Evening Blues Preview 7-31-15

This evening's music features blues guitarist Larry McCray.

Here are some stories from tonight's posting:

Jimmy Carter: The U.S. Is an "Oligarchy With Unlimited Political Bribery"

HARTMANN: Our Supreme Court has now said, “unlimited money in politics.” It seems like a violation of principles of democracy … your thoughts on that?

CARTER: It violates the essence of what made America a great country in its political system. Now it’s just an oligarchy, with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for president or to elect the president. And the same thing applies to governors and U.S. senators and congressmembers. So now we’ve just seen a complete subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors, who want and expect and sometimes get favors for themselves after the election’s over … The incumbents, Democrats and Republicans, look upon this unlimited money as a great benefit to themselves. Somebody’s who’s already in Congress has a lot more to sell to an avid contributor than somebody’s who’s just a challenger.

Why Obama’s “Safe Zone” in Syria Will Inflame the War Zone

The road to war is paved with a thousand lies. A fresh fib was tossed on the lie-cluttered warpath to Syria, when it was announced that the U.S. and Turkey would create a “safe zone” inside of Syria — supposedly to be aimed against ISIS.

This “safe zone” is a major escalation of war, but it was described in soft tones by the media. In reality a “safe zone” is a “no-fly zone,” meaning that a nation is planning to implement military air superiority inside the boundaries of another nation. It’s long recognized by the international community and U.S. military personnel as a major act of war. In a war zone an area is made “safe” by destroying anything in it or around that appears threatening.

Turkey has been demanding this no-fly zone from Obama since the Syrian war started. It’s been discussed throughout the conflict and even in recent months, though the intended target was always the Syrian government. ...

This is exactly how events developed in Libya, when the U.S.-NATO led a “no-fly zone” that was supposedly created to allow a “humanitarian corridor,” but quickly snowballed into its real goal: regime change and assassination of Libya’s president. This epic war crime is still celebrated by Obama and Hillary Clinton as a “victory,” while Libyans drown in the Mediterranean to escape their once-modern but now obliterated country.

If Obama’s goal in Syria was actually defeating ISIS, this could have been achieved at any time, in a matter of weeks. It would simply take a serious and coordinated effort with U.S. regional allies, while coordinating with the non-allies already fighting ISIS: Syria, Iran, and Hezbollah.

If Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Jordan were involved in the fight on ISIS it would be quickly strangled of cash, guns, and troops, and be massively out-powered. War over.

The only reason this hasn’t happened is that the U.S. and its allies have always viewed ISIS as a convenient proxy against Syria, Hezbollah, and Iran, not to mention leverage against the Iran-friendly government of Iraq.

Afghan War Is Not Over, Says Judge, So Indefinite Detention Can Continue

Though President Obama has publicaly championed end of combat operations in Afghanistan, that doesn't mean prisoners of war can be released

A federal judge on Thursday rejected the petition of a Guantanamo detainee who had requested to be freed after spending nearly a decade and a half in the U.S. offshore prison without trial.

As the Associated Press reports:

Muktar Yahya Najee al-Warafi has said his detention was illegal in light of President Barack Obama's statements that active hostilities in Afghanistan had ended.

The Yemeni was captured in Afghanistan in 2001. Courts have upheld his detention on grounds that he likely aided Taliban forces.

His lawyers argued that his detention was unlawful under the Authorization for the Use of Military Force, which provided the legal justification for the imprisonment of foreign fighters captured on overseas battlefields. The Supreme Court has said such detention is legal as long as "active hostilities" continue.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth said in a 14-page opinion issued Thursday that it was clear that hostilities still persist.

For many, however, the very existence of the offshore prison remains an absurdy and affront to the U.S. Constitution, international theories of jurisprudence, and recognized humamn rights standards.

U.S. Psychologists Urged to Curb Questioning Terror Suspects

The board of the American Psychological Association plans to recommend a tough ethics policy that would prohibit psychologists from involvement in all national security interrogations, potentially creating a new obstacle to the Obama administration’s efforts to detain and interrogate terrorism suspects outside of the traditional criminal justice system.

The board of the of the A.P.A., the nation’s largest professional organization for psychologists, is expected to recommend that members approve the ban at its annual meeting in Toronto next week, according to two members, Nadine Kaslow and Susan H. McDaniel, the group’s president-elect. The board’s proposal would make it a violation of the association’s ethical policies for psychologists to play a role in national security interrogations involving any military or intelligence personnel, even the noncoercive interrogations now conducted by the Obama administration. The board’s proposal must be voted on and approved by the members’ council to become a policy.

The board’s recommendation is a response to a report from earlier this month after an independent investigation into the involvement of prominent psychologists and association officials in the harsh interrogation programs operated by the C.I.A. and the Defense Department during the Bush administration.

Ellen Brown tells the story of how a central bank held a gun to Greece's head, while bankers pushed her down, stripped her assets and Goldman Sachs repeatedly raped her.

The Greek Coup: Liquidity as a Weapon of Coercion

In the modern global banking system, all banks need a credit line with the central bank in order to be part of the payments system. Choking off that credit line was a form of blackmail the Greek government couldn’t refuse. ...

First there was the derivatives scheme sold to Greece by Goldman Sachs in 2001, which nearly doubled the nation’s debt by 2005.

Then there was the bank-induced credit crisis of 2008, when the ECB coerced Greeceto bail out its insolvent private banks, throwing the country itself into bankruptcy. ...

The Greek prime minister was later replaced with an unelected technocrat, former governor of the Bank of Greece and later vice president of the ECB, who refused a debt restructuring and instead oversaw a second massive bailout and further austerity measures. An estimated 90% of the bailout money went right back into the coffers of the banks.

In December 2014, Goldman Sachs warned the Greek Parliament that central bank liquidity could be cut off if the Syriza Party were elected. When it was elected in January, the ECB made good on the threat, cutting bank liquidity to a trickle.

When Prime Minister Tsipras called a public referendum in July at which the voters rejected the brutal austerity being imposed on them, the ECB shuttered the banks.

The Greek government was thus broken Mafia-style at the knees, until it was forced to abandon its national sovereignty and watch its public treasures sold off piece by piece. Suspicious minds might infer that this was a calculated plot designed from the beginning to throw Greece’s prized assets onto the auction block, a hostile takeover and asset stripping for the benefit of those well-heeled entities in a position to purchase them, including the very banks, hedge funds and speculators instrumental in driving up Greek debt and destroying the economy.

Also of interest:

“Yes, We’re Corrupt”: A List of Politicians Admitting That Money Controls Politics

Listen to WSJ’s Bret Stephens Secretly Plot With “Pro-Israel” Evangelical Group Against Iran Deal

Campus police: different badges, different uniforms, but same deadly force

Samuel DuBose's killing is a dark cloud with a grim silver lining

You’re watching Pentagon propaganda: “American Idol,” “Ice Road Truckers” and the truth about your favorite shows

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We interrupt your regularly scheduled drum beat for war with this

Ukraine's highest court has approved constitutional changes that would allow limited self-rule to the rebel-held eastern areas of Donetsk and Luhansk.
The changes are part of a peace deal aimed at ending fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russia rebels.
But many MPs oppose autonomy for the east and the decision must be voted through parliament.
...
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called Friday's constitutional court ruling "an important step that moves us closer to momentous changes for the state".
In a Facebook post he said that "for the first time in Ukraine's history, its head of state and government are ceding a large degree of their powers to the regions".

Meanwhile, the Kiev government gets more unpopular.

Mr Poroshenko mustered 54 per cent support in presidential elections in May last year but would today garner only 14.6 per cent, according to a June survey by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology. Arseniy Yatseniuk, the prime minister, would get only 1.3 per cent in a presidential poll.
“The honeymoon has long passed,” said Vadym Karasyov, a political analyst in Kiev, referring to the post revolution that propelled Ukraine’s present leadership to power. “These poll numbers are a warning from voters that clearly do not feel reforms in their pockets.”
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Let's turn GOS logic on its head

Sanders is plainspoken about the radical environmental changes we must make to secure our prosperity and avoid an existential catastrophe. The transition to a sustainable economy based on conservation and clean, renewable energy is our most urgent economic task. Yet of the 5,113 words in Clinton's speech, exactly 60 were on energy and the environment. You can't run as a Democrat and name-check climate change. Clinton's a fine debater, but on this topic she's easy pickings...

In fact, it is no longer about trade. It is about whether democracy rules commerce-or commerce rules democracy. It's a subject Sanders knows well. Clinton appears clueless.
...
The trust issues white liberals have with Clinton are the same trust issues minority voters will have with Clinton, once both Sanders and the former Secretary of State are viewed in a televised debate. After all, name recognition and increased media coverage will only help Bernie Sanders. Conversely, it's tough to represent the hopes of Americans hurt by entrenched political interests (this includes many white liberals, in addition to minority voters), when you've taken money from Donald Trump, or you've already run a campaign ad in 2008 that utilizes a "racist sub-message."

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joe shikspack's picture

the state of kos' faculties?

it seems to me that while it may be true that one cannot win a democratic primary without black voters, one also cannot win a general election without white liberals. you know, the people that all the people now shilling for hillary yell at for "staying home" at election time.

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When I was debating a BLM person about Sanders on DKos the other day, he used the term "pet economic causes".

That sounded bizarre to me. Pet economic causes? Who doesn't care about putting food on the table and having a job?
The more I thought about it the more bizarre it became. Politics has always been about "kitchen table issue" first and foremost. and that goes double for minorities because they are usually poorer.

Then the other day I posted a diary about the housing crisis that got very little traction on DKos. Just 48 comments, and half of them telling me that it's no big deal.
But when I looked at the diary a minute ago, it had 1,600 Facebook likes. So people on DKos don't care about a housing affordability crisis, but people on Facebook (and the rest of the world) does.

That's when it occurred to me that people on DKos are simply out of touch with reality. Not a big surprise there, but now I know specifically what it is they are out of touch about.
And I think I know a reason why.

Except for two recent economic diaries I have gotten away from them because I got caught up writing about the insanity of our foreign wars.
Bobswern used to write economic diaries all the time, but he got caught up with first NSA spying, and then TPP.
Both me and Bobswern got distracted by Greece and Wall Street corruption.
Meteor Blades used to write about economic reports, but he stopped for some reason (I think he got sick).
There were a lot of people writing about inequality for a long time, but that has stopped too.

None of those economic problems went away. People on DKos just stopped talking about them.

Since DKos is so busy, it can be an echo chamber. If everyone is talking about police brutality and no one is talking about economic problems, you can forget that the problems haven't gone away.
So I'm going to make an effort to start writing economic diaries again. It'll have the added benefit of shifting the debate back to kitchen table issues, and that's where Sanders shines.

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Shahryar's picture

that's part of "Obama"'s genius. Con his way into the job and destroy everyone's belief in the possibility that some other person might be genuine!

Anyway, markos and his gang use classic guilt tripping tactics. If you talk about anything that's liberal, i.e. actually Democratic, and it interferes with their agenda they say "what? you don't care about cops killing people?" Spying on everyone..."what? you don't care...?" Everybody getting poor (except the rich who are getting richer)..."what? you don't care...?"

They did this to Bernie and O'Malley...but not to Hillary. Today was a good opportunity. Oops, missed shouting at Hillary, maybe next time.

I'm really sorry that people I thought were in agreement with us have turned out to be as much "the problem" as most Republicans.

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but at the same time I recongize that he's the best Democratic candidate since, well, I don't know when.

What's more, Democrats need to talk about kitchen table issues if they want to beat the GOP, and right now they aren't doing that. At least not on DKos.

I'll probably end up voting 3rd party as usual, unless Bernie has a real chance.

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NCTim's picture

The election is rigged and paid for. It doesn't matter who wins. The oligarchs and illuminati will rule.

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

mimi's picture

two shits about something (NSA and spying related) he was toast in my books. So, guilt tripping - (I learned this word and activity the first time when I chatted with a blind Jewish guy in my neighborhood and told him about something in my life and he just spontaneously said to me, oh someone was very effective in putting me on a guilt trip) - is something that really has to be watched out for. A miserable method of manipulation. Often used. I suffered under it for years on dailykos. I think slowly I will be able to handle it and not get "silenced" as in "me not knowing what kind of argument to use to counter it". I think I won't say much anymore. It's gotten beyond "reasonable" to try to say anything, even not jokingly. At least I can't.

Shaming something or someone is one of the strongest tools to try to right something that is wrong in human being's behavior.
As a matter of a political argument in online discussions on social media it is a very dangerous tool and it is abused easily, imo.

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shaharazade's picture

Shaming, even when you do it to yourself, isn't a tool that helps one move forward or change you behavior. Self loathing and guilt often leave you stuck wallowing in your past. Collectively shaming people of good spirit because they are white, liberal, not properly feeling you pain just entrenches the culture war and does nothing to alleviate the damage being done. I have been top marches where the protestors chant Shame, shame, shame at the cops who are viciously abusing them and feel this is appropriate. I find it angers me when white liberals get shammed and yet because Obama or Holder are black, powerful and successful they are supported. Same with Hillary how does it work to call me sexist because I do not believe for one minute that she is good for women or has one once of humanity.

So why not shame the really shameful and work on educating the oblivious who actually do feel your pain but can never experience it? It seems to me it's a tactic that has been aimed at the wrong people. I read Denise's history pieces they are full of long buried information about the shameful, racist dehumanizing African American heritage that is still ongoing. However I will not engage with her on any other level. She is disingenuous and self righteous when she goes on a vendetta against white or black people who refuse to go along with the Democratic polices of racist endless war or unjust racist economy. She supports wholeheartedly the powerful interests and the system that perpetuate the oppression of women, poc, poor, people, and shames white privileged progressives for their hatred of America.

Strange shaming from a group that embraces and self identifies with Obama and Billary. Why not shame on the real power's that dehumanize us all and use the culture war to divide and conquer. Black lives matter little to those in power whose racist,sexist, classist, polices and agenda she supports. Attacking liberals like Ray Pensador, slinkerwink and whipping up posse's full of hate and shame while driving them off the site shows exactly where she's at. Shame on you both kos and Denice.

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gulfgal98's picture

I am loving it! Another great comment.

Years ago, I had a run in with the great Deo in which she insinuated that I was a racist. It was in a diary that was discussing language and how some words should be never used by any of us because they were offensive racially, or by gender, or by sexual orientation. The word "niggardly" came up and I defended it as a valid word when written, but said I would never use it spoken because it might be confused with an offensive word. For those who do not know the meaning of niggardly, here it is according to Wikipedia.

In the United States, there have been several controversies concerning the word "niggardly", an adjective meaning "stingy" or "miserly", because of its phonetic similarity to the racial slur "nigger". Etymologically the two words are unrelated.

I would add to this definition, that I always saw it as being miserly or stingy with malice attached. IMO, it was a word that was stronger than stingy. Merriam Webster gives a fuller definition that was what I always thought niggardly meant.

grudgingly mean about spending or granting : begrudging

I went to explain my reasons why we should not ban words from their proper use simply because someone might confused them with a similar sounding but unrelated word. Hence, I would not use the word in the spoken sense. She lit into me and it upset me so much that I left dkos for two weeks. The funny thing is that I have never used niggardly in my entire life. I have since locked horns with her over Dr. Cornel West whom she detests. What I learned from that is avoid her at all costs because it is her way or no way and she will shame you if you do not agree.

The only reason I returned to dkos is that two weeks after our dustup, there was a link in the daily pundit diary to an article written by Pulitzer Prize winner Leonard Pitts who used the word "niggardly" in its proper context.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

gulfgal98's picture

I have always thought that your economic diaries were your strength, not that your other diaries weren't great, but the way you presented the economic ones made it so easy for most of people to understand. When I wrote my reports for the city and county commissions, my primary goal was to ensure that they understood them first and foremost. I was very proud of the fact that I never once had a commissioner ask me what I meant in my reports. They may not have agreed with my conclusions, but they understood them. This is what you do so well in your economic diaries. They are clear and very informative.

When reaching a wide swath of voters, personal economic issues are always a winner. Sadly the horse racing experts at dkos fail to understand that and continue to promote identity politics which only works when times are good and people are not worried about putting food on the table.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy