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This evening's music features doo wop group Otis Williams and the Charms. Enjoy!

“Is ours a government of the people, by the people, for the people, or a kakistocracy rather, for the benefit of knaves at the cost of fools?”

-- Thomas Love Peacock

News and Opinion

Trump's friend tried to profit from Middle East nuclear deal, lawmakers say

A billionaire friend of Donald Trump pursued a plan to buy Westinghouse Electric Corp – even as he lobbied Trump to become a special envoy and promote the company’s work on nuclear power in Saudi Arabia, a congressional report released on Monday. While Tom Barrack failed in both efforts, the report provides fresh evidence of the ease with which some corporate and foreign interests have gained access to the US president and other senior members of his administration.

Documents obtained by the Democratic-led House oversight committee raise “serious questions about whether the White House is willing to place the potential profits of the President’s friends above the national security of the American people and the universal objective of preventing the spread of nuclear weapons”, the report said. The report is the second from the panel’s investigation into the plan to construct 40 nuclear power plants in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the Middle East. The plan was supported by Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn; Barrack, Trump’s inaugural committee chairman; and a consortium of companies led by retired US military commanders and former White House officials called IP3. One company was Westinghouse, the only US manufacturer of large reactors, which was bought out of bankruptcy by Brookfield Asset Management last August.

The report comes alongside a number of other investigations into the administration being conducted by the panel chaired by the US representative Elijah Cummings – including into the use of personal texts and emails for official business by Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, and her husband, Jared Kushner.

Senate Fails to Override Trump’s Vetoes on Saudi Arms Sales

Bipartisan bills that blocked US arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which were vetoed by President Trump earlier this month, survived another vote in the US Senate on Monday, where they failed to get enough votes to override the vetoes. The vote was 45-40. ...

It was generally accepted that the bills lacked the two-thirds majority needed to survive a veto, which is why a lot of similar language opposing US military support for the Saudis was included in House version of the 2020 NDAA, as it is widely believed this would be more difficult for the president to try to veto around.

Britain rejects idea of tanker swap with Iran

Britain on Monday rejected the idea that it could release a Iranian tanker in exchange for a British-flagged vessel seized by the Islamic Republic in the Gulf.

Britain is an Outlaw Nation

The British government says, apparently with a straight face, that it seized an Iranian tanker because it violated the EU sanctions. But, assuming that the tanker really was headed to Syria (and there is some reasonable doubt about this), so the hell what? Unless something has changed in the last day, neither Syria nor Iran is in the EU. So how could a trade between the two be subject to EU sanctions?

Violence Has Spiked in Africa Since the Military Founded AFRICOM, Pentagon Study Finds

Since U.S. Africa Command began operations in 2008, the number of U.S. military personnel on the African continent has jumped 170 percent, from 2,600 to 7,000. The number of military missions, activities, programs, and exercises there has risen 1,900 percent, from 172 to 3,500. Drone strikes have soared and the number of commandos deployed has increased exponentially along with the size and scope of AFRICOM’s constellation of bases. ...

AFRICOM “disrupts and neutralizes transnational threats” in order to “promote regional security, stability and prosperity,” according to its mission statement. But since AFRICOM began, key indicators of security and stability in Africa have plummeted according to the Defense Department’s Africa Center for Strategic Studies, a Pentagon research institution. “Overall, militant Islamist group activity in Africa has doubled since 2012,” according to a recent analysis by the Africa Center. There are now roughly 24 “active militant Islamist groups” operating on the continent, up from just five in 2010, the analysis found. Today, 13 African countries face attacks from these groups — a 160 percent increase over that same time span. In fact, the number of “violent events” across the continent has jumped 960 percent, from 288 in 2009 to 3,050 in 2018, according to the Africa Center’s analysis.

While a variety of factors have likely contributed to the rise in violence, some experts say that the overlap between the command’s existence and growing unrest is not a coincidence. “The sharp increase in terrorist incidents in Africa underscores the fact that the Pentagon’s overly militarized approach to the problem has been a dismal failure,” said William Hartung, the director of the arms and security project at the Center for International Policy. “If anything, attempting to eradicate terrorism by force may be exacerbating the problem, provoking a terrorist backlash and serving as a recruiting tool for extremist groups.”

Keiser Report: The end of the exorbitant privilege?

Trump's intelligence pick is attempt to 'neutralise' spy agencies, say ex-officials

Donald Trump’s nomination of an inexperienced but loyal partisan to become the director of national intelligence (DNI) is an attempt to “neutralise” US spy agencies as an independent and objective voice on global affairs, former intelligence officials warned. It follows the announcement that Dan Coats, one of the most senior national security officials willing to contradict the US president, is to leave the post next month after disagreements with Trump over policy and intelligence, including on Russian interference in the US election and on North Korean nuclear capabilities.

Trump has indicated that he might not wait for his nominee, the Republican congressman John Ratcliffe, to receive Senate confirmation before wresting control over the office of the director of national intelligence, which coordinates the work of the other 16 intelligence agencies. “The acting director will be named shortly,” Trump tweeted on Sunday, announcing the departure of Coats, and his choice of Ratcliffe, who has been a staunch defender of Trump in Congress.

However, the statute that established the role of DNI states that in case of a vacancy, the principal deputy director acts in the role until a replacement is confirmed. That would be Sue Gordon, a career official with three decades’ experience in intelligence. An attempt to break the rules and oust her will probably heighten the sense in the intelligence agencies that they are under attack. ...

It is unclear if Ratcliffe will be able to secure Senate confirmation. His inexperience and partisanship would come under intense scrutiny, but the Republican majority has generally been disciplined in following Trump’s wishes. Senior Republicans who responded to Trump’s announcement, praised Coats but did not mention Ratcliffe. The nomination may also falter on the law establishing the DNI position, which states any nominee “shall have extensive national security expertise”.

“The Brink of Political Revolution”: Puerto Rican Protests Continue Amid Political Uncertainty

Capital One: hacker stole data of over 100m Americans

A hacker gained access to personal information from more than 100 million Capitol One credit applications, the bank said Monday as federal authorities arrested a suspect.

The data breach has affected around 100 million people in the US and 6 million in Canada.

The hacker got information including credit scores and balances plus the Social Security numbers of about 140,000 customers, the bank said. It will offer free credit monitoring services to those affected.

Los Angeles police: personal data of thousands of officers stolen in breach

The personal information of 2,500 Los Angeles police department officers and 17,500 people who had applied to join the force were exposed in a data breach, the department announced on Monday.

The department was informed of a potential breach of records held by the city’s personnel department on 25 July, and it notified affected officers over the weekend. ...

The compromised data included officers’ names, dates of birth, the last four digits of their social security numbers, and the email addresses and passwords they set up when applying for the job, a spokesman for the mayor’s office confirmed to the Guardian.

Brexit: Pound drops to lowest level in two years as investors' fear of "no-deal" rises

'Dangerous' UK government intent on forcing no deal, says Sturgeon

Boris Johnson has been accused by Nicola Sturgeon of intentionally pushing the UK towards a no-deal Brexit, despite his “bluff and bluster” about wanting an agreement with EU leaders. After meeting Johnson face-to-face in Edinburgh, the Scottish first minister said she believed he was pursuing a “dangerous” hardline strategy with EU leaders, with the likely outcome of no-deal Brexit.

She made the accusation on a day of chaos over the new prime minister’s Brexit strategy, as he told reporters in Scotland that there should be no assumption in favour of a leaving the EU without a deal on 31 October. This was in direct contradiction to remarks by his own deputy official spokeswoman earlier in the day and an article on Sunday by Michael Gove, his Cabinet Office minister, who said the government was “working on the assumption” that EU leaders would not change their mind and therefore was proceeding with serious preparations for a no-deal Brexit as its first priority.

The prime minister also claimed he was reaching out a hand to EU leaders to strike a deal, even though his spokeswoman said he would not sit down with his counterparts until they agreed to scrap the Irish backstop. ... Entering the meeting at Bute House on Monday afternoon, he was greeted by boos and heckles from a crowd of pro-independence and anti-Brexit protesters and he chose to leave after the hour-long meeting by a back entrance.

Four Immigrants Have Died at Stewart ICE Facility in Georgia. Advocates Want It Shut Down

Indigenous People Demand an End to Detention on Stolen Lands

Not far from a detention center in McAllen, Texas, Indigenous people gathered on Saturday for a demonstration, joining their voices to the ongoing chorus of protests over the detention of asylum-seekers along the U.S. southern border. Taking a Stand on Our Stolen Land is organized by the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas and Native Voice Network on traditional Esto’k Gna territory. “As the original caretakers of these lands and territories, we have inherent authority over migration and demand an end to these barbaric acts,” they say in announcing the event. “We demand the administration immediately dismantle detention facilities and family separations and stop border wall construction.” ...

“We the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas are the First Peoples of this land,” they say. “We predate this country and are coming together to take a stand against the U.S. government’s response to the migration of our relatives from the south.” The children and their parents being held at the McAllen facility and other detention centers along the southwest border won’t look very different from many of the tribal members who will be demonstrating outside. ... Many of the detained asylum-seekers have native lineage in the Americas dating back 15,000 years. Stretching from California to the tip of South Texas, the southern U.S. border didn’t magically separate Mexico and Central American from the Native Americans in the United States. The Miskito from Honduras or Rama of Nicaragua are not genetic strangers to the Sioux or Lakota or Diné of the U.S. Rather, they are our primos, our cousins. Our border on the south doesn’t separate genetics; it doesn’t assign a different history or lineage.

Imagine, if you will, the Americas as a vast landscape of native people—from the southern tip of Argentina, where the penguins reign, to the tip of North America where the Arctic Circle begins. This expanse was first populated by people crossing the Bering Strait from Asia and perhaps boat people from the Pacific. The people who made these crossings remain a part of the people we know today as Native Americans, despite the borders separating them. They were the first immigrants. And really the first Americans who, because of borders, are being held in cages across the Southwest.

Saturday’s event, Taking a Stand on Our Stolen Land, recognizes this great irony—that these asylum-seekers, whether political or economic, are being held prisoners on their ancestral lands. ...

Beginning in 1836, when a Texas insurrection roiled the geographical landscape, the U.S. has steadily moved its borders south and west. In 1846, the U.S. declared war on Mexico. By the time it ended two years later, Mexico had lost nearly half its territory, including the present American Southwest from Texas to California. The Rio Grande became the new southern boundary of Texas. Where once the Diné (Navajo) and Comanche and Apache people lived, the border separated families and tribes. The Indigenous here were segregated in reservations. The Indigenous across the border were simply called Mexican.

So, in 2019, we find ourselves, still, in the business of sequestration of Indigenous Americans. Since 2014, thousands of Central Americans have joined caravans of people making their way to the U.S. southern border, many in search of asylum. And Saturday’s event in McAllen could signal the start of a new national conversation about the right of all Native Americans to make and stake a claim to these lands.

Of Mice and Mold: Baltimore Tenant Complaints Show Jared Kushner’s Not Exactly a Model Landlord

President Trump bashed Baltimore this weekend as a “filthy place” and a “rat and rodent infested mess” — but he might want to talk to his son-in-law about the Kushner family’s properties in the area.

Public property records show that Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner has frequently allowed Kushner Cos.' Baltimore-area apartment buildings for low-income tenants to fall into disrepair, with complaints including rat, mice, and cockroach infestations; mold; leaky ceilings; and faulty plumbing.

Through ownership of the New York-based real estate company Kushner Companies, Jared owns some 9,000 rental units across 17 properties in Maryland, at least 13 of which are in Baltimore County.

The Baltimore County government has long been aware of the poor condition of many of the Kushner Cos.' buildings. In November 2017, then-Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kemenetz announced that the properties logged some 200 violations of housing code, which all accrued just that year, he said. The county threatened to withhold federal housing subsidies from the properties, and issued $3,500 in fines against some of them for the poor conditions.

It’s true. The entire African American community has one phone. We vote on who to ring up and sing hymns while She Who Dials The Phone makes our weekly call. https://t.co/IMXT068f0s

— kat calvin (@KatCalvinLA) July 30, 2019

Outrage du jour:

The President Started His Week by Accusing Black Leaders of “Playing the Race Card”

After a weekend of attacks on Maryland Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings — Trump blamed Cummings for making Baltimore “disgusting” and “rat and rodent infested” — the president expanded his ire to include Reverend Al Sharpton on Monday morning. When Sharpton announced he was heading to Baltimore, Trump tweeted some barely veiled racism about the longtime civil rights leader.

I have known Al for 25 years. Went to fights with him & Don King, always got along well. He “loved Trump!” He would ask me for favors often. Al is a con man, a troublemaker, always looking for a score. Just doing his thing. Must have intimidated Comcast/NBC. Hates Whites & Cops! https://t.co/ZwPZa0FWfN

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2019

Just a few minutes later, he was back to bashing Baltimore. “Baltimore, under the leadership of Elijah Cummings, has the worst Crime Statistics in the Nation. 25 years of all talk, no action! So tired of listening to the same old Bull...Next, Reverend Al will show up to complain & protest. Nothing will get done for the people in need. Sad!” ...

When Trump caught heat for how he talked about Cummings and Baltimore — “better to have some vermin living in your neighborhood than to be one,” wrote the editorial board of the Baltimore Sun — he fired back that Democrats were quick to cry racism.

There is nothing racist in stating plainly what most people already know, that Elijah Cummings has done a terrible job for the people of his district, and of Baltimore itself. Dems always play the race card when they are unable to win with facts. Shame!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 28, 2019

Bernie Sanders says he’d “absolutely” use foreign aid as leverage against Israel’s government

In an interview on July 26, Vermont Senator and presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders said he would “absolutely” consider cutting military aid to Israel as leverage to change their government’s actions.

As a guest on the popular podcast Pod Save America, Sanders was questioned about his views on Israel by co-host and former Barack Obama staffer Jon Favreau:

Kamala Harris Just Dropped a “Medicare for All” Plan. Here’s How It Stacks Up to Bernie and Biden’s.

Kamala Harris is out with her version of Medicare for All — a plan that’s not as aggressive as one championed by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders but goes much further than the Obamacare tweaks proposed by former Vice President Joe Biden.

The California Democratic senator unveiled a policy proposal Monday morning that would keep a role for the private insurance industry and kick in over a much longer period than the bill proposed by Sanders. Harris’ plan would eventually replace employer-sponsored private health insurance over a ten-year phase-in period. But it would allow those companies to offer supplemental insurance, much as Medicare Advantage plans do now for current Medicare recipients. About one third of Medicare recipients have a supplemental plan.

“Medicare works. It’s popular. Seniors transition into it every day, and people keep their doctors and get care at a lower cost. Let’s not lose sight that we have a Medicare system that’s already working,” she wrote in a Medium post announcing the plan. “Now, let’s expand it to all Americans and give everyone access to comprehensive health care.

The plan keeps with Harris’ political positioning in the race: more centrist than Sanders or Warren but to the left of Biden, who she’s competing with for more economically centrist voters. Harris’s healthcare proposal would go much further than Biden’s plan, which would instead create a public health insurance option to compete with the private plans and allow Americans to buy into Medicare. Sanders’ sweeping plan has been a north star for progressives pushing for dramatic healthcare changes, while Biden has aggressively pushed back, a fight both top candidates have been eager to have.

Kamala Harris Accused of Hijacking Medicare for All Label to Push More Industry-Friendly Plan

Single-payer advocates on Monday accused Sen. Kamala Harris of hijacking the Medicare for All label to push an alternative that would fail to fundamentally overhaul America's for-profit healthcare system. Harris, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, outlined what she described as her "Medicare for All" plan in a Medium post on Monday. But the California Democrat's proposal differs significantly from the Medicare for All legislation that she co-sponsored in the Senate earlier this year.

Instead of the four-year transition proposed by that bill, introduced by 2020 Democratic contender Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Harris's plan calls for a 10-year transition. Matt Bruenig, founder of the left-wing think tank People's Policy Project, disputed the California senator's claim that extending the transition period by six years would "decrease the overall cost of the program compared to the Sanders proposal."

"In fact the opposite is true: the longer you take, the longer NHE remains unnecessarily elevated," Bruenig tweeted, referring to national health expenditures.

Harris's plan would also preserve a major role for private health insurance, which would be virtually eliminated under the Sanders legislation. "Instead of completely replacing private coverage with a government-run, single-payer system based on traditional Medicare," the New York Times reported, "Ms. Harris would allow people to choose plans modeled on Medicare Advantage, which would be run not by the government but by private insurers."

Michael Lighty, a founding fellow at the Sanders Institute think tank and an activist with the Democratic Socialists of America's Medicare for All campaign, told Common Dreams that Harris's proposal would leave intact some of the harmful components of the profit-driven status quo. ... Echoing Lighty's critique, Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) president Adam Gaffney called the reliance on private insurance the "major deficiency at the heart of Harris' healthcare plan."

RoseAnn DeMoro, a Sanders supporter and former executive director of National Nurses United, called Harris's plan "an insurance market masquerading as a health plan."

"Another market-based scheme to price gouge people and further enrich insurers," DeMoro tweeted. "You can't hijack the name Medicare for All while actually undermining it."

DCCC in 'complete chaos' as uproar over diversity intensifies

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is in full-blown turmoil. Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairwoman Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.) was set to make an unplanned trip to Washington from her district Monday amid an outcry from top black and Latino lawmakers over a lack of diversity in the campaign arm's senior management ranks. Bustos’ sudden return to D.C., just days after Congress left for a six-week-long August recess, comes as aides and lawmakers are calling for systematic changes to the DCCC, the party’s main election organ.

POLITICO reported last week that black and Hispanic lawmakers are furious with Bustos’ stewardship of the campaign arm. They say the upper echelon of the DCCC is bereft of diversity, and it is not doing enough to reach Latino voters and hire consultants of color. In addition, several of Bustos’ senior aides have left in the first six months of her tenure, including her chief of staff — a black woman — and her director of mail and polling director, both women. ...

In response to the outcry, Bustos has agreed to participate in diversity and inclusion training for DCCC employees. ...

Democratic sources said an all-staff phone call with Bustos on Saturday didn't go much better. The Illinois Democrat only “briefly” apologized for comments about her family’s racial background that had inflamed some lawmakers and DCCC employees. In response to complaints about the DCCC's diversity, she has noted that her husband is of Mexican descent, that her children are half-Mexican and that her son is marrying an African-American woman. ... [M]ultiple Democratic sources said they left Saturday's call feeling like little is actually being done to address the diversity issues that have been simmering for months, or that Bustos understands the totality of the problem.

Ethiopia plants 350m trees in a day to help tackle climate crisis

About 350m trees have been planted in a single day in Ethiopia, according to a government minister. The planting is part of a national “green legacy” initiative to grow 4bn trees in the country this summer by encouraging every citizen to plant at least 40 seedlings. Public offices have reportedly been shut down in order for civil servants to take part.

The project aims to tackle the effects of deforestation and climate change in the drought-prone country. According to the UN, Ethiopia’s forest coverage was just 4% in the 2000s, down from 35% a century earlier.

Ethiopia’s minister of innovation and technology, Dr Getahun Mekuria, tweeted estimates of the number of trees planted throughout the day. By early evening on Monday, he put the number at 353m. The previous world record for the most trees planted in one day stood at 50m, held by India since 2016.

Exterminating the Future: World Outcry Grows as Brazil Rapidly Expands Deforestation of Amazon

Philippines is deadliest country for defenders of environment

The Philippines has replaced Brazil as the most murderous country in the world for people defending their land and environment, according to research that puts a spotlight on the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.

More than three defenders were killed across the world every week in 2018, according to the annual toll by the independent watchdog Global Witness, highlighting the continued dangers facing those who stand up to miners, loggers, farmers, poachers and other extractive industries.

The latest global total of 164 deaths was down from 2017’s peak of 201, a decrease that campaigners partly put down to growing focus on the subject by indigenous groups, NGOs, the United Nations and the media.

But Global Witness said companies and governments were increasingly using non-lethal tactics to quash dissent, including criminalisation and threats, while killings remain at an alarmingly high level.

For the first time since the annual toll began in 2012, Brazil did not top the list. ... Campaigners fear last year’s decline in Brazil could be short-lived if a new phase of conflict erupts as a result of President Jair Bolsonaro’s efforts to weaken indigenous territorial rights and protections for nature reserves.

Also of Interest

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

The Dangerous Austerity Politics of the Washington Post

Pressure on Pelosi Grows as More Than 100 House Democrats Back Trump Impeachment Inquiry

Iran Won’t Let Itself Be Hemmed in by the U.S. and U.K.

Progressive Democrats vote against BDS, Palestinian rights

Russiagate as Organized Distraction

Revealed: Mueller Didn’t Interview Russiagate Originator

'People are dying': how the climate crisis has sparked an exodus to the US

Slamming Use of Poor Communities as 'Dumping Grounds' by Corporate Polluters, Jay Inslee Unveils Plan to Hold Fossil Fuel Giants Accountable

How some of the world's rarest fish dodged a California earthquake

The Iowa Circus

A Little Night Music

Otis Williams and The Charms - Burnin Lips

Otis Williams and His Charms - Gum Drop

Otis Williams and His New Group - That’s Your Mistake

Otis Williams And His Charms - Pretty Little Things Called Girls

Otis Williams - Begging To You

Otis Williams & His Charms - Gotta Get Myself Together

Otis Williams & His Charms - In Paradise

Otis Williams & The Charms - Dynamite Darling

Otis Williams & The Charms ?– I Fall To Pieces

Otis Williams & The Charms ?– Heart Of A Rose

Otis Williams & The Charms - Baby, You Turn Me On