Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues saxophone player Noble Watts. Enjoy!

"We've seen their kind before. The terrorists are the heirs to fascism. They have the same wield of power, the same disdain for the individual, the same mad global ambitions. And they will be dealt with in just the same way. Like all fascists, the terrorists can not be appeased. They must be defeated. This struggle will not end in a truce or a treaty. It will end in victory for the United States, our friends and for the cause of freedom."

-- George W. Bush

News and Opinion

Breakthrough U.S.-Taliban Deal Signed, But Airstrikes Likely to Continue & Mercenaries to Remain

"So-Called 'Peace Deal' Is Anything But": Critics Warn US-Taliban Deal Exposes Fallacies of Endless War Paradigm

While President Donald Trump bragged Saturday about an agreement signed by the U.S. government and the Taliban as a milestone towards ending the war in Afghanistan that has raged now for the nearly two decades—devastating the Afghan people and the wider region—Rep. Barbara Lee, one of the staunchest anti-war voices in Congress, denounced the deal as a little more than a sham.

"After nearly two decades of endless war, it's become clear that there is no military solution to the conflict in Afghanistan," Lee said in a statement. "But this so-called 'peace deal' is anything but."

The Guardian reports:

At a signing ceremony in Doha on Saturday, U.S. secretary of state Mike Pompeo and Taliban deputy leader Mullah Baradar took turns to address a crowd of senior dignitaries. Although the deal was signed by the US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, it was the first time a U.S. cabinet member had met members of the insurgency.

The Taliban have agreed to sever ties with al-Qaida and other international terror groups and sit down for peace talks with other Afghans, including a government they have always denounced as a US puppet. In return, Washington will start a phased withdrawal of troops.

Troop levels will be cut to 8,600 over the next 135 days and five bases will be closed. If both sides keep to their commitments, all U.S. military forces could leave Afghanistan by spring 2021, although Washington is thought to want to keep intelligence operatives on the ground fighting Isis and al-Qaida.

According to Lee, nobody should be fooled into thinking that this is a "peace" agreement.

"It leaves thousands of troops in Afghanistan and lacks the critical investments in peacebuilding, human-centered development, or governance reform needed to rebuild Afghan society," the Congresswoman said.

As peace advocates have been saying since even before the U.S. invasion took place in 2001, following the attacks of September 11, there was never a military solution to the situation in Afghanistan. That remains true today.

“America’s fantasies of what it could achieve in the war, even after it became a Washington cliché that the war had no military solution, consigned thousands to needless deaths.” https://t.co/AVuHpnOxNP

— Stephen Wertheim (@stephenwertheim) February 29, 2020

"Two decades of trying to bomb our way to peace have made clear: there is no U.S. military solution in Afghanistan," said Stephen Miles, executive director of Win Without War, in a statement.

While the reduction in U.S. military presence "is a welcome step," Miles said, the agreement "utterly fails to confront the underlying logic of military occupation, lacks any strategy for long-term peace, and falls far short of accountability and justice. It is no 'peace deal.'"

Like Lee, Miles said a deal that leaves nearly two-thirds of current U.S. forces in Afghanistan for 'counterterrorism' purposes—"bringing levels down to about where they were when Trump entered office"—cannot be considered a peace deal. While the drawdown can be considered a positive development, he said, the agreement "is far from an end to endless war—and further still from anything that would ensure stability, peace, and justice after decades of violence."

Julian Assange Extradition with Joe Lauria

Julian Assange Lawyer: What’s at Stake in Extradition Case Is Freedom of the Press

Turkey downs two Syrian fighter jets as it intensifies Idlib attacks

Turkey has escalated a widespread offensive against Syrian troops and their allies, shooting down two government planes, wiping out dozens of pieces of military hardware including tanks and radar systems, and stalling a regime momentum that had been rampaging through Idlib province. The attacks came in response to the killing of at least 33 troops in an airstrike in northern Syria on Thursday night and marked one of the most sustained direct clashes between regional militaries in decades.

The Syrian military had not previously lost more than one jet fighter on a single day throughout the eight-year war, which had been mainly fought through a myriad of proxies. A Turkish F-16 shot both planes down after Turkey lost a drone to Syrian fire. The downing of the jets was acknowledged by both sides and made light of regime claims that it would defend its airspace over the north of the country – a role taken over by Russia in the past four years, whose forces Ankara has avoided over the past three days.

Instead, Turkish drones and artillery pieces have killed at least 106 Syrian soldiers and dozens more allied militiamen, including 14 members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah and at least 21 Afghan and Pakistani Shias who had been sent to Idlib by Iran.

Syrian rebel groups and diplomats in the region say Russia was responsible for the lethal airstrike on Turkish forces, a fact that they say Ankara privately recognises. Turkey’s public wrath, however, has been squarely directed at forces fighting on behalf of Bashar al-Assad, exposing the limitations of a fatigued military and its ageing hardware that has proved little match for Turkey’s modern weaponry.

Russia has been reluctant to defend Syrian interests over the past 72 hours, a posture diplomats suggest is partly aimed at avoiding further inflaming Ankara while also keeping the regime in check. ... A bilateral meeting between Moscow and Ankara is scheduled to be held in Moscow on Thursday, in which both sides will aim to patch up a dispute over the fate of Idlib. It is understood that Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, are likely to meet – a move that suggests a binding agreement is in the offing.

'Putin will never accept al-Assad's defeat in the region'

Turkey Is Threatening to Flood Europe With Refugees After Losing 33 Soldiers in Syria

Turkey threatened to send a wave of refugees into Europe Friday, in an apparent bid to pressure the West into backing its military operation in Syria after dozens of soldiers were killed by Syrian airstrikes.

At least 33 Turkish troops were killed and 32 wounded by Syrian government airstrikes late Thursday in Idlib, the last opposition-held province in Syria, where Turkish forces have been supporting rebels against a huge offensive by the Russian-backed Syrian regime. ...

Following the attacks, Turkish officials said the country was no longer able to hold refugees, and announced they were lifting controls on its borders with Europe. Turkish media reported that hundreds of refugees were making their way to the border with Greece, and broadcast footage of groups of refugees, children among them, boarding rubber boats in an attempt to make the crossing to Greece.

One thing (cynical as it might be) is to open the land border to allow refugees to cross into Europe; but no words to describe allowing and encouraging refugees, some with babies, to attempt the dangerous sea crossing to Greece in the middle of winter. pic.twitter.com/WREjed7cLT

— Piotr Zalewski (@p_zalewski) February 28, 2020

Michael Stephens, research fellow for Middle East studies at the Royal United Services Institute think tank, told VICE News that the threat to open the gates to Europe was a “very cynical ploy” by Turkey to try to pressure its Western NATO allies into doing more to help its operation in Syria, where it was facing “enormous problems.”

Clashes as thousands gather at Turkish border to enter Greece

Migrants trying to reach Europe have clashed violently with Greek riot police as Turkey claimed more than 76,000 people were now heading for the EU as a result of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s decision to open the Turkish side of the border.

Officers fired teargas at the migrants, some of whom threw stones and wielded metal bars as they sought to force their way into Greece at the normally quiet crossing in the north-eastern town of Kastanies.

As the situation escalated, Turkey’s interior minister, Suleyman Soylu, fuelled the anxiety in Greece and Bulgaria, which also shares a border with Turkey, by tweeting on Sunday morning that 76,385 refugees had left his country through Edirne, a province bordering the two EU member states. He provided no evidence to support the claim.

The UN’s International Organization for Migration had said earlier in the day that at least 13,000 people had gathered by Saturday evening at the formal border crossing points at Pazarkule and Ipsala, among others, in groups of between several dozen and more than 3,000. The majority were said to have been from Afghanistan.

Greek police confirmed that at least 500 people had arrived by sea on the islands of Lesbos, Chios and Samos near the Turkish coast within a few hours.

Unsealing of Vatican archives will finally reveal truth about ‘Hitler’s pope’

New light will be shed on one of the most controversial periods of Vatican history on Monday when the archives on Pope Pius XII – accused by critics of being a Nazi sympathiser – are unsealed.

A year after Pope Francis announced the move, saying “the church isn’t afraid of history”, the documents from Pius XII’s papacy, which began in 1939 on the brink of the second world war and ended in 1958, will be opened, initially to a small number of scholars.

Critics of Pius XII have accused him of remaining silent during the Holocaust, never publicly condemning the persecution and genocide of Jews and others. His defenders say that he quietly encouraged convents and other Catholic institutions to hide thousands of Jews, and that public criticism of the Nazis would have risked the lives of priests and nuns.

“The opening of the archives is decisive for the contemporary history of the church and the world,” said Cardinal José Tolentino Calaça de Mendonça, the Vatican’s archivist and librarian last week. ...

More than 150 people have applied to access the archives, although only 60 can be accommodated in the offices at one time. Among the first to view the documents will be representatives of the Jewish community in Rome, and scholars from Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust museum, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Israel in limbo as weary voters go to polls for third time in year

Israelis are due to vote on Monday in the country’s third election in 12 months, with many worried the result will be just as inconclusive as previous rounds, extending a painful political stalemate deep into 2020.

After two failed attempts to form a government, the country has been plunged into limbo, run by an interim administration without powers to pass significant legislation or even a budget.

Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is – once again – facing off against his former army chief of staff, Benny Gantz. Polls still suggest that neither side will have enough seats in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, to end the crisis. The country may be dragged into yet another months-long election cycle. ...

Gideon Rahat, a political science professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, said the repeat elections also presented a more fundamental problem – they were beginning to test the very foundations of the entire Israeli political system. The logic of the parliamentary model, he said, was based on the presumption that politicians would not voluntarily oust themselves after winning a gruelling election. Instead – and as usually happens – enough of them back a candidate, who then becomes prime minister.

In the past two elections, however, MPs have willingly pushed for the Knesset to be disbanded because they were convinced or pressed by party leaders that they could do better in the next round.

Just Days After Winning Progressive Applause for Vow to Skip AIPAC, Klobuchar and Buttigieg Make Last-Minute Reversal

Two struggling Democratic presidential candidates, Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar, were slammed Sunday afternoon for backtracking on previous vows not to attend the controversial annual convention of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, though progressive critics said the move indicated not only the growing weakness of the two candidates, but AIPAC as well.

While Buttigieg and Klobuchar appeared last week to submit to a grassroots demand from Jewish-led advocacy group IfNotNow—along with allies like Move On, Indivisible, and the Working Families Party—to skip the conference, it was reported Sunday that the two are submitting pre-recorded messages that will be shown to attendees.

In turn, what was reported widely just days ago as a "watershed moment"—one in which even centrist Democratic presidential candidates like Buttigieg and Klobuchar were seen rejecting the "bigotry that AIPAC has legitimized for decades"—is now being seen by campaigners as an unfortunate, though instructive, setback.

"We are disappointed by Amy Klobuchar's and Pete Buttigieg's decisions to cave to AIPAC's pressure, but also unsurprised, given that their campaigns have been distinguished by a stated desire to be seen as progressive alongside a demonstrated refusal to stand up to the corrupt establishment," said Dani Moscovitch, co-founder of IfNotNow, in a statement.

So it turns out neither @amyklobuchar or @PeteButtigieg actually skipped AIPAC. They got the positive press from @IfNotNowOrg and then sent video addresses. That’s gross. https://t.co/IWkGaScOhZ

— Mairav Zonszein (@MairavZ) March 1, 2020

"The last-minute nature of the announcements—and the lowering of AIPAC's own standards to accept pre-recorded videos from the candidates—gives a glimpse into AIPAC's frantic scramble to save face," Moscovitch said, "and is a sign of the growing weakness of the pro-occupation establishment."

Regardless of the reversal by Buttigieg and Klobuchar, she argued that recent events have shown "AIPAC is losing the battle for the soul of the Democratic Party."

'An Astonishing Rate of Corruption': Trump Has Amassed 3,000 Conflicts of Interest Since Taking Office

The government watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington announced Friday that after more than three years of monitoring President Donald Trump's conduct, the president has hit a milestone, amassing more than 3,000 conflicts of interest between his businesses and his position in office.

The findings come from a CREW report detailing improper relationships between Trump, his business empire, and those trying to influence public policy—including lobbyists, foreign governments, and members of Congress.

NEW: President Trump has reached the disgraceful milestone of amassing more than 3,000 known conflicts of interest between his businesses and the presidency, and @CREWcrew has tracked every one. Our new report lays out the scope of the corruption.https://t.co/IEtAYICG0m

— Noah Bookbinder (@NoahBookbinder) February 28, 2020

"Every one of the more than 3,000 conflicts of interest that President Trump has incurred through his businesses raises new questions about whether he is making decisions in the interest of the American people or his own bottom line," said Bookbinder in a statement. "Not only does he appear to be profiting from the presidency daily, but he is constantly facing new temptations to use his office for his own benefit."

Since Trump took office and refused to divest from his businesses, instead handing over control of the Trump Organization to his two eldest sons, hundreds of people and groups have interacted with the president and his business in ways that "showcase the president's willingness to blend his personal gain with his professional responsibilities," CREW said.

As Trump Cries 'Hoax,' Nurses in California Warn Quarantines of 124 Health Workers Show US Hospitals Remain Unprepared for Coronavirus

While stipulating that a University of California at Davis medical facility is "generally better prepared and equipped" than most when it comes to dealing with such a situation, National Nurses United—the largest nurses union in the United States—warned Friday night that the self-quarantine of 124 healthcare workers there shows the nation's hospitals remain seriously unprepared for the coronavirus that officials warn is rapidly spreading.

According to the NNU, a single case of coronavirus (also known as COVID-19)—in which a patient was admitted on Feb. 19—has now resulted in the quarantine of 36 registered nurses and 88 other health care workers at the UC Davis Medical Center, all them now at home in order to limit the risk of further spread.

"These 124 nurses and health care workers, who are needed now more than ever, have instead been sidelined," the union said in a statement. "Lack of preparedness will create an unsustainable national health care staffing crisis. Nurses view the handling of this COVID-19 case as a system failure and not a success."

The Washington Post reports Saturday, citing latest figures from  the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that "four new cases Friday brings the total number of covid-19 cases detected through the U.S. public health system to 19."

The NNU said its nurses are speaking out now because they are "dedicated to protecting the health and safety of their patients, health care workers, and the public." It also comes as President Donald Trump, at a rally in South Carolina on Friday night, accused Democrats and others criticizing his administration's handling of the crisis—of which there are many—of perpetrating a "new hoax" against him.

If Bloomberg's campaign has any positive impact, it will be to help convince us that billionaire oligarchs like him should not exist. It's bad enough that an oligarch can buy up airtime; to do so in order to exploit a pandemic for your presidential campaign is disgraceful. https://t.co/MXTQw5eNFd

— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) February 29, 2020

Coronavirus outbreak: US confirms cases in Chicago and Rhode Island

US health secretary Alex Azar has confirmed a new case of coronavirus in Chicago, as the respiratory illness spreads in the US. Also on Sunday, Rhode Island announced its first known case. The new cases came after Washington state confirmed a man in his 50s died from the respiratory illness – the first known death caused by coronavirus in the US.

Azar told Fox News Sunday the Chicago case was one of 23 to be diagnosed in a person who had not been repatriated from Japan or China. “Of those individuals, we’ve got cases in Chicago as well as Washington and Oregon and two in California where we do not yet know why they contracted the novel coronavirus,” Azar said.

Two other people in Illinois have tested positive for coronavirus: a husband and wife who traveled to Wuhan, China, to care for a relative. They have made a full recovery.

Rhode Island’s health department said a presumptive case was identified there in a person in their 40s who had recently traveled to Italy. The person’s family have been in self-quarantine and efforts are under way to contact others who have been in close contact with them.

Washington governor Jay Inslee declared a state of emergency on Saturday. The man who died was in his 50s and had underlying health conditions and no history of travel or contact with a known coronavirus case. A researcher told the New York Times it is likely the coronavirus has been spreading undetected in Washington since mid-January and that there are hundreds more cases than have been identified in the state.

Children as young as eight picked coffee beans on farms supplying Starbucks

High street coffee shop giant Starbucks has been caught up in a child labour row after an investigation revealed that children under 13 were working on farms in Guatemala that supply the chain with its beans.

Channel 4’s Dispatches filmed the children working 40-hour weeks in gruelling conditions, picking coffee for a daily wage little more than the price of a latte. The beans are also supplied to Nespresso, owned by Nestlé. Last week, actor George Clooney, the advertising face of Nespresso, praised the investigation and said he was saddened by its findings.

The Dispatches team said some of the children, who worked around eight hours a day, six days a week, looked as young as eight. They, were paid depending on the weight of beans they picked, with sacks weighing up to 45kg. Typically, a child would earn less than £5 a day, although sometimes it could be as low as 31p an hour.

Over the course of the investigation, Dispatches visited seven farms linked to Nespresso and five linked to Starbucks. Child labour was found on all the farms. A human rights lawyer who viewed some of the programme’s evidence suggested both companies were in breach of international labour regulations laid down by the UN’s International Labour Organization.

Klobuchar Klobocharmed by Biden - ending presidential campaign, endorsing Biden

NEWS: @amyklobuchar confirms the Senator is flying to Dallas to join @JoeBiden at his rally tonight where she will suspend her campaign and endorse the Vice President.

— Jasmine Wright (@JasJWright) March 2, 2020

Klobuchar’s departure leaves five candidates in the race: Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Mike Bloomberg and Tulsi Gabbard.

Combined with Pete Buttigieg’s exit last night, the moderate candidates appear to be looking to consolidate support around Biden before tomorrow’s crucial Super Tuesday contests.

Krystal Ball: panicked DNC elites try to stop Bernie’s big Super Tuesday

Pete Buttigieg drops out of 2020 race to be Democratic presidential nominee

Pete Buttigieg has ended his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. Two campaign sources confirmed the news to the Guardian and said the former candidate was on his way back to South Bend, his home town in Indiana, where he would speak later on Sunday night.

Biden will look to harvest support from Buttigieg as he seeks to establish himself as the moderate choice to deny Sanders. ... Speaking to CNN on Sunday morning, Biden said he had not had any conversations with other candidates about whether they should drop out and back him but added: “I think everyone knows it’s going to be much more difficult to win back the Senate and keep control of the House if Bernie’s at the top of the ticket.” ...

CNN reported that the former mayor was “unwilling to be [the] reason Sanders is able to get ‘insurmountable’ delegate lead on Super Tuesday”. It was also reported that Buttigieg was not planning to endorse another candidate on Sunday.

Krystal and Saagar: Pete drops out, who benefits?

Here is @cnn's @smerconish casually linking Corona Virus and @BernieSanders in the same sentence. Unreal. pic.twitter.com/6i7Q4ucm1l

— Jordan (@JordanChariton) February 29, 2020

Nice to wake up to discover that CNN is giving a platform to the idea that the left is a disease. That's never led to anything bad happening before. https://t.co/2LhmBEnOuC

— Naomi Klein (@NaomiAKlein) February 29, 2020

Krystal: Why won't Warren drop out?

Buzz of expectation as Bernie Sanders looks to blow away rivals on Super Tuesday

On Tuesday Sanders has the chance to take his political insurgency and wipe it across the nation. In the 2020 cycle, Super Tuesday is even more super-charged than usual, providing him with an opportunity to take his already impressive lead over Buttigieg and six other Democratic rivals and virtually blast them out of the water.

In Iowa he finished a splinter-thin second to Buttigieg. In New Hampshire he won. In Nevada he sealed his frontrunner status with a slam-dunk victory.

Now Super Tuesday promises to project him to all-but invincible heights. Fourteen states go to the polls on 3 March, between them commanding two-thirds of the 1991 delegates he needs to win outright.

In all but two of those states, Sanders is competitively placed or head and shoulders above the pack, including in his home turf of Vermont. But the real prize is California.

With its gargantuan crop of 451 delegates – a quarter of those needed to secure the Democratic nomination, no questions asked – California’s participation in this year’s Super Tuesday has shaken up the race. Combine the state, where Sanders is currently polling a 13-point lead over next-placed Elizabeth Warren, with delegate-rich Texas, which also goes to the polls on Tuesday, and the buzz of expectation in Sanders’ circles is almost as palpable as the fear coursing through everyone else.

“If Sanders cleans up in California and Texas, he is almost guaranteed a plurality of the delegates nationwide,” said political analyst Larry Sabato. “I don’t see anyone who could come close.”

Success on Tuesday is certain to take the already shrill debate about democratic socialism and crank it to ear-splitting levels.

Nomiki Konst previews how convention chaos will play out

Don’t Tell Cable Pundits That Bernie Sanders Is Leading Nationally Among Black Voters

At 7 p.m. sharp, multiple networks called South Carolina for Joe Biden, breathing a collective sigh of relief. The results, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow said, called the viability of Sen. Bernie Sanders’s campaign into question. “If anybody knows anything about winning the Democratic nomination and about what it takes for a Democratic nominee to win a general election, it is black voters,” Maddow said. “And if Sen. Sanders continues to underperform systematically with black voters, and if we see him get shellacked — not just beaten but shellacked tonight in South Carolina — because of his performance with black voters, that’s an existential question about that nomination.”

“I want every Democrat in the country to see what that looked like tonight: That is what winning looks like,” celebrated James Carville, an old-time political operative MSNBC brings on to panic its viewers. ... “The single most important demographic in the Democratic Party spoke up tonight,” said Carville on MSNBC, wearing a U.S. Marine Corps baseball cap. He said Sanders needs to answer for his lack of support in the state: “We get all enamored, and tonight we were reminded of what and who the Democratic Party is.”

“We cannot win unless we prove there’s excitement in the African American community,” said former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, an ex-head of the Democratic National Committee, on CNN, going on to endorse Biden officially on air. Maddow, McAuliffe, and Carville’s point — which became a major theme of cable coverage for the night — is, in the abstract, undeniable: A Democratic presidential candidate who can’t win the black vote can’t win the nomination. But the cable analysis carried on as if the only available information on the preferences of black voters came from South Carolina. In fact, black voters nationally have regularly been surveyed and, recently, Sanders has taken the lead among the demographic — a fact that was, at best, only mentioned in passing.

Last week, the Reuters-Ipsos poll found Sanders besting Biden by three points nationally among black voters — certainly a relevant data point when considering whether Sanders can win among black voters. An NBC-Wall Street Journal poll found Biden up two among black voters, while the Hill/HarrisX poll had Sanders up nine. A Morning Consult survey recently found Sanders beating Biden by five among all black primary voters, and thumping him by a 3-1 margin among black voters under 45.

In other words, the national picture does not exactly portend a shellacking among black voters — important context that was kept from MSNBC viewers, who would be left to conclude that the same minority-voter problem that hobbled Sanders’s campaign in 2016 remains a major obstacle. It simply isn’t true.

Biden's Finally Raising Money After South Carolina. It's Too Late to Help For Super Tuesday.

Joe Biden finally got his big win. The question is whether it came too late — or just in time.

Biden’s South Carolina romp helped him nearly catch Bernie Sanders in the delegate count, and gives him a badly needed momentum and fundraising boost heading into Super Tuesday after three straight losses. But he has been lapped by both Bernie Sanders and Michael Bloomberg on the airwaves in the 14 states that will vote on Tuesday, lacks Sanders’ ground game and even with a major post-South Carolina donations windfall has far fewer resources than either of his main opponents at this point.

Heading into Super Tuesday, by far the most crucial election night of the 2020 primaries, the fate of the Democratic nomination may come down to whether Biden’s momentum can overcome Bloomberg’s money to win the more moderate voters key to cementing his comeback. ...

Biden’s early state struggles compounded his weak fundraising, leaving his cash-strapped campaign able to commit only a six-figure sum on ad spending for Super Tuesday states. Compare that to Sanders, who’s spending close to $20 million on Super Tuesday ads, or Bloomberg, who’s already topped a half-billion dollars (that’s right, with a B) spent on ads so far, most of that on advertising across Super Tuesday. ...

Biden’s fundraising numbers will undoubtedly spike after South Carolina — he said Sunday morning that he’d raised $5 million in the last 24 hours, his campaign’s best fundraising stretch. But that money didn’t come soon enough to be used on Super Tuesday.

We Might Not Know Who Won Super Tuesday’s Biggest State For Weeks

Were you frustrated by the slow vote count out of Iowa and Nevada? Just wait for Super Tuesday.

The night’s biggest prize, California, has the slowest vote-counting system in the country. It often takes days if not weeks to get a call in close races. That could lead to a warped view of who actually did well on the primary season’s most important night, and prove frustrating for Bernie Sanders, who’s favored to win the state, as well as other candidates hoping to be able to talk up big delegate hauls from voter-rich California.

“There’s going to be not one million but millions, plural, of votes not counted on election night,” said Ace Smith, a California-based Democratic strategist who was a senior adviser on Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign. ...

California's system is set up to make it as easy as possible to vote at the cost of speed and which has by far the most presidential delegates up for grabs of any state in the country. The state used to vote so late in the primary process it didn't much matter, but California's move to Super Tuesday means its pokey system could actually impact the shape of the race

This election, the state made it even easier to vote, and even harder to count ballots. Californians can now register to vote up through election day, boosting the likelihood that more provisional ballots will be cast that will need to be checked by the state to make sure they’re valid before being counted. Voters can also drop mail-in ballots at physical polling locations.

Meet the 26-Year-Old Immigration Lawyer Challenging “Trump’s Favorite Democrat” in Texas Primary

Lots more indications of smelly establishment politics at the link.

Democrats Are Using a Shady Voting Rights Group to Smear an AOC-Backed Progressive in Texas

When 26-year-old attorney Jessica Cisneros decided to take on longtime incumbent Congressman Rep. Henry Cuellar in Texas, she knew she’d get hit — hard. What she didn’t know is that she’d get smeared by a shady voting rights group with backing from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

On Monday, Cisneros posted a picture on Twitter showing a mailer accusing her of being an “NYC candidate” who’s “bringing New York flavor to Texas,” with a picture of a bagel and a slice of pizza. Cisneros was born and raised in Laredo, Texas, and says she doesn’t even like bagels. But she was endorsed as part of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Courage to Change slate and her challenge, which will be decided March 3, has been likened to Ocasio-Cortez’s unseating of former Rep. Joe Crowley in 2018. ...

From the start, Cisneros knew Cuellar’s seat would be heavily defended by entrenched interests in the Democratic Party, but what’s strange is how the mailer came to be. The group that paid for it is called the Voter Protection Project, per a photo of the mailer reviewed by VICE News. On February 7, the group had an expenditure of $71,947.44 in direct mail attacking Cisneros, as well as a direct mail buy of $145,664.06 supporting Cuellar, according to FEC records. On February 18, they made another $32,500 expenditure for digital advertising, bringing their total spending in the race so far to $250,138.50.

The initial direct mail buy came just two days after the influential Congressional Hispanic Caucus’s BOLD PAC contributed $250,000 to the group. "BOLD is supportive of CHC Member Congressman Henry Cuellar,” BOLD PAC spokeswoman Jazmin Vargas said in a statement to VICE News. “As the campaign arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, our mission is to advance leadership diversity in Congress and ensure the Latino community has a voice in the People's House.”

Dramatic fall in China pollution levels ‘partly related’ to coronavirus

Nasa satellite images show a dramatic decline in pollution levels over China, which the US space agency believes is “partly related” to an economic slowdown due to the coronavirus.

Nasa scientists said the reduction in nitrogen dioxide levels, the noxious gas emitted from motor vehicles, power plants and industrial facilities, was first evident near Wuhan city, the source of the outbreak, but then spread across the country.

Images from Nasa and the European Space Agency (ESA) pollution monitoring satellites were used to compare the first two months of 2019 with the same period this year.

The maps show NO2 – nitrogen dioxide – values across China from 1-20 January, before the quarantine, and 10-25 February, during the quarantine. The decline comes as China’s manufacturers stop work in an effort to contain coronavirus.

'Against Colonial Violence and Land Theft,' Indigenous Activists and Allies Target Mining Industry Convention in Toronto

Hundreds of people led by Indigenous land defenders and a coalition of environmental groups worked to shut down a large mining industry convention in downtown Toronto on Sunday, blockading the entrances to the building where the meeting was taking place as they protested against "the extractive industry's violence, ongoing colonization, and complete disregard for the future of life on this planet."

Sunday's action—aimed at the Prospectors and Developers of Association of Canada (PDAC)—is the latest solidarity demonstration aligned with the Wet'suwet'en First Nation nation that remains locked in a fierce battle with the Canadian government over the controversial "Coastal Gas Link" fracked gas pipeline through unceded territory in northern British Colombia.

"From coast to coast we are rising up in solidarity with the Wet'suwet'en nation and against colonial violence and land theft," said Vanessa Gray, Anishinaabe Kwe Land Defender from Aamjiwnaang First Nation and one of the organizers of Sunday's demonstration. "It's clear that Canada is a state built on the removal of Indigenous people for resource extraction."

Organizers said the convention deserves to be targeted as the biggest one of its kind in the world, with PDAC drawing an estimated 25,000 people each year as it brings people from resource extraction companies together with funders and suppliers as well as law firms, politicians, and diplomats engaged in the industry. "The conference," said Mining Injustice in a statement, "is sponsored by mining giants known for their significant human rights and environmental abuses around the world."

According to Gray, "The very companies and people who provide the economic and political support for Coastal Gas Link are inside PDAC this year, and so are representatives from hundreds of other companies that are enacting violence around the world."

Not just for the Wet'suwet'en, she said the direct action was "in solidarity with every community that has found itself staring down the barrel of a gun for daring to oppose Canada's ongoing colonial project through resource extraction."

New York: plastic bag ban takes effect to address ‘environmental blights’

Every year, New York state gets through a staggering 23bn plastic bags – the vast majority of which end up in landfill or polluting streets, green spaces and waterways.

But it is hoped the single-use carriers will become a relic of the past, now a long-awaited state-wide ban on single use plastic bags has come into force.

The new law means most businesses will no longer be allowed to provide or sell plastic bags. However, it will not completely outlaw plastic bags. Notable exceptions include takeaway and delivery food, prescription drugs, rubbish bags, uncooked meat and fish and some non-film plastic “reusable” bags.

Governor Andrew Cuomo hailed the ban, which went into effect on Sunday, as a “bold action to protect our environment and ban these environmental blights”. Handing out free tote bags in Manhattan, New York mayor Bill de Blasio told New Yorkers: “We only have once chance to save our planet.”

New York is the third state after California and Oregon to enforce a state-wide ban. The counties of Hawaii have individual bans. Other states set to follow suit include Maine and Vermont this year and Connecticut and Delaware in 2021.

Also of Interest

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

The Coming Constitutional Crisis Over Iran

Cronyism and Conflicts of Interest in Trump’s Coronavirus Task Force

Epidemics expert Jonathan Quick: ‘The worst-case scenario for coronavirus is likely’

"I Don't Think That You are Telling Us the Truth": House Democrats Grill Pompeo on Iran and Coronavirus

Live updates from London: Assange extradition hearing adjourned until May 18

To Be Assanged: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

Why Would Goldman Sachs and BofA Throw Gasoline on the Stock Market Fire Yesterday?

Slovakia election: seismic shift as public anger ousts dominant Smer-SD party

People turn backs on Mike Bloomberg at Bloody Sunday church service in Selma

The Fight Inside the Democratic Party is Playing Out in a Slew of House Primaries in Texas and California on Super Tuesday

'A President Who Doesn't Need to Beg the Powerful for Money': Sanders Campaign Raises Record $46 Million in February

No, Elizabeth Warren – taking Super Pac money is not girl power

Jimmy Dore: Liz Warren Lying About Bernie & Superdelegates

Tulsi Gabbard: Presidential candidates must also condemn election interference by US intelligence agencies

Debate Moderators Frame Questions to Define Acceptable Politics

Joe Biden’s Chief Strategist Lobbied to Undermine Barack and Michelle Obama’s Signature Initiatives

Jimmy Dore: Krystal Ball Smacks Down Obnoxious Warren Surrogate’s Lies

Rania Khalek on the plot to steal a Sanders victory

Saagar Enjeti: Don't forget, Biden's still incredibly weak

Local NC Reporter: Despite millions Bloomberg falls flat

Wendell Potter on Bernie ruling out anti-M4A VP pick

Rising: Will Warren be a Bernie spoiler on Super Tuesday?

Rising: Why Pete, Amy, Warren were rejected by black voters

Hill Reporter: Who will have the edge in Virginia?

A Little Night Music

Noble “Thin Man” Watts & June Bateman - What Ya Gonna Do

Noble “Thin Man” Watts - Hot Tamales

Noble “Thin Man” Watts - Flap Jack

Paul "Hucklebuck" Williams w/Noble Watts - Suggie Duggie Boogie Baby

Noble “Thin Man” Watts - Jookin'

June Bateman w/Noble Watts - I Don't Wanta

Noble “Thin Man” Watts - Easy Going

Noble Watts - Blast Off

Noble “Thin Man” Watts & June Bateman - Possum Belly Overalls

Noble Thin Man Watts Blues To Bop 1990 Lugano