The Evening Blues - 2-7-20



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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Charlie Musselwhite

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues harmonica player Charlie Musselwhite. Enjoy!

Charlie Musselwhite & Friends - Blues Overtook Me

"Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets."

-- Napoleon Bonaparte


News and Opinion

Brazilian Judge Declines to Move Forward With Charges Against Glenn Greenwald “for Now”

A judge today declined to proceed with cybercrime charges lodged against Intercept co-founder Glenn Greenwald for his reporting on prosecutorial and judicial misconduct in Brazil.

In a decision announced Thursday, Judge Ricardo Augusto Soares Leite ruled that Greenwald’s prosecution would not go forward, but only on account of a previous finding by the Brazilian Supreme Court that The Intercept’s reporting on Operation Car Wash had not transgressed any legal boundaries. In the absence of the injunction issued by a Supreme Court minister that prohibited investigations into Greenwald related to this case, Leite said he would have let the charges against Greenwald move forward. The judge also said that, if the Supreme Court injunction were to be overturned, he would be open to charging Greenwald.

“I decline, for now, to receive the complaint against GLENN GREENWALD, due to the controversy over the extent of the injunction granted by Minister Gilmar Mendes in ADPF nº 601, on 08/24/2019,” Leite wrote, referring to the ruling by Mendes, a Supreme Court minister. ...

“While I welcome the fact that this investigation will not move forward, this decision is insufficient to guarantee the rights of a free press,” Greenwald said in a statement. “The rejection is based on the fact that the Supreme Court already issued an injunction against attempts of official persecution against me. This is not enough. We seek a decisive rejection from the Supreme Court of this abusive prosecution on the grounds that it is a clear and grave assault on core press freedoms. Anything less would leave open the possibility of further erosion of the fundamental freedom of the press against other journalists.”

“We will continue the fight against this authoritarian escalation before the Supreme Court, all while we will keep reporting on the archive provided by our source,” Greenwald said.


Bluesters fluent in German may find the links embedded in this piece interesting. I suspect, though, that much of the linked material recapitulates an article that I linked in the last few days about Melzer's recent statements.

German TV Exposes the Lies That Entrapped Julian Assange

Truth has broken through for those confused about how a publisher ended up in a maximum security prison in London with a one-way extradition ticket to court in the U.S. and the rest of his life behind bars. One of the main German TV channels (ZDF) ran two prime-time segments on Wednesday night exposing authorities in Sweden for having “made up” the story about Julian Assange being a rapist. Until last night most Germans, as well as other consumers of “major media” in Europe, had no idea of the trickery that enmeshed Assange in a spider-web almost certainly designed by the U.S. and woven by accomplices in vassal states like Sweden, Britain and, eventually, Ecuador.

ZDF punctured that web by interviewing UN Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer. One ZDF “Heute Sendung” segment (in German) is especially telling from minute 13:00 to 15:30 . The second is ZDF “Heute Journal” (minute 25:49 to 30:19.) Both ZDF programs show Melzer being interviewed, with minimal interruption or commentary, letting his findings speak for themselves about how allegations against Assange were “made up” and manipulated to hold him captive.

The particularly scurrilous allegation that led many, including initially Melzer, to believe Assange was a rapist — a tried and tested smear technique of covert action — was especially effective. The Swedes never formally charged him with rape — or with any crime, for that matter. ZDF exhibited some of the documents Melzer uncovered that show the sexual allegations were just as “invented” as the evidence for WMD before the attack on Iraq. Melzer had previously admitted to having been so misled by media portrayals of Assange that he was initially reluctant to investigate Assange’s case. ...

Melzer’s indefatigable efforts to expose what Assange has gone through, including “psychological torture,” met with some modest success in the days before the German ZDF aired their stories. Embedded in the linked article is by far the best interview of Melzer on Assange.

Prominent Germans appeal for Julian Assange's release

More than 130 prominent figures in Germany from the world of art, politics, and the media signed an appeal on Thursday calling for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to be released from prison in the UK. He is currently serving a 50-week sentence for skipping bail.

The letter's signatories include famous German investigative journalist Günther Wallraff, former Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, and Austrian winner of the Nobel Prize in literature, Elfriede Jelinek. It says that Assange, 48, is being held in "isolation and monitored under unnecessarily stressful conditions" in a British prison despite being in "critical health."

UN Special Rapporteur on torture, Nils Melzer, told DW that after meeting with Assange he believed that the activisted exhibited "typical signs of psychological torture." They also argue that Assange risks being deprived of his basic human rights if he is extradited to the United States when his sentence is over.

Iraqi Officials Say ISIS—Not Iran—Likely Behind Rocket Attack Trump Used to Justify Soleimani Assassination

In a "bombshell" revelation that calls into question one of the Trump administration's stated justificiations for assassinating Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani—a move that nearly sparked a region-wide military conflict—Iraqi intelligence officials told the New York Times that they believe ISIS, not an Iran-linked militia, was likely responsible for the Dec. 27 rocket attack that killed an American contractor at an air base near Kirkuk, Iraq.

The Times reported Thursday that "Iraqi military and intelligence officials have raised doubts about who fired the rockets... saying they believe it is unlikely that the militia the United States blamed for the attack" was responsible.

"All the indications are that it was Daesh," Brigadier General Ahmed Adnan, the Iraqi chief of intelligence for the federal police at the K-1 air base, told the Times, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS. "We know Daesh's movements."

The Trump administration has not released a single piece of evidence showing that the Iraqi militia Khataib Hezbollah, which has ties to Iran, was responsible for the attack on K-1. The group has denied carrying out the attack.

Iraqi officials told the Times that "based on circumstantial evidence and long experience in the area where the attack took place," there is good reason to be skeptical about U.S. claims that Khataib Hezbollah was behind it.

As the Times reported:

The rockets were launched from a Sunni Muslim part of Kirkuk Province notorious for attacks by the Islamic State, a Sunni terrorist group, which would have made the area hostile territory for a Shiite militia like Khataib Hezbollah.

Khataib Hezbollah has not had a presence in Kirkuk Province since 2014.

The Islamic State, however, had carried out three attacks relatively close to the base in the 10 days before the attack on K-1. Iraqi intelligence officials sent reports to the Americans in November and December warning that ISIS intended to target K-1, an Iraqi air base in Kirkuk Province that is also used by American forces...

These facts all point to the Islamic State, Iraqi officials say.

"We as Iraqi forces cannot even come to this area unless we have a large force because it is not secure," Brig. Gen. Adnan said of the area from which the rocket attack was launched. "How could it be that someone who doesn't know the area could come here and find that firing position and launch an attack?"

In response to the Times report, Jamal Abdi, president of the National Iranian American Council, tweeted: "Al-Qaeda attacked the U.S. on 9/11 and we went to war with Iraq. If this report is true, ISIS attacked the U.S. and we nearly went to war with Iran."

UNSC at loggerheads over last militant stronghold in Syria

Turkey Demands Russia Stop Syria From Fighting in Idlib

After the Turkish military attacked and killed scores of Syrian soldiers in the same area, Syria has launched a new offensive against al-Qaeda-held Saraqeb, and Syrian forces have reportedly entered the town.

Turkey is very averse to the idea of Syria taking any more territory from al-Qaeda, and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu is demanding Russia immediately force Syria to stop all offensives in Idlib Province. ...

Syria’s interest in Idlib, beyond it being part of Syria and just rife with Islamists, is that two towns, Maarat al-Numaan and Saraqeb, are on the main highway between Damascus and Aleppo. Syria would very much like full control of that highway, and having already taken the former town, they are pushing to take the latter as well.

Our Military is Clashing With Russians While Defending Syrian Oil. Why?

Last month, American military forces physically blocked Russian troops from proceeding down a road near the town of Rmelan, Syria. U.S. troops were acting on orders of President Trump, who said back in October that Washington would be “protecting” oil fields currently under control of the anti-Assad, Kurdish Syrian Defense Forces. Meanwhile, the Russians are acting on behalf of Syrian president Bashar Assad, who says the state is ultimately in control of those fields. While no shots were fired in this case, the next time Moscow’s forces might not go so quietly.

U.S. officials offered few details about the January stand-off, but General Alexus Grynkewich, deputy commander of the anti-ISIS campaign, said: “We’ve had a number of different engagements with the Russians on the ground.” Late last month the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported: “Tensions have continued to increase significantly in recent days between U.S. and Russian forces in the northeastern regions of Syria.”

Stationed in Syria illegally, with neither domestic nor international legal authority, American personnel risked life and limb to occupy another nation’s territory and steal its resources. What is the Trump administration doing?

American policy in Syria has long been stunningly foolish, dishonest, and counterproductive. When the Arab Spring erupted in 2011, Washington first defended Assad. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton even called him a “reformer.” Then she decided that he should be ousted and demanded that the rest of the world follow Washington’s new policy. ... Candidate Trump criticized “endless wars” in the Middle East, and as president he has repeatedly indicated his determination to bring home U.S. forces from Syria. Despite his cheerful announcement that ISIS had been defeated—it no longer rules any territory as a “caliphate”—Washington continues to occupy Syrian territory without legal warrant, U.S. or international. Nevertheless, the president has continuously faced determined resistance to his withdrawal demands from his own appointees as well as the Pentagon and the Washington foreign-policy establishment. ...

The president appears to realize that the standard reasons for entanglement do not just justify America’s ongoing military presence, but his officials see the oil mission as a stalking horse, an excuse to keep the U.S. entangled in the region. Admiral William D. Byrne, Jr., vice director of the Joint Staff, opined that protecting the stolen Syrian oil was merely a “subordinate task.” The president may reign, but he does not govern.

Risk of Nuclear War Rises as U.S. Deploys a New Nuclear Weapon for the First Time Since the Cold War

Macron unveils nuclear doctrine, warns EU ‘cannot remain spectators’ in arms race

JPMorgan Chase Is Under Fourth Criminal Probe after Pleading Guilty to Three Prior Felony Counts

Yesterday, Bloomberg News reporters Tom Schoenberg and Liam Vaughan broke the story that JPMorgan Chase is under a criminal probe by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) over charges of rigging gold, silver and other precious metals markets. Six traders who worked on the precious metals desk at JPMorgan Chase have been indicted thus far but this is the first report that the bank itself is also under a criminal investigation. This marks the fourth criminal probe of the bank in the past 8 years by the U.S. Department of Justice with the bank pleading guilty to three felony counts in two of the prior criminal investigations.

Throughout this serial crime wave, the Board of Directors of JPMorgan Chase has kept Jamie Dimon in his seat as Chairman and CEO. Despite knowing that three of the bank’s traders had been charged under the criminal RICO statute and that the investigation could very likely result in criminal charges against the recidivist bank itself, the Board recently awarded Dimon a pay package of $31.5 million for last year – buttressing presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’ message that the business model of Wall Street is fraud.

There was a time in America when a criminal probe of the nation’s largest bank, which holds $1.6 trillion in the life savings of moms and pops at more than 5300 bank branches across the country, would have been worthy of a front-page headline. Not today. Crime and fraud are so de rigueur at the bank led by Dimon that not one major newspaper ran the headline on the front page or anywhere else in the paper.

Corporate media is, in fact, complicit in letting Dimon and his Board off the hook. Dimon’s public relations flacks have teamed up with mainstream media to create the false narrative that Dimon is some kind of economic genius and a Wall Street superstar. Bloomberg News itself has perpetuated that myth by portraying Dimon as the man whose greatest mission is to take good care of his customers – despite the hard fact that federal regulators are perpetually documenting how the bank is ripping its customers off in brazen fraudulent actions. As recently as November 10 of last year, Lesley Stahl of the CBS investigative news program, 60 Minutes, interviewed Dimon and strolled through the bank’s trading floor without ever asking Dimon about the unprecedented felony charges the bank has been forced to plead guilty to under his tenure.

After Trump Acquittal, White House Press Secretary Threatens 'Maybe Some People Should Pay' for Impeachment

In a Fox News interview just hours after President Donald Trump was acquitted by the Senate on charges of abuse of power and obstructing Congress, White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham on Thursday threatened that "maybe some people should pay" for how Trump was treated during the impeachment proceedings.

"He's glad it's over, he'll certainly talk about that," Grisham said, pointing to the "victory" speech Trump is set to deliver from the White House at 12:00pm ET on Thursday. "But I think he's also going to talk about... just how horribly he was treated and, you know, that maybe people should pay for that."

Parker Molloy, editor-at-large with Media Matters for America, pointed out on Twitter that "right before the 2018 midterms, a Trump superfan named Cesar Sayoc mailed 16 bombs to people he considered to be Trump's political enemies."

"If the goal isn't to inspire another person to do the same," Molloy wrote, "maybe speak with a little more clarity than 'maybe people should pay for that.'" ...

As Vanity Fair's Gabriel Sherman reported ahead of the Senate vote, Trump—seeking "revenge" for his impeachment—has begun compiling an "enemies list" that consists of Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), and former national security adviser John Bolton, who congressional Democrats wanted to testify in the Senate trial on his first-hand knowledge of the president's effort to pressure Ukraine into launching investigations into his Democratic rivals.

"Trump, says a source, wants Bolton to be criminally investigated for possibly mishandling classified information," Sherman reported. "[Republican Sen. Mitt] Romney, Schiff, and Nadler are also in West Wing crosshairs."

Missouri lawmaker wants police officers to stop women from getting abortions

A Missouri state representative who once beheaded a chicken on Facebook to make a point about abortion wants police officers to stop women from terminating pregnancies.

Mike Moon, a Republican Missouri state representative, introduced a bill he calls the Right to Due Process Act, which redefines a fertilized egg as a person with all the constitutional rights of any other citizen. The suggested law then requires police and the courts to “affirmatively enforce” the Missouri constitution’s due process clause which guarantees legal rights to people, effectively turning any attempt to terminate a pregnancy into murder.

Moon also filed a bill to “abolish” abortion in Missouri, and specifically cites “murder by abortion”. The law makes no exemptions for rape, incest or apparently for women who have pregnancies which are not viable and potentially fatal, since the proposals strike references to abortion exemptions for maternal health. ...

His bill did not lay out how, exactly, law enforcement would “affirmatively enforce” such a provision. But a frequent collaborator of Moon’s, the state representative Ben Baker, said the legal focus was right to be on conferring rights to fetuses.

Human Rights Watch: 200 Salvadoran Asylum Seekers Killed, Raped or Tortured After U.S. Deportation

US customs dismantled 'impossible to replace' instrument, Mali musician says

Malian musician Ballaké Sissoko has accused US border officials of breaking his “impossible to replace” musical instrument during a security check. Sissoko plays the kora, a west African instrument whose 21 strings can sound similar to a harp. US border officials said they did not open the instrument case.

“Would US customs have dared to dismantle a Stradivarius?” asked a statement posted on Sissoko’s Facebook page. “In its own way, that is what has just happened to Ballaké.”

Sissoko checked his kora on a flight from New York, where he had just ended his US tour, to his home in Paris. At home after the flight on Tuesday, Sissoko found that his kora, which was made to his specifications, had the neck removed, and the strings, bridge and amplification system had been taken apart.

“Even if all the components that have been dissembled were intact, it takes weeks before a kora of this calibre can return to its previous state of resonance,” the Facebook statement said. “These kinds of custom-made koras are simply impossible to replace. They are certainly not available in shops.”

The statement said a baggage inspection notice from the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA), written in Spanish, had been left in the bag. The notice said a security agent had inspected the case and apologized for any inconvenience it had caused.

An ICE Agent Shot a Brooklyn Man in the Face, Reports Say

A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent reportedly shot a man in the face while trying to serve a deportation order in Brooklyn Thursday morning. The agent was attempting to arrest and deport Gaspar Avendano-Hernandez, a 33-year-old man who immigration officials described as having been “twice-removed” from the United States. The agent managed to approach Avendano-Hernandez Thursday as he was returning home from work with Kevin Yanez-Cruz, the 19-year-old son of his girlfriend and a co-worker, according to the New York Daily News.

While the agent was serving the deportation order, Yanez-Cruz’s mother came running out of the home with her other son, 26-year-old Eric Diaz-Cruz, according to the Daily News. Some sort of altercation took place — the Daily News and local station WABC described it as a “scuffle,” while an ICE spokesperson said in a statement to VICE News that it was a “physical attack” — and an agent reportedly shot Diaz-Cruz in the face. Yanez-Cruz told the Daily News his older brother was unarmed.

Diaz-Cruz survived the shooting and is being treated at a local hospital.



the horse race




Worth a full read, far too much detail to cover here:

Acronym group that sabotaged Iowa caucus birthed by billionaire who funded Alabama disinformation campaign

The force accused of sowing the confusion and disarray surrounding the first Democratic Party contest of the 2020 election season is a dark money nonprofit called Acronym. It was Acronym that launched Shadow Inc, the mysterious company behind the now-infamous, unsecured, completely unworkable voter app which prevented precinct chairs from reporting vote totals on caucus night.

The exceptionally opaque Acronym was itself created with seed money from a Silicon Valley billionaire named Reid Hoffman who has financed a series of highly manipulative social media campaigns. The billionaire founder of LinkedIn, Hoffman is a top funder of novel Democratic Party social media campaigns accused of manipulating voters through social media. He is assisted by Dmitri Mehlhorn, a corporate consultant who pushed school privatization before joining Hoffman’s political empire.

One of the most consequential beneficiaries of Hoffman’s wealth is Acronym CEO Tara McGowan, a 33-year-old former journalist and Obama for America veteran. Once touted as “a weapon of a woman whose innovative tactics make her critically important to the Democratic Party,” McGowan’s name is now synonymous with the fiasco in Iowa. She also happens to be married to a senior advisor to Pete Buttieg’s presidential campaign.

Back in December 2018, McGowan personally credited Hoffman and Mehlhorn’s “Investing in US” initiative for the birth of her dark money pressure group, Acronym. ... At the time, Hoffman had just been exposed for funding Project Birmingham, a covert disinformation campaign consisting of false flag tactics that aimed to depress voter turnout and create the perception of Russian interference in the 2017 Alabama senate election. Hoffman and Mehlhorn have also faced scrutiny for their alleged operation of a series of deceptive pages which attempted to manipulate center-right users into voting for Democrats. Today, Acronym’s McGowan oversees a massive Facebook media operation that employs similarly deceptive techniques to sway voters.


Krystal Ball: Pete, DNC collusion is class warfare

Iowa Caucus Results Riddled With Errors and Inconsistencies

The results released by the Iowa Democratic Party on Wednesday were riddled with inconsistencies and other flaws. According to a New York Times analysis, more than 100 precincts reported results that were internally inconsistent, that were missing data or that were not possible under the complex rules of the Iowa caucuses.

In some cases, vote tallies do not add up. In others, precincts are shown allotting the wrong number of delegates to certain candidates. And in at least a few cases, the Iowa Democratic Party’s reported results do not match those reported by the precincts.

Some of these inconsistencies may prove to be innocuous, and they do not indicate an intentional effort to compromise or rig the result. There is no apparent bias in favor of the leaders Pete Buttigieg or Bernie Sanders, meaning the overall effect on the winner’s margin may be small.

But not all of the errors are minor, and they raise questions about whether the public will ever get a completely precise account of the Iowa results. With Mr. Sanders closing to within 0.1 percentage points with 97 percent of 1,765 precincts reporting, the race could easily grow close enough for even the most minor errors to delay a final projection or raise doubts about a declared winner.

The errors suggest that many Iowa caucus leaders struggled to follow the rules of their party’s caucuses, or to adopt the additional reporting requirements introduced since 2016. They show that the Iowa Democratic Party, despite the long delays, failed to validate all of the results fully before releasing them to the public.

Krystal and Saagar: Even the establishment wants Tom Perez to resign

I wonder why corporate coprolite Tom Perez only wants to recanvass some, rather than all, precincts. I don't trust Perez further than I can spit, and maybe not that far.

Iowa caucus remains too close to call with 100% of precincts reporting

Pete Buttigieg expressed confidence over the Iowa caucus results on Thursday after days of chaotic vote tallying, even as the head of the Democratic National Party called on the state to “recanvass” the votes. Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders have remained neck-and-neck for most of the week, and the Associated Press declared on Thursday evening that the race was still too close to call.

With 100% of precincts reporting, the pair were locked in a virtual tie. Buttigieg, leading by just 1.5 state delegate equivalents, had an advantage of about .1 percentage points.

But that didn’t stop Buttigieg from declaring victory on Twitter as he prepared to take the stage for a CNN event. “The first time I was here, few people knew me or how to pronounce my name. Now we’ve won the Iowa caucuses and we’re just 5 days away from the New Hampshire Primary,” he wrote. ...

Wading into the growing chaos, the Democratic National Committee chair, Tom Perez, called for a “recanvass” of the tally. ... Speaking to Rachel Maddow on MSNBC on Thursday night, Perez called the caucus fiasco “unacceptable” but said he only sought a recanvass in certain precincts. “In the grand scheme of things,” he said, a recanvass would probably not affect the overall delegate math. But “the reason why I think it’s important is because I want to make sure that every Iowa voter knows their vote was counted”.

Yep, I was right. That shitweasel Perez is, as usual, up to no good.


Ryan Grim: Tom Perez's 'CORRUPT' recanvass call

Really? Is this the best excuse you guys can come up with?

Trump fans flooded hotline to disrupt Iowa caucus process, Democrats say

Donald Trump’s legion of followers flooded a vital telephone hotline used to share Iowa Democratic caucus results after the number was shared online. The hack was reported in a phone conference Wednesday night between Iowa Democratic party staff and the state’s central committee.

“The unexplained, and at times hostile, calls contributed to the delay in the Iowa Democratic party’s collection of results, but in no way affected the integrity of information gathered or the accuracy of data sets reported,” said Mandy McClure, the communications director for the Iowa Democratic party. In a statement, McClure added that calls to the hotline reached “an unusually high volume” and included some “supporters of President Trump”.

On Wednesday night’s call, the committee member Ken Sagar called the disruption deliberate. The incident was first reported to Bloomberg News.

Democratic Congresswoman blames Russia for Iowa caucus app disaster

'In Law School They Called This Conflict of Interest': Tlaib Objects to Paid Bloomberg Staffers on DNC Committees

Rep. Rashida Tlaib accused two members of the Democratic National Committee's rules committees of having a conflict of interest following reports that they are paid staffers of the presidential campaign billionaire Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City.

The Michigan Democrat tweeted a link late Wednesday to a report by Sludge regarding the recent appointments of Alexandra Rooker, vice chair of the California Democratic Party, to the DNC's Rules Committee, and former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter to the Standing Rules and Bylaws Committee.

Both panels can propose rule changes to the Democratic nominating process, and both Rooker and Nutter began working on Bloomberg's campaign in recent weeks, advising him on policy and other campaign issues.

"Out of tens of millions of qualified people, Tom Perez's DNC is seating two Bloomberg campaign surrogates" on the committees, tweeted David Moore, who wrote for Sludge Wednesday about the appointments.


"In law school, they called this a conflict of interest," wrote Tlaib, a surrogate for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the Democratic race.

The Sludge report came a week after the DNC announced it was amending debate rules to eliminate a requirement for a minimum number of individual donors—a change that could allow Bloomberg to participate in the debate coming up on February 19.

That rule change came directly from Perez, members of the Standing Rules and Bylaws Committee told Sludge—but that panel and the committee Rooker is serving on could make more changes as the primary continues.

The elimination of the fundraising requirement was also announced after Bloomberg donated $320,000 to the DNC in November, as well as $800,000 to a joint PAC that raises funds for the DNC and state Democratic parties. ...

In addition to the debate rule that has already been changed, Politico reported last weekend that some DNC members were privately plotting to change other rules, including the manner in which delegates are counted at the party's national convention.

Bloomberg Plagiarized Parts of At Least Eight of His Plans

Mike Bloomberg’s presidential campaign plagiarized portions of its plans for maternal health, LGBTQ equality, the economy, tax policy, infrastructure, and mental health from research publications, media outlets, and a number of nonprofit, educational, and policy groups.

The Intercept found that exact passages from at least eight Bloomberg plans or accompanying fact sheets were direct copies of material from media outlets including CNN, Time, and CBS, a research center at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, the American Medical Association, Everytown for Gun Safety, Building America’s Future Educational Fund, and other organizations. Bloomberg co-founded Everytown for Gun Safety, a political organization focused on gun control, and Building America’s Future Educational Fund, a nonprofit working on infrastructure investment and reform, and has chaired them in the past, and he was listed as a co-author on the educational fund’s reports. He is not clearly affiliated with the other sources. The plagiarized sections ranged in length from entire paragraphs to individual sentences and fragments in documents that were between five and 14 pages long.

On Wednesday afternoon, The Intercept sent a detailed query to the Bloomberg campaign. By Thursday morning, one of the plans was completely taken down, while others were changed. Asked about the plan that was removed, spokesperson Julie Wood said the campaign would notify The Intercept when it was posted again.

[Highlighted copies of plagiarized documents (showing the plagiarized portions) at link. - js]

The ACLU Is Coming For Biden and Klobuchar in New Hampshire

The ACLU is running ads attacking two moderate Democratic presidential candidates — former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Amy Klobuchar — for their stances on online privacy. The civil liberties group is running full-page ads in newspapers up and down New Hampshire starting Thursday blasting Biden and Klobuchar for not committing to requiring the government to seek warrants before requesting online information about individuals from private companies like Google or Facebook.

That could move votes in the “Live Free or Die” state, where residents who famously value privacy and civil liberties will head to the ballot box Tuesday as the second state in the nation to vote in the Democratic primary.

“The New Hampshire electorate very much cares about issues relating to privacy,” said Ronnie Newman, the ACLU’s national political director and a former Obama administration official. “When you think about a candidate like Biden or like Klobuchar, it concerns us that we have not been able to get a clear 'yes' on an issue that we think is really important.”

The ads note that Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Tom Steyer, and Andrew Yang “have committed to protect your personal information online,” while the other two have “failed to make that commitment.”



the evening greens


Another war for energy coming right up!

Congress Quietly Adopts Exxon Mobil-Backed Law Promoting New Gas Pipeline, Arms to Cyprus

In a bitterly divided Congress, lawmakers still managed to come together to help Exxon Mobil pass major legislation that could remake the geopolitics of the Middle East and Europe. During the holiday season legislative blitz in December, legislators tucked an obscure provision into the omnibus spending package that lifted arms restrictions and boosted a controversial pipeline deal in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.

The legislative text, mirroring a bill that has circulated in Congress over the last year, promises a range of U.S. assistance for the development of natural gas resources off the coasts of Israel and Cyprus, including support for constructing pipelines and liquified natural gas terminals and the creation of a United States-Eastern Mediterranean Energy Center in the region run by the U.S. Department of Energy. Cyprus, one of the smallest states in the European Union, has come under increasing pressure from Turkey, which opposes the development of new gas fields off the disputed coasts of the island-state and has used its navy to threaten drilling vessels.

In response, the legislative text also repeals the prohibition of weapons transfers to Cyprus put in place in 1987, promotes greater U.S military assistance to Greece and Cyprus, and instructs the U.S. to maintain its newly situated predator drone fleet in the region. The omnibus includes provisions from the Eastern Mediterranean Security and Energy Partnership Act, legislation introduced in the House and Senate last year.

While the provision received scant coverage in American media, it prompted a flurry of activity after its passage. On January 2, leaders of Israel, Greece, and Cyprus appeared together to sign a trilateral deal to build a new $6.7 billion pipeline to bring gas from offshore fields in Israel and Cyprus to Greece, Italy, and Bulgaria. The new EastMed pipeline could transport as much as 20 billion cubic meters of gas to those countries annually, pitched as a way to lessen Russian and Turkish energy influence in the region. Days later, Russia and Turkey announced plans for their own joint venture, the TurkStream pipeline.

The authorization of the military assistance and pipeline support never received a single hearing, an up-or-down vote, or any open debate. Its inclusion in the must-pass spending package reflects the powerful lobbying coalition that came together in support of the deal. That coalition included foreign agents tied to both Greece and Cyprus, the American Jewish Committee, and Christians United for Israel, an evangelical group with close ties to Israel. Greek American diaspora groups also mobilized to lobby for the legislation. Hellenic American Leadership Council, one Greek American group, touted the passage of the text as the “most pro-Hellenic bill in a generation.” But disclosure documents reviewed by The Real News and The Intercept suggest that Exxon Mobil was at the center of the lobbying effort.

Exxon to Congress: Lift Cyprus Arms Embargo, There’s Gas Nearby

Just disgusting.

Trump Is Blowing Up a National Monument in Arizona to Make Way for the Border Wall

Contractors working for the Trump administration are blowing apart a mountain on protected lands in southern Arizona to make way for the president’s border wall. The blasting is happening on the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, a tract of Sonoran Desert wilderness long celebrated as one of the nation’s great ecological treasures, that holds profound spiritual significance to multiple Native American groups.

In a statement to The Intercept, U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed that the blasting began this week and will continue through the end of the month. “The construction contractor has begun controlled blasting, in preparation for new border wall system construction, within the Roosevelt Reservation at Monument Mountain in the U.S. Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector,” the statement said, referring to an area also known as Monument Hill. “The controlled blasting is targeted and will continue intermittently for the rest of the month.” The agency added that it “will continue to have an environmental monitor present during these activities as well as on-going clearing activities.”

Rep. Raúl Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat and chair of the House Committee on Natural Resources, told The Intercept that he has zero faith that the Department of Homeland Security’s “environmental monitor will do anything to avoid, mitigate, or even point out some of the sacrilegious things that are occurring and will continue to occur, given the way they’re proceeding.” Grijalva’s blunt assessment is based on a visit he made to Organ Pipe last month, alongside archaeologists and leaders of the Tohono O’odham Nation, whose ancestral homelands and sacred burial sites are in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump’s border wall expansion. One of those burial sites lies just beyond the westward advance of the border wall, Grijalva explained. “It’s right in the path,” he said, meaning that “the one indignation of the blasting on the hill is shortly to follow with other indignations and disrespect.” According to Grijalava, “DHS had mentioned to the tribes that they would back off on developing the hill, but the work is still being done.” ...

Celebrated as “a pristine example of an intact Sonoran Desert ecosystem,” Organ Pipe was designated as a UNESCO International Biosphere Reserve in 1976. Even before the explosions began, the construction there was already one of Trump’s most controversial border wall projects, unfolding on the homelands of the Tohono O’odham and in areas that are ostensibly safeguarded by the strictest public-land designations on the books. Neither factor has stopped contractors from drilling into the ground and draining water from a rare desert aquifer in order to mix concrete to support a towering, 30-foot barrier along the U.S.-Mexico divide. In working to fulfill the president’s chief campaign promise, construction crews on Organ Pipe have uprooted saguaro cacti, slicing the iconic plants into chunks and bulldozed a wide roadway to make room for trucks, cranes, and other construction vehicles.

With the wall in place, and its floodlights illuminating the area through the night, the migration of several rare desert animal species is expected to come to an end. The construction is particularly threatening to Quitobaquito Springs, the only naturally occurring source of fresh water for miles around. The desert oasis was once inhabited by the Hia Ced O’odham — a smaller band of the larger O’odham community — and remains a monumentally important spiritual site for the O’odham people to this day.

Canadian Police Raid Indigenous Land to Help Build $6B Pipeline

The first sound was a snowmobile, somewhere in the distance. Then, with no warning, a dozen RCMP vehicles, including prisoner vans and RCMP-branded Suburbans, roared out of the pre-dawn darkness and stopped just short of the watch camp where Wet’suwet’en land defenders have been resisting a court-ordered evacuation of their lands to make way for the controversial $6 billion Coastal GasLink pipeline.

The raid, which took place on unceded Indigenous land in northern British Colombia, took place after weeks of increasing tension over construction of the 400-mile-long natural gas pipeline.


Backed up by tactical officers, dog teams, and drones with infrared sensors, dozens of RCMP officers began raiding Wet’suwet’en land defender camps shortly before 5 in the morning. Led by one officer bellowing “Police! Stay Calm!,” dozens of officers flooded into the watch camp. One read a statement aloud saying that police were enforcing an injunction order and that anyone present had 10 minutes to gather their things and leave, or be arrested and charged with obstruction of justice. At least six land defenders have so far been arrested, several being dragged away in handcuffs. ...

Police also attempted to prevent journalists from photographing or filming members of the tactical enforcement teams, the green-clad militarized units which stormed the Gidimt’en barricades a year ago under the supervision of “lethal overwatch.”

Largest maker of pesticide linked to brain damage in kids to stop producing chemical

The world’s largest manufacturer of chlorpyrifos, an agricultural pesticide linked to brain damage in children, has announced that it will stop producing the chemical by the end of the year. The announcement on Thursday by Corteva, the corporation formed from a Dow Chemical and DuPont merger, comes after the Trump administration reversed regulatory plans to ban the pesticide and rejected the scientific conclusions of US government experts.

Chlorpyrifos has been widely used on corn, soybeans, almonds, citrus, cotton, grapes, walnuts and other crops, but research has repeatedly found serious health effects in children, including impaired brain development. Environmental groups have long advocated for its ban, and the state of California, which grows the majority of the nation’s fruits and nuts, defied Trump and banned the chemical last year.

Corteva said it was ending production due to declining sales. Susanne Wasson, the president of Corteva’s crop protection business, told Reuters it was a “difficult decision”.

Chlorpyrifos is a neurotoxic chemical that was found to be harmful enough to humans that the US banned it from residential use in 2000. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), however, has continued to defend its safety for agricultural uses. ...

Marisa Ordonia, an attorney with Earthjustice, a group that has sued the EPA for failing to ban chlorpyrifos, said advocates would still seek a ban on the product given that it remains on the market through other manufacturers.

Bumblebees' decline points to mass extinction – study

Bumblebees are in drastic decline across Europe and North America owing to hotter and more frequent extremes in temperatures, scientists say.

A study suggests the likelihood of a bumblebee population surviving in any given place has declined by 30% in the course of a single human generation. The researchers say the rates of decline appear to be “consistent with a mass extinction”.

Peter Soroye, a PhD student at the University of Ottawa and the study’s lead author, said: “We found that populations were disappearing in areas where the temperatures had gotten hotter. If declines continue at this pace, many of these species could vanish forever within a few decades.”

The team used data collected over a 115-year period on 66 bumblebee species across North America and Europe to develop a model simulating “climate chaos” scenarios. They were able to see how bumblebee populations had changed over the years by comparing where the insects were now to where they used to be. ...

The research is published in the journal Science.


Also of Interest

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

Ukraine Officials Say US Holding Up Arms Sale

Why Both Republicans and Democrats Want Russia to Become the Enemy of Choice

Dems unite to support Trump's imperial Venezuela policy

Decades After a Palestinian American Activist Was Assassinated in California, Two Suspects in His Killing Are Living Openly in Israel

Chuck Sims Africa freed: final jailed Move 9 member released from prison

'Victory for Workers!': House Praised for Passing Landmark PRO Act to Strengthen Unions and Labor Rights

Record-Breaking Temperature of Nearly 65ºF Logged in Antarctica as Scientists Sound Alarm Over Rapid Ice Melt

California Communities Sue Fossil Fuel Companies, Demanding State Court Hold Them Accountable for Climate Crisis

Brazil's Bolsonaro unveils bill to allow commercial mining on indigenous land

Trump finalizes plans to open Utah monuments for mining and drilling

10 US oil refineries exceeding limits for cancer-causing benzene, report finds

Bloomberg Campaign Ran Ads Asking Voters How He Should Spend His Money

Of Course Bloomberg's an Oligarch—and He's Coming For Your Social Security

Bloomberg Becoming Oligarch-in-Chief of Democratic Party

Unless They Change The Democrats Deserve To Lose

Iowa Caucuses: Incompetent or *cough* “Not Cheating”

Jimmy Dore: Obvious Cheating On Coin Toss In Iowa Caucus

While Sanders Declares Victory in Iowa Popular Vote, Buttigieg Chided for Claiming He 'Officially Won' Based on Error-Filled Delegate Count

Saagar Enjeti: Iowa screw-up is worse than Russiagate ever was

The Hill's Editor-in-Chief: Nightmare week for Democratic establishment

Andrew Yang—That 2020 Hopeful With the 'Math' Pin—on Iowa Results: 'Looks Like Bernie Won'

Debate Night: Should Bernie call out Pete to his face?

Rising: Pete still a flop with black voters

Mike Bloomberg will pay you $150 to say nice things about him


A Little Night Music

Charlie Musselwhite ?- Takin' My Time

Charlie Musselwhite - Blues

Charlie Musselwhite - Gone Too Long

Charlie Musselwhite - I'm Goin' Home

Charlie Musselwhite - When it rains it pours

Charlie Musselwhite Band - Long Lean Lanky Mama

Buddy Guy w/Charlie Musselwhite - Hey Baby Jam

Charlie Musselwhite with Rick Estrin & The Nightcats

Ben Harper & Charlie Musselwhite - When The Levee Breaks


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Comments

Azazello's picture

This just came up this afternoon, Aaron and Max talking about the Grayzone piece linked above.
Iowa debacle fueled by anti-Bernie billionaires, Russiagate hucksters, failed DNC elites
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVEEoxdzfXw width:500 height:300]

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14 users have voted.

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

@Azazello

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10 users have voted.
Raggedy Ann's picture

@MrWebster
So important for America to watch.

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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

joe shikspack's picture

@MrWebster

heh, i guess mr. putin can save a bunch of money on facebook ads and other social media this cycle, the dnc is working for russia.

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8 users have voted.
mimi's picture

@Azazello
how can we spread this to Bernie supporters and folks who work for his movement? I listened closely to the end and there were so much details in explaining the network of dark money and the methods used by so many young IT Harvard tech tricksters and manipulators, whose names were all new to me (and many had German roots lastnames), that a transcript would be really good.

Thanks Azazello.

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10 users have voted.
Azazello's picture

@mimi
Worth a read: Grayzone

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7 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

thanks for the vid! i'll check it out after the debate sometime.

the grayzone piece is really good and totally worth a read.

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6 users have voted.
Azazello's picture

@joe shikspack
So I happened to catch some NPR this afternoon.
They had this story about this guy Spencer endorsing Bloomberg. The NPR story, here, had his full statement.
" ... I quantify [sic] myself as a Reagan Republican."
So this is what the "Democratic" party, the party of FDR, has come to.
I know registered Democrats who are considering Bloomberg.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhVW0vMljP8 width:400 height:240]

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7 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

bloomberg democrats. what will they think of next?

democrat is now only a brand, not a consistent ideological system.

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6 users have voted.
lotlizard's picture

@joe shikspack  
Then the makers ruined it by abandoning the recipe that had made them successful over the years.

https://beerconnoisseur.com/articles/how-milwaukees-famous-beer-became-i...

Same thing with the Democrats. There’s even a bit of fateful synchronicity in the fact that the Democrats are holding this year’s national convention in Milwaukee.

Indeed, the company that now owns Schlitz, once “the beer that made Milwaukee famous,” is currently telling drinkers that “our classic 1960’s formula is back,” the sub-text being that it “now tastes the way it did before we started disastrously mucking about with it 40 years ago, ruining the beer and wrecking the company along the way.”

The analogy practically writes itself . . .

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7 users have voted.

@lotlizard

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3 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@lotlizard

Because the companies have changed their formulas. Chips don't have salt on the outside that I used to lick off first. Coke has no spizzaz and is too sweet. Ketchup has too much sugar in it. Heinz 57 ruined its sauce when I was still a kid. Numerous other things are so blah and icky now.

Every company is chasing the almighty dollar and it shows.

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4 users have voted.

The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt

lotlizard's picture

@snoopydawg  
Nowadays it’s almost a plus if a product “only” confines itself to using real sugar.

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5 users have voted.
QMS's picture

Charlie's mussels in white wine.
Man sure can blow the blues.

Amazing how quickly our vaunted democracy
is going down the toilet. Warped speed.
The skid marks are pretty ugly.

Oh well, more awareness helps!
At least we can see the monster
before it eats us. Wink

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7 users have voted.

question everything

joe shikspack's picture

@QMS

warp speed indeed. well, i guess the bright side is that most americans are aware that the system is rigged and there is no real democracy. perhaps they might want some democracy back eventually.

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6 users have voted.
mimi's picture

have to leave the reading for tomorrow. Thanks for the reporting on Malian musician Ballaké Sissoko's destruction of his “impossible to replace” musical instrument, the kora and especially for posting him playing live. His musical performance amongst all the news articles in this EB was almost surreal in its beauty.

Thanks and have a good weekend. I feel I need to go to a camp to withdraw from C99percent addiction. They have something like it in Germany for mobile phone addiction and a documentary showed how necessary such programs to detox from that addiction is.

Good Night.

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8 users have voted.
TheOtherMaven's picture

@mimi

It wasn't all that long ago that US Customs destroyed Boujemaa Razgui's reed flutes, claiming they were illegal "fresh green bamboo".

I'm told there have been other horror stories, and already many musicians will not bring their best instruments even though that means US audiences won't hear their best efforts.

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12 users have voted.

There is no justice. There can be no peace.

joe shikspack's picture

@mimi

i was horrified by that story of the dhs destroying an irreplaceable instrument. there should be a special place in hell for the people who did that.

heh, i find taking the weekend off of the news is really helpful.

have a good one?

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5 users have voted.
dystopian's picture

@joe shikspack yeah that was heartbreaking... Unbelievable someone could even think to do such a thing. Leave that '57 Black Beauty at home when you go on tour! But at least we are safe now. /s

Beautiful sounds. Amazing. That guy probably didn't even go to Juliard?

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5 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

I now now edging toward believing that Bernie will be defeated in primaries. What we saw in IA was very open, deliberate, outrageous, and effective vote fraud. The DNC national and state establishments will commit any and every criminal act of vote fraud against Bernie. They have thrown all caution to the wind. Bernie goes into a second round at the convention, he is a goner. I have been reading about "nuclear options" like letting super delegates vote first round to declaring Bernie void as a candidate because he is not a registered democrat.

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13 users have voted.
Wally's picture

@MrWebster

Great article in Common Dreams by Norman Solomon:

With Establishment Knives Out for Bernie . . . Progressives must fight back — not succumb to fatalism

Snippet:

People on the left who say the DNC’s elite power can’t be overcome with grassroots organizing are mirroring the traditional scorn from corporate Democrats—who insist that the left can never dislodge them from dominance of the party, let alone end corporate dominance of the nation.

Like millions of other progressives who support Bernie 2020, I realize that the forces arrayed against us are tremendously powerful. That’s the nature of the corporate beast. The only way to overcome it is to organize and fight back. That’s what the movements behind the Sanders campaign are doing right now.

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11 users have voted.

@Wally Bernie is being defrauded and the answer is to passively participate in your own defrauding? and encourage your followers to believe in system that is defrauding them? And then have Bernie express to his belivers that he is in line about a fantasy conspiracy about Russians changing American elections while he got blantanly cheated by fellow Americans in Iowa.

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2 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@MrWebster

Martin Luther King and Jeff Epstein then what's a little election rigging among friends?
And oh yeah kill 3,000 Americans and blame it on someone else.

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9 users have voted.

The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt

@MrWebster
errors.PNG

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5 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@MrWebster

that's a completely plausible scenario. the question is what the reaction to that corrupt action is.

it happened last election cycle and the dnc got away with it. in fact they were sued by a class of sanders supporters and their argument in court that they had no responsibility to run a fair and impartial election - that they could at their option withdraw to a smoke-filled room and announce a candidate. the court did not disagree with the dnc and refused to provide relief to the aggrieved class of voters.

that should be discussed by the chattering classes as we go forward.

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6 users have voted.
mimi's picture

and has figured out the voters and his supporters.
That's a shock, isn't it? Listen in. A lot of truthfulness in it, as horrible it is to admit.
[video:https://youtu.be/4gJ1gdgGWwc]

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7 users have voted.

swarm.PNG

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8 users have voted.
Alphalop's picture

@gjohnsit

That was the story Woolf was doing on TV.

The media is not even trying to hide it's bias anymore. That alone should clue more voters in.

Unfortunately I doubt it will.

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13 users have voted.

"I used to vote Republican & Democrat, I also used to shit my pants. Eventually I got smart enough to stop doing both things." -Me

snoopydawg's picture

@Alphalop

Bernie's bros. This is the current thinking somewhere orange.

"Why is everything that happens against Bernie?"

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7 users have voted.

The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt

joe shikspack's picture

@gjohnsit

cnn is too lazy to come up with a new narrative, so they have to run with a tired, old obviously untrue narrative and repeat it goebbels-style.

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6 users have voted.
Alphalop's picture

being bullies on CNN.

So Damn sick of the B.S framing

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11 users have voted.

"I used to vote Republican & Democrat, I also used to shit my pants. Eventually I got smart enough to stop doing both things." -Me

joe shikspack's picture

@Alphalop

heh, i'm afraid that cnn can't do any better. they're lazy, stupid and utterly lacking the capacity for creative thought.

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6 users have voted.
Raggedy Ann's picture

Read this article about the math errors.

I’m interested to see where America goes from here.

Have a weekend, everyone. Pleasantry

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10 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

interesting piece, thanks! iowa clearly needs to improve its math programs in school if it intends to continue with the caucus process as it stands.

i would guess, though, that the iowa caucuses are going to change significantly.

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6 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

In a bitterly divided Congress, lawmakers still managed to come together to help...

Heh maybe Russia should put sanctions on any country involved in building the pipeline?

On Jimmy's show yesterday he called Pelosi a murderer and Nazi lite. This too can be said about every member of congress. They just care about making their donors happy regardless of how many people die in the process. And once again DK gave Nancy a standing O for tearing up the speech. Just like they did when she applauded Trump last year, but did it sideways so people could interpret it anyway they wanted.

Lots of folks are pleased as punch that Trump rescinded lots of acres in Bears Ears and the Grand Staircase monuments and is opening them up to oil and gas, ranchers and gawd knows who else. Hatch Bishop and the other Utah republicans have worked on getting this done since they got into congress.

Meanwhile Romney is facing censure and a possible recall for voting against Trump. He was in Utah last night doing some explaining...

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10 users have voted.

The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

of course the bipartisan lackeys in the congress will always come together to support exxon and commit to going to war to further exxon's interests. it's the pattern of the last half century or so.

it's not surprising that there are a bunch of people in utah that are excited as hell that they might get to turn a profit on exploiting public lands. there are people who would sell their own grandmother's teeth to make a few bucks.

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6 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

..

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10 users have voted.

The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

it only becomes "unnecessary class war" when the oppressed classes fight back.

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6 users have voted.
lotlizard's picture

@snoopydawg  
http://reclaimdemocracy.org/powell_memo_lewis/

What passes for the Left in America responded by firing all its class-war generals, replacing them with academics and artists who disdain the gritty realism of economic justice benefiting a broad base, and prefer to paint abstract expressionist visions symbolizing “social justice” (identity politics) for certain groups.

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5 users have voted.
dystopian's picture

I cry inside every time I see something about how we are desecrating Organ Pipe Cactus Nat. Mon. and Quitobaquito Springs. I guess my old memories of what it was are better than what I would experience today. An old guy maybe could get kinda tired of that being the case, everywhere. Wink

What a surprise billionaire dark money would lead to election fraud!?! Or that former Hillary people would be involved in such a thing? Or that CIA Pete the Manchurian Candidate would be involved in something that looked just like Juan Guido? Whooda thunk?

We need to add this to Obama's legacy. Obama didn't just bring us Trump, he brought is Perez and so this Iowa debacle too. The grift that keeps on grifting. This is OBAMA'S pick and man doing what was expected for the machine. Funny that Sneaky Pete was one of those 7 on stage trying to be the DNC chairman when that happened. Perez and Ellison were the final two, but what qualifications did a small city mayor have to be the head of the DNC? He was McKinsey?

So while they say: "Trump fans flooded hotline to disrupt Iowa caucus process, Democrats say", I see next to nothing about the screenshot withpin number to report caucus numbers, being TWEETED out during the caucus by someone showing how they couldn't log in?

This: "Tom Perez's DNC is seating two Bloomberg campaign surrogates" means that Bloomberg for $300,000 got late entry into debates he did not qualify for, loads of free publicity, and two seats at the 'stop Bernie' table. What a f'n deal! How many draft picks did
he get? Perez got his golden parachute deal and is giving the house away!

Thanks for the great music... you can't be held responsible for the news... Wink

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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

thank goodness i have a loophole for how bad the news is. Smile

what trump is doing to the border ecosystems and people systems is horrifying. it's hard to believe that he is getting away with it, but then again congress couldn't get up on its hind legs and impeach trump for ripping families apart and putting their children in cages. so, i guess trump was right, he really could stand in the middle of fifth avenue and shoot people and get away with it.

Perez and Ellison were the final two, but what qualifications did a small city mayor have to be the head of the DNC?

heh, richard nixon appointed george h.w. bush head of the rnc. he expressed his disdain for bush by saying that he was the sort of fellow, "that you appointed to offices," meaning that he felt bush was too lacking in political skill to get elected dog catcher.

perhaps that's why mayo cheat was in line to run the dnc.

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8 users have voted.