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"Not long ago, if you wanted to seize political power in a country you had merely to control the army and the police. Today it is only in the most backward countries that fascist generals, in carrying out a coup d'état, still use tanks. If a country has reached a high degree of industrialization the whole scene changes.... Today a country belongs to the person who controls communications."

-- Umberto Eco

News and Opinion

The U.S.-Supported Coup in Bolivia Continues to Produce Repression and Tyranny, While Revealing How U.S. Media Propaganda Works

The U.S.-supported military coup in Bolivia has largely disappeared from western news outlets ever since the November, 2019 massacres of pro-democracy protesters by the right-wing faction that seized power. But for Bolivians, the repression and tyranny that replaced their stable and thriving democracy endures. And, predictably, the “interim President” installed after the coup, Jeanine Áñez, continues to rule the country ten months later, despite no possibility of being democratically elected, while she and her party plot how to prevent an election which all polls show will result in victory for the socialist party of toppled President Evo Morales.

What makes the coup in Bolivia and its aftermath so worthwhile to explore is not just the inherent importance of Bolivia itself: a country of 11 million people with a rich and unique ethnic, cultural and religious diversity, as well as an ample supply of the now-vital resource of lithium. It is also instructive because of how U.S. discourse evolved in support of the coup, with supposed “foreign policy experts” across the political spectrum — the Atlantic’s Yascha Mounk, Mother Jones’ editor-in-chief Clara Jeffery, former Obama official and Stanford Professor Michael McFaul, along with the Economist, the New York Times, and the Washington Post — spouting outright falsehoods to depict the destruction of Bolivian democracy as the salvation of it.

Since the coup last October, many of the key claims used to justify the ousting of Morales — most particularly claims by the Organization of American States that the election resulting in Morales’ victory was fraudulent — have been proven to have been lies. Yet not a single one of the foreign policy “experts” or media outlets have acknowledged their errors or even addressed these subsequent revelations, because they know that there are never any consequences for journalists and analysts as long as they remain subservient to the U.S. Government agenda (while the New York Times reported on the studies proving the OAS claims to be baseless, they never acknowledged that their own reporting and editorializing treated those claims as true).

Federal Court Issues Restraining Order on Federal Agents in Portland

U.S. District Judge Michael Simon today blocked federal agents in Portland from dispersing, arresting, threatening to arrest, or targeting force against journalists or legal observers at protests. The court’s order, which comes in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon, adds the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Marshals Service to an existing injunction barring Portland police from arresting or attacking journalists and legal observers at Portland protests.

Under the court order, federal agents also cannot unlawfully seize any photographic equipment, audio- or video-recording equipment, or press passes from journalists and legal observers, or order journalists or legal observers to stop photographing, recording, or observing a protest.

Noam Chomsky on Trump’s Troop Surge to Democratic Cities & Whether He’ll Leave Office if He Loses

An Air Force Special Operations Surveillance Plane Is Lurking Near Portland During Federal Crackdown

While anonymous federal agents have thrown protesters into unmarked vans and fired tear gas at Portland’s mayor in recent days, an Air Force surveillance plane designed to carry state-of-the-art sensors typically reserved for war zones has circled the Oregon city’s outskirts from above. The plane, a DO-328 “Cougar,” was spotted via the open source flight tracking website ADS-B Exchange, allowing the public to monitor its course. The Intercept reviewed this flight data, confirming tight, circular flights consistent with surveillance operations in and around Portland.

The aircraft is a twin-engine plane built in a modular fashion that allows it to be outfitted with long-range surveillance equipment suitable for supporting U.S. Special Operations commandos on the ground, according to Air Force documentation and previous public reporting. It was in Colorado earlier this month, looping over Denver and Boulder, before flying to Portland on July 19, and has been circling above Portland and its suburbs since July 21, according to publicly available flight data aggregated by websites like ADS-B Exchange. ...

The Cougar that has been orbiting Portland is registered to the 645th Aeronautical Engineering Group at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, quite a distance from Portland. The 645th previously operated under the code name “BIG SAFARI,” and was founded in 1952 to centralize the Air Force’s covert surveillance programs during the Cold War. “BIG SAFARI has long been an alternative acquisition source for certain high priority, rapid-reaction, urgent Combatant Commander needs,” former Air Force Secretary Michael Donley said in a 2010 address. A 2018 obit for former BIG SAFARI director Bill Grimes described the entity as “a secretive Air Force acquisition program for specialized special mission aircraft.”

While the Cougar’s impressive potential for wide-area wartime surveillance is clear, it’s less obvious why a warplane is flying tight circles — typically a dead giveaway of aerial surveillance — near domestic protests, or on whose orders. Last month, Motherboard reported similar surveillance flyovers by the National Guard over protests. It’s unclear whether the Air Force is engaging in active surveillance of the protesters or merely testing the plane’s capabilities to do so or doing something entirely unrelated.

DoJ to investigate federal forces' tactics in US cities as mayors condemn Trump

The justice department inspector general said on Thursday it would conduct a review of the conduct of federal agents who responded to unrest in Portland and Washington DC, following concerns from members of Congress and the public. The watchdog investigation will examine use-of-force allegations in Portland, where the city’s top federal prosecutor and mayor have publicly complained.

In Washington, investigators will look at the training and instruction provided to the federal agents who responded to protest activity at Lafayette Square, near the White House. Among the questions being studied are whether the agents followed DoJ guidelines, including on identification requirements and in the deployment of chemical agents and use of force.

The investigation was announced amid chaos in Portland, where Mayor Ted Wheeler was teargassed by federal agents as he stood outside the courthouse there. Local authorities in both cities have complained that the presence of federal agents has exacerbated tensions on the streets, while residents have accused the government of violating their constitutional rights.

These officers used to terrorise immigrants. Now they go after US citizens

The sight of unidentified federal officers in full camouflage aiming guns at protesters and press in Portland this week chilled many of us to the bone. They teargassed the crowd, shot stun guns, beat people over the head and body and made 43 arrests. Safe in the White House, Donald Trump vowed to send these shadowy forces on to other cities too. When the militia were later revealed to be US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers, I felt less shocked but more worried, because long before they targeted sweet- looking moms locking arms in backpacks and bike-helmets, these same men spent many years terrorizing immigrants. ...

At a time when immigration has almost come to a complete stop and the president is struggling to uphold his strongman image long enough to be re-elected, we should not be surprised that he is using the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) against his own citizens. The acting DHS secretary, Chad Wolf, repeatedly insisted his officers were being used against “violent anarchists” in Portland, despite incontrovertible evidence that the majority of people protesting police brutality were doing so legally and peacefully. ...

Having worked in and studied nations governed by dictators over decades, Cuny Graduate Center sociology professor Dr David Brotherton sees familiar patterns emerging. “You send these storm troopers in with no intention of restoring order, rather they are agent provocateurs stirring it up. With all the paraphernalia, the gas masks, the armored cars, what is the end game? Is it creating a feeling of ungovernability, creating a feeling that it’s all out of control? That is the point, so that he can say: ‘I’m coming in to save you.’”

Again, this fascistic savior narrative of one man needing to take back control is not a new one, it has long used both rhetorically and politically against immigrants. As most of us paid scant attention, the last couple of decades have seen millions of immigrants picked up by CBP and Ice, to be detained and even deported with little or no recourse to appeal. These include permanent legal residents, visa holders and undocumented people with long-term lives and citizen kids; a small minority with criminal records, most without. They were picked up at work, while dropping their kids to school, or in the middle of the night from their homes. In a number of cases, family members had and have no idea where their loved ones are being held. Did we think, in this deeply carceral and militarized country, that CBP and Ice would stop there?

ACLU Sues Trump Administration Over 'Unconscionable' Attacks on Portland Medics

The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon on Wednesday sued the Trump administration for assaulting, tear-gassing, and arresting volunteer medics in Portland during its crackdown on the city's ongoing protests against police brutality.

The lawsuit (pdf), which also names the city of Portland, was filed on behalf of Savannah Guest, Christopher Wise, Christopher Durkee, and Michael Martinez, four volunteer medics who say they were assaulted by the Trump administration's federal agents and Portland police during Black Lives Matter demonstrations this month.

"It was terrifying," said Guest, who on July 12 was thrown to the ground by federal agents dressed in combat fatigues as she attempted to assist an incapacitated bystander. "Every human being deserves help, but the federal agents showed no humanity or concern."

Guest's assault was captured on video:

Here is my video from Portland last night.. I had to yank my medic from the FEDS, after throwing her off the curb, he then proceeded to smack her & the ground with a batton, how is this okay?! #booptroopeugene #PDXprotests #pdx pic.twitter.com/0hJNgrrIx4

— (@stoggrd) July 12, 2020

Martinez, a graduate student at Oregon Health and Science University who was arrested in Portland on June 13 while packing up a medical tent, said he agreed to join the legal action "because many people in this country, such as George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, will never have their day in court."

"I feel it's all the more important to use whatever resources and power I have to confront this abhorrent system, which allows people in America, primarily Black people, to be beaten and killed by police without consequence," said Martinez.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon as massive protests continued in Portland, seeks a court order barring federal agents and city police from targeting and attacking medics in violation of the First and Fourth Amendments.

Top VP Contenders Diverge as Warren Votes 'Yes' and Harris Votes 'No' on Slashing Pentagon Budget to Fund Health and Education

Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris, two leading contenders for the 2020 Democratic vice presidential nomination, voted opposite ways Wednesday on an amendment to slash the Pentagon budget by 10% and invest the savings in healthcare, housing, and education in impoverished U.S. communities.

Warren, a co-sponsor of the amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), voted in favor of the measure while Harris voted against. The amendment, led by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.), was defeated by a margin of 23-77, with 24 Democratic senators voting no. See the full roll call here.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.)—one of more than a dozen potential vice presidential picks being vetted by the Biden campaign—also voted against the amendment, which would have reduced the proposed $740.5 billion Pentagon budget for fiscal year 2021 by $74 billion.

DEMOCRATS Are Servants of the War Machine!

Day After Voting Down 10% Pentagon Cut, 37 Senate Dems Join GOP to Approve $740 Billion War Budget

Hours after the Republican Party released a coronavirus relief proposal including $0 for election assistance funding and no additional funding for cities and states as the country continues to combat the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. Senate passed its version of the National Defense Authorization Act on Thursday, allocating $740.5 billion to the Pentagon.  

The annual military budget bill was passed with a vote of 86-14, with 37 Democrats joining the Republicans in supporting the proposal. View the full roll call here. 

Progressives including Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.),and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) voted against the bill.

The bill was passed a day after an amendment proposed by Sanders and Markey to cut the Pentagon's budget by 10% and redirect that funding toward significant investments in education, healthcare, and housing in poor communities—was rejected in the Senate, with a majority of Democrats siding with the GOP.

Democrats in the House also overwhelmingly joined Republicans to block a similar amendment put forward by Reps. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and Mark Pocan (D-Wis.).

The Senate bill includes $636.4 billion for the Pentagon's base budget, $25.9 billion for national security programs within the Department of Energy, and $69 billion for the Overseas Contingency Operations account.

President Donald Trump has threatened to veto the bill—on the grounds that it includes an amendment, introduced by Warren, to rename military bases which memorialize Confederate figures—but the budget was passed with more than two-thirds of the Senate's support, a veto-proof majority.

The House and Senate are now expected to reconcile their two versionsof the NDAA; the House bill includes a 3% pay raise for troops and $3.6 billion to combat China.

A Headline That Perfectly Encapsulates Mainstream Liberalism

“JUST IN: Senate Passes $740 Billion Defense Bill With Provision To Remove Confederate Names Off Military Bases” reads a headline from the digital news site Mediaite, which could also serve as a perfect diagnosis for everything that is sick about mainstream liberal orthodoxy.

The Democrat-led House and Republican-led Senate have now both passed versions of this bill authorizing three-quarters of a trillion dollars for a single year of military spending, both by overwhelming bipartisan majorities, on the condition that the names of Confederate Civil War leaders be removed from military bases.

Unsurprisingly, Security Policy Reform Institute’s Stephen Semler found a direct relationship between how much a House Democrat has been paid by the war industry and how likely they were to have voted for the bloated military budget which also obstructs any attempts to scale down troop presence in Afghanistan.

I recorded how much each House Democrat took from the defense industry so far in the 2020 election cycle and compared it to how they voted on the #NDAA and @repmarkpocan's amendment.

Results are unsurprising and yes it's about class (warfare): https://t.co/fGWz4PGiFk

— Stephen Semler (@stephensemler) July 22, 2020

This is everything that is horrible about the Democratic Party and the ideological position of mainstream liberals. Their leaders have figured out a way to trade hard objects for empty narrative. To get people to consent to almost limitless amounts of thievery, murder and exploitation in exchange for words and stories.

They’ll get rid of Confederate names on bases, but they won’t even slightly reduce the vast fortunes they’re stealing from an impoverished populace and pouring into global slaughter and oppression. They’ll kneel wearing Kente cloth, but they won’t even think about dismantling the US police state. They’ll say “I hear you, and that’s something we’re looking at,” but they’ll never intervene against plutocrats funnelling money away from the needful to add to their unfathomably vast fortunes. They’ll call you whatever gender pronoun you like, but they’ll never do anything to inconvenience the oligarchs and warmongers.

They’ll still make you fight tooth and claw for each empty concession, because otherwise they’d be devaluing the empty, imaginary currency they’re trading you in exchange for the concrete things they want. But in the end there is no amount of narrative the powerful won’t swap out for actual policy changes of substance, because narrative in and of itself has no value. Manipulators understand this distinction with crystal clear lucidity. Their victims do not.

In reality it would be a lot more truthful and authentic for the bases within the US war machine to continue to bear the names of racists, killers and oppressors, since these embody the values of that war machine far better than anything with a more pleasant ring to it. As long as you’re robbing the American people to murder brown-skinned foreigners for corporate interests and geostrategic resource control, you might as well have names which reflect such values on your war machinery.

So I say keep the Confederate names on the bases. Hell, add more of them. Add the names of Nazis, genocidal warlords and serial killers too while you’re at it. It’d certainly be a lot more honest and accurate to have a Fort Jeffrey Dahmer as part of America’s murder machine than a Fort Colin Kaepernick.

Kind of weird that House passes obscene $740 billion Pentagon budget when we desperately need $ for healthcare, not warfare, and controversy just focuses on confederate names for military bases, not $ for permanent war economy. https://t.co/w1kk35b4uk

— Medea Benjamin (@medeabenjamin) July 22, 2020

War is the single worst thing in the world. It is the most evil, insane, counter-productive, wasteful, damaging, kleptocratic and unsustainable thing that human beings do, by a very wide margin. If Americans could viscerally experience all of the horrors that are inflicted by the war machine their wealth and resources are being funneled into, with their perception unfiltered by propaganda and government secrecy, they would fall to their knees screaming with abject rage. They would be in the streets immediately forcing an end to this unforgivable savagery. Which is exactly why America has so much government secrecy and propaganda.

If Americans could see with their perceptions unmanipulated, their response to the news that $740 billion is being stolen from the American people by a sociopathic murder machine in exchange for removing the names of Confederate leaders from its bases would not be “Oh good, maybe we’ll get a Fort Harriet Tubman!” It would be rage. Unmitigated, unforgiving rage. Which is all the status quo deserves. Which is all the Democratic Party exists to prevent.

Noam Chomsky: Trump Is Using Pandemic to Enrich Billionaires as Millions Lose Work & Face Eviction

Republicans' Next Stimulus Would Slash the $600 Unemployment Boost by Hundreds

With the federal government’s $600-a-week boost in unemployment set to expire this weekend, the GOP has put together a first draft of a new stimulus that would likely cut that amount by hundreds.

On Thursday, Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell was expected to unveil a $1 trillion package which includes another round of $1,200 stimulus checks but severely cuts back unemployment from the $600-per-week boost it’s giving to workers right now. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC on Thursday that the GOP is seeking to reduce the benefit from a flat $600 per week to 70 percent of wage replacement for what workers were making before they lost their job, which would mean a cutback of at least several hundred dollars per week. ...

Notably, the Republican bill reportedly won’t include a payroll tax cut that had been pushed by the White House but had virtually no support in the Senate GOP caucus. The bill is also likely to not address the coming housing crisis, when the federal eviction moratorium expires this week, according to the Associated Press.

House Democrats already passed their own $3 trillion follow-up to the CARES Act in May, which Republicans have dismissed as an unworkable messaging bill. But there’s no guarantee that the right wing of the GOP will buy even their own party’s opening offer — Sen. Rand Paul, for instance, was apoplectic about the potential cost in a Twitter thread following a Tuesday caucus meeting.

David Dayen: How Dems Are Repeating FAILED Stimulus Strategy, Getting Rolled By GOP

GOP Coronavirus Relief Package to Include Romney Bill That Would 'Fast-Track Social Security and Medicare Cuts'

Shortly after publicly ditching one attack on Social Security—the payroll tax cut—Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell confirmed Thursday that the Republican coronavirus relief package will include legislation sponsored by Sen. Mitt Romney that one advocacy group described as an "equally menacing" threat to the New Deal program.

In a speech on the Senate floor, McConnell touted Romney's TRUST ACT as "a bipartisan bill, co-sponsored by Senate Democrats, to help a future Congress evaluate bipartisan proposals for protecting and strengthening the programs that Americans count on."

Ostensibly an effort to "rescue" America's trust fund programs, Romney's bill—first introduced last October with the backing of three Democratic senators—would initiate a secretive process that could result in cuts to Social Security and Medicare benefits, a longtime objective of lawmakers like the Utah Republican.

Romney celebrated the inclusion of his bill Thursday and pointed to statements praising the legislation from a slew of right-wing advocacy groups, including the Koch-funded organization Americans for Prosperity.

The Utah Republican's bill currently has 13 Senate co-sponsors, five of whom are members of the Democratic caucus. Last month, as Common Dreams reported, 30 House Democrats joined 30 of their Republican colleagues in endorsing the TRUST Act.

"Donald Trump and his stooges in the Senate can't stop trying to rob us of our Social Security," Alex Lawson, executive director of advocacy group Social Security Works, told Common Dreams in response to McConnell's remarks. "They will use every opportunity and every crisis—including the mass death and economic carnage from Covid—as cover for their sick desire to destroy our Social Security system."

If passed, Romney's bill would give the Treasury Department 45 days to deliver a report to Congress on America's "endangered" trust funds. Congress would then set up one "rescue committee" per trust fund with a mandate to craft legislation that—in the words of Romney's office—"restores solvency and otherwise improves each trust fund program."

Legislation proposed by the committees would receive expedited consideration in the House and Senate—meaning no amendments would be permitted. Any bill would still need 60 votes to clear the upper chamber.

"This would allow benefit cuts to be fast-tracked through Congress," said Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. "Seniors and people with disabilities need their benefits boosted, not slashed. Like payroll tax cuts, the TRUST Act is bad medicine for everyday Americans struggling to stay financially afloat, especially during the Covid crisis."

Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, warned the TRUST ACT is "a way to undermine the economic security of Americans without political accountability."

Senate Republicans are about to leave town for the weekend and 30 million Americans are just days away from losing their income. Republicans move mountains for corporations and special interests, but when it comes to helping workers their message is clear: you're on your own. pic.twitter.com/imW7TL2X5z

— Ron Wyden (@RonWyden) July 23, 2020

'Mitch better have my money': Unemployment benefits protest held outside McConnell's home

Protesters marched to the D.C. home of Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Wednesday afternoon, demanding an extension of pandemic unemployment benefits that may soon be reduced or expire.

Among the protesters were people left unemployed by COVID-19 who say a $600 a week unemployment benefit has helped them survive. ...

In addition to protesting outside McConnell's home on Capitol Hill protesters brought in two trucks, one with an electronic billboard and another pulling a trailer with a band playing go-go music on it with a banner that says "Mitch Better Have My Money."

The go-go truck is on the move again. It is followed by a caravan of cars of supporters. Turns out that was a large percentage of the traffic jam apparently.
3rd and C streets Northeast are clearing up from traffic. pic.twitter.com/MvHn33ENnA

— Tom Roussey (@tomrousseyABC7) July 22, 2020

The band was able to get within about a half-block of McConnell's home. That's as close as U.S. Capitol Police and truck restrictions near the Capitol would allow.

We’ve seen this before: Trump pretends to take coronavirus seriously, then two days later he's tweeting that it's all a hoax and we should eat our cereal with bleach. pic.twitter.com/ytxcOcAhZQ

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) July 23, 2020

US surpasses 4m Covid-19 cases as states dial back reopening

The US surpassed 4m coronavirus cases on Thursday, after more than 1,100 new Covid-19-related deaths were reported in a single day on Wednesday for the first time since late May. As states continue to dial back reopening efforts, nearly every metric for tracking the outbreak has shown a worsening spread.

“I don’t see this disappearing,” Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told tuberculosis researchers during a live stream on Wednesday. “It is so efficient in its ability to transmit from human to human that I think we ultimately will get control of it. I don’t really see us eradicating it.”

More than 915,000 new cases have been confirmed in just the past two weeks, totaling more than the entire month of June. The US has now exceeded 140,000 deaths, with Texas alone reporting a state record 197 new fatalities on Wednesday. Hospitalizations have also increased as the Associated Press reports testing facilities have been overwhelmed by the surge, creating processing delays. Some patients have waited weeks, fueling fears that asymptomatic carriers could be spreading the virus while waiting for their results.

Rep @AOC: "I do not need Rep. Yoho to apologize to me. Clearly he does not want to. Clearly when given the opportunity he will not & I will not stay up late at night waiting for an apology from a man who has no remorse over calling women & using abusive language towards women." pic.twitter.com/XKymFh3Oyf

— CSPAN (@cspan) July 23, 2020

Biden Just Made A Big Promise To His Wall Street Donors

Two weeks ago, Joe Biden rightly received praise for creating policy task forces that released a package of progressive legislative initiatives. The proposals augmented Biden’s previous legislative initiatives to change corporate behavior. The task forces were meant to unify the Democratic Party after the primary and their recommendations were blared all over the world in glowing headlines promising an era of progressive change under a Biden administration.

Then this past Monday, Biden told his Wall Street donors that actually, he is not proposing any new legislation to rein in corporate power or change corporate behavior — and this was reported exactly nowhere, even as his campaign blasted it out to the national press corps.

You don’t have to believe me, you can click here to read the full pool report that the Biden campaign distributed to the press after his teleconference fundraiser. That event was headlined by Jon Gray, a top executive at the Blackstone Group, which is a private equity behemoth at the center of the climate, health care, housing and pension crises. Blackstone executives had already donated $130,000 to the Biden campaign and $350,000 to a super PAC supporting him.

Here’s the relevant section, reviewing what Biden said:

“I come from the corporate state of American, many of you incorporated here,” said Mr. Biden. “It used to be that corporate America had a sense of responsibility beyond just CEO salaries and shareholders.”

“Corporate America has to change its ways. It’s not going to require legislation. I’m not proposing any. We’ve got to think about how we deal people back in."

Krystal and Saagar: MSNBC Viewers REVOLT After Michael Moore Warns Trump Could Still Win

The Congressional Progressive Caucus Is Trying Something New: Winning Primaries

The Congressional Progressive Caucus, fresh off a first-in-its-history win in a New York primary, is turning next to an open seat in Washington state. The CPC, founded in 1991 to organize progressives within the House Democratic caucus, has never previously been an electoral powerhouse, with its political action committee exerting its little influence by contributing $5,000 to candidates it supported.

In 2018, as the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee used its considerable weight to help centrist candidates beat progressives in open primaries, the CPC mostly stayed on the sidelines. In New York this year, the CPC finally got into the game — and got a major return on its investment. In a race to replace the outgoing Rep. Nita Lowey, the CPC set up an independent expenditure arm and spent nearly $200,000 helping Mondaire Jones clinch the nomination against a field of better-funded, more corporate-friendly candidates. Now the CPC wants to replicate that success in the race to replace outgoing Rep. Denny Heck, a leading member of the business-friendly New Democrat Coalition who is retiring after serving five terms to run for Washington lieutenant governor.

The CPC is throwing its weight behind state Rep. Beth Doglio, who backed CPC Co-Chair Pramila Jayapal during her first run for Congress in 2016 in an open primary, and has been her ally since. Out of a field of 19 Democrats in the primary in Washington’s 10th Congressional District, a solidly blue district that includes Olympia and part of Tacoma, Doglio is one of three viable candidates.

Shahid Buttar’s Bid to Unseat Nancy Pelosi Roiled by Accusations of Staff Mistreatment

The campaign of Shahid Buttar, a democratic socialist challenger to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is stumbling amid allegations of sexism and mistreatment of staff in the workplace. The allegations, which former staffers described to The Intercept, prompted the San Francisco chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America to consider a draft resolution rescinding the organization’s endorsement of the candidate.

Buttar’s campaign has faced a period of personnel turmoil since the March 3 Democratic primary, with at least 10 staffers and contractors departing. That includes his top three staffers: campaign manager Jasper Wilde, finance director Emily Jones, and field director Otto Pippenger. Most staff on Buttar’s current team started after the primary, and he no longer has a campaign manager — a change he attributed to a restructuring toward a distributed leadership model. His previous staff, he said, were resistant to empowering volunteers.

In an interview with The Intercept, Buttar denied the allegations and argued that the former employees were dressing workplace disputes in the language of harassment and discrimination. “The allegations that I’m ultimately being accused of, with respect to the campaign, are not gender-related. … It’s a staff performance issue,” he said. “What has been characterized as staff turnover is ultimately staff improvement.”

Complaints about the campaign’s culture came to a head this week, when 44 members of the DSA SF chapter — including three former Buttar campaign staffers, Patrick Cochran, Raya Steier, and Sasha Perigo — signed on to a proposed resolution to rescind their endorsement of him. The resolution cited a sexual harassment accusation from a former acquaintance — which was made public Tuesday on Medium, and which Buttar has denied — and “a pattern of abuse including but not limited to sexual inappropriate behavior with his staff and volunteers.” The Intercept could not independently corroborate the accusation by the former acquaintance or the charge of sexually inappropriate behavior.

Plastic waste entering oceans expected to triple in 20 years

Plastic waste flowing into the oceans is expected to nearly triple in volume in the next 20 years, while efforts to stem the tide have so far made barely a dent in the tsunami of waste, research shows. Governments could make drastic cuts to the flow of plastic reaching the oceans through measures such as restricting the sale and use of plastic materials, and mandating alternatives, but even if all the most likely measures are taken it would only cut the waste to little less than half of today’s levels, the analysis found.

Previous estimates put the amount of plastic reaching the oceans each year at about 8m tonnes, but the true figure is much higher at about 11m tonnes, according to the paper published in the journal Science. If current trends continue, the amount of plastic waste polluting the oceans will grow to 29m tonnes a year by 2040, the equivalent of 50kg for every metre of coastline in the world.

All the efforts made and announced so far to cut plastic waste, by governments and companies, will reduce that projected volume by only about 7% by 2040.

As McConnell Tees Up Next Aid Package With Corporate Liability as 'Red Line,' Polluters Pushing to Secure Shield Against Covid-19 Lawsuits

New lobby filings reveal that polluting industries have been working hard to secure legal protection from lawsuits stemming from the coronavirus pandemic—a shield from consequence that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell reportedly sees as a "red line" in including in the next Covid-19 aid package.

Environmental advocacy group Friends of the Earth (FOE) drew attention to the lobbying reports released this week from the Plastic Industry Association, dark money group FreedomWorks, and companies including fossil fuel giant ExxonMobil and agri-giant Smithfield Foods—whose Sioux Falls, South Dakota processing plant became a coronavirus hotspot.

"Corporate liability waivers are just the next phase of a Trump polluter bailout," FOE program manager Lukas Ross said in a statement Thursday. ...

As millions of workers spent the last three months in economic uncertainty, the new filings show how industries were working to shield themselves from blame should workers file coronavirus-related lawsuits.

According to FOE, other polluting corporations and dark money groups that lobbied for such liability protection include ConocoPhillips, the American Petroleum Institute, the Petroleum Marketers Association of America, the Chamber of Commerce, and utilities including Exelon.

The companies' aggressive push hasn't been for nothing, it appears, as Republicans look to make liability waivers a "centerpiece" of their legislative package.

Amid Disappointment Over Party's Draft Platform, 25,000+ People Urge DNC to Adopt Climate Panel's Ambitious Policies

As climate experts and advocates on Thursday continued to criticize Democratic Party officials' draft 2020 platform, the Democratic National Committee's Council on the Environment and Climate Crisis delivered petitions with over 25,000 signatures urging the DNC to incorporate the panel's bold policy recommendations.

The council, which launched in February after months of DNC Chair Tom Perez refusing to hold a climate-focused presidential primary debate, published 14 pages of recommendations in early June. Since then, the panel's proposals have been endorsed by over 150 advocacy groups including 350.org, Greenpeace USA, Sierra Club, and the Sunrise Movement.

"The council's platform, centered in equity and environmental justice, is critical to developing comprehensive policies that complete the long overdue transition to clean, renewable energy and will continue to energize voters across the country," Sierra Club national political director Ariel Hayes said in a statement Thursday.

Sierra Club collected 15,000 of the petition signatures delivered to the DNC on Thursday, according to the panel. Over 5,000 more were collected by Food & Water Action, another supporter of the panel's recommendations, which include spending $10-$16 trillion on fighting the climate emergency over a decade and various emissions and renewable energy targets.

"The outpouring of support for our recommendations has been remarkable," said Michelle Deatrick, who chairs the council. "The climate crisis is not down the road. It is here and now. And we need bold and ambitious policies to tackle it. We know Republicans won't act. That is why we need Democrats to lead."

"What's more, this is how Democrats win—the polling and other data are clear. This is not only good policy, it is good politics," added Deatrick. Polling released in mid-July by Data for Progress showed that U.S. voters, particularly Democrats, want to see candidates who are committed to achieving 100% clean energy by 2035 and creating millions of jobs as part of that transition.

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden last week unveiled a $2 trillion plan that aims to achieve a carbon pollution-free energy sector by 2035. Climate activists welcomed the plan as a "major step forward" compared with the candidate's previous proposals but also emphasized that more work needs to be done.

Earlier this week, the DNC's 2020 platform drafting subcommittee—which some critics said snubbed progressive climate activists, given the backgrounds of its 15 members—sent party delegates an 80-page draft (pdf) that the whole platform committee is set to consider on Monday and finalize before the party's August convention.

Earther's Dharna Noor, reporting on the draft Wednesday, pointed out that the climate section is longer than the party's 2012 or 2016 platforms and includes "some notable bright spots" but "still falls far short of the recommendations of leading climate scientists because it doesn't have a plan to phase out U.S. fossil fuel production or use."

Activists Ramp Up Pressure on Other Insurers After Swiss Company Ditches 'Climate-Wrecking' Trans Mountain Pipeline

Climate campaigners and Indigenous activists celebrated after reporting from Reuters revealed on Wednesday that the Swiss insurance giant Zurich will soon stop providing coverage to the Canadian government-owned Trans Mountain Pipeline, increasing the pressure on other insurers to also ditch the existing tar sands pipeline and long-delayed expansion project.

"Zurich has done the right thing by refusing to insure the Trans Mountain Pipeline any longer. Hopefully Liberty Mutual and the other companies insuring it do the right thing before the end of August and drop it too," Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs, said in a statement Thursday.

"Any company insuring Trans Mountain is complicit in violations of Indigenous rights," he explained, "because the proposed pipeline expansion does not have the consent of all impacted First Nations along the route."

"Zurich's decision to drop Trans Mountain demonstrates that it's waking up the risks of this toxic project to Indigenous land rights, local ecosystems, and the planet," said Elana Sulakshana, energy finance campaigner at Rainforest Action Network (RAN).

The decades-old pipeline has a long history of spills—including one at a pump station in British Columbia last month—and Indigenous groups and climate campaigners have spent years in court fighting against the expansion project known as TMX.

"Some of Zuirch's peers in the global insurance industry are also taking note, as eight companies now have policies that limit or end insurance coverage for tar sands," said Sulakshana. "It's way past time for Liberty Mutual and Chubb to follow suit."

Liberty Mutual is a top target of the Stop the Money Pipeline campaign, which was launched in January by a coalition of climate, youth, and Indigenous groups to pressure banks, insurers, and asset managers to "stop financing fossil fuels and deforestation and start respecting human rights and Indigenous sovereignty."

Also of Interest

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

Ocasio-Cortez delivers powerful speech after Republican's sexist remarks

Biden’s Vision for Venezuela Indistinguishable from Trump’s

If Congress Wants the War in Afghanistan, Trump Should Force them to Authorize It

Turkish Forces Move Deeper Into Iraq to Fight Kurds

Philadelphia officer captured on video pepper spraying kneeling protesters to be charged

Trump Threatens to Deploy 75,000 Federal Agents Into US Cities

The Weirdness of “Coronavirus” Hacking

'We have no market, but lots of lobsters'

2020 BIAZA photography competition: winning images from zoos and aquariums

Jimmy Dore: Joe Kennedy Votes For More Nukes and Says "Whoops"!

A Little Night Music

Frank Frost & Sam Carr - Let's go out tonight

Frank Frost - Deep blues

Frank Frost - You're so kind

Frank Frost & Sam Carr - Love I have is true

Frank Frost - Pocket full of money

Frank Frost - My Back Scratcher

The Jelly Roll Kings - Frank Frost Blues

Frank Frost - Harpin' On It

Frank Frost & Sam Carr - Jelly Roll King