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"I can picture a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it."

-- Steven Wright

News and Opinion

Iran, Russia and China hold joint naval drills in Indian Ocean amid US war threats

Iranian, Russian and Chinese warships are finishing today a four-day naval exercise in the Gulf of Oman, near the Iranian coast and the oil-rich Persian Gulf. The exercise marked the first time that Moscow and Beijing sent warships for joint maneuvers with Iranian forces in the Indian Ocean. The chief of the Iranian fleet participating in the exercise, Rear Admiral Gholamreza Tahani, said that its purpose was to demonstrate the close relations between Iran, Russia and China. “The message of this exercise is peace, friendship and lasting security through cooperation and unity, and its effect will be to show that Iran cannot be isolated,” Tahani said. He added, “Us hosting these powers shows that our relations have reached a meaningful point and may have an international impact.”

The exercises were in fact a signal sent to ruling circles in Washington and in the imperialist capitals in Europe that a US-led war with Iran could rapidly escalate into a direct, all-out conflict involving the world’s major nuclear powers. In June, after Iran shot down a US drone over its territorial waters in the Persian Gulf, Trump tweeted that he had aborted US missile strikes ten minutes before they were to begin. With Iran, Russia and China all facing stepped-up military threats and pressure from Washington, Beijing and Moscow decided to send warships to strategic waters off Iran’s coast to signal that a US or NATO war with Iran would not remain confined to the Middle East

The exercise itself unfolded under the shadow of growing US and Israeli war threats against Iran, which have escalated since Washington unilaterally scrapped a six-party nuclear treaty with Iran last year and re-imposed devastating sanctions on Iran’s economy. As Russian warships arrived in Iran on Wednesday, Israel’s Army Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi called for military action against Iran. “It would be better if we weren’t the only ones responding to them,” Kohavi said, in what the Times of Israel called a rebuke to Washington, the Saudi monarchy and other Persian Gulf oil sheikdoms for not attacking Iran earlier. Kohavi added that Israeli forces would operate openly as well as clandestinely across the area, “even at the risk of war.”

US: strikes on Iran-backed militia a response to 'campaign' of attacks by Tehran

Airstrikes against an Iranian-backed militia on Sunday followed an intensifying campaign of attacks directed by Tehran against US forces in Iraq, administration officials have said, warning that any further escalation in the region will be Iran’s responsibility.

A senior US official said there had been 11 attacks against Iraqi bases hosting coalition forces in Iraq over the past two months, many of them carried out by a Shia militia group, Kata’ib Hizbullah (KH), culminating in an attack on a base near Kirkuk on Friday, killing a US contractor and injuring US and Iraqi soldiers.

On Sunday, the US conducted retaliatory airstrikes against five KH bases in Iraq and Syria, which KH said killed 19 of its fighters and injured 35.

“This was an Iranian-backed rogue militia acting to deny the Iraqi people their basic sovereignty,” Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, said on Monday, singling out Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, and the commander of the country’s Revolutionary Guard Quds force, Qassem Suleimani, for blame. ...

US officials have restated US policy that Washington would make no distinction between Iranian forces and what are deemed to be Iranian-backed militias if US interests come under attack. ...

Russia and Iran have denounced the airstrikes. In the wake of the airstrikes, the commander of the Popular Mobilisation Forces, a Shia militia umbrella group in Iraq, warned: “The blood of the martyrs will not be in vain and our response will be very tough on the American forces in Iraq.”

Iraqi Shiite militia supporters attack US embassy compound in Baghdad

Trump accuses Iran over storming of US embassy compound in Baghdad

Protesters in Iraq have dealt a symbolic blow to US prestige by storming the American embassy in Baghdad, trapping diplomats inside while chanting “Death to America” and slogans in support of pro-Iranian militias.

In a humiliating day for Washington, hundreds of demonstrators besieged the US compound, at one point breaching the main gate and smashing their way into several reception rooms. They lit fires, battered down doors, and lobbed bricks at bulletproof glass.

The rampage was carried out with the apparent connivance of Iraqi security forces who allowed protesters inside the highly protected Green Zone. They made their way to the embassy, climbing walls and hurling stones. US guards responded with tear gas but did not open fire.

Donald Trump accused Iran of orchestrating the day-long attack, which followed US airstrikes on Sunday against three camps in Iraq and two in Syria. The bases belonged to the Iran-backed Kata’ib Hezbollah militia group, which is formally part of the Iraqi army. At least 25 fighters were killed and dozens injured.

Iran killed an American contractor, wounding many. We strongly responded, and always will. Now Iran is orchestrating an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Iraq. They will be held fully responsible. In addition, we expect Iraq to use its forces to protect the Embassy, and so notified!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2019

An embassy spokesperson told CNN that the chief of the US mission in Iraq, Matthew Tueller, was away on a scheduled vacation and had left Baghdad a week ago. The embassy was under lockdown but had not been evacuated, the spokesperson said, with diplomats sheltering in a safe-room.

In order to get elected, @BarackObama will start a war with Iran.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 29, 2011

Russia and Iran condemn US airstrikes in Iraq and Syria

Russia has called deadly airstrikes by US forces on targets in Iraq and Syria unacceptable and counterproductive, and on Monday urged all sides to avoid fuelling tensions in the Middle East.

The foreign ministry in Moscow joined Iran and Iraq in condemning raids by the Trump administration on Sunday that killed at least 25 people. Iran called the attacks “terrorism”.

Vladimir Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, said Washington had not given it warning of the bombings on three targets in Iraq and two in Syria. American F-15E fighter planes struck camps belonging to the Iranian-backed Kata’ib Hezbollah group. ...

Iraq’s prime minister, Adel Abdul-Mahdi, who is an ally of both the US and Iran, warned the raids would have “dangerous consequences”. He described the victims as members of Iraq’s armed forces and said the US’s actions were a violation of sovereignty.

Tehran was equally scathing on Monday, and a top Iraqi militia leader pledged to carry out further offensive actions against US bases in the coming days. ... The stage appears to be set for future conflict in Iraq between US forces and Iranian proxies. The US and Iranian-backed fighters have previously avoided direct attacks on each other while there was a threat from Islamic State.

Saagar and Ryan Grim react to storming of US Embassy in Baghdad

Iraq condemns deadly US airstrikes on militia bases as ‘sinful violation’

Iraq has condemned US airstrikes on militia bases at its border with Syria as “sinful” and a violation of the country’s sovereignty. Prime minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi issued a statement from the national security council saying the attacks would force Iraq to review its relationship with the American-led international coalition. Iraq’s Foreign Ministry also said it would summon the US ambassador in Baghdad to express the government’s disapproval. ...

On Monday Iraq’s ministerial council for national security held an emergency meeting to “examine the repercussions of the attack”.

“The Iraqi government condemns this act and considers it a violation of the sovereignty of Iraq and a grave violation of the rules of action of the coalition forces, including the American forces, to carry out operations without the approval of the Iraqi government,” the council said in a statement issued by the office of the Iraqi prime minister. “This operation targeted Iraqi forces holding a significant front on the border against the remnants of Isis. This endangers the security and sovereignty of Iraq, and also threatens the security of all without exception.”

The council criticised the US for making the decision based on Washington’s own political priorities rather than those of the people of Iraq. “Iraq has repeatedly stressed its refusal to be a battleground or a party to any regional or international conflict, and has made strenuous efforts to prevent frictions and reduce clashes in a country and region that has lived for decades for an atmosphere of conflict, interference, occupation and wars,” the council added. “This sinful attack violates the goals and principles for which the international coalition is formed, which pushes Iraq to review the relationship and the security and political and legal work contexts in a manner that preserves the sovereignty and security of the country, protecting the lives of its children and promoting common interests.”

Mr Abdul-Mahdi told cabinet members that he had tried to stop the US operation “but there was insistence” from American officials.

Bolivia to expel Mexican ambassador, Spanish envoys as diplomatic row deepens

Spain orders Bolivian trio to leave as diplomatic row deepens

The Spanish government has declared three Bolivian diplomats “personae non gratae” in a tit-for-tat move as a diplomatic spat deepened with Madrid’s former colony. The move on Monday came after Bolivia’s interim president, Jeanine Añez, said La Paz would expel Mexico’s ambassador and two Spanish diplomats over an alleged attempt to extract [Juan Ramon Quintana, the former right-hand man to Evo Morales from the Mexican embassy in Bolivia - js]. ...

Hours earlier, Anez stated: “The constitutional government that I preside over has decided to declare persona non grata the ambassador of Mexico in Bolivia, Maria Teresa Mercado, the charge d’affaires of Spain, Cristina Borreguero, and the (Spanish) consul, Alvaro Fernandez.” She accused the diplomats of having “seriously harmed the sovereignty and dignity of the people and the constitutional government of Bolivia” and likewise gave them 72 hours to depart. ...

Bolivia has accused Spanish embassy staff of trying to infiltrate the Mexican mission in La Paz with masked men to extract the former aide to Morales – who resigned in November after weeks of protests over his controversial re-election and is now in Argentinian exile. Madrid categorically denied the claim, saying its riposte was a reaction to “a hostile gesture by the Bolivian government to declare two Spanish diplomats personae non gratae.

As Julian Khashoggi Assange might tell you, there is little difference between the leadership of the U.S., UK and Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, except that the former two eschew the use of bone saws in favor of prolonged torture, imprisonment and medical malpractice under the color of law.

‘Assange said, I’m slowly dying here’ – Friend recounts Christmas Eve call with WikiLeaks founder

How financial markets turned upside down in 2019

With one day of trading to go, 2019 is on course to be one of the strongest in the history of financial markets after shares around the world racked up record after record in another barnstorming year. On Wall Street the Dow Jones industrial average has gone up almost 25% having reached record highs day after day, while the broader S&P500 is up 30% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq has grown 40% in value. The FTSE100 in London is close to its record high, as is the Dax30 in Germany. In the Asia Pacific, the Nikkei is up 15% while Australia’s ASX200 is still close to its highest ever point (reached in November).

But none of these countries, with the exception of the US, are in particularly good shape. Instead their stock markets are being sustained by ultra-low borrowing costs led by the US Federal Reserve. This latest round of rate cutting has turned many of the assumptions about economics on their head to create a bad-news-is-good-news paradigm for markets. While once the release of poor economic data dented share prices, now it sends them upwards because investors expect more central bank intervention.

Traders have learned the lessons of the past 10 years and have grown accustomed to expect central banks to act at the slightest sign of economic distress. Markets had a serious wobble in 2018 after the Fed hiked rates. But a U-turn amid intense pressure from Donald Trump, who blamed the Fed chief, Jerome Powell, for stifling growth, has brought the good times back again.

Governments have increasingly abdicated old-fashioned pump-priming economic management, leaving it to central banks whose only tools are to cut rates or introduce money creation schemes such as quantitative easing. This hasn’t done much to revive most major western economies but it has succeeded in flooding the financial markets with cash, boosting prices of assets such as shares, bonds and property.

By January the Fed’s balance sheet (mostly bonds that it has to pay out on eventually) will surpass what it was at the height of the massive quantitative easing programme instigated after the global financial crisis in 2008, leading some to dub the current expansive policy as “stealth QE”.

Trump, Granting Lobbyist Demands, Quietly Handed Billions More in Tax Breaks to Huge Corporations: Report

A "disturbing" New York Times story published Monday detailed how President Donald Trump's Treasury Department, led by former Goldman Sachs banker Steve Mnuchin, has quietly weakened elements of the 2017 tax law in recent months to make it even friendlier to wealthy individuals and massive corporations.

Lobbyists representing some of the largest corporations in the world, the Times reported, targeted two provisions in the original 2017 law designed to bring in hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue from companies that had been dodging U.S. taxes by stashing profits overseas.

"The corporate lobbying campaign was a resounding success," the Times noted. "Through a series of obscure regulations, the Treasury carved out exceptions to the law that mean many leading American and foreign companies will owe little or nothing in new taxes on offshore profits... Companies were effectively let off the hook for tens if not hundreds of billions of taxes that they would have been required to pay."

The two provisions are known by the acronyms BEAT (base erosion and anti-abuse tax) and GILTI (global intangible low-taxed income). Shortly after Trump signed the $1.5 trillion tax bill—which slashed the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%—lobbyists from major American companies like Bank of America and General Electric as well as foreign banks swarmed the White House in an effort to gut the BEAT and GILTI taxes.

Trump's Treasury Department largely granted the lobbyists' wishes, turning what was already a massive corporate handout into an even more generous gift to big companies and banks.

White House expecting trade agreement with China 'within next week or so'

Peter Navarro, the White House’s trade adviser, said he expected a trade deal could be signed “within the next week or so”. Speaking on Fox News, he indicated that little more than translation of the final text stood in the way of a breakthrough in the bitter dispute.

In response to a report in the South China Morning Post that Washington had invited the Chinese vice-premier Liu He to visit the US capital from Saturday to sign the deal, Navarro said: “We’ll probably have a signing on that within the next week or so – we’re just waiting for the translation.” However, he stressed that the report had come from anonymous sources. The South China Morning Post said the Chinese delegation would stay in the US for “a few days”, until the middle of next week. ...

The prospect of an agreement has sent stock markets to record levels over the festive period and prompted the International Monetary Fund to say that a deal easing trade tensions between the world’s two major economic superpowers could persuade its officials to revise up forecasts for global growth in 2020. ...

Neither side has released specific details of the agreement and no text has been released. But Navarro said the deal included agreements on the protection of companies’ intellectual property, “a good start” on forced technology transfers – where US companies are required to hand over valuable technological secrets as part of partnerships with Chinese businesses – and “some good language on currency manipulation”.

Aaron Maté on why Dem impeachment gambit is a loser

Mike Pompeo to visit Ukraine ahead of Trump impeachment trial

Mike Pompeo will travel to Ukraine this week in a gesture of support for its government, ahead of Donald Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate on charges that he sought to pressure Kyiv into investigating a political rival. ...

A senior state department official said Pompeo’s visit would “underscore the strong and unwavering US support for Ukraine in the face of Russia’s aggression and also to discuss Ukraine’s progress in implementing the reforms necessary for Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic integration”.

In a briefing to reporters to preview Pompeo’s trip – which will also take him to Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Cyprus – state department officials repeatedly ignored questions related to impeachment.

Keiser Report: 2020 predictions

US has slowest population growth rate in a century as births decline

The past year’s population growth rate in the United States was the slowest in a century due to declining births, increasing deaths and the slowdown of international migration, according to figures released Monday by the US Census Bureau.

The US grew from 2018 to 2019 by almost a half per cent, or about 1.5 million people, with the population standing at 328 million this year, according to population estimates. That’s the slowest growth rate in the US since 1917 to 1918, when the nation was involved in the first world war, said William Frey, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

For the first time in decades, natural increase – the number of births minus the number of deaths – was less than 1 million in the US due to an aging population of Baby Boomers, whose oldest members entered their 70s within the past several years. As the large Boomer population continues to age, this trend is going to continue. ...

Four states had a natural decrease, where deaths outnumbered births: West Virginia, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. ... Ten states had population declines in the past year. They included New York, which lost almost 77,000 people; Illinois, which lost almost 51,000 residents; West Virginia, which lost more than 12,000 people; Louisiana, which lost almost 11,000 residents; and Connecticut, which lost 6,200 people. Mississippi, Hawaii, New Jersey, Alaska and Vermont each lost less than 5,000 residents. Regionally, the south saw the greatest population growth from 2018 to 2019, increasing 0.8% due to natural increase and people moving from others parts of the country. ...

Monday’s population estimates also offer a preview of which states may gain or lose congressional seats from next year’s apportionment process using figures from the 2020 Census.

The Reason Republicans Won't Even Vote on the Violence Against Women Act

Before Congress left town for their extended winter recess, they put impeachment rancor aside and got some bipartisan business done, including raising the minimum age to buy tobacco to 21 and voting on paid parental leave for 2.1 million federal employees.

But one thing the lawmakers left undone was reauthorizing the landmark Violence Against Women Act, which expired nearly a year ago.

In years past, support for the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was firmly bipartisan. President Bill Clinton signed it into law in 1994, dramatically shifting responses to and support for victims and survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. And it's been reauthorized ever since. But that ended in February when House Democrats included a provision to restrict partners who’ve been convicted of stalking or abuse from accessing firearms, an attempt to close the so-called “boyfriend loophole.”

There’s already a law on the books to keep guns out of the hands of spouses convicted of such crimes, and Democrats and some Republicans have long wanted to extend that restriction to partners. But the National Rifle Association is opposed, and that's why the bill is stalled in the Senate.

Mass Shootings Are Connected to America’s Legacy of Anti-Indigenous Violence

There have so far been more mass shootings in the U.S. in 2019 than days of the year. According to the Gun Violence Archive (GVA), there were 381 mass shootings as of November 29, the 333rd day of the year. While the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) doesn’t have a formal definition for mass shooting, the GVA defines it as any incident in which four or more people are shot or killed at one time, not counting the shooter. These acts of carnage and bloodshed have traumatized so many, leaving us second-guessing about whether it’s safe to venture out into open public spaces.

But while school administrators, psychologists, and politicians have their own theories for what’s behind the violence, there’s also one crucial detail that’s regularly left out of the conversation: The fact that the United States has a long, bloody history of mass shootings. The truth of the matter is this country was founded on colonial violence — built on the backs of black slaves and the bodies of millions of slain Native peoples.

David Hogg, a survivor of the February 2018 Parkland mass shooting and one of the cofounders of March for Our Lives, acknowledged this reality during a recent interview with MSNBC host Chris Hayes. “If we want to talk about mass shootings, we have to recognize the massive number of Indigenous mass shootings that were committed by the United States government,” he said.

The history of America is one of brutal mass slaughter, dating from the genocide of this land’s original peoples to the shootings we see in shopping malls and schools today. ...

[For extensive list of mass killings of natives and african americans, see link. - js]

Some believe that President Trump’s administration and his army of sycophants are responsible for this recent explosion of mass shootings. There’s no denying that many of the shooters are Trump supporters and his rallies are known for stoking hatred and vitriol. Trump is a fan of President Andrew Jackson, the man who bucked a U.S. Supreme Court ruling to remove the Cherokee people from their homelands and caused the Trail of Tears, where thousands of them died of starvation, disease, and exposure to the elements. Trump even used the Wounded Knee Massacre as a punch line this year while attacking Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren.

But this didn’t start with Trump.

Jewish Community Denounces Anti-Semitic Attacks Fueled by a “White Nationalist Administration”

In Wake of Hanukkah Attack, Sanders Calls on US to Stand Together to 'Defeat Bigotry, Violence, and Anti-Semitism'

Sen. Bernie Sanders called on people across the United States Sunday night to "recommit to standing together to defeat bigotry, violence, and anti-Semitism" in the wake of a violent attack on a Hanukkah celebration in Monsey, New York over the weekend.

"What we're seeing right now—we're seeing it in America, we're seeing it all over the world—is a rise in anti-Semitism," Sanders said at an annual Hanukkah event in Des Moines, Iowa on Sunday, less than 24 hours after the attack.

"We're seeing somebody run into a kid here in Des Moines because that child was a Latino," said Sanders, who is vying to become the first Jewish president in American history. "We're seeing people being stabbed yesterday in New York City because they were Jewish. We are seeing people being assaulted because they are Muslim."

"If there was ever a time in American history where we say no to religious bigotry," Sanders added, "this is the time." ...

"On this final evening of Hanukkah, a celebration of light overcoming darkness, Jane and I send our love and support to our Jewish brothers and sisters during this difficult time," Sanders tweeted Sunday night.

Neil Innes, Rutles star and 'seventh Python', dies aged 75

Neil Innes, the comedian and songwriter known for spoof Beatles band the Rutles as well as his work with Monty Python, has died aged 75, according to his agent.

Born in 1944 and raised in Germany and the UK, he studied drama at Goldsmiths college, where he formed the absurdist pop group the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. They scored a Top 5 hit with I’m the Urban Spaceman in 1968, produced pseudonymously by Paul McCartney - it won Innes an Ivor Novello songwriting award.

Innes was later known as “the seventh Python” thanks to his contributions to the comedy troupe’s sketches and films, including the songs Knights of the Round Table and Brave Sir Robin in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Innes also contributed the whistled melody to Always Look on the Bright Side of life, from Life of Brian.

Following the dissolution of Python, Innes teamed with Eric Idle to create the sketch show Rutland Weekend Television. It spawned the Rutles, a pastiche of the Beatles with Innes playing a Lennon-esque character called Ron Nasty, performing songs such as Cheese and Onions, Ouch!, and Get Up and Go. A TV film, All You Need is Cash, was released in 1978, and featured cameos from George Harrison, Mick Jagger, Bill Murray and Michael Palin. Innes most recently toured the UK with the Rutles in May and June 2019.

Saagar Enjeti: Biden's Hillary 2.0 moment shows why he will lose

Interesting and worth a full read:

The spooks’ choice: Coup plotters and CIA agents fill Pete Buttigieg’s list of national security endorsers

These questions continue to loom large over the 2020 Democratic primary field: Who is Pete Buttigieg? And what is he doing here? Seemingly overnight, the once obscure mayor of Indiana’s fourth-largest city was vaulted to national prominence, with his campaign coffers stuffed with big checks from billionaire benefactors.

The publication of a list of 218 endorsements from “foreign policy and national security professionals” by Buttigieg’s campaign deepened the mystery of the mayor’s rise. Some observers have raised questions about Pete Buttigieg’s intimate relationship with the national security state, after it was revealed that his campaign had paid nearly $600,000 for “security” to a Blackwater-style military contractor.

Buttigieg’s new roster of endorsements from former high-ranking CIA officials, regime-change architects, and global financiers should raise more questions about the real forces propelling his campaign. Buttigieg has offered precious few details about his policy plans, and foreign policy is no exception. His campaign website dedicates just five sentences to international affairs, none of which offers any substantive details.

Beyond a seven-month deployment to Afghanistan as a Naval Reservist in 2010, the 37 year-old mayor has no first-hand foreign policy experience to speak of. As The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal reported, Buttigieg’s enjoys a long relationship with the Truman National Security Project, a foreign policy think tank in Washington, DC that advocates for “muscular liberalism.” He has also taken a short, strange trip to Somaliland with a Harvard buddy, Nathaniel Myers, who ultimately became a senior advisor to USAID’s Office of Transitional Initiatives. Otherwise, Buttigieg’s foreign policy credentials are nil.

Buttigieg’s lack of core principles are what might make him so attractive to military contractors and financial institutions, two of the status quo’s biggest beneficiaries. Mayor Pete has effectively positioned himself as a Trojan Horse for the establishment, offering “generational change” that doesn’t challenge existing power structures in any concrete way.

New Hampshire Journalist dissects Joe Biden's string of gaffes over 24-hours

Bernie Sanders' doctors say he's fit and healthy for 'rigors of presidency'

Bernie Sanders has released letters from three doctors following his heart attack in early October, in which medical professionals say the Democratic candidate appears perfectly capable of tackling the demands of the Oval Office. Although Sanders did suffer some heart muscle damage, he aced a treadmill test and received a clean bill of health to face the strains of the campaign trial and – should he win the presidency – the pressure of being president.

“You are in good health currently and you have been engaging vigorously in the rigors of your campaign, travel, and other scheduled activities without any limitation,” wrote Brian P Monahan, the attending physician of the US Congress and Sanders’ primary doctor. ...

Two other medical professionals – Philip Ades, the director of cardiac rehabilitation at the University of Vermont, and Martin LeWinter, Sanders’ personal cardiologist at UVM – echoed Monahan’s assessment. Winter said the senator had suffered “modest heart muscle damage” but was unconcerned about it.

'New Day' for Queens Democratic Machine as Sanders and Warren Supporters Defeat Attempt to Ram Through Biden Endorsement

An attempt by Queens County Democratic Party leadership to endorse the 2020 presidential bid of former Vice President Joe Biden failed on Monday after a coalition of activists backing a number of other candidates in the national primary made their displeasure with the move known by protest.

The scheme to endorse Biden's bid was reportedly led by Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), who is the leader of the county party. The party is staying neutral in the race for now.

"Greg Meeks tried to get the Queens machine to back Biden for president, but couldn't," tweeted The Intercept's D.C. Bureau Chief Ryan Grim. "New day for the county party."

Queens-based activist Moumita Ahmed, co-founder of the New Reformers, a Queens-based PAC that works to infuse the Democratic Party with small-"d" democracy, was at the meeting Monday morning. She said on Twitter that the effort to stop the Biden endorsement was due to the lack of a "transparent endorsement process" that brought together supporters of the primary bids of Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), as well as businessman Andrew Yang.

"Good job folks!" Ahmed said. "This is what democracy looks like."

New Reformers and Queens County Committee for All called for demonstrations at the meeting after hearing that the party would attempt to endorse Biden without a transparent process. There was no agenda for the meeting, leading the group to question the behavior of the county party.

"The very fact that not even the party's District Leaders are certain of the agenda of what is ostensibly their own meeting is just the latest instance of the Queens Democratic Party's current dysfunction and inability to operate in a transparent, accountable, and democratic fashion," New Reformers said in a statement. ...

Meeks told Queens Daily Eagle managing editor David Brand after the meeting that the party will endorse a candidate at a later date, possibly on February 6.

Fukushima Reactor Cleanup Delayed by Five Years as Japanese Public Demands End to Nuclear Energy

The Japanese government said Friday it would delay for a fourth time the removal of spent fuel from two of the reactors at the Fukushima Daichii nuclear power plant, causing concern that the cleanup of one of the worst nuclear disasters in history is happening at a dangerously slow pace.

The removal of the spent fuel was planned to begin in 2023, but the process was bumped back to 2024 at the earliest for the plant's No. 1 reactor and 2027 or later for the No. 2 reactor.

According to the Japan Times, the government claims this aspect of the clean-up is being delayed due to safety concerns and that it plans to construct barriers around the reactors to prevent the spread of radioactive dust.

Reporting on the delay comes days after the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry proposed releasing contaminated water from the plant into the ocean or allowing it to evaporate, and weeks after the ministry said the water contained higher levels of radioactive material than previously thought. ...

The Japanese public has reportedly grown increasingly anti-nuclear power since the Fukushima disaster, according to an Al Jazeera report earlier this month. "Japanese people's sentiment changed after Fukushima Daiichi and it is continuing until now," Hajime Matsukubo, secretary-general of the Citizens' Nuclear Information Center, told Al Jazeera. "They say no."

In a 2015 poll by the Japan Atomic Energy Relations Organization, only 10 percent of Japanese respondents said the country should maintain its use of nuclear energy.

What’s Behind Big Oil’s Promises of Emissions Cuts? Lots of Wiggle Room.

The oil and gas industry seems to have entered a state of cognitive dissonance. Like never before, energy companies are publicly acknowledging the threat posed by climate change and the need for society to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, oil and gas production in the U.S. and globally continues to soar. Major oil companies have announced a series of commitments to reduce their emissions, even as they continue to invest in new projects that will boost production of the very fossil fuels that are driving climate change.

This tension has given rise to statements that seem to defy logic. In October, Michael Rubio, Chevron's general manager for environmental, social and governance engagement, told The New York Times that "you can increase your fossil-fuel production, deliver superior returns for your shareholders, and still be compliant with Paris."

"Paris" is the Paris climate accord, by which countries worldwide agreed to reduce emissions to slow global warming. To meet its goals, fossil fuel burning will have to peak and fall rapidly within a couple of decades. Instead, the world is on track to produce more than 40 percent more oil and gas by 2040 than would be consistent with the Paris goal of limiting warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius, a United Nations report published in November found. Another recent report, published by the climate and financial think tank Carbon Tracker Initiative, found that the largest investor-owned oil companies had recently invested billions in new projects that are not consistent with that goal. ...

The Paris Agreement marked a shift for the oil and gas industry, which for decades had promoted climate science denial. While some companies and oil-producing nations are still lobbying against aggressive climate action at the local, national and international level, all the major investor-owned producers now at least claim to support the agreement's goals. But while they have been announcing plans to cut their corporate emissions, nearly all those plans are limited in scope, some of them extremely so. BP and Total are the only "majors" that have actually committed to reducing their emissions. (BP said it will use offsets to make sure its emissions stay flat to 2025.) Each of the others—Exxon, Chevron, Shell and, by some counts, ConocoPhillips and Eni—generally have pledged to lower their "emissions intensity," or the amount of pollution for each unit of energy they produce.

In October, Chevron announced it would cut the emissions intensity of its oil production by 5-10 percent and of its gas production by 2-5 percent by 2023. But as Rubio's comments made clear, the company also plans to expand production, leaving open the possibility that its actual emissions will stay flat or grow, even if its operations become more efficient. Chevron's commitment—as well as pledges by Exxon, BP and ConocoPhillips—also covers only the company's direct emissions. The vast majority of the emissions associated with oil—roughly 80 percent—come when it's burned, not from its production. In other words, Chevron's commitment addresses only a tiny piece of the emissions pie. ...

"The industry as a whole is still tinkering around the edges," said Andrew Logan, director of the oil and gas program at Ceres, a nonprofit that works with large investors to promote sustainable business practices. ... Among the leading investor-owned companies, all the business plans continue to rely on maintaining or even expanding the sale of their core products, said Mike Coffin an analyst with Carbon Tracker. And each of the majors has continued to invest in the type of large, long-lived and expensive projects that present the highest risks for the climate and for investors, his organization has found, making their support for the Paris Agreement ring hollow. "It's just fundamentally clear that oil and gas production needs to fall," Coffin said. His analysis found that the majors collectively need to cut their production by 35 percent by 2040 in order to keep their operations in line with the goals of the global compact.

Thousands trapped on Australia beach as bushfire hits coastal town

Also of Interest

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

Chris Hedges: Onward, Christian Fascists

Congress Just Passed Nightmare Legislation that Strips Trillions in Wealth from the Middle Class

California's groundbreaking privacy law takes effect in January

10 Good Things About 2019

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A Little Night Music

The Red Devils - Time To Cry

The Red Devils - Shake Your Hips/Who Do You Love

The Red Devils - The Hook

The Red Devils - She's Dangerous

The Red Devils - Backstreet Crawler

The Red Devils - Going to the Church

The Red Devils - Devil Woman

The Red Devils - Cross Your Heart

The Red Devils - Have A Good Time

The Red Devils - I've Been Wrong

Red Devils - Ribs & Blues 2017