Op-Ed

So the Mueller Report confirms that the Russians intervened to elect their money launderer of choice.

What else is new?

Putin and company will be back in 2020 on behalf of their wholly-owned asset. They’ll be more powerful and sophisticated than ever, marching in lockstep with their fellow mega-corporations and terminal polluters. A victory would let them complete the fascist assault on what’s left of American democracy.

They’ll also be poised to destroy our ability to survive on this planet. It should be clear to all that the human species will not survive another five years of Trump’s fossil/nuke-crazed attack on our ecological support systems.

And they’ll have two other key allies: Jim Crow, and War.

The debate over how much to focus on “Russiagate” is futile … and misses the point. As outlined by Craig Unger and David Cay Johnston, Trump has been owned by Russian oligarchs for decades. He was bankrupt and in debt by up to $6 billion. Then he was doing mega-deals in cash.

https://youtu.be/4F4qzPbcFiA
It's a Trap!

I’m old enough to remember when Nancy Pelosi was telling us that Trump would impeach himself.

Now, Trump’s “not worth it,” as if impeachment is a favor you bestow on those most worthy.

Jerrold Nadler is proposing to fine Trump for refusing to comply with subpoenas.

Bernie Sanders wrapped up a weekend campaign swing through California with a Sunday afternoon speech to 16,000 of us a few miles from the Golden Gate Bridge. News coverage seemed unlikely to convey much about the event. The multiracial crowd reflected the latest polling that shows great diversity of support for Bernie, contrary to corporate media spin. High energy for basic social change was in the air.

Speaking from the podium, Bernie 2020 co-chair Nina Turner asked and answered a question about the campaign: “What’s love got to do with it? Everything.”

Most people realize how Big Pharma's greedy drug pricing raises our health care costs. Fewer are aware of how the greedy drug pricing also raise our taxes.

Nationalists — white or otherwise — need “invasions” on a regular basis in order to stay revved up and equal to the cause. Thus:

“We are experiencing an invasion on a level never seen before in history,” the New Zealand killer (whose name I will not mention, honoring the precedent set by the country’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern) said in his gonzo manifesto. “Millions of people are pouring across our borders, legally, invited by the state and corporate entities to replace the white people who have failed to reproduce, failed to create cheap labor, new consumers and tax base that the corporations and states needs to thrive.”

This is so ironic, considering . . . uh, history.

Artificial Intelligence is one thing. Artificial morality is another. It may sound something like this:

“First, we believe in the strong defense of the United States and we want the people who defend it to have access to the nation’s best technology, including from Microsoft.”

“I believe that for a moment I thought the explosion might set fire to the atmosphere and thus finish the Earth, even though I knew that this was not possible.”

These words of Manhattan Project physicist Emilio Segre, quoted by Richard Rhodes in his book The Making of the Atomic Bomb, refer to the Trinity blast on July 16, 1945, at Alamogordo, N.M., the first atomic explosion in history and, so it appears, a turning point for all life on this planet.

Tax havens are locations around the world where wealthy individuals, criminals and terrorists, as well as governments and government agencies (such as the CIA), banks, corporations, hedge funds, international organizations (such as the Vatican) and crime syndicates (such as the Mafia), can stash their money so that they can avoid regulation and oversight and, very often, evade tax. According to Nicholas Shaxson: ‘Tax havens are now at the heart of the global economy.’

About four months ago, I organized over 100 scholars, intellectuals, and activists to publish an open letter to Senator Bernie Sanders, which was then signed by over 10,000 more people, several of whom volunteered to deliver it to Senator Sanders. So, we know he received it.

Before publishing the letter, I only changed the text slightly from my original draft of it. The change was that, as published, it didn’t indicate that we had all refused to support his campaign last time around, or promise that we would support his campaign this time around if he did what we were asking. The reason for the change was that some signers had supported him last time despite the significant shortcoming mentioned in our letter, and some might still not support him this time even if he mended his ways. But as for me, I meant the letter the way I had originally written it. I didn’t get out and campaign for Sanders last time, but I was promising to do so this time, if he came through.