‘This Is a Scandal’: Documents Show ICE & FBI Using Facial Recognition To Mine Millions Of Driver’s License Photos

“ICE is running facial recognition searches against millions of photos. You. Your family. Your friends. This is a major violation of privacy.” By Jake Johnson Common Dreams (7/7/19) A trove of public records obtained by privacy experts at Georgetown Law revealed that ICE and the FBI have used facial recognition technology to mine state driver’s license databases for information on millions of Americans without consent, a practice critics condemned as a “disturbing” breach of civil liberties. According to the Washington Post, which first reported on the documents late Sunday, “Thousands of facial-recognition requests, internal documents, and emails over the past five years… reveal…


Rulings On Gerrymandering And The Census Will Redefine The Political Future & Gut Any Semblance Of Democracy

By Terry Gross Fresh Air / NPR (7/9/19) Mother Jones journalist Ari Berman says recent Supreme Court decisions on redistricting and the 2020 census citizenship question will help determine which party is in power in the next decade. 37-Minute Audio (Commoner Call cartoon by Mark L. Taylor, 2019. Open source and free for non-derivative use with link to www.thecommonercall.org )


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Oh, He So Deserves This! Bernie Is Proud To Have Earned His 2020 Corporate Non-Endorsements!!

Oh, Go Ahead And Read What The Corporate Freeloaders Have To Say About Bernie! HERE “As we fight for an agenda that guarantees basic human rights for all Americans, we will be opposed by the most powerful forces in America,” Sanders wrote on his website. “I am proud to announce the modern-day oligarchs who oppose our movement. In the words of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt: ‘They are unanimous in their hate for me–and I welcome their hatred.’” He Has Earned Every Nasty Syllable!      


The Most Dangerous Kind Of Climate Crisis Denial

“The most dangerous form of climate denial is no longer Senator Jim Inhofe throwing a snowball on the Senate floor to prove that global warming isn’t real, or Trump calling climate change a Chinese hoax. It’s liberal and centrist politicians who should know better appealing to “bipartisan consensus,” immediately shifting the blame to other countries when the U.S. has among the highest per-capita emissions in the world, or asking, “How will we pay for it?”” — Thea N. Riofrancos, The Democratic Debates Showcased the Most Dangerous Form of Climate Denial (In These Times, 6/28/19) ***** ‘Completely Terrifying’ — Study Warns Carbon-Saturated Oceans Headed Toward…


Notably Quotable: “There’s a direct relationship between the ballot box and the bread box, and…”

  “There’s a direct relationship between the ballot box and the bread box, and what the union fights for and wins at the bargaining table can be taken away in the legislative halls.” — Walter Reuther, President of the UAW ***** “Pity the nation whose people are sheep/And whose shepherds mislead them/Pity the nation whose leaders are liars/Whose sages are silenced/And whose bigots haunt the airwaves/Pity the nation that raises not its voice/Except to praise conquerers/And acclaim the bully as hero.” — Lawrence Ferlinghetti ***** “Our nation is operating concentration camps for refugee children. We need to stop denying that and…


“Welcome back to the USA” — Though I’m A Journalist I Didn’t Fully Realize The Abusive Power Of U.S. Border Officials Until They Trounced On My Rights & Privacy

  “Regardless of whether you have embarrassing information on your device, it’s about personal autonomy and living in a free society and not a police state.”   By Seth Harp The Intercept (6/22/19) I SHOULD HAVE kept my mouth shut about the guacamole; that made things worse for me. Otherwise, what I’m about to describe could happen to any American who travels internationally. It happened 33,295 times last year. My work as a journalist has taken me to many foreign countries, including frequent trips to Mexico. On May 13, I was returning to the U.S. from Mexico City when, passing through immigration at…


Ousted Honduran President Zelaya: U.S.-Backed Coup Destabilized My Nation Forcing Migrants To Flee

The United States should learn to live with democracy and not be creating repressive policies against us. We have the same right that they do to be able to make a living and live in freedom. [Editor’s Note: The tragedy of modern Honduras is a long-term truly bipartisan US creation, most recently beginning with the coup orchestrated by the Obama administration. A brutal push for privatization and debt has devastated the economy and impoverished the people and led to the rise of drug gangs. Migration is a logical, tragic byproduct of US policy toward Honduras and the rest of Central America….


‘A Brutal Violation Of Press Freedom’ — Journalist Glenn Greenwald Targeted With Investigation By Brazilian Government After Reporting On Corruption

The fallout from Greenwald’s reporting is having a major affect on Brazilian politics. By Eoin Higgins Common Dreams (7/4/19) The Brazilian government is targeting one of its biggest critics, journalist Glenn Greenwald, in a move that has been decried by observers as an intimidation tactic designed to stifle opposition to right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro. The government’s finance ministry’s money laundering unit was asked by federal police to investigate Greenwald’s finances, O Antagonista reported Tuesday. The right-wing Brazilian news site said that the investigation would focus on whether Greenwald paid for access to leaked records he used in reporting on the Bolsonaro government’s “Operation Car…


Interviews With Madison Native & Liberation Theologian Matthew Fox, Target Of Corrupt Papal Forces

  By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (7/8/19) Below are six interviews conducted by Paul Jay for Reality Asserts Itself on the Real News Network of Madison native and liberation theologian Matthew Fox. When Fox and other courageous priests continued preaching the liberation theology of justice for the poor in Central America he was kicked out of the church by the the fascist supporting Pope John Paul II and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the future Pope Benedict XVI. While targeting priests advocating for the poor, Ratzinger was one of the key…



This Past Weekend’s National Socialism Conference Featured US-Bankrolled Right Wing-Friendy Regime Change Activists

  [Editor’s Note: This article came out the day before this past weekend’s 2019 Socialism Conference in Chicago. There are important questions raised, which DSA members need to be asking. If the growing DSA is to be a much-needed force for political change in the nation any cover, soft-pedaling of or collaboration with US corporate empire building and support of right wing dictators and criminal regimes within the DSA needs to be challenged. — Mark L. Taylor] By Ben Norton & Max Blumenthal The Grayzone (7/6/19) Socialism is now apparently brought to you by the US State Department. From July 4…


Russia Monitor: The Polls All Agree –Things Are Getting Weird

  By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (7/8/19) Dear Fellow Readers, Let’s be optimistic and call the news and polls a mixed bag. You likely heard that Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) has announced he is now (I-MI) after leaving the GOP. Here he is announcing in a Washington Post Opinion piece:  “I’m asking you to join me in rejecting the partisan loyalties and rhetoric that divide and dehumanize us. I’m asking you to believe that we can do better than this two-party system — and to work toward it. If we continue to take America for granted, we will lose it.”…


Caddy Shaft: Trump Plays Another Long Golf Weekend, Leaving Taxpayers Stuck In The Sand Trap Shelling Out $108 Million

The candidate who used to hammer Barack Obama for golfing too much is on track to play two and a half times as much as his predecessor and at three times the cost to taxpayers. By S.V. Date Huffpost (7/5/19) President Donald Trump began a three-day golf weekend Friday, making his 16th visit to his New Jersey golf club since entering office and pushing his total travel and security costs for his hobby to $108.1 million. The president’s Marine One helicopter touched down at Trump National Golf Club, Bedminster around 12:45 p.m. Trump is not scheduled to return to the…


‘Dark Money’ Facebook Ads Are The Right’s Weapon For 2020

Having a huge impact by spending very little. By Tom Perkins The Guardian (7/5/19) In the weeks leading up to a tightly contested 2018 midterm election in Virginia, a Facebook page called “Wacky Wexton Not” ran an ad that pictured Democratic congressional candidate Jennifer Wexton next to Nazi troops. Another labeled her an “evil socialist”. Yet another referenced Nazi uniforms, stating, “Wexton and her modern day brown shirts. They Are Evil. They Hate America. They Hate You.” Who spent $211 launching 24 anti-Wexton ads? It’s unclear. The ads state they were “Paid for by a freedom loving American Citizen exercising my natural…


Getting A Birds-Eye, True View Of The Devastation Being Done To Wisconsin By Frac Sand Corporations

By Patricia Popple The Frac Sand Sentinel (7/7/19) Over the duration of several years, Henry Boschen from Chippewa Falls has been involved in photographing pictures of a developing mine, processing plant and trans-load station in the Town of Alma in Jackson County using drone technology. He has also photographed many other facilities in the industry to show the impact of destruction on land and water. What you will see is his final product—–the idle Wisconsin Proppants Plant in the Town of Alma. Link to 3-minute video here. Please take a look at Boschen’s LookDownPictures.com to see his work and also take a bit of…


Trump & Republicans Desecrate July 4th National Holiday

Investigation Of Secret Border Patrol Group Launched As New Degrading Facebook Posts Surface A ProPublica story revealing demeaning posts directed at Latina lawmakers prompted widespread revulsion. By A.C. Thompson & Dara Lind ProPublica (7/1/19) The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency has opened an investigation into vulgar and misogynistic social media posts made by members of a secret Facebook group for current and former Border Patrol agents. On Monday, “U.S. Customs and Border Protection was made aware of disturbing social media activity hosted on a private Facebook group that may include a number of CBP employees,” said Matthew Klein, head…


Forget Trump’s Carnival Show Fourth: A Lincoln Remembrance Appropriate To July 4th

  “In March 1864, a decade after Alvan Bovay founded the Republican Party in Ripon [WI], a delegation from the New York Workingman’s Democratic Republican Association came to the White House to offer the country’s first Republican president an honorary membership  in their labor organization, “None are so deeply interested to resist the present rebellion as the working people,” Abraham Lincoln told them, after accepting the honor. “Let them beware of prejudice, working division, and hostility among themselves. The most notable feature of a disturbance in your city last summer was the hanging of some working people by other working…


Russia Monitor: The Best Way To Observe Trump’s Perversion Of July 4th

  “There is one policy that emerges from the chaos — the kind we would expect from an egotistical con man who has one principle: Me!” — Noam Chomsky from a Truthout interview with C.J. Polychroniou.   By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (7/4/19) Dear Fellow Readers, Happy Fourth of July! Celebrate as you see fit and for your reasons for celebrating. Personally that includes giving no attention to an authoritarian hijacking of a national holiday to advantage the ego of a man with a serious personality disorder. Fourth of July is our holiday. Trump’s twisted Fourth of July is…


Corporate America’s Fascist Hustle: Marketing Hitler’s Mien Kampf With Clever Nazi Coding

Normalizing the abnormal By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (7/4/19) In the early years leading to Adolph Hitler’s rise to power 1930’s corporate Germany looked upon the odd, babbling little man from Austria with dismissive shrugs or disdainful amusement. Surely, no one would ever take the man seriously. But as Hitler’s following of street thugs, unemployed, racists and social misfits grew and torch lit marauding street marches turned into more regimented affairs the German capitalists began to think perhaps Hitler could be massaged and manipulated to their ends. Corporate support, loans, gifts and larger and larger donations turned from…


Kamala Harris Claims She Was A Progressive Prosecutor, But Her Record Tells A Very Different Story

  Democracy Now! (7/2/19) As Senator Kamala Harris rises in the early presidential polls, she is facing increasing scrutiny over her record as a prosecutor in California. In 2004, Harris became district attorney of San Francisco. She held the post until 2011, when she became the attorney general of California. We speak with Lara Bazelon, a professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law. In January, she wrote a piece in The New York Times titled “Kamala Harris Was Not a ‘Progressive Prosecutor.’” In it, Bazelon writes, “Time after time, when progressives urged her to embrace criminal justice…


Stuck On The Bus: Joe Biden’s Questionable Record On Civil Rights & Crime

  The Daily / New York Times (7/3/19) As a senator he opposed busing and championed laws that transformed the criminal justice system. Now as a presdiental candidate, he faces renewed scrutiny over the legacy of those decisions. Link to 31-Minute Video ***** Could Hunter Biden Jeopardize His Father’s Campaign? By Adam Entous The New Yorker (7/1/19) In today’s political culture, people running for President may announce their candidacy on the steps of their home-town city hall or on “The View,” but the full introduction comes with their book. Some candidates’ memoirs tell stories of humble beginnings and of obstacles overcome;…


Should We Abolish Billionaires? Oh, Hell, Yeah! The Sooner The Better.

  About 60 percent of all the wealth in America today is inherited. By Robert Reich Robert Reich’s Blog (7/2/19) America now has more billionaires than at any time in history, while most Americans are struggling to make ends meet. With such staggering inequality, it’s fair to ask: should we abolish billionaires? There are basically only four ways to accumulate a billion dollars – and none of them is a product of so-called free market capitalism. Billionaires themselves aren’t the problem. The real failure is in how our economy is organized. One way to make a billion is to exploit…


Tax Boycott: While You Pay Yours, The Wealthy — Like Trump — Get By With Paying Little Or No Taxes

On Contact: A Tax System Rigged for the Rich with David Cay Johnston. [Editor’s Note: And then when the wealthy get into financial trouble — as they inevitably do — the government rescues them with cash pay-outs, like 2008, that we pay for. The discussion also shows how economic disparity eventually leads to fascism. — Mark L. Taylor] By Chris Hedges On Contact / RT (10/15/16) On this week’s episode of On Contact, Chris Hedges sits down with David Cay Johnson, author of “The Making of Donald Trump” to examine how the Republican presidential nominee and the rich are benefiting…


MSNBC, The Liberal Network? Please. Here’s How Corporate Media Really Works

MSNBC Ordered Ed Schultz Not To Cover Bernie Sanders, Then Fired Him. [Editor’s Note: There’s also good information in this clip regarding the duplicitous actions of the corporate-dependent Democratic Party leadership. — Mark L. Taylor] The Young Turks (4/19/18) The owners of MNSBC hate Bernie Sanders, and don’t want their hosts talking about him. Cenk Uygur, host of The Young Turks, breaks it down. “Former MSNBC host Ed Schultz opened up in a recent interview about why he believes he was fired in 2015. Schultz, who’s now anchor of a show on RT, told National Review‘s Jamie Weinsteinthat he believes…


Information For Those Targeted By ICE — Pass Along

PASO — West Suburban Action Project provided this important information as communities continue to respond to the threat from ICE:   1) Trump cannot deport millions of people in one operation. That is a lie. 2) People should not open their doors because ICE does not have warrants. 3) If you have never been deported before, you have a right to a hearing before a judge and possibly a bond. Fight your case! 4) If you have never been deported before, you still have rights! Talk to a trusted lawyer! 5) Don’t sign anything. 6) ICE does not have the…


Notably Quotable: “Power doesn’t corrupt…”

“Power doesn’t corrupt; it reveals.” — Gabriel Sherman, CABLE IS ABOUT ONE THING: NICHE”: HOW TRUMP BECAME TRAPPED IN ROGER AILES’S WORLD (6/27/19) ***** “Climate change shapes every other political question. It does not belong on a laundry list of topics, because we can’t build a better world without a livable planet.” — Thea N. Riofrancost, The Democratic Debates Showcased the Most Dangerous Form of Climate Denial (In These Time 6/28/19) ***** “We have a press which thinks that covering both “sides” of a debate is more important than divining the truth behind the debate.  Balance has replaced accuracy, truth, data, and facts…


This Was The Week Trump Earned Being Compared To Hitler

It can happen here. It is happening. By  Lucian K. Truscott IV Salon (6/29/19) The presidency of Donald Trump has been one horror after another  — the endless lying, the coddling and worship of dictators, the rank incompetence and corruption of the people he has chosen to run government departments, the saber-rattling and about-facing with various enemies, the repeated attacks on voting rights and free speech and a free press, the countenancing of rank racism and white supremacy in Charlottesville and elsewhere, the personal corruption and grifting at his resorts and golf clubs, the reverence for a celebration of ignorance, the…


Accessories To Evil: Corporate Dem Congressional Leaders Pander To Trump & Cave On Protections For Tortured Children At The Border

If Democrats don’t have the backs of children sleeping in cages, whose backs will they have? By Robert Reich Common Dreams (6/29/19) While attention has been focused on the Democratic debate—in which most contenders are pushing progressive policies—congressional Democrats have moved in the opposite direction. They caved on an emergency border supplemental appropriation that can now be used by Trump to make the border situation worse, not better. This is how it happened, folks. The House had been working on a $4.5 billion emergency border supplemental appropriation designed to respond to the inhumane conditions in migrant holding cells. The goal…


Words To Remember: FDR’s Letter To Corporate Democrats Will Blow Your Mind

  Jimmy Dore Show (3/29/17) Franklin Delano Roosevelt wrote a letter to corporate democrats threatening to withdraw his nomination if they did not support his progressive Vice President pick Henry Wallace. His sentiments about the need for Democrats to be more progressive applies even more to today’s world. Link to 15-Minute Video ***** Full Text Of FDR’s 1940 Letter To Corporate Dems Franklin D. Roosevelt Letter to the Democratic Convention  July 18, 1940 Members of the Convention: In the century in which we live, the Democratic Party has received the support of the electorate only when the party, with absolute…


Whitewashing History: America’s Racist Legacy From Slavery To Trump’s Brutal War On Immigrants

  Jeremy Scahill Intercepted (6/26/19) WHILE DONALD TRUMP is busy threatening millions with deportation, he takes a moment to weigh in on the debate over reparations and doesn’t “see it happening.” This week on Intercepted: The House Judiciary Committee holds a historic hearing discussing the lingering effects of slavery and what reparations might look like. Rutgers professor and “Uncivil” podcast co-host Chenjerai Kumanyika argues that demands for reparations should include challenging the driving forces behind slavery: capitalism and imperialism.   The Intercept’s Ryan Devereaux gives an update on the trial for humanitarian aid worker Scott Warren and discusses the dehumanization that…


”Christian Hospital Sues Their Own Underpaid Low-Wage Workers Over Medical Bills

The employee health care plan prevents them from going to competitors with better financial assistance. By Wendi C. Thomas, MLK50 ProPublica (6/28/19) MEMPHIS, Tennessee — This year, a Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare housekeeper left her job just three hours into her shift and caught a bus to Shelby County General Sessions Court. Wearing her black and gray uniform, she had a different kind of appointment with her employer: The hospital was suing her for unpaid medical bills. An expert in hospital billing practices said that if the hospital is suing a fair number of its own employees, it’s time to look both…


Remembering Stonewall: On 50th Anniversary, Leaders Of Uprising Look Back On Sparking The LGBTQ Movement

  Democracy Now! (6/28/19) Fifty years ago today [6/28], just after midnight, at 1:30 in the morning on June 28, 1969, New York City police officers raided a gay- and trans-friendly bar called the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village. As the police began dragging some of the patrons out, the community fought back, sparking three days of rioting. Their historic resistance launched the modern-day LGBTQ movement and became known as the Stonewall uprising. We hear the leaders of the Stonewall uprising in their own words, in a radio documentary produced by Dave Isay in 1989 called “Remembering Stonewall.” Link…


Russia Monitor: The Tragedy & Comedy Of Trump’s Latest Bizarre Road Show

“?“It’s a great honor to be with President Putin”. — Trump says to the media during a joint press conference with Putin following one-on-one meeting at Osaka G20. ***** “I will close by reiterating the central allegation of our indictments — that there were multiple, systematic efforts to interfere in our election. That allegation deserves the attention of every American.” — Former special counsel Robert Mueller (5/29/19) at the Justice Department, his first public remarks since taking over the nearly two-year investigation. ***** Trump is “an illegitimate president”. — Former President Jimmy Carter. By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (7/1/19)…


WDRT Conversations: In A Violent, Lost Culture Rites Of Passage Are A Path To Healing

WDRT (6/29/19) Commoner Call columnist WDRT community radio host Dan Peak interviews Dr. Thomas Balistrieri on the significance of rites of passage for human beings, and how we can re-integrate them into our lives. WDRT is a non-commercial, community-supported radio station located in Viroqua, Wisconsin. Link to 58-Minute Audio ***** Pilot Edition Of Locally-Produced News Show: The Monthly Review WDRT (6/29/19) Check out the pilot edition of WDRT’s new program, The Monthly Review. Hosts Dan Peak and Mark Taylor take a critical look at the news of the last month. Both hosts collaborate on the twice-weekly news site, The Commoner Call….


The Democratic Debates Showcased The Most Dangerous Form Of Climate Crisis Denial

[DNC chairman Tom Perez] offered an on-the-nose illustration of how the political establishment is aiding and abetting the crimes of fossil capital.” By Thea N. Riofrancos In These Times (6/28/19) An ongoing forest fire has ravaged more than 42,000 acres of the Florida Everglades. Forest fires are a natural occurrence, but they are expected to get worse as climate change lengthens the fire season and reduces rainfall. About 40 miles south of the blaze is Miami, a coastal city of half a million resting on a foundation of porous limestone, which floods on sunny days and could be partly underwater by…


A Guide To The 2020 Democratic Candidates

Biden, Buttigieg, Harris & O’Rourke By Weston David Pagano Medium (6/24/19) The purpose of the Democratic primary process is to vet each candidate and choose the best one. They’re applying for a job for which you pay the salary, and a thorough background check is in order. Regardless of campaign promises and convenient claims of evolution, uncovering and addressing the potential nominees’ past actions is crucial, as it’s a politician’s record that best predicts how they might govern in the future. This guide focuses on the four “major” candidates that come with the most concerns: Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris,…


Joe May Say It Ain’t So, But It’s So

  “I oppose busing. It’s an asinine concept, the utility of which has never been proven to me. I’ve gotten to the point where I think our only recourse to eliminate busing may be a constitutional amendment.” — Joe Biden, 1975. When Joe Biden Collaborated With Segregationists, (The Nation, 6/7/19) ***** “I do not buy the concept, popular in the ’60s, which said, ‘We have suppressed the black man for 300 years and the white man is now far ahead in the race for everything our society offers. In order to even the score, we must now give the black man a…


Here’s An Excellent Discussion About Latest Accusation Of Trump Rape Behaviors

MSNBC (6/25/19) Lawrence considers Lindsey Graham and Donald Trump Junior’s reactions to Donald Trump’s denial of a new sexual assault accusation. Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick and Ana Marie Cox join Lawrence O’Donnell to discuss. Link to 14-Minute Video (Commoner Call cartoon by Mark L. Taylor, 2019. Open source and free for non-derivative use with link toe www.thecommonercall.org ) ***** A Surpringly Good Interview With Mika Brzezinski On Trump Attacking Her: ‘It has gotten scary’ Through Her Eyes / Yahoo News (6/27/19) MSNBC “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski revealed intimate details about her and husband-co-host Joe Scarborough’s fraught relationship with President Trump,…


Border Patrol Blocking Americans From Donating Toothbrushes & Diapers For Imprisoned Children

MSNBC’s Mika Scorches Trump Over Sex Assault Denials: ‘What type of woman would you rape?’ ***** “For God’s sake, they’re kids, man.” By Alex Samuels Texas Tribune (6/24/19) On Sunday, Austin Savage and five of his friends huddled into an SUV and went to an El Paso Target, loading up on diapers, wipes, soaps and toys. About $340 later, the group headed to a Border Patrol facility holding migrant children in nearby Clint with the goal of donating their goods. Savage said he and his friends had read an article from The New York Times detailing chaos, sickness and filth in the overcrowded…


Here’s A List Of Organizations Mobilizing To Help The Influx Of Immigrants Crossing The Texas-Mexico Border

By Alex Samuels Texas Tribune (6/18/19) Government agencies are grappling to respond to the number of immigrants coming into the country. Many tax-funded shelters housing immigrants are overcrowded, and there are reports some have substandard living conditions. We’ve compiled a list of organizations that are mobilizing to help. … Read the Rest (Commoner Call cartoon by Mark L. Taylor, 2019. Open source and free for non-derivative use with link to www.thecommonercall.org ) ***** Kids In Need Of Defense  KIND’s Family Separation Response Team is addressing the profound crisis caused by the Trump Administration taking children away from their parents upon…