The Evening Blues - 7-29-19



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Art Neville

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features New Orleans funk musician Art Neville. Enjoy!

The Neville Brothers - Sittin' in Limbo

"Spineless politics do not change the mind of a tyrant."

-- Friedrich Kellner


News and Opinion

What do you think the Democrat congressworms will do? If I was a betting man, I'd put my money on the spineless, gutless Dems wimping out (yet again).

This Is Congress’ Last Chance to Exert Itself Over Trump in the Middle East

This week President Trump vetoed three bipartisan measures intended to block the sale of $8 billion in arms to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. But Congress has one last best chance to assert itself over Trump’s often erratic foreign policy in the Middle East: the National Defense Authorization bill.

The measure is seen as a must-pass, and both chambers have already passed conflicting measures. Now they must combine the two. The House package is $733 billion, and the Senate’s is $750 billion, which is in line with what Trump has requested. So there’s plenty of negotiating room, if Democrats play hardball.

In order to get anti-war Democrats to sign off, House party leaders agreed to give progressives votes on measures to cut off arms sales to Saudi Arabia and ban the administration from starting a war with Iran without the approval of Congress, and another one that ends the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force. All passed, and in the end, only eight Democrats joined every Republican in voting against the bill.

Now the anti-war provisions are vital to maintain Democratic support for the final version.

It’s unlikely that House Democrats will be able to get all three of those measures to tie Trump’s hands included in the final bill, so now lawmakers are debating which one — or ones — they think have the best chance of garnering a presidential signature. “I think the Iran one is very important, because if the leadership can say this is the single and best vehicle to prevent another Middle East war it becomes a very compelling case to vote for the NDAA,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), the author of the Iran measure, told VICE News just off the House floor.

And with the NDAA as possibly the last best chance to tie Trump’s hands on foreign adventures, rank and file Democrats are going into these negotiations being more vocal with their demands then they were in the border debate. “Nothing can reach the president’s desk without the House Democrats supporting it,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told VICE News.

Second UK warship arrives to guard ships in strait of Hormuz

A second UK warship has arrived in the Gulf to protect British commercial ships amid heightened tensions in the region, the Ministry of Defence has said.

The type 45 destroyer HMS Duncan will work alongside the frigate HMS Montrose to accompany British vessels through the strait of Hormuz.

HMS Montrose covers an operating area of about 19,000 nautical miles and has so far accompanied 35 merchant vessels through the strait, according to the MoD.

The defence secretary, Ben Wallace, said that freedom of navigation in the strait of Hormuz was “vital not just to the UK, but also our international partners and allies.

“While we continue to push for a diplomatic resolution that will make this possible again without military accompaniment, the Royal Navy will continue to provide a safeguard for UK vessels until this is the reality.”

Iran crisis: ‘CIA spies’ sentenced to death

Johnson told no-deal Brexit will crush domestic policy plans

Boris Johnson’s ambitious domestic agenda would be crushed by the pressing needs of the emergency that would follow a no-deal Brexit, a new report by a Whitehall thinktank has concluded. The Institute for Government (IfG) warned there is “no such thing as a managed no deal” and the hard Brexiters predictions of a “clean break” from the EU will not materialise.

Johnson will begin his first full week in Downing Street by ramping up planning for the possibility of a no-deal Brexit on 31 October, with more than £1bn to be announced within days for preparations by Sajid Javid, the chancellor. He sent out a raft of cabinet ministers over the weekend to talk about “turbo-charging” preparations as part of a publicity blitz, making clear that the UK will be heading for no deal unless EU leaders agree to replace the Irish backstop.

The new prime minister is also heading to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in the coming days to promise to “strengthen the union”, but he faces a difficult meeting with Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Conservative leader, on Monday as she warned over the weekend that she cannot sign up to his no-deal Brexit strategy.

The IfG, which has offices next to the Foreign Office near St James’s Park, has regular access to lawmakers and top officials enabling it to give frank assessments on all aspects of government. Its publication comes just days after Johnson unveiled plans for a high-speed rail link between Manchester and Leeds, 20,000 new police officers and extra money for social care and schools. The pledges appear designed to appeal to the public in an election, fuelling speculation that Johnson is preparing for one even though he is publicly ruling it out before Brexit happens.

However, the report outlines just how uncertain the future would be for Boris Johnson after a crashout, suggesting everything other than Brexit would be overshadowed.

Keiser Report: Time value of money disappears

Brazilian Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Gave Secret Talk to Bankers and Took Money From a Company He Was Investigating

Private chats reveal the extent to which Deltan Dallagnol, coordinator of Brazil’s Car Wash anti-corruption task force, sought to personally profit from the fame generated by his high-profile work as a prosecutor, raising ethical questions and provoking disagreements with colleagues. In March 2018, Dallagnol received more than $10,000 to give a speech to Neoway Tecnologia Integrada Assessoria e Negócios S.A., a big-data firm that was under investigation by Car Wash for potentially corrupt contracts with a state-controlled oil company.

Three months later, Dallagnol was the featured speaker at a secret, off-the-record event with the most influential banks and investors in Brazil, organized by investment firm XP Investimentos. It’s not clear if he was paid for the event, but his speaking agent, who works on commission, negotiated the agreement with XP. Invitees to the talk included at least three banks that had been investigated by Car Wash: Itaú, Santander, and Deutsche Bank. The investment firm engaged Dallagnol for two other speaking events — both were public and well paid.

In an apparent bid to convince Dallagnol to take on the off-the-record speaking gig, the XP representative told the prosecutor in the chats that Supreme Court Minister Luiz Fux had already participated in a similar off-the-record event “and nothing came out in the press,” adding that two other Supreme Court ministers had also been invited to give private talks. Fux did not respond to The Intercept’s request for comment and the other two ministers, Alexandre de Moraes and Luís Roberto Barroso, denied participation in such events.

The topic of the series of XP talks that Dallagnol and Fux participated in was the Car Wash investigation and the national elections that were scheduled to take place later that year. Invited guests included representatives from Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Barclays, Merrill Lynch, Citibank, UBS, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, Natixis, Société Générale, Standard Chartered, State Street, Macquarie Capital, TD Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, Itaú, Bradesco, Santander, Verde Asset Management, and Nomura Holdings. ...

Earlier this month, The Intercept revealed plans by Dallagnol and a colleague to open an agency to organize speaking events and courses. “Let’s organize congresses and events and make a profit, okay? It’s a good way to take advantage of our networking and visibility,” Dallagnol wrote in a chat to his wife last December. To get around rules that restrict prosecutors from managing businesses, the prosecutors decided to bring in their wives to administer the agency. There is no evidence that the project ever got off the ground, but that did not stop the prosecutor from taking in a considerable profit: In a private chat, Dallagnol told his wife that he expected to make around $106,000 that year in after-tax revenue from speaking fees and book royalties.

World 'will diminish role of dollar and US banking system': Russian minister at Non-Aligned Movement

Nancy Pelosi Wants You to Believe She and AOC Never Had Beef

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is trying to downplay the animus between her and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, after the two have clashed in recent weeks over both public policy and political strategy.

“I would never even say there was a hatchet [to bury]. We had a good meeting. The congresswoman is a very gracious member of Congress,” Pelosi said at a press conference shortly after the two met in her office Friday morning. “We had a very positive conversation about our districts and how we represent our country and how we need to meet the needs, the diversity of America and the challenges we face in terms of issues and how immigration and people are respected.”

Pelosi later compared the dynamics between House Democrats to family members who disagree with each other. “Does your family always agree on everything?” she asked.

The meeting came after weeks of public mud-slinging between the two camps over their respective relevance to the future of the Democratic party and disagreement over several hot-button issues, like immigration reform and impeaching President Donald Trump for his role in the Mueller investigation. ...

In response to a question from a reporter Friday morning about whether Pelosi respected her opinions, Ocasio-Cortez reportedly said, “absolutely, absolutely.” A spokesperson for Ocasio-Cortez did not immediately respond to VICE News’ question about what the two discussed. Ocasio-Cortez slipped out of the meeting and left shortly after for a six-week-long House recess. House activity will resume Sept. 9.

Baltimore Residents: Trump’s Attacks on the City Are Rooted in “Racism and White Supremacy”


Better to have a few rats than to be one

In case anyone missed it, the president of the United States had some choice words to describe Maryland’s 7th congressional district on Saturday morning. Here are the key phrases: “no human being would want to live there,” it is a “very dangerous & filthy place,” “Worst in the USA” and, our personal favorite: It is a “rat and rodent infested mess.” He wasn’t really speaking of the 7th as a whole. He failed to mention Ellicott City, for example, or Baldwin or Monkton or Prettyboy, all of which are contained in the sprawling yet oddly-shaped district that runs from western Howard County to southern Harford County. No, Donald Trump’s wrath was directed at Baltimore and specifically at Rep. Elijah Cummings, the 68-year-old son of a former South Carolina sharecropper who has represented the district in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1996.

It’s not hard to see what’s going on here. The congressman has been a thorn in this president’s side, and Mr. Trump sees attacking African American members of Congress as good politics, as it both warms the cockles of the white supremacists who love him and causes so many of the thoughtful people who don’t to scream. President Trump bad-mouthed Baltimore in order to make a point that the border camps are “clean, efficient & well run," which, of course, they are not — unless you are fine with all the overcrowding, squalor, cages and deprivation to be found in what the Department of Homeland Security’s own inspector-general recently called “a ticking time bomb."

In pointing to the 7th, the president wasn’t hoping his supporters would recognize landmarks like Johns Hopkins Hospital, perhaps the nation’s leading medical center. He wasn’t conjuring images of the U.S. Social Security Administration, where they write the checks that so many retired and disabled Americans depend upon. It wasn’t about the beauty of the Inner Harbor or the proud history of Fort McHenry. And it surely wasn’t about the economic standing of a district where the median income is actually above the national average. No, he was returning to an old standby of attacking an African American lawmaker from a majority black district on the most emotional and bigoted of arguments. It was only surprising that there wasn’t room for a few classic phrases like “you people” or “welfare queens” or “crime-ridden ghettos” or a suggestion that the congressman “go back” to where he came from.

Mueller Admits NO OBSTRUCTION Of Investigation Occurred w/Aaron Mate

Over 1400 Jewish Clergy Deliver Letter to Congress Demanding Right to Asylum for Refugees

Over 1,400 Jewish clergy-members signed a petition demanding lawmakers protect the right to request asylum in the U.S., citing the history of the Jewish people as a warning for today's treatment of immigrants. "The Jewish people know what it means to be turned away and to be denied protection," the petition reads. "As Jews we understand the heart of the refugee, and the current actions of our government echo some of the darkest moments of our own history."

Activists from the advocacy group HIAS, founded as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, delivered the petition (pdf) to lawmakers on July 18. ...

The HIAS petition, said HIAS Rabbi-in-residence Rachel Grant Meyer, is a direct response to the border crisis from the Jewish community.

"At this moment when the United States is abandoning its legacy as a nation of immigrants and refugees by rescinding its commitment to provide asylum to those fleeing violence and persecution, more than 1,400 Jewish clergy around the country heeded the urgent call to raise our voices to say that this is a moral disgrace for all Americans and, in particular, for Jewish Americans who know well the danger of turning away those in need of a safe place to call home," said Meyer.

"We pray that our elected officials will take seriously the tens of thousands of American Jews we represent and step up to ensure that our country continues to have a fair, humane, and expeditious asylum process," Meyer added.

Trump openly terrorizes Central American migrants, whereas Democrats did it quietly

A US-born teen was in border custody for 23 days. Now he’s suing the government

A mother and her American-born teenage son are suing two US government agencies and speaking out over the inhumane conditions they said he endured while taken into border custody for more than three weeks. Francisco Galicia, 18, from Edinburg, Texas, was released from detention earlier this week after an ordeal in which he said he lost 26 pounds, was kept in a crowded space with 60 others and, for 23 days, wasn’t allowed to call his family or a lawyer, brush his teeth, or get access to a toilet, shower or bed.

He was so desperate in the face of the conditions, and unable to communicate with anyone outside, that he almost allowed himself to be deported to Mexico, as first reported by the Dallas Morning News.

Francisco was kept in custody, variously, by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) after going through a federal checkpoint 75 miles from the US-Mexico border in Texas, in Falfurrias, while driving to a soccer scouting event.

When he presented his state-issued identification, a wallet-sized copy of his birth certificate and his social security card, they were rejected by agents, the family said. “Imagine going 23 days without a shower, [proper] sleep, with malnutrition and being forced to sleep on the floor,” she said. She added: “They wanted to psychologically intimidate him to the point he’d sign his own deportation order. We’re suing over the abuse my son endured.”

16 Marines Were Snatched Out of Formation in Mass Arrest Connected to Human Smuggling

More than a dozen Marines were arrested Thursday, straight out of their battalion formation at Camp Pendleton, in relation to a human smuggling operation.

Officials said the 16 troops at the San Diego military base were arrested for a host of illegal activities as a direct result of a previous investigation that caught two other Marines smuggling undocumented immigrants across the border earlier this month. ...

According to the federal complaint, the immigrants told Border Patrol that they had agreed to pay the Marines $8,000 to transport them from just north of the border to Los Angeles before ultimately ending up in New Jersey.



the horse race



'A Message That Would Fit Just Fine in a Paul Ryan Speech': Biden Pilloried for Ad Celebrating Private Health Insurance Industry

Former Vice President Joe Biden doubled down on his defense of the private insurance industry Friday by releasing an ad that critics slammed as a dishonest celebration of America's fundamentally broken healthcare system. The ad, which Biden posted on Twitter, is framed as a defense of the Affordable Care Act, but critics immediately interpreted its message as a not-so-subtle dig at Medicare for All.

The video features a retired union worker named Marcy, who explains how she and her husband "earned" their private insurance and would "prefer to keep the Affordable Care Act."

"I have my own private insurance," Marcy says. "I don't want to lose it."

The underlying implication of Marcy's message, as Splinter's Libby Watson wrote, "is that if you didn't work, you didn't earn your healthcare, and you don't deserve what she has—private, better healthcare than Medicare for All, or whatever the masses get."

"Is Joe Biden running for president of the United States or the private health insurance fan club? It's hard to say at this point," said Watson. "This is a message that would fit in just fine in a Paul Ryan speech. (This is not Marcy's fault, mind you—it's the message Joe Biden wants you to hear.)"

Democracy for America (DFA), a progressive advocacy group, condemned Biden's ad as an attempt to "pit working people and generations against one another to perpetuate a broken healthcare system that values health insurance CEOs' paychecks over people's lives."

Natalie Shure on Bidencare and Beyond!

Biden, Harris, Buttigieg, and Booker Emerge as 'Clear Favorites' of Wall Street as Bankers Open Checkbooks for 2020

After expressing their deep fears over the prospect of Sens. Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren winning the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, Wall Street executives are opening their checkbooks to signal their favorite candidates as the primary race heats up.

CNBC reported Thursday that former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), and South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg "combined to receive contributions during the second quarter from at least 15 bank executives from Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, and Bank of America."

Buttigieg, who earlier this month hired a former Goldman Sachs executive as his national policy director, led all 2020 Democrats in fundraising in the second quarter of this year, raking in $24.8 million. According to CNBC, the South Bend mayor "had some help from Wall Street in hitting that milestone." ...

Former Goldman Sachs and Citigroup executive Robert Rubin has donated a total of $8,400 to Biden, Buttigieg, and Harris, CNBC reported. Rubin served as treasury secretary for former President Bill Clinton and economic adviser to former President Barack Obama.

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) also emerged as a favorite of the financial industry, according to the Washington Post, citing data from the first two quarters. The New Jersey senator "leads the field in fundraising from the industry," the Post reported Friday, "pulling in $620,000 over the first half of the year."



the evening greens


Scientists Say The Trump Administration Is Censoring Their Climate Research

Former scientists and officials of the Interior Department blasted the agency on Thursday, alleging that top employees there routinely scrub research of mentions of human-caused climate change in their research.

Their testimony, submitted to the House Subcommittee on Natural Resources, included a wide-ranging list of accusations against the current leadership of the Interior Department, which manages and conserves federal lands. But they boil down to this: “Not only does this group ignore science and expertise, they cross the line by actively suppressing it,” Joel Clement, the former director of the agency’s policy analysis department, testified Thursday. ...

Andrew Rosenberg, director of The Center for Science and Democracy at the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists, tracks the number of “attacks on science” across presidential administrations, using congressional testimony and media reports.

A scientist who also used to work for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Rosenberg testified that there have been 110 attacks on scientific integrity during the Trump administration. The examples Rosenberg provided include withholding from public view staff memos about oil and gas operations in Alaska, and eliminating federally-funded conservation groups that study the effect of climate change on wildlife.

“The erosion of scientific integrity in government has hit a fever pitch in the last two years,” he wrote in his testimony.

While the planet overheats, Ohio's coal industry gets a bailout

Bowing to the interests of a few deep-pocketed utilities, Ohio has enacted a controversial new law, dubbed HB 6, subsidizing dirty, decades-old coal plants and gutting the state’s clean energy programs. ... The legislation reflects an unfortunate national pattern: electric utilities pushing to delay climate action, bolstered by a president similarly interested in dragging our country’s feet. For years, FirstEnergy and AEP have been trying to dismantle Ohio’s clean energy policies and bail out their dirty coal plants. Since President Trump took office, these companies have found a receptive audience.

FirstEnergy’s CEO has met with Trump personally. Last year, the company asked his administration to invoke emergency powers to save its struggling coal and nuclear plants. Just a few months ago, an Ohio Republican operative who has a major role in Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign called several House Republicans who were on the fence to persuade them to vote for HB 6.

These companies have spent several million dollars on deceptive advertising, lobbying and campaign contributions to help elect politicians sympathetic to their cause. In return, these politicians have proven dutiful beneficiaries, working diligently to secure almost a billion dollars of ratepayer subsidies for FirstEnergy and AEP. As lobbying goes, not a bad return on investment.

This isn’t just happening in Ohio. Utilities across the country are pushing to delay climate action and stall the growth of renewables, which are already a cheaper source of electricity than continuing to operate three-quarters of US coal plants. Last week in Florida, the CEO of an electric utility called for large charges on customer bills in order to make solar customers “go away”. The Sunshine State gets a measly 3% of its electricity from renewables. Yet Florida utilities still fight customers trying to install solar. In Louisiana, the utility Entergy actually paid actors to show up at a New Orleans city council meeting to secure approval for a new natural gas plant. And in Arizona, the state’s largest electric utility – Arizona Public Service – has poured more than $50m into elections, including for its own regulator, often lying about its involvement. Once its favored politicians took office, the utility succeeded in rolling back solar policies.

These same electric utilities have funded climate denial for decades. Now they’ve moved on to delay: more than half the country’s highest-emitting utilities are slow-walking their own plans to decarbonize over the next decade. Some major utilities have zero plan to reduce carbon emissions.


New Trump Plan Recklessly Weakens Protections for What Remains of Illegally Reduced Bears Ears Monument

Conservation groups and congressional Democrats slammed the Trump administration Friday over its destructive new management plan for the "illegally reduced" Bears Ears National Monument in Utah. In December of 2017, the administration provoked mass outrage with its decision to reduce Bears Ears by about 85 percent. The Bureau of Land Management—an agency of the U.S. Interior Department—published in the Federal Register on Friday a management plan for, as one critic put it, "the meager remnants of the original monument."

"This administration's management plan only reinforces its illegal action to steal huge swaths of land from the national monument so that oil and gas and mining companies can exploit the land," Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) said in a statement Friday. "It puts sacred sites at risk of being lost forever." Haaland is an original co-sponsor of the Bears Ears Expansion and Respect for Sovereignty (BEARS) Act. The bill, introduced by Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) in January, would not only protect the original land designated by former President Barack Obama, but also expand the monument to the full 1.9 million acres encompassing sacred artifacts and cultural resources that local tribes wish to protect.

The administration's new plan, Gallego warned, "recklessly weakens protections even for the land that remains in the monument, failing to protect important sites from threats like ATV use, looting, vandalism, and damage from target shooting—which would be permitted within monument boundaries."

"This proposed management plan confirms what we already knew," he declared. "The Trump administration has no interest in protecting the thousands of cultural and archeological sites in Bears Ears Monument or in seriously consulting with tribes on how best to manage their sacred ancestral lands."

Brazil: Gold miners kill indigenous leader in Brazil during the incursion of a protected reserve

Amazon gold miners invade indigenous village in Brazil after its leader is killed

Dozens of gold miners have invaded a remote indigenous reserve in the Brazilian Amazon where a local leader was stabbed to death and have taken over a village after the community fled in fear, local politicians and indigenous leaders said. The authorities said police were on their way to investigate.

Illegal gold mining is at epidemic proportions in the Amazon and the heavily polluting activities of garimpeiros – as miners are called – devastate forests and poison rivers with mercury. About 50 garimpeiros were reported to have invaded the 600,000-hectare Waiapi indigenous reserve in the state of Amapá on Saturday.

The men were spotted days after the murder of Emyra Waiapi, a community leader, whose body was found near the village of Mariry early on Wednesday. Indigenous people evacuated Mariry and fled to the bigger village of Aramira – where shots were fired on Saturday. Indigenous leaders and local politicians have called for urgent police help, fearing a bloodbath. “The garimpeiros invaded the indigenous village and are there until today. They are heavily armed, they have machine guns. That is why we asking for help from the federal police,” said Kureni Waiapi, 26, a member of the tribe who lives in the nearest town of Pedra Branca do Amapari, two hours away and 189km from Amapá state capital Macapá. “If nothing is done they will start to fight.” ...

Kureni Waiapi said Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro had encouraged invasions like this. “It is because he, the president, is threatening the indigenous peoples of Brazil,” he said. ... Recently Bolsonaro compared indigenous people living traditional lives on their reserves to “prehistoric men”. On Saturday he once again talked up the mineral riches in the Raposa Serra do Sol and Yanomami reserves – currently inundated with thousands of garimpeiros.


Also of Interest

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

'Own up to reality': 2020 Democrats urged to confront US racial divide

CN Live! With Nancy Hollander, Margaret Kimberley, Ed Botowsky and Ray McGovern

The Real Reason The Propagandists Have Been Promoting Russia Hysteria

Tanker Seizures and the Threat to the Global Economy from Resurgent Imperialism

We Tested Europe’s New Lie Detector for Travelers — and Immediately Triggered a False Positive

The American Version of Fascism is Alive and Prospering

Area 51 holds secrets, all right, but they don’t involve UFOs and aliens

Bernie Sanders rides another campaign bus to Canada

MSNBC’s Anti-Sanders Bias Makes It Forget How to Do Math

The Bolsonaro Government’s Aggressive Response Shows Why Our Reporting on the Secret Brazil Archive Is So Vital

Roundup Roundup: Judge Slashes Punitive Damages Award in Glyphosate Lawsuit

Epstein case: judge agrees to keep documents on 2008 plea deal secret

The ‘Total Anarchy’ of Wet Cops

The NYT’s Six Percent Solution for Student Debt

As Risky Finances Alienate Investors, Fracking Companies Look to Retirement Funds for Cash


A Little Night Music

Art Neville - My Babe

Art Neville - Over You

Art Neville - Arabian Love Call

Art Neville - My Dear Dearest Darling

Art Neville - You Won't Do Right

Art Neville - Bo Diddley

Art Neville - Hook, Line And Sinker

The Meters - Cissy Strut

Art Neville - Humdinger

The Meters - Here Comes The Meter Man

The Meters - Darling Darling Darling

The Meters - Mardi Gras Mambo

The Neville Brothers - Fire On The Bayou


Share
up
0 users have voted.

Comments

give her credit

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren rolled out a new plan on Monday revealing how she’d handle trade policy if elected to the White House, breaking with Donald Trump and past presidents of both parties.

Prior to endorsing any trade deal, Warren said she’d require negotiators to disclose drafts to the public, invite representatives of labor and environmental groups to trade advisory committees, and require the U.S. International Trade Commission to analyze how an agreement would affect each region of the country.

The paper is the latest in a flurry of policy documents from Warren aimed at setting her apart in the crowded Democratic 2020 presidential field as a candidate with a plan to boost the middle class. It calls for a set of aggressive standards that would make it difficult to enact trade deals.

Warren said her plan departs from “the Washington insider consensus that brought us decades of bad trade deals and from Donald Trump’s haphazard and ultimately corporate-friendly approach.” Like Warren, Trump has opposed past trade deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement among the U.S., Canada and Mexico. But she opposes his renegotiated version as well, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, calling it “NAFTA 2.0” and arguing it won’t stop outsourcing or raise wages at home.

up
0 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@gjohnsit

i am willing to give her a bunch of credit for her trade plan. according to this article in business insider, her plan will do something that desperately needs done in all u.s. trade deals that advantages capital over communities and workers:

The policy looks to eliminate ISDS from current and future agreements. The rulings often leave a nation's citizens to pay corporations billions in damages, all outside the purview of a fully independent court, Warren said.

for those not familiar isds is the investor state dispute settlement system that allows poor, oppressed corporations to sue governments for trying to protect their citizens from environmental dangers and worker hazards created by corporations.

up
0 users have voted.
detroitmechworks's picture

And who doesn't like food when it's delivered! I understand that there's all sorts of great tutorials on cooking rat, and it's a great way to cut costs so you can afford to live in one of the great cities!

/snark

Sorry, I just find it funny that Epstein just made the argument through the media that there are rats everywhere in his jail, and yet we're not supposed to worry about them at all. I'm seriously finding it funny how the same imagery keeps coming up in the media over and over again as if it's being written by a bad author who has no imagination...

/paranoia

But hey, look, the Democrats get to scream racist again, and change the subject, so... that's fun again. Seen this one before, know how it ends. Ends with the Republicans screaming Anti-semitism and everybody trying to appeal to the fear of being labeled if you take a stance.

Heck with it, I guess I'm supposed to just pick whichever one I'm least afraid of. Hell with it, random music...

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uc6f_2nPSX8]

up
0 users have voted.

I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

joe shikspack's picture

@detroitmechworks

heh, get your rat hots! fresh from mobtown charm city. Smile

actually, i am thinking that trump might have done baltimore a favor. while there has been the predictable sentiment of circling the wagons against trump's apparent racism, today a nuanced conversation about the conditions in some of baltimore's neighborhoods started to break out on a local radio station. if that sort of thing gets rolling, there is the possibility that actual change could happen.

up
0 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

Apparently this is snark, but if Kissinger and Obama received it why not John? Barr is saying something about us being more gawd like since we're a Christian nation.

up
0 users have voted.

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

i don't think that he's eligible until he achieves his war on iran.

up
0 users have voted.
Azazello's picture

Looks like the models were wrong, things are going south a lot faster than scientists predicted: Vice
More from Caitlin Johnstone: What Progressives Hopefully Learned From Russiagate
Crosstalk Bullhorns: Boomerang
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfyIimyAaYE width:500 height:300]
Jimmy Dore goes live in 8 minutes:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MzSBO7RtoE width:500 height:300]

up
0 users have voted.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@Azazello

heh, every time i read an article from eminent climate science researchers about their most recent studies, the headline always seems to be something to the effect of, "erm, things are much worse than we previously thought." i keep wondering how long it will take them to get to, "forget it, we're basically f@cked."

sadly, the vast majority of progressives and liberals probably learned nothing from russiagate and the mainstream press is still feeding their delusions.

up
0 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

I would think that if the prosecutors knew who else was involved with Epstein that would make it easier for them to do their investigation.

A judge in New York has granted a request from prosecutors to keep secret documents relating to Jeffrey Epstein’s controversial 2008 sexual abuse plea deal, on the grounds that the materials could hamper their investigation of others in the financier’s milieu.

The documents, which will be shared with Epstein’s attorneys, are believed to concern not only the deal itself, which allowed Epstein to plead guilty to low-level state solicitation charges, but also a clause that granted immunity to any and all potential co-conspirators and named four women suspected of facilitating or participating in alleged crimes against minors.

The documents may also shed light on the 2008 deal, which was kept secret from accusers for nearly a year in what some claim was a violation of the Crime Victims’ Rights Act. Controversy over the deal forced the resignation earlier this month of the US labor secretary, Alex Acosta, who was US attorney in Miami at the time.

In a court filing, prosecutors with the southern district of New York argued that the materials could “affect the privacy and confidentiality of individuals … [and that] would impede, if prematurely disclosed, the government’s ongoing investigation of uncharged individuals”.

Maybe I'm reading it wrong and the prosecutors do get to know who else was involved. But since I'm betting that there will be some very important people who played along with Epstein I fear a cover up. But who didn't see this coming?

11 Yemens were killed today from Saudi bombings with the help from the USA, but some congress members don't think they should vote to overturn Trump's veto? F'ck them. They will have the Yemen people's blood on their hands. And souls.

up
0 users have voted.

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

Maybe I'm reading it wrong and the prosecutors do get to know who else was involved.

i think that you are reading it incorrectly. the first line suggests that the prosecutors are quite aware of who all of the people named in the documents are:

A judge in New York has granted a request from prosecutors to keep secret documents ...

this seems a reasonable concern:

But since I'm betting that there will be some very important people who played along with Epstein I fear a cover up.

the question is, do the prosecutors want to keep the people covered by:

a clause that granted immunity to any and all potential co-conspirators

in the dark about their immunity, to enhance the likelihood of their cooperation with prosecutors. or do they have some other, more nefarious intent, for example, using the threat of public exposure of those "potential co-conspirators" (whose lawyers will certainly be aware of their immunity under this clause even if they aren't) as blackmail leverage to compel them to cooperate.

secret information has its uses.

up
0 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack

A judge in New York has granted a request from prosecutors to keep secret documents ...

Blush

Hey did I tell you my doctor changed my drugs?

Secret

In my world every damn person who took part in this would be held accountable for it. Have you read Whitney Webb's articles on child sex trafficking and how far back it's gone and who all were involved? She starts with the big players during prohibition and next week she ends with Epstein's role. Hopefully she will have uncovered some big names. Gulfgal says that if the lid was ever blown off it would take down the world's governments.

up
0 users have voted.

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

@snoopydawg I am almost giddy that a sitting judge gave the green light to an investigation into people in the world that just may not know they are "persons of interest."

up
0 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

i hope that your adjustment to the new meds goes well. Smile

up
0 users have voted.

Just happened to see a link of Chapo Trap House giving a report on Netroots which they attended this year. They are hard to listen to, but they had some good insights. One guy ripped into Warren and TOP as being representing the professional meritocracy technocratic class of the party which hates poor white people. People have moved left leaving TOP sorta in the dust. Bernie is definitely given the polls the hero of the working classes and Warren was favorite of professional classes. TOP's focus on electing democrats is a failure as it results in them helping get blue dogs elected. In 2009 TOP got their wish, and the as one said "nothing changed".

It is a longish pod cast--over an hour and a half.

https://soundcloud.com/chapo-trap-house/332-fear-of-a-netroots-nation-fe...

up
0 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@MrWebster

they ought to call to call it netroots neutered. kos' netroots movement had some potential for influence when it, for example, primaried droopy dawg joe lieberman and got ned lamont on the democrat ballot line.

that's the sort of power that the democrat party fears and respects.

then, it appears that they cut a deal with kos and he neutered his movement and became a very minor celebrity. now, they can safely ignore him because he has alienated most of the real talent that rotated through his site hoping to make change and he can only operate as an atm or a florist to the powerful.

up
0 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@MrWebster

results in them helping get blue dogs elected.

But when they vote with the republicans against the democrat's bills they get a pass from the kids because they say it's worth it so that democrats can get the majority. They gave Collins hell for voting for Kavanaugh, but explained away Manchin's vote for him. They also don't seem to care about how many other democrats have been voting for most of the republican bills or cabinet picks and judges. But they sure do bitch about McConnell appointing so many. Schumer has made some very crappy deals with McConnell to let him get more appointed without any fight from the democrats.

IMG_3638.JPG

Baa

up
0 users have voted.

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

snoopydawg's picture

Check out the photos of hot air balloons. I saw one that looks like a liquor bottle, a water bottle, a kangaroo and some guy in a hat.

up
0 users have voted.

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

@snoopydawg @snoopydawg
parts of it epitomize the lifeless, gutless, rockless synthpop of the early 80s that drove me to stop listening to the radio ... and i had managed to keep listening to the radio all the way through the disco era.

on the other hand, when they pick up the pace and start bopping, it's just a great pop hook.

and when Nena sings, "Wery wery super scary," you just want to give her a big hug and a kiss on the top of her head, the cute little thing that she was.

up
0 users have voted.

The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

Azazello's picture

@UntimelyRippd
they just ain't got no soul. Nena is a huge star over there,and well she should be, but she's no Tina Turner, leather pants or no. She's got good taste though.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHnnBAI1Zp8 width:400 height:240]

up
0 users have voted.

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

enhydra lutris's picture

BRICS pushback against dollar terrorism. It's overdue.

up
0 users have voted.

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

looks like our presidents are going to be devalued. Smile

up
0 users have voted.
mimi's picture

for the EB collection. Need to rest and have nothing else to say.

Have a good night.

up
0 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@mimi

have a good one!

up
0 users have voted.
lotlizard's picture

In English from the London Review of Books. Clearly, 2015 was a crucial year.

https://www.lrb.co.uk/v41/n14/adam-tooze/which-is-worse

Also in the news, two incidents of Germans being randomly murdered by being pushed in front of an oncoming train:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/29/boy-8-dies-mother-pushed-o...
https://www.rt.com/news/465347-germany-boy-pushed-train-frankfurt/

up
0 users have voted.