FEBRUARY
21 THROUGH 28 February
28, 2017 -
Trump’s Use of Navy SEAL’s Wife Highlights All the
Key Ingredients of U.S. War Propaganda.
Intercept
Fearing the Trump Impeachment. ...This past week I heard Dennis Kucinich*, Gareth
Porter*, and Glenn Greenwald* all say that what they feared most was a CIA driven
campaign to get rid of Trump through impeachment. As much as one may dislike the
policies of Trump, they believe he can be restrained legally and constitutionally
managed.
CounterPunch
Breaking Through
Power: It’s Easier Than We Think
It takes provocation for people to
show up for face-to-face confrontations with their Senators or Representatives.
CounterPunch/Nader
Trump administration
preparing to ignore WTO rulings it doesn’t like. ... Draft document sent
to Congress indicates intention to sidestep World Trade Organisation (WTO) any
rulings President regards as an affront to US sovereignty. Independent
“You’re
Papers Please:” Are We Being Set Up for a National ID System? ... Whatever
dangerous practices you allow the government to carry out now—whether it’s
in the name of national security or protecting America’s borders or making
America great again—rest assured, these same practices can and will be used
against you when the government decides to set its sights on you..CounterPunch
February
27, 2017 -
The Return of American Race Laws
The warm-up act for a full-blown
American fascism and orchestrated race war is taking place in immigrant and marginal
communities across the United States: Racial profiling. Random police stops. Raids
at homes and businesses.
CounterPunch/Hedges
Trump
White House scrambles to check scandal over FBI inquiry into Russia ties. ...
While the White House has, by its own clumsy admission, been working behind the
scenes to try to manage the conduct of Congress and intelligence agencies in the
scandal, those efforts have so far backfired.
Guardian
WH
announces $54Billion
increase in
military spending. Compare
to other countries Political
Castration of State: Militarization of Government. ... Poor Rex Tillerson, Secretary
of State, presiding over what had until now been the crown jewel of the president’s
cabinet, and reduced instead under Trump practically to a footnote on the organization
charts. This appears deliberate. CounterPunch
Steve
Bannon Wants To Start World War III
His 2009 film, Generation Zero, shows
a hellishly bleak vision of our past, present, and future, driven by a magical
belief in historical determinism.
The
Nation
Related: Some of the most controversial stories by Bannon BuzzFeed
Resume
Inflation at the NSC: Lt. General McMaster’s Silver Star Was Essentially
Earned for Target Practice. ... Operation Desert Storm by the Pentagon, was really
just a massive live-fire exercise for US forces, which suffered only 146 casualties,
35 of them in “friendly-fire” incidents and 111 to enemy fire. CounterPunch
"This is a really nauseating account of how excited & happy ICE agents
are to be unleashed-& how politicized they are"- Glenn Greenwald -- Immigration
Agents Discover New Freedom to Deport Under Trump. NYT
Sean Spicer targets
own staff in leak crackdown.
... The push includes random phone checks overseen
by White House lawyers. Politico
Steve Bannon Literally Wants To Destroy The US Government!. ... Bannon’s
recent comments on the “deconstruction of the administrative state”,
in other words, the mechanism that actually make government work. Clean air and
water, public schools? Nope. More profits for billionaires? Absolutely.
RoFN With
the US distracted by Trump and the UK by Brexit, they’re about to see a decline
in their global power. ... One
need only look to Yeltsin’s Russia to see how great powers fall. Both Trump
and Yeltsin won power as demagogic anti-establishment leaders who won elections
by promising reform. The result in Russia was calamitous national decline and
the same thing could now happen in America. Independent/Cockburn
ICE Reopening
Shuttered Private Prisons and Adding
Beds at County Jails to Expand Deportation Machinery. ... ICE reopens the private
prisons that Obama’s Justice Department ordered closed.
AlterNet
Protesters
Beware: D.C. Mayor Appoints New Police Chief With Long Record of Mass Arrests
and Depriving Rights. ... Peter Newsham defends past mass arrests that cost city
millions in legal judgments. AlterNet
February
26, 2017 -
Glen Greenwald: "Billionaire Haim Saban is largest funder
of Dems & Clinton. He paid for DNC building. He smeared Ellison as anti-Semite.
Read his views" Keith
Ellison Loses DNC Race After Heated Campaign Targeting Him for His Views on Palestine.
... Keith Ellison lost his bid to become the chair of the Democratic National
Committee (DNC) on Saturday after a scorched-earth smear campaign targeting his
religious faith, his affinity for the Nation of Islam in his youth, and his support
for Palestinian rights alongside a secure Israel. Intercept
Related December 2016 article:
The Smear Campaign Against Keith Ellison Is
Repugnant but Reveals Much About Washington. Intercept
Socialism’s
Return: After more than a half-century in the wilderness, the socialist left reemerges
in America. ... The left is now primarily on the defensive: Rather than seeking
to push the welfare state toward completion, it must defend against its dissolution.
The
Nation The
rise of right-wing populism in the United States—from the White House to
state legislatures—has been met with public resistance on a stunning scale.
Millions have taken to the streets, staged direct actions and flooded airports
to resist a flurry of presidential decrees targeting undocumented, black, refugee,
LGBTQ and poor communities. And long before Trump took the White House, the Black
Lives Matter movement and indigenous water protectors at Standing Rock were leading
the way with sustained mobilizations in the face of staggering repression. TruthDig
Billionaires
and corporations helped fund Donald Trump's transition. ... The nonprofit formed
to handle President Donald Trump’s transition raised about $6.5 million in
private contributions, fueled in part by corporate interests, billionaires and
lobbyists, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis of a new federal
filing.. CPI
"Show Up for Immigrants
With Love": Communities Fight Back Against ICE Raids. TruthOut
Memo to the NSC:
Check Out Some Databases at the State Department before Finalizing that New Executive
Order. ... CNN’s report yesterday evening that President Trump has ordered
DHS and DOJ to “help build the legal case for its temporary travel ban on
individuals from seven countries,” and that some individuals “in the
intelligence community disagree with the conclusion and are finding their work
disparaged by their own department.”
LawFare
Congress Contemplates
Making it Illegal to Protect Consumer Privacy Online. ... Cable and telephone
companies are pushing Congress to make it illegal for the federal government to
protect online consumer privacy. ... Long ago, Congress made privacy a legal right,
so that your telephone company was prohibited from using its position as your
communications provider to exploit your personal information. EFF
Arizona’s
Fascist Attempt To Ban Protests. Republicans in Arizona want to use racketeering
laws to charge peaceful protesters for violence perpetrated by others. Cenk Uygur
and Ana Kasparian, hosts of The Young Turks, discuss.
RoF
Donald
Trump: The Raw and Naked Face of a System That Showers Speculators with Obscene
Riches. ... Paul Jay says the enablers of Trumpism are the leaders of both major
parties and the corporate media .. Whether it’s the charming smile of leading
Democrats or the religious fervor and patriotic zeal of establishment Republicans,
they both ensure super-profits for the super-rich.
RNN
Homeland
security intelligence finds little evidence to back Trump travel ban. ... A draft
document obtained by the Associated Press concludes that citizenship is an “unlikely
indicator” of terrorism threats to the United States and that few people
from the seven countries have carried out attacks or been involved in terrorism-related
activities in the US since Syria’s civil war started in 2011.
Guardian
February 25, 1027 -
Donald
Trump’s Remarks Signal He Could Start a New Nuclear Arms Race. ... Trump’s
comments to Reuters essentially invited other nuclear powers to escalate their
capabilities, and has the potential to set off a new nuclear arms race. Intercept
And
Huffington
In Final Pitches for
Ellison, Progressives Say He's Exactly What Dems Need Now ,,, Democratic National
Committee votes Saturday.
CommonDreams
GOP
Looking to Quietly Kill Resolution Demanding
Transparency on Trump. (Conflicts of interest and ties to Russia) ... House Republicans
planning to send Dem inquiry to GOP-majority committee so they can vote it down
before it reaches chamber floor. Common
Dreams
What is Steve
Bannon’s ‘economic nationalism’? And should we be scared? ... Mr
Bannon says the Trump Presidency will deliver 'an economic nationalist agenda'.
But what does this mean? And should the rest of us be alarmed by its implications?
Independent
Related Deluded Republicans are accidentally pushing for progressive corporation
tax reform. ... The reform being presented by deluded right-wing American politicians
as a way of sticking it to cheating foreigners actually represents the world’s
best chance for lancing the boil of rampant tax evasion by multinational companies.
Independent
The Trump administration
and a Republican-held Congress appear poised to unravel the nation’s bedrock
environmental laws and programs, including the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The
ESA is one of our most effective environmental laws, proven to be vital to protecting
species such as the iconic grizzly bear. CounterPunch
Trump press ban: Guardian,
BBC and CNN denied access to briefing. ... The
Guardian, New York Times, CNN and more were barred from ‘gaggle’ hours
after Trump once again called much of the media an ‘enemy. Guardian
and TruthDig
Battery
Power Gives Boost to Renewables. ... In 2015, investments in oil and gas—fossil
fuels that, along with coal, are the main drivers of global warming—declined
by 25%, while energy produced from renewables rose by 30%. Renewables
are becoming increasingly competitive with fossil fuels in many sectors: according
to the IEA, in the five years to the end of 2015 the price of solar energy dropped
by 80% and wind power by a third.
TruthDig
Army
Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, who spends his days trying to figure out the future of
conflict and has gained
wide respect for speaking his mind, told an audience at the University of South
Florida on Wednesday that the United States needs to do a better job of learning
lessons and adapting because of its “narcissistic approach to war.”
... And, echoing outgoing President Dwight David Eisenhower’s farewell to
the nation in 1961, McMaster urged renewed caution about the military-industrial
complex and its influence on how America wages war. TBO
Obama
Created Propaganda Ministry; Now Trump Owns Itl ... Just before the Christmas
holiday, former President Obama signed into law the National Defense Authorization
Act which provides funding for the military. Buried inside the NDAA was another
bill that officially establishes an anti-propaganda center in order for the State
Department to recognize, understand and expose counter foreign state and non-state
propaganda and disinformation efforts aimed at undermining the United States.
They really said that. RoF
Steve
Bannon outlines his plan to 'deconstruct' Washington CNN
Trump Plans to
Bypass the Courts to Deport as Many People as Possible. ... DHS released a pair
of memos laying out how the agency intends to implement Trump’s executive
orders on domestic immigration enforcement. In addition to calling for a massive
increase in the number of immigration agents and the deputizing of local and state
law enforcement across the country — described in the documents as a “force
multiplier”— the memos dramatically expand the range of people who can
be deported without seeing a judge.
Intercept
&
Intercept
Related: The left can't litigate Trump into submission, ,,, The left should
rely on its own capacity to mobilize opposition on a principled political basis
if it hopes to beat back Trump's assault on Muslims. Socialist
Worker The
Trump Administration's Covert Strategy for Ending Refugee Resettlement .. At the
end of the executive order is a new mandate to report on the "long-term costs"
of the US Refugee Assistance Program (USRAP). The secretary of state is directed
to "provide a report on the estimated long-term costs of the USRAP at the
Federal, State and local levels" within one year. TruthOut
The husband-and-wife team driving Trump's national security policy. ... Before
they became a Trump administration power couple, Sebastian and Katharine Gorka
were prolific collaborators on research about the threat of Islamist terrorism.
Politico
February
24, 2017 -
Trump
Slumps As American Voters Disapprove 55% - 38% Quinnipiac University National
Poll Finds; Voters Trust Media, Courts More Than President.
Quinnipiac
or download
results 
We Have
to Keep Fighting: Water Protectors Vow Continued Resistance to #DAPL as Main Camp
Is Evicted. Democracy
Now Arizona
Senate votes to seize
assets of those who plan, participate in protests that turn violent.. HB2477.
AZ
Capitol Times
HB2477
AZ government
AZ Criminal Justice commission Forfeiture Monies Report.Download
Google
Search for Forfeiture Report
NM Forfeiture law. ThinkProgress
ACLU
Forfeiture Abuse
Common
Dreams story on AZ law Private
prison company GEO hires three firms. ... Private prison company GEO Group is
on a lobbying binge, hiring three firms this month.
Politico.com
Huffington
Killer,
kleptocrat, genius, spy: the many myths of Vladimir Putin. ... Russia’s role
in Trump’s election has led to a boom in Putinology. But do all these theories
say more about us than Putin?
Guardian
Related: The Increasingly
Unhinged Russia Rhetoric Comes From a Long-Standing U.S. Playbook. ... Communists
are some supernatural breed of men, led by diabolic master minds in that distant
Kremlin, engaged in a Satanic conspiracy to take over the world and enslave all
mankind — and this is the thesis endlessly propounded by American liberals
and conservatives alike... Intercept
White
House asked FBI to deny reports linking Russia and Trump advisers. ...Chief of
staff Reince Priebus accused of violating protocols that protect pending investigations
from political interference. Guardian
and Huffington
Related: Preventing Democrats from holding vote on House floor would effectively
kill attempts to look into the President's alleged corruption.
Independent
Avoiding
questions about Trump’s mental health is a betrayal of public trust. ...
Just about every week, the media invites a psychiatrist or psychologist to admonish
other psychiatrists or psychologists for calling Donald Trump mentally ill. CJR
Donald
Trump: A Pillar of Ignorance and Certitude . ... our 45th president, sold the
electorate an America First bill of goods, when what he really had in mind was
Me First. “I won,” he gloats, “therefore I can do this! I won,
therefore I can do that!”
Vanity
Fair
Islamophobia
grows louder in North Carolina: 'Can we not kill them all?' ...The meeting of
a far-right group in Kernersville has stirred fears across the state as Muslim
leaders call on authorities to take action. Guardian
February
23, 2017 -
White House Refuses to Condemn Rise of Islamophobia as Radical
Right Enters Political Mainstream. ... the number of anti-Muslim groups in the
United States tripled last year, from 34 in 2015 to 101 last year. Democracy
Now In
Trumpworld, it’s OK to be ignorant - That divide is not between liberals
and conservatives. Rather, it is between the ignorant and the informed, between
those who have information and can extrapolate from it and those who do not and
cannot. There is an education gap between left and right, and it poses a grave
threat to our national future.
McClatchyDC
Restricting People’s
Use of Their Courts
The right to litigate is critical to any democratic society.
Imagine living in a country where no one can sue powerful wrongdoers or the government.
We have names for countries like that. They’re called dictatorships or tyrannies.
CounterPunch
Trump’s
First Terror Arrest: A Broke Stoner the FBI Threatened at Knifepoint. The Department
of Justice proudly announced the first FBI terror arrest of the the Trump administration
on Tuesday: An elaborate sting operation that snared a 25-year old Missouri man
who had no terrorism contacts besides the two undercover FBI agents who paid him
to buy hardware supplies they said was for a bomb — and who at one point
pulled a knife on him and threatened his family. Intercept
Should
Bannon Resign? He and Yiannopoulos Falsely Linked Hillary Clinton to Pedophilia.
TruthDig
Why
Did the US Use Depleted Uranium Weapons in Syria? .. Firstly, why was DU used?
Has it been used again? Will it be used again? ... Secondly, and no less important,
what will happen next in order to mitigate any health or environmental risks the
contaminated sites may pose?
CounterPunch Restricting
People’s Use of Their Courts
The right to litigate is critical to any
democratic society. Imagine living in a country where no one can sue powerful
wrongdoers or the government. We have names for countries like that. They’re
called dictatorships or tyrannies.
CounterPunch
New
EPA head Scott Pruitt's emails reveal close ties with fossil fuel interests. ...
Documents suggest former
Oklahoma AG followed lobby group’s guidance on challenging environmental
regulations, and put letterhead to oil firm complaints more than once. Guardian
Netanyahu
visit: hundreds protest in Sydney over visit by Israeli PM. ... Netanyahu rebuked
two former Australian prime ministers, Bob Hawke and Kevin Rudd, over their calls
for Australia to recognise a Palestinian state. Guardian
February
22, 2017 -
Mar-a-Lago, Ideological Refuge: Berchtesgaden, II
...Mar-a-Lago.
Trump’s Southern White House, in Palm Beach, is a veritable termitarium (a
termites’ nest) of extreme, and heretofore somewhat concealed, wealth that
is is now coming out of the woodwork. CounterPunch
US
libraries join struggle to resist the Trump administration. Along with efforts
to guide readers to trustworthy information sources, many branches are working
to make themselves ‘sanctuary spaces’ for immigrants. Guardian
Related: Office
of Intellectual Freedom Liberals
Beware: Lie Down With Dogs, Get Up With Fleas. ... The reason the Times wants
Trump removed is because Trump wants to normalize relations with Russia which
threatens to undermine Washington’s effort to project US power deeper into
Central Asia. CounterPunch
Related story: Neo-McCarthyite
furor around Russia is counterproductive. Washington
Post
Wall Street Demanded
the Nuclear Option and the Congress Delivered. ... Wall Street will do what
it pleases and continue to share its wealth with our Politicians and in return
our Politicians will make sure the Department of Justice never prosecutes the
Wall Street Executives. CounterPunch
Donald Trump
and the US media are in a fight to the finish – and they're both guilty of
peddling alternative facts. ... Fake news may have helped hand Trump the presidency,
but he is now finding it is a double-edged sword. Independent
February
21, 2017 -
What
Is the Deep State? ... Even if we assume the concept is valid, surely it’s
not useful to think of the competing interests it represents as monolithic. The
Nation From
2014 - The Next Act of the Neocons
Are Neocons Getting Ready to Ally With
Hillary Clinton? NYT
How
to Run a Rogue Government Twitter Account With an Anonymous Email Address and
a Burner Phone. ... self-described government workers created a wave of rogue
Twitter accounts that share real facts (not to be confused with “alternative
facts,” otherwise known as “lies”) about climate change and science.
Operational tips on burner phones. Intercept
Trump
v. the Media: a Fight to the Death. ... Self-absorbed and irrational Donald Trump
may well be, but on Thursday he held what was probably the most interesting and
entertaining White House press conference ever.
CounterPunch/Cockburn Civil
Rights Groups, Funded by Telecoms, Back Donald Trump’s Plan to Kill Net Neutrality.
... groups who for many years have been heavily bankrolled by the telecom industry
are signaling their support for Donald Trump’s promised rollback of the Obama
administration’s net neutrality rules, which prevent internet service providers
from prioritizing some content providers over others. Intercept
DHS
Memos: Speed Up Mass Deportations & Prosecute Parents Who Help Undocumented
Children Enter U.S. ... sweeping new guidelines to speed up the mass deportation
of undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States. The memos instruct
federal agencies to begin hiring 10,000 more Immigration and Customs Enforcement
agents, as well as 5,000 more Border Patrol agents. Democracy
Now
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