PhRMA claims price negotiations raise costs and that drug patents lower them. read more
The pier built by the U.S. military to bring aid to Gaza has been removed due to weather to protect it, and the U.S. is considering not re-installing it unless the aid begins flowing out into the population again, U.S. officials said Friday. read more
Thursday night's debate will be remembered for President Biden's disastrous performance. But it also laid bare a key theme heading into November: a clash over how good or bad the economy that former President Trump handed off to Biden really was. read more
Hungary's pro-Kremlin leader Viktor Orban takes over the rotating presidency of the European Council on July 1, just weeks after fellow nationalist and populist parties surged across the bloc in European polls. read more
Denis Sidorenko was ambassador in Berlin from 2016 to earlier this year, when he was recalled and not given a new role. No cause of death was given, but independent news outlets say he fell from an apartment window.
Janis Ian - Society's Child (1967)
www.youtube.com
Lyrics excerpt....
...
Come to my door, baby, face is clean and shining black as night
My mother went to answer, you know that you looked so fine
Now I could understand your tears and your shame
She called you "boy" instead of your name
When she wouldn't let you inside
When she turned and said, "but honey, he's not our kind"
[Chorus]
She says I can't see you anymore, baby
Can't see you anymore
[Verse 2]
Walk me down to school, baby, everybody's acting deaf and blind
Until they turn and say, "Why don't you stick to your own kind?"
My teachers all laugh, their smirking stares
Cutting deep down in our affairs
Preachers of equality
Think they believe it, then why won't they just let us be?
...
Though this song was ten years or so later, I'd proffer that it still evokes an appropriate scenario for "back then."
In other words, was the Country in a good place at that time?
Bruce Cockbrn - If I Had A Rocket Launcher (1984)
www.youtube.com
Lyrics excerpt...
...
[Verse 1]
Here comes the helicopter
Second time today
Everybody scatters
And hopes it goes away
How many kids they've murdered
Only God can say, hey
[Chorus]
If I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
I'd make somebody pay
[Verse 2]
I don't believe in guarded borders
And I don't believe in hate
I don't believe in generals
Or their stinking torture states
And when I talk with the survivors
Of things too sickening to relate
[Chorus]
If I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
I would retaliate
...
Trump's lawyers in lawsuits claiming he won in 2020 are getting punished for abusing courts and making unsupported claims and false statements (June 4, 2024)
theconversation.com
... Over the past four years, U.S. courts and state bar associations have taken action to protect the integrity of the U.S. judicial system by penalizing attorneys who filed meritless lawsuits claiming " without evidence " that the 2020 presidential election results were invalid.
Despite aggressive litigation by attorneys denying wrongdoing, over time the U.S. legal community has exercised the oversight needed to hold most of them accountable for misusing U.S. courts.
Most lawsuits challenging the 2020 presidential election results were filed in federal courts. Federal judges not only dismissed the claims for lack of evidence, but some also penalized the attorneys who filed them.
Judge Linda Parker of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan acted first, ruling in August 2021 that a lawsuit filed by nine lawyers was "a historic and profound abuse of the judicial process." In a 110-page opinion, she wrote that the abuses included: ...
@#5 .. but I don't care too much for their retirement program. ...
Yup.
Updated: A list of oligarchs and Putin critics found dead since Ukraine war (2022)
www.euronews.com
... A growing number of high-profile Russians have died under strange circumstances ever since President Vladimir Putin came to power. ...
Putin's chef meets his window.' What does that mean for the future of Ukraine? (2023)
www.defenseone.com
... An old joke among Kremlin watchers is, essentially: If you fall out of Vladimir Putin's favor, stay away from open windows. It's a reference to the high number of Russian oligarchs and officials who have angered the Russian president and, soon after, died by defenestration.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenary group and a Kremlin insider commonly referred to as "Putin's chef," seems to have met his window' Wednesday. Prigozhin died in a plane crash in western Russia, along with the nine other people on board, according to Russian state media. ...
Five Man Electrical Band - Signs (1971)
www.youtube.com
Lyrics excerpt...
...
And the sign said "Long-haired freaky people
Need not apply"
So I tucked my hair up under my hat
And I went in to ask him why
He said "You look like a fine upstanding young man
I think you'll do"
So I took off my hat, I said "Imagine that
Huh! Me workin' for you!"
Whoa-oh-oh
[Chorus]
Sign, sign, everywhere a sign
Blockin' out the scenery
Breakin' my mind
Do this, don't do that
Can't you read the sign?
[Verse 2]
And the sign said anybody caught trespassing
Would be shot on sight
So I jumped on the fence and I yelled at the house
"Hey! What gives you the right?
To put up a fence to keep me out
Or to keep Mother Nature in
If God was here he'd tell you to your face
Man, you're some kinda sinner"
[Chorus]
Sign, sign, everywhere a sign
Blockin' out the scenery
Breakin' my mind
Do this, don't do that
Can't you read the sign?
{In album version only}
[Bridge]
Now, hey you, mister, can't you read?
You've got to have a shirt and tie to get a seat
You can't even watch, no, you can't eat
You ain't supposed to be here
The sign said you got to have a membership card to get inside
Ugh!
[Verse 3]
And the sign said, "Everybody welcome. Come in, kneel down and pray"
But when they passed around the plate at the end of it all, I didn't have a penny to pay
So I got me a pen and a paper and I made up my own little sign
I said, "Thank you, Lord, for thinkin' 'bout me. I'm alive and doin' fine."
Wooo!
...
As I look back to my years in college when the phrases like ~you're a long haired hippie freak~ (because I was protesting against the Vietnam War) were tossed at me. Well, this obscure song from back in the day hits a bell.
@#9 ... Now that Putin's for Biden you gonna vote Trump? ...
Yeah as I noted in another thread, your current alias seems to echo Pres Putin ...
drudge.com
... @#7 ... I'm pulling for Biden Now. ...
Yeah, after Pres Putin said as much.
Putin says Biden is better for Russia than a Trump presidency (February 2024)
www.nbcnews.com
... President Joe Biden has been handed an endorsement from an unexpected and perhaps unwelcome source: the Kremlin.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that his country would prefer to see the "more experienced" Biden in the White House for a second term than the Republican front-runner, former President Donald Trump.
The comments, which may be taken more as mischievous meddling than serious statecraft, were the Russian leader's most direct in public on the upcoming U.S. presidential election. They were welcomed by Trump but dismissed by the White House, which urged Putin to "stay out" of the election. ...
So... still, apparently, still echoing the talking points issued? ...
@#5 ... Then there's this video...
Revivalists - Wish I Knew You (2016)
www.youtube.com
A great video, imo. Major kudos to The Revivalists.
Yeah, music has changed since the 60's.