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This evening's music features r&b and soul singer Curtis Mayfield. Enjoy!

“The more I see of the representatives of the people, the more I admire my dogs.”

-- Alphonse de Lamartine

News and Opinion

"Cowards" does not cover this. These Democrats are despicable, loathsome, vile malefactors that are complicit in abominable war crimes.

Five House Democrats Denounced as 'Cowards' for Helping GOP to Block Yemen Vote

While a vote in the U.S. Senate to push forward a War Powers Resolution on Wednesday resulted in applause from peace advocates and critics of the U.S. involvement in the Saudi-led assault on Yemen, five Democrats in the U.S. House stirred outrage as they helped Republicans in the chamber pass a rule—attached to massive Farm Bill legislation—that effectively killed the hopes of voting on its version of the resolution for the remainder of the congressional session.

But in the House, say critics, the five Democrats — Reps. Jim Costa (Calif.), Al Lawson (Fla.), Collin Peterson (Minn.), Dutch Rupperberger (Md.), and David Scott (Ga.) — sent the exact opposite message by backing the GOP - led effort to kill the resolution.

What a despicable sham. What the hell is the point of Congress? Why are we starving children? Someone make some affirmative argument for the policy, if you think it’s so important to continue killing children. But to kill the possibility of a vote in the rules committee? Cowards.

— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) December 12, 2018

The Washington Post's Jeff Stein reported that after the vote it was the "angriest at leadership I've seen progressive House aides and members in a long time." And with the final vote 206-203—a margin where the Democratic votes made the crucial difference—one of those aides told him that was "not a coincidence."

Stein asked Rep. Peterson directly why he voted the way he did, to which the congressman responded, in part: "I don't know a damn thing about" the war in Yemen but dismissed the resolution to end U.S. complicity in the world's worst humanitarian disaster as an off-topic "tangent."

Full transcript below. Some estimates say more than 50,000 civilians have died in Yemen pic.twitter.com/rR2ezICtv2

— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) December 12, 2018

"Just to be extremely clear about what happened here," explained Stein in a separate tweet: "The farm bill was going to pass regardless of the outcome of this vote. In other words, these 5 Democrats could have voted both for the farm bill and against blocking a vote on Yemen. It's not like they were incompatible."

'This Is Why People Hate Congress': With Buried Provision in Must-Pass Farm Bill, House GOP Uses Last Days in Power to Block Yemen Vote

As the U.S. Senate prepared Wednesday to vote on a resolution to cut military support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen, House Republicans in their last days in power moved to undermine efforts to end U.S. complicity in the assault that's dragged on for more than three years in the impoverished country.

The House Rules Committee advanced the Farm Bill to a floor debate Tuesday evening, with progressives celebrating the absence of work requirements for low-income families who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)—but hidden in the annual agricultural bill was a provision keeping lawmakers from forcing a vote on any legislation invoking War Powers resolutions for the rest of the year.

"This is why people hate Congress," Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who introduced the Yemen resolution, said in response to the move. "Speaker Ryan is not allowing a vote on my resolution to stop the war in Yemen because many Republicans will vote with us and he will lose the vote. He is disgracing Article 1 of the Constitution, and as a result, more Yemeni children will die." ...

"The provisions of section 7 of the War Powers Resolution (50 U.S.C. 1546) shall not apply during the remainder of the One Hundred Fifteenth Congress to a concurrent resolution introduced pursuant to section 5 of the War Powers Resolution (50 U.S.C. 1544) with respect to Yemen," wrote the Republicans on the House Rules Committee, hours before the Senate's expected vote.

Senate Votes to Proceed on Yemen War Resolution

In a long-anticipated vote, the Senate finally had their motion to proceed on the Yemen War resolution, with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introducing the motion at 3:00 on Wednesday. The vote passed 60-39.

This opens the Senate up to debate and ultimately vote on the resolution calling for an end to US involvement in the Saudi-led war in Yemen. This marks the second vote that the Senate has had this month to advance the resolution. ...

Even if it passes in the Senate, there likely won’t be any concurrent resolutions in the House until next year, as the House leadership has once again made a last second rule change in an unrelated bill to block any challenges to the Yemen War.

Sen. Tom Cotton Is Trying to Cripple a Bill to End U.S. Support for the War in Yemen

With the Senate set to vote on a resolution that could end U.S. support for the Saudi-led bombing campaign in Yemen, hawkish Republican Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., has introduced two last-minute amendments that would largely undermine it. ...

Cotton’s first proposed amendment would allow the U.S. to give Saudi Arabia “materials and advice” as long as they were “intended to reduce civilian casualties or further enable adherence to the Law of Armed Conflict.” That would essentially mean business as usual, because the Obama and Trump administrations have consistently claimed since the fighting began in 2015 that their backing — which includes providing weapons, intelligence, and logistical support — was aimed at reducing civilian casualties. ...

Cotton’s second amendment would create an exception when U.S. assistance is intended to “disrupt Houthi attacks against locations outside of Yemen.” In retaliation for the bombing campaign, the Houthis, a Yemeni rebel group that is fighting the Saudis, have conducted ballistic missile attacks on targets inside of Saudi Arabia. The Saudis frequently cite such attacks as a justification for their intervention. For instance, after the coalition bombed a school bus full of children in August, the Saudi Press Agency quoted coalition spokesperson Turki al-Malki saying the attack was a “legal military action to target elements that planned and executed the targeting of civilians.”

“Sen. Cotton’s amendments are a cynical attempt to leverage civilian protection concerns — not toward conflict de-escalation, but in favor of continuing U.S. support in perpetuity,” said Eric Eikenberry, advocacy officer for the Yemen Peace Project. “Senators voting for these amendments are knee-capping the very message they claim to want to send to the coalition regarding the thousands of Yemeni lives lost.”

Saudis helped assassinate Arafat, former aide says

Bassam Abu-Sharif, an aide to late PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, claimed on Monday that he was in possession of a document proving Saudi Arabia was a partner to Arafat's assassination, Shehab News Agency reported.

Abu-Sharif said that the document states that late Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon and the United States agreed to assassinate Arafat by poisoning with Saudi permission.

Turkey primed to start offensive against US-backed Kurds in Syria

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has said that Turkey will launch a military operation against the Kurds in northern Syria within days, in a decision that could signal a shift in Turkish-US relations and have far-reaching consequences for Syria’s future. Long frustrated by US support for Kurdish militias that Turkey views as terrorists, Erdogan has threatened to push deeper into north-eastern Syria since sending Turkish forces into the Kurdish enclave of Afrin in February.

The president said during a televised speech in Ankara on Wednesday that the operation was imminent. “We will begin our operation to free the east of the Euphrates [river] from the separatist organisation within a few days,” he told MPs. “Our target is not the American soldiers – it is the terror organisations that are active in the region.”

Erdogan also expressed disappointment that US-backed Kurdish fighters in Syria had not left the town of Manbij, as agreed in a US-Turkish deal brokered this year. “The Americans are not being honest; they are still not removing terrorists [from Manbij],” he said. “Therefore, we will do it.”

Ankara has repeatedly said that Turkey will do what is necessary to protect its security, but has not yet attempted to cross the river, on the eastern bank of which 2,000 US troops are stationed. On Wednesday, a Pentagon spokesman said that any such move would be “unacceptable”.

Macron fails to convince 'Yellow Vests' after TV address

European parliament censures Czech PM in unprecedented move

The European parliament has formally censured the Czech prime minister, Andrej Babis, over conflict of interest accusations, in unprecedented criticism of a serving leader. MEPs called for the suspension of all EU payments to a business owned by the billionaire PM in a non-binding resolution adopted by 434 votes to 64, with 47 abstentions. The move will pile pressure on Babis, who has been accused of a conflict of interest over his role as prime minister and links to Agrofert, the food, chemicals and agriculture conglomerate he founded.

Thousands of protesters in Prague called on the tycoon-turned-politician to resign last month over separate corruption allegations. The Czech leader’s son recently said he had been lured to Crimea and abducted to stop him testifying about his father’s business interests.

Voting in Strasbourg, MEPs said all funds paid “illegally or irregularly” should be recovered and called for a full and transparent investigation to resolve the conflict of interest. Speaking before the vote, Babis said he had always acted within Czech law.

Mike Flynn thinks the FBI tricked him into lying about Russia

Mike Flynn will be sentenced on Dec. 18 by Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, and faces a maximum sentence of six months in prison.

Mueller’s office released its sentencing memo, which [...] called for no jail time. The memo reveals how the FBI interviewed Flynn just days after Donald Trump’s inauguration and did not inform him of the penalties of lying to an agent.

Citing internal FBI reports, the memo said officials “decided the agents would not warn Flynn that it was a crime to lie during an FBI interview because they wanted Flynn to be relaxed, and they were concerned that giving the warnings might adversely affect the rapport.” The memo singles out former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe — who rang Flynn two hours before his interview — and senior counterintelligence official Peter Strzok, who was one of the two agents that conducted the interview. ...

What Flynn failed to tell the FBI on Jan. 24, 2017, was that in late 2016, during the transition from the Obama administration to the Trump administration, he contacted then-Russian ambassador to the U.S., Sergei Kislyak, to request that Russia “vote against or delay” a UN resolution regarding Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory.

Separately, Flynn asked Kisylak to stop the Kremlin from imposing retaliatory sanctions on the U.S. after the Obama administration sanctioned Russia for interfering in the 2016 election.

Spain threatens to send national police to Catalonia after protests

Spain’s interior minister said he would send national police to Catalonia if local authorities did not do more to stop protests like the one that shut down major highways over the weekend.

Fernando Grande-Marlaska accused the local Catalan police of doing nothing to prevent pro-independence protesters blocking the AP-7 toll road, which runs up Spain’s Mediterranean coast, for more than 15 hours on Saturday.

The involvement of national police would be a contentious issue in the northeastern region which has its own administration and where polls suggest almost half the population wants to split away from Spain. ... Spain’s previous conservative government took control of the region when the regional administration unilaterally declared independence following the Oct. 1, 2017 referendum.

Spain’s new Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez - who came to power in June - has said he is open to a referendum on greater autonomy and has promised to lay out detailed plans in parliament on Wednesday. But Grande-Marlaska said the local authorities had to show they could keep order and prevent a repeat of Saturday’s protests.

Brexit deal: 'It's a mess that was predictable for the past two years'

U.K.'s May Wins No-Confidence Vote by MPs Unhappy Over Brexit

British Prime Minister Theresa May survived a political crisis over her Brexit deal Wednesday, winning a no-confidence vote by Conservative lawmakers that would have ended her leadership of party and country. But the margin of victory — 200 votes to 117 — leaves May a weakened leader who has lost the support of a big chunk of her party over her handling of Britain’s exit from the European Union. It also came at a steep price as she promised not to run for re-election in 2022. Britain’s Brexit problem, meanwhile, remains unsolved as May seeks changes to her EU divorce deal in order to make it more palatable to Parliament. ...

The threat to May had been building as pro-Brexit Conservative lawmakers grew increasingly frustrated with the prime minister’s handling of Brexit. Many supporters of Brexit say May’s deal, a compromise that retains close economic ties with the EU, fails to deliver on the clean break with the bloc that they want. ...

On Monday, May postponed a vote to approve the divorce deal to avoid all-but-certain defeat. She has until Jan. 21 to bring it back to Parliament after— she hopes — winning concessions from the EU. ... The vote confirms May’s reputation as a dogged, determined political survivor. But on Thursday she will head to an EU summit in Brussels facing another difficult task. She is seeking changes to the withdrawal agreement that can win support in Britain’s Parliament. But EU leaders say the legally binding text won’t be reopened, and the best they can offer are “clarifications.” May said she would “be seeking legal and political assurances that will assuage the concerns” of lawmakers.

Keiser Report: A Printing Press on Fire

Amazon meets public opposition at first hearing for New York headquarters

Amazon, the world’s wealthiest company, on Wednesday came head-to-head with public opposition to plans to build a new headquarters in New York as its executives said in the first in a series of hearings that its massive investment would be good for the city. At a public hearing at New York’s city hall, Amazon executives faced protesters calling for the plan, which the company claims will create as many as 40,000 new jobs over the next 15 years, to be abandoned.

They say the move costs too much in tax incentives, lacked public consultation and will speed up gentrification in the Long Island City neighborhood in which it is located and force out low-income residents. “What Amazon is doing is wrong. They’re trying to push through this deal without the approval of the community and the city is throwing money at these fools,” said Marle Woolman, one of a number of activists who twice interrupted the hearings from the public gallery.

Corey Johnson, leader of the city council, criticized the company which he claimed has sought to avoid scrutiny of the deal. “The city council is typically deeply involved in the negotiations of a land-use deal of this size but that of course did not happen in this case,” said Johnson, describing a process in which Amazon was not required to obtain local approvals or consultations typical of a large-scale development project.

Instead of addressing city issues such as a crumbling subway, record homelessness, a crisis in public housing and overcrowded schools, he asked: “Has anybody asked how this going to affect housing prices? How about small businesses, already reeling from the impact Amazon has on their bottom line? How will this affect our transportation system in an area where its already limited?” ...

But at the hearing, Amazon showed it is taking opposition seriously. Company executives were flanked by newly-hired PR and lobbyists in the form of two former New York elected officials, Mark Weprin and Ed Wallace. They may have an uphill battle. As Johnson pointed out, the only element of Amazon’s plan so far to involve transportation is designs for a helipad. “I’m serious,” Johnson said. “Jeff Bezos’ commute is all set but what about the rest of New Yorkers?”

Obama & Clinton Staffers Join To Crush Med4All

Refused Right to Seek Asylum, Honduran Refugees Demand Reparations for Destructive US Foreign Policy in Central America

A month after arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border in hopes of being granted asylum in the U.S, about 100 refugees from Honduras marched to the U.S. Consulate in the border city of Tijuana on Tuesday to tell officials that they will return to home—but only if the country that's refused to observe their right to asylum pays them reparations for the destruction and destabilization its foreign policy has caused in their home country and throughout Central America.

The group demanded $50,000 each from the U.S. government in return for turning back to their home country, asking the the U.S. answer its request within 72 hours. The sum would be enough, the group reasoned, for each asylum-seeker to start a small business or otherwise rebuild their life in a country where two-thirds of the population live in poverty and one in five people survive on less than $2 per day. The letter condemned the United States' foreign policy in Honduras—including the 2009 military coup backed by the Obama administration—which has contributed to the circumstances that many are fleeing now.

"We remind you that if the U.S. does not want more migration, it should put a stop to the economic, political, and military intervention in our territory," wrote the asylum-seekers in the letter, which Common Dreams obtained. "Therefore, we ask you to take away your 13 military bases and all their extractive companies that offend and loot our native land." ...

"It may seem like a lot of money to you," organizer Alfonso Guerrero Ulloa told the San Diego Union-Tribune of the $50,000 sum the group demanded from the United States. "But it is a small sum compared to everything the United States has stolen from Honduras."

Nancy Pelosi on track to become House speaker after agreeing to term limit

Nancy Pelosi all but ensured Wednesday that she will become House speaker next month, quelling a revolt by disgruntled younger Democrats by agreeing to limit her tenure to no more than four additional years in the chamber’s top post. Moments after releasing a statement saying she was “comfortable with the proposal”, seven of her critics distributed their own joint comment, pledging to back the 78-year-old Pelosi. ... “We are proud that our agreement will make lasting institutional change that will strengthen our caucus and will help develop the next generation of Democratic leaders,” the rebellious lawmakers said.

The pact followed weeks of harsh public battles among Democrats and an all-out lobbying campaign by Pelosi and her allies. It all but guarantees that she will win the votes she will need to regain her job when the new Congress convenes on 3 January. She’ll need a majority of voting House members, probably 218 votes, with outnumbered Republicans likely to oppose her unanimously.

As the price for winning decisive support from her opponents, Pelosi has agreed in effect to serve no more than four more years as speaker. Under the plan, top House Democrats would be limited to four two-year terms in their posts, including terms they’ve already served while the party had the House majority. To be nominated to a fourth term, Pelosi would need to garner a two-thirds majority of House Democrats. Several aides said they believed restlessness by younger members to move up in leadership would make that difficult for her to achieve.

White House Battle Royale - Who’s The Winner?

You Are Stealing Our Future: Greta Thunberg, 15, Condemns the World’s Inaction on Climate Change

Climate change talks lead to renewed pledge to cut emissions

The EU and scores of developing countries have pledged to toughen their existing commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to enable the world to stay within a 1.5C rise in global warming. The promise, which follows increasingly dire scientific warnings, was the most positive message yet to come from the ongoing talks in Poland.

The announcement came at the end of a day in which the UN secretary general made an impassioned intervention to rescue the talks, which have been distracted by US, Russian and Saudi moves to downgrade scientific advice. “We’re running out of time,” António Guterres told the plenary. “To waste this opportunity would compromise our last best chance to stop runaway climate change. It would not only be immoral, it would be suicidal.”

Campaigners praised the decision by the High Ambition Coalition group of countries, made up of the EU and four other developed countries, including Canada and New Zealand, as well as the large grouping of least developed countries and several other developing nations, to scale up their emissions-cutting efforts in line with a 1.5C temperature rise limit.

Wendel Trio, director of the Climate Action Network Europe, said: “The spirit of Paris is back. The statement will boost greater ambition at the crunch time of these so far underwhelming talks. For the EU this must mean a commitment to significantly increase its 2030 target by 2020, even beyond the 55% reduction some member states and the European parliament are calling for. We call upon the countries that have not signed the statement so far to stop ignoring the science.”

Frank Bainimarama, the prime minister of Fiji and the outgoing chair of COP23, amplified Guterres’ message. He told delegates they risked going down in history as “the generation that blew it – that sacrificed the health of our world and ultimately betrayed humanity because we didn’t have the courage and foresight to go beyond our short-term individual concerns: craven, irresponsible and selfish”.

A “Conference of Polluters”: How Fossil Fuel Companies Are Shaping Policy at the U.N. Climate Summit

FBI kept files on peaceful climate change protesters

On 15 May 2016 three friends from Fairfield, Iowa, made the five-hour drive to an oil refinery on the shores of Lake Michigan to participate in what was part of a series of protests and acts of civil disobedience in the fight against climate change. They had every intention of getting arrested. What they didn’t expect was to end up in an FBI file for taking part in a peaceful protest.

But according to documents obtained by the Guardian through a Freedom of Information Act (Foia) lawsuit, the file on the Iowa protesters was part of a larger effort by the FBI to assess the danger posed by the climate change activist group 350.org in the run-up to a series of actions that were part of the Break Free from Fossil Fuels campaign. The FBI released seven pages and withheld 25.

Though there is no evidence the FBI has opened an investigation into 350.org, one of the documents, catalogued as part of a related domestic terrorism case, says: “350.org are referenced in multiple investigations and assessments for their planned protests and disruptions.” The file also makes an apparent reference to the 350.org founder Bill McKibben.

McKibben, who has been the subject of both rightwing surveillance and disturbing online death threats, said the FBI’s apparent failure to distinguish between non-violent civil disobedience and domestic terrorism was contemptible. “Trying to deal with the greatest crisis humans have stumbled into shouldn’t require being subjected to government surveillance,” McKibben said. “But when much of our government acts as a subsidiary of the fossil fuel industry, it may be par for the course.”

The FBI is prohibited from investigating groups or individuals solely for their political beliefs but has been criticized in the past for treating non-violent civil disobedience as a form of terrorism. In 2010 the Office of the Inspector General released a report detailing how the FBI, particularly in the post-9/11 era, had inappropriately tracked activist groups such as Greenpeace and the Catholic Worker for engaging in non-violent protest.

Chuck Schumer Earns Progressive Ire With Joe Manchin Promotion

At a time when people throughout the U.S. and around the world are rallying behind bold solutions to the climate crisis and urgently warning that there is no time to waste, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) decided late Tuesday to betray his constituents and the planet, groups warned, by promoting “fossil fuel servant” Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) to the top Democratic spot on the powerful Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

“Appointing Senator Manchin as ranking member of the Energy Committee is completely at odds with any plan for real climate action,” May Boeve, executive director of 350.org, said in a statement. “Manchin has taken every opportunity to put Big Oil before the health and safety of communities and our climate.”

Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth, argued that the appointment of the pro-coal West Virginia senator to a top Energy Committee slot is a “stark failure of Chuck Schumer’s leadership” in the midst of dire scientific warnings that the world must cut carbon emissions in half by 2040 to avert planetary catastrophe. ...

The West Virginia senator’s promotion — which was ratified Tuesday evening by members of the Senate Democratic caucus — came amid a wave of opposition from environmental groups, who adopted an “anyone but Manchin” stance in the weeks leading up to Tuesday’s announcement.

Also of Interest

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

Why Green New Deal Advocates Must Address Militarism

Intercepted Podcast - Supreme Injustices: a Legislative Coup in Wisconsin and a Wrongful Conviction in Georgia

The U.S. has more military operations in Africa than the Middle East

George H.W. Bush’s Bitter Legacy in the Middle East

Israel lobby bills may pass through Congress by stealth

‘Americans Should Know Their Government Had a Hand in the Return to Fascism’

'They don't care': Facebook factchecking in disarray as journalists push to cut ties

'Death sentence': butterfly sanctuary to be bulldozed for Trump's border wall

A Little Night Music

Curtis Mayfield - We Got to Have Peace

The Impressions - This Is My Country

Curtis Mayfield - Ain't Got Time

The Impressions - It's All Right

Curtis Mayfield - Superfly

Curtis Mayfield - Move On Up

Curtis Mayfield - Hard Times

The Impressions - Keep On Pushing

Curtis Mayfield - New World Order

Curtis Mayfield - Get Down