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"History is laden with belligerent leaders using humanitarian rhetoric to mask geopolitical aims. History also shows how often ill-informed moralism has led to foreign entanglements that do more harm than good."

-- Samantha Power

News and Opinion

The bloodthirsty Humanitarian Warmongers are at it again:

Top Samantha Power Aide is Now Lobbying to Undermine Opponents of Yemen War

Starving children with haunting eyes and emaciated bodies. Bombed-out hospitals and homes. A cholera epidemic that is the largest and fastest-spreading in modern history. These scenes have sparked outrage and a flurry of denunciations of the U.S.-backed war in Yemen, which is led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. But that’s not to say the war has no defenders in the United States. In fact, a public relations consultant and former U.S. diplomat enlisted by the UAE has worked to discredit U.S.-based groups raising awareness of atrocities in Yemen.

Hagar Chemali previously served as a top spokesperson for Samantha Power, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Now, she is paid six figures to shape the debate about the war at the U.N., including by discrediting NGOs that advance evidence of human rights violations in Yemen, according to public disclosures and emails obtained by The Intercept. ...

Shortly after leaving the U.N. in early 2016, Chemali set up a one-person consulting firm called Greenwich Media Strategies. In September of that year, she registered to work for the UAE Embassy as a “foreign agent” – a legal designation under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA. That means she is paid to represent a foreign government. In her current role, Chemali has reached out to journalists who cover the U.N. to undermine messaging from human rights groups critical of the war in Yemen. In one email from November 2016 obtained by The Intercept, Chemali laid out a strategy to discredit the work of a newly formed group called the Arabian Rights Watch Association, which had begun testifying before the U.N. Human Rights Council earlier that year. ...

ARWA is a small group of Yemeni lawyers and activists based in the United States. The organization began filing complaints with the U.N. Human Rights Council in early 2016, calling for an end to the blockade and for a U.N. investigation into all the parties in the war for violations. The organization’s work began to gain traction that summer, when a group of U.N. experts started to investigate the blockade as a mass human rights violation. ... When the UAE government noticed the efforts of NGOs like ARWA, it quickly tried delegitimize them. In August 2016, Anwar Gargash, UAE minister for foreign affairs, accused human rights groups of being front groups for the Houthis. ... It didn’t take long for think tanks in Washington to adopt the same narrative.

What CNN Wont Tell You About War

Gen. Ratko Mladic Was Convicted of Siege Warfare in Bosnia. Will the U.S.-Backed Siege in Yemen Face Justice?

Ratko Mladic got what he deserved, which is the beginning of the story. Forget, for a moment, the legal jargon that defines what are known as crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide. Think, instead, of this simpler thing: siege warfare. In plain language, that’s one of the many outrages Mladic, a former general, presided over during the war in Bosnia — for which an international war crimes tribunal has just condemned him to spend the rest of his life in prison. ...

Whatever congratulations anyone might feel about this news should be tempered with shame. Siege warfare is happening at this very moment in Yemen, where whole cities and regions have been cut off by a Saudi-led military alliance. The generation-ago crimes for which Mladic has been justly condemned are happening again right now. Saudi Arabia is a close ally of the United States, so you will not hear the State Department calling for a war crimes tribunal to deal with King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — good friends of President Donald Trump and his crown prince, Jared Kushner. The real twist, of course, is that the siege warfare for which Mladic has been vilified is, in its Yemeni iteration, actively facilitated by the U.S., which provides munitions, targeting intelligence, and mid-air refueling to Saudi bomber jets.

The International Criminal Court might seem the best forum for investigating what’s happening in Yemen, but as Sarah Leah Whitson of Human Rights Watch notes, there are only two pathways for that to happen. If the U.N. Security Council refers the matter to the ICC, or if one of the ICC member states involved in the conflict demands an investigation. On the first, the U.S. would likely block the Security Council from acting against its Saudi ally (and itself). On the second, neither Yemen nor Saudi Arabia are members of the ICC. ...

The most vivid critique of the ICC and other U.S.-supported war crimes tribunals of recent decades is that they are victor’s justice of a sort. The foreigners who face trial tend to be ones who made the mistake of committing their crimes without the backing of the U.S., or against the interests of the United States. The critique goes further than that — if you happen to be from a powerful country that committed war crimes that the U.S. did not support — let’s say, Russian forces in Chechnya — you will not face an international court because your leaders have enough clout to stifle the residual moral reflexes of Washington and Brussels at the United Nations. It is only small countries that have to hand over their thugs. ...

At the moment, it seems hopeless to dream of a future in which consistency will be the hallmark of war crimes tribunals. That’s why the Mladic verdict is so important, not just for the victims of his injustices, but for the injustices committed now.

As Aid Groups Warn of Yemen 'On the Brink,' Iran Says US Just Admitted Its Complicity in Atrocities

As the United Nations children's fund warned Sunday that nearly every Yemeni boy and girl—that's more than 11 million children—is in acute need of humanitarian assistance, Iran said the United States admitted its own complicity "in the atrocities committed by Saudi Arabia" in the warn-ravaged country.

The comments by Iran's foreign ministry spokesman, Bahram Ghassemi, follow a statement released Friday by the White House, which said that the U.S. remains "committed to supporting Saudi Arabia and all our Gulf partners against the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' aggression and blatant violations of international law." The statement also praised Saudi Arabia for opening the port in Hodeidah and airport in Sanaa "to allow the urgent flow of humanitarian aid to the people of Yemen."

Aid groups, however, said the partial opening of the nearly three-week long blockade is "a minor and insufficient concession" that "still leave[s] the population of Yemen in a worse situation than they were two weeks ago before the blockade started" and the country still "on the brink." The U.S. has for two years aided the Saudi-led coalition's bombing campaign against Houthi rebels with arms, intelligence, and logistal support, thus helping to fuel the ever-worsening humanitarian crisis in Yemen—and drawing sharp rebuke from human rights groups.

According to Ghassemi, the White House statement "clearly and without question proves America's participation and responsibility in the atrocities committed by Saudi Arabia in Yemen."

"Instead of urging Saudi Arabia to end the bombardment of civilian targets and killing the innocent and defenseless people of Yemen, they blatantly continue their support for this country to continue its horrendous crimes," Ghassemi said, while also arguing that "Iran has no military relation with Yemen." (The relationship between the houthis and Tehran is unclear.) 

How Russia Hawks Are Selling Trump On Sending Weapons To Ukraine

President Donald Trump’s top advisers are closer now to achieving what seemed unthinkable at the start of his presidency: Shipping millions of dollars of US weapons to Ukraine’s embattled military. The president, whose former campaign associates nixed language supporting arms to Ukraine in the GOP’s party platform in 2016, was never going to be an easy sell on the issue.

Approving the measure would likely enrage Moscow and jeopardize Trump's hopes of cultivating better ties with the Cold War adversary. Key US allies including Germany oppose the decision out of concern that it could trigger Russia to step up its military intervention in Ukraine in ways that spiral out of control.

But US officials tell BuzzFeed News that they have a pitch they believe can win the president’s approval of providing $40-50 million in arms to the war-torn country, including powerful Javelin anti-tank missiles. Officials said the president could be presented with the proposal in the coming weeks. The key to persuading Trump, officials said, is requiring Ukraine to pay for at least some of the equipment and casting the arms package as a step toward “peace” in the three-year conflict between Kiev and Russian-backed separatists. ...

Senior US officials began feeling out Trump’s position on sending arms to Ukraine in late September when Trump held a bilateral meeting with Poroshenko on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. At the time, Trump told his top advisers “I just want peace,” which arms advocates have taken as an opportunity to make the case that Javelin missiles will advance the cause by deterring further Russian aggression. That view has the support of Trump’s top advisers, including Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, three US officials said. The State Department’s special envoy for the Ukraine crisis, Kurt Volker, publicly made the case for sending arms during an interview with three reporters on Saturday.

Pentagon tried to block independent report on child sex among Afghan forces, Senate office says

The Pentagon tried to block an independent assessment of child sex abuse crimes committed by Afghan soldiers and police, instead insisting on the creation of its own report offering a far less authoritative review of human rights violations perpetrated by U.S. allies, according to an aide to Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.).

Although the report released Nov. 16 by the Defense Department Inspector General’s office (DODIG) reached the grim conclusion that, for years, U.S. personnel have been inadequately trained to report such crimes, a parallel investigation by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) is thought to contain a much more detailed accounting of the problem’s severity.

But the results of SIGAR’s unreleased inquiry, which was requested by 93 members of Congress in 2015, remains classified at the Pentagon’s direction, raising questions about the military’s transparency and the extent to which it is complying with laws meant to curb such abuse.

The Pentagon responded with “resistance” when Congress tapped SIGAR to conduct the probe, said Tim Rieser, an aide to Leahy, vice chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee whose namesake legislation, known as the Leahy Law, requires the U.S. military to halt assistance to foreign military units found to have committed gross human rights violations.

Instead, senior Pentagon officials argued that SIGAR, which since 2009 has produced dozens of reports exposing corruption within the Afghan government and incompetence among Afghan security forces, lacked the jurisdiction for this particular task, Rieser said.

US and South Korea Announce Plans for Massive Air Force Exercise Aimed at North Korea

The U.S. and South Korea announced Friday they will conduct a massive air force exercise over the Korean Peninsula next month as a notable show of force targeting North Korea—despite warnings that the Trump administration's decision earlier this week to add North Korea to the United States' list of state sponsors of terrorism could further provoke the isolated country.

Six F-22 Raptor stealth fighters—which are among the world's most advanced warplanes—will be sent to South Korea for the drill, a U.S. Air Force spokesman told AFP, which reports:

The massive five-day annual exercise comes as Washington pushes what President Donald Trump has called a "maximum pressure campaign" against Pyongyang over its nuclear program.

The exercise, named Vigilant Ace, starts on December 4 with 12,000 U.S. personnel and an unspecified number of South Korean airmen flying more than 230 aircraft at eight U.S. and South Korean military bases.

Reuters reports that U.S. Marine Corps and Navy troops will also participate in the exercise.

Although the drill is conducted annually, it comes as U.S. President Donald Trump continues to antagonize North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on the world stage. 

Top U.S.-Backed Honduran Security Minister Is Running Drugs, According to Court Testimony

The Honduran minister of security, who was intimately involved in solidifying the 2009 coup, is tied up in drug trafficking, according to testimony from a Mexican drug-trafficker-turned-DEA-informant in U.S. court.

In November 2016, as the world’s attention was fixated on the surprise election of Donald Trump as president of the United States, two nephews of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro were found guilty on drug trafficking charges. The conviction was another feather in the cap of U.S. prosecutors who have been targeting the Venezuelan government with corruption and drug trafficking investigations. But in the South Florida courtroom, the testimony of José Santos Peña also implicated Julián Pacheco Tinoco, a former Honduran military official [and 70's graduate of the U.S. military’s School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia] with long ties to the U.S. security apparatus. ...

According to the prosecution, one of the defendants in the case had deleted from his Samsung phone chat records and contact information bearing Pacheco’s name. But the allegation that the top security official of one of the United States’s closest regional allies was involved in drug trafficking was treated as a non-event in Washington; not a single major media story mentioned the Drug Enforcement Agency informant’s testimony.

In March 2017, this time in a New York courtroom, Pacheco’s name would once again come up. More details of his and other Honduran government officials’ alleged involvement in drug trafficking were revealed. Today, Pacheco remains the minister of security, in charge of the entire Honduran national police force. With hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. assistance pouring into Honduras’s security forces, Pacheco is one of the most important players in the country’s security and counternarcotics cooperation with the United States.

Zimbwabwe: Emmerson Mnangagwa sworn in as president

Zimbabwe: Robert Mugabe to get $10m payoff and immunity for his family

Robert Mugabe and his wife will receive a “golden handshake” worth many millions of dollars as part of a deal negotiated before the resignation of the ageing autocrat last week. The exact sums to be paid to the former president and his wife Grace are still unclear, though one senior ruling party official with direct knowledge of the agreement said the total would not be less than $10m.

The official said that Mugabe, who has been granted immunity from prosecution and a guarantee that no action will be taken against his family’s extensive business interests, would receive a “cash payment of $5m” immediately, with more paid in coming months.

The 93-year-old’s $150,000 salary will also be paid until his death. The 52-year-old first lady, reviled for her extravagance and greed, will then receive half that amount for the rest of her life.

Mugabe’s 37-year rule left Zimbabwe with a worthless currency, massive debts, an impoverished population and an estimated unemployment rate of more than 80%. Roads are rutted, many rural communities have no electricity, education is basic and healthcare almost non-existent. A life expectancy of 60 is one of the lowest in the world.

The first couple will be able to remain in their sprawling mansion known as the Blue Roof, in Harare. The state will pay for their medical care, domestic staff, security and foreign travel.

Separatists and unionists tied for support ahead of Catalan elections: poll

Pro-independence parties may fail to retain an absolute majority of seats in the Catalan parliament in regional elections next month, a poll published on Sunday showed, with pro-unity parties poised to increase their vote share. ...

Catalan separatist parties are predicted to win 46 percent of the vote, down slightly from 47.7 percent in a previous election in 2015. Unionist parties combined would account for another 46 percent of votes, up from less than 40 percent last time, according to the poll by Metroscopia.

The poll shows pro-independence parties winning 67 seats, one short of the absolute majority they would need to retain control of the regional parliament. Unionists forces would also fall short a majority in this scenario, although the poll suggests a high number of voters, around 23 percent, remain undecided.

Breitbart, Kim Dotcom, Julian Assange, and Trump’s Right-Wing Base Reject Plan to Axe Net Neutrality

Federal Communications Commission Chief Ajit Pai has announced that on December 14, the body will vote to pare back net neutrality rules. Internet freedom activists and progressive organizations immediately responded to the announcement with a wave of opposition, as was expected. But more interestingly, in some of the most right-wing and Trump-supporting corners of the internet, there is a rebellion brewing.

Take, for instance, Breitbart News. The popular right-wing website has been a loyal ally to President Donald Trump, perhaps more devoted to his cause than any other. The article about Pai’s move has 1,117 comments, mostly aghast at the FCC’s plan. ... Julian Assange and Kim Dotcom, tech libertarians whose anti-authority politics drove them toward anti-establishment Trump, [really? seriously? c'mon Intercept, you can do better than this! - js] broke with the president over the issue. Both are influential within the online Trump community.

Dear @realDonaldTrump: 'net neutrality' of some form is important. Your opponents control most internet companies. Without neutrality they can make your tweets load slowly, CNN load fast and infest everyone's phones with their ads. Careful.

— Julian Assange (@JulianAssange) November 21, 2017

Over at the Daily Caller, another popular right-wing website, some commenters are taking the same route on articles about net neutrality. “Net neutrality is actually good for everyone. I bleed red and vote red, but I’m not okay with this. Repealing net neutrality gives ISPs all the leverage in the world to wring every last cent out of us,” wrote Frank Danger, who has a picture of Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas as their avatar.

Staggering Variety of Clandestine Trackers Found in Popular Android Apps

Researchers at Yale Privacy Lab and French nonprofit Exodus Privacy have documented the proliferation of tracking software on smartphones, finding that weather, flashlight, ride-sharing, and dating apps, among others, are infested with dozens of different types of trackers collecting vast amounts of information to better target advertising.

Exodus security researchers identified 44 trackers in more than 300 apps for Google’s Android smartphone operating system. The apps, collectively, have been downloaded billions of times. Yale Privacy Lab, within the university’s law school, is working to replicate the Exodus findings and has already released reports on 25 of the trackers.

The findings underscore the pervasiveness of tracking despite a permissions system on Android that supposedly puts users in control of their own data. They also highlight how a large and varied set of firms are working to enable tracking.

“I think people are used to the idea, whether they should be or not, that Lyft might be tracking them,” said Sean O’Brien, a visiting fellow at Yale Privacy Lab. “And they’re used to the fact that if Lyft is on Android and coming from Google Play, that Google might be tracking them. But I don’t think that they think that their data is being resold or at least redistributed through these other trackers.”

Supreme court cellphone case puts free speech – not just privacy – at risk

On Wednesday, the supreme court will consider whether the government must obtain a warrant before accessing the rich trove of data that cellphone providers collect about cellphone users’ movements. Among scholars and campaigners, there is broad agreement that the case could yield the most consequential privacy ruling in a generation. Less appreciated is the significance of the case for rights protected by the first amendment. The parties’ briefs make little mention of the first amendment, instead framing the dispute – for understandable reasons – as one about the right to privacy. Yet the court’s resolution of the case is likely to have far-reaching implications for the freedoms of speech, press and association.

The case, Carpenter v United States, arises out of the government’s prosecution of Timothy Carpenter for a series of armed robberies carried out in south-eastern Michigan and north-western Ohio several years ago. In the course of its investigation of the crimes, the government ordered Carpenter’s cellphone provider to turn over data it had collected relating to Carpenter’s movements. In response, the provider produced 186 pages listing every call that Carpenter had made over a 127-day period, as well as coordinates indicating where Carpenter had been at the beginning and end of each of those calls. Importantly, it turned over these records even though the government had not obtained a warrant based on probable cause. Carpenter asked the court to suppress the government’s evidence under the fourth amendment, which protects the right to privacy. ...

Privacy scholars are watching Carpenter’s case closely because it may require the supreme court to address the scope and continuing relevance of the “third-party-records doctrine”, a judicially developed rule that has sometimes been understood to mean that a person surrenders her constitutional privacy interest in information that she turns over to a third party. The government contends that Carpenter lacks a constitutionally protected privacy interest in his location data because his cellphone was continually sharing that data with his cellphone provider. Privacy advocates are rightly alarmed by this argument. Much of the digital technology all of us rely on today requires us to share information passively with third parties. Visiting a website, sending an email, buying a book online – all of these things requiring sharing sensitive data with internet service providers, merchants, banks and others. If this kind of commonplace and unavoidable information-sharing is sufficient to extinguish constitutional privacy rights, the digital-age fourth amendment will soon be a dead letter.

To understand the Carpenter case’s full significance, though, it’s necessary to consider the implications the government’s arguments have for first amendment rights. In a brief filed in support of Carpenter, 19 leading technologists explain how easy it is to use a person’s location data to learn about her beliefs and associations. (We represent the technologists.) With very few data points, the technologists observe, an analyst can learn whether a given person attended a public demonstration, attended a political meeting, or met with a particular activist or lawyer. With more data, an analyst can identify social networks and learn not only whether a given person was at a public demonstration but who else attended the demonstration with her. Journalists and their sources might be at particular risk. Imagine parallel demands for the cell site location information of a journalist who exposed government misconduct and of all the government employees who had access to the information the journalist exposed. ... A defeat for Carpenter would be a defeat for privacy rights, but it would also mean a dramatic curtailment of first amendment freedoms.

Trump Uses 'Disgustingly Racist' Pocahontas Slur at Event Honoring Native Americans

A White House event ostensibly aimed at honoring Native American code talkers from World War II took a "disgustingly racist" turn on Monday when President Donald Trump—standing before a portrait of former President Andrew Jackson—decided to invoke the "Pocahontas" slur he has repeatedly used to deride Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

"I just want to thank you because you are very, very special people," Trump said. "You were here long before any of us were here. Although we have a representative in Congress who they say was here a long time ago. They call her Pocahontas."

The president's remarks were met with silence.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Showdown: Trump Appoints Director Who Vowed to Kill Agency

Richard Cordray Sets Up Titanic Struggle for Control of the Consumer Protection Bureau With Last-Minute Move

Signaling an epic fight over control of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the agency on Friday named Leandra English as Deputy Director. English had been serving as Richard Cordray’s chief of staff. Hours later, Cordray officially resigned. Under the statutory line of succession spelled out in the law that created the agency, the deputy director automatically replaces him, with full powers of the office, until the Senate formally confirms a new director selected by the president.

On Friday evening, several hours after Cordray’s announcement, the White House released a statement confirming it plans to wage a battle over succession, ushering in the CFPB’s era of two popes:

“Today, the President announced that he is designating Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Mick Mulvaney as Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The President looks forward to seeing Director Mulvaney take a common sense approach to leading the CFPB’s dedicated staff, an approach that will empower consumers to make their own financial decisions and facilitate investment in our communities. Director Mulvaney will serve as Acting Director until a permanent director is nominated and confirmed.”

Trump's consumer agency pick serves doughnuts and plea to 'disregard' acting head

A day after the official that Donald Trump wants to pass over as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) asked a federal court to block the president’s own appointment, Trump’s pick for the role offered doughnuts to agency staff and told them to “disregard” his opponent’s instructions. Leandra English was promoted to interim director of the CFPB by its outgoing director, Richard Cordray, on Friday. Trump countered by naming the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Mick Mulvaney.

The White House and congressional Republicans expressed confidence in the president’s authority based on a 1998 federal law but English filed suit on Sunday night in the US district court for the District of Columbia, asking for a declaratory judgment and a temporary restraining order. English cited the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010, which created the CFPB, and said that as deputy director she became acting director under the law. Her case argues that the law that the White House contends supports Trump’s appointment doesn’t apply when another statute designates a successor.

On Monday, English and Mulvaney duly sent rival emails to the CFPB’s 1,600 employees, the Washington Post reported. First, English wrote: “I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving. With Thanksgiving in mind, I wanted to take a moment to share my gratitude to all of you for your service.” She signed off the message with the title “Acting Director.” But it was Mulvaney, carrying a paper bag of doughnuts for staff, who entered the director’s office at CFPB headquarters. He fired back: “It has come to my attention that Ms English has reached out to many of you this morning via email in an attempt to exercise certain duties of the acting director. This is unfortunate but, in the atmosphere of the day, probably not unexpected.

“Please disregard any instructions you receive from Ms English in her presumed capacity as acting director.” He added: “I apologize for this being the very first thing you hear from me. However, under the circumstances I suppose it is necessary. If you’re at 1700 G Street today, please stop by the fourth floor to say hello and grab a doughnut.”

John Conyers leaves House committee post amid sexual misconduct claims

The Democratic congressman John Conyers stepped down as ranking Democrat on the House judiciary committee on Sunday, amid allegations he used taxpayers’ money to settle cases with women who accused him of sexual misconduct.

The news came shortly after the House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, was widely criticised for calling the 88-year-old an “icon” because of his work in the civil rights movement. ...

Conyers, who denies the allegations, said in a statement he wanted to stay on the committee but did not want to undermine his colleagues as he faces an ethics investigation.

“I very much look forward to vindicating myself and my family before the House committee on ethics,” Conyers said.

US Congress spent almost $1mn settling harassment cases in 2017

Al's been drinkin' that Milk of Amnesia again...

Al Franken says he can't recall if he groped women while having picture taken

Al Franken does not remember if he touched women inappropriately while having his picture taken with them at campaign events.

“I take thousands and thousands of pictures, sometimes in chaotic and crowded situations,” the Minnesota Democratic senator said in an interview aired on Monday by CBS. “I can’t say I haven’t done that. I’m very sorry if these women experienced that.”

His comments were the latest indication that he has no plans to step down amid allegations of sexual misconduct.

One woman alleges Franken forcibly kissed her on a USO tour and took a sexually suggestive photo while she was sleeping. Three other women allege Franken grabbed their buttocks while posing for photos during separate campaign events in 2007, 2008 and 2010.

Franken added that he has to be “a lot more sensitive, and a lot more careful” when he takes a picture and when he meets someone. “I’m going to make sure that this does not happen again,” he said.

Meet the Socialist Marine & Anti-Police Brutality Protester Who Won Democratic Seats in November

Donna Brazile: Bill Clinton Should Hit the Campaign Trail for Democrats in 2018

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., recently told the New York Times that Bill Clinton stepping down during the scandal involving Lewinsky, a White House intern at the time, would have been an “appropriate response.” ... During an event at Politics & Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday evening for her new book “Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump in the White House,“ Brazile weighed in on Gillibrand’s statement about Clinton and whether Democratic candidates should campaign with the Clintons during the 2018 midterm election campaign.

“Absolutely, no doubt, and let me tell you something,” Brazile said. “I worked for Bill Clinton and Al Gore, OK, part of my formative years. Bill Clinton was impeached. ... Bill Clinton paid a huge price and I know everybody wants to re-litigate it today and rather than talk about Roy Moore, a man who has been banned from the mall, and not want to talk about sexual harassment — sexual harassment is a pervasive problem in our society and the workplace.” ...

Despite Hillary Clinton’s loss to Donald Trump in the 2016 election, Brazile said the Democratic Party needs the Clintons out on the campaign trail. She applauded the Clintons for helping “recruit” new faces for the party. ... “The Clintons have been extremely effective in helping the Democratic Party recruit the next generation of candidates and much more. We need Bernie Sanders out there. We need Hillary Clinton out there. We need Joe Biden out there. When your party has been in the wilderness; when you’ve lost 932 state legislative seats and 11 gubernatorial seats; when you’ve lost over 63 congressional seats, we can’t afford to be going out there and saying, ‘Donna, sit your butt home. Bill, sit your butt home.’ We need everybody to get their butts out there and win in 2018 and beyond – that’s where I stand,” she added.

‘Their own media megaphone’: what do the Koch brothers want from Time?

That Charles and David Koch are putting $650m into Meredith Corp’s purchase of Time would ordinarily be cause for great soul-searching in media. But these are not ordinary times. Meredith’s Koch-backed deal with Time – which owns, in addition to Time magazine, titles including People, Fortune and Sports Illustrated – was sealed Sunday night. ...

Observers of Koch Industries, a longtime supporter of libertarian and conservative causes, especially generous with funding for climate denial through thinktanks and research groups, say more than business is at stake. ... The billionaire brothers have long sought to influence public opinion on energy and climate change, pouring hundreds of millionsinto universities, non-profits, thinktanks and political campaigns. But this week marked their first foray into publishing when, through their private equity arm, Koch Equity Development, they provided Meredith Corp with a $650m cash boost in its purchase of Time Inc.

“It’s a very proper business decision – a cheap way to wield even more political influence,” said Bill McKibben, a former New Yorker writer and key figure in the environmental movement as founder of the group 350.org. “The return on investment on their political work is off the charts, I fear.” ... Charles Alexander, whose decades-long career at Time magazine culminated in 13 years as its science editor, isn’t the least bit puzzled. He is, however, very afraid.

What’s concerning about the Kochs’ interest, according to Alexander, is not that they are conservative. Time’s founder, Henry Luce, was conservative. What Alexander is worried about is a much more recent affliction of the Republican party: its systematic denial of the science underlying climate change and how that presaged a larger skepticism of science and facts in general. “For decades, the Kochs’ ‘dark money’, as the New Yorker’s Jane Mayer called it, has financed a campaign of disinformation designed to convince the public and politicians that climate change is nothing to worry about,” Alexander wrote in the Nation on Wednesday. Now, the Kochs may be poised to extend its reach directly into the editorial pages.

Also of Interest

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

Europe’s Plan to Close Its Sea Borders Relies on Libya’s Coast Guard Doing Its Dirty Work, Abusing Migrants

Is #TheResistance a CIA Front?

White House Memo Justifying CFPB Takeover Was Written By Payday Lender Attorney

A Little Night Music

Chubby Checker - Dance The Mess Around

Chubby Checker - The Class

Chubby Checker - Limbo Rock

Chubby Checker - Twist Train

Chubby Checker - At The Discotheque

Chubby Checker - Dancin' Party

Chubby Checker - Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On

Chubby Checker - The Jet

Chubby Checker - Ballin' The Jack

Chubby Checker - Dancing Dinosaur

Chubby Checker - Stoned In The Bathroom