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TrueAnon:Episode 81: SCROTUS
We are joined by the legal galaxy brains from the ALAB podcast to disrobe the criminals on the Supreme Court, shed light on the dark ecosystem of legislation mills and demystify the perverted institutions of Big Law
https://soundcloud.com/trueanonpod/scrotus

The murder of David Amess: Toxic politics, toxic system
The brutal murder of David Amess has shocked society. For the second time in five years, a serving Member of Parliament has been killed whilst holding a constituency surgery. In 2016, at the height of the Brexit campaign, the victim was Labour MP Jo Cox, who was shot and stabbed by a far-right terrorist whilst meeting with local residents in her constituency of Batley and Spen. Last Friday it was David Amess, Tory MP for Southend West, who was fatally knifed whilst attending a similar event in an Essex church. The motivations – if any – for this latest attack remain unclear, with little known about the suspect, 25-year-old Ali Harbi Ali. Nevertheless, this has not stopped politicians and the press from speculating about the wider cause for this wanton violence. In particular, much of the media attention has focussed on the country’s ‘toxic political culture’, with commentators highlighting the hostility and aggressiveness of debate – in Westminster and online – as a factor behind the increasing dangers facing MPs and other prominent public figures. An editorial in last weekend’s Observer, for example, called for a “recalibration of our overly toxic political discourse”. A similar article by the Financial Times editorial board spoke about a “heightened climate of abuse and fear” in British politics. Paying tribute to David Amess in the House of Commons on Monday, meanwhile, fellow Tory backbencher Mark Francois stated that: “In the last few years David had become increasingly concerned about what he called the toxic environment in which MPs, particularly female MPs, were having to operate in.” Francois and other Conservative MPs went on to demand new laws in their former colleague’s honour, aimed at tackling bullying, harassment, and abuse on social media. In particular, the Rayleigh and Wickford MP called on the government to toughen up the pending online harms bill, by forcing tech firms to introduce measures that would prevent the anonymity of their usePost too long. Click here to view the full text.

Viral video, opinions challenge Georgia jury selection for Arbery case
A Georgia court struggled this week to seat jurors in the trial of three white men accused of murdering Black jogger Ahmaud Arbery, underscoring the challenge of finding people who have not formed firm opinions based on a viral video of the shooting.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/viral-video-opinions-challenge-georgia-jury-selection-arbery-case-2021-10-22/

Minneapolis cop charged in chase that killed innocent driver
During Cummings’ chase, Frazier’s Jeep entered an intersection on a green light. According to investigators, the driver of the stolen vehicle narrowly missed Frazier’s Jeep before the squad car struck it on the driver’s side. An accident reconstruction report said the fatal collision “can be attributed to the Defendant for failure to operate his vehicle with due regard for the safety of other motorists.”
https://apnews.com/article/death-of-george-floyd-george-floyd-minneapolis-homicide-darnella-frazier-32799b3d2569acef76372d812ac1b573

‘This stuff won’t go away’: PFAS chemicals contaminate Wisconsin’s waterways and soil
Last year, residents in Campbell, Wisconsin, a four-square-mile island city in the Mississippi River, learned disturbing news: toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” used in firefighting foam at a neighboring airport had probably been contaminating their private wells for decades.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/oct/22/pfas-forever-chemicals-contaminate-waterways-soil-wisconsin

Just Eat CEO says Grubhub will be part of US delivery consolidation
The chief executive of Just Eat Takeaway.com (TKWY.AS) said on Thursday he expects newly acquired Grubhub to eventually be part of a consolidation in the U.S. delivery market, but signalled he is not currently open to selling the business.
Post too long. Click here to view the full text.

Why are the billionaires laughing?
Nike founder and billionaire Phil Knight, worth an estimated $58 billion according to Forbes, is the subject of an expose informed by research conducted by IPS associate fellow Bob Lord, published by Bloomberg Businessweek, along with terrific explanatory graphics. Using public SEC filings and other publicly available data, Lord “reverse engineered” an analysis of Knight’s tax planning techniques. Knight has already transferred about $10 billion in wealth free of estate and gift tax (avoiding roughly $3.6 billion in tax) and could avoid estate tax on up to an additional $9 billion if he died today, according to Bob Lord, in an interview with Inequality.org The Bloomberg Businessweek article is "The Hidden Ways the Ultrarich Pass Wealth to Their Heirs Tax Free." While Knight has declared he intends to give most of his wealth to charity, the Bloomberg expose documents that for years, Knight has "been using a range of legal techniques to ensure his heirs keep control of most of his assets and profit from them in the process, quietly transferring vast piles of money in a textbook example of how the rich avoid taxes."
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/10/21/phil-knight-case-study-how-dodge-over-36-billion-taxes

Of Spirits, Martyrs & Legends: the Magic & Sorrow of Vietnam’s Côn Sơn Island
A short up-and-down overwater flight from Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport and, voilà, you’ve arrived. While your destination is just off the coast of southern Vietnam, it may as well be another world. In less than an hour, you are transported from the hustle and bustle of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) to the quiet and melancholic beauty of Côn SơnIsland, the largest and most infamous in the 16-island Côn Đảo Archipelago. Vietnamese come from far and wide not just to enjoy breathtaking views of the sea, fresh seafood, and invigorating walks along pristine beaches, but also to participate in a solemn pilgrimage to dark places that are a legacy of French and US brutality. They are a stark testament to the supreme arrogance of one fading colonial power that handed the blood-stained baton to an ascending neocolonial power, both convinced they had the right to determine the destiny of a country not their own. ManyPost too long. Click here to view the full text.

Mohamed Noor, ex-Minneapolis police officer, resentenced to 57 months for killing 911 caller
A judge on Thursday sentenced former Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor to 57 months behind bars, the maximum penalty possible, for fatally shooting a 911 caller in 2017. Noor had been convicted of third-degree murder for the slaying of Justine Ruszczyk Damond on July 15, 2017 and sentenced to 12 1/2 years behind bars, before the state Supreme Court tossed that charge last month.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/former-minneapolis-police-officer-resentenced-57-months-prison-killing-911-n1281829

NFAC leader 'Grandmaster Jay' indicted by Jefferson County grand jury
The leader of the NFAC, a militia group that protested in Louisville, has been indicted on wanton endangerment charges. Wednesday an indictment was returned by the Jefferson County Grand Jury against John Fitzgerald Johnson also known as "Grandmaster Jay." Johnson allegedly pointed an assault rifle at responding officers Sept. 4, 2020.
https://www.whas11.com/article/news/crime/nfac-grandmaster-jay-louisville-protest-grand-jury/417-1deb6a7b-d06c-432a-bf88-c18f2ffff786

US border agents engaged in ‘shocking abuses’ against asylum seekers, report finds
Shocking instances of sexual and physical abuse of asylum seekers at the southern US border by federal officers have been uncovered by Human Rights Watch, after a years-long battle to wrestle the information from the Department of Homeland Security under freedom of information laws.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/21/us-border-agents-shocking-abuses-asylum-seekers

‘Everybody’s excited’: Amazon workers in Staten Island to file for union vote
Amazon workers plan to file for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board next Monday, after months of organizing and collecting over 2,000 uPost too long. Click here to view the full text.

What Are the Prospects for Peace? An Interview With Abby Martin
Events are unfolding at a quickening pace. Facing an alarming escalation in tensions around the world, we are looking to our most respected and renowned thought leaders for an honest assessment of both U.S. foreign and military policy to offer their most current thoughts and insights. We know they have some ideas for improving the prospects for peace. Abby Martin is an American journalist, TV presenter and activist. She helped found the citizen journalism website Media Roots and serves on the board of directors for the Media Freedom Foundation which manages Project Censored. She hosted Breaking the Set on the Russian state-sponsored network RT America from 2012 to 2015, and then launched The Empire Files in that same year as an investigative documentary and interview series on Telesur, later released as a web series. In 2019, she released the film documentary, The Empire Files: Gaza Fights for Freedom. She continues her work opposing imperialism and promoting peace, as an independent filmmaker and journalist. We are extremely honored that she took the time to talk to us and share her views. Her responses below are exactly as she provided. The questions here are not philosophical or abstract. They focus on the realities of the international power struggle unfolding in real time. They directly address the role of the U.S. in the escalating tensions and its capacity to reduce them. We also probe the role of everyday citizens in affecting the relationship the U.S. now has and will have with the rest of the world community.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/10/20/what-are-the-prospects-for-peace-an-interview-with-abby-martin/

Afghanistan Withdrawal: Sundays With the Military Industrial Complex
As US troops finally made their exit from Afghanistan after 20 years of occupation, the Sunday shows—which have always aimed to set Washington agendas—were filled with guests who had direct ties to the military/industrial complex. FAIR analyzed three weeks of ABC‘s This Week, CBS‘s Face the Nation, CNN‘s State of the Union, Fox News Sunday and NBC‘s Meet the Press during the Afghanistan withdrawal (8/15/21, 8/22/21, 8/29/21). We recorded 36 featured guest appearances and 33 roundtable Post too long. Click here to view the full text.

US police hungry for discarded military gear now use climate change as pretext to get priority delivery – media
Local jurisdictions are increasingly citing extreme weather and other natural calamities in their applications, since Congress tweaked the program in its annual defense spending bill. Lawmakers instructed the DoD to give priority to “applications that request vehicles used for disaster-related emergency preparedness, such as high-water rescue vehicles” – a move that HuffPo describes as having “supercharged the incentives” to link climate concerns to military hardware.
https://www.rt.com/usa/537976-military-vehicles-climate-change-police/

Brooklyn Lawyers Plead Guilty in Firebomb Case
What happened next stunned many of their friends: The lawyers, Urooj Rahman and Colinford Mattis, were arrested in an attack using a Molotov cocktail on an empty police car. Federal prosecutors brought stiff charges against them: seven counts, including arson and civil disorder, which collectively could have carried a 45-year minimum sentence. They also argued that the lawyers were dangers to society.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/20/nyregion/george-floyd-protests-lawyers-plea-deal.html
https://archive.md/HeRE3

Arbitrator: Official wrongly fired in Flint water scandal
The only Michigan official fired in the Flint water catastrophe likely was a “public scapegoat” who lost her job because of politics, an arbitrator said in ordering $191,880 in back pay and other compensation.
https://apnews.com/article/environment-and-nature-michigan-flint-6273d7e81060d0c8fe9fb1f18949ddda

California governor declares drought emergency for entire state
"California is experiencing its worst drought since the late 1800s, as measured by both lack of precipitation and high temperatures," per a statement from the governor's office. This past August was the driestPost too long. Click here to view the full text.

Steven Estrada, Army veteran and Communist, running for Long Beach City Council
Steven Estrada, a community organizer, U.S. Army veteran, and proud member of Long Beach’s working class, is running for the City Council seat in District 1. If elected, he would serve for a four-year term alongside eight others representing different council districts. All but one of the present City Council members are Democrats, and the mayor, Robert Garcia since 2014, is as well, though the election itself is non-partisan. The primary for this seat will be held in June 2022, and the top two candidates will go on to the general election in November. What makes Estrada’s campaign unique is that he is running as an open member of the Communist Party USA. Will an article about his candidacy in People’s World (PW) hurt him? “The primary goal of the campaign is to win,” Estrada responds. “But also to disarm people from some common beliefs about what Communists believe in. We’re not running from our principles, nor from the redbaiting. We need to answer those questions, teaching and educating people.”
https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/steven-estrada-army-veteran-and-communist-running-for-long-beach-city-council/

Yemen faces a new war in the oil-rich south
In less than two months, Houthi forces have managed to take control of Yemen's southwestern al-Bayda province, reportedly expelling elements of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), tribal Salafi fighters and pro-government troops. Houthis have now moved into western Shabwah province, under the same pretext of chasing AQAP elements, as more government troops withdraw and amass in military bases around the provincial capital, Ataq. Southern elements accuse al-Islah Party-affiliated government troops of handing over territory to the Houthis while gathering troops to confront southern Shabwani Elite Forces (SEF) in southern Shabwah. While Houthi military gains capture current headlines, the conflict brewing in Shabwah threatens the continuity of the Saudi Arabia-sponsored Riyadh Agreement of 2019, and the opening of a third Yemeni fighting front, beyond Marib and the Red Sea coast, in the south of Yemen. The withdrawal and redeployment of pro-government troops into central Shabwah, which hPost too long. Click here to view the full text.

‘People are fed up’: Dollar General workers push to unionize amid hostility from above
Currently, none of the thousands of Dollar General retail stores are unionized, as the company is aggressively opposed to unions with a company philosophy of remaining “union free”. Yet a handful of workers at a Dollar General store in Barkhamsted, Connecticut, are pushing to change that, with a union election scheduled for 22 October to join the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW).
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/19/dollar-general-employees-union-drive-workers

Heaven Hill to hire replacement workers after union talks hit impasse; union fires back
Declaring an impasse in contract talks with striking union workers, global spirits producer Heaven Hill said Monday it will start hiring permanent replacement workers for bottling and warehouse operations in Kentucky. Union leaders responded that they're willing to continue negotiations and accused the company of wanting to replace longtime employees with non-union workers.
https://www.wlky.com/article/heaven-hill-to-hire-replacement-workers-after-union-talks-hit-impasse-union-fires-back/37996464#

Southwest drops plan to put unvaccinated staff on unpaid leave starting in December
Southwest Airlines has scrapped a plan to put unvaccinated employees who have applied for but haven’t received a religious or medical exemption on unpaid leave starting by a federal deadline in December.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/19/southwest-vaccine-mandate-unpaid-leave-exemptions.html

Price for drug that reverses opioid overdoses soars amid record deaths
Community groups working to prevent overdose deaths are now paying up to 30 times more for the life-saving medication – at a time when more Americans than ever are dying from overdoses. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday that nearly 100,000Post too long. Click here to view the full text.

France’s Fascist Pundit Éric Zemmour Is Winning Already
France’s presidential election next April was long expected to produce another runoff between the neoliberal Emmanuel Macron and the far-right Marine Le Pen. Yet in recent months the contest has been shaken up by another potential contender, dragging public debate even further to the right. An anti-immigrant, anti-Islam pundit, famous for his vitriolic interventions in both the conservative press and the Fox-like CNews, Éric Zemmour has long used his huge platform to claim that France faces a struggle for survival. A proponent of the fascist claim that France’s white population is being erased by a “great replacement,” he damns even Le Pen as weak on combating immigration. Now, French media is full of speculation that he is planning to run for the presidency. Aided by the constant publicity for Zemmour — already one of France’s most famous media figures — he now polls as high as 17 percent nationally. But as Stathis Kouvelakis writes, in an article originally published in French by Contretemps, this isn’t just a media bubble. Zemmour’s potential candidacy doubtless reflects upheavals of the French right, with the conservative Republicans in crisis and Le Pen’s party suffering setbacks in recent elections. Yet even the possibility of Zemmour being a serious contender also marks a wider turn to obsessive identitarian politics, which he himself has done much to catalyze.
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/10/france-far-right-eric-zemmour-le-pen-candidate-elections

China’s path to common prosperity will be a road littered with bitter complaints, fierce disputes
The vision is also pitched as a lesson learned from the West’s failures in order to prove the value and even superiority of China’s political economy system. Without naming the United States, Xi said inequality has led to the “collapse of the middle class, social divisions, political polarisation and widespread populism”. As such, China’s modernisation must be different. But a specific policy framework is still absent, and for now, China is still running an economic model that has made the country one of the most unequal economies in the world. If history and experiences in other countries can offer any reference, the difficult part is notPost too long. Click here to view the full text.

Manchin Sparks Fury With Demands for Work Requirement, $60K Income Cap on Child Tax Credit
Progressives responded with outrage following Sunday night's report that right-wing Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin has told the White House that he would only support prolonging the expanded child tax credit—a key component of his party's potentially historic investment in improving social welfare—if it includes a work requirement and limits benefits to households with annual incomes under $60,000.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/10/18/manchin-sparks-fury-demands-work-requirement-60k-income-cap-child-tax-credit

Supreme Court sides with police officers seeking ‘qualified immunity’ in two use-of-force cases
The Supreme Court in two cases Monday ruled police officers were entitled to protection from being sued over their use of force against suspects. The unsigned opinions, posted in the court’s periodic list of orders, both overturned lower appellate decisions.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/18/supreme-court-sides-with-police-officers-seeking-qualified-immunity.html

The US has a silent pig pandemic on its doorstep once again
The virus does not affect humans or meat quality, but is an almost certain death sentence for pigs. The US pork industry – worth $23bn (£17bn) a year – is in a panic, Latin America is on alert, and pork producers in the Dominican Republic and Haiti are haunted by memories of the US-funded eradication of their entire pork population when ASF last hit more than 40 years ago.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/oct/17/the-us-has-a-silent-pig-pandemic-on-its-doorstep-once-again

Exxon tells Texas refinery workers lockout will end if contract approved or union removed
Exxon Mobil Corp on Sunday told workers at its Beaumont, Texas, refinery their six-month lockout will end if they ratify the company's contract oPost too long. Click here to view the full text.

Joma Sison On Three Viewpoints Concerning The 2022 Elections In The Philippines
Let me discuss three kinds of viewpoints regarding the prospective 2022 presidential elections. These are the viewpoints of the revolutionary movement led by the Communist Party of the Philippines; the legal patriotic and democratic movement involved in the electoral struggle; and the competing conservative or reactionary parties and groups that wish to preserve the imperialist-dominated ruling system of big compradors, landlords and bureaucrat capitalists who can otherwise be called corrupt politicians.
https://www.redspark.nu/en/peoples-war/joma-sison-on-three-viewpoints-concerning-the-2022-elections-in-the-philippines/

Endless Enemies and the Permanent War Economy
The targeting of the Obama years is telling not only because of the surge. Mr. Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize as he entered office, giving him the defaulted moniker as the “Peace President.” His acceptance speech mimicked the reasons the committee gave for granting him the prize. It voted to affirm his desire to achieve peace, likely swayed by the impact of his pre-election speeches, masterful pieces of rhetoric against war (and against neoliberalism as well, though effectively nullified after the election). The speech itself then was an embarrassing justification for the potential of war to produce peace. If the committee had voted after his decision to boot up the Afghan War, he would probably have gotten the prize anyway since the war’s material subsidies indentured a host of players and interests and bolstered support for it. So, the rhetoric of the speech and the decision soon after to expand the war, mesh efficiently into a saleable message that nicely smooths over an embarrassing contradiction.The power players know it’s a contradiction and their role, realized through their media influence, is too make the peace-though-war message seem uncontradictory, convince citizens who have little interest in foreign policy anyway (they typically defer to elites), to accept this as natural. Their endless repetition of this message through official venues converts falsity into “truth.” An effect of this overkill is the cultivation of support for a permanent war economy, not Post too long. Click here to view the full text.

Thousands of frustrated Puerto Ricans protest against ongoing power outages
The group of more than 4,000 protesters blocked a highway in the capital of San Juan with speakers on vehicles blasting “My power went out, damn it, and now my fridge will be ruined,” The Associated Press reported. The protest went into the night with protesters pulling out their phones once it got dark and turning their flashlights on.
https://thehill.com/policy/international/577033-thousands-of-frustrated-puerto-ricans-protest-against-ongoing-power
https://archive.is/sWHtw

US throws out millions of doses of Covid vaccine as world goes wanting
At least 15m doses were scrapped in the US between March and September, according to one analysis of CDC data. A separate investigation found 1m doses were discarded in 10 states between December and July. States continue tossing unused shots. Louisiana has thrown out 224,000 unused doses of the Covid vaccines – a rate that has almost tripled since the end of July, even as a deadly fourth wave of the virus gripped the state.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/16/us-throws-out-millions-doses-covid-vaccine-world-shortages

Michigan to replace lead pipes in Benton Harbor in 18 months amid drinking water crisis
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued an executive directive Thursday to help residents of Benton Harbor access safe drinking water, vowing to replace all lead pipes by April 2023. The directive comes a week after officials urged locals in Benton Harbor, a city of 9,600 people, to use bottled water for drinking, cooking and brushing teeth due to elevated levels of lead in water testing.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/michigan-replace-lead-pipes-benton-harbor-18-months/story?id=80601350

Biden: "Being a cop today is one hell of a lot harder than it's ever been"Post too long. Click here to view the full text.

Chapo Trap House: Bonus: Teamsters Deliver The Goods 2
Amber welcomes back Rhode Island teamster Mike Maini for some union talk. They discuss union internal politics, rank and file leadership, the value of strikes, and organizing Amazon.
https://soundcloud.com/chapo-trap-house/bonus-teamsters-deliver-the-goods-2

Shortages and bottlenecks expose anarchy of the capitalist system
In the past months, the world economy has been creeping towards a state of disarray. Shops have been running out of goods; gas stations have been running out of gas; energy prices have shot up; and major western harbours have become completely clogged up with swarms of ships queuing up, sometimes having to wait weeks to unload. Just as we were told that the COVID crisis was over and that life was bouncing back to normal, the world market is feeling the drag of a series of converging crises. From supply chains and labour markets, to the energy sector and transportation: bottlenecks have been mushrooming across the world market, leaving the strategists of capital worried and scratching their heads. Things which were taken for granted, such as the fact that a particular product will be available or produced, and furthermore that it will be delivered within a reasonable time, can no longer be taken for granted. But ask the so-called experts and they will struggle to explain what is fundamentally happening. For them, all this appears as a peculiar concatenation of accidents – all coincidentally occurring at the same time. This goes to prove that piles of facts are of no use if you do not understand the underlying process that they reflect. The wild swings that we are witnessing in the world economy expose a system which is tied up in knots, and which is incapable of responding to the needs of humanity.
https://www.socialist.net/shortages-and-bottlenecks-expose-anarchy-of-capitalism.htm

The Thomas Sankara I Knew: AN INTERVIEW WITH JOSÉPHINE OUÉDRAOGO
On August 4, 1983, a thirty-three-year-old army officer called Thomas Sankara seized power in Upper Volta, which he soon renamed Burkina Faso. At the head of what one historPost too long. Click here to view the full text.

Lawyer: ‘Preposterous’ to blame Afghan man in US war deaths
The lawyer for an Afghan man awaiting trial in Manhattan federal court on charges that he commanded the Taliban fighters responsible in the killing of three American soldiers said Friday it was “preposterous” to charge his client in deaths that occurred in a war the U.S. started.
https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-business-manhattan-journalists-kidnapping-8bac93bf0597bdb74d85c6228189a1b9

Minneapolis Police Caught on Video ‘Hunting’ Activists
It was the evening of May 30th, 2020, five days after Officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd. An 8 p.m. curfew was in effect, but a group of Minneapolis cops weren’t keeping the peace — they were sowing chaos. Armed with 40 mm “less-lethal” crowd control guns, which fire oversized, foam-tipped rounds, officers roamed the city, looking for an excuse to fire: “The first fuckers we see,” one cop brags, “we’re just handling them with 40s.”
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/minneapolis-police-video-hunting-activists-jaleel-stallings-1241227/

Koch Latino group endorses Youngkin for Virginia governor
Youngkin is in a dead heat against former Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) in a race that could set the tone for the 2022 midterms. The Libre Initiative, part of mega-donor Charles Koch's political network, is an advocacy group that promotes free-market ideas among U.S. Hispanics.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/576957-koch-latino-group-endorses-youngkin-for-virginia-governor
https://archive.is/hrRJx

Biden administration says it’s ready to restore ‘Remain in Mexico’ along border next month
The Biden administration is prepared to reimplement the Trump-era border policy known as the Migrant Protection Protocols in mid-November if the MPost too long. Click here to view the full text.

A peacefully reunified Ireland best way out of present impasse
FOR all the huffing, puffing and hot air accompanying UK-EU negotiations over the Northern Ireland Protocol to the 2020 Withdrawal Agreement, one fundamental fact should not be overlooked. This is that both sides are seeking a settlement which, in the circumstances, best suits the interests of monopoly capital in Britain and the European Union. The interests of the people of Ireland, north and south, unionist and nationalist, Catholic and Protestant, are not uppermost in the minds of Britain’s Lord Frost and his EU Commission counterparts. Neither the British state nor the European Union are above endangering the peace by engaging in a little brinkmanship. During the EU-UK withdrawal negotiations, prominent EU politicians and bureaucrats hinted that any failure to agree arrangements that respected EU neoliberal capitalist rules by — in reality — keeping Northern Ireland within the European Single Market could force the EU to impose north-south border controls.
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/e/peacefully-reunified-ireland-best-way-out-present-impasse

Behind NATO’s ‘cognitive warfare’: ‘Battle for your brain’ waged by Western militaries
NATO is developing new forms of warfare to wage a “battle for the brain,” as the military alliance put it. The US-led NATO military cartel has tested novel modes of hybrid warfare against its self-declared adversaries, including economic warfare, cyber warfare, information warfare, and psychological warfare. Now, NATO is spinning out an entirely new kind of combat it has branded cognitive warfare. Described as the “weaponization of brain sciences,” the new method involves “hacking the individual” by exploiting “the vulnerabilities of the human brain” in order to implement more sophisticated “social engineering.” Until recently, NATO had divided war into five different operational domains: air, land, sea, space, and cyber. But with its development of cognitive warfare strategies, the military alliance is discussing a new, sixth level: the “human domain.”
https://thegrayzone.com/2021/10/08/nato-cognitive-warfare-brain/
Post too long. Click here to view the full text.

Sanders blaming spending bill delay on corporate lobbying
“As part of our corrupt, big-money dominated political system, the pharmaceutical industry is now spending hundreds of millions of dollars on lobbying, campaign contributions and television ads to defeat this legislation because it does not want Medicare to negotiate for lower prescription drug prices,” Sanders alleged in the op-ed.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/576595-sanders-blaming-spending-bill-delay-on-corporate-lobbying
https://archive.is/Bh1YS

U.S. Senator Sinema rejects vote on big Biden package before infrastructure-source
U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema, a key moderate, told fellow Democrats in the House of Representatives this week that she will not vote for a multitrillion-dollar package that is a top priority for President Joe Biden before Congress approves a $1 trillion infrastructure bill, according to a source briefed on the meeting.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-senator-sinema-rejects-vote-big-biden-package-before-infrastructure-source-2021-10-14/

House Progressives to Pelosi: Reject Divisive Means-Testing in Favor of Universal Benefits
Leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus on Wednesday reiterated their top-level priorities for the nascent reconciliation package and urged their fellow Democrats to pursue universal programs instead of "complicated methods of means-testing that the wealthy and powerful will use to divide us."
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/10/14/house-progressives-pelosi-reject-divisive-means-testing-favor-universal-benefits

Biden admin to invest $100M to address health care worker shortage
Pulled from funding in the American Rescue Plan, the $100 million represents one of the nation’s biggest investments in a program that helPost too long. Click here to view the full text.

Rahm Emanuel Is Back, Thanks to Some Corporate-Funded Rehabilitation Efforts
In 2019, Rahm Emanuel left the Chicago mayor’s office in disgrace after the public learned that his administration had suppressed video of police murdering black teenager Laquan McDonald. It didn’t take long, however, for the Washington establishment to bring him back into the fold, first welcoming him as a political pundit and now rewarding him with a potential ambassadorship. But financial disclosures that Emanuel was required to file after President Joe Biden nominated him for ambassador to Japan shed new light on how corporate interests continued to line Emanuel’s pockets after he left office in Chicago and took to cable news to disparage progressives. Those disclosures reveal that while he was being paid by ABC News to push a corporate agenda, Emanuel was also being paid millions by a firm that advises companies that stand to win if Biden’s agenda fails. He also received more than $300,000 for speeches to corporations and industry trade groups, as well as a board seat at a health care company benefiting from privatized Medicare coverage.
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/10/rahm-emanuel-corporate-ties-medicare-japan-ambassador

Who Cares About the Pandora Papers?
When it comes to Russia, while a cast of the high and the mighty appear, inevitably media attention has focused on anything that can be linked with Putin, notably allegations about the family of a reputed former girlfriend. That reflects Western media obsessions as much as anything else. But does it really matter? First of all, the news can be mobilized for political purposes in other ways, too. The relatively innocuous discovery that before his election, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy moved millions of dollars assets into a network of offshores, in collaboration with his aid Serhiy Shefir and present security service chief Ivan Bakanov, has been pounced on with glee not just by his political enemies but also the Russian media. Given his carefully cultivated image as the one honest man in Ukrainian politics, the impression of impropriety ⁠— even if everything he did was legal ⁠— is a problem. Secondly, the very scale of the revelations dilutes their impact by contributing to the sense ⁠— not entirely iPost too long. Click here to view the full text.

More than 100K workers threaten strikes as unions flex muscles
More than 100,000 unionized employees — between Hollywood production crew members, John Deere factory workers and Kaiser Permanente nurses — have overwhelmingly voted to authorize strikes and are preparing to join the picket line unless they get stronger collective bargaining agreements.
https://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/576456-more-than-100k-workers-threaten-strikes-as-unions-flex-muscles
https://archive.is/ooUPI

Judge asks DOJ to probe D.C. jail's treatment of Capitol riot detainee
The department has been the subject of heavy criticism from inmates, lawyers and judges over its living conditions, the Washington Post reports. During the pandemic, for around 400 days, officials imposed a 23-hour-a-day lockdown policy to enforce social distancing. The rule was eased this summer.
https://www.axios.com/judge-doj-probe-dc-jail-capitol-riot-ec414a97-6a53-40c8-87b2-67e4f7b7a5d6.html

Southern California fire shuts highway, forces evacuations
Evacuation orders were expanded Tuesday for a growing wildfire driven by intense winds that has shut down a key Southern California highway for more than a day. At least 200 firefighters battled the Alisal Fire, which had scorched 21 square miles (54 square kilometers) along coastal Santa Barbara County and was only 5% contained, county fire officials said.
https://apnews.com/article/wildfires-business-weather-trees-fires-b79f1cf1af3f09b32b9d262e77ff965e

America is in a spiritual war against ‘Satan liberal evil communist socialist’ Democrats says GOP House candidate
A GOP candidate for a U.S. House of Representatives seat from South Carolina is attacking Democrats as being a "Satan liberal evil communist socialist" party, and proclaiming America is "absolutely" in a spiritual war. PPost too long. Click here to view the full text.

Chapo Trap House: 566 - Dopeness Report (10/12/21)
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https://soundcloud.com/chapo-trap-house/566-dopeness-report-101221

Sudan coup attempt is a warning that civilian transition is in danger
In accordance with the country’s 2019 power-sharing agreement, Sudan has since been ruled by a joint civilian-military transitional government. But amid ongoing tensions between the ruling partners, a coup was thwarted late last month, ironically coinciding with US President Joe Biden’s speech at the United Nations in which he praised Sudan’s democratic transition. Following the failed coup attempt, thousands of Sudanese people staged protests in Khartoum, calling for civilian rule and sustainable peace. The military fired tear gas to disperse them. The 21 September coup attempt came in an atmosphere fuelled by tension, distrust and myriad controversies besetting the transitional government. Immediately after the coup attempt, Mohammed al-Faki Suleiman, a civilian member of Sudan’s Sovereign Council, issued a call on social media for the democratic transition to be protected by Sudanese citizens, noting: “The revolution is victorious.” He is now viewed as a revolutionary icon. Suleiman is also a member of the Committee to Dismantle the June 30, 1989 Regime and Retrieve Public Funds. In the wake of recent events, the military withdrew all security forces guarding the committee’s headquarters. Tensions between the ruling partners went even further when Mohamed Hamdan Dagolo, known as Hemeti, the deputy leader of the Sovereign Council, publicly blamed civilian politicians for the coup attempt. “Politicians are the main cause behind coups because they have neglected the average citizen … and are more concerned fighting over how they can stay in power.” General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the council’s chair, made an even more shocking statement: “Sudan doesn’t have an elected government at the moment and the armed forces remain the custodian of Sudan’s security and unity.”
Post too long. Click here to view the full text.

Jail and prison suicides increased by 39% over last 2 decades, federal data shows
Federal data on the number of suicides in local, state and federal correctional facilities in 2020 won’t be available until next year. But data collected by the Texas Justice Initiative suggests that at least 163 more people have died by suicide in Texas correctional facilities in 2020 and this year. Those numbers might be driven by the additional challenges prisoners have faced during the coronavirus pandemic, The Marshall Project reported.
https://www.heraldonline.com/news/nation-world/national/article254871862.html#storylink=mainstage_lead
https://archive.is/ce2xb

Fewer in US turn to food banks, but millions still in need
Hunger and food insecurity across the United States have dropped measurably over the past six months, but the need remains far above pre-pandemic levels. And specialists in hunger issues warn that the situation for millions of families remains extremely fragile.
https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-lifestyle-united-states-health-hunger-2c509e7e1ce108c47287b42315e2a0c3

Supreme Court signals it will side with Kentucky attorney general in bid to defend restrictive abortion law
The Supreme Court on Tuesday considered a Republican attorney general’s bid to defend a restrictive Kentucky abortion law, with some liberal justices sounding skeptical that a lower court was right to reject that request to intervene.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/12/supreme-court-signals-it-will-side-with-kentucky-ags-bid-to-defend-abortion-law.html

First look: Dems’ NFT dreams
A group of Democratic operatives plans to turn political memorabilia and photos into NFTs, looking to raise money by minting — and then selling — digital assets beyond the sports and entertainmenPost too long. Click here to view the full text.

9 October 1998: The beginning of the international conspiracy against Öcalan
Exactly 23 years ago, the international powers that wanted to eradicate the Kurdish freedom movement took part in a major conspiracy against Mr Abdullah Öcalan, leader of the Kurdish people. The US administration spearheaded this conspiracy. With NATO’s lead, countries like Turkey, Britain, Greece, Israel, Russia and Kenya and several others were actively involved. Pressured by the threat of war, Syria, where Öcalan had been residing, expelled him from the country on 9 October 1998 and he was offered entry into Greece. Despite making promises, Greece did not accept him and he was sent to Russia. When he was not accepted there, he moved on to Italy. Again Italy succumbed to pressure and he was forced to leave, going back to Russia. Despite promising to allow him to stay, he was then sent from Russia to Greece. The Greeks took him to Kenya and as a result of their duplicity and with Kenyan cooperation, Öcalan was handed over on 15 February 1999 to the Turkish State.
https://anfenglishmobile.com/features/9-october-1998-the-beginning-of-the-international-conspiracy-against-Ocalan-55426

The Communist Party of Turkey on the Kurdish Issue
"A small segment of the population in Turkey possesses enormous wealth, while millions of people are struggling with poverty and unemployment. The happy minority consists of the bosses, the large landowners and the parasitic rich off rent. As workers, laborers, and poor peasants work, this segment grows richer, accumulating more and more profits. There are millions of Kurdish citizens among the poor of this unjust system of exploitation in Turkey. Kurds are mostly poor, just like the citizens of other origins. There are also Kurds who exploit others in this country. Kurdish factory bosses, large landowners, moneylenders, contractors are part of Turkey’s happy minority. The interests of the Kurds who exploit and the interests of other exploiters are one and the same. They want the continuation of the unjust order, they look for new profits, and seize every opportunity to become even richer. And the interests of the exploited, poor and unemployed Kurds are one and the same as those of the other poor and unemployed: Post too long. Click here to view the full text.

US Navy nuclear engineer and wife arrested for trying to sell submarine secrets to ‘foreign power’
A Maryland nuclear engineer and his wife have been arrested and charged with espionage for trying to sell classified information on US nuclear submarines to a foreign power. Their scheme was foiled in an FBI sting operation. Jonathan and Diana Toebbe, of Annapolis, Maryland, were arrested in Jefferson County, West Virginia, by the FBI and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service on Saturday, according to a Justice Department press release.
https://www.rt.com/usa/537118-nuclear-engineer-submarine-secrets-espionage/

With current contract expiring Friday, UAW members reject new agreement with John Deere
UAW Vice President Chuck Browning, who has led negotiations with the company, said in a statement Sunday night that 90% of members voted against a contract that the two sides proposed. He said UAW International staff, along with presidents and chairs of nine locals, will return to the bargaining table Monday. Some locals in Iowa posted on Facebook that workers will go on strike if Deere doesn't meet the UAW"s demands by the end of Wednesday.
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/business/2021/10/10/uaw-united-auto-workers-members-overwhelmingly-reject-john-deere-contract-sunday/6020190001/
https://archive.is/92qIP

Left warns of “double threat”
A progressive group warns Democrats they're facing a "double threat" heading into the midterms: voters of color aren't supporting Democratic candidates at the same rates, and the Republican Party is inspiring first-time voters of color to turn out and support it instead.
https://www.axios.com/democrats-2022-midterms-double-threat-bd4525c6-078a-4c40-90e6-0a50a5b6a920.html

Hydropower decline adds strain to power grids in drPost too long. Click here to view the full text.

Survival of the Richest:(Douglas Rushkoff Jul 5, 2018)
The Event. That was their euphemism for the environmental collapse, social unrest, nuclear explosion, unstoppable virus, or Mr. Robot hack that takes everything down. This single question occupied us for the rest of the hour. They knew armed guards would be required to protect their compounds from the angry mobs. But how would they pay the guards once money was worthless? What would stop the guards from choosing their own leader? The billionaires considered using special combination locks on the food supply that only they knew. Or making guards wear disciplinary collars of some kind in return for their survival. Or maybe building robots to serve as guards and workers — if that technology could be developed in time. That’s when it hit me: At least as far as these gentlemen were concerned, this was a talk about the future of technology. Taking their cue from Elon Musk colonizing Mars, Peter Thiel reversing the aging process, or Sam Altman and Ray Kurzweil uploading their minds into supercomputers, they were preparing for a digital future that had a whole lot less to do with making the world a better place than it did with transcending the human condition altogether and insulating themselves from a very real and present danger of climate change, rising sea levels, mass migrations, global pandemics, nativist panic, and resource depletion. For them, the future of technology is really about just one thing: escape.
https://onezero.medium.com/survival-of-the-richest-9ef6cddd0cc1

Private Facebook Group that Organized the July Protests in Cuba Plans Bigger Ones Soon
After gaining access to their private Facebook group, MintPress can reveal that the people who sparked the July 11 protests in Cuba are planning similar actions for October and November. The group, La Villa del Humor, is widely credited with providing the initial spark that ignited nationwide protests on the Caribbean island in the summer, the most significant demonstrations since the 1990s. On July 10, one of the group’s administrators posted this message: Tired of not having electricity? Stubborn because they didn’t let you sleep for 3 days? Tired of putting up with the impudence of a government that doesn’t care about you? It is time to go out and demand. Do not Post too long. Click here to view the full text.

Far-right American extremists under investigation by the DOJ for Ukraine war crimes: report
At issue is Americans joining, "Right Sector, a volunteer far-right nationalist group that formed in November 2013 and later created a paramilitary force to respond to Russia's invasion of eastern Ukraine in spring 2014," the report states. … Based on the evidence gathered, the DOJ appeal says, the Americans 'allegedly committed or participated in torture, cruel or inhuman treatment or murder of persons who did not take (or stopped taking) an active part in hostilities and (or) intentionally inflicted grievous bodily harm on them.'"
https://www.rawstory.com/far-right-ukraine/

Pipeline company evades questions over a 15-hour gap before reporting oil spill
At 8:55 a.m. Saturday, an emergency response employee at the crisis company Witt O’Brien’s informed federal authorities that a leaking pipeline had sent crude oil pouring into the water off Orange County, turbocharging the U.S. Coast Guard’s investigation of a substantial spill that residents miles inland said they could smell. That was 15 hours after the first reports of oil in the water, at 6 p.m. Friday, began trickling in. This gap between Friday evening and Saturday morning remains one of the least understood and potentially vital parts of the oil spill, filled with unanswered questions and contradictions.
https://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/nation-world/article254887402.html#storylink=cpy
https://archive.is/FBxo5

220+ Groups Blast Biden Plan to Expand 'Harmful, Abusive, and Unjust' ICE Prisons
More than 220 human rights groups on Friday sent a letter to U.S. President Joe Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas expressing their outrage over the administration's plans to reopen and expand immigration detention centers in violation of the president's campaign promises.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/10/08/Post too long. Click here to view the full text.

Working Class History E55: Gwangju uprising, part 3
Part 3 of our four-part podcast miniseries about the May 18 uprising in Gwangju, South Korea, in 1980 against the US-backed military dictatorship of Chun Doo Hwan. We speak with Kim Yong Ho, David Dolinger and Jeon Yong Ho, who took part in the events, as well as researcher and lead translator of the excellent book, Gwangju Diary, Kap Su Seol.
https://soundcloud.com/workingclasshistory/gwangju-uprising-part-3

A look at the new ‘Conservative realist’ policy
ARMED Forces Minister James Heappey said at a Conservative Party fringe meeting that Britain would probably have to “hold its nose” and do a deal with the Taliban. Addressing a packed meeting on Afghanistan, the minister showed how far the Conservative leadership is drifting away from the “neoconservative,” interventionist approaches they embraced after September 11 2001. Heappey was addressing a meeting of Conservative Friends of Afghanistan, which was “marking the 20th anniversary of British troops in Afghanistan,” but did so like the wake for a failed policy. Heappey told the audience: “There is one part of the Taliban we can, sort of, hold our nose and work with,” saying: “We are going to have to work out when the right time is to recognise, work with and try to build a relationship with Afghanistan.” In part, Heappey argued this because the very real danger of a “humanitarian disaster” if the West simply refuses to recognise the Taliban and continues “freezing the assets” of the country. Much of Afghanistan’s budget is held abroad and currently frozen as the new government is not recognised. This could mean salaries of healthcare workers and cash for emergency supplies dry up. A strategy to deny the Taliban recognition could punish the Afghan people and cause many deaths.
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/f/what-new-conservative-realist-policy

Deathly Silence: Journalists Who Mocked Assange Have Nothing to Say About CIA Plans to Kill Him
Yahoo! News (9/26/21) published a bombshell report detailing the US Central Intelligence Agency’s “secret war plans against WikiLeaks,” including clandesPost too long. Click here to view the full text.

Oxfam Denounces Global Tax Deal as 'Dangerous Capitulation' to Corporate Dodgers
A global tax deal reached Friday by 136 countries was widely hailed as a "historic" step toward a more just and equitable economic order. But global humanitarian groups and policy experts warned that a closer look at the agreement reveals it to be a "shameful and dangerous capitulation" to corporate tax dodgers and the countries that enable them.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/10/08/oxfam-denounces-global-tax-deal-dangerous-capitulation-corporate-dodgers

HelloFresh Is Paying Thousands Of Dollars A Day To Anti-Union Consultants
Filings with the Labor Department dated Oct. 7 (here and here) show that Germany-based HelloFresh is forking over $3,500 a day, plus expenses, to each consultant hired through the “union avoidance” firm Kulture Consulting, which is run by CEO Peter List. The filings list seven different consultants being used between two HelloFresh facilities in Colorado and California, suggesting the company could spend more than $20,000 in a day if all the consultants were deployed.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hellofresh-is-paying-thousands-of-dollars-a-day-to-anti-union-consultants_n_616043d1e4b0196444241908
https://archive.is/0IRHz

Senate Republicans sow disinformation after $480bn US debt ceiling deal
Top Republicans in the Senate are advancing a campaign of disinformation over the debt ceiling as they seek to distort the reasons for needing to raise the nation’s borrowing cap, after they dropped their blockade on averting a US debt default in a bipartisan manner.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/08/senate-republicans-us-debt-ceiling-deal-congress

US Postal Service hit with lawsuit over DeJoy's plan to slow delivery of first-class mailPost too long. Click here to view the full text.