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"Insofar as there is debate among dominant elites, it will be reflected within the media, which in this narrow sense, may adopt an "adversarial stance" with regard to those holding office, reflecting elite dissatisfaction with current policy. Otherwise the media will depart from elite consensus only rarely and in limited ways. Even when large parts of the general public break free of the premises of the doctrinal system, as finally happened during the Indochina wars, real understanding based upon an alternative conception of the evolving history can be developed only with considerable effort by the most diligent and skeptical. And such understanding as can be reached through serious and often individual effort will be difficult to sustain or apply elsewhere, an extremely important matter for those who are truly concerned with democracy at home and "the influence of democracy abroad," in the real sense of these words.”

-- Noam Chomsky

News and Opinion

The Revolution Isn’t Being Televised: Media uninterested in protest movements around the world

It’s all kicking off everywhere in 2019. Haitians are revolting against a corrupt political system and their President Jovenel Moïse, who many see as a kleptocratic US puppet. In Ecuador, huge public manifestations managed to force President Lenín Moreno to backtrack on his IMF-backed neoliberal package that would have sharply cut government spending and increased transport prices (FAIR.org, 10/23/19).

Meanwhile, popular Chilean frustration at the conservative Pinera administration boiled over into massive protests that were immediately met with force. “We are at war,” announced President Sebastian Pinera, echoing the infamous catchphrase of former fascist dictator Augusto Pinochet. Pinera claimed that those responsible for violently resisting him were “going to pay for their deeds” as he ordered tanks through Santiago. (See FAIR.org, 10/23/19.)

Huge, ongoing anti-government demonstrations are also engulfing Lebanon, Catalonia and the United Kingdom.

Yet the actions that have by far received the most attention in corporate media are those in Hong Kong, where demonstrations erupted in response to a proposed extradition agreement with the Chinese central government that opponents felt would undermine civil liberties and Hong Kong’s semi-autonomous status. A search for “Hong Kong protests” on October 25, 2019, elicits 282 responses in the last month in the New York Times, for example, compared to 20 for “Chile protests,” 43 for Ecuador and 16 for Haiti. The unequal coverage is even more pronounced on Fox News, where there were 70 results for Hong Kong over the same period and four, two and three for Chile, Ecuador and Haiti, respectively.

This disparity cannot be explained due to the protests’ size or significance, the number of casualties or the response from the authorities. Eighteen people have died during the ongoing protests in Haiti, 19 (and rising) in Chile, while in Ecuador, protesters themselves captured over 50 soldiers who had been sent in as Moreno effectively declared martial law. In contrast, no one has been killed in Hong Kong, nor has the army been called in, with Beijing expressing full confidence in local authorities to handle proceedings. The Chilean government announced it had arrested over 5,400 people in only a week of protests, a figure more than double the number arrested in months of Hong Kong demonstrations (Bloomberg, 10/4/19). Furthermore, social media have been awash with images and videos of the suppression of the protests worldwide. ...

Which protest movements interest corporate media has little to do with their righteousness or popularity, and much more to do with whom they are protesting against. If you’re fighting against corporate power or corruption in a US-client state, don’t expect many TV cameras to show up; that revolution is rarely televised.

One Million Take to Streets of Chile in the “Largest Mobilization Since the End of Dictatorship”

This photo from the protests in Chile yesterday is going viral. The flag on top is from the indigenous Mapuche Nation.

While corporate media outlets churn out nonstop propaganda against US enemies, people are rising up against US-backed right-wing client regimes in Latin America pic.twitter.com/cj3JfAz8lN

— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) October 26, 2019

1 million Chileans is a huge slice of their population, which is somewhere around 18 million.

Over 1 Million Chileans Take to the Streets to Demand Political Reforms, Change to Country's Neoliberal Economic System

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera on Saturday said he would reshuffle his cabinet after over 1 million Chileans poured into city streets across the country Friday to demand structural reforms to the country's government and economic system. The move by Pinera came as the protest movement mobilized people in the captial Santiago and beyond.

BREAKING: Chile's President
Pinera has asked his ministers to resign, in the most dramatic move since protests began a week ago. The military also announced an end to the curfew. Yesterday's protest, by more than 1 million Chileans, is forcing change.pic.twitter.com/gZMtMarDnp

— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) October 26, 2019

The timeline and plan for the replacement of ministers remains unclear. On Saturday, Reuters reported that a document obtained by the news agency "suggested Pinera was considering replacing the heads of at least nine ministries, including the ministries of interior, defense, economy, transportation and environment."

Chilean senator Felipe Kast on Twitter credited the Friday protests with prompting Pinera's decision. "A peaceful day that will leave its mark on our history," said Kast. "Chile is not the same as it was yesterday."

Una jornada pacifica que marcara la historia. Chile no es el mismo que era ayer. No lo cambio la politica. Es la politica la que debe cambiar. #LaMarchaMasGrandeDeChi pic.twitter.com/znWDRXuI6x

— Felipe (@felipekast) October 25, 2019

Hundreds shot and beaten as Chile takes to the streets

Hospital beds at Posta are usually filled with victims of traffic accidents and life-threatening cases of influenza, but the week-long Chilean uprising – the most serious unrest since the fall of Augusto Pinochet – has sent hundreds to the hospital with gunshot and head wounds and head fractures, and left at least 19 dead nationwide. Hospital staff at Posta are now working 24-hour shifts because a strict military curfew has thousands of soldiers patrolling the streets from late evening until dawn, making it dangerous and difficult for hospital staff to commute. ...

The lack of basic medical treatment for the largely working-class victims of gunshot wounds was notable inside Posta, as staff described shortages of supplies in the public health facilities and emphasised the gulf between services at this run-down structure and the gleaming private clinics just 10km away. Patients at Posta were dying, workers said, due to the lack of basic supplies, including surgical gloves, syringes and masks. A dearth of small flasks for blood samples means patients go days without having blood work done, even in the 24-bed intensive care unit. Resources are so limited that physicians and nurses must decide whether to withhold supplies for patients near death in favour of those with a better chance of survival.

In a desperate effort to save patients’ lives, nurses and respiratory specialists cannibalise various devices as they patch and weave together trachea filters. “It’s a product that costs 40,000 pesos [£43] but we don’t have many, so people are inventing the best they can,” said one professional who asked not to be named for fear of being blacklisted by the Chilean public health establishment. Recently assigned to Posta, he said that at least one patient a week was dying unnecessarily, due in large part to the lack of basic equipment. ...

The lack of empathy for working-class patients is reflected in the attitude of the health minister Jaime Manalich, who on national TV mocked the upheaval as just “a march” and who has repeatedly sabotaged attempts to record the number of gunshot wounds inflicted by security forces. “From the first moment, the hospital directors refused to provide information. Our [medical] colleagues have, in part, been intimidated not to provide information,” said Izkia Siches, president of the Chilean Medical Association. “There is a substantial under-reporting of the injured and also a lack of counselling for many of these [victims] to denounce the violation of their rights.” Siches demanded that Manalich release the full figures and break what she called an “information blackout”.

“People Have Reached the Limit”: Lebanon Joins Wave of Anti-Government Protests Across Middle East

Rage against the system: From Chile to Lebanon, why the sudden wave of protests?

Trump Says ISIS Leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi Blew Himself Up

President Donald Trump confirmed Sunday morning that a U.S. operation conducted in northwest Syria on Saturday night had successfully targeted and killed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State terror group. “Last night the United States brought the world’s number one terrorist leader to justice,” Trump said. “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead.”

The Army’s elite Delta Force carried out the mission with the CIA, providing intelligence and reconnaissance information on the ground, an official told the New York Times. The president said that no U.S. personnel were lost in the operation. Trump said Baghdadi was under surveillance for a couple of weeks but that an earlier operation had been canceled due to Baghdadi’s movements.

The president said U.S. troops cornered Baghdadi, who retreated into a tunnel with three children. “He died after running into a dead-end tunnel, whimpering and crying and screaming all the way,” Trump said. “He reached the end of the tunnel as our dogs chased him down.”

Baghdadi blew himself up with a suicide vest, killing himself and three children he'd brought with him, Trump said, adding that the tunnel collapsed, and his body was “mutilated,” but that DNA tests had proved his identity.

Trump wants to make a deal with Exxon or others to tap Syrian oil: ‘We should be able to take some’

President Donald Trump on Sunday said he’s interested in making a deal with ExxonMobil or another energy company to tap Syrian oil reserves. “What I intend to do, perhaps, is make a deal with an ExxonMobil or one of our great companies to go in there and do it properly...and spread out the wealth,” he said. ...

“The oil is so valuable, for many reasons,” Trump said on Sunday. “It fueled ISIS, number one. Number two, it helps the Kurds – because it’s basically been taken away from the Kurds... And, number three, it can help us, because we should be able to take some also.” ...

In a press conference that followed, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina supported President Trump’s focus on Syrian oil, when a reporter asked by what “legal right in international law” the U.S. could take Syrian oil.

“This was the chief source of revenue for a long time for ISIS,” Graham said. “It is now in the hands of Syrian Democratic Forces, which are Arabic Kurds, mostly Kurds, with the partnership with the United States. So, no this doesn’t violate any law. In my view, what it does is just good common sense foreign policy.”

“This is a win-win,” he continued. “The SDF will get more money if we can modernize the oil fields.”

Trump’s Betrayal of the Kurds Has Ukraine Worried They Could Be Next

President Trump’s willingness to withhold crucial military aid while pressing Ukraine to launch politically helpful investigations into his rivals startled Kiev. But his abrupt abandonment of America’s Kurdish allies in Syria unleashed its anxieties. Now they’re wondering if they might be next.

“That situation tells Ukraine that our country can rely only on itself,” Commander Vyacheslav “Eagle Owl” Vlasenko, a stony-faced leader of Ukrainian forces in the war-torn Donbas region, told Vice News. For Ukraine, where soldiers are still fighting Russia-backed separatists in the east, Trump’s Syria pullback is doubly alarming: It not only reveals Trump’s willingness to turn his back on American allies on a whim but also directly benefits Kiev’s chief military threat, Russia.

The U.S. remains Ukraine’s most important source of international assistance in its brutal five-year war with Russia-backed separatists, a conflict that has already killed some 13,000 people. Between April 2014 and June of this year, Washington provided Kiev with some $1.5 billion in aid that included lethal arms, defensive materiel, and hands-on training. A volte-face in support for Ukraine could dramatically alter the course of the war.

A “Black Vests” Movement Emerges in France to Protest Treatment of Undocumented Migrants

In July, some 700 undocumented migrants, mostly men from Africa, ran into one of Paris’ most famous structures, the Panthéon, and sat down on its stone floor. Tourists were ushered from the tombs of famous figures in French history — Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Marie Curie — and taken outside. For the next hours, under the building’s echoing dome, protesters took turns making speeches and chanting about their right to the famous French values of liberty, equality, and fraternity.

“Why not give us legal status? Why not try to do something for us? Why humiliate us? Why do you ignore us? We are not objects. We are people like you,” one undocumented man said through a microphone as protesters fanned out on the floor around him, waving slips of paper and cheering. “Our grandparents fought for France. … We’re not hiding anymore,” said another.

The men were part of a new movement called the gilets noirs, or “black vests.” The group of around 1,500 activists began to coalesce early this year, naming themselves after the gilets jaunes, or yellow vests, whose protests against declining prospects for the French working class were rocking the country. ... The gilets noirs speak specifically to the conditions faced by France’s migrant underclass, and they represent one of the most visible undocumented migrant movements France has seen in decades. ...

French President Emmanuel Macron was elected in 2017 as a centrist reformer, and his government is the “toughest” on immigration that France has seen in recent years, said Cyrille de Billy, secretary general of the French refugee aid organization La Cimade. ... Macron stated early this fall that immigration would be one of the major focuses of the remainder of his time in office. The president stated that he wanted to confront immigration head-on, saying “the Left has abandoned the subject for years.” ... Macron also called for a debate on immigration in the country’s parliament, which was held in early October. During the debate, French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe said that he was “not afraid” of setting immigration quotas.

De Billy characterizes Macron’s rightward turn on immigration as a mistake. “You are not preventing the rise of the far-right,” he told The Intercept. “But you might be giving credibility to what it says.” French Member of Parliament Danièle Obono, one of the few lawmakers who has publicly supported the gilets noirs, called Macron’s agenda “neoliberal” and said he was a person with “very conservative views of the world” who had disguised himself as a progressive.

The gilets noirs, meanwhile, say they hope to resume large-scale actions soon. Their current demand is a meeting with the prime minister. In June, through Obono, movement leaders transmitted a letter to Philippe. “We ask you to receive a delegation of Gilets Noirs at Matignon. … We will continue to mobilize and ask for decent housing and papers for everyone,” it reads. The prime minister has not responded to the letter.

Far-right AfD surges to second place in German state election

Anti-immigrant populists beat Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) to second place in an election in the east German state of Thuringia yesterday, building spectacularly on their steady momentum since first entering the Bundestag two years ago.

According to exit polls, the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) took nearly 24% of the vote, beating the centre-right CDU by one percentage point but, as expected, failing to oust incumbent leftwingers Die Linke. The AfD more than doubled its share of the vote. Despite that, it has no chance of entering power yet, as other parties have ruled out joining it in a coalition.

But the party’s national standing is boosted by the result, which was closely watched in Berlin, as is the status of its state leader Björn Höcke, considered Germany’s most controversial politician, who has been accused of stoking hatred with anti-Jewish rhetoric.

The state now faces months of protracted coalition negotiations. AfD’s showing means it will be impossible for Die Linke (30% of the vote), the left-of-centre Social Democrats (8%) and the Green party (5.5%) to repeat their coalition. A minority government led by Die Linke is the most likely outcome, reflecting the increasing fragmentation of the political landscape across Germany in recent years. ...

The election campaign was characterised by Nazi slogans and death threats and overshadowed by the deadly attack on a synagogue in the city of Halle earlier this month.

What are the chances of the conservatives winning the UK's next election?

Brexit: EU prepares to grant UK three-month extension

The EU is preparing to sign off on a Brexit extension to 31 January 2020 with an option for the UK to leave earlier if a deal is ratified, according to a leaked draft of the agreement seen by the Guardian. Despite objections raised by the French government, a paper to be agreed on Monday circulated among member states suggests the EU will accede to the UK’s request for a further delay.

The UK would be able to leave on the first day of the month after a deal is ratified, according to the paper.

The draft paper suggests a no-deal Brexit on 31 October is off the table as demanded by opposition party leaders as a prerequisite for a general election.

Brainwashed Liberals Luv The CIA Most!

Nota Bene: Adam Schiff implicitly acknowledges that the Trump impeachment is an information war operation.

Trump impeachment: Schiff expects battle over key witness John Bolton

Democratic leaders of the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump are gearing up for an epic tug-of-war with the White House over their desire to call to testify the former national security adviser John Bolton. Bolton, who was ousted by Trump in September, is seen by Democrats as a key witness who could prove critical in nailing the president for corruptly leaning on Ukraine to help in his re-election campaign.

The former national security adviser is reported to have expressed deep misgivings about Trump’s attempts to cajole Ukraine into investigating Joe Biden, a leading Democratic presidential candidate and potential rival.

Adam Schiff, the chair of the House intelligence committee who is spearheading the impeachment inquiry, said on Sunday the spotlight was now falling squarely on Bolton. Speaking on ABC’s This Week, he accused the White House of obstructing proceedings by attempting to block the testimony of current and former officials, adding: “My guess is they are going to fight us having John Bolton in.” ...

By swinging the focus on to Bolton, Schiff indicated that Democratic leaders have no intention of allowing the patriotic glow around the killing of the Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to knock them off course in their pursuit of Trump.

Matt Taibbi: Hate and Assets

Two Leading Economists Say Medicare for All Would Give Workers 'Biggest Take-Home Pay Raise in a Generation'

Medicare for All would give most U.S. workers "the biggest take-home pay raise in a generation," two economists from the University of California, Berkeley said Friday, countering one of the main insurance industry talking points against single-payer.

In an op-ed for The Guardian, Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman directly challenged the claim that Medicare for All would "involve massive tax increases for the middle class," an attack line centrist Democratic presidential candidates like former Vice President Joe Biden and South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg have recently deployed against the popular proposal.

"Supporters of Medicare for All are right," said Saez and Zucman, leading experts on income and wealth inequality. "Funding universal health insurance through taxes would lead to a large tax cut for the vast majority of workers." The two economists argued that health insurance premiums are effectively taxes taken out of workers' paychecks and paid to for-profit insurance companies instead of the government.

"Insurance premiums are the most regressive possible type of tax: a poll tax. The secretary pays the same amount as the executive," Saez and Zucman wrote. "Proposals such as Medicare for All would replace the current privatized poll tax by taxes based on ability to pay. Some believe that it would result in a big tax increase for America's middle class."

But the Medicare for All legislation authored by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and backed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) "would, in fact, lead to large income gains for the vast majority of workers" by eliminating private health insurance premiums, Saez and Zucman said.

The economists offered an example:

Take again the case of a secretary earning $50,000 in wage and currently contributing $15,000 through her employer to an insurance company. With universal health insurance, her wage would rise to $65,000—her full labor compensation. With an income tax of 6%—which, if applied to a base large enough, would be enough to fund universal health insurance—she would have to pay about $4,000 more in tax. But the net gain would be enormous: $11,000. Instead of taking home $50,000, the secretary would take home $61,000.

"With smart new taxes—such as broad income taxes exempting low wages and retirees—it is possible to make the vast majority of the population win from a transition to universal health insurance," said Saez and Zucman.

Note how Warren ans Sanders actually cut taxes for the bottom 95%

That's because they abolish mandatory private health insurance premiums, which are in effect a huge poll tax

Learn more: https://t.co/v6LPTxDRce pic.twitter.com/uQktVnfLNz

— Gabriel Zucman (@gabriel_zucman) October 14, 2019

The Sanders presidential campaign quickly seized upon the Saez and Zucman op-ed to bolster the argument that 2020 Democrats attacking Medicare for All as a tax hike on the middle class are being dishonest.
"Industry-bankrolled presidential candidates have spent months reciting GOP talking points claiming that Bernie's Medicare for All plan would raise middle class taxes—but as of this morning, those wildly dishonest claims have been comprehensively debunked by renowned economists," Sanders' speechwriter David Sirota wrote in the campaign's Bern Notice newsletter.

Bankrupt Blackjewel Agrees to Pay Over $5 Million to Laid Off Coal Miners Who Blocked Train Tracks

Progressives on Friday highlighted the power of direct action following a series of federal court settlements this week that will provide coal miners who blocked train tracks in Kentucky for nearly two months this summer to protest against unpaid wages from their bankrupt employer, Blackjewel LLC, with over $5 million in back pay.

Congratulating the laid off coal miners on their victory, longtime labor advocate and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) tweeted Friday, "When workers stand together, fight back, and demand an end to corporate greed—they win." ...

According to The Associated Press:

Agreements filed in U.S. District Court this week will pay out nearly $5.5 million in back pay to miners from Blackjewel LLC's eastern mines. The checks from over the summer bounced when workers tried to cash them, prompting several miners in Kentucky to protest by blocking coal shipments in Harlan County.

The agreement involves a separate entity, Blackjewel Marketing and Sales Holdings, paying the bankrupt company $5.47 million to issue paychecks to employees, the Bristol Herald Courier reported. Blackjewel owned mines in Kentucky, West Virginia, Wyoming, and Virginia.

Blackjewel attorney Stephen Lerner told the Bristol Herald Courier by email Wednesday that "payroll checks are expected to be issued this week" to cover workers' unpaid wages from June 10 and July 1, when the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

House Dems Take Aim at 'Trust Fund Babies' With Estate Tax Designed to Combat Obscene Wealth Inequality

California Congressman Jimmy Gomez on Friday introduced legislation in the Democrat-controlled U.S. House that aims to address "our country's rapidly increasing wealth inequality by strengthening the estate tax and ensuring the wealthiest among us pay their fair share."

The For the 99.8% Act would impose a progressive tax on the estates of the richest Americans. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, introduced the companion bill in the Republican-controlled Senate in January.

Under the bill, "the families of all 588 billionaires in America would owe up to $2.2 trillion in estate taxes, amounting to revenue that can be used to address critical needs for working families and the most vulnerable among us," according to Gomez's office. ...

The House bill's 37 original co-sponsors include Democratic Reps. Pramila Jayapal (Wash.) and Mark Pocan (Wis.) as well as the four freshmen congresswomen collectively known as "the Squad," Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.), and Rashida Tlaib (Mich.).

$2 Test Identified Bird Shit as Cocaine. Cops Keep Using It to Arrest People.

Police across the country have used the same breed of shoddy $2 test to arrest people for cocaine that was really bird poop, meth that was actually crumbs from a glazed donut, and oxycodone that turned out to be vitamins.

In all of those cases, the possession or drug trafficking charges were eventually dropped after police sent the “drug” samples to a state lab that returned more-conclusive results. The original tests, known as presumptive field tests, have a history of being almost laughably wrong — if they weren’t putting people behind bars, even temporarily. And the follow-up lab tests that eventually clear people’s names can take weeks, if not months.

In the meantime, innocent people may be spooked into taking a plea deal instead of risking a longer sentence at trial. And if they can’t afford their bail, they’ll languish in jail as they decide whether to take a guilty plea or wait on better test results. ...

The most common presumptive field tests only cost a few dollars and are supposedly simple to use. That’s why they’re widely favored by police across the country and lead to thousands of arrests each year, according to a 2016 ProPublica investigation. The tests, however, have their downsides: They’re often not admissible in court, which is why police have to order follow-up testing from a lab. ...

In 2000, the Justice Department issued guidelines requesting the tests’ manufacturers include warning labels telling cops that the tests could produce false positives and therefore require appropriate training. But ProPublica’s investigation found those guidelines were largely ignored. Newer, more accurate tests are available, but police departments don’t typically buy them because they can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

John Conyers, Democrat who served half a century in the House, dies at 90

John Conyers, a Democrat from Michigan who served for more than 50 years in the US House of Representatives, has died. He was 90. ...

Elected as one of only six black members of the House in 1964, Conyers served until 2017. A co-founder member of the Congressional Black Caucus, he had a storied career. He was for example the only member of the House judiciary committee to take part in impeachment proceedings against both Richard Nixon, in 1974, and Bill Clinton in 1998.

But that career came to an abrupt end in 2017, when Conyers was the subject of extensive allegations of sexual misconduct including a case that was settled in private.

He claimed the allegations were “not accurate” and said he was stepping down for health-related reasons.

100 days to go: Sen. Bernie Sanders stuns with new Iowa metric

Fretting About Progressives’ ‘Electability,’ Establishment Dems Are Really Worried About Their Power in the Party

With Joe Biden struggling as frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, a surging Elizabeth Warren has begun to emerge as the party establishment’s new bogeyman—and corporate media are ready and willing to transmit insiders’ panicked calls for new “moderate” entrants to the race. On the same day earlier this week, the Washington Post and the New York Times ran twin articles: the Post’s “Anxiety Rises Among Democrats Worried About Party’s Prospects in 2020” (10/22/19) and the Times’ “Anxious Democratic Establishment Asks, ‘Is There Anybody Else?’” (10/22/19).

The pieces interviewed a number of big donors and centrist party leaders, who fretted about their preferred candidate’s struggles and expressed hope for someone more corporate-friendly than Warren to enter the race and challenge her rise. ... The thinking of powerful people in the Democratic Party is worth writing about. But it’s crucial not to just take their claims at face value. What articles reporting on Warren’s or Sanders’ “electability” need is some grounding in facts: Polls show both leftist candidates polling ahead of Trump nationally, as well as in key swing states like Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. As the last election proved, it’s dangerous to rely solely on polls, but combined with Sanders’ and Warren’s fundraising (which are handily beating Biden’s) there’s simply no evidence to substantiate claims of their unelectability—which ought to be decided by voters, not party leaders or corporate journalists.

What establishment Democrats are really worried about, of course, is their own power in the party, which is threatened by a surging left wing. Don’t look to their establishment media counterparts to report on that transparently.

Krystal Ball destroys Rahm's corporatist talking points

Damn the torpedoes principles! Joe Biden full steam ahead!

Joe Biden’s Super PAC Is Being Organized by Corporate Lobbyists for Health Care Industry, Weapons Makers, Finance

Joe Biden began the presidential campaign with a commanding lead in the polls, but questions surrounding his ability to power through the primary, along with relatively weak fundraising, has cast new doubt about his campaign. In an effort to revive Biden’s prospects, prominent supporters of the former vice president are mobilizing to establish a Super PAC, a bid that the Biden campaign appeared to endorse on Thursday, according to a report in Bloomberg. The move represents a reversal from earlier this year, when Biden rejected support from Super PACs, which can receive unlimited donations from corporations or individuals.

Though Biden has pledged not to take contributions from registered lobbyists, the prohibition appears not to apply to big-dollar organizers of his Super PAC. Among the individuals involved with the effort are several lobbyists for leading corporations and foreign governments.

Longtime Biden supporter Larry Rasky, one of the people involved with the big-money effort, is the founder of lobbying firm Rasky Partners, which is currently registered to lobby on behalf of Raytheon, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, and the Republic of Azerbaijan, among other clients. Steve Schale, a former Obama campaign strategist, is a registered state lobbyist with Cardenas Partners, a Florida lobbying firm founded by former Jeb Bush adviser Al Cardenas. Schale’s current client list includes the Florida Hospital Association, JetBlue Airways, State Farm Insurance, Walt Disney Parks, AT&T, and the Associated Industries of Florida. ...

“Lobbyists aren’t bad people, special-interest groups are not bad people, but guess what? They’re corrosive,” said Biden during a 2007 campaign event. “It’s human nature. If you, Lynn, bundle $250,000 for me, all legal, and then you call me after I’m elected and say, ‘Joe, I’d like to talk to you about something. You didn’t buy me. But it’s human nature, you helped me, I’m going to say, ‘Sure, Lynn, come on in,'” he explained.

Glenn Greenwald praises Sen. Sanders on whistleblowers, blasts CNN and MSNBC

Offshore Wind Power Could Produce More Electricity Than World Uses

A new report from the International Energy Agency released Friday claims that wind power could be a $1 trillion business by 2040 and that the power provided by the green technology has the potential to outstrip global energy needs. ...

The IEA report looks at the business of wind power and opines that as investment increases and the technology becomes cheaper, the sector could explode. 

The IEA finds that global offshore wind capacity may increase 15-fold and attract around $1 trillion of cumulative investment by 2040. This is driven by falling costs, supportive government policies and some remarkable technological progress, such as larger turbines and floating foundations. That's just the start—the IEA report finds that offshore wind technology has the potential to grow far more strongly with stepped-up support from policy makers.

"Offshore wind currently provides just 0.3% of global power generation, but its potential is vast," said IEA executive director Fatih Birol.

It would take a major infrastructural commitment to develop wind power to the point that the renewable energy resource could take over the majority of global energy needs, but it's not impossible. As The Guardian pointed out Friday, "if windfarms were built across all useable sites which are no further than 60km (37 miles) off the coast, and where coastal waters are no deeper than 60 metres, they could generate 36,000 terawatt hours of renewable electricity a year."

"This would easily meeting the current global demand for electricity of 23,000 terawatt hours," added The Guardian.

California declares statewide emergency as wildfires force nearly 200,000 to flee

'You can't fight this': California wildfires force evacuation in Sonoma county

Thousands of firefighters in northern California battled to control wildfires fueled by howling el diablo winds, the largest of which forced at least 185,000 people to evacuate their homes. Meanwhile, more than 2 million people were left without power as the state’s largest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), shut off power in an attempt to keep wind-toppled electrical wires from sparking additional fires.

The California governor Gavin Newsom on Sunday declared a statewide emergency, as fire crews worked to control the Kincade fire in California’s wine country, and smaller blazes across the north of the state. In the city of Vallejo, a fierce fire bedeviled commuters. Nearly all of Sonoma county fell under evacuation orders and warnings as the Kincade fire grew to nearly 47 square mile and threatened the towns of Healdsburg and Windsor. By Sunday afternoon, the Kincade fire had destroyed dozens of structures, including several wineries in the Alexander Valley.

The evacuation order was the largest “anyone at the Sheriff’s office can remember,” the Sonoma county sheriff’s department said on Sunday. ...

It’s unclear when people would be able to return to their homes. Although winds had slightly eased on Sunday morning, they were expected to remain fierce throughout the day. The National Weather Service warned that dangerous fire weather conditions would continue into Monday. ...

PG&E warned it might cut power again as soon as Tuesday because of another forecast of strong winds that are expected to last until Wednesday.

Also of Interest

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

Police, protesters clash in Barcelona after 350,000 rally against jailing of separatist leaders

OPCW Losing Credibility As Even More Revelations Surface On Douma

In A Society Built On War, We Must Do More Than Just Prefer Peace

'What Is the Fed Not Telling Us?': Fears of Economic Instability After Central Bank Intervention Spikes

Quietly, U.S. and Foreign Banks Have Increased their Borrowings from U.S. Money Market Funds

For Some Reason, We Can’t Find a Single Leftist Mark Zuckerberg Invited to His Dinners With Pundits From “Across the Spectrum”

Biden's Intervention In Ukraine And Ukraine's 2016 Election Meddling Are Matters of Fact

New York to vote on ranked-choice voting

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A Little Night Music

Andrew "Voice" Odom - Farther Up The Road

Andrew Big Voice Odom - Going To California

Andrew Big Voice Odom - Feel So Good

Earl Hooker & Big Voice Odom - You Don't Love Me, Two Bugs And A Roach

Andrew Big Voice Odom - All For Business

Andrew 'Big Voice' Odom - I Can't Go On The Way

Andrew 'Big Voice' Odom - A Memo Blues

Andrew 'Big Voice' Odom - Take Me Back To East St. Louis

Andrew 'Big Voice' Odom - Woke Up This Morning