For tonight, I'm noting Heart -- And and Nancy Wilson's group. My rule for my choices? None of my five picks can be a single or an AOR classic. Heart has a string of hits and they're solid tracks and classics. But we know them and I want to note a few Heart songs that I love that you may not have heard of if you didn't purchase the albums. (I'm also pretty sure I've noted my five favorite Heart hits before -- probably more than once since they are one of my favorite bands. One of my top ten favorite bands, I should clarify.)
First and foremost? "Nobody Home."
Heart got a lot of crap for HEART, their comeback album. Oh, they're using outside writers!!! Oh!!! How awful!!! They're selling out!!!! Aerosmith did their comeback two years later with outside songwriters and no one said one word. But Ann and Nancy get attacked? "Nobody Home" is a great song and it's one that they wrote with their friend Sue Ennis (who they collaborate with frequently including on "Straight On," "Dog & Butterfly" and ""). It's one of five songs the Wilson sisters co-wrote on HEART -- an album with only ten songs. But the way they were attacked, you would have thought they didn't write a single song on the album.
"Mistral Wind."
This is a classic that got overlooked. It's not surprising it was overlooked, it's from DOG AND BUTTERFLY which has the title track and "Straight On'' which were both hits. This is a song worth checking out.
"Vainglorious."
JUPITER'S DREAM is a really strong album but, for me, the standout track really is "Vainglorious."
"Soul of the Sea."
The first time I heard this, I thought, "This doesn't sound like a Heart song." It doesn't -- and it does. It's what's great about the group when they're really cooking: There is no one Heart 'sound.' The group can handle a lot of genres and doesn't serve up the obvious.
"Wheels."
RED VELVET CAR was a Heart classic. I know Kat gave it a deserved rave. But it didn't seem to get the attention from the music press that it warranted. Fortunately, Heart has a built-in base and we appreciated the album.
"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):
Friday, October 23, 2020. The duopoly debates conclude with Joe Biden lying about ethics and doing so as a former business partner of Hunter Biden's makes a damaging announcement to the press.
Last night, the last of the duopoly debates took place. A bi-partisan grift known illogically as the 'presidential' debates takes place every four years. The pretense is that it's a debate between presidential candidates; however, that's not the case. The Democrats and the Republicans control the debates so only their candidates make the stage.
The Libertarian Party has been making steady gains each cycle and, this year, their candidate is on the ballot in all fifty states. However, Jo Jorgensen did not make the debate stage because these are not the presidential debates. If they were, they'd have to include all candidates -- even if it was just the 'serious' ones however you wanted to define 'serious' -- and they don't. Again, Dr Jo Jorgensen is on the ballot in all fifty states and yet she was not on the debate stage last night. Howie Hawkins is the Green Party candidate and he was not on the stage last night. Gloria La Riva, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, was not on the stage last night. There were other candidates not on the stage. We no longer cover Joseph Kishore's campaign because, clearly, he and David North had made the decision to campaign for Joe Biden. This has led to nutty conspiracy articles at the SEP party's website of WSWS in which you've got Donald Trump leading a death and kidnap squad in the US. That is just beyond stupid. WSWS is calling out JACOBIN magazine currently and, in better times, their criticism might stick. But with their nutty, tin-foil hats on currently, they just look like crazy idiots. They realized that this week due to a huge backlash (over the pimping for Joe Biden) which has resulted in a significant loss of web traffic and major complaints from the readers who remain at WSWS so they quickly rushed out Patrick Martin's two-part series on the corruption of the Democratic Party. It's too little, too late for some.
For us? We'll go back to highlighting WSWS after the election. Related, I'm not interested in The Hip-Hop Caucus and feel a little like Jackson Browne when he ad libs during "Cocaine" the following line: "But I wouldn't have been a user, even one more day, if you'd shown me how I was helping turn a profit for the CIA." Indeed.
The Hip-Hop Caucus was highlighted here in the past because of their connection to Rosa Clemente who was on the 2008 Green Party presidential ticket (she was presidential nominee Cynthia McKinney's running mate). So I wrongly thought they were some sort of independent organization -- as they present themselves to be. But at the end of last week, when we stopped noting them, we stopped because I hovered over one of their links in an e-mail. They're raising money for the Democratic Party. Now I know no one enforces the damn law, but in a functioning democracy, they'd be facing charges and be stripped of their current tax status for that little stunt.
After the election, we may highlight them. But I don't approve of that nonsense. NOW's sent things to public account non-stop throughout this election cycle. We've ignored them for the same reason of lack of independence. NOW is legally prohibited from endorsing or campaigning for a presidential candidate. They get around it with NOW PAC but no one even pretends the two are separate anymore. NOW PAC makes the endorsement, NPR brings on the NOW president (not NOW PAC president) and introduces her as the NOW president and then talks about NOW (not NOW PAC) endorsing a president. NOW should lose its tax status. These are abuses plain and simple, flagrant disregard for the law. I'm not going to reward that. Shame on Hip-Hop Caucus Go to ACT Blue currently and you can get in line to donate, for example, to 'progressive' Dianne Feinstein's 2024 campaign.
That's both horrifying and whore-ifying. Dianne shouldn't have run for re-election last time, she's too damn old. And no one wanted to face that reality until this month's Supreme Court nominee hearings. Right before them, Democrats in power finally realized Dianne wasn't all there. Too damn bad. They had no right to remove her at this late moment. No, she shouldn't have been Chair. But all of the problems some people finally discovered? Those were the reasons those of us in California endorsed Kevin de Leon. Maybe if busybodies from out of state had kept their noses out of it, Kevin could have been in the Senate and the Democrats could have had a real chair in charge of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Idiots caused this problem or, as Judge Judy might say, "Don't crap on my carpet and tell me it's a decoration."
I'm not interested in fakery. Which is why we stopped Joseph Kishore's campaign. We do try to cover all campaigns that we can. That goes beyond the presidency. Anyone who sends a press release for their campaign has been noted. By the same token, any member of Congress that sends out a press release gets noted. This year that policy could have been tested.
A pedophile is running for the presidency -- no, that's not a joke about someone's son. There's a third party candidate who's connected with DEN and that means he's probably a pedophile. I believe the documentary OPEN SECRET and several witnesses have established that. He was part of the debate that put forward presidential candidates not part of the duopoly. We did note that debate twice -- once with a partial clip (that's all that was up) and once with the full debate when it was later posted. We quoted Gloria La Riva from that debate. We also posted Howie Hawkins from that debate when his campaign did an edit of just his remarks.
When we reported on it, and quoted Gloria and only Gloria, a few e-mails came in asking why we didn't list everyone who participated? Good question. I was pressed for time and I also didn't feel it was my job to promote the man in that debate who is a pedophile. Had his campaign sent in a press release, would it have gone up?
I say yes. But I'm truly glad it didn't come in.
And goodness knows, we have more than enough to cover.
Such as last night's debate.
Before we get to the clip, when you watch, note Joe's comments about how his children, unlike children of color, didn't have to worry about saying 'yes, sir' and 'no, sir' to the police if pulled over. Note that he elected to cite his daughter Ashley. Okay. He wants to bring her up.
Let's demonstrate the privilege that she's lived with. From WIKIPEDIA:
In 2002, Biden was arrested in Chicago and charged with obstructing a police officer.[46] She was leaving a club on Division Street when a friend, John Kaulentis, threw a soft-drink can at a police officer who had told him to stay behind a barricade set up to keep club patrons off of the street.[46] The situation escalated and resulted in another friend, Kelly Donohoe, hitting an officer.[46] As Kaulentis and Donohoe were being taken in to custody, Biden allegedly "verbally intimidated" an officer and was arrested.[46] All three were released on their own recognizance.[46]
In 2009 a friend of Biden attempted to sell a video, reportedly of Biden using cocaine at a party, to the New York Post for $2 million.[47][48] Negotiations brought the price down to $400,000 but the tabloid declined the offer, choosing instead to publish a story about the alleged video.[47][49] After the New York Post published the story, it was revealed that Biden had previously been arrested in 1999 in New Orleans for possession of marijuana, but the charges were dropped and she was released.[49][50]
What is the excuse offered by garbage outlets for Hunter's crack addiction? Oh, yeah, his mother died and his sister died. Are we going to say the same nonsense for Ashley? Because Ashley's Jill's biological daughter. Ashley is from the second marriage.
Addiction is a disease. Krystal Ball, recently, wanted to have sympathy for Hunter and his disease. I don't. I'm not Cher -- who infamously stated, after people used her antique coffee table to snort cocain, that you cease to be a person when you're a drug addict. I'm also not bleeding heart Krystal. Addiction's a disease. And if you're trying to get help, I'm sympathetic. If you're trying to get help. Otherwise? No, I'm not really all that sympathetic. And my sympathy vanishes completely if you're a drug addict -- practicing -- who has had all the breaks anyone could have and who has a father who has actively worked to put other addicts -- not his own children -- behind bars.
That's where my sympathy runs out. And I think the Biden family has exhausted everyone's sympathy at this point when it comes to Joe's posturing on drugs and the reality of the rampant drug abuse in his own family. Remember, America, Joe was happy to 'get tough' on low income children doing drugs he just wasn't willing or able to get tough with his own kids and their myriad of drug addictions.
Maybe the Biden family motto is: Convict as we say, not as we do?
Joe used the term "predator," not "super predator," as CNN noted in 2019:
Joe Biden in a 1993 speech warned of "predators on our streets" who were "beyond the pale" and said they must be cordoned off from the rest of society because the justice system did not know how to rehabilitate them.
As for the laptop?
Let's review what was said in the clip above via the transcript USA TODAY is running with:
[1:11:32] Biden: Look, there are 50 former National Intelligence folks who said that what this, he's accusing me of is a Russian plan. They have said that this has all the characteristics-- four-- five former heads of the CIA, both parties, say what he's saying is a bunch of garbage. Nobody believes it except him, his, and his good friend Rudy Giuliani.
[1:11:51] Trump: You mean, the laptop is now another Russia, Russia, Russia hoax? You gotta be--
[1:11:58] Biden: That’s exactly what-- That’s exactly what--
[1:12:00] Trump: Is this where you’re going? This is where he’s going. The laptop is Russia, Russia, Russia?
First off, let's again note Paul Mulshine (NEW JERSEY STAR-LEDGER):
When the contents of that infamous laptop were revealed they were handed a father-son drama right out of Shakespeare. And they haven’t even followed up an obvious lead on the story’s veracity.
I’m talking about the call that Hunter Biden’s lawyer made to the owner of that Delaware computer shop just a day before the Post broke the story.
That was unearthed by a long-time source of mine, Larry Johnson.
Johnson is a former CIA agent who also happens to be a golfing buddy of Steve Mac Isaac, the father of John Paul Mac Isaac, the guy who runs the shop in Delaware where the computer was deposited for repairs last year but never picked up.
The contract said that if the computer was not picked up in 90 days it became the property of the shop. The FBI later confiscated it but Mac Isaac kept a copy of the hard drive, which he gave to Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani, who in turn gave it to the Post.
After the New York Post story broke last week, a lot of people questioned whether the laptop belonged to Hunter Biden.
But as Johnson wrote on the Sic Semper Tyrannis blog last Friday, “that changed last Tuesday, October 13, 2020. A person claiming to be Hunter Biden’s lawyer called John Paul Mac Isaac and asked for the computer to be returned.”
Mac Isaac was not available for comment but Johnson posted a copy of a follow-up email to him from lawyer George Mesires thanking him for discussing the matter.
When I called Johnson, he asked the obvious question:
“Why would you want a computer back if it’s not your guy’s computer?”
Now let's note Larry Johnson on Joe's nonsense about 50 former hacks for the intel committee:
A letter published today (Monday, October 19, 2020) with the signatures of 50 "former intelligence" officials is a self-inflicted wound of comedy and absurdity wrapped in the specious claim of special expertise. Thank God none of these clowns still hold a position anywhere in the national security bureaucracy. Their inability to grasp basic facts and engage in simple reasoning perhaps explains why the Obama team abandoned American military and intelligence officials at Benghazi in September 2012 and why they considered ISIS as "a junior varsity" team.
Basically, this group of mediocrities are sure that the Hunter Biden emails are part of some nasty Rooskie plot:
. . . we write to say that the arrival on the US political scene of emails purportedly belonging to Vice President Biden’s son Hunter, much of it related to his time serving on the Board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma, has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.
There is only one teeny, tiny problem. They have no facts to back up their deluded judgment, supposedly based on years of experience. Just goes to show that experience without real intelligence is no substitute for competence.
Use the link to continue reading. Jonathan Turley notes:
While House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff and roughly 50 “intelligence experts” have assured the public that this is just Russian disinformation, both the FBI and the Director of National Intelligence have now confirmed that they do not believe the laptop and its contents are Russian disinformation. Now it appears that the laptop was viewed as sufficiently connected to possible federal crimes to be subpoenaed as evidence by the FBI a year ago.
These disclosures continue to make a mockery of the effective news blackout imposed by virtually every major news organization on the story. Notably, for years the media and legal experts have cited the fact of a secret FISA surveillance order as proof that the Russian investigation was legitimate even though allegations of collusion between the Russians and the Trump campaign were discredited. They have referenced the fact that the original evidence passed muster with prosecutors and a secret court for further investigation. The same standard does not appear to apply here as many dismiss the laptop as a real story or real evidence. While the laptop has been dismissed as nothing more than a false smear, it is now confirmed to have been treated as evidence in a criminal investigation. Despite intelligence officials rebutting the claims of Russian disinformation and saying the Schiff was given no such intelligence, the media continues to push this narrative or repeat the Biden campaign’s insistence that this is old news.
It is “new” news. The laptop contains emails directly referencing at least one meeting with Joe Biden who long insisted that he never spoke to his son about his business dealings and never met with any of his associates. Hunter Biden himself contradicted his father’s denial and said that he did speak with him about some of his dealings. Moreover, pictures have emerged with Joe Biden and Ukrainian and other figures associated with his son. Moreover, the laptop confirms what some of us have argued for years: Hunter Biden was clearly engaged in an influence peddling scheme. While Biden has insisted that his son “did nothing wrong,” this was clearly wrong even if it was not charged criminally. As discussed earlier, the Biden camp has never denied that this was indeed Biden’s laptop and his emails.
Now, it appears that the laptop was evidence in a money laundering investigation. The serial designation is important: 272D-BA-3065729.
“272” is the bureau’s classification for money laundering and the added “D” indicates “Money Laundering, Unknown SUA [Specified Unlawful Activity]—White Collar Crime Program.” The BA indicates that the origin of the request was the Baltimore field office.
The issue of the e-mails only became more newsworthy yesterday evening when Navy veteran Tony Bobulinski addressed the press -- see the clip below from THE HILL.
Bobulinski, one of the business partners with Hunter Biden, states that Joe knew and Joe profited from the deals.
He should have been pressed on that. Instead, the most the moderator did was ask if anything about the deals were improper or unethical. Watch Joe insist no in the clip below:
Joe lies. It was unethical. Joe lies and he then tries to drag Donald into it. Hmm? "When allegations of ethical lapses or wrongdoing surface against people on one side of the aisle, they can always claim that someone on the other side has done far worse. But taken together, all of these examples have contributed to a toxic norm." All have. And that's Sarah Chayes writing, at THE ATLANTIC, about Hunter Biden's scandal in 2019:
Joe Biden is the man who, as a senator, walked out of a dinner with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Biden was one of the most vocal champions of anticorruption efforts in the Obama administration. So when this same Biden takes his son with him to China aboard Air Force Two, and within days Hunter joins the board of an investment advisory firm with stakes in China, it does not matter what father and son discussed. Joe Biden has enabled this brand of practice, made it bipartisan orthodoxy. And the ethical standard in these cases—people’s basic understanding of right and wrong—becomes whatever federal law allows. Which is a lot.
Who among us has not admired or supported people who have engaged in or provided cover for this kind of corruption? How did we convince ourselves it was not corruption? Impeachment alone will not end our national calamity. If we want to help our country heal, we must start holding ourselves, our friends, and our allies—and not just our enemies—to its highest standards.
Here's Green Party presidential candidate Howie Hawkins' response to last night's debate.
For eight years, Joe Biden was the US government official in charge of Iraq. Is it any surprise that Iraq remains awash in corruption? Samya Kullab (AP) reports:
Long-time Iraqi civil servant Qusay Abdul-Amma panicked when his monthly salary was delayed. Days of waiting turned to weeks. He defaulted on rent and other bills.
A graphic designer for the Health Ministry, he uses about half his salary to pay his rent of nearly 450,000 Iraqi dinars a month, roughly $400. If he fails to pay twice in a row his landlord will evict him and his family, he fears.
“These delays affect my ability to survive,” Abdul-Amma said.
Iraq’s government is struggling to pay the salaries of the ever-swelling ranks of public sector employees amid an unprecedented liquidity crisis caused by low oil prices. September’s salaries were delayed for weeks, and October’s still haven’t been paid as the government tries to borrow once again from Iraq’s currency reserves. The crisis has fueled fears of instability ahead of mass demonstrations this week.
The public workers are not the big problem and AP should know that. Millions and millions of public moneys have been stolen by leaders -- Nouri al-Maliki, for example. Back when the US Congress pretended to care about Iraq, they would hold hearings about Iraq -- including corruption in Iraq and witnesses would testify about corrupt officials. Nouri al-Maliki's son -- not unlike Hunter Biden -- lived a rich and racy lifestyle as a result of all the money Nouri suddenly had after he was prime minister.
As we wind down, let's note two more videos. Here's Libertarian Party candidate Jo Jorgensen.
And here's Gloria La Riva, the presidential candidate for the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
The following sites updated:
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Adele7 hours ago
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Not fit for the office7 hours ago
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Crooked and sad Joe7 hours ago
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Crooked Joe and his Boy Toy Hunter7 hours ago
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Oh, Joe, you've got to go8 hours ago
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Bobulinksi11 hours ago
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Featured Panelists: October 23, 202012 hours ago
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All over for Joe?12 hours ago
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