Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Delta blues singer Mississippi Fred McDowell. Enjoy!

"Don't Latin Americans have the right to ask why their elected governments are being opposed and coup leaders supported?.. Poverty and hardship in large parts of Africa are preventing this from happening. Don't they have the right to ask why their enormous wealth - including minerals - is being looted, despite the fact that they need it more than others?"

-- Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

News and Opinion

This is an excellent interview, worth a watch:

Glenn Greenwald’s Exclusive Interview With Bolivia’s Evo Morales, Who Was Deposed in a Coup

On December 3, I sat with Morales in Mexico City for an hourlong interview that was wide-ranging in scope: not only about the events that led to his removal and exile from Bolivia, but also broader trends in regional and global politics, as well as the role played by the U.S. in Latin America.

We discussed who was behind this coup, what its motives are, the role played by both the U.S. and Brazil, the use of violence by the right-wing “interim” government against Indigenous protesters, the criticisms voiced against him for seeking a fourth term despite constitutional term limits, and how his removal by military force in favor of an unelected right-wing coup regime — led by the country’s right, white, Christian minority — reflects broader trends in Latin American politics and global political trends generally.

We also discussed the once-notorious but now forgotten extraordinary event in 2013, when Morales’s presidential plane was forced to land in Austria as he was traveling back to Bolivia from a state visit in Russia, on the pretext that the U.S. believed he had Edward Snowden on board and was taking him back to Bolivia for asylum. And Morales was particularly insightful on the role played by Bolivia’s deals with China to sell lithium, and its alliance with Russia, and why those relationships so infuriated the U.S.

Keiser Report in Buenos Aires

Pentagon brushes aside bombshell 'Afghanistan Papers'

Top Defense Department officials have largely brushed aside questions surrounding reports that U.S. officials lied about progress in the 18-year Afghanistan war, with experts saying it's unlikely the documents will change the administration's approach to the long-running conflict. The bombshell reports, which were released the same week the House Judiciary Committee readied and then advanced two articles of impeachment against President Trump, have largely been sidestepped by defense officials when speaking to lawmakers and the media.

“I haven’t read all the stories frankly… but the stories spanned multiple administrations, multiple uniformed and civilian officials and I think it’s good to look back. I think at this point where I’m looking is forward,” Defense Secretary Mark Esper said during a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Wednesday.

Top Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman, when asked what assurances the department can give that it will provide accurate information about the war going forward, told reporters on Thursday that he would “quibble with the idea that we weren't providing it in the past.” ... Former Defense Secretary James Mattis also appeared indifferent to the series of newly published Washington Post articles, saying Friday that he did not consider them to be particularly "revelatory" while defending U.S. efforts to rebuild the war-torn country. ...

James Carafano, a defense policy expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said he also "wouldn’t expect to see people burning lamps late into the night in the Pentagon responding to this or caring about this." ... Carafano noted that the current push among House Democrats to impeach Trump, as well as dwindling attention to the long-running war, have diverted attention from the papers. ... “You really don’t have an angry America” when it comes to the Afghanistan war, he added.

“Police Brutality All Over”: India Cracks Down on Protests Against Anti-Muslim Citizenship Law

India citizenship law: shock at crackdown may unite Modi opponents

Fuelled by the apparent police brutality, protests against a controversial law to fast-track citizenship for everyone but Muslim asylum seekers were spreading on Monday to other major universities and cities across the country, in what is becoming the most significant show of dissent in the nearly six years since Narendra Modi took office.

Modi’s thumping re-election in May has been the green light to ram through the most-wanted items on the Hindu nationalist wishlist. The restive Muslim-majority region of Kashmir has been annexed, with its phones and internet blocked and leading politicians arrested. The government says it will soon force hundreds of millions of people in the country to prove their citizenship, modelled on a disastrous exercise in Assam state that has left up to 2 million people in legal limbo.

On Monday, as the protests raged, Modi’s right-hand man was boasting to a rally of the “sky-high” Hindu temple he would build in the north Indian city of Ayodhya on the torn-down remains of a medieval mosque. Perhaps most contentious among Indians was the passage last week of a citizenship bill that explicitly excludes Muslims, which has prompted the cancellation of state visits from Bangladesh and Japan and a warning from the UN that it is “fundamentally discriminatory”.

The images of students and Muslims, two groups who claim to be targeted by the Modi government, coming under attack by police, appear to have crystallised a wider feeling of unease about the direction of the world’s largest democracy. In an extraordinarily diverse country, they may provide a rare national rallying point for discontent.

“A Spectacular Fall from Grace”: Aung San Suu Kyi Denies Burmese Genocide of Rohingya at the Hague

Trump says 'we'll take care of it' if North Korea restarts missile testing

US President Donald Trump has said he would be “disappointed” if North Korea had something “in the works” as a year-end ultimatum from Pyongyang about the fate of nuclear talks approaches. The nuclear-armed North has issued increasingly strident declarations in recent weeks, even promising an ominous “Christmas gift” if Washington does not come up with some concessions.

The top US envoy to the negotiations with North Korea, Stephen Biegun, said in Seoul on Monday that Pyongyang’s rumblings were “hostile and negative” – and Trump said he was watching. “We’ll see. I’d be disappointed if something would be in the works. And if it is, we’ll take care of it,” Trump said at the White House when asked about the situation. “We’re watching it very closely.”

The negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang have been largely stalled since the collapse of a February summit in Hanoi between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The North has said that if Washington fails to make it an acceptable offer, it will adopt a so far unspecified “new way.”

Corbyn’s Defeat Has Slain the Left’s Last Illusion

This was an election of two illusions. The first helped persuade much of the British public to vote for the very epitome of an Eton toff, a man who not only has shown utter contempt for most of those who voted for him but has spent a lifetime barely bothering to conceal that contempt. For him, politics is an ego-trip, a game in which others always pay the price and suffer, a job he is entitled to through birth and superior breeding. The extent to which such illusions now dominate our political life was highlighted two days ago with a jaw-dropping comment from a Grimsby fish market worker. He said he would vote Tory for the first time because “Boris seems like a normal working class guy.” Johnson is precisely as working class, and “normal,” as the billionaire-owned Sun and the billionaire-owned Mail. ...

The second illusion was held by the left. We clung to a dream, like a life-raft, that we still had a public space; that, however awful our electoral system was, however biased the red-tops were, we lived in a democracy where real, meaningful change was still possible; that the system wasn’t rigged to stop someone like Jeremy Corbyn from ever reaching power. ...

We on the left didn’t lose this election. We lost our last illusions. The system is rigged – as it always has been – to benefit those in power. It will never willingly allow a real socialist, or any politician deeply committed to the health of society and the planet, to take power away from the corporate class. That, after all, is the very definition of power. That is what the corporate media is there to uphold. ... I’d have been warning that the real battle for power was only just beginning. That however bad the past four years had been, we had seen nothing yet. That those generals who threatened a mutiny as soon as Corbyn was elected Labour leader were still there in the shadows. That the media would not give up on their disinformation, they would intensify it. That the security services that have been trying to portray Corbyn as a Russian spy would move from insinuation into more explicit action. ...

The likelihood is that the Blairites will exploit this defeat to drag Labour back to being a party of neoliberal capital. We will once again be offered a “choice” between the blue and the red Tory parties. If they succeed, Labour’s mass membership will desert the party, and it will become once again an irrelevance, a hollow shell of a workers’ party, as empty ideologically and spiritually as it was until Corbyn sought to reinvent it. It may be a good thing if this coup happens quickly rather than being dragged out over years, keeping us trapped longer in the illusion that we can fix the system using the tools the corporate class offers us.

French unions rally en masse for 'Black Tuesday' protests against pension reform

France strikes: Clashes reportedly erupt in Paris during protests

Israel: Gideon Saar moves to unseat party rival Netanyahu

Veteran Israeli politician Gideon Saar has launched his bid to unseat prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu as head of the ruling Likud party.

Netanyahu is Israel’s longest-serving leader, but he has been weakened by corruption charges that may force him out of office, as well as back-to-back failures to form a government this year.

Saar’s leadership bid marks the first serious internal challenge to Netanyahu, who has served more than 10 years in office. Though Saar is still a decided underdog to the embattled prime minister, he seems to be gaining traction ahead of a party vote on Thursday next week.

A former aide and senior cabinet minister under Netanyahu, Saar has long been considered a rising star in Likud and a potential future heir. But while others are patiently waiting for Netanyahu to step down on his own, Saar has been the only one who has dared to take him head on.

Chris Wallace Destroys Jim Comey’s Lies About FBI

Trump impeachment: Democrats push for Bolton to testify in Senate trial

Days before a final vote to impeach Donald Trump is expected in the House over accusations that the president “betrayed the nation by abusing his high office”, Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s top Democrat, is warning that a Senate trial without witnesses would amount to a “cover-up” by the White House.

The demand that John Bolton, the former national security adviser fired by Trump in September, and the acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, should testify was the opening salvo in an effort to force the Republican Senate leader, Mitch McConnell, to negotiate over the proceedings. The two are key eyewitnesses to many of the most contentious elements of the Ukraine scandal.

“Trials have witnesses. That’s what trials are all about,” Schumer told reporters at a press conference on Monday. “To engage a trial without the facts coming out is to engage in a cover-up.” The request sets up a bruising clash over the shape and scope of only the third impeachment trial in US history. ...

Though the Republicans are in the driving seat, their control is not beyond challenge. Were the Democrats to persuade just four Republicans to vote against party lines they could reach the 51 votes needed to determine some features of the trial. In an interview with CNN on Monday, Schumer implied that getting those four votes was not out of the question, though he would give no names of potential targets. ...

Speculation has focused on senators including Mitt Romney of Utah, who has criticised Trump relatively strongly, and moderates Susan Collins of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

Trump Proposes Social Security Change That Could End Disability Benefits for Hundreds of Thousands

Activists are working to raise public awareness and outrage over a little-noticed Trump administration proposal that could strip life-saving disability benefits from hundreds of thousands of people by further complicating the way the Social Security Administration determines who is eligible for payments.

The proposed rule change was first published in the Federal Register last month but has received scarce attention in the national media. Last week, the Social Security Administration extended the public comment period on the proposal until January 31, 2020.

Alex Lawson, executive director of the progressive advocacy group Social Security Works, told Common Dreams that the rule change "is the Trump administration's most brazen attack on Social Security yet."

"When Ronald Reagan implemented a similar benefit cut, it ripped away the earned benefits of 200,000 people," Lawson said. "Ultimately, Reagan was forced to reverse his attack on Social Security after massive public outcry—but not before people suffered and died." ...

The process for receiving Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is already notoriously complicated, and the Trump administration is attempting to add yet another layer of complexity that critics say is aimed at slashing people's benefits.

As The Philadelphia Inquirer reported last week, "those already receiving disability benefits are subject to so-called continuing disability reviews, which determine whether they are still deserving of compensation for an injury, illness, or other incapacitating problem as their lives progress."

Currently, beneficiaries are placed in three separate categories based on the severity of their disability: "Medical Improvement Not Expected," "Medical Improvement Expected," and "Medical Improvement Possible." People with more severe medical conditions face less frequent disability reviews.

The Trump administration's proposed rule would another category called "Medical Improvement Likely," which would subject beneficiaries to disability reviews every two years.

According to the Inquirer, "an estimated 4.4 million beneficiaries would be included in that designation, many of them children and so-called Step 5 recipients, an internal Social Security classification."

Step 5 recipients, the Inquirer noted, "are typically 50 to 65 years of age, in poor health, without much education or many job skills [and] often suffer from maladies such as debilitating back pain, depression, a herniated disc, or schizophrenia."

Jennifer Burdick, supervising attorney with Community Legal Services in Philadelphia, told the Inquirer that placing Step 5 recipients in the new "Medical Improvement Likely" category and subjecting them to reviews every two years would represent "a radical departure from past practice."

Lawson of Social Security Works said "Donald Trump and his advisers know that this will kill people, and they do not care."

Amazon, Chevron, and Starbucks Among 91 Fortune 500 Corporations That Paid $0 in Federal Income Taxes in 2018: Report

More than 90 large, profitable corporations on the Fortune 500 list effectively did not pay a penny in federal income taxes in 2018, according to a new report published Monday by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

ITEP examined financial filings from 379 Fortune 500 companies that reported a profit in 2018, the first year President Donald Trump's tax cuts took effect. The Republican tax law slashed the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent.

"The 379 profitable corporations identified in this study paid an effective federal income tax rate of 11.3 percent on their 2018 income, slightly more than half the statutory 21 percent tax," ITEP said. "The 11.3 percent effective tax rate found in this study is likely the lowest effective tax rate in the last 40 years."

ITEP found that 91 of the 379 companies analyzed took advantage of loopholes to effectively not pay federal income taxes in 2018 despite making a combined profit of $101 billion. That list of companies includes prominent corporate giants such as Amazon, Halliburton, Chevron, Starbucks, and Delta Air Lines.

91 profitable Fortune 500 companies paid $0.00 in federal income taxes on U.S. income in 2018, the first year of the Trump-GOP tax law.

Our nation's ability to fund critical priorities is a tax policy issue. https://t.co/R8tobuczJR pic.twitter.com/qtUQOqPROM

— ITEP (@iteptweets) December 16, 2019

"The key takeaway from this study is that the 2017 tax law is working out well for profitable corporations, which are paying some of the lowest tax rates that ITEP has recorded in the nearly 40 years it has been examining corporate taxes," said Gardner.

"By enacting a law that dramatically reduced corporate tax collections, lawmakers weakened the nation's ability to adequately fund critical priorities," Gardner added. "Lawmakers will have to stop kowtowing to special interests and pretending that raising revenue doesn't matter."

Apple and Google named in US lawsuit over Congolese child cobalt mining deaths

A landmark legal case has been launched against the world’s largest tech companies by Congolese families who say their children were killed or maimed while mining for cobalt used to power smartphones, laptops and electric cars, the Guardian can reveal.

Apple, Google, Dell, Microsoft and Tesla have been named as defendants in a lawsuit filed in Washington DC by human rights firm International Rights Advocates on behalf of 14 parents and children from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The lawsuit accuses the companies of aiding and abetting in the death and serious injury of children who they claim were working in cobalt mines in their supply chain.

The families and injured children are seeking damages for forced labour and further compensation for unjust enrichment, negligent supervision and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

It is the first time that any of the tech companies have faced such a legal challenge.

Cobalt is essential to power the rechargeable lithium batteries used in millions of products sold by Apple, Google, Dell, Microsoft and Tesla every year. The insatiable demand for cobalt, driven by desire for cheap handheld technology, has tripled in the past five years and is expected to double again by the end of 2020. More than 60% of cobalt originates in DRC, one of the poorest and most unstable countries in the world.

Capital punishment: 2019 was nearly 'the year of executing the innocent'

The 2019 annual report of the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) paints a picture of US capital punishment withering on the vine yet continuing to display shocking flaws and injustices. In total, 22 prisoners were killed by just seven states this year – a dramatic decline from the peak of 98 executions in 1999 and the lowest number since 20 were put to death three years ago. ...

Two men were judicially killed this year in cases that raised profound questions about the reliability of their convictions. In August Texas executed Larry Swearingen, 48, who had always claimed he was innocent of the murderer of Melissa Trotter in 1998. Substantial inconsistencies in the evidence were highlighted by Swearingen’s lawyers over many years, including DNA material gathered from the victim’s fingernails that did not match the prisoner’s. Prosecutors relied on circumstantial evidence. Shortly before his death Swearingen told the Washington Post: “Today the state of Texas murdered an innocent man.”

In the second case of potential innocence, Alabama executed Domineque Ray in February. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 1999 for raping and killing a teenaged girl, though the jury at his original trial was unable to reach a unanimous verdict having heard there was no physical evidence linking Ray to the murder.

In the course of the year two other prisoners, Clifford Williams in Florida and Charles Ray Finch in North Carolina, were exonerated and set free as innocent men having been put on death row in 1976. Between them they served 84 years in prison; their release brought the total number of former death-row prisoners who have been exonerated in modern America to 166.

West Coast Cities Can’t Jail or Fine Homeless People For Sleeping Outside Anymore

Cities from Las Vegas to Redding, California, will have to build more homeless shelters before they think about ticketing and jailing poor people just for sleeping on the streets.

On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to take up an appeal of the controversial decision in the Martin v. Boise case, which determined that it was cruel and unusual for cities to punish homeless people for simply living outdoors if they had nowhere else to go. Cities like Las Vegas and Lacey, Washington, continued to pass laws banning camping or sleeping outdoors in the wake of the ruling — with the caveat that police must offer shelter before making an arrest or issuing a ticket.

Now, the landmark September 2018 ruling from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will stand, which means cities will have to think of homelessness solutions outside the criminal justice system.

Businesses Are Using Noise Machines to Drive Out Homeless People

For years, local businesses in Spokane, Washington, have used annoying, high-frequency noise devices to deter homeless people from sleeping nearby. Now Spokane city officials are weighing a ban of the so-called “mosquito” devices, according to the Associated Press.

While sonic tools are widely used in cities from Philadelphia to Edinburgh to keep raucous teens and homeless people from hanging around outside stores, they’ve been described by critics as cruel and discriminatory.

Homeless people in east London once described the devices as “tormenting” in a 2017 Guardian report, saying they made it difficult to sleep. And people in areas where the devices are deployed have previously reported side effects like headaches and vertigo, although it’s unclear whether those symptoms are directly a result of the devices since there’s little evidence to show they cause or don’t cause harm.

The Spokane City Council is scheduled to vote Monday on a proposal determining whether the devices — which are usually only audible to children and young adults — should be prohibited entirely.

Krystal Ball: Bernie's never been closer to winning, even the media noticed

DCCC to Consultants: Helping to Elect a Republican? Sure, We’ll Work With You.

In March, House Democrats’ campaign arm formalized a policy cutting off firms working with candidates running primary challenges against incumbent Democrats. But the rule doesn’t appear to apply to consultants who get millions of dollars from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee while working for political action committees that support and elect Republicans.

One of the biggest vendors working with the political action committee With Honor, Trilogy Interactive, has taken at least $2 million from the DCCC since the 2016 election cycle, according to FEC filings. With Honor PAC — which has an affiliated bipartisan caucus, the For Country caucus, that includes at least 10 Democratic members — is dedicated to electing veterans to Congress. As The Intercept reported in July, the PAC actively targeted former Rep. Katie Hill, D-Calif., spending money to back Republican Mike Garcia, an Iraq War veteran, in the upcoming election. Last cycle, With Honor backed Republican Reps. Mike Waltz, Brian Mast, and Greg Steube of Florida, Dan Crenshaw and Van Taylor of Texas, Steve Watkins of Kansas, Don Bacon of Nebraska, and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois. They also spent against Republicans Jim Hagedorn of Minnesota and Andy Barr of Kentucky.

Trilogy Interactive is a digital firm that works with Democratic political campaigns and other PACs. This year, it has received at least $42,000 from With Honor and at least $428,100 from the DCCC.

The DCCC has faced intense scrutiny for the blacklist policy, which critics say is another example of the committee exploiting its position to keep centrist Democrats in power while discouraging women and people of color to run for office. For example, Marie Newman lost to Rep. Dan Lipinski last year, after the committee backed the anti-abortion Democrat over his progressive challenger. She’s running against the eight-term incumbent a second time in 2020. As of October, several consultants had dropped her campaign because of the DCCC rule change, though a number of House Democrats were privately supporting her.

Democratic Candidates Focus on Public Education at Historic Forum with Civil Rights & Labor Groups

Bernie Surrogate Eric Blanc: A dire warning for unions considering Biden

Leading Among People of Color and Younger Voters, Sanders Right Behind Biden in New 2020 National Poll

Bolstered by strong support from people of color and younger voters, Sen. Bernie Sanders is in a close second place behind former Vice President Joe Biden in the 2020 Democratic primary race, according to a new national poll published Monday morning.

The NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist survey (pdf) found that Biden is leading the race at 24% support, followed by Sanders at 22%, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) at 17%, and South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg at 13%. No other Democratic presidential candidate broke the 10% mark.

"We're looking for late action, because it's so fluid," Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, said of the primary race.

"I think we're looking at the last surge" for who could come out on top, Miringoff added.

According to the new poll, Sanders leads the Democratic presidential field among non-white voters (29% over Biden's 26%), voters under the age of 45 (37% to Warren's 18% and Biden's 14%), and progressives (29% to Warren's 23% and Biden's 17%).

The Vermont senator's lead among people of color "might be because of Sanders' strength with younger voters of color and Latinos," NPR reported Monday.

Buttigieg Shames Progressives As Purists For Opposing Bribes

Man with the money: Democrats cry foul as Bloomberg splashes the cash

House Democrats received some welcome news on Wednesday: Michael Bloomberg was coming to their rescue once again. The former New York mayor announced he would spend $10m to protect vulnerable congressmen and women who have been on the receiving end of Republican attacks over their support for the impeachment inquiry.

Coming a little over a year after Democrats took back the House, partly thanks to a $100m infusion from Bloomberg, the announcement underscored the vast resources Bloomberg has at his disposal, even as he is using his $55bn fortune to launch a late bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The three-term mayor, who announced the start of his campaign less than three weeks ago, has already spent $100m on advertising in that race, far more than the four top-polling candidates combined. The only candidate who comes close is another billionaire, Tom Steyer. Bloomberg has hired hundreds of staffers, offering to pay field organizers $6,000 a month. Other campaigns pay $3,500.

The strategy to spend heavily and skip the first four states to vote, focusing instead on states like California and Texas that will vote on “Super Tuesday” in early March, has sparked complaints that the billionaire is trying to “buy” the nomination. ... Bloomberg argued his wealth would prevent him from being swayed by outside donations.

“I’m not buying anything,” Bloomberg told CBS. “I’m doing exactly the same thing they’re doing, except that I am using my own money. They’re using somebody else’s money and those other people expect something from them. Nobody gives you money if they don’t expect something. And I don’t want to be bought.”

Bernie grabs the lead in California, Did Bloomberg end Pete?

Georgia: federal judge allows state to proceed with mass voting rolls purge

A federal judge is allowing Georgia to proceed with a mass purge of its voting rolls planned for Monday evening, but he also scheduled a hearing later in the week to hear more arguments about the matter. A voting rights group founded by the Democrat Stacey Abrams had filed an emergency motion on Monday, asking a court to halt the plan.

The motion was filed by Fair Fight Action in US district court, hours before the secretary of state’s office planned to begin the purge of inactive voter registrations. But the decision by the judge was to allow the action to go ahead after a lawyer for the state assured him that if the judge finds later that some people should not have been removed, they can be easily and quickly reinstated.

In October, the secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, released a list of more than 313,000 voters whose registrations were at risk of being canceled, about 4% of registered voters in Georgia. Those voters were mailed notices in November and had 30 days to respond in order to keep their registration intact.

Goldman Sachs to stop financing new drilling for oil in the Arctic

Goldman Sachs has ruled out future financing of oil drilling or exploration in the Arctic and said it would not invest in new thermal coal mines anywhere in the world. The new environmental policy, which was released by the US bank on Sunday, was praised by environmentalists, though many warned that it was only a first step.

In its statement, Goldman Sachs also “acknowledged” the scientific consensus on the climate crisis, which it said was one of the “most significant environmental challenges of the 21st century” and said it planned to more effectively help its client manage climate impacts, including through the sale of weather-related catastrophe bonds.

Jason Opeña Disterhoft, a climate and energy campaigner at Rainforest Action Network (RAN), which helped to lobby for the change, said the decision to rule out direct financing for Arctic exploration made Goldman the first US bank to establish a “no-go” zone in the oil and gas sector.

“Goldman Sachs’s updated policy shows that US banks can draw red lines on oil and gas, and now other major US banks, especially JPMorgan Chase – the world’s worst banker of fossil fuels by a wide margin – must improve on what Goldman has done,” he said.

'The Bold Approach We Need': New Booker Ag Bill Includes First-Ever National Factory Farm Moratorium

Advocates for the environment, corporate accountability, and public health on Monday welcomed Sen. Cory Booker's new agricultural reform bill—which would impose a first-ever national moratorium on factory farms—as "the bold approach we need."

Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Action, was among the activists who celebrated the New Jersey Democrat's Farm System Reform Act of 2019 (FSRA). Hauter's group has long highlighted the destructive impacts of factory farms—or concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs)—and advocated for a ban.

"Factory farming is at the heart of climate disaster," Hauter said in a statement. "It fuels toxic air pollution and water contamination, feeds off of dangerous and unfair working conditions, wreaks havoc on independent farmers and rural communities, threatens food safety, and causes unnecessary animal suffering."

Booker, one of more than a dozen candidates seeking the 2020 Democratic nomination for president, noted in a statement announcing the bill that the country has seen a dramatic rise in the number of CAFOs in recent years.

"Large factory farms are harmful to rural communities, public health, and the environment," he said, "and we must immediately begin to transition to a more sustainable and humane system." The White House hopeful emphasized the harmful impacts of industrial agriculture, from putting family farmers and ranchers out of business to producing as much as 1.4 billion tons of waste annually—including runoff that pollutes nearby waterways—and overuse of vital antibiotics that helps fuel a burgeoning superbug crisis.

Also of Interest

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

Hot Mic Moment Exposes Insane Sleaziness Of British Political/Media Class

Chris Hedges: Hope Lies in the Streets

New York Fed Plans to Throw $2.93 Trillion at Wall Street’s Trading Houses Over Next Month as New York Times Remains Silent

As Buttigieg Attends Fundraisers of Ultra-Rich, Sanders Reminds Voters Billionaires Not Donating 'Through Goodness of Their Hearts'

Virginia Supreme Court Upholds Ruling that George Mason University Foundation Is Not Subject to State FOIA Statute, Leaving Koch Funding Details Undisclosed

What Would the Bernie Presidency Really Look Like?

'That's genocide': ancient tribal graves threatened by Trump border wall

Fire-starting weed or ecological scapegoat? The battle over California's eucalyptus trees

Apocalypse-Themed Climate 2020 Campaign Ad

Jimmy Dore: Cenk Uygur Explains Bernie’s Un-Endorsement & Smear Campaign

Jimmy Dore: Cenk Uygur DISAVOWS Russiagate! Has New Russia/Trump Theory

Jimmy Dore: Gov. Drops False Charges Against Journalist Max Bluementhal

Rising: NYT still doesn't understand Bernie, Warren

Krystal and Saagar challenge Deval Patrick Senior Advisor on corporate background

Rising: NYT forced to correct Cenk smear, These are the numbers Dems should talk about

Saagar Enjeti: Cory Booker's whining reveals Dem's blackout of Yang, Tulsi's diversity

Rising: Justice Democrats: DCCC failures revealed with Jeff Van Drew

A Little Night Music

Mississippi Fred McDowell - Goin Down to the River

Mississippi Fred McDowell - If The River Was Whiskey

Mississippi Fred McDowell - Goin' Down To Louisiana

Mississippi Fred McDowell - You Got To Move

Mississippi Fred McDowell - Baby Please Don't Go

Mississippi Fred McDowell - Let Me Lay Down In Your Cool Iron Bed

Mississippi Fred McDowell - Freight Train Blues

Fred McDowell - Write Me a Few of Your Lines

Mississippi Fred McDowell - Big Fat Mama

Mississippi Fred McDowell - The Lovin' Blues