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ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, War State America May 9, 2019

‘Presidential Endorsement Of Murder’: Trump Pardon Of US Soldier Who Tortured, Killed Iraqi Prisoner Spurs Outrage

President Trump has granted former Army 1st Lt. Michael Behenna a full pardon for his charge of unpremeditated murder in a combat zone. Behanna is pictured in Iraq in 2008, shortly before he murdered an Iraqi prisoner. (Image: Facebook) ***** [Editor’s Note: Trump is telegraphing a clear message of what to expect here at home should he lose the 2020 election and decides not to leave office. The growth of right wing militias is a clear and growing danger. The tactics and cruelty empires exercise to subjugate foreign populations is eventually always exercised at home to quel dissent. — Mark…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, FEATURE, History They Don't Want You To Know, Screwing With Your Vote May 9, 2019

Outside The Law: American Election System In Hands Of Secretive Corporations

Weak state or federal guidance leaves many cybersecurity companies doing whatever they want. The Guardian (4/23/19) Maryland congressman Jamie Raskin is a newcomer to the cause of reforming America’s vote-counting machines, welcomed through baptism by fire. In 2015, Maryland’s main election system vendor was bought by a parent company with ties to a Russian oligarch. The state’s election officials did not know about the purchase until July 2018, when the FBI notified them of the potential conflict. The FBI investigated and did not find any evidence of tampering or sharing of voter data. But the incident was a giant red flag as to the…

ALL ARTICLES, Gun Cult May 9, 2019

Just Another Day In The United States Of Amnesia: March For Our Lives Demands End To ‘Generation Lockdown’ Following Latest School Shooting

  As of Tuesday, the 116th mass shooting of 2019 (and counting). Since 1999 228,000 American students have been exposed to gun violence and 234 schools have been attacked. [Editor’s Note: Over the past three years the above Commoner Call cartoon has frequently run with stories about the latest mass shooting. It’s depressing to think how often we have run it … and will be running it in the future. The nation and our children are held hostage to the gun cult industry and the bloody NRA. — Mark L. Taylor] By Andrea Germanos Common Dreams (5/8/19) March For Our Lives,…

ALL ARTICLES, Gun Cult May 9, 2019

Backbiting, Betrayal & Blackmail: The Backstory To Blustery NRA’s Fall Into Chaos

The association stands at one of the gravest moments of peril in its nearly 150 year history — presenting a rare opportunity for the gun lobby’s opponents to kick it while it’s down. By Tim Dickinson & Andy Kroll Rolling Stone (5/3/19) Chaos broke out at the NRA’s annual convention in Indianapolis last week. The gun group’s figurehead president, Oliver North, backed by its longtime PR firm Ackerman McQueen, allegedly tried to oust the NRA’s powerful CEO, Wayne LaPierre. But LaPierre hit back —  forcing North to step down, while winning unanimous reelection by the NRA board. “a small group of NRA executives, contractors and vendors has extracted hundreds…

ALL ARTICLES, Media Hits & Misses May 9, 2019

With Govt. Not Doing Its Job, Who Stands In The Way Of Artificial Intel Dystopia? These Google Activists

  By Veena Dubal The Guardian (5/3/19) The most pressing moral, political and social issues of our time converge in and at Google. As the largest and most successful “big data” company, Google has the unfettered power not just to shape – but to declare (in the words of Shoshana Zuboff) – our futures. The data that the company harvests, sells and uses to create automation systems literally determine our life chances: how we are interpreted and understood by police and military technologies, our credit scores, our access to healthcare, our professional reputations, how much we pay for goods and services, and our ability to obtain work. Unlike…

ALL ARTICLES, Good News, Resist! May 9, 2019

Native American Communist Topples Incumbent Council President In Ashland

facebook.com/WhitebirdWard6/ “By admitting I’m a communist, I cast a beacon for those who oppose me, but also for those who agree with me.” By Earchiel Johnson People’s World (5/7/19) ASHLAND, Wisc. – The Democratic party primaries have been heating up across the nation over the last year, with progressive Dems like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez of New York elected to Congress and an array of Democratic primary presidential candidates all pushing progressive causes. Local elections have also taken place that deserve special note. One of the more interesting of these happened last month in Ashland, Wisc. where a Native American,…

ALL ARTICLES, Russia Monitor May 9, 2019

Russia Monitor: Working Hard At Becoming The ‘Self-Impeachable’ President

“The special counsel’s finding is clear. Case closed. Case closed. This ought to be good news for everyone, but my Democratic colleagues seem to be publicly working through the five stages of grief. First stage is denial.” — Senate Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) ***** ‘By early Tuesday evening, more than 720 former federal prosecutors who worked in Democratic and Republican administrations had signed a letter asserting that President Trump would have been charged with obstructing justice based on special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s findings — if Trump were not the president.” — Matt Zapostosky for The Washington Post ***** “…10…

ALL ARTICLES, History They Don't Want You To Know, Trumpenstan May 9, 2019

Billion Dollar Loser: NYT Report On Trump’s Taxes & Massive Losses May Prompt Fraud Investigation

  “He’s a con artist. A criminal. A fraud.” Democracy Now! (5/8/19) We look at a major exposé from The New York Times, which obtained tax information on Donald Trump that shows his businesses lost $1.17 billion from 1985 to 1994. While Trump continues to refuse to release his tax returns, printouts from his official IRS tax transcripts for a 10 year period ending in 1994 show that in multiple years during that stretch, Trump appears to have lost more money than nearly any other individual taxpayer in the country and paid no federal income taxes for eight of the 10 years. “Almost…

ALL ARTICLES May 9, 2019

Trump Administration Now Turning To The Courts To Kill Off Healthcare For Many Millions

Death of the ACA would impact virtually the entire country – both people with health insurance and people without it. By Mark Gruenberg People’s World (5/6/19) NEW ORLEANS —The GOP couldn’t kill the entire Affordable Care Act when they controlled Congress, though they tried at least 62 times. They can’t completely kill it by dismantling it administratively piece by piece. So now the Trump administration wants the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, one of the most conservative courts in the country, to kill the ACA for them. In a brief filed before the judges on April…

ALL ARTICLES, Quotes May 9, 2019

Notably Quotable: “When plunder becomes a way of life…”

  “When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.” — Frederic Bastait ***** “We cannot, we simply cannot, have a presidency that is run as if it were a king or dictator.” — House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) ***** “Of course, to stay, you must be seen as on his team, so you make further compromises. You use his language, praise his leadership, tout his commitment to values. And then…

ALL ARTICLES May 6, 2019

Bill Barr Dances Away From House Judiciary Hearing — Will The Dems Let Him Hide?

“William Barr is now a blank-eyed, soulless myrmidon in the service of a half-mad, criminal presidency*, and there is no coming back from that. Once, history would remember him as a garden-variety Republican power lawyer who specialized in bailing out Republican presidencies from their own difficulties, like the Iran-Contra scandals. Now, he’s just a hack in a city in which the undergrowth is full of them.” — Charles P. Pierce, William Barr Is a Flunky in Service to a Crooked Presidency* (5/1/19) ***** No one is fooled about what’s going on. Barr is scared. By Amanda Marcotte Salon (5/2/19) Attorney…

ALL ARTICLES May 6, 2019

Despite International Law Which Would Make It Illegal, Pompeo Claims US Attack On Venezuela “Would Be Lawful”

“Attacking [Venezuela] for any reason,” warned one legal expert, “would violate the most fundamental of all international law.” By Jon Queally Common Dreams (5/5/19) After U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday morning that President Donald Trump has a “full range of options” when it comes to possible next moves against Venezuela, anti-war critics are wondering what the Democrats in Congress are prepared to do in order to curtail the administration’s ongoing threat of using military force to overthrow the government of President Nicolas Maduro – an effort international legal experts say would be a violation of international law. “We…

ALL ARTICLES May 6, 2019

Palo Alto Man Hailed As A Hero For Spray Painting ‘Yemen’ In Blood-Red Letters At War Contractor Lockheed Martin’s Office

(Photo by Bryce Druzin) By Mohit Priyadarshi The Inquisitr (5/4/19) Bryce Druzin, a Palo Alto resident who has been following America’s involvement in Yemen’s civil war over the past few years, could not take it any longer. Dismayed by President Trump’s vetoing of bipartisan legislation to end U.S. involvement in the Yemen war, Druzin took it upon himself to do something about it. According to San Jose Inside, 34-year-old Druzin spray-painted the word “Yemen” in blood-red letters over Lockheed Martin’s office sign, as a means to protest against the defense contractor’s weapon sales to Saudi Arabia. Lockheed Martin has profited massively from the…

ALL ARTICLES, Media Hits & Misses May 6, 2019

Dear, God, What Have We Done To Be Plagued With Meghan McCain?

Expertise is not the currency of television infotainment. By Jacob Bacharach Truthdig (5/3/19) I cannot bring myself to hate Meghan McCain. What would be the point? She is the natural endpoint of a giddily vacuous celebrity culture, a sort-of famous person who plays a sort-of famous person on TV. She frequently says stupid and hateful things, but they always seem uncalculated, and she is endlessly surprised to find that people disagree with her. (One suspects that the household staff never did, and now that she’s wandered off the compound and into public life, she can’t quite seem to grasp that…

ALL ARTICLES, Climate Change May 6, 2019

Half Measures Won’t Do: If We Want To Save The Planet We Need To Go All The Way

Our measuring stick is not politics; it is physics, and the urgent demands of justice for all on the frontlines of climate disaster. By Varshini Prakash The Guardian (5/2/19) When Beto O’Rourke launched his presidential campaign, I was impressed. On multiple occasions, including as recently as April, O’Rourke backed calls to effectively zero out all domestic emissions of the greenhouse gases that cause climate change by 2030, and said we’re screwed if we aim for anything less. On Monday, he shifted the goalposts back. He released a detailed climate plan, his first policy proposal of his campaign. There’s a lot to like. He…

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ALL ARTICLES, Climate Change May 6, 2019

David Wallace-Wells: Earth At 2° Hotter Will Be Horrific. Now Here’s What 4° Will Look Like

  Think Big (3/14/19) This is what the world will be like if we do not act on climate change. The best-case scenario of climate change is that world gets just 2°C hotter, which scientists call the “threshold of catastrophe”. Why is that the good news? Because if humans don’t change course now, the planet is on a trajectory to reach 4°C at the end of this century, which would bring $600 trillion in global climate damages, double the warfare, and a refugee crisis 100x worse than the Syrian exodus. David Wallace-Wells explains what would happen at an 8°C and…

ALL ARTICLES, Russia Monitor May 6, 2019

Russia Monitor: The Perilous Road Ahead

  “In the middle of the journey of our life I found myself astray in a dark wood where the straight road had been lost sight of.”     — Dante Alighieri By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (5/6/19) Dear Fellow Readers, It seems we have logged 1,000 miles to arrive back right where we started. If we don’t want Trump in the White House we’re going to have to vote him out. In 2016 Trump said he may not accept the results of the election and now as we contemplate a 2020 election House Speaker Nancy Pelosi does not believe…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, Economic Injustice, History They Don't Want You To Know, War State America May 6, 2019

Chris Hedges: Coming Down To Corporate Totalitarianism’s Brutal End Game

  “I’m calling for the overthrow of the corporate state.” [Editor’s Note: This powerful, prescient talk by author Chris Hedges has been posted in the Commoner Call  before. What we have seen with the recent Barr hearing and suppression of the Mueller report is the gathering storm drawing near. Hedges’ assessment of the corporate state’s rush to totalitarianism is moving fast. His comments about resistance and hope are a lesson for all. — Mark L. Taylor] By Ed Mays Pirate TV (10/9/18) Pirate TV welcomes back Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges for the 6th time. In his current book, America:…

ALL ARTICLES, Trumpenstan May 6, 2019

How Taxpayers Covered A $1,000 Bar Bill For Trump Staffers (And More) At Trump’s Club

By Derek Kravitz ProPublica (5/1/19) In April 2017, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump’s Palm Beach, Florida, estate and club, for a two-day summit. While Xi and his delegation stayed at a nearby hotel, Trump and his advisers stayed at the peach-colored, waterfront resort. That evening, Trump and a dozen of his closest advisers hosted Xi and the Chinese delegation in an ornate dining room where they ate Dover sole and New York strip steak. Those sorts of lavish, formal gatherings are expected for a major bilateral summit. But then there are less formal events. At some point…

ALL ARTICLES May 6, 2019

‘It’s gonna be a weird ride’ — Journalist Dexter Filkins Explains John Bolton’s Push For ‘Aggressive Use’ Of American Power

“Bolton threatened him and threatened his family. And he said, look; we want you to quit. We know where your daughters live. We know where your sons live. We know where your wife lives. It’s time for you to go.” By Terry Gross Fresh Air (5/2/19) New Yorker writer Dexter Filkins says President Trump’s current national security adviser is a hawk who sees America as “a colossus operating anywhere it wants.” Link to 37-Minute Audio (Commoner Call cartoon by Mark L. Taylor, 2018. Open source and free for non-derivative use with link to www.thecommonercall.org ) ***** John Bolton On The Warpath …

ALL ARTICLES, Trumpenstan May 2, 2019

Making The Case: It’s Time For Congress To Stand Up. Investigate. Illuminate. Impeach The Thuggish Tot.

Right now, the GOP is the party of overlook; Democrats must be the party of oversight. Michael Winship Common Drems (4/29/19) Over the course of my dusty television career, I have from time to time run into situations where a certain Hollywood celebrity type will make a threat—not to do interviews or make public appearances on behalf of a show, for example—unless some egregious demand of his or hers is met. It’s a trap. Even if you meet their demand, my experience has been that they still won’t do what you request, nor did they ever intend to, no matter…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, Climate Change, War State America May 2, 2019

Erik Prince Reportedly Wants His Piece Of The Action From The Venezuelan Corporate Coup

For Prince, the unlikely gambit represents the latest effort in a long campaign to privatize warfare. By Aram Roston & Matt Spetalnick Reuters (4/30/19) WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Erik Prince – the founder of the controversial private security firm Blackwater and a prominent supporter of U.S. President Donald Trump – has been pushing a plan to deploy a private army to help topple Venezuela’s socialist president, Nicolas Maduro, four sources with knowledge of the effort told Reuters. Over the last several months, the sources said, Prince has sought investment and political support for such an operation from influential Trump supporters and wealthy…

ALL ARTICLES May 2, 2019

Official Lies: How The Supreme Court Came To Be Ruling On Census Citizenship Question

  The Commoner Call (5/2/19) While the mainstream media will use neutered terms like “misled” to describe Donald Trump’s Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross’s manipulations to get a citizenship question added to the 2020 census, it is clear he out-and-out lied to the public and congress about about the motive to tamper with the census. The question has not been on the census since 1950 and census experts within the Commerce Department and across the nation warn the question will artificially lower census numbers with far ranging impacts on future funding, political representation, public health efforts and far more In this…

ALL ARTICLES, Russia Monitor May 2, 2019

Russia Monitor: Attorney General Barr’s Reputation Goes Up In Smoke

  The summary letter the Department sent to Congress and released to the public late in the afternoon of March 24 did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance of this office’s work and conclusions. — Leaked Mueller letter to AG Barr from 3/27/19; a stunning rebuke of Barr’s biased summary to benefit Trump. ***** You use his language, praise his leadership, tout his commitment to values. And then you are lost. He has eaten your soul. — Former FBI Director James Comey column for New York Times (5/1/19) By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (5/2/19) Dear Fellow Readers, Today…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats May 2, 2019

Joe Biden: The Zombie Of Clinton-Era Corporate-Friendly Politics Refuses To Die

Biden thinks he’s well positioned because after the shock of the Trump years, people want to go back to where we were. Wrong. By Hamilton Nolan The Guardian (4/30/19) You cannot understand politics in America until you understand that in the Democratic party, which ostensibly represents the left side of our nation’s political spectrum, there are a significant number of people who genuinely believe that Joe Biden is the best possible presidential nominee. Their belief is not cynical, or at least not wholly cynical. His constituency is real. It is not illuminating to think of them just as centrists, arguing for the…

ALL ARTICLES, Health Care May 2, 2019

‘Stop What You’re Doing And Watch’: Applause & Gratitude For Ady Barkan’s Emotional Medicare For All Testimony

  Common Dreams (4/30/19) In an emotional ten minute testimony, dying activist Ady Barkan delivered a message to Congress: pass a Medicare For All bill—now. Barkan emphasized the increased efficiencies of Medicare For All as opposed to the current healthcare system and pointed out how the for-profit insurance industry hinders, rather than helps, ordinary Americans. And, Barkan said, half measures won’t cut it: “It is very important to emphasize the following point: these cost savings are only possible through a genuine Medicare For All system. Other proposals to increase health insurance coverage, such as those that would make Medicare compete…

ALL ARTICLES, CAFOS, Climate Change May 2, 2019

The Rural Vote: Factory Farms Are Polluting Our Drinking Water With Hog Manure. Democrats Should Take Note

Corporate agriculture is often an overlooked issue for those appealing to the Democratic party base. [Editor’s Note: When you link to the full article you will find specifics about the growing industrial farming threat in Wisconsin. — Mark L. Taylor] By George Goehl The Guardian (4/26/19) Donald Trump is banking on riding his hardline stance on immigration to re-election in 2020. Tough talk of a wall makes headlines, but it’s a less discussed issue that could play a deciding role for voters in swing states and early primary states: the influx of factory farms and the devastating impact they have on…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, CAFOS May 2, 2019

Europe’s Right Wing Populist Curtain

  By Yascha Mounk BBC (5/1/19) In 1946, Winston Churchill coined a memorable phrase: “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the continent,” he said. Today the Soviet Union has gone, but populist parties are in government in every country along the route of the Iron Curtain, as defined by Churchill. In this series, political scientist Yascha Mounk travels that route, and finds out what is changing under these new governments in smaller cities, far away from the capitals. He speaks to supporters and opponents of the populist parties and builds up…

ALL ARTICLES, Quotes May 2, 2019

Notably Quotable: “Hell is empty…”

“Hell is empty, and all the devils are here.” — William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2 ***** “Real power is — I don’t even want to use the word — fear.” — Donald J. Trump, – Bob Woodward’s, Fear: Trump In The White House ***** “If I’m still the majority leader of the Senate after next year, none of those things are going to pass the Senate. They won’t even be voted on. So think of me as the grim reaper.” — Sen. Mitch McConnell on a 2020 progressive legislative agenda . ***** “When the history of Trump’s presidency…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, Police State America, Trumpenstan April 29, 2019

Constitutional Crisis: In Shutting Off All Oversight, Trump Is Ratcheting Up His Dictatorial Power Grab

From three noble branches to one rotten little stump. ***** Let’s be clear: this is a dictatorial move. By Robert Reich The Guardian (4/28/19) “We’re fighting all the subpoenas,” says the person who is supposed to be chief executive of the United States government. In other words, there is to be no congressional oversight of this administration: no questioning officials who played a role in putting a citizenship question on the 2020 census. No questioning a former White House counsel about the Mueller report. No questioning a Trump adviser about immigration policy. No questioning a former White House security director…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats April 29, 2019

Joe Biden, The Corporate MAGA Democrat?

Biden’s hardly the first politician to don rose-colored glasses when looking upon American history, but few Democrats wear them so regularly as he does today. By Josh Voorhess Portside (4/26/19) Joe Biden officially kicked off his long-expected 2020 campaign on Thursday with a video featuring footage from the 2017 white supremacist march and counterprotest in Charlottesville, Virginia. In his telling of the origin story of his latest White House bid, the moment President Donald Trump said that there were “some very fine people on both sides” of that clash was when Biden realized that “we are in the battle for the soul…

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ALL ARTICLES, American Socialist Tradition, Resist! April 29, 2019

How A New Generation Of Socialists Can Win Power (While Avoiding The Mistakes Of The Past)

‘The Socialist Manifesto’ is both a warning and guide to the struggles ahead.  By Kristen R. Ghodsee In These Times (4/25/19) Tucked away in a corner in the permanent exhibition of the Deutsches Historisches Museum in what is now the heart of reunified Berlin, a humble placard captures one of the greatest tragedies of the 20th Century Left: The fall of the Weimar Republic in the early 1930s. Fresh from the annual Liebknecht-Luxemburg demonstration commemorating the murders of two of socialism’s most beloved martyrs—Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg—I spent a few hours lingering among the cases of posters and memorabilia…

ALL ARTICLES, American Socialist Tradition, History They Don't Want You To Know April 29, 2019

Boeing Might Represent The Greatest Indictment Of Short-Sighted 21st-Century Capitalism

‘symptomatic of a much bigger problem’  [Editor’s Note: the article also traces the corruption that spread through Boeing as they grew closer to the shady shortcut world of US War Department contracting. — Mark L. Taylor] By Marshall Auerback Independent Media Institute (4/26/19) A veteran commercial pilot and software engineer with over three decades of experience has just written the most damning account of the recent Boeing 737 fiasco. At one level, author Gregory Travis has provided us with the most detailed account of why a particular plane model once synonymous with reliability became a techno-death trap. But ultimately, his story is a parable…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats April 29, 2019

Thugs: Corporate Dem DCCC Threats Cause Vendors To Abandon Progressive Challenger’s Primary Campaign

“Progressive challengers like Marie Newman will see more of this cronyism,” said Barrow, “but the progressive grassroots will have their backs.” By Eoin Higgins Common Dreams (4/26/19) The Democratic establishment is already taking steps to stop insurgent progressive challengers to the party’s incumbents. Marie Newman, who is challenging Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.) in the 2020 primary for the Illinois 3rd District, told Politico on Friday that a number of vendors have already dropped out of her campaign—the direct result of a rule put in place by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) banning consultants and other campaign mechanics from working with anyone running against…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, Trumpenstan April 29, 2019

Mob Mentality: Mail Bomb Suspect Describes Trump Rallies As ‘new found drug’

    [Editor’s Note: It’s called ‘mob mentality’ for a reason. — Mark L. Taylor] By Faith Karimi CNN (4/24/19) The Florida man who pleaded guilty to mailing explosive devices said in a letter to a federal judge that attending a rally for President Donald Trump “became like a new found drug.” Cesar Sayoc has admitted to sending pipe bombs to CNN, and various Democratic officials and donors. He pleaded guilty last month to 65 felony counts, including using weapons of mass destruction in an attempted domestic terrorist attack. In the handwritten letter filed Tuesday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York,…

ALL ARTICLES, Russia Monitor April 29, 2019

Russia Monitor: The Worst President EVER … And That’s No Lie!

  By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (4/29/19) Dear Fellow Readers, If there was a ranking for the president who is worse than the worst president in history it would be Trump. I’m not even going to look up the number, but he is now around 10,000 lies while in office. The thing about Trump, words fail, it’s impossible to adequately describe his deviancy. Trump doesn’t just shade, misrepresent or exaggerate – he’s now in the class of Rush Limbaugh or Alex Jones – full-on stories that have no bearing in fact. Here he is in Green Bay in the last…

ALL ARTICLES, War State America April 29, 2019

NY Times Report: Navy SEALs Were Ordered To Remain Silent On War Crimes By Their Commander

  [Editor’s Note: The seven courageous SEALs who pushed this case forward deserve medals. They won’t get them, but they should. — Mark L. Taylor] Democracy Now! (4/24/19) Navy SEALs who witnessed their platoon chief commit war crimes in Iraq were encouraged not to speak out, and told they could lose their jobs for reporting him at a private meeting with a superior officer last year, according to new reports from The New York Times. A confidential Navy criminal investigation obtained by the Times reveals that the commandos saw Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher stab and kill an unarmed teenage…