Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features New Orleans rhythm and blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter, Alvin Robinson. Enjoy!

"Of course, no state accepts [that it should call] the people it is imprisoning or detaining for political reasons, political prisoners. They don't call them political prisoners in China, they don't call them political prisoners in Azerbaijan and they don't call them political prisoners in the United States, U.K. or Sweden; it is absolutely intolerable to have that kind of self-perception."

-- Julian Assange

News and Opinion

Spanish security firm spied on Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy for US intelligence

A Spanish defense and security contractor hired to protect the Ecuadorian Embassy in London spied on Julian Assange on behalf of US intelligence while the WikiLeaks’ founder and editor was living there. The Spanish newspaper El País reported early Friday that it had access to statements and documents that show David Morales, the owner of Undercover Global S.L., handed over audio and video to the CIA of meetings between Julian Assange and his lawyers and collaborators. The evidence is part of an investigation by Spain’s High Court, the Audiencia Nacional, into Morales and his relationship with US intelligence.

The up-to-now secret investigation into Undercover Global is the result of a criminal complaint filed by Julian Assange. In his filing, Assange accused Morales and his firm of violating privacy rights and laws protecting client-attorney privileges. Assange’s complaint also charges Undercover Global with misappropriation, bribery and money laundering. The El País report states that Morales is a former member of the Spanish military “who is on leave of absence.” The report says Morales “stated both verbally and in writing to a number of his employees that, despite having been hired by the government of then-Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, he also worked ‘for the Americans.’” ...

The report provides extensive details of the exchange of recordings between Undercover Global and the US government. In one significant instance, a meeting on December 21, 2017 between Assange and the head of Ecuadorian secret service Rommy Vallejo was taped by Morales’s firm and handed over the US. In this meeting, a plan was discussed to have Assange exit the embassy using a diplomatic passport and travel to a third country. Only a handful of people, including lawyers from Australia, even knew about the plan. Hours after the meeting, the US ambassador informed Ecuadorian authorities about the plan and the following day an international warrant was put out for Assange’s arrest. Fortunately, Assange had already rejected the proposal on the grounds that to act in such a manner would appear to be a defeat and fuel conspiracy theories about his relationships and motivations.

The El País report explains that new video cameras were installed in the Ecuadorian embassy in early December 2017. Morales requested that an external streaming access point be included “so that all of the recordings could be accessed instantly by the United States.” Microphones were also installed in the fire extinguishers and other decorative elements in the embassy. Microphones were installed in the women’s bathrooms where Assange’s lawyers would frequently meet in order to avoid being spied upon. Those recorded included the Spaniard Aitor Martínez and Assange’s closest collaborators, as well as his lawyers Melynda Taylor, Jennifer Robinson and Baltasar Garzón.

Edward Snowden: Private Contractors Play Key Role in U.S. Intelligence’s “Creeping Authoritarianism”

Trump's 'spy' comments are not far off from real US whistleblower policy

In the chilling audio of the comments published by the Los Angeles Times on Thursday, Trump can be heard saying that the person who told the whistleblower of his attempt to solicit help in his re-election campaign from a foreign country was “close to a spy”. “You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart with spies and treason, right?” Trump remarked. “We used to handle it a little differently than we do now.” ...

While Trump’s “spy” comments were certainly shocking, in reality, they are actually not that far off from official justice department policy when dealing with whistleblowers who go to the press with classified information. For years, many of these brave people – who have exposed CIA torture, drone strikes, unprecedented cyber attacks and mass surveillance – have been prosecuted by administrations from both parties under the Espionage Act, a law written 100 years ago meant for spies.

As far back as Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg during the Nixon administration, sources of journalists charged under the Espionage Act are allowed no public interest defense whatsoever, meaning that they are barred from telling a jury why they went to the public with newsworthy information. They are also prohibited from telling the court about the massive public benefits that may have resulted from their disclosures. For most of them, it means an automatic guilty verdict and years behind bars.

Now, there are many commentators trying to differentiate what the still-anonymous whistleblower did in the current situation – going through internal whistleblower channels – from other whistleblowers who go to the press. But those people are either being naive or purposefully misleading. While the Trump whistleblower did not leak anything himself, other people did. When the complaint was being withheld from Congress, a slow but steady stream of leaks to the press revealed more and more about what was in the complaint every day, creating a massive media firestorm and forcing Democrats to come out forcefully for impeachment – all before Congress or the public ever saw Trump’s phone call summary or the complaint itself.

Congress has a unique opportunity here. It’s long past time that they passed robust whistleblower protections for all intelligence community members so they don’t have to constantly worry about retaliation or worse for exposing illegal or corrupt actions.

Rudy Giuliani: Ukraine sources detail attempt to construct case against Biden

On Thursday, Giuliani posted a tweet that extended the crisis from the White House to the state department. In the tweet, he reproduced a July text message from Kurt Volker, then US special representative to Ukraine, introducing Giuliani to a key adviser of the Ukrainian president. The chilling undertone of the tweet was unmistakable: if I’m going down, you’re going down with me.

By his own account, Giuliani’s fixation with the country began last November when, he told Fox News, he was approached by a “very significant distinguished investigator”. He has not named the investigator, though the whistleblower’s complaint and other sources have illuminated close ties between the former mayor, Yuriy Lutsenko, who until last month was Ukraine’s chief prosecutor, and Lutsenko’s predecessor, Viktor Shokin. ...

The prosecutor was facing growing criticism in Kyiv over stalled investigations into corruption. ... Lutsenko stayed in office. But the Guardian has learned that he began seeking a lifeline to the US, in the hope it might save him as difficulties back home intensified. That lifeline was Giuliani. “[Lutsenko] strongly needed some political ally, he believed that Giuliani could convey specific messages to Trump, and he created this message to become more interesting to the American establishment,” said a law enforcement source familiar with the Giuliani-Lutsenko connection. That Giuliani might have been fed information by Ukraine’s then-top prosecutor that was adulterated to make it more appealing to Trump is a startling potential twist in the developing scandal.

According to the Guardian’s source, Lutsenko appeared in conversation with Giuliani to have invented a “don’t prosecute” list he claimed was given to him by the then US ambassador to Kyiv, Marie Yovanovitch – news of which apparently made its way up to Trump. ... [T]here is [also] a suggestion that Lutsenko may have intentionally misrepresented the Burisma investigation to Giuliani, raising doubts about Hunter Biden’s activities, as a ruse to catch the attention of Trump. ... Lutsenko later changed his tune, and told the Washington Post this week Hunter Biden had done nothing wrong.

Oh my, it looks like Pompous Maximus may be in a little hot water.

BREAKING: @SecPompeo subpoenaed for Ukraine documents as @HouseForeign, @HouseIntel & @OversightDems committees accelerate #ImpeachmentInquiry.

"Your failure or refusal to comply with the subpoena shall constitute evidence of obstruction of the House’s impeachment inquiry" pic.twitter.com/kwFW1yIVR4

— House Foreign Affairs Committee (@HouseForeign) September 27, 2019

Outrage as Trump suggests key Democratic foe face arrest for 'treason'

Donald Trump, already facing impeachment, has provoked fresh outrage by suggesting one of his main political adversaries should be arrested for “treason”. ...

Trump singled out Adam Schiff, the Democratic chair of the House intelligence committee, who has been criticised for his opening statement at a hearing last week in which he parodied Trump’s conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Schiff “illegally made up a FAKE & terrible statement, pretended it to be mine as the most important part of my call to the Ukrainian President, and read it aloud to Congress and the American people,” Trump wrote. “It bore NO relationship to what I said on the call. Arrest for Treason?” The comment echoed Trump’s comment during a 2016 debate with Hillary Clinton that if he was in charge, she would “be in jail”.

“Lock her up!” became a common chant at his rallies.

Schiff is widely viewed as the public face of the impeachment inquiry. There is no basis for accusing him of treason, which is defined by the constitution as waging war against the US or providing material support to one of its declared enemies and is punishable by death.

Worth a full read, an excellent analysis:

Nixon’s Revenge: This Time, Republicans Are Ready to Fight Impeachment

With the House of Representatives formally commencing an impeachment inquiry into the actions of President Trump, America faces a moment of truth: Will the system work? Obviously this doesn’t mean a system of basic, small-“d” democratic accountability. We don’t have anything like that. We’re less than a fifth of the way through the 21st century, and already U.S. elites have started one gigantic fraudulent war in the Middle East and nearly conjured a second Great Depression, with zero consequences for themselves.

What we do have is another kind of system, one that the right wing in the U.S. has been constructing since Watergate: a system to make sure no Republican president is ever forced from office again, no matter what they do — even if they shoot someone on 5th Avenue. The right has devoted decades of careful, patient investment to creating this system, which has three main arms.

First, there’s a gigantic media ecosystem, with Fox News at the apex and innumerable smaller creatures. Second, there’s an intelligentsia based in think tanks and Ivy League professorships funded by conservative foundations. Third, there’s a legion of right-wing judges carefully selected for monomaniacal partisan loyalty.

Together they’ve created what Bruce Bartlett, a Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush staffer turned apostate, called “self-brainwashing.” “Conservatives now refuse to even listen to any news or opinion not vetted through Fox, and to believe whatever appears on it as the gospel truth,” Bartlett wrote in 2015. Nothing is true for Republicans unless the system says it is. If this system had been in place in 1974, Bartlett believes, “Nixon would have finished his term.”

Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow just now on his radio show re. impeachment: "We won the Mueller probe. We're going to win this one. Here we go! I tell you what. If Mueller was a war this is a skirmish."

— Darren Samuelsohn (@dsamuelsohn) September 30, 2019

What the New York Times Outing a Whistleblower Tells Us About Trump's Smear Campaign

The Times is never wanting for critics. Still, the paper of record gave their haters one hell of a bone to chew on with the decision to print details about the whistleblower at the heart of the Trump-Ukraine scandal. The Times had no agreement with the whistleblower to keep his identity under wraps. Yet by revealing his supposed employment at the CIA, specialty in European affairs, and temporary detail at the White House, critics fear it could deter government employees from coming forward in the future. It may also have effectively helped people inside the administration begin a campaign to drag the whistleblower through the mud. ...

When the Times ran its story on the whistleblower it cited three unnamed sources “familiar with his identity.” The newspaper also published a rare explanation from its editor, Dean Baquet, on why it considered the details newsworthy. “We decided to publish limited information about the whistle-blower — including the fact that he works for a nonpolitical agency and that his complaint is based on an intimate knowledge and understanding of the White House — because we wanted to provide information to readers that allows them to make their own judgments about whether or not he is credible,” Baquet said in a statement.

Progressives erupted on Twitter, arguing that the newspaper had endangered the supposed CIA analyst, and essentially participated in a scheme to intimidate him. His lead counsel likewise condemned the move in a statement to the Times. “Any decision to report any perceived identifying information of the whistle-blower is deeply concerning and reckless, as it can place the individual in harm’s way,” attorney Andrew Bakaj said. “The whistle-blower has a right to anonymity.”

There are legal protections to shield federal employees from retaliation for speaking out, and whistleblowers who don’t see action on their complaints sometimes go to the press. But this particular whistleblower was not a Times source.

Elizabeth Warren Face Plants On Biden Corruption Question

Yemen’s Houthis Claim Invasion of Saudi Arabia, Capture of Thousands of Troops in Najran

The BBC reports that Houthi rebels of Yemen are announcing that on Saturday they invaded the neighboring Najran province of Saudi Arabia and captured three Saudi military brigades, including many officers.

Yemen is an informational black hole in which all sorts of allegations are made that later turn out to be bunkum. So no one who knows the place would want to take at face value a breathless news release from the Helpers of God movement in Sana’a, otherwise known as the Houthis. We do not have any confirmation yet, and although reporters asked the Saudis to respond, Riyadh is mum.

The Houthi spokesman said that the movement had been infiltrating Najran province for some months, and finally sprang the encirclement of the Saudi military facilities, from which they also captured large numbers of weapons.

If the Houthi claims are even partially true, it underlines the weakness of Saudi security yet again, in the wake of the drone attacks on their Abqaiq petroleum processing plant in the Eastern Province, which initially knocked out about half of their petroleum exports.

Yemen's Houthi rebels release Saudi attack video

Yemen's Houthi rebels on Sunday broadcast footage they said was of a major attack into Saudi Arabia that killed or wounded 500 soldiers with thousands of others surrendering.

Yahya Saree, a Houthi military spokesman, described an ambush on the Saudi forces that then developed into an "all-out" cross-border offensive that trapped the troops inside Saudi Arabia.

"More than 200 were killed in dozens of [missile and drone] strikes while trying to escape or surrender," Saree said.

The fighting took place in the southern region of Najran with video images aired showing armoured vehicles hit by blasts and surrendering soldiers.

Saudi Arabia has not yet responded to the Houthi claim. Al Jazeera was not independently able to verify the footage or claims broadcast on Houthi-run Almasirah TV.

Saree said the offensive 72 hours earlier had defeated three "enemy military brigades", leading to the capture of "thousands" of troops, including Saudi army officers and soldiers, and hundreds of armoured vehicles.

Crunch time for Netanyahu as talks with rival politicians break down

Benjamin Netanyahu could inform Israel’s president that he is unable to form a government as early as this week after unity talks with rival politicians broke down at the weekend, his Likud party said. ...

Netanyahu had potentially up to six weeks, but negotiations on Sunday abruptly stalled and both sides publicly blamed the other.

If Netanyahu hands back the mandate, the president might ask Gantz to try, although he also does not command a majority in the Israeli parliament. With no apparent route out of the crisis, and after two unclear elections this year, there is the possibility that a third national poll could be called.

Boris Johnson fuels speculation he could ignore Brexit delay law

Boris Johnson has ramped up speculation that he is planning to bypass a law that stops the UK from crashing out of the EU without a deal. The prime minister told the BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show that Britain can still leave the bloc on 31 October despite the passing of the Benn Act, which aims to prevent a no-deal Brexit by forcing him to ask Brussels for a delay.

He also failed to deny holding talks with EU heads of state to request they block any request for a Brexit extension.

Despite outrage this week after he repeatedly labelled the Benn Act the “surrender bill”, Johnson described himself as a “model of restraint” in what has been described as an increasingly toxic political atmosphere. ...

In a bullish performance, Johnson said repeatedly that the public are weary of Brexit and just want to get it done – the slogan of this year’s autumn conference. He said there was still a chance of reaching a deal with the EU but that efforts were not helped by the Benn Act, which compels him to ask for a Brexit extension if he has not struck a deal by 19 October.

200+ Groups Denounce UN-WEF Agreement That Entrenches Corporate Interests Driving Global 'Social and Environmental Crises'

Over 200 civil society groups this week voiced their firm opposition to a recently-inked agreement between the United Nations and World Economic Forum that stands to further entrench transnational corporations and their interests in global governance. "It moves the world dangerously towards a privatized and undemocratic global governance," said Gonzalo Berrón of Transnational Institute.

At issue is the "strategic partnership agreement" between the U.N. and WEF for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The agenda purports to be "a plan of action for people, planet, and prosperity." Signed in June, the agreement says the U.N. and WEF will "strengthen their partnership by focusing on jointly selected priorities and pursuing a more strategic and coordinated collaboration."

But, according to the groups, the agreement threatens to "de-legitimize the United Nations and provide transnational corporations preferential and deferential access to the U.N. system," adding that the system "is already under a big threat from the US. government and those who question a democratic multilateral world."

Those concerns are laid out in an open letter to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres released on Wednesday. The letter was signed by groups including Action Aid Global, Friends of the Earth International, and the Transnational Institute, as well as national groups including Attac France and Uganda's Initiative for Social and Economic Rights (ISER).

"This public-private partnership will permanently associate the U.N. with transnational corporations," they wrote, "some of whose core essential activities have caused or worsened the social and environmental crises that the planet faces."

"We know that agribusiness destroys biodiversity and sustainable and just food systems, oil and gas corporations endanger the world's climate, Big Pharma weakens access to essential medications, extractive corporations leave lasting damage to countries' ecologies and peoples, and arms manufacturers profit from local and regional wars as well as repression of social movements," they wrote. "All these sectors are significant actors within the World Economic Forum."

'Off by $1 Trillion,' Say Progressives on Two-Year Anniversary of Mnuchin Claim Trump Tax Cuts Would Slash Deficit

"A treasury secretary who can't count needs to be held accountable."

That was the message progressive advocacy group Americans for Tax Fairness (AFT) directed at Steve Mnuchin Friday, marking the two-year anniversary of the treasury secretary's claim that the GOP's 2017 tax cuts would slash the U.S. budget deficit "by a trillion dollars."

AFT pointed out in a statement that the deficit has soared in the two years since passage of the tax legislation. CNN reported earlier this month that the deficit topped a trillion dollars during the first 11 months of fiscal year 2019. "Mnuchin's empty promise shows just how much the 2017 tax cuts for the rich were a scam on the American people," said AFT executive director Frank Clemente. "Mnuchin's prediction was off by $1 trillion."

Mnuchin two years ago: “We think this tax plan will cut down the deficits by a trillion dollars.”

Reality today: A $1 trillion deficit in JUST 11 months THIS YEAR#GOPTaxScam pic.twitter.com/ilwVO50wIL

— For Tax Fairness (@4TaxFairness) September 27, 2019

AFT called out Mnuchin's other false promises, including his prediction that the Republican tax bill would send economic growth soaring above three percent.

The Fed Is Offering $100 Billion a Day in Emergency Loans to Unnamed Banks and Congress Is Not Curious Enough to Hold a Hearing

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York first initiated its emergency overnight loans to Wall Street this year on Tuesday, September 17, starting off at the rate of $75 billion daily. It then increased its loans by adding, in addition to the $75 billion daily, 14-day term loans in the amount of $30 billion to be offered three times this past week. But after the demand for the first 14-day loan was more than double the $30 billion offered, the New York Fed boosted the next term loans to $60 billion and increased its overnight loans to $100 billion.

What will next week bring? When Wall Street can get super cheap loans from the Fed in the tens of billions of dollars with no questions asked by Congress, it will continue upping its demands until the Fed is once again secretly shelling out trillions of dollars while Congress willfully remains in the dark – in other words, a replay of the 2007-2010 financial crisis. ...

According to the report out this morning from the New York Fed, demand for its emergency loans has quieted down some this morning. Of the $100 billion it offered out to its primary dealers for a 3-calendar day loan (to cover this weekend), only $22.7 billion in bids were submitted for the loans. Of the $60 billion it offered out in 14-day term loans, banks only bid for $49 billion. That’s a big change from this past Tuesday when the New York Fed offered $30 billion in 14-day term loans and banks asked to buy (bid for) $62 billion. ...

The entire GDP for the United States last year was $20.5 trillion. The four banks mentioned above have 27 percent of the entire U.S. GDP in deposits. How could it be possible that those four banks can’t come up with $100 billion in repo loans per day and thus are forcing the Fed to once again become the lender of last resort. Congress needs to call hearings on this matter immediately, calling as witnesses the President of the New York Fed and the CEOs of each of the mega banks holding these trillions in deposits.

As Climate Crisis Threatens to Put More Homes 'Literally Underwater,' Study Warns Big Banks Offloading Risky Mortgages Onto Taxpayers

New research first reported on Friday by The New York Times suggests banks are shifting mortgages made riskier by the climate emergency over to financial institutions backed by U.S. taxpayers—findings that "echo the subprime lending crisis of 2008, when unexpected drops in home values cascaded through the economy and triggered recession." ...

The research is set to be published Monday as a National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) working paper entitled Mortgage Finance in the Face of Rising Climate Risk (pdf). Co-authors Amine Ouazad of HEC Montreal and Matthew Kahn of Johns Hopkins University analyzed how lenders have handled mortgages in U.S. regions hit by destructive hurricanes between 2004 and 2012. "They found that, after those hurricanes, lenders increased by almost 10 percent the share of those mortgages that they sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, government-sponsored enterprises whose debts are backed by taxpayers," the Times reported.

As unsustainable human activity continues to drive up global temperatures, which scientists say is making extreme weather worse, a growing number of homeowners impacted by natural disasters could default on their mortgages—which, according to the new paper, banks are selling to Fannie and Freddie. The researchers warn the impacts could be felt across the country. "We're talking about a loss that's going to be borne by United States taxpayers," Ouazad told the Times. Noting that up to $100 billion in new mortgages are issued for coastal homes annually, he added, "we're not talking about a small number."

Ouazad said he hopes the research spurs a national discussion about lending policies for regions increasingly at risk in a warming world. "Do we still want to have 30-year fixed mortgages in areas at risk of flooding?" he asked. "I'm not sure about that."

Trump's Plan to Detain Migrant Kids Indefinitely Just Got Blocked — for Now

A federal judge knocked down the Trump administration’s plan to indefinitely detain migrant children and their families, calling the move “inconsistent” with a long-standing agreement intended to shield migrant children from long-term incarceration.

“The Flores Settlement Agreement remains in effect and has not been terminated,” Judge Dolly Gee wrote in a court order issued Friday.

Gee’s ruling prevents the administration from implementing regulations that would have effectively gutted the landmark 1997 Flores agreement, which established standards for the treatment of unaccompanied migrant kids in terms of housing, medical care, education, nutrition and hygiene. ...

The Trump administration is likely to appeal Gee’s ruling, which could lead to a dismantling of the Flores settlement down the road.

Former ICE Director Freaks Out at Congressional Hearing

Thomas Homan, who served as the acting director of ICE from January 2017 to June 2018, used the majority of his 5 minutes of testimony to chastise Democratic politicians for criticizing the Trump administration’s immigration policies. Homan, a longtime federal immigration enforcement official, oversaw a nearly 40% increase in immigration arrests during his brief tenure as ICE chief in the Trump administration. He is now a Fox News contributor. ...

Earlier in the hearing, Homan accused Democratic members of Congress of hypocrisy and dishonesty for comparing immigrant detention facilities to concentration camps, as well as for supporting the Obama administration’s expansion of immigration detention. “I'd like to remind you, under the Obama administration we did that most of the years he was president," Homan said. "I don't remember any hearings on that."

“I didn’t like it under the Obama administration,” chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal responded. “And I’ll also remind you, Mr. Homan, that you also testified before Congress in support of the Obama [administration]’s priorities enforcement program before the Senate Judiciary Committee on May 19, 2016.”

Joe Wilson, US diplomat who blew the whistle on Iraq War evidence, dies at 69

An excellent discussion of sausage making and why the Republicans are eating everyone's breakfast:

“Worth This Investment”: Memos Reveal the Scope and Racial Animus of GOP Gerrymandering Ambitions

In a trove of never before published memos and emails [...] GOP leaders come clean: Their nationwide advantage in state legislatures and Congress is built on gerrymandering. And top Republican strategists and political operatives admit to weaponizing racial data and the Voting Rights Act in order to flip the South red and tilt electoral maps in their direction.

Those are among the revelations from over 70,000 documents, maps, and emails, obtained by The Intercept, that were culled from the hard drive backups of the late redistricting mastermind Thomas Hofeller. Though the exact purpose or destination — and sometimes even the author — of each memo is not always clear, the thinking revealed in the documents and drafts is illuminating. Some appear to be regular updates for Republican leadership, top stakeholders, and key donors. They offer additional insights into the Republican’s 2010 Redistricting Majority Project, or REDMAP, strategy — a $30 million push to capture swing-state legislative chambers ahead of the decennial redistricting — and new evidence that the GOP viewed these maps as the firewall that allowed them to retain control of the U.S. House and multiple state legislatures despite the 2012 Democratic wave.

The title of one late 2012 memo makes it clear: “RNC Redistricting Program Underpins GOP Success in U.S. House and State Legislatures.” That memo appears to have been written by Hofeller himself. Also, in 2011, strategists boasted that the “energy and resources poured into last year’s legislative races are paying large dividends in the ongoing redistricting process,” and that “the tide of victory” helps “increase our control” over new maps. Perhaps most importantly, some memos explicitly state the connections between race and redistricting, and say that Republican strategists working with the highest level of the national party sought to exploit the creation of “majority-minority” seats as part of a strategy to both pack black voters into a limited number of seats and equate Democrats and minorities in the minds of white voters, especially across the South. ...

So, as black and Latino voters were packed into “majority-minority” seats, surrounding districts became whiter and more Republican. This was no accident, these memos suggest, but a conscious, decadeslong plan: “GOP attorneys and redistricting experts successfully fought three decades of court battles which culminated just this November when the GOP gained full political control of the entire South.” As “more and more minority districts” were created, the memo maintains, “Democrats became less and less able to take advantage of strong Democratic minority areas to create districts which would elect non-minority Democrats to both state legislatures and Congress.” In other words, the GOP redistricting strategy helped turn the South red by making minorities the face of the Democratic Party throughout the region. White moderate Democrats were replaced by a small number of progressive minorities and a larger number of white conservative Republicans.

NH Journalist Paul Steinhauser: Andrew Yang's surprising answer on Biden Ukraine scandal

Cory Booker may quit 2020 race by Tuesday despite 'avalanche of support'

According to his own deadline, New Jersey senator Cory Booker has less than two days to save his presidential campaign. On Sunday he said an “avalanche of support” had brought him close to a self-imposed fundraising goal, but admitted he could be out of the race by Tuesday.

Some minor candidates have dropped out but the field is still unwieldy. On Friday the Democratic National Committee said its next debate, in Ohio on 15 October, would take place on one night. Twelve candidates, Booker among them, had qualified to appear.

Booker announced last week that if he did not raise an additional $1.7m by the end of September, he would quit the race. Since then he has raised around $1.5m. Asked on CNN’s State of the Union if the end was nigh, he said: “It could be.” ...

“I’m not going to be in this primary unless I have a viable path to win it,” he said.

New CNN poll of likely Dem primary voters in SC:

Biden - 37%
Warren - 16%
Sanders - 11%
Buttigieg - 4%
Harris - 3%
Steyer - 3%

And NV caucus goers:

Biden - 22%
Sanders - 22%
Warren - 18%
Harris - 5%
Buttigieg - 4%
Steyer - 4%
Yang - 3%https://t.co/I4SnWj9O8o @jennagiesta

— Dan Merica (@merica) September 29, 2019

Sanders vs. Warren with Nathan J. Robinson | Useful Idiots

MSNBC Pundit Who Accused Those Who Prefer Sanders to Warren of 'Sexism' Sparks Viral Outcry From #WomenforBernie

Female supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders are not taking kindly to a MSNBC political pundit who said Friday—in a clip that has since gone viral—that there "may be something to" the charge that voters who prefer Sanders over rival Elizabeth Warren are inherently sexist.

Though not a remark from someone as a high a profile as former secretary of state Madeline Albright—who in 2016 said there was a "special place in hell" for women who didn't back Hillary Clinton in that race—the comments by Emily Tisch Sussman, a Democratic strategist and former vice president of campaigns for the Center for American Progress, drew scorn from the many women who work for or support Sanders for a wide range of substantive reasons.

"I actually heard someone saying something that I thought was an interesting point. But basically, if you are still supporting Sanders as opposed to Warren, it's kind of showing your sexism," Tisch Sussman said Friday morning. "Because [Warren] has more detailed plans and her plans have evolved," Tisch Sussman continued. "I think it was an interesting point and I think there may be something to it."

I’m truly trying to wrap my mind around this foolishness https://t.co/v493SsYILO

— Nina Turner (@ninaturner) September 28, 2019

Not a new phenomenon, but one of the central critiques of charging Sanders supporters of being sexist is the degree to which it disregards just how profoundly his agenda—including a $15 federal minimum wage, paid parental and family leave, Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, free public college, cancellation of medical debt, universal coverage for reproductive care and abortion access—would specifically improve the lives of women and reduce gender (and other) inequities throughout society.

"Here's the thing," columnist Arwa Mahdawi wrote for the Guardian earlier this year: "universal healthcare is a feminist issue. Widening access to education is a feminist issue. A foreign policy that doesn't involve constantly bombing other countries is a feminist issue. Refusing to cozy up to Saudi Arabia is a feminist issue. Calling out Israel for its treatment of Palestinians is a feminist issue. As far as I'm concerned, Sanders is the most feminist candidate in the race." ...

In addition to the time Tisch Sussman spent at the Center for American Progress, the liberal think tank with deep ties to the Clinton apparatus in Washington D.C. and consistently hostile to Sanders' bold policy ideas and grassroots progressive support, many critics also noted that her father happens to be billionaire financier Donald Sussman, a hedge fund manager, liberal philanthropist, and major Democratic donor.

MSNBC: All Bernie Voters Are Sexists! Not Kidding.

Journalist Sharon Lerner: “How the Plastics Industry Is Fighting to Keep Polluting the World”

Hordes of Climate Kids Are Back in the Streets Because the UN Summit Didn't Solve the Crisis

The United Nations Climate Action Summit last week failed to get major countries to commit to climate action, so the climate kids are back in the streets for another round of mass protests Friday.

Another wave of huge youth climate strikes unfurled around the world for the second consecutive Friday, with tens of thousands of people filling the streets of New Zealand — organizers estimate that 3.5% of the island nation’s population were on strike — and an estimated million-plus people in Italy. And as fires continue to tear through the Amazon, there will be strikes in the nations surrounding the rainforest, in Chile, Bolivia, Brazil, and Ecuador.

The protests are expected to be quieter in the U.S., where young activists say they’re stepping back to put the focus on the international strikes. Some will go on a “silent strike” at their schools, where, instead of leaving class, they won’t speak. But some of them will be on the streets of New York. A group of ten have been striking outside the U.N. all week while international leaders convened for the international body’s general assembly.

Fifteen-year-old Kallan Benson — the first teenager in the U.S. to go on climate strike, who's been staging weekly protests since last December — was among those camped out by the U.N. all week. “We’ve seen these meetings happen over and over and over again, and no action comes out of them,” she said. “I would’ve liked to see commitments that reflect the urgency of this issue from our world leaders.” ...

“We can’t wait for the next U.N. summit and hope they get their acts together,” said Jonah Gottlieb, a 17-year-old who’ll be joining Benson on strike in Manhattan Friday. “Millions of people will suffer while they move incrementally and play politics with human lives.”

Because 'Fossil Fuel Industry Doesn't Care,' Scores Arrested in Attempt to Shut Down New England Coal Plant

Nearly 70 climate activists were arrested in New Hampshire on Saturday after hundreds of people descended on a coal-fired power plant—part of a series of coordinated global actions over recent weeks aimed at spotlighting the urgent threat of global warming while demanding a rapid and just transition to a cleaner and more sustainable energy system. The direct action at the Merrimack Station power plant—the largest plant of its kind in New England — was organized by a coalition of groups from throughout the region, including 350 New Hampshire, Nonviolent Citizen Action, New Hampshire Youth Movement, and Climate Disobedience.

Those who risked arrest attempted to enter the plant via a set of train tracks and carried buckets with them in order to—at least symbolically—remove as much coal from the site as possible.

"The fossil fuel industry doesn't care about clean air, water, and soil," said Barbara Peterson, a protest organizer and member of Nonviolent Citizen Action, in a statement. "Their priority is profit. It's our job to say no to coal and other unsustainable energy sources. If we don't stand up, put our bodies in the way of them destroying our ability to live on this earth, who will?"

Lila Kohrman-Glaser, an organizer with 350NH Action, explained that the Merrimack Plant, while located in the town of Bow, New Hampshire, represents economic and environmental threats both locally and far beyond.

"Last year," Kohrman-Glaser said, "ratepayers paid $50 million just to keep this plant open even though it provides only about 1% of our electricity. The out-of-state owners are getting rich off of the destruction of our climate and environment and our elected officials have done nothing to stop them. We won't stand for decision makers' corruption and collusion with the fossil fuel industry anymore."

Also of Interest

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

At UN, European Allies & Trump Clip Pompeo’s Hawk Wings

Want To Save The Environment? De-Fund The Pentagon.

Native American 2020 candidate aims to raise awareness of indigenous peoples

Bankers "Confirm Warren's Whole Worldview" by Saying They'll Donate to Trump to Defeat Anti-Wall Street Senator in 2020

Austrian elections: support for far-right collapses

CIA, Climate And Conspiracy: More Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

If You Are Black and in a Mental Health Crisis, 911 Can Be a Death Sentence

Democratic Senators Orchestrated Infamous Caning of Slavery Opponent, According to New Book

A Little Night Music

Alvin Robinson - Let The Good Times Roll

Alvin Robinson - The Blues

Alvin Robinson - Searchin'

Alvin Robinson - Whatever You Had You Ain't Got No More

Alvin Robinson - How Can I Get Over You

Alvin Robinson - Baby Don`t You Do It

Alvin Robinson - Something You Got

Alvin Robinson - Let Me Down Easy

Alvin Robinson - Tuned In, Turned On

Alvin Robinson - Down Home Girl

Alvin Robinson - Sho 'Bout To Drive Me Wild