The Evening Blues - 1-21-20



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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Andrew "Smokey" Hogg

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Texas blues musician Andrew "Smokey" Hogg. Enjoy!

Smokey Hogg - When the Sun Goes Down

"There are conditions of blindness so voluntary that they become complicity."

-- Paul Bourget


News and Opinion

Guantánamo: psychologists who designed CIA torture program to testify

The two psychologists who designed the US “enhanced interrogation” programme that included waterboarding and other forms of torture are due to give evidence in open court for the first time this week. James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen will answer questions at a pre-trial hearing on the 9/11 attacks before a military tribunal in Guantánamo Bay.

Lawyers for the defendants, who are among 40 detainees being held at prison camp on the island of Cuba, say it will be a unique opportunity to hold to account those responsible for approving and carrying out the use of torture, and to demonstrate that both the CIA and FBI were complicit in torture, with significant implications for any future trial of suspected 9/11 plotters. Mitchell and Jessen were former air force psychologists who were tasked by the CIA in 2002 to establish a programme of severe interrogation techniques. They were paid $1,800 a day and in 2005 they set up a private company, which provided most of the interrogators and most of the security staff at the “black sites”, secret detention facilities. The company was paid $81m for its services before its contract was terminated in 2009.

“The perverse ‘work’ of these psychologists has dramatically set back the global fight against torture. The interrogation methods they championed have had a rippling effect around the world,” said Julia Hall, a human rights lawyer with Amnesty International who is attending the hearings. The American Psychological Association has disowned Mitchell and Jessen for “violating the ethics of their profession and leaving a stain on the discipline of psychology”.

But both men have insisted they did nothing wrong, arguing they were asked to do things that were declared legal by the George W Bush administration, and that they had to prevent the worst excesses of other interrogators.

Defence lawyers and human rights advocates hope Mitchell and Jessen will cast more light on the scale of the torture programme, the culpability of senior officials and the role of the FBI, which has hitherto presented itself as uninvolved. “The main points that I will be asking the witnesses about are the deep involvement of the FBI in the rendition detention and interrogation program, the huge bureaucracy that was necessary to support the use of coercive pressure as an interrogation tactic, and the elements of the CIA’s programme that didn’t involve Dr Mitchell and Dr Jessen at all,” said James Connell, lawyer for one of the defendants, Ammar al-Baluchi, who will lead the questioning of Mitchell this week. “There are many other people who are involved.”

Worth a full read, there are far more details than can be fairly excerpted:

Berlin conference prepares military occupation of Libya

The Libya conference, which took place this past Sunday in Berlin, was not about “peace” in the war-torn country, but about the distribution of the loot. It is reminiscent of the conferences at which the colonial powers of the 19th century divided up entire regions and continents among themselves. The composition of the conference alone shows this. At the table sat the heads of state and government of the most powerful great and regional powers, but no representative of the country whose fate was being decided. The two main adversaries in the Libyan civil war, Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj and General Chalifa Haftar, had indeed been summoned to Berlin, but they had to wait in the anteroom until they were told what the conference had decided. Moreover, neither of them represents the Libyan people, serving rather as puppets of the various powers fighting for control of the oil-rich country. ...

The goals pursued by the various powers are contradictory. Geopolitical and regional political goals are mixed up with economic interests. For example, the conflict between Italy and France is primarily about control over Libyan oil and gas. With 48 billion barrels, the country has the ninth largest oil reserves in the world. The former colonial power, Italy, controls almost half of the market with the oil company Eni, the largest oil and gas producer in Libya. Its biggest competitor is the French Total group. France is also dependent on Haftar’s support for its colonial war in the Sahel. The civil war in Libya would probably have dragged on in this form for years if Russia and Turkey had not intervened. Russian mercenaries of the Kremlin-affiliated Wagner group have recently made a major contribution to Haftar’s military successes. Turkey, in turn, has sent its own soldiers as well as mercenaries of the Free Syrian Army to Libya to support al-Sarraj. In return, al-Sarraj signed an agreement on the “delimitation of spheres of influence at sea,” which divides the eastern Mediterranean between the two countries. Based on this agreement, Turkey claims large gas reserves, which Greece and Cyprus also claim.

The fear that Russia and Turkey would gain influence in Libya brought the European powers closer together. Germany saw its chance here. It had not taken part in the Libyan war in 2011 because it had good economic relations with the Gaddafi regime, and it has had little influence in the North African country since then. Now, Chancellor Merkel slips on the mask of Otto von Bismarck, who at the end of the 19th century had cleverly exploited the conflicts between other great powers, and in the guise of an “honest broker” asserts Germany’s great-power interests. The Berlin Libya Conference and the agreements reached there help Germany establish itself in the country and strengthen its political and economic influence in Africa. To this end, Merkel called together all adversaries, a total of 16 states and organizations, in Berlin. ...

The conference agreed on a 50-point declaration. According to it, the ceasefire, which had already been established earlier through the mediation of Russia and Turkey, is to be extended permanently. The militias are to be demobilized and disarmed, and the existing arms embargo, which has already been violated by everyone, is to be respected and monitored. There is little doubt, however, that this is only the preliminary stage to a military occupation of the country. EU Foreign Affairs Commissioner Josep Borrel had already told Der Spiegel prior to the conference, “If there is a ceasefire in Libya, the EU must be prepared to help implement and monitor this ceasefire—possibly also with soldiers, for example as part of an EU mission.” Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio also told the German news magazine, “We need a European peace mission.” He said that European blue helmets were needed, with a mission on water, land and air to monitor compliance with the agreement. ...

There is no doubt, however, that the cease-fire in Libya, if it is concluded at all, is only a breathing space before the war, which has already devastated the country, intensifies further. None of the conflicts that are driving the imperialist powers into ever more brutal wars has been resolved. Experts believe that the civil war in Libya will flare up again in a short time. “For both sides, the current situation is militarily and economically unacceptable in the long term,” writes Die Zeit. “Therefore, a renewed outbreak of major fighting in the coming weeks is not unlikely.”

Three rockets fall near US embassy in Iraq

Three rockets have fallen inside Baghdad’s Green Zone on Tuesday morning, close to the US embassy. ...

Iraqi police told Reuters that three Katyusha rockets fell inside the Green Zone, which houses government buildings and foreign missions. The rockets were launched from the Zafaraniyah district outside Baghdad, the sources said, adding that two rockets landed near the US embassy.

Sh*tstorm on the horizon. Withdrawl from NPT will likely be used by the U.S. and Israel as a justification for war with Iran.

If nuclear issue is referred to U.N., Iran will pull out of the NPT: Iran foreign minister

“If the Europeans continue their improper behavior or send Iran’s [nuclear] file to the Security Council, we will withdraw from the NPT [Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty],” IRNA quoted [Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad ] Zarif as saying.

US case against Huawei's Meng Wanzhou is 'fiction', say lawyers

The accusations of sanctions busting against Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou have been dismissed by her lawyers as “fiction” at the start of a legal hearing in Canada in which she is fighting extradition to the United States. Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of the technology conglomerate, and eldest daughter of its founder Ren Zhengfei, is wanted by US authorities for alleged fraud in trying to circumvent Washington’s sanctions against Iran. ...

Inside, she sat following the proceedings with the help of an interpreter as her attorneys used their opening remarks to reject the fraud charges against her on the basis that her alleged conduct was not illegal at the time in Canada. Her defense lawyer, Richard Peck, told the court that the central issue was “double criminality”, the legal concept that Meng’s extradition to the US requires that her alleged actions also be considered a crime in Canada.

“Would we be here in the absence of U.S. sanctions law, and ... our response is no,” Peck said. “In a typical case, double criminality is not contentious. This case, however, is founded on an allegation of breach of US sanctions, sanctions which Canada has expressly repudiated,” he added. ...

The US alleges Meng lied to HSBC bank about Huawei’s relationship with its Iran-based affiliate Skycom, putting the bank at risk of violating US sanctions against Tehran. Meng has denied the allegations in a case that has severely strained China-Canada relations. ...

Lawyers for Canada’s attorney general, on behalf of the US justice department, will justify extradition by arguing that the US accusations against Meng would be considered a crime in Canada if they had occurred in the country.

Greek Neo-Nazis Swarmed and Beat Journalist for 4 Straight Minutes. Cops Did Nothing.

A German journalist was beaten by supporters of the Greek neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn while covering one of their rallies in Athens Sunday — just a year after he was assaulted in an almost identical attack. Thomas Jacobi, who works for French newspaper La Croix and Germany’s Deutsche Welle, was pictured bleeding from his face after the assault by right-wing extremists, who beat him for more than four minutes while he was covering a rally against immigration in the Greek capital.

“They were hitting me for four and a half minutes until some policemen appeared. None stepped in. That's the most shocking thing,” Jacobi told the Greek news site Proto Thema. ...

The attack came almost a year to the day after Jacobi and several other journalists were assaulted by Golden Dawn supporters while covering a far-right rally in the city. Jacobi said that on both occasions he believed his attackers recognized him as having co-produced a 2016 documentary critical of Golden Dawn.

The latest assault has drawn widespread condemnation, and calls for answers as to how a journalist could be subjected to a sustained assault at a heavily-policed rally. Greece’s government condemned the “fascist attack” in “the strongest possible terms,” and vowed to bring the assailants to justice, said government spokesman Stelios Petsas.

[Hey, how about doing something about the cops that failed to respond? - js]

A Show Trial? As Trump Impeachment Trial Begins, Mitch McConnell Accused of Staging a Cover-Up

Mitch McConnell outlines proposals for speedy impeachment process

The US Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, has unveiled proposals aimed at rushing through Donald Trump’s impeachment trial as quickly as possible, with no guarantee that witnesses or new evidence will be allowed. As Washington prepared for the impeachment proceedings to start, McConnell released his four-page resolution late on Monday outlining a condensed, two-day timetable for the each side to give opening statements. The rules will be debated and voted on when senators convene for the trial on Tuesday.

Under McConnell’s plan, the opening arguments from the House prosecutors would be limited to 24 hours over two days, meaning that senators could face two 12-hour days to start the trial proceedings. Trump’s legal team was given the same time to present its case. Senators would then be allowed up to 16 hours for questions to the prosecution and defence, followed by four hours of debate. Only then will there be votes on calling other witnesses.

The rules also allow for a Senate vote on bypassing hearing the House case altogether, although many believe such a vote is unlikely. ...

With Republicans holding the Senate majority, McConnell’s proposal is likely to be approved by senators in the president’s party.

The Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, called the GOP leader’s proposals a national disgrace.

Shahid Buttar & Jimmy Dore Debate Impeachment

Oxfam report highlights wealth inequality ahead of World Economic Forum in Davos

Blaming 'Flawed and Sexist' Capitalist System, Oxfam Report Finds 2,153 Billionaires Wealthier Than 4.6 Billion of World's Poorest

"Economic inequality is out of control." That's the opening line of Time to Care: Unpaid and Underpaid Care Work and the Global Inequality Crisis (pdf), a report that Oxfam International published Monday, ahead of the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) summit in Davos, Switzerland.

"In 2019, the world's billionaires, only 2,153 people, had more wealth than 4.6 billion people," the report says. "This great divide is based on a flawed and sexist economic system."

The report details how the world's existing economic system serves the richest among us while undervaluing work such as caregiving—which is disproportionately performed by females—and emphasizes the need for global governments to pursue bold actions to address inequality.

"The gap between rich and poor can't be resolved without deliberate inequality-busting policies, and too few governments are committed to these," Oxfam India CEO Amitabh Behar, who is in Davos this week, said in a statement.

"Our broken economies are lining the pockets of billionaires and big business at the expense of ordinary men and women," Behar added. "No wonder people are starting to question whether billionaires should even exist."

'Global Precedent' Set as UN Rules Climate Refugees Cannot Be Sent Back to Life-Threatening Conditions

Human rights advocates on Monday applauded a "ground-breaking" ruling by a United Nations panel which stated that climate refugees seeking asylum cannot legally be sent back to their home countries if they face life-threatening conditions due to the climate crisis.

"Without robust national and international efforts, the effects of climate change in receiving states may expose individuals to a violation of their rights," ruled the U.N. Human Rights Committee, "thereby triggering the non-refoulement obligations of sending states."

Amnesty International praised the decision as "good news" and said in a statement that it could help prompt the international community to take concrete action to sharply reduce fossil fuel emissions as quickly as possible in hopes of limiting global warming to 1.5º Celsius.

The committee handed down its ruling earlier this month in a case brought by Ioane Teitiota, a man who applied for asylum in New Zealand in 2013 after sea level rise and other conditions in his home country of Kiribati forced him and his family to leave.

Kiribati is expected to be uninhabitable in the coming decades—as soon as 10 to 15 years from now, according to Teitiota's case—as rising sea levels leads to overcrowding on the Pacific nation's islands. Teitiota took his case to the committee in 2016 after being deported back to Kiribati by New Zealand's government the previous year.

He argued that the lack of fresh water and difficulty growing crops in Kiribati has caused health problems for him and his family, as well as land disputes.

The committee ultimately rejected Teitiota's case this month, saying in its ruling that since he argued that Kiribati is expected to be uninhabitable in 10 to 15 years, the country and the international community have time to move the population to safety or to make the islands safe.

But, Amnesty International said, the ruling held promise for the 143 million people who are expected to become climate refugees by 2050—many of whom reside in Pacific Island nations.

"The decision sets a global precedent," said Kate Schuetze, Pacific researcher at Amnesty International, in a statement. "It says a state will be in breach of its human rights obligations if it returns someone to a country where—due to the climate crisis—their life is at risk, or in danger of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment."




the horse race



Hillary Clinton, Who Lost to Trump in 2016, Won't Commit to Helping Bernie Sanders Win in 2020

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter released Tuesday that she would not commit to endorse or support Sen. Bernie Sanders should he win the Democratic nomination later this year and stood by comments in a forthcoming Hulu documentary that "nobody likes" the Vermont senator.

Progressives were unimpressed with the remarks by Clinton, whose general election loss in 2016 delivered the White House to President Donald Trump.

"Hillary Clinton didn't run for the presidency to benefit anyone but herself," tweeted writer Natalie Shure, "so it makes sense she'd prioritize personal score-settling over siding with Bernie against Trump."

The former secretary of state's comments in the documentary reportedly target Sanders for harsh personal criticism.

"Nobody likes him, nobody wants to work with him, he got nothing done," Clinton claims. "He was a career politician."

"It's all just baloney and I feel so bad that people got sucked into it," she adds, apparently referring to the Sanders movement.

Sanders is the most popular senator in the country among his constituents and has an average national favorability rating seven points higher than Clinton, whose popularity continues to decline. ...

CNN political analyst Chris Cillizza argued Clinton's attack was actually "great news for" Sanders:

Sanders is running this 2020 presidential campaign (as he did the 2016 campaign) on a simple premise: the powerful have been sitting comfortably for way too long and it's time to shake things up. Sanders was vilifying the elites and the political establishment (of both parties) long before Donald Trump even started considering running for president.

This is who Sanders is; it's who he has always been. It's at the core of why people support him and why he has been able to build a movement around his back-to-back presidential candidacies.

Guess who, for lots and lots of Sanders supporters (and even other Democrats who don't support him) epitomizes that elite establishment? The Clintons!

While the Sanders campaign had yet to respond to Clinton's comments, Cillizza recommended Sanders should send her "a thank you note for the well-timed attack."

Jewish Currents news editor David Klion tweeted that the interview was another indication of the lasting legacy of Clinton and her husband, Bill Clinton, the 43rd president.

"Start to finish, one of the most selfish, petty, nihilistic, counterproductive careers in American political history," said Klion. "Every time they open their mouths it makes things worse. History will not remember the Clintons fondly."

Zephyr Teachout lays out Biden without a lily. Worth a full read.

‘Middle Class’ Joe Biden has a corruption problem – it makes him a weak candidate

Democrats are trying to choose a candidate to beat Donald Trump, the most corrupt president in history. Some think nominating Joe Biden, a moderate white man who calls himself “Middle Class” Joe, makes sense. But Biden has a big corruption problem and it makes him a weak candidate. I know it seems crazy, but a lot of the voters we need – independents and people who might stay home – will look at Biden and Trump and say: “They’re all dirty.”

It looks like “Middle Class” Joe has perfected the art of taking big contributions, then representing his corporate donors at the cost of middle- and working-class Americans. Converting campaign contributions into legislative favors and policy positions isn’t being “moderate”. It is the kind of transactional politics Americans have come to loathe. There are three clear examples.

First, Biden’s support for finance over working-class Americans. His career was bankrolled by the credit card industry. He delivered for it by spearheading a bankruptcy bill that made it harder for Americans to reduce their debts and helped cause the financial crisis. He not only authored and voted for that bill, he split with Barack Obama and led the battle to vote down Democratic amendments. ...

Second, healthcare. On 25 April, the day he announced his campaign, Biden went straight to a fundraiser co-hosted by the chief executive of a major health insurance corporation. He refuses to sign a pledge to reject money from insurance and pharma execs and continues to raise money from healthcare industry donors. His campaign is being bankrolled by a super Pac run by healthcare lobbyists. What did all these donors get? A healthcare proposal that preserves the power of the insurance industry and leaves 10 million Americans uninsured. ...

Third, climate change. Biden signed a pledge not to take money from the fossil fuel industry, then broke his promise. Right after a CNN town hall on climate change, he held a fundraiser hosted by the founder of a fossil fuel conglomerate. He is pushing climate policy that has gotten dismal reviews from several leading environmental groups.

There are plenty of other examples that raise questions, like housing and social security. Big real estate moguls are playing a major role in Biden’s campaign. Unlike his rivals, he has no comprehensive housing plan. When he pushed for cuts to Social Security, was he serving donors or his constituents?


Krystal and Saagar call out Bernie's weak Biden apology

Biden must have had a campaign-related epiphany - a true Damascene conversion to an abrupt volte-face in his 40 year crusade to "save the economy" by diminishing Social Security and Medicare benefits.

Biden: Bernie Is Lying About My Position on Social Security

Former Vice President Joe Biden has taken flack in recent weeks for saying when he was a senator that he’d negotiate with Republicans on entitlements in order to balance the budget.

On Monday, Biden tried to make clear that would never happen if he becomes president.

“There will be no compromise on cutting Medicare & Social Security, period. That’s a promise,” Biden said at the 2020 Iowa Brown & Black Presidential Forum, the nation’s oldest minority-focused presidential forum, this year presented by VICE News.

Biden took issue with the idea he’d be willing to cut Social Security, saying that the campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders is lying about his position.

Krystal Ball dismantles NBC News, HRC Bernie Bro lies

Think Bernie Is ‘Radical’? He Disagrees.

VICE News wanted to know why voters should back Bernie Sanders given the “gamble” his ”radical” agenda might be in the general election. He wasn’t having it — so he put it to the audience at 2020 Iowa Brown & Black Presidential Forum.

“Guaranteeing healthcare to all people through a Medicare for All program, is that radical?” Sanders asked the crowd. “Raising the minimum wage to 15 bucks an hour, is that radical? Making all public colleges and universities tuition-free, canceling all student debt through a tax on Wall Street speculation: radical? Dealing with climate change: radical? Immigration reform: radical? Criminal justice reform — radical? Protecting a woman's right to control her body, — radical? Sane gun policy — radical?” Sanders said. “I beg your pardon.”

With each question, the diverse audience responded with a louder “no,” before giving him a round of applause. ...


Sanders’ immigration reform proposal is one of the most expansive and progressive of the entire Democratic field, including a moratorium on deporting undocumented immigrants. (He clarified Monday that it’d be applicable to “99% of deportations” — not including of people with violent criminal records.) And he was the first 2020 candidate to back the Green New Deal, a plan that includes extensive support for historically marginalized communities. He said Monday the would “take on the greed and corruption of the fossil fuel industry” and help poorer and less white communities.

Saagar Enjeti: NYT Editorial board endorsement is devastating for Warren

Warren Says Troops Are Coming Home and Black Colleges Are Getting Funded

Sen. Elizabeth Warren confirmed she would pull combat troops out of the Middle East in her first term and would not commit to military campaigns without Congressional approval. The answers came during an interview at the 2020 Iowa Brown & Black Presidential Forum.

Warren was pressed extensively on foreign policy, an issue she has not discussed as thoroughly as her signature domestic policies. She said that she would pull troops out of places like Iraq and Afghanistan, even if the Trump Administration cuts a deal not to do so until after her first presidential term. Warren also put blame on Congress, where she serves, for shirking its responsibility to check the president on war powers. ...

Warren also reconfirmed that her catchall plan for public education would never leave historically black college and university funding on the cutting room floor despite tradeoffs and negotiations. She has pledged $50 million for HBCUs.



the evening greens


Big oil is the new big tobacco. Congress must use its power to investigate

Greta Thunberg summed up 2019 in five words: “Our house is on fire.” In Australia, this is now literally the case. Wildfires there have been raging for more than a month and now span an area larger than Switzerland. The situation bears all the hallmarks of a hot new world: lives lost, livelihoods ruined and species pushed towards extinction, accompanied by government inaction, industry PR spin, abetting rightwing echo chambers, and taxpayers footing the multibillion-dollar bill.

Insanely, the Australian government remains in denial – ignoring the science, downplaying the seriousness and subservient to coal. The fossil fuel industry, meanwhile, is busy greenwashing and gaslighting: Chevron is boasting about its $1m donation – 0.00667% of its annual earnings – to the Australian Red Cross, and Exxon Australia just wants everyone to “Stay safe and have fun”. All this is set to a backdrop of mutually reinforcing rightwing new outlets, online bots and trolls, which are distracting and misinforming the public about the science and politics of climate-catalyzed fires.

The charity of everyday people (and some celebrities) rising to meet the disaster has been inspiring and essential. Yet, tragically, it also unintentionally serves to reinforce the false narrative, perpetuated by fossil fuel propagandists, that we are all equally to blame. In reality, today’s climate chaos is big oil’s legacy, not ours. Unlike the rest of us, the fossil fuel industry saw this climate chaos coming, then literally and figuratively added fuel to the fire, doubling down on a business model incompatible with the science of stopping global warming; buying political inaction; and building a global climate denial and delay machine that has confused the public and fomented distrust of science, media and government. ...

Our message to Congress after its first foray into investigating fossil fuels is this: keep going. Because big oil is the new big tobacco. Investigative journalism and peer-reviewed research, including our own, clearly demonstrate that the fossil fuel regime has deliberately denied Americans and Congress their right to be accurately informed about the climate crisis, just as tobacco companies misled Americans about the harms of smoking. From strategy to networks to personnel to rhetoric, the fossil fuel regime’s efforts to deny and delay come straight out of big tobacco’s playbook. ...

For all the skeletons we have already found in big oil’s closet, however, we are still only looking through the keyhole. ... This is where congressional authority to request documents and, if necessary, issue subpoenas, comes in. Key breakthroughs in tobacco control came as congressional investigations – as well as legal discovery and industry whistleblowers – exposed thousands, and ultimately millions, of damning documents. The tobacco industry was found guilty of racketeering in part because of the ways that individual companies had coordinated with each other and with third-party allies to present false information to consumers. That history is a precedent for Congress to investigate an industry network that has misled the public and policymakers in an effort to deny the dangers of its products and derail regulation.

Greta Thunberg Addresses Global Elite at Davos: Our House Is Still on Fire

Greenpeace hits out at Davos banks for $1.4tn climate hypocrisy

A report by Greenpeace, the environmental group, highlights that 24 banks which regularly attend the World Economic Forum in Davos have provided $1.4tn (£1.1tn) of financial support for the hydrocarbon sector since the Paris agreement set new emissions reduction goals in 2015. The financial cooperation with fossil fuel firms includes loans, debt underwriting, equity issuances and direct investment. The report, called It’s the Finance Sector, Stupid, also shows how some major insurers and pension funds that flock to Davos each year are key supporters of polluting industries such as coal.

The data was compiled from BankTrack, an organisation that monitors the financial sector. It shows that JP Morgan, the Wall Street investment bank, has provided $195bn of financial support to fossil fuel companies since 2015. JP Morgan declined to comment on the report.

Jennifer Morgan, Greenpeace International’s executive director, said the WEF’s mission statement is to “improve the state of the world” but the banks cited in the campaign group’s report are falling short of this goal.

“The banks, insurers and pension funds here at Davos are culpable for the climate emergency. Despite environmental and economic warnings, they’re fuelling another global financial crisis by propping up the fossil fuel industry,” said Morgan. “These money men at Davos are nothing short of hypocrites as they say they want to save the planet but are actually killing it for short-term profit.”

Ten top banks provided around $1tn of the financial aid for fossil fuel firms, the report said. They are JP Morgan Chase, Citi, Bank of America, RBC Royal Bank, Barclays, MUFG, TD Bank, Scotiabank, Mizuho and Morgan Stanley.

Pentagon causing toxic pollution by burning PFAS foam, campaigners say

The Department of Defense is polluting the environment with toxic chemicals by continuing to incinerate a vast stockpile of firefighting foam in a move environmentalists say is in breach of new regulations. In a letter sent last week to the secretary of defense, Mark Esper, several environmental organizations argue the defense department is already out of compliance with new provisions regulating the disposal of the material and insist that it “immediately cease” incineration of the foam – called AFFF – which puts communities at risk.

AFFF is laced with toxic chemicals called PFOS and PFOA, two compounds belonging to a larger family of potentially toxic chemicals called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

These chemicals have been linked to serious health problems such as cancer, kidney and thyroid disease, and pregnancy complications. The defense department used AFFF for decades, leading to widespread contamination of ground and drinking water at military bases nationwide. ...

Sonya Lunder, the Sierra Club’s senior toxics adviser for its gender, equity and environment program, warned that incineration is unlikely to fully break down toxic chemicals in AFFF, leading to PFAS compounds, including possible greenhouse gases, being emitted into the environment. ...

Experts also voice concern over the poor compliance histories at certain hazardous waste incinerators and the proximity to these plants of low-income, vulnerable communities.


Also of Interest

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

Guantánamo's Indelible Legacy

The Latest & Most Reckless US Imperial Act

Democrats Invoke Cold War Narrative To Push Impeachment

New, Persuasive Evidence Obama Administration Spied on Investigative Journalist Sharyl Attkisson

In the Face of Rising White Supremacist Violence, Police Continue to Investigate Victims and Activists

Here’s Why the New York Fed Doesn’t Want You to See a Photo of Its Wall Street-Esque Trading Floor

Disease of Contempt: When Will the PBS Public Editor Pick Up the Phone?

Global Poll Finds Majority Believe Capitalism More Harmful Than Good

Amy Klobuchar Was Asked If She Was the Kind of ‘White Moderate’ MLK Called a ‘Stumbling Block’ to Freedom.

Andrew Yang Says Joking About Asians Being Good at Math Is Not a ‘Bad Thing’

Pete Buttigieg Admits His City Struggled to Retain Black Police Officers On His Watch

'Love Letter to Capitalism and War': Progressive Scorn Follows New York Times Endorsement of Warren and Klobuchar

Democracy Now: National Archives Doctored Photo of 2017 Women’s March to Blur Messages Critical of Trump

Keiser Report: Reflexivity & Passive Investing

Jimmy Dore: LA Times Lies: Bernie “ Wagged His Finger” At Warren, WTF?

Rising: Biden uses Russiagate tactics to smear Bernie

Aaron Maté: How Dems screwed themselves on impeachment

Rising: Bernie consolidates college vote as Warren falls off

Hill Reporter: Which candidate has the health insurance industry's backing?


A Little Night Music

Smokey Hogg - You Won't Stay Home

Andrew "Smokey" Hogg - Good Morning Little School Girl

Andrew "Smokey" Hogg - Long Tall Mama

Smokey Hogg - When I've Been Drinkin'

Andrew "Smokey" Hogg - Family Trouble Blues

Smokey Hogg - Dark Clouds

Smokey Hogg - Crawdad

Smokey Hogg - Let's Go Back To The Country

Smokey Hogg - When You Get Old

Smokey Hogg - Good Mornin' Baby


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brazil charges him

Federal prosecutors in Brazil on Tuesday charged the American journalist Glenn Greenwald with cybercrimes for his role in bringing to light cellphone messages that have embarrassed prosecutors and tarnished the image of an anti-corruption task force.

In a criminal complaint made public on Tuesday, prosecutors in the capital, Brasília, accused Mr. Greenwald of being part of a “criminal organization” that hacked into the cellphones of several prosecutors and other public officials last year.
...
The news organization Mr. Greenwald co-founded, The Intercept Brasil, published articles last year based on the leaked cellphone messages that raised questions about the integrity and the motives of key members of Brazil’s justice system.

The articles cast doubt on the impartiality of a former judge, Sérgio Moro, and of some of the prosecutors who worked on a corruption investigation that landed several powerful political and business figures in prison. Among them was a former president, a popular leftist whose conviction paved the way for the election of Mr. Bolsonaro. Mr. Moro was the judge who handled that case. He is now Mr. Bolsonaro’s minister of justice.

In a statement Mr. Greenwald called the charges “an obvious attempt to attack a free press in retaliation for the revelations we reported about Minister Moro and the Bolsonaro government.”

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joe shikspack's picture

@gjohnsit

it looks like we are going to see how far into the stone age bolsonaro and his fascists have managed to drag the brazilian judiciary.

i've got my fingers crossed for glenn. it's dangerous to get in the face of fascists repeatedly.

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13 users have voted.
Raggedy Ann's picture

@joe shikspack
Max Blumenthal could get arrested again, I worry about Ben Norton, Aaron Mate, Chris Hedges, Anya Primpal, Abby Martin, oh, so many are courageous out there. I'm grateful for them, yet know they could be "disappeared." These are dangerous times.

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11 users have voted.

"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

mimi's picture

so that folks don't get confused. I got the advice from the higher up not to do it and I have no problem to oblige.

I hope that hasn't confused the hell out of you. I actually think the higher up saved me from myself.

So, bye, bye, for my empty open thread. What's an empty thing worth anyway?

Drinks
Bye

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7 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@mimi

glad to hear that things got sorted out in a happy way.

have a great evening!

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4 users have voted.

That bitch! Bernie went and actually campaigned with her, damaging his credibility in doing it. And now she says he's hard to work with and she doesn't know if she would endorse him? Ok, Your Heinous. If you steal the nomination again, I will not vote Green this time. I'll vote for Trump or Pence or any damned (R) just to stop you. YOU are the greatest threat to the Republic you stuck up narcissistic bitch!

EDIT: Corrected ypo in the radio station call sign.

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17 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

@The Voice In the Wilderness
keep it up!

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13 users have voted.

@QMS
I had two female dogs. They were beautiful cheerful loyal loving companions and defenders of the house. Much superior beings to HRC. I apologize for comparing them to a loathsome slug like HRC. I meant the term in the vernacular sense.
I also apologize to any woman who thought I meant it in a generic sense. I hardly consider that loathsome creature a human being.
EDIT: Correction, I had three. I forgot the abandoned puppy that I had for only about a month. Newborn, eyes closed. We fed her a formula the vet gave us with a baby bottle. A mixture of Junior beef, plain yogurt, skim milk and water. It looked and smelled like vomit. The puppy loved it! Before she left I started to wean her with bits of bacon and fried chicken (meat pulled from the bone). She sucked it in readily, her little tail ablur.

A year later I saw her again. She jumped up, knocked me down and sat on my lap. By now she was 160 pounds, about 20 more than I. Tail beating away. Apparently she remembered sitting on my lap and being petted.

Dogs are better than most people. Was it Mark Twain who said, "If you feed a hungry dog he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man." ?

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16 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

@The Voice In the Wilderness
there are no descriptive terms yet invented
to convey the evil evidenced by the shrunken minds
spouting this type of abuse on our society.
The fact that the 'mighty wurlitzer' gives credence
to this hypocrisy is a sign of their negligence.
'nuff said

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10 users have voted.
Pricknick's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness
Last time I was accused.
This time I will.

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10 users have voted.

Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

joe shikspack's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

i think clinton just did bernie a favor. sure there might be a small cadre of democrat voters who fawn over clinton and hang on her every self-serving fulmination, and there are a bunch of clinton dead enders in the party bureaucracy. but among the general public, clinton is pretty much reviled. her opposition to him should help him, especially with independents and swing voters.

i despise her, too, though i generally eschew the terminology that you used. i generally call clinton a termagant fishwife or whatever else surfaces in my memory from the times i had to read shakespeare for a lit class back in the dark ages.

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11 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack

Her Eep was interpreted as wtf Hillary did you just do?!

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6 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@joe shikspack
And you are correct. But believe me, what the guys in the mechanic's shop back in my old Postal processing plant would say is totally unprintable.
But I will watch the B word in the future. But it's vernacular meaning, a cruel heartless treacherous woman, fits her so well.

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8 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Raggedy Ann's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness
It just falls out of my mouth, or from my fingers to the screen, uncontrollably! Sigh. Still, I AM trying to live with no regrets.....

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8 users have voted.

"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Raggedy Ann's picture

I guess HRC doesn't realize no one wants to work with HER! What a stoopid fkn bitch she continues to be. I'm happy she continues to show her true colors. Now if only someone would confront her, however, I'm sure she is bereft of apologizing to anyone let alone Bernie. What an absolute dog she is. Oh, sorry dog lovers - what an absolute komodo dragon she is!

Raining all day here. Should bring awful weather to the midwest - sorry folks! Happy to get the moisture. Better leave soon or my mountain pass will freeze over!

Have a beautiful Tuesday evening, folks! Pleasantry

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14 users have voted.

"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

joe shikspack's picture

@Raggedy Ann

it's good of clinton to pop up regularly to remind voters of why they should vote for the one candidate that might actually destroy the bureaucratic apparatus that the clintons and their corporate camp followers have built up.

glad that you're getting (and hopefully storing) good moisture. safe travels!

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9 users have voted.

After first becoming aware of Joe Biden many a year ago on his work on the Bush bankruptcy bill, I thought he was one thee worst slim f**** piece of s*** ass sucking war mongering b******* out there. Bernie set me straight by golly. Biden has not been corrupted by corporate money, gifts, nepotism, and ego. Apparently only he and Hillary have the moral fortitude to resist the corruption of money. This evening I will look to East to see there is a bright start and camel's in the area.

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13 users have voted.

@MrWebster Oh my gawd, the first sign of Biden's holiness has appeared. A CAMEL IN SIBERIA (but where is the guy with the myrrah?

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12 users have voted.
TheOtherMaven's picture

@MrWebster

They have two humps and are found all across central Asia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bactrian_camel

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12 users have voted.

There is no justice. There can be no peace.

@TheOtherMaven But amazing how wide ranging camels are. And how they live in various climates.

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4 users have voted.
TheOtherMaven's picture

@MrWebster

so not Siberia after all, and well within the Bactrian camel range.

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2 users have voted.

There is no justice. There can be no peace.

joe shikspack's picture

@MrWebster

i dunno what to make of bernie's apparent walk-back just yet. he refused to walk back the (totally accurate) social security video that biden was bleating about, which was good.

if bernie just moves on, zephyr teachout remains a surrogate and the exposures of biden's record keep coming, i guess i'll take it as politics as usual, where a candidate relies on his surrogates to sling the mud and points out that there is no mud on his hands.

i hope that explains it. i guess we'll see.

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10 users have voted.
mimi's picture

Bernie Sanders is too radical. He is not radical enough and that may be his downfall.
I really hope not.
What? From Vice News

Sanders’ handling of some tough questions shows Sanders’ growth as a candidate since his first run for president — though he still has a long way to go with black and brown voters if he hopes to be the Democratic presidential nominee.

Sanders struggled with minority voters in his 2016 presidential run, as Hillary Clinton’s strength with Hispanic and African American voters helped power her to the Democratic nomination. He was dogged in that campaign for his earlier opposition to some immigration reform bills and was criticized for largely focusing on economic solutions to societal problems rather than identifying how systemic racism has played a role in holding back brown and black communities.

Vice News bathing in ID politics? If Bernie is too 'comforting' it's the beginning of the end, imo.

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10 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@mimi

looks like vice has mastered the time-machine concern troll.

sanders is leading the pack with the hispanic community and doing quite well with the african american community. his support tends to skew towards younger voters and that is reflected in minority communities, too.

if sanders does well in the first few states and kills it in california, in large part due to minority support as seems to be expected by pundits and pollsters, it seems quite likely that he will make very large gains among older voters in all categories.

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6 users have voted.
Wally's picture

#ILikeBernie trending on top

And lookie . . . another article in The Guardian that's surely gonna make Hillary really lose her shit (it almost seems like Sirota has some connections over there). And the Teachout article is still there, too. Go figure. Kabuki Theater. It's not just for the bad guys.

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15 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@Wally

heh, i still find it funny to see a reformed peter daou.

i would guess that the clintonistas have only begun to unload. if my guess is correct, make some popcorn 'cause there's gonna be a big food fight.

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12 users have voted.
Anja Geitz's picture

@joe shikspack

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8 users have voted.

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

snoopydawg's picture

Sweet.

I'm betting that this burns Hillary more than any other response because Tulsi stepped down after she saw Hillary cheating Bernie and because she called her the Queen of Warmongers! lol..you go gurl.

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21 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

it's nice to see that hillary's venomous emanations have produced an anti-toxic reaction of a digital tidal wave of goodwill.

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10 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

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16 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

The witnesses said that they were able to prove that the US was accessing the information. A study of the emails sent by Morales to several of his workers shows that the former marine traveled to Alexandria, a US city in Virginia with around 145,000 residents, on March 1 and 2, 2017. The IP addresses of these messages, to which this newspaper has had access, show that they were from the place that was processing the extradition order against Assange.

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10 users have voted.

@joe shikspack
Alexandria is a suburb of Washington DC. I shopped at the mall there many times while living in Sterling Park, just outside Dulles.

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2 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

snoopydawg's picture

Abby loved to talk to the people I met on our walk. We'd start talking and Abby joined in with us.

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18 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@snoopydawg NT.

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10 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@humphrey

Food? Food!

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11 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Anja Geitz's picture

@snoopydawg

"Tasha, Tasha, where are you!"

Hahahahaha!

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9 users have voted.

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

snoopydawg's picture

@Anja Geitz

The dawg helping the little dawg to raid the fridge cracked me up.

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9 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Raggedy Ann's picture

@snoopydawg
My husband and I ROFL!!!!

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7 users have voted.

"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

snoopydawg's picture

@Raggedy Ann

If he has a bull dawg they are very strong and it might have pulled him over. Either way he fell face first into the mud...lol

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8 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

A few blockquotes fail to do justice to the complete article. I suggest clicking on the link to understand the full article.

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/environment/2020/01/20/seabirds-d...

Scientists were stumped when seabirds started dying; now they know why.

In the fall of 2015, two years into a heatwave in the Pacific Ocean colloquially known as “the Blob,” an unusually large influx of common murres, a small northern seabird, began to wash ashore.

They overwhelmed rehabilitation centers.

They stopped laying as many eggs.

Their starved carcasses littered the coasts from California to the Gulf of Alaska.

Scientists believe they now know what went wrong. The answer involves the Blob and how it rippled across multiple levels of the marine food web, and it comes amid more reports of rapidly warming oceans.

In the winter of 2013, a mysterious blanket of abnormally warm water appeared in the Gulf of Alaska and wreaked havoc on marine ecosystems from the Bering Strait to Mexico for three long years. Species lower in the food web that prefer colder waters, which tend to be fattier, more nutritious phytoplankton and zooplankton that feed the forage fish eaten by sea lions and sea birds – were replaced by warmer water species of lower nutritional value.

Fish populations shifted to colder or deeper waters, making it harder for top predators, including two types of auklets similar to murres, to find food.

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10 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@humphrey

sadly, i think that we are going to start seeing a lot more stories like this as the oceans are absorbing a great deal of heat. i think that the timeline of ocean life and the animals (including humans) that depend on it may be far shorter than we've been led to believe so far.

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10 users have voted.
dystopian's picture

Great guitar player, nice tunes! Very cool stuff man. Thanks!

The Brokaw/Biden clip was great, proving at one time there were actual journalists exposing truths (instead of shoveling shat) on the MSM at one time. I remember it well. So long ago.

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8 users have voted.

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

joe shikspack's picture

@dystopian

yep, it's old-style texas blues. not flashy or sophisticated, but visceral.

heh, yeah, i too am old enough to remember when it was considered the sign of a great newsman that he would interrogate a public official with hard questions. it's sad that access journalism has ended that.

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7 users have voted.
Anja Geitz's picture

Krystal Ball's stunning take down of the "Bernie Bro" smear was so apt, it should be required viewing for anyone wanting to understand how political mudslinging works. Moreover, I don't believe these naked attempts to smear Bernie vis a vis his supporters by falsely comparing them to Trump supporters is going make one difference for potential working class voters who want to know how the hell they are going to pay their medical bills and send their kids to college.

The political elite really do think we all have hay for brains.

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15 users have voted.

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

joe shikspack's picture

@Anja Geitz

heh, i'd guess that the mudslinging has just begun and everybody who is anybody wants to get in on it.

there is, of course, a commonality between many trump and sanders supporters in that they think the system is broken and the ruling elites need to be run out of town on a rail. i'm not really sure if there is hay to be made over that, since in order to do so, you have to convince people that everything has been working just fine.

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7 users have voted.
Anja Geitz's picture

@joe shikspack

But where one side see immigrants as the problem, the other sees global capitalism as the problem. So in that way, they are coming from polar opposites.

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7 users have voted.

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

lotlizard's picture

@Anja Geitz  
Global capitalism backs the Saudis, destabilizes the Middle East, destroyed Libya, and has been doing its d—dest to destroy Syria …

Letting loose an ongoing flood of uncontrolled immigration to Europe …

Whose millions of migrants the politicians and media (owned by global capitalists) then tell the citizenry they must welcome in, and share an increasingly crapified labor market and increasingly meager social benefits with …

Those exact same jobs and social benefits which the global capitalists have been hacking away at and crapifying in the name of austerity, the banks and hedge funds, and the IMF …

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11 users have voted.
Anja Geitz's picture

@lotlizard

Combine that outcome with the phenomena of the climate crisis and swathes of uninhabitable land, and the refugee problems is just going to heighten the fight over the already strained resources. I shudder to think how that's going to play out. Fortunately for the 2000 or so billionaires who I understand own more wealth that 4 billion of the poorest people, that won't be a problem. They got theirs.

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6 users have voted.

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

TheOtherMaven's picture

@Anja Geitz

but when there's no animal or plant life left, they will find they cannot eat money. And that's if their own underlings don't turn on them first.

I hear tell the Maori are making plans to deal with any filthy rich who bug out to New Zealand. "Stewpot" probably figures into those plans....

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4 users have voted.

There is no justice. There can be no peace.

@Anja Geitz has become something...different.

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6 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Azazello's picture

I thought this was good, Yves at naked capitalism: The Lords and Ladies of Discipline: An Interview with Matt Stoller
From that piece at antiwar.com:

It’s a theme that Democrats have sounded repeatedly since the impeachment process began in September, and it’s one that Crow also stresses at nearly every opportunity. In late September, he and six other Democrats who are military or intelligence-agency veterans co-authored a Washington Post op-ed declaring that the hold on military aid amounted to nothing less than "a national security threat" – not against the Ukraine, but against the US. A week later, he told MSNBC that US-made weapons like the Javelin missile "are needed to prevent T-72, Russian T-72 tanks, from moving forward and invading Ukraine. We have tens of thousands of US troops in Europe that are in harm’s way if that would happen, so I take this very personally." A week after that, he told CNN’s Jake Tapper:
"Ukraine is in an act of war with one of our chief enemies Russia, and one of the reasons there aren’t Russian tanks going across the plains of Ukraine now is because of our assistance, our support, our provision of things like these Javelin missiles that came up in the complaint that are really critical not just for Ukraine’s security but the security of Europe and our soldiers and our sailors our airmen serving in Europe."

OK Boomer. Remember good ole' Cold War ? The threat then was T-54s flooding through the Fulda Gap, wherever that was. Boomer culture, that is to say, TV culture still holds sway, rancid though it is. The Russians are the enemy, they have always been the enemy.

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11 users have voted.

We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

@Azazello @Azazello And great soldiers. And so forth.
We have the best police. The best hacker/blah blah detectors. The best TSA security. The best FBI/CIA bodies like NOBODY ELSE has.
So, who are we afraid of and why?

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11 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Raggedy Ann's picture

@on the cusp
the American people trying to overthrow the oligarchy. Unknw

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11 users have voted.

"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

@Raggedy Ann I think it is all about, and always about Big Oil.
Oil forms the basis for the Oligarchy.
What are they without control of it?

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8 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

dystopian's picture

@on the cusp So then what you are saying it is an oiligarchy?

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7 users have voted.

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

Azazello's picture

@on the cusp
Here's James Clapper, on NBC:

"I have to say that, without specifically affirming or confirming these conversations — since, even though they’re in the public realm, they’re still classified — just from a theoretical standpoint, I will tell you that my dashboard warning light was clearly on and I think that was the case with all of us in the intelligence community, very concerned about the nature of these approaches to the Russians,” Clapper said during an exclusive interview on NBC’s "Meet The Press."
"If you put that in context with everything else we knew the Russians were doing to interfere with the election, and just the historical practices of the Russians, who typically, almost genetically driven to co-opt, penetrate, gain favor, whatever, which is a typical Russian technique. So we were concerned."

It's not that Russians are genetically evil, but that Boomers have been conditioned to think of them that way. Clapper knows this. It's the Picture-Box, the Mighty Wurlitzer.

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12 users have voted.

We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

snoopydawg's picture

@Azazello

predisposed to meddling or she close to it? Now imagine someone saying that about Israel.

The more people say that Russia interfered with the election the more incompetent Obama looks for not stopping them and rolling over for McConnell. And notice when people say that Russia is going to meddle again they don't say just how they are going to do it. Maybe more Facebook ads? Because other than that what did Russia actually do?

Oh yeah they hacked the DNC computers after Trump asked them to. "If you're listening..." this was not telling them to do it.

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8 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

snoopydawg's picture

@Azazello

is that they were never meant to go on the front lines and they still aren't being used. Obama made the decision not to send them at all, but for some reason he wasn't impeached for it.

I mean no one in the main stream media is telling people that. Gotta love the "we have to fight them over there so we don't have to fight them here." Piffle!

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10 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Azazello's picture

@snoopydawg
that the weapons involved, the vital aid to the Ukrainian people, are Javelin anti-tank missiles.
Again, it's the "threat" of Russian tanks breaking through NATO's defenses.
It's all bullshit, always was.

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11 users have voted.

We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

joe shikspack's picture

@Azazello

i liked that naked cap piece. then again, i always find stoller's work interesting.

thank goodness that putin managed to bring russia back from the near-death experience of the neoliberal capitalist assault enabled by u.s. flunky yeltsin.

we really needed a good enemy for a new century.

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8 users have voted.
Azazello's picture

@joe shikspack
Say what you want about Putin, he is a patriot.
Here's the tank that really scared the shit out of "the West" back in the day, the IS-3 heavy tank.
Shown in Berlin, September, 1945.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvbBremhuBI width:500 height:300]

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6 users have voted.

We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

Bob In Portland's picture

Closer than Brazil.

The spawn of an Nazi, Chrystia Freeland, is deputy Prime Minister of Canada. This should be the next scandal rocking the West.

We all should know about how the US gathered up Nazi rocket scientists after WWII. First it was the military and the OSS, who then expanded the search for Nazi chemists, the folks who developed all sorts of poisons and worked on biological weapons. Then there was Reinhard Gehlen's eastern front spy network, eastern meaning eastern Europe and mostly the Soviet Union. According to Carl Oglesby about 20% of the CIA at its creation were members of Gehlen's spy organization.

Ukraine plays a very special part in this. During the war the Ukrainian fascists ran Operation Nightingale, wherein Ukrainian fascists took over the mass murder business from the German soldiers who found the butchery of women and children to be demoralizing. Local fascists took up the work with glee, murdering Jews, Poles, gypsies and ethnic Russians.

But one man's murderous fascist is another man's revolutionary. The US used Ukrainian fascists to fight a guerrilla war against the Soviet Union which stretched into the the early fifties. Not only that, when Truman beat Dewey in the 1948 election Allen Dulles told friends that the Republicans had lost because of the "Jews". In order to move ethnic communities to the right, the CIA began bringing Nazis and fascists into the US under the banner of freedom fighters. One specific program, run with Radio Free Europe, was the Crusade For Freedom, whose spokesman was Ronald Reagan, fresh from ratting out pinkos during the red scare in Hollywood.

Right now there are children of Nazis and fascists in the US and Canada. And not surprisingly a lot of them seem to be appearing in positions of power in national security positions. Essentially, Allen Dulles sold out democracy.

In any case, Freeland, whose Ukrainian grandfather wrote for a Nazi newspaper in Poland during the war, is second in power in Canada. When it was reported by ConsortiumNews the Canadian intelligence and press identified CN as a Russian propaganda outlet. Now CN is suing.

So now you know why in the sixties, seventies and eighties there were so many Nazi prison guards discovered working on automobile assembly lines in Detroit. Organizations such as the Republican ethnic groups were a repository for many of these people, as well as a way for organizing them. The CIA and organizations like the NED reinserted people who could be used in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Republics. Something happened after 1992. The Clintons seemed to slide very easily into that role. The dismantling of Yugoslavia was a goal of Nazi Germany. Tudjman in Croatia and Izebegovic in Bosnia were both Nazi collaborators during WWII. That's the side the US jumped in on.

So, if you feel paranoid perhaps you should.

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12 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@Bob In Portland

the attacks on the alt press are coming pretty thick and fast, apparently control of the narrative is still a bit out of hand for the masters of the universe.

for any folks reading this far down the comments, here's a link:

Consortium News Sends Libel Notices to Canadian Signals Intelligence Agency and Major Television Network

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8 users have voted.