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
|
Last updated on
Thursday March 2, 2017 6:50 PM
