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Russia Monitor: Tyrannical Moves By Tyrant Trump

  By Dan Peak The Commoner Call. (11/22/18) Dear Fellow Readers, Trump believes he is above the law. Despite his shady conduct during the campaign and his often illegal behavior in the White House, so far he’s right. Will that last, will history have him as above the law? What does a single day in the Trump White House look like? In order of breaking news: 1) Trump dismisses the findings of his CIA to side with Saudi Arabia over their murder of journalist and US resident Jamal Khashoggi;  2) Trump adviser and daughter Ivanka Trump illegally (based on GOP…


We’ve Settled For A Shallow, Pallid Conception Of Democracy. And That’s Dangerous

Real freedom must be understood as freedom from both public and private coercion – a point that has been utterly forgotten by so-called libertarians, conservatives and even most neoliberals. By Tim Wu The Guardian (11/19/18) Over the last several decades, many in the west have come to accept a remarkably narrow concept of what the economy and a democracy are for. The economy exists to make us rich, or at least pay the bills. It’s thought to be working when the stock market and the GDP rise. Democracy is voting for someone who is “on your side”. The two are…


Documenting Hate: New American Nazis

  Frontline / ProPublica (11/20/18) In the wake of the deadly anti-Semitic attack at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, FRONTLINE and ProPublica present a new investigation into white supremacist groups in America – in particular, a neo-Nazi group, Atomwaffen Division, that has actively recruited inside the U.S. military. Continuing FRONTLINE and ProPublica’s reporting on violent white supremacists in the U.S. (which has helped lead to multiple arrests), this joint investigation shows the group’s terrorist objectives and how it gained strength after the 2017 Charlottesville rally. [Watch the first documentary in this series, August 2018’s Documenting Hate: Charlottesville, online.] Link to 54-Minute Video…


Nazis Are Gearing Up Secretive Paramilitary Training Across America

One thing stands out: The Base’s posts are largely designed to promote violent action. By Ben Makuch & Mack Lamoureux VICE (11/20/18) A neo-Nazi who goes by the alias Norman Spear has launched a project to unify online fascists and link that vast coalition of individuals into a network training new soldiers for a so-called forthcoming “race war.” Spear, who claims to be an Iraq and Afghan war veteran, is a self-proclaimed white nationalist with a significant online following. His latest act involves bringing neo-Nazis together, regardless of affiliation and ideology, into a militant fascist umbrella organization. His tool for doing this? A social network…


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Why America? Gun Culture, Mass Shootings & White Nationalism Share Deep Cultural Roots

  “Capitalism tends to become fascism when it no longer has something to really offer most of the people.” Empire Files (11/12/18) Since October 2017, America experienced three of the deadliest mass shootings in modern history. This epidemic coincides with a frightening resurgence of white nationalism. Sometimes the two trends overlap. But why here? Both phenomena can be explained by a common historical thread—to unravel it Abby Martin sits down with indigenous scholar Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz to discuss her latest book “Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment”. Empire Files is now produced by your donations! Keep us going on…


When It Comes To The War Over Words Republicans Easily Defeat The Democrats

  By Ralph Nader Common Dreams (11/15/18) The Republican Party lost ground in the Congressional and state elections earlier this month, but they continue to triumph in the all-important contests over words. Republicans have been winning the “war over words” for years. First, the hard core political right wingers symbolically claimed the Bible and the American flag, turning them upside down. To them the Bible meant anything but the Golden Rule and compassion for the “poor,” so frequently noted in the Scriptures. They brandished the flag as a patriotic symbol to gag dissent, as a bandanna for waging war crimes, and…


Really Want To Save The Climate & Heal The Planet? Break Up The Big Banks

  By Oscar Reyes Inequality.org (11/9/18) A stark new United Nations climate report warns that humans have about 12 years to slash global emissions by nearly half. Unfortunately, that’s going to be extremely challenging without deep changes to the global financial system. Despite regularly claiming new commitments to “green finance,” the big banks continue to lend billions to the fossil fuel industry every year—including for the most extreme climate-damaging activities, like exploiting tar sands oils and burning coal. Continuing to invest in fossil fuels goes against all of the evidence about what needs to be done to tackle climate change. An…


The Poisoned Soil From Which The Toxic Weeds Of Fascism Creep

“Ever since Plato and Aristotle wrote on the topic, political theorists have known that democracy cannot flourish on soil poisoned by inequality…the resentments bred by such divisions are tempting targets for demagogues…Dramatic inequality poses a mortal danger to the shared reality required for a healthy liberal democracy…[such] inequality breeds delusions that mask reality, undermining the possibility of joint deliberation to solve society’s divisions. (pp.76-77) ***** “Under conditions of stark economic inequality, when the benefits of liberal education, and the exposure to diverse cultures and norms are available only to the wealthy few, liberal tolerance can be smoothly represented as elite…


Shameless Barack von Obamenburg, Herr Donald & Bipartisan Capitalist Hypocrisy: On How Fascism Happens

“One of the first things we must get rid of is the idea that democracy is tantamount to capitalism.”  — Eleanor Roosevelt By Paul Street CounterPunch (11/16/18) Caravan of Lies Never underestimate the disingenuousness of top U.S.-American politicos.   They truly have no shame. Notice how little the fascistic president Donald Trump has to say any more about the big bad Central American Caravan that was supposedly menacing the United States with a great criminal “invasion”? The U.S. military “heroes” sent down at great taxpayer expense to “defend our border” will be missing Thanksgiving with their families thanks to this fake…


Chris Hedges: Late Stage Capitalism Is Killing America

“We have to overthrow this system. We have to begin to think in revolutionary terms. These people have to go because we can’t afford to endure much more of their destruction; not only what they are doing to human beings but the ecocide they are carrying out.” Link to 35-Minute Video   ***** Chris Hedges On The Rise Of The Corporate Class & The Call To Resistance Link to 27-Minute Video ***** “The capitalist who does no useful work has the economic power to take from a thousand or ten thousand workingmen all they produce, over and above what is…


A Staggeringly Bad Idea’: Outrage As Pelosi Pushes Tax Rule That Would Kneecap The Progressive Agenda’

“This is a very bad idea, House Democrats. It makes no sense whatsoever to give Republicans veto power over progressive legislation.” By Jake Johnson Common Dreams (11/16/18) Nearly three-quarters of the American public and a historic number of Democratic lawmakers support Medicare for All, but the House Democratic leadership is considering using its newly won majority to impose a rule that would “recklessly betray” the grassroots forces that put them in power by making single-payer and other progressive priorities impossible to enact. According to a list of Democratic proposals obtainedby the Washington Post, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)—who is currently fighting back against efforts to prevent her from becoming…


Crass Criminals, Chislers, Cheats & Scammers: The American Ruling Class Give Each Other Awards

George W. Bush Started An Immoral War And Is Receiving The Now Besmirched ‘Liberty Medal’ By Will Bunch Philly.com (11/8/18) At least the timing is exquisite. Former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, are coming to Philadelphia on Sunday night to receive the National Constitution Center’s much-ballyhooed Liberty Medal, which is supposed to be earmarked for leaders “who have strived to secure the blessings of liberty to people around the globe.” This Veterans Day also marks the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I — the massive and utterly pointless global conflagration that killed tens of millions and alienated an…


Just What Is It We Believe In?

“At some point a great country has to have a great animating principle. And somewhere along the line we mistook materialism for our great animating principle. We’re gonna make so much money, have so many successes – and that isn’t enough, as we know, as human beings. So the way that philosophy or spiritual life got out of our animating principle is interesting. I think [nothing will change] until the country says: ‘Actually, we do believe in a big, moral and ethical principle.’” — Novelist George Saunders, ‘A lot of my extended family are Trump supporters’   *****   “They…


Doctors Call Out Medical Lobby’s Donations To Pro-Gun Politicians

  By Alex Yablon The Trace (11/16/18) For the past two weeks, the National Rifle Association has raged at doctors in a very public feud over the place of physicians in the national gun debate, and doctors have been happy to hit back. At the same time, another quieter battle is brewing within the medical profession over just how far doctors should go to fight for stronger gun laws. After the American College of Physicians published a position paperdemanding government action on gun laws, the NRA issued a now-infamous tweet telling “self-important anti-gun doctors to stay in their lane.” Outraged doctors railed against…


Thoughts & Prayers! Budget Crisis Forces The NRA To Kill Off Free Coffee For Employees

  By Mike Spies & John Cook The Trace (11/15/18) The National Rifle Association is doing away with free coffee and water coolers for employees at its Fairfax, Virginia, headquarters — a cost-cutting move that has NRA insiders “freaking out,” The Trace has learned. “The whole building was freaking out,” said one former employee who remains in contact with current staffers. Three other sources familiar with the gun group’s operations confirmed the story to The Trace. The coffee cutback is the just latest indication that the NRA is hurting for cash. Membership revenue declined by $35 million last year, and the NRA…


The Facebook Dilemma: A Two-Part PBS ‘Frontline’ Investigation

  Frontline / PBS (10/29/18) The promise of Facebook was to create a more open and connected world. But from the company’s failure to protect millions of users’ data, to the proliferation of “fake news” and disinformation, mounting crises have raised the question: Is Facebook more harmful than helpful? On Monday, Oct. 29, and Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2018, FRONTLINE presents The Facebook Dilemma. This major, two-night event investigates a series of warnings to Facebook as the company grew from Mark Zuckerberg’s Harvard dorm room to a global empire. With dozens of original interviews and rare footage, The Facebook Dilemma examines the powerful social media platform’s impact on…


Russia Monitor: Trumplandia Battening Down For The Worst

  “His 3-hour workday is about to go bye-bye” — CNN conservative reveals how Trump prepping for ‘rectal exam’ from House Dems By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (11/19/18) Dear Fellow Readers, Because it’s too good, and with the help of a Commoner Call reader, we use the above headline from a RawStory article to summarize the current Trump-Russia corruption climate. “It’s about to get harder without Republicans controlling all the levers his three-hour workday is about to go bye-bye,” she said (CNN S.E. Cupp). “With Democrats retaking the House, the next two years will be the equivalent of a…


Due Process Be Damned: Assange Will Never Get A Fair Trial In The US

By John Kiriakou Reader Supported News (11/17/18) An assistant U.S. attorney in the federal Eastern District of Virginia on November 16 accidentally revealed that Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange has been charged with unspecified federal crimes; those charges have been sealed. The disclosure came in an unrelated terrorism and child pornography case. In response to a media inquiry, the assistant U.S. attorney asked a judge to keep Assange’s charges sealed, saying, “Due to the sophistication of the defendant, and the publicity surrounding the case, no other procedure is likely to keep confidential the fact that Assange has been charged.… The charges need to…


Modern Day Slavery Survivors: The High Price Of Bargain Prices

  It’s our addiction to cheap goods and services that is, indirectly, putting these men into slavery. Assignment / BBC (11/17/18) Modern slaves are all around us and many of them are men. They work in factories and private homes, unseen and unheard. Zita Adamson tells the stories of some of these men as they arrive at the UK’s first safe house for male victims of modern slavery. She spent a year recording at the safe house, talking to men like Mo who ran away from a refugee camp in Bangladesh, only to be trafficked to London as a domestic…


This Should Be Fun! Richard Ojeda, West Virginia Lawmaker Who Backed Teachers Strike Will Run For President

“The filthy rich convinced the dirt poor [that] the filthy rich are the ones who care. We need someone in Washington, D.C., who’s going to be a voice for these people.” By Ryan Grim The Intercept (11/11/18) RICHARD OJEDA IS running for president. Ojeda, a West Virginia state senator and retired U.S. Army major, lost his congressional bid in the state’s 3rd District on Tuesday, but saw the largest swing of Trump voters toward Democrats in any district around the country — overperforming 2016 by more than 35 points. Still, in a district that Donald Trump carried by 49 points, Ojeda, who rose to prominence…


TYT’s Cenk Uygur Destroys Mainstream Media News & The So-Called Liberal Democrats At The National Press Club

Young Turks: Cenk takes the DC dems & mainstream media on a much-needed trip to the woodshed! “This whole town is corrupt. This whole town is toxic.” [Editor’s Note: Watch how the National Press Club president just can’t take it! — Mark L. Taylor] wwwMOXNEWScom (10/26/18) Cenk Uygur, host of “The Young Turks,” joined the National Press Club for a discussion on the role of digital media in the progressive movement. He spoke about the differences between legacy media and digital media, which he said was more honest, effective and relatable due to its populist roots. Mr. Uygur talked about the…


Courageous Groups Of Fact Checkers Defending Online Truth

  The Why Factor / BBC (11/12/18) Fake News – sometimes it’s obvious to spot, other times it requires more thoughtful investigation. That’s a fact checker’s job; dedicated researchers trying to flesh out what is true and what is not in the deluge of information we see every day. In 2015 the International Fact Checking Network was established to give strength to this small but dedicated group. It now has 62 verified signatories. In this episode of the Why Factor on the BBC World Service, Sandra Kanthal speaks with fact checkers from Turkey, the Philippines and Brazil; to find out…


The Deadly Desert Of Our National Soul: From Internment To Disappearance

As more and more souls simply vanish, the true scale of this expanding tragedy is unknown. By Sophie Smith NACLA (11/8/18) Nine miles inside the United States, in the vast quiet of the saguaro-studded Sonoran Desert, half a dozen plainclothes Border Patrol agents in bulletproof vests shove a handcuffed 15-year old Salvadoran boy into the back of an unmarked vehicle. The skin of the earth bakes to 117°F. Two miles to the west, a Black Hawk helicopter chases a group of teenagers migrating through rural ranchlands, flying low to kick a brown cloud of dust, cacti, and gravel 20 feet…


Russia Monitor: Trumplandia In Meltdown? A Thunderdome Of Backstabbing & Nasty Rumor

  By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (11/15/18) Dear Fellow Readers, It’s been a relatively quiet news cycle since Trump rage-tweeted his way to France and back. Filling the void has been a drip-drip of new Dem election victories as close races are decided. One that won our nomination for most notable was: Democrat Kyrsten Sinema Wins Arizona Senate Race, Flipping Second GOP Seat. Regardless of who won, Arizona was going to have its first female Senator. Kyrsten Sinema’s opponent was Republican Martha McSally who embraced Trump through the election, but unlike Florida Republican Senate candidate Rick Scott, she and state…


WTH? As Jeff Bezos Earns $191,000 Per MINUTE, Why Are NY & VA Handing Over $3 Billion In Corporate Welfare To Amazon?

Democracy Now (11/14/18) Amazon has selected a pair of cities to host its new, expanded headquarters: Crystal City in Arlington, Virginia, and Long Island City in Queens, New York. Amazon’s decision came after a 14-month search that saw cities around the U.S. promise tax breaks, taxpayer-funded infrastructure and business-friendly ordinances in an effort to win what Amazon says will be $5 billion in new investment and thousands of jobs. Democratic Virginia Governor Ralph Northam called the Amazon headquarter “a big win for Virginia,” and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has similarly applauded Amazon’s decision. But many local politicians…


Amazon Echo Home Recordings At Center Of Murder Trial As Judge Orders Data Release

  By Nicholas West Activist Post (11/13/18) A new type of court case has been slowly but steadily emerging within the American legal system: alleged crimes being detected from data supplied by smart devices. The very nature of the 1st, 4th and 5th Amendments to the Constitution appears to be at stake. In December 2016, an Arkansas murder case made headlines not so much for the death itself, but how a suspect was brought into custody. James Bates hosted a party at his Bentonville home on the night of November 21st, 2015. At some point during the event a man drowned in…


Painting Himself & His Followers As Poor Put-Upon Victims, Trump Wields Old Trick From Fascist Playbook

  By Timothy Snyder The Guardian (10/30/18) he governing principle of the Trump administration is total irresponsibility, a claim of innocence from a position of power, something which happens to be an old fascist trick. As we see in the president’s reactions to American rightwing terrorism, he will always claim victimhood for himself and shift blame to the actual victims. As we see in the motivations of the terrorists themselves, and in the long history of fascism, this maneuver can lead to murder. The Nazis claimed a monopoly on victimhood. Mein Kampf includes a lengthy pout about how Jews and other non-Germans…


Practical Advice For Life In Our Modern America: What Experts Want You To Know About Being Caught In An Active Shooter Situation

No one should ever have to prepare for a mass shooting, but these safety tips might save your life. By Nicole Pajer Huffpost (11/9/18) It’s a dreadful reality of living in America right now that there are, and likely will be more, mass shootings. Though it may be impossible to predict where and when they’ll occur ― and the odds are very small that you’ll encounter one ― security experts have some basic safety tips that can help you prepare for the unlikely but horrific situation. “During an active shooter situation, it is estimated that law enforcement response time may…


Scott Walker Tried To Get Me Fired. Now He’s The One Out Of A Job

    By Emma Roller HuffPost (11/8/18) In the fall of 2011, I was an unemployed recent journalism school graduate in a country still clawing its way back from recession. At a family reunion, my grandma pulled out a piece of paper with a list of signatures — signatures required to trigger a recall election against Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), who’d just inspired massive protests by ramming through a bill that stripped public sector employees of their right to bargain collectively. She asked me to sign the recall petition, and I did. Beneath his corn-fed, “aw shucks” facade, Walker…


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AUDIO: Michael Beschloss Speaks About American ‘Presidents At War’

  Westminster Town Forum / Minnesota Public Radio (11/13/18) Michael Beschloss is the award-winning author of nine books on presidential history. He is the presidential historian for NBC News and a contributor to PBS NewsHour. A graduate of Williams College and Harvard Business School, he served as a historian for the Smithsonian Institution, as a Senior Associate Member at St. Antony’s College, Oxford, and as a Senior Fellow of the Annenberg Foundation. His books on the presidency include, among others, The Crisis Years: Kennedy and Khrushchev, 1960-1963; The Conquerors: Roosevelt, Truman, and the Destruction of Hitler’s Germany; and Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and…


The Real Midterms Winners: Gerrymandering, Voter Suppression & Lack Of Ballot Box Defense

“The GOP’s long game of gerrymandering districts and using the courts to undermine easy access to voting will continue to come into play as their message shrinks to its bigoted and maniacal base.” — Keeanga-Yahmatta Taylor ***** From In These Times (11/7/18) Rick Perlstein, historian and author of The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan The reporting of the election returns coming on Tuesday was surreally and tragically incomplete. We hung on every word in down-to-the-wire races. In Florida, the governor and Senate races were supposedly decided by something like 51,000 votes and 20,000 votes out…


John Nichols: Tony Evers Won Running On The Tradition Of The Wisconsin Idea

Statue of Robert “Fightng Bob” La Follette in the State Capitol. By John Nichols The Capital Times (11/11/18) The explanation for why Tony Evers defeated Gov. Scott Walker in Tuesday’s election is not complicated. Evers sought the governorship as a champion of the Wisconsin Idea. This distinguished him from Walker, who in 2015 got caught trying to eliminate the state’s historic commitment to invest in higher education, research, science and public service. The roots of the Wisconsin Idea go back to the beginning of the 20th century, when then-Gov. Robert M. La Follette and University of Wisconsin President Charles Van…


Russia Monitor: With Dems Taking Over The House Someone Appears To Be Getting Pretty Nervous

“Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism. Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism. By saying “our interests first”…. we erase what a nation hold dearest…its Moral Values.” — French President Macron at Armistice celebration with Trump seated before him, Nov. 11, 2018.   By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (11/12/18) Dear Fellow Readers, With a sigh of relief from the election results and opinions that there is a safe path for special counsel Mueller’s Trump-Russia corruption investigation, we can go forward. Trump took a few days off from his presumptive role as Secretary of State for Georgia, Florida and Arizona…


Bernie Opens Up About New Democrats In Congress & Taking On Trumpism

A conversation with the Vermont senator, who wants liberals to be able to “walk and chew gum at the same time” when it comes to the president. By Matt Taibbi Rolling Stone (11/ mid all the drama of the 2018 midterms, Vermont’s Bernie Sanders cruised to re-election Tuesday night, securing a third term in the Senate with an easy 66.1 percent of the vote. In a year in which longtime Senate incumbents on both sides of the aisle were either unseated or faced stiff challenges, Sanders continued a tradition dating back to his House days of winning too easily to make headlines….


Reforming The Message: Beto O’Rourke’s Biggest Blind Spot Cost Him Texas. Democrats, Take Note

  By Lawrence Lessing The Guardian (11/11/18) Yet just below the surface of these moderate gains hides a truth that the Democrats need to understand – and quickly. There is a clear model for victory going forward. It is not the model being promoted by the most active and vocal Democrats just now. According to the most progressive, the formula for a blue wave is for Democrats everywhere to become more bold and more progressive. The weakness of the party, this faction insists, is that it isn’t extreme enough. What would guarantee victory, these sorts say, is a stronger and more vibrant…


Neither Republicans Nor Democrats Are Up To The Massive Challenges We Face

By Sarah van Gelder HuffPost (11/8/18) The midterm elections are over. Women won historic gains in the House, which Democrats now appear to be on track to control. Voters in three red states ― Idaho, Nebraska and Utah ― approved expanding Medicaid, a repudiation of GOP efforts to discredit government run health care. And voters in Florida approved a measure giving ex-felons the right to vote ― one of the most significant expansions of voting rights in decades. The most expensive midterm election in U.S. history fired up people on all sides, including many young people who went all out to put…


Good News/Bad News: As Blue Wave Sweeps In More Corporate Democrats, Election Is A Serious Wake Up Call For Progressives

[Editor’s Note: There was something about the coding from the original source that prevented proper paragraph spacing. If this is hard to read you can link to the original below. — Mark L. Taylor] Movement For A People’s Party (11/7/18) Since 2016, energized progressives have sought to break the cycle that has seen power swing between establishment politicians in the Democratic and Republican parties for decades. After disappointing results in New Jersey and Virginia in 2017, the 2018 midterms offered another test of the progressive movement’s chief strategy for coming to power: taking over the Democratic Party. The results are…


On Kristallnacht: A Lesson In What Happens When We Stop Looking Out For One Another

  By Abby Zimet Common Dreams (11/9/18) Today [11/9] marks the 80th Anniversary of Kristallnacht, or Night of Broken Glass, the 1938 pogrom against German Jews that ignited the Holocaust. The night and day of terror – Jews killed, synagogues burned,  business destroyed, over 30,000 Jews arrested and sent to concentration camps – marked a new stage in a Nazi extermination project that began, it’s vital to remember, not with The Final Solution but with slowly escalating hate-infused speech and actions aimed at making life so untenable for Jews they’d feel compelled to emigrate. “I remember my mother standing pale and crying…I remember her phoning…


Why It’s Completely Appropriate To Compare Trump’s America To 1930s Germany

A note to those who think it unfair to compare the Trump White House and the GOP to what happened in Germany 85 years ago. By Michael Winship Common Dreams (10/17/18 On the last full day of two weeks spent in this city, the requisite visit was paid to Checkpoint Charlie, the spot at the Berlin Wall where, from 1961 to 1989, allied forces and other foreigners crossed the uneasy border between East and West Berlin. (Germans had designated checkpoints of their own.) The wall once split this city in two with concrete and barbed wire, dividing people into those…


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Just How Dangerous Is Brazil’s New Right Wing President Jair Bolsonaro?

“He basks in the comparison to Donald Trump; that is what he wants us all to think but I think in some ways he is far more dangerous and far more ideological than Donald Trump and I think his potential to cause harm to different social groups is far, far greater.” Today In Focus / The Guardian (10/31/18) For his 27 years in Brazil’s congress, Jair Bolsonaro was a mostly marginal figure who made occasional headlines with his extreme views on the LGBT community, minorities and women. But after one of the most vicious and divisive elections in the country’s history, Bolsonaro has emerged…