January 19, 2023

Minilogue vs KAB ‎- Join The Minikab (Original Mix)+(Chris Cargo Remix) 💙🎶 2003 Swedish Tech House

Label: Feed Me Records – FEED001
Format: Vinyl, 12", 33 ⅓ RPM
Country: Portugal
Released: Dec 2003
Genre: Electronic
Style: Progressive Tech House

January 18, 2023

Sub-Pop 200 (Full Compilation album) 1988

Label: Sub Pop – SP 25
Format: 3 x Vinyl, 12", EP, Compilation
Box Set, Limited Edition
Country: US
Released: Dec 1988
Genre: Rock
Style: Alternative Rock, Folk Rock, Grunge, Psychedelic Rock, Garage Rock

TRACKS

Tad - "Sex God Missy"
The Fluid - "Is it day I’m Seeing?"
Nirvana - "Spank Thru"
Steven J. Bernstein - "Come Out Tonight"
Mudhoney - "The Rose"
The Walkabouts - "Got No Chains"
Terry Lee Hale - "Dead is Dead"
Soundgarden - "Sub Pop Rock City"
Green River - "Hangin’ Tree"
Fastbacks - "Swallow My Pride"
Blood Circus - "The Outback"
Swallow - "Zoo"
Chemistry Set - "Underground"
Girl Trouble - "Gonna Find a Cave"
The Nights and Days - "Split"
Cat Butt - "Big Cigar"
Beat Happening - "Pajama Party in a Haunted Hive"
Screaming Trees - "Love or Confusion"
Steve Fisk - "Untitled"
Thrown Ups - "You Lost It"

January 18, 2023

Marjorie Taylor Greene called 'idiot' for suggesting plane not involved in 9/11 Pentagon strike

https://www.rawstory.com/denver-riggleman-slams-idiot-marjorie-taylor-greene-for-suggesting-9-11-pentagon-strike-wasn-t-a-plane/



Former Congressman Denver Riggleman (R-VA) took to Twitter on Wednesday to slam Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) for an interview in which she suggests that the strike on the Pentagon during the September 11 attacks did not involve an airplane.

The interview, given to American Priority before Taylor Greene took her seat in Congress in 2021, was recirculated after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) assigned her to the House Homeland Security Committee this week.

"We had witnessed 9/11, right?" said Greene in the interview. "We had witnessed 9/11. The terrorist attack in New York, and the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania, and the so-called plane that crashed into the Pentagon. It's odd there's never any evidence shown for a plane in the Pentagon."

"One of my closest friends was in the Pentagon when the plane hit. I deployed ten days after 9/11," wrote Riggleman, a Trump-skeptic Republican who served in Congress from 2019 to 2021 and worked as an adviser to the House January 6 Committee. "Any idiot who says the 'so-called plane that crashed into the Pentagon' and says there is no evidence for said plane is a mentally deranged fool."

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January 18, 2023

Trump admits to taking classified folders as 'cool keepsake': 'I saved hundreds of them'

https://www.rawstory.com/donald-trump-classified-documents-2659273946/



Donald Trump admitted to keeping government materials as "cool" keepsakes, but he insisted he kept only the folders and not the classified documents they had contained. The former president issued a pair of posts on his Truth Social website claiming that reports about the top-secret materials he hoarded at Mar-a-Lago and elsewhere were inaccurate, and tried out a new defense by insisting that 48 folders marked "classified" that were seized by FBI agents had been empty when he carted them off from the White House as souvenirs.

"The Fake News Media & Crooked Democrats (That’s been proven!) keep saying I had a 'large number of documents' in order to make the Biden Classified Docs look less significant," Trump posted. "When I was in the Oval Office, or elsewhere, & 'papers' were distributed to groups of people & me, they would often be in a striped paper folder with 'Classified' or 'Confidential' or another word on them. When the session was over, they would collect the paper(s), but not the folders, & I saved hundreds of them."

"Remember, these were just ordinary, inexpensive folders with various words printed on them, but they were a 'cool' keepsake," he added. President Joe Biden's attorneys notified the Department of Justice that some Obama-era classified materials were found at his private residence and at the Penn Biden Center, which a special counsel has been tasked with investigating, but Trump said his own actions were entirely justified.

"Perhaps the Gestapo took some of these empty folders when they Raided Mar-a-Lago, & counted them as a document, which they are not," Trump posted. "It’s also possible that the Trump Hating Marxist Thugs in charge will 'plant' documents while they’re in possession of the material. As President, and based on the Presidential Records Act & Socks Case, I did NOTHING WRONG. JOE DID!"

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January 18, 2023

Is Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg Finally Ready to Indict Trump?

Alvin Bragg told reporters recently the Manhattan DA’s Office was ready to move to “the next chapter.” Does that mean, after resisting for so long, he’s ready to go after Trump?

https://www.thedailybeast.com/is-manhattan-district-attorney-alvin-bragg-finally-ready-to-indict-donald-trump



Minutes after a New York judge ordered the Trump Organization to pay $1.6 million for criminally dodging taxes last Friday, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg held a press conference. It was short—two minutes, to be exact—but Bragg was still able to bask in the glory of his office’s hard-fought victory against Donald Trump’s family company. And he was able to tease his next move.

https://twitter.com/Jose_Pagliery/status/1613914842447974406
Bragg congratulated his team on successfully prosecuting two Trump companies and sending its top accountant to jail, noting how the win “closes this important chapter of our ongoing investigation into the former president and his business.” “We now move on to the next chapter,” he continued. To many, it sounded like Bragg was finally ready to set his sights on former President Donald Trump—nearly a year after making the disastrous decision to not indict him for fear of losing in court, a move that demoralized the investigative team and caused its top two prosecutors to quit in protest.

But Bragg may finally have changed his mind. The recent trial offered a preview of the damning evidence that ties Trump directly to the crime. First, there’s the memo Trump signed approving chief operating officer Matthew Calamari’s blatantly illegal request in 2012 to reduce his taxed salary by $72,000 to cover the cost of his untaxed high-end corporate apartment. Add to that the fact that Trump, in a separate New York legal fight in 2021, asserted under oath that he personally oversaw Calamari’s compensation.

https://twitter.com/Jose_Pagliery/status/1598731429189279744
Second, there are checks Trump signed to cover the expensive tuition at a private school for chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg’s grandkids. Add to that Weisselberg’s trial testimony, in which he remembered being in Trump’s office a decade ago when he promised to pay it back—a vow he fulfilled when he reimbursed the company by also lowering his taxed salary.

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January 18, 2023

Republicans Are Really Going To Crash The American Economy This Time

If you think this will be a replay of 2011, where Republicans walked right up to the line and then backed down, that is not a bet I’d be willing to take.

https://thebanter.substack.com/p/republicans-are-really-going-to-crash

https://archive.ph/NCZqI



I had to explain to my daughter Anastasia last week that there’s a very good chance she won’t be able to go to drama camp this summer because we have to save up as much money as possible in case Republicans explode the economy and then shut down the government again a few weeks later. She’s upset but she remembers how bad it got when her mom stopped being paid for over a month four years ago because Trump threw a temper tantrum.

There was no way to sugarcoat it for Anastasia and there is no way to sugarcoat it for you, either: Republicans are going to do everything humanly possible to crash the economy this summer and again going into the fall. Either attempt is bad news on its own. If they manage to pull off both, it would be catastrophic and the GOP has an awful lot of incentive to go for the gold here. I’m going to explain why this is horrendous scenario is inevitable, and more importantly, what we can do about it. Because we need to get ready, and fast.

Why would they do that?

Normally, they wouldn’t go all in on this level of economic destruction, and in the past they haven’t. Republicans usually threaten to crash the global economy, but costing their morbidly rich donors trillions of dollars is bad for business so they relent. However, to the extremists controlling Speaker-in-name-only Kevin McCarthy, the only thing worse than crashing the world economy is another four years of Democrats being in power. Next year is a presidential race and Republicans have exactly two candidates of note: Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis. Neither is particularly exciting. Trump is under so many serious criminal investigations, the likelihood that he will go to prison or flee the country goes up by the day. He’s also a worn-out and, ahem, “low-energy” shadow of his former showman self. I guess adderall can only perk you up for so long?

DeSantis is younger and full of energy. Short, whiny energy. Florida loves him but he’s not exactly the swaggering manly Hollywood-esque studmuffin the GOP base demands. Also, he’s terrible outside of his protective media bubble and it’s impossible to avoid the national spotlight in a presidential race. Matched up against Biden the incumbent, a know quantity with a broad coalition of support, they are not going to fare well and Republicans know it. The planned Hunter Biden smear campaign is a long shot that could very well backfire. The Biden documents “scandal”, at best, will soften the blow for Trump’s criminal theft of nuclear secrets. It certainly won’t be enough to wreck Biden’s re-election. Barring some new massive scandal, something Biden has been very careful to avoid so far, Republicans are going to have to run on externals like the economy, immigration, or Covid. None of which are likely to do well given the current trajectory of the country.

snip

January 18, 2023

Sweden's PM grilled by EU MEPs on his dependence on the far-right

Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson faced a barrage of questions in the European Parliament on Tuesday over his dependence on far-right support, with one MEP accusing him of being "a hostage" to the Sweden Democrats.

https://www.thelocal.se/20230117/swedens-pm-grilled-by-eu-meps-on-his-dependence-on-the-far-right/

https://archive.ph/lh1kC


Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson delivers his speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

Kristersson protested that governments had been formed with far-right support in Finland, Norway and Denmark, and that Sweden was no different. “This government which Sweden has established has been a completely normal Nordic government since 2001,” he said. “This has been tried in Finland, Norway and Denmark with good results.”

Kristersson, leader of Sweden’s conservative Moderate Party, was in Strasbourg to present Sweden’s programme, as President of the European Council, to the parliament. Some of the most challenging questions came from MEPs from the green and left parties.

“Your government is now hostage to the Sweden Democrats,” declared the Belgian MEP Philippe Lamberts, who is chair of the parliament’s green group, adding that his group were extremely concerned that a government with such a dependence on the far-right would be responsible for working on EU laws.

Manon Aubry, the French MEP who leads the Left grouping, warned that the Sweden Democrats “neo-Nazi use of language” was already widely spread in Europe. “You can’t play games with the extreme right, because when they take power, they will refuse to give it up in a democratic way,” he warned.

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January 18, 2023

This Supreme Court case could devastate workers' right to strike. If wealthy corporations get their

way, companies would be able to sue workers for the cost of a strike — like spoiled food, lost revenue, and more.

It would be a massive setback for the working class.

https://twitter.com/MorePerfectUS/status/1612474751783690246

CASE PREVIEW

Cement-truck drivers went on strike. A lawsuit by their company may pave the way for restricting workers’ rights.

https://www.scotusblog.com/2023/01/cement-truck-drivers-went-on-strike-a-lawsuit-by-their-company-may-pave-the-way-for-restricting-workers-rights/

Striketober. Starbucks walkouts. Work stoppages at iconic companies like John Deere, The New York Times, and Kellogg’s. The number of labor disputes resulting in strikes and the attention paid to those strikes has increased over the past few years. That is why the Supreme Court’s decision to review a basic feature of how the law may or may not interfere in work stoppages is noteworthy.

The case, Glacier Northwest v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local Union 174, will be argued on Tuesday. Here are the facts: Workers who drive cement mixers grew frustrated with the pace of bargaining with their employer, Glacier Northwest, a ready-mix concrete company in Seattle. So the drivers decided to go out on strike. Drivers reported for work and those with early runs had their trucks loaded with cement. At the appointed hour for the onset of the strike, the drivers drove their trucks back to the company’s headquarters and walked off the job. For those whose trucks had already been loaded with cement but who had not yet made deliveries, they left their trucks running so the cement wouldn’t instantly harden inside the trucks’ drums. The company, however, was unable to deliver the cement and some of it hardened, requiring it be destroyed and carted away. The strike lasted one week before the parties reached agreement on a new contract.

The issue in this case revolves around what happened next: Glacier sued the Teamsters Union, which represents the drivers, for “tortious destruction” of the company’s property. Glacier asked a Washington state court to make the Teamsters pay for damage that happened when cement hardened after the strike began. The company alleged that the Teamsters chose to start the strike after cement had been loaded into trucks because it would cost money to deal with undelivered cement. The Washington Supreme Court dismissed the case, finding that it wasn’t appropriate to apply state tort law to a labor dispute covered by a federal law, the National Labor Relations Act.

The Teamsters filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging that Glacier filed the tort action in retaliation for workers striking. The NLRB general counsel issued a complaint, finding merit to the Teamsters’ allegation. That case is still pending at the NLRB.

snip

January 18, 2023

How Close Is the U.S. to Hitting the Debt Ceiling? How Bad Would That Be?

The United States has a cap on the amount of money it can borrow. That means it can run out of cash if the limit isn’t lifted.

https://www.nytimes.com/article/debt-ceiling-us-economy.html

https://archive.ph/mnd7A



Washington is gearing up for another big fight over whether to raise or suspend the nation’s debt limit, with Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen warning last week that the United States will reach its existing borrowing cap of $31.4 trillion on Thursday.

The United States borrows huge sums of money by selling Treasury bonds to investors across the globe and uses those funds to pay existing financial obligations, including military salaries, safety net benefits and interest on the national debt. Once the United States hits the cap, Treasury can use “extraordinary measures” — suspending some investments and exchanging different types of debt — to try to stay beneath the cap for as long as possible. But eventually, the United States will need to either borrow more money to pay its bills or stop making good on its financial obligations, including possibly defaulting on its debt.

Responsibility for lifting or suspending the borrowing cap falls to Congress, which must get a simple majority in both the House and Senate to vote for any change to the debt limit. Raising the debt limit has become a perennial fight, with Republican lawmakers using it as leverage to try to force spending cuts. This year is shaping up to be the messiest fight in at least a decade. Republicans now control the House and they have adopted new rules governing legislation that make it more difficult to raise the debt limit and strengthen Republicans’ ability to demand that any increase be accompanied by spending cuts. Senate Republicans have also insisted that increases to the debt limit should be tied to “structural spending reform.”

President Biden has said he will oppose any attempt to tie spending cuts to raising the debt ceiling, raising the likelihood of a protracted standoff. All of this drama raises the question of what the debt limit really is, how it got here and why the United States does not do away with debt limit entirely and spare the nation from its periodic face-off with an economic time bomb.

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January 18, 2023

The Vaccine Misinformation Crisis Is More Severe Than You Think

There is a profit to be made peddling anti-vaxx conspiracy theories, and no mechanism left to stop them.

https://thebanter.substack.com/p/the-vaccine-misinformation-crisis

https://archive.ph/pV4tN



While deep into research for this piece, the news broke that Alex Berenson was the latest “journalist” to be handpicked by Elon Musk to disseminate private Twitter files on the company’s previous policies towards vaccine misinformation. Given I was using Berenson as a primary example of Covid misinformation and grift, I found the news to be extremely distressing.

The wrongest man

Berenson was dubbed “The Pandemic’s Wrongest Man” by The Atlantic and has been thoroughly debunked as one of the leading sources of Covid vaccine misinformation. The Atlantic piece itself was so devastating that it is a wonder Berenson continued saying anything else on the subject. Derek Thompson didn’t just debunk Berenson’s claims, he laid waste to them. Quoting doctors and scientists involved with studying Covid and the vaccine trials themselves, Thompson showed Berenson appeared to be incapable of interpreting the data or understanding basic science. Furthermore, Berenson’s misinformation was so egregious it was hard to see it as anything other than disinformation. Here’s a stunning example of Berenson’s shocking dishonesty (from The Atlantic piece):



Thompson asked Berenson to explain himself, leading to this extraordinary exchange:



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