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This evening's music features blues slide guitarist and songwriter Tampa Red. Enjoy!

"The atmosphere of fear and security manipulated by the government has converted American citizens into terrorist suspects who are all subject to arbitrary and unreviewable detention and surveillance."

-- Richard A. Falk

News and Opinion

Republicans propose mass student surveillance plan to prevent shootings

Senate Republicans have a new plan for preventing mass shootings: require public schools to use surveillance technology to monitor students’ online behavior for signs of violence or self-harm. A new Republican bill that claims “to help prevent mass shootings” includes no new gun control measures. Instead, Republican lawmakers are supporting a huge, federally mandated boost to America’s growing school surveillance industry.

Millions of American students, across thousands of school districts, are already being monitored by tech companies that scan everything they write in school emails, chats and shared documents, looking for signs of suicidal thoughts or plans for a school shooting. This surveillance technology doesn’t turn off when the school day is over: anything students type in official school accounts is monitored 24 hours a day, whether they are in their classrooms or their bedrooms.

There is still no research evidence that demonstrates whether or not online monitoring of schoolchildren actually works to prevent violence. Despite this, new legislation introduced Wednesday by Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican and longtime ally of the National Rifle Association (NRA), would update the Children’s Internet Protection Act to mandate that public schools adopt “a technology protection measure that detects online activities of minors who are at risk of committing self-harm or extreme violence against others”. ...

The Cornyn bill, entitled the Response Act, includes a range of other policies without strong evidence of reducing mass shootings, including expediting the federal death penalty for perpetrators of mass shootings, a priority of Donald Trump.

Privacy advocates say pervasive surveillance is not appropriate for an educational setting, and that it may actually harm children, particularly students with disabilities and students of color, who are already disproportionately targeted with school disciplinary measures.

Masters of war: architects of modern conflicts say cheese for the camera

Moments with Mr. Kissinger, former Prime Ministers Tony Blair and John Howard, Ms. Condoleezza Rice and Mr. Robert Gates.

Excellent discussions with these global thought leaders. pic.twitter.com/OPBheNkpPe

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) October 22, 2019

If the horsemen of the apocalypse ever hung up their riding boots, this could be a photo of the retirement party. Five men and a woman of very different backgrounds and different continents, brought together by an investment bank and shared history of mayhem. The smiles and hand-holding in the group photo at the JP Morgan International Council in New Delhi are redolent of fond memories and fellow feeling. They have nearly a half-millennium between them, and no end of war stories to share, tales of pressing the buttons and pulling the levers behind some of major conflicts of modern times.

The dean of the bunch is sitting low in his seat on the right: Henry Kissinger, the 96-year-old living embodiment of cold war realpolitik with a wealth of foreign policy knowledge and major wars to his name, including the undeclared, illegal mass bombing of Cambodia. Standing in the rear are three of the leading minds behind the 2003 Iraq invasion. With his trademark tan and grin, the former British prime minister Tony Blair is at the left, next to Condoleezza Rice, who was George Bush’s national security adviser at the time. Over to their right is John Howard who, as Australian leader at the time, sent his country’s troops into the fray. The latter-day crusade in pursuit of Saddam Hussein’s non-existent weapons of mass destruction was one of the most disastrous mistakes in history, unleashing a cascade of violence that killed well over half a million people and ushered in an era of extreme violence in the Middle East that continues today. ...

In among the trio is Robert Gates, former CIA director and defence secretary, who sat the Iraq war out but as deputy director of the CIA did advocate a bombing campaign against Nicaragua. At the centre and focal point of the little group is its newest member, Narendra Modi. The Indian prime minister is the only one among them still doing the day job, but may be being inducted early for moving troops into Kashmir, revoking its autonomous status and rounding up Muslims, even at the risk of nuclear war with Pakistan.

Ending Endless War: Andrew Bacevich on How Reckless Use of U.S. Military Power Caused Today’s Crisis

Spain to assure that Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead. One hopes that some functionary will have the foresight to bring along a stake and the presence of mind to use it as necessary.

Franco's remains to finally leave Spain's Valley of the Fallen

Spain’s socialist government is finally to fulfil one of its key promises when the remains of General Franco are exhumed from the austere splendour of the Valley of the Fallen and transferred to his family mausoleum outside Madrid.

If all goes to plan, the 1.5-tonne slab that has covered the dictator’s tomb will be lifted at 10.30am on Thursday and the coffin removed and flown by helicopter or taken by road to Mingorrubio-El Pardo municipal cemetery.

Franco’s remains have had pride of place in the basilica, which is 40 miles (64km) north-west of Madrid, since his death in 1975. Although the Valley of the Fallen and its 150-metre (490ft) cross ostensibly commemorate all those killed in the Spanish civil war, for many people, it serves only to glorify Franco and his four-decade dictatorship.

The government said the dictator’s remains needed to be moved as they could no longer “remain in a public mausoleum that exalts his figure”, adding that the removal would “symbolically close the circle of Spanish democracy”.

Spain transfers Franco's remains from state mausoleum to family crypt

Evo Morales alleges coup attempt as Bolivia opposition claims 'giant fraud'

Bolivia’s president, Evo Morales, has accused opposition leaders and foreign powers of attempting a “coup” against him amid growing tensions over the result of Sunday’s desperately tight election. In an angry televised speech on Wednesday, Morales said: “A coup d’etat is under way. The right wing prepared the coup with international support.”

Morales went into elections needing 40% of votes and a 10-point margin of victory to avoid a second-round runner against the main opposition candidate, Carlos Mesa. By Wednesday afternoon 97% of the official results had been processed, giving him 46.49% and a 9.5-point lead.

With most outstanding votes from remote rural areas expected to go in his favour, Morales repeated his declaration of a first-round victory, which he had made prematurely on Sunday night. But on Wednesday the Organization of American States (OAS) said that a runoff should be held even if Morales breached the 10-point margin.

“In the case that … the margin of difference exceeds 10%, it is statistically reasonable to conclude that it will be by negligible margin,” said Manuel González, the head of the OAS election observation team in Bolivia. “Given the context and the problematic issues in this electoral process the best option continues to be the convening of a second round.” ...

Mesa has accused Morales of trying to conduct “a giant fraud” and vowed that his party “will not recognize a fraudulent result”. In a video statement on Wednesday, Mesa called for “permanent protests” until a second-round vote was confirmed, and said he would present evidence of electoral fraud. Allegations of electoral fraud have already sparked street violence, in which anti-government protesters clashed with police, and set fire to electoral offices in eight of Bolivia’s regional capital cities.

Chile protests: 'The government must do much more'

Presidential apology and reform pledge fail to quell Chile protests

Tens of thousands of protesters have flooded Chile’s capital, setting up flaming barricades and clashing with riot police after an apology and promises of economic reforms from President Sebastián Piñera failed to quell unrest and rioting has led to at least 18 deaths.

Trade unionists in the world’s top copper-producing country joined demonstrators with a general strike in a movement that started with anger at a small rise in subway fares, but expanded into protests against inequality and to demand improvements in education, healthcare and wages in one of Latin America’s wealthiest, but most unequal nations.

Many protesters in Santiago waved the national flag and shouted: “Chile has woken up!” Police responded by spraying water cannons and firing rubber bullets and teargas. Similar scenes were repeated in towns and cities all along the long, narrow South American country of 18 million people.

Millions of students were still unable to attend classes, several subway stations were shut and long lines continued to form outside gas stations and supermarkets after many were torched or destroyed. ...

About 20,000 soldiers are patrolling the streets, nearly 200 people have been injured and about 5,000 have been arrested.

OPCW cherry-picked facts on Douma to blame Assad – expert panel

President Trump announced he will keep troops in Syria to protect oil fields. Last I checked, Congress never authorized U.S. forces to be deployed to secure Syria’s economic resources. Putting U.S. forces in harm’s way for this purpose is illegal and unconstitutional. https://t.co/zagOw99YEd

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) October 23, 2019

Boris Johnson Just Lost What Little Control He Had Over Brexit

In Boris Johnson’s desperation to leave the EU by the Halloween deadline set by Brussels, he tried once again to ram Brexit legislation through Parliament Tuesday night. The fast-track effort failed by 14 votes, and now the government is calling for a snap election to resolve the impasse. ... In order for a snap election to be called, Johnson would need the support of two-thirds of the Parliament. Similar calls by Johnson failed twice last month, but on Tuesday, the main opposition party indicated that if the EU granted an extension, it would back calls for an election, as the threat of a no-deal Brexit would be off the table. ...

Europe has indicated it will grant an extension but has yet to say how long it will be. A decision is expected by the end of the week. ... But, the upshot of Tuesday’s vote in parliament is that the future of Brexit is now effectively out of the prime minister’s hands.

Even if he is granted his wish for a snap election — likely to take place in early December — there’s no guarantee that he would be able to find the votes to command a majority in Parliament. While Johnson and the Tory Party claim they would win seats from Labour, the consensus seems to be that they would also lose seats to the Liberal Democrats and in Scotland, where voters are demanding a second referendum. The Tory government has also relied on the support of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to prop up their minority government, but given the latest deal has widely angered the unionist community by placing a customs border in the Irish Sea, it is unclear if the Tories could rely on those votes again.

“My own guess is that a general election will be a re-run of what we have today — another period of uncertainty,” former Conservative deputy prime minister Michael Heseltine, told Sky News on Wednesday morning.

GOP Lawmakers Disrupt Impeachment Hearing As More Damaging Details Emerge About Trump’s Misconduct

One of Rudy Giuliani’s Indicted Pals Just Tied His Criminal Case to Trump

President Trump has distanced himself from Rudy Giuliani’s associates indicted in campaign finance schemes, insisting he doesn’t know “those gentlemen.”

But Trump’s stance was challenged Wednesday when Lev Parnas, an indicted associate of Giuliani, tied his case directly to Trump by raising the prospect that evidence in the case could be covered by presidential executive privilege.

Parnas and his business partner, Igor Fruman, pleaded not guilty to allegations of attempting to parlay illegal GOP campaign finance donations into political influence on behalf of an unnamed Ukrainian politician and Russian businessman. Both men were arraigned Wednesday in the Southern District of New York on federal charges of conspiracy and making false statements to the Federal Election Commission.

Team Trump Is Withholding Bill Taylor's Detailed Ukraine Notes From Congress

President Trump’s White House dismissed explosive testimony by Ambassador Bill Taylor on Tuesday as “triple hearsay.” But Trump should know just how well documented Taylor’s account really is: He’s got Taylor’s notes.

Taylor’s detailed records, which informed his damning account of the Trump administration’s backdoor pressure campaign on Ukraine, were turned over to the State Department and were not handed over to Congressional impeachment investigators, a person familiar with the situation told VICE News on Wednesday.

The withholding of Taylor’s notes raises yet more questions about the lengths to which top Trump administration officials, notably Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, have gone to shield the president from a detailed look at his own behavior. It also forces Democrats to either pry those files loose by fighting an uncooperative Pompeo in court, or to rely on the testimony and documents of others to back up their new star witness.

Ocasio-Cortez stumps Zuckerberg with questions on far right and Cambridge Analytica

Mark Zuckerberg faced a grueling examination from the Democratic lawmaker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Wednesday, with questions over the Cambridge Analytica scandal and Facebook’s reluctance to police political advertising.

Ocasio-Cortez and other lawmakers grilled the Facebook CEO during a hearing in front of the US House of Representatives financial services committee regarding the launch of Facebook’s cryptocurrency project, Libra. “In order for us to make decisions about Libra, I think we need to kind of dig into your past behavior and Facebook’s past behavior with respect to our democracy,” the New York congresswoman said, before asking Zuckerberg when he had first learned of Cambridge Analytica’s operations.

Zuckerberg and other Facebook executives have declined to disclose when they found out the company was harvesting and selling user data to influence elections.

Internal Facebook correspondence uncovered in 2019 as part of a lawsuit revealed executives knew of potentially improper data collection by Cambridge Analytica as early as September 2015. The Guardian first reported on the existence of the firm in December 2015.

"So, you won't take down lies or you will take down lies? I think that's just a pretty simple yes or no."

Complete exchange between @RepAOC @AOC and Mark Zuckerberg at today's House Financial Services Cmte hearing.

Full video here: https://t.co/heT7Psnlp1 pic.twitter.com/0iiWtfU5gQ

— CSPAN (@cspan) October 23, 2019

'A Clear-Cut Example of a Potential Conflict of Interest': Four Democrats in Zuckerberg Hearing Own Facebook Stock

As the House Financial Services Committee questioning of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg got underway Wednesday morning, a number of observers pointed to a new report that shows four of the committee's Democratic members own stock in the social media giant. "Just one of those crazy things about the U.S. Congress, that we all know and love," tweeted Sludge reporter David Moore, "members can hold stock in companies they oversee on their committees!"

Moore's colleague Alex Kotch reported the story on Tuesday evening. Detailing how Democratic Reps. Joyce Beatty (Ohio), Josh Gottheimer (N.J.), Ed Perlmutter (Colo.), and Dean Phillips (Minn.) and/or their immediate families have "a total of between $126,000 and $365,000 invested in Facebook," Kotch questioned how the lawmakers can remain neutral in the hearing. "While there's no evidence of corruption," Kotch wrote, "this stock ownership is a clear-cut example of a potential conflict of interest, given the representatives' role in writing legislation that directly impacts a company in which they are personally invested."

The quartet are part of a group of at least 30 members of Congress who own shares in the company, according to Roll Call:

Twenty-eight members listed stock in the social media giant, according to Roll Call's Wealth of Congress project. Among them, Democratic Reps.Kurt Schraderof Oregon andJoseph P. Kennedy III of Massachusetts sit on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, while Democratic Sen.Sheldon Whitehouseof Rhode Island sits on Senate Judiciary.

Kotch pointed to one of the more powerful member of the House with interests in the company: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

And as far as I know, the owner of the most Facebook stock in the House isn't on this committee. It's Nancy Pelosi, whose venture capitalist husband owns as much as $1.1 million in Facebook stock. https://t.co/PgVZXyb0y5 pic.twitter.com/97tj3fPNrm

— Al-exhumed Kotch (@alexkotch) October 22, 2019

A Cop Pointed a Gun at a Pregnant Woman and Her Family. It Took 5 Months for Him to Get Fired.

One of the Phoenix cops who held a black family at gunpoint this past May — caught in a viral video where you can hear him yelling “You’re going to fucking get shot” and “I’m going to put a fucking cap in your fucking head” — was fired Tuesday after the city’s police chief decided an unpaid suspension wasn’t enough punishment.

Christopher Meyer had been with the police department for more than two decades when he was called on May 27 to respond to an allegation that a toddler had shoplifted a cheap doll.

Dravon Ames and his pregnant fiancee, Iesha Harper, had just finished shopping at a local dollar store and were dropping off their kids, a 4-year-old and 1-year-old, at a babysitter’s apartment when officers swarmed their vehicle and began screaming at them to put their hands up. Concerned residents from the nearby apartment captured the interaction on video, which quickly went viral. Throughout the interaction, Meyer repeatedly threatened to shoot Ames and attempted to pull Harper’s 1-year-old from her arms. ...

Meyer will have the opportunity to appeal his firing.

If you want to know why Rep. Richard Neal needs to be defeated by his primary challenger Alex Morse, there are plenty of damning reasons in this article.

Ways and Means Chair Richard Neal Sides With Pharma and GOP Against Amendments to Strengthen Drug-Pricing Bill

At around 9:30 on Tuesday night, a full 12 hours after the markup of several pieces of health care legislation had begun in the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, introduced a series of amendments designed to push H.R.3 — Nancy Pelosi’s signature drug-pricing legislation — in a more progressive direction.

“It’s good to know that at 9:30, there are so many present people here,” Doggett quipped. Doggett had withheld sharing his amendments with the committee until late on Monday night in order to pressure both House Democrats and Republicans to pass a stronger bill. That cut against instructions from Committee Chair Richard Neal, D-Mass., who had urged members of the committee not to offer amendments. The first Doggett amendment was a measure to expand the number of prescription drugs that could be negotiated under the bill.

“The chances that the typical patient will see their prices lowered are akin to winning the lottery, said Doggett, criticizing the underlying legislation as too weak. “Is it so burdensome to ask that a few more drugs be done? No, it’s not.”

Republicans, unsurprisingly, became flustered at the introduction of the progressive amendments. Ranking Member Kevin Brady, R-Texas, responded by saying that the amendments were “sprung on” the committee — and chided Doggett for undermining an opportunity for bipartisanship on the bill. “As Republicans, we believe this is a dangerous and extreme approach.” Doggett’s amendment only lifted the number of drugs to be negotiated to 50 after five years, with a later increase to 100 after 10 years.

But even most House Democrats sided with the pharmaceutical industry. Neal quickly brought Doggett’s first amendment to a vote, and the committee quickly voted it down. Doggett was one of only three “aye” votes, Neal not among them. And only three other Democrats on the panel voted for another amendment proposed by Doggett, to expand access to the lower negotiated rates to the uninsured: Reps. Don Beyer of Virginia, Judy Chu of California, and Gwen Moore of Wisconsin. Doggett added that his proposals are just “modest corrections for big impact.”

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has been released from Phoebe Sumter Medical Center. He is looking forward to continuing to recuperate at his home in Plains, Georgia, and thanks everyone for their kind well wishes.

— The Carter Center (@CarterCenter) October 24, 2019

Pete still failing with black voters, ready for Hillary?

'Establishment Fears' Grow as Sanders and Warren Reveal Energy of Democrats' Progressive Wing

The Democratic establishment is looking at the party's 2020 presidential primary field and seeing nothing but reasons to fear a progressive nominee—though they prefer one of the two to the other. That's according to a number of reports over the past two days which suggest that powerful elites in the party are increasingly worried about the potential of a nomination win by either Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) or Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), both of whom who have made progressive change a centerpiece of their campaigns.

"The presidential primaries are not going at all the way these rich and powerful Democrats want," wrote The Nation's Jeet Heer on Wednesday. "Their preference is for a centrist presidential candidate."

On Tuesday, New York Times reporter Jonathan Martin found that major party donors are increasingly worried that Warren particularly—Sanders is not mentioned until the article's penultimate paragraph—will take the nomination and are willing to do whatever it takes to stop that from happening. The party elite are courting members of the party like former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), and former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, as well as nominal independents like former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg to jump in the primary race. But nobody, at least so far, is biting.

"If Biden were surging, I doubt you would be hearing this," Democratic consultant Harold Ickes told the Times. "This shows a restlessness among a lot of people."

The issue here is not electability. Sanders and Warren would both be heavily favored against Trump. The issue is that the donor class—the people who socialize with NYT reporters—don’t want left policies. https://t.co/87dkAL5YmW

— Every Billionaire Is A Policy Failure (@DanRiffle) October 22, 2019

A Washington Post piece Tuesday evening featured comments from 17 party leaders and donors whose worries about the field mirrored the half dozen donors Martin interviewed. Former Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.), who is running for the 2020 nomination, told the post that Sanders and Warren are too far to the left. "You need to run on things that half the country agrees with you," said Delaney, who is polling below 1%.

The Democratic establishment isn't alone. Corporate leaders and Wall Street executives are also worried about a left-leaning Democrat like Warren or Sanders. In an interview with Politico, "Leon Cooperman, a billionaire former Goldman Sachs executive who is now CEO of investment firm Omega Advisors and who predicts a 25 percent market drop should Warren become president," said he was afraid that a Warren presidency would be a disaster for the country and the capitalist spirit. "I believe in a progressive income tax and the rich paying more," said Cooperman. "But this is the fucking American dream she is shitting on." ...

There are some on Wall Street, however, who are open to a Warren presidency. In interviews with Vox, some of those executives said they would find the Massachusetts Democrat acceptable even if it meant some personal loss of wealth. ... But to Current Affairs editor Nathan Robinson, an outspoken Sanders supporter, that conciliatory tone from Wall Street is reason for the left to be wary of Warren.

This important Vox article on Wall Street support for Elizabeth Warren should set off giant blaring alarm bells for any person on the left. These finance people say quite bluntly that they think Warren doesn't pose any real threat to their class position.https://t.co/98evg0E0gm

— Nathan J Robinson (@NathanJRobinson) October 23, 2019

Writer Shuja Haider opined that Democrats are less interested in beating Trump than keeping Sanders away from the White House. "Democrats will get behind anyone except the candidate who has the most low income campaign donors and polls the best against the incumbent Republican," tweeted Haider.

Jimmy Dore talks impeachment, Bernie debate bias

Klobuchar qualifies for debate as polling results vary

Earlier today, Amy Klobuchar became the ninth Democratic presidential candidate to qualify for the November debate in Georgia.

The Minnesota senator attracted the support of 3 percent of Democratic voters in a new Quinnipiac survey, marking her fourth qualifying poll for the debate.

The Quinnipiac results emphasized how varied recent polls have been, particularly when it comes to the frontrunners in the Democratic primary. According to the Quinnipiac poll, Elizabeth Warren leads Joe Biden by 7 points. However, a CNN poll released yesterday showed Biden leading all of his opponents by double digits.

Krystal Ball: Why Andrew Yang is wrong on Medicare For All

Tim Ryan drops out of presidential race

Democratic presidential candidate Tim Ryan just announced he would end his White House bid and instead seek reelection for his congressional seat.

I’m announcing today that I am withdrawing from the Presidential campaign.

I got into this race in April to really give voice to the forgotten people of our country. I look forward to continuing that fight.

Thank you, to everyone who supported this campaign. pic.twitter.com/BT4z3fQ205

— Tim Ryan (@TimRyan) October 24, 2019

A former Exxon scientist just spilled the truth to Congress

A former Exxon scientist just testified before Congress that, not only did Exxon know that the fossil fuels it was selling would torch the world, the company knew back in 1982 exactly how bad climate change would be in 2019. “We were excellent scientists,” the former employee, Martin Hoffert, told lawmakers Wednesday.

The hearing before the House Oversight Committee was brought together to assess the extent to which Exxon knew decades ago that the core of its business — extracting and selling fossil fuels — was making the world hotter.

It’s long been known that Exxon knew, as early as the late 1970s, that fossil fuels were contributing to climate change. The company also actively made an effort to try to get the public to think fossil fuels weren’t contributing to climate change through elaborate and expensive PR campaigns. By the early 1980s, scientists there had developed predictions for how much carbon would be in the atmosphere, if fossil fuels continued to burn, and how hot that would make the world — and they were accurate.

Lots more detail at link:

Amazon rainforest 'close to irreversible tipping point'

Soaring deforestation coupled with the destructive policies of Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, could push the Amazon rainforest dangerously to an irreversible “tipping point” within two years, a prominent economist has said.

After this point the rainforest would stop producing enough rain to sustain itself and start slowly degrading into a drier savannah, releasing billions of tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere, which would exacerbate global heating and disrupt weather across South America.

The warning came in a policy brief published this week by Monica de Bolle, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington DC.

The report sparked controversy among climate scientists. Some believe the tipping point is still 15 to 20 years away, while others say the warning accurately reflects the danger that Bolsonaro and global heating pose to the Amazon’s survival.

Coca-Cola Named Most Polluting Brand in Global Audit of Plastic Waste

Coca-Cola was found for the second year in a row to be the most polluting brand in a global audit of plastic trash conducted by the Break Free From Plastic global movement. The giant soda company was responsible for more plastic litter than the next top three polluters combined.

More than 72,000 volunteers fanned out onto beaches, paddled along waterways, and walked along streets near their offices and homes picking up plastic bottles, cups, wrappers, bags, and scraps for the one-day cleanup in September that was the basis for the audit. Sorting through the mounds of garbage, they found that the plastic represented 50 different types and could be traced back to almost 8,000 brands. Coke was responsible for 11,732 pieces of plastic litter found in 37 countries on four continents. After Coca-Cola, the next biggest contributors to the plastic pollution in the audit were Nestle, PepsiCo, Mondelez International — purveyor of snack brands like Oreo, Ritz, Nabisco, and Nutter Butter — and Unilever. More than half of the plastic had eroded to the point where it was impossible to discern who had produced it.

Coke was the top source of plastic in Africa and Europe and the second largest source in Asia and South America. In North America, the company responsible for the most plastic found in the cleanups was Nestle, followed by the Solo Cup Company, owned by the Dart Container corporation, and Starbucks. Coca-Cola ranked fifth among the companies responsible for plastic waste in North America.

Also of Interest

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

Intercepted podcast - Omnicidal Tendencies: The Nuclear Presidency of Donald Trump

Expert Panel Finds Gaping Plot Holes In OPCW Report On Alleged Syrian Chemical Attack

Iraq DM Says US Troops Will Be Out in Four Weeks

How The New York Times distorts our view of Syria

Surprise! Look Who’s Supporting Tulsi Over Hillary!

Abusive North American Companies Pay Off Latin American Police to Harass Critics

Women Are CEO’s Of Top Weapons Manufactures

Progressives Condemn Bezos Decision to Shift More Health Insurance Costs onto Washington Post Staffers

Keiser Report: Paper is Poverty, a Ghost of Money

Californians face second round of power shutoffs in two weeks

How fossil fuel execs lobbied black leaders to overturn a California city’s coal ban

Gullah Geechee: distinct US culture risks losing island home to climate crisis

A Little Night Music

Tampa Red - If I let You Get Away With It(You'll Do It All The Time)

Tampa Red - But They Got It Fixed Right On

Tampa Red - This Ain't No Place For Me

Tampa Red - Don't Jive Me, Mama

Tampa Red And Chicago Five - Let's Get Drunk And Truck

Tampa Red - You Got to Reap What You Sow

Tampa Red - Boogie Woogie Dance

Tampa Red - Things Bout Coming My Way

Tampa Red - Let Me Play With Your Poodle