1969 Mustang Mach One,and he kept it through college and beyond. Guys with Jaguars would take me for a ride, then put it in the shop, and I would have to take them for a ride for a few weeks.
Good times!
Great music tonight! Short of complaining the new is horrifyingly bad, I will, instead, describe it as informative.
Forewarned is forearmed, as it were.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

@on the cusp wont run, get out and hit the electric fuel pump a few times.
Replaced some distributor parts. good thing I didnt throw out the old rotor..
stranded middle of nowhere ordeal. grabbed the old rotor sitting by the shifter. vroom.
that shipping container remark earlier truly hits home.
need almost everything for an oddball british Ford.
Its available.
over there.

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3 users have voted.

@Lookout I am listening to every word that I can get from Putin, Lavrov and Shoiglu

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NYCVG

snoopydawg's picture

He sure acted like he was. Hedges on the return of fascism

The Obama administration interpreted the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force as giving the executive branch the right to erase due process and act as judge, jury and executioner in assassinating U.S. citizens, starting with radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. Two weeks later, a U.S. drone strike killed Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, Anwar's 16-year-old son, who was never linked to terrorism, along with 9 other teenagers at a cafe in Yemen. It was the Obama administration that signed into law Section 1021 of the National Defense Authorization Act, overturning the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the use of the military as a domestic police force. It was the Obama administration that bailed out Wall Street and abandoned Wall Street’s victims. It was the Obama administration that repeatedly used the Espionage Act to criminalize those, such as Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden, who exposed government lies, crimes and fraud. And it was the Obama administration that massively expanded the use of militarized drones.

The Nazis responded to the February 1933 burning of the Reichstag, which they likely staged, by employing Article 48 to push through the Decree for the Protection of the People and the State. The fascists instantly snuffed out the pretense of Weimar democracy. They legalized imprisonment without trial for anyone considered a national security threat. They abolished independent labor unions, freedom of speech, freedom of association and freedom of the press, along with the privacy of postal and telephone communications.

Paul Craig Roberts is hit and miss, but he does have some good essays. I enjoyed most of this one. Let’s look at what Clinton did for his oligarch friends.

We Might Be Spared Nuclear War for Now But the Threat of Home Grown Tyranny Remains

In former times the US government acted to protect the people from monopolies with progressive measures, such as the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, today a dead letter law. Beginning with the Clinton regime, monopolization, already present from the destruction of independent businesses by big box store chains, has grown dramatically. Clinton signed off on the concentration of the media in a few hands. The large banks were given enormous power by the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act. The unregulated digital revolution has produced a monopoly over digital communication which is used to censor and suppress free speech. Big Pharma and the medical insurance companies are in the process of completing their control over medicine by forcing independent medical practices into large health care organizations where doctors are employees subject to Big Pharma protocols. They achieved this by having medical insurance and Medicare pay a larger percentage of amounts billed to the large bureaucratic entities than to private practitioners. The financial difference forced doctors to sell or merge their practices into the larger entities and means the end of the Hippocratic Oath as we saw with Covid when doctors who are employees of hospitals and HMOs were prohibited from treating patients with HCQ and Ivermectin.

Lately people have been exposing the bad points of Obama care and the effect it had on doctors who are being pushed to work for medical conglomerates where they must toe the line and do what the owners tell them to. Most of the organizations are owned by hedge funds. Gee…who’d of thought that they wouldn’t put our best interests before their profits?

Both essays are worth a full read IMO.

ETA

German Energy Apocalypse

A bleak look at what is happening in Germany and what the future looks like. I can’t believe how much faster the handbasket is moving these days. Millions of people are in for a world of hurt just because American neocons don’t want to share the playground.

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15 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@snoopydawg @snoopydawg

That is a big clear, "Yes."

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10 users have voted.

NYCVG

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

thanks for the articles! i'll have the hedges piece in tomorrow's eb. that piece on germany's decline is pretty amazing. it's hard to believe that a people could elect a government more incompetent than americans have, but it looks like the germans and the british are going to make biden and trump before him look like freaking geniuses. (genii?)

anyway, have a great evening!

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CB's picture

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@CB

Tomorrow for this clip.

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9 users have voted.

NYCVG

I can hear it now. The EU will say it is a sham referendum.

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joe shikspack's picture

@humphrey

c'mon, there's more at stake here than your shivering granny or your hungry children, there is an all-important pissing contest to determine global patterns of dominance going on. we must prevail!

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snoopydawg's picture

Remember when people said that they had nothing to hide?

The FBI and US attorney's office in Los Angeles justified the 5-day dragnet forfeiture at the US Private Vaults store by assuming that hundreds of anonymous box holders were storing assets somehow tied to unknown crimes.

At the end of the operation, agents had recovered more than $86 million in cash, and a 'bonanza' of gold, silver, rare coins, jewelry and other items of value.

Now, around 700 box holders who aren't implicated in any crimes liken the raid to police barging into a building's 700 apartments and taking every tenant's possessions when the only evidence of wrongdoing is against the landlord.

The plaintiffs in the class-action suit have asked U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner to declare the raid unconstitutional. If he grants the request, it could force the FBI to return millions of dollars to box holders whose assets it has tried to confiscate.

It could also spoil an unknown number of criminal investigations by blocking prosecutors from using any evidence or information acquired in the raid, including guns and drugs. -LA Times

"The government did not know what was in those boxes, who owned them, or what, if anything, those people had done," said their lawyer, Robert Frommer. "That’s why the warrant application did not even attempt to argue there was probable cause to seize and forfeit box renters’ property."

Link

Read the whole thing. I’m having a hard time coming up with words for this. What constitution? Didn’t Franklin say something about it being better if 100 guilty people go free….? They should just put Banana Republic on the dollar bill.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

impressive. you've got to wonder if all those feebs who swore an oath to protect and defend the constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic ever read the damned piece of paper or understood what the 4th amendment says.

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12 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

@joe shikspack

any reasonable basis for ever so much as suspecting that they ever gave a shit.

be well and have a good one.

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8 users have voted.

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

enhydra lutris's picture

It will be very interesting to see what Italy actually decides to try to do, and how far they'll get with it, no matter what it is.

So Biden is going to "Codify Roe." As if he'd even try and as if Nancy would let him if he did. They prefer it be be a club to blackmail voters with - elect us or you won't keep roe, and now elect us or you won't get roe back. You notice that they neveer talk about the right to abortion, they don't want that in any event. Roe was bad law, it restricted the right to abortions to a narrow window in time, after which a woman still had to get permission from outsiders to make her own medical decisions. What a bunch of frauds, who've been dragging out this grand farce for decades and, as the man said "what fools these mortals voters be.

be well and have a good one

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10 users have voted.

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

snoopydawg's picture

@enhydra lutris

They prefer it be be a club to blackmail voters with - elect us or you won't keep roe, and now elect us or you won't get roe back.

Nancy said that talking about abortion was boring and besides it was hurting democrats chances of getting re-elected. After Obama promised to do something about it day one he said that it wasn’t a priority for him. After the leak showing that the supremes were going to tear Roe down democrats did nothing till they did and then all they did was gnash their teeth. Pretty much everyone knew that they would run on it in the midterms and woola here they are running on it. Of course the shitlibs are rah rahhing that women are upset about the ruling and are flocking to vote. And after they do Nancy will tell them that she doesn’t have the votes to get it done.

That’s her ploy. She said that democrats needed the house and senate and when people gave it to them she said that there wasn’t a big enough majority. If people can’t see the goal posts moving they ain’t looking.

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10 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

joe shikspack's picture

@enhydra lutris

either it is going to take the rise of a serious, popular third party that upends the duopoly or a revolution to get back even the ridiculously constricted rights that roe allowed - and i'm not really sure that there's enough democratic will left in the country to get a third party established and running.

have a great evening!

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7 users have voted.

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@humphrey

There is now no possibility of an EU change of heart on Russian sanctions and resumption of gas delivery in time for this winter.

UK news is trying to advance the notion that the Russians blew up their own gas lines, as patently absurd that notion is.

Gonzalo has a different notion of who the more likely perpetrator is:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6IIwltTM4Q]

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10 users have voted.

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

@ovals49

I thought that it was only a matter of time until the truth started leaking out.

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lotlizard's picture

https://nitter.net/MRobertsQLD/status/1574263707001008129

https://nitter.net/ARmastrangelo/status/1574432362683043840

Meanwhile in Germany, polls now have the right-wing populist AfD — the only party in parliament to oppose the government’s Ukraine-war-related policies — up sharply at ~14%, compared to ~10% three months ago.

https://dawum.de

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