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26 October 19
Charles Pierce | Donald Trump and William Barr Will Burn Everything Down Rather Than Surrender Power
Charles Pierce, Esquire
Pierce writes: "The news that Attorney General William Barr's worldwide snipe hunt has now been transformed from an administrative nuisance to a criminal investigation is as unsurprising as it is terrifying."
Charles Pierce, Esquire
Pierce writes: "The news that Attorney General William Barr's worldwide snipe hunt has now been transformed from an administrative nuisance to a criminal investigation is as unsurprising as it is terrifying."
excerpt:
Now, though, Barr is on active duty, spanning the globe to find corroboration of El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago's most dearly held conspiracy theories. (Italy told him to get stuffed.) And anyone who expected Barr to behave differently than he has—sabotaging the release of the Mueller Report and, now, concocting a cover story out of pure paranoid moonshine—should not be allowed to carry their own money or cut their own meat.
(By the way, I'm not inclined to give John Durham, who is the putative head of this investigation, the benefit of the doubt, either, no matter how many of his pals from the DOJ appear on TV to pump Durham's bona fides. We heard the same things about William Barr.)
But the perils in this latest twist are profound. It's become plain this week that the political defense of an indefensible presidency* is going to wreak havoc all through the government. We have had the Juicebox Meatheads crashing a closed committee hearing. We have had Senator Lindsey Graham, that reliable White House castrato, proposing a meaningless Senate resolution condemning the House investigation, and now this latest abomination. We already have branches of government at war with each other and, to be honest, that was sort of the idea behind the Constitution's structure in the first place.
Representative Adam Schiff. (photo: Erin Schaff/NYT)
Trump's Latest Attempt to Block Impeachment Inquiry Testimonies Faces a Key Court Battle
Anya van Wagtendonk, Vox
Van Wagtendonk writes: "The Trump administration has attempted to block a key witness from testifying in the impeachment inquiry by claiming 'constitutional immunity.'"
Anya van Wagtendonk, Vox
Van Wagtendonk writes: "The Trump administration has attempted to block a key witness from testifying in the impeachment inquiry by claiming 'constitutional immunity.'"
EXCERPTS:
he Trump administration has attempted to block a key witness from testifying in the impeachment inquiry by claiming “constitutional immunity.” And that witness — former deputy national security adviser Charles Kupperman — has asked a judge to rule whether his testimony can proceed as planned.
Next week, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, director for European affairs at the National Security Council, and Kathryn Wheelbarger, acting assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, are both expected to appear.
And Tim Morrison, senior director for Europe and Russia at the National Security Council, is scheduled to discuss who may have been listening in on the July 25 call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that led to the whistleblower complaint that led to the impeachment inquiry.
Morrison was referred to several times during explosive testimony last week by Bill Taylor, the acting US ambassador to Ukraine, who suggested that Trump attempted to engage in a quid pro quo exchange of military aid for a foreign investigation into the affairs of the Biden family.
The procession of testimonies from a range of current and former officials could soon include John Bolton, who served as national security adviser during Trump’s phone call with Zelenskiy. Bolton was relieved of his duties last month. Now a private citizen, Bolton would not be constrained by the White House’s efforts to limit witness testimony.
And as Vox’s Andrew Prokop wrote this week, “Given his high-level White House access, his unimpeachable Republican credentials, and his falling-out with Trump, Bolton’s testimony could be explosive.”
A patient looks over paperwork with a doctor. (photo: Craig F. Walker/Denver Post)
Under Medicare for All, You Will Never Lose Your Health Insurance Ever Again
Matt Bruenig, Jacobin
Bruenig writes: "Seventy percent of Americans oppose bosses being allowed to change or eliminate an employee's health insurance. That's our strongest case for Medicare for All - you'll never lose your health insurance again."
READ MORE
Matt Bruenig, Jacobin
Bruenig writes: "Seventy percent of Americans oppose bosses being allowed to change or eliminate an employee's health insurance. That's our strongest case for Medicare for All - you'll never lose your health insurance again."
READ MORE
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. (photo: Getty Images)
The 'AOC Effect' Is Real - and It's Helping Wean the Democrats Off Mega-Donors
Meaghan Winter, Guardian UK
Winter writes: "Earlier this month, Tiffany Caban stood on a stage in Queensbridge Park, New York City, and told roughly 26,000 Bernie Sanders supporters that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had inspired her to run for office."
Meaghan Winter, Guardian UK
Winter writes: "Earlier this month, Tiffany Caban stood on a stage in Queensbridge Park, New York City, and told roughly 26,000 Bernie Sanders supporters that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had inspired her to run for office."
EXCERPT:
In another example, last year, the Florida Democratic party decided to stop accepting funding from private prison companies. Those companies, like Geo Group, which has received multiple federal prison contracts expected to reap profits of at least $664m, have donated large sums to the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec), which pushes anti-immigrant legislation that makes it easier for Ice to arrest people, and fill their prisons, increasing their profits. A former executive director of the Florida Democratic party now works for the lobbying firm Ballard Partners, run by Trump’s top 2016 fundraiser, whose recent clients include Geo Group, an energy company that is a major Republican donor, and the government of Turkey. That the current iteration of the Florida Democratic party finally took a strong stance against private prisons because of local party activists’ demands represents a sea change.
Demands for politicians to sever ties with corporations are more popular among Americans than the Democratic party had long assumed. For years, prevailing Democratic strategists believed that they could strike a balance between the competing factions of their base and also appeal to swing voters by offering candidates perceived as centrist, as if the party could offer a median political figure that everyone would like.
If Americans don’t want political parties or candidates for office to be reliant on mega-donors, they need to know that just voting will not be enough. Ocasio-Cortez’s meteoric rise was the result of the hard work and commitment of people in the Bronx and Queens, and national strategists from groups like Justice Democrats and Brand New Congress.
While national pundits will spend the next few weeks trying to decide whether “the AOC effect” will be enough to catapult Sanders’ presidential candidacy, organizers and volunteers across the country are using Ocasio-Cortez’s example – and the example of their local candidates – as evidence that it is not naive or deluded to think that candidates can win through concentrated organizing, while advocating for policies that prioritize people over corporate donors and political machines.
Gabriela Hernandez, executive director of the nonprofit New Mexico Dream Team, holds up an image of Roxsana Hernandez, a Honduran transgender woman who died while in U.S. custody. (photo: Mary Hudetz/AP)
Immigration Officials Deleted Vital Video of a Transgender Asylum Seeker Who Died in Custody
Patrick Kelleher, PinkNews
Kelleher writes: "Roxsana Hernandez died on 25 May - just a little more than two weeks after she requested asylum in the US - from multicentric Castleman disease as a result of AIDS."
Patrick Kelleher, PinkNews
Kelleher writes: "Roxsana Hernandez died on 25 May - just a little more than two weeks after she requested asylum in the US - from multicentric Castleman disease as a result of AIDS."
EXCERPT:
Roxsana Hernández’s death was ‘entirely preventable’.
Hernández’s wrongful death claim was filed in November of last year. At the time, lawyers said she died with injuries consistent with physical abuse.
“An independent autopsy report reveals that Roxsana was shackled for a long time and very tightly, enough to cause deep bruising on her wrists,” Lynly Egyes, director of litigation for TLC said at the time.
“She also had deep bruising injuries consistent with physical abuse with a baton or asp while she was handcuffed, according to an examination of the tissue by an independent expert board-certified forensic pathologist.
“In the final days of her life, she was transferred from California to Washington to New Mexico, shackled for days on end. If she was lucky, she was given a bottle of water to drink,” Egyes continued.
“Her cause of death was dehydration and complications related to HIV. Her death was entirely preventable,” she concluded.
An ICE spokesperson denied these claims, calling them “false”. A spokesperson also told media this week that they do not comment on pending cases – but added that the absence of comment “should not be construed as agreement with or stipulation to any of the allegations”.
Chile's 'historic' protest march from above. (photo: BBC)
Chile Protests: More Than One Million Protesters Bring Santiago to a Halt
Naomi Larsson, Al Jazeera
Larsson writes: "More than one million people took to streets in the Chilean capital of Santiago on Friday afternoon, uniting in a call for huge social and political change in the country."
READ MORE
Naomi Larsson, Al Jazeera
Larsson writes: "More than one million people took to streets in the Chilean capital of Santiago on Friday afternoon, uniting in a call for huge social and political change in the country."
READ MORE
Thousands of Central American migrants making the treacherous journey to the U.S. border with Mexico are farmers escaping lands so parched by drought crops won't grow. (photo: EM)
House Democrats Set to Introduce First-of-Its-Kind Climate Refugee Bill
Alexander C. Kaufman, Grist
Kaufman writes: "House Democrats are set to introduce the first major piece of legislation to establish protections for migrants displaced by climate change, ramping up a push for a long-overdue framework for how the United States should respond to a crisis already unfolding on its shores."
Alexander C. Kaufman, Grist
Kaufman writes: "House Democrats are set to introduce the first major piece of legislation to establish protections for migrants displaced by climate change, ramping up a push for a long-overdue framework for how the United States should respond to a crisis already unfolding on its shores."
EXCERPTS:
The bill, set to be introduced by Representative Nydia Velázquez, a New York Democrat, is a companion to legislation proposed by Massachusetts Democratic Senator Ed Markey, one of the leading advocates for a Green New Deal. Its introduction in the House of Representatives marks an escalation as Democrats start to flesh out what a sweeping federal plan to eliminate emissions and prepare the country for more climate catastrophe would look like.
The 21-page proposal looks unlikely to become law while Donald Trump, who rejects climate science and slashed the country’s refugee cap to a historic low of 18,000 last month, remains president.
But the bill lays the groundwork for how a future administration could deal with what’s already forecast to be among the greatest upheavals global warming will cause.
Since 2008, catastrophic weather has displaced an average of 24 million people per year, according to data from the Swiss-based nonprofit Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre. That number could climb to anywhere from 140 million to 300 million to 1 billion by 2050. The World Bank estimated last year that climate change effects in just three regions ― sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America ― could force 143 million people to flee by the middle of the century.
Meanwhile, the exodus is already underway. Within the United States, coastal communities in Louisiana, Florida, and Alaska are abandoning their low-lying homes in search of higher ground, albeit with limited federal support. The wave of foreign migrants seeking safety in the world’s largest economy has begun lapping on U.S. shores.
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