Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features New Orleans jazz band Tuba Skinny. Enjoy!

"Instead of politicians, let the monkey govern the country. At least they will only steal the bananas."

-- Mehmet Murat Ildan

News and Opinion

Meet Brazil’s new President: José de Abreu

On February 25, veteran Brazilian character actor José de Abreu announced on Twitter that he was thinking of taking Juan Guaidó’s lead and declaring himself President of Brazil. Minutes later, in the midst of an avalanche of support which transformed him into the most popular topic on Brazilian Twitter, the actor made the announcement. With a quickly photoshoped self portrait in a presidential sash, he said, “I hereby declare myself President of Brazil. Let’s give the same level of respect to my presidency as they are giving to the Venezuelan, why not?”

Within minutes, someone went onto the Wikipedia page for Brazil and changed the line for President from Jair Bolsonaro to “disputed”. ...

In an interview with Carta Capital, he called Bolsonaro an illiterate and said, “The fact that ex-Judge Sérgio Moro accepted the Minister of Justice position in exchange for removing Lula from the presidential race is unacceptable. There is no legitimacy for a government that removed a candidate without evidence. Lula can save the national economy with his political sensibility.” ...

Although it began as a social media joke, Abreu’s proclamation touched a nerve with the 61% of the Brazilian population who are not satisfied with the way that Jair Bolsonaro is doing his job – a recent poll shows him as having the least popular start of a Brazilian presidency in the 21^st Century. As his coalition crumbles due to multiple corruption scandals and ideological differences between the generals in his cabinet and his mediocre, right-wing extremist ideologues, the government has gridlocked on key issues like support for Trump’s Venezuelan coup and pension reform. Dissatisfaction with Bolsonaro and a sense that he is taking orders from the Generals is growing both in the media and on the streets.

This interview is worth a full read. You won't agree with all of it, but the point of view is interesting. Here's the intro to get you started:

Trump and Brexit Proved This Book Prophetic — What Calamity Will Befall Us Next?

Across the world, he reputation of elites and their institutions is in free fall. A flood of online information has given the public unprecedented access to elite individuals in politics, media, academia, science, business, and an array of other fields. Thanks to tools like social media, the activist public has greater proximity to its supposed mandarin class than ever before. What this newfound intimacy has revealed has not always been flattering. Many of those who had been held up as elites in their fields have, upon closer examination by the public, been revealed as mediocre, incompetent, buffoonish, and, in some cases, possibly unhinged. At the same time, the public, for all its passion, has also revealed itself to be vulnerable to conspiracy theories, disinformation, and outbreaks of hysteria.

In 2014, a former CIA media analyst named Martin Gurri published “The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium.” Gurri had spent his career analyzing the global information environment and could see that something major was ahead. “The Revolt of the Public” predicted that the information revolution unleashed by the internet would end up destabilizing politics and institutions around the world, perhaps for decades to come. A flood of new online information — along with a series of failed wars and financial crises — would conspire to bleed the legitimacy of elite institutions and their representatives in the eyes of the public, likely beyond repair.

Events since the book was first released have made it appear prophetic. This past December, “The Revolt of the Public” was republished with a new chapter, reflecting on the election of Donald Trump in the United States and the Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom.

Constructing Rebellion, The Overthrow of Corporate Tyrrany - Chris Hedges

Sanders, Warren, Ocasio-Cortez, and Other Lawmakers Sign Pledge to End America’s “Forever Wars”

Eight members of Congress have taken a pledge to work to bring ongoing U.S. global military conflicts to a “responsible and expedient” end, the result of a first-of-its kind lobbying effort by military veterans on Capitol Hill. The pledge was written and organized by a group called Common Defense, made up of veterans and military families, which advocates for scaling back U.S. military commitments overseas. Common Defense boasts of more than 20,000 veteran members in all 50 states, and it threw its endorsement behind almost 30 candidates in the last midterm election cycle. ...

All of the signatories so far are members of the Democratic caucus, and most of them are associated with the left wing of the party: Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren; Omar and other freshmen Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ro Khanna, and Rashida Tlaib; and Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair Mark Pocan. Common Defense is also courting more moderate lawmakers, particularly those in swing districts and Democrats. So far, the group has also gotten the support of Montana Sen. Jon Tester, who was first elected in the heavily Republican state in 2006 after bucking advice from Washington consultants and running a populist campaign that condemned the Iraq War. ...

The progressive insurgents in Congress have built name recognition around domestic policy ideas like Medicare for All and a Green New Deal. By lobbying members to sign the pledge, organizers for Common Defense are hoping to make U.S. military commitments a part of that conversation. The pledge by Sanders and Warren, who’ve previously been outspoken against endless U.S. military interventions, could have an impact on the 2020 Democratic primary. In an appearance on MSNBC in January, Warren broke with top Democrats by saying that President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw troops from Syria and Afghanistan was “right,” and characterizing the Pentagon policy as “stay forever.” Sanders, meanwhile, has said that Trump is right to pull troops out of Syria, but added, “I don’t know that you can pull out tomorrow.”

Yemen peace process in 'last chance saloon', says Jeremy Hunt

The Yemen peace process is in the “last chance saloon” and could collapse within weeks unless both sides shift position and agree to implement the terms of a ceasefire agreed by the UN-backed government and Houthi rebels, Jeremy Hunt said on Sunday.

The foreign secretary said the key issue was over trusting the Saudi-backed Yemen government not to take over the strategic Red Sea port of Hodeida as soon as the Houthi rebels left the town and handed policing to a locally run force.

Speaking to the Guardian from Dubai after becoming the first western foreign minister to visit Yemen since the war started in 2015, Hunt said he hoped he had persuaded both sides to shift, but admitted he did not expect anything to happen in the next few days.

Referring to the ceasefire agreed in Sweden in December, he said: “There is a real issue of trust between the two sides, but it has now been 80 days since the Stockholm agreement, so there is a real sense of urgency. I have no idea if me being out here had any impact or not, but the reason to come here was to focus everyone’s minds. The status quo is not going to last for ever if the port of Hodeida is not cleared.

It Is Time to Indict Israel: Norman Finkelstein on Growing Push For ICC to File War Crimes Charges

Benny Gantz: can this Israeli general defeat Benjamin Netanyahu?

A few short months ago, it appeared to be a done deal. Benjamin Netanyahu was on track to take a fifth term in office at the Israeli general election . A win at the polls would virtually guarantee him the title of Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, snatching it from the country’s founding father, David Ben-Gurion.

But then an army general stepped in. “No Israeli leader is king,” Benny Gantz promised as he kicked off his campaign less than three months before Israelis go to the polls. “I thank prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his 10 years of service. We will continue from here.” Gantz, 59, running a centrist party called Blue and White after the Israeli flag, has since climbed rapidly in the polls to become the first serious contender to unseat Netanyahu, 69. The former army chief has no political experience and few concrete policies, but hopes to appeal to voters on one basis more than any other: that he is not Netanyahu. ...

To appease as many people as he can, Gantz has had to appear simultaneously rightwing and leftwing. On security issues, he has pushed the message of being both a dove and a hawk. Head of the army from 2011 to 2015, his campaign released a short clip showing a bomb-flattened neighbourhood in Gaza after the 2014 war he led. “Only the strong wins,” reads text on the video, which boasted that Israel killed more than 1,364 “terrorists”. (The claim contradicts a United Nations inquiry that found more than 2,200 Palestinians were killed, more than half of them civilians.) Yet Gantz said in another video that there is “no shame in yearning for peace” and has promised to strive towards a deal with the Palestinians.

The mixed messaging has worked, according to analysis by Alon Yakter, a lecturer at the school of political science at Tel Aviv University, and Mark Tessler at the University of Michigan. Gantz’s “success is because of, not despite, his vagueness,” they wrote in the Washington Post. He appeals to what they call a large number of “sceptical doves” – voters who support a peace deal in theory, but doubt it is possible. ... But the veteran also faces battles to uphold his virtuous image. Gantz is being sued by a family in Gaza in a Dutch court for war crimes and was accused last week of sexual misconduct as a senior in high school. It is unclear how those allegations, which he denies, will sway voters. On the campaign trail, Gantz has made sure attention is focused on Netanyahu and his vices. “Your time is up,” he said. “We are moving onwards.”

U.N. human rights investigator: Israeli forces killed 183 Palestinians in 9 months

Closing the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem is the “final nail” for a peace deal, Palestinians warn

Palestinian officials slammed the Trump administration's decision to shutter its consulate in Jerusalem Monday, calling it the “final nail in the coffin” of U.S. efforts to broker a peace deal. The White House announced Sunday night it had closed the consulate, which for decades acted as a de facto embassy for the Palestinians and their direct link with Washington. ...

State Department spokesperson Robert Palladino said the closure “does not signal a change of U.S. policy on Jerusalem, the West Bank, or the Gaza Strip.” Palestinians, however, decried the move as further evidence of White House bias in favor of Israel.

"The Trump administration is intent on leaving no room for doubt about its hostility toward the Palestinian people and their inalienable rights, as well as its abject disregard for international law and its obligations under the law," senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi said in a statement. Palestinian official Saeb Erekat said it was the “final nail in the coffin” for U.S. chances to broker peace between the warring sides.

The move follows years of deteriorating relations between Palestine and Washington. In December 2017, Donald Trump announced the U.S. would recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and relocate its embassy there, a move that led Palestine to cut off almost all diplomatic relations.

It Might Be Time for a “War Dogs” Sequel

A remarkable report from the Pentagon’s inspector general released this week reveals that TransDigm Group, a parts supplier, “earned excess profit” on nearly every parts contract it made with the Defense Department. Pentagon procurement officials responded to the report by vowing to seek $16.1 million in voluntary refunds from TransDigm, the approximate amount of excess profits on $26.3 million in contracts. TransDigm has yet to respond. ...

More of a private equity conglomerate than a defense contractor, TransDigm uses mergers and acquisitions to corner the market on sole-source aircraft parts sought by the military; thereafter, critics attest that the company jacks up the price. About a third of TransDigm’s sales in 2017 were in the defense sector, according to the inspector general report. Three Democrats — Reps. Ro Khanna of California, Tim Ryan of Ohio, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts — requested the audit to see whether TransDigm was reaping excess profits in procurement. Wednesday’s report shows that, well, yes, it was.

The inspector general reviewed 47 of the 113 contracts TransDigm made with the Defense Department between January 2015 and January 2017. “We determined that TransDigm earned excess profit on 46 of 47 parts,” the report states. One part yielded what the inspector general considered a “reasonable” profit of 11 percent. The other 46 ranged in margins from 17 to 4,451 percent. ...

TransDigm is a relatively small Pentagon supplier within the $144.6 billion procurement budget. Penny-ante price gouging in spare parts, where the costs are relatively small on an individual basis and can get obscured in the total budget, fly under the radar. But if the practices are standard across the contracting space, the military may be squandering tens of billions of dollars.

Huawei: Meng Wanzhou sues Canadian government over arrest

Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officers of Chinese tech giant Huawei, is suing the Canadian government, its border agency and the national police force over her high-profile detention, saying they detained, searched and interrogated her before telling her she was under arrest. Lawyers for Meng said on Sunday they had filed a notice of civil claim in the British Columbia supreme court. Canada arrested Meng, the daughter of Huawei’s founder, at the request of the US, on 1 December at Vancouver’s airport. She is wanted on fraud charges that allege she misled banks about the company’s business dealings in Iran.

The suit alleges that instead of immediately arresting her, authorities interrogated Meng “under the guise of a routine customs” examination and used the opportunity to “compel her to provide evidence and information”. The suit also claims Canada Border Service Agency agents seized her electronic devices, obtained passwords and unlawfully viewed the contents and intentionally failed to adviser her of the true reasons for her detention. The suit said only after three hours was she told she was under arrest and had right to counsel.

“This case concerns a deliberate and pre-meditated effort on the part of the defendant officers to obtain evidence and information from the plaintiff in a manner which they knew constituted serious violations of the plaintiff’s rights,” the claim says. Meng is out on bail and living in Vancouver awaiting extradition proceedings.

MSNBC Yet Again Broadcasts Blatant Lies, This Time About Bernie Sanders’ Opening Speech, and Refuses to Correct Them

MSNBC is a dishonest political operation, not a news outlet. It systematically and deliberately refuses to adopt a defining attribute of a news outlet: a willingness to acknowledge factual errors, correct them, and apologize. That they not only allow their lies to stand uncorrected but reward their employees who do it most frequently – especially when those lies are directed at adversaries of the Democratic Party – proves that they are, first and foremost, a political arm of the Democratic establishment.

The most recent example is as glaring as it is malicious. On Saturday in Brooklyn, Bernie Sanders delivered his first speech for his 2020 presidential campaign in front of thousands of people. MSNBC broadcast the speech live, and anyone can watch the full 2-hour event, or just Sanders’ full 35-minute speech, on YouTube. As a result, there’s no confusion possible about what was said. Everyone can see it with their own eyes. ...

After Sanders’ speech, MSNBC immediately asked its panel for its reaction. The first person they turned to was Zerlina Maxwell, who the host identified only as an “MSNBC analyst.” What the host omitted, but which Maxwell herself acknowledged, was that she was a paid official for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign against Sanders: that, revealingly, is the first person MSNBC had opine on Sanders’ speech. After the host noted that Maxwell was making gestures of disapproval throughout Sanders’ speech and asked her what the cause was, Maxwell proceeded to state demonstrable lies about that speech. She said:

To be very serious about it, I clocked it. He did not mention race or gender until 23 minutes into the speech. And just for point of comparison, I went back and looked at Elizabeth Warren’s opening speech, for example. She mentions race and discrimination in the first paragraph. So that’s a big difference.

That is a big difference. It’s also a total lie. Sanders mentioned race, gender and discrimination multiple times at the beginning of his speech and long before the 23-minute mark, as anyone who actually watched it – which presumably includes all the MSNBC personalities on that panel who sat silently as this lie was broadcast – obviously knew was a lie. For good measure, Maxwell repeated the same lie she told on MSNBC in a tweet that she posted. ...

Ok 23 minutes in Bernie finally mentions race and gender

— Zerlina Maxwell (@ZerlinaMaxwell) March 2, 2019

She is *on* TV b/c she tells brazen #lies.

— Politics of Courage (@PoliticsCourage) March 3, 2019

Sanders did not just mention race and gender once in his speech before the 23-minute mark Maxwell claimed, but did so repeatedly. It was not only the major theme of the speakers who introduced him but a primary theme of his own speech from the start: both explicitly railing against the evils of “racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia, and religious bigotry” and vowing to usher in “social justice and racial justice,” but also launching full-scale, vehement attacks on the policies – inequities in the criminal justice system and immigration abuses – that have as their primary targets racial and religious minorities.

'Blood on his hands’: Survivors demand Elliott Abrams be removed from Holocaust museum board

Vatican to unseal archives on controversial WWII pope

Vatican archives on Pope Pius XII, the controversial wartime pontiff accused of failing to condemn the Holocaust, are to be opened next year after pressure from campaigners and historians. Pope Francis announced the archives would be unsealed in March 2020, eight years ahead of schedule, saying the Roman Catholic church was “not afraid of history”. ...

The role of Pius XII, a staunch anti-communist who became pope in March 1939, six months before war engulfed Europe, has long been questioned by historians. According to a display in Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial and museum, Pius “did not intervene” when Jews were rounded up and deported from Rome to Auschwitz.

His critics have also said he was enthusiastic about Adolf Hitler’s ascent to power and failed to stand up for priests who spoke out against the persecution of Jews and in many cases helped them and others escape being sent to Nazi concentration camps. Pius’s public reticence over condemning the Holocaust was despite efforts by many in the church, as well as diplomats from allied countries, to persuade him to speak out.

The Vatican has defended the wartime pope, who died in 1958, saying he used back-channels and quiet diplomacy to try to save lives. ...

Yad Vashem welcomed the Vatican’s decision to release the archives, saying it had been calling for years for the archives to be opened to “enable objective and open research as well as comprehensive discourse on issues relating to the conduct of the Vatican in particular, and the Catholic church in general, during the Holocaust”.

Iael Nidam-Orvieto, the director of Holocaust research at Yad Vashem, said it was known that Pius did not “publicly condemn the Nazis’ extermination of Jews in direct, clear and unambiguous terms”. The Vatican may have operated a strategy of “public silence, with behind-the-scenes activity”, but available historical evidence had not confirmed that, she told Haaretz newspaper.

Police union appeals against firing of officer who shot dead Tamir Rice

A police union says it has appealed against the firing of a white Cleveland officer who shot dead Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old black boy who was playing with a pellet gun. ...

Rice family attorney Subodh Chandra said in a statement it was “unfortunate” the union “continues to embrace lawlessness in law enforcement”.

Senate set to reject Trump national emergency declaration – but not his veto

Opponents of Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency at the US-Mexico border appear to have enough Senate votes to reject his move, now the Kentucky Republican Rand Paul has said he can’t go along with the White House.

The House has already voted to derail the action, and if the Senate follows later this month the measure will go to Trump. He has promised to veto it. Congress is unlikely to have the votes to override that. ... Three other Republican senators have announced they’ll vote “no” – two moderates, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina.

Assuming all 47 Democrats and their independent allies go against Trump, that would give opponents of the emergency declaration 51 votes – and the majority needed.

The Infiltrators: How Undocumented Activists Snuck Into Immigration Jail to Fight Deportations

29 parents separated from children cross back into US hoping to reunite

A group of 29 parents who were wrested from their children and deported at the height of the family separation crisis last year have been allowed to cross back into the US and seek asylum, in an attempt to reunite with their loved ones.

The parents, who travelled across Central America to the Mexicali border crossing, were made to wait 10 hours on Saturday, before they were allowed to present themselves for asylum. During tense negotiations, prominent public figures including Hillary Clinton agitated on their behalf.

Religious leaders and a coalition of immigration advocacy groups including Al Otro Lado, Families Belong Together and Together Rising helped the parents make their way back to the border entry port. They said the struggle to reunite the 29 with their 27 children in the US, one of whom was as young as five, had only just begun.

“This is a huge victory for these families,” said Erika Pinheiro of Al Otro Lado. “But this fight isn’t over until they’re reunited with their kids. They are now going into the black hole of CBP [Customs and Border Protection] custody, and some could be separated again.” The plight of the parents and their missing children is an indication that the family separation crisis that erupted last summer is continuing to have ramifications for hundreds of people. Thousands of children were separated from their parents in 2018 as a result of a “zero tolerance” policy imposed by Donald Trump.

Anti-Muslim poster linking Ilhan Omar to 9/11 sparks outrage in West Virginia

An anti-Muslim poster outside the chamber of the West Virginia House of Delegates that falsely connected the Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar to the 9/11 terrorist attacks has drawn strong rebukes from local and national lawmakers, while causing the resignation of a state capitol staffer and the reported injury of another.

The sign, which loomed over a table loaded with other Islamophobic flyers on a “WV GOP Day” at the legislature on Friday, bore an image of the burning World Trade Center in New York, juxtaposed with a picture of Omar, one of the first Muslim congresswomen ever elected. “‘Never forget’ – You said,” was written over the Twin Towers. On Omar’s picture, a caption read: “I am the proof you have forgotten.”

“No wonder why I am on the ‘hitlist’ of a domestic terrorist and ‘Assassinate Ilhan Omar’ is written on my local gas stations,” the Minnesota Democrat, wrote on Twitter as the images went viral. “Look no further, the GOP’s anti-Muslim display likening me to a terrorist rocks in state capitols and no one is condemning them!”

The reference to a “hitlist” was likely to the case of Christopher Hasson, a lieutenant in the US coast guard who was recently revealed to have plotted to kill Democratic members of Congress including Omar and New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other leading liberal figures.

Heatwaves sweeping oceans ‘like wildfires’, scientists reveal

The number of heatwaves affecting the planet’s oceans has increased sharply, scientists have revealed, killing swathes of sea-life like “wildfires that take out huge areas of forest”. The damage caused in these hotspots is also harmful for humanity, which relies on the oceans for oxygen, food, storm protection and the removal of climate-warming carbon dioxide the atmosphere, they say. Global warming is gradually increasing the average temperature of the oceans, but the new research is the first systematic global analysis of ocean heatwaves, when temperatures reach extremes for five days or more.

The research published in Nature Climate Change, found heatwaves are becoming more frequent, prolonged and severe, with the number of heatwave days tripling in the last couple of years studied. In the longer term, the number of heatwave days jumped by more than 50% in the 30 years to 2016, compared with the period of 1925 to 1954.

As heatwaves have increased, kelp forests, seagrass meadows and coral reefs have been lost. These foundation species are critical to life in the ocean. They provide shelter and food to many others, but have been hit on coasts from California to Australia to Spain. ...

Dr Éva Plagányi at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia also likened ocean heatwaves to wildfires. “Frequent big hits can have long-lasting effects,” she said. “This study shows that record-breaking events are becoming the new normal.” ... “In the space of one week, scientific publications have underscored that unless we take evasive action, our future oceans will have fewer fish, fewer whales and frequent dramatic shifts in ecological structure will occur, with concerning implications for humans who depend on the ocean,” said Plagányi.

This California town is struggling to survive flooding caused by “King Tides”

Most US coal plants are contaminating groundwater with toxins, analysis finds

Almost every coal-fired power plant in the US is contaminating groundwater with unsafe levels of toxic pollution, according to the first comprehensive analysis of the consequences of coal ash waste disposal. Of the 265 US power plants that monitor groundwater, 242 have reported unsafe levels of at least one pollutant derived from coal ash, which is the remnants of coal after it is burned for energy. More than half such facilities report unsafe levels of arsenic, a carcinogen linked to multiple types of cancer, with 60% finding elevated lithium, which is associated with neurological damage.

In all, nine out of every 10 coal plants with reportable data have tainted nearby groundwater with at least one coal ash pollutant, with a majority having unsafe levels of at least four different toxins. ...

The coal plants included in the analysis represent roughly three-quarters of all coal facilities in the US, with the remainder either having shut down their coal ash dumps or been exempted from reporting requirements. American coal plants produce about 100m tons of coal ash each year, with at least 2bn tons stored in pits of varying quality. Most coal ash pits are ageing and not lined with a protective substance that would prevent the ash seeping into streams and rivers.

Spurred by disasters such as that at the TVA Kingston Fossil Plant in Tennessee, where a containment dike ruptured in 2008 and spilled ash that smothered a huge area resulting in several hundred dead or sickened people, the Obama administration moved to tighten the regulations around the disposal of coal ash. ... These regulations were eased, however, by the Trump administration. In July, the Environmental Protection Agency extended by 18 months the time that industry can use unlined coal ash ponds for dumping. The move would “provide states and utilities much-needed flexibility in the management of coal ash” and save utility companies as much as $31m a year, according to Andrew Wheeler, confirmed as EPA administrator this week.

I found this twitter thread quoted in a Naked Cap reposting of a DownWithTyranny article which has some further material. (link goes to Naked Cap)

The Debate Over Tactics In the Modern Left: Radical Opposition or Strategic Inclusive Engagement?

Short thread here on climate change, the norms of democracy, and the battle between the right, center left and progressive left. Ready? Here goes... /1

— David Atkins #11Justices (@DavidOAtkins) February 25, 2019

The Right has always depended for its success on the implicit or explicit threat that it would be willing to subvert all the norms of democracy to achieve its goals, whether it be "2nd amendment remedies" or the Federalist Society's changing all the rules in the courts.../2

— David Atkins #11Justices (@DavidOAtkins) February 25, 2019

This is how the Right works the refs: they let everyone know that they're willing to pull out ALL the stops if white male patriarchy and racism don't stay centered in society, and if rich people don't get to keep all the loot. /3

— David Atkins #11Justices (@DavidOAtkins) February 25, 2019

The center left has long depended on being the "responsible" party. The cogent ones, the level headed ones. The perpetual Real Mothers in the Justice of Solomon willing to sacrifice almost anything to salvage the system. /4

— David Atkins #11Justices (@DavidOAtkins) February 25, 2019

The problem is that this dynamic between right and center left is codependent and convenient to the status quo. The far right gets to keep the angry old racists happy, the center left keeps the concerned vaguely cosmopolitan educated crowd happy. And the donors always win. /5

— David Atkins #11Justices (@DavidOAtkins) February 25, 2019

The progressive left us saying "enough of this game. We, too, are willing to break the norms of American democracy because these issues are life and death emergencies." We're not going to play the responsible straight man to the GOP's destructive clown. /6

— David Atkins #11Justices (@DavidOAtkins) February 25, 2019

Yes, we KNOW the Green New Deal can't pass through the Senate under the current system. We're not stupid.

We're down the marker that if this system won't let the GND pass, we will change the system until it does--eliminate the filibuster, add states, pack courts, etc. /7

— David Atkins #11Justices (@DavidOAtkins) February 25, 2019

So when the center left says "but I can pass this weaker version", the answer is twofold:
1) no, you can't. The GOP is a destructive clown that won't give you the time of day, either. But also,
2) we don't care what you think yoi can pass. We're telling you what we need. /8

— David Atkins #11Justices (@DavidOAtkins) February 25, 2019

And if that means changing the system? So be it. If it means breaking the system? So be it.

The norms of 20th century American democracy are worthless compared to the threat of climate change. Also, radical inequality. Also, the declining middle class. /9

— David Atkins #11Justices (@DavidOAtkins) February 25, 2019

The right has been very effective playing this game. They are signaling loud and clear they would rather have a Putin-backed dictatorship under a corrupt idiot than give up old white male privilege or plutocraric control.

What is the left willing to do? How far will we go? /10

— David Atkins #11Justices (@DavidOAtkins) February 25, 2019

The center left's answer? Nowhere. We'll do whatever we can with the system we have, and whatever happens happens...as long as nobody's stock portfolio takes a hit.

That is completely, totally unacceptable to those of us who want to live to 2050. Or have kida who do. /11

— David Atkins #11Justices (@DavidOAtkins) February 25, 2019

If the system won't budge with us, we'll budge the system. We are dealing with catastrophic threats, and econ/tech challenges well beyond the capacity of our current politics.

Your experience within the system means nothing now. Your commitment to the goal is everything. /12

— David Atkins #11Justices (@DavidOAtkins) February 25, 2019

In short, the current system WILL NOT SURVIVE. The right sees an existential threat from a browning, more progressive population. They cannot afford for democracy to survive, and they will kill it if given half the chance. /13

— David Atkins #11Justices (@DavidOAtkins) February 25, 2019

But the current system also won't let us deal with our environmental, technological and economic challenges in anything like the timeframe we need to solve them.

Which means the defenders of that system are just as dangerous in their own way as the right wing is. /14

— David Atkins #11Justices (@DavidOAtkins) February 25, 2019

The future belongs to the side that changes the system to accomplish their goals. Will it be young progressives? Or will it rich old racists?

There is no middle ground. There is no responsible defense of the status quo. It's going to be one side or the other. /fin

— David Atkins #11Justices (@DavidOAtkins) February 25, 2019

Also of Interest

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

It’s Still Open: Will the Guantánamo Bay Prison Become a 2020 Issue?

Neither Rain, Sleet, nor Snow Will Stop the Post Office From Spying on You

Google Employees Uncover Ongoing Work on Censored China Search

Facebook Wants You to Know if You’re Getting Your News From the Wrong Government

At Conservative Conference, Speakers Were Obsessed With the Socialist Bogeyman

The neo-Nazi plot against America is much bigger than we realize

Inside the Israeli Right’s Campaign to Silence an Anti-Occupation Group

How (And How Not) To Beat A Smear Campaign

The Making of the Fox News White House

The Killing Times: the massacres of Aboriginal people Australia must confront

In Step Toward Ending Dark-Money Elections, Court to Review Case That Created Super PACs

Justin Trudeau Is Finished

After 40 years in solitary, activist Albert Woodfox tells his story of survival

A Little Night Music

Tuba Skinny - Jubilee Stomp

Tuba Skinny - Gimme Some

Tuba Skinny - Salamanca Blues

Tuba Skinny - Postage Stomp

Tuba Skinny - Corrine Corrina

Tuba Skinny w/Caroline Scruggs - Hear Me Talkin' to You

Tuba Skinny - Them Things Got Me

Tuba Skinny - Frosty Morning Blues

Tuba Skinny - Eagle Ridin’ Papa

Tuba Skinny - Mess Around

Tuba Skinny - Châtel-Guyon, May 20th, 2018