The Evening Blues - 9-4-18
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features Chicago blues harmonica player Big Walter Horton. Enjoy!
Big Walter Horton at the American Folk Blues Festival 1970
“For the powerful, crimes are those that others commit.”
-- Noam Chomsky
News and Opinion
An Online Vigil in Defense of Julian Assange With Daniel Ellsberg, Craig Murray, Bill Binney and Ray McGovern
Joe Lauria, editor-in-chief of Consortium News, on Saturday helped moderate a daylong chain of interviews in defense of WikiLeaks and its publisher Julian Assange, including a discussion with Daniel Ellsberg.
A #Unity4J online vigil was held on Saturday to defend the WikiLeaks editor-in-chief, whose sanctuary at the Ecuadorian embassy in London has turned into torturous solitary confinement.
The entire 11 hour and 45 minute event can be viewed here [Audio starts somewhere around 50 minutes into the video. - js]:
STOP. HUMANIZING. WAR CRIMINALS.
As of this writing, a tweet by disgraced Broadway fraud convict Roland Scahill has 90 thousand shares and 362 thousand likes, which if you’re not used to Twitter is a ridiculously high amount that nobody generally hits. ...
George W. Bush sneaking a piece of candy to Michelle Obama is warming my heart . pic.twitter.com/pAtDdIcSeB
— Roland Scahill (@rolandscahill) September 1, 2018
That’s it. That’s all it took to win Twitter for the day. Those four seconds of footage have been circulated around TV news stations to ‘ooh’s and ‘ahh’s of fawning establishment pundits yammering incessantly about how the death of War Hero John McCain™ has let everyone Put Aside Our Political Differences™ and Come Together As Americans™ to celebrate the life of a man who dedicated his entire political career to sowing death, suffering and devastation at every opportunity. A war criminal giving a piece of candy to the wife of another war criminal at the funeral of a war criminal is all it took to get mainstream American brains gushing with dopamine and oxytocin.
Because that’s how compartmentalized Americans are from the reality of what war is and what it means. The explosions, the screams, the charred and shredded human bodies, the chaos and displacement and all the suffering, terrorism, slavery and rape that necessarily always comes with it, the million Iraqis killed under Bush, the unfathomable humanitarian disasters created in Libya and Syria under Obama, all the devastation created in all the military interventions McCain helped push for, all of that is so peripheral and distant in American consciousness that it can be dismissed with a wave of the hand and a piece of fucking candy. ... It’s not a coincidence that the nation with the most powerful military in the history of civilization and the most billionaires in the history of civilization also happens to have the most sophisticated propaganda system in the history of civilization, and that propaganda system is pointed at them from a very early age to normalize the war machine that is used to protect the empire of the billionaires. ...
We live in a media culture that basically says that even if Henry Kissinger, George W. Bush & Dick Cheney show up to a nationally televised political event, it is uncouth to even gently mention the wars they initiated & the thousands of deaths their decisions are responsible for.
— David Sirota (@davidsirota) September 1, 2018
The first step in [the right] direction is to cease normalizing the monsters who facilitate human butchery around the world. Stop believing they need to be regarded as “heroes” just because they wore a uniform at some point. Stop believing that it’s ever okay to push for needless wars which butcher innocent men, women and children. Stop believing a man can facilitate the slaughter of a million people and not have that clearly be his single defining legacy. Stop believing that it’s worse to criticize a warmonger than it is to be a warmonger. Because if it’s up to the bastards who rule us currently, they’ll happily keep shushing us into polite silence while continuing to march us along our current ecocidal, omnicidal trajectory until it gets us all killed. They’ll make saints of warmongering empire loyalists and uphold their murderous lives as exemplary and virtuous, and if we say we want to move things in a different direction we’ll be shouted down with buzzwords about heroism and decency until we shut up. If we leave it up to these pricks, we’ll become the first species to go extinct due to politeness.
The "forgotten war": Yemen''s conflict continues
The Trump Administration’s Spoiler Foreign Policy
Consider these recent developments. Have you lost track of how many sets of sanctions Washington has imposed on Russia? I have. Last week, the Treasury Department added four Russian companies and two Russian citizens to its lengthy list of sanctioned entities—these for allegedly circumventing United States sanctions and (in two cases) United Nations sanctions barring oil shipments to North Korea. More are on the way, to judge by deliberations on Capitol Hill. At this point, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the U.S. objective is to strangle the Russian economy. The Trump administration has mounted a maximum-pressure campaign on Europe, and especially Germany, to follow the U.S.-U.K. lead in developing a more hostile posture toward Russia, even if it hurts European, and especially German, interests. Prior to Angela Merkel’s summit with Vladimir Putin last weekend, Washington strongly urged the German chancellor to scuttle a Russia-to-Europe gas pipeline known as Nord Stream 2. Washington now threatens sanctions—as early as this autumn—against any European companies investing in the project.
Last Friday, the White House canceled a trip to Pyongyang that Mike Pompeo had scheduled for this week. It would have been the secretary of state’s third visit. Trump’s complaint was that North Korea is “not making sufficient progress toward denuclearization.” He then went on the blame China for easing pressure it had formerly applied to the North. But he also sent “warmest regards” to Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader, and added, “I look forward to seeing him soon.” This is a hard read. It may be a matter of Trump keeping the klieg lights focused on Trump, although the fundamental intent of Trump’s minders remains scuttling any accord that brings peace to Northeast Asia. In Syria too, Trump says one thing and another thing seems to happen. In much-publicized remarks in April, Trump said U.S. special forces would be pulled from the country. They are still there, and it’s not clear whether the U.S. is winding down or ramping up. ...
It is time to draw conclusions. I have two.
One, most of the world, including the major powers other than the U.S. and Britain, are deeply committed to constructing a more orderly world. This judgment rests on many years of observation, but the past several months turn a surmise into a certainty. From the first North-South summit at the Korean demilitarized zone (DMZ), maybe, or the rout of jihadists in Syria, I see an ardent desire to develop a true “post-Cold War order” — which the community of nations has yet to achieve if you look back over the past 29 years.
Two, the policy cliques in Washington appear to recognize that there is no stopping (what I read as) a compelling global aspiration, but there is plenty of opportunity to slow or spoil it. Why are 2,500 to 3,000 U.S. troops still stationed in Syria, some occupying Syrian oilfields (and apparently harboring jihadist militias)—this while the theme in Syria shifts from conflict to reconstruction? By what possible logic can the White House or State Department or Pentagon argue that North Korea has done little to engender substantive steps toward an enduring peace in Northeast Asia? In the cases noted here, the objectives appear to be to prevent a reordering of the Middle East without the U.S. as its hegemonic prime mover, to maintain maximum tension in Northeast Asia to protect the U.S. military presence in the western Pacific, and to block the consolidation of the Eurasian landmass such that it eventually binds Western Europe closer to its eastern flank than it has been in many, many centuries.
Bernie & Amazon War Over Poverty Wages. Amazon Loses.
Amazon becomes world's second $1tn company
Amazon has become the second company to be valued by Wall Street at $1tn, a matter of weeks after Apple reached the milestone first. On Tuesday, a rise in the share price of Amazon, which is listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange in the US, briefly took it above the trillion-dollar watermark for the first time. ...
Jeff Bezos has become the world’s richest man in the process, with a net worth estimated at more than $167bn on Tuesday, according to Forbes. Amazon went public at $18 a share in 1997 – on Tuesday those shares hit $2,050, pushing the value of the whole company over $1tn.
Keiser Report: The Financial Repression Index & Post-US dollar world
As Nationwide Prison Strike Reaches Second Week, Inmates Accuse Officials of Retaliating With Solitary Confinement
As a nationwide prison strike demanding an end to brutal conditions and slave labor continues into its second week, inmates and advocates are accusing prison officials of retaliating against participants in the non-violent action by revoking communication privileges and subjecting demonstrators to solitary confinement. "The retaliation and repression was instantaneous and constant," Brooke Terpstra, a spokesperson for the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee—a coalition of groups that is helping to publicize the strike—told the Guardian. "Leaders were picked off, one by one, and thrown into solitary in anticipation of the strike that was coming."
In an op-ed for the Guardian last week, Kevin Rashid Johnson—a Virginia prison strike leader who is among those claiming retaliation by officials—noted that he "was moved to Sussex state prison in Waverly, Virginia, and placed in a cell in death row."
"I have never been sentenced to the death penalty, so there can be only one reason they have put me here—to shut me up and prevent me fraternizing with other prisoners as they fear I will radicalize them and encourage them to resist their oppression," Johnson wrote. The strike—which is reportedly taking place in as many as 17 states, and is set to continue through Sept. 9—has consisted of hunger strikes, work stoppages, and sit-ins aimed at calling attention to the horrific treatment of inmates throughout the United States.
“What Are They Hiding?”: Kavanaugh Confirmation Hearings Begin Despite Suppression of 100K Documents
'Walk Out!': Progressives Disgusted as Democrats Fold at Brett Kavanaugh Hearing
As more than 30 people were dragged away in handcuffs on Tuesday for protesting during the confirmation hearing for Brett Kavanaugh, critics of the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee demanded a comparable show of courage and called on those lawmakers—who failed to win a delay of the proceedings—to simply end their participation and walk out.
"Women are disrupting this hearing today because our lives are at risk. Women will die if Kavanaugh is confirmed," said Rachel O'Leary Carmona of the Women's March, whose members were among those who disrupted the hearing, in an emailed statement. "Politicians on both sides of the aisle need to know—if you don't stop Kavanaugh, we will make you pay in November and in 2020. If you're a Democrat, we'll primary you—if you're a Republican, your seat will be flipped. The gloves are off, the rings are on, and we’re ready to resist the fight that chose us."
When the proceedings commenced at 9:00am, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) interrupted Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), the committee chairman, to request that the hearing be postponed, citing the extremely late release of 42,000 pages of documents regarding Kavanaugh's time working in the George W. Bush administration. The records were released on Monday giving the panel a matter of hours to review them, after the White House had earlier claimed executive privilege in holding back 100,000 pages of records. Harris's objections were followed by those of Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.); Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who asked that the meeting be adjourned, Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and other Democrats—eliciting some hope from Trump critics that the party might successfully stand up against the Republican attempt to ram through Kavanaugh's confirmation.
But those hopes were largely dashed when it became increasingly clear that the Democrats were not prepared for what would happen if Grassley refused to heed their calls, as he predictably did. The acquiescence was led by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who ended the series of objections by delivering her prepared opening statement. The hearing then proceeded, albeit with some Democrats continuing to express their objections. ...
On MSNBC's "Morning Joe," former staffer to the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) Steve Schmidt remarked, "It seems Democrats are absolutely determined to bring butter knives to every gunfight forever," while host Joe Scarborough agreed the party was apparently "just quietly marching in line." "This process is illegitimate," Scarborough said. "No judge in America would allow an opposing side to dump 150,000 documents on another party in a lawsuit the day before hearings started or a trial is started. I'm completely baffled. Why do Democrats — why are they even showing up? They should not show up."
Anti-migrant protests have exploded in the east German city of Chemnitz
Tens of thousands of protesters are expected to attend an anti-racist rock concert in Chemnitz, Germany, Monday in opposition to violent far-right protests that have roiled the city for more than a week. Situated west of Dresden, Chemnitz has been a flashpoint since local man Daniel Hillig, a 35-year-old carpenter of German-Cuban descent, was stabbed to death on Aug. 25, allegedly by a Syrian and Iraqi.
His death prompted protests that were swiftly hijacked by far-right extremists, who roamed the streets in mobs the following night yelling “Foreigners out!” Footage of demonstrators chasing down anyone who appeared foreign, or giving the banned Nazi salute, has sent shockwaves across Germany, in the latest sign of rising tensions over German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s liberal immigration policies.
Groups such as the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, and the “anti-Islamization” street movement PEGIDA have further stirred up tensions, organizing protests against mass immigration. ... According to official estimates, about 8,000 people attended a rally Saturday organized by the AfD and PEGIDA, while about 3,000 people held an anti-racist counterdemonstration.
Eighteen people were injured and 37 offences are being investigated, including a television reporter who was thrown down a flight of stairs, an alleged far-right attack on a group of anti-racist protesters led by a politician for the center-left SPD party, and an alleged assault by masked men on a 20-year-old Afghan man. Alexander Gauland, the AfD’s co-leader, has said the angry reaction of the far-right protesters is understandable. “When such a killing occurs, it’s normal for people to snap,” he said.
German politicians launch leftwing 'Get Up' movementA political movement aimed at galvanising grassroots support for leftwing issues has been launched in Berlin promising to be a voice for dissatisfied voters that would take a tougher approach to migration. The movement, named Aufstehen (Get Up), is the creation of Sahra Wagenknecht, a leading member of the far-left Die Linke party, and her husband, Oskar Lafontaine, a former German finance minister and co-founder of Die Linke.
Whether Aufstehen, which has drawn comparisons with similar movements in France and the UK, will garner the sort of support enjoyed by Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s La France Insoumise (France Unbowed) or Jeremy Corbyn’s Momentum, remains to be seen. However Wagenknecht said since the movement had already attracted 100,000 members it had had a positive beginning. ...
Aufstehen is being seen as the left’s response to the rise of the anti-immigrant Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party, to which Die Linke has lost an estimated 400,000 voters. Germany was undergoing a “tangible crisis of democracy”, Wagenknecht said, sitting next to her main supporters, the former Green party leader Ludger Volmer and the Social Democrat mayor of Flensburg, Simone Lange. “Many people don’t feel represented any more and are turning their backs on politics. This is more than just a feeling,” she added, quoting from a study by the Institute for Economic Research which found that 40% of people had less take-home pay now than 20 years ago.
“In such a country democracy is no longer functioning,” she said. “Anger that has been piling up has helped form a breeding ground for hate and violence. If we don’t take counter measures this country will not be recognisable within five to 10 years.” Recent events in the eastern city of Chemnitz, in which 6,000 far-right protesters demonstrated in the streets after a Dresden man was stabbed, allegedly by two immigrants, indicated how urgent it was for politics to find a new direction, she said.
Neo-Confederate rally for “Silent Sam” ends with pepper spray, arrests
Protesters carrying Confederate battle flags rallied around the site of the toppled “Silent Sam” statue Thursday night — until they were escorted to their cars by police who used pepper spray to keep counterprotesters at bay. It was the second attempt at a public rally in support of Silent Sam, a memorial to an anonymous Confederate soldier that had stood on the campus of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill for nearly 100 years. That was, until it was ripped down by protesters on Aug. 20.
Police made three arrests Thursday night, and used barricades to separate Silent Sam supporters from protesters who showed up to “dance on the grave” of the statue and eat ice cream. ...
Meanwhile, the university’s Board of Governors has directed the university and campus trustees to come up with some sort of plan for Silent Sam by Nov. 15. It’s currently being kept at an undisclosed location. ... Thom Goolsby, a member of UNC’s Board of Governors, said in a video posted to his YouTube channel Thursday that the statue’s removal was part of a “sophisticated political agenda” by “non-student radicals.”
Protesters tore down Confederate statue “Silent Sam,” but UNC is bringing it back
The controversial Confederate statue at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill — stowed away in an undisclosed location after protesters tore it to the ground a few weeks ago — should have a place on campus, according to the university. It’s just not quite clear where that place is.
“Silent Sam has a place in our history and on our campus where its history can be taught, but not at the front door of a safe, welcoming, proudly public research university,” Carol Folt, the university’s chancellor, said in a statement Friday. “We want to provide opportunities for our students and the broader community to reflect upon and learn from that history." ...
Now it’s up to the university and its Board of Trustees to decide the divisive statue’s fate. The Board of Governors wants the university to come up with some sort of plan to locate a “safe, legal, and alternative location for Silent Sam” by Nov. 15, Folt said.
Rahm Emanuel says he won't seek re-election for Chicago mayor
Rahm Emanuel, Chicago mayor and former right-hand man to Barack Obama, will not seek re-election, he said on Tuesday. In a surprise announcement, Emanuel said that he would step aside rather than pursue a third term.
“I’ve decided not to seek re-election,” Emanuel said at apress conference at the city hall, according to the Chicago Tribune. “This has been the job of a lifetime, but it is not a job for a lifetime.” Emanuel has held the top job in Chicago for eight years and had been expected to run in next year’s election, until Tuesday’s briefing.
Eight bird species are first confirmed avian extinctions this decade
Spix’s macaw, a brilliant blue species of Brazilian parrot that starred in the children’s animation Rio, has become extinct this century, according to a new assessment of endangered birds. The macaw is one of eight species, including the poo-uli, the Pernambuco pygmy-owl and the cryptic treehunter, that can be added to the growing list of confirmed or highly likely extinctions, according to a new statistical analysis by BirdLife International.
Historically, most bird extinctions have been small-island species vulnerable to hunting or invasive species but five of these new extinctions have occurred in South America and are attributed by scientists to deforestation. Stuart Butchart, BirdLife International’s chief scientist, said the new study highlighted that an extinction crisis was now unfolding on large continents, driven by human habitat destruction.
“People think of extinctions and think of the dodo but our analysis shows that extinctions are continuing and accelerating today,” he said. “Historically 90% of bird extinctions have been small populations on remote islands. Our evidence shows there is a growing wave of extinctions washing over the continent driven by habitat loss from unsustainable agriculture, drainage and logging.”
Four of the eight newly identified bird extinctions took place in Brazil, once home to Spix’s macaw. The attractive parrot was caged and traded for 150 years before any wild populations were discovered but in 1985, three birds were found in a Brazilian forest. Two were illegally captured for the pet trade, and attempts to breed the final male were unsuccessful. A 2016 sighting in the wild is now thought to have been an escaped caged bird, leaving the last known sighting in 2000.
Botswana poaching spree sees 90 elephants killed in two months
Ninety elephant carcasses have been found in Botswana with their tusks hacked off, in what is believed to be one of Africa’s worst mass poaching sprees. Most of the animals killed were large bulls carrying heavy tusks, Elephants Without Borders said on Tuesday.
The discovery was made over several weeks during an aerial survey by scientists from Elephants Without Borders and Botswana’s Department of Wildlife and National Parks. Mike Chase, the charity’s director, said: “We started flying the survey on 10 July, and we have counted 90 elephant carcasses since the survey commenced. Each day, we are counting dead elephants.”
The wild pachyderms were shot with heavy-calibre rifles at watering spots near a wildlife sanctuary in the Okavango Delta. According to Chase, the carcasses’ skulls were “chopped open by presumably very sharp axes, to remove their tusks”. In some cases, the trunks were also removed.
“The scale of elephant poaching is by far the largest I have seen or read about in Africa to date,” Chase said, adding that the poaching coincided with Botswana’s rangers being reportedly disarmed earlier this year. Botswana previously had a zero-tolerance approach to poaching, with a “shoot-to-kill” policy against poachers.
The landlocked country with its unfenced parks and wide open spaces has the largest elephant population in Africa at more than 135,000.
Chase said elephants in Zambia and Angola “have been poached to the verge of local extinction, and poachers have now turned to Botswana”.
Gordon expected to hit Mississippi with hurricane force
Tropical Storm Gordon is strengthening fast as it roars across the Gulf of Mexico and is expected to hit the Mississippi coast as a hurricane late on Tuesday. Gordon formed into a tropical storm near the Florida Keys early on Monday, lashing the southern part of the state with heavy rains and high winds.
By early Tuesday morning, the storm’s center was 230 miles east-south-east of the mouth of the Mississippi river, with top sustained winds of 65mph, forecasters said. It was moving relatively quickly across the warm ocean waters, at about 17mph.
A hurricane warning was put into effect for parts of Mississippi and east to the Alabama-Florida border. As much as eight inches of rain could fall in some parts of the Gulf states through late Thursday and authorities are preparing for rising waters of up to five feet. The Miami-based National Hurricane Center is predicting a “life-threatening” storm surge along parts of the central Gulf coast. A storm surge warning has been issued for the area stretching from Louisiana to Alabama.
Indigenous Activists Win “David vs. Goliath” Victory as Court Rejects $4.5B Trans Mountain Pipeline
Climate change installations appear in New York
The existential threat of climate change is being spelled out to New Yorkers via a selection of flashing highway signs that have been placed around the city.
The 10 large solar-powered signs have been placed in locations in each of New York’s five boroughs, including areas deemed particularly vulnerable to the sea level rise and powerful storms associated with climate change, including the Rockaways in Queens and the west side of Manhattan.
Messages such as “Climate change at work” and “Climate denial kills” will be displayed in English, as well as in languages commonly spoken in the areas they will be deployed, such as Spanish, Russian and French.
The signs are part of a project by the Climate Museum and a host of partners, including the New York City’s mayor’s office. The installation, called Climate Signals, has been done by Justin Brice Guariglia, an artist who regularly focuses on environmental themes in his work.
Scott Pruitt wasted millions at EPA on security detail, report says
The millions of dollars spent on a round-the-clock security detail for the scandal-laden former head of the US Environmental Protection Agency were not justified, according to the findings of an internal watchdog. Scott Pruitt’s transition team asked for a 24/7 security team for him when he was appointed as head of the EPA by Donald Trump, even pulling agents from criminal investigations to guard him, in a move that dramatically escalated the cost for the taxpayer and broke with the protocol followed by his predecessors.
“The failure by the EPA to properly justify the level of protective services provided to the administrator has allowed costs to increase from $1.6m to $3.5m in just 11 months,” said Jeffrey Lagda, a spokesman for EPA’s inspector general. ...
Pruitt’s protective service detail also did not conduct a threat analysis before assigning guards to stay with him at all hours and instead relied on an inspector general report to support ramping up his security. That report included more than a dozen alleged threats, including on social media and in postcards. In one complaint, the inspector general investigated someone drawing a moustache on a photo of Pruitt on the cover of a magazine and posting it in an EPA elevator.
Pruitt’s team also used the reported incidents to support his case for flying first class to avoid encounters with other passengers.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Fear and Loathing — Mostly Loathing — with Chris Hedges at the Harvard Club
The Unlikely Force Behind US Prison Reform
A 5-Year-Old Girl in Immigrant Detention Nearly Died of an Untreated Ruptured Appendix
German Neo-Nazis Rally Again in Chemnitz, This Time Without Hitler Salutes or Mob Violence
A Little Night Music
Big Walter Horton & Robert Nighthawk - Mean Mistreater
Big Walter Horton - Goin' back to St Louis
Big Walter Horton & Robert Nighthawk - Have a Good Time
Willie Dixon & Walter "Shakey" Horton - My Babe!
Walter Horton - Easy
Big Walter Horton - Tin Pan Alley
Big Walter Horton - Blues Harp Shuffle
John Nicholas & Friends (w/Johnny Shines & Big Walter Horton) - Move on Down the Line
Big Walter 'Shakey' Horton - And Blues Band (Live)
Comments
Soviet Documents on Katyn Massacre Faked
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4gZpg9-kRI]
Grover Furr on said massacre
Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.
Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.
evening ac...
i'm having trouble locating any sort of documentation of the claim that the european court of human rights has analyzed the russian documents (which lay the blame for the katyn massacre at the feet of the soviet union/stalin) and declared it/them to be forgeries.
have you seen this?
Rahm Emanuel fall down go boom?
What happened? I have no idea why he would decide not to re-elect himself a third term, is he failing upward again? Writing a book tour? lol Inquiring minds don't care, by mine wants to know. Anyone here know wassup with RahmEmanuel?
thanks for the blues, they're always good. peace
evening eyo...
i'm delighted that rahm will soon cease his punishment of the good people of chicago, but, while i have no idea of his future plans, i'm sure that he will find some highly-compensated sinecure from which to trouble america again.
Perhaps he can train Mossad.
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
I can tell you
What the speculation is here in Chicagoland. The Laquon Mcdonald murder case starts this week, for those that don't remember he is the African American man shot 17 times by a white Chgo. police officer while walking down the street away from the officer. So there's that and the hundreds of shootings that have been taking place on the West and South sides of Chgo. just about every week this summer. Imo the trial will cause Rahm major problems no matter if the officer is found guilty or not but if found not guilty I'm expecting to see trouble.
Eyes Left Podcast: The Clifton Hicks Story
Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.
Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.
Small World
I had this embed in hand for Eyes Left and was coming here to post it. What a pleasant surprise to see it already here. I had my first listen to their broadcast. I would highly recommended they be added to everyone's list. The Hicks story was incredible. Listening to an antiwar perspective from two fellows who served in the wars is one of a kind.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Been listening to these guys since they started.
If I'm not mistaken, Mike Rysner also works with Abby Martin. It's really good stuff all around.
Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.
Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.
thanks!
i haven't had time to listen through the whole podcast, but the first bit that i've listened to sounds interesting.
I should know this, but I don't. What happens to the
$10 million Rahm raised, supposedly for his third Mayoral campaign? (Last year, he said he would run again.)
I followed both links from the article on Rahm
thanks, and now I'm grouchier. lol theguardian has my answer, PU:
and chicagotribune has both:
BOHICA chicago
Bend Over Here It Comes Again
Sounds like he can just do whatever the fck he wants, D is for Donors. Or maybe he'll get a 501c4 like Bernie, to help elect more Ds. oy!
Did I mention I hate Trump too? Because I don't want anybody getting the wrong idea, just because Ds are a massive political party FAILURE, doesn't mean I support the R party. Their actions are exactly the same to someone at my level, down here in the ditch. bombs away. wah
have a nice trip
see ya next fall
Thanks, eyo.
Remember this guy? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elwyn_Tinklenberg
Stupid Democrats, including me, donated over a million dollars to his campaign in its last days, when it was really too late to anything effective with the money. He made the news because of the last minute money bomb. I don't think he spent a cent of it before he lost to Michelle Bachman and he never ran again. I always wondered what he did with the money.
evening henry...
opensecrets has a useful article, here's a relevant section:
Local media here in Chicago
is reporting the money will be split among Dem candidates for Mayor. Whoever they are, there are about 10 running now and I'm sure there will be about 10 more now that RE is not running. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for that to happen though.
What do you have on the new book
by Bob Woodward about Trump called "Fear"?
Bob Woodward’s new book reveals a ‘nervous breakdown’ of Trump’s presidency
I can't embed the phone conversation between him and Trump. May be you can. Or may be you are not interested.
As far as I understand it: Wagenknecht's movement is not supported by her own party, there is an internal split. I think the Linke is stupid for it. I think Wagenknechts attempt to build the movement is something positive.
Everything else like Chemnitz is just FUBAR. Refuse to comment on FUBAR Germans.
evening mimi...
i haven't paid much attention to woodward's book at this point. i expect that we are about to hear a lot about it whether we want to or not. as i understand it, woodward pretty much confirms people's suspicions that trump is a loudmouthed, know-nothing, stumblebutt. i don't have to read woodward's book to get that.
what is of more consequence that trump's lack of character, curiosity and common sense, is that so many americans just love the guy and feel empowered by him - and they will not accept a word of the woodward "lügenpresse" story.
it looks to me, from my remove, like wageknecht's effort might be the only viable attempt at the moment in germany to keep things from going down the rat hole. i hope that she is not just a calculating, opportunist politician looking to exploit a bad situation to obtain power without any sort of motive to help the people make meaningful change.
if that would ever be possible
I kill myself deliberately and praise God for having send us a messiah in the person of Wagenknecht and praise him in heaven for all his wisdom. But I guess I will sit on cloud 9 and will all be soaked in rain and cry for the rest of my life in the heavenly clouds.
Sorry for mentioning Bob Woodwards book. I somehow did not remember well what he was. Now it came back.
ok, I am trying to find a dog who barks now ...
Good Night for you over there.
Bob Woodwards book "Fear"
I just decided to buy all books Bob Woodwards ever wrote and go from there. Can't just do otherwise.
His last book comes out on September 11th. May be it is another attack on some Tower. Wonder if there will be another 'controlled' collapse going with it.
They'll confirm this lowlife anyway.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
evening dk...
yep, it seems quite predetermined. the dems are unwilling to stand up on their hind legs and do what needs to be done to stop it. they are the dog that didn't bark.
That hasn’t stopped everybody fund
raising on this thing.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
evening lily...
heh, if they stopped fundraising, why, we'd have to assume that they were deceased.
i must say that i have always been impressed that they can find a fundraising angle for any occasion.
OK, that made me chuckle. Thanks. I needed that.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
Windows 10 Going to Nickel and Dime Model
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjOm3p-IdHg]
Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.
Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.
heh...
not really surprising. other companies (notably adobe with its "creative cloud") are looking to go to a monthly cash flow option. it makes sense that microsloth would too.
seems like a lousy option to me as a consumer. i'm pretty sure that it would be the thing that would push me over the edge to loading linux on my web connected computer and maintaining my old computers as offline machines that run the software i use for photography and graphics.
I am definitely pushed over the edge
just have to find the people to help me doing it. My current go to guy for all my Windows mess on my old computers does not get it. I want to get out of Microsofts software. Wanna be offline, do not want to share nowhere any photos. I bet you it is not even possible anymore.
I just decided to write my life's story offline. And I hope it stays there. I have my doubts if that even can still be done.
Non-Internet solution
Oh, it can be done. I have a 1959 Olympia SM4 that works as well as the day it was made. Fifty years from now - if anyone is still alive - it will still be working.
That's a 1960 model, but mine is identical. No Internet needed, nor even electricity. All it needs is your mind and your fingers. Well, some paper and a new ribbon every 10,000 words or so. Or just re-ink the existing one. These are German-made machines. Tremendously plentiful in your neck of the woods. QWERTY or QWERTZ, no problem. Dirt cheap; probably can find one for free if you're patient.
There is an old one my mother left behind
it's even a model that is suitable to travel with, extra small...
There you go!
Maybe you could get it out, clean the dust out, install new ribbon? There's something about writing with a typewriter... Love having mine on a small table in front of a window. My cat seems to enjoy it, too. The lack of distractions (read, Internet) is amazing. Many of us have forgotten what its like.
For little money, you could even take it to a for-real typewriter repair shop (they still exist!) and have them go through it. Just don't oil it or use WD-40, etc, on it. They were made to run dry. It's dust and gunk that mess them up. Usually all they need is some cleaning to be back to normal. Sometimes the platens harden with age, but you can simply double up on paper to add the needed cushion the platen would have provided.
I'll share a photo when I am done ... :-) /nt
The warm feeling I get in my chest after witnessing
Bush handing candy to the Obamas is heartburn. Yech!
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
heh...
it just makes me think of those stories about how mafiosi were such good family men.
It’s not as if Germans are mad at the government for no reason
https://www.rt.com/news/437642-afghan-child-rape-germany/
https://www.dw.com/en/police-search-for-third-chemnitz-murder-suspect/a-...
Chemnitz is in Saxony.
After living in the Frankfurt area in Hesse for almost 40 years — in the era of Daniel Cohn-Bendit and Pflasterstrand, supporting the Greens and various alternative-left projects and protests — I now live in Saxony.
In a democracy, whether I approve or not, I think white Europeans are well within their rights to talk about, and agitate and vote against, the possibility of becoming just another minority among many in their own countries, a generation or two hence, due to mass immigration and attendant birth-rate differentials.
No more town Christmas market, no more pork in schools and public buildings?
As an early Green, life member of the Sierra Club, et cetera, I would have thought it a good thing for general, worldwide ecological awareness that so many Europeans still feel deep roots to the locales and natural systems where their ancestors came from and they still live today.
Nowadays, though, it seems that the ever-moralizing yet economics- and realpolitik-preaching, globalizing elites want everywhere in Europe — except for their own tax havens, exclusive playgrounds, and guarded enclaves, of course — to become like America, a “nation of immigrants,” pop-culture and marketing driven, rootless — with origins and traditions, regions and nations, cultures and continents as insignificant and peripheral as whether one’s forebears hailed from Delaware, Pennsylvania, or New Jersey.