Another Culture Break: Bill Withers: Ain't No Sunshine

This just popped into my head and I figured, why not?

Culture Break: Tim Clement and Kim Deschamps: Waterline

This is from the album Wolfsong Night, which I reviewed a number of years ago (one of the few that's still up at Epinions.

I generally try to use videos of live performances or an "official video", but this is not the kind of music that lends itself to that. Never mind -- just enjoy this track and if you're so inclined, pretty much the whole album is on YouTube.

Today's Must-Read: Looking in the Mirror

From John Judis at TPM. The headline says it:

Obama should not have had to commute Chelsea Manning's sentence

It's short. Read it.

Today's Must-Read: NATO, the EU, and the Rise of the Right

Excellent analysis by Adam L. Silverman at Balloon Juice on what NATO and the EU are really about and why they are now even more necessary than ever before. Key insight:

This is the real, tangible benefit of the EU and NATO. Its not a common market or a mutual defense pact. The real benefit is that the EU and NATO have broken the reality of over a thousand years of conflicts, capped off by World Wars I and II, in Europe and among the people of the nation-states that make up Europe.

One of my many minors in college was history, with an emphasis on modern European diplomatic history. And one of the ongoing themes there was the "balance of power." And one aspect of that was integrating Russia into the European community. Silverman points out the one big failure in the West's post-Cold War policy, which was excluding Russia from that community. And Russia is currently feeling the effects of that marginalization: faced with a newly robust and vital China on the one hand and a unified Europe and America on the other, Russia really has no choice to but try to break things up. China's out of the question. Europe, on the other hand, especially with the UK leaving the EU, is ripe for dismemberment, and Putin has a willing puppet in Trump's America.

Fasten your seat belts, etc., etc.

What's New At Green Man Review: Nordicpalooza!

Yep -- it's a special edition on Nordic music, everything from hard-core traditional to not so hard-core to there's traditional in there somewhere. Check it out -- it'll help wash the taste of the news out of your mouth.

Today in Disgusting People: Lifetime Achievement Award

I'm sure that, as the government collapses, I'll be handing out more of these, but the latest stunt by today's recipient is simply jaw-dropping and certainly merits the first such award. Via Digby:

House Republicans have found a subject for their opening review of conflicts of interest under Donald Trump: the federal official in charge of investigating conflicts of interest.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, the head of the House Oversight Committee, criticized the director of the federal Office of Government Ethics on Thursday over his criticism of Donald Trump’s plan to address conflicts of interest. And he threatened to subpoena the official, Walter Shaub, if he refuses to participate in an official interview.

Here's more detail/backstory from C&L.

This is what happens when you give a small rodent a great deal of power.

Today's Must-Read: The Slide Toward Autocracy: A Checklist

Via Digby, this list from Amy Siskind of "Trump atrocities" of the week.

Experts in authoritarianism advise to keep a list of things subtly changing around you, so you'll remember. Here's my list for week 9[.]

Digby just shows this week's list, but has links to the previous eight.

I found this one possibly the most worrisome:

35. Human Rights Watch issued it's annual report of threats to human rights around the world. For the first time in 27 years, the US is listed as a top threat because of the rise of Trump.

Here's Human Rights Watch's article on the 2017 World Report. Just one salient section:

Executive Director Kenneth Roth writes that a new generation of authoritarian populists seeks to overturn the concept of human rights protections, treating rights not as an essential check on official power but as an impediment to the majority will.

“The rise of populism poses a profound threat to human rights,” Roth said. “Trump and various politicians in Europe seek power through appeals to racism, xenophobia, misogyny, and nativism. They all claim that the public accepts violations of human rights as supposedly necessary to secure jobs, avoid cultural change, or prevent terrorist attacks. In fact, disregard for human rights offers the likeliest route to tyranny.”

Roth cited Trump’s presidential campaign in the US as a vivid illustration of the politics of intolerance. He said that Trump responded to those discontented with their economic situation and an increasingly multicultural society with rhetoric that rejected basic principles of dignity and equality. His campaign floated proposals that would harm millions of people, including plans to engage in massive deportations of immigrants, to curtail women’s rights and media freedoms, and to use torture. Unless Trump repudiates these proposals, his administration risks committing massive rights violations in the US and shirking a longstanding, bipartisan belief, however imperfectly applied, in a rights-based foreign policy agenda.

I'm wondering again whether New Zealand is far enough away.

Saturday Science: A New Fish in Town

Well, not actually new -- researchers have known about it for several years, but only from collected specimens. Now they've found live ones and filmed them: Ladies and Gentlemen, may we present the Ruby Sea Dragon:

Researchers at Scripps Oceanography and the Western Australian Museum capture on video the first-ever field sighting of the newly discovered third species of seadragon. As they observed two Ruby Seadragons on video for nearly 30 minutes, the scientists uncovered new details about their anatomy, habitat, and behavior.

Here's more from National Geographic.

Via Towleroad.

The "Press Conference", Part II

Digby highlights some deadly accurate comments from Deadspin:

Ethical guidelines exist for a reason. Norms exist for a reason.

The reason is not “Jerks who think they’re smarter than us trying to control our lives from on high.” The reason is that human history is long, and all of the mistakes that could possibly be made have been made, and at a certain point people figured out that following some common sense rules could prevent us from making the same dire mistakes over and over again. Mistakes that come from human nature. Mistakes like: allowing powerful people to use their powerful positions to make money for themselves, or allowing powerful people to use their powerful positions to squelch legitimate dissent, or allowing powerful people to use their powerful positions to flout the very ethical guidelines and norms that prior people in powerful positions established to keep people in powerful positions in check.

Read the whole thing. And then go on to this open letter from a Russian reporter, Alexey Kovalev, to his American colleagues:

“Congratulations, US media!” Kovalev wrote at Medium.com. “You’ve just covered your first press conference of an authoritarian leader with a massive ego and a deep disdain for your trade and everything you hold dear.”

“We in Russia have been doing it for 12 years now  — with a short hiatus when our leader wasn’t technically our leader  — so quite a few things during Donald Trump’s press conference rang my bells. Not just mine, in fact  — read this excellent round-up in The Moscow Times,” he went on.

Putin’s press conferences, Kovalev said, are annual media spectacles at which “Putin always comes off as an omniscient and benevolent leader tending to a flock of unruly but adoring children.”

President-elect Donald Trump’s circus-like press conference on Wednesday, he said, showed that the former reality TV star is “apparently taking a page from Putin’s playbook.”

I'd be more sanguine about this if it weren't for the for the fact that the American media have spent a few decades rolling over for those in power -- if they're on the right.

Maybe our "journalists" will finally wake up?

It's Called a "Freudian Slip"

Ben Carson strikes again:

At Carson’s confirmation hearing for secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Warren noted that President-elect Donald Trump will be uniquely positioned to benefit from HUD contracts due to his real estate business. During a press conference a day earlier, Trump had revealed a controversial plan to allow his sons to run his business instead of putting his assets in a blind trust as other presidents have done.

“My concern is that among the billions of dollars that you will be responsible for handing out in grants in loans,” Warren said to Carson. “Can you just assure us that not one dollar will go to benefit either the president-elect or his family?”

“It will not be my intention to do anything to benefit any American,” Carson declared boldly. “It’s for all Americans.”

Sounds like the Trump administration in a nutshell.

Today's Must-Read: The "Press Conference"

Also known as "The Daily Hissy Fit" with an invited audience. Charles P. Pierce's take (via Bark Bark Woof Woof):

What was beaming in from New York was nothing less than a genuine aspiring American dictator having what amounted to a very public tantrum. By the way, you knew it was a bag job when you saw that El Caudillo del Mar-A-Lago had brought in his own personal claque of hecklers and cheerleaders. (It should be noted for the record that the "fake news" chant is merely lugenpresse for the digital age.) And the first thing he did on Wednesday morning was intimate that it's the American intelligence community that is a bunch of fascists.

It gets better -- or, in this case, worse, I guess. Needless to say, read the whole thing.

And about the "revelations" that prompted the latest series of tantrums, it turns out they're old news. From Digby:

For the record, the intelligence agencies didn't leak this. It's been in the hands of the media for months, apparently. They just decided to eport on it because they found out that the intel bosses had briefed the president and Trump himself on it last Friday.

Now, knowing that, think about the media's treatment of Trump during the campaign knowing that they were aware of these rumors and probably snickering like schoolgirls over it.

And then recall their handwringing over Hillary Clinton failing to properly tell them the full details of her doctor's visits.

And here's an update, from Tom Sullivan.

Culture Break: Lúnasa: Ryestraw

I've been doing a Lúnasa marathon this morning, partly as a break from my usual desperately mordant rock/pop menu, and partly to check out some of the music I've not listened to recently.

I actually have a fair amount of "traditional" Irish/Scottish/British/Appalachian/Nordic music in my library, and I like Lúnasa (I reviewed one of their albums, The Story So Far, a retrospective album.)

From the YouTube description: Called "the hottest Irish acoustic band on the planet" by the Irish Times, Lúnasa performs live from the intimate confines of The Burren Irish Pub in Somerville, Massachusetts. This is the opening song of the night, "Ryestraw". Named for an ancient Celtic harvest festival in honor of the Irish god Lugh, patron of the arts, Lúnasa is made up of some of the top musical talents in Ireland.

That should get your toe tapping.

No, No, Look Over There!

You've undoubtedly heard about Meryl Streep's speech at the Golden Globes, if you haven't seen it:

Which, of course, got the expected reaction from The Hairpiece (even though his name was not mentioned, and how's that for being self-centered?):

And he's lying about mocking the reporter -- click through for a really disgusting gif.

Booman has an interesting take on this:

I think this is how Trump managed to pull off his miracle election. People can’t focus on the important things. There’s always something new to obsess over instead of staying on message. Do you care more about angry Trump voters who call the National Football League (NFL) the Black Lives Matter Football League (BLMFL), or are you more concerned with the idea of Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III running the Department of Justice?

Donald Trump didn’t nominate Meryl Streep as his Director of Central Intelligence or his Secretary of Treasury. He nominated a full-on wingnut and a Goldman Sachs veteran foreclosure specialist for those jobs. So, every second wasted on Meryl Streep is a benefit to Trump and the prospects for his nominees to sail through the confirmation process with little fuss.

Of course Trump wants to talk about the Golden Globes. He wants you to talk about him talking about the Golden Globes.

(Thanks to Mustang Bobby)

Want to guess why he's scheduling his first press conference in six months for the same day as Jeff Sessions' confirmation hearing?

You Start to Go Numb

And then something like this pops up. From Tom Sullivan at Hullabaloo:

In addition to the House ethics fiasco and Iowa Republican Rep. Steve. King's attempt to encroach on the Supreme Court's turf, on Tuesday a House Republican introduced a rule to make it easier for the United States to rid itself of public lands We the People own. Think Progress reported:

A new rule, written by House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT), establishes as fact that any legislation to dispose of public lands and natural resources would cost taxpayers exactly $0. This paves the way for the new Congress to get rid of vast swaths of public lands — all at the expense of the American taxpayer.

Some detail on the mechanics from Brody Levesque at NCRM:

The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives passed a rules change this past week by a vote of 234 to 193, that would allow Congress the ability to essentially give away federal lands and buildings for free. The new rule, authored by GOP Rep. Robert Bishop of Utah, Chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, codifies that any legislation to dispose of federal land and natural resources would have a net sum zero cost to taxpayers. As the rule applies only to the House legislative rules, it is not subject to approval by the Senate or a presidential signature and is effective immediately. . . .

Since the House is required to account for any cost associated with any legislation it considers under Congressional Budget Office accounting rules and guidelines, legislation put forward now shall skip several steps in the normal legislative process, coming up for a vote without any discussion of the costs and benefits. This means that the House does not need to render an assessment or cost analysis of estimated financial losses resulting in legislation giving away public lands or buildings.

They're not wasting any time. The Bundys must be wetting their paints in glee. Wait until they find out that it's not for them:

The Wilderness Society said "this move paves the way for a wholesale giveaway of our American hunting, fishing and camping lands that belong to us all. Make no mistake, the giveaway is for the benefit of the drilling and mining interests that have a lock-grip on Congress and the rest of Washington."

(And just in case there's any doubt in your mind as to who the intended beneficiaries are:

According to the advocacy and activist group Oil Change International which tracks campaign contribution monies from fossil fuel corporations and the coal industry via the group's Dirty Energy Money web project, since 1999 Congressman Bishop has accepted campaign funds and contributions of more than $452,610 dollars from oil, gas and coal interests. Figures collected by Oil Change International show that greater than ten percent of that figure has come from the coal-friendly National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, which has led the fight against the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan. Oil giants Exxon-Mobil, Chevron, and Tesoro are also listed among Bishop's top campaign contributors.

When I was a kid, every summer we'd load up the car with our tent and camping gear and head west. One year, when my dad and mom were both between jobs, we did a grand tour: through the Badlands on our way west, then down to visit my uncle in Colorado, then up through Rocky Mountain National Park on our way to Yellowstone (you get no sense of how huge bison are from pictures -- you have to be standing a dozen yards away to really feel the kind of presence they have), then up to Glacier (looking across a mile-wide gorge and just being able to spot a little dot of white -- a Rocky Mountain goat picking its way across a mountainside), with a dip into Canada (just like Kansas, only flatter -- miles of wheat), then across the Idaho panhandle to Olympic National Park -- both

parts (I've never experienced such profound silence as in the mountain section, and the coast, foggy and all grays, was pure mystery). Down through Oregon to Nevada, Bryce Canyon and the Grand Canyon (a mile deep, and sort of a reverse Glacier: distances were down and across, instead of up and across, and equally vast). There were also times spent camping in the Everglades (which is mostly walkways -- there's not that much dry land -- and a boat ride through the mangroves, being paced by dolphins), and Smoky Mountains National Park (beautiful, old, worn-down mountains, not so far from my ancestral home, covered in forest, comfortable and reassuring).

So now some teabagger from Utah with no soul wants to give it away so his donors can make more money. Yeah, go ahead -- start fracking in Yellowstone and watch the whole West just go up in one huge eruption.

Assholes.

What's New at Green Man Review

Something old, something new. . . .

As seems usually to be the case there. Hop on over and take a look at what we've got today.

Trump vs. US

Reading through the news this morning, I had a thought: what could make Putin happier than crippling the U.S. intelligence establishment?

Let's start with Trump dismissing intelligence reports that he apparently, from all evidence, has not seen. He'd rather put his confidence in Julian Assange (which position he's now furiously backing away from). My reading is that he wants to sweep Russian involvement in throwing the election as far under the carpet as possible, despite the fact that US intelligence has caught high Russian officials high-fiving each other over Trump's win.

So now he's developed this relationship with the American intelligence community that can only be described as "adversarial." This sort of sums it up, if a bit snarkily:

Priess says the intelligence community will continue to try to adapt to the new president, and suggests “at one extreme that could mean producing the President’s Daily Brief in the form of tweet-length analysis. If the president prefers to have judgments expressed in easy-to-digest short form, that’s doable, and there is precedent for that.”

But then, someone has to get him to read them, and we know that doesn't necessarily happen (especially if the president is preoccupied with making a deal for a new resort development in say, the Crimea). Remember 9/11? There was ample warning of that.

And it seems that mere public criticism isn't enough:

"President-elect Donald Trump, a harsh critic of U.S. intelligence agencies, is working with top advisers on a plan that would restructure and pare back the nation’s top spy agency, people familiar with the planning said," The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday night. "The move is prompted by his belief that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has become bloated and politicized, these people said."

The Journal added, "One of the people familiar with Mr. Trump’s planning said advisers also are working on a plan to restructure the Central Intelligence Agency, cutting back on staffing at its Virginia headquarters and pushing more people out into field posts around the world."

And under the heading "Lame Excuses":

The president-elect, who has been nervously tweeting more frequently in the past days, Thursday morning posted tweets claiming he has only been posting statements from Julian Assange to help "the people" decide what's the truth – a ridiculous and irresponsible excuse akin to a climate change denier or evolution denier insisting there are two sides to the already scientifically settled arguments.

I never thought I'd be one to defend the CIA, but much as I distrust them, we need them.

This is not going unnoticed or unremarked, even in the Senate (even though Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is doing his best to keep the lid on it):

Senator McCaskill, who thankfully won her seat in 2012, is up for reelection in a very red state, so her voice is something we cannot take for granted. Unless, however, Democrats get off their butts and mobilize like the Tea Party did in 2010, 2018 could mean a 4th Reich for America. McCaskill wants answers, as do most people who prefer the facts.

SEN. MCCASKILL: Who actually is the benefactor of someone who is about to become commander-in-chief trashing the intelligence community?

I assume that the biggest benefactors of the American people having less confidence in the intelligence community fact that the actors you have named today: Iran, North Korea, China, Russia and ISIS. . . .

The notion that the soon elected leader of this country would put Julian Assange on a pedestal compared to the men and women of the intelligence community and the military that is so deeply embedded in the intelligence community, I think it should bring about a hue and cry no matter whether you're Republican or a Democrat. There should be howls! And mark my word if the roles were reversed their would be HOWLS from the Republican side.

Others are not being so gentle:

Malcolm Nance✔
@MalcolmNance

We must finally admit Trump is openly giving aid & comfort to a foreign intelligence agency & a cybercriminal. He is 1 step away fm treason.
1:27 PM - 4 Jan 2017

2,816 2,816 Retweets
4,631

I may update this as I run across more info.

Antidote: There Are Decent People in the World

From the CBC:

It's barely noticeable to passersby, but a piece of paper taped to the door of Marché Ferdous, a small Mediterranean restaurant in downtown Montreal, has caught the attention of some Montrealers.

The sign, written in both English and French, reads, "People with no money welcome to eat for free."

That goodwill gesture has won the restaurant, located at the corner of Ste-Catherine Street West and Mackay Street, a lot of praise online.

The restaurant's co-owner, Yahya Hashemi, said they've been giving free meals to the hungry for about five months now. He added that they consider it as a business expense.

"We don't think about how much it will cost us," said Hashemi.

They serve free meals to about four or five people a day, and staff do not ask questions or judge anyone who asks for a free meal, he said.

Oh, and a note to all the "Christians" out there busy trying to legislate people's rights away:

Originally from Iran, Hashemi said it is part of his faith to help those in need and he wanted to give back to Canada since he says it has given him so much.

And the Facebook post that went viral, via Crooks and Liars:

Corner of Mackay and st catherine you find this place. They are offering people food that have no money for free. Curious enough I walked in and pretend I had no money and asked for food. She didn't ask anything, but said we welcome you and pick whatever you like, including anything I wanted to drink.

Made me smile and warm inside I paid for my food and told them they were awesome for doing this. They said it wasn't for the holiday season, but all the time they want to encourage helping each other through tough times. Absolutely incredible.

Share the fuck out of this. Maybe someone you know may need help to eat tonight. Spread the love

Hypocrisy, or Chutzpah?

Not only have the GOP turned into a party of sociopaths, they've gotten quite brazen about it:

Mitch McConnell, who suffered no political penalty for his cynical block of a middle-of-the-road Supreme Court nominee spoke out today on Senator Schumer's promise to block any nominee extreme enough to pass Republican inspection.

"Apparently there's a new standard now which is to not confirm a Supreme Court nominee at all," McConnell groused. "I think that's something the American people simply will not tolerate and will be looking forward to receiving a Supreme Court nomination and moving forward on it."

This is where I remind everyone that just several days before the election, Senate Republicans were promising to block any nominee Hillary Clinton might put forward for consideration.

I'm of the opinion that the Democrats should stop playing nice -- use the Republicans' tactics against them until we get what we want ("we" in this case being people who are not Wall street billionaires or Russian dictators).

Especially considering the Hairpiece's list of potential Supreme Court nominees.

McConnell's invocation of the "Biden rule" is 99 and 44/100 percent bullshit. Maybe a little more. Here's what Biden actually said at the time and the context in which those remarks occurred.

Jeff Sessions

I don't usually tout petitions, but it's time I started. This one's to ask your senators to reject the nomination of Jeff Sessions for Attorney General. If there's anyone less qualified, I can't think of them offhand -- remember, Sessions was rejected for the federal bench because he's such a blatant and unrepentant racist.

You can sign Move-On's petition here.

Obamacare Repeal, Episode 432 (?)

The Republicans are sure generating a lot of enthusiasm for taking away people's health coverage.

Follow

Marsha Blackburn ✔

@MarshaBlackburn

Do you support the repeal of Obamacare? RT if you do, and share what you want to see as the replacement.

9:47 AM - 3 Jan 2017

16%Yes

84%No

Vote 7,968 votes • Final results