The Evening Blues - 12-3-19



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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Frank Stokes

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features early Memphis blues singer Frank Stokes. Enjoy!

Frank Stokes - I Got Mine

“You can’t talk about solving the economic problem of the Negro without talking about billions of dollars. You can’t talk about ending the slums without first saying profit must be taken out of slums. You’re really tampering and getting on dangerous ground because you are messing with folk then. You are messing with captains of industry. Now this means that we are treading in difficult water, because it really means that we are saying that something is wrong with capitalism.”

-- Martin Luther King Jr.


News and Opinion

Chris Hedges: The New 'Black Codes'

The police forces in impoverished urban communities, equipped with military-grade weapons and empowered to harass and kill largely at will, along with mass incarceration, are the principal tools for the social control of the poor. There is little pretense of justice and even less of protection and safety. The corporate state and our oligarchic rulers fear a backlash from those they abandoned in deindustrialized enclaves across the country, what Malcolm X called our “internal colonies.” The daily brutality and terror keep the poor, especially poor people of color, in bondage. On average, more than 1,100 people, or one every eight hours, almost all unarmed, are killed every year by police in the United States. These killings are not accidents. They are not the results of a failed system. The system works exactly as it is designed to work. And until the system of corporate power is destroyed, nothing will change for the poor, or the rest of Americans.

Every police reform going back decades, including due process, Miranda rights and protocols for filing charges, has only resulted in increased police power and resources. Our national conversation on race and crime, which refuses to confront the economic, social and political systems of exploitation and white supremacy, has been a whitewash. The vast pools of the unemployed and underemployed, especially among people of color, are part of the design of predatory corporate capitalism. And so are the institutions, especially the police, the courts, the jails and the prisons, tasked with maintaining social control of those the system has cast aside.

The elites are acutely aware that without police terror and the U.S. prison system, which holds 25% of the world’s prison population, there would be intense social unrest. Outrage over the police killings of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., Eric Garner in New York City, Walter Scott in Charleston, S.C., Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Freddie Gray in Baltimore and Laquan McDonald in Chicago—fanned by video recordings or social media exposure—may have led to the rise of groups such as Black Lives Matter but it has done nothing, and will do nothing, to curb police abuse. More training, body cameras, community policing, the hiring of more minority members as police officers, a better probation service, equitable fines and special units to investigate police abuse are public relations gimmicks. No one in power has any intention of loosening the vise. Authorities are too afraid of what might happen. ...

The war on poor people of color has been a bipartisan project. No one was executed in the United States between 1968 and 1976, but drastic changes in laws occurred in the 1990s. During the administration of President Bill Clinton, Democrats and Republicans passed a series of “law and order” bills that saw the number of crimes punishable by death leap to 66 in 1994. In 1974, there had been only one such crime identified in federal law. The two parties, in the words of Naomi Murakawa, engaged in “a death penalty bidding war.” Then-Sen. Joe Biden was one of the leading proponents of expanding the death penalty. Biden boasted that he had “added back to the Federal statutes over 50 death penalties.” The 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, pushed through by Clinton and Biden, provided funding for tens of thousands of community police officers and drug courts. It banned some assault weapons. It mandated life sentences for anyone convicted of a violent felony after two or more prior convictions, including for drug crimes. The mandated life sentences were known as three-strikes provisions. ...

Matt Taibbi’s book “I Can’t Breathe: A Killing on Bay Street” uses the killing of Garner to expose the architecture of state repression. None of this repression and abuse, as Taibbi illustrates, is accidental, and none of it will be fixed until the social, political and economic injustices perpetrated upon the poor by corporate power are reversed. [Click here to see Hedges interview Taibbi.] “Eric Garner was murdered by history,” Taibbi writes. “The motive was the secret sin of a divided society, a country frozen in time for more than fifty years, stopped one crucial step short of reconciliation and determined to stay there.”

Gorbachev warns of 'hot war' between US, Russia

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev warned in a new interview that tensions between the U.S. and Russia could lead to a “hot war” between the two nations. Asked whether the tensions threatened to lead to a new era akin to the Cold War, Gorbachev told CNN, “I think this should be avoided.”

"It's good that already all over the world there is a conversation and people are talking, people are reacting, and this is the most important thing,” Gorbachev said.

"Speakers and politicians, people understand that this, the New Cold War, must not be allowed. This might turn out to be a hot war that could mean the destruction of our entire civilization," he added.

Pompeo Says U.S. Will Help Prevent Latin American Protests Becoming Riots

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday accused Cuba and Venezuela of attempting to hijack democratic protests in Latin America, vowing that Washington would support countries trying to prevent unrest in the region from turning into riots. Amid recent demonstrations in a number of countries in the region, Pompeo stepped up allegations that Cuba and Venezuela had helped stir up unrest but offered few specifics to back his comments.

Pompeo cited recent political protests in Bolivia, Chile, Colombia and Ecuador and said that Colombia had closed its border to Venezuela out of concern that protesters from the neighboring country would enter.

"We in the Trump administration will continue to support countries trying to prevent Cuba and Venezuela from hijacking those protests and we'll work with legitimate (governments) to prevent protests from morphing into riots and violence that don't reflect the democratic will of the people," Pompeo told an audience at the University of Louisville, in Kentucky.

Iraqi families demand accountability after protest deaths

Iraq parties in talks over new PM amid unrelenting protests

Iraq's rival parties were negotiating the contours of a new government on Monday, after the previous cabinet was brought down by a two-month protest movement insisting on even more deep-rooted change.

After just over a year in power, premier Adel Abdel Mahdi formally resigned Sunday after a dramatic intervention by top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. ...

Parliament on Sunday formally tasked the president with naming a new candidate, but Iraq's competing factions typically engage in drawn-out discussions before any official decisions are made. ...

The government and political sources said parties were considering a "transitional" cabinet to oversee electoral reform before an early parliamentary vote.

"This process will take no less than six months," the official said.

A new voting law has been a key demand of protesters as well as Sistani, and is now a centrepiece of the government's proposed reforms.

Trump re-election could sound death knell for Nato, allies fear

Donald Trump arrived in the UK to meet Nato allies who are fearful that he could pose a serious threat to the survival of the alliance if he wins re-election next year.

Days before Wednesday’s leaders’ meeting just outside London to mark Nato’s 70th anniversary, the US announced it was cutting its contribution to joint Nato projects.

Nato officials say the cut (which reduces the US contribution to equivalence with Germany’s) was mutually agreed, but it comes against a backdrop of Trump’s longstanding ambivalence about the value of the alliance, and suggestions that US security guarantees to allied nations were dependent on their military spending.

John Bolton, Trump’s national security adviser until September, heightened fears among allies about the president’s intentions in a private speech to a hedge fund last month, in which Bolton (according to a NBC report) warned that Trump could “go full isolationist” if he wins re-election next November, withdrawing from Nato and other international alliances.

NATO Is as Good as Dead

When the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was founded some 70 years ago, its first secretary-general, Lord Ismay, famously noted that the purpose of the treaty alliance was “to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.” NATO’s mission was to secure peace in Europe, promote cooperation among its members and guard their freedom by countering the threat posed by the Soviet Union at the time. This latter point was critical—by signing onto NATO, the United States agreed to accept the leadership of a burgeoning resistance to ostensible Soviet aggression and subversion transpiring in Europe in the aftermath of World War II. But since the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991, NATO has been an organization in search of a mission.

NATO’s original parameters still apply, but for all the wrong reasons. “Keeping the Russians out” is more an economic argument than a political one, especially when it comes to Russian energy (one need only witness the ongoing angst within the EU and NATO over the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project), while “keeping the Americans in” has similarly devolved into an economic argument surrounding the high financial cost of sustaining NATO, and the American perception that its European partners are not paying their fair share of the bill. “Keeping the Germans down” also has become an economic-based argument reflecting an internal European debate over the role of its central bank in driving economic policy. American financier J.P. Morgan once observed, “If you have to ask how much, you can’t afford it.” The fact that the current debate regarding NATO has primarily devolved into an economic argument is proof positive that the organization has deviated so far from its original purpose as to make moot any notion of underlying logic and legitimacy as to its viability going forward.

French President Emmanuel Macron sent shock waves through the transatlantic community when, in a recent interview published in The Economist, he lamented the current state of affairs between the U.S. and its European allies regarding NATO. Commenting on Donald Trump’s relentless criticism of NATO, Macron said that it is high time the organization acknowledge the “instability of our American partner,” noting that it can no longer rely on the U.S. to come to its defense. Macron questioned the continued viability of Article 5 of the NATO Charter, which stipulates that an attack against one member is an attack against all. It is Article 5 that gives the NATO alliance its credibility. “What will Article 5 mean tomorrow?” Macron asked in The Economist. ...

Ursula von der Leyen, former German minister of defense and current president-elect of the European Commission, spoke to this reality in a speech delivered in Berlin after Macron’s remarks. “In its 70-year history, much has changed in NATO,” she observed. “But one thing has always remained the same: NATO was and is always what its member states make of it.” Lacking a shared vision of what NATO stands for, and to what extent it should be funded, has created a divide in the transatlantic alliance that cannot be readily repaired, if ever. The problem isn’t simply bringing into alignment European and American visions for the proper role of the alliance in a post-Cold War reality, but perhaps more critically, bringing Europe in alignment with itself—which means France and Germany. ...

The Franco-German political-economic duopoly that has held Europe together during the postwar period is fracturing, with Europe being pulled in different directions by the gravitational forces of these two incompatible economic models that are likely incapable of sustaining a singular economic union, let alone underwriting a geriatric military alliance that has lost its purpose and meaning. NATO is on life-support, and Europe is being asked to foot the bill to keep breathing life into an increasingly moribund alliance whose brain death is readily recognized, but rarely acknowledged.

US vows 100% tariffs on French cheese, champagne, luxury goods over digital tax

US threatens tariffs on French cheese, handbags and lipstick

The Trump administration is proposing tariffs on up to $2.4bn worth of French imports, including Roquefort cheese, lipstick, handbags and sparkling wine, in retaliation for France’s tax on American tech giants including Google, Amazon and Facebook. The Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) says an investigation has found France’s new digital services tax discriminates against US companies. Itadded that the tariffs could reach 100%.

The French tax is designed to prevent tech companies from dodging taxes by putting headquarters in low-tax European countries. It would impose a 3% annual levy on French revenues of digital companies with yearly global sales worth more than €750m ($830m) and French revenue exceeding €25m ($27.7m).

The US also criticized the French tax for targeting companies’ revenue, not their profits, and for being retroactive. The decision to pursue tariffs “sends a clear signal that the United States will take action against digital tax regimes that discriminate or otherwise impose undue burdens on US companies”, the US trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, said.

New Analysis Details 'Aggressive' Tax Dodging of Six Silicon Valley Giants—Totaling Over $100 Billion

Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Netflix have collectively dodged over $100 billion in global taxes so far this decade, according to an analysis released Monday by a U.K.-based tax transparency campaign group.

Later this week, the Fair Tax Mark plans to publish its full report on the tax conduct of the companies, entitled The Silicon Six and Their $100 Billion Global Tax Gap. The report's key findings were detailed on the group's website Monday.

"Our analysis of the long-run effective tax rate of the Silicon Valley Six over the decade to date has found that there is a significant difference between the cash taxes paid and both the headline rate of tax and, more significantly, the reported current tax provisions," said the Fair Tax Mark chief executive Paul Monaghan. "We conclude that the corporation tax paid has been much lower than is commonly understood."

The Fair Tax Mark studied each company's annual filings in the United States—where the tech giants are incorporated—as well as some quarterly filings and accounts of subsidiaries over the period of 2010–2019. The group found that the collective global tax gap between the expected headline rates and the cash taxes paid was $155.3 billion. The gap between the current tax provisions and cash taxes was $100.2 billion.

"The report suggests that the bulk of the shortfall almost certainly arose outside the United States, given that the foreign current tax charge was just 8.4% of identified foreign profits," the group explained. "Profits continue to be shifted to tax havens, especially Bermuda, Ireland, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands."

The Fair Tax Mark determined that Amazon, whose CEO Jeff Bezos is the richest individual in the world, "stands out as the business with the poorest tax conduct" among the Silicon Six. The headline corporate tax rate in the U.S. was 35% for most of the years studied, but the group found that Amazon paid only $3.4 billion in income taxes—just 12.7% of profit—during the analyzed period. "The company is growing its market domination across the globe on the back of revenues that are largely untaxed, and can unfairly undercut local businesses that take a more responsible approach," the group said, warning that "the situation is unlikely to reverse soon."

Keiser Report: US Stock Prices Hit a Permanently High Plateau

Seems Like a Majority of the Supreme Court Is Really Trying to Avoid the Gun Issue

New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. City of New York centers on the constitutionality of a now-defunct ordinance in New York City that restricted residents’ ability to carry their handguns out of the city. But a ruling from the Supreme Court could also have broader implications on the right to carry a gun outside the home, in general.

Worried about that precise scenario — that the Supreme Court would issue a broad ruling that expands the Second Amendment — legislators in New York amended the ordinance in July. Since the law in question was changed significantly, lawyers for the city argued the case was null-and-void and the justices needn’t worry about ruling at all. And the court’s liberal justices, at least, appeared convinced. ... Even the more moderate John Roberts, the court’s chief justice, largely declined to engage with the substance of the case. If the court declines to rule on the case’s merits, it allows the justices to sidestep a weighty decision, one the Supreme Court has repeatedly passed on since the District of Columbia v. Heller affirmed the individual right to own guns in 2008. ...

On the other hand, Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch, among the more conservative members of the nine-justice court, appeared to advocate in favor of issuing a ruling in the case. Gorsuch in particular argued that the updated ordinance in New York still restricts residents’ ability to carry guns freely and merits a response from the court, which has grown markedly more conservative since its last gun ruling. (In 2017, Gorsuch joined a dissent penned by Justice Clarence Thomas, who lamented that courts have exhibited a “distressing trend: the treatment of the Second Amendment as a disfavored right.” )

The court’s newest addition, associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, has been lauded by the National Rifle Association as an “outstanding choice” for the bench and previously sympathized with gun rights activists in work he published while serving on a D.C.-area appeals court. Kavanaugh, however, didn’t ask a single question during the arguments on Monday.

Oh my, the walls are closing in (again).

Rudy's Indicted Associate Will Soon Be Allowed to Share Records With Congress

Lev Parnas has been clamoring to share what he knows about President Trump with the impeachment investigation, and on Monday a federal judge cleared the way for him to do just that.

And if that weren’t enough bad news for Trump, prosecutors also said their criminal case against the Soviet-born businessman is likely to expand to add new charges or additional defendants. That’s a worrying sign for Trump’s attorney, and Parnas’ longtime associate, Rudy Giuliani, who's widely reported to be under criminal investigation by the same prosecutors charging Parnas in the Southern District of New York.

On Monday, the federal judge overseeing Parnas’ criminal case said he plans to let prosecutors share some of the mountain of evidence collected in the investigation of Parnas with Congress, according to a report in Courthouse News. “I certainly expect to grant that request,” Judge Paul Oetken said.

Such an order, which would allow Parnas to fulfill a Congressional subpoena for documents, poses yet another threat to Trump, who has claimed he doesn’t know Parnas despite appearing next to him in multiple photographs. The trail of documents could reveal links between Parnas, Giuliani, and Trump that would be much harder for Trump to breezily dismiss.

Republicans issue 123-page defense of Trump ahead of Democrats' impeachment report

Donald Trump’s actions towards Ukraine were “entirely prudent” and involved “no quid pro quo, bribery, extortion, or abuse of power”, according to a draft Republican report on last month’s impeachment inquiry hearings. Designed as a pre-emptive strike on an imminent report from the Democratic majority, the GOP document underlines how evidence presented at the hearings failed to shatter Republicans’ united front.

It also provides a blueprint for House Republicans to defend the US president at Wednesday’s judiciary committee hearing and for their Senate counterparts to acquit him in a trial. Democrats accuse Trump of attempting to bribe the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, by making a White House meeting and nearly $400m in military aid conditional on Ukraine announcing two investigations that would boost Trump politically. ...

Instead it spins the affair as a Democratic plot. Its executive summary begins with the premise that nearly 63 million Americans from around the country elected Trump in 2016 but now 231 House Democrats in Washington are “trying to undo the will of the American people”. It accuses the party of seeking to impeach the president from day one. ...

“None of the Democrats’ witnesses testified to having evidence of bribery, extortion, or any high crime or misdemeanor,” it argues, echoing a Republican talking point during the hearings that said the evidence against Trump is based on hearsay.

Barr rejects key finding in report on Russia probe: report

Attorney General William Barr is rejecting a key finding in the Justice Department inspector general’s report on the Russia probe, The Washington Post reported Monday.

People familiar with the matter told The Post that Barr said he does not agree with the report’s finding that the FBI had enough intelligence to initiate an investigation into the Trump campaign in July 2016.

The long-awaited report from Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz is expected to be made public in a week. But a draft is being discussed behind the scenes, and the attorney general reportedly is not persuaded that the FBI investigation was justified.

The draft report is now being finalized and shown to the witnesses and offices investigated by Horowitz.

People familiar with the matter told the newspaper that Barr believes information from other agencies such as the CIA could change Horowitz’s finding that the investigation was warranted.

Matt Stoller on Goliath & The Lost Art of Anti-Monopoly

Democrats - champions of the working people. Not.

Nancy Pelosi Pushes the House to Pass USMCA, but Neglects a Bill With Broad Support to Strengthen Unions

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has made no secret of her desire to pass the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement by the end of the year, telling reporters recently that it would be her goal for the House to vote on it before Christmas. Centrist Democrats have been insisting privately that a quick passage for the trade deal is necessary for moderate members of Congress to win their competitive reelections in 2020, to show they can “do something.” Unions have made clear, though, that from their perspective, USMCA lacks real labor enforcement mechanisms, which could undermine the whole deal, further drag down wages, and eliminate more jobs.

Meanwhile, a top priority for labor has been sitting quietly on Pelosi’s desk and, unlike USMCA, already commands enough support to get it over the House finish line. The Protecting the Right to Organize Act would be the most comprehensive rewrite of U.S. labor law in decades. It would eliminate right-to-work laws, impose new penalties on employers who retaliate against union organizing, crack down on worker misclassification, and establish new rules so that employers cannot delay negotiating collective bargaining contracts. Introduced by Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., in May, it already has 215 co-sponsors in the House and 40 in the Senate.

The PRO Act passed the House Committee on Education and Labor on September 25 on a party-line vote. But two months later, Pelosi has still not moved to bring the bill to the House floor, nor has she given any indication of when she would. Her office did not return requests for comment. “I don’t know exactly what the holdup is — it is taking longer than it should given the number of co-sponsors that we have,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, co-chair of the House Progressive Caucus. “Many other bills have come to the floor with fewer co-sponsors than this one.”

How economic inequality is literally killing people



the horse race



Kamala Harris to End Her 2020 Presidential Campaign, Leaving Third Way Dems 'Stunned and Disappointed'

Sen. Kamala Harris is the latest—and thus far highest profile—Democrat to drop out of the party's 2020 presidential primary.

The California Democrat informed staffers in Iowa of her decision Tuesday morning and tweeted out the news in the afternoon.

"To my supporters, it is with deep regret—but also with deep gratitude—that I am suspending my campaign today," tweeted Harris, linking to a lengthy statement on Medium ...

Harris leaves the race after failing to gain traction with voters. A momentary bump in the polls following a June debate performance in which she challenged former Vice President Joe Biden on his prior opposition to school bussing evaporated in early August after Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) took the California senator to task over her record as the state's attorney general. ...

The Intercept's Ryan Grim opined that Harris might have been thinking about her political future. "Getting crushed in California would have been devastating, and set her up for a challenge in 2022 for her reelection," said Grim.


The news left Jim Kessler, executive vice president for policy at the centrist think tank Third Way, "stunned and disappointed."

Is Warren falling out of the top tier?

Google and YouTube reportedly pull hundreds of Trump ads for violating policies

Google and YouTube have pulled hundreds of ads for Donald Trump over the last few months, according to 60 Minutes on CBS.

A review of the tech companies’ advertising archive found at least 300 Trump ads had been pulled from the platforms, mainly over the summer, after they had been found to violate advertising policies.

In an interview with 60 Minutes, YouTube chief executive officer Susan Wojcicki confirmed that there were “ads of President Trump that were not approved to run on Google or YouTube”.

Corporate media melts down as bias utterly exposed

How Biden helped create the student debt problem he now promises to fix

In 10 weeks’ time Joe Biden will lay “Joe’s vision for America” at the feet of Iowa’s caucus-goers in the hope that the first voters in the Democratic presidential race will put him on the road to the White House. Among his promises is that he will fix the student loan crisis saddling 45 million Americans with crippling debt now totalling a staggering $1.5tn. One idea is to allow people struggling to repay private student loans owed to banks and credit card companies to discharge them in bankruptcy.

The pledge is one of the most striking policies on offer from Democratic candidates in the 2020 race, given how the problem Biden now proposes to resolve came about in the first place. Private student loans were largely stripped of bankruptcy protections in 2005 in a congressional move that had the devastating impact of tripling such debt over a decade and locking in millions of Americans to years of grueling repayments. The Republican-led bill tightened the bankruptcy code, unleashing a huge giveaway to lenders at the expense of indebted student borrowers. At the time it faced vociferous opposition from 25 Democrats in the US Senate.

But it passed anyway, with 18 Democratic senators breaking ranks and casting their vote in favor of the bill. Of those 18, one politician stood out as an especially enthusiastic champion of the credit companies who, as it happens, had given him hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions – Joe Biden. ...

Earlier this year, Biden tried to justify his backing of the 2005 act. His campaign spokesman told Politico that “knowing that the bill was likely to make it through the Republican-led Congress, he worked to moderate the bankruptcy bill and protect middle class families. He believed that if you have income and consumer debts you can pay, you should agree to a repayment plan that you can afford.”

Dig into the record, and you find a more complicated story that puts Biden in a less flattering posture. His offer to the caucus-goers of Iowa when they gather on 3 February is in effect that he will reverse a damaging provision that in 2005 he himself voted through.

Former health insurance executive speaks out against industry influence on M4A

Insurance Industry Is Clearly 'Terrified,' Says Sanders, As Lawmakers Admit Lobbyists Helped Them Write Attacks on Medicare for All

Documents obtained by the Washington Post Monday showed that lobbyists helped three state lawmakers draft op-eds this year attacking Medicare for All, a revelation Sen. Bernie Sanders highlighted as further evidence that the healthcare industry is "terrified" of the push for single-payer.

"We are taking on the big-money interests who have an army of lobbyists trying to defeat Medicare for All," tweeted Sanders, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate. "They are terrified that the American people recognize that healthcare is a human right. They're right to be terrified."

The Post's Jeff Stein reported Monday that Montana state Rep. Kathy Kelker (D), Montana state Sen. Jen Gross (D), and an aide to Ohio state Sen. Steve Huffman (R) admitted in interviews that lobbyists helped craft their recent op-eds criticizing Medicare for All. The three columns appeared in local newspapers; none of them disclosed that they were written with the assistance of lobbyists.

Kelker and Gross "acknowledged in interviews that editorials they published separately about the single-payer health proposal included language provided by John MacDonald, a lobbyist and consultant in [Montana] who disclosed in private emails that he worked for an unnamed client," Stein reported.

Kathleen DeLand, an Ohio-based lobbyist, assisted Huffman with his September 30 Sidney Daily News op-ed, which criticized Medicare for All as a "one-size-fits-all approach" that "does not work for healthcare." Huffman's aide told the Post that he believes DeLand was working for the Partnership for America's Health Care Future (PAHCF), an industry front group formed last year to fight Medicare for All.



the evening greens


Berta Cáceres murder: seven convicted men sentenced to up to 50 years

The seven men found guilty of killing the Honduran indigenous environmentalist Berta Cáceres have been sentenced to 30 to 50 years. Cáceres, a winner of the Goldman prize for environmental defenders, was shot dead late at night on 2 March 2016 – two days before her 45th birthday – after a long battle to stop construction of an internationally financed hydroelectric dam on the Gualcarque River.

In November 2018, the court ruled the murder was ordered by executives of the Agua Zarca dam company, Desa, because of delays and financial losses linked to protests led by Cáceres. On Monday, more than a year after the guilty verdict, the four paid hitmen – Elvin Rapalo, Edilson Duarte Meza, Óscar Torres, and Henry Javier Hernández – were each given 34 years for the murder. They were also sentenced to 16 years and four months for the attempted murder of Gustavo Castro, a Mexican environmentalist who was shot in the same attack but survived by playing dead.

Sergio Ramón Rodríguez, the communities and environment manager for Desa, and Douglas Geovanny Bustillo, a former Desa security chief and ex-US trained army lieutenant, were given 30 years and six months for their participation in the murder. Mariano Díaz Chávez, a US-trained special forces major who served with Bustillo, was found guilty by omission and given 30 years. In last year’s five-week trial, wiretap conversations suggested that Díaz participated in reconnaissance missions with Bustillo, and in February 2015 provided logistical support and a gun for a plot to kill Cáceres. That attempt was aborted at the last minute because she was at home with her daughters. ...

Monday’s sentences were welcomed by Cáceres’s family and supporters as an important step, but outside court they reiterated demands that justice be delivered against the masterminds and financiers of the plot.

Indigenous Protectors Are Defending the Amazon and “Paying With Their Lives”

US Congress commits to act on climate crisis, despite Donald Trump

The US will take action on greenhouse gases and engage with other countries on the climate emergency despite Donald Trump’s rejection of international cooperation, a delegation from the US Congress has told the UN climate conference in Madrid.

Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House, struck a defiant stance on Monday, declaring: “Congress’s commitment to action on the climate crisis is iron-clad. This is a matter of public health, of clean air, of clean water, of our children, of the survival of our economies, of the prosperity of the world, of national security, justice and equality. We now must deliver deeper cuts in emissions.”

Her rallying call came as developing countries accused the US president of “ecocide” and the UN secretary-general said the world’s biggest emitters were falling behind. ...

Pelosi and other members of the US congressional delegation – which has no formal role at the talks – also played down perceptions of a rift between more leftwing Democrats who favour a “green new deal” that would eliminate emissions from 2030, and those behind a bill that would legislate for net zero carbon by 2050.

Frank Pallone, sponsor of the 2050 bill, said there was “nothing inconsistent” about the two, as moving to renewable energy by 2030 would allow other sources of emissions, such as agriculture and some industries, to take longer to reduce. “None of this is inconsistent – we need to dispel the notion that we are not incorporating the green new deal,” he said.

Pelosi added: “This is not about incrementalism – this is about being transformative.”

More Than 100 U.S. Military Bases Now at Risk of Water Shortages, GAO Finds

More than 100 military bases are at risk of water shortages in an era of climate change, according to a Government Accountability Office report released last week. Some have already experienced water restrictions.

The GAO report to the Senate Armed Services Committee identified 102 bases vulnerable to "not having sufficient water available to meet their mission needs" for drinking, training, weapons testing, fire suppression and sanitation.

The list of bases cited by the report was not limited by geographical area and ranged from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, South Carolina in the East to Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, and Camp Pendleton, California in the West.

Some of the bases on the list are already experiencing water shortages or have been warned by local authorities that their access to water sources could be restricted, according to the report.

The full GAO report and the list of at-risk bases can be seen here.

Bolsonaro Is Now Blaming the Amazon Fires on Leo DiCaprio for Some Reason

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has a new scapegoat for the fires in the Amazon: “cool guy” Leonardo DiCaprio.

In a speech from the presidential palace Friday, the Brazilian strongman referred to social media posts alleging DiCaprio donated to an environmental organization that Bolsonaro accused of setting fires in the Amazon just to get good pictures of them. The organization, the World Wildlife Fund, could then use the images to drum up a $500,000 donation from DiCaprio. ...

There’s no evidence the WWF has done any such thing, though it has been accused of doing so on social media. The organization strongly disputes the allegations and denies that DiCaprio donated any money — as does the actor.

“At this time of crisis for the Amazon, I support the people of Brazil working to save their natural and cultural heritage,” DiCaprio posted on Saturday, responding to Bolsonaro. “While worthy of support, we did not fund the organizations targeted.”


Also of Interest

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

America’s War Exceptionalism Is Killing the Planet

Trump Was Right Before He Was Wrong: NATO Should Be Obsolete

As The OPCW Is Accused Of False Reporting U.S. Propaganda Jumps To Its Help

The OAS has to answer for its role in the Bolivian coup

American Muslims to Democrats: 'Palestine is a foreign policy priority'

How Amazon’s On-Site Emergency Care Endangers the Warehouse Workers It’s Supposed to Protect

Condemning Inaction of Rich Nations, Oxfam Unveils Report Showing Climate-Related Disasters Displaced 200 Million People Since 2008

Green Groups at COP 25 Warn Against Market-Driven Solutions to Climate Emergency

'We've been robbed': how women hit by rise in pension age intend to vote

Buttigieg discusses 'moral crisis' of poverty amid struggle to draw minority voters

Kamala Harris drops out of 2020 race

Washington Post finally catches up with Rising, Impeachment update

Andrew Yang Interview: Is this his most radical policy?

Krystal Ball: Race narrows to Biden v. Bernie as Warren plummets


A Little Night Music

Frank Stokes - Downtown Blues

Frank Stokes - It Won't Be Long Now

Frank Stokes - I'm Going Away Blues

Beale Street Sheiks (Stokes and Sane) - Last Go Round

Frank Stokes - Old Sometimes Blues

Frank Stokes - How Long

Frank Stokes - You Shall

Frank Stokes - Sweet to Mama

Frank Stokes - Tain't Nobody Business If I Do

Frank Stokes - Frank Stokes' Dream

Beale Street Sheiks (Stokes and Sane) - Mr Crump Don't Like It

Beale Street Sheiks (Stokes and Sane) - Beale Town Bound


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Good evening!

I never would have guessed that Kamala Harris drops out while Amy Klobuchar is still in it. I guess Harris is planning on running for another office again and wants to save some face?

Any guesses on who is next to drop out?

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snoopydawg's picture

@Le Frog

The dweeb has no way to win and yet he's still putting out corny videos.

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

@snoopydawg his Twitter has more content about his fitness than his suitability for POTUS. His rightful place is on an infomercial for the Thigh Master or some other whack exercise equipment.

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joe shikspack's picture

@Le Frog

i think that ryan grim's view through the perspective of what harris has to lose if she stays in might explain why she's out while klobuchar is still in.

perhaps klobuchar feels a lot more secure that her senate seat is not in play when she gets clobbered in the minnesota primary in march.

it looks to me like tulsi gabbard showed anybody who was paying attention that harris has a glass jaw. i wouldn't be surprised to see a primary challenger take up the themes that gabbard used against harris, if not the video footage.

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Once again, comedy writes itself. Does anyone believe this?

Pelosi added: “This is not about incrementalism – this is about being transformative.”

Maybe like the toys she got for her grandkids.
Words that smell like turds. Pelosi trying to be pertinent. Just change the language.
These are 'our' "elected" representatives, trying to think for us again.
Good news, one less law and order gestapo running to rule us.

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joe shikspack's picture

@QMS

shhhh! we're trying to look like we're doing something meaningful! /pelosi

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ggersh's picture

https://www.moonofalabama.org/

Many comments on the thread are priceless

Cleanup On Aisle 5

ABC News @ABC - 14:57 UTC - 3 Dec 2019

Asked if the U.S. supports Iranian protesters, Pres. Trump says, "I don't want to comment on that, but the answer's no. But I don't want to comment on that." abcn.ws/2K0BLjq

---
CLEANUP ON AISLE 5! CLEANUP ON AISLE 5!
---

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump - 15:33 UTC - 3 Dec 2019

The United States of America supports the brave people of Iran who are protesting for their FREEDOM. We have under the Trump Administration, and always will!

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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

that sneaky b posted the aisle 5 cleanup sometime after i visited his site on my daily collection run.

thanks for posting it, there are some gems in the comments indeed.

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This is the type of crap from liberals.

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snoopydawg's picture

@MrWebster

The stuff I have been reading and seeing from the Russia Gaters is bigoted and phobic. Brennan said that Russians are genetically predisposed to....and no one said a word when he did. People seem to have no idea about what Russia is like now. "Putin is a thug that stole the presidency. He murders his political opponents and arrests every journalist that writes bad things about him. He's funding the White nationalist movements in countless countries." And so many other wrong things.

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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

@MrWebster

as a famous former goldwater girl might say, "extremism in the defense of party is no vice! and let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of partisan victory is no virtue!"

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I know sorta not funny and very funny.

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dystopian's picture

Great early blues JS! Very neat style. Great original player. I love the organic sound. It is amazing how as the sound traveled up the big muddy it changed, each area adding its flavor. This seminal Memphis sound was really very different from the Delta stuff at about the same time. Much more folky, or early country-ish. By time it got up to Chicago it exploded.

Very cool stuff, thanks!

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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

yep, the memphis blues of that period had a lot of influence from jug bands, country string bands and fiddlers. there are a lot of great, fairly obscure folks like frank stokes who were recorded (especially by paramount records) in that period.

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Raggedy Ann's picture

I'm banking on 2020 being a year of enormous change. Reading all that stuff above - plus what I look at during the day and listen to - the pot is boiling and no one is paying attention. Explosions are about to happen. Just a hunch.

Have an uneventful evening, everyone! 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

i think that you're right. it seems like this is a time when there is serious social dissatisfaction bubbling just beneath the surface. if somebody comes along that can unify the various factions behind a set of desired changes, real change could occur. if that process is stifled, disunity could create some serious social chaos, which will also lead to change, though it might not be very pretty.

i guess we'll see how it goes.

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@joe shikspack The elites seem bent on the latter option - putting barriers to basic social welfare policies like M4All, free college etc. And they get oh-so-shocked that right wing extremism rears its ugly head. Maybe they just pretend to get shocked.

This was back in 2009. Me and a buddy used to read history of the Great depression and all the grassroots movements which spooked FDR into embracing New Deal. He was worried that Capitalism will vanish and so agreed to throw more crumbs to the proles/unwashed. Buddy & me did worry that far right will become popular if the GFC was not handled properly. 2012 proved otherwise, OWS shutdown & Tea Party not withstanding. And here we are 3 years after the 2016 elections....

But now the ruling class can always blame Russia for everything. Or China, or whoever wins the villain rotation game. What will be the end game?

Corbyn seems to be rising above the media slanders and Russophobia is ramping up in UK.

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joe shikspack's picture

@Funkygal

What will be the end game?

well, if the democrats are successful in sidelining sanders, who is attempting to form a viable pressure movement outside of the electoral farce, then it is likely that the trumpenproletariat will put the 1% candidate back in office and the habitability of the planet will be destroyed.

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Gorbachev to this day haven't forgiven the US for reneging on its commitments to shutter NATO. Poor guy, he trusted the West a little too much. Scott Ritter's piece sounds a tad optimistic to me - maybe I should say I am more pessimistic. The West always finds a way to keep military alliances going.

However brief it is going to be, enjoying the pie fight between liberal darling Macron & Merkel.

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snoopydawg's picture

Fresh intelligence points to Iranian threat against US forces and interests in Middle East, officials say

There is fresh intelligence of a potential Iranian threat against US forces and interests in the Middle East, according to several US defense and administration officials.

"There has been consistent intelligence in the last several weeks," one administration official told CNN.

A second official described it as information that has been gathered throughout November. The information is being gathered by military and intelligence agencies.

The officials would not say in what format the intelligence exists. But in the last several weeks there has been movement of Iranian forces and weapons that the US worries could be put in place for a potential attack, if one is ordered by the Iranian regime, the officials said. It's not clear if a potential threat would come from the central government or Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The head of US military operations in the Middle East recently signaled the US expects some kind of Iranian action in response to the US sanctions and pressure campaign that is trying to get the regime to abandon its nuclear program.

"I would expect that if we look at the past three or four months, it's possible they will do something that is irresponsible. It's possible that they'll lash out at their neighbors," Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, head of the US Central Command, told an audience in Bahrain at the time. "It is not going to be productive for them in the long term to choose to act out in the military domain. That's the message that we're trying to convey."

lol..Obama made a deal with Iran to not build nukes, but Trump threw it away so why does he expect them to do what he says? But how many times does Iran need to say that they have no intention of building them? The link I included doesn't say what CNN says it does. Oh no it just goes to their article on Trump sending troops to Saudi Arabia. I love catching sites trying this trick. I'm seeing it everywhere. But I digress. Iran knows that if they start a war it would hurt them big time and that's why they aren't dumb enough to do it.

Love the Hedges essay on how the PTB have given cops permission to kill as many of us as they want. Wish the cop worshippers would wake up and see them for what they are.

I just bought Dawg food from Amazon. Yeah I know but it's the best price for my budget. But I see that I'm paying taxes while they don't. Sigh. Rules are for the little people.

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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

wow, wishful thinking and a dodgy dossier. i wonder how long it will take the iran hawks to fabricate an incident.

I see that I'm paying taxes while they don't.

heh, in the words of leona helmsley:

"We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes."

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enhydra lutris's picture

inadvertent comedy. Some great picking from Mr. Stokes there.

Have a good one.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

joe shikspack's picture

@enhydra lutris

heh, the comedy is less than divine here, but it can raise a good snicker sometimes. Smile

have a good one!

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enhydra lutris's picture

Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center
Twentynine Palms, California ● ○ ○ ●

Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, California ● ○ ○ ○

Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona ● ● ○ ●

Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California ○ ○ ○ ●

Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow, California ○ ○ ○ ●

Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center
Bridgeport, California ○ ○ ○ ●

Marine Corps Recruiting Depot San Diego,

Ok, MCRD, Miramar and Pendleton are coastal desert, but the rest? There hasn't been that much water in the Colorado down Yuma way for ages, and Barstow? 29 Palms? Did it really take them this long to figure out that water could get scarce in the desert? Who figured this out, military intelligence.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

I always appreciate your content. I haven't gotten all the way through this edition yet. I'm only up to the Keiser video but will read it all through over the next day. I have to admit, I don't always "get" the Keiser report, I'm more of a science than economics person, and don't really care about money and riches except as it affects my survival, but today's second half with Ashcroft(?) was particularly good, for me anyway. There was a little more of the saying things out loud that I've been thinking *must* be true, but no one on MSM would ever admit to....That sort of thing. Good to hear maybe I'm not crazy. Thanks again as always!

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joe shikspack's picture

@peachcreek

thanks for reading! yep, max sometimes gets deeper into the weeds than i care to follow, but i appreciate his attention to explaining the corruption of wall street and the capitalist system in general, despite the fact that he appears to be a fervent capitalist.

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Reg Prof. Jonathan Turley, who was the Republican pick in yesterday's hearings and an impeachment skeptic(for the lack of a better word) :
Remember way back when he used to appear periodically on Maddow's show (yes, I used to watch it once upon a time. ). He was livid at Obama for not investigating Bush-Cheney gang on torture etc. haven't followed him a lot, but putting two & two together using my limited knowledge of him, me thinks he goes by the book not wedded to any party.

Yup, Dems dont seem to care less about cut to food stamps. We gotta arm countries abroad to suit our own imperial goals ya know.

(By the way, IIRC, Obama suggested food stamp cuts to fund his education deform proposals).
It's all going according to plan.

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