Newly Unearthed Video Has Bloomberg Being Honest About His Dishonesty “It’s right before your very eyes!” Link To 7-Minute Video ***** Cheater Peter Buttigieg Caught Faking Black Voter Support … AGAIN Link To 6+-Minute Video
What, how and — most of all — why would Mayor Pete Buttigieg ever believe he had what it took to run for president? Well, Sen. Clint Watts can explain it to you… Link To 1+-Minute Video
Democracy Now! (11/8/19) The 1968 Orangeburg massacre is one of the most violent and least remembered events of the civil rights movement. A crowd of students gathered on the campus of South Carolina State University to protest segregation at Orangeburg’s only bowling alley. After days of escalating tensions, students started a bonfire and held a vigil on the campus to protest. Dozens of police arrived on the scene, and state troopers fired live ammunition into the crowd. When the shooting stopped, three students were dead and 28 wounded. Although the tragedy predated the Kent State shootings and Jackson State…
Democracy Now! (2/17/20) With the Nevada caucuses less than a week away, many Democratic candidates are courting voters in state and increasingly targeting their attacks on a new challenger — billionaire Michael Bloomberg — whom they are accusing of buying his way into the election. In the lead-up to Super Tuesday on March 3, when voters in 14 states go to the polls, Bloomberg has spent an unprecedented $417 million of his own $60 billion fortune on advertising. He’s also paid meme influencers to share sponsored content on Instagram, and hired thousands of on-the-ground political operatives to work in…
Over the last decade, Bloomberg helped Republicans take and maintain control of the U.S. Senate. By Alex Kotch The Center For Media & Democracy (2/14/20) In June 2018, billionaire business executive and former Republican Michael Bloomberg hosted a fundraiser for Long Island GOP Rep. Peter King. At his lavish home in New York City, Bloomberg urged co-hosts to raise at least $10,000 for King, with whom he has “a long-standing relationship,” according to his adviser Howard Wolfson. King was running against Democratic challenger Gretchen Liuba Shirley, who had strong fundraising and the endorsement Emily’s List, a liberal political group that helps…
“When the president had that out of control press conference if you could call it that, when he was rambling on and on, they were so restrained, they described it as a celebration. No, he was a raving lunatic. You need to use the words, the verbs and correct description so you give the public a feel of how dangerous this guy is. That is not being biased — that is being accurate and revealing the danger this guy poses.” — Jennifer Rubin, Conservative drops mic on complicit press trying to maintain access to Trump: ‘He’s a raving lunatic…
Taxpayers don’t want our commonwealth being owned by tax-dodging, gouging corporations. By Ralph Nader Common Dreams (2/15/20) Crooked Donald Trump, the erstwhile failed gambling czar and corporate welfare king, is assailing Bernie Sanders for his “radical socialism.” How ludicrous given Trump’s three-year giveaway of taxpayer assets and authorities to giant corporations – a perfect portrait of crony capitalism. Others are joining the socialist labeling bandwagon, including corporatist right-wing radio talk show blowhards, themselves freeloaders, profitably using the public airwaves. This pack includes Lloyd Blankfein, former lawbreaking chairman of Goldman Sachs. Bernie knows, of course, how to rebut this distorted interpretation…
By Mark L. Taylor Commoner Call (2/17/20) The arrival of the police state. Take note: In fascist states it always begins with harassing, tormenting and rounding up the minorities, marginalized and powerless. Then they move up the food chain. No one is safe now. The concentration camp system is already in place and being expanded. As the ranks of the Border Patrol and aptly-named ICE confirms, there are plenty of American thugs willing to carry out immoral and cowardly orders. Take 2020 very seriously. Like your life depends upon it. Because it does. ***** ‘These are the Bad Times’:…
“I was born and raised here, and these are the people I want to help. And I’m seeing that our concerns aren’t being addressed by our current representative.” [Editor’s Note: Just a little note to this story: If you consider yourself a progressive and a free citizen, never, ever give a dime to the corporate right wing Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. — Mark L. Taylor] By Eoin Higgins Common Dreams (2/14/20) Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar, facing a tough primary race from progressive attorney Jessica Cisneros, picked up the endorsement of the Koch political network Friday—just over a week before the…
“Isn’t it funny progressives are being ‘babies’ when they won’t support warmongering corporatists, but centrist corporatists are being ‘adults’ when they fuck over progressives. They don’t ever accommodate, don’t ever drop their values and come over and be progressives — we’re always supposed to go that way, they never go the other way. ‘Unity’ means, ‘hey, you guys, shut the fuck up and fall in line and become a corporatists’. That’s what they mean when they say ‘unity’.” — Jimmy Dore on the Joe Rogan Show, (2:10:50 mark), (8/9/18)
Is Trump personal lawyer and attorney general Barr’s assertion of Department of Justice independence just Trump-Barr Kabuki Theater? By Dan Peak Commoner Call (2/18/20) Dear Fellow Readers, Consider the White House – there is no such thing as honoring the norms of governance. There is no such thing as obeying the law. Consider the Senate – we have learned the Party of Trump will not stand against Trump. What about the Department of Justice? We very well may have lost the Department of Justice, Trump’s personal lawyer and attorney general Bill Barr has repeatedly demonstrated he’ll aid and abet Trump’s…
Common Dreams (2/15/20) Sen. Bernie Sanders on Saturday applauded a new study published today by a team of epidemiologists in the peer-reviewed medical journal The Lancet, which found that Medicare for All will save Americans $450 billion and prevent 68,000 unnecessary deaths each and every year. “This study confirms that Medicare for All will save the American people $450 billion on health care costs and will prevent 68,000 unnecessary deaths – each and every year,” Sanders said. “In other words, guaranteeing health care as a human right by creating a Medicare for All system will cost substantially less than our current dysfunctional…
Wisconsin Supreme Court candidates Ed Fallone and Jill Karofsky. Shepard Express Editorial Board (2/11/20) The state Supreme Court race is an extremely important upcoming election, since it is for Wisconsin’s ultimate judicial body, and it is for a 10-year term. Two of the three candidates would make excellent justices, so the Shepherd Express enthusiastically endorses both Ed Fallone and Jill Karofsky for Wisconsin Supreme Court. The third candidate is a Scott Walker appointee, Daniel Kelly, who is an extreme rightwing ideolog. It’s not an exaggeration to say that he may be one of the most rightwing justices to ever sit on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. He’s a…
On The Media (2/14/20) Among the norms straining to govern our top law enforcement agencies are the basic presumptions of openness safeguarded by measures like the Freedom of Information Act. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), for instance, was required to disclose its operations, salaries, and staffing — much like any local police department. But under the Trump Administration, it has aspired to greater secrecy. The Daily Beast’s Betsy Swan has reported on efforts by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and CBP to join the “intelligence community,” which is made up of agencies that use wide-ranging powers to surveil, detain, and inquire,…
[Editor’s Note: Ralph Nader gives some powerful insights on how Nancy Pelosi and the House democrats missed an opportunity with the impeachment by not including “kitchen table” charges that average voters can relate to. His insights on the tension between the Sanders campaign and the democratic establishment provideamuch needed perspective. — Mark L. Taylor] By Jeremy Scahill Intercepted (2/15/20) AS PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP basks in his “acquittal” in the Senate, the Democratic National Committee is acting shady in managing the Democratic primaries. This week on Intercepted: Consumer advocate and former presidential candidate Ralph Nader talks about the state of…
By John Cassidy The New Yorker (2/15/20) ichael Bloomberg is now a serious contender for the 2020 Democratic Presidential nomination. His unprecedented spending on campaign ads—more than three hundred million dollars, according to some accounts—has lifted him to third place in the Real Clear Politics national poll average. A new poll on Thursday, from the firm St. Pete Polls, showed him leading in Florida. He’s also spending heavily on the ground. Even in Maine, the Bangor Daily News reports, he has hired twenty staffers and dozens of volunteers. The only other candidates with local offices there are Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren,…
By Tom Boggioni Raw Story (2/16/20) Appearing on MSNBC’s “AM Joy” conservative Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin excoriated members of the press who — in the pursuit of appearing “objective” — refuse to “tell it like it is” when reporting on President Donald Trump. Speaking with host Joy Reid, Rubin — one of the president’s more avid critics — got right to the point. “I think there are two things, “Rubin began. “One, I think that this notion of objectivity of balance has been so inculcated into the media that they now don’t call it like they see it…
Trump’s business has charged the Secret Service as much as $650 a room per night at Mar-a-Lago ― more than three times the normal rate that federal employees are supposed to spend in South Florida. By S.V. Date HuffPost (2/14/20) President Donald Trump returned to Mar-a-Lago on Friday evening for the 29th golf-related trip of his presidency to his for-profit Palm Beach, Florida, resort, raising his total taxpayer golf tab to $133.8 million. That figure translates to 334 years of the presidential salary that Trump and his supporters frequently boast he is not taking. During Barack Obama’s presidency, Trump frequently claimed…
This global security state is a terrifying melding of the corporate and the public. And what it has done to Assange it will soon do to the rest of us. By Chris Hedges Truthdig (2/10/20) David Morales, the indicted owner of the Spanish private security firm Undercover Global, is being investigated by Spain’s high court for allegedly providing the CIA with audio and video recordings of the meetings WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange had with his attorneys and other visitors when the publisher was in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. The security firm also reportedly photographed the passports of all of Assange’s visitors. It is…
“Donald Trump is not the cause of all of our problems. We are making a mistake when we act like he is. He is a symptom of a disease that has been building up in our communities for years and decades, and it is our job to get at the harder work of actually curing the disease. “Most American feel like the political parties have been playing ‘you-lose, I-lose’ for years. And you know who’s been losing this entire time? We have.” — Andrew Yang at the New Hampshire Democratic debate (2/7/20) Link To 7-Minute Video Morning Joe Interview:…
Democracy Now! (2/10/20) On Friday, Democracy Now! co-host Nermeen Shaikh sat down for a rare joint interview with the Squad, the group of four freshmen Democratic congresswomen who have taken Capitol Hill by storm: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. Omar and Tlaib are the first Muslim women elected to Congress. Omar is a former refugee from Somalia, and Tlaib is the first female Palestinian-American member of Congress. Ayanna Pressley is the first African-American woman elected to Congress from Massachusetts. Ocasio-Cortez was just 29 years old when…
The brutal American health ‘care’ system is becoming more cruel. By Jake Johnson Common Dreams (2/11/20) Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday called “outrageous and un-American” the reality that residents of the small city of Coffeyville, Kansas—and people across the United States—are being arrested and jailed for their inability to pay off outstanding medical debt. On Sunday, CBS News reported on the story of Tres and Heather Biggs, a married couple from Coffeyville whose son Lane was diagnosed with leukemia at the age of five. Heather was simultaneously suffering from seizures caused by Lyme disease. “Tres Biggs was working two jobs but they fell behind…
So much for freedom of speech and open election discourse in public places. [Editor’s Note: Oh, you gotta’ look at the photo of Buttigieg that accompanies the link below. In fact, take a close look at the photo above. And the campaign promoted that image. Perhaps a rare dollop of campaign truth? Would you buy a used car from this guy? — Mark L. Taylor] By Norman Solomon Common Dreams (2/10/20) You’d think that a presidential campaign backed by 40 billionaires and untold numbers of bundled rich people wouldn’t worry about just one leaflet on Medicare for All. But minutes…
When the sentence the government seeks for a crime depends on the defendant’s friendship with the president, there’s one word to describe it: Corrupt. — Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti tweet (2/11/20) By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (2/13/20) Dear Fellow Readers, Here’s what happened, you decide: Trump long-time adviser Roger Stone convicted for impeding the Trump-Russia investigation; convicted of seven felonies for lying to investigators including Congress Trump’s Department of Justice trial prosecutors issue a sentencing guideline of 7-9 years. Trump tweets “very unfair”. Within hours a senior Justice official promised a revision after being “shocked” over the…
“At some point Bloomberg is mass bribing cable/local news.” By Jake Johnson Common Dreams (2/11/20) In a staggering milestone in what critics have characterized as an effort to buy the Democratic nomination, billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg has already poured more than $350 million of his own personal wealth into television, digital, and radio advertising since launching his 2020 presidential campaign last November. “This is what plutocracy looks like,” author and environmentalist Naomi Klein tweeted Monday in response to a CNN graphic comparing Bloomberg’s ad spending to that of his 2020 Democratic rivals. No other candidate has spent as much on advertising as Bloomberg, the former…
This will not remain limited to law enforcement. The Daily / New York Times (2/10/20) A secretive start-up promising the next generation of facial recognition software has compiled a database of images far bigger than anything ever constructed by the United States government: over three billion, it says. Is this technology a breakthrough for law enforcement — or the end of privacy as we know it? Link To 31-Minute Audio ACLU Slams Facial Recognition Company That Scrapes Photos From Instagram & Facebook — Clearview AI, the facial recognition company that claims to have a database of more than 3 billion photos scraped…
By Julian Borger The Guardian (2/11/20) Encryption weaknesses added to products sold by Crypto AG allowed the CIA and its German counterpart, the BND, to eavesdrop on adversaries and allies alike while earning million of dollars from the sales, according the Washington Post and the German public broadcaster ZDF, based on the agencies’ internal histories of the intelligence operation. “It was the intelligence coup of the century,” the CIA report concluded. “Foreign governments were paying good money to the US and West Germany for the privilege of having their most secret communications read by at least two (and possibly as many as five or six) foreign…
By Heidi Shierholz & Margaret Poydock Economic Policy Institute (2/11/20) What this report finds and why it matters Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) show that there was an upsurge in major strike activity in 2018 and 2019, marking a 35-year high for the number of workers involved in a major work stoppage over a two-year period. Further, 2019 recorded the greatest number of work stoppages involving 20,000 or more workers since at least 1993, when the BLS started providing data that made it possible to track work stoppages by size. After decades of decline, strike activity surged in 2018, with…
By Kenya Evelyn The Guardian (2/11/20) A Rhode Island priest who sought to ban pro-choice lawmakers from receiving communion has suggested abortion is worse than child abuse. “We are not talking about any other moral issue, where some may make it a comparison between pedophilia and abortion,” the Rev Richard Bucci told local TV station WJAR. “Pedophilia doesn’t kill anyone and this does.” The priest made headlines last week after posting a list of 44 state lawmakers who would be barred from communion because of their support for reproductive rights. “When he says that pedophilia doesn’t kill people, well, he clearly doesn’t understand. He…
New Mexico carved angel. You said to love the lost So I’m loving you now You said to speak the truth So I’m calling you out Why don’t you live the words That you put in my mouth May love overcome and justice roll down “A poignant, unexpected protest has also come from one Daniel Deitrich, an Indiana pastor who grew up in an evangelical community and farm town in Michigan, was “taught to take the words of Jesus seriously – Love God, love your neighbor, feed the hungry, fight against injustice…love, peace, kindness, gentleness,” and is “deeply saddened” by the loyalty…
Republicans have created the most extensive online disinformation campaign in U.S. history — one intended to reelect President Trump. [Editor’s Note: This is an extremely important article. Probably the most important article you will read this week. What the Trump campaign has achieved with social media manipulation is nothing compared to what is coming at us, including ‘deep fake’ videos designed to bend fact into fantasy . The impacts will stretch far beyond November 2020, testing and undermining the information base needed for any functioning democracy. — Mark L. Taylor] By May Louise Kelly All Things Considered / NPR (2/7/20)…
“Here’s the bottom line. When you have three people that own more wealth than the bottom half of America, when half of the people are living paycheck to paycheck, when 500,000 Americans are sleeping out on the street, yes, the rich have got to pay and the large corporations have got to pay their fair share of taxes. We will raise taxes very substantially on billionaires — no apologies for that.” — Sen. Bernie Sanders, Bernie Sanders fires back at CNN’s Tapper after being confronted with past statements about income inequality (2/9/20)
Around-the-clock Mayor Mike propaganda feed. By Bob Hennelly Salon (2/9/20) Surely the American news media is way too on top of its game to miss a New York City billionaire — with a global brand and a little racist baggage — execute a takeover of one of America’s major political parties and become president. Right? Just as Trump did in 2016, he’s big-footed the process in such a way that once again we see just how devoid of core values the corporate machinery of both political parties are, just like the corporate media covering them. Currently, aforementioned billionaire Michael Bloomberg is flooding the corporate media…
“Joe Biden has a long history of taking money from big donors and doing them favors as senator.” — Zephyr Teachout By Mehdi Hasan Deconstructed / The Intercept (1/30/20) ON JANUARY 20, The Guardian published an op-ed by New York attorney and law professor Zephyr Teachout titled “‘Middle Class’ Joe Biden has a corruption problem — it makes him a weak candidate.” In it, Teachout argues that Biden’s history of taking big donations from the credit card, health care, and fossil fuel industries and then voting on their behalf makes him a poor choice against Donald Trump in the fall. “A lot…
“You can serve honorably or you can serve Trump, but it is impossible to do both.” By Abby Zemet Common Dreams (2/7/20) As threatened in what is likely the start of a vengeful new order, the impeached criminal, pathological liar, five-time draft dodger and vindictive gangster in power just had Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, patriot and National Security Council Ukraine expert who testified about his high crimes in House hearings, physically removed from the White House – thus once again proving, said one sage, “You can serve honorably or you can serve Trump, but it is impossible to do both.” The son of Jewish refugees who came to the…
By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (2/10/20) Dear Fellow Readers, Trump was Impeached by the US House, but acquitted by the US Senate. Acquitted for a crime that even he admits he committed – use of US foreign policy to extort a foreign government to personally benefit his reelection campaign. Trump’s disregard for law and norms is a perfect example of the kind of high crimes and misdemeanors envisioned by the framers of our Constitution, with Impeachment by Congress as the remedy. Though the framers did not provide added safeguards should a complicit Party of Trump Senate or even…
By Jessica Corbett Common Dreams (2/7/20) The rising frequency of extremely hot temperatures tied to human-caused global heating is creating “climate chaos” that drives widespread declines of bumblebees, some of the planet’s most important pollinators, according to a new study published in the journal Science. Researchers at the University of Ottawa in Canada and University College London in the United Kingdom developed a new measurement of temperature based on species’ heat tolerance. “We have created a new way to predict local extinctions that tells us, for each species individually, whether climate change is creating temperatures that exceed what the bumblebees can handle,” explained study…
The Senate failed to do their job—but ordinary citizens can’t fail to do ours. By Diallo Brooks Other Words (2/5/20) Hours before the House of Representatives impeached Donald Trump for using the power of his office to sabotage our elections, Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) gave a passionate speech on the House floor emphasizing that his colleagues’ duty with their pending votes was far more than political — it was a moral obligation. “Our nation is founded on the principle that we do not have kings. We have presidents. And the Constitution is our compass,” Lewis said. “When you see something that…
Bernie Sanders rally in Decorah, Iowa. In the words of a Latin American graffiti writer, “Let’s save pessimism for better times.” By Norman Soloman Common Dreams (2/7/20) As a center of elite power, the Democratic National Committee is now floundering. Every reform it has implemented since 2016 was the result of progressive grassroots pressure. But there are limits to what DNC Chair Tom Perez is willing to accept without a knock-down, drag-out fight. And in recent weeks, he has begun to do heavy lifting for corporate Democrats—throwing roadblocks in the way of the Bernie 2020 campaign as it continues to gain momentum….
Risking the unknown violence of migration over guaranteed violence at home is, for many Salvadorans, a logical decision. By Mneesha Gellman The Conversation (2/6/20) At least 138 people deported from the United States to El Salvador since 2013 have been killed, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch, which investigates human rights abuses worldwide. The 117-page report also says at least 70 of the more than 200 deportees tracked by researchers were sexually assaulted, tortured or kidnapped. Many victims were asylum-seekers attacked or killed by the gangs they originally fled. The findings show that “the U.S. is repeatedly violating its obligations to…