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"Why should freedom of speech and freedom of press be allowed? Why should a government which is doing what it believes to be right allow itself to be criticized? It would not allow opposition by lethal weapons. Ideas are much more fatal things than guns. Why should any man be allowed to buy a printing press and disseminate pernicious opinions calculated to embarrass the government?"

-- Vladimir Lenin

News and Opinion

Assange ruling confirms US prisons' grim record, experts say

The London court ruling that Julian Assange cannot be extradited because of the danger to his mental health and the threat of suicide is well supported by the grim record of US Supermax prisons, according to experts on the penal system. But civil liberty advocates said the ruling did nothing to deflect the threat posed by Assange’s prosecution to investigative journalism around the world.

Judge Vanessa Baraitser concluded that if the WikiLeaks co-founder had been extradited and convicted he would almost certainly have been sent to a federal maximum security, or Supermax prison – most likely to the US Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility in Florence, Colorado, known as ADX. ADX is where high-profile prisoners like the “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski, Sinaloa Cartel chief Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the Atlanta Olympics bomber, Eric Rudolph, and the British “shoe bomber” Richard Reid are held. Inmates spend 23 hours a day in an 8 x 12 ft cell, in which all the furnishings are made of concrete. ...

Experts said Baraitser also had evidence to support her finding that Assange could not be prevented from taking his own life indefinitely if he were determined to do so. There have been eight reported suicides at ADX since it opened in 1994, and many more have mutilated themselves in suicide attempts that included swallowing razor blades and cutting themselves with glass, according to a lawsuit in 2016. The rate at which ADX inmates threaten bodily harm was 10 times the US prison average according to a 2018 report.

Mexico's Lopez Obrador Wants to Give Asylum to Julian Assange

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Monday called a U.K. judge's decision not to extradite Julian Assange to the United States "a triumph of justice" and said his country would offer the WikiLeaks founder political asylum.

"Assange is a journalist and deserves a chance," López Obrador, or AMLO as he is frequently called, said at a press conference Monday. The president said that he's in favor of a pardon for Assange, who's been at the maximum-security Belmarsh prison in London since April 2019 and faces 17 counts of violated the Espionage Act.

"I'm going to ask the foreign minister... to ask the U.K. government about the possibility that Mr. Assange go free and that Mexico offer him political asylum," said López Obrador, pointing to "our tradition, which is protection." The asylum offer, he added, would be on the condition that Assange not "interfere in the political affairs of any country."

The asylum offer came the same day Judge Vanessa Baraitser of the Westminster Magistrates' Court rejected the Trump administration's attempt to extradite Assange. Her decision was based not on press freedom grounds but a "substantial" risk Assange would commit suicide in the face of the American incarceration system's harsh conditions.

"Faced with the conditions of near total isolation without the protective factors which limited his risk at Belmarsh, I am satisfied the procedures described by the U.S. will not prevent Mr. Assange from finding a way to commit suicide," said Baraitser, "and for this reason I have decided extradition would be oppressive by reason of mental harm and I order his discharge."

Lopez Obrador has previously spoken out about Assange's plight and previously called Assange's treatment in the London prison torturous.

Max Blumenthal, Eric Sirotkin, & Ray Mcgovern on Assange case twist

Democrats ask FBI to investigate Trump's Georgia phone call

Two Democrats have asked the FBI to open a criminal investigation into Donald Trump over a phone call in which he pressured Georgia state officials to overturn the presidential election in his favour. ... Ted Lieu of California and Kathleen Rice of New York, in the House of Representatives, demanded a case be opened.

“As members of Congress and former prosecutors, we believe Donald Trump engaged in solicitation of, or conspiracy to commit, a number of election crimes,” they wrote to the FBI director, Christopher Wray. “We ask you to open an immediate criminal investigation into the president.”

Under US law, it is a crime to “knowingly and willfully” deprive voters of a free or fair election. Eric Holder, a former attorney general, tweeted: “As you listen to the tape consider this federal criminal statute.”

US Covid hospitalizations at record high as Fauci warns 'it will likely get worse'

US hospitalizations from Covid-19 were at a record high on Sunday, at 125,544, as hospitals struggled to cope and providers made plans to ration care. The current surge of cases shows no signs of slowing down: 201,476 reported across the US on Sunday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The death toll reached 351,590.

Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, and others are warning that an additional surge is likely because of holiday gatherings and cold weather keeping people indoors. “It could and likely will get worse in the next couple of weeks, or at least maintain this very terribly high level of infections and deaths that we’re seeing,” Fauci told ABC on Sunday.

As the US returns to work after the holidays, states have reported record numbers of cases. In southern California, funeral homes reported being inundated with bodies.

LA's Covid crisis set to surge in wake of holidays as hospitals are inundated

The Covid catastrophe in the Los Angeles region has continued to push the healthcare system to the brink, with officials warning that the surge from the holidays and New Year’s Eve gatherings will further exacerbate the crisis in the coming weeks.

New Covid infections in LA county have been accelerating at by far the highest rate since the start of the pandemic. Over the weekend, officials announced that more than 800,000 people in the county have contracted Covid in 2020, with half of those cases occurring in December. LA mayor Eric Garcetti noted on Sunday that one person is now contracting Covid every six seconds, with one death every ten minutes.

Speaking on CBS’s Face the Nation, Garcetti said the pandemic is getting worse in his city as the virus spreads rapidly within households and people let their guard down with news of the arrival of vaccines. “This is a virus that preys off of our weakness, preys off of our exhaustion,” he said.

More than 7,500 people are hospitalized in LA county, and the hospitals in southern California continue to have zero intensive care unit (ICU) capacity. The hospitals are so overwhelmed that some ambulances are now waiting up to eight hours to offload patients. The US Army Corps of Engineers is also sending personnel to some LA hospitals to help them deal with a dwindling oxygen supply. And recently, health officials began directing ambulance crews not to transport patients to the hospital if they have virtually no chance of surviving.

New York confirms state's first case of more contagious Covid strain

New York has found its first case of the more contagious variant strain of the coronavirus initially reported in the UK, Andrew Cuomo, the governor, said on Monday.

The discovery raises concerns about threats to hospital capacity should it spread rapidly in the state, especially while efforts to get the public inoculated are behind schedule in the US, leading some states to threaten to redistribute vaccines if hospitals don’t get shots into more arms quickly.

Cuomo reported that a man in his 60s living in a town north of the state capital of Albany had the new strain.

The man, who is recovering, had not traveled recently, suggesting community spread is taking place. The variant has so far been reported in Colorado, then California, then late last week in Florida.

Ryan Grim: Is Trump Building Pretext For Strike On Iran?

US aircraft carrier stays in Gulf after Pentagon claims Iranian 'threats' against Trump

The United States has reversed a decision to bring an aircraft carrier home from the Persian Gulf, with the Pentagon saying that due to “recent threats” by Iran the USS Nimitz would stay in position.

The Nimitz has been patrolling Gulf waters since late November. In a statement issued on 31 December the acting US defence secretary, Christopher C Miller, had ordered the vessel to “transit directly home to complete a nearly 10-month deployment”.

The New York Times, quoting US officials, said this move was part of a “de-escalatory” signal to Tehran to avoid a conflict in President Donald Trump’s last days in office.

However, Miller issued a new statement on Sunday changing course. “Due to the recent threats issued by Iranian leaders against President Trump and other US government officials, I have ordered the USS Nimitz to halt its routine redeployment,” he said.

#FraudSquad

Worth a full read:

FBI Questioned a Michigan Senate Staffer After Zoom Call About Banning Tear Gas

Two officers with an FBI task force showed up at the home of a Michigan state senator’s chief of staff and aggressively questioned her about a draft bill she had discussed on a private legislative Zoom call. The bill would limit the use of tear gas by police against protesters.

The incident happened in Southfield, a suburb north of Detroit, on October 29, days before the presidential election and less than a month after the FBI had foiled a terror plot by far-right violent extremists to kidnap Michigan’s Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and seize control of the Capitol building. The men, an FBI special agent and a local police officer assigned to the task force, knocked on the door of Katie Reiter, chief of staff to state Sen. Rosemary Bayer, a Democrat. They told her that they had received a “report” about an online conversation she had participated in from her home 10 days earlier, in which she had discussed “the use of tear gas during the election,” Reiter told The Intercept. They then pressed her to answer questions about the bill’s substance and timing even after she had told them what her job was and repeatedly warned that the content of the draft legislation was confidential.

“He was very unpleasant,” Reiter said of the special agent, who stood close to her without wearing a mask and combatively asked questions while refusing to answer hers. “I said, ‘Well, you know who I work for, right? And what I do for a living?’” she recalled. “Because I figured they would have Googled before they came to my house. He said, ‘No, we have no idea who you are.’”

Reiter had discussed the proposed ban on tear gas on a private 90-minute Zoom call with Bayer and a handful of other staffers on October 19, part of a package of proposed legislation drafted in response to the George Floyd protests last summer. She believes she might have discussed the election as well, possibly strategizing about whether to introduce the draft bill before or after the November vote. But the conversation was a routine work call — and the FBI’s visit and insistent questioning raised alarming questions about how and why the legislative discussion warranted police scrutiny. ...

A spokesperson for the FBI declined to comment on the record, as did a spokesperson for Zoom. Regardless of how the FBI came to know of the call, civil rights advocates argued it was highly inappropriate for the agents to interrogate an elected official’s aide about legislative matters.

'Violence Is Being Incited': DC Braces for Trump-Endorsed Anti-Democracy Rally on Wednesday

In an effort to preempt violence, officials in Washington, D.C. on Monday warned potential attendees of Wednesday's so-called #StopTheSteal rally and related events scheduled for this week that armed protesters will be arrested by city police officers, with the assistance of 300 unarmed National Guard members who have been activated to help contain the protests.

There is "a serious threat to our democracy right now... and violence is being incited," said Muriel Bowser, the mayor of D.C., which prohibits the open carry of firearms.

Bowser encouraged people to avoid downtown this week, and anyone "looking for a fight," especially. "We will not allow people to incite violence, intimidate residents, or cause destruction in our city," the mayor said.

Since Election Day, President Donald Trump has tried to delegitimize President-elect Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential election by making unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud. Trump has also tried to intimidate officials into reversing electoral outcomes in at least one state.

Trump's coup attempt has been bolstered by the refusal of dozens of Republican lawmakers to accept the legitimacy of Biden's victory, and the outgoing president's most avid supporters across the country have likewise marched on state capitol buildings and the Supreme Court in an effort to persuade lawmakers to overturn the results. 

Having been rebuked by even his own hand-picked right-wing judges throughout the federal courts and with Congress—minus about a dozen pro-Trump senators and several dozen far-right representatives—set to certify Biden's Electoral College win on Wednesday, the president has called on his followers to descend on the nation's capitol this week to protest the results in what Politico called "MAGA's final stand."

"Trump has conned a dangerously large number of Americans into believing there was major election fraud," said journalist Steven Greenhouse.

The president tweeted Sunday that he will be attending the anti-democracy protests in D.C. The Proud Boys, a neo-fascist hate group that Trump refused to disavow during a presidential debate last September, are expected to be there, too, just one month after vandalizing Black churches and clashing with anti-fascist demonstrators in D.C. at another rally endorsed by the White House.

The Proud Boys are reportedly planning to wear all-black gear this time in an attempt to blend in with, and possibly misattribute blame for violence to, anti-fascists who typically wear all-black clothing. 

"We will be incognito and we will spread across downtown D.C. in smaller teams," Proud Boys' chairman Enrique Tarrio announced on Parler, The Hill reported Saturday.

Anticipating the heightened risk for conflict this week, D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee III provided the following warning on Monday: "Firearms are not permitted."

Ahead of Pro-Trump Protest, Proud Boys Leader Arrested for Burning BLM Banner at Black Church

Enrique Tarrio, leader of rightwing Proud Boys, arrested ahead of rallies

The leader of the Proud Boys, the violent far-right group, was arrested in Washington DC and charged with destruction of property and a firearms offense, according to local police.

The arrest of Enrique Tarrio on Monday comes ahead of pro-Donald Trump protests in Washington planned for Tuesday and Wednesday to coincide with the US Congress’ vote on Wednesday affirming Joe Biden’s election victory.

The demonstrations are organized by the Proud Boys and other rightwing activists, who falsely allege election fraud and want to see the results of the presidential election overturned in Trump’s favor.

The property destruction charges are related to Tarrio’s admitted role in burning a Black Lives Matter banner torn from a historic Black church during a previous pro-Trump protest in Washington on 12 December, which DC police and the FBI said they had been investigating as a potential hate crime. Police said Tarrio, who lives in Miami, Florida, was arrested after his arrival in the District of Columbia on Monday.

DC police said Tarrio had also been charged with possessing two high-capacity ammunition magazines, which were with him when he was arrested. The District of Columbia, which has some of the strictest firearms laws in the nation, bans the possession of firearm magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition.

"Unethical and Anti-Democratic": GOP Lawmakers & Trump Continue Push to Overturn Election Results

Revealed: David Perdue bought bank stocks after meeting financial officials

David Perdue, the Georgia Republican facing a Senate runoff election on Tuesday, has twice bought a significant number of shares in a US bank shortly after meeting with financial policy makers, raising more questions about his prolific stock trading while in office. In one case, in May 2015, Perdue bought between $15,000 and $50,000 worth of shares in Regions Financial Corporation two days after a 10-minute phone call with then treasury secretary Jack Lew.

Perdue bought additional shares in the bank two years later, on 18 May 2017, two days after a half-hour meeting with then Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen. It is not clear in either case if Perdue discussed relevant financial regulation or other market-sensitive issues with Lew or Yellen or whether the discussions influenced his decision to buy the stock.

At the time of the call with Lew, members of the Senate banking committee, on which Perdue sits, were engaged in close talks over a potential trade deal. But the purchase of more Regions stock in the wake of Perdue’s meeting with Yellen – who will be nominated to serve as treasury secretary by Joe Biden once the president-elect takes office – is possibly significant, because it came about two months before Yellen publicly discussed her support for raising the $50bn asset threshold for systemically important institutions, a change that meant Regions bank could see an easing of important financial regulations.

As Yellen’s views on the topic publicly evolved in her role as chair of the Fed, so did Perdue’s buildup of stock in Regions. Perdue separately sought to advance deregulatory legislation that would be favorable for banks like Regions, which Regions and more than a dozen other banks publicly endorsed.

"This Is Voter Suppression": 198,000 Georgia Residents Were Illegally Purged from Voter Rolls

Krystal Ball: Are Dems Full Of Sh** On $2k Checks?

Biden Ties Georgia Runoff Races to $2,000 Relief Checks

Just a day before Georgia voters will determine which party controls the U.S. Senate, President-elect Joe Biden on Monday tied the push for $2,000 coronavirus pandemic relief checks to the results of state's two runoff elections while campaigning in Atlanta for Democratic candidates Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock.

Ossoff and Warnock are facing off against Republican incumbent Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, respectively. Both Democrats winning the tight, closely watched races could pave the way for the $2,000 relief checks, which were approved by the Democrat-majority House but stalled in the GOP-controlled Senate during the last congressional session, despite support from President Donald Trump.

"Georgia—the whole nation is looking to you to lead us forward," Biden declared. "One state can chart the course not just for the next four years but for the next generation. By electing Jon and the reverend, you can make an immediate difference in your own lives—the lives of the people all across this country."

"Because their election will put an end to the block in Washington on that $2,000 stimulus check—that money that will go out the door immediately to help people who are in real trouble," he explained. "Think about what it will mean to your lives. Putting food on the table. Paying rent. Paying part of your mortgage. Paying down the credit card. Paying the phone bill, the gas bill, the electric bill."

While praising the Democratic candidates as "talented," "principled," "qualified," "decent," and "honorable," Biden said that "they are bending the arc of history towards justice and hope and progress." He also emphasized the desperate need across the country in the midst of the worsening pandemic.

"The debate over $2,000 isn't some abstract debate in Washington. This is about real lives," Biden said. "If you send Jon and the reverend to Washington, those $2,000 checks will go out the door, restoring hope and decency and honor for so many people who are struggling right now."

"If you send Sens. Perdue and Loeffler back to Washington, those checks will never get there. It's just that simple. The power is literally in your hands," he continued. "By electing Jon and the reverend, you can break the gridlock that has gripped Washington and this nation."

Biden added that "with their votes in the Senate, we'll be able to make the progress we need to make on jobs, on healthcare, on justice, on the environment, on so many other things. By electing Jon and the reverend, you'll be voting to get the states the resources they need to get the vaccines distributed."

The incoming president has joined the chorus of critics who have recently called out the Trump administration for the nation's coronavirus vaccine disruption alongside broader condemnation of Trump's Operation Warp Speed and response to the public health crisis.

"This administration has gotten off to a God-awful start," Biden said of Trump on Monday, echoing his previous remarks. "The states need more money to do the job. They need the federal government that'll work with them, not attack them and leave them out there hanging."

Noting that state and local governments need money to keep emergency responders and teachers on the job, he said that "by electing Jon and the reverend, you'll be sending a powerful message to Congress and to the country that it's time for this nation, for God's sake, to finally come together."

Will The Polls Be Wrong AGAIN In Georgia?

Despite 'Meager Numbers,' Trump Administration Removes Gray Wolves From Endangered Species List

Wildlife advocates on Monday accused the Trump administration of "willful ignorance" after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service delisted gray wolves from the Endangered Species Act after 45 years of protection, even though experts say the animals are far from out of the proverbial woods.

USFWS announced the rule change—one of over 100 regulatory rollbacks recently pushed through by the Trump administration—in October. The move will allow state authorities to treat the canines as predators and kill or protect them according to their respective laws.

In South Dakota, for example, hunters, trappers, landowners, and livestock producers are now permitted to kill gray wolves after obtaining the necessary paperwork, which includes a predator/varmint, furbearer, or hunting license. Landowners on their own property and minors under the age of 16 are exempt from licensing requirements.

In neighboring Minnesota, gray wolves will retain a higher level of protection in the northern part of the state—owners of livestock and other animals can kill wolves that pose an "immediate threat"—while in the southern two-thirds of the state people can shoot wolves that they believe pose any threat to livestock, as long as they surrender the carcass.

In Oregon, on the other hand, "wolves remain protected throughout the state," according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. "Hunting and trapping of wolves remains prohibited statewide."

Last September, Common Dreams reported that an analysis of deregulation in some Western states revealed that a record-breaking 570 wolves, including dozens of pups, were brutally killed in Idaho over a recent one-year period.

"Tragically, we know how this will play out when states 'manage' wolves, as we have seen in the northern Rocky Mountain region in which they were previously delisted," Samantha Bruegger, wildlife coexistence campaigner for WildEarth Guardians, said in reaction to Monday's delisting.

Bruegger cited the Idaho killings, as well as the situation in Washington, where last year "the state slaughtered an entire pack of wolves due to supposed conflicts with ranching interests," as proof that "without federal protections, wolves are vulnerable to the whims and politics of state management."

Monday's delisting comes despite the enduring precarity of wolf populations throughout much of the country. According to the most recent USFWS data, there are only 108 wolves in Washington state, 158 in Oregon, and 15 in California, while wolves are "functionally extinct" in Nevada, Utah, and Colorado.

"These meager numbers lay the groundwork for a legal challenge planned by WildEarth Guardians with a coalition of conservation groups to be filed later this month," said Bruegger.

Also of Interest

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

Chris Hedges: The Empire is Not Done with Julian Assange

Assange Wins. The Cost: The Crushing of Press Freedom

Caitlin Johnstone: The Assange Extradition Ruling Is A Relief, But It Isn’t Justice

Trump May Face Prosecution — but Not for His War Crimes

Official plane used by Trump will fly to Scotland just before Biden inauguration – report

'Trump Has Not Acted Alone': House Dem Demands Criminal Probe Into President—and GOP Enablers

Cleaning Up the Leftovers from Biden’s Last Bout of Leadership

Biden’s Revolving Door

Wall Street’s Casino Banks, Taking Deposits from Savers, in 1929 and Today

Matt Taibbi: 2021 Has to Be Better

Hundreds flock to Maryland park to view 'exceptional' rare bird

Rising: AOC DOES NOT Rule Out Primary For Chuck Schumer

Rising: Did Kamala FABRICATE ‘Fwee-Dom’ Story By Plagiarizing MLK?

A Little Night Music

Lem Johnson - Going Down Slow

Lem Johnson - Eatin' and Sleepin' with the Blues

Hot Lips Page (w/Lem Johnson tsax) - The Blues Jumped The Rabbit

Eddie Durham And His Band (w/Lem Johnson tsax) - I Want a Little Girl

Lem Johnson - Railroad Blues

Eddie Durham And His Band (w/Lem Johnson tsax) - Moten's Swing

Skeets Tolbert And His Street Gents (Lem Johnson vocal) - The Stuff's Out

Hot Lips Page (w/Lem Johnson tsax) - Rockin' At Ryans

Lem Johnson Deacon Of The Blues - Strolling Fool

Skeets Tolbert (w/Lem Johnson tsax) - Bouncing Rhythm

Louis Jordan (w/Lem Johnson tsax) - Flat Face

Louis Jordan (w/Lem Johnson tsax) - At The Swing Cats' Ball