The Evening Blues - 9-9-16



eb1pt12


Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues rock singer and harmonica player, Kim Wilson. Enjoy!

The Kim Wilson Blues All-Stars - Bad Boy, That's Alright, Jam

"The ends came to justify the means, and the means were inhumane and abhorrent. The debate should not be about whether the torture worked. The federal criminal law and the treaty have no exception for effective torture."

-- Erwin Chemerinsky


News and Opinion

Senate investigator breaks silence about CIA's 'failed coverup' of torture report

For six years, Daniel Jones was the chief investigator for the Senate intelligence committee’s inquiry into CIA detentions and interrogations carried out in the post-9/11 Bush era. Jones and his team turned 6.3m pages of internal CIA documents into a scathing study which concluded that torture was ineffective and that the CIA had lied about it to two presidents, Congress and the US public. ...

The CIA accessed Jones’s work and even reconstructed his emails, sparking an unprecedented clash between the agency and its legislative overseers on Capitol Hill.

Jones has broken his silence in an extensive series of interviews with the Guardian, expressing dissatisfaction with what he called a lack of accountability for torture at the CIA. He also says the agency, under the leadership of John Brennan was abetted in trying to silence criticism by Barack Obama, the president who banned torture as one of the first acts of his tenure. ...

The Guardian’s findings, to be published in three installments starting today, include:

How Jones was so afraid the CIA would destroy important evidence, that he covertly removed from a CIA location a classified document, later described as a “smoking gun” by a senator on the committee ;

A decision that left the investigation of extradjudicial transfers of terror suspects into the hands of foreign intelligence services practically lost to history;

One of Obama’s most senior aides insisted the Senate obscure a finding that some CIA interrogators who operated at black sites around the world after 9/11 had been accused of domestic abuse and even sexual assault;

Senators were prepared to suppress the report amid national security concerns, until intelligence chief James Clapper provided the committee with a “farce” of an analysis predicting that its publication would lead to chaos and violence around the world. ...

Jones, now a consultant in Washington for the Daschle Group and his own Penn Quarter Group, said that one of the report’s shocking findings was that the CIA misled not just George W Bush on torture, but also Obama.

[Here's the first installment: Inside the fight to reveal the CIA's torture secrets - js]

Hillary Clinton’s National Security Advisers Are a “Who’s Who” of the Warfare State

Hillary Clinton is meeting on Friday with a new national security “working group” that is filled with an elite “who’s who” of the military-industrial complex and the security deep state.

The list of key advisers — which includes the general who executed the troop surge in Iraq and a former Bush homeland security chief turned terror profiteer — is a strong indicator that Clinton’s national security policy will not threaten the post-9/11 national-security status quo that includes active use of military power abroad and heightened security measures at home.

It’s a story we’ve seen before in President Obama’s early appointments. In retrospect, analysts have pointed to the continuity in national security and intelligence advisers as an early sign that despite his campaign rhetoric Obama would end up building on — rather than tearing down — the often-extralegal, Bush-Cheney counterterror regime. For instance, while Obama promised in 2008 to reform the NSA, its director was kept on and its reach continued to grow.

Obama’s most fateful decision may have been choosing former National Counterterrorism Center Director John Brennan to be national security adviser, despite Brennan’s support of Bush’s torture program. Brennan would go on to run the president’s drone program, lead the CIA, fight the Senate’s torture investigation, and then lie about searching Senate computers.

That backdrop is what makes Clinton’s new list of advisers so significant.

[For a detailed list of Clinton's advisors, see the article. - js]

North Korea accused of 'maniacal recklessness' after nuclear test triggers earthquake

North Korea has confirmed it has conducted its most powerful nuclear test to date, marking the 68th anniversary of its founding with a reminder to the world that it may be edging closer to developing a warhead capable of striking the US mainland.

Friday morning’s test, which triggered a magnitude 5.3 earthquake, drew immediate condemnation from North Korea’s neighbours and Washington.

Barack Obama, who was briefed on board Air Force One by National Security Adviser Susan Rice as he returned to the US from an Asian tour, said provocative actions by North Korea would have “serious consequences”. ...

China, North Korea’s traditional ally and major aid provider, voiced its “firm opposition” to the test. “We strongly urge [North Korea] to honour its commitment to denuclearisation, comply with relevant UN security council resolutions, and take action to stop the situation from deteriorating,” the foreign ministry said.

The South Korean president, Park Geun-hye, denounced the test as a clear violation of security council resolutions banning the North from developing nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction. Park accused Kim of “maniacal recklessness” in his pursuit of building a viable nuclear arsenal, according to her office.

North Korea conducts its fifth and largest nuclear test

US Sends More Ground Troops to Iraq Ahead of Planned Mosul Invasion

Pentagon officials are confirming that another round of US ground troops has been deployed to Iraq this week, adding to an already substantial number of combat troops in a war that the Obama Administration has repeatedly promised would be “no boots on the ground.”

The “official” deployment is said to be 400 more troops, bringing the official number of US troops in Iraq to 4,460. This is only a fraction of the overall deployment, however, which is believed to be in excess of 6,000 troops now, with the rest as “temporary” troops of indefinite period.

These latest troops are part of the planned invasion of Mosul, the largest city held by ISIS.

America’s True Role in Syria

A widespread – and false – perception is that Obama has kept the US out of the Syrian war. Indeed, the US right wing routinely criticizes him for having drawn a line in the sand for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over chemical weapons, and then backing off when Assad allegedly crossed it (the issue remains murky and disputed, like so much else in Syria). A leading columnist for the Financial Times, repeating the erroneous idea that the US has remained on the sidelines, recently implied that Obama had rejected the advice of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to arm the Syrian rebels fighting Assad.

Yet the curtain gets lifted from time to time. In January, the New York Times finally reported on a secret 2013 Presidential order to the CIA to arm Syrian rebels. As the account explained, Saudi Arabia provides substantial financing of the armaments, while the CIA, under Obama’s orders, provides organizational support and training.

Unfortunately, the story came and went without further elaboration by the US government or follow up by the New York Times. The public was left in the dark: How big are the ongoing CIA-Saudi operations? How much is the US spending on Syria per year? What kinds of arms are the US, Saudis, Turks, Qataris, and others supplying to the Syrian rebels? Which groups are receiving the arms? What is the role of US troops, air cover, and other personnel in the war? The US government isn’t answering these questions, and mainstream media aren’t pursuing them, either. ...

Through occasional leaks, investigative reports, statements by other governments, and rare statements by US officials, we know that America is engaged in an active, ongoing, CIA-coordinated war both to overthrow Assad and to fight ISIS. ... The US has spent billions of dollars on arms, training, special operations forces, air strikes, and logistical support for the rebel forces, including international mercenaries. ... The US public has had no say in these decisions. There has been no authorizing vote or budget approval by the US Congress. The CIA’s role has never been explained or justified. The domestic and international legality of US actions has never been defended to the American people or the world.

'Suffering of Syrians is horrendous': UK Baroness Cox on her trip to Aleppo, Damascus

What The Response To Johnson’s Slip-Up Says About American Politics

What’s worse, momentarily blanking on the name of a foreign city or spearheading a failed CIA-directed regime change that displaced 10 million people and left more than 250,000 dead, many from that city? Based on their coverage of Gary Johnson’s recent Morning Joe blunder, where he inquired, “what is Aleppo?” when questioned about the largest Syrian city, political strategists, pundits, and journalists seem to judge forgetfulness worse than igniting a civil war.

Simply put, the world would be a much much safer place had Hillary Clinton never heard of Aleppo. After failing to disentangle Syria from Iranian influence through secret negotiations with Israel in 2010, Hillary Clinton led the charge for her proxy war to overthrow Assad. By 2011, the US adopted her plan explicitly and used the Arab Spring to align with and arm anti-Assad efforts such as ISIS and initiate what currently stands at over 4,800 airstrikes in Syria.

Despite early attempts at ceasefire negotiations in 2012, the CIA-led insurgency and the predictably violent response by Assad has ravaged Syria. Aleppo in particular has been a focal point of the Syrian civil war for months, with hundreds of people dying on both sides of the conflict. Until America agrees to a ceasefire without regime change, Aleppo will likely continue to suffer the consequences of Hillary’s hubris. ...

Forgetting the name of a city is simply not in the same ethical ballpark as destroying one, but you wouldn’t know that by paying attention to American election coverage.

Turkey Announces ‘Largest in History’ Operation Against Kurds

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has today described the ongoing military operations against Kurdish forces as the “largest operation in history” with respect to fighting against the Kurdish PKK, saying the attacks will continue both within Turkey and across the borders.

Though it isn’t precisely related, Turkish officials have also linked the military offensive in northern Syria, where they are trading fire with the Kurdish YPG, to this offensive, as Erdogan has repeatedly claimed that the PKK and YPG are basically the same organization.

The PKK’s close ties to Kurdish nationalism, and their status as a terror organization, has often been used by the Erdogan government to target other Kurdish parties, both within Turkey and abroad, by painting them as part of the PKK and by extension terrorists by their very nature.

Saudi Airstrikes Kill Nine Civilians in Yemeni Capital, Including Four Children

Rescue workers are continuing to sift through the rubble of a three storey apartment building in the Yemeni capital city of Sanaa, which was the latest target in a Saudi air war which has caused substantial civilian casualties throughout, fueling international criticism.

This latest strike killed at least nine civilians, including four children, while five other civilians who were within were wounded. It is unclear if this is all of the casualties, as workers are still trying to comb through the wreckage.

US House adopts ’Sue the Saudis’ 9/11 bill

Wolf Blitzer Is Worried Defense Contractors Will Lose Jobs if U.S. Stops Arming Saudi Arabia

Sen. Rand Paul's expression of opposition to a $1.1 billion U.S. arms sale to Saudi Arabia — which has been brutally bombing civilian targets in Yemen using U.S.-made weapons for more than a year now — alarmed CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Thursday afternoon.

Blitzer’s concern: That stopping the sale could result in fewer jobs for arms manufacturers.

“So for you this is a moral issue,” he told Paul during the Kentucky Republican’s appearance on CNN. “Because you know, there’s a lot of jobs at stake. Certainly if a lot of these defense contractors stop selling war planes, other sophisticated equipment to Saudi Arabia, there’s going to be a significant loss of jobs, of revenue here in the United States. That’s secondary from your standpoint?”

Paul stayed on message. “Well not only is it a moral question, its a constitutional question,” Paul said. “Our founding fathers very directly and specifically did not give the president the power to go to war. They gave it to Congress. So Congress needs to step up and this is what I’m doing.”

The world is apparently awash in terror 'masterminds'

How many times has a terrorist been described by western media outlets as a 'mastermind'?

Not surprisingly, a perfunctory database search revealed that "terrorist mastermind" has been employed thousands of times by scores of news organisations to describe all sorts of mostly bad guys doing bad things to good people. ...

The phrase "terrorist mastermind" has become part of the cliched vernacular of the coverage of the "war on terror" for several rarely discussed reasons.

First, and perhaps most importantly, the term is designed to ascribe unique, almost other-worldly powers to the West’s latest iteration of the "bad guys".

The intent, of course, is to create the spectre - wittingly or unwittingly - that the West is facing an existential threat from a legion of virtual "supermen" (and superwomen, for that matter) that requires an equally unique, powerful and commensurate response.

This is the predictable rationale that often accompanies the invocation of draconian "anti-terror laws" by western governments of disparate political persuasions, that are engineered, rhetorically speaking, to confront and, ultimately defeat, the terrorist "superman".

Conditions for Greece's migrant children shocking, says Human Rights Watch

Migrant children in Greece are being made to live in filthy, bug-and-vermin-infested cells

Alarming numbers of migrant children in Greece are being detained in deplorable and depraved conditions , Human Rights Watch says.

Unaccompanied minors – some as young as 14 – are being held in substandard and chaotic detention centres across the country in flagrant violation of international and Greek law, the group said in a report on Friday.

“Children are being detained for weeks and months, and are being made to live in filthy, bug-and-vermin-infested cells, sometimes without mattresses or access to showers,” said Rebecca Riddell, who authored the report.

Speaking from New York, Riddell told the Guardian the 27-page investigation – entitled “Why are you keeping me here?”– documented indisputably that children were being held for prolonged periods in places where they had little access to basic care and services. ...

“This isn’t a new problem but it is being made much worse by significant migration to Greece and callous inaction by EU countries … We’re talking about kids who are all alone and who fled their countries, often to escape violence.”

Facebook deletes Norway PM's post as 'napalm girl' row escalates

Facebook has deleted a post by the Norwegian prime minister in an escalating row over the website’s decision to remove content featuring the Pulitzer-prize winning “napalm girl” photograph from the Vietnam war.

Erna Solberg, the Conservative prime minister, called on Facebook to “review its editing policy” after it deleted her post voicing support for a Norwegian newspaper that had fallen foul of the social media giant’s guidelines.

Solberg was one of a string of Norwegian politicians who shared the iconic image after Facebook deleted a post from Tom Egeland, a writer who had included the Nick Ut picture as one of seven photographs he said had “changed the history of warfare”.

Vietnam Napalm 1972

Egeland was subsequently suspended from Facebook and his standoff with the social media giant was reported by the daily newspaper Aftenposten, which used the same image in its reporting of the story and itself came under pressure from Facebook to delete the picture. ...

Solberg said: “It is highly regrettable that Facebook has removed a post from my Facebook page. What they achieve by removing such images, good as the intentions may be, is to edit our common history. I wish today’s children will also have the opportunity to see and learn from historical mistakes and events. This is important.

Greece – living with austerity

Huge Consumer Scam Results in Paltry Fines—and Little Else—for Wells Fargo

Banking behemoth Wells Fargo, one of the world's largest financial institutions, was fined a mere $185 million by various regulators on Thursday for opening millions of unauthorized accounts that racked up fees for consumers and bonuses for employees. ...

According to the CFPB, those violations included:

  • Opening deposit accounts and transferring funds without authorization: According to the bank's own analysis, employees opened roughly 1.5 million deposit accounts that may not have been authorized by consumers. Employees then transferred funds from consumers' authorized accounts to temporarily fund the new, unauthorized accounts. This widespread practice gave the employees credit for opening the new accounts, allowing them to earn additional compensation and to meet the bank’s sales goals. Consumers, in turn, were sometimes harmed because the bank charged them for insufficient funds or overdraft fees because the money was not in their original accounts.
  • Applying for credit card accounts without authorization: According to the bank's own analysis, Wells Fargo employees applied for roughly 565,000 credit card accounts that may not have been authorized by consumers. On those unauthorized credit cards, many consumers incurred annual fees, as well as associated finance or interest charges and other fees.
  • Issuing and activating debit cards without authorization: Wells Fargo employees requested and issued debit cards without consumers' knowledge or consent, going so far as to create PINs without telling consumers.
  • Creating phony email addresses to enroll consumers in online-banking services.

In addition to the $185 million in fines, Wells Fargo will refund all affected consumers, to the tune of roughly $2.5 million. ...

But many critics said the penalties didn't go far enough, considering that, as Matt Egan put it for CNN Money, "The scope of the scandal is shocking."

Nationwide Prison Strike Launches in 24 States and 40 Facilities over Conditions & Forced Labor

'A Call to End Slavery': Nationwide Prison Strike Kicks Off

Prisoners across the United States are launching a massive strike on Friday, on the 45th anniversary of the Attica prison uprising, to protest what they call modern-day slavery.

Organizers say the strike will take place in at least 24 states to protest inhumane living and working conditions, forced labor, and the cycle of the criminal justice system itself. In California alone, 800 people are expected to take part in the work stoppage. It is slated to be one of the largest strikes in history.

In the era of Black Lives Matter, the issues of racist policing, the school-to-prison pipeline, and other factors that contribute to the mass incarceration crisis are coming to the forefront of civil and human rights movements.

"Slavery is alive and well in the prison system, but by the end of this year, it won't be anymore," reads the call to action from groups including Support Prisoner Resistance, the Free Alabama Movement, and the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC). "This is a call to end slavery in America."

It continues:

Our protest against prison slavery is a protest against the school to prison pipeline, a protest against police terror, a protest against post-release controls. When we abolish slavery, they'll lose much of their incentive to lock up our children, they'll stop building traps to pull back those who they've released. When we remove the economic motive and grease of our forced labor from the US prison system, the entire structure of courts and police, of control and slave-catching must shift to accommodate us as humans, rather than slaves.

As the organizers explain in their call to action, "Certain Americans live every day under not only the threat of extra-judicial execution—as protests surrounding the deaths of Mike Brown, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland, and so many others have drawn long overdue attention to—but also under the threat of capture, of being thrown into these plantations, shackled and forced to work."

America’s largest veterans group wants Congress to treat marijuana like medicine

A US military veterans group with more than 2 million members has formally called on Congress to "recognize cannabis as a drug with potential medical value" and make it easier for researchers to study whether marijuana is an effective treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injuries.

The American Legion, the country's largest veterans organization, approved a resolution last week at its national convention that calls on US lawmakers to remove marijuana from the list of Schedule I controlled substances, a restrictive category that includes heroin, LSD, and other drugs with "no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse."



the horse race



Open Letter to NBC Moderator Calls for Candidates to Debate 'Democracy Itself'

Before they tackle foreign policy, climate change, the economy, or public education at upcoming presidential debates, "the candidates must first debate democracy itself," reads an open letter to NBC's Lester Holt, who will moderate the first face-off between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump later this month.

"As the moderator of this year's first presidential debate, you have significant flexibility to select the topics you chose to cover," says the letter, co-signed by a coalition of more than 30 organizations representing millions of Americans nationwide. "While there are a number of critical policy differences between the candidates, there is one subject so fundamental to our future—so essential to our national identity—that its inclusion in this debate must be guaranteed."

That is, democracy: issues ranging from money in politics to voting rights to freedom of the press. "Each of these topics deserves a full inquiry," the letter reads. "Each affects, at the most fundamental level, who has power in this country and who doesn't."

And "power— more specifically, the distribution of power—in this country affects every aspect of American life," according to the missive, "from trade deals to criminal justice, from water quality to access to medical treatment. In the most extreme cases, power decides not only how people live, but if they live."

Voters deserve to hear presidential candidates speak about a system they've described as "rigged," pro-democracy groups said on Thursday.

"It's evident this election cycle that Americans are fed up with a democracy that isn't working for them," said Rahna Epting, chief of staff at Every Voice.

And the Ship Goes Down

The eternal promise of capitalist democracy is a future that somehow breaks from the past. In this alternate universe solutions to global warming, the threat of nuclear weapons, never-ending wars fought to control economic resources and the just distribution of political and economic power are always but one election away. ... Without this promise the present exists as a set of perpetually irresolvable contradictions. The ideas for environmental resolution, nuclear disarmament and more equitable political and economic distribution are placed by political operatives in the social ether in order to preclude their realization.

Hillary Clinton, a central proponent of wars of choice, economic maldistribution and divisive social strategies to consolidate and maintain political power, poses as their opposite to win election. In theorized contradiction Donald Trump has bravely proposed ‘banning’ the Muslims that Hillary Clinton has spent two decades murdering, slandering the Hispanic immigrants that Hillary Clinton has spent two decades dispossessing and cutting taxes on the rich that Hillary Clinton has spent two decades making richer. ...

So effective is the propaganda that Democrats ‘educated’ on the issues look past Hillary Clinton’s wanton and willful participation in killing 500,000 vulnerable Iraqi women and children through sanctions (‘passive’ murder), her support for George W. Bush’s catastrophic and murderous war of choice against Iraq and her launch of the war that destroyed Libya to believe that she is the solution to her own past. Ideological and / or tribal blinders come into play through the assumption that the same Hillary Clinton who sacrificed a million or so Black lives to mass incarceration out of political expediency and ten or so million factory jobs for the benefit of stock prices and her Wall Street benefactors cares about anything or anyone but herself. ...

With the neoliberal consensus under attack the strategy of officialdom is to define the realm of political possibility from Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump. Mr. Trump’s blatant racist and nativist chatter is seen as a threat to the establishment because it is blatant, not because it is racist and / or nativist. Ronald Reagan began his run for the Presidency in 1980 in Philadelphia, Mississippi where three civil rights workers were brutally murdered in the 1960s to signal that race was to again be used to divide working class interests for the benefit of capital. Hillary Clinton slandered Black children with the dehumanizing term ‘super-predators’ as the Clintons pushed for longer mandatory prison sentences, increased capital punishment and the build-out of mass incarceration. The idea that officialdom is either surprised or horrified by Mr. Trump’s cynical drivel would be laughable if it weren’t so transparent.



the evening greens


National Guard on Standby in North Dakota Before Court Ruling on Dakota Access Pipeline

'Whose Side Are You On?' Dakota Access Emerges as Pivotal Battleground

With so much at stake and with so much attention thrust on the stretch of land at the convergence of the Missouri and Cannonball Rivers, the silence on the part of the country's leaders has been deafening

It took months of fierce resistance, thousands camped out in protest, dozens of arrests, and a brutal encounter with attack dogs, but the tribal fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) has emerged as a national moment of truth for the political establishment, as well as the hundreds of thousands who have voiced support for the Standing Rock Sioux in this pivotal moment.

In anticipation of Friday's federal court ruling that could temporarily halt pipeline construction, North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple officially activated the National Guard to increase the security presence around the peaceful prayer camps, which heightened tensions for many tribal members.

"To an average non-Native person, that might feel safe," Faith Spotted Eagle, an Ihanktowan elder, explained to Indian Country Today. "To us, it feels really familiar, and it personally takes me back to the Whitestone Massacre," she said, referring to the 1863 attack by the U.S. military on the very same land occupied by the prayer camp. "But we know how to handle these situations...We pray."

Standing Rock Sioux chairman David Archambault II issued a statement on Thursday calling for peace regardless of the outcome. ...

Nearly 800,000 people have signed one of the multiple petitions circulating calling for the pipeline permit to be revoked, citing the threats to both clean water as well as tribal sovereignty. Solidarity events have been held in cities across the country with a day of national day of action planned for September 13. Meanwhile, numerous high profile activists, politicians, and celebrities—including Bernie Sanders, Susan Sarandon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Bill McKibben, and Shailene Woodley—have also joined the opposition.

Fall of the Wild: Study Documents 'Catastrophic Decline' in World's Untouched Places

Wilderness, though remote by nature, is not immune to the ravages of humanity. In fact, according to a new study in the journal Current Biology, the world's wild places are undergoing "catastrophic decline" and could be facing elimination within decades if monumental policy shifts are not implemented.

"If we don't act soon, there will only be tiny remnants of wilderness around the planet, and this is a disaster for conservation, for climate change, and for some of the most vulnerable human communities on the planet," warned lead author Dr. James Watson, of the University of Queensland in Australia and the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York. "We have a duty to act for our children and their children."

Watson and his team mapped wilderness areas around the globe, which were defined as "biologically and ecologically intact landscapes free of any significant human disturbance," and then compared that to one produced by the same methods in the early 1990s.

The amount of wilderness loss in those two decades was "staggering," according to co-author Dr. Oscar Venter of the University of Northern British Colombia.

The study reported total losses of 3.3 million km² since the 1990s, particularly in South America, which experienced 29.6 percent loss, and Africa, with 14 percent. The world currently has a total of 30.1 million km² of remaining wilderness, which is primarily located in North America, North Asia, North Africa, and Australia.

Overall, the researchers found that rapid development had wiped out roughly 10 percent of wilderness over the past 20 years—a pace that, researchers say, spells disaster for these pristine ecosystems if no changes in policy are made.


Also of Interest

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

What Aleppo Is and Is Not

Broken Promises That Still Shape the World

A 9/11 Retrospective: Washington's 15-Year Air War

Hillary Clinton says of Libya, 'We did not lose a single American in that action'

Syria: UN Team Heard Claims of ‘Staged’ Chemical Attacks

What’s Behind Barack Obama’s Ongoing Accommodation of Vladimir Putin?

Official 9/11 Narrative Will Be Challenged at Manhattan Symposium

Wells Fargo Fined $185 Million for Opening Phony Customer Accounts, Charging Fees Without Consent; Executives Go Scot Free

Japan Isn’t Playing Neoliberalism’s Word Games

Greasing the Outstretched Hands

Kaepernick's anthem protest is perfect way to highlight America's race problem


Palestinians lay claim to most of land Israel staked out for Amona settlers

The World Nomad Games

Prince Buster obituary


A Little Night Music

Kim Wilson - Lookin' For Trouble

Jimmie Vaughan, Delbert McClinton & Kim Wilson - Ain't That Lovin' You Baby

Bonnie Raitt & Kim Wilson - Coming Home

Kim Wilson & Ronnie Earl - Double Trouble

Bonnie Raitt & Kim Wilson - Think

Fabulous Thunderbirds (featuring Kim Wilson) - Wrap It Up

The Fabulous Thunderbirds - She's Tough

Kim Wilson - Early in the morning

Kim Wilson 1st set at Little Lou's BBQ


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JekyllnHyde's picture

With your help, the Team99% Fundraising efforts are going well. We need to keep it up.

Read all the details in this essay by davidincleveland - How Did We Do In August? Take A Look At The Numbers.

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A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma

riverlover's picture

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

OLinda's picture

It is here with another one. Check them out! So well done!

Enough with the modesty, joe! That ad should be atop EB.

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joe shikspack's picture

they are great, indeed!

heh, it's not so much modesty as surprise - i had no idea that those videos were in the works and just saw them a couple of minutes ago.

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joe shikspack's picture

that is some pretty amazing news! and y'all blindsided me with those videos, they are pretty cool stuff!

thanks to everybody who kicked in and to whomever made the promo videos!

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divineorder's picture

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

JekyllnHyde's picture

... had it not been for the initiative taken by Dallasdoc a few weeks ago and the enormous amount of behind-the-scenes work done by davidincleveland, RantingRooster, and several other c99% community members. The suggestions made have been invaluable.

Most of all, this effort reflects the generous donations made by many folks here who view caucus99percent as indispensable. Clearly, we'd like to build upon this great start.

I'm happy to play a small role in assisting the fundraising team. Thanks for your comment, divineorder.

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A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma

JekyllnHyde's picture

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A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma

OLinda's picture

but you know this makes no sense, right? Smile

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OLinda's picture

I want to say snarkily "I'm shocked.... shocked!"

Is anyone actually surprised? No.

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OLinda's picture

There have been a few remarks about how horrible it is that Oliver Stone put the information about the refugees who hid Snowden in his movie, putting them in danger. (I haven't see the movie, so am not sure it's in there.) I have seen media stories.

If it is in the movie, what I am wondering is who told Stone? It would have to have been Snowden, Snowden's attorneys, the refugees own immigration attorneys, maybe Greenwald or Poitras. And, someone dished up the story and photos to the National Post.

Greenwald and Snowden both have retweeted the National Post story which tells all about the refugees (while not mentioning last names, but includes photos and many specifics.)

I don't believe Snowden and Greenwald would have a callous regard for the refugees' safety. But, yet, they promoted the story.

So, what gives? Any thoughts?

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joe shikspack's picture

i guess once the information was "out there" it might arguably be better for the refugees to be in the public eye such that any ill that befalls them might get some attention. i dunno.

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OLinda's picture

good point, joe. Thank you.

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riverlover's picture

satellite-high flyby by an asteroid the size of a 2-car garage. Not noticed before. Maybe a comet will not be needed.

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

RantingRooster's picture

out there we have no clue about, but as Wacko as I am, I worry about random gamma ray bursts Fool

Like it could only scorch half the planet.....well, maybe, one can only hope, right? Sad

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C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote

joe shikspack's picture

maybe it's that new candidate "giant meteor" that polled in the double digits rolling in for the debates. Smile

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divineorder's picture

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

darkmatter's picture

to act as a sort of executive officer of the week, but all decisions of that officer have to be ratified at a biweekly meeting....

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joe shikspack's picture

that's an excellent meme, thanks!

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RantingRooster's picture

Music 2

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C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote

joe shikspack's picture

i am guessing that you put together the promo videos? cool beans! thanks!

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RantingRooster's picture

I love the blues....and enjoy the EB threads....

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C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote

WindDancer13's picture

fromhttp://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/house-passes-sept-11-legislation-as-oba...

The Obama administration has warned that if U.S. citizens can take the Saudis to court, then a foreign country could in turn sue the United States.

And the TPP doesn't, right?

Terry Strada, national head of 9/11 Families United For Justice Against Terrorism, dismissed fears the U.S. could be the target of lawsuits.

"If we're not funding terrorist organizations and killing people, then we don't have anything to worry about," she said.

Ruh oh.

In a separate development, a bipartisan group of senators are seeking to block the Obama administration's proposed sale of more than $1 billion worth of U.S. weapons to Saudi Arabia.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., cited Saudi Arabia's poor human rights record and the kingdom's role in Yemen's civil war.

My head is spinning now.

[video:https://youtu.be/NG6Eop0x5UU]

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass

joe shikspack's picture

from their statements, it kinda makes you wonder if terry strada and the 911 families actually believe the government's hype about how wonderful and exceptional the us is - or if they are playing reverse psychology on some former and present administration officials.

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WindDancer13's picture

sarcasm.

By the way, I forgot to say thank you for the news. So thank You!

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass

Azazello's picture

Evenin' everybody ...
So Bill "I am not a crook" Clinton has unleashed an impassioned self-defense.

Angel Urena, a spokesman for Mr. Clinton, said that the foundation’s mission and those who rely on it “have been President Clinton’s life” since he left office.
“So when someone who doesn’t know the first thing about philanthropy tries to bring the Clinton Foundation into his political sideshow,” Mr. Urena said of Mr. Trump, “President Clinton is going to stand up for it

That's me, I guess. I don't know the first thing about philanthropy. All my life I've thought philanthropists were people who made their money elsewhere and then donated some of it to charity. That their net worth was reduced because they gave of it away. It was news to me that folks like the Clintons could actually make millions from their charitable activity. Oh well, live and learn.

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

joe shikspack's picture

yeah, until the clintons came along people who turned charities into profit centers were called con-men and fraudsters.

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divineorder's picture

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

Azazello's picture

This tune just came into my mind a couple of days ago, I don't know why. I would have been 9 years old when it was released. No doubt I heard it on the radio back then, but why is it in my head just now ?
P.S. - I know Andy Williams is just as bad as Disco and therefore flaggable in the EB, but I promise never to link Pat Boone.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZgW8T2IIqU]

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

joe shikspack's picture

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enhydra lutris's picture

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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 --

snoopydawg's picture

leave, driveway was blocked by the furniture company so I was stuck.
She had msnbc on so I watched Hillary's foreign policy conference.
Hillary boasted about all the republicans (neoconservative warmongers) who have endorsed her because they agree with her foreign policy views and is happy that the security of the US can be bipartisan.
She said something about how the US has been attacked by ISIL and the leader of ISIL is going to be dealt with just like Bin Laden was dealt with.
I asked my aunt when were we attacked by ISIL and she informed me that the Orlando and San Bernadino attacks were on ISIL's orders. The propaganda is working. And even though Bin Laden is dead, Al Queda is bigger than ever and part of the reason is because the US is arming, training and funding them to help overthrow Assad. I wonder how Bin Laden would feel about his troops working with the US again?

In the extras links there's an article about how Hillary said that not one American soldier died in the Libya war. She said that the US had to attack Libya because Gaddafi was slaughtering his people so in order to protect those people from Gaddafi I guess the US had to bomb them instead?
Are we protecting the Syrian people too? If so we are doing a very bad job of it because 250 thousand have been killed and many more have had to flee.
Finally, Hillary, Obama and some democrats are unhappy with Donald saying nice things about Putin and they and the media are telling us about how some of his staff members have done business with Russia.
We know that Hillary helped Russia get 20% of our uranium and that she helped Boeing sell Russia their jets.
Here's an interesting article about how Hillary and Obama did business with Russia starting in 2009. Hypocrites much?
This is a long and detailed article about the deals they made
http://www.g-a-i.org/u/2016/08/Report-Skolkvovo-08012016.pdf

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

Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.

joe shikspack's picture

sorry to hear that you got stuck watching hillary propaganda teevee. that must've been painful.

it's sad to hear that so much of that propaganda passes into the public mind without sparking most people's critical facilities.

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snoopydawg's picture

About how she is going to keep Americans safe from ISIL, how N.Korea's sanctions aren't enough because the nukes could take out China or even the US.
How the sanctions against Iran didn't work because they went ahead and built centrifuges and other things so that they can create nukes.
The lies went on and on
I was hoping that someone else saw it and would do an essay about it, or I could find the video of it to post here because it needs attention.
How the people who are supporting her can't see that she was lying and is going to get us deeper in the quagmire in the Middle East is what I don't understand. On TOP they deny that she is a warmonger even though she helped destroy Iraq, Libya and Syria.
And of course she attacked Putin and said that he invaded Crimea while it was her BFF Nuland that orchestrated the Ukraine coup and installed their puppet president who has opened up Ukraine to outside companies and is funding neo Nazis, who have the same ideas as the Nazis we fought against in Germany.
Oh well, we also created AQ to fight Russia, then they 'supposedly' attacked us so we fought them in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and other countries but are now fighting alongside them in Syria.
Oh how the wheel turns.

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lotlizard's picture

It’s Vietnam all over again. Liberal hawks are saying we have to fill the oilfield and pipeline countries with our wells of intelligence and weaponry, and let the gushers of blood spew forth. It’s the humanitarian thing to do.

Because the [insert plural demonym of country whose regime is to be changed] are such brutal bad guys, blah blah.

Anyway, liberals nowadays, they hate Apple but love Saudi Arabia.

Why is the U.S. aligned with Saudi Arabia?

Whereas if we would treat Apple as sovereign like Saudi Arabia, then instead of Ireland getting $14 billion tax, we could get $115 billion from the king of Cupertino and the mufti of Mac, for arms.

For you see, the bad Apple, it was founded by the bad Jobs who made gadgets.

While the good jobs, they are in the manufacturing of that which deals death.

Say people who call themselves liberals nowadays.

As in the days of Vietnam,
and LBJ.

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divineorder's picture

IMG_4648 (800x533).jpg

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

joe shikspack's picture

wow, nice leopard!

if the weather cooperates, i might head off to longwood gardens on sunday. they say it's supposed to cool down then. tomorrow is supposed to be another scorcher, temps in the 90's but feels like triple digits.

i hope that you guys have good weather and a great weekend.

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I know first hand how hard it is to do that!

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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

divineorder's picture

He was very fat and full from a recent meal!

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

Chelsea Manning is embarking on a hunger strike in protest of the way she is being treated in prison, she told TIME. The former Army private and convicted leaker of classified information to WikiLeaks said she “needs help” but is not receiving any. “I have asked for help time and time again for six years and through five separate confinement” she said. “My request has only been ignored, delayed, mocked, given trinkets and lip service by the prison, the military, and this administration.” Manning, who attempted suicide in July, said she is facing “constant and overzealous administrative scrutiny by prison and military officials.” In addition to refusing to eat or drink, Manning will not voluntarily cut her hair. Manning’s ACLU attorney said: “I am deeply saddened and very concerned for Chelsea’s well-being. The government has long been aware of her medical needs and continues to ignore them.”

http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2016/09/09/chelsea-manning-begins-hu...

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Only connect. - E.M. Forster

joe shikspack's picture

sad news. i hope that the hunger strike produces results for chelsea, though it looks like she is captive of a particularly merciless system.

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mimi's picture

to survive all the forced feedings they will impose on her.

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We may be soon be having Guantanamo-style "cell extractions" and "forced nasal tube feedings" coming to a state-side military prison.

It will take a while, perhaps a long while, for us to hear it officially confirmed, but . . . .

This is hell. Chelsea is attempting suicide again, just by a different method. Now a protest I might join - and get myself arrested for - would be to.show up outside the gates of the prison where she is held to protest her detention while Clinton parades about free. It was not lost on me that Manning attempted suicide the day after Comey gave his huge presentation damning Clinton's handling of classified materials culminating in his announcement that she would not be charged.

I think that application of one law for the Rulers and another for the Serfs got to Manning. It should have gotten to us.

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Only connect. - E.M. Forster

snoopydawg's picture

after he plead guilty to giving his mistress classified information so that she could write a book.
And instead of him being in a cell next to Chelsea he only had to pay a $100 thousand dollar fine and be on probation for 2 years and got to keep his rank and pension.
Now this is the big question. Since he plead guilty for mishandling classified information, if Hillary picks him to a position in her administration will he have access to classified information again?
The link about him advising her is in my first comment.

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Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.

is that the President has the final say over what is classified and who has access to what classified materials.

If that's correct, then Clinton as president could give Petraeus access to whatever she wishes, pull an Obama - make him her National Security Advisor as Obama did with Brennan (until his association with the CIA's torture business had cooled enough for him to be confirmed as head of the CIA). We could conceivably see Petraeus as head of the CIA again. I'm sure he's angling for it - and Clinton knows that.

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Only connect. - E.M. Forster

Crider's picture

Live here in 2007 with the trombonist Rico Rodriguez who also recently died.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0XtXyykNjo]

I think both the CIA and the NSA should be dismantled and our spy agency be replaced with much more oversight and a culture of honest, hardworking straight arrows.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adzzQcPGNwQ]
(Indian heavy metal.

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Crider's picture

Have a happy Patriot Day this weekend . . .
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZmM-2gj5Gc]

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joe shikspack's picture

i wonder how long it will take for 9/11 to be turned into a 3 day weekend noted for big sales in retail outlets and car dealerships.

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lotlizard's picture

complete with Osama bin Laden masks, and bonfires, and everything.

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divineorder's picture

and tunes from back in our decades in Austin 1976-2004.

Lots of late nights boogie woogie rawk an rowl !

Yus! Love you man! Thanks!

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

joe shikspack's picture

glad to hear that fun is being had. Smile

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

(than a Quick Drive-by), but wanted to drop by and say 'thanks' for tonight's rendition of News & Blues.

It's great to see the promo videos for EB and C99P--thank you RR! Great job.

Good

I'm pushed to take 'the B' out (in the dark--ugh!) before we sit down to enjoy a so-called wilderness adventure/movie involving a plane crash in the Alaskan Bush. (Anthony Hopkins, Alec Baldwin) We watched it last year--it's no great shakes, but, it serves as a nice distraction for a change of pace.

Sure am happy that we're only days away from the official first day of Fall. Just read that the 2016 August night temps were the hottest in US history--since records have been kept. Apparently, this occurred partly because of the unreal daytime 'humidity,' which kept the night temps from dropping.

Hey, Everyone have a nice, safe, and hopefully, 'cooler' weekend!

Bye

[Edit: 'Alec,' not Alex--I always do that!]

Mollie


“I believe in the redemptive powers of a dog’s love. It is in recognition of each dog’s potential to lift the human spirit, and, therefore, to change society for the better, that I fight to make sure every street dog has its day.”
--Stasha Wong, Secretary, Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD)

National Mill Dog Rescue (NMDR) - Dogs Available For Adoption

Update: Misty May has been adopted. Yeah!

Misty May - NMDR

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

joe shikspack's picture

i hope for the b's sake it's cooler down your way than here. i'm dog sitting the grand dogs and they are waiting until they can't hold it any longer before they leave the air conditioning to go do their business.

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

Delivery Service?

It's advertised heavily on some XM Radio channels, and we're considering trying it, just for the heck of it. If we do, I'll write a blurb about the experience, here.

Wink

See ya . . .

Bye

Mollie


“I believe in the redemptive powers of a dog’s love. It is in recognition of each dog’s potential to lift the human spirit, and, therefore, to change society for the better, that I fight to make sure every street dog has its day.”
--Stasha Wong, Secretary, Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD)

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

snoopydawg's picture

and most of them are good.
Here's the link to one if you haven't checked the reviews yet.
http://www.recode.net/2015/2/23/11559274/my-one-year-experiment-with-blu...
I look forward to yours

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Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.

Unabashed Liberal's picture

the Blue Apron website, there's no contractual obligations--it's a one-week-at-a-time kinda deal.

Anyhoo, if we try it, I'll sure write a little blurb about it. (And I'll probably check out the other food services mentioned in the article you linked to--Plated and NatureBox.)

Have a nice weekend!

Mollie


“I believe in the redemptive powers of a dog’s love. It is in recognition of each dog’s potential to lift the human spirit, and, therefore, to change society for the better, that I fight to make sure every street dog has its day.”
--Stasha Wong, Secretary, Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD)

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

is the title that AP photographer Nick Ut gave to his iconic June 1972 photo of "the napalm girl," which won the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for news photography.

Kim Phuc was the nine-year-old girl so severely burned on her back and arm by the napalm that she tore off her clothes.

After snapping the photograph, Ut took Kim Phúc and the other injured children to Barsky Hospital in Saigon, where it was determined that her burns were so severe that she probably would not survive. [5] After a 14-month hospital stay and 17 surgical procedures including skin transplantations, however, she was able to return home.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phan_Thi_Kim_Phuc

Phuc is now 53 and living in Canada.

Oh, and after his day of "outrage publicity" á la Trump, Zuckerberg has "listened to the community" and Facebook is no longer censoring the photograph.

Meanwhile, white phosphorus falls on the children of Yemen . . .

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Only connect. - E.M. Forster

snoopydawg's picture

the white phosphorus? Was it included in this $135 million dollars weapons deal that Hillary sold to them and did it include the cluster bombs that they are also using on the children in Yemen?
I don't understand why Hillary gets to keep her reputation as a supporter of women and children. So she helped set up the SCHIP fund and gave a few speeches about women's rights.
But she's friends with the Saudis who treat women horribly, has killed hundreds of thousands of women and children from the sanctions against Iraq, the wars in Iraq, Libya and Syria.
Helped create the dangerous conditions in Honduras so that parents are sending their children on the dangerous journey to the US and if they get here she sent them back to send a message to the parents.
At least 10 of the children sent back to Hondorus have been murdered.
But of course she isn't a warmonger, right?
I believe that she is a sociopath. How else can anyone explain how she is indifferent to the pain and suffering of millions of people?

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Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.

white phosphorus from any number of the places to which the arms the US has set loose in the Middle East have piled up - Saddam's arms which weren't secured, Gaddafi's, those abandoned by the Iraqi Army when ISIS showed up in their Toyota pick-ups, not to mention legitimate arms sales plus all the US military armaments that have simply gone missing.

The US has set up the Middle East to fight for a very long time and will keep doing that - making military war-fighting equipment is about the only industry, i.e., "good jobs," the US has left.

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Only connect. - E.M. Forster

enhydra lutris's picture

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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 --

Love that group, this guy, but life ya know? completely lost sight of them and him, though I still sing Wrap It Up all the time. Thanks

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