The Evening Blues - 11-12-19



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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Harmonica Slim

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues harmonica player and singer Harmonica Slim. Enjoy!

Harmonica Slim - You Better Believe It

"To put on the garment of legitimacy is the first aim of every coup."

-- Barbara Tuchman


News and Opinion

The Bolivian Coup Is Not a Coup—Because US Wanted It to Happen

Army generals appearing on television to demand the resignation and arrest of an elected civilian head of state seems like a textbook example of a coup. And yet that is certainly not how corporate media are presenting the weekend’s events in Bolivia. No establishment outlet framed the action as a coup; instead, President Evo Morales “resigned” (ABC News, 11/10/19), amid widespread “protests” (CBS News, 11/10/19) from an “infuriated population” (New York Times, 11/10/19) angry at the “election fraud” (Fox News, 11/10/19) of the “full-blown dictatorship” (Miami Herald, 11/9/19). When the word “coup” is used at all, it comes only as an accusation from Morales or another official from his government, which corporate media have been demonizing since his election in 2006 (FAIR.org, 5/6/09, 8/1/12, 4/11/19). ...

Delegitimizing foreign elections where the “wrong” person wins, of course, is a favorite pastime of corporate media (FAIR.org, 5/23/18). There is a great deal of uncritical acceptance of the Organization of American States’ (OAS) opinions on elections, including in coverage of Bolivia’s October vote (e.g., BBC, 11/10/19; Vox, 11/10/19; Voice of America, 11/10/19), despite the lack of evidence to back up its assertions. No mainstream outlet warned its readers that the OAS is a Cold War organization, explicitly set up to halt the spread of leftist governments. In 1962, for example, it passed an official resolution claiming that the Cuban government was “incompatible with the principles and objectives of the inter-American system.” Furthermore, the organization is bankrolled by the US government; indeed, in justifying its continued funding, US AID argued that the OAS is a crucial tool in “promot[ing] US interests in the Western hemisphere by countering the influence of anti-US countries” like Bolivia.

In contrast, there was no coverage at all in US corporate media of the detailed new report from the independent Washington-based think tank CEPR, which claimed that the election results were “consistent” with the win totals announced. There was also scant mention of the kidnapping and torture of elected officials, the ransacking of Morales’ house, the burning of public buildings and of the indigenous Wiphala flag, all of which were widely shared on social media and would have suggested a very different interpretation of events. ...

The media message from the Bolivia case is clear: A coup is not a coup if we like the outcome.


Bolivia's Evo Morales says he is leaving for Mexico, but will return with 'energy'

Bolivia’s former president Evo Morales has boarded a plane bound for Mexico where he has been granted asylum, the Mexican foreign minister has announced. Earlier on Monday evening Morales tweeted a farewell after his resignation in the wake of a disputed election, saying that he would be take up the offer of asylum in Mexico but would soon “return with more strength and energy”.

At 9.45pm La Paz time the Mexican foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard tweeted to say: “Evo Morales is on the plane sent by the Mexican government to assure his safe transit to our country.” Morales left behind a country close to chaos as his supporters and adversaries clashed on the streets, and reports of looting, vandalism and arson in the wake of an October election which the Organisation of American States reported to be rigged in his favour. ...

A senior US official said that Washington did not consider Morales resignation and departure to constitute a coup. “All these events clearly show is the Bolivian people have simply had enough of a government ignoring the will of its voters,” the official said.

Ex-Bolivian President Evo Morales accepts political asylum in Mexico


Bolivian Ex-president claims he is victim of coup as unrest spreads and fears grow about political chaos

The president’s exit has created chaos and uncertainty in Bolivia as well as stoking fears about a power vacuum. Looting, vandalism and arson carried out by both his supporters and opponents have been already been reported. ... On Monday, Morales used social media to accuse the opposition leaders Carlos Mesa and Luis Fernando Camacho of instigating a coup against him. “[They] lie and try to blame us for the chaos and violence that they provoked,” he said.

The news brought mixed reactions around the world. Donald Trump welcomed it as “a significant moment for democracy in the Western Hemisphere”. The US president said in a written statement: “After nearly 14 years and his recent attempt to override the Bolivian constitution and the will of the people, Morales’s departure preserves democracy and paves the way for the Bolivian people to have their voices heard.

“The United States applauds the Bolivian people for demanding freedom and the Bolivian military for abiding by its oath to protect not just a single person, but Bolivia’s constitution.” ...

In Bolivia the immediate concern was the void left as resignations by Morales and his vice-president, Álvaro García Linares, were followed by the next in line, the senate president, Adriana Salvatierra. Her deputy, Jeanine Añez, is expected to assume the interim presidency. In a wave of resignations, parliamentarians, local politicians and top brass in the army and police also stepped down. ...

Social media fuelled competing claims of arson attacks or death threats against both sides after Morales’ resignation. Armed intruders broke into Morales’ home in Cochabamba and he accused “coup plotters’ of an arson attack on his sister’s home and of making death threats against his ministers and their children. ...

Amid claims of a witch-hunt, the head of Bolivia’s supreme electoral tribunal, María Eugenia Choque, stepped down after the release of the OAS report. The attorney general’s office said it would investigate the tribunal’s judges for possible fraud, and police later said Choque had been detained along with 37 other officials on suspicion of electoral crimes.



Jacobin Editor Calls Out Warren's Silence On Brazil, Bolivia

Calling for an 'End to Violence,' Bernie Sanders Becomes First 2020 Democratic Presidential Contender to Criticize Bolivian Coup

Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday became the first 2020 Democratic presidential candidate to speak out against Sunday's military coup in Bolivia which saw that country's President Evo Morales forced to resign before going into hiding. "I am very concerned about what appears to be a coup in Bolivia, where the military, after weeks of political unrest, intervened to remove President Evo Morales," Sanders tweeted. "The U.S. must call for an end to violence and support Bolivia's democratic institutions."

The Vermont senator's comments came after a day of mounting pressure to speak out from his left-wing grassroots movement. Earlier Monday, as Common Dreams reported, Sanders supporter Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) condemned the coup in no uncertain terms.

"The people of Bolivia deserve free, fair, and peaceful elections," said Ocasio-Cortez, "not violent seizures of power."

Future of Bolivia’s resources is in questions amid political turmoil

Bolivian Coup Comes Less Than a Week After Morales Stopped Multinational Firm's Lithium Deal

The Sunday military coup in Bolivia has put in place a government which appears likely to reverse a decision by just-resigned President Evo Morales to cancel an agreement with a German company for developing lithium deposits in the Latin American country for batteries like those in electric cars.

"Bolivia's lithium belongs to the Bolivian people," tweeted Washington Monthly contributor David Atkins. "Not to multinational corporate cabals." ...

The Morales move on Nov. 4 to cancel the December 2018 agreement with Germany's ACI Systems Alemania (ACISA) came after weeks of protests from residents of the Potosí area. The region has 50% to 70% of the world's lithium reserves in the Salar de Uyuni salt flats.

Among other clients, ACISA provides batteries to Tesla; Tesla's stock rose Monday after the weekend.

As Bloomberg News noted in 2018, that has set the country up to be incredibly important in the next decade:

Demand for lithium is expected to more than double by 2025. The soft, light mineral is mined mainly in Australia, Chile, and Argentina. Bolivia has plenty—9 million tons that have never been mined commercially, the second-largest amount in the world—but until now there's been no practical way to mine and sell it.

Morales' cancellation of the ACISA deal opened the door to either a renegotiation of the agreement with terms delivering more of the profits to the area's population or the outright nationalization of the Bolivian lithium extraction industry. As Telesur reported in June, the Morales government announced at the time it was "determined to industrialize Bolivia and has invested huge amounts to ensure that lithium is processed within the country to export it only in value-added form, such as in batteries." ...

ACISA told German broadcaster DW last week that the company was "confident that our lithium project will be resumed after a phase of political calmness and clarification."

The Edge of Democracy: Lula is Freed in Brazil In Victory for Movement to Resist Bolsonaro

U.S. forces ramp up firepower in Syria

Inside Syria, U.S. forces brought out the big guns Monday, including Bradley Fighting Vehicles at a remote base, significantly ramping up U.S. firepower. Major General Eric Hill said their arrival is to counter new threats on the battlefield. "We've been conducting a withdrawal. We've been resetting ourselves here in the east and as we do that, we want to make sure we have the right mix of different vehicles and combat power here to sustain ourselves," Hill said.

That power is not to match ISIS, but the militaries of the Syrian regime, the Russians, or even militias backed by fellow NATO partner Turkey. All are now carving up territory once controlled by America and its Kurdish allies.

Heh, The Guardian is in the tank with the spooky propagandists who claim that the White Helmets are the target of Russian disinformation, but they do report some facts amid the propaganda:

British founder of White Helmets found dead in Istanbul

The British founder of the organisation that trained the Syrian rescue group known as the White Helmets has died in Istanbul. A spokesman for the White Helmets confirmed on Monday afternoon the death of James Le Mesurier and said further details were yet to be established.

Le Mesurier, 48, was found dead near his apartment in central Istanbul’s Beyoglu neighbourhood at around 4.30am. Turkish media reports said he was found with fractures to his head and legs and appeared to have fallen from a balcony. The office of Istanbul’s governor said it had commenced a “comprehensive” investigation. The Reuters news agency said it had been told his death was being treated as suspected suicide.

A Hong Kong Policeman Shot a Protester in the Stomach on Facebook Live

A Hong Kong policeman was captured on a Facebook Live video shooting a protester in the stomach from close range as protests in the city spiraled out of control on Monday. The policeman is seen drawing his service revolver while trying to disperse protesters at an intersection at Sai Wan Ho in the northeast of Hong Kong Island at 7:15 a.m. local time. He grabs hold of one the masked protesters, and when a second masked protester approaches, the officer fires the gun at the man’s torso.

The 21-year-old protester has undergone surgery but remains a critical condition.

Authorities confirmed the officer fired twice more, but no other injuries were reported. The government was also forced to deny rumors spreading online that they had ordered front-line officers to fire “recklessly” on protesters. The protester is the third person to be shot by police since protests began five months ago. ...

Across the city, protesters reacted angrily to the shooting at Sai Wan Ho, disrupting commuters and forcing police to deploy tear gas, even in the central business district, something that very rarely happens there during working hours. ...

But, despite the widespread disruption, Hong Kong’s leader, Carrie Lam, was in no mood to give in to protesters’ demands:

“If there is still any wishful thinking that by escalating violence the Hong Kong government will yield to pressure to satisfy the so-called political demands, I make it clear now that that is not going to happen,” Lam told reporters Monday. “Violence is not a solution.”

UK home office funds charity that slams Corbyn as elections loom

Clinton is a big fan of Christopher Steele's spooky work interfering in elections:

UK government delay of Russia report is shaming, says Clinton

Hillary Clinton has called Downing Street’s suppression of a report into potential Russian infiltration of British politics “damaging, inexplicable and shaming”.

The 2016 US presidential candidate told the Guardian it was “incredibly surprising and unacceptable that in your country there is a government report sitting there about Russian influence and your current government isn’t releasing it”.

The potentially incendiary report by the intelligence and security committee has already been approved by the intelligence agencies. Downing Street was sent a final draft on 17 October and had been expected to sign off the report by the end of last month.

However, No 10 indicated that the parliamentary report would not be made public before the election, citing a sign-off process that it said could take six weeks.

John Bolton’s Lawyers Want Nothing to Do with Mick Mulvaney

Even John Bolton’s lawyer, Charles Cooper thinks Mick Mulvaney’s press conference was a raging disaster — and wants nothing to do with him. Mulvaney’s public admission of the quid pro quo at the heart of Democrats’ impeachment case against President Trump should disqualify Mulvaney from joining a lawsuit aimed at determining whether top officials should testify before Congress, a lawyer for Bolton, Trump’s former National Security Advisor, wrote in a legal filing on Monday.

Cooper, who also represents Bolton’s former deputy Charles Kupperman, asked the judge to block Mulvaney from joining Kupperman’s lawsuit, which seeks a judgement on whether Kupperman should respond to a Congressional subpoena for his testimony or whether he (and presumably, Bolton) should observe a White House ban on cooperating on impeachment.

The White House has insisted that Mulvaney and other top officials enjoy “absolute immunity” from testifying before Congress in the impeachment investigation. Bolton’s lawyer that Mulvaney’s face-plant of a press conference undermined that claim, because it means he’s already spoken out publicly about the issue. As a result, “there is a serious question as to whether Mulvaney waived the absolute testimonial immunity claimed by the President,” Cooper wrote.

Emphasis added:

Pentagon raised concerns over stalled Ukraine military aid, transcript reveals

The Pentagon raised concerns over the US government’s hold-up of military aid to Ukraine, which a national security official saw as “essential”, according to a congressional hearing transcript released on Monday.

The testimony of Laura Cooper, deputy assistant secretary of defense, released following a previous closed-door session, is the latest piece in the jigsaw of the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump, which begins televised hearings on Wednesday. ...

She said the White House Office of Management and Budget directed the freeze on hundreds of millions of dollars of military aid for Ukraine against the judgment of career officials at both the defense and state departments. “All of the senior leaders of the US national security departments and agencies were all unified in their – in their view that this assistance was essential,” Cooper said.

She also raised concerns to senior government officials about the legality of withholding the money, which had been authorized by Congress.

Keiser Report: Give us this day, our daily billions

Google's healthcare partnership sparks fears for privacy of millions

Google’s announcement of a partnership with a major healthcare provider raises fresh privacy concerns as the tech company expands its footprint into the healthcare industry.

Monday’s announcement comes after the Wall Street Journal revealed Google had won access to health-related information of millions of Americans across 21 states through the partnership with Ascension – the second-largest healthcare system in the US.

The Journal reported that the data involved in the project includes lab results, doctor diagnoses and hospitalization records, among other categories, and amounts to a complete health history, including patient names and dates of birth.

The collaboration, code-named “Project Nightingale”, began in secret last year, according to the Journal. Google’s parent company, Alphabet, on Monday officially signed Ascension, its biggest cloud computing customer in healthcare yet. The partnership will give Google access to datasets that could help it tune its potentially lucrative artificial intelligence tools.

Yet another episode of the spook community obsessing over the legitimate exercise of first amendment rights of American citizens and abusing the powers of government. Disgusting.

The U.S. Military Is Monitoring Interfaith Group Opposed to Child Separation, Leaked Document Reveals

U.S. military forces deployed to the southern border are monitoring domestic protesters, including anti-border wall groups, according to an internal Pentagon document obtained exclusively by The Young Turks and The Intercept. The military, the document reveals, has focused particular attention on an interfaith group peacefully protesting the Trump administration’s child separation policy. The document includes what’s called a “threat estimate,” an assessment detailing the risk of perceived border threats. Among those threats are protests by members of religious groups against “the detention of families and children,” as well as anti-ICE protests and protests by “anti border-wall extremists.” ...

The “Commander’s Update Briefing,” dated August 1, 2019, enumerates three “events of interest.” The first event of interest is described as “anti-border wall extremists” who “made threats to law enforcement and border wall construction projects.”

“The extremists belong to a known anti-border wall group alleged to have direct action camps in the McAllen, TX area,” the document states. The group in reference appears to have been the Rio Bravo Action Camp, a training camp hosted by the Democratic Socialists of America’s Rio Grande Valley Chapter, the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas, along with several activist groups, according to its website. The action camp’s training appears to focus on nonviolent forms of resistance, including civil disobedience and street protests.

The threat estimate says of the second event of interest: “An identified group plans to protest the detention for families and children at Fort Sill. An identified religious group in St. Louis, MO, sponsors the group and is subsidizing travel expenses for protestors. The group is charging a 65.500-225.00 USD as a donation to ride a bus to Lawton.” A number of religious groups based in St. Louis — about half of them Jewish — met in September to organize opposition to the mistreatment of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. This meeting gave rise to the creation of Heartland for Human Justice, an interfaith group that on August 1 — the same date as the “Commander’s Update Briefing” — went to protest Fort Sill, which had recently announced that it would detain about 1,400 migrant children. ...

The third event of interest is a 10-day “Border Resistance Convergence event,” which, the report notes, “has been scheduled for El Paso, Texas. The Border Resistance Convergence social media event is promoting rhetoric calling for the end of migrant detention and the termination of the current immigration policy.” ...

The document also includes an assessment about the migrant caravan, which states that there is “no indication of caravan infiltration/exploitation” by transnational terrorists, homegrown violent extremists or foreign intelligence and security services.

Jimmy Carter hospitalized for brain surgery after recent falls

The former US president Jimmy Carter was admitted to a hospital on Monday evening for a procedure to relieve pressure on his brain, caused by bleeding due to his recent falls, his spokeswoman said.

The procedure is scheduled for Tuesday morning at Emory University hospital, Deanna Congileo said in a statement.

Carter, 95, has fallen at least three times this year, and the first incident in the spring required hip replacement surgery.



the horse race



Krystal Ball: Tulsi Gabbard surges, is she the most electable?

New Hampshire Poll: Elizabeth Warren slips, Kamala Harris plunges to 1%

Progressive Group's New TV Ad Targeting Joe Biden Shows Young Voters Trashing His 'No Empathy' Comment

"It's garbage." That's one young voter's assessment of Joe Biden's comment last year that he has "no empathy" for young people. The comment is the focus of a new television ad targeting the former vice president and Democratic presidential hopeful. It's set to begin airing Monday evening on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show."

"We launched this ad to convey a simple message," said Action for a Progressive Future co-founder Jeff Cohen in a statement, "that Democrats would have a hard time defeating Trump with a candidate who belittles young voters and their very real struggles."

In a 2018 interview with The Los Angeles Times Biden said, "The younger generation now tells me how tough things are. Give me a break. No, no, I have no empathy for it. Give me a break. Because here's the deal guys, we decided we were gonna change the world. And we did." ...

The new ad also directs viewers to BidenFactSquad.org, a page that catalogs a number of comments from Biden as well excerpts of reporting on him—all of which would likely elicit progressive criticism.  The questionable comments include Biden saying in 2015, "I really like Dick Cheney for real. I get on with him, I think he's a decent man."

The page also includes a damning snippet from New York magazine's Eric Levitz, who wrote earlier this year, "It is hard to name an infamously unjust feature of America's criminal-justice system that Joe Biden didn't help to bring about." ...

Action for a Progressive Future, which runs the progressive advocacy group RootsAction, says the ad will run for at least one week throughout the state of New Hampshire, which makes it likely that viewers in and around the cities of Boston, Burlington, Vermont, and Portland, Maine will also see the ad.

“Seattle Is Not For Sale”: Voters Rebuke Amazon, Re-electing Socialist Kshama Sawant

'That's Ridiculous,' Says Billionaire After Sanders Campaign Returns Her $470 Donation

Sen. Bernie Sanders has made principled opposition to billionaire campaign donations a centerpiece of his 2020 presidential bid. So when the Vermont senator's campaign learned recently that it received a $470 contribution from Marta Thoma Hall, it immediately vowed to return every dollar.

Hall, wife of billionaire inventor David Hall and head of business development at Velodyne, was not happy with Sanders' refusal to accept her money.

"I think it's disappointing," Hall told Forbes on Monday. "I don't understand why they would do that. That's ridiculous."

After reviewing federal filings, Forbes reported that it "could not find any other billionaire or spouse of a billionaire who has donated to the Sanders' campaign" aside from Hall, who also gave $505 to Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and $685 to Beto O'Rourke, who dropped out of the race earlier this month.

"We need more housing": Elizabeth Warren on gentrification & lack of affordable housing in the U.S.

Mitch McConnell Faces Threat From Populist Challenger Charles Booker in Kentucky Senate Race

Sen. Mitch McConnell faces a new 2020 threat, as Kentucky state Rep. Charles Booker announced the formation of an exploratory committee on Monday. McConnell, the Senate majority leader, is already being challenged by Marine fighter pilot Amy McGrath, who ran and lost a winnable race for a Lexington-area House seat in 2018. In the Democratic primary, Booker, who backs progressive policies like a Green New Deal, Medicare for All, and a living wage, plans to run as a contrast to McGrath, who is running more to the center or the center-right. ...


The eyes of Kentucky’s political world, meanwhile, have been on liberal sports radio host Matt Jones, a populist television and radio personality who has flirted with the idea of challenging first McGrath and then McConnell. As he was deliberating a run over the summer, McGrath’s campaign manager helped get Jones thrown off his TV show. Last week, the Kentucky GOP got Jones tossed off the radio, arguing that his corporate parent, iHeartRadio, was giving illegal in-kind support to his potential campaign by allowing him to remain on the air as he deliberates a run. #FreeMattJones trended nationally on Twitter in response, demonstrating his immense popularity. A website, freemattjones.org, also sprang up, asking people to add their names in support and fueling speculation that Jones was jumping in, but it was quickly taken offline, leading to speculation that he is backing off of a bid. ... “Trump’s gonna be on the ballot; that makes it hard,” Jones said. “I don’t care how many people show up, 60 percent of the people are voting for Donald Trump. They just are. So the question is, Can you get 10 percent of the people to vote Trump-Jones. That’s your only chance. And I don’t know. I can tell you this: I don’t think you can get people to vote Trump-McGrath.”

Booker’s message will aim to bring out as many Democrats as possible, but Jones’s point still stands: that even if Trump wins with 55 percent of the vote, it still means Booker would need to convince enough people to vote Trump-Booker. The argument that it’s possible is twofold: There is, the left has long argued, latent support for populist economic policy like the Green New Deal among the white working class that has been devastated by bad trade deals, neoliberalism, and the collapse of the coal industry. Booker will make the case that a Green New Deal is not a “war on coal” but a way out of the misery that the industry has left in its wake.

While Jones appears to have the most plausible case to unseat McConnell, given his popularity and celebrity as a sports personality, and his ability to craft a populist message disconnected from partisan politics, Booker can’t be ruled out either. If he gets past McGrath — a formidable challenge, given she raised $10.7 million in the last quarter and has the support of Democratic leaders in Washington — he would be running not just to beat McConnell, but to build the party in the state around progressive-populist ideas, with an eye toward transforming Kentucky politics. Democrats have consistently put up safe, moderate candidates — like Alison Lundergan Grimes in 2014 — against McConnell, with predictable results. Booker wants to try something new.



the evening greens


Australia Is Battling Some of the Most Dangerous Wildfires It's Ever Seen

The fires raging across Australia are spreading so far that officials aren’t sure they have enough fire trucks. "If you call for help, you may not get it," the New South Wales police said in a statement.

As of Monday, around 100 hundred fires were burning across more than 2 million acres in Queensland and New South Wales. In an attempt to scrounge up more resources, both states declared emergencies Sunday. The flames have already killed at least three people and level 150 structures, and officials only expect the situation to get worse. They warned the fires would reach “catastrophic” levels, the highest danger rating, in the greater Sydney area by Tuesday. That’s never happened since rating was introduced in 2009, according to Australia’s ABC News.

“Catastrophic is off the conventional scale,” said New South Wales Rural Fire Service, Shane Fitzsimmons, at a press conference. “It’s where people die.” He also warned this “could be the most dangerous bushfire week this nation has ever seen.” ...

The UN’s International Panel on Climate Change predicted in 2014 that fire season in Australia would get longer and more severe as the world heats up. But Australia’s conservative government has largely ignored the commitments it made under the Paris Agreement and increased its greenhouse gas emissions. The Prime Minister, who has blasted climate activism as “economic sabotage,” has also threatened to criminalize the growing protests.

Demands for Bold Climate Action Mount as 'All But Rainless' Australia Faces 'Catastrophic' Fire Danger

Demands for bold government action to combat the climate emergency continued to mount in Australia Monday as the continent had hardly any rain for the first time on record while more than 100 fires burned across two eastern states.

The government's Bureau of Meteorology on Monday "forecast Australia to be all but rainless for the day—aside from a tiny splotch off the Kimberley and western Tasmania," according to The Sydney Morning Herald. A bureau spokesperson said that "the team can't comprehensively identify a day in our records where there hasn't been rain somewhere on continental Australia." ...

Carol Sparks, a mayor who lost her home in a fire near the New South Wales town of Glen Innes, told The Associated Press that "it's climate change, there's no doubt about it. The whole of the country is going to be affected. We need to take a serious look at our future."

Newcastle City Councillor and former ABC journalist Carol Duncan told The New Daily, "I'm disturbed that our government has ignored—and continues to ignore—the repeated calls for genuine climate action from our community, and from the scientists who have warned us that climate change will make bushfires and other natural disasters happen more frequently and become more intense."

"We can't continue to pretend it's unrelated," added Duncan, whose father's home was destroyed by a fire a few weeks ago.

The southeastern Australian state of Victoria, which has sent hundreds of firefighters north to help with the ongoing blazes, hasn't yet endured deadly fires this year. However, it is currently bracing for a "very extreme" heatwave that has "the potential to kill hundreds of people, cripple public transport and the electricity supply, and strip $1 billion from the state's economy," The Sydney Morning Herald reported Monday. ///

In terms of efforts to curb planet-warming emissions and avert global climate catastrophe, Australia ranks as one of the worst among the world's 19 largest economies and the European Union, according to Climate Transparency's G20 Brown to Green Report 2019, which was released Monday.

Mouse deer species not seen for nearly 30 years is found alive in Vietnam

A distinctly two-tone mouse deer that was feared lost to science has been captured on film foraging for food by camera traps set up in a Vietnamese forest.

The pictures of the rabbit-sized animal, also known as the silver-backed chevrotain, are the first to be taken in the wild and come nearly 30 years after the last confirmed sighting. ...

The silver-backed chevrotain is a half-painted beast. Behind the russet head, neck and front legs lies a silver-grey body and hind legs rounded off by a white, grizzled bottom. Though probably preyed on by leopards, wild dogs and pythons, scientists fear that snares laid by hunters have pushed the species to the brink of extinction. Despite the name, they are neither mice nor deer, but the world’s smallest ungulate, or hoofed animal. ...

The findings, reported in Nature Ecology and Evolution, have increased calls for swift action to protect what remains of the population. A chief priority is to reduce the widespread use of snares to capture animals for the wildlife trade.


Also of Interest

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

Democracy doesn’t matter to the defenders of ‘economic freedom’

Chris Hedges: Death by Oligarchy

Bolivia coup led by Christian fascist paramilitary leader and multi-millionaire – with foreign support

Narrative Managers In Overdrive After Death Of White Helmets Founder

Israel is silencing the last voices trying to prevent abuse of Palestinians

Donald Trump Jr walks out of Triggered book launch after heckling – from supporters

Vowing to End Cash Bail & Reform Justice System, Chesa Boudin Wins San Francisco DA Race

Government Doesn’t Want Trump or His Immigration Policies Mentioned in Retrial of Border Aid Worker Scott Warren


A Little Night Music

Harmonica Slim - Hard Times

Harmonica Slim - Mary Helen

Harmonica Slim - Going Back Home

Harmonica Slim - I'll Take Love

Harmonica Slim - Darling I Love You

Harmonica Slim - Thought I Didn't Love You

Harmonica Slim - Do What You Wanna Do

Harmonica Slim - My Girl Won't Quit Me

Harmonica Slim - Tin Pan Alley

Harmonica Slim - That's All Right


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Anja Geitz's picture

her female and POC credentials, and thereby turning the Establishment's "electibility" argument right back on them is priceless.

Best line: "I know you don't like Tulsi, but weren't you the ones that told us we need to suck it up because we need to unite together to beat Trump?"

Hahahahahaha!

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

joe shikspack's picture

@Anja Geitz

heh, of course that unity thing is a one-way street, cause the corporocrats represent the center, don't you know that's where all of the votes dollars are.

get ready for a deluge of stupid, nonsensical platitudes.

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Kshama Sawant rocks.

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joe shikspack's picture

@QMS

i am glad to see that the voters of seattle saw their interests aligned with the working classes rather than the bezos class.

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they are going to hurt the economy

Australia’s prime minister pledges to outlaw climate boycotts, arguing they threaten the economy

The WA post article above was from Nov 1. Here is an article from an env group in AU on Nov 6

The Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, has just told a room full of mining lobbyists that he's begun work on legislation to outlaw climate activism – banning climate protests, boycotts and "disruptive" strikes.1

It's the most alarming attack we've seen yet – threatening people's right to take action against climate-denying politicians, and corporate climate wreckers.
This dangerous expansion of authoritarian power will restrict farmers who are organising to protect their groundwater from fracking. It will limit Traditional Owners efforts to protect their land from gas companies. It could stop the next generation from taking action to save their future – by putting an end to the climate strikes, for good.

These laws must be defeated. We need to challenge them in Parliament, in committee hearings, and in the High Court if we have to. It's going to take a mammoth effort from lawyers, barristers and policy experts, as well as a coordinated public campaign to protect the rights of climate activists in all their forms.

But even more than that – we need to put an end to Morrison's culture war. And that means beginning the long-term work of working in regional communities, championing local solutions, and building a shared vision of the future we must fight for together.

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joe shikspack's picture

@DonMidwest

i am quite surprised to see that australia's economy does not rely on a stable climate. who knew?

great to see you! have a good one.

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mimi's picture

Elon Musk: Tesla to build car and battery factory in 'Berlin area'

According to Bild, Musk said the factory would be built near the construction site of the unfinished Berlin airport. Musk made the announcement after the Tesla Model 3 snatched the award for the best car in the middle/upper vehicle class.

Musk also said that Tesla would be opening a design and engineering center in Berlin, reported the Electrek magazine, a publication specializing in E-mobility. They also cited Musk as saying that the factory would be built in "Berlin area."

From Bolivian Coup Comes Less Than a Week After Morales Stopped Multinational Firm's Lithium Deal

The Sunday military coup in Bolivia has put in place a government which appears likely to reverse a decision by just-resigned President Evo Morales to cancel an agreement with a German company for developing lithium deposits in the Latin American country for batteries like those in electric cars.

"Bolivia's lithium belongs to the Bolivian people," tweeted Washington Monthly contributor David Atkins. "Not to multinational corporate cabals."

The Morales move on Nov. 4 to cancel the December 2018 agreement with Germany's ACI Systems Alemania (ACISA) came after weeks of protests from residents of the Potosí area. The region has 50% to 70% of the world's lithium reserves in the Salar de Uyuni salt flats.

Among other clients, ACISA provides batteries to Tesla; Tesla's stock rose Monday after the weekend.

So, Tesla's Musk and Germany's ACI Systems Alemania (ACISA) are in bed and needed the coup to happen. So they made the coup happen. Bravo. Germans are criminals to accept Tesla's factory near Berlin. Musk go home. We have enough cars already. Germany go rot in hell for you are pigs kissing capitalist asses while plotting regime change coups.

Shame. Shame. Shame.

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joe shikspack's picture

@mimi

the greed and power lust of these people really amazes me. morales wanted to provide lithium to the marketplace in the form of value added products rather than as raw materials.

so, rather than musk and others cooperating with the bolivian government to create battery factories in bolivia, the greedheads have to control the resource, so the government that is looking out for its people has to go.

capitalism favors the biggest bastards.

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ggersh's picture

ameriKa

where a coup isn't called a coup
where corruption isn't corruption
where media isn't media

https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2019/11/11/it-seems-that-the-entire-wes...

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

joe shikspack's picture

@ggersh

heh, welcome to the land of pleasant euphemisms.

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Azazello's picture

talking about the Bolivian coup.
I presume it will come up here: The Grayzone, YouTube

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

Azazello's picture

@Azazello
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbsKi-qibNA width:500 height:300]

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

mimi's picture

@Azazello
absolutely a must to listen to in its entirety. Thanks, Azazello. It is terrible to see all the connections to the past Nazis of wwII. Blumenthal is amazing. Got to go back and listening in more of it.

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mimi's picture

@Azazello
love me my Max Blumenthal.

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joe shikspack's picture

@Azazello

thanks for the link!

i missed most of it, but what i saw was great. hopefully they will archive the livestream so that i can catch the beginning of it later.

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"difficult" but I really wish AOC and Omar would stop saying the people of Bolivia "deserve free and fair elections" when they already HAD a free and fair election. IMHO semantics are important here, and by saying this it allows for a somewhat tacit acceptance that their elections were not free and fair, and in essence will allow those who are already using weasel words to discuss "freedom and democracy," while supporting an obvious coup, a nice little backhanded argument that the recent elections should be done over and that perhaps a coup wasn't the "right" way to do it, but it still somehow needed to be done due to the subtle implication that the election was not truly free and fair. Maybe I am just being picky but it sure seems to me a weasely way to defend that country against what is an obvious coup to get at its resources.

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Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

joe shikspack's picture

@lizzyh7

i agree with you about the importance of the semantics. saying that "free and fair elections are needed" validates the oas' fraudulent claims.

i don't know if aoc and omar are ill-informed about the oas or, alternately, if they are afraid to buck the media wurlitzer and challenge the narrative.

one would hope that they are just ill-informed, but you never know.

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Wally's picture

@joe shikspack

@lizzyh7

I think the kids / the squad are alright. Even before the military started to directly threaten Morales, he acknowledged some irregularities in the count and agreed to new balloting. Bernie's got a handle on it and knows how to go about addressing it diplomatically in a politically astute manner that won't get him killed (I hope). Let's not forget that Morales (who has essentially endorsed Bernie for US president) warned Bernie to be careful about his expressing his opposition to capitalism. Bernie knows the score:

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snoopydawg's picture

Because here's the deal guys, we decided we were gonna change the world. And we did." ...

This generation is going to be worse off than their parents and we can thank ByeDone for helping making it happen. People are saddled with student loans and no matter what they can't be discharged through bankruptcy thanks to Joe. Did Biden pass one bill that helped main stream Americans? One? I watched a video of him lecturing us on why the crime bill had to have more teeth in it. Apparently Reagan wanted to do away with sentencing crack cocaine for longer, but ByeDone refused to work with him on it. I will run it down.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

it is inarguable that biden "got stuff done" as a legislator. sadly, a lot of what he got done is not so great, but it certainly was consequential and had an effect on people's and communities' lives.

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snoopydawg's picture

F you Joe! You have done enough damage to we the people and we will reject you for a third time. Just wait. BTW..Jill has a video out telling Trump to just cut it out cuz Joe is going to beat him. lol..

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joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

trump should welcome biden replacing him as president. it's one of the few ways that people might look back on trump's administration favorably.

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dystopian's picture

That white helmets guy can rot in hell... good riddance. Wonder what kind of suicide it was? Wracked with guilt, or assisted by, uh, friends?

The guardian article does a great job of promoting the propaganda line: White Helmet workers rush to the scenes of bombings to try to rescue the wounded from the rubble. They have also helped to document alleged war crimes, including the use of chemical weapons.

They STAGED phony war crimes! Evil F'rs. Israel smuggled a bunch of them out of Syria.

===

"Hillary Clinton has called Downing Street’s suppression of a report into
potential Russian infiltration of British politics “damaging, inexplicable and shaming”.

This screech from the witch is amazing coming from someone suppressed evidence alleged to be of Russia on their own server. This is rich:

***Show us your hard drive or shut up Hillary!

====
Google's “Project Nightingale”, began in secret last year...

Wasn't that right after the heat blew over from them removing their long time original motto "don't be evil'?

===
About Kamala at 1%... Has anyone asked her if 1% is top tier? Got $10 for anyone that does.

===

"We Need more Housing" and a hundred other things I never said before.
by Elizabeth Warren, former native american.

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

joe shikspack's picture

@dystopian

yeah, i thought that it was pretty remarkable the ratio of facts/propaganda in that guardian article.

hah, that hillary is becoming quite that comedian. Smile

have a great evening!

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snoopydawg's picture

@dystopian

Why they haven't been just shows that our justice system is broken beyond repair. If I was working at hospital and you came in for surgery and I told someone about it I would be fired for breaking HIIPA. But not Google. Oh no..they can have millions of people's medical records. Google is just like Chase bank.. too big to jail.

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lotlizard's picture

@dystopian  
is a must-read too, referring to the White Helmets guy — a perfect demonstration of how The Powers That Be go about the business of narrative control. Caity Johnstone also posted it to Medium.com:

https://medium.com/%40caityjohnstone/narrative-managers-in-overdrive-aft...

Re free speech — across the European Union, free speech is a lost cause. They’ve decided “free speech” is just a loophole for “hate speech” and Holocaust revisionism, et cetera, so if you complain about not having free speech you must be a Nazi. Sad and ridiculous, but true.

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/11/08/no-us-not-need-european...

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snoopydawg's picture

@lotlizard

He talks about how one guy has worked on changing Wikipedia for years with no breaks at all. I only trust it on entertainment issues since I read it.

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lotlizard's picture

@snoopydawg  
And sure enough, once having seen that Orwellian culture — protected, apparently, by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales himself — at work, I couldn’t unsee it. Sometimes subtly, sometimes crudely, the manipulative techniques aimed at molding opinion were indeed evident everywhere, in the update history of every controversial, politically sensitive topic.

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snoopydawg's picture

@lotlizard

who worked on changing the news to fit the PTBs reality. I might have to reread the book again. It's just astounding that we are living in Orwell's nightmare isn't it?

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Raggedy Ann's picture

Heh, I got caught up in the livestream of the Grayzone. The more I listen to and read these three fellas, the more intelligent I feel. I am so grateful for the work they are doing and how far they are sticking out their necks. I'd love to see them thirty years from now, but maybe I won't live to be 97.

Snoopy posted an article where her heinous is saying many are asking her to run. I commented that millions are asking her not to run. What a narcissist!

Have a great evening, folks! Pleasantry

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

joe shikspack's picture

@Raggedy Ann

yep, the grayzone has been doing excellent work for a while. i guess it was only a matter of time before the government fired a shot across their bow.

i can't wait for the inevitable draft hillary movement that her sycophants will orchestrate no later than the second ballot at the convention.

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are entertaining as usual even though they are delivering a bit of bad news about our impending financial Armageddon. This is a recurring topic and the general theme is that we are facing the end of the dollar hegemony, the end of the petrodollar, and China's surprise disclosure that it has a bigger bag of gold than it has let on.
Oh well, forewarned is forearmed?

Thanks for the great roundup...will listen to Harmonica Slim in the a.m. with pleasure TY!

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joe shikspack's picture

@randtntx

i always get a kick out of max and stacy. mostly, i think that they are barking up the right tree with their observations of our corrupt economic system. i am not so sure that a system based on gold or an energy-intensive blockchain will restore honor and trust to a system that will probably be dominated by the same players.

i would note that the fractional reserve system which is currently our repository of trust was invented by corrupt goldsmiths who realized that they could issue certificates for more gold than they had on hand because their customers didn't all require payment at the same time.

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Raggedy Ann's picture

@joe shikspack
Ponzi scheme?
Pleasantry

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

joe shikspack's picture

@Raggedy Ann

well, not really. these goldsmiths were merely holding deposits for people, further, their intention was to maintain a long-term sustainable system where everyone got what they put in, rather than (as in a ponzi scheme) enticing people with greater returns than what they put in. the similarity was that, in order to succeed, the confidence of the depositors needed to be maintained - a run on deposits (like a run on a bank) would bring the system crashing down.

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