Aug 11 2019

The Breakfast Club (Google it)

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:30am (ET) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

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AP’s Today in History for August 11th

Start of the Watts riots in Los Angeles; President Ronald Reagan’s joke causes a Cold War flap; The Mall of America opens; ‘Roots’ author Alex Haley born; Painter Jackson Pollock killed in auto accident.

 

Breakfast Tune BANJO Cover : Rage against the machine

 

Something to think about, Breakfast News & Blogs below

 

Tulsi Gabbard vs Google Goliath
Rick Sterling, BAR

Tulsi Gabbard was the most-searched person on Google during the first debate – so the giant corporation shut down her account.

Introduction

The Tulsi Gabbard presidential campaign has filed a major law suit against Google. This article outlines the main points of the law suit and evidence the social media giant Google has quietly acquired enormous influence on public perceptions and has been actively censoring alternative viewpoints.

Tulsi Now vs Google

Tulsi Now, Inc vs Google, LLC was filed on July 25 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. The attorneys demand a jury trial and seek compensation and punitive damages of “no less than $50 million”. Major points and allegations in the 36 page complaint include:

* Google has monopolistic control of online searches and related advertising.

“Google creates, operates, and controls its platform and services, including but not limited to Google Search, Google Ads, and Gmail as a public forum or its functional equivalent by intentionally and openly dedicating its platform for public use and public benefit, inviting the public to utilize Google as a forum for free speech. Google serves as a state actor by performing an exclusively and traditionally public function by regulating free speech within a public forum and helping to run elections.” (p22)

“Google has used its control over online political speech to silence Tulsi Gabbard, a candidate millions of Americans want to hear from. With this lawsuit, Tulsi seeks to stop Google from further intermeddling in the 2020 United States Presidential Election….. Google plays favorites, with no warning, no transparency – and no accountability (until now).” (p2)

* At a critical moment Google undercut the Tulsi Gabbard campaign.

“On June 28, 2019 — at the height of Gabbard’s popularity among internet researchers in the immediate hours after the debate ended, and in the thick of the critical post-debate period… Google suspended Tulsi’s Google Ads account without warning.” (p3)

* Google has failed to provide a credible explanation.

The Tulsi campaign quickly sought to restore the account but “In response, the Campaign got opacity and an inconsistent series of answers from Google… To this day, Google has not provided a straight answer – let alone a credible one – as to why Tulsi’s political speech was silence right when millions of people wanted to hear from her.” (p4)

Google started by falsely claiming “problems with billing.” Later, as reported in the NY Times story a Google spokesperson claimed, “Google has automated systems that flag unusual activity on advertiser accounts — including large spending changes — to prevent fraud….In this case, ‘our system triggered a suspension.’ ”

* Google has a corporate profit motive to oppose Tulsi Gabbard.

“Google has sought to silence Tulsi Gabbard, a presidential candidate who has vocally called for greater regulation and oversight of (you guessed it) Google.” (p5)

“During her career in Congress, Gabbard has moved to limit the powers of big tech companies like Google and has fought to keep the internet open and available to all. Gabbard has co-sponsored legislation that prohibits multi-tiered pricing agreements for the privileged few, and she has spoken in favor of reinstating and expanding net neutrality to apply to Internet firms like Google.” (p 8)

* Google’s Actions have caused significant harm to the Gabbard campaign and violate the U.S. and California constitutions and California business law.

“Through its illegal actions targeting Tulsi Gabbard, Google has caused the Campaign significant harm, both monetary (including potentially millions of dollars in forgone donations) and nonmonetary (the ability to provide Tulsi’s important message with Americans looking to hear it).” (p6)

“Google engages in a pattern and practice of intentional discrimination in the provision of its services, including discriminating and censoring the Campaign’s speech based not on the content of the censored speech but on the Campaign’s political identity and viewpoint.” (p27)

* The public has an interest in this case.

“Unless the court issues an appropriate injunction, Google’s illegal and unconstitutional behavior will continue, harming both the Campaign and the general public, which has an overwhelming interest in a fair, unmanipulated 2020 United States Election cycle. (p 34)

Google Explanation is Not Credible

The Tulsi Gabbard Google Ads account was abruptly suspended at a crucial time. The question is why. Was it the result of “unusual activity” triggering an “automatic suspension” as claimed by Google? Or was it because someone at Google changed the software or otherwise intervened to undermine the Tulsi campaign?

Google’s explanation of an “automatic suspension” from “unusual activity” is dubious. First, the timing does not make sense. The sudden rise in searches on “Tulsi Gabbard” began the day before the suspension. Gabbard participated in the first debate, on June 26. Her presence and performance sparked interest among many viewers. Next morning, June 27, media reported that, “Tulsi Gabbard was the most searched candidate on Google after the Democratic debate in Miami”. The second debate took place in the evening of June 27. With discussion of the Democratic candidates continuing, Tulsi Gabbard continued to attract much interest. Around 9:30 pm (ET) on June 27 the Google Ads account was suddenly suspended. If the cause was “unusual activity”, the “automatic trigger” should have occurred long before.

Second, Google was fully aware of the “unusual activity”. In fact Google was the source of the news reports on the morning of June 27. Reports said, “According to Google Trends, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren was the most searched candidate heading into the debate… After the debate, Gabbard vaulted into first.”

Third, it is hard to believe that Google does not have any human or more sophisticated review before suspending a major Ads account on a politically intense night. It should have been obvious that the cause of increased interest in Gabbard was the nationally televised Democratic candidates debate and media coverage.

Fourth, the changing explanation for the sudden suspension, starting with a false claim that there were “problems with billing”, raises questions about the integrity of Google’s response.

Google Secretly Manipulates Public Opinion

Unknown to most of the public, there is compelling evidence that Google has been secretly manipulating search results to steer public perception and election voting for years.

Dr. Robert Epstein, former editor-in-chief of Psychology Today, has been studying and reporting on this for the past six years. Recently, on June 16, 2019 he testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the Constitution. His testimony is titled “Why Google Poses a Serious Threat to Democracy, and How to End That Threat”.

Epstein has published 15 books and over 300 scientific and mainstream media articles on artificial intelligence and related topics. “Since 2012, some of my research and writings have focused on Google LLC, specifically on the company’s power to suppress content – the censorship problem, if you will – as well as on the massive surveillance the company conducts, and also on the company’s unprecedented ability to manipulate the thoughts and behavior of more than 2.5 billion people worldwide.”

As shown by Dr. Epstein, Google uses several techniques to manipulate public opinion. The results of an online search are biased. Search “suggestions” are skewed. Messages such as “Go Vote” are sent to some people but not to others.

Epstein’s written testimony to Congress includes links to over sixty articles documenting his research published in sites ranging from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences to Huffington Post. Epstein’s testimony describes “disturbing findings” including:

…

 

 

Something to think about over coffee prozac

 
Neoliberalism Has Met Its Match in China
Ellen Brown, Public Banking Institute
  Continue reading

Aug 11 2019

Pondering the Pundits: Sunday Preview Edition

Pondering the Pundits: Sunday Preview Edition” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

On Sunday mornings we present a preview of the guests on the morning talk shows so you can choose which ones to watch or some do something more worth your time on a Sunday morning.

Follow us on Twitter @StarsHollowGzt

The Sunday Talking Heads:

This Week with George Stephanopolis: The guest on Sunday’s “This Week” is: Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ).

The roundtable guests are: Former Gov.  Chris Christie (R-NJ); former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel; Republican strategist  Sara Fagen; and Open Society Foundations President Patrick Gaspard.

Face the Nation: Host Margaret Brennan’s guests are: former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg; House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA); 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders {I-VT); Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand {D-NY); and Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO).

Her panel guests are: CBS News Political Correspondent Ed O’Keefe; Shawna Thomas, Vice News; and Gerald Seib, Wall Street Journal.

Meet the Press with Chuck Todd: The guests on this week’s “MTP” are: 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA); and acting Department of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan.

The panel guests are: Robert Costa, political reporter for The Washington Post;  Hugh Hewitt, right wing Trump apologist; Maria Teresa Kumar, President and CEO of the Latino Political Organization; and Kristen Welker, MSNBC political reporter.

State of the Union with Jake Tapper: Mr. Tapper’s guests are: 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ); and acting CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan.

His panel guests are: DNC Communications Director Xochitla Hinojosa; Republican strategist Adolfo Franco; former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu (D0; and former Rep. Mia Love (R-UT).

Aug 11 2019

Six In The Morning Sunday 11 August 2019

 

Jeffrey Epstein: Questions raised over disgraced financer’s death

Questions have been raised as to how US financier Jeffrey Epstein was able to apparently commit suicide in his prison cell while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

His body was discovered early on Saturday at a facility in New York.

Last month Epstein was found semi-conscious in his cell after an apparent suicide attempt.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has called for a full investigation, calling it “way too convenient”.

“What a lot of us want to know is, what did he know?” said Mr de Blasio, who is also running for the Democratic presidential nomination, told reporters in Iowa.

“How many other millionaires and billionaires were part of the illegal activities that he was engaged in?

Protests, clashes and lack of trust: the new normal for Hong Kong

 in Hong Kong

One of the world’s busiest cities has grown unusually quiet as more and more people stay at home

It was the third night in a row that Biyanca Chu’s neighbourhood, Wong Tai Sin, a working-class residential district in Hong Kong, had been taken over by police and protesters. The ground was littered with plastic bottles, broken umbrellas and teargas canisters as the two sides faced off.

Chu, 22, slight in an all-black outfit, climbed over a road barrier, took off her baseball cap and slipped a gas mask on. “Are you ready to go to the frontline?” she asked her companions and they disappeared. Within half an hour, the police began firing rounds of teargas and rubber bullets, charging and making arrests, until the group dispersed.

Later Chu reappeared, wearing a patterned tank top and jeans, a disguise to look like an ordinary university student out for a stroll. She scanned her phone for news of the next protest and set off.

American carnage: Was Red Dawn the most right-wing blockbuster ever?

As ‘Red Dawn’ turns 35, Ed Power looks back on the violent Eighties action film that was referenced in the latest season of ‘Stranger Things’

Eighties movies tend to feel sillier with the passing of time. But that tell-tale aura of retrospective cheesiness is absent from John Milius’s 1984 blood and soil epic Red Dawn. 

Milius’s extended shoot-out, in which tall-haired teenagers from the heartland resist a Soviet, Cuban and Nicaraguan invasion, feels unsettlingly contemporary. It unfolds like a wham-bam fever dream stitched from random fragments of Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration speech. Behold American Carnage: the Motion Picture. 

The Syrian PatientAssad Henchman Treated Abroad Despite Arrest Warrant

Jamil Hassan is one of the Assad regime’s most brutal henchmen. But despite an international warrant for his arrest, he was able to travel to Beirut for treatment of his ailing heart. Why wasn’t he taken into custody?

By  and 

Once, it looked as though an attempt, at least, would be made to bring to justice one of Syria’s most important commanders, a man suspected of committing tens of thousands of murders against his own people. In June 2018, Germany’s Federal Court of Justice issued an arrest warrant for Jamil Hassan, the head of the Syrian Air Force Intelligence.

The word “intelligence” is perhaps misleading when it comes to what Hassan’s agency actually does. In its prisons, agents torture, rape, starve and murder prisoners. In November, France also issued an arrest warrant against Hassan.

A hermit nation ruled by an egomaniac: Is Turkmenistan on the brink of collapse?

By Julie Zaugg, CNN

Updated 0417 GMT (1217 HKT) August 11, 2019

Men in white fur caps proudly ride horses across the steppe, rows of modern machinery glisten, Barbie-pink flamingos strut before clear blue skies and a white yacht cuts through the turquoise waters of the Caspian Sea.

These are idyllic scenes from a one-minute video promoting the inaugural Caspian Economic Forum, which between August 11 and 12 will see heads of state from Iran, Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan descend on Awaza, a new resort town that has been touted by Turkmenistan’s Foreign Ministry as the country’s Las Vegas.
The footage paints the picture of a happy, prosperous nation.

CRIMINALIZING COMPASSION

The Unraveling of the Conspiracy Case Against No More Deaths Volunteer Scott Warren

THE FEDERAL COURTHOUSE in Tucson, Arizona, has always been a place where the borderlands and the American justice system collide. Described by its engineers as “a gateway to the desert and the mountains beyond,” it was completed in 2000, the year that the Pima County medical examiner’s office began tracking an explosion of deaths in that same desert.

Each afternoon, Monday through Thursday, dozens of chained migrants who survived the journey across the border but found themselves in Border Patrol custody are marched up from the building’s bowels for mass hearings. They come in groups of up to 70 at a time. You hear the chains before you see the people — men and women still wearing the clothes they crossed in. Appearing before a judge in clusters, they confess to entering without inspection, receive their sentences, and leave. Cases are adjudicated in minutes.

 

Aug 10 2019

Somebody’s Got A Lot Of ‘Splainin To Do

How in the name of sanity did this happen?

Jeffrey Epstein dies in apparent suicide in New York jail

Wealthy financier, 66, had been accused of sex trafficking and was being held without bail after being arrested on 6 July

Wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein has killed himself at a New York jail, according to authorities in New York and media reports.

“Saturday, August 10, 2019, at approximately 6.30am, inmate Jeffrey Edward Epstein was found unresponsive in his cell … subsequently pronounced dead by hospital staff,” reads a statement from the Metropolitan Correctional Center where Epstein, 66, had been held without bail since his arrest on 6 July on charges of sex trafficking girls as young as 14.

Multiple media reports said Epstein had died by suicide.

The FBI is investigating the incident, and the attorney general, William Barr, said he had also opened an investigation by the Department of Justice’s inspector general and was “appalled” by the death. “Epstein’s death raises serious questions that must be answered,” Barr said.

In case readers weren’t aware, the Manhattan Correctional Center is one of the most tightly run and secure facilities in the US. It is a federal facility with highly trained staff who have received special training to deal with high profile prisoners like Epstein. It is sometimes referred to as “Guantanamo of New York” and housed such notables as John Gotti, Bernard Madoff, Omar Abdel Rahman and, recently, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

As former US Attorney and Washington Post contributor put it, Epstein’s apparent suicide is unfathomable.

[C]onsider the BOP’s suicide prevention protocol. Epstein was found last month unconscious in his MCC cell with marks on his neck. If he was not on suicide watch, it would be astonishing. Yet if he were on suicide watch, his death would be virtually inconceivable.

The BOP’s suicide prevention protocol entails, first and foremost, human eyes on the prisoner 24 hours a day. It also requires a strict deprivation of anything — shoelaces, sheets, pillowcases — that could possibly be used to hang oneself. It also requires disabling anything that could be used to tie a noose — vents, sprinkler heads, etc.

Finally, we are not talking about inexperienced yokels. BOP personnel, especially at MCC, are the best professionals in the corrections industry, and they receive special training in administrating suicide prevention. Who better to guard against such a horrific development?

At this point, questions abound, and BOP has to address them promptly.

The first: Was Epstein on suicide watch, and if not, why not? Among the reports cascading out in the few hours since Epstein’s body was found are anonymous statements that Epstein had been on suicide watch but was taken off it. If so, the decision to remove him appears to have been a colossal error that must be thoroughly probed.

The second: How exactly did Epstein manage to kill himself, and why exactly was it that he had access to the tools?

Third, is there a video of Epstein’s cell at the crucial time? There should be, and it will reveal exactly how and when Epstein killed himself.

Attorney General William Barr in a statement Saturday morning stated the he was appalled om learning of Epstein’s death and would consult with the FBI and Inspector General on their investigations. The problem there is who is going to take Barr’s word on anything after his blatant lies about the Mueller Report? As Jon Cole at Balloon Juice astutely noted: “the thing to remember is that whether it was suicide or murder, NOTHING scares the rich and powerful men like accountability for their actions. Nothing. They’d rather kill themselves or have someone killed that account for their actions.”

Somebody definitely has a lot of ‘splainin’ to do.

Aug 10 2019

Peak Oil

Fossil Fuels, even the cheapest like Coal and certainly including things like Tar Sands which are incredibly expensive, are simply no longer competitive with renewables. Driving in New Hampshire recently (live free or die) I saw hilltops full of brand new and extremely ugly GE Wind Turbine Generators which tells me at least one thing-

Granite State Electric got ripped off, in addition to being ugly they are among the most expensive to buy and operate.

But still, live free or die! This is a State that explicitly rejects Motorcycle Helmet Laws and Safety Belt Enforcement. At the corner store the cheesy portable lit sign with the replaceable letters now says- ‘Thank You Unindicted Co-conspirator Bottomless Pinocchio for Visiting NH’.

Only they didn’t use ‘Unindicted Co-conspirator Bottomless Pinocchio’.

Point being that it’s not exactly a beacon of blue but despite ‘political correctness’ they are notoriously cheap. Cheap wins.

One of the world’s largest banks thinks the writing is on the wall for the oil industry
Joe Romm, Think Progress
Aug 9, 2019

Plunging prices for batteries and renewables are driving an electric vehicle (EV) revolution so rapidly that the economics of oil “are now in relentless and irreversible decline.”

That’s the startling conclusion of a detailed new analysis for “professional investors” of the economics of EVs versus gasoline cars produced by BNP Paribas, the world’s eighth largest bank by total assets.
…
But the bank’s analysis, “Wells, Wires and Wheels,” is devastating for Big Oil. It concludes that “the oil industry has never before in its history faced the kind of threat that renewable electricity in tandem with EVs poses to its business model.”

Within a few years, electric vehicles (EVs) will be superior to gasoline powered cars in every respect. In part, that’s because electric motors are vastly more efficient than gasoline engines. And it’s also in part because solar and wind power and batteries have seen staggering price drops in the past decade — and are projected to see equally big drops in the coming years.

But one of the most startling findings is that because the cost of running EVs on solar or wind power is dropping so rapidly, the only way gasoline cars can compete with these renewable energy-powered EVs in the 2020s is if the price of oil were to drop to $11 to $12 per barrel. The current price of oil is over $50.

Even worse for oil, this economic analysis doesn’t even factor in many of the other benefits of running cars on renewable power rather than oil. These include the vast public health benefits of not breathing air pollution from burning oil, along with the benefits of not having huge oil spills and of not destroying a livable climate.

The report is written by Mark Lewis, global head of sustainability research at the bank. Lewis formerly worked as head of European utilities research at Barclays and as global head of energy research at Deutsche Bank.

Lewis notes that many independent analyses — including Bloomberg New Energy Finance and the risk management firm DNV GL — have concluded that in the 2022-2024 timeframe, the total lifecycle cost of owning an EV will be cheaper than that of owning a gasoline-fueled car.

The report also looks at the lifecycle costs of oil (drilling, production, and transportation) versus the life-cycle cost of renewable power plants (building and operating).

“We think the economics of renewables are impossible for oil to compete with when looked at over the cycle,” the study concludes.
…
Since BNP Paribas is a big bank and the report is for investors, though, a key point of the analysis is that oil companies are investing staggering amounts of money in finding and producing new wells — and most of them are going to lose a lot of that money.

“By the late 2020s” Lewis explains, a significant fraction of the oil produced today “might only be competitive at a price below [oil companies’] full cost of production.” Even worse, this fraction “will rise over the lifetime of these projects as the penetration rate of EVs increases.”

If you can’t produce oil profitably at under $10 or $20 a barrel, your oil company is in big trouble.

From a broader perspective, Lewis warns that all this money currently being spent on finding and producing new oil is a huge waste — “an opportunity cost to society as a whole.”

Exactly how big a cost? BNP Paribas calculates “the size of that opportunity cost is $24 trillion over the next 25 years on gasoline alone.” And that’s without counting the cost of saving a livable climate.

It’s time for investors and governments to walk away from Big Oil before the crash — and before it’s simply too late to save our children and future generations from catastrophe.

Aug 10 2019

House

Feel Good – Gryffin & Illenium featuring Daya

Shelter – Porter Robinson & Madeon

Do It All The Time – I Don’t Know How But They Found Me

Aug 10 2019

The Breakfast Club (Two Evils)

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

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This Day in History

‘Son of Sam’ killer David Berkowitz caught near New York City; Leno and Rosemary LaBianca murdered by Charles Manson’s cult; FDR stricken with polio; The Smithsonian Institution established.

Breakfast Tunes

Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac

Constantly choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil.

Jerry Garcia

Continue reading

Aug 10 2019

Six In The Morning Saturday 10 August 2019

 

North Korea tests ‘short-range ballistic missiles’

North Korea has fired two missiles into the sea, its fifth such launch in recent weeks.

The missiles are thought to be short-range ballistic missiles, South Korea’s military says.

If confirmed, such a test would be a breach of 11 UN security Council resolutions.

The launches come after US President Donald Trump said he had received a “very beautiful letter” from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Mr Trump said Mr Kim was unhappy with the current US-South Korea joint military exercises.

‘P is for protest’: Hong Kong families take to the streets in pro-democracy rally

Event billed as rally to ‘guard our children’s future’ given permit by authorities, unlike others planned for weekend

Agence France-Presse

Armed with balloons and strollers, several hundred families took to the streets in Hong Kong on Saturday to show support for pro-democracy protests that are now in their third month.

The colourful and calm atmosphere at the rally was a far cry from the increasingly violent confrontations that have marked recent demonstrations by activists calling for greater freedoms in the city.

A leaflet featuring an alternative alphabet was circulated, offering “demonstration” for the letter D, “angry” for A and “protest” for P.

Patrick Crusius: El Paso shooting suspect says he was targeting Mexicans, police say

I’m the shooter’

The suspect in the murder of 22 people during a mass shooting at a Walmart store in El Paso has admitted he was targeting “Mexicans”, according to a police affidavit obtained by US media

Patrick Crusius reportedly stopped his vehicle on an intersection near the supermarket, got out with his hands up and said: “I’m the shooter.”

The affidavit, a copy of which was obtained by the Washington Post, claims the 21-year-old immediately admitted opening fire on customers and staff.

German tapped to head Iran trade vehicle pulls out after Israel comments

A German diplomat will no longer head the Iran trade vehicle INSTEX after it emerged he had made critical comments about Israel. The development deals a further blow to European efforts to save the Iran nuclear deal.

A senior German diplomat designated to head a European payment vehicle to facilitate trade with Iran despite US sanctions will not take up the position after a news report claimed he made controversial statements about Israel.

The German Foreign Ministry said Friday that Bernd Erbel was not to assume the position as INSTEX chief “for personal reasons.”

Asian women trafficked to Kenya’s Bollywood-style dance bars

By Nita Bhalla

It didn’t matter that the 23-year-old woman from a village in the Himalayan foothills had never heard of the east African nation. Or that she had no experience as a dancer, had never met the owner of the club, and was not shown an employment contract.

With elderly parents to care for and medical bills to clear after her brother suffered a motorbike accident, the offer of 60,000 Kenyan shillings ($850) monthly, with food, housing and transport costs all covered, was a no-brainer for Sheela.

Ryugyong Hotel: The story of North Korea’s ‘Hotel of Doom’

In 1987, ground was broken on a grand new hotel in North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang. The pyramid-shaped, supertall skyscraper was to exceed 1,000 feet in height, and was designed to house at least 3,000 rooms, as well as five revolving restaurants with panoramic views.
The Ryugyong Hotel — named after a historical moniker for Pyongyang meaning “capital of willows” — was supposed to open just two years later. But it never did.
While the structure reached its planned height in 1992, it stood windowless and hollow for another 16 years, its naked concrete exposed, like a menacing monster overlooking the city. During that time the building, which dwarfs everything around it, earned itself the nickname “Hotel of Doom.”

 

Aug 09 2019

Not the Impeachment you expected.

You might have missed it.

Yesterday, on CNN and later on MSNBC, Chairman Jerome Nadler confirmed that the House Judiciary Committee’s hearings on the Mueller Report were a formal Impeachment Inquiry, something that had been asserted in previous Court filings but sort of publicly disbelieved as a mere ploy for a favorable ruling.

Not so said Nadler, this is the real deal.

The impeachment inquiry Trump feared is already here
By Amber Phillips, Washington Post
August 9, 2019

His statement makes clear what a lawsuit filed Wednesday by his committee states: that the “Judiciary Committee is now determining whether to recommend articles of impeachment against the President based on the obstructive conduct described by the Special Counsel.”

In fact, Democrats may have already begun an impeachment inquiry without most people noticing and without the fanfare (and potential political backlash) of a big announcement that it’s happening. In a court filing in late July to get the full, unredacted Mueller report, the Judiciary Committee argued that it needed the information because it “is conducting an investigation to determine whether to recommend articles of impeachment.” Since then, Democrats’ language has only become stronger in court filings, culminating with Nadler’s statement that impeachment proceedings have begun.

What that means: Democrats are taking the first step in this process. They have launched an impeachment inquiry to investigate what, if any, “high crimes and misdemeanors” Trump may have committed. If the investigation concludes that he has, the committee will draw up articles of impeachment and the Judiciary Committee and then the full House vote on it.

This is happening at the start of Congress’s August Recess (which is going to stretch until Sept. 9). So between now and then, any action will happen only in the courts. Once Congress is back, they can hold hearings highlighting the Mueller report, but their key witness and key documents could still be tied up in a legal battle.
…
Impeachment proceedings are the most intense, and dramatic, kind of congressional investigation.

Consider: Democrats are already investigating issues including whether Trump obstructed justice in the special counsel investigation, whether he had a role in illegal hush-money payments during the campaign, whether his business had money laundering ties to Russia, and much more. Trump has resisted handing over information in 20 investigations, leading to legal battles.

Most recently, House Democrats are suing Trump’s administration to try to get his tax returns and suing to get Trump’s former White House counsel, Donald McGahn, to testify about key moments in the Mueller report. (That’s the lawsuit they filed Wednesday where they said McGahn’s testimony is key for considering impeachment.) All that is in addition going to court to get the unredacted Mueller report.

Many of these investigations could get wrapped up into an impeachment investigation. And because that investigation carries the weighty “i” word, it guarantees news coverage and eyeballs on all future hearings Democrats have in this committee.

A catalyst for embracing the impeachment term seems to have been former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s III testimony in July to two House committees, where he laid out what his report found: that Trump’s campaign welcomed Russia’s help and Trump may have obstructed justice.

“We all looked up after Robert S. Mueller III’s testimony and realized that we are in an impeachment inquiry,” Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.), a member of the Judiciary Committee, told New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg.

“In every meaningful way, our investigation is an impeachment inquiry,” Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), a member of the Judiciary Committee, wrote in an op-ed in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, right as a majority of House Democrats said they supported taking the first step toward impeachment.

Arguing in under-the-radar court filings that the committee is beginning an impeachment inquiry is one thing. It could be a legal strategy that doesn’t carry much political weight. The “i” word strengthens Democrats’ case to get grand jury information underlying the Mueller report, or to force McGahn to testify, since Congress can argue it, too, is a judiciary body conducting a court proceeding, and it needs evidence to do that.

But having the chairman of the committee key to impeachment openly, and clearly, stating that an impeachment inquiry has started escalates things. The impeachment inquiry that Trump has feared is here.

I don’t understand this desire for concealment by Democrats. Unindicted Co-conspirator Bottomless Pinocchio is a felon and a traitor. Is Impeachment now reserved only for consensual Blow Jobs? Even there the man is a self documented serial sexual abuser who associates with Porn Stars (not that there’s anything wrong with Sex Work) and Pedophiles.

Impeach.

Now.

Aug 09 2019

Pondering the Pundits

Pondering the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from> around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Pondering the Pundits”.

Follow us on Twitter @StarsHollowGzt

Paul Krugman: China Tries to Teach Trump Economics

But he doesn’t seem to be learning.

If you want to understand the developing trade war with China, the first thing you need to realize is that nothing Donald Trump is doing makes sense. His views on trade are incoherent. His demands are incomprehensible. And he vastly overrates his ability to inflict damage on China while underrating the damage China can do in return.

The second thing you need to realize is that China’s response so far has been fairly modest and measured, at least considering the situation. The U.S. has implemented or announced tariffs on virtually everything China sells here, with average tariff rates not seen in generations. The Chinese, by contrast, have yet to deploy anything like the full range of tools at their disposal to offset Trump’s actions and hurt his political base.

Why haven’t the Chinese gone all out? It looks to me as if they’re still trying to teach Trump some economics. What they’ve been saying through their actions, in effect, is: “You think you can bully us. But you can’t. We, on the other hand, can ruin your farmers and crash your stock market. Do you want to reconsider?”

Eugene Robinson: Trump made his visits to Dayton and El Paso all about him

It is not just his stoking of white-supremacist sentiment that makes Donald Trump such a dangerously unfit president. It’s also the corruption, the weakness, the ignorance, the incompetence and the stunning lack of empathy — all of which we saw this week on grotesque display.

What kind of man visits two grieving communities, shattered by horrific mass shootings, and somehow makes it all about him? I covered the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007 and had trouble sleeping for weeks afterward; colleagues of mine have had similar reactions to other massacres. Yet what apparently lingered with President Trump from his trip Wednesday to Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso was the tone of the coverage he received on cable news.

No one expected Trump to play the consoler-in-chief role particularly well; we know him by now and grade him on a curve. His prepared statement Monday on the deadly shootings, which he read from a teleprompter with all the passion of a hostage tape, was about all anyone could expect. But even with my jaundiced view of this president, I couldn’t have imagined that soon after getting home to the White House, he would be tweeting about all the “love, respect & enthusiasm” he was shown and complaining that the “Fake News worked overtime trying to disparage me.”

Me, me, me, me, me. Always me, never anyone or anything else.

Catherine Rampell: For Trump and his cronies, draining the swamp means ousting experts

Once upon a time, President Trump pledged to “drain the swamp.”

This resonated with lots of Americans, who resented the ecosystem of interest groups rigging government in their favor: corrupt officials, revolving-door lobbyists, palm-greasing executives and the network of pseudo-think tanks and analysts funded by industries trying to pass off propaganda as impartial research.

In other words, those who use money and access to accumulate more money and access.

It’s been hard to square these promises with Trump’s recent interest in commuting the prison sentence of pay-for-play poster child Rod Blagojevich, the corrupt former Illinois governor who tried to sell Barack Obama’s vacated Senate seat. Or Trump’s appointment of so many industry executives and lobbyists to senior government positions.

Or why so many people seeking favors from this administration — a Federal Reserve Board appointment, a merger approval, forbearance of murder — conspicuously stay at Trump-owned properties.

Rebecca Solnit: Our forever war: how the white male hegemony uses violence to cling to power

Mass shootings enforce the oppression built into America’s economic and legal systems and our history

We were never not at war. By we I mean the colonizers of this continent, who waged war first against Native North America’s original occupants and then entered into a state of war to keep kidnapped Africans subjugated in slavery. After the official Indian wars ended, we found other means to keep Native people confined and disempowered. After slavery officially ended, we found other means to keep black people impoverished and disempowered. Those means were forms of war.

We launched a war to steal Mexico’s northern half, a project completed in 1848 with the acquisition of what is now California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona (minus the Gadsden purchase), part of Colorado, and New Mexico. Texas had already been seized by dubious means, in part because its Yankee settlers refused to accept Mexican law banning slavery. Then we treated Latinx people, even those who had been here before “here” was the USA, as invaders.

There’s a long history of massacres in response to slave uprisings and Native resistance, and the police killings of black people and white male killing of Native women might as well be called war by other means. The US began with a declaration that “all men are created equal” that left out all women, and since then its history has too often been devoted to perpetrating inequality. Recent mass shootings driven by racism and misogyny are a more extreme means of enforcing an oppression built into our economic and legal systems, and may be the result of a panic that those systems are not containing others well enough.

Richard Wolffe: Trump could renounce white nationalism – but he can’t pretend he cares

In theory, a president can offer comfort at times like these. But this one would prefer to hurl insults

In normal American mass murders – because such horrors have become so astonishingly normal – the president usually plays the role of some great but helpless comfort blanket.

He may be unable to break the NRA’s cold, dead grip on the Republican party, but he can at least hug the victims to make it look like he cares.

But with this most abnormal of presidents, the whole kabuki has come to an unnatural end. Donald Trump is uniquely placed to do something about these massacres – with or without anyone’s help – yet he is also uniquely unable to look like he cares.

So he visited the victims of the massacre in hospitals in El Paso and Dayton – not Toledo, as he told the nation on Monday – but he bizarrely remained out of sight.

Perhaps it was just as well. Trump is not great at comforting the afflicted, having built his political career on afflicting the afflicted. He’s also not too good at empathy or emoting.

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