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"An empire founded by war has to maintain itself by war."

-- Charles de Montesquieu

News and Opinion

Want Endless War? Love the U.S. Empire? Well, Hillary Clinton’s Your Choice

Hillary Clinton likes to extol her foreign policy credentials, particularly her experience as secretary of state. She attaches herself to Barack Obama’s coattails, pledging to continue his policies. But she is even more hawkish than the president. ...

Clinton wrote in her book “Hard Choices” that “America remains the ‘indispensable nation.’ ” It is this view that animates U.S. invasions, interventions, bombings and occupations of other countries. Under the pretense of protecting our national interest, the United States maintains some 800 military bases in other countries, costing taxpayers tens of billions of dollars annually.

Obama, who continues to prosecute the war in Afghanistan 15 years after it began, is poised to send ground troops back to Iraq and begin bombing Libya. ...

The president has bombed some seven countries with drones. But besides moving toward normalization of relations with Cuba, his signature foreign policy achievement is brokering the agreement to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

Although Clinton supports the nuclear deal, she talks tough about Iran. ...

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Clinton promised to “totally obliterate” Iran if it attacked Israel. Clinton was, in effect, pledging to commit genocide against the Iranian people.

Clinton’s vote in favor of President George W. Bush’s illegal 2003 invasion of Iraq cost her the 2008 election. It also cost more than 4,500 Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis their lives. ... [In 2011], Clinton led the campaign for forcible regime change in Libya, despite opposition by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Responding to the gruesome sodomizing of President Moammar Gadhafi with a bayonet, Clinton laughed and said, “We came, we saw, he died.”

Clinton has promised to escalate the wars in Syria and Iraq, including a no-fly zone in Syria. Since Islamic State doesn’t have an air force, her no-fly zone would be likely to capture Russian planes flying over Syria. ...

There is little doubt that a President Hillary Clinton would continue our “perpetual war.” She would do everything in her power to ensure the robust survival of the American empire.

Pentagon lists Russia as top global threat, seeks fourfold boost in defense budget

Pentagon Seeks Increased Budget, Citing Russia, China

While yesterday’s indications were that the new Pentagon budget request would center on the ever-escalating ISIS war, the new $582.7 billion budget request for 2017 also hits all the other key touchstones, talking up potential conflicts with Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran.

Secretary of Defense Ash Carter emphasized the possibility of wars in the “decades to come” against Russia and China in particular, terming them “stressing competitors” for the United States, and presenting the Cold War era as a “luxury” when the US could focus on just one potential war against one potential enemy.

US Army, Marines Chiefs Say Women Should Have to Register for Draft

US Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley and Marine Commandant Gen. Robert Neller both went public today in supporting the idea of forcing all women in the United States to register for the military draft, backing the call for such a requirement by Sen. Claire McCaskill (D – MO). ...

The Selective Service Act requires all US men to register for the draft at age 18, though none have actually been conscripted since 1972. Women are not required to register. A number of Congressmen have suggested forcing women into the program would mean more equality.

Isis in Iraq: The only way to ensure Islamists are beaten in Iraq is to defeat them in Syria first, say Kurds

Isis is losing ground in Iraq, but Kurdish leaders say its retreat is slow and do not expect to eliminate it unless it is also defeated in Syria.

Real progress is limited, despite exaggerated claims by the Iraqi government that its soldiers have won decisive victories in cities such as Ramadi and Tikrit.

“The initial attack by Daesh [Isis] in 2014 was like the Mongols, but they could not hold on to fixed positions,” says Dr Najmaldin Karim, the Governor of Kirkuk province in an interview with The Independent. “But this does not mean that they are being destroyed in Iraq and this will not happen until they lose in Syria.” ...

The Iraqi government and the authorities in the Kurdistan Regional Government have boasted that they are defeating Isis by recapturing cities such as Sinjar west of Mosul and Ramadi west of Baghdad. But these victories, won with the help of hundreds of air strikes by a US-led coalition, turn out to be less than decisive since Isis did not fight to the end in either place and withdrew in order to limit its losses.

“Isis is reverting to guerrilla warfare,” says Dr Karim, a native of Kirkuk and formerly a brain surgeon in Washington DC. ... As in the rest of Iraq and Syria, the front lines are too long to be manned effectively and fortified, so each side can make a lunge forward but gains are difficult to hold. The Iraqi army and the Kurds have the great advantage of American air cover, but Isis takes refuge in elaborate tunnel systems and breaks up its forces into small units of eight to 10 men. Asked if Isis could be defeated, Gen Barzani points out that the US army in Iraq with 150,000 soldiers failed to defeat al-Qaeda in Iraq. ...

Claims in Washington and London that Isis is buckling under attacks by the Iraqi army and the Peshmerga look like wishful thinking on the plains around Kirkuk and Irbil. There have been significant successes but Isis fighters have not lost any of their core regions from which they began to attack two years ago.

Britain rules out sending combat troops to Libya

Britain does not plan to deploy combat troops in Libya but will instead seek to give strategic and intelligence support to its new government, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said on Tuesday. ...

"I don't think we are likely to think that putting combat troops on the ground is a helpful contribution - there are plenty of armed men in Libya. What they need is organization, command and control, air-gathered intelligence, strategic organization."

Japan puts military on alert to shoot down North Korean rocket

Japan has threatened to shoot down any North Korean missile that threatens its territory and has deployed ballistic missile defence units in preparation for what officials in Pyongyang says is the imminent launch of a satellite.

Japan’s defence minister, Gen Nakatani, on Wednesday ordered the deployment of Aegis destroyers in the Sea of Japan and Patriot missile batteries on land, hours after North Korea confirmed that it was preparing to launch the satellite – an act that would inevitably use a banned long-range rocket.

North Korea has informed the International Maritime Organisation, a UN agency, that it planned to launch the Kwangmyongsong earth observation satellite sometime between 8 and 25 February.

Hundreds of Turks Flee Deadly Violence As City Curfew Lifted

Hundreds of people fled a conflict-hit area of southeast Turkey's largest city Diyarbakir on Wednesday, taking advantage of the lifting of a curfew to escape fierce fighting between security forces and Kurdish militants.

In another besieged Kurdish town, at least six of a group of up to 31 people trapped in a basement for nearly two weeks have died, with ambulances unable to reach them despite being stationed nearby, according to the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party.

A Reuters witness said people left the Diyarbakir's Sur district with suitcases, televisions and carpets on the back of pick-up trucks and handcarts, deserting an area damaged heavily in fighting since a curfew was declared there a month ago.

"It's always the ordinary people who suffer," said Mehmet Ceylan, 45, carrying a bundle on his back. "I've lived in Sur for years, and I've never witnessed a scene like this." ...

Thousands of police and tanks have been attacking towns and cities in the southeast of the country, and curfews have been declared in more than 20 towns.

Jewish Peace Groups Reveal Role in Spoof New York Times That Criticized Paper’s Stance on Israel

The Intercept admits reporter fabricated stories and quotes

Digital magazine The Intercept has fired reporter Juan Thompson after discovering “a pattern of deception” in his reporting. In a note to readers, editor-in-chief Betsy Reed revealed that Thompson had fabricated quotes in several stories and created email accounts in order to impersonate people.

“Thompson went to great lengths to deceive his editors, creating an email account to impersonate a source and lying about his reporting methods,” Reed wrote.

Following an investigation into Thompson’s reporting, the publication is retracting one story in its entirety and appending corrections to four others. Among the inconsistencies The Intercept discovered were quotes “attributed to people who said they had not been interviewed” and quotes that could not be verified.

“Thompson admitted to creating fake email accounts and fabricating messages, but stood by his published work. He did not cooperate in the review,” Reed wrote.

UN May Find Detention of Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange Illegal

Panel finds Los Angeles police officers justified in shooting of homeless man

Los Angeles police officers were justified when they fatally shot a homeless black man on Skid Row six times, including twice in the chest, a civilian oversight panel said Tuesday.

The Los Angeles police commission issued the finding in the shooting of Charly Keundeu Keunang, after discussing it in a closed-door meeting. The commission found that one of the officer’s tactics violated policy, but it did not explain how.

The decision led to outcries from about a dozen activists in the room who have criticized the shooting and repeatedly called on police to release body-camera footage that captured it. ...

Keunang’s family has filed a $20m lawsuit against the city and police department. Joshua Piovia-Scott, the attorney representing Keunang’s family in the lawsuit, said he was frustrated by the commission’s finding.

“It’s hard to believe that six heavily armed and trained officers and one unarmed, lone homeless man on a sunny street on a sunny day results in those officers holding the man down to the concrete and shooting him in the chest and killing him,” he said.

As Countries Line Up to Sign Toxic Deal, Warren Leads Call to Reject TPP

With 12 nations expected to sign the corporate-friendly Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) in New Zealand on Thursday, opponents in the U.S. and beyond are renewing their criticisms of the deal's worst provisions, which they warn pose serious dangers to the climate, working families, and democracy.

The signatures mark the end of the negotiating process, with a broad agreement on the deal having been reached in October. Now, all 12 Pacific Rim countries will be able to begin their respective domestic ratification processes, which in the U.S. means passage by Congress.

Recent reporting suggests Congress won't take up the issue until after the November elections—which gives opponents time to hone their arguments against the toxic deal.

"I urge my colleagues to reject the TPP and stop an agreement that would tilt the playing field even more in favor of big multinational corporations and against working families," Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said on the U.S. Senate floor on Tuesday. Noting that "most of the TPP's 30 chapters don't even deal with traditional trade issues," she argued, "most of TPP is about letting multinational corporations rig the rules on everything from patent protection to food safety standards—all to benefit themselves."

Pharma Executives Worry About Presidential Candidates Demanding Reform

Responding to tough talk by presidential candidates about price gouging by drug companies, pharmaceutical executives have told investors that they are working actively to influence the political debate. And in a move that reveals how much leeway drug firms actually have over pricing decisions, some are even saying that they have minimized price hikes in recent months to avoid attracting attention.

Democratic contenders Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton have both called for the government to do much more to bring down the price of medications. And last week, Republican candidate Donald Trump came out in support of allowing Medicare to negotiate for cheaper drug prices, a move that places him even to the left of some leaders in the Democratic Party.

On Thursday, former pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli is scheduled to join other executives in testifying before a congressional panel about why they hiked prices on lifesaving drugs by as much as 5,000 percent.

The political environment has Wall Street worried. “We heard Bernie and Hillary last night go after drug pricing again and I think that’s also something we are going to hear from the Republicans,” warned Jami Rubin, the Goldman Sachs health care group analyst, on an earnings conference call last week for Johnson & Johnson. ...

Merck chief executive Ken Frazier, speaking at the J.P. Morgan Health Care Conference in San Francisco last month, pledged to do more as chairman of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the industry’s lobbying group.

Here's a fine wrap-up of the bloviating establishment Hillarypundits who were very wrong:

Insiders Predicted That Bernie Sanders Would Be No Threat to Hillary Clinton

The stunning virtual tie between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton in Iowa came after months of mainstream media pundits and leaders of the political establishment confidently predicting that Sanders would be no match for Clinton’s electoral machine there — or anywhere, for that matter.

“For now, Hillary Clinton has nothing to worry about as she prepares for the Iowa caucuses,” Bloomberg political reporter John McCormick wrote last May. “Despite a wave of influence-peddling allegations involving her family’s foundation, her prospects for winning the first-in-the-nation presidential contest remain undamaged.” McCormick cited a Quinnipiac poll showing Clinton capturing 60 percent of the vote in Iowa to Sanders’ 15.

Quinnipiac promoted this poll as definitive in the race. “One thing is obvious about Iowa Democratic Caucus participants: They are loyal as the day is long, at least when it comes to Hillary Clinton,” said Peter A. Brown, the assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll. “There is no candidate who appears to have the political and financial resources at this time to successfully take her on.”

Citing the same poll, Politico’s Annie Karni reported that “Clinton’s challengers are considered bit players, so far, in the drama of the 2016 election.” Laura Clawson, a Daily Kos editor, said that the poll is “evidence that the 2016 Democratic presidential primary is not the 2008 Democratic presidential primary,” with Clinton holding “an extremely healthy lead. Extremely healthy.”

Is Clinton "A Progressive Who Gets Stuff Done"?

Bernie Sanders takes message to New Hampshire after strong showing in Iowa

Bernie Sanders hailed his narrow loss in Iowa as “an important step forward in the fight for the political revolution” on Tuesday, as the Vermont senator’s campaign switched focus to New Hampshire ahead of the state’s 9 February primary.

Speaking to a fired-up crowd in Claremont, Sanders hailed the Iowa caucuses, which he lost to Hillary Clinton by just 0.29 percentage points, as a success.

“Last night in Iowa we took on the most powerful political organization in the country. Last night we came back from a 50-point deficit,” he told his audience at the Claremont Opera House.

The result showed that people “are prepared to stand up for fundamental changes in the way politics and economics are done in America”, Sanders continued, to cheers from the crowd.

About 400 people were at the rally, Sanders’ last event before Wednesday night’s Democratic town hall, an unofficial debate at which he will face off against Clinton, whom he leads by an average of 18 points in New Hampshire polls.

Kerry sent 'secret' email to Clinton from personal account

As a senator, Secretary of State John Kerry sent at least one email to Hillary Clinton from his personal account that has now been classified as secret, the State Department confirmed on Tuesday.

The largely redacted May 19, 2011, email from Kerry — then the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee — “was sent from a non-official account,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said on Tuesday.

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That account, Kirby added “is no longer active.”

The message referenced India, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and was classified for containing information about foreign governments and U.S. foreign relations.

Jimmy Carter calls US campaign finance ruling 'legalised bribery'

Former American president Jimmy Carter has warned that US politics has been corrupted by billions of dollars of campaign financing following a supreme court ruling that he said legalised “bribery”.

He described the landmark 2010 Citizens United court decision, which equated campaign spending with free speech, as an “erroneous ruling”.

Carter said: “The erroneous ruling of the supreme court, where millionaires, billionaires, can put in unlimited amounts of money, give legal bribery the chance to prevail, because all the candidates, whether they are honest or not, or whether they are Democratic or Republican, depend on these massive infusions of money from very rich people in order to have money to campaign.”

The former peanut farmer turned Democratic president claimed that middle- and working-class Americans were being “cheated out of an opportunity to improve their lot in life”.

“As the rich people finance the campaigns, when candidates get in office they do what the rich people want. And that’s to let the rich people get richer and richer and the middle class get left out. All the statistics show that the middle class are stagnant or going down in their income for the work that they do.”

Criminal charges filed over massive methane leak in California

Thousands have been displaced from their homes in the Southern California community of Porter Ranch after a utility company’s underground storage site sprung a leak last fall. The methane leak first reported on October 23, is from a Southern California Gas Co. natural gas storage storage site. At the height of the leak, 100,000 pounds of methane spewed out into the atmosphere per hour.

On Tuesday, Los Angeles County prosecutor Jackie Lacy announced four misdemeanor charges filed against SoCal Gas. Three charges for allegedly failing to report the leak from October 23 to October 26, and one for discharging air contaminants. If convicted, SoCal Gas could face a fine of up to $25,000 a day “for each day it failed to notify the California Office of Emergency Services” and an additional $1,000 per day for air pollution violations.

The criminal charges come on the same day that California Attorney General Kamala Harris announced a civil lawsuit against the company for violations of the state health and safety code. As NPR notes, the company is also being sued by the city and county of Los Angeles; owners of businesses in Porter Ranch; residents of Porter Ranch; and the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

Privatization on Steroids: Emergency Manager Who Switched Flint Water Resigns From Detroit Schools

The pending congressional investigation of Flint's neoliberal-imposed water crisis appears to be more of a coverup and blame-shifting operation. The "investigation" is likely to only turn up a small set of facts convenient to the Rethuglicans.

Congress Will Look at Flint's Water Crisis — But They Won't Hear From Several Key Figures

Congress is poised to begin its examination of who is responsible for the poison leaching out of [Flint, Michigan's] pipes and into the water supply, with a hearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform taking place on Wednesday.

But they'll be missing at least three key figures at the center of the crisis: Michigan's Republican governor, the emergency manager he appointed to deal with Flint's fiscal woes, and Miguel Del Toral, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) scientist who raised concerns that Flint's water testing could be flawed and the lead contamination widespread.

The first person appearing before the committee tomorrow will be Congressman Dan Kildee, a Democrat who represents Flint. He said the crisis is the result of bad decisions made by state officials, especially Michigan Governor Rick Snyder.

"The State of Michigan did this to Flint," Rep. Kildee said. "It was a combination of the emergency manager, appointed by the governor, looking at nothing but cost when determining how to provide water to the people of Flint and then the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, not only failing to protect public health, but actually covering up the fact that they failed." ...

Gov. Snyder was not asked to appear before the committee and Earley is refusing to attend. ...

In a memo, the House committee said it expects to focus on the role of the federal government in the Flint disaster, likely including that of former EPA administrator Susan Hedman, who resigning last month amidst the crisis.

But national and Michigan Democrats are furious that the largely Republican committee will not be questioning Gov. Snyder, also a Republican, nor Earley.

Long line outside of the Congressional hearing on the #FlintWaterCrisis. How can @onetoughnerd not be here? pic.twitter.com/pUPLrmNBSS

— Emily Wurth (@EmilyWurth1) February 3, 2016

Facing Dual Crises, Former Flint Manager Resigns as Detroit Schools Head

On the same day that he refused to testify before Congress on his role in the Flint water crisis, Detroit Public Schools emergency manager Darnell Earley announced he would resign as leader of the embattled school district effective February 29.

Earley, who served as Flint's emergency manager from September 2013 until January 2015, was one of five witnesses invited to testify before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Wednesday, as the lead-poisoning scandal continues to unfold.

His refusal to speak to the committee drew immediate fire from elected officials and community leaders alike.

"Children in Flint are having their blood tested, families must have their water tested and yet Darnell Earley is refusing to face the simple test of answering questions about his involvement and knowledge of what happened in Flint," said Lonnie Scott, executive director of Progress Michigan. "People in Flint deserve to know the truth about how their water was poisoned but Darnell Earley doesn’t think the people deserve the truth."

'Sexually Transmitted' Case of Zika Reported in Texas

The first known case of Zika virus transmission within the United States has been reported in Texas, and was likely contracted through sex rather than a mosquito bite.

The announcement was made on Tuesday by local health officials in Dallas, one day after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Zika an international public health emergency.

The infected individual's partner had recently returned from Venezuela, though they themselves had not traveled abroad.

The virus, linked to severe birth defects in thousands of babies in Brazil, is spreading rapidly in the Americas, and WHO officials on Tuesday expressed concern that it could hit Africa and Asia as well. Zika had been thought to be spread by the bite of mosquitoes of the Aedes genus, so sexual contact as a mode of transmission would be a potentially alarming development.

Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

Chris Matthews had a strange interview with Hillary Clinton today. It was ahistorical and out of bounds.

There are way too many Hillary Clintons

Neocons Forgive Cruz His Sins

This is how the U.S.-led coalition investigates itself when accused of killing civilians

How the Post-9/11 Antiwar Movement Was Erased From History

The Peace Movement’s War Story

Progressive Jewish groups make New York Times parody issue to protest newspaper’s “biased Israel-Palestine coverage”

Is the Saudi Market Share Strategy Backfiring?

A Little Night Music

Curtis Jones - Love Fake Blues

Curtis Jones - Roll Me Mama

Curtis Jones - Reefer hound blues

Curtis Jones - Highway 51 Blues

Curtis Jones - Wrong Blues

Curtis Jones - Flamin' Blues

Curtis Jones - Cool Playing Blues