War, Murder, Kidnapping: Democrats Say "We'll Pay For That"

Plus owners pull the plug on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, plus music

Caffeine and bliss (Weldon Berger/Bad Crow Review)

Bad Crow Review world headquarters has added a newborn child to the ever-expanding coterie of office-space spongers. We are pleased.

War, Murder, Kidnapping: Democrats Say “We’ll Pay For That”

Some of you may remember that the U.S. regime recently invaded a sovereign country with which we’re not at war, murdering an unknown number of people in the process and kidnapping the country’s ruler to face charges of, among other things, violating U.S. domestic firearms laws—and then threatened to do the same things elsewhere. Top Democrats have decided to fund those further adventures without material protest.

Those Democratic party leaders (and a scant few congressional Republican proles) celebrated the removal of Venezuelan sort-of-strongman Nicolas Maduro—illegitimate leader, election fraudster, mugger and thief, they say—but condemned the exercise mostly on the grounds that the regime sought prior approval from oil companies rather than Congress, which, frankly, have been more than occasionally indistinguishable for decades now.

(It wasn’t that long ago that every senate Republican and a few Democrats approved an oilman to run the state department, for instance, and former senator Hillary Clinton ran a fracking evangelism operation when she held the job not long before that.)

Our own regime’s thugs have equaled Maduro’s when they’ve not outdone them—kidnapping U.S. residents and renditioning them to torture facilities abroad, and more than once murdering U.S. citizens—and regime factotums have no regard for the law within our borders or without, but at least in their initial reactions the loyal opposition didn’t dwell much on the blatant illegality of unprovoked attacks on other countries, not to mention the murder and kidnapping and etc, nor the equally illegal plans to loot Venezuela’s assets, something which had a lot to do with how Maduro and his predecessors, including Hugo Chavez, came to power in the first place.

Other, lesser Democratic party lights found even that partially celebratory reaction too harsh.

In response to the regime’s cinematic violations of every domestic and international law that might frustrate their intentions, senate minority leader Chuck Schumer announced that he had no intention of refusing to fund the regime despite the inescapable evidence, as embodied by the Minneapolis murder and the threats against other countries, that at least some agencies will continue to act illegally and violently against those other nations, against immigrants whether or not they have papers, and against U.S. citizens.

We know these things will happen, because they already have, without any negative consequences to the regime. And we know which agencies will commit which crimes under the guidance of which factotums. And Democratic party leaders are, without even a gesture toward a struggle, about to hand this lawless, illegitimate regime hundreds of billions of additional dollars to further their criminal ambitions.

We’ve seen talk of Democrats mounting an impeachment effort against Trump for his failure to consult Congress before launching the assault against Venezuela. Given that a significant minority of them don’t even seem that exercised about it, and that the large majority of them intend to bankroll future crimes—accessories before and after the fact—a successful impeachment effort seems really fucking unlikely.

Along with their GOP colleagues, congressional Democrats have been big fans of economic and other targeted sanctions against out-of-favor governments and individuals for decades. They should be looking at how to sanction this regime and the people leading it rather than rewarding them with yet more taxpayer money.

That seems really unlikely too, and not only because they don’t have the votes to do it. They should at least be pointing out that when countries we officially don’t like do the kinds of things we’re doing, we hand out sanctions like advertising flyers on the boardwalk.

Democrats will offer the same excuse as last time for passing a continuing spending resolution or passing the remaining funding bills, that blocking either will bring hardship to their constituents. And they’re right. But giving the regime the funds they need to accelerate their criminal rampage will do that too.

Owners pull the plug on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The Post-Gazette has been publishing in one form or another since the 1700s, but the owners announced yesterday, on the heels of a settlement with the newspaper’s unions following a years-long strike, that they’re shutting it down in a few months because they can’t afford or don’t want to provide employees with decent wages and benefits.

“Instead of simply following the law, the owners chose to punish local journalists and the city of Pittsburgh,” [Newspaper Guild president Andrew Goldstein] said in a prepared statement. “Post-Gazette journalists have done award winning work for decades and we’re going to pursue all options to make sure that Pittsburgh continues to have the caliber of journalism it deserves.”
. . .
“Local news is a critical part of our democracy,” Will Simons, a spokesman for Gov. Josh Shapiro, told the Post-Gazette Wednesday evening. “For nearly 250 years, journalists and staff [at the PG] have been asking questions, holding leaders accountable, and keeping Pennsylvanians informed about what’s going on in their community. This is a sad day for Western Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh.”

The Post-Gazette traces its origins to 1786, when it was a four-page weekly called the Pittsburgh Gazette, the first newspaper published west of the Allegheny Mountains. The paper acquired its current identity in 1927 when Paul Block acquired its assets.

Pittsburgh has made a remarkable recovery since the collapse of the steel industry plunged the city and the surrounding area into an economic dark age. The newspaper was a part of that. The decision to shut it down without trying to find buyers or helping the unions explore an employee-owned version smacks of a vengeful response to the union victory, and the family’s right-wing politics and firm belief in their own righteousness supports that take.

[A]s Donald Trump divided America, he divided the newsroom, too. Liz Skalka, a former politics reporter for the Blade, noticed that top editors changed the wording of some of her pieces about Trump. In one August 2021 article, for example, an editor removed the word “false” from “false claims of widespread election fraud.”

Sarah Elms, former City Hall reporter at the Blade, said editors started to self-censor after years of the Blocks calling editors for last-minute changes to articles. “I think they just kind of know,” she said.

In July 2018, Susan Allan Block, who is married to Allan Block, wrote on Facebook that she could “care less about ‘saving the Blade.’ We run it like a charity for the benefit of the community,” Block added. “It’s way more trouble than it’s worth.”

The Blade is the Toledo Blade, the other paper the family owns, which will remain in operation. Susan Block is an enthusiastic election denier and Islamophobe, while her husband, Allan, is a recovering incel, a homophobe, and a fan of fabulist reporting.

[Allan] cited a story that had received airtime on Fox News, Newsmax, and One America Network, but not in more mainstream publications—an allegation, often presented with little evidence, that Hunter Biden had received large payments from what Block described as “the Chinese, Ukrainian, Russians, and Kazakhs”—as an example of that bias.

He called the Post-Gazette a “hard-left organ” and referred to his reporters wanting to “lead the revolution.” The easiest thing to do, he said, would be to discontinue the papers, though that would not be in the interests of the two cities.

Halfway home.

Music

Panda Bear and Sonic Boom, “Edge of the Edge”

Panda Bear is Noah Lennox, a co-founder of Animal Collective,a long-time favorite of mine and the creators of the hit single “FloriDada.”

Doves, “Cold Dreaming”

Jetstream Pony, “Bubblegum Nothingness”

Circuit des Yeux, “Canopy of Eden”

Samia, “Bovine Excision”

Youth Lagoon, “Neighborhood Scene”

Horsegirl, “Frontrunner”

Smudged, “Marie de Hautefort Wants to Wear Bikinis Like the Girls in Italy (in A Major)”

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Take care; be well.