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“Laws are spider webs through which the big flies pass and the little ones get caught.”

-- Honore de Balzac

News and Opinion

Top UN official accuses US of torturing Chelsea Manning

A top United Nations official has accused the US government of using torture against Chelsea Manning, the former army intelligence analyst currently jailed in the US over her refusal to testify against WikiLeaks.

Nils Melzer, the UN special rapporteur on torture, made the charge in a letter sent in November but only released on Tuesday. In the missive, Melzer says Manning is being subjected to “an open-ended, progressively severe measure of coercion fulfilling all the constitutive elements of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”.

Manning, who was detained on 16 May after refusing to testify before a grand jury, is currently being held at the Alexandria detention center in Virginia until she agrees to give evidence or until the grand jury’s term expires in November next year. She also faces fines currently running at $1,000 a day.

In the letter, Melzer writes: “The practise of coercive deprivation of liberty for civil contempt … involves the intentional infliction of progressively severe mental and emotional suffering for the purposes of coercion and intimidation at the order of judicial authorities.”

Just out: My official letter to #USGovt of 1 Nov 2019 explaining why continued detention of @xychelsea is not a lawful sanction but an open-ended, progressively severe coercive measure amounting to torture & should be discontinued & abolished without delay https://t.co/uhqKoFSQSq pic.twitter.com/J662CtVAA7

— Nils Melzer (@NilsMelzer) December 31, 2019

Trump threatens Iran will pay ‘a very big price’ over US embassy protests in Baghdad

Donald Trump has directly threatened Iran, saying it will pay a “very big price” for any US lives lost or facilities damaged in the wake of a mob attack on the American embassy in Baghdad. ...

After declaring the embassy safe, Trump tweeted: “Iran will be held fully responsible for lives lost, or damage incurred, at any of our facilities. They will pay a very BIG PRICE! This is not a Warning, it is a Threat. Happy New Year!” ...

A state department spokesperson told the Guardian the chief of the US mission in Iraq, Matthew Tueller, was away on a scheduled vacation and left Baghdad a week ago. The embassy was under lockdown but had not been evacuated, officials said, with diplomats sheltering in a “safe room”.

“The Iranian-backed demonstrations in front of the US embassy should not be confused with the Iraqi protesters who have been in the streets since October to decry the corruption exported to Iraq by the Iranian regime,” the spokeswoman said.

“We have made clear the United States will protect and defend its people, who are there to support a sovereign and independent Iraq. We are closely monitoring the situation in Iraq and call on the government of Iraq to protect our diplomatic facilities per their obligations.”

Iraq warns ties with US at stake after deadly air strikes

Iraq riots expose an America weaker and with fewer options

The mobbing of a US embassy has historically served as an emblem of America in decline, so the scenes around the embattled mission in Baghdad are a fitting end to the decade. Tuesday’s events are not quite as decisive as the 1975 helicopter evacuation of the embassy in Saigon, or the seizure of the Tehran embassy four years later. Iraqi forces did turn up eventually to protect the Baghdad mission. It turned out the ambassador was on holiday anyway, so he did not have to endure the humiliation of a rooftop escape. But the demonstration of US weakness, after spending $2tn in Iraq, was plain for all to see.

The rioters, organised by the Iranian proxy militia Kata’ib Hezbollah (KH), brushed past Iraqi checkpoints, and there were members of parliament from the government bloc among them. Security forces who have had no compunction about firing tear gas canisters into the skulls of anti-Iranian protesters on Tahrir Square, stood by and watched molotov cocktails thrown at the US embassy. In its public pronouncements, the Iraqis put more blame on Washington than Tehran. ...

By highlighting the Iraqi government’s impotence on its own territory, the retaliation diverted public dissatisfaction with the heavy-handed Iranian presence in Iraq, to the desire to be rid of the imperious Americans. The US comes out of this tit-for-tat round weaker and with fewer options.

It is not clear whether the US has a plan for what happens now. The campaign of maximum pressure was supposed to force Iran to accept a worse deal than the 2015 multilateral nuclear agreement on which Donald Trump walked out in 2018. The oil and banking embargo on Iran have been highly effective in damaging the Iranian economy, but have failed to make Iran bow to US demands for Tehran to give up its military stake in Middle East conflicts and its enrichment of uranium. ...

US deterrence however is undermined by having given Iran so little to lose, and by the vacillation of the president, who is entering an election year claiming he has extricated the country from costly foreign wars, while simultaneously wanting to appear tough in the standoff with Iran. ... He was convinced that maximum pressure would bring Iran to the negotiating table as a supplicant, but instead it has added to the chaos. No one – almost certainly not even Trump – knows how he is going to respond.

North Korea's Kim says world will soon witness 'new strategic weapon'

AFRICOM ends 2019 with record number of strikes in Somalia

The U.S. military conducted three airstrikes Sunday in Somalia, where a record 63 such attacks were conducted in 2019 as part of a stepped-up campaign against Islamic militants.

The latest bombings hit terrorists in two separate locations, killing four fighters and destroying two vehicles, U.S. Africa Command said in a statement.

The majority of U.S. military strikes in Somalia have been directed at the al-Shabab terrorist group, which is aligned with al-Qaida and seeks to overthrow the country’s U.S.-backed central government. ...

The number of strikes this year far outpaces previous years in Somalia, where the U.S. military conducted 47 aerial attacks in 2018 and 35 in 2017. ...

Earlier this year, international human rights organization Amnesty International issued reports that accused AFRICOM of killing about 20 civilians in multiple strikes conducted between April 2017 and March 2019.

Chile: was a young woman murdered for photographing anti-government protests?

Photojournalists and press freedom activists have called on authorities in Chile to investigate the murder of a young photographer amid speculation that her death may have been linked to pictures she took during violent clashes between riot police and anti-government demonstrators. The body of Albertina Martínez was found in her apartment in the Chilean capital, Santiago on 21 November, two days after she had been seen heading to a protest nearby. She had been beaten, and a bag containing her camera, laptop and phone were missing.

“The pictures she took that day have vanished,” said her sister, Priscilla.

Sources close to the investigation say the case is being treated as a robbery with homicide, but the timing of the murder has prompted speculation that Martínez was targeted because she had been photographing the protests. “Chilean authorities should investigate the killing of Albertina Martínez Burgos thoroughly to determine if it was linked to her reporting, and do everything possible to recover her equipment and materials,” said Natalie Southwick from the Committee to Protect Journalists.

In more than two months of mass demonstrations against social and economic inequality, thousands have been injured and at least 27 people have died. ...

Martínez moved to Santiago from southern Chile 10 years ago to pursue a career in photography, working at Chile’s main daily, El Mercurio. She then moved on to work as a lighting assistant at a television studio. “She was clearly happier taking pictures than working at the studio, and she had a good eye for photography, but opportunities in the field can be difficult to come by,” said Sergio López, who worked alongside Martínez at the newspaper. He had spoken to her the week before her death. “She said she enjoyed taking pictures at the protests, even though she was a little afraid,” he said.

Greek activists warn of surge in police brutality and rights violations

Greece has seen an alarming rise in police violence, amid reports of unprovoked attacks by officers that have seen protesters beaten with batons and people strip-searched in broad daylight.

Human rights groups, commentators and the country’s leftist opposition have deplored what is increasingly being viewed as the deployment of excessive force by the authorities. Despite a widespread ban in Europe, the use of plastic bullets has also raised alarm.

Amnesty International’s Greek branch described the increase in alleged abuses as “extremely worrying”. Eirini Gaitanou, the group’s campaign coordinator, said: “There has been a sharp rise in such incidents in recent months and it is clear they are not isolated but reflect systemic problems in the Greek police with regards to violence and endemic impunity.” ...

Incidents of police brutality, captured on video and uploaded on social media, have increased markedly since the centre-right New Democracy party led by Kyriakos Mitsotakis ousted Alexis Tsipras’s leftist Syriza in July. Elected on a tough law-and-order platform with promises to take on radical leftwing and refugee-occupied squats in anarchist enclaves such as Exarchia in central Athens, Mitsotakis’s government appears to have given free reign to security forces.

Macron vows to ‘fully carry out’ pension reform in New Year’s Eve speech

Paris orchestra wails angst over pension reform plans on opera house steps

Trump Denounced for Doing Nothing as AT&T Moves to Outsource Thousands of Jobs in 2020

President Donald Trump is facing outrage from workers and labor rights advocates over his failure to take action as AT&T prepares to shift thousands of U.S. jobs overseas next year, despite reaping a massive windfall from the 2017 Republican tax law.

Axios reported Sunday that the telecom giant, which announced last year that it received over $20 billion in tax cuts thanks to the GOP law, is "poised to send thousands into the new year hunting for new jobs after assigning them to train their own foreign replacement."

"Workers described shock and confusion when they were told during a scripted phone call that after a decade or longer at AT&T, they'd have to work for a contractor or resign," Axios reported. "Some were told they could not apply for other jobs inside AT&T." ...

Trump, despite his campaign trail pledge to punish companies that send jobs overseas, has not spoken out about AT&T's outsourcing. ...

Far from cracking down on corporate outsourcing, Trump's tax law incentivizes companies to shift jobs and profits overseas by slashing the tax rate on profits American companies earn abroad.

Kyle Kulinski talks worst media fail and biggest loser of 2019

West Virginia governor fires 34 cadets and instructor over Nazi salute photo

West Virginia’s governor has fired 34 correction officer trainees who were photographed giving a Nazi salute, and he fired their instructor. He also says four instructors are being suspended without pay.

Republican governor Jim Justice announced his decision Monday after receiving a report from state investigators that the trainees regularly gave the Nazi salute “as a sign of respect” for their instructor in the weeks prior to the release of the photo. Its release earlier this month triggered widespread outrage. ...

A three-page executive summary was released Monday detailing the state’s inquiry into the image.

The summary determined that an unnamed number of trainees in Academy Class 18 began using the hand gesture in the second or third week of training “as a sign of respect” for their correctional academy instructor, Karrie Byrd. Other classmates then began using the gesture.

Justice said Byrd has been fired.

Illinois governor pardons 11,000 for low-level marijuana convictions

Illinois governor JB Pritzker granted more than 11,000 pardons for low-level marijuana convictions on Tuesday, describing the step as a first wave of thousands of such expungements anticipated under the state’s new marijuana legalization law.

The expungement process is a key part of the law, which takes effect on Wednesday and makes Illinois the 11th state to legalize marijuana for people 21 or older. Lawmakers said they wanted to repair some of the damage caused by efforts to combat sale and use of the drug, particularly in minority communities.

Pritzker, a Democrat, announced the pardons at a church on Chicago’s South Side. He said clearing the misdemeanor offenses from individuals’ records would make it easier for them to get jobs, housing and financial aid for college.

Officials estimate 116,000 convictions for possession of 30g or less of marijuana are eligible for pardons under the new law.

“We are ending the 50-year-long war on cannabis,” Pritzker said. “We are restoring rights to many tens of thousands of Illinoisans. We are bringing regulation and safety to a previously unsafe and illegal market. And we are creating a new industry that puts equity at its very core.”

Joe Biden Wants to End Prison Profiteering. One of His Top Fundraisers Is a Major Player in Prison Health Care.

After decades of championing legislation that escalated mass incarceration, former Vice President Joe Biden released a criminal justice plan seeking to reverse key provisions of the 1994 crime bill he helped write. The wide-ranging proposal, which he rolled out roughly a week before the second Democratic presidential primary debate in July, would ban private prisons and reduce incarceration. It also takes a clear stance on those who are cashing in on the prison system: “Stop corporations from profiteering off of incarceration,” his website reads.

But one of Biden’s top fundraisers, Michael F. Neidorff, is the CEO and chair of Centene — a health insurance company that’s a major player in the prison health care market. Prisons and facilities in 16 states have contracted out their health care services to Centurion, which is owned by the $60 billion health insurance company, according to its website. This year, Neidorff has also donated to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and the reelection campaigns of Republican Sens. David Perdue, Lindsey Graham, and Susan Collins, as well as Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, FEC filings show. ...

“Biden will also make eliminating private prisons and all other methods of profiteering off of incarceration — including diversion programs, commercial bail, and electronic monitoring — a requirement for his new state and local prevention grant program,” his policy plan says. “Finally, Biden will support the passage of legislation to crack down on the practice of private companies charging incarcerated individuals and their families outrageously high fees to make calls.” ...

Neidorff was identified as a bundler for Biden’s presidential bid late Friday night when the Biden campaign released a list of more than 200 individuals and couples who have brought in at least $25,000 in campaign contributions.

Krystal and Katie Halper dish on the biggest media screwups of 2019

Sanders Vows to Create National Clean Drinking Water Standards to End Corporate Contamination

Sen. Bernie Sanders vowed Tuesday that if elected president in 2020, he would create national clean drinking water standards forcing corporations to stop contaminating the nation's water supply with dangerous chemicals.

"Corporate greed is threatening one of the most basic necessities of life: clean water," Sanders said in a statement to the Associated Press. "Not only will we support state efforts to enforce stronger clean water laws, we are going to create federal clean water standards that force these companies to clean up their mess."

Sanders, one of the leading contenders for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, told AP that his national standards would target perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) as well as other hazardous chemicals.

The goal of the standards, Sanders said, would be to guarantee clean drinking water "as a human right."

The Vermont senator's pledge comes as states across the nation, from New Jersey to Michigan to New Hampshire, are battling drinking water crises due to outdated pipes, corporate pollution, and other factors.

AP noted that New Hampshire "recently set some of the nation's toughest standards for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances... but a judge temporarily blocked enforcement in November after chemical company 3M sued."

"More than 700 homes in New Hampshire whose drinking water was contaminated by PFAS have been connected to new water, and the state estimates that more than 100,000 other people eventually could be affected," AP reported. "The contamination is the result of the chemicals leaking into groundwater from industrial facilities, as well as a former Air Force base."

Native American 'land taxes': a step on the roadmap for reparations

The two-acre plot deep within east Oakland is a bright green oasis surrounded by urban sprawl. The creek that runs through it has been sealed with cement, and an interstate highway has been built overhead. But for Corrina Gould, this piece of land represents justice for Native Californians. It is the first parcel promised to the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, an intertribal, women-led organization that Gould co-founded in order to restore Indigenous land in the Bay Area to Indigenous stewardship.

“This is where my people – the Lisjan people – come from,” said Gould, a spokeswoman for the Confederated Villages of Lisjan and a community organizer. She often imagines her grandparents’ grandparents sitting by the creek back when salmon still swam through it.

To help the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust rework the land, populate it with native fruits and herbs, transform into a community and to restore even more land to California’s Indigenous community, local residents and businesses can pay the organization a Shuumi land tax. “Shuumi in our language means gift,” Gould explained. Non-Native residents can choose to pay the tax as a way to show support and gratitude for the Native people hosting them on their ancestral lands.

Over the past year politicians and presidential candidates have expressed an increasing desire to right historical wrongs against Indigenous people and black Americans. Scholars of Indigenous law and policy say the issue of how best to deliver justice to Native Americans is exceedingly complex – and the use of the word reparations in this context is often fraught. But grassroots programs in the Bay Area and around the country can provide insight into what form these types of social justice efforts could take. For Gould, the Shuumi land tax is a way to begin undoing centuries of erasure. When she first began her work as an activist for Indigenous sovereignty two decades ago, she said, “most people thought that we were dead. That we no longer existed.”

In fact, Indigenous Californians were literally written out of the books. Spanish settlers and missionaries called the Native people who lived along the northern California coast “Costenos”, and later, anthropologists plucked the term Ohlone from historical records, to use as a catchall. In 1925, AL Kroeber, a local anthropologist, declared that the Ohlone people were “extinct so far as all practical purposes are concerned”. The government further drove this erasure by refusing to uphold the original treaties negotiated between the US and California tribes, leaving dozens of tribes without federal recognition or land rights.

Water-related violence rises globally in past decade

Violence associated with water has surged in the past decade driven by attacks on civilian water systems in Syria’s civil war and increasing disputes over supplies in India, according to a comprehensive database of conflicts linked to the vital resource. Recorded incidents of water-related violence have more than doubled in the past 10 years compared with previous decades, the statistics maintained by the California-based Pacific Institute thinktank show.

The trend illustrates the tension resulting from dwindling supplies of fresh water in many parts of the world as a result of population growth, poor management of resources and extreme weather events linked to the climate crisis. “As water becomes more scarce, because it’s such a critical resource, people will do whatever they can do meet their basic needs,” said Peter Gleick, the founding president of the Pacific Institute and a leading authority on water issues.

The database was established in the 1980s and documents cases where water was a trigger for fighting, used as a weapon or was disrupted by conflict. ...

Alongside the scarcity of fresh water, and exacerbating it, was an increasing willingness by fighting forces to weaponise water supplies, especially in recent Middle Eastern conflicts, he said. “There have been a very large number of attacks in recent years in Yemen but also in Syria and Iraq, where it’s clear that in direct violation of international law, civilian water infrastructure has been intentionally targeted, relentlessly.”

The missing 99%: why can't we find the vast majority of ocean plastic?

Every year, 8m tons of plastic enters the ocean. Images of common household waste swirling in vast garbage patches in the open sea, or tangled up with whales and seabirds, have turned plastic pollution into one of the most popular environmental issues in the world. But for at least a decade, the biggest question among scientists who study marine plastic hasn’t been why plastic in the ocean is so abundant, but why it isn’t. What scientists can see and measure, in the garbage patches and on beaches, accounts for only a tiny fraction of the total plastic entering the water.

So where is the other 99% of ocean plastic? Unsettling answers have recently begun to emerge.

What we commonly see accumulating at the sea surface is “less than the tip of the iceberg, maybe a half of 1% of the total,” says Erik Van Sebille, an oceanographer at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. “I often joke that being an ocean plastic scientist should be an easy job, because you can always find a bit wherever you look,” says Van Sebille. But, he adds, the reality is that our maps of the ocean essentially end at the surface, and solid numbers on how much plastic is in any one location are lacking.

It is becoming apparent that plastic ends up in huge quantities in the deepest parts of the ocean, buried in sediment on the seafloor, and caught like clouds of dust deep in the water column. Perhaps most frighteningly, says Helge Niemann, a biogeochemist at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, it could fragment into such small pieces that it can barely be detected. At this point it becomes, Niemann says, “more like a chemical dissolved in the water than floating in it”.

Also of Interest

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

Voter purges: are Republicans trying to rig the 2020 election?

These Charts Show Why the Fed Is Still in a Panic Over the Repo Loan Market

After 500 years, Cortés still looms large on both sides of Atlantic

A Little Night Music

Lightnin' Hopkins - Happy New Year

Mary Harris - Happy New Year Blues

The Mercy Brothers - The New Year Blues

Charles Brown - Bringing In A Brand New Year

Jo Ann Campbell - Happy New Year Baby

Johnny Otis Orchestra - Happy New Year, Baby

Otis Redding & Carla Thomas - New Year's Resolution

Big Mojo Elem Chicago Blues Band - New Year's Resolution

The Qualities - Happy New Year To You!

BB King, David Gilmour & Jools Holland - Happy New Year