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"Remember Americans, if you have a problem with the fact that your system literally makes it impossible to elect a president who isn’t pure dog shit, you are crazy and murderous and the worst person in the world."

-- Caitlin Johnstone

News and Opinion

Leaked Documents Show Police Knew Far-Right Extremists Were the Real Threat at Protests, not “Antifa”

As protests against police violence spread to every state in the U.S. and dramatic images flooded in from cities across the country, President Donald Trump and his attorney general spun an ominous story of opportunistic leftists exploiting a national trauma to sow chaos and disorder. They were the anti-fascists known as “antifa,” and according to the administration they were domestic terrorists who would be policed accordingly. But while the White House beat the drum for a crackdown on a leaderless movement on the left, law enforcement offices across the country were sharing detailed reports of far-right extremists seeking to attack the protesters and police during the country’s historic demonstrations, a trove of newly leaked documents reveals.

Among the steady stream of threats from the far-right were repeated encounters between law enforcement and heavily armed adherents of the so-called boogaloo movement, which welcomes armed confrontation with cops as means to trigger civil war. With much of the U.S. policing apparatus on the hunt for antifa instigators, those violent aspirations appear to have materialized in a string of targeted attacks in California that left a federal protective services officer and a sheriff’s deputy dead and several other law enforcement officials wounded.

The cache of law enforcement materials was recently hacked and posted online under the title “BlueLeaks,” providing an unprecedented look at the communications between state, local, and federal law enforcement in the face of the nationwide protests. In an analysis of nearly 300 documents that reference “antifa,” The Intercept found repeated instances of antifa and left-wing protesting activities cast in cartoonishly grim terms alongside more substantive reports of lethal right-wing violence and threats that have received scant mention from top Trump administration officials.

“Throughout the documents you see counterterrorism agencies using extremism so broadly as to mean virtually anything that encompasses dissent,” Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU’s National Security Project, told The Intercept. “There are instances in which people engaging in white supremacist violence get the benefit of the doubt as potential lone offenders, while people of color and those who dissent against government injustice are smeared as threats with guilt by association.”

Michael German, a former FBI agent specializing in domestic terrorism and current fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice, said the materials were rife with examples of law enforcement intelligence being politicized in ways that endangered both protesters and police alike. “Terrorism is distinguished from other violence by its political nature and, as a result, counterterrorism is often highly politicized as well,” German told The Intercept. “Here we’re seeing where this politicization of counterterrorism is being reflected in intelligence documents that are going out and are intended to inform state and local law enforcement on the ground.” He added: “Overall, what you see is a strange sensationalization of the antifa threats — and that doesn’t exist when looking at the boogaloo documents.” German argued that the impulse to paint both sides of the political spectrum with the same brush, despite the fact that only the far right is actively killing people, is among the most dangerous features of modern American law enforcement.

In Attempt to “Intimidate Protesters,” 87 Face Felony Charges for Kentucky Sit-In for Breonna Taylor

Dozens of Breonna Taylor Protesters Were Charged With Felonies After Sitting on the AG's Lawn

Dozens of peaceful activists are facing years in prison after protesting on the front lawn of the Kentucky attorney general’s house to demand he bring charges against the police officers who killed Breonna Taylor.

On Tuesday afternoon, a protest march through Louisville ended at the home of Daniel Cameron, the state’s top law enforcement official. Louisville Metro Police Department officials arrested 87 people in total, charging them with felonies for “intimidating a participant in a legal process,” as well as misdemeanors for trespassing and disorderly conduct.

Many protesters sat down on the lawn, some stood with arms linked, and some chanted "How do you spell murderer? LMPD" and "Whose streets? Our streets,” according to the Louisville Courier-Journal.

Kentucky law defines the felony as using “physical force or a threat directed to a person he believes to be a participant in the legal process.” A Class D felony, Kentucky’s sentencing guidelines mean that if convicted, the protesters could face a maximum of five years in prison. Those arrested Tuesday included activist Linda Sarsour and Minneapolis NAACP President Leslie Redmond, according to Washington Post. NFL wide receiver Kenny Stills of the Houston Texans was also arrested, the Courier-Journal reported.

COVID-Stricken Marc Lamont Hill: New Floyd Video Shows Familiar Ritual of Racist Police Terror

George Floyd's family sues Minneapolis over police killing

The family of George Floyd has filed a lawsuit against the city of Minneapolis, seeking damages for Floyd’s killing by the police. The lawsuit, filed in US district court in Minnesota, also names the four officers involved in Floyd’s death on 25 May, including Derek Chauvin, who knelt on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes and has since been charged with second-degree murder. ...

Lawyers for Floyd’s family said on Wednesday they had sued the city of Minneapolis for its role “as the responsible party for the Minneapolis Police Department”. The attorneys argue the city is responsible for practices and culture of policing that led to Floyd’s death.

“This complaint shows what we have said all along, that Mr Floyd died because the weight of the entire Minneapolis Police Department was on his neck,” said Ben Crump, one of the attorneys who filed the lawsuit. “The city of Minneapolis has a history of policies, procedures and deliberate indifference that violates the rights of arrestees, particularly black men, and highlights the need for officer training and discipline.

“This is an unprecedented case, and with this lawsuit we seek to set a precedent that makes it financially prohibitive for police to wrongfully kill marginalized people – especially black people – in the future.”

Seattle protesters seek recompense for injury and death linked to police action

Twelve protesters or their families have filed financial claims against Seattle, King county or Washington state following injuries and a death during recent anti-racist protests that they allege were caused by excessive force by police or due to law enforcement failing to protect them.

“You go to protest, you go for a cause, you go because you’re moved to make society better, you’re moved really in a selfless act, for most of these people who have just a passion and belief that something needs to change, something is not good here and it needs to change,” said Karen Koehler, whose firm represents most of the claimants. “And you’re met with riot police.”

Malichi Howel, 17, was protesting in the early evening on 30 May when police started firing teargas at the crowd, according to the claim. Howel tried to run, but was hit by an exploding flash-bang grenade or teargas canister that partially amputated their thumb.

Armand Avery described a scene in his own claim that took place in the same area a few hours earlier in which he and his seven-year-old son were peacefully protesting with three generations of their African American family. Within 45 minutes, he said, the pair was maced by police.

Seattle, King county and Washington have 60 days to respond to the claims and potentially resolve them before lawsuits are filed. None of the claims ask for a specific dollar amount.

California city moves to replace police with unarmed civilians for traffic stops

The city of Berkeley is moving forward with a first-of-its kind proposal to replace police with unarmed civilians during traffic stops in an effort to curb racial profiling.

After hours of emotional public testimony, councilmembers in the northern California city approved a reform measure that calls for a committee tasked with police reforms. They include removing the police department from responding to calls involving people experiencing homelessness or mental illness and finding ways to eventually cut the police budget by half. The vote also called for the creation of a separate city department to handle the enforcement of parking and traffic laws.

The plan appears to be a landmark move in a US city and comes as many regions across the country are facing growing calls to defund and dismantle police departments in the wake of George Floyd’s death. ...

At the council meeting, after residents shared personal accounts of police violence, Berkeley’s mayor, Jesse Arreguin, said he did not expect a new transportation department overnight because conversations will be hard and detailed with complicated logistics to figure out. But he said communities of color in his city feel targeted by police and that needs to change.

“There may be situations where police do need to intervene, and so we need to look at all that,” he said. “We need to look at if we do move traffic enforcement out of the police department, what does that relationship look like and how will police officers work in coordination with unarmed traffic enforcement personnel?”

Assange's father speaks out, calls oppression of WikiLeaks founder a "great crime of 21st century"

Secret Trump order gives CIA more powers to launch cyberattacks

The Central Intelligence Agency has conducted a series of covert cyber operations against Iran and other targets since winning a secret victory in 2018 when President Trump signed what amounts to a sweeping authorization for such activities, according to former U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the matter.

The secret authorization, known as a presidential finding, gives the spy agency more freedom in both the kinds of operations it conducts and who it targets, undoing many restrictions that had been in place under prior administrations. The finding allows the CIA to more easily authorize its own covert cyber operations, rather than requiring the agency to get approval from the White House.

Unlike previous presidential findings that have focused on a specific foreign policy objective or outcome — such as preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power — this directive, driven by the National Security Council and crafted by the CIA, focuses more broadly on a capability: covert action in cyberspace.

The “very aggressive” finding “gave the agency very specific authorities to really take the fight offensively to a handful of adversarial countries,” said a former U.S. government official. These countries include Russia, China, Iran and North Korea — which are mentioned directly in the document — but the finding potentially applies to others as well, according to another former official. “The White House wanted a vehicle to strike back,” said the second former official. “And this was the way to do it.”

The CIA’s new powers are not about hacking to collect intelligence. Instead, they open the way for the agency to launch offensive cyber operations with the aim of producing disruption — like cutting off electricity or compromising an intelligence operation by dumping documents online — as well as destruction, similar to the U.S.-Israeli 2009 Stuxnet attack, which destroyed centrifuges that Iran used to enrich uranium gas for its nuclear program.

Krystal Ball: Free Speech Warriors SILENT On Anti-BDS Laws

Congress Struggles to Help Constituents Access CARES Act Benefits

Congressional offices across the country have been getting slammed with constituent requests throughout the coronavirus pandemic, fielding an unprecedented volume of calls, emails, and letters from people who need help with unemployment claims or desperately need their stimulus check. Constituent service staffers say they’re getting burned out and that the Internal Revenue Service, which has been short-staffed during the crisis, has been ignoring congressional inquiries altogether.

One Democratic staffer, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press, said the “radio silence” and inability to get a response from a federal agency is unprecedented, at least in their five years of working for a member of Congress, and has proven “very demoralizing both for the caseworker and the constituent.” This staffer, alone, had taken over 1,200 calls across a span of about two and a half months.

“The IRS basically told us caseworkers to stop using our normal congressional line for tax returns or stimulus checks,” the staffer said. “They gave us this special dedicated line, and I have sent over 100 emails to that line highlighting issues that people have raised to me and I have not gotten a response.” Last week, the staffer received a response to an inquiry about a constituent’s situation for the first time since the pandemic began.

As congressional leaders prepare to face off on the possibility of a second, even more means-tested round of stimulus checks, an estimated 30 to 35 million people are still waiting to receive the first one, according to a House Ways and Means Committee report last month. Many of the people who have not received their check are among those who need it the most, including millions of Social Security recipients, people with fixed incomes or lower incomes, and homeless people. Those who haven’t received their check are being told they’ll have to wait until they file their 2020 tax return to claim it. Others, who have received an Economic Impact Payment Notice 1444 in the mail but never got the check, can request a payment trace from the IRS, which takes an estimated six to eight weeks.

Though the IRS says that more than 150 million of the stimulus payments were sent out smoothly, the process has been marred by irregularities and complicated by the closure of IRS offices and lack of adequate staffing — the result of a deliberate, yearslong defunding of the tax collection agency by the GOP. Tens of millions have fallen through the cracks, and those trying to track down their check can’t seem to get any answers.

The U.S. Coronavirus Death Toll Could Be 240,000 by November

The projected U.S. death toll from the coronavirus pandemic could climb as high as 240,000 by November 1 if lockdown restrictions continue to be eased, mandatory mask-wearing is not introduced, and spikes in states like Texas, California, and Florida continue.

The prediction comes from a University of Washington model tracked by many public health experts, and its projections are changing rapidly, and in the wrong direction. Just last week the researchers predicted 208,000 people would die in the U.S. from COVID-19 by November 1.

But on Tuesday night, the model was updated with the predicted death toll for the same period rocketing to 224,000. However, if mandatory mask-wearing in public were introduced across the country, it could save almost 60,000 lives compared to the worst-case scenario.

The sharp increase in the projected death toll comes after several weeks of major spikes in infection rates across the U.S., particularly southern and western states.

“The Pandemic Could Get Much, Much Worse”: Is Another Lockdown the Only Way to Avoid Catastrophe?

Oklahoma governor who rejected mask order tests positive for coronavirus

Oklahoma’s governor, Kevin Stitt, has become the first governor in the United States to test positive for the coronavirus. Stitt, 48, has backed one of the country’s most aggressive reopening plans, resisted any statewide mandate on masks and rarely wears one himself.

The first-term Republican governor said he mostly feels fine, although he started feeling “a little achey” on Tuesday and sought a test. He is isolating at home. He said his wife and children were also tested on Tuesday and that none of them have tested positive.

Oklahoma reported a record case increase for the second day in a row on Wednesday, with 1,075 new cases, bringing its total to 22,813. Nationally, the total number of cases is nearing 3.5m, by far the highest number in the world, and more than than 138,000 people have died.

Announcing his condition on Wednesday, Stitt insisted that he had not changed his mind on issuing a statewide mandate for wearing masks. “We respect people’s rights … to not wear a mask,” Stitt said during the news conference, which was held virtually. “You just open up a big can of worms.

“A lot of businesses are requiring it, and that’s fine. I’m just hesitant to mandate something that I think is problematic to enforce.”

Alarm as Covid-19 reaches recently contacted Amazon tribe

The Covid-19 virus has reached a remote reserve for recently contacted indigenous people in the Peruvian Amazon, despite efforts to shield the extremely vulnerable population from the pandemic.

At least six coronavirus cases have been recorded among the Nahua people, who have lived mostly in voluntary isolation since they were first contacted in the 198os. Fewer than a thousand members of the group live in the Kugapakori-Nahua-Nanti territorial reserve, an expanse of 4,556 sq km (1,763 sq miles) in Peru’s southern Amazon.

The report has prompted alarm among Amazon indigenous activists who have repeatedly warned that coronavirus could cause a disastrous repeat of previous pandemics that devastated their populations.

A 47-year-old non-indigenous man, the partner of a Nahua woman, was reportedly the first community member to show symptoms of the virus. He was initially treated for a respiratory infection until he was taken to Sepahua, the nearest town, and diagnosed with Covid-19.

Health workers say the infection could become widespread among the Nahua, who often lack immunity to introduced diseases, even the common cold.

'Pandemic Has Been Very Good for Insurance Companies': UnitedHealth Posts Largest Profit—By Far—Amid Covid-19

Insurance giant UnitedHealth Group announced Wednesday that the company posted record profits for the second quarter—doubling to more than $6.6 billion compared to the same period last year—as the coronavirus pandemic forced patients to cancel or put off elective healthcare or other treatments.

In a statement (pdf), the company attributed the "substantially higher than anticipated" earnings to "the unprecedented, temporary deferral of care in the company's risk-based businesses."

Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, summed up the financial news, tweeting, "The pandemic has been very good for insurance companies so far."

UnitedHealth Group, the parent company of Optum and UnitedHealthcare, revealed another data point which drew Levitt's attention.

"The second quarter medical care ratio was impacted by the temporary deferral of care due to the pandemic, declining to 70.2% from 83.1% last year," the company said.

Adam Gaffney, president of Physicians for a National Health Program, put those figures in clear terms.

"Incredible—as hospitals are furloughing workers and cutting wages as budgets are squeezed, UnitedHealth's profits soar. *30%* of every dollar they got in premiums this quarter didn't go for healthcare—they kept it," Gaffney tweeted.

Nancy Pelosi's CORRUPT Bailout For Her Husband's Business!

On Tax Day, Analysis Shows Billionaire Wealth Growth Since Start of Pandemic Exceeds Total Budget Deficits of 23 US States

A new study out Wednesday shows that billionaires around the U.S. have added to their wealth in the months since the coronavirus pandemic began in March at levels exceeding budget shortfalls due to the economic crisis triggered by the outbreak in 23 states.

"This analysis shows how out of whack our economy has become with handfuls of billionaires in some states experiencing skyrocketing wealth growth that even exceeds the huge state revenue gaps that have opened up due to the coronavirus," said Frank Clemente, executive director of Americans for Tax Fairness, which announced the findings for Tax Day.

Billionaire wealth is booming during the pandemic while states are drowning in red ink.

Short term: The Senate must pass the HEROES Act to keep healthcare, education, housing, transportation and other public services flowing.

After that: Make billionaires pay their fair share. pic.twitter.com/10vmp7AElC

— For Tax Fairness (@4TaxFairness) July 15, 2020

The analysis details the numbers behind billionaire wealth increases and budget shortfalls:

California's 154 billionaires saw their collective net worth leap $175 billion between March 18 and June 17, three months later. (March 18 is roughly when the coronavirus shutdown began and the date that Forbes published its annual report on the wealth of billionaires.) That's almost double the Golden State's budget gap over the next two years, estimated to be somewhere between $89 billion and $95 billion. Similarly, New York's billionaire class grew $77 billion wealthier during the "pandemic spring," a bonanza almost six times the size of the projected $13.3 billion gap in the state's budget for the fiscal year that began July 1.

As Common Dreams reported on July 7, every state but Vermont is consitutionally or statutorially banned from running a deficit, necessitating cuts when revenues are below spending projections.

Economic Policy Institute reseracher Josh Bivens told Common Dreams that budget cuts in the context of the pandemic-triggered recession are a recipe for economic disaster.

"We have noted estimates of the state and local shortfalls between now and the end of 2021 hover around $1 trillion," said Bivens, "and if we do nothing to close that gap, we'll end 2021 with roughly 5 million fewer jobs in the U.S. economy than we otherwise would have had."

Bivens added that federal aid and taxing the rich are solutions that would work to ease the financial strain on state budgets, a point that Americans for Tax Fairness' Clemente agreed with.

"A few very wealthy people in states are doing really well, while millions suffer," said Clemente. "If there ever was a wake-up call to make the rich start paying their fair share of taxes this is it."

Amazon, FedEx Workers Fought Exploitation in a Pandemic, Then Joined an Uprising

'Bye Bye Senator Collins': Victory for Democrat Sarah Gideon in Maine Sets Stage for Crucial US Senate Battle

Maine House Speaker Sara Gideon easily won the state Democratic Party's nomination for Senate Tuesday, setting up a contest with incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins in a race that is expected to garner nationwide attention as which party controls the Senate after November's general election is increasingly in question.

"The needs of Mainers are not being met right now and people desperately feel they need to be represented in a different way," Gideon told the Portland Press Herald in an interview after her victory Tuesday night.

Gideon received 69% of the vote Tuesday, beating out opponents Betsy Sweet and Bre Kidman. In remarks delivered via Facebook Live to supporters, the speaker looked to the general election fight and referred to Collins as out of touch with Mainers and a tool of the GOP establishment in Washington.

"Senator Collins has changed, and Mainers deserve better," said Gideon. "Mainers deserve a senator who will bring people together to overcome the challenges we face."

Marie Follayttar, director of Mainers for Accountable Leadership, told Common Dreams that Collins' record in the Senate has led to poor outcomes for the people of Maine, especially during the pandemic, charging that the senator is part of the same destructive GOP cabal led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and President Donald Trump.

"Senate Republicans under McConnell's control and aided by Susan Collins chose to pack our courts with extreme anti-choice judges rather than bring the HEROES Act to a vote and address the economic and healthcare needs of the people they represent during a pandemic," said Follayttar. "Eviction day looms alongside the end of a $600 pandemic unemployment assistance and Mainers are at risk for losing their housing, their jobs and their health due to the incompetent management of a pandemic."

Follayttar also ripped the Collins campaign and allied dark-money groups for their onslaught of negative ads against Gideon.

"Collins has launched her dirtiest campaign ever by engaging in gutter attacks rather than offering a vision and demonstrating that she has led on issues Mainers care about," Follayttar said.

In the wake of Gideon's primary victory, LGBTQ group Human Rights Campaign (HRC) announced it was backing the Democratic speaker over Collins, the first time the organization has not endorsed Collins during the incumbent's senatorial career.

As the Washington Post reported:

Two other influential liberal groups, Planned Parenthood and the League of Conservation Voters, had already endorsed Gideon. But the HRC held back, in part, because Gideon's more liberal primary opponents identified as bisexual and non-binary. The pro-LGBTQ Victory Fund had endorsed another Gideon opponent; in March, that candidate ended his bid and supported the front-runner.

The race is sure to attract national attention as Collins is seen as a weak incumbent who would lose her seat and possibly shift the balance of power in the Senate.

Trump replaces campaign manager 4 months ahead of presidential poll amid sinking popularity

Republican congressman charged with felonies related to illegal voting

Steve Watkins, a Republican congressman in Kansas, was charged with three felonies and a misdemeanor on Tuesday related to illegally voting in a 2019 local race. The charges came in a state where Republicans have for years made claims of widespread non-citizen voting, with little evidence.

Prosecutors did not provide details of the charges, but said they were related to a 2019 local election. The Topeka Capital-Journal previously reported that Watkins changed his voter registration address to a local UPS store in Topeka in August 2019. He made the change to hide that he was living with his parents at the time, according to the Kansas City Star. Watkins also allegedly lied to a detective about the matter in February, according to court documents obtained by the Star.

Watkins’ change of address was significant because it placed him in a city council district different than the one he was actually living in. The city council district race Watkins voted in was decided by just 13 votes in November 2019, according to the Capital-Journal.

Watkins, a first-term congressman who represents the eastern part of Kansas, was charged with voting without being qualified, marking/transmitting more than one advance ballot, and obstructing law enforcement. He was also charged with a misdemeanor for failing to notify the state of a change of address.

Nature-led coronavirus recovery could create $10tn a year, says WEF

Tackling the global nature crisis could create 400m jobs and $10tn (£8tn) in business value each year by 2030, according to a report published by the World Economic Forum.

The report warns that when the world recovers from the coronavirus pandemic there can be no business-as-usual, with today’s destruction of the natural world threatening over half of global GDP. In 2019 scientists warned that human society was in jeopardy from the accelerating decline of the Earth’s natural life-support systems.

The report, from the New Nature Economy project, published by the WEF, says a nature-first approach from business and political leaders will be a jobs-first solution. “There will be no jobs or prosperity on a dead planet,” said Alan Jope, chief executive of Unilever and a WEF partner.

WEF, which brings together leaders and hosts the annual Davos summit, said three sectors were responsible for endangering 80% of threatened species – food and land use, infrastructure and building, and energy and mining. But it said these sectors also had the most to gain from a nature-led recovery. The report says: “We are reaching irreversible tipping points for nature and climate. If recovery efforts do not address the looming planetary crises, a critical window of opportunity to avoid their worst impact will be irreversibly lost. Decisions on how to deploy the post-Covid crisis stimulus packages will likely shape societies and economies for decades.” ...

The WEF report proposes a range of measures for boosting jobs and economies, such as cutting food waste by providing metal silos and crates to keep food from rotting. Better management of wild fish too could boost catches and add 14m jobs and $170bn in value, it says. It is also vital to end the $2bn subsidies given daily to agriculture which damage the planet, the WEF report says.

World population in 2100 could be 2 billion below UN forecasts, study suggests

Global population growth may peak sooner than expected if the lot of women continues to improve, according to a study that says the world’s population could be 2 billion below UN forecasts by the end of the century. Such a fall would remove some of the projected strain on natural resources but would present governments with stark policy choices over migration and the economy.

The world’s population will peak at 9.7 billion in 2064 and decline to 8.8 billion by the end of the century, according to research led by the University of Washington in the US and published in the Lancet. It says some countries, including Japan, Spain and Italy, will see their populations halve, while sub-Saharan Africa’s population will triple in the next 80 years.

'We Will Sue,' Vow Green Groups After Trump Guts Nation's Key Environmental Law

A number of environmental protection groups on Wednesday announced their intention to bring the Trump administration to court directly after President Donald Trump announced his finalized plan to roll back the National Environmental Policy Act.

By weakening the 50-year-old law known as NEPA, the president will end the system of thorough environmental impact reviews, which are meant to keep infrastructure projects from damaging biodiversity, polluting waterways and residential areas, and threatening the climate.

Trump announced the sweeping changes to the law at a campaign stop in Atlanta Wednesday afternoon, touting the plan as one that will "modernize" and "streamline" infrastructure projects as environmental reviews will need to be completed within two years.

The Western Environmental Law Center rejected the administration's euphemisms for what it called Trump's attempt to "eviscerate...the single most important safeguard for environmental justice, public health, and environmental protection in the U.S."

"This does not represent 'streamlining,' a 'revision,' a 'modernization,' or any such minimization of the very real effects this will have for Americans and the clean air and water we require to exercise our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," said Brian Sweeney, communications director for the group. "This overreach will also deliberately and massively curtail public input on major federal decision-making. Dramatic? Yes. This is a rewrite of a law written by Congress, without Congressional action. We will sue over this."

Environmental law group Earthjustice also announced soon after the president's remarks that it will file a lawsuit against the administration.

Also of Interest

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

Intercepted podcast: The Revolutionary Life of Paul Robeson: Scholar Gerald Horne on the Great Anti-Fascist Singer, Artist, and Rebel

101 Organizations Call on Congress to Enact $1.5 Trillion Student Debt Jubilee as Part of Covid-19 Relief

Hack of 251 Law Enforcement Websites Exposes Personal Data of 700,000 Cops

Every Billionaire Is A Predator: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

'The Real Fiscal Cliff': McConnell Drags His Feet as 30 Million Are Set to Lose Unemployment Benefits in 10 Days

Progressive Wave Rolls Through Texas With Big Wins in Dallas, Austin, and Houston

Warnings Grow: “We Are in a Massive Economic Downturn”

Feeling and Acting Powerful in Catastrophic Times

Emmanuel Macron accosted by gilets jaunes as he takes Bastille Day walk

‘Cancel Culture’ Letter Really About Stifling Free Speech

Congress has the legal power to investigate Silicon Valley. Let's make it count

Failing Test for Green Recovery, Tracker Shows G20 Nations Pumping $151 Billion Into Fossil Fuel Industry Amid Pandemic

'Travel without moving': how people are seeing the world through strangers' windows

Chuck Todd CLAIMS There Is 'No Editorial Bias' On MSNBC

Funky Academic: How Our Education System Churns Out Corporatists

Former Guantanamo Prosecutor Running AGAINST Madison Cawthorn Makes His Case

Saagar Enjeti: Trump, GOP, On Wrong Side Of EVERYTHING Since Coronavirus Began

A Little Night Music

Bessie Smith - Alexander's Ragtime Band

Bessie Smith - Muddy Water (A Mississippi Moan)

Bessie Smith - Cake Walking Babies

Bessie Smith - Foolish Man Blues

Bessie Smith - Jazzbo Brown From Memphis Town

Bessie Smith - Empty Bed Blues

Bessie Smith - Backwater Blues

Bessie Smith - I'm Wild About That Thing

Bessie Smith - Send Me To The Electric Chair