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Showing posts with label Juan Cole. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Juan Cole. Show all posts

Thursday, January 13, 2022

Ronnie Spector - Juan Cole

Something to hold you over while we are waiting for the next high wind episode which will mean another black out here. Unsure how much more those ancient sagging electric lines can hold out.

 

She was amazing ! Too bad Phil Spector was a maniac.



 

You will probably hear this about a thousand times today...still, brings back memories of when we were innocents: 

.............

 

~~~~

 

Well, we're not so innocent anymore, and he is right:

 

  ~ From Informed Comment:

 

We Are So F*cked Unless We Act Now: The 7 Hottest Years on Record Were The Last 7 Years 

 Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – " The European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service reports that the seven hottest years on record “by a clear margin” were the past seven years. 

This finding underlines the way global heating is speeding up, as we put more and more heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Global temperatures fluctuate with phenomena like the El Niño/ El Niña, caused by warming or cooling surface temperatures in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. So to get the kind of consistent high temperatures of the past seven years demonstrates that a more powerful “forcing” is overriding El Niño/ El Niña. That is green house gas emissions. 

We typically measure increases of temperature over the late nineteenth-century baseline, sort of 1880-1900. We are now about 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.1- 1.2 degree Centigrade) above that marker. Climate scientists worry that if we go higher than 1.5C / 2.7F, the earth’s climate could go chaotic. Moreover, if we go on as we are, we will outrun our safety valve. All the extra CO2 we have spewed into the atmosphere so far will be absorbed by the oceans, so the earth will gradually cool back down.

But the oceans have a limit to what they can absorb, and we will go past that limit at our current rates by 2050. Any carbon dioxide we put up after that will be around for thousands, maybe 100,000 years. We are on the verge of radically changing the earth’s climate in a way that could last for as long as the human race has existed.

The long-lasting character of CO2 in the atmosphere is why I think it is the main threat. Methane is also a greenhouse gas, but it dissipates relatively quickly.

 

More bad news. Carbon dioxide emissions continued to rise in 2021, reaching an average of 414 parts per million. That is a truly scary statistic. Oliver Milman at The Guardian reports that greenhouse gas emissions were up 6.2% in 2021 over 2022, most of the increase coming from gasoline-driven cars and trucks.

I have written, “The last time it was 410 ppm was the middle Pliocene, stretching from 3.15 and 2.85 million years ago. Temperatures in the middle Pliocene were on average 2-3 degrees C. (3.6 – 5.8 degrees F.) higher than today. The Arctic was 10 degrees C. hotter than today’s. Seas were roughly 90 feet higher. Some places now wet were desert-like.” I wrote that in 2019 when the CO2 ppm was only 410.

Copernicus notes that we are already seeing Frankenstein’s Weather as a result of this massive concentration of heat trapping gases. There were severe floods in Germany and elsewhere in Europe last summer, wildfires in Greece and Turkey, and a heat wave in the southern Mediterranean beyond anything in the historical record. It reached just about 120 degrees F/ 48.8C in Sicily, the highest temperature ever recorded in Europe.

In North America we saw global heating burn up whole towns in Canada and create record temperatures in usually temperate Seattle and Portland. The Dixie wildfire in California was the second worst on record.

Climate change is not a matter of a dystopian future. We are living it. Now. And it is an increasing challenge. It is a challenge we can overcome, but the longer we burn fossil fuels the steeper the task will be."

 ~~~~~ 


Yep, we are f*cked for sure.

More bad news coming up from Baja in a bit.

Bummer. Wow, it was easier to be innocents.

 

Ronnie Spector - Juan Cole

Something to hold you over while we are waiting for the next high wind episode which will mean another black out here. Unsure how much more those ancient sagging electric lines can hold out.

 

She was amazing ! Too bad Phil Spector was a maniac.



 

You will probably hear this about a thousand times today...still, brings back memories of when we were innocents: 

.............

 

~~~~

 

Well, we're not so innocent anymore, and he is right:

 

  ~ From Informed Comment:

 

We Are So F*cked Unless We Act Now: The 7 Hottest Years on Record Were The Last 7 Years 

 Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – " The European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service reports that the seven hottest years on record “by a clear margin” were the past seven years. 

This finding underlines the way global heating is speeding up, as we put more and more heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Global temperatures fluctuate with phenomena like the El Niño/ El Niña, caused by warming or cooling surface temperatures in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. So to get the kind of consistent high temperatures of the past seven years demonstrates that a more powerful “forcing” is overriding El Niño/ El Niña. That is green house gas emissions. 

We typically measure increases of temperature over the late nineteenth-century baseline, sort of 1880-1900. We are now about 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.1- 1.2 degree Centigrade) above that marker. Climate scientists worry that if we go higher than 1.5C / 2.7F, the earth’s climate could go chaotic. Moreover, if we go on as we are, we will outrun our safety valve. All the extra CO2 we have spewed into the atmosphere so far will be absorbed by the oceans, so the earth will gradually cool back down.

But the oceans have a limit to what they can absorb, and we will go past that limit at our current rates by 2050. Any carbon dioxide we put up after that will be around for thousands, maybe 100,000 years. We are on the verge of radically changing the earth’s climate in a way that could last for as long as the human race has existed.

The long-lasting character of CO2 in the atmosphere is why I think it is the main threat. Methane is also a greenhouse gas, but it dissipates relatively quickly.

 

More bad news. Carbon dioxide emissions continued to rise in 2021, reaching an average of 414 parts per million. That is a truly scary statistic. Oliver Milman at The Guardian reports that greenhouse gas emissions were up 6.2% in 2021 over 2022, most of the increase coming from gasoline-driven cars and trucks.

I have written, “The last time it was 410 ppm was the middle Pliocene, stretching from 3.15 and 2.85 million years ago. Temperatures in the middle Pliocene were on average 2-3 degrees C. (3.6 – 5.8 degrees F.) higher than today. The Arctic was 10 degrees C. hotter than today’s. Seas were roughly 90 feet higher. Some places now wet were desert-like.” I wrote that in 2019 when the CO2 ppm was only 410.

Copernicus notes that we are already seeing Frankenstein’s Weather as a result of this massive concentration of heat trapping gases. There were severe floods in Germany and elsewhere in Europe last summer, wildfires in Greece and Turkey, and a heat wave in the southern Mediterranean beyond anything in the historical record. It reached just about 120 degrees F/ 48.8C in Sicily, the highest temperature ever recorded in Europe.

In North America we saw global heating burn up whole towns in Canada and create record temperatures in usually temperate Seattle and Portland. The Dixie wildfire in California was the second worst on record.

Climate change is not a matter of a dystopian future. We are living it. Now. And it is an increasing challenge. It is a challenge we can overcome, but the longer we burn fossil fuels the steeper the task will be."

 ~~~~~ 


Yep, we are f*cked for sure.

More bad news coming up from Baja in a bit.

Bummer. Wow, it was easier to be innocents.

 

Sunday, August 15, 2021

Cuidado en Rancho Grande, Bahia San Luis Gonzaga - Yikes ! Second Day of the Baja Beach Fest With Thousands Attending, And No One Is Wearing A Mask: A Veritable "Lemming Crusade" - "The DeltaVariant Of Global Stupidity" By John Feffert !



Although right now, the temperature is running 90 degrees with no shade, so I'm unsure how many folks would be off to camping on the beautiful Sea Of Cortez... but it didn't work out to good for these guys:

 ~ From Zeta: 

 

Hombres Armados Roban 2 Millones de Pesos de la Nomina en Un Empagne de Ojos Negros

Destacados  -    - sábado, 14 agosto, 2021 10:22 AM

 

" ENSENADA.- Armed men stole approximately 2 million pesos from the Sonora Prime agricultural package in the town of Ojos Negros, Ensenada municipality; the money was from payroll to pay workers.

Authorities reported that the robbery occurred around 8:40 a.m. on Saturday, August 14, when two men arrived at the pumpkin packaging, threatened the employees and took the money.

The Municipal Public Security Directorate did not report detained persons.

THREE AMERICAN TRUCKS STOLE WITH VIOLENCE

Three American vehicles that were in Rancho Grande, San Luis Gonzaga , were violently stripped from their owners at gunpoint.

At approximately 5:00 p.m. it was reported that armed individuals threatened the foreigners and took away a 4Runner truck, a black Tacoma pickup and a black Tahoe pickup.

Unofficially, it is believed that the robbery occurred after the thieves placed a false checkpoint .

Another robbery with similar violence occurred in the early morning of this Saturday, August 14, around 2:00 a.m.

Six men with long weapons beat the driver of a 2020 GMC Sierra pickup, who was stripped of the unit.

Also this morning, at around 9:30 a.m., a gas station in the Aguajito neighborhood was violently robbed; an armed man stole 3,000 pesos."

 

 ~~~~~ 

So beware of false checkpoints I would say anywhere south of Puertecitos, right ? Or for that matter, false checkpoints anywhere.

Meanwhile, we are still trying to find out if our health insurance covers alternative cortisone injections, if not I'm stuck. Also I have to lower my A1c by half of a point before they can do the knee surgery. The refrigerator turned into a bit of a drama  but after living out of coolers filled with ice for several days all is now well. Horrible humid hot yesterday, today it was still warm but we had a slight breeze.

I'll be back, but to hold you over here are the AP Mexico headlines - note that Biden is sending millions more doses of vaccine to Mexico  which hasn't really been reported by the local press; Mex wanted 3.5 million doses and the US is sending them 8.5 million doses. And jeez how about that lunatic who killed his kids down here in Rosarito ? My question is....what about the wife? Was she going to be the next victim or was she part of it ?I don't think that Mexicans fully grasp the power, sway and dangers of the Q-Anon and other conspiracy elements in the USA, notably that includes the anti-vaxxers.

AP: MEXICO

~~~~~ 

Update/edit: Well this is going to make you sick...this is the second day of the so-called "Baja Beach Fest" in Rosarito with thousands in attendance and no one is even wearing a mask. Forget about the highway robbers over yonder, this is even more deadly. Yet, the people were basically given the go ahead by the Mayor of Rosarito and we were told that officials would shut the thing down if protocols were not observed...but they did  not shut it down. According to Zeta, the majority of people in attendance are gringos. Mama Mia, check out the pictures:

 ~ From Zeta:

Sin Respetar Medidas Sanitarias Segundo Dia Del Baja Beach Fest 

 Destacados  -    - domingo, 15 agosto, 2021 12:54 PM

 
"Yesterday afternoon, authorities of the Playas de Rosarito city council declared to verify the areas where the sanitary protocols proposed by organizers and reviewed by the State Secretary of Health, were failing during the realization of the Latin music event Baja Beach Fest 2021 on the beaches of Rosarito, which, on its second day, again gathered a strong crowd, and thousands of attendees could be observed without complying with the order of the strict use of face masks.

 Despite the epidemiological yellow traffic light and with the increase in cases of the COVID-19 Delta variant emerging throughout the country, they still have not withdrawn the endorsement for the cancellation of the urban sound event, which has brought together more than 19 thousand people in its second day under the presentation of the artists Anuel AA, Myke Towers, Mariah, Guaynaa, Lenny Tavarez, Farruko, and where it was verified through stories and images shared through social networks the null healthy distance and lack of use of face masks in the festival, specific points marked by the State Secretary of Health to carry out massive shows.

 In turn, the Secretary of Health of Baja California, Alonso Pérez Rico, in a morning conference on Saturday, pointed out a meeting with the Baja Beach Fest organizers and authorities to make a “team back” about what happened last Friday in the first day of the event and with areas where protocols were failing, in turn he stressed that if they followed the breach of sanitary regulations, they would choose to cancel said event.

“In Baja California we are going to protect the health of our citizens. If the protocols are not being followed, these events cannot take place. We are on trial. It is that simple, if the protocols of the Secretary of Health are not respected, the events cannot be carried out because we have to give priority to health before anything else, ”said Pérez Rico.

For his part, Marco Aurelio Gámez Servín, Coepris State Commissioner highlighted that revisions of the protocols would be carried out on the second day of the massive show, underlining that “as verifiers and with the powers granted to them by the General Health Law of the State , they would see that the protocols that the organizers presented to them to carry out Baja Beach Fest are fulfilled " 

Likewise, he pointed out that the call for attention to organizers would come if a large percentage of the attendees do not comply with the use of face masks, a situation that, from what is observed in different media and social networks, was not fulfilled. It is worth mentioning that Baja Beach Fest 2021 is an outdoor event with 90% of its attendees already vaccinated, however, the massive crowding without healthy distance and the lack of use of a mask by those present once the health filters and security have caused the urban spectacle to be strongly criticized and put before the national focus, despite re-incurring the practice of a “cultural issue”, as described by the mayor of Rosarito Aracely Brown, today the municipality is preparing for the third day with the arrival of the Colombian J. Balvin.


On the other hand, La Feria Rosarito 2021 was another event which once again failed to comply with the rules on sanitation and health protocols with thousands of people crowded under the stage where Enigma Norteño will be presented. Faced with his first offense last week, Pérez Rico announced to the organizers of the following events that they would have to resubmit their "no inconvenience" letter, however, yesterday these protocols were again incurred.

Internationally, another massive spectacle that is in the eye of the hurricane is the 2021 Lollapalooza Music Festival, in Chicago, which was attended by around 395 thousand people during the 4 days of the festival. After its completion, it was recently announced that 203 attendees confirmed to the authorities that they had tested positive for COVID-19. Given the fact and criticism of the show, health authorities mentioned that "There is no evidence that Lollapalooza was a" super contagious "event, said Allison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health.

For the moment, Baja Beach Fest 2021 continues with its activities this day while doubts remain whether or not it will take place in its second week, which is scheduled from August 20 to 22."

 

~~~~~

 

Well, we all know that the white eyes are simply not coming to Rosarito anymore, the goose who laid the golden egg are the Mexican-Americans, and even though they certainly don't tip as well, they are the last ones the authorities want to to insult.  The show must go on !

Which brings us to this report, borrowed from Juan Cole:

 ~ From Foreign Policy In Focus :


THE DELTA VARIANT OF GLOBAL STUPIDITY 

Why is the far right jumping on the anti-vaccination bandwagon?

Cuidado en Rancho Grande, Bahia San Luis Gonzaga - Yikes ! Second Day of the Baja Beach Fest With Thousands Attending, And No One Is Wearing A Mask: A Veritable "Lemming Crusade" - "The DeltaVariant Of Global Stupidity" By John Feffert !



Although right now, the temperature is running 90 degrees with no shade, so I'm unsure how many folks would be off to camping on the beautiful Sea Of Cortez... but it didn't work out to good for these guys:

 ~ From Zeta: 

 

Hombres Armados Roban 2 Millones de Pesos de la Nomina en Un Empagne de Ojos Negros

Destacados  -    - sábado, 14 agosto, 2021 10:22 AM

 

" ENSENADA.- Armed men stole approximately 2 million pesos from the Sonora Prime agricultural package in the town of Ojos Negros, Ensenada municipality; the money was from payroll to pay workers.

Authorities reported that the robbery occurred around 8:40 a.m. on Saturday, August 14, when two men arrived at the pumpkin packaging, threatened the employees and took the money.

The Municipal Public Security Directorate did not report detained persons.

THREE AMERICAN TRUCKS STOLE WITH VIOLENCE

Three American vehicles that were in Rancho Grande, San Luis Gonzaga , were violently stripped from their owners at gunpoint.

At approximately 5:00 p.m. it was reported that armed individuals threatened the foreigners and took away a 4Runner truck, a black Tacoma pickup and a black Tahoe pickup.

Unofficially, it is believed that the robbery occurred after the thieves placed a false checkpoint .

Another robbery with similar violence occurred in the early morning of this Saturday, August 14, around 2:00 a.m.

Six men with long weapons beat the driver of a 2020 GMC Sierra pickup, who was stripped of the unit.

Also this morning, at around 9:30 a.m., a gas station in the Aguajito neighborhood was violently robbed; an armed man stole 3,000 pesos."

 

 ~~~~~ 

So beware of false checkpoints I would say anywhere south of Puertecitos, right ? Or for that matter, false checkpoints anywhere.

Meanwhile, we are still trying to find out if our health insurance covers alternative cortisone injections, if not I'm stuck. Also I have to lower my A1c by half of a point before they can do the knee surgery. The refrigerator turned into a bit of a drama  but after living out of coolers filled with ice for several days all is now well. Horrible humid hot yesterday, today it was still warm but we had a slight breeze.

I'll be back, but to hold you over here are the AP Mexico headlines - note that Biden is sending millions more doses of vaccine to Mexico  which hasn't really been reported by the local press; Mex wanted 3.5 million doses and the US is sending them 8.5 million doses. And jeez how about that lunatic who killed his kids down here in Rosarito ? My question is....what about the wife? Was she going to be the next victim or was she part of it ?I don't think that Mexicans fully grasp the power, sway and dangers of the Q-Anon and other conspiracy elements in the USA, notably that includes the anti-vaxxers.

AP: MEXICO

~~~~~ 

Update/edit: Well this is going to make you sick...this is the second day of the so-called "Baja Beach Fest" in Rosarito with thousands in attendance and no one is even wearing a mask. Forget about the highway robbers over yonder, this is even more deadly. Yet, the people were basically given the go ahead by the Mayor of Rosarito and we were told that officials would shut the thing down if protocols were not observed...but they did  not shut it down. According to Zeta, the majority of people in attendance are gringos. Mama Mia, check out the pictures:

 ~ From Zeta:

Sin Respetar Medidas Sanitarias Segundo Dia Del Baja Beach Fest 

 Destacados  -    - domingo, 15 agosto, 2021 12:54 PM

 
"Yesterday afternoon, authorities of the Playas de Rosarito city council declared to verify the areas where the sanitary protocols proposed by organizers and reviewed by the State Secretary of Health, were failing during the realization of the Latin music event Baja Beach Fest 2021 on the beaches of Rosarito, which, on its second day, again gathered a strong crowd, and thousands of attendees could be observed without complying with the order of the strict use of face masks.

 Despite the epidemiological yellow traffic light and with the increase in cases of the COVID-19 Delta variant emerging throughout the country, they still have not withdrawn the endorsement for the cancellation of the urban sound event, which has brought together more than 19 thousand people in its second day under the presentation of the artists Anuel AA, Myke Towers, Mariah, Guaynaa, Lenny Tavarez, Farruko, and where it was verified through stories and images shared through social networks the null healthy distance and lack of use of face masks in the festival, specific points marked by the State Secretary of Health to carry out massive shows.

 In turn, the Secretary of Health of Baja California, Alonso Pérez Rico, in a morning conference on Saturday, pointed out a meeting with the Baja Beach Fest organizers and authorities to make a “team back” about what happened last Friday in the first day of the event and with areas where protocols were failing, in turn he stressed that if they followed the breach of sanitary regulations, they would choose to cancel said event.

“In Baja California we are going to protect the health of our citizens. If the protocols are not being followed, these events cannot take place. We are on trial. It is that simple, if the protocols of the Secretary of Health are not respected, the events cannot be carried out because we have to give priority to health before anything else, ”said Pérez Rico.

For his part, Marco Aurelio Gámez Servín, Coepris State Commissioner highlighted that revisions of the protocols would be carried out on the second day of the massive show, underlining that “as verifiers and with the powers granted to them by the General Health Law of the State , they would see that the protocols that the organizers presented to them to carry out Baja Beach Fest are fulfilled " 

Likewise, he pointed out that the call for attention to organizers would come if a large percentage of the attendees do not comply with the use of face masks, a situation that, from what is observed in different media and social networks, was not fulfilled. It is worth mentioning that Baja Beach Fest 2021 is an outdoor event with 90% of its attendees already vaccinated, however, the massive crowding without healthy distance and the lack of use of a mask by those present once the health filters and security have caused the urban spectacle to be strongly criticized and put before the national focus, despite re-incurring the practice of a “cultural issue”, as described by the mayor of Rosarito Aracely Brown, today the municipality is preparing for the third day with the arrival of the Colombian J. Balvin.


On the other hand, La Feria Rosarito 2021 was another event which once again failed to comply with the rules on sanitation and health protocols with thousands of people crowded under the stage where Enigma Norteño will be presented. Faced with his first offense last week, Pérez Rico announced to the organizers of the following events that they would have to resubmit their "no inconvenience" letter, however, yesterday these protocols were again incurred.

Internationally, another massive spectacle that is in the eye of the hurricane is the 2021 Lollapalooza Music Festival, in Chicago, which was attended by around 395 thousand people during the 4 days of the festival. After its completion, it was recently announced that 203 attendees confirmed to the authorities that they had tested positive for COVID-19. Given the fact and criticism of the show, health authorities mentioned that "There is no evidence that Lollapalooza was a" super contagious "event, said Allison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health.

For the moment, Baja Beach Fest 2021 continues with its activities this day while doubts remain whether or not it will take place in its second week, which is scheduled from August 20 to 22."

 

~~~~~

 

Well, we all know that the white eyes are simply not coming to Rosarito anymore, the goose who laid the golden egg are the Mexican-Americans, and even though they certainly don't tip as well, they are the last ones the authorities want to to insult.  The show must go on !

Which brings us to this report, borrowed from Juan Cole:

 ~ From Foreign Policy In Focus :


THE DELTA VARIANT OF GLOBAL STUPIDITY 

Why is the far right jumping on the anti-vaccination bandwagon?

Wednesday, January 13, 2021

What A Legacy You Dumb Toad - The Only President In U.S. History to Be Impeached - Not Once, But TWICE ! - Historical Lowdown On McConnell From Juan Cole - Historian Tim Snyder On Democracy Now !

Of course we all know Trump will deny everything and claim it was Anti-Fa & BLM who created hell in the Capitol, not him and his innocent White Supremacists.  Doesn't matter, history has marked and noted - Trump's name is mud.

 I know, what many of us wanted was the invocation of Article 25 and it didn't happen, but here is the latest:

 

 ~ From The New York Times: 

And, let's hope and pray  that "...two thirds or more members present (in the Senate) vote to convict.  Trump is guilty.  Separate votes would be needed to prohibit Trump from receiving benefits given to ex-presidents and to bar him from future political office." 


The Trump Impeachment

 

 

 ~ From CNN: 

 

House Impeaches Trump For Role In Deadly Capitol Riot 

 

By Meg Wagner, Melissa Macaya, Mike Hayes, Melissa Mahtani, Fernando Alfonso III and Veronica Rocha, CNN

Updated 6:06 p.m. ET, January 13, 2021
 
 
~~~~~
 
Don't forget about the fact checks:
 
 ~ From CNN:
 
 
 Updated 5:43 PM ET, Wed January 13, 2021
 
~~~~~
 
Have to run, another litter of kittens showed up yesterday, what a disaster and  need to make dinner - Callendars' Chicken which is yummy on these cold nights although a bit fattening.  However, I have some excellent reports coming up on the ratboy McConnell & our amigo from Truthout. Until then....
 
Stay Safe Y'all.
 
~~~~~
 
Update/edit: About Ratboy McConnell that guy...I know what he said but he is so slick that with him, you never know what to believe :

 ~ From Informed Comment:

 
 
 
 
"Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In Chapter 7 of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, the enormously wealthy Jay Gatsby becomes concerned about word getting out that he is having an affair with Daisy, who is married to Tom, and abruptly stops having the big parties he had been throwing, to which assorted society flotsam and jetsam had come, people he had barely known. Tom cheats on Daisy with Myrtle. Then Gatsby lets Daisy drive his car and she accidentally runs over and kills Myrtle, her husband’s mistress. By chapter 9 Tom, wrongly convinced that Gatsby had struck and killed with his car Tom’s own mistress, murdered the millionaire in his pool. Virtually no one comes to his funeral.

Gatsby was always fated to be a parable for the Trump presidency. I think we’re now at that point in the story where nobody is coming to his parties any more and his paramour (the militias) has run over her rival (Congress).

Jonathan Martin, Maggie Haberman and Nicholas Fandos at the NYT got the scoop that Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell is done with Donald Trump, furious at him, and pleased that the Democrats are impeaching him. He is clearly releasing Republicans in Congress to vote to impeach, as well, if that is what they want.

The immediate trigger for this epochal blow-up between the two GOP leaders is Trump’s having sicced the white supremacists and Nazis on McConnell and other congressional representatives and senators on 1/6 (the date of the Capitol Insurrection), endangering their lives.

Trump has been siccing supremacists and Nazis on people for four years, however, and McConnell never batted an eyelash.

When ICE agents were tearing babies out of their mothers’ arms, Mitch wasn’t breaking with Trump over that.

In fact, for all of the last four years McConnell’s wife Elaine Chao has been Trump’s secretary of transportation. She initially did not divest from her investments in road building materials, and she is alleged to have pursued policies at Transportation that would benefit her family’s Chinese shipping business.

She came home from the office stinking of Trump after having been at cabinet meetings with him where he went on white supremacist rants (which must have offended her). But the McConnell-Chao gravy train did not stop running for an instant.

McConnell was never a Trumpist, but he was perfectly willing to use Trump to get what he wanted. McConnell is a servant of the billionaire class and the big corporations. He does not actually represent Kentucky so much as he represents Charles Koch and others in the Fortune 500. His job was to bend the Senate and thus the country to the will of the plutocrats, and say what you like about him, he was very good at his job.

McConnell wanted the massive tax cut on the superwealthy, which he got in 2017.

He wanted to install a steady stream of deeply conservative and youngish federal judges, some of them obviously unqualified, so as to ensure the GOP control of the Federal judiciary for decades. McConnell had shot down Obama’s nominees for Federal circuit judges and refused to allow vacancies to be filled. He then filled all the vacancies. McConnell’s 200 judicial appointments were 85 percent white and 75 percent male. This wasn’t a judicial approval process, it was a fourth “Back to the Future Movie” where he transported us all to 1955. A third of all federal circuit court judges were appointed by Trump, and not one is Black, even though their decisions will dictate the parameters of the lives of the some 43 million African-Americans. That’s like conspiring to ensure that Spain (pop. 46.9 mn.) had no Spanish judges.

McConnell wanted a Republican-controlled Supreme Court that would help corporations further de-unionize American workers and would strike down government regulation, including environmental regulation, as well as supporting the GOP campaign of voter suppression waged against minorities and the less well-off. Again, mission accomplished.

But Trump went to Georgia and told his initiates that the election was rigged and they could not expect justice, which likely depressed the vote as his base did not come out in the numbers the GOP needed. Why should they bother to vote in a corrupt election where, he told them, Dominion voting machines would just erase their vote (they wouldn’t).

By his crazy conspiracy theories and insistence that he won a second term (he didn’t), Trump handed the senate to the Democrats for at least two years (and very possibly for many more) and demoted Mitch from Master of the Universe to bored little boy whose teacher is making him sit in the corner and not breathe a word.

Then on top of that Trump sent Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and that guy with the horns and face paint to kidnap or kill McConnell and his colleagues.

McConnell’s goal (and that of Charles Koch and his other billionaire donors) is to take back the House and the Senate in 2022 and emasculate Biden the way he stopped Obama from accomplishing almost anything. Then he wants back the White House in 2024.

Trump had taken over the Republican Party and clearly intended to run in 2024, though. Since Trump is so popular among the Republican base, with a majority supporting the Capitol Insurrection, there will be no peace in the party for the next few years if Trump remains viable. He can prevent Mike Pompeo, Nikki Haley and other would-be presidential contenders from plausibly getting in the ring and from attracting the big campaign money from donors. Why bet against Trump when he has a lock?

But Trump has already demonstrated that he is too dysfunctional to win a second term, whether in 2020 or 2024, which may mean the Republicans are facing long years in the wilderness. Trump could even make them so unpopular with his Mussolini schitck that the suburbs are spooked again in 2022 and the GOP can’t get back the House.

The Democrats in the meantime can undo the 2017 tax cut, can start filling the federal judgeships of retiring GOP appointees, replacing them with Democrats, and can perhaps convince Breyer to retire so as to avoid losing another SCOTUS seat. They can also back wind and solar and electric vehicles, effectively destroying the oil empire of Charles Koch and other big donors to the GOP over the next decade.

Trump was extremely useful to McConnell for four years, and McConnell swallowed the extreme right white supremacy promotion for all that time, because thereby he could serve the billionaire class.

Now, Trump is extremely inconvenient. It isn’t just about 1/6, though that is part of it. McConnell and his backers are far, far better off with Trump politically destroyed, now that he has outlived his usefulness.

Tom is coming for Gatsby as we speak."

——-

Bonus Video:

CNN: “McConnell believes impeachment push will help rid GOP of Trump” 

 

Question: Wasn't Chao's father a Chinese shipping magnate who some accuse of being involved in the Drug Trade?  Or, was that just a rumor ??

 

~~~~~ 

 

Mark his advise:

 ~ From Truthout:

 

GOP Is In Turmoil But we Shouldn't Underestimate Ongoing threat Of The Right 

end edit.

  

 
 
Maybe it's too early for this one, still... in anticipation of the complete Trump exile: 
  

day of

What A Legacy You Dumb Toad - The Only President In U.S. History to Be Impeached - Not Once, But TWICE ! - Historical Lowdown On McConnell From Juan Cole - Historian Tim Snyder On Democracy Now !

Of course we all know Trump will deny everything and claim it was Anti-Fa & BLM who created hell in the Capitol, not him and his innocent White Supremacists.  Doesn't matter, history has marked and noted - Trump's name is mud.

 I know, what many of us wanted was the invocation of Article 25 and it didn't happen, but here is the latest:

 

 ~ From The New York Times: 

And, let's hope and pray  that "...two thirds or more members present (in the Senate) vote to convict.  Trump is guilty.  Separate votes would be needed to prohibit Trump from receiving benefits given to ex-presidents and to bar him from future political office." 


The Trump Impeachment

 

 

 ~ From CNN: 

 

House Impeaches Trump For Role In Deadly Capitol Riot 

 

By Meg Wagner, Melissa Macaya, Mike Hayes, Melissa Mahtani, Fernando Alfonso III and Veronica Rocha, CNN

Updated 6:06 p.m. ET, January 13, 2021
 
 
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Don't forget about the fact checks:
 
 ~ From CNN:
 
 
 Updated 5:43 PM ET, Wed January 13, 2021
 
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Have to run, another litter of kittens showed up yesterday, what a disaster and  need to make dinner - Callendars' Chicken which is yummy on these cold nights although a bit fattening.  However, I have some excellent reports coming up on the ratboy McConnell & our amigo from Truthout. Until then....
 
Stay Safe Y'all.
 
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Update/edit: About Ratboy McConnell that guy...I know what he said but he is so slick that with him, you never know what to believe :

 ~ From Informed Comment:

 
 
 
 
"Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In Chapter 7 of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, the enormously wealthy Jay Gatsby becomes concerned about word getting out that he is having an affair with Daisy, who is married to Tom, and abruptly stops having the big parties he had been throwing, to which assorted society flotsam and jetsam had come, people he had barely known. Tom cheats on Daisy with Myrtle. Then Gatsby lets Daisy drive his car and she accidentally runs over and kills Myrtle, her husband’s mistress. By chapter 9 Tom, wrongly convinced that Gatsby had struck and killed with his car Tom’s own mistress, murdered the millionaire in his pool. Virtually no one comes to his funeral.

Gatsby was always fated to be a parable for the Trump presidency. I think we’re now at that point in the story where nobody is coming to his parties any more and his paramour (the militias) has run over her rival (Congress).

Jonathan Martin, Maggie Haberman and Nicholas Fandos at the NYT got the scoop that Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell is done with Donald Trump, furious at him, and pleased that the Democrats are impeaching him. He is clearly releasing Republicans in Congress to vote to impeach, as well, if that is what they want.

The immediate trigger for this epochal blow-up between the two GOP leaders is Trump’s having sicced the white supremacists and Nazis on McConnell and other congressional representatives and senators on 1/6 (the date of the Capitol Insurrection), endangering their lives.

Trump has been siccing supremacists and Nazis on people for four years, however, and McConnell never batted an eyelash.

When ICE agents were tearing babies out of their mothers’ arms, Mitch wasn’t breaking with Trump over that.

In fact, for all of the last four years McConnell’s wife Elaine Chao has been Trump’s secretary of transportation. She initially did not divest from her investments in road building materials, and she is alleged to have pursued policies at Transportation that would benefit her family’s Chinese shipping business.

She came home from the office stinking of Trump after having been at cabinet meetings with him where he went on white supremacist rants (which must have offended her). But the McConnell-Chao gravy train did not stop running for an instant.

McConnell was never a Trumpist, but he was perfectly willing to use Trump to get what he wanted. McConnell is a servant of the billionaire class and the big corporations. He does not actually represent Kentucky so much as he represents Charles Koch and others in the Fortune 500. His job was to bend the Senate and thus the country to the will of the plutocrats, and say what you like about him, he was very good at his job.

McConnell wanted the massive tax cut on the superwealthy, which he got in 2017.

He wanted to install a steady stream of deeply conservative and youngish federal judges, some of them obviously unqualified, so as to ensure the GOP control of the Federal judiciary for decades. McConnell had shot down Obama’s nominees for Federal circuit judges and refused to allow vacancies to be filled. He then filled all the vacancies. McConnell’s 200 judicial appointments were 85 percent white and 75 percent male. This wasn’t a judicial approval process, it was a fourth “Back to the Future Movie” where he transported us all to 1955. A third of all federal circuit court judges were appointed by Trump, and not one is Black, even though their decisions will dictate the parameters of the lives of the some 43 million African-Americans. That’s like conspiring to ensure that Spain (pop. 46.9 mn.) had no Spanish judges.

McConnell wanted a Republican-controlled Supreme Court that would help corporations further de-unionize American workers and would strike down government regulation, including environmental regulation, as well as supporting the GOP campaign of voter suppression waged against minorities and the less well-off. Again, mission accomplished.

But Trump went to Georgia and told his initiates that the election was rigged and they could not expect justice, which likely depressed the vote as his base did not come out in the numbers the GOP needed. Why should they bother to vote in a corrupt election where, he told them, Dominion voting machines would just erase their vote (they wouldn’t).

By his crazy conspiracy theories and insistence that he won a second term (he didn’t), Trump handed the senate to the Democrats for at least two years (and very possibly for many more) and demoted Mitch from Master of the Universe to bored little boy whose teacher is making him sit in the corner and not breathe a word.

Then on top of that Trump sent Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and that guy with the horns and face paint to kidnap or kill McConnell and his colleagues.

McConnell’s goal (and that of Charles Koch and his other billionaire donors) is to take back the House and the Senate in 2022 and emasculate Biden the way he stopped Obama from accomplishing almost anything. Then he wants back the White House in 2024.

Trump had taken over the Republican Party and clearly intended to run in 2024, though. Since Trump is so popular among the Republican base, with a majority supporting the Capitol Insurrection, there will be no peace in the party for the next few years if Trump remains viable. He can prevent Mike Pompeo, Nikki Haley and other would-be presidential contenders from plausibly getting in the ring and from attracting the big campaign money from donors. Why bet against Trump when he has a lock?

But Trump has already demonstrated that he is too dysfunctional to win a second term, whether in 2020 or 2024, which may mean the Republicans are facing long years in the wilderness. Trump could even make them so unpopular with his Mussolini schitck that the suburbs are spooked again in 2022 and the GOP can’t get back the House.

The Democrats in the meantime can undo the 2017 tax cut, can start filling the federal judgeships of retiring GOP appointees, replacing them with Democrats, and can perhaps convince Breyer to retire so as to avoid losing another SCOTUS seat. They can also back wind and solar and electric vehicles, effectively destroying the oil empire of Charles Koch and other big donors to the GOP over the next decade.

Trump was extremely useful to McConnell for four years, and McConnell swallowed the extreme right white supremacy promotion for all that time, because thereby he could serve the billionaire class.

Now, Trump is extremely inconvenient. It isn’t just about 1/6, though that is part of it. McConnell and his backers are far, far better off with Trump politically destroyed, now that he has outlived his usefulness.

Tom is coming for Gatsby as we speak."

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Bonus Video:

CNN: “McConnell believes impeachment push will help rid GOP of Trump” 

 

Question: Wasn't Chao's father a Chinese shipping magnate who some accuse of being involved in the Drug Trade?  Or, was that just a rumor ??

 

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Mark his advise:

 ~ From Truthout:

 

GOP Is In Turmoil But we Shouldn't Underestimate Ongoing threat Of The Right 

end edit.

  

 
 
Maybe it's too early for this one, still... in anticipation of the complete Trump exile: 
  

day of