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"When we hold peace rallies in U.S. cities we are sometimes forbidden to bring posters on wooden poles. We have to use hollow cardboard tubes to hold up our signs, because — you know — advocates of nonviolence can be so violent. Yet racist, nationalist, white supremacist agitators are allowed to bring an arsenal with which to attack the general public and counter-demonstrators! Whatever that is, it is not free speech. I’d be willing to say it’s closer to enabling terrorism. All media habits of “balance” and “even handedness” become lies when respect for rights, and blame for deaths and injuries, are based on the notion that premeditated violence and threats of violence and the carrying of weapons are not worth noticing."

-- David Swanson

News and Opinion

This is an excellent article which demonstrates how much in common centrist Democrats have with Donald Trump and how little they want the former Democratic base in their "big tent." Here are a few excerpts, but it's worth checking out the whole article.

One Has to Take Sides

President Trump made a statement from his private golf course in New Jersey. “We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides,” he said, before adding, again, “on many sides.”

The term “many sides” drew rightful scrutiny from many observers. In a confrontation between racists and anti-racists, in which a racist’s actions resulted in the death and injuries of anti-racists, it’s a strange geometry that identifies multiple equivalent sides. President Trump’s reticence betrays a reactionary bias, which comes as no surprise. But his rhetoric was not unique to him — the mainstream media and liberal intelligentsia had set the precedent. ...

Neera Tanden, president of liberal think tank Center for American Progress, turned disdainfully to her left later that day. “We have actual fascists marching with torches. Maybe everyone on the progressive side could focus on the enemies of progress in front of us,” she tweeted. “We’re ready for you to join us Neera,” one young activist responded. Tanden’s response was to ask him to condemn “those on the alt left who want to join with the fascists.” ...

This middle-of-the-road tongue-clucking appeared earlier this year, in a Vanity Fair article by James Wolcott, pointing a finger at the so-called “alt-left.” Wolcott, too, directed his condemnation at many sides. He characterized the growing radical and socialist left, formerly scorned with the more lighthearted epithet “Bernie Bro,” as something more sinister. There is a “kinship,” he claimed, between the far left and the white supremacist alt-right. They are united by “disillusionment with Obama’s presidency, loathing of Hillary Clinton, disgust with ‘identity politics,’ and a craving for a climactic reckoning that will clear the stage for a bold tomorrow.”

The torch has been carried by centrist liberals ever since.

‘Bernie Bros’ and ‘Alt-Left’ Are Propaganda Terms Meant to Disempower

This past weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia, many progressive groups that are pejoratively aligned with the “Bernie Bros” and the “Alt-Left” participated in the protests against white supremacist Nazi’s demonstrating in support of a Confederate Statue on the University of Virginia Campus. Members of the Democratic Socialists of America and the International Workers of the World were injured and one of them, Heather Heyer, lost their life. Despite this, the President of Center for American Progress Neera Tanden, and Daily Kos Founder Markos Moulitsas used the event to try to shamelessly attack the “alt-left,” and progressives, when it’s disproportionately the left rather than centrists and establishment Democrats who are individually and collectively mobilizing and organizing against fascism.

Centrists have traditionally denigrated and attacked protests, if not ignored them completely, from the Occupy Wall Street movement to the water protectors standing up to the Dakota Access pipeline, to the anti-fascists standing up against rallies and organizing of Nazi white supremacists, and the nurses and activists fighting for single-payer healthcare in California and across the country, the same purveyors of the Bernie Bros and alt-left myth were nowhere to be found. ShareBlue, a centrist propaganda outlet, didn’t run a single story on the NoDAPL protests, and Neera Tanden, Markos Moulitsas, several former Clinton staffers,and DNC Chair Tom Perez have never tweeted or otherwise mentioned the protests at all, while a militarized police and security force terrorized Native Americans and the Standing Rock Sioux reservation.

Instead of embracing movements like Black Lives Matter, Standing Rock, anti-fa, or similar organizing against racism, social injustice, and oppression, centrists have often reverted to covering for the establishment forces doing the oppressing and pushing false narratives against these movements. The “Alt-left” is a term developed to try to portray the activist left as comparable to the alt-right of neo-nazis and white supremacists, when what is defined as the “alt-left” is generally providing the strongest and most assertive opposition to the alt-right, while centrists virtue signal over civility and embrace neo-conservatives who align with alt-right policies. The alt-right, neo-cons, and centrist establishment voices are invested in disempowering and discouraging activism and protests that stand up to the status quo.

What People Are Missing About Charlottesville Protest

Protesters pull down Confederate statue at old Durham County NC courthouse

A crowd of protesters gathered outside the old Durham County courthouse on Main Street Monday evening in opposition to a Confederate monument in front of the government building.

Around 7:10 p.m. a woman using a ladder climbed the statue of a soldier and attached a rope around the statue.

Moments later, the crowd pulled on the rope and the statue fell. One man quickly ran up and spat on the statue and several others began kicking it. ...

In 1924, the Confederate statue was dedicated to Durham. Engraved on the front of the monument is “The Confederate States of America.”

NYC Protests Against Trump & Denounces a President Who Condones White Supremacy

President's first Trump Tower homecoming met with mass protest

Donald Trump was given a rude homecoming on Monday night as he returned to Trump Tower in New York City for the first time since his inauguration. More than a thousand protesters were outside the president’s home as he arrived at around 9pm. Trump’s cavalcade was booed and people chanted “shame” as he began a two-day visit as part of a self-described “working vacation”.

Spurred on by events in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend, where a woman was killed and 19 injured during a white supremacist rally, and angered by the president’s lackluster response to the tragedy, people had lined the streets to the north and south of Trump’s home for more than four hours, chanting and waving signs. Police erected hundreds of yards of metal barricades in an attempt to contain protesters, while a line of sanitation department trucks prevented access to the front of Trump Tower.

Earlier, as the president tweeted that he was “leaving for New York City”, the sidewalks outside his home were packed with protesters while shouts of “No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA”, and “Not my president” echoed down Fifth Avenue.

Ta-Nehisi Coates: Given Trump & GOP History of Racism, Violence in Charlottesville was Predictable

Backed by Police Unions, Legislators Stand by Laws to Protect Drivers Who Kill Protesters

In the aftermath of the murder of activist Heather Heyer in Charlottesville, Virginia, state legislators who had previously pushed to shield drivers who killed protesters with a moving vehicle are largely standing by their various efforts, arguing that their legislation would not have applied in this weekend’s attack.

Before the killing on Saturday, a swath of bills had been proposed around the country, largely in the South and primarily in response to Black Lives Matter and Dakota Access Pipeline related protests. The bills targeted leftist demonstrators who have increasingly shut down traffic by blocking roads and highways to bring attention to their cause.

Under the proposed laws, motorists who struck and killed such protesters would have special immunity in certain circumstances, as long as it wasn’t proven that they acted deliberately. ... None of the proposed motorist immunity bills — debated in half a dozen states and backed by far-right personalities and law enforcement interests — have been made into law. Rather than backing away from the policy in light of the events in Charlottesville, legislators are doubling down.

[See article for details and status of various state laws. - js]

Iran warns U.S.: We could be back in the nuclear game in “hours”

Iran could reconstitute its nuclear program within “hours” if the U.S. persists in pressing sanctions against the country, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in televised remarks Tuesday. Rouhani’s charged warning comes days after the U.S. approved a fresh round of economic penalties that Iran has described as a violation of its 2015 nuclear deal.

Iran’s nuclear operation would quickly advance far beyond the level it achieved when the country agreed to curtail the program in 2015, Rouhani said in an address broadcast by state-backed Press TV. That year Tehran struck its landmark deal with President Obama to limit the enrichment and stockpiling of uranium in exchange for a rollback of economic sanctions.

Iranian leaders have said the new round of U.S. sanctions signed by Donald Trump in early August in response to the country’s missile program violate the agreement, and the country’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has slammed the U.S. government as “shameless” for enacting them.

We Can Stop North Korea From Attacking Us. All We Have to Do Is Not Attack Them.

North Korea is not going to launch a first strike on America or its allies with nuclear weapons. To understand this, you don’t need to know anything about the history of U.S.-North Korea relations, or the throw weight of intercontinental ballistic missiles, or even where North Korea is. All you need to know is human history. And history says that small, poor, weak countries tend not to start wars with gigantic, wealthy, powerful countries — especially when doing so will obviously result in their obliteration.

So what exactly is the “crisis” involving North Korea?

The answer is simple: We’re not worried that we can’t deter North Korea. We’re worried because a North Korea that can plausibly strike the U.S. with nuclear weapons will likely be able to deter us from doing whatever we want. For example, we might not be able to invade North Korea. ...

And we’re not just talk: Iraq and Libya both surrendered their unconventional military capacity, and we then invaded them. North Korea’s rulers definitely noticed that and have clearly explained why they have no intention of following Saddam Hussein and Moammar Gadhafi into oblivion. ...

So let’s concentrate on the good news: We definitely have it in our power to prevent North Korea from using its nuclear weapons on us. All we have to do is not attack them first.

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists rains on the scaremongering newsmedia's parade:

North Korea’s “not quite” ICBM can’t hit the lower 48 states

On July 3, 2017, while Americans were preparing for the 241st celebration of the Declaration of Independence, a lone rocket rose from North Korea on a near-vertical trajectory. ... The launch occurred at 8:39 p.m., United States’ Eastern time. Within hours, the news of the launch was trumpeted by the US mainstream press: North Korea had flown an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), a missile that could carry nuclear warheads to Anchorage, Alaska, and to the continental United States as well!

But the Western press apparently did not know one crucial fact: The rocket carried a reduced payload and, therefore, was able to reach a much higher altitude than would have been possible if it had instead carried the weight associated with the type of first-generation atomic bomb North Korea might possess. Experts quoted by the press apparently assumed that the rocket had carried a payload large enough to simulate the weight of such an atomic bomb, in the process incorrectly assigning a near-ICBM status to a rocket that was in reality far less capable.

Only three and a half weeks later, on July 28, there was a second launch of the same type of missile, this time at night, Korean time. The rocket flew approximately the same powered flight trajectory that it had on July 3 (or July 4 in North Korea), this time, however, reaching a higher altitude—a reported 3,725 kilometers. This longer flight path led to yet more unwarranted conclusions that the continental United States was now directly under threat of nuclear attack by North Korea. Actually, however, in this second case, by our calculations, the second stage of the so-called ICBM carried an even smaller payload and tumbled into the atmosphere at night over the Sea of Japan. The spectacular night-reentry of the rocket—what was almost certainly the heavy front-end of the nearly empty upper stage—created an impressive meteoric display that some experts mistook for the breakup of a failed warhead reentry vehicle.

From the point of view of North Korean political leadership, the general reaction to the July 4 and July 28 launches could not have been better. The world suddenly believed that the North Koreans had an ICBM that could reach the West Coast of the United States and beyond. But calculations we have made—based on detailed study of the type and size of the rocket motors used, the flight times of the stages of the rockets, the propellant likely used, and other technical factors—indicate that these rockets actually carried very small payloads that were nowhere near the weight of a nuclear warhead of the type North Korea could have, or could eventually have. These small payloads allowed the rockets to be lofted to far higher altitudes than they would have if loaded with a much-heavier warhead, creating the impression that North Korea was on the cusp of achieving ICBM capability.

Kim Jong Un says he’ll wait on “foolish Yankees” to make next move

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said Tuesday that he will wait and see what the “foolish Yankees” do next before following through on plans to fire four missiles at Guam, warning that if the U.S. continues its “extremely dangerous reckless actions,” the strike would go ahead. ...

While the war of words between Washington and Pyongyang shows few signs of slowing, in Seoul, South Korean President Moon Jae In issued his own warning to the U.S. “Military action on the Korean peninsula can only be decided by South Korea and no one else can decide to take military action without the consent of South Korea,” the Korean president said. Moon vowed to “prevent war at all costs.” ...

On Tuesday, state-run KCNA news agency reported that Kim had inspected his military’s plans to attack Guam, saying: “If the Yankees persist in their extremely dangerous reckless actions on the Korean peninsula and in its vicinity, testing the self-restraint of the DPRK, the latter will make an important decision as it already declared.”

Such provocation may come on August 21, when the U.S. and South Korea begin massive military exercises in the region.

Korean leaders, US open door to diplomacy in nuclear crisis

North Korea’s military on Tuesday presented leader Kim Jong Un with plans to launch missiles into waters near Guam and “wring the windpipes of the Yankees,” even as both Koreas and the United States signaled their willingness to avert a deepening crisis, with each suggesting a path toward negotiations.

The tentative interest in diplomacy follows unusually combative threats between President Donald Trump and North Korea amid worries Pyongyang is nearing its long-sought goal of being able to send a nuclear missile to the U.S. mainland. Next week’s start of U.S.-South Korean military exercises that enrage the North each year could make diplomacy even more difficult. ...

The missile plans were previously announced. Kim said North Korea would conduct the launches if the “Yankees persist in their extremely dangerous reckless actions on the Korean Peninsula and its vicinity,” warning the United States to “think reasonably and judge properly” to avoid shaming itself, the news agency said.

The Trump administration had no immediate comments on Kim’s declaration.

“We continue to be interested in trying to find a way to get to dialogue, but that’s up to him,” U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters in Washington on Tuesday.

Wilkerson: Trump Has No Business Threatening Venezuela

Military Control of the Civilian: It’s Opposite Day in America

It’s becoming increasingly difficult for Americans to recall that civilian leaders are supposed to command and control the military, not vice-versa.  Consider an article posted yesterday at Newsweek with the title, TRUMP’S GENERALS CAN SAVE THE WORLD FROM WAR—AND STOP THE CRAZY.  The article extols the virtues of “Trump’s generals”: James Mattis as Secretary of Defense, John Kelly as White House Chief of Staff, and H.R. McMaster as National Security Adviser.  The article presents them as the adults in the room, the voices of calm and reason, a moderating force on a bombastic and bellicose president.

I’ve written about Trump’s generals already at TomDispatch.com and elsewhere.  The latest gushing tribute to America’s generals at Newsweek illustrates a couple of points that bear repeating.  First, you don’t hire generals to rein in a civilian leader, or at least you shouldn’t if you care to keep a semblance of democracy in America.  Second, lifelong military officers favor military solutions to problems.  That’s precisely why you want civilians to control them, and to counterbalance their military advice.  Only in a democracy that is already crippled by creeping militarism can the rise of generals to positions of power be celebrated as a positive force for good.

Leaked Emails: Saudi Power Behind the Throne “Wants Out of Yemen”

The key Saudi official in charge of the catastrophic ongoing war in Yemen wants it to stop, he told two influential foreign policy figures in Washington this spring. Mohammed bin Salman, a member of the Saudi royal family who effectively rules the country, made the comments to Martin Indyk and Stephen Hadley. Indyk was a high-level diplomat during both the Clinton and Obama administrations and Hadley a top adviser to former President George W. Bush.

Indyk relayed the conversation to Yousef Al Otaiba, the United Arab Emirates ambassador to the United States, and the man most responsible for aiding bin Salman’s rise in Washington. ...

The messages between Indyk and Otaiba, first reported Monday by the Middle East Eye, were obtained independently by The Intercept. The exchange was discovered in a cache of correspondence pilfered by hackers from Otaiba’s Hotmail account, which he used regularly for official business.

Bin Salman’s comments are a ray of hope that with proper diplomacy, a peaceful end to the conflict in Yemen could be reached, though it runs up against an eternal foreign policy conundrum: how to enable a better-resourced, more powerful aggressor to withdraw from a conflict without explicitly admitting defeat.

Australia accuses New Zealand opposition of trying to bring down government

Australia and New Zealand have become embroiled in an extraordinary diplomatic spat over claims the New Zealand opposition colluded with the Australian Labor party (ALP) in an attempt “to try and bring down the government”. During a febrile day of politics in both countries, Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, said New Zealand’s opposition party was threatening the stability of a usually robust partnership between the two nations. ...

Her comments came only 24 hours after it was revealed that Australia’s deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, held New Zealand citizenship and may be ineligible to sit in parliament under the Australian constitution, which disqualifies dual nationals.

Malcolm Turnbull’s government currently commands a majority of one seat in the House of Representatives. But Australia’s ruling coalition has now accused the opposition Labor party of planting a question in the New Zealand parliament in order to extract the information about Joyce’s nationality. Australian government minister Christopher Pyne accused the ALP of being part of a conspiracy to bring down the government. “Clearly the Labor party are involved in a conspiracy using a foreign government, in this case New Zealand, to try and bring down the Australian government,” he said.

The New Zealand Labour leader, Jacinda Ardern, has hit back at the criticism, accusing the Australian government of spreading lies.

Americans' debt level notches a new record high

Americans' debt level notched another record high in the second quarter, after having earlier in the year surpassed its pre-crisis peak, on the back of modest rises in mortgage, auto and credit card debt, where delinquencies jumped.

The proportion of overall debt that was delinquent, at 4.8 percent, was on par with the previous quarter. However a red flag was raised over the transitions of credit card balances into delinquency, which according to a Federal Reserve Bank of New York report published on Tuesday, "ticked up notably." ...

"The current state of credit card delinquency flows can be an early indicator of future trends and we will closely monitor the degree to which this uptick is predictive of further consumer distress," Andrew Haughwout, an in-house economist, said.

US government demands details on all visitors to anti-Trump protest website

The US government is seeking to unmask every person who visited an anti-Trump website in what privacy advocates say is an unconstitutional “fishing expedition” for political dissidents. The warrant appears to be an escalation of the Department of Justice’s (DoJ) campaign against anti-Trump activities, including the harsh prosecution of inauguration day protesters.

On 17 July, the DoJ served a website-hosting company, DreamHost, with a search warrant for every piece of information it possessed that was related to a website that was used to coordinate protests during Donald Trump’s inauguration. The warrant covers the people who own and operate the site, but also seeks to get the IP addresses of 1.3 million people who visited it, as well as the date and time of their visit and information about what browser or operating system they used.

The website, www.disruptj20.org, was used to coordinate protests and civil disobedience on 20 January, when Trump was inaugurated. “This specific case and this specific warrant are pure prosecutorial overreach by a highly politicized department of justice under [Attorney General Jeff] Sessions,” said Chris Ghazarian, general counsel for DreamHost. “You should be concerned that anyone should be targeted simply for visiting a website.”

The warrant was made public Monday, when DreamHost announced its plans to challenge the government in court. The DoJ declined to comment. A hearing is scheduled for Friday.

Critics Condemn Trump Administration's "Assault on America's Water Resources"

Scientists and environmentalists are condemning the Trump administration for waging war on regulations that aim to preserve U.S. water resources.

"Candidate and now President Donald Trump claimed he'd work to promote clean water. This claim has proven to be hollow," Peter Gleick, a member of the U.S. National Academy of Science and president-emeritus of Pacific Institute, wrote in an op-ed published by the Guardian on Monday.

Gleick characterized the administration's actions as "an assault on America's water resources."

"Since taking office, the president, administration officials, and the Republican-led Congress have moved aggressively to roll back decades of water-quality protections put in place by previous Republican and Democratic administrations," Gleick wrote, outlining Republican efforts to remove various provisions, including the Waters of the United States rule (WOTUS), also called the Clean Water Rule, which intends to protect the drinking water of millions of Americans.

"These moves benefit industrial polluters rather than local communities, hinder progress toward cleaning up contaminated water and deteriorating ecosystems, and worsen public health risks," he wrote, calling on more scientists and members of the public to speak out against the administration's efforts to remove clean water regulations.

"We've come a long way from the era of unregulated dumping of chemicals in our streams, burning rivers, and dying ecosystems," Gleick added. "But the Republican Party is moving rapidly to become the party of dirty water."

The Trump Administration Rolls Back Anti-Corruption Efforts in the Oil Industry

In February, in one of its first acts of lawmaking, the Trump Administration, with the Republican-controlled Congress, rescinded a pending Securities and Exchange Commission rule that would have required oil companies to disclose details of their payments to international governments in connection with oil and gas production.

The rule, which was mandated by a law co-sponsored by former Republican Senator Richard Lugar, of Indiana, and Democratic Senator Ben Cardin, of Maryland, was designed to combat bribery and corruption, especially in poor countries governed by kleptocrats. Thirty other countries, including Canada and the members of the European Union, had already adopted similar requirements. Yet the American Petroleum Institute and companies such as ExxonMobil, at the time when Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was still its C.E.O., had lobbied against the rule. They said that it was costly to implement and gave unfair advantage to overseas competitors to which it did not apply. When Trump took power, the lobbyists got their way.

A month later, Trump’s Interior Department signalled that the Administration would also withdraw from a certification process of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. The E.I.T.I. is another corruption-fighting effort in the oil and mining sectors that involves governments, corporations, and civil-society groups. The United States officially endorsed the initiative, in 2004, because the George W. Bush Administration believed that it could promote better governance worldwide. ...

President Trump frequently talks about repudiating Obama Administration regulations and “bad deals,” but in some fields of international policy he is moving with equal conviction to tear up programs promoting democracy and human rights that were embraced by the Bush Administration and congressional Republican internationalists such as Lugar. In effect, Trump’s nationalism and the example of his own indifference to ethics and financial disclosure risk incentivizing corruption abroad.

Also of Interest

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

Holocausts R Us

Fearful Villagers See the U.S. Using Afghanistan as a “Playground for Their Weapons”

How Obama, Trump Had Their Wings Clipped

Hillary Clinton Promised Wars, Too

Why Are Syrian Refugees Running Back To This Evil Dictator Who Likes To Kill Them?

Pence: Failed State Venezuela a Threat to US

Corporate Media Continues to Pump Out Fake News on Wall Street Crash of 2008

Top 10 Misconceptions About Charlottesville

A Little Night Music

Mercy Dee - Betty Jean

Mercy Dee Walton - Pity And A Shame

Mercy Dee - Mercy's Party

Mercy Dee And Lady Fox - Get to gettin'

Mercy Dee Walton - Trailing My Baby

Mercy Dee - Five Card Hand

Mercy Dee - Red Light

Mercy Dee Walton - Dark Muddy Bottom

Mercy Dee - Fall Guy

Mercy Dee - My Woman Knows the Score

Mercy Dee - Oh Oh Please

Mercy Dee Walton - Eighth Wonder Of The World

Mercy Dee - Come Back Maybellene