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This evening's music features Chicago and Louisiana blues singer and guitarist Lonnie Brooks aka "Guitar Jr." Enjoy!

“Thus did a handful of rapacious citizens come to control all that was worth controlling in America. Thus was the savage and stupid and entirely inappropriate and unnecessary and humorless American class system created. Honest, industrious, peaceful citizens were classed as bloodsuckers, if they asked to be paid a living wage. And they saw that praise was reserved henceforth for those who devised means of getting paid enormously for committing crimes against which no laws had been passed. Thus the American dream turned belly up, turned green, bobbed to the scummy surface of cupidity unlimited, filled with gas, went bang in the noonday sun.”

-- Kurt Vonnegut

News and Opinion

The task of politics today is to scare the capitalists as much as communism did

On its own terms, “really existing socialism” was a miserable failure: brutally repressive to its own peoples and ultimately unable to compete with capitalist economies. Yet it achieved something else that its own politburos and planners never intended - an achievement that represents one of our era’s greatest paradoxes. Communism didn’t topple capitalism, but kept it honest – and so saved it from itself. The very presence of a powerful rival ideology frightened capitalists into sharing their returns with workers and the rest of the society, in higher wages, more welfare spending and greater public investment. By sending tanks into Prague in 1968, Leonid Brezhnev may have crushed the dream of “socialism with a human face”; but he and other Soviet general secretaries forced capitalism to become less inhumane. Conversely, the collapse of communism between 1989 and 1991 has left capitalism unchallenged and untempered – and increasingly unviable. The challenge of our time, whether in the UK’s general election or next year’s US presidential contest, is to build a political movement that can restrain a system spinning madly out of control.

You’re not meant to think of it this way. From the very outset, November 1989 was framed as the moment when capitalism could stop battling for survival and finally renew itself. The Guardian’s own leading article, published even as the Trabants queued by the mile to get into the west, summed up liberal hopes: “The wealth is at last available not only to tackle long-neglected evils at home, but to pay for a genuine fight against poverty, injustices and ecological disaster in the rest of the world.”

I trust I’m not giving away too much of the plot by observing it hasn’t panned out like that. Indeed, for most of the past three decades, the political classes – whether Tony Blair or David Cameron, George W Bush or Barack Obama – have accepted vast gulfs between rich and poor as just one of those sad facts of life. With tiny shrugs, they put it down to globalisation or the shifting job market – and deploy the work of top economists such as Harvard’s Lawrence Katz and David Autor who argue that income inequality has been a natural byproduct of technological innovation.

Yet history supplies very different testimony. It shows how the existential threat to capitalism posed by socialist movements, whether revolutionary communist or reformist social democrat, rebalanced power towards workers. The starkest example is the eight-hour working day. Demanded for more than a century by socialists such as Robert Owen, it had been the rallying cry of the annual May Day demonstrations organised since 1890 – yet it took the Bolshevik revolution of October 1917 and the concurrent unrest of workers across Europe to make it law within months in France, Germany and Portugal. The manner in which socialism reformed capitalism is made explicit in a paper from the International Labour Organisation that notes how the surge in inequality across the west in the 19th century was reversed “as the threat of the spread of communism inspired welfarist redistributive reforms, giving capitalism a more human face”. In 1929 the richest 0.1% of Americans owned almost 25% of all the nation’s household wealth; by the 70s, that had dropped below 10%. ...

In a new study of 16 industrial countries during the cold war, Brazilian economists André Albuquerque Sant’Anna and Leonardo Weller argue that the “more national elites were under the threat of communist revolution, the more the state introduced policies that reduced top income shares” – whether that be taxing and spending more, or allowing uncomfortably powerful trade unions. Those reds under the bed helped ensure you would have social democracy at home.

#Bolivia anti-coup protests continue. #NoAlGolpe (foto h/t @jmkarg) pic.twitter.com/rhJUe1858O

— Eva Golinger (@evagolinger) November 14, 2019

Nick Estes: What the coup against Evo Morales means to indigenous people like me

Evo Morales is more than Bolivia’s first indigenous president — he is our president, too. The rise of a humble Aymara coca farmer to the nation’s highest office in 2006 marked the arrival of indigenous people as vanguards of history. Within the social movements that brought him to power emerged indigenous visions of socialism and the values of Pachamama (the Andean Earth Mother). Evo represents five centuries of indigenous deprivation and struggle in the hemisphere. A coup against Evo, therefore, is a coup against indigenous people.

Evo’s critics, from the anti-state left and right, are quick to point out his failures. But it was his victories that fomented this most recent violent backlash. ...

The indigenous-socialist project accomplished what neoliberalism has repeatedly failed to do: redistribute wealth to society’s poorest sectors and uplift those most marginalized. Under Evo and MAS leadership, Bolivia liberated itself as a resource colony. Before the coup, Evo attempted to nationalize its large lithium reserves, an element necessary for electric cars. Since the coup, Tesla’s stocks have skyrocketed. Bolivia rebuked imperialist states like the United States and Canada by taking the path of resource nationalism to redistribute profits across society.

This was Evo’s crime.

His replacement, Jeanine Añez Chávez, agreed. “I dream of a Bolivia free of satanic indigenous rites,” the opposition senator tweeted in 2013, “the city is not for the Indians who should stay in the highlands or the Chaco!!!” After Evo’s departure, Chavez declared herself interim president while holding up a large bible, though she failed to get the required quorum in the senate to do so. Next to her stood Luis Fernando Camacho, a member of the Christian far-right. After Evo’s resignation, Camacho stormed the presidential palace, a flag in one hand and a bible in the other. “The bible is returning to the government palace,” a pastor said on a video while standing next to Camacho. “Pachamama will never return. Today Christ is returning to the Government Palace. Bolivia is for Christ.”

Amidst the chaos, anti-indigenous race-hatred has gripped the country since Evo’s October 20 re-election. While left critics continue to rail against Evo, paradoxically blaming him for the coup that overthrew him, no evidence has emerged of election fraud. ... Other critics still contend that Evo’s 13-year tenure was too long. They mention Evo losing a referendum to amend constitution but failing to note the Supreme Court ruling that allowed him legally to run for another term. For our indigenous president, after five centuries of colonization, 13 years was not long enough.

Anti-Indigenous racism is at the heart of what’s happening in Bolivia. https://t.co/IyWpMQBp4I

— Rebecca Nagle (@rebeccanagle) November 14, 2019

Bolivia's interim president's indigenous-free cabinet heightens polarization

Bolivia’s controversial new interim president has unveiled a new cabinet which critics say could further increase polarization in the country still deeply split over the ousting of her predecessor, Evo Morales.

To the applause of military top brass, lawmakers and senators, Jeanine Áñez vowed to “reconstruct democracy” and “pacify the country” at a late-night ceremony in the “Palacio Quemado” (Burnt Palace) presidential building. “We want to be a democratic tool of inclusion and unity,” said the 52-year-old religious conservative, sitting at a table bearing a huge open Bible and crucifix.

But the transitional cabinet sworn into office on Wednesday night did not include a single indigenous person, in a country where at least 40% of the population belongs to one of 36 indigenous groups.

Speaking in Mexico City on Wednesday, Morales hinted that he might return to Bolivia, but Áñez made clear that he would not be allowed to run again. “Evo Morales does not qualify to run for a fourth term. It’s because [he did] that we’ve had all this convulsion, and because of this that so many Bolivians have been demonstrating in the streets,” she said. ...

Speaking to journalists, Áñez’s new interior minister, Arturo Murillo, vowed to “hunt down” his predecessor Juan Ramón Quintana, a prominent Morales ally, stoking fears of a witch-hunt against members the previous administration. ...

The perceived disrespect of indigenous symbols has also whipped up outrage among Morales supporters in Bolivia and across Latin America. Social media videos showing the burning of the Wiphala – the multi-coloured flag of native people of the Andes closely associated with Morales’s legacy – has brought thousands on to the streets waving the banner.

CrossTalk: Bolivia’s Coup

Bolivia's dueling parties strike deal to end political chaos

Bolivia’s interim government and lawmakers from the party of unseated leader Evo Morales struck a deal late on Thursday to pursue new elections, potentially helping resolve the South American country’s political crisis.

In a late night session of the Bolivian Senate, the chamber’s President, a member of Morales’ Movement for Socialism (MAS) party, said there was agreement to work toward new elections after weeks of protests and violence that led to leftist leader Morales resigning under pressure last Sunday. ...

Bolivia’s interim President Jeanine Anez, who took over on Tuesday after a spate of resignations, had earlier indicated she wanted to mend bridges with Morales’ party. She said, however, that Morales himself would not be welcome as a candidate.

Anez did not give a specific date for the election, but under the constitution she has 90 days to do so since declaring herself interim leader by invoking the constitutional line of succession earlier this week.

Inside Chile's unprecedented protest movement

Labour promise to provide free Wi-Fi to every home

A new tax on Big Tech companies including Facebook, Google and Amazon would help fund Labour’s plans to provide homes and businesses with free internet connections, while the part of BT responsible for broadband would also be taken under public ownership.

A new British Broadband public service would boost 5G connectivity and deliver fast full-fibre internet across the country, where parts have poor internet connections, the party said. If in government, it would aim to deliver the service at no cost to members of the public by 2030 after integrating the broadband-relevant parts of BT into the new public entity.

Jeremy Corbyn will make the announcement in Lancaster on Friday where is expected to describe the new free public service as central to his plans to transform the country and economy.

Senate Democrats Join GOP to Back 'Automatic Austerity' Bill That Would Gut Social Programs, Hamstring Bold Policies

A handful of Senate Democrats joined forces with Republicans last week to advance sweeping budget legislation that would establish an "automatic deficit-reduction process" that could trigger trillions of dollars in cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, and other social programs—and potentially hobble the agenda of the next president.

The Bipartisan Congressional Budget Reform Act (S.2765), authored by Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), passed out of the Senate Budget Committee on November 6. The legislation is co-sponsored by five members of the Senate Democratic caucus: Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.), Mark Warner (Va.), Tim Kaine (Va.), Chris Coons (Del.), and Angus King (I-Maine).

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee and a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, issued a statement last week opposing the legislation and warning it "could be used by Republicans to unilaterally cut programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and nutrition assistance—all supposedly to reduce the deficit."

"This new proposed process comes less than two years after Republicans on this Committee showed no hesitation in adding $2 trillion to the deficit in order to pass the Trump tax cuts for the wealthiest families and the most profitable corporations in America," said Sanders.

As The American Prospect's David Dayen noted Thursday, passage of S.2765 would severely hamstring Sanders' ability to implement his agenda should he win the White House in 2020. "If a Democrat wants to extend free public college to all Americans, or move toward a universal healthcare system, or amass resources to fight the climate crisis," Dayen wrote, "they're going to run into the deficit scolds, the 'No, We Can't' brigade. Republicans like Enzi want to build that 'No, We Can't' presumption into the budget process itself. It makes no sense for Democrats to help them."

Dems lack of moral authority dooms impeachment inquiry

Nancy Pelosi says Trump's actions toward Ukraine amount to 'bribery'

House Democrats are refining part of their impeachment case against the president to a simple allegation: bribery.

The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, on Thursday brushed aside the Latin phrase “quid pro quo” that Democrats have been using to describe Donald Trump’s actions toward Ukraine. As the impeachment hearings go public, they’re going for a more colloquial term that may resonate with more Americans.

“Quid pro quo: bribery,” Pelosi said of Trump’s 25 July phone call in which he asked the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, for a “favor”. ...

Democrats and Republicans are hardening their messages to voters, who are deeply entrenched in two camps.

Trump continued to assail the proceedings as “a hoax” on Thursday, and the House GOP leader, Kevin McCarthy, dismissed the witness testimony as hearsay, at best second-hand information.

Aaron Maté: Why Democrats will regret lionizing the national security state on impeachment

Rights Advocates Target Lawmakers and Lobbyists With Facial Recognition Technology in US Capitol

To demonstrate exactly why tougher restrictions—including a ban for government agencies—should be placed on facial recognition technology, digital privacy rights advocates Thursday morning showed up on Capitol Hill to deploy the controversial technology against lawmakers, corporate lobbyists, and even members of the press.

"This should probably be illegal," said Evan Greer, deputy director of Fight for the Future, the group behind the effort, in a statement. And that's the point.

"Until Congress takes action to ban facial recognition surveillance," Greer said, "it's terrifyingly easy for anyone—a government agent, a corporation, or just a creepy stalker—to conduct biometric monitoring and violate basic rights at a massive scale."

The group is using the commercially available Rekognition software, made by Amazon, to scan the faces of thousands of people walking by in Washington, D.C. and then cross-checking those faces with a database to "track down" their possible identities. ... As of this writing, according to the ScanCongress.com website, the activists have already scanned the faces of 9,240 people.

Nice tie @RepDeSaulnier! @Amazon Rekognition just identified you as a part of https://t.co/qnxlS8z9zu, based on this image from our video feed.

This technology is dangerous. We are calling on you to do your job and protect the privacy of your constituents: #BanFacialRecognition pic.twitter.com/eCE08fSE7n

— Fight for the Future (@fightfortheftr) November 14, 2019

Greer said she and other activists are scanning people in the nation's capital city to make a very specific point. "We need an immediate ban on law enforcement and government use of face surveillance," she said, "and should urgently and severely limit its use for private and commercial purposes."

Outcry after Facebook sponsors gala featuring Brett Kavanaugh

Facebook is facing criticism for sponsoring the annual gala dinner of the Federalist Society, the powerful rightwing legal group behind the nomination of the conservative supreme court justice Brett Kavanaugh.
The world’s largest social media company is listed as a “gold circle” sponsor of the 2019 National Lawyers Convention in Washington, and is featured in the guidebook app for the event, where Kavanaugh was scheduled as the keynote speaker on Thursday evening.

The Federalist Society has played a key role in the decades-long Republican strategy to pack US courts with conservatives, which has been advanced under Donald Trump’s administration. The group’s executive vice-president, Leonard Leo, advised the president on Kavanaugh’s controversial appointment.

Demand Justice, the not-for-profit group which aims to motivate progressives on issues related to the federal judiciary, released an advert calling on supporters to “tell Facebook: stop funding the fight to normalize Brett Kavanaugh”. ...

Oh man. Anti-Kavanaugh protesters are shouting "I believe Dr. Ford! I believe Anita Hill!" right in the faces of Federalist Society members as they're stuck waiting in line for their gala to start. For who knows how long. #awkward pic.twitter.com/1J4rkC4nBF

— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) November 14, 2019

This is not the first time Facebook has drawn scrutiny over Kavanaugh. The company’s head of global public policy, Joel Kaplan, was spotted sitting behind Kavanaugh during his 2018 Senate judiciary committee hearing. “Facebook should not be sponsoring the rehabbing of Brett Kavanaugh’s reputation when Dr Blasey Ford remains unable to resume a normal life after bravely coming forward last year,” Katie O’Connor, the senior counsel for Demand Justice, told the Verge. “You can claim to respect survivors of sexual assault or you can pay for a celebration of Brett Kavanaugh, but you can’t do both.”

Confirmation of Steven Menashi to Federal Appeals Court 'Should Send Shockwaves Across America'

Civil rights advocates on Thursday condemned the Senate's confirmation of Steven Menashi to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, characterizing him as among the most extreme of all the far-right judicial nominees put forward for lifetime appointments by President Donald Trump.

Menashi was confirmed by a 51-41 vote, largely along party lines, with Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) voting against him with Democrats. ...

Menashi's confirmation flipped the bench in the Republicans' favor and sent a fifth Trump nominee to the court which could ultimately decide whether the president's financial records must be released.

During his confirmation hearing in September, Menashi was denounced by rights advocates and lawmakers when he refused to answer many questions from senators regarding his work in Trump's Department of Education and at the White House. ...

Critics on social media condemned Republicans for confirming a nominee with a history of bigoted statements toward women, the LGBTQ community, and ethnic minorities. ...

While Menashi served as acting general counsel at Trump's Department of Education, the agency rolled back Title IX protections for LGBTQ students, racial minorities, and sexual assault survivors. Manashi's past writings include attacks on so-called "campus gynocentrists" who staged "Take Back the Night" rallies when Menashi was in college; claims that LGBTQ rights advocates focused too much on the murder of Matthew Shepherd while ignoring murders committed by gay men; and a statement that liberal democracies should give preference to immigrants of certain ethnicities because "ethnic ties provide the groundwork for social trust and political solidarity."

Justice for Rodney Reed: Millions Urge Texas to Halt Execution Amid New Evidence of His Innocence

Sen. Dick Durbin Introduces Bill to Curtail ICE’s “Unnecessary Overuse of Solitary Confinement”

Slamming the “rampant and unnecessary overuse of solitary confinement” at U.S. immigration detention centers, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., on Thursday proposed legislation to dramatically curtail the practice. The bill takes aim at a range of abusive practices identified in “Solitary Voices,” an International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and Intercept joint investigation into the heavy use of solitary confinement by U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement at detention centers around the country.

If adopted, the bill would outlaw locking detained immigrants in solitary confinement in most instances as a punishment. It would also prohibit the use of isolation on individuals with severe mental illness, physical disabilities, and those who have recently given birth, with “narrow and temporary exceptions for detainees who pose a substantial and immediate threat.”

Lawyers and Scholars to LexisNexis, Thomson Reuters: Stop Helping ICE Deport People

Lawyers, students, and scholars called on legal database providers to end their contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Department of Homeland Security, and private surveillance contractor Palantir, saying the arrangements put universities and immigration lawyers in the untenable position of feeding money and even information into systems that facilitate deportation. Researchers Against Surveillance and Law Students Against ICE made their requests in a letter and petition asking Thomson Reuters, which owns the legal search tool Westlaw, and RELX, owner of LexisNexis, to end the deals, which they estimated were worth tens of millions of dollars. They were joined by Latinx advocacy group Mijente as well as Immigrant Defense Project, which engages in litigation and legal activism. ...

The tension stems from multi-pronged business model of Thomson Reuters and RELX. On the one hand, Westlaw and LexisNexis, their respective legal products, provide virtually every law firm and law school in the country with access to court filings, case law, opinions, academic work, and other resources essential for legal research. On the other hand, the companies have expanded their role as data brokers for government agencies.

According to the letter, which was provided to The Intercept by organizers, ICE’s six current contracts with Thomson Reuters have a total potential value of more than $54 million. This includes ICE’s use of the CLEAR database, which, as McKenzie Funk recently reported for the New York Times Magazine, has come to play a crucial role in deportations and immigration enforcement by collating and providing to government clients “data from credit agencies, cellphone registries, social-media posts, property records, utility accounts, fishing licenses, internet chat rooms and bankruptcy filings, all fused and vetted by algorithm to form an ever-evolving, 360-degree view of U.S. residents’ lives.” Privately run databases like CLEAR are particularly attractive to government agencies like ICE because the agencies face legal restrictions on what information they can themselves collect and how long they can retain such data.

CLEAR also helps ICE suck in some government data, including license plate information from Vigilant Solutions, a California-based division of telecommunications giant Motorola. Another Thomson Reuters subsidiary has provided ICE with real-time data on jail bookings to help the agency locate immigrants, sparking a letter of concern from watchdog group Privacy International. RELX’s ICE contracts total $2.24 million, the letter asserts, including subscriptions to the public records database Accurint.

“Lawyers are funding the companies that are building ICE’s surveillance system, which totally works against their clients,” said Sarah Lamdan, a professor and librarian at CUNY School of Law and a member of Researchers Against Surveillance. “They’re paying collectively millions of dollars to Thomson Reuters and Lexis every year, and then those companies are putting it into R&D, where they are creating products for ICE and law enforcement.”

Tulsi Comments On Rude Reception On “The View”

Elizabeth Warren rips into billionaires who oppose wealth tax in scathing ad

Elizabeth Warren has stepped up her attack on the billionaires opposing her proposals for a new “wealth tax” by launching a scathing new ad that targets four of America’s richest men by name. In the ad, Elizabeth Warren Stands Up to Billionaires, to be broadcast on US TV this week, the leftwing Massachusetts senator trains her sights on the investor Leon Cooperman, the former Ameritrade CEO Joe Ricketts, the former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein and the investor Peter Thiel.

“It is time for a wealth tax,” Warren proclaims at a campaign rally in a high school gym to the cheers of students. “I’ve heard there are some billionaires in America who don’t support this plan,” she adds faux-incredulously, before identifying four of her least favorite billionaires, along with their alleged wrongdoings or opposition to her tax proposal.

Cooperman, who the ad notes settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2017, paid nearly $5m in fees over insider trading violations and recently teared up during a TV interview on the subject of his wealth, has previously slammed Warren. The senator, Cooperman told CNBC, “represents the worst in politicians as she’s trying to demonize wealthy people because there are more poor people than wealthy people”. ...

The ad appeared to touch a nerve with Blankfein, who tweeted he was “surprised” to be featured in it and also included an insulting reference to a scandal over Warren’s prior claims of Native American ancestry. “Maybe tribalism is just in her DNA,” his tweet said.

Surprised to be featured in Sen Warren’s campaign ad, given the many severe critics she has out there. Not my candidate, but we align on many issues. Vilification of people as a member of a group may be good for her campaign, not the country. Maybe tribalism is just in her DNA.

— Lloyd Blankfein (@lloydblankfein) November 14, 2019

Warren Suggests Corporate Media Ask Working People, Not Just the Very Rich, About Her Wealth Tax

Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday evening called out the news media for focusing their coverage of her proposed Ultra-Millionaires Tax largely on wealthy CEOs' and investors' negative views of the plan rather than those of the working families the senator says would benefit from the redistribution of wealth.

At a town hall attended by 200 SEIU members in Concord, New Hampshire, Warren asked the crowd, "How many billionaires have you seen interviewed in just the last week about this wealth tax?"

"Okay, I get it, we have now done the billionaires," she continued. "How many of the 43 million Americans who are struggling with student loan debt have you seen interviewed?"

CONCORD, NH, @ewarren hits the media for only interviewing the billionaires about her wealth tax, not everyday struggling Americans: "Okay, I get it, we have now done the billionaires. How many of the 43 million Americans struggling w/student loan debt have you seen interviewed?" pic.twitter.com/wa2ZuBYk81

— Tara Prindiville (@taraprindiville) November 14, 2019

Buttigieg's misleading/aggressive efforts to win over black voters

Bernie tops Dem field as Warren slides

Applauding His Record of Standing Up to 'Charter Billionaires,' United Teachers Los Angeles Endorses Bernie Sanders

The 35,000-member United Teachers Los Angeles overwhelmingly voted Thursday to endorse Sen. Bernie Sanders in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, citing the need for an "unapologetic, longstanding ally of progressive policies to make public education a priority in the White House."

UTLA, the second-largest teachers union local in the nation, said in a statement announcing the endorsement that 80 percent of its elected leadership voted in favor of supporting Sanders.

"Sanders is the first viable major candidate in 25 years in the Democratic Party to stand up against privatization, the charter billionaires, and high-stakes testing and to stand up for a massive redistribution of wealth to schools and social services," said UTLA president Alex Caputo-Pearl. "Critically, like UTLA, Sen. Sanders believes in building a national movement for real, lasting change."

Teachers have consistently ranked among the most common donors to Sanders' presidential campaign. As the Washington Post reported, "K-12 teachers have donated more money to Sanders than to any of the other Democratic presidential candidates."

UTLA's decision to back Sanders came on the eve of National Nurses United's official endorsement of the Vermont senator, which is scheduled for a press conference in Oakland, California at 4:30 pm PT.

Shahid Buttar on Defeating Pelosi and Impeaching Trump, Plus the Return of Lizholio

World's Largest Public Bank Ditches Oil and Coal

Climate activists celebrated Thursday the decision of the European Investment Bank to stop funding most oil and coal projects by 2021, part of a bid to be the world's first "climate bank."

The bank's board made the decision at a meeting on Thursday, CNBC reported. ...

According to Reuters, the new policy does not outright ban all fossil fuel projects, but makes most of them impossible under the new parameters:

Under the new policy, energy projects applying for EIB funding will need to show they can produce one kilowatt hour of energy while emitting less than 250 grams of carbon dioxide, a move which bans traditional gas-burning power plants.

Gas projects are still possible, but would have to be based on what the bank called "new technologies," such as carbon capture and storage, combining heat and power generation or mixing in renewable gases with the fossil natural gas.

The news was welcomed by climate advocacy group 350 Action. In a statement, the group's Germany campaigner Kate Cahoon called the decision "the beginning of the end of climate-wrecking fossil fuel finance" but warned there was still work to do.

"The gas lobby has unfortunately managed to get Germany and the European Commission to insert some loopholes into the policy, which leave the door open for funding of dangerous fossil gas projects," said Cahoon. "They had better take note of the growing list of pipelines, terminals, and fracking wells that are scrapped thanks to local opposition and the unprecedented masses of people mobilizing for climate justice."

'Mother Nature Does a Mic Drop': Venice City Council Chamber Floods Minutes After Members Vote Down Climate Crisis Amendment

It seemed like divine intervention—or at least the hand of Gaia.

Minutes after the Venetian city council voted down a resolution addressing the climate crisis Wednesday, the council chambers were filled with water for the first time in history, the result of unprecedented flooding in the city due to the highest tides in 50 years.

"Mother Nature does a mic drop," tweeted software developer Denis Õstir.

Mother nature does a mic drop. https://t.co/3t8VnWwHfD

— Denis Oštir (@kricac) November 14, 2019

As Common Dreams reported, Venice is currently suffering through intense flooding that observers have tied directly to the climate crisis.

"From north to south, Italy has been impacted by a series of extreme climate events," Greenpeace Italy said Wednesday. "What's happening in Venice is a powerful example. This is not just 'bad weather,' this is a climate emergency."

As Superbugs Infect Millions and Kill Tens of Thousands Each Year, CDC Chief Warns Post-Antibiotic Era 'Already Here'

Bolstering concerns about the "continuing threat" that so-called superbugs pose to human health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report Wednesday that found antibiotic-resistant bacteria and fungi cause more than 2.8 million infections and 35,000 deaths annually in the United States.

"That means, on average, someone in the United States gets an antibiotic-resistant infection every 11 seconds and every 15 minutes someone dies," the CDC said in a statement announcing the report, Antibiotic Resistance Threats in the United States 2019 (pdf).

"When Clostridioides difficile, a bacterium which is not typically resistant but can cause deadly diarrhea and is associated with antibiotic use, is added to these," the statement continued, "the U.S. toll of all the threats in the report exceeds three million infections and 48,000 deaths."

The new release follows the CDC's 2013 AR Threats report (pdf). Since the first report, CDC Director Dr. Robert R. Redfield told reporters Wednesday, "we've reduced the number of deaths from antibiotic-resistance by 18% overall and by nearly 30% in hospitals alone." However, the 2019 report says that "CDC is concerned about rising resistant infections in the community."

"This is a problem that ultimately affects all of us," Michael Craig, a CDC senior adviser on antibiotic resistance, told CNN. "It literally has the potential to affect every person on the planet."

Sen. Cory Booker on Environmental Justice, Nuclear Power & “Savage Racial Disparities” in the U.S.

AOC and Bernie Are Teaming Up on a Green New Deal for Housing

Freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) took their first stab at rolling out specifics on their landmark Green New Deal proposal, introducing legislation in both chambers of Congress to rehabilitate public housing communities that have seen years of neglect. ... In the process, it would make significant upgrades to the country’s stock of public housing, leveraging seven different grant programs to replace their energy systems and make the country’s public housing carbon-neutral within 10 years. ...

The Green New Deal for Public Housing Act aims to turn federally-owned public housing properties into more functional communities, by building in healthier grocery stores, community gardens, and child care centers. It would prioritize hiring residents from those neighborhoods to help revitalize them, an effort that would create over 240,000 new jobs a year, Data for Progress also found. ...

AOC’s bill would provide funding for basic capital needs, like appliance and electrification upgrades, all of which would have to comply with energy standards established by the Environmental Protection Agency. It would also provide funding to replace the old pipes that leach lead into public housing residents’ drinking water, a problem that disproportionately harms children in low-income communities of color. ...

One of the grants funded by the bill is earmarked for natural disaster preparedness: everything from retrofitting old buildings to prevent serious damage from storms to emergency disaster response. ...

If enacted, the program would distribute money to public housing authorities that want to generate their own renewable energy. Under the bill, those authorities could keep 90 percent of the profits they make from generating and selling that energy, and it includes a clause that requires the authority to give residents a say in how they use that profit.

Also of Interest

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

Why Aren't People in the US Rising Up Like Those Elsewhere in the World?

Bolivia Does Not Exist

Massive Anti-Coup Protests Explode Across Bolivia 'Against the Many Violations to Democracy

As Lula Emerges From Prison, US Media Ignore How Washington Helped Put Him There

Trump And Zelensky Want Peace With Russia. The Fascists Oppose That.

Ukraine For Dummies

The Sad Death of James Le Mesurier

I'm the Google whistleblower. The medical data of millions of Americans is at risk

How Chilean Protesters Took Down a Drone With Standard Laser Pointers

NYT Recycles Polling to Tell Dems Once More: Move to the Right

Roger Stone: Trump adviser found guilty on all counts in WikiLeaks hacking case

How the Fed Boosts the 1%: Even the Upper Middle Class Loses Share of Household Wealth to the 1%. Bottom Half Gets Screwed

The great American tax haven: why the super-rich love South Dakota

So, About That Moment Of Clarity You Experienced That One Time…

A Little Night Music

Guitar Junior - Roll Roll Roll

Lonnie Brooks - Figure Head

Lonnie Brooks - Mama Talk to your Daughter

Lonnie Brooks - The Popeye

Guitar Junior - Family Rules

Guitar Junior - Pick Me Up on Your Way Down

Guitar Jr - I Got It Made (When I Marry Shirley Mae)

Lonnie Brooks - Mr Hot Shot

Lonnie Brooks - Watch Dog

Lonnie Brooks & Sugar Blue - Two Headed Man!

Lonnie Brooks - Rockin' Red Rooster

Roy Clark And Lonnie Brooks On Hee Haw - Hideaway

Guitar Junior - The Crawl