Will Biden Build More Nukes Like Obama Did, Or Will The New Administration Observe International Law?

 

Reposting this letter from my inbox with a handy tool to tell your representatives in Congress you support the U.S. observing international law by banning nuclear weapons. Who will they listen to -- constituents concerned about heading off humanitarian disaster, or their wealthy campaign donors?

From Physicians for Social Responsibility:

Dear Lisa, Around the world, the call to "Ban the Bomb" arose even before Physicians for Social Responsibility was first founded, in 1961. Now, at long last, the Bomb has been banned with the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).  With your help, PSR has worked for nearly a decade to promote this treaty, alongside ICAN, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. Adopted by 122 nations at the UN in July, 2017, and now ratified by 51 of them, the TPNW officially “enters into force” on Friday, January 22, 2021. This is a time to celebrate, but it is also a time to share the news! So far, during the Obama and Trump administrations, the United States has opted not to sign onto the treaty. Therefore, the United States is not party to the treaty or its obligations (yet). Nevertheless, PSR welcomes TPNW entry into force because this new treaty delegitimizes nuclear weapons everywhere, and expresses the worldwide desire for getting rid of every last one of them. Nuclear weapons threaten all of humanity, and it's time for the United States to work for their total elimination. Help PSR and ICAN publicly celebrate this victory for humanity. Make sure that the Members of Congress that represent you hear about this historic event, and ask them to respond.

Take Action

Sincerely, Martin Fleck Director, Nuclear Weapons Abolition Program

In Sophisticated Propaganda, Even The Reverse Isn't True

 

On this inauguration day, as Democrats pretend that all will be well under a neoliberal regime headed by the very corporations that are killing the life support systems of our planet, and that empty promises are as good as kept, I'm worried. 

False dichotomy is a very effective tool for keeping the masses confused. The above meme claiming "the left" just won* the presidential election is not stupid, it is dangerous.

And we've lived through this before.

President Obama was constantly portrayed as a socialist or communist by propagandists and political enemies. Meanwhile, the banks got bailed out and the people got sold out on his watch. (And Occupy Wall Street encampments were violently evicted in a coordinated national effort.)

Also, Chelsea Manning and free speech martyr Julian Assange were jailed and tortured for revealing war crimes and financial crimes. Their fellow whistleblower Edward Snowden escaped the empire's grasp to go into exile in Russia; he was at risk of suffering their fate for revealing that the federal government was conducting illegal surveillance of us all.

And those who had opposed wars under George W. Bush mostly went to brunch rather than hold their handsome, articulate warmonger accountable.

Yesterday the Biden nominee for Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, (yet another recycled Obama administration hack) indicated a desire for the war in Afghanistan to continue indefinitely. He bemoaned the fact that the Obama administration overthrew the socilaist government of Libya without installing an effective replacement for Gadaffi, whom Hillary Clinton gloated about killing. 

Blinken not asked about most wars, not even Iraq, nor about his revolving door profiteering. He thinks Iran is evil but favors the agreement. He defends Libya war lies and war, arming Ukraine, freaking out over China. Asked how to rejoin the world he named 0 steps.

— David Swanson (@davidcnswanson) January 19, 2021

The inside job that allowed black clad men with zip ties to breach capitol security did not look like "the left" had any involvement. Someone who's paying attention told me Erik Prince and Blackwater -- or whatever he calls his band of mercenaries these days -- had their people inside.

The large number of clownish participants on January 6 tend to draw our attention, but let's not get distracted from what was allowed to happen -- and what it is being used to justify.

Photo: Leigh Vogel UPI/Rex/Shutterstock

In the 1970's my late father warned a teenaged me, "Watch for the U.S. to become a police state. It's already well underway." 

Let's not be distracted by the shiny surface of things, but instead keep our eye on the ball.

*A handy guide to know if "the left" ever comes to power in Washington DC: we'll get universal health care and guaranteed basic income.

Why Was The MAGA Attack On The Capitol Allowed To Happen?

Source: ACLU blog "The Patriot Act 10 Years Later"

In the 90's I was a public school teacher in central Maine who was told that, to keep my job, I needed to give up my fingerprints to the FBI's database to prove that I wasn't a child molester. No one had accused me of being a child molester, and I knew that most suspected child molesters are encouraged to resign and move far away to spare superintendents the pain of an ugly public relations fiasco. Thus their fingerprints were not in any database of convicted child molesters.

I had been a busy working mom with little time for political action. Then my 9 year old was fingerprinted at school even after I expressly forbid the school to do that. These experiences radicalized me and I began working against the educator fingerprinting law in Maine. Twice we managed to have the law overturned, and twice the governor vetoed it. I resigned over the issue and moved to California to earn more money while I had two kids in college at the same time.

After hearing news from his chief of staff that the second tower of the World Trade Center had been hit by a plane, the president seemed pensive but went on reading to students in a Florida classroom. Screenshot via YouTube

Then 9/11 was allowed to happen.

Then Joe Biden's Patriot Act passed with breathtaking speed, curtailing our civil liberties and giving sweeping surveillance powers to the federal government because "terror" had frightened us. Then the never ending "war on terror" began for control of energy resources and shipping lanes, and we still go without universal health care to pay for it.

Then I moved back to Maine and got fingerprinted because I needed the health care for my family.

Now comes the January 6 MAGA attack on the Capitol. Why was it allowed to happen do you suppose?

It wasn't a surprise attack at all but was well-publicized in advance.

Whether Capitol and DC municipal police opened the fencing to allow the MAGA mob in to the Capitol grounds, or simply failed to defend the line when the mob pushed into them, seems like a moot point. (Remember when the National Guard teargassed peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters in Lafayette Park so the occupant of the White House could walk to a nearby church and pose with a Bible? Remember how the Guard were directing traffic Jan. 6 while legislators were under attack?) Via AP

Cue the new even more repressive laws the public has been led to believe are needed because "domestic terror" has frightened us. 

My prediction: we will continue to go without universal health care to pay for more policing and spying on ourselves.

Australian Caitlin Johnstone as usual is seeing things with a clearer eye from Oz:

The narrative managers' ability to move liberals and progressives from "Defund the police" to "MOAR POLICING" in just a few months was even more impressive than their ability to move them from "Believe Women" and #MeToo to "Tara Reid is a lying grifter".

 My family member points out the danger to Black, Indigenous, and other people of color:

We have a long history of institutional racism. So when you talk about expanding anti domestic terrorism powers it’s a pretty safe prediction that it’s going to carried out in a racist way and in service of capital.

Also, say a Biden admin handles it as well as possible, what does the next republican administration do with those expanded powers? It’s Pandora’s box. You don’t open it and then see what happens, once you’re there it’s too late. 

Also, I'm guessing another purpose of allowing violent intruders with handcuffs at the ready to break into the Capitol was to discourage Medicare for All candidates like me from running for Congress. 

And about that man dressed all in black with the bouquet of plastic zip-ties whose photograph is being circulated widely? Perfect set up for right wing propagandists to make the false claim that Antifa was behind the MAGA crowd.

It looks like another event is being planned for January 17.

Impeaching the current occupant of Camp David will not solve our problems, and many argue it's a waste of time at this point, but it should be done anyway to keep the grifter off the public dole and unable to issue any more pardons. 

For those wondering if it’s worth impeaching him this time, it means he:
1) loses his 200k+ pension for the rest of his life
2) loses his 1 million dollar/year travel allowance
3) loses lifetime full secret service detail
4) loses his ability to run in 2024

— Ben Costiloe (@BenCostiloe) January 8, 2021

People who think the Biden administration is going to save us from any of this are not paying attention. Or, possibly, they are too young to remember what Senator Obama did directly after receiving the nomination of the Democratic Party.

He voted to grant immunity to the big telecom corporations for spying on all of us after 9/11.

It's Not The Burning Of The Reichstag -- That Happened 20 Years Ago #9/11NeverForget

Okay, a few more than 13 have been arrested since I made this meme on Thursday.
But the number is still < 100. It is generally agreed that if the U.S. Capitol mob had been Black, the police would have arrested thousands.

The aftermath of an armed mob breaching the "security" of the U.S. Capitol building will be long and likely not very good for civil liberties, pandemic containment, or racial justice.

But I do wish people would stop comparing the event to the Reichstag (i.e. German capitol) arson that the Nazis used to kick up their takeover of Germany. The framing of a developmentally disabled worker with a Communist Party card in his pocket was the pretext for heightened surveillance and press censorship just before a key election. Military aggression and concentration camps for "others" followed.

Our Reichstag parallel event already occured -- on Sep. 11, 2001 -- with the bombing of the twin towers in New York City. The "Patriot" Act shredding our constitutional rights was pushed through immediately. Press censorship grew via control of online search engines and consolidation of independent outlets by corporate behemoths.

Office of Inspector General/Department of Homeland Security via Getty Images

Military aggression and concentration camps for "others" followed.

Some of the lies and misinformation swirling around the storming of the U.S. Capitol include right wing media claiming that antifa were masquerading as Trump supporters. This will help them spin the fact that a police officer is one of the five who died as the result of the mob violence. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick was injured and died later that day.

Three other people died of heart attacks and the like, but it is military veteran and Kew Anon believer Ashli Babbit who died first, bleeding out quickly after being shot by police when she tried to crawl through a window the mob had broken. 

Babbit had traveled all the way from San Diego, California to gather with hundreds of other unmasked white supremacists during a pandemic. Ironic, eh? As will be the wave of covid-19 infections from this super spreader event. 

Ironic, because their dear leader is generally understood to have lost the election due to his gross negligence and mismanagement of our public health crisis.

Here's the (white) spouse of sexual assault perpetrator Clarence Thomas fanning the flames:

On the morning of Jan. 6, Ginni Thomas—wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas—endorsed the protest demanding that Congress overturn the election, then sent her “LOVE” to the demonstrators, who violently overtook the Capitol several hours later. She has not posted since. pic.twitter.com/378CHMkFN5

— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) January 8, 2021

Democrats posing as the heroes of the current crisis are throwing around impeachment because it doesn't look like the Vice President will invoke the 25th Amendment to have Trump declared unfit. It would take cabinet members participating to do that, and nearly all of them have resigned this week. (Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is the latest, and I can hear teachers all over the country rejoicing.)

All these people in Congress talking about "I was scared for my life," today, Try losing your paycheck for 9 months and get back to us.

— Sean (@SeanB95926) January 7, 2021

Left commentators are cynically noting that Congress went into recess after working through the night to finish election certification interrupted by the mob. Dem members of Congress are tweeting about impeachment with less than two weeks remaining of the current administration, but have yet to take up the matter of universal health care which the vast majority of people in the U.S. need desperately. Priorities, priorities. In a crisis like this, who can think about something as mundane as health care? Not elected officials who already have it, that's who.

Dems are also cheering the banning of the commander in chief from Twitter and Facebook for spreading lies about the election outcome that led directly to lethal violence. Thoughtful commentators expect this to form the pretext for more silencing of dissent. 

via Getty

To sum up: the president who was elected due to millions in free media coverage from liberal publications who selected him as the best candidate for Hillary Clinton to beat incited a crowd who destroyed press equipment and defaced the interior of the capitol building with the message:

Remember: in the case of really sophisticated propaganda, even the reverse isn't true. 

U.S. Legacy Of Violent Regime Change Came Home To Roost Today

Every DC activist I know is commenting that if antiwar or racial justice or human rights protesters acted like the white supremacist thugs who maced police and shot weapons into the US Capitol today, they'd have been beaten, tear gassed, and arrested en masse. Or just shot dead, especially if they were Black, indigienous, or people of color.

Liberals meanwhile are responding with versions of  "Can't wait until January 20 so we can get back to normal."

But violent regime change is normal for U.S. government. 

It just usually happens somewhere else, out of hearing and unseen by most voters or taxpayers. Here's a partial list from the last several decades:

Overthrowing other people’s governments: The Master List

By William Blum

Instances of the United States overthrowing, or attempting to overthrow, a foreign government since the Second World War. (* indicates successful ouster of a government)

• China 1949 to early 1960s
• Albania 1949-53
• East Germany 1950s
• Iran 1953 *
• Guatemala 1954 *
• Costa Rica mid-1950s
• Syria 1956-7
• Egypt 1957
• Indonesia 1957-8
• British Guiana 1953-64 *
• Iraq 1963 *
• North Vietnam 1945-73
• Cambodia 1955-70 *
• Laos 1958 *, 1959 *, 1960 *
• Ecuador 1960-63 *
• Congo 1960 *
• France 1965
• Brazil 1962-64 *
• Dominican Republic 1963 *
• Cuba 1959 to present
• Bolivia 1964 *
• Indonesia 1965 *
• Ghana 1966 *
• Chile 1964-73 *
• Greece 1967 *
• Costa Rica 1970-71
• Bolivia 1971 *
• Australia 1973-75 *
• Angola 1975, 1980s
• Zaire 1975
• Portugal 1974-76 *
• Jamaica 1976-80 *
• Seychelles 1979-81
• Chad 1981-82 *
• Grenada 1983 *
• South Yemen 1982-84
• Suriname 1982-84
• Fiji 1987 *
• Libya 1980s
• Nicaragua 1981-90 *
• Panama 1989 *
• Bulgaria 1990 *
• Albania 1991 *
• Iraq 1991
• Afghanistan 1980s *
• Somalia 1993
• Yugoslavia 1999-2000 *
• Ecuador 2000 *
• Afghanistan 2001 *
• Venezuela 2002 *
• Iraq 2003 *
• Haiti 2004 *
• Somalia 2007 to present
• Honduras 2009 *
• Libya 2011 *
• Syria 2012
• Ukraine 2014 *

Q: Why will there never be a coup d’état in Washington?

A: Because there’s no American embassy there.

Good News, Bad News -- Which Do You Want First?

Me, I want to get the bad news up front but appreciate the warning (bad news coming): Nancy Pelosi, an 80 year old multi-millionaire so clueless she proudly showed off her two luxury refrigerators full of gelato during the first pandemic lockdown, yesterday was re-elected to lead the House of Representatives for her corporate sponsors. 

This after presiding over a pathetic $600 one time payment to struggling taxpayers while other countries have been providing thousands per month so people could afford to stay home.

The really bad news for many was that the so-called Squad of progressive Democrats in the House caved and supported Pelosi even though their followers were calling en masse for them to withhold their votes in order to #ForceTheVote on the wildly popular brand of universal health care, Medicare for All.

The fact that any progressive in Congress generally gets co-opted within a couple of years and falls obediently into line on behalf of her career is not a new phenomenon. 

Most mysterious to me is why people continue being (acting?) surprised when this happens.

Worthy of note is that my representative did something really unexpected and unusual: he voted for a fellow war veteran who serves in the U.S. Senate. This taught me that the Speaker of the House does not have to be a member of the House (who knew?), and suggests that he could not bring himself to vote for corporate shill Pelosi. The statement explaining his choice shows that he and his staff get the sentiment that is abroad in Maine and throughout the land:

I am of the opinion that only a general strike will bring about universal health care in the U.S. 

Our corporate overlords have long since indicated that we can eat shit and die as far as they're concerned. Withholding the labor that builds all that wealth would be powerful -- and calls to do so are growing every day. Status quo upholders claim "that will never happen" to which I say: return to your history books and read up on what happened when elites had bled the working class dry in empires of the past.

Ok, ready for the good news?

A conservative judge who was expected to extradite journalist Julian Assange to face trumped up espionage charges in the U.S. did not do so. Her stated reason: mistreatment during his long imprisonment by the UK on behalf of the U.S. has rendered him a suicide risk, and District Judge Vanessa Baraitser does not believe the conditions in U.S. prisons are such that Assange could be prevented from killing himself in custody. 

According to AP:

“I find that the mental condition of Mr. Assange is such that it would be oppressive to extradite him to the United States of America,” the judge said.

(Wondering if she was thinking about Jeffrey Epstein here. Does anyone really believe he killed himself in prison?)

According to independent journalist Jeremy Scahill:

Undoubtedly a victory that Assange extradition blocked. He may well have died in prison if extradited to the US. The UK judge was correct about the horrid conditions in US prisons. But this ruling largely supports the dangerous US position on the Assange case. Far from over.

— jeremy scahill (@jeremyscahill) January 4, 2021

So this one victory does not mean the persecution of Julian Assange for revealing evidence of war crimes via Wikileaks is over. In order to stay up to date on the health of the free press canary in the corporate coal mine, we can't rely on the Associated Press or other corporate news outlets who ignore him whenever possible. Instead, we can use this handly list compiled by independent journalist Kevin Gosztola of other reporters who are consistently paying attention.

Because without real news, we're doomed to die in the dark.

Black Lives Matter 2021: #SoHoKaren Miya Ponsetto Found In Calif.

Emmett Till's funeral which was open casket because his mother wanted the world to see what the false accusation by a white woman had done to her child.

What are the impacts of the "Karens" of the world? Many on Twitter are pointing out that a false accusation by a white woman led to 14 year old Emmett Till's brutal murder by a white mob in 1955.

Is it petty for social media users concerned with racial justice to focus on #SoHoKaren, a white woman who assaulted a 14 year old Black male on December 30 after falsely accusing him of stealing her phone in SoHo's Arlo Hotel?  (FYI, SoHo Arlo Hotel's phone number is 212-342-7000.)

Source: https://www.keyonharrold.com/

The teen's father, accomplished jazz musician Keyon Harrold, said:

"I want my son to grow up whole. That's all we want...

"I can't even come downstairs in New York City...and just go get brunch without being attacked and wrongfully accused of something."

Does it matter that the incident happened in New York City where a false report that a Black man bird-watching in Central Park was threatening her life led to Central Park "Karen" Amy Cooper being charged?

"Karen" has long since entered the lexicon to refer to women who use their white privilege to harrass and, often, endanger Black men, women, and children.

So when 22 year old Californian Miya Ponsetto is tagged "Karen" for literally tackling a young teen she decided had her phone (when she had actually lost the phone in an Uber) we all know what that means.

She's dangerous. 

In an interview she gave to CNN she claimed she was assaulted, despite both hotel security cameras and the teen's dad's cell phone video which show otherwise.

Ponsetto turned up next getting McDonald's takeout in Simi Valley, California after returning quickly from NYC. Where she does not reside. Nor was she a guest at the Arlo Hotel where the manager had her back rather than that of the Black family who were actually guests.

Ponsetto's statements to the videographer that she's 22 (i.e. 8 years older than the kid she assaulted while his dad defended him) and "I'm also Puerto Rican" may indicate privilege and may also indicate that she's not very bright.

Doubtful that she's as talented as the dad who tried to defend his son from her. Playing a mean jazz trumpet got Grammy-winner Keyon Harrold out of Ferguson, Missouri by his own account. Ferguson, where in 2014 officer Darren Wilson shot unarmed teenager Michael Brown in the back over an alleged theft of cigars from a store --  and then left him to bleed out in the street. 

Our history of racial violence in the U.S. means that every Black parent must reckon with the risks to their self or their beloved children at any time of the day, in any location -- including home.

I'm living in Oakland, California for the next few months within sight of the spot where another notorious Karen, "BBQ Becky," called police on a Black family for using charcoal to cook in Lake Merritt Park. (If you watch the video to the end you will see great restraint on the part of a white Oakland police officer who manages not to laugh in her face -- or kill her.)

I wrote about that incident at the time but here's an update: that particular spot in the park became wildly popular with the Bay Area's Black community for BBQ's, parties, rallies, and performances. Many Black Lives Matter marches either began or ended there during the burning hot summer of 2020. Neighbors despaired of ever getting a quiet night's sleep as firecrackers went off all night, every night.

Some boarded up their storefronts and fled to the suburbs. Which is actually where BBQ Becky was from. Thanks, Jennifer Schulte of Walnut Creek, CA.

White privilege means that fragile women feel free to call law enforcement to impose their own personal decisions about right and wrong -- even when they are not on their home turf.

White privilege means white people consider anywhere their turf.

Like the lobby of a hotel where they are not even staying.