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"We live in an age which is so possessed by demons, that soon we shall only be able to do goodness and justice in the deepest secrecy, as if it were a crime."

-- Franz Kafka

News and Opinion

Hedges: The Execution of Julian Assange

Let us name Julian Assange’s executioners. Joe Biden. Boris Johnson. Scott Morrison. Theresa May. Lenin Moreno. Donald Trump. Barack Obama. Mike Pompeo. Hillary Clinton. Lord Chief Justice Ian Burnett and Justice Timothy Victor Holroyde. Crown Prosecutors James Lewis, Clair Dobbin and Joel Smith. District Judge Vanessa Baraitser. Assistant US Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia Gordon Kromberg. William Burns, the director of the CIA. Ken McCallum, the Director General of the UK Security Service or MI5. Let us acknowledge that the goal of these executioners, who discussed kidnapping and assassinating Assange, has always been his annihilation. That Assange, who is in precarious physical and psychological health and who suffered a stroke during court video proceedings on October 27, has been condemned to death should not come as a surprise. The ten years he has been detained, seven in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and nearly three in the high security Belmarsh prison, were accompanied with a lack of sunlight and exercise and unrelenting threats, pressure, anxiety and stress. “His eyes were out of sync, his right eyelid would not close, his memory was blurry,” his fiancé Stella Morris said of the stroke.

His steady physical and psychological deterioration has led to hallucinations and depression. He takes antidepressant medication and the antipsychotic quetiapine. He has been observed pacing his cell until he collapses, punching himself in the face and banging his head against the wall. He has spent weeks in the medical wing of Belmarsh. Prison authorities found “half of a razor blade” hidden under his socks. He has repeatedly called the suicide hotline run by the Samaritans because he thought about killing himself “hundreds of times a day.” The executioners have not yet completed their grim work. Toussaint L’Ouverture, who led the Haitian independence movement, the only successful slave revolt in human history, was physically destroyed in the same manner, locked by the French in an unheated and cramped prison cell and left to die of exhaustion, malnutrition, apoplexy, pneumonia and probably tuberculosis.

Assange committed empire’s greatest sin. He exposed it as a criminal enterprise. He documented its lies, callous disregard for human life, rampant corruption and innumerable war crimes. Republican or Democrat. Conservative or Labour. Trump or Biden. It does not matter. The goons who oversee the empire sing from the same Satanic songbook. Empires always kill those who inflict deep and serious wounds. Rome’s long persecution of the Carthaginian general Hannibal, forcing him in the end to commit suicide, and the razing of Carthage repeats itself in epic after epic. Crazy Horse. Patrice Lumumba. Malcolm X. Ernesto “Che” Guevara. Sukarno. Ngo Dinh Diem. Fred Hampton. Salvador Allende. If you cannot be bought off, if you will not be intimidated into silence, you will be killed. The obsessive CIA attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro, which because none succeeded have a Keystone Cop incompetence to them, included contracting Momo Salvatore Giancana, Al Capone’s successor in Chicago, along with Miami mobster Santo Trafficante to kill the Cuban leader, attempting to poison Castro’s cigars with a botulinum toxin, providing Castro with a tubercle bacilli-infected scuba-diving suit, booby-trapping a conch shell on the sea floor where he often dived, slipping botulism-toxin pills in one of Castro’s drinks and using a pen outfitted with a hypodermic needle to poison him.

The current cabal of assassins hide behind a judicial burlesque overseen in London by portly judges in gowns and white horse-hair wigs mouthing legal Alice-in-Wonderland absurdities. It is a dark reprise of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Mikado with the Lord High Executioner drawing up lists of people “who would not be missed.”

[More at the link. -js]

'Stomach-Wrenching' Report Reveals Secret US Strike Command's High Civilian Death Toll

Peace advocates on Monday responded to a report about a U.S. military unit that killed Syrian civilians at 10 times the rate of similar operations in other theaters of the so-called War on Terror by accusing the United States of hypocritically sanctioning countries while committing atrocities of its own, and by reminding people that there is no such thing as a "humane" war.

On Sunday, The New York Times reported the existence of Talon Anvil, a "shadowy force" that "sidestepped safeguards and repeatedly killed civilians" in aerial bombardments targeting militants in Syria. The unit "worked in three shifts around the clock between 2014 and 2019, pinpointing targets for the United States' formidable air power to hit: convoys, car bombs, command centers, and squads of enemy fighters."

"But people who worked with the strike cell say in the rush to destroy enemies, it circumvented rules imposed to protect noncombatants, and alarmed its partners in the military and the CIA by killing people who had no role in the conflict," the paper reported, including "farmers trying to harvest, children in the street, families fleeing fighting, and villagers sheltering in buildings."

Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the peace group CodePink, told Common Dreams Monday that "it is stomach-wrenching to read how secret U.S. teams in Syria run by low-level officers made life-and-death decisions about when and where to drop 500-pound bombs."

"Years later, we hear about all the civilians obliterated but are left with a fait accompli and no accountability," she added. "This, let's remember, is coming from the nation that just hosted a 'Summit for Democracy' where we droned on and on about human rights."

Larry Lewis, a former Pentagon and State Department adviser who co-authored a 2018 Defense Department report on civilian harm, told the Times that Talon Anvil's civilian casualty rate was 10 times higher than in operations he tracked in Afghanistan.

One former Air Force intelligence officer who worked on hundreds of Talon Anvil missions said those who ordered the strikes "were ruthlessly efficient and good at their jobs, but they also made a lot of bad strikes."

In one of the deadliest of those "bad strikes," scores of civilians were killed in a March 18, 2019 airstrike on a crowd of mostly women and children in Baghuz. It was a so-called "double-tap" strike—first, an F-15E fighter jet dropped a 500-pound bomb; then another warplane dropped a 2,000-pound bomb to kill most of the survivors. U.S. military officials then attempted to cover up the apparent war crime.

TheTimes said there were attempts by Talon Anvil members to "blunt criticism and undercut potential investigations," with personnel "directing drone cameras away from targets shortly before a strike hit, preventing collection of video evidence."

As errant strikes and civilian casualties mounted, so did internal protests. According to the Times:

Pilots over Syria at times refused to drop bombs because Talon Anvil wanted to hit questionable targets in densely populated areas. Senior CIA officers complained to Special Operations leaders about the disturbing pattern of strikes. Air Force teams doing intelligence work argued with Talon Anvil over a secure phone known as the red line. And even within Talon Anvil, some members at times refused to participate in strikes targeting people who did not seem to be in the fight.

Talon Anvil began during former President Barack Obama's war against the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and continued through much of the Trump administration, which escalated airstrikes against ISIS—with devastating consequences for noncombatants.

Thousands of civilians died in Syria and Iraq; in the wider 20-year so-called War on Terror, around 900,000 men, women, and children have been killed by U.S.-led bombs and bullets, according to the Costs of War Project at Brown University's Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs.

"There is no such thing as a 'humane' war, much as we might want there to be," Joel Mathis wrote for The Week. "Since the emergence of 'smart bomb' weaponry during the first Gulf War three decades ago—and especially since drone strikes became a tool against suspected terrorists and even U.S. citizens under President Obama—the American government and its allies have tried to convince the public that they can and do inflict fearsome destruction on their enemies, but with a rigor that allows them to largely avoid causing injury and death to bystanders. It's never really worked out that way."

Writing for World Socialst Web Site, Patrick Martin accused the Times of "the ultimate hypocrisy."

"Its news pages detail atrocities committed by the American government in Syria," he noted. "More than 10 years ago, however, Julian Assange and WikiLeaks made public the Iraq and Afghanistan war diaries, internal U.S. military reports that documented countless cases of the American military killing civilians, including the haunting 'Collateral Murder' video that shows an Apache helicopter gunship slaughtering a dozen people in Iraq, including two Reuters journalists."

"But," Martin added, "the Times says not a word in defense of Assange, who is in imminent danger of extradition to the United States for trial, imprisonment, and potential execution by the very government that is responsible for the crimes detailed by the Times."

America's Loser Generals Finally Win Big... Paychecks With the Military-Industrial Complex

Yes, four-star General Lloyd Austin commanded American forces in Iraq back in 2010 and 2011. In 2013, he took over from General James Mattis (remember him?) as the head of United States Central Command, or CENTCOM, overseeing America’s wars in the Greater Middle East and Afghanistan (where he had earlier commanded troops himself). Retiring from the Army in 2016, he promptly joined the board of directors of weapons giant Raytheon Technologies. When he became secretary of defense for President Biden and divested himself of his Raytheon shares, it was estimated that he had made $1.7 million from that company alone and he was then believed to be worth $7 million. As for James Mattis, who had left the U.S. military to become a board member for another major weapons maker, General Dynamics, he was believed to be worth $10 million when he came out of retirement as Donald Trump’s secretary of defense.

And all of that turns out to be pretty standard for the losing military commanders of our war-on-terror years. As Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post discovered, having been a commander in one or more of America’s failed wars of this century generally proved an all-too-lucrative calling card in the military-industrial complex. “The eight generals who commanded American forces in Afghanistan between 2008 and 2018,” he wrote, “have gone on to serve on more than 20 corporate boards.” Stanley McChrystal, who oversaw the famed (and disastrous) “surge” in Afghanistan in 2009 and 2010, was on a record 10 of those (and was known to have been paid a million dollars by just one of them). He would even form the McChrystal Group, which, as Peter Maass pointed out recently at the Intercept, “has more than 50 employees and provides consulting services to corporate and government clients.”

Do you remember how, in all those years commanding troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, America’s generals regularly saluted our remarkable progress there and no less regularly insisted that the U.S. military had “turned a corner” in each country? As early as 2004 in Iraq, for instance, Major General Charles Swannack, Jr., commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, claimed “that we’ve turned that corner. I can also tell you that we are on a glide path towards success.” In 2010, General McChrystal would similarly claim that the U.S. had “turned the corner” in Helmand Province in the embattled poppy-producing southern heartland of Afghanistan. In 2017, General John Nicholson, then the U.S. commander there, would stare cheerily into the future, saying: “Now, looking ahead to 2018, as [Afghan] President [Ashraf] Ghani said, he believes we have turned the corner and I agree.” And so it went, year after year after year.

As it happened, it was all fantasy. Only when America’s generals retired and stepped through that infamous “revolving door” of the military-industrial complex did things change. I think you could say accurately, in fact, that that was the moment when each of them finally “turned a corner” triumphantly. As retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, historian, and TomDispatch regular William Astore just wrote, we have a military in which the losses are all on the battlefield and the gains in Congress as well as in the very military-industrial complex which only continues to soar like a missile in a moment when so many other parts of this society are sinking fast.

Slow learner Trump has a momentary flash of lucidity:

Trump: I thought Israelis would do anything for peace, but found that not to be true

In newly released interview excerpts Saturday, former United States president Donald Trump offered more startlingly frank views on Israel’s leadership during his time in office, a day after he was quoted in an astounding assault on ex-premier Benjamin Netanyahu.

In the latest taped comments broadcast by Channel 12, Trump said he believed Netanyahu “did not want to make peace. Never did”; claimed he prevented the Israeli leader from annexing West Bank land (“I got angry and I stopped it”); offered his favorable opinion on Defense Minister Benny Gantz (“I think [he] wanted to make a deal… if he won, I think it would be a lot easier”); and his evolving view on the Israel-Palestinian conflict (“I [had] thought the Palestinians were impossible, and the Israelis would do anything to make peace and a deal. I found that not to be true”). ...

“Bibi did not want to make a deal,” he said, using Netanyahu’s nickname. “Even most recently, when we came up with the maps” as part of his administration’s peace plan, Netanyahu’s reaction was “‘Oh this is good, good,’ everything was always great, but he was never… he did not want to make a deal.

“Now I don’t know if he didn’t want to make it for political reasons, or for other reasons. I wish he would have said he didn’t want to make a deal, instead of…. Because a lot of people devoted a lot of work. But I don’t think Bibi would have ever made a deal. That’s my opinion. I think the general [Gantz] wanted to make a deal.”

Trump said he believed that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas “wanted to make a deal more than Netanyahu. And I will be honest, I had a great meeting with him, Abbas, right. I had a great meeting with him. And we spent a lot of time together, talking about many things. And it was almost like a father. I mean, he was so nice, couldn’t have been nicer.”

Lawmakers CAUGHT Making Millions In ILLEGAL Stock Trades

“No Rules” A Border Patrol Unit Worked with the FBI to Investigate Journalists. Is It Still Running?

AP seeks answers from US gov’t on tracking of journalists

The Associated Press sought answers Monday from the Department of Homeland Security on its use of sensitive government databases for tracking international terrorists to investigate as many as 20 American journalists, including an acclaimed AP reporter.

In a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, AP Executive Editor Julie Pace urged the agency to explain why the name of Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Martha Mendoza was run through the databases and identified as a potential confidential informant during the Trump administration, as detailed in a report by Homeland Security’s inspector general.

“This is a flagrant example of a federal agency using its power to examine the contacts of journalists,” Pace wrote. “While the actions detailed in the inspector general’s report occurred under a previous administration, the practices were described as routine.”

The DHS investigation of U.S. journalists, as well as congressional staff and perhaps members of Congress, which was reported by Yahoo News and AP on Saturday. It represents the latest apparent example of an agency created in the wake of the 9/11 attacks using its vast capabilities to target American citizens.

Manchin PROVES Progressives LIED On Infrastructure Bill

South Dakota teachers scramble for dollar bills in ‘demeaning’ game

A competition pitting 10 teachers against each other to scramble for dollar bills to fund school supplies in a city in South Dakota has been described as “demeaning” and drawn comparisons with the Netflix hit series Squid Game.

The local newspaper the Argus Leader reported $5,000 (£3,770) in single dollar bills were laid out on the ice skating rink during the Sioux Falls Stampede hockey game on Saturday night, and the teachers from nearby schools competed to grab as many as possible in less than five minutes.

Footage of the competition that went viral on social media showed teachers stuffing the notes down their jumpers and into hats while the audience cheered.

The money was reportedly donated by CU Mortgage Direct to fund teaching supplies and classroom repairs.

“With everything that has gone on for the last couple of years with teachers and everything, we thought it was an awesome group thing to do for the teachers,” Ryan Knudson, a marketing spokesperson for CU Mortgage Direct, told the Argus Leader.

Striking Kellogg’s Workers Vow to Hold Out for Better Contract, Urge Boycott of Company’s Products

Yearly Wages of Most US Workers Grew Just 28% Since 1979 But 'Skyrocketed' for Top 0.1%

Wage inequality in the United States has continued unabated for over four decades, according to an analysis published Monday by a Washington, D.C.-based economic think tank.

Economic Policy Institute (EPI) distinguished fellow Lawrence Mishel—the group's former president—and research assistant Jori Kandra looked at the Social Security Administration's newly available wage data for 1979 to 2020.

The pair found that while the annual wages of the bottom 90% of American workers grew just 28.2% during that period, wages of the top 1.0% and 0.1% "skyrocketed" by 179.3% and 389.1%, respectively.

They noted that "the other segments of the top 10% also had faster-than-average wage growth since 1979, up 53.9% and 83.1%, but nowhere near as fast as the wage growth at the top."

"This continuous growth of wage inequality undercuts wage growth for the bottom 90%," Mishel and Kandra wrote, "and reaffirms the need to place generating robust wage growth for the vast majority and rebuilding worker power at the center of economic policymaking."

"This disparity in wage growth reflects a sharp long-term rise in the share of total wages earned by those at the very top: The top 1.0% earned 13.8% of all wages in 2020, up from 7.3% in 1979," according to the pair.

"That marks the second-highest share of earnings for the top 1.0% since the earliest year, 1937, when data became available (matching the tech bubble share of 13.8% in 2000 and below the share of 14.1% in 2007)," they continued. "The share of wages for the bottom 90% fell from 69.8% in 1979 to just 60.2% in 2020."

The findings come as the economy and job market are still recovering from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic—and people who struggled to stay employed during the public health crisis are still dealing with the loss of expanded federal unemployment assistance.

“Our Movement Is Growing”: How Starbucks Workers in Buffalo Fought Company’s Union Busting and Won

Strike Wave in the U.S.? Labor Historian Nelson Lichtenstein on Union Drives & Worker Revolts

Mom demands answers in Black man’s deadly Louisiana arrest

Ronald Greene’s mother chastised Louisiana lawmakers Monday for not acting quickly enough to hold state troopers accountable for her son’s deadly 2019 arrest, saying the Black motorist’s death at the end of a high-speed chase was a “murder” that’s been covered up, sugarcoated and mired in bureaucracy.

“I’m so damn mad at the fact that I’m talking to people who have it in their power to make things happen,” Mona Hardin said through tears. “I’ve been wandering around in a cloud of confusion just wondering: What does it take for the state of Louisiana to recognize the murder of a man? What does it take to get answers?” Hardin’s testimony underscored the tension building in Louisiana as federal and state prosecutors prepare to seek the first criminal charges in the case.

Troopers initially blamed Greene’s death on a car crash on a rural roadside outside Monroe. But long-withheld body-camera video obtained and published by The Associated Press in May instead showed white troopers punching, stunning and dragging Greene as he pleaded for mercy and repeatedly wailed, “I’m scared!”

A federal civil rights probe into the case has since broadened to include the beatings of several other Black motorists and whether state police brass broke the law to protect troopers. Greene’s death was among at least a dozen cases over the past decade in which an AP investigation found state troopers or their bosses ignored or concealed evidence of beatings, deflected blame and impeded efforts to root out misconduct.

Derek Chauvin expected to plead guilty to violating George Floyd’s civil rights

Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer, appears to be on the verge of pleading guilty to violating George Floyd’s civil rights, according to a notice sent out Monday by the court’s electronic filing system. The federal docket entry shows a hearing has been scheduled for Wednesday for Chauvin to change his current not guilty plea in the case. These types of notices indicate a defendant is planning to plead guilty.

Chauvin has already been convicted of state murder and manslaughter charges for pinning his knee against Floyd’s neck as the Black man said he couldn’t breathe during a 25 May 2020 arrest. He was sentenced to 22 1/2 years in that case. ...

Chauvin and three other former officers – Thomas Lane, J Kueng and Tou Thao – were set to go to trial in late January on federal charges alleging they willfully violated Floyd’s rights. The information sent out Monday gives no indication that the other officers intend to plead guilty.

Capitol attack panel set to recommend contempt charges against Mark Meadows

The House panel investigating the 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol is set to recommend contempt charges against former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows on Monday as lawmakers are releasing new details about thousands of emails and texts he has handed over to the committee.

In laying out the case for the contempt vote, the nine-member panel released a 51-page report late on Sunday that details its questions about the documents he has already provided – including 6,600 pages of records taken from personal email accounts and about 2,000 text messages. ...

The panel says it also wants to know more about whether Trump was engaged in discussions regarding the response of the National Guard, which was delayed for hours as the violence escalated and the rioters brutally beat police guarding the Capitol building. ...

The contempt vote comes after more than two months of negotiations with Meadows and his lawyer and as the panel has also struggled to obtain information from some of Trump’s other top aides, such as his longtime ally Steve Bannon.

Lucas Kunce: Can Populist Dem WIN In Deep Red Missouri?

Revealed: Biden administration was not legally bound to auction gulf drilling rights

The Biden administration admitted that a court decision did not compel it to lease vast tracts of the Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas drilling, shortly before claiming it was legally obliged to do so when announcing the sell-off, the Guardian can reveal.

Last month, the US government held the largest-ever auction of oil and gas drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico’s history, offering up more than 80m acres of the gulf’s seabed for fossil fuel extraction. The enormous sale, which took place just four days after crucial UN climate talks in Scotland, represented a spectacular about-turn from Joe Biden’s previous promise to halt offshore drilling and was denounced by outraged environmental groups as a “huge carbon bomb”.

The president’s administration insisted it was obliged to hold the lease sale due to a court ruling in favor of a dozen states that sued to lift a blanket pause placed on new drilling permits by Biden. But a memo filed by the US Department of Justice before the lease sale acknowledges that this judgement does not force the government to auction off drilling rights to the gulf.

“While the order enjoins and restrains (the department of) interior from implementing the pause, it does not compel interior to take the actions specified by plaintiffs, let alone on the urgent timeline specified in plaintiffs’ contempt motion,” wrote government lawyers to the federal court in Louisiana in August. The issuance of new drilling permits would require further steps under federal laws, the memo states, adding that “the court’s order does not compel the agency to act in contravention of these other authorities”.

Biden Interior Dept Quietly Plans to Strip Protections From Key Species

Conservation advocates accused the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of "deep rot within the agency" Monday as they condemned the Biden administration's plan to weaken or eliminate protections for several endangered species—a step that officials appear to be taking without any consideration for the threats the climate crisis poses to the animals.

Writing to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, Interior Department Inspector General Mark Lee Greenblatt, and other officials, the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) demanded to know why the USFWS would decide now to reduce protections for species including the Florida panther, the Key deer, the Canada lynx, and the whooping crane.

In the case of the latter three, the group slammed the service's proposal—buried in the regulatory agenda it released late last week—to downlist the species.

The Key deer, which make their habitat in the Florida Keys, face impending sea level rise in "some of the most imperiled parts of the United States due to climate change," wrote the group, with nearly 90% of the Keys lying less than five feet above sea level—yet the recovery plan released in the service's regulatory agenda "does not include a single recovery action to address habitat loss from sea-level rise."

In the case of the whooping crane, which migrates each year to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in Texas. Aransas faces rising sea levels and more frequent, severe hurricanes, both of which threaten the blue crab—the crane's primary food source.

The USFWS has proposed a review that may result in the downlisting of the crane, even though the recovery plan for the bird states that the Texas population must reach 1,000 cranes or a second migratory population reaches more than 120 cranes for a decade before a review of its status is warranted.

"Neither of these criteria have been reached, and the whooping crane still remains one of the rarest birds in the world," wrote the CBD. "Why would the service reduce protections now?"

In the case of the crane and the Key deer, the group suggested that instead of making decisions regarding downlisting "after gathering and analyzing the best available science," the agency has already decided to reduce protections for the species and the science will now be "manipulated to achieve a political, predetermined outcome."

"The Fish and Wildlife Service is thumbing its nose at President Biden's directive to federal agencies to follow the best available science in all decisions, especially those relating to climate change," said Brett Hartl, government affairs director for CBD, referring to an executive order introduced by Biden just after he was inaugurated. "We'd hoped that the horrific anti-wildlife tactics so often employed during the Trump era had ended, but it appears we were wrong."

Big California storm dumps snow, drenches parched regions

Motorists spun out on whitened mountain passes and residents wielded umbrellas that flopped in the face of fierce winds as Northern California absorbed even more rain and snow on Monday, bringing the possibility of rockslides and mudslides to areas scarred by wildfires following an especially warm and dry fall across the U.S. West. ...

The multiday storm, a powerful “atmospheric river” weather system that is sucking up moisture from the Pacific Ocean, raised the threat of flooding and was expected to dump more than 8 feet (2.4 meters) of snow on the highest peaks in California and Nevada and drench other parts of the two states before it moves on midweek, forecasters said.

The storm will bring much needed moisture to the broader region that’s been gripped by drought that scientists have said is caused by climate change. The latest U.S. drought monitor shows parts of Montana, Oregon, California, Nevada and Utah are classified as being in exceptional drought, which is the worst category.

Most western U.S. reservoirs that deliver water to states, cities, tribes, farmers and utilities rely on melted snow in the springtime.

Filings Reveal Manchin's Blind Trust Can't Explain Away 'Blatant Conflict of Interest'

The blind trust that Sen. Joe Manchin frequently cites to deflect criticism of potential conflicts of interest stemming from his family's lucrative West Virginia coal empire is—according to newly reported financial documents—"much too small" to cover his total earnings from the dirty energy business, raising further questions about the right-wing Democrat's possible financial stake in preventing climate action.

The Washington Post reported Monday that Manchin's (D-W.Va.) latest financial disclosure filing "says that the West Virginia family coal business that he helped found and run, Enersystems, paid him $492,000 in interest, dividends, and other income in 2020, and that his share of the firm is worth between $1 million and $5 million."

"He signed a sworn statement saying he is aware of these earnings, underscoring that he is not blind to them," the Post noted. "By contrast, Manchin set up a blind trust with $350,000 in cash in 2012. In his latest financial disclosure report, the senator reported that the Joseph Manchin III Qualified Blind Trust earned no more than $15,000 last year and is worth between $500,000 and $1 million. By design, it is not possible to know precisely what's in the blind trust. But the financial disclosure records show that it doesn't include all of Manchin’s income from Enersystems."

Given the outsized role he continues to play in shaping—and dramatically paring back—the suite of climate measures in Democrats' Build Back Better Act, Manchin has recently faced questions about his deep connections to the industry most responsible for climate chaos.

In September, Bloomberg's Ari Natter pressed the West Virginia senator on the dividend income he continues to receive from Enersystems, which Manchin founded in 1988 and later handed over to his son. Enersystems has paid Manchin $5 million over the past decade, according to the senator's financial disclosure filings.

"You got a problem?" Manchin asked Natter. When the journalist continued to press for answers, Manchin responded, "You'd do best to change the subject."

Craig Holman, an ethics expert at Public Citizen, told the Post on Monday that Manchin raking in substantial profits from the coal industry while exerting major influence over climate policy—he is currently the chair of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources—is "a very blatant conflict of interest."

"Manchin is not only very wealthy, but most of his assets and wealth are invested in a single industry, coal," Holman observed. "What Manchin is doing is not illegal. The conflict of interest code for Congress is just way too weak."

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has said he hopes to hold a vote on the Build Back Better Act before Christmas, but Manchin's refusal to support the legislation in its current, badly weakened form has cast serious doubt on that timeline.

Manchin—who has received more than $1.5 million in campaign donations from corporate interests trying to kill the Build Back Better Act—has already succeeded in stripping from the bill major climate measures such as the Clean Electricity Performance Program (CEPP), a popular proposal that was widely viewed as the most ambitious climate-related piece of the Build Back Better Act. The West Virginia senator has also raised questions about the bill's proposed fee on methane pollution.

According to Punchbowl News, Manchin is set to speak with President Joe Biden about the $1.75 trillion Build Back Better Act on Monday.

"Manchin has gotten almost everything he's asked for so far," the outlet noted. "Democrats will drop the paid family leave provision he opposed, as well as climate-change language. And the House passed the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill he helped draft."

In a blog post on Monday, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich argued that "Joe Manchin illustrates that the real division in American politics is no longer left versus right, conservative versus liberal, even Democrat versus Republican."

"The real division," he wrote, "is democracy versus the moneyed interests."

Also of Interest

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

A Quick Understanding Of Inflation And Current Supply Chain Issues

The Fall Of Kabul Story Misses Some Damning Details

Absurd Guardian Article Declares China World’s Only Imperialist Power

Hochul Kills Hope For Utility Consumer Advocate

‘At 75, I still have to work’: millions of Americans can’t afford to retire

Biden RESTARTS Student Debt Payments Despite Economy

A Little Night Music

Lester Davenport - It Won't Work Like That

Lester Davenport - Slow Down Baby

Lester Davenport - When the blues hit you

Aron Burton & Lester Davenport - Ah'w Baby & Evenin' Sun Goin' Down'

Lester Davenport - So Long

Lester Davenport - I smell rat

Lester Davenport - Lester's Comet

Willie Kent (w/Lester Davenport) - Boogie All Night Long

Lester Davenport - Mad Dog On The Loose